#Update 08 September 2025
SUNDAY-SEPT 07, 2025
Audiobooks: Once I get out of the shower and in the kitchen for breakfast I put on my AirMax headphones (with excellent noise cancelling) and start my day: empty dishwasher, start breakfast, feed cats, clean kitty litter box, put devices on their chargers (Kindle, mobile, iPads). Before coffee I start one of the Great Courses books on Audible. I listen to 1 lecture 30 minutes and take a quick walk around the block, a few times. During the day 3 more “walking breaks” and average 8-10 km per day. It took me 3 weeks to finish 36 lectures. This is an excellent series of lectures on Audible…worth every penny!
Movies: Getting ready for the Fall and Winter days when I need to leave my books and watch a movie. Treated myself to 2 extra streamings: MGM+ and SKYShowtime. There have been lots of movie awards (Oscars, BAFTAS, Venice, Cannes, Toronto) and I have to look at last years Emmy winners. I’ve made a list of 50 movies/series I want to watch.
Movies for #RIPXX:
JAWS (50th anniversary….it scared the bejesus out me!) (SKYShowtime) (suspense)
FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (Netflix) – Limited mini-series (8 episodes). Every episode is a modern retelling of an Edgar Allan Poe story. And then tying each of those stories into the house of usher. It is genius. Some people will catch that by reading the titles of each episode. (supernatural horror)
MISERY (Prime Video) – Stephen King classic – 1991 Oscar Best Actress for Kathy Bates (thriller horror)
Movies that disappointed me last week:
The Residence – Mini-series, 8 episodes – Started off fine. But it just kept going on and on and on. Really, this series was TOO long, could have been a good 2hr movie!
The Thursday Murder Club – Despite the stellar cast (Ben Kingsley, Helen Mirren and Pierce Bronson). It felt corny from the start: he location didn’t feel like a retirement village…It didn’t even feel particularly British. Perhaps the books are better than this movie.
Son of Critch: After 3 episodes I pulled the plug. It was a very bad imitation of “Young Sheldon”…in Canada.
BOOKS:
The Power of Darkness: Tales of Terror
by
Just awful!
by
Sep 02, 2025
Challenge: #RIPXX
Just awful!
This book was a dissappointment from start to finish.
I read some of the 5 star reviews…did I read the same book?
Tales of Terror? Please…change that to Tales of Terror..ible.
Read 22/22 ghost stories
3 stories were good (…not great) but the rest are “spooky lite” blending everyday situations with supernatural menace: (lovers meeting in park or churchyard, engagements, marriage proposals, marital arguments, inheritance of a haunted house, implied “love triangle” with a shadow as symbol a of guilt. Victorian and Edwardian era tone.
The last 11 stories were…low spooky and sometimes just stupid.
To end on a high note…I did learn about “botanical horror!”
The Name Of The Rose
by
I skimmed the pages with endless arguments about heretics
Since Brother William of Baskerville arrived at the abbey
Last line in the book:
by
Sep 07, 2025
Challenge: #RIPXX
The Name of the Rose was well worth re-reading after
I first opened the book 40 years ago!
I skimmed the pages with endless arguments about heretics
and religious orders. I tried to stay close to the main mystery
narrative.
Since Brother William of Baskerville arrived at the abbey
… in these six days… 4 monks have died and two
have been arrested by the Inquisition!
Seems WB has not lived up to the expectations of the Abbot…to solve
…the first murder/suicide (?) death of the young monk Aldemo.
Last line in the book:
Stat rosa pristina nomine, nomina nuda tenemus
The original rose remains in its name, we hold bare names.
Revenge (11 short stories)
by
One of my favourite books this year
by
Sep 03, 2025
Challenge: #RIPXX
One of my favourite books this year
…stunning!
LINKED TO:
22 Comments
Post a comment
NancyElin.blog 
Glad to hear that Revenge was so good!
Have a great week!
Love Yoko Ogawa’s writing!
Thanks for your comment…
That’s quite a long list, I hope you find some favourites among them.
Wishing you a happy reading week
Reading books from another genre in September/October for #RIPXX “Readers Imbibing Terror”. There are just so many good books that are spooky…you just have to find them! Netflix’s “Fall of the House of Usher”…really looking forward to this one.
Thanks for your comment.
These books are new to me. My 2 sons and daughter in law took me to NYC for my birthday in ’15 and we saw Misery with Bruce Willis and Laurie Metcalf on Broadway. We loved it!
What a wonderful birthday present…. NYC + Broadway show! Performances live on stage always linger! I saw Kevin Spacey in London (The Iceman Cometh) and will never the experience. As one of the audience I was exhausted just watching KS on stage ….the role is very demanding.
Thanks for your comment!
I adored Fall of the House of Usher, such a good adaptation
Cathy, I’ve heard so much about this 2023 adaption….I’ve got to be in the mood to watch it. That means plenty of Ben & Jerry ice cream in the freezer! The Mexican director Guillermo Del Torro’s “Frankenstein” is going to be released on 07 November of Netflix. I’m still going to include in for #RIPXX. There is a LOT OF BUZZ about Del Torro’s adaptation and b/c it is “visually stunning,” “emotionally charged ” = #MustSee. There are so many great reads I’ve discovered for #RIPXX….I should keep reading the “spooky/terror/gothic” genre all year round!
It’s very well done, I loved it. Creepy but with lots of dark humour.
The creepier…the better!
I often wonder if books I read long, long ago like Name of the Rose would hold up to a reread.
I hope you will add a link to your list of movies you want to watch.
I was planning to add 3-5 of the movies on my list with each update.
A customer purchased another copy of The Thursday Murder Club at work on the weekend and I mentioned that the Netflix movie was now available to watch and she emphatically said DO NOT WATCH IT!
Like you she felt the location was all wrong, the actors were only going through the motions, wooden dialogue and apparently they changed some of the major plot points. She felt it had been Americanised to the detriment of every single element. At the end of her rant she thanked us for letting her vent :-)
The books are so much better.
It was hard to watch those excellent actors not able to show us their talents…the script was so predictable. I had read many reviews of the “Thursday Club” books and that was the reason I watched the movie! Good to hear the books are better.
Oh, I’m glad The Name of the Rose held up. I’ve been thinking about rereading it myself, and like you it’s been 40 years.
I like the Great Courses series–it was my dad who turned me on to them–but I haven’t listened to that one. I’ll have to check it out.
The Name of the Rose was very good…but I just had to skim the “religious” arguements. The Great Courses are excellent ! If you’ve read some Greek classic plays as I have…this course gives an overview of them in a way that I finally saw similarities and changes over the course of time in Greek drama. Always good to take a step back and learn the progression of the plays. i
Misery is one of my favourite King movies…and books.
Saw Jaws (or maybe it was Jaws 2) in the theatre as a kid, probably too young as I remember being lifted. I think of it as the first movie I saw in the theatre as i don’t really remember any theatre …or movie…before it.
You kind of solidified my sight unseen impression of some of the other media.
Thank for you comments…I’ve not read or seen Misery so I hope to get “spooked”. Kathy Bates, so young in this movie, went on to become a great actress. James Caine just personifies a terrorised victim. I have a list of movies I want to see and watch 1-3 episodes of a series. If I have the feeling the series is wasting my time I stop watching. I tried to finish “Severance” twice…just NOT a series for me!
Great list!
Yes, Revenge was so so good!
Oh, I just listened to the short story FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER!
I also need to reread The Name f the Rose, it’s also abuot 40 years ago that I read it, in French back then
After re-reading The Name of the Rose ( U. Eco’s exceptional knowledge of Medieval times…) I still prefer reading Edgar Allan Poe’s haunting Gothic tales of the late 1830s.
Hmm, now I’m worried about my reaction when I read it again
Loved reading about your morning routine!
I remember seeing Jaws at the drive in movie theater in Phoenix when I was a kid. We went back and saw it several times.
Misery is brilliant. Kathy Bates is brilliant.