This week....

I'm reading...

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was starting to listen to The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan, but during the last week I ended up swapping my audiobook to something a bit lighter and have made quite a bit of progress. I have read a few Jenny Colgan books over the years and enjoyed them, so it seemed like a safe choice to pick The Bookstore on the Shore. The only problem was that it didn't take too long before I realised that this was a follow up book, which I haven't read yet. I dislike reading books out of order, but I still continued on seeing as I had started. It doesn't seem to be making too much of an impact, but I still very much prefer to read in order.

I started and finished The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare which I enjoyed. This is the third book in the Girl Meets Duke series, and I am looking forward to reading the fourth book in the series when it comes out later this year. In the mean time I have a couple of other series by Tessa Dare that I can finish up while I wait for that next week.

Just today I have started reading Fire Study, which is the third book in the Chronicles of Ixia series that I started a few weeks ago. Where the first two books were rereads, that is as far as I got the first time around, so this is now new ground for me. This book was signed by the author back in 2011 and yet I am only just reading it now! It's signed saying "The danger heats up!" so it sounds like I am in for an adventure.

I'm watching...

On Friday night we sat down and watched the second series of After Life on Netflix which is written and produced by Ricky Gervais. We watched the first series last year and at that time we wer pleasantly surprised that such a sensitive and deep series was produced by Ricky Gervais. There are moments, and certain characters, which are more Gervais like but overall it is a very pleasant surprise.

The series follows Ricky Gervais' character Tony whose wife Lisa  has just died from cancer. He is beyond devastated and is contemplating suicide himself. The series focuses on the interactions he has with the people around him, from his work mates, his nephew, the nurse who looks after his dad at the local nursing home, and the lady he regularly sees at the cemetery. His interactions with Anne as they sit on a bench in the cemetery are some of my favourites.

It is quite dark, but it is also funny and warm, and we are already looking forward to the next series, whenever it comes out.

We also watched A Secret Love on Netflix over the weekend. This is a documentary which concentrates on two women who have spent their whole  lives together but have only just revealed to their family that they are more than just friends. I can't imagine having to explain to my family that I have been in a relationship with someone for more than 65 years and still have to deal with repercussions. Against the background of that story, there is also the fact that both Terry and Pat are in their 90s and are needing to change their living arrangements so that they are better cared for, which is a point of contention between the women and their family. The other thing that is interesting is that Terry was one of the professional baseball players in the All American Girl Professional Baseball League. The documentary, which was filmed by Terry's great nephew, is very moving.

Life

There's not a lot of news on the life front this week. They have announced that restrictions have been lifted to a degree from today. Basically that means that you can have small gatherings in your home but we will still be strongly encouraged to work from home until the end of the month. Whilst I am okay with working from home for the most part, I do think I am starting to get a bit of cabin fever.

The big news over the weekend is that from next week I am going to be taking over the hosting duties for Weekend Cooking. This weekly meme has been hosted by Bethfishreads for more than 10 years. It is exciting and daunting.

I guess it also means that my return to blogging has stuck. Since coming back in January I have definitely enjoyed the blogging experience again, and in fact now have some post ideas scheduled until May next year! I am also thinking that it is time for a blog makeover so let's see how long before that gets done!

Posts from the last week

Library Loot
Alphabet 2020
Weekend Cooking: Cinnamon Rolls


I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date