• 2023 sign

    My top 10 favs of 2023: A year spent reading, watching and listening to stories

    Ok, my friends. It’s time to share my annual list of pop culture wonders. Over the past year, I consumed 58 books, 116 TV shows, 61 movies and many podcasts. These were my favorites:

    (Note: Not all were released during the past 365 days.)

     

    MY FAVORITE BOOKS – FICTION
     

    Lessons in chemistry book1. “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus

    2. “Cult Classic” by Stephen Blackmoore

    3. “Holly” by Stephen King

    4. “Drowning” by T.J. Newman

    5. “Going Zero” by Anthony McCarten

    6. “Hate Machine” by Stephen Blackmoore

    7. “Double or Nothing” by Craig Schaefer

    8. “A Plain-Dealing Villain” by Craig Schaefer

    9. “The Killing Floor Blues” by Craig Schaefer

    10. “Harmony Black” by Craig Schaefer

    (Honorable mentions: “The Castle Doctrine” by Craig Schaefer, “You Are Home” by Catana Chetwynd, “Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting” by Clare Pooley, “All Systems Red” by Martha Wells, “The Maid” by Nita Prose and “Starter Villain” by John Scalzi)

     

    MY FAVORITE BOOKS – NONFICTION
     

    1. true tails of baker and taylor book“The True Tails of Baker and Taylor: The Library Cats Who Left Their Pawprints on a Small Town . . . and the World” by Jan Louch and Lisa Rogak

    2. “National Trust Book of Scones” by Sarah Merker

    3. “What the Dead Know: Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator” by Barbara Butcher

    4. “American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century” by Maureen Callahan

    5. “Yours Truly: An Obituary Writer’s Guide to Telling Your Story” by James R. Hagerty

    6. “A Pocketful of Happiness” by Richard E. Grant

    7. “Knave of Spades” by Alan Titchmarsh

    8. “My Hygge Home: How to Make Home Your Happy Place” by Meik Wiking

    9. “Clean & Green: 101 Hints and Tips for a More Eco-Friendly Home” by Nancy Birtwhistle

    10. The Art Thief” by Michael Finkel

    (Honorable mentions: “Kitty Cornered: How Frannie and Five Other Incorrigible Cats Seized Control of Our House and Made It Their Home” by Bob Tarte, “Disappearing Ink: The Insider, the FBI, and the Looting of the Kenyon College Library” by Travis McDade, “Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath” by Ted Koppel and “The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power” by Deirdre Mask)

    Overall reading ratio: I read 18,034 pages. Books were split 70% fiction to 30% nonfiction and 55% female authors to 45% male authors.

     

     

    MY FAVORITE TV SHOWS
    GBBO1. The Great British Baking Show

    2. Julia

    3. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

    4. Escape to the Country

    5. Ted Lasso

    6. The Diplomat

    7. The Repair Shop

    8. Grand Designs

    9. Britain’s Hidden Villages

    10. Reacher

    (Honorable mentions: Homicide Hunter, Cook’s Country, America’s Test Kitchen, Gardener’s World, Last Week With John Oliver, The Reluctant Traveler, Men in Kilts, Poker Face, Staged, For All Mankind, Foundation, Welcome to Wrexham and Lessons in Chemistry.)

     

    MY FAVORITE MOVIES
     

    Three Thousand Years of Longing movie1. Three Thousand Years of Longing

    2. She Said

    3. Elvis

    4. Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

    5. John Wick: Chapter 4

    6. The Old Guard

    7. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret

    8. No One Will Save You

    9. Jim Gaffigan: Dark Pale

    10. Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and the Pool

    (Honorable mentions: A Man Called Otto, Being Mary Tyler Moore, The Fablemans, Plane, Ghosted, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Call Me Kate, Mike Birbiglia: The New One, 65, Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3, The Leftovers, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, The Gray Man and Bullet Train)

     

    MY FAVORITE PODCASTS
     

    The Vinyl Cafe1. The Vinyl Cafe

    2. Backstage at the Vinyl Cafe

    3. GrimmCast

    4. Small Town Dicks

    5. Naked Lunch

    6. BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Podcast

    7. Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!

    8. Christmas Past

    9. Dear Hank & John

    10. Mobituaries

    (Honorable mentions: Clear + Vivid With Alan Alda, Sidedoor, Something Wild, David Tennant Does a Podcast With…, The Christmas Stocking, Sue Perkins: An Hour Or So With…., Nocturne, Criminal, Death, Sex & Money, Awards Chatter and The Anthropocene Reviewed)

  • Books on a bench

    Quote of the day

    “To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.” –William Somerset Maugham

  • Manchester City Library

    All is not lost … nor forgotten

    The Manchester, N.H., chapter of the Silent Book Club recently launched a campaign to save local library books called The Forgotten Books Project.

    Apparently libraries will occasionally cull their collections, removing books that patrons haven’t checked out for a long time. With The Forgotten Books Project, our little book club hopes to rescue some of these soon-to-be lost tomes.

    Forgotten books projectWe contacted our local librarian and asked her for a list of the books that were the most likely to get the old heave-ho. Next, we began checking out the titles that interested us. I picked up my first batch this week (see image at right).

    I plan to read each title, of course, since the topics genuinely interest me. But, I’ll also receive great satisfaction in knowing that I’m saving them. Which means, others will have the opportunity to read these books too.

    Every time I look at this stack, I feel a bit like Oprah: You get to stay! And you get to stay!

    Perhaps there are some forgotten books at your local library? Now is the perfect time to discover what they are and check ’em out.

  • movies, tv, books, podcasts

    Last month in pop culture

    Best TV show I saw: “The Reluctant Traveler.” Eugene Levy prefers the inside to the outside, the relaxing to the adventurous and the known to the unfamiliar. This show examines what happens when such a person travels, and because Levy is a brilliant comedian and actor, it’s a blast to join him on the journey.

     

     

    I also enjoyed: “Poker Face.” Natasha Lyonne portrays a woman named Charlie who’s a human lie detector. When her unique ability lands her in hot water, she hits the road in her Plymouth Barracuda and ends up solving crimes in every town she hides in. Imagine if Jessica Fletcher and Columbo got on the mob’s bad side.

     

     

    Best movie I saw: M and I celebrated the anniversary of our first date over the weekend. Back in 2006, we watched the romantic comedy, “Serendipity,” starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale, despite being 600 miles apart (we chatted about it in IM). Seventeen years later, we’re still together and still watching that movie (or visiting the restaurant of the same name whenever we’re in New York City).

    Best thing I heard: My favorite podcast, “The Vinyl Cafe,” is sort of back, even though its beloved host, Stuart McLean, has died. His long-suffering producer, Jess Milton, has created a new podcast called “Backstage at the Vinyl Cafe,” where she posts a couple of classic stories from the shows and then adds a bit of behind-the-scenes commentary. I’m loving it.

    I also listened to: “The Grimmcast,” another podcast featuring behind-the-scenes commentary, this one about the show “Grimm.” The series, which ran on NBC from 2011 to 2017, featured a homicide detective with the ability to see magical creatures. Claire Coffee, Bitsie Tulloch and Bree Turner, who also appeared in the show, are watching the program for the first time and sharing details about the filming process. They also interview other members of the cast and crew and answer listener questions. If you’re a fan of the show, as I am, you’ll dig this weekly chat. And if you’ve never watched “Grimm,” why not start now? It’s fun.

     

     

    Best thing I read: “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus is one of those books everyone raves about but you put off reading because it can’t possibly live up to the hype. The plot certainly interested me: A woman working as a chemist in the 1960s faces discrimination, recrimination and even violence due to her intelligence and gender. When she becomes the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show, the heroine begins changing lives and seriously challenging the status quo. The cover art really turned me off, but on a whim, I decided to give it a chance and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

     

     

    I’m also reading: National Trust Scones, a blog written by Sarah Merker that was recently featured in The New York Times. Back in 2013, Sarah and her husband joined the National Trust, a society that helps to conserve and manage historical properties in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Over the next decade, she would visit these sites, taste the scones on offer and write a blog post about each experience. Since discovering her blog, I’ve not only started reading the whole shebang from the beginning, I’ve also purchased her book about the experience. (Note to self: Visit Brownsea Island in the summer and Hughenden at Christmas.)

     

    My current desktop picture:

  • bakeoff

    Quote of the day

    “I don’t know who needs to hear this, but posting ‘new year, new me’ on social media won’t solve all your problems. Watching ‘Bake Off’ on the couch while you order books with pretty covers, however, absolutely will. Also, I am not a doctor.” –Jonathan Edward Durham