The Greyhound Station, a block-sized center of transport, has closed. No more will buses pick people up for parts unknown from inside a building. Instead, it will pick people up from a street.
There is a great undulating wall on this side of the station. I hope it will be preserved through the next development, but I’m guessing my hopes will be in vain.
Here is postcard 1 of 2! Sara said that she meant to send the Boise postcards from Boise, but alas, they came to me from California.
I quite like this Basque card!
Also arriving is this postcard from Tampa where Sara was attending a conference. She reports that this was her hotel and that the Florida weather has been lovely.
Apparently not for Floridians, who keep saying it was cold.
Ikea advertised this cat cave insert for their standard bookcase and soon after I learned about it, I bought one.
This brings the hideyholes the cats have to three: this, plus a tent I bought from Ikea years ago, plus a plush sided tent that Matt’s mom gave me because her cat wasn’t interested.
Reporting from the future I can say that Sentinel uses the plush sided tent multiple times per day, they both go into the Ikea tent when they need to blow off steam, and they almost never use this hideaway.
This came as postcard 2 of 2 so we will have to wait to see what the first one says.
I love this, though, because it’s from the Basque Museum in Boise. If you grow up in Boise, you grow to love the Basques. Who wouldn’t, with their complex last names and delicious food?
The back of this postcard says: “‘You’re cutting the onions and the leeks…and you look across the table and there’s a second cousin,’ Ed Orbea says. ‘So then everything stops and hugs and kisses and back pats.’ Orbea stirs leeks and onions on a stove top in the basement of the Basque Center in Boise, Idaho. These ingredients are used to make mortzilla sausage for the Basque community’s annual Mortzilla Dinner & Bazaar.
Sara says that she and Shawn can’t get over how downtown Boise has transformed. There’s a whole new skyline.
Noah Baumbach gets at the nuance of divorce* with Marriage Story and his script leaves a lot of room for incredible performances by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson.** It’s a painful divorce, but not an overly angry one, which means the movie is tense throughout, but there isn’t much yelling.*** It’s also a movie that is a tiny bit too long**** and has humor sprinkled throughout; it comes with a very clear message about the strange nature of divorce proceedings.*****
Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($8.99)
Where watched: at home with S. North, who didn’t like it as much as I did.
*There are a lot of examples of a couple in the midst of uncoupling acting very much like the couple they have always been, which is what I would guess makes divorce difficult.
**Azhy Robertson is also very good as Charlie and Nicole’s son Henry (he was also good as Ethan Hawke’s son in Juliet, Naked) and god bless Martha Kelly; her role as the social worker was the most painful and hilarious scene in the movie.
***I’m guessing a heart rate monitor would have had me at an elevated level for most of the movie.
****While one song from the Sondhiem musical Company was fine, the second wandered into indulgent territory
*****The lawyers’ interactions were fascinating, especially how they shifted from emphatically making a point to chitchat.
The theme of theater is reflected in the film’s production design and the architecture. Charlie and Nicole have a proscenium arch in their apartment. In Nicole’s mother’s house, characters move in and out of rooms that interconnect to the kitchen like a backstage to the main stage. During Nicole’s monologue she walks in and out of rooms and similarly, Nicole and Charlie walk between rooms during the fight scene, these moments echo how actors move in plays.
Wait, Rest, Pause
Marcie Flinchum Atkins
Read for Librarian Book Group
A picture book about dormancy in plants and animals. The book is illustrated with photos, some of them, like the cover photo, stunning. It also provides simple explanations for different animals slowing down before dormancy using words (wiggle, awake, feast, fly) to show action.
16 Words: William Carlos Williams and the Red Wheelbarrow
Lisa Rogers and Chuck Groenink
Read for Librarian Book Group
How did William Carlos Williams’ famous poem come to be? Lisa Rogers imagines and Chuck Groenink illustrates.
A Stone Sat Still
Barden Wenzel
Read for Librarian Book Group
Many different viewpoints of a stone through the ages.
Fly!
Mark Teague
Read for Librarian Book Group
Amusing wordless picture book about a baby bird who falls from the nest and is encouraged by its parent to do what the title says. There’s a bit of back talk from the baby bird. Parents will probably relate.
Going Down Home with Daddy
Kelly Starling Lyons and Daniel Minter
Read for Librarian Book Group
Beautiful prose and illustrations illuminate a trip home for a family reunion.
Frankly in Love
David Yoon
This book’s strength is also its weakness: it’s very much like real life. And real life, as we know, meanders a bit and is boring in places.
I kept putting this book down, and also picking it back up because there was enough to keep me going. I was rewarded with a full arc of Frank Li and his muddling through.
Also, I was totally on board with the plan to have a fake relationship and thus enjoyed the unraveling of said plan.
Somewhere Only We Know
Maurene Goo
In this era of consent culture, it is not okay for the male romantic lead to know that “Fern” was actually Lucky, a K-Pop star on the brink of next-level fame. The fact that he did know and didn’t reveal had me uncomfortable for the entire book.
It wrapped up okay in the end, but when 80% of the story is a relationship built on a lie, I can’t go for the Happily Ever After.
This also hinges a plot point on someone not having a lock on their phone. Who are these people with no locks on their smartphones? They seem only to exist in books.
p.s. Also, the title kept me with an endless loop of: so why don’t we go/somewhere only we know/somewhere only we know/somewhere only weeeeee knoooooow.
American Panda
Gloria Choo
Mae is premed at MIT following the path her parents have set for her: become a doctor, which is the best job. One problem. She has a germ thing.
I loved Mae and her terrible conundrum. How does one balance parents who love them and want the best for them and also pushes them in a direction that just isn’t going to work?
Let it Snow
Green, Johson, Myracle
Whilst watching the Netflix film adaptation I had the thought: “Most of this does not seem familiar to me.”
So, I read the book again and I give you this list.
Things from the book that made it to the movie:
Wayward Son
Rainbow Rowell
Wayward Son continues the story past the Happily Ever After. What happens after the big battle? In Baz, Penny, and Simon’s case, it involves a road trip across the USA.
This provides an excellent opportunity for gentle ribbing of American culture, which is quite funny. There’s an added bonus of an examination of a relationship that isn’t going very well.
Truly Devious
Maureen Johnson
This was a re-read in preparation for the release of the third book in January 2020. It remains an excellent piece of double mystery and both the Truly Devious murder in the past and the current-day death of a student are interesting and curious. I also really enjoy Stevie Bell as a main character. She’s awkward, and prickly, and very true to life.
The Vanishing Stair
Maureen Johnson
Sometimes, when one is re-reading the first two books to prepare for the release of the third, one reads the first book and it is so good that one must immediately purchase the ebook, even though one has the book on hold at the library and it was read earlier in the year.
And then one waits impatiently for January.
I love the last line of this book.
(12 movies watched)
(It was a GREAT movie-watching month)
A bit long, but worth a viewing.
Just when you think you are done watching movies about WWII…
“Teen” ensemble cast for the win.
Philip Seymour Hoffman for the win.
Early Paul Thomas Anderson
Sometimes we can’t just all get along.
Sequels are always chancy.
Like mother like son.
Amusing throughout.
Upgraded upon re-watch
One way of surviving the zombie apocalypse.
An excellent way to spend two hours at the theater.
What did you watch in November that you loved?
Sometimes you make a lot of turkey stock. And that’s when the now-unused kombucha jars come in handy.
I took some time over the Thanksgiving weekend to add shelves to the catio.
And now we can call that project done!
Except not, because the shelves aren’t wide enough for the cats to sit comfortably on. So I might get some boards and add them to the top. Or I might not, because the don’t seem to like to climb when out on the catio.
Rian Johnson shows he has skills with yet another genre* by directing Knives Out, which is 130 minutes of delight. This movie could have been weighted down by its stellar cast,** but everything clicks and jibes along as the pieces fall into place. The mystery is well-crafted,*** the movie is funny, and the mansion shows off some great set decoration, including an amazing chair.
Cost: $6.00
Where watched: St. Johns Twin Cinema with S. North
*Noir (Brick), sci-fi time travel (Looper), franchise action/adventure/sci-fi (The Last Jedi), things for the band the Mountain Goats
**There’s something enjoyable about watching actors who seem to be enjoying the acting they are doing. Ana de Armas is the linchpin who makes the movie work, and I especially loved Noah Segan as the fawning Trooper Wagner. Also, hasn’t Christopher Plummer had a good run lately?
***Though what do I know? My brain isn’t good at solving mysteries. I’m always surprised when it comes time to figure out who done what.
Despite playing his mother in the film, K Callan is actually six years younger than Christopher Plummer.
