Fri-Yay #6

We made it to the weekend!! Yay! This week was rough. Well, I mean, for workload wise. I've also slept like the dead. I can't decided if I like my new pillows but I seem to be falling asleep as soon as my head hits them so maybe they're magic. They're much firmer than what I'd normally pick in the store...but then again...I was picking cheap pillows that barely lasted. 

Listening:

Honestly, I've had a pretty chill, non-podcast week. I haven't started any new podcasts as of yet, although I have one on the Gardner Art Heist that I am super excited about. I've turned some lighter classical music on at night to read to, mostly Edvard Greig. I usually listen to jazz when I cook (or blues on the odd occasion) but I've been in a full on classical mood. It's chilled me out for creating schedules for work. You've probably heard of Greig and not realised it as he composed, In The Hall of the Mountain King. While nice it's not one of the ones I tend to pick. 

I've added some new spotify playlists to try out. The Kitchen Swagger playlist, seems pretty chill and nice mindless music. Really perfect for cooking, not going to lie about that! The Ultimate Happy playlist seems a bit different. It does start off with the overplayed, rage inducing Happy by Pharell Williams but I can get over that. It's not that bad...it's just one of those songs that was everywhere and it turned my ambivalence into hatred. 

So I'll try those out pretty soon. 

Reading:
​

While I'm still chugging along on my super slow read of Emma, I've started Anne Stuart's Shadowdance onto my pile. It kinda has elements of a Shakespearean farce, a little Midsummer Night's Dream. Of the four main love interests, two are dressed up to hide their identities, a third is pretending to not be a lord and the fourth is unaware but confused. I'm only about a fourth of the way into it and I am enjoying it. While I prefer Stuart's contemporary romance-suspense books, she can absolutely cross genres and sub-genres with ease. I have the older cover--with the bare chested dude. These aren't my favorite covers but I found it on the second hand shop in town and needed it. 

I also busted out laughing with this headline. Not in a mean way but I remember the shit-storm that started it. Every once in awhile I check out celebrity gossip blogs. It's gotten more controlled since PR got more of a hold of their stars and starlets I suppose. During the heyday of Paris Hilton-Lindsay Lohan-Brittany Spears it was insane. One of the blogs I used to semi-follow has turned into a part time royal gossip blog (for the British royal family) and I'm not sorry, they're SO boring. Right, so I checked D-listed and the title was "Rebekah Vardy Is Suing Coleen Rooney for Libel." In itself, not funny. No. Yet...hilarious in the darkest way. Who is Rebekah and who is Coleen? I mean, to be succinct, they're both WAGS. We do and don't have wags in America. I really only know about them because Coleen is kinda famous for being one I guess and my statistics professor was British and soccer (football) obsessed during the world cup where the WAGS were infamous. So he would talk to us about the games, players, coaching decisions etc. Actually, quite a few statistics examples were coached through soccer terms. 

Anyways, WAGS are "wives and girlfriends" and include both of the above and of course, Victoria Beckham (I suppose the term is not used anymore, I don't know because I don't follow this really). They seem to make the Daily Heil's celebrity section in the same manner and instafamous or children of celebrities who "model" do. In the celebrity hierarchy they're like...D level I guess? Maybe less? Anyways, Coleen apparently did a full on social media sting to determine who was selling stories about her and her family (Wayne Rooney: kicks balls for a living) and fingered Vardy (married to Jamie Vardy: also kicks balls for a living). Vardy denied it but it was a little circus. Anyways, Vardy is now suing saying that (I guess) lots of people have access to her account. This does beg the question...why are these people famous? Do you need to know anything about these people or this story? Nope. It just made me kinda snort laugh and think of statistics. Here's a rundown form the New York Times (yup, the Times covered it, congrats Coleen and Rebekah). 

Or you can listen to Aisling Bea explain it. She does well. Anyways, I've talked longer about this than I meant to. It's just funny to me because I think someone called Coleen "WAGatha Christie" and it's all that stuck in my head. 

Watching: 
​

I've mostly let things stack up on my DVR since work has been slammed but the two new shows I'm interested in are HBO's I'll be Gone in the Dark and the new Perry Mason. I haven't seen either as of yet. I've also been watching 8 out of 10 cats does Countdown via Britbox (and ::cough:: Youtube). 

The I'll Be Gone In The Dark show is based off a book with the same name. I had assumed it would cover how the author, Michelle McNamara, wrote the book and handled her own investigation type approach to the writing within it. McNamara has since passed, so the book was finished by others. The book was about EAR/ONS or The Golden State Killer (GSK), a serial killer and rapist that operated in California in the 1970s. He was recently caught and has pled guilty. I think the show will be different because the focus won't really be on the killer but instead Michelle and maybe the victims? 

***EAR/ONS = East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker. He was also the Visalia Rapist and maybe a few other things. It's all a bit insane. The police didn't realise that the EAR and ONS were the same person until DNA because he traveled around the state. 

The new Perry Mason was something I added without looking too closely. I think it's supposed to be darker than the original. In this, Perry Mason is a private investigator and not a lawyer. It's a drama set in 1930's California. Those cars in the trailer are a delight. 

I was happy that Britbox carred a few episodes of 8 out of 10 cats does Countdown. This is a mashup show where in 8 out of 10 cats and Countdown are smushed together. I think the easiest way to describe this is if Whose Line Is It Anyways did Wheel of Fortune. 

Countdown is a game in the UK (and maybe elsewhere) where you try to solve a math problem and try to create a word via anagram.  Very inline with Wheel of Fortune type games. While Graham Lineham has gone of the deepend and become a TERF, he has Moss on Countdown in the IT Crowd. 

I love when Aisling Bea or Sarah Millican is on personally, but everyone is really delightful. 

I also saw the trailer for The Baby Sitter's Club, it looks cute and really age appropriate for a younger generation. It's going to show on Netflix sometime. I'll probably miss it, nostalgia won't carry me that far but it does look nice. Netflix also showed the trailer for Cursed which features some of the mythos of The Lady From The Lake (Arthurian). It looks pretty good. I thought the sword had ogham type writing on it but that's not my area of expertise. I normally don't watch dramas all that much but I have quite a few lined up. 

Wanting:
​

Well, I was bad and bought three more books. I know, I know. I have a huge TBR pile but I just went for it. I bought Sarah Maclean's newest book, Catie Murphy's newest book (not out yet) and a Sam Kean book. 

Sarah Maclean's newest book is part of a series that I uh...haven't even read yet. She's one of those auto-buys for me. It's a historical romance set in the Georgian (or somewhere around theres) era, UK. I have the first, just bought the second, and the third comes out in soon. So I thought I should get on that. The first is Wicked and the Wallflower and the second is Brazen and the Beast.  I find her characters to be really fleshed out and enjoyable. 


Catie Murphy (or C.E. Murphy) wrote this cute little cozy mystery set it Ireland. I don't normally love cozy mysteries (they usually grate on me) but this one was okay so I'm giving the second book a go. The first book I have yet to review but i did take a photo of it for instagram in March. The series follows an American limo driver who runs into dead bodies at work. It's more interesting than how I've described it of course. The first one was mostly set in Dublin and is titled, Dead in Dublin (with the murder taking place at the foot of the Molly Malone statue). The second book is titled Death on the Green, and takes place on a golf course. I feel like I've damned the series with faint praise, I don't mean for that to be the case. I honestly, truthfully, despise cozy mysteries. So the fact that I liked this one probably means it's excellent. Obviously, don't come to me for recommendations for this category. Well, I mean, this one is good. 


Sam Keen is one my favorite authors and is one of my most borrowed (and stolen) authors from my book collection. I'm not being factious at all with this. His books are written in a narrative style and deal with science or history of science type themes. One time I ventured up to a breakfast spot to treat myself to find my dad's friend holding a book club with his friends with the Keen book he borrowed from me! They had a visiting physicist talking to them! 

I wasn't even invited. 

I let him keep the book and bought another one. I have all his books and now own the newest.

The first book, The Disappearing Spoon is about the history of the periodic table...did I lose you? WRONG. Get ready for murder, affairs, explosions and espionage.

The Violinist's Thumb is about DNA (who gets lucky, who doesn't and sexy times).

The Tale of The Dueling Neurosurgeons is about the history of neuroscience. Since my brain is hella stupid I really enjoyed this book.

Caesar's Last Breath is about air and the atmosphere that we all use. I really thought this was an interesting look at a subject I wouldn't normally care about.

The Bastard Brigade is the newest book (the one I bought). It's about the Alsos Mission (stopping the Nazi atomic bomb). I can't tell you how this is going because as soon as it entered my house...my dad took it to read. So this is my second copy as there is no way I'm getting the first one back anytime soon.