It’s been a while, I know. People have been asking me when the next blog is coming out and I keep saying that I’m waiting for a theme to make itself known to me. Then I realized that I was putting a lot of pressure on myself. The whole point of my blog is to share entertainment recommendations; you don’t need a long exposition. Who wants that? I know I don’t have time to read a long blog, much less write one.

So here we go – a few things I’ve loved the past few months.

Movie

I like to grade my movies. I can’t remember the last movie I gave an A to, maybe an A-, Sing Street for example. The Jungle Book was an A. I didn’t even want to see it because I have never been a fan of the cartoon movie. Well, it blew me away. My regret in recommending it now is that you won’t be seeing it in the theater in 3D. (I’ll strive to be a little more timely from now on.) I almost never opt for viewing in 3D but I heard this was the way to see it. It was. Outstanding.

Theatre

Is Hamilton really that amazing? Yes, it is. Obviously, running off to NY and getting tickets is not super easy – I get that. If you do find yourself in NY though, try. If not, go see it when it starts to travel. I’ve got to think the performers chosen for the traveling show will more than do the show justice. That being said, when our Angelica (Renee Elise Goldsberry) sang, tears just started pouring down my face.  Was I sad? Nope. Same thing happens to me in the very beginning of the play The Lion King. Simply overwhelming.

While I’m talking Broadway, a bunch of shows are closing that are really worth seeing. If you can’t see these in NY, try to catch them if they tour in your city. Fun Home won the Tony for best musical in 2015, but it is not your typical musical. My NY plug is that the theatre is small so you really feel like you are there with the lead character as you watch her throughout her life.  Something Rotten! is laugh-out-loud funny and Matilda is great for the whole family, even my then-7-year old was rapt.

TV

The only summer programming I remember loving was “Odd Mom Out” – consistently funny – and “Catastrophe” – season 2 was, again, a 6 30-minute episode season on Amazon Prime. SO FUNNY, please watch it.

Other than that, I watched up to season 4, episode 4, of “Game of Thrones.” I honestly can’t remember if I watched anything else.  And I have no idea when I’m going to be able to finish GOT which is making me a little crazy.

As for fall TV, I’m not ready to put my stamp on anything yet. I’ll get back to you.

Books

I went through a big ole drought this summer. A lot of the hyped-up books left me disappointed. Sporadically, there’d be a book that was ok but I really try to recommend books that I LOVE.

In the last 2 weeks, I’ve breezed through 3 books that I would like to recommend, a little something for everyone (none are brand new, I just finally got around to reading them).

A Man Called Ove – Fredrik Backman   I’m not going to give any plot points in any of these books because I don’t want to give anything away. I will just share that it took me a little bit to get into the groove of the storytelling; I actually almost quit. But my friend Jill kept telling me I’d like it so I soldiered on. So glad I did.

Fool Me Once – Harlen Coben   Suspense/thrillers are not my usual genre. This wasn’t perfect, don’t get me wrong, but I could not put it down. I think I read it in 2 days. I also learned something. I learned about Occam’s razor, which is a problem-solving principle basically positing that when you have competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected. It gets mentioned a lot which is funny because it also showed up in the book I read next…

When Breath Becomes Air – Paul Kalanithi    I wonder how many times I just skipped over a mention of Occam’s razor because I didn’t know what it was?   Not important. This book, however, is. I would like to give this book to people, especially doctors, but it’s not an easy book to read. Not giving anything away here, the author was a neurosurgeon who was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer at 36. He wrote his memoir beautifully and sagely. It’s a gift he has left us.

That’s it for now.  In the future, if I have a recommendation or two – I’ll just pass them along; my future posts may be a little shorter.  I’m assuming that’s ok with everyone.

Song of the Blog:

“Sweet Disaster” by Dreamers is my favorite song at the moment.  I hope you enjoy!