- Alfie Boe I listened to a few episodes of the podcast, Desert Island Discs: Dame Judi Dench, Mary Berry and Alfie Boe. They were all delightful and, Alfie, in particular, was just charming. I love his story and the way he talks about his family. He recalls his father fondly and it is just so sweet. I first saw Alfie Boe when we watched the 25th anniversary performance of Les Miserable (Part 1 and Part 2). If you really want some chills and maybe something in your eye, you should watch the encore performance of “Bring Him Home” performed by 4 of the actors who have played Jean Valjean (I couldn’t find a good link for just that part, but it starts around 58:30 in Part 2).
- Scientology On Oh No Ross and Carrie they (finally!) explore Scientology. Part 1 came out this week, and I’m really excited to hear what happened when they signed up for classes at the big Scientology center in LA. This made me think about how I really like:
- “Escape from the Cult” Memiors I really enjoyed, with fascination and horror, watching the Going Clear documentary on HBO and reading the book, Going Clear. Also: Beyond Belief. I have read several books about people leaving the FLDS church and polygamist sects. A quick google led me to this list on goodreads, of other books that fall into the “escape from the cult memoir” category.
- Midgrade/Young Adult fiction from my youth Last year I decided to reread some books I loved as a kid, so I read Anne of Green Gables; Are You There, God, It’s Me Margaret?; and Then Again Maybe I Won’t. I also read Blubber which I don’t think I had read before. And this week I read Bridge to Terabithia. These books have just delighted me. So far they have held up well to my fond memories of them. Anne of Green Gables was as charming and sweet as I remembered. AYTGIMM was perfect in its Judy Blume awkwardness. And I love the sweet first intimacy in Bridge to Terabithia. I highly recommend going back and reading beloved midgrade books. They are short and easy so I can knock one out in an evening or two. And they’re a nice palette cleanser if you’re in the middle of a run of dark and depressing or terrible books.
delicious happy life 