We celebrate Angelina’s 24th (and my 49th) birthday with a photo from last May, when I was in Boston for her graduation from BU.
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Book 48 (of 52) – Zero Days
Zero Days – Ruth Ware
After a run-in with the police, a penetration tester returns home to find her husband murdered. When the police have a hard time rationalizing her timeline, they look at her as the prime suspect, causing her to go on the run. With limited resources, can she stay off the grid long enough to find out who is really responsible for her husband’s death and convince the police of her innocence?
Zero Days, the latest from Ruth Ware, is a bit of a change of pace from her other work, leaning more towards a techno-thriller. There isn’t much of a twist here, the big bad was patently obvious, but the ride was more about the path our protagonist took to figure out the baddie and how she stayed ahead of her pursuers. I’ll be sure to keep Ware and her work on my radar.
Fitbit IX – Week 39
Another week without football leaves me below 30,000 steps for the third week in a row. The week got off to a good start on Sunday, finishing with 5300 steps thanks to a trip to the grocery store. Things fell off a bit on Monday, needing an additional 14 steps to get to 4000. Morning training starting on Tuesday limited me to 3200 steps. Wednesday saw a bit of an increase, coming 33 steps away from 3900. Thursday fell back down again, earning just 2500 steps. A day off of work, with a 3-hour Taylor Swift movie on the agenda, pushed me back up to 3600 steps. Saturday rose a little more, falling just 4 steps shy of 4000.
Total steps: 26,614
Daily average: 3802
You Ought To Be In (29) Pictures
Many years ago, using the weekly TV guide that came with the Sunday Chicago Tribune, I started keeping track of all of the movies I had seen over the course of my lifetime. The guide would list the two main stars for each movie, and that is a tradition that I’ve carried on in my database ever since. Given those guidelines, it is time once again to look at the now 107 actors that have starred in at least 10 films that I have seen, as of July 1.
We continue today with the only actor that has starred in exactly 29 movies that I have seen, a plateau not reached 3 years ago.
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage can also point to special circumstances behind his high film total: real estate issues and IRS trouble. After being accused of owing the government over $6.5 million in unpaid taxes and losing millions in bad real estate deals, Cage filed a $20 million lawsuit against his business manager and started taking any and every role offered to him. Seven of his films that I have seen have come since, including four in 2010 alone. My first exposure to a starring Cage role was likely 1987’s Raising Arizona. There have been eight years since where I have seen multiple Cage films. My most recent exposure came in 2022, when I saw 2017’s Mom and Dad.
Prolific Authors – 4 Books
Way back in December of 2011 (and again every other December since), we’ve taken a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school. Since I’ve far surpassed my “normal” reading output the last three years, I thought it would be nice to once again take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through the start of October. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 118 books, so there could be some movement over the past two years, but it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much in that time span. We continue today with the ten authors I’ve read four times, an increase of four over the past two years.
Scott Adams
The now-cancelled creator of Dilbert, who can’t seem to help himself from spouting racist takes on Twitter, Adams used his famous character to write a number of humorous business books, the most recent of which I read in 2012.
The Big Nowhere – James Ellroy
James Ellroy
The author of the L.A. Quartet, which I finished off with The Big Nowhere in 2014.
Gillian Flynn
The former Entertainment Weekly writer turned in to one of my favorite authors, though she hasn’t written a new full length work since 2012’s Gone Girl.
Rebecca Forster
One of my first Kindle finds, I’ve read the first four entries in her Witness series.
Diana G. Gallagher
The author, who passed away in 2021, can credit the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for all four of her entries, the most recent of which I read in 2011.
You Are Not Alone – Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
Greer Hendricks
After spending two decades as an editor at Simon & Schuster, she has teamed up with Sarah Pekkanen for four novels, which I’ve read one annually starting in 2020.
Grady Hendrix
Winner of a 2018 Bram Stoker Award, the horror novelist debuts thanks to the four novels I’ve read over the past three years, starting with The Final Girl Support Group in 2021.
Kimberly McCreight – Reconstructing Amelia
Kimberly McCreight
A New York Times bestselling author thanks to her debut novel, Reconstructing Amelia, she has been a steady presence since 2013.
Sarah Pekkanen
She has teamed up with Greer Hendricks for four novels, one of which I’ve read one annually since 2020.
John Vornholt
Three fourths of his works that I’ve read come from the world of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Book 47 (of 52) – Tell Me Everything
Tell Me Everything – Minka Kelly
Tell Me Everything, the new memoir from Minka Kelly, is not your usual celebrity tell-all. But then again, Minka Kelly is not your usual celebrity. Born to a single mother with no support system, Kelly bounced around Los Angeles and, eventually, Albuquerque, New Mexico, almost never having a permanent place to call home and moving from her mother’s care to friends, acquaintances, and even strangers as she grew up. Eventually, she found her way back to LA, where she became a scrub nurse before being “discovered” by an agent, which led to modeling, commercials, and, eventually, an acting career.
If you are looking for a deep dive into Kelly’s career and life in Hollywood, this is not the book for you. Her breakout role, as cheerleader Lyla Garrity on Friday Night Lights, gets about five pages of coverage. The main thrust is her awful upbringing and her attempts to come to terms with that upbringing as an adult, recognizing how the safeguards she put in place to survive were sabotaging her relationships as an adult.
Book 46 (of 52) – The Whistler
The Whistler – John Grisham
When the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct is contacted by a former lawyer with a compelling story about a judge on the take, an Indian casino, and the ruthless gang behind the criminal conspiracy tying everything together, Lacy Stoltz has no choice but to start an investigation. But when Lacy and her colleague Hugo start digging, they get a little too close, which puts Lacy in the hospital and Hugo in the ground. Once she recovers, Lacy collects her evidence, turns it over to the FBI, and waits for the wheels of justice to do their thing. Will that happen before the unknown whistleblower meets the same fate as Hugo?
John Grisham’s The Whistler, his first of his two books to feature Lacy Stoltz and the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct to date, brings Grisham back to my attention after nearly two years. He’s recently released a follow-up to his biggest hit, The Firm, which I hope to get to sooner rather than later, though my history with his work shows that I tend to have years-long spurts of inactivity followed by a quick hit or two. We shall see what happens.
Fitbit IX – Week 38
Another week, unexpectedly without football, leaves me below 30,000 steps for the second week in a row. The week got off to a slow start on Sunday, finishing just over 2700 steps. Things picked up a bit on Monday, jumping up to 4300 steps. Tuesday was nearly the same, coming in just 45 steps behind Monday’s total. Wednesday saw a bigger drop, going down to 3800 steps. Thursday jumped back up again, falling 27 steps shy of 4400. A case of Covid in the house helped put me up over 4600 steps on Friday as I tracked down food and medicines while trying to keep myself healthy. Sadly, I missed the trip to the Purdue game on Saturday just in case, which caused me to come 33 steps away from 3300.
Total steps: 27,516
Daily average: 3930.9
You Ought To Be In (27) Pictures
Many years ago, using the weekly TV guide that came with the Sunday Chicago Tribune, I started keeping track of all of the movies I had seen over the course of my lifetime. The guide would list the two main stars for each movie, and that is a tradition that I’ve carried on in my database ever since. Given those guidelines, it is time once again to look at the now 107 actors that have starred in at least 10 films that I have seen, as of July 1.
We continue today with the single actor that has starred in exactly 27 movies that I have seen, a level unseen 3 years ago.
Harrison Ford
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Harrison Ford entered the national consciousness as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy. Those three films, along with the two entries in the Indiana Jones franchise, form the basis of Ford’s place on this list. I have seen two of his films in three different years, 1996, 2000, and 2012, and a whopping four in 2020, the last of which, 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, is the last film of his that I’ve seen.
Book 45 (of 52) – Intellivore
Intellivore – Diane Duane
Summoned to deep space, the Enterprise rendezvous with two other ships to investigate disturbing reports of missing colonies and transport ships. What they find is a giant planet capable of moving at warp speed that can eat the consciousness of intelligent life that it encounters along the way, leaving behind living bodies with no brain activity. When Dr. Crusher discovers a way to protect the crew from being killed, Captain Picard turns the ship over to Data, allowing him to try and destroy the planet before it kills him, and the Enterprise crew.
Intellivore, the 45th entry in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series of books, was first released back in 1997. This tale from author Diane Duane is broader in scope than most, almost more cinematic than its counterparts. After the disappointment of A Hard Rain, this was a nice bounce back for the series, which saw a number of entries on sale in the Kindle store last month.