Do you ever play the grocery cart shame game?

Lynda Davis
August 25, 2019
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On my more virtuous days when my grocery cart is full of organic produce, fresh-pressed Green Goddess juice and two kinds of quinoa, I like to cast a critical eye on what's in the cart of the person ahead of me or behind me in the lineup. It's a bitchy and small-minded exercise in me getting all sanctimonious and judgey. When I see a cart overflowing with bags of white Wonder Bread, cases of soft drinks, frozen mac n'cheese, Doritos and heavily sugared breakfast cereals, I get all self-righteous…

You might want to avoid me in the grocery store.

Big Sky is neither a family saga nor a story about the wild west. It’s ‘way better.

Lynda Davis
August 22, 2019
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Well! When I started reading Kate Atkinson's Big Sky I must confess the title led me to expect a family saga along the lines of The Thornbirds, or perhaps a story about the American wild west. Obviously, I hadn't done my homework about the author. Kate Atkinson is in fact a contemporary British crime writer with many novels to her credit that feature a recurring main character/hero by the name of Jackson Brodie. Brodie is an ex-cop who hung out his own shingle as a private investigator after he left…

Young lady reading a book, pop art retro vector illustration. Interesting reading

NO! I definitely do not need my ducts cleaned.

Lynda Davis
August 18, 2019
9 Comments

Does anyone know how to stop those infernal, annoying, never-ending calls from telemarketers trying to sell me duct-cleaning services? It's been going on for years and they nail me anywhere at any time. I was sitting in the hairdressers yesterday and ring...ring...ring. I rarely use my cellphone so when it rings it's always my husband. Not this time. After fumbling in my purse, digging out my phone from the bottom layer of purse detritus and trying to figure out how to turn it on to take an incoming call,…

The Farewell is a movie worth going to see

Lynda Davis
August 16, 2019
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Writer and Director Lulu Wang's indie movie The Farewell has been getting a lot of media attention lately for its sensitivity and deviation from standard Hollywood themes. Filmed primarily in Mandarin with English subtitles, it's the story of a Chinese-American girl's reaction to the news her grandmother in China is dying of cancer. It's a universal theme and appeals to anyone who has lost a loved family member. The main character, Billi, played by rapper and actor Awkwafina, was born in China but immigrated to New York as a child…

I’m on the rocky road to death by ice-cream

Lynda Davis
August 12, 2019
5 Comments

As soon as that container of French Vanilla ice-cream in my freezer is gone, I'm going to quit. This time for sure. It's the last remains of some flavours I stocked up on when we had company a couple of weeks ago. Understandable, right? I bought the French Vanilla to serve with fresh Ontario strawberries which have a life expectancy of only 24 hours, but the Black Jack Cherry, Heavenly Hash, Pralines n'Cream, Rocky Road, and Maple Walnut are just plain inexcusable examples of my character weakness. It reveals a…

The Silent Patient was a step outside my reading comfort zone

Lynda Davis
August 8, 2019
4 Comments

Murder-mystery-thrillers are not my usual choice for reading material. But, after reading The New York Times best-seller The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, I'm thinking perhaps I should expand my horizons. I stayed up until after midnight last night to find out "whodunnit", then couldn't sleep thinking about all the plot twists. It's a psychological thriller written mostly in the first-person voice of a psychologist so if you're a fan of pop psychology then you'll love all the references to mental illness. Alicia Berenson is a temperamental artist with a troubled…