This and that

Happy weekend, everyone.  Hope you'll all make it a good one.

If you're looking for a decent movie to watch this weekend, you could do worse than Hidden Figures, a solid and entertaining biopic about three unsung heroes of the U.S. space program.  Think The Help combined with The Right Stuff and you'll have a rough idea of what you'll getting (though the women of Hidden Figures have a slightly better social standing and aren't persecuted quite as much as the women in The Help).  Anyway, good movie.

I notice that author William Peter Blatty passed away earlier this week.  To pay tribute to the author of so many moody and entertaining works, try listening to the 40th Anniversary Edition of his most famous novel, The Exorcist, which was produced a few years ago and is read aloud- and very well- by Mr. Blatty himself.  I listened to it last year and really enjoyed it. Still a very creepy book, and- as a bonus- it's a nice time capsule on life in New York City in the 1970's.

My literary and audio projects for 2017?  First, I'm going to finish my 2016 project and read or listen to the last few James Bond novels written by John Gardner in the 1980's and 90's. To paraphrase the old movie ads about Sean Connery, Simon Vance IS James Bond in the audiobook versions.  But, alas, not all the Gardner Bonds are available on audio, so thank God for Kindle.  I also want to finish up John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series, which I'll continue doing on audio as Robert Petkoff does a really nice job reading them.  And, who knows, I may even get caught up on John Sandford's terrific Prey thriller series, which I've been enjoying again lately after a hiatus.  I will also lean towards audio on that series, as narrator Richard Ferrone has made Sandford's cop characters truly his own.

See you all next week!