The Cue Card

Happy Halloween everyone. I hope you enjoy the festivities. Tomorrow November will be upon us. We have two reading months left in 2019, so I hope you are nearing your year-end goals. I’m a bit behind but it is okay: we will see where I come out at the end of December. There’s still plenty of good reading left to do.

Though November is usually not one of my favorite months as the weather here often turns dismal quickly, but come mid-month we’re traveling to see my folks in Southern California so that should be nice — as long as we stay clear of the wildfires. My thoughts go out to those who have lost homes or been displaced there due to the terrible fires. My sister’s place in Northern Cal was without power for three days (as a prevention due to the high winds), but it’s back on now and the winds seem to be dissipating, knock on wood.

Meanwhile I’ve been checking to see what’s coming out in November and there seems to be some notable novels due out even this late in the season. For one, I’ve got my eye on Erin Morgenstern’s latest one “The Starless Sea,” which is a follow-up to her very successful 2011 novel “The Night Circus.” Her new one is said to be an epic fantasy novel about a graduate student who stumbles upon a peculiar book at the college library that contains a story of his childhood in it, which sets him on a journey to find answers … that in turn becomes something much bigger.

Granted, I’m not usually a fantasy reader but I need to check out what all the fuss is about with Erin Morgenstern’s books. I should go back and read “The Night Circus” first, though the two stories are not linked. “The Starless Sea” is said to be a sprawling, 512-page saga, so for those interested in it, you should get started pronto. 

Next is a tie between Margaret Wilkerson Sexton’s second novel “The Revisioners” and Bernardine Evaristo’s novel “Girl, Woman, Other,” which recently co-won the Booker Prize and is now becoming available in North America. “The Revisioners” appears to be a story about a New Orleans family’s ascent from slavery to freedom, which alternates chapters between two women, one a mixed-race single mom struggling to raise her teenage son in 2017, and the other her great-great-grandmother, a former slave who runs the family farm in 1924.

While the other novel, “Girl Woman, Other,” is said to depict a range of experiences of 12 black British women over time amid interconnected chapters. I’m usually not good with novels that focus on a dozen characters, but I think I’d like to try both books as the authors’ voices seem fresh and talented. 

I also like the looks of Allen Eskens’s new crime novel “Nothing More Dangerous” for a change of pace. Since I enjoyed Eskens’s debut 2014 novel “The Life We Bury,” I’m hoping this one will be good too. It centers on the friendship of a 15-year-old white boy named Boady and a black boy  named Thomas who moves in with his family next door. Eventually they stumble across a body and start playing detectives.

The story is said to be a coming-of-age crime novel sort of in the same vein as William Kent Krueger’s “Ordinary Grace” and Larry Watson’s “Montana 1948,” so if you liked those, you might try this one as well. 

Lastly in new book releases, I’ll pick Canadian author Michael Crummey’s new novel “The Innocents,” which has already been out in Canada but is just now becoming available in the U.S.  I liked Crummey’s 2014 novel “Sweetland,” which was excellent, so I’m hoping for good things about this one as well.

The story is set in 1800s Newfoundland about a young brother and sister who find themselves orphaned and alone and struggling to survive amid their rugged coastal surroundings and their own “strange physical awakenings.” I think someone joked its plot sounded like the movie “The Blue Lagoon” set in old-time Newfoundland. Ha, not to worry, I’m sure Michael Crummey’s version is much better. Apparently the idea for the novel came from an article Crummey found in the archives about young siblings alone on the coast. I’ve heard the story is sort of grim so beware if that is not your cup of tea. 

As for movies in November, there’s a nice crop of notable flicks on the horizon. ’Tis the season after all for possible Oscar movie releases. Speaking of which, my husband and I really enjoyed the October movie “Judy” and think Renee Zellweger did a marvelous job as Judy Garland — she deserves a Best Actress nomination for sure and likely the award itself. See it if you get a chance. 

For this month, I notice two novels have been adapted to the big screen: Stephen King’s sequel to “The Shining” — “Doctor Sleep” with Ewan McGregor — and Jonathan Lethem’s award-winning novel “Motherless Brooklyn” with Edward Norton.

I read and liked “Motherless Brooklyn” back when the novel came out in 1999 — about a lonely detective with Tourette’s Syndrome who tries to solve the murder of his only friend — but it’s been a long time now in which I’ve forgotten some of it, and unfortunately the movie has only gotten so-so reviews. I will probably wait for it to come out on TV.

Instead Martin Scorsese’s new mob film “The Irishman” —about a hitman with possible ties to the slaying of union leader Jimmy Hoffa — is getting strong praise so I will probably see it, though I’m not usually a big mob movie watcher, despite being well familiar with “Goodfellas.”

I like historical kinds of flicks so the biopic movie of abolitionist Harriet Tubman called “Harriet” looks worth seeing, with Cynthia Erivo as Harriet. And my husband will likely have us go to “Ford v. Ferrari” — about when the automaker challenged the Italians at the 1966 race at Le Mans. Hmm … it stars Matt Damon and Christian Bale, so they should keep me well entertained. But I’m not sure I’ll go see Tom Hanks as Mister Rogers in the movie “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” just because I wasn’t big into the TV show as a kid. Were you? Something about Fred Rogers’s manner and his sweater threw me. I was more a “Captain Kangaroo” watcher — truth be told. 

I’ll also likely skip the battle of “Midway” movie since it looks pretty filled with CGI effects and story-fluff nonsense. I’ll stick with historical documentaries of the battle, along with the 1976 original “Midway” movie starring Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda among others.

Instead the Noah Baumbach Netflix film “Marriage Story,” starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver, is getting a lot of positive buzz so I hope to see that one. I’ve enjoyed several of Baumbach’s movies over the years, including “While We Were Young,” “Greenberg,” “Margot at the Wedding,” and “The Squid and the Whale.” What’s not to like? Baumbach does the family break-up story better than most and throws in some amusing humor to boot. We’ll see how his new one fares.

As for albums in November, there’s new ones by Michael Kiwanuka (delayed from last month), Hootie & the Blowfish, Miranda Lambert, Lady Antebellum, and my pick for the month Coldplay. Coldplay returns with its eighth studio album called “Everyday Life,” which is the band’s first since 2015. The new one will be a double album with the first half titled Sunrise and the other Sunset. Hmm, so far I’ve heard only two tracks released off it: “Orphans” and “Arabesque,” but it seems upbeat. I’ll need more time to assess once it come out on Nov. 22.

That’s all for now. What about you — which new releases this month are you most looking forward to?    

Well we got dumped on with snow — about 10 inches — last weekend.  I knew the beginning of fall was too good to last, but the good news is: the skies look clear now for the foreseeable future and the warmer temps should melt the early snow away. October looks to be a busy month — I’m having minor eye surgery on Monday, which should slow me up for about a week, and then mid-month our city’s annual book festival starts here and I have tickets to many author events. 

Already, I’ve seen Margaret Atwood speak about life in general and read from her new sequel novel “The Testaments,” which I have a copy of but haven’t started yet. In public, Atwood was impressive and sharp as ever. She might be turning 80 next month but still doesn’t miss a beat talking about politics, public policy, and totalitarian regimes. She said she started writing “The Handmaid’s Tale” when she was in West Berlin in the 1980s and that she was influenced by what was going on in the world, particularly in the States, toward women and reproductive rights. She had read and liked such dystopian fiction as Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” … and basically the rest is history. So I plan to get to “The Testaments,” but I’m saving it for just the right time. 

Meanwhile, I’ve been looking through what’s coming out this month and I’m still a bit all over the place on what to pick up. There’s new fiction by such well-known authors as: Zadie Smith, Jojo Moyes, Rene Denfeld, Jami Attenberg and Jeanette Winterson among others … and for nonfiction there’s books by: Bill Bryson, former national security advisor Susan Rice, Elton John, and even Carly Simon, who’s written a book about her friendship with Jackie O called “Touched by the Sun.” Hmm who would have guessed it. I’m looking at these and a few others that I’ve picked out below. 

First off, I hope to get to Elizabeth Strout’s new novel “Olive, Again,” which is a sequel to her 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Olive Kitteridge,” which was everywhere on the planet for many years. Who can forget the blunt and grouchy Olive, a retired math teacher, whose everyday life in the small, (fictional) coastal town of Crosby, Maine filled the pages of 13 interrelated stories? Not me, I read it and got into Olive’s world … though I didn’t follow it up by seeing the four-part TV miniseries starring Frances McDormand as Olive. Did you? The novel was a pre-blog read for me, and now the new book, like the first one, unfolds through 13 new linked stories with Olive, which focus on ordinary moments in ordinary lives. The stories form a cohesive novel — as Publishers Weekly says — “that captures, with humor, compassion, and embarrassing detail, aging, loss, loneliness, and love.” So yep, count me in. 

Next up, I’ve been waffling between Deborah Levy’s new novel “The Man Who Saw Everything” and Ben Lerner’s new one called “The Topeka School.” Both look a bit out there. The first half of Levy’s novel takes place in 1988 about a young male historian who gets hit by a car and recovers in East Berlin, where he falls in love, and the second half jumps to 2016, where the same protagonist has some of the same events happen to him again, upending everything expected up to that point. Hmm.

Whereas Lerner’s autobiographical novel follows the story of Adam, a teenage debate champion, as well as his parents, who are psychologists grappling with the best way to raise their son while struggling with their own issues. It sounds conventional, but it isn’t. After all it’s by author Ben Lerner whose novels often read like scattered episodes (more than tight plots) that go off on an array of tangents, which was similar to his last novel “10:04” that I listened to on audio. Still he is clever and humorous at times,  and is often considered “one of the best writers of his generation.” But is he? I will try out his new one to see. 

Next up is Irish author Edna O’Brien’s latest novel “Girl” about the harrowing story of one girl’s torment as she is abducted along with other Nigerian schoolgirls by the jihadist group Boko Haram. Yikes, I wonder if I can stomach this story about one’s victim’s brutal survival and her faith in redemption.

If so, it’ll be my first by O’Brien who many say is “one of the greatest Irish writers of the 20th century.” She’s written many books over her lifetime, some of which were banned in her native Ireland when they appeared in the early 1960s. She’s now 88 years old — so I think starting somewhere with her literary canon is better than none at all. So perhaps I will begin here with this book and move backwards in time. I’m curious too about her 2012 memoir “Country Girl,” which tells of her beginnings and life as a writer.

Last up in books is either Steph Cha’s crime novel “Your House Will Pay” about two Los Angeles families that are forced to face down their history of loss and rage while navigating the tumult of a city on the brink of more violence. The author says it’s a contemporary story with deep roots in the black/Korean tensions of Los Angeles in the early 1990s. It’s gotten some high marks from various reviews and on Goodreads so I’m looking at that — as well as H.W. Brands’s history of the American West called “Dreams of El Dorado.” This is a nonfiction book and I’m starting to get into the genre as we get closer to “nonfiction November” and the end of the year. This book seems to be a sweeping history of the settling of the American West by a highly esteemed historian … which captures “from Texas to California, from beaver pelts to buffalo robes, from the hoofbeats of horses to the steam blasts of the first transcontinental trains,” according to Hampton Sides. So if you like the West, “Dreams of El Dorado” might be just the right read to refresh yourself with its history. 

As for movies in October,  I don’t see much that I want to see.  My husband might want to see “Joker” but it doesn’t look that appealing to me. Is it just another look at a deranged Joker character that Heath Ledger played in “The Dark Knight” — this time with Joaquin Phoenix?  Washington Post critic Ann Hornaday says it’s “more than just another comic book origin story, becoming a gritty urban allegory about the pent-up rage of aggrieved young men that can easily ignite into a destructive, nihilistic movement.” Hmm. Whatever it is, I’m in no real rush to see it. The movie looks quite freaky. What do you think?

Other than that comedian Eddie Murphy is back to play the real-life comedian Rudy Ray Moore in “Dolemite Is My Name,” which might have some laughs in it. I don’t recall the comic Moore but apparently in the 1970s, he had an alter ego he played named Dolemite that was quite a phenomenon.

But perhaps the most divisive movie out this month is “Jojo Rabbit,” a comic spoof about a Hitler youth who finds out his mother (played by Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl in their home. It’s a bit rare for World War II satires about Hitler and the Nazis to come out so this made quite a commotion when it premiered last month at the Toronto Film Festival. Many loved it for making Nazis look like goofballs, but other critics, said Ann Hornaday, thought it crossed a line in its “sendup of anti-Semitic tropes at their most ludicrously deranged.”

So see it at your own risk depending on your sensibilities. 

As for album releases in October, there’s new ones by Wilco, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Grace Potter, Michael Kiwanuka, Trigger Hippy, and Allison Moorer that all seem worth checking out. It was hard to pick a winner but I’ll choose a new album called “Carrying On” by the Canadian folk/roots duo Kacy & Clayton. I hadn’t known about them before, but it’s their fifth album, and so far, I’m liking their song “The Forty-Ninth Parallel,” which you can check out here.  

That’s all for now. What about you — which new releases are you looking forward to this month? 

Greetings, it’s been a while. I was away a bit in August and now I’ve returned; see Stella in the woods at left. The tennis tournament in Toronto was fun and went fairly well — I made it to the quarterfinals in the main draw then the semis in the consoles — not bad for an old girl.

It’s hard now to believe it’s Labor Day weekend. Sadly summer has flown by quickly but it’s not over just yet. I suspect too we might have some Indian summer days ahead this fall. We deserve it, our summer here in general has been wetter and cooler than usual, which I know seems odd in this day and age, but at least we haven’t been socked in with smoke from wildfires. Still our tomato plants are confused and have stayed green this season. So come on September, it’s up to you to yield a bumper crop. 

September is my favorite month especially since: it’s my bday month, it’s usually pretty outside and because of all the new releases. I didn’t exactly have a great reading month in August due to preoccupied days, but I hope to remedy that this month. I’m still working my way through Donna Tartt’s lengthy novel “The Goldfinch,” in which I’m meandering through Theo’s days in Las Vegas. Ha, people warned me about this period in the novel — that it would never end — but I think I’m almost through it and I haven’t flipped out just yet. Meanwhile I’m mixing in other reads, notably Tea Obreht’s new novel “Inland,” which is shaping up to be quite a Western. More on that later. 

And now let’s look at what’s coming out in September. Undoubtedly there’s many big-named authors with novels due out, including: Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Ann Patchett, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Stephen King, Alice Hoffman, Emma Donoghue, Tracy Chevalier, and Jacqueline Woodson among others. Whoosh, it’s an all-star cast and I don’t intend to stray far from these for my picks.

Only one is from someone new — it’s Lara Prescott’s debut novel “The Secrets We Kept” — which looks to be quite the true life-inspired story — about two secretaries-turned spies whose CIA mission it is to smuggle “Doctor Zhivago” out of the USSR so that Boris Pasternak’s novel could be published around the world (which it was in 1957).

Hmm it sounds interesting, and combines Pasternak’s personal story with the tale of the two women who risked their lives to get his novel out of the country. And who can forget the movie “Doctor Zhivago”? It’s a wonderful classic too, so count me in for this tale behind the novel.

Next up, I’m excited about Margaret Atwood’s novel “The Testaments,” which as you know, is the long-awaited sequel to her 1985 classic “The Handmaid’s Tale.” I last read The HT in 2017 — back when I didn’t know Atwood was going to be writing a sequel — and I saw Season 1 of the TV series, so my mind is fresh about the grim story of Offred’s circumstances.

The sequel picks up Offred’s story 15 years later with the “explosive testaments” of three female narrators from Gilead. I know some people are apprehensive that Atwood made a sequel and think she should have left The HT alone, but it seems during these crazy political times the pros outweigh the cons and the time is apt for such a treatise. 

I need to jump on reading “The Testaments” when it comes out Sept. 10 as I’m hearing Atwood talk and read from the book on Sept. 29. The cool thing is the book has been under a strict worldwide embargo so there have been no advance copies, no real Goodreads ratings, no leaks as far as I know. It’s all been tight-lipped and secretive about what’s in it …. and yet the book has already made the Booker Prize longlist.  So go figure, some people must have read it.  

There’s also nonfiction writer Ta-Nehisi Coates’s first foray into fiction — “The Water Dancer” coming out, which is sure to get a lot of attention. Coates’s 2015 bestseller “Between the World and Me,” which I listened to the author read on audio, was definitely a strong, good cup of coffee, so I’m curious if this one will be similarly powerful.

It’s said to be a slavery narrative about a protagonist with a magical gift who gets involved with helping to liberate others on the Underground railroad. Apparently, like Colson Whitehead’s 2016 book, it takes an imaginative spin on the Underground’s history and would be interesting for me to read and compare together, since I need to get to both.

Then there’s Ann Patchett’s latest “The Dutch House” — about a 1920s mansion outside of Philadelphia and the lives of the broken family that occupies it. Set over five decades the story traces three generations of a family and explores the “bonds between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go.”

Hmm, I haven’t read Patchett since her 2011 novel “State of Wonder” which seems different than her recent fiction that deals more with family connections. I enjoyed “State of Wonder” set in the Amazon but maybe I need to try out her sprawling family novels like this one. What say you? Which is your favorite Patchett book?

Last in book picks this month is a tie between Salman Rushdie’s new novel “Quichotte” — a satire that is said to skewer Trump’s America good— and Jacqueline Woodson’s novel “Red at the Bone” — about an unexpected teenage pregnancy that “pulls together two families from different social classes, and exposes their private hopes, disappointments, and longings.” I have not read much from either of these prized authors but I hope to remedy that in the future.

I wonder though if Rushdie’s novel about a modern-day Don Quixote will be too over-the-top crazy in its quest and road trip across America or just right. Heaven knows, I’m all for lampooning the current era, I just don’t know if it’ll be too farcical and jumpy a storyline to see the trees through the forest so to speak. But I guess I’ll have to read it to find out. The Woodson book is more serious in nature — though I’m curious to check it out since I hear the author writes about young people so well. Both books look quite good.

As for movies in September, it’s about time for “The Goldfinch.” Will I finish the novel before its arrival on Sept. 13? Who knows, but I’m enjoying its story so far about a boy whose mother is taken from him and a painting that seems to hold his fate. The cast looks pretty alluring, with among others: Nicole Kidman starring as Mrs. Barbour, Ansel Elgort as the boy Theo Decker, and Jeffrey Wright as Hobie. Hopefully it’ll be the movie adaptation of the year, but we will have to wait and see about that.

Whatever it is, the movie’s appearance surely gives me incentive to finish the big book before I see it. I wouldn’t want the storyline given away by the movie … no, no, no, no.  

There’s also another mysterious space/sci-fi movie called “Ad Astra” that looks to be a bit spooky. Brad Pitt stars as an astronaut who goes into space in search of his lost father, whose experiment threatens the solar system. Uh-oh I hate when that happens.

Count me in as I usually see the space flicks. Whether it’s Clooney in space, or Matt Damon up there, or Ryan Gosling taking the first step, or Tom Hanks commanding the module — I will see it.  Now it’s Brad Pitt’s turn — it was bound to happen. I don’t think he’s been in an earlier space movie, not to my immediate knowledge. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Lastly in movies this month is a tie between a documentary about singer Linda Ronstadt called “The Sound of My Voice,” which looks quite good especially since Linda was huge in Southern Cal during my youth in the 1970s — and the biographical movie “Judy” about Judy Garland starring Renee Zellweger in the lead role.

Wow Renee has come back out of nowhere it seems and is putting herself on the line with this one. In addition to the movie, she’s set to release her first solo album covering songs by Judy Garland. That seems to take guts, does it not? Liza Minnelli though seems none too pleased by the movie, saying on Facebook that she did “not approve nor sanction it in any way.” Too bad. I’ll likely see it anyways.  

As for albums in September, there’s many to check out including those by The Lumineers, Liam Gallagher, Brittany Howard, Keane, the Zac Brown Band …. and even Chrissie Hynde has an album of jazz covers due out. It’s a bit hard to believe and much softer than her rock days. These all seem worth checking out, but I’ll pick the new country music group: The Highwomen’s self-titled debut album as my choice this month. Wow they are a star-studded lineup of singers and have a pretty cool version of Fleetwood Mac’s song “The Chain” as well as their own song “Redesigning Women,” which are fun to hear. See for yourself. 

That’s all for now. What about you — which releases are you most looking forward to this month?  

Wow it’s August now. The summer is flying by … but wait, hold on, don’t let it go by just yet. Check out my photo at left of a black bear we saw in the mountains last weekend. He was eating berries on a bush by the side of the road. Glorious.

This month, I have two short trips, and luckily one is to the beach in California to meet up with family, woohoo. It’ll be fun to figure out what reading to bring and what is worthy of the sand. The second trip will be to Toronto, to participate in the annual senior national tennis tournament. Yikes, we will see how it goes. I have been trying to practice, but now there’s not much time left. I’ll just have to do the best I can with what I have at this point.

Meanwhile, this month offers quite a few strong releases in fiction. I guess the publishing industry isn’t totally on vacation after all. There’s new books by such well-known authors as Ruth Ware, Edwidge Danticat, and Mary Doria Russell that look good.

In addition I have my eye on a few others, such as Amy Waldman’s new novel “A Door in the Earth” about an Afghan-American college senior who, inspired by a memoir, travels to a remote village in her birth country to join the work of a charitable foundation that is running a maternity clinic. There she thinks she’ll be able to make a difference but things turn out much more complicated than she ever  imagined. Uh-oh. 

“A Door in the Earth” is the long-awaited second novel by Amy Waldman, whose debut “The Submission” was one of the best novels of 2011. I remember it being my first e-book, which I read on one of the first Kindles available. Now it’s eight years later, and finally Waldman’s new novel is coming out, which is based on her years reporting out of Kabul for the New York Times. Publishers Weekly says the novel “paints a blistering portrayal of the misguided aspirations and convenient lies that have fed the war in Afghanistan” so count me in. If it’s Waldman, then I say, “Yes.” 

Similarly, I need to read Tea Obreht’s second novel out this month called “Inland.” Ever since her 2011 debut “The Tiger’s Wife,” Obreht has been lauded as a young phenom and indeed she was only 25 when her first award-winning novel came out. I thought it was amazing. Now her new one is here and it’s quite a departure from her debut set in the Balkans.

This one is a frontier tale set in the lawless, drought-ridden lands of the Arizona Territory in 1893. It features a homesteading woman whose husband and sons have gone missing — and an outlaw on the run — whose paths gradually converge. It seems to be a rollicking tale, one that includes ghosts, the Army’s camel cavaliers, and other fantastical elements, so count me in. 

Another author’s second novel I’ll pick is Graham Norton’s new one called “A Keeper” about a young woman who discovers layers of secrets surrounding her parentage when she returns to Ireland to settle her mother’s estate. I hope it’ll be right up my alley, especially since I enjoyed Graham Norton’s entertaining first novel “Holding” from 2017.

Who would’ve guessed Norton, an Irish television host, whose show I’ve never seen, could spin such fun, light tales. I’m hoping this new one holds up to his debut, though it remains to be seen whether Norton, Amy Waldman, or Tea Obreht can break the sophomore hex that derails some and have their new books live up to their original successes. I sure hope so.

One last author’s second novel I’ll pick this month is Rajia Hassib’s new book “A Pure Heart” about a “pair of Cairo-born sisters whose fates spin in radically different directions in the wake of the Egyptian revolution.”

I didn’t read Hassib’s 2015 debut novel “In the Language of Miracles,” but this new one, according to Booklist, is said to be quite moving and profound, and examines the “complicated legacies of identity, religion, and politics in Egypt after the Arab Spring emerges.” It’s a portrait of two Muslim women, and the decisions they make in work and love that determine their destinies. Since I’m curious about fiction having to do with the Arab Spring, count me in. 

For my last pick in novel releases, I’m torn between Christy Lefteri’s new one “The Beekeeper of Aleppo” and Cara Wall’s debut “The Dearly Beloved,” both of which look very good and have received strong marks on Goodreads.

The Beekeeper story is about a man and his wife, Syrian war refugees, who escape Aleppo after their home is destroyed and undertake a perilous journey to the U.K.; while “The Dearly Beloved” follows the lives of two men and their wives over the decades as the men come to co-pastor a NYC church starting in the 1960s.

Susie at the blog Novel Visits, who’s already read The Dearly Beloved, says she loved it, and from what I understand, it seems to effectively explore the role of faith, or lack of it, in dealing with the pressures of marriage, child-rearing, and work. The Aleppo novel, on the other hand, addresses issues of exile and dislocation that is going on quite tragically in various places around the world today. So take your pick.

As for movies in August, I look forward to two movie adaptations of novels I read in “The Art of Racing in the Rain” and “Where’d You Go Bernadette.” Both were pretty good reads (and coincidentally both were set in Seattle) but who knows if they will do as well on the Big Screen.

“The Art of Racing in the Rain” is about a race car driver who faces some tough challenges in his life and the bond and support he gets from his dog, Enzo, who narrates the story. By the book’s end, I was pretty much putty in its hands from the touching story. But the movie features Kevin Costner as the dog Enzo’s voice so I’m sort of skeptical it will work that well. Also you might recall in the book the dog is a terrier mix but in the movie Enzo is a golden retriever — a bit more of a looker. Undoubtedly the movie poster is pretty fetching. 

As for the Bernadette movie, it’s been a movie long in the making from the funny 2012 novel by Maria Semple. It was originally set to be released in May 2018 but was pushed back a number of times, making one wonder if there’s been a problem with it all along.

It’s likely not the cast’s fault with Cate Blanchett, Kristen Wigg and Billy Crudup, or the director’s with the inimitable Richard Linklater, but perhaps the script and scenes needed more finessing. Who knows, it can’t be easy at times adapting a satirical novel to the big screen. Regardless, I will likely see it.

Another movie getting attention this month is the drama “Luce” about a married white couple — played by Naomi Watts & Tim Roth — who is forced to reckon with the idealized image of their adopted son from Eritrea, after he is found to back political violence. Hmm. Apparently the kid at first appears to be an overall A-student but then his darker sides, from his days as a child soldier, emerge and are found out by a high school teacher, played by Octavia Spencer. 

It’s gotten some strong reviews so far but could be a tough cup of coffee so I might need a comic diversion afterward, such as the movie “Brittany Runs a Marathon” that looks to have some laughs in it. Starring Jillian Bell, it’s about a woman in NYC who begins to take control of her life little by little. Judging by the trailer, she’s a hoot, and though out of shape, begins training for the NYC marathon one block at a time. It might be perfect for a late summer sleeper. 

Last but not least, in albums for August, there’s new one by such big names as Taylor Swift, Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, and Trisha Yearwood among others. Granted I was a big Sheryl Crow fan in her early years, but her new album “Threads” is a collaborative album with various other artists. It sounds interesting but likely won’t be my favorite of hers.

Instead, I’ll pick a lesser-known Kentucky singer, Joan Shelley’s new album “Like the River Loves the Sea” as my choice this month. She has quite a voice as you can tell by her latest single “Coming Down for You.” Check it out. 

That’s all for now. What about you — which releases are you most looking forward to this month?