Five Things Friday 9/18/26

 We are back! I’ve got this weeks and next weeks Five Things all set. The trick is to pre-write and pre-schedule as much as possible. Then the show goes on even if you’re busy or feeling crummy.  Fall forward!

Book Notes September 17, 2026

 

Welcome to a new version of the Book Notes posts I used to write on my book blog.  It will have bookish humor tidbits I find, news about book adaptations, and some book reviews. 

 I’ve been reading so much, and I haven’t been updating GoodReads for quite awhile. I finally put in a few of the most recent ones I’ve read, and they came out all kittywampus. I did write up Yesteryear, it just won't show up.   Luckily a review is forthcoming.  In fact, it's the first review below.  

I’m doing the same with book reviews here, reviews, and am pre-writing them in Word so they make a little more sense (!) than when I just free form write them in Blogger.  I always have trouble writing reviews, but I like to recommend good books.  I don't want to write a tome longer than the book itself, I don't want to spoil anything.  I take my cue from years when we librarians would give "book talks" on new and upcoming books, revealing just enough of the plot to get the reader interested. 

Hope you like my Book Notes logo. I didn’t have one for my book blog at all, but I think they liven things up.  I borrowed a skellie from my spouse, picked a book off my shelves that I thought would be timeless, and tried a couple of sites with "free" cartoonizer features.    Then pasted it into Paint and added text.

 

This Will Trent meme makes it into Book Notes because the TV show is based on a series of books by Karin Slaughter.     https://www.karinslaughter.com/will-trent-series

 

I don't mind romantic elements, and have found myself reading romantasy in recent times,  but, to wait a whole book for a kiss, though....

Magic Treehouse Adaptation

 

The Magic Tree House Books by Mary Pope Obsborne are getting an animated series adaptation, the first ever.  This is only new news to me, but it sounds like fun!

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/magic-tree-house-animated-series-spuree-rideback-1236605745/ 

A Tale of Two of Two Cities 2026

I'm not sure if you can watch this with your Amazon sub or if they let you subscribe to MGM+ via their service to watch.  I thought it was notable there's a new adaptation.  I'm a slug, and haven't read the book, or seen any previous adaptation, so would be a perfect unbiased audience for this.

Here's a trailer for the adaptation of Sunrise on The Reaping by Suzanne Collins.  The book was harrowing!

 

 Here are my reviews for this week.  I'm trying to catch up by writing up the most recently read books.  Enjoy!

 

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Natalie Heather Mills is an influencer, a “tradwife” who has a popular YouTube channel showing how she takes care of her home and six children as if she were living in pioneer days.  She’s not just any stay at home mom, she’s a super mom doing everything using the most traditional, technology free methods.   Once the cameras are off, out come the nannies and the producer to talk about shots, and all of the kitchen cabinets house modern technology.  She’s got the best of both worlds.   Her fans have no idea.  She’s making huge money from her quaint home made life.   Once the façade starts tumbling, there’s no stopping the fall. Until Natalie wakes up one morning and her house is the same but there are no conveniences. Her husband and children are different. What happened to her real life?

While a compelling read, Natalie and all of the characters are terribly unlikeable.  Natalie is always the smartest person in any room.  She seems to literally despise every person she knows, including her children.   Quick to read, but not easy.

 

 

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

Narrated by Mia, the 20 year old twin of John, this is the story of a family who thinks they operate as one, but they’ve been divided for a long time.

Their father and younger brother Eugene go for a hike every day, and today Eugene has come home at a dead run without his father.  Because he has autism and mosaic Angleman syndrome, Eugene can’t talk or communicate in any way, and he has limited motor abilities.  When Mia sees him running in such perfect form, she is overwhelmed by awe at his accomplishment.  When she tries to hug him as he goes by, he shoves her hard to the ground and keeps going. Bizarrely to me, Mia is still in a happy trance because of his feat.  She doesn’t get up, she doesn’t go to see if anything is wrong.  She daydreams until she dozes. For several hours (?)   When her brother and mom come home, she just talks about Eugene, and never mentions her dad or thinks about her dad.  She assumes he came home and left to go somewhere.

Little by little reports come in that Eugene caused a several car pile up while running home.  It finally occurs to everyone to go looking for Adam.   His backpack is found.  No sign of him anywhere.

This is a powerful story about family, and how we don’t always communicate when we can, and we sometimes assume someone different from us can’t communicate, even though they may desperately wish to.   Read this one for Book Group.

 

 

 

 James S A Corey    The Faith of Beasts  Book Two the Captives War

In this second novel, repercussions continue over researcher Dafyd’s betrayal of his fellow humans who were plotting a rebellion.  They’re all dead, and Daffyd is now the speaker between the Carryx and the human “moiety”.   Dafyd tries to maintain a compliance to all requests from the Carryx to ensure humans are useful and not completely wiped out.   He tries to pass on from his human research team lists of everything they need to accomplish the tasks given them.

There are groups split off from within the moiety this time. One set goes to explore a planet recently abandoned by the “deathless enemy”, another explores a space vessel that is just sitting in space, waiting.  It is usual for the enemy to completely destroy their ships rather than let them be examined by the Carryx and their minion races.

The Faith of Beasts does what I want all science fiction to do-create aliens who cannot be comprehended in any way that makes sense to a human mind.   It’s a three book series, so somehow in book three, the authors will need to show how our desperate humans can gain enough of an understanding of their jailers so that they can escape or destroy the Carryx.

 

 

DOA On TV September 14, 2026

 

Better late, than never!   This week I cover Star Trek Strange New Worlds, and episodes 4 and 5 of Lanterns.  After watching Lanterns last night, I thought, this is just relentlessly depressing.   I seem to have recovered this morning enough to write up the episodes.

 

Star Trek Strange New Worlds  Orders of Magnitude 

 

In an intense episode, Federation hero Simon Reeger happens upon the Enterprise as he’s traveling through space tracking a cloaked ship that killed millions on a planet called Vaarden.  Pike and Una are investigating a distress call on a seemingly empty planet, and Spock is in charge.

By chance, James Kirk has popped by the Enterprise as well, hoping to talk to La’an. 

When Reeger commandeers the Enterprise to pursue the cloaked ship, Spock points out that Kirk is the senior officer on board, so Kirk becomes Reeger’s Number One.

Staff are thrilled to have Reeger aboard, there’s some real hero worship.  Not for Kirk, though, whose father’s Star Fleet career took a turn for the worse after the battle Reeger heroically won.

Tracking the ship to an outpost planet with a small population, they lose the enemy craft’s signal.  Reeger won’t lose that ship when he’s so close.  He gives orders to have the planet fired upon with a battery of weaponry that assures no life is left on the planet and the ship, in hiding, is destroyed.

Kirk can’t comprehend the loss of innocent lives and he rebels, attempting to be a one man team who stops the carnage.  It is interesting that while everyone else is also uncomfortable with the decision to fire, they seem ready to do so, as they are under orders, and from their hero.

 

Lanterns Episodes 4 and 5

 

 

Ep 4

Hal and John close in on the Manhunter.  They’re exposed to local rancher Macon much more fully than necessary, but the man insists he will protect his mentor at all costs.   John gets closer than ever with Zoe, who pursues him even though her husband clearly knows and must be jealous.  The aliens led by Antaan who have given John an ultimatum to reveal the Manhunter are closing in.   

When Zoe’s car is blown up as she leaves John’s motel, somehow this solidifies for both Hal and John that Zoe is the Manhunter.

 

Ep5

Hal decides to keep John out of the whole endgame by jumping out of their car and leaving John trapped in it crashed against a phone pole.

We see the full reveal of Zoe’s takeover of the small town, how she got even the sheriff to owe her life to the Manhunter.  It’s apparently a way the Manhunter operates, surround yourself with people you’ve saved and who owe you everything, and who will die for you.

Hal gets the action in the episode, fighting off death rays downtown and saving lives, then sending Antaan and crew after Macon who Hal says is the Manhunter.   Hal’s plan is to grab her, fly her to OA in space and hand her over to the Guardians.   Be the hero.

Zoe’s plan is to have Hal use up the charge of his ring, then she kills him.  Instead, John, beyond anger and sick of Hal, fights Hal, takes the ring and the Lantern, and tosses them on the table in front of the Guardian, saying he doesn’t want it.

Three episodes left!   Somehow we get from here to that last scene of episode one where the sheriff shows John Hal Jordan in the stands at the local football, dead, frozen, no ring. John also doesn’t have the ring.  I thought then, someone has killed Hal and taken the ring.  After episode 5, we have to ask who has had the ring all this time? What a hoot if it's John's mom.