Thursday, July 19, 2012

Emmy Nominations!

This morning nominations for the Emmy (television) Awards were announced. If’ you’re new to my blog you may not know that I’m sucker for award ceremonies. Every year I watch the Emmys, the Oscars and the Tonys. And even though I don’t get cable, I am aware of the popular shows on cable. And if one looks interesting I try to get DVDs out of the library to watch those shows.

You can see a complete listing of the nominations here:

http://www.emmys.tv/awards/64th-primetime-emmy-awards

I was excited by a couple of things. Mayim Bialik was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy for Big Bang Theory. Amy Farrah Fowler has some of the best lines on the show and Mayim executes them perfectly. I think she can even outshine Jim Parsons (Sheldon Copper) although the two work really well together. She’s my pick in that category.

I loved that Dot-Marie Jones got nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Coach Shannon Beiste on Glee. She’s probably the underdog in that category but was glad she was noticed.

And I was thrilled to see not one but two Masterpiece (PBS) shows singled out: Downtown Abbey and Sherlock. I am fans of both and was glad to see the shows and the actors nominated (especially Benedict Cumberbatch for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie).

I think there has been shift in television over the last few years. Categories like Outstanding Drama Series are dominated by cable shows (six out of seven). HBO, Showtime and AMC are producing better dramas than ABC, CBS and NBC. The exception, of course, is PBS which, in my opinion, has been producing great dramas for years but they are just now getting noticed.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Book List - July 2012

23. Cottage at Glass Beach by Heather Barbieri - This is a novel about a wife and mother of two girls who escape to an island off the coast of Maine after her polititian husband is caught cheating. She called the island home until she was five when her mother disappeared. The desciption of the island and it's inhabitents is great and there are mystical elements to the story but the plot moves pretty slow and the ending is abrupt. Still an enjoyable read.


24 Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Lights (and Dark Chocolate) by Amy Thomas. In 2008 the author of this book got the opportunity of a lifetime, to temporary relocate to Paris for a year. Thomas is a self-proclaimed sweets fanatic and the book revolves almost exclusively around eating everything from bon-bons and cupcakes to macaroons and tarts in Paris (and New York City). Even for a big dessert person like myself I found this book a little to sweet for my taste. Thomas' life (at least during her time in Paris) totally revolves around desserts and based on the author's photo, she somehow doesn't weigh 400 pounds!


25. Witness by Nora Roberts. Yes, another Nora Roberts. This one is a stand-alone book about a 17 year old girl who witnesses a mob murder and has to go into witness protection. Things don't go as planned and most of the book occurs 12 years later. While the story was rather good, the ending was a little too quick and clean for my tastes, like Nora got tired of the story and just wanted to end it.

26. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. A writer friend and work "bestie" gave me this book on writing. Has some good insight.