Happy weekend, my friends!

I haven’t gotten too far in books this past week; still dribbling through Kenobi and Smuggler’s Run. I’m not sure why–I think I’ve just been busy getting ready for Christmas. But it’s okay. I’ll be done with them by the time The Fallen Star by Claudia Gray comes out on January 4th. I’m super excited for this book, which is the adult novel in the next wave of High Republic books. And it kicks off almost an entire year of Star Wars publications I’ve already pre-ordered. I think I’ll do a separate post on those books sometime next week, so stay tuned.

Hawkeye Episode 6 was quite good. We got Yelena Romanov’s appearance, which was fun, but I thought the character kind of laid it on a little thick, if you know what I mean. The banter went on far too long, in my opinion. It’s one of the criticisms I have with the show, which is that I feel the writing could be a little tighter. It tends to meander on unnecessarily sometimes. Oh well. And I heard that Kingpin is probably the big bad in the story, which turned out to be true, but as a Marvel newbie, I have no idea who that is, lol. That’s okay, too. I’ll figure it out. And–surprise!–Kate’s Mom is involved somehow with the big guy. There’s only one show left, and I’m wondering how all of this is going to be played out and wrapped up.

I finished my viewing of Disney+’s “Essential Clone Wars,” which goes up to the last episode of season five with Ahsoka leaving the Jedi Order (I’m guessing they consider all of seasons 6 and 7, which are much shorter, as essential viewing, and I agree with that assessment). There’s about twenty or so episodes that were plucked out of seasons 1-5, and they were pretty awesome indeed, especially the whole deal with Maul and Savage Opress, Death Watch and Mandalore, Satine’s death, and the Dark Saber. Ahsoka being accused of bombing the Jedi Temple and subsequently leaving the Order was great, too. That moment she walked away from the Council with Anakin running after her and their parting words had me in tears, I’m not kidding. I think I’ll watch seasons 6 and 7, which will probably get me up to the premier of The Book of Boba Fett on the 29th.

I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge the death of Anne Rice, the author of The Vampire Chronicles, the Mayfair Witches, and many other books that I devoured back in the day (90’s to early 2000’s). Her books were passionate, fun, mesmerizing and thoughtful all at the same time. Sometimes they were a little outrageous, lol. But she wrote her passions and didn’t apologize for it, and inspired me to do the same at the time (I have several desk-drawer novels from this time, lol). I eventually donated my piles of Anne Rice books to libraries and bookstores, but I do still have the book that started it all: Interview With A Vampire. The story of the vampires Louis and Lestat will always be one of my favorites. She was 80 years old and died of complications from a stroke. Rest in peace, Anne. I hope all of your spiritual questions will now be answered.

Last week I mentioned that I was in the process of getting a Jedi Order tattoo, and now I actually have an appointment date: Wednesday Dec. 22nd. I can’t wait! I’ll share a pic of it in my next update post.

Finally, Spiderman: No Way Home premieres this weekend, and I’m actually going to see it in the theater, probably Sunday. I can’t remember the last movie I saw in a theater, and I finally have some time (and a movie gift card from last Christmas I haven’t used yet, lol). I can’t wait to see Peter and Dr. Strange, and all those villains! It’s gonna be a blast.

That’s it this week. What’s been entertaining you? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!