My Entertainment Weekend Update

Hello friends, and happy weekend!

I finished one book this week: Moving Target: A Princess Leia Novel, by Jason Fry and Cecil Castellucci. I enjoy these little middle-grade books; they’re quick reads, not particularly complex, but fun and give a bit of insight into familiar characters. This one had Leia on a mission between Empire and Return of the Jedi, while Han was still in carbonite, and the Alliance fleet was getting ready for its attack on Endor. The story is framed by an older Leia telling her droid PZ a story for her memoirs, just before the events of The Force Awakens, one that illustrates her ideas and commitment to duty. One little tidbit is that this story tells how they got the Imperial shuttle Tyderium for their strike team on Endor.

I’m still making my way through my reread of Master & Apprentice by Claudia Gray. But because it’s a reread, there’s no hurry, and I also would like to start the new book for our book club called Abigale Hall by Lauren A. Forry. It’s a gothic read about a strange estate in England with secrets and mysteries. We wanted to choose something spooky for the Halloween season, but we’re a little behind, lol. But it’s still appropriate for the season, I think. I’m going to start that this coming week.

The Book Review: Abigale Hall by Lauren A. Forry- Feature and Revie...

So I watched The Book of Boba Fett trailer this past week, and am cautiously optimistic for the show. Fett was never one of my favorite characters and I never really understood the fascination, but his appearance in The Mandalorian made him much more interesting to me. So I’m curious to see where this character is going. I think I agree with some predictions that Boba will unite the criminal underworld and use it to come to the aid against…somebody, lol. Maybe the Mandalorians, maybe Thrawn. I like either idea.

But before that, there’s the Hawkeye series this month, which I’m really looking forward to. I also think that Shang Chi and the Ten Rings will be on Disney+ this month, but I’m guessing it will be on Premier Access at first. We’ll see. And while The Eternals just came out in theaters, I’ll probably wait until it also shows up on D+. I’ll admit, I’m not in a hurry for any new Marvel heroes–I just discovered The Avengers a few months ago, lol. I’m more interested in their movies coming out next year, like Dr. Strange, Thor, Wakanda, and Ant-Man. Alas, they’ve been pushed further into the year, which is frustrating, but maybe the first half of the year will be for Star Wars, like Andor and Obi-Wan. At any rate, a very exciting year for entertainment!

I’ve also watched Assembled: The Making of What If, which was pretty cool. It’s another series that surprised me in how much I loved it. So it was fun seeing how it was all put together. I didn’t realize What If? was an actual series in the comics way back when (I’m quite ignorant when it comes to Marvel, to be honest, lol). I like how the creators took the concept of the What If comics but applied it to the MCU. I’m happy there’s going to be a Season Two, and am looking forward to seeing how they’ll continue it.

So, in writing news, I’ve finally picked up the Star Wars fan fiction I started several months ago and decided to work on it diligently and finish it. It’s turned from a tentative short story into a novel-length idea, and I’ve been taking notes, doing character sketches, brainstorming ideas, and working on an outline (and doing a ton of research on Wookieepedia). I’m pretty excited about it, and though it will take a while, I will share it here when it’s done. As a consequence, I probably won’t be tearing through as many books as I have been lately, or watching as many movies. I will definitely be watching the must-see Marvel and Star Wars series and movies that will be coming out, but not much extra stuff. I’ll keep you up to date on it all.

That’s about it this week. Let me know what’s been entertaining you and we’ll talk about it!

My Entertainment Weekend Update

Happy Weekend my friends!

Last week, I wrote of my struggles to get through Ronin: A Star Wars Visions novel. I’m sad to report I haven’t made much progress on that book, but I still have hope I will finish it…someday.

In the meantime, I picked up Master & Apprentice, by Claudia Gray. It’s a re-read, but it’s one of my favorite SW canon books by one of my favorite SW authors. With the recent news that Hayden Christiansen will be in the Ahsoka series (OMG, yay!), it got me thinking about the upcoming Obi-Wan series, which naturally got me thinking about Obi-Wan himself, which led me to picking up this book. It’s a book about Padawan Obi-Wan and his relationship with Qui Gon Jinn, and an important mission, of course. I wrote about my thoughts on this book on my other blog The Star Wars Reader (which I’ve been shamefully neglecting lately), and you can read it here if you’d like.

This contains: Master & Apprentice (Star Wars) — This one’s definitely worth a reread.

On my Kindle, I’m still reading the middle-grade book Moving Target by Jason Fry and Cecil Castellucci, a story about Leia between Empire and Return of the Jedi. I’m enjoying it and will probably finish it this coming week and share more of my thoughts on it then.

In movies, continuing with the train of thought above with Obi-Wan, in reading Master & Apprentice I thought about The Phantom Menace, and so decided to watch it. Which naturally led to Attack of the Clones and then of course Revenge of the Sith. So there was an unplanned prequel marathon this week, and I keep thinking, How could I have not loved these back in the day? Lol. I was young and ignorant, prejudiced against anything new in Star Wars. I’m so glad I’ve seen the error of my ways. 🙂 I’ve learned, in my dotage, that I’m so happy with any kind of Star Wars that is offered, that they are gifts, and I am grateful, lol.

I will do what I must, and rewatch the prequels.

Anyway, in Marvel: I watched the 2015 version of Fantastic Four. I thought I’d check out this updated version, but I had a feeling I wouldn’t like it as much. And I was right. I guess this is supposed to be a more “woke” version, and Michael B. Jordan does add diversity to the group, while Sue Storm isn’t Reed’s romantic interest here, or as sexualized as Jessica Alba’s Sue was (yeah, I admit that was kind of cringy). But here’s the thing: the fun factor is absolute zero. There’s no chemistry whatsoever between the characters. And Dr. Doom’s madness stems more from a hatred of the world rather than a personal hatred of the F4, which makes him a bit…dull. The whole thing was dull, in fact, lol. I don’t see why it even had to be remade. I’m assuming it was kind of a flop, because there’s been no more movies with this crew, and I’m glad. I want a reunion with the original cast–now that would be fun!

This contains an image of: {{ pinTitle }} — Not very fantastic.

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

My Entertainment Weekend Update

Hello friends, and happy weekend!

In books this week, I finished three different novels; one was a big tome, and the other two were short YA or middle grade books. The big book was The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, by V.A. Schwabb, and it was fantastic. This book held me in thrall, and I highly recommend it if you like Faustian bargain-type stories.

I also finished The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton. My daughter and her class finished it, and I was reading along with her. I’d read it when I was a kid and wanted to discuss it with her. It’s a pretty good book, considering it was written when the author was sixteen years old! Now we just have to watch the movie, lol.

The last one I finished was The Weapon of a Jedi, a middle-grade book by Jason Fry. It takes place between A New Hope and Empire, with Luke on a mission for the Alliance. But he ends up on a planet with an old Jedi Temple, and it’s here he learns more about how to use the Force and become more proficient with his lightsaber. Apparently it’s addressing some questions fans had about how Luke learned these things between the two films. It did a pretty good job, I think, but it was never a pressing question for me.

Soon we’ll choose our new book club book, but until then I needed something on my Kindle to read, so I chose Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure, by Jason Fry and Cecil Castellucci. This is also a middle-grade book, and also a “Journey to the Force Awakens” book like Weapon of a Jedi. This one takes place between Empire and Return of the Jedi, while Han is still in carbonite. I’m really enjoying the Leia-centered canon books, like this one, Leia: Princess of Alderaan, and Bloodline. I like these short little middle grade books, too, because they’re fun, quick Star Wars reads when I need one, but don’t want to get into a big adult one yet.

That’s because I’m still trying to get through Ronin: A Star Wars Visions novel. I was really looking forward to this novel, as something new and different in Star Wars. And it is, but it’s not the story that’s making it slow-going for me reading this book. The story intrigues me; it’s the style it’s written in that bothers me. Most Star Wars books are pretty easy reads, and that’s great; that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy more challenging styles (I’m thinking of James Luceno, for example). But there’s something about this one that makes it hard to read. Most of the time, I have no idea what the hell’s going on, lol. I have to read and re-read sentences over and over to figure out what’s happening. And that’s just too distracting.

I’m sure Emma Mieko Candon is a fine writer, and perhaps Visions is something so completely different that she doesn’t feel beholden to the usual Star Wars writing style. And that’s fine, too. But it’s hard work reading this book, lol. And I’m a capable reader: I’ve read and loved Jane Austen, Tolstoy, Henry James, and any other number of classic authors whose style is, to say the least, challenging. But I don’t want it in my Star Wars books, lol. I’m going to keep at it, though, because I like the story I saw in The Duel and I want to know more. I’ll let you know how it’s going next week.

Anyway, in Marvel movie news, I watched Spiderman: Homecoming and loved it. The Spiderman movies are not on Disney+ as you may know, because of licensing stuff, so I have to watch it on Youtube to catch up. I’d watched the Tobey Maguire Spiderman movies back in the day, and really liked him in the role, but I have to say that Tom Holland really captures the young naivete of Peter Parker perfectly. At first I thought I watched the wrong movie first, that No Way Home must have been the first one (even though I checked) because there’s no origin story here. He already has his Spidey powers. Unless I missed something? But it kind of makes sense, because we already know how he got the powers from the other movies. We don’t need to see it again. Anyway, I loved seeing Tony Stark taking him under his wing. Next week I’ll watch No Way Home, and then I should be ready for Far From Home (that’s not confusing, right?).

And because I can’t seem to get enough superhero movies lately, I watched The Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: the Silver Surfer. I think I had seen the first one way back when, but not the second. They’re super fun with simple plots, and not much else, lol. I wish there were a few more with the original cast. There’s an updated one from 2015 with a new cast, and maybe I’ll check that out next week, too, but I’m partial to the originals. Oh, and it was a gas seeing a younger Chris Evans playing the wild ladies man Johnny Storm, the complete opposite of good-boy Steve Rogers. Flame on!

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

My Entertainment Weekend Update

Happy weekend, my friends!

In books this week, I’m about halfway through The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, which I’m really enjoying. I’m also only about halfway through The Outsiders, the book my daughter is reading in school. It’s a short book and I would have finished it in a couple of days, but I’m trying to go at my daughter’s class’ pace, which is EXTREMELY slow, lol (it doesn’t help that her teacher has been out sick). So that’s on hold until they catch up.

So I needed another Kindle book to keep me busy until then, so I downloaded The Weapon of a Jedi, by Jason Fry. It’s a middle-grade Luke-centric story that takes place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. I’ve just started it, so I can’t really say much about it right now, except that I’m happy to be reading a Luke story. More on this book next week.

Speaking of Luke-centric stories, I just learned that there are several new Star Wars canon books coming out next year, and one of them is called Shadow of the Sith, by Adam Christopher. This one has Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian post-Return of the Jedi and before The Force Awakens. Finally, a Luke story post ROTJ! It comes out June 28th of next year (my birthday! Sounds like a great birthday present to myself, lol). I’m going to have a whole post on these new books, which also includes an Obi-Wan and Anakin novel called Brotherhood, a YA novel about Obi-Wan (so much Obi-Wan next year, my heart can’t take it!) called Padawan, and a book of short stories about the Jedi and the Sith called, well, Stories of Jedi and Sith, by various authors. Very exciting for this Star Wars bibliophile, and along with the new High Republic books coming out next year, I’ll be very busy indeed!

So, in Marvel: the latest What If? episode (What if…the Watcher Broke his Oath) was the season finale, and it was…good. I enjoyed it, as it brought together this rather ragtag team of heroes from across the multiverse to fight Ultron, including Party Thor, T’Challa Starlord, Captain Carter, Gomorra, Killmonger, Black Widow and Dark Dr. Strange. It had a lot of cool battles, and the solution was unique and unexpected, but…I have questions, lol.

What If...? Every MCU Easter Egg In Episode 9 | Screen Rant — Guardians of the Multiverse, assemble!

First off, I wanted to know more about this Gamorra. We hadn’t seen her at all in the series, and suddenly she’s there (taken from a universe where she was working with Tony Stark, of all people). What’s her story? Also, I just kind of assumed that if the Watcher broke his oath (and who, exactly, did he make the oath to?) that there would be consequences. A price to pay, so to speak. But nothing happened. He broke his oath and interfered, Ultron was defeated, and…that’s it. Multiverse saved. Doesn’t seem to make cosmic sense. Anyway, my last question is: how does the Watcher fit in with the multiverse unleashed in the Loki series? Does Kang (or He Who Remains, or whatever his name is) know the Watcher? Is he the one The Watcher gave the oath to? Maybe these are questions that will be answered in a Season Two, which I really hope happens.

Oh hey, if you want to ball your eyes out, check out the movie War Horse. It’s a great film about a horse and his boy, but has the kind of scenes (like a horse getting caught in barbed wire) that make me wonder why the hell I put myself through this, lol. Seriously, it’s a wonderful Spielberg film that ranks up there with my personal horse movie favorites–Hildalgo and Seabiscuit. Heavenly Hiddles is in it but only for about 20 minutes in a 2.5 hour movie. No matter; still well worth it.

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

My Entertainment Weekend Update

Happy weekend my friends!

In books this week, I’ve finished Loki: Where Mischief Lies on my Kindle. I’ve since ordered the sequel called Loki: Where Mischief Ends, and since it’s only available in paperback, I ordered the first book in paperback, too, for a matching set, lol. Can’t wait to start the second book.

I’m about two-thirds done with The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. I love this book; it’s lovely and strange and keeps you wondering “What is the truth?” I’ll probably finish it by Monday, when we have our first book club meeting about it.

Well, unfortunately I’ve set Revan aside for now. I’m just not into it right now. It’s the first time in over a year and a half I’m not reading a Star Wars book. I’d been looking forward to Queen’s Hope, by E.K. Johnston, the third in a Padme Amidala trilogy. It was originally set to come out this November, but it’s been pushed up to April 2022. 😦 So now I’m not sure what’s next for Star Wars reading. Stay tuned.

Why Tajin From Star Wars: Visions Sounds So Familiar — The Elder was one my favorite shorts from Visions. I love this Jedi Master (whose name I can’t remember, lol). He reminds me of Qui Gon Jinn, who is one of my favorite Jedi.

So I’ve just finished watching Visions, and it was…interesting. As I’ve said before, I’m not an anime fan, so it was mostly out of curiosity that I watched. And as I suspected, it was hit or miss with me. There were a few that were quite good and that I enjoyed: The Duel, The Ninth Jedi, and The Elder were my particular favorites. Only one was painful to watch, and that was Tatooine Rhapsody. Unbearable, lol. The rest were fine, but didn’t wow me overmuch. I know there’s a novel called Ronin that will continue the story began in The Duel, and it may end up on my Star Wars reading list. We’ll see. I’m probably going to do a brief post of my thoughts on each short sometime soon.

So, Marvel: I absolutely loved the latest What If? episode, about party boy Thor. It was light and funny, and Frost Giant Loki is probably the best thing ever, lol. But it really punctuates how relationships have a huge impact on who we become. Without Loki as a mischievous brother competing with him for their father’s attention, it was Thor who became the mischievous, irresponsible one. And his relationship with Frost Giant Loki, his “brother from another mother” is swell. And Loki actually seems happy for once (thank you, Marvel!). I got a hoot out of Captain Marvel’s “Hey Whitesnake!” which you probably won’t get unless you’re familiar with 80’s hair bands. It was just a fun romp, the total opposite of the tragic Dr. Strange episode (which I also loved). This show can really do anything, and it’s gold, lol. Oh, and I have no idea what those robots at the end were. Even the Watcher was surprised.

How Did Thor Grow Up Without Loki on Marvel's What If..? Episode 7 — This made my heart happy.

So my X-Men marathon isn’t quite complete, but I’ve watched all the major X-Men-centric movies, up through Dark Phoenix. I haven’t watched The Wolverine, Logan, or the Deadpool movies yet. Since they’re not on Disney+ I have to pay for them individually on Youtube, which is fine, but I’ll space those out more. Really enjoying these movies, no matter how corny some may be. I’ll watch anything with Fassbender in it, lol.

Finally, I just want to do a shout-out to our lovely Ewan McGregor for winning the Emmy for Halston. The series isn’t for everyone, but I loved it, and there’s no denying he fully deserved the award for his amazing performance.

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

The Next Wave of High Republic Books

I was thrilled to see recently some revealed covers for the next wave of High Republic books that will be coming out starting in January 2022, and thought I’d share them here. To recap, here are the first two waves of Phase One (Called the Light of the Jedi):

Phase One, Wave One:

Light of the Jedi (Adult), by Charles Soule
Into the Dark (YA), by Claudia Gray
A Test of Courage (Middle Grade), by Justina Ireland

Phase One, Wave Two:

The Rising Storm (Adult), by Cavan Scott
Out of the Shadows (YA), by Justina Ireland
Race to Crashpoint Tower (Middle Grade), by Daniel Jose Older

I’ve read all of the Adult and YA books, but only one of the Middle Grade books, A Test of Courage, and only because I accidentally ordered it on Kindle, lol. It was actually pretty good! Here’s the next upcoming wave:

Phase One, Wave Three

This is the Adult novel. Looks like Stellan Gios, Orla Jareni, Bell Zettifar, Burryaga and Indeera Stokes.

May be an image of 2 people and text that says 'STAR WARS THE HIGH REPUBLIC MIDNIGHT HORIZON NEW YORK TIMES BEST SE SELL ING AL THOR DANIEL JOSÉ OLDER' — Young Adult novel. I believe that’s Padawan Reath Silas and his master, Cohmac Vitus.

May be a cartoon of text that says 'STAR WARS THE HIGH REPUBLIC MISSION TO DISASTER NE NEW YORK TIMESBEST SE ING AU THOR JUSTINA IRELAND' — Middle Grade novel. Vernestra Rwoh and her Padawan Imri.

There’s a ton of High Republic comics out there, too, but I don’t read those. I try to keep up with the events in them, but I can’t always do that. One I’d love to read, however, is this upcoming comic with Marchion Ro in it. He’s a fascinating character, and I’d love to know more about him.

May be an anime-style image of text that says 'MARVEL 1 STARWARS THE HIGH REPUBLIC EYE OF THE STORM RATED $3.99US STIVG RYAN' — That’s Loden Greatstorm’s lightsaber, by the way. Thief!

The three Phases of the High Republic are:

Phase One: Light of the Jedi
Phase Two: Quest of the Jedi
Phase Three: Trial of the Jedi

Each Phase has three waves, I’m assuming, so that means a lot more High Republic books, and a lot more great stories! What I really love about the High Republic is that it focuses on the Jedi, for the most part, which is my favorite part of Star Wars. Anything Jedi, and I’m on board, lol.

What do you think of these covers? Do you like the High Republic books? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

Weekend Update: Star Wars, Marvel and Vampires

Happy weekend Star Wars friends!

So I finally caught up with all of my reading and finished four, count ’em, four books this week!

Out of the Shadows, by Justina Ireland. I finally finished this YA High Republic Star Wars book, mainly featuring young Jedi Knight Vernestra Rwoh and a young hauler named Sylvestri Yarrow. I’m really enjoying the High Republic stories, and this one’s not bad, but I also felt it was kind of all over the place. There seemed to be a lot going on, and yet nothing really seemed to happen, if that makes sense. There was a lot of characterization, which I like, but the plot was a bit dull, concerning a possible Nihil weapon being built in an out of the way sector of space. But it’s about Jedi, which is what I love about the High Republic, so I’ll keep reading!
Freefall, by Alex Segura. This is the other YA Star Wars novel I’ve been working through, this one about a young Poe Dameron and his time with the Spice Runners of Kijimi. This one was fine, as well, a solid story about 16-year-old Poe wanting to get away from the boredom of Yavin 4 and kind of accidentally getting involved in the Spice Runner organization. The only reason he really stays is because of Zorii Bliss, but she is clearly more invested in the group than he is. It’s a decent coming of age story for Poe, when he finally decides what path he wants to pursue in his life.
Truth and Other Lies, by Lyra Wolf. This is the latest Loki novel I’ve read, and it concerns mythical Loki and his relationships with the other gods of Asgard. This one is borderline paranormal romance, and it seems Loki’s slept with quite a few of them, including Sif, Thor’s wife, and Odin himself. But it’s when he meets the human woman Sygin that he falls head over heels. It’s also a sign that Ragnorok is coming, with Loki at its center, as The Destroyer of Worlds. Quite entertaining, actually. It’s the first of a trilogy, and I’ll be starting the second book, The Order of Chaos, soon. Here Loki is ginger-haired and green-eyed, incredibly vain but witty and passionate.
I Was Anastasia, by Ariel Lawhon. This is a novel my book club is reading, and it’s split between the events leading up to the murder of the Romanov family in 1918, and the story of Anna Anderson, the woman who claimed to be Anastasia. Since Anderson was proven a fraud in 2007 through DNA results, the book was less about “is she or isn’t she?” and more about “how in the world did this woman pretend to be Anastasia for 60 years? And why?” Although I was more interested in the real Anastasia and the lead-up to the murders, this was an interesting and ultimately heartbreaking read, for both Anastasias.

With all these books finished, what’s next? Well, the next Loki book, as I mentioned, as well as the next book club book, which we’ll choose in a few days. But I was also thinking about exploring the Old Republic in the Star Wars universe. I haven’t done that yet, and since there will be no more High Republic books out until January (except the comics) I thought it was high time. So I’ve ordered the first Revan book by Drew Karpyshyn. I think I’m ready to dive into that era of Star Wars.

On the Marvel front, I watched All Hail the King, a short (15 min) film with the Mandarin aka Trevor Slattery, the “villain”/actor from Ironman 3, and his time in prison. At first it seemed kind of pointless, if diverting, but then it got to the point in linking to the new Marvel movie Shang Chi and the Ten Rings. Oh, okay. So there’s that. (I haven’t seen Shang Chi yet, and probably won’t until it comes out on Disney+. But don’t quote me on that).

Marvel's What If...? is more important to the MCU than you think — Dr. Strange prepares to face….Dr. Strange.

I much more enjoyed the new What If? episode with Dr. Strange. These shows have been fun and entertaining, with characters switching roles or what have you, but this one was really quite moving and heartbreaking. Besides Loki, Dr. Strange is my favorite Marvel character, and this is my favorite What If? by far. This one wasn’t so much about a hero turning evil (although that’s what happens), but about grief and the impact it has on an individual, and the entire universe. Really good stuff. I’m just wondering who the heck The Watcher is, to be honest. What’s his purpose? He can’t interfere, he can’t change things. He’s not a god, as he tells Dr. Strange, the first time he’s actually spoken to anyone he watches. I guess he’s just a celestial observer of some sort, lol.

Finally, in my quest to acquaint myself with more Tom Hiddleston work, I discovered a gem called Only Lovers Left Alive. TH and his Marvel co-star Tilda Swinton (The Sorceress Supreme–who happened to show up in the What If episode above) are modern-day vampires that have been alive for several centuries. Now, I haven’t been into vampires since Anne Rice in the 90s, but this film was really quite fabulous. It meanders along like a dream, with Adam and Eve (yeah, those are their names, lol) doing their vampire thing–Adam is a musician, creating music (anonymously) and tinkering with technology in an abandoned part of Detroit, while his wife Eve lives in Tangier with her multitudes of books, hanging out with her vampire friend Christopher Marlowe (yeah, that one) who apparently wrote all of Shakespeare’s works. They don’t kill people for blood (not anymore, anyway) and have to find it some other way, especially since most people these days have contaminated blood (alcohol, drugs, chemicals, etc.) Mostly they just hang around and listen to music and talk about Life and stuff. But then Eve’s wild sister Ava shows up and causes trouble. I absolutely loved it! Hipster vampires, lol. Oh, and I love how Adam calls humans “zombies.”

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

Padawans, Super Soldiers, And A Russian Princess

Happy weekend, my Star Wars friends!

I thought I’d change the title of these weekend updates and make them more tuned to what each post is about.

So I’ve gotten a few chapters into Out of the Shadows, by Justina Ireland, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to like this book. I’ve heard a few complaints about it, that it’s more talky and slow than previous books, but that’s okay by me. Between Star Wars and Marvel, I think I’ve had enough explosions and battles to last me several lifetimes, lol. This one focuses on the Padawans and younger Jedi, like Vernestra Rwoh, Reath Silas, and Imri Cantaros. I’m a big fan of Reath ever since Into the Dark by Claudia Gray. He’s a bookish type, more into research and scholarship than the whole Jedi adventuring thing, and I can relate to that, lol.

On Kindle, I’m still working on Freefall, about a young Poe Dameron, but it’s recently taken a back seat to a non-Star Wars book called I Was Anastasia, by Ariel Lawhon. For the past few years, my sister and niece and I have done a little book club together, on and off throughout the year, and after some time off, we just started up again. The book we chose was this one about Anna Anderson, the woman who had claimed to be Anastasia Romanov, the supposed only survivor of the slaughter of the Romanov family during the Russian Revolution. I’ve always been fascinated by the subject, and probably saw a movie or two back in the day about it, but I don’t quite remember all the details. I think it was fairly recently established that she was NOT Anastasia, but again, I’m not sure. Even if that’s true, people still want to believe, I think. It’s a tragic, sensational story, and people respond to that. It’s in novel form, so it’s “fiction,” but I’m sure the author has done her research. Really intriguing.

The Bad Batch penultimate Season One episode, “Return to Kaminoa,” is what I’ve been waiting for this show to do for a while now: go back to compelling story-telling. I won’t go into spoilers in case you haven’t seen it yet, but this Season Finale Part 1 is fantastic, and I can’t wait to see what happens in Part 2.

On the Marvel front, I’m a few episodes into The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Admittedly, I’m not as invested in this one, although I think the character of Bucky Barnes is interesting. And the return of Zemo is great. But after the quirkiness of Wandavison, and the sheer enjoyability of Loki, this one’s a bit dull, lol. But I’ll soldier through, and then rewatch Loki, of course. And then I’m done with the Marvel universe (unless I look around for Hulk and/or Spiderman movies, which I may or may not do). I may catch Black Widow in the theater next week. There’s a few Marvel movies coming out later this year, like The Eternals, but I have no idea what it’s about, lol, or if it’s connected at all with what I’ve been watching. Oh, and the Shang-Chi guy. I can’t keep track, lol. What I’m waiting for are the next Dr. Strange and Thor movies, and I think another Wakanda movie is coming out next year. So I’ll stay tuned.

That’s about it for entertainment. My family and I still haven’t done half the summer stuff we wanted to do this year yet, but next week is our 23rd wedding anniversary and I took the week off from work, so maybe we’ll get some fun stuff in. We’ve been talking about ziplining, so maybe we’ll actually get to that! I’ll let you know next week. See you then!

My Star Wars Weekend Update

So I’ve been mostly absent this past week, just reading and commenting on other people’s blogs. I’ve been cheating with another franchise, as I’ve wanted to catch up with some MCU movies as I watch the Disney+ show Loki. Certainly not all of them, but just the ones with Loki in them (which is 6 two and a half hour movies, at least, lol).

And they’re super fun, and seriously, if you haven’t checked out Loki, do so now, because it’s a real treat. It’s actually been good for me to take a break on the Star Wars and get into something new. I’ve been going full steam on the blogs for about a year now, and it felt good to have a little vacation.

But now it’s time to get back to work, lol. And I haven’t been completely ignoring Star Wars, either. I finished re-reading Claudia Gray’s High Republic book Into the Dark, and have started reading E.K. Johnston’s Queen’s Peril, about Padme Amidala. I was trying to wait until the paperback came out just before the third book in the series, Queen’s Hope, comes out in November, but I noticed Amazon offered it on Kindle for just $4.99. So I’m reading it on my Kindle, but will probably buy the paperback when it comes out to put on my shelf next to the paperback of Queen’s Shadow, the first in the series. Cuz I’m like that, lol.

Binding: Hardcover (288 pages) Publisher: Disney Lucasfilm Press (June 2, 2020) Author: E. K. Johnston ISBN-10: 1368057144 ISBN-13: 9781368057141

Of course I’ve been keeping up with The Bad Batch; I didn’t do a review of last week’s episode, Reunion, but will probably do a brief review of it in this week’s episode review.

I actually had an afternoon to myself this Friday, and decided to go to this great used bookstore a couple towns over called the Montague Bookmill. I’ve always liked browsing books there, but they don’t often have many Star Wars books in their Fantasy/Science Fiction section (although I see plenty of Star Trek books). I managed to scour around and found a couple of middle grade books, which I don’t usually read, but hey, they’re Star Wars and I figured I’d just add them to my collection: Jedi Apprentice #15–The Death of Hope (a series with Qui Gon and Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi) by Jude Watson (a series I’d actually like to read), and the young reader’s version of The Phantom Menace (with pictures from the film in the middle!) by Patricia C. Wrede.

I also found The Making of The Phantom Menace by Laurent Bouzereau and Jody Duncan, which is pretty cool. I don’t have many reference books in my collection–in fact, I don’t have any, lol, and this is a great first. I got them all for twenty bucks.

So that’s about it. Looking forward to getting back to Star Wars (but can’t wait until next Wednesday to see how Loki and Sylvie get off that doomed planet, lol).

Happy weekend, and let me know what you’ve been up to lately in the comments!

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