John of John by Douglas Stuart

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

Published: May 5, 2026 by Grove Press

Fiction/library

This one was, honestly I do not know, it was well written, very very slow, and I did want to know what would happen. But omg there was no closure! I wanted closure, I need closure. So yeah I got nothing at the end.

I did not know that the islands up north are very religious. The right kind of course too. God forbid. Also everyone is very sexually oppressed.

Cal is finished with uni, he has no job, no place to live so he comes back cos his grandmother is sick. He is also gay, and no he could not tell anyone. He also had a strange relationship with his former bestie. Do not know what to say there.

Oh and his dad is also gay, but would never tell anyone.

And everyone gossips about everyone.

But I wanted closure! Now, like what the f happens?

Out of money and with little to show for his art school education, John-Calum Macleod takes the ferry home to the Island of Harris to find that not much has changed except for him.

In the windswept croft where he grew up, Cal resumes his old life, caught between the two poles of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver, and pillar of their local Presbyterian church, and his Glaswegian grandmother Ella, who has kept a faltering peace with her son-in-law for decades.

While Cal wonders if any lonely men might be found on the barren hillsides of home, John is dismayed by his son’s long hair and how he seems unwilling to be Saved. As the seasons pass, everything is poised to change as the threads holding together the fragile community become increasingly entangled.

TMST

 

9/8/2026 Do you ever go to class reunions?

We had one 9? years after school ended and I was all nope. But I did go to my Elementary School one. Then there was another one for the same HS one and I was all nope. But I do wonder if my other HS did one I might go

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Carole´s Movie Review: The Odyssey

Title: The Odyssey

Length: 2h 52m

Released: 2026

Genre: Drama, Dark Fantasy, Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Where I Got It: Theaters

SUMMARY:

After the Trojan War, Odysseus faces a dangerous voyage back to Ithaca, meeting creatures like the Cyclops Polyphemus, Sirens, and Calypso along the way.

Trailer

REVIEW:

I really, really wanted to watch this on the big screen. How can you not? This story has remained a classic for a reason. 

Here we follow Odysseus and his family. Odysseus went to war and then tried to come home. Along the way, he will suffer many of the gods' creations. Is it a test? Is it a punishment? Is it both? While he is making his journey, his wife and son are at home trying to keep his throne open, but Penelope is forced to house suitors who want her hand so they can rule. 

Man, this was an amazing cast. Even the side characters were amazing. Don't listen to the haters who hated that they cast a diverse cast. THIS IS A FANTASY. THIS IS NOT A BIOGRAPHY. Everyone was cast perfectly. They all did amazing!!! I was especially in awe of Robert Pattinson playing our main baddie of a suitor. Damn, he was good at being evil, but also being a coward. Loved it.

The way they told  this story was awe-inspiring. I loved how the past was told in story form. We only got glimpses when someone was telling the story. It really is a lovely nod to how stories used to be told. It was clever and amazing. 

I am SOOOO glad we had limited CGI. The CGI we did have was clean and nice. It was nice seeing some old Hollywood tricks coming into play. 

AND THAT ENDING? OMG the big reveal was heartbreaking and beautiful, and I couldn't stop the tears from falling. Man, that was a powerful scene. 

But yes, this is bloody, and it is set during ancient Greece....so it is dark, and human and animal life meant little. 

5 stars from me. I want to watch this again!

Audio: A Short Period of Exquisite Felicity

By: Amy D'Orazio

Narrated by: Harry Frost

Series: The Engaged to Mr Darcy Series

Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins

Release date: 05-29-20

Publisher: Quills & Quartos Publishing

Pride and prejudice variation/audible 

I can not believe it! Colonel Fitzwilliam, you are NOT a gentleman! I never knew this day would come, but Sir, I challenge you to a duel!

So that was a whirlwind. As for the rest, Darcy, I mean damn it, just TALK to her. Most of this book was him being sad because she had jilted him. Sad sad sad Darcy. Angry Darcy. Just man up! Talk yo her, ask her! I want to slap you too for being such a sad idiot.

And then there was the Colonel who was all Lizzy is evil, stay away from her. I wanted to slap him so bad.

Lydia was an idiot. Wickham, yes bad, but there were a few moments where I saw a soul

Still, my least fav in the series, because it was too long and Darcy was too sad

Is not the very meaning of love that it surpasses every objection against it? Jilted. Never did Mr. Darcy imagine it could happen to him.

But it has, and by Elizabeth Bennet, the woman who first hated and rejected him but then came to love him—he believed—and agree to be his wife. Alas, it is a short-lived, ill-fated romance that ends nearly as soon as it has begun. No reason is given.

More than a year since he last saw her—a year of anger, confusion, and despair—he receives an invitation from the Bingleys to a house party at Netherfield. Darcy is first tempted to refuse, but with the understanding that Elizabeth will not attend, he decides to accept.

When a letter arrives, confirming Elizabeth’s intention to join them, Darcy resolves to meet her with indifference. He is determined that he will not demand answers to the questions that plague him. Elizabeth is also resolved to remain silent and hold fast to the secret behind her refusal. Once they are together, however, it proves difficult to deny the intense passion that still exists. Fury, grief, and profound love prove to be a combustible mixture. But will the secrets between them be their undoing?