On My Mind part 2 (or The Sunday Salon)

Just a reminder that August's Bloggers Recommend came out and is chock full of goodies. I recommended Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, which you should all read, but I'm dying to get my own hands on Night Film, and have several of the other books waiting for me to read them. Check out the list here!

*The finale of The Killing is tonight and I'm looking forward to it. I feel like it's been a fairly strong season but it's also been really difficult. I thought Sunday's episode was particularly brutal, as everything that could go wrong, did. I thought the last minutes were THE WORST, the absolute worst and I really am done with capital punishment stories. I am already against it and I don't need to be reminded of how horrible it is all the time. Lol, I don't know I just found the episode really upsetting and I've been thinking about it a lot. (other upsetting similar scenes can be found in Dancer in the Dark, The Changeling, and The Crucible if you don't know what I mean!!)

*The Fosters, on the other hand, is a wonderful warm and feel good show. I loved this past week's episode so much! I liked that we got to see how Lena and Stef met and all that went down between Stef and Mike and I really love that the show doesn't downplay the sort of effect this had on Mike's life. I think he still loves Stef and sees her family as the family he wishes he could have/could have had in many ways. I liked that Lena struggled to forgive her children, but I'm also glad she did and it was so sweet that Stef immediately thought of Mariana upon waking up because Lena often comes across as the more nurturing one. And I loved the flashback to Jesus and Mariana that showed how downhearted and guarded Mariana was even as a little girl. And how GREAT was Wyatt realizing Callie had feelings for Brandon and not being a jerk about it but telling her to go after her heart? And the parallel between Callie's parents and what's happening with Brandon's dad can't be missed. Basically, I love this show and I think they've taken such care with their characters...they can be selfish and do some shady stuff but you love them all anyway. At least, I do! Also, speaking of The Fosters in case my gushing hasn't convinced you to give it a try for my left leaning friends maybe this piece will.

*I watched the first episode of Orange is the New Black and I don't know about it. It was a bit much for me? But admittedly I was turned off by the prison premise to begin with. I might watch more of it later but I don't have a lot of free time right now for marathoning TV shows and I think I can accept that a show can be a really good show but that doesn't mean I'll like it.

*Still behind on War & Peace. My goal for today!

*I really liked this piece in the New York Times about fallen idols...in other words finding out an author you love was/is not a nice person. I think it's particularly relevant in this day and age when the internet makes it incredibly easy for people to mess up very publicly and immediately and also when judgment comes down so quickly. In fact, swift absolute judgment is my least favorite thing about the internet lately and a reason why I find myself wanting to be here less and less. A person is so much more than whatever piece of them you may see. I think, for example, there is just not enough appreciation in this world for the virtue of kindness. But, coming off my soap box, I think about this some times...what happens when someone who has created a thing you love does live up to all your expectations? When they are rude, or mean, or hold views that are violently in opposition to your own? Can something so beautiful really have come from their hands? Of course the answer is yes. It would be awfully arrogant to assume you have nothing in common with them after all, perhaps the common space is actually found in art and not the artist.

*Anyone stateside planning to watch Broadchurch?