Wicked (alt title: Victoria Holt, Part 4)

Saw Wicked yesterday with L. It was OK, but I probably would have enjoyed it more if (1) it had been shorter, and (2) my back wasn't hurting. I either did something at my daughter's, or it was the long drive to/from, or it was simply time for a random glitch... but whatever the case, my back spasmed yesterday morning after I took a shower and has been hurty ever since, though it’s a little better today. I am taking it easy, but I'm peeved that I can't start exercising/walking. Why now? I just feel particularly blobbish after too much indulging, and not only from Thanksgiving ~ it's been going on for a while. Next best thing, eat less and more nutritiously, so I've started to do that, at least. All I ate yesterday was a salad at lunch after the movie, which was apparently enough because I wasn't starving. (I don’t mind being a bit hungry when I go to sleep.) Today, I ate a protein bar and will have something sensible tonight at Urban Plates. I bought salad mixes for every lunch Sunday-Friday except Tuesday when we get treated to a company lunch.

I like that I have so few readers I'm not going to get a whole bunch of people yelling but you're too thin already! Well, I'm not, so there. I've gained a few pounds this year, all in the middle, which is bad, not just aesthetically but health wise. Being on the low end of the charts is actually a good thing when you have a family history of heart disease and cancer, which I do. Who doesn't? While an older woman may look more attractive with extra padding (smooths out the wrinkles), I don't actually care about that ~ or let's say I care more about not having dementia, pancreatic cancer, or a coronary event. I know I'll get something sooner or later, but hopefully later. My last BP reading (yesterday) was in the green zone, so that was great, and I am hoping that my next cholesterol test turns out better than the last one. 

I don't know what to say about Wicked. It was a musical, but the songs weren't memorable, imo. The acting was fine ~ I particularly liked Peter Dinklage doing the voice of the goat professor at the magic academy. I definitely enjoyed Jeff Goldblum as Oz ~ he was pretty much the same as Oz as he was as Zeus in Kaos, which I loved. I am sad that it didn’t get a second season. The Wicked "plot" was kind of thin, girls being mean, then becoming friends, blah blah, and I'm not even sure how the green witch, who is supposed to be the wicked one, at least later on, ends up wicked, when she wasn't in this movie. Maybe she is never actually wicked and has been the victim of misinformation all along. Whatever. This is apparently only the first part of the whole Wicked saga, and I think I probably will pass on any further installments. Heavy-handed political messages abound, which I do not appreciate in fiction, even if I agree with them. 

I also read The Shadow of the Lynx by Victoria Holt, to which I awarded four stars. Really enjoyed this one! This is the story of Nora, whose father went to Australia in the 1800s to search for gold. He died, and the man he worked for, "Lynx," becomes Nora's guardian when she is 17 and still in school. Lynx's son Stirling comes to England to take Nora back to Oz, which is where the novel begins. Before they leave, they have an odd encounter with a family who lives on a grand estate, and this will later prove to be important. Lynx is a fabulously complex character, and so are his children from his first marriage ~ all the characters really. No one is predictable, and each character has positive and negative traits, just like real people. Nora fascinated me with the twists and turns of her thought processes. There are a lot of characters, along with complex family situations, but that is OK because they arise organically as the story unfolds. I don't like when a whole bunch of stuff is flung at me immediately in a backstory because I have trouble remembering all the details. When the details occur as part of the journey, then I remember them. They also have more emotional impact that way because the reader is experiencing them with the protagonist.

I have three more Victoria Holt novels queued up to read from the library, and I purchased five used VH paperbacks online. There are still a ton of hers on my wish list, plus a bunch of other books and misc., and I will get to it all eventually. Next up is The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan for my in-person book club (we are having a tea party at a member's house, which should be so fun ~ I made them cute diamond art bookmarks for prezzies... shhhh don't tell), and then I will read two books for my online club's December picks: The Good Samaritan by John Marrs (which I thought I read already because the plot sounds familiar, but I can't find evidence of it nor do I recall the deets, so I have to read it again regardless), and The Holiday Home by Daniel Hurst, an author I enjoy. Both of these are thriller type novels, and I'm really digging that genre lately. I'm also amassing a fair amount of dead-tree books due to the online club's mutual gifting events, so I will need to get to all of those as well. Phew! 

I haven't been doing that much crafting lately, but that's OK. I will get back to it post-Christmas when it's safe to watch anything on TV and not worry about hearing "Little Drummer Boy." I have accepted the challenge: try to avoid hearing it between 12:01AM Turkey Day and 12:00AM Christmas. I actually like the song a lot, so you can bet I will be playing it between Christmas Day and New Year's. Anyway, sometimes I craft in silence ~ it becomes more of a zen activity that way ~ and if I get desperate for TV, I can always rewatch the Mamma Mia musicals.