10 Bookish (& Not-Bookish Thoughts) No.11: From #StarTrekPicard to #ZoeysPlaylist Jorie filled her hours with wicked good television whilst she wasn’t reading!

Posted Thursday, 13 February, 2020 by jorielov 0 Comments

10 Bookish Not Bookish Thoughts banner created by Jorie in Canva.

I’ve honestly wanted to start participating in this weekly meme in 2014, however, I would always seem to get distracted during the hours leading up to Thursdays OR completely forget to compose my thoughts for this meme until into the weekend; at which point, the time had come and gone. I like the fact we can exchange thoughts percolating in our minds that run the gambit of the bookish world, creative outlets, or thoughts we want to share that might show a bit more about who we are behind the bookish blog we maintain. I am going to attempt to thread the journal of my 10 Bookish / Not Bookish Thoughts by order of the entries arrival into my life rather than a preference of 1-10.

I admit I have far more Drafts of #BookishNotBookish awaiting me to finish than I have shared posts for this meme. I am hoping to regenerate my participation throughout 2020 and hopefully erase some of the older drafts in the process!

You can find the hostess @ Bookishly Boisterous

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A list of 10 Thoughts on a reader who turnt to tv for inspiration | Hostess List

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Sometimes in your reading life you simply need a break from reading – this happens to me every so often and I must say, it is a wicked good thing there are a variety of series out right now (or were released in the recent past) which can happily re-inspire your readerly life!

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No. 1 | Hallmark Movies & Mysteries & Hallmark Christmas Movies

First and foremost, if you’ve visited with me on Twitter you’ll take stock of the fact I like to tweet off/on throughout the year(s) about my LOVE and appreciation for Hallmark Channel & Hallmark Movies & Mysteries – when we became #cablecutters we inadvertly lost our chances to see some of the current mysteries we loved watching such as the Aurora Teagarden Mysteries with Candace Cameron Bure and the Gourmet Detective Mysteries – uniquely enough, by cutting cable we were introduced to the wonders of having Roku – which is a device you can add-on to your tv in order to allow it to have apps for streaming tv & movies.

We’ve sampled a lot of different tv streaming services from HuLu during a World Series with the Red Sox where they messed up my feeds and I went from the 4th inning to the 9th (oyy) and otherwise drove me batty with a difficult interface to find *anything!* remotely plausible to be seen via their line-ups. Whilst SlingTV was a lovely package deal it offered too many channels we never watched which is why we found Philo and Frndly to be better budget options for getting the selections you personally can enjoy. The larger line-ups are on Philo but Frndly gives you the Weather Channel and 3x Hallmark Channels – so its wicked brill for those who want to binge their Hallmark with an unlimited dvr and a cloud storage of 30 days!

In the past we’ve also had CBS All Access, Hallmark Movies Now (a light version of the Channels themselves), NetFlix, BritBox and a few others! We also take advantage of the free options like Crackle, Roku Channel, QVC/HSN and Weather Nation – which interestingly enough covers all major storms & weather issues for the country! There are also regional news channels you can watch for free though I’ve found streaming CBS News is the best compact way of getting all the news all at once whilst I also like Sky News from the UK and the now defunct Reuters which used to give you news in 5, 10 or 30 minutes. One thing not to overlook is YouTube as you can get caught up with shorter versions of both late night and daytime tv; such as Ellen and the Kelly Clarkson Show. I mostly binge #booktube, knit world, recipes/chefs and other things which interest me like knitty podcasts which I still consider to be #vlogs! (ie. Cocktail Hour at the Coop is one of my top favourites!)

Which brings me back to #HallmarkMoviesAndMysteries – we loved the first episode of the #CrosswordMysteries starring Brennan Elliott & Lacey Chabret – I’ve followed both their careers for a long time – his since “Strong Medicine” and hers since “Party of Five” (the original). They happily brought these back in the Autumn and we were watching them via Philo whilst catching up on our favourite Food Network series and shows; it felt like no time was lost really! Aurora Teagarden was #ondemand so we happily went through the whole series and wickedly binged on others such as Mystery 101, Gourmet Detective Mysteries, Morning Show Mysteries, Ruby Herring Mysteries, Darrow & Darrow and the Chronicle Mysteries (lead by Alison Sweeney we loved in #MurderSheBaked).

The week of Halloween 2019 they were meant to air the final #CrosswordMysteries but opted to withhold it til January – that was the point where we decided to take a break from Philo. For the holidays we tried Frndly in order to see the Christmas movies in December & January which was wicked awesome because this was one of the first years Mum could take off work for the holidays and we tucked into film after film enjoying favourite ones of the past and discovering new ones from either the last few years or 2019. And, yes, happily in early January we saw #CrosswordMysteries, too! They even aired a new Gourmet Detective episode which we happily enjoyed and then, after January we decided to switch over to CBS All Access to catch-up on our favourite mysteries on the channel.

The main reason I love Hallmark Movies & Mysteries – both for Sweet Romances & the Mysteries themselves is because of the uplift factor and the way in which you can settle into them as easily as picking up a Love Inspired Suspense novel! You know the chill and thrills aren’t going to be overplayed and in the end, its the kind of mysteries you can handle whilst enjoying tagging along with all the ameutur sleuths!

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No. 2 |  Star Trek: Picard

This is definitely the Trek my parents and I have been waiting for during the past *twenty!* years were we have had this VOID of all things Trek post-Insurrection! We actively (and sometimes vocally) boycotted JJ Abrams as we saw the writing on the wall so to speak about what he was intentionally going to do with the Trek universe (and thereafter Star Wars) and to be frank, we wanted NOTHING to do with it anymore. In the back of our minds, we hoped at *some point!* someone out there would resume where we left off with Trek and give us the kind of Trek we dearly wanted to be #amwatching!

Cue my tweets wherein I shared a bit of my takeaway:

This isn’t of course the Trek universe we knew of from ST: TNG but it is a wonderful composite of how their world and ours have changed in the years since ST: TNG ended. It is also worth noting the layers they’ve stitched into this series – how they are captialising on our memories of the tv series itself and the films; though if it references anything past Insurrection I’ll take that as a bit of a miss. I love how they are redefining the future in this setting but also how Picard is the hero for those who want to see Starfleet and the Federation rebuilt itself from the inside out because in all honesty, it feels like they had their own ‘insurrection’ happening from within their own inner circle – if you take into account the rogue Romulans?

I was shocked to see the language used here or there but then again, what we remember from the past isn’t in play here in the future where Picard resumes. After all, he himself said he retreated to the vines and vineyard with his dog to live a life he felt he no longer deserved to have because of the changes he saw in person. This is now retelling that perspective – of the years since he left Starfleet and the time now where he feels reinspired to do something – his magnum opus if you will to create a path for righting the wrongs he couldn’t fix previously.

The visuals and the costumes are on another level of creative synergy too! I am constantly amazed by how they are producing this series and how tactile they are in paying homage to what we as fans of the Roddenberry version of Trek would appreciate seeing. Watching Wil Wheaton explain things afterwards is a special treat as I’m enjoying the interviews and insights as much as my parents. It is still very early-on with this series and if they wreck it before S2 that is something I’ll have to deal with at the time – for now? Every Thursday means there is a new Picard to enjoy over the weekend!!

This is the Trek for families who have waited and finally have a new Trek to love!

UPDATE: Per this tweet, we exited the series 1.2 seconds into episode five! Talk about a short-lived series! And, the absurdity of the reason behind having turnt this series *dark & gratituously violent* as an ends all – be all to having the lead Patrick Stewart at the helm whilst taking this into ‘uncharted mature territory not meant for children & families’ is so abhorently non-Trek for those of us who spent our lives supporting & cheering for Trek from TOS through Enterprise & the first film til Insurrection is truly a mark of how Trek disengaged itself with the heart of what Roddenberry envisioned and took its route into a darker murkier world where it is no longer Trek. I felt at first this new series #StarTrekPicard was a ‘return’ to a Trek I could appreciate – between the vulgarity interspersing into the scenes & the darker tones ebbing out of the shadows – I am not entirely surprised I only lasted four episodes before exiting #Picard! [28.Feb.2020]

PS: We are doing just dandy going through ENTERPRISE ahead of DS9 and Voyager; we have enough Trek to last us a lifetime and pass-on the JOY and HEART of Trek to future generations before Trek went off the rails and became this ‘other’ incantation of non-Trek. Conversely, I found some tweets I appreciated by others who share my own sentiments: this one about this new direction being disrespectful to fans & this one about the fans broken trust in the franchise.

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No. 3 |  Instinct starring Alan Cumming

There was this one night where we were betwixt and between knowing what we wanted to watch and I decided to scroll through the *Drama* folder via #CBSAllAccess – finding this curious title “Instinct” and knowing if anything would involve a murder mystery, that might be the ticket to find it! I grew up in a family who loves watching Mysteries and stories of Suspense – so it wasn’t a surprise that we happen to watch them more often than we do anything else! lol And, it is also why I am constantly seeking them out to read!!

From the very *first!* episode I was *hooked!* It was smashingly brilliant and I adored their instincts for telling this story! For starters, it stars Alan Cumming and ever since I first saw him in “Goldeneye” and he said his iconic phrase I have been an appreciator of his roles in motion pictures. I haven’t seen him on television – this was a first for me and what a wonderful debut to see him succeed in because he truly took the character of Dylan to a lovely new level of intrigue!

I read an online article about his reactions to his character and he said something about how he always felt like he was a posh dandy due to the clothes and the aesthetics of bringing Dylan to life – Mum and I readily agreed with that statement as one of the first things I *loved!* about this role of his was the wardrobe! His organic and natural romance with his husband Andy was such a cornerstone of the series – this was a police procedural Thriller series but it had so much more heart behind it than a standard episodic tv series set round a precinct.

Cue my tweets wherein I shared a bit of my reactions:

Somehow the 2 years they gave us for INSTINCT felt woefully too short – we binged this within a week and a half – you can tell we were properly *addicted!* to it – and despite knowing they didn’t get a third season we still continued to watch it, to see what we could learn about the characters and to see which of them would give us the largest cliffhangers in the end. For us, directly as a family I will offer a bit of a spoiler here in case you wanted to see it for yourself.

View Spoiler »

 

What was the hardest though was ‘letting go’ of the cast – Dylan’s partner at the police department was just as compelling of a character as he was himself because she put her heart on the line. She didn’t have an easy transition to go through as we first entered the series as she had lost the love of her life – this is a key part of the series to bridge you into both her as a character and to allow for forward motion for her as well. It also was one of the most compelling sequences of this kind of tv to show how hard it is to uncover hidden truths and how long it takes to resolve a case that is left open.

This also because the mainstay of the series where they would tackle hard to solve cases and instead of resolving them immediately within one or three episodes they would carry it through nearly a full season in order to best construct the realities of working those cases and also to show how hard it is to sleuth out the truth which wants to remain hidden. It is a witty and sharp series full of a beautiful supporting cast I admired and adored – even their boss was brilliant and humbling real – as she truly took her job and role seriously as both a leader and a friend. Julian was the wildcard of the series and remains so (last spoiler) View Spoiler » and yet, I enjoyed seeing how his character was constructed to being just this ‘shy’ of shady because you didn’t really know where he stood at any point in time on anything! lol

When the final episode aired – we were full of grievous hearts – Mum, Dad and I all together commiserating the loss and celebrating what they gave us because it is a #mustwatch series! I didn’t even tweet about it yet being finished because part of me doesn’t want that to be true – how could there not be more years of this to watch? They robbed us of one of the best and most well-written Crime Dramas I’ve seen in recent decades! I hope others who find it will love every inch of it and love the cheeky humour, the emotional drama and the performances of one of the best casts they have put together in a long time!

I seriously need to own this on dvd at some point!

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No. 4 | Magnum PI (new version)

Despite the fact my grandfather *loved* the original Magnum (and as did I, in regards to the actor!) I couldn’t get into it. Even the original Higgins grated on my nerves as he was writ to be such an entitled character and even back then I just couldn’t stomach watching this series! However, a few years before the first season of this newer version aired, we were watching the updated version of “Hawaii Five-O” until of course they killed our enjoyment of it – they went dark, gritty, edgy and horridly violent – all the things we were NOT looking for in a series we wanted to see as a family who loves #CosyCrime and Crime Dramas!

Yet if we hadn’t watched it we wouldn’t have known the character who migrated from Five-O to Magnum! I don’t believe they kept his same name though series to series but its the same actor! He’s also Magnum’s nemesis and I love that delish plotting between them as it owns to what makes this one so enjoyable to be watching! The team he has behind him from his days of serving as a Marine and the ways in which the new Higgins is a smart and sophisticated version of the old Higgins – not to mention gender-bent is a breath of fresh air!

Mum shared her memories of Hawaii with me whilst I was growing up which is why I love seeing the series – as it opens the door to breathe in a bit of the island and to see a locale that isn’t generally seen on tv. We just really became BIG fans of this series quickly and overnight; we binged the latest season so fast as soon as we subscribed back to CBS All Access that we quite literally *ran out of shows!* to stream! Imagine?! We had hoped they would have S1 and S2 available to see as we didn’t get to see all of them yet – but only S3 is currently streaming! And, its been off for a few weeks now on hiatus – ooh the angst of waiting – oyyy.

We actually thought Higgins (played by Perdita Weeks) was actually her sister Honeysuckle Weeks of whom we knew from Foyle’s War. We borrowed the whole series through our library – either directly or through ILL’ing (interlibrary loans) – which is why we knew her mannerisms and character traits as well as we do. The strange bit is that there is an age difference between the two sisters but Perdita has such a classically recognisable essence of Honeysuckle it is now quite hard to tell them apart! It is a joy seeing Perdita take-on the role of Higgins but its the eclectic ‘family’ of Magnum that drew us the most into the series!

I would definitely label this one a guilty pleasure series because it is such joy to watch!

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No. 5 | Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist

Did you explore a current event topic on YT (ie. YouTube) only to be given the rare joy of seeing a pilot episode of a brand new tv series? Technically, neither had I! Until #ZoeysPlaylist arrived on my tv instead of the regular advert associated with viewing YT! I cannot even begin to tell you how much of a godsend this was for me that particular day – as I do think about how not everyone understands what is like to be a caregiver for family members and how sometimes even people in your everyday life & world can say some of the most obnoxious comments about your situation!

Enter – Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist!

What truly shocked me though is that everyone on Twitter seems to be talking more about the music & the wicked brilliant flash mob sequences in the series moreso than the dramatic heart of the series itself which is anchoured to Zoey, her parents and the situation with her father! I am not sure why that struck me odd the most – how the music is overriding the guttingly emotional bits of the series but then again, if people haven’t walked in similar shoes to Zoey & her family or haven’t experienced loss (such as what is explained in the pilot) perhaps they are attaching more through the music of the show than the drama behind the music! (if that makes sense?)

For me though – seeing Lauren Graham post-Gilmore Girls (as I left the series after it literally derailed post-S2/S3) is lovely – I didn’t get to follow her into Parenthood as that series was emotionally *draining!* in a bad way (at least for me). The dialogue is sharp and witty without being too obvious or predictable. The sequencing of the series is lovely because you get to see all facets of Zoey’s life – from work, to downtime at her flat and the moments she spends at home with her parents and brother. It is a full encompassing show that I was emotionally moved by seeing the first time and emotionally uplifted by the second time – as the first time Mum didn’t get to see it as she was working. This was a premiere I knew she would appreciate as much as I did and I was *right!*

I am hoping as the series progresses we’ll still be able to see it via the NBC app on Roku as otherwise we’ll have to just await the seasonal dvd. Generally NBC is easier to stream for free than other networks although technically over Christmas we were able to see the return of “All in the Family” and “The Jefferson’s” nearly a year after they debuted on ABC – so that was something! I was most shocked to find they were ‘unlocked’ and able to be streamed! This is also when we caught up with “The Mask Singer” and happily celebrated when Wayne Brady was announced as the winner! He truly deserved it and he rocked it!

Don’t get me wrong – I grew up appreciating Broadway Musicals (still do!) and I love a wicked flash mob – which is why I *love!* the musical interludes of #ZoeysPlaylist but for me, it is the whole of the series which has me rooting for its success not just the component of the musical sequences which add to the enjoyment of seeing the series flourish from one episode to another. I know I am approaching this from a family whose had a lot of relatives have major medical crises in their lives and whose father is a 3rd year stroke survivor – so for us, it is a reflection of how you get through the everyday and how you continue to celebrate the moments where there is more joy than sorrow and more happiness than stress.

My first reaction to seeing the pilot was this one:

“I never say this but I’ll say this now: I would BUY the season on dvd with only having watched the pilot because they have already convinced me this is a series meant to be seen!”

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No. 6 | Knitty Podcasts via YouTube

You might not realise this but I am a #knitty girl at heart! It took me ages to sort out a hybrid way of knitting – as its a combination of both the American & British versions of teaching knitting as being dyslexic it took me half of forever to resolve how to knit! Seriously – over four teachers and my Mum had to help me sort it out and once I did – wow! Talk about the magic of understanding because now I am in LOVE with the patterns, the stitches and using natural fibre yarns!

Despite my love of all things old world arts & crafts and especially fibre arts – I haven’t been knitting for the past two and a half years – I had re-picked it up in Autumn in 2017 but since then? Oy. My focus hasn’t been on knitting,.. I am even properly lost to understand the patterns anymore because I’ve lost my footing with where I last left off and where I am now currently with the patterns themselves! I need to sort out a way to find a local yarn shop (LYS) who can help me interpret the patterns I’m working on vs where I am with the stitches I cast-on to properly continue from where I last left off. So, not complicated, eh?

Mum and I knit together – it’s one of those things we enjoy as a Mum-daughter team (previously it was stamp art & card-making) and we’ve been talking a lot about why we miss knitting and how disconnected we feel from the world of knitting itself. This is how we came to stumble into a WHOLE NEW area of YT – move over #booktube, there is this niche of podcasters (okay, I admit it, to me their vlogging!) who are sharing their knitty lives! It all started when we found Cocktail Hour @ the Coop – Leanne, Liz and their Arrow Acres Farm in New Jersey felt like a refreshing break from the everyday! Streaming them via YT on Roku is even more delightful because you don’t have to be hinged to your computer! Top Cheers.

This lead us into finding others – such as The Knitting Expat (from England) and several others I am forgetting the names of – as they each have their own podcast YT channel and name therein! That is the hardest part of us is remembering how to find them all! lol However, what really started all of this isn’t just Cocktail Hour @ the Coop – if we hadn’t been seeking out fibre festivals and events on YT we wouldn’t even have found them! No, it was when we started to watch all the videos about Rhinebeck (not the city, the fibre even that has used this as its nickname!) where we started to find the most chatty and personable knitty of the community!

And, the joy this brings to us – finding out about the new fibres, the new patterns everyone is eager to try and seeing how their WIP (whips) and FOs (finished objects/projects) are alighting on their streams is the kind of encouragement we needed ourselves to realise once we get to get back into knitting we are going to have a heap of wicked awesome joy!! Plus, if we can ever get to Rhinebeck … ooh my gosh – the gush fest and the joy of seeing these lovelies in person is going to be extremely humbling!!

I recently reached out to someone I follow asking about this too:

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No. 7 | Top Ten Tuesday

When December was ending, I decided it was high time I return to featuring my own posts for #TopTenTuesday and in January, I truly leant on writing those to help me deal with the fact I wasn’t reading as much as I had hoped to read as the New Year began. I am still struggling with reading even now into February as ever since the first week of January – my focus has been off and I guess, in many regards, I just never felt like I recaptured it. I did a few times – like listening to the #JaneAustensDragons series and a few others, but overall, I still feel a bit overwhelmed by how the year began and I hope by March I’ll feel a bit less anxious about the stories I’m not reading and just enjoy the ones that I am.

I am still several weeks behind in showcasing a few of the topics for this lovely meme but I’ve decided that there are always going to be weeks where I might need to skip-over hosting it due to not having enough time to work on the post(s) themselves or perhaps I might have to supplement the answer if I want to run one because I don’t always like the current topic at hand – so in many respects, I have a better approach to how I want to run #TopTenTuesday this year!

In regards to this week – I just ran out of hours – it was either finish my review for #JaneAustensDragons or work on the post I wanted to feature for #StValentinesDay which was a post about Romance Novels I want to be reading which are INSPY. Therefore, in case you’ve missed one of my newer #TopTenTuesdays – here are the ones I’ve been sharing recently which were the most fun to write and publish:

I am still going to be featuring the one I’ve been working on this week but I’ll most likely run it next Tuesday instead. I am hoping to have more of these populate throughout the year – especially as I am pre-planning the ones for March! lol I also look forward to continuing to visit with the bloggers I follow and new ones I don’t who are also writing content for this meme. I find it is a wonderful way to journey into the book blogosphere and find the book bloggers who are writing posts I love to be reading!! Especially if they talk about why they are highlighting the stories on their lists or truly expound upon the topics and prompts for #TopTenTuesday!

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No. 8 |  #SatBookChat

Nothing gave me more joy than returning to hosting my own chat @SatBookChat last September! Since then, the chat has redefined itself and is thriving each week I am hosting! I am overjoyed to bring new chats to the audience who has stuck by me during the years where I wasn’t motivated to host (ie. the years Dad was recovering from his stroke and the years where my migraines prevented me from hosting; 2017-19) – as this is a new day for us who love coming together to chat about Women’s Fiction & Romance novels!

Having said that – I recently announced in the @SatBookChat’s bio how I am also going to start to highlight strong females in fiction across all genres of interest and Feminist Lit as well. As the chat has diversified itself time after time – where I truly took a loose interpretation of what could be considered applicable to the genres the chat was founded to highlight. This year, I want to build on that but also continue to grow and hopefully continue to inspire new chatters to join us on Saturdays!

I feel like I was re-inspired to host and as I work on the archives in our @SatBookChat’s Moments – soon I’ll have all the chats from September 2019 – February 2020 uploaded. I’m hoping to achieve that before the end of March as sometimes if I were having a migraine I fell behind on working on them. Likewise I have started to highlight who is going to be featured on the chat itself through a series of #SatBookChat Spotlights here on Jorie Loves A Story as the chat itself has always been in conjunction with my readings on my blog. Therefore, if you’ve missed any of the recent past – here are some to catch up on reading – just remember I am also a few posts short in this series as well but those will be alighting as I get the archives of the chats flowing into Moments, too!

The #SatBookChat Spotlight Posts:

If you have a spare hour on the weekends, join us @ 8a LA | 11a NYC | 4p UK –

invite your friends to join us as everyone is welcome!

Readers, Reviewers, Book Bloggers, Writers, etc – if you love books, come!

View our current schedule of Guest Authors!

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No. 9 | NetGalley (for audiobooks)

You might be curious why this is listed as my Number 9? I spied a rather curious adverted tweet at the start of February which I felt was rather curious! You see, I never could join NetGalley in the past when I first became a book blogger because of the fact I cannot read & review ebooks (due to my chronic migraines) ergo I missed the whole experience other book bloggers have had in receiving review copies via this site. However, apparently this is changing Summer 2020 – as the tweet itself was talking about the availablity of *audiobooks!* – they are testing it right now where you can listen to audiobook samplers and filling out a short form to the publishers whose audiobook is uploaded to their site.

Rather happily I’ve started doing this as soon as I joined – noting that some of the stories you can listen to a sampler of (think of Audible’s samplers) are ones I might not have caught sight of without having joined NetGalley! I’m definitely taking notes about which of the audiobooks I want to remember are either published now or will be soon. Likewise, I’ve been browsing the catalogue of NetGalley and noticing new publishers, new stories and new authors I might not otherwise have found!

I did of course make one small faux pas I am self-correcting one publisher at a time – as whilst reading through the Help Index I thought I had read correctly that sometimes publishers will contact you about your mailing address to receive books in print. Whilst I was visiting the book’s individual pages I noted several were stating a format available was indeed ‘print’; thereby I made six selections – most of which are in #KidsLit and two were cookbooks for healthy eats. Turnt out? NetGalley right now is still strictly for ebook readers – whatever I had misunderstood notwithstanding I had to write an explanation to those publishers who were kindly approving me.

My self-correct option? Each publication month (from February to September) I’m submitting for purchase the books I had requested through NetGalley at my local library. So far, I am off to a good start as they’ve accepted the two cookbooks for purchase! I cannot wait for them to arrive as I’m going to honour my initial request(s) to review them on my blog and I look forward to discussing those with you!! For now, I’ve gone back to sampling audiobooks, submitting the feedback on their behalf and having a look-see at what is currently publishing as I can always add those stories to the queue I have for monthly purchase requests at my libraries – either for print or audiobook (if they are cross-released).

Imagine!? NetGalley is now going to be user friendly for those of us who cannot read ebooks! Eek. I tell you, I am wickedly overjoyed! Now if Edelweiss joins suit I can do something on there besides reading publisher catalogues and knowing about new releases in that medium of joy, too!

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No. 10 | Star Trek: Enterprise

I still remember when Enterprise was first beginning,.. being a BIG Scott Bakula fan (as I grew up watching Quantum Leap – you really knew I was a Leaper, because I used to sign the name in ASL!) and yet, the series I saw next for him was actually NCIS: NOLA!! Part of the issues is when Enterprise was airing it just wasn’t the right timing for me or my family to watch it. Now that we’ve traded off watching Hallmark movies we’ve re-invested into the series we love the most from CBS. Therefore, after seeing the final Instinct episode and missing Andy like crazy and grieving the loss of such a brilliant series – we decided to tuck our emotions into Enterprise!

My first reaction was that this is the series which offered a great bridge and gateway from the Original Star Trek into the Trek we knew from Next Generation; especially considering this rolls back the timeline from what we learnt in First Contact!! In fact, in many ways, I felt this was the *sequel!* to First Contact (the film) – as everything aligned very well. The opening titles and theme song are a mini-documentary on space flight and space exploration – for a geeky girl like me that was #awesomesauce as I still remember being involved with Young Astronauts as a kid who dreamt of going to Space Camp. Even if the realities of Space Camp once I arrived were a stark difference to the [film] with Joaquin Phoenix – at least I had a healthy appreciation for AstroPhysics & Cosmology at a younger age than most!

We’re right in the early beginnings of this series – having only seen a handlful of the episodes and already I am a ready appreciator of how they handled it! I like how rogue Bakula’s character can become when he is in direct conflict with his Vulcan Science Officer whilst the whole crew itself has this eclectic vibe happening which I love seeing reflected in a Trek series. I even thought to myself Porthos was an interesting choice because I could see the merit of having a cat aboard ship but I was trying to sort out the complications of having a dog!

I think the best part really is the fact we’re streaming Enterprise during the week in-between watching Picard! Doing it this way, it is a wonderful transition between both worlds of where we find Starfleet and the Federation! A lovely juxtaposition of ‘here’ and ‘there’ but also how a lot of what we all miss from the Federation are still being reflected in Enterprise. I think in the long-term it would have been harder to have seen Enterprise ahead of Picard – if anything, I believe now the best time to see it is right now!!

As a sidenote: Similar to why we were appreciating Farscape a few years ago Enterprise fills that particular void – of where humans get curious about Space and just want to ride the stars in order to seek out the worlds they have yet to understand and visit. Unlike Farscape I know I most likely will have more longevity of getting through this series as I had to quit the other one shortly after the end of season one! They just really destroyed it for us – turnt it far too dark and violent and lost the essence of what we loved earlier in the first year!

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I can finally return to #BookishNotBookish and I am thankful this New Year, 2020 I can start to resume where I left off with my favourite memes whilst re-engaging with the book blogosphere!

Conversely, did anyone see me post this tweet!? I was hoping others might follow suit & respond – as I had to sit and think a bit about how to order the series I shared as a best way of ‘knowing’ Jorie!

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{SOURCES: Post dividers badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets embedded by codes provided by Twitter. Tweets embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: #BookishNotBookish banner as well as the Comment box banner.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2020.

I’m a social reader | I tweet my readerly life

About jorielov

I am self-educated through local libraries and alternative education opportunities. I am a writer by trade and I cured a ten-year writer’s block by the discovery of Nanowrimo in November 2008. The event changed my life by re-establishing my muse and solidifying my path. Five years later whilst exploring the bookish blogosphere I decided to become a book blogger. I am a champion of wordsmiths who evoke a visceral experience in narrative. I write comprehensive book showcases electing to get into the heart of my reading observations. I dance through genres seeking literary enlightenment and enchantment. Starting in Autumn 2013 I became a blog book tour hostess featuring books and authors. I joined The Classics Club in January 2014 to seek out appreciators of the timeless works of literature whose breadth of scope and voice resonate with us all.

"I write my heart out and own my writing after it has spilt out of the pen." - self quote (Jorie of Jorie Loves A Story)

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Posted Thursday, 13 February, 2020 by jorielov in 10 Bookish (& Not-So-Bookish Thoughts), Blogosphere Events & Happenings




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