I want to highly recommend the Netflix movie Hustle, a basketball sports-related film with Adam Sandler and Queen Latifah.  Hustle has it all, good writing, a good story and equally as good acting. 

As I clicked through movie options on Netflix this past Friday night, I came across the movie Hustle.  The movie info said it starred Adam Sandler as a basketball scout for the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team.   While I don’t follow basketball, I clicked on the movie and gave it a chance.  Within the first five minutes I was hooked (spoiler alert – Robert Duvall helped in the first five minutes!!!). 

The storyline was basketball related, the writing was smart enough not to over saturate us with drama about basketball itself.  The writing instead subtly took us on a journey to the underlying human drama of the majority of the characters. 

The characters in Hustle were all equally well written and acted.  I agree, Adam Sandler deserves Oscar attention for his acting in this role.  I also want to highlight the acting by Queen Latifah.  She conveyed the emotions and feelings of her character from her words as well as her facial expressions and mannerisms.  In my opinion,  the scenes she shared with Adam were some of the best in the movie.  The scene at the dinner table with Adam, Queen Latifah, their daughter and the Spanish basketball player was one of the best scenes in the movie.  The interaction of the characters at the dinner table was a simple pleasure to watch.  The movie had many scenes such as this, a simple pleasure to watch because of the good acting and story. 

Overall, the ending of the story left me somewhat fulfilled. I wasn’t sure the family issues of Adam and Queen Latifah were resolved.  If I could ask of the writers one thing, I would ask for a Hustle Part II and for a storyline spent on the next steps for the family of Adam and Queen Latifah (and more time on Queen Latifah and her experiences in the sports world and the impact on her family of her husband’s career). 

I recommend the Netflix movie Hustle.  The movie has across the board good writing, story line and acting.  The parts about the Philadelphia 76ers and the basketball world were interesting as well.  I wish Adam Sandler and Queen Latifah best wishes this upcoming awards season, their performances were that good.    

Me:  I am Diane M. Spolar and I live in Willowbrook, Illinois (a suburb outside of Chicago) with my husband, son and cat.  I am a CPA by day, and a reader by night and on the weekends.  I am a lifelong lover of books. 

I highly recommend the book “The Dig” by John Preston.  I read this book because I first saw the Netflix movie “The Dig” in April 2021, and I wanted to learn more about the burial ship at the Sutton Hoo House.  The book and the movie added an item to my bucket list as I plan a future visit to the British Museum to see first-hand the Sutton Hoo ship treasurers. 

The book has a nice focus on three characters, Edith Pretty, Basil Brown and Peggy Piggott, all set in England in 1939 at the beginning of the second world war.  The discovery of the burial ship is another character as well and the burial ship is weaved among the characters, England and current events.  I especially liked the focus on Edith and learning about her background up to 1939.  Her background made her the perfect person to own Sutton Hoo House and a strong voice to promote the excavation of the mounds.  The book provides a nice wrap up of the story (spoiler alert) as an Epilogue from Edith’s son Robert.  Be sure to read the whole book, and the Epilogue will then be a satisfactory end to the story. 

The movie provides a visual of the mounds and the burial ship that my imagination could not conger up.   The movie also provides more of a developed storyline on Peggy Piggott and her reaction to the circumstances she finds herself in during 1939.  While all the acting across the movie was excellent, I especially liked the acting done by Ralph Fiennes.  In fact, I did not recognize Ralph Fiennes until the actor credits at the end. 

I recommend the book “The Dig” by John Preston as well as the Netflix original movie “The Dig”.  My recommendation is to read the book first and then watch the Netflix movie.  The book gives enough information on the characters to prepare you for what you are in for with the movie.  While the book is a good read, the movie compliments the book and providers the viewer with a better appreciation for the size of the burial ship and the efforts made to discover the ship. 

Me:  I am Diane M. Spolar and I live in Willowbrook, Illinois (a suburb outside of Chicago) with my husband, son and cat.  I am a CPA by day, and a reader by night and on the weekends.  I am a lifelong lover of books. 

I highly recommend the book “The Wright Brothers” by David McCullough. The story is about Orville and Wilbur Wright and their development of the first airplane.  The story primarily takes place at the turn of the 20^th century in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio, and of course, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. 

I started the book with the expectation to learn about man’s first attempts at flight.  The author, David McCullough, delivers on this expectation. 

I wanted to mention a few other interesting tidbits I learned.  I learned all about the Wright Brother’s early attempts at flight using their home-made glider as a kite.  I learned how they selected Kitty Hawk as the site to make their initial test flights.  I learned how the brothers without a formal scientific education approached the whole notion of man’s attempt at flight.  

I also learned the importance of the Wrights being a product of Dayton in the 1900s.  They truly embodied the basic, sturdy, upbring of the Midwest at the time.  In turn, the entire city of Dayton embraced the Wright brothers and the early bicycle shop the brothers owned.

What fascinated me more than man’s first attempts at flight, was the life of their sister Katharine.  She truly is the unsung hero of the family.  She kept to her role of keeping the family stable.  She truly embraced learning, curiosity, and everything that her brothers were doing.  I believe in another time and place, she could have given her brothers a run for the money with respect to inventions and engineering.   

I highly recommend this book.  I learned about man’s first attempts at flight.  I learned about the men that helped usher in the era of flight.  I learned about a woman that embodied more than what society demanded of her in her time. 

Me:  I am Diane M. Spolar and I live in Willowbrook, Illinois (a suburb outside of Chicago) with my husband, son and cat.  I am a CPA by day, and a reader by night and on the weekends.  I am a lifelong lover of books. 

I highly recommend the book “Hurt Me If You Can” by Matthew Baxter.  My son is a middle school cross country runner here in the suburbs outside of Chicago.  I came across Matthew Baxter and his book one day when my son and I were watching Youtube videos about college cross country.  Matthew Baxter wrote this book about his running experiences in high school.  He spent his college cross country years at Northern Arizona University. 

I picked up this book in order to understand the sport of cross country from the perspective of a high school athlete (of which my son will be in the Fall 2021).  In high school my focus was more on the academics and my husband was in band.  I am truly a non-athlete and hoped the book would give me insight into the world of high school cross country.  

The “tales” from Matthew gave me more of an insight into the mind of a high school boy who just happened to run.  I learned about his trials and tribulations with family, school and running. 

I found the tales of his running to be insightful as well.  I learned how he approached his training.  I learned how he relied on his team members.  I learned how mature he was to take the time to stop and enjoy the experience and nature at the different courses he raced.   I learned how he approached and overcame adversity with his high school running career.  Through it all, I could clearly tell he loves to run.

I plan to pass along this book to my son next summer, just before he enters high school.  I believe this book will be a valuable resource for my son from the aspect of a boy navigating high school years who happens to be a cross country runner. 

I recommend the book “Hurt Me If You Can”.  I especially recommend the book to middle school and high school runners. 

Me:  I am Diane M. Spolar and I live in Willowbrook, Illinois (a suburb outside of Chicago) with my husband, son and cat.  I am a CPA by day and a reader by night and on the weekends.  I am a lifelong lover of books.  

As I post this review at the start of the month of November 2020, anything presidential related maybe the last thing on your mind.  I typically spend my month of November with a book about a president or about our country.  My book review this month is actually two books “John Adams” by David Mc Cullough, our second president, and the first lady “Abigail Adams” by Woody Holton.

I read the John Adams book back in April 2011 and the Abigail Adams book back in May 2011.  Both books prompted me to visit both John Adams birthplace and The Old House at Peace Field (where he lived with Abigail) on a 2015 trip to Boston with my family. 

First, don’t let the 600+ pages by David Mc Cullough deter you, you will not want to put down John Adams, and wish it was another 600+ pages. 

John Adams was our second president, and a one-term president.  Even though he was a one-term president, he had a significant role in several areas that were not of the office of the president – he had roles with our Declaration of Independence, on the foreign relations front with his travels to England and Europe, as well as with his relationships with the major players who helped found our country. 

I liked that John Adams gave the written word a strong role in his life, he was well read and wrote many letters and journal during his life.  I found his later relationship (which consisted primarily of correspondence) with Thomas Jefferson interesting.

When I was finished with the John Adams book, I wanted to learn more about his wife Abigail.  Luckily, Woody Holton’s book filled the bill.  Abigail was a true partner to John Adams.  She found herself in the role of not only wife and mother but the primary keeper of the home front while John was away on his many travels across the Atlantic.  She matched John in her love of the written word, as she was well read and wrote many letters in her lifetime to John, her sisters and friends.  She truly was an independent woman and thinker in an era where she had no role models or mentors to even influence her to have her own thoughts.  Finally, she had a strong impact on our country for a woman in her era, she was the wife of our second President and mother of our sixth President. 

Give yourself a treat this election year, and spend some time with our second president, John Adams and his wife Abigail.  You will not be disappointed. 

Me:  I am Diane M. Spolar and I live in Willowbrook, Illinois (a suburb outside of Chicago) with my husband, son and cat.  I am a CPA by day and a reader by night and on the weekends.  I am a lifelong lover of books.  

I highly recommend the book “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Dalia Owens.  I read this book because the book was on the New York Times Bestseller list practically all of last year.   Several times last year, I tried to reserve this book at my local library, the list to reserve this book was long.  I finally broke down and purchased the book earlier this year.

I liked the main character in this story, Kya (full name Catherine Danielle Clark) a young girl that initially lives with all her family in the marshlands of North Carolina.  She is a strong, independent character.  She faces a lot of adversity throughout the book.  The marshlands and the living things that call the marshlands home turn out to be a form of comfort to her, help her get through her life, and be a form of family to her.    

The story also included a mystery which concluded in a courtroom.  The courtroom story really showcased the treatment over the years Kya received by the community, both good and bad treatment.   I liked this part of the story, as it showed the adversity Kya overcame to become the person she was. 

While I liked Kya and the story, I truly loved the North Carolina marshlands and the experience of both the land and the people.  I felt I was on a mini-vacation to a new place.  I have been to Charlotte, NC, but not the marshalands area.  The author Delia Owens writes more like she is an artist than an author.  She painted in my mind every facet of the marshalands from the sky, the water, to the creatures living there both animal and human.  One quote of many “Sitting in the bow, Kya watched low fingers of fog reaching for their boat.”  . 

I recommend the book “Where the Crawdads Sing”, it was worthy of the time spent on the New York Times Bestseller List last year.   The main character in this book was good and the story line had a nice mystery and resolution.  My favorite part of the book had to be the author taking us on a visit to the marshalands of North Carolina. 

Me:  I am Diane M. Spolar and I live in Willowbrook, Illinois (a suburb outside of Chicago) with my husband, son and cat.  I am a CPA by day and a reader by night and on the weekends.  I am a lifelong lover of books.  

I highly recommend the book “The Lincoln Lawyer” by Michael Connelly.  This is my first book by the author Michael Connelly and several years ago I saw the movie with Matthew McConaughey.  I picked up the hardcover of this book at a garage sale two years ago, as I liked the movie and I like legal-type thrillers.  Now that I finished the book, I can’t believe I left the book sit on my bookshelf until mid April 2020.   

I liked the main character in this story, Michael “Mickey” Haller, a criminal defense attorney in Los Angeles.  The book mentions his use of the Lincoln Town car as an office (in fact he owns three more Lincolns as backups).  I think on the point of the “Lincoln” car part, I preferred the movie as I could visually see Matthew (I mean Mickey) conduct his business in the car rather than read about it.  I liked the other characters in the story as well, his 1^st ex-wife a prosecutor in L.A. and his 2^nd ex-wife a type of virtual business assistant for his legal business.

I actually liked the story more than the characters.  I felt I was part of the entire case from the start when Mickey first meets his client to the gathering of facts of the case to the courtroom with the jury. 

I can honestly say the book “The Lincoln Lawyer” was much better than the movie (other than not being able to visually see Matthew in the Lincoln Town car) and the movie was great.  I was surprised to learn that this is the first book in a series of five books with Mickey Haller. I plan to order “The Brass Verdict” from Amazon soon, I will not wait to find this book at a garage sale. 

The characters in this book were good, the story line was even better and there are more books in this series, a great combination all around.  I also wanted to comment that I plan to read more books by Michael Connelly.  I am sad to say it has taken me so long to read one of his books.  I plan to make up for this!!!!

Me:  I am Diane M. Spolar and I live in Willowbrook, Illinois (a suburb outside of Chicago) with my husband, son and cat.  I am a CPA by day and a reader by night and on the weekends.  I am a lifelong lover of books.