Three Things on a Saturday Night With Norma Watkins

It’s Saturday night! We have a few ways for you to enjoy tonight from author Norma Watkins. She’s the author of the book In Common. I’ll tell you more about that later, but first, I want to share Norma’s ideas for your Saturday night.

Take it away, Norma!

A book recommendation:  

Reading is my favorite thing. I use the reward/punishment system. If I accomplish what I’m supposed to, when I’m supposed to, as a reward, I get to read. I judge parties by: Would I rather be home reading? Sadly often, yes. 

One of my all-time favorite books is an oldie. I CAPTURE THE CASTLE by Dodie Smith. It came out in 1948, but has been reissued in paperback by St. Martin’s Press, and is available on Amazon, and used at Thriftbooks and Abebooks. One reviewer says, “It’s as fresh as if it were written this morning and as classic as Jane Austen.” I love books with a great voice and Cassandra Mortmain’s is witty, insightful, and delicious. At 17, she lives with her eccentric family, in not-so-genteel poverty in a ramshackle English castle. She is one of my favorite narrators and by the end of the book you will adore her.

A movie recommendation:

I loved watching Cate Blanchett tear up the screen in Tár. A woman as successful as any man, as cruel as any man, and brought down by her own hubris.  It’s a psychological thriller and key moments are caught as phone texts (definitely NOT my favorite strategy in movies or on television). You have to watch carefully and maybe see it twice. 

Lydia Tár is the first female chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. She relies on Francesca, her personal assistant, and Sharon, her wife and concertmaster. During an interview with Adam Gopnik at the New Yorker Festival, Lydia promotes her upcoming live recording of Mahler‘s Fifth Symphony and her book Tár on Tár. From this pinnacle of success, we watch with horror as, predatory and exploitative, Lydia wastes her capital, one uncaring act after another. A critic said, “Tár doesn’t offer anything as comfortable as redemption, and it asks us to fall in love, at least a little, with a tyrant. Available free on Peacock and for 5.99 rent on other platforms.

A Saturday Night Treat:

Okay, this is sinful, but what the heck—it’s Saturday. Whip up a batch of brownies and settle in to binge my current favorite British spy series on Peacock. 

First, the Brownies: Mix up a box of Ghiradelli’s Chocolate Supreme brownies according to directions. Add to the basic mix: 1 cup toasted, chopped walnuts or pecans, and one 12 oz package of Ghiradelli’s Bittersweet Chocolate bits. Pour into greased 9-inch pan. Bake for 20 minutes at suggested temperature. Rotate pan. Bake for another 20 minutes. Remove from oven. Cool a little before cutting into squares … and indulge! These freeze wonderfully and recover fully after 30 seconds in the microwave.

The Capture has two six-part seasons that will make you question our looming future with AI. The first season begins when soldier Shaun Emery’s conviction for a murder in Afghanistan is overturned due to flawed video evidence, and he returns to life as a free man with his young daughter. But damning CCTV footage from a night out in London comes to light and  he must fight for his freedom again. With DI Rachel Carey drafted to investigate Shaun’s case, she quickly learns that the truth can be a matter of perspective. Season Two is even stranger.

Peacock does stick you with a few commercials, but they are brief. 

Thank you Norma!

About In Common

Lillian Creekmore grows up at her family’s popular rural spa. She successfully runs an entire hotel, yet longs for a husband. Then she meets Will Hughes.

Velma Vernon accepts life on a small, struggling farm until a boy she barely tolerates proposes marriage. To accept means duplicating her parents’ hard life. Alone, she leaves for the city and triumphs, not as a wife, but by being the best at her job. Velma is content until the most beautiful man she has ever seen walks into her office.

This moving and darkly humorous novel follows the intertwined lives of women willing to surrender everything to a man.

Purchase a copy of In Common by visiting Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Bookshop.org. Make sure you also add In Common to your Goodreads reading list.

Raised in the South during the civil rights struggles, Norma Watkins is the author of In Common and two memoirs: The Last Resort, Taking the Mississippi Cure (2011), which won a gold medal for best nonfiction published in the South by an independent press; and That Woman from Mississippi (2017). She lives in northern California with her woodworker husband and three cats.
You can find her online by visiting her website or reading her blog.

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