May's Mutterings

May’s Mutterings: Rants and Ramblings

  • Book review: Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal

    Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal My rating: 4 of 5 stars Having finished a trilogy of Winston Churchill’s life not too long ago, I was interested in seeing how a historical mystery set in World War II Britain would hold up in comparison. The historical details in “Mr. Churchill’s Secretary” are accurate, although…

  • Restaurant review: Passage to India (the restaurant not the book)

    I am generally pretty dismissive of the restaurant scene in Bethesda, particularly downtown Bethesda. I find the food mostly uninspired and often mediocre (with a few exceptions). So when some friends suggested we go to Passage to India, an (obviously) Indian restaurant in downtown Bethesda, we agreed but were skeptical. We were pleasantly surprised with…

  • Book review: The Deception by Joan Wolf

    The Deception by Joan Wolf My rating: 4 of 5 stars I really love Joan Wolf Regency romances (her historical fiction is good, too). I compare her Regency romances to champagne. They are light, fizzy, and enjoyable. The plots are well-crafted. The time period is drawn accurately and is well described. The hero and heroine…

  • Photography Class – Franciscan Monastery

    A lovely friend of mine gave me as a birthday gift a photography class put on by a company called the School of Creative Photography (www.schoolofcreativephotography.com). We spent several hours at a Franciscan monastery in northeast Washington, DC taking photos of the monastery and the surrounding grounds (who knew there was a Franciscan monastery in…

  • Inn at Little Washington birthday dinner

    We had my birthday dinner at the Inn at Little Washington a couple of weeks ago. The Inn was kind enough to do a somewhat individualized menu for us, and I feel inclined to gloat about the meal, which was fabulous, even by the Inn’s usual impeccable standards. We started off, of course, with truffle…

  • Casa Luca (Washington, DC)

    Casa Luca is a relatively new restaurant by Fabio Trabocchi, who also started the more well-known Fiola’s and the newly opened Fiola Mare. Casa Luca is the more informal and relaxed sibling of those two restaurants. We dined at Casa Luca as part of a bet over whether the Obamacare website would be fixed by…

  • Book review: A Night Like This by Julia Quinn

    A Night Like This by Julia Quinn My rating: 3 of 5 stars I love Julia Quinn books as immensely satisfying “mind candy,” whenever I need a break from more serious reading. Her characters are generally well developed, the plots are interesting, and the dialogue is always witty. “A Night Like This” continues the saga…

  • Henry IV, parts 1 and 2 (Shakespeare Theatre)

    The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC has been putting on Henry IV, parts 1 and 2 these past few weeks. We took our kids to see both performances, and here are our collective family thoughts. For those unfamiliar with the plays, Henry IV has deposed (and probably killed) his cousin, Richard II and ascended the…

  • Awesome Con 2014

    Because Jim and I are awesome parents, we took the kids to Awesome Con at the Washington Convention Center on Sunday, April 20. This was an interesting sociological event. Awesome Con is unlike Star Trek conventions, which are dedicated to one show (more or less) and are totally obsessed by that one narrative (not that…

  • Book Review: The Last Lion, Volume 3 by William Manchester & Paul Reid

    The Last Lion 3: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-65 by William R. Manchester My rating: 4 of 5 stars William Manchester wrote the first two volumes of his planned Winston Churchill biography (The Last Lion: Visions of Glory and The Last Lion: Alone) before suffering several strokes that resulted in his inability…

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