The Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley are fun, short novels starring Flavia de Luce, a precocious chemistry loving girl that solves local murder mysteries.
The whole series is great, and I highly recommend if you enjoy murder mystery stories. These books are one of the few exceptions to the no-child-narrator rule. Funny, dry, and intelligent, they are unique and have an pretty good story arch connecting the books in the series.
7/10 mangoes
My little sis is somewhat, well, obsessed with all things Sherlock. So when she and my mom were out for the weekend, we decided to finally try the Baker Street Pub & Grill on Camp Bowie. First important thing to note: it’s all smoking, so keep that in mind. We sat on the patio since it was nice out but the smoking was still quite heavy if you are sensitive to that.
The food was mostly along the lines of a Chili’s (sandwiches, grill food, etc.) but there were a few “English” dishes thrown in for the brave. We tried the regular fish and chips, the potato crusted fish and zucchini fries, and the burger and fries. All in all pretty decent, standard dinner fare. Prices were a teeny bit higher than expected, but quantities were large and shareable.
This isn’t my favorite sort of food choice, but not bad for greasy fried stuff!
Although no one dared to forge the breach, this was the most interesting thing on the menu:
K’s rating of Baker St. Pub & Grill: 5/10 mangoes
C’s rating of Baker St. Pub & Grill: 6.5/10 mangoes (his stomach has a little bit higher concentration of iron than mine)
Little sis’ rating of Baker St. Pub & Grill: 7/10 mangoes for the fish, 9 for the fries (she still has that young stomach of steel that we all outgrow eventually…)
A surprisingly moving docu-drama based on the final days of Jim Jones’ and his followers. It really bothers me that I never knew that it was as much murder as mass suicide. Very, very sad, but informative. Jonestown: Paradise Lost – 7 mangoes
I read this book in college during a crime and punishment class but had never seen the movie. Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon are phenomenal. A fair and compassionate look at the death penalty. Dead Man Walking – 7 mangoes
A bit of a formulaic and choppy spy/action/thriller, but an easy enough to watch movie. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit – 5 mangoes
A kind of funny and silly romantic comedy with some awkward cheating that kind of ruined bits for me, but with a happy ending. I’m always supportive of an elopement! The Big Wedding – 6 mangoes
If you love Lifetime Movies (who doesn’t) and true crime (yes, please), this movie was a creepy drama based on the Lizzie Borden story. Christina Ricci was cold and heartless, but otherwise it was a little blah. Lizzie Borden Took an Ax – 5 mangoes
I didn’t expect to like this movie, I haven’t read the book, but it was actually a little bit worse than I expected. I found the narrative to be disjointed, the characters hard to understand and empathize with, and it felt like an adult movie that had been cast with kids as a gimmick. Visuals weren’t bad, though. Ender’s Game – 4 mangoes
This little place takes me back to my young teenage years when I first was branching out into the culinary world and discovered Casa Navarro’s “bean soup” (or, basically, charro beans). Pinto beans slow cooked in broth with pork meat and fat, jalapenos, onions, and spices.
I loved Casa Navarro and was excited to come across it again the last time we were in Dallas. Luckily, they’ve held strong over the past 15 years, and the bean soup was just as delicious!
C had carne asada tacos, I had tilapia tacos, and the food was fresh, tasty, and just the right amount of spicy. Yummy (although, not warm) salsa, and the famous bean soup rounded out our meal.
Casa Navarro is locally owned and probably more Tex-Mex than Mexican food style. But don’t judge Tex-Mex by the ubiquitous El Fenix and El Chico. These are some good eats!
C and K’s rating of Casa Navarro: 8/10 mangoes
This is a really lovely story focusing specifically on the struggles a young family has in getting a diagnosis for their son with an incredibly rare genetic disorder, and more broadly on the way that social media and informed families are changing the face of medicine and research. Lovely read (click the image below to be taken to The New Yorker).
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