The one hundred and fourty-second book: #082 The Red and the Black - Stendhal
After The Betrothed, it's been a welcome twist to get The Red and the Black's more cynical take on romance. Its lead a more deceptive character, his story of enlightenement mostly for fame and to court several women. His rise also proves his undoing, as much from his love as how he annoyed the aristocracy whose station he started to rise towards. It references the history of the day and a lot of the plot is somewhat informed by it, but it is only there in the background of the novel. It makes for an interesting, engaging read for the most parts, as long as you don't get too lost in the names.
The one hundred and eighty-seventh TV show: #973 Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
It's always difficult to follow up on a classic and, for me, the original Cosmos was one of those, bringing us in the world of science, showing it and effectively connecting us to it, including a look at the future and the challenges our world faces that science warns us for. For most of its run, the Neil deGrasse Tyson headed run lives up to that. He is a fascinating presenter, summarizing and teaching the complicated matters in an accessible way, both telling us more about what we knew already and putting what we already knew in its wider context. It's incredibly fascinating when it does so. It lost us more at its more pessimistic looks, and we felt the climate change episode went too far beyond - not that we don't believ eit, but it's a topic that gets hard to listen to and deal with when the science of it just get ignored. Similarly, while the history of science sections are interesting, some episodes focus too much of them (and perhaps overemphasize individual scientists over the shared work that helps progress) when it would be more interesting to get the science behind the story.
It sounds like the sequel series has more of what I look for, in part looking at distant worlds, and I look forward to hearing more stories and learn more about our universe.