Trad Wife by Sarah Langan

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ASSuME this is a novel mocking the current far-right tradwife political push. Part of Trump’s Project 2025, for example.

You’d be wrong as I was.

About half way through, I realized it was something like a Stephen King horror.

Trad Wife (2026) follows Jenny Kaplan, a disgraced journalist desperate to resurrect her career.

She travels to the isolated, 300-acre Black Swan Farm in Pennsylvania to write a scathing, undercover exposé on Mia Wright—the internet’s reigning “trad wife” queen who flaunts a flawless, curated life of pastoral bliss, from-scratch meals, and seven perfect children.

What starts as a standard journalistic takedown quickly descends into a surreal, modern gothic nightmare.

Jenny realizes there is a genuinely sinister, suffocating supernatural presence inside the farmhouse.

As the days blur together, Jenny begins suffering from severe memory lapses, unexplained hair loss, and terrifying nightmares of something slithering into her room …

Personally, I support a woman’s right to being a stay-at-home wife or a stay-at-home mother — if her finances and support system allow it. Increasingly difficult in 2026.

Many stay-at-home women are not white nor politically right wing, of course.

Painter Frank Bowling

On By Rick McIn Art and beautyLeave a comment

I’d never heard of Frank Bowling —but ended up at an exhibition in Istanbul:

Frank Bowling: Creation and Destruction

With Interruptions by Francis Bacon and Victor Willing

As I liked abstract painting, I liked his work.

Frank Bowling, is a British artist who was born in British Guiana.

He is particularly renowned for his large-scale, abstract “Map” paintings, which relate to abstract expressionism, colour field painting and lyrical abstraction.

In his earliest works, Bowling was influenced by the work of Rembrandt, Goya, Van Gogh and Francis Bacon.

6 Key Works from Frank Bowling’s Remarkable Career

From Potter’s Field by Patricia Cornwell

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From Potter’s Field is a 1995 crime fiction novel written by American author Patricia Cornwell.

The sixth book in her highly popular, long-running Dr. Kay Scarpetta series.

The story opens during a grim Christmas season. Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Virginia’s Chief Medical Examiner and a consulting pathologist for the FBI, is called to New York City’s Central Park. A naked woman’s body has been discovered propped against a fountain in the freezing cold.

Scarpetta immediately recognizes the gruesome trademark methods—including a specific gunshot wound and excised sections of skin—of her elusive nemesis, the brilliant serial killer Temple Brooks Gault.

As more victims emerge, including a transit officer in a subway tunnel, Scarpetta realizes that Gault’s trail of violence is a personal game intentionally designed to lure and destroy her. The novel reaches an electrifying, high-tech climax within the dark, menacing labyrinth of the New York City subway system.

Temple Brooks Gault is one of the more terrifying villains in fiction.

Happy Happy !

On By Rick McIn about Rick, hiking, travel1 Comment

I’ve been in exotic lands many times on November 2nd.

This time it’s Antalya, Türkiye. My second visit.

I was here in 2017 for a week hiking on the Lycian Way.

Loved it. And I’m back for more.

I bought myself a 2nd airline ticket here — because I accidentally went to the WRONG Istanbul airport.

Oops.

Luckily domestic flights are inexpensive.

Masterplan – 2026 movie

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Masterplan is a 2026 French-Italian crime-comedy heist film.

Stanley Tucci plays a different kind of role in this one.

It’s a heist romp. Entertaining.

Stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Amsterdam & Rotterdam Photos

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I was in Rotterdam for the World Gymnastics Championships.

Some random photos.

Weather consistently windy, grey, wet.

BEST moments were wandering early morning or late night through scenes which would make for a good urban dystopian film.

I stayed near the Central Station in Rotterdam.

One place I enjoyed a number of times was Rotterdam’s indoor Market Hall.

On my first trip to Netherlands age-17 I purchased clogs. And wore them for years after.

Statues are stupid. They should all be moved indoors.

The Odyssey (2026)

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Saw The Odyssey in IMAX. Worth watching.

I was impressed how they adapted the LONG, SILLY, CONFUSING ancient Greek epic poem watchable by a modern audience.

It doesn’t look an A.I. monstrosity. Director Nolan prefers practical, “old school” in-camera special effects over CGI.

Modern language, American accents, and profanity are a bit shocking at first. But I got used to it.

Cast is great: Matt Damon stars as Odysseus, alongside Anne Hathaway (Penelope), Tom Holland (Telemachus), Robert Pattinson (Antinous), Zendaya (Athena), and Charlize Theron (Calypso).

The blind friend and servant Eumaeus, played by John Leguizamo is particularly interesting and original.

I recommend it.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Racist Musk was offended by the cast. I assume he wanted more authentic Ancient Greek looking people, rather than Americans. 😀

Musk is working on an A.I. generated version.

Watch 7 minute episode 1 on Twitter.

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

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Dungeon Crawler Karl is a science fantasy LitRPG book series written by American author Matt Dinniman.

It’s comedy — with extreme, graphic violence and horror.

Entertaining, even if you don’t appreciate video games, like myself.

Initially self-published by Dinniman via online publisher Royal Road, it and its seven sequels were acquired by Ace Books in 2024.

It’s unexpectedly become an absolute juggernaut in the publishing industry, completely rewriting the rules for self-published web serials.

We’re Obsessed With ‘Dungeon Crawler Carl’ and Think You’ll Be Too

A massive portion of this success is driven by the audio format. The series has accumulated over 140 million hours of listening time through Soundbooth Theater and Audible. The audio book reader is great ➙ Jeff Hays.

An alien corporation instantly flattens every man-made structure on Earth, killing billions of people indoors.

The remaining survivors are herded into a massive, 18-level subterranean dungeon.

This dungeon operates as a sadistic, televised intergalactic reality game show watched by trillions of aliens across the universe.

To survive, the “crawlers” must fight monsters, level up their stats, find gear, and entertain the bloodthirsty audience to gain sponsors

  • Carl: A 27-year-old Coast Guard veteran who enters the dungeon wearing nothing but boxer shorts, a leather jacket, and no shoes—accompanied by an incredibly snarky AI that has a strange obsession with his bare feet.
  • Princess Donut: His ex-girlfriend’s prize-winning Persian show cat. After consuming a magical pet biscuit early on, she gains human-level sentience, the ability to speak, and becomes a powerful, spell-slinging diva

Why is Carl with his ex-girlfriend’s fussy cat? Prior to writing the series, Matt Dinniman had made his living going to cat shows and drawing illustrations of cats for their owners. When Covid hit, those cat shows were cancelled, so he spent his time writing.

It reminds me of The Bobiverse Series, which I found better.

The series averages an incredibly rare 4.7 out of 5 stars across over 350,000 community ratings on Goodreads.

The audiobooks hold a near-perfect 4.9 out of 5 stars with over 120,000 reviews, frequently cited as a gold standard for audio production.

Book 1 is Dungeon Crawler Carl.

Netherlands Bicycle Culture

On By Rick McIn cycling, health & fitness, travelLeave a comment

I love cycling — but was intimidated by bike traffic in Rotterdam.

Netherlands has the highest bike ownership in the world, with over 24 million bicycles for a population of 18 million people, and cycling makes up roughly 27% of all daily trips nationwide.

Over 35,000 kilometers of segregated red-asphalt cycle paths, dedicated traffic lights, and continuous bike routes.

In 2011, I was nothing but impressed.

But in 2026 … I find the higher speed eBikes too dangerous.

Helmets are not required.

I saw people in the busy city texting while on an electric bike at 25km / hour or more.

For some years, cyclists represent the largest share of traffic fatalities (281 deaths), outpacing passenger car occupants (228 deaths).

At least 41% of those killed while cycling were riding an e-bike, and the sharpest increase in deaths occurred specifically among men aged 70 and older. I’m age-68.

Fatbikes ridden by young men seemed the biggest danger to me.

Guardian

We Chase Shadows by Richard Osman

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We Chase Shadows is the 2026 comedy-mystery novel written by bestselling author Richard Osman.

Osman is The Thursday Murder Club author. Always entertaining.

I actually wasn’t all that impressed with the first book in this series ➙ We Solve Murders (2024).

This one is better, but still a bit rambling and confused.

I couldn’t understand how the characters could so quickly & easily teleport between Italy, Sweden, California, Barcelona, and Quiz Night at Steve’s quiet village pub.

Comedy seems the goal, not the plot. And it is very funny.

… sunrise in the picturesque Italian hills, where a dead body is discovered on the steps of a luxury private villa. Found on the corpse is a threatening note signed by a mysterious entity.

Back at agency headquarters, the mismatched detective trio—Amy Wheeler (a fierce global security expert), Steve Wheeler (her structured, retired-cop father-in-law), and Rosie D’Antonio (a larger-than-life, bestselling author who finances the operation)—leap at the opportunity to sink their teeth into their first official case.

Their client, a wealthy supplement mogul hiding out in a high-security compound, has clear motives for keeping the police out of the loop.