Poison Flower is 7th in the excellent Jane Whitefield series.
Whitefield, a member of the Seneca nation, self-identifies as a guide, one who leads her clients — innocents, by and large — out of harm’s way. …
The book commences with Whitefield extricating a man named James Shelby from incarceration in the California Institution for Men in Chino, California.
Shelby is serving a prison sentence there for the murder of his wife, a crime he did not commit. Whitefield successfully frees Shelby in a daring and gutsy courthouse sting, but is herself captured by men masquerading as policemen.
Her captors, as it turns out, are in the employ of the man who framed Shelby to begin with. ….
Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life lie story of a woman who has stayed out of the public eye for decades. She’s the widow of a singer something like Elvis.
An interesting story. Plenty of romance.
Plenty of sex, as well.
I’d recommend it — even if you don’t normally read romance.
But even more so, Terry Gou, who, in 1974, founded FoxConn in Taiwan.
Incredibly ambitious, by 2012 Foxconn made up approximately 40% of worldwide consumer electronics production.
Just one of his many huge factories in China produces the bulk of Apple’s iPhone line and is sometimes referred to as “iPhone City”.
Needless to say, there are many abused workers in those plants. They don’t last many months on the gruelling production line.
Over the years, Gou and others steadily wooed Tim Cook and Apple to move manufacturing to China.
Today over 90% of Apple products are made in China. A huge risk for the company if authoritarian dictator-for-life Xi decides to invade Taiwan. Or shut down exports.
Attempts to move production to other nations have been mostly experiments. Or motivated by politics, not business.
In the meantime, Chinese engineers — many trained by Apple — are building cheaper, better Chinese phones in China. They no longer need Apple.
It’s a precarious situation.
Apple in China is a 2025 book uniquely looking at the company from the viewpoint of China.
In her May 15, 2025 review for The New York Times, Hannah Beech called Apple in China “smart and comprehensive,” praising Patrick McGee’s clever and chronologically organized timeline of how Apple’s expansion to China manufacturing facilities under then COO Tim Cook created a global success but also an “existential vulnerability” for the United States.
The FX miniseries A Teacher (2020) was filmed in my old High School, after it had closed and was scheduled for demolition.
… I don’t recall any teachers like Kate Marawhen I was a student. 😀
Set in the span of 10 years, this series follows a female English teacher in her early 30s as she begins to groom and abuse her 17-year-old male student in the fictional high school of Westerbrook in Austin, Texas.
DEAL Closed. Occupancy by the new owners before the end of August 2025.
My family owned this small, cute single level home in Parksville, B.C. for the past 20 years.
Rob & Yvonne put it on the market for CAD $599,000.
Starting out or slowing down……this centrally located Parksville cutie is sure to please. It features 2 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, an open plan design, solid hardwood floors, an updated kitchen with granite counters, an updated bathroom, skylit entry, crawlspace construction and an attached garage. Sit on your deck and enjoy your lovely backyard that is surrounded by hedges and quite private. It’s a very short walk to shops and Parksville’s famous beach. This home has been well maintained and is move in ready.
You can almost ignore the plot. For some reason Tom must single-handedly defeat a malevolent rogue A.I. known as the Entity. He somehow didn’t die from the bends. I couldn’t understand that. 😀
This is supposed to be the final portrayal of Ethan Hunt. But the ending leaves it open for yet another instalment. I wouldn’t be surprised.
It feels very much up-to-date. They make many recommendations for improvement.
The authors are prominent American liberal pundits. This book evaluates progress in the USA from the left of centre point of view.
It examines the reasons behind the lack of progress on ambitious projects in the United States, including those related to affordable housing, infrastructure, and climate change.
My biggest takeaway is that governments should declare more one time EMERGENCY situations, in responding to things like natural disasters, bridge collapse, and even housing shortages. Rules and regulations make developments safer — but at too much cost. Red tape should be reduced as much as possible.
Cut and Thrust (2015) is 30th in the long Stone Barrington series.
Similar but different than the rest. A good one.
This one is quite political.
When Stone travels to Los Angeles for the biggest political convention of the year, he finds the scene quite shaken up: a dazzling newcomer—and close friend of Stone’s—has given the delegates an unexpected choice, crucial alliances are made and broken behind closed doors, and it seems that more than one seat may be up for grabs.
And amid the ambitious schemers and hangers-on are a few people who may use the chaotic events as cover for more sinister plans…
Jane Whitefield is a Native American who has made a career out of helping people disappear.
Jane had quit and gotten married in book #3.
BUT, her husband’s mentor, plastic surgeon Dr. Richard Dahlman, is wrongly accused of murder.
Jane agrees to employ her expertise one more time.
Thus begins Perry’s latest, which soon begets layer upon layer of deception and intrigue. It seems that Dahlman himself, with a series of operations, had helped someone attain a new identity, and that he is being pursued not by the police but by men intent on killing him for what he knows.
But who are they?
Re-establishing some of her old creepy contacts, Jane becomes convinced the villains are in the business of frightening people into believing they are in danger, then collecting vast sums to help them vanish.
And now that the FBI is after Jane for Dahlman’s escape, she is beleaguered on two fronts. This is really a prolonged chase novel …
Rick McCharles 