It begins when 4 people plummet from the top of a tall building. And die. The elevator failed.
It appears to be a horrific, random tragedy. But then, next day, it happens again, in a different Manhattan skyscraper.
If you were the Mayor of NYC, what would you do?
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Quite good.
While the residents of the Québec village of Three Pines take advantage of the deep snow to ski and toboggan, to drink hot chocolate in the bistro and share meals together, the Chief Inspector finds his holiday with his family interrupted by a simple request.
He’s asked to provide security for what promises to be a non-event. A visiting Professor of Statistics will be giving a lecture at the nearby university.
While he is perplexed as to why the head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec would be assigned this task, it sounds easy enough. That is until Gamache starts looking into Professor Abigail Robinson and discovers an agenda so repulsive he begs the university to cancel the lecture.
They refuse, citing academic freedom, and accuse Gamache of censorship and intellectual cowardice. …
fantasticfiction
A very good book.
On their first night in Paris, the Gamaches gather for a family dinner with Armand’s godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz.
But the evening ends in horror when Stephen is knocked down and critically injured in what Armand is convinced is no accident, but a deliberate attempt on an elderly man’s life.
When a strange key is found in Stephen’s possession it sends Armand on a desperate search for the truth that will take him from the top of the Tour Eiffel, to the bowels of the Paris Archives. …
fantasticfiction
East of Eden is a novel by American author and Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck. Published in 1952, the work is regarded by many to be Steinbeck’s most ambitious novel …
Steinbeck stated about East of Eden: “It has everything in it I have been able to learn about my craft or profession in all these years,” and later said: “I think everything else I have written has been, in a sense, practice for this.” …
I liked it less well than the author, but am still pleased to have made it through the lengthy, rambling saga.
Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California in 1902. In fact, he appears as himself as a small boy in this novel.
Racism is a fact in this era. But one of the two smartest and best characters is Lee, an American born Chinese servant.
The other character you want to spend time with is Samuel Hamilton, the patriarch of one family.
Steinbeck books frequently explore the themes of fate and injustice, especially as applied to downtrodden or everyman protagonists. For example, Of Mice and Men.
The female characters are not nearly as important or well drawn as the men and boys.
The title comes from Genesis, Chapter 4, verse 16. The story of Cain and Abel.
Two sets of brothers are the main characters in this book. And one of the four is named Adam.
There are weird love triangles complicating both sets of brothers.
There’s something of a reimagining of the biblical story woven into a history of California’s Salinas Valley.
My two highlights reflecting back on this epic:
James Dean played in one of the movie adaptations.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I’d never heard of Keigo Higashino before randomly trying this novel.
Devotion of Suspect X is fantastic.
Turns out almost twenty of his books have been turned into films and TV series. But not all have been translated to English.
The pacing is slower than a typical American or British whodunnit.
But mathematician Tetsuya Ishigami and Manabu Yukawa, a physicist who often consults with the police, are two of the best fictional characters I’ve read in a long time.
I highly recommend it.
Click PLAY or watch the trailer of the Chinese TV adaptation on YouTube.
Isabel Allende, from Chile, (age-79 as I post), is the world’s most widely read Spanish-language author.
Violeta is her 2022 novel.
It’s a fictional autobiographical account of the life of Violeta Del Valle set over 100 years between the Spanish flu epidemic and Covid 19.
From a petulant child to a wise grandmother, the reader watches her develop as the decades pass.
Isabel’s Mom was born about the same time. In the same social class. In the same place.
I wouldn’t call it brilliant writing. But it is an interesting and entertaining story.
I recommend Violeta.
All Joe Pickett novels are good — BUT I can’t say this is one of the best.
A brilliant villain is released from prison. Back to take revenge on Joe Pickett and family.
Good start.
But is his band of outlaws incompetent or what?
This is the first book I’ve read by Linwood Barclay, though he’s a Canadian.
It’s excellent.
The premise of the plot is fantastic. Private Investigator Cal Weaver is hired to help protect an 18-year-old who had run over a friend while blind drunk. Killed her. And had somehow been found not guilty in court because he (supposedly) did not understand the consequences of his actions because he was coddled by an overprotective mother.
Simultaneously, but apparently unrelated, Detective Barry Duckworth is dealing with a case of a young man abducted and tattooed by … aliens?
Both Duckworth and Weaver are fictional characters well worth spending time with.
I’ll be reading more Barclay.
Like most people my age, I’m a big fan of James Taylor.
My favourite is “Long Ago and Far Away“.
In 2020 he published an audio/music autobiography of his first 21 years:
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
In an era of many folk singer / songwriters, James got lucky when a friend gave a demo tape to Peter Asher, head for the Beatles‘ newly formed label Apple Records.
Paul McCartney and George Harrison liked his voice. Told Asher to sign him to the label.
James recorded his 1st album 1968 at Trident Studios, at the same time the Beatles were recording The White Album.
Though born into a privileged (dysfunctional) family, James struggled with depression and drug addiction.
The big breakthrough was 1970 with “Fire and Rain“.
“Fire and Rain” was inspired by the suicide of Suzanne Schnerr, a childhood friend, and James’ experiences with drug addiction and fame:
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I’d see you again
Carole King wrote You’ve Got a Friend” as a reaction to that line. It was his first #1 hit 1971.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Click PLAY or watch You’ve Got A Friend on YouTube.
Louise Erdrich (age 68 as I post) is a much respected author.
In 2021, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel The Night Watchman.
She is also the owner of Birchbark Books, a small independent bookstore in Minneapolis that focuses on Native American literature.
In The Sentence, the narrator, Tookie, works in a bookstore in Minneapolis that carries Native American literature. Tookie, like the author, is a Native American.
As a young woman, Tookie was sentenced to 60 years in prison. But later had her crime reduced to some years time served. That part of the book I found fascinating.
She became a serious reader in prison, one reason she ended up working in a bookstore — haunted by the ghost of a former customer — before the pandemic broke in March 2020.
I’d forgotten how confusing it was mid-March when we had no masks or gel yet. And didn’t know how serious it would become.
The story in Minneapolis following the murder of George Floyd was super interesting too. Her step daughter was out protesting. But Tookie was worried about looters burning down the bookstore.
Overall — however — I found the book too long and rambling.
It’s supposed to be mainly a ghost story. But I didn’t really buy the resolution of that.
This book should have been shorter.
Rick McCharles 