An endearing Canadian sitcom based in Newfoundland.
It’s based on the school days of comedian Mark Critch who’s age-48. I’m quite a bit older but still get nostalgic over some of the news stories of the day featured in the show.
Critch plays his father (Mike Critch) in the series, while child actor Benjamin Evan Ainsworth plays the young Critch.
Malcolm McDowellis a treat as Patrick “Pop” Critch, Mark’s grandfather. Turns out he once worked running Rum for Al Capone during prohibition. 😀
Having grown up in Calgary, I’d done a LOT of hiking in the Canadian Rockies in the SUMMER.
But for the past 3 years I’ve stayed in Banff for Spring skiing and Spring hiking.
Hiking in March / April was NEW to me.
Each time I stayed in the Samesun Hostel, the best overall of 3 good hostels in Banff.
I learned the hard way trying Sundance Canyon that micro spikes are essential for hiking ice. I backtracked to town and bought Yaktrax. An excellent product.
Now 70-years-old and still publishing 4 books every year?
She writes one novel at a time. Eight hours / day, every day.
And most are huge books like Nightwork (2022). Sprawling. Emotional. Well researched.
Yes, this one is a bit of a romance novel. But Roberts’ storytelling is on par with the best: Stephen King, James Michener, John Grisham, Jeffrey Archer. Authors who keep things moving while making you care about the fictional characters.
Harry Booth started stealing at nine to keep a roof over his ailing mother’s head, slipping into luxurious, empty homes at night to find items he could trade for precious cash.
When his mother finally succumbed to cancer, he left Chicago—but kept up his nightwork, developing into a master thief with a code of honor and an expertise in not attracting attention? … Or getting attached.
Until he meets Miranda Emerson, and the powerful bond between them upends all his rules.
But along the way, Booth has made some dangerous associations, including the ruthless Carter LaPorte, who sees Booth as a tool he controls for his own profit. Knowing LaPorte will leverage any personal connection, Booth abandons Miranda for her own safety—cruelly, with no explanation—and disappears.
But the bond between Miranda and Booth is too strong, pulling them inexorably back together. Now Booth must face LaPorte, to truly free himself and Miranda once and for all.
Emily Willows is middle-aged, widowed, wealthy, and bored.
Summer Lane is a new neighbour. It turns out she’s a skilled former police D.I. — but wants to remain anonymous, if possible.
Emily wants to form a Detective Agency with Summer, … who is reluctant.
In this book they are somehow convinced to investigate the disappearance (?) of a wealthy couple’s daughter. She’s reportedly out of communication in an eco community on a Welsh island.
This show is skillfully done. It’s surprising. Never cliche.
Season 2 takes place a year after the first season, centering around the fourth anniversary of the Departure.
It’s weirder than season 1. Perhaps slightly better.
I still don’t like any of the characters aside from Reverend Matt. His belief is inspiring.
While some scenes take place in Mapleton, New York (the first season’s setting) and other locations, the majority of the season takes place in Jarden, Texas, also known as Miracle, a town from which no one departed. …
… multiple storylines, notably the ideological battle between those who believe Miracle is special and those who do not,
Kevin and Nora’s relationship being tested by Kevin’s increasingly erratic mental state, the Murphy family’s search for their missing daughter, and Matt’s attempts to prove the existence of a miracle only he witnessed. …
An audio only original novella by an excellent writer.
It’s 1927, and the most devastating flood in American history has swelled the Mississippi River to a width of eighty miles.
In an attempt to save a family trapped by the rising water, four men in a tiny rowboat battle the treacherous flow: three are convicts, on loan from the local prison and pressed into service; the fourth, the leader of the team, is driven by his own hidden motives.
But to their surprise upon arrival at Ballymore, an ancestral home protected by a high, circular levee, not everyone in the family feels the need to be saved.
Pride, greed, loyalty, and even love create their own complex currents behind the massive wall.
As the threat from the flood increases and time ticks away, the crew and the family must decide on a course of action, and a desperate plan is hatched to save the weakening levee and all it was built to protect.
She was a practicing lawyer before giving writing a go.
The Ruin (2018) is her debut novel. A critically acclaimed international bestseller. It won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, the Davitt Award for Best Adult Fiction and the Barry Award for Best Original Paperback, and was shortlisted for numerous other prizes.
Cormac Reilly is about to reopen the case that took him twenty years to forget …
Responding to a call that took him to a decrepit country house, young Garda Cormac Reilly found two silent, neglected children – fifteen-year-old Maude and five-year-old Jack. Their mother lay dead upstairs.
Since then Cormac’s had twenty high-flying years working as a detective in Dublin, and he’s come back to Galway for reasons of his own. As he struggles to navigate the politics of a new police station, Maude and Jack return to haunt him. …
Betrayal is at the heart of this unsettling small-town noir and the Ireland it portrays. In a country where the written law isn’t the only one, The Ruin asks who will protect you when the authorities can’t – or won’t.
Rick McCharles 