Ink Black Heart by … Robert Galbraith

On By Rick McIn books, ethics, human rights, TV1 Comment

Meh.

The Ink Black Heart is a crime fiction novel by the English author J. K. Rowling, written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. 

It is the 6th novel in the Cormoran Strike series. …

Of the six, for me this was worst. Too long. Too slow paced. And WAY too much hateful back-and-forth text messaging.

Skip it — and hope for better with #7.

As a Kirkus reviews put it, by the time you get to page 1462 you no longer care who murdered who.

I made it about half way through before giving up.

Foolishly, the billionaire author engaged in online debate on the topic of transgender people and related civil rights. These have been criticised as transphobic by LGBT rights organisations and some feminists, but have received support from other feminists and individuals.

As a person of wealth and power, Rowling’s inevitably punching down when she engages with critics.

Rowling does a lot of charity work. Is a good person. And should simply stay quiet online — like MacKenzie Scott.

As a big fan of Rowling’s books, this one wastes too much time describing the good and bad of online fandom. Not enough on the painful but entertaining relationship between lovely Robin Ellacott and gruff, unlovable Cormoran Strike.

My best guess is that her mind was not on Robin & Cormoran while writing — but on personal grievance.

And after all this — I still don’t understand her position on those few individuals (0.1% to 0.6% of the population) born with gender identity or gender expression that does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth.

Personally, I don’t care if you are trans, from Transylvania, or choose to medically transition to another sex.

Everyone should have equal opportunity.

OF COURSE when it comes to what sport to play there should be rules. And each sport should set those to be as fair as possible to all participants.

The TV series Strike has 4 seasons as I post. It’s quite good.

Christmas Lights MÁLAGA, Spain

On By Rick McIn travelLeave a comment

Every 2 years Málaga tries to out-do the last Christmas spectacular. It’s a big deal.

Here’s how it was launched last night. The street was literally impassable.

More photos.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

And here’s the concept. A row of 4-metre-high angels along the Main Street of old town.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

There are a LOT of poinsettias in Spain. Indigenous to Mexico and Central America, it grows well here.

Severance – season 1

On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

I’m sure film students will be studying this TV series for decades to come.

Cinematography and design original.

The weirdly slow pace is still compelling. Literally no work actually gets done at work.

But is it worth watching?

Critics love it. Awards have been heaped on the show.

Rotten Tomatoes: “Audacious, mysterious, and bringing fresh insight into the perils of corporate drudgery.”

The cast is fantastic.

Best of the best might be Tramell Tillman as Seth Milchick.

Talk about getting creeped out by someone trying to be perfectly normal! He’s uncanny valley.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Count me in. I’ll be there for season 2.

I was punched in Spain 🥊

On By Rick McIn health & fitness, travel1 Comment

I can’t recall being in a fist fight since elementary school.  I’m no a fighter. 

Walking at night on a crowded pedestrian street in Málaga I sidestepped to avoid running into a guy. 

He deliberately shouldered me — for no reason. 

I did the wrong thing, reflexively giving him an equal shove back.  And calling him a Fuckwad.  

He punched me, but not that hard.  More than a slap.  Less than a punch. 

It didn’t hurt but happened to draw blood as my glasses cut me and were knocked to the ground. 

At that point I did the right thing.  I stepped into the crowded outdoor restaurant and sat down beside a waiter.  

My opponent had still said nothing.  But started removing his jacket as he’d seen toxic macho actors do on TV.  Ready to fight. 

It would have been difficult at that point to drag me out of the restaurant. I was confident the fight was over.

Finally another big guy, another local, intervened as peacemaker, and convinced him to move on. 

Travel is easy in 2022 with the internet and map apps.  But there’s still some adventure to be had. 😀 

Here’s the damage done.  Do I look scared enough?

CARRIE SOTO IS BACK by Taylor Jenkins Reid

On By Rick McIn books, sport - proLeave a comment

I’m no particular tennis fan, but this book did keep me going.

“The Bitch Is Back,” one of Carrie’s anthems.

It’s simplistically written. Something like a Young Adult novel.

But the pace makes for good storytelling. I do recommend it.

Carrie Soto is the best tennis player in the world, and she knows it. Her father, Javier, is a former tennis champion himself, and he’s dedicated his life to coaching her. By the time she retires in 1989, she holds the record for winning 20 Grand Slam singles titles.

But then, in 1994, Nicki Chan comes along. Nicki is on the verge of breaking Carrie’s record, and Carrie decides she can’t let that happen: She’s coming out of retirement, with her father coaching her, to defend her record…and her reputation. 

Kirkus Review

Themes of how women in sport are treated — compared with men.

The Coldest Case by Martin Walker

On By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

Another enjoyable tale with Bruno, Chief of Police, small town France.

Bruno and his friends are the highlight.

Plot in this book is pretty dull. It’s not nearly the best in the series.

Bruno tries to solve a 30-year-old cold case with his mentor, Chief Detective Jalipeau.

To start, all they have is a skull.

Visiting Albufeira, Portugal

On By Rick McIn travelLeave a comment

I hopped on a bus Lisbon ➙ Albufeira because it was the one major Algarve destination I’d not yet visited.

And it is great. More scenic than Faro or Lagos.

First night I found my favourite spot overlooking the OLD town. Below is where young tourists party.

Outdoor escalators make it easier for drunks in the OLD TOWN beach front to get back up to their accommodation. 😀

There’s an elevator as well on the other end of the beach.

This town is normally packed with tourists — but in November (winter!) many of the 100 restaurants on ‘The Strip’ are closed. And the beaches near empty.

My 3 star hotel charged only $30 / night in November.

Janelas do Mar, Albufeira

Here are some beach shots in daylight.

One of my favourite walks was from old town to the marina via these bright white stairs.

As this is primarily a tourist town, walking the rest of the city I found less interesting than — for example — Porto or Lisbon.

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

On By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

This Tender Land (2019) is a sprawling stand alone book, something similar to William Kent Krueger’s most acclaimed book ➙ Ordinary Grace.

It tracks the adventures of 12-year-old Odysseus “Odie” O’Bannion, his older brother Albert, and two of their friends after they flee the brutality of the (fictional) Lincoln residential Indian School, and travel by canoe down the (fictional) Gilead, Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers in hopes of reuniting with their aunt in St. Louis.

It reminds some of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the Odyssey.

Krueger says he drew inspiration from Charles Dickens‘s criticism of the severe British boarding school system.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Hideaway by Nora Roberts

On By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

Excellent.

At random I downloaded Nora Roberts’ 2020 novel Hideaway.

Wow.

A sprawling multi-generational family drama. Fast paced from the very start

It really reminded me of the entertaining story telling of Jeffrey Archer.

Good vs evil. Compelling and interesting characters.

If this is a romance novel, I’m good with them. The romance makes up perhaps 5%.

In this book, 9-year-old Caitlyn Sullivan is kidnapped from the family home in Big Sur, California. Coming from a long line of Hollywood royalty, they want MONEY.

Some may have considered her a pampered princess, but Cate was in fact a smart, scrappy fighter, and she managed to escape her abductors. Dillon Cooper was shocked to find the bloodied, exhausted girl huddled in his house―

Amazon

And so it begins.

If— by Rudyard Kipling

On By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

Poetry has never been one of my things.

But the one poem that stuck for all these decades is “If—“ by English writer and poet Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936), written circa 1895 …

… written in the form of paternal advice to the poet’s son, John.

If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    ⁠And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    ⁠Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
    ⁠And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.