After the success of Kane and Abel and The Prodigal Daughter, Archer published a revised edition of Shall We Tell the President? (1986), replacing Kennedy (in real life a senator and a presidential candidate but never president) with the fictional character Florentyna Kane (who became president in The Prodigal Daughter) in order to link it with the other two novels. …
I enjoyed the two pseudo sequels — but this book is quite different. Stand alone — but set in the timeline of Prodigal Daughter.
President Kane is about to be assassinated for her support of a gun regulation bill.
Note that the U.S. government has still not done much to reduce gun violence in the decades since.
Louis C.K is an asshole. If you’ve cancelled him, I don’t blame you.
I never followed the guy in the first place.
BUT nobody has explained White Privilege more succinctly:
“… I’m not saying that white people are better. I’m saying that being white is clearly better. Who could even argue? If it was an option, I would re-up every year. …” 😀
I am enjoying a series of books by Grainger featuring Norfolk Detective Sergeant DC Smith. SO decided to try the 1st book of another of his series — set in Cornwall.
BUT as much as it is very well written, I prefer the DC Smith character.
Detective Sergeant Chris Waters gets his first assignment as crime scene manager — the murder of a young woman.
The plot is rather dull as murder mysteries go. Most of this book details the people investigating the crime. Their relationships. Their motivations. The slow bureaucracy.
My original plan was to cycle the Senja National Tourist Road — the scenic and BEST parts shown in brown below. Sadly, summer 2022, the section marked RED below was closed due to construction of a new landslide superstructure.
I’d hoped that only motor vehicles were going to be blocked — BUT a Swiss cyclists told me he didn’t get through. The only folks who made it cycled at night and carried bikes around checkpoints.
THEREFORE I was forced to take the long way around. Less scenic. And a LOT more traffic.
I caught the fast ferry back to Tromsø from Finnsenes. Fed up with rain and wind.
Disappointing — but I did climb Sengla, one of my highest priorities for this trip.
My best campsite (free) was in Sommarøy. A wooden platform with a wind break is ideal in Norway.
Disappointed in having to do a much longer trip hitting Finnestes twice, I decided to take an $80 room in this old house. And was glad I did. A nice break from cycling in the rain.
A friendly truck driver on a ferry tipped me off to this — a rare free hot shower in Norway. Actually, I had 2 free hot showers because I cycled through Botnhamm twice.
My final night I camped in a troll themed free campsite near Hamn. Weird. But a good spot.
Expecting the bad weather to improve, it got worse and worse. And worse.
I finally QUIT en route to Skaland which is the trailhead for one of the great hikes. After days of hard rain, that route would have been too muddy to enjoy. Also — no vista from the top.
Summing up ➙ I need to return to Senja once the scenic road is open again.
My rental bike was pretty good, actually. Perhaps I’ll BUY a used bike like this in Tromsø and ride it south as far as it will go. Next time.
Shockingly, this book is set in Arizona close to the Mexican border.
Far, far away from Cork O’Connor’s northern Minnesota.
His new bride Rainy Bisonette receives a desperate phone call from her son, Peter.
The connection is terrible but before the line goes dead, they hear Peter confess to the murder of someone named Rodriquez.
The following morning, Cork and Rainy fly to southern Arizona, where Peter has been working as a counselor in a well-known drug rehab center. When they arrive, they learn that Peter was fired six months earlier and hasn’t been heard from since. So they head to the little desert town of Sulfur Springs where Peter has been receiving his mail. But no one in Sulfur Springs seems to know him. …
As they gather scraps of information about Peter, Cork and Rainy are warned time and again that there is a war going on along the border. “Trust no one in Coronado County,” is the most common piece of advice they receive, and Cork doesn’t have to be told twice.
To him, Arizona is alien country. The relentless heat, the absence of water and big trees and shade all feel nightmarish to him, as does his growing sense that Rainy might know more about what’s going on than she’s willing to admit …
… over 5 months after SAS did not deliver all my luggage to Norway ➙ I finally was sent an airline voucher for CAD $940. And I’m happily surprised I got anything.
Scandinavian Airlines did EVERYTHING to pretend they hadn’t let my luggage sit untouched in Heathrow airport last summer — while I waited day-after-day in Tromsø, Norway. Wanting to start my long cycling tour. No reply to dozens of my attempts to contact them.
After weeks I finally got the camping & cycling gear — but not the bike. It was (finally) sent back to Canada.
Scandinavian Airlines did EVERYTHING to ignore my compensation claim, as well. Pretended I had not sent receipts, for example. I had.
Someone there finally got fed up of my pestering and reluctantly sent a voucher.
I’ll use it to get back to Tromsø, Norway this summer as it’s only valid until 2024-01-13. And try to start my cycling trip again.
I enjoyed wandering the streets, some bleak but interesting landscapes. And some ultramodern looking buildings.
With long, dark winters, libraries are popular here.
ME at my Bibliotek hangout. 😀
Historically, this was the furthest outpost of “Norweigans” in an area mainly populated by the Sámi.
Explorers like Roald Amundsen recruited their teams from here. Here’s a statue of Helmer Hanssen from nearby Andøya. (He’s unrelated to the Helly Hansen company, originally based out of Norway, purchased by retail chain Canadian Tire in 2009.)
Amundsen disappeared in June 1928 while flying on a rescue mission for the airship Italia in the Arctic. The search for his remains, which have not been found, was called off in September of that year.
It’s tempting to fly to Tromsø in winter. Very unique. The northern lights are visible most clear nights.
I stayed at the only hostel in town. About US $35 / night. They treated me well.
I flew to Tromsø to start south on a long cycling adventure. Sadly my bike and gear got stranded at Heathrow airport. I watched them unmoved for … weeks.
Keigo Higashino writes murder mysteries in Japan. Very popular there.
In translation, his books don’t compare with the sophistication and subtlety of American and British writers. But there is something appealing about the slow pace. The simplicity of the scenes.
Also, his translators are not all that good. They get slang wrong most of the time.
Tokyo Police Detective Kyochiro Kaga is a super likeable protagonist.
Demoted, Kaga was transferred to a new precinct.
Newly arrived, but with a great deal of experience, Kaga is promptly assigned to the team investigating the inexplicable murder of a woman in her own home.
But the more he investigates, the greater number of potential suspects emerges.
It isn’t long before it seems nearly all the people living and working in the business district of Nihonbashi have a motive.
This novel was written during pandemic lockdown on his ranch.
The author had plenty of time to write and fish.
Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett must accompany a Silicon Valley CEO on a hunting trip–but soon learns that he himself may be the hunted …
When the governor of Wyoming gives Joe Pickett the thankless task of taking a tech baron on an elk hunting trip, Joe reluctantly treks into the wilderness with his high-profile charge.
But as they venture into the woods, a man-hunter is hot on their heels, driven by a desire for revenge. Finding himself without a weapon, a horse, or a way to communicate, Joe must rely on his wits and his knowledge of the outdoors to protect himself and his companion.
Meanwhile, Joe’s closest friend, Nate Romanowski, and his own daughter Sheridan learn of the threat to Joe’s life and follow him into the woods.
In a stunning final showdown, the three of them come up against the worst that nature–and man–have to offer.
The riveting true story of Dick Conant, an American folk hero who, over the course of more than twenty years, canoed solo thousands of miles of American rivers—and then disappeared near the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This book “contains everything: adventure, mystery, travelogue, and unforgettable characters”
David Grann
The story of a unique American ➙ Dick Conant.
He’s most often compared with Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild ➙ Chris McCandless.
Personally, I don’t see the connection. I was much more reminded of ➙ Eustace Conway, The Last American Man.
Ben McGrath, a staff writer at The New Yorker, met Conant by chance just north of New York City as Conant paddled down the Hudson, headed for Florida. McGrath wrote a widely read article about their encounter, and when Conant’s canoe washed up a few months later, without any sign of his body, McGrath set out to find the people whose lives Conant had touched–to capture a remarkable life lived far outside the staid confines of modern existence. …
Rick McCharles 