An important quote often ascribed to Socrates.
I admire those who can hold their tongue while running through this checklist.
ME?
I often check to see if something is true.
Much more rarely do I stop to ponder whether it’s kind. Or necessary.
… I’ll try to do better.
During a blizzard one bitter winter night, just days before Christmas, the car belonging to the wife of a retired local judge is discovered abandoned on a rural county road in Tamarack County. After days of fruitless searching, there is little hope that she’ll be found alive, if she’s found at all.
Cork O’Connor, the ex-sheriff of Tamarack County, notices small things about the woman’s disappearance that disturb him. When the beloved pet dog of a friend is brutally killed and beheaded, he begins to see a startling pattern in these and other recent dark occurrences in the area. And after his own son is brutally attacked and nearly killed, Cork understands that someone is spinning a deadly web in Tamarack County. At its center is a murder more than twenty years old, for which an innocent man may have been convicted. Cork remembers the case only too well. He was the deputy in charge of the investigation that sent the man to prison.
williamkentkrueger.com
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.
During a houseboat vacation on the remote Lake of the Woods, a violent gale sweeps through unexpectedly, stranding Cork and his daughter, Jenny, on a devastated island where the wind has ushered in a force far darker and more deadly than any storm.
Amid the wreckage, Cork and Jenny discover the body of a teenage girl. She wasn’t killed by the storm, however; she’d been bound and tortured before she died. Nearby, underneath a tangle of branches, they also find a baby boy, hungry and dehydrated, but still very much alive. Powerful forces intent on securing the child pursue them to the isolated Northwest Angle …
Amazon
The Northwest Angle is a small piece of the USA completely surrounded by Canada and Lake of the Woods.
In the U.K. I was able to watch Derry Girls for free on Channel 4.
Fantastic. Especially the soundtrack.
One of my favourite comedies, sadly season 3 is the final 7 episodes.
Brilliant finale. The vote on the Good Friday Agreement.
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
I couldn’t live in the EU. Europe still sucks.
BUT I would like to spend a month based out of London. It would take that long to visit all the attractions I’d like to see. And learn the city.
Whenever one of my international flights starts or lands in London (often) I try to add a layover. This time I stayed 3 nights.
London is expen$ive. No question. Double or triple the travel costs of Spain, for example.
But I spend most of my time walking. And in the free public museums.
This time I visited:
Both are excellent.
Darwin holds court over the Natural History Museum. A great scientist.
Over in a public park I watched a guy defend the Flat Earth theory. Even in 2022.
His arguments were silly. And hilarious. But he certainly sounded passionate.
It’s easy to prove the Earth is round. You can see if with your own eyes from an airplane.
Yet somehow folks delude themselves into anti-scientific thinking — that the Earth is only 5000 years old, for example.
My point here is that London is endlessly entertaining. There is so much to see and do.
I love the retro vibe of Stranger Things. Dustin is my favourite character.
But I couldn’t care less about the monsters. And monsters get a lot more screen time in season 4.
I made it through the first 7 episodes. But it’s a hard pass on the final 3 episodes.
I’m out.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
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.
Rick McCharles 