This is book #26 in the Jack Reacher series. Quite good, in my opinion. Better than the previous Andrew Child book.
As always, Reacher stumbles into an incredible scenario … by accident.
He bumps into Michaela Fenton, an army veteran turned FBI agent, trying to find her twin brother, who might be mixed up with some dangerous people.
Fenton is a badass herself, a good compliment for Reacher.
This book kept me going from start to finish.
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Good book. I’m not sure I’d call it Young Adult, however. though it’s often listed amongst the top YA novels of all time.
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is a coming-of-age young adult novel by American author Benjamin Alire Sáenz.
Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza is the main protagonist.
He’s a typically angry, bored and confused teen. A loner.
Set in El Paso, Texas in 1987, the story starts when Ari meets another Mexican-American teen, Dante Quintana.
Dante is an admirable person in every way. It’s his influence and their friendship which finally helps Ari grow up.
A happy ending.
Several themes feature prominently. These include Mexican-American identity, gender and sexuality, particular masculine gender roles and homosexuality, intellectualism and artistic expression, as well as family relationships and friendship.
Now that the shock of Villanelle being an emotionless psychopath has been established, season 2 is not nearly as good as season 1.
One good plot thread concerned finance manager Aaron Peel. But it ended in an unsatisfying way. Writers couldn’t come up with anything better?
And the weird relationship between an MI6 specialist nerd and a Russian professional killer isn’t convincing.
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Good TV.
This is the 13th in a series of ITV mini-series featuring notorious British murder cases of the past two centuries.
Pembrokeshire Murders is a British three-part television drama miniseries, based on the Pembrokeshire murders by Welsh serial killer John Cooper. …
In 2006, newly promoted Detective Superintendent Steve Wilkins decided to reopen two unsolved 1980s murder cases linked with a string of burglaries. New advances in technology for Forensic DNA analysis, witness reports and artists impressions of the suspect …
Luke Evans is excellent in the lead.
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I was happy to get my hands on the sequel to Thursday Murder Club.
Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim—the Thursday Murder Club—are still riding high off their recent real-life murder case and are looking forward to a bit of peace and quiet at Cooper’s Chase, their posh retirement village. …
The writing is witty. The old folks endearing, especially Ibrahim.
It’s a lark. Don’t take the plot — or the murders — too seriously.
And soon to be a major motion picture from Steven Spielberg. It will be more like Best Exotic Marigold Hotel than a murder mystery.
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I’m 64-years-young on November 2nd.
I’ll be celebrating in Lisbon, Portugal. You know — the most vaccinated nation in the world? 😇
No quarantine. No covid test. BLAST. Connecting in Montreal, I was one of about 10 connecting passengers informed that we did need a Covid test before getting on the plane. I got a 20 minute test at the airport for $150. Very confusing as Portugal allows vaccinated passengers to arrive without a test on TAP airlines and others. I blame Air Transat for poor communication.
I’ll be hiking famed Fisherman’s Trail. And Seven Hanging Valleys.
Renting a touring bicycle from BikeIberia.
BUT if anyone asks, I’m there mainly looking to get some dental work done. North American dentists are the most overpaid in the world.
As usual, I’m flying to Europe on Air Transat. Cheapest by far — BUT they don’t have many flights / week.
As it happens, I celebrated my 53rd birthday in Porto, Portugal. So this is something of a re-do.
My favourite post-apocalyptic novel is The Road (2006) by Cormac McCarthy. It won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Dog Stars (2012) is not as good. But similar. And it’s well written. I do recommend the book.
Hig survived the flu that killed everyone he knows.
His wife is gone, his friends are dead, he lives in the hangar of a small abandoned airport with his dog, his only neighbor a gun-toting misanthrope.
In his 1956 Cessna, Hig flies the perimeter of the airfield or sneaks off to the mountains to fish and pretend that things are the way they used to be.
But when a random transmission somehow beams through his radio, the voice ignites a hope deep inside him that a better life–something like his old life–exists beyond the airport.
Risking everything, he flies past his point of no return–not enough fuel to get him home–following the trail of the static-broken voice on the radio. But what he encounters and what he must face–in the people he meets, and in himself–is both better and worse than anything he could have hoped for.
peterheller.net
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I’ve always been a big fan of the original Dune published 1965.
Such a fan that I even loved the 1984 film adaptation by David Lynch. Recall Sting was Feyd-Rautha, Baron Harkonnen’s younger nephew. It was widely panned.
I booked an IMAX ticket online. Sat in the second row so the screen would fill my vision. I wanted to be engulfed by sand.
And I was not disappointed.
Denis Villeneuve was the right person to remake this story.
Dune is BIG. Dark. Gritty. Dusty. Beautiful.
I hiked that area of Jordan. Fond memories.
Though the cast was all excellent, Timothée Chalamet makes this film. He’s perfect as Paul Atreides. In contrast, Kyle MacLachlan was not believable in the 1984 version.
Villeneuve stated that Chalamet was his first and only choice to play the role.
Stellan Skarsgård was intimidating as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. He reminded me of Marlon Brando when he reached 300 lbs.
Zendaya as Chani is excellent too, but doesn’t have much screen time. She’ll be a central character in Dune part 2.
The only casting I’d question is Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Dr. Liet-Kynes. Not sure that worked.
Great soundtrack by Hans Zimmer.
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I lived in the ‘toon for 10 years. After pandemic delays, I finally got back to visit my longtime friends there.
The big skies at dawn and dusk have a unique prairie beauty.
I been hangin’ around grain elevators
I been learnin’ ’bout food
I been talkin’ to soil farmers
I been workin’ on land
Warren took me disc golfing. NOW I’m planning to buy some discs of my own.
Rick McCharles 