Run, Rose, Run by James Patterson & Dolly Parton

On March 17, 2022March 14, 2022 By Rick McIn books, musicLeave a comment

Everyone loves Dolly Parton.

And when James Patterson asked if she’d be interested in working together on a book — she was.

If you get the audio book, know that Dolly reads the character of Ruthanna Ryder, a retired country legend who sounds an awful lot like Dolly Parton today.

That said, if you don’t like audio books with multiple readers, you might find this one annoying.

AnnieLee Keyes is the super talented young woman who runs to Nashville with dreams of being the next star.

And things start falling into place.

However, AnnieLee has a dark and secret past. It’s starting to catch up to her.

Dolly has many young fans. There is some profanity, violence and sex in this novel, but far less than any other Patterson book, I reckon.

In conjunction, Dolly released an album of the same name.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Nightblind by Ragnar Jónasson

On March 15, 2022March 12, 2022 By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

The 2nd book in the Dark Iceland murder mystery series set in a remote fishing village in northern Iceland.

Ari is the new local policeman from away, suddenly having to deal with the murder of a policeman — his boss — shot at point-blank range.

It’s a complex plot; tangled local politics, a compromised new mayor, and a psychiatric ward in Reykjavik where someone is being held against their will.

Meanwhile, Ari & girlfriend Kristín have reunited & set up house with their baby son. That’s not going very well.

I’ll continue to book #3 — Black Out.

Cycling Faroe Islands can be HARSH 🤨

On March 14, 2022March 13, 2022 By Rick McIn cycling, hiking, travelLeave a comment

Rain, wind, narrow tunnels, …

Dive bombing birds?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Chessmen by Peter May

On March 13, 2022March 12, 2022 By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

The Chessmen is last of the Lewis trilogy.

Peter May is an excellent writer.

Former police detective Fin McLeod is back on the remote Scottish Isle of Lewis of his birth.

He found work as security officer for a local landowner. Mostly chasing down poachers.

The opening of this book is fantastic. Finn and childhood friend Whistler happened to witness a freak natural phenomenon–a bog burst–which drains a loch of all its water in a flash.

Revealed below was a mud-encased light aircraft. Finn immediately knows it’s Roddy Mackenzie plane, a friend whose flight disappeared more than seventeen years earlier.

So it begins.

The Tourist mini-series

On March 12, 2022March 9, 2022 By Rick McIn uncategorizedLeave a comment

Excellent. 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Tourist is a 6 part TV show series where an Irish tourist (?) in Australia run off the road, waking up in hospital with amnesia.

It’s been compared to Fargo: a blend of violence and barbed humour; bleak, underpopulated places, and the same cavalcade of viciousness and folly that brings out the heroism in an ordinary person.

Danielle Macdonald as Probationary Constable Helen Chambers steals every scene.

This entertainment has many original and quirky touches. Odd characters.

But it’s weird. If you don’t like weird, it may turn you off before the end.

Jamie Dornan, who portrays the protagonist Elliot Stanley confirmed that talks are progressing for bringing a second instalment.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Free Fire by C.J. Box

On March 11, 2022March 8, 2022 By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

Book #7 in the excellent series about a Game Warden from Wyoming.

Joe Pickett’s been hired to investigate one of the most cold-blooded mass killings in Wyoming history.
Attorney Clay McCann admitted to slaughtering four campers in a back-country corner of Yellowstone National Park—a “free-fire” zone with no residents or jurisdiction.
In this remote fifty-square-mile stretch a man can literally get away with murder.
Now McCann’s a free man, and Pickett’s about to discover his motive—one buried in Yellowstone’s rugged terrain, and as dangerous as the man who wants to keep it hidden.
CJBox.net

But is there really a part of the USA where you can kill anyone legally?

The theory: There is a 50-square-mile region in Yellowstone National Park where sloppy district boundaries would make the prosecution of serious criminal offenses unconstitutional — in other words, a region where one could get away with murder. …
Fact Check – USA Today

Click through to read the details.

Joe Pickett – books 5 & 6

On March 9, 2022March 6, 2022 By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

EXCELLENT!

Out of Range is the 5th book in the Joe Pickett series by C. J. Box.

Our game warden is temporarily assigned to the Teton district out of the big city — Jackson, Wyoming.

Will Jensen, a fellow Wyoming game warden and a good friend, has killed himself. Joe can’t believe it. He takes the assignment partly to investigate the supposed suicide.

In Jackson the typical right wing citizens jostle with politicians, environmental extremists and rich out-of-State wannabe cowboys.

Books 6 is good too.

In Plain Sight — Ranch owner and matriarch Opal Scarlett has vanished under suspicious circumstances during a bitter struggle between her sons for control of her million-dollar empire.

Almost everyone hates Joe Pickett in this one. He eventually gets fired as game warden.

But in many ways, book 6 was my favourite in the series, so far. I’m certain I’ll be reading them all.

SEEMS I can’t watch the TV adaptation in Canada.

Maid – miniseries

On March 8, 2022March 6, 2022 By Rick McIn economics, TVLeave a comment

Excellent TV. 94% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Original. Non-cliche. Surprising, at times.

It reminds me a bit of the film Nomadland.

Real people in America. The USA is a terrible place to be poor.

Main is inspired by Stephanie Land‘s memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive.

Story focuses on a young mother who escapes an abusive relationship, subsequently struggling to provide for her daughter by getting a job cleaning houses.

Margaret Qualley plays the lead. Very compelling. Very real.

She’s a former Pete Davidson squeeze — but who isn’t? 😀.

More importantly, she’s the real daughter of Andie MacDowell, who plays her crazy artist Mom in the series.

If I had any complaint it would be pacing. Too slow. Fewer episodes would have improved the story.

Also — I have to admit that I quit after 7/10 episodes. It hurt too much to see the sincere Mom making mistakes despite her commitment to do it right.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Bewilderment by Richard Powers

On March 7, 2022March 4, 2022 By Rick McIn books, moviesLeave a comment

Wow.

What a fantastic book.

Richard Powers is my age. The main difference between us is that he won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Overstory. 😀

I’m saving that long book for a long outdoors trip.

Bewilderment is his 2021 book set in the near future amid the environmental degradation of the planet.
It follows widowed astrobiologist Theo Byrne and his volatile nine-year-old son Robin, who is diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, obsessive–compulsive disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Theo resists psychoactive medication for Robin, turning instead to an experimental neurofeedback therapy in order to help his son.

It’s part science fiction. Part science. Part philosophy. An important father and son story.

Extremely well written.

The author must have been inspired by Flowers for Algernon.

There’s a character much like Greta Thunberg.

The bad guys are a Trump-like President and his enablers. Anti-science. This time the losing President cancels election results in 6 States he lost and calls a new election.

Black Bear Pictures and Plan B Entertainment acquired the feature film rights.

Click PLAY or watch the author on YouTube.