One of the great short stories, “In the Cart” was published 1897.
The author was aware of the dire conditions which teachers had to live in rural Russia.
I listened to a lecture on the tale from a book by George Saunders, professor at Syracuse University — A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life
Chris Pratt summer blockbuster online?
I’m OK with that.
I typically only see 1 or 2 films / year in the theatre.
It’s dumb. It’s entertaining. It’s predictable.
MANY cliches.
I’m glad I didn’t pay theatre prices.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
John Grisham takes you to a different kind of court in his first basketball novel.
Samuel “Sooley” Sooleymon is a raw, young talent with big hoop dreams—and even bigger challenges off the court. …
In the summer of his seventeenth year, Samuel Sooleymon gets the chance of a lifetime: a trip to the United States with his South Sudanese teammates to play in a showcase basketball tournament. …During the tournament, Samuel receives devastating news from home: A civil war is raging across South Sudan, and rebel troops have ransacked his village. His father is dead, his sister is missing, and his mother and two younger brothers are in a refugee camp.
Samuel desperately wants to go home, but it’s just not possible. Partly out of sympathy, the coach of North Carolina Central offers him a scholarship. …
But how far can Sooley take his team? And will success allow him to save his family?
JGrisham.com
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The seventh and final season was released on June 25, 2021.
I’d say it was the best of all.
In this one Harry refuses to let the death of a ten-year-old girl be traded away in a plea deal.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
An as-yet-untitled spinoff series for Amazon’s IMDb TV was announced on March 3, 2021, featuring Welliver along with much of the Bosch creative team.
Madison Lintz will return as Harry’s daughter, Maddie, and Bosch recurring character defense attorney Honey “Money” Chandler, played by Mimi Rogers, will also be a main character.
In the new series, Bosch, now retired from the LAPD, will work as an investigator for Chandler.
I really like Salmon. Try to avoid thinking about how they are killed for my pleasure. 😐
But my Dad and brother have always been keen fishermen. I’ve joined them on charters a few times in Canada and Mexico.
Many times found reasons to avoid those trips in the past. I really fear sea sickness. 🤮
Since my Dad sold his boat, they’ve done two charters a year, most recently out of Port Renfrew, Vancouver Island.
As Pacific salmon numbers decline, it’s gotten increasingly more difficult.
June 2021 they decided to try a new guide in a new area. An interesting and entertaining character.
We stayed in Port McNeill for 2 nights as Pete lives there. He made the final decision whether to fish out of Port Hardy or Port Alice.
Fishing had been better out of Hardy, so that was the final decision.
It was about a 3.5 hour drive from Parksville to McNeill. Another half hour to Hardy.
We headed north at 6am on the hottest day in thousands of years (at least).
I’ve been to the north of Vancouver Island a few times — but feel I don’t really know the remote, unique area. I’m planning for a couple of weeks bicycle touring. Some day.
It was an hour at full throttle to get to the open fishing area. Seas at the north tip of the island are dangerous. Weather often horrific.
Our day was dead calm, compared to normal.
My family likes to fish for salmon first. Switch to halibut next. We had our limit of 8 Chinook (Spring) salmon (2 / licence) by about 12:30pm.
I even caught fish. It was fun.
Click PLAY or get a glimpse on YouTube.
Pete took us further out about 5 miles to a spot he calls his butthole. It’s a shallow, sandy bottom area.
We ended up catching 4 halibut. They were bigger and much more of a challenge to murder than salmon. The largest halibut required Pete to use his harpoon.
Cost for 4 was about $1600 including 2 nights hotel, charter, fuel.
We brought home well over $1600 worth of fish.
I’d go again. Did not get sea sick.
On return to town we found all restaurants closed. Power failure.
Happily our motel had a huge, noisy generator.
related – Canada has budgeted $647M over 5 years to try to save declining Pacific salmon.
I was intrigued by the setting. A scary mountain hotel during a blizzard.
OUTLINE:
Half-hidden by forest and overshadowed by threatening peaks, Le Sommet has always been a sinister place. Long plagued by troubling rumors, the former abandoned sanatorium has since been renovated into a five-star minimalist hotel.
An imposing, isolated getaway spot high up in the Swiss Alps is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. But Elin’s taken time off from her job as a detective, so when her estranged brother, Isaac, and his fiancée, Laure, invite her to celebrate their engagement at the hotel, Elin really has no reason not to accept. …
Then the murders began.
Super hyped, I thought this would be another intriguing psychological thriller whodunit. Surprise after surprise.
But it’s actually not well written. Heavy handed. Zero subtlety.
Also, Elin Warner must be the very worst detective on earth.
Almost everyone likes The Sanatorium, but I’d concur it’s a lousy book with a bad ending.
Until about age-30, I assumed I’d die from nuclear radiation.
Now age-63, I’m still surprised each morning to be enjoying life.
A nuclear electromagnetic pulse (NEMP) weapon is designed to be detonated far above the Earth’s surface.
The explosion releases a blast of gamma rays into the mid-stratosphere, which ionizes as a secondary effect and the resultant energetic free electrons interact with the Earth’s magnetic field to produce a much stronger EMP than is normally produced in the denser air at lower altitudes.
Just one such weapon could kill everything electronic for months or years.
COULD YOU SURVIVE IN A TENT WITHOUT POWER? FEED YOURSELF FROM THE LAND?
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I really liked the first Backman book I read, so started to reserve more from my library.
He’s popular. So it takes weeks to get any of his novels.
Us Against You was published 2018.
It’s set in a small Swedish town — Beartown — that is hockey crazed.
In some ways, that reminded me of small towns in the USA that care far too much about High School football.
One of the star players is convicted of rape. Other players move to a rival town team in protest.
Beartown’s team could be disbanded.
Overall I’d say Us Against You is good. Not great.
But I will continue with Backman.
About 35C (95F) today. Hotter tomorrow.
SO HOT that I went into the ocean for the first time in decades.
Normally I don’t enter water larger than a jacuzzi. 😀
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The final book in the Kurt Wallander series was published 2009.
The author dying of cancer while he wrote it, I believe.
For me the story was mostly a look at aging and dying. The meaning of life.
The plot was inspired by the submarine incursions into Swedish territorial waters between 1982 and 1983, which Mankell considered the worst scandal in Swedish political history.
Though slower and even more philosophical than the rest, I still enjoyed the book — sad that it was the end for Wallander and the end for Mankell.
The only story I haven’t heard yet is a novella — An Event in Autumn — not available in audio on my services.
Rick McCharles 