Dangerous Minds is the sequel to Curious Minds, introducing Emerson Knight and Riley Moon.
Emerson Knight is a rich, eccentric introvert with little-to-no sense of social etiquette. He is also brilliant and handsome. Riley Moon is a recent Harvard Law and Harvard Business graduate. …
I liked the first book, especially Knight who’s a weird Sherlock Holmes type eccentric.
Both are light weight, easy reads. Young adult.
The plot of Dangerous Minds looked promising: a monk mentor, a missing island, plenty of travel.
But ultimately I found it disappointing. I’ll read no more Janet Evanovich.
A former NBA basketball player, Myron is the owner of MB SportsReps, an agency representing sports stars and celebrities.
Two regular supporting characters in the Myron Bolitar series are his best friend, Windsor Horne Lockwood III (better known as “Win”), and his assistant at MB Reps, Esperanza Diaz. …
Bolitar is depicted as being a good agent for his clients, taking care of their needs and wants while being careful to not exploit them like bigger agencies. He also helps out clients in times of personal need, which often puts him in the role of “accidental detective.” …
Deal Breaker starts with Christian Steele, an NFL rookie quarterback, Myron’s prized client, getting a phone call from a former girlfriend, whom everyone, including the police, believes is dead.
Myron is plunged into a baffling mystery of sex and blackmail.
Harlan Coben went to High School with Chris Christie. To Amherst College with writer Dan Brown.
Odd is silently approached by the ghost of a young girl brutally raped and murdered, and through his unique ability to understand the dead, is psychically led to her killer, a former schoolmate named Harlo Landerson.
Koontz discloses how Odd was named and begins, layer by layer, to show how Odd’s dysfunctional upbringing has shaped his life, and as those details are uncovered, his supernatural abilities begin to make more sense.
The ghost of Elvis hangs around Odd’s apartment, for example.
“I see dead people. But then, by God, I do something about it.” – Odd Thomas pg. 32
Though the book is simplistic and silly in some ways, I really enjoyed it.
Some of the characters are interesting.
Little Ozzie, for example, a philosopher and obese gourmet cook.
Chief Wyatt Porter is good. I do like the love interest, Stormy Llewellyn.
An Odd Thomas film was released in 2013. Mostly based on the original book
In addition I’d want personal controls over my feed.
As Professor Galloway points out so clearly, it’s the algorithm driving monetization that causes MOST of the problems with Facebook.
Both right and left leaning Americans are convinced that Facebook currently is biased against their beliefs. Both GOP and DEMs want to change Facebook.
Facebook is a private company and can do anything it wants — unless laws are changed. And they will be.
Results of one online survey.
Facebook would continue their free service with advertising, of course.
Though we’ve heard far more about the 2240 people who died on the Titanic, the story of the Lusitania sinking 3 years later is a more compelling story.
On May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants.
The passengers were surprisingly at ease, even though Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, German U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic.
But the Lusitania was one of the era’s great transatlantic “Greyhounds”—the fastest liner then in service—and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack.
The Vornado VH200 (similar to the VH5) surpassed almost every other space heater in speed and total power, delivering an immediate temperature increase that built steadily and evenly across the room over the course of an hour.
The VH200 is also quieter than most other ceramic heaters we’ve tried, emitting only a soft, fan-like whir, and it’s compact enough to tuck away in a corner.
It’s also one of the safest heaters we tested, featuring overheating and tip-over protection, and a plastic exterior that stays relatively cool to the touch—so you can warm yourself without having to worry.
The VH200 does get mixed reviews from some owners—those who find it slow to heat a particularly cold space or who have problems with the airflow from the fan—but Vornado tends to respond to critical reviews more reliably than other manufacturers do.
McKinty quit writing in 2017 after being evicted from his rented house, citing a lack of income from his novels, and instead took work as an Uber driver and a bartender.
Upon hearing of his situation, fellow crime author Don Winslow passed some of his books to his agent, the screenwriter and producer Shane Salerno.
In a late-night phone call, Salerno persuaded McKinty to write what would become The Chain. Salerno loaned the author (“advance on the advance”) $10,000 to help him survive financially during the process.
It’s a very intense book. As a parent, what would you do to get your child back?
“McKinty is one of the most striking and most memorable crime voices to emerge on the scene in years. His plots tempt you to read at top speed, but don’t give in: this writing — sharply observant, intelligent and shot through with black humor — should be savored.”— Tana French
They are the same ones who told me COVID-19 is less deadly than the common flu. They believed FOX and Trump.
They are the same ones who told me hydroxychloroquine was a ‘cure’. Not even Trump took it when he got sick.
I don’t want that 43% of Americans anywhere near me or my family.
I’m willing to suffer the economic and personal consequences.
Some families are now separated by the border. Canadians can still fly to the States, so it’s possible for them to get together — but that doesn’t work for those who can’t fly.
I might reconsider under a Biden Presidency. But it’s unlikely. Covid denying Americans will be even more agitated.
This morning I spoke with a Canadian who somehow just drove back from California. There are exceptions to the border crossing rule.
For me a authoritarian regime (dictatorship) is a place where the leader can order opponents murdered, without consequences. Russia and Saudi Arabia in 2020, for example.
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) scores countries on five categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture.
Nations are then classified under four types of governments: full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime and authoritarian regime.
Obviously, the main goal of the GOP under this egocentric toddler is to make the rich richer. Which they’ve done.
Nations still ranking high as democracies include Norway, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand and Denmark. Canada and Ireland are up there, as well.
Recently a Republican Senator claimed that “democracy isn’t the objective” any longer. Knowing that his Party was likely to lose the 2020 election, it’s part of the GOP plan to contest the results.
That Senator was bored, at home, COVID-19 positive at the time. #loser
I want people to be able to easily un-elect bad leaders. To have more influence in governance, even when they get it wrong. When wrong, they should be able to later easily change again.
Rick McCharles 