I got sick of Ava and Deborah fighting at the start of this season. Too much negativity.
I’m finally tiring of the drama in this comedy.
Michaela Watkins as Stacey, the HR representative is great, however.
And there are some laughs in every episode.
Dance Mom is fantastic.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The 6th book in the Jane Whitefield series — Runner (2009) — is good, but the weakest of the collection, so far.
For more than a decade, Jane pursued her unusual profession: “I’m a guide . . . I show people how to go from places where somebody is trying to kill them to other places where nobody is.”
Then she promised her husband she would never work again, and settled in to live a happy, quiet life as Jane McKinnon, the wife of a surgeon in Amherst, New York.
But when a bomb goes off in the middle of a hospital fundraiser, Jane finds herself face to face with the cause of the explosion: a young pregnant girl who has been tracked across the country by a team of hired hunters.
That night, regardless of what she wants or the vow she’s made to her husband, Jane must come back to transform one more victim into a runner.
Smolder — Stone Barrington Novel #65 — is first in the long series written completely by Brett Battles.
The original Barrington author, Stuart Woods, died in 2022 at age-84. Battles has taken over.
I’m impressed at how similar this book is to the Stuart Woods style. I really couldn’t tell the difference. Battles reread the entire series in order to stay consistent.
An entertaining plot.
I was interested to see that Battles had self-published most of his own novels. This one is published by Putnam’s.
Stuart Woods had been working on a new novel in his popular series of books about cop-turned-lawyer Stone Barrington when he died. Would Battles be willing to come on and write the rest of the book?
… I said, ‘Well, yes, please, I would love to do that,’” says Battles, who immediately got to work on what would be published as 2023’s “Near Miss.” …
Battles, a novelist with more than 40 books to his credit, including his Jonathan Quinn thriller series, had served as a co-writer on a Stuart Woods’ novel, “Obsession,” …
How Stuart Woods’ character Stone Barrington lives on in Brett Battles’ ‘Smolder’
Finally enjoying some downtime in Santa Fe, Stone Barrington agrees to attend an art exhibit with a dear friend. There, he encounters an intriguing woman who is on the trail of a ring of art thieves. Always one to please, Stone offers his help.
From Santa Fe to Los Angeles, it quickly becomes clear that her investigation has links to Stone—particularly to rare Matilda Stone art, his mother’s paintings. And when old grudges come to light, Stone is forced to reckon with a familiar enemy.
Happy 4th of July. I’ve always admired American music, technology, innovation, and film.
A perfect example is Blues Brothers 1980.
After Animal House, John Belushi had the #1 movie, #1 album, and #1 late night TV show. A huge star.
In The Blues Brothers, Jake and Elwood are on “a mission from God” to prevent the foreclosure of their Roman Catholic orphanage.
The Blues Brothers were controversial in a very American way. The intrinsically racist Hollywood film industry assumed they couldn’t sell a celebration of Black music and culture. The industry was wrong.
For example, Ted Mann, head Mann Theatres, refused to book the film as he didn’t want Black patrons. Mann was Jewish.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Belushi was self-destructive, as is the USA.
I relate more to the Canadian, Dan Ackroyd.
Dan published Blues Brothers: The Arc of Gratitude in 2024. His personal recollections of the Band with interviews with many of the key players.
Very intense. Very good.
Great cast.
The eight-episode series began with the murder of an 11-year-old boy in the fictional, close-knit coastal town of Broadchurch in Dorset, United Kingdom. The series depicted the impact that suspicion and media attention have on the community. …
Broadchurch series one received widespread critical acclaim and high viewership ratings. …
I was impressed with the originality of how the killer was revealed.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The 5th book in the excellent Jane Whitefield series is the best yet, I’d say.
Jane Whitefield, the fearless “guide” who helps people in trouble disappear, make victims vanish, has just begun her quiet new life as Mrs. Carey McKinnon, when she is called upon again, to face her toughest opponents yet.
Jane must try to save a young girl fleeing a deadly mafioso. Yet the deceptively simple task of hiding a girl propels Jane into the center of horrific events, and pairs her with Bernie the Elephant, the mafia’s man with the money.
Bernie has a photographic memory, and in order to undo an evil that has been growing for half a century,he and Jane engineer the biggest theft of all time, stealing billions from hidden mafia accounts and donating the money to charity.
Heart-stopping pace, fine writing, and mesmerizing characters combine in Blood Money to make it the best novel yet by the writer called “one of America’s finest storytellers,”
With that idiot Trump again in office — I’ve never been happier to be a citizen of Canada.
As per the U.S. News Best Countries rankings, Canada is #5 in terms of quality of life, behind Sweden and Denmark.
If you don’t like Canada, you are free to leave. 😀
We don’t restrict personal freedoms as the ReTrumplican governments do in the USA.
Scott Carson is the pen name of Michael Koryta, one of my favourite authors.
“Where They Wait (2021) is so readable, you’ll be a couple of hundred pages in before you realize you’re terrified…and then you can’t put it down. Mesmerizing.”
—Stephen King
I notice that Stephen King is always generous with each author setting a book similar to his style … in Maine. 😀
This book is very readable. It’s a bit slow getting going. But I still recommend it — unless you hate horror.
Recently laid-off from his newspaper and desperate for work, war correspondent Nick Bishop takes a humbling job: writing a profile of a new mindfulness app called Clarity.
It’s easy money, and a chance to return to his hometown for the first time in years.
The app itself seems like a retread of old ideas—relaxing white noise and guided meditations. But then there are the “Sleep Songs.” A woman’s hauntingly beautiful voice sings a ballad that is anything but soothing—it’s disturbing, and more of a warning than a relaxation—but it works. Deep, refreshing sleep follows.
So do the nightmares.
Linwood Barclay is an excellent author.
Whistle is his 2025 book.
… a supernatural chiller in which a woman and her young son move to a small town looking for a fresh start, only to be haunted by disturbing events and strange visions when they find a mysterious train set in a storage shed.
“Terrific.”— Stephen King on Whistle
It did remind me of a King novel.
The first book in this series — Mindful of Murder — is excellent.
And book 3 — Contemplation of a Crime (2025) — I could almost call BAD.
Sketchy and unlikely plot. Not much happens.
I won’t continue with these books.
Buddhist butler and reluctant investigator Helen Thorpe bands together with her fellow butler-school graduates to rescue her very wealthy employer and his son …
Butler Helen Thorpe is not one to judge, but the participants in Close Encounters for Global Healing are astonishingly unpleasant.
The five-day program brings together people from across the political spectrum with the goal of helping them bridge their ideological and personal differences. …
The motley assortment of participants includes a burned-out environmental activist, an internet troll, a clued-out consumerist, an alleged white nationalist, and a man who was arrested at the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa. …
No rapprochement between the warring—or at least endlessly bickering—parties seems possible. But when something deadly happens, they must learn to work together. …
Rick McCharles 