Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

Read this book for:

  • the humour
  • Leo Johnson’s commentary on the book DRAFT chapters. He’s a beta reader.

The story is not easy to follow, IMHO.

Four strangers are sitting in the reading room of the Boston Public Library quietly working when a woman’s scream pierces the silence.

Later, a body is found, and the four characters quickly become friends as they work to piece together what happened.

That’s the premise of Sulari Gentill’s mystery, titled “The Woman In The Library.” 

The 4 seeming strangers are:

  • Winifred “Freddie” Kincaid, an Aussie writer
  • “Freud Girl”
  • “Heroic Chin”
  • “Handsome Man” (Cain)

The author uses those nicknames when she doesn’t yet know who they are.

The whodunit is which is the murderer.

So far, so good.

The confusion for me is that this tale is being written by another Aussie author, Hannah Tigone — who’s getting emails from beta reader Leo Johnson, an American who knows Boston well. And American idioms.

Finally, the real author is Sulari Gentill, yet another Aussie author.

If my math is correct, there are 3 murder mystery authors. YOU sort them out. 😀

Bad Sisters – season 1

FUNNY. 😀

Irish humour is the BEST humour.

Good music.

Rotten Tomatoes 100% approval.

Bad Sisters … is an Irish black comedy television series …

The five Garvey sisters—Eva, Grace, Ursula, Bibi, and Becka—live in present-day Dublin.

After Grace’s abusive, controlling husband John Paul dies unexpectedly, the sisters find themselves at the centre of a life insurance investigation.

The series flips between timelines—one before John Paul’s death, in which Grace’s sisters plot to murder their brother-in-law, and another after his death, in which a determined insurance agent tries to prove the sisters’ malicious involvement …

A second season is in the works.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny

I’m not a huge fan of these books. I prefer the TV series, actually.

But if YOU like them — this is one of the best.

A World of Curiosities is the 18th novel in a series featuring the fictional character Chief Inspector Armand Gamache.

The 2022 crime mystery follows the investigation of a series of murders in Quebec.

We learn that Gamache decided to go into Homicide after being one of the responding officers in the1989 École Polytechnique massacre. Fourteen women were murdered; another 10 women and 4 men injured. The killer was a 25-year-old white male who legally purchased a lightweight semi-automatic rifle, systematically planning to murder women at his former school.

Canadians mark the day of the killings with a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

Curiosities is a sequel to Penny’s 2021 book The Madness of Crowds.

… features siblings Sam and Fiona Arsenault, whose mother Clotilde was killed after subjecting them both to sexual abuse in their younger years. …

Wikipedia

Gymnastics in Benin City, Nigeria

I first led a Gymnastics Coaching course in the capital, Abuja, Nigeria in 2013. They were quite disorganized at the time.

Returning in 2023 — this time to Benin City — I was astonished to see how much progress had been made.

In fact, Nigeria was the best organized of these camps I’ve had over dozens around the world.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Coaches from across the country traveled to Benin City, which built a world class facility 3 years ago. It’s in Edo State, by far the one most supportive of sport.

(NOT the country of Benin, formerly Dahomey, a small nation nearby.)

Busy, busy … I only got the chance to do a driving tour of Nigeria’s 4th largest metropolitan area. There is not much western tourism. Benin City has not got a great reputation.

I did not see any other pale human like myself, for a week. 😀

I stayed at a very good 3 star hotel, the Marriott Protea Hotel Benin City.

Mostly ate spicy Nigerian food. They love their food in Nigeria. Spicy.

This video gives a good feel of how this city feels on street level.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Purity of Vengeance by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Adler-Olsen is a Danish crime fiction writer best known for his Department Q series.

Purity of Vengeance is the 4th book in the series. (2018)

Jussi Adler-Olsen is Denmark’s #1 crime writer. The films based on his books are popular.

The lead detective, Carl Mørck, is just a jerk. BUT less a jerk in this book. Perhaps he’s getting better.

I do like his sidekick, Assad.

In 1987, Nete Hermansen plans revenge on those who abused her in her youth, including Curt Wad, a charismatic surgeon who was part of a movement to sterilize wayward girls in 1950s Denmark.

More than twenty years later, Detective Carl Mørck already has plenty on his mind when he is presented with the (cold) case of a brothel owner, a woman named Rita, who went missing in the eighties …

But when Carl’s assistants, Assad and Rose, learn that numerous other people disappeared around the same weekend as Rita, Carl takes notice.

As they sift through the disappearances, they get closer and closer to Curt Wad …

jussiadlerolsen.com

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Randy and Val’s Karaoke Online

Randy and Val have been hosting an online music event since the pandemic.

I sat in LIVE for the 18th episode.

My brother’s Suspicious Minds in full Elvis costume was the highlight. 😀

One of the guests played a version of Dancing in the Moonlight (1970) written by Sherman Kelly, originally recorded Kelly’s band Boffalongo.

It became a worldwide hit single by King Harvest in 1972.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

In 2000, a cover by English band Toploader became a worldwide hit.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Culper Ring trilogy by Brad Meltzer

  1. The Inner Circle
  2. The Fifth Assassin
  3. The President’s Shadow

I’m not much of a fan of thrillers, especially political thrillers.

And didn’t manage to get through all 3 books.

Beecher White is an interesting character, however. A government archivist in Washington D.C.

I did enjoy enjoy reading about the archives and historical anecdotes.

Author Brad Meltzer is interesting, too.

His novels touch on the political thrillerlegal thriller and conspiracy fiction genres, …

… Meltzer counts former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush as fans, and both have helped him with his research. …

The Culper Ring books imagine that a secret spy ring, founded in real life by George Washington, continues to exist today. 

Though they didn’t work for me, many others really enjoy these books.

Of the 3 books, I felt the first — Inner Circle — was best. And I did finish that one. 😀

You could try it and see if you want to continue with the trilogy.

The Taylor Swift Economy

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is the biggest in history.

… Kanye who? 😀

Business students will study how she built this music empire.

If you are a Republican strategist, your worst nightmare is Taylor Swift campaigning for Biden. Her fans are even more fanatic than Trump’s deplorables.

I’m a fan girl myself, but wouldn’t pay to see the show LIVE. Too expen$ive.

I will see the movie.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

related – How Taylor Swift became the world’s biggest pop star, again

Photographer Steve McCurry

Some call Steve McCurry (born April 23, 1950) the greatest photographer all time.

You might not know the name, but you’ve seen his photos in National Geographic.

For example, Afghan Girl, a 1984 photographic portrait of Sharbat Gula, an Afghan refugee in Pakistan during the Soviet–Afghan War

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Not a bad book, actually.

Copenhagen Deputy Detective Superintendent Carl Mørck returns from vacation to discover that his tiny cold case unit, Department Q, has been reshuffled, and a citizen’s complaint has reopened a 20-year-old case on which all the relevant documents have disappeared. …

Kirkus

Six rich students are suspected of killing Lisbet Jørgeneon and her twin brother two decades ago.

But they were never seriously investigated as a young man admitted he had murdered the two. And is still in prison.

Reluctantly at first, Carl (the jerk) and his likable Syrian assistant, Hafez el-Assad, AND his new secretary, Rose Knudsen start building a case against the students, some of whom are now rich and influential.

A popular Danish film was adapted from the book.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.