The Motion Picture Teller by Colin Cotterill: A review

 

I greatly enjoyed Colin Cotterill's series which was set in Laos and featured Dr. Siri. Dr. Siri is a wonderful character and one can hope that we might see him again at some point. But in the meantime, Cotterill has written this book which is a standalone novel set in Bangkok.

The book's main character is Supot, a postman with the Royal Thai Postal Service. His job is postman but his life is all about appreciation for classic movies. He and his best friend, Ali, who owns a video store, spend every possible moment of their lives watching those movies. They are obsessed with the old Western movies and their stars, especially the female stars.

The two are completely dismissive of modern Thai cinema and spend plenty of their time denigrating it. But then something happens to radically change their views.

A cassette with the title Bangkok 2010 is delivered to Ali's store. They have no idea where it came from or why it was sent to Ali, but after watching it, the two friends agree that it is the most brilliant Thai film they have ever seen.

It is a dystopian film set in Thailand. In the film, the country is run by chauvinistic Security Council officers. The female star of the movie is named Siriluk and she is everything that Ali and Supot could dream of in a woman.

But the film comes with a mystery. The mystery is that nobody has ever heard of it or of any of the people associated with the film. Why would anyone make such a brilliant film and then not release it and why has no one ever heard of any of the actors, the director, or any of the crew?

Supot is determined to solve the mystery of the film. His first step is to write to Siriluk. She responds at first but only to ask him not to show the film to anybody. But as he continues writing to her, she stops responding. Supot, however, follows his obsession by traveling deep into the Thai countryside looking for answers. And he finds that there is a curse on the movie. Will it ever be able to be shown to the public?

Colin Cotterill writes with a light touch. All of his books are notable for their frequent uses of humor to make a point. Supot is a lovable character in the same mold as Dr. Siri and I suspect we may see more of him in the future, even though this book is billed as a "standalone." That would be okay with me. I quite enjoyed the character and the book.    

Poetry Sunday: A March Glee by John Burroughs

February is quickly winding down; March is almost upon us. March - a month of transitions. Winter is nearly over. (In fact, here in Southeast Texas, it was hardly ever here.)  Things are getting greener and flower buds are forming. The daffodils are already in bloom. 

And in the skies above, the birds are moving, winging for their summer homes. In a matter of weeks, they will have built their nests, laid their eggs, and a new generation will have been born. "Oh, spring is surely coming. Her couriers fill the air."

A March Glee

by John Burroughs

I hear the wild geese honking
From out the misty night,—
A sound of moving armies
On-sweeping in their might;
The river ice is drifting
Beneath their northward flight.

I hear the bluebird plaintive
From out the morning sky,
Or see his wings a-twinkle
That with the azure vie;
No other bird more welcome,
No more prophetic cry.

I hear the sparrow's ditty
Anear my study door;
A simple song of gladness
That winter days are o'er
My heart is singing with him,
I love him more and more.

I hear the starling fluting
His liquid "O-ka-lee;"
I hear the downy drumming,
His vernal reveillé;
From out the maple orchard
The nuthatch calls to me.

Oh, spring is surely coming.
Her couriers fill the air;
Each morn are new arrivals,
Each night her ways prepare;
I scent her fragrant garments,
Her foot is on the stair.

This week in birds - #538

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment: 

"You lookin' at me?" These three Wild Turkeys seem very curious about what I'm doing with that camera!

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Central Park Zoo officials have thrown in the towel. They've given up - at least for now - trying to recapture their escaped Eurasian Owl, Flaco. 

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And back in D.C., the pair of Bald Eagles known as Mr. President and Lotus (for Lady of the United States) have moved into a new nest at the National Arboretum and Lotus has laid at least one egg.

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In war-torn Ukraine, activists are putting their lives on the line to rescue animals that have been injured or displaced by the conflict.

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An outbreak of the H5N1 virus has killed thousands of birds and over 700 sea lions in Peru's Natural Protected Areas.

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A French-born conservationist living in the Brazilian Pantanal has dedicated his life to saving the giant armadillo from extinction.

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Here are some of the early results from last weekend's Great Backyard Bird Count.

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This is the beautiful little Lark Bunting, the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week.

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Did you ever wonder what dinosaurs sounded like? Well, scientists say that some of them sounded quite like birds.

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Getting separated from their mothers would have been disastrous for two young mountain lion cubs, but Hazel and Holly got lucky.

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Genetically modified trees are being planted in U.S. forests. The hope is that they will be better able to handle climate change. 

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Here's a report on the wildlife of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.

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We tend to take birds for granted as ubiquitous parts of the landscape around us but here are ten species that have changed the world.

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Why were some animals so much bigger in the past and might they become bigger once again?

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A new study shows that a stronger El Niño Southern Oscillation (Enso) event might have the effect of speeding up the irreversible melting of Antarctic ice.

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Recent derailments of trains have brought home the fact that hazardous materials move through communities on those rails every day.

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New York's sea turtle rehabilitation center is currently treating a record number of sick patients.

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Earth continues to yield up its secrets. The latest is a previously unknown core that has been discovered at the center of the planet.

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Here's how Europe is leading the way with renewable energy.

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Botswana is reporting that an enormous increase in rhinoceros poaching has taken place in the past five years.

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Jane Goodall has long been a hero of mine and I am not at all surprised to learn that she has a wicked sense of humor!

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Could Lake Mead actually dry up?

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An irresponsible person recently abandoned a four-foot-long alligator in Prospect Park Lake in New York. It could have been fatal for the alligator but his story had a happier ending.

Deja vu all over again

When you read constantly as I do, sometimes it is hard to keep track of everything that you've read. That was brought home to me this week. I picked up Hunting Shadows by Charles Todd to read. I've always enjoyed his Inspector Rutledge series and I settled down to read the sixteenth book in that series. After finishing, I went to Goodreads to record my latest read, but...oh, what's this? I had already read it!!?

Indeed, nearly six years ago I had read it and recorded a review on Goodreads and on my blog. My only consolation is that at least my views on the book had not changed. I still enjoyed it. And here is my review from 2017.

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Hunting Shadows by Charles Todd: A review

June 29, 2017

I've been working my way through this historical mystery series for a few years now and the trip has mostly been enjoyable. But the previous book, Proof of Guilt, which I read last summer, was a big disappointment to me and nearly put me off. I haven't felt the desire to get back to the series since, until a few days ago. Looking for my next book to read I came across Charles Todd's name and decided, why not?

I'm glad I decided to give him another chance because this one was a winner.

It is 1920 and memories of the First World War are still fresh. Many of the veterans of that war bear wounds, both physical and mental, that are yet to heal. Among the sufferers of psychological wounds is Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard. He does his best to keep his PTSD, or shell shock as it was then called, hidden. 

Rutledge is sent to Cambridgeshire, the Fen Country, to investigate two murders. The first was a former soldier who was shot while attending a society wedding at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire. He was shot with a rifle by someone who was well concealed. The shooter was never seen by the wedding guests.

Then another man, a country lawyer, is murdered in the same fashion. This time though the apparent shooter was seen by an elderly woman, but her description of what she saw does not seem credible.

There does not appear to be any connection between the two men and the local police constables are stumped. Rutledge arrives on the scene to help and methodically goes through all the information that the constables have gathered. He re-interviews many of the witnesses and begins to form a theory of the crimes. It seems apparent to him that the shooter must have been a sniper in the recent Great War.

In the midst of his investigation, another man, a local farmer, is shot, but this man suffers only a flesh wound to his cheek and he lives. This confuses the investigation further. What possible connection could there be to tie the three men together? Is it possible that the latest shooting was only meant as a misdirection to put Rutledge off the scent?

This plot was very well-drawn and crisp. Although there were clues along the way that might have pointed to the reasons for the killings, I was confused right along with Inspector Rutledge and did not guess the real source of the evil until the clever inspector figured it out with his methodical and pragmatic police work and reasoning.

The story was rich in atmospheric details. The reader could feel herself enveloped in the claustrophobic pea soup of a fog that covered the Fens on occasion. The secondary characters were fleshed out and seemed integral to the story.

At the center of it all was Rutledge, a commanding and empathetic figure, whose vulnerable humanity is perhaps his greatest appeal, as, in order to do his job, he must constantly struggle against the darkness that threatens to overwhelm him. He is full of compassion even for the guilty, but he never loses sight of his duty, and he is always able to make clear-eyed observations and to see people as they really are. 

Yes, I'm glad I decided to give the series another chance.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars   

Thank you, Mr. President.

 

Poetry Sunday: To Daffodils by Robert Herrick

When I think of spring, I imagine daffodils - hills painted gold by them as far as the eye can see. After all, daffodils are the quintessential spring flower and, as Robert Herrick wrote some four hundred years ago, they "haste away so soon." But while they last, they are glorious!

Herrick goes further, however, to compare our lives to the lives of the daffodils. Like them, we, too, "have short time to stay." All the more reason to treasure every moment.

To Daffodils

by Robert Herrick

Fair Daffodils, we weep to see

You haste away so soon;

As yet the early-rising sun

Has not attain'd his noon.

Stay, stay,

Until the hasting day

Has run

But to the even-song;

And, having pray'd together, we

Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay, as you,

We have as short a spring;

As quick a growth to meet decay,

As you, or anything.

We die

As your hours do, and dry

Away,

Like to the summer's rain;

Or as the pearls of morning's dew,

Ne'er to be found again.

Exiles by Jane Harper: A review

 Exiles is an atmospheric mystery set in the wine country in the south of Australia. We find investigator Aaron Falk there as he attends the christening of the son of his friend, Greg Raco. Aaron has been asked to be his godfather, so he is there in a completely civilian and social capacity, not as a financial federal investigator.

However, there is a mystery here to be investigated. A year previously, a young mother had gone missing from the area, leaving her baby in a stroller in the parking lot at the annual wine festival. She has not been seen since and the mystery of her disappearance still troubles the community.

The mother had been married to Greg Raco's brother Charlie and voluntarily leaving her baby behind would have been completely anomalous behavior for her. The family asks their friend Aaron to look into the case further for them and try to find out what has happened to the missing mother.

This is a complicated mystery with multiple layers and it develops slowly, flowing between past and present timelines. Jane Harper takes great care in describing the personalities of the characters and the geography of the area in which the action takes place. Her descriptions of the vineyards and of the sunrises and sunsets there are quite vivid and memorable. I imagine it as a really beautiful place. 

Aaron Falk is an interesting character and in Exiles we see him torn between different possible career paths. Is there a career change in the offing for him? Guess we'll have to read the next installment to find out.

This week in birds - not

 "This week in birds" is taking a break this week to enjoy and participate in the annual Great Backyard Bird Count. It will return next week.

The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Nagendra

This is the first in a planned series of historical crime fiction books set in the 1920s in India. It is an India that is still under British rule, but protests against that rule are beginning to grow. This is very much the state of things during that period in the busy city of Bangalore in the state of Mysore. 

We see it all through the eyes of Kaveri, a young bride who has recently moved to Bangalore to be with her husband who is a doctor there. He is Dr. Ramu Murthy and he works at the Bowring Hospital run by Dr. Charles Roberts.

Kaveri is obsessed with mathematics and is apprehensive about how her interest will be perceived by her new husband, but fortunately, he is quite progressive and has an ego capable of withstanding his wife's other passions. Her mother-in-law is not nearly so progressive in her outlook and she demands that her daughter-in-law adhere to the strict societal expectations of women in that period, to forego education and center their lives around a man and the children that they have together.

As Kaveri becomes settled in her new life, she continues studying mathematics on her own and hopes to attend college and study formally. At the same time, she is establishing a circle of friends that cross all barriers of caste and class. This is a thing almost unheard of in an India that is strictly ruled socially by stringent adherence to caste.

Kaveri's insatiable curiosity and sense of community lead her to investigate the murder of a local pimp called Ponnuswamy. The murder occurred at a dinner that she attended at the local Century Club. She is certain that the wrong person is being accused of the murder and is determined to prove it. The police investigation is led by Detective Inspector Ismail who actually seems open to Kaveri's inquiries. Perhaps the two can work together to see that justice is served.

I very much liked the characters introduced in this book by Harini Nagendra. Kaveri, in particular, I found very relatable and someone that I might enjoy having as a friend. It's just that kind of feeling that one would want for the main character in a cozy mystery. Though this book definitely falls in the cozy mystery category, it also has quite a lot of information about that fraught period in Indian history. I suppose it might best be called "cozy historical fiction."  

 

Poetry Sunday: Waiting in the Wings by Emile Pinet

As winter begins to wind down, we can almost see spring on the horizon. It is just over there beyond our view; waiting in the wings. 

Waiting in the Wings

by Emile Pinet

Sunlight weaves in between twigs of skeletal trees. And a web of shadows dances with each feisty breeze. A silver sky shimmers like cheap carnival glass. And yet, this fickle sun’s too weak for blades of grass. Snow accumulates on branches that almost break. And bow low to the ground with the weight of each flake. Sugar maple sap waits, not even one sweet drip. And snowmen aren’t melting, frozen in Winter's grip. Spring's not on stage, quite yet, She's waiting in the wings. But I can almost smell the flowers that She brings.

This week in birds - #537

 A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

A pair of Whooping Cranes search for a meal in shallow waters at the edge of the Gulf of Mexico.

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It's that time of year again! Time for the Great Backyard Bird Count, my favorite citizen science project and one in which we all can participate.

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This is Flaco, a Eurasian Eagle-owl. He escaped from the Central Park Zoo a few days ago after someone vandalized the enclosure where he lived. As of today, he is still on the loose.

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The Colorado River is drying up. Is it even possible at this point to avert this disaster?

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           P-22 at home on his range.

Los Angelenos, and many of the rest of us, this week mourned the death and celebrated the life of one of the city's most famous inhabitants, the mountain lion known as P-22 who was euthanized after being hit by a car. 

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Near Los Angeles, the poppies that cover its hillsides will soon be in bloom and that creates problems for the towns that have to deal with all the tourists rushing to see what is expected to be a "super bloom." Some roads and trails will be closed to discourage tourists.

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Lead poisoning is still a danger to California Condors, one of the world's most endangered birds.

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Elsewhere in California, bird lovers battled with a utility company that wanted to cut down a pine tree. It just happened to be a pine tree where Bald Eagles had nested for years.

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Scientists can be intrepid in the pursuit of their science. Not even an erupting volcano can discourage them!

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Many essential insects in East Asia have suffered massive declines in population. Why, and can the trend be reversed?

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What is it about giant panda cubs? They are certifiably adorable! 

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The Mexican cavefish has adapted to life away from light and most sources of food and still, it manages to survive and even thrive.

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Acorn Woodpeckers were able to store some 700 pounds of acorns in the chimney of a Santa Rosa, California house.

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The spotted-tail quoll of Queensland, Australia is facing extinction because of a combination of factors.

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This is the Willow Ptarmigan, the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week.

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The cane toad is "public enemy number one" in Queensland, Australia and a competition finds plenty of participants that are eager to help rid the place of the invasive amphibians.

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What color should a bee be? Turns out there is some controversy over the answer to that question. 

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Here are pictures of some of the beautiful birds of Costa Rica.

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Why are California's trees dying?

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Nearly 60 million years ago, there was a giant penguin species that weighed around 350 pounds and lived along the coastline of New Zealand.  

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Sudden, extreme changes in the weather can prove fatal for migrating birds.

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The discovery of some ancient tools has sparked questions about which hominin species was responsible for the technology that created them.

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Check out the variety of bird species visiting this backyard Oregon suet feeder. 

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There are many benefits of habitat restoration but one of the main ones is the recovery of bird species dependent on that habitat.

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The protection of the Great Bear Rainforest of British Columbia has proved to be a triumph of conservation policy.

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Orca moms seem to prefer sons and that may have some impact on the species' endangered status.

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Should Endangered Species Act protections be terminated for grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem? That is the question being considered by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

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A new reserve in Chile will protect the largest known colony of Markham's Storm-Petrel, a secretive and little-known seabird.

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There is significant genetic diversity among corals and some of them have greater resistance to heat than was previously thought.

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Cockatoos are the veritable Einsteins of birds and are amazingly adept at using tools. 

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There's a new cash crop being grown in Australia's Outback: carbon.

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Big Sur, California is a ruggedly beautiful area but storms can sometimes cut it off from the rest of the state.

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Finally, here are some wonderful pictures of baby birds from Audubon's photography awards.

Wild Fire by Ann Cleeves: A review

Well, that's a bummer. Ann Cleeves says this will be the last book in the Shetland series. And just when it seemed that DI Jimmy Perez's life might finally be beginning to be sorted out. Ah, well, I guess that just means we get to write our own continuation in our imaginations.

This is the eighth book in the series and, as always, one of the strongest points in the narrative is Shetland itself. As Cleeves describes it, it is such a wild and beautiful place. The landscape itself is like a major character in the story.

And as for those human characters, no one describes them better than Cleeves. They always seem real and relatable, like anyone that you might meet in your daily activities. 

In this case, the main characters are newcomers to the island, Helen a knitwear designer, and her architect husband Daniel, and their two children, Christopher who is autistic and daughter Ellie. They have moved from London and are looking for a fresh start.

They are off to a bumpy beginning, however. The previous owner of their home, Hesti, had hung himself in the barn, and for some reason, the neighbors seem to hate and resent the newcomers and associate them in some way with the tragedy of their new home. The society of the place is claustrophobic and the main hobby of the inhabitants seems to be gossiping about their neighbors. Especially the new neighbors.

Autistic Christopher is shunned by the other students at school and he lives a mostly solitary life. Then, to make matters even worse, Christopher discovers another hanged body in the barn. It is that of a local nanny, Emma Shearer. Meanwhile, Helen is receiving anonymous notes with drawings of a hanged man. London is suddenly not looking so bad!

Chief Inspector Willow Reeves returns to Shetland to oversee the case and she gives some unexpected news to DI Perez - news that he does not handle well at all. Meanwhile, Perez's second-in-command, Sandy, has personal challenges to deal with in his life. All of these characters are facing turning points and have some difficult decisions to make.

But Ann Cleeves won't tell us what those decisions are. We'll just have to write those endings ourselves.

The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz: A review

The latecomer in this family saga is Phoebe. She is the younger sister of triplets in the Salo and Johanna Oppenheimer family of New York. When the triplets are ready for college, their mother is feeling alone and she makes the decision to have their embryo sibling implanted in a surrogate and that is how "the latecomer" comes to be in the world.

The triplets are Harrison, Sally, and Lewyn, and they came about because Johanna was concerned that she had not become pregnant after three years of marriage and she consulted a fertility doctor. The treatment exceeded her expectations with the result that she ended up with not one but three babies.

The three had little in common beyond the fact that they had once shared a womb. In fact, they thoroughly disliked each other and would not even acknowledge their relationship to those who did not know about it. As soon as they are able to leave home, each goes his/her own way.

Johanna has hopes that having a new baby will somehow help to bring the family together, but, of course, it doesn't work out that way.  

The first three hundred and fifty pages are narrated in turn by the triplets who come off as completely smug and self-centered. Each is consumed by his/her own feeling of self-importance and, reading their narratives, I often felt quite irritated by them. When their mother decides to have another baby, they can only view that decision in relation to themselves with no sense of the new baby as an individual and they view it as their mother's attempt to focus attention away from them and to get people to pay attention to her. There is no sense that this younger sibling will have anything to do with them or have any place in their lives.

So, we have yet another dysfunctional family story. Not only is it dysfunctional but its members are, for the most part, quite unlikeable. There are character studies of each of the family members through which the author explores themes of race and class, sexuality and belonging. In other words, she explores the roots of individual identity. It makes for compelling reading, and even though the book is quite long at nearly five hundred pages and some readers have complained about the length, it doesn't really feel long to me. The story moves along at a good pace and one is always ready to move on to the next page to find out what happens next. 

Poetry Sunday: Retread

Here's a retread for this Poetry Sunday. I was searching for a poem to represent this time of year and this one was the first that came up. It sounded very familiar, so I asked Blogger, and sure enough, I had featured it just about a year ago. In the belief that there is no such thing as too much of a good thing, here it is again.

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Poetry Sunday: February by Margaret Atwood

February 12, 2022

Poetry may not be what Margaret Atwood is most famous for, but she has in fact published eighteen books of poetry. And, judging by this example, she is quite an accomplished poet. This one made me smile in recognition at her description of the interaction with the cat. Also, her description of our increased appetite in winter seems, unfortunately, spot on. It's not an easy time for those of us who have to watch what we eat. We can only hope that spring will arrive in time to save us.

February

by Margaret Atwood

Winter. Time to eat fat
and watch hockey. In the pewter mornings, the cat,
a black fur sausage with yellow
Houdini eyes, jumps up on the bed and tries
to get onto my head. It’s his
way of telling whether or not I’m dead.
If I’m not, he wants to be scratched; if I am
He’ll think of something. He settles
on my chest, breathing his breath
of burped-up meat and musty sofas,
purring like a washboard. Some other tomcat,
not yet a capon, has been spraying our front door,
declaring war. It’s all about sex and territory,
which are what will finish us off
in the long run. Some cat owners around here
should snip a few testicles. If we wise
hominids were sensible, we’d do that too,
or eat our young, like sharks.
But it’s love that does us in. Over and over
again, He shoots, he scores! and famine
crouches in the bedsheets, ambushing the pulsing
eiderdown, and the windchill factor hits
thirty below, and pollution pours
out of our chimneys to keep us warm.
February, month of despair,
with a skewered heart in the centre.
I think dire thoughts, and lust for French fries
with a splash of vinegar.
Cat, enough of your greedy whining
and your small pink bumhole.
Off my face! You’re the life principle,
more or less, so get going
on a little optimism around here.

Get rid of death. Celebrate increase. Make it be spring. 

This week in birds - #536

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment: 

Pine Siskins are among my favorite winter visitors. 

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Coal is economically outmatched by renewable sources of energy. It is more expensive to keep coal-fired power plants running than it is to build new wind or solar plants.

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Six western states that rely on water from the Colorado River have agreed on a model to cut their use of water in the basin, but so far California is the one hold-out state that has not agreed.

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It's a unique partnership: Bottlenose dolphins help Brazilian fishermen pull their catch in.

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Why do bears rub against trees? It seems that there may be more to it than simply scratching an itch.

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The EPA has blocked the Pebble mine project in Alaska, a move that will protect a valuable salmon fishery.

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A black bear was apparently fascinated by a wildlife motion-activated camera near Boulder, Colorado, and ended up taking hundreds of "selfies." 

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It's been an unusual winter in New York City. The city will set a record for its longest stretch in winter without measurable snowfall.

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This beautiful shorebird, the American Avocet, is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week.

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An extinct species of the elephant was a major source of calories for the Neanderthals.

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The big news in the sky this week has been the passage of a green-hued comet past Earth and the sun for the first time in about 50,000 years.

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Is it possible to bring back a species that has gone extinct? Some scientists think so and they want to try to do it with the Tasmanian tiger, a species that went extinct in the 1930s. 

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Marshes in Iraq that have nourished communities since the dawn of civilization are drying up leading to further displacement of people in this region of conflict.

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Sturgeons have survived in America's rivers for millions of years but now they are disappearing. Will humans be the death of this ancient species?

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It's a rare partnership in Nature: The world's only black-furred bunnies distribute the seeds of a parasitic plant through their droppings.

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"Microrewilding" in urban areas can provide a lifeline to Nature and enhance biodiversity.

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A new conservancy in southeast British Columbia will protect a globally endangered rainforest with cedar trees. 

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This grumpy-looking wildcat is a Pallas's cat, a rare and remarkable species that has been confirmed to be living on Mount Everest.

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The thousands of Starlings that call Rome their home perform amazing aerial acrobatics that can mesmerize watchers, but what they leave behind at their night roosts is a lot less mesmerizing and a lot more problematic.