Knock Knock

 Knock Knock
Who's there?
V
V...V who?
V are still figuring it out:)

 Some mornings I believe all mornings should begin with Beatles music:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_MjCqQoLLA

Hiatus

Stop... 

Leave... 

Explore... 

Evolve... 

Tear... 

Shatter... 

Amalgamate... 

Morph... 

Fly... 

Submerge...

Silence... 

Scream...

Quietness... 

Contentment... 

Breathe... 

Walk...

Return...

The Pyramid by Henning Mankell

The Pyramid: And Four Other Kurt Wallander Mysteries by Henning Mankell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The book has 5 stories of varying lengths that capture 5 different cases of Wallander's career starting with when he was a young cop wanting to be a criminal investigator in the late 60's to the Pyramid in Dec 1989 and January 1990. The stories itself are engrossing and well written. Of the 5 stories, the Pyramid was my favorite. I think in fact the Mankell could have written another 100 pages of it if he wanted and made another novel out of it(which he did not of course).

I liked the way the characters are potrayed(this is only my second Wallander series book). They are not perfect, in fact they are all flawed in their own way. Having seen the Wallander series(so knowing where things end up considering this is a prequel book), I can see the spiraling of Wallander's relationship with Mona while reading through the book. His workaholic nature, inability to turn his mind off his case, his caring for his father and daughter(and yet his complicated relationship with them), his love and eventual void for having Mona in his life, the loneliness, the gloominess of the weather all come out during the book.

I also appreciated the fact that the book made some cases move quickly while others were drawn out. I would think(not having any first hand experience of course) that is the way cases would go. There is no individual brilliance(like Poirot) or some systematic explanation of how the detective came to the solution(like Sherlock Holmes). There was definitely some good detective work. But, there are things that happen because of one or the other character's intuition(I would imagine that experience gets you that) and there were cases where they were downright lucky. Mankell does not downplay this and that is something I loved as well.

Finally there are some nuggets of social commentary and personal observation in the book, that make this book even more compelling. There is a lot of mention of weather(possibly to set the mood and tone). The translated English version uses simple and clear sentences making the original author's intent clear. So hats off to the translator as well.

View all my reviews

B about GOT
"its like every teenage kid's dream come true....dungeons and dragons with porn thrown in":)

Clean slate

Today is the first day of the new year. Like 29 other new years days that have passed, today I start with a fresh slate for the year...or can I?....why do I think today is different than any other day....after all "its a trip around the sun"...had the calendar begun yesterday or the day before....then that would have been the new year day...a friend of mine used to measure the new year from her birthday...after all summarizing what she mentioned, for her the trip around the sun started with the day she was born...so makes perfect sense....so what makes today more special than any other day....

in reality the answer is that today is like any other day...its all in my head whether i start with a clean slate...or not....whether i lead my life the way i have the year before or change course...maybe i need a reason...some marker to say...beyond this point in time...i am making a change to my life...maybe its the hope that a new year brings that the 365 days ahead are an improvement on the 365 days past( even if the days past were happy/joyous)...the real answer is that i have to start somewhere....right now is as good as any other time....so here it is...clean slate.....happy new year!

where is the real mccoy?