If some person had sat down and thought "How can we create a detective thriller that would entertain Conrad?" they couldn't have come up with a better idea than Philip Kerr, author of the "Bernie Gunther" detective novels. Bernie is cast in the classic mould of The Honest Cop, one who will pursue the truth even when it puts him in harm's way, and since we are talking the Weimar Republic, then Nazi Germany and then the Cold War, harm frequently comes his way. I am intimately aware of the background to the novels, being a sad military history anorak, and find it delightful how Mr Kerr manages to blend the fictional with the factual.
Also I didn't need to buy the latest "A Man Without Breath" because our local library has it already.
"The Alien Years" vs. "Falling Skies"
In what must amount to irony, I read Robert Silverberg's novel whilst on holiday in America. Meh! A long boring chunter about a family, with aliens thrown in now and again. Plot holes I could have driven a Challenger tank through. This was one of the last books I ever picked up with the proviso "I will finish this book regardless of it's qualities". And how do I see it described on Amazon? "Epic masterpiece". Sorry, no. Not at all.
Falling Skies, now there's an alien invasion story that I like. Only occasionally epic, but very watchable indeed. Not sure how it will sustain into a fourth series, as Conrad would have tied everything up by the end of Season Three (Conrad says "Beginning - Middle - End").
Cornbread Cook-out
Last night I made a batch of cornbread. For all you non-Americans out there, this is an unleavened sweetish bread using more cornmeal than wheat flour, made in large batches. Inevitably this begged the question from other family members "what can we eat with our cornbread?". The answer turned out to be Jamie Oliver's Beef and Ale Stew, which is very easy to make and dead tasty.
While that was cooking, I made a batch of Raspberry and Peach ice cream, in order to use up some of the collection of tinned fruit sitting in the cupboards. Thus we have Kulfi, Mango Ice Cream, Pistachio and Pecan Ice Cream, Coconut Ice Cream and the Raspberry and Peach sitting in the freezers. Hopefully the weather will remain baking hot in order to consume these as they are meant to be - whilst wearing swimming gear in the back yard.
Eyes are the windows to the soul, eh?
Ah, but does it matter what they're looking at?
I ask because Chris, colleague at work, no intellectual lightweight, recounted all the films he had yet to watch. I too have a backlog of films to watch, but more pressing and more time-consuming is the mountain of books I have yet to read. There's thirteen sitting next to me at the computer - and let's see - another ten in the lower cupboard - and another six in the bedside booshelves - not to mention at least two dozen in the upright bookshelves, without venturing into the main storage in the upper cupboard.
< You have to say it out loud.
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