The Literate Kitty

Synchronicity : an apparently meaningful coincidence in time of two or more similar or identical events that are causally unrelated. Soooooo… pretty sure it wasn’t because I did some search for “cool shows set in Amsterdam” (because I definitely didn’t), but the fact remains, nontheless, that I found myself watching, back-to-back, two different series set… in Amsterdam.  Anywho, I'm going with " synchronicity is totally a thing" , mkay? (The fact that there's also a totally-legit  The Police tie-in, here? I mean, just kill me now.) _______________ The series about the quasi-retired French detective, on holiday with his wife in Amsterdam? Yeah, Baptiste was a no-brainer for me, because I found both seasons of The Missing  riveting (My review of the first of that series’ two seasons can be found here .) Baptiste , let me say, is definitely best appreciated after watching both seasons of The Missing , because—while it certainly stands on its own, just fine—the...

Maybe it was because the last movie I streamed was so very, very grim—which, under normal circumstances, I don’t find to be a bad thing, but… oh hey, 2020, you’re still here?!? —or perhaps it was just a mood, but I can’t deny getting loads more pleasure from the fluffy YA piece I watched last night, than from the much-lauded, layered work (from a brilliant writer, no less!) a couple nights before. _______________ After being wowed by Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things a couple of weeks ago, I was really looking forward to his first directorial piece (which somehow flew under my radar back when), 2008’s Synecdoche, New York.  It seemed like a safe bet: Kaufman always writes these thought-provoking, mind-bending scripts that are unquestionably his ; he’d gathered an impressive cast (including the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, along with Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton, Emily Watson, Michelle Williams, Hope Davis, Tom Noonan, and Dianne Wiest); and the premise of a ...

Plenty of things sound like less fun than a week-long team-building trip with co-workers--root canals, watching paint dry, etc--but as far as “having-a-great-time-and-getting-away-from-work-crap” goes, it ranks way down the list.   Of course, when you picture one of those corporate morale-boosting retreats, it’s likely full of “trust-fall” games, goofy role-playing exercises, and rah-rah positivity talks. What probably never, ever, crosses your mind is a weekend in which the object is—literally—  just stay alive … which is precisely what one company trip becomes, in Ruth Ware’s latest thriller, One by One . _______________ A week at a small, boutique ski resort high in the French Alps, with a few work meetings penciled in around the hours allocated for skiing, snowboarding, and partying aprés ski in the cozy, private lodge (which also boasts both a live-in housekeeper and chef, to ensure all needs are met)…  sounds like a perfect bonding-and-work jaunt for an up-and ...

  It can be a problem, knowing too much about something… particularly if you find that thing absolutely fascinating, and feel compelled to share said knowledge with others (who may find it similarly interesting, but in all likelihood, won’t ). There’s also something of an issue with being too fond of your own voice, whether aural or written, so I—fully acknowledging my own tendency to ramble—hesitate to call anyone out on it, but there you have it. It’s when you combine both of those propensities, though, that things start to get really … tiresome , shall we say. And with that, I give you The Forger’s Daughter , Bradford Morrow’s sequel to his earlier The Forger . _______________ On the surface, this sounded like a can’t-miss-winner: a mid-life couple and their younger daughter leave Manhattan to spend the summer at their country home in the Hudson Valley… where secrets from the past rear up their ugly heads(!). And oh, such secrets they are… for it turns out that husband W...

Maybe it’s a worldwide “Boomerization”, or maybe it’s simply that as seasoned writers age, they lean more toward writing characters who reflect their own well-earned years, rather than attempting to vicariously recapture fleeting youth through much younger ones. Whatever, it’s fascinating how many books have crossed my path, recently, that feature older protagonists. ( Perhaps I should view this as a positive, like getting older won’t automatically be so bad..?? ) Anyway, that brings us to what has to be one of the most delightfully fun “oldsters” I’ve read about in a long time… the very Scottish (and rather proper) Al MacBharrais, in Kevin Hearne’s new spin-off from his popular fantasy series, Ink & Sigil (From the World of the Iron Druid Chronicles) .  _______________ Al MacBharrais is one of only a handful of people in the entire world who can cast spells via sigils (think of them as handwritten words and symbols on paper, penned with enchanted inks [the creation of whic...