And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

 

Even if you’ve read this classic novel of mystery and suspense before, by re-reading it you will find new facets and nuances to admire. 

Ten people come to an island for different purposes but find themselves fighting for their lives. Among them is a murderer who wants his or her own type of justice. After each death, the adversary meticulously removes a porcelain figure from the dining room table.

A gramophone recording relates that each of these guests have committed an unpardonable sin and have been as of yet beyond the reaches of law. One of them has invited them all here, produced the recording, and eliminating them but who could it be? 

Could it be the young reckless Marston, the well-respected doctor, or the elderly Emily Brent? Could it be General McArthur, the reptilian judge Wargrave, the prim Vera Claythorne, or the callous Philip Lombard? 

This one of Christie's darkest and most intricate mystery. 

Nightbirde

I

ts no often that I'm moved by anyone on AGT; all of the reactions seem so rehearsed. There is something genuine, however, about the singer who calls herself Nightbirde that cannot be ignored. 

The song is called "It's okay," which is perfect for this particular time--when many people do not feel ok .This is a song that asks everyone to accept their situation, whatever it may be.  

She sings with a pleasant, echoing vibrato. For me, its not the performance or the vocals but the actual lyrics that stand out most. For example, she sings, "said I knew myself but I guess I lied."

The Big Door Prize by M.O. Walsh

 

In a novel that's sweetness served up with a side of realism, Walsh explores a small town's inhabitants desire to live the best version of themselves. When a simply plywood cubicle with the word DNAMIX shows up at Johnson's grocery story, it causes the good people of Deerfield to behave in outlandish ways.

The machine, which does a quick DNA scan, determines if an individual has lived up to his or her potential. Ordinary townspeople suddenly decide they are meant to be puppeteers, Olympic champions, magicians, or members of royalty.

The townspeople's gullibility infuriates Douglas Hubbard who feels the machine spits out random occupations. He is flabbergasted and irked to learn that his readout is spot-on. Even though Douglas wants a more exciting life, that of trombone player, the machine tells Douglas his life station is "teacher."

Douglas has been a teacher for years and it leaves him depleted and exhausted. Every day that he teaches feels like eight days instead of one. Naturally, he is irked to find he is the only person in town given such a prosaic life station.

Most of the characters are humorous and endearing. Pat, Deerfield High's principal, refuses to swear yet she uses nonsense words that sound suspiciously like swear words. Tipsy is the town's only cab driver. He drives constantly, taking no money for fares, because it helps him keep a promise he has made to himself.

Father Pete is a good man even if he takes a drink now and then. The mayor nearly abandons his mayoral duties after getting his DNAMIX readout of "cowboy."

Mixed in with the humor, however, is an unfolding mystery. What happened to the mayor's son, Toby? Did he die from a DUI accident or was it something even more sinister? Beneath the amusing stories about Deerfield eccentrics, there is a darker story of the mistreatment of a young woman and the unquenched desire for revenge.

PBS' The Gene Doctors a New Era of Medicine.

This PBS film introduces viewers to a new world of therapies that may help anyone who has an incurable genetic disorder. Scientists are using viruses, messenger DNA, and CRISPR to treat disease at its root level, the genetic mutation that causes disease. 

Research scientists--Dr. Jean Bennet, Dr. Edwin Stone, Dr. Jennifer Doudna, and Dr. Eric Green--make appearances in the film. Viewers also hear from the patients whose lives are directly affected by their research.

Book Review: How I Build This by Guy Raz

 

Business podcaster and journalist, Guy Raz, offers insights on how many innovative companies got started in How I Built This. Raz summarizes key takeaways from his podcast where he interviews founders.

Even though no two stories are alike, there are some similarities. In his estimation, entrepreneurs are open to the call. Some businesses were a direct response to an unmet need. Carol’s Daughter, FUBU, Walker & Co. met the needs of an ethnic demographic. Other companies thrived when their business model tweaks the industry: Airbnb, the Knot, Stitch, Rent the Runway, Canva, Warby Parker.

Entrepreneurs face many obstacles which Raz eloquently describes in Part 2. Some companies are noted for how well they have recovered from setbacks e.g. Jeni’s Splendid ice creams. Others are notable for how well they have pivoted into new niches: Stacy’s Pita Chips, Angie’s Boomchickapop, Slack, Twitch.

Even after companies have succeeded, founders must decide whether to sell or to maintain creative control. Neither decision is right or wrong; it just depends on what the founder’s goals may be.

While there are many success stories, there are a few cautionary tales: Dippin Dots and American Apparel.

How I built This is great for those who want to dip their feet into the entrepreneurial waters. While it offers many tips from the world’s foremost startups, its an enjoyable and engaging read.

Millions of jobs won't be coming back

 

According to the Washington Post, millions of jobs will not be coming back after the pandemic ends. Many people will need to discover or rediscover their "why" (as Sinek calls it). they will need to repurpose, repackage their career or make career shifts and changes.

More people will work from home and less employees will travel. According to the McKinsey Global institute, twenty percent of business travel will end. 

The economy will need the same number of jobs post pandemic as pre-pandemic, but the job duties will change.

Start With Why by Simon Sinek

In  six part and fourteen chapters, Sinek reveals what organizations need to do to be industry leaders. Surprisingly simple, leaders needs to remind employees why the organization was founded in the first place; they need to remember their WHY.

Those organizations that forget their WHY experience a strange bifurcation between what they do and why they do it. According to Sinek, Dell, Microsoft, Walmart, and Starbucks are some of the companies that have forgotten their original purpose. 

For Sinek, it all comes down to a golden circle. At the center of the circle is the company's purpose or passion. The leader turns this golden circle, now imagined as a cone, into a megaphone. Everything the company does, even the people it hires must be aligned with company's purpose. 

Using anecdotes and historical examples, Sinek explains how a trend is different from a fad, how novelty is different from innovation. Real innovation changes the industry and can change society.

Sinek highlight those companies that inspire the most--most notably Apple, Virgin Records, Southwest Airlines but also some less well-known companies.

To be successful, these companies need to market to early adopters and others that share their values. They need a marketing team that effuse their message;  products and services that pass the celery test. They need good successors that keep the WHY alive.

Playwright, Ken Lin

Ken Lin speaks about the universality of performing arts in this Houston Chronicle article:

 “My parents were immigrants, and I grew up in a family where some people didn't speak English...So as a child, I learned the power of storytelling and also of nonverbal communication. I was drawn to the performing arts because of how universal they are.”

Lin is best known for the plays Po Boy Tango, Farewell My Concubine, and Kleptocracy. 

https://www.chron.com/entertainment/article/Playwright-Kenneth-Lin-is-realizing-his-dreams-1706503.php

Arrokoth

Detected in 2014, Arrokoth is the most distant and  object  explored by spacecraft so far. 

Arrokoth is the Powhatan/Algonquin word for sky. 

        Credits: NASA/John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Roman Tkachenko

For a great overview of everything space-related see Universe which is streaming on Netflix (an eighteen part series). 

German Library Acquires 400 Year Old Friendship Book

 

Mymodernnet.com reports that a German library,  Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel acquired a 400 year-old "friendship" book containing the signatures of kings and emperors.

This is like a modern day equivalent of a yearbook.

Grants for Cozy Mystery Writers

For my writer friends,

Cozy mysteries accepted between January 1 and November 1.

https://www.malicedomestic.org/grants-program.html

• Authors are invited to submit one work in progress per submission period.
• The Grants Committee is looking for works in progress that are consistent with the Malice Domestic genre of Traditional Mystery, typified by the works of Agatha Christie. These works contain no explicit gore, violence, or sex. 
• The submission period is from January 1 - November 1 every year.
• Please include your author name, story title, brief bio, contact email, and phone number on your submission. 
• Submissions are accepted via email (click below).
• Please contact our Grants Chair Harriette Sackler with any questions regarding your submission or the Grants Program. 

The Memory Garden by Mary Rickert

 

Perfect for Halloween, The Memory Garden by Mary Rickert is a treat. 

Mistaken for a witch, Nan is actually an older lady who happens to have a shoe garden. People send her cast-off shoes and they become the perfect planters for hollyhock, pennyroyal and mallow. 

Along with harsh words, people leave clothes, bread, honey. Eventually, someone leaves a baby in a shoe box. This sets all kind of figurative fireworks and changes the course of Nan's life. 

The author's use of foreshadowing is superb:

"Nan tries to hold her breath against the scent of memory, but there they are, the three of them in whispered conference, standing in the snow, promising to die with the secret of Eve's last hours, bound by the very oath that would tear them asunder."

This is a story of three old women with a dark secret and the baby (now grown into a teenager) whom Nan has adopted.

Similar titles:

Shipman, Viola. The Heirloom Garden. 

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

 

No matter how far they roam, bad luck follows Ella and Alice. Eventually, they settle in Brooklyn where Alice meets someone she recognizes from her past, the man who had kidnapped her a decade ago.

Alice becomes obsessed with her grandmother, Althea Prosperine, whom she has never met. She is also obsessed with reading her grandmother's book, Tales from the Hinterland. Even though its rare, the book has generated a lot of passionate fans who keep in touch on websites.

In Brooklyn, Alice's mother's luck seems to change. She marries a rich man, Harold, whom she thinks she loves. Their love quickly sours and then Ella vanishes; Harold tells Alice that Ella was taken by a group calling themselves "the Hinterland."

Alice's only clues are things left behind by the strange man at the coffee shop: a feather, comb, and bone and a rhyme given to her by one of her Grandmother's "fans."

Albert takes tried-and-true fairy tale elements and gives them a refreshing contemporary context. Time spend in a fairytale world is depicted as a kidnapping; characters from one world or the other are "refugees."  As dark as that sounds, its possible to change a story's ending. Alice breaks her doomed story and one broken story leads to others.  

If readers want to hear more about Alice, there's a second book in the series, The Night Country.   

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

 

In this fanciful and breathtaking novel, two young people are drawn into a dangerous game by their caretakers. Both have been trained in the arts of real magic, not illusory magic, and have been brought up to fight a magical duel.

Marco is an orphan and Celia has a cruel, misguided father. Their challenge will take place at the traveling circus which shows up unannounced at various cities throughout the world. 

The Night circus, which has no clowns and elephants, focuses on the unusual and the sensual. Visitors enter tents to see acrobatics, an ice garden, smell concoctions, or have their fortunes told.

Celia is the circus's illusionist who uses magical arts to impress her audience. 

Though the Marco and Celia realize they are opponents, neither know when or how the challenge will take place. 

Marco, who is based in London, uses the magical bonfire at the circus to refuel his energy. The bonfire also has protective properties which keeps the circus performers from aging.

Though it was not a pact they entered willing, Celia and Marco have ignored the challenge's effects on others. 

Lanie makes this clear to Celia,

"I am tired of everyone keeping their secrets so well that they get other people killed. We are all involved in your game, and it seems we are not as easily repaired as teacups."

The two masterminds, Hector and Alexander, have more to answer for. Fittingly, in the end, Alexander seems to realize the harm his game has caused:    

"It is one thing to put two competitors alone in a ring and wait for one to hit the ground. It is another to see how they fare when there are other factors in the ring along with them. When there are repercussions with every action taken."

 The love story and denouement of this novel are particularly impressive. The conclusion is bittersweet but satisfying. 

Marco and Celia find a way to thwart the game. Uncertain and lost, Bailey finds a mission. Widget, who perhaps possesses the most powerful magic of all, wins the circus with his story telling abilities. 

Morgenstern began The Night Circus in 2003 during NaNoWriMo challenge, an annual online writing challenge in which authors try to complete 50,000 words in November.