Writer. Editor. Reader.
These two photos are taken in May, 2017, right before I started more than a year of travel. The forest photo below was taken at a nature reserve a stone’s throw from where I grew up. (Another photo of the same nature reserve is here.)
This series of posts are about entertainment that I recommend when people ask me for recommendations. It also includes place-specific “entertainment”, such as beautiful gardens; it might be stretching the definition of entertainment, but I enjoy myself in the places I recommend.
They are not universal recommendations. I wouldn’t recommend a dark thriller to someone looking for something nice and happy; I’d recommend a romance.
They aren’t perfect or without mistakes.
Art is never finished, only abandoned. ~ Leonard da Vinci
This post covers a fictional world/universe more than a specific series.
Some time in the early 2000s I picked up Moon Called by Patricia Briggs. It was the start of a few years of reading urban fantasy and paranormal romance, mostly because of Briggs’ book.
The cover you see for the book to the right is the cover of the mass market paperback I bought back then, and the reason I picked the book up up.
It is a gorgeous cover by the artist Dan dos Santos. Yes, it was gorgeous enough that I actually looked up and made sure to remember the artist’s name.
Moon Called is the first book in the Mercy Thompson series. An urban fantasy series set in the Tri-Cities in Washington state, USA. It has all the usual trappings of a urban fantasy series. And it is great.
The main character, Mercy Thompson, is a coyote shifter and not insanely powerful. She is resourceful, have great friends, and a tenacity and protective instinct that brings her into trouble all the time.
She’s a hero.
Sometimes her thoughts in the books matches exactly what I imagine I’d think in those moments.
A couple of books into the Mercy series, Briggs wrote a novella also set in the world called Alpha and Omega, which turned into the start of the second series. That novella is one of my favorite stories of all time.
There are more short stories set in this world, most if not all of them helpfully collected in Shifting Shadows. A great read with many gems. Especially Seeing Eye. And any story with Asil in it. (Asil is always fun to read about.)
I’ve read every book and story set in this world. I’ve enjoyed them all.
Of all the urban fantasy I read for years, this is the series and author I still keep up with. And whose books I buy as soon as they release and read them until I finish them in the middle of the night.
I also reread them regularly.
Three photos of three different waters from three different years and 2–3 different countries.
The first one above is of the Baltic Sea taking in 2003. I was on a sailing vacation with a friend’s family who owned the ship. I think we were mostly in Swedish waters, depending on how far out Swedish waters go, but we visited Bornholm on the trip too, which is part of Denmark. So those waters could belong to Denmark.
Second photo was taking in Boston, USA, in 2017. I was out canoeing with a friend. I had a great time and thought a factory looked pretty for once.
Third photo is from a middle-of-the-week vacation I took in 2015 a little ways outside Stockholm. I wanted to be a bit pampered and to take in some nature. And some nature I found! Really great. Back in April, I shared a photo of a tree from the same vacation.
This series of posts are about entertainment that I recommend when people ask me for recommendations. It also includes place-specific “entertainment”, such as beautiful gardens; it might be stretching the definition of entertainment, but I enjoy myself in the places I recommend.
They are not universal recommendations. I wouldn’t recommend a dark thriller to someone looking for something nice and happy; I’d recommend a romance.
They aren’t perfect or without mistakes.
Art is never finished, only abandoned. ~ Leonard da Vinci
Growing up I had the pleasure of occasionally meeting Sherlock Holmes. I think the main way was an audio cassette with the Hound from Baskervilles and a couple of other tales.
When a new Sherlock Holmes movie came out in 2009, I went to the movies and saw it. And then a few years ago, there were two TV-shows based on Sherlock Holmes that came out.
A British one which is excellent in its own way, but today I want to talk about Elementary with Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock and Lucy Liu as Watson.
The interesting thing here, beyond changing the gender of Watson, is the relationship between Sherlock and Watson. Sober drug addict with sober companion. Sherlock’s usual brilliant but strange detecting skill, and Watson’s routine-based advice.
While their cases are interesting and twisted. I really watch it for the relationship of Sherlock and Watson.
Watching them react to each other, change, not change, adapt, circumvent, amplify and more. I really enjoy the show for that.
I’m an avid watcher of crime shows, and the one thing I’m always looking for way more than interesting cases are interesting characters/detectives. If the characters catch me, I’m a loyal watcher.
This show has done that.
In 2017, I was trying to fly to Costa Rica. San Jose Airport was having troubles and when the plane was about one hour from there, the airport was shut down due to problems.
Our plane didn’t have that much fuel and couldn’t wait to see if the airport would open before our fuel ran out, so our pilot said we had one option.
Go to Panama City in Panama, refuel and fly back. Except it didn’t quite happen like that.
We landed in Panama a little before midnight. By then the flight attendants needed to go off duty in 30 minutes and there was still no information about when San Jose Airport would open.
So off the plane we go. And we, and a couple of stranded planes go through immigration extremely slowly. Then we wait for hours by the check in counters for our airline to fix hotel rooms and transport.
Around 2-2:30 am, I manage to get off the first bus to our hotel and then wait another half hour or so for my hotel room. By 3 am I’m in the room.
Our transport back to the airport is at 8 am in the morning. So I get about 4 hours of sleep. Eat breakfast and then back to the airport.
About 40 minutes before the plane is supposed to take off, the airport decides to extra screen us at the gate. Aka opening everyone’s carry-ons and searching them by hand.
Do you think that took less than 40 minutes? It didn’t.
We were delayed by about an hour before we could finally fly to San Jose and land there about 15-16 hours after schedule.
Fun times… not.
This series of posts are about entertainment that I recommend when people ask me for recommendations. It also includes place-specific “entertainment”, such as beautiful gardens; it might be stretching the definition of entertainment, but I enjoy myself in the places I recommend.
They are not universal recommendations. I wouldn’t recommend a dark thriller to someone looking for something nice and happy; I’d recommend a romance.
They aren’t perfect or without mistakes.
Art is never finished, only abandoned. ~ Leonard da Vinci
This might be a strange pick for this series, because I’m going to recommend a Swedish artist who only sings in Swedish as far as I know.
He is a modern bard and goes by the artist name Loke.
I call him a modern bard, because his songs are more about the lyrics which reflect both timely topics and universal experiences in our modern time.
Listening to his music and not understanding the words… I think it loses a lot from that. But at the same time I can’t help but recommend him.
He’s that good.
I love the song “Aldrig Mera Rädd” (roughly “Never Again Afraid”) about being about to be assaulted for being different (different ethnicity, sexuality, etc.) and then deciding to take a stand and be every kind of different those people hates.
“Andas” (“Breathe”) is about a loving man trying to keep his depressed/suicidal girlfriend from hurting herself.
The way he sings, sometimes fast as in the song “ADHD” or soft or slow, is the way he makes music; together with the words he uses.
One of his most impactful and longest songs, which I can’t help but cry every time I listen to it, is “Flykten från Sverige” (“The Escape From Sweden” or “Fleeing from Sweden”). In Sweden, we have a lot of refugees. This song takes those refugee stories and flips them; a Swedish boy and his family have to flee from Sweden which have been invaded.
Every time I listen to that song, my feet lifts out of my own shoes of having been born in safe Sweden, and puts me in the shoes of what it would be like if Sweden wasn’t safe, if Sweden was a place you had to flee from to keep your life.
That is the power of story. In this case, a song telling a story.
Loke have many more great songs telling serious, fun, insightful, and silly stories.