Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 8

• The Lady in the Silver Cloud

  By ljd42 on December 8, 2024

  

  If you want to read a New York–based mystery that’s funny without being frivolous, serious while still being amusing, try The Lady in the Silver Cloud, by David Handler. Although this novel is #13 in a series — the “Stewart… Read More ›

• Prostate cancer awareness

  By ljd42 on December 4, 2024

  

  A parody performed as an important public service by the wonderful Marsh Family, with music of course by Kurt Weill and words by members of the Marsh Family themselves: https://youtu.be/IkVLe_qI2dw?si=PMaz9T5ef6fNi3Hj (sorry about the ad — not my choice)

• Hallelujah (the movie)

  By ljd42 on December 2, 2024

  “If I knew where songs came from, I would go there more often.” So replied the late great Leonard Cohen in an apt twist on the answer to that annoying question everyone asks writers: “Where do you get your ideas?”… Read More ›

• Dinner at Henrietta’s

  By ljd42 on November 28, 2024

  

  Barbara and I just got back from the middle-of-the-day Thanksgiving dinner buffet at Henrietta’s in Cambridge (in the Charles Hotel, if you’re not familiar with it). Henrietta is a pig, by the way. No comment on that, please. This all… Read More ›

• Cloud Cuckoo Land

  By ljd42 on November 24, 2024

  

  Have you been fortunate enough to have studied ancient Greek theater (either in the original or in English translation)? You know which playwrights I mean — Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes. If those are all Greek to you, just keep reading…. Read More ›

• We solve murders.

  By ljd42 on November 21, 2024

  

  Richard Osman reassures us: “Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim remain immortal.” I do feel reassured (despite the absence of the Oxford comma). I think. The issue, as I’m sure you’ve figured out, is that Osman’s new mystery novel does not… Read More ›

• A close-up view of Neighborhood #1, Center City

  By ljd42 on November 17, 2024

  

  As you know, if you’ve been following this blog, the semi-fictional Rose City is the locale of the model railroad that I’ve been constructing with the assistance of my friend Meredith. You may also recall that there are nine named… Read More ›

• Math for English Majors

  By ljd42 on November 14, 2024

  

  No, I was never an English major (although my mom was). I wasn’t even a math major (although I taught math for decades). But, as a linguistics major, I had entwining connections with both English and math, as linguistics intersects… Read More ›

• Developing the new development

  By ljd42 on November 11, 2024

  

  As we discussed last month, a new development is in store for Rose City: Rose City’s wealthiest real estate developer, J. Elon Mark Jorgensen — who happens to be the mayor’s brother-in-law, but that of course is just a coincidence… Read More ›

• “We need a little Xanax.”

  By ljd42 on November 7, 2024

  Click to listen.

• Says Who?

  By ljd42 on November 4, 2024

  

  My mom would have hated this book; I loved it. My dad, as a psychiatrist, would have had some thoughts about this family disagreement — but he would have kept quiet about it. (Apparently that’s the role of a Jewish… Read More ›

• Another Day’s Pain

  By ljd42 on November 2, 2024

  

  Two very different mysteries: K. C. Constantine’s Another Day’s Pain is quite a contrast to Maria DiRico’s The Witless Protection Program, which I recently reviewed. As Constantine’s mystery is dark, serious, and grim, it might seem strange when I say… Read More ›

• The Witless Protection Program

  By ljd42 on October 30, 2024

  

  As you can see in the cover image below, the publisher claims that The Witless Protection Program was written by Maria DiRico, even though we all know that it was written by Ellen Byron. This, of course, must be because… Read More ›

• RIP Flicka, 2006–2024.

  By ljd42 on October 25, 2024

  

  She was a very good cat, 🐈‍⬛😢 She always brought along her extra toes and her stripy nose.

• I can see clearly now…

  By ljd42 on October 22, 2024

  

  No, not the famous song from the ’70s! In this case I mean it literally: I have just completed going through cataract and glaucoma surgeries in both eyes (a month apart), and the world looks different. Even though the surgeries… Read More ›

• All nine neighborhoods

  By ljd42 on October 20, 2024

  

  So here’s the thing about neighborhoods. In some cities, neighborhoods have official names, and precise boundaries, and even signs telling you which neighborhood you’re in — often with the name of the mayor attached (you might wonder why that’s done,… Read More ›

• The Killings at Kingfisher Hill

  By ljd42 on October 16, 2024

  

  What a deceptive cover! Take a look: You can see immediately that this is the new Poirot novel by Agatha Christie, right? But how is that possible? Was it just recently discovered, lurking in a file cabinet somewhere? Well, no…. Read More ›

• A new development

  By ljd42 on October 13, 2024

  

  Rose City’s wealthiest real estate developer, J. Elon Mark Jorgensen — who happens to be the mayor’s brother-in-law, but that of course is just a coincidence — has proposed building a new development of ranch-style tract houses on a piece… Read More ›

• “You can’t possibly be asking me to read an entire book!” he exclaimed.

  By ljd42 on October 10, 2024

  

  At his public high school, [this first-year student at an Ivy League university] had never been required to read an entire book. He had been assigned excerpts, poetry, and news articles, but not a single book cover to cover. That… Read More ›

• Never Saw Me Coming

  By ljd42 on October 7, 2024

  

  This fast-paced novel by Vera Kurian will hold your attention from beginning to end. Never Saw Me Coming falls clearly into the psychological thriller subcategory of the mystery genre, although it has aspects of the traditional mystery as well. Without… Read More ›

• ‹ Older Entries
• Newer Entries ›