I Would Like to Recommend

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 LUCY BURDETTE: Remember when our pal Ingrid Thoft used to do a post every once in a while called “I’d like to recommend…”? I always enjoyed the answers, which could be about anything! So if you’re not reading or watching anything new or noteworthy, feel free to recommend food or anything else that comes to mind. That said, I’d like to recommend a Swedish crime show we’ve gotten addicted to. It’s called the Sandhamn Murders and it takes place on the islands off the coast of Stockholm. And that means the (ever-so-appealing) characters are always roaring off to answer a call in their motorboats. It has me dying to visit Sweden, even though these particular little towns are developing the Cabot Cove syndrome.

I also just started Paula Munier’s third Mercy Carr novel, THE HIDING PLACE. She’s become an expert at raising the emotional stakes for her characters, plus the setting is so distinct and the book is chock full of wonderful animals. That’s enough from me. How about you Reds?

JENN McKINLAY: Well, I already raved about Ted Lasso (nudge, nudge) so I then started watching Resident Alien (thank you, Jay) and I’m loving it so far but with a book due in a matter of days I’ve had to limit my intake of episodes - but seriously, so good! As for books, I recently finished a Katherine Center reading bender that was just lovely. My favorite was Things You Save in a Fire about a female Boston firefighter. Excellent! And as for food, let me just say, Detroit Style Coney Dogs - soooo good! Hub started making them during the pandemic and they’ve become a household favorite because sometimes you just NEED a hotdog.

LUCY: I am a big fan of Katherine Center too Jenn, and so far that one is my favorite as well.

HALLIE EPHRON: I confess, I’ve been off any kind of emotionally fraught or humorously silly programming for months now, with the exception of NEW TRICKS (with the original cast) which is streaming (Netflix? Amazon? Can’t remember which) and a complete escapist delight. 

What seems to hold my attention right now are documentaries. On Netflix, just for instance “Dancing with Birds,” “The Pixar Story,” “Murder Among the Mormons,” “Indian Matchmaking.” Also “American Oz” -- all about L. Frank Baum who wrote the Oz books, on public television. And I did get through one drama -- “The Dig” (dramatization of a true story - a ship from the Middle Ages is discovered buried on a woman’s farm in England - loved it). 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Yay, Ingrid! Love her. We’ve been watching This is a Robbery, about the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum heist, which is really well done, and even more interesting because I covered it as a reporter. We are trying to watch the Kate WInslet police series called  Mare of Eastham (is that right?) and I am not sure about it. It’s most fascinating trying to listen to her do a US accent.  (Philadelphia? I think?)

We also watched Inhuman Resources which was AMAZING until it wasn’t. And we have been watching a lot of old movies. I had never seen In the Heat of the Night, oddly, and it’s riveting. We watched The Man Who Knew Too Much. SO much fun. And The Heiress. And Anatomy of a Murder. 

I am also in love with reading on my Fire while walking on the treadmill. This is a GREAT THING! I read Edith Wharton’s book on writing, and am now in the midst of one of my all time favorites, The Custom of the Country.  And I absolutely tore through the pages of FALLING  by TJ Newman, whoa, and completely adored FOR YOUR OWN GOOD  by Samantha Downing. And I get exercise at the same time.

Finally, I have discovered the joys of breadcrumbs. But a blog for another time.

And does anyone do the Spelling Bee in the NY Times? I am addicted, and cannot continue my Sundays without solving it.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Hank, you covered the Isabella Stewart Gardner robbery? I’ve always been fascinated by that.

Let’s see, I can recommend something that’s probably been done before, but I’m working my way through the BBC’s Agatha Christie adaptations from the past few years, most of which are on Amazon. They’re so well done, it doesn’t matter if you know whodunnit. I’m also slowly going through THE EXPANSE, the five-season and counting SF series, also on Amazon. Does anyone else seem to settle into one streaming service for a while?

My latest reads are THE VENICE SKETCHBOOK by our own Rhys Bowen, and it’s wonderful! I just finished THE GALAXY, AND THE GROUND WITHIN by Becky Chambers, the last of four loosely connected novels set in a galaxy filled with aliens, in which most of humanity resides in a fleet exiled from Earth. This latest is the opposite of space opera - it’s a sweet and tender exploration of character of five people trapped for a few days together. Which is also the theme of SHIVER by Allie Reynolds, another Agatha Christie-type tale of a group whose reunion weekend takes a dark turn when they’re stranded in their remote, snowbound resort. I just love this subgenre of mystery; I wish we could come up with a more definitive name than “Christie like.”

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Thanks to Julia's recommendation some time ago, I've been bingeing on the CHRONICLES OF ST. MARY series by Jodi Taylor, about a time-traveling historian named Madeleine Maxwell. These are such fun, although a bit harrowing, as Max does manage to get into a lot of trouble. And they really make history jump off the page!

I've read the latest Ben Aaronovitch novella, WHAT ABIGAIL DID THAT SUMMER, which I loved, and I'm listening to the Audible versions of his books, more or less backwards. The narrator, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, is the best audio narrator ever. I would listen to him read the phone book (if there still was such a thing.)

TV-wise, we are still working our way through SCHITT'S CREEK, which I think has saved my sanity the last few months. It's just so good, so funny, and so darned sweet. And I'm a perpetual fan of THE VOICE, so am enjoying that this season. Snoop Dog has been the mega-mentor, and he is fabulous! Who knew?

Rhys Bowen:  chiming in very late as we’ve just driven back from Arizona. I’ve been binging Britbox ( Vera and Death in Paradise) and also series on Prime with an Edwardian Farm and then a Tudor farm. 

Your turn Reds! What would you like to recommend?