Rebus started out as a curiosity, as I was just in Scotland when I first started reading these mysteries, but now he has become an old friend. I feel a need to check up on him and see how he is doing. He had become an old nosy retiree, forcibly retired from the force. He didn't go willingly either. It makes me worry about his mental state.
Evidently, so did Ranking, which is why his writing has become better, it gave him more to write about. I kind of got a feeling that he'd written himself into a corner. No fears, he found a way to get the old boy out and about.
Rebus now has a paramour that is more than his foil, and his cohorts from the old days: Clarke and Fox have become more visible characters, so it isn't just Rebus' brooding that is carrying the weight of the novel. And then there is the character of Bir Ger Rafferty, a soulmate/antagonist for Rebus, a worthy foe in a game of cat and mouse.
It almost didn't matter what the crime is, in this case a murder of a society wife who was murdered under mysterious circumstances years ago in a hotel where a rock band was staying, and an attempted attack on one of the villains that had put Rafferty out of business.
Indeed, the typical Rankin formula, and believe me when I say that it is a great formula, because Rankin had my attention every step of the way, even though I know his style.
As I said before, it isn't the mystery it self that matters, it is the characters, how they have grown, and how Rankin manages to weave the characters into each others story line that is of greater interest.
The man delivers, once again.
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Zen in the Martial Arts-Joe Hyam
My friend Dan told me this was the book that changed his life, or something to that effect. So I bought it. It was an easy read, short, concise, to the point and full of deep nuggets of wisdom pertaining to the practice of the martial arts and to life itself. Joe Hyam practiced the martial arts under a number of renown Sifu, the most famous of which was Bruce Lee.
This connection brought back memories of the time in my own past where I was obsessed with the Little Dragon. Even though it has been a few years since I have delved into his writings, much of it came back to life in my mind.
Of course Joe Hyam had more to say that just a sequence of Bruce Lee vignettes.
Foremost amongst them are the ideas of being in the flow and practicing the art with great concentration and vigor but also with singular attention of not trying. He also speaks of the kind of decision making that Daniel Kahnemann explores in his Thinking: Fast and Slow and Michael Lewis' The Undoing Project. I am now thinking on these themes and trying to piece all of the ideas together. For this I felt the book was a great find for me personally.
I was pleasantly surprised by his mention of the concept of flow and trying not to try, these are things that I had just read about in the past few years, yet in his crude but very concise way, Hyam was able to explain these concepts in a tiny book. I was actually quite impressed.
The elegant part of the book is that Hyam was able to put what he had to say in short 2-3 page chapters, he does so with great clarity and follows them up with pertinent quotes. This is a great book to keep with me as a reminder of the lessons.
I was also disheartened to read that Joe Hyam had passed away in 2008, this was an older book.
This connection brought back memories of the time in my own past where I was obsessed with the Little Dragon. Even though it has been a few years since I have delved into his writings, much of it came back to life in my mind.
Of course Joe Hyam had more to say that just a sequence of Bruce Lee vignettes.
Foremost amongst them are the ideas of being in the flow and practicing the art with great concentration and vigor but also with singular attention of not trying. He also speaks of the kind of decision making that Daniel Kahnemann explores in his Thinking: Fast and Slow and Michael Lewis' The Undoing Project. I am now thinking on these themes and trying to piece all of the ideas together. For this I felt the book was a great find for me personally.
I was pleasantly surprised by his mention of the concept of flow and trying not to try, these are things that I had just read about in the past few years, yet in his crude but very concise way, Hyam was able to explain these concepts in a tiny book. I was actually quite impressed.
The elegant part of the book is that Hyam was able to put what he had to say in short 2-3 page chapters, he does so with great clarity and follows them up with pertinent quotes. This is a great book to keep with me as a reminder of the lessons.
I was also disheartened to read that Joe Hyam had passed away in 2008, this was an older book.
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