Murder in the Links Vol. 16
A weekly roundup of links, books I’m reading and other murderous miscellanea
This week I’ve been…
Reading children’s mysteries. My third grader started a mystery story unit at school and we’ve extended it into our bedtime reading at home. I am a children’s literature lover, from picture books straight through to YA, and the genre has, in my opinion, never been richer. But much like adult mysteries, there are several classics of the children’s genre - Harriet the Spy, The Westing Game, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - that stand the test of time. The authors of these books not only understand children, they respect them, their intelligence and their curiosity. I’m thrilled to have a legitimate excuse to revisit them (not that I need one!).
Adding The Residence to my Netflix queue. The cast is stacked (too many to mention them all, but Uzo Aruba! Ken Marino! Randall Park! Eliza Coupe! Jane freaking Curtin! to name just a few), the vibe seems similar to The Afterparty, and the trailer is funny. I am going to practice some magical thinking and transport myself to a world where the White House is a place of hilarious hijinks and not what it currently is.
Reading about Ross MacDonald and the Los Angeles fires in The New Yorker. Anthony Lane used to review movies for the magazine, but now he seems to write about whatever subjects strike his fancy, including this excellent piece. It’s part literary analysis, part Los Angles history, part socio-economic study, and well worth a read.