Wednesday, April 10, 2013
BURY YOUR DEAD: Guided Walking Tour
Based on Louise Penny’s best-selling mystery novel Bury Your Dead, this two-hour tour follows the trail of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache as he investigates the murder of a local amateur archeologist, whose body was found in the cellar of the Québec Literary and Historical Society. Explore Old Québec City’s narrow streets with our guide and see with your own eyes the places where life and work bring Armand Gamache.
The Bury Your Dead Tour starts at the Quebec Tourist Information Centre (12, Sainte-Anne Street). It stops at the Notre-Dame Basilica, the Literary and Historical Society (Morrin Centre) and the Petit Coin Latin restaurant where participants enjoy a cup of coffee or tea and a slice of sugar pie. It then goes to the Jeanne d'Arc Garden through the Plains of Abraham, ending at the Montcalm monument, on Grande Allée Street.
Find out more, HERE.
Louise Penny will be International Guest of Honor at Left Coast Crime in Monterey, CA, March 20-23, 2014. Register now!
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Monday, April 8, 2013
A Library for your Garden: San Francisco Seed Library
Visit the Potrero branch of the San Francisco Public Library, and you’ll spot a display with rows of little yellow envelopes: the San Francisco Seed Library. Created in 2011, the exchange offers free seeds for the taking. Most come from donations and volunteers’ gardens.
Come harvest time, the organizers hope the recipients will return good seeds from the plants they grow to keep the library's collection expanding. The mission is for participants to collectively discover the vegetable, legume and grain varieties that will flourish in San Francisco's 'quirky' climate.
Harvesting seeds to return to the fledgeling seed library is not as straightforward as it might seem. To learn more, the Berkeley-based Bay Area Seed Interchange Library is offering a seed-saving class on Saturday, April 13. Urban-agriculture activist Antonio Roman-Alcalá will be teaching several classes at the Potrero library in June. (Check the branch’s online event listings in a month or so for times.)
And, of course, you can check out all kinds of gardening books, while you're at the library.. Or Gardening Mysteries! Lots of plant lore in these.
Peter Workman: R.I.P.
Workman was founder, president and CEO of one of the largest independent publishers of nonfiction trade books and calendars. Titles include favorites such as the boxed Page-A-Day Calendar, "The Official Preppy Handbook" and "The Silver Palate Cookbook."
A Long Island native, Workman was a Yale University graduate. After a job in the sales department of Dell Publishing, he founded Workman in 1967 as a book packager. Within two years, its inaugural list led with Richard Hittleman's "Yoga 28-Day Exercise Plan," which is still in print.
Workman bestsellers also include are B. Kliban's "Cat," Sandra Boynton's children's books, and "1,000 Places To See Before You Die." Artisan published chef Thomas Keller's "The French Laundry Cookbook."
He is survived by his widow, Carolan Raskin Workman, their two daughters and four grandchildren.
Decoding Murder: The Bletchley Circle
Storyline: Almost 10 years after working undercover during World War II, Susan, Millie, Lucy and Jean work to catch a serial killer using their astute decryption skills. These 'ordinary' women secretly track patterns of a complex killer targeting young women in London. They do this on their own, with no help from Scotland Yard.
What's so interesting, of course, to mystery fans, is that these women, Susan, Millie, Lucy and Jean, have the extraordinary ability to break codes, a skill honed during World War II when they worked undercover at Bletchley Park, site of the UK’s main decryption establishment. Now, in 1952, the four have returned to civilian life, keeping their intelligence work secret from all (they signed the Secrets Act), including family and friends. A series of terrible murders targeting women, however, reunites the team as they set out to decode the pattern behind the crimes.
Two-time BAFTA award-winner Anna Maxwell Martin (“South Riding,” “Bleak House”) stars as Susan, now a housewife with two children, who has collected data on a series of murders and tried, unsuccessfully, to convince the police that another is imminent. Rachael Stirling (“Women in Love,” “Boy Meets Girl”) is Millie, the feistiest of the bunch, conversant in 14 languages, worldly and street smart. RADA graduate Sophie Rundle plays Lucy, a young woman equipped with a photographic memory. Julie Graham (“Lapland,” “Doc Martin”), oldest of the four, is the former head of the Bletchley Park unit.
Initially unaware of the Bletchley background, the police don’t take Susan’s theory about the crimes seriously. She quickly realizes she can crack the murders and bring the culprit to justice only with the help of her former colleagues. “He’s making a pattern, and he doesn’t realize he’s doing it,” Susan tells her friends. “If we can crack it, we’ll be able to see what his next move will be. Just like knowing where the German army will be in three days’ time. We can get ahead of him and stop him before he kills again.”
“THE BLETCHLEY CIRCLE combines a vivid portrait of post-war Britain with a taut and original code-breaking mystery that is equal parts thriller and whodunit,” said Beth Hoppe, Chief Programming Executive and General Manager, General Audience Programming, PBS. “We think American audiences are going to love the story and the characters. The production is exceptionally vivid, capturing London of the 1950s fully. In addition, the journey home for these women, from war intelligence to 1950s domesticity, is highly complicated, further emphasizing the importance of their bond and friendship.”
I loved this production. There are a few gaps, but you can fill them in. Watch or set your DVR. As with many PBS productions, you'll be able to watch the program on your computer/iPad for a week or two after airing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)