I am back to reading "Mysteries". For last few weeks I have gathered good mystery books and am on a bookathelon (If there is such word). I am of course a truly mystery lover at heart. No wonder you will find Sherlock Holmes as my permanent companion. Of course Arthur Cannon Doyle and Agatha Christie are all time favorite and respected authors but I have also taken interest in some new age mystery writing by Preston-Child and Steve Berry. These are new favorites of mine, when it comes to mystery writing and reading it my eyes literally droop. However, I recently found that my favorite TV shows "Murder, She Wrote" and "Monk" are also available in book format. The creators of these shows have also helped develop several mystery plots in book form that are true to the shows. "Murder, She Wrote" is an excellent TV show that ran on CBS from 1984-1996 starring Angela Lansbury as the clever and adorable Jessica Fletcher. "Monk" starred Tony Shalhoub as obsessive, compulsory and exceptionally brilliant detective Adrian Monk. The reason I am particularly talking about these shows is, both have characters that are called by others in the show as modern day Sherlock Holmes and both shows have characters that are personable and delightful.
While these days there is no dearth of mystery shows and novels, these two shows and the subsequent novels based on the shows stand out for me for the "mystery" part of the script. The reason I enjoy Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot because they solve mystery. The importance is to the "Mystery" unlike many new shows and books those depend heavily on details of death and other gory stuff instead of the sheer genius of the detectives who investigate such crimes. The whole genre of mystery is about how the smart detective finds the culprit. I find that portrayed beautifully in both Murder She Wrote and Monk. We know there is a dead man but watching Jessica Fletcher and Adrian Monk delving into that mystery with their own way is simply a delight to watch and read, of course.
Another thing that brings these two shows together for me is, the main character. Jessica a simple English teacher living in small town main and Adrian a weird detective living in San Fransisco. Now, they have nothing in common. What they have common is their intelligence and their personality that I really enjoy watching and reading about. Of course, the ensemble of the other frequently occurring characters is also an enjoyable experience. Both the shows have dear characters who are equally important to the success of the shows.
I have finished watching all season of Monk and for Murder She Wrote I finished about seven seasons. Now, that I have found that these stories are available as novels, I am running to library almost every other day to borrow the next Jessica book or Monk book. With time to enjoy and weather to wrap myself in blanket, these wonderful stories provide great entertainment. I am finished reading two of Jessica's mysteries and two of Monk's mysteries. With too many to read, I better stop writing and start reading :-)
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
White Christmas
It's been almost 6.5 years since I came to US. However, contrary to popular belief in India, not all US states have snow or even flurries or even icy conditions during winter. First two years in Atlanta and then four years in Tempe, hardly exposed me to the beauty of snow in winter. Of course, in Atlanta it gets very cold and even windy and icy. But Tempe has wonderful winter with temperature in 50s and 60s and occasionally in 30s. But never snow. We used to go to Flagstaff to visit snow. It was beautiful and living in comfortable weather is definitely wonderful. But since we moved to Michigan in summer, I knew we had it coming. Oh yes, the White Christmas.
Actually we missed the first snow in Ann Arbor. We were in NYC at that time. During Thanksgiving weekend, A2 had its first snow. But NY and Boston were much warmer compared to A2. The temperature was in 40s. NY was windy, tunnel effect! But it was not terrible, as I thought I would find my first winter in North. While driving back from Boston, boy we saw tons of snow in PA. We had to stop for the night as it was too much snow and too dark. I was sweating and stressed while driving. The next day, when we passed 'State College', we got our first look into tons of snow. The vehicles were moving at 20 miles/hr. The other side of road was jammed as a truck was toppled and police cars and EMT almost stopped the traffic. We could hardly see about 10 feet ahead. Not exactly driving friendly weather, I would say. But we managed to reach home safely.
Next day, I had to get some stuff from office as I decided to work from home, I walked to the bus stop. And it was snowing. I ate some snow flakes :-) It was wonderful. Cold, yes but wonderful. I was all layered up in coats and mittens and shawl and had my big snow boots on. I had to walk 5 minutes from the bus stop to get to the office and then back to home but I did not die or anything. I really enjoyed it. I came home and turned up the heat and snuggled up in warm jacket. I just sat in window, watching snow covering up the houses, cars, roads and the creek. Everything was quiet and peaceful. The trees looked beautiful as if they had snow flowers on them. And I realized, "It's going to be first, real, White Christmas for me and V". I believe in enjoying every weather if you get a chance. Many of my friends expressed concerned about me managing the winter, as I am not exactly a winter person. And living in Arizona hasn't helped me either. But many of our new friends in Michigan told us to invest in good jackets and boots and layer up. That's what I have been doing whenever I go out. Thankfully, our landlady is kind and she hires a person to remove the snow from parking garage when it snows a lot. So V doesn't have to worry about breaking his arm cleaning the snow.
Snow is fun. People say that it's just the beginning and it will get worse. Worse than 9 F. May be, who knows. But I guess I am now used to the idea of cold weather. As of now I am enjoying it. How often do you get to see a frozen creek just in your backyard! The city is diligent in cleaning the snow. All you have to do is drive carefully. Since V drives about 5 miles one way and through the city it is not too bad, till now. And of course you can always work from home if there is weather emergency. The best part is hot coffee and soup any time you want. Winter is fun.
It has been my ritual since last 6 Christmases to watch "White Christmas" on every Christmas. And this year we will have a White Christmas outside and inside. Now that my friend is simply wonderful!
Actually we missed the first snow in Ann Arbor. We were in NYC at that time. During Thanksgiving weekend, A2 had its first snow. But NY and Boston were much warmer compared to A2. The temperature was in 40s. NY was windy, tunnel effect! But it was not terrible, as I thought I would find my first winter in North. While driving back from Boston, boy we saw tons of snow in PA. We had to stop for the night as it was too much snow and too dark. I was sweating and stressed while driving. The next day, when we passed 'State College', we got our first look into tons of snow. The vehicles were moving at 20 miles/hr. The other side of road was jammed as a truck was toppled and police cars and EMT almost stopped the traffic. We could hardly see about 10 feet ahead. Not exactly driving friendly weather, I would say. But we managed to reach home safely.
Next day, I had to get some stuff from office as I decided to work from home, I walked to the bus stop. And it was snowing. I ate some snow flakes :-) It was wonderful. Cold, yes but wonderful. I was all layered up in coats and mittens and shawl and had my big snow boots on. I had to walk 5 minutes from the bus stop to get to the office and then back to home but I did not die or anything. I really enjoyed it. I came home and turned up the heat and snuggled up in warm jacket. I just sat in window, watching snow covering up the houses, cars, roads and the creek. Everything was quiet and peaceful. The trees looked beautiful as if they had snow flowers on them. And I realized, "It's going to be first, real, White Christmas for me and V". I believe in enjoying every weather if you get a chance. Many of my friends expressed concerned about me managing the winter, as I am not exactly a winter person. And living in Arizona hasn't helped me either. But many of our new friends in Michigan told us to invest in good jackets and boots and layer up. That's what I have been doing whenever I go out. Thankfully, our landlady is kind and she hires a person to remove the snow from parking garage when it snows a lot. So V doesn't have to worry about breaking his arm cleaning the snow.
Snow is fun. People say that it's just the beginning and it will get worse. Worse than 9 F. May be, who knows. But I guess I am now used to the idea of cold weather. As of now I am enjoying it. How often do you get to see a frozen creek just in your backyard! The city is diligent in cleaning the snow. All you have to do is drive carefully. Since V drives about 5 miles one way and through the city it is not too bad, till now. And of course you can always work from home if there is weather emergency. The best part is hot coffee and soup any time you want. Winter is fun.
It has been my ritual since last 6 Christmases to watch "White Christmas" on every Christmas. And this year we will have a White Christmas outside and inside. Now that my friend is simply wonderful!
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