Gordon Lightfoot’s music became a part of my life in the late 1960s and I followed his songs, albums, and his career for almost 60 years. I owned a number of his albums and many of his songs are on my current playlists today. I saw him perform live twice. He was one of the great storytelling songwriters and singers. Picking one song is not easy, but I am featuring “If You Could Read my Mind.” It was inspired by his divorce, and his thought/feelings converted to lyrics are clear and resonant even today. His distinct voice is etched in our collective memories.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
All Systems Red is the first book in the Murderbot Diaries series, a popular science fiction series and streaming series on Apple TV. We watched the series first, then I was able to get a copy of Fugitive Telemetry from the library and thoroughly enjoyed it. I recently read/listened to the first book in the series. The streaming series closely follows the first book of the series, but the book fills in more details, and provides more insights into what the main characters are thinking.
The books are well-told, with fresh ideas, action, humor, irony, and suspense. Best of all, the characters are interesting and grow as the story develops. Murderbot is a self-aware cyborg that has hacked its own governor module and can act independently, but chooses to protect the humans around him. It has a hard time understanding social mores and finds the interactions to be awkward. The stories are told by Murderbot in a refreshing narrative.
Very enjoyable and recommended. 4.6 stars/5.