Cold Comfort

When I was a little girl and still being bathed by my mother, she always finished the bath with a generous splashing of cold water. We always squealed with mixed portions of delight and shock. As I’ve gotten older, the water has become a little warmer, but still on the cool side. I may go back to ending with cold because as it turns out, she may have been on to something.

I recently watched an episode of Gwyneth Paltrow’s new series, Goop Lab, on Netflix called Cold Comfort. In the series, Paltrow investigates different modalities of what I will call alternative medicine and treatments. She and her staff experience these modalities first hand. I have only watched two episodes so far but say what you will about Paltrow and her methods, there is compelling science behind all of what she explores.

In Cold Comfort, we meet a Dutch athlete named Wim Hof. Hof practices a method of deep breathing and exposure to cold to help his clients treat everything from panic disorder to autoimmune disease. He himself has set numerous world records with these techniques and has had some rather amazing results with his clients. Hof is not only a vigorous and enthusiastic teacher but his claims have been studied scientifically with very positive results.

This series is definitely worth a look-see.

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE & THE WORD IS MURDER- FEBRUARY 2020 BOOK SELECTIONS

Two mysteries, published almost eighty years apart, were this month’s selections. It was of interest to me how the genre was handled by two masters of the form. Back to back listens of the two novels on Audible was fascinating.

Agatha Christie is arguably the most famous mystery novelist of all time and her novel, And Then There Were None, published in 1939, perhaps one of her most lauded. Ten people are brought to a secluded island; all lured there for supposedly logical reasons. None, however, know their host. Once there, they each find framed in their rooms, the nursery rhyme, Ten Little Soldier Boys. Each stanza of the rhyme tells of the death of a little soldier. After dinner the first evening, a recording plays which names each guest in turn and accuses them of murder. Soon, one by one, the guests begin to die in mysterious circumstances. Circumstances which eerily match the rhyme.

The novel is skillfully crafted; the reader is subtly led to believe each guest is the murderer of the others. They are stranded on the island and the tension is ratcheted as each falls victim. Christie uses partial omniscience and extensive dialogue. Too good to reveal the ending.

The Word is Murder is the second novel I’ve “read” by Anthony Horowitz. The first, Magpie Murders, was my first listen on Audible and a Book Selection in my blog of November 2017. Not only did it get me hooked on Audible, but interestingly, in the blog, I compared him to Agatha Christie!  

In The Word is Murder we are introduced to former Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne. I understand he may be the focus of a new series by Horowitz. Hawthorne is a “former” inspector because his unorthodox methods got him fired from Scotland Yard. He is a brilliant investigator of somewhat mythical status however, so Scotland Yard continues to use him on difficult cases.

In a fun twist, the author himself is a character in the novel. Hawthorne is investigating a baffling case and wants Horowitz to write about it. Very reluctantly, he agrees. The case involves a woman who enters a funeral home and arranges her own funeral. Six hours later, she is murdered in her home. Once again, Horowitz allows us to be the sleuth along with him as a reluctant side-kick to Hawthorne. Horowitz’s droll wit is a perfect pairing with Hawthorne’s caustic, take-no-prisoners personality. Another great who-done-it.