Book Review: Past Tense by Lee Child

Past Tense by Lee Child

Jack Reacher has decided to head south for the coming winter, crossing America from New England to San Diego. Since he walks everywhere (until he can hitch a ride, though a big, tough guy like him an intimidating stranger to pick up from the side of the road), his start is slow, winding him up in Laconia, New Hampshire, the town where his father was from. Curious, he goes to town and does a little investigating. He's in no rush. But he winds up in trouble when he wakes at 3 a.m. one night. He investigates the noise he heard and discovers a man trying to force himself on a woman. Naturally, Reacher intervenes. The young man is laid out cold but he's a rich kid from a shady family, bringing trouble to the town where Reacher just wanted to do research.

Reacher's problems aren't half of Canadian couple Shorty and Patty's troubles. They are heading south to New York to sell some valuables and then go on to Florida to set up an oceanside business. They have car trouble and are forced to stop off at an isolated motel some miles outside Laconia. The helpful people at the hotel, all young men, are a bit weird and keep stringing the Canadians along for some mysterious reason. Shorty and Patty don't know what the deal is, but they suspect it is a raw deal.

The two stories eventually collide with the usual action and suspense a reader expects from a Reacher book. The motel mystery is more interesting than Reacher's family research, just because it is less obvious what is going on and Reacher's storyline is a bit haphazard, relying a lot on coincidence to move the narrative forward. The action scenes are exciting and fun, Child is a master at action narrative. Things resolve about as fans would expect, so a very satisfying ending.

Recommended for Reacher fans.

Book Reviews: Destroy All Humans Vols. 3 and 4 by K. Ise et al.

Destroy All Humans: They Can't Be Regenerated Volume 3 story by Katsura Ise and art by Takuma Yokota

Hajime continues his obsession with Magic: The Gathering which includes sneaking out of town to a shop where they have tournaments on the weekend. He's been going with Emi, a girl from school who is keeping her Magic playing on the down low. They slowly begin to realize they have feelings for each other, especially when they go on a school field trip and wind up going around the park with other people, still keeping an eye on each other (the green eye of jealousy, perhaps?). A new set of cards is released, called Urza's Saga, which provides more card-play excitement.

The series turning into a soap opera but is still charming enough to keep me going. High school romances are a dime a dozen but the addition of the collectible card game and a background worry about the world ending gives this something extra.

Mildly recommended.

Destroy All Humans: They Can't Be Regenerated Volume 4 story by Katsura Ise and art by Takuma Yokota

Hajime picks a bunch of Magic fights and has an argument with Emi. They stop talking for a while, making the romantic drama all the more awkward as they both consider apologizing but don't know how to pull it off. They can't avoid each other since they are in the same school and share the game hobby. The book ends with the end of 1998, so winter break oddly enough enables a thaw in the relationship just as they prepare for a big national competition in Tokyo. The Nostradamus-predicted end of the world looms for Hajime and Emi as well.

This book keeps up a lot of Magic playing while advancing the interpersonal plots, so it is a pretty satisfying read if you are into one or both.

Mildly recommended.

 

Relics of St. Therese at Mount Carmel of Port Tobacco

Mount Carmel Monastery of Port Tobacco, Maryland, was originally founded in 1790 as a cloister for Discalced Carmelite nuns. After four decades of service, the eight or so buildings were deteriorating rapidly and Archbishop James Whitfield moved the twenty-four nuns to a location in Baltimore. The nuns switched from farming to running a school.

In 1933, a visit to the remaining dilapidated buildings inspired an effort to restore the first convent of religious women founded in the fledgling United States of America. Two buildings and the cemetery were all that remained. In 1954, the Chapel of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was built. Twelve years later they built Pilgrim Hall to accommodate visitors. The hall was expanded in 2006 with a gift shop and meeting rooms. In 1976, a group of nuns returned to the Monastery and have prayed for the visitors and the rest of the Archdiocese ever since.

In 2025, the relics of Saint Therese of Lisieux began a nation-wide tour of the United States. One stop was the Carmel of Port Tobacco. We went to the monastery Sunday, November 23, for Mass and to venerate the relics. We arrived about 7:20 a.m., just as they were opening the chapel so early visitors could get some prayer time in with Saint Therese before the 8 a.m. Mass.

A line out the door!

Chapel Sanctuary

My wife praying by Saint Therese

This Carmel has a particular devotion to Saint Joseph, foster-father of Jesus. They have beautiful statue of him holding the two turtledoves, the price that poor people offered up for their first-born sons at the temple in Jerusalem.

Saint Joseph

The morning was cold and foggy but didn't not dampen our spirits or chill our nerves. We were put off by the crowd in the gift shop and didn't buy anything, even though they did have Pope Leo XIV mugs!

Pilgrim Hall and gift shop

"The Old Monastery" is made up of the two buildings that survived from the eighteenth century. They are connected now and make a small museum to the history of the monastery.

The Old Monastery

Inside of the Old Monastery

Saint Therese

Wash basin and trunk

Chapel bell from a Madrid monastery donated to the nuns

Living conditions at the Monastery, on a rise above the valley of Port Tobacco, must have been difficult but rewarding.

Recreation of the nuns' furnishings

One of the founding nuns, Mother Clare Joseph Dickinson

On the side of the Pilgrim Hall is another statue of Saint Joseph.

2006 cornerstone and Saint Joseph

The grounds are small, only a few acres (all the archdiocese could buy back in the 1900s), so everyone had to park at the nearby College of Southern Maryland lot and take a donated bus back and forth. It was a great morning for us.

Heading back from a bit of Heaven

Dual/Duel Review: Dracula 1970s style vs. Dracula 1990s style

Dual/Duel reviews are an online smackdown between two books, movies, games, podcasts, etc. etc. that I think are interesting to compare, contrast, and comment on. For a list of other dual/duel reviews, go here.

Having recently shown up on Netflix (at least in October of 2025), I was curious to revisit the Frank Langella version of Dracula made at the end of the 1970s. In the early 1990s, Francis Ford Coppola made his version of the story, calling it Bram Stoker's Dracula, also available on the same streaming service (at least, in October of 2025!).

Dracula (1979) directed by John Badham

This telling of the famous Bram Stoker novel consolidates a lot. The film starts on the Exeter, the ship taking the boxes of earth, one of which contains Count Dracula (Frank Langella), to Whitby, England. The on-ship action includes the slaughter of the crew and hints of the demonic presence of Dracula. The ship eventually wrecks on the beach of Whitby (which is not a tourist beach--there's plenty of rocks and wood mucking it up). The wreck is spotted from Doctor Seward's (Donald Pleasance) sanatorium, where his daughter Lucy (Kate Nelligan) assists her dad in dealing with the lunatics. She's also helping out Mina Van Helsing (Jan Francis), a woman in a delicate state but also a family friend. Mina races down to the beach and helps the Count escape the sunlight. She returns to her friends but has the vampire's charm on her. Dracula's crates and things are recovered from the wreckage and taken to Carfax Abbey, which is on the outskirts of Whitby and not far at all from the sanatorium. Dracula sets up house thanks to Harker (Trevor Eve) who is engaged to Lucy. Dracula fairly quickly kills off Mina, which forces Seward to write to her father (Laurence Olivier) to come for the burial. The elder Van Helsing quickly discovers what is going on, i.e. a vampire is in their midst, and starts the confrontations that lead to the film's ambiguous ending (more on that in a bit in case you don't want a spoiler).

Badham directs the film with both a very 1970s and a very Gothic style. The hair is big on almost everyone and the sets are a bit extreme, with Carfax Abbey already having plenty of cobwebs, gargoylic sculptures, and creepy atmosphere. The cobwebs aren't removed when Dracula moves in! This story is set in the early 1900s, so Harker has an automobile, though it is the only one around. The lunatic asylum sanatorium is full of crazy people who are more or less compassionately cared for. Eventually Lucy and Renfield (Tony Haygarth in a very minimal role) are locked away, something that doesn't keep the Count away. Dracula is romantically infatuated with Lucy, promising to make her his primary bride. Together they will restore his race (not sure if that's Transylvanians or vampires). The young Langella (who had played Dracula to great success on the stage) is quite beguiling in the role. He delivers a balance of charm and menace that viewers don't see in a lot of other Draculas (or indeed, other vampires). He's as much a tragic Gothic hero as he is a villain. The ending also has 1970s ambiguity, where Dracula is hauled up into the sunlight sails of the ship he's trying to escape in. He physically degrades quite a bit but then something drifts off like a bat or a glider, with the seemingly-cured Lucy looking up and giving an enigmatic smile. Is she really cured or is she happy that Dracula has made some sort of escape? He didn't burst into flames, something that happens to his bat version when he is briefly exposed to sunlight in a Carfax Abbey fight, so viewers are left with an indefinite state.

The movie has a lot of charm. The visual flares contrast with the down-to-earth minimalism of the rest of the show. Having most of the characters related is an interesting choice, making the story less sprawling than the book. Putting all the action in Whitby is an interesting choice too, making me wonder if they were trying to save on locations or on complications to the storyline. No part of the movie is set in London or in Transylvania. The movie starts and ends on ships, a nice bookend to the narrative. Even though this was based on Langella's stage play, the movie is not at all stagey, with plenty of outdoor locations and good effects (especially Dracula scaling walls like Spider-man). I enjoyed the film for its sense of individuality, for hitting a lot of marks without being a slavish copy of other versions.

Recommended for Dracula fans.

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) directed by Francis Ford Coppola 

A prologue set in the 1400s shows Vlad Dracul (Gary Oldman) fighting back the Muslim hordes and defending Christian Europe, only to have the love of his life Elisabeta (Winona Ryder) commit suicide when she believes a false note claiming he died. When the priest (Anthony Hopkins) says she is damned to Hell and cannot have a Christian burial, Vlad loses it and swears to return from his own death to wreak havoc on the world. The story then jumps to the late 1800s, where Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) is betrothed to Mina (Winona Ryder again) but thinks he is not ready because he is not wealthy enough and he's a bit of a milquetoast. He gets the job to go to Transylvania and complete the paperwork for Count Dracula's purchase of several houses in London, promising more money. Harker and Mina agree to wed once he gets back. Mina stays with her rich friend Lucy (Sadie Frost) who is very sexual and is courting three men: Doctor Jack Seward (Richard E. Grant), Texan Quincy Morris (Bill Campbell), and Lord Arthur Holmwood (Cary Elwes). She flirts with them all but intends to go for the money, aka the good Lord Holmwood. 

While Lucy is vamping it up and Mina is shocked and coy, Harker's trip to the count's castle is plagued with wolves and supernatural visions. When he arrives, the count is alone and starts manipulating Harker after the count sees a photo of Mina. She looks just like his lost love, so why shouldn't he pursue her? After harrowing experiences with the count and his three vampire brides, Harker is left a prisoner in the castle so Dracula has a head start on causing trouble in London. He departs with crates of Transylvanian soil.

The story plays out in a familiar fashion as Dracula consumes Lucy and woos Mina. Both women are conflicted about the count. Lucy likes the lustiness but doesn't understand what's happening to her. Mina meets Dracula on the street. He presents himself as a foreign prince (so she won't connect him to the missing Harker) and she is fascinated by him even as she struggles to remain faithful to Harker. The situation becomes even more chaotic once Seward calls on his mentor, Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins again), to help diagnose what's going on with Lucy. Van Helsing immediately susses out a vampire and starts the series of epic showdowns as the men try to stop the vampire.

The movie does a good job presenting the epistolary narrative of the novel, with the characters recording events and observations along the way in voiceover fashion. It has an epic sweep, with the historic prologue and the travels from Transylvania to England to Transylvania for the finale. 

The acting is a mixed bag. Winona Ryder gives the best performance though she has the thankless task of constantly vacillating between the count and her husband, with some less believable moments that are due to the script, not her. Hopkins manages to chew more scenery than Oldman. Oldman's Dracula goes through so many different incarnations--the old guy in Transylvania, the wolfman on the ship, the young and dashing count with Elisabeta/Mina, a bat-like form, etc. etc. All the hullabaloo makes his character over-the-top and hard to take seriously. If he had a handlebar mustache, he would certainly twirl it. Reeves is good but not great as Harker; Elwes is surprisingly flat in his role. Most of the women besides Mina have plenty of topless scenes in keeping with the movie's visual tone. 

The movie as a whole is very stylized to the point of feeling overproduced. The music is heavy-handed, which is okay for a supernatural melodrama. The visuals leave nothing for viewers to figure out or remember, with so many overlapping images of previous scenes or other situations as if viewers forgot about how Elisabeta and Mina look the same (among other reminders). Seward's insane asylum has guards with cages on their heads, presumably to protect them from headshots by the incarcerated. Renfield (Tom Waits) is there with Eraserhead hair and an extra-long straightjacket. He seems intended more to set an atmosphere of over-the-top horror but he's too far over, weakening what could be an interesting character. Did I mention the plethora of topless women? The whole situation is so overdone, it looks a bit ridiculous. 

Barely recommended--they tried too hard with this one, as if it was made for teenage boys.

 

Which is better?

Obviously, I like the Langella film better. It has some originality while being faithful to the original tale, without going so far over the top.

Winner:

Loser:

Geocaching November 2025

The month started with the first Monday morning coffee cache. Later that day, I found Pee Time, Snack Time, Drink Time, Gas Time at a gas station and I finally took credit for the Zero to Ten Challenge Cache from Pennsylvania, having finished the last requirement on Halloween. Later in the week I found MD Cluedo 10 of 10, and a bunch of Cache Across Maryland caches from 2023--CAM 2023 - Fran Uhler Natural Area, CAM 2023 - Bonus: Birdwatcher, and CAM 2023 - Bonus: Trainspotter. The last three were along a trail along a railroad track next to Bowie State University, making for a fun hike with the occasional commuter train whizzing by.

Finding some info for the CAM caches on campus

The obelisk had an eternal flame on top!

Cool fraternity coat of arms

In the Fran Uhler Natural Area

Trail maintenance ended with the end of the big power lines

After the next Monday morning coffee, I found the mystery Playfair Geography, the multi Guilford Quarry Cemetery, and the regular Take A Dip. That week the local library hosted one of the GIFF events, which is the Geocaching International Film Festival. Geocachers make short films and submit them to The Powers That Be, who select twenty or so to be presented in November. I took my eleven-year old and he enjoyed it. We loved the commercial about the bison tube opening device. I have no links to offer but I am sure it will show up online (there's a bunch of previous years' festivals here). 

Another classic hiding spot

Stage one of the cemetery cache

One of the ladies from the Monday morning coffee hosted a Community Celebration Event (a bunch of geocachers were given them to celebrate the 25th anniversary of geocaching). It was near the oldest cache in Maryland, Jusef's Cache, so I found that after a fun time with other cachers.

Jusef's was by some railroad tracks

Cache and cacher

The rocky outcropping

The train tunnel again

Remains of a dam across the Patapsco River

The next day I took credit for Circle BWI Once, a mystery cache that involves biking around the airport. CBSN, another Monday Morning Coffee fellow, was the second to sign. I was amazed at what good shape the twenty-year old log was in!

I signed much further down

After another Monday Morning Coffee Event, I spent Tuesday qualifying for a treasure hunt involving dog-friendly caches (at least, they have the "dog-friendly" attribute). In about an hour, I found AT THE END..., Have a Blast..., The Gold and Black Cache..., Red Top..., The Leopard..., Near the End..., Blue Top - White Bottom..., The Small Rock Cache..., and You Can't See It From Here. A different cache owner hid the last one, so no ellipses there. 

I went over to Virginia for my brother's doctor appointment and squeezed in a bunch of caches. Colvin Run Mill Virtual is near the historic Colvin Run Mill. Also in the area, I found CCT 7 Day Streak, CCT Earthcache Classification Non-Challenge, and Backyard Stash, originally hidden in January 2001!

The Run runs through the tunnel back on the left

Backyard Stash is the 3rd oldest in Virginia!

On a recycling run to my county's landfill, I went the extra mile (or two) to find Bon Secours Labyrinth, a multi-cache that is part of a labyrinth series.

The labyrinth and me

Observing the Chicken Fanatics is near a Chick-fil-A northeast of Baltimore. We were in the neighborhood for a homeschool production of The Sound of Music and made a stop for a treat afterward.

My wife and I did some caching in Charles County after visiting the relics of Saint Therese of Lisieux. The area has some sort of zombie fan bigger than me--we found Zombie Land-B3, Zombie Land-B4, Zombie Land-D3, Zombie Land-I3, Zombie Land-O4, and Zombie Land-Z3. There are a lot of other caches in the series (they are all simple trivia puzzles based on zombie media), so I may come back to get more.

Near one of the caches--an appropriate spot

O4 got busted when I pulled it from its spot, I made a replacement

After the final Coffee Event, my family headed out to the eastern shore of Maryland and found some caches and celebrated Thanksgiving there too! Brrr Bear was in Kent County, a spot I need for a challenge cache. We also drove south and picked up Rallod in Somerset County outside a Dollar Store (the kids commented on how many other Dollar Stores we passed on the way). We stayed in Cambridge (Dorchester County), which is the heartland of Harriet Tubman's activities on the Underground Railroad (she was also born here). 

In Salisbury, I found the earthcache Sugaring the Marble about the erosion that is happening to a marble memorial of the town's World War II casualties.

By the memorial

The Beacon of Hope is a virtual cache in front of Dorchester County Courthouse. In 2022, a statue of Harriet Tubman was permanently installed in celebration of her 200th birthday.

Beacon of Hope and me

Also in Cambridge, I found Cambridge GRM #1 and Movie Time Fun in a shopping mall parking lot.

On Thanksgiving Day, I went on a big journey to get more counties and more types. I drove across Dover Bridge into Caroline County. The original swing bridge was replaced in 2018 by an overpass bridge. The cache is named Dover Bridge. 

The old road

Two bridges

Then I drove across Talbot County to the Chesapeake Bay shore for Before the Bridge virtual cache and CAM 2023 Claiborne Landing regular cache. Before the Bay Bridge, ferries came to this spot taking people back and forth from the Eastern and Western shores.

No bridge or wharf

View looking the other way

I drove to the bottom of Talbot County to Bill Burton Fishing Pier State Park for an earthcache, a CAM mystery cache, and a CAM regular cache. These CAM (Cache Across Maryland) are actually 2025 CAM caches, the first time I've found one the same year as the release of the cache. Of course, the idea was to finish finding CAM caches before the summer picnic, so I am late.

The earthcache is about erosion!

Not a safe trail

I also found two Adventure Labs for a mural series and a church series in Cambridge. The bonus caches for the Adventure Labs were Chelsea the Church Mouse Lab Adventure Bonus and Adventure Lab Bonus - Finding Freedom. The last find for the month was The Great Marsh, in a park near our rental house.

The month ended with 72 finds and a grand total of 2212. Can I break the 2300 barrier in December?

Book Review: What Monstrous Gods by Rosamund Hodge

What Monstrous Gods by Rosamund Hodge

Lia is a novice in a convent devoted to the goddess Nin-Anna, the Lady of Spring and Healing. The nuns are dedicated to healing and have profound respect for their goddess, but no contact with her. The royal family (the conduit through which the citizens have access to the gods) has been asleep for five hundred years. The castle was attacked by renegade sorcerer Ruven, who cast a spell of sleep on them. He also surrounded the building with impenetrable thorns. Over the centuries, the convent has raised certain girls as champions to make it through the barrier and awaken the queen and her children. Lia is one of those girls. She's always wanted to be just a healer but her fate is for so much more. When her time comes, she does enter the castle and defeat the sorcerer, freeing the royal family who can restore contact with the country's sleeping gods. Lia is swept into the royal family and goes on a pilgrimage to the various shrines where they will enter portals to the divine realm and beckon the gods back. The situation is not as easy as it seems. Politically, the country has moved on to a parliamentary system, so the royal family has conflict with the prime minister and the government. Socially, the people have mixed reactions to the royals, especially when they start transforming various citizens into "saints" for the gods. These holy men and women can perform miracles but also have afflictions that hasten death, often very painful deaths. As the title of the book suggests, these gods are not perhaps the ones you really want.

The story provides an interesting twist on the hero's journey. Lia starts as a dyed-in-the-wool believer in how great their gods are and wants nothing more than to restore devotion by increasing contact with the gods. Working for these gods entails a lot of moral compromise--Lia kills Ruven to end his spell, something that doesn't fit well with Nin-Anna devotion. Her hero's journey quickly morphs into one of youthful self-discovery. She does not get to chose what she wants to be but is confronted by an unexpected reality. Her path to triumph is very difficult and not the one that she expected.

The ruling classes (both the royals and the Parliament) have a bit of trouble with a foreign religion which is clearly Christianity though it is never named in the narrative. Oddly, the author makes no attempt to reconcile the country's religion with Christianity. It's just a minority religion that comes in and out of the story. Christianity provides an example of a better way to relate to the divine, as Lia eventually discovers. Christianity does not provide a deus ex machina to solve Lia's problems or defeat the monstrous local gods. After finishing the book, I still don't know what to think or feel about the introduction of Christianity into the story. 

Mildly recommended.

This book is discussed on A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast #368--check it out! Maybe they will sort out the Christianity issue.

Cute Kid Pix November 2025

Photos that didn't make their own post...

Our month started with a special Mass at Saint Mary of the Mills for all the parishioners who died in the past year. One of the candles on the table was for our son who died in February. It was a beautiful service and sad for us.

Remembrance on All Souls Day

The candles

Only my youngest son went to trick or treat on Halloween. His sister helped to sort the candy. Neither of them wanted us to inspect for items that might have to be claimed by their parents rejected.

No assistance needed or welcome!

My daughter was on the tech crew for her high school's drama department and built, among other things, the radiator used for the Fall play, Out of the Frying Pan. The play is a farce about six actors who live in an apartment over a producer whom they want to meet and get employment from. It was written in the 1940s so it has a very innocent sensibility. The radiator was a plot point since the actors could look down into the producer's apartment and see what he was doing. So maybe not too innocent!

Artist and her craft

The radiator

The next weekend, our middle scholar had a friend in their school play, Heist at the Giardina Museum. We went to see that, which was not as good as the high school production. The plot is based on a true crime event but it has been turned into a mystery appropriate for middle school by the theater teacher. We didn't take pictures, alas!

The next weekend, we went to see friends in a homeschool production of The Sound of Music (Youth Edition). Some of the singers were great and the staging was fun. A lot of big numbers had the whole cast on stage, maybe twenty kids ranging from kindergarteners to high school students. The "Youth Edition" introduces Rolf as a romantic interest for the eldest daughter but then he drops out of the story at the end (i.e. no Nazi Rolf). A few other bits were shortened or consolidated from the movie version (I've never seen a stage version before now). We had an enjoyable time.

We had Thanksgiving dinner on the Eastern Shore at an airbnb. We bought a pumpkin pie/cheesecake hybrid from The Ugly Pie in the nearby town of Salisbury. 

Our dinner table

Is it a pie or a cake?