#robert rotenberg

[abitofachristie]

Episode 6 of AbitofaChristie is out now. It stars the fantastic, Canadian author, Karen Pierce (@recipesformurder on IG). We discuss all things Agatha Christie and her new book 'Recipes for Murder - 66 dishes which celebrate the mysteries of Agatha Christie'. Karen shares the names of some of her favourite #Canadian crime writers - Ian Hamilton , Louise Penny and Robert Rotenberg. Our true crime case is from #Paris, the mystery of Dr Jean and Olga Duflos. Please join us on all major podcast platforms.

[wanderingmind867]

My US Voting Record:

I made this with the help of wikipedia, google and posts like voting guides which I found online.

Note: I would have been a Monarchist during the Revolutionary War, but I'd probably still vote if living in America (No matter how displeased the revolution made me, I'd probably still always be willing to vote). But to show my dissatisfaction, every vote until 1824 is a protest vote:

1788: Nobody (I refuse to vote for George Washington). Maybe a write in protest vote for King George III?

1792: Nobody (I refuse to vote for George Washington). Maybe a write in protest vote for King George III?

1796: Maybe a write in protest vote for King George III?

1800: Maybe a write in protest vote for King George III?

1804: Maybe a write in protest vote for King George III?

1808: Maybe a write in protest vote for King George III?

1812: Protest Vote for King George III (I can't vote for anyone after the War of 1812 got started)

1816: Protest Vote for King George III (again, I don't know if I'd be able to forgive anyone after the War of 1812)

1820: Protest Vote for King George IV (I can't support Monroe after he helped fight 1812 against Canada and the British).

1824: Henry Clay/Nathan Sanford

1824 Contingent: John Quincy Adams

1828: John Quincy Adams/Richard Rush

1832: Henry Clay/John Sergeant

1836: Daniel Webster/Francis Granger or William Henry Harrison/Francis Granger

1840: William Henry Harrison/John Tyler

1844: Henry Clay/Theodore Frelinghuysen

1848: Martin Van Buren/Charles F. Adams

1852: John P. Hale/George W. Julian

1856: John C. Frémont/William L. Dayton

1860: Abraham Lincoln/Hannibal Hamlin

1864: Abraham Lincoln/Andrew Johnson

1868: Ulysses S. Grant/Schuyler Colfax

1872: Horace Greeley/Benjamin Gratz Brown

1876: Samuel Tilden/Thomas A. Hendricks

1880: James A. Garfield/Chester A. Arthur

1884: Grover Cleveland/Thomas A. Hendricks

1888: Benjamin Harrison/Levi P. Morton

1892: James B. Weaver/James G. Field

1896: William Jennings Bryan/Thomas E. Watson

1900: William Jennings Bryan/Adlai Stevenson I

1904: Eugene V. Debs/Benjamin Hanford

1908: William Jennings Bryan/John Kern

1912: Eugene V. Debs/Emil Seidel

1916: Allan L. Benson/George R. Kirkpatrick

1920: Eugene V. Debs/Seymour Stedman

1924: Robert M. LaFollette/Burton K. Wheeler

1928: Al Smith/Joseph T. Robinson (although Herbert Hoover and Charles Curtis aren't bad either. I might've been a prohibitionist then, considering I hate the taste of alcohol. But Smith opposed lynching. So he gets my vote).

1932: Norman Thomas/James H. Maurer

1936: Norman Thomas/George A. Nelson

1940: Norman Thomas/Maynard Krueger

1944: Norman Thomas/Darlington Hoopes

1948: Henry A. Wallace/Glen H. Taylor

1952: Adlai Stevenson II/John Sparkman

1956: Adlai Stevenson II/Estes Kefauver

1960: Richard Nixon/Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (Solely because I hate JFK)

1964: Lyndon B. Johnson/Hubert Humphrey

1968: Hubert Humphrey/Edmund Muskie

1972: George McGovern/Sargent Shriver (although I still really like Thomas Eagleton as VP)

1976: Gerald Ford/Bob Dole

1980: Jimmy Carter/Walter Mondale

1984: Walter Mondale/Geraldine Ferraro

1988: Willa Kenoyer/Ron Ehrenreich (I hear Michael Dukakis went to high school with the guy who founded the Judge Rotenberg Centre, which is a terrible place. So I can't vote for Dukakis. Can't take a chance on him with that history).

1992: Ross Perot/James Stockdale

1996: Ross Perot/Pat Choate

2000: Ralph Nader/Winona Laduke

2004: Ralph Nader/Peter Camejo

2008: Ralph Nader/Matt Gonzalez

2012: Barack Obama/Joe Biden (Beginning in 2012, I'd probably start voting for Democrats more often because I felt I had no choice. But I'm still a bit unhappy with them. Haven't been since 1988 or 1992).

2016: Gloria La Riva/Eugene Puryear

2020: Joe Biden/Kamala Harris (My heart says Howie Hawkins/Angela Walker, however).

[actu24hp]

cette nouvelle contrainte a bien fait rire les téléspectateurs

Patrick ROBERT/M6 / Patrick ROBERT/M6 Cyrille et Luc, Nathalie et Angie, Alexandre et Chirine, Paloma et Jason, Xavier et Celine, Tanguy et Florian, Alexandra et Laura aux côtés de Stephane Rotenberg Patrick ROBERT/M6 / Patrick ROBERT/M6 Lors du deuxième épisode de la nouvelle saison de « Pékin Express », l’épreuve du mime a bien fait rire les téléspectateurs. TÉLÉVISION – Ce jeudi 23 février,…

[jewishbookworld]

The Cigar Factory of Isay Rottenberg by Hella Rottenberg, Sandra Rottenberg

The Cigar Factory of Isay Rottenberg by Hella Rottenberg, Sandra Rottenberg

The Hidden History of a Jewish Entrepreneur in Nazi Germany Afterword: Robert RotenbergTranslator: Jonathan Reeder In 1932, Isay Rottenberg, a Jewish paper merchant, bought a cigar factory in Germany: Deutsche Zigarren-Werke. When his competitors, supported by Nazi authorities, tried to shut it down, the headstrong entrepreneur refused to give up the fight. Isay Rottenberg was born into a…

[sibylle1898]

Murdoch Schmurdoch (S11E15)

Jilliam

[verbalsquirts]

Book Review: Downfall

Downfall by Robert Rotenberg is the fictional account of the search for a serial killer that is murdering the homeless in Toronto against the backdrop of a local golf course.

Rotenberg supplies us with quite a few characters, all of whom with differing backgrounds but many of whom are connected. One of my favourite sphere features a daughter who is a live-to-air on-scene television reporter that has a police detective for a father (who is in fact working this case) and a new boyfriend that heads up anti-police protests on behalf of the homeless. Talk about a tough spot!

I love a good whodunnit, and especially one based in my hometown that brings with it a viable ripped from the headlines feel. I think we all enjoy consuming media that vividly describes our town and Rotenberg does that well. Even the description of how the live to air shots are set up and presented pulls us in and prompts us to envision it happening on our local news channel.

I did find the beginning chapters to be a bit clunky and spinning wheels in the mud. It’s always difficult to introduce a lot of characters right out of the box and I feel this could have been streamlined a bit, but the great detail taken, in retrospect, had me completely surprised by the reveal. I pride myself on saying “I knew it” but this time I felt my jaw drop. The meticulous way it was explained is something all thriller/mystery writers should study.

This made for a good spring read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing a copy for review.

[pussreboots]

[scifigeneration]

In a first, scientists pinpoint neural activity's role in human longevity

The brain's neural activity -- long implicated in disorders ranging from dementia to epilepsy -- also plays a role in human aging and life span, according to research led by scientists in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School.

The study, published Oct. 16 in Nature, is based on findings from human brains, mice and worms and suggests that excessive activity in the brain is linked to shorter life spans, while suppressing such overactivity extends life.

The findings offer the first evidence that the activity of the nervous system affects human longevity. Although previous studies had suggested that parts of the nervous system influence aging in animals, the role of neural activity in aging, especially in humans, remained murky.

"An intriguing aspect of our findings is that something as transient as the activity state of neural circuits could have such far-ranging consequences for physiology and life span," said study senior author Bruce Yankner, professor of genetics at HMS and co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging.

Neural excitation appears to act along a chain of molecular events famously known to influence longevity: the insulin and insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling pathway.

The key in this signaling cascade appears to be a protein called REST, previously shown by the Yankner Lab to protect aging brains from dementia and other stresses.

Neural activity refers to the constant flicker of electrical currents and transmissions in the brain. Excessive activity, or excitation, could manifest in numerous ways, from a muscle twitch to a change in mood or thought, the authors said.

It's not yet clear from the study whether or how a person's thoughts, personality or behavior affect their longevity.

"An exciting future area of research will be to determine how these findings relate to such higher-order human brain functions," said Yankner.

The study could inform the design of new therapies for conditions that involve neural overactivity, such as Alzheimer's disease and bipolar disorder, the researchers said.

The findings raise the possibility that certain medicines, such as drugs that target REST, or certain behaviors, such as meditation, could extend life span by modulating neural activity.

Human variation in neural activity might have both genetic and environmental causes, which would open future avenues for therapeutic intervention, Yankner said.

All roads lead to REST

Yankner and colleagues began their investigation by analyzing gene expression patterns -- the extent to which various genes are turned on and off -- in donated brain tissue from hundreds of people who died at ages ranging from 60 to over 100.

The information had been collected through three separate research studies of older adults. Those analyzed in the current study were cognitively intact, meaning they had no dementia.

Immediately, a striking difference appeared between the older and younger study participants, said Yankner: The longest-lived people -- those over 85 -- had lower expression of genes related to neural excitation than those who died between the ages of 60 and 80.

Next came the question that all scientists confront: correlation or causation? Was this disparity in neural excitation merely occurring alongside more important factors determining life span, or were excitation levels directly affecting longevity? If so, how?

The team conducted a barrage of experiments, including genetic, cell and molecular biology tests in the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans; analyses of genetically altered mice; and additional brain tissue analyses of people who lived for more than a century.

These experiments revealed that altering neural excitation does indeed affect life span -- and illuminated what might be happening on a molecular level.

All signs pointed to the protein REST.

REST, which is known to regulate genes, also suppresses neural excitation, the researchers found. Blocking REST or its equivalent in the animal models led to higher neural activity and earlier deaths, while boosting REST did the opposite. And human centenarians had significantly more REST in the nuclei of their brain cells than people who died in their 70s or 80s.

"It was extremely exciting to see how all these different lines of evidence converged," said study co-author Monica Colaiácovo, professor of genetics at HMS, whose lab collaborated on the C. elegans work.

The researchers found that from worms to mammals, REST suppresses the expression of genes that are centrally involved in neural excitation, such as ion channels, neurotransmitter receptors and structural components of synapses.

Lower excitation in turn activates a family of proteins known as forkhead transcription factors. These proteins have been shown to mediate a "longevity pathway" via insulin/IGF signaling in many animals. It's the same pathway that scientists believe can be activated by caloric restriction.

In addition to its emerging role in staving off neurodegeneration, discovery of REST's role in longevity provides additional motivation to develop drugs that target the protein.

Although it will take time and many tests to determine whether such treatments reduce neural excitation, promote healthy aging or extend life span, the concept has captivated some researchers.

"The possibility that being able to activate REST would reduce excitatory neural activity and slow aging in humans is extremely exciting," said Colaiácovo.

The authors emphasize that the work would not have been possible without large research cohorts of aging people.

"We now have enough people enrolled in these studies to partition the aging population into genetic subgroups," said Yankner. "This information is invaluable and shows why it's so important to support the future of human genetics."

Funding and authorship

Postdoctoral fellows Joseph Zullo and Derek Drake of the Yankner Lab are co-first authors. Additional HMS co-authors are Liviu Aron, Patrick O'Hern, Noah Davidsohn, Sameer Dhamne, Alexander Rotenberg and George Church, the Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics. Davidsohn and Church are also affiliated with the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.

Other co-authors are affiliated with the University of Texas McGovern Medical School, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Rush University Medical Center.

This work was supported by an NIH Director's Pioneer Award (DP1OD006849) and National Institutes of Health grants R01AG046174, R01AG26651, R01GM072551, P30AG10161, R01AG15819, R01AG17917, R01AG36836, U01AG46152, EY024376, EY011930 and K99AG050830, as well as the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research and the Ludwig Family Foundation.

Relevant disclosures

Church is a co-founder and senior advisor for GC Therapeutics, Inc., which uses transcription factors for therapeutics.

[yogaposesfortwo]

Meet Hollywood's Favorite Yoga Teacher

Kirschen Katz is the go-to yoga teacher for many Hollywood A-listers, but her most fulfilling work—teaching kids—comes after the school bell rings. Lindsay Tucker: How did you transition into becoming a yoga teacher? Kirschen Katz: When I was 34 years old, I was trying to become an actress in Los Angeles, and I had many, many jobs. I have been practicing yoga since 1989. I come from a running background—competitive runner at 12 years old, full athletic scholarship. I just always ran, and really was not competing anymore but started to breakdown. So I ended up getting into a yoga practice on my mother's recommendation in 1989. I did my first class with Steve Ross, one of the godfathers of yoga in Los Angeles. I practiced yoga until ’96, and then I was able to take a year off and think about what it is I wanted to do. I decided to become a yoga teacher, and I did teacher training. That's my pre-divorce—I go pre-divorce and post-divorce—pre-divorce was teaching, but I was in a financial life where I didn't have to really struggle. And then he moved me to Hawaii, and my marriage ended there. LT: So how did you end up working with actors? KK: I came back to LA, and I really had to boogie to make a living. I was really lucky to be in the right place and open to abundance—that was my mantra after my marriage crumbled. I had signed a prenup and was left very little money. Anyway, I came back to LA, and I was in my hairdresser's salon, and there was a Hollywood wife there, and she said, “Come and teach me yoga.” Through her I met Jenny Belushi—who was married to Jim Belushi, the actor—and Shannon Rotenberg, whose husband ran a management production company. And so then these women (and this is now in 2005), they introduced me to just wonderful women in the entertainment business, and one of them introduced me to Julia Roberts. And then the other one introduced me to Reese Witherspoon. I never went back to teaching classes. I just settled into the private yoga world. I tapped into this niche of, you know, Hollywood and entertainment people, and it's all referral base, as you can imagine, and it's about trust. It's a lot of yoga therapy and just really listening to people. I've incorporated running with some of my clients, so for maybe 30 minutes of the private, we’re walking, running—we're doing more of the therapy session—and then the other 30 minutes is yoga. It's not always that way. A lot of clients just want their yoga, but I have been in so many different situations. I've had the royals from Liechtenstein. I've had royals from Abu Dhabi. But I am also a secret, because I am not really involved in the Los Angeles yoga scene. I know the players in it, but it's like I'm just kind of doing my own thing. See also 10 Business Secrets to Starting a Successful Yoga Career LT: You work with the Just Keep Livin Foundation teaching yoga as an after-school program in inner city schools. Is that just straight yoga, or are you involved in other ways? KK: Last year, they asked me to go in and tell my story. It's a story. I grew up with the Nazi- loving father, and I had to heil Hitler until I was older. I didn't know what it was. I grew up in Upstate New York. My mother was loving, but she had no voice. She had no self-esteem. And the father—I refer to him as “the father” and not my father—he grew up a Hitler youth, and I grew up in a very violent, verbally and physically abusive home. My inspirational story of transformation is something that I want to share with these students, so I go into the schools and I share it. We practice yoga, we talk about my story, and then we have a gratitude circle. But getting back to growing up, yeah, I changed, a violent verbally abusive traumatic childhood and I got out. Running was something that helped me, and yoga was something that helped me process trauma.

LT: And how has yoga helped you process your trauma? KK: I process it by being still. PTSD comes from war, but it can come from abuse as well. I had tremendous anxiety. I had dyslexia. Nobody ever took me to a doctor or therapist, so I was always running on Cortisol and my adrenals were blown out. I was running 90 miles a week, highly competitive. My body fat was very low. I developed bulimia. I couldn't stand still long enough to tap into my consciousness. You know what I mean? Running is helpful to produce serotonin and dopamine, but yoga was what I needed to really slow down and tap into my breath and become quiet. Then I was able to approach . Yoga can bring up all your injuries and also all your mental anguish and trauma. See also A Yoga Therapist Shares the Truth About Trauma LT: What’s different when you’re solely a private yoga teacher? KK: You are in these homes and in these people's lives. I have been fortunate enough to have many of my clients for literally 14 years. I've gone through their children with them. I’ve gone through marriages. I have been to more bar and bat mitzvahs than I can share. You know these people intimately on an infinite level. You’re on their journey with them. But what is really nice for me is there are no distractions. It's one on one. I am solely focused on them. It's more intimate, and I love intimacy. I love having my clients feel vulnerable that maybe you can’t in a class. You can really devote this hour to their wellbeing and their healing or their nourishing. If you have a class of 30, 40, 80 people, you cannot really make anything individual. you really make it specific to them, what they are feeling that day. I show up and my clients could be crying, and you have to be flexible. I go there, I open the door, I’m invited in, and within a minute I read my clients and know what they need at that moment. That's a unique thing. I love that. Being vulnerable, and that's what I get. I get people on a path, trying to always improve themselves and grow. You get to share that and see that, see people evolve. Traveling with clients is really wonderful. Eat, Pray, Love, that was a great experience. I mean, really interesting. It was so nice to have Julia take me to India. LT: Can you share more about that experience? KK: She had been my client for a while. I got a phone call—I am going home on the freeway from my day—and she goes, “Pull over.” She’s like, “I’ve got this movie. It's Eat, Pray, Love.” I knew the book. I knew the book, and I love Elizabeth Gilbert. I was so happy I was going to have the experience with someone who actually wrote something I love to read. You know? I left for three months: one month in Rome, one month in India, and the best month in Bali. I left my clients, which was tricky. I left them with support yoga teachers. I took videos of them doing yoga, and I sent them to a local studios. India and Bali are otherworldly. Bali was a wonderful reward for India. India was very challenging. I have heard people say poverty is astounding, but it's way more than I thought it would be. But I embraced it all, and it ended up being wonderful. And the Bali portion was some of the most fun yoga. It’s funny—I work with these Oscareen actresses, but you forget who they are because you know them as Laura or Reese or Julia, and that whole other part of them is such a different part. They become so much more interesting when you get to know them aside from all that fame. LT: Tell us a little bit about your personal practice. KK: It's literally like 20 to 30 minutes a day, and I fit it in whenever I can. It's really just working on the poses. It changes daily; it changes with my mood, with whatever injury I am trying to avoid. I am not the most flexible person. If you looked at my Instagram, the most bearing pose that I can do, Natarajasana and Crow Pose, is strong. I have to be careful because running is very important to me, and I can't do anything where I blow anything out. I use my body for my career, my business, so I don’t ever try anything too daring. I do a lot of pranayama in my own practice, driving around Los Angeles, always doing pranayama counting. I do a lot of mantra and essential oils. Basically I do the practice similar to what I teach. So it's level 2. I love inversions, so I am constantly upside down. Like before this interview I just went upside down a couple of times to calm myself down. If I go three days without practice, I am hard to be around. See also 30-Minute Beginner Sequence to Reset Your Perspective on Life LT: What is the hardest thing about being a yoga teacher? KK: For me, the only downside is all the damn driving that I do—that's it. I put 25,000 miles a year on my car. I just drive a lot. But I love teaching yoga. I love doing it with my clients, and I don’t think about anything in my life. I'm present, and it's pure, and we are moving, breathing, and our breaths are in sync. I am really fortunate enough to teach yoga to people on a journey toward a beautiful life or enjoying a beautiful life or evolved people. I am grateful I have created this too. There is a deep sense of pride for having created this in a moment of trauma. I just came here wishing abundance not only for me but for everyone around me, and the universe presented me with this opportunity. I took advantage of it. I was very open for that. I believe yoga has really helped me to manifest this life I have. Author: Lindsay Tucker Source: https://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/kirschenkatz Discover more info about Yoga Poses for Two People here: www.yogaposesfortwo.com Read the full article

[manthedestroyer]

PICTURES. Beijing Express on M6: here are the 16 candidates for the 15th season

PICTURES. Beijing Express on M6: here are the 16 candidates for the 15th season

Through Writing News Published on 19 Jan 22 at 20:54 News See my news Follow this media The eight pairs and Stéphane Rotenberg, the presenter (©Patrick ROBERT/M6) After Christophe and Claire, who will take up the torch? Beijing Express, the M6 ​​broadcast, has just unveiled the eight pairs present in season 15, broadcast from Thursday, February 10, 2022. This season, called In the lands of the…

[thestoryreadingape]

Let’s Talk About Writing: The “ly” Space Trick by Judy Penz Sheluk…

Let’s Talk About Writing: The “ly” Space Trick by Judy Penz Sheluk…

Recently, I had the pleasure of listening to Robert Rotenberg, a Toronto criminal lawyer and author who has been called “The Canadian John Grisham,” though he tells me he’d prefer to be compared to Scott Turow…but I digress. One of the things Robert (Bobby to his friends) recommended was to do a “ly” space search once you’ve finished the first draft of your manuscript. The rationale is that…

[actu24hp]

Les téléspectateurs ont déjà leurs chouchous

Patrick ROBERT/M6 / Patrick ROBERT/M6 Stephane ROTENBERG Patrick ROBERT/M6 / Patrick ROBERT/M6 Les téléspectateurs pu découvrir les 8 binômes de la 17ème saison de Pékin Express, ce jeudi 16 février sur M6. TÉLÉVISION – C’est le retour des mythiques sacs à dos rouges de Pékin Express. La 17e saison a débuté ce jeudi 16 février sur M6. Les téléspectateurs ont pu découvrir les 8 binômes de cette…

[pussreboots]

[karingudino]

Canadian lawyer sets high bar with his bestselling, very Jewish, crime thrillers

TORONTO — For the previous 22 years, Canadian felony protection lawyer and bestselling writer Robert Rotenberg has wrestled with murder detective Ari Greene’s tribulations. As the principle protagonist in every of Rotenberg’s six homicide mysteries, Greene has loomed giant in his creator’s life since he conceived of the grasp sleuth in 1999 whereas writing his first crime thriller.

As Rotenberg’s new novel, “Downfall,” arrives in bookstores in North America on February 2, he’s busy defending a number of shoppers charged with assault — whereas concurrently concocting a brand new case for Greene to crack within the subsequent guide, slated for 2023.

“An excellent day for me is when along with working with my real-life shoppers, I write and dream up new methods to homicide fictional folks and have Ari ultimately clear up the crime,” Rotenberg advised The Occasions of Israel throughout a current interview in Toronto. “By now, after so a few years of each training regulation and dealing on my crime novels nearly day-after-day, I’m used to this duality. Every feeds the opposite. The writing energizes me in what I need to do and the regulation follow offers me countless tales to attract from for my books.”

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Inspector Greene, as composed by Rotenberg, is the son of a Holocaust survivor and the one Jewish murder detective on the Toronto Police Power. In “Downfall,” he’s promoted to move of the murder squad, and shortly after should negotiate shocking twists and turns, hard-boiled characters and harrowing moments endemic to any good whodunit.

When a person and girl are murdered 24 hours aside at a homeless encampment subsequent to an unique golf membership, the police chief, going through stress from the mayor, places Greene on the case. Quickly after, fears of a serial killer on the free intensify when a 3rd homeless particular person is discovered murdered close to the scene of the 2 earlier slayings.

‘Downfall,’ by Robert Rotenberg. (Courtesy)

Rotenberg weaves a gripping story of suspense that, true to the homicide thriller style, is replete with false flags. Solely within the guide’s dramatic denouement do Greene and his deputy clear up the case, arresting the sudden offender behind the grisly killings.

As with Rotenberg’s earlier books, Toronto figures prominently within the new one. On a current Sunday afternoon, I accompanied him on a downtown stroll beginning on Jarvis Road to a number of areas the place occasions unfold in “Downfall,” together with a ladies’s shelter, the George Road Diner and Fahrenheit Espresso. (Full disclosure: Rotenberg is a long-time buddy whom this author as soon as employed at a Paris journal.)

Location, location, location

Born in Toronto, Rotenberg nearly makes his hometown a full-blown character in his novels. Utilizing each iconic and obscure websites, he captures native coloration in his narrative, within the people he creates, and within the dialogue between them. Some have likened Rotenberg’s remedy of Canada’s largest metropolis to what different profitable thriller writers did for their very own — akin to Ian Rankin with Edinburgh, Scott Turow with Chicago, and Raymond Chandler with Los Angeles.

I believe the perfect mysteries have a fantastic sense of place

“I believe the perfect mysteries have a fantastic sense of place,” says Rotenberg, 67, sitting in his third-floor workplace in a chic 115-year-old constructing downtown the place he each practices felony regulation and does a few of his writing. “A part of their attraction is they’re like a travelogue that permits readers to go and expertise a metropolis.”

Writers of crime thrillers have lengthy discovered large cities ideally suited settings for his or her plots, given readers’ visceral affiliation of city life with hazard, violence, injustice and inequality.

The George Road Diner in downtown Toronto the place a scene takes place in Robert Rotenberg’s guide, January 2021. (Photograph by Robert Rotenberg)

With a journalistic vigilance over element and accuracy, Rotenberg presents a practical depiction of Toronto, warts and all. Little shock he is aware of it effectively given he’s spent most of his life there, together with driving a taxi and modifying an area journal earlier in his profession.

He clearly enjoys describing town’s multicultural neighborhoods and locales, populating his books with residents of various ethnic and nationwide backgrounds. Within the course of, his portrayal of Toronto has helped put it on the worldwide map of crime fiction.

“Setting my books in Toronto has been a blended blessing,” says Rotenberg, whose thrillers have been translated into 9 languages. “It’s undoubtedly helped me in Canada the place my books have offered very effectively. However I might’ve completed higher internationally if I had set my books in New York or Chicago or Venice. Toronto doesn’t have the unique intrigue of sure cities.”

Robert Rotenberg as a volunteer on Kibbutz Hatzerim in the summertime of 1976, the place he spent two months choosing oranges and dealing in a drip irrigation manufacturing unit. (Courtesy)

Rotenberg, who’s had considered one of his books translated into Hebrew by an Israeli writer, has visited Israel twice. The primary time, he volunteered on a kibbutz within the southern Negev Desert for 2 months in 1976, and the final journey was in 1980.

Making his books richer, he usually makes topical points a part of the story. In “Stray Bullets,” his third novel, revealed in 2012, he targeted on Toronto’s rising gun violence. 5 years later, in “Coronary heart of the Metropolis,” Toronto’s rental constructing craze was central to the storyline, whereas in “Downfall” he explores the rising disparity between the wealthy and poor and the homelessness disaster bedeviling town.

“Concerning present points offers one other dimension to my books in order that they’re not only a bunch of individuals being killed and murders being solved,” says Rotenberg, a father of three. “With out desirous to sound pretentious, I attempt to inform the story of town and seize what it’s like at a sure time limit.”

He insists journalists or urbanologists aren’t the one ones who can current an correct image of town’s actuality.

“There’s a fantastic line I as soon as heard which is, ‘the benefit of fiction, versus non-fiction, is that with fiction you may inform the reality,’” says Rotenberg. “The cliché is if you wish to learn about England and the Industrial Revolution within the 1800s, you learn [Charles] Dickens. If you wish to learn about California throughout the Mud Bowl, you learn [John] Steinbeck. So I attempt to write about what’s occurring in Toronto.”

Robert Rotenberg on King Road East, close to his workplace in downtown Toronto, January 2021. (Robert Sarner)

A yiddishe giggle

For all of the seriousness in his writing, he sees his understated however well-honed humorousness as a key element in his story-telling.

“Humor is definitely one of many extra Jewish parts in my books,” Rotenberg says. “I’ve all the time thought Jews have this excellent humorousness which is likely one of the issues I like most about being Jewish. I take into account it important to drama and storytelling, though it’s difficult to jot down one thing that makes folks giggle.”

Humor is definitely one of many extra Jewish parts in my books

In his books, Rotenberg’s humor is wry and observational, as mirrored in how he depicts Greene’s widowed father relationship a large spectrum of Jewish ladies.

Of all of the common characters, Greene generates probably the most reactions from readers, contributing to the collection’s reputation and significant acclaim. A lot of the books have made the bestseller checklist in Canada.

Robert Rotenberg poses for a photograph in his dwelling on the event of his bar mitzvah, April 1966. (Courtesy)

When readers first meet Greene in Rotenberg’s debut novel, “Outdated Metropolis Corridor,” he’s driving to the Toronto dwelling of his father, who a long time earlier escaped from the Nazi dying camp Treblinka solely to be captured near the struggle’s finish two years later and despatched to Auschwitz. Greene is bringing his father bagels from the venerable (and real-life) Gryfe’s Bagel Bakery, situated not removed from the place Rotenberg grew up.

“In a manner, it’s not shocking I made considered one of my essential characters the son of a Holocaust survivor,” says Rotenberg. “It’s not a lot you resolve upfront; the character simply appears to look to you in the future. The place I went to high school, a variety of my pals and other people I knew had mother and father who have been Holocaust survivors. What I’ve all the time discovered fascinating about Holocaust survivors’ children is that they develop up with an additional burden that I didn’t have. They’ve a toughness to them and a robust sense of accountability, that are on the core of Ari’s character.”

Rotenberg additionally sees Greene in a rabbinical gentle.

In refined however essential methods, Ari is sort of a rabbi

“In refined however essential methods, Ari is sort of a rabbi,” he says. “A murder detective has to take care of folks dealing with loss. The best way Ari listens to folks, the way in which he’s quiet and by no means talks about himself and particularly the way in which he treats folks with respect, is sort of a rabbi.”

If Rotenberg revealed his first guide at a comparatively late age, it wasn’t for a scarcity of curiosity in writing when he was youthful. Whereas in highschool, he submitted a brief story to The New Yorker for publication. The rejection letter he later acquired didn’t diminish his literary aspirations. He studied English literature, historical past and political science on the College of Toronto (UofT), then took a 12 months off to work at odd jobs earlier than finishing a regulation diploma at UofT and a masters in worldwide regulation on the London College of Economics.

Writer Robert Rotenberg speaks on the launch of his fifth guide, ‘Coronary heart of the Metropolis,’ in Toronto, August 2017. (Photograph by Ted Feld)

After graduating, he moved to France in 1982 and labored for a 12 months because the managing editor at Paris Ardour, an English-language metropolis journal. Returning to Canada, he and a buddy launched a Toronto journal that lasted for 4 years. He then labored briefly in movie manufacturing and radio. In 1990, after having lengthy resisted it, he started his authorized follow at age 37 and took up writing crime fiction on the facet, hoping to turn out to be a printed writer.

Immediately, Rotenberg works in a small regulation agency with three different legal professionals. With intensive courtroom expertise earlier than choose and jury, they characterize shoppers going through each sort of felony cost, from easy theft to homicide. For his half, Rotenberg has defended quite a few accused murderers in his profession, together with a number of excessive profile circumstances.

A giant a part of felony regulation entails storytelling

Training regulation informs his novels, offering fodder for his creativeness, similar to it’s completed for a lot of different legal professionals turned suspense writers akin to John Grisham, Scott Turow and Meg Gardiner.

“Being a felony lawyer offers me a entrance row seat to not solely the regulation and policing, however to core human feelings,” says Rotenberg, who’s additionally written two episodes for Canadian TV collection “Murdoch Mysteries.”

Robert Rotenberg, left, with an actor on the set of ‘Murdoch Mysteries,’ a tv collection for which he wrote two episodes, Hamilton, Ontario, November 2017. (Courtesy)

“I wish to say that being a lawyer makes me a greater author and that being a author makes me a greater lawyer, particularly writing persuasive briefs for crown attorneys, prosecutors and judges. If you consider it, a giant a part of felony regulation entails storytelling, and writing books has made me a greater storyteller,” he says.

In 2009, his first guide was revealed a decade after he started writing it. To that finish, he took two writing programs at Toronto’s Humber School and drew inspiration from his older brother, David, who had already revealed a number of crime novels by then. He additionally met completed US homicide thriller writer Doug Preston, who grew to become his buddy and mentor.

Like different fiction writers, Rotenberg usually fields questions on whether or not the principle characters in his books are modeled after actual folks in his life — and whether or not Greene is his alter-ego.

“A author as soon as stated each character you create is your alter ego,” says Rotenberg. “Some individuals who know me who’ve learn my books have advised me they suppose Ari is my alter-ego. There are parts of me in him but in addition in different characters. Ari’s a quiet, nearly shy character and though I might sound fairly extroverted, I’m additionally extraordinarily introverted. As an editor as soon as stated to me, ‘After all, you’re an introvert. In any other case, you couldn’t spend all that point alone writing a guide.’”

Rotenberg, who typically turns into emotional when talking about characters in his collection and admits to deriving vicarious pleasure from their actions, strongly identifies with Greene.

“Considered one of Ari’s finest qualities is that he’s completely non-judgmental of individuals,” says Rotenberg. “That’s one of many stuff you study as a lawyer. Shoppers come into your workplace for the primary time and it doesn’t matter what they appear like or what their background is, when you’ve got any preconceived conception of them, you’ve going to be mistaken and also you’re going to do a horrible job for them.

“Ari treats everyone the identical, whether or not it’s Dent, the homeless man who’s his buddy, or his boss, the police chief. However I believe most of all he has this sense of accountability and perhaps that’s his most Jewish attribute. He’s a accountable particular person however he’s not good,” says Rotenberg.

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source https://fikiss.net/canadian-lawyer-sets-high-bar-with-his-bestselling-very-jewish-crime-thrillers/ Canadian lawyer sets high bar with his bestselling, very Jewish, crime thrillers published first on https://fikiss.net/ from Karin Gudino https://karingudino.blogspot.com/2021/02/canadian-lawyer-sets-high-bar-with-his.html

[markcrobinson-wordsword]

‪Now #reading Old City Hall by Robert Rotenberg; first heard about him on Crime In The City, which is overdue for a comeback, NPR!‬‬

‪@fsgbooks @touchstonebooks @pbsarts @npr #mystery #books‬

‪https://www.npr.org/2013/07/01/196243452/rotenbergs-toronto-thrillers-mix-canadian-courtesy-with-murder