Hi friends, We hope your week is off to a good start. This week’s essay is from mystery author and critic Jodé Millman. She tackles a problem we would find extremely difficult: which are the five best Gamache novels. Let us know which books are in your top five. Leave a comment — Aya and Elizabeth P.S. Thanks to Deborah for providing the gorgeous painting-like image of Three Pines you see in this post.

Charlie Daniels died yesterday at 83. While his conservative beliefs have come into focus with his death, he is best remembered as the musician behind “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” If you’ve never heard it for some reason, it’s worth giving a listen as a folk tale and fun song. I’d rather remember Daniels for the music, rather than some of his counter-productive rants on Twitter. (Although, it’s still prevalent enough that it’s worth acknowledging).

“Whirlwind is a great way to put it,” laughs Ashleigh Neville when we discuss the changes in both her career and her personal life over the past five years. Six years ago, the full-back was playing third division football for Coventry United, a team close to home where she’d just become a mum for the first time and close to her school where she worked as a teacher. So when she made the decision to ditch her comfort zone to head south three long days a week, plus matchday, for the chance to play for Tottenham Hotspur, it was a huge shift in Neville’s life, but once in which she has prospered from.

A friend writes, about Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek: “I saw him at a Grammy nominee party once. He was by himself at the seafood buffet and I watched him go back to a solo table. Despite his power not a single industry person was trying to schmooze him. I was shocked frankly.” This image of Ek eating shrimp alone at a Grammy party is maybe all you need to understand what happened to Spotify this week.

Now this is one of my favorite stories of all time. It’s a story about life, and death, and catastrophic real estate transactions. But more than that, I think it’s a story that tells us something important about our future as a species. You might have heard variations on it too—it’s a famous story in the annals of demography and medicine. But it’s worth revisiting, even if you have heard the general outline of it.