Yes, I'm Indeed Avoiding Yard Work

The Peripheral

Jo is at work and I've been a lazy slug so far. I watched the first episode of the new Orphan Black series. It was ok. I'm reserving judgement for now. I watched the 2nd episode of The Peripheral. Confusing but I'm enjoying. Amazing, actually, as I gave up on the book. I may still mow the front yard by I'm going to do a reading update first. 😃

Just Finished

(I've completed 4 books since my last update.)

1. The Paton Street Case by John Bingham (1955).

"The Paton Street Case is an excellent police procedural by English author John  Bingham. This was the third mystery I've read by Bingham and I've enjoyed each one. 

The story is told at the beginning by a 'disembodied spirit' as it introduces the main characters of this story on a particular night. There is Chief Detective Inspector Morgan of Scotland Yard and his wife Gwen, asleep in their home in Chelsea. There is his Sergeant, Sgt Shaw, also at home with his wife Evelyn, not a happy relationship. Further away are Gladys Turner and her husband Len. Gladys knows Paton Street, which will soon feature in this mystery, very well. Then there are Otto and Rose Steiner who rent the first floor of 127 Paton Street for their furniture business. They are a German / Jewish couple who escaped from Nazi Germany to settle in London. Their daughter Rachel lives in their home. The final character introduced is PC Maitland who will discover the fire that sets the events of this story in motion.

The fire destroys the apartment above the Steiners' furniture store. A body is also discovered. in the apartment, the body of the resident of the apartment, Robert Draper. The rest of the story is the investigation of this fire and 'murder'. And it is an excellent story, taut, tense and with a neat little twist at the end that I never saw coming. Inspector Morgan is an excellent character, methodical, intuitive, gruff when needed and Sgt Shaw is the perfect foil. Watching them interrogate a witness is so very interesting. The cast of suspects / witnesses are also all well-developed and interesting. 

The story moves along nicely but as we near the end, the tension surprisingly mounts and I found myself unable to put the book down so I could get to the end. The ending itself was somewhat untidy, I thought, but that could just have been my interpretation of it. All in all, it was an excellent story and I now have Murder Plan Six on order. (4.5 stars)"

2. The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi (The Amulet #1 / 2008).

"The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi is the 1st book in the graphic novel series Amulet. It's an entertaining middle grade (I guess) fantasy series that follows brother and sister Emily and Navan and their mother as they move to an ancestral home to start a new life. This is a couple after a tragic car accident in which Emily & Navan's dad is killed. Mother decides that the family needs a new start.

And start they get. Kibuishi isn't one to rest on his laurels and let a story develop slowly. No he's not! No sooner do they arrive and begin cleaning the old home, then Emily finds her great grandfather's den and also a strange amulet. This seems to wake up something. What happens is that Mother is kidnapped by some creature and the children follow her down into the cellar and deeper into another world where they must enlist the aid of a group of strange robots? to help find their mother and save her life.

It's a fast-paced, exciting story, well drawn and colored and it keeps you turning the pages to see what happens next. Nice surprise at the end when the house they are staying in, in this other world, turns out to be much more than a house. I've now got Books 2 and 3 on my book shelf and can't wait to see what happens next. Wow! (4.0 stars)"

3. The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi (2020).

"When I saw The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017 by Rashid Khalidi, I felt that it was a book I should read, especially considering what is currently happening in Israel / Palestine. I admit that there were times when I almost gave up reading it. I'm not sure why, maybe it was just a bit ponderous... Not sure, more likely, just my short attention span these days of 30 second s0und bites.

At any rate, I'm glad, if glad is the correct work, that I finished this book. It opened my eyes and made me think more about what has happened in that area of the world. The book covers the period 1917 - the current time. Unfortunately, it was published in 2020 so I wonder how Rashid Khalidi would have updated his ideas with what is currently happening.

It's not easy to describe the book in a few sentences. Khalidi compares the Zionist desires to colonize Palestine and convert it into an Israeli country and to remove the Palestinians who were already living there to similar acts in the US, South Africa, even Ireland, where the indigenous peoples were turned into 2nd class citizens by the colonists. 

He starts by referring to European Zionist congresses which called for a Jewish state with the sovereign right to control immigration. He quotes the diary of Theodor Herzl, an Austrian journalist, and one of the early Zionist leaders.

"We must expropriate gently the private property on the estates assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our own country. The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly."

This is the ongoing theme throughout the period of the book. The Zionists move to Palestine, obviously to escape persecution within Europe and Russia. Firstly with the help of various great powers, Great Britain early one, and the US more recently, they have forced the Palestinians out of their homes, properties and taken them over. Of course, blame isn't limited here. The Arab states, which profess to support the Palestinian peoples have their own desire are either not strong enough or too disorganized to assist the Palestinian cause. More recently, these Arab states, prefer to deal with a much stronger Israel and the US than take up the fight for the Palestinians.

The Palestinians, themselves, were not strong enough to challenge the Israelis. They have tried various means; actual fighting, protests, boycotts, terrorism, etc to try to maintain their own possessions, their own country. The Palestinians were not as skilled at obtaining worldwide support for their own cause. Various UN resolutions and negotiated settlements between Israel and countries like Great Britain and the US, recognized the right of Israel to exist as a state. The same hasn't happened for the indigenous Palestinians, who have found themselves forced into exile (refugee camps all over the Middle East, confined to Israeli managed regions of Israel. It's a sad, desperate picture.

Over the course of the book, we see how many times Israel has used its power and military might to cow its Arab neighbours, the 6 Day War, the invasion of Lebanon, etc. The mass destruction is astounding and must have been terrifying. Now I realize that I'm making this sound very one-sided, but I must say that Khalidi does try to show both sides of the story. It's not just the Israelis but the Arab countries who assist, even by just sitting by and letting this destruction happen. The Palestinians also are disorganized and unable to coalesce into a unified front.

It's a sad, discouraging story. Mr. Khalidi explains and presents the story very well. The comparison to colonization is so interesting. This paragraph seems to say it all.

"Within Israel, certain important rights are reserved exclusively for Jewish citizens and denied to 20 percent of citizens who are Palestinian. Of course the five million Palestinians living under an Israel military regime in the Occupied Territories have no rights at all, while the half million plus Israeli colonists there enjoy full rights....   Even as Israel's 1948 Declaration of Independence proclaimed complete equity of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex, dozens of crucial laws based on inequality of rights were implemented in the ensuing years." He proceeds to give examples, such as banning Arab access to land and to residency, etc. (I hate to say it but as I watch the news, I see similar things being attempted in current right wing rules countries, or even right wing US States or Canadian provinces)

Khalidi once again has said that the Palestinians are often their worst enemies. After the 1st Intifada, which was mainly peaceful, raised the issue positively in the world's eyes. But the 2nd Intifada, where the Palestinians began to resort to suicide bombings within Israel, had the opposite effect.

I have said I have had difficulty reading this book. I had my own preconceived ideas; you know, like reading and watching Exodus, etc, but I do find myself looking at the whole situation differently. Oh, there is an interesting portion near the end of the impact Donald Trump's presidency had on the region... negatively, that is. 

But Mr. Khalidi does try to offer a hopeful ending.

"While the fundamentally colonial nature of the Palestinian - Israel encounter must be acknowledged, there are now two peoples in Palestine, irrespective of how they came into being, and the conflict between them cannot be resolved as long as the national existence of each is denied by the other. Their mutual acceptance can only be based on complete equality of rights, including national rights, notwithstanding the crucial historical differences between the two, There is no other possible sustainable solution, barring the unthinkable notion of one people's extermination or expulsion by the other."

This book was published in 2020 and I wonder what Mr. Khalidi would think of the situation now, where this last fear may actually come into effect unless the world decides to act bravely and step in. A book that should be read. this is not a unique situation around the world. (4.0 stars)"

4. East of West, Volume 1: The Promise by Jonathan Hickman (2013).

"While I've been in a prolonged process of divesting myself of all the comics I collected over the years, I somehow now find myself buying and trying new and different graphic novels. Go figure! A case in point, last week, while wandering through one of my local used book stores, I noticed the first two volumes in a graphic novel series by Jonathan Hickman, that series being one called East of West. In the mood for something short last night, I read Volume One, The Promise.

I did find the whole thing kind of confusing. So we have a dystopic future Earth. There is the Message, written in 3 parts over time, by the Prophet Longstreet in Atlanta, by Red Cloud and then half a century later by Chairman Mao, in exile. These three documents make up the Message. You also have the 4 Horseman of the Apocalypse, minus one, that being Death. The others trek around the US, the dystopic US, divided into various regions; the Dead Lands, New Shanghai, the Endless Nation, the Black Towers, the Kingdom of New Orleans and the Republic of Texas. 

The three remaining horsemen, War, Famine and Conquest kill the president of the US and the next of those in line until they get to the Secretary of the Interior and make her President. Got it so far?

And then there is Death, the White Horseman, who seems to be on the prowl seeking revenge for the loss of his wife and child. He is accompanied by Crow and Wolf who have powers. From what I've read, there are two groups, those in favor of Apocalypse, led by the 3 Horsemen and those against it, led by Death.

Death ends up taking a side trip when he discovers his wife is not dead as he believed, instead held prisoner by her father and sister, the leaders of New Shanghai.

Now there is more to the story, but that is the gist. I find it confusing but interesting so far. Vol 1 contains the first 5 chapters and ends with Death heading off to find his son. The characters are interesting and very well drawn and colored. There is lots of action and violence. And there is a potentially interesting view of the future. We'll see how Vol 2 develops the story. (3.0 stars)"

Currently Reading

1. Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night by James Runcie (Grantchester #2 / 2013). This will be my focus book for July.

"The loveable full time priest and part time detective Canon Sidney Chambers continues his sleuthing adventures in late 1950's Cambridge. Accompanied by his faithful Labrador Dickens, and working in tandem with the increasingly exasperated Inspector Geordie Keating, Sidney is called on to investigate the unexpected fall of a Cambridge don from the roof of King's College Chapel; a case of arson at a glamor photographer's studio; and the poisoning of Zafar Ali, Grantchester's finest spin bowler, in the middle of a crucial game of cricket. As he pursues his quietly probing inquiries, Sidney also has to decide on the vexed question of marriage. Can he choose between the rich, glamorous socialite Amanda Kendall and Hildegard Staunton, a beguiling German widow three years his junior? To help him make up his mind Sidney takes a trip abroad, only to find himself trapped in a complex web of international espionage just as the Berlin Wall is going up.

Here are six interlocking adventures that combine mystery with morality, and criminality with charm."

2. With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo (2019). This is the 3rd book by Acevedo that I've read in the past couple of years. She is an excellent author.

"Ever since she got pregnant, seventeen-year-old Emoni's life has been about making the tough decisions - doing what has to be done for her young daughter and her grandmother. Keeping her head down at school, trying not to get caught up with new boy Malachi. The one place she can let everything go is in the kitchen, where she has magical hands - whipping up extraordinary food beloved by everyone.

Emoni wants to be a chef more than anything, but she knows it's pointless to pursue the impossible. There are rules she has to play by. And yet, once she starts cooking, and gets that fire on high, she sees that her drive to feed will feed her soul and dreams too. And anything is possible."

New Books

1. Foul Play Suspected by John Wyndham (1935). I think this is the last book by Wyndham that I've found.

"England, 1935: Phyllida Shiffer’s marriage has just ended in divorce. She heads home, expecting to be welcomed with open arms by her father, a brilliant (if slightly distracted) scientist. But her father’s house is locked up; he is nowhere to be found; and there are suspicious men who seem to think that Phyllida herself might hold the key to her father’s latest scientific discovery. . . ."

2. Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson (2015).

"Twelve-year-old Astrid has always done everything with her best friend Nicole. So when Astrid signs up for roller derby camp, she assumes Nicole will too. But Nicole signs up for dance camp with a new friend instead, and so begins the toughest summer of Astrid's life. There are bumps and bruises as Astrid learns who she is without Nicole...and what it takes to be a strong, tough roller girl."

3. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (2022). Jo and I started to watch the TV series. I was pleasantly surprised to see it's based on a book.

"Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it's the 1960s and despite the fact that she is a scientist, her peers are very unscientific when it comes to equality. The only good thing to happen to her on the road to professional fulfillment is a run-in with her super-star colleague Calvin Evans (well, she stole his beakers). The only man who ever treated her--and her ideas--as equal, Calvin is already a legend and Nobel nominee. He's also awkward, kind and tenacious. Theirs is true chemistry.

But as events are never as predictable as chemical reactions, three years later Elizabeth Zott is an unwed, single mother (did we mention it's the early 60s?) and the star of America's most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth's singular approach to cooking (take one pint of H2O and add a pinch of sodium chloride) and independent example are proving revolutionary. Because Elizabeth isn't just teaching women how to cook, she's teaching them how to change the status quo."

4. Murder Plan Six by John Bingham (1958). I've enjoyed 3 of his mysteries so far and want to continue to explore his work.

"'Murder Plan Six', described by the 'Evening Standard' as 'a thriller of a very high (and rare) order', is by John Bingham, whom many will remember as the amiable father of Charlotte Bingham in 'Coronet Among the Weeds'. If the story is rather less than amiable, it is nevertheless rather more than unusual, with its introduction of Victor Gollancz, the very real and very well-known publisher, as one of the main characters, together with two fictitious authors of the Gollancz 'stable' and two women, of whom one is an angel and the other the very devil. When a note of madness creeps in - happily among the fictitious characters - things are bound to get out of hand, and they do it with a tension that winds up tighter and tighter as time and the tape-recordings run out."

5. Global by Eoin Colfer (2023). I think I may read this tonight. It's shiny and new and looks very interesting.

"Time is running out for Sami and Yuki. Sami and his grandfather live in a village along the Indian Ocean. They earn their living by fishing. But the ocean is rising and each day they bring back fewer and fewer fish. Yuki lives in the far north of Canada where warming temperature are melting the ice. Polar bears have less food to hunt and are wandering into town looking for something to eat. Yuki is determined to do something to help the bears."

6. Murder Your Employer: McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes (2023). Yes, indeed, The is the same Rupert Holmes of The Pina Colada song fame.

"A New York Times bestseller! From Edgar Award–winning novelist, playwright, and story-songwriter Rupert Holmes comes a diabolical thriller with a killer concept: The McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts, dedicated to the art of murder where students study how best to “delete” their most deserving victim."

Women Authors Whose Work I've Been Enjoying - Miriam Toews

Miriam Toews

I readily admit that I've only read one book by Canadian author, Miriam Toews thus far but it was so good and has made me get another book by her. Miriam Toews was born in Steinbach Manitoba in 1964. Since 1996, she has published 9 books. The book that I have tried thus far just recently won an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for Sarah Polley. I'll provide my review of Women Talking and also the synopsis of the book I have sitting on my book shelf.

1. Women Talking (2018).

"I bought Women Talking by Miriam Toews after checking out a list of one author's Top Ten most horrifying novels ever. While I don't think the body of the novel is horrifying, the events that lead up to this novel are. 

The novel is based on a true story of a remote Mennonite community where the men, over a period of time, drug the women and abuse them over night. This took place over a long time and the women believed they were being attacked by demons. The truth was ultimately discovered and eight men were sent to jail.

The story takes place after these events and follows eight of the women, from two different families as they meet  in the loft of a barn to decide what they must do. Their options; to stay in the community a continue to live with the men who've abused them or to leave the community forever. The women have been subjugated all of their lives; they are not taught to read, so this decision is momentous. 

Also part of the story is August Epp. He and his parents had been banned from the community year before but he had returned as an adult and now teaches the boys. He has been asked to take minutes of the meeting. (The women have limited time to make their decision as the remaining men have gone to the city to try and bail out the eight. So they will all be returning.

So this is the basic story, a discussion by these women of what they will do. They were all abused, Ona is pregnant, even though unmarried. Even the age of the women does not matter as it seems even the very young have been mistreated. What can these women do? They've lived their lives here and now must decide whether they have the capabilities of even surviving on their own. So if you want a story with relatively no action, but with immense implications and a terrifying premise, you might want to try this one. (3.5 stars)"

2. Fight Night (2021).

"Fight Night is told in the unforgettable voice of Swiv, a nine-year-old living in Toronto with her pregnant mother, who is raising Swiv while caring for her own elderly, frail, yet extraordinarily lively mother. When Swiv is expelled from school, Grandma takes on the role of teacher and gives her the task of writing to Swiv's absent father about life in the household during the last trimester of the pregnancy. In turn, Swiv gives Grandma an assignment: to write a letter to "Gord," her unborn grandchild (and Swiv's soon-to-be brother or sister). "You’re a small thing," Grandma writes to Gord, "and you must learn to fight."

As Swiv records her thoughts and observations, Fight Night unspools the pain, love, laughter, and above all, will to live a good life across three generations of women in a close-knit family. But it is Swiv’s exasperating, wise and irrepressible Grandma who is at the heart of this novel: someone who knows intimately what it costs to survive in this world, yet has found a way—painfully, joyously, ferociously—to love and fight to the end, on her own terms."

The complete listing of Toews' work can be found at this link.