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| Epstein survivors press conference |
Let's get back to books now. First some stats. I had planned to try and read 120 books in 2025 as part of my Goodreads challenge. So far, I've read 92 books, roughly 22,000 pages. So all in all, I'm very happy with my reading. Since my last update, I've completed 6 books so I'll start there.
Completed Books
"In the grand old tradition of Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald and other hard-boiled detectives, I can now add Mark Preston, the creation of Peter Chambers. The first book in his series is Murder is for keeps,, originally published in 1961.
Mark Preston has an office in Monkton, near Los Angeles. One afternoon, he's visited by a new client, Moira Chase, a beautiful rich widow (Is there any other kind?). She's concerned about her stepdaughter's, Ellen, taste in men. Ellen is but 17 and stands to inherit a tidy sum of money when she reaches maturity. She's been hanging around with a jazz pianist, Kent Shubert, who works in town and Moira wants Preston to find out about him and help get rid of him.
What seems a simple case turns into something a mite more... a big mite (is there such a thing? Preston goes to the jazz bar with Shubert plays, gets the lady photographer, who wanders around taking pictures of customers for cash, to get one of Shubert. Preston wants to send it to a fellow private eye in San Francisco, to see if they can dig up anything else on Shubert.
Preston mails the package to San Francisco, heads home and is mugged by 3 men before he can enter his apartment. His apartment is turned over. Preston feels that maybe they wanted the picture. But, why?
Preston discovers who was behind the mugging, a tough who works for a local night club owner. When he goes to teach 'Little Boy' Wiener a bit of a lesson, he is clubbed again and then finds Little Boy shot to death with his gun.
Things continue to get interesting as Preston finds himself looking into murders that took place in New York years back that might be related to things going on in Monkton. He's now mixing with the upper crust of the community and slowly finding out more and more.
It's an entertaining, pulp mystery and Mark Preston is an excellent protagonist. Enough action to keep you happy and enough crime solving and beautiful, intelligent women too. Most enjoyable. Number 2 has been ordered. (3.0 stars)"
"I found Fatale Compendium by Ed Brubaker while browsing the graphic novel shelves in one of my local book stores. I've been buying quite a few graphic novels of late, a mix of novel adaptations and new series / authors. I'm finding them an exciting, alternative genre to explore.
This is my first exposure to Ed Brubaker (as far as I know anyway. I have read some of the Marvel Civil War books, so I may have read his work there) At any rate, let's talk about this compendium which includes the complete Fatale series under one book.
The story is a noir detective novel of sorts but also a Lovecraftian view of the world, a supernatural mystery of sorts. It's dark and gritty filled with action. It follows Josephine, a mysterious woman whose life seems to traverse many eras. She has a power to control men, one she doesn't realize she possesses at times and hates herself for, and then at times she glories in the power and uses it against a secretive organization led by Bishop, a supernatural being whose can be reborn. He wants Josephine for the next Convergence.. What that is isn't really explained, but the world is bound by an owl who ties it up in ribbons... to keep the evil beings underground???
Josephine, over the course of her life, has a group of 'assistants' who are immune to her powers.. mystical tattoos seem to have something to do with it. They help teach Josephine about her powers and about those evil ones who need her for the Convergence.
We meet a number of men affected by Josephine's power. They lover her... does she love them?? and will do anything to help her against the evil that's out there. One gets Bishop's eyes so even though he can still be reborn, he is reborn blind. But he can still sense Josephine when she uses her powers... Are you confused? Well, to be fair, it is a confusing story all around but also a fascinating story. There are back stories. We follow those men who have been impacted by Josephine and still want to help. We travel to Europe during WWII when Bishop and his followers revel in the violence and evil that roamed the continent. We travel across the US from the early 20's to the present.
It's a wide-ranging, fascinating story and well-drawn and inked, peopled with interesting characters. And yes, it's spooky and confusing. I'm glad I took a chance on it. (3.5 stars)"
"*Sigh* I have to say that I was disappointed with The Big Payoff, the 1st Anna Peters book, by Janice Law. A couple of years back I'd read Under Orion, the 3rd book in the series and while it wasn't perfect, I enjoyed it. The Payoff introduces Anna Peters.
Anna, it seems had previously made considerable cash blackmailing people. But she had given up that life, found a man she loved and begun a career as an executive assistant for T William Harrison (AKA T. Bill) at New World Oil. Anna begins to suspect some of T. Bill's dealings. The company is involved in bidding for oil drilling rights in the North Sea, with other companies. She discovers that scientists working for the British competitor have been killed in mysterious circumstances.
Anna believes that T Bill is working with folks (maybe the Saudis) to remove the competition. She reports her concerns to the British embassy and then finds herself involved in industrial espionage on their behalf. She's not happy with their dealings with her as they are quite threatening, holding her past life over her head to force her spy on T. Bill.
Everything blows up all at once. Her handler is killed, her boss now threatens to either kill Anna or have her arrested. Fast thinking she ends up sort of working for T. Bill and heads off to deliver stolen documents on his behalf to deadly mysterious folks in Scotland... How will it all end up for Anna?
I like Anna and I do like a good spy story and I liked the industrial espionage aspect. That's a nice different touch. It just seemed that at times there were great leaps of logic and jumping from one fire into the next. But then again, I think most spy stories have that premise. As I mentioned when I discussed the 3rd book, it wasn't perfect but it was entertaining. I like Janice Law's historical mystery series featuring Francis Bacon (the English painter) and I think I'll continue with the Anna Peters' series. I do want to see what predicament she'll get involved with next. (2.5 stars)"
"The Red Mass is the 5th of 6 books in the Ellis Portal legal mystery series by Rosemary Aubert. It's been a couple of years since I last visited Ellis Portal in Toronto and it was nice to get back into this series.
Quickly, Ellis Portal was an up and coming lawyer who became an Ontario judge but had a breakdown and lost everything and ended up surviving on the streets of Toronto. The series follows him as he gets his life back on track, reconnects with family, and solves mysteries. At the start of the Red Mass, Ellis takes part in the annual Red Mass ceremony at the Law Courts. While there he meets his earliest friend Stow, a Superior Court judge who calls in a favor, asking Ellis to represent him.
Ellis doesn't want to as their lives had drifted apart with much enmity. But Stow is arrested for the death of his wife, who died in hospital five years earlier. New evidence has caused him to be charged with administering an overdose of a drug that was being trialed. Ellis agrees to represent him and discovers he will be working against his daughter, Ellen, newly appointed to the Crown Prosecutors office.
That is the crux of the story. Ellis has so many competing issues; his family, his friendship with a woman he'd lived on the streets with, who now helps the homeless, a reporter who wants to write about Ellis, and of course the case, which intrudes on his past relationships. It's a rich, fascinating story and it's nice to be involved in a criminal trial with all of its processes. The mystery is interesting, as is the investigation and Ellis is a fascinating character; with many issues with which he still deals. I also like the setting as I spent my university years in Toronto, so it's nice to reflect on that aspect. All in all an entertaining mystery. Now to try and find the final story in the series. (3.5 stars)"
"Dorothy Parker: Complete Broadway, 1918–1923 by Dorothy Parker is the 4th look I've had at the work of Dorothy Parker and the first that wasn't one of her books of poetry. Parker was one of the founding members of the Algonquin Round Table. She was a poet, literary critic, and author of fiction, plays and screenplays. I have enjoyed her poetry very much, which is a lot from me because as I've mentioned ad nauseum in previous reviews of poetry, I generally don't get along with the genre.
This book features Parker's monthly reviews of the Broadway scene from 1918 - 1923. She started providing them for Vanity Fair but was fired from that position because her comments on one of Florence Ziegfeld's girlfriends. She was immediately hired by Ainslee's to continue providing her monthly look at the plays on Broadway. While I wasn't around at the time (I'm not quite that old. 😎😁😉), it's interesting to get a perspective on what plays and actors were around during this period.
The reviews start just at the end of WWI and there were many actors and producers that I never heard of before, but names crop up that pique your interest. People like PG Wodehouse and Somerset Maugham wrote plays there. American Booth Tarkington and Ring Lardner show up as playwrights and lyricists, along with the great George Cohan. Actors such as the Barrymores (royalty in a way on Broadway), Tallulah Bankhead, Helen Hayes, Billie Burke, Eddie Cantor etc. It all sounds so interesting.
And of course there is Parker, providing her thoughts on the plays and musicals, a monthly summary of what took place the previous month. She writes with humor and intelligence. It's a pleasure to read her words, the hear her thoughts. All in all, I enjoyed the book very much, it provides a historical look at the time; the end of WWI, the Spanish Flu, the actor's equity walk out, so many things. It's worth checking out if you have an interest in the early days of Broadway at the turn of the last century. Check it out. (4.0 stars)"
... and my 1st book of September
"The Murderbot Diaries is such an excellent Sci Fi series and also a great TV series. Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells is the 3rd book in the series and keeps the action rolling and the stories getting better and better.
Murderbot is on a mission to get the information necessary to destroy the GrayCris Corp and to help Murderbot's 'friend' Dr. Mensah. M. heads off to a remote location, Milu to gather info about GrayCris illegally exporting alien artifacts. Trying to stay hidden from the humans and one robot who are leaving an orbiting space station to explore a terraforming site closer to the surface, M. gets more than he bargained.
Two augmented humans assigned to the group as a protective escort are not who they seem to be. The terraforming station isn't as empty anyone thought. What will result is a fast-paced, action-packed effort to not only save these humans but also to gather the info as well, all the while fighting off a pack of combat bots and drones.
All in all, it's an excellent, entertaining story. Murderbot continues to grow as a character, possessing an excellent wit and nice level of sarcasm. The supporting cast is all excellent, from Don Abene, the team leader to Miko, the robot that Murderbot 'befriends' and uses as a source of info. It's an interesting relationship between Miko and his humans, a friendship that confuses Murderbot. M is still trying to rap his head around the whole concept and compare it to his relationship to Dr. Mensah. I have to say that the action sequences are some of the best I've ever read, really full on. I have the next couple of books sitting on my shelf awaiting my attention.. Woo hoo! (4.5 stars)"
Currently Reading (following my previous posts, I'll just list any books I've started since my last update)
"The Winter colonists have ruled Tiamat for 150 years, slaughtering the gentle sea mers in trade for off-world wealth. But soon the gate to the galactic Hegemony will close, Tiamat will be isolated, and the 150-year reign of the Summer primitives will begin. Unless... Arienrhod, the ageless, corrupt Snow Queen, can commit a genocidal crime - and destroy destiny... unless Sparks Dawntreader, the Snow Queen's companion, can survive sea and city, palace and slums - and find destiny... unless Hegemony Commander Jerusha Palathion, the Snow Queen's victim, can find one ally on Tiamat - and change destiny... And unless Moon Summer, a young mystic, can break a conspiracy that spans space - and control destiny. Because Moon is the Snow Queen's lost weapon. The Snow Queen's lost rival. The Snow Queen's lost nemesis. The Snow Queen's lost soul. Moon is the Snow Queen's clone..."
"Hodge Backmaker lives in twentieth century New York, a city of cobblestones, gas lamps, and ten-storey skyscrapers. In his world, the Confederate South won its independence in the Civil War and North America is divided, with slavery and serfdom still facts of life in the Confederacy and New York a provincial backwater. Bring the Jubilee stands alongside Pavane as science fiction's finest explorations of alternative history."
"After being accused of a multi-million-dollar stock swindle, Alfred Doolittle Hannah dies in an apparent suicide, but First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt suspects murder."
"Melanie is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell calls her "our little genius."
Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad."
But Martin finds no safety at home, either, and the search begins to find the man who is hunting him down.
He soon discovers that he has become involved with an American underworld boss who is planning to expand his business to Britain. Will he be able to escape the gangster’s clutches, or will he become a victim in his complex game?"
Every map tells a story, and every map has a inviting us to go somewhere we've never been. It is an account of what we know, but also a trace of what we long for. Like a story, a map is never completely objective. It records special interests and agendas. It leaves important things unsaid even as it purports to lay things out clearly and indisputably. We can know our history by our maps.
That is what A History of Canada in Ten Maps will do. This book chronicles not just the centuries of Canada's existence; it conjures the world as it appeared to those who were called upon to map it. What would the new world look like to Jacques Cartier, who could see no farther than the treeline? What would the north have looked like to Martin Frobisher, confronting a sea of ice but imagining that Cathay lay just beyond? What would the vastness of the country look like to a surveyor or railroad engineer (or an investor in Great Britain)? And what rival claims to the land were left off all these maps?
Historical maps may tell only part of the story, but they also tell us volumes about what we didn't know, and hint at what we may have preferred go unrecorded. A History of Canada in Ten Maps will tell the story of the creators of these maps, and also recount how they used the maps for their own ends. It is a book that will surprise readers, and reveal the Canada we never knew was hidden. It will bring to life the characters and the disputes that forged our history, by showing us what the world looked like before it entered the history books.
Accompanied by Almost Brilliant, a talking bird with an indelible memory, Chih confronts old legends and new dangers alike as they learn that every story—beautiful, ugly, kind, or cruel—bears more than one face."
Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.
1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel.
Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.
For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide…
Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?"
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