Midweek Music Medley - 22 Dec 2021
1. English R&B singer Dina Carroll - Ain't No Man (1992).2. English R&B singer Dionne Bromfield - Mama Said (2009).3. American dance-pop singer Donna Allen - Serious (1986).Enjoy the rest of your week and your countdown to Christmas!
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| And I wasn't happy about it! |
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| Because I'm a lady! |
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| Household Chair Guardians |
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| Frosty's nephew is our Greeter |
Now onto bigger and other things. Jo and I are heading out to do a few chores and maybe have lunch downtown. Before we go, here is your Midweek Music Medley to help get you through the rest of the week. (And no, not Xmas songs. There are enough of them playing in every store in town)
Midweek Music Medley Wed 15 Dec 2022
1. English electronic music band Depeche Mode - A Question of Lust (1986).2. Electronic electronic music duo Groove Armada - If Everybody Looked the Same (1999).3. English house music group Loveland - Let the Music Lift You Up (1994).Enjoy the rest of your week.
It's been a busy few days. I've been trying to finish off my December books, keep up with shows we've got taped on our PVR and help Jo set up our Xmas decorations. We've had a few nice days out and about, went out to dinner with old friends a couple of nights ago and shopped, shopped, shopped. The weather has been up and down, a day of snow, windy, rainy, and balmy... a bit of everything. I'm managing to get in my run every couple of days, but I did have a nice tumble my first run after our snowfall.
I went to our local Rotary Club Book Sale last week and found a few books. I've bought a few others in our wandering about. I've also finished two more books, for a total of three in December. I'll provide my reviews of both, plus the synopses of my new books. I've started only one more book. My focus for the rest of the month will be to finish off the books I'm currently enjoying. I'll provide the synopsis of the book I did start.
Just Finished
I finished two SciFi books, one that I really enjoyed, the other a bit of a strange duck.
"I was pleasantly surprised by Transit by Edmund Cooper. This is the 2nd book by Cooper that I've read, the first being a collection of enjoyable SciFi short stories, News From Elsewhere. Transit was his 5th book written under that name, originally published in 1964.
Richard Avery is a lonely man living in London, basically going through the motions of his life. A few years previously the love of his life had died and he has never really recovered. Walking through Kensington Gardens he sees a glowing gem. Bending to pick it up, he passes out and wakes in a cubicle somewhere. He has some of his possessions and there is a kind of typewriter with some nameless, faceless person asking questions of him. Avery gradually is made aware that he is not alone, that there are three other people with him in other cubicles; Barbara, Tom and Mary.
After being questioned for a few 'days'?, they are once again rendered unconscious and wake up on an island. They come to realize that this island must be on another planet. As they set about trying to survive, they also come to discover that they also aren't the only people on the island. Thus begins a battle for survival, even as they try to discover why, oh why, they have been placed on the island.
On the surface, it's a relatively simple premise, except on another planet, a group of individuals placed in a situation where they must use their wits to try and survive. But it's also an interesting story of discovery, self-discovery, as they learn about themselves, about the others, about their ability to care for others and even to care for themselves. The story reads easily, flows nicely and holds your interest, a most enjoyable SciFi tale. (4 stars)"
"Hoo boy! That was a different one. I'm not sure how to take The Time Shifters by Sam Merwin Jr. was definitely different. But it was just a bit out there for me.
People from the future have come to the present to stop the New Confederates from changing the future. Chuck Percival has been unwillingly drafted into their army help in the battle. Time travel isn't easy. Not only do you arrive in filthy condition, because it involves a sort of death, you also arrive craving sexual release. Got it? What else??? I do like the vision of the future that the New Confederacy threatens. I'll let you discover that if you decide to try this story.
There is a bit too much description of furnishings and rooms for me and minor details like that, for this relatively short story. And it does see to jump from situation to situation without any real logic. Mind you, it is a SciFi time travel novel... lol
It's worth trying just to try this author. Merwin was relatively prolific and wrote both SciFi and Detective stories. This one just really didn't work for me. (2 stars)"
Currently Reading
A couple of years back I bought Jo a collection of the Anne of Green Gables' books for Christmas. Since then I've been reading one as one of my December choices.
"New adventures lie ahead as Anne Shirley packs her bags, waves good-bye to childhood, and heads for Redmond College. With her old friend Prissy Grant waiting in the bustling city of Kingsport and her frivolous new friend Philippa Gordon at her side, Anne tucks her memories of rural Avonlea away and discovers life on her own terms, filled with surprises . . . including a marriage proposal from the worst fellow imaginable, the sale of her very first story, and a tragedy that teaches her a painful lesson. But tears turn to laughter when Anne and her friends move into an old cottage and an ornery black cat steals her heart. Little does Anne know that handsome Gilbert Blythe wants to win her heart, too. Suddenly Anne must decide whether she's ready for love."
New Books
I've got books from a number of sources the past few days of December, local used book stores and new book stores, the Rotary Club Charity book sale and on line. So let's get too it.
"In this large, comprehensive, revelatory biography, Jane De Hart explores the central experiences that crucially shaped Ginsburg's passion for justice, her advocacy for gender equality, her meticulous jurisprudence: her desire to make We the People more united and our union more perfect. At the heart of her story and abiding beliefs--her Jewish background. Tikkun olam, the Hebrew injunction to "repair the world," with its profound meaning for a young girl who grew up during the Holocaust and World War II. We see the influence of her mother, Celia Amster Bader, whose intellect inspired her daughter's feminism, insisting that Ruth become independent, as she witnessed her mother coping with terminal cervical cancer (Celia died the day before Ruth, at seventeen, graduated from high school).
From Ruth's days as a baton twirler at Brooklyn's
James Madison High School, to Cornell University, Harvard and Columbia
Law Schools (first in her class), to being a law professor at Rutgers
University (one of the few women in the field and fighting pay
discrimination), hiding her second pregnancy so as not to risk losing
her job; founding the Women's Rights Law Reporter, writing
the brief for the first case that persuaded the Supreme Court to strike
down a sex-discriminatory state law, then at Columbia (the law school's
first tenured female professor); becoming the director of the women's
rights project of the ACLU, persuading the Supreme Court in a series of
decisions to ban laws that denied women full citizenship status with
men.
Her years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, deciding cases the way she played golf, as she, left-handed, played with right-handed clubs--aiming left, swinging right, hitting down the middle. Her years on the Supreme Court . . .
A pioneering life and legal career whose profound mark on American jurisprudence, on American society, on our American character and spirit, will reverberate deep into the twenty-first century and beyond."
"In December of 1944,
the Red Army entered Budapest to begin one of the bloodiest sieges of
the Second World War. By February, the siege was over, but its effects
were to be felt for decades afterward.
Siege 13 is a
collection of thirteen linked stories about this terrible time in
history, both its historical moment, but also later, as a legacy of
silence, haunting, and trauma that shadows the survivors. Set in both
Budapest before and after the siege, and in the present day – in Canada,
the U.S., and parts of Europe – Siege 13 traces the ripple
effect of this time on characters directly involved, and on their
friends, associates, sons, daughters, grandchildren, and adoptive
countries.
Written by one of this country's best and most
internationally recognized short story authors – the story "The
Restoration of the Villa Where Tibor Kallman Once Lived" won the 2011 O.
Henry Prize for short fiction – Siege 13 is an intelligent, emotional,
and absorbing cycle of stories about war, family, loyalty, love and
redemption."
"In The Bomber Mafia,
Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his
homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British
psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the
greatest moral challenges in modern American history.
Most
military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the
airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists,
the “Bomber Mafia,” asked: What if precision bombing could cripple the
enemy and make war far less lethal?
In contrast, the bombing of
Tokyo on the deadliest night of the war was the brainchild of General
Curtis LeMay, whose brutal pragmatism and scorched-earth tactics in
Japan cost thousands of civilian lives, but may have spared even more by
averting a planned US invasion. In The Bomber Mafia, Gladwell asks,
“Was it worth it?”
Things might have gone differently had
LeMay’s predecessor, General Haywood Hansell, remained in charge.
Hansell believed in precision bombing, but when he and Curtis LeMay
squared off for a leadership handover in the jungles of Guam, LeMay
emerged victorious, leading to the darkest night of World War II. The
Bomber Mafia is a riveting tale of persistence, innovation, and the
incalculable wages of war."
"Winner of the 2018 HarperCollins/UBC Prize for Best New Fiction Michelle Good's FIVE LITTLE INDIANS, told from the alternating points of view of five former residential school students as they struggle to survive in 1960s Vancouver—one finding her way into the dangerous world of the American Indian movement; one finding unexpected strength in motherhood; and one unable to escape his demons - and the bonds of friendship that sustain them, inspired by the author's experiences."
"In A Grave in Gaza, Omar Yussef and his boss,Magnus Wallender, travel to the Gaza Strip for a routine inspection of the UN schools in the Gaza refugee camps.Upon their arrival they meet James Cree, the UN security officer for Gaza, who informs them that a teacher at one of their schools has been accused of spying and imprisoned. As they try to free the teacher and keep a lid on an explosive political situation, they are pulled into a confrontation with Gaza’s warring government factions and the criminal gangs with which they are connected.Omar Yussef confronts the dark elements of Gaza—dirty politics, bribery, assassination, and kidnapping—in his struggle to free the innocent and honor the dead."
"Wealthy young Christopher Kent has undertaken a bet: that he cannot work his way from South Africa to England without recourse to his own bank account. With less than twenty-four hours left before he can reveal himself and win the bet, Kent arrives at a London hotel he knows, hoping to scam a meal--only to find himself trapped in a room with a half open trunk and a dead woman's body."
""HOW TO SAVE THE WORLD THROUGH SEX AND SIN!
It
seemed that Gabriel Crome and his elegantly hippy girl friend had the
answer---a new, highly communicable disease with the property of
inhibiting aggression. And oh boy! was it fun to communicate!
But Gabriel had reckoned without the finely honed irony of whatever Prankster it is who governs human affairs.
As the Raven quoth,
'KRONK'"
"Christmas threatens in Rocksburg, PA, and because it's not everyone's best season, it's bad news for the police. How bad, and how it turns Mario Balzic inside out, is the exhilarating burden of this seventh entry in the famous Balzic series."
"The scene is Vienna, where an American art expert, Colin Grant, has been dispatched by a Texas millionaire to buy a painting by the Dutch master Ruysdael. He is instructed to get the painting "at any cost" but to keep his employer's name a secret. This seemingly simple assignment turns into a nightmare for Grant as he finds himself in the center of a conspiracy to unleash bloody international terrorism
The art world meets cloak-and-dagger intrigue in this Cold War thriller. A triumph of pacing from a veteran of the genre."
"It is Paris, 1794, and Robespierre's revolution is inflicting its reign of terror. The elusive Scarlet Pimpernel is still at large - so far. But the sinister agent Chauvelin has taken prisoner his darling Marguerite. Will she act as a decoy and draw the Scarlet Pimpernel to the enemy? And will our dashing hero evade capture and live to enjoy a day 'when tyranny was crushed and men dared to be men again'."
1
"Twelve years ago,
Chester Morton disappeared from his hometown with barely a trace and was
never heard from again. For the past twelve years, his mother has kept
the search for her son alive—paying for a billboard overlooking the
local community college, putting up fliers around town every week,
hounding law enforcement agencies. Mrs. Morton’s determination has not
only made Chester’s disappearance very high profile, it’s also been
damaging to her marriage, her remaining children, and herself.
Now,
long after everyone else has given up hope, Chester’s body is finally
found—hanging from the very billboard that has been advertising his
disappearance. Chester’s corpse, however, is fresh—meaning that he had
been alive, somewhere, until very recently. Under pressure and with
limited resources, the local police turn to Gregor Demarkian, a former
FBI agent and a frequent consultant, to find out once and for all what
really happened all those years ago…and to unravel the truth buried
within this very complex and tragic case."
"Short of work, rejected
by the man she craves, spurned by her mother, Jess Hurly is a wreck when
Sarah Fortune comes across her in the semi-darkness of a cold London
morning. Sarah - lawyer, professional mistress and stalwart friend - recognizes her despair and her vulnerability, and knows all too well
what damage those emotions can wreak. Jess believes her life can be put
right if she could only go home to the village where she grew up, but
she is unsure whether she would be welcomed or be rejected again. Sarah
ventures to the small community tucked between the Downs and the sea,
not only to test the waters for her friend, but to satisfy her own
curiosity and unravel the true reason why Jess was forced to leave.
She
finds a place of insularity and tolerance, both wary and welcoming of
her arrival, but Sarah quickly discerns that the dominance of the Hurly
family commands silence from those reliant on them. Then Jess falls
silent, her number unavailable, her presence missing, and Sarah's
increasingly desperate search for her takes her into places that are
even colder than the grave."
"Cole St. Clair has come
to California for one reason: to get Isabel Culpeper back. She fled from
his damaged, drained life, and damaged and drained it even more. He
doesn't just want her. He needs her.
lost.
Isabel is
trying to build herself a life in Los Angeles. It's not really working.
She can play the game as well as all the other fakes. But what's the
point? What is there to win?
sinner.
Cole and Isabel share
a past that never seemed to have a future. They have the power to love
each other and the power to tear each other apart. The only thing for
certain is that they cannot let go."
"They say Black Dow's killed more men than winter, and clawed his way to the throne of the North up a hill of skulls. However, the King of the Union is not about to stand smiling by while Black Dow claws his way any higher. The orders have been given and the armies are now toiling through the northern mud."
" Jack Taylor brings death
and pain to everyone he loves. His only hope of redemption - his
surrogate son, Cody - is lying in a hospital in a coma. At least he
still has Ridge, his old friend from the Guards, though theirs is an
unorthodox relationship. When she tells him that a boy has been
crucified in Galway city, he agrees to help her search for the killer.
Jack's
investigations take him to many of his old haunts where he encounters
ghosts, dead and living. Everyone wants something from him, but Jack is
not sure he has anything left to give. Maybe he should sell up, pocket
his Euros and get the hell out of Galway like everyone else seems to be
doing. Then the sister of the murdered boy is burned to death, and Jack
decides he must hunt down the killer, if only to administer his own
brand of rough justice. Ken Bruen's Cross is a suspenseful and deeply moving mystery."
"Every Winter, the human population hibernates.
During
those bitterly cold four months, the nation is a snow-draped landscape
of desolate loneliness, and devoid of human activity.
Well, not quite.
Your
name is Charlie Worthing and it's your first season with the Winter
Consuls, the committed but mildly unhinged group of misfits who are
responsible for ensuring the hibernatory safe passage of the sleeping
masses.
You are investigating an outbreak of viral dreams which
you dismiss as nonsense; nothing more than a quirky artifact borne of
the sleeping mind.
When the dreams start to kill people, it's unsettling.
When you get the dreams too, it's weird.
When they start to come true, you begin to doubt your sanity.
But
teasing truth from Winter is never easy: You have to avoid the Villains
and their penchant for murder, kidnapping and stamp collecting, ensure
you aren't eaten by Nightwalkers whose thirst for human flesh can only
be satisfied by comfort food, and sidestep the increasingly
less-than-mythical WinterVolk.
But so long as you remember to wrap up warmly, you'll be fine."
and.....
"On a planet run by escapees from a mental institution, the doctors who arrive to restore order may be the craziest of all.
For
years, the third moon in the Alphane system was used as a psychiatric
hospital. But when war broke out between Earth and the Alphanes, the
hospital was left unguarded and the inmates set up their own society,
made up of competing factions based around each mental illness. When
Earth sends a delegation to take back the colony, they find enclaves of
depressives, schizophrenics, paranoiacs, and other mentally ill people
coming together to repel what they see as a foreign invasion. Meanwhile,
back on Earth, CIA agent Chuck Rittersdorf and his wife Mary are going
through a bitter divorce, with Chuck losing everything. But when Chuck
is assigned to clandestinely control an android accompanying Mary to the
Alphane moon, he sees an opportunity to get his revenge."
I've been neglecting my ongoing look at women authors whose books I've enjoyed. I will get back to it, but it might not be until the new year. We'll see. Now it's time to watch the end of North by Northwest and then take the puppies out for their evening walk. Enjoy the rest of your week.
We had a good dumping of snow on Monday with still lots left out there. I tried a run this morning and it went well for the most part. Had one slippy slidey moment when I took a tumble. But I've survived. Clyde and I went out after to a local farmer to get our weekly dozen eggs. It's nice supporting a local guy.
Here is your midweek medley to get you through the rest of the week.
Midweek Music Medley - Wednesday 08 Dec 2021
1. American musician Dan Hartman - Instant Replay (1978).2. Northern Irish musician JC Stewart - I Need You To Hate Me (2020).3. Irish singer Johnny Logan - What's Another Year (1980).Enjoy the rest of your week.
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| Man points - Look! Tree! |
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| Man saws down nice tree |
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| Manly hunter proudly displays his catch, er, tree |
So, now, on to my reading update. I'll provide the synopses of my newest books, purchased in December. I'll also provide reviews of the last 3 books I completed and the synopses of the books I've started in their place.
New Books
"Jim Fergesson is an elderly garage owner with a heart condition, who is about to retire; Al Miller is a somewhat feckless mechanic who sublets part of Jim's lot and finds his livelihood threatened by the decision to sell; Chris Harman is a record-company owner who for years has relied on Fergesson to maintain his cars. When Harman hears of Fergesson's impending retirement he tips him off to what he says is a cast-iron business proposition: a development in nearby Marin County with an opening for a garage. Al Miller is convinced that Harman is a crook, out to fleece Fergesson of his life's savings. As much as he resents Fergesson he can't bear to see it happen and--denying to himself all the time what he is doing--he sets out to thwart Harman."
"The short stories of John Buchan are known for their authentically rendered backgrounds, taut pacing, and atmosphere of expectancy and international intrigue. These diverse tales combine Buchan's remarkable experiences and interests as a traveler, war correspondent, politician, and classical scholar. Edited by acclaimed author Giles Foden, this selection features the World War I thriller "The Loathly Opposite," the frequently anthologized "Sing a Song of Sixpence," and "Streams of Water in the South," one of Buchan's personal favorites. Addressing such themes as human frailty, strength, and redemption, the stories testify to Buchan's worldview that mastery of oneself leads to the fulfillment of one's destiny."
"No one knows exactly
when it began or where it originated. A terrifying new plague is
spreading like wildfire across the country, striking cities one by one:
Boston, Detroit, Seattle. The doctors call it Draco Incendia
Trychophyton. To everyone else it’s Dragonscale, a highly contagious,
deadly spore that marks its hosts with beautiful black and gold marks
across their bodies—before causing them to burst into flames. Millions
are infected; blazes erupt everywhere. There is no antidote. No one is
safe.
Harper Grayson, a compassionate, dedicated nurse as
pragmatic as Mary Poppins, treated hundreds of infected patients before
her hospital burned to the ground. Now she’s discovered the telltale
gold-flecked marks on her skin. When the outbreak first began, she and
her husband, Jakob, had made a pact: they would take matters into their
own hands if they became infected. To Jakob’s dismay, Harper wants to
live—at least until the fetus she is carrying comes to term. At the
hospital, she witnessed infected mothers give birth to healthy babies
and believes hers will be fine too. . . if she can live long enough to
deliver the child.
Convinced that his do-gooding wife has made
him sick, Jakob becomes unhinged, and eventually abandons her as their
placid New England community collapses in terror. The chaos gives rise
to ruthless Cremation Squads—armed, self-appointed posses roaming the
streets and woods to exterminate those who they believe carry the spore.
But Harper isn’t as alone as she fears: a mysterious and compelling
stranger she briefly met at the hospital, a man in a dirty yellow fire
fighter’s jacket, carrying a hooked iron bar, straddles the abyss
between insanity and death. Known as The Fireman, he strolls the ruins
of New Hampshire, a madman afflicted with Dragonscale who has learned to
control the fire within himself, using it as a shield to protect the
hunted . . . and as a weapon to avenge the wronged.
In the
desperate season to come, as the world burns out of control, Harper must
learn the Fireman’s secrets before her life—and that of her unborn
child—goes up in smoke."
"After the mysterious disappearance of wealthy business woman, Bridget Kemp, wife of Roger, old memories begin to come to the surface. Hadn't Roger's first wife disappeared mysteriously? For detective Wycliffe, supposedly recuperating from an illness, it is all too intriguing for him to ignore."
"Everyone loves a party, and when the party is Ozma of Oz's birthday party, everyone comes! Notables from every part of Fairyland take the road to Oz, and Dorothy (now on her fourth trip) has many adventures and meets many old friends, as well as several new ones."
"The freelance hit man known as Pluto takes a unique approach to his profession: clients don't know they've hired the assassin until after the murder. Pluto looks for a conflict between two people, kills one of them, and invoices the other. No one is ever foolish enough to deny payment — Pluto always collects his fee. When Lt. James Murtaugh of the New York Police Department takes on the case, Pluto begins stalking the investigating officer, leading to a suspenseful battle of wits between the detective and the relentless killer. Loaded with intriguing characters and ingenious twists, this action-packed mystery promises compulsive page-turning and an electrifying ending."
"In 1940s Japan, the wealthy head of the Inugami Clan dies, and his family eagerly await the reading of the will. But no sooner are its strange details revealed than a series of bizarre, gruesome murders begins. Detective Kindaichi must unravel the clan's terrible secrets of forbidden liaisons, monstrous cruelty, and hidden identities to find the murderer, and lift the curse wreaking its bloody revenge on the Inugamis."
Recently Completed
"Let Sleeping Girls Lie is the second spy thriller featuring Charles Hood, by author James Mayo. I'm sorry to say it was very disappointing. The plot, Charles is tasked to keep an eye on then save a beautiful twin who has disappeared. The twin has a connection with her sister (Tiara and Tickle) and both of them have photographic memories. Some Rasputin like character who seems to have power over women wants to get sensitive information from Tiara and then sell it to interested buyers.
Charles Hood is kind of pompous, spends lots of time sitting around thinking, then wandering into situations, getting in trouble, surviving disasters, but none of them grab your attention. You'd think a battle with a man-eating buzzard, or a fight with dangerous enemies all operating construction machinery, or a final gun battle in a museum with expensive treasures, might grab you but they never seemed to. And the villain, Zagora, is a non-entity, not well developed, just a shaggy, piggish man and for some reason, wealthy women flock to him. The story wanders around France and Italy, seemingly pointless. It left me skimming to the end and unsatisfied with the story and the ending. Sorry, mate. (2 stars)"
"The Bang Bang Birds is the 3rd of 4 books in the Philip McAlpine spy series by British author Adam Diment. The Bang Bang Birds was initially published in 1968 and it is very much of it's time; free sex, drugs, rock 'n roll. Oh and lots of fun action.
McAlpine who works for British intelligence has been seconded to a CIA organization working out of New York. He's basically there to decode documents. So he's enjoying life, living with a free-spirited rich American girl and enjoying his salary, paid by the Americans. But the section chief, an American General, begins giving McAlpine tasks outside his mandate. First he's got to provide a stash of drugs to an American informant. The incident at the bar in a seedier area of New York, leaves a CIA agent injured.
However it does result in McAlpine being given another task. McAlpine complains but is told his boss back in England has agreed to the assignment. So we now find McAlpine pretending to be a rich American, heading off to Sweden to infiltrate the Aviary Club and get information the club has on file that is used to blackmail influential wealthy Americans. Oh yes, the Aviary Club is the Playboy Club on speed; sexy women willing to participate in any activity with the wealthy members, drugs free for the taking and excellent food by 5-star chefs.
McAlpine takes along his girl-friend, Marianne.. oh, she is pregnant with McAlpine's baby, to help with the fun and games. The story is all a bit over the top, but still an entertaining, action-filled spy adventure. McAlpine is quite likable; a bit cynical about his bosses in England and America, a bit of a coward (although he gets the job done in excellent fashion) and a free spirit (but with a bit of a conservative bend at times.... just at times). The story is light, easily readable and most enjoyable. Diment had quite a cult following and kind of disappeared off the map after the 4th book in the series (currently sitting on my bookshelf). A nice change of pace spy series. (3.5 stars)"
"The more books of Helen MacInnes that I read, the more I enjoy her take on the spy genre. The Venetian Affair, originally published in 1963 was probably my favorite so far.
Arts reporter Bill Fenner is asked to go to Paris by his publisher to get information from a French intellectual, who had been a member of the French underground during WWII. On his flight to Paris is a Russian agent, bringing a package to a contact in Paris. By chance, the agent suffers a heart attack at the Custom's check-in and in the ensuing confusion Fenner ends up with the Russians jacket and when he searches through to try and identify the owner, discovers a stash of cash hidden within.
Fenner involves the US Embassy and ends up part of a group trying to discover a plot to possibly assassinate De Gaulle. The story is a fascinating spy thriller that moves from Paris to Venice where there will be an exciting finale. Jenner will travel by rail with another American, Claire Langley, accompanied by various Allied intelligence people and also those of the enemy. They are to meet Fenner's ex-wife in Venice, a Communist sympathizer who wants to return to the US and is willing to give up mysterious, deadly Russian agent Kalganov, to do so.
That's enough plot for you. Suffice it to say that it's at times quite confusing. Are they being followed, who is on their side? I found the 1st half a bit slower, kind of nebulous and wordy at times but still, the characters get very nicely developed over the course of the first half. The focus is on Fenner, but at times the story moves to other characters, even the 'bad guys', to provide their perspective on various events and incidents. There is murder and the constant threat of it. And once the story moves to Venice, the pace picks up and the tension is ratcheted up so well that it left me quite breathless at times. MacInnes has a way with words and with story - telling that grabs your interest an moves you into the story. You can picture the scene, feel you are part of the action, understand the characters.
It was an excellent spy novel and just a great story. I definitely plan to explore MacInnes's work further. (4.5 stars)"
Currently Reading
"Archaeologist Neil Watson did not to expect to find the body of American veteran Norman Oppenheim in the ruins of the old chantry chapel... He turns to his old student friend, Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson, for help. Ironically, both men are looking at an invading force - Wes the WWII Yanks and Neil a group of Spaniards killed by outraged locals as they limped from the wreckage of the Armada. Four hundred years apart two strangers in a strange land have died violently - could the same motives of hatred, jealousy and revenge be at work? Wes is running out of time to find out."
"They called it TTT-short for Time Teleportation Technique. Like all really great ideas, it was simple, and easy to operate-too easy, for Chuck Percival, who suddenly found himself drafted into an army dedicated to defending yesterday against today... and captained by strange men from tomorrow! Chuck found the idea of time travel intriguing, but he was by nature suspicious of people wanting to do him favors-and vice-versa. And time travel turned out to have a couple of nasty side effects that made the price of time jumping almost too high to pay. But like it or not, Chuck found himself in this particular army for the duration--a duration that might last several hundred years! What happened to him shouldn't happen to any devout twentieth century coward... including meeting and falling in love with his own great grandmother!"
"He was the subject of an experiment seventy light years away from Earth.
It
lay in the grass, tiny and white and burning. He stooped, put out his
fingers. And then, in an instant, there was nothing. Nothing but
darkness and oblivion. A split second demolition of the world of Richard
Avery.
From a damp February afternoon in Kensington Gardens,
Avery is precipitated into a world of apparent unreason. A world in
which his intelligence is tested by computer, and in which he is finally
left on a strange tropical island with three companions, and a strong
human desire to survive.
But then the mystery deepens; for there
are two moons in the sky, and the rabbits have six legs, and there is a physically satisfying reason for the entire situations."
I'll continue with my ongoing theme of Women Authors whose work I've been enjoying in an upcoming entry. Can't wait, can you?
Enjoy your weekend.
It's hard to believe that another month is here and that 2021 is winding down. How fast a year goes. Well, it seems nice today, maybe a break from the rain.
Here is your Midweek music medley to help get you through the rest of the week and to start off December 2021.
Midweek Music Medley - Wed 1 Dec 21
1. English R&B band Cleopatra - Life Ain't Easy (1988).2. American R&B band Club Nouveau - Lean on Me (1987).3. American R&B band Destiny's Child - Bug a boo (1999).Enjoy the rest of your week and December. Stay safe.
I had a satisfying month of reading for the month of November. There was one book that I gave up on and another which had a relatively low rating, but overall I enjoyed my selections. I tended to focus on Spy novels but did also manage to read some other genres. For my final month, my focus will be 'unfocused'. 😁 No specific genres. I do know I won't complete my 2nd 12 + 0 challenge but I hope to read one or two more in that challenge. The rest will be put back for future reads. I have been working on my 2022 challenges. I'll provide that info as we get further into December. So here we go with my November summary.
November 2021
General Info Sep Total (Including my current read)
Books Read - 11 123
Pages Read - 2400 32900 (Avg per book - 267)
Pages Breakdown
< 250 8 70
250 - 350 2 28
351 - 450 11
> 450 1 14
Ratings
5 - star 8
4 - star 4 72
3 - star 5 40
2 - star 1 2
No Rating (NR) 1 2
Gender
Female 1 55
Male 10 68
Not Stated
Genres
Horror 1 12
Fiction 1 17
Mystery 5 64
SciFi 3 14
Non-Fic 5
Classics 1
Young Adult 1 6
Poetry 1
Short Stories 3
Top 3 Books (No 5 star reads in November)
Challenges
12 + 4 (Finish off Some Series) (completed 16)
12 + 0 (Freebies) (completed 6)
1. The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham (4 stars)
2. Peter Pan & Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens by J.M. Barrie (3.5 stars)
Individual Challenge - First Book in Series (completed 18)
1. Breed by Chase Novak (DNF) (No rating)
2. The Rocksburg Railroad Murders by K.C. Constantine (Mario Balzac #1) (3.5 stars)
Individual Challenge - Next Book in Series (completed 19)
1. Vicious Circle by Mike Carey (Felix Castor #2) (4.5 stars)
2. Let Sleeping Girls Lie by James Mayo (Charles Hood #2) (2 stars)
3. The Power of Tank Girl by Alan C. Martin (3.5 stars)
Individual Challenge - Non Series (completed 27)
1. The World Jones Made by Philip K. Dick (4 stars)
Monthly Challenge - January Focus Author - Simon Brett (completed 4)
Monthly Challenge - February Focus Author - M.C. Beaton (completed 5)
Monthly Challenge - March Focus Author - Agatha Christie (completed 5)
Monthly Challenge - April Focus Author - George Simenon (completed 5)
Monthly Challenge - May Focus Author - John D. MacDonald (completed 3)
Monthly Challenge - June Focus Author - George MacDonald Fraser (completed 1)
Monthly Challenge - July Focus Author - Clive Cussler (completed 1)
Monthly Challenge - August Focus Author - Ann Cleeves (completed 3)
Monthly Challenge - September Focus Author - Peter O'Donnell (completed 2)
Monthly Challenge - October Focus - Horror (completed 3)
Monthly Challenge - November Focus - The Spies (completed 3)
1. Diecast by John Michael Brett (Hugo Baron #1) 3 stars
2. The Content Assignment by Holly Roth 4 stars
3. The Bang Bang Birds by Adam Diment (Philip McAlpine #3) 3.5 stars
Currently Reading
Next Challenge Books in Line
