And September begins....

Another month is upon us, the last month of the 3rd quarter or the first month of the 3rd...er... 3rd... LOL.

New Books

On Friday I received a book in the mail from Discover Books in Toledo OH. It's the first book in Thomas Perry's Jane Whitefield mystery series. I've read one of his Butcher Boy series and enjoyed and my brother says he prefers this series. So we'll see, eh?

"Jane Whitefield is a Native American guide who leads people out of the wilderness - not the tree-filled variety but the kind created by enemies who want you dead. She is in the one-woman business of helping the desperate disappear. Thanks to her membership in the Wolf Clan of the Seneca tribe, she can fool any pursuer, cover any trail, and then provide her clients with new identities, complete with authentic paperwork. Jane knows all the tricks of the trade, ancient and modern; in fact, she has invented several of them herself.
So she is only mildly surprised to find an intruder waiting for her when she returns home one day. An ex-cop suspected of embezzling, John Felker wants Jane to do for him what she did for his buddy Harry Kemple: make him vanish. But as Jane opens a door out of the world for Felker, she walks into a trap that will take all her heritage and cunning to escape..."

Sounds like a neat concept...

Just Finished

I finished my first book of September this morning, a nice, quick, entertaining spy story. Last Laugh, Mr. Moto is the fifth of six Mr. Moto novels by John P. Marquand. I've read 3 so far and am still trying to find the other 2. Don't expect deep, thoughtful spy novels with the Mr. Moto books, just neat little stories. Mr. Moto is a Japanese spy with a pragmatic attitude when it comes to getting what he wants and likable considering he's the enemy. My review of this book is below.



"Last Laugh, Mr. Moto is the fourth book in John P. Marquand's Mr. Moto spy / war series that I've enjoyed. This adventure finds Mr. Moto, some other spies an American, Bob Bolles in the Caribbean, searching for a US fighter with new technology on it. Bob, an ex-US Navy officer who had quit the Navy after being passed over for promotion, sails the Caribbean with Tom, a faithful hand, always out of money and sort of shiftless.
Bob has spent time in Jamaica and is asked to leave by the Jamaican police. He is hired by Mr. and Mrs. Kingman to sail them to the Winderly Isles, specifically Mercator, purportedly to just get away from things. Accompanying them is their assistant, Oscar, another suspicious character. Mr. Moto plays a minor role at this point, managing a clothing shop in Kingston.
Bob gets more suspicious when his old Navy boss asks him to help them search for the missing aircraft, but due to his anger at the promotion board, he refuses. The adventure moves along nicely with suspicions growing about the Kingmans and their motives.
Very much of the story is left unstated and for you to figure out. Mr. Moto makes another more important appearance as the tension builds. He is a very pragmatic spy, at one moment working with Kingman, then not. Who are the Kingmans? Who is Mrs. Kingman? What are they looking for from the plane? Can Bob interfere? Will Mr. Moto succeed in his mission? All excellent questions and they are played out nicely as the story progresses? An entertaining read as always and a good adventure. (3.5 stars)"

The complete Mr. Moto series is as follows -
1. No Hero (Your Turn, Mr. Moto) (1935) (3 stars)
2. Thank You, Mr. Moto (1936) (3 stars)
3. Think Fast, Mr. Moto (1937)
4. Mr. Moto is so Sorry (1938) (3 stars)
5. Last Laugh, Mr. Moto (1943)
6. Stopover: Tokyo (The Last of Mr. Moto / Right You Are Mr. Moto) (1957)
Currently Reading

I'm now starting a book that Jo got me for Xmas this past year.

"I wanted rebirth; my birth had been a mockery ... The narrator of this curious and fantastic novel is a young man born to a rich, selfish and desperate mother, who pursues a nightmarish life in which the compulsion to humiliate both himself and others, and to degrade conventional values through profanity and perversion, is seen to be an attempt to exorcise an horrific childhood.
Mariana, a beautiful girl who resembles his mother, becomes the catalyst towards which he gropes in his search for a rebirth. Before all the ghosts are laid he and Mariana explore completely the 'human hell' necessary for his final purgation."

Great Historical Events

It's been awhile, hasn't it? WHERE DID THIS FEATURE GO?? Well, it just got lost in the shuffle a bit. So where were we last time?

"1784. Great distress prevailed in the United States owing to scarcity of money.
Treaty of peace with the Six Nations at Fort Schuyler.
1784. First agricultural society in the United States at Philadelphia.
Methodist Church organize by Bishop Coke.
Feb. - First voyage made from China to New York.
1785. Commercial treaties between United States and Prussia, Denmark, and Portugal. (Ed. Note. and from the future, we can hear President 45 shouting 'worst treaties ever for the United States!!!)
Thomas Jefferson sent as Minister to France (Ed. Note. I wonder how much he contributed to the President's campaign?... just kidding!)
John Adams Minister to London. He was the first ambassador from the United States to Great Britain.
Copper cents first issued from a mint at Rupert, Vt.
1786. Financial embarrassment threatens the peace of the country.
Death of Gen. Greene
First cotton mill in the Unites States built at Beverly, Mass."

Next up is Shay's Rebellion.

Science of Common Things

Today's excerpt from Prof. L.G. Gorton discusses colour.

"Why are some substances white? Because they reflect all the light that falls upon them without changing it. Why are some substances black? Because they absorb all the light and reflect none. Why are some substances red? Because they absorb all but the red part of the wave. Blue substances absorb all but the blue, etc."

Next up, refraction and rainbows.. :)

The Birth Date Thing 10 November 2007

Winding this thing down, ten years left... *sigh*

Billboard #1 Best Selling Single 10 November 2007

Kiss Kiss by Chris Brown. Chris Brown (1989) is an American rapper, songwriter and actor. Kiss Kiss was his second US #1 single.

UK Best Selling #1 Single 10 November 2007

Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis. British singer / songwriter Leona Lewis (1985) won the third season of the X-Factor in 2006. Bleeding Love, written by Jesse McCartney and Ryan Tedder was her second UK #1.

New York #1 Fiction Best Seller 10 November 2007

Playing for Pizza by John Grisham. This is a short novel about an American football player who can't get work in the US anymore and whose agent finds him a job to play for the Parma Panthers in Italy.









Pulitzer Prize Winner 2007

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I read this in 2010 or earlier and found it a disturbing, at times frightening, but excellent book. The movie, starring Liam Neeson, reflected the book quite well. If you like dystopic futures, you'll like this.







Nobel Prize Laureate 2007.

Doris Lessing (UK). Doris Lessing was born in Iran (1919) and died in London (2013). She was a British novelist, poet and playwright. She was awarded the Nobel laureate as ' that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny'.

Hugo Award Winner 2007

Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge. Vinge previously won the Hugo in 1993 and 2000.

"Robert Gu is a poet and recovering Alzheimer's patient. The world that he remembers was much as we know it today. Now, as he regains his faculties through a new cure, he discovers that the world has changed. He is 75, though by medical miracle, he looks much younger, and he's starting over, for the first time unsure of his poetic gifts."




Edgar Award Winner 2007

The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin. This book is the first in English writer Goodwin's historical mysteries set in Turkey, featuring Yashim the Detective. The other books are -

The Snake Stone (2007)
The Bellini Card (2008)
An Evil Eye (2011)
The Baklava Club (2014)




Man Booker Prize Winner 2007

The Gathering by Anne Enright. The Gathering is the 4th novel by Irish writer, Enright.

"The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan gather in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother Liam. It wasn't the drink that killed him - although that certainly helped - it was what happened to him as a boy in his grandmother's house, in the winter of 1968."





Giller Prize Winner 2007

Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay. Late Nights was Hay's 3rd novel. It is set in a radio station in Yellowknife, NWT.

"Harry Boyd, a hard-bitten refugee from failure in Toronto television, has returned to a small radio station in the Canadian North. There, in Yellowknife, in the summer of 1975, he falls in love with a voice on air, though the real woman, Dido Paris, is both a surprise and even more than he imagined."





There you go. More in the coming days. Enjoy your long weekend if you are celebrating one.