New Books and Other Stuff

I have to say those news reporters who've been braving the hurricanes to report to us are very brave. The same people that the idiot President has called enemies of the country. Idiot! American coverage is exhausting; have to take a break once in awhile. Neither Jo nor I can believe those people who refuse to listen to everybody telling them to GET OUT! Darwin must be shaking his head. But, I do wish the very best for those countries in the Caribbean that have been so severely impacted already and also to Floridians who are now starting to feel the brunt. Stay safe!

New Books

Four books arrived from Reusemebooks in the UK Friday. All belong to series that I have been enjoying.

1. The Grail Tree by Jonathan Gash. This is the third book in the Lovejoy series. I've read the first so far and I have also enjoyed the old TV series.

"Antique dealers are mostly lustful, greedy, savage, crude and vulgar - in fact, just like you. The difference is that I bet I'm a lot more honest about me than you are about you. I was entirely honest with a little old forger who claimed he had the real Holy Grail - I told him he was nuts. If I had a penny for every crackpot 'grail' story I've come across, I'd be loaded now. Yet he was a decent bloke and, whatever it was he had, someone thought it was worth murdering him for it. What choice did I have but to find out what the hell it was all about?"

2. Wobble to Death by Peter Lovesey. OK, I stand corrected. I have yet to try either of Peter Lovesey's mystery series; the Peter Diamond or the Sergeant Cribb's series. But I now have the first book in each. This is the first book in the Sgt. Cribb's historical mystery series.

"London, 1879. In the vast, freezing Agricultural Hall the crowds are gathering to bet on which of a motley group of pedestrian walkers will become Champion Pedestrian of the World. The race will last six days, covering over five-hundred miles around and around the hall. Conditions are barbaric: the rivalries are even worse. As the contestants wobble dizzily onwards, they are overtaken ... by unexpected death.
With the help of sore-footed constable Thackeray, Sgt. Cribb must also race against time to catch the ruthless murderer..."

3. Wycliffe and the Three-Toed Pussy by W.J. Burley. I've enjoyed quite a few of the Inspector Wycliffe mysteries. I've finally found the 1st book in the series. Yay!

"Pussy Welles was dead. She lay slumped on the plain oatmeal-coloured carpet, her auburn hair lustrous in the sunlight, and a jagged hole ripped by a bullet in the middle of her chest. What was even more bizarre was that the murderer had torn the shoe and stocking from her left leg, revealing that Pussy had a deformed foot bearing only three toes.
As Superintendent Wycliffe began to investigate the case he discovered that Pussy had led a wild and dangerous life. She was lethal where men were concerned, manipulating them for her own entertainment, and there were several people in Kergwyns who had reason to hate her. But it took yet another death before Wycliffe came to realise that the killing was far more subtle and tortuous than it first appeared."

I was checking through the book and saw his foreword and loved it. I must share.

"I apologize to the local council and to the planning authority for planting a village of two hundred and fifty people on the coast between St. Ives and Zennor without the necessary permits.
I apologize also to the few residents on those beautiful cliffs for saddling them with such obnoxious neighbours.
Of course Kergwyns has no existence outside the pages of this book and neither have the people who live in it."

4. Heartstone by C.J. Sansom. This has been one of my favourite historical mystery series. I've read the first four and this is the fifth book. I also have the sixth waiting my attention. As far as I know there isn't another on the way, but I can continue to hope. Matthew Shardlake is a hunchback lawyer during the time of Henry VIII and he often finds himself trying to solve cases for Henry's spymaster. Excellent tales.



"England is at war. King Henry VIII's invasion of France has gone badly wrong, and a massive French fleet is preparing to sail across the Channel. As the English fleet gathers at Portsmouth, the country raises the largest militia army it has ever seen. The King has debased the currency to pay for the war, and England is in the grip of soaring inflation and economic crisis.
Meanwhile, Matthew Shardlake is given an intriguing legal case by an old servant of Queen Catherine Parr, which will lead him into the corrupt labyrinth of the King's Court of Wards. Asked to investigate claims of  'monstrous wrongs' committed against his young ward Hugh Curteys by Sir Nicholas Hobbey, a Hampshire landowner, which have already involved one mysterious death, Shardlake and his assistant, Barak, journey to Portsmouth. Shardlake has taken the case, despite the imminent threat of invasion, as it also gives him the opportunity to investigate the mysterious past of Ellen Fettiplace, a young woman incarcerated in the Bedlam whom he has befriended and whose family once lived nearby.
Arrived in Portsmouth, Shardlake and Barak find themselves in a city preparing to become a battle zone. The mysteries surrounding the seemingly normal Hobbey family, and the events that destroyed Ellen's family nineteen years before, involve Shardlake in reunions both with an old friend and an old enemy close to the throne. Events will converge on board one of the King's great warships, gathered in Portsmouth harbour, waiting to sail out and confront the approaching French fleet..."

Great Historical Events

Today I'll excerpt events from 1787 and 1788.

"1787. May to Sept. - Convention held in Philadelphia of the States to form a Federal Constitution.
Sept. 28. - The Constitution as it now stands, minus the amendments since added, was laid before the Continental Congress, which sent it to the several States for approval.

Invention of Iron Bridges
1788. Iron bridges invented by Thomas Paine, the author of 'Common Sense' and 'Age of Reason'. He made a model for an iron bridge to be built over the Schuylkill, with a single arch of iron of 400 feet span. The idea was suggested to his mind by observing the construction of a spider's web."

Next excerpt will cover 1789 and the Constitutional Congress.

Science of Common Things Today's excerpt from Prof. L.G. Gorton discusses rainbows and halos.

"What causes the rainbow? The refraction and reflection of light by the drops of falling water. What is a halo? (Ed. Note. I always thought it was that light that circled my head because I was such an angel!) It is a luminous or colored circle seen around the sun or moon under certain conditions of the atmosphere. What is its cause? The refraction of light by minute crystals of ice floating in the higher regions of the atmosphere. Why do halos foretell wet weather? Because they show a great amount of moisture in the atmosphere which will probably form rain."

In the next excerpt, I'll show the good Professor's answers about stars.

The Birth Date Thing 10 November 2009

US Billboard #1 Single 10 November 2009

Fireflies by Owl City. Owl City is an American synth-pop band out of Minnesota that formed in 2007. Fireflies was their first single and it reached #1 in the US and UK amongst other countries and it reached #2 in Canada. What do we know anyway.. :) It's a great song.

UK #1 Single 10 November 2009

Fight for this Love by Cheryl Cole. Another great song, this one from Cheryl Cole who started out with successful group, Girls Aloud. This was her first solo single and it rightfully reached #1 in the UK. The link is to a great live version.

New York Times #1 Fiction Best Seller 10 November 2009

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. This is the third novel by Brown to feature Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon. The other books were Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code. I read the first book and thought it was OK, but it didn't make me want to read the others. I'll just watch the movie. :)








Pulitzer Prize Winner 2009

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. This is another book I haven't read. It was also turned into a TV mini-series in 2014, starring Frances McDormand.

"Olive Kitteridge: indomitable, compassionate and often unpredictable. A retired schoolteacher in a small coastal town in Maine, as she grows older she struggles to make sense of the changes in her life. She is a woman who sees into the hearts of those around her, their triumphs and tragedies.We meet her stoic husband, bound to her in a marriage both broken and strong, and a young man who aches for the mother he lost - and whom Olive comforts by her mere presence, while her own son feels overwhelmed by her complex sensitivities.A penetrating, vibrant exploration of the human soul, the story of Olive Kitteridge will make you laugh, nod in recognition, wince in pain, and shed a tear or two."

Nobel Prize Winner 2009

Herta Muller (Germany). Herta Muller is a Romanian-born German novelist and poet. She won her Nobel Prize as an artist "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed".

 Hugo Award Winner 2009

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I've read one of Gaiman's stories so far, Neverwhere, and have also seen the movie adaptation of Stardust and enjoyed them both.

"After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.
Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family..."

 Edgar Award Winner 2009

Blue Heaven by C.J. Box. C.J. Box is an American author of 21 books. He is known for his Joe Pickett series. Blue Heaven was a standalone mystery.

"A twelve-year-old girl and her younger brother are on the run in the Idaho woods, pursued by four men they have just watched commit murder—four men who know exactly who William and Annie are. And where their mother lives.
Retired policemen from Los Angeles, the killers easily persuade the local sheriff to let them lead the search for the missing children. Now there's nowhere left for William and Annie to hide…and no one they can trust. Until they meet Jess Rawlins.
Rawlins, an old-school rancher, knows trouble when he sees it. He is only one against four men who will stop at nothing to silence their witnesses. But in this thrilling mystery novel from C.J. Box, these ex-cops don't know just how far Rawlins will go to protect William and Annie…and see that justice is done."

 Man Booker Prize 2009

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I've had this on my shelf for a little while now and once I get over being intimidated by its size, I'll give it a try. The book was also turned into a successful TV series.The book is a fictionalized biography telling of the rapid rise of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII following the death of Sir Thomas More.







Giller Prize Winner 2009

The Bishop's Man by Linden MacIntyre. The Bishop's Man is the 2nd book in MacIntyre's Cape Breton trilogy. 

"Father Duncan MacAskill has spent most of his priesthood as the 'Exorcist' - an enforcer employed by his bishop to discipline wayward clergy and suppress potential scandal. He knows all the devious ways that lonely priests persuade themselves that their needs trump their vows, but he's about to be sorely tested himself.What is striking about The bishop's man is the way the author achieves a necessary balance, keeping a judicious distance between himself and his tale of institutional corruption and its dire effects. Both dispassion and compassion inform his narrative."

Middle of September almost. My plan is to finish Nicholas Nickelby in the next couple of days. I'm really enjoying very much. I want to see how things will resolve for Nicholas, his sister, the woman he loves, his best friend and other characters I've come to like a lot.