Books and Weather. :0)

Sitting in the den, kind of watching the Blue Jays' 3rd spring training game, the sun is streaming in. Oh, the Blue Jays are losing 4 -2 in the 8th inning. It's still spring training!!!

The glacier as viewed from the top of our street

We had a few days of snow this past week, but it's almost gone again. I took this picture on Wednesday or Thursday. The glacier looks fantastic. I'm sure Mount Washington, which is just to the right of the glacier must have had a fantastic ski season.

It was kind of neat the day I took the picture. If you check out the top right corner, you can see the trumpeter swans. They were performing some aerial displays for me.

Let me out! I won't go under the deck! I promise.

The puppies are dong well even though they are getting mighty scruffy. They spend the day sleeping or wandering about the back yard. They love eating the snow on the deck. For some reason it tastes much better than the water I put in their water dish for them...

Dry my feet, Dry my feet!!! Sheesh!!

Yup, Clyde needs a bath and hair cut even more than Bonnie, as you can well see.. lol

We've had a bit of snow this year, but it's gone again.

Jo and I have enjoyed the Olympics very much the past couple of weeks. Many high spots and a few disappointments. The coverage was pretty darn good. We alternated between watching on the CBC and checking out the BBC on our pc. Got a pretty nice mix that way.

Now to update my book reading.

Just Finished

Since my last post, I've read the following books.

1. Company Town by Madeline Ashby. This book fell into my Canadian Content challenge.







"Company Town is my first experience with the work of Canadian writer, Madeline Ashby. She has also written a series about 'the Machine Dynasty' which I may check out.
In Company Town, which is set on the oil rigs out past Newfoundland and which are complete communities, Go Jung-hwa works as a body guard for the United Sex Workers of Canada. Everyone, except Go seems to be augmented in some way or another. (Did I say that I did find this story confusing for lots of it? Oh, ok, well, I did) The wells are purchased by a new company, the tycoon dynasty, Lynch and Lynch wants Go to work for them, to be the bodyguard for the young heir to the organization.
Old friends of Go begin to be murdered. As well, there are threats to Go's life. She begins an investigation with the help of Joel, the boy she is guarding, and also with that of Daniel Siofra, the man who works for Lynch and who hired her.
What does Lynch really want with this community? What is it building below the surface? Who is killing Go's friends? It's a fascinating, dystopian world. Did I understand everything that was going on? I don't think so, but it's one of those stories where you seem to just absorb the facts, the atmosphere and wonder about a mind that can create it. Go is a neat character and so is Joel. The life on the wells is one I'd like to explore more. Interesting, neat and enjoyable story. I will have to see what the Machine Dynasty books are about. (4 stars)"

2. Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute. This fell into my Decades challenge. Shute continues to be one of my all time favourite writers. He never lets me down.









"Reading a new (only for me as Nevil Shute has been dead since 1960) book by Shute is like putting on a cardigan, comfy pj's and slippers and cozying up on the couch. It's comforting, even though astounding things can happen. Trustee from the Toolroom was Shute's last book. As soon as I started reading it, I fell comfortably into the fantastic world that he created for my reading enjoyment.
Like many of Shute's stories, it focuses on a normal, unassuming man (or woman) who finds him/ herself involved in a situation so far out of his comfort zone that you find yourself following him, holding your breath to see how it will resolve. Now, I'm not saying that it's page after page of heart-stopping action. Because it isn't that. It's just that you find yourself amazed at how this mild-mannered person deals with this situation so out of his comfort zone.
Keith Stewart is a middle-aged Englishman living in London in the 1960's. Many years ago he gave up his wartime job as a rigger at an aircraft factory and now works from home, creating miniature engines and such and writing articles for a magazine called Miniature Mechanic. The magazine is shipped to people around the world who try to create Keith's designs and correspond with him. He makes little money and his wife makes a bit more so they can live a relatively comfortable life, nothing extravagant. They have never really traveled and live very insular lives.
Keith sister, Jo and her husband, an ex-Navy officer have decided to travel by sailing boat to Vancouver. They ask Keith and Katie to look after their young daughter, Janice until they get settled. They die on the way. So that's the basic story, except that as well, they have designated Keith and Katie as trustees to their daughter. They had Keith install a jewelry box in concrete in the hull of their ship; Janice's inheritance. Keith decides that if they are to ensure Janice the life she deserves, he needs to get the jewels.
This leads to Keith journeying to Tahiti, with little to no money to try and achieve his aim. This is the crux of this fascinating story. There are so many rich elements that develop. Keith might seem an ordinary man who lives on his street, but we gradually discover hidden elements to him that make him more and more interesting and also links to so many people around the world, that even he doesn't realize. Like all of the other stories by Shute that I've read, I was instantly drawn into the characters and the story and ultimately so satisfied with the ending. If you've never read anything by Shute, you are missing out on one of the great story tellers. (4 stars)"

3. Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers. This was part of my Ongoing Series challenge.










"Unnatural Death is the third book in Dorothy L. Sayers classic mystery series featuring sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. Sayers ranks up there with other great classic writers like Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh. Lord Peter is a middle-aged lord (yup, the title gives that away.. ;0)) who has found a meaning for his life by helping solve crimes. In this particular edition, at the end of the book, his uncle, Paul Delagardie, writes a short summary of Peter's life, highlighting certain events in his life, especially the affect his service in WWI had on his well-being. It's an interesting synopsis explaining some aspects of Peter's being.
In the story itself, elderly Agatha Dawson dies after suffering for years from cancer. Her doctor is somewhat pilloried for intimating that the death might be more than it seems. However, even after telling Peter and his friend, Inspector Parker or Scotland Yard, his story, the doctor refuses to divulge either his name or his patient's. Odd, huh? But the story has interested Peter and he begins a search to find out who the victim might have been.
We are now introduced to a new companion of Peter, the interesting Miss Climpson. Call her a researcher for want of a better word. Peter sends her on a trip to find out who the person might have been and when she does, asks her to continue to investigate.
So there is your basic story. While Peter is central to all of the investigation, we get nice insights from both Inspector Parker and Miss Climpson and both play important roles; as investigators and fact-finders, while Peter is more of an intuitor (did I invent a word??). The story is light in many parts, as that is Peters nature but the more you delve into the mystery, you get a sense of a very nasty perpetrator. The story is confusing at times but it keeps you moving along nicely and holds your interest. I've enjoyed all of the Wimsey mysteries I've read so far and am very glad that I have a few still to read in the series. (3.5 stars)"

Currently Reading

I've added the following three books to my currently reading list since my last entry. I am still reading The Common Lawyer by Mark Gimenez and enjoying. It's a bit in the John Grisham style, so far.

1. The Black Ice by Michael Connelly. This fits into my Ongoing Series challenge. It's the second book in Connelly's Harry Bosch cop series. I quite enjoyed the first one. The synopsis is below.






"Narcotics officer Cal Moore's orders were to look into the city's latest drug killing. Instead, he ends up in a motel room with a fatal bullet wound to the head and a suicide note stuffed in his back pocket. Working the case, L.A.P.D. detective Harry Bosch is reminded of the primal police rule he learned long ago. Don't look for the facts, but the glue that holds them together. Soon Harry's making some very dangerous connections, starting with a dead cop and leading to a bloody string of murders that wind from Hollywood Boulevard to the back alleys south of the border. Now this battle-scarred veteran will find himself in the center of a complex and deadly game - one in which he may be the next and likeliest victim."

2. Killed at the Whim of a Hat by Colin Cotterill. I've read the first two books in Cotterill's Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery series set in Thailand. This is the first in his newer series, featuring Jimm Juree. It falls into my New Series category.





"Jimm Juree is an ambitious journalist with a somewhat eccentric family. When Jimm's mother sells the family home in Chiang Mai and relocates, Jimm is forced to follow her family to a rural village on the coast of southern Thailand. Which leads Jimm to the inescapable conclusion: Her career - maybe even her life - is over.
So when a van containing the inexplicable skeletal remains of two vintage-era hippies, one of them wearing a hat, is unearthed in a local farmer's field, Jimm is thrilled. Shortly thereafter an abbot at a local Buddhist temple is viciously murdered, with the temple's monk and nun the only suspects. Suddenly Jimm's new life becomes somewhat more promising - and a lot more deadly."

3. Shakespeare's Rebel by C.C. Humphreys. This falls under my Canadian content challenge and is a historical adventure. I've read one other book by Humphreys and enjoyed.






"1599. London. A city on the brink of revolution.
He is Queen Elizabeth's last, perhaps her greatest love - Robert Deveraux, Earl of Essex. Champion jouster, dashing general ... and the man that John Lawley, England's finest swordsman, most wishes to avoid. For John knows the other earl - the reckless melancholic - and has had to risk his life for him in battle one time too many.
All John wants is to be left alone - to win back the heart of the woman he loves, bond with his son, and arrange the fight scenes for London's magnificent new theatre, the Globe. To achieve this John must dodge both Essex and his ruthless adversary, Robert Cecil, as well as remain free to help his oldest friend, Will Shakespeare, finish the play that threatens to destroy him: The Tragedy of Hamlet.
But John is soon dragged into the intrigues of court by Elizabeth herself. Dispatched to the hopeless war in Ireland, he is forced to play his part in a deadly game of power, politics and rebellion."

New Books

I found two books that will flesh out two of my favourite series the other day.

1. Six and a Half Deadly Sins by Colin Cotterill. This is one of the books from the Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery series that I mentioned previously. It is the tenth book.

"Laos, 1979: Dr. Siri Paiboun, the twice-retired ex-National Coroner of Laos receives an unmarked package in the mail. Inside is a handwoven pha sin, a colorful traditional skirt. A lovely present, but who sent it to him, and why? And, more importantly, why is there a severed human finger stitched into the sin's lining? Siri finagles a trip up north to the province where the sin was made, not realizing he is embarking on a deadly scavenger hunt."

2. The Children Return by Martin Walker. This is the seventh book in Martin Walker's mystery series set in France and featuring Chief of Police Bruno. I've read 4 or 5 and enjoyed each and every one. They are more than just a mystery series as the are filled with local colour and food and people. I just love the books.

"Bruno, chief of police in the French town of St. Denis, is already busy with a case when the body of an undercover agent is found in the woods, a man who called Bruno for help only hours before. But Bruno's sometimes boss and rival, the Brigadier, doesn't see this investigation as a priority - there are bigger issues at stake. Bruno has other ideas.
Meanwhile, a Muslim youth named Sami turns up at a French army base in Afghanistan, hoping to get home to St. Denis. One of Bruno's old army comrades helps to smuggle Sami back to France, but the FBI aren't far behind. Then an American woman appears in St. Denis with a warrant for Sami's extradition. Bruno must unravel these multiple mysteries, amidst pressure from his bosses, and find his own way to protect his town and its people."

Well there you go. All done for another day. I'm hoping I will be able to read at least more book before end February. All of them seem to be page turners so you never know. Have a great week!!