This Will Be A Real Quick One

Difficult to believe Jenn was ever this small

Jo is out running a couple of errands; depositing a rebate cheque from our provincial auto insurance company (two years running now) and then renewing our Auto insurance for another year. We'll be talking to our daughter Jennifer as well in a bit, to wish her a Happy Birthday!

She was the hard-nosed central midfielder on our team. LOL!

Today, just a quick look at the latest books I've finished and what's next on my plate (of books that is) and also a couple of new books that arrived since my last update. 

Let's go!

Just Finished

1. ExtraOrdinary by V.E. Schwab (Villains 1.5). I enjoyed Schwab's A Darker Shade of Magic, very much. I saw this graphic novel in one of my local book stores, Books4Brains (you can see why I shop there, by the shop's name, right?). This was also enjoyable.

"This is my second look at the work of V.E. Schwab, the first being her A Darker Shade of Magic, the first of the Shades of Magic series. ExtraOrdinary is a graphic novel, which I gather is part of her Villains series. This is the first graphic novel.

So with that long, boring preamble, I enjoyed this story. It centers on high school student Charlotte Tills, who is in a school bus that is crashed into by a big truck. Charlotte dies but is brought back to life in hospital. When she awakens she can see how the people around her are going to die. She begins to find this unbearable, sitting at dinner with her family and seeing their deaths reflected in their glasses, spoons, reflective surfaces. Then she sees a man in her mirror and recognizes his threat and that she believes she needs to kill him.

Flash to Eli Cardale, the man who she saw in the mirror. While at university, Eli tried an experiment, having himself killed then brought back to life to see if he will be changed. He discovers he cannot die and decides that god has set him a mission to destroy all EO's (ExtraOrdinary's like Charlotte). In prison he now works for a government agency whose mission is to seek and destroy all EO's who are perceived to be dangerous to society.

Charlotte hooks up with two others, both with their own powers and decide to break into the prison which holds Eli, in an effort to save Felix's girl friend Mia. So for a short graphic novel, there is lots to offer and it does deliver. It's an interesting story with neat characters, great artwork and thoughtful action. I will now have to check out the initial novels in this series. Oh, there is also an interesting short story at the end about another EO. (3.5 stars)"

2. The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham (1925).

"Over the past few years, I've read 5 books by W. Somerset Maugham, a mix of novels, horror, spy stories and short stories. I first discovered a copy of The Razor's Edge in an antiqueish store and ended up reading it over the weekend. Since that time I've enjoyed the other books very much. I rank his writing up there with another favorite author of mine, that being Nevil Shute. They both have understated ways of telling stories, each with his own unique style, but both present stories that, while understated, deal with great emotion.

The Painted Veil was initially published in 1925 and is set in Hong Kong and also in a Chinese town in the interior. Kitty Fane is married to microbiologist Dr. Walter Fane, a man she doesn't love. She has found love with a married British diplomat stationed in Hong Kong, a handsome man, one Charles Townsend. Her husband discovers the relationship; this comes out right at the beginning. He offers Kitty two options; he will divorce her if Townsend agrees to divorce his own wife or he offers her the chance to accompany him to the town of Mei-Tan-Fu.

A cholera outbreak has struck Mei-Tan-Fu and the English doctor treating the people has died and Walter agreed to go and take his place. He will work with the Chinese leadership and a convent of nuns, trying to find a cure for the outbreak. Kitty discovers that Charles Townsend will not divorce his own wife for her, so she goes with Walter, even though she is terrified of dying from cholera.

The 2nd half of the story deals with their life together in Mei-Tan-Fu, of Kitty's voyage of self-discovery. All in all, it's a fascinating story. Both Walter and Kitty each have their own issues but the remain interesting characters whose lives you want to follow to see how the story ends up. There characters are fleshed out by other residents of the town; Mother Superior and the local customs agent, Mr. Waddington. Kitty remains the focus as she tries to sort out her feelings for Walter and what she wants of her life. Tragedy will put another spin on things (I'll let you find out that).

Maugham creates a fascinating story, interesting characters and wonderful descriptions of the setting and surroundings. It's a stark place and you get the feel of it from his writing. All in all, another excellent story from a talented story - teller. (4.0 stars)"

Currently Reading

(ExtraOrdinary was a throw-in so I've only started one new book since my last update.)

1. While the Patient Slept by Mignon G. Eberhart (Sarah Keate #2 / 1930). Eberhart is a new author for me. I'm looking forward to seeing how she writes.

"On a blustery February day Sarah Keate arrives at a gloomy mansion to nurse old Adolph Federie, bedbound after a stroke. Meeting the patient sets off an alarm inside her, but fleeing the house is impossible. The redoubtable red-haired nurse is stuck there with a strange coterie and a black cat named Genevieve. Originally published in 1930, a year after her debut mystery novel The Patient in Room 18, While the Patient Slept strengthened Mignon G. Eberhart's hold on fame."

New Books

1. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers #1). I enjoyed Chambers' first book in her Monk & Robot series and now have the second book in that series. I also wanted to see if this series is as good.

"Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space—and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe—in this light-hearted debut space opera from a rising sci-fi star.

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe. "

2. The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How it Changed America by David Hajdu (2008). Earlier this month I read a graphic novel about Patricia Highsmith's start as an author. (This link.) In that graphic novel, The Ten-Cent Plague was mentioned as follow-on reading. It does sound interesting.

"In the years between the end of WWII & the mid-1950s, the popular culture of today was invented in the pulpy, boldly illustrated pages of comic books. But no sooner had comics emerged than they were beaten down by mass bonfires, congressional hearings, & a McCarthyish panic over their unmonitored & uncensored content. Esteemed critic David Hajdu vividly evokes the rise, fall & rise again of comics in this engrossing history."

Once again, I won't continue with my ongoing look at Women Authors whose works I've been enjoying. I will continue with it in a future post. Keep looking.

Tonight is the final (in this portion anyway) public hearing of the US January 6th Committee hearing. I hope America is watching in growing numbers. It's so important, right up there with Watergate. Take care.

Remembrance Day and a Totally Unrelated Topic, Running Music

Nov 11 is Remembrance Day in Canada and many other countries. My Dad served in WWII in the Royal Canadian Navy. He served on the HMCS Iroquois one of the Tribal Class destroyers. After the war he married and went back to gold mining in northern Ontario but ultimately felt he could support his family better by being in the military. 

My Dad in the RCAF

So this time he joined the RCAF and we traveled around Canada and Europe with him, living on military bases in Bagotville, QC, Chatham NB, in Germany and elsewhere. It was a good life and gave us a perspective about the world and human events. It obviously influenced his children as all of his 3 sons followed him into the military. 

My older brother was a Logistics officer, both in the Regular Force and as a Reservist, and did tours with the UN. He was almost killed when a Canadian Forces C-130 Hercules aircraft he was on crashed in northern Canada.

My younger brother is still in the Air Force and did deployments to the Middle East, Afghanistan and Croatia to name a few. He still works as a loadmaster on Search and Rescue aircraft back east. Both of his boys are now in the Canadian military as well.

I also served in the Regular and Reserves for 42 years, as a Logistics officer; transport, supply, air movements. I was never in such dangerous situations as the others but did deploy for six months to the Middle East at the airhead we had for supporting our troops in Afghanistan. I worked with the American Air Force in Germany for 3 years, one of my most interesting jobs.

Remembrance Day isn't just about the military members, of course, but it's also about the families. They travel around the country and world with their spouses and parents, trying to live normal lives while the military members deploy, are away on training, etc. Anyway, just wanted to say, Never Forget Those Who Serve with Honor.

Running Songs

I had a great run this morning. The weather was perfect and so was the music. One of the things I enjoy about running is when a perfect song pops up on my Walkman. Some have just the right beat that I find myself running to. Here are a couple of the songs that I find help motivate me.

1. Joe Jackson - Stepping Out. Check out the underlying beat. It's a perfect pace, eh?

2. Years and Years - King. Once again a great running beat and a song that just lifts you up.

3. Clean Bandit & Mabel - Tiktok. This song pops up and even if I'm tired I find myself singing along with it. It really gives me a lift.

4. The Donnas - Take it Off. I found myself sprinting to this, especially the middle bit and it was at the end of a 70 minute run. Great beat.

OK, get running! And have a great day!

A Few New Purchases

Canadian Nationals - Dance Champions 2018

In one of my last posts, I mentioned the lovely weekend that Jo and I had in Vancouver attending the Canadian National Dance Championships. This was to determine the skaters who would be attending the upcoming Olympics in South Korea.

Pairs Champions

We had a fantastic time. The venue was excellent and even the food was pretty darn good. It was neat to see performers such as Patrick Chan, Duhamel and Radford and Virtue and Moir who were probably participating in their final Canadian nationals. Bittersweet somewhat. The missus was in tears many times over the weekend.

Shae-Lynne Bourne in the stands

It was also neat just checking out the people in the stands; like some favorites like Jeffrey Buttle and Shae-Lynn Bourne who also acted as host of the event.

All in all it was a great weekend. We may check out the Grand Prix Final in Vancouver next December.... depending if there are any Canadians in it, that is. :0)

We had a bit of a surprise this morning. It wasn't forecast but overnight we had a big dumping of snow. Of course, it stopped mid-morning and the sun has come out. It's done a pretty good job of getting rid of most of it. Yay!

New Books

I found a few new books when I went out on Thursday, making the rounds of the local Little Free Libraries and Nearly New Books.

1. C.J. Box - Endangered.  Box is a new author for me. He writes the Joe Pickett mystery series, amongst others.











"Joe Pickett had good reason to dislike Dallas Cates, and now he has even more—Joe’s eighteen-year-old daughter, April, has run off with him. And then comes even worse news: She has been found in a ditch along the highway—alive, but just barely, the victim of blunt force trauma. Cates denies having anything to do with it, but Joe knows in his gut who’s responsible. What he doesn’t know is the kind of danger he’s about to encounter. Cates is bad enough, but Cates’s family is like none Joe has ever met."

2. Ken Bruen - The Magdalen Martyrs. This is the 3rd book in the Jack Taylor mystery series. 












"
Jack Taylor is walking the delicate edge of a sobriety he doesn't trust when his phone rings. He's in debt to a Galway tough named Bill Cassell, what the locals call a "hard man." Bill did Jack a big favor a while back; the trouble is, he never lets a favor go unreturned.
Jack is amazed when Cassell simply asks him to track down a woman, now either dead or very old, who long ago helped his mother escape from the notorious Magdalen laundry, where young wayward girls were imprisoned and abused. Jack doesn't like the odds of finding the woman, but counts himself lucky that the task is at least on the right side of the law.
Until he spends a few days spinning his wheels and is dragged in front of Cassell for a quick reminder of his priorities. Bill's goons do a little spinning of their own, playing a game of Russian roulette a little too close to the back of Jack's head. It's only blind luck and the mercy of a god he no longer trusts that land Jack back on the street rather than face down in a cellar with a bullet in his skull. He's got one chance to stay alive: find this woman.
Unfortunately, he can't escape his own curiosity, and an unnerving hunch quickly turns into a solid fact: just who Jack's looking for, and why, aren't nearly what they seem."

3. Stephen King - End of Watch. This is the 3rd book in King's Bill Hodges' series. I haven't read the first two; Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers so I might have to start with them.










"For nearly six years, in Room 217 of the Lakes Region Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, Brady Hartsfield has been in a persistent vegetative state. A complete recovery seems unlikely for the insane perpetrator of the “Mercedes Massacre,” in which eight people were killed and many more maimed for life. But behind the vacant stare, Brady is very much awake and aware, having been pumped full of experimental drugs . . . scheming, biding his time as he trains himself to take full advantage of the deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room. Brady Hartsfield is about to embark on a new reign of terror against thousands of innocents, hell bent on taking revenge against anyone who crossed his path—with retired police detective Bill Hodges at the very top of that long list..."

4. Orson Scott Card - Children of the Mind. This is the 4th book in the Ender's science fiction series. 











"The planet Lusitania is home to three sentient species: the Pequeninos; a large colony of humans; and the Hive Queen, brought there by Ender. But once again the human race has grown fearful; the Starways Congress has gathered a fleet to destroy Lusitania.Jane, the evolved computer intelliegence, can save the three sentient races of Lusitania. She has learned how to move ships outside the universe, and then instantly back to a different world, abolishing the light-speed limit. But It takes all the processing power available to her, and the Starways Congress is shutting down the Net, world by world. Soon Jane will not be able to move the ships. Ender’s children must save her if they are to save themselves."

5. Kerry Greenwood - Raisins and Almonds. This is the 9th book in Greenwood's Phryne Fisher mystery series. 











"In investigating the poisoning of a young man in a bookshop at the Eastern Market, and the wrongful arrest of one Miss Sylvia Lee, Phryne Fisher is plunged into another exciting adventure. Stopping only for a brief, but intensely erotic, dalliance with the beautiful Simon Abrahams Phryne picks her way through the mystery with help from the old faithfuls - Bert, Cec, Dot and Detective Inspector 'Call Me Jack' Robinson. But ultimately it is her stealth and wit which solve the crime - and all for the price of a song."

So there you go. At the moment, Jo and I are watching the first round of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Curling for those of you who might not know what it is. Have a great weekend!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

!!!HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DAD!!!

 

 

My Dad is front row middle, we believe.

As a young man, during WWII, my Dad joined the Royal Canadian Navy. After the war, he returned to his home town of Timmins, Ontario and began working in the gold mines up there.

 

Such a handsome couple

He met my Mom, Edith, who lived down the road in Kirkland Lake and they were married. After my older brother, Rick and my sis, Christine, were born, my Dad decided that he needed more job security than the mines could offer so he rejoined the military, this time the Royal Canadian Air Force.

 

In Chatham, NB, I think. Looks like our PMQ.

He spent another 20+ years in the Air Force. We got to travel around Canada; Bagotville, Que, Chatham, NB and then back to Ottawa and North Bay, Ontario. In between we also managed 3 years in Germany, an excellent time.

 

My Dad and Mom retired in North Bay, Ontario, strangely this was where he started his Air Force career and he lives there still, with my sister.

 

We're all very proud of Dad. Along with my Mom, they raised 4 good kids (so say I) and we've had a great life.

 

 

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!!

 

From your kids!