I didn't realize that it's been 5 days since I last posted here. Life catches up with you I guess. Since my return from Ontario, Jo took me out to lunch at The Blackfin for my birthday lunch. On Remembrance Day we drove down to Nanaimo to do some shopping and then had lunch in Coombs at Cuckoos. It's been two years probably since the last time we were there. We've been working around the house as well, just the daily things. We had a few days of relatively heavy rain but nothing like they had on the mainland. They've suffered from landslides and rivers over-flowing. Terrible time.
Today it cleared up and cooled off, so I managed to go for a good run this morning. I think we may have a bit of a lazy day today. So let's see, since my last post, I've purchased 5 books, 3 at Chapters in Nanaimo, two at Nearly New Books right here in town. I've finished 3 books and therefore, started 3 as well. I'll update all of that as well as get back to my look at Women authors whose works I've been enjoying.
So let's get on with it, eh?
New Books
"P.I. Cecil Younger
works out of Sitka, Alaska, a land of perfect beauty and not-so-perfect
lives, where there is nothing more dangerous than an unsolved
crime—except maybe the man trying to solve it…
Three years ago someone brutally killed four people on the scow Mygirl. In a crowded courtroom Cecil Younger helped the accused go free. Now the man charged with the Mygirl
murders has disappeared. As a storm bears down on the Alaskan coast,
two people connected with the case die in separate, sudden, and bizarre
explosions of gunfire.
Younger is certain that someone is trying to finish the grisly job begun on the Mygirl
three years earlier. But to prove it he must chase down a wooden sloop
on the wind-lashed sea. Out in the lethal storm Younger will come
face-to-face with the shocking truth that has already twisted so many
lives—and now could end his own."
"Newly estranged from his
girlfriend, Inspector Domenic Jejeune returns to Canada, where he soon
receives news that his brother has gone missing in Wood Buffalo National
Park while conducting field research on Whooping Cranes. Jejeune
immediately heads out West to try to find him.
Meanwhile,
back in the U.K., Jejeune’s plan to protect his ex-girlfriend from a
dangerous adversary has failed, and she has also gone missing. In
Jejeune’s absence, it falls to his trusty sergeant, Danny Maik, to track
her down. But there is far more to the situation than either of them
anticipated. And time is running out for all of them."
"In this beautifully
written and propulsive memoir, Huma Abedin—Hillary Clinton’s famously
private top aide and longtime advisor—emerges from the wings of American
political history to take command of her own story.
The
daughter of Indian and Pakistani intellectuals and advocates, Abedin
grew up in the United States and Saudi Arabia and traveled widely. Both/And grapples with family, legacy, identity, faith, marriage, motherhood—and work—with wisdom, sophistication, and clarity.
Abedin
launched full steam into a college internship in the office of the
First Lady in 1996, never imagining that her work at the White House
would blossom into a career in public service, nor that her career would
become an all-consuming way of life. She thrived in rooms with
diplomats and sovereigns, entrepreneurs and artists, philanthropists and
activists, and witnessed many crucial moments in 21st-century American
history—Camp David for urgent efforts at Middle East peace in the waning
months of the Clinton administration, Ground Zero in the days after the
9/11 attacks, the inauguration of the first African American president
of the United States, the convention floor when America nominated its
first female presidential candidate.
Abedin’s relationship with
Hillary Clinton has seen both women through extraordinary personal and
professional highs, as well as unimaginable lows. Here, for the first
time, is a deeply personal account of Clinton as mentor, confidante, and
role model. Abedin cuts through caricature, rumor, and misinformation
to reveal a crystal clear portrait of Clinton as a brilliant and caring
leader, a steadfast friend, generous, funny, hardworking, and dedicated.
Both/And
is a candid and heartbreaking chronicle of Abedin’s marriage to Anthony
Weiner, what drew her to him, how much she wanted to believe in him,
the devastation wrought by his betrayals—and their shared love for their
son. It is also a timeless story of a young woman with aspirations and
ideals coming into her own in high-pressure jobs and a testament to the
potential for women in leadership to blaze a path forward while
supporting those who follow in their footsteps.
Abedin’s journey
through the opportunities and obstacles, the trials and triumphs, of a
full and complex life is a testament to her profound belief that in an
increasingly either/or world, she can be both/and. Abedin’s compassion
and courage, her resilience and grace, her work ethic and mission are an
inspiration to people of all ages."
"Men are disappearing
from Toronto's gay village. They're the marginalized, the vulnerable.
One by one, stalked and vanished, they leave behind small circles of
baffled, frightened friends. Against the shifting backdrop of homophobia
throughout the decades, from the HIV/AIDS crisis and riots against
raids to gentrification and police brutality, the survivors face
inaction from the law and disinterest from society at large. But as the
missing grow in number, those left behind begin to realize that whoever
or whatever is taking these men has been doing so for longer than is
humanly possible.
Woven into their stories is David Demchuk's own
personal history, a life lived in fear and in thrall to horror, a
passion that boils over into obsession. As he tries to make sense of the
relationship between queerness and horror, what it means for gay men to
disappear, and how the isolation of the LGBTQ+ community has left them
profoundly exposed to monsters that move easily among them, fact and
fiction collide and reality begins to unravel."
"Flynne Fisher lives down
a country road, in a rural near-future America where jobs are scarce,
unless you count illegal drug manufacture, which she’s trying to avoid.
Her brother Burton lives, or tries to, on money from the Veterans
Administration, for neurological damage suffered in the Marines’ elite
Haptic Recon unit. Flynne earns what she can by assembling product at
the local 3D print-shop. She made more as a combat scout in an online
game, playing for a rich man, but she’s had to let the shooter games go.
Wilf
Netherton lives in London, seventy-some years later, on the far side of
decades of slow-motion apocalypse. Things are pretty good now, for the
haves, and there aren’t many have-nots left. Wilf, a high-powered
publicist and celebrity-minder, fancies himself a romantic misfit, in a
society where reaching into the past is just another hobby.
Burton’s
been moonlighting online, secretly working security in some game
prototype, a virtual world that looks vaguely like London, but a lot
weirder. He’s got Flynne taking over shifts, promised her the game’s not
a shooter. Still, the crime she witnesses there is plenty bad.
Flynne
and Wilf are about to meet one another. Her world will be altered
utterly, irrevocably, and Wilf’s, for all its decadence and power, will
learn that some of these third-world types from the past can be badass."
Just Finished
"What do you get with a Tank Girl graphic novel you ask? Well try The Power of Tank Girl by Allan Martin. You get exactly what you might expect, stuff and nonsense, but wonderfully, entertaining stuff and nonsense.
This collection contains three stories and a number of quick shots; The Royal Escape, Visions of Booga and The Innocent Die First. If you're expecting the stories to make sense, put this one back on the shelf. But if you want gunfire, tanks, mutant kangaroos, Tank Girl, Jet Girl, Barney and Boat Girl, all drinking, swearing, partying and living lives full of adventure in some futuristic, dystopic Australian desert, then give it a try.
The stories wander all over the place, from the ridiculous to the sublime. The art work often seems like grade school drawings but then switches to excellent artwork. It's just fun, a few laughs, neat little pop culture references (I mention Adam of the Ants baking cookies for a charity bake sale) and if I haven't mentioned it already, it's FUN! I always thought Jet Girl was my favorite but this time I leaned towards Barney. Not that it matters.
All in all, pure entertainment, a cult series you should check out. (3.5 stars)"
"I've had The Rocksburg Railroad Murders, the first Mario Balzic mystery, by K.C. Constantine on my bookshelf for a couple of years. I'm glad I finally tried it. It was an interesting mystery and story and it's made me more enthusiastic about trying the other books in the series.
Mario Balzic is the police chief of Rocksburg Pennsylvania, a small town in Pa. The story starts with Mario working with local folks to manage traffic flow after the big high school football match. He is called to the train station where a dead body has been discovered. The face of the victim has been disfigured so much that Balzic doesn't recognize an old classmate. As he goes to advise the wife and children, he meets stepson Tommy and automatically is suspicious of him.
It's an interesting investigation, involving Mario, the DA (a pain in the butt) and his investigators (also pains in the butt) and the State Cops, led by Lt Moyer (him I like, he's got a great relationship with Mario), and thrown into the mix, Father Marazzo and Def Attorney Valcanas.
The story wanders around town but seems to spend a lot of time at Buscotti's Bar, where everybody hangs out. Whenever Mario needs to find someone, that's where he heads. We also meet his family, all of whom seem to be lovely people. The case moves along at a nice pace, at times Mario seems to make leaps of intuition that aren't necessarily supported by facts but he at least admits that. His logic is not too bad and he does get assistance from Moyer and Father Marazzo.
You get a nice description of the area and I imagine it will be fleshed out even more in future stories. Mario is a great character; thoughtful, intelligent, a man who cares about the community he's served for years. He's an interesting cop; doesn't believe his beat cops should be armed. He knows the people in his community and has a firm sense of justice. It's a gruff, gritty story and moves along nicely and introduces the characters so that you can empathize with them. I look forward to reading the next book. (3.5 stars)"
"John Michael Brett is one of the nom de plumes of English author Miles Tripp. He wrote three books (as far as I can tell) under the Brett name, Diecast being the first. It was originally published in 1963 and features, lawyer / newspaper writer, Hugo Baron.
Baron is hired by hired by newspaper owner Paul Lorenz. Lorenz is being blackmailed by a young lady who professes to be his daughter, begat during the WWII when Lorenz was a soldier resting in Paris. Lorenz refuses to pay the blackmail, while his wife wants to pay. Baron agrees to look into it and feels that the young woman is being forced by enemies of Lorenz to pay the blackmail which they will use to aid their cause.
I didn't mind the story but did find it wordy at times. Brett has a habit of run-on sentences that could be irritating
'But the reasonable man, the five-day-weeker, the man who worries about pensions who possesses a wife but no mistress, who belonged to the right clubs, ... yada yada... that man was, in Hugo's opinion, the dullest creature on God's earth.' whew.
Baron suspects that Lorenz might be being pressured from both ends by his enemies, through the long lost daughter and through his wife. Many attempts are made on Baron's life as he investigates the case. Baron is a different sort of character, worldly but down-to-earth. He keeps seeing people following him and not thinking anything of it until he's attacked. He's a bit of a misogynist, but then again, that characteristic was a bit de rigueur in the spy / adventure / thriller novels of the period.
It wasn't one of my favorite of the genre, but still entertaining. I do have the 2nd book on my shelf and will read it to see more about Baron, who is now working for Lorenz in his 'secret' Diecast organization. Oh, right I didn't say much about that did I... well, not a lot is described other than to highlight it somewhat and pique your interest. More to follow I presume (3 stars)"
Currently Reading
"A woman's body has been found floating in a large reservoir just south of Bristol. In order to solve the mystery of the Lady in the Lake Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond must locate two missing letters attributed to Jane Austen and defy his superiors on the force to save a woman unjustly accused of murder."
"Liz Evans is in top form in these, the first three investigations in the PI Grace Smith mystery series. Featuring a feisty and engaging heroine, and packed with cracking one-liners and unexpected twists, these pacey novels will keep you guessing to the end. PI Grace Smith is back, walking the mean streets of Seatoun, a seedy town on England's southern coast. Client Henry Summerstone has asked her to find a missing person, but he has no idea of her name, where she lives or works, or what she looks like -- he's been blind for years. In fact, he's not even sure she's missing. But he's offering cash, an offer that Grace finds hard to refuse. Soon she's got a lead on the girl -- several girls, as it turns out -- but instead of them leading her to Miss X, Grace finds herself caught up in government fraud, family feuds, and cold-blooded murder."
"On a rainy night in
postwar Berlin, British journalist John Terrant encounters Ellen
Content, a young civilian typist in the American Army's office of
information. Their romance quickly blossoms, but as soon as Terrant
realizes that Content is a spy, she abruptly vanishes into the divided
city's treacherous maze of ruined streets. Terrant's anguished inquiries
receive only bland assurances from the authorities that Content will
contact him when her job is finished.
Two years later, Terrant's compulsively close reading of newspapers uncovers his first clue since Content's disappearance: her name appears in a list of passengers recently embarked on an ocean liner headed from London to New York. Within a few hours, the reporter is headed for the United States, despite dire warnings from the CIA and Scotland Yard to desist in his pursuit. After long months of inactivity, suddenly every minute counts as Terrant races to solve the mystery, find his lover, and avoid becoming the latest victim in a string of killings."
Women Authors I'm Enjoying - Caroline Graham
Caroline Graham is a British mystery writer best known for her Midsomer Murder series and also a number of standalone mysteries. While she wrote only 7 books in the series, it's become a staple of British television, one of the popular mystery series. I have read 5 of her books thus far and have 3 more sitting on my book shelf. I'll highlight those 3 books for you.Caroline Graham
"Investigating the brutal murder of a Midsomer Worthy Writers' Circle club member, Chief Inspector Barnaby and his colorful sidekick, Sergeant Troy, delve into the secret passions of the eccentric club to find a killer."
"On inheriting his aunt's
beautiful house in Forbes Abbot, Mallory Lawson and his wife Kate make
the move from London out to the country, where life will be so much
gentler and simpler. Or will it?
Forbes Abbot, for all its
old-fashioned charm, is not quite the close-knit community it seems, and
little differences and squabbles can become violent - even murderous.
Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby has encountered many intriguing cases
in his years on the force, but the case of the ghost in the machine is
one to test even the most experienced of detectives."
"When bored young
housewife Simone Hollingsworth misses bell-ringing practice-her latest
effort to find something to do-no one is surprised. In fact, if old Mrs.
Molfrey, her neighbor, didn't report it to Detective Chief Inspector
Barnaby, Simone's disappearance might have gone unrecorded in Fawcett
Green. But even Barnaby isn't concerned-until a body is found.
Soon
Barnaby is uncovering the passionate entanglements beneath the placid
surface of Fawcett Green-and perhaps jeopardizing his career. Now, if he
misconstrues the clue buried in Simone's garden-and a subtlety of human
behavior his experienced eye should spot-a brutal killer may go free..."
The complete listing of Graham's works can be found at this link. Enjoy the rest of your week.
