BiblioHistoria

The Quilters Daughter - Book Review

2012-01-17T09:28:00.001-05:00

The Quilters Daughter
by Wanda E. Brunstetter
Barbour Publishing (Ohio)
Authors Website

We have all heard of Lancaster County, right? That county in Pennsylvania where the Amish people live? Well, Wanda Brunstetter loves writing about the Amish people and she has written a number of books about them. Almost all involving a romance story.

This book is Book 2 in the Daughters of Lancaster County series. The first thing to understand is that there are Amish people all over the USA - and in Ohio there is also a large Amish community as well. This community is centred around Holmes County and the town of Berlin - not far from Canton, Ohio

Now because this is book 2, there is a rather large piece of back story missing, as all 3 books in this series are all about the same family. In Book 1 of the Daughters of Lancaster County- the Shopkeepers Daughter - the daughter Naomi, puts her baby brother Zach down and leaves him for a few minutes. When she returns he is missing - kidnapped. And apart from one advertisement in a newspaper, he has not been seen or heard from since and no ransom demand ever shows up. Naomi's mother had died giving birth to Zach, and some time later Naomi's father (Abraham) remarries - to an Amish woman named Fannie Mae.

In Book 2 - Fannie Mae - who had come from the Amish community in Berlin, Ohio - is pregnant with twins and is having a hard time coping,. She has been put on complete bedrest so she cannot do the house and family chores. Her daughter (from her first marriage) Abby Miller (she runs a quilt shop in Berlin) offers to come and help Fannie in Lancaster County. Abby is about to get married to Lester. Fannie also runs a quilt shop in Lancaster County.

Abby puts her marriage on hold and cones to stay with her mother. She meets her step siblings - Naomi, Matthew, Jake and Norman. Only Naomi is married with children. None of Fannie's step sons are married yet despite being in their 20s and being eligible for marriage. The Amish dont arrange marriages. The children are allowed to find their own partners - but marriage is encouraged from age 18 upwards.

Some months later, Fannie gives birth to her twins. Abby continues to stay in Lancaster and takes over all the household chores. She seems to be reluctant to return to Berlin. She has not been sleeping well - she has a recurring nightmare about a fire and a kitten. One day she gets a phone call from Berlin to be told that her quilt shop back home was burnt to the ground and that her fiance Lester died trying to save the precious quilts inside. Abby returns to Berlin for the funeral. She then returns to Lancaster County and takes over all the chores of raising the twins, cleaning the house and cooking all the food for her mother and her stepfathers family.

Abby has to keep herself busy so that she doesnt break down and start blaming herself for her fiance's death. If she had returned to Ohio earlier, the shop would not have burned down, Lester would still be alive, and she would now be married to him.

Fannie's cousin takes Abby off to Montana in order to give Abby a new perspective on life. Abby learns that it is Gods will that these things happen and while it does hurt to lose a loved one, you cannot blame yourself and nothing you could have done or said will necessarily have made a difference.

Abby eventually returns to Lancaster Country and admits to her step-brother that she is finally ready to move on with her life. Matthew asks if he can court her - and Abby indicates that yes she is interested.

Interspered with chapters about Abby and her family, we also have chapters about young Jimmy Scott, adopted son of Jim and Linda Scott who live in Washington state. Linda does not know this, but Jim stole Baby Jimmy from a table in the back yard of an Amish home in Pennsylvania and his conscience has been bothering him ever since. This leads to him become rude, curt and working long hours. He is a contract painter - he paints buildings. Their marriage is breaking down and Linda does not know why,

It also doesnt help that Linda is very overprotective of young Jimmy - almost smothering him - and she barely allows him out of her sight all day. She makes a new friend who encourages her to attend church. Linda becomes a christian and then tries to get her husband to become a christian as well. Of course Jim has no interest.

When Jim's father is diagnosed with heart problems and must have surgery, Linda purchases plane tickets for the family to return to Ohio to see his father. Jim is not happy as it reminds him about the Amish from whom he stole baby Jimmy.

Nothing further is resolved about Jimmy other than Jim gets rid of the Amish quilt, the baby had been wrapped in,. The baby quilt ends up in Montana where it is given to Abby who takes it home to Lancaster Country and gives it to Naomi. Naomi recognises it as being Zach's quilt because she is the one who repaired it after one corner of it was torn. So this means that Zach is alive and living in Washington state.

Book 3 takes place some years in the future. Jimmy Scott discovers that he was born in Pennsylvania and returns to that state to find his family. He meets and falls in love woth Leona Weaver - the Bishops Daughter,. And yes the Amish do have bishops.

While I personally did not like all the bible verses and the christian backstory of the Scotts, I did enjoy reading about the Amish culture. If I see books 1 or 3 of this series, I will read them, but I wont go out of my way to look for them.

One reason I like the Amish people is that they have a much simpler life - they live a slower life - almost like the early pioneers did - and I for one would love to return to that simpler life - although I would really miss the computer and the internet in the process. But that is what books are for. So it's a good thing I love reading too.

Review of the year 2011

2011-12-29T10:30:00.003-05:00

This photo is of my family taken just last week for Xmas.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Years

Well, as you can see, I barely wrote anything on this blog this year.
Wait. Thats not true. I wrote tons of stuff this year. I just didn't write on this blog.

As per a post I wrote on this blog back in January, I got hooked on Squidoo. A year later - my first year anniversary is tomorrow - and I am still hooked on Squidoo. I have written 170 lenses (or pages) in my first year. I still read a few books, but I write the reviews on Squidoo instead of writing them here.

I do apologise for not keeping up with this blog. I barely managed 25 posts this year. Gasp, That is just so bad!!! But I guess 4 years is pretty good to keep a blog going. Most people would have stopped blogging long before now.

Anyway, as I said, I am still hooked on Squidoo. I have found some great friends there. So for the year 2012, you can expect to find me there and not here. My profile page is here under the name of Serenia.

My family have gotten through the madness that is Christmas. We are now coming up to New Years.

The state of the world and politics is getting worse. I fully expect World War 3 to break out in 2012. I am also wondering if this is what the Mayans meant when they claimed the end of the age (world) will happen in December 2012.

That is what the world is building up to, simply because certain governments will NOT step back and think rationally and logically about how their actions are affecting the majority of people on this planet. These governments are just too greedy to get what they want - and they dont care about the rest of the people either. This was shown by the Occupy Wall Street protest movement that started up in September of this year. It represented the 99% (the majority of the populations) protesting against the financial institutes and the banks (the very wealthy and greedy 1%) for destroying the economy.

Today as the new year is about to tick over - most of those OWS protests have been evicted by city councils. In New York, in Oakland (California) and in Toronto. Some of the protesters have been in battles against the police. People have been injured - some seriously. Most other protests have given up because of the Xmas Holidays and/or Winter (Dunedin, New Zealand). Other protests are still trying to stay in their place of occupation and are fighting their municipal councils (Auckland, New Zealand).

The western world is in a major Depression. The economy has gone way past a Recession. So far inflation is running at around 3% (at least here in Canada it is). But wages (for those few who are still employed) are either frozen or rising at only 1%. Thus making the prices of food, gas and other items too expensive. People are being laid off from their jobs, they are unable to pay their mortages and their homes are being foreclosed by the banks. So many families are being forced out of their homes, it is not funny.

I graduated from my college in 2009 and have not been able to find work. I did seriously look during 2010 but I didnt look quite so much in 2011. I guess you can say I have given up looking - but shhh, dont tell my son. He is not at all happy with me not working. He wants me to work, so I can bring in more money for the family - purely to buy him more toys!!!!

We did make one major purchase this year. We purchased another computer. We now have 3 computers - one for each member of the family.

The very old one is running on Windows XP and is 6 years old.
The not so old one runs on Windows Vista and is 3 years old.
The brand new computer has Windows 7 but is not yet hooked up to our little network.

We are currently waiting for a 2 Terabyte (that is 2048 Gigabyte) harddrive to arrive from Hong Kong - in order to be able to save everything as we move stuff from one computer to another. We had to purchase this harddrive from HongKong. It was a lot cheaper. Only cost us $50 plus shipping. A brand new 2 Terabyte harddrive in Canada costs over $200!!!

Anyway, this is my review of the year 2011. I do still hope to get a part time job in 2012. I will still be looking, but I wont be making it a full time job.

So I wish all my readers a safe and happy New Years and a peaceful year in 2012.

Ciao!!

Anniversary of sorts

2011-12-13T10:21:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to make a note of todays important anniversary.
This is NOT book related - This is a personal anniversary.
And no its not my wedding anniversary - That's in October.

5 years ago today - December 13, 2006 - I finally became a permanent resident of Canada - after 5 years of processing.

I have been in Canada now for 11 years - I spent the first 6 of those years as a visitor or on a work permit. And the last 5 years as a permanent resident.

I hope to become a Canadian citizen sometime in the next 5 years.

Aftermath of latest ER episode

2011-11-22T13:04:00.008-05:00

I went back to the hospital yesterday for an ultrasound on my legs and they found exactly - NOTHING.

They dont know what caused my legs to swell, nor do they know what caused the chest pains either.
But they were looking for evidence of deep vein thrombosis - so far no signs. So I was released and allowed to go home.

And another trip to the ER

2011-11-20T15:10:00.000-05:00

My heart started giving me some pains last night, and my legs swelled up. Both are possible symptoms of Congestive Heart Failure - something that last happened to me in January 2010 when I spent 6 days in hospital being diagnosed with Graves Disease.

So at 1 AM this morning I grabbed a taxi and went to the local hospital ER. I spent the next 8 hours dozing on and off, having blood tests done, a chest X-ray, even a CT scan. Everything came back fine. The only concern was my red and swollen legs. They gave me some blood thinners which eased the pain in my chest.

I was discharged at 9 AM this morning with instructions to go back tomorrow for an ultrasound on my legs and then they will re-assess. I will have to wait and see what happens then.

William and Catherine - Book Review

2011-10-28T20:38:00.005-04:00

William and Catherine - Their Story
By Andrew Morton
St Martins Press 2011

Now I don't normally read this stort of stuff, but I have to admit I know next to nothing about Catherine, the new Duchess of Cambridge.

I dont watch TV. I dont read all the gossip although I do read the headlines. So when I spotted this book on the shelf at the library, I thought this would be a good opportunity to learn who they are, how they met and what makes them tick.

This is a coffee table book - not too thick and yet it has LOTS of photos.

I read it in just 4 hours and really enjoyed it. Now I know how they met, how their courtship ran. why he waited so long to propose (giving her the title Waitey Katey in the press - a nasty name IMO). This book also describes their wedding (April 29th, 2011) in great detail, and then ends. A very suitable place to end.

If you want to know the basics about William and Catherine, and their lives, without reading a 500 page dry biography, then this is the book to read.

Freedom - Book Review

2011-10-24T08:37:00.004-04:00

Freedom
By Daniel Suarez
Signet Books 2010
Authors website

This book is a continuation of the first book - Daemon.

I was introduced to MMORPG games by my son who loves playing them. MMORPG = Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. Every person creates a character (the most common types are soldier, ranger, thief, mage, wizard and cleric) and every character is represented in the game by an avatar. The avatar has information about the character attached to it. The most obvious information being name, character type, health and game level.

The darknet is the virtual space by which users (humans) can access the Daemon and other users. Not all users choose to join the darknet. Because the Daemon knows everything about you, when you join the darknet, your avatar will show everything about you, including your personal worth, your credit level and most important, your reputation.

Everyone is measured out of 5 stars and the higher number of stars you have, and the more responses you have - the better your reputation is. For example Loki has half a star over 5000 - which means 5000 people have given him either 1 star or no stars - his actions means that he is not a nice person. Peter Sebeck on the other hand has a reputation of 4 stars over 5000. That means that 5000 people have given him an average 4 out of 5 stars.

The world is rapidly going downhill after the emergence of the Daemon. There are food shortages. Unemployment is over 16%. Gas is at $3.58 a gallon. The big agricultural companies want to take over the smaller farms and plant their GMOs. The larger companies are desperate to control the Daemon - because it knows everything about everyone and knowledge is power.

The Daemon has "infected" computers everywhere. Nothing is private. The Daemon has even hired lawyers to sue the US government to accept and acknowledge that the Daemon is a sentient being and has a right to exist. The US government and big business are desperate to hide their activities and not have the Daemon spread knowledge of their activites to all the people of the world - which is what the Daemon actually does. It blackmails the government and the big corporations.

The Daemon has access to all security cameras and CCTV videos all over the world. The Daemon sees all, hears all and knows all.

In this sequel, Peter Sebeck is on a virtual and vital quest - given to him by the Daemon. He has to justify the freedom of humanity. The Daemon needs to know if humanity can create a true democracy - where individual rights are not ignored by big business and government.

Prove that humanity will prevent its own destruction and you will have justified humanity's freedom. If you fail - then humanity will serve the Daemon.

Loki is out to destroy the Daemon by any means necessary, He uses razorbacks - motorcycles that have been rebuilt as killer machines and are under remote control. These machines actually kill people - chopping them to bloody bits. The descriptions are very brutal.

The Major (name unknown) also wants to keep control of the people in the hands of the government and of the corporations, so he too is out to destroy the Daemon.

Jon Ross is desperate to help the Daemon survive. He wants humanity to be able to control themselves and determine their own fate - and not have a few greedy powermongers determine it for them.

This was an excellent novel - quite scary in some places with the razorbacks being very brutal and the economy being in chaos, just like it is today in our real world.

This is due to the activities and control of greedy powermongers - both in government and in the higher echelons of certain corporations.

Wonder - Book Review

2011-10-24T07:29:00.001-04:00

Wonder
By Robert J. Sawyer
Penguin Books, 2011
Trilogy website
Author website

This is the 3rd and final book in the WWW trilogy. All 3 books have been read and reviewed on this blog.

In the first Book - Wake - was about the emergence of Webmind - the conciousness that emerged from the Internet. In the second book - Watch - is about Webmind going public and announcing its presence online. This is also about the US and Canadian governments being scared of Webmind, and under the guise of National Security, they try to eliminate the threat.

This is the last book - Wonder. Keep on mind that the entire trilogy takes places over just a few weeks, The first book is just a few days, the second book is one week, and the third book is over several weeks.

In this book Webmind has gone public, and this is the story about the responses around the world. Especially those responses of the US, Canadian and Chinese governments.

The US government still wants to eliminate webmind. The Canadisn government does not seem to be worried. They leave it up to the US government to get rid of the threat. The Chinese government decides to put up the Great Firewall and prevent Webmind from engaging with the Chinese people,

But that is precisely how Webmind came to exists in the first place. The previous month, Webmind emerged into existance because a part of his conciousness was cut off from the rest of the internet when China tried to cut itself off from the world during a bird flu epidemic. Webmind emerged to determine why it was cut off and worked to get it back. Now it has to do the same again.

But this time, it chooses to use a different process. This time Webmind, actually forces the Chinese government to resign and gives over control of China to the people, The fastest and quietest coup d'etat in history.

I enjoy reading any and all about books about computers - hacking, cracking, computer crimes, computer security etc etc.

Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop - Book Review

2011-10-22T08:20:00.002-04:00

Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop
Edited by Otto Penzler
Vanguard Press 2010
Book Website
Bookshop Website

The first thing you need to know is that I NEVER but NEVER read short stories. I usually can't stand them. But when I spotted this book at my local library, it's about books, its set in a bookshop, I have to at least try and read them. And when I discovered that the editor and the book shop are both real - well thats just icing on the cake.

So I read the 17 short stories written for this anthology. All mysteries written by mystery authors and all had a setting either at or partially at The Mysterious Bookshop.

I read all the stories within 24 hours. Most of them I liked. Some of these authors I have read. Most of them I have not actually heard of because mysteries are not my usual reading genre.

So if you want to read an anthology of short stories - all mysteries - and all connected in some way with the Mysterious Bookshop in Manhattan, NYC, then this is the book for you.

And while right now is not yet Xmas - after next week - when Halloween is over and done with - then the retail shops WILL be gearing up for Xmas and we will be flooded with Xmas music and decorations - starting on November 1st - I guarantee it.

Other reviews
Paul Davis
Broken Bullhorn

Back to school

2011-09-08T08:37:00.000-04:00

I didnt post anything over the summer because I haven't read any books at all over summer. I spent a lot of my time in Squidoo.

However summer is now over and my son is back in school. He is now in grade 4. His teacher gave out a student questionaire for the kids to fill out - so that she can get to know them better. For now, she is a temporary teacher until Thanksgiving (mid-October) when the permanent teacher comes back from maternity leave.

Anyway, one of the questions on these student "getting to know you" forms was -
What is the most important thing about you that I need to know.
My son's answer was cute. He wrote - I have bad writing so be aware.

Toronto City Mayor wants to close the Toronto Public Library

2011-07-27T09:36:00.008-04:00

Toronto elected a right-wing mayor last year. We should have known that he lied.
He swore that there would be NO SERVICE cuts. That is a major reason why he was elected.
Toronto has a rather large deficit right now, and instead of raising taxes, the mayor wants to cut services.

He wants to cut daycare subsidies (city hall pays for daycare spaces for those parents whose jobs are minimum wage and cant afford to pay $50 per day). He wants to cut down on the number of times the grass gets cut in city parks during summer. He wants to cut down on the number of times the roads get plowed (snow removal) during the winter. He wants to cut down on Police numbers.

But the biggest shock of all is that he wants to Privatise the public libraries!!

Interior of the Toronto Reference Library - the main central branch at Yonge and Bloor

So Canada's champion for books - internationally known author Margaret Atwood - has joined the battle to keep our libraries open.

Margaret Atwood takes to Twitter to battle Toronto Mayor over Library Closures

She is asking people to sign the petition to KEEP OUR LIBRARIES OPEN

Many City Councillors see Toronto's public libraries as a financial burden rather than an important community service. As some American cities already have done, Toronto City Hall is actively considering turning over some or all of the operation of our free public library system to the private sector.

BUT WHO WILL PAY IN A FOR-PROFIT LIBRARY?

Library users, that's who, through higher user fees, fewer books, less access and fewer branches.

Would YOU as a library user want to pay to borrow books?
I would not and cant afford to do that. If this happens, I would just stop using the library.

I have heard that Toronto Public Library is one of the best library systems on the entire North American continent. Possibly also one of the biggest - there are 99 branches. Even Montreal's public library only has 50 branches. We have to all work together to KEEP it that way.

SAVE OUR LIBRARY

SIGN THE PETITION

Thank you.

Borders Books going out of Business

2011-07-22T09:25:00.006-04:00

If you haven't already heard, the American book store chain Borders is shutting down, going out of business and forcing over 10,000 employees out of their jobs. This is not good news for helping the economy to recover. This news was reported on July 19, 2011 - 3 days ago.

I mention this because I am sure I would have heard or read anything about this in Canada if it had been mentioned. And to me, this is BIG news. I only found this out today, when I was checking out my favourite Canadian book magazine - Quill and Quire

Borders has been struggling for several years to maintain its market shore against the strong Barnes and Noble chain and Amazon. Borders closed down a number of bricks and mortar shops back in 2007, but that did not help.

The bookchain declared bankruptcy in February 2011 and closed some 200 stores at that time. Borders has been in liquidation and looking for a buyer ever since, This week it conceded defeat saying it was unable to find a buyer.

One major reason Borders has been forced out of business is Amazon. Most book buyers have discovered the comfort and convenience of purchasing their books online from their own homes. I too have been guilty of this as I like to purchase my books from an online book warehouse. When I have money that is.

On the first page of the Borders website is a large red notice
ALL BORDERS STORES GOING OUT OF BUSINESS

I don't know much about Borders other than it has always ran second to Barnes and Noble (the top Book store chain in the USA). Borders has also tried to expand overseas without success. I know there was at least one Borders shop in New Zealand - which did not last long.

Source

Comment

Heatwave...

2011-07-21T16:37:00.005-04:00

Cant (gasp) read (gasp, gasp). There's a (gasp) heatwave (gasp) across Ontario (gasp) right now

The last few days have been extremely hot - with temperatures breaking July records all over the place. Today here in Toronto, the temperature has climbed to 37 degrees Celcius (98.6 degrees F).

Inside my apartment, despite the doors and windows being open and the fans blowing, the temperature is currently at 32 degrees Celcius (89 degrees F). The building does NOT have central A/C and we can't afford to buy a unit right now.

The humidex for Toronto is currently 47 degrees Celsius. That means it FEELS like 47 degrees outside, (116 degrees F) and yes that means it feels like an OVEN.

I know this is not book related, but it's just too hot to read!!!

Details

Tout Allure - Book Review

2011-06-21T07:55:00.002-04:00

Tout Allure - Falling in Love in Rural France
by Karen Wheeler
MacArthur & Company 2010

Author's Website
Author's Blog

Karen Wheeler is an English Journalist who gave up the rat-race of London living to move to a quiet village near Poitiers in Central France. She has written 2 books about her experiences in France. The first one is called Tour Sweet in which she makes the decision to pack up and move, looking for a house to buy and them the actual move itself. The second book is called Tour Allure (Total Attraction) and is all about her love life in France. So if you dont normally read Chick Lit - then you are warned to stay away from these books.

At the beginning of this book, Karen has just broken up with her french boyfriend. She still has a long time english boyfriend floating around. Karen writes about juggling the english boyfriend, the new dog she gets, her job and deadlines, learning how to do Line Dancing, the very noisy Portugese neighbours from next door and how she acquires a new boyfriend - and let me tell you - that was NOT plain sailing.

For light reading this book is actually very enjoyable. It is a pity that I read the second book first. However I do have the first book on reserve at the library. I love reading books about life in France and this one was just as good as all the others.

I am 10 and Divorced - Book Review

2011-06-15T07:32:00.001-04:00

Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world. It is also one of the most traditional and in Yemen the Islam religion reigns supreme. Noone can even try to mess with tradition. Not even the yemeni government.

In 2008 Nujood Ali was a 10 years old girl - one of 12 mouths to feed in a poor family. her father was unemployed and in 2006 (when Nujood was 8) a scandal erupted which forced the family to flee their home village and move to Sana'a - the capital of Yemen. The scandal later turned out to be one of Hujood's older sisters having been kidnapped by a man who wanted her as his bride.

In Sana'a Nujood's father got a job but was unhappy and eventually lost the job when he was continually absent.

In 2008 when Nujood was roughly aged 10 (she never knew exactly when her birthday was) she was married off to a man aged in his 30s who was also from their home village.

In Yemen girls were not supposed to be getting married until one year after they became a woman - one year after their menses began. But tradition meant that some girls were married earlier provided the men promised to NOT be intimate with their child brides at least until they had had their first menses. Unfortunately it seems that Yemeni men cannot keep their promises.

Nujood was taken back to her home village and then forced to keep house, cook the food, and do all the dirty jobs that her new mother in law no longer wanted to do. The husband also raped her as well. He had promised Nujood's father that he would wait until she became a woman. He lied.

The wife of the head of the family does not have any power in the house. His mother (who was now her mother in law) hold all the power and Nujoods mother in law treated her like dirt.

Eventually Nujood was allowed to visit her family in Sana'a and after her "step mother" (her fathers second wife) told her to try the courts, she decided that she had had enough of being raped every night. So when Nujood was sent out to buy bread one day, instead of buying bread, she went to the court house and asked to speak to a judge. she ended up waiting all day and wasn't noticed until the end of the business day.

When she was asked what she wanted by a kind looking man - she told him that she wanted a divorce. He was shocked that she was already married and already having sexual relations at such a young age.

She was sent to stay with another family for her own protection. She even got her own lawyer - a Yemeni woman named Shada Nasser - who was an activist for women's rights in Yemen.

Nujood went back to live with her family where her father and older brothers were ashamed that she had publicly embarrassed the family. Nujood also went back to school.

Eventually when Nujood's case came up in court, she stated that he beat her and had sexual relations with her despite the fact that her menses had not yet begun. The judge asked her if she was willing to go back to him after a break of 3 to 5 years. She said NO.

The judge granted the divorce and Nujood became a celebrity. Several more girls in the same situation have since asked for divorces from their much older spouses. One of these girls lives in Saudi Arabia.

Nujood now lives with her family and is back in school. The royalties from the book are helping the family. She also has an international sponsor who pays the school fees, books and uniforms for both Nujood and her sister.

The Yemeni government has tried to change the legal age for women to age 15, but some powerful members of government are opposed and so the law has not been passed.

This was an interesting book. I enjoyed it very much and read it in just a few hours.

New York Times Op-ed

Glamour Article Page 1

Glamour Article Page 2

Glamour Article Page 3

Nujood in Wikipedia

True Spirit - Book Review

2011-05-14T15:58:00.002-04:00

True Spirit
By Jessica Watson
Atria Books - 2010

This is the story of Jessica Watson, the young Australian sailor, who is (as of now) the youngest person to ever circumnavigate the planet as a solo sailor and she did it UNASSISTED and in just 7 months. She was just 16 years old.

This is my review of her memoirs entitled True Spirit. However since I have already written the entire review once already and under Squidoo rules, I cannot copy it elsewhere, I am just going to link to it from here so you can read it as well.

http://www.squidoo.com/true-spirit-review

I have already mentioned Jessica previously in this blog. Today is the first anniversary of her return home to Sydney at the end of her voyage last year.

Happy Birthday to me....

2011-05-05T19:47:00.000-04:00

My birthday today...

Just had a quiet day - nothing special happening.
Other than I am getting old. Today I turned 47.
In just 3 years I will be 50!!!!
Not looking forward to that at all.

By the end of this month, my spouse will also have had his 47th birthday and my son will have turned 9 years old.

500 year old book of World History discovered in Utah

2011-04-25T19:14:00.000-04:00

In this photo taken April 23, 2011, a copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle published in 1493 is displayed at Ken Sanders Rare Books in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. The Utah book dealer came across the 500-year-old German language edition while appraising items brought in by locals at a fundraiser for the town museum in Sandy, about 15 miles south of Salt Lake City. It's considered to be one of the earliest and most lavishly illustrated books produced after the invention of the printing press. (AP Photo/Brian Skoloff)

Source - 500 year old book of World History discovered in Utah

Greg Mortenson called a Liar

2011-04-18T22:14:00.001-04:00

Greg Mortenson, the author of 2 books (both reviewed on this blog) was called a LIAR yesterday by the CBS current affairs program - 60 Minutes.

Mortenson wrote two books about the charity for schools that he began after getting lost in the Karakoram mountains while on a climbing trip. His charity - called Central Asia Institute (CAI) - builds schools for rural children in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The CBS report which aired on "60 Minutes" claimed that most of the stories Mortenson wrote about never actually happened,. And when the reporter went to visit the schools, he found them empty. There are more questions and answers from the CBS to Mortenson on the CAI website

Mortenson's books are reviewed here.

Three Cups of Tea

Stones into Schools

The Stream Runs Fast - Book Review

2011-04-16T08:11:00.002-04:00

Just so you all know, I am still around, still reading and still making lenses on Squidoo.

The last book I finished reading was called The Stream Runs Fast by Nellie McClung. This was her autobiography. It covered her life from 1896 when she got married until 1945 when the book was published.

Nellie is a reasonably big name in Canadian History. At least she SHOULD be. She was a suffragette and a political activist. She helped Canada to bring in the vote for women and she also helped Canada to give women legal status by having them recognized as persons so that women could sit in the Canadian federal government. She was also a writer and wrote a number of books as well as numerous newspaper columns and editorials. Some of her writings can be read at Project Gutenberg.

Nellie wrote The Stream Runs Fast towards the end of her life. It was first published in 1945 and she died in 1951. I wrote a lens about Nellie using The Stream Runs Fast to review all that she did in her life. Nellie really made a difference.

My edition of The Stream Runs Fast was published in October 2010 byThomas Allen Publishers.

Happy Birthday dear Bibliohistoria

2011-03-16T23:22:00.004-04:00

This is just so you know what happening, or not happening as the case may be. Tomorrow (March 17th) is of course St Paddy's day (and I am not Irish) and tomorrow is also the 4th birthday of this blog.

And obviously my interest in reading and reviewing books seems to have died down quite considerably. That is surprising to me but that's the nature of the scanner personality!!!

I am spending a lot of my time on Squidoo now - creating lenses (webpages) on all sorts of subjects. So far I have made 60 lenses. You can read them from my profile page.

I cant promise to keep my promise of reading and reviewing 2 books per month. Well actually I am still interested in reading the books. I just seem to have lost all interest in writing reviews. So dont expect any regular updates to this blog. I will continue to post any interesting bookish news I read about.

Check out my Squidoo profile page (linked above) to keep up with what's happening to me. Since we have to keep our lenses Unique, Useful and Updated, I find that I make lenses about things that happen around me. Personal lenses do better for content and visitors than essay type lenses
Ciao for now.

Recent news about Mohammed Yunus

2011-03-09T17:16:00.000-05:00

Bangladesh's Yunus loses appeal against sacking

Mohammed Yunus, who founded the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, and then wrote 2 books about the Grameen bank and about microfinancing, has lost his appeal over the banks action of sacking him from the board of directors of the very bank he founded. This action was taken because he was considered to now be too old. The mandatory retirement age for bank officers in Bangladesh is 60. Yunus is currently 70 years old. Yunus also won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2006.

I write a review of Yunus's book called - Banker to the Poor - which was posted in January 2008.

The Women I was Born to be - Book Review

2011-02-15T10:20:00.000-05:00

The Women I was Born to Be - My Story
By Susan Boyle
Atria Books (Simon & Schuster) 2010

Hands up anyone who has NEVER heard of Susan Boyle. Of course you have. She's the woman from Scotland who came out of nowhere to superstardom in April 2009 after just one audition on the TV show Britain's Got Talent.

If you haven't heard her sing or you want to hear her again - listen to her audition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8P9d0zGZl4

In January 2009 (2 years ago) Susan Boyle was an unemployed mentally challenged unmarried woman, in her 40s, living in the village of Blackburn just outside of Edinburgh in Scotland. Susan was the youngest of 9 children from a Roman Catholic family - her 8 older siblings are anywhere from 3 to 15 years older than her.

Susan had been deprived of oxygen for a short time at birth (she was born in 1961) and this had left her slightly brain damaged. She was relentlessly bullied in school and had difficulty passing exams. But she had always loved music and loved to sing. And as the youngest of the family Susan admits that she was a little spoiled by her parents.

Susan grew up singing in church choirs, and smoky pubs. She also loved listening to music on the radio and when the TV came long, she would watch the music show Top of the Pops - a long time weekly music show that did the top 10 countdown with the artists every week. Susan's most favourite music singer as a child was Donny Osmond. They both had similar backgrounds - they both came from large religious families where music was a big part of their lives.

Susan's father died in 1999. One of Susan's older sisters also unexpectedly died not long after, which devastated the family. Susan and her mother loved watching the reality shows and the music shows on TV. Susan's mother began encouraging Susan to think about auditioning for one of these shows. After her mothers death, Susan decided that the time was right to do something so she applied to audition.

In January of 2009 Susan appeard on a stage in Glasgow in front of Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan and sang. She and the audience were sworn to silence as she was invited back to the live semi-finals to be held after the auditions had aired on TV.

On April 11, 2009 Susan's audition was aired on TV in Britain. Of course Susan watched it - along with her family and friends. That night the neighbours came banging on her doorstep asking for her autograph. The next morning her telephone started ringing and never stopped. When Susan called the TV show producers and asked what was going on, she was told, "oh your audition is on youtube, its gone viral." Susan did not have a computer and had no idea what you tube was.

This book is Susans memoir of her life and of the first 18 months after she was "discovered."

I found it very readable except for 2 small issues - but these are just my own personal issues about Susan, and have nothing to do with the book itself.

Susan's roman catholic faith is a big part of her life so she often refers to praying in church to help her cope with the stresses of life. She also writes extremely detailed accounts of her meeting with the scottish monsignor (cardinal) and the pope. I am not religious at all so these parts were somewhat boring for me.

The other issue I had was her constant use of the word "wee" meaning small. I know its how scottish people talk - but I feel it was quite overused in this memoir.

But other than that, this is a fascinating account of what it is like to rise from obscurity to stardom literally overnight thanks modern inventions like the internet.

Silence is golden....or not....

2011-02-15T09:42:00.002-05:00

OK OK OK I know I havent posted anything for a month. I'm sorry.

The reason is that my scanner personality has taken over and I am spending a lot of my time on Squidoo, making lenses (mini webpages) and making friends there as well. I am also still reading fan fiction online and looking for a job.

So I will make a deal with you. I will read and review at least a minimum of 2 books per month this year, or until my passion for Squidoo dies down.

I find that reading books is getting a little boring. I think in part because I dont have the extra money to go out and buy books. I have to borrow them from the library. I frequently have to reserve and get them out on inter library loan - and then I am forced to read them to a deadline - usually 3 or 6 weeks. For some reason that removes the enjoyment out of reading them. I have no idea why or how.

J'Adore New York - Book Review

2011-01-18T18:00:00.035-05:00

J'Adore New York
by Isabelle LaFleche
Harper Collins 2010
Author's website

The international law firm Edward and White in New York City is expanding. It sends out a compelling advertisement to its 45 offices in Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas.

We are seeking talented and ambitious associates from our international offices to transfer to our ever expanding team in New York. These positions offer the opportunity to work on high-end transactions with the world’s leading corporations, financial institutions, and governments. The New york office enjoys a collegiate and partner-directed, not partner-dominated, work environment, which offers excellent career development opportunities.

There are only 3 job vacancies available at the NYC office. Catherine Lambert from the Paris office is lucky enough to get one of the coveted positions.

I don't normally read chicklit but when you read the blurb of a novel that combines french haute couture and large american law firms, you have the makings of a fun, bitchy and non-stop story.

If you want to know what really goes on in a high flying law firm, then you should read this novel. The bitchiness and back stabbing starts on page 1 and it doesnt let up until the very last page.

Catherine Lambert is thrown into the fray and must either sink or swim on her own. On her very first day in the office, she is sent out of town to conduct a due diligence review for an acquisition client. Amongst the documents Catherine finds a letter that indicates the CEO and the CFO committed fraud.

The second day on the job, Catherine meets Antoine, a securities lawyer who is transferring to Paris soon. He dumps all his workload onto her desk but sweetens the deal with a request for her to help with an intellectual property protection and counterfeiting investigation of the Dior brand. Dior is Catherine's MOST favourite brand.

Catherine also meets her paralegal assistant Rikash. An impeccably dressed Indian man, who is overtly gay with a penchant for French haute couture, Rikash and Catherine had previously bonded over the telephone.

Other characters that Catherine meets include Bonnie, the head of mergers & acquisitions, Nathan, a cocaine snorting lawyer, Scott, a managing partner of the firm and Harry the head of the entire litigation department. And then there are Mel and Jeffrey. Both represent large clients who are given to Catherine to deal with. One has an IPO (intial public offering) that is about to be released. The other is a hedge fund manager from a large financial firm.

In a matter of days Catherine comes under great pressure to make enough billable hours, and she watches both her social life and shopping life disappear. To make things worse, she also has to find her own apartment and that is not a billable expense.

Bonnie becomes the boss from hell as she demands that Catherine do all the demeaning business that a personal assistant would normally do, including picking up Bonnie's drycleaning.

The hedge fund manager turns out to be a sexist bastard and within a few weeks he has invited Catherine to a gala that he claims his wife is involved with. At the gala, the wife turns out to be the ex-wife. Mel gets drunk and gropes and propositions Catherine in a very obvious manner. When Catherine turns him down, he threatens to get her fired. The next day he sends an email to Scott and Harry (copied to Catherine) saying that she engaged in inappropriate behaviour in his presence - specifically becoming intoxicated and embarrassing him. He sees no point in staying with their firm and will be taking his business elsewhere. To Catherine he sends an email saying - Too bad you didn't exercise your good judgement last night....

Jeffrey's company is preparing to go public and Catherine is hard at work preparing the prospectus and the IPO. Jeffrey wines and dines her and showers her with jewellery. She thinks she is in love until the day he gives her a ring and asks her to move some shares from his portfolio into another name so he can sell them and make a profit. The rules say that shares are locked for several weeks after an IPO opens for this specific reason - so that the company shareholders dont use insider trading to make a profit.

Catherine is shocked. She calls Jeff on the phone a few days later, turns on her dictaphone and asks him to explain the details of his scheme. Without committing herself, she decides its is time to get out of NYC and starts looking around for a new job.

The head office decides to have a retreat for all partners and Catherine is forced to take a weekend off to attend. Fortunately she meets up woth Antoine (still at the Paris office) and their relationship flares up again. She tries to meet the legal counsel (head lawyer) for Dior who is staying in the same hotel but is unable to do so. She made an appointment to meet with the lawyer but the lawyer skipped town early the next morning.

When she returns to NYC, Catherine complains to Rikash about the Dior lawyer who skipped out on an appointment. Rikash promises to fix the situation and the very next day Catherine gets a telephone call from Paris from the Dior lawyer herself - the very one she had the appointment with.

Catherine is asked to fly to Paris to attend an interview. It turns out that Rikash had fedexed Catherine's resume to Paris on coloured paper that turns out to be the colours of the brand new Dior couture collection. The Dior counsel tells Catherine that the head of the Intellectual Property dept of Dior is retiring and Catherine's resume looks as if she has the required skills and experience. Catherine is thrilled and she and Rikash break open a mini bottle of champagne to celebrate.

The Author.
Isabelle Laflèche worked for over ten years in Toronto, New York City and Montreal as a corporate attorney in a large law firm and on Wall Street. In 2005, she was responsible for the business affairs of a Quebec based fashion designer where she developed her penchant for haute couture. This is her first novel. She lives in Montreal, Quebec.

And she's off.....

2011-01-02T10:40:00.006-05:00

I hope you all had a Happy New Years.

In keeping with my Scanner Personality, I have found a new interest.

"Oh no, not again...." I can hear you whispering.

Now I love creating web pages and blogs, but blogs are time consuming and webpages means writing a lot of HTML code. If you have checked out my dashboard page here for all my blogs, you can see that I currently have 19 blogs. Some of my blogs are for book reading challenges and others are for various areas of interest.

And last week I found a new way to create web pages for all my varied areas of interest. It satisfies my drive to educate and teach others, and to create, and it satisfies my need for the method to be relatively easy and painless. It is called SQUIDOO.

For Squidoo, one can create a singe page for a specific area of interest and creating the page is as easy as clicking a few buttons. Each page is called a LENS and their creators are called LENSMASTERS. A lensmaster can have as many pages as they choose. It is not unusual for some lensmasters to have 500 pages or more.

Squidoo supports itself with ads. Most of the ads run at the top and bottom of each page and down the sidebar on the right. There is still plenty of space to write up about your interests. Lensmasters can also use various affiliate programs to sell products - the most common one used is Amazon.

Some lensmasters have worked hard and are now creating a decent income with their lenses - anywhere from a few hundred dollers every month to several thousands every year. For others like me, the money is secondary (not important) and the stronger desire is to teach and educate. If our pages do generate any money, it gets sent to charities of our choice.

My plan is to gradually move most of my blogs over to Squidoo and delete the blogs. But don't worry!!! I will be keeping this blog. I am not throwing away almost 4 years of hard work. No way!!

As of today I have already created 7 Squidoo lenses and am in the middle of creating 2 more. I did say they were easy to make. The community at Squidoo is wonderful. There is a very supportive forum where one can ask questions and get help.

My main Squidoo page or main lens is called a LENSOGRAPHY. It has information about me and links to all my other lenses. On Squidoo I call myself SERENIA. That is an old Egyptian name found on papyrus in Egypt.

Serenia Lensography

I hope you will visit my various lens pages and either leave a comment or click the Liked It button at the bottom of each page.

Happy New Years for 2011

2010-12-30T15:07:00.000-05:00

Since it is already New Years Eve day in New Zealand and Australia as I write this, I am posting this to say

HAPPY NEW YEARS

to all my readers. May 2011 be a much happier year for you than 2010 was.

Refuse to Choose - Book Review

2010-12-30T13:25:00.002-05:00

Refuse to Choose
By Barbara Sher
Rodale Books 2006
Author's Website

Don't know what to do with your life?

Drawn to so many things that you can't choose just one?

Barbara Sher has the answer- Do EVERYTHING!

I didn't know I was a scanner until I read this book.

I could never decide what I wanted to be when I grew up. There were so many things I was interested in. Now I know why.

I used to worry that I might have ADD but now I know I'm not alone with having lots of passionate interests and that it can even be an advantage.

Scanners is one way to describe people who are generalists, not specialists. But society these days insists on training people to be specialists. The economy is designed to be run by specialists.

Sher names Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Goethe, Edison and Ben Franklin as Scanners. Good company! She tells us why they were honored for their many interests, but in today's world the Scanner is often considered lazy or undisciplined.

Sher champions Scanners. She reminds us of our gifts - what it is that's so wonderful about being a Scanner. She also counters the negativism we often hear about pursuing multiple interests.

In one paradigm-shifting sentence Barbara Sher notes that: "If Scanners didn't think they should limit themselves to one field, 90 percent of their problems would cease to exist!"

In the early medieval times, your family had a career and every male in the family - from grandfather to father to son - was trained to work in that one speciality.

During the Renaissance (which means the Rebirth) it was sort of acceptable to become a generalist. Famous generalists of the Renaissance include Leonardo da Vinci. He is well known as a painter, a writer, an inventor and a scientist,

200 years ago, it was still perfectly acceptable to be a generalist - to know something about a lot of things, Benjamin Franklin was a famous generalist. He was a writer, an editor, an inventor, a scientist, a politician and a diplomat.

But the tide has turned and society went back to demanding that people be specialists. I beleive that is one way to control the people - to make them more docile and less able to think. The government needs to be able to control the people and the best way to do that is to force them to do just one job over and over again. Very boring. No wonder so many people hate their jobs.

Scanners fear that they have ADD, but usually they do not have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder)
Scanners are people who believe that they are Hopelessly interested in Everything
Scanners were previously often seen as Jack of all Trades

Start a Scanner Daybook. Use this daybook to note down all your various ideas and interests. They should not ordered (the Da Vinci Notebooks were famously not ordered). When you are distracted by a tangential idea write it down "get it out of your system" then return to your previous task

Yappers - Another name for Scanners is YAP Yet-Another-Project

Backward Planning Flowchart - A way of breaking down a project until you find a step that you can action immediately

Start Small Start Now - The importance of doing something now, making some small progress. This builds your confidence

There are scanners who can never start their projects
There are scanners who can never finish their projects
There are scanners who are constantly told they are lazy

Other Scanners find that they are organized enough to start and complete their projects but unfortunately lose interest in it as soon as they have mastered it. So for instance they might qualify as a teacher and then announce that they have no desire to teach. This often astonishes and dismays friends and family.

Scanners often have Good Enough Jobs that is to say jobs which earn enough to pay the bills, but allow them enough energy to pursue their other passions. Scanners have usually given up on finding the perfect job anyway.

There are two major types of Scanners.

Sequential Scanners and Cyclical Scanners.

The majority of Scanners are Cyclical Scanners - those who return to the same group of interests over and over again.

Sequential Scanners do not return to the same interests over and over again. They prefer to always be looking for the next challenge or area of knowledge to learn and master.

When a Scanner is asked the question, what do you want to be when you grow up? most adult scanners are unable to make that decision. They have too many things they are truely interested in, so that they cannot choose just one area that they must specialise in for the rest of their life.

A Sequential scanner may have an interest and want to go to school to learn all about that area of interest, but once they graduate, they lose interest and have no desire to teach or work in that area. They just love the challenge of learning or mastering that area. So they go back to school and learn a new area. Again once they graduate, they have no desire whatsoever to teach or work in that area. If you know anyone who is known as a PROFESSIONAL STUDENT, they may be a sequential scanner.

As I said in an earlier post about Polymaths, I wanted to read this book to see what I could do to salvage the remaining 20 years of my working life.

I have a diploma of Business Administration. Nothing special but I enjoyed most of the courses I took. I am not a numbers person so I disliked the accounting classes. However I did pass them, the first time around. They did drag my overall average down which is why I graduated with Distinction and not with Honours. Distinction is an overall average grade in the 80s, Honours is an overall grade in the 90s. My overall average grade was 88%. I also have a specific group of interests that I usually tend to return to over and over again. I listed them in my previous post on Polymaths. This makes me a cyclical scanner.

One thing I have discovered about myself is that most of my interests are related to communication and words. I could have done well as a librarian, a historian, a researcher, a journalist, an editor or a writer. I love history and I love doing research. I also love art, art history, antiquarian books and antiques. Maybe I can try to get into those areas as well. But without a BFA (fine arts degree) that will be hard.

In the meantime I am looking for an administration position with a non-profit company or a business related to the arts and antiques world. I have also discovered that I prefer the casual business environment and NOT the corporate environment. OK thats enough about me.

This book makes suggestions of how one can cope with choices and how to find a career that covers the vast array of interests that scanners have. At no time does this book ever say for sure that a scanner is better at doing one particular career over another one, That's because scanners have such widely differing interests.

If you want specifics on finding a career for you, this book is NOT for you.
If you want a challenge in finding the right career for you, then this book is perfect for you.

Review for 2010

2010-12-25T13:41:00.002-05:00

I cant say that this year has been a great one. It hasn't. It has been a so-so year.

In January I was hit with a major medical issue - which may require me to take drugs for the rest of my life. It's not fatal, but it is annoying, and it does affect my diet. There are now some foods I can no longer eat and others I have to drastically cut down on.

The recession is biting heavily and it is very hard to find a job despite living in a major world city. I submitted my resume to any number of appropriate vacancies and never received any response. I can only assume there are other people out there who have more education and a more stable work history than I do - and they are being hired.

My son is doing reasonably well in school. He is at or above age appropriate requirements in most areas. While he can read quite well, he does not like to read for pleasure - certainly not like I do. He takes after his dad in that respect.

My son also much prefers computer games, and he has had heart set on a specific game console. He has only been asking for this console for the last 2 years. This year we have finally been able to purchase the latest version of the game console he wanted. He received it for Xmas today and is now thoroughly enjoying himself playing it. Right now I am listening to him playing Super Mario Brothers and the loud music that goes along with this platform game. So far he has 2 games cartridges - but we can easily purchase more games in the future.

I have not read as many books as I usually do. You can tell that by the low number of posts I have actually posted this year (92 if the counter is correct). Blame that on Fan Fiction. I discovered fan fiction this year and spent at least 6 months reading these stories online. Fan Fiction is where fans create and write stories about the characters from favoruite TV shows and post these stories online. The main TV shows I read fiction from, are Stargate, Star Trek and JAG - all of which are currently not running.

On top of this I am keeping an ear and an eye out on the politics and world events going on. I see the USA frantically trying to get a new world war started anyway it can do so. First they wanted to invade Iran. That didnt work. Then they tried Pakistan and allowed Israel to start yet another war with Gaza over nothing whatsoever. That didnt work. They even tried Venezuela for a short time.

Now they are trying to push the 2 Koreas into starting a war. North Korea refuses to be goaded. Very astute of them I say. South Korea needs to stand up and stop acting like a YES man and start asking some serious questions as to WHY they are allowing the USA to tell them what to do. The US government will do anything to get peoples attention off the poor state of the economy. This situation is NOT helping my stress levels.

One more thing. The stresses about the year 2012 - I personally don't beleive anything is going to happen in December 2012, but one never knows. It certainly does not help my stress levels when Hollywood and the tabloid newspapers insist on making all kinds of predictions and releasing thriller movies about what they think will happen to the world on that date - especially when they have NO PROOF.

The Winter Ghosts - Book Review

2010-12-24T12:13:00.000-05:00

The Winter Ghosts
By Kate Mosse
Orion Books October 2009
Authors Website

Book Blurb

The Great War took much more than lives. It robbed a generation of friends, lovers and futures. In Freddie Watson's case, it took his beloved brother and, at times, his peace of mind. In the winter of 1928, still seeking resolution, Freddie is travelling through the French Pyrenees. During a snowstorm, his car spins off the mountain road. He stumbles through woods, emerging in a tiny village. There he meets Fabrissa, a beautiful woman also mourning a lost generation. Over the course of one night, Fabrissa and Freddie share their stories. By the time dawn breaks, he will have stumbled across a tragic mystery that goes back through the centuries.

My Review

While the beginning was slow - it was mostly about Freddie Watson and how he was still mourning over the death of his older brother George during the First World War. While he is mourning, he travels to the Languedoc in southern France. While out driving one day in the Pyrenees, he gets caught in a snow storm and crashes the car. He hikes to a village called Nulle and while he is there, he meets the villagers. Due to the storm, Freddie develops a fever and is very ill that night. While the owner of the inn where Freddie is staying looks after him, she insists that Freddie stay in bed for one more day. Freddie refuses.

Freddie beleives the villagers he met are 20th century villagers. In fact they are from the 12th century. He falls in love with one girl called Fabrissa. She tells him the story of the village - of how the inquisition (She just referred to a War and called the men soldiers) attacked the village and forced the villagers to go into hiding - up into the mountains where they sought shelter in the caves. The Inquisition soldiers followed the villagers up into the mountains and then built up walls to block up the caves.

Freddie takes the village mechanic back to his car and they arrange for his car to be towed to a mechanic so it can be repaired,. While they are discussing the repairs, Freddie is also asking questions about the villagers and the caves. Eventually Freddie gets a wild idea - to climb up the mountains and try to find the cave where Fabrissa and her family sought safety.

Once he arrives at the cave, his fever returns. He finds the tomb full of skeletons and finally undertsands that his Fabrissa (the girl he had fallen in love with) was a ghost of the past. He is close to death when he is found and he wakes up in a local hospital. One of the mechanics sons had followed him up into the mountains and rescued him from a cave that was obviously a tomb with a "spirit of death" - the spirit of death was slowly draining the life force from Freddie's body.

Once Freddie recovers, he explains how he climbed up to the caves and discovered a new unknown Cathar tomb. The archaeologists are eager to investigate and excavate. In this cave Freddie found a letter written in the Occitan language (Languedoc or Provencal). While it was not addressed to anyone, Freddie believes it was meant for him. After he is released from the hospital, Freddie returns to England.

Five years later, Freddie finally feels strong enough to know what the letter says. He takes this letter to an Antiquarian in Toulouse. Freddie tells his story to the Antiquarian in minute detail. The Antiquarian translates and reads the letter to Freddie.

Crescent Dawn - Book Review

2010-12-17T11:00:00.001-05:00

Crescent Dawn - A Dirk Pitt Novel

by Clive Cussler & Dirk Cussler

Putnam & Sons November 2010

In previous reviews of Dirk Pitt novels, I have not been terribly impressed with Dirk Pitt's son and daughter, Dirk Junior and Summer. But in this novel they come into their own and as a team they are very impressive. But the novel itself could have done with a lot better editing. In fact there are 2 seperate stories in this novel and each story could have had its OWN novel rather than be squashed together as an afterthought to create a 500 plus page monster.

Three events, distant in time and space. A treasure-laden fourth century Roman galley narrowly escapes a ferocious pirate attack; a World War I British warship explodes mysteriously in the North Sea; and in the all-too-real present-day, a string of coordinated bomb attacks destroys historic mosques in Egypt and Turkey. Something (supposedly) links these violent events and it's up to NUMA director Dirk Pitt to find and tie the deadly threads.

While the novel does get off to a slow start, and with different chapters describing each member of the Pitt family becoming involved in their search, the real action doesn't start happening until chapter 20 and when the team members finally get together in chapter 56, they each contribute their strands of the mystery to get the possible entire story.

BUT it turns out there are 2 different stories here, neither of which are directly connected to each other.

At the beginning of Cusslers novels the author always has a brief prologue about one or two historical ships in action - usually by being sunk. These ships always have something major to do with the main story.

So for this novel (Crescent Dawn) there are 2 boats being sunk in the prologue - and both end up having nothing whatsoever to do with the main story and everything to do with the secondary story.

The main story is about the Celik siblings who turn out to be descendents of Mehmet VI - the last Ottoman sultan of Turkey before Mustapha Ataturk deposed the sultans and took control of Turkey in 1923. The Celik siblings have grand visions of making Islam the major religion of the Middle East and the Mediterranean as it once was, over 1000 years previously. They will kill anyone who stands in their way.

First they blow up a historical mosque in Egypt and then they try to blow up the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, Fortunately that attempt was partially thwarted because Dirk Pitt junior was in the right place at the right time. Unfortunately his new girlfriend Sophie, died as a result of this botched explosion.

Lastly an Israeli water tanker is hijacked on the high seas of the Mediterranean and the crew is forced to fill it with ANFO and HMX explosives. The crew is then locked in the ship and the ship sets sail for Istanbul - where it is obviously intended to be a huge bomb that could destroy the city of Istanbul and a good portion of its 12 million residents.

Pitt and Giordino and their trusty new high speed submersible and speeder called the Bullet (top speed - 47 knots) race to Istanbul to find and prevent this floating bomb from exploding. They are unable to prevent the bomb from exploding, but they do rescue the crew and prevent the explosion from doing a huge amount of damage. In the last few minutes Pitt and Giordino are able to use a dredge to knock a hole in the ship which sinks it.

The Manifest of Jesus is a papyrus list of items that was discovered in Palestine in the late 1700s and reputed to have referred to a cache of items that belonged to Jesus Christ. On the list is an item called the Ossuary of J. The Church of England (Anglican Church) is terrified that it contains the bones of Jesus which will prove that the resurrection never happened. So the church is determined that this list never see the light of day. The Church sends letter after letter to Earl Horatio Herbert Kitchener (the person who is last known to have held the manifest list) demanding that he give the manifest to the church for "safekeeping".

In the early chapters of this novel. Summer Pitt is in England helping a girlfriend (Julie) to research Kitcheners personal papers. Summer uses NUMA technology to do a search around the wreck of the HMS Hampshire where they discover that the explosion that sank the ship, occurred from inside the ship. The hull plates are bent outwards, not inwards. Kitchener drowned aboard the Hampshire when it sunk in 1916.

Unknown to the girls, a jewish antiquities dealer has hired a shady archaeologist named Ridley Bannister to track down the items from the manifest of Jesus. He ends up shadowing the trail of Summer and her friend as they do all the work. Amongst Kitcheners papers and personal belongings, they eventually find the original papyrus manifest and a translation. Ridley promptly takes the papyrus from them at gun point.

After the fallout from the Istanbul ship bomb dies down, Pitt and his team return to the Mediterranean to complete the search for the items of the Manifest. The trail leds them to Cyprus where they eventually find a Roman galley safely hidden in an old cave. Within the ship are boxes containing the items on the manifest. These items eventually go on display in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

To be honest the religious mystery is NOT related to the quest for muslim domination at all. The two historical ships that were sunk at the beginning of this novel were both directly related to the religious mystery. I think this secondary story is just the authors trying to cash in on the latest trend for novels - religious mysteries ala The Da Vinci Code.

This entire novel is all about religion and terrorism and the middle east - the main story lines still happening in the world today.

World's most expensive book sells for £7.3 million pounds

2010-12-07T09:17:00.002-05:00

World's most expensive book sells for £7.3 million ($11.5 million)

John James Audubon's Birds of America at Sotheby's in London before its sale for a world record £7.3m. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters

A copy of John James Audubon's Birds of America tonight (December 6, 2010) became the most expensive book ever sold when it went under the hammer at Sotheby's for £7.3m. The auction was a rare chance to own one of the best preserved editions of the 19th century masterpiece, with its 435 hand-coloured illustrations, seen as a key volume on US natural history.

It was sold to an anonymous collector bidding by telephone, the auction house said. Each individual picture is so valuable there have been some fears the volume could be broken up and sold as 435 separate works of art. Experts believe that unlikely: the tome is probably more valuable intact.

And collectors hold Audobon in such reverence that the notion of ripping apart a perfect copy would be akin to sacrilege.

Emergence - Book Review

2010-12-04T11:46:00.004-05:00

Emergence - Labelled Autistic: A True Story
By Temple Grandin
Arena Press 1986
Reissued by Warner Books, 1996 & 2005
Temple Grandin's Official Website

Everyone knows what Autism is, right?

Autism is that dreaded Neurological condition that we hope our kids don't get. And if they do - well you know your family is in for a constant struggle for the next 20 years.

One of the first things you learn if your child should ever be diagnosed as Austistic is that the child will regress from whatever they had learned at 18 months, and that they will never improve. Well, the good news is that the "experts" have now been proven well and truely WRONG.

In 1950 Temple Grandin was diagnosed as Autistic. She was almost 4 years old and had not spoken at all. Her mother was told to put Temple in an institution. She was told that Temple would never amount to anything so why waste money and time on her.

Like all autistic children, Temple had a fear of being touched and hugged by her parents and her family. She refused to be touched, because her nerves were so sensitive. At the same time, Temple wanted to be touched. She needed to be touched. But the touches that humans gave her were not the right kinds of touch.

So Temple invented and built a machine that would give her the touch that her body craved. She called it a Squeeze machine. It worked along similar lines to cattle chutes where cows are held by a chute for vaccinations and dipping.

Temple craved steady pressure all along her body - something that human arms and legs cannot give. She had to start over several times, in designing and making this machine, because the college where she was studying, assumed the squeeze machine was a bad thing. The faculty's thinking implied that the machine was giving her orgasms. Masturbation in the 1960s and 1970s was considered a very bad thing to do. Temple eventually graduated from college with a degree in Psychology, and a Masters in Animal Science in the 1960s. She later went on to do a PhD in Animal Science in the 1980s.

Temple is now a Livestock expert. She designs cattle chutes for cattle in feedlots, abbatoirs (slaughterhouses) and on the ranches and farms. Why does she do this? Because she empathises with cows as they are slaughtered. Stressed and bruised meat is NOT good for human consumption. So the aim is to keep the cow happy (de-stressed) right up to the moment of death.

Last year (2009) a TV movie was made about Temple's life. Called simply Temple Grandin, it starred Claire Danes as Temple. This movie won 7 Emmy awards in August 2010.
Best Made-for-Television Movie,
Best Director, Mick Jackson
Best Lead Actress, Claire Danes
Best Supporting Actress, Julia Ormond
Best Supporting Actor, David Strathairn
Best Music Composition,
Best Camera Editing

This is Claire Danes (left) and Temple Grandin (right) at the Emmy Awards in August 2010.

If you really want to have some idea of what it is like to be Autistic, then I suggest you watch this movie. It is a stunning movie. It is funny in places, and it is sad too. But above all, it brings hope to all autistic children and their familes that autism can be conquered - even if it cannot be cured.

Temple has written several books. I hope to read the next volume in her life story soon. It's called Thinking in Pictures.

The Golden Rule and it's Source

2010-11-22T10:05:00.001-05:00

Taking about the Golden Rule - it is a Universal idea - NOT JUST a Christian idea.

Hanging by the Thread - Book Review

2010-11-17T17:28:00.002-05:00

Hanging by the Thread
by Donald B Anderson
Stonehaven Publishing May 2010
Book Website

Book Blurb
For ten years, a secret society has risen to power. They have infiltrated every facet of the federal government. They are powerful. They have extraordinary access to public funds. They have incredible technologies. And freedom is their nemesis. They have sought to destroy economic freedom, amass power to the federal government, and create mass dependency on the government.

They call themselves THE THREAD.

And now, they are poised to destroy the Constitution and rise to power.

But, on the eve of their burst into power, a copy of their plan falls into the hands of a young man in the Utah State Capitol building. A small group forms and comes to understand the plan of The Thread. And now, the race is on. Time is short and the group must struggle to preserve their lives, their nation, and freedom itself.

The Lectures
In the years leading up to the events in the story, The Thread has infiltrated every facet of the federal government. To prepare the nation for their rise to full power, The Thread has sought to destroy Economic Freedom and create mass dependency on the federal government.

One of the characters in the story, Dr. Harold Isaacson, is an Economics professor at BYU. In the Thread Lectures, Dr. Isaacson delivers a series of 10 lectures four months after the story's resolution. In these lectures, the professor analyzes the economics behind The Thread's efforts to destroy Economic Freedom and topple America.

These lectures provide insights and principles that will leave the reader with a better understanding of the principles of freedom and a greater ability to interpret the times in which we live. This content is timely and always will be.

MY REVIEW
This story reflects the last 9 years - since 9/11 - not so much in the terrorist actions of the group, but in the Political and Economic action and in their stealth and infiltration of the US Government and government agencies.

The lectures explain how laws that have been passed in the last 9 years affect economic action. These lectures are not long - no more than 5 pages each - and they are very informative and easy for lay people to read and understand.

Lecture titles are as follows.
1 Introduction to Economic Freedom
2 Freedom versus Equality
3 Natural Rights
4 Thread Objective - Neutralize raditional Institutions
5 Thread Objective - Centralise Power
6 Free Trade and Protectionism
7 Focused Benefits and Generalized Costs
8 Licensing and Registration
9 Income Mobility and Unions
10 Price Controls

Economic Freedom, in a nutshell, is the condition where government uses power and force solely to enable people to live the Golden Rule. When government fails to protect the Golden Rule, oe uses force to enable people to break the Golden Rule, economic freedom is perverted, abused or destroyed.

The Golden Rule is at the heart of Economic Freedom.

The Golden Rule is - Do unto others as you would have them do unto you - or in a modern translation - Treat others as you want them to treat you.

One more note - this story is set in Salt Lake City, Utah which is the home state of the Mormom Church. So there are a few mentions of God and Satan in both novel and in the lectures. Fortunately (as far as I can tell) there is NO Mormon doctrine mentioned at all. The entire story takes place over one 36 hour period - except for the last chapter which happens 2 weeks later. And the lectures which are presented some 4 months after the main story events.

Overall I found this book to be very interesting and I really enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed the lectures at the end which helped me to understand how the actions of the USA since 9/11, have affected the global economy and created the world wide recession we are currently living in.

I'll Scream Later - Book Review

2010-11-16T08:08:00.005-05:00

I'll Scream Later
By Marlee Matlin
Handjive Productions 2009
Author's Website

Born and raised in Morton Grove, Illinois, Marlee started acting at the age of seven in the role of Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz" at a children's theatre company in Chicago. After several years of performing on stage throughout Chicago and the midwest, Marlee was discovered in a Chicago stage production of Mark Medoff's Tony Award-winning play, "Children of a Lesser God." Following an extensive international search for the lead role, the producers of the film version selected her to star opposite William Hurt.

She went on to star in several movies and TV series and guest star in numerous other Tv series as well. One of them was as the Librarian in the children's program, Blue's Clues.

For seven seasons, Marlee starred opposite Martin Sheen, Jimmy Smits and Bradley Whitford as pollster, Joey Lucas, on NBC's Emmy Award winning series, "The West Wing."

In 2007, Marlee joined the cast of Showtime's cutting edge drama "The L Word" starring opposite Jennifer Beals. She returned for a third season on "The L Word" in 2009.

Marlee currrently serves as a national celebrity spokesperson for The American Red Cross, encouraging Americans to donate blood. She has also worked on behalf of closed captioning and in 1992 was instrumental in getting Congress to pass federal legislation requiring all televisions manufactured in the United States be equipped with closed captioning technology. She also serves on the boards of a number of charitable organizations including Easter Seals, The Children Affected By Aids Foundation, as well as those charities which primarily benefit children.

Book Review
In I'll Scream Later, actress Marlee Matlin takes readers on the frank and touching journey of her life, from the frightening loss of her hearing at eighteen months old to the highs and lows of Hollywood, her battles with addiction, and the unexpected challenges of being thrust into the spotlight as an emissary for the deaf community. She speaks candidly for the first time about the troubles of her youth, the passionate and tumultuous two-year relationship with Oscar winner William Hurt that dovetailed with a stint in rehab, and her subsequent romances with heartthrobs like Rob Lowe, Richard Dean Anderson, and David E. Kelley.

Though she became famous at the age of twenty-one, Marlee struggled all her life to connect with people, fighting against anyone who tried to hold her back. Her own mother often hid behind their communication barrier, and Marlee turned to drugs before she even started high school. However, she found in acting...with the encouragement of her mentor, Henry Winkler...a discipline, a drive, and a talent for understanding the human condition that belied her age and her inability to hear. By the time Hollywood embraced her, she had almost no formal training, a fact that caused many other deaf actors to give her the cold shoulder, even as she was looked upon as a spokesperson for their community.

Now, with uncompromising honesty and humor, Marlee shares the story of her life...an enduring tale that is an unforgettable lesson in following your dreams.

MY review
This was an excellent Memoir. How a deaf girl makes it in Hollywood of all places. Marlee was discovered at the age of 20 on stage in Chicago playing Sarah in the play Children of a lesser God. She was tapped to play the same role in the movie in 1981. She won an Oscar for her moving performance.

During and after the movie, Marlee was living with her co-star William Hurt. They were both doing drugs (cocaine) and he was abusing her. William was nominated for an Oscar for Children of a Lesser God but he did not win. Marlee did. That would make any man jealous.

Marlee can speak, and she signs, and I believe she reads lips too although she doesnt seem to make this clear. I can read lips and speak of course. But I have never learnt to sign, something I plan to rectify soon. For those of you who dont know me in person, I am "hard of hearing". I was born with a hearing loss although it was not discovered until I was 4 years old.

Marlee makes her home in the greater Los Angeles area. She and her husband, law enforcement officer (LAPD) Kevin Grandalski welcomed their first child, Sarah, in 1996, their second child, Brandon, in 2000 and their third child, Tyler, in July, 2002. Marlee and Kevin welcomed their fourth child, Isabelle in December, 2003.

The title of this memoir - I'll Scream Later - comes from a comment Marlee made when she was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar back in 1982.

This is an excellent memoir and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Detectives Don't Wear Seatbelts - Book Review

2010-11-14T09:11:00.000-05:00

Detectives Don't Wear Seatbelts - True adventures of a female P.I.
By Cici McNair
Hachette Books Group 2009

This is the autobiography of Clarissa McNair of Mississippi, a moneyed family. She had no idea what she wanted to do when she left college.So after she graduated, Cici moved to California trying to break into acting. When that failed, she bummed around Europe and Asia for several years, worked for the Vatican radio, worked for the CBC in Toronto and even got married to a Canadian. She was divorced within a year. By 1994 Cici was back in New York City trying to become a private investigator. She liked the idea of looking for missing persons.

In the PI business people who search for missing persons are called Skip Tracers. They are tracing the movements of people who skip town. I also considered doing this job, until I realised that you have to cold call friends and neighbours of the missing person and spew out a whole lot of lies in a convincing manner to get the friend/neighbour to give you some information. I am not good at telling lies.

Eventually after calling all the PI's in New York begging for a job, most of them said NO and then told her to NOT work for Vinny Parco - because he was poison. Cici ended up working for Vinny Parco. He was the only person to give her a chance. She had no experience, no references, no car and no apartment. But Cici was a natural at the job. Her sucess rate in locating missing persons was higher than most PI's.

Cici describes various different methods of locating the mark. She describes lies and stories she used, when on the telephone, some of these stories she had to make up off the top of her head. She describes what it is like to be on a long stakeout. The information in this book is interesting but eventually Cici's narrative and the stories becomes repetitive and somewhat boring. You can only do so many stakeouts and searches in a variety of different ways.

Cici now owns her own detective agency in Philadelphia. It is called Green Star Investigations.

I gave up reading by chapter 30 (out of a total of 43 chapters).

Spear of Destiny - Book Review

2010-11-14T08:44:00.001-05:00

Spear of Destiny
by Daniel Easterman
Allison and Busby 2009

Book Blurb
The untimely and brutal death of an old man sparks a chain of events that will put his grandson in danger as he races across Europe to Libya, to solve one of the oldest mysteries in the world: the location of the tomb of Christ and the sword that pierced his body on the Cross. In 1942 Gerald Usherwood and his platoon discover a mysterious crypt and it becomes clear they've stumbled onto something extraordinary. Sixty years later, his grandson Ethan discovers his body, slumped over his desk, clutching a small, ancient relic. As Ethan begins piecing together the events of 60 years before guided by Gerald's diaries, he finds himself hurtling across Europe, just one step ahead of the killer who will stop at nothing to discover the final resting place of Jesus Christ - and the ultimate religious icon that could spearhead a violent campaign to revive the Nazi legacy.

My Review
We have probably all heard of the Spear of Destiny. This is the roman spear that was supposedly thrust into Jesus's side as he was on the cross 2000 years ago. This spear is said to have special powers. Anyone who holds the spear, will become powerful. Legend says that the spear was broken into 3 pieces and the pieces hidden around the world. Back then the world consisted of North Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

During World war 2 - Hitler had teams of scholars searching throughout Europe and Africa for esoteric items - items that were reputed to make the holder powerful. Items like the holy grail and the spear of destiny.

Also during world war 2, deep in the southern desert of Libya, a British army team found an oasis that was not marked on any map. It was called Ain Suleiman (the Well of Solomon). The people there spoke a mixture of Hebrew and Greek. The chiefs son was infected with tetanus and the boy was healed. That is the main reason the team were allowed to leave after promising to never mention the location of the oasis to anyone.

60 years later the British team leader is killed in a very ugly manner in his home in England. His grandson Ethan, is determined to find his grandfathers killer. Ethan's adopted cousin Sarah is kidnapped and he tracks her first to Germany and then to Transylvania in Romania. Sarah is repeatedly raped by men who are members of a secret Nazi organisation. These men have been promised the power of the spear to rule the world.

Ethan tracks these men to Romania where he is able to rescue Sarah. They are given the name of a monastery to take shelter in. The abbot of this monastery explains to Ethan and Sarah the full story of the 50 year search for these esoteric items.

From Romania the trail leads back to Libya. Ethan and Sarah must put a team together to travel into the Libyan desert to find the lost spear of destiny. If you start at Kufra - deep in the southern desert of Libya not far from the border with Egypt - and travel west for 3 days, you will eventually reach the oasis called Ain Suleiman. Along the way Sarah is seperated from her team and ends up with the Nazis team - the same men who raped her.

The Nazis get to Ain Suleiman first and kill most of the inhabitants including the chief. Sarah is able to help the women of the oasis to kill the Nazis. By the time Ethans team arrives, Sarah has discovered that the people of the oasis are the direct descendents of the children of Jesus amd Mary. Sarah is a biblical scholar and speaks Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. The people of this oasis speak a misture of Hebrew and Greek. Ethan and his time choose to leave the oasis in peace to allow the community to recover from the deaths of the chief and other leaders. They promise to never mention the location of the oasis to anyone.

The story was interesting but formulaic. I would give it a 5 out of 10.

Big bookstores can't get Giller-winning novel

2010-11-10T15:00:00.000-05:00

Giller Winning novel in very short supply
SOURCE

TORONTO - Montreal's Johanna Skibsrud was the toast of the literary world Wednesday after nabbing the $50,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize, but the author's tiny Nova Scotia publisher couldn't say when her winning title would be available in one of the country's biggest bookstore chains.

"The Sentimentalists," Skibsrud's debut novel, is published by Gaspereau Press, which can only print about 1,000 copies a week. The company prides itself on hand-crafted books and has been steadfast in its refusal to outsource in order to meet demand.

"Our plan is still to produce the books here and to produce them at a sane rate that we can manage," publisher Andrew Steeves said from Gaspereau's headquarters in Kentville, N.S. "You have to hope for the goodwill and the patience of the booksellers and the readers. I think it's an interesting opportunity to slow the world down a hair and let people realize that good books don't go stale."

Skibsrud, 30, became the youngest Giller winner in the 17-year history of the prize when her name was called out at Tuesday's black-tie gala. She was emotional as she thanked her late father, who partly inspired her novel, about a daughter's quest to learn the truth about her father's life and his backstory in the Vietnam War.

A Giller win is like winning a literary lottery — particularly for an unknown author — and typically results in a boost in sales. But a downtown Chapters Indigo store did not have any copies of "The Sentimentalists" on Wednesday, even though it had received at least 10 inquiries about the book by mid-morning.

Steeves said he's filling the orders of independent bookstores first because they are his best customers. He couldn't say when Chapters Indigo would receive a shipment. He noted that people can download Skibsrud's book on e-readers if they are desperate to read it right away ("The Sentimentalists" was the third best-selling title on Kobobooks on Wednesday). Steeves, who co-founded Gaspereau 13 years ago, said the company's unique work is important to Canada's literary landscape.

"If you want a world that will only produce the kind of books Random House does then you know, you're going to get a pretty bland, McDonald's culture," he said, adding that Random House does "some great work. I don't really subscribe to the 'panic theory' of, if you don't have it right there, someone's going to buy something else. If people really want this book, if they really value the kind of ... cultural environment that can produce this kind of book then they will wait."

Skibsrud — who grew up in Pictou County, N.S. — admitted Tuesday night that she has, at times, wished that readers could get their hands on "The Sentimentalists" more quickly. Still, the author — who was scheduled to head to Turkey on Wednesday for a vacation — said she has faith in her publisher.

Gaspereau typically produces about 600 to 800 copies of a debut novel, Steeves said. He added that the company has almost completed a second print run of "The Sentimentalists," but would not give specific numbers.

Steeves noted that it was Gaspereau that paid attention to the novel in the first place. On some levels, he said, he really can't worry if Skibsrud is frustrated that her novel is in short supply. "My job is to be faithful to the values that we subscribe to here — to make good books, to do them well, to do them the best way we can and to stand up for and live out those principles," he said. "If we want to have a vibrant Canadian literary culture, you have to be able to foster not just a broad range of authors, but a broad range of publishers and ways of publishing."

Scotiabank Giller Prize 2010

2010-11-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

TORONTO - Thirty-year-old Montreal author Johanna Skibsrud became the youngest recipient of the $50,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize on Tuesday night, but readers may have trouble finding her winning novel, "The Sentimentalists."

That's because her Nova Scotia-based publishing house, Gaspereau Press, makes its hand-crafted books locally and can only print about 1,000 copies of "The Sentimentalists" a week. Some bookstores across the country have been unable to get the title since the Giller short list came out Oct. 5.

But Skibsrud was optimistic about the situation upon winning the prize, the most lucrative literary honour in Canada.

"I think that (the publishers) had said that they would cross that bridge when they come to it, so here's the bridge!" she said cheerfully backstage after an acceptance speech in which she thanked Gaspereau for believing in her.

"There definitely have been times that I've wished that it was out there in more readers' hands but I know that Gaspereau has been working very, very hard to get them there and they are in the independent bookstores now and they are, or should be, in Chapters again soon. So yeah, I have faith in them."

"The Sentimentalists" chronicles a daughter's quest to learn the truth about her dying father's life and his backstory in the Vietnam War. Skibsrud — who grew up in Pictou County, N.S. — was tearful in her acceptance speech as she thanked the person who inspired the Vietnam stories in the book.

"To my late father, Olaf, for sharing his stories with me ... for all of his love and support as well, and for being here tonight, because I know he is," she said, looking radiant in a black, long, form-fitting Oscar de la Renta dress and a pearl necklace. I just can't even imagine how proud he would have been."

She said she'll use the prize money to pay off her student loans and travel from Moscow to Beijing on the Trans-Siberian railway.

"The Sentimentalists" was presented by singer Anne Murray at the Giller gala, which was hosted by CTV personality Seamus O'Regan and drew in nearly 500 members of the publishing, media and arts communities.

It was up against:
"This Cake is for the Party" by Toronto's Sarah Selecky;
"Light Lifting" by Alexander MacLeod of Dartmouth, N.S.;
"The Matter With Morris" by Winnipeg's David Bergen; and
"Annabel" by Montreal-based Kathleen Winter.

Winter's novel is also shortlisted for a Governor General's Literary Award. That prize will be handed out next week.

This year's jury — CBC broadcaster Michael Enright, American author Claire Messud and British writer Ali Smith — arrived at the short list after reading 98 books submitted by 38 publishing houses. Giller runners up will each receive $5,000.

Businessman Jack Rabinovitch established the prize in 1994 in memory of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller. Since then, it has become one of the country's most popular literary awards, with nominated books receiving a considerable boost in sales. It's also a rare chance for the shortlisted writers — who so often toil in solitude — to enjoy a moment in a glamorous spotlight.

At Tuesday's black-tie bash, the nominated writers rubbed shoulders with luminaries including filmmaker Atom Egoyan, dancer Veronica Tennant, author Margaret Atwood, politician Bob Rae and actor Gordon Pinsent. Pinsent voiced the ceremony's author profiles and filmmaker Bruce McDonald produced and directed the broadcast's opening short film, which paid tribute to the prize. Other presenters included Blue Rodeo frontman Jim Cuddy and journalist Barbara Amiel Black, wife of Conrad Black.

Dinner included sweet chili ahi tuna tartar with avocado and cilantro, and grand cru torte with pistachio and vanilla anglaise. Selecky, who has admitted she crashed the Giller a couple of years back, was soaking in the night. "It's really nice to have an invitation this time," said the 36-year-old author. She was excited to meet Atwood, one of her idols.

"There's a story in the book that I wrote particularly wondering what she would think of it and I just never thought that she would read it or have an opportunity to read it let alone sit behind me at this dinner," said Selecky. "So it's really special."

While past winners have included high-profile authors including Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Alice Munro and M.G. Vassanji, this year's list — with the exception of Bergen, who won the Giller in 2005 — was made up of newcomers.

Skibsrud says she relished bonding with her fellow finalists, many of whom — like herself — "haven't received a lot of attention" in their careers. "I feel that this is a really exciting time in Canadian literature," she said, noting she was in "utter shock" when her name was announced as the winner.

McNally Robinson Booksellers in Winnipeg says it was "caught off guard" by the number of new writers on this year's short list. "Generally there are small presses involved and some rising but unknown authors, but they don't tend to be the majority of the list," said Chris Hall, senior inventory manager at the store.

MacLeod — the son of acclaimed author Alistair MacLeod — said he and his fellow finalists were all "feeling good for each other" ahead of the show. "Many of us are outsiders to the ... business side of it, and I think that's been a great insulator for us," said the English professor at Halifax's St. Mary's University, which was planning to hold a party for him Tuesday night.

The Giller gala was broadcast live on Bravo! and CTV.ca, and will air on CTV on Wednesday. (Tonight)

SOURCE

Refuse to Choose - the problem with Polymaths

2010-11-09T21:37:00.011-05:00

Refuse to Choose
By Barbara Sher
Rodale Books 2007

Do you know what a Polymath is? A polymath is the new name for what we used to call a Renaissance Man. A man who knew a lot about a lot of things. Names like Leonardo da Vinci spring to mind.I mean lets face it - women were never considered to be intelligent back then - even through they were.

I am 40 something years old and I still do not have a career. I still do not know what I want to be when I grow up. I am interested in lots of different things. I find it extremely difficult to have to choose just one area and be required to stick to that one area for the rest of my life.

Today I found the answer for what I am. I am a polymath. I am also a generalist. But todays economy (whether depressed or booming) prefers to train humans up to be specialists. I do not like being a specialist.

Today I found a book that describes me and my kind. It's called Refuse to Choose, by Barbara Sher. It has an interesting subtitle Use All of Your Interests, Passions, and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams.

I also found a review of this book. I haven't read this book yet - but I am putting it on reserve at my library so I can read it ASAP. Here are some excerpts of this review that I totally agree with. I hope to find a general career I can start working towards. The following comments are some excerpts from the review.

It’s about the types of people Sher calls “scanners” (as opposed to “divers”). People who would rather survey the whole horizon than go diving as deep as they can in one spot. She calls them scanners, I call them polymaths, but they’re very similar.

The main thing I got out of this book was that it’s OK to be a scanner, it’s just how we’re wired and not something we should try to suppress, and in fact it’s a good thing. Which I already knew, of course, but it was nice to see a recognized life coach saying so and talking about her clients who have successfully pursued their diverse interests.

One example of how she shows that scanners are OK: the false stigma of quitting. Many scanners get very frustrated with themselves for not being able to finish what they set out to do. Barbara explains why this is not a sign of failure, but a sign of having goals that are achieved before a project appears to be done. When a bee gets nectar from a flower and then moves on to the next one, do you call it a quitter for not sticking around

And some comments from the Amazon page are as follows - comments that again, I totally agree with.

This is a really good book. You need to read it if you are someone who has so many interests you can't seem to get anything done. If everyone you know says you just never grew up and settled down then you are probably a Scanner. Do you have so many interests the books and papers pile up? Do you constantly find things that interest you and you never seem to be able to finish them? You are almost certainly a Scanner, and you need to hear what Barbara Sher has to say. It can make a big difference.

What I have ALWAYS been is confused. I am not stupid--actually more on the intellectual side. I have varied interests in the Pre-Raphaelites, travel,hockey, making mosaics, growing a garden, politics, writing, being healthy, quirky little English movies etc etc. And instead of picking one career..I have found myself in menial jobs--retail, shelving books at a library, working reservations for a major airline, temp jobs with insurance companies etc etc. And I am still barely over minimum wage, intellegent and having friends wonder what is wrong with me--or asking if I had ADD.

For years, I beat myself up because I hopped from job to job because as soon as I mastered a task, I got bored. Every time I fell in love with a new hobby, I tried to make it a career, only to feel boxed in as soon as it began to take off. I thought I was afraid of success or lazy or undisciplined, but none of that was true. Barbara Sher taught me that I have a beautiful mind--like Leonardo da Vinci. Well, maybe not that good, but I have a hungry mind that needs stimulation. I have nothing to be ashamed of.

Because I am interested in so many things, this book naturally grabbed my attention. Barbara understands that "scanners" are not just losers or non-commital type but are people wired differently than others. They have great abilities that decades ago would have made them someone like Edison or DaVinci.

These comments come from other people who are just like me. They describe me (Bibliohistoria) and my life PERFECTLY. I am not alone.

My interests are reasonably wide and somewhat varied. They include - reading, genealogy, politics, science, gymnastics (but no other sports), archaeology, science fiction, paleography, history, geography, bibliography, computers, apologetics, cartography, archives, records management, library science, and any other area of interest you can find mentioned in this blog.

In terms of a career so far, I have recently completed a Diploma in Business Administration. I graduated last year. I have no other educational qualifications. I do make a lot of plans but they never seem to come to pass. I have been out of school for over 25 years. This diploma is quite generalized (which is why I chose it) and not specialised. I did think about doing either a paralegal course or a medical records management course, but did not want to become too specialised. Now my general diploma is a hindrance in obtaining a job as I dont have anything "special'.

When I finally get to read this book, I will post a review and my understanding of what I can do to hopefully salvage the next 20 years of my working life.

One final comment (Source - Hunter Nuttal)

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

I’ve always loved that quote, but I don’t think he took it quite far enough. Let’s try again.

“A human being should be able to make six figures online, write an enthralling novel, design a relational database, mix a perfect margarita, calculate a stock’s annualized return, juggle five balls in the lotus position, nail every shift point in a drag race, throw a murderous left hook, solve Rubik’s Cube while discussing the latest tax laws, do heavy squats without a back brace, stand with their legs straight and touch their palms to the floor, identify a stranger’s Myers-Briggs type, separate fact from fiction in the law of attraction, make a baby feel safe, make a child laugh, make an elderly person feel respected, be one of the guys, and give a girl multiple orgasms. Specialization is for insects."

Lost Empire - Book Review

2010-10-31T07:35:00.004-04:00

Lost Empire
by Clive Cussler and Grant Blackwood
G P Putnam and Sons, 2010

I haven't read the first book in this new series from Clive Cussler, the one called Spartan Gold. It's a good thing I haven't. This novel is the second book in the Fargo series starring a treasure hunting couple - Sam and Remi Fargo. This book was not the usual fun. It was very busy and hard to read. Too many things were happening , too many details and at time it was even boring. It is not connected to NUMA - no names from the Numa books or any of Cusslers other books show up at all. No Bell. no Cabrillo. No Austin and certainly no Pitt.

While the premise was good, the story could have been a lot better.

For starters, there were no real descriptions or stories of Sam and Remi Fargo as a couple so it was hard to imagine them. I would love to know how and why a woman was given a name like Remi. I have to assumne that they don't have children as none were mentioned. There were no personal descriptions of them as humans. While there is a brief mention of their backgrounds and how they got into treasure hunting, this description was dry and void of any personal anecdotes.

The story starts out with Sam and Remi scuba diving around Zanzibar, in Tanzania, East Africa. They find a ships bell buried in a sand bar. The bell comes from a ship called the Ophelia. When the Fargos try to bring this bell up to the surface, the enemy comes out, threatening them, trashing their boat and trying to kill them. How could this have happened so fast? This enemy are Mexican. So the next questions is why are the Mexicans so interested in a bell found off the coast of Africa? And why are they willing to kill to cover up whatever is found?

Underneath the name Ophelia on the bell, are letters that indicate the bell also comes from another ship. These letters spell out the name Shenandoah - a confederate ship that did a lot of work during the civil war destroying and sinking yankee (northern states) shipping. This ship and its activities was traced from the 1860s up the 1880s and then it disappeared. The Fargo's found it. It was eventually found in Indonesia where it was perfectly preserved (just like the Pompeii ruins) by the ashes from the Krakatoa volcano explosion in 1883.

In the background is the Fargos researcher - doing exactly the kind of job that I would love to do. The researcher's name is Selma (I hope she was named after Selma Ruete - the last princess of Zanzibar) who lives back in La Jolla, California and who is brilliant at finding out all the answers.

I found the relentess Mexicans to be a distraction. They were always there at every turn and every find that the Fargo's made. Always trying to kill the Fargos. Their presence does not always make sense.

The Mexicans had been looking for something for 10 years. The Fargos found it in just a few weeks. It turns out that the current President of Mexico (Garza) is the leader of the country's Aztec party and he got into power by bringing back the memory and power of the Aztecs (conveniently forgetting the bloodthirsty sacrifices that they made) as a warrior race of people capable of running their own country once again.

Garza had discovered a secret about the Aztecs. And if the people of Mexico knew this secret, he would lose his power and his job as president.

The Fargos trace the Aztecs from Zanzibar to Madagascar to Indonesia. There they discover that the Aztecs did NOT originate in Mexico. Some 1500 years ago they travelled from Indonesia, via Madagascar (or Malagasy as it used to be called) to Mexico where they settled around 500 CE.

When this news is released to the press as a rumour, Garza's party is very quickly overtuned and Garza himself committs suicide.

As I said, the story idea was very good one. But the execution of the story was done in a rushed and hurried manner. Too many details and not particularly realistic.

There is one more thing I need to mention. The Olmec people of Mexico. The people whose statues look like Africans. Well since the Africans travelled from Africa to MesoAmerica, it stands to reason that Aztecs may have done so as well. Also if Heyerdahl can prove that the Inca traveled across the Pacific in small reed boats then the early Indonesians and early African could easily have travelled across the Atlantic Ocean as well.

An important Anniversary for me today

2010-10-21T11:25:00.001-04:00

This is just a quck note to remind myself that when I was younger I didn't want to be married. I was not in any hurry to meet a guy. But I did meet a fellow. Online of all places. We got married 10 years ago today.

Today is my 10th (yes TENTH) wedding anniversary and that we are still married and we are still together. We have one son - who's pictures are scattered through this blog. Neither my husbands name nor my sons names are mentioned in this blog for privacy reasons.

Losing it - Book Review

2010-10-21T11:17:00.000-04:00

Losing it - And Getting My Life Back, One Pound at a Time
by Valerie Bertinelli
Free Press (Simon & Schuster) 2008

Valerie Bertinelli has several claims to fame.
1 - she was acting on a hit TV comedy show at the age of just 16 (One Day at a Time)
2 - she married one of the founding members of the famous Van Halen rock group - one of the more famous heavy metal music bands of the 1980s
3 - her son (Wolfgang Van Halen) now plays with his father for Van Halen some 25 years later
4 - while her marriage was falling apart, Valerie comforted herself with eating. Now she has lost weight in public and on TV. She does this while working as a spokesperson for Jenny Craig.

There are also a number of other nuggets of information that I never knew.

I was never a heavy metal music fan although I loved listeing to the music of the 1980s. I preferred pop, disco and rock music. While I know what and who Van Halen and Bon Jovi were, I was never into their music so I never bothered to read up on any of their group members or their history.

Did you know that Edward Van Halen (Eddie) was not born in the USA? His mother was from Indonesia and his father was Dutch. Eddie was born in the Netherlands. Remember Indonesia used to be called the Dutch East Indies. The Van Halens immigrated to the USA in the early 1960s.

Eddie unfortunately could not cope with the pressures of fame and so he began drinking and doing drugs - marijuana and cocaine. While Valerie also experimented with drugs, she never went further than marijuana. Her drug of comfort was food. Slowly the weight piled on. The the comments began. Mostly they were small things where she looked great but her ass could be a bit smaller.

Valeries sitcom TV show One Day at a Time was a hit. I remember that I loved watching it. Valeries's TV sister was played by MacKenzie Phillips - daughter of John Phillips of the Mamas and Papas. Mackenzie also struggled with drug addictions. Mackenzie was eventually fired from the show.

If you want to know what life is really like, backstage of a rock concert and what it is really like to travel on the road with a music band, then you have to read this book.

I really enjoyed it.

Valerie has a new biography out now - a follow up to Losing It. Her new book is called Finding It and was published in October 2009.

Watch - Book Review

2010-09-16T08:21:00.006-04:00

Watch
by Robert J Sawyer
Viking (Penguin) Books 2010
Trilogy website
Author's website

This is the second book in the WWW trilogy. I reviewed the first book last year.

This book continues the story of the new conciousness that has arisen on the world wide web,

Caitlyn Decter is no longer blind. Well she still is blind in her right eye, but her left eye has a retinal implant and she can now see in 2 different ways. In realtime - in which she sees the world like you and me. And in cyberspace - where she sees the web as points of lights with the links as lines.

This cyber consiousness makes contact with Caitlyn. The conciousness is given a name - Webmind. And it begins to learn. It reads everything on Wikipedia and in Project Gutenberg. It craves more knowledge.

To speak to Caitlyn, Webmind starts off by sending its answers to her questions online though the Instant Messaging system. It becomes "bored" with Caitlyns slow responses so while Webmind is trying to chat to Caitlyn, it also decides to learn more by linking to other websites. So far it has only been able to link to one website at atime, even if this does happen in the space of microseconds. Webmind tries over and over again and eventually is able to make two links simultaneously - so he continues to do so. Eventually this causes Webmind to "hang up" or freeze. Caitlyn has to work hard to unjam Webmind. This is the event that brings Webmind to the attention of the government.

On the 20th floor of an office tower in Alexandria, Virginia, there is a new US government agency - an offshoot of the NSA. It is called WATCH, which means Web Activity Threat Containment Headquarters.

When Webmind gets jammed, WATCH becomes very curious about this person online with no IP address and who freezes up online. So they begin by watching and reading everything between Webmind and Caitlyn. They give this unknown online threat a name - Exponential.

At Webmind's insistence, the Japanese scientist - Kuroda - adds more software to Caitlyn's retinal implant and eventually Webmind can see anything that Caitlyn can see. That software includes watching and understanding movies and visual moving pictures (eg anything on TV, youtube or webcams).

Caitlyn is now having to relearn the names of things that she has only ever touched up until now. She must also relearn the colours by linking the names to the actual colours. Caitlyn also learns to read the latin alphabet but she prefers to read braille with her eye (rather than her fingers) as she knows that alphabet best. Caitlyn can talk to Webmind out loud. Webmind can now contact and respond to Caitlyn by sending braille to Caitlyn's retinal inplant.

Halfway through this story a girl in Australia sits in front of a webcam and slashes her wrist. She does so at the urging of others who tell her she is a coward if she does not do it. A few lone voices tell her not to but she refuses to listen. Webmind watches this without understanding. This suicide does make the news.

Webmind tells Caitlyn that he (Webmind calls himself a he, so as to not be called it) watched this and did nothing because he did not know he should have done anything. Caitlyn explains that he should have attempted to communicate with the girl and encourage her to not kill herself. If this happens again, he is do whatever he can to not allow that person to kill themself.

Caitlyn says he shoud do things to make people happy, but only if more than one person is made happy by that event. Do not so whatever you are asked if only that person asking will benefit. That is called being selfish.

Eventually WATCH decides that this Exponential is becoming too much of a threat. in reality - it is an unknown and unknowns must be neutralised. The decision is made at the highest levels to neutralise this threat. So WATCH has agents from the Canadian SIS service sent to Waterloo (in Ontario) to speak to both Caitlyn and Malcolm Decter (Caitlyn's father). They wish to know more about this Webmind and they specifically want to know its source. On which server does it reside?

These agents threaten to void (cancel) Malcolms Decters work permit if they do not tell the agents where Webmind lives and on which servers it resides. Since Webmind lives in cyberspace, he has no hardware and resides on no server.

The Decter family understand that the actions of the agents means that the government wishes to shut Webmind down. The best way to prevent something from being permanently hidden is to make it public. So Webmind needs to become public. What would be the best way to do that?

The answer is SPAM

Webmind removes all the spam emails sent out to some 2 billion email addresses daily. So everyone wakes up one day to just their own daily mail addressed to them that is NOT a spam email. Webmind sends a letter to each of these 2 billion email addresses explaining who he is, what he has done and why.

People respond by asking Webmind to do other things. Webmind deals with all requests and only does whatever is asked of more than just the asker will be made happy. The most common way for this to occurr is when people ask to find missing friends and relatives. Where adopted children and adults ask Webmind to find their mothers and children. Webmind does so but he contacts the mothers and the children first and asks for their permission.

70% of responses are agreeable to being reunited with their friends, relatives and family members who were adopted out

WATCH decides to delete mutant packages at one switching node. Soon 27% of packages are being deleted and this is seriously eroding Webmind's ability to function. Webmind sends a message to Caitlyn. Help I am under attack.

Caitlyn and Webmind together respond by sending all the SPAM that Webmind cleaned up - more than 20 billion SPAM messages - to that one specific switching node - a denial of service attack. It works, as AT and T threatens to take that node offline which will shut down a good portion of the internet. WATCH is forced to abort its attempt to neutralise Webmind.

Caitlyn then asks the question. The government was deleting packages. How did the government know that Webmind was made up of packages?

It turns out that Caitlyn's new boyfriend - a classmate named Matthew who is also a maths geek - had done a google search on various terms after he was told about Webmind and asked to keep it a secret. He searched terms like cellular automata, Conway's Game of Life, cellular automata conciouness, packets, time to live, hop counters.

Since everyone connected with Caitlyn is being watched, (including her class mates at school) his searches were picked up by WATCH and analysed.

In cyberspace, internet activity is routinely sent around the network (the world wide web) in packets. These packets for the most part arrives at the destination safely but some do go missing. This just means that some information never gets to where it is supposed to be and the lack of information shows up as blanks on the receivers screen.

Webmind is made up of these missing and mutant packages.

This was an excellent book and while I did not stay up until 2 am reading it, like I did for the first book, (I am still reading online fan fiction as well), I still enjoyed this book very much. I cannot wait for the third part of this trilogy (called WONDER) to be released next year.

The Lady Queen - Book Review

2010-09-05T09:25:00.001-04:00

The Lady Queen
The Notorious Reign of Joanna I - Queen of Naples, Jerusalem and Sicily
by Nancy Goldstone
Walker Publishing 2009
Joanna of Naples - Wikipedia
Genealogies of Italian nobility - scroll down to the bottom for Naples

Called Joanna in English - Giovanna in Italian - Joanna was the queen of Naples & Sicily and the Countess of Provence (in France) in the 1300s. Since this was during the time of the Anti-Popes (1305 - 1377), with the papacy based at Avignon in Provence, Joanna was ruler of the popes for several years. This afforded her excellent protection and was probably the major reason why she was able to rule for so long, at a time when men expected to be the rulers.

Joanna's father was Charles of Calabria, and her mother was Marie of Valois. These were minor players in the royal stakes. Marie's grandfather was King Philippe III of France. Philippe's parents were King Louis IX of France (later Saint Louis) and Marguerite of Provence.

Joanna inherited the throne of Naples from her grandfather - Robert the Wise. Joanna was the first women to rule a country in her own right - but she was still fought over by the kings of Europe because Naples was a major prize.

Joanna was married 4 times - the first time at age 6 to her cousin Andrew (Endre) of Hungary. Andrew was immature, given to extravagance, and mercilessly egged on by his parents to insist on having equal rights with Joanna in ruling Naples. Joanna did not want this at all. In fact she had no intentions of sharing her power with anyone. And eventually, Andrew would be murdered in a spectacular fashion by some Neapolitan aristocrats. The fallout from this would be serious for Joanna, barely twenty years of age, and facing immense odds from forces inside and outside of her kingdom.

And in the years of her reign, they would be many. Her first set of in-laws, the Hungarians, would ruthlessly persecute her, insisting that it was she who arranged for Andrew's murder, if not actually participating in it. There was her sister, Maria, whose husband Charles was made Count of Durazzo (a city on what is now Albania). Charles and Maria constantly stirred up trouble and looked to replace Joanna as Queen.

There were also troubles that no one could have predicted, most devastating being the Black Death that came through Naples on a regular basis. This depopulation not only wrecked a vibrant economy, it also left the country open to invasion. Warfare was something that Joanna would know on a regular basis, and more often than not she chose her next three husbands as much for their military prowess as for their ability to get her with an heir.

Over 4 marrriages, Joanna gave birth to 3 children - but none of them survived to adulthood. They all died as children - her daughter Catherine died at age 15.

Joanna was eventually assassinated on 12 May 1382 by her sister's husband, Charles of Durazzo. Joan was smothered with pillows, in revenge for the method of Duke Andrew's assassination. The kingdom of Naples was left to decades of recurring succession wars.

Giovanni Boccaccio wrote the Decameron - a series of stories that take place during the Black death plague - during this time. Boccaccio even lived in Naples for a while, as well.

The ghost of Andrew, her first husband and his death would always haunt Joanna, and she would go down in history as a woman who was deceitful, lustful, depraved and murderous. This is a myth that the author, Nancy Goldstone, carefully picks apart in her history.

This book was relatively easy to read although some parts of the papal politics became repetitive and boring. Joanna herself was never boring.

Earthquake

2010-09-05T08:48:00.002-04:00

I realise this is not book related but my home country of New Zealand was hit by an earthquake 2 days ago (Friday 3rd September - EDT). In NZ it was 0430 on Saturday 4th September. The earthquake rattled Christchurch - the second largest city - and measured 7.1 on the Richter scale. A large number of buildings were damaged. Fortunately no lives were lost.

The last earthquake I lived through was 33 years ago - in 1977. It measured 7.7 (Ruchter scale) and I was in school at the time. I can still remember running out of the classroom and jumping down into the large dicth that ran alongside the buildings. This ditch was a good 3 feet across and I knew I was never going to be able to jump across it. So I jumped down into the ditch and then had to climb up the other side while the ground was shaking underneath me. Very scary.

The Dangers of Summer

2010-08-21T23:07:00.001-04:00

Well my son's summer has officially gotten worse.

He went off to a kids activity camp several days ago. The camp had planned activities like swimming, sports (tennis, soccer and softball) and the occasional video movie. On the second day of camp they went swimming at an OUTDOOR pool with no water bottles and no sunscreen. And the organisers never bothered to tell me to provide said items.

My son came home that day with very red skin - both on his chest and his back. He was obviously in a lot of pain. His shoulders developed blisters. One blister was particularly large (over 1 inch across at least) and there were quite a few small blisters as well. These indicate that he had second degree burns.

He could not tolerate the aloe vera I applied. So we had to use moisturiser instead. The next 3 nights were quite hard to get through as he couldnt sleep in any one position for very long.

Fortunately the large blister has now gone down and the peeling has begun. The pain has gone and he has slept right through for the last 2 nights.

From now on we will remember sun screen and T-shirts if he ever goes swimming again. Obviously my son has not returned to this particular camp and he wont be going back again either. I will be complaining to the director of the centre next week about the incompetancy of their staff.

I remember one summer long ago (25 years at least) when I fell asleep in the sun and was burnt all down my back and the backs of my legs. I was on a working holiday and I still had to continue working outdoors picking fruit, even while my back and legs blistered and peeled.

The Lost Quilter

2010-08-15T10:28:00.003-04:00

The Lost Quilter
by Jennifer Chiaverini
Simon and Schuster Books 2009
Author's website

This novel (The Lost Quilter) is actually a sequel to an earlier novel - called The Runaway Quilt (which I have not yet read) - in which the slave seamstress Joanna escaped from the plantation in Virginia, and managed to get as far as Elm Creek Farm in Pennsylvania. There she was taught how to read, how to quilt and gave birth to her son (Douglass Frederick a quadroon - Joanna herself is a mulatto - born of a slave mother and a white master - Douglas was also born of a white master so he is 1/4 African American)

The beginning of the Lost Quilter briefly tells the story of Joanna's journey from Virginia to Pennsylvania and of how she was betrayed by Anneke to the Slave catchers and dragged back to Virginia. The year is 1859 and the rest of the novel tells Joanna's story in detail of her life as a slave in Virginia and later in South Carolina (after she was sold) in the months before the Civil war began.

While Joanna is enslaved in South Carolina, she begins making a quilt that tells of her journey from Virginia to Pennsylvania so that she can remember how to get back to freedom.

Joanna marries Titus, another slave on the South Carolina Plantation, and gives birth to a daughter Ruthie. The family is split up when Joanna is taken to Charleston by her masters newly-married daughter. Titus and Ruthie are left behind on the plantation.

Some months later Ruthie is brought to Charleston to be with her mother. The reason given, is that her job will be as a personal playmate and child minder to the mistress's baby - if the child is a daughter. The mistress gives birth to a son Thomas so Ruthie is not put to work yet. She is barely 2 years old.

This was an excellent story to read - especially for its minute detail about the daily life of a slave. I must find the earlier novel The Runaway Quilt to read.

Fantastic Fiction review

Master Quilter Sylvia Bergstrom Compson treasures an antique quilt called by three names -- Birds in the Air, after its pattern; the Runaway Quilt, after the woman who sewed it; and the Elm Creek Quilt, after the place to which its maker longed to return. That quilter was Joanna, a fugitive slave who traveled by the Underground Railroad to reach safe haven in 1859 at Elm Creek Farm in Pennsylvania.

Though Joanna's freedom proved short-lived -- she was forcibly returned by slave catchers to Josiah Chester's plantation in Virginia -- she left the Bergstrom family a most precious gift, her son. Hans and Anneke Bergstrom, along with maiden aunt Gerda, raised the boy as their own, and the secret of his identity died with their generation. Now it falls to Sylvia -- drawing upon Gerda's diary and Joanna's quilt -- to connect Joanna's past to present-day Elm Creek Manor.

Just as Joanna could not have foreseen that, generations later, her quilt would become the subject of so much speculation and wonder, Sylvia and her friends never could have imagined the events Joanna witnessed in her lifetime. Punished for her escape by being sold off to her master's brother in Edisto Island, South Carolina, Joanna grieves over the loss of her son and resolves to run again, to reunite with him someday in the free North. Farther south than she has ever been, she nevertheless finds allies, friends, and even love in the slave quarter of Oak Grove, a cotton plantation where her skill with needle and thread soon becomes highly prized.

Through hardship and deprivation, Joanna dreams of freedom and returning to Elm Creek Farm. Determined to remember each landmark on the route north, Joanna pieces a quilt of scraps left over from the household sewing, concealing clues within the meticulous stitches. Later, in service as a seamstress to the new bride of a Confederate officer, Joanna moves on to Charleston, where secrets she keeps will affect the fate of a nation, and her abilities and courage enable her to aid the country and the people she loves most.

The knowledge that scraps can be pieced and sewn into simple lines -- beautiful both in and of themselves and also for what they represent and what they can accomplish -- carries Joanna through dark days. Sustaining herself and her family through ingenuity and art during the Civil War and into Reconstruction, Joanna leaves behind a remarkable artistic legacy that, at last, allows Sylvia to discover the fate of the long-lost quilter.

Jennifer Chiaverini (the author) is pictured on the cover of the latest issue of Country Women magazine - August/September 2010 issue. The article has an interview, some photos and a new quilt pattern.

50 Famous Books That Were Posthumously Published

2010-08-07T09:03:00.001-04:00

50 Famous Books That Were Posthumously Published

I received an email about this article, and I beleive it warrants being mentioned

Even after an author dies, his or her work can live on to educate and inspire. Many famous authors have had their works published after their death, some with their blessing and others against their expressly stated wishes. For better or worse, here are fifty such works that have been published after the author has passed on.

50 Famous Books That Were Posthumously Published

Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
The Will to Power by Friedrich Nietzsche
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
The Aeneid by Virgil
Collected Poems by Sylvia Plath
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen by Wilfred Owen
The Prelude by William Wordsworth
Armageddon In Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The Love of the Last Tycoon: A Western by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Persuasion by Jane Austen
The Lighthouse at the End of the World by Jules Verne
Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf
Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man by Joseph Heller
Hadji Murat by Leo Tolstoy
The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain

And many more.....

Too hot to read and blog - and the dentist doesnt help

2010-07-30T20:28:00.002-04:00

Yes I know - another whole month and I haven't posted anything new.

Sorry but the high humidity and high temperatures we are getting this summer are just so draining. I am too drained to read and too tired to concentrate on what I am reading. I am still reading books, but I am reading in small bursts, and not spending 6 hours reading all the way through one entire book like I usually do.

Temperatures have been constantly around 30 degrees celcius for most of this month. This last week they have dropped and temps have been around 27 & 28 degrees, definitely cooler.

I took my son to the dentist yesterday to get a couple of baby teeth removed. They were causing problems for the adult teeth trying to come up underneath. This meant he had to have a needle to numb his gums so the baby teeth could be pulled out. The dentist tried twice, but both times my son screamed and fought and wriggled and kept his mouth firmly shut and refused to allow the needle anywhere near his mouth.

The dentist had to give up because he couldnt do anything safely. So now my son and I will have to go to another dental office for him to have a general anasthetic so that all the work that needs to be done on his mouth can be done - thats 2 baby teeth pulled and a few fillings done as well.

My son has sensory issues and a very sensitive mouth. He even hates brushing his teeth. The dentist has previously mentioned that my son will need orthodontist work done on his teeth eventually. I have no idea how my son is going to cope with braces.

I hope that my reading and blogging will go back to normal when the weather turns cooler and my son goes back to school. Having him around 24/7 uses up a lot of energy as well.

It's been very quiet - I know....

2010-07-05T08:30:00.001-04:00

And yes I know I havent posted for an entire month. I am reading but most of my reading is from fan fictions online - specifically from some of my favourite TV shows.

I am reading books as well. Have started several (I have at least 10 books in the TBR pile all with book marks in them) but so far havent finished any.

It's summer and my son is now home all day for the next 8 weeks. It's already very hot and humid. Temperatures inside the apartment reached a high of 31 degrees celcius today. Outside the temps are holding steady at 30 degrees. It is way too hot really, to do anything.

There are wading pools for the kids to swim in, but my son does not want to go swimming.

I will try and finish some of my books and get some reviews up by the end of July and hopefully more in August. I should also be looking for a job - but it's just too hot to do that.

Canada sure does have its extremes. Minus 30 degrees celcius in the winter and plus 30 degrees in the summer.

Stones into Schools Book Review

2010-06-06T08:00:00.013-04:00

Stones into Schools
by Greg Mortenson
Viking Books November 2009
Three Cups of Tea Review

Stones into Schools picks up where Three Cups of Tea left off in 2003. This is the continuing story of the Central Asian Institute as they build schools for children in the remote mountainous areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. This book concentrates more on northern and eastern Afghanistan including the Wakhan Corridor.

Afghanistan as a country has fascinated me ever since I first read James Micheners novel CARAVANS way back in the early 1980s. It was first published in 1963. From there I studied maps and read up about Alexander the Great and how he was prevented from reaching India because of the people of Afghanistan. I read about the Nuristan people in eastern Afghanistan, who are descendents of the Greek soldiers who settled down in that area rather than travel all the way back to Europe.

As I studied and read more about Afghanistan I also learned about the Great Game and read about Francis Younghusband who was involved in the Great Game and who travelled all over Central Asia in the 1800s.

I read about how the Afghani royal family were forced to flee Afghanistan in 1974 leaving Afghanistan open for invasion. That void was filled when Russia invaded Afghanistan in late 1979.

During all this reading, I was fascinated by the Wakhan Corridor but could never find enough information on the culture and geography of that area, to satisfy my curiosity. Now I have and most of it is to be found in this book - Stones into Schools.

The Wakhan Corridor was created as a buffer between British India and the Russian Empire as the two expanded towards each other in the nineteenth century. To the south is modern Pakistan over the Hindu Kush mountains, and on the east and north the Great Pamir and the Small Pamir mountains lead up to the borders of China (east) and Tajikistan (north - formerly of the USSR).

In the mountains the people are assumed by the government to be illiterate and dumb, and not capable of doing anything more than herding sheep, goats and cattle and being nomads, just as their ancestors had been doing for thousands of years. Also under muslim tradition, girls and women are not expected to be educated to read and write. They were taught just enough to be able to cook, sew and run a household.

In the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Greg Mortenson has discovered that there is a huge hunger for literacy and education - especially for girls education. The CAI has vowed to build secular schools for all children in the remote areas where government help usually does not go. In all of the schools, it is a requirement that at least half of all students are girls. More often than not, girls make up well over half the student body.

The school at the top of the world was built by the CAI in the village of Baza Gonbad in the far east of the Wakhan Corridor. Greg has tried to visit the village several times but has been prevented from doing so for various reasons. One reason was a major earthquake in northern Pakistan in 2005 which caused hundreds of landslides and roadblocks. Other reasons included urgent summons to Kabul to speak with various government departments. At the time of publication of this book, Greg still had not been able to visit that school, although he has seen pictures and videos of its construction and use. This photo of Mortenson was taken with students from the Sitara School in Sarhad Village in the Western Corridor.

A trek to the Wakhan Corridor is one of the most adventurous treks one can still do in this world. It takes four days to drive to the Wakhan from Kabul, and then a 10 to 12 day trek is required to reach the famed Small Pamirs where the nomadic Kyrgyz have their camping grounds.

The Wakhan is one of the last remaining locations where Siberian Ibex, Marco Polo Sheep and Snow Leopards can be found. One might also come across Brown bears, eagles, and many other forms of wildlife.

The Wakhan is surrounded by the Hindu Kush mountains in the south and the Pamir mountains in the north, and is known as the "roof of the world." At the neck of the Wakhan is Afghanistan's highest peak, Noshaq (7492 meters).

This was an excellent book. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I learnt so much about the culture, the geography and the society of Afganistan. This book shows how girls the world over (including me) have a right to an education. It also shows that there is a great hunger of education worldwide.

City College employees promote peace ‘one school at a time’
City College - San Francisco - 2009 - Three Cups of Tea

Possession at 20

2010-06-03T00:15:00.002-04:00

Interview by Nicolas Basbanes of A.S. Byatt about her novel Possession
Possession originally published 1990
Possession reviewed on this Blog 2007

Twenty years ago, A. S. Byatt published Possession, a novel that appealed to bibliophiles as much or more than Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose had ten years earlier. Possession follows two young academics as they uncover a secret affair between two nineteenth-century poets. The novel’s main subject heading in the Library of Congress catalogue is Manuscripts—Collectors and collecting—England—Fiction, which is telling. Old letters and manuscripts are found stuck in dusty old books and mysterious old houses, as the two scholars attempt to safeguard literary history from an unscrupulous American collector.

Possession won Britain’s Booker Prize in 1990 and was wildly acclaimed as the author’s breakthrough book. It also became a New York Times bestseller. Since then, Byatt has earned an international reputation for her erudite novels, including The Biographer’s Tale, Babel Tower, and, most recently, The Children’s Book. She was appointed a DBE (dame commander of the order of the British Empire) in 1999.

Nicholas Basbanes conducted the following interview with Byatt in Boston on May 31, 1996. A full transcript is included in Basbanes’ new book, About the Author: Inside the Creative Process.

Interview Source - Fine Books and Collections June 2010
Click here for Interview

Off topic but family related

2010-05-16T11:13:00.022-04:00

This post has nothing to do with books, although a book will be published later this year. Rather it is a very proud family related moment so I am going to mention it. Besides it's not every day that I have a family member who walks (or in this case sails) into the world record books.

For those of my readers from Australia and New Zealand, you will of course know who Jessica Watson is (see photo above). Just 2 days ago Jessica sailed into the record & history books by being the YOUNGEST person ever to sail (circumnavigate) the world (yes this entire planet) in a sail boat on her own and UNASSISTED. She is just 16 years old. Tomorrow (Australia time - May 18th) she turns 17.

BUT what none of you outside of my own family, will know, is that Jessica Watson is a distant cousin of mine. She is my second cousin once removed. Jessica's mother Julie is my second cousin. Julie's mother and my father are first cousins. And yes this is all true. This proud moment naturally fits my profile as a genealogy enthusiast (I am nuts about genealogy if you don't already know). Finally I can say that I have a famous relative!!!!

I grew up spending my summers visiting with and playing with Julie and her siblings in the 1960's and 1970's. We lost touch after 1976 when my family moved overseas. I dont recall that I personally have seen anyone from Julie's family since then. I know that my parents have seen Julie's parents regularly, and as recently as just last week right before they flew to Sydney to welcome Jessica home.

Anyway after I left home and moved to Auckland New Zealand and then later to Toronto, Canada, Julie and Roger were living in Queensland and had access to sailboats. Their 4 children grew up going out on the water on a regular basis. While I am somewhat comfortable on the water, I had very few opportunities to sail in any small sail boats as a child.

In October 2009 Jessica Watson left Sydney harbour (on her second attempt) to sail around the world with the intention of being the youngest person (as of 2010) to ever sail around the world unassisted.

UNASSISTED means a vessel may not receive any kind of outside help or take on board any supplies, materials or equipment during the attempt. Jessica can still be in radio contact with her support team every day, but she cannot stop anywhere along the way, no food is dropped to her and she has no company whatsoever. If anything breaks down, she has to fix it on her own and she carries all her food and water with her - 7 months worth of food and water.

Two days ago Jessica sailed back into Sydney harbour and was greeted by hundreds of thousands of proud Aussies as a hero. Jessica herself says she is no hero - she is just a girl who had a dream and did something about it.

Aussie's Youtube Channel

This Youtube channel has all 10 parts of the official TV program to welcome Jessica home. It was broadcast live on TV, May 15th, 2010. While the parts are not in any numerical order, they are all there.

Jessica has a book deal already in the works and the book is expected to be published before the end of 2010.

This is Jessica's Website & Blog

These are Roger and Julie Watson, Jessica's parents. (photo taken January 2010). They have 4 children - Emily, Jessica, Thomas and Hannah. Julie's maiden name was Chisholm. She is my second cousin.

Taken last year in Cromwell, New Zealand, this is Jessica Watson with her grandparents. From left to right are grandmother Margaret Chisholm, Jessica Watson, Jessica's aunt Wendy Taylor, and grandfather Gordon Chisholm. Wendy is my second cousin (as is her sister Julie). Margaret is my dad's first cousin. Margaret's dad and my grandfather were brothers. (photo source - ODT)

Daemon - Book Review

2010-05-13T13:00:00.002-04:00

Daemon
by Daniel Suarez
Signet Books 2010
Authors website

In this modern 21st century, we frequently forget how much of our lives are tied up in computers and how much of our lives are not really as private as we like to think. Since the internet explosion in the 1990s, our individual privacy has been eroded down to almost nothing.

Thats why there is a few areas in which I choose to keep my privacy and my family's privacy. I like to keep my privacy in my movements around town, my location, in my communications and with my fake names. I value my privacy a lot.

That's why in this blog my son's name has not once been mentioned. I have to keep his privacy too. This is also why I use false names online in my blogs and on Facebook. I choose not to own a cell phone with GPS. If anyone wishes to contact us, they can leave a message on the (landline phone) answerering machine - we will get the message - eventually.

My spouse and I dont have a modern car with any GPS tracking system in it. In fact our car is older than the internet. I dont drive in Canada. I can drive - I just havent gotten around to getting a Canadian drivers license yet. Besides, whats the point of driving in heavy traffic and having to pay huge parking fees, when there is perfectly good and cheap public transit available. I use the public transit to go anywhere and everywhere - when I am not walking, that is.

As you can tell, I really do value my privacy. Anyway, back to the book.

Technology controls almost everything in our modern-day world, from remote entry on our cars to access to our homes, from the flight controls of our airplanes to the movements of the entire world economy. Thousands of autonomous computer programs, or daemons, make our networked world possible, running constantly in the background of our lives, trafficking e-mail, transferring money, and monitoring power grids. For the most part, daemons are benign, but the same can't always be said for the people who design them.

Matthew Sobol was a legendary computer game designer - the architect behind half-a-dozen popular online games. His premature death depressed both gamers and his company's stock price. But Sobol's fans aren't the only ones to note his passing. When his obituary is posted online, a previously dormant daemon activates, initiating a chain of events intended to unravel the fabric of our hyper-efficient, interconnected world. With Sobol's secrets buried along with him, and as new layers of his daemon are unleashed at every turn, it's up to an unlikely alliance to decipher his intricate plans and wrest the world from the grasp of a nameless, faceless enemy - or learn to live in a society in which we are no longer in control....

There is a sequel to this book - called Freedom - out now.

Happy Mothers Day

2010-05-09T11:00:00.001-04:00

Happy Mothers day for those of you who are mothers.

The Botticelli Secret - Book Review

2010-05-09T08:52:00.016-04:00

The Botticelli Secret
by Marina Fiorato
St Martins Press 2010
Authors website

This is the (fictional) secret of the Primavera - the painting by Alessandro Botticelli painted in 1482. This painting plays a huge part in this novel. In fact it is the map of the journey taken by the 2 main characters.

The year is 1482. Ludovico de Medici (Il Magnifico) of Florence has hatched a plan to unify seven great city states into one empire just like the old Roman Empire.

Luciana Vetra is a 16 year old whore in Florence. She accidently discovers knowledge of this plan to unify the city states and also finds a guide to help her - a monk called Brother Guido. Guido and Luciana journey to each of these great city states to uncover the truth and to prevent the unification.

One city state stands alone outside and against this plan. Only one city state can prevent this catastrophe. These cities are named in the painting by Botticelli - the one called Spring or Primavera.

The cities represented by the figures in the Primavera are (from left to right) -
1 Milan
2 Genoa
3 Pisa
4 Naples
5 Rome
6 Florence
7 Venice
8 Bolzano

The order of the journey however was different. Luciana and Guido travelled from Florence to Pisa, Naples, Rome, Florence again, Venice, Bolzano, Milan, Genoa and finally to Pisa again.

This story is told from Luciana's point of view. Luciana is a smart and feisty girl. She learns fast and she picks things up in groups of three. All through the novel she tells us of things, items and facts she has learned - always in groups of three.

Two other famous historical characters are also mentioned in this novel - Cristoforo (no last name) a map maker from Genoa, and Leonardo da Vinci, an engineer designing war machines.

An excellent story - I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Starting to feel old now....

2010-05-05T11:38:00.004-04:00

May is the month of birthdays in my family. All three of us (me, husband and son) have birthdays this month. Mine is first - obviously. My husbands is next and my sons birthday is the last. Technically if you want to go by signs, my husband and I are both Taurus and my son is a Gemini.

Today is my birthday. I have been writing this blog for 3 years now - and today I turned 46 years old. I didn't used to feel old. My hair turning grey doesnt help. I think having a son still in elementary school helps keep me thinking young - except when someone asks if he is my grandson. My husband will also turn 46 this month. I am the older woman - but only by 2 weeks!! My son will turn 8 this month.

But this year I feel old. In January I was tentatively diagnosed with Graves Disease. Now, that diagnosis has been amended to Hyperthyroidism - of which there are 2 possible outcomes. Graves Disease and Multi Nodular Goitre. I have to have more tests to find out which one for sure. And I have to take medication every day to keep this under control.

Book of Souls - Book Review

2010-04-26T12:02:00.006-04:00

The Book of Souls
by Glenn Cooper
Harper Collins 2010

This book is a sequel to the Library of the Dead - a novel I reviewed in July last year.

Former FBI Special Agent Will Piper solved - and survived - the "Doomsday Killer" case . . . and his reward was a forced early retirement. Noone knew it, but one of the books was missing from the library. Piper has been retired for a year and now has a new wife and new baby son.

The book shows up at an auction in London and is sold for $200,000. Piper is reluctantly drawn into the search for the answers provided by this mysterious volume that's been lost for six centuries.

Piper finds a poem supposedly written by Shakesepeare. He travels to England to search for the clues that are mentioned in the poem. The answers to the clues explain Shakespeares inspiration and Nostradamus's prophecies.

Unknown to Piper, the library also shows that a large number of people will die in a catastrophe on a specific day in a specific country. This is fortune telling at its best. While Piper has been retired, his former employers have put a plan into action. A plan to step into the vaccum of the disaster and take control of a foreign country when the disaster happens.

Another excellent novel from this author with plenty of action, both physical and intellectual.

And the Winner is......

2010-04-20T18:46:00.007-04:00

My son's school has been holding raffles for various prizes over the last week. $2 bought you 10 tickets.

Every day for the last week, my son would come home and tell me that "I didn't win a prize today, mommy". With 200 kids in his school there was practically NO chance at all he would win a prize, even though he had 10 tickets.

He didnt seem to be too upset (which I am pleased about). He is mature enough at 7 years of age (almost 8), to know and accept that he may not win anything.

Today was the last day of draws - the draw was for the biggest prize.

Today my second grade son won the top prize

The top prize was a lovely gorgeous and very large Teddy Bear.

This bear is huge. It is even bigger than my son was, as a new born.

I can't beleive my son won the top prize in the school raffle.

The View from the Bridge - Book Review

2010-04-15T18:05:00.012-04:00

The View from the Bridge
by Nicholas Meyer
Viking Books 2009

Nicholas Meyer, for those of you who don't know, is an American screenwriter. He wrote the novel of the 1976 movie The Seven Percent Solution. He also wrote parts of the screenplay for Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home (the one about the whales in San Francisco).

Nicholas Meyer is also a director. He directed Star Trek 2 - The Wrath of Khan, and Star Trek 6 - The Undiscovered Country.

This book is his memoir from his college days in Iowa up until 1991 when Star Trek 6 was released. There are also a few chapters covering the last 19 years, but the bulk of the book is about Meyers college education and his job as a film press agent in New York City up until Star Trek 6. Meyer also wrote a book - The Love Story story (the behind the scenes story of filming the 1970 movie Love Story). This book financed his trip to Hollywood.

Meyer also gives some behind the scenes details about the making of Star Trek 2 and Star Trek 6. Star Trek 2 covers 50 pages - 20% of the book but all very interesting.

If you like Star Trek as much as I do, you have to read this autobiography. It's not a long book - only 240 pages. I really enjoyed it.

The Lady and the Poet - Book Review

2010-04-14T06:46:00.012-04:00

The Lady and the Poet
by Maeve Haran
St Martins Press 2009

There are very few real love stories from Englands Golden Era when Elizabeth was on the throne. This is probably the first one I have ever read about. I enjoyed this book so much that I stayed up until 2 AM reading it. I have not done that for a long time.

This is the fictionalised story of the true love affair between Lady Ann More (a distant relation of Thomas More) and the poet John Donne. Ann was 14 and John was 25 when they first met.

Ann More, fiery and spirited daughter of the Mores of Loseley House in Surrey, came to London destined for a life at the court of Queen Elizabeth and an advantageous marriage. There she encountered John Donne, the darkly attractive young poet who was secretary to her uncle, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal.

He was unlike any man she had ever met — angry, clever, witty — and in her eyes, insufferably arrogant and careless of women. Yet as they were thrown together Donne opened Ann’s eyes to a new world of passion, and sensuality.

But John Donne (who had a Catholic background in an age when it was deadly dangerous) was exactly the kind of man Ann's status-conscious father distrusted and despised.

This historical novel tells the story of the forbidden love between one of our most admired poets and a girl who dared to rebel against the conventions of her time.
They gave up everything to be together.

I require a book of love poems with Spring coming on. No Keats or Shelley. Send me poets who can make love without slobbering. Wyatt or Jonson or somebody. Use your own judgment. Just a nice book, preferably small enough to stick in a slacks pocket and take to Central Park.
Helene Hanff, 84 Charing Cross Road.

Helene Hanff read John Donne's sermons, not his poems.

Ottawa allows Amazon warehouse into Canada

2010-04-12T20:55:00.007-04:00

Last month I posted a story of how Amazon (the US based online Book sellers) wanted to build a warehouse in Canada and sell books in Canada - going up against the Chapters/Indigo chain and also against the independent bookshops.

Today it was announced that the Canadian federal government has agreed to allow Amazon to open a warehouse in Canada.

Ottawa allows Amazon warehouse in Canada.
Monday, April 12, 2010
By Sunny Freeman
Canadian Press

TORONTO - The federal government is allowing online book seller Amazon.com to build a warehouse in Canada in return for the U.S. company's promise to promote Canadian culture and to hire its first-ever Canadian employees.

The government said Monday it approved Amazon.com's plan for a "fulfilment centre" warehouse after reviewing the proposal under the Investment Canada Act. That law protects the bookselling business from foreign ownership because it is part of a cultural industry.

Canadian booksellers had opposed the warehouse proposal, saying it would harm the country's cultural industry.

The review began in January after Amazon proposed to open its first warehouse on Canadian soil and aimed to determine if the investment would be a "net benefit to Canada."

James Moore, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, said Amazon.com has shown its willingness to promote Canadian cultural products.

"Our government is committed to strengthening Canada's economy through all its sectors, especially arts and culture," Moore said in a statement. "Amazon has shown its willingness to promote Canadian cultural products, and we are pleased it is continuing to demonstrate this through this new investment."

Under the Investment Canada Act, foreign investment in book publishing and distribution has been limited to Canadian-controlled joint ventures.

The Canadian Booksellers Association has been vocal in its opposition to the warehouse, arguing it could set a precedent allowing "American Goliaths" to become a commanding presence in Canada.

But Amazon.com called the argument that a foreign owned retailer couldn't be trusted to promote Canadian culture "preposterous." As part of the deal, Amazon will invest more than $20 million, including $1.5 million for cultural events and awards and for promoting Canadian-authored books abroad. Amazon's commitment also includes adding Canadian jobs, improving service for Canadian consumers, and increasing the visibility of Canadian and French-language products on its Canadian website.

Paul Misener, Amazon.com's vice-president for global public policy, said the company believes a local fulfilment centre will enable it to better serve Canadian customers as well as those in other countries who seek out Canadian books and cultural products.

"Amazon.ca (the company's Canadian web portal) is enthusiastic to continue our long-time support of Canadian customers and culture, including continued support of cultural events and awards in Canada and the promotion of Canadian books internationally," he said.

The company will also establish dedicated staff to assist Canadian publishers and other suppliers of cultural products and make more Canadian content available on the Kindle e-reader. In addition, it is creating a summer internship program for Canadian university and college students.

Canada had been the only country in which Amazon sells books online, but did not have a distribution centre. Instead it used a third-party shipping service in Canada to get around the country's foreign investment rules.

Remarkable Creatures - Book Review

2010-04-10T09:27:00.003-04:00

Remarkable Creatures
by Tracy Chevalier
Dutton Books 2010

As mentioned in previous posts, I have finally been able to read this book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Along the coast of Southwest England is an area called the Jurassic Coast. It has been given this name for the many fossils found on these beaches. One of the towns along this coast is called Lyme Regis in Dorset.

The story begins around the year 1812. The southern English coast brims with fossils for those who can find them. From the moment she's struck by lightning as a baby, it is clear Mary Anning is marked for greatness. When she uncovers unknown dinosaur fossils in the cliffs near her home, she sets the scientific world alight, challenging ideas about the world's creation and stimulating debate over our origins.

In an arena dominated by men, however, Mary Anning is soon reduced to a serving role, facing prejudice from the academic community, vicious gossip from neighbours, and the heartbreak of forbidden love. Even nature is a threat, throwing bitter cold, storms, and landslips at her.

Luckily Mary finds an unlikely champion in prickly, intelligent Elizabeth Philpot, a middle-class spinster who is also fossil-obsessed. Their relationship strikes a delicate balance between fierce loyalty and barely suppressed envy. Despite their differences in age and background, Mary and Elizabeth discover that, in struggling for recognition, friendship is their strongest weapon.

Remarkable Creatures is Tracy Chevalier's stunning novel of how one woman's gift transcends class and gender to lead to some of the most important discoveries of the nineteenth century.

It is also said that Charles Darwin could not have written the Origins of Species if Mary Anning had not made her fossil discoveries.

I am proud that a large number of my ancestors came from the West Country, where the Jurassic Coast area is located. However they were not fossil hunters.

There is another recent novel about Mary Anning available as well. Curiosity. I have this on reserve at the library.

The Barbary Pirates - Book Review

2010-04-04T08:37:00.027-04:00

The Barbary Pirates
by William Dietrich
Harper Collins 2010

This is the continuing saga of Ethan Gage. At the end of the Dakota Cipher, Ethan had barely escaped from his home country of the United States with his life. He had lost all his friends and still has one implacable enemy - Aurora Somerset. The year is now 1802.

At the beginning of this book, Ethan is back in Paris, France. He is determined to find his first love, Astiza, the Egyptian/Greek girl he first met in Egypt. Ethan sends out several letters to Egypt and Jerusalem enquiring of her whereabouts. While he waits for replies to his letters, he is persuaded to show the city of Paris to 3 savants - French zoologist Georges Cuvier, English geologist William Smith and American inventor Robert Fulton.

At the Palais Royale - the home of brothels, bordellos and pleasure houses - the 4 men are tempted to enter a bordello which becomes a trap. They are engaged in a battle against arabs. Someone starts a fire and as the 4 attempt to escape, they are arrested by the french gendarme. Later they are brought before Napoleon where the First Consul has a rather strange conversation. Napoleon speaks of various ancient legends including the Little Red Man, Og, Thira and Atlantis.

One of these legends mentions a devastating weapon that the ancient greeks had used to destroy their enemies. Napoleon wants Ethan to find this weapon so that the French can use it against their enemies. There is one clue - the greek island of Thira. Gage and his savant friends are blackmailed into doing this under the guise of an archaelogical expedition.

So the 4 men set out for Greece via Venice and the Aegean Sea. They are chased in Venice and are persuaded to seek safety aboard a ship owned by a Turk called Hamidou Dragut who agrees to take them to the island of Thera (aka Santorini)

On Thera, the men meet the Greek independence leader Ioannis Kapodistrias who leads them to a church, Agia Theodosia, The Compromise of the Cannon. With more Turks chasing them, the men climb into a sarcophagus crypt to hide. When they continue breathing, they find the release mechanism that opens the bottom of the crypt and without warning the men drop and then roll downhill a long way - for several seconds at least.

Keeping in mind that Thera is an extinct volcano, the 4 men are now inside the volcano. They follow the path downwards and eventually end up at a buried city with buildings and beautiful, colourful murals painted on the walls. One of the murals shows ships at sea with a ray of light emanating from one ship, setting other ships on fire. Fulton mentions the burning mirrors, an ancient legend about Archimedes who created a large lens or mirror that reflected the sunlight to destroy the Roman ships that were laying seige to the Greek city of Syracuse in 212 BCE.

The men also find a parchment hidden in the walls of another mural. THey continue following the lava tubes and eventually find them selves in a cave on the south side of the island of Thera with Hamidou's ship just off the coast.

Back on Hamidou's boat, Gage demands to be returned to Venice, but it is sometime later before they realsie that the boat is actually going south, not north. The men are tied up and left in the cellar. When the ship slows and stops, the men are taken top side where they meet Aurora Somerset who has another ship tied up along side.

The men are taken to Tripoli where they are auctioned off in the slave markets and are sold to Yusef Karamanli the ruler of Tripoli. The 3 savants are jailed while Gage meets up with Karamanli, Aurora and also with Astiza (who is now part of Karamanli's harem) along with her son Horus.

Gage is flabbergasted to learn that he is now a father - Horus being 2 years old. The 3 savants are set free and allowed to sail to Toulon in Provence. Gage and Horus are taken by ship to Syracuse on the island of Sicily. Astiza is left behind in the royal harem as a hostage. In Syracuse they search for and find the ancient mirror - the location of said mirror being a map on the parchment that Gage had found back in the buried city on Thera. Aurora, Hamidou, Gage and little Harry (as Horus is now called) and the crews place the mirror on board a ship for the journey back to Tripoli.

On the return journey Gage is dumped overboard and left for dead. He is picked up by a American ship heading for Malta. The 3 savants are also on board this ship having been picked up in Toulon. They have a submarine - Fultons invention - and make a plan on rescuing Astiza and Horus and destroying the mirror.

They sail into Tripoli unseen by submarine, rescue Astiza and Horus and release all the other prisoners. In the chaos of escaping prisoners, Aurora is killed, the mirror is destroyed and our heroes escape back to the submarine and calmly sail out of Tripoli harbour.

They are later picked up by the american ship and taken to Malta where the American navy is based. Gage proposes marriage to Astiza who accepts and Gage finally has his family.

The Dakota Cipher - Book Review

2010-03-26T08:30:00.018-04:00

The Dakota Cipher
by William Dietrich
Harper Collins 2009

This is book number 3 in the Ethan Gage series. The year is 1800.

In this Book Ethan Gage travels from France back to his homeland of United States of America.

Napoleon Bonaparte has ownership of Louisiana (which at this time stretches from New Orleans all the way up the Mississippi River, almost to the Great Lakes) and Ethan is tasked by Napoleon to survey the land of Louisana and decide what would be the best thing to do with it - have it settled by the french or sell it to the americans.

Ethan also meets with President Jefferson who is interested in mythology and he has heard stories of mammoths and elephants being in North America. Ethan must also find the elephants.

Ethans' third task is to help his friend Magnus Bloodhammer (from Norway) to find proof that the USA actually belongs to the Norwegians because the Vikings were there first.

Magnus and Ethan travel across the land by canoeing the rivers and walking across the Appalachian Mountains to Lake Erie and then by boat to the fortress called Detroit.

In Detroit, Ethan meets up with Aurora Somerset and her brother Lord Cecil Somerset, who are descended from british nobility. They were forced to leave Britain in a hurry due to a shocking scandal of some sort. They are out to find a source of great wealth and knowledge for their Egyptian Rite group - an offshoot of the old Egyptian mystery schools.

Ethan and Magnus travel with Aurora and Cecil by canoe up Lake Huron and along the northern coast of Lake Superior, all the way to Grand Portage in what is now Minnesota. Aurora makes many attempts to seduce Ethan and get him to tell her what he and Magnus are looking for.

At Grand Portage emotions come to a head, mostly over 2 Mandan Indian slave girls, who Marcus and Ethan try to rescue from their Dakota Indian captors. Ethan, Marcus, the two girls (Namida and Little Frog) and a fellow named Pierre, are all forced to head west on their own. But the Somersets are not far behind.

Along their route to the west, Magnus and Ethan find a rune stone - a stone with Norse runes carved on it - along with a date....1362. This is the proof that Magnus was looking for. Proof that the Vikings were in the Americas long before the British, the French and the Spanish, so the Norwegians really do have the right to claim the land.

After many weeks of travelling west, and having crossed the Red River of the North (that flows north to Lake Winnipeg and from there to the Hudson Bay), the group end up at the Sheyenne river in what is now North Dakota.

There they find Yggdrasil, the great tree of the Viking legends. It has an electric wire running down the middle. The tree is struck by lightening on a regular basis.

Inside this tree, Ethan and Magnus find Thors hammer and a sheet of gold with Latin writing on it. The words on this gold sheet include Thira, Og, Atlantis and Poseidon. The final battle for this tree and the gold sheet occurs. Cecil, Magnus, Namida and Little Frog all die. Only Aurora and Ethan escape with their lives - and that is only because Aurora chooses to not kill Ethan. She decides to follow him instead.

Some day, some time, some where, they WILL meet again.

Book 1 Ethan Gage Series
Book 2 Ethan Gage Series

Update on Mary Anning - Fossil Hunter

2010-03-22T22:17:00.005-04:00

Several weeks ago I mentioned Mary Anning who was a fossil hunter in England on the mid 1800s. I also mentioned how I wanted to read Tracy Chevalier's novel, Remarkable Creatures, about Mary Anning and her fossil hunting discoveries. I do have Remarkable Creatures on reserve at the library but it still hasn't arrived yet.

Well I have just discovered another new book (due to be published next week - March 30) about Mary Anning. It's called CURIOSITY by Joan Thomas.

Award-winning novelist Joan Thomas blends fact and fiction, passion and science in this stunning novel set in 19th-century Lyme Regis, England.

More than 40 years before the publication of The Origin of Species, 12-year-old Mary Anning, a cabinet-maker's daughter, found the first intact skeleton of a prehistoric dolphin-like creature, and spent a year chipping it from the soft cliffs near Lyme Regis. This was only the first of many important discoveries made by this incredible woman, perhaps the most important paleontologist of her day.

Henry de la Beche was the son of a gentry family, owners of a slave-worked estate in Jamaica where he spent his childhood. As an adolescent back in England, he ran away from military college, and soon found himself living with his elegant, cynical mother in Lyme Regis, where he pursued his passion for drawing and painting the landscapes and fossils of the area. One morning on an expedition to see an extraordinary discovery — a giant fossil — he meets a young woman unlike anyone he has ever met…

The Time of My Life - Book Review

2010-03-21T15:50:00.011-04:00

The Time of my Life
By Patrick Swayze & Lisa Niemi
Atria Books - Division of Simon & Schuster

We all know who Patrick Swayze was. He died of cancer last year at age 57.

Below is an obituary for Patrick Swayze. Everything in this obituary is also in the book except that the book is from Patrick and Lisa's points of view.

There are also other stories in the book that go into more details. Patrick's ongoing knee injury, his alcoholism, his one year separation from his wife Lisa, why he and Lisa never had children, and how he coped (or didnt cope) with the fans and the paparazzi.

Swayze Obituary

Patrick Swayze was in his mid-thirties when he became an overnight sensation for his performance in the dance and romance movie Dirty Dancing (1987). In it he played the dance instructor Johnny Castle, and Jennifer Grey was his pupil, Baby. The film cost $5 million and was intended primarily for video, but it grossed more than $200 million worldwide and was one of the biggest hits of the year.

Swayze came from a dance background himself, though by the time he made the film his dancing career was almost over. He was afflicted with an old injury and needed further surgery during shooting. His physical problems and advancing years had motivated him to attempt to expand himself as an actor, and he had already appeared as part of Francis Ford Coppola’s Brat Pack ensemble in The Outsiders (1983), along with Matt Dillon, Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise — though Swayze was rather elderly for the label brat.

On the back of Dirty Dancing he was not short of offers for other starring roles. He made a couple of films that suggested he might slip back into obscurity as quickly as he had emerged from it. Then came his second blockbuster hit, the weepie romantic drama Ghost (1990), which was an even bigger hit than Dirty Dancing. Swayze was briefly ranked among Hollywood’s most bankable stars and was acclaimed in People magazine in the US as the sexiest man in the world (ie, the US).

Ghost was a cinema landmark, regularly included in polls of the most romantic films ever. Swayze, the hunky Texan good ole boy, played a New York banker who is murdered and comes back as the ghost of the title. The scene in which his former lover, played by Demi Moore, feels his presence while making a clay pot, with Unchained Melody dipping and soaring on the soundtrack, was one of the most memorable (and, in time, mocked) cinema moments of the decade.

Swayze’s character in Ghost seemed to crystallise the contradictions in him between the American footballer and the ballet dancer, tough but sensitive, hellraiser and loyal mate, and commentators might argue that Swayze himself embodied the contradictions within modern American Man, torn between traditional macho values and his place in a new world and new gender politics.

Swayze struggled with celebrity and with alcoholism. He tried determinedly to move on from the image of beefcake in a vest, appearing in several “independent” movies and notably exploiting and undermining his good looks and healthy image as a charming self-help guru, with a hidden stash of child porn, in the cult classic Donnie Darko (2001).

There were well-publicised incidents to underline his personal difficulties and setbacks, including one bizarre escapade in which he landed, and parked, his light aircraft in a housing estate in Arizona, after it seemingly developed a fault. There were suggestions that he was drunk, but his erratic behaviour was attributed to the fearsome experience and the sudden descent.

He remained married to his Texan teenage sweetheart, Lisa Niemi, and they worked together and lived together on a spread called Rancho Bizarro, 30 miles outside Los Angeles, surrounded by horses, chickens and hi-tech recording equipment.

Patrick Wayne Swayze was born in Houston, Texas, in 1952, one of four children. His mother, Patsy Swayze, was a successful choreographer and ran a ballet school, and his brother Don would also become an actor. He studied ballet from an early age but also excelled at sports and went to San Jacinto College, Houston, on a sports scholarship.

He was an accomplished gymnast, diver, athlete and American footballer, though football was responsible for the lingering knee injury that cut short his dancing career.

One of his first professional dancing and acting jobs was as Prince Charming in a Disney parade, which toured North and Central America. He attended Harkness and Joffrey ballet schools in New York, was principal dancer with the Eliot Feld company and appeared on Broadway with Joel Grey (Jennifer’s father) in the musical Goodtime Charley in 1975. That same year he married Niemi, whom he met when she was a 15-year-old dance student at his mother’s school.

He joined the long-running Broadway production of Grease in the lead role of Danny Zuko and made his film debut in 1979 in the roller-disco movie Shakedown, USA. He played a soldier dying of leukaemia in an episode of M*A*S*H in 1981 and began appearing fairly regularly in films, including The Outsiders, Uncommon Valor (1983), Grandview, USA (1984), on which he was also choreographer, and the silly Red Dawn (1984), in which the Soviet Union invades America, but a group of small-town teenagers reckon they can take them on.

It was a starring role as a Confederate officer in the Civil War mini-series North and South (1985) that established him as a dashing leading man, who could appeal to both men and women. Dirty Dancing accelerated the process, though it appealed largely to a female audience.

He played a dance instructor at a mountain resort in upstate New York in the 1960s, and Grey was the privileged girl, Baby, whom he teaches about dance, life and love.

It gave him not only a hit film, but the memorable, much-imitated line “Nobody puts Baby in a corner", and an international hit single with She’s Like the Wind, which he had co-written for Grandview, USA, though it was not used on that film.

Despite Dirty Dancing’s phenomenal success, he struggled a little with his next few films. Only Road House (1989), in which he played a bouncer, made much impression on audiences or critics. Hollywood experts never expected him to repeat the success of Dirty Dancing with Ghost, which opened in a summer of big-budget event movies. Swayze was the banker Sam Wheat, Demi Moore the artist Molly Jensen. He is killed by a mugger but finds he can still communicate with the world via a medium, Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg).

The film gave him another memorable bit of dialogue — the word “Ditto”, which he uses when Moore’s character says she loves him.

His famous lines would be thrown back at him in one of the funniest of the series of cinema adverts for Orange mobile phones — “Nobody puts Swayze in a corner.”

In Point Break (1991) he played a character whose wide range of interests include Buddhism, surfing and crime, with Keanu Reeves as the FBI undercover agent out to bring him down. Swayze grew up as a Catholic, but later studied Buddhism and other religions. He pushed himself as an American doctor working in the slums of Calcutta in Roland Joffe’s City of Joy (1992), an early indication of his refusal to be typecast.

Years later he said: “I had been sucked into the blockbuster, box-office mentality and it was destroying my sense of purpose in life. The loneliness of fame was messing with my head. I made a conscious decision to break away from big films when I got alcohol out of my life.”

He played one of three drag queens on a cross-country trip in the comedy To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995), but was seriously injured when he fell from his horse during the filming of Letters from a Killer (1998). He was a US soldier trying to help Vietnamese refugees in Green Dragon (2001) and an Arkansas redneck in Waking Up in Reno (2002). In 2003 he co-starred with his wife in One Last Dance, an adaptation of a play they had written about ageing dancers. Niemi also directed it, but it did not get a cinema release.

Swayze never again scaled the heights of popularity he had enjoyed, or endured, with Dirty Dancing and Ghost. He did not turn his back completely on purely commercial projects — he played Allan Quatermain in a TV production of King Solomon’s Mines (2004), made a cameo appearance in Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004) and voiced one of the characters in the Disney video The Fox and the Hound 2 (2006), but they were hardly blockbusters.

He also returned to the theatre. He joined the Broadway cast of Chicago as Billy Flynn in 2003 and spent four months in the West End of London as Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls in 2006. He continued to work steadily on a range of projects, while also breeding horses on his ranch, but in early 2008 he was found to be suffering from pancreatic cancer.

This year he starred in a TV series The Beast, about an FBI agent who is assigned a new partner, not knowing that he is a double agent. The show was cancelled due to Swayze’s illness.

Swayze is survived by his wife, Lisa Niemi, whom he married in 1975.

Patrick Swayze, actor, was born on August 18, 1952. He died of cancer on September 14, 2009, aged 57

WIKIPEDIA
This has a very detailed filmography.

Selected Filmography

The Outsiders (1983)
In the drama based on S.E. Hinton's popular novel, Swayze plays Dallas Winston, a father figure of sorts to a band of 1960s Tulsa street toughs. It's often thought of as the first Brat Pack movie, as it costars a litany of future stars, including Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez, Ralph Macchio, Rob Lowe, C. Thomas Howell, Tom Cruise and Diane Lane. Patrick Swayze played Darrel Curtis.

Red Dawn (1984)
Jed Eckert (Swayze) leads the Wolverines, an underground resistance movement in Michigan when the Soviet Union invades the United States in an alternate 1980s timeline. C. Thomas Howell and Charlie Sheen (pictured) and Jennifer Grey co-star.

North and South and North and South, Book II (1985 and 1986)
Orry Main (Swayze) a West Point Cadet from Charleston, S.C., and his classmate, George Hazard (James Read), negotiate a friendship across the Mason-Dixon line in ABC's miniseries and its sequel, based on the blockbuster novels by John Jakes.

Dirty Dancing (1987)
In this iconic 1980s film, Swayze plays Johnny Castle, a hardscrabble dancing instructor who teaches naive teen Baby Houseman (Jennifer Grey) how to dance — and assert herself as a young woman.

Road House (1989)
James Dalton (Swayze) is a philosophy-spouting bouncer whose attempts to clean up a violent nightclub in Jasper, Missouri, landing him in the hospital and in love — with co-star Kelly Lynch. Sam Elliott also co-stars as Dalton's mentor.

Ghost (1990)
Sam Wheat (Swayze), the recently departed husband of Molly (Demi Moore), communes with the living with the help of a wacky medium (Whoopi Goldberg) and one sexy pottery wheel in this romantic drama.

Point Break (1991)
As Bodhi, the leader of a gang of surfers, Swayze taught Keanu Reeves, who played undercover FBI agent Johnny Utah, the dudespeak that later made him a star.

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995)
Drag queen Vida Bohemme (yes, Swayze) and her cohorts Chi-Chi Rodriguez (John Leguizamo) and Noxeema Jones (Wesley Snipes) break down in a podunk town on a cross-country road trip, where they teach lessons of tolerance and make things all the more fabulous for their presence.

Donnie Darko (2001)
In a dramatic departure from his romantic and action roles, Swayze plays Jim Cunningham, a motivational speaker with a cache of child pornography in his basement in this time-space-continuum-bending head-tripper.

The Beast (2009)
This A&E series, which ran for one season, will be remembered as the show that Swayze, as rule-bending FBI agent Charles Barker, continued to work on even after his pancreatic-cancer diagnosis. Travis Fimmel co-stars as Ellis Dove, Barker's unwitting partner.

The 5 Greatest Warriors - Book Review

2010-03-18T17:23:00.013-04:00

The 5 Greatest Warriors
by Matthew Reilly
Simon and Schuster 2010
Authors website

This is the final book in the Jack West trilogy by Matthew Reilly that started in The 7 Deadly Wonders and continued in The 6 Sacred Stones (which I reviewed last year).

Captain Jack West and his team have to find 6 diamonds (pillars) and 6 vertices (inverted pyramids). These diamonds and vertices are scattered throughout the Earth and hidden underground, making them harder to find. Each inverted pyramid is hanging over an abyss which means death if anyone falls into it. To make matters worse, there are deadlines. If the diamonds are not placed into the tips of the vertices on the right dates and in the right order, then the world will be torn to pieces and destroyed. If the pillars are put into place, then they start up some Machine that will prevent the Earth from being destroyed.

In the 6 Sacred Stones, Jack and his team have successfully found and placed the first pillar into its correct vertice. Unfortunately at the time Jack is trying to place the second pillar into the second pyramid, he is hanging upside down, attempting to place the pillar (it is an inverted pyramid after all) and trying to fight off an enemy at the same time.

Jack is able to insert the pillar into place, but then the 2 men lose their grip and fall into the abyss. Thats where the 6 Sacred Stones ends.

The 5 Greatest Warriors opens with Jack and the enemy falling into the abyss. Jack survives. The enemy does not.

When Jack is rescued, he and his team must do their research (just the sort of thing I would love to have done) and find out where the 3rd pillar and vertice are and anything else about the remaining pillars and vertices. Together these will activate some great planetary machine to help ave the planet.

Jack and his team represent the smaller nations who wish to prevent the larger nations from grabbing all the power for themselves.

There are several enemies also out to get the power from the Machine. One enemy is Jacks father, Jack West senior (code named Wolf) who represents the Caldwell Group (shades of the Carlyle group that really does exist) which represents USA, China and Saudi Arabia. Other enemies are the European royal families - specifically the Russian (and yes there is one survivor) and British royal families, and Japan.

The 6 Sacred Stones was a lot of history and research and not as much action. This book - The 5 Greatest Warriors - is all action as the teams race to find the last 4 vertices and pillars and save the Earth.

You may be asking who the 5 greatest warriors actually were? Four of these names are famous names in world history. These men were the holders of the pillars at various times in history. The tombs of these men are places from which to start looking for the pillars.

Happy birthday to BiblioHistoria

2010-03-17T08:02:00.001-04:00

Finally I remembered!!!
Today is St Patrick's day - never mind that the parades were on the weekend.
And St Patrick's Day means Bibliohistoria's Birthday!!!!

Happy Birthday to me
This blog is now three!!

BiblioHistoria Blog is now officially 3 years old!!!

And this is the very first blog post I ever posted - An introduction to me and my books - exactly 3 years ago today.

The Lost Labyrinth - Book Review

2010-03-12T08:37:00.004-05:00

The Lost Labyrinth
by Will Adams
Harper Collins 2009

This book is the third adventure of Daniel Knox and his fiance Gaille. This book was somewhat extreme and tries to cash in on current world events. If you remember during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, the country of Georgia (in the Caucasus Mountains north of Armenia and Iran) was at war with Russia over the status of break-away republic South Ossetia.

Georgia and South Ossetia have always had an uneasy relationship. The current armed conflict has its roots in a dispute that goes back almost one hundred years.

During the night of August 7, 2008, coinciding with the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, Georgia's president Saakashvili ordered an all-out military attack on Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia. The aerial bombardments and ground attacks were largely directed against civilian targets including residential areas, hospitals and the university. The provincial capital Tskhinvali was destroyed.

What does this have to do with this specific book? Plenty. Will Adams has used the Georgia Mafia as the villains of his latest adventure.

The basic story is this. Ilya Nergadze is running for presidency of Georgia in the upcoming elections. The Nergadze family are into drugs and gun running and other mafia type activities. Ilya wants to have some kind of respectability and he thinks being President will give him the respectability that he craves.

One thing Ilya wants to do is to find the Golden Fleece (that Jason and the Argonauts stole from Georgia millenia ago) and other ancient Georgia treasures and bring them back to Georgia. He beleives that this will help him get the respectability he is looking for.

Twenty years after vanishing without a trace, French archaeologist Roland Petitier makes a dramatic reappearance at a major Athens archaeological conference, promising an astonishing find - the legendary Golden Fleece. This claim is based on several ancient clay seals with the ancient greek words for golden and fleece on them. But before Petitier can give his talk, he's found dead in a hotel room.

An out-of-control greek policeman attacks and beats up Petitier's onetime protege Augustin Pascal, putting him into intensive care. The Greeks later accuse Augustin of Petitier's murder. Only Augustin's two closest friends, Daniel Knox and Gaille Bonnard can prove his innocence.

However, rumours of the fleece's rediscovery have spread, and the Georgian Mafia in the form of the Nergadze family, is determined to get it first. Ilya Nergadze sends his psychopathic grandson Mikhail to Athens with orders to bring back the fleece. Mikhail quickly becomes convinced that Dan Knox has it, and slowly moves in for the kill.

There are three searches going on in this book - and in my opinion, they dont exactly tie in very well together.

The search for the Mysteries of Elysium
The search for the Golden Fleece stolen by Jason and the Argonauts from Georgia
and
The search for Atlantis

I did like the explanations for the location of Atlantis in this novel - they were well thought out and logical and the research tied together Platos dialogues with the geography and history of the Mediterranean.

I did not like the torture that Mikhail Nergadze inflicted on one character and another character was killed for absolutely no reason at all (that I can see) other than Mikhail loves to kill people.

Amazon Dot Com has applied to invade Canada

2010-03-10T17:38:00.005-05:00

Booksellers fighting Amazon's Canadian bid
Tue Mar 9, 2010
By Etan Vlessing
Yahoo News

TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) - Fearing an apparent assault by Amazon.com on Canadian culture, the Canadian Booksellers Association is urging the federal government to block the U.S. Internet retailer from establishing a physical presence north of the border.

Amazon.com has applied to the Heritage department for permission to establish its own fulfillment business here after using Canada Post for product delivery since 2002 to serve a Canadian version of its U.S. website, Amazon.ca.

But the local booksellers told Ottawa that allowing Amazon to operate on Canadian soil would contravene the Investment Canada Act, which requires book publishing and other cultural industries to comply with national cultural policies and benefit the Canadian economy.

"Individual Canadian booksellers have traditionally played a key role in ensuring the promotion of Canadian authors and Canadian culture. These are values that no American dot.com retailer could ever purport to understand or promote," CBA president Stephen Cribar said in a March 8 letter to federal Heritage minister James Moore.

Cribar urged Moore to place "reasonable limits on American domination of our book market" and to reject Amazon.com's current application.

Ottawa in 2002 ruled that the Investment Canada Act did not apply to Amazon.com, despite existing laws aiming at protecting the Canadian book industry from foreign competition, as long as it operated without a physical presence in the country.

The latest Amazon.com application has placed Ottawa in a bind as its cultural protectionist policies paradoxically allow the U.S. Internet retailer to freely sell books, e-books and other digital products to Canadians, as long as it (Amazon) does not establish offices or warehouses north of the border.

Allowing Amazon.com to establish a new business in Canada, while opposed by local booksellers, would enable Ottawa to place conditions on the U.S. online retailer's business here. Ottawa will rule on the Amazon.com application in the coming months.

From CBA

CBA Urges Canadian Heritage to Reject Amazon.com’s Application to Establish a New Business in Canada.

Canadian Booksellers Association (CBA) has written to the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, asking his government to reject Amazon.com’s application to establish a new cultural business in Canada. Copies of CBA’s letter have also been sent to the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada and the Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry.

CBA contends that allowing Amazon to operate a business within Canada would contravene the Investment Canada Act which requires that foreign investments in the book publishing and distribution sector be compatible with national cultural policies and be of net benefit to Canada and the Canadian-controlled sector.

CBA President Stephen Cribar argues that Amazon’s entry into Canada would detrimentally affect the country’s independent businesses and cultural industries: “Individual Canadian booksellers have traditionally played a key role in ensuring the promotion of Canadian authors and Canadian culture. These are values that no American dot.com retailer could ever purport to understand or promote.”

CBA urges the Canadian government and the Department of Canadian Heritage to continue its support of our unique cultural perspective by placing reasonable limits on American domination of our book market and rejecting Amazon.com’s current application.

The Glassblower of Murano - Book Review

2010-03-10T09:23:00.013-05:00

The Glassblower of Murano
by Marina Fiorato
Beautiful Books (UK) 2008
St Martins Press (USA) 2009
Author's website
Author's blog

I fell in love with mosaics and glassblowing many years ago when I first began reading the history of Constantinople. These were fascinating careers involving the arts outside of painting. Mosaics are my favourite but glassblowing comes a close second and there have been no stories about female glassblowers - until now.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is set in Venice, one of my all time favourite cities (others being Constantinople and Alexandria). Nora Manin has the blood of the glassblowers running in her veins. Her mother is English and her father was Bruno Manin, a Venetian, who died of a heart attack when Nora was just a child.

Nora was born in Venice but raised in England by her mother. Elinor was an art historian. Thus Nora grows up being drawn to glass blowing although she has no idea why. After her marriage breaks down, Nora decides to find her roots and she moves to Venice where she gets a job as a glassblower apprentice on the island of Murano.

Ms Fiorato (the author) does follow the correct immigration process, (which has been a huge nit pick for me in other reviews) and this adds to the story. In Nora's struggles to get through the legal paperwork, she finds the man of her dreams - Alessandro Bardalino.

In Venice we follow Nora as she learns more about glassblowing and as she searches for the story of her ancestor, Corradino Manin. He was also a glassblower on Murano in the 1500s and his speciality was making mirrors. The glassblowers in Venice were virtually kept as prisoners on Murano Island - they could not leave without permission of the ruling Council of Ten. The reason for this was to keep the glass blowers trade a secret in Europe, and to create a monopoly on the sale of glass mirrors and other glass items.

Corradino had an illegitimate daughter and in order to keep his daughter safe, Corradino did the unthinkable - he faked his death and traveled to France, where he passed his knowledge of glass making and blowing to the French, by creating the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.

The story switches between past and present, between Corradino and Nora, as Nora tries to find out what happened to Corradino and if he really was a traitor to Venice. A thoroughly enjoyable story.

Marina Fiorato is half-Venetian. She was born in Manchester and raised in the Yorkshire Dales. She is a history graduate of Oxford University and the University of Venice, where she specialized in the study of Shakespeare’s plays as an historical source. After University she studied art and since worked as an illustrator, actress and film reviewer. She also designed tour visuals for rock bands including U2 and the Rolling Stones. She was married on the Grand Canal in Venice and lives in North London with her husband, son and daughter.

The Paris Vendetta - Book Review

2010-03-06T20:51:00.013-05:00

The Paris Vendetta
by Steve Berry
Random House 2009

This is a long post and includes politics.

The main story is how Napoelon Bonaparte discovered a secret and then hid it where noone could find it. Also during WW2, how the nazi's found a treasure and hid that as well.

Lord Graham Ashby (a British millionaire) has spent years chasing clues and finally finds the Nazi treasure in Corsica. He is also investigating another treasure rumoured to be one that Napoleon found in Egypt.

But Ashby is not above killing anyone who gets in his way. Two years previously he had ordered a man to be killed and the man was killed in Mexico city along with several other innocent people. One of those innocents was a young man from the Danish embassy named Cai Thorvaldsen. His father is Henrik Thorvaldsen, a Danish millionaire and Cotton Malone's friend.

Henrik has grieved his son and then spent 2 years looking for the man who ordered the killings. He is bound and determined to kill Ashby with his own hands.

It turns out that Ashby is in dire straits, almost bankrupt and desperate to find a large cache of treasure to pay his debts. One of the things he has done is to be invited to join the Paris Club - which is a small group of millionaires - who want to increase their wealth without having to pay any taxes. Finding this treasure that Napoleon is rumoured to have found is one means of achieving their goal.

Henrik Thorvaldsen infiltrates the Paris Club by telling the leader (Eliza LaRocque) that Ashby is a security risk. Thorvaldsen indicates that Ashby is desperate for money and is not being discreet about how he gets it. Henrik has also asked Cotton to help find and apprehend Ashby.

This adventure follows the movements and adventures of Ashby, Thorvaldsen, Malone, and Eliza Larocque as they attempt to find this treasure in their bid to either start or prevent WW3 from breaking out.

The main message behind this story is how the entire world is presently controlled by the rich (called neocons) and how the majority of taxpayers (the rank and file) are nothing but slaves to the rich.

Don't beleive me?

Read this and confirm that it has not already happened.

It was long ago realised, even by ancient monarchs, that their subjects would not tolerate in peace that which they would willingly accept in war. This concept is particularly true today, in modern democracies.

Napoleon realized that war is good for society. Like nothing else, it mobilized his best thinkers to think better. He discovered that scientists were more creative when a threat was real. Manufacturing became moer innovative and productive, the people more obedient. He discovered that the citizenry, if threatened, would allow just about any violation from government, so long as they were protected. People will only tolerate so much.

There is death,destruction, devastation, waste, but war has always existed. War works. Mans greatest technological achievements have come as a result of war. Look at the second world war. We learned to split the atom and fly in space, not to mention countless advances in electronics, science, medicine, engineering.

The idea would be to create an alternative enemy. A threat, either real or perceived, against which society rallies to defend itself. Mass destruction by nuclear weapons for example. That was what the cold war was all about. Neither side ever did much to the other, but both sides spent billions and billions in preparation. Government flourished during the cold war. The american federal system expanded to unprecedented levels. Western civilization escalated to new heights from 1950 to 1990. Man made it to the Moon thanks to the cold war.

Again look at America. In the 1950s it allowed the trampling of its First Amendment when the threat of encroaching communism was thought real. Free speech became unimportant when compared with the imagined danger of the soviet union. Even more recently, after the attacks of September 11th (2001), laws were passed that, at any other time Americans would have found repulsive. The patriot act suppressed liberties and invaded privacies on an unprecedented level. Surveillance laws curbed civil liberties and restricted established freedoms. Identification laws came into being that, previously americans had found repugnant. But the people allowed these violations so that they would be safe - or at least perceive themselves to be safe.

A credible external threat equals expanded political and economic power - as long as the threat remains credible.

Any threat would have to be containable. To scare the people into obeying - and then extract profit from their fear. Thankfully in todays world, a credible enemy already exists and has already galvanized public sentiment.

Terrorism.

Still don't beleive me?

How about this.

Back in the year 1947, the House Select Committee began an investigation into the Motion Picture Industry. Ostensibly the goal was to ferret out communists working in the film industry. But in actuality the US Government was concerned that Hollywood was no longer as blindly supportive of government policy as it had been only a few years earlier at the height of WW2. In particular, J. Edgar Hoover had long held the opinion that the entertainment industry should be the propaganda arm for the government in peace time as well as war.

However, as WW2 had ended, the defense establishment had lobbied for the creation of a "Cold" war against the Soviet Union, a war not actually to be fought, but constantly to be prepared for at huge cost to the taxpayers. This cost was the visible manifestation of the "Military Industrial Complex" President Eisenhower referred to in his farewell address, and many in Hollywood openly wondered just why so much more money had to be thrown into the war machine during a time of peace, and more to the point, just why we were supposed to be so afraid of the communists.

[...]

Of course, what was really involved was money. War is good for business. Business had been great during WW2 and the newly created "Cold War" was just a way to keep business good. The Military Industrial Complex NEEDED Hollywood to demonize the Soviets. Otherwise, too many people were going to ask why we were being told to be so afraid of them, and few in the government had a really convincing answer for that question. So, in order to perpetuate the Cold War, those in Hollywood who might sympathize with the designated villains had to be removed; their ruined lives a small price to pay for unending access to the taxpayers' wallets.

But that was then and this is now.

Once again vast sums of money are being spent on a war, this time a hot one and getting hotter. Once again parties with a vested interest are out to smear and destroy anyone who dares ask if the wars are worth the sacrifice of our young people (not to mention the money), indeed if there really is any point at all to the wars aside from justifying the flow of money to defense contractors.

But the Soviet Union has gone out of business. The word "communist" doesn't carry the same psychological impact it used to, so the war hawk smear squad has come up with a new one, "Anti-Semite." Like "Communist", "Anti-Semite" is used to ruin the lives of people who have not actually done anything wrong other than to challenge the war profiteers. It is a new word for an old trick, and I am amazed that they are still playing the same old game, but I guess the FBI can always find some dumb-assed idiot to fall for it and do their dirty work of wrecking a career for them.

Of course, it really isn't that new a word. Oddly enough, Charles Lindbergh the famous aviator commented in a speech in Des Moines in 1941...

Our theaters soon became filled with plays portraying the glory of war. Newsreels lost all semblance of objectivity. Newspapers and magazines began to lose advertising if they carried anti-war articles. A smear campaign was instituted against individuals who opposed intervention. The terms "fifth columnist," "traitor," "Nazi," "anti-Semitic" were thrown ceaselessly at any one who dared to suggest that it was not to the best interests of the United States to enter the war. Men lost their jobs if they were frankly anti-war. Many others dared no longer speak.

Today we are seeing once again the heavy hand of the war profiteers trying to reshape the film industry into a tool to propagandize the public into a high war-fever such that they will gladly trade their own blood for gold to line the pockets of the defense establishment. And those individuals who have the courage to speak out are attacked, and once again they are smeared to silence them. In the 1940s it was "Communist", today it is "Anti-Semite", but aside from the particular label used, the methods, goals, and morality are little changed from the days of Joseph McCarthy.

If there is a difference today it is that the American people are better educated. No longer dependent on the state schools, or controlled media, the public understands the tactics used to silence those who speak out. As a result, those who speak out are more and more not only accorded the sympathetic ear that their message deserves, but the effects of the smearing are far less ruinous than in times past.

Thus, when we see people like Charlie Sheen, Willie Nelson, Sean Penn, and Marion Cotillard speak out and survive, it sends a message that it is now permissible to speak out. This is not to say that there are not risks. Rosie O'Donnell lost her spot on "The View", but the majority of Americans understand exactly why, and understand that Rosie sacrificed a great deal trying to get the truth out. Rosie is and will be remembered as a hero for truth long after her co-hosts on "The View" are properly forgotten.

In contrast, of course, we look back at those who aided the "Commie" witch-hunts of the 1940s with deserved contempt. No doubt many aided Hoover purely to rid themselves of competition, and then tried to lull themselves to sleep with the idea that in some way they had actually done something good for the nation by wrecking their neighbors' careers. I have no doubt strong liquor played a role in this grossest of self-deception. But if the informants and smear artists of the 1940s are remembered in a poor light, that should serve as a reminder to the informants and smear artists of today. It does not matter what you do with the rest of your life, aiding the new version of McCarthyism is how history will remember you. While people like Charlie Sheen, Willie Nelson, Sean Penn, and Marion Cotillard (and to step out of entertainment, former President Jimmy Carter) will be remembered and honored for their courage, history will lump the smear artists together with Stalin's "Useful idiots", little more than no-talent opportunists for whom ratting out someone was the fastest path to advancement.

They say that history repeats itself, and indeed that is the major thing wrong with history. We are seeing history repeat itself again. We have been down this path before, in the 1940s. Whether the word is "Communist" or "Anti-Semite", Hollywood is making the same mistake all over again. And Hollywood will have to live with that image in the coming decades.

McCarthyism is back

Fake Terror - the Road to War and Dictatorship

The Secret Life of Bees - Book Review

2010-03-06T20:29:00.007-05:00

The Secret Life of Bees
by Sue Monk Kidd
Originally Published by Penguin 2003
This edition published by Penguin 2008
Movie released 2008

An excellent book. I have not yet seen the movie, but now I do want to find the DVD and watch it. I love coming of age movies.

This is the story of Lily Owens, a teenager on a peach farm in South Carolina in 1964. Lily's mother died when she was young and her father is abusive. Lily has been raised by the black housekeeper, Rosaleen. One day Rosaleen gets beaten up by some white men while she is going into town to register to vote. Lily decides that she must save Rosaleen, so she breaks Rosaleen out of jail and they skip town. They end up in Tiburon, South Carolina. Lily choses this town on the basis of a picture she found in her dead mothers belongings. It turns out to be the perfect place for Lily to find the truth about her mother and to find herself.

There is plenty of tension and conflict - this is the time of the civil rights movement when the blacks have finally won the right to vote, and the right to attend desegregated schools. What is unusal is for a white girl to be living with a family of black women, even if they are all bee keepers and honey sellers.

This was an excellent story and I read it in just 3 hours. I really enjoyed it.

Used and Rare - Book Review

2010-03-03T09:05:00.020-05:00

Used and Rare
by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
St Martins Press 1997

In the early 1990s Nancy and Lawrence Goldstone were both working long hours on Wall Street in New York City.

Nancy had given birth to their daughter Emily (born roughly around 1991) and the frantic pace of their jobs meant that Emily was being raised by babysitters.

So Lawrence and Nancy made a decision - to get out of the rat race and go somewhere less driven. So they quit their fast-paced jobs and moved to Massachusetts, where Nancy and Lawrence began writing books.

Nancy's first book was called Trading Up (Surviving Success as a Trader on Wall Street) - In this hilarious, no-holds-barred account of Wall Street, Nancy Goldstone tells of the series of coincidences and sheer luck that landed her, her trading position, how she managed to succeed in the job. and the pressures and demands of the crazy world of high finance that led her to quit.
NB - I must try and find this book to read.

I have previously read and reviewed the second and third books in the Goldstone book trilogy. Slightly Chipped and Warmly Inscribed. Now I have finally located and read the first book - which tells the story of how the Goldstones became book collectors.

In 1994, Nancy tracked down a ten-dollar copy of War and Peace in order to win a birthday bet with Larry. What started as a last resort on the quest for a cheap gift soon became an addiction. Over the next three years they haunted every used and rare bookshop between New York and Boston that they could find, from dingy, dust-filled barns to elegant Park Avenue galleries.

Starting small on cheap, out-of-print used books, their addiction soon graduated to first editions and, finally, to three-quarter morocco, custom-bound antiquarian classics that they could not afford. Along the way, they gained an education in books - and in people - that we can all savor.

I read this book for the Bibliophilic challenge.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Book Review

2010-02-28T12:24:00.013-05:00

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffers and Annie Barrows
Dial Press Trade PB 2009
(large file picture)

This book is an Epistolary novel which means it consist of letters rather than a straight dramatic story.

Now I have read some reviews where the reviewers claim that the letters in this book were boring, the letters sent the reviewer to sleep, the letters jumped around and kept changing subject matter and other odd complaints.

Having read 84 Charing Cross Road, and now this wonderful little gem, I think I love Epistolary novels. I love these types of novels, because you get a real inside view to what the characters are thinking and feeling.

Most other dramatic novels just dont have the means to give you real emotions unless they are described second hand by another character and only what they see and hear from the first character who is emotional. So in a dramatic novel we get this >> Jane told him the truth. He was shocked and angry. After he left, Jane swore that she would not make that same mistake again.

As I have been told frequently on a favourite website >> Dont be shy, tell us how you really feel....

In a epistolary novel we would get the following >> Damn!! Damn!! Damn!! Did I really just open my big mouth and say that? God I can be so stupid. To tell him the truth so bluntly. He looks like he had no idea. That look he gave me - pure spite and malice. I guess he hates me now. And there he goes - stalking off as if he can't wait to get away. Well I guess I wont be making that mistake again.

Doesn't the personal first hand view give you a lot more more details and emotion about the situation?? I love it. Its easier to write as well. The established writers are always telling the newbie writes to write what you know - and they are right. It flows better when you write about something you have experienced.

Ok now, let's get back to the book.

First up, I really really enjoyed it.

I learnt heaps about the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands during WW2. Normally I dont read WW2 novels but this book had such an unusual angle, it was just so interesting to read.

Juliet Ashton is a writer from London, England. Her flat was bombed and destroyed during the London Blitz and she lost everything. She had survived the war by writing a series of columms in the newspaper called Izzy Bickerstaff (an assumed name). At the end of the war these columns had been gathered together and published in a book called Izzy Bickerstaff goes to War It was a bestseller book for Juliet and for her publisher Stephens and Stark.

Now Juliet is looking for a new topic to write about. Before her apartment was been bombed, Juliet has sold some of her old second hand books. One of them was called The Selected Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb. This book had somehow ended up on the island of Guernsey Island where it was claimed by a young man named Dawsey Adams. Inside the book Juliet had written her name and address. The address being the location of the bombed out flat.

Dawsey wrote to Juliet to say thank you for the book and to ask if she could by any chance find any other books by Charles Lamb that could be sent to him?

Thus began a correspondence between Juliet, Dawsey and various other Guernsey Island people. Juliet was intrigued about the literary society that had been invented one night to save a group of islanders from prison when they were caught by germans on the road one night being out after curfew.

Elizabeth was a fast talker and she said they were members of a literary society and had been having discussions about books while eating a potato peel pie. They had completely forgotten the time and were really sorry.

Juliets correspondence with the Guernsey Literary society continues and expands to include other members - talking about about the books they read and the german occupation.

Eventually Juliet travels to Guernsey Island and meets the society members in person. Juliet continues writing letters to her friends and to her publisher detailing her adventures, the people she meets and the traditions and customs she finds on the island. Juliet settles down on the island and gets married. To whom - well you will have to read this book to find out.

I read this book for the Bibliophilic Challenge.

A Clue for the Puzzle Lady - Book Review

2010-02-27T15:45:00.014-05:00

I reserved several books in this series from the library and brought them all home several days ago. So I read the first book in the series - A Clue of the Puzzle Lady.

I dont think I will be reviewing any more books in this series. Apart from all of the books pretty much following the same formula, I was shocked by the messages. It is just not done to have a heroine who drinks until they are drunk and smokes like a chimney. I personally do not drink or smoke and I dont like being around anyone who does smoke. I can handle being around a drinker as long as they are not too sloshed.

But Cora Felton is obviously an alcoholic even though that word is not mentioned at all. She drinks to excess to the point of being refused more drinks at the bar and she falls asleep in the same bar, not to mention she smokes like a chimney. And she frequently wakes up with hangovers. This gives out a bad message to readers.

While it is nice for the heroes and heroines to have their faults, I just think that these two faults together in the same person and mentioned as often as they are, is just not kosher. To make things worse this drunken smoker is also perpetuating a lie - in that she is claiming to be a real puzzle lady. Cora's picture is at the top of the crossword column in the newspapers every day. Her face is also on the TV ads. But she cannot solve a crossword puzzle to save her life. Cora's niece Sherry constructs and solves all the crosswords. For me that's three strikes against this series. I wont be reviewing any other books in this series.

A Clue for the Puzzle Lady
by Parnell Hall
Bantam Books 1999

Anyway the basics of this specific novel is that a runaway girl and a local woman are both found dead in the cemetery (at different times of course). The runaway girl has a piece of paper in her hand on which is written the following 4)D - LINE (5)

A police officer identifies it as a crossword clue >> 4 down, A word for LINE, 5 letters. So the chief of police gets in touch with the puzzle lady and asks for her help. After some discussion, Sherry and Cora decide that the answer seems to be QUEUE.

Two days later the second woman is found murdered in the cemetery. The puzzle on her body reads >> 14)A - Sheep (3) - the answer is EWE.

A third crossword puzzle is left in Cora's mail box - this one says >> 18) - Yes Vote (3) - the answer is AYE

Cora also makes a throw-away comment about how the clues could refer to the cemetery itself - 4 graves down and 5 graves across may be important. When this comment is followed, it pinpoints the grave of a young High school student named Barbara Burnside who was killed back in the 1950s in a car crash while she was drinking and driving.

While Cora works on trying to discover who the graveyard killer is, Sherry is getting to know the local newspaper reporter, Aaron Grant. Aaron receives a letter at the newspaper office. This letter says Stay Away from the Burnside case, which just makes Sherry more determined to find out what really happened. She talks to Barbara's boyfriend who does not co-operate. Sherry also speaks to the man who owned the car that the boyfriend borrowed to follow Barbara that night.

Sherry eventually discovers that the friend who owned the car did not actually give permission, and more to the point, he had the keys in his jacket pocket so when the boyfriend told him that he had borrowed (past tense) the car, the car owner wondered if the car had been hot wired.

Sherry eventually creates a case and speaks to the boyfriend about it. The boyfriend attemnps to kill Sherry but is prevented from doing so by the arrival of Aaron the reporter and the Chief of Police. It turns out that the boyfriend had been the person driving and when he crashed the car, he survived because he was wearing a seatbelt. Barbara had gone through the front windshield, hit her head against a rock and died. Both Barbara and the boyfriend had been drinking. The boyfriend had lied. Since the statute of limitations had long since run out, the boyfriend is arrested for assult on Sherry and for obstruction of justice - he had sent the threatening letter to Aaron.

Meanwhile Cora is cracking the cemetery murders. The police discover that the paper that the runaway girl was holding was NOT a crossword clue - it was the answer to a math test problem - specifically algebra. From this, Cora figures out who the murderer is, entices him to the cemetery and gets him to confess while he attempts to kill Cora. The chief of Police also arrives at an opportune moment to see, hear and arrest.

Reading the OED - Book Review

2010-02-25T21:27:00.051-05:00

Reading the OED
by Ammon Shea
Perigee Books 2008
Author Website
Way way back in the dim dark ages when I was in elementary school, we used to have to learn vocabulary words from a spelling book. The words were divided into 8 lists - each list of words (called levels) being harder than the one before. I remember getting to level 8 by age 10, but not being allowed to go to the next level which was Dictionary.

That may have something to do with me always reading during spelling tests and still getting 100%. I was so bored during spelling tests. Mr B, the teacher, would say the word, use it in a sentence and then say the word again - and then wait 5 minutes before going onto the next word. I usually had the word written down before he had said the word a second time. Then for the 5 minutes of silence I would read.

If Mr B honestly expected me to sit there for 5 minutes and twiddle my thumbs - he was seriously mistaken. He would frequently tell me to stop reading, but I never did - not during spelling tests anyway.

I am thinking now (more than 30 years later) that this is why he never promoted me up to dictionary level.

So speaking about dictionaries, now that I have read The Madman and the Professor, the men who created the Oxford English dictionary back in the mid 1800s, I guess the next thing to do, is to read the whole thing.

Gasp - it has 20 volumes!!!
Yes thats right.
But I cant read all that!!!
Tell you what...
Why you dont get someone to read it for you??

And thats exactly what I did. I got Ammon Shea to read the OED for me. He has read the full 20 volume set of the Oxford English Dictionary (1989 edition) so that I don't have to.

Ammon Shea has a dictionary collection. In fact he has several hundred different dictionaries on his bookshelves in his apartment. But that is not a world record. NO. The world record should belong to a woman in New York city named Madeline who has 20,0000 dictionaries!!!!!

Ammon describes the challenge he gave himself, to read all 20 volumes of the 1989 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

He began reading these books at home. But he kept getting distracted by the dictionaries on his bookshelf. So he found himself a place to read in the basement of the library at Hunter College (in NYC) - where there were only French and Music books - neither of which he could read so he could not be distracted. As he read he would note down the interesting words that he found and then write down his own understanding of what the word meant.

For one of the words that is mentioned - I found Ammons description to be funny and still cannot stop laughing whenever I read or think about it.

FARD (v) To paint the face with cosmetics so as to hide blemishes.
Ammon's comment >> I suspect there is a reason why noone ever gets up from the table and says "Excuse me while I go to the ladies' room and fard."

PALEOLATRY (n) Excessive reverence for that which is old.
My comment - I beleive I have demonstrated this paleolatry in this blog several times in expressing my love for antiquarian books.

PLINYISM (n) A statement or account of dubious correctness or accuracy, such as some (statements) found in the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79).
Ammon's comment - This word was coined in 1702 by a man named Cotton Mather purely because he disliked Pliny's writing.

If you play Scrabble, there are perhaps 20 to 25 words starting with Q that do NOT have the U as the second letter. BUT you cannot use these non-Q-U words in the game as they are NOT in the official Scrabble dictionary.

Between the R's and the S's, Ammon and his girlfriend take a break and attend a 3 day conference run by the Dictionary Society of North America, taking place in Chicago.

The letter S stretches across 4 of the 20 volumes of the OED!!!

In the print version of the OED, at 25 pages long, the word SET is the largest entry.

The S-E words are the UN- words. This list is 451 pages long. Ammon says he is is bored after 50 pages and catatonic after 100 pages. SE means self-explanatory. Where if you know that UN means NOT, and from that you can work out that the entire word means NOT- whatever the word means.
I can think of one English word that I dont think fits this category. UNDERSTAND
Is there any such word as Derstand in the English language? I don't think so.

VALENTINE (V) To greet with song at mating time (usually said of birds)
Ammon's comment - When birds sing to attract a mate, it is called a Marvel of Nature. When a man does it, it is called grounds for a restraining order.

There is a word in the OED for everything - such as the little plastic tips at the end of shoelaces (aiglet). Did you know there is also a word for the cupping of your two hands together - for example to drink water or to hold sand on the beach?

YEPSEN (N) The amount that can be held in two hands cupped together, and also the two cupped hand themselves.
My comment - We call these cupped hands together begging as in Please sir, I want some more... (Oliver Twist 1968)

The very last word in the OED is.... ZYXT (V) to see.

OED website (requires subscription)

Further Reading. I think I will try and read some of these books. Ammon has read them all.

Simon Winchester who wrote The Professor and the Madman about the making of the OED. He also wrote a book called The Meaning of Everything which is a more detailed history of the OED but no less entertaining that the Professor/Madman.

Caught in the Web of Words - James Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary by Murray's granddaughter Elizabeth Murray.

Lost for Words - The Hidden History of the Oxford English Dictionary by Linda Mugglestone.

I read this book for the Bibliophilic Challenge.

The Sanctuary - Book Review

2010-02-23T11:29:00.011-05:00

The Sanctuary
by Raymond Khoury
Signet Books 2008

Myths, legends and speculations about the Count of St. Germain (born 1710) began to be widespread in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and continue today. They include beliefs that he is immortal, the Wandering Jew, an alchemist with the "Elixir of Life", a Rosicrucian, and that he prophesied the French Revolution.

The man going by the name of Marquis de Montferrat in Naples Italy in 1749 was attacked by Raimondo di Sangro. After a sword fight during which a house is set on fire, Montferrat escapes and disappears. Previous to this fire and sword fight, we meet the Count in his native Portugal as an Inquisitor and later in Paris where he finds the love of his life, by whom he has a son. In Paris, the count called himself the Count de St Germain.

Montferrat is looking for the missing pages to a special book - a book that was given to him by an old man in the dungeons of the inquisition in 1705. This book had an Ourobouros engraved on the tooled leather cover. This book had the clues to finding the elixir of immortality.

The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle.

On 2003 A US army unit attacks a house in Iraq where a man called the hakeem lives. The hakeem is spoken of, only with dread and terror. Down in the basement of this hosue is found a fully outfitted operating room, and many many jars filled with body parts and many pouches of blood. Behind the operating rooms are found cages with human bodies in them - bodies mostly of children.

The hakeem (doctor) is a westerner who kidnaps or buys children and does experiments on them. He is obsessed with finding the secret to immortality.

In 2006 Evelyn Bishop (an American archaeologist) is working on a dig in southern Lebanon when she is approached by a colleague she had once worked with in Iraq 30 yaesr previously. This Iraqi colleague (Farouk) has a set of polaroid photos of stolen artifacts that he is desperate to sell. Evelyn refuses to buy stolen artifacts.

You know me better than this Farouk, she says.

Farouk says there is one item that she might be interested in - a book with an snake on the cover. He shows Evelyn the photo of the book. Evelyn found the book in Iraq 30 years earlier and had begun to try and translate it from Arabic to English. She was helped by a man named Tom Webster, an American who was also interested in the book. The two of them became lovers, and then one day Tom disappeared. Evelyn was distraught to say the least - especially when she discovered that she was pregnant.

Evelyn's daughter Mia was born in Iraq but raised in USA by Evelyn's sister Adelaide, just outside of Boston. Mia would visit her mother on summer vacations in various digs throughout the middle east. She never knew her father. Mia has her PhD in genetics and is now a geneticist based in Beirut, Lebanon. Her job is to take blood samples from Lebanese men and try to discover who the Phoenicians were and where they came from.

On this day in 2006, Evelyn has arranged to meet Farouk at a certain spot in Beirut. She meets with Mia in Beirut before the meeting and then left her cell phone behind when she leaves to go to the meeting. Mia chases after Evelyn to return the cell phone. A few minutes later Mia sees her mother being kidnapped by some goons and shoved into a black car.

Mia goes to the police and her story is treated with routine placations. Kidnappings are common in Lebanon. But things get worse when the police disover that two Beirut police officers were killed at the same time. Mia is now being treated as a suspect and possible collaborator. Finally a US embassy official shows up. His name is Corben. He helps to get Mia out of the police station and back to her hotel.

From here on out, Mia is on the clock to find her mother.

Corben has an ulterior motive to find Evelyn. He wants to get the hakeem, the doctor doing the experiments. The trail had gone cold in Iraq 3 years earlier.

The hakeem had his goons have kidnapped Evelyn and Evelyn is now tortured in order disclose what she knows about the book with the ourobouros on the cover and about Tom Webster - the mysterious man she has not seen in 30 years.

The Ourobouros is a theme of continuity. It speaks to the cyclicality of nature, the endless circle of life (see The Lion King movie), death and rebirth, the primordial unity of all things.

While Mia is resting, Corben goes back to the embassy to update the ambassador. At the embassy he meets an American from the Haldane Institute - a private foundation in USA that funds Evelyn's archaeological digs. His name is Bill Kirkwood. Bill joins Corbin and Mia to help them find Evelyn.

With the hakeem's goons after them, Corben, Bill and Mia have to dodge bullets as they track the kidnappers to a remote village in Northern Kurdistan not far from the Turkish border.

There Mia learns a few things. That Bill Kirkwood is really Tom Webster, and that he is also her father, that Tom was really born in 1913, and that he was the grandson of the Marquis de Montferrat. Tom doesnt look a day over 40. He has been taking the elixir which slows down aging by a huge amount. The same elixir that the Hakeem has been so desperate to find.

Mia and To both learn that the Hakeem is a descendent of Raimondo di Sangro.

Evelyn too is being held at the village and she and Tom have a happy reunion.

The battle that occurs at the remote village leaves both Corben and the Hakeem dead.

You have the right to remain puzzled - Book Review

2010-02-20T22:54:00.001-05:00

I found another new mystery book series this week. I can't believe I have never seen or heard of any of these books over the last 10 years. I found this book at my local library.

The basic premise of this series is that Cora Felton, AKA the Puzzle Lady, cannot construct a crossword puzzle if her life depended on it. But noone knows that. Her niece, Sherry Carter, constructs them for her in secret. Cora hates puzzles, but loves solving crimes.

You have the right to remain puzzled
By Parnell Hall
Bantam Books 2006
Parnell Hall Website

What is a cruciverbalist?
A compiler or solver of crossword puzzles.

Mimi Dillinger asks Cora to create a small crossword puzzle to tell her husband about the fender bender she was in and to apologise. Sherry is not in any mood to create more than one crossword a day and so she peruses a book of crossword puzzles and chooses one to use. She changes the clues but leaves the layout exactly the same.

Mimi gives the crossword to her husband and apologises for crashing the car. Chuck Dillinger is not upset. Mimi is so grateful her husband is not angry, she sends the crossword to the local news paper and tells them the story. The newspaper prints the story and the puzzle.

Benny Southstreet, a smalltime crook and gambler, sees the puzzle in the paper and goes berserk. He goes to Cora's house and accuses her of plagiarism. Benny is found dead the next day and Cora is arrested for his murder.

What happens next becomes a jumble of misadventures, lies, diversions and confusion until Cora finally sorts it all out at a town hall meeting which she calls in order to uncover the real murderer.

This was a confusing book to read, but the town hall meeting chapter was excellent. Cora clearly explained what really happened.

Perhaps I should have started with a different book in the series. I have reserved some more books in this series from my local library.

Books in the Series

A Clue for the Puzzle Lady (1999)
Last Puzzle and Testament (2000)
Puzzled to Death (2001)
A Puzzle in a Pear Tree (2002)
With This Puzzle, I Thee Kill (2003)
And a Puzzle to Die on (2004)
Stalking the Puzzle Lady (2005)
You Have the Right to Remain Puzzled (2006)
The Sudoku Puzzle Murders (2008)
Dead Man's Puzzle (2009)
The Puzzle Lady vs. The Sudoku Lady (2010)

Goodreads

2010-02-20T09:21:00.007-05:00

AAAAAAHHHHHH

That was a huge sigh. I am in book heaven this week.

I found a new social network for bookworms and readers this week. It's called Goodreads. The site encourages you to catalogue all your books and then identify if you ARE currently reading them, HAVE read them or WANT to read them.

This site is similar to Shelfari and Library Things.

I tried Shelfari but it was too chunky and slow. But then it had just started when I signed up, and they were still working out the kinks and glitches. I even had a widget from Shelfari on this blog but they kept changing it so eventually I scrubbed it. That was about the time I stopped using Shelfari. You'll notice that the earlier posts on this blog concerning Shelfari are all dated 2007.

I still don't like the look of Library Things. Still way too much text for my liking and still no visual appeal. Plus they still charge you for more than 200 books. My credit card is not in a healthy condition right now.

Goodreads is totally free and the cover pictures looks great. In going through my books to add to my Goodreads catalogue, I have found at least 11 books with book marks in them that I have started at different times and have not finished. Now I feel compelled to finish reading them. There is also a new widget from Goodreads on this blog already. I am listed on Goodreads as Alexandria Historia - named after the Great Library of Alexandria and this blog.

On Goodreads even after being there for less than 1 week, I am already a librarian - which means I can edit book details and data, add new books, add book covers and new editions and so on. That's because their only restriction is to have 50 books listed. I had over 200 books listed at the time I applied to be a librarian. That was 24 hours afetr I signed up. I now have over 300 books catalogued.

To meet other people, you join groups which are essentially message boards. These groups are usually based on genres, authors, specific historical events, different places or specific time periods and so on. Some groups do not appear to be book related at all.

One group I signed up with is called A History of Royals. This group is - A place to talk about all royals from every corner of the world and from all moments in history, fiction or non-fiction; real or imaginary. Discuss everyone from Cleopatra to Marie Antoinette, from King Arthur to King Henry VIII to Queen Elizabeth II. Whatever and whomever you are fascinated by!

I like it!!! NO - I lOVE IT.

The Cuckoo's Egg - Book Review

2010-02-17T08:06:00.026-05:00

The Cuckoo's Nest
by Clifford Stoll
Pocket Books 1989 & 1990

This is one of the earliest and documented stories of cyber espionage. I have had a copy of this book since the early to mid 1990s and every now and then I get it out and read it again. Since I haven't blogged about it, I must not have read it since I started this blog, so it must be time to read it again. Which I did...in just one day.

The entire text of this book (including both prologue/acknowledgements and epilogue/bibliography) has been uploaded to the internet. Its not a long book - my hard copy is just 350 pages.

But this story involves a world that I was never privy to. While I did have access to a computer during the 1980s and 1990s, I was never online during this time. I played my games in isolation.

I did not get online until after the internet explosion of 1995. This book talks about the internet as it was being created. The early networks, ARPA, MILNET, TYMNET, various US Military bases as well as other computer networks in the private sector both in USA and around the world.

If you remember the 1983 movie WARGAMES about a high school student David who broke into NORADs computer (named Joshua) and almost started WW3. The computer networks and methods he used to "play games" were similar to what Hunter was doing.

Anyway - back to the Cuckoo's Egg. In the beginning there was 75 cents missing!!!

75 cents of computer time and use, that NOONE was being billed for.
Cliff Stoll was given the job to bill someone for that 75 cents.
It didnt take him long - there was a new user on the system called Hunter.

But noone at the Livermore Berkeley Laboratory would admit to adding the user Hunter to the computer system. So Stoll decided to find out who did. It turns out the hacker gave himself super user status (what we now call administration status) and privileges and created the new account called Hunter for himself. This didnt take very long to discover either.

Giving oneself super-user status involves laying a cuckoo egg or uploading a small file or program into the system - which is then moved by the computer into the secure area. That was a bug (AKA a Gnu-Emacs hole) right there. The file should not have been moved into the secure area. The program then becomes a super user allowing the hacker free and open access to that computer and to the networks it is connected to.

Hunter still had to gain access to computers and he needed passwords. He would regularly copy the list of users and their encrypted passwords - something that only a super user can do. Stoll finally worked out that Hunter had a cracking program that went through the English dictionary and encrypted every single word and then compared that encryption with the list. When a match was found, that was the password and another user was compromised.

Hunter also did not create a whole heap of new users. NO, he used old accounts that were still valid, but which had not been used for at least a year. This way he did not trip any alarms by creating new unknown accounts. These old accounts SHOULD HAVE BEEN removed, when their owners left the facility, but they weren't. In some ways the facilities left themselves wide open to be hacked, but Hunter should also not have been doing what he was doing either.

Trying to find Hunter's physical location was the hard part. Stoll put a printer on the cable that Hunter would usually come in on, and was therefore able to print out every keystroke that Hunter typed. It took Stoll almost a year to track Hunter down over the networks and telephone lines all the way to Germany. Stoll's documentation were the boxes and boxes of print-outs plus his log books of daily activities.

Stoll tried to get the FBI, the CIA, the Air Force OSI and even the NSA all involved, but none of these agencies were willing to do anything about Hunter - for 2 reasons.
1 - because there was no money or classified secrets being stolen
2 - Hunter was not in the USA

Hunter was stealing....but he was stealing the non-classified secrets!!!

Hunter turned out to be a German hacker named Markus Hess, a member of a hackers club called Chaos Computer Club or CCC. Markus was being paid by the KGB to provide certain types of information. He was also doing this hacking for the challenge and to prove that the military networks were as just as lax about computer security as the rest of the computer networks.

Hess was eventually arrested and went to trial in 1990. Two other CCC club members were also on trial. A third club member committed suicide. Stoll testified against Hess. Hess was found guilty of espionage and was sentenced to a suspended prison sentence plus community service. No jail sentence.

This all happened over 1987 and 1988 - just months before the Berlin Wall fell and before Ceauşescu was shot.

There are very few books that I like to re-read over and over again.
This is one of them. Every 4 to 5 years I will re-read it.
A good way to learn about the creation and origins of the internet.

Digging for the past - Remarkable Creatures

2010-02-15T12:11:00.008-05:00

Several years ago I purchased a book called the Dragon Seekers about fossil hunters in Dorset in Southern England. One of the major characters in the book was a woman called Mary Anning who had grown up going against the grain of 19th century English life. She was a fossil hunter. She looked for fossils on the beaches of Dorset and then would sell the fossils to scientists. She was one of the first dinosaur hunters in the world and she was a woman. She is credited with discovering the first ichthyosaur skeleton and the first two plesiosaur skeletons ever found.

Tracey Chevalier is not one of my favourite authors. She writes novels based on history and some of them are of historical times and people that I do like reading about. Other novels she writes are of people and times that I dont like reading about.

Tracy's last book was called Burning Bright - about the painter and poet William Blake. Not my cup of tea at all.

But Tracy's newest novel I DO want to read. Its about Mary Anning. It's called Remarkable Creatures and it was published around August of 2009. I have to find Remarkable Creatures and read it.

Thanks to Ragdoll for bringing this book and video to my attention.

The Tomb of Zeus - Book Review

2010-02-14T18:21:00.012-05:00

The Tomb of Zeus
by Barbara Cleverly
Bantam Dell/Random House 2007

Set in Heraklion, Crete in 1928, this is Laetitia Talbot's first job as a newly minted archaelogist. Just off the plane from London to Athens, Laetitia meets Charles St George Russell on the boat to Crete while she is dealing with a bout of sea-sickness. It turns out that it had been arranged for Laetitia (aka Letty) to stay with George's family as his father is the renowned archaeologist Theodore Russell.

Once back on land in Heraklion, Letty's seasickness subsides and she is driven (in George's Bugatti) to the Russell Villa. At dinner she mets her ex-beau William Gunning who left London rather suddenly the previous year with no explanation. Also at the first dinner Letty meets George's stepmother Phoebe. Letty cannot explain it, but the villa and the Russell family are unnerving. She feels something bad amongst these 3 family members.

A week after Letty's arrival, Phoebe takes her on a picnic and a tour of the Knossos site that had recently been discovered by Arthur Evans. Two of Phoebe's friends show up - Dr Harold Stoddart and his wife Olivia. After the picnic Phoebe collapses and is taken home by Dr Stoddart. Olivia and Letty cycle home.

By the time Letty gets home, she discovers Phoebe is dead - hanging by a noose in her closet. Naturally the family are called as are the police. Inspector Mariani opens an investigation.

The following week, Theo Russell gives Letty a small site to dig up on the slopes of Mount Juktas and sends her off. William Gunning goes along to help and there is also a small experienced team of local men who will do the digging.

The inquest into Phoebe's death determines that she committed suicide. Letty and William are sure that Phoebe did not kill herself. So they set about doing their own investigation. Along the way Letty's bad feelings towards William's abrupt departure from London the previous year, are dealt with and they fall in love.

On the dig, they find a Minoan tomb - Theo Russell is quite desperate for an exciting find. He thinks it is the legendary Tomb of Zeus and plans to write it up and claim the find as his. On further investigation by Letty and William, the body in the tomb is female and a second body they find stuffed into a box is male but of a young boy, not that of Zeus. The speculation is that they are of Aphrodite and Adonis.

The mystery surrounding the Russell family, as well as Phoebe's death, are also cleared up with surprising results.

I really enjoyed this book for the wonderful details it gave of life in Crete in the 1920s. The old fashioned customs of the people of Crete versus the 1920s "modern" thinking of the British.

Dick Francis has died

2010-02-14T13:14:00.001-05:00

Dick Francis has died.

LONDON (AFP) - Prolific author Dick Francis, a former jockey whose thrillers rode high in best-selling lists for decades, has died at the age of 89, his family said Sunday.

He passed away at his Caribbean home in Grand Cayman from "old age", according to a statement released through his publicist.

His son, Felix, said he was "devastated" as he paid tribute to his "extraordinary" father, who produced 42 novels.

Francis specialised in plots based on the horse racing industry, drawing on his own experiences of winning more than 350 races.

Bibliomania - Bibliophilia - Bookworm

2010-02-14T08:38:00.015-05:00

Bibliomania - Bibliophilia - Bookworm - Bibliography
What is the difference between these terms?

Bibliomania is a love of and for books. So are Bibliophily and Bookworm and Bibliography.

Well actually Wikipedia says that Bibliomania is an OBSESSION with books

Bibliomania is an obsessive–compulsive disorder involving the collecting or hoarding of books to the point where social relations or health are damaged. One of several psychological disorders associated with books, bibliomania is characterized by the collecting of books which have no use to the collector nor any great intrinsic value to a genuine book collector. The purchase of multiple copies of the same book and edition and the accumulation of books beyond possible capacity of use or enjoyment are frequent symptoms of bibliomania.

Bibliomania is not to be confused with Bibliophily, which is the usual love of books and is not considered a clinical psychological disorder.

Bibliophilia is the love of books. Accordingly a bibliophile is an individual who loves books, especially "for qualities of format." Bibliophilia is generally considered to be an incorrect usage; but some would merely call it a recent one. The practice of loving or collecting books is dubbed bibliophilism, and the adjective form of the term is bibliophilic. Also, a bibliophile may be a book collector.

A Bookworm loves books for their content, or otherwise loves reading.

A Bibliomanic doesnt collect books? Of course they do. They just collect any books they can lay their hands on. The Bibliophilic only collects books in certain areas of interest. The Bookworm collects books that they want to read (TBR = To Be Read) or have read.

There are two other terms not mentioned yet - Bibliography and Book Collecting.

Bibliography (from the Greek for "book writing"), as a practice, is the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects. In this sense, it is also known as bibliology. On the whole, bibliography is not concerned with the literary content of books, but rather the "bookness" of books.

Book Collecting is the collecting of books, including seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever books are of interest to a given individual collector. The love of books is bibliophilia, and someone who loves to read, admire, and collect books is a bibliophile. Bibliophilia is sometimes called bibliomania but should not be confused with the obsessive-compulsive disorder by that name, which involves the excessive accumulation and hoarding of books. The term bookman, which once meant a studious or scholarly man, now means one who writes, edits, publishes, or sells books. A book dealer is one whose profession is the buying and reselling of rare or used books.

True book collecting is distinct from casual book ownership and the accumulation of books for reading. It can probably be said to have begun with the collections of illuminated manuscripts, both commissioned and second-hand, by the elites of Burgundy and France in particular, which became common in the 15th century.

With the advent of printing with movable type books became considerably cheaper, and book collecting received a particular impetus in England and elsewhere during the Reformation when many monastic libraries were broken up, and their contents often destroyed. There was an English antiquarian reaction to Henry VIII's dissolution of the Monasteries. The commissioners of Edward VI plundered and stripped university, college, and monastic libraries, so to save books from being destroyed, those who could began to collect them.

I dont much like the terms Bibliophilic or Bibliophily.
They are too close to -philia and that reminds me of pedophilia.
I prefer the title of Bookworm. I grew up being called a Bookworm.

I apologise for going on about this topic, but I have become MILDLY obsessed since I started doing the Bibliophilic Challenge.

I even found a Bibliomania Bookshelf index page at the Gutenberg Project and yesterday I read a couple of old books on the topic of books. Both were originally published in 1922.

And I have a Historia Books blog where I post interesting pictures of old books. While it has been quiet of late, I have now started posting to it again.

I Raised a Reader - Part 2

2010-02-14T08:22:00.002-05:00

You know you raised a reader, when at bed time the previous night, your son asks to be allowed to stay up half an hour longer and READ IN BED!!!

Just like his mom did when she was a kid - and still does, I might add.

I may have to make up a new rule - make him go to bed earlier just to stay up longer to read. Does that make any sense?? He has to get his 10 hours of sleep every night.

Easier said than done, to try and get a 7 year old to go to bed earlier!!!!