Lori's (lkernagh's) 2015 Art of Reading - 4th Thread

Lori's 2015 Art of Reading

This year, Art is the theme but don't be surprised if food, crafts, sewing projects and pretty much anything else under the sun make up part of the thread discussion. To keep my goals challenging while still manageable given the ebb and flow of real life commitments, I have decided to shape my category challenge as a mathematical variation of 2015. I will have 8 categories, with a strong focus on the various challenges and mini-challenges I will be participating in for 2015. Each category will be considered completed when 8 books AND 2,015 pages have been read. There is no upper limit once the minimum has been reached. This challenge will be the placeholder for all of my 2015 reading. Time to unveil the categories:

Artist: Banksy

1. Street Art - Alternate reality / steampunk / fantasy / dystopian themed books
Street art is visual art created in public locations, usually unsanctioned and executed outside of the context of traditional art venues. Street art can have a strong current of activism and subversion. It can also have a more innocent fun side (think yarn bombs!). Street art is a powerful platform for reaching the public in creative and unexpected ways.

Books read: 8
Pages read: 2,473

1. Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel - (review)
2. How To Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell - (review)
3. How To Be a Pirate by Cressida Cowell - (review)
4. Pelquin's Comet by Ian Whates - (review)
5. Fables: The Mean Seasons by Bill Willingham - (review)
6. The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma - (review)
7. Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina - (review)
8. Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips - (review)

CATEGORY COMPLETED (October 15, 2015)

Street performance in Bath, England

2. Happening - Books that fit the CATs, KITs and DOG challenges
Happening art is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered art. It usually takes the form of performance art. Happenings are difficult to describe because each one is unique and completely different from one another.

Books read: 8
Pages read: 2,626

1. The Firebird Mystery by Darrell Pitt - (review)
2. Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher - (review)
3. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett - (review)
4. The House Among the Laurels by William Hope Hodgson - (review)
5. The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson - (review)
6. Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel - (review)
7. The Given Day by Dennis Lehane - (review)
8. The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo - (review)

CATEGORY COMPLETED (August 22, 2015)

Commissioned for Expo 67, Barnett Newman’s "Voice of Fire" sold to the National Gallery of Canada in 1989 for $1.76 million.

3. Minimalism - Books with one word titles
Minimalism is a style that uses pared-down design elements and was first used to describe "a 1913 composition by the Russian painter Kasimir Malevich of a black square on a white ground". I currently have 45 books on my TBR bookshelves that fit this category, so it should be a dawdle, right? ;-)

Books read: 8
Pages read: 2,178

1. Alphabetique by Molly Peacock - (review)
2. Longbourn by Jo Baker - (review)
3. Incantation by Alice Hoffman - (review)
4. Redshirts by John Scalzi - (review)
5. Pure by Andrew Miller - (review)
6. Mariana by Susanna Kearsley - (review)
7. Crazy by William Peter Blatty - (review)
8. Shoot! by George Bowering - (review)

Category Completed (October 12, 2015)

John French Sloan (1871-1951), "McSorley's Bar", oil on canvas

4. American Realism - Books that fit the 2015 American Author Challenge
American Realism is a style that depicts contemporary social realities and the lives and everyday activities of ordinary people. The movement began in literature in the mid-19th century, and became an important tendency in visual art in the early 20th century. For this category (and mini-challenge), I am not going to attempt to read the author for each month, but I will enjoy using this as an opportunity to branch out my reading to include authors I have never read before now.

AAC 2015 list:

January - Carson McCullers - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
February - Henry James - The Aspern Papers
March - Richard Ford - Wildlife
April - Louise Erdrich - Shadow Tag
May - Sinclair Lewis - Main Street
June - Wallace Stegner - Remembering Laughter
July - Ursula K. Le Guin
August - Larry McMurtry - The Last Kind Words Saloon
September - Flannery O' Connor
October - Ray Bradbury - Something Wicked This Way Comes
November - Barbara Kingsolver
December - E.L. Doctorow

Books read: 8
Pages read: 2,031

1. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers - (review)
2. The Aspern Papers by Henry James - (review)
3. Wildlife by Richard Ford - (review)
4. Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich - (review)
5. Remembering Laughter by Wallace Stegner - (review)
6. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis - (review)
7. The Last Kind Words Saloon by Larry McMurtry - (review)
8. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury - (review)

Category Completed (October 4, 2015)

Artist: Robert Bevan, "Two Bridges", exhibited at the first exhibition of the London Group in March 1914

5. The London Group - Books that fit the 2015 British Author Challenge
Founded in 1913, the London Group took over the role of exhibiting progressive modern art from the NEAC. The selection committee exhibited the widest range of art movements at the time, including Camden Town, Bloomsbury and Vorticist artists. For each month, the BAC has a female and a male author listed. As with the AAC challenge above, I am not going to attempt to read a book by all authors listed. This is just an opportunity to clear more books off my TBR bookcases, a chance to enjoy some favorite authors and to use this as an opportunity to branch out my reading to include authors I have never read before now.

BAC 2015 list:

January - Penelope Lively & Kazuo Ishiguro - The Ghost of Thomas Kempe
February - Sarah Waters & Evelyn Waugh - Fingersmith & Brideshead Revisited
March - Daphne Du Maurier & China Mieville - The City & The City
April - Angela Carter & W. Somerset Maugham - Of Human Bondage
May - Margaret Drabble & Martin Amis - The Peppered Moth
June - Beryl Bainbridge & Anthony Burgess
July - Virginia Woolf & B.S. Johnson - A Society
August - Iris Murdoch & Graham Greene - The Third Man and The Living Room
September - Andrea Levy & Salman Rushdie
October - Helen Dunmore & David Mitchell - Black Swan Green
November - Muriel Spark & William Boyd
December - Hilary Mantel & P.G. Wodehouse

Books read: 8
Pages read: 3,270

1. The Ghost of Thomas Kempe by Penelope Lively - (review)
2. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh - (review)
3. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters - (review)
4. The City & The City by China Mieville - (review)
5. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham - (review)
6. The Peppered Moth by Margaret Drabble - (review)
- A Society by Virginia Woolf - (review)
7. The Third Man: The Screenplay and The Living Room, a play in two acts by Graham Greene - (review)
8. Black Swan Green by David Mitchell - (review)

Category Completed (October 25, 2015)

6. Books made into Art - Books that fit my ROOTs Challenge
Not a defined art period per se, but I do love the wonderful three dimensional artwork that can be created out of books and magazines - preferably after they have been read, that is! ;-)

Books read: 10
Pages read: 3,400

1. I is for Innocent by Sue Grafton - (review)
2. The Happiest People in the World by Brock Clarke - (review)
3. The Babylon Contingency by Clifford Longley - (review)
4. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd - (review)
5. Light Boxes by Shane Jones - (review)
6. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion - (review)
7. J is for Judgment by Sue Grafton - (review)
8. The Wars by Timothy Findley - (review)

Category Completed (June 22, 2015)

9. K is for Killer by Sue Grafton - (review)
10. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon - (review)

Mary Sibande, "I am a Lady", 2009 - part of her "Triumph over Prejudice" series

7. Edinburgh's Commonwealth Games of Art - Books that fit my Commonwealth Challenge
The 2014 Edinburgh Art Festival "Where do I end and you begin" focused on what it means to join ‘common’ with ‘wealth’, reflecting on the notion of the Commonwealth as a problematic historical and contemporary construct and offering international perspectives on the range of associations which common-wealth evokes, from the challenge of ‘being in common’ in a truly global world, to ideas of the common good, common land, public ownership and alternative exchange systems.

Books read: 13
Pages read: 3,815

1. Wife of the Gods by Kewi Quartey - (review)
2. Bayou of Pigs by Stewart Bell - (review)
3. Guyana by Elise Turcotte - (review)
4. Halcyon Days a play by Steven Dietz - (review)
5. Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton - (review)
6. The White Rhino Hotel by Bartle Bull - (review)
7. The Ghost Mountain Boys by James Campbell - (review)
8. The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost - (review)

Category Completed (August 3, 2015)

9. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton - (review)
10. Getting Stoned with Savages by J. Maarten Troost - (review)
11. Daughters Who Walk This Path by Yejide Kilanko - (review)
12. A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It by Stephen Kinzer - (review)
13. A Disobedient Girl by Ru Freeman - (review)

Leonid Afremov, "Night Fantasy", palette knife oil painting
I absolutely love the rich, vibrant colours in Afremov's paintings! I could just sit and stare at them for hours.....

8. Art - Books that fit my 75 Group Challenge (aka my "catch all" category!)
Art is a diverse range of human activities and the products of those activities. Art may be characterized in terms of mimesis (its representation of reality), expression, communication of emotion, or other qualities. The nature of art has been described by philosopher Richard Wollheim as "one of the most elusive of the traditional problems of human culture".

Books read: 27
Pages read: 6,874

1. The Paper Moon by Andrea Camilleri - (review)
2. August Heat by Andrea Camilleri - (review)
3. The Wings of the Sphinx by Andrea Camilleri - (review)
4. As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley - (review)
5. Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman by Eleanor Updale - (review)
6. The Inspector McLevy Mysteries - Series Two and The Inspector McLevy Mysteries - Series Three by David Ashton - (review)
7. The Inspector McLevy Mysteries - Series Four and The Inspector McLevy Mysteries - Series Five by David Ashton - (review)
8. The Witch of Napoli by Micheal Schmicker - (review)
9. The Inspector McLevy Mysteries - Series Six and The Inspector McLevy Mysteries - Series Seven by David Ashton - (review)

Category Completed (March 8, 2015)

10. A Small Indiscretion by Jan Ellison - (review)
11. The Hoarder in You: How to Live a Happier, Healthier, Uncluttered Life by Dr. Robin Zasio -
12. The Rosie Effect by Graham Simsion - (review)
13. The Finish by Angela Elliott - (review)
14. Are You Seeing Me? by Darren Groth - (review)
15. Henri, le Chat Noir: The Existential Musings of an Angst-Filled Cat by William Braden - (review)
16. The Little Free Library Book by Margaret Aldrich - (review)
17. The Lost Garden by Katharine Swartz - (review)
18. Death in Breslau by Marek Krajewski - (review)
19. Tragedy at Second Narrows: The Story of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge by Eric Jamieson - (review)
20. A Winter Wrong: A Pride and Prejudice Novella Variation by Elizabeth Ann West - (review)
21. To Rescue General Gordon: A Clockwork Imperium Short Story by J.P.Medved - (review)
22. The Gray Lady of Long Branch by Maura Satchell - (review)
23. The Track of Sand by Andrea Camilleri - (review)
24. The Potter's Field by Andrea Camilleri - (review)
25. The Age of Doubt by Andrea Camilleri - (review)
26. The Dance of the Seagull by Andrea Camilleri - (review)
27. The Cure for Death by Lightning by Gail Anderson-Dargatz -

Next one's yours! Welcome to my "Fall" thread, which is now open for business!

The Blind Date. That sometimes cringe-worthy, sometimes remarkable experience when a friend sets you up with someone you have never met before. They think the two of you will hit it off, and all you can think is.... Uh Oh.... and you try to figure out ways to get out of the date. Now, you are probably wondering why I have started this post off talking about blind dates. Well, I have been working on my categories for next year's challenge and have decided that the focus of my 2016 challenge will be to read more books off my physical (and virtual) TBR shelves. A number of these books are the wallflowers that I have been too distracted to pick up and read, so I need some help. I am going to ask 14 of my wonderful thread visitors to give me a hand and choose a book from my "To Read" library that you:

1) personally loved reading and want to share the love;
2) think it is a good read for me based on my reading preferences; or
3) are curious about and would like me to read and review it.

If you choose a book that is not a first book in a series, I may ask you to choose again if I haven't read the earlier books in the series. Alternatively, if you want to make a blink pick, you can choose a shelf number between 1 and 7 and a book number between 1 and 65 and we can both be surprised by the outcome. ;-)

Right now I have the Blind Book Date category set up for a maximum of 14 books, which is why I am limiting this to 14 blind book dates.

Happy new thread!

Great idea for a category! If I were to pick one for you, how about In the Woods? I recall you've been meaning to read it for a while :)

>11 lkernagh: I see on your shelves my favorite book of 2014: Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop, a beautifully written book about the American Southwest in the 19th century.

Happy New Thread! Looks like you're close to being done.

I see a lot of books we have in common both read and unread for both of us. I'd like to pick Tears of the Giraffe, the next one in the Ladies Detective Series for you. I'm reading #8 right now as I'm trying to read things that will take me out of my reading funk.

I can't resist, although I'm always half expecting the person to hate the book I chose, and chose because I loved the book so much. I'm going to choose A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr because it is a perfect, quiet gem of a book.

>15 RidgewayGirl: Well, it worked for me! I had a category like this for this year and Kay picked A Month in the Country which ended up being a five star read for me.

How about Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides? It's a book that I kept putting off reading and then absolutely loved once I actually picked it up. Maybe it will be the same for you!

Love the Blind Date idea as a category. I highly recommend The Poisonwood Bible. I adored that book.

Lori, I see you have Plainsong by Kent Haruf so that is my choice for you. I loved this book!

Ooh, can I play? I want to pick The Hanover Square Affair for you, since that's on my TBR list as well. Maybe we can even do a tandem/group read!

Happy new thread!! If you have a hankering for a fairytale-like story, I'd put The Book of Lost Things on your Blind Date list.

Thanks >12 rabbitprincess:, >13 kac522:, >14 dudes22:, >15 RidgewayGirl:, >16 japaul22:, >17 andreablythe:, >18 DeltaQueen50:, >19 christina_reads:, and >20 -Eva-: - Love the blind book date choices! I knew I could trust you guys to pick interesting books for me to read.

I am looking forward to 5 more Blind Book Dates being chosen for me.

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As with most weekends, this one flew by way too quickly. On Saturday I managed to do some thing I have not been able to do since June: I sat outside on our covered balcony and enjoyed the rain pouring down. We are back to sunshine today -seriously?! - and I can only hope that we will see more rain this week as Victoria did not receive the buckets of rainfall that fell on Vancouver.

Today has been spent getting laundry done, baking bread and muffins. I have discovered a new favorite Banana Pecan Muffin Recipe and I no longer cringe when my bananas are overripe. I used brown sugar in the recipe and added an extra egg but otherwise followed the recipe and it makes the most wonderful light banana muffins (not dense like a banana loaf).

I have managed to climb out of my reading funk/slump, thanks to a delightful steampunk story I found lurking on my Kobo. Time for some reviews.....

Book #70 - Mariana by Susanna Kearsley - audiobook narrated by Carolyn Bonnyman
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category
Category: Minimalism
CAT(s): N/A
Source: GVPL
Format: Audiobook
Original publication date: 1994
Acquisition date: N/A
Page count: 384 pages / 11 hours, 20 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.80 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the author's website book listing:

The first time Julia Beckett saw Greywethers she was only five, but she knew that it was her house. And now that she’s at last become its owner, she suspects that she was drawn there for a reason. As if Greywethers were a portal between worlds, she finds herself transported into seventeenth-century England, becoming Mariana, a young woman struggling against danger and treachery, and battling a forbidden love. Each time Julia travels back, she becomes more enthralled with the past...until she realizes Mariana’s life is threatening to eclipse her own, and she must find a way to lay the past to rest or lose the chance for happiness in her own time.

Review:
My first Kearsley read and definitely not my last. A contemporary/historical fiction read with a time travel and ghostly spirits angle to it. A romance story without being one of those annoyingly sweaty reads. This story is more about the mystery of unlocking the past and discovering the secrets waiting to be exposed. Julia works for me as a lead character/heroine. There is a sensible balance to her thoughts and behaviors. She is not some flighty heroine who ruses headlong into situations as if she had left her mind and reason elsewhere, even though there is a rather sexy Lord of the manor and a fantastically described manor house to distract her. There is wonderful dreamlike quality to the story that made this more of a relaxing read, even with its suspenseful moments. As for the ending, no spoilers but I do want to mention that I found the ending to be wonderfully crafted and a bit of a surprise for me.

Overall, a very satisfying read for me and Kearsley now joins my list of rainy day authors when I just want to curl up under a blanket with a good book. If you enjoy modern Gothic novels like I do, with a wonderful spin to them, you will probably enjoy reading this one.

Book #71 - Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category
Category: Street Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: e-book
Original publication date: May 2011
Acquisition date: June 16, 2015
Page count: 256 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.20 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from the author's website book listing:

London, 1889. Victoria is Queen. Charles Darwin's son is Prime Minister. And steam is the power that runs the world. At 17, Claire Trevelyan, daughter of Viscount St. Ives, was expected to do nothing more than pour an elegant cup of tea, sew a fine seam, and catch a rich husband. Unfortunately, Claire's talents lie not in the ballroom, but in the chemistry lab, where things have a regrettable habit of blowing up. When her father gambles the estate on the combustion engine and loses, Claire finds herself down and out on the mean streets of London. But being a young woman of resources and intellect, she turns fortune on its head. It's not long before a new leader rises in the underworld, known only as the Lady of Devices. When she meets Andrew Malvern, a member of the Royal Society of Engineers, she realizes her talents may encompass more than the invention of explosive devices. They may help her realize her dreams and his . . . if they can both stay alive long enough to see that sometimes the closest friendships can trigger the greatest betrayals . . .

Review:
This was the perfect story to pull me out of my reading slump, but I do have to say that the cover art is atrociously bad and really gives the wrong impression of the story. *sighs* I know, you are thinking there are a lot of steampunk Victorian England adventure novels out there, but this one has a nice cachet to the story that makes it stand out as different from the rest. It has some of the same sparkling fun of Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series, without all of the sexual innuendos or any of the werewolves/vampire characters. Lets call this the clean PG steampunk version, with a bit more of a Georgette Heyer feel to it. What it does have, besides a delightful lead heroine, is a wonderful gang of street urchins that will probably win over your heart as they did mine. Adina has done a beautiful job capturing 19th century Victorian England and infusing it with steampunk elements such as steam-powered landau carriages, airships and electrical force firearms. Just enough to give the Victorian story a rather fanciful edge to it. The story is firmly grounded in Claire's story as a engineering-minded young woman who's wealthy and titled family suffers an extreme setback. At first I had the impression that Claire was an older (and yet still school age) girl to rival Alan Bradley's Falvia de Luce but no, their similarities only extend to their mutual love for science and their ability to get in trouble for that very passion. I know... I am not doing a very good job explaining this one.

Basically, if you like steampunk-styled stories set in Victorian England with street urchins, scientists and a potential romance angle with titled/scientific connections, you may find this story to be as delightful a read as I did.

Now comes the warning: Lady of Devices is currently a free e-book download on the Canadian Kobo website - or at least it was at the time of this posting - and it is also the first book in a currently eight book series. Damn those free books!

Book #72 - Crazy by William Peter Blatty
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category
Category: Minimalism
CAT(s): N/A
Source: Hoopla
Format: Audiobook
Original publication date: 2010
Acquisition date: N/A
Page count: 187 pages / 4 hours and 30 minutes of listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.30 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the macmillam.com website book listing:

New York, 1941: Joey El Bueno is just a smart-aleck kid, confounding the nuns and bullies at St. Stephen's school on East 28th Street when he first meets Jane Bent, a freckle-faced girl with red pigtails and yellow smiley-face barrettes who seems to know him better than he knows himself. A magical afternoon at the movies, watching Cary Grant in Gunga Din, is the beginning of a puzzling friendship that soon leaves Joey baffled and bewildered. Jane is like nobody he has ever met. She comes and goes at will, nobody else seems to have heard of her, and is it true that she once levitated six feet off the ground at the refreshment counter of the old Superior movie house on Third Avenue? Joey, an avid reader of pulp magazines and comic books, is no stranger to amazing stories, but Jane is a bewitching enigma that keeps him guessing for the rest of his life--until, finally, it all makes sense. Rich with the warmth of a bygone era, Crazy captures both the giddy craziness of youth--and the sublime possibilities of existence.

Review:
Definitely not The Exorcist and much more my type of story. With Crazy, Blatty returns to his comic roots - Yes, he wrote comedy and humor before his world-renowned excursion into horror - with his 82-year-old former screen writer (the Joey El Bueno of the story) busy at work in a Belleville hospital bed, writing his memoirs. With time warps into the past, Blatty brings to life a bygone era of growing up in the immigrant community of Manhattan's Lower East Side, the rough and tumble nature of boys and the magic of Coney Island. I am not going to go into details as this story is one that should be experienced - kind of like one 'experiences' a Garrison Keillor book - which is also why I highly recommend listening to the audiobook version. The humour is a bit off beat and made even quirkier by Jane, Joey's mysterious friend, when she puts in her appearances. My favorite character is Nurse Bloor, the elderly Joey's diminutive 4 foot tall, stiletto wearing and wise cracking nurse. She is awesome! Given the time warps, this story tends to jump around an awful lot and left me in a bit of a muddle at certain points in the story.

Overall, a fun slice of life fictional memoir with a wonderful ending that made up for the earlier, muddled bits and always nice to see a book cover that perfectly fits the story!

As I doubt that I will complete any more reads this month, it is time for the monthly summary:

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AUGUST RE-CAP:

BOOKS READ (ranked from most to least favorite):
The Third Man and The Living Room by Graham Greene - 4.30 /
Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina - 4.20 /
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton - 4.10 /
The Little Free Library Book by Margaret Aldrich - 4.10 /
The Ghost Bride by Yangzse Choo - 3.90 /
Mariana by Susanna Kearsley - 3.80 /
The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost - 3.80 /
The Given Day by Dennis Lehane - 3.40 /
The Lost Garden by Katharine Swartz - 3.40 /
Crazy by William Peter Blatty - 3.30 /
Getting Stoned with Savages by J. Maarten Troost - 3.10 /
Pure by Andrew Miller - 2.70 /
The Last Kind Words Saloon by Larry McMurtry - 2.70 /

August STATS:
# of Books Read: 13 - the two Graham Greene plays count as one read.
# of Pages Read: 4,150 - My highest monthly pages read since I started tracking this type of information 4 years ago!
Average pages read per day: 133.87 - Does not include any pages read for the last two days of August.
Original Publication Date Range of books read: 1948-2015
Largest Book read: The Given Day at 702 pages
Smallest Book read: Crazy at 187 pages
Books still in progress at the end of the month:
Interesting Fact: I am a little intrigued at the number of books I read this month (6) that include death/ghost/spirits or other worldly characters.

CHALLENGES:- as of August 30th
ROOTs Challenge:
Books read this month: 4 (20 in total)
Status: 80% completed (5 books still to go)

Commonwealth Challenge: - this is a multi-year challenge started in 2013.
Books read this month: 5 (23 in total)
Status: 44% completed (29 books still to go)

Category Challenge: Each category completed when 8 books AND 2,015 pages read is reached - *changing from original plans of a "whichever comes first" approach. Status as of August 30th:
Street Art - 7 books/ 2,185 pages read
Happening - 8 books / 2,626 pages read - Category completed August 22, 2015
Minimalism - 7 books / 1,918 pages read
American Realism - 7 books / 1,727 pages read
The London Group - 7 books / 2,966 pages read
Books made into Art - 9 books / 2,761 pages read - Category completed June 22, 2015
Edinburgh's Commonwealth Games of Art - 10 books / 2,689 pages read - Category completed August 3, 2015
Art - 17 books / 4,405 pages read - Category completed June 22, 2015
Status: ~ 93% completed (~ 4 books still to go)

75 Books Challenge: - My "Luck 'O the Irish" Race (books read versus pages read): Bringing this fun reading snapshot race back, my 75 group challenge will be considered completed whichever comes first: 75 books read or 25,000 pages read.



I think at this point it is safe to say that Pot of Gold has won the race this year as I have no planned reads that will clear the 3,638 pages to place Shamrock in the winning position. Some races are just like that.

I'm sure we can come up with a suitably long book for you, Lori! Now, would you want to read it? Would you want to lift it?

Three Edward Rutherfurd novels might do the trick ;)

I love the blind date idea. If I may play, can I choose The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet? That was a 5-star read for me!

Seeing as you didn't fit it in for the August SFFCAT how about adding in The Lies of Locke Lamora unless you'd planned on including it for another month somewhere?

>26 RidgewayGirl: and >27 rabbitprincess: - LOL! I was curious to see what books were out there that would have enabled me to push Shamrock ahead at this stage of the race and was rather surprised at the sparse offerings found on the List of longest novels wikipedia page. Of course, Clarissa is listed, but I am planning to read through that one as a year long read next year so I think we will just let Pot of Gold win this year. ;-)

>28 mathgirl40: and >29 AHS-Wolfy: - Both are excellent choices! You are correct Dave... I never did get around to reading the Lynch book for the August SFFCAT so nice to add it to the reading pile shortlist for 2016.

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Here is the Blind Book Date list:

1. In the Woods by Tana French - rabbitprincess
2. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather - kac522
3. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith - dudes22
4. A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr - RidgewayGirl
5. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - japaul22
6. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - andreablythe
7. Plainsong by Kent Haruf - DeltaQueen50
8. The Hanover Square Affair by Ashley Gardner and Jennifer Ashley - christina_reads
9. The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly - -Eva-
10. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell - mathgirl40
11. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch - AHS-Wolfy
12. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden - Tanya-dogearedcoy
13. City of Thieves by David Benioff - Chrischi-HH
14. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky - Paruline

It's been literally decades since I read 'Memoirs of a Geisha' (by Arthur Golden); but, amazingly, I still recall quite a lot of the book; and it remains one of my personal favorites. I'm nominating it for one of the remaining "Blind Dates! :-)

I suggest City of Thieves by David Benioff. I have it on my TBR as well, and would love to read it rather sooner than later, even though it probably is a tough one with its WWII setting.

>28 mathgirl40: Good. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet was my second choice.

Wow, going through your TBR list gave me lots of BBs. I suggest Suite francaise, another book set in WWII, but was written in "real time" as the war progressed, and which I thought was great!

>23 lkernagh: BB taken for Lady of Devices! It's currently free for Nook as well, so I downloaded it immediately! Hoping I enjoy it as much as you did. :)

>23 lkernagh: I also just downloaded it as it was free on Amazon US!

>31 Tanya-dogearedcopy:, >32 Chrischi_HH:, >33 RidgewayGirl: and >34 paruline: - Wonderful choices and always happy when a book gets a second nod! On the Blind Book Date list they go. I have updated the list in post >30 lkernagh:.

Thank you everyone who was able to chime in with Blind Book Date choices. I am looking forward to next year's challenge all ready!

>35 christina_reads: and >36 hailelib: - The more I think about Lady of Devices the more I feel it is a solid steampunk read and a goodie. Glad to see the book is available on multiple sites for free download! Good marketing ploy, that is!

---------------

Here it is already Tuesday and I have just discovered that I forgot to post my weekly walking update. I will be posting that, along with a new Vegetarian Adventures update and my Current Reading.

My Trans Canada Walking Journey


The goal: To walk - in three calendar years (1,095 days) - the distance that it would take me to walk the Trans Canada Highway from the Mile Zero marker located here in Victoria BC to its end point in St. John's, NL, a distance of 7,821K (4,860 miles).







Here is the link to my Google map where I am tracking my journey: http://tinyurl.com/p8vu9n3

UPDATE: WEEK 7

Kilometers walked this week: 51.1
Kilometers walked in total: 416.50
Current province: (BC)
My current location on the map: Still in BC. Currently due south of Canyon Alpine, north of North Bend.
Points of interest along the way:
This week's walking journey doesn't boost my confidence an awful lot as the entire 51.1 KM has been walking North, and not East. One of the possible problems of deciding to use the Trans Canada Highway as my walking trail - it doesn't always travel longitudinally across the country. ;-) Continuing to hug the Fraser River, this week's walk would have seen me passing through Yale, Spuzzum, Alexandra Bridge Provincial Park, passing Hell's Gate and carring on through Boston Bar and skirting North Bend.

NOTE: I am pretty sure I will be in BC until the Canadian Thanksgiving. There is a LOT of interior to cross!

Vegetarian Adventures - Update
Attempted a new recipe this evening and while I wasn't completely impressed with it, I think it has the potential - with a number of tweaks by yours truly - to be a really good winter comfort food. The recipe: this Brussels Sprout-Potato Hash is the experiment and the impetus for this post. Not much to the recipe - just Brussels sprouts, potatoes onion, garlic, oil and some seasoning. After experimenting tonight - and making a number of changes on the fly - I have come up with the following "adapted" recipe:

The following recipe will serve 2-3 as a main course

INGREDIENTS:
~ 16-20 larger sized Brussels sprouts, quartered
~ 4 cups (half a bag) of frozen uncooked hash brown potatoes
1 small onion, diced small
1 TBSP garlic, minced
2 Roma tomatoes (or a handful of grape tomatoes), diced
1/4 cup salsa - optional but really makes a difference flavour wise
2 TBSP butter
2 TBSP cooking oil of choice

Salt and Pepper to taste
1/2 tsp fresh tarragon, chopped
1 TBSP fresh thyme, whole leaves removed from stems

PROCESS:
1. Prepare Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, onion and garlic. Set aside in separate dishes.
2. In a large skillet or frying pan, heat cooking oil at medium heat. Add Brussels sprouts and garlic. Saute for a few minutes, then cover and let cook medium to medium low.
3. While Brussels sprouts are cooking, melt butter in a nonstick medium-sized skillet or cast iron frying pan at medium-high heat. Add hash browns and cook until browned or cooked through (approximately 8 minutes). Remove from heat.
4. Add tomatoes, tarragon, thyme and salsa to Brussels sprouts. Blend ingredients and recover. Allow to cook for an additional 5-10 minutes until Brussels sprouts are tender.
5. Add cooked hash browns to Brussels sprouts pan and stir through. Salt, Pepper and season to taste. Cover and let cook for an additional 5 minutes. Remove from heat and serve.

Currently Reading:


Audiobook:
Daughters Who Walk This Path by Yejide Kilanko; narration by Claudio Alick - as a Nigeria read for my Commonwealth Challenge
ebook:
nothing at the moment
Physical book:
Death in Breslau by Marek Krajewski; translated from the Polish by Danusia Stok - an Eastern European Noir crime/cop read set in between the two World Wars, and first book in the series.

Be careful crossing the Rockies in winter, Lori!

I'm not sure about the brussels sprouts dish. I do love them roasted with a little olive oil, though. It's quite different than the boiled version I was occasionally challenged with as a child.

And I'm interested in what you think about Death in Breslau. I have that on my TBR.

Nice job with your walking challenge. You're really racking up the kilometers!

Stopping in to say hi! Great to see your plans for Autumn too.

>39 lkernagh: I hold a grudge against brussel sprouts that I can't shake. For several years in a row, Mom made brussel sprouts for dinner on Halloween and we couldn't go trick or treating until we'd eaten several of the nasty things.

Ooh! Wily mom - delaying your outing by purposefully feeding you a food you don't like.

>39 lkernagh: Your brussel sprouts recipe sounds ok, but I hesitate to try it knowing how horrid they can be. Old memories linger long.

LOL, I love how the lowly Brussels sprout can make some eaters leery ;-) I will admit that I used to hate Brussels sprouts. I was always subjected to the 'steam and serve' idea of cooking Brussels sprouts and without any added seasoning, it is a pretty boring vegetable. I love them pan fried in a little oil with onion, garlic, smoked paprika and a little salt. YUMMY!

>41 RidgewayGirl: - I think I timed my walking journey rather late in the year. I should have tried to clear the mountains during the summer months. Mind you, those blizzards on the open prairies can be be pretty harsh and lets not talk about those Manitoba winters! ;-) Brussels sprouts roasted with a little olive oil sounds promising. Must think about trying that out one of these days. Boiled Brussels sprouts? Not the way to get a child to eat their veggies!

... as for Death in Breslau, I am currently 48 pages in and so far I can describe the story in one word: Dark. I am looking forward to a quiet night this evening so I should be able to make more progress on that one.

>42 andreablythe: - Thanks Andrea! This week's walking has taken a bit of a dip in the klicks because we have been blessed with rain. I did manage to get in some walks today because the rain conveniently dropped down while I was at work and clear skies during my commute and my lunch. Gotta like it when the weather is that accommodating. ;-)

>43 mstrust: - Lovely to see you have made it over to the new thread, Jennifer! Your mom really knew how to torture you poor kids. No wonder you are not a fan of Brussels sprouts.

>44 mamzel: - The things mom's do..... ;-)

>45 VivienneR: - Oh no.... you to? No worries, I can appreciate the lack of love for Brussels sprouts. I have a similar aversion to radishes. I will not eat them.

ETA: or beets. I can't stand beets.

What? No, radishes are my favorite! But I guess that's OK -- I'll eat all your radishes, and you can have all my Brussels sprouts.

>47 christina_reads: - I am agreeable to that plan!

Am I the only one who thinks Brussel Sprouts are yummy little nuggets of deliciousness?

I've copied your recipe, Lori, even though I am not going the vegatarian route this sounds like a great side dish.

I think the recipe would work great as a side dish and it is one I will make next month as part of our rather traditional Thanksgiving meal.

>38 lkernagh: I'm fascinated with your cross Canada walk. Around last November or December, I stared walking a lot and was soon up to 30-40 Km a week. I completely quit though when the weather got so warm back in June. I just don't like exercising when I start out sweating, and I just don't like being out in the heat. I know I could have switched to early morning or later in the evening, but it just didn't click at all. I've just started again and need to make up for lost time as I put on weight over the summer.

Is there somewhere on the internet where you talk more about this? You're inspiring.

>44 mamzel: >46 lkernagh: Oh, Mom wasn't trying to be mean, she was just really, really into health foods and vitamins. As in, spoonfuls of cod liver oil. Her reasoning with the brussel sprouts was that we were going to be pounding candy all night so she wanted to make sure we had something healthy beforehand. Luckily, she got over the insanity at some point. ; )

>46 lkernagh: Have you tried radishes the way the French eat them? Put a little bit of butter and salt on them. And remember, the hotter the weather the hotter they taste. If you eat them during milder weather they have a milder flavor.

>46 lkernagh: & >49 DeltaQueen50:
Pan fried brussel sprouts are fantastic. Yummie goodness.

>47 christina_reads: Not if I eat them first! (edit: I mean the radishes. Y'all can keep the sprouts.)

>46 lkernagh: I'll take the beets too! Preferably sauteed in butter and served with goat cheese.

>53 mamzel:. Radishes with a bit of salt are terrific!

I'm with Lori--no radishes or beets cross the threshold here. But we've all come to love sautéed Brussels sprouts.

>51 Nickelini: - Good job on your walking, Joyce! I totally hear you on slowing down on the walking during the hot summer we had. I am another one who is not happy with the heat. This past week has been wonderfully cooler for walking, but the rain also came - which I am very thankful for! - but that keep me indoors and not walking. ;-(

LT is where I am posting my walking diary/journey. I thought about doing a blog but I have never done a blog before and figured I am bound to run into times when I just don't feel up to writing about the walking, so I will limit it to the weekly posts here. As for inspiration, I am a morning person an love to go for walks earlier in the day. Living in Victoria has made it easier for me to incorporate my walking with running errands, etc. If I lived in the suburbs and relied on a car to get to the grocery store, to work, etc, I would find it harder to get in the walking time. at 55 days into my walking challenge, I now have a good routine in place - which includes a walk every Sunday morning to the Little Free Library 2 kilometers from where I live - but I can see where the next challenge will be to maintain the walking when the rainy fall/winter weather hits.

>52 mstrust: - Good to know you mom was just looking after your health! My mom has always been more concerned about no waste of food than the health angle, so I assumed that was the motivation with your mom. ;-)

>53 mamzel: - Butter and salt on radishes? Nope, can't say that I have ever tried that and good to know about the weather aspect to eating radishes. Ironically enough, I was looking at radishes at the grocery store today while I was doing the shopping. Are radishes as expensive as I saw them($2.49 a bunch and it was pretty small bunch with about 6-7 smallish radishes)?

>54 andreablythe: - I am already craving another batch of brussels sprouts. Soooo Goood! :-)

>55 casvelyn: - You two fight over the radishes - and yay for taking the beets as well! - and I will eat sprouts. ;-)

>56 hailelib: - I see a culinary twin here! ;-)

--------------------------

Stopping by to wish all a happy Labour Day long weekend if you are in North America or you if it is a holiday where you are located.

The cooler fall weather showed up on Monday and has stayed all week. I do believe our record breaking summer has now come to an end, and I am okay with that. It was wonderful to wake up in the middle of the night last night to the steady drumming of rain on the roof. Plans are to take advantage of the holiday Monday and relax.

Onwards to the weekly walking report and a couple of book reviews.....

My Trans Canada Walking Journey


The goal: To walk - in three calendar years (1,095 days) - the distance that it would take me to walk the Trans Canada Highway from the Mile Zero marker located here in Victoria BC to its end point in St. John's, NL, a distance of 7,821K (4,860 miles).







Here is the link to my Google map where I am tracking my journey: http://tinyurl.com/p8vu9n3

UPDATE: WEEK 8
Kilometers walked this week: 42.2
Kilometers walked in total: 458.7
Current province: (BC)
My current location on the map: Still in BC. Currently North of Lynton - and now finally heading 'Eastish' (although still a lot of north to travel) - and about to enter Skihist Provincial Park. Points of interest along the way:
This week saw a return of more rainy, temperate weather here in Victoria and as I am a bit of a "fair weather" walker, my walking took a bit of a nose dive. Even with a mere 42.2 KM for the week, I am happy to see on the map that I now say goodbye to the Fraser River and now say hello to the Thompson River. I don't get to start making true eastward progress until I hit Cache Creek.

Book #73 - Death in Breslau by Marek Krajewski - translated from the Polish by Danusia Stok
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category
Category: Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: GVPL
Format: Hard cover
Original publication date: 1999
Acquisition date: N/A
Page count: 256 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.20 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.com website book listing:

Occupied Breslau, 1933: Two young women are found murdered on a train, scorpions writhing on their bodies, an indecipherable note in an apparently oriental language nearby ...Police Inspector Eberhard Mock's weekly assignation with two ladies of the night is interrupted as he is called to investigate. But uncovering the truth is no straightforward matter in Breslau. The city is in the grip of the Gestapo, and has become a place where spies are everywhere, corrupt ministers torture confessions from Jewish merchants, and Freemasons guard their secrets with blackmail and violence. And as Mock and his young assistant Herbert Anwaldt plunge into the city's squalid underbelly the case takes on a dark twist of the occult when the mysterious note seems to indicate a ritual killing with roots in the Crusades ...

Review:
I will start off my review by stating that I only very rarely dip into crime Noir novels so please do not accept my thoughts as being those of a seasoned reader of the genre. This is a very dark, brooding type of read. On a presentation/emotional level, it is kind of a strange read. The emotions of the characters - and their actions - are very emphatic in expression. There is a lot of brute force, angry shouting and exaggerated gesturing going on in this story. The very unstable political time period is pronounced here, as is the sweltering hot summer the story take place in. For me, this story had more of a pulp crime feel to it, given that the police - and the Gestapo - were prone to doing their own things and resorting to rather interesting interrogation strategies that really had me squirming uncomfortably in my chair. Looking at the mystery/crime aspect of the story, I do have to say that Krajewski did a fine job with the details and the reveal, but I still cannot get past the rather stilted impression I have of the characters and the story as a whole. This could be due, in part, to the translation.... it just had an overall jarring feeling to it that made it difficult for me to become absorbed in the story. From a purely psychological perspective, one could analyze this story for years and still only scratch the surface of all the possible meanings embedded in it. Maybe that is part of the problem for me: too much all jumbled up in this story, making it difficult for me to extract the substance from the garble.

Overall, definitely a different read for me and intriguing enough that I will consider reading the second book in the Inspector Eberhard Mock Investigation series.

Book #74 - Daughters Who Walk This Path by Yejide Kilanko - audiobook narrated by Claudia Alick
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, Commonwealth
Category: Edinburgh's Commonwealth Games of Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: Hoopla
Format: Audiobook
Original publication date: 2013
Acquisition date: N/A
Page count: 352 pages / 10 hours, 19 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.20 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.com website book listing:

Spirited and intelligent Morayo grows up surrounded by school friends and family in busy, modern-day Ibadan. An adoring little sister, their traditional parents, and a host of aunties and cousins make Morayo’s home their own. So there’s nothing unusual about her charming but troubled cousin Bros T moving in with the family. At first Morayo and her sister are delighted, but in her innocence, nothing prepares Morayo for the shameful secret Bros T forces upon her. Thrust into a web of oppressive silence woven by the adults around her, Morayo must learn to protect herself and her sister from a legacy of silence shared by the women in her family. Only her Aunt Morenike provides Morayo with a safe home and a sense of female community that sustains her as she develops into a young woman in bustling, politically charged, often violent Nigeria.

Review:
Nigerian-born Kilanko has written a novel that really brings home some harsh realities of a nation plagued with violence, political unrest and an abhorrent abuse of power that knows no boundaries: The rape of female children by male members of their family/community known to them. For a debut novel, Kilanko manages to convey the good with the bad. The strength to move forward in the face of adversity. The ability to climb above and shine when the world seemed so dark and unfriendly. She also does a wonderful job presented a very conflicted Nigeria: A world of denim jeans and penny loafers, of university educations, of cell phones and expensive cars along with very traditional customs, beliefs and stigmas. The story follows Morayo over twenty years, starting when she was a young girl of five, greeting her albino sister into the world. The voice of the young Morayo is well done. I struggled a little bit with the older Morayo and found her less accessible as a character. Overall, this was a good read. It could have been a very depressing read given the events that play out, but Kilanko keeps a ray of light shining through the turbulence, as a reminder that even in the darkness, hope and belief in yourself can make a difference.

>22 lkernagh:, I've had a copy of Mariana sitting on my shelf for a year now but haven't read it. Thanks for reminding me why I thought I would like it in the first place.

Interesting comments about Death in Breslau. I'll pay attention when I read it.

Thanks for filling me in with your walking details. What part of Victoria do you live in? I've been over there the past two weekends. First, my nephew got married at Hatley Castle on the lawn. The reception was tea in the library at the Empress. It was a very classy wedding. I had won a night at the Empress when I was in Victoria in January, so I used it and we got to stay there and the weekend didn't end up costing too much. Then I was in Victoria this past Saturday to drop my daughter off--she's in her second year at UVic.

I don't mind walking in the rain unless it's really heavy. But our standard west coast rain doesn't bother me too much. But last winter was quite dry . . . maybe I shouldn't comment until I've walked through a rainy winter. I live in New Westminster, so I get lots and lots of hills. There are also a few long staircases I incorporate into my route. And yes--walking for errands is an excellent way to keep going. Healthy and good for the environment.

I like hearing the rain at night too! Such a cozy feeling.

>62 Roro8: - Anytime! I have a ton of books I have purchased over the years and occasionally I have to read the back cover to remind myself why I bought a copy of a book. My memory isn't what it used to be. ;-)

>63 RidgewayGirl: - Looking forward to your thoughts when you get around to reading Death in Breslau. It was IrishHolger's review of Phantoms of Breslau that caught my eye and led me to check out Death in Breslau from my local library. IrishHolger refers to Mock as an anti-hero and that is a good term to describe Mock.

>64 Nickelini: - I live in Vic West and currently work in James Bay so you can see how easy it is for me to build a walking commute - and access to grocery stores - as part of my walking journey.

Hatley Castle - and the gardens at RRU - are perfect for a wedding! The Empress has a library?! Sorry, my excursions to the Empress have involved work conferences and the Bengal Lounge and of course, their Christmas tree display every December.

I am a little worried at the long range forecast for this winter: drier and warmer. Good for walking but not good for the plants. I love how fresh the city smells after a good downpour.

>61 lkernagh:
Great review. Daughters Who Walk This Path sounds amazing.

>48 lkernagh: - Thanks Andrea. Daughters Who Walk this Path is a worthy read. It is powerful read without being overwhelming and it is also a good message statement read without preaching the message, just telling it like it is.

-----------------

Happy first day after Labour Day and one day closer to the official start of.... Fall. I go through the same thing at this time every year: I wish and wish that I lived somewhere were the four seasons are clearly marked. I miss the wonderful colours of autumn leaves and the crisp cool air that makes for boots and sweater weather. Of course, I don't miss the four seasons when in the dead of winter I am still able to walk to work in rain gear as opposed to snow gear, but still. Allow me my little whimpered miss of autumn in all its natural glory.

>65 lkernagh: The Empress has a library?! Sorry, my excursions to the Empress have involved work conferences and the Bengal Lounge and of course, their Christmas tree display every December.


Well, it's not a library like you or me or any LT member would think of a library. It's a small room (30-ish people) beside the great hall where the serve tea (or I'm sure, whatever you pay for), across from the gift shop. The windows face the harbour. Very nice room to rent for a small function.

Christmas display: I missed that! My husband used to travel to Victoria a lot on business, and whenever we could, the girls and I would come along. I only remember one Christmas season there though, and we didn't know to drop by the Empress. We used to walk past between our hotel and Munros/Murchies, so I'm kicking myself. Victoria is magical at Christmas. (Really, I just love Victoria. Can't count how many times I've been there over the last 20 years-a lot--, but it never disappoints me. My favourite small city.)

The Bengal Lounge! Yes! My husband and I went there for the curry buffet the night before the wedding. We were lucky to score big leather chairs by the windows on the harbour side. I've been there many times and have so many great memories of that room. I mentioned to him that going to the Bengal Lounge was one of my very favourite things in the whole world. Every time we go we always mention how Rudyard Kipling used to hang out there when he lived at the Empress. Then we also have to say "Inja!" in the same way that the old colonel from Fawlty Towers always did. Only then can we feel like true Edwardians and settle down.

I am a little worried at the long range forecast for this winter: drier and warmer. Good for walking but not good for the plants. I love how fresh the city smells after a good downpour

I hadn't heard that. Not good. Dry down in the cities is okay, but we need a lot more snow up in the mountains. Otherwise, the rest of the province will burn next year. I heard we were in for a big El Nino, which I thought meant rain. But maybe they said El Nina? Which is dry (??). Anyway, it's unusual to have two dry winters in a row, but with the whole global warming climate change, I guess everything is off.

I'm always up to talk about walking, books, and Victoria.

>67 lkernagh: I'm with you there. We have two trees down the street that change in fall, but otherwise we have to drive about 90 minutes north to see the change.
But you live in B.C., where I thought you'd be surrounded by lovely trees?
Something pretty for us both to look at:

>68 Nickelini: - I should probably clarify that, yes, the Empress does a wonderful Christmas display every season, but for the past number of years, they have also been the location for the BC Children's Hospital Festival of Trees. The trees are truly unique and a wonder to view. This year, do to renovations at the Empress, the Festival of Trees display will be held at the Bay Centre.

I love the Bengal Lounge! One of these days I will take in a copy of Kim to read while enjoying the atmosphere.

I will join you in hoping that we experience our normal winter, so that it can replenish some of the parched reservoirs across the province. Besides, a warmer, drier winter is doom and gloom for the ski season!

>^9 - Thank you Jennifer! That is the perfect fall/autumn scene! I know, I am surrounded by trees here in Victoria but maples trees, etc that experience wonderful autumn colour changes seem to be few and far between here. Instead, the leaves just fall off the trees without really changing colour.

--------------------

A quick note for everyone that I will be offline for the next little while. In the meantime, two more books have been read, reviewed and will now be posted below.

Book #75 - Tragedy at Second Narrows: The Story of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge by Eric Jamieson
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category
Category: Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: GVPL
Format: Hardcover
Original publication date: 2008
Acquisition date: N/A
Page count: 301 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.00 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from the amazon.com website book listing:

On June 17, 1958, Vancouver experienced the worst industrial accident in its history when the new bridge being built across Burrard Inlet collapsed into the flooding tidal waters of Second Narrows, killing eighteen workers. Photos of the two broken spans tilted into the sea went around the world and provided the city with one of its iconic historical images, still familiar to school children half a century later. The shocking thing was that the bridge was not an old, decrepit structure, but a new one just in the midst of being erected with all the support and security modern engineering could provide. That somebody had made a colossal error seemed obvious, but it would take a Royal Commission to discover how and why. Even then, some mysteries will never be solved. Author Eric Jamieson reconstructs the tragic event, introducing the entire cast of politicians, construction bosses, engineers and ironworkers while presenting readers an insight into the world of big-time bridge building and clear picture of precisely how this great disaster took shape and plunged to its inevitable conclusion.

Review:
This was a good read, keeping in mind that my interest in the topic stems from a desire to learn more about local BC history. Jamieson really dives into the nitty-gritty details of bridge design and the details of the construction specifications like a forensic civil engineer. Some of the engineering details were a little over my head - I can appreciate the necessity for schematic numbering when building a bridge, but continual references to piers and what not by number had my non-engineering mind struggling a little bit to keep the image all straight in my mind. I now know more about cantilevered-truss bridge construction, cofferdams and falseworks than I ever thought I would know, which has a personal plus side for me in that I have a better appreciation for the current bridge work I walk past on a daily basis. If you are worried that this book is geared towards more engineering-minded individual, I can state that for like-minded readers like myself, the story nicely balances the construction details with the human interest side of the story: the workers involved with the bridge construction and that fateful day. I could never do an ironworker's job - I have a thing about heights - so I bow to the men, and women, who aspire to this type of construction high trapeze work. What really stood out for me while reading this story is how young certain members of the bridge construction team were and the horrifically low wages the ironworkers earned for such a high-risk job. Even taking into account that we are talking about 1958, 2 dollars and change an hour for such high risk, high skilled labour to construct a 1,292 meter long 6 lane bridge with a centre span of 335 meters (1,099 ft) as a major replacement traffic artery between Vancouver, Burnaby and North Vancouver.

Overall, this is a well written, well researched and well documented book with numerous archive photos to help communicate the events as they unfolded. I can definitely recommend this one to civil engineer/bridge enthusiasts and to readers like myself who just want to learn more about the details of the bridge collapse, the findings of the royal commission after the collapse and a glimpse into part of BC's past.

Book #76 - A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It by Stephen Kinzer - audiobook narrated by Paul Boehmer
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, Commonwealth
Category: Edinburgh's Commonwealth Games of Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: Hoopla
Format: Audiobook
Original publication date: 2008
Acquisition date: N/A
Page count: 400 / 13 hours listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 5.00 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from the barnesandnobel website book listing:

In 1994, the world stood idly by as Rwanda was devastated by the most horrifying genocide since the Holocaust. Now this tiny, land-locked nation stands poised to stun the world again—but in a very different way. Killers and survivors have embarked on a breathtaking path toward reconciliation, and Rwanda has become one of the most promising countries in the developing world. How did this happen? A Thousand Hills tells the dramatic story of Paul Kagame, whose rebel army stopped the genocide and whose government has turned Rwanda into a new star of Africa. Kagame grew up as a wretched refugee, shaped one of the most audacious covert operations in the history of clandestine warfare, and then emerged as a visionary leader with radical ideas about how poor countries can climb out of their misery. Whether his experiment can succeed is a question that has begun to fascinate people across Africa and beyond. Kinzer recounts one of the great untold stories of modern revolution and filled with harrowing tales of guerrilla warfare, heart-wrenching accounts of the genocide carried out by the government of Rwanda and inspiring stories of how a devastated nation can reinvent itself.

Review:
I highly, highly recommend this read. One can tell right from the start that this is not just some hero worship for Kagame. Kinzer has done his research, even examining how historically the Tutsi and Hutu had lived side by side peaceably until Belgian interference created a purely politically motivated differentiation between the Tutsi and Hutu and started the country down its genocidal path. The fact that France was anything but an innocent bystander during the 1994 genocides - and just how ineffective the UN is when it comes to managing peace keeping activities - leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. This was all information I really didn't know before reading the Kinzer book. Kinzer does a fantastic job of just presenting the facts, gleaned from extensive research, visits to Rwanda and interviews with numerous figures such as Kagame and General Romeo Dallaire. Nobody is a saint in Kinzer's eyes and he leaves the door open regarding Rwanda's 'Asian Tiger' approach to move the country forward. Rwanda still has a uphill battle a head of them, but as Kinzer has pointed out, they progress they have made - for the most part with out the assistance of and against the expectations of the international community - is something that deserves attention.

My best read so far this year and if I had any say in the matter - which I don't - I believe this should be required reading for any politician. There are a lot of lessons to be learning from the pages of this book.

>70 lkernagh: Ah yes, the Festival of Trees. I wondered if you meant something like that. In Vancouver it happens at the Four Seasons, and yes, so many clever and interesting trees!

If I see someone reading Kim at the Bengal Lounge, I will introduce myself. We can have a gin and tonic together---I suspect that's what Kipling drank.

I hear you about the ski mountains. We go to Big White for spring break every year, and this past year there was lots of snow, but it wasn't nice Okanagan powder. I didn't like it because I'm not a very good skier, and the warmer snow is harder to ski through.

Hope your offline doing something good and enjoying our gorgeous September weather. It's my favourite month here.

>73 Nickelini: - An opportune met up in the Bengal Lounge sounds perfect to me! I am a self confessed terror on the ski hills in that I really shouldn't be on the hills at all. The lodge, a roaring fire and a good book are my ski hill pursuits. ;-)

Offline time was spent on vacation east and south of BC. Even with just one week away - and a lot of activity during that week - I am feeling surprisingly refreshed and ready to return to work tomorrow.

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The past 10 days were busy offline times for me. I traveled home to Calgary. Had a quick 24 hour layover visiting with some members of the family before hopping a plane south with my sister for 3 nights and 2.5 days in Las Vegas. We then returned to Calgary for more family visiting, including organizing a wedding anniversary open house one day and a family dinner the next day before winging it back home to Victoria. It is always great when the family gets together. Lots of laughs and fun antics. As for Vegas, last time I was there I was a mere slip of a girl at 3 years old and only remember it being hot and that there was a pool. Las Vegas is something else. The new strip is just one big mass of sensory overload with the glitzy lights, the 'over the top' displays and the nonstop throngs of people milling around, regardless of the time of day. Definitely a destination worth experiencing with great shows, restaurants and shopping, but I can see why short-term (2-3 nights) vacations are the norm. By the third day, I was bagged and ready to head back to Calgary and my parents place. This was most likely due to a combination of factors including: sensory overload, lack of sleep and the HUGE amount of walking we did over those 2.5 days. According to my sister's walking app, we walked some 8,000 steps our first night in town, 46,000 steps our first full day and 37,000 steps the second full day.

As you may have guessed, I didn't get in much reading time, but I did manage to take advantage of the travel time to read through a short story, a novella and a LTER book I have downloaded on my smart phone.

Book #77 - A Winter Wrong: A Pride and Prejudice Novella Variation by Elizabeth Ann West
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category
Category: Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: e-book
Original publication date: 2014
Acquisition date: August 23, 2015
Page count: 177 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.30 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from the amazon.com website book listing:

When Jane Bennet's illness at Netherfield ends up not being just a trifling cold, but an epidemic that sweeps through Hertfordshire, the lives at Longbourn are turned upside down. Elizabeth Bennet finds herself lost without a cherished loved one and the interferences of one Fitzwilliam Darcy most aggravating. Combating the bombastic behavior of Mr. Collins, Elizabeth runs to London for the protection of her aunt and uncle. But acquaintances and introductions bring Mr. Darcy back into her life and Elizabeth discovers he might just mend her broken heart.

Review:
I needed something light and fluffy for snatched reading time during my vacation and the discovery of this free downloaded and then forgotten about novella was the perfect airplane read. Having previously read Pride and Prejudice, I was able to pick up the pieces as this story dives right into Netherfield and assumes the reader has a working knowledge of Jane Austen's story and her characters. Overall a quick and fun read for me. The only warning I have is that the story is a prelude to more episodes of the Bennet family under West's pen. The author does admit at the start of the novella to being an Austen fan fiction addict and I think it is safe to say that A Winter Wrong does squarely wear the fan fiction moniker.

In closing, the title of the book, A Winter Wrong, refers to when an heir to an estate throws the widow and offspring out into the cold.

Book #78 - To Rescue General Gordon: A Clockwork Imperium Short Story by J.P.Medved
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category
Category: Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: e-book
Original publication date: 2013
Acquisition date: August 15, 2015
Page count: 38 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 2.20 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from the amazon.com website book listing:

Henry Emerson didn't plan on disobeying orders, stealing an airship, and facing down a savage army of religious fanatics led by a man who believes he's the Prophet reborn. But he's about to. The famous General Gordon is trapped in a city under siege by the Prophet's soldiers. Henry and his friend James, two young officers in Her Majesty's Royal Air Navy, along with the hulking Sikh, Raheem, decide to rescue him. Their methods aren't exactly "cricket." Their superiors call it insubordination. They prefer to think of it as following orders...creatively. The adventure will either bring them glory and fame, or doom them to a painful death at the hands of savage tribesmen… If their own commanders don't get to them first!

Review:
Continuing my search for quick reads while on vacation, I dipped into this steampunk short story and first story in the Clockwork Imperium series. As much as I like the idea of more steampunk stories being published - this one set in the alternate reality of 1880's Africa and the Mahdist uprising. I felt that this story limped along without ever giving the reader anything concrete to grasp hold of. Of course, at a mere 38 pages, it is kind of hard to mount a rescue operation and capture all of the important details so that the reader doesn't feel lost during the process. A good premise and a nice balance of characters that probably would have had a better chance of captivating me if the story had been written as a more fulsome novella or even a full novel. Oh well, they all can't be winners. On the plus side, great cover art!

Book #79 - The Gray Lady of Long Branch by Maura Satchell
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category
Category: Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: e-book
Original publication date: 2015
Acquisition date: September 9, 2015
Page count: 284 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 2.80 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from the amazon.com website book listing:

If walls could talk... A grand Victorian beach house in Long Branch, New Jersey is the setting -- and narrator -- of this novel that takes the reader on an emotional journey through time, weaving a rich and colorful tale of the home's owners. First, a prestigious blueblood banking family with a tragic secret, then, the flawed but charming DiStefano family make the grand Victorian their vacation home, celebrate milestones and make memories in the "Gray Lady." Their stories intertwine with those of some interesting vacationers that occasionally rent this Jersey Shore beach home. In addition to observing and reporting on the people that dwell inside, the Gray Lady takes the reader on a Jersey Shore journey down memory lane recalling historical events such as the Vietnam War, the 1960s, the death of Princess Diana, Y2K and September 11th, as these events relate to those who dwell within the stately home for a time.

Review:
Books that have narration from a different point of view always intrigue me so when I saw this book was on offer through the LT Early Reviewer Program, I requested it. I like the idea of a house being narrator and being privy to the secrets that occur contained within its walls. Satchell has chosen to write this story as a series of short and more or less interconnected stories, which are easy to read when one is able to grab snatches of reading time. A number of the stories are focused around the DiSefano family but some of the stories are focused on the previous owner of house and vacation rental guests who come and stay in the Gray Lady. This is a hard book to pin down. It isn't chick lit, and it doesn't have the vibe and feel of the meatier Olive Kitteridge. The stories are limited to what the house "sees" or "hears" and understands - although there were a couple of times where the store does veer outside of the vicinity of the house - so the scope of what the reader is privy to is limited. Outside of the first story, which is my favorite, the stories are a little to saccharin-coated for my reading tastes. Maybe I am really a closet gossip rag reader at heart. I was looking forward to more 'behind the scenes' drama stories than the cleaner PG-styled stories with their solid morals and values I experienced.

Overall, an okay light read but only skims the surface of what could be some really interesting stories.

Currently Reading:


Audiobook:
A Disobedient Girl by Ru Freeman - a Sri Lanka read for my Commonwealth Challenge
Physical book:
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Micheal Chabon - for the September SFFCAT Slipstream and Intersititial read and as a ROOT read

My Trans Canada Walking Journey


The goal: To walk - in three calendar years (1,095 days) - the distance that it would take me to walk the Trans Canada Highway from the Mile Zero marker located here in Victoria BC to its end point in St. John's, NL, a distance of 7,821K (4,860 miles).







Here is the link to my Google map where I am tracking my journey: http://tinyurl.com/p8vu9n3

UPDATE: WEEKS 9 and 10
Kilometers walked this week: 104.55
Kilometers walked in total: 563.25
Current province: (BC)
My current location on the map: Still in BC. Currently East a Cache Creek (and west of Walhachin), heading for Kamloops Lake
Points of interest along the way:
Not much to report except a lot of walking along side of the Thompson River. Passed through Goldpan Provincial Park. Name like that makes me think of gold panning but I don't know if that really happened in that area. Continues through Spences Bridge and Epsom Provincial Park, Boston Flats and finally through Cache Creek and the turning point from northerly travel to easterly travel. All I can say is thank goodness for vacation walking.

>79 lkernagh: Passed through Goldpan Provincial Park. Name like that makes me think of gold panning but I don't know if that really happened in that area.

Yep, it sure does. I spent a lot of time in my childhood throughout that area and there was lots of 19th century gold rush sites. Roughly the same time period as the Klondike, Barkerville and California gold rushes. Haven't really been back that way in the past 30 years though so I don't remember a lot of details.

Sounds like you had a great trip!

>74 lkernagh: Wow, 46,000 steps!! That is massive!!

Glad to hear you had a great vacation and glad to see you back as well! :)

Your vacation sounds exciting and exhausting! Glad to have you back!

>74 lkernagh:
Haha, yes, two nights in Vegas is the absolute maximum before going bonkers! :)

>79 lkernagh:
Congrats on your progress - you're doing fantastically well!

>72 lkernagh: A Thousand Hills sounds like a very worthwhile read. I'd read Dallaire's They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children a couple of years ago. Very disturbing, but though-provoking and informative.

Hello lori - first time visitor and I'm so glad I came by!

Lots of wonderful books - I've read some, have some on my shelves to read, and am jotting down notes about others - and just for the record I like Brussel sprouts steamed with butter and salt BUT will try them roasted with olive oil. Husband wouldn't touch them with a 10-foot pole, so it will just be me experimenting. Don't particularly like radishes although I have fond memories of growing them as a child and watching in awe as my grandmother ate them with enjoyment. Beets, well, cold on salads are the only way I'll eat 'em; buried among other vegetables and disguised with salad dressing.

I loved The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and have read The Yiddish Policeman's Union too. And, as it turns out, I have four more of his books on my shelves, part of my totally out-of-hand tbr.

Your vacation sounds fantastic. I'm particularly envious of your time with your sister in Las Vegas. My sister and I are about 2,600 miles apart, but we do talk or text every day or so.

>80 Nickelini: - Nice to learn that the park is appropriately named! Vacation was great. One of those rare trips where I managed to find the perfect balance between visiting family, have an adventurous getaway and going back to the office feeling refreshed, not exhausted.

>81 rabbitprincess: - Thanks! I agree. 46,000 steps was a lot. By the end of the second day my feet were making their thoughts about all of that walking known. Changing shoes didn't help much. ;-)

>82 mstrust: - It was exciting, exhausting and fantastic. Your suggestions for places to eat in Vegas were invaluable. We enjoyed the breakfast buffet at the Bellagio and the Peppermill is an awesome (and very retro feeling) restaurant! I did have one of their strawberry daiquiri and WOW, was that tasty. With the whipping cream topped with a maraschino cherry, it was just like drinking a refrigerator-chilled strawberry shortcake. YUM! I also took advantage of being on the strip at 2:00 am to have my first ever White Castle slider.... perfect after hours snack food, IMO and it was great to be able to see the production line of food prep workers making trying to keep up with all of the orders. One night we ate at The Outback Steakhouse, which was fantastic. I had an appetizer of coconut shrimp, barbeque prawns and crab cakes (which does not appear to be on their website menu) with a Ceasar salad.

>83 -Eva-: - Oh good. Glad to know it isn't just me that starts to feel overwhelmed by it all. As for the walking, it has now become an ingrained habit and my body starts to complain if I don't get my walk in, which I am calling a good thing!

>84 mathgirl40: - I haven't read the Dallaire memoir yet. Given what I now understand about Rwanda, I can understand how Dallaire's book can be so disturbing and thought-provoking. I tried to go see him when he was speaking at the university here in town and I cannot remember why I didn't make it to that event. I can highly recommend A Thousand Hills, if anything, for the great historical and political context that Kinzer presents to the reader.

>85 karenmarie: - Hi Karen, lovely to see a new visitor posting here! Sounds like your husband and my dad are of the same thinking when it comes to Brussels sprouts. My dad loves radishes so we have an understanding if we happen to eat together and Brussels sprouts or radishes are included, I will eat his Brussels sprouts and he will eat my radishes. ;-) I am still a bit leery of beets so I think I will probably have to try them in borsch or something else to see what I think of them.

So happy to see you loved Kavalier and Clay. I continue to plug away at it and hope to finish reading it before the end of the month.

My sister and I have a mountain range between us so we don't 'see' one another all that much, which made a trip for just the two of us all that much better.

Happy Sunday all! I have had a rather busy week getting back into the swing of office work (and getting caught up with all that landed on my desk while I was on vacation) and coming to the realization that we are now less than 3 full months away from Christmas. I hit the craft stores yesterday looking for some inspiration for some new Christmas tree decoration ideas and came away empty-handed. I think I will have to wait until after Canadian Thanksgiving - which is fast approaching - and Halloween before I can expect to find a good selection of Christmas crafting supplies on the shelves.

The weather continues to remain sunnier than usual but we are now experiencing the more cooler seasonal temperatures, which is perfect for walking!

On the food front, I made a fresh batch of tzatziki sauce yesterday and some cheddar chive and dill scones today. The two items make a perfect pairing - as my sampling this afternoon can attest to - so dinner tonight will probably be something light.

One the reading front, I continue to plug away at both The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay as my physical read and A Disobedient Girl as my audiobook read. My goal is to complete both books by the end of this month, which should be doable.

Now time for a bit of a slap-dab photo impression of my trip to Vegas.

While in Las Vegas, I found myself referring to the strip as being 'hypnotically tacky', which isn't, upon reflection, an overall positive comment to make. 'Iconic' is probably a better way to describe the Strip, as is 'Disneyland for Adults'. The following pictures convey the 'Disneyland for Adults' view of this rather fascinating destination:

The Luxor Hotel is a wonderful Egyptian-themed hotel that doesn't seem at odds with the desert landscape (forgetting, of course, that it is located in the middle of Las Vegas and not as its own desert oasis):




A shot of MGM Grand and part of New York, New York from across the street:



A close up shot of what I call the "Sleeping Beauty's Castle" approach to MGM Grand:



A shot of New York, New York with the roller-coaster that surrounds the hotel:

What I call an iconic shot of the Strip with the three-dimensional signage for shops like the M&M and Coca-Cola shops:



A shot of the Paris-themed hotel with its Eiffel Tower, Arc d'Triumph and air balloon electronic billboard display in the foreground, with Ballys, etc in the background:



A shot of the Venetian Hotel gondolier trip starting point:



One of the approaches to the Treasure Island-themed hotel with its pirate ship, wooden plank pier and the Senor Frog's restaurant:



A shot inside one of the many indoor shops attached to the various strip hotels. All of the indoor shops have digital ceilings that display weather patterns of sun, cloud, etc. This particular spot, with the pool, is where, at the top of every hour, a rainstorm display (with loudspeaker sounds of thunder and flashes of light for lightening) occurs, with 'rain' falling from the skies (ceiling) into the pool.



Overall things that caught my attention as 'different':
- the number of families with small children on the Strip, and the number that seemed to be out and about at 2:00 am, when I was.
- the fact that people, for the most part, are allowed to smoke in the casino areas. There are no smoking/non-smoking areas in the casinos that I could ascertain. In fact, one of the casino's even has a cigar girl I talked to who only job is to sell tobacco products to the players on the floor.
- That one could freely consume alcohol anywhere on the Strip, at anytime of the day or night. It was not uncommon to see people walking the Strips with alcoholic drinks in their hands.

A lot of fun but probably best taken in small doses for someone like me who does not have the university student stamina for all night partying. ;-)

My Trans Canada Walking Journey


The goal: To walk - in three calendar years (1,095 days) - the distance that it would take me to walk the Trans Canada Highway from the Mile Zero marker located here in Victoria BC to its end point in St. John's, NL, a distance of 7,821K (4,860 miles).







Here is the link to my Google map where I am tracking my journey: http://tinyurl.com/p8vu9n3

UPDATE: WEEK 11
Kilometers walked this week: 50.5
Kilometers walked in total: 613.75
Current province: (BC)
My current location on the map: Still in BC. Currently east of Savena, south of Kamloops Lake and heading for Kamloops.
Points of interest along the way:
Not much to report except for Kamloops Lake being a popular summer vacation resort area in interior BC. On a personal walking journey note, now that I have hit 75 days of my walking journey, I have discovered a change in that I now notice when I haven't gone for a daily walk, almost as though I am craving a walk. Kind of neat, that and should make it a lot easier for me to continue my walking when the rainy winter weather arrives.

I forgot to mention that one of my time-sucks this past week has been watching some new streaming programs on Acorn TV. They are currently streaming the BBC TV adaptations of Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence Partners in Crime novels, starring David Walliams (Little Britain) and Jessica Raine (Call The Midwife). I am also currently watching an adaptation of William Boyd's novel Restless starring, among others, Michelle Dockery of Downtown Abbey fame. Sooooo... not much reading happening right now.

Book #80 - A Disobedient Girl by Ru Freeman - audiobook read by Anne Flosnik
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, Commonwealth
Category: Edinburgh's Commonwealth Games of Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: Hoopla
Format: audiobook
Original publication date: 2009
Acquisition date: N/A
Page count: 374 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.10 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from the simonandschuster.com website book listing:

Two stories, told against the volatile backdrop of class and prejudice in Sri Lanka. Young Latha knows that she was not meant to be a servant. She was born for finer things, like the rose-smelling soap she steals from the family she has worked for since she was five, or the glasses of fresh lime juice she helps herself to after a long day. But the hard truth is that her life is tied to Thara, the family’s spoiled daughter, and for the next thirty years they grow up bound by love, betrayal, resentment, and an impossible secret. Then there is Biso, a devoted mother of three, who risks everything to escape from her tyrannical husband. Though her journey begins with hope, she navigates a disastrous path that ultimately binds her story to Latha and Thara’s in the most unexpected and heartbreaking way.

Review:
I will start off this review with some information about the author. According to a Guardian.com website book review, the author was raised in an aristocratic Sri Lankan family. Her grasp of the Sri Lankan caste system, the political tensions that have impacted her country and the details of the clash between a modern world of denim jeans/T-shirts and traditional coming of age rights of passages for girls, are poignant and captured well. What I struggled with was the characters, and in particular, Latha. I get that she is chaffing at the binds that tie her to the servant class status she has in Thara's household, and before that in the household of Thara's parents, but she just never comes across as anything more than a shallow individual who equates social position with owning good quality leather sandals. Seriously, you have to read the book to understand why I am saying this. Latha makes choices that I just cannot accept. I am not saying that the circumstances she finds herself in are deserved - this book has some great examples of a family that is prepared to blatantly lie, even to each other, to protect social position - but she just goes about trying to improve her life in all the wrongs ways. The Biso story is better - this is one of those books with two story-lines it keeps shifting back and forth between - and I found it easier to relate to Biso and her trials. Maybe part of my trouble with this one is the audiobook narration. Parts of the book seemed to jumble in my mind and the reader's voice as she pronounced Thara's name started to really grate on me after awhile... just a little to emphatic with the Thara's. I also struggled a bit in determining the time period for the book. I finally settled on the book covering the period from the start of the Sri Lankan Civil War in the early 1980s to the publication date of the book, 2009, but I could be wrong.

Overall, an okay read with great representation of Sri Lanakan society and class prejudices with minor glimpses into the Sri Lankan politics, struggles and geography. Aptly titled.

SEPTEMBER RE-CAP:

BOOKS READ (ranked from most to least favorite):
A Thousand Hills by Stephen Kinzer - 5.00 /
Daughters Who Walk This Path by Yejide Kilanko - 4.20 /
Tragedy at Second Narrows by Eric Jamieson - 4.00 /
A Winter Wrong by Elizabeth Ann West - 3.30 /
Death in Breslau by Marek Krajewski - 3.20 /
A Disobedient Girl by Ru Freeman - 3.10 /
The Gray Lady of Long Branch by Maura Satchell - 2.80 /
To Rescue General Gordon by J.P. Medved - 2.20 /

August STATS:
# of Books Read: 8
# of Pages Read: 2,182 - Does not include the 474 pages I have read so far in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which is rolling into October.
Average pages read per day: 72.73
Original Publication Date Range of books read: 1999-2015
Largest Book read: A Thousand Hills at 400 pages
Smallest Book read: To Rescue General Gordon at 38 pages
Books still in progress at the end of the month: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

CHALLENGES:- as of August 30th
ROOTs Challenge:
Books read this month: 0 (20 in total)
Status: 80% completed (5 books still to go)

Commonwealth Challenge: - this is a multi-year challenge started in 2013.
Books read this month: 3 (26 in total)
Status: 50% completed (26 books still to go) Whoot! Halfway mark!

Category Challenge: Each category completed when 8 books AND 2,015 pages read is reached - *changing from original plans of a "whichever comes first" approach. Status as of August 30th:
Street Art - 7 books/ 2,185 pages read
Happening - 8 books / 2,626 pages read - Category completed August 22, 2015
Minimalism - 7 books / 1,918 pages read
American Realism - 7 books / 1,727 pages read
The London Group - 7 books / 2,966 pages read
Books made into Art - 9 books / 2,761 pages read - Category completed June 22, 2015
Edinburgh's Commonwealth Games of Art - 10 books / 2,689 pages read - Category completed August 3, 2015
Art - 17 books / 4,405 pages read - Category completed June 22, 2015
Status: ~ 93% completed (~ 4 books still to go)

Planned reads to complete Category Challenge:
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay to complete my Street Art category
Shoot! to complete my Minimalism category (and as a tie in to my Trans Canada Walking Journey)
Something Wicked This Way Comes for my American Realism category + one other as I am going for both 8 books AND 2015 pages read.
Black Swan Green for my London Group category

75 Books Challenge: - My "Luck 'O the Irish" Race (books read versus pages read): Bringing this fun reading snapshot race back, my 75 group challenge will be considered completed whichever comes first: 75 books read or 25,000 pages read.



Even though Pot of Gold won the race on September 11th - a reversal from last year when Shamrock blew past the finish line at the end of November with 789 pages beyond target - the race will continue to track books read versus pages read for oveall year end numbers.

Saw the most amazing cloud formation in front of the full moon last night so I snapped the following picture using the camera on my smart phone. Not as good as the real thing but still pretty amazing, I think.

That's a very cool picture.

I'd say you have your challenge in the bag - 93% complete and three months to go. Congrats.
That is a really pretty picture of the moon.

>95 lkernagh: Very cool pic- at first glance it looks like reptile skin.

>95 lkernagh: Whoa! That's really cool!

>96 Nickelini:, >97 mamzel:, >98 mstrust: and 97 - Interesting you should mention the challenge is 'in the bag'. I couldn't help but notice that all of my reading last month - except for the progress I have made in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay did nothing to move me closer to finishing my challenge. ;-)

>98 mstrust: - I never thought about reptile skin but now that you mention it... it does. Definitely a textured look to it.

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It has been an interesting week, technology wise. I have a new tablet that we use at home for web browsing and as the computer that we connect to our living room TV for web TV watching (like Acorn TV). The problem I have with the newer technology is that the software and hardware seemed to be locked down and out of the control of the customer. We don't have the ability to stop the tablet (which runs the Microsoft software platform) from initiating software update installs. It is just not an option. Earlier this week, the tablet installed Windows 8.1 (and I had no way to stop it from doing so) with the end result that we lost the dual screen functionality we use for TV watching. When my other half finally got the dual screen function working, we had visual with no audio. Microsoft technical support did admit that this was their fault as a result of the Windows 8.1 install which pissed me off to no end. Why consumers are being sold devices that are locked down and do not allow the consumer to be in control of software updates just makes my blood boil. On top of that two days of fun, at work we are in the process of transitioning from a traditional PBX land line phone system to a web "voice over internet' phone system. Today was transition day. I am still getting used to the concept of placing and receiving calls through my laptop with a headset, but I can already see some interesting benefits of this new communications system. On the downside, I cannot help but wonder what happens to the phone system if the network goes down, which is why I am thankful that I still have my work issued cell phone to fall back on. ;-)

I was wondering what you use to track your walking progress. I was really happy with MapMyWalk for years, but they recently blew up my app and can't fix it so I'm looking for a new one.

>95 lkernagh:
Wow, that looks like it was truly amazing!

Cool cloud formation! I love a cloudy night sky when the moon is bright. :)

>100 lkernagh: Sorry about your technology problems. The customer should certainly have the choice of opting out of an update and carrying on with the format they like. My phone doesn't let me opt out of updates either.
I've given up on my Apple Shuffle, which I loved and used on the treadmill everyday. With one of their offered updates, I accepted and it completely fried it. From the info I got back, it had happened to everyone who had accepted that particular update and they had to give out replacements. So everything was great then. But after maybe 2 years of not adding any new songs, I signed in and bought a few. It took the money, but instead of giving me the songs, Apple downloaded cartoon sounds onto my shuffle. Like the sound of car horns and stuff like that, and I couldn't bypass them either, they just repeat, so I've lost around 150 songs that I paid for. Customer service on their website is a joke as they gave me all these steps and instructions for how to fix it myself, rather than replacing it. Technology is great, but when it goes wrong nobody knows what to do.

>89 lkernagh:
Fantastic shots of Vegas!

Although not entirely positive, "hypnotically tacky" is a fairly accurate description, as well as "iconic". It's very much its own adult theme park and theme parks always walk that line.

>95 lkernagh:
Wow, how gorgeous.

>101 Nickelini: - OMG, not helpful to have the app blow up on you! I admit that I am still a smart phone newbie and I track things like my walking through the web-based portal of MapMyWalk, and not the mobile app. Now you have convinced me that I don't need to transition over to the app! ;-) Ironically enough, my work-issued cell phone was upgraded this week from an iPhone 4S to an iPhone 5S. I noticed that the iPhone 5S comes preloaded with a health app that can track walking steps, etc. Not sure what I think about that, as I am not about to carry that phone around with me all the time when I am out walking, but I might play with the app to see what all it can do and if there is an Android version that I can download to my personal smart phone.

>102 -Eva-: - Thanks! Cloud formation was pretty cool and something rare so I am glad I managed to capture it, even if a bit fuzzy-like.

>103 Ape: - So do I, Stephen! I wish I lived out of town. The street lights do make it a bit difficult to enjoy the night sky in all of its glory.

>104 mstrust: - I agree. Technology should be our friend. I just don't know when we shifted to customers coming second in the IT company plans. OMG on your Shuffle and the lost songs! I read the other day that Apple had its largest sales weekend ever when they released the iPhone 6. Obviously, there are an awful lot of consumers that just swarm every-time the latest and greatest is launched. What a sad, sad society we have become. *sniffles*

>105 andreablythe: - Awe, thanks! I had a blast and, yes I can understand the appeal of the place. Good comment about theme parks. I feel the same also holds true for carnivals. I see carnivals as being very 'garish' but they need to be vivid, bright and in-your-face to keep the 'punters' engaged. People probably wouldn't visit - or stay very long - if it was bland or boring. ;-)

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Wow - it has been a few days since I last posted. I took advantage of the wonderful warm, sunny weather we had this past weekend to do some of our major fall cleaning, like steam cleaning the carpets. Always a busy project as I like to move all but the really big furniture and steam clean the carpets myself... one of the joys of owning our own steam cleaning machine. That is now done. Also did some work and research about wintering my container herb garden. I have brought the basil plants indoors but I have decided to let everything else winter outdoors and we will see what survives come spring. According to my research, 80% of the plants I have are biannual so they should survive the winter outdoors.

On the reading front, I continue to be distracted by TV shows, fall cleaning and whatnot, but I can at least report one book finished and one book has 20 more pages to go before I can call it finished.

On the craft front, I continue to roam the shops and surf the web for some Christmas ornament craft ideas. I have some ideas percolating but I think I will have to wait until after Canadian Thanksgiving (which is this weekend) and Halloween to be over before the stores here go full on with their Christmas stuff.

Walking update and a book review to follow.

My Trans Canada Walking Journey


The goal: To walk - in three calendar years (1,095 days) - the distance that it would take me to walk the Trans Canada Highway from the Mile Zero marker located here in Victoria BC to its end point in St. John's, NL, a distance of 7,821K (4,860 miles).







Here is the link to my Google map where I am tracking my journey: http://tinyurl.com/p8vu9n3

UPDATE: WEEK 12
Kilometers walked this week: 72.3
Kilometers walked in total: 686.05
Current province: (BC)
My current location on the map: Currently west of Chase, skirting the southern rim of Little Shuswap Lake, heading for Squilax and Sorrento.
Points of interest along the way: The Kamloops/Shuswap region of BC is one that I do like, based up fond memories of visits to the area. I like how the entire week of walking would have been more or less alongside the South Thompson River. I am a big fan of rivers, lakes and what not. My fondest memories of the region go back a number of years to when I was still a teenager and joined the family for a clan reunion in the area. Picking luscious ripe strawberries right off the vines of a farm that offered "U-Pick" for visitors and devouring them lakeside. Soooo good.

As I think I previously mentioned - and I apologize if I have not - I will occasionally read books by authors or set in the regions/areas that my walking journey will take me. Yes, I did think about reading Richard Wagamese's Medicine Walk as a book set, partially, in interior BC, but my local library has a copy of the following historical fiction based on a true story set in Kamloops which has caught my eye:


Shoot! by George Bowering.

I will be starting my read of Shoot! as soon as I finish my current physical read.

Book #81 - Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury - audiobook narrated by Kevin Foley
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category
Category: American Realism
CAT(s): N/A
Source: Hoopla
Format: audiobook
Original publication date: 1962
Acquisition date: N/A
Page count: 304 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.30 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca website book listing:

The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. The shrill siren song of a calliope beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. And two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes. . .and the stuff of nightmare.

Review:
Now, this is my kind of scary read. Wholesome lead characters in a wholesome town and just the right amount of creepiness to tingle my senses. Carnivals seem to be the perfect fodder for scary stories - after old, broken down houses - and I love how Bradbury brings to life a carnival that can give both children and adults readers pause. The innocence of young Will and Jim, and their friendship, propels the story along it's mysterious, fantasy-driven horror. It is a classic tale of good versus evil, told in a voice designed to stir the imagination of the reader, and place the reader in the middle of the story to fight evil alongside Will, Jim and Will's father, Charles. The story has a timeless quality to it that appeals to me. It doesn't feel dated or come across as lacking in substance. I kind of like the "gosh, golly" language of the boys...that made me smile, especially as conveyed by the audiobook narrator, Kevin Foley.

Overall, a fantastic story with just the right amount of sinister creepiness for the non-horror reader like me to enjoy. I don't think I will ever look at a merry go round (or a house of mirrors) or smell hot dogs and cotton candy without thinking about this story.

My personal solution to software update woes is to call apple support in Europe. The call center is in Ireland. It may not solve the problem, but one cannot understate the ability of a man speaking with an Irish accent to soothe. It's very calming.

>108 lkernagh: I read Something Wicked This Way Comes this time of year a couple of years ago. It's perfect for the season and made me a fan of Bradbury.

>109 RidgewayGirl: Ha! That's very much making the best of a bad situation- good idea!

Shoot looks really interesting Lori. I will however, wait for your thoughts on the book before I add it to my wishlist.

106: Ah, I live out in the middle of nowhere on a property with a big open field, so I have a pretty decent view. :)

>109 RidgewayGirl: - I would call apple support in Europe - even though I am in Canada - just to have an Irish (or Scottish) accent on other end of the phone dealing with my technology problems. Hell, I would even be less inclined to grudge paying for tech support under those circumstances. ;-)

>110 mstrust: - I agree. Something Wicked is a perfect fall read. I am thinking of maybe re-reading it a few years from now, and might even try to read it on October 24th, in line with the story. >109 RidgewayGirl: does have the perfect solution. ;-)

>111 DeltaQueen50: - Good call, Judy. I started it last night and I am a little confused, but I am also only 10 pages into the story. I should be finished it this weekend.

>112 Ape: - NICE!

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The fog bank is rolling in after a full day of grey skies, which means we are back to normal Victoria fall weather. A good night for homemade pizza and sitting down planning the holiday dinner for the weekend.

Book #82 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Books Made Into Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade Paperback
Original publication date: 2000
Acquisition date: May 4, 2013
Page count: 639 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.50 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the barnesandnoble.com website book listing:

A young escape artist and budding magician named Joe Kavalier arrives on the doorstep of his cousin, Sammy Clay. While the long shadow of Hitler falls across Europe, America is happily in thrall to the Golden Age of comic books, and in a distant corner of Brooklyn, Sammy is looking for a way to cash in on the craze. He finds the ideal partner in the aloof, artistically gifted Joe, and together they embark on an adventure that takes them deep into the heart of Manhattan, and the heart of old-fashioned American ambition. From the shared fears, dreams, and desires of two teenage boys, they spin comic book tales of the heroic, fascist-fighting Escapist and the beautiful, mysterious Luna Moth, otherworldly mistress of the night. Climbing from the streets of Brooklyn to the top of the Empire State Building, Joe and Sammy carve out lives, and careers, as vivid as cyan and magenta ink.

Review:
How to summarize my thoughts regarding this one. Well, Chabon has done a wonderful job capturing the Golden Age of comic books and the buzzing energy of New York in all its World War II and post-World War II glory. He has created solid, three dimensional characters in Sammy, Joe and Rosa. I am not one of those readers who seeks to uncover the "story within the story" or to understand the symbolism the author may have imbued within his or her story, but even I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Chabon makes some interesting choices here with the Golem, the comic book superheroes and the internal demons our lead characters struggle against. The story has an epic quality to it, starting off in pre-World War II Prague before landing in the teeming streets of Brooklyn/ New York and then off to the desolation of Antarctica, which was one of my favorite sections of the story, apart from the escape artist/magician angle. While I don't know much about the history of comic books, I was able to follow along and feel the vibe of energy and passion that may have driven the artists, writers and publishers who conjured up the superheroes who graced the pages of 10 cent comic books.

As much as the story has all of the desired character and plot development - with some unexpected twists - all captured in Chabon's descriptive prose, I never felt drawn in. I never felt a part of the story. It was easy for me to put the book down, even for the most mundane of household tasks, which is why it took my almost a month to read through it. Good story, but not a great page-turning read for me like Chabon's novel Gentlemen of the Road.

> 114 My book club read that a few years ago and we all said the same thing: "really clever and very well written, but didn't really interest us." Guess we just aren't the target audience. It did leave me interested in trying something different from Chabon though.

>114 lkernagh: I really enjoyed Gentlemen of the Road when I read it. That topic of the one you just read doesn't really appeal to me either so I probably ought to read something else by Chabon instead of it when I read him again.

>114 lkernagh:
Kavalier and Clay was good, but it was really slow reading for me. Not my favorite of his work.

>114 lkernagh: Excellent review. I looked at that book too, but I guess I'm not in the target audience either. It just didn't appeal.

>115 Nickelini: - I have only read two of Chabon's works so far. Like you, even though Kavalier and Clay fell a bit flat for me, I am interested enough to read more of his books. I get the impression that Chabon's writing is a bit like China Mieville's in that he is bit hard to pin down... each book being different from the rest.

>116 thornton37814: - Gentlemen of the Road is fantastic read! So glad to see that you also enjoyed it! As I mentioned in my response above to Joyce, Chabon seems to draw readers to consider reading his books. Curious.

>117 andreablythe: - There seems to be a general consensus on this thread so far that places Kavalier and Clay more as an okay/good read but not a great read. I am also curious, what has been our favorite Chabon read? As you might guess, I am trying to decide which Chabon book I might attempt to read next.

>118 VivienneR: - Thanks Vivienne! Good thing there are lots of other books out there that do appeal!

It is the Canadian Thanksgiving long-weekend up here in Canada, so here is a quick Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian LT visitors!



We will be celebrating with dinner this evening. I did think about trying something different this year but went for a compromise in that I will be preparing a turkey breast roast and not an entire turkey. I attempted to make a pumpkin pie last night. It baked okay and probably turned out just fine but I had forgotten how grainy and pumpkiny pumpkin pie can be. I think I am going to mess around this afternoon and see if I can make some smaller pumpkin tarts that still pumpkiny but lighter and fluffier in texture. Will report back if I am successful. In the meantime, here is a picture of the pie I made last night:

Book #83 - The Track of Sand by Andrea Camilleri - audiobook narrated by Grover Gardner
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category
Category: Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: GVPL
Format: Audiobook
Original publication date: 2007
Acquisition date: N/A
Page count: 264 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.60 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.com website book listing:

Inspector Salvatore Montalbano wakes from strange dreams to find a gruesomely bludgeoned horse carcass in front of his seaside home. When his men came to investigate, the carcass has disappeared, leaving only a trail in the sand. Then his home is ransacked and the inspector is certain that the crimes are linked. As he negotiates both the glittering underworld of horseracing and the Mafia's connection to it, Montalbano is aided by his illiterate housekeeper, Adelina, and a Proustian memory of linguate fritte.

Review:
I last visited Montalbano's Sicily 10 months ago when I read The Wings of the Sphinx. I love how easy it was for me to reconnect with the setting and the characters, almost as if I had never left. Montalbano and his team continue to amuse, especially the exuberant Catarella. This story is a bit more brutal than some of the previous stories in the series as there is some senseless animal cruelty here. On a very positive note, from my perspective, Ingrid, one of my favorite reoccurring characters, shows up in this story. Yay! Gardner does such a great job bringing her personality to life. I do shake my head at the corners Montalbano continues to paint himself into and wonder when he will finally go to far and not be able to recover.

Overall, another good installment in Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series.

Happy Thanksgiving, Lori!

Thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving! Pie looks yummy! :)

>120 lkernagh:
Looks so pretty!

>120 lkernagh: Your crust looks so lovely. Mine always look all crumbly & a disaster (although they taste fine). I know what you mean about too pumpkiny. I prefer something more like a light pumpkin cheesecake, but I have yet to master any such delicacy.

Your pie looks good. Happy Thanksgiving.

>120 lkernagh: It's beautiful! Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, Lori!

Wow! That pie looks fabulous. Sorry to hear you were not totally satisfied with it. I've never been satisfied with my pumpkin pies so now I use butternut squash with much more success. I'm not a big fan of cinnamon and after experimenting with orange zest, I'm hooked.

>130 VivienneR: My mom used the same recipe for pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie. It was darker and sweeter than most pumpkin pies are because of the brown sugar she added.

Thanks >124 rabbitprincess:, >125 -Eva-:, >126 kac522:, >127 Roro8:, >128 mstrust:, >129 DeltaQueen50:, and >130 VivienneR:! Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful. I hope everyone who celebrated had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I hope everyone else has had a wonderful weekend. It is cold and rainy today, perfect for staying at home and relaxing this holiday Monday.

>130 VivienneR: & >131 thornton37814: - I have heard great things about squash and sweet potato pies as a replacement for pumpkin pie. I must give it a try one of these days.

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On the baking front, I did attempt some pumpkin pie tarts and they turned out really well. To make the pie filling part fluffier, I cut down the amount of pure pumpkin, I replaced the heavy cream (or evaporated cream) some recipes call for with a 50/50 mix of 'half and half' cream and sour cream. I also replaced the sugar with a combination of brown sugar and maple syrup. I then blended into the filling some baking powder/flour with the spices and continued to add flour by the teaspoon until the pie filling had the right amount of body to it. End result is a reasonably lighter pie filling with not as strong a pumpkiny flavour to it and no grainy texture. I forgot to take pictures and I didn't take any notes as I was messing around with the recipe. Next time I will take notes as I 'concoct'. ;-)

On the reading front, I have finished reading Shoot! and have a review ready for posting, along with my weekly walking journey summary.

My Trans Canada Walking Journey


The goal: To walk - in three calendar years (1,095 days) - the distance that it would take me to walk the Trans Canada Highway from the Mile Zero marker located here in Victoria BC to its end point in St. John's, NL, a distance of 7,821K (4,860 miles).







Here is the link to my Google map where I am tracking my journey: http://tinyurl.com/p8vu9n3

UPDATE: WEEK 13
Kilometers walked this week: 44.7
Kilometers walked in total: 730.75
Current province: (BC)
My current location on the map: Currently south of Glenden at the southernmost tip of Shuswap Lake, heading for Salmon Arm.
Points of interest along the way: Looking at the Google map, I was surprised to see mention of a Turtle Valley Donkey Refuge Society. Intrigued, I did some online research and discovered that the society has been rescuing donkeys for over 12 years and has been open to the public since 2007. They currently provide refuge for over 90 abused, neglected and unwanted donkeys on 80 acres of land. How cool is that!

As part of my walking journey, I have finished reading Shoot!, which proved to be a very good historical fiction read set predominately in the Kamloops, Cache Creek, Douglas Lake Nicola Valley region of BC. Review will be posted below.

Book #84 - Shoot! by George Bowering
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category
Category: Minimalism
CAT(s): October HistoryCAT: 1850-1900 time period
Source: GVPL
Format: Trade paperback
Original publication date: 2008
Acquisition date: N/A
Page count: 260 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.30 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from various sources:

In the dry plateau country around Kamloops, brothers Allan, Charlie, Archie McLean and sidekick Alex Hare were known as the McLean gang. They were also known as "breeds"--outcasts caught between the cultures--Alex Hare, a Metis, and Allan, Charlie and Archie, brothers of mixed Salish and Scottish blood. They roamed the high Chilcotin ranch country of British Columbia in the 1870s, cattle rustling, stealing and creating high-spirited mayhem. Until one frozen, crystalline morning in 1879, when they crossed the line and shot two men in cold blood, one of them, Johnny Ussher, the local sheriff. Tracked down by a posse of over 100 men, the McLean Gang were eventually trapped and brought to justice. Or were they?

Review:
Shoot! started out as a slow and very confusing read for me. Bowering weaves historical fact with native legend and his own unique story-telling. The first 100 pages of the story was a bit of a challenge to piece together, bouncing around like a pinball ricocheting around in a pinball machine. Flipping narratives and timelines every page or so can get a bit unnerving for any reader, I think. Thankfully, Bowering finally settles into his story and calms down the narrative flipping to a more manageable level, allowing me to finally sit back and get drawn in. Bowering, Canada's first Poet Laureate, captures the dead cold of that 1879 interior BC winter with a practiced hand, communicating its terrifying raw, elemental beauty. In Shoot!, Bowering strips bare and exposes to the light of day the stories that have been relegated to the 'dusty basement' of BC's recorded historical past. While this story is on its surface a story about a gang of outlaws, the posse who tracked them down and the English justice that they they faced in New Westminster, it has a dark underbelly that I believe to be the thrust of Bowering's story. As mentioned by Sherrill Grace in her afterword to the story:

"Shoot! is a story about the HBC (Hudson Bay Company), its white businessmen, their Indian country wives, and their mixed-race children who would not be fully accepted by either white or native communities. These children were especially feared by those white colonizers who wanted to make fortunes and create a civilized English-speaking society of law, order and status out of a wild, rich, as yet unexploited land, and who definitely wanted to deny their past sexual alliances."

Unlike a number of the famous outlaw gangs of the American Wild West that I have read about, the McLean Gang, outside of Allan, were still mere boys. Allan, the oldest, was 25. Charlie and Alex Hare were 17 and young Archie was 15. Their rampage was fueled in part by the way they were treated as 'breeds'. For the McLeans, their suffering started at the hand of their violent father, a Hudson Bay Company Chief Factor and grew into one of community-wide disgust, disdain and indifference after their father's death in 1864 at the hand of a Chilcotin warrior when the family's Hat Creek ranch was taken away from their Native Indian mother by the white settlers, leaving the family destitute. For all members of the McLean Gang, their anger was also fueled by the fact that one of Kamloops richest white settlers, Mara, was having his way with the McLean brothers' young sister, Annie. Bowering's story hit a resounding nerve within me as a reminder of Canada's settlement past and how important it is for stories that are a legacy of Canada's past to be communicated and shared. At their trial in New Westminster, Judge Henry Pering Pellew Crease makes a statement that, as Bowering has written, may explain why the McLean Gang and their rampage are not widely captured in the recent written histories of the province: "You have caused great terror throughout the country, and by a campaign of robbery and assault and murder you have disgraced British Columbia." They do always say that history is written by the winners/victors. I believe that Bowering has brilliantly captured in his story the very fact that everyone has a story and it is all of the stories, not just the stories of the victors, that need to be heard and shared.

I can recommend this story to anyone who has an interest in outlaw gangs of the 19th century North American west. For me as a Canadian and a British Columbian, this story has extra meaning and really resonated with me. It has also left me with a lot to think about.

On a Related Note: For those of you who may be interested in the McLean Gang, their rampage, seige and subsequent capture, these did make the news in the newspapers of the time, such as the Daily Colonist in Victoria, as the paper was known at that time. As luck would have it, the old Daily Colonist newspapers have been digitized as part of a University of Victoria project. A search for McLean during the December 1879 period of the siege produced the following results. Not all articles are related to the McLean Gang but enough of them are to give one a really good impression of the events as they played out. The prisoners did not stand trial until three months later in the Spring of 1880, faced a second trial months later - the first trial was determined to have been conducted without the necessary commission - and were executed on January 31, 1881.

> Ok, now Shoot! is definitely a book bullet for me! :)

Judy, before I had reached the end of the book, I was online searching for more information about the events in the story, which is something I usually don't so. A solid good read.

Book #85 - The Potter's Field by Andrea Camilleri - audiobook narrated by Grover Gardner
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category
Category: Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: Hoopla
Format: Audiobook
Original publication date: 2008
Acquisition date: N/A
Page count: 277 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.90 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.com website book page:

an unidentified corpse is found near Vigàta, a town known for its soil rich with potter's clay. Meanwhile, a woman reports the disappearance of her husband, a Colombian man with Sicilian origins who turns out to be related to a local mobster. Then Inspector Montalbano remembers the story from the Bible-Judas's betrayal, the act of remorse, and the money for the potter's field, where those of unknown or foreign origin are to be buried-and slowly, through myriad betrayals, finds his way to the solution to the crime.

Review:
Another great installment in the Inspector Montalbano series. This was a goodie, and not just because Ingrid makes a short, cameo-styled appearance. This time the two-fronted mystery involves unusual behaviour of one of Montalbano's own team, leaving Montalbano to not only try and make heads or tails out of the latest murder mystery, but to try and manage what is becomes an escalating team-dynamics problem. As a fun aside, I got a good chuckle out of Camilleri having Montalbano read an Andrea Camilleri story involving a police inspector and a puzzling mystery... very tongue-in-cheek and amusing to encounter while reading this one! As for the mystery itself, this is one of the better ones and I really liked how it all played out. Some interesting potential foreshadowing of what may come as Montalbano starts to make some mental musings about retirement life. My love for these stories continues. Onwards to the next installment!

>137 lkernagh: I don't think I've read that one in the series, and I think I'd really enjoy it.

I'm really enjoying your walking updates. Great review of Shoot! I'd like to read more about BC's history myself, so I'll keep that one in mind. I do hope you'll get around to Medicine Walk sometime, as I had liked that novel very much.

Your review of Shoot! is fantastic. I've noted the newspaper articles, so I can enjoy them when I have time.

Excellent review of Shoot!. Another one for the wishlist.

>138 thornton37814: - Hi Lori, the Potter's Field is a goodie and I love how one doesn't necessarily need to read the Inspector Montalbano books in sequence order. You do miss little snippets of information if read out of order but nothing that would leave a reader completely baffled as to what story they were reading. ;-)

>139 mathgirl40: - Glad to see the walking updates get perused by others, considering it is to help motivate me to keep going. Glad to see the review for Shoot! caught your attention and even better, happy to learn that you really liked Medicine Walk! I tend to waffle over reading some books when I haven't read anything by the author but I feel better know your thoughts regarding the Wagamese novel.

>140 RidgewayGirl: - awe, geez, thanks! The newspapers articles are worth reading as they cover a lot of the general details of the rampage and siege, with the 'to be expected' errors in reporting when the reporters have to rely on third, if not fourth or even fifth person information. I haven't search the results for the trial reports or the executions but I am pretty sure those were probably captured as well in the newspaper.

>141 VivienneR: - Glad to see so many positive hits of Shoot! here!

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The weather out here on the west coast continues to amaze me. We are in mid-October and still experiencing rather mild temps and sunshine. On the reading front, I have finished another book, which completes my second to last category (review to follow). My current physical read is Black Swan Green as the last book to complete my London Group/BAC category. I have decided that even though I will 'officially' be finished my category challenge once I finish reading Black Swan Green, I will continue to slot my remaining 2015 reading into the overflow of the various categories... just in case anyone was wondering if this thread was going to stop soon.

Book #86 - Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Street Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback
Original publication date: 2007
Acquisition date: May 12, 2012
Page count: 288 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.60 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.com website book page:

Being a Greek god is not all it once was. Yes, the twelve gods of Olympus are alive and well in the twenty-first century, but they are crammed together in a London townhouse-and none too happy about it. And they've had to get day jobs: Artemis as a dog-walker, Apollo as a TV psychic, Aphrodite as a phone sex operator, Dionysus as a DJ. Even more disturbingly, their powers are waning, and even turning mortals into trees--a favorite pastime of Apollo's--is sapping their vital reserves of strength. Soon, what begins as a minor squabble between Aphrodite and Apollo escalates into an epic battle of wills. Two perplexed humans, Alice and Neil, who are caught in the crossfire, must fear not only for their own lives, but for the survival of humankind. Nothing less than a true act of heroism is needed-but can these two decidedly ordinary people replicate the feats of the mythical heroes and save the world?

Review:
Having read Phillips' rather humorous take on Camelot and the whole King Arthur legend in her book The Table of Less Valued Knights, I kind of had an idea of what I was in for with Gods Behaving Badly and Phillips did not disappoint. A rather fun read to refresh my mind of the Olympian gods, their powers and their temper-tantrums. The presentation of the underworld was refreshingly different, even though the journey to the underworld had a slightly Harry Potter feel about it. I am not completely sold on the ending and I struggled a bit with both Alice and Neil's character personalities but overall, a fun bit of escapism reading.

>142 lkernagh: I've totally read Montalbano out of order. I looked, and that is one they do have in audio. Let's just hope it will be available when I need it.

>144 thornton37814: - It sounds like reading the Montablano books out of order has not impacted your ability to enjoy them, Lori! I do love the audiobooks. Grover Gardner does such a great job reading the stories. ;-)

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Happy Sunday, everyone! I am having a rather lazy day today in that I have no plans to leave home and venture out into the world. Doing a little bit of laundry. Later I plan on making some pumpkin millet muffins with some of the leftover pure pumpkin I had frozen. I am also in the process of attempting a bread experiment. I recently purchased some quinoa flakes and have added some to the light rye bread I am making. Curious to see how it turns out. I will then probably do a little more work on the herb garden, clearing out some of the annuals that will not come back next year. Because the herb garden is comprised of individual containers, I have migrated some of the plants indoors to see how they handle becoming indoor plants for the winter months. So far, I have brought indoors both basil plants (sweet and purple varieties), oregano, Spanish tarragon, parsley and purple sage. The mild temperatures we have continued to experience this month has slowed down any hibernation of the outdoor plants.

My Trans Canada Walking Journey


The goal: To walk - in three calendar years (1,095 days) - the distance that it would take me to walk the Trans Canada Highway from the Mile Zero marker located here in Victoria BC to its end point in St. John's, NL, a distance of 7,821K (4,860 miles).







Here is the link to my Google map where I am tracking my journey: http://tinyurl.com/p8vu9n3

UPDATE: WEEK 14
Kilometers walked this week: 60.2
Kilometers walked in total: 790.95
Current province: (BC)
My current location on the map: Currently east of Shuswap Lake and just west of Craigellachie, on the northern side of the Eagle River.
Points of interest along the way: Made some progress this week, and would have walked through Salmon Arm, passed Canoe, through Annis and Sicamous. I have now more or less hit my stride when it comes to my walking and I find that I am taking longer, more roundabout routes on my walk to work in the mornings, which is making it easy for me to more or less maintain the walking levels I had over the summer months. The shorter, dark days of winter may curtail some of my walking. We shall see.

On the related reading front, while I was scanning my TBR bookshelves I discovered that I own a copy of The Cure for Death by Lightning by Gail Anderson-Dargatz.



The book is set in the Turtle Valley region of BC, the northern tip of which my walking journey passed through during Week 13 (last week). I plan on starting this book as soon as I finish my current physical read.

>143 lkernagh: - Sounds like a fun book - on the wish list it goes.

>147 LittleTaiko: - Yay! A fun book if you want to escape - partially - from this world into something different.

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Election day here in Canada. Did my civic duty this morning. Curious to see the outcome later this eveing.... and trying not to bite my nails in the process. ;-)

Book #87 - The Age of Doubt by Andrea Camilleri - audiobook read by Grover Gardner
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category
Category: Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: GVPL
Format: Audiobook
Original publication date: 2008
Acquisition date: N/A
Page count: 274 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.20 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.com website book page:

The day after a storm, Inspector Montalbano encounters a strange woman who expresses interest in a certain yacht scheduled to dock that afternoon. Not long after she's gone, the yacht's crew reports finding a disfigured corpse. Also at anchor is a luxury vessel with a somewhat shady crew. Both boats will have to stay in Vigàta until the investigation is over and, based on information from the woman, Montalbano begins to think the occupants of the yacht might know more about the man's death than they're letting on.

Review:
Not one of my favorite Inspector Montalbano reads. In this one, Montalbano's behaviour and his repeated lies just dig him deeper and deeper into a hole of his own choosing, and all because he doesn't like to do paperwork. Sheesh, between that and the Inspector Belladonna attraction thing I spent a good part of the story rolling my eyes, to the point where I wasn't really paying much attention to the unfolding of the mystery. The story did evolve into a good mystery with a few nail-biting moments, but overall, just an okay read this time. Here is hoping the next installment is a good one.

Election day here in Canada. Did my civic duty this morning. Curious to see the outcome later this eveing.... and trying not to bite my nails in the process. ;-)

I voted last week. Just about to go check what's going on. Definitely not predictable.

Watched the John Oliver bit on the Canadian elections. Sounds like it will be a very interesting outcome.

>151 LittleTaiko: I loved John Oliver's bit! Amusingly, there is a Liberal candidate in the Oakville riding by the name of John Oliver :P

Well, I wasn't expecting that outcome. But I'm glad Stephen Harper/George Bush of the North is history.

>150 Nickelini:, >151 LittleTaiko:, >152 rabbitprincess: & >153 Nickelini: - I just checked the latest election results. I was hoping for a minority government, but I will take what is coming down the pike as being better than what could have been.

>151 LittleTaiko: & >152 rabbitprincess: - John Oliver is awesome and brilliant. I love that Mike Myers was involved in his bit.

> 154 I hear you. But I'm so glad our Harper era is over.

I enjoyed John's tirade as well and I'm happy you guys are able to move on from Harper.

>148 lkernagh:, >153 Nickelini:, >154 lkernagh:, >155 Nickelini:, >156 mamzel: Another happy camper here!

>155 Nickelini:, >156 mamzel: and >157 VivienneR: - Yes, a lot of happy Canadians that the Harper era has come to an end. ;-)

I was battling a bit of a head cold earlier this week but taking the day off of work on Tuesday to do nothing but sleep has gone a long way towards nipping the bug. Taking it easy this week on the walking front and finding the morning commute to be a rather dark one.... This idea of daylight savings not kicking in until the first part of November makes me wonder why we even bother. Should take our cue from Saskatchewan and not engage in the whole "Sprin Forward, Fall Back" charade. *grumble, grumble*

On the reading front, I am approximately 2/3 the way through Black Swan Green and really enjoying this coming of age story. Favorite quote so far is the following response to learning that our protagonist is thirteen years old:

"Ackkk, a wonderful, miserable age. Not a boy, not a teenager. Impatience but timidity, too. Emotional incontinence."

Sounds like an apt description of being thirteen. ;-)

--------

Announcement:

Over on the 75 Group thread there is some talk about a possible Canadian Author Challenge for 2016, similar to the American Author Challenge, the Australia/New Zealand Author Challenge and the British Author Challenge that are currently running. These author challenges are open to all LT members - you don't have to join the 75 group to participate - and I thought there might be some interest for some members of the Category Challenge who might not have threads over in the 75 Group.

Here is a link to the 2016 Canadian Author Challenge Planning Thread, if anyone is interested to check it out and offer any author suggestions.

Thanks for pointing that out. I went and left my mark.

Thanks for the link to the Canadian Author Challenge thread. I think I'm busy enough with the CATs and my own challenge, but as I haven't read much from Canada yet, it will be very useful for inspiration whenever I have the time. :)
>143 lkernagh: This and the Camelot book really sound like fun - and are now officially listed as another BB!

Thanks for the heads up on the Canadian Author Challenge, Lori. I don't know how much time I will have next year for other challenges, but I will certainly try to participate some of the time in the Canadian one.

It was certainly time to see Harper go, we need a change. I was surprised at Trudeau's majority as I thought we were headed for a minority government! I guess that just goes to show that the pollsters don't always get it right.

>159 Nickelini: , >160 Chrischi_HH: and >161 DeltaQueen50: - Happy to spread the word. As you may have guessed, I am rather excited to see a CAC in the planning and wanted to spread the joy. ;-)

>160 Chrischi_HH: - Phillips knows how to write fun fluff reads without them taking on the appearance of sappy chicklit or eye-rolling stupidity. Good stuff!

>161 DeltaQueen50: - I am starting to wonder if the pollsters have gotten anything right in the past 5 years. They have really missed the mark on a number of recent elections at the provincial level and now this. I think they need to re-think they way of polling the public. ;-)

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It is Friday, it is the start to the weekend and I get the evening to myself. Wahoo! Other half is off helping crew a sailboat up the peninsula this evening so I get to sit back and just relax. Lovely way to end the work week. ;-)

Lori you have walked, cooked, traveled and read very well since I last visited your thread. I have marked several of your reviews as favorite so I can track down some of your reads.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you will come up with for your Christmas cards this year.

Hi Lori! It took me a while to get back but here I am. I think I got a bit more emotionally involved with Kavalier & Clay than you did, but strangely enough it hasn't inspired me to read the other 4 books Ihave on my shelves, excepting The Yiddish Policeman's Union, which I listened to.

Just for the record, I use a pumpkin pie recipe from the 1950s that is quite pumpkiny but not grainy. The spices are a bit different than what we get here on the canned pumpkin in the US, and it's my daughter's favorite pie. And as far as pie crust goes, I finally found the perfect pie crust recipe, when I was in my late 40s. It has never failed me yet. It's from a 1906 book called Rumsford Cook Book and is called "Flaky Paste". Rolls like a dream.

I cracked up when I read while I was scanning my TBR bookshelves I discovered that I own a copy of . I do that all the time. My TBR tag has 1542 books, so there's always something to choose from, yet here I am, reading the latest Cormoran Strike mystery by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling.

I hope your evening to yourself was a joy - I had yesterday off work, not sick, just a vacation day, with the house to myself, and it was fantastic.

>163 luvamystery65: - Glad to see you stopping by, Roberta. LOL as I continue to walk, cook and read (but no travel planned until the 2016). I am of the belief that there should only be a three-day work week... because I just don't seem to find the time to do everything else I want to do AND kick back and just relax. Last night was a rare exception.

I don't think I am going to find the time to make Christmas cards this year, but it is still October so who knows, that may still happen. ;-)

>164 karenmarie: - Hey Karen! I have decided that Kavalier & Clay probably would have worked best as a vacation read, with less interruptions. I always find it interesting how one can become enamored with a book and yet, not feel compelled to read the other books by the same author. I have tons of those still waiting for me. I figure I am being pulled in too many directions and just go with the flow.

I knew there had to be recipes out there somewhere for the perfect pumpkin pie recipe. I am not surprised that yours is a recipe from the 1950's. ;-) I wil see if I can track down a copy of the Rumsford book. To be able to make a perfect pie crust is on my baking bucket list, up their with a perfect souffle.

It is funny how many books we own and only our subconscious seems to keep track of... giving us those "where do I know that name from?!" tweaks. ;-)

The evening to myself was divine. didn't so an awful - spend some time on LT, fluffed around and went to bed early - my kind of night. Vacation days away from the office are so essential. In my previous job we had two "personal days" a year where we could just book the time off, just because. The company brought the personal days in as compensation to staff when they changed the practice of closing the business between Christmas and New Years. I prefer personal days and miss them as my current job does not have personal days.

Had a relaxing evening last night. Today has been a day of grocery shopping, some herb garden work to prep some of the biannual plants and to deal with the pots of annual plants that have died off as we approach winter. The cooler - and at periods rainy - weather put me in the baking mood so I spend the afternoon futzing around in the kitchen. I found two apples in the crisper that were starting to wither so I made 6 apple tarts. I finally managed to make my pumpkin millet muffins (with oatmeal) using up the last bit of pure pumpkin I had in the freezer. I then decided that cookies were needed and came across a great recipe online for brownie-style chocolate cranberry drop cookies which I just had to make. End result:



Can I offer anyone a baked treat? ;-)

If you are interested, the chocolate cranberry cookies are based upon the following Dark Chocolate Cranberry Brownie Cookies recipe. I made some tweaks to the recipe in that I did not bother with the chocolate chips and I amended the dry ingredients to include 1/4 of quinoa flakes. Oh, and I used dried cranberries instead of fresh. Awesome recipe.

>166 lkernagh: - Not fair! Here I am craving dessert and you tempt me with these far away goodies. Very impressive. I may have to borrow the chocolate cranberry recipe for my Christmas cookie exchange.

Those look yummy, Lori. I made molasses spice cookies and chocolate crinkles yesterday. Cookies are my weakness. Most of these will be going in a box to our granddaughter and niece who are away at college. I try to send a box every month with 2 kinds of cookies and a few other goodies. This time it will be Halloween treats. Here's a trick I learned from Cook's Illustrated to keep the confectionary sugar from being absorbed by the liquid in the dough. Roll your cookies first in granulated sugar and then in the confectioner's sugar. Something about the granulated sugar carmelizes and forms like a crust under the other sugar.

>166 lkernagh: Yummy!! :D

>166 lkernagh: Yummy! They look all delicious!

>166 lkernagh: All beautiful and very professional looking. You need to open a bakery!
>168 dudes22: That's a great tip- thanks!

>167 LittleTaiko:, >168 dudes22:, >169 rabbitprincess:, >170 Chrischi_HH: adn >171 mstrust: - Thanks everyone for the wonderful comments of the results of my Saturday baking! I tend to not follow recipes when I bake (or cook) so the results can be a bit "hit and miss". Saturday was a triple header win day on the baking front.

>167 LittleTaiko: - Sorry about the temptation..... NOT! ;-) The chocolate cranberry recipe is quite versatile. Christmas cookie exchange sounds wonderful!

>168 dudes22: - Molasses spice cookies.... YUM! Great advice regarding the confectioner sugar. I will have to try that next time. Your cookie and treats care packages must be the hit of the girls school fiends!

>171 mstrust: - I am too inconsistent in my baking to ever consider subjecting any paying customers to it! ;-)

My Trans Canada Walking Journey


The goal: To walk - in three calendar years (1,095 days) - the distance that it would take me to walk the Trans Canada Highway from the Mile Zero marker located here in Victoria BC to its end point in St. John's, NL, a distance of 7,821K (4,860 miles).







Here is the link to my Google map where I am tracking my journey: http://tinyurl.com/p8vu9n3

UPDATE: WEEK 15
Kilometers walked this week: 35.7
Kilometers walked in total: 826.65
Current province: (BC)
My current location on the map: Currently east of Three Valley Lake and heading for Revelstoke.
Points of interest along the way: Because I was feeling under the weather for part of the week - and the daylight hours are getting noticeably shorter! - I haven't made much walking progress. I did get a chuckle when I discovered that my Day 101 walk of this walking journey stopped me right outside The Enchanted Forest, which is a tourist attraction that has been open to the public since the 1960's.

I may still make my goal of leaving BC and entering Alberta by the end of October. May be off by a day or two because I am feeling lazy today and don't feel like going for a walk. ;-)

ETA: I just checked the map and it would appear that I have 230KM to go before I reach the Alberta border. Looks like I will be in BC for a good part of November.

Book #88 - Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: The London Group
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback
Original publication date: 2006
Acquisition date: August 3, 2014
Page count: 304 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.90 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from various sources:

January, I982. Thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor – covert stammerer and reluctant poet – anticipates a stultifying year in his backwater English village. But he hasn’t reckoned with bullies, simmering family discord, the Falklands War, an elderly bohemian émigré, a threatened gypsy invasion and those mysterious entities known as girls. The yer of 1982 is going to be a year of a lot of firsts for Jason as he moves through the black hole between childhood and adolescence.

Review:
Having been one of those shy, awkward kids that never really fit in while growing up, I can really appreciate Jason's view of the world. A world where kids can be unbelievably cruel and adults just don't understand the social rules of being a kid and surviving the crowds. This is a bittersweet coming of age story. There is both good and bad to be found in Mitchell's created village of Black Swan Green. Being a huge fan of Dicken's Great Expectations - the only Dickens story that I never tire of - I could not help but see some interesting parallels between the experiences of Dicken's young Pip and Mitchell's Jason. Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck, the elderly bohemian émigré of the story, has a slightly Miss Havisham feel about her that I really found quite charming, if you can make the leap I can and consider Miss Havisham to have any charming qualities, so you will probably not be surprised that I also saw the 'luscious' Dawn Madden as Mitchell's version of the cold Estella (poor Jason!). One of the better coming-of-age stories I have read so far and the perfect read for me as my entry into Mitchell's storytelling world.

.... and this now concludes my category challenge. I ended up reading 23 more books than needed to complete my challenge as I allowed myself to get distracted with shiny books or over filling some categories. I intend to keep posting book reviews and everything else over here until 2016 kicks in. If you are interested, my 2016 thread is now up!

Congrats on completing your challenge Lori!

Woo hoo, congrats!!

Congratulations on finishing!! And good to hear you're sticking around.

>166 lkernagh:
Yummy!

Congratulations on finishing your challenge, and those baked goods look wonderful!

Congratulations on finishing!

Congratulations!

Congratulations on finishing your challenge!

Congratulations on finishing your challenge an dim glad you'll still be posting here so I can keep up with your reading/walking/baking. I tend not to stray too far from a recipe - especially when baking.

Congratulations on completing your challenge Lori.

Congrats on completing your challenge!

Congratulations on a successful reading year! And keep up the good progress in your walking challenge.

Yay, congrats, Lori! And >181 mstrust: excellent picture selection!

Congratulations on finishing your challenge Lori! And for your Trans-Canada walking journey progress. And for the triple baking success. I love your inventive creations.

Congrats on completing your challenge! I still look forward to more reading/baking/walking adventures. :)

Congratulations on completing your challenge. I am loving your Trans-Canada journey and since I drove that portion of the highway not too long ago, all the landmarks are very familiar.

>176 luvamystery65:, >177 rabbitprincess:, >178 -Eva-:, >179 mathgirl40:, >180 LittleTaiko:, >181 mstrust:, >182 MissWatson:, >183 dudes22:, >184 Roro8:, >185 AHS-Wolfy:, >186 mamzel:, >187 christina_reads:, >188 VivienneR:, >189 Chrischi_HH:, and >190 DeltaQueen50: - Thanks everyone! I am looking forward to cruising through the last two months of 2015.

For the baked goods admirers, there will be more postings of the foodie nature as we close out 2015. I am in the mood for a home-baked holidays this year. ;-)

The walking will continue and hook or by crook, the journey will enter Alberta within the next 10 days.

>181 mstrust: - That is brilliant! Thanks!

>190 DeltaQueen50: - Familiar landmarks are what makes the walking journey so much fun for me so far. I know once I hit Saskatchewan and find myself on the southern route - I am used to driving the more northern root to Saskatoon- things are going to be bit different for me. I have only been to Regina once as a young girl and I seem to remember a public park and being attacked by a what I think was a goose. Not the best of memories I will admit. ;-)

Congratulations on completing your challenge! And baking and "walking" too! :-D

Thanks!

Book #89 - The Dance of the Seagull by Andrea Camilleri - audiobook narrated by Grover Gardner
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category
Category: Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: Hoopla
Format: Audiobook
Original publication date: 2009
Acquisition date: N/A
Page count: 277 pages / 5 hours, 41 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.10 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.uk website book listing:

Inspector Montalbano is awake at dawn, sitting on his porch, when his attention is caught by a seagull which falls from the sky, performing a strange dance, before lying down to die. Montalbano is perplexed by what he has witnessed and the scene hangs over him like an omen. About to depart for a holiday with his girlfriend Livia, Montalbano makes a quick trip to the police station to tie up loose ends. But when his dear colleague Fazio is discovered missing - and it transpires that the policeman has been involved in his own secret investigations - Montalbano instead launches a desperate search for his lost friend, as time begins to run out . . . Navigating a shadowy maze of smuggling, blackmail and the darkest murder, and moving from the docks of Vigàta to its deep, dry wells where the mafia hide their terrible crimes, Inspector Montalbano must have his wits about him to unravel this tangled mystery.

Review:
I liked this one for a number of reasons. The story is back on solid footing as a police procedural. It also has a more somber feel about it. The story stays more or less focused on the case at hand and Montalbano even tries to minimize the number of falsehoods he tells to his boss, the Commissioner. Camilleri continues to play around with little intrusions of reality that true Montalbano fans will appreciate, like the tiny playful gab he takes at the actor who play Montalbano in the TV series by having Montalbano comment that unlike the actor, Montalbano does have a full head of hair. Cute. ;-)

Overall, a better story and a more solid police procedural piece. Onwards to the next book in the series.

>194 lkernagh: I don't think I've read that one yet. I'm sure I'll eventually get to it.

I'm still marvelling at your walking. I finally got my MapMyWalk app fixed, so I'll be out walking more. Somehow it wasn't the same without having the instant gratification of all my results. I don't mind being out in our late fall - winter weather, so that shouldn't stop me. I'll think of you, over in the Enchanted Forest while I walk through my neighbourhood forest.

>195 thornton37814: - Hi Lori, I keep on wondering if I will reach the point where I tire of the series. Some installments are better than others but I like that Camilleri manages to keep things fresh and different and not "same old, same old" as some series can become.

>196 Nickelini: - Thanks Joyce! This week has been a bad one for walking. I need to start thinking about how to work my walking in now that we are heading into the shorter days of winter. Glad to see you managed to get your MapMyWalk app fixed! WHOOT! I should probably see about adding that app to my smart phone, although all I need is one more app to confuse me. Love the Enchanted Forest reference. The majority of my walking is in city so not quite sure how enchanted that is... although one does encounter the most interested people while out walking so maybe it is enchanted. ;-)

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Not much to report this week. Work has been busy with a lot of computer reading that has left me feeling rather brain dead at the end of the day. Last night I was so exhausted I ended up crashing on the couch and watching the most recent episode of the Neil Patrick Harris show, Best Time Ever. My kind of TV viewing when I am too tired for anything else. ;-)

I checked and see that I already took a BB from DeltaQueen for the series by Camilleri. It's probably one of the series I'll start next year for my "1st in a series" category.

ETA: I see you listened to it on Hoopla. Our library just added Hoopla, so maybe I'll finally listen to a book.

Hi Betty, I was a bit leery of Hoopla when my local library first added Hoopla to the electronic collections - I had some technology issues with my first few downloaded borrows - but now I am a big fan of the service. Everything is available for instant borrowing for 3 weeks so no wait lists or suddenly having items come available when you don't have the time to read/listen/watch them. Hoopla has all of the Inspector Montalbano books... just in case you get hooked after the first one. ;-)

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Woke up this morning to a down-pouring of rain. I love the sound of rain when I am snuggled up in bed. A good day for running some errands, maybe make vegetarian lasagna for dinner as that has been requested and otherwise, just sitting around relaxing. Thankfully, no Halloween plans this year. I am just not up for getting dressed up in costume and going to a party. I must be getting old. ;-)

I think I remember you talking about the problems you had with downloading. I think I'll probably try a movie before I try listening to a book.

Book #90 - The Cure for Death by Lightning by Gail Anderson-Dargatz
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade Paperback
Original publication date: 1996
Acquisition date: March 26, 2012
Page count: 294 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.20 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from various sources:

In the shadow of the Second World War, the fifteenth summer of Beth Weeks’s life is full of strange happenings: a classmate is mauled to death; children go missing on the nearby reserve; and Beth herself is being hunted by an unseen predator. The isolated valley of the B.C. farming community where she lives is home to a host of unusual characters: Nora, the sensual half-Native girl whose friendship provides refuge; Filthy Billy, the hired hand on her family's farm with Tourette’s Syndrome; and Nora’s mother, who has a man’s voice and an extra little finger. Then there’s the darkness within her own family: her domineering, shell-shocked father has fits of madness, and her mother frequently talks to the dead. Beth, meanwhile, must wrestle with her new found sexuality in a harsh world where nylons, perfume and affection have no place. Then, in a violent storm, she is struck by lightning in her arm, and nothing is quite the same again.

Review:
This story has one of my favorite opening sentences:

"The cure for death by lightning was handwritten in thick, messy blue ink in my mother’s scrapbook, under the recipe for my father’s favorite oatcakes: Dunk the dead by lightning in a cold water bath for two hours and if still dead, add vinegar and soak for an hour more."

It really sets the tone for what I can only describe as a compelling coming-of-age story. A wonderful blending of isolated rural community living, family histories, native folklore, evocative memories stirred by the wonders captured within the pages of her mother's scrapbook and the luscious descriptions of food, gardening and bizarre remedies. It is a wonderful throw-back to a forgotten era and I love how Beth reminds us that the story she is telling is something that occurred in her past, not her present. The writing is a delight to experience, like this description of eating cherries fresh off a cherry tree:

"When you eat a ripe cherry straight from the tree on a sunny day, its juice is so hot, thick, and red that it has the feel of blood running down your chin, staining your lips, and filling your mouth. Once you've sucked all you can from it, you spit out the pit and go for another warm cherry off the tree, and another and another, because the cherry will seduce you every time. You don't see that ripeness, that hot blood juice, in a store-bought cherry. But a cherry sun-hot off the tree, well, that's where it came from, the insinuation of lust in the cherry, the smut-name put to the ripe button-love of a woman. Cherry. It's all juice and warmth, a O in your mouth, a soft marble for your tongue to play with, a sweet soft thing with a core cloaked in flesh."

I delighted in the recipes and remedies that are strewn throughout the story. The kind that are handed down from generation to generation. Even better, there is an index at the back of the book. While the story is set in the Turtle Valley region of British Columbia, it is easy to picture it as taking place in almost any Northwest valley farming community with an reserve nearby. Canadian specific references to such things as Vancouver, Vernon and residential schools are kept to a minimum. As with most coming-of-age stories, it has elements that are harrowing and emotional. Anderson-Dargatz focuses on how Beth reacts/deals with situations, instead of exposing the reader to minute details of the situations themselves. A nice touch as some of the topics are disturbing enough without having the read through pages and pages of ugly details.

Overall, a really good read.

>200 dudes22: - Streaming the movies/TV shows works really well through Hoopla. When I listen to audiobooks, I download them to my device, which Hoopla does let you do for audiobooks, since the majority of my audiobook reading is while out walking. It was trying to listen to the downloaded audiobook outside of a wi-fi zone that I had initial problems with. ;-)

You are single-handedly going to turn me into a lover of Canadian fiction, Lori. The Cure For Death By Lightning sounds great!

>201 lkernagh: Is Turtle Valley a real place?

>203 DeltaQueen50: - Glad to see the reviews are working, Judy. Seriously, I had no idea that Anderson-Dargatz was such a wonderful writer. She has a great skill for story-telling.

>204 Nickelini: - It is! https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Turtle+Valley,+BC+V0E/@50.8208524,-119.8859312,...

Basically, it is located south of Little Shuswap Lake. According to the author bio, Anderson-Dargatz "lives in the Shuswap Valley, the landscape found in so much of her writing." I had no idea that The Cure for Death by Lightning was a Giller Prize finalist, although, having now read the book, I am not surprised. ;-)

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Since tomorrow is the start of a new month, my challenge is complete and this thread is already over 200 posts long, I think it is time for a quick challenge wrap-up and then on to a new thread of my "free" reading for the remainder of 2015.

CATEGORY CHALLENGE - WRAP-UP

Favorite Book - per category - based on all books read in each category, including overflows (as of October 31st):


Street Art - Pelquin's Comet by Ian Whates - 4.30 decimal rating /
Happening - Tie between The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson, both with a 4.20 decimal rating /
Minimalism - Alphabetique by Molly Peacock - 4.40 decimal rating /
American Realism - Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich - 4.80 decimal rating /
The London Group - Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh - 4.85 decimal rating /
Books Made into Art - Light Boxes by Shane Jones - 4.40 decimal rating /
Edinburgh's Commonwealth Games of Art - A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It by Stephen Kinzer - 5.00 decimal rating /
Art - The Witch of Napoli by Micheal Schmicker - 4.20 decimal rating /

Books read/Page count per category - as of October 31st:
Street Art - 8 books / 2,473 pages
Happening - 8 books / 2,626 pages
Minimalism - 8 books / 2,178 pages
American Realism - 8 books / 2,031 pages
The London Group - 8 books / 3,270 pages
Books made into Art - 10 books / 3,400 pages
Edinburgh's Commonwealth Games of Art - 13 books / 3,815 pages
Art - 27 books / 6,874 pages

Obviously, I was more interested in reading whatever took my fancy this challenge. ;-)

Top five "duds":


To Rescue General Gordon by J.P. Medved - 2.20 decimal rating /
The Last Kind Words Saloon by Larry McMurtry - 2.70 decimal rating /
The Happiest People in the World by Brock Clarke - 2.70 decimal rating /
Pure by Andrew Miller - 2.70 decimal rating /
The Gray Lady of Long Branch by Maura Satchell - 2.80 decimal rating /

New thread is up.... come on over!

>205 lkernagh: Oh! I think I've even driven through there. Thanks!