Lori (lkernagh) Reads her ABCs in 2018 - Third Thread

Lori Reads her ABCs - Third Thread



Hi everyone. Welcome to my third thread for the 2018 Category Challenge. This will be my ninth year participating in the Category Challenge. This year I have gone back to basics with two alphabet categories - one for author name and one for book title. Overlaps are not allowed, each book read will only count for either one author or one book title. Having read 9 books in January, I am feeling pretty confident that 52 books for the alphabet challenges should be do-able. I am also joining in on the various Group Reads as well as the Kits, Cats and BingoDog, and focusing most of my reading to clear more ROOTs off my burgeoning TBR shelves.

Author Alphabet Category:



Rule: Letter must be the first letter in the author's first, middle or last name, as displayed on the book cover.

"A" Author - Run by Ann Patchett - (review)
"B" Author - The Grave's a Fine and Private Place by Alan Bradley - (review)
"C" Author - Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens - (review)
"D" Author - A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness - (review)
"E" Author - The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards - (review)
"F" Author - Broken Harbour by Tana French - (review)
"G" Author - One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - (review)
"H" Author - The Siege by Helen Dunmore - (review)
"I" Author - The Complaints by Ian Rankin - (review)
"J" Author - The Passage by Justin Cronin - (review)
"K" Author - The House at Riverton by Kate Morton - (review)
"L" Author - In Office Hours by Lucy Kellaway - (review)
"M" Author - The Road to Ever After by Moira Young - (review)
"N" Author -
"O" Author - The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde - (review)
"P" Author - The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins - (review)
"Q" Author -
"R" Author - The King of Lavender Square by Susan Ryan - (review)
"S" Author - Dark Desires by Eve Silver - (review)
"T" Author - The Fire by Night by Teresa Messineo - (review)
"U" Author - Ghosts and Exiles by Sandra Unerman - (review)
"V" Author - Diary of a Single Wedding Planner by Violet Howe - (review)
"W" Author - My Ántonia by Willa Cather - (review)
"X" Author -
"Y" Author -
"Z" Author -

Book Title Alphabet Category:



Rule: Letter must be the first letter in one of the words that make up the book's title.

"A" Book Title - The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder -
"B" Book Title - The Bathwater Conspiracy by Janet Kellough - (review)
"C" Book Title - Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore - (review)
"D" Book Title - Drifters' Alliance by Elle Casey - (review)
"E" Book Title - England, England by Julian Barnes - (review)
"F" Book Title - The Forsyte Saga by Johns Galsworthy - (review)
"G" Book Title - Arthur and George by Julian Barnes - (review)
"H" Book Title - The Hours by Michael Cunningham - (review)
"I" Book Title - The Time In Between by David Bergen - (review)
"J" Book Title - A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore - (review)
"K" Book Title - Kept by Elle Field - (review)
"L" Book Title - Late Nights on /Air by Elizabeth Hay - (review)
"M" Book Title - Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy - (review)
"N" Book Title -
"O" Book Title - One Click by Andrea Mara - (review)
"P" Book Title - Faithful Place by Tana French - (review)
"Q" Book Title -
"R" Book Title -
"S" Book Title - Mr. Darwin's Shooter by Roger MacDonald - (review)
"T" Book Title - A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - (review)
"U" Book Title - The Unpleasantness at Baskerville Hall by Chris Dolley - (review)
"V" Book Title - The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay - (review)
"W" Book Title - The Whispered Tales of Graves Grove by J.S. Bailey - (review)
"X" Book Title - X by Sue Grafton - (review)
"Y" Book Title - Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton - (review)
"Z" Book Title -

Monthly CATs / KITs:



January
- ColourCAT (Black) - The King of Lavender Square by Susan Ryan -
- AlphaKIT ("M") - The Road to Ever After by Moira Young -
- ScaredyKIT (Gothic) - Dark Desires by Eve Silver -
- ScaredyKIT (Gothic) / AlphaKIT ("M") - Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy -
- SFFKIT (There is Always Tomorrow) / AlphaKIT ("M") - The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder -
- ScaredyKIT (Gothic) / AlphaKIT ("M") - The House at Riverton by Kate Morton -

February
- MysteryCAT (Female Cop/Sleuth/Detective) / AlphaKIT ("X") - X by Sue Grafton -
- ScaredyKIT (Survival/Disaster) / AlphaKIT ("J") - The Passage by Justin Cronin -
- AlphaKIT ("J") - Arthur and George by Julian Barnes -
- SFFKIT (Urban Fantasy) - A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness -

March
- AlphaKIT ("F") - The Forsyte Saga by Johns Galsworthy -
- AlphaKIT ("F") / MysteryCAT (Global Places) - Faithful Place by Tana French -
- AlphaKIT ("F") / MysteryCAT (Global Places) - Broken Harbour by Tana French -
- ColourCAT (Green) / AlphaKIT ("F") / MysteryCAT (Global Places) - The Grave's a Fine and Private Place by Alan Bradley -

April
- AlphaKIT ("U") / ColourCAT (Yellow) / RandomCAT (April Loves Books!) - The Unpleasantness at Baskerville Hall by Chris Dolley -
- RandomCat (April Loves Books!) - A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini -
- ColourCAT (Yellow) - Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore -
- ColourCAT (Yellow) - The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde -
- SFFKIT (Time Travel) - 15 Minutes: A Time Travel Suspense Thriller by Jill Cooper -
- ScaredyKIT (Supernatural) - A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore -
- SFFKIT (Time Travel) / ScaredyKIT (Supernatural) - City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte -
- RandomCAT (April Loves Books!) / MysteryCAT (Classic and Golden Age Mysteries) - The Adventures of Dagobert Trostler by Balduin Groller -

May
- ColourCAT (Blue) / AlphaKIT ("K") - In Office Hours by Lucy Kellaway -
- ColourCAT (Blue) / AlphaKIT ("K") - The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards -
- MysteryCAT (Mysteries involving Transit) - The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins -
- ColourCAT (Blue) - England, England by Julian Barnes -

June
- MysteryCAT (True Crime) - The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson -
- ColourCAT (Purple) - Kept by Elle Field -
- RandomCAT (Unusual Narrators) and SFFKIT (Series) - Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie -
- ColourCAT (Purple) - Diary of a Single Wedding Planner by Violet Howe -

July
August
September
October
November
December

1. Mr. Darwin's Shooter by Roger MacDonald -
2. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens -
3. The Adventures of Dagobert Trostler by Balduin Groller -
4. Dark Desires by Eve Silver -
5. Arthur and George by Julian Barnes -
6. Mary Coin by Marisa Silver -
7. A Mentor and Her Muse by Susan Sage -
8. X by Sue Grafton -
9. The Passage by Justin Cronin -
10. The Road to Ever After by Moira Young -
11. The Hours by Michael Cunningham -
12. Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy -
13. Faithful Place by Tana French -
14. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez -
15. The Unpleasantness at Baskerville Hall by Chris Dolley -
16. Us Conductors by Sean Michaels -
17. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini -
18. The Fire by Night by Teresa Messineo -
19. The House at Riverton by Kate Morton -
20. The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards -
21. Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx by Sonia Manzano -
22. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde -
23. The Siege by Helen Dunmore -
24. The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder -
25. The King of Lavender Square by Susan Ryan -

Group Reads:



1. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens -
2. Arthur & George by Julian Barnes -
3. The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy -

This thread is now open for visitors

Currently Reading:
..

Audiobook:
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; read by John Lee - A ROOT read, an RTT read and read for the Bingo square "Number in the Title". - I have to admit I am still struggling with this one. Is there a movie adaptation I can watch that might make sense of this one?
ebook:
Stanley and Hazel by Jo Schaffer - a LTER read
Physical books:
The Virgin Cure by Amy McKay - a ROOT read and an RTT read

Happy new thread!

Happy New Thread, Lori! You are in for a treat with The Virgin Cure. I enjoyed that thoroughly enjoyed that one shortly after it was published, as did Nancy , our" missing" Lit Chick.

Shiny new thread! Looking good!

Happy new thread, Lori!

Happy New Thread! You're really doing well with your Bingo card so far.

Happy Easter, Lori! Good luck with 100 Years of Solitude. I read it in university and remember very little about it, because that was before I was cataloguing books on LT and GR.

Happy new thread! Hope you had a great Easter weekend!

>9 thornton37814:, >10 vancouverdeb:, >11 cmbohn:, >12 RidgewayGirl:, >13 dudes22: and >15 ChelleBearss: - Thank you Lori, Deborah, Cindy, RidgewayGirl, Betty and Chelle for the happy new thread wishes! Hard to believe that we are already through the first three months of 2018. Time does fly!

>10 vancouverdeb: - I will need to update my Currently Reading post. I know I planned to read my physical copy of The Virgin Cure, but as I managed to finish listening to One Hundred Years of Solitude during a marathon beading session - more details to follow - I have switched to listening to the audio version of The Virgin Cure. Good news is that the audio version is doing a good job of making the "cut out information parts" flow with the reading of the story. Only at Chapter 7 so far, but I can see how young Moth and I are going to be come quite close. I am already cringing at all she has had to endure!

I did notice that Nancy has not created a thread this year. She is probably busy and finds it easier to visit threads than maintain her own thread in the 75er group.... something I do understand.

>13 dudes22: - I have had a lot of luck with choosing Bingo reads so far that fit the various CATS/KITS and my alphabet challenge! Might get a little challenging as I get close to the finish... I am trying to read predominantly off my TBR piles this year but will have to resort to other sources to complete the Bingo card. ;-)

>14 rabbitprincess: - Thanks RP! I totally took your "Good Luck" wishes to heart... One Hundred Years of Solitude is quite the epic saga, and rather confusing! I can see how one might not remember much years after reading that one, it really is a lot of family, history and society 'baggage' just thrown at the reader in a bit of a haphazard mess. Review to follow, not that that is going to make things any clearer. ;-)

>15 ChelleBearss: - Hi Chelle! It was wonderful weekend. I did not make my usual trip home to Calgary as my work colleague I spell off with had booked last week off, which meant I could not make any travel before Good Friday, and I just thought, "No, not this year." Good news is I have managed to recharge my batteries from the insanely busy work life I have been leading for the past 6 weeks, so a very good weekend!

Easter Monday. For me, it is still a vacation day and even better, I have tomorrow off as well. With not holiday travel or endless hours visiting with family this has been one of the most relaxing Easter weekends I have had in the past 5 years. Don't get me wrong, I love my family to bits and cherish the time I get to spend with them when I travel home, but it can still be demanding for this introvert when all I want to do is have quiet "me time". I got that in spades this weekend, to the point where I even managed to put in a marathon beading session! Below is a pic of my beading accomplishments while I finished listening to One Hundred Years of Solitude:



Yes, I did manage to finish One Hundred Years of Solitude and have a very nondescript review, which, if anything, will communicate my overall impressions of this on.

Also, a walking update is ready for posting. As for the gardening update, I transplanted the tiny seedlings into larger pots today and plants always look forlorn when transplanted so I hope to be able to post pics tomorrow with the plants not looking quite so limp! ;-)

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

WEEK 142 UPDATE:
Kilometers walked this session: 39.16
Kilometers walked in total: 6,032.26
Current province: (NB)
My current location on the map: Due east of Moncton and about to make a slight detour to Prince Edward Island.
Points of interest along the way: Crazy busy so no time to do any interesting location research. Next post will have more to entice visitors. ;-)

Book #22 - One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - audiobook narrated by John Lee
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, ROOT
CAT/KIT: N/A
Bingo DOG: "Number in the Title" - One Hundred
Category: "G" Author - Gabriel
Source: TBR
Format: Trade Paperback / Audiobook
Original publication date: 1967
Acquisition date: February 22, 2009
Page count: 336 pages / 14 hours, 7 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.10 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from multiple sources:

"A Band of adventurers establish a town in the heart of the South American jungle. The occasion marks the beginning: of the world, of a great family, of a century of extraordinary events that tell the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendia family."

Review:
As far as family sagas go, this is one convoluted mess! I finally had to give up trying to keep the characters straight or making any sense of the dense sentence structure and just listened. In the end, I had to resort to reading the 2011 group read thread here on LT and an online reader's guide to make sense of the deeper meaning behind the title. One reviewer explains this theme best:

"The Buendías are a group of solitary individuals living together as strangers in the same house. As such, they personify the predicament of the human race. The story of the Buendías also reveals the limited nature of the individual's control of his own destiny... For many of the characters indeed, life becomes synonymous with suffering, and a recurring motif is withdrawn from the world in a symbolic retreat to the refuge of the womb. Peace of mind is ultimately achieved only when the characters opt out of active emotional involvement in life, and accept the fate they have been given."

I probably would have been able to get more out of this one if I had read the story instead of listening to the audiobook, but my copy has such tiny, cramped text (published in 1978 by Picador), that reading it in the traditional way was going to be quite the chore. Some reviewers have commented on how this one reminds them of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, a book I admit I have not read.

Overall, I continue to be impressed by Garbriel Garcia Marquez's storytelling and the themes he brings forward but I think this time, the sheer epic nature of this story and the seemingly endless cast of characters, just left me feeling limp, drained and still confused at the end.

Beautiful bead work! Glad you got some relaxing down time!

Happy new thread, Lori! The beads look pretty.

Nice beading. I bought my SIL some "focus" beads while we were visiting in AZ in Jan. I'll save them to give her for her b'day. Rather than try to figure out how many she'd need for a necklace, I buy either one or a few that I figure she can build a necklace(s) around.

Happy new thread, Lori! Sounds like you had a fantastically lovely long weekend. Yay for introvert time!

>19 lkernagh:
That's a shame, it's one of my favorites. Although I read it a hundred (ha!) years ago, so I should give it a reread soon. :)

>20 ChelleBearss: - Thanks Chelle! I have missed my beading time... it is so relaxing, and I get to have something to show for the time spent, which is a double bonus! ;-)

>21 MissWatson: - Thanks Birgit!

>22 dudes22: - Your SIL must love the beads you bring her! I think half the fun of beading is coming up with design - what beads (colours, shapes, etc) go together to create something. Always fun when you have larger "focus" beads to start from. My other half has watched me take apart a half finished necklace because I suddenly don't like the "look" once I see what it looks like.

>23 MickyFine: - Thanks Micky! Yes, Yay for introvert time! ;-)

>24 -Eva-: - If it helps any, I think I would have fared better reading One Hundred Years of Solitude. Listening to the story, it started to get garbled. One LT poster raised a good point: She struggled with the book as well and feels that she missed a whole load of allusions and symbolism because she didn't know Colombia's history. I think that was my problem as well.

My first read for 2018 that does not fit any of my available categories, or fit any of the KITs/CATS or Bingo. Looks like I forgot to create a "Miscellaneous" category for books like this one. Oh well, maybe I will add one to the next thread I create.

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Book #23 - Stanley & Hazel by Jo Schaffer
Challenge(s): N/A
CAT/KIT: N/A
Bingo DOG: N/A
Category: N/A
Source: LTER
Format: eBook
Original publication date: 2018
Acquisition date: March 8, 2018
Page count: 280 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.35 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.com book listing webpage:

"A great depression grips the city of St. Louis in 1934. Stanley, an orphaned newsie, lives in a poor part of town hit especially hard by the economic downturn. One night, Stanley runs into Hazel, a restless debutante-in-waiting who has begun to question her posh lifestyle in the midst of the suffering she sees. She’s out and about without an escort and against her father’s wishes. When they discover the body of a girl with her head bashed in by a baseball bat, the very different and separate realities of the two teens inform their decision. Together they will figure out what happened to her and bring those responsible to justice. But getting involved with each other and digging into the secrets behind this murder earns them some powerful enemies, including a secret group seeking to rid society of all they deem undesirable. They’ve put into motion “The Winnowing,” a plan seeking to take over the city and enforce their will. As Stanley and Hazel’s forbidden feelings for one another grow, their investigation turns deadly. Now, it is up to Stanley and his gang of street kids to stop Hazel from becoming the next victim."

Review:
Schaffer has taken an interesting premise and has given, what could be considered a Depression-era clean-cut mystery along the lines of the classic Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy mysteries of my youth, with a slightly more sinister and evil edge to it. Yes, the characters do fit certain cliché stereotypes - sweet Protestant girl from a wealthy family strikes up an unlikely relationship with an Irish Catholic boy from the poorer section of town and together they try to solve a grisly murder, only to find themselves investigating something much bigger than either one expected - but sometimes dipping into familiar territory with a slight twist can make for an enjoyable read. The author's love for classic films is evident here with a dialogue peppered with terms like "doll face" and Hazel's mom's carefree flapper girl background contrasting rather nicely with her father's more straight-laced money-mogul business personality. Intriguingly, the ending is a bit of a non-ending, with a number of loose ends deliberately left undone - hinting to a possible second book? For me, it was Stanley's Knights - the loose gang of boys from the streets who help out with errands of the Robin Hood variety - were the highlights of this story for me, more so than the lead characters, Stanley and Hazel.

Geared towards the YA market, some readers may find the book a bit "same old, same old" but if you are like me and sometimes like to just relax with an easy-reading period piece mystery, this may appeal to you.

Happy new thread, Lori! Your jewelry is beautiful! Hurrah for me time!

>25 lkernagh:
Good point - reading on paper probably helps. I'm also a fan of magic realism, so that helps as well. In addition, my youngest niece and nephew are adopted from Colombia, so I know more than I ordinarily would about that country.

>27 Carmenere: - Thanks Lynda! This year is already getting away from me, but happy to be able to have some downtime for hobbies. I need to figure out how to put aside more time for hobbies and crafts... I find them so relaxing and fabulous for "me time". ;-)

>28 -Eva-: - The good news is I will probably attempt to read One Hundred Years of Solitude again at some point, but I will be sure to download an e-book that will enable me to set the font, sentence and paragraph spacing to make the reading easier going. ;-)

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Already mid-week and I have a daunting presentation looming before me for this Friday. Daunting only because I don't do well in presentation mode. Presenting is not made easy by my naturally introverted personality. Luckily, I get to co-present - and will have a supporter in the audience to back up most of my presentation (fingers crossed - he has promised not to be "too disruptive") - but I am really hoping that the audience will be a small one. I seem to do better - in fact, I have no problem - presenting in an online environment when all the audience sees is my slides and hears my voice. I could talk to thousands of people that way with no nervousness or anxiety, but the downside to that easy method is that I cannot see when the audience's eyes start to glaze over and I need to shift gears to recapture their attention. I hate having to trade off comfort for ensuring audience uptake of the message. Good thing presentations like this are only a small part of my job description. I will be back to my usual happy, chipper self after the presentation is over. In the meantime, I am trying not to chew my nails.

On that note.... how about I distract my visitors with an updated "Currently Reading" post?

Currently Reading:
..

Audiobook:
The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay; read by Stina Nielsen - A ROOT read, and an RTT read. Flipped from print to audio since I have both, to free up a print read
ebook:
The Bathwater Conspiracy by Janet Kellough - a LTER read
Physical books:
Lamb: The Gospel, According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore - a ROOT read, April ColorCAT (Yellow cover) read and fits the Bingo square "Humorous Book"

Hope the presentation went well!

>31 rabbitprincess: - The presentation was a success, thanks for asking RP! I started to getting the usual nervous tensions mid morning, especially when my "anchor" sent me an email that he wouldn't be able to be there. I know I shouldn't have worried, as it turns out I did know a handful of people in the audience and they helped keep the dialogue going, especially in the Q & A session. My only other moment of panic was just before we started when the organizer asked if it was okay to video the presentation as someone who couldn't attend had asked if a video would be made available. Advise for organizers is do not put your presenter on the spot like that within minutes of starting the session! Suffice to say, I said no. I would allow my presentation slides to be shared, but not a video recording of the session. They understood so not awkward, tension to deal with from that angle.

As a bonus, I now had some new slides that I can use for future presentations, should a similar topic crop up. ;-)

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I hope everyone had a good weekend. I tend to struggle with short 2-day weekends when they follow a wonderfully long 5-day long weekend. That, and I think I came down with a minor bout of food poisoning, which made Sunday a "stay in bed" kind of day. Feeling better and I have some updates for posting.

Book #24 - The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay - audiobook read by Stina Nielsen
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, RTT, ROOT
CAT/KIT: N/A
Bingo DOG: N/A
Category: “V” Book Title - Virgin
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback / audiobook
Original publication date: 2011
Acquisition date: May 10, 2014
Page count: 368 pages / 10 hours, 15 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.90 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from the book inside fly cover:

"I am Moth, a girl from the lowest part of Chrystie Street, born to a slum-house mystic and the man who broke her heart."

So begins a story set in the tenements of lower Manhattan in the year 1871. Betrayals and abandonment lead young Moth to the Bowery, a world filled with house-thieves, pickpockets, beggars, sideshow freaks, and prostitutes. Eventually she meets Miss Everett, the owner of a type of establishment simply known as an "infant school" that caters to gentlemen who pay dearly for companions, the most desireable of which are young virgins like Moth. As Moth finds her way through this wild and murky thorough-fare, her new friends are falling prey to the myth of the "virgin cure" - that deflowering a young girl can heal the incurable and tainted. Moth knows that the law will not protect her and polite society ignores her, but still she dreams of answering to no one but herself, regardless of the cost."

Review:
McKay continues to make use of a writing style – a story interspersed with letters, newspaper clippings and journal entries – that worked in The Birth House, McKay’s debut novel. She mixes things up a bit this time with a change in venue. Instead of an isolated community, McKay transports the reader to the mean streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side around the Bowery circa 1871. Basically, the 1870s was one very grim time period to live in with its hopeless state of female employment, so not surprising that the risky prostitution trade like Miss Everett’s “Infant School” - a brothel that certifies its girls are virgo intacto to gentlemen with deep pockets of cash - actually looks like a better situation to Moth than most other options available to her (like the workhouses or going to live in a charity boarding house).

The curious sidebars, illustrations, old apothecary ads, excerpts from newspapers and Dr. Sadie Frost’s observations (which are based upon the author’s own great-great-great grandmother’s experiences as one of the first female physicians) go a long way to make this a fascinating historical fiction read for this reader. I should point out that McKay’s stories are more about immersion into a time period, focusing attention on certain themes/issues than any type of plot-driven story. That being said, Moth flits between naïve innocence one would expect from a child of 12-years and “wisdom beyond her years” slum life has given her making her at times a rather conflicted character. Also, as good as McKay is at giving me a fascinating page-turning read, her endings tend to come across as a little too abrupt.

Overall, an interesting read set in post Civil War New York City with 19th century themes such as poverty, prostitution, gender roles, and sexuality.

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

WEEK 143 UPDATE:
Kilometers walked this session: 40.37
Kilometers walked in total: 6,072.63
Current province: (NB)
My current location on the map: Northeast of Point de Bute and have now made my slight detour to take me to Prince Edward Island.
Points of interest along the way: As promised, something interesting (hopefully!) for my visitors. The Bay of Fundy - also referred to by the Bay of Fundy Tourism as "The Phenomenal Bay of Fundy" - is considered to be one of the 7 wonders of North America, with the highest tides on earth, the rarest whales in the world as well as semi-precious mineral deposits and dinosaur fossils. Pretty much something for every traveler!


Hopewell Rocks, Bay of Fundy - Peter C in Toronto Canada - as posted on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)


Sea Caves at Bay of Fundy - llirikfilm - As posted on wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

If you geek out on science facts like I do, you might enjoy these two short YouTube videos: The first one is about the bay's unique nature; the second video explains the amazing tidal power of the bay and the challenges faced to harness that power:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l85Dk9LpIEs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6cDtXTMs9Y

Another interesting phenomenon due to the tidal activity of the Bay of Fundy is Reversing Falls. The St. John River empties into the Bay of Fundy. At low tide the river empties into the bay causing a series of rapids and whirlpools. As tides rise they slow the river current for a brief period called slack tide. As the bay's tides continue to rise, it gradually reverses the flow of the river, generating rapids going "up river".

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On the home front (where my actual walking takes place), I am hoping the rainy weather will not hamper my walking too much as I really want to reach Confederation Bridge and start my walk onto P.E.I.

>32 lkernagh: Glad to hear the presentation went well and that you dodged the video-recording bullet! I mean it's one thing to know going in that you're going to be on camera, but a last-minute request like that is super awkward! Hurray for being firm on not wanting to be videotaped :)

Happy new thread, Lori!
I'm glad your presentation went well. I know, I also have that stage fright just when people are looking at me, so bad that the last time I had to stand up and give a presentation, I swore that I would never do it again. Yet I was a radio d.j. for many years and had no problem with speaking to, potentially, thousands.

I can see why you made a detour to the Bay of Fundy. Those pictures are most impressive.

>35 rabbitprincess: and >36 mstrust: - Thanks RP and Jennifer! Always awkward when the organizer pulls such a last minute request - and it didn't help much that my co-presenter thought the video request was "not a problem". sighs

>36 mstrust: - I would be so much more comfortable with radio as the medium... until I get some awkward questions on the air... that would fluster me because I would suddenly realize that this is just not a conversation between myself and the caller. So cool that radio d.j. is part of your work history!

>37 Helenliz: - I so want to go see the Hopewell Rocks in person! Some day I will. Glad you enjoyed the pictures.

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It has been a rather roller-coaster week so not surprisingly, my most recent audiobook "read" was perfect to distract me with some humour. ;-) I thought about posting a gardening update but I have plans to do some more planting, etc on Saturday so I will plan to post an update on the weekend.

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Book #25 - The Unpleasantness at Baskerville Hall by Chris Dolley - audiobook read by Paul J. Rose
Challenge(s): 2018 Category
CAT/KIT: ColourCAT - Yellow; RandomCAT (April Loves Books!); AlphaKIT - "U"
Bingo DOG: "Humorous Book"
Category: “U” Book Title - Unpleasantness
Source: LTER
Format: Audiobook
Original publication date: February 9, 2016
Acquisition date: April 5, 2018
Page count: 250 pages / 7 hours, 2 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.85 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca book listing webpage:

"An escaped cannibal, a family curse ... and Reginald Worcester turning up on the doorstep. Could things get any worse for the Baskerville-Smythe family? As the bodies pile up, only a detective with a rare brain – and Reggie’s is so rare it’s positively endangered – can even hope to solve the case. But... there is the small matter that most of the guests aren’t who they say they are, the main suspect has cloven feet, and a strange mist hangs over great Grimdark Mire. Luckily the young master has Reeves, his automaton valet, and Emmeline, his suffragette fiancée, on hand to assist."

Review:
This book is clearly a P.G. Wodehouse pastiche with some added steampunk elements and a sprinkling of Sherlock Holmes-related references (the title being one of the obvious references). Being a fond Jeeves and Wooster fan, I had a lot of fun listening to the audiobook version of this story. Dolley has really nailed the Wodehouse style, character personalities and dialogue! I love how Worcester’s consulting detective methods are ideas he comes across while reading detective novels where a pastry chef plays amateur detective, stuff like that. As can be expected, his ‘method’ for exposing a barely visible fingerprint is good for an eye-roll. While this story is fabulous as a Wodehouse pastiche, I have to say that the steampunk elements came across rather flat. It is as if they were added on just to make the story stand out as “different”. I am pretty sure the story could have just as easily been written without the steampunk aspects, so from that perspective I don’t see this one having appeal for some fans of the steampunk genre.

Overall, a decent enough mystery for mystery fans to enjoy and a story I can heartily recommend to the P.G. Wodehouse fans who appreciate the farcical, tongue-in-cheek irony that P.G. Wodehouse perfected. If you enjoy mashups, this may also appeal to you as Dolley seems to have had a lot of fun scattering Easter egg references to everything from The Importance of Being Earnest to proto-cinematic films where book classics are being filmed with Lizard-men set in quarries. Pure utter silliness and page turning – well, in my case, head-nod listening – fun.

>39 lkernagh: I'm glad you enjoyed this one. It's on my short-term reading list, as I'd also received it from ER. I'm happy to see your positive review, as ER books can be hit or miss, but it is a great way to discover new authors.

Good review! I've read a few in this series but I didn't know there was a new one out. And on audio too!

>39 lkernagh: I read a very short ER by that author a year or two ago, and it had the first chapter of (I think) the first book in that series included. I had thought then it looked like a bit of fun fluff - nothing earth-shattering, but it seemed to be well written (and was actually better than the book I was meant to be reviewing!). Another one for when Mt TBR is a bit lower and more under control (hahahaha).

You are making great progress with your walking. Nate and I loved visiting Hopewell Rocks many years ago!

>33 lkernagh: Glad to see another good review for Ami McKay's writing. I have The Witches of New York out from the library

All caught up with you, Lori! Your beadwork is so pretty. And hooray for the presentation going well.

I liked your thoughts on One Hundred Years of Solitude - I bailed on that one a few years ago. Made it about halfway, and that was enough for me. I did make it all the way through his Love in the Time of Cholera, though.

>34 lkernagh: So beautiful! You are making excellent progress on your walk.

Hoping that your weekend is full of fabulous!

>39 lkernagh: That does look right up my alley! I think I have one Chris Dolley ebook called What Ho, Automaton -- I should really read it one of these days!

>39 lkernagh:
I was thinking about requesting that one, but decided that my Mt. TBR is too high. Slightly regretting that decision now... :)

>40 mathgirl40: - Paulina, it was a goodie, and yes, LTER reads can be rather "hit or miss". If you love Jeeves and Wooster, then there is a lot to love in Dolley's story. ;-)

>41 cmbohn: - Thanks! I did panic a bit when I discovered that Dolley had other books out but luckily, this is the first full length novel for this "series". Sounds like you will be able to glean some insights from your read of the earlier books in the series as Worchester's fiance and their courtship was not fully explained in the novel. Otherwise, someone can come to the series first hand through this novel. ;-)

>42 Jackie_K: - I do believe you are right, I think there was some brief mention of the earlier books. Fun fluff is a good way to describe this one!

>43 ChelleBearss: - Thanks, Chelle! I would so love to visit Hopewell Rocks in person! I am kind of itching at the bit to download the most recent Ami McKay novel but I did make a promise to my other half that I would make active work through my burgeoning TBR piles of printed books - we are working in stages to downsize our footprint - so the focus of reading for the next three years will need to be print books that I already own. I have no limit on the e-books I purchase but I am trying to be good about this and not cram every book I can onto my e-reader. ;-)

>44 Crazymamie: - Mamie! So lovely to see you taking the time to stop by and get caught up! I so need to find time to make visits to 75er group threads like yours but time just seems to get past me. Hope all is well on the home front.

>45 christina_reads: - Pure farcical fun... something one would hope would appear to the masses, but the cutting British wordplay isn't appealing to all readers so happy to see you would fit right in and enjoy the fun!

>46 -Eva-: - Hi Eva! Always difficult when requesting books through LTER. One never knows if: 1) the book will arrive; and 2) if it is as appealing as advertised. I have been fortunate in that I have only had a handful of duds in my LTER experience, but I also have handful of wins that never showed up, so I guess it is what it is and I will not look a gift-horse in the mouth. ;-)

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Happy MONDAY all! I know,... some people cringe at the thought of another week / work week. Whatever pays the bills, I say. This past weekend was fabulous. Other half was off sailing all weekend so I had the place to myself. Got in a lot of good reading time as well as some good gardening and walking time. Updates for all to follow.

Garden - Week 5 Update:

Last check in was... well... last thread (back on March 25th) so we are doing a bit of a jump from Week 2 to Week 5. So, how successful was my first batch of seedlings? Kind of "hit and miss". The good news is that the Mustard greens and both the Red Rubin and Sweet Genovese Basil are doing rather well. The Dill and Spinach are doing okay but struggling a bit. Everything else planted back in March has bombed:



No biggie... life is but an experiment, so Round Two of planting happened this weekend. Planted the following seeds and will report back on how this second batch works out:

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Yes, I am trying for a harvest-able supply of leafy greens this year. Fingers crossed they take. I have also decided that I will only have herbs that I can grow from seed so taking another crack at Dill and some other herbs. I figure April is early so I still have room to attempt another batch if this second batch fails.

The weather has been on the cold side for the past couple of days so will be keeping the "starter" plants indoor for another week in hopes of warmer weather before they get bunted out to the balcony.

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

WEEK 144 UPDATE:
Kilometers walked this session: 54.44
Kilometers walked in total: 6,127.07
Current province: (NB/PEI)
My current location on the map: 2/3rd the way across Confederation Bridge connecting New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, heading for Borden-Carleton and then Charlottetown.
Points of interest along the way:



Kind of hard to find any "wow" pictures of the Confederation Bridge that I could share here - partly because it is a bit difficult to have an interesting picture of a bridge that spans 12.9 kilometres (8 miles) - so lets rely interesting facts instead: Confederation Bridge is considered the longest bridge in the world crossing ice-covered water (the Abegweit Passage of the Northumberland Strait). The idea of a "fixed link" to connect PEO to the mainland can be traced as far back as the 1870s but did not come to fruition until the opening of the Confederation Bridge on May 31, 1997. Not surprisingly, the bridge does not allow for pedestrian / cyclist traffic. Currently, tools only apply when leaving PEI - kind of like the ferry system we have in BC connecting some of the smaller islands - with the added bonus that the toll seems to just apply to the vehicle (no additional charges per passenger).

Book #26 - A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - audiobook narrated by Atossa Leoni
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, ROOT
CAT/KIT: RandomCAT (April Loves Books!)
Bingo DOG: "Something in the Sky in the Title" - Suns
Category: “T” Book Title - Thousand
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback / Audiobook
Original publication date: 2007
Acquisition date: April 30, 2016
Page count: 432 pages / 11 hours, 45 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.50 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.com book listing webpage:

"Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry Rasheed. Nearly two decades later, a friendship grows between Mariam and a local teenager, Laila, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter. When the Taliban take over, life becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear. Yet love can move a person to act in unexpected ways, and lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism."

Review:
What an amazing novel and so difficult to pin down my thoughts in a short review. Words such as "liked" "enjoyed" are not fitting words to describe this reading experience. "Spellbinding" and "eye-opening" would seem more appropriate. Set against the backdrop of 30 years of turbulent Afghanistan history (from the early 1970's to the early 2000's), Hosseini vividly portrays those years of unrest, war, oppression and terror through the voices of Mariam and Laila. Every single character experience death and loss of so me kind. One would think that this would make for a very depressing read, and yet, Hosseini manages to intermingle all that is terrible and ugly with a shimmer of love and a ray beam of light.

For me, this book is as important for its history lesson as it is in providing a vivid portrayal of Afghan life and terrible oppression of women in Afghan culture. The pain and suffering portrayed is palpable... I lost count of the number of times I found myself flinching along side the characters, and crying with them. Hosseini is truly a gifted storyteller, grabbing the reader's attention with clear, unfussy language. He dazzles the reader with his story, not the words used to convey the story. Through this straightforward presentation, Hossieni provides readers with a fascinating glimpse of daily life in Afghanistan of the time period. Another well written, thought provoking read for me.

Book #27 - Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, ROOT
CAT/KIT: ColourCAT (Yellow)
Bingo DOG: N/A
Category: “C” Book Title - Childhood
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback
Original publication date: 2002
Acquisition date: July 11, 2014
Page count: 444 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.10 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from the author's book listing webpage:

"The birth of Jesus has been well chronicled, as have his glorious teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his thirtieth birthday. But no one knows about the early life of the Son of God, the missing years — except Biff, the Messiahs best bud, who has been resurrected to tell the story.

Verily, the story Biff has to tell is a miraculous one, filled with remarkable journeys, magic, healings, kung fu, corpse reanimations, demons, and hot babes. Even the considerable wiles and devotion of the Saviors pal may not be enough to divert Joshua from his tragic destiny. But there's no one who loves Josh more — except maybe “Maggie,” Mary of Magdala — and Biff isn't about to let his extraordinary pal suffer and ascend without a fight."

Review:
I wasn't sure how I was going to take to this one. Moore tends to lean towards dark humour which can sometimes fall flat for me. What did work for me is the idea that Jesus embarked on 30-year journey of introspection and learning (the "Gap Years"). Makes sense to me, as does the idea that he would have been accompanied by his best friend on this destiny quest. When one doesn't have much to go on, seeking out the three wise men who came bearing gifts seems like a logical plan. Given that the focus of this story is to be humourous, it is not surprising that Joshua's BFF Biff is a street-smart, amoral and rather cynical individual (kind of the mirror opposite to Joshua), but like any good BFF, he is there for Joshua, through thick and thin. The quest was best part of the book for me. Loved the years spent in the Buddhist monastery, Balthasar's fortress and the sea caves! I got some good chuckles over some of the banter and sharp one-liners, but Biff's "frat boy" attitude started to wear a little thin with me. The second story line - set in modern day with Biff and the angel Raziel holed up in a hotel room in St. Louis (why St. Louis?!?) where Biff writes this "missing" gospel - is just... odd. Doesn't quite work for me, even though I can see how a "visitor" could become addicted to pizza and binge watch soap operas.

Overall, I love the concept for the story but I was glad to reach the end of this one. Not an easy book to recommend as the story will probably offend some readers. One definitely need to be a fan of dark humour to enjoy this one and should be prepared to read it with a rather open mind. My reading tastes tend to lean more towards Moore's other books, like The Stupidest Angel.

Book #28 - The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde - live recording of a L.A. Theatreworks full cast production
Challenge(s): 2018 Category
CAT/KIT: ColourCAT (Yellow)
Bingo DOG: "Poetry or Plays"
Category: “O” Author - Oscar
Source: HOOPLA
Format: Audiobook
Original publication date: First performed February 14, 1895
Acquisition date: N/A
Page count: 64 pages / 1 hours, 58 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 5.00 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca book listing webpage:

"Here is Oscar Wilde's most brilliant tour de force, a witty and buoyant comedy of manners that has delighted millions in countless productions since its first performance in London's St. James' Theatre on February 14, 1895. The Importance of Being Earnest is celebrated not only for the lighthearted ingenuity of its plot, but for its inspired dialogue, rich with scintillating epigrams still savored by all who enjoy artful conversation."

Review:
After encountering references to this play in a book I recently read, I decided it was high time I "took in the play", which was rather easy to do with access to the audiorecording of a L.A. Theatreworks production. Now I understand why this play is considered by some to be the apogee of Wilde's work and such a wonderful precursor to the English farcical comic novel style perfected by P.G. Wodehouse. An entertaining Victorian story of courtship and manners, assumed names, mistaken lovers and the epitome of the "dragon" aunt. A whimsical mayhem romp!

>48 lkernagh: Seeds look happy for this early in the year! I wish you good luck with your green leafy vegetables. Have you ever grown coriander before? I tried it in a pretty warm climate and I was disappointed that I didn't get any cilantro -- only coriander seeds. I expect this is definitely the time to get that started so it has a long while to grow while the weather is still cool!

>50 lkernagh: A Thousand Splendid Suns sounds amazing -- thumbed review.

>51 lkernagh: Lamb also didn't speak very strongly to me, mostly because I didn't find Biff entertaining -- not my kind of person and also just a wee bit too sacrilegious or edgy for the sake of being edgy for me.

>48 lkernagh: Excellent garden progress! We planted our veg seeds this weekend just gone - lots of leafy veg (spinach, chard etc), plus squash (we're not holding out a lot of hope for that as the seeds are quite old, but you never know), runner beans, and salad leaves. The weather is meant to pick up mid-week, so hopefully they will have a good chance.

>48 lkernagh: The plants are looking good! I thought about putting in a raised bed garden this year, but I'll be out of town several weeks so I decided to hold off another year. I'll get by with the farmers' market.

>50 lkernagh: I found I liked this book a lot more than The Kite Runner not only because of the woman's perspective. When girls come in requesting TKR (it was on the ALA list of books recommended for college bound students which some teachers use for their reading list) I try to sell this one instead. Darn stupid lists and rigid teachers. I wish they would let me design a list for them with books we actually have and I've actually read (they haven't read ANY of the books)!

>52 lkernagh: - Oh, I adore that play! I think it's time to reread it, something I like to do every couple of years.

Congratulations on reaching Confederation Bridge! What a wonderful photo, with the bridge floating off into the horizon.

I have finally been inspired by your gardening to get on with mine. I've cheated slightly, and bought single plants (rather than buying a packet of seeds just for 1 tomato plant). 4 different tomatoes, 2 cucumber, 1 sweet pepper for the greenhouse and french & runner beans for the garden. My biggest success is that the grape vine I planted as a cutting last year has survived the winter - and it's been quite hard this year.
I don;t have a lot of success with seeds, so I admire the from scratch approach.

>52 lkernagh: I'm going to have to track down that version. James Marsters in my ears doing Wilde is too delicious to resist.

Hi Lori, I missed your crafting and gardening on the 75s so have plunked down my star. I do have to be here when you finally get to the other side of Canada. Are you going to walk back and maybe take in the great province of Nova Scotia this time?

>53 pammab: - My luck with growing coriander/cilantro from seed has been rather "hit and miss". That is not deterring my from any continued attempts! I planted a pot of coriander seeds last weekend. Will keep them indoors for the next couple of weeks as the weather continues to warm up outside (we continue to dip to lows of 2'C overnight so I am still a little worried of potential freezing).

Hosseini has managed to impress me with both The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, but if I had to choose a favorite between the two, I would lean towards A Thousand Splendid Suns, and not just because it is the more recent of the two reads.

Glad to see I am not making any waves by not being enamoured with Biff or Lamb. I will stick with Moore's other books with vampires and what not. ;-)

>54 Jackie_K: - Thanks Jackie! I have to work with a container garden (and limited outdoor space) so I am soo jealous that your garden will include runner beans and squash! Sending good garden growing weather wishes your way.

>55 thornton37814: - Thanks Lori! Farmer's markets are wonderful, aren't they? Makes sense to not plant a garden this year if you have commitments that will keep you away.

>56 mamzel: - I agree with your preference for A Thousand Splendid Suns! I love that such a female focused story was written by a male author. As for lists, you have my support that you should be able to create a list that would be of assistance to your students (books you have and have been read by staff). Lists aren't helpful if students are not able to access the books on the list or want to discuss the book.

>57 LittleTaiko: - Glad to see another fan of The Importance of Being Earnest!

>58 VivienneR: - Thanks Vivienne! It kind of gives the impression of a bridge to a far off place. I feel that I am getting closer to completing my walking goal.

>59 Helenliz: - So happy to see my gardening spree has been inspiring others like you, Helen! Buying single plants isn't cheating... you still have to nurture and grow them. ;-) I am so impressed that you are tackling tomatoes, cucumbers and sweet pepper! I have learned from friends that tomatoes are tricky out here on the island... need just the right growing conditions or they don't take too well. One of these years I will try growing tomatoes, but not this year. ;-)

>60 MickyFine: - It was a treat to listen to Micky! I hope you are able to track down the L.A. Theatreworks production.

>61 Familyhistorian: - Hello Meg! So happy to see you stopping by and dropping a star! I find that I just do not seem to have to time - or energy - to keep up with multiple threads in multiple groups so I am a taking a breather this year.

When I finally reach "the other Mile 0", I think I will start a return trip via the United States. Still need to assess what route(s) I will take but that is the idea for now. As for Nova Scotia, I will be walking through part of that province. I made a detour to add P.E.I. to the cross Canada journey so plan to cross back into Nova Scotia at Pictou.

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The sun is shining, the birds are singing and all is well in the world (well, in the immediate world I inhabit anyways). So glad to see visitors chiming in with their own gardening activities! Happy to turn this into a gardening thread with the occasional book talk. ;-)

On the reading front, I made short work of a surprising LTER read. I know, I seem to have a fair number of these LTER book reviews. One more still to read and then I will be all caught up with my LTER reading.

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Book #29 - The Bathwater Conspiracy by Janet Kellough
Challenge(s): 2018 Category
CAT/KIT: N/A
Bingo DOG: N/A
Category: “B” Book Title - Bathwater
Source: LTER
Format: eBook
Original publication date: January 22, 2018
Acquisition date: March 11, 2018
Page count: 231 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.15 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from the amazon.ca book listing webpage:

"Detective Carson “Mac” MacHenry can’t figure out why the Darmes are so interested in this one dead girl or why the secretive federal police have rushed the autopsy or why, a few days later, the records of the dead girl's murder have been erased from all official government channels. Even stranger to the detective is the manner of death – injuries consistent with a violent beating and sexual assault. Crimes rarely seen in the current society. Crimes eradicated decades earlier. Set in a dystopian post-apocalyptic cityscape, Mac - a loner cop by nature - Sets out to search for clues to Alfreda Longwell's murder. Her off-the-books investigation leads Mac - and her newly assigned partner Nguyen - from the halls of Alfreda's university to the Decayed Area, a blasted wasteland at the city’s edge where technophobic religious fundamentalists struggle with scavengers and lunatics in a never-ending fight for survival. With the discovery of a secret government project gone horribly wrong, Mac must work to uncover the details of a plot which will rock the already fragile political landscape of the city to its core…"

Review:
I broke one of my cardinal rules when I started reading this one: I did not skim over the short descriptive "blurb" first. This lead me, after the first few chapters, to wonder why all of the characters were women. It was only as I read further that I became enlightened about the story’s dystopian, post-apocalyptic angle. “Ah-ha!” I say, as the lightbulb goes off. By then, I was already finding the police procedural angle pretty darn interesting. I tend to like stories where the detective is of the “lone wolf” variety – doesn’t like to be saddled with a partner, keeps their personal lives compartmentalized from their work life, tends to not always do things “by the book”, etc – which fits Mac to a T. I also tend to like stories that have deeper layers…. why read a straightforward crime novel when you can add an enticing government secrets aspect to it? The dystopian, post-apocalyptic angle helps make this one stand out further from the pack of typical police procedural novels already out there.

Kellough’s story is a wonderful genre-bending mystery/police procedural/ speculative fiction experience that straddles the different genres quite nicely. I like how Kellough keeps to a minimum the disorienting, invented language popular in some speculative fiction stories. This made it a lot easier for this reader to settle in and focus attention on the complex plot unfolding.

Overall, Kellough has come up with a solid genre-bending police procedural story. One doesn’t need to be a fan of both speculative fiction and detective novels to enjoy this one, but if you like both genres, then you are in for a real treat!

>62 lkernagh: Well, as long as you take in part of NS, Lori. If you are going back through the US, maybe you could follow the route I took to first get out to BC. We drove from Halifax to Montreal, (had to pick p some house keys) down through the states until we got to Florida. We stayed in Kissimmee for a while, took a road trip down to the keys, then went west through the southern states until we hit California, then up the west coast to Vancouver. There was lots of stuff to see along the way!

I know you mostly got in pots, but once we got cilantro growing our garden, it would come up every year and very prolifically. I guess the coriander seeds just reseeded. I never liked cilantro myself - I one of those people that think it tastes like soap. But I do use it in my corn salsa anyway.

>62 lkernagh: We've got it in OverDrive at my library so next time I want a radio play, I'll keep that one in mind.

There are small flower beds in front of the townhouse that The Fiancé and I will be renting starting at the end of May and I'm trying to decide if I want to put anything in it this year. :)

>51 lkernagh:
I think I have a copy of that in a bookshelf somewhere. He can be a little hit-and-miss for me as well, so we'll see how this one works out. Fingers Xed!

Hi Lori, I've enjoyed catching up here and, as always, I am very impressed with your walking! Congratulations on reaching Nova Scotia and, by now, P.E.I. I love reading about your garden, in fact, I think you have inspired me to try some greens in pots on our balcony this year as I love salads and having fresh grown greens would be most excellent!

I also found A Thousand Splendid Suns a very moving and educational read.

You are killing your Bingo challenge!! And next year I am tempted to try your simple alphabet author/Title challenge. I am doing the AlphaCAT challenge, but I don't like having the letter dictated by month -- less spontaneity.

>51 lkernagh: I liked Lamb a bit more than you did. Haven't read The Stupidest Angel yet though, so I have that one to look forward to! Maybe just in time for Christmas...

>64 Familyhistorian: - Thanks for the suggestion! Hugging the coastline through the US is a possibility to keep my walking going! I might think about it and see if I can come up with a category challenge to turn it into a reading/walking challenge.

>65 dudes22: - That is impressive, Betty! I find that coriander/cilantro seems to bolt rather quickly. I can never seem to keep the plant producing leaves after about three months. I might think about placing it - if the seeds I planted last week sprout - in a cooler, less sunny location during the summer months.

My use of cilantro is limited to Mexican cooking like salsa and a Fajita casserole I make from time to time, so I like to try and grew the cilantro so I don't have to buy a bunch and waste half of my purchase. ;-)

>66 MickyFine: - Fabulous! Ooooohhhhh.... mention of flower beds and my gardening fingers are already itching to turn the soil and get planting! I will be most curious to learn what you decide to plant after you move in.

>67 -Eva-: - Good luck!

>68 DeltaQueen50: - I am so hopeful that the garden works out this year, Judy, and happy to see you are also getting the gardening bug! I figure just because one does not have a yard does not mean one cannot grow food. ;-) If I slowly expand on the "food stuffs" I can grow, in a couple of years I should have us pretty self sufficient (at least in the warmer weather months) for herbs and salad greens. I have heard that tomatoes can be really challenging, so I am not attempting any tomatoes this year. Maybe next year.

>69 Berly: - Hi Kim! What can I say, the Bingo card this year has worked really well with my reading plans. ;-) As for my author/ title challenge, I am starting to reach the point where I need to double check what letters I still need. I am starting to read books that I cannot slot into one of my empty letters.

The Stupidest Angel is perfect for Christmas reading!

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Happy Saturday everyone! It was raining last night so we ended off a rather busy work week with some "TV" time. Have started streaming a "new to me" miniseries Reilly, Ace of Spies. It is a dramatization of the life of Sidney Reilly, a Russian Jew who became one of the greatest spies ever to work for the British. Sam Neill stars as Reilly. Love Sam Neill! Always nice to stumble across his earlier works, like this miniseries.

Hi, Lori! It's been a couple of years, but I really liked "Reilly, Ace of Spies" too. Especially as one of my favorites, John Castle, was in it. I've been streaming the second season of "A Series of Unfortunate Events", forcing myself to spread them out so they last, but I'll finish this weekend.
Our temperatures went from 100F last week to the high 70's/low eighties just a few days later. It's like a rollercoaster.

>71 mstrust: - I thought I recognized John Castle as one of the actors! Yes, always best to try and space out viewings of shows you enjoy. Nothing worse than reaching the end and going, "Darn.... now what do I watch."

Good God... 100'F.... in April?!? That just boggles the mind, especially as we up north are lucky to hit highs of 11'C most days at this time of year. I recall that you do have air conditioning, but this must be quite the unexpected electricity drain! Fingers crossed the temps will fall back in line soon with your 'usual' temps for this time of year.

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I seem to be having one of those technology challenging Saturdays. My desk top system has been having some issues with the video card lately - doesn't like all the ads that the web seems to think I really need to see - so my system has crashed a couple of times today. A new video card is in transit but in the meantime I can make do. Unfortunately, my tablet has also decided that today is a good day to act up. We tend to watch our TV streaming on the tablet as it is nice and convenient for late night viewing in bed. Well, today, the sound is not working, and the system is having all sorts of fussy issues. Go figure, everything technology-wise always seems to go to hell in a hand basket when the other half is off sailing with his buddy. sighs

Anyways... seems like a good time to provide a walking update (before this computer acts up again).

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

WEEK 145 UPDATE:
Kilometers walked this session: 51.83
Kilometers walked in total: 6,178.90
Current province: (PEI)
My current location on the map: Northeast of Cornwall and about to cross the North River into Charlottetown.
Points of interest along the way:



This image brings to mind one of Canada's treasures - Lucy Maud Montgomery, the P.E.I. author of Anne of Green Gables. I have fond memories of both the books and the original Canadian TV mini-series starring Megan Follows (who will always be "Anne" in my mind).


Ane of Green Gables - norika21 - posted on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

While my virtual walking journey will not be heading over to the parts of the island where the Anne of Green Gables Museum and Green Gables Heritage Place, the 19th-century farm which is the setting for the Anne of Green Gables stories, are located, I thought should at least share a picture of the house here:


Anne of Green Gables home - lovinkat - posted to Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Historica Canada has published a short YouTube video, Heritage Minutes: Lucy Maud Montgomery, telling Montegomery's story, in a one minute video, and in her own words, as drawn from her journals.

I can't believe your cilantro lasts 3 months! I don't think mine lasted that long before it bolted. I do know that by the time we had local corn for my corn salsa, the cilantro was already going to seed.

Then I will definitely consider myself lucky! never seem to remember to get another batch started so that I can have a steady stream of the stuff. I will try to do better this year. ;-)

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I have had a relaxing Sunday. Finished two books (still need to write the reviews) and about to settle in for the night with a cup of tea and a new read. The weather has been warm enough this weekend that I moved my new young plants outdoors to the balcony. Brought them in Saturday night but the forecast for the next seven days shows overnight lows in the 4-6'C range so I think I can safely leave them outside overnight.

Was greeted this evening to a familiar sound one does not usually hear in mid-April: The sound of the ice cream truck as it drove down the street, playing its ever familiar tunes. April 22nd and the ice cream vendors are out. I think they pushing the season a bit... it was pleasant, but not that warm today.

I went plant shopping yesterday, but failed to get anything planted before it started raining. There's something so satisfying about that moment when everything is planted in pots around the deck and it can all just be enjoyed for a while.

For those of you with problems with too much or too little cilantro - try the stuff they sell in tubes found in the produce section. I get garlic, ginger, and lemongrass. They last forever in this form. I also get tomato paste in tubes since I rarely use a whole can.

>73 lkernagh: Megan Follows will ALWAYS be Anne to me, no matter which new adaptations come out. :)

>76 RidgewayGirl: - There's something so satisfying about that moment when everything is planted in pots around the deck and it can all just be enjoyed for a while.

I agree 100%! ;-)

Here is hoping your next plant shopping trip is a success!

>77 mamzel: - This may sound crazy, but I remember you mentioning those wonderful tubes - I think last year, or the year before - and I have searched high and low through our local grocery stores and have failed to located this product! Garlic and ginger I tend to use in abundance so have no problem using (or finding) the fresh stuff, but darn I do still want to locate the tubes to try them out, especially for the tomato paste as, like you, I have to plan strategize my weekly meal planning to ensure I make use of the whole tin of tomato paste before it spoils.

>78 MickyFine: - YAY, I kinda thought you would also be a "Megan Follows as Anne Shirley" fan!

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Fabulous weather today and even better, the forecast is for much of the same for the entire week. My gamble of leaving my newly sprouted plants outdoors over night is so far working out rather well. Downside is the birds in the neighborhood have taken a fancy for the parsley and the Greek oregano. I may have to resort to some kind of screening to protect the plants from the birds, dang blast it all! Of no surprise, the birds appear to have no interest in the Chives, the Rosemary, or the Sage. Go figure.

On the book front, I have managed to cobble together two reviews for the books I finished over the weekend so book reviews and a book reading update to follow.

Book #30 - Late Nights on /Air by Elizabeth Hay - audiobook narrated by Paul Hecht
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, ROOT
CAT/KIT: N/A
Bingo DOG: N/A
Category: “L” Book Title - Late
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback / Audiobook
Original publication date: 2007
Acquisition date: May 12, 2012
Page count: 376 pages / 10 hours, 45 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 5.00 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the author's book listing webpage:

"Harry Boyd, a world-weary, washed-up television broadcaster, has returned to a small radio station in the remote reaches of the Canadian North. There, in the golden summer of 1975, he falls in love with a voice on air, though the real Dido Paris is even more than he imagined. Dido and Harry are part of the cast of eccentric and fascinating characters, all transplants from elsewhere, who form an unlikely group at the station. Their loves and longings, their rivalries and entanglements, the stories of their pasts and what brought each of them to the North, are at the heart of the novel. Then one summer, four of them embark upon a long canoe trip into the Barrens, a mysterious landscape of lingering ice and almost continuous light. In that wild and dynamic arctic setting (following in the steps of the legendary Englishman John Hornby, who starved to death in the Barrens in 1927), they find the balance of love shifting, much as the balance of power in the North is being changed by a proposed gas pipeline that threatens to displace Native people from their land."

Review:
There is something inherently intimate about radio. I am not talking about “shock jock” or talk radio where the sole purpose of the program is to brooch a controversial topic and get callers lighting up the switchboard to voice their opinions. I am talking about the late night deejays… the Venus Flytraps of the world with their silky voices, their sympathetic ears. Hay draws on her early work history as a Northwest Territories-based radio broadcaster for the CBC to weave an eloquently powerful Canadian novel. Hay stated during an interview that the starting point of this book for her was that real voices have fictional faces, that we make up what we think should be associated with the voice we hear. Hay’s makes use of this ‘disconnect’ to present a 1970's circa northern world at a cross roads, with sub-themes of a television station coming to encroach on radio country and a proposed gas pipeline that may threaten the wildlife habitat and native communities of the region. Hay’s characters are a motley crew. A straggling collection of humanity that, for reasons conscious or unconscious, have individually migrated to this remote hinterland. For this group, the radio station representing an outpost: a rest stop from their former lives before before heading on to their future.

Essentially, this is a love story, or maybe a series of love triangles as the characters bob and weave through the motions of infatuation, seduction, smothering love and abandonment. In Hay’s deft, sympathetic hands, the reader experiences the poignancy of unrequited love and the unforgiving nature and striking beauty of the Yellowknife and the Barrens. Through her writing, one can feel Hay’s compassion for the human spirit – sadness, longing, tenderness – as well as a strong love and respect for the raw power and isolation of the far north.

A richly poignant and deeply satisfying read. A well-deserved winner of the 2007 Giller Prize, IMO, and one of my favorite reads so far this year.

Book #31 - 15 Minutes: A Time Travel Suspense Thriller by Jill Cooper
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, ROOT
CAT/KIT: SFFKIT (Time Travel)
Bingo DOG: N/A
Category: N/A
Source: TBR
Format: eBook
Original publication date: 2013
Acquisition date: May 18, 2016
Page count: 234 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.35 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca book listing webpage:

"The Future can be a dangerous place, when you've changed the past... 15 minutes is all the Rewind Agency gives a person when they travel to the past, but for Lara Crane it’s enough for her to race through the city, find her mother, and stop her from being killed in a mugging that happened over ten years ago. But the story she’s been told all her life is a lie. When Lara takes a bullet meant for her mother, her future changes forever. A new house, new friends and a new boyfriend turns Lara’s turned upside down. She thinks if she can save her father from prison, reunite him with her mother, everything will be fine. 15 Minutes is an edgy high octane YA thriller where the people Lara trusts change in an instant. She is in a timeline she doesn't understand, and is about to make one fatal mistake as she faces an enemy so familiar, he’s family."

Review:
An interesting time travel suspense story, geared towards the YA market. Cooper leverages the time travel concept as a mechanism to keep the plot shifts coming fast and furious. As a character lead, Lara is more or less your typical teen, struggling to make sense of what any reader of time travel stories can tell you to expect: The ripple effect that can occur when one changes an event in the past. Not surprisingly, things go to hell in a hand-basket pretty darn fast. As much as I like complicated/convoluted plots, near the end, the time shifts (and the blurring of one time line and the memories of another time line) where happening so frequently that I found myself having to re-read some paragraphs just to get things straight in my mind as to what Lara was experiencing in the time line she was in versus the memories playing out in her mind.

Overall, a faced-paced, somewhat confusing read with a conspiracy angle I wasn’t expecting, and which proved to be the best part of the story for me.

Currently Reading:
..

Audiobook:
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore; read by Fisher Stevens - A ROOT read, and a SFFKIT (Supernatural) read. This is the last Moore book still lurking on my TBR piles so decided to get it done and gone. So far, it is proving to bet better than Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, and Fisher Stevens is proving to be an appropriately cast reader for the audiobook!
ebook:
The Adventures of Dagobert Trostler by Balduin Groller - a LTER read that fits the Bingo square "Originally in a different language".
Physical books:
City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte - a ROOT read and currently the best contender I have for the Bingo square "Beautiful Cover", which I admit is a bit of a stretch. Worst case, it will fit the May ColourCAT with its predominantly blue cover. :-)

I have used the tubes of tomato paste and also anchovy, but have not seen cilantro. I'll have to look as I also dislike the time it takes to strip the stems and cut up the leaves.

>77 mamzel: I've never seen cilantro paste. I just get some fresh in the produce section when I need it. We have a large Hispanic population in the area, so it can always be found. Like Betty, I love the tubes of tomato paste. Now I'm going to have to look to see if our stores stock that, even if I am unlikely to use it.

I'm glad you loved Late Nights on Air. I love that book.

And I found this solution to keeping tomato paste fresh somewhere and it works really well -- to store a partial can of tomato paste, smooth it out in the can and wipe residue off the sides of the can. Then add a thin layer of olive oil over the paste -- the oil seals off the tomato paste from the air and preserves it and when you go to use the paste, just add the oil in with whatever you're making. It works for at least a few weeks. Just store it in the fridge until you want to use it.

Well now I'm going to see what tube concoctions I can find at the store. I've only used German mayo from a tube.

>86 mstrust: There's a Japanese mayo I haven't been able to find yet. I need to make a trip to one of our Oriental markets.



I went to the Gourmet Garden website and the herbs in tubes include basil, chili pepper, cilantro, dill, Italian herbs, garlic, chunky garlic, ginger, lemongrass, cilantro, parsley, and Thai.

Ha! That is just too cute!

>87 mamzel: - I'll have to keep that in mind.

>73 lkernagh:
That Google map is just too cool - it's even more impressive than the numbers!

>79 lkernagh:
Some netting above, perhaps. Or, find an old birdcage and put the plants in there - that'd be nice irony. :)

>83 dudes22: - I can totally see anchovy in a paste tube as being very useful as I rarely use it in my cooking. Good to know!

>84 thornton37814: - :-)

>85 RidgewayGirl: - Such a great book! Love your tomato paste solution! I must try it the next time I open a can. Thank you for sharing it here!

>86 mstrust: - German mayo... qu’est-ce que c’est ?

>87 mamzel: - Kewpie mayonnaise.... that is a new on for me. Cute packaging! Now I have to go investigate the Gourmet Garden website.

>90 -Eva-: - The map really does put the distance walked into perspective, doesn't it? I am no good at visualizing numbers, hence the map. ;-)

It may come down to some netting, we shall see. This past week the birds have been behaving themselves and have not been messing with the herbs but when the leafy salad greens start to come up, I think I want to have some kind of cover in place. LOL! I love the idea of an old birdcage to protect the plants! Good news is I have a 4 shelf wrought iron stand that will be easy to drape with netting.

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Weekend is here and my weekend plans are relaxed. Only thing on the agenda is to do some cooking to replenish the freezer meals we have worked through these past few weeks. Good news is the warm weather we have experienced is expected to cool down (highs of 13'C for the weekend after Thursday's unseasonable high of 24'C) so at least I won't be sweltering in the kitchen! I am hoping that we will get the rain that is forecast so I can make this a reading weekend.

I did finish the audiobook of A Dirty Job, so I have a review ready for posting.

Book #32 - A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore - audiobook narrated by Fisher Stevens
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, ROOT
CAT/KIT: ScaredyKIT - Supernatural
Bingo DOG: N/A
Category: “J” Book Title - Job
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback / Audiobook
Original publication date: 2006
Acquisition date: March 29, 2014
Page count: 405 pages / 11 hours, 49 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.45 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca book listing webpage:

"Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy with a normal life, married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. They're even about to have their first child. Yes, Charlie's doing okay—until people start dropping dead around him, and everywhere he goes a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Charlie Asher, it seems, has been recruited for a new position: as Death. It's a dirty job. But, hey! Somebody's gotta do it."

Review:
Death as a ghoulish comic theme is not something new. Being a huge fan of Jose Sarmango’s Death with Interruptions and Jonathan L. Howard’s Johannes Cabal series, I have had some good reading experiences where death and comedy have worked rather well together. Even though I was somewhat off-put by Moore’s take on the Gospel in Lamb, I was still curious to see how Moore would pull off tackling death. He did a better job than I expected, but more for the wonderful cast of zany characters that populate the story than for the actual story itself. Charlie is okay as characters go, although the “beta male” tag seems to get used an awful lot. The sewer residing "Morrigan" (a trio of Charlie-baiting harpies) are also a bit over the top, but I absolutely loved Sophie (Charlie’s little girl), the hellhounds and Charlie’s two immigrant neighbors, Mrs. Korjev and Mrs. Ling, who are fabulous comic relief as they take turns caring for young Sophie while Charlie engages in his “death duties” of gathering up souls of the recently departed before the Forces of Darkness get to them. The other main cast members - Jane (Charlie’s sister), Minty Fresh (one of the death merchants) and Detective Rivera (the cop who just always seems to show up at the most interesting times) – help propel the story along. If Moore had focused on the humor and stop angling for the occasional shock value, I probably would have given the story a higher rating. The raunchy parts of the story were a bit on the offensive side for me.

Overall, This is probably a good example of Moore being Moore and would most likely appeal to readers who are already fans of Moore’s irreverence-style storytelling.

>91 lkernagh: German mayo was mayo you bought in Germany. :-D I'm guessing they have as many choices there as we do here now, but back years ago when I was standing in a German grocery store, it was regular mayo in a tube.

>93 mstrust: - LOL, that makes sense!

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Happy Sunday, everyone! Well, the weather has taken a rather typical spring turn (meaning, cooler, wetter weather). Hoping to take advantage of the weather to try and finish two books I have on the go to round out my April reading. In the meantime, I do have a walking and gardening update for posting.

Garden - Week 7 Update:

My decision to move the newly sprouted seeds outdoors has met with some mixed results:

Dill is absolutely happy with the temperature fluctuations and watering levels:



Basil, not so much, particularly the Red Rubin Basil:



The Red Rubin Basil is just NOT happy, while the Sweet Genovese Basil is limping along. I have no idea if it is the cooler (near freezing) nights, and excess of water or both but just stunning to see how two herbs respond very differently to the same conditions. I love gardening because it isn't an exact science and something interesting always seems to happen.

The good news is that the leafy salad greens I planted two weeks ago seem to be doing alright (except for one which may just be a slower starter):

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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

WEEK 146 UPDATE:
Kilometers walked this session: 57.13
Kilometers walked in total: 6,236.03
Current province: (PEI)
My current location on the map: Right by the intersection of Highway 1 and Highway 208, north of Pinette and heading for Wood Islands and the ferry to take me over to Nova Scotia.
Points of interest along the way:
Charlottetown - and all of P.E.I - has a wonderful history. Charlottetown was the site of the 1864 conference, the first gathering of Canadian and Maritime statesmen to debate the proposed Maritime Union and the more persuasive British North American Union, now known as Canadian Confederation. Charlottetown's motto is "Cunabula Foederis" – "Birthplace of Confederation". Given its early settlement history - European settlers are reported to go back as far as the 1790's - it is no surprise that Charlottetown and area has some pretty spectacular historic sites, such as:


Beaconsfield House - Charles Hoffman - as posted to Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 2.0)


Interior of St. Dunstan's Basilica - ChurchCrawler - as posted to Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)


Stained Glass Window - St. Dunstan's Basilica - ErwinMeier - as posted to Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

>95 lkernagh: - It's the cooler temps. Basil just doesn't like cold weather.

>96 lkernagh: - Love those pics. My mother was born on PEI and I still have relatives on PEI and keep saying I want to go there, but haven't yet.

>95 lkernagh:
Well, you know I'm rooting for the dill, so that's great!! :)

>95 lkernagh: Dill always transports me straight back to eastern Europe (they use it in *everything*). My husband bought a cheap and cheerful veggie puff pastry thing from Lidl at the weekend, and the only thing I could taste in it was dill. I thought it was great - the rest of the family, less so.

My chives are coming back, yet again, right on cue. The lavender is looking quite sad though - I think the cold winter might have finished it off.

>99 Jackie_K:
It's in A LOT of Swedish food as well - I grew up on it and love it with a passion. :) Can't wait to go home for vacation and binge on dill-flavored potato chips! :)

>97 dudes22: - That is what I was afraid of. Oh well, plenty of time to plant another batch of basil.

I would love to spend a month on P.E.I. just taking in all the sights, preferably in the summer as they do still get some rather brutal winters. ;-)

>98 -Eva-: - ;-)

>99 Jackie_K: - I am with both you and Eva in that I love the taste of dill. My favorite store bought dressing is a creamy cucumber dill... love it as dip for raw veggies (when I am trying to have healthy snacks at my desk). I love that chives come back, year after year! My lavender didn't not do well. pouts

>100 -Eva-: - Oh, I wonder if you would like my current potato chip addiction:



They are sooooo good!

Book #33 - City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, ROOT
CAT/KIT: ScaredyKIT - Supernatural; SFFKIT - Time Travel
Bingo DOG: N/A
Category: N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback
Original publication date: November 2012
Acquisition date: June 17, 2014
Page count: 464 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 2.70 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from the amazon.ca book listing web page:

"Once a city of enormous wealth and culture, Prague was home to emperors, alchemists, astronomers, and, as it’s whispered, hell portals. When music student Sarah Weston lands a summer job at Prague Castle cataloging Beethoven’s manuscripts, she has no idea how dangerous her life is about to become. Prague is a threshold, Sarah is warned, and it is steeped in blood. Soon after Sarah arrives, strange things begin to happen. She learns that her mentor, who was working at the castle, may not have committed suicide after all. Could his cryptic notes be warnings? As Sarah parses his clues about Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved,” she manages to catch the attention of the handsome Prince Max, and a powerful U.S. senator with secrets she will do anything to hide."

Review:
Written under a pseudonym by Meg Howrey and Christina Lynch, I think "rom-com paranormal suspense" is probably an accurate description for this one. I loved the Prague setting and the musical theme focused around Beethoven. Instead of the usual time travel where the character travels through time (kind of like Alice falling down the rabbit hole), the authors decide instead to enable our lead character to experience different segments of history while staying localized - more like a drug-induced hallucination. There is an awful lot going on in this story and as impressed as I am that the two authors were able blend their writing styles to maintain the same voice throughout the novel, I got the feeling that they had to scramble a bit near the end to try and tie off all the various plot points. The addition of a smart-talking dwarf who seems to be a lot older than one would presume adds an interesting cache to this urban fantasy story, but inclusion of an arch villain in the form of a former CIA agent, now US Senator adds a weird political power/cold war espionage angle that makes this just seems rather at odds with the story. That, and I am trying to understand what message the female authors mean to convey by making the strong female lead engage in unnecessary casual sex.

Overall, a good premise for an adventure suspense story that is probably best suited to readers looking for a bit of light fluff urban fantasy reading and doesn't mind the occasional gratuitous sex scenes thrown in.

Ah ha so it is you we have to thank for the rain on the weekend. We were enjoying the warm weather and sun!

>103 Familyhistorian: - I will take the blame. Selfish of me, I know, to want cooler, rainy weather just so I don't have to swelter in the kitchen. ;-)

Good news... the sun is coming back!

One more book and I will call April a wrap. Bring on May!

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Book #34 - The Adventures of Dagobert Trostler by Balduin Groller - translated from German by the publisher
Challenge(s): 2018 Category
CAT/KIT: RandomCAT - April Loves Books!; MysteryCAT - Classic and Golden Age Mysteries
Bingo DOG: "Originally in a different language" - German
Category: N/A
Source: LTER
Format: eBook
Original publication date: 1889 to 1910; English translation - January 22, 2018
Acquisition date: April 10, 2018
Page count: 202 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.80 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from the publisher's book listing web page:

"Dagobert Trostler is the Sherlock Holmes of Vienna . . . with a twist. Like Holmes, he’s the most famous private investigator in Vienna. Unlike Holmes, he is more social, outgoing. While he loves a good mystery, he also loves good food, good company and a good time. He’s a bon-vivant and right at home in the brilliant social scene of Vienna in the heyday of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. These stories, written by Balduin Groller and published in Vienna between 1889 and 1910, are a glimpse into the sparkling, forgotten world of turn-of-the-century Vienna."

Review:
I am very much a fan of the older-styled mystery stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, etc. Ironically, I have not read many outside of the British Isles writers. Originally published as independent short stories between 1889 and 1910 and only recently translated into English, these stories - written by Hungarian-born Adalbert Goldscheider under the pseudonym of Balduin Groller - capture turn-of-the-century Vienna, with an Emperor and a society still attuned to patronage and where reputation is everything. Enter Dagobert Trostler, an independently wealthy "man about town" with two hobbies: music and amateur sleuthing. Not surprisingly, his reputation as an amateur detective appears to precede his musical prowess, and good thing too as he is called upon by wealthy men of industry and nobility to find a solution for the personal predicaments they find themselves embroiled in. While Dagobert is billed as being 'Vienna's Sherlock Holmes', I think he shares more affinity with Hercule Poirot. Dagobert does appear to enjoy accolades being laid before him by the wealthy and the nobility and loves to tell of his detection adventures from the comfortable location of his dear friends, the Grumbaches, smoking room while enjoying a quality cigar and an evening coffee. While the mysteries are not always a head scratcher to solve, what is fascinating is the moral and ethical decisions Dogobert makes to assign a form of punishment to the offender that provides the victim with protection from any possible social ruin by making the situation quietly disappear.

Overall, a very enjoyable read of stories that should join the ranks of the Golden Age mysteries more widely read by English speaking readers.

>101 lkernagh:
I've tried those, and, alas, no. They just make me want "my" dill chips even more. :)

>106 -Eva-: - Wow, those must be some chips!

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A beautiful sunny day today which enabled me to have an enjoyable walk during my lunch break. I have a half dozen routes I typically walk as I know that I can complete them during the time allotted. Switched it up a bit today by walking towards the waterfront on a street I usually take when returning from the waterfront, and in the process came across a sign I have never noticed before:



Here is a close up of the sign, with a shot of the lovely lilacs that are in bloom at the moment:



Now, I know that we have deer that have become urban dwellers - I have encountered more than enough of those four legged creatures! - but I have never, ever encountered a moose while in town.... I am not even sure if we have any moose on the island. I am pretty sure we don't. When I got back to the office, I mentioned this to a work colleague who has lived in the neighbourhood for a number of years and she said the sign has been there for a while, but no explanation why. We finally decided that maybe the neighbourhood wanted to provide a warning about deer in the area and this was the closest sign they could come up with. Amazing what one can discover just walking through the neighbourhood, and paying attention. :-)

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I know I have been doing a terrible job posting monthly reading updates his year so I thought I would make an effort this time and post up an April reading summary and a "year-to-date" summary. Will pull that together and post it later tonight, if I don't get sidetracked by more "Moose Crossing" signs, that is.

APRIL READING RE-CAP: - sorted in descending rating order

Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
The Bathwater Conspiracy by Janet Kellough
The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay
The Unpleasantness at Baskerville Hall by Chris Dolley
The Adventures of Dagobert Trostler by Balduin Groller
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
Stanley & Hazel by Jo Schaffer
15 Minutes by Jill Cooper
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Lamb by Christopher Moore
City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte

April STATS:
No. of Books read: 13
ROOTs read: 9
Largest book read by page count: - City of Dark Magic by Mangus Flyte at 464 pages
Smallest book read by page count: - The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde at 64 pages
# Pages read: - 4,086 pages
Average # pages per book read: - 314 pages
Average # pages read per day: - 136
Audiobooks / eBooks / Physical Books: - 7/4/7 - with five books being counted as audioreads to get physical reads off my TBR pile.
Male vs. Female Authors: - 7 vs.7 - reporting an even balance here as one book read is authored by two female writers
Fiction vs. Non-Fiction Reads: - 13 vs. 0
Average Decimal/ Star rating for books read: 3.79 out of 5 /
Publication date range of books read: 1895 to 2018

Year-to-Date STATS:
No. of Books read: 34
ROOTs read: 26
Largest book read by page count: - Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy at 896 pages
Smallest book read by page count: - The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde at 64 pages
# Pages read: - 13,314 pages
Average # pages per book read: - 392 pages

BingoDOG Update:

Bingo reads in April:
3. The Adventures of Dagobert Trostler by Balduin Groller -
14. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez -
15. The Unpleasantness at Baskerville Hall by Chris Dolley -
17. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini -
22. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde -

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Author / Book Title categories still to fill in to complete my challenges:

Author Alphabet Category:

"A" Author -
"E" Author -
"I" Author -
"L" Author -
"N" Author -
"P" Author -
"Q" Author -
"T" Author -
"U" Author -
"V" Author -
"W" Author -
"X" Author -
"Y" Author -
"Z" Author -

Book Title Alphabet Category:

"E" Book Title -
"I" Book Title -
"K" Book Title -
"N" Book Title -
"O" Book Title -
"Q" Book Title -
"R" Book Title -
"Y" Book Title -
"Z" Book Title -

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Currently Reading:

..

Audiobook:
The Complaints by Ian Rankin; narrated by Peter Forbes - a ROOT read.
ebook:
The Fire by Night by Teresa Messineo - a RTT May Southest Asia monthly theme read that also fits the Bingo Square "Pacific Ocean related".
Physical books:
In Office Hours by Lucy Kellaway - a ROOT read that also fits the May ColourCAT (blue cover) and the May AlphaKIT (A and K)

>107 lkernagh: I love that "Moose Crosing" sign!

So jealous your lilacs are in bloom already. I'm excited that we're starting to get leaves in a few spots around here. :P

Nice monthly stats!

>107 lkernagh:
We have those in Sweden too, but they are now sold in tourist shops since tourist tended to steal the real ones! :)

>107 lkernagh: Love the moose sign. Maybe someone thought it was more decorative outside than in their basement (where many "souvenir" street signs end up).

Beautiful lilac. Out this way the lilac is just turning green, no flowers for a while.

Have you seen the deer xing signs around Christmas with the red noses?
They crack me up!

>109 DeltaQueen50: - Hilarious, isn't it? ;-)

>110 MickyFine: - It is always in the springtime when I wished that we had a detached house where I could have my own lilac bushes, but I will take the ability to walk through the neighbourhood and enjoy their fragrance that way. I understand from my dad that things are starting to bud out in Alberta so hopefully you will be able to enjoy the lilacs soon!

I am hopeful that I can keep up the reading momentum... I am doing pretty good this year!

>111 -Eva-: - LOL! Probably a good idea. ;-)

>112 VivienneR: - That is a possibility. Here is hoping that your lilacs will be in bloom soon. I love their fragrance!

>113 mamzel: - No, I haven't! I had go Google it to see one and thought - "how fun!" Looks like it is a red sticker that can probably be peeled off. I wonder if anyone had attached a flashing or light LED diode as a red nose? ;-)

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

I hope everyone has been having a lovely weekend. This weekend is the local newspaper supported annual book sale. This year is the 20th anniversary of the book sale I have always been a huge supporter of the booksale, averaging 100 book purchases each year I go. Because I promised my other half that I would actively work on downsizing my current bookshelves full of unread books, I did not go to the book sale this year. I know.... you are thinking "What?!?", but I really do need to read what I currently own and then send the read books on to new homes (good thing there are so many Little Free Libraries in my area!). This year, the first person in line apparently claimed his spot just before midnight Friday, armed with a good book to read. When I have gone in the past, the earliest I have ever arrived was 6 am (the doors open at 9am). It would be 9:30 before I got in the doors, but the time doesn't matter because everyone in the line is talking books and having a lot of fun. All of the books are used books donated by the public. According to the newspaper, some of the reported finds on Saturday included:

"a signed copy of Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road. Someone else picked up a Frank Mahovlich biography that was signed not only by the author, Frank’s son Ted, but by the Big M, too. A woman clutched a 1914 edition of Jane Eyre as closely as Mr. Rochester held Jane.

Then there were the discoveries made inside the books themselves: Four old $1 bills and a $2 bill slipped out of an Anne of Green Gables. (When asked what the banknotes were, several 20-something shoppers at the sale had no idea. Remember that Canada stopped printing dollar bills in 1987 and $2 notes in 1996.)

The last part is probably a bit of "tongue-in-cheek" as the reporter is also one of the newspaper's humour colonists. ;-)

This weekend has been a relaxing one. Just enjoying the wonderful weather we are having.

No book reviews but I do have a walking update ready to post.

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

WEEK 147 UPDATE:
Kilometers walked this session: 52.24
Kilometers walked in total: 6,288.27
Current province: (PEI/NS)
My current location on the map: In Nova Scotia, on the Harvey A. Venoit Pictou Causeway heading for New Glasgow.
Points of interest along the way:


Welcome to Nova Scotia - Dennis Jarvis - as posted to wikimedia (CC BY-SA 2.0)

I have made it to Nova Scotia! Pictou looks like such a lovely place to visit, near the entrance to Pictou Harbour:


Pictou, Nova Scotia - Phil Holmes - as posted to wikimedia (CC BY-SA 2.5)

A trip to Pictou would not be complete without a visit to the Hector, a replica of the ship that carried over the first significant migration of 189 Scottish settlers (as a result of the Scottish Highland Clearances) to Nova Scotia in 1773:


The Hector (replica) - Anna Webber - as posted to wikimedia (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Settlers willing to emigrate to Pictou were offered free passage, 1 year of free provisions, and a farm.

>114 lkernagh: Congrats on resisting the temptation of the local book sale.

I was in Calgary this weekend with my family and managed a visit to Fair's Fair. I snagged five classic books with gorgeous spines, which we'll be using for the centrepiece on the head table at my wedding in September. A successful outing, I think. :)

I'm not a fan of dill. I tolerate it, but I don't enjoy it. I usually omit it from dishes.

>116 MickyFine: - :-) Ooohhhh... which Fair's Fair did you go to? I love shopping in the downtown area but the one near Chinook Centre is more convenient for me when I am in town. I love that you will be using books as a centerpiece for your wedding! So appropriate!

>117 thornton37814: - Dill is one of those herbs that people either love or dislike, Lori, but it sounds like you have work arounds when your cook to enjoy meals without having the "dill effect".

Book #35 - In Office Hours by Lucy Kellaway
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, ROOT
CAT/KIT: ColourCAT - Blue and AlphaKIT - Q and K
Bingo DOG: N/A
Category: "L" Author - Lucy
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback
Original publication date: 2010
Acquisition date: May 23, 2014
Page count: 328 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 2.70 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from various sources:

"Stella Bradberry and Bella Chambers work for Atlantic Energy, a high-achieving, high-end global oil company in London. Bella is a pretty, young single mum, but an assistant to men with half her smarts. Stella is twenty years older and about to get a seat on the company's board: She is the original no-glass-ceiling, high-achieving multitasking mother of two. But then these two sharp, intelligent women do something rash: they embark on affairs with male colleagues they wouldn't look twice at outside work. Suddenly, both are telling lies to friends, loved ones and workmates. In the grip of passions they cannot, nor wish to, control, they carelessly break all the rules, sabotaging friendships and careers. They've risked their livelihood for love. But ending an affair is always harder than beginning one. . ."

Review:
What to say… what to say. How unique or creative can a story about office liaisons get? When lead characters have names like Bella and Stella, I tend to expect some form of chick lit read so I was kind of hoping for a light-hearted “comedy of errors” kind of story. While there are some comic moments, Kellaway uses this story more as a vehicle to poke at things like corporate hypocrisy, gender roles and positions of authority. While the author could have chosen any industry as the backdrop for the passion shenanigans, she chose “big oil”, probably because advertising and fashion have already been done to death. The big oil setting also lets Kellaway incorporate all the traditional devices – power suits, power meetings, multi-layer corporate hierarchy, high flying business travel – and even plays with the known market volatility for some distraction from the rather tedious “why am I still in this relationship” bemoaning that goes on, and on, and on. It is the continual whining and, as one reviewer has pointed out, the representation that, unlike men, women seem unable to focus on their work while involved in an illicit affair. That made this a rather irksome read for me.

Overall, an okay read if you like stories set in an office environment, and probably best read as a parable.

>118 lkernagh: We went to the downtown location since we were going to see the production of The Secret Garden at Theatre Calgary and it was the closest. The play was an early birthday outing for my grandmother as her birthday is quite close to the wedding date so we won't be able to do our usual girls' outing that we usually do for her birthday. It's a tradition we started after my grandfather passed away as my grandparents were married on my grandmother's birthday and we wanted to try to make the day less sad for her. She has fun every year. :)

>120 MickyFine: - What an excellent family tradition you have established! Love it! Soooooo excited that you went to see a production of The Secret Garden, and that your grandmother loves these outings. I love that book!

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



Happy Mother's Day weekend to all the mothers out there! For those not in the know, my mom passed away in October 2016 after a very rapid decline due to ALS so Mother's Day is still very poignant with me. The above image was posted (with the below poem) on my Facebook page:

Second Mother's day since Mom passed. Miss you, mom. This poem is for you.

If Roses Grow in Heaven by Kirsten Preus

If Roses grow in Heaven
Lord, please pick a bunch for me.
Place them in my Mother's arms
and tell her they're from me.

Tell her that I love her and miss her,
and when she turns to smile,
place a kiss upon her cheek
and hold her for awhile.

Because remembering her is easy,
I do it every day,
but there's an ache within my heart
that will never go away.

Yes, the ache of loss continues but it is offset by the wonderful memories I have of my mom, which help to make the loss bearable.

>115 lkernagh: Good to see that you made it to Nova Scotia, Lori. I haven't spent any time in Pictou but New Glasgow is nice if you stop there.

I hope that your Sunday is good even if bittersweet. It is difficult to hear of people's plans around Mother's Day when you no longer have your own Mum around to celebrate.

>121 lkernagh: Sending hugs your way, Lori. Hope you managed to have a good weekend even with the emotions that Mother's Day brought for you.

>122 Familyhistorian: - Thanks Meg. Sunday was a good day. Took advantage of the wonderful weather to spend some time down at the waterfront while I chatted with my dad on the phone, sharing some great memories.

---------------------------
I hope everyone had a good weekend. Here in Victoria, May is pretty much when the weekend events start to pick up steam. There is something to do every weekend now until the end of September. This weekend it was Buccaneer's Day in Esquimalt. As a little bit of background, for over 60 years the municipality has held community events at this time of the year and officially became known as Buccaneer Days back in 1966. Due the close proximity of the water and the naval base, it is not surprising that naval and pirate attire is the theme! The citizens of Esquimalt were also awakened at a very early hour by a loudspeaker mounted atop a van calling “Wakey, Wakey!” This year, the Wakey Wakey van was an Esquimalt Fire Truck traveled the neighbourhood streets waking up the residents, complete with siren and calls of "Wakey Wakey" over the loudspeaker. I was actually in the area for an early morning walk before heading to the grocery store so got to experience that bit of fun at 7:00 am. ;-) I always have to remember to go grocery shopping earlier on Buccaneer's Day Saturday - the grocery store is on the parade route and I have found myself unintentionally taking in the parade.

Next weekend is the Victoria Day long weekend and the Highland Games. I love this time of year!

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

WEEK 148 UPDATE:
Kilometers walked this session: 70.77 - Best week of walking since last July!
Kilometers walked in total: 6,359.04
Current province: (NS)
My current location on the map: passing the southern end of Anitgonish, heading for Lower South River.
Points of interest along the way: My virtual walk this week took me past the Museum of Industry, a provincial museum designed to explain how Nova Scotia was affected by the opportunities and challenges of the Industrial Age. According to Wikipedia, the museum is on a site which includes some of the oldest industrial sites in Nova Scotia including the Foord Pit, once the deepest coal mine in the world and the Albion Railway, the first passenger and freight railway in Canada. Some items on display in the museum are:


The Victorian - Dennis Jarvis - as posted to Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Victorian, is a horseless carriage. Even though it looks like a carriage with its wooden body, it contains a hidden drive mechanism for a gas-powered engine. The Victorian was built in 1900, not far from the Museum site, at Hopewell by furniture maker John MacArthur. It was the first gasoline-powered car built in the Maritimes.


Samson - Letterofmarque - as posted to Wikimedia (CC BY 3.0)

The Samson is an English-built railroad steam locomotive made in 1838 that ran on the Albion Mines Railway in Nova Scotia. It was built in 1838 by Timothy Hackworth at his Soho Works in Durham, England. Samson represents an early design of steam locomotive with a return-flue boiler. The fireman and engineer worked separately on open platforms at either end of the locomotive. It was one of three locomotives commissioned for the General Mining Association for the Albion Mines Railway to serve mines in Pictou County. The other two locomotives were "Hercules" and "John Buddle".



Antigonish is also home to St. Francis Xavier University, which was established in 1855.

Antigonish can also lay claim as the location for the oldest continuous Highland games outside Scotland. According to Wikipedia, the annual Antigonish Highland Games have been held since 1863. The first games were held to raise funds for the construction of St. Ninian's Cathedral.

Book #36 - The Complaints by Ian Rankin - audiobook narrated by Peter Forbes
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, ROOT
CAT/KIT: N/A
Bingo DOG: N/A
Category: "I" Author - Ian
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback / Audiobook
Original publication date: 2009
Acquisition date: May 11, 2014
Page count: 480 pages / 12 hours, 18 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.20 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca book listing web page:

"Nobody likes The Complaints - they're the cops who investigate other cops. Complaints and Conduct Department, to give them their full title, but known colloquially as 'the Dark Side', or simply 'The Complaints'. Malcolm Fox works for The Complaints. He's just had a result, and should be feeling good about himself. But he's middle-aged, sour and unwell. He also has a father in a care home and a sister who persists in an abusive relationship. In the midst of an aggressive Edinburgh winter, the reluctant Fox is given a new task. There's a cop called Jamie Breck, and he's dirty. Problem is, no one can prove it. But as Fox takes on the job, he learns that there's more to Breck than anyone thinks. This knowledge will prove dangerous, especially when murder intervenes."

Review:
I have to bow my head in shame as I admit that other than The Complaints, I had only read one other Ian Rankin book, Knots and Crosses, first book in his widely popular Inspector Rebus series. For that reason, I am not the best person to compare/contrast the Rebus and Fox characters. Based on a sampling of reviews I have skimmed, some reviewers categorize Malcolm Fox as an “anti-Rebus” character, in that Rebus and Fox “have little in common except integrity and a dogged determination to get the job done”. This distinction may be important to some readers. For me, The Complaints, with its complicated characters and plot web, brings to mind my recent reading forays into Tana French’s loosely connected Dublin Murder Squad series, a series I enjoy very much. The recession-suffering Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders area is captured with wonderful realism. Rankin characters – especially Fox and Jaime Breck – are credible and well developed. I really like how the interpersonal dynamics between these two characters come into play. As for the plot, I found it to be well-written, tightly woven and fast-paced, making full use of the complexities of the case Fox and Breck find themselves ensnared in.

Overall, a great character-driven crime fiction and a solid “first book in series” read that would probably appeal to Tana French fans.

Book #37 - The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards - audiobook narrated by Ann Marie Lee
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, ROOT
CAT/KIT: ColourCAT - Blue and AlphaKIT - Q and K
Bingo DOG: "Beautiful Cover"
Category: "E" Author - Edwards
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback / Audiobook
Original publication date: 2011
Acquisition date: September 29, 2012
Page count: 416 pages / 16 hours, 40 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.15 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca book listing web page:

"Lucy Jarrett is at a crossroads in her life, still haunted by her father's unresolved death a decade earlier. News that her mother has been in an accident brings her back to her hometown in upstate New York, The Lake of Dreams. Late one night, as she paces the hallways of her family's sprawling lakeside house, she cracks the lock of a window seat to discover a collection of objects. At first they appear to be idle curiosities, but soon Lucy realizes that she has stumbled across a dark secret. It will lead her deep into her family's past, unearthing the history of a powerful and progressive woman whose strengths and convictions resonate deeply with Lucy. The shocking truths she uncovers will change her and her family forever."

Review:
I can see why some readers love Kim Edward's writing. She imbues this story with a luminous, lyrical quality. Her descriptions are so striking. The descriptions of the stain glass windows, the lake at night, is just, wow. I love the idea of a story with a family mystery that involves genealogy research. There is just something so exciting about uncovering information about a long deceased family member, especially one you didn't even know existed! That being said, I never connected with Lucy as a character. In fact, I found her downright annoying at times, acting more like a self-absorbed rebellious teenager - doing some really stupid things! - than a 29-year old woman who has worked as a hydrologist in exotic locations around the world, so the story gets low marks from me for that.

Overall, great premise and would have been a rather good read if the character had been written a little differently.

Welcome to Nova Scotia! One of my favourite provinces :-)

I'm glad you had a good Sunday, and I'm sure your dad was glad to talk to you that day.
>126 lkernagh: It's been too long since I picked up a Rankin, and I have a whole bunch of them on the shelf, including The Complaints, though I didn't realize it wasn't a Rebus book. Your review makes me want to get to it soon, since it's the first of a new series.

>127 lkernagh: It's too bad that you found the main character annoying, Lori. It sounds like it could have been a good book.

Thanks for posting the pics of Nova Scotia. Albion Mines is one of the areas I research so it is interesting to see the train engine for the mine.

>125 lkernagh: I'm really enjoying the Nova Scotia part of your journey. I love the Maritime provinces and hope I can do another vacation there soon.

>126 lkernagh: Nice to see your positive comments about this book. I'm planning to read it eventually but would like to get through more of the Rebus series first.

>124 lkernagh: Thanks for mentioning Esquimalt's Buccaneer Days, Lori, it brings back great memories. I grew up in Esquimalt and spend many years either watching the parade and waving at all my friends who were in it or being in it myself. I also remember the Pancake breakfast that was held down by the arena and the fair that came to Esquimalt during Buccaneer Days and all the scary rides we spent our allowance on.

>128 ChelleBearss: - Thank you so much for the welcome, Chelle! I love when I cross a border into a new province. It is so exciting! I remember the trips we used to make by car from Alberta to visit grandparents in Saskatchewan and we used to keep an eye out for the border sign... of course, the border sign also meant that we were approaching a rest stop with a restaurant (kids tend to think about basics like food and fun). ;-0

>129 mstrust: - Thanks Jennifer. It is good to be able to take the day to remember Mom, and to this day, Dad still manages to surprise me with stories I have never heard before. A great way to keep the memories alive.

I am going to be bad here and suggest that you by-pass the Rebus books and dive straight on to The Complaints. Such a great read!

>130 Familyhistorian: - Hi Meg. I think the problem with the character - for me - is that she seemed to act like a 16-year old, and not in a manner I would expect a 29-year old to behave. Glad I was able to post such interesting pictures as I wind my way through Nova Scotia!

>131 mathgirl40: - Another Nova Scotia fan, I see, Paulina. ;-) I have never had the pleasure of visiting our maritime provinces. Something I seriously need to rectify at some point. The pictures I keep finding online are just stunning.

>132 DeltaQueen50: - You must have some wonderful memories of Buccaneer Days, Judy! They still do the pancake breakfast, and while the ride change with the times, there is just something about a fair grounds to bring excitement to the crowds. ;-)

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend, or long weekend for my Canadian visitors! The Victoria Day long weekend is full of a number of events, the annual Highland Games, the Victoria Day parade, marching band competitions on at the Legislature. This year I did not take in any of those events. My Saturday was spend devising ways to protect my container garden with bird netting. Yes, those feathered creatures have been wrecking havoc with my poor garden. The the little buggers have demolished my dill, parsley and oregano plants (dill was so trashed there was nothing left). This is the state of my once beautiful parsley and oregano plants this past Saturday:



Yes, this called for desperate measures. End result is netting wrapped around my four shelf wrought iron stand that I can unwrap and re-wrap. That was the easy part. The challenge was trying to figure out how to maximize my shelf space on my wooden staggered stand while still completely tenting in the plants. Here is a side snap of the end result:



Basically, I staple gunned the netting to the back bottom shelf, ran the netting up to the top of the balcony railing, where I secured it by weaving a length of 1/2 inch doweling through the netting and then used zip cords to secure it in place (this was after I had netted in the sides for the lower shelf). I then took some further doweling to make a frame to drape the netting over before securing it down the front with another length of doweling that I can secure under the lower shelf and raise when I need access to the plants. This is going to make my gardening and harvesting chores more cumbersome but, really, I planted the garden for my consumption, not the darn birds! You will notice a bunching of netting on the side. If need by, I can stretch that netting out to protect plants that might be placed on the empty middle shelf. Have to thing ahead when dealing with these birds!

Good news is that while the birds managed to trash some of my herbs - they don't like the chives so I have left pot unprotected! - at least they had stayed away from the leafy greens (which are now under netting). For the holiday Monday, we had roasted chicken and a fresh garden salad made from the kale, spinach and lettuce you see in the picture below (displayed with the netting up):



Other than that, I managed to get in some good reading time so I have two book reviews ready for posting, along with my walking update.

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

WEEK 149 UPDATE:
Kilometers walked this session: 68.83
Kilometers walked in total: 6,427.87
Current province: (NS)
My current location on the map: On Cape Breton Island, due south of Glendale.
Points of interest along the way:


Bridge to Cape Breton Island from Canso Causeway in Nova Scotia - Skylar Challand - as posted to wikimedia (public domain)

I have made it to Cape Breton Island! Known as "Unama'kik" in Mi'kmaq, "Ceap Bhreatainn" in Scottish Gaelic and "Cap-Breton" in French, the island is one with a history of active settlement by each ethic race. Based on the pictures I have seen, the scenery is breathtaking:

Cape Breton Highlands National Park - Agnieszka Kosik - as posted to wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)


Cape Breton - Michel Rathwell - as posted to flickr (CC BY 2.0)


Meat Cove, Cape Breton Island - Paul Joseph - as posted to flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Book #38 - The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins - audiobook narrated by India Fisher, Clare Corbett and Louise Brealey
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, ROOT
CAT/KIT: MysteryCAT - Mysteries involving Transit
Bingo DOG: N/A
Category: "P" Author - Paula
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback / Audiobook
Original publication date: 2015
Acquisition date: October 5, 2016
Page count: 320 pages / 11 hours, 1 minute listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.85 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca book listing web page:

"Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and evening, rattling over the same junctions, flashing past the same townhouses.The train stops at the same signal every day, and she sees the same couple, breakfasting on their roof terrace. Jason and Jess, as she calls them, seem so happy. Then one day Rachel sees someone new in their garden. Soon after, Rachel sees the woman she calls Jess on the news. Jess has disappeared. Through the ensuing police investigation, Rachel is drawn deeper into the lives of the couple she learns are really Megan and Scott Hipwell. As she befriends Scott, Rachel pieces together what really happened the day Megan disappeared. But when Megan's body is found, Rachel finds herself the chief suspect in the case. Plunged into a world of betrayals, secrets and deceptions, Rachel must confront the facts about her own past and her own failed marriage. "

Review:
I absolutely loved this one! It was like being invited to witness first-hand how the facades people display publicly can mask – but never completely hide – the reality just below the surface, fighting to get out. I love how the story is a shared narration from the point of view of the three women – Rachel, Megan and Anna – and flows back and forth through time, giving the reader only snippets of information as the story pieces together. If you prefer linear storylines, this might not appeal to you. It also might not appeal to you if you struggle when the “good guy” is a flawed human being, in need of a few more redeeming qualities. Hawkins has provided the perfect unreliable narrator in Rachel, a lonely, divorced alcoholic prone to drunken outbursts and memory blackouts. Of course, the fact that she tends to lie – to her ex-husband, her roommate, even the cops – does not help her situation and there are more than a few “WTF” moments when Rachel tries to befriend the missing woman’s husband, inserting herself in the middle of a situation for the most unusual of reasons.

I found myself shifting my opinion of the various characters as the story played out. While some are more “likeable” than others, the fact that every character has a dark side – or a secret they are hiding – adds to the complexity of the story. Some readers may find Rachel’s first person voice highly annoying – seriously, where does she come off thinking these things? – but for me, this is exactly what gives Rachel her credibility as a character. Anna, and even Meghan, have their own “flinch-worthy” reveals, but I didn’t go into this story expecting to connect with the characters. I am more of a fascinated observer of the human condition and Hawkins provides a lot for this reader to observe and ponder. Hawkins also does a fabulous job with ratcheting up the tension and drama with each new subtle revelation. Sadly, the ending struck me as a tad odd – kind of out of step with the story – and the only reason I am not giving this one a full 5 out of 5 for this solid debut novel.

Overall, a wonderful psychologically-driven suspense read.

Book #39 - The Fire by Night by Teresa Messineo
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, RTT
CAT/KIT: N/A
Bingo DOG: "Pacific Ocean related"
Category: "T" Author - Teresa
Source: TBR
Format: eBook
Original publication date: 2017
Acquisition date: February 22, 2018
Page count: 311 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.10 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca book listing web page:

"In war-torn France, Jo McMahon, an Italian-Irish girl from the tenements of Brooklyn, tends to six seriously wounded soldiers in a makeshift medical unit. Enemy bombs have destroyed her hospital convoy, and now Jo singlehandedly struggles to keep her patients and herself alive in a cramped and freezing tent close to German troops. There is a growing tenderness between her and one of her patients, a Scottish officer, but Jo’s heart is seared by the pain of all she has lost and seen. Nearing her breaking point, she fights to hold on to joyful memories of the past, to the times she shared with her best friend, Kay, whom she met in nursing school. Half a world away in the Pacific, Kay is trapped in a squalid Japanese POW camp in Manila, one of thousands of Allied men, women, and children whose fates rest in the hands of a sadistic enemy. Far from the familiar safety of the small Pennsylvania coal town of her childhood, Kay clings to memories of her happy days posted in Hawaii, and the handsome flyer who swept her off her feet in the weeks before Pearl Harbor. Surrounded by cruelty and death, Kay battles to maintain her sanity and save lives as best she can . . . and live to see her beloved friend Jo once more. When the conflict at last comes to an end, Jo and Kay discover that to achieve their own peace, they must find their place—and the hope of love—in a world that’s forever changed. With rich, superbly researched detail, Teresa Messineo’s thrilling novel brings to life the pain and uncertainty of war and the sustaining power of love and friendship, and illuminates the lives of the women who risked everything to save others during a horrifying time."

Review:
I tend to approach war stories with some trepidation. Sometimes the graphic descriptions can be overwhelming. Messineo’s story, focusing on two military nurses who find themselves right in the firing lines, give this WWII storyline a fresh angle. For me, Messineo’s story is more about finding the humanity in a sea of violence and inhumanity, than the war itself. It is also a story of the emotional side effects of war and how nurses serving in the war were just as susceptible as the soldiers to suffering shell shock and PTSD. Even though the story has more of an intimate focus, Messineo does not sugar coat the violence of wartime. She depicts the European (France, Italy) and Pacific (Pearl Harbour, Philippines) fronts lucidly and graphically. Messineo relentlessly pushes the intensity as both Jo and Kay try to hold onto their sanity as the nightmare of war surrounds them. Interestingly, even though the chapters flip back and forth between Jo and Kay, the story is written in the third person, giving it more of a steam-of-consciousness feel. This worked well for me as Messineo it helps to give a more even feel to the story.

From field hospitals to internment camps, Messineo manages to strike the right balance here. While I was expecting a story with less intensity – some of the descriptions are very powerful! – I ended up really appreciating Messineo’s extensive research and her ability to create such realistic characters in Jo and Kay.

>134 lkernagh: Oh yes, I know what you mean about that. I netted the raspberries at the weekend and need to buy some more net for the strawberry bed - the one I've used the last few years has decided to give up the ghost. I don't mind sharing the odd piece of fruit with the birds, but I draw the line at providing them a banquet! Hope your net solution works all summer.

>136 lkernagh: I thought about reading that one. I may still add it to my pile for the month! I'm glad you liked it so much.

ETA: It's checked out so I won't get to it. I'm listening to Murder on the Leviathan by Boris Akunin. I think I'll check out Ruth Ware's The Woman in Cabin 10 which I spotted on the shelf. That way I'll have two that fit the category.

Wow! Your greens look amazing! Hope your herbs rebound nicely now that they are protected.

>137 lkernagh: I enjoy novels about World War II, and this one sounds really good -- BB taken!

>138 Helenliz: - I don't mind sharing the odd piece of fruit with the birds, but I draw the line at providing them a banquet!

I agree! So far, so good on the garden front. Did witness a bird earlier this week trying to break into the netting, but he gave up rather quickly. The neighbourhood is full of vegetation - there is a rather large, unnetted community garden just across the street - so hopefully the birds are not too put out by my protectionist activities. ;-)

>139 thornton37814: - Hi Lori, I hear you on having to switch up your reading based on availability. Sounds like you have picked some goodies as a backup plan - I am itching to read The Woman in Cabin 10! - so look forward to seeing what you think of that one if you get around to reading that one.

>140 LittleTaiko: - Thanks Stacy! I have my fingers crossed for the poor herbs but will have to wait a week or two to see how they do. I am really enjoying my forays into gardening. While a number of my neighbors grow some lovely flowers, the practical and food loving gal that I am figured if I am going to spend the time growing something, I will appreciate it more if I can consume it, as opposed to just look at it. Unfortunately, my kale - for some strange reason I cannot figure out - has suddenly started to wilt. Maybe because of the cold breeze we experienced today (I really needed my jacket today!) or lack of water, so I gave it a bit of water and will watch it to see what happens. The spinach and lettuce are both doing fine so, just something odd for me to monitor this weekend. ;-)

>141 christina_reads: - YAY! I think you will really like The Fire By Night. One of those great debut novels where the author impresses with their skill and ability as a writer.

Happy weekend everyone and Happy Memorial long weekend for my US visitors! This weekend in Victoria is the annual sailing race, Swiftsure. Even better, this year is the 75th anniversary. Good news is that there is a nice wind and hopefully the winds will hang around for the weekend for the racers. I still have memories of the year the race was dubbed "Driftsure" when there were no winds and the boats just kind of drifted along. ;-)

This weekend will be a relaxing weekend. No big plans or heavy chores. I just realized that I goofed a few weeks back... thought I had planted Swiss Chard but it is definitely a second batch of Spinach that is growing, so will probably buy another large pot and plant a batch of Swiss Chard. As much as I like how well the lettuce is growing, the leaves of this particular plant seed are very limp and not conducive to great salad material so might also go seed shopping for different lettuce seeds.

On the reading front, I have had a great week and have managed to finish reading two more books of my TBR piles. Reviews to follow.

Lastly, I want to post my pet peeve for the week and see what my visitors think.

Pet Peeve: I fully support alternative forms of transportation, like cycling, public transit and my personal favorite - walking! - over cars, when practicable. Victoria has been in the throws of creating an integrated biking network to make the high traffic areas of Victoria more "bike friendly". I have no problem with that. What I do have a problem with is something that I have been experiencing with alarming frequency over the past few weeks, with the opening of the new bridge and the opening of more bike friendly routes. Part of my walking commute take me over the new bridge to a lights controlled intersection, with pedestrian walkways, etc. This intersection also happens to be part of the biking network to connect cyclists to the Galloping Goose, a bike/pedestrian dedicated pathway network devoid of vehicle traffic. For cyclists coming off the bridge, they have a downward slope to the controlled intersection, where they would then take a right to follow the roadway to take them to the Galloping Goose. When I am walking home, I cross the intersection at the point where the cyclists make their right-hand turn. I cannot tell you how many times in the past three weeks that I have experiences close calls with cyclists because they do not slow down as they approach the turn or yield to pedestrians in the crosswalks, who actually have the right of way. Thankfully, I do have a safer option which involves taking a left off the bridge before the intersection and crossing, via a pedestrian overpass, to the other side of the main road, away from the cyclists, but I am a firm believer that cyclists still need to abide but the rules of the road, which means they should be yielding to pedestrians. We are only in phase one of a three phase biking network plan for the city, but right now, cyclists are not in my good books. And they wonder why they get a bad rep.

End of rant. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

Book #40 - The Time In Between by David Bergen
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, ROOT, RTT
CAT/KIT: N/A
Bingo DOG: N/A
Category: "I" Book Title - In
Source: TBR
Format: Trade Paperbook
Original publication date: 2005
Acquisition date: May 15, 2011
Page count: 288 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 2.90 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca book listing web page:

"In search of love, absolution, or forgiveness, Charles Boatman leaves the Fraser Valley of British Columbia and returns mysteriously to Vietnam, the country where he fought twenty-nine years earlier as a young, reluctant soldier. But his new encounters seem irreconcilable with his memories. When he disappears, his daughter Ada, and her brother, Jon, travel to Vietnam, to the streets of Danang and beyond, to search for him. Their quest takes them into the heart of a country that is at once incomprehensible, impassive, and beautiful. Chasing her father’s shadow for weeks, following slim leads, Ada feels increasingly hopeless. Yet while Jon slips into the urban nightlife to avoid what he most fears, Ada finds herself growing closer to her missing father — and strong enough to forgive him and bear the heartbreaking truth of his long-kept secret."

Review:
You would think I would have learned, back in 2010 when I read The Matter with Morris, that Bergen and I might not see eye to eye on what makes for an engaging read, but to judge an author after reading just one book – and considering his works keep making the Giller award lists, with this one winning the Giller Prize in 2005 – seemed a bit unfair of me, so I decided to give him another chance to captivate me.

At a basic level, this is a story about Vietnam. From that perspective, the descriptions of Vietnam are beautiful. The writing is lyrical, almost poetic. There is watery haziness or dreamlike quality to the story, muting the sensory impact for the reader. Through Charles and his tortured soul, Bergen ambitiously tackles a hard subject: the psychological impact the Vietnam war has had on veterans and their families. While I found it easy to connect with Charles and understand his search for atonement - something that Vietnam in this story was unable to give him - the other characters came across as mere caricatures of personalities. I felt no emotion for Ada, Jon or the Douds. I found it odd how Ada comes to meet the people her father had encountered in Vietnam before going missing... that is all just way too convenient for any plausibility. While the purpose of Ada and Jon’s trip to Vietnam is to search for their missing father, they seem to drift aimlessly through the days and weeks, more tourists absorbing the local atmosphere than active searchers for their missing father. Ada in particular is an odd character, who seems to be, unknowingly to her, engaging in her own personal search for a broader connection and meaning. As one reviewer has stated, “ Both (Charles and Ada) are wandering, helpless and aimless, through a quagmire of painful feelings, anxiously groping toward a resolution that so often seems impossible.”

As mentioned above, the writing is exquisite and I do tend to like introspective novels. Even though Bergen has done an excellent job to try and explain the legacy of Vietnam, his characters and the random situations that absorb their time in Vietnam leads me to believe that he and I just do not seem to be on the same page when it comes to what works to engage a reader like me.

Book #41 - Run by Ann Patchett - audiobook narrated by Peter James
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, ROOT
CAT/KIT: ColourCAT (Blue)
Bingo DOG: N/A
Category: "A" Author - Ann
Source: TBR
Format: Trade Paperbook / Audiobook
Original publication date: 2007
Acquisition date: April 30, 2016
Page count: 320 pages / 9 hours, 22 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.60 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca book listing web page:

"Since their mother's death, Tip and Teddy Doyle have been raised by their loving, possessive, and ambitious father. As the former mayor of Boston, Bernard Doyle wants to see his sons in politics, a dream the boys have never shared. But when an argument in a blinding New England snowstorm inadvertently causes an accident that involves a stranger and her child, all Bernard cares about is his ability to keep his children—all his children—safe."

Review:
I am one of those readers who really appreciate Patchett's Bel Canto, except for the ending, so I was curious to see how I would react to this one. While not as absorbing a read for me, I can see how Patchett - by her own self confession - crafts different stories with a similar basis point: an event or situation occurs that brings a set of strangers together, and their lives change as a result. Patchett's characters are real, as are the situations in her stories and their interactions, although Kenya did come across to me as being wise beyond her mere 11-years, probably due to Patchett's admittance that she doesn't like to write child characters into her stories. The story flows so well that it is a bit of a mind-blow to realize that outside of the closing and some memory ramblings, the brunt of the story takes place over a very short, 24 hour period. This story is filled with everything: politics, religion, race, adoption, social class to family and community relationships. It almost felt as though Patchett was trying to cram too much in, so some of the author's message that the story is about matriarchal lines of a family gets a bit lost in the drama.

While Bel Canto still remains my favorite Patchett read so far, this was a pretty darn good read, even though the American politics aspects were just so-so for me.

>139 thornton37814: I did check The Woman in Cabin 10 out of the library. I've got about 30 pages in my current read. (I made myself go to bad because I was tired, and it was already way past my bedtime.) Then I need to read the Guido for May which is downloaded from the library. Then I'll try to get that one read this month. I think it can be done! That will give me 2 for the MysteryCAT.

Lori, I totally agree with your rant about cyclists! They need to learn to slow down and observe the rules. We have a hiking/biking trail along the dikes here in Delta where we often go for a walk. Unfortunately the bikers seem to feel that they, and only they, have the right of way on these trails. The pedestrian has be on continual lookout for bikers coming up from behind, they seem to feel they have the right to bike two or more abreast while the walkers need to scurry out of their way and walk in single file.

>146 thornton37814: - You can do it, Lori!

>147 DeltaQueen50: - So glad I am not the only one frustrated with some of these cyclists, Judy! Yesterday I actually had to step off the sidewalk, into a bike lane because of a cyclist on the sidewalk. I give up. ;-(

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

Happy Sunday! The weather is lovely in my "neck of the woods" and the winds have been pretty good for the racers. Not much reading happening this weekend but lots of time spent outdoors and relaxing.

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

WEEK 150 UPDATE:
Kilometers walked this session: 65.22
Kilometers walked in total: 6,493.09
Current province: (NS)
My current location on the map: On Cape Breton Island, rounding the northern edge of Bras D'or Lake, heading for Baddeck.
Points of interest along the way:
According to Wikipedia, Bras d'Or Lake is an inland sea, or large body of partially fresh/salt water in the centre of Cape Breton Island. With an area of approximately 1,099 square kilometres, the extents of Bras d'Or Lake measures roughly 100 km in length and 50 km in width and is surrounded almost entirely by high hills and low mountains.


View over Bras d'Or Lakes from Alexander Graham Bell Museum - Boomervoice.ca - as posted to wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

While I could have left this for next week - after I pass through Baddeck - I figure now is good a time as any to touch on The Alexander Graham Bell Museum and Alexander Graham Bell's ties to this part of Canada. The museum - designated a national historic site back in 1952 - commemorates the life and work of the man who created the telephone, as well as many other inventions. The museum houses interactive displays, films, artifacts, models and a beautiful historic photo collection:


Michel Rathwell - as posted on wikimedia (CC BY 2.0)


Michel Rathwell - as posted on wikimedia (CC BY 2.0)

The location for the museum is not a huge surprise considering Bell build his home, Beinn Bhreagh, at Banneck overlooking the Bras d'Or Lake.



A closer look at the house can be seen in this short YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuc-VuexG5g

>148 lkernagh: I'll begin it this evening. I just finished the Guido. I think the "stash" of books from the library is in my bedroom so I'll grab it when I get up. I'm taking a few minutes before beginning the next read. You know, cat petting breaks are required!

>149 lkernagh: I went to that museum last year when I was in Nova Scotia! It's very cool and the views are beautiful.

>134 lkernagh: Sorry to hear you have to take action to protect your herb garden! Pesky birds.

>136 lkernagh: I loved Hawkins' book too. It was interesting that she gave names to people she had never met.

Catching up with threads, and also envying you for your gardening skills, even if the birds got greedy. How nice to be able to make a salad from your own plants!
And boo to the cyclists! We have something similar that happens here during Bike Week, when we're flooded with Harley riders. They're pretty much dentists who play at being bikers, but they ride in groups and make themselves impossible to get around.

>150 thornton37814: - I totally agree, Lori. Cat petting breaks are required! Say hello to you lovely troop for me.

>151 MickyFine: - I tend to geek out over stuff like that so it looks like I may need to find a reason for a trip east to check out the museum. So glad you enjoyed it!

>152 VivienneR: - The birds.... I swear, they still visit our balcony, but thankfully, they have not managed to get past the netting. Means I have to "de-net" my plants when I want to care for or harvest anything, which is a tad annoying, but as I mentioned to my other half, I wasn't keen on the idea of netting in the entire balcony (although, we could have done that). If we lean over the railing, we have a view of the water and I didn't want to loose that.

So glad to see you also loved Hawkins' book. I am very much a people watcher but even so, I am pretty sure I have never given names - nicknames, yes - to people who repeatedly enter my field of vision. Now that I see that last sentence, I guess I can relate to her having her character give names to people she has never met. ;-)

>153 mstrust: - Hi Jennifer! I am so far behind with visiting threads I think I will need to just jump into the most recent threads of my LTer friends and admit that I missed some fun/interesting stuff during my absence.

I am a huge fan of fresh greens and while in previous years I had focused on fresh herbs, this year is more about fresh greens. I have my fingers crossed that the new batches of mustard greens and Swiss chard will grow by leaps and bounds, but we have been experiencing some cooler temps lately do to fog banks out over the water, so the growing spurts of April have slowed down in May.

... as for the cyclists, I think this is something that I will just need to adjust to. Not happy about that but there are just too many of them. Interesting your mention about an Bike Week. This past week was Bike to Work Week so my typical walking commute home involved dodging cyclists stopped at the 'celebration stations' at the entrance to the bridge I walk over. I survived the week and won't have to deal with that again until next year.

Hard to believe that another week has already blown by. Wow. We are now in June. Double Wow. One the reading front, I have two more book reviews to post to wrap up my May reading. I "might" get around to preparing a May month recap but I am debating that. I will probably forego a May recap and make up for it by preparing a more comprehensive half year recap at the end of June.

Events of interest on this weekend in town is the Oak Bay Tea Party, currently in its 56th year. Basically, it is the Oak Bay municipality's version of Esquimalt municipality's Buccaneer Days. The municipality of Victoria is actually a very small area with a population of roughly 86,000. The metropolitan area of Greater Victoria comprises of some 13 municipalities. Even so, the population of the Greater Victoria District is considered to be in the range of 380,000, which is still just a drop in the bucket when compared to the population sizes of some municipalities. For these reasons, it is rather noticeable when a large influx of tourists happens. A number of the tourists arrive via cruise ships. Today saw the arrival of the cruise ship Norwegian Bliss - at 1,094 feet and with a passenger capacity of 4,000 - it is the largest cruise ship to dock in Victoria. This day-long inaugural visit was carrying Norwegian Cruise Lines officials, travel agents and media so that they could visit the city and report back to potential "cruisers". Apparently the ship will be doing a Seattle to Alaska/return run all season and will be docking in Victoria every Friday. This is because American regulations require these vessels to stop in a foreign port and given that the Norwegian Bliss is some 10 stories tall - taller than 3/4 of the buildings in Greater Victoria - Vancouver probably isn't an option as new ships of this height are unable to pass under the Lions Gate Bridge. With 245 cruise ship visits scheduled for this year, and a potential passenger count of 600,000 over the cruise season - not taking into account the extra tourists arriving by car, plane or private boat - I forecast more people than usual clogging the sidewalks during my walking commute home in the evenings. ;-)

Weather report for the weekend isn't all that great so may just spend time puttering around the house. Wishing everyone a fabulous weekend!

... now for those book reviews.

Book #42 - England, England by Julian Barnes
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, ROOT
CAT/KIT: ColourCAT (Blue)
Bingo DOG: N/A
Category: "E" Book Title - England
Source: TBR
Format: Trade Paperbook
Original publication date: 1998
Acquisition date: April 30, 2016
Page count: 272 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.80 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca book listing web page:

"Flamboyant tycoon Sir Jack Pitman has an idea. Since most tourists are too lazy and unlettered to travel from landmark to landmark, why not simplify things and shrink all of England to the size of a theme park? Unfortunately, Pitman turns out to be right. Located on the Isle of Wight, his reconstituted "England, England" is everything you imagined the original to be, but cleaner, friendlier, and more efficient. That is, until the King (the real King, on contract to Sir Jack, living with the rest of the Royal Family in a scaled-down version of Buckingham Palace) is suspected of sexual harassment, a smuggling ring begins to wreak havoc with the island economy, and Robin Hood and his Merrie Men decide to unionize."

Review:
For some strange reason, I envisioned a theme park like The Bourton-on-the-Water Model Village I have fond memories of visiting back when I was a little girl. Should have realized that the theme park envisioned in Barnes’ story is more Disneyesque with building replicas and hordes of park staff kitted out in costume, role-playing for the paying public. This story is a satirical swing at all things English, with Barnes exhibiting a mischievousness I never expected from him. This one has all of Barnes’ sharp observation, filled with greedy developers, pompous intellectuals and conniving business tycoons. If that is not enough to capture your attention, Barnes embarks, through the satire, on a cutting attack on everything from England’s heritage industry, its politics and its role on the world stage to… you guessed it, he even takes a few swings at the monarchy. Wrapped up as a satirical search for authenticity in a world too willing to accept replicas over the real thing, it was easy for this reader to enjoy the story for the fictional romp it is, and fob off any underlying messaging for other readers to angst over. At least, I was able to do exactly that until Barnes decides in the last section to take away my cartoonish satirical read and landed me – via the ruminations of a considerably older Martha - squarely into frump and ponderous territory. Darn it all, Barnes was determined to make his readers sit up and pay attention to his underlying messaging after all, which is that searching for authenticity in an increasingly unauthentic world is worth pursuing. Point taken, Julian. Now how about giving us more of the madcap satire I enjoyed so much?

Book #43 - Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton - audiobook narrated by Judy Kaye
Challenge(s): 2018 Category
CAT/KIT: N/A
Bingo DOG: N/A
Category: "Y" Book Title - Yesterday
Source: GVPL
Format: Audiobook
Original publication date: August 22, 2017
Acquisition date: N/A
Page count: 496 pages / 17 hours listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.95 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca book listing web page:

"In 1979, four teenage boys from an elite private school sexually assault a fourteen-year-old classmate—and film the attack. Not long after, the tape goes missing and the suspected thief, a fellow classmate, is murdered. In the investigation that follows, one boy turns state’s evidence and two of his peers are convicted. But the ringleader escapes without a trace.
Now, it’s 1989 and one of the perpetrators, Fritz McCabe, has been released from prison. Moody, unrepentant, and angry, he is a virtual prisoner of his ever-watchful parents—until a copy of the missing tape arrives with a ransom demand. That’s when the McCabes call Kinsey Millhone for help. As she is drawn into their family drama, she keeps a watchful eye on Fritz. But he’s not the only one being haunted by the past. A vicious sociopath with a grudge against Millhone may be leaving traces of himself for her to find..."

Review:
It is a bittersweet experience to read Grafton’s last book, knowing that there will be no more Kinsey Millhone stories. I have enjoyed the series, with its feisty female private investigator, the familiar cast of characters that routinely put in an appearance and its solid 1980’s setting. I also love how Grafton has remained consistent in her story telling, focusing on what happened and who did it, with the why being more closing revelations. There is a decidedly darker feel to this story, due in part because of the violent actions of a vicious sociopath from an earlier installment and the disturbing events of 1979 perpetrated by mere teenagers. Thankfully, Grafton dulls down some of the impact of the 1979 events through a series of flashback chapters and tries to offset them with some more comic scenes, like when Kinsey encounters for the first time the dog that has come to live in her landlord Henry’s backyard with two homeless people Henry is helping out.

While this one did not have as many of the surprises I am used to encountering when reading Grafton’s stories, she still managed a couple of surprises. Some readers may find the story a tad on the long side with pages of descriptive details, but Grafton usually has a reason for the details she provides and it is not just done as a way to increase the page count of a book.

Another good installment in a series that has sadly ended, one book too soon.

>156 lkernagh: Hm, I'm tempted! I'll keep that in mind about the end, though.

Sorry to see your garden pests have been nibbling! Hope your netting trick worked!

>156 lkernagh: >158 rabbitprincess: I'm quite tempted too. (because of course I don't have enough books on Mt TBR already ...)

>158 rabbitprincess: and >160 Jackie_K: - Always happy to see potential interest in one of my reads! ;-)

>159 ChelleBearss: - Thanks Chelle! The netting is working so far and even better - the dill, parsley and oregano are coming back! ;-)

---------------------------
Happy Sunday everyone! I am kicking back and enjoying a lazy Sunday after having raced around Saturday and got all my chores finished in one day. Today I did a mini-purge of my wardrobe so I have bag of clothes and shoes that I can drop in the charity donation bin when I head out for some groceries this afternoon - going to be lazy and pick up store roasted chicken which will be accompanied by salad with fresh greens from the garden.

One walking update coming up.

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

WEEK 151 UPDATE:
Kilometers walked this session: 71.43
Kilometers walked in total: 6,564.52
Current province: (NS)
My current location on the map: Have just left the ferry dock at North Sydney and heading across the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, heading for Channel-Port aux Basques, Newfoundland.
Points of interest along the way: I love how Nova Scotia is an "island of islands", if that makes any sense. Last week my virtual walking journey had me crossing Cape Breton island, and this past week I crossed Boularderie Island, separating the Cabot Strait from Bras d'Or Lake. One of the bridges I crossed this week was the Seal Island Bridge, in the background of this wonderful picture of McNeil Beach Lighthouse:


McNeil Beach Lighthouse - Jordan Crowe - as posted to flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

The bridge was built to replace two ferry systems and was placed at the halfway point of the ferry services. To do this, a modification had to be made to to the Trans Canada Highway, resulting in a 180' switchback on the eastern slop of Kelly's Mountain, near New Harris.

Sydney, Nova Scotia - my launching point to cross the water to Newfoundland - was originally founded by the British back in 1785, was incorporated as a city in 1904 where it became home to one of North America's main steel mills. During the first and second World Wars, Sydney was a major staging area for England-bound convoys. On August 1, 1995 Sydney was dissolved and was amalgamated into the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Sydney's famous public fixture? The Big Fiddle, a nod to Cape Breton's Celtic roots and the amazing musicians, like Natalie MacMaster and Ashley MacIssac, who call Cape Breton home:


The Big Fiddle, Sydney Nova Scotia - Bobcatnorth - as posted to flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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

Given that my walking for the next week (or two) will involve crossing water, not sure if I will have anything interesting to report. ;-)

>134 lkernagh:
Nooo! Not the dill. :( At least they have good taste in herbs. :)

>163 -Eva-: - Hahaha... if the birds start to make culinary demands, I will slowly back away from the garden. ;-)

.
Book #44 - One Click by Andrea Mara
Challenge(s): 2018 Category
CAT/KIT: N/A
Bingo DOG: N/A
Category: "O" Book Title - One
Source: LTER
Format: eBook
Original publication date: 2018
Acquisition date: May 2, 2018
Page count: 400 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.35 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.com book listing web page:

"When Lauren takes a photo of a stranger on a beach and shares it online, she has no idea what will come of that single click. Her daughters are surprised that she posted a photo without consent, but it’s only when she starts to get anonymous messages about the woman on the beach that she deletes the photo. It’s too little too late, and the messages escalate, prompting Lauren to confess to the woman. The woman has her own dark story, one that might explain the messages, but Lauren isn’t convinced. Then her ex-husband begins to harass her, telling her she shares too much online and brought this on herself. She’s also dealing with other problems. A difficult client at work starts to show up in places he shouldn’t be. Her younger daughter is behaving out of character and Lauren can’t work out what’s wrong. And the cracks are literally beginning to show in her old South Dublin house, mirroring the cracks in her carefully curated life. Meanwhile, the messages from the internet troll become more personal and more vindictive. Her friends feel she should stand up to her stalker, but Lauren isn’t so sure. And then she makes one small mistake that brings everything tumbling down."

Review:
I am a huge fan of psychological thrillers. As a moderately cautious user of social media, I found Mara’s story to be timely, relevant and grounded in realism. It is the realism that makes this one stand out as a page-turning read for me. I found it easy to relate to Lauren. Lauren comes across as a typical social media user for her age group. She posts pics to Instagram, has a personal blog she maintains and is an active user on Twitter. She is comfortable in her internet world and her network of online friends, and tends to seek out the comfort of her online network as her family and work lives face increasing pressures. No one expects to suddenly be dealing with an online troll over the posting of one seemingly innocent picture, and Lauren’s reactions to the unwanted, unrelenting and escalating personal attention she receives is not surprising. I would be freaking out too if I received some of those messages!

The story shifts between Lauren and Cleo, the woman in the photo. We learn more about Cleo’s own dark past, but that isn’t the only backstory – or the only shocking reveal – Mara has in store for her readers. While things get a bit convoluted, I was able to keep track of the characters, their individual stories and the ratcheting drama as the story hurtles towards yet another surprise (for me anyways).

Overall, a compelling, page-turning read.

Book #45 - The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson - audiobook narrated by Scott Brick
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, ROOT
CAT/KIT: MysteryCAT - True Crime
Bingo DOG: N/A
Category: N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback / Audiobook
Original publication date: 2003
Acquisition date: May 11, 2014
Page count: 464 pages / 15 hours, 3 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.65 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from the amazon.com book listing web page:

"Intertwining the true tale of the 1893 World's Fair and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Larson combines meticulous research, and a supporting cast of real-life characters, including Buffalo Bill, Theodore Dreiser, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, with nail-biting storytelling.

Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his “World’s Fair Hotel” just west of the fairgrounds—a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium.

Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake."

Review:
A good book, but so hard to pin down my thoughts. I love books that vividly describe architectural achievements. Without a doubt, Burnham and the creators of the White City had a monumental task on their hands to build the 1893 Columbian World Fair in such a short timeframe on land of a swampy sand composition while facing everything from political delays, labour unrest to the extreme weather conditions of a fierce Chicago winter. If the book had just focused on the Fair and Burnham, I would have still enjoyed it as an interesting read. What makes the book different – and a bit of an odd mix – is what I consider to be the secondary focus of the book: Larson’s examination of the homicidal psychotic serial killer, Dr. Henry H. Holmes. The following sentence from the book description, “Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century”. strikes me as odd in that, in my mind anyways, I cannot mentally place Burnham and Holmes side-by-side like that and see any similarities. Yes, Holmes is described as a charmer who easily drew in young ladies (even charming his growing line of creditors!) but my skin just crawls at the descriptions of the “unique” features Holmes methodically had built into his hotel, dubbed after his murderous tendencies became known as his "Castle of Horrors". While Larson admits that there is no evidence that any of Holmes’s murderous activities were ever witnessed, the combination of the World Fair and the draw of a city the size of Chicago for young, unattached women seeking work, would have made it easy for his victims to “disappear” without attracting widespread attention. Larson mentions that Holmes did write three separate confessions but given Holmes’s knack for stretching the truth – Holmes's real name was Herman Webster Mudgett – and in view of the fact that he was paid to write the last "confession", it is unlikely that we will ever know just how many people he killed. The very thought that he could have killed a lot more people than the hundreds of people does not seem outside the realm of possibility, as frightening as that is. I found it shocking how he took out life insurance policies on some of his victims before killing them.

Overall, well researched but still a rather odd mixing of subject matter that never really melded together very well. Each topic could have been told as a standalone book, and it might have worked better that way, especially since Burnham and Holmes never meet. The World Fair, while very much front and center in the Burnham sections, is a mere peripheral event in the Holmes sections.

I hope everyone has been having a lovely weekend. The weather has been a bit iffy this morning so I am still debating about attending the community street party today. Should be fun, just not fun if the clouds open up like they seem to be threatening.

As we are three weeks away from the half-way mark for 2018, I have been assessing my various challenges, with the hopes of completing something by the end of this month. Given that I only have three more squares to complete for a BINGO blackout, my reading is focused on filling the following remaining squares:

BINGO Squares to Complete:
"Money in the Title" - TBD, but might listen to the audiobook Mary Coin by Marisa Silver if it comes available this week at my local library. Otherwise, might consider listening to one of a number of bitcoin / cryptocurrency audiobooks available through Hoopla.
"Unread 2017 Purchase" - Us Conductors by Sean Michaels (TBR - Trade paperback) - Currently reading
"Autobiography or Memoir" - Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx by Sonia Manzano (audiobook) - Currently 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

WEEK 152 UPDATE:
Kilometers walked this session: 79.04
Kilometers walked in total: 6,643.56
Current province: No man's land (aka water) between two provinces: (NS) and (NL)
My current location on the map: On water, halfway across the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, continuing to head for Channel-Port aux Basques, Newfoundland.
Points of interest along the way:


Clouds over the Atlantic Ocean - Tiago Fioreze - as posted to wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

"Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink."

Yes, my virtual walking journey has had me "walking on water" all week, and I am only halfway to Newfoundland. ;-) The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a poem I had to memorize back in junior high, a long, loooonnnnggg time ago. It is surprising how many stanzas of that poem I can still recite from memory today. Crazy the kinds of information our minds will retain.

Taking advantage of the fact that my end goal is getting nearer, now seems to be a good time to assess the likelyhood of completing this virtual walking challenge on time. Given that it appears I still have 1,177.44 KM to go - although something tells my the math will not work out to that total when I am finished - I think it is highly unlikely that I will make it to the Eastern Mile 0 by July 13th (my original end date), so I am revising my plans with new hopes that I will make it to my virtual destination on or before Labour Day.

Hey - I think the fact that you're so close is awesome. And it's certainly been interesting for me here in the lower 48.

Thanks Betty! I have had a lot of fun mapping my walking. It sure has made it easier to motivate myself to exercise when I really don't want to.

Excellent progress on your walking!

I watched Local Hero today and thought of you! Peter Capaldi was so adorable I thought I would burst. :D

Local Hero is the best movie, ever! Now I want to watch it again. The young Capaldi is quite the awkward adorableness in that one, isn't he? ;-)

>172 lkernagh: SO MUCH adorable :D I'm tempted to watch it again now :P

Quick check in to say that I am having a good a week so far. Managing to keep chipping away at my Bingo reads and have two more reviews ready for posting!

Book #46 - Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx by Sonia Manzano - audiobook narrated by the author
Challenge(s): 2018 Category
CAT/KIT: N/A
Bingo DOG: "Autobiography or Memoir"
Category: N/A
Source: Hoopla
Format: Audiobook
Original publication date: July 25, 2017
Acquisition date: N/A
Page count: 272 pages / 8 hours, 7 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.35 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from the amazon.com book listing web page:

"Set in the 1950s in the Bronx, this is the story of a girl with a dream. Emmy award-winning actress and writer Sonia Manzano plunges us into the daily lives of a Latino family that is loving--and troubled. This is Sonia's own story rendered with an unforgettable narrative power. When readers meet young Sonia, she is a child living amidst the squalor of a boisterous home that is filled with noisy relatives and nosy neighbors. Each day she is glued to the TV screen that blots out the painful realities of her existence and also illuminates the possibilities that lie ahead. But--click!--when the TV goes off, Sonia is taken back to real-life--the cramped, colorful world of her neighborhood and an alcoholic father. But it is Sonia's dream of becoming an actress that keeps her afloat among the turbulence of her life and times. Spiced with culture, heartache, and humor, this memoir paints a lasting portrait of a girl's resilience as she grows up to become an inspiration to millions."

Review:
If you are like me, the name Sonia Manzano might not trigger any recognition but that quickly changed when I discovered that Manzano is best known for her role as Maria on the show Sesame Street, a role she played for 44 years. Aptly titled, Becoming Maria is an unflinching and affecting memoir of growing up in a poverty-stricken Puerto Rican family in the South Bronx. While there are some dark sides to her story – her father was an abusive, violent alcoholic and the family lived in abject poverty – she also shares some cherished memories, like the first time she went to summer camp, going to see West Side Story with a teacher and two other classmates, visiting Puerto Rico for the first time, playing hooky from school to go to the 1964 New York World’s Fair, and auditioning for a spot at Manhattan’s High School of Performing Arts. Manzano’s tells her story with unabashed frankness through a Nuyorican lens, assuming that the reader will be able to see and understand the world as she did as a Latino child. The memoir ends with Manzano’s audition for Sesame Street, so if you are hoping to read some behind the scenes stories about the show and its cast, you will not find it here.

Overall, a interesting, colourful glimpse into the South Bronx of the 1950s/60s.

Book #47 - Us Conductors by Sean Michaels
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, ROOT
CAT/KIT: N/A
Bingo DOG: "Unread 2017 Purchase"
Category: N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade Paperback
Original publication date: 2014
Acquisition date: May 7, 2017
Page count: 368 pages / 8 hours, 7 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.85 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.com book listing web page:

"US Conductors takes us from the glamour of Jazz Age New York to the gulags and science prisons of the Soviet Union. On a ship steaming its way from Manhattan back to Leningrad, Lev Termen writes a letter to his “one true love”, Clara Rockmore, telling her the story of his life. Imprisoned in his cabin, he recalls his early years as a scientist, inventing the theremin and other electric marvels, and the Kremlin’s dream that these inventions could be used to infiltrate capitalism itself. Instead, New York infiltrated Termen – he fell in love with the city’s dance clubs and speakeasies, with the students learning his strange instrument, and with Clara, a beautiful young violinist. Amid ghostly sonatas, kung-fu tussles, brushes with Chaplin and Rockefeller, a mission to Alcatraz, the novel builds to a crescendo: Termen’s spy games fall apart and he is forced to return home, where he’s soon consigned to a Siberian gulag. Only his wits can save him, but they will also plunge him even deeper toward the dark heart of Stalin’s Russia."

Review:
I do not have much musical talent but the concept of an electronic musical instrument (the theremin) that can be played/controlled without ever coming into physical contact with the instrument, fascinates me and appeals to my science geeky side. The fact that the instrument was developed by Russian scientist/inventor, Lev Sergeyvich Termen, back in the early 1920’s (it was patented in 1928), just added to my intrigue to read Michaels debut novel. Us Conductors is very much a historical fiction novel. While Michaels takes some basic events from Termen’s life, this story – in particular, the kung fu training, the espionage and his one-side romance for a young violinist, Clara, he meets in New York – are best to be viewed as fictions of Michaels imagination. Even so, Michaels vividly brings to life the Jazz age of New York City, filled with dance halls, speakeasies and a swirling of famous celebrities. The story is not all glitz, glamor and hob-nobbling with the famous. Michaels Termen is an ambivalent spy for his homeland while in America and it is only when he returns to a very changed Russia that he starts to realize how precarious his situation really is.

As with any historical fiction, the author has taken liberties to write, what for me, is a wonderful blended story – part music, part romance, part espionage, part science – narrated by a character who tries to comes to terms with the strange shifts his life has taken: from celebrated scientist/inventor under Lenin to being labelled an enemy of Communism under Stalin, all while trying to be seen by his Russian leaders as being a good Russian patriot.

>176 lkernagh: Nice review, Lori. Gave it a thumb. :)

>177 MickyFine: - Thanks Micky! Overall a good read and glad I finally got it off my TBR shelves. ;-)

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

Happy Weekend, everyone! The cold weather of the past week has turned into more seasonal warm temps with sunshine, so no complaints from this part of the world. Other half had to make a day trip over to the mainland today so took advantage to do some in-depth cleaning. Seriously, I have no idea where all the dust comes from that I vacuum up every week, but getting into the nooks and cranies made me realize how much dust probably comes in through the open windows at this time of year. At least, it is done.

On the reading front, I am still working on my current reads, so no book reports at this point. I did complete my walking update so that is ready for posting - not that it reports much, but still nice to provide an update - so that will follow.

For all Dad's out there.. Happy Father's Day.

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

WEEK 153 UPDATE:
Kilometers walked this session: 59.96
Kilometers walked in total: 6,703.52
Current province:No man's land (aka water) between two provinces: (NS) and (NL)
My current location on the map: Continuing to walk across the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, heading for Channel-Port aux Basques, Newfoundland.
Points of interest along the way: Still nothing. Just a lot of water.

Hi Lori!

I visited your thread a while back but forgot to say hi.

>176 lkernagh: You got me! This sounds fascinating. A BB for sure.

Lovely to see you posting, Karen! Even better, happy to have hit you with a BB. ;-)

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

Happy Summer Solstice, everyone! The weather is lovely - sunny with a slight breeze, not too hot and not too cold. Perfect way to drift into Summer. The Ska Reggae Festival is in full swing and will run through to Sunday so looking forward to taking in some music and food truck eats while relaxing back to the music.... but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Two more books completed and reviews ready for posting so onwards to those reviews.

Book #48 - Mary Coin by Marisa Silver - audiobook narrated by Eva Kaminsky, Alison Fraser and Mark Zeisler
Challenge(s): 2018 Category
CAT/KIT: N/A
Bingo DOG: "Money in the Title"
Category: N/A
Source: GVPL
Format: Audiobook
Original publication date: 2013
Acquisition date: N/A
Page count: 336 pages / 8 hours, 52 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.90 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca book listing web page:

"Bestselling author Marisa Silver takes Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother” photograph as inspiration for a story of two women—one famous and one forgotten—and their remarkable chance encounter.

In 1936, a young mother resting by the side of the road in central California is spontaneously photographed by a woman documenting migrant laborers in search of work. Few personal details are exchanged and neither woman has any way of knowing that they have produced one of the most iconic images of the Great Depression. In present day, Walker Dodge, a professor of cultural history, stumbles upon a family secret embedded in the now-famous picture. In luminous prose, Silver creates an extraordinary tale from a brief event in history and its repercussions throughout the decades that follow—a reminder that a great photograph captures the essence of a moment yet only scratches the surface of a life."

Review:
I love the old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” In Silver’s case, a picture is an opportunity to tell the story behind the iconic “Migrant Mother” photograph of subject Florence Owens Thompson, taken by photographer Dorothea Lange and published in 1936. Bringing to life the Dust Bowl Depression of the 1930’s, the story Silver weaves is told from the point of view of three fictionalized narrators: Depression-era migrant worker Mary Coin, photographer Vera Dare and in the modern day, social historian Walker Dodge. Written more like a series of connected stories and using biographical details as a starting point, this is squarely a work of speculative fiction. The thoughts, feelings and emotions of the characters are all creations by Silver. The portrayal of the era is stark and powerful. Silver does not try to sugar coat what was a very difficult time for so many people. Relying on broad themes of identity and survival, each of the three narrators face their own unique struggles. Under Silver’s hand, Mary and Vera are rigid, almost unyielding and it is only later in the story where we get to see glimpses of the compassion and uncertainty that lies beneath the surface. Favorite quote:

“Because answers are inert things that stop inquiry. They make you think you have finished looking. But you are never finished. There are always discoveries that will turn everything you think you know on its head and that will make you ask all over again: Who are we?”

Through Mary Coin, Silver attempts to follow this line of reasoning. Does she succeed? I think she does, as this story has opened my eyes to more closely scrutinize and ask questions about the images I encounter.

With the completion of Mary Coin, I have now completed my Bingo Challenge:


1. Mr. Darwin's Shooter by Roger MacDonald -
2. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens -
3. The Adventures of Dagobert Trostler by Balduin Groller -
4. Dark Desires by Eve Silver -
5. Arthur and George by Julian Barnes -
6. Mary Coin by Marisa Silver -
7. A Mentor and Her Muse by Susan Sage -
8. X by Sue Grafton -
9. The Passage by Justin Cronin -
10. The Road to Ever After by Moira Young -
11. The Hours by Michael Cunningham -
12. Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy -
13. Faithful Place by Tana French -
14. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez -
15. The Unpleasantness at Baskerville Hall by Chris Dolley -
16. Us Conductors by Sean Michaels -
17. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini -
18. The Fire by Night by Teresa Messineo -
19. The House at Riverton by Kate Morton -
20. The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards -
21. Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx by Sonia Manzano -
22. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde -
23. The Siege by Helen Dunmore -
24. The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder -
25. The King of Lavender Square by Susan Ryan -

.
Book #49 - Ghosts and Exiles by Sandra Unerman
Challenge(s): 2018 Category
CAT/KIT: N/A
Bingo DOG:N/A
Category: "U" Author - Unerman
Source: LTER
Format: eBook
Original publication date: April 17, 2018
Acquisition date: May 14, 2018
Page count: 302 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.15 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.com book listing web page:

"Tilda Gray hates Spellhaven, the city where her husband was born, even though she has never set foot in the place, and she does not believe in the magic it’s supposed to have held. Now her husband is dead, she would rather avoid any mention of the city. But her sons, Nicholas and James, have befriended Hugo, a young boy threatened by forces none of them understand. When Hugo's uncle and guardian, Stephen Cole, visits the Gray family to ask for help, Tilda agrees against her better judgement. Between them, as they search for ways to banish or at least help Hugo cope with the ghosts that are driving him mad, they seek out the dubious aid of the exiles from Spellhaven. In doing so they must face new dangers and unknown magic, unlike anything Tilda could have ever believed possible."

Review:
I struggled a little bit with this one. The story seemed, at times, to be a bit disjointed, with some abrupt chapter ends. It also seemed to just skim over certain details. It was only after I finished reading it that I found out this book is actually a sequel to Unerman’s earlier book, Spellhaven. That might explain some of the disconnect/ lack of details I felt while reading Ghosts and Exiles. One reviewer who has read both books does advise readers start at the beginning of the series to understand the background information, so sharing that same advice here.

Things to like about this one? I tend to enjoy alternate historical reality reads. Ghosts and Exiles has the solid feel of post-WWI England to it, with a number of magical/ fantasy elements to launch it squarely into the fantasy genre. I am also a fan of fairy tales, leaning more towards the more traditional Golden Book of Fairy Tales kind of stories. Not surprisingly, I really enjoyed the fantasy characters Sallikin and Thistlebeard. They give the story such a wonderful “old world” fairy tale aspect to it. As for the human characters, I have some mixed feelings. The adults come across as fumblers… only slightly helpful in solving the mystery three boys are a focal point to. As for the children in the story , they tend to come across as being older and wiser than their young years would suggest, especially Nicholas. Of all the human characters, Hugo appealed to me the most. The shenanigans of certain members of the Exiles Club, and exiles from their lost civilization of Spellhaven – and their rather interesting personalities – lends additional drama and excitement to the story.

Overall, an interesting coming-of-age story with a strong friendship theme that may appeal to YA fantasy readers.

Currently Reading:
.

Audiobook:
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie; read by Celeste Ciulla - Fits the June SSFKIT (Series) and RandomCAT (Unusual Narrators).
ebook:
Kept by Elle Field - A ROOT read and fits the June ColourCAT (Purple). Also, reading because I am in the mood for some mindless fluff reading at the moment.
Physical books:
Nothing at the moment

>185 lkernagh: oh well done! I'm close but a bit short of ideas on a few.

>183 lkernagh: Congratulations on finishing your Bingo card! Some of your 5-star reads (Faithful Place, The Importance of Being Earnest) are some of my favorites too!

Congrats on completing your bingo card, Lori. Hope the forecast accommodates your weekend plans. We've got a lot of thunderstorms in the outlook for the next few days. The clouds are already pretty dark out there this morning.

Congrats on finishing! And it's still June!

Hi Lori!!!! I'm so happy I caught up on your thread before you crossed the finish line! My husband drove through PEI and took the ferry to Port Aux Basques before we were married. He talks it up ALL the time and would love to takes me and our son there one of these days. Your lovely pictures have me earning to do that trip soon! It looks lovely, crisp and clean!

>186 Helenliz:, >187 christina_reads:, >188 MickyFine: and >189 mstrust: - Thanks guys. As I mentioned over on the Bingo thread, I got pretty lucky at the start of the year with even some LTER books fitting certain squares. I think this is the first year I have actually completed the Bingo card.

>186 Helenliz: - I hear you on some of the more difficult squares to complete. For me the challenging ones were "Pacific Ocean Related" and surprisingly, "Beautiful Cover". I lucked in with the "LGBTQ central character" square in that one of my ROOT reads turned out to fit, without thinking about it for the square.

>187 christina_reads: - Yay for favorite reads!

>188 MickyFine: - Thanks Micky. We have overcast skies at the moment so not planning on taking in the SKA Reggae Fest this evening. Think it might be a good night to curl up and rewatch "Local Hero". ;-)

>189 mstrust: - I know! My reading has just clicked so far this year. Now I need to buckle down and finish my Alphabet challenge. ;-)

>190 Carmenere: - Hi Lynda! Lovely to see you stopping by and yes, I am still walking my way across the country. I so want to go myself. Very happy to learn that your husband's trip was that memorable!

>191 lkernagh: I 100% endorse any plan that involves rewatching Local Hero! *heart-eyes emoji*

Congrats on completing the Bingo card! I'm having a hard time with the "set during a holiday" square.

>192 rabbitprincess: I read a collection of Christmas mysteries for that square - in April!

>193 Helenliz: That's true, I guess I have some Christmas stories in my "read later" queue on Serial Reader!

>183 lkernagh: - I'll add my congratulations to the others. I wondered why there were so many unread messages for me to catch up on when I got here. I was sure the hardest square for me would be the "poetry or plays" square, but I just got Dog Songs from the library. I got the idea from DQ who read it. I still have "beautiful cover" too as well as a few more.

Congratulations on completing your Bingo Card, Lori. I was going to read Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie for the set during a holiday square but stumbled on a ER book that was set during the Christmas season.

Congratulations on the Bingo!

>192 rabbitprincess:, >195 dudes22:, >196 DeltaQueen50: and >197 hailelib: - Thanks all for the congratulations! It is a nice sense of accomplishment to have a completed Bingo card. ;-)

------------------------------------
Happy Sunday everyone! It has been a fabulous weekend. Friday was spend as report - enjoying a wonderful re-watch of the movie Local Hero. I never tire of that movie! The rest of the weekend has been both highly productive and highly relaxing. I know, that sounds like an oxymoron in the works. Saturday morning was hugely productive - laundry done including the window sheers, oven cleaned, bathroom scrubbed and even the carpets cleaned! Afternoon was spend relaxing with music at the outdoor SKA Reggae fest and a relaxing evening walk home. Today started with a long morning walk and grocery shopping. I then spend an hour in the kitchen prepping lasagna and cabbage rolls so that I have two meals this week that will be of "heat and serve" variety. Puttered around in the garden a bit, sat back this afternoon for a couple of hours of reading and now getting ready to settle in for an evening of beading. My kind of weekend. ;-)

Walking update and one book review, coming up.

Book #50 - Kept by Elle Field
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, ROOT
CAT/KIT: June ColourCAT (Purple)
Bingo DOG:N/A
Category: "K" Book Title - Kept
Source: TBR
Format: eBook
Original publication date: April 23, 2013
Acquisition date: February 16, 2017
Page count: 298 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.00 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.com book listing web page:

"Life hasn't quite worked out how Arielle Lockley imagined it would. Becoming the next Coco Chanel was always her childhood dream, but she's spent the past four years living a dizzying whirl of glitzy parties, luxurious holidays and daily shopping sprees - all paid for by boyfriend Piers - and not doing anything to make her Coco dreams happen.

When the recession hits, it's not just the economy that takes a tumble, and Arielle finds herself living back with her parents, on bad terms with Piers, and having a CV that's as welcome as a pair of knock-off Jimmy Choos. And maybe it's the location, but she's also finding unwelcome thoughts of her childhood sweetheart are popping into her head...

What's a girl to do? Can Arielle figure out what it is she now wants to do with her life and move on, or will she be doomed to spend the rest of her life dwelling over her worst mistakes, stuck listening to her parents' embarrassing dinner table talk each night?"

Review:
In need of a mindless fluff read, I started this one. With all the fashion references, this one is definitely geared towards the fascinata reader. If you are not all that into fashion, you can probably just gloss over all the brand names peppered throughout the story. Billed as being perfect read for fans of Sophie Kinsella (among others listed that I admit to having never read any of their books), I thought it fair to assess this one with Kinsella's works in mind as Kinsella tends to be one of my go-to comfort read authors. Field has written an interesting chicklit / coming-of-age story. Yes, the character is 25-years-old when she starts to face facts about her current life, which is better than some who just never grow up. While an okay read - I admit to being a bit of a fashionata, so books with fashion themes do not bore me - it does not have Kinsella's tight, witty plot and dialogue. Field's characters are definitely of the fiction variety - having never encountered anyone like Piers or Noah, I am pegging them clearly in the fiction department. As for Arielle... well... I can only suggest this book if you are prepared to put up with a whiny, selfish and self-centered narrator for most of story. That being said, Field does create a fascinating character in Felicity, who sadly only shows up in the later part of the story. I do tend to love fluff reads with a UK setting (hence my love for Kinsella stories), so was able to tolerate Arielle's annoying personality against the backdrop I love some much.

Overall, definitely fluff reading for readers who like to read about man troubles, enjoy perusing fashion magazines like Arielle does and do not mind a selfish and self-serving narrator.

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

WEEK 154 UPDATE:
Kilometers walked this session: 57.28
Kilometers walked in total: 6,760.80
Current province: (NL)
My current location on the map: In the Codroy Valley area of Newfoundland, heading for Tompkins.
Points of interest along the way: I have finally made it to the Newfoundland, the island that comprises part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Port aux Basques - my point of entry to the province - is a quaint, seaside village.


Port aux Basques, Newfoundland - Axel Drainville - as posted to flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

My walking journey this week took me past Red Rocks, originally a Canadian National Railway station that was closed back in 1966, is situated close the water and wonderful sights like this one.


Red Rocks, Port-aux-basques, Newfoundland - Ashley Coombs - as posted to flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Nice to see you've made it to dry land, I was getting worried about how you were walking across water. Where you balancing on paddles, or where you strolling along the seabed. >;-)

>201 Helenliz: - LOL, so was I! I would love to try paddle boarding! I see people paddle boarding in the quieter water areas of the Inner Harbour and the Gorge Waterway here in town and it does look like a lot of fun, and very relaxing. Given that we have been having Orca pods visiting the Inner Harbour two times in the last few weeks, If I do attempt paddle boarding, I will most likely stick to the safer waterway where I would probably only have sea otters to deal with.

Happy Friday and happy long weekend for my Canadian visitor! It has been a bit of a crazy week. Busy and filled with some stupid stuff that was time consuming, frustrating, but does not warrant a lot of rambling about. Suffice to say, happy the weekend is here. ;-)

Sunday is Canada Day so looking forward to the usual fun times and fireworks (weather permitting) and a Monday off to just fluff around.

Getting really close to the half year mark. Hoping to find time tomorrow or Sunday to post a mid-year wrap up. In the meantime, I do have a couple of book reviews with my rather scattered thoughts for posting, along with a "information and optional comment" post. Will explain more in that post.

Book #51 - Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie - audiobook narrated by Celeste Ciulla
Challenge(s): 2018 Category
CAT/KIT: RandomCAT (Unusual Narrators) and SFFKIT (Series)
Bingo DOG:N/A
Category: N/A
Source: GVPL
Format: Audiobook
Original publication date: 2013
Acquisition date: N/A
Page count: 416 pages / 13 hours, 50 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.15 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca book listing web page:

"On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest. Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy. Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance. "

Review:
Loved this one! I would describe this as a space opera with a hard-boiled, revenge aspect to it. Leckie does a fantastic job with the alien world-build, especially the Radch Empire, its customs, social norms and its rigid social hierarchy / caste system, but it is Breq – the artificial intelligence narrator – that captured my attention and held it. As much as I enjoyed the One Esk / Shis’urna colonial occupation chapters (useful for slowly explaining events that lead to Breq’s revengeful purpose), I was equally impressed with how Leckie is able to balance Breq’s personality with some human traits (Breq’s love for singing) while maintaining her AI core aspects. While Leckie successfully blurs lines between civilization and barbarism and fades the line between human and non-human, I struggled with the gender construction in this story (the Radch do not abide by the gender norms like other civilizations). Breq’s references to all characters as “she” stands out when Breq interacts with non-Radch characters from alien worlds where gender pronouns are used.

Overall, Great world build, love the tension between Breq and Seivarden – a 700 year old dissolute exile rescued early in the book by BreQ – and the whole suicide mission they embark upon. My kind of space opera/ military thriller/ mystery read. Looking forward to reading the next book in the series!

Book #52 - My Ántonia by Willa Cather - audiobook narrated by George Guidall
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, ROOT, RTT
CAT/KIT: N/A
Bingo DOG:N/A
Category: "W" Author - Willa
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback / Audiobook
Original publication date: 1918
Acquisition date: May 10, 2014
Page count: 418 pages / 8 hours, 37 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 5.00 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca book listing web page:

"My Ántonia evokes the Nebraska prairie life of Willa Cather's childhood, and commemorates the spirit and courage of immigrant pioneers in America. One of Cather's earliest novels, written in 1918, it is the story of Ántonia Shimerda, who arrives on the Nebraska frontier as part of a family of Bohemian emigrants. Her story is told through the eyes of Jim Burden, a neighbor who will befriend Ántonia, teach her English, and follow the remarkable story of her life.

Working in the fields of waving grass and tall corn that dot the Great Plains, Ántonia forges the durable spirit that will carry her through the challenges she faces when she moves to the city. But only when she returns to the prairie does she recover her strength and regain a sense of purpose in life. In the quiet, probing depth of Willa Cather's art, Ántonia's story becomes a mobbing elegy to those whose persistence and strength helped build the American frontier."

Review:
Having never read any of Willa Cather’s books in my teenage years – Cather was not required reading in the Canadian school system during my days – it is only recently that I have come to experience, and appreciate, her wonderful stories and the sparse, clear quality of her writing. I have a love for stories that depict the harsh realities of 19th century (and early 20th century) prairie life. While told from the point of view of Jim, the story is very much a pastoral expression about forging friendships and strong women. While some novels of this nature tend to merely communicate a place and time – like a picture - Cather’s story is a sentimental story, a wistful longing to revisit fond memories. How can one have fond memories of a harsh prairie winter, of the wretched scrabble for survival for newly immigrated families and confining feeling of certain social strictures? For Cather, even those harsh realities cannot hold back the beauty that can reside in an individual filled with kindness, optimism, strength, determination, and the full potential of life. Some may feel that Cather has not adequately focused on those harsh realities, but to expect that would be to miss what I believe to be the point of Cather’s story: to give readers a story of courage and endurance set against the expansive prairie sky.

Information and optional comment post:

A huge digression from my usual posts but this particular topic is one I have been following very closely over the past two years. As much as I sympathize and support victims of abuse and harassment, I am also a firm believer in due process and the justice system. Yes, some victims - probably too many - are treated very wrongly by the very system that is supposed to protect them. This post is not about those situations. The link I share below is a thorough, in-depth story of what I can only call a blatant atrocity of lack of due process that happened to the Canadian author of The Cellist of Sarajevo, Steven Galloway, by the very post secondary institution (University of British Columbia) that employed him.

link to intro article:

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/barbara-kay-ubc-had-a-metoo-bloodletting-it-was...

link to full in-depth story:

https://quillette.com/2018/06/21/a-literary-inquisition-how-novelist-steven-gall...

For all believers in the #MeToo movement, if this article does not rattle your cage and make you think very carefully before you throw your support behind a supposed victim, then I have nothing more to say, because no words will move you. For the University of British Columbia, an institution I only previously held in faltering regard, I now hold it in 100% disdain. Keep in mind, this "furor" predated the start of the #MeToo movement. For Steven Galloway, I feel remorse that he has had to suffer so much because of the unsubstantiated statements of one anonymous woman. I also have already removed all copies of Annabel Lyon books from my personal library. She should be ashamed of the role she played in this horrifying destruction of an individual - an individual she personally knew for 13 years - strictly on the hearsay of an assumed victim.

Feel free to judge for yourself. The in-depth article is very long but it is the most comprehensive write up to date on this subject. The fact that MC (the initials stand for Main Complainant and not their actual initials) remains anonymous to this day is highly disturbing.

>183 lkernagh: Congrats on completing the Bingo Challenge!!! Woot woot!! I think I am only about halfway, and of course the second half is harder than the first. ; )

>206 lkernagh: I believe a lot of the stories of abuse are true, but I do believe in the justice systems and there does have to be proof. I know nothing about Steven Galloway or his case (or lack thereof).

>207 Berly: - Awe, thanks!

As for the Galloway abuse story... You are correct, there is a huge back story to this one. I will try to summary as best I can.

I find the situation disturbing because of the misguided information UBC presented to the press and the public as it was unfolding. They totally would have been better off staying silent but, nope, that would have made sense and UBC was not making any practical decisions at that time. They basically gave the impression that multiple acts of abuse could have occurred - against 19 claimants if my memory and the records are accurate. What ended up as the final result - many months later, after the damage had already been done - is a very different story. When UBC finally commissioned Madam Justice Mary Ellen Boyd — a retired female B.C. Supreme Court Justice - to conduct an independent investigation, she determined that only one complaint was justified: that Galloway had engaged in a sexual relationship with a student without first reporting this to his supervisor. All other complaints were removed. Under UBC policy, professors can engage in relationships with their students so long as the supervisor is aware (to ensure no bias in grading, etc).

Yes, Madame Justice's ruling came months after the damage had already been done via social media and in the press. My bug-a-boo is that very selective disclosure of information gave the impression that up to 19 "victims" were going to come forward (in fact, none of the 19 alleged ever materialized), and that the victim was potentially a recent adult in a position of negative power in relation to Galloway as current chair of the Creative Writing department. It is only with Brad Cran's article posted June 21, 2018 (a full 2.5 years after the first allegations were made public) that we learn that:
- MC (the "Main Complainant") is in fact Galloway's senior in age (she is older than he is);
- MC's claim of rape is a moving target in that we are left to wonder if the alleged rape occurred in 2011 or 2012;
- a "2 year consensual relationship" occurred after the proposed rape while both were married to other individuals (your basic "extramarital affair");
- Galloway chose to terminate that relationship; and
- Galloway, at the time of the relationship, was only a year-to-year contract sessional instructor while MC was a tenured professor at two U.S. universities.

The fact that MC never voiced any of her grievances first hand (they were all communicated through her proxy, Chelsea Rooney), really makes this look all the more suspect. That is just my take on it, but having watched the gong-show Canadian court case against Jian Ghomeshi where we saw how that totally derailed for the complainants due to their conflicting testimony (which thankfully, confirmed my belief in due process), this story is another sad example of just how destructive unfocused and unsubstantiated social justice can be on society. It subverts the very real sexual assault cases we should be focusing on. That is my take on this mess.

The fact that Galloway and his supporters continue to vilified on social media is a very negative sign of what our society has fallen over the years.

>162 lkernagh: What a gorgeous photo!! and I have a picture of Chloe in front of that giant fiddle from when she was a baby :)

>209 ChelleBearss: - Hi Chelle, Chloe must have looks awful tiny compared to that big fiddle!

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

Happy Sunday everyone and Happy Canada Day to my Canadian visitors. After the rain yesterday, it is nice to see the sunshine (although I could personally do without the wind). Should be good weather conditions for the fireworks this evening.

I do have one more review to sneak in. Then a half year wrap-up and I think time for a new thread.

Book #53 - Diary of a Single Wedding Planner by Violet Howe
Challenge(s): 2018 Category, ROOT
CAT/KIT: ColourCAT - Purple
Bingo DOG:N/A
Category: "V" Author - Violet
Source: TBR
Format: eBook
Original publication date: 2015
Acquisition date: October 26, 2017
Page count: 260 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.65 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.com book listing web page:

"Wedding planner Tyler Warren left heartbreak behind when she ran away from her small Southern hometown and started a new life in a big city. Years later, she wants to believe in the fairy-tale endings her job promotes, but the clients she meets day after day seem to be more “Crazily Ever After” than “Happily Ever After.” Meanwhile, her own attempts at romance play out as bizarre comedies rather than love stories, and she’s starting to think Prince Charming either fell off his horse or got eaten by a dragon. When unresolved issues from Tyler’s past complicate things even further, she discovers she may yet have some things to figure out before she can find her own happy ending. "

Review:
Book one in what is currently a four book series, this story was a lot of fun to read. Told in epistolary style, Ty's journal is filled with wedding planning horror stories, as well as one truly disastrous date. While Ty is hoping that one day her Prince Charming will come to sweep her off her feet, she is a sweet character and at 25 years old, she is entitled to have dreams, even if she is having difficulties trying to figure out what she wants out of life. This is one of those feel good stories about friendships, putting the past behind you and figuring out life. What I really like about this one is that it is light on the romance. It is easy to laugh with Ty, cringe with her and even cry with her when everything seems to be going wrong.

A delightfully fun read.

HALF YEAR RE-CAP:
No. of Books read: 53
ROOTs read: 38
Largest book read by page count: - The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy at 896 pages
Smallest book read by page count: - The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde at 64 pages
# Pages read: - 20,079 pages
Average # pages per book read: - 379 pages
Average # pages read per day: - 111.5
Audiobooks / eBooks / Physical Books: - 26/14/13 - with 20 books being counted as audioreads to get physical reads off my TBR pile.
Male vs. Female Authors: - 22 vs.31 - Finally, after years of reading books written predominantly by male authors, it has now flipped to predominantly female authors and without actively trying to make that change!
Fiction vs. Non-Fiction Reads: - 51 vs. 2 - Guess I need to think about upping my non-fiction reading, just a tad.
Average Decimal/ Star rating for books read: 3.87 out of 5 /
Publication date range of books read: 1839 to 2018
Top Ten Reads:
.........

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde - 5.00 /
My Antonia by Willa Cather - 5.00 /
Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay - 5.00 /
Faithful Place by Tana French - 4.85 /
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins - 4.85 /
The Hours by Michael Cunningham - 4.70 /
The Passage by Justin Cronin - 4.65 /
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - 4.50 /
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCathy - 4.45 /
One Click by Andrea Mara - 4.35 /

New thread is up!