This was an interesting read when I first started it. It's basically a western, a story about Charlie and Eli Sisters, who are brothers, and hired assassins who are on a journey to find and kill a Mr. Warm, who has a formula for finding gold in the California Gold Rush. The author has chosen to use much more elevated language than one usually finds in a western: for example: "we set up in a drafty, lopsided hotel at the southernmost end of town. There was but a single vacancy and Charlie and I were forced to share a room, when we typically kept individual quarters." Most Western writers would have said instead: "We had to sleep in this dive at the end of town, and since there was only one room, we had to share a bed, doggone it"
Their journey to find Warm reminded me a bit of the Canterbury Tales, because they do meet some interesting and colorful characters along the way, and they do manage to kill quite a fair number of people while en route. But by the time they found Warm, I found I didn't really care anymore, so I skimmed through to the end.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
Old City Hall by Robert Rotenberg ✔✔✔
I purchased this book in New Liskeard. I had already read about the author, who was the founder of a magazine about Toronto, T.O.,The Magazine of Toronto. It was first published in 2009.
It's a detective story involving a popular radio talk-show host whose wife is found murdered in the bathtub in their condo on Front Street. There are lots of characters - Mr. Singh, former chief engineer of Indian Railways, who now delivers newspapers in Toronto, Rasheed, the security guard, the two detectives who investigate the case, the Crown attorney and the defense attorneys, the judge - they're all here.
The fact that it's set in Toronto, with lots of descriptions of the Market area, Front Street, Old City Hall, etc were also very interesting.
I read this in several days - very entertaining and well-written.
It's a detective story involving a popular radio talk-show host whose wife is found murdered in the bathtub in their condo on Front Street. There are lots of characters - Mr. Singh, former chief engineer of Indian Railways, who now delivers newspapers in Toronto, Rasheed, the security guard, the two detectives who investigate the case, the Crown attorney and the defense attorneys, the judge - they're all here.
The fact that it's set in Toronto, with lots of descriptions of the Market area, Front Street, Old City Hall, etc were also very interesting.
I read this in several days - very entertaining and well-written.
Through The Glass by Shannon Moroney ✔✔✔✔
This is a true story, and an amazing one. Shannon was married for one month when a knock came to her hotel door where she was attending a conference for school guidance counsellors in Toronto. A policeman informed her that her husband Jason, who was back home in Peterborough, had been arrested for forcibly confining and raping two women in the basement of the video store where he worked.
Her life just absolutely fell apart with this news, and over the next three years, she recounts the crimes in more detail, her husband's criminal history - which she did know about, incidentally, when she married him - how she herself was treated because of his actions, dealing with the justice system, visiting her husband in prison ( she visited him regularly, although they could only communicate through a glass - hence the title) his attempts at rehabilitation, how her family was affected, how Jason was loved and valued by Shannon and her family - of course they loathed his crimes, and knew he had to be punished for them but they still loved the man. We also learn about his difficult childhood which was a large part of his problems as an adult.
I read this very quickly - it was hard to put down.
Her life just absolutely fell apart with this news, and over the next three years, she recounts the crimes in more detail, her husband's criminal history - which she did know about, incidentally, when she married him - how she herself was treated because of his actions, dealing with the justice system, visiting her husband in prison ( she visited him regularly, although they could only communicate through a glass - hence the title) his attempts at rehabilitation, how her family was affected, how Jason was loved and valued by Shannon and her family - of course they loathed his crimes, and knew he had to be punished for them but they still loved the man. We also learn about his difficult childhood which was a large part of his problems as an adult.
I read this very quickly - it was hard to put down.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Reading the novel "Sacajawea" by Anna Waldo.
I first read this novel some years ago- I just checked my earliest book journal, which I started in 1991, and it's not recorded there, so I must have read it in the 80s, and although I do recall it being very long, I really enjoyed the story of Sacajawea, the Shosone woman who accompanied Lewis and Clark on their expedition to the Pacific from North Dakota when it was only Indian tribes who inhabited the land.
I could end this entry right there, because that sentence pretty well sums up the whole book, all 1400 pages of it. But why am I even writing about it? Well, one of our Book Club members presented it as a possibility for us to discuss this year, and it was accepted, probably much more on the positive comments made by those who had read it, myself included. None of us mentioned its length, and if I'd recalled that, I'd have NEVER voted for it!
So, late in August I started reading Sacajawea for the second time, so I'd have it read by November 12, which is when we will meet to discuss it. About six chapters in, I decided it was boring, and anyway, I had a couple of other books on the go which were more interesting. But I felt some responsibility needed to be taken for having voted for it, so maybe I could just read the beginning of every chapter, which was an entry from Lewis and Clark's own journals on the expedition. Well, I did that for a bit, but then my curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to read it properly at least up to the middle of the book, then I'd decide if I was going to continue. Around page 600, I took a break, and I thought it was a permanent one- after all I knew enough of her story by this time, and I'd already read about her in Wikipedia. And I was also finishing those other books I mentioned earlier, and had my eye - as always - on the next one I wanted to read.
The novel is interesting enough as historical fiction, but I really feel the author did little beyond basically re-writing other journals and letters from Sacajawea's point of view, so that it's just a milder dose of a historic epic, written to make the story more accessible to general readers. There's also a fair amount of legend in there,too, which is all right - the story is interesting and certainly informative, but I thought my life would probably turn out all right if I didn't finish it.
So I left it - it's on my Kindle, stored under my "Did not finish" collection - quite content with my decision, until early last week Shirley mentioned she was just about finished it, and had really enjoyed it, and lo and behold, I felt guilty again about not finishing it.
Why is there this need to finish a book you're not fully committed to? It's not like you make a solemn oath or anything, the author doesn't care whether or not you read the whole thing and wouldn't feel himself or herself a failure if a little not old- but aging- lady in Northern Ontario didn't want to finish it, and there are so so many books to read! Is it so you can say you read the whole thing - Sandra said she "read every word" - is there some mountain--top experience if you actually finish something you don't really want to? I remember Gerry Pickett telling me he always finishes a book, whether he likes it or not. I'm not like that at all - I always have so many books ahead of me I'm dying to read. I used to make myself read 50 pages of a book before giving up on it, and nowadays it's more like 100 pages, but more often than not, I can tell within the first few pages if it'll be worth continuing with it.
The result of this latest - and last - guilt trip - is that I decided to finish it. Note that I said "finish" not "read" because I did not read every word. I didn't even read every page. When I woke up with a headache one morning because of skimming through about 20 pages before bedtime, I quit finishing.
And I don't feel guilty about it. And I don't know what there will be to discuss about Sacajawea as a book - I have a feeling it's going to be about the experience of reading - or not finishing - the book. Keep tuned!
I could end this entry right there, because that sentence pretty well sums up the whole book, all 1400 pages of it. But why am I even writing about it? Well, one of our Book Club members presented it as a possibility for us to discuss this year, and it was accepted, probably much more on the positive comments made by those who had read it, myself included. None of us mentioned its length, and if I'd recalled that, I'd have NEVER voted for it!
So, late in August I started reading Sacajawea for the second time, so I'd have it read by November 12, which is when we will meet to discuss it. About six chapters in, I decided it was boring, and anyway, I had a couple of other books on the go which were more interesting. But I felt some responsibility needed to be taken for having voted for it, so maybe I could just read the beginning of every chapter, which was an entry from Lewis and Clark's own journals on the expedition. Well, I did that for a bit, but then my curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to read it properly at least up to the middle of the book, then I'd decide if I was going to continue. Around page 600, I took a break, and I thought it was a permanent one- after all I knew enough of her story by this time, and I'd already read about her in Wikipedia. And I was also finishing those other books I mentioned earlier, and had my eye - as always - on the next one I wanted to read.
The novel is interesting enough as historical fiction, but I really feel the author did little beyond basically re-writing other journals and letters from Sacajawea's point of view, so that it's just a milder dose of a historic epic, written to make the story more accessible to general readers. There's also a fair amount of legend in there,too, which is all right - the story is interesting and certainly informative, but I thought my life would probably turn out all right if I didn't finish it.
So I left it - it's on my Kindle, stored under my "Did not finish" collection - quite content with my decision, until early last week Shirley mentioned she was just about finished it, and had really enjoyed it, and lo and behold, I felt guilty again about not finishing it.
Why is there this need to finish a book you're not fully committed to? It's not like you make a solemn oath or anything, the author doesn't care whether or not you read the whole thing and wouldn't feel himself or herself a failure if a little not old- but aging- lady in Northern Ontario didn't want to finish it, and there are so so many books to read! Is it so you can say you read the whole thing - Sandra said she "read every word" - is there some mountain--top experience if you actually finish something you don't really want to? I remember Gerry Pickett telling me he always finishes a book, whether he likes it or not. I'm not like that at all - I always have so many books ahead of me I'm dying to read. I used to make myself read 50 pages of a book before giving up on it, and nowadays it's more like 100 pages, but more often than not, I can tell within the first few pages if it'll be worth continuing with it.
The result of this latest - and last - guilt trip - is that I decided to finish it. Note that I said "finish" not "read" because I did not read every word. I didn't even read every page. When I woke up with a headache one morning because of skimming through about 20 pages before bedtime, I quit finishing.
And I don't feel guilty about it. And I don't know what there will be to discuss about Sacajawea as a book - I have a feeling it's going to be about the experience of reading - or not finishing - the book. Keep tuned!
Mrs. King by Charlotte Gray ✔✔✔✔
I'm a fan of Charlotte Gray's. I read Sisters In the Wilderness, about Susannah Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill ( and I think every woman should read it, just so we can keep things in perspective when the fridge breaks down or we get a flat tire on the 401), and Flint and Feather, the biography of Pauline Johnson, whose poems were a part of our readers in elementary school, as well as the biography of Alexander Graham Bell ( I think the title is Reluctant Genius), so when I saw this title on the list of Canada Reads 2011 top 40 titles in non-fiction, I found it at our library and settled down to enjoy another story of a well-known Canadian.
And it was very enjoyable, and very informative. Isabel Mackenzie King was the daughter of William Lyon Mackenzie who led the 1837 revolt in Upper Canada, and the mother of William Lyon Mackenzie King, who was one of our greatest prime ministers. Willie, as he was known by his family, absolutely adored his mother, almost unnaturally so, and she herself, disappointed by her husband's lack of initiative and constant financial problems, relied almost exclusively on Willie for both financial and emotional support.
As a portrait of Toronto in the late 19th century, it was particularly interesting to me - the way people lived, the city limits ( Isabel was in her twenties before she ever went north of Eglinton Ave), the At Homes which the King women attended and hosted, even as they scraped together enough money to hold them, the class distinctions, and so on, so the book also is a social history of women at this time. It must be fascinating to do research like this. Fortunately the King family were all great letter-writers,so there must have been lots of material to work from. For example, while Willie was in Chicago, he sent a ten-page letter home once a week!!
And it was very enjoyable, and very informative. Isabel Mackenzie King was the daughter of William Lyon Mackenzie who led the 1837 revolt in Upper Canada, and the mother of William Lyon Mackenzie King, who was one of our greatest prime ministers. Willie, as he was known by his family, absolutely adored his mother, almost unnaturally so, and she herself, disappointed by her husband's lack of initiative and constant financial problems, relied almost exclusively on Willie for both financial and emotional support.
As a portrait of Toronto in the late 19th century, it was particularly interesting to me - the way people lived, the city limits ( Isabel was in her twenties before she ever went north of Eglinton Ave), the At Homes which the King women attended and hosted, even as they scraped together enough money to hold them, the class distinctions, and so on, so the book also is a social history of women at this time. It must be fascinating to do research like this. Fortunately the King family were all great letter-writers,so there must have been lots of material to work from. For example, while Willie was in Chicago, he sent a ten-page letter home once a week!!
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Twelve Steps To A Compassionate Life by Karen Armstrong ✔✔✔✔
I can't believe I didn't enter a posting on this book when I first read it back in May or June of this year, unless I knew that I'd probably be reading it again and again. I'm presently on my third reading of it, this time chapter by chapter because our study group is using it as our focus for this year.
Karen Armstrong is one of my favorite spiritual writers, and this one is a handbook, if you like, to leading a compassionate life. I've felt for some time that, even as my views on faith and religion have changed so much over the past five years or so, I could be doing more - more to help others, more to express in a positive way those changes in my perspective, more to help myself along this life journey. This book is built around the Golden Rule, and the twelve steps are presented first as a treatise on compassion itself and how it is built into the major religions of the world, but then she moves on to finding compassion within your own world, within yourself, then moving out to others.
Reading this enabled me to finally be able to communicate with Brooke as the mother of our grandchild to present as clearly as I could how David needed some compassion in this trauma he's experienced for the past 16 months. I don't know what influence it had, but it doesn't matter - there were finally some more positive movements. I felt infinitely better for having done it, too.
Karen Armstrong is one of my favorite spiritual writers, and this one is a handbook, if you like, to leading a compassionate life. I've felt for some time that, even as my views on faith and religion have changed so much over the past five years or so, I could be doing more - more to help others, more to express in a positive way those changes in my perspective, more to help myself along this life journey. This book is built around the Golden Rule, and the twelve steps are presented first as a treatise on compassion itself and how it is built into the major religions of the world, but then she moves on to finding compassion within your own world, within yourself, then moving out to others.
Reading this enabled me to finally be able to communicate with Brooke as the mother of our grandchild to present as clearly as I could how David needed some compassion in this trauma he's experienced for the past 16 months. I don't know what influence it had, but it doesn't matter - there were finally some more positive movements. I felt infinitely better for having done it, too.
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