what are you reading?

[Nancy]

You could also save some money and borough your sisters book? Library?
I loaned this one from a colleague.

Sister-in-law lives 8 hours away. And, I do borrow from the library, and I also read books on-line through the library. However, I do give in to the buying impulse on occasion. And after I read a book, I give it away to someone I think would like it. I'm calling it ….charity. Okay, I know that is a stretch....

 

[Nancy]

Just finished Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny. I continue to slowly make my way through the series....SUCH a good author. The characters have made it inside my head and my heart...feel like they are family!

 

[Luce NDs]

After all the publicity about Alexander Hamilton ... a friend (retired Literature teacher; PHD) loaned me her copy of Ron Chernow's biography.

Must admit the controversial character was colourful! I remain in the Shadow ... observing broadly ...

It was a hoot to find Rev Ben Moore who presided over Hamilton's funeral was the father of Clement Clark Moore who wrote that notorious poem that disturbs the narrow minded folks! The hole remaining is deep and abstract ...

Also reading The Imposter Bride ... very reminiscent of the Notebook in ways many folks wouldn't pick up on ... elusive characters developing and all!

If you can't put your finger on it ... is it untouchable?

 

[Carolla]

Next up on my list is - I hope - Chop Suey Nation by Ann Hui. She travels from Victoria to Fogo Island, visiting Chinese restaurants along the way, learning about those who own & operate them, the history of these little establishments and the Chinese people in Canada. It was recently reviewed on the Armchair Books facebook weekly reviews - sounds intriguing.

 

[Ritafee]

Read the Martyrs Mirror online.

• "Oh, how easy it is to be a Christian, so long as the flesh is not put to the trial, or nothing has to be relinquished; then it is an easy thing to be a Christian." - Maeyken Wens, p. 979-983

 

[You just never know]

One Drum by Richard Wagamese. Interesting to see other approaches to the spiritual journey.

 

[Ritafee]

In One Drum, Wagamese wrote, “I am not a shaman. Nor am I an elder, a pipe carrier, or a celebrated traditionalist. I am merely one who has trudged the same path many of this human family has—the path of the seeker, called forward by a yearning I have not always understood.”

 

[Luce NDs]

In One Drum, Wagamese wrote, “I am not a shaman. Nor am I an elder, a pipe carrier, or a celebrated traditionalist. I am merely one who has trudged the same path many of this human family has—the path of the seeker, called forward by a yearning I have not always understood.”

I am waiting for the true findings as counter to the founderings!

 

[You just never know]

In One Drum, Wagamese wrote, “I am not a shaman. Nor am I an elder, a pipe carrier, or a celebrated traditionalist. I am merely one who has trudged the same path many of this human family has—the path of the seeker, called forward by a yearning I have not always understood.”

Richard may not have been a Shaman, but he does tell a fine story. )

 

[Luce NDs]

Such light thoughts of metaphor may require some to wear dark glass so as to avoid the sacred message ... Hermes metic for a measure?

Real physical people cannot take too much intelligence (info) at once ... thus extended myth ... stretch of ankh! Will Yams it ... little chitz/bits at a time ... flu id -ity (-ide)?

Enter stage left with leisure and limelights! Speak of the anonymous with silent soliloquy ... there's a thought in the dark my friends ... sacred in the vast continuum of script! (well if cursive is not completely done away with by the powerful anti readers ... illiterate brutism)

If Christ is d' elite ... what of the anti Light? The Shadow raines ... blackwater fever ... like Heat in the Knight?

 

[Mendalla]

Did in fact carry on with this though still not done. It's a terrific novel. Lots of plotting and intrigue, action scenes are brief, fast-paced and bloody. The real appeal though is the Kaul family, three blood siblings and an adopted fourth, who are battling to save both their clan and their society when a rival starts a ruthless play for power. They aren't classically heroic and can be pretty ruthless and deadly themselves, but are also quite well-rounded, interesting people. Reviews I have seen of book 2 make it sound like she's kept the quality up, too.

And finished on my vacation last week. Fantastic novel overall, a deserving winner of the World Fantasy Award for 2018. I'm 8 chapters into the second book (Jade War) and it picks up where the first left off and keeps rolling forward.

As I said, the basic plot is Western crime family a la The Godfather, but Fonda Lee combines that with elements of Hong Kong action movies and wu xia (Chinese epics like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Lots of plotting punctuated with brief, brutal combat scenes now and then. Lee practices martial arts herself so it all feels quite real, too.

 

[Luce NDs]

I'm still into Alexander Hamilton (biography) with grand explanations of the Federalist Papers ... it appears to be stuff that politix avoids in understanding who and what they be ... missing what they are not; "good for the entire thing"! Sometimes taken as pragmatic ... an-uterine thing or utopian! Thus uttered ...

 

[GeoFee]

One Drum by Richard Wagamese. Interesting to see other approaches to the spiritual journey.

Read this fine book last week. A rich tapestry of story rooted in our common human being.

 

[Luce NDs]

Just completed reading The Irishman (formerly published as: Do You Paint Houses) in which there was great spilling of beans. The Mafiosa called this ratting as it chewed away at corrupt powers ... and isn't the deep emotion all about having one's way?

The resolution was about the telling of one's story to unload the soul is critical for a person suffering the darkness of their hidden past (PTSD) as a personality disturbance? It really targets the carryover of WWII into the life of the late 20th Century. Now that theme (scheme, plot, conspiracy) is resurrected by names that reappear in high court applications. This may may senatorial is excessive aspects of doing what the individual wishes ... instead of the pragmatic form of 3 Muses. Three Musketeers?

Could this parallel the tricolour, or stinky trilliums ... snow flowers? How flakey is the myth that you promote without question? Fleur de Least!

Famous saying as sane in the midst: "When in doubt have doubt!" Get a grip ... hang on it isn't nice what goes on in the troubled waters ... Blast in the Silence Some declare indeterminately that this is all in your head ... mental disruptions?

The Sound of Silence becomes my friend ... and it was a creeping theme of Bobby Kennedy ... and Bobby McGee ... one has to dig some dirt to grasp understanding ... expect to shed some passion for it to appear! Now if Bobby was the devil to the Godfather imagine the incineration of Sam in the Machiavellian sense of many hues ...

In some ancient literature McGee and Sam are icons of devious haunting matters ... inclusive of Dan and the search for a drink of clearer what Erse ... an ersome irritation? But will it wash? Something resonates in melody as hollowed out dum-de-dums ... Monis Leas Ta' the problem in the great run ...

 

[Northwind]

I just finished First Snow Last Light by Wayne Johnston. It was a great novel that explored family mysteries and grief. It was set in St John's, NF. It turns out it is the third in a trilogy. I read the first two books, Colony of Unrequited Dreams and Custodian of Paradise ages ago. This one stands alone. I'm going to reread the first two.

Now I have All Inclusive on the go. It was written by Farzana Doctor who is a Toronto writer and my former coworker.

 

[Mendalla]

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero. Basically, what happens when the group of friends from Scooby Doo (well, good facsimiles thereof, presumably altered enough to avoid an IP lawsuit) revisits an old case when they are much older and discovers that there really was a monster, not just the guy in a suit that they captured. The real highlight is the exploration of the characters and how their career as teen detectives affected them down the road, but the main plot is also a nice Scooby-Doo meets H.P. Lovecraft mystery-horror story.

 

[Mendalla]

What an ending. It's basically a well-done Call of Cthulhu RPG adventure, going way over the top at times, but always keeping things in motion. Cantero has a lot of plates spinning but mostly manages to not drop any. And the two female leads (comparable to Velma and Daphne in Scooby Doo) end up as a couple in the conclusion to a surprisingly satisfying and well-executed romantic subplot. Oh, and the dog's human-like traits turn out to have an explanation that is rational within the parameters of the story's universe.

 

[Tabitha]

"21 things you probably didn't know about the Indian Act" by Bob Joseph for our "Book and movie Club from an Indigenous Perspective" at work.

 

[Carolla]

"21 things you probably didn't know about the Indian Act" by Bob Joseph for our "Book and movie Club from an Indigenous Perspective" at work.

That sounds very interesting ... what are you experiencing as you read it?

 

[Mendalla]

Weird that this thread has gone dark these days. Surely people read when they are social distancing and self-isolating?

Anyhow, I have been reading Transmetropolitan. It's the graphic novel compilations of a comic series that ran from 1997-2002. The writer was Warren Ellis (which is why I glomed on to it, since I am enjoying his work on the Netflix series Castlevania) and the artist was Darick Robertson. The two of them co-created it.

It's s-f about a gonzo (like really, really gonzo) journalist named Spider Jerusalem in a rather grim, weird future city that incorporates a lot of cyberpunk and transhumanist elements. There are probably some elements that will offend but that's kind of the point, I think. It is very much a satire but also feels like a possible future even though it predates a lot of the current social media world (though there are elements of that in Transmetropolitan's vision of the future, it ended two years before the founding of Facebook). Spider is definitely an anti-hero, cynically skewering everything under the sun (politics, religion, you name it) and NOT a nice person. Every now and then, though, there's a vulnerability that creeps through and that keeps him from being totally unsympathetic. He has a mutant cat for a pet, for instance (it has two faces). I am frequently torn between laughing with him and laughing at him.