Book Review - Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

"The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you." Neil deGrasse Tyson

I have seen Neil deGrasse Tyson speak and read his entertaining and informative book, The Pluto Files (I still say it's a planet!), so when he came out with Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, I had to read it.

What is the nature of space and time? How do we fit within the universe? How does the universe fit within us? There’s no better guide through these mind-expanding questions than acclaimed astrophysicist and best-selling author Neil deGrasse Tyson.

But today, few of us have time to contemplate the cosmos. So Tyson brings the universe down to Earth succinctly and clearly, with sparkling wit, in tasty chapters consumable anytime and anywhere in your busy day.

While you wait for your morning coffee to brew, for the bus, the train, or a plane to arrive, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry will reveal just what you need to be fluent and ready for the next cosmic headlines: from the Big Bang to black holes, from quarks to quantum mechanics, and from the search for planets to the search for life in the universe.

Tyson is not only one of the smartest people on this earth but very entertaining. I found that he can explain complicated ideas so well, that normal everyday people can understand them. In this book he starts in chapter one at the very beginning, the creation of the universe, also known as the big bang.

The journey he takes us on covers the formation of our solar system, our galaxy the matter and galaxies far beyond us and the ways we have to explore them. He explains gravity, Einstein, Newton and many other scientists whose names we use today such as the Hubble telescope, named after Edwin Hubble, an American astronomer who proved that there were other galaxies beyond our home galaxy, the Milky Way.

He explains, protons, neutrons, cosmic rays, dark matter, dark energy and here's one I've never heard of, Invisible light. To say I understood it all would be a lie.

Tyson starts his last chapter, Reflections on the Cosmic Perspective, with a quote; Of all the sciences cultivated by mankind, Astronomy is acknowledged to be, and undoubtedly is, the most sublime, the most interesting, and the most useful. For, by knowledge derived from this science, not only the bulk of the Earth is discovered ...; but our very faculties are enlarged with their grandeur of the ideas it conveys, our minds exalted above (their) low contracted prejudices.

At first, I thought this had to be a recent quote but found it extremely interesting that it was made way back in 1757 by Scottish Astronomer James Ferguson.

In the last paragraph of his preface Tyson writes; In this slim volume, you will earn a foundational fluency in all the major ideas and and discoveries that drive our modern understanding of the universe. If I've succeeded, you'll be culturally conversant in my field of expertise, and you just may be hungry for more.

Well, much of the book I didn't understand but what I did understand, I found it fascinating. I read in short bursts which doesn't help with a book like this and do plan to read it again some time in the future.

I will say that Tyson did succeed in making me hungry to learn more.

Book Review - Calvary of the Air

There is something romantic, frightening and daring about the men who flew in air combat during the first world war. That's why Calvary of the Air by Norman S. Leach of Calgary appealed to me so much.

In the clinging mud and trench warfare of WWI, it was soon clear that the cavalry — the elite of the elite — would be of little use.

The dashing men and officers of the cavalry searched for a way to be front and center in the conflict, and found it in the new air forces being established on both sides of the Western Front. Soon lances and sabres were replaced by silk scarves and machine guns. Combat on horseback was replaced by dogfights in the air — one-on-one and in great flying formations — always between warriors. No technology changed more in the five years of the war, and none would have a bigger impact.

From Great Britain to Canada to Australia and New Zealand, new heroes took the honour and dash of the cavalry to the air in flying machines — which would change the face of war forever.

I thought the book is well thought out and put together. The first chapter is on the Allied Aces including Canadians Billy Bishop and Raymond Collishaw who were two of the top ten pilots in air combat victories. Donald MacLaren, Billy Barker and Wop May's stories were also covered.

The second chapter features the German aces of the day including, of course, the famous Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen.

No pilot can fly without a plane and the third chapter is all about those great old flying machines. Some looked so rickety that they didn't look road worthy, let alone being able to fly in combat.

The book goes on to tell the stories of some of the more famous dogfights and what happened to the surviving pilots after the war.

All in all, a very interesting book, on a very interesting topic.

Book Review - The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet

A year or so ago I went to a lecture by Neil deGrasse Tyson, an Astrophysicist who when he lectures is as entertaining and humorous as he is informative. At times during his talk, when the subject of Pluto came up, there would be some booing in the crowd.

Why?

He was part of the decision to reclassify Pluto and remove it's status as a planet. Actually he might be considered the catalyst of bringing the issue of Pluto being a planet to a head.

When I saw that he had written a book The Pluto Files about the discovery of Pluto and the decision making process to "downgrade" the planet from the nine we currently know of, I had to read it.

When the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History reclassified Pluto as an icy comet, the New York Times proclaimed on page one, "Pluto Not a Planet? Only in New York." Immediately, the public, professionals, and press were choosing sides over Pluto's planethood. Pluto is entrenched in our cultural and emotional view of the cosmos, and Neil deGrasse Tyson, award-winning author and director of the Rose Center, is on a quest to discover why. He stood at the heart of the controversy over Pluto's demotion, and consequently Plutophiles have freely shared their opinions with him, including endless hate mail from third-graders. With his inimitable wit, Tyson delivers a minihistory of planets, describes the oversized characters of the people who study them, and recounts how America's favorite planet was ousted from the cosmic hub.

The book is so well done. It could have been a very dry read but with deGrasse's humour and writing style, it comes off as anything but. Not only does he write about Pluto, he also covers the other planets and how they can be classified, and even has Pluto cartoons scattered throughout.

In reading The Pluto Files I learned so much about Pluto, our solar system and was highly entertained in doing it. I highly recommend it.

Note: After reading The Pluto Files I still and always will consider it a planet!

Book Review - The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

I have been going through some medical issues and while on a hospital stay, I was talking with a fellow patient who had just finished The Secret. He said it was quite helpful and after I flipped through his copy of the book, I thought it could be helpful.

In 2006, a groundbreaking feature-length film revealed the great mystery of the universe—The Secret—and, later that year, Rhonda Byrne followed with a book that became a worldwide bestseller. 

Fragments of a Great Secret have been found in the oral traditions, in literature, in religions and philosophies throughout the centuries. For the first time, all the pieces of The Secret come together in an incredible revelation that will be life-transforming for all who experience it. 

In this book, you’ll learn how to use The Secret in every aspect of your life—money, health, relationships, happiness, and in every interaction you have in the world. You’ll begin to understand the hidden, untapped power that’s within you, and this revelation can bring joy to every aspect of your life. 

The Secret contains wisdom from modern-day teachers—men and women who have used it to achieve health, wealth, and happiness. By applying the knowledge of The Secret, they bring to light compelling stories of eradicating disease, acquiring massive wealth, overcoming obstacles, and achieving what many would regard as impossible.

I have heard and do believe that people use only a small percentage of their brains and that there is so much yet to discover about it. Also, I am a firm believer in the power of positive thinking and that we can assist our bodies through visualisation. The Secret delves heavily into these aspects.

There are things that I do have issues with, however. The book seems to say 'believe and it will happen.' It suggests that we need to do nothing to bring on wealth or happiness except to just think about it.

Also it speaks of people as a transmission tower.

"The law of attraction says like attracts like, so when you think a thought, you are also attracting like thoughts to you.

Thoughts are magnetic and thoughts have a frequency. As you think thoughts, they are sent out into the universe and they magnetically attract all like things that are on the same frequency. Everything sent out returns to the source - you.

You are like a human transmission tower, transmitting a frequency with your thoughts. If you want to change anything in your life, change the frequency by changing your thoughts."

I can't buy the idea of our thoughts sent out into the universe as a frequency. What I can get behind is that those positive thoughts will keep you positive and moving forward in a positive manner.

The Secret did make me think deeper about a few things. As I said earlier, I use visualisation daily and found the book helpful in this area. I have slightly modified my nightly affirmations and visualisations and believe they are working.

When you read the book, take from it what you can. There are some very useful positive ideas that you can take from it.

“Your power is in your thoughts, so stay awake. In other words, remember to remember.” Rhonda Byrne, The Secret

“Whenever you think you can or think you can’t, either way you are right. (Henry Ford) ” ― Rhonda Byrne, The Secret

Book Review - Inside the Inferno: A Firefighter's Story of the Brotherhood that Saved Fort McMurray

Last year I watched the news in fascination. The images of cars driving along highways with flames shooting hundreds of feet in the air behind them while evacuating Fort McMurray are forever imprinted in my mind. I can't imagine leaving everything I know and own behind, especially all those personal pictures and mementos

Inside the Inferno is a story, not only about the brave fight to save Fort McMurray but also the story of the loss that most of the residents suffered.

An action-packed, on-the-ground memoir of the Fort McMurray wildfire and the courage, resilience, and sacrifice of the firefighters who saved the city.

In May 2016, what began as a remote forest fire quickly became a nightmare for the ninety thousand residents of Fort McMurray. A perfect combination of weather, geography and circumstance created a raging wildfire that devoured everything in its path. Winds drove the flames towards the town, forcing the entire population to evacuate. As the fire swept through neighbourhoods, it fell to the men and women of the fire department to protect the city.

Born and raised in Fort McMurray, Damian Asher was a fifteen-year veteran and captain in the city’s fire department. Day after day, Damian and his crew remained on the front lines of the burning city. As embers rained down around them, they barely slept, pushing their minds and bodies to the brink as they struggled to contain the fire. As he led his crew through the smoke and the flames, Damian had little time to worry about whether the house he had built for his family was still standing. With media unable to get into the locked-down city, the world watched in hope and fear, wondering what was happening on the fiery streets.

Finally, after weeks of battling the wildfire, the firefighters managed to regain control. When the smoke cleared, much of the city had been destroyed. Would things ever be the same? How would the city reunite? What would it take to rebuild life in Fort McMurray?

The story of the fire is told very well by firefighter Damian Asher. It is easy to forget how long this blaze burned and threatened the town, but he does an excellent job in not only explaining the exhaustion of the firefighters, but the physical and mental toll it took all those involved. Imagine fighting a wildfire that is threatening your community, while wondering if your own home is still standing or not.

This is a fast paced book that covers the journey of one man through the disaster. It is well worth reading.

Book Review - Truth & Honour, The Death of Richard Oland and the Trial of Dennis Oland

I just finished reading Truth & Honour, which examines the investigation into the the murder of Saint John, New Brunswick, businessman Richard Oland (of the Moosehead Brewing Company) in 2011, the arrest of his son Dennis two years later and the subsequent trail.

Oland's trial would be the most publicized in New Brunswick history. What the trial judge called "a family tragedy of Shakespearian proportions," this real-life murder mystery included adultery, family dysfunction, largely circumstantial evidence, allegations of police incompetence, a high-powered legal defense, and a verdict that shocked the community.

Today, the Oland family maintains Dennis Oland's innocence. Author Greg Marquis, a professor of Canadian history at the University of New Brunswick Saint John, leads readers through the case, from the discovery of the crime to the conviction and sentencing of the defendant.

The book is very thorough, although it could be a very dry read in places, which is due to the explanations of some of what seems to be minor facts. It was interesting to note how different our court system is compared to the American one and how much more complicated justice systems are in real life.

I have been interested in this case since I first heard that it happened. A wealthy man murdered with an axe or drywall hammer in his office in early evening with no obvious evidence pointing to the killer right away has all the makings of a good fiction, except it all really occurred.  To me, the fact that Richard Oland was struck repeatedly with the hammer or axe over forty times tells me this is a crime of passion, that the killer had to be somebody very close to Richard. After reading this book, I am now convinced that Dennis did indeed commit the crime.

One note the author continually makes, which is kind of sad, is that after the murder the family kept speaking of poor Dennis not being able to see his family at Christmas or holidays and poor Dennis having to spend time in jail, where Richard, the victim, seems hardly ever thought of.

If you like true crime stories, or stories of murder, this book is for you. Draw your own conclusions as to whether he did it or not.

Book Review - Tyrant's Throne (Greatcoats #4)

This morning I finished the fourth and final book of the Greatcoat Series, Tyrant's Throne.

After years of struggle and sacrifice, Falcio val Mond, First Cantor of the Greatcoats, is on the brink of fulfilling his dead King's dream: Aline, the King's daughter, is about to take the throne and restore the rule of law once and for all.

But for the Greatcoats, nothing is ever that simple. In the neighbouring country of Avares, an enigmatic new warlord is uniting the barbarian armies which have long plagued Tristia's borders - and even worse, he is rumoured to have a new ally: Trin, who's twice tried to kill Aline to take the throne for herself. With the armies of Avares at her back, she'll be unstoppable.

Falcio, Kest and Brasti race north to stop her, but in those cold and treacherous climes they discover something altogether different, and far more dangerous: a new player is planning to take the throne of Tristia, and the Greatcoats, for all their skill, may not be able to stop him.

As the nobles of Tristia and even the Greatcoats themselves fight over who should rule, the Warlord of Avares threatens to invade. It is going to fall to Falcio to render the one verdict he cannot bring himself to decide: does he crown the girl he vowed to put on the throne, or uphold the laws he swore to serve?

The entire series was excellent. The author, Sebastien De Castell, can really tell a great story.

All the books are written in first person by First Cantor of the Greatcoats, Falcio val Mond, whose companions, master swordsman Kest and archer Brasti, both too are Greatcoats, accompany him throughout all the books. I really enjoyed the banter and friendship the three shared .

The series, a fantasy that has been compared to the Three Musketeers (both De Castell and Dumas should be flattered), is the story of the breakdown of the country of Tristia after the murder of its king, Paelis, and Falcio, Kest and Brasti's attempts to fulfill the final order given to them by the king before his death while also saving the country and its people.

Tyrant's Throne takes Falcio and the others around the country in an effort to put Aline, the daughter King Paelis, on the throne without creating a civil war in the process. It seems the Dukes of the various Duchy's are quite devious and power hungry. Falcio, as usual, takes a physical and mental beating in the process.

The book is fast-paced, full of adventure and intrigue and a great read. It neatly ties up all the loose ends for the book and series in the last few chapters.

I am sad that the book and series are finished but happy that the author did not fall to temptation to expand it to many more books which may have watered down the story, series and characters.  

So long, Flacio, Kest, Brasti! I'm glad we had a chance to get together.

Book Review - The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports

I am a baseball fan, plus I have a fantasy baseball team in a league that has been running for 27 years. Pitchers are the highest paid players in the sport and the most fragile. It seems that every pitch they throw could be their last one. I have always wondered if there was a way around that so when The Arm came out, I had to give it a read.

Every year, Major League Baseball spends more than $1.5 billion on pitchers - five times the salary of all NFL quarterbacks combined. Pitchers are the lifeblood of the sport, the ones who win championships, but today they face an epidemic unlike any baseball has ever seen.

One tiny ligament in the elbow keeps snapping and sending teenagers and major leaguers alike to undergo surgery, an issue the baseball establishment ignored for decades. For three years, Jeff Passan, the lead baseball columnist for Yahoo Sports, has traveled the world to better understand the mechanics of the arm and its place in the sport’s past, present, and future. He got the inside story of how the Chicago Cubs decided to spend $155 million on one pitcher. He sat down for a rare interview with Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, whose career ended at 30 because of an arm injury. He went to Japan to understand how another baseball-obsessed nation deals with this crisis. And he followed two major league pitchers as they returned from Tommy John surgery, the revolutionary procedure named for the former All-Star who first underwent it more than 40 years ago.

Passan discovered a culture that struggles to prevent arm injuries and lacks the support for the changes necessary to do so. He explains that without a drastic shift in how baseball thinks about its talent, another generation of pitchers will fall prey to the same problem that vexes the current one.

Equal parts medical thriller and cautionary tale, The Arm is a searing exploration of baseball’s most valuable commodity and the redemption that can be found in one fragile and mysterious limb.

In what could have been a very boring medical read, the book is very fast moving. It describes the details of Tommy John surgery itself and how different pitchers have tried so many different ways to try to prevent injury. I really enjoyed how the author did many in depth interviews and would describe the thoughts and emotions of different pitchers who have experience elbow injury to having to go through a year plus recovery period, with millions of dollars on the line.

Is that why pitchers usually are pulled after 100 pitches? To save the arm? Partly but it's an arbitrary number not based on any scientific fact. Does limiting the number of innings a rookie throws in their first season help? Scientifically unproven.

The Japanese system for teenagers does overuse their arms and ruins many of them for life, but how much can an arm take?  Does the way a pitch is thrown help? Are there exercises that can prevent injury? All of this is explored from every angle.

Passon did an excellent job of research for this book and in the end left no stone unturned in his quest to find a solution.

Book Review - The Ward, The Life and Loss of Toronto's Immigrant Neighborhood

Recently I had to go into the hospital and my friends knowing that I am not only a history buff but also a Toronto history buff, gave me The Ward as a present to read during my stay.

From the 1840s until the Second World War, waves of newcomers who migrated to Toronto – Irish, Jewish, Italian, African American and Chinese, among others – landed in ‘The Ward.’ Crammed with rundown housing and immigrant-owned businesses, this area, bordered by College and Queen, University and Yonge streets, was home to bootleggers, Chinese bachelors, workers from the nearby Eaton’s garment factories and hard-working peddlers. But the City considered it a slum, and bulldozed the area in the late 1950s to make way for a new civic square.

The Ward finally tells the diverse stories of this extraordinary and resilient neighbourhood through archival photos and contributions from a wide array of voices, including historians, politicians, architects, story­­tellers, journalists and descendants of Ward residents. Their perspectives on playgrounds, tuberculosis, sex workers, newsies and even bathing bring The Ward to life and, in the process, raise important questions about how contemporary cities handle immigration, poverty and the geography of difference.

This book is uniquely done. It is a study of the what was known as The Ward, located in the area mentioned above. There are over 60 stories and and essays in the book that were written, today and earlier looking back at the area and so many articles that were written at that time.

The Ward is also full of pictures that look at the Ward from all angles, work, play and the awful living conditions of the area. It talks about the mixture of people, many newly landed immigrants, that found themselves living in the area together. Also told very well are the stories on how these people were viewed by the middle and upper class  citizens of Toronto. It was a very racist view.

I really enjoyed The Ward and would highly recommend it. Thanks, guys!

Here is my favorite picture from the book circa 1930.

Book Review - Stone Mattress: Nine Tales by Margaret Atwood

Although I don't read them often, and I have no reason to offer as to why i don't, I do enjoy a good short story. Short stories are one of many of Margaret Atwood's strengths and I have just finished her collection:  Stone Mattress: Nine Tales, published in 2014. The book is named after one one the story's in the boom, which also was one of my favorites.

Margaret Atwood turns to short fiction for the first time since her 2006 collection Moral Disorder, with nine tales of acute psychological insight and turbulent relationships bringing to mind her award-winning 1996 novel, Alias Grace.

A recently widowed fantasy writer is guided through a stormy winter evening by the voice of her late husband in "Alphinland," the first of three loosely linked stories about the romantic geometries of a group of writers and artists. In "The Freeze-Dried Bridegroom," a man who bids on an auctioned storage space has a surprise. In "Lusus Naturae," a woman born with a genetic abnormality is mistaken for a vampire. In "Torching the Dusties," an elderly lady with Charles Bonnet syndrome comes to terms with the little people she keeps seeing, while a newly formed populist group gathers to burn down her retirement residence. And in "Stone Mattress," a long-ago crime is avenged in the Arctic. In these nine tales, Margaret Atwood is at the top of her darkly humorous and seriously playful game.

The stories in the book are told in present tense and many are told from the perspective of a senior looking back on a life altering moment of their past life, and how they may be able to correct or at least make peace with or avenge it, at that particular moment of time.

I have already said that Stone Mattress was one of my favorite tales told in the book. Some didn't work for me, which will happen in collections. My other favorites (in no particular order) were: the first tale, Alphinland, The Freeze Dried Groom and Torching the Dusties. (I had to look up Charles Bonnet's Syndrome when it was mentioned on the second page of the story to be able to understand what was happening).

When I first started The Dead Hand Loves You, I wasn't really enjoying it. Then as the tale of both the real story of the author and the story of the hand that he had written became more complex, I found them both to be very compelling.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Stone Mattress.

Book Review - "Fire" by C.C. Humphreyes

C.C. Humphreys is a Toronto-born writer who now lives in London, England. He not only writes novels but plays too and is an actor who has performed on stage all around the world as well. He once was a fencer whom I had an opportunity to briefly speak with him in the fall and was happy to hear that when he did fence, he fenced the finest of the three weapons, the Sabre.

Humphreys has written three series of books. I really enjoyed his Jack Absolute series, which were inspired when he took on the part of Jack Absolute in a play in Vancouver.

When I read what his book Fire was about, I had to read it.

The epic tale of the hunt for a serial killer threatening London's rich and poor during the Great Fire of London. 

Fires don't start by themselves. They need someone to light them. What are friends for? As the Great Plague of London loosens its grip at last, Charles II's court moves back to the city, the theatres reopen and a new year arrives. 1666. It cannot be more terrible than the previous year, surely? But it can. For many will strive to make it so; to finally rid London of the curse that brought the plague upon it. A wholesale cleansing is required if society is to be born again. What's more it seems that a serial killer who stalked hand in hand with the Plague might not be dead after all. Together with actress Sarah Chalker, highwayman William Coke and thief-taker Pitman come together as one, determined to stop the brutal murder of London's rich and poor once and for all.

But another threat is on the way. It hasn't rained in five months. London is a tinderbox--politically, sexually and religiously. The Great Fire of London is about to ignite. And the final confrontation between Coke, Pitman and Sarah Chalker and their murderous adversary will be decided against a background of apocalypse.

This is the second book of a new series. Plague was the first.

I found the pace of the story fast moving but sometimes the way the heavy accents were written were hard to follow. Then again, to hear them spoken out loud, they likely would be hard to understand too.

As if the desperate fight to save London from completely burning to the ground and the flight of those trying to escape it wasn't excitement enough, put a serial killer in the midst of the story and it becomes quite the tale!

I really enjoyed the writing and characters in this story and now want to step back and read the first book of the Captain Coke series Plague. If it is anything as good as Fire, I'll be anxiously awaiting a third Captain Coke book the same as I am awaiting a fourth book of the Jack Absolute series.

Book Review - Unflinching: The Making of a Canadian Sniper

I just finished reading Unflinching: The Making of a Canadian Sniper by Jody Mitic, who was a sniper with the Canadian Armed Forces 1st Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment.

Unflinching is an uplifting memoir on military issues, endurance, and overcoming adversity. 

Afghanistan, 2007. While on patrol with the 1st Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment deep within enemy territory, sniper Jody Mitic stepped on a land mine and lost both legs below the knee. Though Jody was a dedicated serviceman who had dreamed of a military life since he was a child, it seemed that his fighting days were done. 

Ever a soldier at heart, Jody was determined to still be of service to his country, and he refused to let his injury hold him back. After only a few short months of rehab, Jody was up and walking again on two prosthetic legs, and only a year later, he was running his first road race. 

But despite his success in physically recovering from his injury, Jody still struggled to mentally adapt to his new reality. As he experienced first-hand the controversial treatment of Canadian veterans, Jody turned his efforts towards developing programs for wounded veterans and publicly advocating on their behalf. With a renewed purpose to guide him, Jody came to find a new lease on life.

I found this book to be a very uplifting read. It is the story of Jody's life, who as a teen lived a life without purpose until he decided to join the army and received some direction in his life. After joining, though, he had some issues and he tells of some of the personal battles he fought just to stay in the force. Jody really emphasizes the  respect and camaraderie of soldiers, not only those in the Canadian force, but also between Canadian and their US army counterparts.

The book also highlights what I have always had a problem with when it comes to our politicians and the armed forces. We send them off to fight for Canada but cut back on the dollars to equip them properly. This theme comes through over and over, whether it is regards to clothing, weapons or vehicles. If we are asking them to lay down their life for our country, we should do our very best to ensure that everything they receive is top notch.

Jody also highlights the lack of support, physically, mentally and financially for wounded soldiers who return home with massive wounds.

This book is very well written and one that should be required reading for every member of Canadian Parliament.

Book Review - Vij: A One-Way Ticket to Canada with India in My Suitcase and Lessons I Learned in Life

I've had some time to catch up on my reading lately and just finished Vij: A One-Way Ticket to Canada with India in My Suitcase and Lessons I Learned in Life. 

Vikram Vij, one of Canada’s great chefs, shares his story of the trials and triumphs in building a world-renowned food empire.

Fragrant with the smells of cumin, turmeric, fennel, and cloves, Vij reveals the story of Vikram Vij, one of Canada’s most celebrated chefs and entrepreneurs. Co-owner of the world-famous Vij’s Restaurant in Vancouver, his story is a true rags-to-riches tale of a college dropout from northern India who made it to Europe’s temples of high cuisine, then with a one-way ticket bound for Canada, found fame serving some of the world’s most transcendent Indian cuisine. Vij’s Restaurant, originally a fourteen-seat establishment known for its extraordinary flavours and spice blends, along with a firm no-reservation policy, received accolades from restaurant critics and patrons alike.

A culinary journey that began in India as a boy enjoying the praise of visitors for his chai and biscuits, Vikram’s passion for Indian cooking and his lifelong mission to bring awareness to the culture he left behind have fueled his tireless drive in building a world-renowned food empire. Driven to succeed, Vikram realized his dream to launch five major initiatives under the Vij’s brand by age fifty, but with challenges and sacrifices along the way.

For the first time, Vikram opens up about his struggles with prejudice, his mentors’ lasting lessons, and the painful demise of his marriage—both the successes and the failures that have shaped and sharpened one of Canada’s most unique and revered culinary talents.

I really enjoyed this book. Although he was little known to me until he came onto the Dragons' Den, it turns out he really has made his mark on the Canadian restaurant scene.

Vikram gives so much credit of the success of his food to his ex-wife, Meeru, who worked with the kitchen staff and created many of the recipes for his earlier places, while he worked the front of the house and handled the publicity. That is not to say that Vij did not take part in the cooking as he is quite the chef himself as his new establishments attest.

He isn't shy to explain the money he has spent on all his ventures and the amount of debt that he is in. Most restaurateurs lease properties where he is only keen to buy. The same went for when he decide to expand his operation to include packaged foods for the supermarket. Again he never leased a plant but decided to buy the land and build it from the ground up. Seems it was just recently that it started to turn a profit.

As tough as one has to be to be an entrepreneur, Vij has quite the soft side to him, especially when it comes to family and friends. In many autobiographies, the authors will show themselves as totally driven 100% to their business but where Vikram does talk about this, he also talks about missing family and the joy he feels when with them.

Although I never have wanted to work in the restaurant industry, I find it fascinating and this is an excellent look at that inside world.

Book Review - Old Man's War

A friend of mine from work read Old Man's War, and really enjoyed it. Knowing that I like science fiction, he gave it to me to read. 

The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-- and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding. 

Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity's resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don't want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You'll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You'll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you'll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets. 

John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine--and what he will become is far stranger.

First paragraphs of a book are supposed to hook the reader. Here is the first line from Old Man's War: "I did two things on my seventy-firth birthday. I visited my wife's grave. Then I joined the army."

That grabbed me and from that point on I had a hard time putting the book down.

The story is told in first person by John Perry, is well thought-out and extremely imaginative. Although the story does start a little slow, it was still interesting to read and was needed to show how the CDF turns old people into warriors.  There are twists and turns throughout.

This is the first part of what looks to be an ongoing series. So far, there are six more books in the series after this one, all of which I plan to read in the future as I am curious as to just how mankind's future will end up for John Perry.

Book Review - Anthony Bourdain's Medium Raw

I just finished Medium Raw, another book from Bourdain about being a chef and where his journey has taken him since he won acclaim for Kitchen Confidential.

In the ten years since his classic Kitchen Confidential first alerted us to the idiosyncrasies and lurking perils of eating out, from Monday fish to the breadbasket conspiracy, much has changed for the subculture of chefs and cooks, for the restaurant business—and for Anthony Bourdain.

Medium Raw explores these changes, moving back and forth from the author's bad old days to the present. Tracking his own strange and unexpected voyage from journeyman cook to globe-traveling professional eater and drinker, and even to fatherhood, Bourdain takes no prisoners as he dissects what he's seen, pausing along the way for a series of confessions, rants, investigations, and interrogations of some of the most controversial figures in food.

And always he returns to the question "Why cook?" Or the more difficult "Why cook well?" Medium Raw is the deliciously funny and shockingly delectable journey to those answers, sure to delight philistines and gourmands alike.

I enjoyed Kitchen Confidential but found the writing uneven. Some great chapters followed by some boring ones. This book was much better. Although he sometimes goes on a little too much on a subject, such as the Alan Richman is a Douchebag one. I agree that Richman and his tactics makes him sound very much like a douchebag but Bourdain could have been much shorter with it.

But that is the way he writes.

Readers would have totally missed out on a fabulous chapter, My Aim is True, which is all about Justo Thomas, an employee at Le Bernardin (a famous New York seafood restaurant) and how he goes above expertly carving up 700 pounds of fish each day, a three man job when he is off. The end of the chapter when Bourdain takes him to eat, in that very place where he has worked for more than five years but never eaten at (chefs can't afford to eat where they are working and many have rules against it anyways). It was priceless.

He talks very candidly about celebrity chefs, working for the Food Network, who he admires, who he hates and never does he hold back. There is no flow to the order of the chapters but the last one, where he describes where he was in life when he wrote Kitchen Confidential summed up everything he wrote fabulously.

I'm sure I'll be reading another Anthony Bourdain book in the future.

Book Review - We Stand on Guard

I don't read many graphic novels but just finished We Stand on Guard by writer Brian K. Vaughan who wrote the SAGA series and Canadian storyboard artist Steve Skroce, who has done the storyboards for Hollywood blockbusters such as The Matrix Trilogy, I, Robot, and Jupiter Ascending.

Set 100 years in our future, WE STAND ON GUARD follows a heroic band of Canadian civilians turned freedom fighters who must defend their homeland from invasion by a technologically superior opponent...the United States of America.

The original story was told in a series of six comic books, all of which are combined here in one book.

I found that the artwork was great and the story entertaining, but felt that the story moved along too quickly. It would have worked better for me if some of the story lines were more fully flushed out. But that might just be me. As I am not used to reading graphic novels I really don't know if this is the normal pace of a book like this or not.

It's always good to read different kinds of stories and I am glad I read this, as I did enjoy the story.

Book Review - Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

I enjoy reading Science Fiction especially cleverly done Sci-fi, so when I read the premise to Sleeping Giants, knew it was my kind of book.

A girl named Rose is riding her new bike near her home in Deadwood, South Dakota, when she falls through the earth. She wakes up at the bottom of a square hole, its walls glowing with intricate carvings. But the firemen who come to save her peer down upon something even stranger: a little girl in the palm of a giant metal hand. 

Seventeen years later, the mystery of the bizarre artifact remains unsolved—its origins, architects, and purpose unknown. Its carbon dating defies belief; military reports are redacted; theories are floated, then rejected. But some can never stop searching for answers. 

Rose Franklin is now a highly trained physicist leading a top secret team to crack the hand’s code. And along with her colleagues, she is being interviewed by a nameless interrogator whose power and purview are as enigmatic as the provenance of the relic. What’s clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unraveling history’s most perplexing discovery—and figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result prove to be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?

The story is told in a series of interviews by one unnamed person with the different people involved in the story, personal logs and mission logs. It is a hard way to tell a story but Neuvel does it so well. The personalities of all the characters, including the interviewer come through and the story is gripping.

It's a very clever story told in a very clever way. I can't wait to read the sequel Waking Gods.

About Sylvain Neuvel:

Sylvain Neuvel dropped out of high school at age 15. Along the way, he has been a journalist, worked in soil decontamination, sold ice cream in California, and peddled furniture across Canada. He received a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Chicago. He taught linguistics in India, and worked as a software engineer in Montreal. He is also a certified translator, though he wishes he were an astronaut. He likes to tinker, dabbles in robotics and is somewhat obsessed with Halloween. He absolutely loves toys; his girlfriend would have him believe that he has too many, so he writes about aliens and giant robots as a blatant excuse to build action figures (for his son, of course).