Stumptown Vol. 1

I rarely read graphic novels. In fact I think I've only ever read a couple. Stumptown, however, interested me as I became quickly hooked by the TV show inspired by it. The other day I picked up all four volumes in the series.

Volume#1 is titled,:The Case of the Girl Who Took her Shampoo (But Left her Mini).

Dex is the proprietor of Stumptown Investigations, and a fairly talented P.I. Unfortunately, she's less adept at throwing dice than solving cases. Her recent streak has left her beyond broke—she's into the Confederated Tribes of the Wind Coast for 18 large. But maybe Dex's luck is about to change.

Sue-Lynne, head of the Wind Coast's casino operation, will clear Dex' debt if she can locate Sue-Lynne's missing granddaughter. Is this job Dex's way out of the hole or a shove down one much much deeper?

I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story by Greg Rucka is a fast paced, dark tale, with a flawed but heroic and moral main character, Dex Perios.

Here's the way she describes herself to another in the story: I gamble, I drink, I smoke, I've got a car that runs half the time. I just took out a second mortgage, half my bills are past due ... I own three pairs of shoes, one dress that I'm not ashamed to be seen in, two pairs of jeans and a collection of t-shirts that say more about my adolescence than I car to remember ... My word is all I have.

How's that for a tragic hero?

The plot is well complimented by the art work of Mathew Southworth. The gritty story is aided by each panel illustrating the gloom and dinginess of the setting.

As a bonus, there is a second short Dex Perois story at the end. I loved both.

I'm looking forward to diving into the next volume in the series

Year of the Slut by Jennifer Lieberman

Earlier this year, I was at a Canadian Authors, Toronto Chapter, seminar about romance and romcom writing and publishing. At the end, there were door prizes and I came up a winner. I walked out with a copy of Year of the Slut by Canadian writer and actor Jennifer Leiberman.

Hardly sounds like a romance!

Six months after Dana’s first break-up she is single, heartbroken and horny in New York City. At 25 she is a virgin once removed and navigating the Manhattan dating world is daunting - finding a new boyfriend isn’t happening fast enough to satisfy her overwhelming sexual needs.

Having only been intimate with one man, Dana feels ashamed of her desires and keeps trying to squash them in order to be a ‘good girl’. With the help of Kelly, her unabashedly promiscuous roommate, Dana embarks on a wild adventure of sexual discovery and finds power and confidence while taking charge of her erotic exploration.

This really was a tale about one woman's sexual awakening and a search for who she really is. Now, I'm not afraid to admit this is not the first book I've read which contains graphic sexual scenes, having enjoyed many of the Trailsman and Longarm series. It is the first I've read which was written by a woman from a woman's point of view.

And I enjoyed it. The story is laid out in monthly chapters starting with December: Used and ending a year and a month later with January: Magic, Unexpected.

An entertaining, provocative and a fun read, it was a prize I'm glad I won.

About Jennifer Lieberman

JENNIFER LIEBERMAN is from Maple, Ontario Canada and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from York University in Toronto. 

Jennifer has appeared in over 2-dozen stage productions in Toronto, New York City, Los Angeles and Australia; including her Award-Winning Solo Show YEAR OF THE SLUT, which this book was adapted from. 

In addition to her performance career she has penned a number of screen and stage plays including the web-series DUMPWATER DIVAS and the short films LEASH and DETAILS which both screened at the Festival De Cannes' Court Métrage among other international film festivals. 

YEAR OF THE SLUT is Lieberman’s first novel.

The Missing Millionaire: The True Story of Ambrose Small and the City Obsessed With Finding Him by Katie Daubs

I heard about the mystery of Ambrose Small a few years ago so was pleased when Katie Daubs came out with The Missing Millionaire.

In December 1919, Ambrose Small, the mercurial owner of the Grand Opera House in Toronto, closed a deal to sell his network of Ontario theatres, deposited a million-dollar cheque in his bank account, and was never seen again. As weeks turned to years, the disappearance became the most "extraordinary unsolved mystery" of its time. Everything about the sensational case would be called into question in the decades to come, including the motivations of his inner circle, his enemies, and the police who followed the trail across the continent, looking for answers in asylums, theatres, and the Pacific Northwest. 

 In The Missing Millionaire, Katie Daubs tells the story of the Small mystery, weaving together a gripping narrative with the social and cultural history of a city undergoing immense change. Daubs examines the characters who were connected to the case as the century carried on...

Drawing on extensive research, newly discovered archival material, and her own interviews with the descendants of key figures, Katie Daubs offers a rich portrait of life in an evolving city in the early twentieth century. Delving into a crime story about the power of the elite, she vividly recounts the page-turning tale of a cold case that is truly stranger than fiction.

It's a fascinating mystery and well laid out by Daubs. Many theories are presented, facts provided, evidence disproved and in the end, one has to come up with their own ideas of what happened. There are some romantic ideas of what happened to Small and many gruesome ways. 

After reading this book, I have my own theory but won't say what it is so you can read it and determined what happened for yourself. 

About Katie Daubs

Katie Daubs is a feature writer at the Toronto Star, where she has worked since 2009. She was previously a general assignment news reporter. 

Before joining the Star, she worked at the Ottawa Citizen. A graduate of Carleton University, she won a William Southam Journalism Fellowship in 2016 and has been nominated for three National Newspaper Awards. Born in Forest, Ontario, she lives in Toronto. This is her first book.

Under the Cold Bright Lights by Garry Disher

Rarely do I finish a book in just two days but that's what happened with Under the Cold Bright Lights by Australian writer, Gary Disher.

The young detectives call Alan Auhl a retread, but that doesn’t faze him. He does things his own way—and gets results.

He still lives with his ex-wife, off and on, in a big house full of random boarders and hard-luck stories. And he’s still a cop, even though he retired from Homicide some years ago.

He works cold cases now. Like the death of John Elphick—his daughters still convinced he was murdered, the coroner not so sure. Or the skeleton that’s just been found under a concrete slab. Or the doctor who killed two wives and a girlfriend, and left no evidence at all.

Auhl will stick with these cases until justice is done. One way or another.

The book was entertaining with an older detective, Alan Auhl, working three cases at the same time. Two are cold cases, one happens to be new, plus he is dealing with some tough issues at home.

I will say reading a book written by an Australian writer, caused me to go to the good old "Google machine" to look up some terms. Just so you know, a "ute" is a what utility vehicle in Australia and a "roo bar"is a bar or series of bars attached to the front of a vehicle, usually a ute, to protect it from collisions with kangaroos.

Despite the fact, Auhl works cold cases, the book is fast paced. It was an enjoyable read and I look forward to reading others by this author.

Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese

I have been meaning to read Richard Wagamese's book Indian Horse for some time. Finally I picked it up and read it. I'm glad I did. Its a remarkable tale.

With compassion and insight, author Richard Wagamese traces through his fictional characters the decline of a culture and a cultural way. For Saul, taken forcibly from the land and his family when he’s sent to residential school, salvation comes for a while through his incredible gifts as a hockey player. But in the harsh realities of 1960s Canada, he battles obdurate racism and the spirit-destroying effects of cultural alienation and displacement. Indian Horse unfolds against the bleak loveliness of northern Ontario, all rock, marsh, bog and cedar. Wagamese writes with a spare beauty, penetrating the heart of a remarkable Ojibway man.

The story had me totally involved. I was pulling for Saul Indian Horse all the way through, suffering through his down times and cheering him on during the good. This definitely is not a sport or hockey tale but the life of an Objibway man.

Indian Horse is now a movie which I declined to see until I read the book. There's no way the movie will be able to stand up to the power of the book but I'm sure, if done well, it could capture much of it's essence.

Personally, I feel this should be mandatory reading in all Canadian schools.

About Richard Wagamese

Richard Wagamese (1955–2017), an Ojibway from the Wabaseemoong First Nation in northwestern Ontario, was recognized as one of Canada's foremost First Nations authors and storytellers.

His debut novel, Keeper 'n Me, came out in 1994 and won the Alberta Writers Guild's Best Novel Award. In 1991, he became the first Indigenous writer to win a National Newspaper Award for column writing. He twice won the Native American Press Association Award for his journalism and received the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature for his 2011 memoir One Story, One Song.

In 2012, he was honoured with the Aboriginal Achievement Award for Media and Communications, and in 2013 he received the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize. In 2015, he won the Matt Cohen Award, a recognition given out by the Writers' Trust of Canada that honours writers who have dedicated their entire professional lives to the pursuit of writing. In total, he authored fifteen books including Indian Horse (2012), the 2013 People's Choice winner in CBC's Canada Reads competition, and his final book, a collection of Ojibway meditations, Embers (2016), received the Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award.

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

I don't know why but dystopian stories have always appealed to me. My wife, Teena, just shakes her head when I tell her what I'm reading, same as she did when I told her the story line behind Moon of the Crusted Snow.

With winter looming, a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark. Cut off, people become passive and confused. Panic builds as the food supply dwindles. While the band council and a pocket of community members struggle to maintain order, an unexpected visitor arrives, escaping the crumbling society to the south. Soon after, others follow.

Blending action and allegory, Moon of the Crusted Snow upends our expectations. Out of catastrophe comes resilience. And as one society collapses, another is reborn.

Most stories about apocalyptic times begin after an event, which has already occurred, seriously alters the fate of the world for the worst, with the story being of the characters who have survived. Not in this story.

One day the power goes out in this very northern community. Then cell phones don't work. Supplies from the south don't arrive. Nobody knows what has happened but after awhile the realize their situation will not return to what it was and they need to survive the winter which has already struck.

The book was a 2019 John W. Campbell Memorial Award nominee for Best Science Fiction Novel, an award which has been presented annually since 1973. An interesting story of the breakdown of what was a close community in devastating times. Moon of the Crusted Snow is a book which I thoroughly enjoyed. Easy to picture too with our own winter fast approaching. Ha!

About Waubgeshhig Rice

Waubgeshig Rice is an author and journalist originally from Wasauksing First Nation. His first short story collection, Midnight Sweatlodge, was inspired by his experiences growing up in an Anishinaabe community, and won an Independent Publishers Book Award in 2012.His debut novel, Legacy, followed in 2014. A French translation was published in 2017. His latest novel, Moon of the Crusted Snow, was released in October 2018. 

Waub got his first taste of journalism in 1996 as an exchange student in Germany, writing articles about being an Anishinaabe teen in a foreign country for newspapers back in Canada. He graduated from Ryerson University’s journalism program in 2002. He’s worked in a variety of news media since, reporting for CBC News for the bulk of his career. In 2014, he received the Anishinabek Nation’s Debwewin Citation for excellence in First Nation Storytelling. He currently hosts Up North, CBC Radio’s afternoon show for northern Ontario. 

His proudest roles are as dad to Jiikwis and husband to Sarah. The family splits its time between Sudbury and Wasauksing.

Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer

This morning I finished reading Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer.

Dr. Sarah Halifax decoded the first-ever radio transmission received from aliens. Thirty-eight years later, a second message is received and Sarah, now 87, may hold the key to deciphering this one, too... if she lives long enough. 

A wealthy industrialist offers to pay for Sarah to have a rollback—a hugely expensive experimental rejuvenation procedure. She accepts on condition that Don, her husband of sixty years, gets a rollback, too. The process works for Don, making him physically twenty-five again. But in a tragic twist, the rollback fails for Sarah, leaving her in her eighties. 

While Don tries to deal with his newfound youth and the suddenly vast age gap between him and his wife, Sarah struggles to do again what she’d done once before: figure out what a signal from the stars contains.

It's an excellent, well thought out story. The story jumps back and forth between the time the first message was received in 2009 and 2048. In 2009 a message was received from Sigma Draconis II, a planet 18.5 light years away. Sarah was the only one who could decode it. A reply was created and sent back to the planet. Then in 2048 a reply to earth's message was received from Draconis II, only it's encrypted. 

As messages take 18.5 years to reach the far away planet and another 18.5 years for the reply to be received, it's determined Sarah's expertise will always be required, so a new technology which will roll back her 87 year old body so it's 25 again is suggested. Sarah, though, will only undergo the prohibitively expensive procedure if they do the same for her husband Don. As it says above, only Don's procedure is successful.

I enjoyed the many moral discussions which take place in the book regarding a variety of topics. The story takes place in Toronto, and it was fun to see the Duke of York still exists in 2048 along with a few other companies and locations. 

It was an interesting, thought provoking story from Robert J. Sawyer.

About Robert J. Sawyer

Robert J. Sawyer is one of Canada's best known and most successful science fiction writers. He is the only Canadian (and one of only 7 writers in the world) to have won all three of the top international awards for science fiction: the 1995 Nebula Award for The Terminal Experiment, the 2003 Hugo Award for Hominids, and the 2006 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Mindscan. 

Robert Sawyer grew up in Toronto, the son of two university professors. He credits two of his favourite shows from the late 1960s and early 1970s, Search and Star Trek, with teaching him some of the fundamentals of the science-fiction craft. Sawyer was obsessed with outer space from a young 

Sawyer graduated in 1982 from the Radio and Television Arts Program at Ryerson University, where he later worked as an instructor. Sawyer's first published book, Golden Fleece (1989), is an adaptation of short stories that had previously appeared in the science-fiction magazine Amazing Stories. This book won the Aurora Award for the best Canadian science-fiction novel in English. 

A passionate advocate for science fiction, Sawyer teaches creative writing and appears frequently in the media to discuss his genre. He prefers the label "philosophical fiction," and in no way sees himself as a predictor of the future. His mission statement for his writing is "To combine the intimately human with the grandly cosmic."

Cuba Beyond the Beach: Stories of Life in Havana by Karen Dubinsky

Today I finished  Cuba Beyond the Beach by Canadian Author Karen Dubinski.

Havana is Cuba’s soul: a mix of Third World, First World, and Other World. After over a decade of visits as a teacher, researcher, and friend, Karen Dubinsky looks past political slogans and tourist postcards to the streets, neighbourhoods, and personalities of a complicated and contradictory city. Her affectionate, humorous vignettes illustrate how Havana’s residents—old Communist ladies, their sceptical offspring, musicians, underground vendors, entrepreneurial landlords, and poverty-stricken professors—go about their daily lives.

As Cuba undergoes dramatic change, there is much to appreciate, and learn from, in the unlikely world Cubans have collectively built for themselves.

This is a very interesting book. It was published in 2016 and spoke of how President Obama and Raul Castro have worked on establishing relations between the two countries. Dubinsky speaks of the optimism and fears the people have in regards to the effects of trade and tourism on the country and themselves. Now it's a moot point as since the book was published, President Trump reversed the groundwork laid by the Obama administration.

Dubinski's work is about the everyday people, their commerce, their underground economy and the effects of the collapse of the Soviet Union on Cuba, a period known in the country as the "Special Period." The collapse meant the supply of goods to Cuba stopped and with the US embargo on the country, the people went hungry.

The author has lived, on and off, in Cuba for over ten years and says, "I bring to this book the things I love and the things I hate about Havana, in the hopes that by sharing my perspective on a complicated place, visitors might, as I have, come away a little bit changed and a lot less certain."

I though one story near the end of the book describes the shape of the economy by an incident the author had coming into the country. "I had to convince a customs agent that a student was bringing in a large box of paperclips as a donation to the university rather than intending to sell them on the street." Wow. Paperclips.

Cuba Beyond the Beach is a fascinating look at the inside of the country, the people and not it's politics.

About Karen Dubinsky

Karen Dubinsky teaches in the departments of Global Development Studies and History. She has published and edited books on a wide variety of topics, including the history of gender and sexuality in Canada (Improper Advances: Rape and Heterosexual Conflict in Ontario, 1880-1929 and The Second Greatest Disappointment: Honeymooners, Heterosexuality and the Tourist Industry at Niagara Falls;the global 1960s (New World Coming: The Sixties and the Shaping of Global Consciousness;adoption and child migration in Canada, Cuba and Guatemala (Babies Without Borders: Adoption and Migration Across the Americas); the politics of music in Cuba (My Havana: The Musical City of Carlos Varela). 

She has co-edited two recent anthologies about Canada and the world (Within and Without the Nation: Transnational Canadian History and Canada and the Third World: Overlapping Histories). Her most recent book is Cuba Beyond the Beach: Stories of Life in Havana. 

She is currently working on two projects: a study of Canadian Cuban relations in the people-to-people realm, as well as a project on the iconography of children in global social and political movements. 

 She is a recipient of two teaching awards: the Queen's University Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision and the Queen’s Award for International Educational Innovation.

Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds

I just finished reading an excellent science fiction by Alastair Reynolds called Permafrost.

Alastair Reynolds unfolds a time-traveling climate fiction adventure in Permafrost.

2080: at a remote site on the edge of the Arctic Circle, a group of scientists, engineers and physicians gather to gamble humanity’s future on one last-ditch experiment. Their goal: to make a tiny alteration to the past, averting a global catastrophe while at the same time leaving recorded history intact. To make the experiment work, they just need one last recruit: an ageing schoolteacher whose late mother was the foremost expert on the mathematics of paradox.

2028: a young woman goes into surgery for routine brain surgery. In the days following her operation, she begins to hear another voice in her head... an unwanted presence which seems to have a will, and a purpose, all of its own – one that will disrupt her life entirely. The only choice left to her is a simple one.

Does she resist... or become a collaborator?

At 192 pages, this is more a novella than a novel, it is, however, a fast paced, well thought out Sci-Fi thriller.

The future world of 2080 is more than bleak. The earth's residents know they are the last generation. Valentina Lidova is the ageing school, somewhere in her seventies, recruited as the best possible candidate to go into the past to find seeds genetically modified so they could grow anywhere in any situation. As it says above, there will be changes to the past, hopefully insignificant, so the time line is only nudged, not severely altered.

It was an enjoyable ride and book I had a hard time putting down.

Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror

I just finished reading Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror: Speculative Genre Exercises from Today's Best Writers and Teachers.

The fifth volume in the acclaimed Now Write! writing-guide series offers a full toolbox of advice and exercises for speculative fiction writers hoping to craft an engaging alternate reality, flesh out an enthralling fantasy quest, or dream up a bloodcurdling plot twist, including: 

 -Harlan Ellison (R), on crafting the perfect story title 
 -Jack Ketchum, on how economy of language helps create a truly frightening tale 
-Piers Anthony, on making fantastical characters feel genuine and relatable 

 Among the other writers included are: Steven Barnes, Peter Briggs, David Brin, Sara B. Cooper, Brian James Freeman, Joe R. Lansdale, Bruce McAllister, Vonda N. McIntyre, William F. Nolan, Michael Reaves, Melissa Scott, Michael Dillon Scott, Vanessa Vaughn and others. This collection of storytelling secrets from top genre writers—including winners of Nebula, Hugo, Edgar, and Bram Stoker awards—is essential for any writer looking to take a leap beyond the ordinary.

I want to venture into sci-fi writing and figured this would help show me the way. What I discovered was this book gave me many tips and things to think about, not only for writing Science Fiction but really, for all genres of writing. When I first picked up the book I figured I would be skipping over the horror and fantasy sections but found excellent advice from those writers too.

Each writers piece is only a few pages long, so allows for a multitude of writers and advice from every angle, character building, creating suspense and surprise, mood, relationships between characters, creating tension and so much more.

I learned from it.

Take Us to Your Chief by Drew Hayden Taylor

 I've been meaning to read a book by Drew Hayden Taylor for some time and finally got around to it with Take Us to Your Chief.

A forgotten Haudenosaunee social song beams into the cosmos like a homing beacon for interstellar visitors. A computer learns to feel sadness and grief from the history of atrocities committed against First Nations. A young Native man discovers the secret to time travel in ancient petroglyphs. Drawing inspiration from science fiction legends like Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury, Drew Hayden Taylor frames classic science-fiction tropes in an Aboriginal perspective.

The nine stories in this collection span all traditional topics of science fiction--from peaceful aliens to hostile invaders; from space travel to time travel; from government conspiracies to connections across generations. Yet Taylor's First Nations perspective draws fresh parallels, likening the cultural implications of alien contact to those of the arrival of Europeans in the Americas, or highlighting the impossibility of remaining a "good Native" in such an unnatural situation as a space mission.

Infused with Native stories and variously mysterious, magical and humorous, Take Us to Your Chief is the perfect mesh of nostalgically 1950s-esque science fiction with modern First Nations discourse.

I heard him read from this book last year and found it interesting and humorous. When he was being interviewed and taking questions from the audience, he was well-spoken and funny.

Take Us to Your Chief is both humorous and thoughtful. I enjoyed all the stories but the three I liked most were:

1. The first story in the book, A Culturally Inappropriate Armageddon, how a discovered ancient Haudenosaunee song played on a local radio station changed the world.
2. Mr Gizmo, about a child's toy which begins to speak to a troubled boy contemplating suicide.
3. Take Us to Your Chief, the last story with which the book takes its title from. While enjoying a few brews by a lake, three men Objibway men witness a spacecraft land and wonder what to do when the figures inside it greet them.

I Am ... Am I is the most thoughtful, when a computer gains consciousness and wishes to know exactly what it is.

All the stories are worth reading.

Not only am I looking forward to reading another of his books but he'll be giving a talk at the Heritage Court Wine Garden at the CNE on August 22, 2019 at 6 pm to discuss his work as an Indigenous writer, filmmaker, journalist and playwright, and provide a sneak peek into his upcoming book, “Chasing Painted Horses.”  I plan to be there.

About Drew Hayden Taylor

During the last twenty-five years of his life, Drew Hayden Taylor has done many things, most of which he is proud of. An Ojibway from the Curve Lake First Nations in Ontario, he has worn many hats in his literary career, from performing stand-up comedy at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., to being Artistic Director of Canada's premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts. 

He has been an award-winning playwright (with over 70 productions of his work), a journalist/columnist (appearing regularly in several Canadian newspapers and magazines), short-story writer, novelist, television scriptwriter, and has worked on over 17 documentaries exploring the Native experience. Most notably, he wrote and directed REDSKINS, TRICKSTERS AND PUPPY STEW, a documentary on Native humour for the National Film Board of Canada.

He has traveled to sixteen countries around the world, spreading the gospel of Native literature to the world. Through many of his books, most notably the four volume set of the FUNNY, YOU DON'T LOOK LIKE ONE series, he has tried to educate and inform the world about issues that reflect, celebrate, and interfere in the lives of Canada's First Nations.

Oddly enough, the thing his mother is most proud of is his ability to make spaghetti from scratch.
His website contains far more information on Drew (may I call him that?) and his works.

Broken Promise by Linwood Barclay

I've wanted to read a Linwood Barclay novel for some time and finally, I got around to it with Broken Promise.

After his wife’s death and the collapse of his newspaper, David Harwood has no choice but to uproot his nine-year-old son and move back into his childhood home in Promise Falls, New York. David believes his life is in free fall, and he can’t find a way to stop his descent.

Then he comes across a family secret of epic proportions. A year after a devastating miscarriage, David’s cousin Marla has continued to struggle. But when David’s mother asks him to check on her, he’s horrified to discover that she’s been secretly raising a child who is not her own—a baby she claims was a gift from an “angel” left on her porch.

When the baby’s real mother is found murdered, David can’t help wanting to piece together what happened—even if it means proving his own cousin’s guilt. But as he uncovers each piece of evidence, David realizes that Marla’s mysterious child is just the tip of the iceberg.

Other strange things are happening. Animals are found ritually slaughtered. An ominous abandoned Ferris wheel seems to stand as a warning that something dark has infected Promise Falls. And someone has decided that the entire town must pay for the sins of its past…in blood.

I just became a Linwood fan! The story has many fast moving parts which kept me interested throughout. I enjoy stories about reluctant heroes and David Harwood is one. He's a down and out, struggling person drawn into something, which at the start, I felt he'd rather not be involved in. With so much on his plate, it was interesting to see how he balanced proving his cousin's innocence, with everything else in his life, such as being a single parent, trying to find a job and having to deal with living with his parent.

An enjoyable, well told tale.

About Linwood Barclay

Linwood Barclay, a New York Times bestselling author and with nearly twenty novels to his credit, spent three decades in newspapers before turning full time to writing thrillers. His books have been translated into more than two dozen language, sold millions of copies, and he counts Stephen King among his fans. Many of his books have been optioned for film and TV, a series has been made in France, and he wrote the screenplay for the film based on his novel Never Saw it Coming. Born in the US, his parents moved to Canada just as he was turning four, and he’s lived there ever since. He lives near Toronto with his wife, Neetha. They have two grown children.

Confessions of a Mountie: My Life Behind the Red Serge

Today I finished reading Confessions of a Mountie: My Life Behind the Red Serge by Frank Pitts.

Confessions of a Mountie is the dramatic memoir of retired RCMP Officer Frank Pitts from Bell Island, Newfoundland and Labrador. His story begins with a terrifying standoff between him and a machete-wielding suspect. As his life flashes before his eyes, Frank Pitts recalls his enlistment, training, and cases both solved and unsolved that have led to this moment. Through these flashbacks, we learn what a day in the life of a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer is like and that decisions, often made in the blink of an eye, can mean the difference between life and death. 

Frank Pitts’s story has excitement, humour, and tragedy all rolled into one. Most of all, this heartfelt memoir shows the human side of the men and women who serve in the RCMP.

I've always felt being a Mountie or a police officer of any kind would be a hard job to do and a harder one not to take home. That really comes to light in this book. Also, many in the force never have to take a life or be in danger of having theirs taken but as one main incident which runs through this book shows, not only can it happen, but there are consequences to face after.

Pitts recounts a multitude of stories, some humorous, some tragic. Some show how the mind reacts to some of the horror it has to deal with.

I enjoyed this book and am glad I had the opportunity to get a look inside an RCMP officer's life. An excellent review of his career can be found on the Flanker Press website.

Cold Skies: A Dreadfulwater Mystery by Thomas King

 I've wanted to read a Thomas King novel for awhile and finally did so with Cold Skies: A Dreadfulwater Mystery.

Thumps DreadfulWater has finally found some peace and quiet. His past as a California cop now far behind him, he’s living out his retirement as a fine-arts photographer in the small town of Chinook. His health isn’t great, and he could use a new stove, but as long as he’s got his cat and a halfway decent plate of eggs, life is good.

All that changes when a body turns up on the eve of a major water conference and the understaffed sheriff’s department turns to Thumps for help. Thumps wants none of it, but even he is intrigued when he learns the deceased was developing a new technology that could revolutionize water and oil drilling . . . and that could also lose some very powerful people a lot of money. As strangers begin to pour into Chinook for the conference, Thumps finds himself sinking deeper and deeper into a conflict between secretive players who will kill to get what they want.

It's my first Thomas King book and I really enjoyed it. I loved how Thumps Dreadfulwater was portrayed. He's an ex-cop who just wants to take photos so he can sell them. The local sheriff, however, wants to make him a temporary acting sheriff so he can go on a vacation with his wife. Thumps wants none of it. Then a murder is discovered.  As much as the sheriff tries to draw Thumps into the case, Thumps resists.

I love how Thumps' mind can wander and his lack of interest, not only in the case but the goings on of those around him. That is, except for his cat, Freeway.

A very entertaining read. I'm looking forward to reading others in this series and more books from Thomas King

About Thomas King

Thomas King was born in 1943 in Sacramento, California and is of Cherokee, Greek and German descent. He obtained his PhD from the University of Utah in 1986. He is known for works in which he addresses the marginalization of American Indians, delineates "pan-Indian" concerns and histories, and attempts to abolish common stereotypes about Native Americans. He taught Native American Studies at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, and at the University of Minnesota. He is currently a Professor of English at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. King has become one of the foremost writers of fiction about Canada's Native people.

Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

I just finished reading a great book, Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan.

Berlin, 1939. The Hot Time Swingers, a popular jazz band, has been forbidden to play by the Nazis. Their young black trumpet-player Hieronymus Falk, declared a musical genius by Louis Armstrong, is arrested in a Paris cafe and never heard from again.

Berlin, 1952. Falk is now a jazz legend, and the Hot Time Swingers band members Sid Griffiths and Chip Jones have appeared in a documentary about Falk. When they are invited to attend the film's premier, Sid's role in Falk's fate will be questioned launching the two old musicians on a surprising and strange journey.

From the smoky bars of pre-war Berlin to the salons of Paris, Sid leads the reader through a fascinating, little-known world as he describes the friendships, love affairs and treacheries that led to Falk's incarceration in Sachsenhausen.

This was a fabulous book which kept me hooked all the way through. The story is told by Sid and moves from present to past and back again. I loved it. No wonder Esi won the 2011 Giller Prize for this. Oh, her new book, Washington Black, won the 2018 Giller. Wow!

I was at a talk given by Esi in January, which was put on by the Toronto branch of the Canadian Author's Association. Not only is she a great writer but a great speaker too. If you have a chance to go to one of her readings, you won't regret it.

About Esi Edugyan

Esi Edugyan has a Masters in Writing from Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Best New American Voices 2003, ed. Joyce Carol Oates, and Revival: An Anthology of Black Canadian Writing (2006). Her debut novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, was published internationally. It was nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, was a More Book Lust selection, and was chosen by the New York Public Library as one of 2004's Books to Remember.

Edugyan has held fellowships in the US, Scotland, Iceland, Germany, Hungary, Finland, Spain and Belgium. She has taught creative writing at both Johns Hopkins University and the University of Victoria, and has sat on many international panels, including the LesART Literary Festival in Esslingen, Germany, the Budapest Book Fair in Hungary, and Barnard College in New York City.

She currently lives in Victoria, British Columbia.

Defying Limits: Lessons from the Edge of the Universe by Dr. Dave Williams

At the beginning of June, my friend, Malcolm, and I went to the Toronto Reference Library to see a talk given by Dr. Dave Williams. Dr. Williams was the head of emergency surgery at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto before he submitted his name and became an astronaut. It was a great talk and I walked away with his Defying Limits under my arm.

Dr. Dave has led the sort of life that most people only dream of. He has set records for spacewalking. He has lived undersea for weeks at a time. He has saved lives as an emergency doctor, launched into the stratosphere twice, and performed surgery in zero gravity.

But if you ask him how he became so accomplished, he’ll say: “I’m just a curious kid from Saskatchewan.” Curious indeed.

Dr. Dave never lost his desire to explore nor his fascination with the world. Whether he was exploring the woods behind his childhood home or floating in space at the end of the Canadarm, Dave tried to see every moment of his life as filled with beauty and meaning. He learned to scuba dive at only twelve years old, became a doctor despite academic struggles as an undergraduate, and overcame stiff odds and fierce competition to join the ranks of the astronauts he had idolized as a child.

There were setbacks and challenges along the way—the loss of friends in the Columbia disaster, a cancer diagnosis that nearly prevented him from returning to space—but through it all, Dave never lost sight of his goal. And when he finally had the chance to fly among the stars, he came to realize that although the destination can be spectacular, it’s the journey that truly matters.

In Defying Limits, Dave shares the events that have defined his life, showing us that whether we’re gravity-defying astronauts or earth-bound terrestrials, we can all live an infinite, fulfilled life by relishing the value and importance of each moment. The greatest fear that we all face is not the fear of dying, but the fear of never having lived. Each of us is greater than we believe. And, together, we can exceed our limits to soar farther and higher than we ever imagined.

During his talk, he was very philosophical regarding what he had accomplished and his life in general. He comes through the same way in his book.

It's not only well written but his descriptions of what he saw and felt while in space were inspiring. In fact, his views on life and death are just that. Inspiring.

The last chapter of the book describes an incident which occurred with a patient he was attending to at a hospital. I won't spoil it for you but it was one of the most beautiful, sad and romantic things I have ever read.

I really enjoyed reading of his experience in hearing about having cancer and what he felt going through treatment, learning what it's like to be the patient and not the doctor. Having gone through it myself, I could identify with everything he said. He doesn't call himself a cancer survivor. Instead, he's a member of the cancer club. It's a club I also belong to.

He writes quite a bit about living in the moment. Don't worry about leaving a legacy, just live your legacy. In fact, that's how he autographed my book and how I've always been trying to live it.

It was a pleasure and a joy to hear him speak and to read his book.

Hello, Friends!: Stories from My Life and Blue Jays Baseball by Jerry Howarth

Every spring I always read a book about baseball. Some are about major leagues, some about minor leagues. For my birthday, I received Hello, Friends!: Stories from My Life and Blue Jays Baseball by Jerry Howarth.

Who is Jerry Howarth? He was the Blue Jays radio announcer from 1981 to 2017. That's a lot of seasons.

For 36 years, Jerry Howarth ushered in eternal hope each spring and thrived in the drive of each fall as the voice of the Toronto Blue Jays. In 1982, the lifelong avid sports fan joined Tom Cheek as full-time play-by-play radio announcer for the Blue Jays, and for the next 23 years, "Tom and Jerry" were the voices of the franchise. Jerry became part of the fabric of a nation and a team, covering historic moments like the rise of the Blue Jays through the 1980s that culminated in back-to-back World Series Championships in 1992 and 1993. His Hall of Fame-worthy broadcasting career has been nothing short of legendary. When Jerry retired in February 2018, the tributes poured in and made one thing perfectly clear: Toronto baseball would never be the same.

Howarth brings together thoughts on life, family, work, and baseball. Featuring stories about everyone from Dave Stieb, Jack Morris, Duane Ward, Roberto Alomar, and Joe Carter to John Gibbons, Edwin Encarnacion, Josh Donaldson, and the late Roy Halladay, Hello, Friends! is a must-read for sports fans everywhere.

The book does deal with some on the field moments but mostly is about the people he met and the stories away from the diamond. He tells the story of his life growing up and how he prepared for a job in broadcasting. Quite inventive really.

He also reveals some interesting unique records, most of which I hadn't heard of. As he was on the air, he is nice throughout the book.

A great read not only for Blue Jay fans but for baseball fans and sports fans alike. I enjoyed it.

Bit Rot by Douglas Coupland

Today I finished Bit Rot by one of my favourite writers, Douglas Coupland.

Bit Rot, a new collection from Douglas Coupland that explores the different ways 20th-century notions of the future are being shredded, is a gem of the digital age. Reading Bit Rot feels a lot like bingeing on Netflix... you can't stop with just one. "Bit rot" is a term used in digital archiving to describe the way digital files can spontaneously and quickly decompose. As Coupland writes, "Bit rot also describes the way my brain has been feeling since 2000, as I shed older and weaker neurons and connections and enhance new and unexpected ones."

Bit Rot explores the ways humanity tries to make sense of our shifting consciousness. Coupland, just like the Internet, mixes forms to achieve his ends. Short fiction is interspersed with essays on all aspects of modern life. The result is addictively satisfying for Coupland's legion of fans hungry for his observations about our world. For almost three decades, his unique pattern recognition has powered his fiction, and his phrase-making. Every page of Bit Rot is full of wit, surprise and delight.

I really enjoyed Bit Rot. The description above says the book is full of essays but they're not really essays but what I would call musings. Most are only 2 or 3 pages in length. Almost all are thoughtful or hilarious. I found most to be true. Written in 2015, it all still rings true 3 years later. Some of his thoughts on the future of humanity even seem to be uneasily accurate.

If you are a fan, you'll enjoy a few appearances from the Channel 3 news team. I wonder what he has against them. For a book of short stories and such, like this one, I always enjoy reading it in short bursts, a story or two a sitting. as a result it took me awhile to finish it.

Douglas Coupland never disappoints.

About Douglas Coupland

Douglas Coupland is Canadian, born on a Canadian Air Force base near Baden-Baden, Germany, on December 30, 1961. In 1965 his family moved to Vancouver, Canada, where he continues to live and work. Coupland has studied art and design in Vancouver, Canada, Milan, Italy and Sapporo, Japan. 

His first novel, Generation X, was published in March of 1991. Since then he has published nine novels and several non-fiction books in 35 languages and most countries on earth. He has written and performed for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, England, and in 2001 resumed his practice as a visual artist, with exhibitions in spaces in North America, Europe and Asia.