Bibliofile - August

Well, nine books in August took me to the dizzying heights of 78 books that I've read this year. I seem to be on a pace of about 2-3 books a week.

It was an interesting month with much variety and included older books as well as recently released works.

Among my highlights were Roddy Doyle's 1987 The Commitments about a fellow who manages a soul/R&B cover band (you may remember the movie - and the great soundtrack) and the recently released - and hilarious - sequel The Guts that looks in on the guy many years later as he struggles with bowel cancer and is now in the business of managing former one-hit-wonder punk bands.

Half-Blood Blues was an exquisite novel by Canadian author Esi Edugyan about black musicians in World War II Germany and France and about the racism they encounter during that period. An excellent tale.

I read another R.J. Ellory novel this month. A Simple Act of Violence is the latest in a series of excellent, well written pieces of suspense that I've come to enjoy from this author.

And I picked up the next in the Robert Crais series of Elvis Cole detective novels, although what is #11 in the series is actually #1 about his sidekick, Joe Pike. Another satisfying tale in the pot-boiler genre.

Two more mentions. The first is the funny and enjoyable The Universe vs. Alex Woods by Gavin Extence about a young boy who suffers brian damage after being hit by a meteorite. I really enjoyed this recent release.

And finally, I came across a new release from Margaret Atwood, which I learned was the third in a series of books by this Canadian author. What did I do? I bought and read the first two books. Now I haven't read any of Atwood's stuff until now. But this borders on science fiction and takes place in a quasi-apocolyptic world or "dystopian" as the reviews indicate. Dystopian? Think of Utopian and then think of what the opposite might be. Anyway, I zipped through Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood and am ready to take on volume three, MaddAddam, as my first read this month. Here are the 9 books I read in August...

The Commitments - Roddy Doyle
A Simple Act of Violence - R.J. Ellory
The Universe vs. Alex Woods - Gavin Extence
The Guts - Roddy Doyle
Rocks Off - 50 Tracks That Tell The Story of the Rolling Stones - Bill Janovitz
Half-Blood Blues - Esi Edugyan
The Watchman - Robert Crais
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood

What about you? What have you been reading? Have you read any of these books?

30 Days of Photos III #4 Sour

Check out Ziva's Inferno for the rest of today's photos.

The Polka Dot Door

A long time ago, when I was 22, my first child was born. That kid grew up on a little Canadian kid's show called Polka Dot Door, produced by the TV Ontario network. And Dad, more often than not, sat through those shows with his little one. Nine or so years later when a brother, and a year after that when a sister came along number one son was moving on to Knight Rider and The Dukes of Hazzard. But there was a nice overlap where his siblings picked up where he had left off with Polka Dot Door. And Dad was right there to welcome them. So you're looking at a Polka Dot Door veteran. The show began in 1971 and ran to 1993. I didn't watch the full run but I did get in my fair share. The formula was pretty simple. A young male and female host, which seemed to change every week, sang songs, told stories, made crafts and generally did their best stimulate little brains. The show opened as follows... Imagination Day! Oh boy! ...

I Am Charlie, I'm A Bore

Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise, Colin Farrel...you know the list, it goes on and on. The list of Hollywood hick-ups who not content to meltdown behind closed doors have to drag each and every detail out into the light of day and share it with all of us. Well, add Charlie Sheen to that luckless and lascivious list of losers. In the past few days he's been on every major media soapbox complaining abut how he's been treated and how he's misunderstood. Last night he spent an hour on ABC's 20/20 "in his own words". Charlie, you should have stuck to the script. "I have a highly evolved brain". You know I never did like that song by Helen Reddy in the 70s "I Am Woman". But I have to say the melody really leant itself well to a parody of Hollywood's latest flame-out, Charlie Sheen. Although I never thought I'd hear myself say this, my sincerest apologies to Helen Reddy. And now if you're ready (a little play on wor...

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