I'm sitting here watching The Night Listener with Robin Williams based on the novel by Armistead Maupin. while answering the door for the trick or treaters and handing out Halloween candy. In the first hour I've gone through almsot a whole box, I think I'm going to run out of candy before I run out of trick or treaters....last year we didn't have hardly any kids..this year seems to be a bumper crop.

Today was another crap day at work.  The nice thing was that it was two other coworkers birthdays today and they included me in their cake celebration which was very thoughtful and kind of them and it was a complete surprise.

I am so looking forward to my interview on Friday and I will be devastated if I don't get this job.

Iain and Liam and Den have gone to Nick's to go trick or treating in that neighbourhood.  I can't believe how grown up they are....when they were in their costumes I didn't even recognize them.

You can find me on facebook under Vincenza Parrillo Wall.

Well, technically I won't be 40 until 11:45 p.m. tomorrow night but I guess that is splitting hairs.

I have mixed feelings on turning 40, there are so many things I thought I would have achieved by now that I haven't and yet there are so many blessings I have that I never even thought of, I guess the universe has a way of balancing it all out.

A wonderful birthday present arrived in the form of a voicemail messasge from Chapters tonight while I was out. I am going to an interview this Friday at 4:30, so I am very, very excited. It is only for November/December but I am hoping I can stay on even if it just for one shift a week into the New Year.

The money will come in handy as will the perqs :)

I will let you know all about it. 

Tomorrow Shell is coming over and we are doing a movie and books day and do nothing else!  It will be a wonderfully relaxing day, I'm sure.

Not sure if I will write tomorrow night ,but look for a post on Thursday.

Today was an ok day, definitely better than yesterday. I left early for an appt but then on my way there, it was cancelled so I ended up coming home early, having a nap, then a long hot bath, it's amazing how much better I felt.

After dinner we went to Chapters, I had received gift cards for my birthday so I figured I'd go see what I could get.  I knew there were a few books I wanted. While at Chapters, I applied for a seasonal part time position (at Sherway) and spoke to the Manager who was there. She seemed very nice and very enthusiastic and said I should hear this week or next, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

The books, I bought:

Blood Eagle by Craig Russell (thriller/suspense)
The Pirate Queen by Alan Gold (historical fiction)
eat, pray, love by Elizabeth Gilbert (memoir?)
Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen (general fiction)
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby (general fiction)
and I also bought "The Hours" DVD as I've never seen it.

It was a bumper day for books as three also arrived from Harper Collins:

2 from the FaceBook program:
Adverbs by Daniel Handler (general fiction)
Heroes by Bruce Meyer (non fiction)

1 from the First Look program:
Now You See Him by Eli Gottlieb (mystery/thriller)

and 2 from BookCrossing:

Miami, It's Murder by Edna Buchanan
The Music Room by Martin Long

Phew, enough to keep me busy for a while :)

Today was an overwhelming day. It started off badly and then just got worse, I honestly didn't think I'd was going to be able to stay the day. But Kelly and Wanda were a Godsend.

We went and saw the apt on Sherobee, oh I so want to live there. They are gorgeous. Floor to ceiling windows, ensuite washer/dryer and dishwasher, solarium, huge bedrooms, fireplace! Clean..on site security, underground parking....onsite gym, pool, library! By the time we pay the gas and hydro here it would be the same rent as there, even though here we have three bedrooms, there we have two big ones plus a family room and a solarium off the master bedroom. Huge bathroom, gorgeous kitchen. I could go on and on about it. Our plan is to spend the next few months sorting our stuff and drastically  paring down our posessions, we really do have too much STUFF. For my part I need to go through my books and clothes for sure.  It would be nice if moving could be done in one trip!  Anyway, then in January we will go and do the paperwork and then wait for one to become available, we re not in a big rush to move so we can be patient for one to come up.

I am off to bed to try and sleep and get some rest so tomorrow can be a much better day.

Last Sunday myself and a group of my friends went to Dundas for High Tea at Taylor's Tea Room. They do a nice English High Tea and I had done this for my birthday last year so wanted to do it again. We had a nice time and laughed alot :) My friend Wanda took some pics  and I will post them when I get them from her.  The day was beautiful, sunshine, blue skies and 24 C! The drive into the area was lovely and the company was even better, Karen, Lisa, Louisa, Barbara, Michele, Shelley, Jackie and Wanda helped to make it a really special day. They gave me some lovely gifts was really kind of them.

Since that day though, I've just seem to have been in a funk. I hate the place I work and I am not too fond of the people I work for either, my coworkers are a pretty nice bunch and I get along well with them. My job, in itself, is not challenging and really not a good showcase for my talents. Most days I am near to tears from boredom or frustration and feeling stuck in a situation I can't get out of.

On the good side, it's not stressful in and of itself and it is a job I can walk away from at the end of every day.

Iain seems to be doing much better in his school and Liam seems happier this year than last. He is at his cubs' Halloween party tonight so I am sure he will be home soon full of sugar and excitement.

I've always enjoyed reading about Renaissance Italy - maybe I lived there in a former life (see earlier Book post) - but the art, the music, the clothing, the lifestyle have always held fascination for me.  Certainly the time period had it's downfalls, Savonarola, some of the Medicis, the plague, the Boils, the Bonfire of the Vanities....but Michelangleo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Botticelli.....wow what a wonderous time it was.

This novel brings 15th century Florence to life. Allessandra (a beautiful name and one I considered naming my son if he had been a girl - I couldn't convince his father that Allessandro wasn't feminine and frippery) Cecci is a strong spirited and well educated girl for her time.  She falls in love with a painter her father brings to their home to paint their altar and she wants him to teach her to paint as he does as she knows she has talent for drawing but doesn't know how to paint.  We never learn his name, he is always her "painter".

As the turmoil in Florence starts, and the Medicis are thrown from power, times are dangerous for young girls, so to save herself from life in a convent she agrees to marry a man more than twice her age. 

Her marriage opens her eyes to the real ways of the world and as Savanarola burns the streets, burns fire in people's hearts and souls - she finds herself torn between her husband and her "painter" and her desire for freedom.

The story of how she acquires this freedom is really the both the beginning and the end of the novel. I did enjoy reading this book and wished that we had learned more about the painter and the younger Plautilla as well as Tomas and Cristoforo.

I have been interested in reincarnation since I saw the movie Audrey Rose as a little girl.  It both terrified and fascinated me.  Another great mystery/thriller novel about reincarnation is Fury by John Coyne.

Anyway, back to this novel.  A young man, Josh Ryder,  is injured in bomb blast in Rome.  When he recovers, his life is changed. He has waking dreams of himself in the past as a Roman priest in the 4th century. He calls these dreams, "lurches" because they lurch him from the present.  He joins the Phoenix Organization to learn more about reincarnation and his place in history.  While on a photographic assignment for the organization he finds himself at an archaoeological dig in Rome and is drawn deeper and deepr into his past life.

He feels connected to a skeleton found in the dig, as well as the young professor who is working the dig, Gabriella Chase. Gabriella and Josh are both on the hunt for some stones taken from the dig, that legend says help people know their past and future lives.

As the story progresses, Josh's witnesses two murders and finds himself more and more entangled with Gabriella, although he is sure she is not from his past, he feels she is connected to helping him unravel it.  The hunt for the stones puts Gabriella and Josh in life and death struggle.

There were parts of the novel that moved very slowly compared to what was happening. For example, in the second third of the novel, Gabriella's three year old daughter, Quinn is kidnapped, and although Josh rushed to her side and travelled across the country to help her find what the kidnappers were demanding, he also spends a quiet afternoon hypnotising another woman who comes to him for help...it just doesn't make sense but it is necessary to progress the story in the direction the author is leading us. I didn't think the Rachel part of the story was really significant and seemed to be almost an after thought to add more pages to the novel. Despite that, I did enjoy it very much and would seek out more of this author's work.

This is the first in a cozy mystery series.  Sterling Glass is an antiques appraiser in Leemont, Virginia.  She's in her 50's and in my opinion, more than a little dotty. She repeats her mother's quotations to herself, she hears her mother in her head and she seems all. around strange. I kind of pictured her as a young Miss Marple at first, but by the end of the novel, I was seeing Jessica Fletcher but not as smart...if that makes sense.

Anyway, she gets caught up in some antique thefts and a murder when she is asked to do some appraisals for an estate.  She travels back and forth between New York and Leemont and somehow solves the mystery with the help of her almost-beau Peter, an ex-preacher and the local Chief Detective of Police.

It's an interesting insight into the antiques world and I'm sure (I hope)  the character development will happen with future books.

 Ignatius Reilly is certainly an interesting character. He seems to be a misfit everywhere – even in his own life. He has strong views on many things, one would even call them unique – only because no one else seems to share them. His self righteousness and self centeredness are beyond any character I’ve ever met in novels or real life. The novel takes place in New Orleans in late fifties and is a wonderful look at the influences on the cultures that co-existed, Negroes, French, Homosexuals, Politics, Pirate Lore, Private Enterprise, Street Vending and Communis’.

 

My favourite part was when Ignatius came up with the plan to create world peace by filling the government and military with homosexuals as they would have no interest in fighting or war.  I laughed out loud when I read that.

 

Lots of memorable characters, Trixie, Dorian Greene, Santa Battaglia and Mrs. Reilly – round out the colourful cast and make this novel well worth the read.

 

The author committed suicide at the young age of 32, in the novel Ignatius is 30. I do wonder how much of Toole is in Reilly and vice versa and if Reilly’s suppressed sexuality and genius were part of Toole and part of what drove him to take his own life.

 

the heel on one of my favourite pairs of shoes broke.

Enough said.

Today is my five year BookCrossing Anniversary!

BookCrossing has been an important part of my life the last five years, but more importantly - the people I have met have enriched my life in so many ways.

You all know who you are.  Hugs.

BookCrossing

This was an incredible book.

I normally avoid books about the Holocaust and WWII because I have nightmares about the time period. And true to form, I did about this one as well, however I could not stop reading it. I had to know what became of Liesl and Rudy and the people of Himmel Street.

The omnipresent narrator of the novel is "Death". Once I accepted that concept and got on with the business of reading the novel, it sucked me and didn't let go until the last page.

Death and Liesl first meet when he comes for her 6 year old brother on a train. In Nazi years, Death and Liesl's paths cross many times even though he doesn't come for her. He is the one that tells us how she becomes "The Book Thief", how she learns to read painstakingly and slowly, how she falls in love with her foster parents, her friends on Himmel Street and a hiding Jew named Max. Death shows us her weaknesses and her strengths and her faults and her dreams.

Although the novel is mostly about Liesl and her love affair with books and words and how they sustain her through the awful times of Nazi Germany, it is also about Death and how he takes comfort in observing Liesl while doing a job that no one thanks him for.

I may have made this sound hokey and otherworldly, but it is not in the least. It is a serious story of a young girl living in a time of fear and little happiness. What does make her happy, is her books, her friends and her beloved Papa. She learns at an early age that nothing lasts forever, except the words, and even those can be taken away at any moment.

There are some amazing quotes throughout the book and the short fables that Max, the on the run Jew, writes to Liesl are both heartbreaking and heartwarming. I would quote them here but I already passed the book along to chronicbooker3. I am sure it will move her as much as it did me.

Ok, I have to admit, I didn't get this. It is  a short collection of fables written by well known Canadian authors - Margaret Atwood, Timothy Findley, Neil Bissoondath (ok maybe I don't know him so well...), Rohinton Mistry and Yves Beauchemin.  The fables are very political in nature and perhaps that is why they went over my head.  I am not sure if they were meant to be amusing, educational, inspirational....I just didn't get them.  Of course, I do see the parallels in the fables to troubles in our times....but what the purpose of writing them into fables would be?  I'm lost.

Since I am so lacking in insight, here's some info from Chapters:

From Our Editors

Fables relate serious ethical teachings in a fun, light-hearted way. The Ark in the Garden is a collection of fables about Canada from some of Canada's most respected writers, including Margaret Atwood, Timothy Findley, Neil Bissoondath, Rohinton Mistry, Jane Urquhart and Yves Beauchemin. Atwood's tale, A Christmas Lorac, follows the antics of Ebenezer Scrooge in Tory Ontario. Mistry writes about a country where kite flying and mountain climbing are no longer possible due to government cutbacks. …+ read moreFables relate serious ethical teachings in a fun, light-hearted way. The Ark in the Garden is a collection of fables about Canada from some of Canada's most respected writers, including Margaret Atwood, Timothy Findley, Neil Bissoondath, Rohinton Mistry, Jane Urquhart and Yves Beauchemin. Atwood's tale, A Christmas Lorac, follows the antics of Ebenezer Scrooge in Tory Ontario. Mistry writes about a country where kite flying and mountain climbing are no longer possible due to government cutbacks. The Banana Wars is a charming look at the Big Foot monkeys and the Long Hand monkeys who can't stop fighting about whether certain banana trees are "distinct." Anyone who delights in satire will appreciate this Swiftian look at Canadians and Canada.

This was lighthearted read.

There were once two brothers...Spider is a God, Charlie a mere mortal. Spider can convince anyone of anything, Charlie can't convince himself what to have for breakfast. Women love Spider, Charlie's fiancee isn't sure she loves him.

When their father dies, Spider goes to visit Charlie and Charlie's staid, quiet, some would even say boring, life is turned upside down. He loses his job, his fiancee falls out of love with him, he can't find his way home and his home has seem to grown into a spa in his absence.

The novel is about stories, about our life stories and how we share those stories through time and how each story is interwoven into everyone else's story, but most of all, how we can change our own story at any time.

Someone is luring lonely young girls into suicide pacts.  The girls are misfits in their schools, their parents don’t understand them and they see suicide with a partner as a romantic and easy end to their troubles. 

 

The suicide trysts are romantic; complete with burning candles, exchange of rings and poetry.  They are also tragic; only the young girls lay dead.

 

DI Mark Tartaglia is working on the case, in charge for his out of commission Chief.  When the media gets hold of the case and dubs the killer “The Bridegroom”, the case is taken away from him and given to a new DCI, Carolyn Steele.  Steele and Tartaglia do not see eye to eye on many things, including the use of psychological profilers and following hunches.  When Steele brings a profiler, Tartaglia is even more determined to follow his own leads on his own time with his own team of men. He is a bit of a rogue, and will do what it takes to get the job done.  Even when he senses that Steele herself may be in danger, he continues down his own path.

 

Throw in his dark Italian good looks, convoluted love life, clinging sister and his love of fine wines and motorbikes,  and his is an interesting and arresting character that is bound to become a semi-heartthrob in future novels when this series takes off.

 

With his partner, they track down leads – never knowing the killer is closer to them than they are to him.

 

The story is interspersed with chapters narrated by the killer which make for a suspenseful read and keeps the reader guessing. Clearly the killer is someone who is watching the case and the players very closely; he wants to rattle them, to taunt them and even to kill them. He even goes so far as to stalk DCI Steele at her home and send her threatening emails.

 

This is a well written police procedural that doesn’t glamourize nor undervalue the strength of police team work. The author’s view seems to be that good police work is 90% hard work and 10% inspiration.  I tend to agree with her.  Good cops have good intuition and inspiration as a result of years of hard work, they aren’t born with it.

 

 As this tumultuous and suspenseful novel comes to an end, some would say the finale is unsatisfying and frustrating as it doesn’t wrap up neatly as most novels of this genre do; but no other ending would have fit the characters involved.

 

Elena Forbes and Mark Tartaglia are definitely a team to watch out for.

I need to write a  500 word (or so) review for Anansi Publishing for this one, so it'll take me a few days to put something intelligent together. Will post it when it's done!

Had Thanksgiving dinner at Lou's tonight. It was a nice evening, relaxing, good food, watched a Poirot movie, hung out with the kids. Need more days just like that.