The Age of Persuasion - Terry O'Reilly & Mike Tennant

If you are a fan of the Pirate Toronto/CBC Radio program “The Age of Persuasion”, I can pretty much guarantee that you will enjoy this book immensely. Whenever I listen to the half hour radio program, I am always left wanting to hear more of these tales from the trenches of the advertising world. In the book of the same name, O’Reilly and Tennant at last have the freedom to expound upon some of the fascinating concepts that they barely have time to touch upon on radio.

I bought this book following a reading that O’Reilly headlined in Calgary last month. During the reading, we were all captivated by his premise that advertising has permeated daily life and insinuated itself into our psyches. In fact, advertising is so widespread that its effectiveness is being drowned out by the very clutter that it is creating. Ads are so ubiquitous, appearing everywhere from the insides of golf holes to the roofs of cabs, that they are in danger of becoming invisible. And in an industry which must remain fresh and surprising to be effective, this has led to increasingly inventive ways to get our attention, such as guerrilla marketing. Advertising is the only industry, O’Reilly surmises, that simultaneously creates the problem as it tries to solve it.

The Age of Persuasion is a fascinating study of both the sociology and the psychology behind the science of advertising. The book explores the history of advertising through the ages, the contract that advertisers have with their target audience, and some of the compelling stories of how branding has changed not only loyalties, but language itself.

This is a very compelling book, a highly enjoyable read, and one that will have you shaking your head and exclaiming “really!”

Remarkable Creatures

If you're not familiar with Library Thing, it is a book social networking site and if you have an account, you can sign up for their Early Readers program, where there is basically a lottery for review copies of upcoming books. I managed to score and advanced reading copy of Tracy Chevalier's new novel, Remarkable Creatures.

If you're not familiar with Tracy Chevalier, you might be familiar with a little work called Girl With a Pearl Earring, which was made into a movie starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth. I haven't read the book but did enjoy the movie, and so Remarkable Creatures was my first adventure with Chevalier's writing.

I could not put this book down.

Set in the early 1800s, Elizabeth Philpot and two of her sisters are exiled from London to the seaside town of Lyme Regis when their brother decides to marry. Each of them settling into spinsterhood in her own way, Elizabeth takes up the hunting of fossils in the cliffs and beaches surrounding the time. While she does this, she meets a girl named Mary Anning, who comes from an impoverished working class family barely scraping by, but who depend on the discovery of fossils for their livelihood, as they sell them to tourists and collectors. A relationship builds between the two, and eventually Mary and her brother discover something in the cliffs that will change the world: the skeleton of a prehistoric creature eventually to become known as ichthyosaurus.

In this pre-Darwinian time, such a discovery is met with both suspicion and derision by the God-fearing citizens of Lyme Regis, but it sets the scientific community on fire. Both Mary and Elizabeth, though they are the local experts in the hunting, extraction, and mounting of these fossils, not to mention have speculative minds that are asking the pertinent questions of the time and who are the most well-read and knowledgeable on the subject of the fossils in general, are excluded from any scientific discussion because they are mere women. Mary also has the disadvantage of being not only female, but of extremely low birth, whereas Elizabeth comes from money and has had far more opportunity and learning. But each woman, in her own way, forges a unique path through her gender and class limitations.

There is a lot of stuff going on in this novel. Not only are there class and gender issues, but this story also examines that fascinating time when science was just, just starting to make people question long-held belief systems. Mary and Elizabeth were challenging those beliefs in their own small ways, but what Mary Anning discovered on the beach that day - and kept discovering for many years afterward - influenced science and religion and philosophy like nothing else previously. It might have brought out the best in some people, but it also brought the worst out in many more.

Also central to this story is the friendship between Mary and Elizabeth - indeed, it is the central part of the story. This was very beautifully and poignantly conveyed by the author, and for both women, this friendship was as life-changing as Mary's incredible fossil discoveries. And just as these two women endeavoured to stretch beyond the boundaries set by their culture and society, they also discovered that their relationship was key to not only their personal growth, but also to their struggle against the odds set against them.

The title is very apt; not only did Mary and Elizabeth hunt remarkable creatures on the beaches and cliffs around Lyme Regis, but they were also remarkable women in their own right. Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot were real people, as were most of the characters in the novel, and though this is a fictional account of their experiences, it was very cool for me to superimpose this story on actual historical events. Mary Anning did change the world and was a trailblazer, and I'd like to think that Elizabeth Philpot was indeed right along side her, spunky and outspoken and supportive, the two of them blazing a trail together.

Great book; a definite recommend.

Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith

Child 44 is the story of Leo Demidov, a former war hero, is a high ranking officer in the MGB, the state security force. A near perfect Soviet citizen in Stalinist Russia, Leo "investigates" those individuals who are accused of various anti-Soviet activities. In a world where crime doesn't officially exist, neighbours turn in their neighbours, spouses denounce each other and children rat on their parents, all in the vain hope that it will save themselves.

When the child of one of his men is found dead on a set of railroad tracks, Leo is sent to talk to the parents. Claiming their son was murdered, Leo convinces them that it was merely an accident - the official story - despite evidence to the contrary. After humiliating another of his men during a separate investigation, Demidov finds himself being arrested on false charges and he and his wife are sent into exile, demoted to the lowest rank in the militia.

Knowing that he will eventually be re-arrested and either sent to a Gulag or killed, Leo and his wife await the inevitable. That is, until another child is murdered in an almost identical manner. Realizing his former life was a sham and everything he once thought he believed in, including his marriage, was a lie, he begins to investigate. Ordered to drop his investigation, Leo can't let go and uncovers scores of other murdered children stretching across southern Russia and the Ukraine. With the MGB hot on his trail, and an agent bent on personal revenge out for blood, Leo and his wife vow to discover this serial killer who preys on children and kill him before they are eventually captured themselves. However, the investigation will force Leo to confront his own past and realize a connection to a horrific murderer that he never could have imagined.

Inspired by real-life serial killer, Andrei Chikatilo, the Butcher of Rostov, the premise of the book intrigued from the moment I first came across it, shortly after it's release in 2008 and I've been wanting to read it ever since. As I read Child 44, I was hoping that someone would eventually make a movie out of this book. There's good news and bad news. According to Tom Rob Smith's official website, a movie is planned and the screenplay written. The bad news? It's going to be directed by Ridley Scott. Not a big fan but considering how engrossed I was in this novel, I'm willing to sit through one of Scott's films.

However, I can highly recommend Child 44, Smith's first book, and I'm definately going to be checking out his latest release, The Secret Speech, very soon.

book markers..

Karen,WC if you want me to delete this post I can. But I was hoping to show you book readers you can have reusable book markers... Handmade on top of that... Enjoy your holidays my friends... If you want beads in the book markers they will be .50 cents more a piece. The ones with beads around it are 2.00 each also..It just takes more beads to put them in the marker... And more thread to be honest.. they will be about 2 inches wide by 11 inches long..


Ok those of us readers.... I have a question for you??? I usually dont post anything else here but book reviews but I have gotten myself into making book markers with size ten thread... I am looking at selling them on Etsy but if any of you want to purchase one or two let me know... E-mail me and let me know.. I am looking a 2.00 for each marker and 2.00 dollars for shipping... I had three but sold them.. I can give you an example by posting the three I had... Why dont I do that...

Sandstorm - James Rollins

Yet another Rollins novel. Sandstorm is filled with the usual: action, adventure, archaeology, improbable story lines, cheesy characters and supernatural occurrences. And, of course, sandstorms. However bad it sounds, I find myself reading novel after trashy novel. This one focuses on a long-lost city (don't they all?), this time buried in the sands of Oman, a line of women descended from the Queen of Sheba, lots of guns, secret military organizations and a source of energy so powerful it could wipe the entire Arabian peninsula off the map.

Truth be told, this was one of Rollins' better novels, at least in the ones I've read. As usual, easy reading although for some reason it took me over a month to get back in the habit of reading regularly (was it really July the last time I finished a book?). The characters are very cookie cutter, and the story line? Standard movie-style archaeologist fare. Think Indiana Jones (or in this case, Omaha Dunn...yes, I'm serious) but with undercover secret agents instead of the Nazis. And a lot more guns. If you're looking for something that doesn't require a lot of deep thought, give it a go.

Meat is Murder - Joe Pernice

This is the perfect book to read on a plane. It’s tiny (4 ½ x 6 ½ inches), so it will fit into your purse or your computer bag. It’s brief (102 pages), so you can start reading it while waiting to board and finish it just before landing, on a short-haul flight. And it’s about music, specifically about the albums that defined us and formed our consciousness, so it appeals to music nerds like me.

This book was a gift from a friend who shares my musical tastes and is even more of a music nerd than I am, and who was shocked to discover that I had not read any of the 33 1/3 series of books to which this belongs. I am not quite sure how I avoided doing that my entire life, as there were 69 books published in the series at last count, with a pile more to come. But, based on my experience with Meat is Murder, I am afraid the flood gates have been opened now.

While all the books in the series are about specific record albums, Meat is Murder diverges somewhat from the formula in that it is a work of fiction. In this tiny novella, author and musician Joe Pernice tells the story of a disgruntled teenager (is there any other kind?) growing up in middle class America in 1985, who finds community and a form of solace through the discovery of the Smiths’ album Meat is Murder.

I admit to being a sucker for these coming of age in America stories, and to read one based around a teen’s experience with the seminal Smiths album brought me back to the world of high school experiences, and made me glad I survived those years. I admit I did not have to deal with asthma, suicide or Catholic school, but the sweeping subtext of humiliation and alienation are universal no matter where you grew up.

Meat is Murder is sort of a mini Catcher in the Rye, only with better music. I rather wish it had been longer; I would have stayed on the plane to read more.

I know I will be looking for more books in this series. Highly recommended for music nerds, particularly those in need of a portable book.

The Taken

I do love a great mystery novel! My favourite writers in this genre are Elizabeth George of the most excellent Lynley series, and P.D. James who has been writing detective tales featuring Adam Dalgliesh since my early years. And now we have someone named Inger Ash Wolf, who the flap of The Taken describes as "the nom de plume of a North American writer." Well, that tells me exactly nothing. And, after doing some very rudimentary research online, it seems that this pseudonym is actually a carefully guarded secret that has caused quite a bit of speculation since Wolfe's first book, The Calling, was published last year. Presumably, Wolfe is Canadian, and this most recent novel, the sequel to The Calling, takes place in the fictional Ontario cottage country town of Port Dundas. And it features a kick-ass female detective named Hazel Micallef.

I haven't read The Calling, and I really am not terribly concerned about the real identity of Inger Ash Wolfe (though I would love for it to be one of my favourite authors ever, Jane Urquhart, one of the names that has been bandied about). I just know that this was one gripping story with writing, characterization, and suspense to rival the big names in the genre.

Detective Inspector Hazel Micallef is commanding officer in charge of the Port Dundas detachment of the Ontario provincial police service. Divorced and living in her ex-husband's basement after back surgery, the mother of two girls, and as crusty as they come, Hazel and her crew of loyal officers got caught in the centre of a bizarre missing persons case when a headless mannequin is discovered in a local lake. The mannequin leads them to a web site containing a live feed featuring some grisly goings-on, which in turn leads them to a cold case in Toronto.

In the midst of this well-plotted tale, we get a deeper examination of what people will do for love and selection of some of the various complexities love creates in humanity. Hazel herself still smarts from her divorce, her strong feelings for her ex, and her ex's hasty remarriage. Her second-in-command, James Wingate, turns out to be a gay man who's partner was beaten to death by gay bashers, an event which still has him traumatized by grief every day. The wife of the missing person, chronically drunk, remains married to her husband even though he is a philanderer. And the mother of a murder victim takes extraordinary measures to avenge her daughter's death.

There is a lot going on in these pages, yet the story is fast-paced and snappy and never gets bogged down in lengthy expository sessions carrying on about the deeper themes involved. Wolfe creates layers of story subtly, kind of like a really experienced writer does! Hmmmmmmm...

Definitely a recommend if you are a mystery fan!