Shades of Mercy by Bruce Borgos

Shades of Mercy: A Porter Beck Mystery.  This novel is set in the desert of Nevada.  Sheriff Porter Beck has returned home and has joined the local Sheriff's office. He is part of a twelve-person department that covers a large area.  It is usually very quiet.  But it has changed lately; one of his childhood friends met his death through the use of strong illegal opioids. 

And another childhood friend—now a very successful rancher—is targeted by a military drone. Beck discovers that this military drone was hacked and commandeered by an unknown source. The hacker is apparently local—local enough to call out Beck by name—and that means they are Beck's problem.

Beck's investigation leads him to Mercy Vaughn, the one known hacker in the area. The problem is that she's a teenager, locked up with no computer access at the secure juvenile detention center. But there's something about Mercy that doesn't sit quite right with Beck. But when Mercy disappears, Beck understands that she's in danger and time is running out for all of them.

 

Source: A significant portion of this review is taken from the Indigo website at the following link:

https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/shades-of-mercy-a-porter-beck-mystery/9781250848093.html

The Natural Beauty of our Canadian Fall Season

The Fall Season brings in the beauty of nature in Canada. Before the trees shed their leaves, we witness the stunningly beautiful change of colours of the leaves, which I observe and enjoy during my walks in my favourite park, David Balfour Park, Toronto. Below are a sample of photographs:

         

                           

The Art of the Printed Word: Celebrating Italian Printmaking Heritage: Show-and-Tell Session

For the International Week of Italian Language in the World 2024, I was invited by Paolo Granata,
Associate Professor in Book & Media Studies, University of Toronto, to attend a talk on a captivating journey through the centuries-old history of Italian printmaking.

This talk was held on Wednesday, October 16, 2024, at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, 496 Huron St., Toronto. It focused on the evolution of typography from the pioneering work of Aldo Manuzio, the inventor of the Italic type, to the masterful creations of Italian printmaker Alberto Tallone.

Professor Paolo Granata presented the evolution of typography from the pioneering work of Aldo

Manuzio, the inventor of the Italic type, to the masterful creations of Alberto Tallone, whom Pablo Neruda was hailed as the “hero of the book”.

Prof. Granata’s lecture was followed by a unique show-and-tell presentation by Enrico and Elisa Tallone, son and granddaughter of Alberto Tallone, who continue to honour the legacy of legendary printers and typographers like Aldo Manuzio and Giambattista Bodoni.

Attendees explored the world of typography, its beauty and anatomy, and the historical significance of type in shaping the modern book and the Italian language. Samples and artifacts were displayed for the attendees to review, absorb, and touch. It was an interesting experience, and I gained new knowledge. Two pictures of samples are included as shown above and below. 

Author Talk:The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World : An extraordinary New Journey through History's Greatest Treasures by Bettany Hughes

Award-winning historian, author and broadcaster Bettany Hughes discussed her new book, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: An Extraordinary New Journey Through History's Greatest Treasures.

Date: Tuesday, October 15, 2024, Time: 7 p.m. 

Location: Toronto Public Library, Bram & Bluma Appel Salon, 789 Yonge St., Toronto, Ontario.

As described by the Toronto Public Library, Salon Series:

SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER • From the award-winning historian and broadcaster comes an immersive, awe-inspiring tour of the ancient sites that kindle our imagination and afford us a glimpse into our shared history.

“This fascinating book is brimming with stories of people and places, all told with Bettany’s natural sense of wonder and adventure.” —Simon Sebag Montefiore, New York Times bestselling author of The World

For millennia, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World have been known for their aesthetic sublimity, ingenious engineering, and sheer, audacious magnitude: The Great Pyramids of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis, the Statue of Zeus, the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse at Alexandria. 

Echoing downtime, each of these persists in our imagination as an emblem of the glory of antiquity, but beneath the familiar images is a surprising, revelatory history. 

Guiding us through it is historian Bettany Hughes, who has travelled to each site to uncover the latest archaeological discoveries and bring these monuments and the distinct cultures that built them back to breathtaking life. Spellbinding, richly illustrated and full of insight, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is a journey into the indomitable ambition and creativity of the human spirit.

Personal Commentary: This session was moderated by Nalah Ayed of the CBC Media Centre.  It was an excellent presentation. 

The Age of Insecurity by Astra Taylor - Non-fiction

The Age of Insecurity by Astra Taylor

Source: CBC Books · Posted: Aug 20, 2023 | Last Updated: October 19, 2023

https://www.cbc.ca/books/the-age-of-insecurity-by-astra-taylor-1.6897488

A genre-bending book that explores insecurity

These days, everyone feels insecure. We are financially stressed and emotionally overwhelmed. The status quo isn't working for anyone, even those who appear to have it all. What is going on?

In this urgent cultural diagnosis, author and activist Astra Taylor exposes how seemingly disparate crises—rising inequality and declining mental health, the ecological emergency, and the threat of authoritarianism—originate from a social order built on insecurity. From home ownership and education to the wellness industry and policing, many of the institutions and systems that promise to make us more secure actually undermine us.

Mixing social critique, memoir, history, political analysis, and philosophy, this genre-bending book rethinks both insecurity and security from the ground up. By facing our existential insecurity and embracing our vulnerability, Taylor argues, we can begin to develop more caring, inclusive, and sustainable forms of security to help us better weather the challenges ahead. The Age of Insecurity will transform how you understand yourself and society—while illuminating a path toward meaningful change. 

Personal Commentary: The Age of Insecurity enables the reader to comprehend the philosophical and natural understanding of a sense of insecurity in today’s world.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin: Fiction

This summary is from the following link on the Goodreads web site:  

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58784475-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow

In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends intimate since childhood, borrow money, beg favours, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.

Personal Commentary: This novel outlines the relationship between two friends as they create and develop a video game. It describes the emotional connection between them. Apart from being in love with each other this couple is determined to succeed in this venture.

The Wayfinders by Wade Davis - The CBC Massey Lecture Series

Every culture is a unique answer to a fundamental question: What does it mean to be human and alive? In The Wayfinders, renowned anthropologist, winner of the prestigious Samuel Johnson Prize, and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis leads us on a thrilling journey to celebrate the wisdom of the world's indigenous cultures.

In Polynesia, we set sail with navigators whose ancestors settled the Pacific ten centuries before Christ. In the Amazon we meet the descendants of a true lost civilization, the Peoples of the Anaconda. In the Andes, we discover that the earth is alive, while in Australia we experience Dreamtime, the all-embracing philosophy of the first humans to walk out of Africa. We then travel to Nepal, where we encounter a wisdom hero, a Bodhisattva, who emerges from forty-five years of Buddhist retreat and solitude. And finally, we settle in Borneo, where the last rainforest nomads struggle to survive.

Understanding the lessons of this journey will be our mission for the next century. For at risk is the human legacy -- a vast archive of knowledge and expertise, a catalogue of the imagination. Rediscovering a new appreciation for the diversity of the human spirit, as expressed by culture, is among the central challenges of our time.

Source: https://houseofanansi.com/products/the-wayfinders?srsltid=AfmBOoqcGG4dDdb6LSokZUdJ4XoYjBDMG8L3ARxa32xCJJUq2wqtTDVq

Personal Commentary: It was a fascinating and very interesting lecture presented by Wade Davis on the CBC Ideas program, Radio One.  It left a long-lasting impact with much to learn and adapt to being mindful of the kind of legacy we leave for future generations.