"The Charbor Chronicles"
Friday, April 26, 2024
California Dreamin': First Few Hours
Book Review: The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne by Elsa Hart
Last year, I read and then did a book review of my first Elsa Hart book.
Recently, I read my second book from her, having been quite impressed with the first one. Of course, there are similarities in the writing style, and even the stories. Both of them are murder mysteries which take place in the early 1700's, so there are bound to be similarities.
And yet, they each had a distinct feel to them. The setting for the one which I read last year was in Western China. And I really got a feeling almost of visiting China during that era, based on Hart's descriptions and writing style. Most of the events take place in a regional Chinese provincial court, which is hosting a major event. There are people from around the world set to attend. All of that made it very enjoyable to me.
By contrast, the setting in this book is London. The main setting in this book is the home of a wealthy collector of rare, mostly scientific artifacts by the name of Barnaby Maybe. although the characters do move around outside of the house. His collection is known to be second to none, and so many people from all over Europe show up when he is scheduled to give a tour of his collection.
Like with the first book that I read from here, Jade Dragon Mountain, Hart is able to bring the past to us and make it feel alive. Instead of rural western China, we are in London, when it still had a reputation as a dirty and foul-smelling city, as well as a dangerous one. And we also get the feeling that some within the intellectual community not only pride themselves on their knowledge and collections, but also inspire to a greater understanding of the world and how it works in an era still far more in the shadows of past superstitions than we tend to be in our modern world.
Then, of course, there is a murder. And the mystery of the "who dunnit?" commences.
Now, I will not go into too much detail regarding the specifics of either the murder, or how Cecily Kay, the main character throughout this novel, ultimately manages to figure out who committed the murder, and why.
However, I can say that this was a solid and enjoyable read. My second Elsa Hart book, but I intend to read other works by her in the future, and hopefully soon. Like with Jade Dragon Mountain, I really came to enjoy inhabiting her fictional world while reading this book. It took me away from my own life and own problems, at least for the short durations while reading this book.
Highly recommended.
Side note: I realized when writing this that I had never quite gotten around to reviewing Jade Dragon Mountain. It came as a surprise, because up to this point, I had believed that there was a book review. But after reading it, I had wanted to get it for my mom as a Christmas gift, and wanted to wait until after that time to review the book. Glad that I did, because my mom had not yet read anything by Elsa Hart when I gave her the collection of three books by her. Unfortunately, though, I never did quite get around to actually writing, much less publishing, a book review of that fantastic book. This is something I intend to remedy soon, although at this point, it will simply have to wait until after the California trip.
🌎 🌲 Earth Day Week: Pope Francis Feels Combating Climate Change is Christian Duty 🌲 🌎
~Mahatma Gandhi
“Now polluters are looked upon as ordinary Joes just doing their jobs. In the future, they will be looked upon as swine”
~ Kurt Vonnegut
Here is the link to this story:
Pope Francis Makes Biblical Case For Addressing Climate Change: ‘If We Destroy Creation, Creation Will Destroy Us’
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Departing From Newark Airport
So despite the hassles and overall ordeal surrounding traveling, and specifically airports, my stay at Newark Liberty Airport was not all that bad.
Luckily, I got there quite early, almost three hours before my flight was scheduled to take off. Plenty of time. So while it was annoying that my bag, once again, was pulled to the side, and then I waited for quite some time - probably around twenty minutes or so - before the guy even got to my bag, I at least did not feel the stress of the pull of time. It was annoying that he threw out my two tubes of toothpaste, both brand new and still in the box. But, you just shrug and move on with your life, don't you? What else can you do?
So I went to the gate, and then began the process of waiting. There was one moment, however, when I was tempted to do something different. An announcement came on that this flight was overbooked, and if anyone was willing to give their ticket up, they could get $1000 in cash and, on top of that, travel vouchers. A seat on a flight to LAX scheduled for 4:35 that afternoon would be guaranteed. It seemed that there was a murmur about how good of a deal this was, with some people smiling and wishing that they could do it.
This hardly escaped me, as well. I grew nervous, thinking about whether I should do it or not. The thing of it was, I just kept imagining if that flight somehow got pushed back or delayed. After all, this was not a vacation trip, but a work-related trip. There were people whom I would have to report to upon arriving. Also, I guessed that the travel vouchers would go onto te credit card which had been used for the purchase of the original tickets, and that was the corporate card at work. So it was not guaranteed that I would even be able to use these. Then, one of the guys who had smiled and gotten up to capitalize on this deal himself ended up not doing it. It was at this point that I wondered if, perhaps, we had misheard or misunderstood, and instead of $1000 and travel vouchers, it was for $1000 in travel vouchers.
Big difference.
And so I killed off the temptation, and sat waiting for the original flight. Did a bit of reading, and then visited the facilities just before the flight, which was scheduled for 11:30, with the arrival at LAX expected at 2:30 later that afternoon.
Ultimately, I boarded. It was a difficult flight. It sometimes felt like this was the young, screaming child section. The couple behind me had not one, but two young children, including one at least one boy. He kept kicking my seat. Somehow, this did not enhance my flight experience, although I remained patient. After all, as a parent, I knew the struggles of trying to do things like this with such a young child. Still, I occasionally turned in hopes that one of the parents might get the message and urge the boy to stop kicking, but this had mixed success, at best. Also, I had a middle seat, and the woman with the window seat immediately closed the window, depriving me of one of the real pleasures of flying. Personally, even after having taken dozens of flights in my life, I just never have tired of staring out the windows and admiring the heavenly view of the top of the clouds. Not this time, apparently.
Nevertheless, I was excited. After all, this was only the third time that I would be traveling to California. And while this was for work more than anything else, I was scheduled to get at least one day off. Plus, it felt like there would be a good chance to see some other things worth seeing while out there. So there was an enthusiasm and sense of gratitude which helped to get me past any inconveniences or relatively minor annoyances endured during the flight. It lasted maybe about six hours, and we arrived at LAX on time.
More on the actual trip a bit later.
🌎 🌲 Earth Day Week: More Quotes From Great Native American Thinkers 🌲 🌎
~Mahatma Gandhi
“Now polluters are looked upon as ordinary Joes just doing their jobs. In the future, they will be looked upon as swine”
~ Kurt Vonnegut
10 Quotes From a Oglala Lakota Chief That Will Make You Question Everything About Our Society By Wisdom Pills / wisdompills.com:
Luther Standing Bear Ota K’Te (Plenty Kill) Oglala Lakota (1868-1939)
Trump Described As a ‘Bit of a Sleazy Guy’
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Early Morning Smoggy Sunrise Over Los Angeles
This was the sun rising over Los Angeles (well, sort of) early this morning.
Took this just after 6am until about 6:25 PST.