Review: The Command of the Ocean
Jul 26, 2007 Books
The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain 1649 – 1815
By: R.A.M. Rodger
First of all, if you see this book in the bookshelves of the British History section, do not be alarmed. It’s a thick book, granted, but a lot of that stuff is actually maps, portraits, appendicies filled with rates and statistics and so forth. I saw this book for the first time a few months ago and I was immediately enthralled; it certainly looked like a comprehensive book about the British Navy, even though it only covered around two centuries (this is the second book in his series; the first book is entitled Safeguard of the Sea, which I have yet to get). And after slowly getting through my reading list and finally getting around to it, it is definitely a comprehensive history of the British Navy. Each chapter focuses on a particular aspect of the Navy: Operations (the hardcore, traditional bit that talks about what the navy did when, the battles it faced, etc.), Administration (the organizational aspects of it, often linked with what was going on politically in Britain), Social History (later subdivided to the seamen and the officers; discusses where these navy officers were coming from, their lives aboard these shipsm etc.) and Ships (the actual ships themselves, the design and engineering of them). It reads like a textbook essentially but it’s not boring to go through. Rodger has really done an amazing job in researching and bringing together all these strands to present a clear and concise history of the navy and its impact on British History and its success in the world. He is correct to say that you can’t study British History without understanding the navy’s role in contributing to this rich history, just as you can’t study navy history by itself; both are intwined in this case and the stories and the events he brings forward in this book prove that this premise is certainly the case. What is also amazing about this book is that he not only discusses British History but he also brings in Russian, French, Dutch and other histories into the book, comparing Navy Admiralty systems and ship designs, which is certainly useful to draw an idea of how the British Navy was in the late 17th century and into the beginning of the 19th century. If you’re interested in the British Navy (as I am), then this book is an essential read.
Rating: 
Visit Professor Rodger’s page at the Department of History in the University of Exeter || Order this book from chapters.indigo.ca
Tags: books: nonfiction, books: review
Review: The Bourne Ultimatum
Jul 26, 2007 Books
The Bourne Ultimatum
By: Robert Ludlum
In keeping with the fact that the movie is coming out in a week, I finally got around to reading the book (I have this thing for making sure my book covers match; hence I couldn’t simply get the paperback edition, it had to be the one with the movie covers). From all the three original books about the assassin named Jason Bourne, this is by far the most exciting and the most intriguing. Simply put, I found it to be the best of the three. The stakes are higher this time around: Carlos is still out to get Jason Bourne, the man who rivals his title as the best of the best. This time Jason Bourne/David Webb must go out there and end the cat-and-mouse game one and for all, for the sake of his wife and his two children. This is constantly on his mind, no matter how hard the entity known as Jason Bourne tries to push David Webb and all his concerns down to his subconscious (again). And not only that, but Jason’s not exactly young and hale as before, which was much to my surprise…kind of; we’re used to seeing Matt Damon as Jason Bourne and in the books we forget that time has passed between major events. By this book, Bourne/Webb is actually fifty years old, and he’s constantly reminded about it throughout the book, which sort of adds to some level of comedy to it. But he’s still deadly and his trail to catch Carlos has him jumping throughout countries. This entire book is just a thrill-ride; Bourne is constantly hindered by the politics going on back in the US, especially when his friend and colleague Alex Conklin discovers there’s something fishy going on in the clandestine operations department and you don’t know who you could really trust. But there’s also some lighter moments to relieve you from the constant suspense, which is always welcome and in a way, I don’t remember it being there in the previous books. Also, at this point, we don’t see a lot of borderline-melodramatic exchanges that go on in Bourne/Webb’s head, which we saw a lot of in the past, particularly with The Bourne Supremacy. I suppose that has a lot to do with the fact that Webb acknowledges the need to have Bourne around to stop Carlos and he knows the divide between Bourne and Webb now. It’s a great read with a fantastic cast of secondary characters, a lot of intricate politiking and mind games, and the end is just insane. Definitely recommended, especially if you’re into this genre.
Rating:
Vist LudlumBooks.com || Order from chapters.indigo.ca
Tags: books: review, books: suspense
News: Odds and Ends…Sort Of…
Jul 22, 2007 News
First off, I finished reading The Bourne Ultimatum a few days ago, so hopefully I’ll have the review up soon enough. In the meantime, some odds and ends I found:
CBC.ca: [link]
Now this made me happy; I am an avid reader so you know it kills me whenever I see the prices of the books I want to buy are how much in comparison to how it looks in US Dollar. As long as the Canadian Dollar stays strong, I expect to see this lower book prices this fall; after all, some books that I’m eyeing are coming out in paperback in the fall so I do want to get them. Hopefully this will also affect university textbooks; it’d be nice not to spend how many hundreds of dollars on textbooks. Nonetheless, I was most happy reading this.
CBC.ca: [link]
Now this pissed me off; I mean, hiking fares again? A set of 10 adult tickets is already $21 (a few years ago, it was like, $16 or something so you still had change coming back to you to spend on coffee—nowadays, you end up cutting up some of your coffee money to buy tickets), why the hike again? And closing the Sheppard subway line? I don’t live in that area so I’ve never used that line, but they just finished building the darn thing a few years ago and now they want to close it? Moronic move, Miller, like the transit users aren’t already overburdened with slow subway times, overcrowding, out-of-service-at-the-wrong-time events, etc, etc. Who voted him back into office? *thinks* Wait, I didn’t vote for him, did I? *blinks*
Tags: news: books, news: national
News: All About French Critique
Jul 5, 2007 News
The Times Online: [link]
I found this article quite amusing that I had to comment on it…I mean, come on, jogging is seen as un-French in France? Right-wing? Brainwashing his citizens? It’s pretty funny, I mean, the man’s just jogging to stay fit (or get fit, since there’s some comments about him having a bit of weight going on now)…I’m sure the man doesn’t intentionally flaunt it to show what a guy he is for keeping his body in check and fit and all. I mean, it’s a better pursuit than, let’s say, alcoholism or womanizing. Maybe it’s simply because the French are unaccustomed to seeing their leaders doing physical activities like this on a regular basis? But what really amuses me his how critics twist this into saying that it’s a conspiracy to brainwash the French or something…is this part of the greater shift that’s going on in the French media? Like a few weeks ago Royal had announced that she and her long-time partner, who is currently head of the Socialist party, were splitting up and it made headlines in France, which is pretty much unheard of in the country. So maybe there’s a bit of a shift in the way the news outlets approach politics in France now, focusing more on the habits and personal lives of their leaders? Who knows? The title of the article is eye-catching nonetheless.
Tags: news: humour, news: world
News: New Home, Same Business
Jul 4, 2007 News
Yup, I merged the two blogs I had on blogspot.com and decided to host them on my domain since I had the space and because I learned that installing new programs to my domain wasn’t as hard as I thought, LOL. So here we are…and it’s time that I do a news reel here…
BBC: [link]
While the media and probably the entire world watched with some level of cynicism, I watched on with a measure of amusement and glee. I had read Doro Bush Koch’s biography on President Bush Sr. back in December and I remember how their father would invite important people up to Kennebunkport. To see his son use the same tactic to have talks with President Putin up there reminded me of the occasions mentioned in the book and President Bush 43rd made a good move to use the place for their talks; the atmosphere is different and it would allow them to have a frank discussion, at least a bit away from the rigid formality back in their respective capitals, filled with the politics going on. What was just as amusing was that President Putin was in the company of the entire Bush family, which again sets a different tone to the entire discussion. Given the course of events as of late and the position that both leaders find themselves in right now, the talks are a good thing. It’s sort of like a full circle; both leaders had a good working relationship at the beginning of their terms, but then other international incidents–namely, the Iraq War–had put their working relationship to the backburner. Now they’re back to turning their attention to one another and it seems as if not a lot has changed. The news has been saying how “no one came out on top” but I think they both did; there might not be any concrete manifestations of their talks now but down the road, I think we’ll see what came out of this.
BBC: [link]
An interesting article to note…I also disagree how the news programs have labelled Russia’s new-found aggressiveness as a “new Cold War”. We are no longer at odds with a regime that is completely opposed to us ideologically, politically and so forth to the point that we could not live side-by-side. Those bad relations are a thing of the past, overcome in the late 1980s. There will be bumps like in any other relation, but I don’t think it’s possible to slip that far back and that far down again; after all, the world has changed and there are different challenges now to face. Much of this aggressiveness has to do really with the Russian mentality, how throughout history all they have wished is for a sense of complete security; sometimes to achieve that sense of complete security, they have resorted to a form of bullying with the West. It’s nothing new. There have been many good and bad things that have come about throughout Russia’s re-development for the past few years, but all in all, they’re really just trying to rediscover their place in the world.
CNN.com: [link]
I’ve been keeping track of this for the past few days or so and the revelation that the guys behind the botched attacks in the UK were doctors is quite frightening. To tap into the folk that people wouldn’t suspect to hurt others on such a massive scale is…mastermind-fully twisted, to say the least. It would definitely hurt the Middle Eastern folk at large in the long run; this incident would definitely tighten opportunities for them to come work in the Western world and hurt whatever good opinion they have as a whole. For extremists to go along this tactic would mean that the West would have to take steps now to really dive to the heart of the matter and stop them from instilling even more fear into the rest of the world. This is a reminder of how different this war really is because anyone and anything can be used as a weapon backed by an ideological fevour.
The Times Online: [link]
And now to end this post on a lighter note…as much as I am in awe at how long Blair had been in power, this article was quite amusing. Particularly the comment “Sometimes, at night, I think I can hear the sound of Gordon sharpening knives.” and Cherie’s constant asking of “Tony, when do you think the press will stop mocking my frumpy hair and clothes?” LOL
Tags: news: humour, news: politics, news: world
Review: The Devil and Miss Prym
Jul 4, 2007 Books
The Devil and Miss Prym
By: Paulo Coelho
It’s funny that this is the second novel in a row I’ve read dealing with the devil in some way, shape or form. In any case, this novel follows the tradition Paulo Coelho has made in previous books about undergoing a journey of sorts to self-discovery about some aspect of the human condition. This novel is no different, perhaps devling a bit more into the morality of humanity. I was surprised to learn that this book was the final book in this “Seventh Day trilogy”, which comprised also of “Veronika Decides to Die” and “By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept” (books I have—had I known they were a trilogy, I would’ve re-read the other two mentioned, even though they are not connected by any particular character). If “Veronika Decides to Die” had a lot to do with the person dealing with herself in the world and “By the River Piedra…” had to do with the person dealing with their significant other, then this book has a lot to do with the person dealing with the community they are connected to. The story is simple but the questions it raises are profound and quite relevant. If there’s anything that’s somewhat different, it’s the absense of a strong dialogue between an individual and the other spirit so-to-speak—that is to say, it’s there, and the stranger and Miss Prym do have discussions with this menacing voice inside of them, but it’s not as strong as in “By the River Piedra…” with Pilar and the Other where it almost takes over. Here it’s more subtle, which is nice because it allows the exchanges between the community members to take a more prominent role. This novel also shows the contradictions that exist within human beings and the choices that we are often confronted with. All in all, a quick but fascinating and introspective read in the manner of Paulo Coelho.
Rating: 
Visit his official website || Order from chapters.indigo.ca
Tags: books: fiction, books: review
Review: The Master and Margarita
Jul 1, 2007 Books
The Master and Margarita
By: Mikhail Bulgakov
I’ve been trying to figure out how to go about this review because this is a fairly complex novel. Why? Simply because it’s crazy, it’s insane, there’s a lot going on, at times it’s chaotic and there’s obviously a lot of social commentary underpinning the entire plot. My understanding of Soviet society during the Stalinist period (in which this novel was written) is minimal at best (I’m only studying it in-depth this coming school year) so I can’t really comment on that portion of the novel, but the fact that he was able to do it amidst such an intricate storyline is astounding. There are perhaps, from my understanding, three different plots going on throughout the novel: the first one, which becomes evident a few pages into the novel is the backdrop of Moscow and the Soviet people and their experiences with the devil lurking all over town. All these characters weave in and out that it’s hard to keep track at times but they all are affected somehow by the devil’s presence. The second plot has to do with the story of Pontius Pilate and his role in the death of a rabbi, Yeshua in the novel. This story is closely linked to the final plot that is tied to the title of the novel, the Master and Margarita, and their relationship amidst the chaos initiated by the devil’s presence and their struggle to remain together. I wondered throughout Book Two was whether or not the writer, Bulgakov, had infused some parts of his personality as a writer observing the tyranny of the Stalinist period, into their the poet, Ivan Homeless, or in the Master. The Master would make more sense, burdened by his novel that he believes brought him into his current state, wanting to burn the manuscript and all. Nonetheless, it is an interesting novel so long as you keep up…I was terribly amused by the devil’s tom cat, Behemoth. I will have to revist this novel sometime next year after I gain more understanding of the period to draw whatever criticisms or observations Bulgakov inserted into this novel.
Rating:
Order from chapters.indigo.ca
