JKStar88 Reader

I am alternating between three books. So far it has been a easy relaxing time. The Nightingale is the one that has tension and emotional pull.

Weekly Reading Update

Thursday, November 14, 2024

Hunting Party is a sci-fi adventure following Heris Serrano. She is from a long line of officers and was forced to resign from her position as captain of a spaceship.

Now she is the captain of an interstellar luxury yacht being a chauffeur to the rich. I found the mass market paperback at a used bookstore and have been meaning to get around to. November seems to be a good time.

I know the author by reading previous works by her. I have at least read The Deed of Paksenarrion. I don’t remember if I read the rest of trilogy, or just the first book.

I will be on the lookout for them when I next shop for second-hand books.

Another older title I have wanted to read is Fatal Grace by Canadian author Louise Penny. She has released a new novel in the Chief Inspector Gamache series of mystery novels. The new book is called Grey Wolf, and is again set in Three Pines, Quebec. It is book number 19 in the series.

The book I would like to read is number 2 in the series called Fatal Grace. I just happen to have it on my shelf waiting for a good time for me to pluck it from the shelf. I am returning to this series because I got one of the later books in the series as a gift.

News of a new thriller by Susan Barker will be released in the new year 2025. That has me looking for her previous book, The Incarnations, which I have from the public library.

It is the old hardcover that I have in my possession, with spectacular artwork on the end pages. The book begins with a taxi driver in Beijing. He is driving a visitor to the city during the leadup to the 2008 Summer Olympics. The book has alternating points of view, and has to do with past lives, with a throw back to the Tang Dynasty, as well as other times in Chinese history, weaving in folklore and literary classics.

Here is my reading list

The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

Silver in the Bone by Alexandra Bracken

The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwall

The Color of Dragons by S.A. Salvatore & Erika Lewis

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman

Bitter Medicine – A Review

Elle is a descendant of the Chinese god of medicine. Luc is a half-elven warrior. While she is working menial tasks and writing enchanted Chinese calligraphy for change, he is out capturing outlaw magical beings.

Elle uses her magic to help Luc on cases, but there is beginning to be something between them.

She is also doing all she can to protect her younger brother, but at what cost will that be to her? While there is action and adventure, the book has a significant romantic element.

Reading the book gave me a sense of calm and soothing feeling. There is a jumble of elements that pulls from Western faerie lore as well as Chinese legends. Much of the book gave vibes of a high-flying cdrama, with locales in the U.S., France, and Egypt.

It is a debut novel that packs in a lot in one volume, and asks what heroes are willing to give up for a good life.

Ellen Braun Photo credit: Rachel Boekel Photography

Each & Every Song at DIY Theatre Date posted: Wednesday, May 17, 2023

After over 20 years as singer and songwriter, Ellen Braun is turning to a new chapter in her career. Starting Thursday night with Each & Every Song, she brings a new one-woman 90-minute theatrical production to Calgary audiences. With music incorporated throughout the set, there is bound to be a good time out.

“I have always been a songwriter. I started calling myself one in my 20s. Now I am in my late 40s,” Braun says. “It is a journey I’ve been on my whole life.”

Ellen Braun is a Canmore-based singer and songwriter who performs as a solo act as well as in the band Trundled.

Braun did not have a goal of ever writing a play. According to her, it just happened.  “One day I felt compelled to write a one-woman show. I sat down over a weekend and wrote it,” she says.

She had always enjoyed seeing musicals and theatre.

The music and monologue put together for the piece are a way of accessing and a way to connect to the audience.

“The play is based on my life,” Braun says. “They are in snippets and follow a trajectory from knowing my purpose to losing slightly of it. It is about having obstacles get in the way, and living with purpose for what we’re meant to do.”

Photo credit: Jaime Vedres Photography

Makambe Speaks

After her travels, Makambe K. Simamba returns to Calgary with the World Premiere of a new solo show, Makambe Speaks.

A co-creation with Eric Rose and the team at Ghost River Theatre, Simamba sets off to answer the question: where are you from?

“As someone who has lived in Zambia, Guyana, Virgin Islands, Calgary and Ontario, the idea of identity is fluid and very interesting to me,” Simamba says. “There is not an easy way for me to define.”

Ghost River Theatre is known for their experimental and non-traditional use of narrative for telling stories. Through the collaboration, Simamba says she was able to explore immigration and identity with humour.

“There is a lightness to the show,” she says. “I can joke about lived identity and what to offer as part of the journey.”

The work with Ghost River Theatre has been a good fit for Simamba.

“I get help to work to capture the different things that go off in my mind,” she says. “The work is representative of how my brain works and felt like a good match.”

Simamba can be seen in recent television projects, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and True Dating Stories.

Some recent theatre productions include, ”Our Fathers, Songs, Lovers and Little Brothers,” also a solo performance that is a prayer for Black life.