Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor

After buying Stanley Park on October 22, 2004, I finally got around to reading it. I started it shortly before moving, and made sure to keep track of it during all the packing and relocating of boxes so I could pick it up without too much elapsed time and still be able identify characters' names. That's my main problem with books, even books I love. If I set it down for too long, say a fortnight or so, then continue on, I'll have to rack my memory to recall who so-and-so is. Usually I have to flip back several pages to be sure they are who I think they are. Didn't have that problem with this one. It kept my attention, even through all the cooking/restaurant/chef details which is a testament to the writer's ability to wruite about it so even the laypeople among us could keep up. At the same time, I noticed there were (brand)names that the insiders would know about.

The storyline of Stanley Park - the actual park - was very well done. The true story bit about the babes is heartbreaking. I've long known pieces of the story, but being the father of a five-month-old baby makes it much tougher to ponder.

Stanley Park on BookCrossing.

condolences about The Monkey's Paw

Jeremy left Dante and Benny to explore by himself, to chat with the chefs and winery reps he knew. Almost to a person he was greeted with condolences about The Monkey's Paw, and about half of those people tagged on an additional coment along the lines of: "Inferno Coffee, though. Wow." The meaning of the wow varied widely depending on the speaker.
-- Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor

Really? No way! That's great. How does that make you feel?

BookCrossing: The Rich are Different

Here's the pitch, and it's hit hard to rightfield. Hard and deep. Ichiro has a bead on it as he turns and heads to the wall. He's getting close to the warning track, sneaks a peek at the fence, leaps, aaaaannnnnd it's a catch! My oh my, what a wild (release) catch! Mid-June I released The Rich are Different, by Susan Howatch, on a bench in Vancouver's Pacific Spirit Park. Three and a half weeks later, a journal entry hit my inbox - well, technically my BookCrossing folder I have setup to receive BookCrossing mail. Yeah, I know - it's pretty fancypants. Even more fancypants, though, is the fact that the book has already been to Europe and seems destined for Africa! Soo-EE! My catch rate has inched higher to 12.77533039647577%.

The catch:

My sister picked this book up off a bench in Vancouver BC and she took it on our annual vacation to Europe. This is where she told me about it and I decided to read it. Normally a book like this wouldn't be of interest to me but because someone thought it was good enough to pass on I thought I would give it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised! The Rich are Different is well written and has a very interesting plot. It is written in a way that is different from most books I come across in the sense that it is written from different perspectives. I plan on taking a last minute deal to Egypt or Tunisia and I plan to leave this book there even though it has already been in a different continent and country than it started in. To the next person that finds this book..Enjoy:)