The Murder Stone by Charles Todd

The Muder Stone - Charles Todd I picked this book up at Chapters sadly in the bargain bin for $7CDN. Truthfully the cover attracted me along with the title obviously. The book is set in WWI and is about a woman by the name of Francesca Hatton whose parents were killed in a car crash while in Canada when she was a child. She is adopted by her grandfatther, Francis Hatton who also has adopted the five children of his other son who died in an unmentionable situation. Her five cousins are sent off to war and all five are reported as killed in action. First her cousin Simon (the warrior) then Robin (the practical one), Freddy (the musician), Peter (the engineer) and finally Harry (the charmer). Finally her grandfather suffers a stroke and falls into a state of destitution. With his granddaughter by his side, Francis Hatton finally passes on leaving his entire estate to her along with all of his problems and grudges that were held against him.

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AFI @ Shaw Conference Centre

A.F.I. Just first off let me say, wow. I am still processing what I saw, so allow me a moment to collect my thoughts. The lineup for this concert was crazy it went from the venue up two sets of stairs, outside onto the street, down the street, into the parking lot of the nearby Mariott hotel and around in the lot itself. Doors opened at 8PM and we were in by 8:30PM. The opening band was The Plain White T’s and I highly recommend them, they were pretty damn good and I have them on my list of albums to go out and purchase. Excellent harmonies and lovely lyrics.

Finally A.F.I. came on the stage at around 10:30PM or so and the stage show was amazing. The lights show was well set up and the matching white outfits for all of the guys were spectacular. Davey was on his mark tonight, his voice was hitting all the notes and all the grrs :) A.F.I. Ticket Hunter was running around the stage, jumping off Adam’s drum platform and kicking into the air. Adam was just sitting and keeping the time for the guys. Jade was just hillarious some times, just seeing him gyrate his hips a bit and grind into his guitar was gold. The crowd was feeling the guys tonight, and Davey even ventured out into the crowd letting them hold him up as he sang, and then letting him roll off and get back on stage. My camera that I borrowed is an old ghetto camera, so the picture quality will be horrible. Once I get them developed I will post them here in this entry, so stay tuned.

Edit July 30.2006: I present my ghetto camera pictures of the performance. Click on the thumbnails for a bigger image.
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The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

The Da Vinci Code - Dan BrownYou know hype really is just that, something people use to make the object sound better and create a stir among people to be interested in it. The Da Vinci Code while well written was just hype to me really. After reading all of Dan Brown’s other works, I found The Da Vinci Code easy to read and it was easy to solve the riddles left behind by the Grand Master iin the story. I was pages ahead of the main characters, Dr. Robert Langdon (from Angels & Demons) and Sophie Neveu. Not to make myself sound all powerful and intelligent, but it was very easy to decipher the codes it was all about reading into the lines more and reading the correct lines. A good book overall, fun to read, but I personally think that Angels & Demons should be the book made into a major motion picture even if just for the controversial concepts inside.