Friday Book Review: A Long Way Gone

There are some books that you read and they really stick with you. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is certainly one of those books. In it the author details his life growing up in Sierra Leone in the 1990's.

Starting when he was 12 a bloddy civil war between the government and rebels forced him out of his village and separated him from his family. For months he and other refugees try to find a safe place away from all of the fighting to live safely and try to reconnect with his lost family. Then he is conscripted into the Sierra Leone Army where he is brainwashed and addicted to drugs all to make him a better solidier. For two years he lives in a constant state of kill or be killed without really knowing the true reasons behind the conflict.

Finally at 15, he is rescued in the form of being sent to a UNICEF transistion center. This is where the child soldiers are integrated back into normal life. He is sent to live with an uncle he doesn't know and all is good for a short time until strife comes to the capital. At this point Beah decides to flee to America.

Luckily he is adopted by Laura Simms, a woman he had met a year earlier when he participated in a Children of War conference at the UN. Now Mr. Beah has graduated from college with a degree in politics and is a human rights activist.

I listened to the audio book version of the text ready by the author himself. His lilting voice and matter of fact manner in describing all sorts of horrors he's seen and committed certainly added to the gravity of the subject matter. It is hard to imagine a situation like this with my comfy North American life experiences.

This book is rated a solid buy and it will bring you tears on more than one occassion.

WARNING: Coffee is Hot

This is sad. Another example of people not taking personal responsibility for themselves. Coffee shop owner must put up a warning sign so he won't get sued.

Friday Book Review: Drood

Dan Simmons can scare the crap out of you. He's done it time after time with a wildly diverse range of topics from an Indian death goddess, to time traveling robots, to Inuit myths and finally in Drood we have Charles Dickens imagination!

In this novel Simmons uses real events from the life of Charles Dickens including his friend and fellow novelist Wilkie Collins to tell a chilling tale. In 1865 Charles Dickens is on a train that crashes killing many of the passengers. While attempting to assist some of the survivors he notices a tall figure moving between the survivors apparently murdering them. Dickens becomes obsessed with finding this stranger and enlists his friend Wilkie Collins to help him. Such begins a Sherlock Holmes trope with Dickens as Holmes and Collins as Watson as they attempt to track down the mysterious figure Drood.

However to dismiss this book as a Sherlock Holmes knock off would be a mistake. Simmons does a masterful job spinning a tale that is historically accurate and could have easily happened.

The central crux of the book is whether or not Drood truly exists. Is he a figment of Dickens imagination, the criminal master mind of London's undertown or Charles Dickens himself. All of the clues to figure out the mystery are there but it will keep you guessing until the last page.

Tea Flavoured Coke

Oh those wacky Japanese are at it again. You'll soon be able to buy green tea flavoured Coke in Japan. Rival Pepsi is going to release a basil flavoured version of their cola. You know, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

Another Hot Coffee Lawsuit

It looks like Starbucks is being sued by a lady for an improperly secured lid. She's looking for $75,000 in damages for extreme humiliation and embarrassment.

Personally whenever I'm handed a cup of coffee I double check to make sure the lid is on right. In Starbucks locations in Canada the workers are trained to hand the coffee to patrons with the lids off. I've been told this is a health issue as the company does not want the workers hands touching the lids you are going to drink from.

Death by Caffeine, Almost

A UK teenager nearly kills herself after overdosing on caffeine. Apparently she downed seven double espressos while working at her family's sandwich shop, hilarity ensued.

This got me to starting thinking, how many double espressos would it require to kill me? According to the Death By Caffeine website the answer is 70 double espressos.