The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

I finished another book. It was The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. I really liked this book.

It's the story of Allan Karlsson. He's a Swede born in 1905. On the day of his 100th birthday in 2005 Allan climbs out the window of his nursing home and goes on an eventful bus trip. Along the way Allan meets some interesting and funny characters. light fingered ne'er do wells and loafers provide spontaneous company and accompany Allan on this ad hoc journey late in his life. Along the way they have to stay a step ahead of the dangerous criminal gang Never Again who Allan has run afoul of. Also there is a police inspector who likes his drink, and an ambitious prosecutor who are trying to locate Allan and his new friends.

Through the book it tells Alan's remarkable life story. Allan early on develops a skill with dynamite. This proves useful through the 20th century. Later by chance Allan ends up at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project years and gains some useful insight while working as a steward there. Allan goes on a wild ride meeting famous world leaders from Franco in Spain to Lyndon Johnson and many in between.

It's a well written book. Pretty believable despite Allan's unbelievable life. Also quite amusing in parts. I can understand why this book is so popular. I'm glad I read it and recommend.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I finished another book. It was Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. It took me a long time to read it, many years overall. I'd got it at the library years ago and got about half through it. Then I had to return it and never got back to it, though I'd never forgotten the book.

I saw it out on the display at the library recently and I grabbed it. I quickly realized I'd forgotten much of what I'd covered years ago so I started from the beginning. Thanks to the Internet I was able to renew the loan a couple of times and with a final push finish it this time.

It was a good book. A charming, enjoyable read. The March family are likeable and the book is targeted to a younger audience so it was an easy read. There was a difference between volume I and volume II you can see the second part was a bit contrived and didn't have quite the cadence of volume I.

I know there's a movie about it. Was interesting because it was written long before films were around. Yet reading it it has the feel of a screenplay we see in many modern books. I know there are a number of books around the March family but this is fine. I'm glad to have finished this book after all these years.

Numbers 22

I recently came across a remarkable chapter in the Bible. Check out Numbers 22. Featuring Moab, a talking donkey, and an angel with sword drawn. awesome!

Tell All by Chck Palahnuik

I recently read Tell All by Chck Palahnuik. It was pretty good. A compelling read, it was a book where you always want to find out what's next.

The book is the story of the aging movie star Katherine Kenton. Kenton is from the old Grace Kelly/Joan Crawford Hollywood era. It's told from the perspective of her long time live-in companion Hazie Coogan. Hazie has made it her life's work to guide Katherine to success and avoid career, financial and relationship disasters along the way for Katherine as best she can.

Per the title, it's a book about "tell all" books. Using Crawford and Mommie Dearest as the posthumous pitfall that Hazie is trying to avoid. The catch about these tell all revelation books is that the subject must be dead for the tell all to be published. That creates some pressure on Katherine as she meets a charming young gold digger named Webster Carlton Westward III. The book itself is laid out as a kind of screenplay/script with chapter titles like "ACT I, SCENE EIGHT"

Typical of Palahnuik there are crazy twists. Also as in Survivor, the author explores celebrity and some of the manufactured steps taken to maintain a certain public look and image. There's the same kind of cynicism in parts of the arbitrariness and managed element of fame.

It's a good book. A fast read. I still have a few Palahniuk to read and I will continue reading them.

Plague of the Undead by Joe McKinney

I finished another zombie book. It was Plague of the Undead by Joe McKinney.

In this book McKinney takes a different line about the origin of the zombie apocalypse. It's no longer Houston in the aftermath of a slew of hurricanes. This time it's a chemical food additive CDHL. It was realized too late that massive CDHL exposure causes the zombie state, and that everyone reanimates after they die.

The book is set in a town on the Mississippi river called Arbella. It's set 30 years into the ruined future. The residents of Arbella have survived and set up an agrarian pre-industrial society. The community has done well. The population has increased to 10,000 and is looking to expand beyond its walls.

An expedition team is assembled to venture out, see what's out there, and determine potential sites to expand Arbella. The book is about the expedition team and their encounters out in the wilds.

It was a good book. It felt a bit derivative of the later Walking Dead in that the zombie problem is largely under control, and a lot of the dangers are in the people they meet along the way. It's not McKinney's best zombie work. The Houston series is better, especially Apocalypse of the Dead. The book isn't really long and he ends it with a collection of zombie apocalypse short stories tacked on at the end. Some of those stories are strange, world war Z style, but a good read.

Maybe the zombie thing has run its course and I'm ready to move on. Still this was a good book. If I happen to see any more McKinney at the library I would grab it.

+1 for the Halifax Gecko Bus

I'll use this space to put in a good word for the Gecko Bus. I've gone there a couple of times now. The food is tasty. The people are friendly it has a nice vibe there. Prices are good. They seem to be doing well there's always others coming or going when I've been in there.

I've had tacos and a burrito bowl when I've been there. They are usually up by the Kent in Bayers Lake. They have an app, and their website it's good to check. Once we just went up and they were somewhere else that day.

I'd been meaning to go for a while and now I'm glad that I've gone. I will plan to go back.