I’ve just started the 2014 Giller winner US Conductors by Sean Michaels, but I know I will like it. Despite the musical instrument described in the book seems quite odd and ghostly to me at the beginning, it’s a beautiful and haunting story about music, love, spy, and science – if you have a 9-year-old son who loves science and technology, you can actually share some pages with him.

The book is based on the true story of Lev Termen, the Russian scientist, who invented the theremin player, and his “one true love,” Clara Rockmore. In the first half of the book, we learn of Termen’s early days inventing the theremin, and his arrival in the Jazz age New York. In the second half, the novel builds to a crescendo as Termen’s spy games fall apart and returns to Russia, where he is imprisoned in Siberia and later brought to Moscow to eavesdrop on Stalin. Throughout all this, his unrequited love for Clara remains constant and unflagging. Continue reading →

Mount Pleasant by Don Gillmor comes in very timely and relevant. It is set in Toronto under Financial Tsunami and the Occupy Movement. Harry Salter, a previous journalist who is now the part-time non-tenure politics professor, is obviously going through his mid-life crisis or even beyond – he needs to deal with his ballooning debt, his crumbling marriage, an unexpected/no emotion involved affair, his challenging son and his aging mother … how many troubles can someone endure all at once, and I haven’t even mentioned his father’s death yet – apparently his father’s death was his hope to get rid of his debt, but his supposedly millions of dollars inheritance turns out to be just a few thousands of dollars …

But problems will always be solved, yes … the black humour of the book does help your reading, too.

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No offense to anyone, but I didn’t realize the match making   profession has evolved so much until I read Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. It seems to be very scientific now … Look at the online dating sites – they offer online forms to find you the perfect half … And do you know the speed dating services? It’s very efficient – supposedly, you can find your life-long partner in just a few minutes …

Now, our oddly charming and socially challenged hero, the genetics professor, Don Tillman embarks on his Wife Project to find him a perfect wife based on this scientific approach– all he needs to do is to develop a questionnaire and post it on the university site. Great start, but …

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