Category: books

Global migration and the remittance economy

On By Rick McIn books, economics, ethics, governmentLeave a comment

In 1987, reporter Jason DeParle went to sleep on the floor of a shanty in Manila for the first time. He had come to the Philippines to find out more about poverty in the developing world …

… he would spend the next 32 years following their family as they spread out around the world for work and a future outside the slums.

His new book is called A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves and is the story of global migration in the 21st century …

NPR

In the news we hear non-stop horror stories about foreign workers being abused. And those happen.

Very under-reported are success stories.

More than 2 million Filipinos depart each year …

About one in seven Filipino workers is employed abroad, and the $32 billion that they send home accounts for 10 percent of the GDP.

A remittance is a transfer of money, often by a foreign worker to an individual in their home country. …

… in 2018 overall global remittance grew 10% to US$689 billion, including US$528 billion to developing countries.

Global migration is far more good than bad. 

Interview the families affected before you ASSume to know how they feel.

 

World War Z – the Book

On By Rick McIn books, moviesLeave a comment

Did you see the 2013 Brad Pitt film World War Z?

The highest grossing zombie movie so far.

I liked it.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The book is different. 

Smart. Original. International. Political.

I decide to reread it because of the current CORONAVIRUS scare.

 I’m hoping it will be contained before the Olympics. So far it seems much like SARS.

World War Z is more like what we’ll face when the BIG pandemic finally arrives. 

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War is a 2006 zombie apocalyptic horror novel written by American author Max Brooks.

The novel is a collection of individual accounts narrated by an agent of the United Nations Postwar Commission, following the devastating global conflict against the zombie plague. …

Brooks used World War Z to comment on government ineptitude and US isolationism, while also examining survivalism and uncertainty. …

I Am Malala with Christina Lamb

On By Rick McIn books, education, government, human rights, Islam, travelLeave a comment

If you want to know more about life in Pakistan I recommend this autobiography of a teenager.

If you want to know more about the plight of girls and women in extremist Muslim nations, this is the book. Malala is a symbol. She was awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.

I hadn’t recalled that the Taliban assassin shot Malala and hit both girls sitting either side of her as well. All three survived.

Christina Lamb is an excellent writer, expert in this region. She too was nearly killed by the Taliban, on Benazir Bhutto’s bus when it was blown up in October 2007.

2013

I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban (2013) is an autobiographical book by Malala Yousafzai, co-written with Christina Lamb …

The book details the early life of Yousafzai, her father’s ownership of schools and activism, the rise and fall of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in Swat Valley and the assassination attempt made against Yousafzai, when she was aged 15, following her activism for female education.

It has received a positive critical reception and won awards, though it has been banned in many schools in Pakistan. …

Swat Valley has been an important tourist destination in the past. And may be again in future. Malala is a Pashtun, the majority of whom follow Sunni Islam.

The leader of the Swat Taliban in Malala’s day was Maulana Fazlullah.  He was killed by American drone strike in 2018.

Today Malala is a student at Oxford studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics. 

She and her father run the Malala Fund, an organization dedicated to every girl’s right to 12 years of free, safe, quality education. That’s an important cause for me too.

I’m proud to say Malala has honorary Canadian citizenship.

 

 

 

 

Buried Deep by Margot Hunt

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Each month Audible.com offers some FREE audio books.

All Audible Originals. Many are novellas.

I tried a few. One I listened through was Buried Deep by Margot Hunt (2 hrs and 38 mins).

After two decades in a near-perfect marriage, Maggie and James Cabot are enjoying their first year as empty-nesters in their charming Florida suburb, until two detectives arrive at their front door and change their lives forever.

The remains of a young woman have been found at a campsite in the Florida Keys. Hannah Nilsson, only 21 at the time of her disappearance, was last seen on a camping trip with a group of friends—including James, who dated Hannah long before he and Maggie ever met. …

Murder in Mazatlan by Randy McCharles

On By Rick McIn books, McCharles family2 Comments

The 3rd book in my brother’s Peter Galloway Murder Mystery series is set in my home-away-from-home in Mexico.

I had a condo there for 20 years. Randy’s had a condo there since. So he’s got a very accurate depiction of the Golden Zone in this novel.

In fact, tourist have been murdered there in similar ways to what happens here.

While in Mexico searching for his fugitive father, Peter Galloway chances upon the murder of a Canadian tourist.

What should be a pleasurable working vacation in an exotic destination becomes a desperate struggle to understand and survive the dangers of an unfamiliar culture.

Criminals, police, and politicians all hinder Galloway’s investigation, bringing their own brand of danger, and turning upside down his understanding of justice.

Even RCMP Sergeant Angela Ford is helpless to keep Galloway out of trouble.

Amazon

Check Randy’s full list of books.

Book 4 in the Galloway series will be set in Niagara Falls.

The Trespasser by Tana French

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The 6th book in the Dublin Murder Squad series is the best I’ve read so far.

Tana French is an excellent writer. This is a book that should be studied by Murder Mystery authors. 

“Tana French is the most interesting, most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years.”
                                                               —The Washington Post

Antoinette Conway is intense, tough, complex, paranoid, unlikable-in-any-way. A protagonist that not even her mother sympathizes with.

She’s the only female detective on the Dublin squad, dealing with the cruel practical jokes of colleagues who want to see her quit.

Antoinette and her inexperienced partner are assigned an easy solve — boyfriend murders girlfriend.

Top brass expects them to close the case quickly. … But it’s a much more complicated story than meets the eye.

Bearskin: A Novel

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By James A McLaughlin.

WINNER OF THE 2019 EDGAR FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL

I believe this is an excellent book. But I’m not sure. 

It’s weird. Original. Unpredictable.

Bookpage: “Part thriller, part crime novel, part dreamscape …”

The plot involving bear poachers selling parts to Asian buyers is fascinating.

Rice Moore is just beginning to think his troubles are behind him.

He’s found a job protecting a remote forest preserve in Virginian Appalachia where his main responsibilities include tracking wildlife and refurbishing cabins.

It’s hard work, and totally solitary—perfect to hide away from the Mexican drug cartels he betrayed back in Arizona.

But when Rice finds the carcass of a bear killed on the grounds, the quiet solitude he’s so desperately sought is suddenly at risk. …

 

Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

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The Cabin at the End of the World is a horror novel by American writer Paul Tremblay.

The novel won the Horror Writers Association‘s Bram Stoker Award for Novel in 2019.

It kept me going. Very suspenseful.

The entire book set in and around a cabin.

The character of Leonard is one of the most interesting in fiction I can recall.

I’m still not sure how I felt about the ending.

A gay couple named Andrew and Eric and their adopted daughter, Wen, are taking a vacation in a secluded cabin in New Hampshire. Their dwelling is invaded by four strangers named Redmond, Leonard, Sabrina, and Adriane who take the family captive and tell them that, to prevent the upcoming apocalypse, one of them must be killed by the others.

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

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Tom Hanks (Narrator) really made the book for me. 

He’s so easy to listen to.

I recommend The Dutch House. 

… a richly moving story that explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go. 

The Dutch House … digs deeply into questions of inheritance, love, and forgiveness, of how we want to see ourselves, and of who we really are … 

Faithful Place by Tana French

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The book is set in Dublin, featuring undercover detective Frank Mackey, who was a supporting character in French’s previous novel, The Likeness.

It is the third installment of French’s loosely related “Dublin Murder Squad” series.

Each follows a case in the heart of Ireland, with overlapping, complex characters that get involved in cases tied to their pasts.