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readbykena-blog · 7 years ago

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13 years - 305 books

I am an avid reader and friends frequently ask me what I am reading. Here I will try and post a brief review of each book I read. To begin with here is a list of books I have read over the last 13 years. Feel free to ask me any questions.

2017: (22)

-Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

-Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

-Corporate Communication, Theory & Practice by Joep Cornelissen

-Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen

-Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple

-A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

-Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance

-Theorizing Crisis Communication by Timothy Sallow and Matthew Seeger

-Infamous Scribblers: The Founding Fathers and the Rowdy Beginnings of American Journalism by Eric Burns

-The Global Public Relations Handbook by Krishnamurthy Sriramesh and Dejan Vercic

-The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

-When My Name was Keoko by Linda Sue Park

-The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

- Introducing Communication Research by Donald Treadwell

- We are never meeting in real life by Samantha Irby

- Ethics in Public Relations by Kathy Fitzpatrick and Carolyn Bronstein

- The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee

- Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

- Origin by Dan Brown

- What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton

- Social Media Communication by Jeremy Harris Lipshultz

- A Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

2016: (20)

-A Renegade History of the United States by Thaddeus Russell

-Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

-The Underground Abductor by Nathan Hale

-Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

-The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

-The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

-The Speechwriter by Barton Swaim

- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

-The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin

-The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

-But What If We're Wrong by Chuck Klosterman

-Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

-Brewster by Mark Slouka

-Rosemary The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson

-The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

-The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith

-Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

-The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

-The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

-A Man Called Ove by Frederick Backman

2015: (29)

-All The Truth Is Out by Matt Bai

-Double Down by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann

-The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

-Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan

-Yes Please by Amy Poehler

-A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines

-All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

-The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan

-The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

-To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway

-In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway

-A Country Doctor by Franz Kafka

-The Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway

-Persuading Scientists by Hamid Ghanadan

-The Splendid Things We Planned by Blake Bailey

-Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari

-A Heartbreaking Word of Staggering Genius by David Eggers

-Polio, An American Story by David Oshinsky

-The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

-Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee

-One Summer America, 1927 by Bill Bryson

-Brain on Fire by Susannah Catalan

-The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

-The Making of Modern Medicine by Michael Bliss

-People I Want to Punch in the Throat by Jen Mann

-Internal Medicine by Terrence Holt

-The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

-The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

-The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

2014: (10)

-David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell

-Why Grizzly Bears Should Wear Underpants by The Oatmeal

-Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

-Wild by Sheryl Strayed

-Stiff by Mary Roach

-An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

-Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

-Dataclysm by Christian Rudder

-Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracey Kidder

-Columbine by Dave Cullen

2013: (13)

-The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner

-The Path Between The Seas by David McCullough

-Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris

-I Wear the Black Hat by Chuck Klosterman

-Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama

-A Hologram For The King by Dave Eggers

-Inferno by Dan Brown

-The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

-Heads in Beds by Jacob Tomsky

-Monkey Mind by Daniel Smith

-The Brief Wondrous Live of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

-Truth in Advertising by John Kenny

-The Cell Game by Alex Prud'Homme

2012: (16)

-Walden by Henry David Thoreau

-Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

-The Visible Man by Chuck Klosterman

-Overtreated By Shannon Brownlee

-Listen To Your Heart by Fern Michaels (TERRIBLE BOOK!)

-The Ten, Make That Nine Habits of Very Organized People. Make That Ten, by Steve Martin

-The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin

-Baby Proof by Emily Giffen

-Natural Experiments of History by Jared Diamond

-The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

-The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

-Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

-Secrets of The Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg

-A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

-The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

-Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

2011: (20)

-Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

-I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

-Tinkers by Paul Harding

-How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

-What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell

-The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

-The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

-An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin

-Tea Time For the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith

-Bossypants by Tina Fey

-The Pearl by John Steinbeck

-Summer Sisters by Judy Blume

-Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillian and Al Switzler

-Beautiful Boy by David Sheff

-The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

-Of Thee I Zing by Laura Ingraham

-A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron

-Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

-The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

-Trust Me I'm Dr. Ozzy by Ozzy Osbourne

2010: (26)

- History's Worst Decisions and the people who made them by Stephen Weir

- Junky by William S. Burroughs

- One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell

- Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman

- Food Rules by Michael Pollan

- Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler

- Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler

- Drive by Daniel Pink

-The Help by Kathryn Stockett

-The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

-US Americans Talk About Love Edited by John Bowe

-For You Mom, Finally by Ruth Reichl

-The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter

-Cowboys Are My Weakness by Pam Houston

-The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

-Barrel Fever by David Sedaris

-You Are Not a Stranger Here by Adam Haslett

-Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

-The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

-The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

-I'm a Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson

-The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

-Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris and Ian Falconer

-Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

-A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel

2009: (22)

• Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

• Remember Me? By Sophie Kinsella

• A Long Way Gone, memoirs of a boy soldier by Ishmael Beah

• Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher

• Slummy Mummy by Fiona Neill

• Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet

• Crawfish Mountain by Ken Wells

• My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler

• Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

• A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz

• Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

• Mistakes Were Made, by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson

• Gertrude by Herman Hesse

• The Sportswriter by Richard Ford

- Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

- The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold

- Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

- When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

- Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

- Bright-Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich

-The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

-Super Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner

2008: (21)

• The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

• Inside the Minds, The Art of Public Relations by CEOs

• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

• Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol

• The Pig Did It by Joseph Caldwell

• The Known World by Edward P. Jones

• Dark Roots by Cate Kennedy

• East of Eden by John Steinbeck

• Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susan

• Wired by Bob Woodward

• One Pill Makes You Smaller by Lisa Dierbeck

• A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

• Secrets of the Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg

• Pound for Pound by F.X. Toole

• All the Way Home by David Giffels

• Bonk by Mary Roach

• In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin

• Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris

• The Sea by John Banville

• Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman

• Female Chauvinist Pigs, Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy

2007: (28)

• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

• 1984 by George Orwell

• What Ifs? Of American History edited by Robert Cowley

• The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer

• Rabbit, run by John Updike

• Life of Pi by Yann Martel

• The Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer

• Pigtopia by Kitty Fitzgerald

• FiSH by Stephen Lundin, Harry Paul and John Christensen

• The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories by Agatha Christie

• 1776 by David McCullough

• Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart

• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

• Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart

• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

• Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald

• Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

• Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

• The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

• Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh

• A Dog Year by Jon Katz

• 1491 New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann

• IV by Chuck Klosterman

• Devil in the Details by Jennifer Traig

• The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

• The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

• Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

• No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

2006: (27)

• Collapse, How societies choose to fail or succeed by Jared Diamond

• The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman

• Freakonomics by Levitt & Dubner

• Harry and Ike by Steve Neal

• State of Denial by Bob Woodward

• Crossroads in American History by James McPherson & Alan Brinkley

• The Lexus & The Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman

• The Lessons of History by Will & Ariel Durant

• Strategery by Bill Sammon

• Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins

• Japanese Canadian Redress, The Toronto Story

• The Untold Story of the Yom Kippur War by Howard Blum

• The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles

• Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie

• Red Weather by Pauls Toutonghi

• Wifey by Judy Blume

• Frantic Transmissions to and from LA by Kate Braverman

• Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

• Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

• A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh

• The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

• The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night-time by Mark Hadden

• A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

• Marley & Me by John Grogan

• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

• Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell

• Boni y Tigre by Kathrin Sander

2005: (51)

• Guns, Germs, And Steel by Jared Diamond

• The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

• Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

• Sex, Drugs, And Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman

• The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf

• A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

• Mary Magdalene by Lynn Picknett

• Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson

• The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

• Bob Dylan Chronicles Volumn 1 by Bob Dylan

• Smashed by Koren Zailckas

• Culture Shock Costa Rica by Claire Wallerstein

• The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs

• Dress Your Family in Corduroy & Denim by David Sedaris

• Naked Pictures of Famous People by Jon Stewart

• All the President's Men by Bernstein & Woodward

• The Final Days by Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein

• The Secret Man by Bob Woodward

• Shadow (5 Pres. & the Legacy of Watergate by Bob Woodward

• All Politics is Local, by Tip O'Neill

• What's the Matter With Kansas? (How Conservatives Won the Heart of America) by Thomas Frank

• Don't think of an Elephant by George Lakoff

• Confessions of a Political Junkie by Hunter S. Thompson

• America The Book by Jon Stuart

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

• The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

• Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck

• Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

• The Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London

• Animal Farm by Goerge Orwell

• Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnecut

• The Stranger by Albert Camus

• Empire Falls by Richard Russo

• The Great Fire by Shirly Hazzard

• A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler

• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

• Skirt and the Fiddle by Tristian Egolf

• Drive Like Hell by Dallas Hudgens

• The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

• Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

• Deception Point by Dan Brown

• Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

• The Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyers

• Angry Housewives by Lorna Landvik

• The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield

• Loving Che by Ana Menendez

• Wolves in Chic Clothing by Carrie Karasyov & Jill Kargman

• Citizen Girl by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus

• And Sister by Sophie Kinsella

• Trading Up by Candace Bushnell

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chicagoindiecritics · 5 years ago

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New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: REWIND REVIEW: Where’d You Go, Bernadette

(Image: cnn.com)

For an occasional new segment, Every Movie Has a Lesson will cover upcoming home media releases combining an “overdue” or “rewind” film review, complete with life lessons, and an unboxed look at special features.

WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE

There are parallels between which filmmaker Richard Linklater always seems to operate. It was either “free-wheeling fun” or “poignant realism” with “scant middle ground.” Call them Party Linklater and Deep Linklater. The question mark skipped from the title of Where’d You Go, Bernadette can be placed in the sentence of which Linklater did we get? Welcome to the uncharted and unexpected “scant middle ground” where grandiose fiction is the party and odd eccentricity is the depth.

Neurotically charming, yet misshapen in many ways, Where’d You Go, Bernadette is wholly unique from the Texan and Hollywood outsider. The movie has the equal ability to disarm and disgust depending on your perspective or experience with the Maria Semple source material. Non-readers will float with the staccato blustering and the Antarctic kayak currents of fancy. Ardent fans will wonder where all the scintillating mystery went that gave merit to all the haphazard happenings beset on the family of narrator Balakrishna Branch, affectionately known as “Bee” and played by debuting talent Emma Nelson.

ANTICIPATORY SET AND PRIOR KNOWLEDGE:

Bee is the uber-precocious 15-year-old daughter of a pair of brilliant-minded, attracted opposites. Her father is the Microsoft-backed tech innovator Elgin Branch, played by Billy Crudup, earning industry kudos and TED Talk stages with groundbreaking new mind-to-text recognition software. The extroverted and borderline workaholic is matched by his reclusive and agoraphobic wife and Bee’s titular mother, played by Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett and her bangs. Detailed by exposition-minded video essays viewed by characters on screen, Bernadette Fox was once the toast of Los Angeles and the most brilliant architectural design savant of her generation before professional disappointment burned and stomped over her creativity.

LESSON #1: “THE BRAIN IS A DISCOUNTING MECHANISM” — Bernadette’s own explanatory observations of self-diagnosis are fueled by empirical study, plenty of science, and a side of doubting bullshit. It’s true that the brain looks for risk and signals accordingly. To call it a design flaw for danger instead of joy, however, is where you squint at the woman’s nuttiness to a degree. Still, this background and Cate’s delivery of it all sheds light on the movie’s nervous system.

For years, Bernadette has buried herself in two projects: being a mom and endlessly tinkering with restoring a huge derelict old school building into the family’s home in the Seattle burbs. Anxiety has grown into to insomnia and a racing heart during social and domestic confrontations. Her most common clashes are anything requiring Bernadette to interact and keep up with the joneses of the hoity-toity private school Bee attends (something matching of Semple’s inspiration). That judgy crowd is led by the granola and snooty next door neighbor Audrey (Kristen Wiig) and her minion Soo-Lin (TV actress Zoe Chao) who works with Elgin.

LESSON #2: DIFFERING PERSPECTIVES ON FAILING LIVES — We learn a great deal about where Elgin and Bernadette stand in a dynamite sequence of two separated venting sessions. Elgin has approached a psychiatrist (Judy Greer) about how to deal with his wife. In a different location, Bernadette catches up with an old colleague (Laurence Fishburne) that she hasn’t seen in years. Deftly constructed with surgical editing from Linklater regular Sandra Adair, his lament combines with her rant. His conclusion is help while hers is to create, showing just how far apart the two former lovebirds are now.

Outside of her impressionable daughter, Bernadette’s verbose and unrestrained external monologue is received and filtered through “Manjula,” her unseen automated text-to-speech personal assistant service. Even with the prospect of an Antarctic cruise vacation for Bee on the horizon, all of the loose threads of Bernadette’s current course are unraveling to several breaking points. Everyone can see these potential disasters coming except her and the loyal Bee who considers her mother her best friend.

MY TAKE:

LESSON #3: LOVE SOMEONE’S FLAWS — The movie presents a family that still loves the mess that Bernadette has become. Her husband, for all his worry, remains a willing confidante. The nearly unconditional love between daughter and mother is tremendous. Mom defends her daughter’s independence and the resilient girl gives it right back in the face of the catty other moms. Accepting and inspiring familial love trumps every quirk or mistake and the film forces a great many syrup-coated steps to ensure that happens.

Showing off as much if not more unstable petulance as she did winning the Oscar for Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, Cate Blanchett bring a dizzying level of detail to her characterization of depressed pizzazz and wallowing pluck and play Bernadette Fox. There is never a wasted movement or breath with Cate. This is complete immersion and her vocal and physical expressions and actions of exasperation are fascinating to watch. Sure, maybe we’ve seen this level of difficulty before from the newly-minted 50-year-old, but the capability and brilliance she brings to these odd roles is nearly second to none. Put her right there next to Meryl Streep where her dedication to any and every challenge cannot be questioned.

Across from that celebrated star of rich and storied career heights is Emma Nelson, the rookie in her first movie. Experience be damned, she becomes the emotional linchpin of the whole darn thing. Every arc of personal improvement for Bernadette lifts one for Bee and the first-timer exudes mettle and moxie. That girl is going places besides just her next year of high school.

Admittedly, Where’d You Go, Bernadette is tricky business for Richard Linklater. Semple’s best-seller is a uniquely mystery-driven collection of documents, emails, and transcripts, stuff not easy or clear to translate on screen without heavy narration or the wild visual creativity of something like Searching. Linklater and the Me and Orson Welles screenwriting team of Holly Gent and Vince Palmo bent and stripped away that hop-scotch of truth and “you never know everything” intrigue to fashion something more straight-forward and safe as a character piece narrative. In doing so, the resulting film skimps on opportunities to wreck more havoc in personal lives. The fits and spurts of how far to raise eyebrows comes out in the film’s unevenness. Luckily, the acting is steadfast and satisfying.

LESSON #4: TAKE A JOURNEY OF SELF-DISCOVERY — Critique aside, the clear goal for Linklater was to create or hone something more pleasant than a tawdry yarn of competing gossip. The third act of this movie takes a walkabout-ish excursion and turn for Bernadette and company brings aims positivity to elevate the doldrums of everyone’s downward spiral. Choose your journey to reinvigorate your soul. The Antarctica location doesn’t matter. It’s the fact you take one when you need it most.

3 STARS

EXTRA CREDIT:

(Image: filmlinc.org)

The 20th Century Fox home media edition of Where’d You Go, Bernadette offers a tiny sprinkle of background on Linklater’s feature film. Tiny does mean tiny. There are only three special features and one of them is a 26-picture gallery of production stills. That’s hardly a deep dive. Someday, a talkative casual guy like director Richard Linklater needs to grace us with an audio commentary on the level with his legendary Dazed & Confused track. Until then, these vignette crumbs made the Trailer Park Content house will have to do.

The main feature is the 15-minute “Bringing Bernadette to Life.” It’s a sharp behind-the-scenes retrospective on how this project came to be with its assembled talent. The blue-jeans-casual director talks about how he was introduced to and dissected Maria Semple’s book with his trusted screenwriting collaborators Holly Gent and Vince Palmo. Linklater was captivated from the opening line of “Just because you can’t fully know somebody doesn’t mean you can’t try” while Cate Blanchett called it a “bugger” to adapt with its format of letters and emails. Richard’s goal was the show everything about the main character and not shy away from raw truths and painful confrontations.

Blanchett was the actress Linklater pictured while reading Semple’s novel and came to realize she was the only one to pull off this discombobulated lead role. The Oscar winner puts in her interview time in the feature discussing all the quirks and themes. For a fun fact, Blanchett wore Semple’s own sunglasses from when she wrote the novel. Furthermore, nice bouquets are also shared by Emma Nelson, Billy Crudup, and Kristen Wiig. Each player speaking on the main character and her wavelengths.

The second mini-doc is the five-minute “Who Is Bernadette.” For a movie about thinking and talking out loud, we get the talent thinking and talking out loud. It’s more of the same with the edited montages set to the voiceover sharing of the cast and crew. It’s not much, but the insight is appreciated, especially with Semple herself offering her stamp of approval. All in all, the special features won’t be the reason one purchases this movie. They’ll be there for the finished film itself.

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#843)

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apocalypticmovierp · 5 years ago

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‘Where’d You Go Bernadette?’: Richard Linklater & Cate Blanchett Totally Miss The Mark In A Limping Twee Comedy [Review]

Not a screwball comedy or inspirational tale of creativity unleashed but trying to be both those things and more, Richard Linklater’s lackluster adaptation of Maria Semple’s bestselling novel “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” is a late, dull entry in a louder-than-usual summer movie season that truly needed something special, warm, and human-scale. Try as the filmmakers do to conjure a restorative kind of magic in its searching, yearning storyline of renewal, they are not able to come up with much more than a limping comedy about a woman with all-too-easily-explained mental issues.

Continue reading ‘Where’d You Go Bernadette?’: Richard Linklater & Cate Blanchett Totally Miss The Mark In A Limping Twee Comedy [Review] at The Playlist.

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bestbooksnbadkitties · 8 years ago

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Reads and DNF’s -

I can only find so much to say about the books that I read, especially if having read a series like JD Robbs In Death series that has something like 50 novels in it, therefore this year I’m only going to review the books I found exceptionally interesting, amusing or unusual.

However, here’s a list of the books I’ve read, or put down unread since January, that I have not reviewed.

Zero Day by Jan Gangsei – young girl kidnapped, later returned home. Since her dissapearance her dad’s become POTUS – is she really the daughter or not? Will I read the next in the series – probably.

IQ by Joe Ide – brilliant young man from a poor and downtrodden neighborhood in LA solves crimes the police ignore. Hopefully, this series continues.

The Keeper of Lost Causes and The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen – Swedish crime novels featuring Detective Carl Morck –he looks into and solves old cases. Will definitely keep reading these ones.

For the Record by Charlotte Huang – what life’s like as a teenage rock star – not bad!

The Winter Place by Alexander Yates – kind of a fairy tale sort of novel involving 2 kids sent to Finland to live with the grandparents they never knew they had. Read it, skimmed it, read the end.

Echoes in Death by JD Robb – some of these are getting old – this one NOT – will keep reading this series.

Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple – a day in the confusing and frenetic life of Eleanor Floor. Nowhere near as good Where’d You Go, Bernadette.

Vicarious by Paula Stokes –Winter and Rose Kim have not had it easy seen leaving Korea. Now working as Vicarious Sensory Experience stunt girls their life is full of risk. When Rose disappears Winter tries to find out what happened. Did not see this ending coming!

When All The Girls Have Gone by Jayne Ann Krentz – Charlotte’s step-sister Jocelyn is missing. Charlotte joins forces with PI Max Cutler. Deception, terror, murder and romance ensue. I have been reading Jayne Ann Krentz for over 20 years, and will continue to do so.

The Last of August by Brittany Cavallaro – loved A Study in Charlotte – found this one to be confusing and way too much teenage angst. Will probably read another though.

Novels by Lisa Kleypas – My new ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE Romance writer- Read all 5 Wallflower novels, and the first 2 in the Ravenel series. And now going to start the Hathaway series. I believe some are Historical fiction and some contemporary. Wow, did our ancestors in the 1700’s have a lot of premarital sex!

Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth – DNF – couldn’t get into it.

King’s Cage by Victoria Aveyard – had to put it down, nothing was happening – will not read rest of series, even though I loved Red Queen.

The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig – DNF

The Library at the Edge of the World by Felicity Hayes-McCoy – DNF

Everywhere and Every Way by Jennifer Probst - DNF

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marksemplefertility · 5 years ago

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Mark Semple Surrogacy Colombia – Top Notch Administrator in Medical Tourism

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fertilitysolutionsmarksempl-blog · 5 years ago

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Fertility Solutions International Mark Semple - Legal Surrogacy in Europe

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Fertility Solutions International Mark Semple - It is an award-winning company specializing in global assisted reproduction including surrogacy, egg donation, and in vitro fertilization (IVF).

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spanishmain · 6 years ago

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The Anti-Jacobin Review and True Churchman’s Magazine, 1912

Page 126: He left Gravesend on the 27th of August, 1810, and on the 15th of October reached Curacao, which is not more than fifteen leagues from the Spanish Main.

“It was imagined,” say sour author, “that the declaration of independence by the province of Venezuela, by opening the ports of the continent to a direct trade, would operate to the disadvantage of Curacao, or rather supersede the necessity of such a depot altogether. This may no doubt be true in some degree; but recent occurrences have shown that no advantages of soil or situation can recompense the want of a stable and efficient government, and the consequent insecurity of life and property. Whatever property may be adventured to Curacao is, at least, safe, so long as British laws and British power protect it. But no sooner do we pass those strongly marked boundaries, than we tread on unstable ground, and unfortunately, those who have considered the subject most attentively are the most doubtful as to the result.

This is perfectly true, and equally true is it, that in the present state of that part of the Spanish Continent in which the revolutionary government has been established, there is no security either for property, or for life. At Curacao there was one of the West India black regiments, at whose presence the inhabitants, at first, were greatly alarmed. All the horrors of Saint Domingo were before their eyes, heightened by the exaggerated accounts of refugees from that Island, and they did not take the trouble to examine into he particular circumstances to which those horrors were to be ascribed. But the exemplary conduct of the regiment at length removed their apprehensions, and made them dismiss all regret for the absence of European soldiers. After a fortnight’s residence at Curacao, Mr. Semple sailed for the Port of La Guayra, on the Spanish main, where he landed on the 5th of November. Hence he proceeded to Caracas, over a tract of country, beautifully diversified, and presenting many grand and interesting objects. The town of Caracas is situated at the extremity of a valley, twenty miles in length, and from four to seven in breadth.

Page 130: We see no reason to disbelieve the plain assertions of men, who had no interest to deceive, and who were not aware of the doubts which had arisen respecting the existence of the unicorn. Nor can we easily conceive what proof can be deemed requisite for the establishment of the fact, if the testimony of an eyewitness of unimpeached, and undoubted, veracity, is to be rejected, on no other ground than because people who have not seen such an animal choose to believe that it is nowhere to be found. On the road to Valencia, the travelers passed a beautiful like, about thirty miles in length, and twelve at the broadest part, in width, greatly resembling Loch Lomond in Scotland, though not surrounded by such grandeur of mountain scenery. It is called the Lake of Valencia. After a pleasant journey, they reached their destined port, in safety. But Puerto Cabello, though the only harbor in that part of the Spanish main, afforded not a single inn, and Mr. Semple, and his companion, were indebted to the hospitality of an individual, to whom they had letters of recommendation, for bed and board. The goodness of this harbor, however, is more than counterbalanced by the extreme insalubrity of the place, which, in the summer and autumn, no stranger can visit with impunity. Here, Mr. Semple took leave of his companion, and, in ten days, set off on his return to Caracas, where he had left his brother. Having completed his tour, he presents an interesting summary to his readers, in which he recapitulates, with much pleasantry, the prominent objects which arrested his attention. His account of the manners of the people is by no means flattering; certainly not such as would tempt a stranger to establish his residence among them. The inhabitants of the country, however, are said to differ essentially from those of the towns.

Page 132: These remarks, as applicable to the better classes of society on the Spanish man, are perfectly true; but they were situated very differently from the nobility in France. They had every means of union, every opportunity for cooperation, every advantage of resources, local and general; and their numbers, moreover, were such that they might easily have averted the storm, to the pressure of which they so readily yielded. But this was by no means the case with the French nobility, at the commencement of the revolution. They were scattered over a wide extent of country, and, in every place, had a vast majority to contend with. It is by no means certain, therefore, that, had they remained in France, they would have been able to stem the revolutionary tide, or to preserve even the wrecks of ancient institutions. We rather incline to think, (though not disposed to hazard any decisive opinion on the subject) that they would only have served to increase the myriads of victims, whom the worthies of the revolution doomed to destruction.

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newstfionline · 7 years ago

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Thugs, Leeches, Shouting and Shoving at Trump Hotel in Panama

By Kirk Semple, Ben Protess And Steve Eder, NY Times, March 3, 2018

PANAMA CITY--The Trump International Hotel and Tower here is President Trump’s only hotel property in Latin America. At 70 stories, it is the tallest building in Panama, offers sweeping views of Panama Bay and features five outdoor swimming pools. The rooms come with Trump branded bathrobes, stationery and mouthwash.

But in recent days, guests have witnessed a decidedly less glamorous side of the operation: Yelling and shoving matches involving security personnel and others, the presence of police in Kevlar helmets, and various interventions by Panamanian labor regulators, forensic specialists and a justice of the peace.

The source of the drama? The businessman who recently purchased a majority stake in the hotel wants the Trumps out. And the Trumps, who have a long-term contract to manage the property, are refusing to go.

In a letter marked “Private & Confidential” to the hotel’s other owners, the businessman, Orestes Fintiklis, likened the Trumps to leeches who had attached to the property, “draining our last drops of blood,” according to a copy reviewed by The New York Times. He has also filed legal actions accusing the Trump family business, the Trump Organization, of mismanaging the hotel.

The Trump Organization, in turn, has accused Mr. Fintiklis of using “thug-like, mob-style tactics” in trying to force his way into the hotel’s administrative offices, which prompted the physical and verbal altercations, and of engaging in a “fraudulent scheme” to strip the property of its Trump management and branding. Mr. Fintiklis’s criticisms of the company’s management “are a complete sham and a fraud,” the company said in a court filing.

This past week, Panama’s Public Ministry said it was looking into whether there had been any “punishable conduct” in the dispute--which means that an arm of a foreign government finds itself in the extraordinary position of investigating a business owned by the American president.

Just seven years ago, at the hotel’s grand opening, the president of Panama at the time joined Mr. Trump in extolling the property. Panama City was then awash with international investors and a booming economy, earning it the nickname, “Dubai of Latin America.”

Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s chief legal officer, said President Trump had no role in the current dispute. “This has absolutely nothing to do with the president of the United States,” he said. “It is purely a commercial dispute,” adding that “It is simply getting more attention, obviously.”

But the Panamanian misadventure has become the family business’s biggest headache at a time when its founder is in the White House and every move and woe is magnified across the planet. The business is also showing other signs of receding: The Trump Organization last year agreed to buyout deals that removed the Trump name from once-prized properties in New York and Toronto.

With those stresses and strains, the company is reluctant to walk away from the Panama property and possibly invite other partners to challenge their agreements, according to people close to the company who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The dispute comes as the Trump’s property--like many Panamanian hotels--is struggling.

The hotel lost over $1 million last year, according to the hotel’s confidential financial documents reviewed by The Times, after turning a gross operating profit of more than $800,000 in 2016. (The results are unaudited and may improve somewhat once they are finalized).

Algerd Monstavicius, who bought one of the hotel’s penthouses as an investment in 2007, four years before the building opened, said he had seen revenues from his unit plummet in the past year. He attributes the falloff in part to President Trump’s hard-line stance on immigration and antipathy toward him across much of Latin America.

“The perception is: Trump is anti-Latino,” said Mr. Monstavicius, 78, a retired pathologist living in Incline Village, Nev. “And that’s reflected in the occupancy.”

#Panama #Trump hotel in Panama

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stephaniefchase · 7 years ago

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Barbados 2017 in Review

It’s been a most amusing and enlightening year so I hope that you enjoy my annual review of the social scene in Barbados for 2017 because this took a rather long time to compile.

ENTERTAINMENT EVENTS

Best Produced Musical Event – Handel’s Caribbean Messiah: An Evening of Miracles with the 1688 Collective

Best Reggae Event – Digicel Barbados Reggae On The Hill

Best Christmas Event - Mahalia’s Corner Christmas Edition

Best Event Set Decor - Mahalia’s Corner Christmas Edition (Renaissance Designs)

Best Themed Event – Girlfriends Expo “Journey to the East An Asian Experience”

Best Promotional Artistic Event – Waves

Best Fashion Show – Crop Over Fashion Code

Best Free Crop Over Event – Pan Pun De Sand

Best New Crop Over Event– Powda

Most Popular Crop Over Event – Puff Of Colour

Worst Crop Over Event – TipSea by Ramon G

Most Controversial Crop Over Event – TipSea by Ramon G

Best Soca Event – Phenomenal Friday (Bashment Soca Finals, Sweet Soca & Party Monarch Semis)

Best New Crop Over Event – Phenomenal Friday

Most Family Oriented Calypso Tent – House of Soca Calypso Tent

Best Produced Calypso Tent – The Big Show Calypso Tent

Most Improved Calypso Tent – The Big Show Calypso Tent

Best Grand Kadooment Day Band Experience – Erupt

Best Foreday Band Experience – Flair

Most Scabbical Foreday Band Experience – Blu Mist

Most Celebrated Title Win – Red Plastic Bag’s Sweet Soca Victory

MUSIC

Most Popular Men’s Anthems for Crop Over – “WOOD!” by Scrilla

Most Popular Question for Crop Over – “What type of wood yuh want?”

Most Popular statement by Men during Crop Over – “I wan give it to yuh” by Marzville

Most Annoying Song But Everyone Knows The lyrics – “Dirty Harry” by Nathalee & SK

Most Hilarious Soca lyrics – Face Down Ass Up by Jagwa

Most Loved Sweet Soca – Boatride by Red Plastic Bag

Most under-rated Song – Tip & Ben Ova by Stiffy

Most Popular Power Soca – Energy by Lil Rick

Best Soca Duet – Paradise by TC featuring Buggy Nhakente

Best Nation Building Song – Bring Barbados Back by Chrystal Cummins-Beckles-Holder

Song of the YEAR – Boatride by Red Plastic Bag

Best Calypso Rhythm – The Jack Frost Rhythm by Dwaingerous

Best New Soca Artist – Jus D 9 (Na Na Ni)

Breakthrough Artist – Safiyah

Most Promising Calypsonian – Sparkle T

Most Improved Calypsonian – Anita Charles (AC)

Most Unfaired Calypsonans – De Announcer & TC

Latest Bajan Band – The Alliance (Blood, Mikey & Kirk Brown)

Most Promising Instrumentalist – Wesley Morris

Instrumentalist of the Year – Mylon Clarke

Most Viewed Crop Over Music Video - Hardware - Popdown Melody ft. Jah Reddis, Trey Breezy, Biggest, Sheriann Norris & Chris RK 529439 views

Most Controversial Music Video – Lady Essence “Fluffy Gal Anthem”

Best Male Soca Music Video– Marvay “Antidote”

Best Female Soca Music Video– Faith “Refill”

Best New Female Gospel Single – Worth It by Neesha Woodz

Best New Gospel Album – Ist John by John Yarde

Best Music Video Producers - Scenes Entourage

Worst Music Video Producers – Alwyn Kirk

Best Talent Showcase – Mahalia’s Corner

Most Popular Musical Showcase – Mahalia’s Corner

Best Vocal Training Showcase – Walking In My Shoes

Most Promising Record Label – LavaLamp

Most Professionally Driven Artist Manager – Ingrid Holder

LOCAL RADIO

Newest Radio Station – Capital Media FM

Most Popular Posts - Eric Lewis

Most Accurate Breaking News - Tete La

Most Engaging Music Blogger - Dr. Stefan Walcott

Most Concise News Blogs- Stephanie F. Chase

Best Economic Blogger – Jeremy Stephens

Best Historical Blogger - Dr. Karl Watson

BLOGGER OF THE YEAR – Sherriann Norris

SOCIAL MEDIA

Most Popular Social Media Challenge – Stop RH Littering

Most Innovative Cause via Social Media – Stop RH Littering

Most Popular Social Media Debate - Nikki Beach charging $32.50 for 2 Heinekens (apparently alot of wannabewhite black people want poor people to stay in their lane - but I want them to know there are RICH people who still would not pay $32.50!!)

Most Popular Show on Facebook – The Tamerind Rod Show

Most Celebrated Court Victory – Rasta Rule ( Judge rules in favor of Rastafarian family homeschooling their children)

Most Discussed Crop Over Controversy – Nikita & Divine recording the same song

Most Discussed Environmental Hazzard – The South Coast Sewage Project

Best New Crop Over - The Crop Over Experience

Best Nation Building Facebook Page - I LOVE BARBADOS

Best Caribbean Coverage via Facebook – 360 Caribbean

Most Interactive DJ via Twitter & IG - Jon Deesy

Most Hilariously Acid & Lethally Dangerous Posts on Facebook – Eric Lewis

Most Respected Radical UNBIASED Commenter on Facebook – David D2 Davis

Most Hilarious Politically Inspired Caricatures via Facebook - Bajan Puppets

FB Politician of the Year – Denis Kellman

Most Popular Taxi Driver due to FB – Dirty Harry

Most Unexpectedly HILARIOUS video on Facebook – The man in the Fairchild Street Bus Terminal cussing Freundel & the government

Most Infuriating Video on Facebook – Ninja Man being pepper sprayed

Most Traumatizing Video on Facebook – Men fighting after the No Regulations Cruise

Most Hilarious Voice Note – About the unseen creature lurking in Waterford bottom

TRIVIA: I have been beaten, stabbed and often thought for dead but Jehovah Jireh, Budha, Krishna, Allah, & Lucifer bless me more lives than a cat. Who am I?

ENTERTAINMENT WEBSITES

Most Destructive Website - www.nakeddeparture.com

Most Popular Entertainment Website - www.LoopNewsBarbados.com

Most Professional Entertainment Website – www.loopnewsbarbados.com

Most Politically Inspired Websites - https://barbadosunderground.wordpress.com

Best Event Website -www.whatsoninbarbados.com

Best News Website - www.BarbadosToday.bb

Best Caribbean Website - www.caribbean360.com

PRINTED MEDIA

Best New Column – Money Matters with Melinda Belle

Best Christian Column – The Alter Call

Best Social Awareness Column - It Matters to Maria

Most Entertaining Column – Looka Lew by Eric Lewis

Most Popular Gossip Column - Puddin N Souse

Most Unbiased Socially Conscious Column – Get Real by Adrian Green

Most Introspective Column - Awright Den by Corey Worell

POLITICS

Most Hilarious Politician: Denis Kellman

Most Ridiculous Posts by a Politician on Facebook: Denis Kellman

Most Celebrated Political Appointment: Sandra Mason as Governor General

NATIONAL HEADLINES

Most Anticipated Headline – THE ELECTION DATE (only Freundel knows) so we wait!

Best Headline – New Government Needed, Sunday 31st December SUNDAY SUN

The Headline that almost destroyed Christmas – HAM HIKE, Friday 8th December, Weekend Nation

Most Accurate Local Headline – “We’ve Failed! Government economic policies not working says Estwick.” Barbados Today 2/22/2017

Most UNBELIEVABLE Headline – “We will forgive you” Solutions Barbados promising 100% Debt relief if elected, Tuesday 28th November, Barbados Today

Most Aggravating Headline for Commuters– Bus Blues, Tuesday 14th November, Barbados Today

Most Depressing Headline – Bitter Fix: The Budget at a glance, Wednesday 31st May Mid-Week Nation

Most Discussed Headline by Corporate Barbados –“I want my $$$” Bizzy calls on Government & Private Sector to pay their debts. Friday 15TH December

Most Controversial Headline – HILTON: 20 Questions, Wednesday 13th December, Midweek Nation

Most Distressing Headline – Bloody Kadooment, Tuesday 8th August, Daily Nation

Most Supported Headline by Parents – NO WORK NO PAY! Jones hits back at BSTU Marchers Monday 11th April Daily Nation

Most Celebrated Headline by School Children – Yes to Cells! Monday 20th March, Daily Nation

Most Celebrated Headline by Teachers – Fire Jones! Wednesday 19TH April, Barbados Today

Most Overt Headline –

MURDERS: 31 MURDERS WERE RECORDED AS OF DECEMBER 28TH 2017

Tavon Kaiseen Alleyne, Shot on 26th December in Eden Lodge, St. Michael

Tyrone McDonald, Babb Cause of death UNKNOWN body discovered 15th December in Goodland, St. Michael

Andrew Prescod, 34, Shot on October 22nd in Silver Hill, Christ Church

Geoffrey Olliver, 39, Stabbed on September 30th in Cheapside, St. Michael

Steven Weare, 49, Cause of death UNKNOWN, Body discovered on 1st September in Melverton, St. George

Shawn Omar Taylor, 37, Shot on 21st August in Mullion Lane, Gall Hill, Christ Church

Orwin Moore, 40, Shot on 20th August in Cane Vale, Christ Church

Tareid Rock, 20, Shot on 8th August on Spring Garden Highway. St. Michael

Closton Robinson, 34, Shot to death on 29th July in Parish Land, Christ Church

Colleen Payne, 58, Shot on 17th July in Black Rock, St. Michael

Kenrick Spooner, 48, Chopped to death on 13th July in Todds Land, St. George

Bhim Singh, 40, Chopped to death on July 2nd in Perogative, St. George

Vincent Robinson, 80, Chopped to death on July 2nd in Perogative, St. George

Jerome Bovell, 40s, Shot on 29th June in Black Rock, St. Michael

Nathan Green, 19, Cause of death UNKNOWN, Body discovered on 8th June in Hangman Hill, St. Thomas

Stephen Agard, 47, Shot on 10th June in Black Rock. St. Michael

Craig Holmes, 43, Shot on 4th June in Halls Road, St. Michael

Omar Douglas, 26, Shot on June 2nd in Monroe Road, St. Michael

Rico Burgess, 21, Shot on 29th May in Marley Vale , St. Philip

Renaldo Gittens, 23, Shot on 29th May in Marley Vale , St. Philip

Ajay Smith, 19, Shot on May 24th in St. Christopher, Christ Church

Sherwin Success, 30, Shot on 6th May in Wotton, Christ Church

Anson Boyce, 57, Cause of death UNKNOWN, Found on 4th May in Rose Hill, St. Peter

Shockaya Boyd, 34, Stabed on 28th April in Jemmotts Lane, St. Michael

Jibri Cezont, 25, Shot on 9th April in Long Bay, St. Philip

Richard Shepherd, 66, Cause of death UNKNOWN body found on 25th March in Bamboo Avenue, Mapps, St. Philip

James Alleyne, 33, Shot on 16th March in Trents. St. James

Andrew King, 25, Shot on 18th February in Holetown, St. James

Michael Edwards, 19, Shot on 2nd February in Bartletts Tenantry, Christ Church

Romario Lewis, 20, Shot & Stabbed on 19th January in Highland, St. Philip

NUMBER OF ACCIDENTS

93 motor vehicle accidents were recorded as of December 28th 2017

ROAD FATALITIES

Damien Taylor, 33, Wednesday 29th December

Amanda Danielle Byer, 31, Sunday 3rd December

Bentley DeCoursey Belgrave, 78, Saturday 4th November

June Sonia Knight, 50s, Saturday 21st October

David Taylor, 61, Friday 6th October

Hanannia Reeves, 13, Tuesday 3rd October

Purshothamdos Samtani, 70, Monday 11th September

Shane Jamol Belle, 35, Tuesday 12th August

David Ronnie Arthur, 49, Wednesday 10th May

Toni Barrow, 43, Monday 1st May

Station Sergeant Clifford Bridgeman, 49, Sunday March 26th

Destiny Thompson, 12, Wednesday 15th February

Adrian Goddard, 33, Tuesday 31st January

Danee Horne, 17, Sunday 29 January

Aziza Dennie, 19, Sunday 29 January

Carianne Padmore 18, Sunday 29 January

Andre Gittens 23, Sunday 29 January

INTERNATIONAL DEATHS

Hugh Hefner, Mary Tyler Moore, Della Reese, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lewis, Charlie Murphy, Chester Bennington, Charles Bradley, Robert Guilaume,

CELEBRATING OUR CENTENARIANS

Millicent Yearwood 110 yrs old – Born on July 22nd 1907

Louis Alleyne 104 yrs old

Sheila Dorothea Armstrong

Milicent Cave

Marion Murrell,

Rosalie “Mama” Bailey,

Marie Ann Walton

QUOTES OF THE YEAR

“The Prime Minister has the right to determine when election is called but it does not matter to me now if he calls it early. He could call it in January, February, March, April or May but at the end of the day we know that it has to be called. But what bothers me is that when you listen to this man as far as he is concerned, it is only about what time they [DLP) have left rather than what time the country has left.” Leader of the Barbados Labour Party & NEXT PRIME MINISTER OF BARBADOS Mia Amor Mottley.

“I don’t need any law to tell me that there should be any fixed election date because my view is, if the people vote for you for five years, serve five years unless there is a no confidence motion that brings the Government down. You are given five years, serve your five years. Don’t throw back the time that the people gave you, in their face,” Prime Minister of Barbados Freundel Stuart

“My opinion is that the entire Government should resign; the Prime Minister should resign, and every single member of his Cabinet. It is clear that they do not understand how to prioritise . . . . The tourism industry is [what] we should be focused on,” Former minister of transport and works Joseph Tudor.

“I made the decision to tell Barbados Labour Party to keep St John and go from around me because of the political foolishness that is going on,” UPP Candidate for St. John former BLP Candidate Hudson Griffith.

“The noise of adults quarrelling in society is noise that we can do without. The noise of some of our adults fighting with dogs is noise that we can do without. This brutality we can do without. The noise of two women or two men, the noise of two women cursing each other in the vilest way because of a no-good man is noise we can do without. The noise of two women fighting over the no-good man is noise we can do without. Noise of mothers telling their boy children they are just like their fathers is noise that we can do without. The noise of a mother telling her daughter you little ‘wuffless’ thing is noise we can do without. The noise we want is noise that liberates,” Minister of Education Ronald Jones

“I am not surprised. I know former Minister Thompson was fired from the Cabinet of Owen Arthur. I think she works for the United Nations in some capacity but she seems to still be actively involved in the Barbadian political scene, I don’t know why,” in response to Liz Thompson calling for his resignation.

“If you are going to judge me, judge me for working hard to better myself, especially coming from a humble background with no Uncle Tom, no Uncle Errol, or no Uncle Elliott or Auntie Lizzy. Judge me because without a silver spoon or a golden shovel I determined by the Grace of God that I was going to be a somebody,” Maureen Holder.

‘The problem in Barbados is not the high cost of living, the problem in Barbados is the cost of high living’. Prime Minister Freundel Stuart quoting Mia Mottley who was quoting Errol Barrow!

“When you hear that our foreign reserves are under pressure it is because of what we import and because of what you all go on the supermarket shelves and see. It is not that anybody in the Government is stealing foreign currency and carrying it and putting it under their bed.’ Prime Minister Freundel Stuart

“One night I lay down in my bed and hear, ‘Tonight at the National Stadium we have Red Rat, Elephant Man, we have Wolf Man, Bird Man, and they had a snake too – they had Cobra – and don’t forget we have Hypa Dawg and Peter Ram. So there were all animals at the Stadium.” Veteran Entertainer Richard Stoute

“I know a guy who said last year ‘take off something and pelt it way’ and they gave him $50 000 and the next year he came back and said ‘bend down, bend down, bend down’, $50 000 more … I wrote something like Goodbye Bajan Girl, the Best Part Of My Day, You Can Make It If You Try, Rocksteady Christmas, all the beautiful songs I wrote never got a dime.” Veteran Entertainer Richard Stoute

“Whosoever shall have the pleasure of being the Minister of Education shall be rising to give their first ministerial statement and . . . they shall commit the Government of Barbados to paying fees for students of Barbados at the University of the West Indies from academic year 2018 to 2019,” Leader of the Barbados Labour Party Mia Amor Mottley.

“Mia Mottley is a sinner seeking grace like the rest of us . . . . She may not be a saint. She would tell you that she is a sinner. And I am telling you she is not a scoundrel that the Democratic Labour Party is painting her to be,” said Liz Thompson.

“Don’t mind all of this diddle doodling and double speak . . . A promise is a promise to a fool and they [BLP] are going to give you basket after basket of promises, but they are not going to relate to any realities in Barbados. They will promise to give you the heaven and the stars and they are doing that because they are not sure how the people are going to respond to them. So you are fooling people by promising to give them everything but we are not going to allow the Barbados Labour Party’s soft dumplings to carry away our rice. We are going to tell them that,” Minister of Education Ronald Jones

“I have no difficulty with anybody in Barbados at any time discussing corruption or integrity because Freundel Stuart as far as those two things are concerned sleeps well at night. I have said over again that there is nobody in Barbados or outside of Barbados holding any secret for Freundel Stuart . . . I have never had my integrity questioned and I don’t know that you can legislate integrity. You either have it or you don’t have it,” Prime Minister Freundel Stuart.

“Today there are more than 100,000 private vehicles in Barbados and such accessibility is no longer an issue as it was in 1976,” BLP’s Christ Church East Central candidate Ryan Straughn.

“My dear friend Lynette Eastmond is a politician who hitherto exhibited quite a bit of reason and common sense, but in her quest to get elected, I think this is probably her fourth attempt, she seems to have lost her ability to reason.” Minister of International Business, Small Business Development, Industry and Commerce Donville Inniss

“Eastmond knows full well, as someone who loitered in the Ministry of International Business as the minister a few years ago, that you cannot measure the contribution of the business sector purely on the basis of the tax take,” Minister of International Business, Small Business Development, Industry and Commerce Donville Inniss

“What you are going through means nothing to Freundel Stuart. Your discomfiture means nothing to Freundel Stuart. Your inability to make ends meet and pay monthly bills mean nothing to Freundel Stuart,” Member of Parliament for St James Central Kerrie Symmonds

“So the idiot, the fool, the clown, gets that power against the palm of his hand and . . . he is now a God, because the potential to take life is in his grasp. These are the dichotomies within our space,” Minister of Education Ronald Jones.

“You realize that Mary Redman has a membership of about 350 people, and you realize that the woman went into the park with about 400 [people] and she was the only person who a hole found. I can’t understand. Four hundred people in the park and the hole found the foot of one person – the trade union leader – and the Leader of the Opposition had to lift her up, apparently,” Former Deputy General Secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) Robert Bobby Morris.

“The unions should have had this country shut down until the Government goes. How much more damage can this Government do? It is about time they go. This Government has done more damage to the island than Hurricane Janet,” veteran trade unionist Caswell Franklyn.

“A march or a walk by union leaders from Queen’s Park to Parliament in an aim to lose some weight or to burn calories is not absolutely necessary for Government to hear the views of the union.” Minister of International Business, Small Business Development, Industry and Commerce Donville Inniss

“I understand this is the silly season, but one would expect responsible people would rise above the level of silliness that this season is demonstrating. I’m condemning Peter Wickham and David Ellis,” Queen’s Counsel Hal Gollop.

“I would just like to disabuse the minds of any person out there that there is any benefit to be derived by anybody associated with Harford Chambers and it being a partnership. It is not a partnership. No one other than myself and my son, who is in association with me, stands to benefit from our involvement in this matter,” Queen’s Counsel Hal Gollop.

“I know a lot of what I see can’t be fun, it is too crass. There is a possession of evil in the midst of merriment.” Minister of Education, Science and Technology Ronald Jones.

“A licence to behave badly is not given on Kadooment Day. The licence is given to parade on Kadooment Day,” Minister of Education, Science and Technology Ronald Jones.

“I am going to give you a phrase that I use to describe the private sector of Barbados. I have been criticized for it and it doesn’t bother me one way or another. I have said it before and I will say it again and I want this written as Jepter Ince say so. The private sector of Barbados is an extension of the public service and a parasitic plant in the bosom of Government.,” Government Senator Jepter Ince.

“I hear all the talk about children suffering, bellies to them back, but I don’t see that. That is not my experience. I see Barbadians showing thrift and enterprise and doing the wonderful things to help themselves,” Minister of Social Care Steve Blackett.

“You ask the middle class of this country to make another sacrifice, you ask civil servants in this country to make another sacrifice, you ask poor people in this country to make another sacrifice, you beg them to hold strain, you tell them about team Barbados . . . you tell them you have this wonderful homegrown strategy, and nine years later what do they get yesterday evening? All they have to show for their sacrifice is an effective de facto devaluation of their social and economic existence and a de facto devaluation of the Barbados dollar by these measures that have been put by the Minister of Finance,” Leader of The Barbados Labour Party Mia Amor Mottley in delivering her official rely to the Budget.

“Put the letter on Facebook . . . I don’t care!” was the retort issued by Minister of Tourism and International Transport Richard Sealy tonight as he hit back at charges levelled by Opposition Leader Mia Mottley about the long delayed $300 million Sugar Point cruise ship terminal.

“This society is eating its young just like a disturbed centipede . . . We are not physically putting them in our mouths, but physically abusing many of our young people denying them those simple things that they need,” Minister of Education, Science and Technology Ronald Jones.

“I am finding more and more, women are sharing their favours . . . too easily, and when they wake up and the children are born they suddenly realize that the man who they shared their favour with, he is a good for nothing,” Magistrate Wanda Blair.

“There is need for a change in this Government now. Things are definitely too hard in Barbados and this Government has to go. There is no doubt about it. Since the DLP has been in power, which is generally the case, money is never around. Whenever this Government comes into power, money just disappears,” Orson Smith constituent in St. James South.

“What I have said to the [Police] Commissioner and his team, ‘we need to train the officers to not be afraid of WhatsApp’. If you are doing your job like you are supposed to then the cell phone is actually your friend, the video is your friend. You need not be afraid of it. Just do what they supposed to do,” Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite.

“I do not believe Barbados is a homophobic society. That is why I do not agree with the gay and lesbian society and their rhetoric. I think they are just grandstanding and they do not have any evidence for the claims they make in this society. Quite frankly, I think they should just keep quiet and get on with their own business,” said Donville Inniss.

“We have listened keenly to the private sector and however well intentioned they may be, there can be no attempt to place income taxes back on the backs of poor people in this country again,” a defiant Mottley said. “Poor people could barely afford income taxes in good times, how could they in all conscience do it now in these difficult times and ask them to pay for the Government’s incompetence of the greed of a few? [It] is completely unacceptable if we are to maintain a stable cohesive society in this country. “The truth is, fiscal problems in this country were not caused by poor people and the solutions to our fiscal problems will not come from putting on the backs of poor people additional income taxes,” Leader of The Barbados Labour Party Mia Amor Mottley

“There is an attempt in certain quarters to advance a legislative call for same-sex marriage, and I do not have any intention, within or without the legislator to support any such notion because I still believe in the biblical way of life”. Minister of Environment Dr. Denis Lowe

“We want our boys and our girls to grow up in a society where they are not embarrassed because they live in a house where mum is a woman and dad is a man,” Minister of Environment Dr. Denis Lowe

“It has always been my understanding and my experience that the bank manager’s child will write the exam at the same time as [the child of] his maid or gardener, and once that child has the ability and the training to write that examination, both of them could probably go to the older grammar schools or to the newer secondary schools, or perhaps go and get a bursary,” Cynthia Forde.

“They [Government] are free to choose whatever they want to do. Time is the best evaluator of reason. They have to find a way to attempt to discredit me, but I know that we cannot get out of these economic challenges without restructuring and the financing of the national debt,” Minister of Agriculture Dr David Estwick.

“Let them proceed. Time is the best revealer of who was right and wrong. I proposed domestic debt restructuring, foreign debt restructuring, a combination of the two as well as the entire debt via the sinking fund strategy . . . . They are on their own,” he stressed, adding, “I have nothing more to say on the matter.” Minister of Agriculture Dr David Estwick.

“I can say to you that this upcoming election will perhaps be one of the toughest as a political party. It is not going to be easy to convince folks to see things our way,” Minister of International Business, Industry, Commerce and Small Business Development Donville Inniss.

“Given the history of the Church and all the scandals that went on, the Church should be the last institution trying to give anyone advice about sex,” educator and Anglican priest Reverend Charles Morris .

“I am not running my ministry with one eye on any rating agency, we are doing what we are doing in the best interest of the country,” Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler.

“Some of our problems may be traced to the handpicking of senior teachers, heads of departments, deputy principals and principals of our schools in the recent past. There must be certain horses for certain courses and it is probably because of the aforementioned that our schools have seen an upsurge in deviant behaviour to the point where this country’s education system is destined for a catastrophic collapse. The practice of a Minister of Education nominating some political persons to chair and serve on school boards needs to be revisited. We have found that some of those members have not a clue what their role is on these boards,” President of BUT Pedro Shepherd.

“This minister has no empathy. We have had reports of members going to the mental [Psychiatric Hospital] because they could not pay their mortgages. We have had one member that lost their job in that retrenchment effort and they later committed suicide. We can’t say for sure that these things were as a direct result of their dismissal, but the point remains that people are seriously hurting because of this,” President of NUPW Akanni McDowall re Denis Lowe.

“Let me be clear in saying that unlike the claim that is being made, the NCC has no obligation to anybody who has not applied or who would not apply, and that retrenchment is not a condition for engagement with the NCC. What we will do is give full consideration to anyone who expresses an interest in working with the NCC,” Minister of the Environment and Drainage Dr Denis Lowe.

“I am very straightforward. I don’t lie and I don’t steal. So tell him to leave me alone,” Speaker of Parliament Michael Carrington

“ We have changed the guard, we have not change the principles,” Sir Roy Trotman.

“When you don’t stand up for yourself and demonstrate that you are professionals and that you need to be treated like that at all times, then you are treated like a cornered animal. Everybody will then take jabs at you and that is the reality,” BSTU President Mary Redman.

“We must not be judged as women in this country on the basis of being childless because I can tell you, we parent children who are not our own. And I want to make that point abundantly clear to all of you in this chamber on both sides. Be your own judge but don’t judge us. At the end of the day we have made the sacrifice to be here,” Santia Bradshaw M.P St Michael South East.

“They had a young man, 13 years old I understand he is, parading across the stage with or without the permission of his parents, in full glare of all, exploiting the young man. That is equivalent, as far as I’m concerned, to sexual abuse or physical abuse. It is!” Minister of Social Care Steve Blackett.

“I denounce and deprecate the egregious insult that was levelled at us the citizens of Barbados by Pilgrim (George),” political activist David Commissiong.

“When I say what I have to say and people say that, ‘oh Donville Inniss wants to be Prime Minister of Barbados’ but there ain’t no vacancy. However if a vacancy arises I will be a fool not put my hat in the ring,” MP St. James South Donville Inniss.

“I want to say how pleased the constituents of St John are at the completion of the St John Polyclinic and indeed another complex, the David Thompson Health and Services Complex,” Mara Thompson MP St. John

“With less than a year to go before general election, I think it would require God to come out of heaven to reverse the situation for the DLP. I do not see any miracles occurring under Stuart’s uninspiring, lacklustre and ineffective leadership” political strategist Reudon Eversley.

"We have a Party of stupid people at the helm who don't know they are stupid." Ann-Marie Fergus

“Based on my knowledge, people were offered money to come and marchThe fact that people were willing to turn up to the march and receive a gratuity for just turning up speaks [volumes] of what Barbadians should fear going into the next election,” George Pilgrim – General Secretary of the DLP

“We have not asked people to come out and march because the others can do that. So the BLP has come and they’ve asked people to march and they’ve marched. And I encourage people, ‘go and march, just do not vote for them’. Grenville Philips II – Solutions Barbados

“To those of you who are marching, ask yourself whose backs are you marching for as a result of this money spent. We accept that the times are not ordinary but by marching, you are accepting money and supporting a new dimension in political life. Barbadians, do not destroy Barbados through politics.” DLP General Secretary George Pilgrim.

“One of the things, I said recently somewhere else, one of the things I am giving up for Lent is speaking too long.” Prime Minister Freundel Stuart

“I never thought that I would have to come to the country to ask Prime Minister Freundel Stuart to stop speaking, but of late his public utterances are even more offensive than his customary silence of indifference,” Leader of the Barbados Labour Party Mia Mottley

“Rating agencies can only downgrade Barbados’ credit worthiness, its ability to borrow. They cannot downgrade Barbados itself,” Prime Minister Freundel Stuart

“Never has there been a party that has described Barbadians in some of the worse terms and pejorative language as the Barbados Labour Party. They say they are eating Ramen (noodles) and spaghetti and sardines, as if eating sardines should be worn as a badge of dishonor,” Steve Blackett.

“There are those who are going to come around, whether it be on social media or at your doors, and they are going to criticize everything that we have done and say we have done nothing. I ask you simply to ask them; what would they do if they were in our position under the circumstances? They would not give you an answer. Take that moment of silence from their end and use it to remind them of all things we have done as a Government in the last eight years.” Donville Inniss

“Let me make it clear; Owen Arthur will not advise me on economic and financial matters and leave it there for now,” Dr David Estwick.

“The logic eludes me, but having said that I don’t fully understand Owen Arthur as a politician and I can’t competently predict his moves because I really don’t know,” Peter Wickham.

“I do not have to have my hands on the wheels to be influential or powerful. I have a voice and I can make my voice heard and the notion I have is to always be in the trenches . . . and I will make those judgements in due course.” Owen Arthur.

“I left them psychologically, because they never would have done that to [founding father] Grantley Adams nor to Bernard St John, nor to Henry Forde nor to Tom Adams. But Mia Mottley sat in a chair and heard people read out charges against me to expel me from the party. And what about? Because I would not fall in line behind Mia Mottley,” Owen Arthur.

“They had to understand the socialising was not suitable for the youth and they were not raised in that environment. It is good to see that the ministry understood and realised that they made a mistake and rectified it. In the end we all greeted each other and hugged. There was no bias now. People can make mistakes,” Ijui Jah after acting Justice Cecil McCarthy tossed out the Child Care Board’s application seeking custody of two Rastafarian children.

“People just want to listen and put people in a box. Our current Prime Minister dares to be different from previous Prime Ministers, so he is seen as weak. However, he is different because God has made all originals, so he does not have to follow what others did before,” Former Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Donville Johnson said.

“The Central Bank of Barbados is an institution. I don’t think because one person goes it will collapse. One person cannot be the institution. The institution is the institution,” Solicitor General Jennifer Edwards, QC.

“I am going to ask questions until I get answers. I don’t stop asking questions, but you see, there is a feeling in Barbados by some in authority that the Barbadian consumer must put up and shut up. I don’t agree with that,” Consumer rights advocate Malcolm Gibbs-Taitt querying why Barbadians are still paying a high price for petroleum products, even though the international price of crude has fallen.

“We don’t believe that Government does not have enough money to pay public servants. We just believe that Government is mismanaging the money that it has,” Akanni McDowall.

“OSA [Owen Seymour Arthur] did not manage to get rid of MAM [Mia Amor Mottley] by abusing her publicly; he did not accomplish it by not going to Parliament; he did not accomplish it by being silent on important national issues; he did not accomplish it by threatening to leave and then actually leaving the BLP. “So when in recent weeks, almost coinciding with talk of the new party, he was again engaging in serious national discourse in a way that we know he is fully capable of doing . . . finally, he has revealed his latest hand, or should I say, his instrument. If this is the new game, then the UPP is the United Puppets Party . . . or the United Political Puppets.” Elizabeth Thompson

“If you have a detractor in the shape of an Owen Arthur for example, I think that would be something that could create some political sensation. But if you have a BLP detractor who as a BLP candidate has never won an election, then what exactly are you projecting? She [Eastmond] ran in the last three elections and lost . . . so she is a detractor but not a successful detractor.” Peter Wickham speaking about Lynette Eastmond and the launch of her United Progressive Party.

“The only comment I would make at this time is this: If after three election defeats – 2003, 2008 and 2013 this is how she wants to spend her time, I wish her well in her endeavours,” Dr. David Estwick in reference to Lynette Eastmond launching the United Progressive Party.

“Unless they expelled me, I am still a member of the Barbados Labour Party,” Lynette Eastmond told reporters when asked if she had left the Barbados Labour Party to join a third party.

“You cannot devalue anything that has no value,” Jepter Ince speaking about the Barbadian dollar.

“Lord man! You can now better begin to understand why this country is in such great peril; that somebody at the centre of Government can be so profoundly ignorant about financial affairs, but be in the Ministry of Finance.” Owen Arthur in response to Jepter Ince.

BOOKS PUBLISHED BY BARBADIANS

Celebrating Barbadians In The United States of America

Well that's all for 2017 folks! Let's see what happens in 2018. From the entire team at The Chase Files we take this time to wish each and every one of our followers a happy & prosperous New Year. Remember you are either a blessing or a curse. Choose One! LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE!!! © Stephanie F. Chase 31/12/2017 10:00 a.m

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