*chuckle* I think that ‘Deep Trouble’ might have been a better title for this book than Deep Night!

A sequel to The Fat Man’s Daughter (2005), Deep Night is the story of attractive, sexy Leah Kolbe, who runs her Hong Kong antiques business according to the somewhat dubious principles of her father, who died in mysterious circumstances.  In this sequel, the Sino-Japanese War, under the radar of great powers preoccupied by the war in Europe,  suddenly escalates in significance with the bombing of Pearl Harbour and the start of the Pacific War.  Hong Kong is a British colony, not then thought to be at risk from the Japanese who have occupied Manchuria, while China, beset by internal struggles, is trying to ward off territorial ambitions that threaten its independence even further.  It’s not a good time to be in a business that depends on exports to wealthy westerners.

It’s also not a good time to rush into…

Tenacious

It clings there

One single solitary leaf

Its siblings long since composting

On the ground below

Its colors are no more

It is a dry, lifeless, brown

And yet it holds fast

Evidence of a nearly forgotten spring

When it was young, pliant, and green

Yet still it adheres persistently to its branch

Through strong autumn winds

And winter’s frost and freezing cold

This one, single, solitary leaf

Its beauty long since faded

Unshakable and defiant it stays

Its attachment unbreakable, unassailable

Staunchly it clings there

And I wonder how it can be so strong

So tenacious?

The Diary of a Bookseller

By: Shaun Bythell

Grade: B

A year in the life of a second-hand bookseller in a small Scottish Town. Shaun Bythell owns The Book Shop- the second largest 2nd hand bookstore. So it fulfills two dreams of mine. Owning a bookstore and living in Scotland.

But also provided great memories of customer service which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I can laugh about them now 🙂

I stumbled on Sculptures of Melbourne at the library—and what a treasure it is!

Mark Holsworth is a Gen-X art and culture critic and this book grew out of the part of his blog that deals with public sculpture.

There are five chapters:

1. Classicalism Forever 1780-2015
2. Monuments and More Memorials 1864-2012
3. Modernism Postponed 1957-2015
4. Melbourne by Design 1989-2015
5. The Temporary Present 2001-2015.

Vault, by Ron Robertson-Swann 1981, at its 3rd site at Southbank (Wikipedia Commons*)

There’s a timeline too, which starts in 1780 when Farnex Hercules was copied from the one in the Vatican; notes the first of countless war memorials in 1901; traces the movements of Vault a.k.a The Yellow Peril from 1980 to 1981 and 2002; and finishes up with the Plinth Projects in the Edinburgh Gardens.

In the Introduction, Holsworth makes the point that public sculptures are part of the surface archaeology of the city.