[MoneyGuy]

Update on my personal challenge to read 10 books this year…. I read two books on a recent trip to South America. That gives me six and it’s still March. I’m on track for 24.

Jasper - A Backward Glance by Nora Findlay (signed copy found in one of those neighbourhood libraries)

Findlay was a teacher and former editor of the Jasper Totem newspaper. With all of the errors in grammar and style she couldn’t have been a good editor. I was also a newspaper and magazine editor and would have loved to fix this one.

Despite this failing, I enjoyed the book for its folksy look at the history of my favourite mountain park and town. There are 57 chapters of a couple of pages each.

Favourite chapters were Controversy Over Townsite, Early Elegance -the JPL, Hazardous Driving to Edmonton, and the Jasper-Banff Highway.

3.5/5 despite the errors.

V2, by Rob Harris (author of Munich and Fatherland, another good book)

Enjoyed this gripping tale of Germany’s attack in England by V2 rockets, told from the perspective of both the assailants and the Brits who lived in fear of what they couldn’t see or hear coming.

Despite the fear it caused, the V2 program was considered a failure due to the resources used for so little result. There was lots of damage but the death numbers were far less than hoped for.

The super-sonic rockets (V for vengeance) impacted without audible warning, and proved unstoppable, as no effective defense existed. The Allies raced to seize major German manufacturing facilities, procure the Germans' missile technology, and capture the V-2s' launching sites.

4.25/5