It is March! It has been a full year since Teresa and I returned home from Japan and South Korea. It seems so long ago now from that time when we returned and decided to self-quarantine (despite no direction at the time from the government). The pandemic is definitely dragging on and I feel is showing more and more the inconsistent and flawed decisions that our governments, particularly the Ontario government are making. After loosening restrictions in the fall and despite rising cases the Ontario government did not take action until Boxing Day when they finally mandated a province-wide lockdown. It was clearly too late as cases surged in January causing in my view many unnecessary deaths. It is frustrating to see Doug Ford continually try and deflect his government's inadequate handling of the crisis onto the federal government (who is not perfect either).
After many video calls in January and February to stay in touch, our family has just started seeing each other again (in groups of less than 5). As I have stated before our family has been fortunate not to have had any serious impacts from COVID-19 but we have definitely missed seeing everyone and the few recent visits remind us (again) of how much we enjoy seeing everyone.
Hopefully, as vaccines ramp up and with warmer weather, we will get to more activities and family gatherings.
Here's what you will find new on the blog site this month.
I read 8 books this past month and unusually, only one non-fiction. However, it was a really good one, Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. For sure a future book of the month and a book I highly recommend you get on your reading list.
My non-fiction book of the month is Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. I have read a lot of books on race over the last year and this is one of the best. Focusing on the role of the caste system in the US Wilkerson makes a strong case for the reasons for injustice in the US. She compares the US caste system to the system in India and reveals disturbing information I was not aware of in terms of how Nazi Germany used the US system as a model for their program to discriminate against Jews. Definitely worth reading. My fiction book of the month is Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware. Definitely a fun read.
There are two new wines on the Great Wines under $20 post. Two Hands Gnarly Dudes is amazing and will definitely be a future wine of the month. Although a little over my $20 limit (I got it for $21.95 on sale) it is well worth it. Delicious. The wine of the month is another great wine from Australia, Jacob's Creek Double Barrel Shiraz. Mmmmm, it is delicous.
I have not posted my Quick Takes post for February yet but I will get that done this week and have a couple of other posts in draft that should make it on to the site this month.
As always let me know any comments, questions or thoughts at thethirdperiod.ca@gmail.com
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