Mountain Views News, Pasadena Edition [Sierra Madre] Saturday, February 23, 2019

B2

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

BUSINESS NEWS & TRENDS

Mountain Views-News Saturday, February 23, 2019 

Jeff’s Book Pics By Jeff Brown

FAMILY MATTERS By Marc Garlett


THE CHALK MAN: A Novel by C. J. Tudor 

A riveting and relentlessly compelling psychological suspense 
debut that weaves a mystery about a childhood game gone 
dangerously awry, and will keep readers guessing right up to 
the shocking ending.In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just 
kids on the verge of adolescence. They spend their days biking 
around their sleepy English village and looking for any 
taste of excitement they can get. The chalk men are their secret 
code: little chalk stick figures they leave for one another 
as messages only they can understand. But then a mysterious 
chalk man leads them right to a dismembered body, and 
nothing is ever the same.In 2016, Eddie is fully grown, and 
thinks he's put his past behind him. But then he gets a letter in 
the mail, containing a single chalk stick figure. When it turns 
out that his friends got the same message, they think it could 
be a prank . . . until one of them turns up dead.That's when 
Eddie realizes that saving himself means finally figuring out 
what really happened all those years ago.Expertly alternating 
between flashbacks and the present day, The Chalk Man is the 
very best kind of suspense novel, one where every character is 
wonderfully fleshed out and compelling, where every mystery 
has a satisfying payoff, and where the twists will shock even 
the savviest reader.

THE LIGHT OVER LONDON 
by Julia Kelly

Reminiscent of Martha Hall Kelly's Lilac Girls and Kristin 
Hannah's The Nightingale, this sweeping, entrancing story is a 
must-read for fans of remarkable women rising to challenges 
they could never have predicted. It’s always been easier for Cara 
Hargraves to bury herself in the past than confront the present, 
which is why working with a gruff but brilliant antiques dealer 
is perfect. While clearing out an estate, she pries open an old tin 
that holds the relics of a lost relationship: among the treasures, 
a World War II-era diary and a photograph of a young woman 
in uniform. Eager to find the author of the hauntingly beautiful, 
unfinished diary, Cara digs into this soldier’s life, but soon realizes 
she may not have been ready for the stark reality of wartime 
London she finds within the pages.In 1941, nineteen-year-old 
Louise Keene’s life had been decided for her—she’ll wait at home 
in her Cornish village until her wealthy suitor returns from war 
to ask for her hand. But when Louise unexpectedly meets Flight 
Lieutenant Paul Bolton, a dashing RAF pilot stationed at a local 
base, everything changes. And changes again when Paul’s unit is 
deployed without warning.Desperate for a larger life, Louise joins 
the women’s branch of the British Army in the anti-aircraft gun unit as a Gunner Girl. As bombs fall 
on London, she and the other Gunner Girls relish in their duties to be exact in their calculations, and 
quick in their identification of enemy planes during air raids. The only thing that gets Louise through 
those dark, bullet-filled nights is knowing she and Paul will be together when the war is over. But 
when a bundle of her letters to him are returned unanswered, she learns that wartime romance can 
have a much darker side.Illuminating the story of these two women separated by generations and 
experience, Julia Kelly transports us to World War II London in this heartbreakingly beautiful novel 
through forgotten antique treasures, remembered triumphs, and fierce family ties.

THE BLACK ECHO (A Harry Bosch Novel) by Michael Connelly 

The Black Echo is the 1992 début novel by American crime bestselling 
author Michael Connelly. This is the first of Connelly's 
Bosch series. The book won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar 
Award for "Best First Novel" in 1992.In this book maverick LAPD 
homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland 
Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is 
personal...because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel 
rat" who had fought side by side with him in a hellish underground 
war. Now Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam. From 
a dangerous maze of blind alleys to a daring criminal heist beneath 
the city, his survival instincts will once again be tested to their limit. 
Pitted against enemies inside his own department and forced to 
make the agonizing choice between justice and vengeance, Bosch 
goes on the hunt for a killer whose true face will shock him.The 3 
reviews are from Amazon.com

Overlooking This Basic Part of Your Estate Plan 
Can Be Tragic

The recent death of the CEO of QuadrigaCX, 
a major cryptocurrency exchange in Canada, 
demonstrates a basic, yet often-overlooked, 
tenet of effective estate planning: 

In the event of your incapacity or death, if 
your heirs don’t know how to find or access 
your assets, those assets are as good as gone. 

In the case of QuadrigaCX’s owner Gerald 
Cotten, the lost assets were purportedly worth 
$145 million, representing the vast majority of 
the company’s crypto holdings.

The hefty sum effectively vanished after 
Cotten died without leaving instructions for 
how to access the digital currency’s security 
passcodes. The crypto holdings were owned by 
some 115,000 clients, who used the exchange 
to buy and store their digital coins.

An untimely death

According to an affidavit filed in a Canadian 
court, Cotten, age 30, died suddenly of 
complications related to Crohn’s disease 
while traveling in India during December 
2018. In January 2019, QuardigaCX filed for 
bankruptcy to protect itself from creditors, 
including all the customers with crypto stored 
in the company’s electronic vault.

According to Cotten’s widow, Jennifer 
Roberston, following multiple searches, she 
has been unable to find the passwords that 
will provide access to the company’s crypto 
holdings. The lesson is clear: 

From cryptocurrency to safety deposit boxes 
and everything in between, your family must 
know how to find and access every asset you 
own, otherwise it could be lost forever.

In fact, there’s a total of more than $58 billion 
of unclaimed assets across the country held by 
the State Departments of Unclaimed Property. 
Much of that massive sum got there because 
someone died and their family didn’t know 
they owned the asset.

Incomplete estate planning

Another puzzling fact is that upon first glance, 
Cotten was diligent in his estate planning. 
Indeed, Cotten named Roberston as his estate’s 
executor and left her instructions for the 
complete distribution of his assets, including a 
private jet and multiple properties in Canada. 

He even left behind $100,000 for the care of 
his two dogs—yet he managed to forget to 
include the passcodes that would unlock his 
company’s vast crypto assets. I believe that 
most people holding crypto assets haven’t 
taken the proper steps to ensure their heirs 
will know how to access these assets upon 
their incapacity or death. 

Easily avoidable

What makes this loss so tragic is that it could 
have been so easily avoided. Whether your 
estate is valued in millions or thousands, your 
plan must include a comprehensive inventory 
of all your assets. And as Cotten’s case shows, 
this inventory must also include detailed 
instructions for how your heirs can find and 
access every asset.

Dedicated to empowering your family, 
building your wealth and defining your legacy,

A local attorney and father, Marc Garlett is 
on a mission to help parents protect what they 
love most. His office is located at 55 Auburn 
Avenue, Sierra Madre, CA 91024. Schedule 
an appointment to sit down and talk about 
ensuring a legacy of love and financial security 
for your family by calling 626.355.4000 or visit 
www.GarlettLaw.com for more information.


All Things By Jeff Brown


A JAPANESE SPACECRAFT WILL FIRE A BULLET INTO AN ASTEROID ON 
THURSDAY. HERE'S WHY.

A Japanese spacecraft is set to touch down on a distant asteroid Thursday, before shooting a bullet 
into the space rock to capture a bit of debris that eventually will be returned to Earth.Launched in 
2014 by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Hayabusa 2 probe reached asteroid 
Ryugu in June 2018, after a voyage of 2 billion miles. In the months since then, the refrigerator-sized 
craft dropped a pair of small rovers on the space rock and has been inching ever closer to its surface. 
If all goes according to plan, it will fire its thrusters and settle on the asteroid Thursday the 21st.The 
landing was originally planned for last October, but JAXA postponed it after instruments aboard the 
rovers found that the asteroid’s surface isn’t covered with dusty soil (regolith) but is instead strewn 
with rocks — something scientists had not anticipated.“The expected topography of a powdery fine 
regolith was not found on the surface of Ryugu,” members of the Hayabusa 2 team said in a blog post 
on the JAXA website. “It took time to investigate the safety of the spacecraft during TD,” they said, 
using an abbreviation for “touchdown.”If Hayabusa 2 lands successfully, its next challenge will be 
to fire the bullet and then deploy a container to collect samples of the material kicked up from the 
surface by the impact.Researchers determined that the resulting rocky debris would be small enough 
to be collected and brought back to Earth for analysis. But that will take awhile: The samples aren't 
scheduled to arrive here until late 2020.The more we know about asteroids the better we will be able 
to defend Earth against them.By Denise Chow

THE MISSING PAGE

Real Life Tips from LIfe's Instruction Manual


HOW TO HAVE A TOUGH CONVERSATION

It's the month of love, and we're talking about what we can do to enhance 
our relationships. Communication is at the heart of all relationships. 
We've discussed that being a better listener helps the people that 
we love to feel loved by being heard and understood. Next, we talked 
about looking at loved ones with kind eyes, turning down the volume 
on criticism and raising the level of praise. When we speak words of 
praise, we experience gratitude for the qualities we appreciate in our 
lovers, friends, and families. Relationships steeped with positive feelings 
tend to grow.

Manage your expectations, check yourself before you wreck yourself.

Nobody's perfect. Avoiding all conflict is impossible.

Remember that different doesn't always equal wrong.

Do you like the TP roll over or under on the dispenser? 

Milk in your tea or sugar in your grits?

You are an individual, and it's unlikely that you will agree with another person on every issue. If you 
can't appreciate differences at least work on being able to tolerate alternative points of view.

Trouble at the crossroads? There's an ebb and flow to everything. Don't panic.

Sometimes we hit a rough patch. Rather than allowing bad feelings to fester, it's best to address the 
issues that concern you. 

It is essential to discuss problems as soon as possible, as they arise, rather than holding grudges or 
cataloging past transgressions. Having a direct conversation can seem scary, but it doesn't have to 
be a negative experience. The following is some of the things that have helped me to improve my 
communications. 

Make sure you are well rested and nourished. It's common for these conversations to go off the rails 
when tired and hungry. Don't do it, girl!

Slow down! Really, take a breath and slow down.

Also, give your beloved the gift of checking in and ask, "is this a good time?" Let them know what you 
want to discuss and be willing to schedule your chat.

 Before starting the conversation, get clarity about your concerns. Try to evaluate your feelings and 
actions. Here are some guidelines for the talk:

Agree not to interrupt one another.

No screaming, yelling or cursing.

No finger pointing (literally or figuratively.)

Remember, at the end of the conversation you want to feel closer and more connected. The goal is to 
strengthen your bond, not to weaken it. You are not at war, nor trying to win an argument. 

Stick to the facts. State, as clearly as possible, what happened or was said, not your interpretation.

No blaming or name-calling, such as, "that was mean," or that was selfish." Just state: "when you did 
x...." 

Avoid absolutes, such as, "you always or you never." That's rarely true or helpful, be specific.

Give your beloved an opportunity to respond. 

Listen to the words spoken. Then check in and repeat back what you heard.

Validate the experience shared. Acknowledging how the other person feels doesn't require you to 
agree with them, but it does show that you care enough to listen to their concerns. The goal of the 
conversation is to be closer after your talk.

In my coaching programs, I teach various curriculums to help improve all aspects of life. My goal is 
to help my clients enjoy a life they love living: good health, flourishing relationships, vibrant fun and 
creativity, and work they love.

Everything starts with a vision and there many tools and strategies we can employ to have rich and 
fulfilling relationships. So what do you envision when you imagine having fabulous relationships? 
Would you love to heal a rift between you and a sibling? Are you learning more about the teenager 
in your life? Are you in a loving, romantic partnership? Is work a place where you have at least one 
good friend? 

Sierra Madre Playhouse Presents: TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE Starring Jackson Kendall and Larry Eisenberg

The autobiographical story of Mitch Albom, an accomplished journalist driven solely by his career, and Morrie Schwartz, his former college professor. Sixteen years after graduation, Mitch happens to catch 
Morrie's appearance on a television news program and learns that his old professor is dying. Mitch is reunited with Morrie, and what starts as a simple visit turns into a weekly pilgrimmage and a last class in 
the meaning of life.


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com