tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63236428526081783322024-03-08T13:36:06.186-05:00What's Paula Reading?The answer to the question I'm always asked about what I'm reading and whether I recommend it.Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.comBlogger411125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-40386313308357662722021-12-06T16:56:00.001-05:002021-12-06T16:56:27.965-05:00November and December reading list<p> I haven't read as much over the last couple of months, but here's my thoughts on what I have read.</p><p><u><i>The Heart Principle</i> by Helen Hoang</u></p><p>This is another rom com by Hoang which features a person diagnosed to be on the autism spectrum. Anna Sun is a violinist and one of her performances went viral making her a huge star. Unfortunately, it has also led to burnout and extreme anxiety - so much so that she cannot even complete playing a piece. She just starts them over and over again, certain she has made too many mistakes. At the same time her long time boyfriend tells her he wants to have an open relationship.</p><p>She decides to address the anxiety created by these situations through embarking on a series of one night stands. However, even that doesn't work out how she's planned. She hooks up with Quan, a tattooed, motorcycle riding man who looks very different from anyone she's previously been involved with. The only problem is their three first attempts at a one-night stand fail - and as they keep trying, and spending more time together, it starts to feel like a relationship. Which is exactly what Anna was trying to avoid.</p><p>Quan has issues of his own as he is recovering from certain health issues and is scared the physical manifestations of his treatment will make it hard to be intimate with anyone. More tension is created by the fact that Anna's family think Quan is an inappropriate choice for her, even though he really steps up when her father is hospitalized. </p><p>Because this is a rom com with a predictable arc, all of the issues are eventually resolved and Quan and Anna both end up with the type of the relationship they didn't know they were looking for.</p><p><u><i>The Sisters of Auschwitz</i> by Roxanne van Iperen</u></p><p>I almost avoided reading this because I have read so much Holocaust literature I wasn't sure I felt like reading more. But this narrative non-fiction is quite interesting.</p><p>The author begins her research as she moves into a house in the Netherlands that was used as a safe house for Jews and other Nazi enemies during the war. Through her research she learns of the Jewish sisters, Lien and Janny who became active members of the Dutch resistance when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. They sourced false identity cards, hid fugitives and printed and distributed an underground newspaper. All the while they also entered into relationships and had children. Both were married to non-Jews, although one of the women was involved with a German who escaped Germany to avoid military service so was also very at risk.</p><p>When life got too tough in Amsterdam they moved with their families, including their parents and younger brother, to a home in the forest which became a centre for the resistance. After many close calls the sisters were betrayed by an informant in 1944 and sent on the last transport to Auschwitz and then Bergen Belsen, together with the Frank family. Fortunately, their husbands and children were able to escape capture and did not end up in concentration camps.</p><p>Unlike the Frank women, these sisters survived and were in fact a source of information regarding Anne Frank's fate.</p><p>The book is well written and a compelling read while still filled with factual support for all the statements made. The author was even able to interview some of the sisters' children. While it is an interesting read, it is yet another Holocaust book, and you do need to be in the mood for that.</p><p><u><i>Em</i> by Kim Thúy</u></p><p>I did enjoy this book, but I'll warn you from the start that it was hard to follow at times. There were a lot of characters and it was sometimes hard to keep them, and their connections to each other, straight. The central story is about Louis, the child of an American soldier in Vietnam who ends up living on the streets after his father returns to the US and his mother dies as a result of a poison gas attack during the war.</p><p>Louis adopts another baby who is abandoned at the market and names her Em. Louis and Em both eventually end up being evacuated from Vietnam and living abroad. </p><p>The book covers not only their lives, but the lives of their parents and the impact of the war on them, and covers broader historical events such as the rubber plantations ins Vietnam prior to the war, the massacre at My Lai, the airlift of biracial orphans from Saigon and the building of the international nail salon business by Vietnamese women.</p><p>I enjoyed the book, and it was short and easy to read, but I did keep having to flip back and forth to keep track of the characters.</p><p><u><i>Becoming Eve</i> by Abby Stein</u></p><p>This is another non-fiction book which tells the story of the author who was born as the first son in a rabbinical Hassidic dynasty family in Brooklyn. Though she is raised to marry, study Torah and carry on the family name, she always knows that she's really a girl.</p><p>Because she lacked access to television or the internet, she sought out whatever secular information she could find through books, including forbidden religious texts and secular examinations of faith. While she follows the path expected of her for years, including marrying and having a child, eventually she can no longer live the life of a Hassidic man. </p><p>Against tremendous odds she orchestrates an escape from her insular community. And with the help of a more mainstream and welcoming Jewish group she embraces a different form of Judaism and ultimately transitions. A Rabbi in her new group tries to broker a relationship between her and her father, but this is rejected outright. She is not allowed to see her mother ever again. In the afterword she suggests she is in touch with two of her numerous siblings, but they are so afraid of the implications of maintaining a relationship with her that she agrees not to name them.</p><p>This is a fascinating insider's glimpse into a world that we can generally only see from afar. It clearly illustrates how difficult it would be to remain in that world and have any semblance of individual autonomy. The author deserves tremendous admiration for having the strength of character to escape rather than live a lie.</p><p>There were also a few little tidbits that I found interesting. For example, whenever the author introduced a new character she explained how they were related to her - and it was always in multiple ways. Despite all of this inbreeding apparently it is common practice before approving a marriage match to do genetic testing to ensure there will be no issues as a result of the inbreeding.</p><p><u><i>The Education of Augie Merasty</i> by Joseph Auguste Merasty</u></p><p>This is a first hand account of the author's experiences in a residential school. At the time the book is written, Merasty is a retired fisherman and trapper - so he's not young. And it's very clear how his time in residential school as a child continues to haunt him and impact his ability to function.</p><p>Merasty describes the efforts that were made to "take the Indian out of" the children in residential schools. The tales of physical and sexual abuse are no longer surprising, but still extremely disturbing. He was also taught to be ashamed of anything relating to his Indigenous heritage - and still struggled with conflicting feelings about it.</p><p>This is a very short book and really only tells a limited number of stories, but it packs a punch.</p><p><u><i>How to Save a Life: the Inside Story of Grey's Anatomy</i> by Lynette Rice</u></p><p>As a loyal watcher of Grey's Anatomy over its entire 18 seasons, I had to read this book. It is really a collection of interviews by an Entertainment Weekly reporter. It is entirely unauthorized and some key people (read Shonda Rhimes) refused to be interviewed for the book so it only includes old interview material with these people, and much of that is undoubtedly taken out of context.</p><p>As much as I wanted to like this book, it was actually kind of boring. It didn't really tell me anything that I hadn't already read on social media and it seemed to have quite an agenda in supporting some of the players and not others.</p><p>If you're really into Grey's Anatomy you might want to read this, otherwise I'd definitely pass. In fact, even if you're really into the show your time might be better spent watching reruns.</p>Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-72283200997073770492021-10-28T17:38:00.002-04:002021-10-29T17:20:27.664-04:00A Few More Titles<p> <u><i>The Vixen</i> by Francine Prose</u></p><p>This book was sort of strange, but intriguing. It was set in the early 1950s when the protagonist, Simon Putnam, was given a job at a major publishing firm following his graduation from Harvard (with an essentially useless degree in folklore and mythology). Simon's flamboyant uncle helped him get the job.</p><p>At first he is only responsible for rejecting all the unsolicited manuscripts that were sent for review. But eventually the head of the firm, who is also his uncle's friend, gave him a top secret job - to edit the manuscript for a "bodice ripper" based on the lives of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Simon's problem is that his mother knew Ethel in childhood and was very shaken by what she saw as her wrongful conviction and execution. And Simon can't tell anyone that for fear of being denounced as a Communist so he has to play along with the terrible manuscript that paints Ethel as the mastermind of her fate as well as a sex goddess.</p><p>While editing the manuscript Simon insists on meeting the very reclusive author and falls for her - they enter into a strange sexual relationship where they only have sex on her demand in very public places. As Simon gets to know her, he becomes increasingly suspicious about whether she actually wrote the book. So much of the narrative surrounds Simon delving into that issue.</p><p>There are also side stories about Simon's parents, his relationship with an employee who was fired to make room for him, his crush on one of the other women in the office and, of course, McCarthyism and the continuing efforts of the US government to denounce Communists and justify the execution of the Rosenbergs.</p><p>Again - weird but interesting.</p><p><u><i>The Summer of Broken Rules</i> by K.L. Walther</u></p><p>This is another book that I read mostly because it was set on Martha's Vineyard. It was essentially a light, easy to read young adult romance with lots of Martha's Vineyard content so I enjoyed it.</p><p>Meredith travels to Martha's Vineyard with her extended family to celebrate her cousin's wedding. It is the first time the family has gone back to their regular summer cottage since she lost her older sister in a car accident.</p><p>In past summers the extended family has always played a game of assassin, and Meredith's sister was always the winner. So Meredith vows to win in her honour. But, since this is a romance, she gets distracted by her alliance with one of the groomsmen.</p><p>This is no great literature but it was a fun read - there was plenty of humour as the family and friends fight to win their game. And the typical narrative romance arc of meeting, falling for each other, falling out and getting back together.</p><p><u><i>The Strangers</i> by Katherena Vermette</u></p><p>I loved this sequel to <i>The Break</i> as much as I enjoyed the first book. Again it takes place in Winnipeg and deals with the women in a Metis family. In particular, the story deals with Elsie and her two daughters, Phoenix and Cedar. The chapters are told from each of their perspectives - and they are all very strong and interesting characters.</p><p>Elsie has struggled with addiction for years and thus lost custody of her daughters and she tries so hard to clean herself up so she can see them. Phoenix is incarcerated in a youth detention centre, where she gives birth to a child who is immediately taken away from her. And Cedar bounced around between foster homes where she had mixed experiences before she goes to live with the father she's not seen since she was a baby and his new wife and her daughter. Cedar desperately misses her mother and sister even though she barely remembers them.</p><p>The women are also united in their grief over the death of the youngest sister, Sparrow. In addition to these women we also learn more about Elsie's mother, Margaret, who went to law school but had to give everything up when she got pregnant with Elsie and was abandoned by her white, middle class law school boyfriend.</p><p>While there is not a lot of action, the story is carried by the fantastic character development and the strength of these different, but all admirable women. Despite their less than perfect circumstances, including the racism they continually endure, I was left with hope for them at the end of the novel.</p><p><u><i>Daisy Jones and the Six</i> by Taylor Jenkins Reid</u></p><p>I loved the unconventional style of this book. It was written as if it was a tell all biography of Daisy Jones and the other six members of her band. Each entry is an "interview" with one of the band members or others in their lives. It is written in such a convincing way that once I googled it just to confirm it really was fiction. And at the end the identity of the interviewer definitely caught me by surprise.</p><p>Daisy Jones is a teenager caught up in the sex, drugs and rock and roll of the Los Angeles music scene. When she is 20 she hits the big time and a producer realizes she could gain even more fame if she joins with the band "The Six" which is also on an upward trajectory. While they clicked on stage, Daisy and the bands lead, Billy, did not get along at all behind the scenes.</p><p>So much of the book follows the trajectory of the band, Daisy's dependence on pills, Billy's dependence on alcohol and then his wife and family and the other band members who are along for the ride (with differing degrees of interest in the life and patience for being in Billy's shadow).</p><p>The book purports to tell us what the public didn't know about what was going on behind the scenes of this popular band. I just loved both the story and the clever style.</p><p><u><i>What Strange Paradise</i> by Omar El Akkad</u></p><p>I loved this book, though I may have missed some of the subtleties. I recently heard the author speak and he said he intended to write a modern-day Peter Pan - I completely missed that. Either I'm not familiar enough with Peter Pan or I just don't read subtexts all that well.</p><p>But, on whatever level I understood the book, it worked for me. It tells the story of a 9 year old boy, Amir. When we first meet him he has just washed up on the shores of the Greek island of Kos. He is the only survivor in a smuggler's boat full of refugees. When on the run from the scene, Amir is lucky to encounter a local teenaged girl, Vanna, who makes it her mission to save Amir.</p><p>In alternating chapters we learn Amir's backstory - his family were refugees from Syria living in Egypt when he followed his stepfather onto a smuggler's boat, unaware that he would be leaving behind his mother and step brother, possibly forever. The chapters which describe Amir's time on the boat, and the characters making the journey with him, are incredibly vivid and well written. You could feel the tension. The scenes between Amir and his step-father - as his step-father realizes the grave danger he's put them in - are particularly poignant.</p><p>The other chapters chronicle Vanna's efforts to keep Amir out of the hands of a dogged police officer who is trying to track him down and pen him in with all the other illegal immigrants on the island. She has been told that if she can get him to a remote area of the island someone will come with a boat to take him to the mainland. And she does everything she can to make it happen. The communication between the two children, who do not speak the same language, is fascinating.</p><p>I definitely recommend this one - even if you aren't a Peter Pan person!</p><p><u><i>Yours Cheerfully</i> by A.J. Pearce</u></p><p>I wish I had gone back to my own review of the first book in this series, <i>Dear Mrs. Bird </i>as I didn't remember I actually didn't like it. And I didn't really like this one any better. I find the writing style quite simplistic, but the biggest problem is the main character, Emmy Lake. I just don't like her - I find her naive to the point of stupid, self-absorbed and just plain annoying. It's a wonder her boyfriend, Charles, and her boss (and Charles' brother) put up with her at all.</p><p>This book picks up where the last one left off. Mrs. Bird has left the women's magazine that Emmy works for and Emmy continues to help respond to letters asking for advice, under the direction of a more sympathetic woman this time. In addition, to her work on the column Emmy has been asked to help further the government's agenda of encouraging women to join the wartime work force.</p><p>Emmy meets a woman, Anne, on a train who is about to start working in a munitions factory so she arranged to interview the women working there so she can promote the lifestyle. But through her interviews of Anne and her friends, Emmy learns that everything as not as rosy as the government would have women believe. So she sets out to try to change things for the women - of course at risk to not only her job, but theirs as well. And almost missing her wedding in the rush to solve the world's problems.</p><p>I don't really recommend this book and I hope I remember my own recommendations if there is a third instalment in this series.</p><p><u><i>Unreconciled: Family, Truth and Indigenous Resistance</i> by Jesse Wente</u></p><p>On the surface this is a memoir, but it's really far more than that. Jesse Wente, whose mother and grandmother are Indigenous, but whose father and grandfather are not, was raised in Toronto. He only visited his family's lands in Serpent River on vacations. He remembers with perfect clarity the first time he realized he was an Indian - and how he was viewed not as Anishinaabe or Ojibwe, but as a cartoon Indian as seen on TV of the day (and probably still not - hello Atlanta Braves fans...).</p><p>Wente works through his history and that of his family, including his grandmother's experiences in residential schools, to try to develop an understanding of his urban Indigenous identity. I found the details of his upbringing fascinating - his experiences in very white, upper class private schools, his early love of movies which he shared with his mother and eventually turned into a career, his attendance at U of T (on an Indigenous scholarship that he struggled to feel deserving of), his early work at CBC radio and his time at TIFF. It was particularly jarring to hear how even when he was quite established at TIFF he realized he had become just a "token" and had to leave the job because of his discomfort with that role.</p><p>The later chapters are more political than memoir as he talks about his current activist work as well as what he hopes to ideally eventually achieve. However, they are no less interesting.</p><p>Another work about the Indigenous experience that should be required reading for all Canadians.</p><p><u><i>The Singing Forest</i> by J.A. McCormack</u></p><p>I must confess I didn't always understand what was going on in this book - and I'm not sure if it's because I was often tired when I read it so I might have missed or forgotten some things, or if it was just confusing.</p><p>The novel really tells two intertwining stories. The first is that of Stefan Drozd who is the subject of Canadian extradition proceedings for the role he played in war crimes as part of Stalin's secret police in Belarus. The second is that of the young lawyer, Leah, who is representing the Canadian government in the extradition proceedings.</p><p>In alternating narratives we learn of Drozd's miserable childhood in rural Belarus (he was both abused and neglected), his escape to Minsk where he does odd jobs until he ultimately ends up as an errand boy for the secret police, and then his escape to Canada where he starts a new life based on lies about his past. Drozd is no doubt a miserable character - he is anti-semitic, cruel, beats his wife and is convinced he is owed the life he has build in Canada.</p><p>Leah is convinced of his guilt, but struggles to find the evidence she needs to support his deportation. She even travels to Belarus to interview witnesses, but she is uncomfortable about payments an investigator made to the star witnesses for their testimony. We also learn about her difficult childhood. Her father abandoned her when she was a toddler, her mother was killed in a car accident when she was 6 and she is taken in by her very ill, maternal aunt on the weekdays and three of her father's brothers on the weekends. The aunt is Jewish and tries to teach her some of her heritage, but she is left with more questions than answers when her aunt dies. The uncles are not Jewish and have no idea about child rearing either, but somehow they muddle through and she is very attached to them at this point.</p><p>The narrative takes us through the conclusion of the extradition proceedings, but somehow there still isn't a lot of resolution.</p><p>There were parts of this book I quite liked, and the story showed great promise, but in the end I didn't love it.</p><p><br /></p>Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-62918778370678157632021-10-07T14:34:00.002-04:002021-10-07T14:34:55.680-04:00Fall Reading List<p>Once again I've saved up a long list of books so I will only give fairly summary reviews.</p><p><u><i>The Jetsetters</i> by Amanda Eyre Ward</u></p><p>This was an interesting study in family dynamics - and how everything can go horribly wrong.</p><p>Charlotte Perkins is a 70 year old widow who has also just lost her best friend. She is estranged from her children and at loose ends. When she sees an essay contest, she decides to write about a torrid summer romance from many years ago. The grand prize is an all expense paid cruise and she hopes to take her 3 adult children to bring the family closer together.</p><p>Her children are also all struggling in one way or another. Her eldest daughter Lee lives in LA and has never quite made it as an actress. She has also just broken up with her more famous boyfriend (whose left her for a younger, more successful, co-star) and is financially unstable. Even before she hears about the contest she leaves LA to go live with her mother, without telling her mother about the break up.</p><p>Charlotte's middle child is Cord - he's a venture capitalist in Manhattan, and the only one of the children that's truly financially and professionally successful. But his mother is concerned because he can't seem to find a wife - of course, that's because he's never told her he's gay.</p><p>Finally, Regan, the youngest is a harried mother of two - the romance of her marriage (to her sister's high school boyfriend) is gone.</p><p>Of course, the story wouldn't go anywhere if Charlotte didn't win the essay contest - so the family embarks on the cruise from Athens, through Rome and Florence and on to Barcelona. While on board the family members are faced to interact with each other - and learn about long held family secrets. Old and new romances also make an appearance which complicates everyone's life even further.</p><p>I was caught by surprise by the ending - which I liked. All in all it was an entertaining book.</p><p><u><i>A Boring Wife Settles the Score</i> by Marie-Renée Lavoie</u></p><p>This is a sequel to <i>Autopsy of a Boring Wife</i> and is equally charming and humorous. In the original book we met Diane just after her husband left her for a much younger woman who was pregnant with his child. She also loses her job in that book. Some time has passed and Diane is learning to live on her own, sharing a house with her best friend and her friend's children. She is also deciding what she wants to do for a living and decides to dabble in a new romance.</p><p>There's not a lot of action in the book, but Diane's musings as she fumbles through a new job, new love, interactions with her adult children and encounters with her ex-husband are witty and intelligent. The book is short and to the point and very fun to read.</p><p><u><i>Ties that Tether</i> by Jane Igharo</u></p><p>While on one level this is a romantic comedy, on another it explores the dilemma faced by many immigrant children when they are trying to adapt to their new home.</p><p>Azere immigrated to Canada with her mother and younger sister following the death of her father when she was 12 years old. While her father was on his deathbed her made her vow to marry an Edo Nigerian man. And in the 13 intervening years her mother has set her up with countless such men - with no success. After one particularly disastrous blind date she meets, and has what she thinks is a one night stand, with Rafael, a Spanish American man.</p><p>Much to her surprise Rafael becomes a co-worker, friend and eventually serious romantic partner. And Azere must decide whether to follow her heart or keep her vow to her deceased father and very disapproving mother.</p><p>The story is well written and I thought dealt with Azere's dilemma in a nuanced and realistic manner while still maintaining the light-hearted tone of the book.</p><p><u><i>Songs for the End of the World </i>by Saleema Nawaz</u></p><p>This book was so prescient it is eerie. The book begins with a publisher's note that it was all written prior to the outbreak of COVID-19. In fact, the publication date was advanced when it became clear how timely it was.</p><p>In this book a pandemic that starts in China makes its way to North America - leaving illness and death in its wake. Sound familiar? It gets even more eerie as it talks about lock downs, social distancing, overrun hospitals, contact tracing and all sorts of other issues which are now second nature to us, but we just fiction at the time the book was written. There are some differences from COVID - for example, kids are hit harder than adults and there is no vaccine in sight. But still - talk about fiction becoming reality.</p><p>The book is written from the perspective of a multitude of characters. Some of the chapters are in the present, others are in the past. And over time we learn how the various characters relate to one another - either through there pasts or through present-day encounters, or both. What is particularly interesting is that one of the characters, Owen, is the author of a plague novel that seems to foretell the pandemic in the book (again, sound familiar?).</p><p>When I picked up the book I was worried it would be too depressing to spend all that time on a book set in a COVID-like environment. But, I was so taken in by the characters and trying to piece together their relationships that I did not get hung up on the pandemic aspect. I was just fascinated by how the author seemed to predict the future and was very impressed with her ability to craft a complex story and bring all the pieces together in a believable and interesting way.</p><p><u><i>Painting the Light</i> by Sally Gunning</u></p><p>Though this historical fiction is set further in the past than I typically like, I was drawn to it because it is set on Martha's Vineyard.</p><p>Ida Russell is young girl living in privilege in Boston in 1893. But her privilege can't buy her the respect she wants as an art student at a prestigious school - because she is a girl and art is still seen as man's work. However, she struggles along and does impress some instructors. But her life is turned around when her father and brothers are lost at sea and her mother takes her life when she cannot cope with her grief.</p><p>In her vulnerable state she is taken in by the charming Ezra Pease, a sheep farmer on Martha's Vineyard. She marries him and abandons her art to become a farmer's wife. And a very unhappy one. After a big storm Ezra is presumed dead and Ida must figure out how to put her life back together. And she is faced with one surprise after another about the man she married - and his only living relatives who have never much liked her. She learns how to ride a bike (wearing pants which is even more scandalous) and falls in love with a married man. She also makes decisions about the farm which had always been Ezra's domain.</p><p>The author does a great job of developing Ida's character, bringing back the spunk of her youth so she can move on from her life as an unhappy farmer's wife.</p><p><u><i>Fight Night </i>by Miriam Toews</u></p><p>I've always enjoyed Toews' work, but I think this was one of my favourites. The grandmother, Elvira, was an amazing character.</p><p>The novel centres on the lives of three generations of women living together: Elvira, who is physically frail but completely "with it" and full of personality; Elvira's daughter, Mooshie, who is a pregnant actress who struggles with mental health issues; and Mooshie's daughter, nine year old Swiv.</p><p>The book is written from Swiv's perspective. When she is suspended from school for fighting, her grandmother takes on the job of home schooling her. Her assignment is to write a letter to her absent father about her life. So the book is actually that letter. At the same time Swiv instructs her grandmother to write a letter to her unborn sibling, who they refer to as Gord. So we also get to read Elvira's letter to Gord.</p><p>For me, the best part of the book was Elvira's spirit - she was always trying to do things others felt were a danger to her health - including dragging Swiv on a trip to California to visit two of her nephews. The scenes in California were funny, but also sad at times. Although this book is "just" a story about a family, it is so well written I couldn't wait to see how everything turned out for the characters that I couldn't help falling in love with.</p><p><u><i>The Spectacular</i> by Zoe Whittall</u></p><p>Interestingly, this is another book about three generations of women - though in most other respects it's quite different than <i>Fight Night</i>. </p><p>The main character in this one is also the granddaughter, Missy, but she's older. In 1997, when Missy is 22, her band hits it big and books a North American tour. Missy tries to get a doctor to tie her tubes so she can enjoy herself on the road, but no doctor is willing to let such a young woman make this life altering decision.</p><p>So, Missy nonetheless embarks on the tour with her all male band - and meets a man in every port. She parties hard with her band mates, but one unlucky day she forgets about some cocaine in her possession and is not allowed to cross the border from Canada to the US. So the band has to go on without her.</p><p>Meanwhile, Missy's mother, Carola, who abandoned her family when Missy was very young is living on the yoga retreat she ran to at the time. She is dealing with the fallout of a sex scandal at the retreat when she sees Missy's picture in a magazine and wants to reach out to her.</p><p>Finally, Missy's grandmother Ruth, who is 83, wants to return to the Turkish seaside that she fled from. When Missy is turned away at the border she goes to live with Ruth who tries to bring about a reconciliation with Carola.</p><p>I don't want to give it away by getting into the details but the book covers several years in the lives of the three women - how they live their separate lives, and how they periodically get together. We also gain insight into the various relationships each of the women embark on and, at its heart, what it means to be a mother.</p><p>I liked this book, but I wouldn't say I loved it the way I did <i>Fight Night</i>.</p><p><u><i>The Last Letter from Your Lover</i> by Jojo Moyes</u></p><p>This was an interesting story about the role of women and marriage immediately before the sexual revolution. Jennifer Starling wakes up from an accident without any memory of her life. Despite the memory loss, it becomes obvious to her that she really doesn't like her husband. She then finds a love letter signed only "B" which tells her she clearly had a lover, but she has no recollection of it. She then embarks upon trying to figure out who that lover is.</p><p>In 2003, Ellie, a journalist, finds the same letter in the archives of the newspaper that employs her. She also sets out to find out what happened in an effort to salvage her career which is floundering. It also gives her some insight into her lacklustre relationship with a married man.</p><p>Eventually, both women manage to weave together what happened and Ellie, in particular, strives to find a happy ending for both Jennifer and herself.</p><p><u><i>The Forest of Vanishing Stars</i> by Kristin Harmel</u></p><p>I will confess I almost gave up on this one at the start, but I stuck with it. It wasn't the best book of all time, but I wasn't sorry I finished it.</p><p>In the early chapters, a two year old girl in Berlin is abducted by an old woman named Jerusza and taken to live in the forests in Poland. Jerusza changes the girls name to Yona and teaches her how to survive in the forest - even providing lessons on how to kill. She also keeps Yona away from towns and other people, warning her of how dangerous they can be.</p><p>Jerusza dies at the beginning of World War II and Yona is left to fend for herself. While in the forest she meets many Jews fleeing the Nazis and uses her forest survival skills to help them. Most of the book deals with her relationship with the people she helps (remember she has many survival skills, but few people skills) and their struggle to evade capture and survive the harsh conditions of living in the forest.</p><p>Other than Yona, most of the characters are not terribly well developed, but are nonetheless interesting. This book was reasonably entertaining but there are better Holocaust books out there.</p><p><u><i>Holding Still for As Long as Possible</i> by Zoey Whittall</u></p><p>This book is more a character study than a novel. It delves into the lives of three marginalized 20 somethings living in Toronto. There is Josh, a transgendered paramedic; Amy, his ex-girlfriend who grew up more privileged than the other characters and is an amateur filmmaker; and Billy, a child pop star who now suffers from severe anxiety attacks.</p><p>The book explores their relationships with each other and with others, as well as giving us insight into their daily struggles just to keep going. Again, not much happens but the people are fairly interesting - and it's a short read. The interspersing of EMS terminology (and the glossary of EMS terms at the end) added a twist that I found interesting.</p>Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-89335473374953256062021-08-25T15:47:00.002-04:002021-08-25T15:47:50.599-04:00The Last Installment<p> Here is my final instalment of very brief reviews of the many books I have read over the past few months:<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>The Librarian of Saint-Malo</u></i><u> by Mario Escobar</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This is yet another book set in German occupied France during World War II. I’m starting to think I need to take a break from these books because they’re all starting to seem a bit the same. In this one a young librarian, Jocelyn, is living in the small town of Saint-Malo. When her new husband is sent to war shortly after their marriage, she makes it her mission to save the valuable books in the Saint-Malo library. The story is told through letters she writes to a famous writer, Marcel Zola, who she hopes will survive the war to tell her story.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">When the Nazis take over the town, Jocelyn is forced to house an officer, Bauman, who is both demanding and abusive. He is also clearly seeking out sexual favours and when he is rebuffed increases his efforts to find and remove valuable books from the library. Jocelyn also witnesses his particular cruelty to her Jewish neighbours and friends.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Jocelyn eventually joins a more organized resistance made up of some of the locals. She is assisted, somewhat surprisingly, by another German officer whose role is to safeguard the cultural heritage of occupied countries. He personally takes on Bauman in defending Jocelyn and the valuable library collection.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">The narrative carries through to the end of the occupation and we eventually learn the fate of Jocelyn, her husband, the other members of the resistance, the German officers and the library collection.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>Songs in Ursa Major</u></i><u> by Emma Brodie</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This was a fantastic surprise – I knew almost nothing about this book when I picked it up and I ended up really enjoying it. It tells the story of Jane Quinn who was raised by her grandmother and aunt on an island of the coast of Massachusetts (Bayleen Island) which is clearly intended as a stand in for Martha’s Vineyard.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Jane is an amateur singer whose band is called upon to play in the Bayleen Island folk music festival in the summer of 1969 when the headliner, Jesse Reid, gets into a motor vehicle accident on the way to the festival. Jane’s band is a huge success and Jesse’s agent offers to get them a recording contract. Despite facing tremendous sexism in the recording process, the album is made and is a big success. And the band is invited to tour with Jesse’s band.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">While on tour Jane and Jesse enter into torrid romance (which is said to be loosely based on the relationship between Joni Mitchell and James Taylor). Neither the romance nor Jane’s band manage to survive the pressures of touring and fame. So, Jane and Jesse part ways, and her band breaks up. The novel follows all of the players for years, and against all odds Jane becomes a major solo artist.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">The book also deals with major issues of sexism in the music industry, drug addiction, mental illness and the power of family secrets to destroy lives. I had a hard time putting it down as I was so interested in the fate of all the players. I found the epilogue particularly satisfying in the way it tied up all the loose ends.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><u><o:p> </o:p></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>The Warsaw Orphan</u></i><u> by Kelly Rimmer</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Another novel set during World War II – this one in Warsaw. Here, Roman is a Jewish boy living in the ghetto with his family. He is at first one of the fortunate ones as he has a job in a factory that feeds him and pays him a small amount to help his family (including a younger brother and a new born sister). Elzbieta is a Polish girl (a few years younger than Roman). Elzbieta has moved to Warsaw with her adopted parents and uncle and is hiding the secrets of her own past.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Elzbieta is bored and befriends her neighbour, a nurse, who she eventually learns is smuggling Jewish children out of the ghetto. Without her parents’ knowledge Elzbieta convinces her neighbour to let her help. In this way she meets Roman when his parents are faced with the difficult decision of whether to give up their daughter to save her. Roman and Elzbieta are drawn to each other and become friends.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Their friendship is strained when Roman, who is devastated by his parents’ and younger brother’s deportation, joins the resistance. And Elzbieta’s involvement puts her in danger due to the secrets she’s hiding.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Rimmer writes well and this is an interesting story (inspired by the real life Polish nurse, Irena Sandler, who smuggled Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto), but I just think maybe I need to take a break from this type of book which seems to have been so plentiful lately.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>The Secret Keeper of Jaipur</u></i><u> by Alka Joshi</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">While this can be read as a standalone book, it is really a sequel to Joshi’s earlier novel, <i>The Henna Artist</i>. Those who have read the earlier book will remember Malik, the henna artist Lakshmi’s young assistant. This book takes place several years later when Lakshmi is now married to Dr. Jay Kumar and is directing a healing garden at the hospital in Shimla.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Malik, who is now 20, has just finished his private school education and Lakshmi, wanting him to have great opportunities sends him back to Jaipur to work for the Facilities Office of the Jaipur Royal Palace which is building a new, state of the art, cinema. Malik is reluctant to go having just met and fallen for Nimmi, a young widow with two small children.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">When the cinema collapses and injures and kills many people, the novel turns into a bit of a mystery. Malik does not believe blame is being directed at the right people and he sets out to discover the truth. This quest highlights the huge class distinctions at play in Jaipur.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Eventually, the truth about many secrets comes to light. I quiet enjoyed this book, although not as much as the first one.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>People we Meet on Vacation </u></i><u>by Emily Henry</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This book is billed as a novel version of the movie <i>When Harry Met Sally</i> which is an apt enough description. In this case Poppy and Alex meet during orientation in their freshman year at the University of Chicago. They are vastly different – he is quiet and studious, she is more of a partier – and think they will probably never cross paths again.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">However, they come from the same town and someone suggests that he should give her a ride home for the summer. Over the course of the drive, despite fighting over music, eating in the car and other such mundane travel-related issues, they develop a friendship. And while they move to different places and embark on very different careers, every summer they meet up for a week long vacation. For both it becomes a highlight of their year.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Except, we learn early on that something bad happens on one of the trips and they lose touch. Two years later Poppy is unhappy in her jobs, her relationships and her life in general. When she thinks it over she realizes the last time she was truly happy was on her summer trip. So she decides she needs one last vacation to win back Alex’s friendship.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Over chapters which move from the past to the present we learn how the relationship grew, what went wrong on that trip, what has happened since and where Poppy and Alex will end up in the future.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">I enjoyed the characters in this book. And I thought the structure of how the narrative unfolded worked really well. I recommend this one.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>Family Reunion</u></i><u> by Nancy Thayer</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">I always enjoy Thayer’s annual, light, summery, Nantucket based novels. They are by no means great literature, but they are a great escape.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This one tells the story of Eleanor, a widow who is living in an old house on a cliff in Nantucket. Eleanor lives in Nantucket year round and loves the summer when her children and grandchildren visit for an annual reunion. But this year her children have a surprise – they think she should sell the house and move into a retirement community. While they suggest it’s for her health, in fact what they really want is their share of the proceeds.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">The only one on Eleanor’s side is her 22 year old granddaughter, Ari. Ari wants an escape from her life, including her parents, so comes to spend the summer with her grandmother. She gets a job at a summer camp for local children and pours her heart into it. And, of course, it wouldn’t be a Nancy Thayer book if there weren’t a love interest for both Eleanor and Ari.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Pleasantly predictable and easy to read. This is only for you if that’s a genre you appreciate.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>Anne of Manhattan</u></i><u> by Brina Starler</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This is a modern-day adaptation of <i>Anne of Green Gables</i>, which is set in Manhattan. In this case, after years in foster care, Anne grew up on Long Island with her foster parents, Marilla and Matthew. In Long Island her best friend is Diana and her archrival is Gilbert Blythe. Throughout school Anne and Gil competed and fought over everything – though they did share one unexpected kiss after graduation. After that she ghosted him.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Now, Anne is living in Manhattan with Diana and another friend from college. She is working on her post-graduate degree and yearns to be a writer. She is thrown when she runs into Gil, who has just moved to New York after 5 years in California. And to make matters worse he is enrolled in her program and they are paired with the same professor for their thesis.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Working together leads to friendship, and then a closer relationship. But then Gil does something that Anne interprets as an attempt to get ahead of her. She feels she should never have trusted him. But he feels the same when he finds out Anne has been hiding the inappropriate advances of their thesis advisor. Together they have to work through the mistrust to see if there’s a future for them.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>Golden Girl</u></i><u> by Elin Hilderbrand</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">While I am always anxious to read Hilderbrand’s new releases, I hesitated over this one when I saw the premise. In this novel, Vivi Howe, a Nantucket based author, is killed in a hit and run accident just as she’s achieved the pinnacle of her career. She enters the afterlife and is given a coach who tells her she has the rest of the summer to watch what’s going on “down below” and that she can use three “nudges” to help things move in the direction she hopes they will. So, a weird premise – but, it actually worked for me and I enjoyed the book. It really just served as a different way to narrate a story about people.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Together with Vivi we watch her three children (who are young adults), her ex-husband and his new girlfriend, her most recent boyfriend and the publication of her latest novel. We also get to see the investigation into Vivi’s accident. The novel is loosely based on Vivi’s past and ends up revealing secrets to her children that she had not really intended to share. We also get to see how Vivi chooses to use her nudges and bring about happier endings for the people she loved.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">I enjoyed revisiting Nantucket with Hilderbrand – many of the more minor characters and locations played a prominent role in her past works. If you like her work, you should read this one despite the somewhat supernatural bent.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>Malibu Rising</u></i><u> by Taylor Jenkins Reid</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">I enjoyed <i>The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo</i> so much that I was anxious to pick up Reid’s latest novel – and it did not disappoint.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">In many ways the style of the two books is similar. There are a lot of characters (I sometimes had to search back to be reminded of who someone was) and while most of the narrative takes place in the present, there are many intermingled chapters which tell us about the characters’ pasts. In fact, Mick Riva, the father of the four main characters in this book was also one of Evelyn Hugo’s seven husbands – so that was kind of a fun tie in (though by no means do you need to read both books to understand either).<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Mick Riva is a rock star who essentially abandons his wife, June, who is now deceased. He travelled around the country collecting girlfriends, wives and probably children. When he leaves June he essentially abandons his four children, Nina (a model), Jay (a pro-surfer), Hudson (a photographer) and Kit (an aspiring pro surfer and the pampered baby of the family). Every year since their mother’s death the children have hosted a huge party that attracts everybody who is anybody in LA. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">The narrative goes back and forth telling us about the love story of Mick and June, the birth of the children, June’s death, how the children carried on after her death and then this year’s party. By the end of the party the house is destroyed and we’ve learned a great deal about this family and where the future might lead them. I don’t want to give too much away because this is a really engaging book which I highly recommend.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>The Paper Palace</u></i><u> by Miranda Cowley Heller</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This is another book that went back in forth in time and told us the history of several friends and family members. The “paper palace” is the name given to a family’s summer compound on Cape Cod and much of the action, both past and present, takes place there.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">The narrative starts with Elle Bishop, who is a 50 year old wife and mother, having a one night stand with her oldest friend, Jonas. She spends the next 24 hours deciding whether she should stay with her husband, Peter, who she truly loves or leave him for a chance with Jonas. Making the decision leads her to relive the many moments of her past that led to this day.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">There are many disturbing aspects to the past – both Elle and her mother were sexually abused as children. And, Jonas and Elle shared a terrible secret that tore them apart or they may have had a relationship many years before.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">I don’t want to give too much away, but I recommend this book for both the mystery of it and the complex and engaging characters. However, I do warn you that the scenes with sexual abuse were quite upsetting.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><u><o:p> </o:p></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>While we were Dating</u></i><u> by Jasmine Guillory</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This is the sixth romance novel by Guillory and it was as entertaining as her others. While the characters in all of the books are inter-related, they can be read as standalone books.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">In this one, Ben works as an ad agency and lands a big account for a campaign featuring a movie star, Anna. Anna is ambitious and wants to land a big move role but is doing the ad campaign in the interim. Ben and Anna immediately begin flirting with each other and, when Ben gets drawn into Anna’s family emergency, their relationship becomes more involved. In addition to their sexual attraction, they genuinely like each other’s company and begin to share their past secrets with each other.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">When Anna’s manager suggests a public relationship with Ben would be good for her career, he is willing to play along, even keeping the truth from his family. After this the novel follows the typical narrative arc of trouble in paradise followed by reconciliation.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Guillory’s books are always light, fun, well written and entertaining.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>Seven Days in June</u></i><u> by Tia Williams</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">At its heart this book is a romance novel, but the back story to the characters makes it a little more complex.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Eva Mercy is a best-selling erotica writer living as a single mother in Brooklyn. She never felt very safe growing up as her mother moved them from place to place as she fell in with different men (most of them bad news). As such, she is working very hard to create a stable environment for her daughter. She does this all despite suffering from debilitating migraines.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Shane Hall is an award-winning literary author who has lived a very reclusive life. To everyone’s surprise, especially Eva’s, he shows up at a literary event where she is speaking. Sparks immediately fly between them. And, it becomes obvious to anyone familiar with their work that they have always been writing about each other.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">What no one knew is that when they were teenagers they spent 7 blissful days together one June – until she woke up out of a drug induced sleep to find Shane missing. He had promised to never leave her so she was devastated and is now afraid to trust him.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Despite her concerns they are still very attracted to each other and spend another seven days together – and eventually Eva gets the courage to ask Shane why he left. Seeing again and having the answers causes her to make a big decision about her writing style and leads her to wonder whether they have a future.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>The Love Child</u></i><u> by Rachel Hore </u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This is a book based on the real life stories of young unwed mothers who were forced to place their babies up for adoption.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Alice Copeman becomes pregnant at 19. The father of the baby was a soldier she met working as a field nurse during World War I. Unfortunately, the father did not survive to see the birth of his child and Alice is forced by her step-mother to give the baby away so she does not bring shame upon herself and her family.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Hating her stepmother for this, and struggling to move on, she throws herself into her studies and becomes a doctor (against staggering odds for women). She never stops trying to provide advice about family planning to her, mostly impoverished, patients.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">The baby is adopted by Edith and Philip Burns, and they name her Irene. Shortly after her adoption Edith becomes pregnant and her mother always favours her natural son, especially because Irene is the baby her husband chose not the one at the agency that she preferred. Irene is also bullied by other children (called a bastard) and she therefore knows she’s different but doesn’t really understand why.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">The narrative follows both Alice and Irene for decades and eventually the two stories intertwine so we get to see what happens when long buried secrets are revealed.<o:p></o:p></p>Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-1223025860036413432021-08-16T13:17:00.002-04:002021-08-16T13:17:22.938-04:00Second Instalment of Long List<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>Day for Night</u></i><u> by Jean McNeil</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">I didn’t actually enjoy this book all that much. It takes place in London during the Brexit vote. Richard is an independent film writer and director and his wife, Joanna, is a wealthy movie producer. They decide to make a film about Walter Benjamin, a German Jewish intellectual who killed himself in Spain in the 1940s while trying to escape the Nazis. What’s weird is Richard seems to see and talk to Benjamin throughout the novel – to get his take on things.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">The other main story line is when they cast a sexually ambiguous young actor to play Benjamin and Richard embarks on a sort of affair with him.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">All it all I just found the book too weird for my taste.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>Where the Grass is Green and the Girls are Pretty</u></i><u> by Lauren Weisberger</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This was by no means great literature, but it was interesting enough and definitely topical. It focuses on Peyton Marcus, a news anchor who has reported on college bribery scandals when her husband is accused of bribing officials at Princeton to buy their daughter’s way in. Ironically, their daughter didn’t even want to go there in the first place; she wanted to go to an arts school.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This has far reaching implications for innocent victims including their daughter, Max, whose offer is rescinded. In addition, Peyton’s sister Skye loses funding for a shelter for at risk girls that she has been devoting her life to (and getting into debt that her husband doesn’t know about).<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">It certainly kept my attention to find out how everybody sorted their lives out in the end.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>Good Company</u></i><u> by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This was a bit of a slow read but the characters were interesting enough to keep it going. It deals with Flora and Julian, a couple who have moved from New York to L.A. and are finally finding some financial stability. Flora does voice over work and Julian has a regular job in television instead of devoting all his time and energy to the struggling theatre company they ran in New York.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">When their daughter Ruby is graduating from high school, Flora is looking for a picture of the three of them and their best friends Margot and David. While looking for it she comes across Julian’s wedding ring which he claimed to have lost when Ruby was five years old. Through flashbacks we learn what happened that summer – and see the impact it has on both Flora’s marriage and her relationship with Margot.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>The Last Bookshop in London</u></i><u> by</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This is another book that takes place during the London blitz. Grace, a young girl who had a horrible relationship with her rural father and step mother moves to London when they tell her she can no longer live with them. She, and her best friend, Viv, move into the home of her late mother’s best friend.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">In London Grace befriends her mother’s friend’s son. Her mother’s friend also convinces an elderly local bookshop owner, Mr. Evans, to hire her as an assistant. There, she slowly modernizes the shop and wins over Mr. Evans. She also meets a handsome RAF officer who introduces her to literature, starting with <i>The Count of Monte Cristo</i>.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">However, the war intervenes, her beau and her mother’s friend’s son are sent overseas. The only communication they have are infrequent letters. Grace also joins the neighbourhood watch brigade where she helps to shepherd people to shelters when air raid sirens ring, and to clean up the devastation after bombings.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">When the main, posher, street of book shops is severely damaged, Grace’s shop literally becomes the last book shop in London. So, she makes space for other book sellers to sell their stock from her shop – even those who had always behaved badly toward her.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">The story provides an interesting angle on how everyday Londoners managed to survive the blitz despite terrible personal loss and hardship.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><u><o:p> </o:p></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>That Summer</u></i><u> by Jennifer Weiner</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Another excellent novel by one of my favourite authors. Like last year’s Weiner novel, much of the action in this one takes place in Cape Cod.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">In the past, Diana spends a summer living with a professor that her single mother works for at the university. She spends her days working and her evenings hanging out with summer residents of the town, including a private school boy who seems to take an interest in her. However, the summer ends on a bad note when the boy and two of his friends get her drunk and rape her. Years later we see where the girl has ended up and the lasting impact the rape has had on her life. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">At the same time we are told the story of Daisy, an upper class housewife living in the suburbs with her much older husband and their daughter, Beatrice. Daisy is struggling with Beatrice who has been kicked out of a fancy private boarding school and with her husband who is indifferent to her, at best.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">While I do not want to give the story away, over time, the two narratives come together in an interesting fashion. While somewhat predictable, Weiner builds in enough twists to keep you really interested. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>If You Want to Make God Laugh</u></i><u> by Bianca Marais</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This story takes place in South Africa, in the townships and the countryside, leading up to the end of apartheid and the election of Nelson Mandela. The novel centres on a very young black girl, Zodwa, who, while living in a squatters camp, is raped and becomes pregnant. While she does not really want the baby, when she is told he died immediately following birth she is devastated – and she does not really believe it. She thus begins a crusade to find her son – and at the same time to figure out what happened to her brother who died during the fight to end apartheid.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">At the same time we learn of two white sisters – Ruth and Delilah, the daughters of a Scottish father and an Afrikaans mother. Their father was abusive and they each escaped the farm they lived on at a young age. Now they have returned to the farm due to different personal crises and through the narrative we learn about their pasts.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Eventually the two stories also collide and we see the relationship between the Zodwa, Ruth and Delilah. In each case they are struggling to figure out their place in the new South Africa, with the threat of civil war and the growing AIDS crisis.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This is a great story – while political, it is also very personal. I found myself invested in all three women. I definitely recommend this one.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo</u></i><u> by Taylor Jenkins Reid</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">I really like this one. Evelyn Hugo was a poor girl living in Hell’s Kitchen in New York in the 1940s. Her mother died when she was young and her father was abusive. She has a dream to make it as an actress in Hollywood, and at 14 marries the first man who can take her away from New York and get her to LA.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Though faced with the tremendous sexism that most female actresses of that era (or even now) suffered, she eventually makes it big. The book tells us how and at the same time gives us a detailed account of the seven husbands she acquires along the way – and eventually tells us who her true love was.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Evelyn’s past is revealed in her old age as she grants an interview to a young magazine writer, Monique. Monique is an unlikely choice to write her biography, but Evelyn is very specific that she must do it. Over time we, and Monique, learn why.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">I really enjoyed this book. Evelyn was a fascinating character – strong, inventive, and flawed. She was not always the kindest person – and could be extremely self-centred – but that only added to why I was drawn in. I definitely recommend this one.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><u><o:p> </o:p></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>Letters to Camondo</u></i><u> by Edmund de Waal</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This was a very short book, written entirely in the form of imaginary letters from the author to Moise de Camondo. Through the letters we learn about Camondo, a banker and art collector from a wealthy Jewish family in Paris. His ancestors arrived in Paris from Constantinople and built a large mansion which is now a museum. On his death Camondo willed the property to the city with the proviso that nothing change. I didn’t actually find this book all that interesting. It was mostly a rundown of names and dates, with a lot of name dropping by the author whose family was another one of the Paris elite. If you’re going to read something by this author, your time would be better spent on <i>The Hare with the Amber Eyes</i> which tells the story of the author’s ancestors<o:p></o:p></p>Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-5736238551890600132021-08-14T13:11:00.001-04:002021-08-14T13:11:54.346-04:00A Book Summary<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">It’s been weeks (or months) since I’ve posted – I’ve been reading a lot but haven’t had the time to post. So, the following are briefer than usual reviews of some of the books I’ve read since my last post (more to follow when I get more time).<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>Ladies of the House</u></i><u> by Lauren Edmondson</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This book is a modern-day retelling of <i>Sense and Sensibility</i>, but it has been decades since I read that book so I can’t comment on how effective the retelling is. In this novel, 34 year old Daisy’s father has just died. Following his death it is revealed he was involved in a public scandal. As a result Daisy, her mother and sister are forced to sell their fancy home in Georgetown because they can no longer afford it.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Daisy’s mother is not coping well with giving up her lifestyle and her younger sister just wants to move on – but ends up falling for the son of one of her father’s political opponents. Meanwhile, Daisy is still pining after her long time best friend – only to discover he is writing an exposé on her father. She at first wants to respond to this by staying out of the spotlight, but discovers her silence may make the lingering scandal even worse for her family.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This was a fairly light and easy read, entertaining enough, but not exceedingly memorable.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>The Relatives</u></i><u> by Camilla Gibb</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This was a relatively easy book to read, but I never really got into it. In fact it was a bit more like reading three separate short stories. They did come together in the end but, for me, not in a particularly satisfying way. I’ll not reveal the end here, in case you want to read the book on your own.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">The three stories are about Lila who is a social worker. She was adopted as a young child and only knows her biological mother was a teenaged refugee who died by suicide when she was two. This history impacts her work as she tries to rescue many of the children she works with – sometimes with less than perfect results.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">In the second story, Tess and Emily are a lesbian couple who have separated. Tess never wanted to be a mother but Emily convinced her so they have a child, Max. Emily does most of the child-rearing though Tess does take more interest in Max once he gets older. After they separate, Emily wants to use their frozen embryos to have one more child on her own. Tess is reluctant as she does not even want the burden of becoming a genetic parent.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">In the final story we learn of Adam who was Tess’s sperm donor. He donated sperm to pay his way through graduate school and has no desire to be a father. At the start of the book we find Adam being held captive by al-Shabaab in Somalia which has him rethinking his views on home and family.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Through alternating chapters we see where these characters end up and how they are related to each other.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>Hana Khan Carries On</u></i><u> by Uzma Jalaluddin</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This is a sweet, well written romance novel, by a local Toronto author and set in Toronto. Hana’s family owns a struggling halal restaurant in the Golden Crescent neighbourhood. Hana waitresses there part time but she really wants to work in radio. She is currently interning at a local radio station where she is desperately trying to outshine the other intern and therefore get a permanent job. She also tells her stories in an anonymous podcast and develops a virtual relationship with one of her listeners.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Trouble arrives when a handsome young man moves into her neighbourhood with plans to open a competing, more upscale halal restaurant. Despite herself Hana finds herself drawn to the man.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">At the same time an aunt and cousin arrive from India for a visit – and slowly a secret is revealed about her aunt’s past – which ties into the rival restaurant owner. The book also sensitively portrays a racially motivated attack on the neighbourhood which brings the rivals together.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">A predictable narrative arc for a romance novel, but interesting nonetheless because of the intriguing characters and the local colour.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>Musical Chairs</u></i><u> by Amy Poeppel</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This was an easy to read, often humorous novel. It centres around Bridget, a cellist in a trio. She has been friends with the pianist, Will, for so long that most people believe they are married. Right now they are searching for a new violinist. While they are off work searching for the violinist, Bridget decides to go to her summer home with her boyfriend.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Her summer plans are thwarted when her boyfriend breaks up with her by email. Instead, she is left with her adult twin children who descend on her. Her daughter, Isabelle, has just made the spur of the moment decision to leave her lucrative job and her son, Oscar, thinks his husband is cheating on him. To add to the excitement, her 90-year-old father, a legendary conductor, has decided to remarry. And both Will and Isabelle are flirting with new relationships.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">When her father wants the trio to play at his wedding they need to find that violinist. Will decides to contact Gavin, the original member of their trio. So, Bridget is forced to face the fact he may be the father of her twins, rather than a sperm donor. And she has to figure out whether Will is really the friend she always thought he was.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Everything wraps up fairly nicely in the end – to me it made for an enjoyable read.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>The Woman with the Blue Star</u></i><u> by Pam Jenoff</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This is yet another ghetto based novel – and as many recent ones seem to, also focuses on the role of the non-Jews in helping the victims.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">In this novel, Sadie and her parents are living in the Krakow ghetto and in a last ditch effort to escape end up stranded in the sewers under the streets of Krakow. This is further complicated by the fact that Sadie’s mother is pregnant.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">At the same time Ella, is living in Krakow with her well to do, but mean, stepmother. Ella wanders the streets both to escape her stepmother and to rendezvous with her ex-boyfriend who has suddenly reappeared. One day she spots Sadie through a sewer grate and they end up becoming friends. Ella does what she can to help and protect Sadie once she finds her.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">I don’t want to give away too much, but as should be expected from a Holocaust book, the girls struggle to survive and suffer tremendous loss before the war comes to an end. I did guess the ending, but not until I was almost there, which I enjoyed. If you like this type of book, I recommend this one.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>Crossroads</u></i><u> by Kaleb Dahlgren</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This is a fascinating memoir by Kaleb Dahlgren, a survivor of the horrific bus crash in Humboldt, Saskatchewan. The author was a new member of the junior hockey team that was the victim of the crash, but had become quite close with many of the 16 teammates and coaches who perished.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">He had already suffered a great deal of adversity in his young life – he had childhood diabetes, his father was gravely ill. He worked hard with trainers and nutritionists to manage his diabetes and allow him to play hockey. He volunteered countless hours with children with diabetes in order to show them what was possible and befriending disabled hockey fans, bringing them to games and team events. He also went to a series of private and public schools to ensure his education was sound as in addition to being a talented hockey player he had plans to attend York University on a hockey scholarship. Split seconds at a crossroads on the way to a playoff game changed everything.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">At first doctors thought he may not survive; then that he may never walk again. And, of course, the emotional trauma of losing so many teammates. With the support of his parents and intensive medical intervention and rehabilitation, he did regain the ability to walk. However, he won’t ever play hockey again. Fortunately, York University was willing to honour its commitment to him, making him a non-playing member of the team and allowing him to further his education. There are surely good things ahead for this talented and strong man.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>Speak, Silence</u></i><u> by Kim Echlin</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">I quite enjoyed this short novel. It tells the story of Gota. She is currently a single mother living in Toronto, but has never forgotten a passionate affair she had 11 years ago with Kosmos, a Bosnian.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">She hears about a film festival in Sarajevo and that Kosmos will be there with his theatre company so she takes an assignment with the travel magazine she works for to investigate the fallout of the Bosnian war.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">When she is reunited with Kosmos she immediately sees how the war has changed him – she also forms an unusual bond with Edina, the new woman in his life. It is Edina who provides Kosmos’s backstory and draws Gota into her work as a lawyer trying to get justice for the countless victims of sexual violence during the Bosnian war. Gota becomes determined to tell the stories of these women.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Gota takes her quest so far as to find many of the women and accompany them to The Hague to confront their abusers in the International Criminal Court. This experience of course changes Gota’s life forever.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">The descriptions of sexual violence are graphic and disturbing – so do not read this if you find that too difficult. Otherwise, this is a very worthwhile, and important, read.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>Letters Across the Sea </u></i><u>by Genevieve Graham</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This was an interesting book about a fairly ugly period in Toronto’s history. While it was not an exceptional book, the historical angle was sufficient to keep my attention. In the depths of the depression, a teenaged Irish girl, Molly Ryan, befriends and eventually falls in love with her Jewish neighbour, Max, in downtown Toronto. However, with rising unemployment tensions are running high between the Jewish and non-Jewish Toronto communities. This culminates in the Christie Pits riots where Nazi youth storm a youth baseball game and attack the Jewish players and fans.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Molly and Max choose this inopportune moment to kiss – which is witnessed by her father. He rushes to tear them apart and is injured in the process. The injury leads to him having to leave his job on the police force, and he blames the Jewish man for that.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">At the same time, the second World War rages on. Molly’s brothers and Max and his friends enlist. They are sent to Hong Kong. Here the book gives a historically accurate account of a part of the war that was not familiar to me. Hundreds of Canadian soldiers were sent to Hong Kong – essentially as sacrificial lambs. Many were killed by the Japanese invaders; others, including, Max were captured as prisoners of war and held in horrific conditions for years.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Eventually Max returns from Hong Kong, and in a somewhat predictable ending, the two families make peace with each other. As I indicated, it was an interesting glimpse at history though far from the best book I’ve ever read.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>Summer on the Bluffs</u></i><u> by Sunny Hostin</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This book is set in one of my favourite places, Martha’s Vineyard, though it takes place in a community I’ve not been part of. Oak Bluffs has for decades been a getaway destination for well to do black families. This story centres around Amelia Vaux Tanner, an aging widow and former Wall Street trader, who owns a cottage in Oak Bluffs. Her late husband was a prominent civil rights attorney and they built the dream cottage together.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">For years, Amelia and her husband, who had no children of their own, brought three young, less well off, black girls on summer vacation with them. Perry, Olivia and Billie grew up as summer sisters. Amelia and her husband also supported their educations and provided them with job opportunities. The girls have never known why they were chosen.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This summer the widow has reconnected with an old flame and decided to follow him on his travels through Europe. As such, she plans to pass the cottage on to one of the girls, who are now young adults, and to reveal why she’s always taken an interest in them.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Before she is able to carefully deliver the message, each of the girls learns their back story. And that leads to tension amongst them and with Amelia. There are also several interesting men who play supporting roles in the lives of each of the women.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This is a well written story that delves into the history of all four women – and shares their present lives with us. I, of course, loved to detailed descriptions of Martha’s Vineyard – it almost felt like being able to visit.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>Just Last Night</u></i><u> by Mhairi McFarlane</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This is a great story about friends and family relationships and the secrets people keep from each other. Eve has a fairly predictable life – a job she tolerates and weekly pub quizzes with her best friends Ed, Justin and Susie. She has also harboured what she thinks is a secret crush on Ed who has just gotten engaged to his girlfriend, Hester (who Eve of course hates).<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Right after the engagement, Susie is killed in a car accident on her way home. In the aftermath of her death Eve learns that Susie and Ed were keeping secrets from her. She also visits Susie’s father who has dementia and does not remember Susie is dead which makes it even harder to come to terms with her death. Finally, Susie’s older brother, Finlay, shows up from the US. After initial clashes she becomes very attracted to him and joins him on a mission to retrieve his addled father who has travelled to Edinburgh. Ed is jealous and tries his best to keep the two apart.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Through working together even more secrets about Susie, Finlay and their past are revealed and Eve starts to figure out how to put her life back together.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><u><o:p> </o:p></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>Much Ado About You</u></i><u> by Samantha Young</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">This is a sweet if not memorable romantic comedy. Evie Starling is passed over for a promotion in her home of Chicago. Desperate to get away she impulsively plans a holiday in a small English village. The holiday package includes an apartment and a temporary position operating Much Ado About Books, a small bookshop.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">For Evie this is a dream vacation – and of course she also falls for Roane, a local farmer. Typical twists and turns take place but Eve, Roane and the cast of local townspeople made for an interesting read.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><u>House on Endless Waters</u></i><u> by Emuna Elon</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">While this was yet another Holocaust story, of which I’ve read many, it did have a slightly different angle. Here, Yoel Blum, a middle-aged man from Israel visits Amsterdam as he feels compelled to learn the story of his late mother who immigrated from there after the War. He is first there on a book tour when he visits the Jewish Museum and is sure he sees a picture of his mother in a video clip. However, his mother is holding a baby that is not him, or his sister, and that he cannot identify. So, he returns to Amsterdam to figure out who the baby is.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">The writing style was interesting as Yoel is a novelist. What he learns from his past, through visits to the museum and synagogues and discussions with local Jewish community members, is woven into the novel he is writing rather than being told as his past.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">I don’t want to give much away, but Yoel definitely learns that there was a reason for his mother’s reticence in getting together with large groups, particularly those who had also immigrated from Amsterdam.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-7555728976261123982021-05-03T17:22:00.000-04:002021-05-03T17:22:01.719-04:00Some new recommendations<p> <u><i>Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon</i> by Sheila Weller</u></p><p>I read this book for the library reading challenge topic "A book about music". This served as an unauthorized biography of the three women as well as a more general story about the obstacles for women in the music industry.</p><p>The women were all born within several years of each other (King is the oldest, Simon the youngest). Their backgrounds were very different. King was born to working class Jewish parents in Brooklyn, Mitchell grew up in small towns in the Canadian prairies and Simon was the daughter of wealthy parents in New York City (her family founded Simon and Schuster publishing). Despite their vastly different upbringings, they all struggled with their relationships with a domineering mother. All of them broke into music at a fairly young age and all of them were connected to James Taylor in some way (King was friends with him, Mitchell dated him and he was the love of Simon's life).</p><p>The narrative alternated between the three women - each section covered a different era in their lives. The book was very long and at times I got bogged down in the details. There were many names dropped and it was hard to keep track of them - especially since there was a lot of overlap in who these women knew. </p><p>I learned a lot about the musicians' personal lives, professional successes and failures and struggles to succeed in a predominantly male business. I found it interesting that King started out as the most conventional of the three (young marriage and motherhood), but lives the most unusual life now.</p><p>I don't think I ever would have picked this book up if not for the reading challenge. I'm not sorry I read it, but I only recommend it if you have a particular interest in the topic. Otherwise it's a tad overwhelming.</p><p><u><i>The Lonely Hearts Hotel</i> by Heather O'Neill</u></p><p>This was a rather strange novel; as are O'Neill's other works, but I quite enjoyed it. It starts with two babies being abandoned at an orphanage in Montreal in the winter of 1914. They are given the names Pierrot and Rose. Pierrot is a piano prodigy and Rose dances and performs comedy. To raise money, the orphanage sends the children to entertain in the homes of wealthy Montrealers. The more the children perform together the more they fall in love.</p><p>When they are teenagers they are separated (Pierrot is adopted and Rose is left behind). The nuns at the orphanage actively scheme to keep them apart for decades. Pierrot is first well off, but when his sponsor dies he is left with nothing and must fend for himself, mostly through playing the piano but also sometimes engaging in illegal activities. Rose is sent out as a governess for a wealthy family and eventually becomes the mistress of the man of the house who is an underworld boss.</p><p>After much sadness in both their lives, Pierrot and Rose finally reunite. They become a couple at long last and endeavour to put together a travelling clown show to make their fortune. They travel to New York and are met with some success, but also become dangerously entangled with organized crime.</p><p>I don't want to give away more than that, as I do recommend you read this book. Don't be put off by the rather odd subject matter.</p><p><u><i>The Light in Hidden Places</i> by Sharon Cameron</u></p><p>This is the true story of a teenaged Catholic girl, Stefania, in Poland. Just prior to World War II she moves from her family farm to work for a Jewish family. She ends up very much liking the family and falling in love with their son Izio.</p><p>Not long after, the family is forced into the ghetto. Stefania, who by then has custody of her 6 year old sister who was abandoned by their mother with an abusive neighbour, works tirelessly to help the Jewish family. She sneaks into the ghetto with money, food and other supplies. Eventually one of the sons, Max, escapes from the ghetto and Stefania and her sister agree to hide him. Twelve other Jews follow and Stefania and her sister manage to keep them hidden - even when she is forced to house nurses employed by the Nazis who constantly bring Nazi officers into the house to entertain them.</p><p>This is a remarkable story of how one resilient and brave teenager, and a smart young child, can make a difference in so many lives. I thought the most sad part of the afterward is that Stefania's family disowned her and her sister after the war because they helped Jews.</p><p><u><i>If I Knew Then: Finding Wisdom in Failure and Power in Aging</i> by Jann Arden</u></p><p>I read this for the category of "a book about growing older". This is an autobiographical work but also a bit of a self help guide to growing older. Personally I enjoyed the autobiographical parts but got a bit bored with the life advice.</p><p>If you like self help books more than I do, you may enjoy this, but it wasn't my kind of book. It was fairly short and easy to read if that's any consolation.</p><p><u><i>Butter Honey Pig Bread</i> by Francesca Ekwuyasi</u></p><p>Despite the positive reviews, I avoided this one for a while because I thought the mystical aspects might be too weird for my taste. However, although there was definitely a mystical component, the story was interesting enough for me to overcome my general lack of interest in the mystical.</p><p>At its core this is a story of three Nigerian women - Kambirinachi and her twin daughters Kehinde and Taiye. The daughters were very close as children but are estranged as adults and a lot of the narrative deals with delving into the past to explain the estrangement. However, in back and forth chapters we read about the pasts and present of all three women. </p><p>Kambirinachi came from a very small village, but moved to live with an aunt in a larger city, Lagos, where she received an education, worked and married. Kehinde and Taiye were raised in Lagos, but also spent time in London as children. As adults they spent time in Canada too - though in different places.</p><p>In the present they are back visiting their mother and working on repairing their relationship with each other and their mother. There are a lot of interesting sub-stories too - Kehinde works as an artist and has stable relationships with men but is fearful of starting a family due to her past trauma, Taiye is guilty about what happened to her sister and tries to cover her unhappiness with meaningless relationships with women and avoids commitment even when she meets a woman who is seemingly perfect for her. Kambirinachi believes all the bad that has happened to her and her family is a result of a non-human spirit that plagues her family.</p><p>The book is extremely well written - I enjoyed its lyrical language and the strong female characters. I recommend this one.</p><p><u><i>The Paris Library</i> by Janet Skeslien Charles</u></p><p>This is another Holocaust novel written from the perspective of a non-Jew. It is based on a true story of the American Library in Paris which remained open during the Nazi occupation and even tried to keep bringing books to its Jewish patrons once they were prohibited from coming to the library. It also dealt with the true story of those Parisians who collaborated with the Nazis or snitched on their neighbours and friends. </p><p>The narrative alternates between the past and present of Odile who is a young helper in the American Library. She seems to live a charmed life - she has a twin brother who she's close to, her family is reasonably well off as her father is a police officer, her best friend Margaret is the wife of an English diplomat and she falls in love with another police officer, Paul. </p><p>In the present day (1983) sections Odile is a widow living in Montana. She is very remote from the others in the town and her young neighbour, Lily, is trying to figure out her story. So we learn what happened to Odile during the war as she reveals the story to Lily. We hear of her contributions to the resistance, her efforts to help Jewish library patrons, and her falling out with Paul after she unwittingly betrays her friend Margaret. </p><p>Odile also tries to help Lily navigate adolescence by sharing the books that have guided her over time. The respect for books and libraries was one of the aspects that drew me into this story.</p><p>While this is in some ways just yet another Holocaust story, I did enjoy it.</p><p><u><i>The Four Winds</i> by Kristin Hannah</u></p><p>This is another work of historical fiction, but from a completely different era. It takes place in the 20s and 30s in the US.</p><p>Elsa is a young woman who is not treated with any love or kindness by her wealthy family - she suffered an illness as a child and they use it as an excuse to prohibit her from going to school, dating, etc. They expect her to live in isolation with them into old age.</p><p>However, one night Elsa meets the young and handsome Rafe Martinelli at a dance. She ends up pregnant and her family drops her off at his family's farm where he is forced to marry her. Though she has never worked a day in her life, she adjusts to life on the farm, eventually winning the love and respect of her in-laws.</p><p>However, when the depression hits the Texas dust bowl, Rafe abandons the family and Rose is left to struggle with her teenaged daughter and her young son. She must decide whether to stick it out on the farm or chase a better life in California.</p><p>Watching Elsa's struggle to make the right decisions, especially when met with her daughter's resistance, was fascinating. It was also heartbreaking to see how circumstances never seemed to get better no matter how hard she tried. While the ending was sad, there was also a glimmer of hope.</p><p>A bit like a soap opera, but I still enjoyed the characters, the narrative and the writing.</p><p><u><i>Station Eleven</i> by Emily St. John Mandel</u></p><p>I put off reading this one for quite a while because I wasn't sure I could take reading about a post-pandemic dystopian world while in the midst of our own pandemic. But, I decided I would try it for the category "A book set in the future".</p><p>I'm not sorry I read it, though it is still a bit disturbing to read a fictionalization of how badly a pandemic can go. I did like how the book went back and forth in time - from pre-pandemic to post-pandemic and how it eventually weaved together the seemingly unrelated characters - an actor who dies on stage on the night the pandemic hits Toronto, the paramedic who tries to save him, the actor's first and second wives, the actor's lifelong friend and a child actress who witnessed the actor's death. It was also interesting to see how the titular comic book, Station Eleven, fit into the narrative.</p><p>It was a bit disturbing to imagine a world when most people have died of a plague and the world as we know it has disappeared - no electricity, no gas, and obviously no cell phones, internet or television.</p><p><br /></p>Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-85794064126004953572021-03-12T12:29:00.001-05:002021-03-12T12:29:52.360-05:00Two Months worth of Reading<p> Most of the books, though not all, that I have read in the last couple of months I have managed to slot into a category on my reading challenge. However, some I just read because they became available at the library and I really wanted to read them.</p><p><u><i>The Prophets </i>by Robert Jones, Jr.</u></p><p>I read this book for the category, a debut book. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I have to admit it was a really difficult read and I am sure I missed a great deal of the biblical symbolism.</p><p>The story is primarily about two teenage boys, Sam and Isaiah, who are slaves on a southern cotton plantation - and lovers. Because of their sexual orientation, they do not only have to fear the white slave owners and overseers, they also have to fear many of their black peers who disapprove of their relationship.</p><p>In addition to the story of Sam and Isaiah, there are chapters dedicated to the other slaves as well as several of the slave owners. Finally, several chapters go back in time and tell the story of the capture of slaves and their perilous journey across the ocean. I found these chapters the hardest to understand as they were steeped in mysticism and unfamiliar (to me) imagery.</p><p>What was very clear in the book was the horrific cruelty, homophobia and misogyny evident at the plantation eerily known as "Empty".</p><p>I do recommend this book as I think it tells an important story - but you have to be patient. And I just had to accept that I was probably not getting as much out of the book as the author offered.</p><p><u><i>Anxious People</i> by Fredrik Backman</u></p><p>This was one of those books that I could not fit into a reading challenge category, but which I really wanted to read because I so enjoyed the author's prior works. This one did not disappoint - it was a mystery, comedy, romance and character study all rolled into one.</p><p>The premise is that a bank robber fails in robbing a bank and in trying to escape wanders into an apartment open house. There the robber, rather accidentally, takes the real estate agent and all the apartment viewers hostage.</p><p>We see the story from inside the apartment - getting the perspective and interesting back story of all of the people in the apartment (including the robber who in fact comes off quite sympathetically). But we also see it from the perspective of a father and son police officer team who try to unravel the mystery. We also learn a lot about their back story and relationship.</p><p>The dialogue is humorous and how the crime resolves is not too easy to predict which sucked me in and made me keep reading. The novel took place in a small town in Sweden - and I very much enjoyed how referring to people "from Stockholm" held a lot of different meanings (including, of course, the concept of the Stockholm syndrome).</p><p>I definitely recommend this one.</p><p><u><i>The Queen's Gambit</i> by Walter S. Tevis</u></p><p>This book also didn't fit into the reading challenge, but I wanted to read it because I enjoyed the Netflix mini-series. The TV series followed the book fairly closely but not perfectly (in the book Beth Harmon had a bit more control over her addictions, and people from her past chess tournaments did not reappear quite so conveniently).</p><p>I did enjoy the book though the chess scenes were sometimes a bit too detailed for my taste (though I do realize chess was the point of the book).</p><p>I thought Beth was a well developed character and I enjoyed reading about how she overcame obstacles of her past, addiction and misogyny to triumph in her chosen field.</p><p><u><i>She Said</i> by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey</u></p><p>I read this book because it was recommended to me, but I was able to use it for the reading challenge category "a book by two or more people". This book is by the New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein story. It goes into great detail about the investigation that underlay the story - the people they chased down, the interviews they conducted (including with victims and Weinstein and his hench people) and the many obstacles they faced.</p><p>I thought the story was fascinating - particularly seeing how it sparked the "me too" movement in a way no prior sexual exploitation cases had (and there were others). In addition to Weinstein there was a fair bit of information on the Brent Kavanaugh Supreme Court hearings. Perhaps one of my favourite parts was the epilogue when the authors arranged a meeting of the many victims who had come forward - they were from a wide variety of backgrounds and sexual exploitation was for some the only thing they had in common. But it was fascinating to see how they related to each other in the aftermath.</p><p>I recommend this book if you have any interest in this area.</p><p><u><i>No Time Like the Future</i> by Michael J. Fox</u></p><p>I read this book for the category "a true story written by an author with a disability". It is Michael J. Fox's latest memoir and it deals with not just his struggle with Parkinson's, but also surgery for a benign tumour on his spine and a seriously broken arm sustained in a fall while he was recovering from back surgery.</p><p>The book seems to be a very honest account of his struggle to recover from surgery (he admits he was used to the Parkinson's, but these were new obstacles). He recognizes that his perpetual optimism failed him - particularly after the fall which he blamed on his own stubbornness at trying to do too much too soon.</p><p>We also gain insight into his relationship with his wife and children as well as several of his close friends. His interactions with doctors, physiotherapists and personal support workers are also very interesting.</p><p>Fox writes well and, despite the difficult topic, his humour comes through. I enjoyed this book. </p><p><u><i>The Art of Racing in the Rain</i> by Garth Stein</u></p><p>Though this book was very popular, I had avoided it as it just didn't appeal to me to read a book written from the perspective of a dog. But, then the reading challenge required me to read "a book where the main character is not human". And I guess the challenge accomplished what it was supposed to - challenged me to read outside my comfort zone, and I ended up really liking the book.</p><p>The book is all narrated by Enzo - a mutt who is adopted by Denny, and up and coming race car driver. Enzo narrates the story of Denny's racing career as well as his marriage, the birth of his daughter, and the tragic end to the marriage that led to a bitter custody dispute which included false accusations against Denny.</p><p>It was actually kind of fun to witness a dog who saw what was going on in the lives of his humans, and desperately wanted to intervene, but just couldn't verbalize his concerns (though he did try to voice them as best he could).</p><p>So after being a sceptic, I now suggest you read this one. It's better than you might think.</p><p><u><i>Thunder Through my Veins: Memories of a Métis Childhood</i> by Gregory Scofield</u></p><p>This was a really difficult, though important, memoir to read. Scofield was the son of a Métis woman who did not initially acknowledge her Métis heritage (if she was even aware of it). His father went to prison when Scofield was very young and he never saw him again. His mother, who had been a prostitute before he was born, suffered from mental illness and was in a series of disastrous relationships - including one with a man who was very abusive toward both her and her son.</p><p>As a result Scofield was in and out of foster homes, struggled in school and in holding down a job, and struggled with his Indigenous identity and addiction. He was also always seeking out a perfect relationship while at the same time denying his sexual identity. The one skill he always had was his ability to write (especially poetry), and that is what ultimately saved him.</p><p>This is an important read about the lasting impact of colonialism, racism, homophobia, mental health issues, abuse and addiction. And the strength of the writer in overcoming all of that to be able to tell his story is remarkable.</p><p><u><i>Saving Justice: Truth, Transparency and Trust</i> by James B. Comes</u></p><p>This is a second book by the former FBI director who was fired by Trump. While this book also touches on Trump, and particularly the damage his presidency did to the credibility of the US justice system, there is a lot more to it.</p><p>Come takes us through his career as a prosecutor, in private practice and in the FBI. All of the stories are in the context of the role the justice department needs to play in preserving the integrity of the system and the work that still needs to be done to repair the damage done by Trump.</p><p>I actually preferred this book to his first one - while it was also trying to make a point I found it less preachy and more just anecdote and experience based.</p><p>I ended up using this book for the category "a book by or about someone you would like to meet", because after reading his books, even though I don't agree with all of his views, I think Comey would make fascinating dinner conversation.</p><p><u><i>Our Darkest Night</i> by Jennifer Robson</u></p><p>I used this book for the category "a book published this year". Like her earlier book, <i>The Gown</i>, this was a work of historical fiction. It tells the story of Antonina, a Jewish girl in Venice who hopes to be a doctor like her father. Unfortunately, the Nazis intervene and her father is forced to practice only in secret and she is unable to go to medical school.</p><p>When things get very bad, her father finds someone to hide her - a young Catholic man, Nico, who is willing to pose as her husband and take her back to live with his large family on a rural farm. This is at great personal risk to him - and creates tension with his family as he abandons his dreams of the priesthood for "marriage". The family is not made aware the marriage is a sham.</p><p>The story revolves around Nico and Antonina's growing relationship - which turns real over time. In addition, Nico is involved in further underground activities and both of them pay the price for that when they are captured by the Nazis.</p><p>I don't want to give away what happens to them during the later stages of the war, in case you read this, but I did find some of it a bit too convenient. That being said, I still enjoyed the book.</p><p><u><i>I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer </i>by Michelle McNamara</u></p><p>I read this for the category "a book that was published posthumously". Frankly, if I hadn't wanted to complete the challenge category, I would not have finished the book. McNamara was an amateur investigator who hosted a true crime podcast. She tragically died suddenly while trying to solve the most difficult case of her career. A rapist and killer who plagued California in the 1970s.</p><p>I just found the number of victims and investigators too confusing. And the piecing together of the evidence was tedious in my perspective.</p><p>Maybe I'm just not a true crime fan, but I found this book rather boring - and when it wasn't boring a bit too graphic.</p><p>I wouldn't recommend this unless you're really into true crime stories.</p>Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-82130332791104416662021-02-08T17:48:00.000-05:002021-02-08T17:48:04.943-05:00A New Year - A New Reading Challenge<p> As in the past two years I am challenging myself to complete the Toronto Public Library Reading Challenge, so many of the books that I will review over the next few months fit into one of the categories in the challenge.</p><p><u><i>The Emigrants</i> by W.G. Sebald</u></p><p>I selected this book for the category "a book about someone unlike yourself" as it tells the story of four men who emigrated from Germany in the 20th century. (I figure they're different on many counts - I'm a woman, they're all older than I am and they've all emigrated while I have lived my life in one country).</p><p>To be honest I didn't love this book - I found the stories a bit hard to follow and generally quite depressing. The book is structured as four separate stories - three of the emigrants are Jews who fled to England or Switzerland long before WWII, but are still significantly impacted by the Holocaust and ultimately die by suicide. The fourth story is about the narrator's great uncle who is not Jewish but emigrated to the US around the turn of the century and led and adventurous life there. But he too dies a terrible death.</p><p>The book contains pictures and is written more in the style of a diary or biography - narrated by the author (who is a German emigre to England). So the style is sort of unusual, but I just couldn't get past the depressing content.</p><p><u><i>The Last Days of John Lennon</i> by James Patterson</u></p><p>I used this book for the category of "narrative non-fiction" which is an atypical genre for Patterson who usually writes fiction. Unlike the prior book, I really enjoyed this one. The narrative alternates between Lennon's life story (unlike what the title suggests we really get a full life biography of Lennon) and the story of his killer, Mark David Chapman, in the days leading up to his murder. Probably because Patterson typically writes thrillers, the chapters analyzing Chapman's motives and preparation are particularly well written.</p><p>I can't say Lennon (or Yoko Ono) came across as terribly likeable a lot of the time, but his history, and that of the Beatles, is nonetheless very interesting. While I knew their story on a high level, the detail provided gave me a more complete picture of their fame, their relationships with each other and others and the ultimate breaking up of the band.</p><p>I recommend this book if you have an interest in the Beatles - and maybe even if you don't but just like a well written dramatic tale.</p><p><u><i>Seven</i> by Farzana Doctor</u></p><p>I used this book to satisfy the requirement for "a book with a one word title". I really enjoyed this one - even though at times the content was quite disturbing.</p><p>Sharifa and her husband, Murtaza, are immigrants to the US from India with a seven year old daughter, Zee. They are having trouble in their marriage, particularly sexually and, in an effort to improve things, Sharifa agrees to join Murtaza on a sabbatical in India. Sharifa, who is a teacher, decides that while she is there she will research her great-great grandfather, Abdoolally. While his rags to riches tale and his philanthropy have become family legends, little is known about his four wives, other than the first two that died in childbirth. In particular, there is rumour his third marriage ended in divorce, but nobody knows for certain and, if it did, nobody knows why.</p><p>Sharifa's visit and her research lead her to be involved in the cause of female genital cutting which is prevalent in Sharifa's religious sect, though as a modern American woman she believes it has never touched her. As she learns more about the support the ritual has amongst her Indian relatives she becomes particularly concerned about Zee's wellbeing since she is seven, the exact age at which the cutting is supposed to occur.</p><p>The writing was excellent - I couldn't wait to find out more about Sharifa's ancestors, and her relationships with Murtaza, Zee and her mother, as well as her aunts and cousins in India. While some of the narrative about genital cutting and its long lasting physical and emotional effects on women was disturbing, that only enhanced the story Doctor was trying to tell.</p><p>I definitely recommend this book.</p><p><u><i>The Marrow Thieves </i>by Cherie Dimaline</u></p><p>I read this book for the category "a book of speculative fiction by a BIPOC author" and frankly I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy it because speculative fiction is not usually my thing. But I ended up really enjoying it. It was extremely well written and there was enough "realism" to keep a speculative fiction sceptic happy.</p><p>The book takes place far in the future in a world ravaged by global warming where people have lost the ability to dream. Losing the ability to dream has led to widespread madness. The only people who are still able to dream are North American Indigenous people. The only cure for dreamlessness for others is the marrow of these Indigenous people.</p><p>This leads to an illicit trade for Recruiters in capturing Indigenous young people and extracting their marrow. The story is told from the perspective of Frances Frenchie Dusome, who is a teenaged Metis boy on the run from the recruiters. He joins up with a group of others, men and women, elders and children, and together they try to survive the harsh elements while escaping capture. The fictional account is of course reminiscent of the historical capture of Indigenous children for imprisonment in residential schools - a fate which some of the characters or their parents had suffered.</p><p>The author wove a fascinating story and developed complex, engaging characters. Being a young adult novel, it was also easy to read, but in no way simplistic. A very pleasant surprise.</p><p><u><i>Empire of the Wild</i> by Cherie Dimaline</u></p><p>I enjoyed <i>The Marrow Thieves</i> so thoroughly that I decided to read one of her other books for the category "a book by an Indigenous woman or Two-Spirit Indigenous person". This one is not speculative fiction but does incorporate the traditional Metis story of the Rogarou - a werewolf like creature that haunts Metis communities.</p><p>Joan, who is heartbroken, has spent the last year searching for her husband Victor for a year. He went missing right after they had their first serious argument. One morning she is hungover and finds herself in a Walmart parking lot where she spots a revival tent which Metis people have been attending to hear a charismatic preacher, Eugene Wolff. When she wanders into the tent the service is over but she hears a familiar voice. When she turns around she sees Victor, however, he believes he is Eugene Wolf and he does not seem to recognize her.</p><p>As she digs into this mystery, with the help of an elder, Ajean, and her 12 year old nephew, Zeus, she is constantly obstructed by those surrounding Reverend Wolff who have an interest in him never remembering his past. The novel tells the story of Joan's quest to get her husband back, as well as the sinister underpinning to the revivalists who have enlisted the man she believes to be her husband.</p><p>While sometimes the mythical aspect is a bit hard to follow for someone like me who is uneducated in Indigenous legends, that doesn't detract from the quality of the story. While I preferred <i>The Marrow Thieves</i>, I would recommend this book too.</p><p><u><i>The Only Woman in the Room</i> by Marie Benedict</u></p><p>This book fit into the category as "a book about fame" as it told the story of the making of the actress Hedy Lamarr. In the early 1930s, Lamarr (then Hedy Keisler) was a young stage actress in Vienna when she caught the eye of a powerful arm's dealer, Friedrich Mandl. Lamarr is also Jewish and her father desperately fears the rise of Naziism in Austria. As such, he encourages her to marry Mandl, who at the time was allied with Italy in his desire to keep the Germans out of Austria, hoping he will be able to save Austria, and her family.</p><p>However, after marriage, Mandl turns out to be cruel and controlling - making her stop acting and essentially keeping her prisoner in her own homes (they have many opulent residences). She is required to entertain Mandl's many guests which does give her insight into the developing politics in Austria, and in particular, her husband's change of heart in his attitude to Germany.</p><p>Fearing her husband, and Austria's future, she manages to flee Germany for England, where she takes up acting again and engineers a meeting with Louis Mayer of MGM fame. She negotiates a contract with him and moves to Los Angeles, the only place she feels is safe for Jewish entertainers. In addition to acting she takes a strong interest in inventing, creating a laser system that she tries to sell to the US navy. However, she is severely restricted by her gender and her obligations to MGM.</p><p>From the afterward to this book, it appears that much of it was based on Lamarr's actual history - which means she lived and interesting and admirable life. She was far more than the "pretty face" she was known for in Hollywood.</p><p><u><i>The Weight of Ink</i> by Rachel Kadish</u></p><p>This book was very long (567 pages) and complex, but for me worth the effort. Reading it was almost like figuring out a puzzle.</p><p>The novel brought together two stories in alternating sections. The modern day portion dealt with Helen, an elderly London based history professor with a particular interest in Jewish history who is called by a former student when he finds a collection of Jewish books and papers in his wife's ancestral home. She enlists the assistance of an American doctoral student, Aaron Levy, to visit the house and see what the collection was all about. They discover a large collection of letters which were written on behalf of a blind rabbi in the seventeenth century.</p><p>Careful review of the papers suggests the scribe was female, which would have been highly unusual at the time and that both she and the rabbi were of Portuguese descent having escaped the Inquisition to settle in Amsterdam and then London.</p><p>The other chapters tell us the story of the rabbi and, in particular, his scribe, Esther. As Helen and Aaron piece together the story, we are given the inside track by hearing it directly from Esther. In her words we hear a great deal about the Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam, the efforts to reestablish the Jewish community in London after years of exile, the restrictions put on women at the time, and even the impact of the plague.</p><p>In addition to solving this mystery, we learn about Helen's past and, in particular, why a WASPy woman has such a deep interest in Jewish history. And we learn a bit about Aaron's upbringing, difficulties with relationships and his doctoral thesis and why he is drawn to these papers.</p><p>I don't want to give more than that away because I really recommend you read this one for yourselves.</p><p><u><i>Transcendent Kingdom</i> by Yaa Gyasi</u></p><p>I really enjoyed Gyasi's prior novel, <i>Homegoing</i>, so I had high expectations for this one. Probably too high, because I was disappointed in the end. I fit this book into the category "a book about STEM" because the protagonist, Gifty, is a neuroscientist at Stanford who is studying reward-seeking behaviour in mice brains in an effort to explain addiction and depression. She has personal experience with both as her older brother, who she idolized as a child, was an addict, and her mother suffered (and still suffers) from severe depression.</p><p>While there is a fair bit of time spent on Gifty's present life and research, the vast majority of the book deals with the immigrant experience the US south. Her parents and her brother immigrated from Ghana before she was born. Her mother worked multiple jobs as a personal support worker and her father gets jobs as a janitor but ultimately can't take it and returns to Ghana. Gifty's mother struggles to support her children, but stumbles when her son becomes addicted to Oxytocin following a sports related knee injury.</p><p>While I found the story interesting, and well-written, I thought the scientific research and Gifty's current life could have been fleshed out a bit better. While I liked the book, I didn't love it.</p><p><u><i>Autopsy of a Boring Wife</i> by Marie-Renee Lavoie</u></p><p>This was a funny, easy to read novel translated from French. While I couldn't fit it into any of the reading challenge categories, I'm glad I read it anyway. </p><p>The book opens when 48 year old Diane's husband admits he is having an affair and leaves her "because he is bored". Of course he leaves her for a much younger woman. The book deals with the fallout of this - how Diane copes using her work, her friends, therapy and some disastrous steps into dating.</p><p>This is written almost like a diary and Diane's stories are both funny and touching. It also provides social commentary on the meaning of marriage - and the impact it has on the lives of girls and women.</p><p>I recommend this for a fun, distracting and clever read.</p><p><u><i>The Glass Hotel </i>by Emily St. John</u></p><p>While I enjoyed this book, I didn't think it lived up to its hype. I did find the style engaging - the chapters were told from the perspective of a multitude of characters and I was invested in getting to the end to see how they all fit together.</p><p>The main characters were arguably Vincent, a young woman from a remote island off Vancouver Island who is working at a high class hotel there when she catches the eye of the wealthy hotel owner, Jonathan Alkaitis. They enter into an arrangement whereby she pretends to be his wife - in exchange she is whisked away to the high class world of the super wealthy in New York City. The only problem - Alkaitis is in fact running a Ponzi scheme and living on borrowed time.</p><p>Some chapters are from Vincent's perspectives, others from Alkaitis'. But there are also chapters from the perspective of Vincent's half brother, Paul (in fact the book starts with him and I assumed he'd play a greater role), several of Alkaitis's investors, the night manager at the BC hotel, and some of Alkaitis' employees.</p><p>In addition to following the fallout of the Ponzi scheme, we learn a lot about his past, that of Vincent, Paul and the other characters and deal with the mystery of a couple of people who disappear into the ocean.</p><p>As I said, the book was entertaining, and well written, but not fantastic. </p>Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-73937687114700399532020-12-29T15:53:00.003-05:002020-12-29T15:53:45.966-05:00A couple more books before year end<p> <u><i>In a Holidaze</i> by Christina Lauren</u></p><p>Having read a number of rom coms by this author (which is in fact to co-writers), I knew what to expect - light, fluffy, feel good reading. The truth is I didn't love the premise of this one - Maelyn is a 26 year old woman who spends Christmas at a cabin in Utah with her immediate family and close friends with whom they have spent Christmas for decades. The holiday ends on a terrible note - she kisses Theo though she has always been in love with his older brother Andrew.</p><p>But, on the way home Maelyn's family is struck by a car (or so it would seem) and she wakes up on the plane about to relive the same vacation. She gets sent back to the start twice more (once she falls down stairs and once she is struck by a falling tree branch), before she finally shakes up her behaviour and gets things right with Andrew. As such, it is all a bit weird since she is re-living these days but no one else around her seems to be. So you have to suspend your disbelief even more than usual for a rom com - which I'm not that great at doing (or maybe just don't enjoy doing).</p><p>The underlying romance story was fairly typical and engaging enough, and there were several peripheral characters who were interesting, but the overall premise wasn't for me.</p><p><u><i>The Authenticity Project</i> by Clare Pooley</u></p><p>Unlike the last book, I quite liked the premise of this one. Julian an elderly, previously famous, artist writes in an empty notebook that he finds at Monica's cafe. He entitles it "The Authenticity Project" and in it he ponders how the world would look if everyone actually admitted the truth about themselves - his most compelling story is of his terrible loneliness. He leaves the notebook behind in the cafe hoping it will be found by someone who adds to it. </p><p>The notebook is picked up by Monica, the cafe owner. She does add to it - talking of her desire for lasting love and to be a mother. She also feels for Julian and endeavours to address his loneliness by hiring him to teach weekly art classes at the cafe. Monica leaves the notebook in a bar where it is picked up by Hazard, an addict and financial trader. He leaves his job and decides to sober up - to get away from it all he spends months in a remote part of Thailand. He takes the notebook with him and makes it his project to find a mate for Monica. He settles on an Australian tourist, Riley, who is headed to London. Before tucking the notebook in Riley's luggage he tells the truth of his addiction and his plan to help Monica.</p><p>Riley finds the notebook in his bag while on the plane to England and can't help but try to seek out Monica. So he shows up at her cafe and befriends her, without telling her the truth of how he's found her. Riley joins Julian's art class and spends more time with both him and Monica, and feels very guilty the more time passes without him admitting he did not end up at the cafe by chance. He writes all of this - and his true feelings for Monica in the notebook which he leaves in a playground where it is picked up by Alice. </p><p>Alice is a young mother struggling with her newborn baby and in her marriage. She is also an Instagram influencer who is constantly posting pictures staged to make her life look perfect. She too visits Monica's cafe after reading the notebook and befriends the whole group (which comes to include Hazard when he returns from Thailand).</p><p>While some of the book is humorous and light, and there are definite rom com moments, it also deals quite seriously with addiction, postpartum depression and the debilitating effects of loneliness.</p><p>I quite enjoyed this one.</p>Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-19859838156771434612020-11-24T16:50:00.001-05:002020-11-24T16:50:16.689-05:00Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo<p> This book was the 2019 Booker winner and also came highly recommended. I was skeptical at first, because it took me a while to get into it, but I ended up enjoying it - with some qualifications.</p><p>First, it takes some time to get used to the style. It is written almost as a stream of consciousness - with irregular grammar and punctuation. Once I got into it I found the style actually made it easy to read - almost like following a live conversation. It flowed very naturally.</p><p>There were also a lot of characters - and at first it seemed more like a collection of short stories as it took time for the interrelationships to be revealed. I found it interesting to see how all the women connected to each other, but unfortunately there were so many characters that by the time some of the later ones revealed their connections to an earlier character I couldn't really remember the back story of the earlier character. And remembering the back story would probably have enriched my appreciation of the connections between the characters. I read this in an e-version and it may have helped to read a hard copy as it's always easier to refer back.</p><p>The basic premise of the book is to examine the varying lives of black women, girls (and one non-binary "other") in England. Their ancestry is varied - different African and Caribbean countries - some are first generation, others third or fourth. While men wander in and out of most of the women's lives, for better or for worse, the men are really peripheral characters.</p><p>Each of the chapters develops the life of the one character in its title (and their immediate friends and family). Most of the stories begins in the present and move back into the character's past. Some of the characters are more historical so there is no present day action though they are connected to present day characters.</p><p>Here are some of the key characters - at least the ones I can remember:</p><p>Amma is a lesbian playwright and director who has finally hit the big time with a show at the National Theatre. In some ways I guess you could call her the main character as much of the present day narrative revolves around her opening night and the after-party. Most of the other characters have found their way to the production for one reason or another.</p><p>Her daughter, Yazz is a college student. The second chapter explores her life and the lives of several of her friends. We also learn about her father - a gay friend of her mother's who is now a successful and famous lecturer.</p><p>The third chapter is about Amma's friend Dominique who has emigrated to the US - following another woman into a terrible relationship but surviving that and staying in the US.</p><p>Other characters are Amma's childhood friend, Shirley, who has become a jaded schoolteacher and is derided as boring by Amma's more artsy friends. </p><p>Shirley's former student, Carole, who following a traumatic experience at age 13 is mentored by Shirley, eventually attending Oxford and becoming a successful banker married to a successful white man. Years later Shirley is still resentful that Carole never thanked her.</p><p>Carole's mother, Bummi, a Nigerian immigrant has set up her own cleaning business and gets a job cleaning for Shirley's twice married, vaguely racist colleague, Penelope. However, when we get to Penelope's story we learn her prickliness is covering up from immense hurt in her childhood.</p><p>Morgan is a non-binary social media influencer - and we learn of her childhood where her mother tried to force her into an uncomfortable feminine mold and of her strong relationship with her great-grandmother, Hattie, who accepts her (and her transgendered partner) and welcomes their help on the family farm which she is determined to keep in the family. Hattie's past was also full of childhood trauma, a difficult marriage and several miscarriages and infant deaths.</p><p>One of the chapters entirely based in the past revolves around Hattie's mother Grace, who never knew her Abyssinian father and was haunted by that throughout her life prompting Hattie to attempt to find out about him.</p><p>Despite the reservations I referred to above, the book does a tremendous job of examining the lives of women faced with racial, class and gender discrimination. And whatever the connection between the women, or their differences, what they all show is tremendous strength of character and determination to live the lives that they want to live.</p>Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-17406680810264134902020-11-20T17:03:00.001-05:002020-11-20T17:03:32.675-05:00How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Tammavongsa<p> I almost didn't read this book for two reasons. First, in recent years I have been disappointed in the Giller winner. And, second, it is a collection of short stories and I generally prefer novels. But, I'm very glad I overcame those hesitations and decided to read this one. In my view it is definitely deserving of the Giller.</p><p>The short stories are all about immigrants to Canada from Laos, though they certainly describe a universal immigrant experience. They are told from many perspectives - the school aged girl who is teased because her father gave her the wrong pronunciation of knife; a boxer who must quit the sport and finds a job in his sister's nail salon; a young girl who helps her mother pick worms on a farm; another young girl whose mother is infatuated with Randy Travis; an older woman who has an affair with her much younger neighbour; and a school bus driver whose wife is having an affair with her boss.</p><p>What all of the characters have in common is their striving to survive in a new world - facing obstacles of language, poverty, and underemployment. But none of them give up despite the difficulties - and they are generally very devoted to at least one person in their family. Their resilience made them very likeable characters and the focus on the small details which make up an immigrant's life made for engaging reading.</p><p>I certainly recommend this collection of stories.</p>Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-33540302344474646382020-11-20T15:20:00.001-05:002020-11-20T15:20:12.186-05:00A Family Affair by Nadine Bismuth<p> I quite enjoyed this book. It is by a French Canadian author and is translated from the original French. It is an excellent translation as it is easy to read and the language does not feel forced at all.</p><p>The central character is Magalie, a kitchen designer and mother of a young girl. Magalie discovers her partner, Mathieu, is cheating on her and decides to have an affair, essentially for revenge. She first gets involved with her business partner, Olivier. While they are compatible and there are truly no strings attached it ends when Olivier's wife gets pregnant and Magalie discovers one of their other colleagues knows about them.</p><p>She then gets involved with an even more unlikely man, Guillame, the divorced son of her widowed mother's new boyfriend. Guillame is a police officer who shares custody of his teenaged daughter with his ex. He is taken with Magalie, but has absolutely no idea how to go about getting her attention which leads to some humorous scenes.</p><p>The relationships between Magalie's mother and her boyfriend and Mathieu and his girlfriend are also explored, making the book a rather in depth look at various couples - how they interact with each other and with others around them.</p><p>Overlaying the personal action is a news story about a woman who seemingly vanished from the parking lot of a local shopping mall. This puts all of the women in the book on edge, but Magalie and her colleagues are particularly troubled as their office overlooks the park where the missing woman's boyfriend was apparently playing soccer when she disappeared, thus giving him an alibi.</p><p>As the novel progresses, the mystery of the missing woman is resolved, but Magalie's life seems even messier. Which makes the book very realistic.</p><p>I quite enjoyed this book.</p>Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-69956763023105675462020-11-17T16:21:00.002-05:002020-11-17T16:21:26.042-05:00A Few More Titles<p>After my last post, I promised myself I would not get so far behind on my posting. And, yet again I've left it until I finished a number of books (though not nearly as many this time)!</p><p><u><i>Coming Up for Air</i> by Sarah Leipciger</u></p><p>I picked up this book because the library decided to make it available to whoever wanted to read it with no waiting list. And I'm really glad they did that as I had not otherwise heard of it and I really enjoyed it.</p><p>The novel is a little unusual. It follows three different characters and it took until almost the end for me to figure out how the stories related to one another (and I'm usually quite good at that). Thematically all of the stories had water, swimming and/or drowning as a main component and they were definitely tied together in that way, if not by plot.</p><p>The first character was a young woman in Paris at the end of the nineteenth century. The book opens with her stepping into the Seine and drowning herself. So it is not a spoiler when I tell you that happened. Her story then moves back in time where we learn of her difficult childhood in a small French village, her move to Paris to be a lady's maid, her romantic relationship with another young woman and ultimately the events that led to her taking her life.</p><p>The second character is Amund, a toymaker in Norway in the 1950s. He is also the father of two small children. His connection to water begins at a young age when he spends time fishing at his grandparents' cabin. He returns to this cabin multiple times throughout his life and reconnects with the sea. Amund at times neglects his family in his quest to develop a plastic that will make lifelike dolls.</p><p>The final character is Anouk - she is a Canadian living in the present day and suffering from cystic fibrosis. As a result she is awaiting a lung transplant and is constantly struggling to come up for air. Despite her difficulties she feels most at home in the water - whether the lakes near her Northern Ontario home as a child or Lake Ontario when she moves to Toronto.</p><p>All of the stories move back and forth in time a bit - and then the book moves from character to character - so you really do have to pay attention to keep track of the pieces. But I found it worth it - and while the plot connection was perhaps a bit tenuous, it was real and it was interesting (and in part based on historical facts). The book was well written, particularly all the water related imagery.</p><p>I recommend this book.</p><p><u><i>Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family</i> by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand</u></p><p>I thought it might be interesting to gain some more insight into Harry and Meghan's relationship and their distancing from the Royal family. The authors are journalists who had tremendous access to the royals as part of their jobs - and it does look like they did a lot of research to back up their story. However, in the end I found it a little boring. It didn't really add a lot to what I've read on Twitter. I don't really recommend this unless your a Harry and Meghan die hard who wants to read everything they can about the couple.</p><p><u><i>The Friendship List</i> by Susan Mallery</u></p><p>This was a fun escapist novel. Ellen and Unity are two women in their late 30s who have been best friends since childhood. They are living in their home town and each are in a rut for different reasons. Ellen is the single mother to a son who is headed to college soon. She got pregnant with him as a teenager and has not dated or had sex since. She overhears her son say he won't go away for college because he's afraid to leave her alone since he's all she had. This prompts her to prove to him that she has a life outside of him (which she is now going to have to manufacture).</p><p>Unity is grieving her husband who died in the military three years earlier. She is living in his childhood bedroom and while she is running her own handyman business, she doesn't take any risks personally or professionally.</p><p>So the two women come up with a list of things to do to challenge themselves and each other - like skydiving and getting tattoos and, of course, finding men. So the story deals with their successes and failures in ticking off the things on the list. None of it is very surprising, the plot is predictable, but the characters are engaging and it's a great escape.</p><p><u><i>A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership</i> by James Comey</u></p><p>I was moved to read this book after watching The Comey Affair mini-series. It is very well written and provides interesting insights into the life of the former FBI director who was fired by Donald Trump. I imagine he is a rather happy man since the election results were announced.</p><p>The book does not just deal with his time in the FBI, however. It also talks about his time as a district attorney and prosecutor as well as in private legal practice and as deputy attorney general during the Bush administration.</p><p>Interestingly, while he calls himself a Republican, it would appear he has the greatest respect for Obama of all the Presidents he worked under. One of the other very interesting aspects was his time working in New York and prosecuting Mafia leaders. The comparisons of how they govern to how Trump governs are remarkable.</p><p>The insights he gives into the Hilary Clinton e-mail scandal are also fascinating - he was clearly in a no win situation when faced with that one. I'm still not sure he should have announced he was reopening the investigation - or maybe he should have announced the investigation into Russian interference in the election at the same time - but I have greater respect for the extremely difficult decision he had to make.</p><p>Although some of his "lecturing" about leadership style were of less interest to me, all in all this was a surprisingly easy and engaging read.</p><p><u><i>Troubles in Paradise</i> by Elin Hilderbrand</u></p><p>This is the third book of Hilderbrand's trilogy set on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. I would not recommend reading these books out of order - I don't think they'd make much sense. This one ties up a lot of loose ends for Irene, and her sons Baker and Cash, who on the death of their husband/father, Russ, discovered he had a whole other life on St. John, including a girlfriend and a daughter. The book provides more insight into the business that brought Russ to the island as well as his death.</p><p>We also see more of Irene's relationship with Huck (ironically the step-father of her husband's deceased girlfriend), as well as Baker's with Ayers (who was the girlfriend's best friend) and Cash's with a woman who surprisingly enough had no prior relationship with Russ or his girlfriend.</p><p>At the end of the novel Hilderbrand also brings in a character from her Winter Street series set in Nantucket. It really didn't add much to the plot and seemed more like an update on that family's life to please regular readers.</p><p>I enjoy the escapism Hilderbrand brings to her novels and this trilogy was no different. I especially liked how she didn't leave anything hanging at the end of this one so we know the story has come to an end (I guess, at least for now).</p><p><u><i>His Only Wife</i> by Peace Medie</u></p><p>This was a really interesting novel set in Ghana. Afi is a young girl living in the small town of Ho with her mother and a large extended family following the death of her father. She is learning to be a seamstress and is starting to master those skills. On the death of her father, Afi's uncles were not terribly charitable to her and her mother and they were instead taken under the wing of a local businesswoman, Aunty Ganyo. Aunty Ganyo is not happy with the woman her middle son, Elikem, is involved with and proposes an arranged marriage with Afi. Afi's mother encourages her to proceed with it - and she does. They are married traditionally (not in Church or a courthouse) and, in fact, Eli is married to her in absentia as he is traveling abroad.</p><p>Eli's brothers bring Afi to an apartment in the capital promising Eli will eventually leave the other woman and join his wife. She is happy with the luxurious surroundings and finds a place to learn fashion design, but she longs for her husband to be hers alone.</p><p>Eli seems to come and go on a whim - and he is kind and caring when he is with Afi. She also wants for nothing materially. But she is clearly sharing her husband with the other woman and their daughter - even when she gives birth to his son. Though he seems to actually love Eli, he clearly loves the other woman too. It is his family who do not like her (mostly because they can't control her).</p><p>This is a very interesting story of how men in certain cultures are free to "collect" women and how women can be psychologically damaged by this arrangement, even when there is no physical abuse. It also shows the tremendous influence family can have on behaviour - both how Aunty Ganyo controls Eli and his brothers and how Afi and her mother are under the control of her paternal uncles.</p><p>I really enjoyed this book - it was well written, the characters were interesting and it told important stories without coming across as explicitly moralizing.</p><p><u><i>Resilience is Futile: the Life and Death and Life of Julie S. Lalonde</i> by Julie Lalonde</u></p><p>I had trouble putting this one down. Julie Lalonde is a well know advocate for women's rights. She works for organizations trying to bring awareness about harassment and inequality. She became very well known for taking on the Canadian military after a terrible experience trying to do sexual assault prevention training at the Royal Military College. The title of the book has roots in her graduate thesis which looked at poverty stricken elderly women. One of her research conclusions was that this group is overlooked and underserved precisely because of their resilience - in other words they don't complain so they don't get help of services.</p><p>For ten years - while she is studying and then working and gaining national attention through a multitude of media interviews - she is also hiding that she is a victim of abuse. Her high school boyfriend, who started as a good friend, became very controlling and psychologically, physically and sexually abusive. When she finally left him he stalked her for ten years - her friends who rescued her knew some of the story, as did her family, but nobody knew the extent of his perseverance and her terror. Eventually she raised the issue in therapy and started to gain some insight into her situation, but it was only her stalker's death that brought it to an end.</p><p>This is a fascinating look at the extensive toll abuse can take and how even women who appear to be very successful can be struggling to overcome its consequences.</p><p><br /></p>Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-48700462135109984032020-10-25T18:04:00.001-04:002020-10-25T18:04:07.127-04:00A Series of Brief Reviews<p>I've been busy lately (though never too busy to read), so I haven't had a chance to update my blog in a couple of months. Just to keep things moving, I've decided to post shorter than usual reviews of the books I've read over the this time period.</p><p><u><i>Midnight Train to Prague</i> by Carol Windley</u></p><p>This is yet another Nazi era saga - again not focused on the Jewish angle which seems to be the case with a lot of the World War II books I've read of late. This one was fine, but not great.</p><p>It tells the story of Natalia, a young woman from Berlin. When she is travelling by train from Berlin to Prague she finds out the truth about her father which causes a rift with her mother. She also briefly meets a woman named Magdalena, whose family will reappear later in her life and play a notable role.</p><p>In the aftermath of the troubling train ride Natalia and her mother end up at a spa in Hungary. There she meets a journalist, Miklos and falls in love and marries him. She moves to rural Hungary where she lives on a farm with Miklos and his mother. When war breaks out in Europe she loses touch with Miklos, who she was supposed to meet in Prague, which is now occupied by the Nazis.</p><p>When Miklos doesn't show she sets herself up as a fortune teller. While in business in Prague, Natalia meets Anna, Magdalena's daughter. They become friends before Natalia is accused of spying and sent to a concentration camp. Eventually she is reunited with Anna and, together they must make sense of the past and move on to the future.</p><p><u><i>All Adults Here</i> by Emma Straub</u></p><p>This is a novel of multigenerational family drama - I quite enjoyed the cast of quirky characters. The book begins when the matriarch, Astrid, witnesses an automobile accident which brings back memories of a troubling event from when she was a young mother. The novel explores how Astrid navigates this, as well as her relationship with her now adult children - Elliot, a married father of wild twin boys who sets impossibly high standards for himself in business, and is harbouring a secret that he fears will anger his mother; Porter, her daughter who has become pregnant by choice and is (not so successfully) trying to keep her own secrets; and Nicky, her youngest who now lives a bohemian life in Brooklyn and, when she has trouble at school, sends his daughter Cecilia to live with her grandmother.</p><p>In addition to these characters, the cast also includes Astrid's friend Birdie, who turns out to be more than a friend and Cecilia's transgendered new best friend.</p><p>The interactions between the characters, and the gradual revelation of the secrets they have been keeping, makes for an interesting read.</p><p><u><i>Sex and Vanity</i> by Kevin Kwan</u></p><p>This new novel by the author of the <i>Crazy Rich Asians</i> trilogy is equally mindless and fun. The main character is Lucie - the daughter of an America born Chinese mother and a now deceased blue-blooded New York father. When Lucie travels to a wedding in Capri she meets George, the son of a flamboyant Asian mother. Sparks fly immediately, but Lucie works for years to suppress her feelings for George.</p><p>Several years later Lucie meets George again and still tries to deny her feelings for him - which involves her having to take a series of deceitful steps...but everything is humorous and, of course, there is a happy ending.</p><p><u><i>The Things We Cannot Say</i> by Kelly Rimmer</u></p><p>Okay, yet another Holocaust novel - best to read other things in between all the Holocaust novels or it gets to be too much. But I did enjoy this one - it is another of the type where the chapters alternate between the past and the present.</p><p>In the present, Alice, is struggling to keep her marriage and family on track in the face of her son's severe autism and her perception that her husband does not pull his weight when it comes to their son. To add to her stress, her ailing grandmother begs her to travel to Poland though is incapable of explaining to Alice precisely what she wants her to do. Intrigued, and encouraged by her husband, Alice hires an English speaking guide and makes the trip.</p><p>In the past, Alina is a young girl living in a small town in Poland near what will become Auschwitz. Alina has always known she will marry her childhood best friend Tomasz. Unfortunately, Tomasz is away at medical school in Warsaw when the Nazis invade and Alina loses touch with him. She does, however, stay in touch with his family, including taking in his young sister.</p><p>In the alternating chapters we learn what happens to Alina, Tomasz and their families during the war. And, at the same time Alice learns how these people in Poland relate to her.</p><p><u><i>Friends and Strangers</i> by J. Courtney Sullivan</u></p><p>This is another novel that really revolves around the characters. Sam is a struggling student in a small university town in upstate New York who is looking to make some money to get through college. She accepts a job as a "mother's helper" for Elisabeth. Elisabeth, her husband and their infant son have moved from Brooklyn back to the town in which he was raised in order to raise their family. Elisabeth, a writer, is struggling with small town life and wastes extraordinary amounts of time following social media posts from her old neighbourhood.</p><p>Sam and Elisabeth hit it off immediately and develop a weird sort of friendship/co-dependency. Sam also befriends Elisabeth's elderly father-in-law, who takes up her cause regarding the mistreatment of food services employees at the college. This leads to unexpected and unfortunate results for Sam's relationship with the other employees.</p><p>Sam and Elisabeth also clash over Sam's much older boyfriend, Clive, who Elisabeth feels is untrustworthy.</p><p>The novel is an interesting exploration of the relationship between two women in vastly different circumstances and whether, ultimately, a relationship of this nature is healthy for either of them, and can survive.</p><p><u><i>The Marriage Game</i> by Sara Desai</u></p><p>This is a light, easy to read and entertaining rom-com. Layla is the daughter of first generation immigrants from India. Her parents run a Michelin starred restaurant in San Francisco and, when Layla moves back to San Fran to start her own business, her parents allow her to use an office over the restaurant. However, they forget that they have also leased out this space to Sam, who refuses to break the lease. Sam is also the son of immigrants from India.</p><p>Layla's parents are very traditional and, unbeknownst to her, her father signs her up on a dating site which is meant to lead to arranged marriages. Though Sam also comes from a traditional family, his sister suffered abuse in an arranged marriage so he is very against them. As such he decides to accompany Layla on all of her dates to screen the men. Naturally this leads to some entertaining scenes - and sparks between Layla and Sam (this is a rom com after all).</p><p>While the end is predictable, the twists and turns along the way are fun.</p><p><u><i>My Dark Vanessa</i> by Kate Elizabeth Russell</u></p><p>This book is the opposite of light and fun, but it was a worthwhile read (though troubling - I would not recommend it if you are easily disturbed by descriptions of abusive relationships). This book is intended to be a bit of a modern-day Lolita, a book which figures in the narrative.</p><p>In the year 2000, 15 year old Vanessa becomes embroiled in an affair with her 42 year old English teacher, Jacob Strane. In 2017, in an era of allegations against powerful men, another former student accuses Strane of abuse. This student reaches out to Vanessa for support and she is terribly torn between sharing her story and defending her relationship. She still struggles with admitting the relationship was abusive, though it has ruined every subsequent relationship she has engaged in, and led her to years of therapy.</p><p>The chapters alternate between Vanessa's past and her future so the reader can see for itself the power Strane wields over Vanessa and how she struggles to come to terms with her past. I think this is a really important book for so tastefully exploring such a controversial topic, but it really is difficult to read.</p><p><u><i>The Paper Girl of Paris</i> by Jordyn Taylor</u></p><p>Here we go again with another modern woman digging into her family's wartime past. In this case 16 year old Alice has inherited an apartment in Paris from her grandmother. Neither she nor her father even knew her grandmother had an apartment in Paris and, when they enter it, it is extremely opulent but suggests that it was abandoned in a hurry.</p><p>More importantly, Alice discovers pictures and letters which suggest her grandmother had a sister that no one knew about. So she sets out to figure out what happened - with the help of a cute Parisian boy, Paul, who she meets at a cafe.</p><p>In alternating chapters we go back into the past to see what led to the rift between Alice's grandmother and her sister, and how her grandmother ended up in the US.</p><p>This book is an easy and interesting enough read - could even be considered a YA novel.</p><p><u><i>The Other Einstein</i> by Marie Benedict</u></p><p>This is a kind of interesting novel about Albert Einstein's first wife, Mitza. Mitza was a successful physicist in her own right whose legacy was completely overshadowed by her husband's success.</p><p>Mitza came from a small town in Eastern Europe to study physics at a Zurich University. She was the only woman in a group of six students who included Einstein. Over time Einstein's friendship turns into something more and the pair marries.</p><p>The book definitely does not portray Einstein in a positive light. He is moody and rude, and he steals Mitza's ideas and sells them as his own. I don't know how much of that is rooted in reality, but if it's true he really was not a nice person.</p><p>In addition to the relationship, this is an interesting portrayal of the difficulties faced by talented women (not only Mitza, but her roommates) in an entirely male dominated society. These women were well ahead of their time, and definitely struggled with being forced into more traditional roles.</p><p>Not a great book, but certainly a solid one and worth the read if the subject matter interests you.</p><p><u><i>Saints for All Occasions</i> by J. Courtney Sullivan</u></p><p>This is another Sullivan novel which centres around the danger of keeping secrets - in this case for generations. The novel opens with Nora being awakened by a call telling her that her eldest son Patrick has died in a car crash, most likely caused by his own drunk driving. This leads to a phone call by Nora to her estranged sister, Theresa, who is a cloistered nun.</p><p>In 1957 Nora and Theresa immigrated to Boston from Ireland so that Nora could marry her long-time beau, who had previously immigrated there. In alternating chapters we learn of Nora and Theresa's immigrant experience - especially their lives in a boarding house run by Nora's fiancé's extended family - and Nora's now adult children.</p><p>John, an overachieving political hack, feels responsible for Patrick's death as the car accident followed his revealing troubling information to Patrick about something that happened in his past. Bridget is resentful because her mother does not want to recognize her long term girlfriend. And the youngest, Brian is still living with his mother due to a failed career as a professional baseball player. As the children gather for the funeral, and learn for the first time in their memories, about their aunt the nun, more and more secrets unravel and Nora is forced to face them.</p><p>The book is well written and the characters are both likeable and relatable. Though for the reader it is not that hard to figure out what the secrets are, I recommend this book as in the end it's how the people deal with the secrets that really matters.</p><p><u><i>Commencement</i> by J. Courtney Sullivan</u></p><p>I liked the other novels I read by Sullivan, so decided to pick up this one too. As is her usual style, it is the characters rather than the plot that drives the book. In this case we meet four roommates at an elite girls' college which is intended to be a parody of Smith. Sally, Bree, April and Celia come from very different backgrounds and are forced together by circumstance. But somehow they make it work and their friendship carries beyond their four years at school, though imperfectly. The girls are now women and they are getting together for one of their weddings.</p><p>A bit of a subplot develops in the later chapters when April, the radical in the group, starts working for her idol who is a militant feminist. April gets involved in the fight against human trafficking with suspenseful results. This is a little atypical of Sullivan's work which tends to be less action driven.</p><p>I did enjoy this book as a study in how people from vastly different backgrounds and lifestyles can somehow, and with some work, mesh when they're thrown together.</p><p><u><i>Before I Let You Go</i> by Kelly Rimmer</u></p><p>Lexie and Annie are sisters who were very close as children, but their lives were turned upside down when their father died and their mother dragged them to her childhood home which was essentially a religious cult. Things got even worse when she married Robert, the leader of the cult. Lexie was motivated to study hard in order to escape and has become a successful doctor, engaged to another doctor. Annie, unfortunately, turned to drugs.</p><p>Lexie had cut Annie out of her life due to the troubles caused by her addiction when she gets a call from Annie who desperately needs help. She is pregnant and in trouble. So Lexie and her fiancé race to her squalid trailer and discover she is in grave danger due to her elevated blood pressure. So they get her elite help, but she is also forced into inpatient rehab once the baby is born.</p><p>Lexie must figure out how to help her sister, and the baby, without being so sucked into the drama that her relationship and her job suffer. Interspersed with the narrative are diary entries written by Annie while she's in rehab. In these entries we learn what happened to her after Lexie left their childhood home, and what pushed her toward her addiction.</p><p>A powerful, and at times painful, story of two sisters and the devastating impact of childhood trauma.</p><p><u><i>The Girl with the Louding Voice</i> by Abi Daré</u></p><p>This is a really interesting book coming out of Nigeria. Adunni is a 14 year old girl living in a tiny village who is forced by her father into an arranged marriage with a much older man who already has two wives. Adunni's mother, who is now deceased, had always encouraged her to get her education as having a "louding" voice was the only way to succeed. But Adunni's father is desperate for the money that selling her will bring.</p><p>Adunni is mistreated by her husband and his first wife but taken under the wing of his kindly second wife. So when tragedy strikes the second wife, Adunni escapes to Lagos where she is essentially enslaved by a wealthy couple. But none of this destroys Adunni's spirit - with the help of a kindly cook and a neighbour Adunni betters her English and applies for secondary education.</p><p>In addition to the interesting story this novel offers insight into the subjugation of women and the poor in Nigeria as well as the great gulf between the rich and the poor. Although, by reference to Adunni's boss we see how even wealthy women are not immune to discrimination. Finally, the language of the book is great - it is all written in Adunni's personal style of English and has a musical ring to it. We also see the subtle changes in the language as Adunni's education advances.</p><p><u><i>The Forgotten Home Child </i>by Genevieve Graham</u></p><p>This book deals with a piece of Canadian history which I knew nothing about so it was certainly educational in addition to interesting.</p><p>At 97 years old Winnifred knows she doesn't have much time left. She has already lost her husband and her daughter and many of her other friends. So when her great grandson asks questions about her family tree she decides it is at last time to share the secrets of her past with him and her granddaughter.</p><p>She tells them things she has kept secret for decades despite this breaking a promise she made to her best friend when they were just teenagers.</p><p>Winnifred was brought to Canada from England as a child - she and her group of friends had been street children as their families could not afford to keep them. They went from the streets to orphanages and were then sent to Canada to work on farms. Some of the children were treated like family members, but most were maltreated - overworked and underfed, often beaten or sexually assaulted.</p><p>Through Winnifred's narrative we learn about her childhood on the streets and in the orphanage, her crossing of the Atlantic, her work on a farm and later her marriage and motherhood. We also see the strong bonds she shared with the children she met on the streets as a child and how those carried through her life. Finally, we see the consequences she suffered as a result of the secrets she kept - even though she had the best intentions in keeping them. Finally, we see how what was intended to be a program for the benefit of children actually created great harm in many cases.</p><p><u><i>The Switch</i> by Beth O'Leary</u></p><p>A fun and easy to read comedy about a grandmother and granddaughter who, when stuck in a rut, exchange lives and figure out how they want to live their lives.</p><p><u><i>The Vanishing Half</i> by Brit Bennett</u></p><p>This was a really well-written book about twin sisters who were born in a small town in the southern US. They, like most of the other residents of the town, are light skinned and look down on darker skinned people. At age 16 the girls run away to the big city. They live together for a while, but eventually one passes for white to get a job and marry a white man who knows nothing of her past.</p><p>Ten years later this twin is living in Southern California with her husband and daughter while the other one has returned to her home town with a very dark daughter (after escaping an unhappy marriage). She lives with her mother who is slowly succumbing to dementia.</p><p>The narrative carries on for many years as the twins and their daughters move to different cities. Secrets are also revealed in unexpected ways and we see the consequences of trying to hide your past.</p><p><u><i>The Henna Artist</i> by Alka Joshi</u></p><p>I quite enjoyed this book which is set in Jaipur and Simla, India. In the 1950s, as a 17 year old Lakshmi escapes an abusive marriage and eventually makes her way to Jaipur where she establishes herself as a henna artist for the wealthy women living in the city. Several years later her ex-husband shows up with a younger sister she never knew she had.</p><p>Lakshmi has ambitions, including building a home of her own. To supplement her henna business she is known for her natural potions which prevent or abort unwanted pregnancies. She carefully guards this secret side business from the women she works for, but is in fact often providing these services to their husbands (for their mistresses).</p><p>Lakshmi takes her sister under her wing and, with the help of her wealthy connections, gets her into school. But, her sister brings shame upon her by getting pregnant and refusing to abort so they take advantage of an opportunity in Simla. There she is able to capitalize on her naturopathic skills and her sister is able to return to school.</p><p>I really enjoyed this story about an independent woman succeeding on her own against all odds. There was also a lot of interesting side information about life in post-colonial England.</p><p><u><i>The Jane Austen Society</i> by Natalie Jenner</u></p><p>As a preliminary aside, it was a happy surprise to discover this book by a former colleague of mine who left law to follow different passions which eventually resulted in this interesting novel.</p><p>Just after World War II, an eclectic group of residents in the small village of Chawton band together in an effort to create a Jane Austen museum in a building where she was reputed to have written. The unlikely group are all Austen fans who are very dedicated to preserving her legacy - there is a labourer, a school teacher, a doctor, a lawyer, the suspected heir to the property which they wish to save and a visiting Hollywood movie star (as well as, eventually, an employee of a London auction house who she brings with her).</p><p>The story revolves around the political and familial struggles which ensue in their efforts to develop the museum as well as the romances between the various group members.</p><p>I definitely enjoyed this novel - it was particularly well written and researched.</p><p><u><i>The Flatshare</i> by Beth O'Leary</u></p><p>Another rom-com, but this one has a different premise. Tiffy has broken up with her long time abusive boyfriend and is desperate to find affordable housing in London. So she answers an ad for a flatmate - but this is not your typical arrangement. It is a one bedroom, one bed place, but the current occupant, Leon, only works at night and lives with his girlfriend on the weekends so they are never intending to meet.</p><p>Their relationship develops through the exchange of notes left in the apartment. So they really become friends before they have actually met. When they meet in person the inevitable sparks fly.</p><p>There are interesting side stories about Tiffy's relationship with her abusive ex, Tiffy's job in book marketing and Leon's imprisoned brother.</p><p>A thoroughly fun read.</p><p><i><u>Loathe at First Sight</u></i></p><p>This is another rom-com but it has a more serious angle too. Melody is a public relations graduate who lands a job as a video game producer. Unfortunately the company she works for is run by an insufferable misogynistic CEO and staffed with almost entirely similarly sexist "bros".</p><p>When Tiffy jokingly suggests a new video game to target women - which is based on strippers trying to survive the apocalypse - she is tasked with bringing it to production. But she meets resistance at work from co-workers who are jealous of her and/or think she is in over her head. Even worse, when details of the game are leaked online she is targeted by violent haters who bombard her with online threats and insults to her gender, race and even intelligence.</p><p>Her main support comes from an unlikely place - her intern who also happens to be the CEO's nephew. And, of course, she has to fight her attraction to her employee. There are numerous other interesting characters - Melody's friends Jane and Candace, her Korean parents who only want to see her married, her nemesis at work, Asher, and her supportive co-worker and mentor, Kat.</p><p>The ending is not surprising but the twists and turns along the way are interesting.</p><p><br /></p>Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-31687587778693665102020-08-26T10:42:00.001-04:002020-08-26T10:42:04.084-04:00August Reading (So far...)<p><u><i>Rodham</i> by Curtis Sittenfeld</u></p><p>This is quite a creative book that I really enjoyed. It imagines what Hillary Rodham's life would have been like if she never agreed to marry Bill Clinton. So it starts out based on fact - with Hillary's early life (particularly the cruelty of her father), her undergraduate years, and finally her time at Yale Law School where she meets, and immediately falls under the spell of, Bill Clinton.</p><p>From this point on the narrative becomes part fact, greater part fiction. Hillary is immediately enamoured with Clinton even though she has evidence of his philandering ways early on when they spend a summer together in San Francisco. Despite the reservations of her close friends she follows him to Arkansas and supports his initial runs for office. As in real life, Clinton proposes three times. But unlike in real life, Hillary refuses all three proposals.</p><p>She instead moves back to Illinois and becomes a university professor. Eventually it is her turn to run for public office. I don't want to give up too much as the fun was in the discovery - but the book follows her academic career, her political career, her personal life and her future interactions with Bill Clinton. It also gives us a picture of what his life might have been like without her - and he doesn't come off as terribly sympathetic. There are also a few scenes of what the political landscape may have been like in this alternate reality - including Trump's role - which were very entertaining. </p><p>I thought the end was a little too contrived, but it didn't take away from the experience. I definitely recommend this book.</p><p><u>A Few Books by Mhairi McFarlane</u></p><p>British author Mhairi McFarlane may just have become one of my favourite rom com writers. Her work is intelligent, humorous and predictable in just the right romantic comedy way. All take place in Northern England and/or London, involve the typical mishaps before happy ending and very likeable characters. Not to be mistaken for great literature but a really entertaining, fun and easy read. In particular I read <i>Who's That Girl</i>, <i>Don't You Forget About Me</i>, <i>It's Not Me It's You</i>, and <i>You Had Me At Hello</i>.</p><p><u><i>Grown Ups</i> by Marian Keyes</u></p><p>This is a fairly typical lengthy family drama from the Irish author, Marian Keyes. The novel centres around three adult brothers, Johnny, Ed and Liam, and their respective wives, Jessie, Cara and Nell. The extended family also includes Jessie's young adult children from a prior marriage, Johnny and Jessie's three young daughters, and Ed and Cara's two young sons.</p><p>The first chapter is at a family dinner - Cara has suffered a head injury and it removes her usual filters. She thus spills a host of family secrets to the assembled group. The narrative then steps back in time and builds up to the story which Cara is about to tell - though some of it is not what it initially appears.</p><p>I will leave out the facts of the story so as not to ruin the surprise, though truthfully it is not the facts that matter as much as the family dynamics and, in particular, the impact of keeping secrets on a family.</p><p><u>Four Books based on the Royal Family</u></p><p><i>The Royal We</i> and <i>The Heir Affair</i> by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan</p><p>This pair of books are romantic comedies inspired by Prince William and Catherine - although interestingly it is the older serious brother (and the heir), Nick, who falls for an American exchange student, Bex, at Oxford. Funnily enough the first book was written before Prince Harry met Meghan Markle so is perhaps a bit prescient.</p><p>There are some differences from the actual royal family - the Queen was widowed at a young age; her son (the Prince Charles figure) is still married to his first wife; and it is Nick who struggles with the expectations put on him by his family.</p><p>Other than being based on the royals, these are pretty standard rom coms. There is love, misunderstanding and eventual happy endings. The first book deals with the courtship and up until the wedding (which does not go off without a hitch). The second picks up after the scandals that are revealed at the wedding and continues through pregnancy and eventual childbirth.</p><p>Some of the relationships are quite nice - eventually the Queen and Bex become companions. She also develops a fun relationship with the Queen Mother figure.</p><p>Again these are not great literature but they are quite fun.</p><p><i>The Queen's Secret</i> by Karen Harper</p><p>This was probably my least favourite of this group of four books. I just didn't really enjoy the writing style - I guess I found it a bit simplistic (even compared to rom coms). The title character is Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. The book takes place primarily during World War II and following her husband's ascension to the throne after his brother's abdication. Hitler is reputed to have called Queen Elizabeth the Most Dangerous Woman in Europe.</p><p>And, she seems hell bent on taking advantage of that power. The book paints her as the driving force behind the monarchy - not only directing her husband's decisions, but having a personal relationship with, and strong influence over, Winston Churchill. While she uses this power in part appropriately, to defend England during the war, she uses it in part to cover up personal secrets which she thinks will threaten her marriage and her position. In particular, she works tirelessly to keep the former King Edward and his wife Wallis Simpson away from the country. They know a few things about her past that she wants desperately to remain hidden.</p><p>By the end the reader has learned all of her secrets - but it didn't really make me like her or sympathize with her anymore although I suppose I was expected to. I wouldn't really bother with this one.</p><p><i>The Woman Before Wallis</i> by Bryn Turnbull</p><p>By contrast, I would highly recommend this book. It takes place earlier in time than the prior book and is far more based in historical fact.</p><p>Before taking up with Wallis Simpson, Edward, the Prince of Wales had an affair with another divorced American, Thelma Morgan. After a disastrous first marriage, Thelma marries into the British Aristocracy - Lord Furness. He is a widower with two teenaged children. Thelma is much younger than him and together they also have a son. While her second husband is not abusive like her first one, he does have a string of extra-marital affairs and is unapologetic and public about them.</p><p>This leaves Thelma vulnerable to the attentions of the Prince of Wales. She begins a very public affair with him (meeting other members of the royal family, though not his parents). Eventually she separates from her husband to give her more freedom to be with the Prince. Although she loves him, and he even proposes, she does not seem to live under the illusion that they actually have a future together.</p><p>In alternating sections (which jump back and forth in time) the book deals with Thelma's twin sister, Gloria Vanderbilt and her bitter custody battle for her daughter, "Little Gloria". Gloria was married to an heir to the Vanderbilt fortune who died quite young. His remaining family consider Gloria an unfit mother due to several scandals (including some relating to members of the extended royal family) and fight her for custody. Thelma supports her sister at all costs - including eventually her relationship with the Prince. Ironically, when she returns to the US to attend the custody hearing she asks her friend Wallis Simpson to look after the Prince for her - and that she did.</p><p>I found this story very compelling - and the main storylines are fact based and were something I knew nothing about prior to reading the book. Both the story of the royal relationship and of the American royalty (the Vanderbilts) are very interesting. And the book is well written and easy to read.</p><p><u><i>The Pull of the Stars</i> by Emma Donoghue</u></p><p>This is another author who is somewhat prescient as she wrote this book before the outbreak of COVID-19 and rushed it to print when the current pandemic hit.</p><p>The entire narrative takes place over three days in a Dublin hospital during the 1918 flu pandemic. The story is told from the perspective of a junior nurse, Julia, who is left in charge of a maternity ward for pregnant women who have the flu. The hospital is severely understaffed and short on supplies so she has to be as innovative as possible in dealing with her patients. The only help she has is from a teenaged volunteer, Birdie, who makes up for lack of knowledge with her enthusiasm. She also gets periodic support from a female doctor, Dr. Lynn who also happens to be an Irish separatist on the run from the police.</p><p>The story gives great detail about the patients' struggles - both with the flu and their pregnancies. And we of course see how Julia struggles with her responsibility at work and to her brother who has returned from the War and due to psychological trauma no longer speaks. We also learn a lot about Birdie's past - she was an orphan who grew up in a Catholic home for orphans where she was neglected and perhaps abused. We also see the influence of the Catholic church in its treatment of unwed mothers on the ward.</p><p>I quite enjoyed this book - though it is obviously not uplifting. I worried a bit that I would find it too much to read it during our own pandemic but because it takes place in the maternity ward it was sufficiently distanced from my current circumstances to make it bearable.</p><p><u><i>The Book of Lost Names</i> by Kristin Harmel</u></p><p>I wasn't sure I felt like reading yet another Holocaust book when I picked this one up, but I ended up enjoying it. The narrative starts in current day Florida when Eva, a semi-retired librarian, reads a newspaper article about a German library trying to find the owner of a book. Eva recognizes it as <i>The Book of Lost Names</i> which she hasn't seen since leaving Europe in the 1940s. She decides immediately that she must go to Germany to claim the book - much to the confusion of her son who knows nothing of her past.</p><p>In alternating chapters we learn about this past. When in her early 20s Eva is forced to flee her home in Paris with her mother after her father is round up by the French police, working for the Nazis, for being Jewish. On the advice of a former boss of her father they take refuge in a small mountain town in the French Free Zone. There Eva becomes involved with the underground - working as a forger in the local church. She is supported by the priest as well as several women in the town who are involved in smuggling Jews and others, such as downed pilots, into Switzerland. Her strongest supporter is Remy, a Catholic forger who is also connected with the underground. Eva decides she must preserve the original identity of all the children who are smuggled out under false names so that they can find their true identities when they return. So using a code devised by Remy based on the Fibonacci sequence, they hide these identities within the text of an ancient religious book thus creating the book of lost names.</p><p>The members of the underground are eventually betrayed and we learn of their various fates throughout the end of the war. Eva survives - not a secret since we know that from the start - but we also learn how she survived, who else survived, how the book of lost names came to be in Germany, and how Eva eventually ended up in Florida with a son who knew nothing of her past.</p><p>I really enjoyed this book - I thought the characters, both good and bad, were believable and well developed and that the story was not completely predictable as is often the case with Holocaust fiction. I recommend this one.</p><p><u><i>Daughters of Smoke and Fire</i> by Ava Homa</u></p><p>This is a fascinating book written in English by a Kurdish woman. It tells the story of a Kurdish girl, Leila, who grew up in Iran. Her father is a drunk who is dealing with demons after having witnessed the slaughter of most of his extended family when he was a child. Her mother is distant, away from home a lot and critical of Leila when she is at home. However, Leila is extremely close with her younger brother Chia.</p><p>When they grow up Leila is unable to get into university despite several attempts so follows her brother to Tehran when he gets into university there. Chia becomes involved in anti-government activities and is eventually imprisoned for them. Leila fights tirelessly to get him freed, and when she publishes some of his writings she is also in danger.</p><p>Leila is forced to flee Tehran and is given the opportunity to leave Iran, but must decide whether she can trust the man she feels was partly responsible for Chia ending up in prison. Eventually she realizes she has no choice and accepts his assistance to go to Canada.</p><p>I thought the descriptions of life in Iran - particularly for a woman and the Kurdish minority were fascinating. They shed light on terrible atrocities as well as the subjugation of various people. I thought the book lost a bit of steam when Leila moved to Toronto and the pages there read a bit more like a tourist's guide to visiting the major sites in Toronto. This may just be because the author is new at her craft.</p><p>Despite the somewhat weaker ending, I do recommend this book.</p><p><u><i>The Answer Is...</i> by Alex Trebek</u></p><p>This is a long-awaited autobiography by Alex Trebek. He claims in the introduction that he has always turned down requests to write his autobiography as he did not feel his life was that interesting. However, faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis he decided he would write about his life.</p><p>This is really more a series of vignettes than an actual book. I found some more interesting that others - I particularly enjoyed the stories about the better known Jeopardy contestants like Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer (he clearly likes Jennings; his feelings about Holzhauer are less clear which is telling). I also liked some of his insights into the game itself and changes made over the years.</p><p>Otherwise, he is right, he lived a pretty ordinary life so there was not a lot to the personal stories. Worth reading, but maybe picking and choosing the stories. It's certainly not necessary to read chronologically or even in full. Though the whole book did only take me a couple of hours.</p>Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-70597953885004973572020-07-31T14:06:00.001-04:002020-07-31T14:06:25.659-04:00My July Reading ProjectsIt has been a busy month for reading - nothing like reading outside in the summer! Here's what I've covered.<div><br /></div><div><u><i>Daughter of the Reich</i> by Louise Fein</u></div><div><u><br /></u></div><div>This is a somewhat predictable Holocaust book, but it was decently written and easy to read. The story centres on Hetty, a young girl growing up in Leipzig under Nazi rule. Her father is a relatively high ranking local SS officer and the family is very loyal to Hitler. At the start of the book Hetty worships a photo of Hitler that hangs in her bedroom and can't wait to join the Nazi youth group for girls. Hetty's older brother joins the Luftwaffe and her mother does everything to satisfy her husband - though French by birth she readily adopts Nazi German ideology.</div><div><br /></div><div>The problems start for Hetty when she re-encounters Walter. He was her brother's best friend in childhood and had, in fact, saved her from drowning when she was very young. She has always admired Walter and now her feelings, and his, become deeper. The problem is that Walter is Jewish. He was thus dumped by Hetty's brother and her parents have forbidden her from seeing him.</div><div><br /></div><div>Much of the book centres on how Hetty's thinking evolves as she starts to see the world through Walter's eyes. She suddenly can't see the differences between Jews and Aryans. Her continued relationship with him makes her very wary of trusting anyone - her family, the staff in their household, friends from school, and neighbours.</div><div><br /></div><div>As she starts to change her views, she struggles to save Walter and his family from their inevitable fate - and to protect herself in the meantime.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the epilogue to the book we find out how everyone fared following the war. I won't give it away here...</div><div><br /></div><div><u><i>Girls of Summer</i> by Nancy Thayer</u></div><div><u><br /></u></div><div>This is a typical summer release for Thayer - a Nantucket based romance novel. I personally love to escape into this kind of book in the summer, but if you're the type who needs a more serious read, this is not the book for you.</div><div><br /></div><div>Lisa Hudson is a divorced woman in her 50s who has been getting by raising her two children who are now adults living off island. So no one is more surprised than she is when she falls for a Mack, a contractor who she hired to work on her house, who is 10 years younger than her. She is even more surprised that he's interested in her.</div><div><br /></div><div>Their relationship is complicated when Lisa's daughter returns from Cambridge, having been dumped by her boyfriend, and her son, who is a bit aimless returns to the island from his surfing bum life in LA when he gets injured. And, of course, he reconnects with the girl he longed for in high school - none other than Mack's daughter.</div><div><br /></div><div>When Lisa's daughter connects with a man who has come to the island to launch an environmental campaign, there's love in the works for the whole family.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's predictable, easy reading and, for me, lots of fun.</div><div><br /></div><div><u><i>Party of Two</i> by Jasmine Guillory</u></div><div><u><br /></u></div><div>Guillory has become a recent favourite of mine for rom-coms and this book didn't disappoint. As an aside, I like how all the characters in her books are loosely related even though they are all definitely standalone books rather than a series.</div><div><br /></div><div>In this book, Olivia Monroe has just moved to LA from New York to start her own law firm with a friend (after burning out in the big firm environment and wanting to be her own boss). Her personal life is far from top of mind when she meets Max in a hotel bar. She's drawn to him despite herself and they spend the whole night flirting before going their separate ways.</div><div><br /></div><div>Alone in her hotel room, Olivia discovers Max is none other than Maxwell Powell, California's hot shot junior senator. So she thinks that's the end of that given his reputation as one of the country's most eligible bachelors.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some time later she goes to a fund-raising event and Max is the keynote speaker. To her surprise he remembers her and seems happy to see her. For his part he is thrilled to have encountered her again as he had no way of tracking her down after their first encounter. So he sends her cakes which they had discussed...</div><div><br /></div><div>Despite Olivia's hesitation they begin a relationship which is at first kept undercover. Eventually they decide to go public and of course the expected complications arise. They work through them and everything ends well as it should in a good rom com!</div><div><br /></div><div><u><i>Five Little Indians</i> by Michelle Good</u></div><div><u><br /></u></div><div>After all the fluff I'd been reading (see above), this book was a real change. And it was a very positive change at that! I loved this book - and it was so eye-opening I think it should be required reading for all Canadians.</div><div><br /></div><div>The book examines the lives of Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie. All of them were snatched from their families as young children and held prisoner in residential schools until they turned 16 when they were let loose with little more than a bus token (or in a couple of cases managed to escape). All of the children (and their peers) suffered tremendous emotional, physical and sexual abuse at the hands of the priests and nuns in the residential school. They were also denied any ongoing relationships with their families and thus really had very few memories of how a functioning family relationship should work.</div><div><br /></div><div>All of the kids end up in Vancouver's East Side - struggling to make ends meet and with addiction and mental health issues. For some of them, it is the return to their Indigenous culture which brings about stability and, frankly, sanity.</div><div><br /></div><div>The book alternates telling the story from the perspective of each of the characters. Sometimes there is a bit of back and forth in time as we learn what happened from a new character's perspective. But, the story is still very easy to follow - and gripping. While not graphic per se, the descriptions of what happened in the residential school are extremely disturbing as is the impact of the school on the kids' entire future.</div><div><br /></div><div>I strongly recommend this book for greater insight into this ugly piece of Canada's past - and to get a glimpse of the strength of the survivors.</div><div><br /></div><div><u><i>One to Watch</i> by Kate Stayman-London</u></div><div><u><br /></u></div><div>This book had a kind of interesting premise - Bea is a plus-size fashion blogger who is making quite a name for herself. She gets a lot of exposure when she writes a negative post about the lack of diversity on a Bachelor like show called the Main Squeeze. </div><div><br /></div><div>Following the post she is approached by the new producer of the show to be the star. She is promised the men will be diverse and, even if she has no intention of falling in love, it will be great for her brand. So she agrees.</div><div><br /></div><div>When she first meets the men she is unimpressed with their "diversity" - while they are of varying races, only one is slightly overweight and the others are all like fantasy men in Bea's mind.</div><div><br /></div><div>So we are taken through her good times and bad, her humiliation and empowerment, dates in magical places and in her home town and those of several of the men. And we see whether Bea is able to find love or stick by her plan to avoid it at all costs. What I liked about the book is that it was not predictable (or maybe in the end it was, but along the way I was never sure which way it would go).</div><div><br /></div><div>Again this is a fun and easy read.</div><div><br /></div><div><u><i>I Almost Forgot About You</i> by Terry McMillan</u></div><div><u><br /></u></div><div>This was also kind of a fun one. Georgia Young is a twice divorced optometrist in her mid-50's, mother of two and grandmother of two (and counting). She feels stuck in her life - she has not had a relationship in years, she's bored with her job and she's tired of her big house.</div><div><br /></div><div>When a patient comes in, who happens to be the daughter of one of her old flames, she discovers he has died. She regrets that she never told him how she felt about him - so resolves to find all of her past loves even if it's just to tell them what they meant to her. She also decides to sell her house and quit her job...</div><div><br /></div><div>I sometimes got a bit lost with all the men she was tracking down, but otherwise the book worked well. There were some quirky characters, including Georgia's 80 something mother who is remarrying, her best friends and even her twin granddaughters. </div><div><br /></div><div>As she moves through all her old flames, and even meets a couple of new men, we find ourselves rooting for her - to either find love or decide she's happy enough without it.</div><div><br /></div><div>While I enjoyed this book, I wouldn't say it was the best of the rom-coms I've read this month.</div><div><br /></div><div><u><i>Beach Read</i> by Emily Henry</u></div><div><u><br /></u></div><div>Since I am such a huge fan of "beach reads" I obviously couldn't resist a book by this name. And while it was a rom-com in a way, it was far less conventional.</div><div><br /></div><div>January Andrews is a successful romance writer who is having trouble writing her next book as she's lost her faith in love. Her father recently died and at the funeral she discovered her father had been having a year's long affair and her mother knew about it. She finds out when the other woman shows up with a key to a beach house January didn't know he had, and a letter from her father. Her mother refuses to talk about it.</div><div><br /></div><div>January had always thought her parents had the ideal relationship - they were always dancing and holding hands. If that wasn't true, she no longer believes in happily ever after so how can she write about it. Desperate for money, and needing to meet a deadline, she moves to the beach house and tries to sell everything in it (without looking at the master bedroom yet) and to get writing.</div><div><br /></div><div>She quickly discovers her neighbour is Gus Everett - a writer she knew in college who writes literary fiction. She still feels the sting about remarks he made about her writing in college and is not thrilled to see him there. But it turns out he is also struggling to write - so they make a bet. They will each try to write a book in the other's genre - the first to get published wins. And they will spend Fridays learning how to research literary fiction and Saturdays training in romance writing.</div><div><br /></div><div>But this wouldn't be a beach read if the true story wasn't about the developing relationship between January and Gus - and the predictable bumps in the road. After all that's what readers of beach reads expect.</div><div><br /></div><div>Again, I liked this book - it was well written and engaging - but it wasn't my favourite. In some ways I think it just tried too hard to justify being a beach read.</div>Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-64892590994605753642020-07-07T15:08:00.001-04:002020-07-07T15:08:55.268-04:00A Few More Books...and finished the library reading challenge<u><i>28 Summers</i> by Elin Hilderbrand</u><br />
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So finally got to my annual summer Elin Hilderbrand new release - and it was definitely a good one. Modelled on the movie, <i>Same Time Next Year</i>, the novel tells the story of the 28 Labour Day weekends that Mallory Blessing and Jake McCloud spend together.<br />
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They first meet when Mallory inherits a house on Nantucket from her aunt, a lesbian who was rejected by the rest of Mallory's family when she came out. Mallory hosts her brother's bachelor party on the island and Jake, his college friend is in attendance. For a variety of reasons they are left alone for most of the weekend and develop a strong bond. Though Jake returns to his life, and his girlfriend Ursula, who becomes his wife, he promises to return every year no matter what. And despite near misses, he does.<br />
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In between visits Mallory becomes a teacher at a local school, develops close friendships and has the odd relationship but never anything permanent. She also has a son - since his father is a bit of a surprise, I won't give that away. The novel starts in the last summer when her son is asked by Mallory, who is on her deathbed, to call a number in a drawer. When he does, to his surprise, Jake answers. By this time Jake's wife is running for President and Mallory's son had no idea his mother knew him.<br />
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While Mallory and Jake are obviously deceitful, they come across as good people who have this one flaw - and you really wish they could have just ended up together (at least I did). While we get the details of many of the summer visits, some of the chapters deal only with what is going on in Mallory or Jake's lives during the rest of the year. That way we get a more clear picture of who they are. We also see that they stick by their vow only to contact each other at another time in the event of marriage, pregnancy or death.<br />
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I like how Hilderbrand started each chapter with references to what was going on in the year of the chapter - everything from politics, to music, TV and movies. It was particularly poignant how 2001 only dealt with 9/11 since that was such an overarching story in that year.<br />
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All in all a great book, though quite a sad ending.<br />
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<u><i>The Splendid and the Vile</i> by Erik Larson</u><br />
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While a historical book, it reads like an adventure or thriller which makes it easy to read despite its length. The book covers two of Churchill's years as the British Prime Minister, 1940 and 1941. The years are crucial as it is then that the UK is under air attack by Germany (particularly what became known as the London Blitz) and feels the threat of a land invasion.<br />
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The amount of research Larson did is immense. In the foreword he states that every work in quotation marks came from someone's diary; while every facial or body language reaction was recorded by someone at the time. And through these sources he paints a detailed picture of the Blitz, Churchill's family and political life, Churchill's decision making process, including his approaches to President Roosevelt, and even Nazi strategy.<br />
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I found this highly educational - while I knew about the Blitz in a fairly general sense, I had no idea of the details. Larsen filled in the blanks with times, places and extent of the damage. It also taught me about many larger aspects of the war that I had never considered (e.g. a lengthy section about what happened to France's naval ships that were at sea when Germany successfully invaded).<br />
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Personally I enjoyed the details about Churchill's family life, as well (most gleaned from diaries maintained by his youngest daughter, Mary). I felt it humanized the book.<br />
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While this is a long book, I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in this era in history. As I said, because of the way it is written, it reads more like a thriller than a dry history book. I found myself anxious to know what happened next (even though, of course, none of it is truly a surprise).<br />
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<u><i>Little Women</i> by Louisa May Alcott</u><br />
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Since this book is probably universally known, at least amongst English language readers, I won't spend that much time on it. I chose it for the last category in the library reading challenge - a book that is older than you are. Having seen the latest movie last winter, and come across a 150th Anniversary Edition while browsing a New York City book store, I decided to reread it. It was, of course, at least 40 years since I last read it.<br />
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Looking at it in today's light, it is hard to imagine that this was intended for children (or even young adults). The language is just so dense - though the subject matter is appropriate. It is also so blatantly moralizing that I'm not sure how young adults of the day could stand all the messages being hammered into their heads.<br />
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That being said, it's a classic, and everyone should probably read a classic now and then. This edition also contained very helpful brief essays at the end putting several themes into context (e.g., women as writers, religion, poverty, the Civil War). Remembering the context makes it easier to digest the blatant sexism.<br />
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<u><i>The Lies that Bind</i> by Emily Giffin</u><br />
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I quite enjoyed this latest novel by Giffin. I don't want to give a way too much (the lies in the title are best unravelled as you read), but I will give a brief review.<br />
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In the spring of 2001, Cecily, a woman in her late 20s, cannot sleep because she is reeling from a recent break up. So she gets up and goes into a local dive bar for a drink. When she is about to dial her ex, Gavin sneaks up behind her and tells her not to do it - somehow surmising her intent. She complies and they spend the night together (as friends) - and develop both a deep emotional attachment and physical attraction.<br />
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Over the course of the summer their relationship grows, despite Gavin travelling to London with his ill brother. He returns on September 10, 2001 and spends a few blissful hours with Cecily before leaving her while she's still asleep. And then the worst happens - after the planes fly into the twin towers Cecily cannot locate Gavin.<br />
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After several days of searching she sees a missing person poster with his face on it. She calls the number on the poster - and this leads her both to continue her search for Gavin and to question how well she actually knew him. Multiple layers of secrets are revealed (some hers and some Gavin's) by the end.<br />
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As an aside, one of my favourite characters was Cecily's gay best childhood friend. He was warm, funny, supportive and the kind of friend everyone should have.Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-59430043256052752662020-06-23T16:30:00.000-04:002020-06-23T16:31:15.820-04:00The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne CollinsI partly turned to this book to fulfil my reading challenge category of a dystopian or utopian book and partly because I have read all of the Hunger Games books so was curious about the prequel.<div><br /></div><div>I must say I did enjoy this book though I didn't love it - while Collins' writing is very strong and approachable, I think I preferred the other books in the series. My biggest disappointment was the ending - it was almost as if when the author got to the last 20 pages or so she felt pressured to rush to the end. Everything just seemed to take a turn way too quickly - though ultimately the turn they took was not a surprise to readers of the whole series.</div><div><br /></div><div>This book goes back 64 years from the original Hunger Games books to examine the early life of Coriolanus Snow, who was the villain in Katniss Everdeen's world. Snow's illustrious family, which now consists of only his grandmother and his cousin, has fallen on hard times as a result of the war with the districts. Snow is obsessed with regaining their former wealth and grandeur and hopes to do so by being a mentor to a tribute in the annual hunger games.</div><div><br /></div><div>He is somewhat disappointed when he is paired with a long shot - the girl tribute from District 12, Lucy Gray. However, her sense of style wins him over and the two must work together to give her a chance to survive. Snow does everything possible to make it happen which captures the attention of the extremely weird head games master, Dr. Gaul. She eventually figures prominently in his future.</div><div><br /></div><div>Snow's competitive personality is contrasted with that of his classmate, Sejanus Plinth, who is empathetic and horrified by the hunger games events.</div><div><br /></div><div>I don't want to give away the main plot which of course centres around what happens in the Hunger Games arena. Suffice it to say there is action, mayhem, murder, blood and gore and ultimately a winner. The outcome for Snow is not necessarily what he expected either. </div><div><br /></div><div>The book does provide a vivid picture of the implications of abuse of power and control, particularly on how it can mold young minds.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you liked the rest of the series it's worth trying this one.</div>Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-10558496965730320732020-06-23T16:17:00.001-04:002020-06-23T16:17:18.811-04:00Big Summer by Jennifer WeinerI always eagerly anticipate my annual Jennifer Weiner fix, and while I didn't like this as much as last year's <i>Mrs. Everything</i> which I thought was probably her best, this was still a really enjoyable read. It was part romance, part mystery and all round easy entertainment. I finished it in the course of a day.<br />
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The novel is narrated by Daphne who is a plus-size Instagram influencer and part time babysitter. For middle and high school Daphne attended a prestigious private school on scholarship because her father was a teacher. There she befriends Drue - a beautiful but very mean rich girl. Although Drue constantly takes advantage of her, Daphne can't resist the allure of being in her circle and is constantly drawn back in despite the warnings of one of their mutual friends (who is now Daphne's roommate).<br />
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This toxic relationship lasts until Daphne's sophomore year at college when she and Drue fight in dramatic style. The altercation is filmed and launches Daphne's influencer career - she also decides to make peace with her body weight which gives her a huge boost in confidence.<br />
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Six years later Drue walks back into Daphne's life and asks her to be her maid of honour at her high profile society wedding. Again going against her roommates advice, Daphne is sucked in and agrees. She feels she now has the confidence to protect herself from being used. She also makes it into an opportunity by agreeing to wear clothes designed by an online designer and to post about her experiences at the wedding.<br />
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The night before the wedding everyone heads to rented mansions in Cape Cod for the festivities. There Daphne meets a mystery man, Nick, who she fears is too good to be true. Even more surprising events take place - which I won't give away.<br />
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The remainder of the books surrounds Daphne's efforts to solve the mystery of the various happenings in Cape Cod. It then turns into more of a mystery/adventure story and the romance moves to the back burner though does not disappear. I would say my biggest criticism is that I couldn't quite believe how Daphne made the leaps in logic necessary to solve the mystery. Although, admittedly because I read the book quickly, maybe I missed some of the connections. Despite that, I really enjoyed the story.<br />
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I also want to point out a couple of side stories which I really enjoyed. Daphne's relationship with her parents, especially her father, was enviable. I loved how they supported her unconditionally and particularly enjoyed her weekly restaurant adventures with her father. I also liked how Weiner wove in Daphne's experiences when she was child and her grandmother spent the summer with her and put her on a forced diet. It was a great illustration of the lasting impact of early body image criticism.<br />
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For me this is a must read - but I again caveat that with the fact that I love anything Weiner writes.Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-65953253231970849782020-06-16T15:41:00.000-04:002020-06-16T15:41:06.493-04:00Another Two Months in Quarantine - Lots of Books!Because I have had so much time to read, I've actually read a ton of books, but haven't made the time to write about them. Just so I can keep on top of this, I wanted to post, but you might find my reviews are a little shorter than usual.<br />
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<u><i>Celestial Bodies</i> by Jukhah Harithi</u><br />
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This was a very interesting book by an Omani author (in fact the first female Omani author to be translated into English). It looks at the lives of three sisters who have grown up in a traditional family that gets caught up in a wave of modernization that hits to country. In fact, the older generations of the family were slave owners (and slaves) while the younger ones strain against the rules imposed by religion and tradition, especially when it comes to accepting arranged marriages.<br />
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The narrative jumps around in time and place and, at times, is a bit hard to follow. The family tree at the beginning of the book was an essential reference - I had to look back at it constantly. The matriarch of the family is Salima, who survived a difficult childhood and now clings to the wealth and stability she's earned. Her husband, Azzan, is more of a dreamer and drawn to the moon goddess (it's frankly a bit unclear if he's actually having an affair or merely spends time in nature away from his family).<br />
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The family's three surviving daughters are Mayya, who accepts an arranged marriage to Abdallah (who truly seems to love his wife, though she doesn't necessarily see it). The narrative also explores their three children - London, a modern woman who is fiercely independent though not untouched by men who want to keep her in her place; Salim, an irresponsible young man; and Muhammed who has special needs.<br />
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The second daughter of Salima and Azzan is Asma who is obsessed with books, but ultimately accepts an arranged marriage too. Finally, there is Khawla, the youngest and most beautiful. She promised to marry a cousin when she was very young but he emigrated to North America. She patiently waits for him to return - which he eventually does, but the reunion is not exactly what she expected.<br />
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The other characters in the book are slaves such as Zarifa - while not officially a member of the family she has been intricately involved in the family's history.<br />
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The narrative weaves together the lives of the characters to give us a very vivid picture of an old village being dragged into modern times. But the drama is not all political - there is murder and intrigue in the family's personal history too.<br />
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The book takes time and attention, but is a worthwhile read.<br />
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<u><i>The Shape of Family </i>by Shilpi Somaya Gowda</u><br />
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This was a really interesting read about family, and how everything can fall apart in an instant when tragedy strikes. The Olanders appear to be an ideal, global family living in suburban California. Jaya is the highly cultured daughter of an Indian diplomat who has lived all over the world. Keith is an ambitious banker, but came from humble beginnings in working class Philadelphia. They meet while Keith is on a business trip in London, fall in love, marry and move to the US. There they have two seemingly perfect children - Karina, now a teenager and Prem, the baby, now 8 years old, and doted upon by his parents and sister.<br />
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When tragedy strikes, the family begins to fall apart and we see how each of the family members moves in their separate ways. The chapters are narrated by each of the family members in turn and cover about a decade. Pref's chapters are merely observations of the rest of the family, but we see how Karina first thrives at university then falls in with the wrong crowd, Keith takes a chance on his job that doesn't go his way, and Jaya turns to a religious guru for guidance.<br />
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I don't want to give much more of the plot away as there are some surprising turns. But I recommend this one if you like books about family dynamics.<br />
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<u><i>Last Stop Auschwitz: My Story of Survival from within the Camp</i> by Eddy de Wind</u><br />
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This is a true account by a survivor of Auschwitz and is as heavy as it sounds. Eddy de Wind was a doctor who worked at the Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands. His mother had been taken to this camp by the Nazis, but Eddy was assured by the Jewish Council that she would be freed in return for his labour at the camp. He later found out that she had already been deported to Auschwitz.<br />
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While working at the camp, Eddy falls in love with and marries Friedel. About a year later they are both deported to Auschwitz. Upon arrival they were immediately separated though, among the luckier ones since they were not immediately exterminated. Eddy was forced to work as a medical assistant in one barrack while Friedel became a subject of Nazi medical experimentation in another barrack.<br />
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This diary was actually written by Eddy while at the camp - in the weeks leading up to the liberation by the Red Army. He gives detailed accounts of his work, the maltreatment of prisoners, his continuous efforts to communicate with Friedel and his hope that they (and their love) will survive. He also gives an account of what happened upon liberation.<br />
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While none of the content is particularly surprising to those who know anything about Auschwitz, it is nonetheless interesting to read a first hand account.<br />
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<u><i>Gods of Jade and Shadow </i>by Silvia Moreno-Garcia</u><br />
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This is not at all the type of book I would normally pick up, but I needed to read something for the library reading challenge that was based on a fairy tale, myth or legend. This one caught my eye while browsing in a New York City bookstore (when that was still an acceptable activity...). This is based upon Mexican folklore.<br />
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Here, Casiopea Tun and her mother are treated horribly by their more wealthy relations who never approved of Casiopea's father. Casiopea essentially serves as her grandfather's maid and is constantly taunted and abused by an older cousin, Martin. In a minor act of rebellion Casiopea opens a forbidden chest in her grandfather's bedroom where she finds what, on first glance, appear to be merely bones. In fact, she has freed the injured and imprisoned Mayan death god, Hun-Kame.<br />
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For the rest of the book Casiopea is taken on wild adventures through Mexico and into the US by Hun-Kame. She is pursued by Martin who is enlisted by Hun-Kame's evil twin.<br />
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While the skilled prose and exciting narrative made this a fairly easy read, I'm not sure I would turn to this kind of book again without the prompting of a reading challenge or otherwise. I prefer books more grounded in reality.<br />
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<u><i>Angry Queer Somali Boy: A Complicated Memoir</i> by Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali</u><br />
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This is quite an interesting memoir which is actually written while the author is living in a homeless shelter in Toronto. As a young boy, he is taken from his mother by his father, first to the middle east and then sent with his step-mother and step siblings to the Netherlands.<br />
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Ali is treated terribly by his step-family - and his father only makes brief and unhelpful appearances in his life. Despite that, in the Netherlands as a child and young teenager he does make some friends despite moving around frequently.<br />
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Eventually, however, the family makes its way to Canada. There Ali has a harder time fitting in and turns to partying and drugs to escape his difficult family life. This leads to an inability to excel in school or hold down a job and, eventually, the homeless shelter.<br />
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The mere fact Ali was able to write this book - which is well written - shows his strength and resilience. It also shows how a child with such promise can be broken by abuse, isolation and racism. Hopefully, this book has served as a turning point for Ali as he definitely has what it takes to live his best life.<br />
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<u><i>No One is too Small to Make a Difference</i> by Greta Thunberg</u><br />
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This one was also for my library challenge - a book about climate change. It is a collection of speeches by the teenaged climate change activist. They are somewhat repetitive - though I suppose that's not surprising given they were speeches to different groups but intended to deliver the same message. Again, not something I would normally read as I think it's easier to pick up her message using social media, but it was a quick read if the topic is of interest to you.<br />
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<u><i>Chasing Painted Horses</i> by Drew Hayden Taylor</u><br />
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This was a really interesting book, and very easy to read. Siblings Ralph and Shelley and Ralph's friend William are living on an indigenous reserve in Ontario. When they are pre-teens they befriend Danielle, an odd girl on the reserve who has a tragic family history and doesn't seem to have any friends or family support now.<br />
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When Ralph and Shelley's mother gets the idea to have local children pain pictures on a kitchen wall Danielle astounds everyone with her rendition of a magical horse. She repeats the magic more than once, but then her abusive family whisks her away to Toronto and the children never see her again.<br />
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Years later, while working as a police officer in Toronto, Ralph comes across a graffiti mural that so closely resembles those childhood horses that he's convinced it must have been drawn by Danielle. He tries to enlist the help of a homeless man to track down the artist, but is not successful.<br />
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The narrative also tells us a bit about the adult lives of Ralph, Shelley and William. While there's not a lot of heavy action, I recommend the book for those who are still interested in coming of age stories with a twist.<br />
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<u><i>The Hate U Give</i> by K.J. Apart</u><br />
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I chose this book for my young adult reading challenge category even before this topic came roaring back into the news with recent events.<br />
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Starr Carter lives in a poor black neighbourhood, but when a childhood friend is killed in a drive-by shooting she and her siblings are sent to a fancy, mainly white private school. She is skillfully balancing both lives until she is in a car when another of her lifelong friends is shot - this time by police.<br />
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At first, amongst her school friends, Starr tries to deny knowing the victim, but she eventually realizes if she doesn't speak up the world will only see the skewed version of her friend being offered up by the police and the media. She realizes she must speak up even if it's putting her family in some danger as violence emerges in the wake of the shooting and a drug lord who her friend had ties to sets his sights on Starr.<br />
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This should be a must read for everyone in the current environment of police shooting unarmed, black youths.<br />
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<u><i>The Bookish Life of Nina Hill</i> by Abbi Waxman</u><br />
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This was quite a fun book in the midst of all the heavier reading I've been doing (see above...). Nina Hill is the consummate introvert - she works in a book store and is happiest reading at home with her cat or participating in trivia challenges with her close friends. <br />
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But two unexpected events force Nina out of her comfort zone. First, the father she never knew dies and includes her in his will. She is thus introduced to several of his subsequent wives, their children and grandchildren, giving her a huge family she never knew about. While some of them are suspicious of her motives (which is weird since she didn't even know about her father and certainly didn't seek out his fortune), many are excited to meet her and happy to bring her into the family fold. Even more surprising is how several of her half siblings share some of her personality quirks - as did her father apparently.<br />
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Second, her trivia nemesis, Tom takes an interest in her. And despite her better judgment, she is interested in him too. After several false starts Tom and Nina find they have more in common than trivia competitions.<br />
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Not deep, but fun and well written.<br />
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<u><i>American Dirt</i> by Jeanine Cummins</u><br />
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I hesitated to read this book given its mixed reception, but ultimately picked it up to satisfy my reading challenge category, a book about current events. And I'm glad I read it - I really enjoyed it. Now, I'm not sure it's all terribly realistic, but me that didn't detract from the interesting narrative.<br />
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Lydia lives with her husband and young son, Luca, in Acapulco at a time when the city is becoming more and more dangerous because of drug cartels. Despite that they have a happy life - Lydia runs a book store and her husband is a journalist. While working at the store Lydia develops a close friendship with Javier, a well read and charming customer. Only months later does she discover he is the leader of a new drug cartel that has taken over the city.<br />
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When Lydia's husband writes an expose about Javier, she thinks it is balanced enough that Javier will accept it. But, for reasons she only learns much later, he is so incensed by the article that he shoots her whole extended family - only she and Luca hide and are able to survive. (I'm not giving anything away - this happens right at the start).<br />
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Lydia immediately knows she and Luca are in danger and they make a run for it trying to get to the US. The entire narrative surrounds their difficult escape - as they travel on the roofs of cargo trains to their destination, and then undergo a dangerous hike with a smuggler, we meet the honest migrants they befriend along the way; as well as the less honest ones (who are often in government or members of cartels, infiltrating to thwart the migration).<br />
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The book is well written, the drama is fast paced and the characters are multi-faceted. While I think some of Lydia's narrow escapes are a bit hard to believe, overall I enjoyed the book.<br />
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<u><i>The Two Lives of Lydia Bird</i> by Josie Silver</u><br />
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Frankly I found this book a bit too weird for my taste. When Lydia's husband is killed in a car crash she is devastated and withdrawing from the world. At the urging of her family she takes sleeping pills to help her cope. Whenever she takes them, she dreams of a parallel world where her husband is still alive. The lives of others are also altered in the parallel world (for example in the real world her sister has a healthy baby while in the alternate world she miscarries).<br />
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In the real world, Lydia eventually decides to travel abroad to spend more time in the alternate world. But there she begins to come to terms with how things are in the real world so she returns to her regular life.<br />
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As I said, I just found this too strange, but if you like the idea, the book is well written, just not to my liking.<br />
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<u><i>The Stationery Shop</i> by Marjan Kamali</u><br />
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I quite enjoyed this book. It is set both in the present day US and 1950s Tehran.<br />
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In 1953, 17 year old Roya meets an idealistic and politically active boy, Bahman, in a stationery shop. Over books and stationery they fall in love and eventually become engaged. The engagement is encouraged by Roya's family as well as Bahman's father. But Bahman's mother, who suffers from mental illness, disapproves of the match as Roya's family is less well off than hers.<br />
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At one point Bahman disappears and Roya has no idea what has happened, though she knows he is alive as he sends her notes which she picks up in books at the stationery shop, with the assistance of the shop owner. The last note says he wants to meet her at a particular square and they will immediately get married. But Bahman doesn't show up.<br />
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Years later, Roya is married to someone else and discovers Bahman is alive and in a US nursing home. She decides she must visit him to find out what happened on that fateful day. Through narrative which moves back and forth in time we find out what happened too. There are also some chapters even further back in time that tell us about the bookseller's early life which ends up being pertinent to the 1953 story.<br />
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The story is interesting and there are a lot of fascinating and likeable characters - both in Tehran and in the US (though there are some unlikeable characters too). I definitely recommend this book.<br />
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<u><i>One Hundred Years of Solitude</i> by Gabriel Garcia Marquez</u><br />
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I hadn't read this book before so when I saw it at a used book sale last fall I jumped on it. Then I decided to read it for the "classic" category of my reading challenge. And, boy you can see why it's a classic. The language of the book is masterful. And while magical realism is not my favourite, I still had trouble putting this book down. As an aside, I only learned in reading the afterword to this book that a it is responsible for introducing the concept of magical realism to English readers. The novel tells the story of 100 years in the fictional South American town of Macando. In particular we see it through the lives of multiple generations of the Buendia family - one of the founding families.<br />
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Because many of the children are named after their parents and grandparents, the reference family tree at the beginning of the book was vital for me to keep track of everyone. I wouldn't say the story is confusing, I just sometimes had to remind myself which generation I was reading about as it did jump backwards and forwards a bit.<br />
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Through just one family, the author manages to touch on global issues like religion, politics, war, imperialism, science and invention and more. There is really no way for me to summarize what happened - it's just too much. All I can say is that if you're in the mood for a classic, and haven't already read it, this one is worth it.<br />
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<u><i>Calm the F*ck Down</i> by Sarah Knight</u><br />
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I picked this book up to fit the category of a book you found helpful. And while I wouldn't describe the advice in this book as life changing, I did pick up a few tips for managing low level anxiety (particularly the type that keeps you up at night).<br />
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The author readily admits she is not an educated expert - she is rather someone who suffers from anxiety sharing strategies that have worked for her. This is not the book for you if you are struggling with serious anxiety - you should seek professional help instead. But if you just feel anxious sometimes you might get the odd helpful hint here.<br />
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I should note that the book is full of exercises - I didn't bother doing them - that's just not my thing.<br />
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<u><i>Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune</i> by Roselle Lim</u><br />
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This is another book that was just a little too weird for my taste. <br />
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When Natalie Tan's mother dies, she returns to San Francisco's Chinatown after many years of estrangement. Against her mother's wishes she had left town to go to culinary school - where she flunked out. She then spent several years floating from place to place, working in restaurants and never really developing any serious attachments.<br />
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She is originally resentful of her neighbours as she thought they left her all alone to deal with her mother who suffered from serious agoraphobia. Instead she finds they were providing all kinds of behind the scenes support. She also learns her mother has left her her late grandmother's restaurant and recipe book.<br />
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All sounds normal so far - but then Natalie decides that she has to use cooking as magic to address issues in people's lives. And there is another whole weird bit involving her father which I won't reveal in case you want to read the book, but it was just too far fetched for me.<br />
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I don't really recommend this. It did include many recipes which may or may not be legitimate - I skimmed over them so don't really know.<br />
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<u style="font-style: italic;">Truths I Never Told You</u> <u>by Kelly Rimmer</u><br />
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I'm not sure where I heard about this book, but it was a pleasant surprise. It takes place in alternating chapters in the present and in the late 1950s.<br />
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In the present, Beth Walsh's father is dying and is moved into a long term care facility. Beth, mostly because she is suffering from postpartum depression and wants an escape from her infant son, offers to clean out the family home. There, behind a locked attic door, she finds a hoarder's den that is uncharacteristic of her otherwise neat and organized father. More mysteriously she finds a series of notes that appear to be from her mother - each attached to an abstract painting that her father seems to have recently painted.<br />
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Beth and her three siblings had always been told their mother died in a car accident when they were toddlers, but the notes suggest something more sinister may have occurred. There father, now struggling with dementia, cannot tell them anything.<br />
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In alternating narratives from the perspective of Beth in the present day and her mother and aunt in the past, we are able to piece together what actually happened to her mother. The children also learn that there is more to their father than they thought.<br />
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In addition to being an interesting family mystery, the book does an excellent job of addressing postpartum depression and the devastating effects of the lack of birth control and safe abortions in the 1950s. <br />
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I found this book to be really interesting, well researched and well written.<br />
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<br />Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-63675404020988874292020-04-16T17:17:00.002-04:002020-04-16T17:17:41.683-04:00Quarantine ReadsYou would think with being stuck at home and social distancing I would have time to update this blog, but somehow the days just run away from me. That doesn't mean I haven't been reading though - here are the books I've read over the last 6 weeks or so.<br />
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<u><i>My Absolute Darling</i> by Gabriel Tallent</u><br />
While I enjoyed this book, I found it extremely disturbing so if graphic child physical and sexual abuse is too disturbing for you to read about I would skip this one.<br />
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This is the story of a 14 year old girl who her father calls Turtle. She lives alone with her father and he has been raping her for years. He has also convinced her she is worthless and she has internalized that. For much of her life her only friend has been her grandfather. A kind teacher suspects she is being abused and tries to intervene but Turtle feels she doesn't deserve the help and also fears what her father would say if he finds out she sought help so she ignores the teacher.<br />
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One thing Turtle has learned from her father is how to survive in the wilderness. While out wandering one day she meets two boys who need her help finding their way back to civilization. One of them, and his mother, knew her mother and they try to talk to her father to get her help, but he of course refuses to let them in. The other, Jacob, becomes enamoured with Turtle and they start to spend time together. When Turtle's father finds out Jacob wants to take her to a dance he beats her badly. Fearing he will come after Jacob next, Turtle refuses to see him anymore.<br />
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Then, Turtle's grandfather dies, causing her father to disappear for months allowing Turtle to reconnect with Jacob and live a relatively peaceful life. But when her father returns, with a young girl he picked up along the way and is now abusing, it sets in motion a chain of events where Turtle has to use her survival skills to save herself and the other girl - regardless of the cost.<br />
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Turtle was an amazing and resilient character, but as I said above, the violence was a bit too graphic for me at times.<br />
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<u><i>Southern Lady Code</i> by Helen Ellis</u><br />
The library recommended this book of essays to fulfil the reading challenge - "a book that made me laugh". And this book really did that. Ellis grew up in the US South and was hardwired to behave with southern gentility and decorum. But, she was astute enough to realize that bringing this behaviour to her life in Manhattan led to numerous hilarious situations.<br />
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In short essays she describes how she used her manners to fend off a potential kidnapper, respond to a sewer rat wandering the street, stay happily married and be the perfect guest.<br />
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The book is well written, easy to read and fun when you need to boost your mood.<br />
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<u><i>Silver Sparrow</i> by Tayari Jones </u><br />
This is an earlier novel by the author of the bestseller <i>An American Marriage</i>, and I enjoyed this one just as much.<br />
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The novel is set in Atlanta in the 1980s. Dana Yarbaro grows up knowing her father, James Witherspoon is a bigamist. While already married to another woman, James marries Dana's mother, Gwendolyn, when she becomes pregnant with Dana. Shortly after his first wife gives birth to another daughter, Chaurisse.<br />
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While Gwendolyn, and by extension Dana, are aware of, and obsessed with, James' wife and other daughter, Chaurisse and her mother know nothing about James's other family. With the help of a lifelong friend, who is also in love with Gwendolyn, James works hard at keeping his two families apart. But, Dana finds away to befriend Chaurisse, and meet her mother, without their knowing who she really is. Much of the story focuses on the lives of these two girls - and how James tries to balance his love for two women - and what happens to everyone when the truth comes out.<br />
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This is an interesting narrative - you would think James would be despicable, but he comes off as sympathetic though obviously very misguided. The two daughters and the two mothers are equally sympathetic and well developed characters. <br />
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<u><i>The Dutch Wife</i> by Ellen Keith</u><br />
At first I thought this would be yet another Holocaust story with little to add to the literature. But in fact it had an interesting twist. The story was told from the perspective of three characters - the first is Marijke, a Dutch woman who is sent to a concentration camp for her participation in the Dutch resistance.<br />
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In hopes of saving her life, and thus reuniting with her husband, Marijke agrees to work in the camp brothel. There she is patronized by a high ranking Nazi, Karl. Though married, Karl becomes attached to Marijke and at least once saves her from cruel punishment in the camp. However, the relationship is sort of disturbing given he needs Marijke to act like she is in love with him and undermines her efforts to reunite with her husband. By the end the reader does learn the fates of Marijke, her husband and Karl.<br />
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The interesting twist is the third perspective - alternating chapters explore the life of Luciano in Buenos Aires in 1977. He is arrested and tortured for his sexual orientation and his political activities. This story is actually a bit more interesting than the more unbelievable concentration camp narrative, but though the relationship between the stories is revealed by the end, it still was a bit disjointed.<br />
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I think the idea of this story was strong, but the execution wasn't great. It was hard to believe the concentration camp narrative which just seemed too contrived. And the relationship to the Argentina story was just sort of dropped in at the end when there was opportunity for better foreshadowing and more detail.<br />
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<u><i>Fleishman is in Trouble</i> by Taffy Brodesser-Akner</u><br />
I avoided this book for a while because it was hyped by sources I usually don't agree with (e.g. NYT Book Review), but in the end I tried it and, while I didn't love it, I'm not sorry I gave it a chance.<br />
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The first half of the book is written from the perspective of a doctor, Toby Fleishman. He has separated from his wife and is enjoying a life of no strings attached sex with women he meets through "dating" apps. In the middle of the night his soon to be ex-wife drops off his two children and disappears. Toby is left scrambling to take care of his kids on a day to day basis and to figure out where his ex-wife has gone and what happened in his marriage.<br />
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So in this part we see everything from Toby's perspective, except sometimes the narrative changes, with little warning, to be from the perspective of a friend Toby knew in his youth. It sometimes takes a while to figure out we are seeing Toby through her eyes rather than his own, but it works.<br />
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Toby definitely comes off as narcissistic though, through his own eyes, is clearly the victim of this ex-wife who thinks he was a loser for just being a doctor and not making the fortune she is in business. He also believes he was always by far the more attentive parent - while maintaining a prestigious position at a NY hospital.<br />
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The second half is written from the perspective of Toby's ex-wife, Rachel (again with interruptions from Toby's old friend). This part of the book turns everything we thought we knew on its head. We realize things in the marriage may not have been as Toby perceived them to be.<br />
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I thought this was well written and I enjoyed it more than I expected to - the characters were all equally likeable (or not). I was also forced to really think about what was reality when I saw it through the eyes of people with polar opposite perspectives. I thought the weaving in of a third perspective was done in a very creative way - again ensuring that I had to read carefully. I found this wasn't the kind of book where you could skim over parts or you would never figure out what was going on. I'd say the biggest disappointment was the ending - but I won't reveal that.<br />
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<u><i>The Lost Sister</i> by Andrea Gunraj</u><br />
This was a really interesting local novel. Sisters Alisha and Diana are the daughters of immigrant parents from the Caribbean living in Toronto's Jane and Finch neighbourhood. Their father works hard to provide for the family and their mother, and her sister and best friend, dote on the girls. Diana dreams of going to medical school - and is a star student and athlete who is popular and strains against the social restrictions placed on her by her doting parents. Alisha looks up to Diana and wants to be just like her - she even pretends she wants to be a lawyer in an effort to attract her parents' attention.<br />
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One day Diana disappears and Alisha has information about the events leading up to her disappearance that she keeps from her parents and the police. This weighs on her and is noticed by Paula, a woman who volunteers at her school. The two develop an unlikely friendship which is partly explained by the guilt Paula feels over her relationship with her estranged sister.<br />
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In alternating sections of the book we learn more about Paula's childhood. She lived in Nova Scotia and she and her sister were taken from her unwed, prostitute mother and placed in the Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children. There she is abused and neglected and kept separate from her sister. This harsh upbringing has a significant impact on Paula's current life and helps her to relate to Alisha's difficulties.<br />
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This was a well written account of the difficulties faced by immigrants to Canada, as well as the tension between immigrant parents and their Canadian born and raised children. While the Nova Scotia portion was partially based on true events, I found it was less well developed than the current day sections.<br />
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<u><i>Pachinko</i> by Min Jin Lee</u><br />
This is a long family saga - while overall I liked it, I thought it could have been a bit shorter. It was also one of those stories where bad things kept happening and I often found myself wondering when this family could finally catch a break. I realize it may be realistic in times of occupation, war, etc., but sometimes it was just a bit much.<br />
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The story starts in the early 1900s in Korea, on a small island near Busan. There, the disabled fisherman, Hoonie and his wife Yangjin have only one child who survives infancy, Sunja. Sunja is doted upon by her parents, but works hard helping her father sell his fish and her mother run a boarding house. When Hoonie dies of TB while Sunja is a teenager, the two women are left to keep things running.<br />
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They do a good job until Sunja gets pregnant by a man she has fallen for, who happens to already have a wife and family in Japan. While he offers to support her and the baby, as long as she remains his mistress, that's not the life she wants for herself so she refuses. Instead she agrees to marry a boarding house guest, a sickly Christian minister who is going to Japan to join his older brother and lead a congregation.<br />
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The minister knows of Sunja's pregnancy and agrees to treat the baby as his own, which he does. So Sunja and her husband travel to Japan. The book then covers the story of their lives, the lives of his brother and sister-in-law, the son Sunja has from her first relationship as well as a son the couple have together and, eventually, their grandson.<br />
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There is great detail about the lives of both Koreans and Christians in Japan - and the terrible conditions they live in. Even generations in they must repeatedly make the case for their right to live and work in Japan and are treated with contempt by many Japanese people. They are also unable to return to Korea due to the political uncertainty there. <br />
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The title, Pachinko, is the name of a popular gambling game - certain members of Sunja's family eventually make their fortunes in Pachinko. Since it is reputed to be tied to organized crime, it is one place Koreans are allowed to freely work.<br />
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Again, it took perseverance to get through the whole book, but I think was worth it. Just make sure you have time and patience going into it - this is not a light holiday read.<br />
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<u><i>Rue des Rosiers</i> by Rhea Tregebov</u><br />
I picked up this book because it is written by a Winnipeg Jewish author and covers themes I find of interest. It was an easy read, but a bit disappointing. I found the writing style a bit simplistic and amateurish though the story was compelling. <br />
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Sarah is the youngest of the three Levine sisters. She was born and raised in Winnipeg but is living in Toronto now. She is "wasting her life" according to others in it as she dropped out of university one course shy of graduating is working for a landscaping company. She is also involved with a successful lawyer but is having trouble committing to him (she's reticent to spend a whole night with him). She is oddly superstitious, keeping a penny given to her years before by a Holocaust survivor she met in a Holocaust course at university - she turns to the penny to make her decisions.<br />
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Sarah's middle sister also lives in Toronto. She is a lesbian and ardent feminist who is always trying to loop Sarah into her causes. They fight over Sarah's future and have a very strained relationship.<br />
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Sarah's oldest sister still lives in Winnipeg and is suffering from depression following a miscarriage. When she ends up hospitalized Sarah goes to check on her and loses her job in the process. With no job she decides to join her boyfriend in Paris where he is headed to work on a deal. In Paris she sees anti-semitism up front which brings back memories of the Holocaust course and the survivor who gave her the penny.<br />
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She wanders the gardens of Paris trying to figure out her future and then is a victim of a terrorist attack which helps her gain some perspective on her future. These things all happen a bit too quickly and conveniently for my liking, but it does make the book shorter I suppose.<br />
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Not a terrible book, but not great. If you're interested in the subject matter it's probably still worth it. It's also good to support local authors.<br />
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<u><i>Grand Union</i> by Zadie Smith</u><br />
This is a collection of short stories, which is not my favourite genre, but I read this to fit the category in the library reading challenge. While I liked a few of the stories, a lot of them went over my head. I don't know if I'm not the target audience, or I'm just not astute enough, but I would finish some and really have little idea about what I'd just read.<br />
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That being said, there were a few stories I liked - one about an aging transgendered woman in New York trying to buy a corset, another about Brexit era Brits on the lazy river ride at a Spanish resort. Smith certainly knows how to address issues of race, class and gender in a literary fashion. She just might be a bit too literary for me.Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-87642057892202821962020-03-02T09:51:00.001-05:002020-03-02T09:51:41.701-05:00A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel AllendeAs always I was captivated by Isabel Allende's writing - her style really appeals to me. And while it took a couple of chapters to get into this book, once I did it was hard to put down.<br />
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This book covers the lives of a family from the time of the Spanish Civil War to the end of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The narrative begins with Victor Dalmau, a medical student in Barcelona whose studies are interrupted by the Civil War. He takes a position as a medic for the Republicans and is best known for massaging a young soldier's heart on the battlefield and bringing him back to life. <br />
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Victor's musician father and activist mother have taken in a young musical protege, Roser, who falls in love with Victor's soldier brother. Roser is pregnant with his child when he is killed in the war. As Franco's forces advance on Barcelona, Victor, Roser and Victor's mother are forced to flee to France with the assistance of an upbeat but rather corrupt ambulance driver that Victor had befriended on the front.<br />
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Along the way and upon arrival in France the four are separated and Victor and Roser find themselves in separate concentration camps. But when reunited (and I'm not giving this away, it is on the book jacket), they are given the opportunity to leave France on the SS Winnipeg - a rescue ship organized by the poet Pablo Neruda and destined for Chile. In order to ensure their passage, Victor and Roser marry and Victor agrees to look after Roser's son as if he were his own, at least until the boy is an adult.<br />
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Ensuing chapters deal with the life Victor, Roser and their son make for themselves in Chile. They develop successful careers and make powerful friends, including Salvador Allende (who is the author's cousin). However, when Allende is assassinated and Pinochet takes over Victor and Roser find themselves fleeing a fascist dictatorship yet again.<br />
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As the years progress, Victor and Roser come to realize theirs is more than a marriage of convenience and they end up together into old age.<br />
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I don't want to give too much more away, but there are a lot of interesting twists as Victor and Roser lose and then rediscover people along the way. I highly recommend this book, particularly to fans of Allende's other works.Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-9483488540676540642020-02-27T11:15:00.000-05:002020-02-27T11:15:09.411-05:00This Month's BooksOnce again most of what I read this month was for purposes of the 2020 Reading Challenge, so some were quite different than what I normally read (the point of the challenge after all).<br />
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<u><i>Had it Coming: What's Fair in the Age of #MeToo</i> by Robyn Doolittle</u><br />
I read this and the next book for the category "two books on the same topic by different authors". The author, a Globe and Mail investigative reporter, spent years examining how Canadian police forces deal with allegations of sexual assault. She found a shocking number of cases throughout the country were shelved as "unfounded". In response to her newspaper series, "Unfounded", governments and police forces vowed to do better with reviews of past cases, better police oversight and better training. In the book, Doolittle looks at the changes that have been made and whether they have begun to have an impact. The results are mixed and not particularly surprising.<br />
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In a nutshell Doolittle believes the laws in Canada are good, but that police forces, Crown prosecutors and even judges are uneven in their application of the laws. She uses some very high profile cases (e.g. Jian Ghomeshi, Steve Paikin and the judge who was removed for asking a victim why she didn't just keep her legs together) to illustrate the situation. She also looks at the #MeToo movement and the impact it has had on Canadian cases.<br />
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While this book was a bit dry at times, it was well researched and written and dealt rationally and sensitively with a very difficult and polarizing issue.<br />
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<u><i>Know my Name: A Memoir</i> by Chanel Miller</u><br />
This book also dealt with sexual assault laws and the deficiencies in the system - though this time in the US and from a much more personal perspective. Chanel Miller was the victim in the well known case of a sexual assault on the Stanford campus. Until she published her victim impact statement on BuzzFeed she was known only as Emily Doe, but she ultimately decided she wanted the world to know her name.<br />
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The case was horrific - Miller, a college graduate, went to a fraternity with her younger sister, got drunk and the next thing she knew awakened in a hospital bed with no idea what had happened to her. She slowly discovered she had been separated from her sister, went outside and was brutally assaulted behind a dumpster while unconscious. The attack was only stopped when two exchange students who were cycling by saw what was happening and chased then turned in the perpetrator who was a freshman at Stanford.<br />
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While the jury did find the perpetrator guilty, the judge used his discretion to shorten the mandatory minimum sentence - sentencing him to only 6 months in jail of which he served 3. The judge and many others in society seemed far more interested in "not ruining the life" of this promising young man (he was also a competitive swimmer) than acknowledging the seriousness of the crime he committed. There was also far too much weight placed on Miller's intoxication - as if she had deserved the attack since she didn't control her drinking and passed out.<br />
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While the system was despicable, there were some very positive aspects to the story, most importantly Miller's resilience. After much struggle (as can be expected) she ultimately penned such a strong victim impact statement that it<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="background-color: #fefefe; caret-color: rgb(10, 10, 10); color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 16px;">instantly went viral--viewed by almost eleven million people within four days, it was translated globally and read on the floor of the US Congress; it inspired changes in California law and the recall of the judge in the case. Thousands wrote to say that she had given them the courage to share their own experiences of assault for the first time. Even Hillary Clinton quoted from it in one of her books.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe; caret-color: rgb(10, 10, 10); color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 16px;">There was also a lot of positive in the support Miller received from her parents, sister and boyfriend who stood by her throughout the ordeal despite their own feelings of guilt. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe; caret-color: rgb(10, 10, 10); color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 16px;">In the end Miller turned around the story and comes across as a heroine rather than a victim.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe; caret-color: rgb(10, 10, 10); color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 16px;"><u><i>The Dinner</i> by Herman Koch</u></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe; caret-color: rgb(10, 10, 10); color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 16px;">I read this for "a book originally written in a language that's not your first language" as it was translated from Dutch.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0a0a0a;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe; caret-color: rgb(10, 10, 10);">Almost the whole book takes place over the course of one dinner between two middle aged brothers and their wives. It is narrated by the younger brother; the older brother is running for prime minister. At the start the book seems like it's going to be merely about the tension between the brothers. The younger brother is critical of his older brother's campaigning tactics as well as how he constantly shows off - it starts with his criticism of the fancy restaurant that his brother has gotten them into without the waiting time that more ordinary folks would have.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0a0a0a;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe; caret-color: rgb(10, 10, 10);">The narrator's description of the pompous restaurant staff is also very amusing. However, as dinner progresses you realize that much more dark events are underlying the get together. Both couples have teenaged sons who have been involved in a rather horrific act and at the dinner they eventually have to face how to deal with it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0a0a0a;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe; caret-color: rgb(10, 10, 10);">Part of the tension is that no one knows how much the others know about what their sons have been up to - so there is a lot of beating around the bush in their discussions. However, it becomes clear they strongly disagree about how to deal with their sons and will go to great lengths to protect their positions.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0a0a0a;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe; caret-color: rgb(10, 10, 10);">Though all of the action takes place over the course of dinner, there are also flashback to earlier times which give the reader insight into the narrator's personality, in particular, but also touch on his relationship with his wife, son and brother.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0a0a0a;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe; caret-color: rgb(10, 10, 10);">All in all this is a fascinating look at both individual psyches and the complex interrelationship among flawed family members. I do warn, however, that at times it can be a little difficult to figure out what's going on though with patience things become much more clear. I have been deliberately vague here about certain things so as not to give away too much.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0a0a0a;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe; caret-color: rgb(10, 10, 10);"><u><i>At the Wolf's Table</i> by Rosella Postorino</u></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #0a0a0a;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe; caret-color: rgb(10, 10, 10);">I used this book for the category "a book about something that scares you" since it deals with Hitler and his cold hearted Nazi henchmen.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0a0a0a;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe; caret-color: rgb(10, 10, 10);">Rosa is a secretary in Berlin married to her engineer boss. Her father, a virulent anti-Nazi dies of a heart attack early in the war. Then her husband is called up as a soldier so she moves in with her widowed mother. But her mother is killed in a bombing so Rosa moves to a small town in Eastern Germany to live with her in-laws. There she is forced to join a group of women who are taster's of Hitler's food at his secret headquarters. There these women risk their lives with every meal to ensure no one is poisoning Hitler's food.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0a0a0a;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe; caret-color: rgb(10, 10, 10);">Most of the book deals with the relationship Rosa build with these women - many of whom are </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(10, 10, 10);">suspicious of her because she is not originally from the village. Some of the women are fanatic Nazis, some are widowed mothers just trying to keep afloat, many have secrets that they need to protect. Rosa must also deal with the unwelcome attention she receives from the Nazi commanding officer.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0a0a0a;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(10, 10, 10);">The very last chapters of the book take place years after the war where we learn what became of Rosa and her husband.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0a0a0a;">I thought this was an interesting twist on World War II novels. It was translated from Italian.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0a0a0a;"><u><i>Convenience Store Woman</i> by Sayaka Murata</u></span><br />
<span style="color: #0a0a0a;">This book fits the category of "a book under 200 pages long". Translated from the Japanese this was a very gripping short book that delves into the psyche of an unconventional woman. Keiko, is a 36 year old woman who has always been thought of as "not normal". She definitely suffered from social anxiety and maybe even psychopathic tendencies - she definitely did not seem to empathize appropriately.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0a0a0a;">At age 18 she gets a job as a convenience store clerk and she spends the next half of her life working there - even though she sees all her co-workers and managers come and go. But Keiko feels she is reborn when she takes on the job - if she acts the part of the convenience store clerk, even going so far as to copy the speech patterns of those around her, she finally feels like she fits in. It even allows her to reconnect with high school acquaintances and form friendships of sorts.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0a0a0a;">Her carefully constructed existence is threatened when she develops a relationship with Shiraha who himself is let go from the store for his bizarre behaviours. He tries to fit Keiko into a different box which doesn't suit her at all.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0a0a0a;">In addition to being a study of one person's character, this book also illustrates the power of societal norms and how difficult it is to survive outside of them. I quite enjoyed the book and it is an easy read though it is not divided into chapters which was a bit distracting (though there are some section breaks).</span><br />
<span style="color: #0a0a0a;"><br /></span>Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323642852608178332.post-28459502127141370662020-02-10T17:35:00.000-05:002020-02-10T17:35:24.287-05:00Knocked off a few more books for the 2020 Reading Challenge<u><i>Tiny Lights for Travellers</i> by Naomi Lewis</u><br />
I picked this up because someone recommended it, not for the challenge, but I really didn't enjoy it so I decided I had to fit it into a challenge category to make the read worthwhile on some level. So I think it fits within a "book about history" as it is the author's personal journey in the footsteps of her grandfather, a Jewish Dutch man who fled the Netherlands when the Nazis invaded.<br />
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When the author is in her late 30s, her marriage suddenly ends and she stumbles upon a diary kept by her grandfather documenting his escape from Nazi occupied the Netherlands. She decides to follow in his footsteps taking the same trip about 60 years later. This trip is a big deal for her as she suffers from extreme disorientation and anxiety making it difficult for her to travel on her own.<br />
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But armed with the diary and her phone's GPS she makes the journey from the Netherlands, through Belgium and into the free French zone.<br />
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The problem with the book is nothing really happened - the diary was short on details (other than logistical information) and the author really didn't learn anything new. Instead the writing focused on her anxieties, her marital breakdown and her identity crisis (particularly her relationship with Judaism having had a Jewish grandfather, father and husband, but not technically Jewish). She is also well aware that her grandfather would not have approved of this trip, or her wanting to be Jewish which he rejected quite strongly, which makes the whole quest even more odd.<br />
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It's not that I don't empathize with writers who suffer from anxiety, I have read and enjoyed other books that are written from the same perspective; I just didn't like the writing style of this one or ultimately understand the point of the whole endeavour. I do hope the author got what she wanted out of the trip.<br />
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<u><i>Truth Be Told: My Journey Through Life and the Law</i> by Beverley McLachlin</u><br />
I chose this book for the category "a book written by someone who is more famous for something else" since McLachlin is definitely better known as a judge and the first female chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.<br />
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Some people told me they didn't love the start of this book, but I have to say it grabbed me right away. I find it remarkable to read about someone who comes from such humble beginnings and see how she accomplished so much in her life.<br />
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Her descriptions about how she dealt with gender roles and discrimination throughout her career were fascinating; as were the development of her thoughts on equality, discrimination and Indigenous rights. She clearly described how the ideas which took root in childhood developed over time to form her analysis while serving on the highest court. She gave enough detail about court cases to be interesting without getting bogged down in minutia or violating confidentiality.<br />
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The descriptions of her personal life were no less engaging. I cried with her when her first husband died at the all too early age of 47 and was so happy when she guided her young son through the tragedy and found love again.<br />
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I really recommend this book by one of Canada's foremost women.<br />
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<u><i>Bone Black</i> by Carol Rose GoldenEagle</u><br />
I read this book for "a book by an Indigenous author" and must say it was fantastic. It was so well written that I had trouble putting it down and while the topic was extremely heavy it was still fairly easy to read.<br />
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Wren StrongEagle is a newly married young woman whose twin sister Raven vanishes one night while they are out at a bar. While Wren is in the washroom we learn that Raven goes out for a smoke with a man she meets, but that is the last we hear from her.<br />
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Wren reports her missing sister to the police and is shocked by how little they do for her. Her sister becomes one of countless missing Indigenous women whose disappearances are barely registered by the authorities. Ironically, as a lawyer Raven had been working on just such cases in Calgary and had come home to Saskatchewan to decompress from this difficult work.<br />
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Wren decides to take matters into her own hands and tracks down and punishes several men who have suffered no consequences for the abuses they carried out against women (including a man who raped her in college and a priest who had assaulted her great aunt in the residential school system). Wren basically formulates ways to get the men to her house, kills them, burns them in her pottery kiln and uses the ash (the bone black) the create pottery. It's all a little fantastical but it works.<br />
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There are also parts dealing with Wren's dreams, and her relationships with her husband and her grandmother. All of it weaves together nicely to give us an in-depth picture of Wren and, at least for me, to helped me understand why she was driven to act in the way she did.<br />
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While this is not at all like books I usually read, I thoroughly enjoyed it.<br />
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<br />Paulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01589569452175168778noreply@blogger.com0