The Last Installment

 Here is my final instalment of very brief reviews of the many books I have read over the past few months: 

The Librarian of Saint-Malo by Mario Escobar

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Songs in Ursa Major by Emma Brodie

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

The Warsaw Orphan by Kelly Rimmer

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi

 

While this can be read as a standalone book, it is really a sequel to Joshi’s earlier novel, The Henna Artist. 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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Eventually, the truth about many secrets comes to light. I quiet enjoyed this book, although not as much as the first one.

 

People we Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

 

This book is billed as a novel version of the movie When Harry Met Sally 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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

I enjoyed the characters in this book. And I thought the structure of how the narrative unfolded worked really well. I recommend this one.

 

Family Reunion by Nancy Thayer

 

I always enjoy Thayer’s annual, light, summery, Nantucket based novels. They are by no means great literature, but they are a great escape.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Pleasantly predictable and easy to read. This is only for you if that’s a genre you appreciate.

 

Anne of Manhattan by Brina Starler

 

This is a modern-day adaptation of Anne of Green Gables, 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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 

I enjoyed The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo so much that I was anxious to pick up Reid’s latest novel – and it did not disappoint.

 

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).

 

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. 

 

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.

 

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

While we were Dating by Jasmine Guillory

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Guillory’s books are always light, fun, well written and entertaining.

 

Seven Days in June by Tia Williams

 

At its heart this book is a romance novel, but the back story to the characters makes it a little more complex.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

The Love Child by Rachel Hore 

 

This is a book based on the real life stories of young unwed mothers who were forced to place their babies up for adoption.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

Second Instalment of Long List

Day for Night by Jean McNeil

 

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.

 

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.

 

All it all I just found the book too weird for my taste.

 

Where the Grass is Green and the Girls are Pretty by Lauren Weisberger

 

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.

 

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).

 

It certainly kept my attention to find out how everybody sorted their lives out in the end.

 

Good Company by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney

 

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.

 

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.

 

The Last Bookshop in London by

 

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.

 

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 The Count of Monte Cristo.

 

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.

 

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.

 

The story provides an interesting angle on how everyday Londoners managed to survive the blitz despite terrible personal loss and hardship.

 

That Summer by Jennifer Weiner

 

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.

 

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. 

 

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.

 

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. 

 

If You Want to Make God Laugh by Bianca Marais

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Letters to Camondo by Edmund de Waal

 

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 The Hare with the Amber Eyes which tells the story of the author’s ancestors

A Book Summary

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).

 

Ladies of the House by Lauren Edmondson

 

This book is a modern-day retelling of Sense and Sensibility, 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.

 

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.

 

This was a fairly light and easy read, entertaining enough, but not exceedingly memorable.

 

The Relatives by Camilla Gibb

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Through alternating chapters we see where these characters end up and how they are related to each other.

 

Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

A predictable narrative arc for a romance novel, but interesting nonetheless because of the intriguing characters and the local colour.

 

Musical Chairs by Amy Poeppel

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Everything wraps up fairly nicely in the end – to me it made for an enjoyable read.

 

The Woman with the Blue Star by Pam Jenoff

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Crossroads by Kaleb Dahlgren

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Speak, Silence by Kim Echlin

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Letters Across the Sea by Genevieve Graham

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Summer on the Bluffs by Sunny Hostin

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Just Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane

 

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).

 

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.

 

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.

 

Much Ado About You by Samantha Young

 

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.

 

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.

 

House on Endless Waters by Emuna Elon

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Some new recommendations

 Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon by Sheila Weller

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.

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).

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. 

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.

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.

The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O'Neill

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron

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.

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.

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.

If I Knew Then: Finding Wisdom in Failure and Power in Aging by Jann Arden

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.

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.

Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi

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.

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. 

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.

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.

The book is extremely well written - I enjoyed its lyrical language and the strong female characters. I recommend this one.

The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

While this is in some ways just yet another Holocaust story, I did enjoy it.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

This is another work of historical fiction, but from a completely different era. It takes place in the 20s and 30s in the US.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A bit like a soap opera, but I still enjoyed the characters, the narrative and the writing.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

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".

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.

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.

Two Months worth of Reading

 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.

The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.

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.

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.

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.

What was very clear in the book was the horrific cruelty, homophobia and misogyny evident at the plantation eerily known as "Empty".

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.

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

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.

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.

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.

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).

I definitely recommend this one.

The Queen's Gambit by Walter S. Tevis

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).

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).

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.

She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey

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.

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.

I recommend this book if you have any interest in this area.

No Time Like the Future by Michael J. Fox

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.

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.

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.

Fox writes well and, despite the difficult topic, his humour comes through. I enjoyed this book. 

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

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.

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.

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).

So after being a sceptic, I now suggest you read this one. It's better than you might think.

Thunder Through my Veins: Memories of a Métis Childhood by Gregory Scofield

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.

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.

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.

Saving Justice: Truth, Transparency and Trust by James B. Comes

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.

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.

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.

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.

Our Darkest Night by Jennifer Robson

I used this book for the category "a book published this year". Like her earlier book, The Gown, 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.

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.

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.

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.

I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara

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.

I just found the number of victims and investigators too confusing. And the piecing together of the evidence was tedious in my perspective.

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.

I wouldn't recommend this unless you're really into true crime stories.

A New Year - A New Reading Challenge

 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.

The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald

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).

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.

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.

The Last Days of John Lennon by James Patterson

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.

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.

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.

Seven by Farzana Doctor

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.

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.

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.

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.

I definitely recommend this book.

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

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.

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.

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.

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.

Empire of the Wild by Cherie Dimaline

I enjoyed The Marrow Thieves 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.

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.

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.

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 The Marrow Thieves, I would recommend this book too.

The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish

This book was very long (567 pages) and complex, but for me worth the effort. Reading it was almost like figuring out a puzzle.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I don't want to give more than that away because I really recommend you read this one for yourselves.

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

I really enjoyed Gyasi's prior novel, Homegoing, 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.

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.

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.

Autopsy of a Boring Wife by Marie-Renee Lavoie

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. 

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.

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.

I recommend this for a fun, distracting and clever read.

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John

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.

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.

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.

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.

As I said, the book was entertaining, and well written, but not fantastic. 

A couple more books before year end

 In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren

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.

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).

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.

The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley

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.  

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.

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. 

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).

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.

I quite enjoyed this one.