Post on a chilly, wintry morning...

It’s snowy and overcast and chilly this morning, although it’s much milder than it was last week.  I’ve got a cup of delicious steeped chai to keep me warm as I write this short post about two great books. 

The first book I will tell you about is A Great Country by Canadian author Shilpi Somaya Gowda.  I’ve really enjoyed her books in the past, Secret Daughter and Golden Son, both set in India.  This one is set in an upscale, gated community in Pacific Hills, California, where the Shah family has recently moved from their lower-class neighbourhood of Irvine a few months ago.  Priya and Ashok emigrated to California twenty years earlier with not much more than enough to see them through their first few months, but they worked hard to attain the American Dream, and they want to raise their children to strive for a better life.  Their three children, Deepa, sixteen, Maya, fourteen and Ajay, twelve, are living more independent lives than either parent ever dreamed of back home, but this comes with a price.  While out flying his drone at the Wayne County airport after school one day, Ajay is brutally arrested and taken to a jail cell, where Priya is eventually called once it is discovered that, despite his height and appearance, he's still a child.  What follows is an exploration into immigration and racism, and how the Shah family deal with this possible racial-profiling-related arrest.  It was a good, solid read that explores the shades of racism and threats of deportation that face many people in the US, as well as challenges faced by people in India regarding caste hierarchy.  It was very interesting and enlightening, though sometimes a bit flat or heavy-handed, but a good, solid, worthwhile read that tackles many important themes. 

The other book I want to talk about, by another favourite Canadian author, is The Mystery of Right and Wrong by Wayne Johnston.  This audiobook, performed by several narrators, sucked me in immediately and kept me listening with increasing shock and horror until the very last word (I even listened to the lengthy Author’s Note at the end, which is very important to understand the significance of this story and the characters).  In this autobiographical fictionalized novel, Wade Jackson is a recent university graduate in St. John, Newfoundland who wants to be a writer but doesn’t know where to begin.  He meets Rachel van Hout, also a recent graduate, who can’t stop reading or writing, specifically reading Anne Frank’s diary (in multiple languages) and writing in her own diary, sometimes in what she calls “the Arelliad”, written in a language she created and which no one but she can use or understand.  Born in Cape Town, South Africa, the youngest of three sisters, Rachel grapples with her obsessions with reading and writing as she also grapples with her own family history and dynamics.  Her father, Hans van Hout, also narrates portions of this novel in the form of his own epic poem, “The Ballad of the Clan van Hout”, which serves as both a family history and an indoctrination, as the girls are made to memorize this poem even as they are sexually abused at the hands of its writer.  I don’t even know how to describe this ambitious, disturbing, heart-wrenching, thought-provoking fictionalized disclosure of the truth about the lives and histories of Johnston, who has been a long-time sufferer of hypergraphia (the compulsion to write endlessly) and hyperlexia (the compulsion to read all the time) and his wife, Rose, who suffered serial sexual abuse at the hands of her own father, along with her three sisters, in both South Africa and Newfoundland.  This was an amazing read, and I’m especially glad I listened to it, as so much of the book is written in poetry, which is best appreciated when read aloud.  It was brilliant, disturbing, and so very important, and I have a new appreciation for this author, whose books I’ve been enjoying since I was a student at Lakehead University so many decades ago and a fellow English grad student literally walked me to the library shelves and placed The Story of Bobby O’Malley in my hands, insisting I read it.  This book, like Bobby O’Malley, will stay on in my memory for years to come.  I would highly recommend it to anyone, but be warned that very disturbing themes are explored. 

That’s all for today.  Time to get out for a long walk and enjoy the milder temperatures.

Bye for now! Julie

Long overdue...

It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to add to this blog, and I’m going to blame it mostly on my cat, who needs lots of attention and won’t stay off my lap for long enough to write a coherent post.  The holidays are also part of the reason for this lapse:  although I’ve had more time off, I’ve also had more things to do and have spent a significant amount of this time off with my husband, who has also been off (he’s back to work today).  Anyway, I have five books to tell you about, but since there’s so many, and I also have to give you my “year in review”, I’ll only give brief summaries for each. 

The first book is Darling Girls by Australian author Sally Hepworth.  I always enjoy her books, and consider her to be similar to Lisa Jewell and Liane Moriarty, so I was looking forward to this book, but unfortunately it didn’t live up to my expectations.  This novel is told in the alternating chapters of three “sisters”, Norah, Jessica and Alicia, who all spent time together in a foster home called Wild Meadows, an idyllic place that holds dark secrets.  During the demolition of Wild Meadows, bones are discovered and the girls, now grown women, are contacted to give statements, stirring up long-buried memories and forcing them to reveal the true nature of their time at the home.  This sounded like a perfect choice for me, and it was ok, but it fell short of my expectation, although the interesting twist at the end made it worth the time spent to finish it. 

Then I read a rom-com by one of my favourite Canadian authors, Kelley Armstrong, called Finding Mr. Write.  Daphne McFadden moved to the Yukon a year ago to live in the dream house she designed, with the hopes of getting her YA zombie thriller published, but this has proven to be even more difficult than she anticipated.  She decides to try a new strategy and submits the manuscript under a pseudonym, Zane Remington.  Suddenly there’s a bidding war and Daphne’s book is a bestseller, which is everything she’s always dreamed of… except there’s a hitch:  how can she go on tour and do book-signings?  Hire an actor to play handsome outdoorsy Zane, of course!  And her editor-friend has just the guy to do it, no matter that Chris Stanton isn’t really an actor but an accountant who is going through a difficult time and needs a job.  But what happens when relationship-shy Daphne falls for nice-guy Chris playing arrogant-writer Zane?  You’ll have to read the book to find out.  This was an ok read, a bit repetitive and highly improbable, but it’s Armstrong’s first foray into the rom-com genre, so I’ll cut her some slack.  If you’re in the mood for a fun read that looks at the very real, very unfair challenges new female authors face, this might be the book for you. 

Then I read an amazing book by YA author Nicola Yoon, One of Our Kind, her first novel written for adults.  I had no idea what to expect from this book, but it far exceeded any expectations I may have had.  This novel opens with Jazmyn and Kingston and their young son Kamau moving to Liberty, a wealthy, All-Black community in suburban Los Angeles.  Jazmyn is a public defender and civil rights activist, often protesting the too-frequent occurrences of police brutality against Blacks, and she thinks that this stable, seemingly Liberal environment is the perfect place to bring up her son and teach him about the racism and inequality he’s likely to face growing up, as well as how to instigate change.  Her neighbours and fellow community members, however, seem indifferent to these issues to the point of near-total ignorance, baffling and infuriating Jazmyn.  All these community members seem to care about is getting together and going to the lavish Wellness Centre for luxurious and indulgent spa treatments, something she has no time for.  When the few people she’s forged connections with in the community begin to pull away and her husband tries to gently shut her down, Jazmyn’s suspicions that all is not what it seems become frighteningly real.  This page-turner was like The Other Black Girl meets Rosemary’s Baby (without Satan!).  I would highly recommend this novel to just about anyone. 

Then I read another unputdownable book of a different sort, The Husbands by Holly Gramazio.  Returning home one night after her friend Elena’s hen party, thirty-something Lauren finds a strange man in her flat.  Freaking out, she threatens to call the police and tries to race downstairs to rouse her neighbours, but the man addresses her by name and asks if she’s had a good time.  It turns out that the man's name is Michael, and he’s her husband… except Lauren is single.  While she tries to make sense of this bizarre situation, Michael goes up in the attic for some reason, only to come down again as a completely different husband.  It appears that Lauren’s attic is a magical husband-machine!  Once she begins to understand how things work, she really gets into the groove and realizes that each new husband comes with a whole set of different experiences.  Don’t like the way he chews?  Send him up to the attic!  Too boring?  Back to the attic!  Too gangly?  Back to the attic!  And so on, and so on, and so on… until at some point, Lauren has to find a way to get off this husband-merry-go-round and find happiness right where she is… but how?  This was an ambitious debut novel that hit every mark, making me laugh and root for Lauren, while also making me think about the choices we make and whether we decide to live with the consequences or make changes that may or may not produce better results.  What a fabulous find this book was, and I feel so fortunate to have discovered it.  I would highly recommend this rollicking debut. 

And the final book I can tell you about is yet another debut novel, Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon.  Set in a small community near Monterey Bay, this novel follows three generations of Rubicon women as they try to solve the mystery surrounding the murder of one of the residents. When super-successful fifty-seven-year-old LA real estate agent Lana finds herself on her kitchen floor with no way to get up, she is forced to call 911, only to discover that her fall was caused by tumors on her brain.  Post-surgery, she has no choice but to leave her high-class, upmarket life to convalesce with her estranged daughter Beth and her fifteen-year-old granddaughter Jack in a ramshackle cottage in Elkhorne Slough, a small community dominated by kayak tours and a marina.  Jack is a part-time kayak tour guide, and one Saturday evening shortly after her grandmother’s arrival, one of her kayaking groups discovers a dead body in the Slough.  When the detectives look like they will pin the crime on Jack, Lana rouses herself out of her chemo treatment stupor to shut down that line of inquiry and discover who the real murderer is.  When one of the residents at the retirement home where Beth works dies, Lana wonders if the two deaths are connected.  And while it takes some coercion on the part of Lana and Jack, they manage to bring Beth onboard, and together, mother, daughter and granddaughter must try to find out what really happened before someone else gets hurt.  This “Nancy Drew meets Colombo” mystery was interesting and detailed and had a story-line that was complex enough to keep me guessing right up to the satisfying conclusion.  It had all the hallmarks of a good mystery, and while I didn’t find it unputdownable, it was good solid writing that had everything you could hope for in a mystery, while also focusing on the complex relationships between mothers and daughters. 

Whew!  That was a lot of book talk!  And now for the Year-End Round-Up:  I read 55 books this year and listened to 19 audiobooks.  Here are my Top Reads:

Adult Fiction:
One of our Kind by Nicola Yoon
The Drowned by John Banville
The Husbands by Holly Garmazio
The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz
This Strange Eventful History by Claire Masseud
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki
The Leftovers by Tom Perotta
The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis

(worth mentioning:  Glass Boys by Nicole Lundrigan, The Boy who Cried Bear by Kelley Armstrong and What We Buried by Robert Rotenberg)

Adult Non-Fiction:
Prisoners of the Castle by Ben MacIntyre
Spare by Prince Harry

Juvenile/YA fiction:
The Things She’s Seen by Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina
Noah Frye Gets Crushed by Maggie Horne
Ephemia Rimaldi:  circus performer extraordinaire by Linda DeMeulemeester
Simon Sort Of Says by Erin Bow (repeat)

Audiobooks:
Killers of the Flower Moon:  the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI by David Grann
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler
The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield
Home Front by Kristin Hannah 

That's all for today. Happy New Year! May 2025 be filled with many cups of tea and lots of great books!

Bye for now... Julie

 

Unexpected Saturday-morning post...

It’s a sunny, chilly Saturday morning, and we’re going to be heading out to the local farmers market soon, but I just finished a book last night that I wanted to tell you about before I started a new book and the impact of this one begins to lose its gravity. 

Last week I read The Drowned by award-winning Irish author John Banville.  This novel opens with a reclusive man, Denton Wymes, returning to his caravan after a day of fishing and coming upon an abandoned car in the middle of a field.  He knows he shouldn’t get involved, but against his better judgement, he heads towards the vehicle.  As he is about to leave, a man runs towards him claiming that his wife has drowned in the sea, or maybe she hasn’t drowned, but she’s missing.  Trying to extricate himself from the situation, Wymes indicates the big house up the lane, but this man wants Wymes to accompany him.  What follows is the search for this missing woman by DI Strafford, along with Detective Crowley, a man well past retirement and a nasty piece of work, as well as a whole cast of unique and interesting characters.  I was intrigued by this book, as I associate Banville with Booker-Prize-winning literary fiction, and this plot seemed to focus on the search for a missing woman, so more mystery, less literari-ness.  But I was surprised to learn that this literary master is also the author of a whole series of mysteries featuring Strafford and his pathologist colleague, Dr Quirke, written under the pseudonym Benjamin Black.  It appears that Banville has revealed his true identity and brought together his two halves, first in The Lock-Up, and now in The Drowned.  It was a literary tour de force, managing to successfully blend these two genres together, keeping this reader on the edge of my seat and making time to read more because I wanted to know what happens next, yet imbuing every word with significance. This novel was a deep-dive into the darker side of human nature and motivation, and an exploration into the human condition.  It was not an uplifting book in any way, but the glimmer of hope at the end, while faint, somehow took the edge off my initial feeling of despair. I’m now intrigued to read the Benjamin Black books, and have made a list so I can try to find them at the used book stores and read them in order.  I’m always excited to discover a new mystery series, and if The Drowned is anything to go by, this one will not disappoint. 

That’s all for today.  Stay warm and keep reading!

Bye for now... Julie

Super-quick post on a Tuesday evening…

It’s 8pm on a Tuesday, a school night for me, but I have about five minutes to write a post about the book my Volunteer Book Club discussed on the weekend, The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick.  All but one member was able to make it, and, while not everyone loved the book, everyone seemed to enjoy it.  This novel tells the story of Martha, a woman approaching middle age, who volunteers at a small public library in her small English seaside town.  Martha takes on all kinds of tasks for others, never considering doing something for herself… until one day a mysterious book turns up for her at the library with a cryptic dedication.  What follows is her search for the truth behind this book, uncovering shocking family secrets, making friends in the most unusual places and discovering who she really is along the way.  This is not an original idea (these types of books seem to always involve a used bookstore or library!), but it was an easy read, just the kind of “feel-good” book we all needed as we come to the close of another year.  It actually had the perfect ending, Christmas and a book group meeting, which was a pleasant surprise.  We mostly all felt sorry for Martha, but understood how a life can slip away one day at a time until decades have passed and you look back on a life unfulfilled, particularly in a small town.  We discussed Martha’s grandmother, her parents, and her relationship with her sister.  We discussed the eccentric used bookstore owner Owen (they’re always eccentric!!), as well as the enigmatic Siegfried.  One thing we noted was that there were almost more things to discuss that were left out of the book than things that were actually mentioned and written about. All in all, it was a great discussion, and I would recommend this for any book group looking for an uplifting, feel-good novel.

That’s all for tonight.  Stay dry and keep reading!

Bye for now... Julie

A very short post...

I’ve got a killer headache tonight but wanted to get this written before my book club meeting tomorrow night.  I finished reading our book choice today, Alice Feeney’s Rock, Paper, Scissors, and I have to say that I didn’t really enjoy it.  I won’t bother giving a summary, but I’ve read or listened to a couple of her books in the past, I think Daisy Darker and Sometimes I Lie, and I think I enjoyed them more than this one, but I don’t really recall any details.  Anyway, I found this book to be repetitive and totally unrealistic, even by “unreliable narrator” standards.  I would not recommend it.  I wonder what the others will say. But since there were “word of the year” headings for some of the chapters, I at least learned a couple new words:  Metanoia, literally changing one's mind, means a change in one’s way of life as the result of penance or spiritual conversion; and schadenfreude, a term I’m familiar with but never quite knew the proper meaning, is the the emotional experience of pleasure at another’s misfortune. 

That’s all for tonight.  Stay warm and keep reading!!

Bye for now... Julie

Amazing book, but short on time...

It’s Monday evening and I’m tired from a long week (book fair last week) and a busy weekend, but I just finished a fabulous book that I wanted to tell you about before I forget too much about it.  I just finished Claire Messud’s latest novel, This Strange Eventful History, which was brilliant.  This novel, loosely based on Messud’s own history, follows the Cassar family over three generations and across several continents. From 1927 to 2010, this strange, nomadic family seem never to find a place to call home, but whose members keep wandering, relocating and searching for happiness and a place to belong.  I can’t really tell you much more about the plot than this, but the themes that are dealt with are ones of family, relationships, what “home” means, and what it means to belong somewhere. She also explores the power of words, and I found L.J. Austin's concept of "performative utterances" (the idea that saying something makes it so), as well as the notion of anti-performatives (if I din't say it, it's not real) fascinating.  Messud’s use of language is brilliant and every character is riveting.  I don’t usually enjoy novels that portray family histories, particularly ones that are multi-generational, but this one was gripping from the opening page to the final paragraph.  I would highly recommend this literary novel if you’re in the mood for a gripping story that has you wanting to race ahead to find out where the story will lead while simultaneously wanting to read slowly, to savour each word and phrase.

That's all for tonight. Stay warm and keep reading!

Bye for now... Julie

Short post on a dreary evening...

It’s been busy this past week, and this weekend was also super-busy, as we went to see the musical “Something Rotten” in Stratford yesterday - it was excellent!  I would highly recommend it to anyone, so if you get a chance to see it, don’t pass it up!!  These past few weeks I’ve been finishing books in the middle of the week, which kind of throws me off-schedule. 

Last week I finished reading Liane Moriarty’s latest novel, Here One Moment.  If you could know your age of death and cause of death, what would you do?  Would you want to know?  And if you knew, would it change the way you lived your life?  These are just some of the questions that this novel asks readers to ponder as we’re plunged into what appears to be an elderly clairvoyant delivering age of death and cause of death proclamations to passengers on a short flight from Hobart to Sydney, held hostage in their seats as the plane is mid-flight.  Some of the passengers who receive this news are middle-aged workaholic Leo, newlywed bride Eve, eighteen-year-old Kayla, and twenty-eight-year-old flight attendant Allegra.  Initially these are not taken too seriously (but a little bit seriously), until first one death occurs at the time and in the same manner as predicted, then two more follow.  Suddenly everyone is doing their best to avoid death by the causes predicted by the "Death Lady".  But as we follow the passengers into their futures, we delve into the deep and detailed past of Cherry Lockwood, the “Death Lady” herself, and discover what has occurred in her life that would lead her to be on this flight.  I don’t want to give too much away, but it was an excellent read, and in true Moriarty fashion, the conclusion looks very different from what we are led to assume at the beginning.  We get stories from many different points of view, so also in typical Moriarty fashion, it may seem a bit confusing at first, but soon you’ll know who everyone is and also what their prediction is.  I would highly recommend this to anyone, whether you’re already a fan or new to this bestselling Australian author’s books.  I guarantee you won’t be disappointed! 

That’s all for tonight.  Have a good week and keep reading!

Bye for now... Julie