First post for September…

It’s September 1st and Labour Day Monday, and the new school year is upon us.  It’s early evening and I have to be at work tomorrow morning, but I wanted to take this opportunity to write a very, very brief post about the last two books I read.  I’m sad that I don’t have more time to talk about them because they were both awesome, but if I don’t do this now, there will be no other time for a while and by then I’ll have forgotten what the books were about!!

The first book I reread was A Sudden Light by Garth Stein.  Here’s what I said about it when I read it the first time in February, 2018:  

“I just finished the book, A Sudden Light by Garth Stein (you may be familiar with this author’s name associated with his most popular novel, The Art of Racing in the Rain, told from the point of view of a dog).  I’m not quite sure why I had A Sudden Light on my shelf, but I picked it out along with a pile of other books I know nothing about.  I decided that I needed to weed out some books, so I read the first few pages of each and either kept it or brought it to the Little Free Library that is at the end of my street.  This one I stuck with, and finished reading last night.  It is told from the point of view of Trevor, an adult looking back on the summer he was fourteen, when his father took him to his Grandpa Samuel’s estate just outside of Seattle, an estate that seemed to be suspended in time, having never moved beyond the night Samuel’s wife, Isobel, passed away, leaving their son Jones and daughter Serena motherless and in the care of Samuel.  But sixteen-year-old Jones is sent away to school shortly thereafter, leaving eleven-year-old Serena to care for drunken Samuel, causing her to feel trapped and embittered.  Nearly twenty-five years later, she wants to sell the North Estate, a crumbling mansion surrounded by 200 acres of pristine forest, and develop it into 20 lots of 10 acres each for the newly-rich to build their McMansions on, making her rich and allowing her to travel the world.  But Jones’ ancestors, in particular his great-grand-uncle Ben, had other ideas:  they wanted to return the estate to its natural state and preserve it, a repayment for the rape and pillage of so much land, as well as the exploitation of the men they employed, that made the family rich in the timber industry in the early 1900s.  Grandpa Samuel is suffering dementia, and Serena needs him to sign over power of attorney, which is where Jones comes in.  Jones and his wife Rachel are experiencing marital problems after their personal bankruptcy, and are in the midst of a trial separation, and all Trevor wants is for them to get back together and be happy again.  He believes that money is the solution, but can money truly buy happiness?  Through letters and diary entries, Trevor pieces together the intentions of his ancestors, and must struggle to reconcile his desire to stay true to his dead family's wishes and his need to try to bring his living family back together.  This sprawling, multigenerational story exploring the consequences of wealth and greed and the search for redemption, with a supernatural twist, is totally not my type of book, but it had me hooked!  Stein’s exploration into the motivations of Trevor, Serena, and to some extent Jones, was riveting, and this book reminded me in some ways of The Hunger of the Wolf by Stephen Marche, also about a wealthy, powerful American family with dark secrets, although Marche’s book was more literary, more of a “Lee Valley” book, than Stein’s “Canadian Tire” bestseller.  Still, it was an enjoyable read, and while I felt it dragged a bit, I still wanted to find opportunities to read and get to the end to find out how things are resolved.  There were also times, particularly in the first half of the book, when it reminded me of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig, probably because both books involved a father and son on a quest to discover the true meaning of value and integrity.  I would definitely recommend this book to just about anyone, as it defies categorization:  it’s part historical fiction, part ghost story, part domestic fiction, part psychological fiction, and so much more.” 

I pretty much agree with everything I said above, and it was exactly the type of book I needed as we’re facing Doug Ford’s Bill 5 here in Ontario.  I think I enjoyed it even more this second time around, although I’d forgotten about the ghost story parts. 

And the second book I read was also amazing.  Sandwich by Catherine Newman tells the story of a single week spent at a cottage in Cape Cod.  Rocky and her husband Nick have brought their children, Willa and Jamie, to this cottage every summer for the past two decades.  Now the children are adults and living their own lives, Rocky is experiencing the emotional and biological changes associated with menopause, and Rocky’s parents are getting to that age when everything causes her to worry.  Divided into days of the week, with flashbacks interspersed throughout, this book focuses on Rocky’s experiences as she deals with her empty nest and her emotionally wrought responses to everything that is happening around her, from her adult children’s life journeys to her husband’s seeming lack of biological changes with aging, while also coming to terms with her own regrets from her past.  I wish I had more time to tell you about this amazing book, sandwiched between FIC NEV and FIC NEX on the library shelves (I couldn’t resist!!), because it really, really spoke to me in a way that I could totally understand and empathize with.  I look forward to the sequel, Wreck, coming out in late-October.  I would highly recommend this to any woman who is approaching mid-life or is in the middle of this tumultuous time.  Newman nailed it, managing to pack a whole lot of insight into a very small, compact novel.  PS Even the elderly cat, Chicken, got a "speaking" part in the book, which was a delightful addition!! Every time my Riley sits on my lap, I am reminded of Chicken asking if his neck smells like cheese!!

That’s all for tonight.  Happy September, everyone!  Bring Fall on!!

Bye for now...

Julie

Short post on a perfect summer afternoon...

It’s a lovely summer afternoon, not too hot or humid, very sunny, with a mild breeze blowing through the leaves, and I have to say that these practically perfect days make me wish the summer would go on and on… but alas, this weather is impermanent, so I must just enjoy the moment. I have two books that I’ve read this week, now that all my Silver Birch reading is done (I sent in my top choices last Thursday and we have a meeting tonight to decide on the final list of nominees for 2026).  

I’ve learned to think philosophically about both life and death from two small but nonetheless powerful books.  The first is The Secret Life of a Cemetery:  the wild nature and enchanting life of Père-Lachaise by Benoît Gallot, current curator of the most famous cemetery in the world.  Located in eastern Paris, this cemetery is most well-known for being the final resting place of Jim Morrison of The Doors, but it is obviously so much more than that.  As Gallot writes, cemeteries have become more than resting places for the dead; they are also places for people to come to find peace and silence, for flora and fauna to thrive, and to offer green spaces to residents, as well as being tourist attractions and film settings.  He notes that since the ban of pesticide use in cemeteries in France in 2015, the grounds have returned to their more natural state, where wildflowers and trees spring up seemingly out of nowhere and find their place in the already-wilding setting.  He’s noted that a family of foxes call Père-Lachaise home and he’s been able to take photos of these wild furry friends which he posts on his Instagram account and which are included in the book.  He and his family live in an apartment in the cemetery overlooking the ground and he contemplates this proximity to death, deciding that it has helped him accept and feel at peace with the inevitable end to life that comes to us all, and to which many of us look with fear.  This short, historical, philosophical, whimsical, insightful book is a must-read for anyone who has already visited or hopes one day to visit this famous cemetery, as well as anyone who is interested in finding peace and joy in unexpected places. 

This search for peace led to my next book, one that has been on my personal bookshelf since last summer.  No Mud, No Lotus:  the art of transforming suffering by Thich Nhat Hanh is a brief introduction to the Buddhist teachings about suffering and ways to approach this uncomfortable emotion in a way that leads to happiness.  The saying “no mud, no lotus” basically sums up the fact that we can’t have one thing without its opposite: the mud smells bad, but is necessary to grow the lotus, which smells good.  I’m very new to the concept of mindfulness and living in the present moment, and don’t actively, consciously participate in this practice, so I was pretty much a black slate when I opened the book. When I purchased it last summer, I was very often in a state of severe anxiety and worry.  I guess I’ve come out of that on my own over the past twelve months, but it was still worth reading.  I learned many things, such as mantras like “this is a moment of happiness”; that all things are impermanent; that we all have seeds of positivity and negativity within us and we can choose to water the seeds of positivity so they can grow into positive aspects such as compassion and joy.  When I finished reading it this morning, I went out for a walk to try walking meditation and realized that I already do this, but not always, as I can be easily distracted.  I will go back and do some of the exercises and activities suggested in the book, but for now I’ve got a few tenets that I need to work on as I think about heading back to work next week (it’s easy to be peaceful and mindful when you’re on your own a lot during summer break with no schedule and no pressure to be anywhere or complete anything!). 

That’s all for today.  Get outside and enjoy these last days of summer before they’re gone! 

Bye for now… Julie

Short post on a long weekend...

I know… every weekend is a long weekend for me in the summer, but this one seems to hold greater significance because it’s heralding the end of summer, so I’m particularly grateful for the amazing weather we’ve been having and will continue to have this week, and for the opportunity to plan so many fun things in the coming weeks to make the most of the rest of the summer break. 

I had a book club meeting on Friday to discuss RF Kuang’s book Yellowface, which was a really great book club choice, as it generated amazing discussion.  June Hayward is present when her friend, best- selling author and rising star Athena Liu, dies.  Both are aspiring writers but Athena’s made it and June hasn’t yet achieved the fame which she believes she’s owed.  When circumstances create an opportunity for June, she grabs it and all her dreams seemingly come true, but at what cost?  This book gives a glimpse into the cut-throat world of writing and publishing, and everyone agreed that it would be a terrible business to be in.  None of us liked any of the characters in the book, and felt that some of the scenes made us uncomfortable, as themes of diversity and positive discrimination, as well as racism, were explored.  I found the book to be compulsively readable, and while I didn’t like June, I felt that I learned so much about the publishing industry, which I think was fairly portrayed, although I hope the reality isn’t quite as dire as Kuang suggests.  One of the questions we pondered is whether you can still enjoy a book when you don’t like the characters, and we decided that the answer is “yes, sometimes, depending on the story”.  The irony was not lost on this reader that in the story June, a white woman, is criticized for writing about Chinese labourers in WWI, but yet it’s ok for Kuang, an Asian American writer, to have as her protagonist a white woman.  Anyway, I thought this book was great… until it wasn’t, but the part that wasn’t so great was brief, so it was a totally worthwhile read and I would highly recommend this book for anyone looking for an interesting book about the publishing industry, or for anyone who enjoyed Jean Hanff Korelitz’s book The Plot. 

That’s all for today.  Get outside and enjoy every moment of this lovely day, every drop of sunshine, and every ripple of every leaf on every tree!

Bye for now... Julie

Mid-summer post...

This is the middle of my fourth week off, which means I have another four weeks to go before I head back to work, so for me it’s the middle of summer, even if I’m off by a week or so on the actual calendar.  I’ve got so many Silver Birch books to read now that this may be my last post for a couple of weeks, as I can’t talk about those books and the pressure’s on to finish them and make my final lists.  But I wanted to talk about the book we read for our Friends Book Club last week. 

The Last Party by Clare Macintosh opens with Detective Ffion Morgan waking up on New Years Day and slipping out of the arms and bed of a guy she met at a bar the night before.  She rushes home, only to be called in to investigate a suspicious death.  The body of washed up singer-turned-land developer Rhys Lloyd is found in an icy lake by some villagers in North Wales taking a New Years Day plunge, and Ffion is assigned to the case, but she’s to have a partner in this investigation:  Detective Leo Brady from the Chester Major Crimes division is also assigned to the case, as Rhys’ home, and the likely crime scene, is on the opposite shore of the lake, which is in England.  When Leo arrives at the scene, it turns out that he is the very man from whose flat Ffion was fleeing just hours earlier.  Despite these tensions, they must figure out a way to work together to solve this crime.  It appears that Rhys had no shortage of people who wanted him dead.  As owner of The Shore, a series of upscale resort-style cottages on the English side of the lake, Rhys was the target of hatred by all the residents of North Wales’ village of Cwm Coed, who opposed this destruction of the pristine land surrounding “their” lake.  They also saw this as a desecration of the land on which Rhys’ father lived, land that was meant to stay in the family but remain intact.  You see, Rhys’ family grew up in Cwm Coed and he was their big success story, a singer who acquired international fame but whose career had pretty much ended by the time of his death.  The residents of the other cottages in The Shore are also suspects, each with their own motives for killing him.  Which of these suspects (and there are a lot of them!) did it?  Will Ffion and Leo find a way to work together to solve this crime before more people are hurt?  You’ll have to read the book to find out!  This book was a bit dense, with a lot of back story and so many characters that it may at first seem difficult to keep track of them.  I actually started this book some time ago, as I enjoy Macintosh’s books, but found it to have way too much detail for me to stick with it.  But then it was selected for our book club so I had to get back to it and get to the end, and I’m so glad I did.  It was complex yet credible, with interesting characters and storylines, and so many suspects that it really kept all of us guessing to the very end.  And none of our group saw one of the “big reveals” coming, which put yet another twist into the tale.  We all agreed that there was a bit too much detail at the beginning of the book but that it was worth the effort to get to the heart of the story, and felt that it was a satisfying conclusion.  We're even considering reading the next book in the “DC Morgan” series for a future meeting (there are three in the series at this time).  If you like complex mystery/thrillers with interesting characters, lots of suspects and webs of deceit, this could be the book for you! 

That’s all for today.  Get outside and enjoy the fabulous summer day! 

Bye for now… Julie

Quick post about book club...

While my cat is contentedly watching the birdies and squirrelies at the patio door this morning, I thought I’d take a minute to write a quick post about last Saturday’s book club discussion. 

We read and discussed the YA novel The Winnowing by Canadian author Vikki Vansickle, a dystopian story set in Darby, New Mexico in 1989.  A fertility crisis happened after WWII, and with no babies being conceived anywhere in the few years after the end of the war, scientists were getting desperate.  Then a group of scientists known as the Barton Five created SuperGen, a hormone drug that was given to women wanting to get pregnant… and it worked!  But there’s something a bit unusual about these children:  when they reach adolescence, they start to have strange experiences, like vivid dreams which they refer to as “going ACES”, and they develop nearly super-human abilities, or “imps”, such as the ability to run quickly when you weren’t able to run at all before.  When this happens, these children are sent to the Barton Clinic to undergo a surgery called “winnowing”, which basically cuts these dreams and abilities from the individual’s brain, leaving them with no memory of the surgery but basically normal.  When our main character, twelve-year-old Marivic, experiences her first vivid dream, she asks her grandfather, Gumps, to bring her to Barton to join her friend Saren, who went there the night before, but he seems reluctant and has her dropped off there that night by a friend.  Marivic and Saren, along with a couple of other youths, begin to question this whole process, and what begins as a routine admission for assessment and surgery turns into the uncovering of a huge governmental conspiracy.  I’ve read this before on my own and with my student book club, but I forgot many of the details, so I was blown away once again by the excellence of this novel, especially considering Vansickle usually writes coming-of-age stories and romantic teen books.  Not all of my members loved the book, but they all finished it and we had a great discussion about so many topics.  One of the main things we discussed was how our response to things we don’t know about is often fear, when it should be curiosity, and how that’s so applicable today, especially in the US.  We compared this novel to others that we’ve read, but which I can’t tell you about for fear of giving away the big secret, and we discussed the characters of Marivic, Saren, Abbot, Ren, and others, and what roles they played in the novel.  It was a great book, and I would highly recommend this to anyone if you’re in the mood for an easy read that has a lasting impact on the way you see things. 

That’s all for today!  Enjoy this beautiful summer day! 

Bye for now…

Julie

Long overdue...

It’s official, my summer break has begun, which hopefully means more time for reading and blogging!  I didn’t really plan to write this morning, but I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity while my cat sits in front of the open patio door watching the birds and squirrels to tell you about two books I read recently. 

The first is the latest book by Lisa Jewell and a total departure from her usual domestic thrillers, Breaking the Dark, the first in the “Jessica Jones” series.  In case you, like me, have never heard of Jessica Jones, she’s a minor superhero in the Marvel comics.  In this novel, she’s been disgraced and is now living in New York as a private investigator, stumbling from one day to the next and one drunken night to the next.  When she’s contacted by a distraught mother who is convinced her twin teens, recently returned from a month in the English countryside with their father, have been replaced, Jessica nearly doesn’t take the case, but after looking at photos of the kids with their flawless skin and vacant eyes, she reluctantly accepts.  Jessica goes undercover and travels to the small village where their father lives, where she finds that all is not what it seems and she’s drawn into the dark, duplicitous world of an online influencer whose dirty little secret needs to be revealed before more people are killed in the name of perfection.  I don’t want to give anything away because, while this story is totally far-fetched, it’s actually not as unbelievable as it may at first seem, and the best part about the book is the slow reveal of each piece of the puzzle until it forms the whole picture.  It was not the kind of book I would normally read but it was so well-written that it had me gripped from the opening pages to the final paragraph. 

The next book I read was one I picked up from a Little Free Library in my neighbourhood, which had a really interesting cover. Self-Portrait with Boy by Rachel Lyon tells the story of an artist in New York trying to make it in the early ‘90s.  Lu Rile is a photographer who is literally a starving artist, as she works part-time at a Whole Foods and is just managing to survive by stealing food from her workplace so she can not spend money for food in order to pay her rent.  She lives in an old abandoned factory with a bunch of other artists, and while these are not official apartments, the owner of the building continues to charge rent but refuses to offer even the most basic maintenance.  She needs a big break, and has been taking self-portraits every day for over a year.  At the start of the novel, she’s setting up for Self-Portrait #399 in her run-down apartment, a photo of her leaping in front of her window to simulate flying, but what she also catches in the faintest image of a boy falling from the roof, the young son of the artist couple who lives on the floor above her.  It’s a brilliant photo, the kind of photo that could launch her career as an artist and get her taken seriously in the artistic community, but how can she exploit her neighbours’ grief and tragedy?  This dilemma is made more difficult as she becomes close to Kate, the boy’s mother, while she navigates her grief.  To complicate things even further, the owner of the building wants to sell and is trying to force everyone out, but some of the artists have been there for decades and feel they have legitimate squatters’ rights to remain.  And Lu needs money to help her elderly father with his cataract surgery.  Lu’s moral struggles are mirrored by the deterioration of the building in which she lives, and I as the reader was pulled down into the depths of this ethical dilemma. And even as I knew what the outcome would be, I travelled the winding road to reach this final decision along with Lu.  And while I may not agree with her choices, when considering her situation and putting myself in her shoes, it was a sobering moment when I realized that I may have made the same choice, too.  I found this book to be extremely engaging, the type of book I would certainly have enjoyed reading when I was in my twenties and trying to make a go of things in Toronto, but I was still able to relate to Lu even decades after moving on from those years of struggle.  It was a coming-of-age story and a look at the effects of gentrification, and offered real insight into the struggles that artists face when trying to break into the market, to get recognition for their work and make a living doing what they love instead of working menial jobs to make ends meet.  I really enjoyed it and would never have discovered this little gem if not for the Free Little Library, one of many in my neighbourhood.  So if you’re passing one of these little libraries, it’s always a good idea to check the contents… you never know what might be inside! 

That’s all for today!  Have a wonderful rest of the week and remember to keep reading!

Bye for now... Julie

Short post on a Monday evening...

It’s after 8pm and I’m settling in for the evening, but I wanted to take advantage of this cat-free time (Riley is too busy watching the birdies and squirrellies from the open patio door to want to sit on my lap) to tell you very briefly about the amazing book I finished reading yesterday. 

My book club will meet on Saturday to discuss Women Talking by award-winning Canadian author Miriam Toews, and while I’ll admit that I’m not a huge fan of this author’s novels, I thought this one was stellar, so powerful, disturbing, insightful, and ultimately hopeful.  This novel centres on a group of women in a fictional Mennonite colony in Bolivia who have been systematically drugged and raped over the course of years.  The offending men have been moved to a city jail for their own protection but will be released on bail in just a couple of days, so the women meet in a farm hayloft to discuss their options for how to proceed.  They can neither read nor write, and they don't speak the language of the country they live in, but an archaic dialect of low German, and yet they must discuss their future and decide on a plan of action. They have three options:  Do Nothing, Stay and Fight, or Leave.  Their discussion, as recorded by one of their ex-communicated brothers, is presented in this novel, which the author states is “both a reaction through fiction to… true-life events, and an act of female imagination”.  This novel was inspired by real events which occurred in the Manitoba Colony in Bolivia from about 2005-2009.  The fact that these events took place at all, and continued to take place even after the offenders were jailed, is horrifying and deeply disturbing, but these are remote communities completely isolated from the rest of the country and basically left alone and ignored by the government, so things are obviously allowed to happen under the cover of secrecy.  This book brings to light these events, although this is a fictionalized version of the story of these very real, very tormented victims of an authoritarian patriarchal community.  As beautifully written as it was disturbing, this brilliant, sparse, yet deeply moving novel is a must-read for any serious readers of fine Canadian literature.  But be warned that the subject matter is serious and some scenes may be disturbing to some readers and evoke personal trauma.  I loved, loved, loved this book and am very happy to have added it to our book club list, or it may have gone unread by me forever.  This doesn’t do the book or the story justice, but I have to close now, as it’s nearing my bedtime. 

Take care and enjoy the warmer days ahead!

Bye for now... Julie

Short summaries of a few books on a bright sunny Sunday morning…

It’s been a while since I’ve written, and I have three books to talk about today, so I’m really only going to give short summaries and comments about each one, as I have lots still to do today and want to take advantage of the lovely sunny weather.  Unfortunately, I won't be doing justice to any of these amazing books, so you'll just have to read them for yourself!

The first book I want to mention is The Death of Us by Abigail Dean.  This novel tells the story of a survivor of a serial killer known as the South London Invader, and explores the lifelong impact this crime has had on her life and marriage, and on the lives of other survivors.  This book is told in a series of flashbacks and traces the history of the marriage of Isabelle and Edward from their initial meeting to their marriage, then their attack and the subsequent dissolution of their marriage. These flashbacks are also interspersed with present-day chapters as the serial killer is being sentenced, and victim impact statements are being read.  I loved this book because it explored the continued impact of the attack on a victim, a survivor and maybe someone we might view as one of the “lucky ones”, because unless we’ve been there ourselves, we can’t know how such an attack could traumatize us and change our lives.  It also focused on the evasion of capture of the attacker, someone who moved from rape and torture to murder, and how each new crime reopened the wounds that may have begun to heal for past victims, making it impossible for them to move on.  I also thought that the way the author portrayed Isabelle and Edward was perfect, having Isabelle’s chapters written in the first person and speaking directly to the rapist/murderer, while Edward’s chapters were written in the third person, thereby distancing him from the crime, or at least that’s what it seemed like to me.  I would highly recommend this book if you enjoy complex mysteries, but this is not a traditional courtroom drama or a police procedural. Rather, it is a hybrid that is also a psychological exploration of two individuals who are at once lovers, victims and strangers. 

The next book I want to mention is The Last Flight by Julie Clark, which is the book my Friends Book Club will be discussing tomorrow night.  I just finished reading it about 15 minutes ago and I really enjoyed it.  This book tells the story of Eva and Claire, two women who need to disappear for different reasons.  They meet at JFK seemingly at random and decide to swap plane tickets, neither woman knowing what they are walking into by taking on the other woman’s identity.  Told in alternating chapters, what unfolds is the history of one woman and the future of the other, leading to a satisfying ending that neatly ties up all loose ends, and that was, while not entirely surprising for this reader, at least complex enough to keep me interested until the very last paragraph.  I don't want to tell you too much, because part of the thrill of this book is the way the author carefully reveals the details of each woman's life and future. I think it would make a great movie, and I can’t wait to hear what my book club members think about it. 

And the last book I’ll mention is How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley, a book that my Volunteer Book Club discussed yesterday (so many book clubs, so little time!!).  I was unable to get a print copy in time so I listened to the audiobook and flew through it in just a few days.  This delightful novel tells the story of an unlikely group of seniors and a few young people, all with interesting, unique backstories, who come together to save their community centre from destruction in order to build luxury condos.  Daphne, Anna, Ruby, Art, Lydia, Ziggy and Lucky are just a few of the interesting characters we meet in this book that explores the invisibility of seniors in our society and suggests ways to exploit this to full advantage.  Since this book club is made up of seniors, we could all relate to it and everyone loved it.  We thought that, while it was over-the-top and unbelievable, it was so engaging and the characters so fun and likable that it was a great read.  This book came to my attention last summer when I was visiting an old friend.  On the last day of my trip, she took me to the Prairie Oak bookstore, a beautiful independent bookstore and restaurant in Winnipeg.  While we were browsing the shelves, she pointed out this book, with its bright, colourful, engaging cover, and I thought it would be perfect for my book group, which it was.  So thank you for bringing this book to my attention, Michelle!  It was one of the best books we’ve read this year. 

That’s all for today.  Get outside and enjoy the sunshine! 

Bye for now… Julie

While Riley’s sleeping somewhere else…

I thought I’d take advantage of this small window of opportunity while Riley is sleeping somewhere else to write a quick post.  I’ve been trying to read Silver Birch books one week then a book of my choice the next week, alternating as often as I can whenever possible.  Last week I flew through the newest book by Canadian lawyer-author Robert Rotenberg, a spy thriller called One Minute More.  Set in 1988, just days before the G7 Summit meeting in Toronto, the Metro Toronto Police Chief gets a tip that there will be an assassination attempt on the world leaders, so he sends Detective Ari Green to check out the cross-border Fourth of July parade in a sleepy Quebec-Vermont area.  What he thinks is a long shot turns out to be 100% accurate, but with nothing much to go on, Green searches for a clue to two sudden deaths that look like natural causes but are very likely linked to this tip.  What follows is a wild ride told from various characters’ perspectives and count down to the very minute of the G7 leaders’ appearance on the balcony of University of Toronto’s prestigious Hart House.  It was truly unputdownable, and an interesting way for Roterberg to give a whole detailed backstory to one of the main characters in his series.  I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it if you want something fast-paced, a story that will pull you along and keep you up late reading well past your bedtime - make sure you have ample reading time each time you pick it up! 

That’s all for now.  Take care and Happy (post) Easter!

Bye for now... Julie

It's been a while...

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written, but it’s due to a combination of things:  work has been rather chaotic with some unpleasant issues I’ve been caught up in dealing with, leaving me feeling drained, as well as being that time again when I start reading Silver Birch nominee contenders, which I can’t tell you about.  I also blame Riley, as he wants to sit on my lap any time I’m in my reading chair, impeding my ability to type.  Now it’s nearly 8pm and I’m finally sitting down (without Riley!) after a long and busy day, so this will be brief, although I have two books to mention. 

The first is my book club selection for today’s meeting, The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo.  This Reese Witherspoon Book Club recommendation clocked in at 859 pages in my large-print library copy, which is daunting even when there’s nothing else going on.  However, I persevered and got through it and found that, once I reached the end, it was actually all worth it.  This books tells the multi-generational story of Marilyn and David Sorenson, a couple who met and married young and had daughter after daughter after daughter and did their best to raise them all and keep their marriage going and keep their sanity.  They seem to have the perfect, idyllic relationship and family, but no family is perfect and this one is no exception, containing a fairly complex level of dysfunction for just about all members.  David and Marilyn have reached the stage when finally, after their last, late daughter has moved out, they are officially empty-nesters… which lasts about five minutes because an unexpected guest is thrust upon them, a heretofore unknown member of the family who turns up (mostly) unexpectedly and shakes up the already fragile relationships between parents and children, sister and sister, husband and wife, and mother and father.  I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll stop the summary here.  I will say that all of the members of the book club thought this was far too long, that we didn’t need so much back-story for every character, including each of the four daughters as well as Marilyn and David, and the unexpected visitor.  It was also confusing, as it flipped back and forth in time, not only for one story line but for all of them!  My book club members didn’t love this book, but it generated such great conversation that, by the end of our time, we agreed that it may have been “the most fun we ever had”. 

I also finished a super-quick, super-creepy read this morning, We Are Watching by Alison Gaylin, a combination cult/apocalyptic/horror/conspiracy thriller centred around a family who may be the target of conspiracy theorists convinced that they are not just members of a Satanic cult but that the grandfather, former 70s-rock-band member Nathan Russo, may be the leader of said cult.  This book opens with Meg and Justin driving their daughter Lily to university when a tan Mazda carrying several skinheads distracts Meg by peering out their windows, ogling them and trying to film them.  Meg loses control of the vehicle and Justin dies as a result of the accident.  A few months later, Meg returns to work at the Secret Garden, her bookstore that was a gift from her parents when she and Justin agreed to take it over decades earlier, after Nathan stopped playing and became something of a recluse. But her first day back is anything but peaceful.  She finds creepy comments under her Facebook posts, then a strange customer behaves bizarrely in the children’s section, muttering threats and curses under her breath while seemingly searching for or trying to confirm something.  Meg doesn’t really think much about it until strange things begin happening to Lily as well, and she begins to come around to her father’s way of thinking that they are always being watched.  When a major incident occurs at the Secret Garden, she can’t deny the possibility that her father may have been right all these years, and she begins to also understand how difficult it is to carry on living your life when you don’t know who to trust.  This was an unputdownable bit of something different, as I don’t read many conspiracy theory/doomsday/apocalypse books.  Come to think of it, a few titles come to mind that I’ve read and enjoyed, like The Leftovers by Tom Perotta and  The Rapture by Liz Jensen.  This one reminded me of The Rapture meets Rosemary’s Baby.  Anyway, it’s not one I would necessarily recommend to everyone, but it was exactly what I needed.  Now I’ve got to read some more Silver Birch contenders, so I may not write for a while. 

That’s all for tonight.  Happy Spring!

Bye for now...Julie

Quick post on a sunny, springlike Thursday morning...

It’s a rare moment when my cat is not sitting on me, but this won’t last so I thought I’d write a quick post about the excellent book I read last week who;e I still have free movement of both my arms! 

I read Susan Rieger’s novel Like Mother, Like Mother, a book I first noticed when I was wandering around an Indigo store during the Christmas break.  I got it from the library and picked it up from my pile, unsure of whether I would like it or not, but it sucked me in and kept me hooked until the very last, very satisfying page.  It tells the story of three generations of Pereira women, beginning with Lila, the youngest of three children growing up in Detroit in the 1960s in the care of an abusive father and a mother who has been committed to a mental institution.  Lila grows up to become a strong, independent female reporter, then executive editor of the newspaper for which she works.  To outsiders, she appears to be a success story, but she knows she’s always been lacking in the motherhood department.  As a mother of three daughters, she never worried about her two oldest, Stella and Ava, born so close together that they were practically twins, and nicknamed “the Starbirds”.  But her youngest daughter Grace, born so much later than the others, has always been a concern for Lila.  She left the parenting responsibilities to her husband Joe, who filled the role beautifully, but it wasn’t the same as having a mother who would attend PTA meetings and graduations and eat dinner with the family regularly.  When Grace eventually publishes a bestselling novel loosely based on her experiences growing up with a distant mother, she realizes how little she actually knows about her, and she goes on a quest to find out the truth that lies below the stories she and Lila have been told.  This book was fantastic!  I don’t want to give anything away, since part of the fun was digging into and peeling back the complex layers of family relationships and experiences slowly, one layer at a time, until the characters, and you the reader, finally reach the core.  Oh, here comes my cat, so I better end now, but I’ll close by saying, “Read this book!” 

Bye for now… Julie

Dr Seuss birthday post...

It’s Dr Seuss’ birthday today and, despite what you might think of his more controversial books, he was an iconic writer, many of whose children’s books are beloved even today.  I actually don’t have a post for today, as last week I read some Silver Birch contenders, which I can’t talk about, but “Dr Seuss birthday post” sounded better than “Another no-post post”.  Anyway, I have nothing to write about for this week, but I hope to tell you about a so-far fantastic book I’m reading right now, Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger. 

More on that later…  Happy Dr Seuss Day!!

Bye for now… Julie

Last post for February...

It’s early on a Sunday evening, the last weekend of February, and I’m just settling down to start reading Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly for my book club meeting next Saturday in celebration of Black History Month.  Today is also the first day of Freedom to Read Week, my favourite week of the year.  I actually forgot to use my Banned Books mug this morning, as I was just so busy baking for our Bake for the Animals Bake Sale fundraiser for the Humane Society tomorrow, as well as getting ready for the week, but I’m bringing my mug to work and will use it every day. 

I just have time to quickly tell you about a book I flew through last weekend, Storm Child by Michael Robotham.  This is the latest in the “Cyrus Haven” series by this British/Australian author, but it actually came out last summer and has been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read for about six months.  The reason I decided to pick it up now is because I knew I would be receiving an Advanced Readers Copy of Robotham’s newest book, White Crow, from the publisher soon (it arrived on Friday!!  WOO HOO!!) and I wanted to be ready to read it as soon as I had the chance.  Turns out that White Crow is not a “Cyrus Haven” book, but the second in another series featuring Detective Philomena McCormack.  Anyway, the main premise at the centre of Storm Child is the treatment of illegal immigrants and refugees, particularly those arriving on British shores in unauthorized boats.  Forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven is still caring for Evie Cormac, the young girl found hiding in the walls of an abandoned house after the murder of an organized criminal nearly a decade earlier.  Once she aged out of the foster system, Cyrus took her in, since she’d already been under his care for a few years.  She needed somewhere to live and he could offer her a safe place, and it seems to be working out, not without the occasional challenge, but nothing could have prepared Cyrus for the relapse she experiences one day as, during an afternoon at the beach, the body of a young boy washes up on the beach and Cyrus carries him onto the shore, provoking an episode of PTSD for Evie.  She, too, was an Albanian refugee who lost her mother and sister on their journey to what they thought was a safer country.  She can only remember bits and pieces of her past, but this sudden unfortunate turn of events brings back a cascade of memories.  Cyrus is concerned that remembering too much too quickly might be detrimental to her progress, but it’s not for him to decide, and faced with seventeen dead bodies and the possibility that the boat was intentionally rammed, making these deaths cases of murder, not accidents, Cyrus and Evie must help with the investigation.  But as the investigation deepens and more international organizations are contacted, the possibility that they, too, could become targets increases, and they must decide how best to help while still staying alive.  This book was so good that I flew through it in about three days.  It was so well written and detailed, and the story was so complex and well-researched, that I have been raving about Michael Robotham to anyone and everyone at work, trying to get more people turned on to his books.  I've liked all his series so far, from the Professor Joseph O’Loughlin series and Detective Ruiz series (haven’t read all of these ones) to the Cyrus Haven and Detective Philomena McCormack novels.  If you haven’t read Robotham before, I would highly recommend that you give him a try.  

That’s all for tonight.  Stay warm and read a Banned or Challenged Book!!!

Bye for now... Julie

Short post on a long Family Day weekend...

It’s been very snowy and blustery recently, but the sun is out now and everything looks like a winter wonderland, which I don’t mind at all (but not everyone is in agreement with me, I’m sure!).  I read an interesting book last week and finished a fabulous audiobook as well. 

I read a recommendation that came up in an “If you like…” list for One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon, which I didn’t just like, I loved!  Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half centres around twin girls, Desiree and Stella Vignes, and follows their lives from childhood to adulthood and motherhood, and the very different paths they follow.  Growing up in the deep south in the 1950s in the not-quite-small-town of Mallard, a place settled by their great-great-great grandfather, who wanted to found an all-black community which strove to produce lighter- and lighter-skinned residents.  These twins were so light-skinned they could pass for white, and when, at 16, they escaped the dead-end town and moved to New Orleans, that’s exactly what one of them does.  The other marries a man whose skin was as dark as possible.  They’ve taken different paths, led separate lives, lost touch and refused to reconnect, but somehow their lives intersect once again and readers follow their journey to possible reconciliation.  This was a good book, a page-turner that explores the question of what it means to be black.  Is it more than just a matter of skin colour?  And if so, what else?  With multiple narrators and storylines that are interwoven, this novel is sure to make you think even as you turn page after page until the final satisfying paragraph.  I really enjoyed this book that I would never have read if not for that (library?  Indigo?  Google?) list of recommendations. 

And I finished listening to the very long but very good The Women by Kristin Hannah.  This novel centres around the experiences of women, in particular Frankie McGrath, and her family before, during and after the Vietnam war.  I really don’t want to give anything away, and most people know about this book, as it’s ranked as the #1 most requested book by public libraries for 2024, so I’ll say no more except that it was amazing.  I loved the characters, the writing, the fast-paced yet thought-provoking storyline… it was a hit for me from beginning to end, and, if you haven’t read it, I would highly recommend reading or listening to this brilliant book. 

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

Bye for now... Julie 

Super-quick post on a Sunday evening...

I’m posting while I hide in the bathroom, because my kitty just wants to sit on my lap whenever I’m in my reading chair.  Since I don’t want to miss another week, and this is the only place he won’t follow me, I have no choice, as uncomfortable as it is to type in here.  *sigh* 

My Volunteer Book Club met last weekend to discuss Rainbow Rowell’s Slow Dance, a love story to put us in the mood for Valentine’s Day.  It’s a story about Shiloh and Carey, who met in high school and have been best friends for years, although everyone thinks they’re made for each other, including their other best friend, Mikey.  After high school, they go their separate ways, he into the Navy and she into work with a community theatre.  Fast forward 15 years and they are reunited at Mikey’s second wedding… but have they grown up enough to weather the obstacles that they will inevitably meet?  And do they want the same things?  It’s no spoiler to let you know that they do in fact end up together in the end, but my book club members were very frustrated, particularly with Shiloh, as she is a classic over-thinker, sabotaging every opportunity to work things out with Carey.  They all thought Carey was incredibly patient, and while they didn’t love the book, they agreed that their relationship had to take this course in order to survive, thus the apt title of Slow Dance.  I have to say that I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it at all, but I loved it!  If my favourite film, “When Harry Met Sally”, was a book, it would be this one.  I agree that Shiloh was frustrating, but that was just the way she was.  We actually talked about the fact that the family situations for both Carey and Shiloh were not ones we find explored in books very often, nor do we encounter characters like these frequently.  I think this book would have been better suited to readers in their 20s or 30s, but I’m so glad I read it. 

I also read Kelley Armstrong’s YA psychological thriller, Someone is Always Watching, about a group of teens who attend an elite school run by the company their parents work for.  Blythe, Gabi, Tucker and Tanya feel privileged, until the day Gabi mutters something about the cameras always watching, and that her parents are dead, not at home waiting for her.  Soon after, Blythe discovers Gabi in the school office during after-school detention with the principal’s dead body in front of her and his blood all over her.  But once she recovers from her “concussion”, she can’t quite remember this episode, and life goes on as usual.  But flickers of that scene flit across her memory. Gabi also seems to be going through some kind of psychotic break, and is taken to a hospital to recover.  Unable to talk to Gabi or find out where she is, she relies on Tucker and Tanya to help uncover the truth about their school and their parents, and in the process find the truth about themselves.  This was a real page-turner, with plenty of plot twists and details to keep you guessing until the finally shocking, yet satisfying, conclusion.  It was a great read to bridge the gap between book club book and new Silver Birch contenders.

Oh, Riley just came up looking for me, so I guess I have to go. Stay warm and have a great evening!

Bye for now... Julie 

Super-quick post on a late Sunday afternoon...

I’ve only got time to list the books I’ve read over the past two weeks and some quick summaries, as I’ve got a hefty book to start for our book club meeting next Saturday, which I’m hoping I’ll have time to finish. 

The first book I want to tell you about is the latest historical novel by Ariel Lawhon, Code Name Hélène, which was amazing.  This novel is based on the wartime experiences of Nancy Wake, a young Australian woman who became a member of the British Special Operations Executives, and in February 1944, was parachuted into the heart of the Nazi-occupied France and the Resistance, whose task it was to train these Maquis and provide them with arms and supplies to fight against a German invasion.  Nancy began this journey when, nearly a decade earlier, she bluffed her way into a reporting job with Hearst newspapers while living in Paris.  She discovered the atrocities of the Nazi presence in Vienna and couldn’t let go of the feeling that she must do something to set things right and make these horrors end, even after she met wealthy businessman and renowned playboy Henri Fiocca and fell in love.  This novel, told in two strands (as is usually this author’s chosen storytelling method), gives us the present and the past, two storylines that don’t run parallel, but come closer and closer together until they meet as we reach the conclusion of the book.  But Lawhon doesn’t stop at the conclusion - she also provides copious historical notes and explains how this story came to be inspired and finally written.  While the timeline was sometimes a bit confusing to follow, and while it was so incredibly detailed that it was a bit overlong, it was still a fantastic read and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in stories about strong women in history.  My Friends Book Club discussed this last week and we all thought it was amazing that this was actually based on a real person’s experiences during the war. 

The book I just finished reading this morning is the latest mystery by British author Fiona Barton, Talking to Strangers.  I’ve always enjoyed Barton’s books, and this is a second in what may be a new series featuring DI Elise King (the first is Local Gone Missing, which I have upstairs on my shelf but haven’t yet read).  As in her previous series, this story is told from mainly two points of view, that of DI Elise King and also of Kiki Nunn, a reporter with the local newspaper.  When the body of Karen Simmons, a local hairdresser, is found dead in the woods, DI King is called to investigate.  But with no leads and not much to go on, she struggles to find a way forward with the case.  Fortunately local reporter Kiki Nunn is also “on the case”, and is following leads that take her into the depths, and dangers, of online dating.  Karen’s murder also stirs up memories for Annie Curtis, a woman who never got over the murder of her son Archie in the same woods sixteen years earlier.  Could these two cases be connected, and if so, how?  And are there other dangers that go along with talking to strangers besides murder?  Are we all vulnerable?  And if so, how do we stay safe?  Although this was a murder mystery and Barton successfully weaves together the two cases, past and present, what struck me about this book was that it was really about our vulnerabilities, and how (some) men prey on unsuspecting women with no remorse.  It was pretty good, but not as good as er earlier books, like The Widow and The Suspect.  still, it was a quick read, a page-turner that kept me (sort of) guessing until the final twist.

That's all for today. Stay warm and keep reading! Bye for now... Julie