What are we Reading now? (January-June, 2022)

I'm starting the year with Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

>1 LynnB: A great read!

Not sure what I'll pick up today. I may try to make more headway on The Ringed Castle, by Dorothy Dunnett, with the idea that if I start off the year reading big fat historical fiction, I'll want to read more of it (there's a lot of it on my shelves).

I'm reading Bridehead Revisited and the very intellectual The Christmas She Married the Playboy - my best friend requested a full review on the latter: lol!

Haven't resumed The Ringed Castle yet, but I have started (and already read about 80 pages of) DreadfulWater, by Thomas King. I really enjoyed A Matter of Malice last year and am now going back to the beginning of the series.

Happy New Year to all. My first book completed in 2022 is The Reinvention of Love by Helen Humphreys. I usually love her books, but this one never really grabbed at me.

I'm reading The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton who is becoming one of my favourite authors.

Happy New Year fellow Canadians! I am reading Joyland and then will read Babylon's Ashes. I have If Beale Street Could Talk out from the library, so I will start that soon as well. I am in a group read for War and Peace on Reddit, and in a buddy-read for Middlemarch. Lastly, I am reading a Canadian classic (IMO) Our Man Weston with my younger daughter which will be the third read for me (previously as a teen and then with my older daughter a few years ago).

Added non-fiction to my reading diet: working on The Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the Discovery of DNA's Double Helix, by Howard Markel.

Forgiveness / Mark Sakamoto
4 stars

Mark Sakamoto’s grandparents were on two different sides of WWII. His maternal grandfather fought in the war and was captured and spent years as a prisoner of war, first in Hong Kong, then in Japan. Mark’s paternal grandmother, a Japanese-Canadian, and her family lost their home and livelihood in BC and were sent to rural Alberta to farm. Mark and his brother were born and raised in Medicine Hat, Alberta. After Mark’s parents marriage ended, his mother had a really hard time (to put it lightly, but trying not to give too much away in my summary).

The summaries of this book make it sound like it’s all WWII, but it’s not. I found the book to be an entire biography of his grandparents, then his own – with a focus on his relationship with his mom. I really liked this. A little “bonus” for me was that Mark’s wife is from Assiniboia, Sask, a small town about 45 minutes from the town I grew up in.

I'm going to start one of my Christmas gifts, The Most Precious Substance on Earth by Shashi Bhat.

Just finished my book club's selection for this month: The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney and was not impressed. Though it was well written, I was quickly bored by the unlikeable and unrelatable characters.

Getting ready to start The Journeying Boy, by Michael Innes. A mystery novel involving scientists is a nice segue from the non-fiction I was reading in >8 rabbitprincess:.

I've finished Manifeste céleste by Canadian Pattie O'Green and picking up L'automne du patriarche by Gabriel Garcia Marquez as part of the Boxall 1001 Book List.

I'm reading Nerve: A Personal Journey through the Science of Fear by Eva Holland.

Recently started The White Ship, by Charles Spencer, about the incident in which Henry I's only legitimate male heir died in a shipwreck.

I'm reading The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi

Just finished one in Sophie Hannah's continuing of the Hercules Poirot mysteries. This one was Three Quarters of a Mystery, and while it wasn't bad by any means, it wasn't great either.

No attention span today, so a comic book did the trick: Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, Vol. 1: Revolutions of Terror, written by Nick Abadzis and illustrated by Elena Casagrande and Arianna Florian.

I'm reading 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality by Bob Joseph.

I took a quick detour with Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. I didn't think it lived up to the hype. A good read in a snow storm through.

Still not much of an attention span today, so I put on an audio: The Mysterious Affair at Styles, by Agatha Christie, read by Hugh Fraser.

I also got back into Tigerman, by Nick Harkaway, which I'd intended to borrow from my brother but which the library had in ebook form.

I finished reading what I think is a Canadian YA classic, Our Man Weston by Gordon Korman to my younger daughter. Not sure what we will read next. Maybe Hollow City? Personally, I am reading Babylon's Ashes in the Expanse series for my fiction book, and We are the Nerds for my non-fiction book.

>19 LynnB: I am interested in hearing about that book. I took the "Indigenous Canada" course from the University of Alberta this summer / fall, and what I learned about the Indian Act didn't make me feel very good.

>22 robertwmartin:: Personally, I didn't learn much about the Indian Act that I didn't already know. Which isn't a bad thing...there should be more Canadians who understand the extent of Colonialism, as well as its ongoing effects. The examples and explanations of various Indian Act provisions is well written and an excellent reference.

The parts of the book I gained the most from dealt with challenges in dismantling the Indian Act. I got a better understanding of why some First Nations are leery of doing so. I enjoyed the chronology of residential schools and finally read the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

A very important book!

I'm loving Humans by Brandon Stanton.

Jonny Appleseed / Joshua Whitehead
2 stars

Not really much of a story to this – Jonny is a gay indigenous boy growing up on the rez, and he moves to Winnipeg when he gets older, where he becomes a prostitute (my mistake – apparently not a prostitute, but a cybersex worker).

It was not in chronological order, and it was quite sexually graphic at times. The author narrated the audio – I rarely lost focus, but he did have a monotone voice. Turns out there might have been more of a “plot” than I thought (although, still kind of flimsy, I think), so maybe I did miss more than I thought. For some reason, I had it in my head that indigenous 2-spirit people were more accepted in indigenous cultures than gay people in white cultures, but (at least in this book) that doesn’t appear to be the case.

I've just started Fight Night by Miriam Toews

Finished up Tigerman and a Doctor Who novel, Ten Little Aliens, by Stephen Cole.

I should probably finish up The White Ship, by Charles Spencer; it's due back at the library in 3 days and I can't renew it.

Ghost Stories of Saskatchewan 3 / Jo-Anne Christensen
4 stars

This is the third book of Saskatchewan ghost stories written by this author. This one had a few chapters that were a bit different, though. In addition to the ghost stories from around the province, she interviewed a few groups of ghost hunters based in Saskatchewan.

This had me scared enough – when reading by myself at night – to not head down to the basement after reading, before bed, to scoop the cat’s litter box down there! The chapters on the ghost hunters was unexpected, but surprisingly interesting. Although (sadly), none of the ghost stories were really near where I grew up, I quite liked this one.

I'm starting Saga Boy: My Life of Blackness and Becoming by Antonio Michael Downing

A Tap on the Window / Linwood Barclay
4.25 stars

On a dark rainy night, when PI Cal Weaver has a teenage girl knock on his window asking for a ride, he hesitates. But the girl knows his son (his son who died not long ago – via drugs that made him think he could fly… he tried to fly), so Cal feels he can’t refuse (and hopes maybe she can answer some questions for him).

When the girl, Claire, and her friend Hanna do a switch when Claire gets out of the car to use a washroom (Hanna is dressed to look like Claire), it’s not long before Cal figures out it’s not the same girl. But, Hanna refuses to answer questions on what they are doing and tries to jump out of the car. With reservations, Cal decides it’s better to let her out of the car than to have her jump out while the car is moving. The next day, he discovers Claire – the first girl – is missing. And it gets worse...

I really liked this (like most of Barclay’s books). It might not have been as fast paced as some of them, but in the wrap up, there were a couple of surprises, along with a couple of twists to go along with it. With the occasional short chapter from the POV of the “bad guy”, so to speak, I had a guess as to who it was, but I was wrong. To be honest, there is a lot more going on in this book – police corruption and a “fight” with the mayor, Cal and his wife trying to heal, and more.

I finished The Happy Isles of Oceania by Paul Theroux, an interesting if cynical, account of the author's kayaking trip.
I also read Where We Belong by Emily Giffin, which I found trite and dull.

Ended up taking The White Ship back to the library unfinished. Instead, I'll visit Galloway: Life in A Vanishing Landscape.

I'm reading All That Remains by Colin Brezicki.

Getting ready to start This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal el-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.

>34 rabbitprincess: I loved that book!

I started Moon of the Crusted Snow yesterday. Well, I read the first twenty pages a few months ago but had to return the book to the library, so technically I *re*started it yesterday. I am really liking it (again) and am looking forward to finishing it this time.

Read a suspense novel this week, described by reviewers as '"rural noir", called Pickard County Atlas by Chris Harding Thornton. Though I thought it well written with realistic characters, I just wasn't in the right frame of mind this week for such a dismal, depressing storyline.

I've picked up Home by Marilynne Robinson... I'm not quite sure how I feel about it yet. It's definitely deft writing. (That last sentence sounds weird.)

Brian's Return / Gary Paulsen
3 stars

This fourth book in the series has Brian back at home in the city, but longing to be back in nature and really not fitting in. He manages to convince his counsellor and his mom that he should head back out to the wilderness.

This one was super short, so only about ½ of it was in the wilderness. Which for me is the most interesting part. Also, very unrealistic – to think the adults would let him go back on his own (he was supposed to be meeting up with someone, but how come an adult didn’t accompany him that far?). I did find the author’s note at the end very interesting, though.

>35 Yells: I ended up loving it too! :)

****

Next up I'm reading The Heron's Cry, by Ann Cleeves.

>40 rabbitprincess: Yay! I thought it was a uniquely clever book. It had elements of other favourite books in it, but it wasn’t a plot that I had read before. Glad you liked it too!

I'm reading But What If We're Wrong: Thinking About the Present as if it Were the Past by Chuck Klosterman

>42 LynnB: I read the Klosterman book last year. It made me think a lot about what we do in the present that will seem preposterous in the future. I will be interested in hearing your thoughts.

I'm reading Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World by Laura Spinney

Just finished a weird and very disturbing (especially for me, a long time dog lover and owner) novel: The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. I wanted to like it, and there is some excellent writing, and perhaps the symbolism went over my head, but I didn't like much at all, especially the ending.

>45 ted74ca: I hear you. That book still gives me the shivers years after I read it. It took me a lot of time before I read anything by him again for fear of An Ending Like That.

I detoured from Ann Cleeves to read Emily Carr: Life and Work, by Lisa Baldissera.

After a quick detour into Comfort Read Land (McNally's Trial, by Lawrence Sanders), I am picking up some non-fiction: Volcanoes: A Very Short Introduction.

>48 rabbitprincess: I picked up McNally's Secret on sale from Kobo a couple weeks back. Looking forward to trying out the series.

>49 robertwmartin: Nice! I hope you like it!

I have to start reading something other than dark and disturbing novels! This week's read was a psychological suspense debut novel: The Push by Ashley Audrain. I actually really liked it, but it does explore subjects such as nature vs. nurture, motherhood in modern society, the nature of evil, the effects of grief, and the loss of a child so not exactly mood lifting material.

I'm enjoying The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another by Ainissa Ramirez.

Getting ready to start flipping through The Law Book, another DK Big Ideas Simply Explained book. I'm balancing it with The Moving Target, by Ross Macdonald.

>52 LynnB: That looks super interesting!

I've managed to wade through Home by Marilynne Robinson.

I've picked up Le Petit Nicolas voyage by Sempé and Goscinny because with everything happening in Ottawa I need a good laugh.

I'm also reading Moi, Tituba sorcière by Maryse Condé, a Guadeloupe-born French writer, in honour of Black History Month.

>54 Cecilturtle: It was very interesting in the way it looked at everyday things in new ways.

I've started Possessing Genius: The Bizarre Odyssey of Einstein's Brain by Carolyn Abraham

I started Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell last night. Two chapters in and loved it so far!

I always like to have a public-domain ebook on the go. This one is Pilots of the Purple Twilight, by Phillip Godsell, which is about the early bush fliers in Canada.

Edit: Ew, such colonialist attitudes (describing the wilderness of northern Alberta as "unoccupied", referring to people as "half-breeds"). Nope. Goodbye.

I think someone here may have recommended this book The Very Marrow of Our Bones by Christine Higdon; if so, I am very grateful, as I absolutely loved it.

I'm starting Blood in the Water: A True Story of Revenge in the Maritimes by Silver Donald Cameron

Hanging out with Vera Stanhope in The Seagull, by Ann Cleeves.

Just finished:
Immune : a Journey Into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive / by Philipp Dettmer. New York : Random House, 2021. An excellent popular science book, that's quite topical at the moment. It can be a little "mind-boggling" in places because the immune system is so complex, but it is well explained (but with a very informal style).

I'm now reading:
Year of Wonders : A Novel of the Plague / by Geraldine Brooks. Although it's not my usual genre when reading fiction, I'm finding it quite a good book.

I'm reading The Cape Doctor by E.J. Levy

Really liked The Outcast by Sadie Jones, probably more than I've enjoyed her later novels (this one was her debut work).

After a dose of non-fiction (Right of Way: Race, Class and the Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths in America, by Angie Schmitt), I'm switching to a thriller: The Quiller Memorandum, by Adam Hall. I have a movie tie-in edition that I bought in 2017 in one of the many secondhand bookshops in Hay-on-Wye.

I'm reading Subpar Parks: America's Most Extraordinary National Parks and Their Least Impressed Visitors by Amber Share

Some literally heavy reading: Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment, the catalogue accompanying the exhibition of the same name by the McMichael Gallery.

I'm going to start The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes for a book club.

The Grave's a Fine and Private Place / Alan Bradley
3.75 stars

After a recent tragedy, when Dogger takes Flavia and her sisters on a trip by boat, Flavia manages to find a body in the water. As she investigates, she also figures out what happened with three women who’d been poisoned at a church years earlier.

I liked this one. As usual, I listened to the audio and upped my rating by ¼ star for Jayne Entwistle. I liked that Flavia’s sisters seemed to be a bit nicer this time around. For some reason, I don’t remember really “noticing” the humour, but I did this time around. I’m sure I probably did, but for some reason it just didn’t stick in my head.

Hello everyone!
Newbie here.

I just finished reading the 5th of the 5 Canada Reads Shortlist books. They were quite diverse in writing styles, and my reactions to them. Here are my ranked preferences:
#1 - Five Little Indians - beautifully told, well-written, and very engaging characters that I was still thinking about after the book was done.
#2 - What Strange Paradise - I was so engaged in the story of the little boy that I read it in one sitting! Well-written, and even though it alternated present and past, it was done so well that I was never lost.
#3 - Scarborough - I had to abandon this book after Part 1. It is very strong and, for me, very triggering. I am told things end well and it is a hopeful story.
#4 - Washington Black - I know this is a Giller Finalist, but I'm not sure I see what the fuss is about. It is well written, and beautifully descriptive of the environments he finds himself in. I found the ending very odd and abrupt.
#5 - Life in the City of Dirty Water - this is the only non-fiction, and it is an autobiography/memoir. While the topic was of great interest, I felt the style of presentation really didn't do it justice. Some facts were repeated several times, other times, there were great gaps in information that I was keen to know more about. Not my cup of tea, I guess.

Now I am going to skim-read-cull some of my own books from my shelves since the libraries are opening up for donations again!

Happy reading!

>69 Dorothy2012: Welcome! I've read all but your #5 and agree with your ranking - Five Little Indians is my top choice as well. I'm sorry you had a difficult time with Scarborough. It is a rather dire book and I can totally see how it could be a hard one to get through. I did find a lot of hope in it, although that could be because my life has been vastly different and the optimist in me just really, really, really wanted a happy ending. Here's to a good debate next month! And good luck with the purging :)

I'm just finishing The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Turton and My Mother's Back by Wane (on the CR longlist this year).

Just starting a Japanese mystery, The Village of Eight Graves, by Seishi Yokomizo, translated by Bryan Karetnyk.

>69 Dorothy2012: Welcome! There is a thread devoted to Canada Reads...check it out!

https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/855/CBCs-Canada-Reads-Fans

>73 LynnB: ooh! I've now joined. Thanks!

I'm nearly finished Dear Evan Hansen by Steven Levenson as COVID prevented the play from getting here.

I'm reading Driven: The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers by Marcello Di Cintio

With everything that's gone on in Ottawa and now the world, I'm having a lot of trouble reading.
I still managed to finish Foundation by Isaac Asimov, which I enjoyed.

Working my way through an unsatisfactory review book, and Lovecraft Country when I feel like it. I need to read faster as I just bought another book on top of the two I got from SantaThing that aren't on the shelf yet. I packed 95% of my books away for house renovations but I'm developing a stack again. They just seem to grow from the furniture!

I've just started Truly Madly Guilty by Laine Moriarty

The Devil's Trick: How Canada Fought the Vietnam War by John Boyko. I'm anxious to learn about this.

Today I started The Great Passage, by Shion Miura, translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter.

The Clay Girl / Heather Tucker
2.5 stars

Ari (Hariet) is only 8-years old when her abusive father shoots himself. Ari heads to Nova Scotia to live with her aunts. Her four older sisters… I’m not quite sure where they went. Even the summary so far is partly from the summaries online. Ari goes back and forth between her abusive mother in Ontario and her aunts. Luckily for Ari, her new stepfather (Len) is kind and caring. Even so, Ari has her imaginary friend, Jasper the seahorse, to help her along.

Ok, so it was really hard to follow, especially at the start. I don’t like having to use an online summary to get me up to speed with what is happening as I read a book, but I didn’t like the way it was written, as there was too much reading between the lines to figure out what was going on much of the time (though not all the time).

When I could figure out what was going on, it was good. But too hard to figure that out in too many places. Especially at the start, it didn’t help that all of Ari’s older sisters had names that started with J, in addition to Jasper. It also took a while to figure out who/what the heck Jasper was (and maybe I never would have without the online summary?). There were some things I liked – Ari’s relationship with Mikey, especially. Mikey was a stepbrother later on (not Len’s son, but the son of a different (abusive) stepfather later). I also liked Ari’s relationship with Len. I did think the story was good, but I did not like the way it was written, as it was just too hard to follow through much of the book.

I've started The Liar's Dictionary by Eley Williams

I've finished The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle and The Cat Who Played Brahms by Lilian Jackson Braun.

I'm also working my way through Howard's End by E. M. Forster which is not really what I expected (I think I was getting it confused with Remains of the Day for some reason) but which I'm enjoying as a complete break from today's reality!

Finished a re-read of The Road to Mars, by Eric Idle. I had forgotten a LOT about it.

I'm enjoying Dirty Birds by Morgan Murray

After a couple duds, I am very much enjoying Last First Snow by Max Gladstone. Judging book via cover which screams TESTOSTERONE!!1!, I would never have picked it up, but the story is great. The book club that recommended the book as "high stakes but low action", which is why I picked it up. Without spoiling anything, the dust jacket has a quote that explains the book as "fantasy as a metaphor for the full metastatic flower of late-stage capitalism" with "ancient necromancers in charge of corporations and liches running litigation." With apologies to my entrepreneur and lawyer friends, sounds about right.

I would be interested in this group's opinions of 1q84. Many of the reviews are at best less-than-flattering, but some are in the realm of favorite-book-ever. With my always increasing TBR pile, I wonder if I should add this to my list. TIA and sorry if this is off-topic for this group.

>88 robertwmartin: Perfectly on-topic! I haven't been tempted by it myself, but that's mainly because I haven't read any Murakami and I don't think it would be a good idea for me to try tackling such a large book as my first of his works.

I'm indulging in more crime fiction: after catching up with Vera, I'm going to get caught up with Matthew Venn by reading The Long Call, by Ann Cleeves.

I'm reading Life in the City of Dirty Water by Clayton Thomas-Muller.

>89 rabbitprincess: I went to my local library branch and found a copy of 1Q84. Wow, it is big! Then I opened it to a random page and saw a line that said "So you raped your daughter?" and I went, nope hard pass. I picked up something else (see below).

I needed something lighter after a couple heavier reads both fiction and non-fiction, so I just started Eric by Terry Pratchett. It has been several months since my last Discworld book, so I am looking forward to jumping into this one.

>92 robertwmartin: Yikes, definitely a hard pass.

A Stitch in Time / Kelley Armstrong
4 stars

Bronwyn, a widow at 38-years old and a history professor in Toronto, has inherited an old large home in rural England(?). This is a home that she hasn’t visited in 23 years. When she used to visit as a child, she met a boy her own age… turns out this boy was from about 200 years earlier! She saw him when they were children, and again when they were 15, but that summer, tragedy struck and Bronwyn stayed away for all those years later. When she returns this time, she finds not only is she still able to slip back in time, but the house is full of ghosts.

I really liked this. There was more romance than I normally read, but there was enough ghosts, mystery, and time travel to make up for that. Some of the ghost happenings were creepy (which, for me, is a good thing!). I did, however, feel badly for the poor neglected kitten, Enigma. Kitty was supposedly too young to be away from mom, but since Bronwyn wasn’t around for hours and hours at at time, I worried that Enigma would die without milk (knowing that was unlikely to happen in the book, but very unrealistic to say kitty was too young to be separated from mom, then neglect her like that without dire consequences; unweaned kitten, I believe, should be bottle-fed milk every 2 hours; maybe kitty was a bit older than that?) Obviously, that did not bring my rating down any. The mystery was good and I loved the creepy hauntings!

>92 robertwmartin: I LOVED IT, but I'm pretty much a Murakami die-hard fan - rare are the books that I haven't fawned over. Yes, it's long. And also it's gorgeous.
I went to Tokyo a couple of years after reading it, and it was like walking in the book - I have adored Tokyo ever since.

I'm reading Swedish author Henning Mankell with L'Homme inquiet, a Wallander mystery which is prefect for a rainy Saturday.

>96 Cecilturtle: Thanks, I will keep it on the "one day" list then.

I finished Eric as I mentioned yesterday. The last time I read a book in one day was a re-read of Murder on the Orient Express about 15 months ago.

Next up is When She Woke by Hillary Jordan. Hopefully it lives up to some of the reviews!

I'm binge reading the Canada Reads finalists. Next up: What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad.

Yesterday I started Red Harvest, by Dashiell Hammett.

I'm about to start Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez

Also started The Red Power Murders, by Thomas King. The edition I have uses a weird font that I'm finding hard to read.

Persevered with The Red Power Murders, and now I'm filling the slot it vacated with Stolen Blessings, by Lawrence Sanders. Have I yet finished The Heron's Cry, which is also a crime novel in my reading pile? Of course not.

My book club's selection for March was The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris. I was a bit disappointed after reading this-was prepared to be emotionally affected by this true life telling, but somehow wasn't. The story was written in a somewhat detached, objective way that really didn't draw me in.

I haven't read a Canadian book in a long time. I've picked up What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad.
I'm also reading La Mare au diable by George Sand.

>105 Cecilturtle: What Strange Paradise blew me away. It was my favourite of the Canada Reads books.

I'm going to start The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson.

>106 LynnB: I just finished it and yes... wow... so many emotions!

>107 Cecilturtle:: so sad it got eliminated on Canada Reads yesterday.

I'm starting Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe by Niall Ferguson.

Last night I started Far From the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson. I am about twenty pages in and it seems like it will be pretty good.

To fill the "book to pick up and put down a lot" niche in my reading lineup, I'm starting Paul McCartney's The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present.

I'm reading Dear Wife by Kimberly Belle.

I'm about to start Summer by Ali Smith

I just started Vital Signals: Virtual Futures, Near-Future Fictions which is a science-fiction short story anthology that I received through the LT Early Bird program last month. There have been a few good stories so far, which is what I want out of an anthology - it doesn't have to be great end-to-end as long as there are a few that make me think.

I've finished La Mare au Diable by George Sand on my shelves since 2008!
I also read The Pelican Brief during my trip through the American Southwest.
Not sure what I'll pick up next...

I'm reading In the Days of Rain: A Daughter, A Father, A cult by Rebecca Stott.

I'm reading State of Terror by Louise Penny and Hillary Rodham Clinton. It's fun and fast-paced. I love the quips at the former administration.

>117 Cecilturtle: I saw that book at the local library. I assume from your comments that it is worth the read. Would you have picked it up if it did not have HRC's name on it?

>118 robertwmartin: I know your question wasn't directed at me, but no, I wouldn't have picked up that book with HRC's name on it because I'm not a fan of the crime novel genre. A friend lent it to me. I, too, enjoyed the digs at the Trump administration. However, the story is highly improbable.

I'm reading Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers by Amy Stewart

My reading stalled a lot over the past week and a half, so I'm trying to get back in the groove by reading Louise Penny's The Madness of Crowds. It's working so far :)

>118 robertwmartin: I'm a huge Louise Penny fan, so yes I totally would have picked it up. This is not her usual detective fiction, though, more an international, espionage thriller. It's a light read with a touch of mischievous comedy: definitely not to be taken seriously!

Finished >120 rabbitprincess: so am gearing up to read another mystery: Farewell, My Lovely, by Raymond Chandler.

I also need to finish The Marrow Thieves, by Cherie Dimaline, because the ebook is due back in two days.

I've picked up Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks.

I'm reading Fire in the Firefly by Scott Gardiner

I just finished a lovely poem (of 114 pages) Certains soirs de catastrophe by Stefan Psenak, Québécois in the Ottawa region and former politician.

I'm reading The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum by Heinrich Boll

Wild Awake / Hilary T. Smith
3 stars

Kiri’s parents are away on a cruise and have left her on her own. I think she’s 17? She is part of a musical duo with her best friend, Lukas, and they have Battle of the Bands coming up. Kiri is also a very good piano player and has a test(? competition?) coming up. When she receives a strange phone call about her (long-dead) sister, she learns something (big) her parents never told her about her sister’s death. This starts a series of events that has Kiri spiralling out of control.

I didn’t like Kiri, nor many of the choices she made. The book became kind of chaotic as we moved more and more toward the end. I did like the Vancouver setting – it’s always fun recognizing places. I also thought the idea of Kiri never learning what she does about her sister’s death until the start of this book (5 years later) is pretty unrealistic. I can’t imagine she wouldn’t have heard it somewhere, even if not from her parents or brother. The book still (at least more at the start and throughout the first half or so) interested me enough to consider it “ok”.

I'm reading On Risk by Mark Kingwell, subtitled: Or, If You Play, You Pay: The Politics of Chace in a Plague Year.

I finished Appetites: What Women Want by Caroline Knapp who talks about her own experience about anorexia and how it translated into a deeper need for connection and recognition. She compares it to all addictions, from shopping to sex to alcohol.

I am now reading The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks.

I'm finishing Spectacle by poet Jacques Prévert. Typical of Prévert, nothing is conformist: it's a mix of poetry, prose, theatre and even quotes.

Spent most of today devouring Death at the Château Bremont, by M. L. Longworth. I started watching Murder in Provence, the TV series based on this book series, and am now reading the books. My reading mojo has been off this past week, and I think knowing the plot of this one helped me get back on track. The series is a fairly faithful adaptation.

I'm about to start The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

I finished The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith and definitely enjoyed it!

>134 Cecilturtle: I enjoyed that as well as a book to read, but the first attempt was as an audiobook. The extent to which the narrator rolled his R's and W's for Precious Ramotswe's name was just unbearable given how often the name came up.

I'm reading Sharks in the time of Saviours by Kawai Strong Washburn

Just finished, in the nick of time, this month's selection for my book club, and for once, I really liked the book. The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje. It's been a long time since I read anything by him-will have to try another soon.

I'm reading The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War by Malcolm Gladwell.

I'm reading The Last Trial by Scott Turow

Continuing my crime fiction reading with Garnethill, by Denise Mina.

I'm starting my latest LTER book: Mister N by Najwa Barakat

Working on The Raven Tower, by Ann Leckie.

I'm reading Transcription by Kate Atkinson, a delightfully fun espionage book.

I've started A Witch in Time by Constance Sayers.

I've done little reading lately (well, for the past year or two, actually!) but did manage to get 2 books finished this month: 1. For my book club this month-an historical fiction novel that I found quite interesting and from which I learned something about the beginnings of New France. Bride of New France by Suzanne Desrochers and 2. a suspense novel that I didn't enjoy at all but persisted in finishing for some reason The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jonasson.

After feeling restless and unable to settle on something, I picked up The Quiet Death of Thomas Quaid, by Craig Russell. My mum and I both love this series, which features Charles Lennox, a Canadian in post-WW2 Glasgow who acts as a private detective on either side of the law.

Anne of Green Gables / L. M. Montgomery
4 stars

Anne is 11-years old and an orphan when she is brought to middle-aged siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert on Prince Edward Island. They had sent word that they wanted a boy to help with the chores, but there was a miscommunication and they ended up with a girl. They hadn’t the heart to send back the chatty girl who wormed her way into their hearts, despite all the foibles she made along the way.

This was a reread. I read it as a teenager. For this reread, I listened to an audio version. The CBC mini-series from the mid-80s with Megan Follows is one of my all-time favourite movies. Because of that, there was no way I could picture anything else but the characters in that movie as I listened to the book. But that’s ok by me. The book had a few additional happenings that they didn’t put in the movie and the movie expanded on some of the happenings in the book. I don’t know how anyone could not help but love Anne. (Well, to be honest, I’d probably have a harder time of it in real life – as an adult, anyway; I’m sure as a kid, I would have loved her.)

My book club selected 2 books to read in May, and on this cold, very rainy May weekend, I got the second one finished. I quite liked this immigrant family saga: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

This weekend, I also finally finished a "thriller" that I didn't find too thrilling and that I've been reading on and off for over a month. I've read and liked Clare Mackintosh's novels before, but didn't really care much for this one: Hostage.

I've finished Dibbouks by Irène Kaufer, where the Belgian narrator retraces her parents' history after they were displaced in the Holocaust. She ends up finding a sister in Montréal and an adopted family in the South of France. A very touching story about finding one's identity.

Finishing up Murder in the Rue Dumas, by M. L. Longworth.

>142 LynnB: What does LTER stand for? My quick search only came up with Long Term Ecological Research, but that doesn't seem to fit with that book.

Hi everyone. Been busy with life for the last few weeks. This probably-maybe-end-of-pandemic era means the kids are busy again, so my wonderful evenings of being able to read for an hour or so have disappeared.

I am reading Expo 58 by Jonathan Coe which was a random pick off the shelf at the local library. Pretty good so far and I should finish it in the next day or so.

>153 robertwmartin: Librarything ER book. It is an early reader contest (not really sure contest is the right word) where you can get advanced reading copies to review.

Offshore / Catherine Dook
3.5 stars

Catherine and her husband John live on a boat off the coast of British Columbia. This book details a few short sailing trips they took, mostly with the intention of being gone longer than they were, turning back mostly due to weather issues (and not really being very good sailors!). On the trip where they’d hoped to sail to Hawaii, they brought two additional crew members, Aussie John and Kiwi John; at that point, Catherine’s husband was “John Darling”.

This was short and I had to shake my head a bit at the foibles. But it was entertaining and a bit amusing with some humour thrown in. I enjoyed it.

I've started my LTER book, David, I Knew You Would Come by Doron Teller

I am now reading Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett. At about 40% through the book, it seems Pratchett wanted to see how many allusions to Hollywood he could put into one book. It is irreverent and quite funny so far, but I'm not sure what it is about.

Finished Moving Pictures and have moved into Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. I'll probably pick up a fiction book to read in parallel as well.

I finished J'ai dû rêver trop fort by Michel Bussi, a thriller typical of the author who likes to play with memory (gaslighting at its finest, I guess).

I've started Clouds of Witness by Dorothy Sayers... nothing like a cozy murder!

The power's been out for a few days, so lots of time to read! I've finished In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park and Rabbit Foot Bill by Helen Humphreys and have just started Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting by Lisa Genova

I'm reading Outlaw: India's Bandit Queen and Me by Roy Moxham

>162 LynnB: I hope things are back to normal!

I finished La bibliothèque des écrivains edited by Stéphanie Khayat, a beautiful homage to reading (this doesn't help my TBR pile.

The Last Wild Wolves / Ian McAllister.
4.5 stars

The author is a photographer and lives on the northern coast of British Columbia. He has taken many wildlife photos and helped with studies of the local wolf populations where he is. This is a coffee-table-style book with plenty of large photographs, alongside information about the wolves, and an epilogue that includes information about the destruction and conservation of the area.

Oh, they are beautiful. And sadly, so vilified. I hate people. I hate hunters – there are stories in the epilogue of some awful hunters. I hate the humans behind the companies that only want to make money and don’t care what they destroy to do it, as they destroy the habitats for most animals. These wolves are in an area that is less disturbed by humans, but it’s hard to say if that will last.

Getting beyond that, the wolves and the photos are beautiful. The area itself is beautiful, and there are a few photos that are not of the wolves, though of course, the bulk of the photos are. The information about the wolves was interesting – I didn’t know that wolves and ravens have a symbiotic relationship; wolves will hunt and eat many birds, but there has never been remains of ravens found in their scat. There is also a 20-ish minute DVD included with the book, a short documentary that says some of the same as what the book says, but of course the “photos” are now a video. And have I mentioned how beautiful they are!?

I'm reading The Break by Katherena Vermette - I was a bit confused with all the female characters (over several generations - luckily there's a genealogical tree at the beginning), but now that I'm into the story, I can't put it down. Very raw with some highly disturbing scenes.

Just started reading The Speaker by Traci Chee.

I'm reading The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt

>168 LynnB: Lynn, i thought his book Coddling the American Mind was suberb! I should try The Righteous Mind. I have watched lots of his interviews and he is a very interesting person. He is very involved in the Heterdox Academy and concerned about the direction that univerisites are going in.

>169 mdoris: I had mixed feelings about The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt. All in all, I liked it. It made me think about political discourse and want to learn more about some topics raised. That is what, for me, makes a good book.

That said, his outline of the history of moral philosophy was complicated and dry. It was when I got to the moral foundations chapter and the book grabbed me. I spent some time enthused by the insight that liberals rely on primarily two moral pillars (caring and fairness) and conservatives rely on those, along with authority, loyalty and sanctity. It explained why I often find it so hard to argue morality with conservatives.

Upon further reflection, I became less enthused. I don’t like the implication that conservatives have a broader moral base. I think liberals and conservatives have different definitions of sanctity (e.g. over our own bodies -- leading to issues around reproductive rights and sexual consent), and loyalty, and definitions of legitimate authority.

I think Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow gives a superior understanding of intuition vs. reasoning. It’s not that a reasoning rider is serving an intuitive elephant….it’s that the elephant reacts faster….necessarily so in many cases…but it isn’t in charge.

I was intrigued by the idea of a genetic basis for political ideologies. I found the discussion of both moral and group evolution fascinating, but not yet convincing….I’d need to learn more.

I'm about to start The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

Today I'm reading Cold Skies, by Thomas King.

>170 LynnB: Thanks Lynn for your response to The Righteous Mind.

>80 LynnB: FYI, pg 94 in my book, One Bad Day After Another, deals with a couple of little-known facts about Canada and the Vietnam War.

I just finished Paper & Blood by Keven Hearne. It's the second book in the Ink & Sigil series. I'm wishing book three would hurry up. Am thinking of starting The Gower Street Poltergeist next. It looks like fun. Picked it up at my favorite Ottawa used bookstore last month.

>176 CindaFBC: That's a great way to describe his writing! I agree. I also enjoy his dry humour.

I'm starting The Dilemma by B.A. Paris

First Snow, Last Light / Wayne Johnston
3 stars

When Ned is 14-years old, he comes home from school to find no one home. This is unusual. It turns out both his parents have disappeared. The book follows Ned as an adult and looks back on his life without his parents in it. Sheilagh Fielding, a reporter and friend of Ned’s father, becomes a good friend to Ned. In 1949, when Newfoundland becomes a part of Canada, the last child born before that time is referred to as “The Last Newfoundlander”. Ned ends up adopting the orphan and also takes in the boy’s destitute aunt.

The book alternates between Sheilagh’s point of view and Ned’s (with a couple of chapters devoted to two other characters). I really have no interest in Sheilagh. She bores me and I don’t like her. Unfortunately, Ned’s missing-parents mystery really wasn’t touched on for most of the book, but we did come back to it at the end. That, of course for me, was the most interesting part of the book. So because of that, I found the start and end much more interesting than the rest of the book. Overall, I’m rating it ok, but it definitely picked up at the end, not only when Ned finally found out what happened, but what happened after that.

I listened to the audio, which had four different narrators. It was done well, although I still lost focus occasionally, but I don’t believe that was due to it being an audio book.

I'm starting Denial by Beverley McLachlin

I'm reading Rag and Bone by James Benn. The series features Lt. Billy Boyle, nephew of Gen. Eisenhower during WWII. Billy was a cop in Boston, and when he joins the Army, he get put on Eisenhower's staff as a special investigator.

I'm about to start Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society by Ronald J. Deibert. This book comprises the 2020 Massey Lectures.

>182 LynnB: That one sounds good, have just put it on reserve at the library. Thanks.

I just finished (all 572 pages of it) Paul Palango's book 22 Murders Investigating the Massacres, Cover-Up and Obstacles to Justice in Nova Scotia. This is an incredibly detailed and I assume well researched book about the NS mass casualty event in April 2020 and its aftermath, but I thought it really in need of a good editor-far too many extraneous details and trivia and sometimes the information and the writing seemed poorly organized, with erratic timelines and repetitions. However, it is shocking to read about the chaos and ineptitude demonstrated by the RCMP all through and after this event and to realize the scope of this tragedy. I realize Paul Palango has a real hate on for the RCMP but it did get kind of tiresome reading his reiterations about the force.

>182 LynnB: Professor Deibert is a great researcher and his work is very important. I haven't read Reset yet but it is on my list. I was looking for my next non-fiction book to read and your post helped me decide to read it now.

I am reading The Sparrow by Maria Doria Russell on the recommendation of LT user labfs39.

I'm reading Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

Started We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story, by Simu Liu.

Finished And a Dog Called Fig: Solitude, Connection, the Writing Life by Helen Humphreys and i loved it!

>185 robertwmartin: I finished Reset a couple of days ago. I think it's a very important book.

The author examines four "painful truths" about social media. The first of these is the economic underpinning of social media: personal data surveillance that is undertaken, often without our knowledge and sold by various platforms for uses we've never agreed to, or maybe haven't even imagined. The second truth explored relates to the interplay of social media and social psychology, showing how our emotions and even beliefs are shaped by various algorithms. Thirdly, the author examines the use of surveillance and spying by government actors. Finally, he explores the real carbon footprint of virtual technologies. The stories of these four truths gave me nightmares.

Luckily, the author also offers solutions to combat authoritarian governments, environmental degradation and rampant consumerism driven by social media. These solutions are easier said than done, and involve greater restraint on platform owners/designers, and individuals similarly exercising restraint in their reliance on them.

Very well written, in a clear, accessible style.

>190 LynnB: Good to hear that it was well written and useful. I'm looking forward to digging into it. If you are interested in the social media topic, I recommend Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier. I read it a couple of years ago and it was the first time I really understood how we / our data is the product that is being sold.

>191 robertwmartin: Thanks...I'll check it out.

>191 robertwmartin: I'll check it out too!

I'm re-reading The Break by Katherena Vermette for a book club.

Light weight reading for me lately-just finished a rather implausible legal thriller The Murder Rule: A Novel by Dervla McTiernan. I've liked the 2 previous novels by her that I've read-this one is definitely just beach reading.

Alone Together: A Pandemic Photo Essay / Leah Hennel
5 stars

Leah Hennel is a Calgary photographer who was working for Alberta Health Services before the COVID-19 pandemic began. During the pandemic, she was there to take photos in the hospitals, at COVID testing sites, at vaccine clinics, and more. The photos in the book start with testing, progress through various groups and celebrations and how they handled distancing and lockdowns, continue in the ICUs and hospitals, and on to vaccine clinics.

Some of these photos are very powerful. There was a photo that made the rounds early in the pandemic here in the Calgary media and on social media, so it extended to Canada and likely beyond: a doctor is on his knees on the phone with his forehead in his hand as he tells a family their loved one has died. This book has many more photos and stories to go with them. Not all sad, though. There is a photo of a 90-something year old man with a party hat as he gets his first vaccine. There are photos of the therapy dogs coming to “visit” with hospital staff to try to relieve some of the stress. A powerful look at the pandemic. (I almost said “back” at the pandemic, but it is still happening.)

I'm adding this here because - did anyone else know John Irving became a Canadian citizen in 2019?

In One Person / John Irving
3 stars

William (Bill/Billy) is in boarding school and a young teen when he begins to question why he has crushes on the “wrong people”. He has a crush on one of the wrestlers in school, and also the older (woman) librarian; he also has a crush on a friend’s mother, as well as his own stepfather. In the book, he is an older man (bisexual) and looking back on his life and his relationships over the decades.

I thought this was ok. There was a lot of sex. Of all kinds. Have to admit I got a bit tired of that after a while. But, I thought it got a bit more interesting (and sad) in the 80s when AIDS hit. To see him watch so many people he knew die of AIDS… Initially I was a bit confused with the storyline, as it was a bit back and forth in time and trying to keep track of who was whom and when they were in his life, but after a while, I think I got used to that. I was a bit surprised at how many people in this small town were lgbtq+, though. Maybe there weren’t as many as I thought, as it was spread out over time, but it seemed like a lot.

nice to have a favourite author become Canadian!

I'm reading The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes for a book club.

I've started The Lake House by Kate Morton

Starting one of three aviation-related books on the to-read pile: Flying Blind: The 737 Max Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing, by Peter Robison.

Ive started The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club and The Goldfinch. Both my mom and her cousin hated that last one, but so far I'm enjoying it. Maybe the French translation didn't do it justice.