What Canadian Literature are we Reading in 2024?

Please add books and comments and any ratings if you would like to!

>1 mdoris: Thanks for getting this year's thread going. You were obviously thinking ahead. I think I'm still stuck in 2023.

Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein
2.5 stars

I usually enjoy most of the Giller Prize winners but this one mystifies me as to why it was chosen. I suspect that the jury, especially the head, Ian Williams, found the literary allusions easier to understand than I did. Their citation was as follows:
“The modernist experiment continues to burn incandescently in Sarah Bernstein’s slim novel, Study for Obedience. Bernstein asks the indelible question: what does a culture of subjugation, erasure, and dismissal of women produce? In this book, equal parts poisoned and sympathetic, Bernstein’s unnamed protagonist goes about exacting, in shockingly twisted ways, the price of all that the world has withheld from her. The prose refracts Javier Marias sometimes, at other times Samuel Beckett. It’s an unexpected and fanged book, and its own studied withholdings create a powerful mesmeric effect.”
The only effect that this book had on me was confusion.

>3 gypsysmom: I laughed at your conclusion, Wendy :D
It does sound pedantic but with an interesting premise. On my maybe list.

Canadian literature is thriving with diverse voices and captivating stories. Some popular reads include Esi Edugyan's "Washington Black," Rawi Hage's "Beirut Hellfire Society," and Louise Penny's latest mystery. The literary landscape is as vibrant as ever, offering a rich tapestry of narratives to explore!

>4 Cecilturtle: If you do read it, I would love to know what you think.

>5 brendag1236985: Welcome to the group. Do you live in Canada? Just asking as the group isn't limited to Canadian residents. It's just interesting to know where members are from.

My first Canadian literature of 2024 was Sunshine Nails. It was on the longlist for Canada Reads but didn't make the cut. I'm still glad I read it as it reminded me how hard immigrants to Canada have to work to survive here. The Trans were boat people from Vietnam who started a nail salon in Toronto and, by dint of hard work and sacrifice, made it a success that supported them, their two children and a niece from Vietnam. It may all come to an end though as a competitor has moved in across the street and their landlord has double their rent. The things they do to keep going may not be the best choices but show how desperate they are to survive.

Oops. Am in the process of review and posting two books right now. One Canadian, one not. Posted the wrong review here. Back shortly to post the "proper" one!

Fayne / Ann-Marie MacDonald
3 stars

In the late 19th century, 12-year old Charlotte lives with her father at Fayne (in Scotland or England). Her mother died in childbirth and her brother died when she was young, as well (Charlotte does not remember her brother). Charlotte is extremely smart and her father hires a tutor for her (who is initially perturbed that he was brought to tutor a girl). She wants to attend university.

This did not turn out as I’d expected. It was very long and I’m rating it ok. There were parts I liked (more toward the beginning of the book), but whenever we switched perspectives, I felt like I was starting over (even though after the first couple of times, we were mostly going back and continuing from where the last switch left off), and wasn’t interested for the first bit (of every switch). It took time to get interested again, but just as that happened, we switched again.

So, the other perspective is Charlotte’s mother. I honestly didn’t find this nearly as interesting, overall, as Charlotte herself. Though, after a bit, I was interested (then… switch!). Clarissa (Charlotte’s aunt) was a piece of work, wow! I didn’t like her from the start. The end was a bit weird: Did Charlotte live to about 140 years old!?

>10 LibraryCin: Thanks for your review. This sounds like a pass for me.

>11 gypsysmom: It was a book club book. I'm interested to hear what the others thought. There are plenty of other good reviews.

>10 LibraryCin: >11 gypsysmom: I was thoroughly engrossed in Fayne while reading it, but the more I thought about it, the less I liked it. It would have been a great story without some of the more fantastical bits -- e.g. Byrn, having Fayne declared a person; stuff like that wasn't necessary. I think Ms. MacDonald just pushed things a little too far.

>13 LynnB: I guess I missed most of the fantastical bits (both you mentioned... I managed to tune out Byrn most of the time and never did figure out the "deal" with him). But my spoiler was one, and that was right at the end... I thought - what the...!?

>14 LibraryCin: Yes, that was one more for sure. Funny, but I didn't mind the regenerative and longevity so much...thought it was caused by the bog. She has never equaled, in my opinion, her first novel, Fall on Your Knees which I read in the mid-90s and remains one of my top three books of all time.

>15 LynnB: My favourite of the three I've read by her is The Way the Crow Flies. I may have rated "Fall on Your Knees" the lowest of the three (but I'd have to check back to recall for sure)... Well, I'm wrong. I gave it 3.25 stars, so just a slightly higher rating than "Fayne".

>16 LibraryCin: It was before I was keeping track of my ratings that I read The Way the Crow Flies and Fall on Your Knees but my recollection is similar. I found Fall on Your Knees very disturbing but The Way the Crow Flies less so and with some lovely descriptive writing.

I've picked up L'Énigme du retour by Dany Laferrière, part prose part poem where he describes the displacement he feels, half in Canada half in Haiti, after learning about his father's death.

>18 Cecilturtle: Is that the same book as The Return in English? That was the first book by Laferriere that I read and I thought it was beautiful.

I recently finished listening to the audiobook of The Theory of Crows by David A. Robertson. Robertson reads parts of the book where a father has written letters to his daughter. The rest of the book is narrated by Megan Tooley. Both of them did a great job. It's the story of an indigenous family living in Winnipeg but originally from Norway House in northern Manitoba. The grandfather (Moshum) always wanted to return to his old trapline north of Norway House with his son but died before doing so. In his place, the son and his daughter, who have a troubled relationship, go and take some of his ashes. I thought it was a wonderful story of intergenerational relationships. And I highly recommend the audiobook.

>19 gypsysmom: yes! I like how it's little thought bubbles, easy to read, leave off and pick up again.

I picked up 111 Places in Ottawa you must not miss by Jennifer Bain. I've been in Ottawa for 30 years and some are new to me! What I enjoy most, however, is the backstory behind well-known places (who's the chef behind Art-Is-In Bakery? Did you know the windows on the War Museum were Morse Code? Yes, there is an Alanis Private named after Alanis Morissette). Bain also adds tips, including how to get to each place by public transportation.
It's such a fun way to connect deeper with my city and it has lovely colour photographs for each place.

>22 Cecilturtle: I lived in Ottawa for 10 weeks many years ago and have never forgotten what a great place it was to walk. To me, it always embodied what Jane Jacobs called for in a livable city.

My first Canada Reads book (maybe my only book before the debates) was Bad Cree by Jessica Johns. Mackenzie, who is from High River, Alberta, but is living in Vancouver starts having frightening dreams that seem terribly real. In one of the dreams she sees her dead sister, Sabrina, lying in a wood being pecked by crows. In the dream she grabs one of the crows and kills it, tearing its head off. When she awakens in her own bed she can feel the bird's head in her hands and feel its blood on her. However, when she throws the covers back, there is nothing there. Upset and ill, she calls her auntie in Alberta and explains what is happening. Mackenzie decides to go back to Alberta to confront these dreams,hoping that they will stop when she is back with her family. I loved the details about this close knit indigenous family who love and bicker and play cards and eat and talk.

I'm reading a collection of Atwood's short stories, Bluebeard's Egg. I'm really enjoying them. Curiously, I'm finding them much less dated than a collection by Munro that I read a couple of years ago.
My take is that Atwood's stories are childhood memories which seem to be much more atemporal than Munro's adult ones. Or maybe it's just my own frame of mind!

>25 Cecilturtle: Atwood can really shine in short stories. I listened her latest collection, Old Babes in the Woods, and really enjoyed them.

Agree, I will never forget M. Atwood's s.s. Stone Mattress about revenge. Intense!

Although not fiction, the book I recently read is certainly a story worth reading. Escape from Manus Prison by Jaivet Ealom is the memoir of a Rohingya man from Burma who escaped that regime's genocidal policies only to end up in a prison camp in Papua New Guinea run by the Australians. It took him 4 years but he finally made it to Canada where he was accepted as a refugee immediately. The conditions in the camp in PNG were atrocious and the prospect for eventual acceptance as a refugee there were inifinitesimal. Only Jaivet's determination to make something of his life (as well as some very helpful people) drove him to get out of the prison and to safety.

>28 gypsysmom: I have a similar book on the TBR shelves: Waiting to be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet's Memoir of China's Genocide by Tahir Hamut Izgil. One by one, Tahir Hamut Izgil's friends disappeared. The Chinese government's brutal persecution of the Uyghur people had continued for years, but in 2017 it assumed a terrifying new scale. Tahir, a prominent poet and intellectual, had been no stranger to persecution. After he attempted to travel abroad in 1996, police tortured him until he confessed to fabricated charges and sent him to a re-education through labor camp. But even having endured three years in the camp, he could never have predicted the Chinese government’s radical solution to the Uyghur question two decades later. Once Tahir noticed that the park near his home was nearly empty because so many neighbors had been arrested, he knew the police would be coming for him any day. One night, after Tahir’s daughters were asleep, he placed by his door a sturdy pair of shoes, a sweater, and a coat so that he could stay warm if the police came for him in the middle of the night. It was clear to Tahir and his wife that fleeing the country was the family's only hope.

>29 LynnB: It certainly makes one grateful to live in a country that accepts all religions and nationalities. I was so proud of the Canadian Border Services agent who interviewed Jaivet when he first arrived. He realized that with everything he had gone through it would not be acceptable to put him into a detention facility so he released him and found a homeless shelter that would take him since he didn't know anyone and didn't have any money.

>28 gypsysmom:, >29 LynnB:, >30 gypsysmom:, I thought Australia was a nation that accepted all nationalities and religions too but the period of offshore detention centres and the treatment of refugees in recent years has been shameful. There are many thousands of Australians including myself who were very ashamed, and disgusted by our government’s policy during this period.
There is an excellent book called No Friend but the Mountainswritten by an Iranian-Kurdish refugee whilst in detention on Manus Island. His name is Behrouz Boochani and he managed to smuggle his writings out of the prison in sections by mobile phone. His refugee claim was rejected by Australia and he is now a permanent resident of New Zealand. That is a loss for Australia and his story is just one of thousands. It makes me so ashamed of the country and the government’s mean-spirited policy of the time.

>30 gypsysmom: On that topic, I went to see the film adaptation of Ru by Vietnamese Canadian Kim Thúy who talks about her experience as a "boat person" fleeing the Communist regime and her welcome in Montréal. The film is as moving as the book.

>32 Cecilturtle: A film adaptation? I had no idea there was one, but will need to check it out. Thuy is a favourite author and Ru is a fantastic novel. Thanks for the heads up!

>33 Yells: Playing right now at a theatre near you! Highly recommend!

I am about to re-read The Way the Crow Flies by one of my favourite authors, Ann-Marie MacDonald for a book club discussion.

>35 LynnB: Enjoy!

What Strange Paradise / Omar El Akkad
4 stars

Amir is a 9-year old Syrian boy who survives a shipwreck. Everyone else to be seen has washed up on shore, dead. He is on an island, but doesn’t know where he is, nor does he understand the language. When two men see him and point and shout, Amir gets scared and runs. He runs into Vanna, 15-years old and though they are unable to communicate verbally, she hides him.

The story then shifts to “Before”, which brings us up to date on how Amir got where he is. We go back and forth between Amir’s before and “After”. Much of after is told from Vanna’s POV, but occasionally we switch to the POV of a colonial who is dead set on finding Amir, the little boy who ran away.

Given that it’s (primarily) from a 9-year old’s POV, it took a bit to figure out what was going on through much of the story. I am still not sure I understand the ending. But it was a “good” (powerful) story, even so.

I listened to The Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice this past week. It's a sequel to Moon of the Crusted Snow and if you haven't read that then I recommend that you read or listen to it first before going on to this second one. The audiobook I listened to was narrated by Billy Merasty who is of Cree descent whereas the story involves Ojibwe (or Anishinaabe) people. I'm not a speaker of either language so I don't know how well Merasty does with the Anishinaabemowin phrases used in this book but his phrasing and accent seem pretty good to me. This book follows a group of people from the northern community that was the setting of the first book as they travel down south to the northern shore of Lake Huron. It takes place about 12 years after the first one and they haven't seen any new people in a long time. Their lake and forest food animals are being depleted from overuse so the group thinks they need to move to a different place. Their ancestors lived on the north shore but everyone was moved to the northern reservation so settlers could move onto their land. It makes a certain sense to see if they can move back there. Through various conversations with people they meet (some good, some really bad) there is an explanation of what caused the power shutdown and subsequent breakdown of society which was interesting. I have a feeling that this is a duology, not a trilogy but I look forward to whatever Waubgeshig Rice writes next.

>27 mdoris: Ooh, I might have to look that up. I've never really made a point of reading Atwood but I have liked what I've read for Uni and such.

I'm pretty shabby when it comes to CanLit, but I happen to be reading Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed which I'm enjoying so far. I didn't realize it at first but it's part of the Hogarth Shakespeare Project which has Shakespeare plays retold by contemporary authors. Hag-Seed is based on "The Tempest" and I'm enjoying the parallels.

It's also a book club book, but it was my turn to pick. I'm using this as an excuse to work through my unread books. I think I concerned a member when she asked if it was a good book and I said I had no idea. She is enjoying it now though.

I finished the lovely poetry book, Gerbe en germes - Pake grenn by Canadian Haitian Eddy Garnier (he lives in Gatineau, on the other side of the river from me!).
In French with Creole adaptations, the haikus capture the essence of every day. It's sometimes a real challenge to transliterate from one language to the other, but also very rewarding.
What a great way to get a peek into another language!

I'm starting the Canada Reads shortlist with The Future by Catherine Leroux

A bittersweet read-I found an Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson that I'd missed reading in the past. I enjoyed Not Dark Yet but I lament the fact that I've read all the novels now and there will be no more.

I'm reading Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune for Canada Reads

>42 ted74ca: I'm a big detective fiction fan and have never even heard of Peter Robinson! Thanks for posting.

About to start my third Canada Reads books, Shut Up You're Pretty, a collection of short stories by Tea Mutonji.

Women Talking by Miriam Toews

>46 dianeham: Loved that one!

>46 dianeham:, >47 LynnB: Yes me too!

Continuing my Canada Reads pentathlon with Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

Finishing up the Canada Reads finalists with Denison Avenue by Christina Wong, illustrated by Daniel Innes

I finished Amqui by Éric Forbes. It's a Quebecois thriller, full of violence. Although I enjoyed walking in the streets of Montreal and discovered Amqui, not very far from the New-Brunswick border, I didn't enjoy the killing spree.

I've missed posting my last 3 Canadian Literature reads so I'll just catch up now.

The Everlasting Road by (now premier of Manitoba) Wab Kinew is a YA fantasy book set on a reserve in what I presume is Ontario although he never really places it there. I know from reading The Reason You Walk, Kinew's memoir about his relationship with his father, that he has ties to reserves in North-western Ontario. The central character is a teenage girl, Bugz, whose brother has just died. To cope with her grief she has built an AI in the online game where she is a star, the Floraverse, that looks like her brother. I'm no gamer so I have no idea if Kinew does a good job of building this game but it seemed as good as For the Win by Cory Doctorow which I read recently.

Shut Up You're Pretty by Tea Mutonji which I read solely because it was on Canada Reads. It's a book of connected short stories about a girl/woman originally from the Congo. Short stories are not my favourite literature so it had one strike against it starting out. Then, I found it really difficult to like the main character. This book made it to the final day so maybe it's just me.

Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune was also nominated for Canada Reads. It's a pretty standard romance about two people who meet for one day in Toronto, then lose touch with each other for 10 years, before meeting up again at the lake. It was okay but there's a reason it was the first book voted off Canada Reads.

Somewhere in France / Jennifer Robson
4 stars

Lady Elizabeth is in her early 20s(?) and has not had a real education, although she would have loved that. She is expected to marry, be a wife, and mother. When her brother’s friend, Robbie from university, visits, “Lilly” is swept away. But he is far below her “station”, and her mother sends him packing (with a lie Lilly doesn’t know about). Lilly thought they were getting along very nicely and was very disappointed Robbie left without a word.

WWI arrives, and Edward (Lilly’s brother) heads to war, and Lilly learns that Robbie is a doctor and has gone to France to perform surgeries on wounded soldiers at the front. Lilly wants so badly to help, but is forbidden by her mother. She finds a way to secretly learn to drive, and when things blow up with her parents, she leaves to live with her former tutor in London. From there, she manages to get a job driving an ambulance in France to help shuttle soldiers from when they were wounded to the makeshift hospitals.

This was also a romance, which is not usually my thing, but I got swept away in this one. I really liked it. I really liked both Lilly and Robbie. And it was interesting to learn about the women ambulance drivers in the war. The author’s father was a historian with an interest in the two world wars.

I'm re-reading...after more than a decade....Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald, one of my top three fiction books of all time.

FYI, the other two are The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (not Canadian) and Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley

>53 LibraryCin: Did you know there is a sequel to Somewhere in France? It's called After the War is Over. I thought it was more of a romance than Somewhere in France but it was still interesting to see more of the aftermath of WWI.

>55 gypsysmom: Oh, thank you! I'll take a look (and likely add it to the tbr).

A Beautiful Truth / Colin McAdam
3.5 stars

Walt and Judy want children, but are unable to have any. When Walt sees a chimpanzee at a circus, he decides he will get one for his wife, in place of a child. They love Looee very much, like a son, but as with all wild animals, as he ages, he is too much to handle.

There is a chimpanzee sanctuary where people are studying the chimps’ behaviour. In the story, we alternate between Walt/Judy/Looee’s perspectives, and the perspectives of the people and chimps at the sanctuary.

I listened to the audio and at first, particularly when we switched to the sanctuary, I had some trouble initially figuring out what was going on. It was interesting to see things from the chimps’ perspectives at times, though. And heartbreaking. I also had trouble getting “into” the book at the start knowing Walt and Judy had done a terrible thing treating a wild animal as a child; There was no way it was going to end well for Looee. I felt like the book didn’t fully end, but it’s possible I missed something (audio), or maybe the author wanted “life” to just sort of continue on.

Sing a Song of Summer by Raye Anderson

This is the fourth mystery by this Manitoba author. She lives in the Interlake area and this book, like two of the others, is set there. That's one of the main attractions for me since every Winnipegger has fond memories of going to the lake either for a day outing or for longer. Many Winnipeggers have cottages and spend much of the summer there. And this mystery involves a family cottage that is shared by four siblings which is always a difficult situation. First one sister, then her daughter and then another sister are found dead in the cottage. Who is targeting the family?

I'm reading The Speed of Mercy by Christy Ann Conlin

I'm reading Followed by the Lark by Helen Humphreys.

I have two recent Canadian books I bought, waiting to be read: Song of the Sparrow by Tara MacLean (local musician) and Cold by Drew Hayden Taylor. I seldom buy books so I will have to get to these as soon as I deal with my library books.

Up and Down / Terry Fallis
4 stars

David used to work in Ottawa, but moved to Toronto to be closer to his dying mother, who has been mostly taken care of by his sister. His new job is with a PR firm and he is thrown into the fire immediately to help with a NASA campaign. Some love, some don’t, his idea of a “citizen astronaut” campaign. People can enter to randomly be selected to go up to space, as long as they can pass the training requirements. But the people at NASA who matter love the idea and it’s on. There will be one winner from the US and one from Canada. But someone (in the DC office of the PR firm) have specific ideas about who they think should win the “random” draw. And the random person in Canada? Definitely not what anyone expected!

This was fun! Fallis’ books are humourous and this was definitely that. And I loved L Percival, Canada’s winner. There were interesting “side” stories for both David and L Percival. The PR guy in DC was horrible! But, I suppose, for the humourous slant of the novel, it makes sense to have some over-the-top characters. I really should read more of Fallis’ books (I’ve already read the political ones with Angus, but no others -- yet.)

I'm loving Payback by Margaret Atwood: it' all about checks and balances, how we view debt and how our complicated systems came about. Atwood is incisive, entertaining and thoroughly interesting. (This is an essay, not a novel.)

I'm on to Big Shadow by Marta Balcewicz

I see I forgot to post about reading The Future by Catherine Leroux which was the winner of Canada Reads this year. I liked it a lot and, given that I'm not really a fan of magical realism, that says a lot. The idea of the whole community banding together to produce food and look after one another, especially the orphaned children is one we should espouse.

I've read 2 and listened to 1 excellent non-fiction books by Canadian writers.
Emma by June Callwood is the story of a young Saskatchewan woman who was charged with spying after Gouzenko defected from the USSR embassy with details of people in Ottawa who were allegedly spying for Russia. The commission that investigated the persons suspected engaged in many tactics to abrogate their rights and Emma, as a naive young woman, confessed without legal counsel. I learned a lot about the Gouzenko Affair and also a lot about Doukhobors in Canada as Emma was a member of that sect.
Up Ghost River by Edmund Metatawabin was recommended by someone in this group, I believe. It was an excellent, if heart-rending, story about Metatawabin's experiences in residential school and his life trying to recover from the trauma he experienced.
Run Towards Danger by Sarah Polley is the audiobook and it was narrated by Polley. The title comes from the advice a doctor gave her when she was struggling to recover from a concussion. But that's wasn't the only time Polley encountered difficulties in her life. As a young actress she struggled with severe scoliosis and had to have spinal surgery to correct it. Her mother died when she was young and her father was so devastated that Polley was left to raise herself. At the age of 16 she had non-consensual, violent sex with Jian Ghomeshi. It truly is miraculous that Polley has been able to achieve the acting, directing and screen-writing triumphs that she has.

I read "Up Ghost River" a few months back; not sure if you got the BB from me or not. Very good book.

I believe I'll be taking a BB for the Sarah Polley book. Had no idea she'd had such a hard life.

>66 gypsysmom: "Emma" sounds super intriguing. I'd heard about Gouzenko but not about the fall-out. I may well have to add this one to my TBR!

>68 Cecilturtle: Like you I had heard about Gouzenko but really didn't know anything other than that he defected and implicated Canadians for spying for the USSR. Emma was written in 1984, 40 years ago, and my library no longer has a copy of it. I got my copy some years ago from my sister and it was an ex-library copy. It may be hard to find a copy now but maybe some used book stores will have it.

>69 gypsysmom: Thanks for the tip!

It's been a while since I've picked up a Canadian author so I'm reading Rue Deschambault by Gabrielle Roy, which earned her her second GG award. It's a series of short stories, all based around the same characters from the POV of a young girl (presumably largely inspired by Roy's childhood).

It is impeccably written and a joy to read from a classical style standpoint. It's also interesting, if uncomfortable, from a historical perspective: the father, for example, works for the Department of Colonization; and there's a ton of casual racism, which must have come across as tolerance back in the day. Let me be clear: Roy is never derogatory or insulting but she illustrates the views and perspectives of her day which were far from inclusive.

Let us say that it is a book that has not aged well, but I like to think that it is a book that still has its place: it can be used as a yardstick for how far we've come as a society.

I just heard that Alice Munro died yesterday. This article in the Guardian says she lived with dementia for the last decade: https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/may/14/alice-munro-nobel-winner-a...

That explains why she hasn't put out any works since Dear Life in 2012. I've read quite a few of Munro's books and I think my favourite was Runaway. But they've all been great. Munro is the writer I always think of when I say that, with some exceptions, I don't really care for short stories. She is a big exception.

>71 Cecilturtle: I think this is the same book that is called Street of Riches in English which I have read. Roy's childhood home on Rue Deschambault is now a museum and there is a virtual tour here: https://www.maisongabrielleroy.mb.ca/en/visites-virtuelles if you are interested.

I'm reading The Adversary by Michael Crummey

>73 gypsysmom: oh wow - super cool, Wendy! Thanks for that link (and yes, it's Street of Riches in English).
I just finished the tour - the technology is insane! So well done!

>75 Cecilturtle: Glad I could help. I've visited the actual house and it gave me the chills to think Roy lived and wrote there.

I'm starting A Great Country by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

I'm reading The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger for a book club. I first read it for another book club in 2010 and didn't like it much. Let's see what 14 years brings!

>72 gypsysmom:
Thanks for the link. I read it all and watched the great interview from 2013 when Munro won the Nobel prize.
Remarkable woman.
I’m reading the last story in her collection Too Much Happiness right now.

I'm reading The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk

I've read three books since I last posted but I can really only recommend one.
The Lover, The Lake by Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau is set in Quebec. The lake in the title is Lake Abitibi on the shores of which a small band of Anishinaabe camp in the summer months. A Metis trapper on his way home gets into trouble on the lake due to high winds but is finally able to pull in near the camp. Only women are in the camp because the men have gone off to sell their furs. A young woman, already married and pregnant, is attracted to the man and the feeling is mutual. They spend a short time together and the author doesn't hesitate to describe their lovemaking. It's a beautiful little book.

I'm reading I (Athena) by Ruth DyckFehderau

I'm reading Chorus of Mushrooms by Hiromi Goto

Denison Avenue just came in for me at the library. I’m hoping to get immersed in the neighbourhood. My husband and I walked all around Kensington Market/Chinatown on a summer trip to Toronto and loved it.

To Track a Traitor: A Lane Winslow Mystery by Iona Whishaw is my current read and it's very good.

That Night in the Library / Eva Jurczyk
3.5 stars

Seven people, mostly university students including some who work in the library/archives, sneak into the basement of said library on their last night before graduation (those working there will no longer be except for one). Davey has a ritual planned and invited the others to come. In fact, they are locked in the basement for the night; they cannot get out. And when the lights go out, one of them dies. The others try to figure out who did it, while keeping themselves safe.

I like the idea of the story, and I am a librarian, so I liked the library and archives references. But none of the characters were likable, in my opinion. Maybe it’s because they all (except one) took acid at the beginning of the night (part of the ritual) that made them not likable. The POV shifted between a few different characters and I do think that worked well for the reader to see different sides of what was happening. But I did get some of the characters (who were “related” in some way) continually mixed up – there was a dating couple, one was a professor; there was a childhood friend; and a fourth person in that mix somewhere, but I kept getting mixed up as to who was who in that group of four. Overall, though, I’m rating it “good”.

By Chance Alone / Max Eisen
4 stars

Max Eisen was a teenager in Hungary with three younger siblings when his Jewish family was ordered to pack up and leave in 1944. Apparently they were one of the last Jewish communities in Europe to be taken to the concentration camps. It turns out his mother, aunt, and siblings were all immediately sent to the gas chambers on arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau. He, his father, and uncle all worked in labour camps for a while, and eventually, Max was the only one left. He managed to survive along with two cousins (one on each side of his family). Lucky for him, he ended up working in one of the surgery rooms at Auschwitz, which did help him survive. He was part of the “Death March” that came as the war was wrapping up and it wasn’t easy to figure out what to do with himself after or where to go.

This was very good. There are plenty of books on the Holocaust, but of course everyone had a slightly different experience and there are always new things to learn from all those experiences. Max’s promise to his father was that he’d tell people what happened there, and he also tours and talks about his experience (or he did – he was eighty-something when this book was written and/or published in 2016). He ended up in Canada, married, and had two sons.

>87 LibraryCin: Is this the book that won Canada Reads a few years ago? I read it then and was very moved by it.

>88 gypsysmom: Did it win? I don't remember if it did or not, but yes, it was part of Canada Reads in 2019...

Just looked it up. Yes, you are correct - it did win!

I'm reading Last Winter by Carrie Mac

>90 LynnB: Hope you like it!

I'm reading My Present Age by Guy Vanderhaeghe. It was published in 1984 so probably only the second book he wrote since his Man Descending was published in 1982. I find it quite funny but also quite different from the books I am more familiar with like The Englishman's Boy. It's about a 30 something man whose wife has separated from him and he's quit his job. He still loves his wife but, frankly, I can see why she had enough of him. I still have about half the book to read so we'll see how I feel at the end.

Dark Roads / Chevy Stevens
4 stars

Teenaged Hailey is an orphan, and she has recently been living with her Aunt Lana her aunt’s husband, Vaughn, and their son. Vaughn is a police officer and pretty much forbids Hailey to do much of anything outside the house. She does not like him at all and tries her best to avoid him. They live in a rural community in British Columbia along a highway where a number of girls and women have been murdered or gone missing over years. They think it’s not only one person who have done the murdering, but that there has been more than one person responsible over time. When Hailey finds something on Vaughn’s computer, she has to get away. Not long after, her new girlfriend, Amber, is found dead.

Yes, this was based on the famous “Highway of Tears” in B.C. where a number of women and girls (many First Nations) have been murdered or gone missing. The author changed the name of the highway and made up the town where it took place, but it’s recognizable and she does mention it in a note at the end.

I listened to the audio and was mostly able to pay attention to what was happening. When Amber’s sister, Beth, from Vancouver arrives to try to find out what happened to Amber, the POV switches between Beth and Hailey. I mostly didn’t find Beth’s story as interesting as Hailey’s but it did come together at the end. Have to admit, I also though Beth did a supremely stupid thing near the end. I also ended up really not liking Hailey much – at least at the end of the book. No surprise here, but I loved Hailey’s dog, Wolf.

I'm finishing Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. This is actually the first sci-fi that I've read by Atwood; although I'm very familiar with A Handmaid's Tale I've never actually read it.

Anyway, I want to like it, but I'm finding it too dark for me: it's a terribly cynical view of the world with an emphasis on sex and violence which I don't relish. Plus, there are weird anachronisms like email and DVDs which seem hilarious today as part of the future.
I'm focusing on what I do like: the writing, character development and even some of the creative genetic inventions which are truly unique. I won't be tempted to read the trilogy (this is the first of three)... although who knows? I haven't reached the end yet and there could be a massive cliffhanger that could beguile me.

I'm reading A World Elsewhere by Wayne Johnston

Race to the Polar Sea / Ken McGoogan
3 stars

Elisha Kent Kane travelled from the US to the Arctic in search of Franklin’s lost expedition in the mid-1800s. This covers not only this “trip” (where he and his crew were trapped for a couple of winters), but the bulk of Kane’s life, as well. He studied to become a doctor, but found he wanted to sail to the Arctic (despite being prone to seasickness). He loved a woman whom his family did not think was “good enough” for him, and things did not go well for the two of them, though she loved him, as well.

It took a long time for me to get interested in this (I have no explanation as to why this was). I was more interested in the second half of the book. The author looks at multiple sources detailing the expedition, as some of the crew did not think highly of Kane and others had no problem with him. The author did look at some of these specific sources at the end of the book to discuss.

>96 LibraryCin: I read this 15 years ago so I don't remember too much about the book but I rated it 4 stars. Mind you, I'm quite a fan of books about polar explorations and especially books about looking for Franklin. Those explorers were tough, tough, tough to survive in those conditions.

>97 gypsysmom: I am also a fan of polar explorations, so I had hoped to like it more. I am glad it did get better (for me) in the second half. I just wish that would have happened for me just a bit sooner in the book!

Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder by Julia Zarankin is a delightful memoir where Zarankin uses her birding experiences as a foil to her life. It's a quick read, with fun facts about birds and insight into Zarankin, who immigrated as a child to Canada from the USSR.
Her stories very much resonated with me: we're about the same age, and although we have vastly different life experiences, I too grew up in multiple countries and have developed a love of birds - maybe not to her extreme, but I'm still new to the game and birding seems to be very, very addictive!

>99 Cecilturtle: Oooh, that sounds like something I would like too. Birding is addictive especially if you track your species on line with something like eBird. I also got the Merlin app which allows you to identify birds by sound. As a person who has a hard time recognizing bird songs, it's been terrific. Thanks for the tip.

The Wars / Timothy Findley
2.5 stars

Robert is a young Canadian who decides to enlist in the army to head to Europe to fight in WWI.

This started off better, but I had zero interest in the “love” story parts of the book. Told by the younger sister of Barbara, the female side of that love story, they were long and not in the least bit interesting (at least to me). The war and the fighting were of interest, and there were war situations I’ve not read about before (at least not that I recall). The book also jumped around quite a bit.

An Inquiry into Love and Death / Simone St. James
2.5 stars

In the 1920s, university student Jillian’s Uncle Toby fell off a cliff while he was ghost hunting in a small town and she is the only one able to go pack up his things. She can immediately tell there are ghosts where she is staying. There is also a young detective from Scotland Yard who is there to investigate Toby’s death.

I listened to the audio, so I suspect it’s (at least in part) why I missed “half” (or more) of what was going on. Not sure if I would have liked it better in print or not. I’ve really liked other books I’ve read by this author, so this was disappointing. (And I have listened to at least one other of hers.) I definitely missed a lot of the “reveal” at the end. I would hear something and think – who is that? What is this about? How did this tie in? And I have no idea. And I still don’t even really know how it wrapped up, though I got to the end of the book.

Women Talking / Miriam Toews
3.5 stars

In the mid-2000s, in a remote Mennonite village in Bolivia, several of the women (and some children) were waking up in the mornings, bleeding, sore, and bruised. They were told they were being punished for sins, etc. It was only when one of the women caught one of the men coming into her bedroom did they figure out that multiple men were drugging and raping them in the night. When one of the women attacked one of the men with a scythe, the eight accused men were sent away to jail (for their protection). But the other men wanted to bail them out and bring them back. The women would then be expected to forgive them, or they would lose their place in heaven.

This really happened. This book takes that situation and (fictionally) has the women discussing what to do while the men are away. Three options: they can do nothing, they can stay and fight, or they can leave. These are the options being discussed (at least among those who don’t want to simply do nothing). They need to decide before the men return, so there is a limited time frame to discuss and decide.

One man, a teacher who once left the community with his excommunicated parents, but did return, is in the women’s meeting to take notes. None of the women can read, they do not know their way around very far outside their own community, and they only speak Low German (not any local languages outside their community).

What a horrible situation! Their were even children who were violated. It was an interesting discussion happening among the women (though told from August’s POV, and what he was seeing and hearing during the discussions). I would have liked to know what the women really did in the end (if anything), and will likely look that up.

removed

I read This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune. I don’t think it qualifies as ‘literature’ but it was a pretty good romance book and set in Prince Edward Island. I feel like the last person in PEI to have read it- the author was here a month or so ago and did several big events. And she did a very good job of representing PEI with events and locations. I was continually reading passages to my uninterested husband, lol. I’m not a big romance reader and I read this mostly for the PEI stuff but it was pretty good (and a little steamy)

I've only just started Em by Kim Thúy which starts during the Vietnam war and it is absolutely gutting. She generates so many emotions in just so few words - I am both engrossed by the story and compelled to take a deep breath between pages.

>105 raidergirl3: I love reading books set in my home province or city.

I just finished reading Denison Avenue by Christina Wong with illustrations by Daniel Innes. This book was defended by Naheed Nenshi on Canada Reads this year. Although it wasn't the ultimate winner, former Mayor Nenshi was so impassioned about the book that I wanted to read it. And I thought it was quite wonderful. It's a bit of a slow burner in that nothing much happens after the death of the husband of the main character but seeing her come to grips with that and chart a new life for herself was affirming. Plus, it reminded me of my mom who became a widow at a younger age than I am now. It has a secondary plot about how the renewal of city neighbourhoods affects those people who have lived there a long time. I think that's the aspect that drew Nenshi to the book but the development of the main character as she ages became important to him as time went on, judging by his comments during the debates. And I should make comment about the illustrations which show areas in the neighbourhood as they existed when the Wongs first moved there and how they've changed with urban "renewal". The illustrations are very detailed and I looked at them a number of times as I read the book. I especially loved looking for the Mrs. Wong character in the bottom drawings. She was sometimes quite prominent and sometimes almost hidden.

Just finished Recipe for a Good Life by Lesley Crewe and, to my surprise, I quite enjoyed it. The novel was suggested to me by a friend who likes gentle, folky books with some romance, and I usually don't! I must have been in the right frame of mind because I enjoyed the humour and the characters (and I love Cape Breton Island and dogs, both of which are core to this story).

>109 ted74ca: I had someone recommend Lesley Crewe's The Spoon Stealer to me last month. I have the book on my e-reader - I wish getting the book read was as quick as acquiring the book, lol.
I see that Crewe will be at my library next week and I plan to go see her. I should read the book sooner rather than later.

>110 raidergirl3: I now have The Spoon Stealer on my request list at my library.

>111 ted74ca: Now I'm really intrigued about this author. I see that back in 2022 I did put The Spoon Stealer down as a book to remember but, otherwise, I have not heard of her. So I have now placed a hold for that book and I think I should then read Recipe for a Good Life. Thanks everyone.

>111 ted74ca:, >112 gypsysmom: my library has quite a few of her books - she’s written a lot!- and I was able to borrow Beholden in audiobook so I should get it read before Thursday when I go see her.

Time to stop biting my tongue! I didn't like The Spoon Stealer at all. Except for the main character, the characters were two dimensional. And several things that happened were just too much -- over the top, exaggerated et al.

But I hope I remain a minority and that those of you who read it do enjoy it.

>114 LynnB: Never hesitate to speak up with a different POV; that's what this group is about, in my opinion.

I finished Tiohtiáke by Michel Jean, the story of a group of Indigenous homeless people who meet in the Square Cabot in Montréal. It centres around Élie, who has just been released from prison, and the friendships that he builds as he slowly gets back on his feet. It's wonderfully written and full of hope. It does, in my opinion, downplay the harsh realities of the street and the systemic societal issues that plague Indigenous communities and their lasting impacts. I think Jean wanted to portray a hopeful, modern hero who is able to weave modernity and ancestral traditions - in that aspect he certainly succeeds without being melodramatic or syrupy.

On another note, I'm fascinated by how using Indigenous names of places really shifts my perspective. It's silly but it really helps to anchor in me the fact that people lived there before Europeans arrived, not just as a historical fact but as their home.

>117 Cecilturtle: I presume this book is only available in French as yet? I think I would like to read it based on your description but I only could find it in French. Maybe it will get translated for us unilinguals.

>118 gypsysmom: Oh that's too bad. It came out in 2021 so I would have thought it's translated by now.
I can also recommend Kukum by the same author, translated by Susan Ouriou, who is a renowned translator (and family friend!). It is about his feisty European great-grand-mother who embraced the Innu way of life after she marries an Innu man.
I find the style and messages of hope are similar in both books, although with very different stories.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/738521/kukum-by-michel-jean-translated-b...

>119 Cecilturtle: Thanks. I'll look for Kukum.

>113 raidergirl3: I read Beholden by Crewe and while I liked the story, the writing was a bit clunky. I think if I had read it rather than listened to it I might not have noticed as I would have skimmed a fair bit.
However, I went to see the author tonight and she was quite delightful! She writes for herself, but she had an amazing turnout (~200 women mostly) and they were big fans! She didn’t start writing til late forties, doesn’t do drafts very much. Hearing an author speak and read seems to give me a different view (usually better) of their books.

>114 LynnB: I can definitely see why you weren’t a fan; The Spoon Stealer is her most loved, based on tonight, so you can safely pass on her books. I’ll give her another try though.

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters has gained a lot of attention south of the border but there is no doubt this is Canadian literature. A Mik'maw family who goes from Nova Scotia to Maine every year to pick blueberries experiences great loss. First, their 4 year old daughter, Ruthie, disappears and no trace is ever found of her. Then one of the sons is killed during a fight at a fair. After that, the family never returns to pick blueberries but one of the boys, Joe, who has travelled rather aimlessly ends up in Maine and works for the same family. With Joe away from home that leaves only two of the five children living in Nova Scotia. We learn all this from Joe's reminiscences as he lays dying but every other chapter is the story of Norma and it's not hard to figure out that she is Ruthie. The theme of family is everywhere throughout this book; birth families, adoptive families, chosen families, and families we make of people we find along our way.

I'm reading Blood and Salt by Saskatchewan author Barbara Sapergia about the internment of Ukrainian Canadians during WWI.

From Sweetgrass Bridge by Anthony Bidulka is the second in a new series by Bidulka with PI Merry Bell as the main character. I haven't read the first one but I don't think I missed too much as Bidulka does a good job of referencing major points. As with his former series starring Russell Quant, there are some LGBTTQ+ characters, including the main character who is a trans woman. She returned to Saskatchewan from BC in order to build up her finances which were decimated by the transitioning. This time she is hired to find the Saskatchewan Roughriders star QB who is indigenous. He's been missing for a few days and his family don't feel the police are doing enough to search for him. I thought it was an interesting addition to the genre.

Swan River by David Reynolds may be stretching the definition of Canadian literature because almost all of the book is set in England. But Swan River is mentioned from the very beginning and everything the author writes in this memoir is touched by the mystery of his paternal grandfather's leaving England and ending up in a small community in Manitoba. Along the way we learn about the author's childhood and early adulthood. He was living in London during the 1960s which is almost as iconic a place for the peace and love movement as San Francisco. I found it interesting although part of my interest stems from the fact that I grew up in the Swan River Valley.

Gutenberg's Fingerprint / Merilyn Simonds
3.5 stars

The author collected some stories she’d written and decided to publish them in an old-style way: hand made paper and an old-style printing press where the type is set by hand, etc. This documents that procedure along with plenty of history of paper, ink, type, the printing press, and much much more. It also looks at how she (and her son) created the ebook, and the last chapters of the book talk about the history of ereaders and ebooks.

This was interesting. It took me back to my “History of the Book” class in library school when we did field trips to learn to make paper, then we later went to a printing press where we hand set the type and printed our names on our paper that we’d already made. The modern technology was also interesting to read about. It’s not fast paced or “can’t put the book down” kind of read, but it was definitely interesting to read about all those things.

I read Paul à la maison (Paul at home) by Michel Rabagliati in one sitting. I'm a huge fan of the series and was not disappointed by this one. Paul deals with tough situations such as empty-nest syndrome, divorce, illness of his mother and fundamentally deep solitude. It's recounted in such an intimate way, there is never any pathos, with humorous situation throughout to lighten the tone. And of course, there's Montréal in the background, giving that beautiful Canadian uniqueness, in simple, evocative drawings.

Just finished Stillwater by Darcie Friesen Hossack and it was excellent, I thought. I put a review on the book page.

The Northwomen / Heather Pringle
3.5 stars

This is a look at the women in Viking society. The author looks at archaelogical evidence of the kinds of activities women likely did. Many are things that people do not assume of Viking women. They do include things like weaving (sails, armour, etc.) and there were slaves, but there were also women warriors, merchants, voyagers, and more.

This was good. Interesting. I’ve really not read much about Vikings. This did include some broader Viking history, but with a focus on the women and the archaeological evidence that has been found to refute the assumptions that it was men only who were the warriors, merchants, and travellers. I did find this mostly interesting, but I did also lose focus at times. Being nonfiction, it did take a bit longer to read.

>129 LibraryCin: If you want a fictional treatment of this subject The Voyage of Freydis was a great read. I'm not actually sure if the author, Tamara Goranson, is Canadian but her three books are set in Vinland where Freydis travelled to get away from an abusive husband in Greenland.

>130 gypsysmom: Oh, cool! Yes, thank you for the recommendation. I'll take a look (and likely add it to the tbr!). :-)

Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World / John Vaillant
4.5 stars

Record-breaking heat, strong winds, and desert-like humidity all played a part in the wildfire that hit Fort McMurray, Alberta in May 2016. This book initially introduces the reader to Fort McMurray and its main industry, the oil patch (or tarsands, to be more accurate – that’s not just the environmentalist in me saying that; it seems that really is the most accurate term for it (vs “oilsands” – it really is tar until a lot of equipment, energy, money, etc. go into it to make it liquid)).

The next section is all about the fire, as 88,000 people evacuated the city with no notice, almost all heading out the one highway in/out that doesn’t lead to a dead end. The book then mostly followed first responders who stayed back to fight the fires.

The last section of the book discusses climate change. And the impact this has on the environment, the temperature, fires, and other major disasters that are now happening much more frequently and are stronger than ever before.

I live in Alberta and very distinctly remember the wildfire; I expect many people around the world also remember, with the images and videos that came out as people were evacuating. I remember the one person’s camera inside their house with the fish tank that recorded the fire taking over the house until the camera cut out – this is described in the book (and I went to rewatch the video – those poor fish!).

I have never been to Fort McMurray, nor do I know anyone who works in the oil patch (if I do, I don’t know them well). Of course, the fire was the main pull for me to read the book; I also am fascinated by disaster stories. But also: has anyone else heard of “fire tornadoes”!? Holy crap! New phenomenon. The first one ever occurred in Australia in 2003, then it happened in California in 2017 or 2018. Crazy! The author did provide a lot of information on fires, in general, as well, which I found interesting.

I also read a lot about climate change, and Vaillant had a lot of information in this book, including quite a bit about oil companies that knew what was happening and that humans (and the contributions from oil/gas production) were part of (that is, the main) cause of climate change this time around. It made me think of tobacco companies who didn’t want to lose their profits, so they not only do nothing, they stifle attempts to make things better.

>132 LibraryCin: I've been meaning to read this book. Your review pushed it a little further up the pile. Thanks.

>133 gypsysmom: I probably knew when I added it to my tbr that it wasn't just about the fire... that it was also about climate change, in general. I had forgotten that when I started reading it, but it worked out, anyway!

>133 gypsysmom: >134 LibraryCin: I also read and enjoyed Fire Weather. John Vaillant was interviewed on CBC's The House about it...you can find the audio online. His first book, The Golden Spruce has long been on my top three nonfiction reads.

>135 LynnB: I read his The Tiger a number of years ago and thought it was terrrific but it's time I read something else by him. I know The Golden Spruce won the GG when it came out so I need to read it too.

>135 LynnB: Oooh, cool! Thank you. I will see if I can find that!

>136 gypsysmom: I actually didn't like "The Tiger" as much as I'd hoped to. Can't recall now if I gave it 3 stars (ok) or 3.5 (good). But this one, "Fire Weather" will likely be on my favourites list for the year.

I finished the graphic novel, Wendy, Master of Art by Walter Scott. Quirky, fun with some genuine moments, this novel explores Wendy's struggles getting her Master's in Fine Arts. I didn't love the drawings at first, but they do such a good job of supporting the story that in the end I quite enjoyed them.
Also, it was oddly comforting that the academic art scene hasn't changed all that much in 20-30 years, at least in Canada :D

I'm re-reading Leaning, Leaning Over Water by Frances Itani

>140 LynnB: Loved that book. (But then I've loved almost everything Itani has written!)

I> I read it over 20 years ago and still think of it from time to time. That's why I decided to re-read it. Am loving it again....even read a portion aloud to my sister.

Finished In Winter I Get Up at Night by Jane Urquhart , and I recommend it. If you are interested, I put my review on the main page for the book.

Naming Canada by Alan Rayburn

This is a themed list into the names all over Canada, from designating specific geographical features, like a Coulee or a ha!ha!, to the various people who have lived on the land, like Ottawa (Algonquin), Fogo (Portuguese), Montréal (French), it's a neat way to uncover a country's history and unique characters. Did you know Moose appears in over 600 names? It's filled with such factoids.

>144 Cecilturtle: That sounds really interesting!

>145 LibraryCin: I did learn quite a bit, but it is a list so it makes for dry reading. It's a fine reference book, one to pick up occasionally, read a few lines, and put down again.

I'm re-reading Sweetland by Michael Crummey for a book club discussion.

>146 Cecilturtle: Good to know! Thank you.

Just finished The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield. Sometimes I was turned off by the amount of technical details, but for the most part it was a gripping tale of Cold War espionage and space exploration.

I'm reading Kukum by Michel Jean

I'm reading The Double Life of Benson Yu by Kevin Chong

Runaway / Alice Munro
2.25 stars

This is a book of short stories. Set in various parts of Canada. In the first one a woman was trying to get away from her husband. A few others (same characters) involved a woman and her daughter.

I listened to the audio and short stories make that difficult. If you lose focus, the stories are usually too short to figure out what you missed, as the percentage of the story you miss is much larger than that of a novel if you miss bits and pieces. The first story kept my attention the most, I think – where the woman was running away from her husband. The other series of stories mentioned with mother/daughter, I probably caught more of because there were multiple stories. But really, none were overly exciting where I wanted to keep listening. The first story was the closest to that. Not a fan – of short stories or Alice Munro, really.

>152 LibraryCin: I'm not really a short story fan but I make an exception for Alice Munro's; or, at least, I did until the revelations from her daughter came out this year. Not sure I'd feel the same way about them now.

I'm attending an online seminar on Alice Munroe and the controversy tomorrow.

I've read Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit by Nadine Sander-Green. Still mulling it over.

>153 gypsysmom: I try to put that out of my head while I read. It popped in every so often, but I don't think it made a difference for me.

ETA: In a similar vein, I have a book I've been wanting to read by Bill Cosby for YEARS. I haven't yet been able to bring myself to read it. But I do remember him being so funny... I don't know if I'll manage that one or not.

>154 LynnB: That will be interesting!

I'm reading Dropseed: The Story of Three Sad Women by Nettie Marie Magnan

>157 LynnB: I just received that one in the mail. The author lives in Selkirk, about 25 miles away. Hope it's good.

I zipped through an audiobook Snow Road Station by Elizabeth Hay because I caught Covid this week and have been lying low. Listening to this audiobook seemed perfect. It's the story of a 62 year old actress who blanked on her lines in a Beckett play in Ottawa. It's the Easter long weekend and she is going to her home town of Snow Road Station to attend a wedding. Snow Road Station is just a village but Hay portrays the countryside as quite lovely. It's maple syrup time so between getting ready for the wedding everyone is helping with the syrup process. There's no cell service and the actress "forgot" to put her contact info on the white board at the theatre. She met an interesting man at the wedding, an old boyfriend who is now a rich money launderer turned up and she also had an upsetting encounter with another man. When she finally gets cell service and checks her messages she finds that the director called extra rehearsals and fired her when they couldn't contact her. Maybe this is the message she needs to do something different with her life.

I really liked how Hay shows these older people falling in love and taking risks. Some very lovely writing. Hay narrated the audiobook. I almost always like hearing an author's voice reading their own words and this was no exception.

>159 gypsysmom: Oh no! Hope it didn't hit you too badly and you're feeling better soon.

>160 LibraryCin: Thanks, I am feeling pretty well now but I still tested positive last night so I'll have a few more days of quarantine I think. I might be channelling Pollyanna but this enforced rest has certainly been good for getting lots of reading in.

As I said above, I've gotten lots of reading done this week. I finished a book called Maplecroft by Mary-Clare Terrill which I received through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program. It's a book with a dual time-line, one at the beginning of the 20th century and one in 2019. The first time line involves the romance between a Boer War veteran and the daughter of a wealthy and prominent businessman. In the later time period, the letters the pair exchanged (and other memorabilia) are found in a cottage by the couples' granddaughter and she gets intrigued by their story. The author did experience finding this treasure trove and decided to do a historical novel about them. I have to say that I felt she spent too much time on the details of the earlier time which I found got tedious. She has plans to continue this into a series; not sure I would want to read any more.

>161 gypsysmom: Well, that's a good thing, then. :-) More reading is always good!

I'm reading Katherena Vermette's new novel, Real Ones

>164 LynnB: I have that but I am currently reading her last book of the Strangers trilogy, The Circle. It has sucked me right back into their story.

I just finished listening to Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue. It's about two young girls in a boarding school in the early 1800s who fall madly in love. Really beautiful descriptions of that first time of falling in love.

I'm reading The Untimely Resurrection of John Alexander MacNeil by Lesley Choyce

I've picked up The Wine Witch, a memoir by Ottawa-based Natalie MacLean. The book meanders a bit but its forthright vulnerability is laudable.

21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act / Bob Joseph
3.5 stars

This book goes through to explain parts of Canada’s Indian Act, originally created in 1876. Though there have been some updates, much remains. The author also includes, in an appendix, all 94 calls to action in the recent Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Ultimately, though some (Indigenous people) are concerned about ramifications of getting rid of the outdated Indian Act altogether, the author (also Indigenous) believes it should go, and explains why.

Most people don’t know much about the Indian Act. I didn’t until earlier this year when I took an extremely comprehensive online (free!) course from the University of Alberta called Indigenous Canada (highly recommended, though it does take a chunk of time). So, I had heard (via that course) a lot of what the author mentions in this book. But that doesn’t mean a reminder wasn’t a good thing, because it is. It’s a short book; it sounds like the author did that on purpose. It’s not super-exciting reading (it’s explaining legal things), but it’s something that Canadians should read and educate themselves about.

>169 LibraryCin: Thanks for bringing this book to our attention. Sounds like important reading.

Stars Between the Sun and Moon / Lucia Jang
3.5 stars

The author grew up in North Korea but soon learned she wanted out. She went through abusive relationships, two children (one who was sold, not by her choice), landed in jail more than once, went back and forth between China, and more. Eventually, she got out for good and made her way to Canada.

I listened to the audio. Unfortunately, that meant it was a while before I got interested. And it was interesting (and awful for her) once it was holding my attention, but I’d already missed a bunch of what was going on by that point, and I continued to lose focus at times. You could say there were some technical issues with the audio that didn’t help, but it’s hard to say if that would have made a difference in the rating or not. I actually thought I caught more than I did, but in reading some of the other reviews, I guess I missed more than I thought, even.

I just noticed from the On this Day listing that two giants of Canadian literature died on this day, December 2. Robertson Davies died in 1995 and Matt Cohen died in 1999. Davies was 82 when he died and had completed 4 trilogies and started another. He was also editor and publisher of the Peterborough Examiner during the 1940s, 1950s and some of the 1960s. In addition to his writing, he was a theatre actor and was instrumental in starting the Stratford Festival. He won the Stephen Leacock Award in 1955 for Leaven of Malice and the GG for English fiction in 1972 for The Manticore.
Cohen was only 57 when he died but had written 14 novels, two books of poetry, 10 children's books and many short stories. He won the GG Award for English fiction in 1999 just a few weeks before he died for Elizabeth and After. And he was a founding member of the Writers' Union of Canada of which he was president when the Canadian government agreed to establish a Public Lending Right program.

I've read a lot of Davies' books, my favourite being High Spirits, a series of short stories about ghosts. However, I've only read two of Cohen's and it wasn't until this morning that I learned he had written children's books. I'll have to see what my library still has in stock.

I just finished The Spoon Stealer by Lesley Crewe and quite enjoyed it, though I didn't like the addition of the talking dog which I thought was totally unnecessary. My daughter and family live in Nova Scotia now and I've visited them 3x so far and I like seeing the references to places and towns in Nova Scotia that I know now.

I'm reading Prairie Edge by Conor Kerr

I'm reading Friendly Fire by Lisa Guenther

I just finished Held by Anne Michaels. I'm still processing this book but I think it is beautifully written. Anne Michaels has an interesting piece on her website about writing the book which you can find here: https://www.annemichaels.ca/held

I'm still pondering the issues explore in my latest read, a debut novel called Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall. I must admit to being somewhat ignorant of the all-too-recent history of the fight to allow Canadian women to gain control of their own bodies and reproduction. Very troubling issues, especially as North American politics is shifting to the far right and women's rights are under threat.

>177 ted74ca: Looking for Jane is on my TBR shelves.

I'm reading The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard

I'm reading Neuromancer by William Gibson, American born but naturalized Canadian. I'm enjoying it-ish.

I like the cyberpunk, gritty aspect; it's definitely very novel and cutting edge, especially for its time, but still today. The terminology and jargon are tripping me up though which makes it difficult to understand. Plus, 40 years later, a lot of the technology has actually been realized but under different parameters... so I find myself translating concepts into today's language; once a translator, always a translator, I guess, especially since I worked in cybersecurity - lol! Anway, an interesting experience. Gibson has definitely tapped onto something! Except for the phone booths; that's a fun relic from the past.

I just finished listening to In Winter I Get Up at Night by Jane Urquhart. It's been 9 years since Urquhart published anything (The Night Stages came out in 2015 but I didn't read it) but she has said in interviews that she has been working on this book for 10 years. In a way, that shows. The plotting is unusual and it must have been difficult to figure out what to put where. I liked it a lot. It's the story of Emer McConnell who came from Ontario to Saskatchewan with her parents in the early 1900s. Two years after they settled on their homestead a tornado hit the farm and Emer was picked up and tossed to the ground in a slough on the property. Gravely injured, she is taken to a hospital where she is placed in a children's ward populated by a group of interesting children. She refers back to this time frequently as she goes about her work as a music and art teacher in rural one-room schools. She also reminisces about "The Man I Loved" who she refers to only as Harp. Harp comes and goes from her life because he is a famous person who made a scientific discovery that saved many people's lives. All these time lines are woven together, much like a tapestry.