Help Me, Jacques Cousteau – Gil Adamson

I have to say this little book had me laughing out loud, I just loved it.

This is a reprint of Gil’s work that was originally published about 10 years ago by a small press The Porcupine’s Quill, which until now had a limited print run and was quite hard to find.

Through the eyes of oldest Hazel along with her younger brother Andrew are born into an eccentric and quirky family.  Through vignettes of the short stories, they have travelled and lived in Australia when their father taught there then moved back to Canada.

Talking about her family through her eyes, as only one could – her brother that once just stopped speaking and read books instead; her father the amateur inventor where the house they live in has been re wired more than once; the house is strewn with old and new inventions; the grandfather who once kept a deceased dog in the back of his car and drove around for a while.

There were many instances where I either laughed out loud, shook my head, and jaw dropped at the antics this family encountered.  Unbelievably funny, with a side of insanity will have you in the same boat as I was – in stitches, unable to comprehend what else was in store while being a part of this family.

Immensely addictive, full of personal insights and flowing like poetry, this would be a great book for an afternoon of reading when you need a pick me up on a snow falling day in front of a window with a hot beverage of your choice.

House of Anansi

Gil Adamson’s Website

Through Black Spruce – Joseph Boyden

I have to say, this book totally blew me away with its really strong narrative,  literally whisking me away to a place that I have lived close to in Northern Ontario that I had a hard time to even take a breath, much less do anything else until I finished the book.

I had heard all of the buzz surrounding this particular book, but I am now a confirmed new fan to Joseph’s works.  I will be looking for Three Day Road as well, the book he published before Through Black Spruce.  It is also book two of a three book trilogy, where Three Day Road is the first book, but they are also stand alone books.

Will has been a Cree bush pilot for decades and finds himself in the hospital suffering from a coma.  Annie, his niece has her own problems as well.  Looking for her sister that succumbed to the modelling world and some of its perils is number one on her agenda.  The family hasn’t heard from her in months, they are worried, and want to know if she is still alive.  Something happened to her when she was in New York smoozing with people in the industry and all of the deals and plans they have for not only one another but themselves as well.

Will, Annie and the rest of the family come from a small northern Ontario community that is mostly inhabited by native people.  They use snowmobiles in the winter to travel across the lake to other parts of the area, as well as hunt and fish.  In this cold climate, the smell of black spruce, the wood burning stoves, and the problems of drugs and alcohol gives this book the authentic yet real problems that this and other communities face within the Native community.

As Will is laying in his coma, Anne comes to him to tell her story of how finding her sister is becoming a lost cause and how she feels about the whole situation – her sister, her boyfriend who is involved with drug dealing, and the modeling world may have added to her disappearance.  Annie goes to Toronto where she started her modeling career where it then takes her to Montreal and then to New York.  The rumours and conflicting stories don’t bode well for her sister she feels; and praying that she is safe somewhere, anywhere, so that she has enough time to find her.

Will in his own way is communicating how he ended up in this whole predicament – the persons who are responsible, the reason why.  Will has other demons as well – alcohol, losing his wife and young child in a house fire shortly after being married all contribute to how he lives his life now, and the dreams still yet to be realized, with a woman who he has been friends with for years, but just got reconnected.

Rife with heartbreak, fierce love – for one another and others, ancient feuds that have gone on for years with no chance of reconciliation, along with the bonds that hold friends and family together are just impeccable.

I have to say that if I didn’t already know the area Joseph talks about in the novel I think it would have been a totally new experience of seeing it through his eyes for the first time; alas, since I do know the area, I can re imagine the sights and sounds of a small town far away from the nearest larger city, isolated with the cold Ontario winter howling in the background.  The rich and storied cast of characters along with the storytelling will want you to savour this novel and then possibly re read it again to gain a different perspective each time you do.

Through Black Spruce won the Scotia Bank Giller Prize for 2008, CBA Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year for 2009, and was long listed for the I.M.P.A.C Dublin Award in 2009

Penguin

Quill and Quire’s Review

Joseph’s Website

The Carnivore – Mark Sinnett

In the fall of 1954 Hurricane Hazel hit Toronto with such a force that killed 81 people and injuring many more.

Ray and Mary Townes who were recently married have that typical Canadian life – he being a police officer and Mary a nurse that anyone would want to have and see from the outside as one that is destined to succeed.  Ray is not only young but being hailed as a hero on that fateful night that the hurricane hit, he has a lot to live up to.  Mary, a young nurse working at St. Joseph’s has that persona of a Florence Nightingale working the night shift in her own way.

50 years later, Ray is on his deathbed from emphysema just by chance reading the paper one morning  Ray has made the papers once again;  with the same picture that had haunted him then as it does now.  Mary is still irked to this day about their life so long ago, just waiting patiently until Ray breathes his last breath; what she thought they once had as you will see is a total fabrication, or at least it is in her eyes and she will have nothing of it.  She also knows more than she is letting onto;  Ray, who is telling the whole story throughout this work of fiction that had me engrossed to the point of stalking the characters in a way that you are allowed to when reading a book.

The story itself jumps from present-day to those fateful days when Hurricane Hazel hit, with all of the force it intended.  Ray seems to think that coming clean after all of these years will absolve him of the things that he hadn’t had the guts to reveal to his loving wife Mary.  He fully intended to, but when things got right down to it, he chickened out.

Mary finding the notebook in-between his bed wasn’t exactly the cleverest place to hide his journal for anyone not to find it, but when Mary goes back, she can’t find it with all of the secrets her husband kept from her.

Like I had stated earlier, I was literally stalking this novel – it didn’t matter if I was reading it, or it was sitting on my table eyeing me from where it sat, the story along with all of the characters were on my mind like a woman possessed wanting to know if Ray and Mary would reconcile before Ray took his last breath, or would the animosity of all the heartbreak and sadness of things already done would still fester like a wound would that hasn’t been tended to.

I wasn’t disappointed in the least.

ECW Press

The Disappeared – Kim Echlin

I have to admit, I was taken so much by this book by the first paragraph, that I neglected things in my real life until I absolutely had to do them.

What would you do if the place you have called your home wouldn’t allow you to return if you wanted to?

Serey is caught in that situation.  Currently living in Montreal where he meets Anne who is much younger in a jazz club.  As Serey’s country is currently in the midst of a revolution, which includes murder, tragedy of such magnitude which leaves 1/7th of the population dead.  The last he has heard from his family was years ago.

At first when Anne’s father hears of the relationship, he is against it because it reminds him so much of his own with Anne’s mother before she was killed in a car crash.  He feels this is too close to home for it to be re lived again in another sense with his daughter.

Her mother essentially gave up her career, her life so to speak, to be able to marry and raise their daughter.  Her father on the other hand is one that immerses himself into his work and to only come up for air when he absolutely needs to.  Being a single father hasn’t been the most enjoyable experience for one that has been an academic most of his life, but he had help along the way.

Anne, being 16 and we all know at that age, when most teenagers don’t listen to her father’s advice and continues the relationship – going to jazz clubs, hanging out, learning words from his language, learning more and more about his culture and where he is from before the revolution began.  Serey after a time decides it is time to return to his homeland to see what has happened to his family members, and to try and pick up the pieces of a life he once knew.

10 years later, Anne simply cannot get Serey out of her mind.  Although, it has been so much time, you really cannot forget your first love.  She has gotten on with her life – going to university, working, her love is just that a small part of her life.  Until she makes the decision to travel to Cambodia one night when she thinks she sees Serey on television during footage of a demonstration there.

Despair is an unwitnessed life.

Once she arrives, she wanders around the busy streets of people trading and selling their wares illegally until she comes across some other ex pats who are there to help the people, and to rebuild.  Once she finds Serey, it was if those 10 years never existed.

I was taken away from the first paragraph like I had stated at the beginning of this book.  The writing is written like prose in poetry, moving and swaying with the jazz music that first brought them together.  Although, from two different countries, there is a common thread throughout, their undying love for another, the differences of thinking between the 2 lovers, and the journey of love itself amongst war and tragedy.

I see your long silence as I see war, an urge to conquer.  You used silence to guard your territory and told yourself you were protecting me.  I was outside the wall, an intoxicating foreign land to occupy.  I wondered what other secrets you guarded.  Our disappeared were everywhere, irresistable, in waking, in sleeping, a reason for violence, a reason for forgiveness, destroying the peace we tried to posess, creeping between us as we dreamed, leaving us haunted by the knowledge that history is not redeemed by either peace or war but only fingered to shreds and left to our children.  But I could not leave you, and I could not forget, and I did not know what to do, and I always loved you beyond love.

The Disappeared has been longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize for 2009.

Penguin / Hamish Hamilton Books

Scotiabank Giller Longlist of nominees – The shortlist will be announced on Tuesday October 6, 2009

In The Land Of Long Fingernails – Charles Wilkins

Do you sense that graveyards are creepy; do they make you cringe when you drive by one; is it a place only to be visited during the day to lay flowers and visit loved ones that have already passed on?

In the haze of summer in the year of 1969, Charles (the author) was between semesters taking classes at the University of Toronto and was in need of a summer job.  What he ended up getting would be a summer of first glimpses of working as a gravedigger in a large urban graveyard.

As he gets to know the staff – his boss Scotty is his boss and always drunk by around 10 am every day, there is the Italian economist who is waiting for his big break with a large petroleum company, and the other men who work either for the union or not are quirky and yet work there simply because they need to provide income for their families, and probably will be working there until retirement.

As the summer goes on, the characters do their thing and sometimes not do as much as they should, which means taking off and lying under a tree in a non conspicuous part of the cemetery to smoke, read, or even write a short story.  But watch out when Scotty finds out, or catches you.  You just might lose your job.

While Charles was working this summer in the blistering heat and rain at the cemetery, he was told or heard bizarre tales of back in the day of empty graves that were owned by the police, how a huge pit at the back of the cemetery was an open grave, the people who would come not because they knew anyone, but they thought that this kind of place would be good for certain acts wouldn’t be interrupted since they had no other place to go.

There were so many morbid and yet hilarious tales that can and probably still happen in cemeteries today, that will have you maybe possibly wondering does it actually happen the next time you visit one if you ever do, not that anyone enjoys visiting cemeteries.

Brilliantly written, with bits of tongue in cheek humour, this is one book you won’t easily forget for a while.

But then again there was a underlying story of a 20 yr old University man finding himself, and mortality.

In The Land of Long Fingernails is a finalist for a Trillium Book Award (2009), has also been shortlisted for a Toronto Book Award (2009) and has been shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour (2009).

Penguin / Viking

My friend Bronwyn from A Certain Bent Appeal talks about the book and the author

The Wives Tale – Lori Lansens

Mary Gooch realizes that on the eve of her 25th wedding anniversary that she has absolutely nothing to wear.  Being morbidly obese, a lot is trial and error, but then again her job doesn’t really require dress attire as she works in a pharmacy.  Late that night, she realizes that her husband hasn’t come home and doesn’t have any idea where he is, hasn’t left a note, or called.  Mary isn’t worried Jimmy is always honest and reliable.  She is more worried about what she is going to wear, and what next to eat.

Mary was always what you would call fat.  Even as a child the doctor would call her Obeast.  There was one time however when she wasn’t when she was a teenager – eating dirt because she had worms and subsequently eating the dirt to get rid of the worms, and losing weight is what caught Jimmy Gooch’s eye.  Even after he was in a car accident with his drunken father and broken his leg.

Mary is always eating, it doesn’t matter what it is or what time of the day or night it is.  That is the reason why her new outfit is small.  It doesn’t help either that the chocolate guy gives her a discount on chocolate at the store when he comes in.

But 25 years later, she feels comfortable in her life.  Jimmy seems to be happy as well, or at least she thinks he is, until he doesn’t show up for work.  After a few days, she starts to get worried, and calls his boss – even he doesn’t know where Jimmy is.

Throughout her whole life it seems as though it has been one thing after another, family deaths, occurrences, and not dealing with her pain and suffering; Mary finally after years is overcoming her obstacles and drives from a small town in Ontario to Toronto hops on a plane and flies to California after his long lost (and dead supposedly) sister tells Mary that he is gone there.

Once she arrives in Los Angeles, she is awe struck.  How is she supposed to get around, how is she supposed to find her mother in law to see if her husband is here?

Throughout the story, it gives one a personal glimpse into a marriage that was almost doomed from the start to the revitalization of a woman who is not only finding herself, but what she wants.

Random House / Knopf

We Know What You’re Thinking – What Canadians Think and Why – Darrell Bricker and John Wright

Have you ever wondered what other people think? Have you ever wondered how your opinions match against say someone across the country?  While living out in British Columbia, I had a job which asked questions of Americans on different topics, and it made me want to read this book just to see how or why people think the way they do and how the pollsters crunch the numbers and come up with the answers that they do.

Darrel and John have been asking Canadians questions for years as Canada’s premier pollsters from Ipsos-Reid, which just happens to be the largest market and opinion research company in Canada.

I can almost be sure that at one time or another, you had a phone call from these people, and depending on your mood (yes I have been on the end of that many times asking questions myself) when you decide to answer these questions, do you think that they actually matter?  In one word yes, they do.

From policies, random questions, and some really personal questions such as what would your ideal lover look like, to going out to dinner and a movie would you rather take your dad or Jon Bon Jovi?  The answers to these questions and so many more can be found in this book that actually differs from province to province.

What do they do with all of the answers that they receive, how do they put together all of the data, yes, no and maybes, into such data that a company or organization who pays them to find out, and what does it mean for us the person that they ask, or even what does it do to the landscape of Canada?

We know what you are thinking offers some really interesting thoughts about what people think, along with some funny anecdotes to make it flow better.  It wasn’t as drab and boring as some may think it would be this would be the kind of book you might want to take a look at.  And, yes, I can see the doubt on your face.

Very easy to understand, also with a few unofficial quizzes to see what you have learned during reading the book.  Talking of books, did you know that British Columbia, and the Atlantic Provinces reads the most books It also doesn’t hurt to mention they are both close to oceans ?

QUICK FACTS FROM WE KNOW WHAT YOU’RE THINKING

• The more formal education you have, the more beer you drink.

• 25 percent of Torontonians name Vancouver as their favourite potential place to live; 3 percent of Vancouverites

name Toronto as their favourite place to live.

• Calgary leads the nation in broccoli consumption.

• 3 percent of Canadians believe that Elvis Presley is still alive.

• Less than 1 percent of Canadian parents with young children hope their kids will grow up to be writers.

The Globe and Mail’s Ten Questions from The Great Big Canadian Quiz

HarperCollins

The Day The Falls Stood Still – Cathy M. Buchanan

I am simply speechless.

Bess and her older sister Isabel have lived the privileged life.  Her father is the head of the Hydro Electric Commission; they have a large house with servants and go to a private catholic school.  During Bess’ junior year, her father is let go from his job, the servants are let go.  The last day of school is usually when they have a concert and tea, her mother and father come to pick her up, but it is just her mother making polite apologies.  She then finds out later through her friend Kit that her father was fired from his job, and Isabel’s fiancée has broken off the engagement.  So when she returns home on the electric trolley she wonders what she will go back to.  It is on this trolley ride, that she meets Tom who assists her mother with her trunk.  She is smitten right away.  She wonders if she will ever see him again.

When she arrives home, she finds a lot has changed.  Her father is nowhere to be seen, nowadays he can be found at the local hotel.  Her mother has gone back to dressmaking to keep the house afloat, and her sister isn’t well.  She finds her sister who was once so full of life and vigour, withdrawn and depressed, and losing weight at an alarming pace.

Dealt with all of these changes so suddenly, she wonders if she will ever see Tom again.  There was some sort of connection when his deep green eyes met hers as he was helping with her trunk.  She cannot get him out of her mind.

With the story situated in the early 1900’s there has the certain acknowledgements and customs to be looked upon.  Her mother thinks it isn’t right that she wants to associate with a lower class as herself.  Bess doesn’t see it that way.

The elegance of her life may be gone from the home situated not far from the awe inspiring falls, but it takes on a different perspective for her as time goes on.  In Tom’s eyes it is something magical, where he can almost hear the river and the falls talking to him, he feels it.  For Bess, it will take on the opposite as time wanes to one of disaster, where many secrets are unfolded and love blooms.

From the page of the dedication, I was on the verge of tears.  From the first page to the last, I was enthralled, the way she has woven the story and all of its contents so flawlessly and effortlessly as is breathtaking as the falls themselves.  I myself have been born and raised in the region as has Cathy, and have some if not all of the tales about people going over the falls on barrels, or plummeting to their deaths because of the desperate circumstances they are in.  The falls hold many other tales of happiness and joy as well.

The constant ebbing and flowing of the novel is like that of the Niagara River, going faster and slower synonymous as is the strong current. Rushing hard trying to bring whatever it is in its grasp over the falls, until barely being saved and pulled from its emerald green hold, out of the mist or over the edge into the pool hundreds of feet below as it is taken by the never relenting current never to be seen from again.

I have to say, being from the area, the falls have always given me some inspiration, hope, and happiness that I am able to take whatever it is I need from it, and gain something from it.

I will be posting a Q and A as well with Cathy I had done with her, and if you enjyed the book, you will not be disappointed with the Q and A.  I will be posting it in the 18th of September as part of a book blogging tour.

HarperCollins

Biography

Cathy’s Website

Browse Inside this book Get this for your site

A Hard Witching and other Stories – Jacqueline Baker

This collection of short stories had me re living parts of my own childhood way back when.  All of the stories are based in Sand Hills, Saskatchewan,that where you could say that life, and living that life  the values and people are different then other places.  In small towns, everyone knows everyone, and at times knows all of everyone else’s business as well.  Living in these towns on the prairies were tough – living, working and eking out an existence if you were a farmer. Jacqueline gives us a glimpse as to how people living in these small prairie towns dealt with all of the circumstances and how simple and the no intrusions from other things that we come into contact now with living  in a larger city or town.

Being the baby of a large family which roots are Ukranian / Czech, it sent me back to my own childhood living in a small northern ontario town after moving from the Niagara Region.  Where the smells of canning peaches, pears, cherries, plums, making pickled beets, relishes, dill pickles, and the ever so coveted mother’s famous strawberry freezer jam, to hold us over the winter without having to buy those canned items in the grocery store.

To the times where I would watch my mother making  pies, cookies and cakes from scratch, never anything processed, or making dinner from scratch every night, sometimes making perogies starting first thing in the morning (since we had such a large family) only to have a few dozen left over for breakfast on Sunday’s.  The way families would stay in close proximity of one another, coming together for family celebrations, and of course deaths, and other celebrations such as Canada Day, or Labour Day celebrations with driving to a larger town where the carnival or fair would be the best treat with all the sights and smells that accompany those sorts of things.  The backyard bonfires, the simplicity of life, not like it is now with everyone being connected, and rushing around trying to do so much in the span of a day.  Just the remembrances of just being bored on a hot summer day, hanging out at the beach, sitting on the dock with your friends jumping off the end into the cool water of Lake Huron all day, nearly everyday.  Reading on the porch in the evenings, while at my parents were in the HUGE garden, weeding and picking fresh vegetables to be used in the next night’s dinner.

It also has that simplicity of how husbands and wife’s connected with one another.  While most were married, there were very few that were divorced, and widowed, trying to eek out an existence sometimes in these small towns, but being forced to move away to larger centres to be able to provide a better life for themselves and their children.  There were also the families that had storied pasts, that were gossiped about in the small family owned grocery stores of these small towns, every time you went in there was always some sort of gossip about this and that.

BROWSE INSIDE

HarperCollins Canada

BUY THE BOOK – chapters,indigo.ca / Amazon.ca

** This is the first book I have read for the Summer is Short, Read A Story Book Challenge by HarperCollins.

The Shack – William P. Young

Mack as he is known,  is married to Nan and they have beautiful children.  On a weekend when Nan was out of town, Mack takes his children for a family camping adventure.  After making some friends at the camp and exploring the hills and waterways of where they are  relaxing and enjoying the day, his older children are in a canoe overturn it and need help.  Mack leaves his daughter Missy sitting at the picnic table to run and help his other children in the water.  When he returns however, Missy is gone.  The only thing that shows she was there are her coloring book and crayons.

His new friends help and go on a search around the campground and cannot find her anywhere, then contact the grounds security and the police.  The search begins and someone notices that there was a pickup truck with green camouflage colors that was leaving the campground.  When the investigators go to where Missy was sitting, they notice there is something there that wasn’t there before – a ladybug pin with 5 dots on the top.

The FBI investigator tells Mack  that it is someone that they know as the ladybug killer.  He always leaves a ladybug pin with the present number of girls at or around the same age that he has taken and murdered.  Missy is number 5.

After finding out where the truck was discarded,  finally having some sense of where he would be in the area, the police and Mack search and come across a shack.  Not that it would have been found by anyone else but  when they do, they find a streak of blood inside.  Mack is beyond words, and this is where “The Great Sadness” begins.  After testing, it is found that it is the blood of his daughter.  The murder is solved yet,  he doesn’t have his daughters body.  He blames himself for leaving her.  Nothing will ever be the same.

Three years into “The Great Sadness”  it is the middle of an ice storm, Mack decides to go out and check his mailbox.  It is glued shut because of the pelting ice and rain that is blowing.  Once he finally slips and slides and manages to get the box open there is a letter in there – with no stamps or return address.  Puzzled, he returns to his house and slips and hits his head on the base of a tree.  He manages to get in the house and opens the envelope – it says someone wants him to come to the shack where his daughter was murdered for the weekend, and it is signed “papa”.  Once thinking someone is playing a cruel joke, or  could be the killer playing with his emotions, he cannot understand who it is that sent him the letter.  He thinks that there is only one person that would possibly know his wife’s pet name for god.

He doesn’t tell anyone except for his best friend, who helps him prepare for this journey, he really doesn’t want to do in the first place.  Every time he thinks of the shack he is frozen with anger and fear. He begins his journey where he is at the place where he needs to walk to get to it, the memories from that day when they searched the woods and the accompanying area, he stops and forces himself to keep on going.  He arrives at the shack and steps inside, after a while he gets angrier as he sees the streak of blood on the fireplace, and yells out “Well I’m here” “What do you want from me”.  As he is about to leave, something happens.  It is transformed into a beautiful shack, filled with furniture, and someone singing in the kitchen. This is where his journey begins…

Now, before I talk about anything, I want to say to keep the comments polite and non abusive.  This is a somewhat controversial book, some people love it and some hate it. It is their opinion and please respect it.

For me personally, this book would be great for someone who is needing questions answered, re questioning their faith, whichever their faith is.  It is a personal journey, but there are some points that EVERY person should take into their everyday lives and incorporate them.

• No one is forced to do anything they do not want to do
• Everyone deserves love “Birds were created to fly.  Being grounded for them isn’t within their ability.  People on the other hand were created to be loved.  So, for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around.  Living unloved is like clipping the bird’s wings and removing it’s ability to fly”.
• It shouldn’t be the work that we do, but the purpose that makes it special.
• Freedom involves trust and obedience inside a relationship of love.
• People have a great capacity declaring something good or evil, without  knowing the truth.

Personal judging determines good or evil.  We become the judge and what you determine to be good or evil will change over time and circumstance.  There are billions of people on the earth who determine who or what is good or evil.  “So when good or evil clash with neighbors, fights and arguments happen and even wars break out.”

• “By choosing to declare what is good or evil, you seek to determine your own destiny.”
• We need to be open and available to others and stimulate and grow those relationships.
• “Laws gives us the power to judge others freedom and feel superior to them.”
• Each relationship between 2 people are unique, which is the why you cannot love 2 people the same.  You love differently because of how unique they are, and what they draw or why you are drawn to them, and the more you know one another the richer the relationship is.
• Forgiveness is to release you from something that is eating you alive, that destroys your joy and ability to love freely and openly.  It doesn’t require you to trust the person.  If they or you forgive and confess it helps you to reach out and begin to rebuild and start to reconcile.

Now, there are many more tidbits of wisdom in the book. I have tried to be as diplomatic as possble.

The Shack Book Site

Buy the Book – Chapters Indigo Borders The Shack

Lawrence Hill on The Hour

Lawrence Hill is the author that wrote “The Book of Negroes”  in Canada which, is otherwise known as “Someone Knows My Name” in the US and other countries.  I actually did not know this, he does explain it in his interview.  There is also a screenplay in the works.

Yesterday, @cbcbookclub asked me on twitter who would I want to see as the lead character in the movie,right away I thought of 2 – Queen Latifah, and Jada Pinkett Smith.  Then asked why, I said it was their screen presence, and also their ability to bite into tough characters and have it portrayed genuinely as well.  We will see what happens!

Sorry, I cannot embed the code directly from the site, so you will have to go to The Hour’s website and view it from there.

Lawrence Hill on The Hour

Here is the link to my review of

Book of Negroes

The Book of Negroes

Enjoy!

February – Lisa Moore

If you have ever experienced grief first hand, there are certain thoughts and feelings that come along with it and at times there just aren’t words to be able to express them fully to a person who hasn’t been through it themselves. Albeit, the death of a loved one such as a parent or a partner or primary breadwinner in Eastern Canada aboard an oil rig or anything of the like until now.

Helen’s husband works on an offline oil rig off the coast of Newfoundland, and all of a sudden she has this in inescapable feeling that her husband is dead or something horrible has happened. Everyone that she tells this to tells her she is silly and that everything is fine, but then the comes the news – The oil rig the “Ocean Ranger” has sunk off the coast of Newfoundland in a fierce storm on the most loving day of the year – Valentine’s Day, 1982.

Helen’s husband and 83 other men perished. What she doesn’t yet know is that she is pregnant with their 4th child.

Going from the past to present in the novel, Lisa Moore encompasses you in Helen’s grief so utterly and completely and at times without you even knowing it until you are smack dab in the middle of what she is experiencing until you take a breath and then you realize you’re there. At this point you really have only 2 choices, put the book down or continue on and wait for the tears to flow.

Lisa definitely takes you on a journey of life, loss, grief, and finding oneself and finally being able to let go.

I have to admit, this book is will hands down be one of my absolute favourites for 2009. I know that I have said that in 2 posts so far, but book February is definitely at the top of that list. Totally engulfing, mesmerizing, and succinct, she has a way with words and how she puts them all together that will leave you breathless and wanting more.

Lisa has also written Alligator, Open, and Degrees of Nakedness.

She was also a Giller Prize Short Listed Nominee for Open and Alligator.

Thanks to Julie for sending me this wonderful book.

House of Anansi (you can purchase the book here as well)

Chapters Indigo

Advice For Italian Boys – Anne Giardini

Nicolo is the middle child of a Italian Canadian family. He’s 24 and still lives at home with his parents and his Nonna. Nonna is one of those implanted into the family after her husband dies and moves to Canada. She has wise words of wisdom, always in Italian, some would say it is just gibberish but once you look at it, most of it does make sense. His other brothers – one is a law student and the other being married early because of a unplanned pregnancy are at a crossroads in life. One doesn’t want to be married, the one in law school was caught changing his grades, and Nicolo well he isn’t sure about anything.

He works in a Gym as a personal trainer, has money in the bank, and really doesn’t have a care in the world. His clients are eclectic, and interesting as the rest of the characters are. Not all at once mind you, but they do. So, Nicolo is under pressure to get married and make babies, but he isn’t really sure even what he really wants and looks at the other people in his life to gain some perspective and to make his own decisions as decisively as he can. He is a quiet, thoughtful, and caring to take the time he needs to figure out what he wants – through what he sees in his parents especially on Sunday’s when they go to mass, return and dance in the dining room for an hour. After the hour, the intimacy is finished and go their separate ways. This was their quiet time with one another away from everyone and everything, the songs start off in a slow pace and by the end it was quickened in pace and tempo.

Poignant, descriptive, introspective, and enlightening about what goes on in a mind of a man. What he thinks and feels, what he wants to do or what he hasn’t figured out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. With Nonna in the background offering sage advice, and her little euphemisms are bound to make you smile at.

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Interview with Anne courtesy of The Savvy Reader

Connected Parenting – Jennifer Kolari MSW, RSW

I decided to go out of my usual genre which is fiction and was quite surprised.

Connected Parenting is a way of getting to your challenging child, and to either build the bonds that were once there, or to build upon a bond you already have with your child. As a mother myself to a son who was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) I do have some experience in raising a child that has some difficulties.

In her book, I was surprised that all of the things that I have been taught or what was the right thing to do, is right, but with her strategies, to make it even better.

She uses a technique called mirroring and another that is an acronym for “CALM”, which you mirror what your child is saying so they know you know exactly what they are feeling, instead of yelling and screaming day after day and you both becoming increasingly frustrated and confused.

She also includes explanatory cases in which she has come across in her practice in which it can be used in everyday life, even if your child is not diagnosed with a medical condition.

I really liked this book, just for the fact that she made it personable, and easy to understand, lots of examples and let you know that is it OK if you do get frustrated yourself. It’s as much as a learning process for the parent as it is for the child. She also includes examples for not only ADHD, but for Asperger’s Syndrome and other special needs child. As well as setting rewards, consequences, and day to day activities it is a must read for parents that are at the end of their rope so to speak.

I would recommend this book to all parents if they have a child who has special needs or if they just need a little re vamping of their routines.

This book is not yet released, but it will be on May 5th, 2009. So you may pre order at this time.

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Mistress of The Sun – Sandra Gulland

Set in the 17th Century King Louis’s XIV court, is a tale of magic, religion, a horse, and love that was never meant to be.

Louise de la Valliere who has minor nobility, comes across a horse that is wild. No one has been able to tame this horse, it is a pure white stallion, fierce, strong, willed, and handsome. Louise is adamant that she can tame him and turns to magic to accomplish this goal.

She comes across a book that is in her father’s library that has a section on Magic. Though, she is warned not to use it, she does anyways, and she accomplishes her task of taming the horse..but only to her. And finally her father tells her that he must get rid of the horse as he is too violent for anyone to be able to go near. One day, while her father is in the barn, he dies and Louise comes to terms that it was the magic that she used to tame the horse, and she becomes unable to speak.

Throughout this time, she is scared that the dark spirits are out to get her, and she is afraid of anything that happens in her life. Her mother sends away her brother to military school, and Louise is sent to her Aunt’s convent, as her mother cannot afford to support the children any further until she finds a new husband.

When Louise’s mother is remarried to a member of the royal family, she is gone to court to become a maid of honor, and meets the king, who is married, but finds comfort more in Louise then his actual wife. So this begins the tale of being in love with the king and all of that implies – secrets, consorts in secrecy, rumours, fighting, dueling, and children from the beginning to end of this historical story.

In this tale of love, nobility, and secrets, Sandra places her hands and her fingers into the depths of history and immeasurable research she has poured over and spun this tale of unimaginable suspense and love in the 17th century. Intricate detailing not only the scenery, but the gowns and uniforms to a tee. I almost thought I was in the middle of it all while reading. This is the first that I have read of Sandra’s novels, and I have to say I won’t be sure to miss another any time soon. Sandra is quite meticulous in her research as well.

Tomorrow, Sandra will be gracing our presence and will be doing a guest blog post, so please welcome her will all the as if she was a “Queen”. I will also be announcing the Winners of the giveaway as well, so stay tuned !!

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