part stream of consciousness, part love story to newfoundland - it was the latter part I enjoyed the most. reminiscent of another newfie book - colony of unrequited dreams - ships and ice and storms and death center squarely in a Newfoundlander's hard life. it was only after I finished it that I found out it was historical fiction - based on an actual painter that came to newfoundland before WW1. most people in my book club found the narrator unlikeable, but I sympathized with him deeply - yes he made some bone head moves, but he justified his actions at the time (don't we all) and realized afterwards the negative effect they could have. gaining a new understanding doesn't erase what you've done; you've still got to live with it - but I can relate to wanting to explain yourself in that moment.
what if: serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions by randall munroe
a NASA physicist turned internet cartoonist, this guy has a great hook - ridiculous questions (often posed by my sons to me) and actual answers! I think he might be more of a numbers guy because a lot of the Qs boiled down to math. enjoyable until the math got repetitive.
me and earl and the dying girl by jesse andrews
this is one of those situations where it would have been better to have read the book before I saw the movie (in my defense, I didn't even know it started as a book until I saw it on the shelf) the style was, if not unique, pretty creative in its use of a reluctant, continually self-criticizing narrator. I could see how the movie did a great job of conveying the tone of the novel, and in many ways improved on the storytelling - switching up the chronology for example. my issue with movie vs book is with the ending. they are vastly different, and I was so surprised/disappointed in the turn of events that couldn't really relate to this new interpretation. but it's made me want to watch the film again. (oh, I forgot to start with me and earl and the dying girl was - hands down - the best film of 2015)
my ghosts by mary swan
there are stories told that keep you entertained with plots and characters, and then there are books that shine a light onto your own life. this is one of those books. the first part was so beautiful and so moving to me that I had to take a break and let it settle within me. it opens with characters that are not exactly central to the main arc (to me, at least) but are so necessary in order to have the compassion you need for the main arc to establish itself. a clever way to sneak into your heart, for sure.
quotes I loved: the worst thing, I see now, was not that I fooled them, or thought I did, but that my mind somehow turned them into people who deserved to be fooled. how ridiculous they became then, with their penny-pinching and their silly jokes. aunt Clare lost in her reading while the supper burned on the stove, and the annoying way her glasses slid down her nose. aunt kez poking her nose into everyone's business, but not caring enough to notice mine, and how she tried to make an adventure out of her dull life, telling every little detail of her walk to the butcher. I even felt scorn for poor jack, his clumsiness, and when aunt nan sais, 'be careful, Bella," as I left the house, I saw nothing but a silly old woman, one with no idea what it was to burn like I did.
and: on the train home from our appointment in the city, Edie said she'd realized she no longer missed it. the bustle and the entertainments, the crowds of people who didn't know the first thing about you. she said that maybe a place like Inverhaven was better, like a family in the way everyone knew everything about everyone else and you could be whoever you are, and know that you still belonged.
and: Robbie and Edie have done everything to make me comfortable here, make me welcome, an I know I am, but I don't think they understand how it feels, living at the edges of other people's lives. not a thing I know how to explain without seeming ungrateful...
station eleven by emily st john mandel
the story opens on a middle aged man's death on the eve of a plague that wipes out 99% of humanity. and somehow, it is this man's death that saves the random people that survive... whether it is the guy who tried to resuscitate him, the little girl who he gifted with a thematic comic, or people who boarded planes to go to his funeral - he is the common thread. an interesting premise that implies every death has a meaning. I really enjoyed the story at the time, but nothing about the book stayed with me. this is a good reason for bookclub to exist - I would have gotten more to cling to if I'd been able to chat about it.
liar by justine larbalestier
I read this back in 2011 and LOVED it. it was my first experience with an unreliable narrator and it made my mind explode. since then, unreliable narrators have become quite the 'thing' - with gone girl freaking out the general population in 2012 and 2013, and girl on the train adding an additional twist in 2015 (the unreliable narrator that doesn't realize how unreliable she is)
anyhow, this was my selection for the RCR bookclub. trying to read with fresh eyes, it was a quick read, full of hints, and likely over-the-top. but this is YA, so I think that's forgivable.
unfamiliar fishes by sarah vowel
hmmm. a history of Hawaii. somehow this book on CD was sitting on my hold shelf at the library (I did request it and forget? was it an error?) well, I'm game - so I listened to all 7 discs and learned quite a lot about the imperialists of America, the missionaries, and that this chick must be tight friends with the cast of SNL (and ed norton, and paul rudd, and the guy from mad men). her voice (her actual voice, not her literary one) alternated between sarcastic-crabby, and dead-pan. she's probably quite funny to read in other subjects but I didn't really need to know ALL that stuff about Hawaii. verdict: try her again but drop the Hawaii part
elanor and park by rainbow rowell
sigh.
this perfect, wonderfully nostalgic, romantic, perfect (yes, it merits that word twice) book melted me at times. how on earth did rainbow rowell remember young love, young lust, so well? this may well be my twilight (never understood all the swooning about that book - but this one had me catching my breath, late at night when I should have been asleep, listening to the story in the dark)
super sad true love story by gary shteyngart
this is satire that could make you cry if you didn't laugh: a future where everyone is tethered to their streaming devices, being rated. a perfect extension of our current society's impulse to judge and then broadcast those judgements. a future where gmail has morphed into globalteens accounts (no matter what your age) and 'juicy pussy' and other overly sexual phrases are hip clothing brands. a future where the rich can live forever, or least stave off the ageing process. it is everything that society already is: youth obsessed, increasingly sexualized, and technology-driven.
be frank with me by Julia clairborne Johnson
a pint sized throwback to the 40's, precocious frank dresses like his fav characters in the black & white movies he endlessly watches. he's the star of the show/ this book and yes - he is charming, but ultimately his shtick runs a little thin and I speed-read the final few chapters, knowing too easily that it would all work out in a perfect, Hollywood ending.
the heart goes last by margaret atwood
I'd call this Margaret Atwood lite, and wonder if she banged this out over a fortnight at the cottage. it's entertaining enough, and had her trademark wit and incisive dystopian eye - as usual, the future she conjures up (money/housing crisis, corporations fulfilling overseeing/governmental roles, prostitute robots, and the killing of the dead weight/worthless people) is more than plausible. the plot gallops along so quickly - so much like a movie plot I wonder if that was the purpose - that there is little time to reflect on the underlying theme of the piece, but two-thirds thru, the main character is paralysed and has no distraction/entertainment from his thoughts and finally I think we reach the point of the book: Looking back on his life, he sees himself spread out on the earth like a giant covered in tiny threads that have held him down. Tiny threads of petty cares and small concerns, and fears he took seriously at the time. Debts, timetables, the need for money, the longing for comfort; the earworm of sex, repeating itself over and over like a neural feedback loop. He’s been the puppet of his own constricted desires.
thirteen reasons why by jay asher
YA novel that slowly unfurls the mystery behind a teen's suicide. not at all realistic, but still a good primer for teens to recognize the warning signs
a tale for the time being by ruth ozeki
my choice for bookclub, this was a meandering, perhaps philosophical, novel that did not integrate into a cohesive offering. the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, ocean pollution, the 'falling man' from the twin tower attacks, Buddhism, WWII and kamikaze pilots, contemporary suicide clubs, cyberbullying, Schrodinger's cat... it's too much.
the Japanese narrator had an almost schizophrenic voice - at times wide and wise like her one hundred year old Buddhist nun grandmother, and other times like a caricature/fetish Japanese school girl. perhaps the underlying theme, besides suicide, was bullying. And maybe the connection between them? I shouldn't have to work so hard to understand what the author's point was.
I've read this book is magic realism but this is no life a pi or ocean at the end the lane where the small piece of fantasy is needed in order to ground a very worthwhile tale. this author places herself, her home and her husband within the novel, and keeps re-grounding the story inside the author's present day life so it doesn't work as magic realism for me...
god in ruins by kate atkinson
author of life after life, where the main character Ursula gets a do-over everytime she dies or a really bad thing happens, here is her brother teddy's long life. or is it? just at the moment of what should be the novel's close as teddy breathes his last, we pull back and back and unwind every character that slowly grew on us and obliterate them as he does indeed perish in the war as life after life outlined. a moving and devastating ending.
this author is so gifted. almost every character is introduced in a negative way and then, fleshing out the story - past and future - she draws out their humanity until you have complete empathy and endearment for them. quite a feat.
another thing she can do: wring out emotion for what should be an everyday disappointment, or a fate that has fallen on hundreds if not thousands before - but in this telling, in THIS moment, the people are real, the consequences are shattering, and you cry for every human being that has suffered their fate before you.
the girl with all the gifts by m r carey
this is my beloved mike carey, author of the unwritten, so of course I was thrilled to see he's written a novel. it had a great opening hook, and it slowly lets the audience see it's a zombie book without ever using that word or the usual synonyms. it was well paced, and easy to visualize - his roots in graphic novels obvious. I unfolded all a movie in my mind and I hear that's exactly what it happening to it - later this year in fact.
what the waves know by tamara valentine
what a load of crap! characters who stop to look at themselves in front of the mirror and appraise their features, their clothes outlined in detail, the absentminded twirling of a curl of hair. I've read it all in every Danielle Steel novel. I expected something better from an English professor. i'l bet the 'Valentine' surname is a pen name. a dumb pen name.
oh, and she tried to forrest gump it by throwing in the occasional comment from a character about Watergate, or patty hearst - so pathetic.
the light between oceans by m l stedman
this was a better effort. the situation seemed plausible enough - how to undo a mistake made with the best of intentions. a grieving, multi-miscarriage woman holds an abandoned baby (father dead beside it) on a in a isolated island and her husband, the lightkeeper, holds off reporting the incident hour by hour, day by day, until she convinces him not to report it at all. 2 years later they discover that baby has a mother who is still looking for her child.
it was a slow third act and an unnecessarily bleak (some might say schmaltzy) ending but it was heads above that horrible what the waves know so I forgave just about anything.
essex county vol 1 - tales from the farm by jeff lemire
this series keep popping up as the cream of the crop and it's by sweet tooth's jeff lemire who has a visual language all his own. this volume was very Canadian and I appreciated that but it's still so sparse and sad that I cannot really comment on it yet. I need to read further in the series but the library has lost the remainders so I need to find an alternative source.
the troop by nick cutter
the genre of this book is supposedly horror, but i'd reclassify it as revulsion.
these gross worms eat a person inside out and then try to contaminate others with their tendrils. add a psychotic boy scout with an inferiority complex and it's doubly revolting. the author wrote so vividly that I grimaced as I read and even, occasionally, groaned aloud. so yes, this guy has skills, but I've no desire to read any more like this.
the story of edgar sawtelle by david wroblewski
can I have those 12 hours of my life back please?
initially I didn't even want to read it because it seemed to be a about dogs and the breeding of dogs and i'm not a fan of either of those things. so I was going to give it a miss (and then fib to my bookclub that my month was too busy) but the back jacket had high praise, citing a story you didn't want to end, and infinitely re-readable. um, no. so boring. so pointless. everyone is dead at the end too. there was nothing redeemable about the book/story and i'm left with heavy annoyance that I sacrificed bike rides and treadmill runs and tidy-up time in order to read this junk
the iron giant by ted hughes
read alongside bosco, this is the poet laureate at his best: imaginative words and worlds, and a beautiful cadence to the telling. not at all like the movie, and yet taking the kernel of truths within it and fashioning a modern tale of peace. well done.
essex county vol 2 - ghost stories by jeff lemire
finally got hold of the continuing series thru interlibrary loan and it did not disappoint. i'm amazed at how this entire story could be in his head and how he chose (and how he chose so little!) to leak out at a time. it's worth a second and third read for sure
essex county vol 3 - the country nurse by jeff lemire
wow. this man's ability to weave a tale between time, people and places in just amazing. I loved the interconnectedness and small moments truth
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
unfortunately this was only a so-so tale by gaiman. the premise was interesting enough: all the immigrants that come to America brought their cruel, frightening stories/gods with them but time has dulled their bite and they are languishing here, on the other side of the ocean while the new gods of greed and technology and money grow ever more prominent.
the short tales he told in between the larger plot were much stronger than the main story, and there was a bizarre, violent sex scene near the very beginning of the story that seemed overly gruesome and unnecessary.
fifteen dogs by andre alexis
short book, read in a weekend. entertaining and philosophical. could have been read at a much deeper level than I chose - but that's a strength in a book. it will be what the reader wants. if I had dwelled in the philosophy, I might have gotten quite depressed about the condition of man
The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict by Austin Reed
surely a lot of grants and/or doctorates were handed out when the team of academics researched and published this mishmash memoir that was written by a wholly unredeemable person. by his our reckoning he is an arsonist, and attempted murderer by the age of eight!
while the start of the book was enjoyable and felt like a huckleberry finn type tale with the story gallivanting along, the tale stagnates when he stops to give a long lecture about the evils of liquor and his decision not to stay with a family that, other than asking him to serve liquor, treated him well. later on he has a another long rant against masturbation but doesn't seem to think his temper or raising an axe to his mother is as serious an offense
The Massey Murder: A Maid, Her Master and the Trial that Shocked a Nation by charlotte grey
the author tried to use Canada's involvement with the war as a backdrop to this tabloid-type murder but it wasn't a clear link for me. lots of time period detail which was interesting but also lots of details about specific people that were not even central to the story, so it felt like either the author wanted to reference ALL her research, or she didn't have enough material to fill a book. the most interesting part of the book is not even in the book - the author questions whether the murderess' acquittal would not have occurred without the fantastic story weaved by the defense, meanwhile that fantastic story is mostly weaved by the author herself!
nora webster by colm toibin
so little happens in this book but so much is there.
it's a the story of a widow, alone in her thoughts and so painfully aware of what others must be seeing in her. her children, her aunt, her in-laws, and even her sister can cause great lashes of pain and we feel how deep those cuts, those flippant gestures or words, go. as a character she continually surprised me so even though the book was more internal than plot driven, I never knew what was going to happen, or how she'd react.
the evening chorus by helen humphreys
this started promising, with an English bomber captain in an interment camp, but then it switched narrators to his wife and she was not a sympathetic character. buy the time it switch narrators to the bomber's sister, I truly didn't care what happened to any of then. I think very short passages were shorthand for the larger, well known war experiences, and there's no way a younger person would get much from this book.
escape by carolyn jessop
the 4th wife in a polygamous marriage with a verbally abusive and controlling husband finally escapes and tells us the tale, but it was ho-hum and overly repetitive. I've guessing they wanted maximal exposure, having each chapter work as a potential excerpt in a magazine, but among chapters, there were conflicting piece of information and she simply read as unreliable. there was nothing new I learnt here that I didn't get from HBO's Big Love
the silent sister by diane chamberlain
supposed to be a mystery book, it gets bogged down by continually explaining and over explaining how the main character is feeling. I thought mysteries moved along with clues and plot points, not wasting pages with boo-hoo me stuff. some of the 'ah-ha' moments in the book were obvious 30 pages back, and the ending has the 2 main characters happily in each others lives without really addressing all the boo-hoo junk we readers were forced to slog through.
the rosie effect by graeme simsion
another light offering featuring the Sheldon-like protagonist. now he's going to have a baby and is so preoccupied with preparing for fatherhood, he almost fails to see his wife is planning to leave him. not as good as the first, but what do you expect?
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