The Middle Stories

Finished March 9
The Middle Stories by Sheila Heti

These stories are all stories with an odd twist to them. Fairy tales gone wrong such as women that live alone in a shoe and mermaids held captive in glass jars. People who think they know what they want until they get it and find that they don't want it after all. People who wander aimlessly through life looking for a purpose. Each story offers a different surprise, a different way of thinking. These are not happy stories, but are they are stories that make you think.
This edition offers nine new stories that weren't in the original release of this book.

Vicky Swanky Is a Beauty

Finished March 9
Vicky Swanky Is a Beauty by Diane Williams

This book of short stories contains disjointed, surreal stories ranging in length from two sentences to two and a half pages. Most are told in omniscient third person, but some in first person. There is in many of the stories a sense of the main character being out of step with the people around them.
I can't say I like this kind of writing as I really don't understand the stories. Some things I can guess at, others start off with a storyline of a sort but then seem to take off in a new direction without explanation. Many are unsettling and seem to have behaviour that isn't acceptable. Are they a comment on society? One is not sure.

Devil's Pass

Finished March 8
Devil's Pass by Sigmund Brouwer

Another book in Seven: the Series. This one features Jim Webb, who goes by Webb. Jim is seventeen and has been living on his own a few months. Jim's dad died when he was ten and a few months later Jim's mom remarried his stepfather Elliott Skinner. Jim's life changed radically after that as he learned to live the life he was expected to, rather than the one he really wanted to live.
Jim task is given to him in steps. As he completes each leg of his journey he learns more about his grandfather, himself, and the nature of monsters. Despite Jim's efforts at hiding what was going on in his life, his grandfather knew there was something wrong and looked for the causes. Jim learned to be tough and street smart, to be alert to danger and prepare himself for most situations. Jim's love of music grew within him despite his circumstances, and helped him to deal with what life threw at him. He developed a strong sense of injustice and doing what was right and David, his grandfather knew that. That is what led him to choose this particular task for Jim.
Jim travels from Toronto, to the Northwest Territories, and beyond to find the answer to the question David has tasked him with. And, in doing so, perhaps finds a way to go home again.
This is a story about secrets, and about the different forms that monsters take in our lives, and about finding the truth behind the stories.
A very interesting task for a very interesting character.

The Bear

Finished March 7
The Bear by Claire Cameron

This novel was inspired by a real incident that took place in Algonquin Park in 1991. A couple who were camping were attacked and killed by a bear, and analysis of the incident failed to uncover any obvious reason for the attack. Cameron was a camp counselor at the time, and was struck by the seeming randomness of the attack.
In this novel, she recreates the incident in the same place as the real one, but adds the presence of two young children, Anna and Alex, ages 5 and nearly 3. The story is told from the point of view of Anna and I found her voice very believable. Alex has a family nickname, Stick, and this is how Anna refers to him. He is still developing his spoken communication skills and his difficulty with Anna's name results in him calling her Nana. Also playing a role in the story is Anna's doll Gwen.
As the book begins the two children have been put to sleep in the tent while their parents sit near the fire as the day moves into evening. The bear attack for Anna thus has certain aspects of being a dream as she struggles to understand what is going on, and uses past experience for making sense of what she observes and hears.
As the story progresses, Anna's recollection of past events fills in some background of the family, helping the reader to get a good sense of the family dynamics.
As I read, I both wanted to keep reading and to delay getting to the end of the story. Like many a big sister, Anna is both annoyed by her younger sibling and compelled to protect him as best she can. It is this that enables her to follow her mother's instructions to get to a safer place and use the knowledge she has to keep herself and Stick safe.
I found it interesting to see the adult reactions and assumptions, as Anna struggled to adapt to her home situation. The epilogue brought Anna's experience to a new realization and a type of closure.
This book is already making the bestseller lists, and the inevitable comparisons with another book with a child narrator, Room. I think this will be one of my favourite books of the year. I think the cover is perfect too.

Close to the Heel

Finished March 6
Close to the Heel by Norah McClintock

This is one of the books in Seven: the Series. Each book is written by a different Canadian author, and focuses on one of the grandsons of David, who has recently passed away. David left a task for each of his grandsons, fully funded from his estate. Other books I have read in the series are:  Between Heaven and Earth, Lost Cause, and Jump Cut and Ink Me.
This book tells the story of Rennie, the grandson David only recently discovered the existence of. Rennie and David didn't have a lot of time to get to know each other, but Rennie liked David a lot. Rennie has had big changes in his life recently and has had to learn new skills to deal with them in a productive way. His relationship with his father isn't as close as it could be, and Rennie is surprised when his dad agrees to let him go off on his own to Iceland to complete his task.
But things in Iceland don't go so smoothly. The family of the guide who is supposed to lead Rennie on his task has some issues it is working through, and his presence uncovers some family secrets. Rennie's questions may put himself in danger as well and his handling of the developing situation will affect both his own confidence and his father's view of him.

No Wonder You Feel Like Crap

Finished March 5
No Wonder You Feel Like Crap by Richard Weinstein

This book came to my attention through Netgalley, but I didn't get around to reading it while I had access, so read the book more recently. Written by a chiropractor with decades of experience, the research backing up his reasoning is cited extensively in the back of the book. He also uses several examples of his own patients when talking about treatments and results.
I'm planning to try his suggestions to see if they can address some of my longer term health issues. The core of his theory is cortisol imbalances, and he makes a good case for this, using anecdotal evidence from his own work, physiological information, pharmaceutical information, and research that backs up the theory. His treatment is called the 3R Program and consists of three parts: Repairing the intestinal tract, Resolving inflammation, and Restoring hormonal balance. Besides this physiological treatment, he also has chapters on psychological and emotional causes of conditions and pain that provide useful information.
Included in his discussions are issues of conflict between western reliance on pharmaceuticals and eastern practices, which rely more on paying attention to the body closely and looking for root causes. He also critiques our food industry with the effects of hybridization, genetic manipulation, and chemical additives.
An interesting theory that bears looking at.

The Painted Girls

Finished March 4
The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan

I listened to the audiobook version of this and found it slow-moving, but in the end I enjoyed the story. Set in Paris in 1878, the book revolves around the three van Goethem sisters, real girls in history. The story is told in three voices, that of the oldest sister, Antoinette, who had been in the second cadre of the ballet until she got too mouthy and now works as an extra at the Opera; the second sister Marie, who had been kept in school with the nun's until her father's death and then joins the Opera as a "petite rat"; and newspaper stories of the day that set the larger scenes of the story.
Antoinette leaves her job at the opera to take a part in the Emile Zola play l'Assommoir, where she plays the part of a laundress, a job her mother does in reality. Shortly before this, and during this time she becomes affiliated with a young man, who makes her feel special, but leads her into troubling directions. The young man, Emile Abadie, also exists in real history, but there is no evidence that the two real people had anything to do with each other.
Marie finds that she is actually talented at ballet, and she works hard to learn everything she needs to know to move into the corps. She also attracts the attention of the painter Degas, and is a model of his for several years both of paintings, and of the controversial sculpture Little Dancer, Aged 14. Marie is also an avid reader of the newspapers when she can get hold of them, and has become a convert to a belief widely espoused at the time that physiognomy predicts character. As a result, she believes her own looks mean that she is destined for a depraved and unhappy life, and having this reinforced by the reaction to the statuette modelled on herself does not help.
The youngest sister Charlotte, is the one that reality brought a long ballet career to, but we only see the beginnings of that here, as she is first too eager to show off, and then nervous of how others perceive her. She is the sister that we don't see inside the thoughts of, and thus is less well developed to us.
One gets a real sense of the Paris of the day, and of the worlds of both the lower class and the ballet at the Paris Opera. This book gave me historical information I wasn't aware of before and enlarged my view of the cultural world of the time in terms of art and ballet, of the social structure of Paris at this time in history, and of the penal system of the time. All in all, a very interesting novel, based on real people in history.