Leave Me By Dying

Finished April 8

Leave Me By Dying by Rosemary Aubert

This is the fourth book in the series featuring Ellis Portal, a man who was once a revered judge in the Ontario courts, and then became homeless. This book is a jump back in time, told as memories of Ellis as he considers whether to return to being a lawyer. The story here returns Ellis to the 1960s, where he is in law school. This book tells of an event that became a pivotal point in his life. 

One of Ellis' friends, Gleason Adams, is a young man from a wealthy family, and the story begins as he asks Ellis to join him at the morgue for a meeting in the middle of the night. 

Ellis joins him there, and after waiting for a considerable time, the two are admitted to the morgue where they witness the start of an autopsy that is unexpectedly halted. 

But the image of the dead person there stays in Ellis' head and he keeps wanting to know what the story is behind it. He asks questions, writes letters, and does research and keeps digging for answers. Gleason hasn't been showing up for class and seems distracted when Ellis tries to meet with him.

On a couple occasions they go to strange places and have encounters that Ellis doesn't fully understand. 

Meanwhile, at home, Ellis' brother Michele is heavily involved in social change, watching the actions going on in Selma, in the southern United States, and asking for Ellis' help with an indigenous man who is being drafted to fight in Vietnam. 

As Ellis tries to use the draft dodger case to further his legal goals, he is also slowly discovering the truth about Gleason and what he's been up to. 

This book is a revealing look at one of the significant events in Ellis' past that made him who he is now. 

Ten Miles Past Normal

Finished July 2
Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O'Roark Dowell, narrated by Jessica Almasy

This teen novel has 14-year-old Janie Gorman in her first year of high school, and finding that her life on a farm has drawn attention in ways that aren't great, like the goat poo stuck to the bottom of her shoe creating an odor investigation on the bus to school. Up to now, the decision made by her family, at her suggestion, back when she was nine, to move to a farm and raise goats has been a good one. But now, she has a different lunch hour from her group of middle school friends, and has resorted to scarfing down her lunch at her locker and spending the rest of the time in the library.
Of course the fact that her mom writes a blog about their life on the farm doesn't help, either. As Janie chooses a subject for a school project in the one class she does share with her best friend Sarah, and develops a new friendship with another girl hanging in the library, she also finds herself learning new skills, like playing bass guitar, and quilting, and exploring her artistic side in new ways.
This is a novel of growth, of early romance, of families, and of history.
I liked the book a lot and think Janie is a very cool girl.