The Cat Who Saved the Library

Finished May 25

The Cat Who Saved the Library by Sosuke Natsukawa, translated by Louise Heal Kawai

This thoughtful novel follows thirteen-year-old Nanami Kosaki, a girl who loves to read. Her mother died when Nanami was young and she and her father live a quiet life. She suffers from asthma, which means that physical activity is often tiring. She spends a lot of time at the library and lately she's observed that there are some blank spots on the shelves. She knows that books get taken out and returned, but this seems different. One day she sees a strange gray man near a section of books and goes there after he's moved on, only to discover the first ten books of a favourite series gone. After talking with Tiger, a nearby cat, she and Tiger follow the man. The hallway begins to glow and extends into another world, where she finds herself following him to a castle  As they follow past armies of gray blank-faced soldiers, they see evidence of book burning and book theft. When faced with danger, they find an unexpected exit manned by Rintaro that takes them into Rintaro's bookstore, Natsuki Books. 

With mentions of classic titles from east and west, this book offers lots of ideas for future reading. It also takes us into the benefits of reading from learning to empathy and connection. Issues we face now, such as censorship, authoritarianism, lack of respect for learning, and self-interest as a guiding force for those in power all come into the story in a thoughtful and meaningful war. 

The Everlasting

Finished May 21

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

This fantasy book tells an interesting story. In the country of Dominion, Sir Una Everlasting is the greatest historical hero, a young woman who took revenge on those who killed her own father after drawing a sword from the trunk of a tree. She was then recruited by a queen for whom she fought many battles, overcoming other threatening nations, and killing all the remaining dragons in the world. 

Owen Mallory is a boy who grew up in Dominion, playing in the woods and reading. He joined the military inspired by Sir Una Everlasting and came home a hero, but changed. He became an historian and when a fabled book about her last quest came into his hands he finds himself transported to her time and a motivating factor in the quest. 

Owen falls in love with Una, not the hero of tales, but the actual woman. She is a physically dominant woman and he is a scholarly man, and the gender roles blur here. Every time their story seems to end, Owen finds himself brought back to the same place in Una's life for a redo, asked to make the story better, the ending more climactic, the legend more legendary. 

But the woman behind this is one without empathy, without thought for the people. The people of Dominion, the people of the other nations Dominion wars with, the ordinary people whose lives are changed for the worse. Una and Owen begin to have memories of their stories and find themselves wanting to own their own stories and not be merely actors in the drama. 

This story speaks to the mindset of colonialism, the lack of empathy for others, and other dramas playing out in our world as well. A thoughtful story that caused me as a reader to pause and consider. 

The Midnight Land I: The Flight

Finished January 23

The Midnight Land I: The Flight by E.P. Clark

This is the first book in a high fantasy series that is inspired by Russian folk tales, literature, geography, and language. The series is called The Zemnian.  The land of Zem is a matrilineal society where the women hold positions of power and influence and the men are seeing as strong and good-looking, but not as intelligent.  Clark has built a complex world that has a court that is gossipy and full of plots. The Tsarina and her court live in Krasnograd, in a building called the kremlin,a generic term for castle. Her younger half-sister, Krasnaslava Tsarinovna (Slava) is a woman with the skill of deep empathy. She can feel other's emotions and sometimes even their thoughts. Her role at court is to attend and give advice which sometimes encourages mercy to the wrongdoer. She finds her life tedious and the feeling of being constantly bombarded with the emotions of others tiring. 

When the daughter of a smaller kingdom within Zem, Olga Vasilisovna comes to the Tsarina to ask for funds to go to the Midnight Land, beyond the trees and map what she can, Slava finds herself asking to go along on this journey and receiving permission. Slava's father was a warrior from the land of the Steppes, and she is proud of that heritage even though she herself has never been outside the city. 

Olga helps Slava get together a suitable wardrobe, including trousers, and picks a horse from the royal stable for her to start the trip out on. 

As they journey, Slava finds the experience enlightening, as well as physically demanding. It takes her some time to overcome the pain from being on a horse all day, and being able to keep up with the rest of the group. At first the vast forest they travel through scares her, and staying in the barricaded shelters spaced along the roads feels odd. She is gradually accepted by the men with conversations between Olga, her men and Slava happening as they ride. But when she convinces the men to spare an elk they came across instead of getting fresh venison, she feels an outsider again. Slava dreams of the elk and when the group gets lost, Slava leads them in following the elk back to the main road. This example of her ability to talk to animal spirits causes curiosity and discussion about the different animal and tree spirits that exist. 

When, after visits to other small kingdoms within Zem they reach a small village near the treeline, and must switch from horses to dogsled, Slava finds that her presence is helpful for a reason she hadn't expected. As they travel and Slava's skills grow, she dreams and talks to various animal spirits, but also of the tree spirits (leshiye) who seem to want something from her, at least until they fully understand her skill. This is a tasking journey, where the group encounters a variety of dangers from weather to wolves to thieves, and sometimes Slava is placed in a leadership role. 

The novel ends with the group in Lesnograd, the capital of Olga's kingdom, where she hopes to ask her mother's sorceresses for help in understanding Slava's gifts. But there they find a very different situation than expected, and new dangers await. 

I really enjoyed this world, and the plot. Clark has done a lot of work building this world, and it shows. I've bought the rest of the series and look forward to following the story as it unfolds. 

Slava is an interesting character whose empathy makes connections with others, and whose growth gives her strength as she better understands what she is capable of. I also liked Olga and her rebellious nature where she has spurned the husband her mother arranged for her and taken one of her men, who is thoughtful and caring as her partner. 

The element of nature is strong here too, and important to the story. 

Cocoa Magic

Finished April 30

Cocoa Magic by Sandra Bradley, illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard

This lovely picture book tells a story set in historical Charlottetown. The main character, Daniel is eight years old and one of the highlights of his day is going, before school in the morning, to help his Uncle Lewis at his chocolate shop. He's been doing this for years, and is involved in all aspects of making the chocolates that the shop sells, from mixing and tempering, to pouring and molding. 

When Daniel sees a new girl at school who looks lonely he decides to start leaving chocolates in her desk to surprise her. When that works even better than he expected, he starts noticing other children that need cheering up and begins leaving treats for them as well, until there comes a day when he leaves treats for everyone, with the help of his uncle. 

Shortly after, he finds himself the one feeling sad and without chocolates to console him, and he makes a new discovery. 

The author is also a clinical social worker and here she illustrates the importance of empathy in our lives and the connections that we have to others. 

I loved the pictures here as well, including the ones of individual chocolates in the endpapers. The children show as detailed individuals and one gets a sense of the period from the details in the pictures.

A great book for any season. 

If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?

Finished November 28
If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating by Alan Alda, read by the author

This book was eye-opening. Working with the public, and being a manager, communication is something I'm very interested in, so learning how to be better at it was a big draw for me. I also loved both of Alda's previous books that I've read, so was glad to find this one enjoyable as well.
I learned a lot about communication, and about the author.
For instance, I didn't know about the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science before.
Alda takes us through his own journey in learning about communication, and about things he learned while working with science professionals in improving the communication skills of scientists. He gives his take on direct experiences of personal interactions, of workshops with adults and children, and of research that he's either been involved in, or that he's learned about and talked to the researchers about.
One key takeaway was the benefit of teaching improv in terms of improving communication. This isn't about comedy, but about paying attention to the person in front of you, to their facial expression, to their body language, to their gaze, and learning how to respond to those things in ways that improve not only your own communication, but also that of the person you're interacting with. It makes so much sense, but I'd never connected it before. He speaks about a variety of improv games that were used in communication workshops with people of all ages, and the effects that these had on the people involved.
He touches on the power of storytelling, the barriers of jargon, the role of empathy, and ways to get "in sync" with another person.
He also talks about his own personal experiments in changing his behaviour to see what would happen, and how he learned more about himself, as well as generating ideas for further research in this field. He includes his own mistakes and missteps, and what he learned from them.
This is an amazing read, and I highly recommend it to everyone. After all, we all communicate.

Bullyville

Finished August 17
Bullyville by Francine Prose

This novel follows Bart Rangely's year of eighth grade. Bart lived with his parents in the commuter town of Hillbrook, New Jersey, and he'd started grade eight more or less normally. But a few months before, Bart's dad had moved out to live with his girlfriend, and Bart and his mom were trying to go on as normally as possible. That means that his mom hadn't told anyone that his dad had left, just saying he was really busy. And so Bart never told anyone either. It was just easier. But then Bart stayed home from school with the flu, and his mom stayed home to look after him, and it was September 11, 2001. And Bart's dad died.
Bart and his mom got a lot of news coverage, and got treated as a feel good story, but Bart doesn't feel good. He's lost his dad, now for good, and that makes him feel awful. And his friends don't seem to know how to talk to him anymore. So when an offer gets made from the local boys prep school, his mom thinks it is a great opportunity. As much as he fights it, telling her all the rumours about the school, how instead of being called Baileyville, locals call it Bullyville, and how it is supposed to be a horrible place, he agrees to go.
And it is even worse than he expected. He is paired with a Big Brother, a junior named Tyro. At orientation, Tyro seems cold and disinterested, but after Bart starts, he turns into a bully, and he has a team of boys assisting him in treating Bart to a series of torments. Bart knows he isn't the only one being bullied, but he still doesn't seem able to make friends. So he tries to suck it up and pretend for his mother's sake, until finally he can't anymore.
This is a sad story, of how one family can use privilege and weath to itake away consequences of their actions. It is a story of empathy, and the lack of it, and how everything doesn't always work out, and people don't always show their good sides in the end. An interesting story. 

The Unfinished Angel

Finished December 2
The Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech

This lovely children's novel tells a tale of an angel who lives in an old house in a small village in Switzerland. For a long time the angel has been watching theneighbours, an old lady Signora Divino and her grandson Vinny, but not really doing that much. The angel feels like it doesn't know what it should be doing or how to do angel-like things. While it is supposed to understand all languages, it isn't really that good at them, and the words it uses aren't always right. It hasn't seen any other angels and isn't sure where to find them and what the extent of territory it is responsible for. The angel likes animals and when feeling upset flishes (yet that is what it calls it) up to see the goats, which always make it feel better.
But then the American man Mr. Pomodoro and the girl Zola come to live in the house and things start to happen. To start, Zola can see the angel and knows it is an angel and expects it to do angel things. Like when she finds the homeless children in the barn before the angel notices and want the angel to fix things. Like when Vinny throws garbage and Zola wants the angel to fix things. But though the angel helps when it can, everyone discovers that sometimes it is the people that do most of the fixing.
I love the use of onomatopoeia in the words used by the angel. A good example is Mr Pomodoro tappling at the keys for his dimputer. The book plays with language in both the words the angel uses and Zola's playful utterings.  The whole book feels playful and fun, and gives the reader a good feeling inside.

Great Memoir

Finished August 27
Population: 485 by Michael Perry
Having read his book Truck: a Love Story, I was interested in reading more. This book actually was written before Truck and contains chapters about his work both as an EMS and as a volunteer firefighter in his hometown of New Auburn, Wisconsin. Perry puts it all out there, including the sad, happy, embarrassing, and comic. He talks about working with his brothers and mother, how his work as a firefighter linked him back to his community, and shows a variety of personalities in both his coworker and his fellow citizens. This is a story of a small town, human relationships, and self discovery.
Perry is an excellent writer who finds the humour in every situation and yet doesn't take advantage of his insight to belittle others or make himself a hero.
This is a book to read slowly and savour every bit, which is what I did, carrying it around for a long time in my purse, reading it in stolen moments when waiting for appointments or taking a quiet moment for myself. I'm now lending it to my dad, who enjoys Perry just as much as I do.

Kindness

Finished March 8
The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society by Frans de Waal
The author is a biologist who uses his studies of social behaviours in animals as a basis for the study of empathy. He argues that empathy comes naturally to humans as well as many animals. Acknowledging that there is far more research that needs to be done, he nevertheless shows that there is a solid base for further research on a variety of animals.
While many have argued that humans are, by nature, selfish, looking out for themselves at the expense of others, de Waal argues against this, and makes a good case. Using examples from recent history and culture, he shows the human side of this story. The animal side is shown through his own research with chimpanzees and elephants as well as the research of many other biologists.
This is a compelling and hopeful book.