Finished September 11
Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay
Got through the latest mystery by this great mystery writer in just over a day. Definitely a page-turner.
Tim Blake is a car salesman. His wife divorced him because she wanted him to be more ambitious and she is now in a serious relationship with a man who owns his own used-car business.
Tim's daughter is staying with him for the second summer in a row. Last year she worked at the dealership where he works. This year, she wants a little more space, so has found her own job, working for a small hotel in town.
Tim has had a girlfriend recently, but decided she was a bit flaky and has been looking for a way out of the relationship.
One morning Tim and his daughter Sydney have a few words over breakfast. That evening she doesn't come home. When Tim goes looking at the hotel where she worked, they say she never worked there. Her best friend Patty has no idea where she might have gone. As days pass, Tim won't give up looking for her. But he is finding himself in more and more compromising situations and things are looking bleak.
A great plot and sympathetic characters make this a great read.
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Memoir
Finished September 7
I'm Down by Mishna Wolff
Mishna has a very unusual childhood, growing up in a poor black neighbourhood of Seattle, with a white father who thinks and acts black. Her father works occasional construction jobs, but generally doesn't do a lot to support his family. Her parents split up when she is quite young, but unusually for the time, she and her sister Anora stay with her father. The neighbourhood she grew up in is the same one her father grew up in, and while he fit in, friends with the black men in the area, she doesn't. She feels white and out of place and she doesn't know how to act to fit in, although her sister has a better time of it. When she gets accepted into a progressive school, she finds she doesn't fit in with the white kids there either, as she is too "black" to fit into that culture. When her father remarries, this time to a black woman, it doesn't get any easier and Mishna has a difficult time finding her way, determined to get a better life and yet unsure how to attain that goal.
I found this memoir very engaging and interesting not just for Mishna's own experiences, which she tells in a lively and honest way, but also because I have an adopted sister who is black, and she has told me that she has trouble fitting into black culture because she was raised "white". This is an interesting look at culture and environment and how it shapes us.
I'm Down by Mishna Wolff
Mishna has a very unusual childhood, growing up in a poor black neighbourhood of Seattle, with a white father who thinks and acts black. Her father works occasional construction jobs, but generally doesn't do a lot to support his family. Her parents split up when she is quite young, but unusually for the time, she and her sister Anora stay with her father. The neighbourhood she grew up in is the same one her father grew up in, and while he fit in, friends with the black men in the area, she doesn't. She feels white and out of place and she doesn't know how to act to fit in, although her sister has a better time of it. When she gets accepted into a progressive school, she finds she doesn't fit in with the white kids there either, as she is too "black" to fit into that culture. When her father remarries, this time to a black woman, it doesn't get any easier and Mishna has a difficult time finding her way, determined to get a better life and yet unsure how to attain that goal.
I found this memoir very engaging and interesting not just for Mishna's own experiences, which she tells in a lively and honest way, but also because I have an adopted sister who is black, and she has told me that she has trouble fitting into black culture because she was raised "white". This is an interesting look at culture and environment and how it shapes us.
Historical Fiction
Finished September 6
East of the Sun by Julia Gregson
This novel has an epic feel to it, even though it takes place over the period of just over a year, from late 1928 to early 1930. We follow Viva Holloway, a young woman who grew up in India and now wants to go back to revisit the place where she lost her family. To do this she takes on work as a chaperone, but while generally level-headed, she is also inexperienced.
Two of her charges are young ladies. Rose is going out to India to be married to a young officer that she has only met a few times. Victoria, Rose's bridesmaid is determined to find a husband while she is in India and never return to her domineering mother.
The third charge Viva has taken on is a young man, Guy Glover, who has been expelled from his school and is returning to his parents in India. Guy is a very disturbed young man, and when he acts out during the voyage, Viva is out of her depth, and only manages with the help of a doctor on board the ship, Frank.
Once in India, Rose faces her new life in marriage while Victoria (Tor) is taking advantage of every opportunity to enjoy life and find a man. Viva finds that Guy's parents leave her in the lurch and she must find a job quickly to make ends meet. She begins working in an orphanage.
While Viva keeps in touch with Rose and Tor, she finds that she cannot escape Guy and it is her relationship with him that eventually brings her back to facing down her own past and finding out what happened to her family.
East of the Sun by Julia Gregson
This novel has an epic feel to it, even though it takes place over the period of just over a year, from late 1928 to early 1930. We follow Viva Holloway, a young woman who grew up in India and now wants to go back to revisit the place where she lost her family. To do this she takes on work as a chaperone, but while generally level-headed, she is also inexperienced.
Two of her charges are young ladies. Rose is going out to India to be married to a young officer that she has only met a few times. Victoria, Rose's bridesmaid is determined to find a husband while she is in India and never return to her domineering mother.
The third charge Viva has taken on is a young man, Guy Glover, who has been expelled from his school and is returning to his parents in India. Guy is a very disturbed young man, and when he acts out during the voyage, Viva is out of her depth, and only manages with the help of a doctor on board the ship, Frank.
Once in India, Rose faces her new life in marriage while Victoria (Tor) is taking advantage of every opportunity to enjoy life and find a man. Viva finds that Guy's parents leave her in the lurch and she must find a job quickly to make ends meet. She begins working in an orphanage.
While Viva keeps in touch with Rose and Tor, she finds that she cannot escape Guy and it is her relationship with him that eventually brings her back to facing down her own past and finding out what happened to her family.
Memoir
Finished September 4
What I Thought I Knew by Alice Eve Cohen
This is a memoir of a certain time in Cohen's life and she is very open about her feelings and thoughts during these time. Cohen and her husband had tried to have a baby and found that she was infertile. Her own mother had taken DES during pregnancy, and this affected Cohen's own reproductive health. Cohen began hormone treatment to treat some of her health issues. They adopted a daughter and later divorced. A few years later, Cohen is in a new relationship, engaged to be married and happier than she has ever been. It is at this time that her story truly begins. She feels ill and takes her myriad of symptoms to her doctors who run tests and diagnose her with gastrointestinal problems. Months later, when she is still feeling badly and is told she has an abdominal tumor, she is sent for an emergency CAT scan that shows that she is six months pregnant.
Cohen is in her mid-forties, has had no pre-natal care, has been on drugs that could harm her fetus, has minimal health insurance, and is bombarded by opinions on the possible outcomes for her child. She vacillates between doubt, rejection and acceptance, and is extremely honest about her thoughts during this time. She worries about the health of her child, family finances and her own ability to handle the whole thing.
This is a memoir like no other I have read, and one that was gripping to the end.
What I Thought I Knew by Alice Eve Cohen
This is a memoir of a certain time in Cohen's life and she is very open about her feelings and thoughts during these time. Cohen and her husband had tried to have a baby and found that she was infertile. Her own mother had taken DES during pregnancy, and this affected Cohen's own reproductive health. Cohen began hormone treatment to treat some of her health issues. They adopted a daughter and later divorced. A few years later, Cohen is in a new relationship, engaged to be married and happier than she has ever been. It is at this time that her story truly begins. She feels ill and takes her myriad of symptoms to her doctors who run tests and diagnose her with gastrointestinal problems. Months later, when she is still feeling badly and is told she has an abdominal tumor, she is sent for an emergency CAT scan that shows that she is six months pregnant.
Cohen is in her mid-forties, has had no pre-natal care, has been on drugs that could harm her fetus, has minimal health insurance, and is bombarded by opinions on the possible outcomes for her child. She vacillates between doubt, rejection and acceptance, and is extremely honest about her thoughts during this time. She worries about the health of her child, family finances and her own ability to handle the whole thing.
This is a memoir like no other I have read, and one that was gripping to the end.
Literary Fiction
Finished August 31
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
I got my copy of this book through Powell's Book's Indiespensable program and it has been sitting on my nightstand for a while before I began to read it. The story follows Laura McAllan, her husband Henry, his brother Jamie, their tenant farmers Hap and Florence Jackson, and the Jackson's son Ronsel. Each of these characters tells part of the story from their point of view, a story that ends, as we are told at the beginning of the book with the death and burial of Henry and Jamie's father Pappy. The voices are individual and each tells their own version of events, yet the tale never loses its flow. While we begin at the end, we quickly go back to the beginning and follow the story along arriving at the end again, this time more fully.
This is a story of culture and the difficulty of change, a story of relationships and their development, a story of both race and class. Set in the American South just after the Second World War, it is well told and the setting is really a character unto itself.
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
I got my copy of this book through Powell's Book's Indiespensable program and it has been sitting on my nightstand for a while before I began to read it. The story follows Laura McAllan, her husband Henry, his brother Jamie, their tenant farmers Hap and Florence Jackson, and the Jackson's son Ronsel. Each of these characters tells part of the story from their point of view, a story that ends, as we are told at the beginning of the book with the death and burial of Henry and Jamie's father Pappy. The voices are individual and each tells their own version of events, yet the tale never loses its flow. While we begin at the end, we quickly go back to the beginning and follow the story along arriving at the end again, this time more fully.
This is a story of culture and the difficulty of change, a story of relationships and their development, a story of both race and class. Set in the American South just after the Second World War, it is well told and the setting is really a character unto itself.
Monday, 31 August 2009
Kansas Mystery
Finished August 30
Deadly Descent by Charlotte Hinger
The main character, Lottie Albright, is a historian living in Western Kansas. She is working on a project collecting family histories for the county as well as supporting a local candidate running for the Senate. When a letter arrives for her archives accusing the candidate of racist attitudes, she finds herself caught in the middle of a family upset between two sisters. When the letter writer, Zelda, is found murdered, the family is even more split and Lottie finds herself delving into the past to try and find out what is really behind the rift.
She applies for the job of deputy to help gain access to information, but also digs into a cold case in order to gain points with the sheriff. Lottie's twin sister Josie is a psychologist and Lottie finds herself consulting with her to try to figure out the motives behind the terrible events that are taking place. Lottie is able to use her research skills to reopen the cold case and find information that helps her understand the current crimes.
An interesting combination of the present and past, this first novel combines history with interesting facts to make a story.
Deadly Descent by Charlotte Hinger
The main character, Lottie Albright, is a historian living in Western Kansas. She is working on a project collecting family histories for the county as well as supporting a local candidate running for the Senate. When a letter arrives for her archives accusing the candidate of racist attitudes, she finds herself caught in the middle of a family upset between two sisters. When the letter writer, Zelda, is found murdered, the family is even more split and Lottie finds herself delving into the past to try and find out what is really behind the rift.
She applies for the job of deputy to help gain access to information, but also digs into a cold case in order to gain points with the sheriff. Lottie's twin sister Josie is a psychologist and Lottie finds herself consulting with her to try to figure out the motives behind the terrible events that are taking place. Lottie is able to use her research skills to reopen the cold case and find information that helps her understand the current crimes.
An interesting combination of the present and past, this first novel combines history with interesting facts to make a story.
North Carolina Mystery
Finished August 29
A Little Learning by Jane Tesh
This is the third book in a series featuring former beauty queen and fledgling private investigator and artist Madeline Maclin Fairweather. She lives with her new husband Jerry in the small town of Celosia, North Carolina. Jerry has made a living as a con artist, but has promised to get a job and go straight. Madeline gets hired to solve a riddle to find the key to gain an inheritance. She also agrees to help out a local art teacher by teaching the grade four class some drawing techniques. While at the school, she gets involved in the suspicious death of a teacher. There is no shortage of suspects as the teacher is one to annoy her co-workers and family.
As Madeline tries to keep her husband occupied and on the straight and narrow, she is also preparing paintings for a new exhibition and solving her cases, which makes her one busy lady. Madeline is a quick thinker and shows genuine interest in the people she encounters.
A Little Learning by Jane Tesh
This is the third book in a series featuring former beauty queen and fledgling private investigator and artist Madeline Maclin Fairweather. She lives with her new husband Jerry in the small town of Celosia, North Carolina. Jerry has made a living as a con artist, but has promised to get a job and go straight. Madeline gets hired to solve a riddle to find the key to gain an inheritance. She also agrees to help out a local art teacher by teaching the grade four class some drawing techniques. While at the school, she gets involved in the suspicious death of a teacher. There is no shortage of suspects as the teacher is one to annoy her co-workers and family.
As Madeline tries to keep her husband occupied and on the straight and narrow, she is also preparing paintings for a new exhibition and solving her cases, which makes her one busy lady. Madeline is a quick thinker and shows genuine interest in the people she encounters.
Dystopian Novel
Finished August 28
The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist, translated by Marlaine Dalargy
This Swedish novel takes place in a society where productivity is paramount. Women over 50 and men over 60 who are childless and not in "progressive industries" are sent to the Unit. They have comfortable accommodation, plenty to eat, and state of the art amenities, and take part in drug and psychological testing. They also gradually donate their organs until the "final donation". They cannot contact anyone outside the Unit, although they have access to current television and media. The book follows Dorrit Weger as she enters the Unit following her 50th birthday. We watch as she makes new friends, continues to write books and adjust to her new reality. This is an exploration of psychological reactions under specific conditions, and explores the idea of who is valuable (needed) and who is dispensable in society. The subject matter is difficult, but it is handled well, and the character of Dorrit is deeply described. I highly recommend it.
The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist, translated by Marlaine Dalargy
This Swedish novel takes place in a society where productivity is paramount. Women over 50 and men over 60 who are childless and not in "progressive industries" are sent to the Unit. They have comfortable accommodation, plenty to eat, and state of the art amenities, and take part in drug and psychological testing. They also gradually donate their organs until the "final donation". They cannot contact anyone outside the Unit, although they have access to current television and media. The book follows Dorrit Weger as she enters the Unit following her 50th birthday. We watch as she makes new friends, continues to write books and adjust to her new reality. This is an exploration of psychological reactions under specific conditions, and explores the idea of who is valuable (needed) and who is dispensable in society. The subject matter is difficult, but it is handled well, and the character of Dorrit is deeply described. I highly recommend it.
Canadian Fiction
Finished August 27
Latitudes of Melt by Joan Clark
My mother was returning this book to a friend so I read before giving it back. Set in Newfoundland, this is the story of Aurora, found by fishermen floating on an ice floe in 1912. She was brought up by one of the fishermen's families, Merla and Francis St. Croix. We watch Aurora grow up and get married and have children, never leaving her new home in Newfoundland. She has always felt like a "come from away" and with her white hair and oddly coloured eyes has looked different from her neighbours. This is a character-driven story following not only Aurora, but also her husband and children and granddaughter. This is a great read and a moving story, another Canadian gem.
Latitudes of Melt by Joan Clark
My mother was returning this book to a friend so I read before giving it back. Set in Newfoundland, this is the story of Aurora, found by fishermen floating on an ice floe in 1912. She was brought up by one of the fishermen's families, Merla and Francis St. Croix. We watch Aurora grow up and get married and have children, never leaving her new home in Newfoundland. She has always felt like a "come from away" and with her white hair and oddly coloured eyes has looked different from her neighbours. This is a character-driven story following not only Aurora, but also her husband and children and granddaughter. This is a great read and a moving story, another Canadian gem.
Immigrant History
Finished August 22
Hard Passage: A Mennonite Family's Long Journey from Russia to Canada by Arthur Kroeger
I was interested in this book as I am of Mennonite heritage on my maternal side. The Kroeger family came from the same area in Russia (really the Ukraine) as my family did, the Chortiza-Rosenthal area. My grandfather was born in Chortiza and emigrated to Canada in 1923, the first year of the organized emigration from Russia to Canada. Kroeger's family came in 1926. My grandfather was reluctant to talk about his early life and while I have reminiscences from some of his siblings, this adds to my knowledge of the situation in Russia. Kroeger used a variety of published resources as well as his father's papers and photos to tell his story.
I found this book full of facts and yet very readable. I'm glad to have found it to add to my knowledge of my own family history.
Hard Passage: A Mennonite Family's Long Journey from Russia to Canada by Arthur Kroeger
I was interested in this book as I am of Mennonite heritage on my maternal side. The Kroeger family came from the same area in Russia (really the Ukraine) as my family did, the Chortiza-Rosenthal area. My grandfather was born in Chortiza and emigrated to Canada in 1923, the first year of the organized emigration from Russia to Canada. Kroeger's family came in 1926. My grandfather was reluctant to talk about his early life and while I have reminiscences from some of his siblings, this adds to my knowledge of the situation in Russia. Kroeger used a variety of published resources as well as his father's papers and photos to tell his story.
I found this book full of facts and yet very readable. I'm glad to have found it to add to my knowledge of my own family history.
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