The Confession Club

Finished July 16

The Confession Club by Elizabeth Berg

This novel is the third in a loose series set in the small town of Mason, Missouri. They have recurring characters with a focus on different characters in each book. Here, the focus is on Iris, a middle-aged woman who moved to town a few years ago. She is divorced and now teaches baking classes. As the book begins, Iris agrees to help out a friend who has taken on a complicated cake for a get-together that day. The cake takes hours to make, and Iris is pleasantly surprised when her landlord Maddy has unexpectedly returned to town with her seven-year-old daughter Nora and helps with the cake. When the two deliver it, they find a group of women wide-ranging in age who meet weekly for food and sharing confessions. The confession part started at one of their meetings and has proven to be cathartic and helpful and they take turns sharing. The women invite Iris and Maddy to join the group, making representatives from every decade from the 20s to the 70s. Maddy finds herself sharing her insecurity about her life and her urge to return to Mason from the city where she had moved for her art career. She is concerned how her husband will feel about her hard-to-describe urge to leave the city and has avoided talking about the details with him. 

Iris is also having an experience she finds unsettling, an attraction to John, a man she's met recently who has been squatting in an abandoned farmhouse outside of town. John is kind and handy, but also suffering from PTSD from Vietnam and guilt over actions in his past. He's attracted to Iris as well, but is also concerned about his own mental state.

I was really struck by this group of women, sharing details of their lives that are difficult, embarrassing, and deeply personal. They are at different stages in life, and face a variety of life circumstances. They are honest with each other, but also have senses of humour that help lighten the atmosphere when it becomes weighty. I always enjoy Elizabeth Berg as she depicts everyday human struggles so clearly. Her books always leave me thinking. 

A Cold White Sun

Finished July 15

A Cold White Sun by Vicki Delany

This is the sixth book in the Constable Molly Smith series, set in the fictional town of Trafalgar, near Castlegar, in the mountains of British Columbia.  

At the beginning of March break, high school English teacher Cathy Lindsay is up early, looking forward to spending time skiing with her kids. She takes her dog for a walk and is shot dead by a skilled shooter. The police have little to go on, and cast a wide net looking for clues. Molly is on the scene soon after the crime occurred and gets involved in some of the questioning. 

We see a glimpse into her personal life as her relationship with her boyfriend Adam seems to be getting more serious and Molly is unsure about how she feels about that. She also sees her mother beginning a new relationship that involves someone from Molly's work and must deal with her feelings around that change. 

The victim's husband Gord is an IT consultant and their marriage hasn't been great lately, so he comes under scrutiny and has some things that he is hiding. We also learn that Cathy was having feelings for one of her fellow teachers Mark Hamilton, who has issues of his own as well. 

The lead on the case is Sergeant John Winters and we see his personal life as well. His wife Eliza is a retired supermodel and now owns a couple of art galleries, one locally. She has a relatively new employee, Margo, who has losses from her past that come into the plot. 

We also see Cathy's kids and the impact this loss has on them. 

I found the characters interesting and the plot compelling. An enjoyable read.  

The Paper Birds

Finished July 13

The Paper Birds by Jeannette Lynes

This historical novel follows Toronto high school graduate Gemma Sullivan from June 1943 through the end of World War II. Gemma was orphaned when her parents drowned in a swimming accident and she's had a fear of water ever since. She was raised by her Aunt Wren, a former milliner and now a seamstress. One of her teachers has recommended her for a job doing code breaking and with her signature on the Official Secrets Act, she can't tell her aunt, or anyone else what she actually does, so she just says office work.

Aunt Wren is still grieving the loss of her fiancé in World War I and her declining eyesight has led her to stop working in millinery and put them into precarious financial circumstances, so Gemma's income is very important for them. They also decide to take in a lodger, Rooney Delacroix, a young woman from Gravenhurst who has a job working at a tannery in the city. Rooney is a pleasant girl, but has her own secrets. 

Beatrice Fearing, Gemma's supervisor, worked as a math professor before working on code breaking and there are three other young women that work in the same small cottage near the lake. Cora-Lynn Ponder, a university math student had taken classes from Miss Fearing. Hester Hobbs is good with logical problems, and Ada Swift also works at another site where she secrets a variety of devices in objects. She's a good analyst. 

Wren is glad to use some of Gemma's pay to go to an eye doctor and get new glasses, and along with improved eyesight, she begins to look forward in her life with more optimism. 

One lunch hour, when Gemma takes a walk, she encounters a hungry cat and a young man behind a fence of a POW camp. She develops feelings for both, and must decide whether to trust her instincts. 

The war work is interesting and I enjoyed the personalities of the different women in the novel. Some of the coincidences in connections were a stretch, but it was still an enjoyable read. 

Death on the Island

Finished July 12

Death on the Island by Lynne Marie Taylor

This historical mystery is set in Malta in the fall of 1880, a time when Malta was controlled by the British. The main character in this series, of which this is the second book, is Scottish Detective Inspector McQueen. He is in Malta to set up a detective division in the local police and train local officers in this aspect of police services. Recently a steamship travelling from India to Britain stopped here and one of the stewards was found to have cholera. The first class passengers were put into quarantine, on a small island near Valetta dedicated for this purpose called Manoel Island. When a dead man is found floating in the harbour, with a fatal knife wound, he is soon identified as Buchanan, one of the passengers who should have been in quarantine. McQueen and the police doctor go into quarantine to question the other passengers and because they were both exposed to the body. Buchanan was accompanying a Sikh prince who was raised in England back to England after he was refused entry to India. The prince is an obvious suspect here since he was unhappy with the circumstances. 

Marie Talti is the daughter of the owner of one of the two local papers, a weekly, and she works as both a journalist and editor, actively assisting her father. With limited resources, McQueen asks her to investigate the passengers and their backgrounds for him, and she agrees, hoping this will offer her paper an edge. 

This novel deals with difficult historical events, racial and ethnic prejudice, sexual predation, and gender roles. So there's a lot of interesting plot and characters, and I learned some history I wasn't aware of. 

I picked it up to meet a couple of reading challenges and am glad I did. 

Canadian Boyfriend

Finished July 12

Canadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday

This contemporary romance novel is set mostly in Minnesota, with some time in Manitoba. Aurora (Rory) Lake Evans quit advanced ballet school in New York City and returned home to Minnesota several years ago. She's now teaching jazz and tap dance at her friend Gretchen's dance school. She also works as a barista at Starbucks.

Back when she was in high school she worked at a coffee store in the Mall of America, a respite from school and dance. One day she had an encounter with two Canadian hockey players who came in to buy drinks. It was positive and fun, and inspired her to create a fake boyfriend based on one of the young men, Mike Martin. She used this fake boyfriend for years as an excuse for not going to social events she didn't want to go to, to explain her lack of close relationships at school, and as a diary of sorts as she wrote letters to him talking about her life.

Now, one of her students who has been away from classes for a few months after her mother's sudden death is returning to class, this time with her father bringing her. And her father is an NHL hockey player from Canada named Mike Martin. Rory can't believe it and she wonders if it can really be the same person. As she compares her memories with the man in front of her, she suspects it is, but is embarrassed by the whole thing. She even has a panic attack, but manages to recover and welcome Olivia back to class. As she grows closer with Olivia and spends time with her outside of class, helping when her father isn't around, as well as going out after class with the two of them, she becomes more certain, but keeps her secret about the past to herself. 

Mike and Olivia are both dealing with their grief in their own ways, and both are in therapy. Mike is learning a lot about himself, about the emotional labour his wife did that he wasn't even aware of, and about how to be a supportive father. As he begins to be attracted to Rory, he also keeps his daughter's feelings in mind and this is where things get even more complicated. 

I liked the way this book dealt with a number of issues around grief and loss, and about mental health in general. Rory's mom was more focused on her success than her health, and this is something she still hasn't dealt with. Her relationship with her mother has led to a number of issues including trust and food issues. I liked the inclusion of Olivia and her reactions, but this really fell off toward the end of the novel, which was a shame.

A captivating and enjoyable read. 

The Creaky Old Barn

Finished July 8

The Creaky Old Barn by B.E. Baker

This is the second in the Irish Escape series that I recently started and wanted to follow the characters into their adventure. 

Natalie is just arriving in Ireland with her five children, with her plan to run the estate as a hotel coming together. She's been getting the website in order, and arranging things remotely with the previous owner and the housekeeper that she's kept on. Her new vehicle is ready and waiting and her kids, four daughters and a five-year-old son are interested in what their future entails. She moves into the largest home outside the estate house itself.

Samantha is ready to throw herself into the horse side of their business getting to know the horses they now own. When she hears that Vanessa is having second thoughts she makes a pitstop in Colorado and sees what is happening there. Her experience as a nurse practitioner, and her support as a good friend both prove helpful to Vanessa in rededicating her to the new adventure. She even gets Vanessa's oldest and troubled son on board. 

Samantha moves into the small cottage near the barn, but finds it is in worse shape than she expected, without even a working bathroom. She begins an intense renovation with a focus on getting the bathroom up and working, before her belonging arrive. She also looks for help from the previous owner's stable manager. 

Vanessa and her three kids move into the other house on the property and start to get settled, but Vanessa finds that her focus on her son's recovery and mental health may interfere with her own chance at a new relationship.

I liked the slow start that romance has here, with all three women unattached. Vanessa, as a widow, is the one most ready to move forward and that makes sense. But we see that elements of the past have followed all of the women here, and may affect how they can settle into their new homes. 

There is hope here, but also setbacks, and some miscommunication thrown in as well. Enjoyable and entertaining enough to interest me in continuing the series. 

Bugged

Finished July 5

Bugged: The Insects Who Rule the World and the People Obsessed with Them by David MacNeal, with illustrations by Michael Kennedy

This informational books looks at bugs through many lenses, with each chapter looking more closely at one particular type of bug. After an interesting encounter with an entomologist studying dung beetles mentioned in his introduction, the author continues to tell engaging stories about his journalistic research into this subject and his willingness to explore unusual activities to do so. 

His first chapter is about collectors of bugs, looking at entomologist taxidermy. Here, as in all the following chapters, he talks about the history of this subfield of entomology, the pioneers in the field, what we know from anthropological history, and what we are learning now. This chapter has a closer look at beetles, and public education.

The second chapter looks at burrowing insects, with a concentrated look at ants. 

The third chapter looks at reproduction both in the wild and in laboratories. Here there is a closer look at spiders.

The fourth chapter looks at insects that fly, and here he looks at fleas, mosquitoes, and other carriers of disease, as well as disease in the forest industry.  He travels to Brazil as part of his research. 

The fifth chapter looks at entomological pests and he accompanies a pest control operator on the job. Here there is a closer look at bedbugs and cockroaches. He also looks at insecticide use in agriculture. 

The sixth chapter looks at beneficial aspects of insects and the role they play in the economy. He covers the use of beneficial insects in pest control, how insects process both natural and manmade waste and even visits a body farm research facility in Texas. Another interesting aspect here is the use of entomology in criminal cases. 

The seventh chapter looks at medicinal uses of bugs from folk medicine to more recent clinical applications. He even tries to outfit his own pet cockroach with a robotic implant. One interesting potential use of the combination of technology and insects is in search and rescue situations. He also talks about how studying insect anatomy can help in medical applications. 

The eighth chapter looks at businesses that make money from bugs from silkworms to natural dyes to ecotourism. He looks at the pet insect business in Japan and issues around smuggling insects across borders.

His ninth chapter looks at insects as food and we see Chirps, chips made from crickets, ground bugs becoming protein powder, and . He looks at the difficulty of overcoming mindset around eating bugs, and goes on a Food Bug Crawl in Tokyo which includes fried caterpillars, ant-ohol drinks, black wasp larvae boiled with couscous, kebabed combos, and even spiders and centipedes. Back home, he even hosts a dinner including bugs as food for a group of friends. 

His final chapter looks at honeybees and the problems of colony collapse and other disease outbreaks. He goes to a Scottish monastery to see their bee operation and to Greece to try their unique honeys. 

I found this book both educational and entertaining. As this book is from 2017, I'm sure that there are more recent discoveries and advances in knowledge that have happened since.