When You Are Mine

Finished October 10

When You Are Mine by Michael Robotham

This tense, fast-moving novel takes place in London, where Philomena (Phil) McCarthy is an officer of the Metropolitan Police. She is also the only child of a man known to be the leader in a family of criminals. She had not realized that growing up, but has estranged herself from her father as an adult. A significant birthday is coming up for him, and Phil's stepmother has been trying very hard to get her to come to the birthday party.

In the course of her job, Phil attends an apartment after a neighbour calls to report a domestic. She finds a young woman, Tempe, with obvious signs of trauma, and a man who threatens her and uses his own police standing to try to get her to back off. When she forges ahead, she finds herself ostracized, put on desk duty, with her camera footage taken and not uploaded as would be standard. As she befriends Tempe, she finds her hard to disengage from.

Phil is living with her partner Henry who is divorced and has a young son, Archie. They are planning to be married soon, but are having difficulty finding a venue. Tempe proves resourceful in not only getting a venue, but assisting with all the other wedding tasks. She calls herself a wedding planned, but doesn't seem to have any online footprint. Meanwhile, Tempe's former partner, Darren Goodall, is a decorated police officer, one who was deemed a hero in a previous major police incident. He is also married with two young children. 

As Tempe learns more about networks within the police force working against her, and researches more about Darren's past, she finds that her father's connections may prove useful to her. 

This is a novel which will have you worried for the main character, tense about the situations that she gets herself into, and dismayed at the havoc it takes on her personal and professional life. A book that will have you in his clutches more and more as you get into it. 

We Know You Remember

Finished October 9

We Know You Remember by Tove Alsterdal, translated by Alice Menzies

This book won the Swedish Crime Novel of the Year award and is the first of Alsterdal's books to be translated into English. Set in a more northern area of Sweden, this story begins with Olof Hagström, who is delivering a car back to Stockholm, stopping at the house he grew up in, impulsively.

Unfortunately, he walks into a situation. When he retrieves the key from the hiding place he knew, following the barking of a dog inside, he finds not only the dog, but his father dead in the bath. 

As police officer Eira Sjödin, follows the clues from this death, she also finds herself wondering about the investigation of the crime that Olof was accused of back when he was fourteen.

Olof was accused of raping and murdering a local girl a few years older than him, but her body was never found. Olof was forced out of his home by his family into an institution, and his life since then has been a sad and lonely one. 

The case was notable in the town, and although Eira was only nine at the time, she was aware of it, as well as noting the fear that it aroused. Her investigation also leads her to another old crime, one solved years ago, but one that has a long tail, as one of the men involved in the crime has been recognized recently and talk has started. 

I found it interesting that Alsterdal based that crime on a real one that happened in Sweden, one that resulted in legal changes as the crime in the novel did. 

Eira is a capable officer as sees that this case opens opportunities for her. But she has also seen how her area has become a training area for new officers, ones who spend a year or two there and move on, and she feels that she doesn't want to be like them. She wants to made a difference in her community. It is her knowledge of the community, both past and present, that makes the difference in this case, and she is aware of that. 

So in more than one way, memory plays a role in this novel, as does the idea of guilt. There are those that are fearful of discovery, and those who would protect those they care for. Alsterdal digs into this with the various cases at hand, in a way that is engaging and thought-provoking. 

Last Post

Finished October 8

Last Post by Robert Barnard

This stand-alone mystery follows a woman, Eve McNabb, who finds a letter among the various sympathy envelopes in the mail at her mother's house after her mother's death. The letter is anonymous, but hints at a relationship between the letter writer and her mother, May. It also refers to her father Ted, who Eve was told died when she was a child. 

Eve's mother was a skilled a popular teacher, who quickly became deputy, then head of their local school. She was involved in her community and a woman who was very competent and knew her own mind. Eve is saddened by her death as her mother had recently retired and they were starting to grow closer and spend more time together. 

As Eve follows clues to find the letter writer, she also begins to suspect that her father isn't dead after all, and she begins to question what her mother has told her. 

She begins to delve into her mother's past, her friendships, and her father's life.

This is a tale of loss, of discovery, and of the dangers of digging too deeply into the lives of others. 

Unholy Dying

Finished October 6

Unholy Dying by Robert Barnard

This is the seventh novel in a series featuring an English police officer, Charlie Peace, but the first that I've read. There are several characters whose viewpoint we can see things from. One is a journalist, Cosmo Horrocks. Horrocks is a journalist with an eye out for a story wherever he goes, who uses any situation for gain, and has no respect for anyone else. It is the last characteristic that has been limiting in his career, and we can see that no one around him likes him, not his coworkers or his family. He is married, with two daughters. On a train he overhears a conversation between two men, Con and Derek, that piques his interest, about an investigation into the actions of a priest regarding one of his parishioners, a young single mother. 

Another is Julie Norris, the mother in question. She was pregnant at sixteen, kicked out of the house by her parents, and soon after living in a small home on a council estate in Shipley. She aims to be a good mother to both her toddler and the second child she is expecting. She found the priest, Father Pardoe, a good listener and a good adviser. He had been able to help her get some basic items for her home, such as used furniture and appliances. 

We also see Father Pardoe. He has been sent away, boarding with a middle-aged woman in a nearby town, awaiting the investigation, but is growing impatient as the bishop hasn't answered any of his inquiries about the status. 

We also see Mrs. Knowsley, the woman Pardoe is boarding with, and she provides an ear for him, and a source of unexpected comfort. 

Another set of voices are several female parishioners of Father Pardoe, including Miss Preece-Dembleby; Mary, the wife of Con; and Janette, the wife of Derek. These women are also wondering about the inquiry, and want to provide support for the priest, who they believe is innocent of the things he has been accused of. 

I really enjoyed how the story unfolded, moving through different characters multiple times, so that I could see the nuances of the situation and the lives affected. 

There are a couple of themes present as well. One is the role of the Catholic Church both in the lives of these people, and in its secrets. Another is the role of women, in society and in domestic life. Some women have breakthroughs in their lives, while others continue in their expected roles. 

A very interesting read that has me interested in others in the series. 

These Still Black Waters

Finished October 6

These Still Black Waters by Christina McDonald

This is the first book in a series featuring police officer Jess Lambert. Some of the story is from Jess's point of view. She is recently returned to work and detective work after an automobile accident that took the life of her daughter Isla and left her with permanent injuries. She drives a modified motorcycle, and struggles with her loss. She sees her Isla in both work and home situations and finds herself talking to her. She has soothed herself with alcohol, even as she feels guilt that she had a drink before driving the day of the accident.

The central character in this book though is Neve Maguire. Neve and her husband have recently made the decision to separate, but the day they chose to tell their teenage daughter Ash, they were the victim of a violent home invasion. 

Neve has retreated to the house she spent summers in, in the small town of Black Lake. She had a couple of close friends, Bee and Sandra, but the last summer she spent there was a disturbing one, and the secrets of that summer are gradually revealed over the course of the novel. 

Soon after Neve arrives, a neighbour is found dead in the lake, something that has personal significance to Neve. Jess is the lead officer on the case, and she finds herself being guided by her daughter's words. She is also following leads suggested by Neve's words and actions as she talks to her about the woman who died. 

This is an interesting new series, with lots of emotional situations, and some strange twists. 

I found it compelling to read, and the ending gives a hint towards further books in the series. 

Touched by the Dead

Finished October 2

Touched by the Dead by Robert Barnard

This mystery novel is centered on Colin Pinnock, a man who was adopted as a baby, brought up by loving parents, and has done well for himself. He was elected as an MP a few years ago, and as the book begins is now a Minister in the UK government. When he returns home from work the day he is offered the position and meets his staff, he finds a strange note under his door saying "Who do you think you are?" He isn't sure how to take this, whether it is a hostile message or a deeper one. The question, and subsequent messages set him on the trail to find out who his birth parents were. 

Because he isn't sure of the intent of the messages, he mentions them to the police working at the government buildings. He wants to have a record of them in case things escalate. They do escalate, but he isn't sure that they are related to his search. He talks to people around him, and brings in his old girlfriend who is a researcher and historian to follow up on leads. 

He finds himself first led to a political scandal that happened shortly before he was born, when a politician was disgraced and immediately disappeared. As the present day threat escalate, he finds himself also struck by the limitations of his work in government, and starts to question his life in other ways. 

I enjoyed the way the plot brought different elements together as well as by the real issues that the main character dealt with. A very satisfying read. 

Dark and Shallow Lies

Finished September 27

Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain

This young adult novel is set in a small town in Louisiana, La Chachette. It is known as the Psychic Capital of the world, and is accessible only by boat. The main character, Grey, who is seventeen, has spent her summers there for years. After her mother's death when she was eight, she has lived with her father during the rest of the year, and come to stay with her grandmother Honey in the summer.  When she returns this summer, she knows that her best friend Elora, who was born on the same day, in the same room as her, disappeared six months earlier. She is worried about the rest of her friends there and how they are reacting to the situation. She also finds it strange that none of the local psychics have been able to discover what happened to Elora. 

As the summer goes on, she feels that everyone there has secrets and some of them are more worrying than others. She also makes a new friend, a teen that also met Elora, and is aware of the close relationship that Elora and Grey had. 

As Grey grew up she knew that she and Elora were part of a group of children born that summer, known as the Summer Children. There were ten of them, born to eight different families. With the new boy, that makes eleven, a number Grey feels is unlucky. As she discovers the truth about the death of two of the group when they were very young and what the stories told then signify, she finds a need to get to the truth, for all of them. 

This is a very engaging book, about friendship and love, about finding one's one place in the world. It is a coming-of-age tale in a very unusual place. I really enjoyed the read. 

October Reviews for the 18th Annual Canadian Reading Challenge

 This is where you link to your reviews for books finished in October that fit this challenge.

The Starless Sea

Finished September 24

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

This enthralling novel is split into sections: Sweet Sorrows, Fortunes and Fables, The Ballad of Simon and Eleanor, Written in the Stars, The Owl King, The Secret Diary of Katrina Hawkins, and an Afterward called Something New and Something Next. Some of these are books within the novel, some are elements within tales. 

The novel starts with three tales from Sweet Sorrows, and then moves to a university library in Vermont, where the central character of the novel, Zachary Ezra Rawlins is engaged in a regular activity of browsing the shelves for a fiction book or two to read for pleasure. He comes across the book Sweet Sorrows, a book with some missing pages and that he finds is not in the system. Zachary is almost twenty-five and a graduate student at the university working on a thesis on video-game design with a focus on psychology and gender issues. Zachary is the son of a fortune-teller, and grew up in New Orleans and upstate New York.

As he begins to read the book, he reads the chapters that we've already read, and is shaken by the third chapter, one which he is sure is about him as a boy, although the book appears much older than he is. As he looks at the book more closely, he notices a series of symbols, a sword, a key and a bee. 

As the novel continues, the events of Zachary's life are given in some of the chapters, interspersed with chapters from the book he reads. After reading the book a few times, he decides to get out of room and on a winter walk meets Kat, an undergrad that he has become friendly with. She runs a video-game-themed cooking blog. She also runs a couple of classes, one that is a discussion oriented one called Innovation in Storytelling and asks for his help for that week's class which is focused on gaming. This discussion is quite interesting, including multiple possible endings, collaborative storytelling, and what makes a story compelling. All of those relate to this novel in important ways. He also encounters Elena, the librarian that helped him check out the book and she has done some sleuthing to where the book came from and leads him down a path that reappears later in the novel. As his search leads him to a masquerade party on New Year's Eve, an attractive woman who dances with him, an unseen man who tells him a story in the dark, an invitation to a meeting later that night, and a stranger who asks a big favour of him, he finds himself entering that strange world that he read about, or a version of it that is lonelier. 

As the novel unfolds, other books within this novel are introduced, as are the characters attached to them. There are also interludes that tell of other times and events, and words from folded papers. All of these move the story forward, as we watch Zachary and other characters make choices that lead them to each other and to endings and new beginnings. 

I found this book fascinating, a superb example of innovative storytelling in itself. 

On Borrowed Time

Finished September 23

On Borrowed Time by Jenn McKinlay

This is the fifth book in the A Library Lover's Mystery series, and the first that I've read in the series. The main character is Lindsey Norris, the library director in the small town of Briar Creek, Connecticut. It is coming up to Christmas, and Lindsey is expecting her brother Jack to join her for a few days before they connect with their parents at Christmas. 

When he shows up unexpectedly at her work, she leaves him in a meeting room, but when she returns a few hours later, he is gone and there is a dead man on the floor. 

Lindsey is also in a bit of a love triangle with her ex-boyfriend Mike Sullivan, a boat captain, and new suitor actor Robbie Vine. This rivalry continues to be a side plot throughout the novel. 

Lindsey has made friends since coming to the community, and many of them are part of a book club she runs. 

She doesn't tell anyone about her brother's presence or disappearance when the police arrive to the murder scene, believing that she is protecting her brother, but she grows more worried for him after menacing phone calls and threats begin to appear, and she calls her friends into action. 

Overall, I wasn't won over by the book. Lindsey's actions weren't logical and her reasons were pretty flimsy. I found the rivalry banter a bit juvenile for middle aged men, and it seemed over the top. 

Jack's job and situation were far-fetched, and he seemed to exhibit both spy-like (with the passing along of information), and amateurish, bringing Lindsey into a dangerous situation. 

The trap to stop the boat seemed unlikely, both in the set-up and in the outcome. 

This novel didn't make me interested in more in the series. 

Bear

Finished September 18

Bear by Julia Phillips

This novel is a coming-of-age novel set on one of the San Juan Islands in Washington state. The central character is Sam, a twenty-something woman who is not happy with her life, but has a dream that she holds close for a better future. She works in the concession stand on the ferry, has no real friends, and resents that she wasn't hired for a better job, despite having a merchant mariner certification. 

Sam lives with her mother and older sister Elena in a house that her grandmother had lived in and passed down to her mother. Sam's mother has been ill for years, and now is almost bedridden. Sam knows that the time will come when her mother will pass away, and back when Sam was in high school, Elena convinced her to stay and add her income to what Elena earned at the golf club where she worked to provide for the three of them. The pandemic set them back, with the ferries running without concessions for a couple of years, and Sam, unable to find another job, took online surveys to bring in a little money. 

Elena does most of the work assisting their mother, and has taken on the finances and other necessary chores for them. She seems to be similarly living in a narrow existence between work and family. 

One day, a bear leans up against the house when they are all home, startling them and affecting both the young women in different ways. Sam is scared, apprehensive that the bear will return and reports the incident to the wildlife authorities. Elena seems more in awe of the experience of having such close contact with a wild creature, and we see as the novel unfolds, how this difference in viewpoint creates a rift of sorts between the two sisters.

Sam escapes through her countless internet surveys and brief sexual encounters with a coworker, but Elena has a different path. 

This is a book where we see Sam come to understand the situation they are living in, and what her dreams are really made of. Because several revelations happen so close together, Sam finds herself unable to cope well for a time, and I really felt for her. 

A great read. 

Enough

Finished September 16

Enough by Kimia Eslah

This novel looks at three Iranian-Canadian women from different generations and shows us how they experience workplace racism and sexism, giving particularly emphasis to microaggressions. 

Sameera Jahani is a millennial and has just been hired as the manager of the Web and Digital Communications team at the City of Toronto. She lives with her partner Shannon in the queer village neighbourhood. 

Faiza Hosseini is the director of Program Support at the city, a position she's reached over many years at the city. She lives with her husband Robert, an executive who works less onerous hours, her mother Bibi, and her daughters Mina, sixteen, and Pari, seven. Mina is her daughter with Ali, her first husband, the one she emigrated from Iran with. 

Goldie Sheer has just been hired for her first job since graduating university, a three-month contract as a database administrator with the city. She lives at home with her parents, her younger brother Hussain, and her older brother Dariush. Dariush has recently moved back home after a relationship breakup and has had trouble adjusting to life in Canada, while the two younger children were born in Canada.

The three work in different departments, but their paths cross, and they come together over similar social issues. 

Faiza reports to the city manager, Howard Crawley, a man who seems much more forward-thinking than he is, partly because he has the tendency to farm his work out to those willing to do it as part of advancing their careers. Faiza is the latest one to do this, and she has been working as his assistant in all but name recently. She has just finished putting together a presentation on EDI initiatives, and applies formally for a recently posted position as Howard's assistant. 

Faiza has a great management style, focused on teamwork and respect, and she has built allies across departments. One of these is Voula Stavros, the director of Customer Service, who plays a key role in the novel. Bibi has a different expectation of what being a mother means than Faiza does, and this brings in a fourth generation in social expectations. 

Goldie is bright and looks for opportunities, and this both helps and hinders her in her new position. We also see her with her best friend Issa, who is black and experiences more blatant racism than Goldie does. 

Sameera is shown both in situations where she speaks up and situations where she doesn't, and this is something that she must think about in terms of her future. 

Throughout the novel, Farsi dialogue is mixed into the conversations and shown in italics, with English following where necessary for understanding. This is done in such a natural and seamless way and I really found this so helpful in giving a sense of culture, and showing how similar we are. 

I really enjoyed this book and also found it touched on issues that need to be discussed. This would be a really interesting choice for a book club. 

The Man Who Didn't Call

Finished September 15

The Man Who Didn't Call by Rosie Walsh

This novel has both romance and mystery going on. Just when you think you have something figured out, the plot moves in a different direction. 

The book starts with what seems to be a letter from someone who hasn't seen the person addressed to for nineteen years. It then moves to a different setting, labelled Day Seven. The numbered day refers to the time two people Sarah and Eddie who found each other by chance when they were both out for a walk and who have spent those days together, falling in love with each other. The narrator here is Sarah and she reflects not only on Eddie and the time spent with him, but also on time spent with her younger sister Hannah, who she misses a lot. They've spent these days at Eddie's home a house and woodworking shop in the Gloucestershire countryside. Eddie makes his living as a woodworker, following an interest he had even when young, and one that he resumed after abandoning a college degree. Eddie is about to leave for a planned vacation getaway with friends, but has promised to call Sarah from the airport and reunite with her when he's back. 

Sarah is divorced. She'd left home a couple decades ago, and has only come back for an annual visit more recently. She lives in California where she and her former husband founded a charity that uses Clown Doctors, specially trained people that use their humour and communication skills to connect to kids in hospitals and hospices. 

The third chapter jumps ahead a couple of weeks, where Sarah is with her close friends Jo and Tommy, along with Jo's son Rudi, travelling to Tommy's old school where he will be giving a presentation. He needs support as several of his old bullies will also be there, and he is very nervous. Sarah is hung up on her own issues though, the primary one being that Eddie has completely ghosted her after leaving for his vacation. He has given no explanation and hasn't responded to any of her communication attempts. She is both worried about him and emotionally upset. I really enjoyed Rudi's takes on the adult world happening around him. He is an observant and intelligent child. 

As the novel gradually unveils the reason for Eddie's silence, and how Sarah copes, or doesn't cope with this knowledge, we are also given more of the letters that the book started with, showing that something happened those nineteen years before that left the letter writer profoundly saddened. 

I enjoyed the twists and turns, and the gradual unveilings that moved the plot forward. A captivating read. 

Kiss Me First

Finished September 7

Kiss Me First by Lottie Moggach

I found this novel hard to classify into a genre. The narrator is Leila, a young woman who has felt that she doesn't fit in most of her life. She was raised by her mother, but her mother was diagnosed with MS, and died when Leila was a young woman. 

The book begins with an online conversation she has with a woman called Tess, which she describes as the last conversation that she would have with her. 

The next section is dated in August 2011 where Leila is at a commune in Spain. She is living in a tent and has gone there looking for Tess. While she is there she has decided to "write an account of everything that has happened'. And that is what this novel's structure is. As a reader, I felt a bit like I'd come into the middle of a story, as Leila talks about people she's interacted with and describes her life and the situation that she entered into with Tess.

Leila hadn't gone to college, and the two made a plan for her future together. Leila would do online training for computer coding and they would sell the house and buy an apartment for her to live in when it came time for her to live by herself. 

One thing that Leila was interested in was philosophy, and she found her way to a site called Red Pill where she discussed philosophical questions. There she interacted with a man called Adrian who offered her a job he calls "Project Tess" where she will get to know Tess, a woman who wants to disappear from her life, so that Leila can interact with people Tess knows later once Tess is gone. Tess is a little older than Leila, but still a young woman, and as Leila lays out her interactions with Adrian and with Tess, we get a sense of the unusual situation that this is. 

To me, Leila seemed bright in some areas of her life, but very naive in others. She also seems to have a lack of emotions at times when it would be normal to show emotion. 

As the story unfolds, and we see Leila's business-like and organized approach to this job, we get a sense of what her own life is like and how she has trouble connecting with people in real life. 

A strange and intriguing look inside someone else's head. Some have labeled the book as mystery or suspense, and I can see aspects of that, but it is also a sort of dark character study of the narrator as we get to know so much about her and how she thinks. 

The Radcliffe Ladies' Reading Club

Finished September 7

The Radcliffe Ladies' Reading Club by Julia Bryan Thomas

This novel, set during the mid-1950s, revolves around a group of four girls, all freshman at Radcliffe, and a female bookstore owner who decides to start a reading club at her store. Alice Campbell left her home town of Chicago and opened a bookshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This store had been a dream of hers that she was only able to realize at this point in her life, with her backstory gradually coming out through the course of the novel. 

The four young women we come to know as well, both through the book club and through their activities at college. Tess comes from Ohio and is a serious student. She grew up with several brothers, a subdued mother, and a bully of a father. She comes to Radcliffe as a scholarship student, is an English major, and aims to excel in her studies and escape the life she grew up in. It is Tess who sees the flyer for the reading club at the bookstore and suggests it to her roommate and other friends she has made. 

Her roommate Caroline is quite different. Caroline comes from a wealthy family in Newport, Rhode Island, and is a beautiful young woman who uses her charm to keep young men clamoring for her time. On arrival Caroline takes over the room, but in a nice way. She provides a matching set of bedlinen to Tess, saying she likes things to match, and Tess falls for her charm. Caroline is studying art history and her travels have given her direct experience with art.

Evie grew up on a farm in upstate New York, and is studying economics

Evie's roommate Merritt is from San Francisco and is studying art. Merritt is an only child and her mother passed away when Merritt was still a young girl. 

The reading club starts with the classic Jane Eyre and over the course of the year, one can see how the books mirror certain aspects of the young women's lives. The discussions around each book are very interesting. Alice is good at asking questions that get the others talking, and one of the first things she says is that there is no right or wrong when discussing a book, but instead the club is about how the book affects you and how it makes you feel. She manages the discussions well, and while she doesn't become friends with the others, she does manage to gain the trust of some of them.

This was quite an interesting read, and I was interested in what happened to the characters and how their experiences changed them. I also found it interesting to think about the books chosen and about how I might respond to some of the questions Alice asked. 

Lublin

Finished September 4

Lublin by Manya Wilkinson

This short novel is the story of a journey and a coming-of-age in early 20th-century Poland. Three Jewish teenagers set off from their Polish village for the town of Lublin. They carry with them a case of brushes to sell. Elya is the instigator of the journey. He is fourteen, and his father Usher was a shoemaker. Elya knows that his mother depends on him now that his father has died, and he also has a betrothal commitment to Libka. He is the one with a hand-drawn map of their journey, which, instead of town names designates places by attributes, such as Village of Lakes, Village of No Lakes, Prune Town, and the to-be-avoided Russian Town. 

Accompanying Elya on his journey are Kiva and his cousin Ziv. Ziv would like to organize the workers for better conditions and pay, and Kiva spends a lot of time reading religious texts and worrying about his health. 

As they travel they tell stories, horse around, and play pranks on each other. Enya often tells jokes, but the other two never laugh at them. They fear Cossacks, and hide if they think they are coming. They refer to God as Adoshem. 

The case of brushes is heavy, about eight kilograms and they argue sometimes over who should carry it. Kiva has brought luxurious items along with him, such as a pillow, extra shoes, and his father's gold watch. 

The narrator often makes references to the future of the boys as well as others from their village, other things happening in the world at the same time, as well as references to things that would be useful to them, but haven't been invented yet, or have but haven't arrived in their country yet. For example, when they camp for the night, the narrator references the Boy Scouts which are just forming at the time. Examples of things not invented are zippers and ball point pens. 

There are also many references to getting lost, and often they find themselves further from their destination than they were when they set out. 

This is a story of youth out in the world for the first time, not understanding the real dangers or opportunities, hoping for a better future, but sometimes waylaid by unexpected events along the way. This was a very different read, sometimes reminding me of Waiting for Godot in the sense of them never getting anywhere. 

Miracle Country

Finished September 3

Miracle Country by Kendra Atleework

This memoir draws you in to the author's life in beautiful prose. She grew up in Swall Meadows, a small town north of Bishop, California, in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, which lies between the Sierra Nevadas on the west, and the White Mountains and Inyo Mountains on the east. This is an area where the average annual rainfall is about 5 inches. For decades most of the water from this region has been collected and diverted to Los Angeles, making agriculture in the area extremely difficult. 

The memoir is not told chronologically, but moves around in time. It is separated into five parts: Wind; Wildflowers; Rivers; Moonrise; and Summit. It starts in 2015 with a fire that happened in the fourth year of a bad drought. This choice of beginning gives us a real sense of the environment and what the people there face. They have droughts, blizzards, and fire to deal with every year. 

Kendra is the oldest of three children, with a sister Kaela, and a brother Anthony. Her mother, Jan, was a teacher, avid hiker, and played flute in a local orchestra. Her father, Robert, has done a lot of different things since moving to the area as a young man. He has dredged streams, pumped gas, run a Greyhound office, flown hot air balloons, and runs a map company that makes maps of the region. He also built his own airplane, played trombone in the local orchestra, and is very tall, 6'8". I was intrigued by the house she grew up in, which was built by a retired engineer from the L.A. Dept. of Water and Power from old growth redwood that had been salvaged from water tanks in L.A. 

Kendra and her siblings grew up without television and had only local radio. Instead, they had stories, legends, history, and poetry. Their mother created special places and characters for them and they played in this way as they explored the world around them. 

Kendra's mother died when Kendra was sixteen, and the family fell apart gradually despite her father's efforts. She takes us through what she herself went through, and more briefly what her siblings have experienced. 

She gives us a lot of information about the area she lives in, the Owens Valley, known to the indigenous and Payahuunadu. She also includes a lot of history of the area, and gives passages from other writers that lived or passed through the region. One of these is Mary Austin, who came there in 1892, and witnessed the changes that happened when John Mulholland came up with the plan to capture the water for the city of Los Angeles, 250 miles south. She also talks about the indigenous, the Paiute, who were driven out of the area, into the desert to the east, but returned and stayed. 

Kendra went to college in Los Angeles, and grad school in Minnesota. 

She made the whole area come alive for me, as well as making her own experiences relatable and vivid. A fascinating book. 

The Girl They Left Behind

Finished September 1

The Girl They Left Behind by Roxanne Veletzos

This book begins in Romania in 1941. When police come to his house, Iosef knows that it is time to flee. He and his wife Zora go out the back with their toddler daughter Natalia and what ready money Iosef has, hoping to bargain for their freedom. As they run, they realize that they must leave Natalia behind. 

Anton and Despina long for a child, but haven't been able to have one. When a relative lets them know of a young girl in need of a home, they readily adopt Natalia and raise her as their own. Anton runs a chain of stationery stores that he joined as an employee, and has been welcomed into Despina's wealthy family. As the years go by, they encourage Natalia's skills as a pianist and give her every opportunity they can. Anton also befriends a young man he meets near his store, and lets him live above the store as he struggles to survive. The young man, Victor is an avid communist, and once the war is over rises rapidly in the Soviet-controlled Romania. However, Anton and his family have their business, home, and possessions taken from them, and are forced into menial jobs to survive. 

When Victor and Natalia meet again years later, they find themselves attracted to each other, even as they know their relationship has little hope of surviving.

Over the years, there have been moments when a contact with Natalia's birth parents has been key in her life, and when faced with a sudden opportunity, she struggles with the decision to take it or not. 

The novel was inspired by the real family history of the author. 

A moving and engrossing read. 

The Garden of Eden

Finished August 31

The Garden of Eden by Sharon Butala

This book takes place mostly in 1993, with the character Lannie having experiences as early as 1984. This is when Lannie arrived as a volunteer in Ethiopia. She was deeply affected by the news of Ethiopian famine and was determined to find a way to help there. Without medical or other specialized training, she found a church willing to send her for her reporting on what was happening. Lannie makes herself useful in whatever way she can, picking up knowledge as she goes. 

When she was a young child, she was dumped on her uncle Barney and aunt Iris by her father, Howard, Barney's older half-brother following the death of her mother. Her younger siblings, Dillon and Misty, were left with another relative in Calgary.

Lannie had lived in Chinook, Saskatchewan, and her aunt and uncle had a farm just outside town. Despite the love they had for her, Lannie always felt out of place. 

In 1993 in Chinook, Iris is spurred to leave the town to search for Lannie who has been gone for a decade, with letters petering out soon after she left. The impetus to search for Lannie is a sudden, unexpected loss of her own. Iris thinks about her own ties to the land, living on the farm that her mother and grandmother lived on before her. She has often thought about the indigenous people who lived there before them, protecting the signs they left behind, and spending time in the remaining wild coulee that is part of her property.

The book is separated into three sections: Seeding, Growing, and Harvesting, and there are overarching themes of drought, and land use and conservation.

Both women are also searching for love and belonging, and both have dreams that take them into the past and the future. They also feel a sense of a woman guiding them in these dreams. 

I really enjoyed seeing their experiences, even the difficult ones, and seeing them grow as they realized that their strength was within them, and they needed to love themselves first. A moving story that shows the commonalities across cultures. 

Birnam Wood

Finished August 29

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

This was a very interesting read. As the book opens, a landslide on New Zealand's south island has caused a road blockage on Korowai Pass, resulting in a dead end at the north edge of Korowai National Park. The farm just north of the park is owned by Jill and Owen Darvish, Jill having grown up there on her family's farm near the small town of Thorndike. Owen has made a successful career in pest control, and the farm is not currently in use as a farm. Shortly after the landslide, Owen was awarded a knighthood. 

Mira Bunting, one of the founders of a guerrilla gardening group, Birnam Wood, has taken note of this and wonders if this is an opportunity to take their gardening to a new level by taking advantage of this unused land. She decides to go up there and scope things out. 

Mira's co-manager, Shelley Noakes has been growing discontented with the group and her role and is gearing herself up to tell Mira that she wants to leave. With the sudden reappearance of Tony Gallo, another founder of the group, things get more complicated. Tony had gone to Mexico to teach English years ago, but recently found himself dissatisfied there and returned home. Tony has journalist aspirations, and is trying to get his foot in as a freelancer. 

Mira's visit to the farm results in an unexpected meeting between her and Robert Lemoine, an American billionaire. Robert has recently approached Owen Darvish about purchasing the farm property, and offers Mira and her group a chance to prove themselves there. He also offers funding, and this drives Mira to offer the group this chance in a sudden meeting. The group agrees to move forward, but Tony is suspicious of the offer and decides to do some research into the situation. 

His approach to Owen Darvish results in Darvish having questions as well.

The reader is able to see Robert's viewpoint as well, giving us knowledge of his motives and actions that belie what he has professed publicly. 

As the pressure mounts, the situation gets out of control, and unexpected encounters create additional suspense for the reader. 

I found the novel hard to put down as I wanted to see how things turned out. The characters are complex and have motivations that are also complex. There is an obvious 'bad guy' from the outset, and I really wanted him to pay for his actions, and I wanted Tony to get the two things he wanted, love and a chance at journalism. 

Ten Thousand Saints

Finished August 25

Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson

This engrossing novel is set in the 1980s around three young people. I would consider Jude Kerry-Horn, sixteen when the book begins, as the central character. Jude was adopted by Harriet and Les when he was a baby, and they subsequently had another child, Prudence. Harriet and Les are divorced. Harriet lives in small town Vermont and is a glass artist and has a studio in her yard where she blows glass, with a lot of her work comprised of bongs. Jude and Prudence live with her. Les now lives in New York City where he continues his business of growing and selling marijuana. He has a girlfriend who has a daughter similar in age to Jude, Eliza. Eliza's mom has money and they live in a nice apartment in New York City, with a maid. Eliza goes to private school, but has been kicked out of a few schools recently. 

Jude's best friend is Teddy, and the book opens as they are celebrating Teddy's sixteenth birthday. When they return to Teddy's house they find it nearly empty, and it seems that Teddy's mom, Queen Bea, has up and left. Teddy is naturally upset and decides to try to get enough money to get a train into New York City, where his older half-brother Johnny lives. Johnny had lived in Vermont until recently when he went to the city to live with his father. Johnny had been part of a band in Vermont, with two of his friends, Delph and Kram, who are still friendly with Jude and Teddy. 

The weekend of Teddy's birthday also has Eliza coming through their town, and Les has asked Jude to meet her at the train and spend some time with her. The three teens hang out and then crash a party at Tony Ventura's large house, where there is a lot of alcohol and drugs present. Some key things happen there, and after dropping Eliza back at her train, Teddy and Jude go to Jude's house. Harriet finds them outside the next morning, both suffering from hypothermia and the effects of the drugs they'd consumed. This is a turning point for Jude, and things go downhill for a while until he is sent to live with his father. He soon meets up with Johnny and begins hanging out with his group of friends who belong to a sect closely related to the Hare Krishnas, and advocate no drugs, no alcohol, and no sex. Eliza soon joins them, and the males form a new band that begins touring the East Coast. The band is a metal band and soon gains a loyal following. 

This book is a clash of generations, kids coming of age in a time of great change, and music being a force that drives them. The main characters, as well as others in their friend group, are searching for their identity, separate from their parents, but still connected to them in a search for belonging and love. This book took me a while to get into, but then I hard a hard time putting it down. Captivating and beautifully written, this book had me reflecting in new ways. 

The Blue Hour

Finished August 22

The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins

This novel is centered around Eris, a small island in Scotland, accessible only during low tide via a causeway. Vanessa Chapman, a famous artist known for her moods and innovative work, owned the island and lived there in a house she renovated after it being unoccupied for many years. She also transformed the barn into her studio, doing not only painting, but also pottery and multimedia work there. Despite her ownership, the island outside of the buildings is open to the public and does get some visitor traffic. 

When Vanessa's ex-husband Julian disappeared shortly after a visit with her, she became the prime suspect, but the police couldn't find any evidence to charge her of the crime. 

An exhibition that Vanessa was planning was inexplicably cancelled just after the disappearance, leading to a rift with her long-time agent, Douglas Fairburn, a man who was also a lover despite his married status. With Vanessa's recent death, her friend Grace, a local doctor, inherited the island and the task of sifting through her work and papers to transfer the artistic material to the Fairburn Foundation, a gallery owned by aforementioned Douglas. Douglas has also recently died in an accident and his son Sebastian is putting pressure on Grace to transfer the remaining artistic material to the foundation. 

When one of Chapman's multimedia pieces causes an investigation following an exhibition at the Tate, questions are raised about Julian's death again. 

Gallery curator Becker is tasked with meeting with Grace to convince her to finalize the transfer. Becker is a big fan of Vanessa Chapman and knows her work well. He wants to have a cordial meeting to convince Grace, but the meeting unveils other information that he and the gallery weren't aware of. There is an interesting plot element, that of Becker's wife, Helena, now pregnant, who was previously Sebastian's fiancée. 

There are many interesting facets to this story from the history of the island itself to many questions that become apparent over the course of the novel. Is Julian dead, and if so was he killed and where is his body? Was Douglas' death really an accident? What happened to the missing art pieces Vanessa had listed for the cancelled exhibit? Why did Vanessa leave her art legacy to the Fairburn Foundation despite her falling out with Douglas? What was the nature of the relationship between Vanessa and Grace? 

The two main narrators here are Becker and Grace, and each have their own secrets and motivations. Becker is a man who lacks confidence despite his knowledge and expertise, and Grace is a woman who has struggled with rejection and friendships. 

This is a slow-moving page-turner, with lots of suspense.  

Tapestries of Life

Finished August 20

Tapestries of Life: Uncovering the Lifesaving Secrets of the Natural World by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, translated by Lucy Moffat

This book, one I received as part of a book subscription from Mr. B's, is a fascinating look at all nature offers. I learned so many interesting things in the natural world, as well as how humans have taken from it. The author is a Norwegian conservation biologist who knows her subject very well. 

The book is organized with an introduction, ten chapters, and an afterword, and begins with a very personal preface that talks about her life and how she came to this work. She says "Curiosity and a capacity for wonderment are important to me as a scientist." Her aim for the book is to get people to appreciate the natural world enough to work to take care of it. 

In the introduction she talks about her encounter in a museum with a stuffed rhinoceros whose horns had been removed to avoid theft. This led her to think about the numerous smaller creatures that are disappearing. She also talks about the idea of nature as an ecosystem service that offers many benefits. Her third idea here is of the thin layer of earth where life exists, a mere 20 kilometres from the bottom of the Mariana Trench to the top of Mount Everest and the reality that we are only one species among ten million that exist. 

The chapters each discuss one area of 'service' that nature provides, giving examples and making connections to these ideas by relating them to different aspects of human use. 

The first is Water of Life, where she talks about the necessity of water, how much of the earth's water is freshwater and available for use, and species that clean the water such as moss and mussels. 

The second is Grocery Store, which refers to what we take from the earth for food. She talks about microbes and insects, how we use arable land, the role of megafauna in the environment, and the health of the oceans. She also introduces the idea of shifting baseline syndrome, a kind of collective amnesia where we don't see the changes that have happened over time. 

The third chapter is Biggest Buzz, where she begins with coffee, connecting that to pollination, and the interdependence of species in growth, survival of species, and renewal.

The fourth chapter iss Pharmacy, where she looks at the many plants that have been used in healthcare, from traditional medicine to synthetic versions of naturally existing remedies. She talks about the importance of safeguarding traditional knowledge, the long history of medicinal use of natural plants and fungi, and what we are still learning from other creatures and plants. 

The fifth is Fibre Factory, nature that provides us with cloth, building materials, and books. She also includes a discussion of energy from fires to biofuel here. The idea of cold light is one intriguing example. 

The sixth is Caretaking, how plants help to retain water and soil, prevent erosion, provide buffers against flooding, regulate temperature, and clean the air. Her description of the 'flying river' over the Amazon, bringing moisture back inland was one I hadn't known of before. She touches on the importance of old growth forests and how they are different from more managed forest area. One especially intriguing study to me was the reindeer on the Hardanger Plateau, where 323 reindeer died from a strike of lightning and scientist as studying what is happening to them as they decompose. 

Chapter seven is the Warp in the Tapestry of Life, which takes us deep into the world of micro organisms, as well as showing how creatures like whales transport nutrients and minerals, including carbon, from the surface to the ocean depths, and keep life going down there. She discusses the almost doubling change in CO² concentrations from the pre-Industrial world to today. This chapter also includes referent to the increased proximity of wild creatures to both us and domesticated animals as a key input to the rise of infectious diseases we are seeing move into humans, giving several examples. 

Chapter eight is Nature's Archives, a record over time of what has happened. She gives examples such as the samples that have been taken from Greenland in ice cores, comparing tree rings in standing dead trees and timber in old structures, and pollen levels in bogs. One study was able to use guano buildup in a disused chimney to see how the bird species' diet changed over time. 

The ninth chapter is An Ideas Bank for Every Occasion, which looks at how nature has given us inspiration for technological solutions to problems, She gives several fascinating examples here, showing us the inspirations for self-cleaning windows, bullet train design, colour in banknotes, and nanostructure films. She also talks about natures algorithms in efficiency, given movement of slime mould as an example. 

Chapter ten gives us Nature's Cathedral, a place where great thoughts take shape, and the feeling that we get when we spend time in nature, whether forest bathing or listening to birds in our own backyards. She shows research on the role of nature in mental health, robust immune systems, and the intrinsic value of nature itself. 

The afterword gives an element of hope to readers, and ideas of what we can do to keep what exists now from disappearing. 

A fantastic read. 

September Reviews for the 18th Annual Canadian Reading Challenge

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The Romantic

Finished August 18

The Romantic: The Real Life of Cashel Greville Ross: a Novel by William Boyd

This historical fiction novel is based on a real person, Cashel Greville Ross. Boyd came into possession of Ross's papers which included an unfinished, and confusing, autobiography that was made up of a collection of handwritten memories. Also in the papers were collections of letters received and drafts of letters sent out, drawings, maps, plans, photographs, published books with notes in the margins, paintings, other small pieces of art, and some objects. Boyd found the collection intriguing and began to do research on the man and his times. He eventually decided to take the fragments he had and build it into a full life story by making it fiction. 

I liked the quotes that he included at the beginning of chapters, as well as the two that he began the book with: "A man's life of any worth is a continual allegory -- and very few eyes can see the mystery" by John Keats and "A novel is a mirror, taking a walk down a big road" by Stendal. These two together give a sense of Boyd's approach to this book. 

Ross was an interesting man who led an interesting life. His first memories were of early childhood in County Cork, Ireland, where he lived with his aunt Elspeth, a Scottish governess to the local gentry, the Stillwell family. The two then moved to Oxford and his adventures began from leaving home abruptly, to fighting at the Battle of Waterloo, going to East Asia as part of the army, socializing with Lord Byron and the Shelleys, falling in love in Italy, writing and publishing books, emigrating to America and becoming a farmer, and looking for the source of the Nile in Africa. 

As his life unfolds, we see clearly his motivations, his attachments, and his luck as they affect his life and the myriad places it takes him. This is a fascinating fictional biography and one that flows beautifully for the reader. 

The Library of Legends

Finished August 13

The Library of Legends by Janie Chang

This historical fiction novel also has elements of fantasy. It is set in China in 1937, as the war with Japan begins to have an impact on the safety of China's citizens. The point of view shifts between a few characters. One of them is nineteen-year-old Hu Lian, who is a scholarship student at Minghua University in Nanking, which was the capital of China at the time. The government has a strong belief that the students at universities from around the country are key to the country's future, and they begin to organize relocations of the students and professors into cities further from the front lines. Some students decide to go home, some choose to enlist as soldiers, but there are many who join the migration of their schools. 

Lian has a secret, she and her mother took new identities after the death of her father and moved to a large city to get away from people who might know them. They didn't have a lot of money, but her mother spoke English and was able to use a typewriter, and that gave her opportunities to earn enough to cover their costs. Lian would like to go to her mother, who has told her that she is heading to a mission in Shanghai, but with Shanghai now in control of the Japanese, she isn't sure exactly where her mother might be, and she is convinced that waiting until she knows where her mother has settled and lets her know via the school will be the only way they can be sure to find each other. So Lian goes on the journey with her assigned group, consisting of students, professors, administrators, and staff who do things like cook their meals. 

One of the professors is Professor Kang, the dean of literature and a recognized expert on classics of the Tang Dynasty. He dresses as a traditional scholar, in a long dark-coloured gown with a high neck. He is particularly interested in a set of volumes that contain folk legends and myths, known as the Library of Legends. Each student will carry one volume of the set and read the stories in that volume along the journey. They will also have to write a term paper on one of the tales in the book they carry. Lian has a volume called Tales of the Celestial Deities. Kang is another of the characters that we sometimes see the thoughts of. 

Liu Shaoming, known as Shao, is a fourth year student who meets Lian after a bombing attack where they both took what shelter they could. He and his servant, a young woman called Sparrow Chen accompany her back to canvas and are part of the same group from the university. We also sometimes see his thoughts. 

As the journey progresses, the travelers encounter hardships, from the danger of bombs and rough living conditions with limited food options, to political differences. They learn how to find footwear that will carry them on their long walk, and friendships as well as rivalries grow. 

Lian and Kang learn that two of their fellow travelers have a link to a folktale in the volume Lian carries, "The Willow Star and the Prince" a story of love that continues over reincarnation after reincarnation, but has no happy ending. They also learn that the times have coincided with a exodus of the many gods, large and small, through the Gates of Heaven which are open to them for a limited time. As they ponder why this change is happening, they also see how it affects the world they are used to. 

I really enjoyed the folktale aspect of the novel, and the way that only some people can see the gods in their true form as the move to leave the places where they've been worshipped and go home to where they came from. 

I also liked Lian as she faced challenges with reason, looking for a way to be her own person, and not rely on others more than she has to. 

A very different and interesting read. 

Flight Plan

Finished August 10

Flight Plan by Eric Walters

This novel is in the same world as the Rule of Three series and features characters that have some relation to the characters in the earlier books in the series. Here, we see the same time period beginning with the triggering event of computers failing. 

The central character is a thirteen-year-old boy Jamie. He's been visiting his grandmother and she's driven him to the Chicago airport for his flight home to the Toronto area. When he gets escorted by airline staff to his gate, he is soon met by the pilot, Stuart Daley. Stuart is a friend of Jamie's father, who is also a pilot. Stuart is also the father of the main character in the first few books in the series. The second pilot on the flight is a younger Korean-Canadian woman named Doeun Kim. They ask if he'd like to sit in the cockpit for the flight, and he agrees. Jamie is pretty comfortable flying and his mother is a pilot as well. 

They get cleared for early takeoff, but before they get off the ground the triggering incident happens with all computers shutting down. As they are trying to figure out what happened, they do an emergency evacuation of the plane and move towards the terminal. Once they begin to realize that this is a widespread event, two of the crew stay with the plane and Daley leads the rest to the hotel the airline uses, which is nearby. The hotel has gone into lockdown, but allows them in, and the next morning, Daley leads a small group back to the airport to begin to unload the plane and see what onboard items might be useful. With many in the group calling Toronto or nearby communities home, they eventually decide to try to get home by land. 

The journey is a difficult one, as things in many places have descended into chaos, violence, and fear. The group has individuals with valuable skills that they teach to the others, and use to deal with different issues and barriers that arise along the way.

This is an interesting look at human behaviour, and how working as a group that keeps the idea of overall compassion and realistic choice in the front of their minds. Jamie is forced to deal with things that most adults don't have to deal with, and try to keep it from affecting him negatively. The situations portrayed seem realistic, with details regarding exact places along the way kept vague. One thing that I noted was that there was never any mention of crossing the border between the countries, not even that they found the border posts unmanned. It was just not part of the story at all. 

I enjoyed seeing Jamie deal and learn from the situations that he was forced to face, and I liked what I saw of the other characters in their group, some of which we saw in more depth than others. A captivating read. 

Justice

Finished August 9

Justice by Larry Watson

This novel is a prequel to Watson's bestseller Montana 1948. It covers earlier years of the Hayden family and events that led to the events in the earlier novel. There are seven sections in the novel, each dealing with a specific event in the family's history. These are mostly in chronological order, except the first section. 

The first section, titled Outside the Jurisdiction and set in the winter of 1924, involves teenagers Frank and Wesley Hayden and two of Frank's friends, Tommy Salter, and Lester Hoenig. The group is travelling in a Model T from their home in Bentrock, Montana to the Dakota Badlands on an annual hunting trip. This is the first year the young men haven't gone with the Hayden boy's father. It is snowing hard, and the weather leads them to stop in a small North Dakota town that some of them visited to play baseball in the summer. Frank and Wesley, as the sons of the sheriff in their region feel that they can's escape that connection at home. But in a different state, they might be any young men, and their and their friends' actions lead them to a difficult situation and a learning experience. 

The second section, Julian Hayden is set in 1899 and involves Julian's move west to Montana at the age of sixteen from his childhood home in Iowa after his father's sudden death. His mother had accompanied him, but his sister Lorna stayed behind, taking a job looking after the children of the local Methodist minister. Julian worked hard to homestead his land, but the increasingly plaintive letters from his sister lead him to make a short trip back to Iowa to deal with things. This section gives a real sense of his character and his ruthlessness that also showed in the first section. 

The third section, Enid Garling is set in 1906, and tells the method and circumstances in which Enid escaped a controlling father in her home in North Dakota to marry young Julian Hayden for a different, yet still controlled life, in Montana. This shows more of Julian's character, but also Enid's and explains the weak role she played in the raising of her own sons. 

The fourth section, Thanksgiving, takes place in 1927 when Wesley returns home from his North Dakota university for the holiday. His mother has included a local girl, Iris Heil, that Wesley had dated in high school, expecting that someday this woman would be her son's wife. The thoughts of Wesley take us back to their courtship, but the conversation at the table after Enid has taken the plates and leftover food to the kitchen is enlightening for Wesley and us. He gets a different view of Iris, and one he doesn't entirely like of his father and brother. 

The fifth section, Len McAuley, is set in 1935, but has history about Len's earlier days in the community that give us a sense of who he is and what is important to him. Len is Julian's deputy and to stay within the bounds of term limits, he takes the position of sheriff every few terms. Len came to town with his family at the age of twelve. That was in 1898, the same year that Julian arrived. A traumatic event soon after they arrive has Len making his own way, and he finds companionship with his neighbour Julian. When Julian stopped serving as sheriff and Wesley took the position, Len tried to guide him to do as his father would have done, but found himself unable to express himself properly. Len married soon after Julian did, as he felt it was expected, but never felt towards her the way other men expressed themselves about the women in their lives. He thinks he is incapable of these feelings until a woman finally awakens them, but she is already taken and he can only admire her and be offended by the way some other men disrespect her. What we see here is very informative as to both his character and his interaction with the community. 

The sixth section, The Sheriff's Wife, takes place just a couple years later in early 1937, and is centered on Wesley's wife, Gail Hayden, a very capable woman who works as a secretary in a local government office, her commute just across the street from her home. As she watches her father-in-law and judges his behaviour, she sees her own husband taking on some of his father's mannerisms as he takes on the role of sheriff, and begins to question whether she has made a bad choice. 

The last section, The Visit, also takes place in 1937 and is also centered on Gail. She has a baby now, and is visiting her own parents in North Dakota, showing the child to her relatives there. Back in her childhood room, she finds herself mulling her marriage again, wondering about Wesley's behaviour, and considering whether she should allow the urges she is having to stay with her parents and not go home to become a real choice. These last two bring us back to Wesley, who was the main character in the first and fourth sections. We see how he has different feelings than the other men in his family, and struggles between wanting to please his father and wanting to be different from him, true to his own morals. It also shows how this struggle sometimes appears to others and makes him harder to understand, even with those close to him. I have the novel Montana 1948, but haven't read it yet. This novel intrigued me enough to want to continue reading about these characters. 

Clear

Finished August 8

Clear by Carys Davies

This historical novel is set in 1843, which is the year when about one-third of the ministers in Scotland rebelled against the patronage system whereby landowners would confer the position of minister in their parish or on their estates. This breakaway group was known as the new Free Church, and the ministers had to leave their homes (the manses the ministers lived in) and their church buildings and start from scratch. At first many held services in the open, with their parishioners asked to give what they could towards renting or building a new place for services and supplying an income for the ministers to live on. 

This was also towards the end of the period of Clearances, which had begun in the mid-eighteenth century. The Clearances consisted of landowners forcibly removing whole communities of the rural poor from their homes and livelihoods to make way for crops, cattle, and sheep, which would be managed centrally by the landowner. The landowner could then call on these desperate people for labour during the busier seasons and the people would be forced to make do with smaller, less fertile pieces of land, and piecemeal work. Some died, some went to larger industrialized cities, and many emigrated to North America or Australia. As the author notes in the afterward, when the potato blight began in 1846, these people still in Scotland began to starve. 

One of the three main characters here is John Ferguson, a minister that has chosen the Free Church, and is struggling to find money for a place for his parishioners to worship. He is middle-aged, well-read, curious, and recently married. Another character is Mary, his wife. She is also middle-aged, and had given up on ever marrying until chance brought the two of them together at a lecture. They are very much in love, and had spent money on two items that showed this. For Mary, it is a wedding ring that was important to her, and for John it is a calotype picture of Mary that he can take with him when he is away from her. John had made his decision to resign his living in Edinburgh a few months after their marriage.

The third central character is Ivar, a man living alone on a remote island near the edge of the Hebrides. Years before a storm had taken most of the young men on the island when they were fishing. There were two families, and one had left soon after. Ivar's mother, sister, and grandmother left a few years later for a new life, but he refused to leave, staying with his small horse, Pegi, his cow, his sheep, and his chickens. He made a living for himself, but barely survives, and spends his time when he isn't out on the land spinning yarn and knitting. 

Desperate for money, John accepts a favour from his brother-in-law and goes to work for a landowner. One of the tasks that has been given to him is to go to the island Ivar lives on and give him the notice of clearance. He is provided with documents, some scant help with the language Ivar speaks, food, and a pistol in case of trouble. A ship drops him off and will return for him in a few weeks. But John falls in an accident soon after landing on the island and it is Ivar who finds him, and some of his drenched possessions, and takes him in and cares for him. We see how the two form a relationship, a friendship, and how John learns his language gradually as he recovers his strength and decides how he can deliver the news he has been sent to deliver. 

After he has been gone a while, Mary worries about his safety after hearing stories of some of the more violent encounters during the Clearances, and sets out after him. 

The book description gives us these basic elements of the plot, but the way that Davies puts it all together is beautiful. There are many surprises, delights, and disappointments, but the characters here are so wonderfully drawn that I found it hard to leave the story. The book is short, but not fast-paced and the language is lovely. 

In the afterward Davies explains what she based Ivar's language on, and how she came to the idea for the book, which are related. 

Shades of Grey

Finished August 7

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

This is the first book in a series set in Chromatacia, a similar world to ours a few hundred years after some kind of catastrophic event. Hierarchy in this world is by what colours you can see. Some people can't see colour at all and they are categorized as 'grey'. People that can see colour have social status depending on which colours they can see and how well they see them. They have last names that give some indication of their colour ability. In their twentieth year, all people undergo a test called an Ishihara that tests their colour perception and determines their status for life. It is not unusual for people to move up or down from the status of their parents. People also earn merits from what they do and what other people confer on them. Having merits is important as if you get down to zero merits you get sent off to Reboot, which is an educational program that is remedial and then you are relocated somewhere else in the world. It is difficult to travel between places, and a ticket is necessary to do so. One of the few modern modes of transport is by train. 

The main character is Eddie Russett. Eddie has high perception of red, but he hasn't undergone his Ishihara yet, although it will happen soon. Eddie has done something that requires him to undergo a task and he is sent to a remote village near the edge of the controlled world to do a chair audit. He is accompanied by his father, who is a temporary replacement for a Colourman who has recently died. 

Eddie has a half-promise to marry a young woman back home, but she also has another suitor. He soon finds himself attracted to a young Grey woman named Jane, one with quite an attitude. He also finds himself questioning some of the things he has been taught and about the society itself and its controls. He faces carnivorous plants, conniving new friends, and an entitled woman determined to marry him.

When he goes on an exploratory expedition to an abandoned city, he finds himself with more questions, and yet he knows that those in charge don't like questions. He must learn to choose his battles, and think about more long-term goals. 

I like the imagination of this author and the way he fully creates societies in his worlds. This is an interesting one, with a dystopian feel to it. There is also an element of hope. 

It will be interesting to see where other books in the series lead.