Shubeik Lubeik

Finished November 27

Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed, translated by Deena Mohamed

This graphic novel trilogy in one volume is set in a version of our world where wishes are a commodity that can be bought and sold. One man, Shokry, is the owner of a kiosk in Cairo, where he sells a variety of goods. In conversation with one of his regular customers, Shawqia, he reveals that he has three first class wishes, given to him by his father, but his father also counselled him never to use them. 

Shawqia urges him to sell them, and one of her young relatives makes him a sign. 

We gradually learn more about the world, including the bureaucracy around wishes in Egypt and internationally, and later about the history of these particular wishes. 

Each part of the trilogy deals with one of the wishes and what happens to it. We see the struggle each of the users of the wish undergo as they determine how to use it, and how their situation in life affects that use. The first wish user, Aziza, comes from a working class background and struggles with personal loss, survival, and a bureaucracy that isn't fair. The next wish user, Nour is a college student from a wealthy background and struggles with depression. Nour isn't sure how or whether to use the wish to help himself with his mental state. The last user is Shokry himself, who struggles with the vast need he sees across his community, the personal health of a woman he has come to know, and his father's and his religion's stance regarding the wishes. 

This trilogy was originally written in Arabic and the book is still structured for the right to left reading of it. The novel won awards in its original form, and gives insight into a culture and place I am not personally familiar with. The translation of the title is a fairy tale rhyme that means "your wish is my command" and thus fits perfectly with the contents. 

Eighteen

Finished November 25

Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives by Alice Loxton

This interesting history book encompasses history, biography, and fiction in one book. The author takes the idea of eighteen being the commonly understood age that people become adults and looks at eighteen British people whose achievements made large impacts on Britain, when they were eighteen. The short biographies focus on them at that age, but also discuss what brought them to that place, in terms of both background and personal achievements, and what their lives went on to become and what achievements they made later in their lives. She has chosen people that she could find some information on from that point in their lives, but her choices are all personal favourites as well, people she would want to spend time with. 

Her introduction discusses the idea of adulthood and age being linked, and looks at how this idea changed over time. She also talks about Britain as a country, and it's evolution over time. She also talks about the fictional element of the book here. Between each of the biographical chapters are descriptions of a dinner party, an eighteenth birthday party that each of these people are attending together. Near the end of the book she includes a seating plan for this dinner, and a list of places that were important to one or another of them as well as being worth visiting. Her writing style is conversational and disarming, with references to pop culture as well as posing interesting questions for the reader to think about. 

This book is in many ways aimed at those who are new adults themselves, particularly in the last chapter, and at the end of the book a collection of advice from various people to eighteen year olds is insightful and potentially helpful.

Some of those she included I was familiar with, and others were completely new to me, but I found all of the entries interesting and learned something new even about the people I was previously aware of. This is an historical book that is very approachable and readable and I highly recommend it. 

The Mistletoe Mystery

Finished November 19

The Mistletoe Mystery by Nita Prose

This novella is part of the Molly the Maid series, but the first book I've read in the series. As indicated by the title, the story takes place in December, and Molly has always loved the holidays. Molly has insecurities that come to light here. She doesn't feel attractive enough for her boyfriend Juan Manuel, a kitchen worker who is employed at the same hotel as her. She's also had bad experiences in the past with secret Santa exchanges, particularly with one other staff member who reports to her. 

Molly is also celebrating her first Christmas with Juan and when he seems secretive, she immediately worries about their relationship. 

This is a novel that makes reference to a beloved holiday story, The Gift of the Magi by O.Henry, and that brings in feelings around trust and friendship. A short, feel-good holiday tale. 

Kiss Me at Christmas

Finished November 16

Kiss Me at Christmas by Jenny Bayliss

This delightful novel has romance, character growth, and lots of Christmas spirit. The main character is Harriet, an English teacher turned pastoral care worker at a private school, Foss Independent. She is a strong advocate for her students, particularly the small cohort of local students admitted as part of a 'leveling-up' scheme. These students struggle because the rest of their peers come from wealthy backgrounds and privilege, and they come from broken homes and poverty. 

The book opens in mid-November, when Harriet is at a local pub, comforting herself with mulled wine after hearing that her daughter Maisy, who is on a student exchange to the United States, has been invited to stay through Christmas, where she will be going with her host family to a mountain cabin for the holidays. Harriet has encouraged her, but will miss her dreadfully. This is the longest they've ever been apart, and Harriet is a big celebrator of Christmas, putting a lot of effort into decorating and other seasonal endeavours. 

When she locks eyes with a handsome man across the pub, she decides to act on her attraction and invites him to join her. She ends the evening at his upscale apartment with a very satisfying encounter. When she wakens in the morning to find him in the shower, she panics at her actions, extremely out of character for her, and leaves before he returns. 

At school, when several of her local students are absent, she decides to track them down to get them back to school before the head of her department notices. She finds them in a old, unused theatre, and soon after the police find them all. To protect her students, Harriet takes the fall for their trespass on the property, and later that morning finds herself face to face with the owner's lawyer, James Knight,who turns out to be her partner from the previous evening. 

The owner, Evaline Winter, is an older woman who shut the theatre decades earlier when she inherited the property from her father. She owns several businesses and is very wealthy, but for personal reasons that we discover, has let the theatre fall into disrepair. To avoid facing charges, Harriet finds agreeing to arrange for a single night show at the theatre, involving the students that she was with there. As she finds herself gaining new skills as she tackles this challenge, she also finds herself making community connections, new friends, and facing her fears. 

I really enjoyed the numerous characters, seeing the students skills get recognized and utilized and watching them become more confident, seeing the community coming together through this opportunity, and seeing Harriet and James take risks and voice their insecurities. 

Another Heartbeat in the House

Finished November 13

Another Heartbeat in the House by Kate Beaufoy

From the cover I thought this might be historical romance with a touch of mystery, but it was something with more depth than I expected. It is historical fiction, but deals with two time periods. The framing time period is late 1936 and early 1937. Here, Edie Chadwick is the main character, a young woman who works in publishing. This year had two tragedies for Edie, the death of her beloved dog and the rift in a long and close friendship with her friend Hilly. It is New Year's Eve as the book begins, and Edie is visited by another close friend, Ian Fleming, who she has known since she was a child. Yes, he is that Ian Fleming, but is a minor character here. After a couple of drinks in her flat, Ian convinces her to join him at a party he has been invited to. There, she runs into a distant relative, "uncle" Jack Frobisher and the conversation goes to a house he owns in Ireland. He and his family don't use it anymore and he needs someone to go over and shut the place up before selling it. 

After another tragic incident in Edie's life happens, she decides to take up Jack's offer and go to Ireland. She will be going through all the contents of the house, deciding what should go to auction and what should be kept or thrown away. She also plans to bring some of her copy-editing work so she doesn't fall too far behind. Ian shows up just before her train leaves and thrusts a dog on her, a Maltese with a pedigree. I love the way that she and the puppy have conversations over the course of the novel. 

In Ireland, she discovers handwritten pages in the attic, written by a woman who lived in the house in the 1840s, and that tell her story. She is a woman with ambition, one who intends to find a way to make a comfortable life for herself, but her plans find themselves getting more complicated than she intended and her life takes a different turn. The woman's name is Eliza Drury and she turns out to have a literary acquaintance that is someone who wrote a book considered a classic. As Edie learns more about Eliza, and the house itself, she finds herself learning about Ireland's history, the making of a novel, and about a woman who led a fascinating life. 

I found this novel engrossing in many ways, and enjoyed it immensely. 

The Holiday Honeymoon Switch

Finished November 12

The Holiday Honeymoon Switch by Julia McKay

This fun holiday romance has a lot happening, and was a page-turner for me. On the evening before her wedding, Holly Beech's fiancé Matt tells her that he won't go through with the wedding, that they aren't really 'in love' with each other, and that he's met someone else. Holly is at her best friend, Ivy Casey's apartment getting ready for the wedding, and Ivy is left consoling her and feeling that she was right in her sense that Matt wasn't the right man for Holly. 

Holly can't bear to go to the luxury Hawaiian resort that her parents paid for, and since it is nonrefundable, she suggests that her and Ivy trade vacations. Ivy, a graphic designer, has an art vacation every year, where she uses her favourite oil pastels to create landscape pictures. Ivy has compartmentalized her art and makes it special for this time only. She has booked an eco-cabin in the Hudson Valley for this year. 

Both women are in for surprises when they arrive at their destinations. Holly finds the host of her cabin, who drops by to help her figure out some of the technology involved, is her high school academic rival Aiden. Ivy finds that someone else is already in the honeymoon suite at the Kauai resort, Matt and his new girlfriend. As she tries to find a place to stay in the popular season there, the extremely attractive bartender at the resort, Oliver, comes to her rescue. As both women weigh the decision to engage in a new relationship, they also must come to terms with their own issues, of confidence and routines. 

This is a novel of friendship, of unexpected love, and of taking chances. Thoroughly enjoyable. 

Sugar Plum Poisoned

Finished November 12

Sugar Plum Poisoned by Jenn McKinlay

This was a fun read. It is the fifteenth book in the Cupcake Bakery Mystery series, and the first one I've read. This one is set on the central characters' home turf of Scottsdale, Arizona. The two main characters are Angie Harper and Melanie DeLaura. The two, alone with Angie's husband Tate own Fairy Tale Cupcakes. They have franchised the business to other locations, with Tate being the one going on the road and do this side of the business. Angie and Melanie run the local shop, along with counter help staff. 

The book opens with news that a close friend that Angie made before her marriage is coming to town and wants them to do catering for her several nights. Shelby Vaughn is a singer, just starting to make it big, and she will be playing Christmas shows at a hotel in town. 

Once she shows up, it becomes apparent that something is off about her relationship with her manager. Doc. He seems very controlling, and questions begin to emerge about whether he is acting in Shelby's best interests. 

When he is found dead in Shelby's dressing room, things get more tense. There seem to be plenty of people around that have issues with Shelby, Doc, or both, and Angie and Melanie take it upon themselves to protect Shelby while getting at the truth. 

Melanie also has Christmas dinner to plan as she is hosting it this year for the first time and the size of the gathering keeps getting bigger. 

I enjoyed the mystery as well as the interesting cupcake ideas. There are quite a few recipes at the back of the book for those readers interested in trying them out. 

The Glass Maker

Finished November 11

The Glass Maker by Tracy Chevalier

This novel takes place over several time periods, all following one character, Orsola Rosso of Murano, Italy. Chevalier uses a very interesting device to do this: imagining that time flows differently in this area of the world. The story starts in 1486, with Orsola at nine years old, the eldest daughter in a family of glass blowers. She makes her first acquaintance with a female glassblower in another family in Murano, Maria Barovier. Women don't generally work with glass, although they play a key role in the family, and sometimes have a role in the family business as well, in the background. They also have a social position and traditions that accompany that. When Orsola is seventeen, her father, the maestro of their family glass shop, dies in a workplace accident, she is encouraged by Maria to try her hand at lampwork, a technique of making glass beads that was beginning to be practiced by women as a way to gain some independence and bring additional money into the household. 

The family is struggling, and her oldest brother, Marco, doesn't have the full training to take charge, and yet he must. Their father's assistant Paolo must serve as a teacher and mentor, guiding Marco and his brother Giacomo in their work. But Marco is impetuous and temperamental and it is the women in his life who must manage this, first his mother, and then his wife. Maria also provides helpful advice in their difficult situation. We also see the importance of the merchant for the family. He is the one who takes their work and sells it, not only locally but also internationally. He also indicates what type of product he is looking for and has the power to accept or decline new products. For the Rossos, this merchant is Gottfried Klingenberg, a German who has specialized in glass. It is around this time she also meets a man who joins the business, one who will hold her heart as the years pass by. 

The first jump in time is to 1574, but Orsola is only a year older at eighteen. As we follow her through the years, which, while they flow slower than the rest of the world, don't flow at an even rate, we see her grow in her skills and adjust to new tastes in the market. 

We also see her family change, grow and contract, and add new members from outside the initial family group. We also see major historical events, such as plagues, Napoleon's conquest of Venice, and wars. 

I alway enjoy Chevalier's writing, with strong female characters at the center, and this one brings in a new aspect with the large time frame it encompasses. This also gives us insight to cultural change, in the society in which Orsola lives, but also in the city she lives in and the larger world. The introduction of a slave to the story in a gondolier named Domenego brought in another social element, one inspired by a painting the author saw. She used real life characters in some time periods that added to the historical settings. For me, this was also an introduction into an industry I knew only a little about before. 

Paris by the Book

Finished November 8

Paris by the Book by Liam Callanan

This is a novel I really enjoyed. Leah and her family live in Milwaukee. She is the primary breadwinner and her husband Robert is a writer. He often goes away for short periods of time without notice to write. This time, he doesn't return. As Leah reports him missing and begins to search for clues to his disappearance, she finds a reservation for four plane tickets to Paris, a place they had dreamed of visiting for years. 

Once in Paris, they sightsee, planning to return before school starts again in the fall, but when they find an unfinished manuscript that Robert had been writing, and that it is set in Paris, Leah and her daughters Daphne and Ellie find a bookstore that mirrors the one in the manuscript, and buy it from the woman who owns it. They move into the building, living above the bookstore, with the owner, an older woman, living above them. 

They also begin looking after the woman's twin grandchildren, who are younger than Daphne and Ellie, and whose father travels a lot for his job. 

As the trio adjust to their new life in Paris, they also all privately keep an eye out for Robert, sure that he will appear at some point. 

There is also an interesting layer about two of the most popular French children's books, Madeline by Bemelman and The Red Balloon by Lamorisse. 

The book is told from Leah's point of view and captures her emotions well. She thinks back on how she and Robert met and ended up together, and about some of the difficulties they had in their marriage. She feels both loss of his presence and relief of him not being there. Leah had wanted to be a filmmaker, and had studied in that field, but her need to create a stable environment for her family had her giving up her dream, while Robert still pursued his. 

This is not a light novel, but it is one that is very relatable in the complexity of relationships and life dreams. 

Miss Mabel's School for Girls

Finished October 31

Miss Mabel's School for Girls by Katie Cross

This is the first book in a teen fantasy series set in another world. As the book opens, Bianca Monroe is running through Letum Wood, having just been accepted into the school. Bianca has a motive for applying to the school, one where young women hone their skills as witches. This motive is revealed relatively early in the book, but then we see how Bianca has to manage her expectations about how her initial goal would work out. She must undergo tests and trials as she tries to get out from under the curse that Miss Mabel has set on her, her mother, and her grandmother. 

I enjoyed the story, particularly the two friends that Bianca found early in her studies, Lida and Camile. Lida's skills in particular were important for Bianca. 

This is a story that grew on me. Miss Mabel is an evil character that is easy to hate, but she is also constantly surprising. The other teachers seem minor characters until the end of this first novel in the series. As Bianca's family situation was gradually revealed, it became more interesting. 

There are four main books in the series, with some that fit before or between them. 

The Life Impossible

Finished October 31

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

This is a story of life, of loss, of connection. It is about appreciating the world, and how everyone has their own story. 

The story is structured around emails by a man to his former teacher, and her response. Her response is the major portion of the novel and tells of her life, particularly when she received an inheritance from a former fellow teacher of a house in Ibiza, Spain. 

The narrator, Grace Winters is a retired math teacher. She tells of the brief friendship she had with Christina, an art teacher, particularly one Christmas that they spent together. Christina left for Spain soon after, and Grace went on to marry, have a child, and experience loss. Mathematics is both a comfort and a coping mechanism. Whenever she feels overwhelmed, she does math in her head. 

When she decides to go to Spain to see this house, she doesn't know what to expect, but it certainly isn't this ugly little house in the middle of nowhere. She finds she has also been left a car, and a list of recommended things to do. There is also a plan that she isn't aware that involves one of Christina's friends. The experience she undergoes changes her life forever. It takes her grief and loss, and her depression and takes her out of them, to see the world around her, in all its beauty and pain. Grace finds that she has been given a task, but also an opportunity, and she must open herself up to this experience as she faces her past and her pain and recognizes that others have their own stories that also resonate with her.

There is an amorphous being that is part of this story, a life presence from another place, that has power that Grace learns to draw from. This is a tale that feels both fantastical and relatable. A very interesting book that is hard to define. 

November Reviews for the 18th Canadian Reading Challenge

This is where you link up your reviews for books meeting the challenge that were read in November. 

Add a comment as well!

The Christmas Countdown

Finished October 30

The Christmas Countdown by Holly Cassidy

This seasonal romance is a satisfying feel-good novel. The main character, Callie Meyer grew up in small town Virginia. Her mother's best friend lived next door, and both were thrilled when Callie and Oliver, the best friend's son started dating in high school. They'd been together for several years when Oliver got a job in the town of Fallbrook in upstate New York and asked Callie to join him. She quit her job and followed, and got a new job in the same company he worked for, only to have him dump her shortly thereafter. 

Callie is an accountant, and good at her job. She enjoys the city and has made a good friend in her department, Hazel. 

After the breakup, she moved in with her sister Anita, an engineer who designs rollercoasters. (I loved this detail!) As Anita observes Callie stuck in a depression as the year draws to a close, she revives a childhood tradition, an interactive advent gift adventure. Anita has put a lot of thought into this, and the gifts alternate between treats and tasks, with the tasks to get Callie out and about and hopefully making some more friends in the community. 

I really enjoyed the sisterly interaction and how they obviously cared deeply for each other. I also liked how the advent focused on Callie's personality, drawing on strong ties to her family and their traditions, as well as things Callie would actually get into once she tried them. 

This was a fun read, with lots of ideas of Christmas activities that a reader might be intrigued by. 

Book Fair and Foul

Finished October 29

Book Fair and Foul by Erika Chase

This is the fourth book in the Ashton Corners Book Club series, and the second one I've read. It is set in the small town of Ashton Corners, Alabama. Here Molly Mathews, the owner of the local bookstore, A Novel Plot, is preparing for her first annual Mystery Book Fair. It is a one day event, with four authors doing readings, signings, and a panel discussion. The local library director is acting as the moderator for the fair. Three of the writers have solid years of authorship, while one is a little newer to the game. Two of the female writers have a longstanding competitive relationship. They will staying at a local bed and breakfast, and Molly has included a couple of extra nights to let them relax and enjoy the area. 

Helping Molly are her fellow book club members. A couple of them are employees of her store, but others are mystery enthusiast friends. One of these is Lizzie Turner, who is a educational reading specialist at the local grade school. As the authors begin to arrive in town, an unexpected addition is added, Ashley Dixon, a publicist for the authors. Lizzie is disturbed by this as she has a history with Ashley that is far from pleasant. 

When Ashley turns up dead the day after the fair, Lizzie emerges as the prime suspect. They'd had a public argument the evening before and Lizzie decides that she must do what she can to clear her own name, even as her boyfriend Mark, the local police chief, assures her that he can't show favoritism in the case. 

I enjoyed the plot and the setting, although the fair certainly offered more than one would normally expect for the writers.