Berani

Finished May 20

Berani by Michelle Kadarusman

This children's novel takes the reader to Indonesia, where young Malia has chosen a controversial topic for a school assignment, stop using palm oil to save the habitat of orangutans and other native animals. When she starts an online petition, she finds herself in real trouble, as the government education regulator suspends both her and her teacher. 

Malia is the child of an Indonesian father and Canadian mother, and goes to a private school. Recently Malia's father died and her mother plans to move back to Canada. So while she won't have long term effects from this, her teacher would. Malia looks to find a way to apologize while still being true to her feelings and values. 

Along with Malia's story is the story of Ari. He grew up in a small village where his family grew rice. His extended family saved for him to go live with an uncle and go to school. Ari works in his uncle's restaurant after school and weekends. He feels bad that his female cousin Suni isn't also given the educational opportunity as he feels that she is smarter than him. His uncle keeps an orangutan that he won in a card game in a cage in front of the restaurant. The orangutan, that they call Ginger Juice was treated like a loved pet when she was young, but put in the cage as she got older. His uncle also has a mynah bird called Elvis Presley that he keeps in cage as well. Both of them are considered 'attractions' by the uncle. Ari has connected with Ginger Juice and feels badly for her situation. When he attends a chess tournament and sees a flyer Malia created, he begins to wonder if he can change things, and save the orangutan. 

Besides the personal stories of these two young people, we also get to see how the orangutan feels. She reflects on her life with her mother before being captured, how she misses her life in the rainforest and her mother. She remembers the name her mother called her Berani, and thinks of herself as that. This aspect really shows the reader the intelligence in this animals and the cruelty of keeping them in this situation. 

This is a book that opens children's minds to other ways of living, and of choices that can be made that might take courage to begin. A really interesting and engaging novel. 

Murder on the Intergalactic Railway

Finished May 20

Murder on the Intergalactic Railway by Kate MacLeod

This sci-fi mystery is the first in a series featuring two military cadets at a remote training school. This novel is set on the railway journey to the school. 

Murdina Ritchie is a young woman who dreamed of being a diplomat for the Union of the Free Worlds, and has tried to get in to the training program for years. She had almost given up hoping, but has finally been accepted. One of the reasons that she's had so much trouble is the disgrace involving her father Gustav Ritchie, a diplomat. Before the disgrace, she had led a happy life in an upscale area of one of the worlds. Shackleton Fitz IV has been kicked out of numerous military academies for his behaviour, and this school is his last chance. He knows that he has to take this seriously and change his attitude. He and Ritchie grew up as best friends, until the change for her family led her and her mother to move away, and they lost touch. He knows he should have tried to reach out to her before, but he also knows things that have led to his choice to let her slip out of his life. 

When they realize that they are two of four cadets on this train, escorted by Colonel Hansen who is also travelling there. As they travel from the Intergalactic Transport Depot Delta-Gamma-Delta to the Oymayakon Foreign Service Academy they begin to renew their friendship after a frosty stary, and find themselves teaming up to solve what they believe to be a murder case. They also want to stay in the good graces of Colonel Hansen, after both getting off to bad starts. The other cadets, Moreau and Weld seem pleasant enough. Ritchie hasn't travelled much and is fascinated by the details of the train and the views from it. The train trip will take at least twenty-four hours, arriving on the world the following afternoon and then moving towards their destination. The train goes into what it is called jump space to travel long distances. The world they are going to, Oymayakon, has no space ports due to the perpetual storms that surround it. The navigator will look for the calmest patch to drop through the atmosphere and then the train will continue the journey anchored to the ground by guidance pods. 

At dinner that evening, they see some of the other passengers. One is Lady Marie-Claire Fabron, a woman previously on probation for attempts to colonize another world. She is accompanied by her assistant Mr. Rose and a pet Felzkinder, a species that has recently been declared sentient. It strikes Ritchie as looking like a cross between a charming toddler and a sweet puppy. But like a toddler, it occasionally has a tantrum. Another passenger is Captain Berger, who they meet at lunch the following day, a man who hunts avidly. 

As Ritchie and Fitz investigate, I enjoyed seeing their ideas work together and how they supported each other. The plot was interesting and I found the mystery plot engaging as well. A good read, and I plan to read more in this cross-genre series.

Mercy Snow

Finished May 19

Mercy Snow by Tiffany Baker

This story takes place in the mid-1990s in a small town in the mountains of New Hampshire called Titan Falls. A great many of the men in the town work at the local paper mill, run for generations by the McAllister family. There is another family that has owned land for generations as well, further along the Androscoggin river, the Snow family. The town thought that Gert Snow, the last of the them had died after going missing in the 1950s, until a distant relative named Pruitt showed up in the 1970s to claim it. When  siblings Mercy, Zeke, and Hannah roll into town in their old RV and pull it onto the family property they've come looking for Pruitt their father after their mother Arlene died. But Pruitt is dead as well, and so the three settle in. They've lived a nomad life, travelling around the country with their mother, Arlene until she died recently. As they discover the death of their father, they settle in, but find that the community feeling is against them from the beginning. Zeke has trouble finding work but Mercy finds a job assisting Hazel Bell at her sheep farm. 

When a teenage outing by bus results in an accident that has one girl dead and the bus driver, Hazel's husband Fergus in bad condition in hospital, the Snow family is soon drawn into the drama, and Mercy's efforts to work against that bring unexpected stirrings of other emotions to the town. 

The McAllisters are also involved as June brings her own feelings along with her husband's plans to work on the Snow family. 

This book reminds me of the books of John Irving, and would be a great read-alike for those that love his stories. The setting is a big part of the story, but the characters are also deftly drawn and have deep backstories. A great read. 

We Are All Equally Far From Love

Finished May 19

We Are All Equally Far From Love by Adania Shibli, translated by Paul Starkey

This collection of stories, loosely connected to each other, feels curiously dispassionate for stories that are about love. Most of the characters are referred to without names, so as a reader, I wasn't always sure if the characters were the same in different stories. There is a woman who writes letters to a man, gradually developing feelings for him, and then the letters stop coming. 

There is a young girl, removed from school by her father and placed in the post office, where one of her tasks is to read letters for political reasons, but she finds a particular collection of letters interesting and useful for a different reason. There is a woman who finds herself falling for a man who is performing a service for her. There is a man who dreams of a woman and then sees her sitting on a bench and debates whether or not to talk to her. There is a man who drives away after being told a relationship is finished, not sure how he will move forward. There is woman who worries about a man who she ended a relationship with, and whether he will take actions against her. There is a daughter who overhears her father talking tenderly to a woman who isn't her mother, which results in a variety of actions she takes from self-love to familial love to love with a stranger. The final story reads almost like thoughts of the writer about her own stories. An unusual collection. 

The Garden of Evening Mists

Finished May 18

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

This literary novel is a slow-paced read, which I took my time over. In Malaya in 1951, the central character Yun Ling Teoh went to the Cameron Highlands area of Malaya to follow her sister's dream. She and her sister Yun Hong had been in a Japanese internment camp for three years, a remote camp that the prisoners didn't know the location of. Yun Ling was the only survivor of the camp, and she and her sister had kept their spirits up by talking about the Japanese gardens that they'd seen and what her sister wanted to create in her garden. Since the war ended, Yun Ling had worked for a few months as a researcher for the War Crimes Tribunal before getting a law degree at Cambridge. She returned to Malaya and became a deputy public prosecutor, but her unhappiness at the way the English-controlled government had dealt with the Japanese war crimes drove her feelings to become too vocal for her superiors. 

She is staying with a family friend, Magnus Pretorius and his wife Emily at their tea plantation, Majuba. She plans to visit out their neighbour, Aritomo, a Japanese man who had once been a gardener for the Japanese emperor and has been building his own garden, Yugiri, since coming to Malaya. She has asked him to design a garden for her sister, but he won't decide until they meet. 

Instead, Yun Ling becomes his apprentice, learning the craft of this type of garden by doing the work herself. She is the one who passes his instructions to the local workers, but she also works just as hard as they do. 

Thirty-six years after that first visit, Yun Ling returns to Yugiri after resigning from her position as a judge for the Supreme Court. She will be meeting with a Japanese historian specializing in wood block printing about using Aritomo's blocks in a book. She also meets her old friend Frederik, the nephew of Magnus, who now runs Majuba. Aritomo had bequeathed Yugiri and the copyright for all his writing and art to Yun Ling, but she hasn't visited in years and finds the house and garden both needing much work. 

The novel moves back and forth in time. In the early 1950s, Malaya was still ruled by the British, and there were communist rebels fighting in the jungle, killing the foreign estate owners, and causing unease across the country. In 1987, the country of Malaysia is independent, calm, and a tourist destination. 

We see how the relationship between Yun Ling and Aritomo grew as they worked together on the garden and how she dealt with her hatred of the Japanese through this growth of her abilities and outlook. There are still unanswered questions that Yun Ling must decide whether to pursue. And she must make plans herself, both for her own story, and that of Yugiri. 

This book is wonderful and eye-opening. The characters are complex and the story is as well. The writing brings the setting to life, not only the garden, but the Cameron highlands themselves. You can see the jungle, the forest mists, and the way that both Majuba and Yugiri have put their own visions on their land. This book made me reflect on many things as I read it. With themes of memory and forgiveness the book is one I will think of often. 

Safe House

Finished May 18

Safe House by Jo Jakeman

This suspense novel follows Steffi Finn as she starts a new life under the name Charlie Miller. Charlie for a girl in school who always seemed to have it together, and Miller for her mother's maiden name. The plot moves back and forth in time, but every chapter is dated and titled with the character it focuses on. 

After Steffi's boyfriend Conor started work in London, their long-distance relationship didn't work as well, and they split up. Shortly after that she met Lee Fisher, a charming and handsome man who swept her off her feet. He soon moved in with her, although he had frequent absences as he worked as a pharmaceutical salesman and had a lot of travel as part of his job. He asked her to stop drinking alcohol and he agreed to give up smoking in return. She stuck to that until a leaving party for a co-worker, where she drank a few and he got angry when she came home. She went to bed and he went for a drive to cool off, but it is only a couple of weeks later when she is approached by police about that evening and whether he was with her all night. After talking with him, when he told her he was only gone for a short while and slept in the spare room, she gave him an alibi, and the missing young woman is found dead shortly after. 

When she showed up to a conference he was attending to surprise him, both of them are surprised, him at her presence, and her at his absence from the hotel and his condition when he reappeared. When she hears later about another woman found dead after a similar situation she retracts her alibi and tells the police after his latest trip and what she saw. When he is arrested, he tries unsuccessfully to blame her, but she is charged with giving a false alibi, and serves time in jail. Many people are mad that another woman died because of her earlier alibi, and a lot of them think she must have known of her partner's crimes. When the courts decide she doesn't need protection after her release, she takes matters into her own hands. 

Conor helps her find a new home, one that is dilapidated and needs a lot of work, which she is willing to do, and she takes her new name of Charlie Miller. She finds herself making friends quickly, taken under the wings of a group of women that regularly meet for a book club and other outings. She also meets a older neighbour and finds herself making another unexpected friend. But she has enemies too, one that already knows where she is, and one that is determined to find her. 

Her new home and community may not be as safe as she had hoped. 

I really enjoyed this book, finding myself reading it all in one sitting. I just had to know what happened. The character of Steffi/Charlie was interesting and complex, and truly sorry for what she'd done. The plot was also well done, and left me guessing until the end. You got a real sense of Charlie's fears as well as the things that brought her some moments of content. A great read. 

Deep Freeze

Finished May 13

Deep Freeze by Anne Louise O'Connell

This is the second book in the Deep Mystery series and a great read, set in an interesting place. The main character, Susan Morris is living in Dubai with her husband Mitch, a pilot for EmAir, and they've been there a couple of years. Susan is trained as a nurse but isn't working now. One of her friends Pat is another woman who followed her husband Barry when he signed on as a surgeon at the American Hospital in Dubai. The couple is planning a ski vacation to Austria at the Christmas holidays, but Pat hasn't skied before. Susan offered to take her to Ski Dubai to teach her. 

Just after their first run, a chair lift collapses and Barry is one of the men injured. Pat is distraught and Susan finds herself helping out. When they discover Pat and Barry's house has been ransacked and their Sri Lankan maid Anu is missing, they begin to wonder whether it was really an accident. 

As Susan finds herself investigating the issues that cause her, Barry, and Pat to be suspicious, Susan is drawn into a situation that may involve hospital and government employees and jeopardize her stay in the country. 

The situation with the missing maids, as Anu is not the only one who has disappeared, is related to the religious attitude of the government, the imbalance of power between servants and their employers,  someone who longs to be recognized for their intelligence, and sheer greed. 

Susan also finds herself reexamining her marriage and whether Mitch is the man she thought he was. 

I really enjoyed Susan, a woman who is forthright, empathetic, and loyal. She sees all people as individuals, no matter their role or status, and that leaves her open to new ideas, new friendships, and new possibilities. The plot was also engaging, and captured my interest. I also found the setting refreshing, one that I am not familiar with and that has rules as customs quite different from the ones I live with. 

I also liked how the ending promises more for Susan perhaps in many different countries, something I look forward to. 

How to Hide in Plain Sight

Finished May 12

How to Hide in Plain Sight by Emma Noyes

This novel is outstanding. The main character, twenty-one-year old Eliot Beck hasn't seen in family in three years since she left for New York City. She is the youngest child in a large family, and loves her siblings and their partners. She fled because of a secret that she feels is devastating, and she uses routine and work to distract herself from her obsessive-compulsive thoughts. 

Eliot has agreed to attend her brother Taz's wedding celebration at the family island, Cradle Island,  located in Canada near Manitoulin Island on Lake Huron. Eliot grew up in Chicago, in her family's large home there, with summers on the family island. The island has numerous cabins located on a sheltered cove and connected by a boardwalk. It is a place close to the heart for the family, special to them all. 

The summer that Eliot was ten, her brother Henry, less than a year older than her, stayed behind in Illinois for summer school, but died in an accident. Eliot's obsessive-compulsive disorder began then, although she didn't have a term for it and thought of it as her worries. When she started school that fall, she became attached to a new boy in school. Manuel is from Colombia and his parents travel a lot for work, leaving him to be raised by his nanny. At first, Eliot natters to him endlessley, without a response. She picks up where she left off the last time she saw him. 

Eliot's oldest brothers, Caleb and Clarence, are from an earlier wife of her father's. Then came Karma, Taz, Henry, and Eliot. There was a fairly large gap between Taz and Henry, and Henry was the way that quieter Eliot connected to her older siblings. Since losing him, she's felt that she doesn't fit in, and struggles with what to say at family dinners. 

The book moves between the present, over a four-day wedding celebration that integrates family traditions and new connections, and Eliot and her family's past, beginning with the loss of Henry. We see her mother's withdrawal followed by a new purpose-filled existence, and her father's collapse and resolve. We see Karma's obsession with baking leading to a new career, and details of the social changes the family goes through. 

We also see clearly one example of obsessive compulsive disorder, an example of intrusive thoughts that drive Eliot to confide in Manuel, and then ask her parents to let her go to a therapist. Despite the professional help, the disorder affects Eliot in a large way, and she struggles to hold onto what she can of a normal life as she tries to hide the reality of her mental health. 

This book had me laughing and crying as I saw the reality of Eliot's struggles and her relationship with her friend and close-knit family. 

An amazing read that also opens a window into a complicated mental health condition. 

Out of the Valley of Horses

Finished May 10

Out of the Valley of Horses by Wendy Orr

This children's novel is set in a near future where a family decides to leave the city during a difficult time. There has been a spreading illness, and societal unrest as a result. The main character, Honey, is a young child, and her grandfather used to drive an ice cream truck. After he retired, he and her grandmother converted the truck into a small camper van equipped with solar panels. Honey's parents and her grandmother took her and her younger brother and went into the countryside looking for a place to camp and live for a while. They came to a place where a bridge took them into a mountain valley where there were a number of extraordinary horses. 

This all happened seven years earlier. Honey and her family discovered that they could no longer find their way out of the valley soon after they arrived. Since then, they've lived off the land and the supplies that they brought with them. They are generally content there, but miss their extended family. 

They have grown close to the horses. Each family member has been chosen by a horse who will let them ride it and whom they have a close relationship with. Honey's horse is Moongold, a name she knows belongs to it. The horses do dances together and sometimes make communal noises that sound like a song to the family. 

The story is interspersed with texts from the family looking for them, and hoping they are well, unsure what happened to them. Each of the adults in the family has phones, but they aren't connecting with the outside world. 

When Honey's father starts feeling unwell, they try harder to find a way out, but nothing they try seems to work, all trails leading back to their valley. They are reminded of a story of their great-grandfather's when he took a ride out of the city on his horse and found a valley. He stayed there for seven years, in a cabin he built himself, and then was able to leave and come out to the rest of the world. 

Honey's upcoming eleventh birthday will be exactly seven years since the family entered the valley. She can't help but wonder if this will be the chance they have to leave the valley they love to save her father, even if it means leaving the valley forever. 

I really enjoyed this tale of magic and resilience. The family has used their skills and resources well, growing some food, and finding others in their environment. The adults teach the kids, and share stories as part of a routine. Honey is at the age where she is adult enough to notice changes in the situation and look for ways to help. A great story. 

Summer in the City

Finished May 7

Summer in the City by Alex Aster

This novel is centered on 27-year-old Elle, a screenwriter with a contract for a big-budget movie that has leased several locations in New York City. Elle used to live there, but left for Los Angeles several years ago for work. Just before she left she had a bad encounter with a man and she fed off that anger for a while in terms of creativity. She has had writers block for a while, and while she had hoped to avoid going to New York with a screenplay set there and due at the end of the summer she really should. 

She agreed to housesit an apartment that is undergoing renovations and oversee the renovations, while living there. It is a beautiful large apartment that has only her bedroom and bathroom finished, and only her bedroom furnished. She will end up spending a lot of time on the living room floor planning out her script. It also has amazing views of the city, and there are only two apartments on that floor. 

Elle likes to work in coffee shops, and soon finds a great coffee shop with the right vibe, great coffee, and luscious pastries. But then she discovers that her new neighbour is "Billionaire Bachelor" Parker Warren, the man who incited first lust and then hate after assumptions he made when they met two years earlier. He's been her muse ever since. 

This new encounter and subsequent meetings break her writer's block and she is inspired again. 

When he makes a deal with her to take her to every location her screenplay requires, with her being his fake date for the summer for events he has to attend, things begin to change. He provides appropriate clothing for the fancy events she attends, and soon gets her out running in the mornings with him. 

Elle's career is a secret as she writes her screenplays anonymously and we only discover why late in the novel. She was raised by her mother to be independent and not to be beholden to any man who might want to control her. Her mother died when she was in college and she misses her a lot. The only person that knows her identity as a screenwriter is her best friend and roommate Penelope, who also knows her history and about her previous encounter with Parker. 

As Elle finds herself deviating from her usual reclusive behaviour when she writes, she finds herself making new friends in the city. She also finds that she and Parker keep surprising each other with details about their lives, personalities, habits, and actions. 

This is a story of second chances, but also a story of control and reaction to that control. Neither Elle nor Parker is perfect and we see issues with both of them arise here. Elle has always wanted to be in control of her own life, not beholden to favours from anyone, and this has led to some of her problematic issues. I found it very interesting to see her come out of her shell. 

Season of Salt and Honey

Finished May 6

Season of Salt and Honey by Hannah Tunnicliffe

This novel is about grief and the different ways people deal with it and it is about love and family. Frankie left her fiancé Alex's funeral when she couldn't take the situation anymore. At first she doesn't know where she is going, and then she realizes that she is going to Alex's family cabin in the Washington forest near the ocean, a place she's been to only a few times, but that Alex loved. It's not far from where they lived, and where Alex died in a surfing accident.

Frankie is part of a large Italian family. She has one sister, Bella, a wild child who ran off a few years ago. Her father is widowed, and works hard as a mechanic at his brother's garage. 

Frankie wants to be alone, and she is for a short while. Then Jack shows up, the caretaker for the cabin. He has been tasked by Alex's mother to evict Frankie from the cabin, but he is sympathetic to her situation. Then there is Jack's daughter Huia, a bit of a forest sprite, at home in the woods and eager to share what she knows about the plants and the creatures with Frankie. Then she meets Merriem, a neighbour who has a garden as expansive as those of her Italian aunts, and who is willing to share with her neighbours, including Frankie. Then her sister Bella shows up. Frankie is upset that she left years before, and won't let her in the cabin, and finds her sleeping in her car. 

Then Frankie's dad visits, bringing clothes and food. He is followed by her extended families of aunts and cousins, all bringing food. Alex's brother comes as well. He apologizes for his mother and says he doesn't mind her staying there.

As she finds that she can't escape from the people who love her her, or from her past. she also has to face some truths about Alex that are difficult. She must also think about forgiveness and how she deals with her own family and Alex's family around all the things that arise. 

This is a novel that invites reflection, and makes you think about your own relationships. 

Paris Undercover

Finished May 4

Paris Undercover: A Wartime Story of Courage, Friendship, and Betrayal by Matthew Goodman

This was an enlightening and informative read. It tells the story of two women, along with others who they interacted with, during World War II. 

Etta Shiber, an American, and Kate Bonnefous, an Englishwoman, who married a French man, were friends. After Etta's husband died, she moved to Paris and the two women lived together. Etta was a person who seems to be carried along by whatever is happening around her. Kate was a woman driven by her sense of justice. 

As World War II came to Paris, Kate became aware of British soldiers held in military hospitals and devised a plan to smuggle them out. Etta was involved solely as someone who was along with her friend. At first, the two smuggled men in the trunk of Kate's car as they drove around on Red Cross missions. But then some were smuggled to them by others, showing up at their Paris apartment. 

It wasn't too long before both women were arrested by the Gestapo. After their trials, where Kate and two of her French contacts received death sentences, Etta was exchanges for a German woman in a prisoner exchange with the United States. Kate's sentence was commuted to life

But things get darker after this. Etta was hailed as a hero on her return, and convinced to write about her activities. But she wasn't a natural writer and the publishing agent she worked with hired a fiction writer to integrate her story into a book they were writing. But unbeknownst to the writer, the subsequent book was published as a memoir written by Etta. The book was a bestseller, and because the story in the book differed from that of reality, the real people in the book were endangered further. 

Kate was questioned and tortured again, asked to reveal the details she hadn't before, details that she wasn't aware of, because they were from the book. This betrayal touched others as well. 

The author did significant research for the book, using military records, court records, and personal testimonies to uncover the consequences of Etta's book's publication. 

A striking story that unveils another piece of history. 

Dead with the Wind

Finished May 3

Dead with the Wind by Miranda James

This cozy mystery is set in small town Louisiana, where Mississippi sisters An'gel and Dickce Ducote have come to visit their cousin Mireille for her granddaughter Sondra's wedding. They've also brought their ward, Benjy Stevens, and his Abyssinian cat Endora and Labradoodle dog Peanut. They are staying in a cottage rooms, part of a bed-and-breakfast that Mireille runs along with her longtime housekeeper/cook Estelle. 

Mireille's daughter Jacqueline and her second husband Horace live with Mireille at her large home, as does Sondra. As the scene is set, we see all the main characters, including Mireille's long-term butler Jackson, Sondra's fiancé Lance, Mireille's lawyer Richard and Horace's son Trey. 

Estelle is outspoken and often rude, very critical of Sondra and her actions. Sondra is also outspoken and rude, particularly to her grandmother. She's very beautiful and very entitled and her parents spoiled her when she was younger. There is some question as her motives for getting married. Lance is as beautiful as Sondra is and they've known each other since they were in kindergarten. Lance is also extremely clueless and not very bright. Trey has a crush on Sondra and is jealous of Lance. Horace and Jacqueline's relationship seems tense and we gradually learn why. 

As An'gel and Dickce observe the people around them, and the reactions when Sondra is swept off her balcony to her death in a storm, they also look for who might have wanted to kill her and why. 

There is a lot of southern tradition in the main characters and their relations, as might be expected from wealthy white women who come from plantation backgrounds, but the sisters are more open to new ideas than they seem at first, and Benjy also explains some things to them when they don't understand something. This book grew on me as the plot developed, and while many of the characters are stereotypical, the plot is interesting. 

So Far Gone

Finished May 1

So Far Gone by Jess Walter

The main character Rhys Kinnick has been living off-grid for the last seven years. Just before making the decision to move to his grandfather's cabin in the woods, he had punched his son-in-law Shane in the face at a Thanksgiving family gathering. He had agreed with his daughterBethany not to talk religion or politics, but Shane was talking both and goading him and with the recent 2016 election, he just snapped. 

While Rhys loves Bethany, he has never liked her taste in men. Doug, the father of her daughter Leah, was a musician who did drugs and was only too happy to sign away his rights as a father. Shane, a man she met at rehab, seemed a little too serious about religion, and in the years since he's spent time with the family, has gone even more right-wing, now belonging to a Christian church with a militia, with a headquarters in the mountains named The Rampart. 

When Rhys opens his door to a woman and two kids, he doesn't even recognize his grandchildren at first.  The woman, Anna, is a neighbour of Bethany and Shane's and Leah has come to her with a note explaining that Bethany has gone away for a while and Leah was told to take the note to Anna if Shane decided to go look for her. Rhys takes the kids in, and his grandson Asher explains that he has a chess tournament he really wants to go to.

When Rhys left the Thanksgiving get-together years ago, he threw away his phone, realizing that its constant stream of news had a lot to do with his anger. He had also recently lost his job as environmental reporter at the newspaper, and his girlfriend Lucy, who told him she never wanted to see him again.

At the location of the tournament, friends of Shane show up and forcibly take Leah and Asher with them, telling Rhys Shane told them to get them. As Rhys deals with his injuries from this encounter and vows to get his grandchildren, he resorts to asking Lucy for help and finds himself with another ex-boyfriend of hers, a retired cop with a bipolar condition that leads them both into a dangerous situation. 

As Rhys deals with his grandchildren, he also follows the trail to Bethany and finds that the distance between him and his daughter dates back much earlier, and he has to mend fences and rejoin the world to even start at making things right again. 

This is a story that is timely in the American landscape, and deals with technology's reach, the huge rift in America in terms of politics and radical evangelical Christianity, as well as family relations. Shane is a gentle man that has been led through misinformation into a radical environment that he's not as ready for as he thought. Bethany loves her husband, but also remembers her earlier life with fondness. She's also not a fan of this church which seems to hold women as lesser people. This is a story that will leave you thinking. 

May Reviews for the 18th Annual Canadian Reading Challenge

 This is where you can add links to reviews of books you finished in May that meet this reading challenge. Add a comment too!

Six Cats a Slayin'

Finished April 28

Six Cats a Slayin' by Miranda James

I've read other books in this series (A Cat in the Stacks Mystery) and enjoyed them. I picked up this one at my local library. In mid-December, Charlie Harris is making his Christmas list, something he always intends to do sooner, but ends up last minute. This year he has a new neighbour, Gerry Albritton, who seems overly friendly, which makes him uncomfortable. She's having a party before Christmas and sent him an invitation. He doesn't want to go, but feels he should. She has a last name known in their town, but no one Charlie knows seems to be able to place her. He and the department secretary work together on trying to figure out who Gerry is.

It is also Charlie's first Christmas with grandchildren, something he is very excited about. Both of his children now have children, and his daughter is dealing with a colicky baby and facing exhaustion, refusing to get help. Both Charlie and others in the family are worried about her. 

When he answers the doorbell one day, he finds a box with five kittens and a note in obvious children's writing asking him to look after them as "he says he'll drown them." Having five kittens is quite a surprise and disrupts the household. His housekeeper Azalea is patient, but Charlie soon gets help on a way to contain them. Diesel, his cat, is very interested in these kittens, and takes an almost fatherly role in looking after them and trying to keep them out of trouble. Meanwhile Charlie tries to figure out who the child is and how he can help them. 

When the night of the holiday party arrives, Charlie and his girlfriend Helen attend, but things seem odd. Many of the partygoers seem nervous, and Charlie and Helen overhear a strange conversation. When the host suddenly collapses, they have another mystery on their hands. 

There is lots going on, and several storylines to keep the reader interested. The kittens are up to trouble, and so is someone else in the neighbourhood. I enjoyed the lighthearted parts, like the kittens, and worried along with Charlie about his daughter. But the neighbour's collapse is the central mystery that involves the police and this time the detective wants Charlie's help. 

I always enjoy this series and this one is a real pageturner with so much happening. 

The Tudor Prophecy

Finished April 25

The Tudor Prophecy by Julie Strong

This historical novel takes place in 1541 in the latter part of the reign of King Henry VIII. Hester Vaughan and her younger brother Dickie have lived in England with her maternal uncle Sir Hugh Grantmire and his family, consisting of his wife and daughter. The daughter, Lady Alice, is close in age to Hester and they are close friends. Hester's father is Welsh and still lives at his property there. His grief at the death of Hester's mother precipitated this move. 

Hester has teenage dreams of healing King Henry from his leg tumours and being chosen as his next wife, but her attempt to make this happen results in disaster. At the same time, Sir Hugh has finally come to the point where his refusal to make an oath to King Henry's new church means that his life and lands are in jeopardy. 

When Hester is summoned to join her father in Wales, she goes, but unwillingly. She has strange dreams that she struggles to understand. In Wales, she finds her father in his dying days, and struggles to hold off the strange and disturbing fates that her uncle there plans for her. A young bard and her Welsh maid are the only ones she can trust. 

Meanwhile Lady Alice, her mother, Dickie, and his minder John struggle to make ends meet in their reduced circumstances. Dickie, who is developmentally delayed and has seizures, is unpredictable and loyal to his family, which sometimes puts them in dangerous situations. 

When Hester's path crosses that of the young Elizabeth, Kind Henry's daughter, she realizes that she has been led to show her that her father's way is a cruel one and she can make different choices. 

I was really engaged with this novel and while I was sometimes frustrated with Hester's choices, I see how they all led in a certain direction. Hester grew through the course of the novel, as did Lady Alice as she adjusted to her new reality. As the book neared its end, the final scene leads me to believe there will be a sequel to this book, which I look forward to. 

The main parts of history were adhered to, with the real historical figures being where they were at the time. But the introduction of Wales and the Welsh people was interesting as it showed how religion disrupted the lives of the people in ways that I hadn't thought about. 

Mansion Beach

Finished April 25

Mansion Beach by Meg Mitchell Moore

This novel is supposed to be a modern spin on The Great Gatsby, and follows Nicola Carr as she spends the summer on Block Island, where she is doing an internship as a marine wildlife researcher. She has left her previous partner and career and is taking her life in a new direction. She is staying in a small house that is owned by her cousin's wife's family. David is her favourite cousin, and they grew up very close, almost like siblings, including spending the summers at the lake in a family home. Now he is married to a real estate heiress, Taylor Buchanan. Taylor is very involved in her father's real estate empire and does whatever he asks of her, leaving her little time for David and their young daughter. 

Nicola soon discovers that her next door neighbour is Juliana George, creator of a fashion-based social media empire called LookBook. Staying with David and Taylor is an old college friend of David's, Jack, who is a pro golfer, taking time for an Achilles tendon injury. 

As Nicola continues getting a variety of job experience and exploring the small island, she also gets to know her neighbour Juliana and learn a little of her story of building her business and how her life has changed over time. She also finds herself courted by Jack, and unsure about Taylor given her standoffish attitude and how little time she is spending with her family. Nicola tries to avoid being drawn into any of the drama going on, but she also finds it all interesting, seeing these people in a world she is unlikely to ever live in. 

The story is interrupted by transcripts from a podcast about what happened on the island that summer, but that part of it feels like it isn't really needed for the story. 

This is an interesting tale of questionable relationships, social class, and misadventure. 

Swept Away

Finished April 16

Swept Away by Beth O'Leary

This is a tale of survival, of the unexpected and how one deals with it. Zeke is back in the small town of Gilmouth as he has just bought back his father's houseboat. It was left to him when his dad died and he'd sold it, but lately he has been wondering about a lot of things, particularly about his relationship with his dad, and decided to use a recent inheritance to buy it back and see if it helped him learn anything. 

Lexi has had a disagreement with her best friend Penny, and left their apartment. She decides to spend the night on the houseboat that Penny owns and rents out. After setting herself up there, she goes to the bar she used to own and still works at. There, she is asked out by an attractive younger man that she's not seen before and decides to go with the vibe. 

Zeke was in the local bar when he spotted a woman he wanted to get to know, and they did.

The book starts with Zeke waking up in bed on the boat. He remembers the night he'd just spent with Lexi and soon finds her in the kitchen, trying to make coffee, but when they head up to the deck they find themselves surrounded by water. 

Due to a miscommunication with a neighbour about tying up a loose mooring rope the evening before, the boat has come loose and they have drifted out to sea. 

As they deal with the situation and try to find a way home, they find themselves also dealing with how to survive on limited food and water and no power. Along the way they get to know each other in ways they never imagined, seeing each other's strengths and weaknesses and helping each other through the difficult moments. 

This is a story of unexpected connection and of desperate survival. Hard to put down, and satisfying. 

One issue I had was with the cover as several times in the novel Lexi is described as blonde, but the cover shows her with dark hair. Sometimes there is a disconnect on things like this. 

The Keeper of Stories

Finished April 15

The Keeper of Stories by Sally Page

This novel follows a woman who works as a cleaner, dog walker, and organizer. Janice is a quiet woman. She doesn't try to draw attention to herself. When one of her regular customers, a woman she thinks of as Mrs. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, because she is often on the phone saying this, asks her to take on the job of organizing and cleaning her mother-in-law's home Janice is wary. She doesn't want to go where she isn't wanted. So when she meets the older woman, she makes an agreement with her, and her relationship with Mrs. B. begins. Mrs. B. tells her the story of someone she knew of, that they refer to as Becky, and the story is told in installments as Mrs. B. feels like continuing it. In return Janice will tell stories, but she is very reluctant to tell her own story, as she doesn't feel she has one. Mrs. B. knows that she does and is the first person that really sees that. 

Janice has always loved stories, not only the kinds found in books. She also loves the stories of people, and picks up odd bits of conversation and stories she hears and keeps them in her mind. She also looks at people and tries to figure out their story. There is a bus driver she sees regularly who she thinks looks like a well-travelled geography teacher. She would love to know if she's right. Janice lives with her husband Mike, but he is a man with little patience, who flits from job to job, never staying for long. She isn't sure what she ever saw in him. But she doesn't know what other options she has. 

Janice has a so Simon and sees him occasionally, on her own. He doesn't visit, but sometimes they meet for a meal. Mrs. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah is a nervous woman with a husband who is overbearing, preoccupied, and demanding, a man that Janice thinks of as Mr. No, Not Now. They have a dog Decius that Mrs. B. walks, one that she has conversations with. She can understand by the dog's expression what he is thinking and they talk often. The dog has very witty comments that I appreciated. 

Janice also works for a young widow Fiona, who has a child Adam that she worries about. Adam sees Janice with the dog she walks and begins to join her for walks and he really bonds with the dog. 

As Janice spends more time with Mrs. B. and with Adam, she finds herself caring about them and about others. 

I liked how most of this story is centered on Janice, becoming her story, but we also see what others think from time to time. These sections have relevance to Janice, as she gets to know people and as people begin to see her as a person. Janice also has a back story, with a sister who now lives in Canada, and a recent comment by her sister has her thinking more and more about this past. We gradually come to know it, and see Janice in a different light because of it. 

I liked to see Janice coming in to her own, valuing herself as others tell her she is, and to take risks for what she knows is right.