Only Because It's You

Finished August 4

Only Because It's You by Rebecca Fisseha

This novel has an Ethiopian Canadian woman Miz as the main character. She came to Canada for medical reasons when she was a young child, brought there by her mother, and they stayed. Her father remained in Ethiopia. When she was fourteen, her mother sent her back to Ethiopia to stay with her father for the summer. She learned then that her parents were still married and that surprised her. She also hung out with some kids her age while she was there, and became friends with Kal. Years later Kal came to Canada as a visitor, but managed to get a work visa as an actor. He had a mentor, Oliver, who gave him advice and help, and who was working to get a theatre company to do sponsorship for him. 

Miz has always said that she would never marry, citing her parents' relationship as the reason. She's had a few casual relationships, more based on physical attraction than emotional connection.

When Kal's sponsorship falls through and his work visa is getting close to the end, Miz starts trying to find other ways for him to stay, including finding a woman for him to marry. Eventually they settle on her being his spousal sponsor and they have a civil ceremony at Toronto City Hall. But because they already have an emotional relationship, and they know each other's family members, it gets weird for Miz. A planned visit to Ethiopia brings up more issues, some from the past and some from the current situation. 

The plot was interesting, and I liked Kal, but Miz really began to annoy me. It seems that she needed therapy to deal with a lot of unresolved issues around her feelings toward her parents and her feelings about relationships. So I didn't really connect to her as a character as much as I usually do in novels. 

I enjoyed learning about some of the Ethiopian culture included. 

The Story Collector

Finished July 24

The Story Collector by Iris Costello

This story has three narrators in three different timelines. In 1915 London, Katarina has taken over the bakery started by her parents after they emigrated from Germany. But with the beginning of the Great War, public sentiment turns against her as a representative of the country England is at war with, and when rioters attack, she is lucky to escape with her life. Helped by an English friend, she ends up taking over an abandoned restaurant in a different part of the city, and calls herself Kat, changing her clothing style and acting like a good English woman. She still worries about her brother, who she argued with before her troubles, and who left for the continent. She also worries about her secrets being revealed. Kat has another skill besides baking, divination. She has read the Tarot from a young age, and senses spirits. She begins doing this again to help bring hope to the women she serves. 

In 1918, German nurse Miriam is serving in a prisoner-of-war camp and besides her medical work assists a fellow German doing language research. He is recording as many English speakers as he can, documenting the variation in language use. One of the soldiers admitted to the camp is mute. He never speaks, and no one knows his name. They call him Prisoner X. When Miriam is attacked on her way back to her room one evening, Prisoner X intervenes and she appreciates his help. They begin to grow close, but he is in danger due to his actions, and the Germans are sensing the end of the war isn't far away.

In the present day, Edie is grieving the violent death of her beloved husband, and decides to spend some time alone in Cornwall at the family cottage that once belonged to her great grandmother. As she begins some renovations on the cottage, she discovers a wooden chest with mysterious contents. When strange events begin to happen, she feels wary, worried about violence following her from London. But she continues to dig for the truth even as she begins a new art commission. 

As these three stories begin to converge in interesting ways, we see how secrets can take generations to come to light, and how the resiliency of all these women serves them well. 

A very enjoyable read. 

The Sun Is Also a Star

Finished December 31

The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

This teen novel has the main part of the novel take place over the course of a single day, with a followup chapter and an epilogue that happens years later. 

Natasha's family reformed in the U.S. when she was eight. Her father had gone a couple of years earlier, trying to break into the acting scene in New York, but her mother didn't want to wait anymore.Natasha's younger brother was born in the U.S. 

Daniel's parents emigrated from Korea to the U.S., and were helped by relatives who had gone before them, and by the larger Korean immigrant community. The own a small business.

Natasha and her parents are undocumented, and due to an incident with her father, they are being deported that evening. Natasha is desperate to stay. She is in her final year of high school, has a group of friends she is close to, and has been planning her future life. This will upend it all. 

On this day, she goes to downtown to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) building for an appointment with someone she hopes can help her. As she walks around New York City listening to music on her headphones, she is noticed by Daniel and when circumstances bring them to talk to each other, they find themselves spending the day together. 

They eat, and talk music, and talk about their families, until the day brings them back to Natasha's home. 

This is a tale of friendship and young love, and the struggles of life in the modern world. It is a tale of dreams and expectations, of family and independence, and of sharing cultures.

I could hardly put it down, and I loved the format, with short chapters, differing viewpoints, including of voices that aren't human, and of the wonderful characters that Yoon brings to life. 

A Very Merry Bromance

Finished August 3

A Very Merry Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams

I really enjoy this series of couples romance novels. This fifth novel in the series picks up from an encounter at the wedding of the couple in book two. Country music star Colton Wheeler had instant chemistry with immigration lawyer Gretchen Winthrop, but she ghosted him after that. They've both been avoiding each other until Gretchen gets approached by her family to ask Wheeler to be their brand ambassador. Gretchen grew up very wealthy, in the family of a company that has made whiskey going back several generations. But it wasn't a happy upbringing and she is really only close to one member of the family, her Uncle Jack, who doesn't have any kids of his own. 

Gretchen has also been applying for a seat on the board of the charitable foundation that the family runs, and they are now offering that role to her. She has put most of the money she had accessible to her into her legal clinic, where she handles immigration cases. She is very busy and many of her clients don't have much financial resources to pay her, so she does a lot of pro bono work. 

Colton has never gotten over Gretchen and he takes the opportunity of her coming to him to negotiate for a few dates with her while he considers the offer. 

Watching the two spending time together doing seasonal activities is fun, and had me thinking about my own Christmas traditions. There are several references to Dickens' A Christmas Carol in the book that connect some of the themes of need and happiness, a nice touch.

There is also a lot of information on the music business and how it functions that was really interesting to learn. Some I was aware of, but there were complexities beyond what I had known.

This novel, as with many of the others in the series, has the main characters dealing with a past that they've managed to ignore for a long time, but that needs to be faced for them to fully move on with their lives. 

I could hardly put it down. 

Serena Singh Flips the Script

Finished December 16

Serena Singh Flips the Script by Sonya Lalli

This novel is a romance, but it also touches on other life issues that give the novel real depth. As the novel opens, Serena is about to start a new job, as creative director for a woman-led advertising agency. She is also immersed in her role as emcee for her younger sister Natasha's wedding. 

Natasha is marrying a white man, who comes from a wealthy family, and the couple will be living in the Washington home of her in-laws. Since the in-laws often travel, and the house is large, they aren't anticipating any issues with sharing the home. 

When Serena first moved into the city from the suburbs she grew up in, she had to save up for a long time to get the rent money and she had to be firm about her decision to defy the cultural norms of living at home until marriage. Serena has no plans to ever marry or to have children. She loves her career and although she's had serious relationships, only one ever threatened to get serious enough to involve marriage, and that one is far in the past. 

When Natasha pushes her towards the attractive photographer doing the wedding photos, Serena is open to dating, but they are both busy and see each other only a couple of times a week. 

Serena is dealing with a new challenging job, a team of staff that report to her, not all of whom are enthusiastic about her hire, and the loss of her best friend, Natasha as she is now busy in her marriage. As Serena explores options for finding friends, from social media apps to clubs and activities, she also finds herself opening herself to the possibility of finding a friend in her daily life. 

It is only gradually that we see what has led to Serena making herself into an independent woman who doesn't need a husband or family, and that we realize that she still has unresolved issues around this area of her life.

I really liked her as a character, and how she is both a successful woman in her career and an empathetic one who cares about her family, friends, and coworkers. She has dealt with men taking credit for her work and has found ways to get past that and shine in her own right. 

Because the setting is in D.C., it was only partway through the book that I realized that the author is Canadian, an added bonus. 

A quick and enjoyable read. 

Act of God

Finished October 15

Act of God by Jill Ciment

I always enjoy Jill Ciment books. This one is a little quirky. Two sisters, Edith and Kat live in a rent-controlled apartment in New York City. Edith is a recently retired legal librarian. Kate, her identical twin is more eccentric and romantic. The year is 2015, and it is a sweltering summer in the city. They've recently had a new landlady, Vera Cebu, a Shakespearian actress who has lately become more famous for her TV commercials than her stage roles. 

Edith has been complaining about a musty smell to Vera for some time, but not getting a response. So when Kat discovers a phosphorescent mushroom sprouting from the wall in their hall closet, she gets angry.

Meanwhile Vera finds a Russian girl, who has run away from an au pair position, secretly living in her guest room, and calls the police to remove the intruder. In the course of the arrest, the police find a second mushroom in the guest room closet and they involve the authorities. 

All four women are forced by the authorities to evacuate their contaminated building with only the clothes they are wearing. The infestation spreads along the street and others get evacuated as well. From the building caretaker to the older couple with their much-loved cats, the people affected significantly by the outbreak come to life and find themselves making changes to their lives beyond what they'd ever imagined. 

An engrossing tale of opportunity, resilience, and community. I loved it. 

Birds on Wishbone Street

Finished October 6

Birds on Wishbone Street by Suzanne Del Rizzo

This picture book is another lovely creation of Suzanne Del Rizzo. Her books are illustrated with her mixed media creations including a lot of polymer clay elements. This 3D effect really makes the pictures special and lively.

Here we have Moe (Maureen) who father immigrated to North America from Ireland. She is friends with many of the more recent immigrants on her street, who have come from a variety of places around the world. The most recent addition is Sami and his family who have come from Syria. Meo delivers a gift to Sami with winter mitts, hot cocoa and a feather. This is especially apt as Sami is a bird lover. He has a treasured pair of binoculars to watch to the birds and his box of treasures contains other bird-related items. When a female cardinal is found downed after a snowstorm, the children work with a local vet to ensure that she doesn't have injuries they can't see, and Moe learns that Sami had pigeons back home and can look after the cardinal until she is well enough to go back to her mate. 

This is a story of friendship, caring, and community told through one experience. A lovely story that will find a treasured place in many homes. 

The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted

Finished April 21

The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted by Robert Hillman

This novel was one I chose by title alone and it was definitely a surprise. Set in Australia, inland and within a day's drive from Melbourne, most of the story takes place in the late 1960s, either on a small farm, or in the town nearby. There are also occasional flashbacks to one character's experiences during World War II and its aftermath. The main character here, Tom Hope, wakes up to a note from his wife Trudy letting him know that she's left him. This is devastating to him, as he loved her, but looking back he can see that there were signs that she wasn't happy. As she returns and leaves again, the experience leaves him with a child that he finds himself loving fiercely and forming a strong bond with. 

When he loses the child, he is once more devastated, losing himself in the routine of farmwork. Tom has sheep, and fruit trees, and makes enough to get by. 

When he hears of a bookshop opening in town, he is surprised and curious. When he meets the woman who is going to run the store, he finds himself drawn to her. She is Hannah Babel, a Hungarian Jewish woman who survived Auschwitz, but lost her own family. She has done a variety of things since then, but the bookshop is close to her heart. Although older than Tom, she finds herself drawn to him as well, and both of them dare to believe that they have found love. 

As they face emotional and financial barriers, their relationship is stressed and in jeopardy unless they can find a way forward despite their past pain. 

The characters are unique and have their own quirks and outlooks. Tom is a very giving man, one who cares about people and takes disappointment to heart. Hannah has suffered much loss in her life, and is afraid of more. These are characters with histories that are painful, and as they learn to understand each other and trust each other, there is hope that they can find a future together. 

The setting comes alive here, and one can picture the farm and the hills and river. There are many interesting characters besides the two central ones, and I would be interested in learning more about many of them. As the plot brings Tom and Hannah together and threatens to rend them apart again, there are bits of larger stories that influence theirs and add depth. 

A very interesting read. 

The Swinging Bridge

Finished August 23
The Swinging Bridge by Ramabai Espinet

This book really took me into another culture that I was unfamiliar with. The main character here is Mona a film researcher who lives in Montreal, but grew up in Trinidad.
Her memories of her childhood are mixed, with moments of happiness and others of suffering and limitations. One of her worst memories is of her father in a drunken rage threatening to kill her brother when he was only nine years old. She also remembers cruel punishments from him for his perceptions of her unacceptable behaviour.
In the present-day, her brother Kello, who lives in Toronto, is dying and wants Mona to go back to Trinidad and purchase the family property that her father sold years before. As she talks to her brother, and visits the home of her youth, she must confront these memories, but also learn more about her family, her parents, her grandparents, and her great-grandparents.
The reader learns along with her, discovering the origins of the Indians who live in the Caribbean, and specifically in Trinidad, brought there as indentured workers following the end of the slavery of those from Africa. There is a hierarchy that has developed there, with the white people at the top and the black people at the bottom, with the brown people in the middle. In her family's history, whenever the women ventured to have relationships that ventured beyond their own people, they were punished and set back on the path that was preferred by the men in their lives. But the history survived, and Mona digs through it, finding the real story of her great-grandmother who came alone from India, losing a lover along the way, and finding a new, but restricted life in her new country.
She finds these stories are not singular, but common, and still happening. She watches her cousin Bess, who still lives in Trinidad deal with the sexism and racism that still influences the life she lives there.
This book was shortlisted for the 2004 Commonwealth Writers' Prize in the Best First Book category and longlisted for the 2005 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. The author is a Canadian who grew up in Trinidad, which strongly influenced this book. There is a biography and interview at the back of my edition of the book.
I really enjoyed learning about Trinidad and its history and culture, and appreciated the glossary that was included as many of the terms were new to me. The characters speak in the local patois, which helps to bring the story to life in its setting.

My Discovery of America

Finished June 30
My Discovery of America by Farley Mowat

This short book is the story of a few days in the spring of 1985 when Mowat attempted to fly to the United States for a planned book tour and speaking engagement at a private college. At the airport, he cleared customs and immigration and was waiting at his gate when an immigration agent came to him and asked him to return to the immigration area. After an interview, he was denied entry with no explanation.
He didn't just return home. He contacted his publishers, and went to their office in Toronto, and he worked with them to find out what was happening and why. It turned out that the McCarran Act, enacted in the McCarthy era to keep certain types of visitors to the United States out with no transparency was still on the books, and that under Reagan, its use have been revived. Despite being told various stories of past actions dating back to 1968, Mowat had visited the U.S. many times, including other book tours. Perhaps it was the topic of his most recent book, Sea of Slaughter, that drew new attention, but the government wasn't going into details.
There are a lot of echoes here of more recent U.S. immigration barriers and attitudes, including one immigration staffer who was on record as saying "We also exclude rapists, drug pushers and terrorists -- not just Canadians." When I read that I was reminded of Trumps remarks about Mexican immigrants.
Mowat received extensive media coverage, in Canada, the United States and internationally. He also received many letters from individual Americans, and it is this discovery that the title refers to. With the exception of three letters, every letter he received was apologetic, embarassed, or otherwise unhappy with their government's actions. It is this that he discovered, that Americans are not necessarily the government that represents them.
One can only hope that that is still true.

Divide Me by Zero

Finished June 29
Divide Me by Zero by Lara Vapnyar

An interesting novel. The narrator and main character, Katya Geller grew up in Russia and emigrated to the United States as a young adult with her mother and new husband. Katya's father was in the Russian navy and was killed at sea when she was very young. Her mother was very affected by this loss, and only gradually came back to herself and Katya mentally. Her mother was a mathematician and a mathematics teacher, and she wrote quite a few textbooks on the subject in Russia.
As the book opens, Katya is in the middle of a divorce, and has just realized that her mother is dying. Over the course of the book, we discover how she came to this place in her life.
When she was a schoolgirl, she fell in love with one of her friend's teachers, referred to throughout as B. He had a special relationship with her and yet emigrated to the United States with his wife and child. Katya eventually moved on and fell in love with a young man, Len. Len is a computer scientist, and although had not planned to leave Russia before marrying Katya, is easily convinced when she and her mother get accepted to immigrate.
Katya finds life in the States different than she expected, and struggles to find a job and a way forward. She and Len have two children, and her mother lives with them as well.
The chapters of the novel are interspersed with mathematical phrases and statements written by Katya's mother as part of a new textbook she is working on. Katya is both narrator and a writer herself, seemingly of the novel we are reading. Katya has strong emotions and often acts before thinking, especially in her personal life.
This is a very different novel, with elements of Russian novelistic style as well as the elements of math that repeatedly appear throughout.

The Whitsun Daughters

Finished June 10
The Whitsun Daughters by Carrie Mesrobian

This novel tells the story of three girls, two sisters and a cousin, who grew up together in an old house with their mothers, Carna and Violet. It also tells the story of another young woman who lived in the same area many years in the past. In the present, Poppy, the cousin and oldest girl, golden-haired and confident, has come home from university for the summer. She had been close to Hugh Isherwood, the young man who lives nearby, and whose father owns the house the girls live in, but suddenly broke it off, claiming that he'd sent her an inappropriate picture. Lilah, the next oldest, pale with almost white hair, has been having issues over the last year, and getting a reputation that doesn't do her any good. Daisy, the youngest and darkest in colouring, is quiet and sensitive, a girl who notices. She is fifteen. As the book opens, Hugh's mother, Evie has died in a car accident and the girls have gone to the funeral and are now on their way to the Isherwood house. When Daisy goes off on her own, she encounters Hugh and the two of them begin an interesting interaction.
Lilah is having a crisis, and it is dealing with this that the book focuses on in the present, as the girls try to keep their mothers out of it.
The young woman from the past, Jane Murphy, has travelled to America from Ireland, losing her older sister along the way. She is met by an employee of the wealthy farmer who will be her husband, and taken in hand soon after by her husband's sister. Jane is shy and uncertain, and struggles to do what is expected of her, but gradually finds a connection in the household. We see her life unfolding through the book, interspersed with the present-day plot.
What we also see is that Jane is still there are the farm, in spirit. She doesn't go far, but is waiting for something that we don't understand. She watches the girls closely and connects with Daisy in an unexpected way.
I liked the elusiveness of things here, how information was revealed gradually, and how unexpected some plot points were, although they felt inevitable in retrospect. A very interesting book, with very interesting characters.

When Stars Are Scattered

Finished May 23
When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed

This children's graphic novel for older kids tells the story of Omar and his younger brother Hassan. The two are refugees from Somalia. Omar was with his father in the fields of their farm when some men came to talk to his father and he saw his father killed. He knew his mother was coming with the lunch for them, and ran to meet her. She had Hassan with her, and she left the two, telling them to go home and she would come back for them. But she never did. One of their older female neighbours took the two young boys with the rest of the people fleeing the village, and the boys eventually made it to the refugee camp in Kenya that they are living in as the book begins.
They were both malnourished and ill, but have recovered. They live in a hut across from the hut of an older woman, Futuma, who has been assigned to be their foster mother. Hassan is developmentally disabled in an undefined way. He is a mostly cheerful and friendly boy, who has had occasional seizures, and who only speaks one word: Hooyo. It is not until near the end of the book that you understand the significance of this one word.
Omar is very protective of his brother, who can be the target of others, and here he gradually finds himself able to leave Hassan with Fatuma during the day and go to school with his friends. He hopes at first to return to his farm, and eventually sets his sights on a different, more possible future. The support of his best friend, Fatuma, teachers, and social workers help him to find a way forward and a new life for himself.
This is a good book to show the realities of life in a refugee camp and the barriers that must be overcome to make it out of the camp to a more hopeful future.

How to Pronounce Knife

Finished May 20
How to Pronounce Knife by  Souvankham Thammavongsa

This collection of stories encompasses many voices from children to older adults, men and women, all Laotian immigrants finding their way in their world.
The author is a winner of the O. Henry Prize and her writing is stunning. I picked up to get a taste of her writing for a book discussion I was doing and couldn't put it down.
These are voices not heard often enough, voices of those who move through our community unseen, voices who are overlooked, dismissed, denigrated, and ignored.
The people in these stories come here because their home country is in chaos, and though they work hard, they don't find themselves accepted in the dominant culture of our country. From worm pickers to factory workers, children making friends to adults in relationships, they are set apart, mostly through the choices of others.
An amazing collection. Highly recommended.

Spinster Kang

Finished February 29
Spinster Kang by Zöe Roy

Kang is a Chinese immigrant woman living in Toronto. She works at Tim Horton's while she waits for her classes to start. Kang came to Canada for a new start. When she was much younger, back in China, her older sister was raped, and Kang has found herself unable to trust men. She has resigned herself to not having a relationship, but the stigma of such a thing in China is big, and reflects on her family as well.
Kang is planning to be a teacher. She finds a place to live as a housekeeper for an older woman Tania, and begins to make friends. As she adjusts to a new culture, learns about the people that she gets closer to, and about her own family's past.
This is a novel of personal discovery, of growth and of hope.
I liked Kang and how she found a way even when barriers appeared in her life. I also liked how her story and Tania's story intersected in interesting ways.
Written by a Chinese immigrant to Canada, this book reads realistically and the plot pulls you along.
I enjoyed it.

Murder on Bamboo Lane

Finished August 31
Murder on Bamboo Lane by Naomi Hirahara

This book is part of a series featuring police officer Ellie Rush. Ellie's mother is Japanese American and her family was interned during World War II. Ellie's father is white, and her paternal grandmother taught Spanish for years. So Ellie majored in Spanish in college at Pan Pacific West College, and then decided to join the police, following in the footsteps of her mother's sister, Cheryl Toma, who is now one of the senior offices in the LAPD. Ellie is a bicycle officer. A lot of her friends are still in college, including her ex-boyfriend Benjamin Choi, who is Korean American. Ellie's best friend Nay is Cambodian. One of Ellie's jobs is working as a community liaison, and one of her contacts complains about a missing person flyer that has been littering the neighbourhood. Ellie recognizes the missing girl as some she shared a class with at university, and become curious.
When the girl's body is discovered soon after, Ellie becomes involved in the case, and her aunt seems to be encouraging her to stay involved. As Ellie tries to juggle her work, with the relationships there that she is trying to develop to further her career, and her personal life, with some interesting family dynamics and an ex-boyfriend she still cares for, along with an interest in another police officer, she finds herself unsure of which steps are the right ones for her to move forward on.
Ellie mostly bicycles or uses transit, but she does have a car she inherited from her grandfather, a 1969 Buick Skylark that is long past its prime, and which has been dubbed the Green Mile. She lives alone with her dog Shippo in a small apartment in Highland Park. Ellie's younger brother Noah is close to her, but has his own issues.  There is a lot going on here, and I liked the depth of the character development for Ellie. I also liked the variety of ethnicities in the characters.

Hell's Princess

Finished October 2
Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men by Harold Schechter

This biography looks at a woman serial killer who operated in small town Indiana in the early twentieth century. Born in 1859 a small town near Trondheim, Norway, she was known in her early life as Brynhild Paulsdatter Størset. She followed her older sister Nellie to Chicago around 1880, soon adopted a new American name, Bella Peterson. Bella took a job as a laundress and sewer, and began looking for a husband. From the beginning she was more interested in material goods than companionship. Her first husband, whom she married in 1884, was Mads Ditlev Anton Sorenson, a night watchman for one of the large department stores. She seemed to have a maternal instinct, taking an interest in children who were orphaned or otherwise underprivileged. After trying, unsuccessfully, to take custody of one of her sister's children, she adopted an infant in 1891. It is unclear whether the children that followed this one were her own or also adopted.
They managed to invest and make enough to move out to a middle class suburb, but it was an investment in the Yukon Mining & Trading Company, a scam, that caused them to lose much of their hope for the future. Soon after this a fire in their home resulted in another loss, although this time the loss was insured. Mads was a member of an association that provided him with a life insurance policy, and on the day that a new policy took effect (a single day of overlap) Mads died from an apparent illness at home.
After receiving the insurance money, Bella moved to La Porte, Indiana and bought a house and attached farmland. It was this property that Bella used to attract her victims. First among them was a former boarder, Peter Gunness, whom she married in early 1902.
In December of that year, Peter died from a head wound, seemingly from an object falling from a shelf, but some neighbours were suspicious. Soon after Bella began advertising in the Norwegian newspapers read by many immigrants from that country in the U.S. She had correspondences with several men, that indicated partnership and/or matrimony. and many men came to visit, disappearing with no one seeing them leave. Bella's oldest daughter also was said to have left suddenly, to go to a college in California, but none of her friends heard from her.
It was only with the suspicions of two brothers who tracked their third, missing brother's trail, that Bella came to be looked at. Right around then, a terrible fire took her home in the middle of the night, and it was some time before the authorities were able to find the remains of all who had been in the house. As they also began to dig up suspicious looking areas around the property, they found the remains of many bodies, and her notoriety began to form.
A fascinating and scary tale of one woman's greed and daring that took many lives.

The Whole Town's Talking

Finished July 10
The Whole Town's Talking by Fannie Flagg

This novel takes place in Elwood Springs, Missouri as many of her novels do, but this one covers more time and takes a different view.
The book starts in 1889 with Lordor Nordstrom, the found of Elwood Springs as he settles in the United States, and starts a community that includes many other Swedes, but also those immigrants from other backgrounds. It tells of his search for a wife, one that has the support and assistance of the other men and women of the small community. As Lordor looks at the community, he picks a place on a hill in town with a pleasant view in all directions, and donates it for a cemetery, calling it Still Meadows. It introduces us to his friends and neighbours: Birdie and Lars Swenson, Henry and Nancy Knott, Old Man Henderson, and many others.
The story takes us through the years, with each new generation moving in, and learning about them, but until 1911 when the first town person was interred in the cemetery this is just background. Because something special happens to those buried here, and the reader will enjoy the premise of this story as it takes us up to 2021.
This is a story about community, about what life is really about, and about lasting love. I really enjoyed it, especially the little twist at the end.

Calls Across the Pacific

Finished November 30
Calls Across the Pacific by Zoë S. Roy

This novel follows a young woman, Nina Huang, as she flees the collective she has been forced to live on in China. It follows her out of China to Hong Kong, on to the United States, and eventually to Canada. Nina's father was in the military, and she was at one point a Red Guard herself. But her father's education, at West Point, soon counted against her, and sealed her fate within China under the cultural revolution. Nina's experiences read like a memoir, with her voice reflecting her origins.
The story begins in 1969 and continues to 1978. We see Nina's life in North America and how she adjusts and finds a place for herself. We also see her longing for news of her family and friends back in China and how, as the borders relax, she is able to make her way back on more than one occasion to reconnect, learn their stories, and perhaps find a voice for those stories in the larger world.

The Childhood of Jesus

Finished September 5
The Childhood of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee

This novel is set in an unnamed land at an unknown time. After a voyage across an ocean, Simon and David arrive in a new land where Spanish is the language used. As part of the decision to travel to a new land and start a new life, all arrivals are given new names, and their memories of the past are erased. The two have come together on the ship when 5-year-old David loses the papers giving the identity of his mother. Simon has taken on the role of guardian to the boy and, yet is determined to find the mother of the child, despite his lack of knowledge about her.
As the two find a home and Simon finds work in this new land, both have difficulty adjusting. Simon finds everyone too amenable, and yet unhelpful in answering the questions he has. He struggles with the lack of drama in his new life, and the expectations of acceptance that are laid before him.
David continually asks why everything is, why things happen, why he must do what he is told.
When Simon identified a woman, Ynes, he feels to be David's mother and she agrees to take on this role, he struggles to find a new role in David's life, where he can still have some influence on the boy. As David's rebellious nature leads to difficulties when he begins school, and the authorities wish to remove him to a boarding school for difficult children, Ynes is determined that this not happen and want to flee with the boy to another new life. Simon finds himself drawn into this plan.
This is another novel where my lack of feeling for the characters made it hard for me to like the book. I found the ending abrupt and unsatisfying. However the novel raises many philosophical questions about society and how we behave towards each other and those that are different, as well as the difficulties faced by immigrants to a new land. So a book that has intellectual weight and challenges, but did not reach my emotions or heart.