The Lost Sisterhood

Finished July 27
The Lost Sisterhood by Anne Fortier

This novel alternates between two time periods. The earliest one is around 1250 B.C., in the Late Bronze Age, where the story begins with a young woman Myrina and her younger sister Lilli. The two girls return from a successful hunting trip to find their village changed forever. They must find a new home, and Myrina relies on stories from her mother Talla to lead them back to the Temple of the Moon Goddess where she hopes they will be taken in. It is a long trip with many challenges, not least is the reception at the Temple itself. But this is just the beginning of a longer journey, one measured in years, and taking the two woman and their companions across the Mediterranean to new lives.
In the present day, Diana Morgan is a sessional instructor at Oxford, a philologist and an expert in Greek mythology. When Diana was a young child, her father's mother, her Granny, came to live with them, and she became the recipient of Granny's stories. Despite being told that her Granny had mental health issues, Diana believed in the stories of the Amazons that Granny told, and of Granny's life as Kara, one of them. When a man she's never met before, Ludwig, approaches her to assist at a dig, she is surprised and wary. Despite the warnings of her mentor Katherine Kent, and her colleague James Moselane, Diana meets Ludwig at the airport and finds herself at a dig in the middle of the Tunisian desert. What she finds there makes this a personal quest for her.
Instead of going home, she goes on to Knossos to meet her best friend Bex who is on a dig there and has found something she thinks Diana will be interested in, and Diana finds herself running toward the answers to her questions about her grandmother, away from her professorial duties, and staying a step ahead of at least one group of people determined to stop at nothing to keep her from finding answers. Her journey takes her from England to Tunisia, Greece, Turkey, Germany, and Finland.
This is a story of the origins of the Amazons, one that is very believable. This is also a story of women across the ages fighting for the right to live their own lives, on their own terms.
It brings Greek mythology and classic tales alive from Mycenae, Thracia, Ephesos, Troy, and Crete. We see the characters Otrera, Hippolyta, and Paris brought to life.
A engaging quest of a novel.

An Intimate Wilderness

Finished April 8
An Intimate Wilderness: Arctic Voices in a Land of Vast Horizons by Norman Hallendy

To understand the value of this book, you have to know the author's background. Hallendy has spent over fifty years building relationships with the Inuit, from translators to elders, to the elders' families. He was given the name Apirsuqti, which means "the inquisitive one." He is the world's leading authority on inuksuit. He has received recognition for his work from the Royal Canadian Geographic Society and the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. He is an ethnographer of international renown.
This book contains observations, descriptions of experiences, conversations, storytelling, Inuit history and legend, intricacies of the language and the importance of naming, and as with many things, the parts add up to so much more together than they do singly.
His work has allowed him to immerse himself in their culture, learning the words for places, experiences, symbols, people, nature, and ideas. He knows when to listen and when to ask questions. He respects the culture and you can tell he really wants to understand and know what he is asking about. He cares about the people he meets.
While this book tells of places, events, and ceremonies long kept to themselves, his telling of them is not a betrayal, but becomes a trusted, well-researched archive. Due to the influence of white colonizers on this culture, a disconnect has been introduced between the older people who still remember either for themselves or from their parents and grandparents the way things were done, the way lives were lived before and the younger generation who live in towns and lead a more modern way of life. As he says "There came a time when the elders no longer handed down tales, songs, customs, and mysteries. Instead, catechism and schooling were the shape the Inuit child's knowledge and future." This book is a bridge between those two world, to ensure the stories and traditional way of life are not forgotten.
There are so many beautiful and important things in this book and I am so glad they have been gathered up before they were lost to history. As one interaction goes "...when I asked him about myth and reality he explained to me that there are things said to have happened that may or may not have happened. It doesn't matter, as long as they are believed. The expression he used was sulinngikkaluaqtut ukpirijaujut, the reality of myth."
The book includes photos, drawings, maps, art, and other visual aids to understanding, some specifically made for the book.

Strange Things

Finished November 29
Strange Things: Clarendon Lectures in English Literature 1991 by Margaret Atwood

This book contains four lectures Atwood did at Oxford in 1991. They explore how aspects of the Canadian North are used in literature. Each lecture focuses on a specific aspect to do with the North. The first lecture looks at the folklore derived from the disastrous Franklin expedition and the mystery surrounding what happened to the men on it. The second lecture focuses on white writers going native, using Grey Owl, a white man who took on the persona of a native and was only revealed as white after his death. The third lecture looks at the myth of the Wendigo as shown in literature. The fourth looks at women in the Canadian north.
Throughout the lectures she looks at the retelling of stories, the themes and how they come up in different ways, and how the idea of the wilderness as a character in its own right is portrayed. Sometimes the north is shown gendered, often female and predatory. Sometimes it is shown neutral. Sometimes it is shown positively, as a force that brings good in characters lives.
The series offers interesting insights into uniquely Canadian literature themes. I quite enjoyed it.

A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain

Finished May 17
A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain by Adrianne Harun

This is a novel with layers, more complex than it seems at first.Set in a small town along Highway 17 in northern B.C. this novel is drawn partly from the disappearance of women, many of them native along this highway, a tragedy that has led to this highway being dubbed the Highway of Tears.
The novel is set around a group of young people. Leo Kreutzer is the only son of a mixed race marriage. His mother is native and his father white. Leo's mother has big plans for him, wanting him to become a mining engineer and thus Leo is taking a distance course in physics this summer, a course Leo is struggling with. His father is away working in a northern camp. Leo's uncle Lud also lives with them as he is dying from cancer. Lud is an old soul, a man attached to his landscape, a man in touch with the old legends, a man who seems to see and know things beyond the visible. Leo is driven to record his uncle's knowledge while he still can.
Leo's best friend is Bryan. Bryan and his sister Ursie live alone since their mother died and also have a mix of white and native blood. Their father is also away working in a camp, and recently his letters have grown more sparse. Their aunt, Madeline, is their closest family member and she has helped Ursie get a chambermaid job at the motel where she also works.
Another friend is Tessa. Tessa and her siblings were taken into a series of foster homes when she was eleven, none better than the home they'd been taken from. After two years Tessa and her older sister came back, but Tessa was changed. Leo has always had feelings for Tessa, but while close, the relationship has never progressed into true boyfriend/girlfriend status.
Jackie is full native, a strong girl, tough and tough-looking, she works at a nearby logging camp's dining hall. She has earned a reputation of not being one to take any crap from anyone, be it men making sexual suggestions to her or her friends, or those commenting on her ethnicity.
Also in town is Flacker, a man running a small empire of alcohol and drug supply. His closest allies are the two Nagle brothers, local bad boys who work for him and deal his products. He also has an addicted girlfriend Cassie, who lives with him along with her two young children. These children are one of Bryan's soft spots and he tries to smuggle them food.
There are many transients moving along this highway and a couple have come along this summer making contact with these five teens. Hana Swan arrived at the camp where Jackie works and befriended her, but she seems a dangerous girl to Leo, encouraging risky behaviour.
Kevin Seven is a magician, specializing in card tricks, who has taken a room at the motel where Ursie works and who starts to have an influence on her.
As a fire starts near the town and everyone plans for the worst, things seem to get more intense, and the five teens find themselves drawn into danger and risky situations.
The story of these people is woven through with the legends, the philosophy of the unseen, and the terrible truth of the highway. An amazing read.

The Night Tourist

Finished January 6
The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh

This is the first book in the series featuring fourteen-year-old Jack Perdu. Jack's father is a professor of archeology at Yale, and he is studying the classics. When he has a close call after being hit by a car, his father sends him to New York City to meet a doctor there. The doctor visit is a bit odd, and while waiting for his train home, Jack meets a girl his age who takes him on a tour of New York that he will never forget. He finds himself in New York's ghost world, and tries to learn the secret of his mother's death, and the true story of the girl who is guiding him.
A story of love, unexpected consequences, and a revisitation of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Neversink

Finished July 7
Neversink by Barry Wolverton

This children's novel is set in the Arctic in the lands of Neversink, Tytonia, and Ocean's End.
Auks live on Neversink. There are different kinds of Auks, and puffins are one kind. Lockley is a puffin and he and his mate Lucy are waiting for her to lay her egg this season, hoping that this time they will be successful. Owls rule Tytonia and consider themselves in charge of Neversink as well, although a peace treaty was signed many years before.
Recently Egbert, a walrus has come to live on Neversink, as has Ruby, a tiny hummingbird blown off course who now returns every summer.
On Tytonia, Rozbell, leader of the opposition, has the grand aim of ruling and takes things into his own wings, using force, intimidation, and rumours to gain leadership. When Egbert invites owls to his party, Rozbell uses the opportunity to take back control of Neversink, subjugating the auks.
The auks are afraid to fight back, and things go from bad to worse. Can Lockley do what needs to be done to save his colony and protect his own?
With inferences to literature and language, this book has humour, myth, and a good story.

Rodeo Queens

Finished May 14
Rodeo Queens: on the circuit with America's cowgirls by Joan Burbick
I put this on my reading list quite a few years ago, and finally bought a used copy to cross it off that TBR list. It was even more interesting than I thought it would be. Joan noticed that her local paper in Idaho showed all the past rodeo queens for the Lewiston Rodeo in a special annual section. She began to wonder about them and about how they looked at that time in their lives looking back.
She interviewed many rodeo queens and princesses and her book covers not just the rodeo royalty and their role over time, but also the role of rodeo itself. She includes looks at the issue of race in the history of the rodeo queen, specifically that of the role of the native women. She looks at expectations, myths, money and the interaction between the queen and the cowboy.
One of my cousins was a rodeo princess and it would be interesting to get her views on this analysis. Growing up in the west, I was aware of rodeo royalty and had been to a few fairs featuring rodeos (including the famous Calgary Stampede). This book only looks at the American rodeo and its queens, but I would think much of it would be similar here.
There is a lot of depth to Joan's research and as a university professor, she asks a lot of good questions that bring people out of their shells to discuss their experience.
It's great when a book goes beyond what you expected and gives you even more to think about.

Canadian Fiction

Finished May 6
Motorcycles and Sweetgrass by Drew Hayden Taylor
This book reads like a traditional storyteller, with a wonderful flow to it. We see things from a variety of points of view, which only enhances the storyteller effect.
The tale takes place (mostly) in Otter Lake an Anishnawbe reservation community. The chief is in the final stages of negotiation to buy additional land for the reservation. Her constituents all have ideas about what to do with the property. Add to this that she is a single mother of a young teen boy. Add to this that her mother, matriarch in the community, is on her deathbed. Add to this the arrival of a mysterious stranger. And boy do you have a story.
I loved the quirkiness of some things, like the raccoons. The chief's brother Wayne is another example. There is just so much here to love. I think this will be one of my favourites for the year.

Myth Series

I recently read two books in the Myth Series that Random House has done.
The series consists of a number of books. The publisher asked authors to choose a favourite myth and retell it. A while back I read Margaret Atwood's Penelopiad, her take on the Odyssey, written from Penelope's point of view. I should say that I actually listened to the audiobook and thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the chorus bits.
This week I've read two more, and my parents gave me one for Christmas (and they didn't even know I'd been reading the series!)

Finished December 25
Weight by Jeanette Winterson
Winterson takes two myths here, those of Atlas and Heracles, and we see the story from both points of view. Atlas has been punished by the gods and forced to carry the world on his back. Heracles has been forced to work for another and made to perform difficult labours. Mixed into the story are man's exploration of space, Winterson's own baggage, and above all the story of choices. What do we really want and why? How do we figure it out? Winterson weaves it all together seamlessly and lets us see it anew. This is a wonderful retelling and I found myself going back and rereading bits of it based on later chapters. I especially liked the dog.

Finished December 26
The Fire Gospel by Michel Faber
This story relates to the myth of Prometheus and the gift of fire. It is less a retelling and more a story with a similar theme. Theo Griepenkerl is an academic visiting Iraq on behalf of a Canadian museum to offer money for rebuilding in exchange for loans of works of art and antiquity. When a bomb goes off in the museum he is visiting and the curator is killed, he finds scrolls that had lain hidden in a piece of art for two thousands years. Theo is able to translate them from the Aramaic and finds them to be another Gospel, written by an eye-witness to the last days of Jesus Christ. The publication of the translated work acts like the gift of fire in igniting mankind with many different emotions. I found this work less interesting and Theo a rather bemused naive man out of touch with reality until forced to confront it.

Great Listen

Finished July 17
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, performed by Lenny Henry
This wonderfully humourous novel centers around Fat Charlie Nancy and his brother Spider. The two are the sons of Anansi, a god. Fat Charlie was constantly embarrassed by his father growing up, and until his father's funeral is not even aware that he has a brother. As he contacts his brother and begins to get to know him, he's not sure that he's glad he did so. Things start happening to him, and they aren't necessarily good things.
I liked the legends worked into the story and the humour that appeared throughout, even in the very difficult moments. The sheer inventiveness that Gaiman brings to his work never fails to astound me. The performance is equally wonderful and really makes all the bits come alive. Henry's voice changes wonderfully to suit the situation and adds to the characterization included in the words.

A couple of Audiobooks and one novel

Finished March 16
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
3 CDs unabridged, read by Laural Merlington
The is the story of Odysseus's wife Penelope from her point of view, speaking from Hades. Atwood has drawn on several sources to get the information she bases this story on, including the Odyssey. Penelope's story is, of course, quite different than that of her husbands. She tried to run the estates well during his absence, but as it dragged on and the suitors started to arrive, she was unable to protect the livestock, goods, or servants. She uses twelve of the youngest maidens to help her find out the suitors' plans, and they act as both her spies and her assistants in the unravelling of the shroud she is weaving. They are the maidens that Odysseus kills when he returns home, and they act as the chorus in the book. Atwood weaves a lot of current issues into the story and does it in a very natural way.
I found the audio very engaging, and the chorus particularly so.

Finished March 15
Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian
A fascinating book that keeps you guessing until the end.
Laurel Estabrook was attacked while biking on a forest road one weekend in her sophmore year, changing her life forever. She returns to college in the next term, swims instead of bikes, withdraws from her former social life and turns to photography and begins to work at a homeless shelter. She is drawn to older men as boyfriends.
When a former client of the Burlington, Vermont homeless shelter, BEDS, dies, a bag of photographs and negatives are the only real possessions of value he had. Laurel, who works at BEDS is asked to look through them. Bobbie Crocker had a history of mental illness and had many stories to tell, not all of which were believed. His photos show that he had worked with famous people like Robert Frost, Flip Wilson and Eartha Kitt. How do Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby fit into the story? Laurel believes that she has found deeply hidden family secrets in his photographs and is determined to follow them to the truth, despite the concerns of those around her.

Finished March 13
Hole in One by Catherine Aird
6 CDs, unabridged, Read by Bruce Montague.
In usual Aird fashion this book immerses the reader into the world of the moment, in this case, golf. Inspector Sloan is called out to the golf club by Inspector Lees when the female twosome playing in front of Lees discovers a body buried in the bunker behind the sixth hole. The face is damaged, and it is not immediately known who is dead. Why takes even longer. Sloan must discover who may have had access, when the body might have been placed in the bunker, and why they might have been killed. Another body turns up, and for this one the motive is more obvious, but who is behind it all causes Sloan to look to his own past.