Good Taste

Finished June 16

Good Taste: A Novel In Search of Great Food by Caroline Scott

This historical novel takes place beginning in 1932 and follows writer Stella Douglas. Stella recently finished a biography called The Marvellous Mrs. Raffald about a female cookbook writer. It's doing okay, but isn't a best-seller. She has plans for another biography, but when her publisher Mr. Williamson asks her to take on a more broad-ranging project, a history of British food, she feels both honoured and overwhelmed. She isn't sure how to decide what to include and how to treat the inevitable foreign influences that exist in the nation's food traditions. 

She has a budget that allows some travel, but decides to place advertisements in some regional newspapers asking for recipes. Stella's best friend of many years is Michael, a chef in a French restaurant in London. She lived in London until her mother became ill and she moved back to her home village in Yorkshire. She rents a furnished row cottage called Celandine Cottage and visits her father regularly. When she goes up to London, she often stays with Michael and spends time with him and their mutual friend Lucien, a Frenchman who has unrequited feelings for Michael. 

When Stella's car breaks down on one of her information gathering trips, she is rescued by antique dealer Freddie, and he soon insinuates himself into her life. As she finds his influence affecting her choices, she starts to question herself and decide what she is comfortable with as a writer. 

This is a book that raises a number of things to think about. These include what real friendships look like, the fear of other cultures, anti-immigrant mindsets, and how to move forward from grief. It gave me a lot to think about and was relatable to things happening in the world today. 

I loved the discussions around food and folklore. The inclusion of diary entries and letters responding to Stella's ads gave another layer to the writing. 

Scott was inspired by the real life Florence White, author of Good Things in England, which was published in 1932. White is considered the first female freelance food journalist in England. 

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. 

Looking for a Sign

Finished June 25

Looking for a Sign by Susie Dumond

Gray, the main character has recently moved to New Orleans after a break-up from her long-term girlfriend. She has moved in with her best friend Cherry, Cherry's husband Robbie, and their toddler son River. She helps out with River, and takes time to get herself familiar with the city before finding a place of her own. 

Cherry convinces her to go to an astrologer, Madame Nouvelle Lune, to get her palm read. Following this visit, the two decide that since Gray, at nearly twenty-nine is reaching a turning point in her life astrologically, she should date people from every sign to determine which she was most compatible with. A deadline of her upcoming birthday in six weeks is agreed upon. 

Gray's new job is doing PR and marketing for a local private school system. She ends up late for an first meeting with one of the school system's new principals, Victoria. But she begs for a second chance and works hard to put together a number of ideas to help the principal in her drive to make the school more diverse and bring new material to their curriculum. 

The two meet outside of work when they go to the same park, Gray with River, and Victoria with her son, and this begins a new friendship for her. 

As Gray works her way, in order, through the star signs, starting with her own sign Aries, she makes other friends, and has a few sexual experiences. 

The idea of the storyline is interesting, but Gray felt a little naive for her age on the personal level, unlike her professional persona. I also felt a lack of depth in the characters, and some generalizations and depictions that made me a little uncomfortable, particularly in terms of sexual identity. I feel like the book could have used some sensitivity readers to address this. 

The novel had some great passages, but overall it failed to really grab me. The ending saved it a bit, and the extra material was novel and interesting. 

Lone Wolf

Finished September 25

Lone Wolf by Linwood Barclay

This is the third book in the series featuring Zack Walker, a Toronto journalist. This book was also published under the title Bad Luck. I like this series for the humour and the Canadian setting, as well as the well-written family dynamics. 

Here, he is out at lunch with a former neighbour when he receives a disturbing phone call from his wife. One of the contributing reporters in cottage country has let her know that a body has been found, apparently killed by a bear, near the camp run by Zack's father, and his father is nowhere to be found. 

Zack immediately heads north, and finds the local police chief Orville Thorne, the local coroner, the reporter who called it in, and the people who are renting his dad's cabins at the present time. Most of these are returning guests, who've been coming up for years. While it is quickly established that his father isn't the victim, the victim's identity takes a little while to uncover, and several other issues show themselves.

One is the renters of the farmhouse on his dad's property. They have all kinds of warning signs mounted around the place dissuading casual visitors, a pair of aggressive dogs, and a radical mindset.

Another is one of his father's guests, a wealthy entrepreneur who wants to create a large luxury resort on a neighbouring property which goes against the local culture and may endanger the lake's health. 

The reader also soon learns that the local fair, which begins with a parade and is coming up on the next weekend, has been issued a threat of violence if a local LGBTQ community is allowed to participate. There is a petition, driven by one small-minded local businessman, and some threatening phone calls to the mayor, which also seem to be directed at her being married to a man who isn't white. 

Both Zack and his father are a bit overwhelmed by what they are facing and he calls on an old friend Lawrence Jones for his assistance. This assistance helps with some of the issues, others are resolved in unexpected ways, but the largest issue of the renters only gets worse until the final climax. 

A total engaging read, with lots of edge of the seat scenes. 

Lessons in Chemistry

Finished May 28

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

I started this book months ago but kept setting it aside as it is so good I didn't want it to end. The ending is satisfying though, so I feel good about finishing it now. The novel takes place in the early 1960s in small town southern California, but the story reaches back further. While it starts with an incident in 1961 that has Elizabeth meeting Walter Pine and thus setting off a new career in television for her, we quickly jump back ten years earlier when Elizabeth Zott, a chemist at Hastings Research Institute met Calvin Evans, one of the head research chemists there. 

Seeing how the two met gives an insight into how chemistry both in the scientific sense and in the sense of human attraction is at play here. Elizabeth is a feminist because she's had to be to get as far as she has, dealing with multiple barriers along the way. 

We see her dysfunctional childhood, the loneliness of her life, and her drive for science. As we get to know Calvin, we find he has also had a difficult childhood and has had to make his own way through similar efforts to those of Elizabeth. However, because he is a man, one he proved his intelligence, it all became much easier. 

As they grow closer, we see how in some ways he makes things easier for Elizabeth, supporting her research, ensuring she has the supplies she needs, and in others making things harder because now she has been labelled as a woman who is sleeping her way to job success. 

When things go wrong and Elizabeth is left to fend for herself as a single mother and she struggles to support herself, her daughter Amelia, and their dog Six-Thirty. Six-Thirty had found Elizabeth and claimed her and they bonded quickly. 

There is so much in this book: love and loss; the fight for sexual equality, the subtle acts that work away at a person just trying to live their life. I loved this book so much. 

Letters Across the Sea

Finished December 24 

Letters Across the Sea by Genevieve Graham

This historical fiction novel takes place from the early 1930s until after World War II and revolves around two characters. Molly Ryan is the daughter of a police officer in Toronto, and her best friend is a Jewish girl the same age, Hannah Dreyfus. Both have older brothers who play league baseball. As the 1930s brought increasing prejudice against Jews, Molly is dismayed to see this appear in her own neighbourhood and among people she knows. 

Molly has been working in a local grocery store to help her family, but as the Depression worsens, she loses that job, and struggles to find another. She also grows more determined to follow her heart by taking journalism classes with the aim of becoming a reporter someday. 

Hannah is involved with a young man, and as the racial prejudice grows the girls drift apart. Her brother Max also has a goal, to become a doctor. Quotas for Jews in the program mean that he doesn't get into the University of Toronto, but he does get into a medical school and, just as he is finishing the war starts, and he enlists as a medic. 

At first, he is stationed in North America, but as things escalate in Europe and the British want a presence in Hong Kong, some Canadian soldiers are sent there. They have little combat training and don't know the small group of islands well, and are sitting ducks when the Japanese attack with more force than predicted shortly after Pearl Harbor. 

As Max tries to protect his fellow soldiers, and struggles to survive himself, Molly tries to follow what is happening in the Far East, and bring attention to it in her role as a reporter. 

This is a story that highlights a lesser known part of WWII, and the Canadians that served there. It also brings to light the racial prejudice of the time, and how media influences what people think.

A very interesting read. 

New Boy

Finished August 4

New Boy by Tracy Chevalier

This novel is part of a series of books of books from Hogarth Press to retell works by Shakespeare for a modern audience. Hogarth chose well-known authors to select a play of their choosing and retell it. Chevalier chose the play Othello for the project. 

Her setting is a public school in the suburbs of Washington, D.C in the 1970s. Osei, the son of a Ghanaian diplomat and his wife is at his fourth school in six years. It is a month before the end of term, and he is the only black boy at the school. He is in the last year before middle school, grade six. 

There are two teachers for that grade, a younger woman, Miss Lode, and an older man, Mr. Brabant. Their attitudes around race play a part in the story as well.

Because I knew this was an Othello retelling, I knew the direction the story was going to go, and I was sick at the way one boy, Ian, was setting Osei up to make judgements that weren't based in reality. Plus knowing how kids are at that age makes the story work too. 

This story is very well done, with the groups that end up being created at school, the racial issues of the time, and the way young love works at that age with its uncertainty and newness. I went to school during this time as well, although in Canada, and can definitely relate to the way this played out. I hung about at recess the same way these kids do, jumping rope, playing casual team games, and sitting around in groups. I was often the "new girl" although not in the same way Osei was, with the differences and expectations he faced. However I was aware of this kind of thing happening with other children, and knew this prejudice existed. A gut-wrenching tale of manipulation and prejudice well told. This was a book I had planning to do with my book club last year, and am disappointed now that we didn't get to it. I think it has a lot of potential for discussion. 

Ghost Hawk

Finished April 13

Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper

I first came across Susan Cooper as a teenager, but I hadn't been aware of this book, so I was glad to come across it. This is historical fiction, with a touch of fantasy, and focuses on two boys. 

It starts with Little Hawk, a boy of the Pokanoket people. As the book opens, Little Hawk is preparing to go on his initiation journey, a journey that all boys take as they become men. There are four boys going out at this time, including Little Hawk's good friend Leaping Turtle. They take little with them: a bow, a tomahawk, and a knife. They go in the fall and return in the spring, and live in the wilderness alone through the winter. They must make their own shelter and find their own food. They must fast until the are visited by their Manitou, the animal spirit that will guide them throughout their life. 

Little Hawk goes through many trials during his journey, but he finds more when he returns, and finds his village almost deserted. Disease has ravaged it, leaving few survivors. He must gather with other nearby people and create a new village.

As he does this, he learns more of the leader Yellow Feather, who has negotiated a peace with the white men who have come recently to the land. And he interacts briefly with the child of one of them, a boy named John Wakeley. 

Some time later the two boys meet in a different place and this meeting will change both their lives irrevocably. From there the story follows John for the most part, as we see him make choices that will alienate him from some of his countrymen, and take him farther away from the places where he and Little Hawk met and continued their unusual friendship. 

This is a story of the early settlers in the United States, their interaction with the native people, and the prejudices and actions that determined the fate of both. 

The author includes a section at the back giving more historical information and context that will be useful for readers to place this book in the history of this continent. 

Rosewater and Soda Bread

Finished December 26
Rosewater and Soda Bread by Marsha Mehran

This novel takes place in small town Ireland but the main characters are immigrants from Iran, three sisters that live together and run a cafe. 

The oldest sister Marjan Aminpour is the heart of the business and the driving force. She has guilt from her absence from the family during a crisis, one that led to deep sadness for her middle sister Bahar. She has never told her sisters where she was during those days she was missing, that she'd been active in the actions against the Shah's government in Iran, partly due to her love for a young man, and that the printing operation they were running had been raided and she'd been in prison and been tortured. It is this experience that compelled her to focus on her sisters, and when Bahar returned from her ordeal, it was her that organized their flight from Iran to England, and now to Ireland. 

Her friendship in London with another Irish transplant, a woman her own age whose mother came to Ireland from Italy is what brought them to this town a year ago. Her subsequent friendship with the mother, Estelle, brings her into another situation with a girl running from a bad situation. We don't learn her whole story until near the end of the novel, but it is a compelling one. 

We also see the role of the old guard, the ones that resent change and newcomers and the loss of their power in the community. Here, this is personified by the widow Dervla who lives across the street from the Aminpours and she spends most of her day at her front window watching and judging. She has a group of other women who bring her gossip from further afield that she then tries to act on. 

The youngest sister, Layla is a confident schoolgirl, in love with a local boy and wanting to control her own life and fate through her informed decisions. Marjan must learn how to trust Layla to make those decisions, and also how to help accept Bahar's decisions to move forward with her life in an unexpected direction. 

There are other things going on in the town, from the local priest who becomes a pirate DJ on the side, the local doctor, an immigrant from Pakistan who must walk a careful line to stay out of trouble, and the prodigal landowner who has returned to remake the family manor as a destination inn and restaurant. 

And among it all are the seasonal celebrations like Bonfire Night and All Hallows Eve, and of course the food, both Iranian and Irish. Lucky for the reader, several recipes are included here. 

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.

Saving Montgomery Sole

Finished December 31
Saving Montgomery Sole by Mariko Tamaki

This young adult novel has 16-year-old Montgomery Sole at the center. Monty, as she is known to her friends, lives in a small town in coastal California with her two moms, Jo and Kate and her little sister Tesla. Coming from Canada, Monty feels like a misfit in her school, that is until Thomas arrived. Thomas is a year older and a grade above her, but also a bit of a misfit. He is gay, and a thinker and drama enthusiast. The two formed a Mystery Club, which is not about mystery books, but about discussing things they don't understand, or that are mysterious. When new girl Naoki, also part Canadian arrives, she migrates to their group for all the right reasons and as the book opens, the three are fast friends.
There is the usual bullying behaviour by some of the cool guys and gals at school, led by Matt, for the guys, and Madison for the gals. Monty has a bit of a history with Matt, and the betrayal by him makes his actions more personal for her. When another new kid arrives, and Monty finds that his father is the infamous Reverend White, who preaches against the sins of homosexuality, she immediately takes against him.
Monty sees an ad on the internet for something called the Eye of Know and, since it is cheap, decides to order it. When it comes, it isn't what she expected, and she isn't really sure how to use it, but when she tries, it seems to have violent effects.
This is a story of friendship, of families, of the power of belief, and of things and people not always being what they seem.
I loved it.

A Place Called Sorry

Finished April 19
A Place Called Sorry by Donna Milner

This novel takes place in the interior of B.C. in a small town called Sorry, with the majority of the story taking place in the 1930s. The story of the town's name is an interesting one, and speaks to the nature of the community.
Adeline (Addie) Beale lives with her parents and her grandfather Chauncey on a large ranch outside of town. Addie loves the ranch and pretty much lives outside, to the dismay of her mother, a woman who grew up in Vancouver and was educated as a nurse, but met Addie's father when he was getting his law degree, and married him. She misses the city, but she knows her husband's life is entwined with the ranch. When tragedy strikes the family, things change drastically.
Addie spends a lot of time with her grandfather, and he shares with her diaries that he kept as a teenager when he first arrived in B.C. with his father. As Addie gradually learns of her grandfather's past and its tragedies, she also finds a new friend in another outsider in their small town. Alan Baptiste is the son of Rose, the wife of the store owner in town Dirk VanderMeer. Alan's mother brought him with her when she married Dirk, afraid that if she left him on the reserve, he would end up in residential school. The two get along well, have similar interests, and both are picked on by the schoolteacher Mrs. Parsons, Alan for his race and Addie for her unconventionality.
When Alan's family also faces tragedy, he comes to work at the ranch and the two grow closer. But the town isn't done with them yet, and as the war begins, more challenges come into their lives.
This is a story of prejudice, of finding your own way in life, and of facing your past, even the parts you regret. It is also a story of our country's history, one that still affects us today.
Milner's writing, as always, brings it to life, making me care about these people and their lives.

The Flood Girls

Finished February 24
The Flood Girls by Richard Fifield

This novel is one that had me laughing and crying. The setting is Quinn, a small town in Montana, and we see things from the point of view of several characters. Rachel is a young woman who left town years before after a series of notorious behaviour climaxed with one causing her mother to throw her out. She's turned her life around, joined AA and is now in the process of making amends. Coming back to town is part of that transition for her. The recent death of her father Frank, has given her a place to live during this time. Jake is twelve and lives next door to Rachel with his mother and her boyfriend and their baby. Jake is a precocious child, with a passion for fashion, pulpy novels, rosaries, and Madonna. Frank was one of the people he related well to. Rachel's mom, Laverna, is a tough woman who owns one of the two bars in town. She also sponsors a women's baseball team, the notorious Flood Girls. Rachel is compelled to be on the team despite her lack of sports experience.
The book is rich with wonderful characters from Martha Man Hands to the two Mabels (Red and Black) to Buley, who owns the local thrift store.
Quinn is also a mining town, and a group of the regulars at Laverna's bar, the Dirty Shame, is a group of rough and rowdy lesbian miners. They are peripheral to the story, but offer an interesting background to the action.
This is a story of friendship and families, of acceptance and prejudice. A book that shows the wonder and tragedy of life.
I loved it.

Drink Dirt Eat Stone

Finished March 6
Drink Dirt Eat Stone by Kyle Fleishman

This novel is a dark thriller. As the book opens, Tristan Stonehouse is walking out of Stony Mountain Penitentiary in Manitoba after fourteen years in prison. We learn that Tristan was formerly a hitman for the Northern Syndicate and a hero in the Gulf War, but don't know the details. These are gradually revealed to the reader as the book unfolds. Most of the action takes place in Manitoba and B.C., but there are flashbacks to earlier times in Tristan's life, and actions that take place between these two main locations.
Tristan is trying to stay on the straight and narrow, but as attempts are made on his life, he has to take matters into his own hands just to stay alive. There is a fair bit of violence here, both against Tristan and committed by him, but as we learn more about him, and his past and his motivations, we become more and more on his side. Tristan is a man that doesn't talk a lot, but has a presence. He is as his daughter says, a man born a century and a half later than he should have been.
Tristan was a victim of residential school abuse, and this past has shaped him and his life in ways that those of us who haven't experienced it can't really know. There is a larger story here that is gradually revealed. The author provides a brief background piece at the end of the novel that is very helpful.
My reaction to reading this book grew as I read, leading me to "Wow." A wonderful debut novel by a new Canadian writer.

Uncertain Soldier

Finished August 8
Uncertain Soldier by Karen Bass

This book is set mostly in the Peace River region of Alberta during World War II. The main character is Erich Hofmeyer, a young German soldier, who was captured when his ship was destroyed. He suffered burns, was treated, and then ended up in a POW camp near Lethbridge.
Erich speaks English fluently as his mother's parents live in England. He was visiting them just before war broke out and reflects sometimes on this timing. Erich's father forced him to enlist after he graduated from high school at sixteen, and he is now seventeen.
Erich is bullied by other POWs who have Nazi sympathies and, when they are aware of his English skills, want him to spy for them. When an incident occurs, Erich is giving a chance to join a work gang as a lumberjack in the Peace region, and jumps at it. Being a city boy, he finds the lack of amenities difficult to get used to, but the environment is pleasant, and the man who owns the land is fair. Erich gets to know the other men he works with, both Canadians and prisoners, and finds good and bad in both. He also finds Henry, the man he works for a fatherly figure. Their hired girl Cora is not disposed to look on Germans kindly, but their similarity in age begins to bridge their differences.
Erich also befriends Max, a younger boy who lives in the area. Max is being bullied because of his father being German, and feels increasingly isolated. His contact with Erich gives him not only camaraderie, but also a confidant for some of his issues.
Another young man, Christmas, is also isolated, as a native who doesn't talk much, but works hard. Christmas is fond of Max, and the boy becomes a bridge between the two young men who care about him.
This is a story of prejudice, of bullying behaviour, of people being able to change their views based on experience and knowledge rather than generalizations. This is a story of friendship and coming of age for Erich. Good characters with depth and insight.

The Burgess Boys

Finished July 28
The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout

This novel tells us the story of Bob and Jim Burgess and their sister Susan. The story begins when the boys are in their fifties and Susan's teen son Zach does something unthinkable. All three adults grew up in Maine, and while Bob and Jim left, Susan stayed, married, had Zach, divorced, and just tried to do the best she could. But their town started to shrink with all the young people leaving, until it became a haven for refugees from Somalia. Zach, for reasons unclear even to him, has taken a frozen pig's head and rolled it into a building that the Somalis use as a mosque. Zack is ignorant of the meaning of his action to his victims until it becomes a rallying point in the nation for intolerance and hate.
Jim left Maine years ago, becoming well known for his successful defence of a client and going on to a big New York City law firm. Bob has also gone to New York City, but his legal career has taken a different route. Susan calls on Jim to help with Zack's situation, but it is Bob who will come with earnestness, trying to be there for his twin sister despite her feelings toward him.
Jim, Bob, and Susan, are all shaped by their father's death, run over by a car they were in, with Bob, too young to remember, supposedly responsible for moving the gear shift out of park. While this incident had a huge effect on all of them, it is something never talked about. The boys return to Maine to assist their sister brings it back to the surface in ways unexpected, and relationship changing.
This is a book about the impulses of youth, about guilt and tolerance, about how you can never really escape where you came from. A book about a family, and their baggage. A book about growth and community.

Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul

Finished January 15
Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul by David Adams Richards
Wow, can Richards ever write. This book moves back and forth between events in 1985 and 2006/7. In 1985 Markus Paul was a young man, living with his grandfather on the reserve. His grandfather Amos Paul was chief and Markus Paul was in love with a young woman Sky who lived nearby with her grandmother and younger brother, Little Joe.
When a young native man, Hector, is killed in what seems at first to be an accident his first day on the job loading ships rumours start, and soon fingers at pointed at another young white man, Roger Savage, who was waiting for a chance to work that day. This novel follows the search for what really happened to Hector, and what a number of people do as a result of his death. One of these is Amos, a careful man with a good heart. Another is Isaac, a middle-aged man who seemed destined to be chief one day. Another is Joel, Hector's older brother, who has often been in trouble with the law before. And we also have Roger himself, and a young reporter Max Doran, who is excited about the assignment to cover this story, but not experienced enough to see the pitfalls.
This is a book about how small actions have great outcomes, and these actions are laid out one by one before us, gradually revealing the truth and the politics, prejudice and beliefs that led to each action.
Years later Markus Paul is an RCMP officer still searching for the truth about what happened back in 1985, still haunted by it. When he finally discovers the truth, it is surprising and yet one can see how it all seemed inevitable. Richards is an author that seems to see into characters and show the complexities of them. A novel that will haunt you.

A Look at History

Finished January 5
The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner
This story follows a college student, Lauren Durough (known to her family as Lars), as she discovers the life of a young woman in Salem during the witch trials, and in doing so discovers something about herself as well.
Lauren is the only child of very wealthy parents, and makes small moves to show her independence from what she feels is expected of her. One of those moves is to take a job transcribing the diary of Mercy Hayworth, a young woman convicted of being a witch in Salem during the infamous witch trials. Her employer is Abigail Boyles, also a wealthy woman, who has known Mercy's story since she was a teenager, but never taken its lessons into her own life.
This is a fascinating look at a portion of history that is shameful, as well as looking at how we all judge others to some extent.

Thriller in Florida

Finished July 1
Heartstopper by Joy Fielding
In a small town in Florida a pretty teen girl goes missing. There is much speculation about what has happened to her. When her body is found the town is shocked and scared.
We see the story told from various points of view, including that of the killer. We see their actions at certain times and see what they think of what they are doing, but we don't get a lot of clues to their identity.
We also see things from the Sheriff's point of view. John Weber has been sheriff for a long time and while he certainly isn't perfect, he has a good head on his shoulders and follows his instincts. He also has a strong sense of responsibility.
We also see things from a number of other points of view, particularly one of the parents, Sandy Crosbie, who is also a teacher.
I like the fact that everybody has issues, just as we all do in real life, and we all make mistakes.
It was a good story for a lazy summer afternoon in my hammock.

Pleasureful Listen

Finished June 26
Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter by Sidney Poitier, read by the author
Of course, just listening to Sidney Poitier's voice is a pleasure, but this book is also a pleasure from the content. Several years ago I listened to the audio version of Measure of a Man by Poitier, also read by him, and this book extends my knowledge of him.
The book is organized by issues and thus is not written as a consecutive timeline, but rather moves back and forth, even referring back to earlier sections at times. It is written as a series of letters to his first great granddaughter giving her information and advice, some of it personal to her as part of his family, some of it applicable to all of us. He talks of love, faith, demons, close calls, technology and death. He talks of his own quest for knowledge and how it is still ongoing. He talks of our responsibility to each other and to the earth that we come from. This would be a wonderful gift for a graduation or for someone starting a new phase in life. Inspiring and comforting both, it will bring pleasure to the reader.