The Story of V

Finished July 23

The Story of V: Opening Pandora's Box by Catherine Blackledge

This is an in-depth look into female sexual organs, sexuality, reproduction, and sexual pleasure. The author has a PhD in science, and worked in science and medical journalism. As one would guess from the title of this book, the central subject of the book is the vagina, but it goes beyond that.

She describes how female genitals have been studied over history and talks about how knowledge has ebbed and flowed. Some things were discovered, denied, and then discovered anew. Sometimes these complex organs were simplified or misrepresented. 

She also references female sexuality across numerous species, including insects, birds, and mammals, and talks about how, in many cases, it is the female that controls the sexual encounter and whether fertilization occurs. 

She also talks about how our sexuality goes beyond our genitals involving other areas of our body, and how scent is a big influence on our sexual pleasure. One thing I found interesting in the connection between the nose and sexual arousal was that, for many people, nasal stuffiness or congestion can occur in conjunction with sexual stimulation or orgasm. 

She talks about the structure of the different parts of our genitals, and when we learned about different aspects of them, linking research to knowledge and where we still have things to learn. 

This is an important book, particularly for women, to better understand their own bodies and responses. I read it slowly over many months, taking time to absorb the different learnings throughout. 

Her Majesty's Royal Coven

Finished March 8

Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson

This is the first book in a series by the same title, and is set around a group of women that took their adolescent oath to join Her Majesty's Royal Coven (HMRC), a longstanding institution, first started by Queen Elizabeth I, at the same time. All of the girls had some early schooling in the magical arts by Elle's grandmother, Annie, who is an oracle. Since then they have gone their separate ways, but still retain some friendships. 

There was a civil war in recent years that has hit many of them hard, and caused two of them to lose their partners. This is a wound for many that hasn't yet healed. 

Helena, the wealthiest of the girls, is now the High Priestess of the coven. Elle, a healing witch, is living a life as a normal housewife, with her partner unaware of her abilities. Niamh, who has multiple abilities, is working as a country vet, still mourning the loss of her partner. Leonie, the only black one of the group, has started her own more inclusive and intersectional coven called Diaspora in which she welcomes witches from all cultural backgrounds as well as lesbians and transgender witches. 

This book begins with a couple of young people. One of them, Elle's daughter Holly, is showing signs of magical abilities, and Elle asks Niamh for help in introducing the whole idea of witches to her, as well as giving her some training. The other is a young man, Theo, who seems to have extraordinary abilities and caused damage to the school he was attending. Helena has retrieved him and imprisoned him, and he is in great distress. She asks Niamh to come and help, even though Niamh is no longer part of the HMRC.

It is obvious from the beginning that Helena is the most traditional and staid of the group, as well as being the one who likes the power she wields. I enjoyed getting to know the way that this imagined world worked, with witches in general more powerful than warlocks, and them having separate administrative structures while still with the witches as the ultimate decision-makers. 

We also learn the mythology of their creation and the creatures, demons, that they, as representatives of Gaia, are supposed to hold the world against. There are different kinds of witches, with certain attributes and some, with more power, who have combined skills. 

I was quite enjoying this book and seeing how the different women lived, but few of them were complex characters, with none of the younger characters in the book having a real voice, despite their importance to the plot. 

I did get frustrated with some of the characters, and with some of the later plot elements, particularly with the note on which the book ended. I realize that it was likely structured this way to encourage the reader to continue with the following book in the series, but it didn't sit well with me. 

The Edge of the Water

Finished February 8

The Edge of the Water by Elizabeth George

This is the second book in a series of teen novels set on Whidbey Island, which is in the state of Washington. This book tells the story from several points of view, but mostly from that of two teenage girls, Jenn and Becca. 

I read the first novel a few years ago, but always meant to follow up. I'm glad I did. Becca was the main character in the first novel, but here we also see a lot of Jenn. 

Jenn is in the same grade as Becca, but she resents Becca for taking Derric's attention, and seems constantly angry at her. Jenn lives with her parents and younger brothers in a shabby house near the water. She is working hard to get herself into a position where she can get a soccer scholarship and escape the life she feels stuck in. 

When a young woman researcher, Annie, comes to live in the previously abandoned trailer nears Jenn's house, Jenn willingly takes on a paid job of guide and cleaner, but worries about it cutting into her training time. 

Becca, meanwhile is having issues with her relationship with Derric as she tries to keep where she is currently living a secret as a means of protecting herself. 

The connecting element between all the characters in this novel is Nera, a black seal that has been coming to the island at the same time of year for many years now. Annie wants to make a career-making discovery, but the islanders fear losing Nera's presence. 

This is a story of growth on the part of both teenagers, as they find there way forward and learn about strengths they hadn't realized they contained. 

I'm definitely going to be looking for the next book in the series soon.

In Desolate Heaven

Finished January 9

In Desolate Heaven by Robert Edric

This is a book where much of what is going on is under the surface. It's a book that is hard to describe. The time is the fall of 1919. Elizabeth Mortlake has come to this Swiss spa town as a companion to her sister-in-law Mary, who is heavily grieving the loss of her pilot husband in the war. Elizabeth is also grieving him, as she was very close to her brother, and she holds some memories of him very closely. 

She soon notices a group of obviously injured soldiers that come on a bus into town to walk the waterfront of the lake. The men are accompanied by a group of nuns from a nearby convent that assist them. Many are blind, while others have injuries that affect their mobility. People in town, including visitors like Elizabeth, generally watch them respectfully, but don't interact with them. 

She also takes note of a man, Jameson, who comes to the hotel she is staying in often, and seems to have an antagonistic relationship with many of the senior staff, such as the manager, front clerk, and maitre'd. The reasons for this aren't obvious, but she gradually grows to understand as she spends time with him and observes his activities. Jameson takes an active interest in many of the men at the soldiers' hospital, having served with some of them. He also has a friendly relationship with some of the nuns, and provides books to one nun and an officer. Jameson is a book dealer, and he also has a close friendship with Emil, a photographer whose studio he has a room over. Elizabeth gradually becomes familiar with both these groups of people as well and visits both institutions. 

As Mary's health deteriorates, Elizabeth finds herself concerned, but also wanting to have someone else take on the responsibility for the more serious issues Mary is having, and Jameson is very helpful in finding the right people and place. 

I found the undercurrents of this book interesting, the jealousy of some, the sexuality tensions underlying some of the interactions, and the ways that the medical establishment of the time didn't know how to deal with the inner turmoil many of the men had. 

A book that was exceptionally well-written and that will stay with me. 

The Sleeping Car Porter

Finished January 31

The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr

This book has been getting a lot of buzz, even more so after winning the Giller Prize last year. I got a copy for Christmas and as it fit a January reading challenge, I decided to fit it in before the end of the month. 

The narrator, Baxter, is a sleeping car porter for a Canadian railway. He started the work as a summer job, but soon decided to stay until he could afford to go to school to become a dentist, a dream he has had ever since finding a dentistry textbook. He is always noticing people's mouths and diagnosing dental issues that he longs to fix. Baxter is black, like the rest of the sleeping car porters that he works with, and he is also gay, something he is careful to keep to himself. Here it is the summer of 1929 and he gets a shift as a last minute cancellation on a train going from Montreal to Vancouver. He has to memorize his passenger list, with their names and seats on the train, and where they will board and alight. When the train gets stuck for a long time in the mountains due to a mudslide, the routine is lost, and Baxter struggles to stay awake and keep his secrets to himself.

There are many situations that Baxter struggles with. One of them is his relationships with the other porters, from Templeton the head porter to Eugene the union agitator. Eugene also is related to a man that is never far from Baxter's thoughts, Edwin Drew, the Porter Instructor who trained him in his job, and who also touched his life in a more personal way. 

Another is the ghost that Baxter sees around the train, crouched in the linen closet, in the corridor, and the other ghosts he sees in passing, in trees and in the cold that emanates from some parts of the train. 

Sleep deprivation is a big issue for all the porters, but Baxter has more issues than usual on this cross-country journey, partly due to the ghosts, but also due to a child who attaches herself to him and will hardly leave his side. 

We see the working conditions of these men, who are on duty 24/7, responding to any call from the passengers. From glasses of water, trips to the bathroom, and shoes left for shining in the night to cleaning berths, compartments, and washrooms at every opportunity, these men not only have to be quick to respond, but cheerful as well. They have to be careful in their interactions with passengers, never arguing or insolent, even if they don't get called by the name on their nametag. They have to ignore deliberate insults and be respectful to everyone, never batting an eye at even the oddest requests. They have to pretend not to notice the passenger's secrets, and hope that all of these things that they do will result in tips and in no complaints. Complaints bring demerit points and there is a limit to how many a porter can get before his job is taken away.

Baxter is a man with ambitions, a man who longs for a real relationship with someone who cares about him but is also passionate, and above all a man who is good and kind.

This story draws attention to historic social issues, some of which are still in play today. It shows the common humanity of people, and how being in close quarters for a lengthy time can stress relationships. 

This is an amazing read, that had me reflecting on many things. 

A Merry Little Meet Cute

Finished December 5

A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone

This holiday romance has a few interesting twists to it. They all made it more interesting. 

Teddy Fletcher is the producer of an upcoming movie, Duke the Halls, who discovers in the opening pages that many of his crew as well as his leading lady have been injured in a freak accident. He must come up with replacements for the crew as well as the star on a very, very tight timeline. 

This is Teddy's first movie for Hopeflix, a well-known producer of holiday romance movies. Teddy has a deep background in producing, but not one Hopeflix is aware of, because it is in the adult movie industry. Teddy is trying to cross into mainstream movies and this can't go wrong for him. 

He's not the only one depending on this movie. The male star is Nolan Shaw, former member of the boy bank INK. He has his own past to overcome. The turning moment for him was being photographed carrying an unconscious Olympic skater out of her hotel room, with two naked speedskaters in the background. It ended both his and her careers. He's been working in local theatre recently, but needs more money to support his mom and younger sister. 

When Teddy grabs his files to meet with his director Gretchen Young to look over possibilities for replacements for the female lead, he grabs a file from his adult movie business by mistake, and when Gretchen sees the picture of Bianca von Honey (the adult industry stage name of Bee Hobbes), she picks her. 

Bee had always wanted to be an actress, but her plus size body wasn't accepted as star material during her school years, and a personal crisis had her revealing parts of her body to the public at a young age, leading her to her current career. She started with an account on Closed Doors, a subscriber only site for many adult stars, and then segued that success into a movie career in the adult industry. She only works for Teddy, as his reputation is good for treating stars and crew with respect. 

This chance to be in a mainstream film is both scary and enticing, but she will have to keep her adult star persona hidden to make it through. 

Unfortunately, when the two leads meet up, Nolan quickly realizes that Bee is the woman that he has ardently watched as a subscriber, and things start to heat up very quickly. 

I liked the humour that pervaded this novel, as well as the depth of many of the issues the book brought up. Things like body image, slut shaming, the nastiness of social media, the financial realities of the US healthcare system, and tabloid-style journalism to name a few.

I'd read Julie Murphy before and liked her style and this new team-up with Sierra Simone is a definite winner and kept surprising me as it flowed along. 

Leave Me By Dying

Finished April 8

Leave Me By Dying by Rosemary Aubert

This is the fourth book in the series featuring Ellis Portal, a man who was once a revered judge in the Ontario courts, and then became homeless. This book is a jump back in time, told as memories of Ellis as he considers whether to return to being a lawyer. The story here returns Ellis to the 1960s, where he is in law school. This book tells of an event that became a pivotal point in his life. 

One of Ellis' friends, Gleason Adams, is a young man from a wealthy family, and the story begins as he asks Ellis to join him at the morgue for a meeting in the middle of the night. 

Ellis joins him there, and after waiting for a considerable time, the two are admitted to the morgue where they witness the start of an autopsy that is unexpectedly halted. 

But the image of the dead person there stays in Ellis' head and he keeps wanting to know what the story is behind it. He asks questions, writes letters, and does research and keeps digging for answers. Gleason hasn't been showing up for class and seems distracted when Ellis tries to meet with him.

On a couple occasions they go to strange places and have encounters that Ellis doesn't fully understand. 

Meanwhile, at home, Ellis' brother Michele is heavily involved in social change, watching the actions going on in Selma, in the southern United States, and asking for Ellis' help with an indigenous man who is being drafted to fight in Vietnam. 

As Ellis tries to use the draft dodger case to further his legal goals, he is also slowly discovering the truth about Gleason and what he's been up to. 

This book is a revealing look at one of the significant events in Ellis' past that made him who he is now. 

June

Finished August 23

June by Gerbrand Bakker, translated by David Colmer

I had previously read Bakker's novel The Twin and really enjoyed it. This novel is set in two time periods, both on the same day in June. On Tuesday, June 17th in 1969, Queen Juliana stops in a town for lunch. She is on a tour of this part of the Netherlands, and has already visited other towns in the morning. She is accompanied by an artist who has been commissioned to make a sculpture of her, a woman who is also a sister of the Order of the Sisters of Charity. Also accompanying her is a woman who is a representative of the government and who briefs her on the places she is visiting, the people she is scheduled to see, and other pertinent information. The Queen would prefer the young secretary travelling in another car to be her companion and thinks about how to make that change. As she meets local dignitaries and steps outside the planned itinerary a couple of times, she notices things: the people that she sees along the roads she travels, the names of farms she passes, the manner and gestures of people, shops and vehicles, landscape and more. She is polite, but also a bit of a rebel.

Several of the people she notices or interacts with are also prominent in the June decades later. It begins with a woman lying in the straw in the loft of a barn. She is thinking about the past, both the long ago past and a more recent one, her fiftieth wedding anniversary. She thinks about how different the anniversary would have been if she'd had a daughter there instead of just three sons, how more pleasant it would have gone. Her three sons are gradually revealed to the reader, Klaas, married with a daughter of his own, Dieke, who plays a large role here; Jan, who lives in Texel and has not married, and who has a task he has taken on this day in the cemetery nearby; and Johan, who has been changed due to an accident he had several years ago and lives in a group home. As we gradually learn about the woman in the hay, why she has retreated there from her family, and learn about this habit of hers when she is upset and needs to think, we also learn about the event in 1969 that changed the family forever. 

The three sons have issues of their own and these are also revealed through both their own thoughts and actions and through her memories. We see the issues in their lives and how they react to them. Dieke has her own questions about what is happening on this day. Why is her grandmother in the loft and behaving in the way she is? What is her uncle Jan doing and why? We see her interactions with her parents and her own secrets. 

There are also two other characters featured outside the family. One is the town baker, a lonely man haunted by the past, and a woman recently returned to the town who has resentments, memories, and impulses of her own. 

There are so many subtleties here, and underlying stories. Even the animals have significance, the ones on the farm, the birds in the cemetery, the various dogs who appear. Also plants from trees to potted cactuses, have a meaning and play a role in what happens.

Looking through the book again after reading, I noticed more things, and saw deeper connections between the events that occur. On the surface, little happens in the book, and yet there is so much that is revealed on these days separated by time but linked in several ways. 

Crazy Salad

Finished August 10

Crazy Salad by Nora Ephron

This collection of articles dates from 1972 to 1974 and was published in 1975. The articles all have a focus on women or issues relating to women. Some are related to social events of the times, some to politics (there are quite a few around Nixon and Watergate) and some to specific female figures. I really enjoyed the essays, and found many of them were still very relatable nearly fifty years later, which is definitely sad to contemplate. Ephron is a very good writer, and she lets her personality and some of her personal bias come through here, which makes the essays feel more intimate and relatable. Having recently read Dorothy Parker, I particularly liked the essay on her, and I also really enjoyed the two Crazy Ladies ones which speaks to expectations on women and women who defy those expectations. A few of these are reviews and Ephron does not mince words when she doesn't think a book lives up to its buzz. 

Altogether a great collection and one I found both enlightening and engaging.

Breathless

Finished February 14 

Breathless: An American Girl in Paris by Nancy K. Miller

This memoir is by a professor of women's studies looking back on her early adult years as she tried to follow a dream inspired by movies set in Paris. For her, this time was a time of experimentation, of rebellion against her parents' expectations, and a time of trying to figure her life out.

She began relationships with men, sometimes inappropriate ones. She taught and went to school, she wrote and read, she listened to music and learned about food. She explored her sexuality and tried to figure out what she wanted in a partner.

Not all her choices were good ones, but she threw herself into these things she tried, and made an attempt to look at them objectively. 

The time is the late 60s and early 70s, and she was not alone in her explorations. She met, became friends with, and had relationships with other expat Americans, some of whom she kept in touch with for years. She lived in a variety of housing situations, and visited other European places on occasion.

She is half a generation older than me, and some things she did I can't relate to at all, especially as we have quite different backgrounds. 

She grew up in a secular Jewish family who had a reputation to uphold, and friends in Paris. This gave her access to the life of real Parisians, but she also spent a lot of time with other students her own age, both Jewish and otherwise. 

It was an interesting read.

Snow

Finished February 4

Snow by John Banville

This is the first book in a series, that is also related to another series by the author that he published under the pseudonym Benjamin Black. Here, the main character is a detective inspector with the Garda, the Irish police, and the time is late in 1957. The book begins just a few days before Christmas.

At the manor house Ballyglass, near the village of , in the county of Wexford, a priest is murdered one night. His is discovered by the woman of the house who often wanders in the night, and with the local officer under the weather, DI John Strafford is called in. Like the house owners, Strafford is Protestant, but the priest is Catholic as are most of the people who live in the area. 

The woman of the house, the second wife of the owner, Mr. Osborne is unreliable and often medicated. Osborne and his two teenage children all claim to be sound sleepers who heard nothing. The staff in the house live out, and there seems to be no forced entry. As Strafford delves in the lives of these people, and into the past of the priest, he must also look at his own life and his lack of direction, as well as deal with the power of the church, which is strong in this country. The church, it's history of coverups and abuse have a major role in this story, as they do in reality in many stories. 

The weather plays a role in the book as well, as one can guess from the title. Strafford is woefully unprepared, having only shoes and a thin coat, and he is often borrowing pieces of clothing, offered or not to venture out into the snowy landscape. The weather also affects the actions of others, from the priest staying over at the Osborne's due to the weather, to the delay in assistance arriving.

There are interesting elements of sexuality that also come up several times in the book. 

As always Banville's writing is wonderful, and this story develops slowly, with a few red herrings thrown in for the reader to consider, and a few clues that seem to lie dormant before being followed.

Strafford is an interesting character, who seems to have trouble focusing, and doesn't seem to take notes during his interviews and so loses track of what he knows. It will be interesting to see how he develops in future books.

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.

Under a Silent Moon

Finished May 24
Under a Silent Moon by Elizabeth Haynes

This is the first book in a series featuring DCI Louisa Smith. The author is police intelligence analyst and she brings that viewpoint to the book, using various pieces of documentation to show the casework that is happening here, which brought a really interesting and novel aspect to the book.
The case here is Louisa's first as the commanding officer, and she is determined to do it right. She is disappointed in the DI assigned to her team, a man that she has a past with and who doesn't always act in the most professional manner. One of the key players on her team is Jason, the analyst who is the one that puts together the various bits and pieces of information to show patterns and timelines. He is Canadian which was of natural interest to me, but his nationality isn't a big part of the story. Louisa's team is made up of a number of interesting people, and we get only glimpses of most of them. I look forward to more books in the series showing them in more depth.
The case here is of a young woman found murdered in her home. She was working on a horse farm and lived in a cottage on the grounds. Her employer discovered her body and called the police. There are a lot of things going on around this young woman, who led a very open sexual life, with multiple partners and a good deal of experimentation. Many of her past and present lovers are looked at here, including the artist daughter of her employer. One of her employers is also involved in organized crime and has been the subject of many an investigation but never convicted. He is an obvious suspect as well, but the team is also keeping an eye out for evidence to do with his broader activities.
Another woman died the same night as the murder, seemingly in an act of suicide, with her car found upside down in a quarry nearby. She lived with her husband just across the road from the farm, and early in the case the team is able to make a connection to the young woman.
I really enjoyed seeing this case unfold, the mistakes that were made, the way that Louisa wasn't jumping at the obvious but trusting her instincts that more was happening here. A good read.

What She Saw

Finished December 21
What She Saw by Gerard Stembridge

This psychological thriller has you unsure of who or what to believe. Lana Gibson is an American who lives in Dublin due to her husband's job. She has traveled on a whim to Paris to see an Edward Hopper exhibit. But she may have underlying motives that become clear more gradually.
She stays at an upscale hotel, The Hotel Chevalier on the Right Bank, and is intrigued by a suite with its own private elevator. When her curiosity gets the better of her, and she gains access to the suite, she sees something that she shouldn't have and the story really gets going.
Lana has a previous history in Paris that she is both drawn to and regrets. She is also an unreliable narrator as she is bipolar and doesn't always take her medicines when she should. As the events resulting from her curiosity overtake her, she must make choices based on the moment.
Lana is a smart woman, but she doesn't always pay enough attention to what's happening when she focuses too much on something, and that gets her into real trouble. This was a fast-moving novel that kept me on my toes right to the end.
I liked the plot lines involving politics, and how they reflect some real life trends.

The Road is How

Finished August 6
The Road is How: A Prairie Pilgrimage through Nature, Desire, and Soul by Trevor Herriot

This book is the story of a journey, both physical and mental. It all starts with Herriot falling from a ladder doing home repairs. Reading a book during his recovery, he is convinced that he needs to do a journey in the form of a long walk. A native friend of his tells him that walking is a good idea, but that he needs to first go sit on a hill while fasting and figure out why he wants to go for a walk.
Herriot does this, and comes out of it with a few things. One is his imbalance in terms of personal relationships. He wants to understand his high level of desire, finding meaning in the relationship between a man and a woman in his own life, and grow up in terms of relationships. Second is that he wants to reawaken his spiritual side, and go with purpose toward what comes next in his life. Third is that he needed to look inside himself to things that needed changing. After thinking about it, and recognizing his strong connection with nature, especially with birdlife, he determines to walk from his home in Regina to his cabin about forty miles east of the city.
He knows he will have a make a few detours from a straight path, but he will go as straight as he can, along roads, road allowances, and fence lines. Along the way he notices his surroundings, the subtle changes in landscape, the animals, birds, and people he encounters. He also reflects, on his relationship with his wife Karen, on his strong sexual desires, on his feelings toward women generally, on the birds and their environment that he has advocated for, on his male bonding experiences, on his connections with nature.
At times I found his musings too nebulous to be meaningful to me as a reader, but this is his story, and he needs to express himself in the way that makes sense to him. His journey is interesting, and he does seem to get something from it, and that is what really matters.

Scars

Finished April 28
Scars by Cheryl Rainfield

This young adult novel deals with a couple of difficult themes, cutting and child sexual abuse. The main character, Kendra, only recently became aware of the past sexual abuse she suffered, as the repressed memories began to surface. The violent threats of her abuser still echo inside her head whenever she tries to dig deeper into those memories to find clues to the identity of her abuser. When this voice become too loud and too terrifying, the only way she can calm herself and retreat from those memories is to cut herself.
Kendra is working with a therapist that she has come to trust and she finds comfort when visiting a family friend, Sandy. Another source of comfort for her is her art. Painting helps her let out her feelings in a safe way, but her mother's own artistic ability and opinions on Kendra's art have led her to keep her parents unaware of the paintings she is still creating.
Kendra has had the feeling lately that she is being followed, and she is sure the person following her is her abuser. But when he starts leaving messages for her she becomes even more wary. When a new school friend Meghan starts to play a larger role in her life, Kendra has more strength to face the issues in her life and continue to work to uncover those memories that will lead to the identification of her abuser. But are the threats she is getting from him real, and is she in more danger than ever now?
A difficult read, but a sympathetic character dealt with in real terms. A good addition to any young adult collection.

Kicking the Sky

Finished October 16
Kicking the Sky by Anthony De Sa

This story overlaps and continues that of Barnacle Love. Because I just read Barnacle Love, I was perhaps more aware of the scene overlap between the two books. Here, the main character is Antonio Rebelo, Manuel's son and the story takes place in 1977. Emanuel Jaques, a young son of immigrants from the Azores who worked as a shoeshine boy was lured to his rape and murder, a crime that shocked Toronto at the time. Antonio and his friends Ricky and Manny are deeply affected by this incident. Tony's family has grown more protective, and pay more attention to how he spends his time, but because they both work, he is able to go off on his own or with his friends more than they realize. Manny's parents are less controlling and Manny is influenced by a new young man in the neighborhood, James, to engage in criminal behaviour. Also influenced by James is Ricky, a boy struggling to survive as he lives with his father, and engaging in dangerous behaviour. Taking on the role of a aunt, Tony's father's cousin Edite has come to Toronto from the US and is working for the Toronto Star. Edite has her own story of loss and family issues, that Tony gradually comes to know. Tony is both drawn to James and repelled by him, and this novel is a coming-of-age story for young Tony.

Various Positions

Finished January 19
Various Positions by Martha Schabas
This is a gem of a novel. Told in the voice of a teenage girl as she auditions for a place in the Royal Toronto Ballet Academy and then how things go for her there.
This is a story of wanting something and the lengths a person will go to to achieve their goals. This is a story of growing up, dealing with sexuality as one discovers it in oneself and becomes aware of it in those around us. This is a story of relationships: friends, family, teachers.
The writing is exquisite. One line that I loved: "...her eyes had the tender look of someone who's just taken off her glasses." I know exactly what she means by that.
It is set in the world of a ballet school around a ballet student, a world I am completely unfamiliar with. But one doesn't need to be familiar with that world to appreciate the story here, because it is about human behaviour.

More Canadian Fiction

Finished August 22
Annabel by Kathleen Winter
The writing in this novel just blew me away. I kept reading bits of it aloud to anyone around. I'd started doing that just a few pages into the first chapter. I've already got several other people interested in reading this, starting with my godmother, Morag.
So now, the story. We start in 1968, where in a small town in Labrador, a child is born at home to Jacinta and Treadway Blake. The baby seems to be both male and female. Only the parents and a trusted neighbour, Thomasina, present at the delivery, know this. It is decided to raise the child as a boy, Wayne. Treadway works hard to teach his child all the traditional male skills present in their hunting and fishing culture. But Wayne's feminine side, Annabel, is still there, and is nurtured by the females in his life, Jacinta, Thomasina, and his friend Wally (Wallis).
We follow Wayne through childhood where he never really fits in with the other boys, no matter how much his father tries. We see what he does with the growing knowledge of his own body. As a young adult, Wayne goes away to St. John's and we see how he struggles to find a life there, how the decisions he makes influence that, and how his father and Thomasina and Wally help him find a new way forward.
The characters are well-drawn and complex and we see them grow and change. This is going to be one of my favourite books this year. Kathleen Winter knows the land this book is set in and can write about it. She is a wonderful, expressive writer.

Reading on the Plane

I'm on vacation right now, and am in Australia.
Naturally it is a long trip from Canada, and I had to keep myself busy on the plane. Besides a bit of sleep and a couple of meals, I watched two movies, and read two books cover to cover.
Here is the bit about the books.

Finished February 9
How to Be Single by Liz Tuccillo
The author of this book travelled the world to get experiences of single women in a variety of countries. Her main character Julie did the same. Julie left her job as a publicist for a publishing company and signed a book deal with her employer to write a book about being single.
The story goes back and forth between Julie on her travels in various cities and countries and her single friends back in New York. Her story begins with a discussion of why each of those friends is single. Her friends are: Georgia, a mother of two whose husband has just left her and is now with a younger woman; Ruby, who sinks into a deep depression at the end of every relationship, no matter the length, and no matter whether it is with a man or a pet; Alice, a legal aid lawyer who has set her mind and her energy towards finding a man; and Serena, whose interest in meditation and yoga sends her in unique directions looking for a meaning in her life.
Julie is sometimes joined by one or another of her friends on her travels, as well as getting assistance from them in terms of contacts in different countries.
One person she meets in her first stop (Paris) is Thomas, an owner of nightclubs that gives her a different view of the single life and the life of those not-so-single.
Julie's travels take her to Paris, Rome, Brazil, Australia, Bali, China, India, and Iceland. Along the way she learns something from each of the stops: a quality that each nation's women bring to their attitude towards relationships. Interesting insights and a offer of hope to those still looking for a meaningful relationship in their lives.

Finished February 10
The Anteater of Death by Betty Webb
The main character here is Teddy (Theodora) Bentley, a zookeeper assistant at a private zoo in central California. The place setting is Gunn Landing, a upper-class community with environmental limits on further expansion. The leading family is, of course, the Gunns, headed by matriarch Aster Edwina, and though Teddy's family has lost most of their money, she is also from a privileged background.
Her mother is very class conscious and resents Teddy's choice of job, as she resented Teddy's choice of boyfriend back in high school, shipping her off to a finishing school back east to get her away from the Latino boy.
The boy is now the local sheriff, Joe Rejas, and Teddy, now divorced, is finding herself drawn to him once again. The story begins with a body being found in the caged area of the anteater at the zoo, Lucy, one of Teddy's favorites, and an animal in the later stages of pregnancy.
Once the sheriff makes the arrest of a zoo employee for the death, Teddy feels compelled to get involved to clear her friend's name and find the true criminal. Her investigations get complicated by her family as well as intrigues within the Gunn family, but the case gets solved.
Teddy is an interesting character living in a small houseboat, and very attached to the animals in her life. She has a place between the local gentry and the working people and moves back and forth between the two groups. A light but different mystery.