Skylark

Finished July 16
Skylark by Meagan Spooner

This novel is obviously the beginning of a series. It begins in the City, within the Wall, where Lark Ainsley has been waiting for the day her Resource would be harvested, just like that of every other child in the City. But she is older than any of the other unharvested children at sixteen, and when her turn comes, she finds it is nothing like she thought.
Instead of being harvested and released back to a defined role within the City, she is expected to provide the   City with a power source, and she finds she has no option but to flee.
Beyond the Wall is somewhere she has never been, and she wonders whether the tales she has heard are true. She encounters situations and people that she has never imagined, and finds a larger world than she expected. Lark's journey has just begun, but she continues to learn about herself and what she is capable of doing.
A dystopian teen novel, with an interesting twist of magic.

Thirst

Finished July 15
Thirst by Shree Ghatage

This novel begin with a young East Indian man in Wales in 1942, who appears to have lost his memory. He is taken in by a kindly older man, Mr Owens who lives with his troubled daughter Catherine. They call him Hari. Hari stays with them awhile hoping his memory will return, troubled by Catherine's illness. He decides to go to London, hoping to find assistance there.
When he goes to London, something there triggers his memory and he remembers who he is, Vijay Chafékar, a young man in London to study law. We now get the story of his past life in India. We see how he entered an arranged marriage shortly before coming to India, and see the story of his young bride Vasanti, mourning the recent loss of her father and very innocent, trusting, and intelligent. We see the story of their marriage, and how they gradually get to know each other, trust each other and grow into their new roles. Vijay's reasons for travelling to London are more complex they he lets on, and have to do with his relationship with his father. But his experiences in London educate him in life, and how people are the way they are.
An insightful book of the gaining of knowledge, and of how simple acts can change the course of a life in big ways.

Reading Canadian

The blog Book Mine Set hosts a Canadian Reading Challenge every year from Canada Day to June 30. This is his wrap-up of the 5th year of the challenge. Partly because of being on the Evergreen Book Award committee last year, I wound up reading 100 Canadian books! But this wrap-up offers a great resource of Canadian books for future reading. He's lists all the books read by author and title, and provided links to each reader's review. I've started on the 6th Challenge (great image for it, by the way)

and look forward to many more hours of reading great Canadian books. I'm off to a slow start, only two so far, by since I didn't actually start until August last year, I figure I'm ahead of the game already.

Cities of Refuge

Finished July 9
Cities of Refuge by Michael Helm

This novel is set in Toronto, and the title alludes to the various cities that exist for different people. Kim is a woman in her late twenties who has rejected the life of academic historian her father planned for her. She works a night security shift at the ROM and volunteers at GROUND, an organization that assists refugees. One night on her way to work, Kim is attacked and the attacker isn't identified or caught. She deals with this trauma by gradually venturing out into the night again, by writing about a man she imagines to be her attacker, and in trying to dredge any information from her memory of the attack to assist in identification. Kim's mother is ill and gradually failing and Kim moves back in with her and her stepfather to assist.
Her father Harold won't let go of this and is sure her work with GROUND has exposed her to the attack. He digs deeper into the world of refugee assistance, but continues to hide some of his own past from his daughter. The past connects with present in his head and logic begins to fail him.
In the world of refugees and those helping him, we meet the young man Rodrigo, a refugee from Colombia living in Canada illegally picking up casual labour, trying to stay out of trouble. He is living with Rosemary, a woman compelled by her faith and sense of right to help those refugees who have failed the government's criteria. Also helping is Father André whose feels assisting refugees and others in need is part of his mission.
As these world's gradually come together we see how each views the city around them in different ways.
Wonderfully written, with complex characters, this book has many layers and stories that reach back into the past.

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.

Private Peaceful

Finished June 6
Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

This children's novel opens a door on the realities of the First World War. Thomas (Tommo) Peaceful is waiting for dawn, and thinking back on his life as a child in rural England.
We see the strong family ties he has, the difficulties faced by his family, particularly after his father's untimely death, and the social structures that existed. His love for his brothers: Big Joe, forever a child, and Charlie, a mentor and protector centers him.
Like many young men at the time, Tommo lied about his age to join up, wanting to stay with his brother. Barely sixteen, military life was a big change, particularly the powerless of individual soldiers, especially when  they lacked good leaders.
The realities of war come to life, both the good and bad, the camaraderie and the deprivations. It  asks the big question What is courage and shows the difficult decisions these young men faced.
A wonderful book.

The Enchanted April

Finished June 4
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim

This novel was written after World War One and is a happy one. Two young women both see an advertisement in a newspaper while at their club, and one approaches the other to suggest they follow through on renting the castle in Italy for a month. This is a very daring action for both women. Mrs. Wilkins feels taken for granted in her marriage and unloved and feels that this would be a good use of the money she has put aside for a rainy day. Mrs. Arbuthnot has devoted herself to good works and the poor since an unhappy event in her marriage pushed her towards a judgemental religious outlook. She has grown apart from her husband.
In an effort to make her small savings go further, Mrs. Wilkins suggests they invite another couple of women and they place an ad of their own. One of the two is an older woman, Mrs. Fisher, much caught up in the past glory of association with writers and important men. The other is a young, beautiful lady, who feels that her beauty is an obstacle to her happiness.
As the four arrive at the castle, they at first exhibit their personalities, but as the gardens bloom around them, they bloom too, and begin to make connections and soften their outlooks.
A lovely story of happiness, renewed love, and the power of rest.

Canada

Finished July 4
Canada by Richard Ford

This novel is told by Dell Parsons, a man looking back at a few months fifty years earlier, where two actions changed his life. The opening lines tell us "First, I'll tell about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later. The robbery is the more important part, since it served to set my and my sister's lives on the courses they eventually followed. Nothing would make complete sense without that being told first."
So the first section of the book deals with the robbery, the situation his family was in at the time, his parents' personalities, his twin sister, Berner's personality, his own immaturity, and longing for a normal life. We seem them, outsiders in the two, partly due to his father's recent, lifelong army career, partly due to his mother's ethnicity and attitude, partly due to the small town culture of Great Falls, Montana at the time. Dell is small for his age, bookish, interested in chess and beekeeping, longing to begin high school in the fall. We see that Dell is a person things happen to for the most part, not a boy who takes action. The robbery uproots his whole world, and he begins again.
The next section of the book deals with the next few months of his life, in rural Saskatchewan. He lives at first in a mostly abandoned prairie town, in a shack with no running water. Later, when things turn colder and his shack is needed for other purposes, he lives in a small room in a hotel owned by the man who has provided for him. He works, tries to figure out his new life, and lets things happen to him again. It is during this time that he learns some life skills, and gains some maturity. He is in an odd situation, casually looked after by others who have no real interest in him. At the end of this, he moves on again, to a more normal life, one we don't get the details of.
The last, short section is in the present, looking back, telling us where he ended up and how, and what he makes of those earlier experiences.
This is the story of a life and shows that how one reacts to events is so important. As we see Dell's life, and the life of his sister Berner, we see how different reactions produced different outcomes. We see how Dell's acceptance of life and what it brings has brought him some measure of happiness in the end despite those earlier experiences.
A great book club book.

Gone Girl

Finished July 3
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, read by Julia Whelan and Kirby Heyborne

This thriller is one of the creepiest books I've ever read. Why? Because you think that maybe there are really people like this out there.
On their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne arrives home after a neighbour's call to find his front door wide open, his living room a mess, and his wife Amy gone. After a panicky search, he calls the police.
Nick doesn't display the usual emotions that come with such a disappearance though, and his voice shows that their marriage wasn't doing well. As the days move forward in the investigation, and Amy remains missing, we discover Nick is hiding some things too, and he begins to realize that Amy knows him better than he ever realized.
Juxtaposed to his voice as the days move forward are earlier entries from Amy diaries. They portray a perfectionist, eager-to-please woman, but paint Nick in a bad light. 
Halfway through the book, things suddenly change. The reader does get some hints of this, but the reality is still somewhat shocking.
This is a story about a marriage, about expectations in relationships, about how we try to portray our better self to others, but not always to those we are most intimate with. It raises some interesting issues around relationships, and society. It deals with society's fascination with true crime and the media hoopla that accompanies certain cases.
I'd love to discuss this book with others who've read it.

The Red House

Finished July 2
The Red House by Mark Haddon

This novel takes place over a week. Richard and his sister Angela have had little contact in recent years. Richard paid for his mother's nursing home and Angela visited her weekly. At the funeral of his mother, Richard is struck by the fact that this is his family and invites Angela and her family on a country vacation in Wales with his wife and stepdaughter.
Richard's wife Louisa feels that her working class background means she must work harder to please Richard by following his high culture interests. Louisa's daughter Melissa is part of the in-crowd at her school, but resents the world around her.
Angela is a good teacher, but feels her role is to be responsible for all those around her, and yet she resents anyone else taking on these tasks. She doesn't know how to nurture herself, and feels caught in the past, a past that she has mythologized. Angela's husband Dominic is a sensitive man, who feels diminished by the loss of his career as a musician. He has begun an affair with another woman in an effort to feel loved, a move not very successful for him. He wants to be a good father, but is wary about taking the lead. Their son Alex is an independent young man, with a plan for the future, a passion for adventure sports, and like most teenage boys, a strong interest in the female sex. Daughter Daisy has recently turned to religion as a place to feel wanted, but is finding that it is coming through for her as she imagined. Where does her resentment come from, and is she willing to face it? Son Benjy lives in a fantasy world in his head, a world of battles and dangers, and yet is fearful of anything that may threaten his real world.
Put all these people together in a house for a week in the country, a place with bad cellphone reception but surrounded by nature, and you get some interesting things happen.
There are realizations, decisions made, and connections that grow between family members. An interesting story of relationship dynamics.