This is My Daddy

Finished August 2
This is My Daddy by Mies van Hout

This delightful toddler book explores colour, shapes, and other early learning concepts. There are a series of pages with picture of a young animal on the left side of the facing pages and four smaller pictures on the opposite page. Each young animal asks who is their daddy. The reader can look at the four choices and evaluate which one is the match. The following set of pages tell the correct answer. The illustrations use strong, vibrant, coordinating colours, which I loved! and while some, such as the tiger on the cover can be determined by the reader by looking at colour, shapes (such as the stripes on the tiger) and similarities, others are less obvious, and will engender discussion about how animals are different in different stages of their lives.
There are great option for the father in each set, with some element of the option relating to the youngster. For example the small animal with prickles coming out of them has four options that are prickly or fluffy. Young animals included are: tadpole (surprise!), hedgehog, beaver, snail, tiger, caterpillar, and rhinoceros. The book ends with a human youngster, with a bit of a twist that you need to look closely to catch. This book is great fun and the end pages provide more information on the animals.
I just loved this book, for the thought that went into it and the lovely pictures. There is humour and fun throughout.

Maria Chapdelaine

Finished August 1
Maria Chapdelaine: A Romance of French Canada by Louis Hémon, translated by Andrew MacPhail, illustrations by M.A. Suzor-Cote

This classic Canadian story is one that I've meant to read for a while, and part of the reason I chose it for my book club July pick. The copy I've got is quite an old one, with interesting illustrations scattered through it.
Maria Chapdelaine is the oldest daughter in her family. She has mostly brothers, and one much younger sister, Alma Rose.
Her father Samuel is a man who is more of a settler than a farmer. He has cleared land, and created a homestead before, but then felt the urge to move to a less settled area and start again. His wife has recognized and accepted this about him, though she would like to be closer to a parish. Maria is at the age when young women of her time and situation considered marriage, and as the book moves on, we see that there are three young men interested in her. They are quite different from each other, but all good young men. François Paradis is the first one that we meet. Their fathers knew each other well, and Maria met him when she was younger. Paradis has sold his farm and makes his living guiding other men through the Canadian wilderness and facilitating trading and sourcing resources. He is ambitious and and bright.
The next one we see is Eutrope Gagnon. He is the Chapdelaine's only neighbour, having taking a concessions two miles away with his brother the year before. His brother, like many of Maria's brothers, works in logging camps during the winter. He is clearing the land mostly on his own (we never see his brother in the novel), but making good headway and once the land is cleared, will build a better house so that he can begin a family. He is a hard worker and a good neighbour in hard times.
The third and last suitor we meet is Lorenzo Suprenant, a young man who has sold his father's farm in Quebec and gone to work in Maine in a factory. He speaks of the joys of urban living, the good wages he earns, and the large contingent of Canadians who live in the same area and provide a community. He wants to offer Maria an easier life than the one in the wilderness she lives in now.
As we watch Maria's family work to clear their land, gather crops, reap fruits from the surrounding wilderness, and hunt to provide meat, we see the reality of their lives and the hard work that goes into survival. Maria must evaluate her emotional connection and her vision of the future with each of these men, based on her experience this far. Her parents offer support, but do not advise her on this important choice.
I enjoyed the story and the independence that Maria had to choose her own life. Her family was a supportive one that worked together to make a good life for themselves and I could see how they cared for each other and worked as a team.

Classic Spin Reading Challenge

I've just heard about the Classics Club Spins (now in its 24th iteration), and I’ve determined to use the opportunity to get one of those TBR books off my list.

What is the Spin?

It’s easy. At your blog, before next Sunday 9th August 2020, create a post that lists twenty books of your choice that remain “to be read” on your list of classic books.This is your Spin List. You have to read one of these twenty books by the end of the spin period.

On Sunday 9th August, the Classics Club will post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by 30th September, 2020. I’ll come back and highlight the one that corresponds with that number on my list. 

My Spin List.

1. Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert
2. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
3. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Wolff
4. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
5. Dracula by Bram Stoker
6. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
7. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
8. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
9. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
10. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
11. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
12. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
13. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
14. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
15. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
16. Beowulf
17. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
18. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
19. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
20. The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss

Protecting Pollinators

Finished July 28
Protecting Pollinators: How to Save the Creatures That Feed Our World by Jodi Helmer

This book is full of information on the importance of pollinators and how we can act to help them survive. Pollinators are responsible for one-third of the crops that feed us, but half of their 200,000 species are threatened, some quite significantly. The percentage of pollinator-dependent food crops has increased 300 percent in the last 50 years, but despite this reliance, the pollinators themselves are more endangered than ever. This book is mostly focused on the United States, but as pollinators don't recognize borders, discussion sometimes goes beyond.
This book is organized into seven chapters. Within each chapter there are side columns that go deeper into certain aspects of the subject. Chapter One, Bees and Beyond tells us about the wide range of pollinators that exist, beyond just the ones that easily come to mind like bees and butterflys. Helmer gives information on the state of research into different pollinators and the public awareness of them. Side columns here are Plant Sex, The Rusty-Patched Bumblebee Made History, Raise Your Glass to Pollinating Bats (main pollinators of agave, from whence tequila), Are High-Tech Drones the Next-Generation Pollinators?, A Presidential Plea to Protect Pollinators (Obama administration), and Pollinators in Peril.
Chapter Two, No Place Like Home, talks about pollinator habitat and feeding needs. Here Helmer discusses the ways that habitat, even in small plots, can be added back to both urban and rural areas. Side columns here are Habitat Affects Honey Flavor (I love my buckwheat honey!), Pollinator Strips Might Not Work, A Cotton-Pickin' Boost for Pollinators, Could the Farm Bill Help Pollinators?, and Fireflies Are Burning Out.
Chapter Three, Taming Toxins brings into discussion the various chemicals, like pesticides and non-native flora and fauna, that have affected pollinators. Some are outright lethal, others are sublethal in that they affect the pollinator physiology and behaviour and make them less able to do their work. Side columns here are The Pests Decimating Honeybee Colonies, Harmful Herbicides, Neonics Not Welcome, White-Nose Syndrome and Pesticides, and Could Crop Insurance Promote Pesticide Use?
Chapter Four, The Need for Native Plants, looks at how the introduction of plants from other parts of the world have driven out some native plants the pollinators rely upon, or due to their different flowering cycle, changed their migratory habits. Side columns here are Venus Flytraps Control Their Appetites for Survival, Identifying Invasive Species, Ten Pollinator-Friendly Native Plants, Doggy Detective Keeps Bees Safe, Replacing Honeybees with Native Pollinators, Adopt a Trail, Eat the Invaders (some tasty invasive species can be eaten into extinction), and Caprine Cleaning Crew.
Chapter Five, Lessons from a Warming Planet discusses how climate change is affecting pollinators. In some cases the plants that pollinators rely on and the pollinators are in sync as the climate grows warmer, but in other cases they are not, which can mean the pollinator appears in the spring before or after their food source has, leading to population decline or possible extinction. Side columns here are Bats Help Save the Rainforest, Developing Mite-Resistant Bees, Climate Change Could Be Poisoning Monarchs, and Climate Change Helps Invasive Species Thrive.
Chapter Six, Helping Without Hurting, discusses how some things people are doing that they think are helping are not, and what they could do that is similar but different that would be a real help to the pollinators. Side columns here are Retailers Help Keep Gardens Neonic-Free, The Unexpected Consequence of Your Favorite Drink (more than you knew about almond milk), A Desire to Help the Bees Drives Honey Demand, Beekeepers Feel the Sting of Stolen Hives, Are Bee Hotels Bad for Bees?, and Don't Forget About Trees.
Chapter Seven, Stand Up and Be Counted discusses the huge impact that citizen scientists can have on data collection, observation, and positive change. Side columns are Putting Milkweed on the Map, Ten Principles of Citizen Science, Pollinators Seek Out Urban Addresses, Three Ways the Public Participates in Citizen Science, Citizen Scientists Honor the Stars, and the important Twenty-Nine Ways You Can Help Protect Pollinators.
There is also an extensive bibliography for those who want to learn more.
This is a great resource to learn about this important and critical subject.

The True Story of Ida Johnson

Finished July 28
The True Story of Ida Johnson by Sharon Riis

This short novel is quite different. Ida Johnson grew up in southern Alberta on a farm near a small town. She was a loner and different and her only friend was a young native girl, Lucy, who went to school in town briefly. She and Lucy were very close and spent a lot of time outdoors and playing imaginative games. Ida is now a waitress in another small Alberta town.
A trucker driving from B.C. through the Crowsnest Pass in winter is surprised to see a young man lying by the side of the road. When he stops and approaches, thinking the young man may be dead in the cold, the man sits up. The trucker takes him along, but feels put off by the stranger, who doesn't say much, except that his name is Luke. When they stop at a small town diner, Luke stays. Ida is on shift, but when her shift is over, Luke asks her to sit and talk.
The story moves around in time and viewpoint, sometimes showing us what Lucy did after leaving Alberta when she was young. We hear about Ida's peripatetic life, her triumphs and betrayals. She still remembers Lucy with fondness.
Although it is never stated, one feels like Luke and Lucy are the same person in different guises. And that sometimes Ida is aware of this.
Ida has done some terrible things, and yet she doesn't seem to regret any of them. Her story is matter of fact, not holding anything back.
Because this book was written in the 1970s, some of the terminology is no longer appropriate, and was on the edge even for that time. I really don't know how I feel about this book, it is unsettling and yet because it is told in such an unemotional tone, somehow just a sad story. 
Interestingly, the blurbs on the back of my copy are from Margaret Atwood and Marian Engel, which speak to its uptake at the time it was first published.

A Perfect Waiter

Finished July 25
A Perfect Waiter by Alain Claude Sulzer, translated by John Brownjohn

This book is set in two time periods, the earliest begins in the summer of 1935 and goes into the following summer. The second time period is three decades later.
The waiter that is the main character is Erneste and he works at a grand hotel in Switzerland. He has no aspirations beyond this career and behaves with perfection in his role. He is unfailingly polite, quiet, and observant enough to anticipate needs. In 1935, he is nineteen years old, and a new young staff member has arrived, Jakob, from Germany. Erneste is smitten, and Jakob notices and the two begin a love affair. They share a room in the staff quarters of the hotel, and soon share a bed. Erneste is careful not to show his feelings elsewhere, treating Jakob with the quiet friendly manner he treats the other staff. When the season ends, Jakob returns to Germany and Erneste to Paris, each promising to be back the following summer. In 1936, Erneste arrives at the hotel first and settles in. When Jakob arrives, he seems less ardent, but Erneste explains it away, and their affair continues. But Jakob is noticed by another person, this time a guest, also from Germany. Julius Klinger is a famous writer, who has spoken out against the rising Hitler in Germany, and when his words have no effect, he is looking to leave Europe for the United States.
The second time period has Erneste still working as a waiter in Switzerland at a hotel, when he receives a letter from the United States from Jakob. It is not the reconciliation that Erneste has dreamed of, but a request for help. Despite Jakob's betrayal of their love, Erneste is still compelled to submit to Jakob's wishes, and when he does, he learns more of his lover than he imagined.
This is a tale of love, one that happened during a brief time with great passion and was then left as a memory of a great love of Erneste's youth. Erneste is a perfect waiter in more ways than one, as someone else observes. This is sad, and one feels for Erneste as he deals with the truth of the man that he held strongly in his memory, and still cared deeply for.

August Reviews for 14th Annual Canadian Book Challenge

Boy that first month went by fast!
I had no takers for the book club read for July, Maria Chapdelaine.
Fill out the comment form at the bottom of the blog if you want to join in for the August book club read, which is The Afterlife of George Cartwright by John Steffler. I'll include you in the invitation for the Zoom meeting. Here's the link to the Overview of the Book Club option for the Challenge.

For August reads for the challenge, fill out the Mr. Linky below. Add comments too!