Lisa's Review: Coming Home

Coming Home: Stories from the Northwest Territories
Forward by Richard Van Camp

My Rating: 3 of 5 Stars

Coming Home is a collection of 17 short stories (11 fiction and 6 non-fiction) from authors in the Northwest Territories. The authors range from very experienced to newbies.

This is only my second time reading a collection of short stories. My first experience was not a favorable one, so I wasn't sure if short stories is a genre for me. After finishing Coming Home, I'm definitely not ready to throw in the towel on short stories - I found this collection was quite enjoyable to read. I liked the different range and types of stories presented - from gaining historical perspective, to picturing the landscape of the NWT, to more modern stories. I also appreciated that each story was followed by a short bio of the author.

A few of the stories that I enjoyed most:

• Born a Girl by Richard Van Camp (fiction); A heart-wrenching story of being different, bullying, and the revealing consequences 
• Haunted Hill Mine by Cathy Jewison (fiction); An amusing story of a questionable entrepreneur who runs a haunted tour business. I was impressed with how the author painted such distinct characters in just a few pages. I was amused & satisfied by the ending. 
• Beauty of the Butte by Karen McColl (non-fiction); This story gave me a very vivid picture of the beautiful scenery as a group of friends make a weekend summit of Nahanni Butte.
• Children of the Strike by Jamesie Fournier (non-fiction); The author recounts this story of the Giant Mine strike & labor dispute in the early '90s (his father worked at the mine). This story compelled me to read a little further into the history of these events, as I can't recall having seen them in the news.     

This is my tenth book read for the 7th Annual Canadian Book Challenge. I also have to give a shout out to John Mutford who runs the challenge & read the submissions and helped pick the stories to be included in this collection.