Review: Swann

Swann by Carol Shields
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"He has a somewhat romantic view of a human life. Sees it as something with an ... aesthetic shape. A wholeness. Whereas--whereas the lives of most people are pretty scrappy affairs. And full of secrets and concealments." (p. 277-8)

This novel looks (quite critically) at the question of biography and literary scholarship. How, and even if,  a poet's life influences their work is a central question. The way Shields does this is very clever, she brings us into the minds of several people who are all connected, some more directly than others, with the deceased poet Mary Swann. After episodes from several points of view all the players come together at a symposium on Swann which Shields presents in the form of a screenplay complete with director's notes. 

I found three of the four main characters appealing and the fourth one was very unpleasant, but very well drawn. The librarian from Swann's hometown has a secret about how she spends her Friday nights which was perfect for her character (and sounded good to me). 

"...I've never been able to see the point of emptying one's mind of thought. Our thoughts are all we have. I love my thoughts, even when they take me up and down sour-smelling byways where I'd rather not venture. Whatever flickers on in my head is mine and I want it, all the blinking impulses and inclinations and connections and weirdness, and especially those bright purple flares that come streaming out of nowhere, announcing that you're at some mystic juncture or turning pint and that you'd better pay attention." (p. 20) 

I like literary biography, but after reading this novel I think I will view it much more skeptically than before. 

This is my thirteenth book for the 9th Canadian Book Challenge. 

Review: Cross Bones

Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Great audiobook (love Barbara Rosenblat as a narrator). There was a ton of biblical archaeology in this novel which I knew nothing about before and which was fascinating. The story starts with a murder in Quebec and leads Tempe and her handsome policeman beau to Israel and a tangle of Biblical scholars and raided tombs. 
 
I am counting this toward the Canadian Book Challenge. Speaking of which, the 10th Canadian Book Challenge starts on July 1, 2016, so the time to sign up is now. 

Review: The Lola Quartet

The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"--- had known that night that never again in her lifetime would anyone show up on her doorstep with eleven thousand dollars in cash. She'd known that this was her last chance..." (p. 193)

This is an excellent novel about chances taken and passed by and how those things reverberate through time. Like all Mandel's novels it is beautifully written and full of complex people who are interconnected in unexpected ways. Mandel was born in Canada and now lives in Brooklyn where I hope she is working on her next novel because now I have read all the novels she has published. This counts toward the Canadian Book Challenge.

Review: In the Skin of a Lion

In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"This is the story a young girl gathers in a car during the early hours of the morning. ... She listens to the man as he picks up and brings together various corners of the story, attempting to carry it all in his arms. ... Driving the four hours to Marmora under six stars and a moon."

Building bridges, digging tunnels, baking bread and creeping through silent rooms this novel ties huge endeavors and tiny moments together into a single life. The writing is clear and descriptive, and beautiful at the same time. 

"They speak quietly, smoking cigarettes. Patrick sees them in the yellow spray of the station lamp. He strolls to the end of the platform where there is darkness. Bush. He feels transparent, minuscule. Civilization now, on this August night, is two men cleaning shoes as they sit on the steps of a train." -- p. 166

Numerous characters wander in and out of the story, but Ondaatje keeps them all straight for the reader and the weaving of one into another gives shape to the story as it moves back and forth in time and space. 

"The houses at this hour beautiful and large, stray lights within them, and he could see the faint interiors, their privacy an character revealed, each room a subplot." -- p. 243

This novel, which I want to reread after I read The English Patient, counts toward the Canadian Book Challenge.  

Review: Devil Bones

Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I listened to this book read by Barbara Rosenblat--one of my favorite audiobook narrators. I enjoyed the story, and the character of Tempe Brennan is an appealing one. The foreshadowing in the novel was a bit heavy-handed though and there were perhaps more false leads than were really necessary.
The author lives and works part of the time in Montreal (as does her character Temperance Brennan) and one of the characters in this story is a Quebecois police officer. I am counting this toward the Canadian Book Challenge.

Review: No Relation

No Relation by Terry Fallis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When I was growing up I could tell as soon as attendance was taken on the first day of school how I would feel about the teacher. If there was any mention of Peter Pan, or singing it was a bad sign. This was because I shared my name with a famous (at least among my parents' generation) performer. When I got married I took my husband's last name and thought my namefame troubles were behind me. Alas, my new non-famous name was soon adopted by a mystery writer for one of her characters. The character, and the novels, became very popular (they are quite excellent) so I am back to having a famous name.
Given this history I thought I should read this book about a man who shares his name (though not its spelling) with a very famous writer. I loved the parts of the story that dealt with that issue, but overall the main plot of the book was a bit thin and the ending was way to "happily-ever-after" for my tastes.
The author is Canadian, so I am counting this toward the Canadian Book Challenge.

Review: Social Media for Business

Social Media for Business: 101 Ways to Grow Your Business Without Wasting Your Time by Susan Sweeney
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book, by two Canadian business consultants, provided a decent overview of various social media sites and tools and I did come away with a few things to try/research further for my Etsy business. Much of the book was focused on large businesses with numerous staff/departments which made it less useful to me than a more DIY approach would have been.
My major complaint about this book was that the promotion of the authors' websites and various social media channels was ridiculously heavy-handed. Every chapter ended with a list of resources and every one sent you to the main web sites of the authors as well as their various feeds (not to pages focusing on specific topics being discussed, just to their sites).
There are better books out there on these topics, like Face2Face.

Review: The Heart Goes Last

The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This wasn't my favorite Atwood novel, but it was still excellent. The premise, a couple who have lost their house and their jobs and are living in their car sign up for a supposedly utopian community that offers them stability but turns out not to be exactly what they expected, was interesting. I felt like the story started off too slowly and then as it neared the end it began to verge on the ridiculous. However, the thread that ran through all the various situations was the question of what it is to love someone and that kept the whole thing together. This wasn't as brilliant as the MaddAddam trilogy, but was still a Margaret Atwood novel and therefor not to be missed.

Review: Where I Belong

Where I Belong by Alan Doyle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an interesting book about the early life of Newfoundland musician Alan Doyle (of Great Big Sea). Doyle and I are the same age, but our childhoods could not have been more different.  I never cut the tongue out of a Cod, and am hoping to keep it that way. Doyle is a great story teller and I was fascinated by the life he lived and his perspective on Catholicism made a lot of sense to me. (It does seem like trying to understand stuff about your religion should be encouraged, not punished). 

I have seen Great Big Sea perform here in New Hampshire (where I live) a couple of times, so this book qualifies not only as a Canadian Book Challenge title, but also meets the September mini-challenge to read "a book written by a musician from your home province. If you do not live in Canada, by a Canadian musician who has performed in your current country."

Lisa reviewed this book last year. 

Review: Etta and Otto and Russell and James

Etta and Otto and Russell and James: A Novel
by Emma Hooper
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The characters in this novel were compelling people and I loved the way their stories, past and present, were woven together. The book begins with a letter Etta leaves for Otto on the table of their Canadian farmhouse: "I've gone. I've never seen the water, so I've gone there. Don't worry. I've left you the truck. I can walk. I will try to remember to come back." This style continues through much of the book, which includes many letters between Otto and Etta written while Otto is fighting overseas. I thought this was a beautifully written book, but the ending was too ambiguous for me. There were also a couple of sections (in the later parts of the book) that were choose-your-own-type narratives. A paragraph saying what happened, then or, then another thing that might have happened. I found these a bit jarring and didn't think they enhanced the story at all.

This is my 4th book read for the 9th Canadian Book Challenge.

Review: The Affinities

The Affinities by Robert Charles Wilson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This story--which is very well plotted and has a well developed main character--takes the idea of tribes and families you choose yourself and raises it to a new level. I wasn't crazy about the way the author ended the book, but overall I was impressed. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Wilson lives in Ontario, as do several of the characters in this novel, which qualifies this as a Canadian Book Challenge title.

Review: The Singer's Gun

The Singer's Gun by Emily St. John Mandel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It could just be how my job is going these days, but the lines about work really resonated for me in this novel: "Work is always a little sordid." (p. 107); "Well, most things you have to do in life are at least a little questionable." (p. 166). Early on in the book someone's job abandons them (in dead file storage no less) which I found a really intriguing idea. 

I thought this novel was very well written, and even though I didn't really like the main character I couldn't stop reading because I had to know what he was going to do next. 

I have been reading my way through Mandel's earlier books because I was so blown away by Station Eleven, and so far they have all been good, but none as good which makes sense as she is developing as a writer with each book. 

This book is my second completed for the Canadian Book Challenge. Mandel is Canadian and the novel (which actually talks a good bit about far northern Canada) contains this line, which I loved: "The distance between Inuvik and New York was almost dazzling in its extremity." (p. 258 - links are mine). 

Review: The Long Way Home

The Long Way Home by Louise Penny
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a quieter book than the past few Gamache novels. It included lots of well-observed comments on the way the world is and a different side of Gamache's wife than we had seen before. 
This was one of my favorite passages because I totally get how Myrna feels:

"The heat shimmered off the buildings and bounced off concrete and drilled into the pavement which gave off the scent of melting asphalt in the heavy, humid air. Myrna found it strangely calming. Her mother's and grandmother's comfort smells were cut grass and fresh baking and the subtle scent of line-dried sheets. For Myrna's generation the smells that calmed were manufactured. Melting asphalt meant summer. VapoRub meant winter, and being cared for. There were Tang and gas fumes and long-gone photocopy ink." (p. 74)

This is my first book of the year for the Canadian Book Challenge. The Tragically Hip's Fully Completely is the album that marks completion of one book. 

9th Annual Canadian Book Challenge

Even though I was worried I wouldn't make it through 13 books for the 8th Canadian Book Challenge I managed to complete that challenge with a couple days to spare. (Lisa completed it with months to spare.) I have signed on for another year of Canadian books with the 9th Canadian Book Challenge. The levels this time have a music theme, and 11 books is marked by one of my favorite albums ever, so I will have to read at least 11 Canadian books between now and Canada Day 2016.