THE BLACK WOLF

 Louise Penny. THE BLACK WOLF. Minotaur, 2025.

Borrowed this from the library on a 7-day loan. Read it in 2.5 days. Scary. But I've written about it in my Substack newletter. OneLonelyWriter.Substack.com. 

THE MOONFLOWER MURDERS (x2)

 Anthony Horowitz. THE MOONFLOWER MURDERS. Harper, 2020.

Book club selection for November. 575 pages, two novels in one. Made the TV series much easier to follow as the Atticus Pund Takes the Case novel is inserted completely between the pages of the second murder mystery. In the series, the 1950s plot and the 21st century plot flash forward and backwards, with the editor Susan Ryeland in both. Not good, with my tendancy to drop off while watching long shows. 

TELL IT SLANT

Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola. TELL IT SLANT: Creating, Refining, and Publishing Creative Nonfiction. Second Edition. McGrawHill, 2012.

BEYOND the TREES

 Adam Shoalts. BEYOND the TREES: A Journey Alone Across Canada's Arctic. Penguin, 2020.

Our bookclub selection for September. At first I feared it was going to be a cold lonely slog, but the narrator managed to coax me along with him, mostly because of his great attitude. His slogan, "There's an upside to everything" should be on my bulletin board. I also enjoyed his confidence in his experience and skills at camping, paddling, portaging, organizing cache drops of supplies, and just the unbelievable nature of the chosen adventure, alone across the Arctic, often going up rather than down the rivers. His awareness of the magic in the wild places and the need for us to take better care of them is encouraging. 

I liked learning details of the flora and fauna, his thrill at seeing the wolf family, his wise leeriness of the muskox--big and not used to human intrusion. I also liked learning new words: waterfall, cascade, & swift (a new term for me for whitewater). Waterhead for headwaters. Tuckamores--wind-shaped trees. There is also history in some of the names--Dempster, Deese, Franklin's earlier inland explorations. And about the geology of the region, some mountains unglaciated. 

My only hesitation, as a travel memoir, is that the narrator does not appear to change over the course of his journey. He had the skills. He was lucky. He survived.

I'm glad I read it. 

THUNDERBIRD'S WAKE

Frank Talaber. THUNDERBIRD'S WAKE. (Book 3 in the Stillwaters Run Deep Series) BWL (Books We Love), Airdrie, Alberta. Ebound. 2017.

Charlie Stillwaters accepts a contract as native Elder in a prison after the previous Elder was murdered in a sweatlodge ceremony. Charlie calls on his VPD detective friend Carol Ainsworth to help. 

The cover is busy, poorly designed, although other titles in this writer's large oeuvre look good. My first hesitation is about appropriation of Indigenous stories. My second is the unconvincing, male fantasy, of a female police officer. But I like realistic portrayals of local settings (Vancouver and Prince Rupert), and I'm curious about the presentation of both prison politics and Indigenous characters.

Charlie is quirky, funny, with skills most of us cannot imagine. Skills to deal with creatures from other dimensions as well as pop-psych techniques to work with the stereotypical damaged inmates he "cures". 

The writing is very action-oriented, with scenes seemingly written for graphic-novel lovers.

I accepted to read this book because it was presented to me, and because Talaber is a local writer. A very prolific local writer. His is the kind of writing passion I recognize and appreciate. I discovered, as I was trying to decide whether to skip all the fight scenes, that I am really not into "paranormal fantasy". 

IN SEARCH OF DUENDE

 Frederico Garcia Lorca. IN SEARCH OF DUENDE. Bibelot, 1975.

A remarkable find at the Rotary Book Sale. This book has been on my list for years, and it does not disappoint. Contains essays -- the famous exploration of duende and another on the sacredness of bullfighting -- as well as poems in both Spanish and English. Watching the Knowledge Network series on Andalusia has also been helpful with pronunciation of names and and location of places in Spain. Lorca, 1898 to 1936. Executed by firing squad during the Spanish Civil War.

the shadow-maker

  

Gwendolyn MacEwen. The SHADOW-MAKER. Macmillan, 1969. 

A find at the Rotary book sale. A Governor-General Award winner from the 60s. I love her use of internal rhyme and the sound of her lines. Favourites are the dream sequences--from The Sleeper section.