RETURN OF THE TRICKSTER

Eden Robinson. RETURN OF THE TRICKSTER. Vintage, 2021.

Jared needs help from stronger tricksters to fix a mess he has landed himself in. Third in the Trickster trilogy. 

WOMEN TALKING

Miriam Toews. WOMEN TALKING. Knopf, 2018.

Women in a Mennonite colony in South America ask a returned teacher to take notes at their meeting when they debate what to do to respond to the abuse from males in the colony. The women cannot read or write, but they can think and talk.

EDUCATED: A Memoir

Tara Westover. EDUCATED: A Memoir. HarperCollins, 2018.

An uplifting story of an horrific childhood, in a Mormon family in Idaho. Physical violence. Blind denial, on the part of victims, abusers, witnesses, parents. And how escaping to an education helps the narrator see the mental health issues behind the extremist ranting and negativity. How it took her years to free herself because the convoluted logic of the ties that bound her were knotted with love. A story of hope hiding in the form of friends, boyfriends, roommates, professors, tutor/mentors, reading, writing, and travel. And the sadness of shunning and character assassination from those still trapped in the lies.

A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW

 Amor Towles. A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW. Penguin, 2016.

Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, because of his aristocratic heritage, lives imprisoned in Moscow's Metropol Hotel from 1922 until 1954. Interesting. Amusing. Entertaining.

IMAGES FROM THE LIKENESS HOUSE

 Dan Savard. IMAGES FROM THE LIKENESS HOUSE. RBCM, 2010.

Fascinating images of Indigenous people and buildings from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in BC and Alaska. This book was an award-winner at the time of publication. Now, it seems to show us a visual record of how much we have learned in the ensuing dozen years. Where this book is organized around the white photographers who took the photographs, today to this reader anyway, a more Indigenous-centred or geographic grouping would be more respectful of the subjects. Especially because so many of the photos were used as advertising for the studios. No mention is made of consent from the subjects or shared profits. 

I was most interested to find a brief info about James Teit, a Scot living in Spences Bridge who worked with Franz Boas and others. Sometime I used to hear the term "Teit people" and I was always curious as to whom the name referred.

SERVING LIFE 25: ONE GUARD'S STORY

Neil D. Maclean. SERVING LIFE 25: ONE GUARD'S STORY. TellWell Talent, 2017.

I borrowed this book on Saturday and I finished reading it this morning, Monday. This is indicative of how interested I was in the content. I have no experience working in a maximum security institution like the one described here, Kent, in CSC's Pacific Region. 

It is interesting. The writer's personality really comes through. He is not shy about offering his personal opinions. I have no problem accepting his POV as credible, and the inevitable sad conclusion that "the system" can best be described as one of "mutual contempt" among inmates, staff, and management, which, IMHO, means a failure of leadership.

However, as a former English teacher, every sentence I read was grating, and proof positive that excellent professional editors, for both copy and structure, are a necessary pre-requisite for any self-published book.

DELIVERANCE

 James Dickey. DELIVERANCE. Dell, 1970. 

This is a fascinating action-adventure story about what it means to be a man in a modern world. 

I haven't seen the movie, and I've carried the paperback with me for 50 years but never read it. Then I found a different copy, larger print, in the building library, and read it in a few days. Paddling a canoe is one of the few physical activities I have actually tried, so the trip planning and canoe manning and whitewater running scenes were all somewhat familiar. The ignorance of the gung-ho men not knowing what the river would offer is foreshadowing. The fish-out-of-water city guys trying to line up support in the small towns populated by "farmers missing fingers" sets up another, a class conflict. Then one canoe is attacked by locals intent upon harm and all hell breaks loose. When Lewis, the only man with actual survival skills, is injured, things go from bad to worse. That's when Ed, the narrator, is forced to "man-up" and do what has to be done to get the survivors home. Reality versus morality. And practicality wins, buttressed by shame that the secret of a sexual assault may leak out. Big themes, with conflict on so many levels. Great read.

A SECRET SISTERHOOD

Emily Midorikawa & Emma Claire Sweeney. A SECRET SISTERHOOD: The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot and Virginia Woolf. Houghton Mifflin, 2017. 

An interesting four essays, well-researched and documented, about female friends each writer cultivated. I am least convinced of the picture drawn of Katherine Mansfield. She sounds mean-spirited and back-stabbing to me. Although the dangers of a small literary community where friends and rivals review each other.s work is still relevant. 

NEON PREY

John Sandford. NEON PREY. Putnam, 2019.

Why do I read these stories of American law enforcement, serial killers, home invasion, rape, murder, and cannibalism? Maybe it's the idealism. A world where multi-agencies cooperate, only bad guys get killed (except for the odd unfortunate victim), and everyone goes home to a good lay or a happy family. O say can you see ... The setting moves from Minnesota to New Orleans to California to Las Vegas. Maybe that's what the neon refers to.

THE MAID

 Nita Prose. THE MAID. Viking, 2022. 

Reading this for the U of M Book Club. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

THE MEASURE OF A MAN

Sidney Poitier. THE MEASURE OF A MAN: A SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY. Harper, 2000.

My finding this book is another example of what I think of as “thrift store divination”, when something that is so “me” seems to be waiting for me on the shelf and jumps into my basket. In this case, during our long hot summer, stopping for the night in Greenwood, I visited a favourite old-fashioned variety thrift store. It was such a hot day that the owners had turned the lights off to try to keep the aisles cooler but they turned them on when I asked to visit the bookshelves. The cover photo of a recently-deceased beloved actor was enough. The subtitle “a spiritual autobiography”, and the promise of hearing him discuss the relationship between his iconic movies and his personal values were gravy. Reading also about how he developed his skills as an actor was a bonus. All great stuff. I confess the later chapters lagged a bit for me as he gets into abstractions about Nature, evil, balance, man’s place in the galaxies. But that’s just me.

PARADISE VALLEY

C.J. Box. PARADISE VALLEY. Minotaur, 2017.

A gift from a friend, a first for me by this writer. I am first attracted to the setting--North Dakota, along the Missouri River, to Montana, and Yellowstone. All places that are familiar to me, and places I am happy to re-visit. Also attracted to the female lead--Callie, a sheriff after a trucker serial killer. The "office politics" and especially the way American law enforcement is impacted by electoral politics, is also familiar and frightening. Callie as a mother, and the extra concern she feels for two missing boys adds to the story which is basically plot. And I would also say, plot-driven. I would read more Box if it were to find me.

THE IT GIRL

 Ruth Ware. THE IT GIRL. Simon & Shuster, 2022.

This is the first time I have read this writer. The book is a loaner from the friend of a friend. I have enjoyed it, starting with the settings. Edinburgh. And Oxford, which I know only from Morse and Lewis episodes. A man dies in prison still professing his innocence. The woman whose testimony put him in prison begins to wonder. She starts her own investigation, ten years after her college roommate was murdered. 

I love the way the writer deals out the bits of information and we follow the suspense as the protagonist Hannah Jones experiences it. I do not like when the story slips off the tracks into thriller-style where the tension is created by the way the writer is telling the story. Withholding and deliberately misleading the readers in an obvious attempt to manipulate our emotions. Which is why I like mysteries, crime and detective stories, but not thrillers.

WATCHING THE DARK

 Peter Robinson. WATCHING THE DARK. Hodder & Stoughton, 2012.

Set in Estonia, Banks and a female officer from internal affairs, pursue a lead on a cold case. A Yorkshire woman on a hen party trip to Estonia, disappears and is still missing seven years later. After the policeman who investigated her disappearance is murdered. After his wife has died and the blackmailers have no hold on him any longer. Annie Cabot is just returning to work after recovering from an injury.

The title refers to an Estonian column reporting on underworld activities--undocumented immigrant labourers, white slave trade.

Found this in our building's free library. Divination. Robinson is one of my favourite writers. Love going to Yorkshire with him.

READING LIKE A WRITER

Francine Prose. READING LIKE A WRITER: A GUIDE FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE BOOKS and FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO WRITE THEM. Harper Collins, 2006.

I have read this book before but as I was culling my shelves to make more room, I flipped through this one and decided I wanted to re-read the chapter on CHEKHOV and the final chapter, on COURAGE. Done.

THE HEMINGWAY BOOK CLUB OF KOSOVO

 Paula Huntley. The HEMINGWAY BOOK CLUB of KOSOVO. Putnum, 2003.

Very interesting, a joyful teaching experience in a war-ravaged city. Especially useful because I am so ignorant both of the geography of the area and of the war and NATO action, even though I know Canadian soldiers who were stationed there. 

As I was reading the commentary I thought: Did anyone ever criticize Hemingway for appropriating a Cuban character (The OLD MAN and the SEA).  But then I remembered Atwood's assertion: It's not the appropriation that is a problem. It is the mis-appropriation.

KAIDENBERG'S BEST SONS

Jason Heit. KAIDENBERG'S BEST SONS. Coteau, 2019.

A collection of linked short stories about three generations of men of a Saskatchewan farming community around the turn of the twentieth century. Family ties. Cheating. Jealousy. Violence. Grief. and Curses.

A peek behind the curtains into the emotional lives of apparently stoic characters. I'm glad I lucked into it. Knowing my preference for Canadian writers, a friend gifted me this after mistakenly thinking it was about a Mennonite community. They are German-speaking Catholics originally from around the Black Sea, transplanted to Saskatchewan from the Dakotas. 

IN A HOUSE OF LIES

Ian Rankin. IN A HOUSE OF LIES. Orion, 2018.

Back by popular demand, Rebus wheedles his way into the investigation of how a skeleton with handcuffed ankles ended up in the trunk of a car abandoned thirteen years ago. He suspects the body is Stuart Bloom, missing since 2006. Siobhan tries to distract him by asking him to review a conviction which the family of the youth is questioning. Corruption everywhere. Police Scotland are attempting to instill a new institutional culture. Rebus favours "the old ways". 

THIS IS PLEASURE

 Mary Gaitskill. THIS IS PLEASURE. Pantheon/Penguin, 2019.

I once heard Mary Gaitskill speak at a conference in Toronto. It was my introduction to her writing. This small novel reinforces my love of her style and her subtlety. A story of a friend who falls victim to "me too"-like accusations. 

A TOWN CALLED SOLACE

 Mary Lawson. A TOWN CALLED SOLACE. Vintage, 2021.

Set in Northern Ontario, told in three voices--Clara, the child next door; Elizabeth, the neighbour who is in hospital, and Liam who inherits the house. A U of M book club selection which I did not find a copy of in time to participate. Although I had to wait for the paperback release, it was worth waiting for. 

I really enjoyed this book The timeline is somewhat shattered, but all three characters are dealing with grief, with lies and truths about themselves and others, and with the importance of accepting change. The way Lawson dishes out tidbits of plot as the story progresses, and the way different people change differently, are masterful. 

FIGHT NIGHT

Miriam Toews. FIGHT NIGHT. Penguin, 2021.

Swiv, 100 months old, looks after her Grandma while they and S's Mom await Gord's birth.

Just finished this this morning, after driving to Winnipeg to buy it. The next UofM book club selection. By the last chapter, I was laughing out loud. Will also copy out the list of "rights/things" stolen from women.

My sixth book since July 1.

FRIEND OF THE DEVIL

Peter Robinson. FRIEND OF THE DEVIL. M&S, 2007.

Two plots. Banks seeks the rapist and killer of a young woman murdered in The Maze.

Annie seeks the killer who brutally slit the throat of an unknown woman in a wheel chair. 

The HANGING GARDEN

 Ian Rankin. THE HANGING GARDEN. Orion, 1998.

An early Rebus, but one of the best I've read. The hanging garden refers to a Nazi war crime. Big Ger is in jail and a younger rival gang is attempting to take over Edinburgh. 

CAMINO ISLAND

John Grisham. Camino Island. Dell, 2018.

Fitzgerald manuscripts stolen. Set in Florida. An independent bookstore. Antiques dealers. A young writer recruited to infiltrate.

A NECESSARY END

 Peter Robinson. A NECESSARY END. Pan, 1989.

Banks and Sandra are still married. 

The GLASS COFFIN

Gail Bowen. The Glass Coffin: A Joanne Kilbourn Mystery. McC&S, 2002.

A doomed winter wedding, about marrying for the wrong reasons.

HACKS

Donna Brazile. HACKS: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House. Hachette, 2017.

A democratic party worker and pundit who becomes acting chair of the DNC, trying to work with the Hillary Clinton election team. Learning on the run about computer hacking generated from Russia. 

The busy-ness and the responsibility and the amount of travel involved. I really felt for the negative impact upon the environment.

REACHER SAID NOTHING

Andy Martin. REACHER SAID NOTHING: Lee Child and the Making of Make Me. Bantam, 2015.

An academic, journalist, writer shadows Lee Child as he writes his 20th Jack Reacher novel. Very interesting depiction of one writer's process. He may have a title. He has no plot, other than knowing that Reacher will survive.

SPLINTER THE SILENCE

Val McDERMID. SPLINTER THE SILENCE. HarperCollins, 2019. 

I am so happy to have been introduced to this Scots crime writer equally as entertaining as Ian Rankin, and with female protagonists too. My selections have been in the Carol Jordan /Tony Hill series. In this one, Carol finishes re-doing the barn, gets arrested for drunk driving, and heads the new re-MIT major incident (crime) team. As a practice-run, they uncover a previously unknown serial killer. 

SCARBOROUGH

Catherine Hernandez. SCARBOROUGH. Arsenal, 2017.

Winner of CBC Canada Reads this year, 2022. Voices of students, parents, teachers, and administrators in a Toronto suburb. Although I am not usually a fan of stories told from a child's POV, this book is the exception. Revealing and moving.

Evelyn Evelyn

Palmer and Webley. EVELYN EVELYN. Dark Horse Books, 2011. 

A graphic novel about the unfortunate life of Siamese twin girls, Americans, who end up in Manitoba. 

CANADA

 Mike Myers. CANADA. Penguin Random House, 2016.

This is a love letter to Myer's homeland, written for Canada's sesquicentennial,150 years of confederation since 1867. Who knew that he grew up in the low-rental high-rises in North Toronto and Scarborough? 

It is fascinating as a study of nature and nurture, of how a creative person creates a career. Born into a family of recent immigrants from Liverpool. To a father whose highest expectation was finding the humour, making people laugh. Who made connections -- dance lessons to commercials. Who honed skills in work and in schools designed to nurture the arts. Who toured with Second City as a teenager. Went to England for what? The experience. The challenge. To a six year contract on SNL where he was "the Kid". He does not get into his later successes with movies, Wayne's World, Austin Powers, but that's probably because he has already written books about those years.

He doesn't spend a lot of time on the bad "learning" experiences except for his father's illness and death. He focuses his grief instead on his beloved Canada's seeming to lose its way, to abandon its dream of being the next great nation, of figuring out who we are and who we want to be and articulating those in a mission statement. It is inspiring in a way although perhaps dating too easily because of its seeming emphasis on the "great man" theory of leadership, that someone, some great leader, is required before progress can be made. It also suffers from his being so absent and unaware of current issues, especially the on-going challenge to correct the relationship between Canada, the people, the government , and the Indigenous peoples. Not even mentioned, and the cause of much grief up here.

All in all, an enjoyable and enlightening read.

PRINCE CHARLES

Sally Bedell Smith. PRINCE CHARLES: The PASSIONS and PARADOXES of an IMPROBABLE LIFE. Random 2017.

My Victoria Day weekend project, 507 pages on the life of a complicated man about whom I have always been interested because I was born 32 days after he was. I refused to accept this book until I was assured that it is not another trash piece. I was pleasantly surprised by the biographer's clear-eyed grasp of the mental health issues behind the failure of Diana to emerge as a suitable supportive princess wife. I like how Smith portrays the positives in Camilla's character and the importance of her as a source of love in an otherwise barren-seeming landscape of castles and duchies. Smith seems not to appreciate Prince Philip's role in setting the family tone, nor the Queen's dilemma in feeling that her duty to the monarchy had to be put before her parental responsibilities. Smith also seems to have no concept of Canada or of Elizabeth as our Queen. Nor does she seem to recognize how most of Charles' unfashionable passions (with the possible exception of homeopathy) have come full circle are are now dominating geopolitics. Most notably, environmentalism and climate change, but also the importance of spirituality in developing a love and respect for nature, and all other forms of life. And for the importance of the lived built environment, buildings and cities, to be human and community-centric.  

It also strikes me that all the things we hate about on-line culture--personal attacks, lack of focus on issues, hiding behind anonymity, using rumour and scandal-mongering as click-bait, presentation of opinion as if it is fact--are all part of the tabloid press so destructive in Britain and America. 

NO MAN'S NIGHTINGALE

 Ruth Rendell. NO MAN'S NIGHTINGALE. Scribner, 2013.

Retired inspector Reg Wexford, hounded by his talkative cleaning lady, mulls over the murder of the local vicar, a compassionate and strong single mother.

CARELESS LOVE

 Peter Robinson. CARELESS LOVE: An Inspector Banks Novel. McC&S, 2018

A body found "placed" in an abandoned car. A body found at the base of a cliff. A body found in a ruined bothy. Jurisdictions overlap. Is it murder? Is there a serial killer? 

STATE OF TERROR

 Hilary Rodham Clinton & Louise Penny. STATE OF TERROR. SimonSchusterStMartins, 2021.

A thriller about international intrigue and treason. How does anyone sleep at night? Happy to see Canada mentioned. 

BIRDIE

Tracey Lindberg. BIRDIE. HarperCollins, 2015.

An intriguing concept--an Indigenous woman, Cree from northern Alberta, moves to Gibson's because she is obsessed with actor Pat John, who played Jesse in The Beachcombers series. I really like the use of Cree words and modern versions of Cree legends used to anchor each chapter. I was confused by the reference to "the San" which I assumed meant a TB Sanatorium but is instead a reference to a mental hospital in Edmonton. Bernice (Birdie) suffers recurring mental health challenges stemming from unaddressed childhood trauma and unresolved grief. Her aunt Val, cousin Freda, and employer Lola rally around her. Not an easy read but the style alone is enough to warrant a second reading. Love the cover illustration also. 

RUNNING BLIND

Lee Child. RUNNING BLIND: A Jack Reacher Mystery. Penguin/Random, 2000.

Published in the UK as THE VISITOR. Reacher is under surveillance as he does one of his Good Samaritan acts to assist a restauranteur being extorted. He finds himself under arrest and transported to Quantico where his expertise is used to track a serial killer seemingly targeting female former military personnel who resigned after complaining about sexual harassment. Setting ranges from New York to Spokane. 

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS

 Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS. Delta, 1973.

Yes, wonderful. A novel of ideas told by three crazy men. The anonymous author. His creation, Kilgore Trout. And his other creation, Dwayne Hoover. And about the chemical imbalances and hidden growths which cause mayhem, prejudice, violence, and self-destruction in a soulless society.. 

INSIDIOUS INTENT

Val McDermid. INSIDIOUS INTENT: A TONY HILL AND CAROL JORDAN NOVEL. Atlantic, 2017.

This story about a serial killer in the Yorkshire Dales is the prequel to HOW THE DEAD SPEAK. The ending is surprising, as the writer says, and I will respect her request for "No Spoilers". 

JONNY APPLESEED

Joshua Whitehead. JONNY APPLESEED. Arsenal, 2018

This boy. This man. This guy. This writer can write. A book about loneliness, smeared with lipstick and semen. 

HOW THE DEAD SPEAK

Val McDermid. HOW THE DEAD SPEAK: A TONY HILL AND CAROL JORDAN NOVEL. Atlantic, 2019.

I had never heard of this writer, this award-winning Scottish writer of dozens of crime novels and others, until a friend loaned me two titles the very week that I got hooked on a new Knowledge Network drama TRACES, set in Dundee and attributed to Val McDermid. Synchronicity.

In this story, her crime-fighting team are post disaster. Psychologist/profiler Tony Hill is in jail for murder. Former DCI Jordon has retired to avoid being fired and is battling PTSD. Tony is writing a book and trying to make prison life and the world in general better by working from the inside. Carol is approached to do two investigations "off the grid". One involves Tony's hated mother, Vanessa. The other involves a group of professionals working on "wrongful conviction" cases. Their old CSI-like teammates are struggling to adapt to a backwards new leader during a historic graves case which shifts into a serial murder chase.

I was especially interested in the prison scenes and the info about PTSD. 

Looking forward to reading the second title. 

FIVE LITTLE INDIANS

 Michelle Good. FIVE LITTLE INDIANS. Harper, 2020.

The latest University of Manitoba Book Club selection. FIVE LITTLE INDIANS follows former students of a Mission School on an island off the west coast of British Columbia. Kenny. Lucy. Maisie. Clara. Howie. Also Lily, a child who died of TB, Kendra, Kenny and Lucy's daughter, and Mariah, a medicine woman. And the boys' mothers. And the Sister in charge of the school. Very touching accounts of the anger and lack of preparation for life experienced by the children who leave the school. The intergenerational trauma. The racial discrimination and systemic abuse of human rights. The stark jump over twenty years to include the opportunities for recourse offered by the Residential Schools Settlement program was a bit jarring. Some details, especially reference to parole board decision-making, seemed wrong. Also, the kidnapping in Vancouver of a six-year old boy from Red Pheasant, SK, seems so wrong that it is hard to believe it happened. I guess that goes for the whole mess of attempted assimilation. And for the beliefs which supported colonization from 1500 to the present day.

THE ART OF HAPPINESS: A HANDBOOK FOR LIVING

His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler. M.D. THE ART OF HAPPINESS: A HANDBOOK FOR LIVING. Riverhead/Penguin, 1998.

Interesting interviews and explanations about how the Dalai Lama sees the world. He seems to believe that humans are basically good and that everyone seeks happiness. He believes that we can train ourselves to increase our own happiness. His basic approach is cognitive, which also appeals to me. The contrast with psychotherapy is also interesting. Glimpses into different worlds, and different ways of seeing the world.

FANTASTIC FOSSILS

 Christine Petersen. FANTASTIC FOSSILS: ROCK ON! A LOOK AT GEOLOGY. ABDO, 2010.

Children's book about fossils--what they are, how they are made, and why they are important. 

BETTY

 David A. Robertson. BETTY: THE HELEN BETTY OSBORNE STORY. Portage and Main Press. 

Graphic novel retelling the day Helen Betty Osborne was murdered in The Pas, Manitoba, in the early 1970s. 

When We Were Alone

 David A. Robertson. WHEN WE WERE ALONE. Illustrations by Julie Flett. 

Children's book, explaining, grandmother to child, why children in residential schools were forced to look, dress, and behave in certain ways, and how the children resisted "when they were alone". 

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

Henry David Thoreau. CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE. 1848. In THE ANNOTATED WALDEN, Potter, 1970. Philip Van Doren Stern, Ed.

I've carried this volume with me for 50 years, always intending to read it, especially the "Civil Disobedience" essay. Now, after an angry and abusive trucker convoy occupied my capital, Ottawa, it felt as if time were running out. 

Thoreau explains why he is hesitant to pay property taxes to a government which condones slavery and funds a war against a sovereign neighbour, Mexico. (The editor suggests that, after the first incident, Thoreau's aunt paid his taxes in advance, in order to keep him out of trouble, out of jail.)

He refuses to pay to support a church of which he is not a member. He has no problem paying the road tax because he uses the road. 

He explains why he does not respect the legal arguments that the Constitution which permits slavery to continue is more right than the New Testament.

He dreams of a future in which individual rights are respected and people with different opinions will be able to live in peace side by side.