READING IN PROGRESS
I can't read when I'm writing. Too much else going on inside my head. And, I cannot concentrate for long periods of time when, like now, January and February, 2023, I am working at an almost overwhelming course on Editing and Revising my own draft novel, In Your Dreams. Hence, I have six opened books sitting beside my reading chair.
I had started this one, from my shelves, partly because the selections are short and easier to pick up and put down. And she is a known master writer. And because I love the title.
Borrowed from writer group members, because it is a collection of crime-related short stories. Sometimes short stories are easier to pick up and put down.
So I went down to the bookstore to order a title recommended in my course and now listed as one of this year's Canada Reads books, Michael Christie's GREENWOOD. While there, could not resist picking up another memoir by a favourite Canadian voice, Tomson Highway's PERMANENT ASTONISHMENT. Love it.
When the store called to say GREENWOOD was in, I couldn't resist checking the stacks. Well actually, I saw a new title I want to read but it is over $30. So I went to see if there might be a used copy in the stacks. No, but I found a writer I've heard about but not read. Bought it. Tommy Orange. THERE THERE (and left an order for a used copy of the new book I was looking for).
GREENWOOD is 497 pages. I am 20% through. Loving it. Of course, because I love trees. And, although my mother was born in Greenwood, this book is more about a place like Cathedral Grove and not about the mining town in the southern interior. I plan to have finished reading it before the debate starts in March.
1 comment:
I finished THE UNQUIET DEAD, set in Toronto but about criminals escaping justice from the war in Bosnia. I found the female policewoman hockey player somewhat unconvincing, especially her language. But the information explaining what the war was about, the different sects, the massacres and use of rape as a tool of war, were depressingly enlightening.
I also finished GREENWOOD before the Canada Reads debates started. Enjoyed this one, especially the tree and woodworking metaphors, and the design of the book. At 500+ pages, this book offered more to criticize. A dystopian future. Four generations of a "family". Set between the Maritimes and islands off the coast of BC, in the States, and in depression-era Saskatchewan, from early 1900s to 2038. Lumberjacks, lumber moguls, and tree-huggers. But not one mention of towns named GREENWOOD, in BC or NS.
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