Category: Book Reviews (Page 26 of 40)

The Penderwicks is Jeanne Birdsall’s first book and I’m quite pleased that she’s since written a series about the four Penderwick sisters. Rosalind, 12, is the oldest, then there’s Skye, Jane and Batty. Plus Mr. Penderwick and Hound, the dog.

In this first novel, the Penderwicks find themselves summering at the beautiful estate called Arundel. The grounds are magnificent, the cottage quaint and the owner of the estate is a cold-hearted, nasty woman who cares about her garden winning first place in the Garden Competition, her son being well behaved and the four Penderwick daughters being out of sight. (Ok, she’s not really cold-hearted, but she rather sharp tongued and a bossy boots.)

The Penderwicks is charming. If you’re a fan of The Sound of Music, Pippy Longstocking, or any of Enid Blyton’s books, then this new series will seem like an old friend.

Lots of good writing exists in Canada, but there are a couple of authors who stand out for me and Miriam Toews is one of them. Maybe I recognize the Prairie sense of humour, or maybe she’s just really good.

Irma Voth is the quirky protagonist of this novel. She’s 19, married, Mennonite and living in Mexico. The problem is that she married a narco Mexican named Jorge who wants her to leave Campo 6.5, and whether he’s a narco or not, her father disapproves of Mexicans, anyone who leaves the campo, and everything his daughters do or want to do.

Quote: If my dad’s assessment was accurate this place was teeming with narcos, and not just the garden-variety narcos but narcosatanics in search of sensations (like Jorge, allegedly), bored with drinking blood from skulls and poised to bolt for bigger thrills while the rest of us were in it for the long haul, working hard and honestly for very little money, the way God meant for us to be. But I didn’t believe it. I think my uncle got a job selling cars in Canada and Wilf wanted to study the violin and my aunt thought it would be cool to get a prm. But who knows. Maybe they’re a family of drug lords now, throwing bodies out of helicopters and bowling with the heads of double-crossers. That would be my father’s theory.

The reclusively of Irma’s Mennonite community makes for some misunderstandings and confusion when a film crew moves in to make a documentary of the community. Irma, already ostracized from her family, is swept up in the madness of the film and hired as a translator for the lead German actress. Her innocence and curiosity is a virtue and a pesky annoyance to those more worldly. What I like about Toews’ writing is that Irma’s ignorance and questioning is more sound than the seemingly insightful musings of the film director, the lead actress, the film crew and Jorge. Irma gets it, even when she doesn’t.

Irma Voth was a fun read. I recommend it for those seeking some light summer reading.
Also available as ebook.

Congratulations to Emma Ruby-Sach on her debut novel, The Water Man’s Daughter. I really enjoyed this mystery. I never think that I am a mystery reader, but there was something about this title in the M&S catalogue that caught my attention. I’m pretty sure it was the bright cover but the description made it sound more like a literary novel than a mystery. I wasn’t disappointed.

This murder mystery takes place in South Africa, and the murdered man is Peter Mathews, a Canadian business man whose company is responsible for the privatization of the water supply in Johannesburg. His murder takes place in one of the townships and is rather grisly.

Claire, his daughter, arrives from Canada hoping to find some answers about what happened. She is put in the care of Nomsulwa, a local activist who dug up the water company pipes only days before the murder. Nomsulwa is tasked with touring Claire about by Zembe Afrika, our third female lead. Zembe is a policewoman in the township and is struggling to balance her community sentiments with her work ambitions.

All three women are fascinating characters and The Water Man’s Daughter is such a great read because of that. Claire is struggling with understanding her personal relationship with her father and her objective understanding of the work he was doing in South Africa. Nomsulwa is struggling with her desire to hate Claire and her water company connections while sympathizing with Claire’s broken allusions of her father. And Zembe is stuck trying to protect those she can in the community while turning a blind eye to injustices that in the end serve the community.

Emma Ruby-Sachs certainly writes like she’s no stranger to publishing novels. The twists and turns had me going until the end.

Congratulations to Emma Ruby-Sach on her debut novel, The Water Man’s Daughter. I really enjoyed this mystery. I never think that I am a mystery reader, but there was something about this title in the M&S catalogue that caught my attention. I’m pretty sure it was the bright cover but the description made it sound more like a literary novel than a mystery. I wasn’t disappointed.

This murder mystery takes place in South Africa, and the murdered man is Peter Mathews, a Canadian business man whose company is responsible for the privatization of the water supply in Johannesburg. His murder takes place in one of the townships and is rather grisly.

Claire, his daughter, arrives from Canada hoping to find some answers about what happened. She is put in the care of Nomsulwa, a local activist who dug up the water company pipes only days before the murder. Nomsulwa is tasked with touring Claire about by Zembe Afrika, our third female lead. Zembe is a policewoman in the township and is struggling to balance her community sentiments with her work ambitions.

All three women are fascinating characters and The Water Man’s Daughter is such a great read because of that. Claire is struggling with understanding her personal relationship with her father and her objective understanding of the work he was doing in South Africa. Nomsulwa is struggling with her desire to hate Claire and her water company connections while sympathizing with Claire’s broken allusions of her father. And Zembe is stuck trying to protect those she can in the community while turning a blind eye to injustices that in the end serve the community.

Emma Ruby-Sachs certainly writes like she’s no stranger to publishing novels. The twists and turns had me going until the end.

This book is as charming as its cover! De Bernieres’ collection of short stories showcases the eccentrics of a fictional English village named Notwithstanding. It’s a wistful look at the village’s inhabitants, who, according to the afterword, are based on De Bernieres’ childhood neighbours in Surrey: “the belligerent spinsters, the naked generals, the fudge-makers, the people who talked to spiders.”

One of my favourite characters is the “hedging and ditching” man who is constantly reflecting on the objects he discovers in the muck of the ditches. “The generally credited rumour was that he was the wealthy scion of an aristocratic family, who hedged and ditched in order to escape the fathomless tedium of an idle life filled with scones and trivial conversations.” Eye roll. Of course. He couldn’t just be a hedging and ditching man.

Then there’s Mrs Mac, who talks to ghosts, and Peter, who catches the Girt Pike, and the auspicious encounters of the famous Notwithstanding wind quartet.

I’m a fan of short stories and these interconnected tales tell a charming and witty history of a handful of quaint villagers who are a curiosity to everyone but themselves.

Notwithstanding by Louis de Bernieres (author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin)
Published by Vintage

Idaho Winter is one of those books that is going to mess with your mind. The cover makes it seem like it’s a reprint of a book published in the 40s or 50s. The opening scene is reminiscent of Harry Potter, in that Idaho is the boy cramped in a tiny room and unloved by his family, and Back to the Future, where McFly is bullied by Biff. Like Harry Potter, the reader learns what’s happening at the same as Harry does. In this case, the reader learns what’s happening at the same time as the author, who is our narrator and main protagonist, that is once it switches from Idaho. Very post modern. Like Back to the Future, Marty McFly can mess things up and prevent his parents from getting together. In this case, the author, or any character, could, and has, messed things up.

Confused? Let me tell you a little about the story.

Idaho gets beaten up, flees to the river, where he finds Madison, who wants to be his friend, but the kids, dogs and adults of the town chase him down and sic the dogs on him. But the dogs get Madison instead. Then Idaho becomes a giant and there are Mom-bats and secret caves and people turn into chocolate. Not kidding.

Idaho Winter is one of the most bizarre books I’ve ever read. I don’t mean that critically either. Do you know how dream stories are bizarre when told in the light of day? Well, that’s Idaho Winter. Characters morph into other characters. Perspective changes. Landscape shifts and changes. Things that are unexplainable make perfect sense, at the time.

Related Links:
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Buy the Book from Publisher ECW Press
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Mary-Ann Kirkby is a fantastic writer. Her first book is I Am Hutterite, which chronicles her childhood experience living on a Hutterite colony and her family’s integration into community life off the colony in the 1970s. It’s jarring and enlightening for both the reader and the 10-year-old version of Mary-Ann in the book.

In 1969, Mary-Ann was happily living on a Hutterite colony near Portage la Prairie, MB, which is about a hour drive from Winnipeg. With seven children in the family and an insular lifestyle, Mary-Ann’s family is representative of the Hutterite families I knew growing up.

In case you’re not from that part of the world, the prairies are home to the largest concentration of Hutterites in the world. They dress very conservatively, with women wearing handkerchiefs and long dresses. The community lives together and shares resources, including childcare, food preparation, farming and manufacturing. Like the Amish and Mennonites, they trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the 16th century and most of their beliefs and practices have been passed down through the centuries.

Mary-Ann’s portrayal of life on the colony is certainly an eye opener. I only visited 1 colony growing up and was at a teenage stage where I couldn’t imagine having grade 12 education and then cooking and cleaning for the rest of my life. My other experiences were with kids whose families had left the colony or with young men from the colony who would visit with my step-father to discuss farming and to sneak in a little bit of hockey watching in our family room.

Mary-Ann’s insights open up that world and the hierarchal structures in a way that is charming and enlightening. Her take on both colony life and off-the-colony communities was interesting to me since I’ve been hearing more Canadians talking about “co-housing” and other options for community life. Mary-Ann’s portrayal of the traditions of colony life offer interesting checks and balances to those co-housing models. But, back to Mary-Ann and her book …

In Mary-Ann’s case, her parents decided in 1969 that the support of the colony was no longer viable for them. Intolerance and mistrust forced their hand and they moved off the colony. The majority of the book chronicles life on the colony, with the final quarter or so being about Mary-Ann’s trials and tribulations trying to figure out how to fit in with the English kids at school. Not only is clothing different but lunch, dancing, and social structures are fraught with misunderstandings–all of it is at times overwhelming to her.

Since the release of I Am Hutterite in June 2007, the self-published book has sold 75,000 copies and surely deserves to sell more. A great book. You can buy the book here.

While recovering from my head cold on the weekend, I was looking for an escape novel. Something fun to read. I wasn’t convinced that this book was going to be fun considering it’s called The Solitude of Thomas Cave. Doesn’t promise a rollickin’ time, does it? But I was hoping it would be well written and worth the time investment. And it is.

The Solitude of Thomas Cave is a survival story. As I tried to make it to the 4-hour mark when I could have another dose of Tylenol sinus, my hero was trying to survive the elements on a remote island in the Arctic in 1616. Dear Thomas is left there by his whaling crew, and quite purposely. The whaling ship Heartsease ventures each year into the Arctic and returns home with their bounty of whale meat and blubber. On 1616 tour, Thomas calls out Mate Carnock as he mocks William Sherwyn’s tale of a sailor abandoned in the North who survives the year. What’s called into question is whether it’s possible for a man to survive. Thomas decided that he will take the wager that he can stay and survive a year until the crew’s return.

This is a literary castaway story about the lonely realities of living amongst humans and the vulnerabilities of living among nature. Left to fend against blizzards, avalanches, bears, and his own misery over the lost of his wife and baby son, Thomas reasons his way through the days, trying not to be taken in by the phantoms around him.

I was on cold medication, but I’m certain this was a beautifully told story of survival.

The Solitude of Thomas Cave
by Georgina Harding
Published by Bloomsbury
This seems to be the latest edition on Amazon.ca

I know Michael Chabon’s work only because of his Pulitzer-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, but I recently borrowed a copy of The Final Solution: A Story of Detection from my friend Julie, who enjoyed the novel, as did I.

The Final Solution is a quirky little detective novel, sort of like a pop culture version of a Sherlock Holmes tale. Although, it is set during WWII so maybe not “pop culture” but more pop than Sherlock. Like Sherlock, Chabon’s detective spends his retired days tending to his bees. (In fact, perhaps Chabon’s 89-year-old detective is the great Sherlock Holmes.)

This caper involves a 9-year-old, mute, dyslexic Jewish refugee and his African grey parrot who is prone to singing and repeating numeric sequences. There’s a murder, the parrot goes missing and old man “Sherlock” goes to work on the case.

A pretty fun way to spend a Sunday.

The Final Solution on Amazon.ca

Have you heard of Madras Press? They are the publisher of Andrew Kaufman’s story The Tiny Wife but, most important, they publish small square books and donate the proceeds to charities nominated by their authors. Very cool.

Now, Kaufman is one of my favourite authors. His two previous books, All My Friends are Superheroes and The Waterproof Bible, are top reads on my list. I was really excited to get this book!

The Tiny Wife begins with a bank robbery.

Quote: The robbery was not without consequences, the consequences were the point of the robbery. It was never about money. The thief didn’t even ask for any. That it happened in a bank was incidental. It could have just as easily happened in a train station or a high school or the Musee d’Orsay …

‘While this is a robbery …’ the thief said. ‘I demand only one thing from each of you and it is this: the item currently in your possession which holds the most sentimental value.’

Now, what would you hand over?

For the narrator’s wife it was a calculator. I’ll leave you to read the story to understand why, but the consequences are that she starts to shrink. Although this is alarming, it’s not as alarming to me as the character whose lion tattoo comes to life to chase her around the city.

But I don’t want to give anything away so what you should do is go to Madras Press and pay the full $7 for this awesome work. The sales benefit SKETCH, a community arts initiative in Toronto.

UPDATE: Andrew Kaufman’s The Tiny Wife is available from Cormorant Books