Category: Book Reviews (Page 29 of 40)

Ordinary Thunderstorms is a well written book with a horrible, morally short premise. I did not like this book, but I’d still recommend it. How’s that for conflict?

Adam Kindred happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In shock, he makes a serious of choices that make his situation worse. Throughout the book he continues to make poor decisions and yet the novel ends with no dire consequence to him. This is what I didn’t like.

What happens? (If you don’t like spoilers, stop now.)

Adam Kindred happens to meet Philip Wang in an Italian cafe. Wang forgets a file at his table. Adam decides to call him and personally return the file. He arrives at Wang’s apartment only to find Wang murdered, well, he’s not quite dead. Wang asks Adam to remove the knife stabbed into him, which Adam does. Adam’s finger prints are now on the murder weapon. Adam flees.

Adam continues to flee throughout the book. Wang’s killer continues to track Adam. The police bollocks things up. There’s conspiracy theories and secret agents. It’s all stupid, really. Adam continues to make dumb mistakes. I continued to read.

And as I mentioned, nothing really happens.

I tried not to spoil the details for you. I disliked this book, but if you like random, literary mystery stories, this is well written.

My favourite book of 2005 was Jim Lynch’s The Highest Tide. I still recommend it. But now I can recommend his latest novel, Border Songs.

Think The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time + CNN reporter on the hijinks of the Border Patrol + an episode from Weeds.

Border Songs is about Brandon Vanderkool, who is a six foot eight, dyslexic, perhaps slightly autistic, romantic, bird-watcher who loves working on his father’s dairy farm but happens to be serving his country on Border Patrol in Washington State.

This quirky novel tells the story of Brandon and the townsfolk on both sides of the border who complicate his down-to-earth approach to life.

There’s pot smoking and pot smuggling, and a pretty girl doing both.

There’s dairy farmers, gad-abouts, an insulting professor and an equally exacerbating vet.

There’s the Border Patrol, the smugglers and the victims of both.

Lynch has provided another wonderful look at a very particular, and peculiar, place along the Canada-US border. Like The Highest Tide there’s hilarious tension, tenderness towards wildlife, and insightful pokes in the ribs.

Border Songs by Jim Lynch is published by Vintage Canada.

The day job requires me to pretend like I know how to manage employees so I subscribe to a number of newsletters for HR, entrepreneurs and managers. I don’t find a ton of useful information, although it is good reinforcement that in all situations common sense should prevail.

I recently read this interview with Paul Falcone, VP of Employee Relations at Time Warner Cable and thought I’d check out the book.

What I learned was that whether it’s lateness, harassment, poor behaviour or lousy productivity, you should do something, and you should do it sooner rather than later.

Paul definitely has a “corporate America” take on how to have these conversations, but I still found value in his guidelines and the sample dialogues.

Be clear.
Be direct.
Be fair.
Be firm.

I was eagerly looking for anything to read in the Denver airport. I’d lost my previous book on another flight and wasn’t anticipating success in the airport bookstore. But I did spot Little Bee and picked it up because a woman in my row on the last flight had been reading it.

The first page and the back cover sealed the purchase.
Quote:
We don’t want to tell you WHAT HAPPENS in this book.

It is a truly SPECIAL STORY and we don’t want to spoil it.

NEVERTHELESS, you need to know enough to buy it, so we will just say this:

This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice, the kind of choice we hope you never have to face. Two years later, they meet again – the story starts there …

Once you have read it, you’ll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don’t tell them what happens. The magic is in how the story unfolds.

Chris Cleave has created an English garden maze of a novel. At each page-turn you are introduced to a new path, another piece of the puzzle, a possible way out.

Brilliant. I loved this book.

I pulled 35 books off my shelves that I’m sending to another home. If you’re in Vancouver and want to stake a claim on any of these, let me know. Some are already claimed, but have a peak at GoodReads for what’s available.

Monique’s book montage

Monique’s favorite books »

I’ve got another 18 that I want to recommend. In no particular order:

Lavinia by Ursula LeGuin to Boris who I think enjoys a good fantasy yarn and maybe hasn’t read LeGuin. If that’s true, then he definitely needs this book.

Public Art in Vancouver by Steil + Stalker to Sean who is involved with public art in Vancouver and may not have a copy of this great book, which I think would be an even better iphone app.

Taking Things Seriously by Glenn & Hayes to Rachael who has enough books I’m sure, but this one is quirky and might give her some fun photography inspiration.

The Big Why by Michael Winter to Darren who likes reading and should definitely get some Canadian writers under his belt.

Little Bee by Chris Cleave to my mom who will be interested in this fiction that could be true about a Nigerian girl who’s seeking refuge in Britain and the only people she knows is a couple she met on the beach in Nigeria while they were on holiday.

Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks also to Darren, in case he doesn’t like Michael Winters. This book is esoteric enough to be of interest, at least for a couple of chapters.

Audition by Barbara Walters to Jen, who I think would be interested in the celebrity memoir of Walters and the twists to her character that this book reveals.

The Order of Good Cheers by Bill Gaston to James, who should read Gaston because I think he’ll like the local settings and Gaston’s sense of place and character.

The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard to any of my geeky, interweb friends who want to claim it first.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters also to my mom because she likes these historical novels and because I like Sarah Waters.

Beatrice & Virgil by Yann Martel to Rachael who took me to the CBC Book Club to see Martel.

Duel by David Mulholland to Greg who was my high school English teacher and my next-door neighbour. This book is smart enough for him to enjoy.

Small beneath the Sky by Lorna Crozier to my grandma because she likes reading and she might like this Saskatchewan memoir since that’s where she grew up and because prairie girls stick together.

Jew and Improved by Benjamin Errett to Julie, not because I want her to convert but because, of all my friends, she’ll enjoy this exploration of religion, ritual and faith.

Madame de Stael: The First Modern Woman by Francine Du Plessix Gray is a beautiful book. I picked it up in McNally Jackson in Soho. Lovely. And the writing is, of course, equally fabulous.

What I love about bookstores are these types of discoveries. If McNally Jackson wasn’t such a gem of a store, and didn’t have interesting tables of books and little nooks to display staff favourites, then I would not have purchased this book or even known about it. Thank you McNally.

Madame de Stael was a legendary conversationalist. Schooled by her mother and well versed in the salon by the time she married, Madame de Stael was known for her intelligence, enthusiasm and eloquence, and natural conversation skills, unlike her mother’s, which were quite forced.

De Stael was passionate about politics, women’s rights and her father. The first part of the book details her childhood at the hands of her demanding mother and how she doted on her father, who was Louis XVI’s minister of finance. I just got into the section about her marriage, many affairs and motherhood then I misplaced my book! It’s lost somewhere in Florida so I have another on order from McNally Robinson Booksellers in Winnipeg (the parents of Sarah McNally, who runs McNally Jackson in Soho). Until then I shall have to wait to read about her battle of wills with Napoleon Bonaparte and the epic tales about her salon.

In the meantime, could everyone go find a gem in their local bookstore please. I would like them to remain in existence, both the gems and the bookstores.

Michael Lewis is one of those authors who I’d read regardless of the subject. He’s adept and entertaining and a brilliant writer. The Big Short is the story of the US subprime crisis.

In short, a handful of very smart men figured out how to game the system, but they were able to game the system because a handful of other smart men had reasons to create these opportunities to game the system. Overtime, more and more opportunistic folks entered the marketing, some smart and some foolish. At the end of the day, the smart folks playing the game got rich, the opportunistic folks got rich and the fools also got rich. The only people who lost are the people who didn’t realize they were playing, the Americans who had mortgages that they should have never been given.

Vanity Fair has a great excerpt, which is how I originally discovered this book. Lewis crafts an incredibly compelling narrative that is part detective story, part horror story and part unbelievable reality tv as text. Read the except, it sets the stage for the book.

The Barnes & Noble Review of The Big Short is far better written than anything I can pull off today.

My lasting impression of The Big Short is that a lot of people screwed each other other and the subprime crisis is the tip of the iceberg. Some folks got arrested, fined or jailed, but the system is still the same system. The idiots who created the right conditions for the opportunists are still at the helm.

There are a few books that let you look inside at the inner workings of the complex systems that govern our society. These books are always terrifying in that once you have this information, you must act on it.

On Amazon:
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis (Published by WW Norton). A look at Wall Street and the financial risk takers who brought down the system.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. A look at industrialized food production and how corn will, and is, bringing down the system.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins. A look at how U.S. intelligence agencies and multinationals ensure foreign leaders serve U.S. foreign policy and award lucrative contracts to American business. Perhaps more conspiracy that you’d like, but this level of corruption along with Lewis’ account of Wall Street presents a system that is not pure, fair or unbiased.

Any others to add to the list? Stevie Cameron’s On the Take?

Back in December I previewed The Dread Crew, and I’m thrilled to say that it’s every bit as wonderful as I’d hoped. The Dread Crew are a bunch of wily backwoods pirates who go around mucking up the place and being general nuisances and bullies. They take what they want and do what they want and are rather miserable about it all.

The Dread Crew are what Max and the Wild Things would have become if Max stuck around as their king.

Thankfully, good ol’ junk collector Joe knows just how to turn a brawling bunch of junk-hunting pirates into eccentric, and adored, members of the community.

The Dread Crew is a funny book that’s good for little people who like to be read to and big people who like a good laugh. For example, the most feared pirate punishment is office work.

If your kids are still enough to enjoy chapter books, then they should be game for this one. There’s nothing about it that reminds me of Charlotte’s Web, but I feel like it’s that kind of book, one to remember and to read and re-read.

I adore the Dread Crew: Hector the Wrecker Gristle, Slime Bucket Sam, Cranky Frankie, Fetchin Gretchen, and the whole pirate gang.

The Dread Crew: Pirates for the Backwoods by Kate Inglis
Published in Canada by Nimbus Publishing

Click the cover to browse inside (opens new window).

I came to know Chuck Klosterman through his fiction work, Downtown Owl,. Because I loved his novel so much I started seeking out his other works, which seemed to be nonfiction essays. Eating the Dinosaur is one of those collections and it’s brilliant. Not a day goes by that I don’t quote something from this book.

Eating the Dinosaur is the Chicken Soup for the Smarty-pants Soul.

I used to be annoyed when James constantly quoted or mentioned essays in this book. He read the book first, But I adopted these habits after finishing the book. Dammit, Klosterman is smart, or at least his ideas are compelling, which makes him seem smart, and by default makes me feel smart. Hence the smarty-pants comment above.

Chuck Klosterman has good journalist written all over him. He’s covered music, film, and sports, and remembers the details. He dissects pop culture the way miners pan for gold. After clearing away the dirt and shifting away the common things, Klosterman holds up the nuggets. And those nuggets are the totality of perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that make up our understanding of the world, and by world I mean world of culture consumption.

He talks about why music fan’s hate their favorite bands. Why superstars aren’t paid enough. Why singers are compelled to try out different personalities. Why interviewees want to tell the truth. What the truth is. Why Germans don’t laugh at nervous North American laughter. Why North Americans laugh. Why Ralph Nader is a literalist and how that makes him unlikeable. How the Unabomber could be wrong in his actions but right in his thoughts. Why TV is bad and the Branch Dividian not so bad. And why politicians are terribly sorry, and alcoholic.

This is my favourite nonfiction book of 2010. (The Waterproof Bible is my favourite novel, in case you’re asking.)

Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman
Published in Canada by Simon and Schuster in hardcover, paperback and ebook.

Sarah Waters is a lovely writer. She has written four bestselling novels: Tipping the Velvet, Affinity, Fingersmith and The Night Watch. Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith were by far my favourites, and those rankings stand.

The Little Stranger is a dark, and maddeningly compelling, read. Set in post-World-War-I rural Warwickshire, the dumpy, semi-successful bachelor Dr. Faraday has the hots for plain-Jane, fallen-from-riches Caroline Ayres. It’s an Austen-esque affair with a Mary Shelley monster story as a plot driver.

The Austen Element: Dr. Faraday becomes interested in Caroline Ayres, or perhaps the status she represents (even though she’s poorer than a church mouse). Caroline is interested in Dr. Faraday as an exit route from her dire circumstances and family burdens. I won’t spoil the romance tale by telling you what happens here.

The Shelley Element: Hundreds Hall has been home to the Ayres family for centuries. It’s a grand mansion that’s crumbling without dignity. An eyesore, a money sinkhole and an emotional burden (how can you give up the family home even as it drags you down), the home has personality and character in ways that become hauntingly evident throughout the novel.

As sinister things occur to each family member, it is Dr. Faraday, our trusty narrator, who is left to rationalize the happenings. But is he so endearing? Is he an infallible narrator?

Again, I won’t spoil it by telling you my thoughts here. Instead I’ll say that although the narrative was eerie and formed a great literary suspense story, I found Dr. Faraday exasperating. Not enough to stop reading, but enough to feel like he was an unwanted guest at an afternoon tea party from which I couldn’t extract myself.

If you like Sarah Waters, definitely give this one a read. If you haven’t heard of her before, start with Tipping the Velvet or Fingersmith, then make your way to this novel.

www.sarahwaters.com

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Published in Canada by McClelland & Stewart in hardcover, paperback and ebook