Absolutely delightful. Sera Swan is at the height of her magical powers when the one woman who has always protected her and made her feel loved drops dead in the garden. A talking fox coaches Sera on how to cast a forbidden resurrection spell. And of course, things go off the rails from there. Sera is able to resurrect her dear Great-Aunt Jasmine, but she unintentionally also brings back the long-buried pet chicken and saps all her magical powers. Sera has gone too far. She is outcast from the community of witches, she has the bare minimum magic left to keep her home and inn running, but she is tired and snarky all the time.
I listened to this audiobook and the narrator Samara MacLaren, who reminds me of Kiera Knightley, does a most-wonderful snarky and sarcastic voice.
Poor Sera has one, highly unlikely chance to get her magic back, but she is thwarted by her old rival and mentor at every turn. In the end she realizes that her life is more than just the magic, but it sure would be handy to get it back.
Carol Off is the former CBC Radio host of As It Happens and she was one of my favourite interviewers. Off had a way of talking to people and challenging them, while still being respectful. But over her decade and a half of interviews, Off noticed a change (and challenge) in how the right co-opted words like democracy, freedom, truth, woke, choice, and taxes. These six words form the basis for the chapters of the book. Off’s take is wide ranging, from history and politics to the meaningful ways that her childhood and parents informed her own world views.
I very much enjoyed listening to her interview on the On Rights podcast, presented by the Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg. Carol Off grew up in Winnipeg, as did I, so I have some bias there.
The premise for At a Loss for Words is that if we lose our shared vocabulary then we no longer have a shared understanding; we cannot express ourselves or converse with those opposed, nor can we in turn understand those who do not share our opinions. I was reminded of a lot of forgotten history nuggets, learned a few political lessons, and enjoyed a lot of fine writing. This book is a keeper. It kept me up at night, and I want to keep it around for reference.
The Paper Birds by Jeanette Lynes is historical fiction, from a Canadian perspective. Many readers of WWII history will know about Camp X, a spy training facility near Whitby, Ontario. But they might not know about the prisoner-of-war camps in Canada, nor about the Canadian women who worked under the Official Secrets Act in small facilities and converted private homes.
This is the story of Gemma Sullivan who works in an “office” job in the summer of 1943, with 4 other women, working to break codes. They meet daily at the “Cottage” and are given intercepts to break, but they have none of the machinery of Whitby or the prestige of Bletchley Park. It’s just their pencils and wits. The women have diverse talents in mathematics, logic, and literature. But they don’t share much in common, which leads Gemma to wander off during a lunch break for some alone time. During her walk, she is led by a stray cat to the edges of a prisoner-of-war camp where she strikes up a conversation with a prisoner. Fraternizing with the enemy has steep penalties and, given her intelligence work, it could be very bad news for Gemma. But she is drawn over and over to the handsome prisoner at the fence.
The Paper Birds is a quiet love story. There are no big dramas here, just the underlying tension Gemma feels about all the lies and lives she is upholding through her job.
I was not familiar with Jeanette Lynes before but she’s a Canadian author and has several books that have won or been nominated for awards in both fiction and non-fiction. So I’m keen to find more of her work.
Pineapple Street is a novel about generational wealth and how it affects the children of one particular family. The story is told from multiple perspectives: Darley, the eldest daughter who has traded her job and inheritance to raise a family with her Asian husband Malcolm; Cord, the prodigal son who is taking over the family real estate business and is married to middle-class Sasha, who is an artist and designer; then Georgiana, the youngest who is working in a non-profit while being weirdly tied to her wealthy friends and care-free lifestyle. Each of them has their privilege challenged in different ways, and although it’s not a wholly redemptive story it is a fun looky-loo at the upper, upper class.
I’m not sure the book stands up to its accolades but there are moments of cringe humour and a nod to Henry James and Jane Austen novels, in particular the focus on social commentary, especially in terms of the women in the novel and how they navigate marriage and social expectations. There is wit here too. It’s not a terrible book but I think it benefited from being written by a publishing insider and, whether intentional or not, that is its own meta commentary on wealth and privilege.
The author of The Poppy War delivers yet another stunning fantasy novel about treachery, magic, and empire building. In Babel, we find ourselves in 1830s Oxford, specifically at the prestigious Royal Institute of Translation, a.k.a. Babel. The role of Babel is to provide translations services to the British Empire, but more important silver working. In this fantastical version of England, the county and its colonies is run on a magical process of manifesting the meaning of two words into something more powerful. Match pairs like the Chinese word “wúxíng” and the English word “invisible” can be uttered by a bilingual speaker to make themselves invisible. Pairing the word “speed” with its Latin root “spes” can magically enhance the speed of a vehicle.
The British Empire has great need for translators who can discover more and more match pairs to make looms run on their own, to keep carts on the road, to strengthen their battleships or hone in on their targets. To that end, young Robin Swift is plucked from his home in Canton by Professor Lovell and trained in Latin, Ancient Greek and Chinese, with the end goal being that he join Babel and serve the Empire.
Robin is not alone. His cohort includes Ramy from Pakistan, Victoire from Haiti, and Letty Price, a lovely British rose who is adept at languages but will never be the son her father wanted. The four are each wowed by their privilege but Robin soon discovers a darker side to Babel. He meets his half-brother Griffin who is part of an underground resistance movement. Robin is suddenly caught up in undermining Babel and his peers. He starts to see more clearly Britain’s exploitation of other cultures and the appropriation of their linguistic resources for its own gain. Will his classmates join him? Will he abandon the cause?
I can’t tell you too much without ruining various plot twists but I can say that the play of language throughout the book, the etymology of words, and the power of magic are all very enjoyable aspects of this book. The colonization, the prejudices, the disparities between those in power and those who must carry the burden are all too familiar elements of human history.
If you liked Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell then you’ll enjoy the power struggles in Babel. If you liked Poppy War, then you’ll like the heroics of this feisty group of young Babblers.
A Gentleman in Moscow is the story of Count Alexander Rostov, a Russian aristocrat, who is under house arrest in a luxury hotel. Count Rostov spends over 30 years in the grand hotel Metropol. His opulent rooms are swapped for a tight attic room. Most of his treasures are taken. But although his material circumstances are greatly reduced, he is rich with his knowledge of literature and culture, his friendships, and his understanding of Russian history.
The Count has some love affairs, he befriends a young girl who also lives in the hotel, he keeps regular appointments with the hotel’s barber, and he uses his ingenuity with seating charts to help the hotel’s maitre d’ manage the various Bolshevik leaders and foreign travellers who come to dine. The Count is someone the Bolsheviks want to discard but he becomes indispensable to the hotel and its staff.
The book is quiet, but that helps convey Count Rostov’s old-fashioned nature. It’s elegant and eloquent, as is the Count. And I’d say it is a novel about survival. So many things get toss out by new regimes. But Alexander Rostov represents the things best kept.
Blue Sisters is the story of four dysfunctional sisters who are struggling to bond after the death of their beloved sister Nicky. Avery is the eldest (a recovering heroin addict, now high-paid London lawyer), who took over as mother to the girls when their own mother checked out. Bonnie is the next sister (superstar boxer, now low-paid bouncer in LA), who is the peace maker of the sisters. And Lucky is the youngest (a supermodel living in Paris, addicted to partying, alcohol and drugs), who is not sure who she is or what she actually wants to do. All three are lost without Nicky.
This is a story about coping with grief and coming to terms with the disappointments they each faced in childhood and young adulthood. Avery took on a mother role then escaped the family home as soon as she could. She lets her unexplored feelings destroy the life she’s built in London. Bonnie was the fighter and had the attention of their alcoholic father until she escaped into the ring but her unvoiced affections for her trainer and her loyalty to her sisters means that she drops her opportunities in favour of saving her sisters from themselves. And Lucky is still a child. Her modelling started when she was just a teen and she’s never had to grow up. She looks sophisticated in photos but really doesn’t want to be in the spotlight and distances herself from relationships as a protective strategy. Nicky connected the sisters. She was the best-loved by their parents and had a special bond with each sister. The linch pin was pulled with Nicky’s death and the three remaining sisters are left to figure out if they fit back together as a threesome and if there’s any room for a mother figure.
Overall I liked this book. There’s a good bit of humour and head scratching. Each sister is unlikeable in their own way, which can make this read a slog. But I enjoyed how the chapters alternate between their perspectives and I liked that the ending was not what I expected.
If you like the tv series Bad Sisters, this isn’t as crazy but it has all the wild dynamics of sisterhood.
What a lark! Butler and former Buddhist nun Helen Thorpe is yet again forced to play detective. This time she is compelled by her philanthropic employer Mr. Levine to join him as a participant in a group called Close Encounters for Global Healing. The group is run by Mr. Levine’s son David, who is in a bit of a bind. The group is meant to bring together a diverse set of participants who go through a series of exercises that help them find common ground. The “wealthy” person has bowed out and David needs a stand in, but nobody can know that the stand in is his father. Helen goes along for reassurance and security, since Mr. Levine is actually ultra-rich and needs a butler—that said, he is ultra kind, but still should not really be unattended in public settings. But Benedict Levine wants to see what his son loves about facilitating this workshop.
Turns out that the participants are unlikely to find common ground. There’s a burnt-out environmental activist who is down about everything, an internet troll who is a vile teen, a clued-out shopaholic, a white nationalist who claims he was just trying to get his girlfriend’s approval, and a dude arrested for his participation in the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa. The warring and bickering starts immediately and doesn’t end until two people go missing. Now poor Helen is left to figure out a plan. Thankfully her handy butler friends, Gavin, Murray and Nigel, are on hand to lend a hand.
Susan Juby’s writing is so masterful and funny. This is book #3 in the series and the quirks of Helen Thorpe are as delightful as book #1 and book #2. I hope there’s another Helen Thorpe mystery in her pocket.
Shane Parrish’s book Clear Thinking is my best nonfiction read so far, well for personal development. He outlines the four default responses that lead to poor decision making and how to create safeguards and routines to ensure intentional, deliberate choices are made instead. The four, instinctual, defaults are emotion, ego, social and inertia.
When we have an emotional response, it is to feelings vs. facts. Stress, fatigue, hungry, anger can all trigger an impulsive reaction.
When we have an ego response, it is a reaction to threats to our self-worth or status.
When we have a social response, it is to conform to group norms. That need to belong can block independent thought.
When we have an inertia response, it is about resisting change by doing nothing. Maintaining the status quo.
The next part of the book deals with the ways you can overcome those defaults with self-accountability (taking responsibility for your actions, no more “it’s not my fault”), self-knowledge (knowing your strengths and weaknesses and adjusting for your biases), self-control (mastering emotions and taking a pause before reacting), and self-confidence (trusting your abilities and taking action).
The last part of the book is about the decision-making process. Much of this section is similar to an online workshop Shane Parrish ran through his Farnam Street blog. It’s a 5-step process for making better decisions. The first step is actually defining the problem in a clear and specific way to ensure you are solving for the right issue. He has lots of tips for exploring solutions and avoiding binary (do it, don’t do it) options. Then evaluating the options gets full treatment in the book with clear steps on how to gather info (not too much, and from diverse sources but ideally as close to the source of expertise). The execute stage is about when decisions are either reversible or irreversible, consequential or inconsequential and how knowing what type of decision it is can then impact the speed of your decision. And last is learning from your decisions–documenting your process vs. “resulting” or assuming if it worked out that it was more than chance.
Clear Thinking is a great book to read if you are in the early stages of a big decision: do I seek out a higher position, do I invest a chunk of money into something, do I move cities. If you’re in the middle of a big change, then this might be too much, too late in the process. But if you’re interested overall in how you react to the world around you—everything from retorts at work to major decisions—then this is a self-help book mascarading as a business book in the best possible way.
The Maid’s Secret—the last book in the Molly the Maid series—features a wedding, a heist, and long-held family secrets. It’s a wonderful goodbye to our favourite maid and an excellent cast of supporting characters: Mr. Snow the hotel manager, Cheryl the delinquent maid, Mr. Preston the former doorman and Molly’s grandfather, Angela the bartender and friend to Molly, Detective Stark, and sweet Juan the fiancé.
Molly and Juan are quietly planning their city hall wedding when they are derailed by the filming of an Antique’s-Roadshow style tv show called Hidden Treasures. The Regency Grand Hotel is hosting the event and staff are invited to bring in their treasures for review. Turns out one of the trinkets Molly brings from her Gran’s collection is worth millions. Before Molly can wave a duster, her rags-to-riches story becomes a media sensation and she’s the target of an art heist and death threats. Poor Molly. Luckily, Gran’s diary comes to the rescue in more ways that one.
There are 4 books in the series and they are all heart-warming whodunnits. Check out NitaProse.com for the scoop.
