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Tom Lake by Ann Patchett | Book Review

October 16, 2023 / Monique

Tom Lake is an absolutely stunning book about love, how you don’t really know your parents, trauma, choice and destiny.

Ann Patchett is one of my favourite writers because she just settles into your brain like no other writer. This book is about a northern Michigan family caught up in the COVID pandemic who have to hunker down to get the cherries off the trees in their orchard. The families of labourers who normally come are not available. And if they don’t get the cherries off then it affects their livelihood. To pass the time, or to get away from the stress of the current time, the 3 grown daughters have asked their mother Lara to tell them about when she was an actress dating the now-famous actor Peter Duke.

What transpires is a beautiful look at the ways we love people, and how that love matures (or doesn’t depending on the person). I also felt that this novel was about the trauma of the pandemic, the existential dread, the what-ifs you ask about your own life.

Lara’s youngest daughter desperately wants to be an actor so she doesn’t understand how Lara stepped away from it all. Lara’s eldest daughter as a teenager truly believed that she was Peter Duke’s daughter and although she’s come around, the mistrust is still there between mother and daughter. And could their father be any kinder a human being? He is the loveliest character of them all, a steady rock throughout. In many ways, this story is about catharsis. For Lara, she is examining a time in her life that is seemingly behind her, but the more she considers the story from her daughters’ points of view, and goes deeper into that time herself, the more it’s clear that this is a past, unresolved trauma. It’s not behind her (yet), but without talking it through, there is no closure.

Ann Patchett is masterful in how she weaves in multiple stories about the different characters, but also brings in the richness of Thorton Wilder’s Our Town and Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. Classics that I now must re-read in order to appreciate even more the rich talent on display in this novel.

You don’t need to read Our Town before reading Tom Lake but if you know the play then the novel is an even better read. Undoubtably you will read Our Town after reading Tom Lake so the publishers should really bundle these two together. The opening passage of Our Town still haunts me. It’s a beautiful play about everyday life and what we see (and miss) in the passage of a lifetime. Lara’s acting experience revolts around her role as Emily, and it’s made me appreciate Ann Patchett and Thorton Wilder all the more.

Published by HarperCollins Canada

The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell | Book Review

September 27, 2023 / Monique

These quotes say it best: “This delicious combination of Clue and The Great British Bake Off kept me turning the pages all night!” —Janet Evanovich, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Only Murders in the Building meets The Maid in this darkly beguiling locked-room mystery where someone turns up dead on the set of TV’s hottest baking competition—perfect for fans of Nita Prose, Richard Osman, and Anthony Horowitz.

Six aspiring amateur bakers arrive to Grafton, a lovely Vermont estate run by Betsy Martin, nicknamed “America’s grandma”, for Bake Week. But things go off in the first episode. One contestant’s sugar is swapped for salt. The second episode has a contestant’s homemade orange essence ruined. Is it sabotage or accident? Nobody really knows.

Tensions run high between creator Betsy and the newly announced co-host Archie Morris. Perhaps Archie has his fingers in too many pies? The novel opens with full on suspense and each chapter and character takes us deeper into twists and turns that are tighter than a cinnamon roll.

Published by S&S in Canada

Available on Amazon

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn | Book Review

September 27, 2023 / Monique

I become a huge fan of Kate Quinn after her book The Shrines of Gaiety and I have since inhaled The Rose Code and The Alice Network. The Rose Code is a masterful spy novel that alternates between flashbacks to the the 1940s wartime activities of at Bletchley Park and the days leading up to the royal wedding in 1947.

Three headstrong women answer the call to join the war effort at Bletchley Park. They do not know what they are getting into. Osla is a beautiful and wealthy debutante who puts her fluent German to use as a translator. Mab is an east-end London powerhouse who is a towering beauty with a sharp set of eyebrows. And Beth is a mousey, downtrodden local girl with a panache for crosswords. She is a brilliant puzzle cracker and becomes one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts.

But Beth also sniffs out a traitor and finds herself locked up in a sanitarium before the war is over.

Osla, Mab, and Beth are estranged because of a series of small betrayals between the friends. It means that Beth’s accusations are buried and Osla and Mab are not aware of the traitor until they receive a message from Beth that she has managed to smuggle out of the sanitarium. Will they help her?

The Rose Code is a fantastic story about the layers of friendships, betrayals, and loyalty. It’s fast paced, fun, and taps into some of the real history of the Park. I listened to this on audiobook and the narrator did a great job of the various British accents and creating a veil of mystery.

See the Author website for more info.

On the Ball: Short Stories, Anecdotes, and Words of Wisdom on the Mental Side of Sport by Michael Lodewyks

September 17, 2023 / Monique

On the Ball is a masterclass in the mental strategies coaches and athletes can use in sports, but it’s also full of personal anecdotes that resonate with parents of athletes and even working adults. There are tips here that work for work as well as they work for sport.

Michael Lodewyks has spent over 25 years coaching volleyball and tennis and this book is a massive brain dump of everything he’s learned and observed in his time. The book is well organized with key takeaways at the end of each section and a big-picture plan as a final summary of the tips. The strategies are well tested in professional sports beyond volleyball and tennis and again this book really is a resource for anyone wanting to up their game.

Available on Amazon or from the author’s site.

Bomb: The Race to Build-and Steal-the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin

September 17, 2023 / Monique

The book Bomb by Steve Sheinkin is an absolutely fascinating read about what was going on at Los Alamos during WWII and the mad race for physicists around the world to figure out atomic weapons. Oppenheimer is certainly a presence in the book, but where the film delves into the behind-the-scenes trial, this book digs into the many different personalities working on atomic energy. I wish I’d read this book before seeing the film.

If you like history and spy stories then this is for you. It’s billed for age 10-14 but don’t let that dissuade you. Sheinkin offers up a rich history lesson, in plain language, that is spine-tingling.

Check out the excerpt on the author’s website. Or just go buy the book (Amz).

Still Life by Sarah Winman | Book Review

September 5, 2023 / Monique

Still Life by Sarah Winman is an expansive novel with a great cast of characters. The basic summary is that an English soldier during WWII saves a man in Florence. That man later leaves his home and possessions to the English soldier, who takes a chance and moves from East End London to Florence.

Beyond the basics, there is so much happening in this novel. The soldier and main character is named Ulysses Temper. During the war his captain, Darnley, teaches him how to appreciate art. In a random meeting, Ulysses and Darnley enjoy an amazing glass of wine with an art historian Evelyn, whose father is HW Skinner and who is friends with EM Forster and Constance Everly. Some of these characters are real people and others are great fictions.

After the war, Ulysses returns to the East End London to live above his friend Col’s pub. He reconnects with a long-time friend Cressy, and learns that his wife Peg had a daughter Alys while he was away at war. When Ulysses learns that he has inherited money and property, Cressy and Alys come with him to Florence where they set up a pensionne for British and American travellers. They meet another cast of characters, and collectively survive and flourish.

This is such a big hearted book about love in all its forms. Plus, there’s all the art and food you could expect from a novel mostly set in Italy.

Published by Penguin Random House Canada

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk | Book Review

August 25, 2023 / Monique

First published in Polish in 2009 and newly translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is a literary murder mystery set in a small Polish village. The novel opens with the death of a man in a remote forest area. Two neighbours go to investigate lights left on in the home and discover the man dead. They move the body, dress the man in a suit, and call it into the police. To do the latter, they have to climb a hill in order to get enough reception to call the Polish police vs. the Czechoslovakia authorities. .

Our protagonist Mrs. Duszejko is one of the neighbours. She teaches English at the village school and is an astrologer. She has nicknames for many members of the community: Oddball (the other neighbour), Big Foot (the dead neighbour), Dizzy (her friend with whom she translates Blake’s poetry), Good News (thrift shop woman), and Black Coat (Oddball’s son, who is also the police inspector).

Mrs. Duszejko is quite the character. She is convinced that the forest animals are seeking revenge on hunters in the area. As more men end up dead, her horoscopes and theories are presented repeatedly to the police who write her off as a crazy old crank. But there might be something to her madness.

Author Olga Tokarczuk is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and her novel Flights won the Man Booker International Prize. In Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, she pushes the reader to reflect on philosophical questions about human nature, our assumed superiority over animals, and the role we have in tending to the land. There is a quiet, unwinding to this tale.

I discovered this book at Upstart & Crow so I highly recommend you get your copy from them. The novel is published in Canada by Penguin Random House.

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli | Book Review

August 17, 2023 / Monique

Leah on the Offbeat is the delightful story of a close-knit group of teens who are graduating from their small-town high school and making their college decisions.

Simon and Bram are officially boyfriends, and just too damn cute—but will they choose colleges in the same city or is it long-distance love for them? Nick and Abby are the ideal couple—but is something is a bit off in paradise? Leah is our rockstar drummer and queen of drama—but is she pushing away her friends so that the goodbye isn’t as hard? Garrett is crushing hard on Leah—but does he know Leah is bi and maybe more into Abby than him? Nora, Morgan, Anna, Tylor, and Martin make up the rest of the crew.

This novel is all about sweet teen romances and how important it all seems in the moment. There are so many cliched scenes in the book but it’s adorable. If you went to high school, you will relate to everything from the promposal to the dance-off, from the hangouts at the Waffle House to the parties in the basement. Albertalli offers a glimpse into the lives of a group of teens who you’d love to know.

Leah on the Offbeat is published by HarperCollinsCanada

Snowflake by Louise Nealon | Book Review

August 12, 2023 / Monique

Snowflake by Louise Nealon is great craic. It’s the story of eighteen-year-old Debbie who has grown up on her family’s dairy farm about 40 min outside of Dublin. She’s a country girl. Everyone knows her uncle, who is frequently at the pub, and her mam, who’s shacked up with a younger man. Debbie’s uncle Billy lives in a caravan on the family property and, despite how transient that sounds, he’s a source of stability for Debbie. Her mom Maeve believes that she has other people’s dreams, she dances naked in the sea, and spends a lot of time in her bed or writing in her dream journals.

Being a special snowflake is a putdown, but each of these characters is unique and has their own quirks. Debbie feels like a country bumkin every time she’s in the city, but she figures out commuting, her coursework, making friends, and how to drive. There are a ton of Irish expressions and I feel like I met many of these people during my own time in Dublin teaching at the university. But I don’t think you need to have lived (or even visited) Ireland to appreciate this novel about growing up and accepting your crazy family.

Snowflake is published in Canada by HarperCollins

Book Details

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn | Book Review

August 3, 2023 / Monique

Set in 1947, The Alice Network is the story of Charlotte (or Charlie) an American woman desperately seeking her French cousin (Rose) who disappeared during the war. Her one clue is the names Eve Gardiner, Rene, and Le Lethe.

Well Eve turns out to be an old drunk with damaged hands, a poor temper, and the owner of a Luger, which she aims square between Charlotte’s eyes.

Rene is a profiteering monster who ran Le Lethe, a restaurant in Lille frequented by the Germans during the Great War.

Eve worked as a spy for England and had perfect French and German. She infiltrated the restaurant as a stuttering French waitress and managed to pass a number of excellent secrets to the head of the Alice Network, Louise de Bettignies (alias Alice Dubois).

The novel is historical fictional, with Eve, Charlotte and Rene being the imagined characters. But the Alice Network was real, as was Louise de Bettignies, the Queen of Spies, who ran a WWI network of spies in an area of France near Lille. She was formidable.

The novel is great, as is the author’s note pointing out the many stories in the novel that are based on real stories of female spies during the Great War, their trial records, and personal accounts.

Published by HarperCollins Canada
Or visit the author site for the book trailer and cool additional resources

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