What Are We Reading Now (July-Sept. 2019)?

I'm about to start Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World by Steven Johnson

I'll be indulging in a re-read of Linwood Barclay's memoir, Last Resort.

#4 in a rather mediocre crime fiction series (the main redeeming feature of which is that all the novels are set in Edinburgh-a city I love)-Perfect Silence by Helen Fields.

The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland / Jim DeFede
4.25 stars

Gander, Newfoundland has about 10,000 people. It was once a hub for airliners to stop to refuel, so it has lots of space for large aircraft. On 9/11, when the terrorists took down the Twin Towers in New York, air space in all of the United States was closed. Flights already in the air were ordered to land as soon as possible. 38 planes chose to, or were ordered to, land in Gander, adding 7,000 people in to the community who ended up staying for a few days before being able to get back on flights to continue on (or go back).

When Gander declared a state of emergency, people were housed at schools, churches, and anywhere else that had room, while flight crews took over all the hotel rooms. The people in Gander donated hours of their time, items from their homes, food, and places to stay for some of the stranded passengers. Friendships (and maybe even at least one romance) were formed.

The book was published in 2002, about a year after the events of the day. Some of the people the book followed included: a husband and wife returning from Kazakhstan with a little girl they’d just adopted; there was the parents of a missing firefighter in New York; there was royalty; there was a couple of higher-up people in well-known companies; there were a few Jewish people, in a town where most of the people had never met a Jewish person before, and more. I hadn’t thought about the animals that were on those planes, in the cargo hold!

I’m Canadian. I grew up in a small town, and can see people reacting as the people of Gander did, doing everything they could do to help. 9/11 itself is an emotional topic, though I have no close personal connections to New York. This was emotional, it made me feel proud to be Canadian, to read about everything the people in Gander had done.

I listened to the audio book, so I missed out on some photos that were included in the book. Overall, a really good (and emotional) account of what some of the people who were flying that day went through when they landed in a small isolated town in Eastern Canada.

My two primary reads at the moment are The Looking-Glass War, by John le Carré; and Caesar's Last Breath, by Sam Kean.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman.

Now reading Henry I: The Father of His People, by Edmund King, which is part of the Penguin Monarchs series.

Also finished The Looking-Glass War, so I'll be starting a new bus book tomorrow: The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax, by Dorothy Gilman.

Slight change of pace for me-my latest read was a true crime book by former FBI behavioral analyst John Douglas and documentary filmmaker Mark Olshaker, called The Killer Across the Table. I readily confess I find the question of why serial killers do the things they do quite interesting, but I did find this book full of unnecessary digressions, etc. and often it didn't flow well.

Getting some Canadian content in: Strange Things: The Malevolent North in Canadian Literature, by Margaret Atwood.

Who Has Seen the Wind / W.O. Mitchell
3 stars

Brian is a boy growing up in Saskatchewan in the 1930s. He lives with his parents, a younger brother, and his grandmother, whom he hates! The book starts when Brian is (I think) 4-years old and continues until he is 11 (I think).

It was ok. Pretty slow-moving, as nothing big really happens. It was just things that happened in his life as he was growing up. I grew up in Southern Sask (though in the 70s and 80s!), but “recognized” some of the small town prairie happenings (i.e. (sadly) kids trying to get gopher tails; luckily, I never saw it, just heard about it). Overall, it was ok.

I read a lot of crime fiction, but generally prefer British writers - I think they tend to be more subtle and "clever" in their storylines. However my latest read We Were Killers Once by American writer Becky Masterman really got me caught up in it, probably because of the story's historical twist and I remember being fascinated by Truman Capote's In Cold Blood many, many years ago.

I'm doing super secret review reading for short lists! Often there's some Canadian stuff in here but haven't looked too closely yet. Three books to look at right now.

Also, just finishing The Case of the Perilous Palace from the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency series. Not 100% accurate but pretty cute. Mary Godwin (later Shelley) and Ada Byron (aka Ada Lovelace, I believe) team up to solve mysteries, sometimes with the help of their friend Charles (Dickens). This is the first one I've read, solely because it had a little King Charles Spaniel on the cover, who I believe is supposed to be Dash (except Dash was tri-colour). ;)

I'm reading Personal Injuries by Scott Turow.

Continuing the CanCon theme with Scotchman's Return, an essay collection by Hugh MacLennan.

I don't know why I bothered finishing this book-thought I would like it being as it was supposedly a psychological thriller, plus it featured an unreliable narrator-an aspect I usually really enjoy in a novel, but...boring, and definitely not thrilling in the least. The Favorite Daughter by Kaira Rouda

Much better read than my last book -Not My Father's Son: A Memoir by Alan Cumming, of whom I've long been a fan.

Owls in the Family / Farley Mowat
3.75 stars

Billy has a collection of animals as pets, including gophers, snakes, rats… He and a couple of friends decide they want an owl, so go looking to steal one from a nest, but instead find an injured baby owl and bring him home. They later come across a second injured one, and bring him home for company for Wol, the first owl. The two owls are very different in personality, but they both seem to not realize they are owls who can fly and do other things owls can do.

This was so short; I wish it had been longer. I felt terrible when I thought Billy was going to bring home an owl by stealing it out of a nest! There were plenty of humourous stories about Wol and Weeps. I am curious if Mowat actually had owls as pets.

>16 ted74ca: Oooooh, I listened to the audio of that one (narrated by Cumming himself) - really enjoyed that one!

I'm staring my latest LTER book, The World on Either Side by Canadian author Diane Terrana.

Continuing the Scottish theme with The Wallace, by Nigel Tranter.

I'm reading Flee, Fly, Flown by Janet Hepburn

Glass Houses by Louise Penny

I'm reading Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair that Shaped a First Lady by Susan Quinn.

>18 LibraryCin:. I bet that was great! I love listening to Alan Cumming speak!

>24 ted74ca: It really was! :-)

The Blue Castle / L.M. Montgomery
4 stars

Valancy is turning 29 years old and is constantly reminded by her family that she is an old maid. She has always been a good, obedient daughter, but hates pretty much everything about her life with her family. She even wears only clothes her mother approves of and an old-fashioned hairstyle approved by her mother. When she receives some news, she finally stands up to her family and does things that she wants to do, just for herself.

I really liked this. I liked Valency, though I hated her awful family. I liked some of the other characters, as Valency gets to know them after her rebellion from her family. It’s frustrating, the lack of options for an unmarried woman during this time (the 1920s). It’s slow-moving, but I really enjoyed it.

>26 LibraryCin: Her family was so awful! The dinner-party scene was GREAT, though. I was literally punching the air in triumph when she finally asserted herself.

I'm favouring lighter reads at the moment. Today I plowed through a good chunk of Denise Mina's latest novel, Conviction.

>27 rabbitprincess: LOL!

I am re-reading Adultery by Richard B. Wright

Finally opened up Moral Combat. It's been on my shelf for a while.

I'm about to start Fortune Favors the Bold by Theodore Modis

Started a short story collection on my breaks today: Flight or Fright: 17 Turbulent Tales, edited by Stephen King and Bev Vincent.

I don't normally read any fantasy novels, but one of my co workers insisted I would like this book, and I did. Much more a historical fiction than fantasy, though. Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay. Good read.

>34 ted74ca: I read Ysabel which I liked well enough and it was well written. I get the impression that GG Kay bases his fantasy close to history and folklore so it's less "fantastic" and more other worldly. Ysabel takes place in Provence, France, and uses old Celt/Rome in its fantasy.

>34 ted74ca:, >35 WeeTurtle:, Ysabel is an outlier among Kay's novels, for being urban fantasy. Most are in the Under Heaven style of historical fantasy, but he's usually Europe-centric.

My favourites of GG Kay's are the Summer Tree trilogy, Tigana, and The Lion of Al Rassan. Once I got into the trilogy, it was really hard to put it down, and even worse to wait for the publication of the 3rd one!

(I hope all of these words are the right ones, something likes to change things while I am typing.)

I finally finished my Serial Reader read of Tom Jones, by Henry Fielding. That took me a while!

>37 nhlsecord: My sister was very fond of The Fionavar Tapestry which starts with The Summer Tree. I wasn't sure how many books it was. Her copy is all in one volume.

>38 rabbitprincess:, I read that this spring, took me a while too. Decent story, although what did the Man on the Hill have to do with anything?

Can't remember who recommended this novel to me but I really liked it-The Boy Made of Snow by Chloe Mayer. Life during wartime, suspense, mental illness, & fairy tales all combined in one poignant tale.

>40 Cecrow: I have to admit I skimmed a fair bit of that part! It didn't seem relevant to me either.

Wasted a few more hours of my life reading a "thriller" novel that just didn't flow well, had totally uninteresting and unlikeable characters, and was implausible at times: I Know Who You Are by Alice Feeney.

Just finished a book I borrowed from my BF's dad an embarrassingly long time ago: Covert Entry, by Andrew Mitrovica.

Now changing gears to SFF, with a short-story collection called The Future is Female!.

I've read The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition by Lewis Carroll and am breezing through Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty which a seat-mate gave me on the airplane.

Beautiful, beautiful novel. A perfect read for a too-hot-for-me summer's day. The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys

Changing gears a bit more today. Visiting with Vera Stanhope in Telling Tales, by Ann Cleeves.

A Geography of Blood / Candace Savage
4 stars

This starts off as a memoir. The author and her husband come across the town of Eastend, Saskatchewan, near Cypress Hills on their travels back home to Saskatoon from the U.S. They initially stayed for 2 weeks on vacation, but were drawn to the town enough to buy a house and live there part-time. While there, the author wrote about the landscape, the dinosaur history and the T-Rex Centre that is there, then started looking into the more recent history of the First Nations people who were there, but were driven off the land in the late 19th century once the white settlers started arriving. The last half of the book looks at the First Nations history of the area.

I probably would have given this 3.5 stars (good), except that I grew up only a couple of hours from Eastend, and have been there a few times. I can picture Eastend, the T-Rex Centre, Cypress Hills, the surrounding land, the ghost towns nearby that were mentioned... I’m sure I also once (though I didn’t remember it) learned the history of Chimney Coulee and the Cypress Hills Massacre. I’m pretty sure I’ve been to Chimney Coulee and can also picture that in my head. Good book, sad stuff about the First Nations people and everything that happened, but important to learn about.

I've just started Tales From a Midwife: True Stories of the East End in the 1950s by Jennifer Worth

Planning to start An Acre of Time, by Phil Jenkins, which I borrowed from my BF's parents recently.

I love anything by Kate Atkinson. Just finished the latest in her Jackson Brodie crime fiction series, Big Sky and it was well worth the long wait.

>52 frahealee: I think I made it as far as the introduction in Ivanhoe. Wishbone made it look okay but alas, wasn't about to stick to it. I still remember the two peasants' discussion about the words for a pig.

I'm reading Why?: Explaining the Holocaust by Peter Hayes

On a too hot to do anything sort of day, I finished this thriller in one sitting: My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing. Quite a good read.

I finished the (possibly surprisingly) enthralling The Map of My Dead Pilots, by Colleen Mondor. Wasn't feeling up to continuing An Acre of Time on the bus home, so I decided to start Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters, by Malcolm Hulke. One thing I cannot be accused of is reading the same sort of thing too often ;)

I've been trying to work my way through the Diana Gabaldon Outlander novels, after reading (and thoroughly enjoying) the first two in the series when they were first published in the 1990's. The TV series spurred my renewed interest. However, it took me several months to finish An Echo In the Bone, Book 7, I believe. Just can't get enthused about the story after they leave Scotland for America. It'll be a while till I buy the next one for my e-reader-might wait for the long, rainy, dreary months of fall/winter for that.

Another good summer read, another psychological thriller: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

ted, that's on my TBR shelf. It's been recommended by someone in my book club.

I've decided to start The Woman Who Walked Into Doors by Roddy Doyle

I'm reading Jake and the Kid by W.O. Mitchell

I'm reading Our Lady of the Serpents by Petrie Harbouri.

I'm reading The Confabulist by Steven Galloway.

I'm reading Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill for a book club.

I'm reading the Collected Ghost Stories of M.R. James, mainly because the story "Martin's Close" is being adapted by the BBC for broadcast at Christmas.

I'd previously read the first volume, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, but the re-reading has been good, especially "Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad" and "The Mezzotint".

I'm reading The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood

Tana French is one of my favourite crime fiction writers-her latest novel was great as usual-The Witch Elm.

More crime fiction reading-set in Glasgow, Scotland this time-Driftnet by Lin Anderson.

And yet more crime fiction-a really good one - just finished The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz.

>69 ted74ca: That one was a lot of fun!

On a similar note, yesterday I finished Rocket to the Morgue, by Anthony Boucher; Boucher makes a cameo appearance in his own book (although he is not the sleuth).

I'm finishing up the month with some weighty non-fiction (The Voices of Nîmes, by Suzannah Lipscomb) and a light re-read on audio (Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth, by Frank Cottrell Boyce, read by Peter Capaldi).

I'm reading my ER book, Past Perfect Life by Elizabeth Eulberg

Just spent a delightful afternoon reading a book in a single sitting: Smallbone Deceased, by Michael Gilbert.

The Accidental Veterinarian: Tales from a Pet Practice / Philipp Schott
4 stars

The author is a veterinarian in Manitoba, and this is a memoir of how he became a vet, as well as anecdotes of his practice, including not only the pets/animals he sees, but also the people and behind the scenes, as well. It was originally written as a series of blog posts (or most of the stories, anyway).

I found this really interesting; in addition to the animal stories, he discusses things like costs, diseases, etc. He gives tips on dealing with your vet, as well as dealing with your pet (i.e. giving a pill to your cat!). He also talks about the people he sees. Because it’s written in short “essays”, it moves from one topic to the next quickly, but that didn’t really bother me. I really enjoyed this!

I stayed up too late last night to finish an intriguing book that then left me with lots of questions to puzzle about after I finished it. Definitely a departure from my usual reading fare-this one is part sci-fi, part dystopian horror story, an examination of relationships and oneself-just incredibly different!
Foe by Iain Reid

I'm reading Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Upstream / Sharon Butala
3.5 stars

Chloe is ½ French and ½ English, and she grew up in Saskatchewan. When her husband heads to Scotland to work on his PhD, she discovers he has been having an affair. Not knowing what to do about her marriage, she travels for a bit with a friend, then heads to her father’s French town in Sask. for a while. While there, she learns about being French in Saskatchewan and comes across her grandmother’s diary.

Unfortunately, there were no likable characters in this book. That almost brought my rating down to 3 stars (ok). However, I got much more interested in the second half of the book when Chloe started reading her grandmother’s diary – about having to move from Quebec to Saskatchewan and starting over in an English province (though in a French town). I am not French, but I grew up in a small, primarily French, town in Saskatchewan, so I found this really interesting: the history of the Fransaskois (French-Saskatchewanians). The town this was set in was not near the town I grew up in, but it was close to Batoche, famous for the battle during the Rebellion where Louis Riel was defeated.

I'm reading Slide Rule by Nevil Shute

Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes / Kamal Al-Solaylee
4 stars

The author was born in Yemen in the 1960s. He was the youngest of 11 siblings and was only 3 years old when the family moved to Beirut (Lebanon), then not long after, they moved to Cairo (Egypt), where he spent his years growing up, and figuring out that he was gay. Most of the family eventually headed back to Yemen, but long before then, Kamal knew he had to get out of the Middle East. He yearned to go to England or the US, where he felt he would be able to be himself and not hide. He managed a scholarship to study in England, and from there, he eventually made his way to Canada.

This covered the 1960s (when the people of Yemen and Egypt were relatively free and not so constrained by religion) up to and including 2011. As Kamal yearned to leave, he hated to leave his mother and sisters behind, the way women were being treated by the time he got out. Some of his brothers had gone fervently religious, too much for Kamal’s liking. He tried to not look back on his life there, and even speaking to his family was difficult, as he was still hiding who he really was and it reminded him of how bad things were in the country he was born in. As things got worse in the Middle East, and in Yemen in particular with a civil war happening in 2011, he did seek out news from home.

This was really good. It was also very interesting, to read the cultural differences between the Middle Eastern countries he lived in and the Western countries. As a Canadian myself, it was really nice to see how accepted he was in Canada (Toronto, though I am from the West), regardless of his nationality and his sexual orientation. Completely not book-related, but as someone who has taken bellydance classes off and on, I had to take a brief break from reading to look up a famous Egyptian bellydancer his father hired to perform at one of his sisters’ weddings.

Today I started Medicine Walk, by Richard Wagamese.

I'm about to start Human Amusements by Wayne Johnston

I just finished The Quintland Sisters - Shelley Wood's fictionalized coming of age story based around the early years of the famous, sad Dionne quintuplets of the 1930's.

Back to reading thrillers or crime fiction-just finished Don't Wake Up by Liz Lawler. Good read by a new author.

>81 frahealee: I just finished today. I agree with your assessment.

Changing the pace up with a crime novel: A Cold Death in Amsterdam, by Anja de Jager.

I'd also intended to start Bush Runner, by Mark Bourrie, today, but that didn't end up happening. I should start it tomorrow.

I've nearly finished North of Normal: A Memoir of my Wilderness Childhood, my Unusual Family, and How I Survived Both by Cea Sunrise Person

>86 LynnB: Ooooh, what do you think? I've read it twice, once for each book club.

Just started Pawn in Frankincense, by Dorothy Dunnett. I'll be reading this for a while!

LibraryCin: I really enjoyed it...what a life she had! I am hoping to get the sequel, Nearly Normal, for my birthday.

>89 LynnB: Oh, good! So did I. I am also planning to read the sequel, but hard to say when I'll get to it.

I've just started The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Homes: A Refugee Story / Abu Bakr al Rabeeah & Winnie Leong
4 stars

Abu Bakr (or Bakr) was born in Iraq and his family (mom, dad, 5 sisters, 2 brothers + extended family) moved to Syria when he was 9 years old in 2010. Not long after, a civil war started, so the family was living with gun fire, bombs, and raidings on a regular basis. They had to always carry their id with them. Their father, in the meantime, was working on getting the entire family out of the country as refugees, but this took 4 long years. Bakr enlisted the help of one of his English teachers after he and his family arrived in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to help him write his story.

What a scary way to live. And I’m impressed that a still young boy (17 years old when this was published) managed to get this story out there and so well-received. His teacher, the woman who helped him write the book, also talked to the rest of his family for their perspective on the stories he told. She also confirmed the real events that he told her about.

Learned about something I didn’t think about with refugees – how lonely it is. At least for Bakr and his family; the extended family did not come with them to Canada, and they had such a large space that they weren’t used to. His friends (and cousins) were still back in Syria, and it was (of course) very difficult for them all with the language barrier when they first arrived.

LibraryCin, I really enjoyed Abu Bakr's book, too.

I'm about to start It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree by A.J. Jacobs

Just finished Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson, by Mark Bourrie. Hadn't read Canadian history in a while, so this was good.

Next up from the library shelves is the third Vera Stanhope book, Hidden Depths, by Ann Cleeves.

More British crime fiction; A Medal for Murder by Frances Brody; a series set in post WWI.

I'm reading Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes by Jim Holt

I'm about to start The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova

I'm reading Hermit Girl by E. M. Collyer

Loved Hermit Girl! Will post a review soon.

I'm about to start Where the River Narrows by Aimee Laberge.

Fantasy is not my usual genre, and I can't remember who recommended this book to me, but I thought it was great: The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

Yesterday, I finished The Magdalen Martyrs by Ken Bruen. I've really liked other books from this gritty crime fiction series but this one never really grabbed my interest.

I'm reading Too Dumb for Democracy?: Why We Make Bad Political Decisions and How We Can Make Better Ones by David Moscrop. I'm hoping it will help me choose wisely in the upcoming federal election!

I'm reading A Separate Peace, which several people on LT have said they studied in school. Maybe it's an American educational favourite. Did anyone study this one in a Canada school, because I'd never heard of it before.

>103 Cecrow: I seem to recall some of my fellow students reading that one, maybe in Grade 9.