Highway, Tomson "Kiss of the Fur Queen"

Highway, Tomson "Kiss of the Fur Queen" - 1998

After a couple of pages, it was the first time that I would have liked to throw this book away. But it was a book for our international online book club and I hoped it would get better. It didn't.

I am not the biggest fan of all those mystical stories but I thought this might be interesting. It wasn't. And the worst bit, the author had a terrible style of organizing his writing, he was jumping from one part to the next without any warning or any connection between the parts. And I'm not prude but could have done without the detailed description of sexual abuse, violence and gay activities.

But I seem to have been the only one with such a strong reaction. Here are remarks from the group:

• Kiss of the Fur Queen is considered a semi-autobiographical novel. In his 2021 memoir 'Permanent Astonishment' Tomson Highway recounts the early years of his life with his younger brother Rene Highway. (1954-1990)
• Comment: This absolutely makes perfect sense. I did not look it up, but felt there was real history behind much of the story, and very well researched, if not all personal experiences.
• I had mixed feelings about Kiss of the Fur Queen, but overall I am glad I read it. The story follows two Cree brothers from northern Canada from somewhere around 1950s into the late 1980s. Through their lives, the book shows the effects of the Canadian residential school system and the pressure placed on Indigenous people to abandon their language, culture, and traditions.
• What interested me most was learning about Cree culture, mythology, and traditional stories. I enjoy reading about different cultures and legends, and this was something I knew very little about before reading the book. The mysterious Fur Queen character and the mythological elements gave the story a unique atmosphere. At the same time, I appreciated the deeper themes of identity, faith, culture, and how people cope with trauma. The brothers are caught between Cree traditions and Christianity, and I thought the novel explored this conflict in a powerful way.
• The writing is often beautiful, especially the descriptions of nature, dreams, and traditional stories. At the same time, this is a very dark novel. Much of the story deals with abuse, violence, loss, and the long-lasting effects of trauma. There were parts that I found difficult to read. However, I do not think these elements were included only for shock value. They are connected to real historical experiences, which makes them important to the story, even when they are uncomfortable.
• This is not an easy book, and I can understand why some readers may dislike it because of the difficult subject matter. In some places I felt the focus on suffering was overwhelming. At the same time, I think the novel offers an important perspective that many of us outside Canada may not know much about. For me, it was a valuable read because it combined history, culture, mythology, and personal stories in a memorable way.

There you have it, some people were glad they had read this. I didn't.

Book Description:

"Born into a magical Cree world in snowy northern Manitoba, Champion and Ooneemeetoo Okimasis are all too soon torn from their family and thrust into the hostile world of a Catholic residential school. Their language is forbidden, their names are changed to Jeremiah and Gabriel, and both boys are abused by priests.

As young men, estranged from their own people and alienated from the culture imposed upon them, the Okimasis brothers fight to survive. Wherever they go, the Fur Queen--a wily, shape-shifting trickster--watches over them with a protective eye. For Jeremiah and Gabriel are destined to be artists. Through music and dance they soar."

Hammond, Richard "As You Do"

Hammond, Richard "As You Do: Adventures With Evil, Oliver And The Vice President Of Botswana" - 2008

I have always loved Top Gear and especially Richard Hammond, "The Hamster" (see his book On the Edge). The adventures the guys had in their show, they were always hilarious albeit very scary.

Here, Richard Hammond has written about his race to the North Pole with a dog-driven sled against his friends in a car - with a lot of preparation beforehand (Polar Special, also known as the Polar Challenge). And about his trip through Africa in a car that he bought right there and kept later on because he had named it (Ollie) and you cannot sell a car with a name. LOL.

And there are other stories in the book, how he rescued some friends who were stuck in their house in the flood in Gloucestershire. And how he met Eviel Knievel, a guy I never was interested in and am even less after reading about him, even though he was one of the author's heroes.

In any case, this was a very interesting book with lots of funny scenes, almost like watching Top Gear. And it was an easy yet still worthy book to read.

From the back cover:

"The wry, honest and often hilarious chronicles of a very brave and clever TV presenter, Arctic Explorer and general drawer of the Short Straw. 

As one third of the BBC's Top Gear team, Richard Hammond's year since his near-fatal accident has been full of stunts and drama. From a race to the North Pole (with skis and dog-sled) to a journey through Botswana in a car named Oliver, and a seventeen-mile run through floods to his Gloucestershire home, in order to get to his daughter's birthday party, the year has been eventful, to say the least . . .

With his boundless optimism in the face of certain failure, Richard Hammond has become one of our funniest writers about a life (and a job) which constantly present a challenge."

Ondaatje, Michael "The English Patient"

Ondaatje, Michael "The English Patient" - 1992

I have read "Anil's Ghost" and "Warlight" by Michael Ondaatje both of which I really liked. I had been looking forward to reading this one for ages, so when I came across the book lately, I decided it was finally time to read it.

There might have been a reason why I didn't tackle it before. I was not as happy with it as I had been with the others. Maybe I should have stayed away from it because it received the Booker Prize, I rarely like those, and I have no idea why.

It was quite confusing at times. Who is the author talking about? At what time is he talking? Before the war? During the war? After the war? Are they in Italy or in Egypt, in Canada or India? And why is that English couple in the story? I know, I know, they met the English patient before but it still is weird, somehow it doesn't fit.

I saw a review where someone said the people in the book were not speaking like people in the 1940s. That might be one of the reasons, as well.

But what really bothered me was that you didn't really get to know the people very well, they remain shallow, trivial, superficial.

I might have enjoyed this more, had I not read and loved his other books and therefore expected a brilliant novel. This is an okay novel but that's all. So, I might wait a while until I read the next book by this author.

From the back cover:

"With unsettling beauty and intelligence, Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an abandoned Italian villa at the end of World War II. The nurse Hana, exhausted by death, obsessively tends to her last surviving patient. Caravaggio, the thief, tries to reimagine who he is, now that his hands are hopelessly maimed. The Indian sapper Kip searches for hidden bombs in a landscape where nothing is safe but himself. And at the center of his labyrinth lies the English patient, nameless and hideously burned, a man who is both a riddle and a provocation to his companions - and whose memories of suffering, rescue, and betrayal illuminate this book like flashes of heat lightning."

Lawson, Mary "A Town Called Solace"

Lawson, Mary "A Town Called Solace" - 2021

I've been looking forward for this book to appear as a paperback for as long as it has been announced to be published. I have read all of Mary Lawson's books and this one was just as excellent as all her others. She has been recommended to me a long time ago by a dear Canadian friend who also was called Mary and who has passed away since. So, reading her books always reminds me of my friend (not that I need a special reminder).

I thought the story was captivating, one of the rare books where I was really tempted to read further toward the end because I wanted to know what's going to happen. But I know how much that spoils the enjoyment of a book so I never give in.

Three people tell their stories. At the beginning, they don't seem to have much in common. Seven year old Clara is Elizabeth's neighbour and looks after her cat while the elderly woman is in hospital. Liam knew Elizabeth when he was little, or rather the other way around because he doesn't seem to remember much about that time.

Life in small town "Solace" isn't as picturesque as some people want to describe life in those places. And so, all three of them have to handle their problems.

Nobody in Mary Lawson's exceptionally good novels seems to be without problems, and that makes her stories so believable. You get to know the characters so well because she has a unique way of portraying them. You can't but like Clara, Elizabeth and Liam. And dislike those a little bit who make their lives so difficult. Reading this book is almost like living there yourself.

Through her stories, these characters and their town come to life. She writes thought-provoking novels. I hope she'll continue doing this for a long time.

From the back cover:

"Clara's rebellious older sister is missing. Grief-stricken and bewildered, she yearns to uncover the truth about what happened.

Liam, newly divorced and newly unemployed, moves into the house next door and within hours gets a visit from the police.

Elizabeth is thinking about a crime committed thirty years ago, one that had tragic consequences for two families. She desperately wants to make amends before she dies."

This book was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2021. It certainly would have deserved the prize but I believe the Booker people have another way of choosing their winners as I would.

Cather, Willa "Shadows on the Rock"

Cather, Willa "Shadows on the Rock" - 1931

A couple of years ago, I read "My Ántonia" with my book club and loved it. It was a great description about new settlers in America. So, when I came across "Shadows on the Rock" which was about Quebec in the 17th century, I thought this will certainly be a great book to add to my list, something like her former book, just about Canada.

I suppose the author must not have had as much experience with Canada, not known as many settlers from there or whatever but this book didn't ring as true as her other one. It was an alright read but it didn't catch my interest in the story as did her other one.

What it did, though, it made me want to know more about the real-life people she mentions and I found a lot of information about them on the internet, so that was something.

I usually love historical fiction but this one was not for me.

From the back cover:

"Willa Cather wrote Shadows on the Rock immediately after her historical masterpiece, Death Comes for the Archbishop. Like its predecessor, this novel of seventeenth-century Quebec is a luminous evocation of North American origins, and of the men and women who struggled to adapt to that new world even as they clung to the artifacts and manners of one they left behind.

In 1697, Quebec is an island of French civilization perched on a bare gray rock amid a wilderness of trackless forests. For many of its settlers, Quebec is a place of exile, so remote that an entire winter passes without a word from home. But to twelve-year-old Cécile Auclair, the rock is home, where even the formidable Governor Frontenac entertains children in his palace and beavers lie beside the lambs in a Christmas créche. As Cather follows this devout and resourceful child over the course of a year, she re-creates the continent as it must have appeared to its first European inhabitants. And she gives us a spellbinding work of historical fiction in which great events occur first as rumors and then as legends - and in which even the most intimate domestic scenes are suffused with a sense of wonder."

McLain, Paula "The Paris Wife"

McLain, Paula "The Paris Wife" - 2012

A couple of years ago, everybody seemed to be reading "The Paris Wife". But I had read "The Time Traveler’s Wife" which I hated and I neither was too happy with "The Railwayman's Wife". So, I thought maybe I should keep away from "wife" books, as well. But at some point, I bought a copy. It still stayed on my TBR pile for a couple of years.

Then, one of my blogger friends introduced me to "Paris in July" and I thought it was time to read it. First of all, it has the word "Paris" in its title and it takes place in Paris. Also, I have read a few books by Ernest Hemingway (The Old Man and the Sea, For Whom the Bell Tolls) and have a few more on my wishlist. So, why not give it a go?

I was positively surprised about the book. Written from the perspective of the first of his four wives, we learn a lot about Hadley as well as Ernest and his second wife, Pauline.

The author remarks: "Although Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway and other people who actually lived appear in this book as fictional characters, it was important for me to render the particulars of their lives as accurately as possible, and to follow the very well documented historical record."

I was aware throughout the whole book that this is a novel written in the form of a memoir, not a biography. That didn't change the fact that it was highly interesting to read about the lives of some extraordinary people. Hemingway was in an interesting circle of authors and artists and they all appear in the book.

I have lived in four different countries and I came from a small village into a big foreign town in my early twenties but life was different in our time. We didn't have the internet but there were books, there was the television and people had moved around, not many and often not far but nothing compared to the difference between Hadley's sheltered, very remote life before she met Ernest Hemingway and life in Paris. It must have been really, really hard for her.

There are also some small parts where Ernest tells us his side of the story. Of course, he has already been through and survived one war which always changes a man. But you also can tell there that they were two completely different personalities not just with different ideas but also with different goals. It's probably a miracle the marriage survived as long as it did.

The book is not just interesting concerning the life of the Hemingways but also the other characters are interesting as is the life in Paris in the twenties. We hear so much about it. This book helps us understanding it a little better. Definitely brilliantly written.

I'd love to read more of Paula McLain's books but definitely her memoir: "Like Family. Growing Up In Other People's Houses".

One quote by Ernest Hemingway: "I want to write one true sentence", he said. "If I can write one sentence, simple and true every day, I'll be satisfied". I think his writing shows that this was his goal and he achieved it.

At the end of the book, Paula McLain adds a list of her sources, all of them would be interesting to read if you like the subjects:

About the Hemingways:
Alice Hunt Sokoloff, Alice " Hadley: The First Mrs. Hemingway"
Diliberto, Gioia "Hadley"
Kert, Bernice "The Hemingway Women"
Baker, Carlos "Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story and Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters 1917-1961"
Reynolds, Michael "Hemingway: The Paris Years and Hemingway: The American Homecoming"
Brian, Denis "The True Gen"

About Paris in the twenties
Wiser, Willam "The Crazy Years"
Flanner, Janet "Paris Was Yesterday"
Tomkins, Calvin "Living Well Is the Best Revenge"
Milford, Nancy "Zelda"
Fussell, Paul "The Great War and Modern Memory"

Other books by Ernest Hemingway:
"A Moveable Feast"
"In Our Time"
"The Sun Also Rises"
"The Garden of Eden"
"Death in the Afternoon"
"The Complete Short Stories"

From the back cover:

"Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a shy twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness when she meets Ernest Hemingway and is captivated by his energy, intensity and burning ambition to write. After a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for France. But glamorous Jazz Age Paris, full of artists and writers, fuelled by alcohol and gossip, is no place for family life and fidelity. Ernest and Hadley's marriage begins to founder and the birth of a beloved son serves only to drive them further apart. Then, at last, Ernest's ferocious literary endeavours begin to bring him recognition - not least from a woman intent on making him her own."

Ernest Hemingway received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 "for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in 'The Old Man and the Sea' and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style" and the Pulitzer Prize for "The Old Man and the Sea" in 1953.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Holzach, Michael "The Forgotten People"

Holzach, Michael "The Forgotten People: A Year Among the Hutterites" (German: Das vergessene Volk. Ein Jahr Bei den deutschen Hutterern In Kanada) - 1980 

A friend of mine found this book on her TBR pile. She told me about it and since I had read a book about the Amish ("Plain and Simple" by Sue Bender) before, I said it sounded interesting.

I don't know whether I can compare the different religious groups through these books since the report about the Hutterites is a little earlier and a lot might have changed even there in the last forty years.

Michael Holzach also tells us about the history of the Hutterites and how they came to live in Canada. But mainly, this is a report about his life among the brethren for a whole year. How they live, what they believe, how they try to adhere to their lifestyle. Their main life is founded on the "community of property based on the model of the original Jerusalem community", i.e. all property and proceeds belong to the community and is shared among everyone. You could call them a Christian communist group. Everyone has the same, everything is shared. "Everyone gives what he can and gets where he's in need."

Same as the Amish, they call the people "outside" the "English". They have their own school but get extra education from a Canadian teacher who comes to the farms. Among themselves, they speak a German dialect which is mainly based on Southern German/Austrian dialects mixed with English words (just like high German) but it is quite easy to understand if speak German.

It was a very interesting book to read. I have always thought it would be nice to live in a society where everyone thinks about everyone else, cares for everyone else, nobody feels better than the others … looks like this is what the Hutterites try to do, as well. I don't think I could live quite as restricted as they do but if you don't know any better, this is almost like paradise on earth.

I think I need to find myself a newer book about the Hutterites. While searching for more literature, I found two websites that give more information:
Hutterites
Hutterian Brethren Book Centre

Unfortunately, 15 years later, the author died from a fatal accident while trying to rescue his dog. I think he might have written some more interesting books in addition to this one and "Deutschland umsonst. Zu Fuß und ohne Geld durch ein Wohlstandsland" (Germany for free. On foot and without money through a prosperous country) (1982).

From the back cover (translated):

"The author spent the year 1978 with the German Hutterites in North America and wrote a book about his experiences.

Inspired by the reading of Erich Fromm, who described the Hutterites as 'radical humanists' in several of his books, Michael Holzach lived for a year in two brotherly communities in the Canadian province of Alberta at the foot of the Rocky Mountains - almost entirely cut off from the modern world. He worked, prayed and sang with them, the women sewed him the black uniform, the men taught him how to make shoes, castrate piglets, cook soap.

The mother tongue of these 'selected' people is German, but they have never seen Germany. 450 years ago, for the sake of their faith, their ancestors moved to Russia in a painful pilgrimage before emigrating to the United States in 1874. Today 25,000 Hutterites live in 250 settlements off the highways on the North American prairie. Their law book is the Bible. They are strict pacifists and reject any type of private property. Michael Holzach discovered a way of life without social injustice, without consumerism and without violence - primitive Christian communism. But how can a person of the 20th century cope with this leap into the 'Middle Ages'? Are there actually islands of the happy in the 'Sea of Sin'? This report provides answers to the questions of civilization that are pressing us today - found among the forgotten Hutterites."

Atwood, Margaret "Oryx and Crake"

Atwood, Margaret "Oryx and Crake" (MaddAddam # 1) - 2003

I always like reading dystopian novels. It makes you think about what might happen if we carry on living the way we live now and makes us more aware of what we should or shouldn't be changing. It usually exaggerates the problems we have today but that's the point, it makes us more aware of it.

This story is about a genetic engineering world where the plan to destroy humanity through "medication" is almost successful. The "Children of Crake" who are supposed to replace humans are more like children, they remind me of the Eloi in "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells. Just as innocent, just as naïve.

I hope I won't be around to see the world change that much but if we carry on like that, I might. In the meantime, let as many people read these kinds of books and hopefully see that we need to try to save this planet as long as it's still possible.

From the back cover:

"With the same stunning blend of prophecy and social satire she brought to her classic The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood gives us a keenly prescient novel about the future of humanity and its present. 

Humanity here equals Snowman, and in Snowman's recollections Atwood re-creates a time much like our own, when a boy named Jimmy loved an elusive, damaged girl called Oryx and a sardonic genius called Crake. But now Snowman is alone, and as we learn why we also learn about a world that could become ours one day."

Margaret Atwood was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for "Oryx and Crake" in 2003.

Margaret Atwood received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2017.

Wright, Richard B. "Clara Callan" - 2001

Wright, Richard B. "Clara Callan" - 2001

I received this book from a Canadian member of our book club. As everyone knows, my TBR pile is enormous, that's the only reason it took me so long to start this. My friend has passed away shortly afterwards, that is probably the main reason why I didn't tackle it. I am sorry I could never tell her how much I enjoyed the book. Thank you, Mary.

This is the stories of two sisters in the 1930s. One who goes to New York to become a famous radio celebrity and the other one who stays at home to be a teacher. While they have their different opinions about religion, they mostly agree about other subject, especially political matters.

While the story switches between Clara's diary and letter written between her and - mainly - her sister, it meticulously follows the chronological order. I don't mind if a book switches between the times but it is nice to read one that starts at a certain point and then carries on as time goes by.

This is not just a story about two sisters, it's about women in general at the time between the two wars, about the perception people had, about what was "done" and what wasn't? You can't but like both Clara and her sister Nora, they are both amiable people in their own way trying to find their own niche in a world that would rather see women the same as they always were, wives and mothers, housekeepers.

As an avid reader myself, I am always happy to find characters in novels that enjoy reading as much as I do. Clara Callan was such a person. She even read a lot of books that I enjoyed myself. Another reason to like her.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel. And I'm not surprised that the author received three prestigious Canadian book awards for this novel: The Giller Prize, the Trillium Book Award, and the Governor General's Award.

From the back cover:

"It's the late 1930s and two sisters, Clara and Nora Callan, face the future with both hope and uncertainty. Clara, a 30ish schoolteacher who lives in small-town Ontario, longs for love and adventure. Nora, her flighty and very pretty younger sister, escapes to the excitement of New York, where she lands a starring role in a radio soap and becomes a minor celebrity. In a world of Depression and at a time when war clouds are gathering, the sisters struggle within the web of social expectations for young women.

Clara and Nora, sisters so different yet so inextricably linked, face the future in their own ways, discovering the joys of love, the price of infidelity, and the capacity for sorrow lurking beneath the surface of everyday experience. A brilliantly realized, deeply moving novel, Clara Callan is a masterpiece of fiction."

Atwood, Margaret "The Handmaid's Tale"

Atwood, Margaret "The Handmaid's Tale" - 1985

I read this book a couple of years ago, it is one of my favourites. (Find my review from back then here.) Since it has been made into a TV series last year, it seems to be everywhere and my book club chose it as our next read. Also, Margaret Atwood just received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis), as well.

I probably enjoyed this book even more the last time than this time, I think a lot of the fears Margaret Atwood portrayed in her book thirty years ago are more true now than then. Aren't we surrounded by people who believe that only "true" Christians who follow the Bible "by the book" deserve to have a good life? At least most of the news I hear nowadays of the United States seem to suggest that. The trouble is, the louder they shout, the less Christian they are.

Unfortunately, I had to miss the book club talk but I know everyone enjoyed it.

We discussed this in our international book club in January 2018.

From the back cover:

"The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire – neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs.

Brilliantly conceived and executed, this powerful evocation of twenty-first-century America gives full rein to Margaret Atwood's devastating irony, wit and astute perception."

Margaret Atwood was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for "The Handmaid's Tale" in 1986.

Margaret Atwood received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2017.

Michaels, Anne "Fugitive Pieces"

Michaels, Anne "Fugitive Pieces" - 1996

I really wanted to like this book. It is absolutely my genre and it was praised a lot. However, I wouldn't call this a tough read but nevertheless, I didn't find a closeness to the characters. A lot of things happened, obviously, but there seemed to be no action and no continuance.

More fleeing fragmented thoughts, bits and pieces thrown together. Someone trying to bring their thoughts in order but not being very lucky with it. Such a shame. This could have been a great book, the story is very promising.

What annoyed me most was that you hardly know who is talking if you don't read the introduction. But if you do read the introduction, you are given spoilers that can ruin the whole story. I hardly ever read the introduction but noticed halfway through the lecture that it was necessary in order to understand what this was all about.

I think a lot of people like it for it's poetic writing but then it shouldn't be classified as a novel.

Definitely not my book.

There were a few quotes I did like, though, the final sentence under "Anne Michaels' favourite books":
"When I was young I felt there was a mystery contained in the fact that the word 'read' was two words - both past and present tenses. This time travel is one way we hold our life in our hands."
and a quote, a Hebrew saying:
"Hold a book in your hand and you're a pilgrim at the gates of a new city."

From the back cover:

"Jakob Beer is seven years old when he is rescued from the muddy ruins of a buried village in Nazi-occupied Poland. Of his family, he is the only one who has survived. Under the guidance of the Greek geologist Athos, Jakob must steel himself to excavate the horrors of his own history.

A novel of astounding beauty and wisdom, Fugitive Pieces is a profound meditation on the resilience of the human spirit and love's ability to restore even the most damaged of hearts."

Atwood, Margaret "The Blind Assassin"

Atwood, Margaret "The Blind Assassin" - 2000

A book within a book within a book. Three stories for the price of one. Sounded good. Plus, it is written by Margaret Atwood. I wanted to read more of her writings ever since I discovered "The Handmaid's Tale". It was worth the wait but I know I won't wait that long to read her next novel.

This novel is a love story. No, it's a science fiction book. Or is it a murder mystery? It's a mystery for sure. We get snippets of the narrator's life through newspaper articles, she is telling us her life as it is today and what it was when she was young. But then there is also the book by her sister in which two lovers meet and tell a third story, this one is definitely science fiction. Anyway, you have the feeling they belong together and it didn't take me that long to find out who was who but it still was terribly exciting.

It is hard to describe the book without giving too much away, so I will just say this:

Margaret Atwood has a certain style where she makes everything mysterious, she can linger on a story in order to build suspense as well as using the most wonderful words and notions in order to make her work beautiful.

Need I say more? I loved the book.

From the back cover:

"The novel opens with these simple, resonant words: 'Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off the bridge.' They are spoken by Iris Chase Griffen, sole surviving descendant of a once rich and influential Ontario family, whose terse account of her sister's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist.
What makes this novel Margaret Atwood's strongest and most profoundly entertaining is the way in which the three wonderfully rich stories weave together, gradually revealing through their interplay the secrets surrounding the entire Chase family - and most particularly the fascinating and tangled lives of the two sisters. The Blind Assassin is a brilliant and enthralling book by a writer at the top of their form."

Margaret Atwood received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2017 and the Booker Prize for "The Blind Assassin" in 2000.

Lawson, Mary "Road Ends"

Lawson, Mary "Road Ends" - 2013

After reading "Crow Lake" and "The Other Side of the Bridge", I was really looking forward to another Mary Lawson book. I like the author for her realistic description of the characters and their actions. Even though her former books were situated in Canada only (where I've never been), I could always connect to them. Now, this one takes place partly in London, England, as well, a place I do know quite well. So, it made it even more exciting to compare.

What an interesting story, not just about young Megan who leaves Canada for England but also and especially about the family she leaves behind, her father, brother, but mostly her mother. A story about mental illness in a time where that was such a taboo, people wouldn't acknowledge it anywhere.

I always love novels narrated by several different characters and this is just one like this. And I also love Mary Lawson's style. Can't wait for her next one again.

And, of course, what I do like about the book, as well, there are a few readers in the novel, they mention the following books:
Alcott, Louisa May "Little Women"
Hardy, Thomas "Jude the Obscure"
Melville, Herman "Moby Dick"
Mitchell, Margaret "Gone with the Wind"
Salinger, J.D. "The Catcher in the Rye"
Service, Robert "The Cremation of Sam McGee"
Steinbeck, John "The Grapes of Wrath"

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"Twenty-one-year-old Megan Cartwright has never been outside the small town she was born in but one winter’s day in 1966 she leaves everything behind and sets out for London. Ahead of her is a glittering new life, just waiting for her to claim it. But left behind, her family begins to unravel. Disturbing letters from home begin to arrive and torn between her independence and family ties, Megan must make an impossible choice."

Schoemperlen, Diane "Our Lady of the Lost and Found"

Schoemperlen, Diane "Our Lady of the Lost and Found" - 2001

This was one of the books a friend left behind when she moved and said she thought I might like it. I don't think I would have picked it myself because it seemed to me like chick lit crossed with a religious theme. Breakfast with Mother Mary. Or something like that.

And it reads a little like that. I still couldn't say this was one of my favourite books but it had something. The information about the Virgin Mary, for example, the author puts together a list of Marian apparitions and other stories around her. That I found quite interesting.

From the back cover:

"On a Monday morning in April, a middle-aged writer finds a woman standing in front of the fig tree in her living room. The woman is wearing a navy blue trench coat and white Nikes, and is carrying a small black suitcase. She is the Virgin Mary and, she explains, after 2,000 years of petition, adoration and travel, she is in need of some R&R.

In Our Lady of the Lost and Found, Diane Schoemperlen has created a profound and original novel that captures the hearts and imagination of readers. Now available with a P.S. section featuring insightful background material, this captivating story is an exploration of our capacity for faith and of the miracles of daily life."

Two books are mentioned in the book, books the author supposedly reads before and during Mary's visit:
Allende, Isabel "The House of the Spirits"
Grunwald, Lisa "The Theory of Everything"

And there was  an interesting passage I would like to quote: "For those with a bookish bent, reading is a reflexive response to everything. This is how we deal with the world and anything new that comes our way. We have always known that there is a book for every occasion and every obsession. When in doubt, we are always looking things up."
I couldn't agree more!

Munro, Alice "Runaway"

Munro, Alice "Runaway" - 2004

A brilliant collection of very interesting short stories that grip you from the first page. However, and it is a big however, I am not a big fan of short stories and this has shown me again why not. I love long novels, books that slowly move into the story, that give you enough background information so that you can get to know the characters and live with them for a while. Short stories just don't do that. I had to go back to the titles when I finished the book to see what they were about. I hadn't forgotten about Juliet but that was mainly because three stories focused on her ("Chance", "Soon" and "Silence")

But I couldn't remember Carla from "Runaway" as I hadn't really felt much about her, felt for her at all, I still have no idea why she had run away.  "Passion", again, I couldn't find a connection with the characters, not enough time to get to know them "Trespasses" was so weird, even during the story I didn't find a connection, almost like in "Runaway" and "Powers" seemed a haphazard short story of many short stories. Not my thing.

"Tricks" was probably my favourite, simply because it had a great twist at the end, because I could relate to the heroine, Robin, could truly feel the pain and longing with her. As to the rest, the same as with many short stories, they will forever remain acquaintances, never become friends.

I would love to read a novel by Alice Munro, one that has at least 500 pages. I'm sure it would be a great one! And I already said that about her novel "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage" that all her stories would have enough background to write a large one.

Titles of the short stories:
Runaway
Chance
Soon
Silence
Passion
Trespasses
Tricks
Powers

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"The matchless Munro makes art out of everyday lives in this dazzling new collection. Here are men and women of wildly different times and circumstances, their lives made vividly palpable by the nuance and empathy of Munro's writing. Runaway is about the power and betrayals of love, about lost children, lost chances. There is pain and desolation beneath the surface, like a needle in the heart, which makes these stories more powerful and compelling than anything she has written."

Alice Munro received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013 for being the "master of the contemporary short story".

Alice Munro received the Booker International Prize in 2009 for her lifetime body of work.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Shields, Carol "The Stone Diaries"

Shields, Carol "The Stone Diaries" - 1993

An interesting book about an interesting life.  So far, I had only read Carol Shield's book about Jane Austen but somehow, this fiction book of hers has escaped me.

I like books with a map or a family tree in the back. This is one. I love being able to go back and forth and see who is connected to whom, where they come from, what is going to come next, even though sometimes I am annoyed that it spoils part of the book for me because I already know that someone is going to die soon or getting married etc.

Having said that, "The Stone Diaries" would be comprehensible even without that family tree. Daisy Stone Goodwill goes through many hardships in her life, being born an orphan under weird circumstances, she manages her life quite well. She is a smart woman and gets an education at a time where that is far from the norm for any woman let alone one in her circumstances.

While reading this, I often wondered how much of Carol Shields is in this fictional autobiography of Daisy Goodfellow. There is everything about life in this book, birth and death, marriage and divorce, education and work, problems with parents and children, just anything a normal life encounters.

A good read.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"The Stone Diaries is one ordinary woman's story of her journey through life. Born in 1905, Daisy Stone Goodwill drifts through the roles of child, wife, widow, and mother, and finally into her old age. Bewildered by her inability to understand her place in her own life, Daisy attempts to find a way to tell her story within a novel that is itself about the limitations of autobiography. Her life is vivid with incident, and yet she feels a sense of powerlessness. She listens, she observes, and through sheer force of imagination she becomes a witness of her own life: her birth, her death, and the troubling misconnections she discovers between. Daisy's struggle to find a place for herself in her own life is a paradigm of the unsettled decades of our era. A witty and compassionate anatomist of the human heart, Carol Shields has made distinctively her own that place where the domestic collides with the elemental. With irony and humor she weaves the strands of The Stone Diaries together in this, her richest and most poignant novel to date."

Carol Shields received the Pulitzer Prize for "The Stone Diaries" in 1995.

This is also a book about reading, a lot of books are mentioned in the novel:

Books Clarentine read:
Libby, Laura Jean "Struggle for a Heart"
Alexander, Mrs. "What Gold Cannot Buy"
Warden, Florence "At the World's Mercy"
Brontë, Charlotte "Jane Eyre"
Other books mentioned: (see below in alphabetical order, at least those that I could find)
Black Beauty, Anne of Green Gables, Freckles, Twice Told Tales, Beautiful Joe, Mill on the Floss, Pocahontas, Elizabeth and Her German Garden, Jane Eyre, The Unification of Italy, Beowulf, the Romantic Poets, In His Steps, Wild Geese, Gone With the Wind, Claudia, The First Six Years, The Grapes of Wrath, Forever Amber, The Egg and I, Cheaper by the Dozen, Lust for Life, The Web and the Rock, The Skutari Babies, Our Mutual Friend, Nellie's Memories, Helen's Saga, A Brief History of the Orkney Isles, Chekhov's Daughter, The Edible Woman, The Good Earth, Murder in the Meantime.

Alphabetical list:
Arnim, Elizabeth von "Elizabeth and Her German Garden"
Atwood, Margaret "The Edible Woman"
Brontë, Charlotte "Jane Eyre"
Buck, Pearl S. "The Good Earth"
Carey, Rosa Nouchette "Nellie's Memories"
Dickens, Charles "Our Mutual Friend"
Donnell, Susan "Pocahontas"
Eliot, George "The Mill on the Floss"
Franken, Rose "The Claudia Novels"
Gilbreth, Frank + Gilbreth Carey, Elizabeth "Cheaper by the Dozen"
Hawthorne, Nathaniel "Twice Told Tales"
MacDonald, Betty "The Egg and I"
Mitchell, Margaret "Gone With the Wind"
Montgomeray, Lucy Maud "Anne of Green Gables"
Saunders, Margaret Marshall "Beautiful Joe"
Sewell, Anna "Black Beauty"
Sheldon, Charles "In His Steps"
Steinbeck, John "The Grapes of Wrath"
Stone, Irving "Lust for Life"
Stratton-Porter, Gene "Freckles"
Winsor, Kathleen "Forever Amber"
Wolfe, Thomas "The Web and the Rock"

Montgomery, L. M. "Anne of Green Gables"

Montgomery, L. M. (Lucy Maud) "Anne of Green Gables" - 1908

Can you believe that I have never read Anne of Green Gables? Of course, I have heard of it. But it was not a very well known book in Germany when I was little, at least I don't think so, and later I didn't really come across it, either. But I have a couple of Canadian friends who often asked me whether I have read the book or not. And I always had to say "no". So,I thought it was time to read it.

I don't think I have to tell many people about the book. An orphan girl is taken in by a childless couple and she really loves both her new parents as well as the school and the neighbours and everything but still gets into a lot of trouble all the time. The novel is both humorous as well as serious.

A good book for children of all ages but I am sure everyone enjoys rereading it as an adult, as well. I definitely enjoyed reading it as an adult for the first time.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"Everyone's favorite redhead, the spunky Anne Shirley, begins her adventures at Green Gables, a farm outside Avonlea, Prince Edward Island. When the freckled girl realizes that the elderly Cuthberts wanted to adopt a boy instead, she begins to try to win them and, consequently, the reader, over."

Alice Munro to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature 2013

Every year, I eagerly await the announcement of the Nobel Prize winner for Literature. This year, Alice Munro has been chosen as the first Canadian to receive this prodigious prize. I have no idea why this big country has not received the prize before because I have read quite a few great books by its authors.

Now I have to ask myself this question: Should I be proud that I know the new recipient and have read something by her or should I be sad that I didn't find a new great author this way as I usually do? I think I am a little of both.

Congratulations not just to Alice Munro but to all my Canadian friends, one of whom even suggested her when I asked the question "who would be your favourite Nobel Prize winner" on my facebook page a couple of days ago.

Alice Munro received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013 for being the "master of the contemporary short story".

I have read "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage" and "Runaway" by her.

Alice Munro received the Booker International Prize in 2009 for her lifetime body of work.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Photograph by Derek Shapton.

Urquhart, Jane "The Underpainter"

Urquhart, Jane "The Underpainter" - 1997

We had read "The Stone Carvers" in our book club and I quite liked it. I was looking forward to another interesting historical novel by this author. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed.

The story is very slow to start. For quite a while, I did not get the feeling that anything on the pages was relating to the rest of the book. Only slowly do we meet the protagonist and get the idea what he is rambling on about.

I have read better accounts about people who survived a war, and I have read a lot of them. This one, well, first of all, the book is told from the perspective of someone who hasn't participated in it. Neither have I, so I should relate to him, right?

But I don't. Even when the story unfolds, the painter Austin Fraser, who is telling the story, doesn't come across as being a very sympathetic guy, I have even grown to dislike him. He is an egoistic misogynist, a rich spoilt brat who never grew up and didn't have to worry about a thing in the world.

Unfortunately, this novel has been one of the most unsatisfying ones that I have read for a while. It leaves an empty void that could not be filled. Even the attempt of wrapping it up together at the end, didn't make this a good book. Maybe this was not only the second but also the last book I read by Jane Urquhart.

There was one quote in the book that I did like because it is a great thought to ponder. On page 186:
"I have no quarrel with the Germans [sic ]... we were all in it together, that we were just vandals, really, bent on destroying western culture. Finally it seemed to me that Europe was one vast museum whose treasures were being smashed by hired thugs. We weren't making history, we were destroying it .... eliminating it. ..."

A good point against any war because this quote does not just relay to WWI but to any of those useless battles where young people get killed for the power and money of others.

From the back cover:

"'The Underpainter' is a novel of interwoven lives in which the world of art collides with the realm of human emotion. It is the story of Austin Fraser, an American painter now in his later years, who is haunted by memories of those whose lives most deeply touched his own, including a young Canadian soldier and china painter and the beautiful model who becomes Austin’s mistress. Spanning decades, the setting moves from upstate New York to the northern shores of two Great Lakes; from France in World War One to New York City in the ’20s and ’30s. Brilliantly depicting landscape and the geography of the imagination, 'The Underpainter' is Jane Urquhart’s most accomplished novel to date."

Dohaney, M.T. "A Fit Month for Dying"

Dohaney, M.T. "A Fit Month for Dying" - 2000

After reading "The Corrigan Women" and "To Scatter Stones" that had been recommended by a Canadian friend, I found out that there was a third novel of the Corrigan Women. I found it as a used copy because it is out of print (at least in Europe). And I am glad I didn't buy a new copy because I was thoroughly disappointed.

This was a poor try to put as many complications in what I can only call chick lit into one book. I was expecting the story to go on about life of ordinary women in a remote part of Canada but found one that was full of problems discussed in almost every book you read nowadays. There is a father who left before the child was born, there is a woman who is working as a politician (even though that is supposed to be the main story, this subject is only touched slightly), there is the usual bashing of the Catholic church, the "alibi gay", M.T. Dohaney slightly touched every single topic that is discussed nowadays.

She would have done better if she had concentrated on one of those subjects and maybe written a fourth book where she touched the next. Now, she only scratched the surface. Disappointing.

From the back cover:

"A Fit Month for Dying is the third book in M.T. Dohaney's highly praised trilogy about the women of Newfoundland's outports. Fans of The Corrigan Women and To Scatter Stones will embrace this new book, while those reading the author for the first time will discover her characteristic bittersweet humour. Tess Corrigan seems to be living the good life. She is a popular politician, the first woman to serve as a Member of the House of Assembly. Her husband Greg is a successful lawyer and son Brendan is a seemingly happy hockey-mad twelve-year-old. Originally from the village of The Cove, the family is now comfortably ensconced in Newfoundland's capital city of St. John's. Urged on by Greg's mother Philomena, Tess sets out to unravel her convoluted family tree. She searches out her natural father who is living in a retirement community, or as he calls it a "raisin farm," in Arizona. Ed Strominski was an American serving at the Argentia Naval Base when he married Tess's mother Carmel. Charming and outgoing, his one flaw was neglecting to reveal the small detail that he already had a wife. The stigma of growing up as the daughter of the abandoned "poor Carmel" has shaped Tess's life.

Involved with her own family problems and with her political work, Tess has no inkling of trouble when Brendan begs her to let him quit the Altar Servers' Association at their St. John's church. Always forthright, Tess insists that he fulfill his responsibilities to the organization. Her decision sets into motion a series of betrayals, revelations, and realizations that change forever her family and the village of The Cove. After a confrontation with the father of one of Brendan's friends, Tess is shattered by the disclosure that her son has been abused by their trusted priest, Father Tom. Shame and grief envelop the family and their world becomes as turbulent as the seas of Newfoundland. Deeply held beliefs are destroyed as the characters begin to challenge long imposed systems of cultural, political, and spiritual authority. But out of the ashes of Tess's life a small phoenix of hope arises in the form of Greg's brother who, on his way to a feed of capelin, reveals to her his own story of abuse and survival. Buoyed by his story, Tess begins to gather strength to rebuild her life, her family, and her faith in human nature."