Top Five: Fall 2013 Books by Edmonton Authors

I wrote about reading local last year, and why I think it’s important. I don’t know if there’s an exceptional crop of Edmonton books out this season, or if I’m just paying more attention, but I’ve got a short list that could rival any hoity-toity book award. Here are my most anticipated #yegbooks for Fall 2013. Which ones are on your To Be Read list?

1. Love Letters to the Angels of Death by Jennifer Quist

loveletters

The basics:

  • Release date: August 3, 2013
  • Goodreads
  • I received a review copy from the publisher, Linda Leith, but assure you it was my most anticipated book before that happened.

Why I want to read it:

  • I love Jennifer’s blog. Every post has me nodding my head in agreement. She’s a beautiful writer.
  • She got a great review in the Montreal Review of Books.
  • The novel is about a happy marriage. I like to read about dysfunction so much that maybe I need to change things up.
  • A personal connection. The set up is the death of the main character’s mother just before his wife gives birth. My husband lost his father just weeks before our first baby, and I didn’t deal with it very well. I’m looking forward to a fresh perspective on life and death (yep, my expectations are pretty high!) Continue reading →

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

TheOceanAtTheEndMy rating: 2.5/5

Synopsis:

Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn’t thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she’d claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

This book was set up to fail in my eyes. My expectations were set way too high. Gaiman has been recommended to me by bloggers I respect, by strangers on the internet, by book store staff.  I read early reviews that proclaimed this the best book that every booked, and I believed them. There was no way the experience of reading these 180 pages could live up to the hype. Especially once I realized that I read a book earlier this year that does everything this book tries to do, only better. Continue reading →

Oryx and Crake Read-Along: Post Two (Part 1 – 3 Reaction)

image

For all the details on this read-along, head over to the sign up post on Reading in Winter.

Confession
“Read-along” implies that the participants will read the book on the same schedule. I deviated from the assigned dates a little bit with Moby Dick, but this is a bit extreme. I read the first assigned section, parts 1-3, in my first sitting. I believe I read all the way to part 6 or 7 on the first day. I tried to ration it. I tried to read my other book instead, but my other book was Northanger Abbey which is such a bore compared to this. I finished the book in four days. Continue reading →

Frances and Bernard by Carlene Bauer

image

My rating: 5/5 stars

Two important things to know about this book: it had the saddest “happy ending” I’ve ever read, and Catholicism figures heavily in the plot. If these things turn you off, you should still give it a whirl, but be warned.

The Catholic thing in particular throws off many Goodreads reviewers. “The Catholic stuff was boring” and “I don’t care about religion, I don’t want to read about it.” I kind of get it, I mean, I’m an athiest with a Catholic background, but if writing is good, it’s good. It doesn’t matter what it’s about, or doesn’t matter much.

And that ending? Left me devastated for days. I won’t quote the last line, because who does that, but it physically hurt me to read it.

Another warning: I suppose the book is a bit pretentious, being based on the real lives of writers Flannery O’Connor and her Robert Lowell, and being epistolary, and being character driven, as opposed to plot.

This is a long list of caveats for a five star review. I think the bad reviews on Goodreads really hurt my feelings and I while I want to tell everyone to read this, read it now, I also want readers to go in with eyes open.

So, assuming you are okay with sad endings, religious themes, and literary leanings, why read Frances and Bernard?

I picked this up at the library months ago, so I can’t quote, but the writing is just how you would imagine the correspondence between two writers in love to be: spare, beautiful, manipulative, and heartbreaking. The characters are so fully realized in their genius and their limitations. They certainly aren’t likable, but you will want them to work things out even though you know they won’t, can’t. It’s not a spoiler because it’s obvious, they’re star crossed. This is what happens when Romeo and Juliet are grown ups instead of flighty teens.

This is my favorite read of the year so far. It might be yours too. Read it, won’t you?

Oryx and Crake Read-Along: Post One (Introduction)

It’s time to get cracking on Oryx and Crake! Go to Readinginwinter.com for all the particulars, and apologies for formatting etc as I am writing this from my phone while on vacation.

image

My Copy
I’m reading on my Kobo, though it’s occurred to me that I should pick up a paper copy. Ereaders are great, but they are terribly for flipping through to find quotes. Unlike Moby-Dick, i probably can’t find the whole text of this one fee online, so I’ll have to pay up.

I saw the mass market paperback on the “Summer Reads” table at Chapters, which is odd, as I don’t really think of Atwood as beach read material.

What I Know About the Book
Not much at all. I noticed that “oryx” is in my phone’s dictionary, so maybe it’s a real word. I’m trying to stay away from google and go in blind.

I know it’s a trilogy, followed by The Year of the Flood and Maddadam. I don’t read many series so I’m intrigued and wary of the commitment!

My Experience Reading Atwood
To paraphrase a great 90s movie, Atwood is a totally important Canadian writer. I’ve read The Handmaid’s Tale (loved, but don’t remember well) and Surfacing, an early novel that I found a little too weird, and I like weird. Not having read more Atwood is one of my (not so) secret shames when it comes to CanLit.

What I Hope To Get Out of the Read-Along

I hope to absolve my CanLit guilt, improve my ratios of Canadian and female authors read this year, and find out what the heck an oryx is. Oh, and have fun!

#Shelfies of Shame

I’m off to the whaling grounds of Cape Breton Island soon, and will miss my usual Reading Roundup for July. I’ll do a mega roundup at the end of summer. In the meantime, for all you book voyeurs, here is an exclusive peek into my secret shame, my basement closet full of books. This is my back catalog – mostly stuff I picked up at Wee Book Inn in the late 90s and early 00s. And yes, it’s all shoved into a closet, books stacked on top of each other, not even real bookshelves. The horror. The horror.

Beware the book closet of doom

Beware the book closet of doom

Top Shelf

I see Clan of the Cave Bear! Nice.

A couple gooders in the middle

Lots of baby books. That dates this shelf a little later than the others.

Can you spot my favourite book of all time in here?

Can you spot my favourite book of all time in this mess?

And I had to pull a couple books out for a closer look: Continue reading →

Moby Dick Read-A-Long Chapters 121-136: Fin. Get it? Plus: Grand Prize Winner Announcement!

Moby Dick Read-A-Long

Lost at sea? For all the details on this read-a-long, including schedule and sign up, click here. Then, share your thoughts in the comments, or better yet, link to your own post.

We made it! The read-a-long is over!

Congrats C.J.! Your shirt is on its way.

Congrats C.J.! Your shirt is on its way.

Before I get to the exciting finish of the book, I have an even more exciting annoucement. The winner of the Moby Dick Read-A-Long Grand Prize, a Moby Dick t-shirt from Out of Print Clothing, is C.J. of ebookclassics! C.J. is a Canadian book blogger who is working her way through 100 free ebooks that came with her ereader. She’s a champion readalonger, and is now reading along to The Odyssey AND will be taking on Tristan and Iseult for the Classics Retold event.  C.J. always had the best and most obscure Moby-Dick references from around the web. My favourites were the X-Files clips.

So: the book. This section captivated me. I ended up finishing way ahead of schedule because I just couldn’t stop. The last three chapters were thrilling. Everyone who says classics are boring and don’t have enough plot development? Um… you’re sort of right, but if you can get through the first 120 chapters I PROMISE it’s worth it. Continue reading →

Moby Dick Read-A-Long Chapters 106-120: Chaos

Moby Dick Read-A-Long

Lost at sea? For all the details on this read-a-long, including schedule and sign up, click here. Then, share your thoughts in the comments, or better yet, link to your own post. Oh, and the last post is next week, which means I’ll announce the winner of the draw next week. If you haven’t posted or commented yet, you might want to get on that! Continue reading →