While Riley’s sleeping somewhere else…

I thought I’d take advantage of this small window of opportunity while Riley is sleeping somewhere else to write a quick post.  I’ve been trying to read Silver Birch books one week then a book of my choice the next week, alternating as often as I can whenever possible.  Last week I flew through the newest book by Canadian lawyer-author Robert Rotenberg, a spy thriller called One Minute More.  Set in 1988, just days before the G7 Summit meeting in Toronto, the Metro Toronto Police Chief gets a tip that there will be an assassination attempt on the world leaders, so he sends Detective Ari Green to check out the cross-border Fourth of July parade in a sleepy Quebec-Vermont area.  What he thinks is a long shot turns out to be 100% accurate, but with nothing much to go on, Green searches for a clue to two sudden deaths that look like natural causes but are very likely linked to this tip.  What follows is a wild ride told from various characters’ perspectives and count down to the very minute of the G7 leaders’ appearance on the balcony of University of Toronto’s prestigious Hart House.  It was truly unputdownable, and an interesting way for Roterberg to give a whole detailed backstory to one of the main characters in his series.  I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it if you want something fast-paced, a story that will pull you along and keep you up late reading well past your bedtime - make sure you have ample reading time each time you pick it up! 

That’s all for now.  Take care and Happy (post) Easter!

Bye for now... Julie

It's been a while...

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written, but it’s due to a combination of things:  work has been rather chaotic with some unpleasant issues I’ve been caught up in dealing with, leaving me feeling drained, as well as being that time again when I start reading Silver Birch nominee contenders, which I can’t tell you about.  I also blame Riley, as he wants to sit on my lap any time I’m in my reading chair, impeding my ability to type.  Now it’s nearly 8pm and I’m finally sitting down (without Riley!) after a long and busy day, so this will be brief, although I have two books to mention. 

The first is my book club selection for today’s meeting, The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo.  This Reese Witherspoon Book Club recommendation clocked in at 859 pages in my large-print library copy, which is daunting even when there’s nothing else going on.  However, I persevered and got through it and found that, once I reached the end, it was actually all worth it.  This books tells the multi-generational story of Marilyn and David Sorenson, a couple who met and married young and had daughter after daughter after daughter and did their best to raise them all and keep their marriage going and keep their sanity.  They seem to have the perfect, idyllic relationship and family, but no family is perfect and this one is no exception, containing a fairly complex level of dysfunction for just about all members.  David and Marilyn have reached the stage when finally, after their last, late daughter has moved out, they are officially empty-nesters… which lasts about five minutes because an unexpected guest is thrust upon them, a heretofore unknown member of the family who turns up (mostly) unexpectedly and shakes up the already fragile relationships between parents and children, sister and sister, husband and wife, and mother and father.  I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll stop the summary here.  I will say that all of the members of the book club thought this was far too long, that we didn’t need so much back-story for every character, including each of the four daughters as well as Marilyn and David, and the unexpected visitor.  It was also confusing, as it flipped back and forth in time, not only for one story line but for all of them!  My book club members didn’t love this book, but it generated such great conversation that, by the end of our time, we agreed that it may have been “the most fun we ever had”. 

I also finished a super-quick, super-creepy read this morning, We Are Watching by Alison Gaylin, a combination cult/apocalyptic/horror/conspiracy thriller centred around a family who may be the target of conspiracy theorists convinced that they are not just members of a Satanic cult but that the grandfather, former 70s-rock-band member Nathan Russo, may be the leader of said cult.  This book opens with Meg and Justin driving their daughter Lily to university when a tan Mazda carrying several skinheads distracts Meg by peering out their windows, ogling them and trying to film them.  Meg loses control of the vehicle and Justin dies as a result of the accident.  A few months later, Meg returns to work at the Secret Garden, her bookstore that was a gift from her parents when she and Justin agreed to take it over decades earlier, after Nathan stopped playing and became something of a recluse. But her first day back is anything but peaceful.  She finds creepy comments under her Facebook posts, then a strange customer behaves bizarrely in the children’s section, muttering threats and curses under her breath while seemingly searching for or trying to confirm something.  Meg doesn’t really think much about it until strange things begin happening to Lily as well, and she begins to come around to her father’s way of thinking that they are always being watched.  When a major incident occurs at the Secret Garden, she can’t deny the possibility that her father may have been right all these years, and she begins to also understand how difficult it is to carry on living your life when you don’t know who to trust.  This was an unputdownable bit of something different, as I don’t read many conspiracy theory/doomsday/apocalypse books.  Come to think of it, a few titles come to mind that I’ve read and enjoyed, like The Leftovers by Tom Perotta and  The Rapture by Liz Jensen.  This one reminded me of The Rapture meets Rosemary’s Baby.  Anyway, it’s not one I would necessarily recommend to everyone, but it was exactly what I needed.  Now I’ve got to read some more Silver Birch contenders, so I may not write for a while. 

That’s all for tonight.  Happy Spring!

Bye for now...Julie

Quick post on a sunny, springlike Thursday morning...

It’s a rare moment when my cat is not sitting on me, but this won’t last so I thought I’d write a quick post about the excellent book I read last week who;e I still have free movement of both my arms! 

I read Susan Rieger’s novel Like Mother, Like Mother, a book I first noticed when I was wandering around an Indigo store during the Christmas break.  I got it from the library and picked it up from my pile, unsure of whether I would like it or not, but it sucked me in and kept me hooked until the very last, very satisfying page.  It tells the story of three generations of Pereira women, beginning with Lila, the youngest of three children growing up in Detroit in the 1960s in the care of an abusive father and a mother who has been committed to a mental institution.  Lila grows up to become a strong, independent female reporter, then executive editor of the newspaper for which she works.  To outsiders, she appears to be a success story, but she knows she’s always been lacking in the motherhood department.  As a mother of three daughters, she never worried about her two oldest, Stella and Ava, born so close together that they were practically twins, and nicknamed “the Starbirds”.  But her youngest daughter Grace, born so much later than the others, has always been a concern for Lila.  She left the parenting responsibilities to her husband Joe, who filled the role beautifully, but it wasn’t the same as having a mother who would attend PTA meetings and graduations and eat dinner with the family regularly.  When Grace eventually publishes a bestselling novel loosely based on her experiences growing up with a distant mother, she realizes how little she actually knows about her, and she goes on a quest to find out the truth that lies below the stories she and Lila have been told.  This book was fantastic!  I don’t want to give anything away, since part of the fun was digging into and peeling back the complex layers of family relationships and experiences slowly, one layer at a time, until the characters, and you the reader, finally reach the core.  Oh, here comes my cat, so I better end now, but I’ll close by saying, “Read this book!” 

Bye for now… Julie

Dr Seuss birthday post...

It’s Dr Seuss’ birthday today and, despite what you might think of his more controversial books, he was an iconic writer, many of whose children’s books are beloved even today.  I actually don’t have a post for today, as last week I read some Silver Birch contenders, which I can’t talk about, but “Dr Seuss birthday post” sounded better than “Another no-post post”.  Anyway, I have nothing to write about for this week, but I hope to tell you about a so-far fantastic book I’m reading right now, Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger. 

More on that later…  Happy Dr Seuss Day!!

Bye for now… Julie

Last post for February...

It’s early on a Sunday evening, the last weekend of February, and I’m just settling down to start reading Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly for my book club meeting next Saturday in celebration of Black History Month.  Today is also the first day of Freedom to Read Week, my favourite week of the year.  I actually forgot to use my Banned Books mug this morning, as I was just so busy baking for our Bake for the Animals Bake Sale fundraiser for the Humane Society tomorrow, as well as getting ready for the week, but I’m bringing my mug to work and will use it every day. 

I just have time to quickly tell you about a book I flew through last weekend, Storm Child by Michael Robotham.  This is the latest in the “Cyrus Haven” series by this British/Australian author, but it actually came out last summer and has been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read for about six months.  The reason I decided to pick it up now is because I knew I would be receiving an Advanced Readers Copy of Robotham’s newest book, White Crow, from the publisher soon (it arrived on Friday!!  WOO HOO!!) and I wanted to be ready to read it as soon as I had the chance.  Turns out that White Crow is not a “Cyrus Haven” book, but the second in another series featuring Detective Philomena McCormack.  Anyway, the main premise at the centre of Storm Child is the treatment of illegal immigrants and refugees, particularly those arriving on British shores in unauthorized boats.  Forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven is still caring for Evie Cormac, the young girl found hiding in the walls of an abandoned house after the murder of an organized criminal nearly a decade earlier.  Once she aged out of the foster system, Cyrus took her in, since she’d already been under his care for a few years.  She needed somewhere to live and he could offer her a safe place, and it seems to be working out, not without the occasional challenge, but nothing could have prepared Cyrus for the relapse she experiences one day as, during an afternoon at the beach, the body of a young boy washes up on the beach and Cyrus carries him onto the shore, provoking an episode of PTSD for Evie.  She, too, was an Albanian refugee who lost her mother and sister on their journey to what they thought was a safer country.  She can only remember bits and pieces of her past, but this sudden unfortunate turn of events brings back a cascade of memories.  Cyrus is concerned that remembering too much too quickly might be detrimental to her progress, but it’s not for him to decide, and faced with seventeen dead bodies and the possibility that the boat was intentionally rammed, making these deaths cases of murder, not accidents, Cyrus and Evie must help with the investigation.  But as the investigation deepens and more international organizations are contacted, the possibility that they, too, could become targets increases, and they must decide how best to help while still staying alive.  This book was so good that I flew through it in about three days.  It was so well written and detailed, and the story was so complex and well-researched, that I have been raving about Michael Robotham to anyone and everyone at work, trying to get more people turned on to his books.  I've liked all his series so far, from the Professor Joseph O’Loughlin series and Detective Ruiz series (haven’t read all of these ones) to the Cyrus Haven and Detective Philomena McCormack novels.  If you haven’t read Robotham before, I would highly recommend that you give him a try.  

That’s all for tonight.  Stay warm and read a Banned or Challenged Book!!!

Bye for now... Julie

Short post on a long Family Day weekend...

It’s been very snowy and blustery recently, but the sun is out now and everything looks like a winter wonderland, which I don’t mind at all (but not everyone is in agreement with me, I’m sure!).  I read an interesting book last week and finished a fabulous audiobook as well. 

I read a recommendation that came up in an “If you like…” list for One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon, which I didn’t just like, I loved!  Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half centres around twin girls, Desiree and Stella Vignes, and follows their lives from childhood to adulthood and motherhood, and the very different paths they follow.  Growing up in the deep south in the 1950s in the not-quite-small-town of Mallard, a place settled by their great-great-great grandfather, who wanted to found an all-black community which strove to produce lighter- and lighter-skinned residents.  These twins were so light-skinned they could pass for white, and when, at 16, they escaped the dead-end town and moved to New Orleans, that’s exactly what one of them does.  The other marries a man whose skin was as dark as possible.  They’ve taken different paths, led separate lives, lost touch and refused to reconnect, but somehow their lives intersect once again and readers follow their journey to possible reconciliation.  This was a good book, a page-turner that explores the question of what it means to be black.  Is it more than just a matter of skin colour?  And if so, what else?  With multiple narrators and storylines that are interwoven, this novel is sure to make you think even as you turn page after page until the final satisfying paragraph.  I really enjoyed this book that I would never have read if not for that (library?  Indigo?  Google?) list of recommendations. 

And I finished listening to the very long but very good The Women by Kristin Hannah.  This novel centres around the experiences of women, in particular Frankie McGrath, and her family before, during and after the Vietnam war.  I really don’t want to give anything away, and most people know about this book, as it’s ranked as the #1 most requested book by public libraries for 2024, so I’ll say no more except that it was amazing.  I loved the characters, the writing, the fast-paced yet thought-provoking storyline… it was a hit for me from beginning to end, and, if you haven’t read it, I would highly recommend reading or listening to this brilliant book. 

That’s all for today.  Stay warm and keep reading!

Bye for now... Julie 

Super-quick post on a Sunday evening...

I’m posting while I hide in the bathroom, because my kitty just wants to sit on my lap whenever I’m in my reading chair.  Since I don’t want to miss another week, and this is the only place he won’t follow me, I have no choice, as uncomfortable as it is to type in here.  *sigh* 

My Volunteer Book Club met last weekend to discuss Rainbow Rowell’s Slow Dance, a love story to put us in the mood for Valentine’s Day.  It’s a story about Shiloh and Carey, who met in high school and have been best friends for years, although everyone thinks they’re made for each other, including their other best friend, Mikey.  After high school, they go their separate ways, he into the Navy and she into work with a community theatre.  Fast forward 15 years and they are reunited at Mikey’s second wedding… but have they grown up enough to weather the obstacles that they will inevitably meet?  And do they want the same things?  It’s no spoiler to let you know that they do in fact end up together in the end, but my book club members were very frustrated, particularly with Shiloh, as she is a classic over-thinker, sabotaging every opportunity to work things out with Carey.  They all thought Carey was incredibly patient, and while they didn’t love the book, they agreed that their relationship had to take this course in order to survive, thus the apt title of Slow Dance.  I have to say that I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it at all, but I loved it!  If my favourite film, “When Harry Met Sally”, was a book, it would be this one.  I agree that Shiloh was frustrating, but that was just the way she was.  We actually talked about the fact that the family situations for both Carey and Shiloh were not ones we find explored in books very often, nor do we encounter characters like these frequently.  I think this book would have been better suited to readers in their 20s or 30s, but I’m so glad I read it. 

I also read Kelley Armstrong’s YA psychological thriller, Someone is Always Watching, about a group of teens who attend an elite school run by the company their parents work for.  Blythe, Gabi, Tucker and Tanya feel privileged, until the day Gabi mutters something about the cameras always watching, and that her parents are dead, not at home waiting for her.  Soon after, Blythe discovers Gabi in the school office during after-school detention with the principal’s dead body in front of her and his blood all over her.  But once she recovers from her “concussion”, she can’t quite remember this episode, and life goes on as usual.  But flickers of that scene flit across her memory. Gabi also seems to be going through some kind of psychotic break, and is taken to a hospital to recover.  Unable to talk to Gabi or find out where she is, she relies on Tucker and Tanya to help uncover the truth about their school and their parents, and in the process find the truth about themselves.  This was a real page-turner, with plenty of plot twists and details to keep you guessing until the finally shocking, yet satisfying, conclusion.  It was a great read to bridge the gap between book club book and new Silver Birch contenders.

Oh, Riley just came up looking for me, so I guess I have to go. Stay warm and have a great evening!

Bye for now... Julie