New Year’s Reading Resolutions

It’s hard to believe I’ve been blogging for very nearly one whole year.  Where does the time go?  So much has happened this past year, I’ve written about books I liked, didn’t like, loved, tried out some meme’s, attempted to follow Canada Reads and even created a few fun reading challenges.  My accomplishments this past year were many (I sense a list coming): 

1.    Read 62 books.  

2.    Managed to read 12 books of Canadian Literature.

3.    Read 7 (count’em) books from my TBR bookcase.

4.    Not only read 15 books from my library holds list, but cleared out my holds backlog entirely

 

Quite an accomplishment all round!

 

So as I head into this new year, a little older, hopefully a lot blog wiser, I’m starting off first thing with some New Year’s Reading Resolutions (aka Challenges).

 

Resolution #1:  Keep reading that Canadian Literature

Yes, this year I will once again challenge myself to read one CanLit book a month, or 12 in the year (more if I can manage it).  But the twist is to read new authors (and there’re plenty of them to choose from).  So, Timothy Findley, and all other CanLit favs (like Alice Munro, Judy Fong Bates, Margaret Laurence, Carol Shields, David Adams Richards, Robertson Davies … basically anyone I’ve already read) won’t count should I read any of their works.  Now that’s a challenge and a half!

 

Resolution #2:  Read more TBR bookcase books

Those of you who know me well and/or read my blog will know that I have an entire 5-shelf bookcase full of books not yet read.  Last year I tried to stop buying books until I’d read 5 from this bookcase and well, like any New Year’s resolution, it was broken before I’d barely started.  So, this year I’m stepping it up a notch.  Again, if you’ve read any part of my blog, you’ll know I’m addicted to my public library’s holds feature on their online catalogue.  I love, love, LOVE to put books on hold.  Books I eventually want to read, even if it’s three years from now.  So, to keep me on the straight and narrow this is what I propose for this resolution:

 

I have to read one (1) book from my TBR bookcase for every book I borrow from the public library.

 

YIKES!!!!

 

(You can stop laughing now C.  Seriously.  Stop.  Now.)

 

Resolution #3:  Because I can’t get enough of these challenges…

And because I want to read more of the classics, I propose to read six (6) classic novels published prior to 1900.  And because resolution #2 is already freaking me out, I’m going to be gentle with myself and say that anything read for an English Lit course counts in this category (whew, now I just have to pick the right classes this year!)

 

Are you making any reading resolutions for this year and if so, what are they?

 

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

How wonderful would it be to read your favourite story to life?  To bring the characters forth, into this world, with just the magic of your voice?  In Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart, bookbinder Mortimer (Mo) Folchart has this very gift.  He is called “Silvertongue” by the very characters he brings to life.  Unfortunately, these characters are villains in their world and have not changed for the better in ours.  The other drawback to Mo’s gift is that something or someone in this world must leave – a life exchanged for a life if you will.

 

Capricorn and his henchmen live in abandoned villages throughout Europe, wrecking havoc and filling people’s hearts with terror wherever they roam.  Capricorn’s thirst for evil is never quenched, and so for nine years he has been searching for Mo, indeed from the very day Mo read him from the pages of Inkheart into the world as we know it.  Capricorn’s one aim is to have Mo read his savage beast into being to fulfill Capricorn’s every dastardly desire.

 

Mo makes his living as a bookbinder, traveling throughout Europe giving new clothes to old books, with his twelve year old daughter Meggie in tow.  His wife disappeared when Meggie was but three, into the very story Mo read Capricorn out of.  Mo’s quest for the ensuing nine years has been to both avoid Capricorn’s clutches and to find a way to read his wife back out again.  He fails at both, and soon both he and Meggie become Capricorn’s prisoners, desperately trying to escape his clutches and find a way to send him back to his rightful story.

 

Funke’s book has an interesting premise, one that quickly captured my interest when I discovered it quite by chance, catching the movie version on TV.  However, the book failed on many counts for me.  First, it was very slow moving.  Inkheart is the first in a trilogy, telling Mo and Meggie’s fantastical story and it failed to grasp my interest.  I struggled to make my way through the book, never quite able to decide if I liked the book or not.  I’m still not sure.  When it did finally pick up, in the latter hundred pages or so, I was still left with some dissatisfaction, namely that Meggie, though twelve years old in the novel, reads like a much younger character, and this left a discordant note to the story, one I struggled to get past.  Also, the book is set in modern day, complete with cell phones, yet reads more like a classical fantasy novel akin to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, with its talk of fairies, trolls and mystical beings such that every time a cell phone was mentioned I was jarred back out of a story I had worked so hard to get into.  There in again lies the problem – a reader should not have to work so hard to immerse oneself in a story, but should fall in with ease, meeting up with characters who are as comforting as old friends.  Inkheart unfortunately left me cold and struggling to maintain interest in the story.

 

Till next time, L is looking for a better book to read...

Cheers! :)

The Blessing Stone

Barbara Wood’s The Blessing Stone is an ambitious novel.  It begins three million years ago when a meteorite hits the earth, wiping out the dinosaur population and creating a blue crystal that purportedly has the power to change lives.  Speed forward to 100,000 years ago and we delve into the world of prehistoric woman, following the tale of Tall One as she discovers the magical blue crystal and leads her people safely away from their ancestral, nomadic home at the base of an imminently erupting volcano.  As millennia and centuries pass, we follow the blue crystal as it traverses this wide world we live in, experiencing for a brief time, the lives of the various people who inherit it, by one means or another:  The Lady Amelia in Rome in the days of early Christianity who through her courage becomes a saint; Mother Winnifred, prioress of St Amelia’s abbey in medieval England, who uses the gift of courage imbibed by the blue crystal, to ward off a Viking attack, and so on. 

The premise of Wood’s novel is intriguing and yet the blue stone is just an inanimate object that one cannot begin to care about.  I enjoy novels that are character driven, and at first I enjoyed the book very much, connecting with the characters in prehistoric times as they struggled for survival and to make sense of this world we live in.  Yet, as the novel moved into more recent historical times, I found myself more and more removed from the subsequent characters and their stories.  The novel read more as a narration of this stone’s journey than a story of real people and their triumphs and failures.  And so I was left wanting more. 

 

The Blessing Stone’s central message of femininity and female power, of women’s role as mother creator usurped by the male Christian god is soon bogged down by mediocre characters and a final message that the stone is just a stone after all and the power to change your future lies within yourself.  Wood’s novel, while starting off strong and interesting, soon wallows with mixed messages and it is unclear to this reader, just what it is she is trying to say.

 

A great beginning, and well worth the read up until book six (of eight) or so, though the threads of the story clearly start to unravel around book five.  Just one reader’s opinion.

 

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

Alison Weir's The Lady Elizabeth

Alison Weir’s novel of the early life of Elizabeth I, before her rise to the throne is a captivating account of the childhood of the most fascinating British queen in all of history.  The Lady Elizabeth is a fictionalized novel deeply rooted in historical fact, rich in historic detail with strong, well-defined characters that kept me enthralled, avidly turning the pages until the book was finished.  I am now left wanting more: more Elizabeth I and more Alison Weir!

 

Beginning from age three, when her mother, the famous usurper of King Henry VIII’s affections Anne Boleyn, is executed, the novel traces Elizabeth’s life through various stepmothers, the birth of her younger brother Edward VI, Henry’s death and both Edward’s and elder sister Mary’s ascension to the throne of England.  It traces political intrigues at court that threaten Elizabeth’s very existence and throughout these events, we witness the forming of Elizabeth’s character, as she famously forms opinions about marriage and the role of women in society.  It makes for fascinating reading.

 

Alison Weir is to be commended for bringing history to life in an enjoyable novel that reads with delight and is a breath of fresh air from the usual stodgy biography.

 

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

L finally reads Sue Grafton

I am admittedly a mystery novel novice.  The majority of my reading life, up until this past decade, has been taken up with romance novels, so it is no surprise that as I move further into the mystery genre, I am only now discovering Sue Grafton and her “alphabet mysteries.”  I have to say, I’m impressed.

 

For a first novel, A is for Alibi totally blew me away and I’m left wanting more Kinsey Millhouse, the “female hard-boiled private investigator” of Grafton’s series.  The book had everything I wanted in a mystery novel – lots of characters to choose whodoneit from, and a strong female protagonist that kicks butt when required.  The book left me guessing right up until the very end, and though I had my suspicions, they didn’t prove to be true until the last few chapters. 

 

I like strong female protagonists, and in Kinsey, I found a woman who doesn’t just get the job done, she also delves into her own psyche and experiences real, heartfelt emotion.  She became a real living and breathing person for me, unlike a certain Eve Dallas of In Death fame who tends to be more robotic and often far too prickly for this reader to commune with.  Kinsey is a down to earth character that I wouldn’t mind spending more time with, so the “alphabet series” has just topped my mystery novel reading list.

 

For those of you familiar with Grafton’s novels, you will know the first book was published in the early ‘80’s, 1982 to be exact, when I was a mere babe.  I don’t often enjoy reading pop fiction from so far back, because it’s usually very dated, with references to clothes, cars, slang and other cultural norms of the time.  Grafton’s novel was surprisingly, a timeless read for me.  Other than my wondering why Kinsey just didn’t give out her cell phone number, or whip out a cell phone when she was in a jam, it read like a current novel and I had to keep reminding myself it was written and published in the ‘80’s.  Well done, Grafton!

 

In A is for Alibi, Kinsey Millhone is hired to solve an 8-year old murder by the woman who was wrongfully accused.  After so many years, the trail has all but gone cold and as Kinsey starts digging and asking questions, more bodies begin to pile up.  Will the real killer be caught before Kinsey herself meets her maker?  Read this delightful novel and find out for yourself :)

 

Till next time, happy holiday reading

L :)

December's CanLit pick

The exam is written, the semester over, I can finally read all I want for pure enjoyment.  Woohoo!!!!  I celebrated the end of a not so fun class with Midnight at the Dragon Cafe, my December CanLit pick. 

I have heard Judy Fong Bates described as the Chinese Alice Munro, though I have not read her collection of short stories: China Dog and Other Stories.  Her debut novel, Midnight at the Dragon Cafe is the story of a young Chinese girl, Su-Jen Chou, who immigrates to Canada with her mother when she is but 5 or 6 years old.  Her father has a restaurant in the small town of Irvine, Ontario, just outside Toronto, and she and her mother join him in the family business.  Having come over so young, Su-Jen is able to quickly learn English, to go to school and get an education that will see her prosper, not slave away in a small-town family business.  It is 1957 and the Chou’s are the only Chinese family in Irvine.  Su-Jen’s mother who speaks no English soon becomes embittered with her lot, resentful of her much older husband and the poor life he offers her in a backwoods town where they are cut off from other Chinese people and their culture. 

The story is told from Su-Jen’s perspective from the time she comes to Canada until she’s around 12 years of age.  It is her assimilation into a new culture we follow, but we also glimpse the emergence of family secrets through her eyes.  Not all is readily revealed as it is filtered through the eyes and mind of a child.  Su-Jen is also torn between the modern English-speaking world she’s growing up in and the ancient Chinese culture and superstition her parents live and believe.  She is caught between both worlds, trying to make sense of each, and this dilemma adds a richness and depth to the novel.

I had not realized, though I suspected, I may have read this book before.  Some 100+ pages into the novel it dawned on me I knew this story ... at least parts of it.  But as the novel is so dense, there was much I didn’t remember, making a second reading very enjoyable.  It’s not often I happily re-read books, but Fong Bates is such an amazing storyteller, I couldn’t help but be sucked back into the world she creates, caring for her characters all over again and seeing nuances I’d missed before.

A great story that’s well worth your time.  Midnight at the Dragon Cafe by Judy Fong Bates, published by McClelland & Stewart 2004.

Till next time, happy reading

L :)

…Or Not to Be: A Collection of Suicide Notes

Marc Etkind’s book of suicide notes is, he says “pornography” and that we are “sadistic voyeur[s], transforming someone else’s pain into [our] own pleasure.”  He continues to state that “it seems wrong to make public someone’s private pain.  But this assumes that all suicide notes are meant to be private.”  All of the suicide notes in …Or Not to Be have been previously published.  Etkind brings them into this collection to discuss the similarities of these notes and to try to shed some light and understanding on the mind of a suicide completer.

 

On Easter Sunday in April of 2004 (I don’t remember the exact date, either the 11^th or 12^th – I’m terrible with dates, but I remember the Christian holiday well), my eldest brother completed suicide.  He was 50 years old.  He left no note.  For most of the year following his death, I was haunted by that eternal question: why?  I am resolved to never knowing the answer, however I had not realized until reading Etkind’s book that six years after the fact I am still asking: why?  I guess I always will.

 

Excerpt from …Or Not to Be:

 

Resume

 

Razors pain you;

Rivers are damp;

Acids stain you;

and drugs cause cramp.

Guns aren’t lawful;

Nooses give;

Gas smells awful;

You might as well live.

                                    ~ Dorothy Parker

 

Dorothy Parker attempted suicide five times, and “died at the age of seventy-three of a heart attack.”  I guess she took the advice of her own work.  Many artists complete suicide, in large part because they are often manic-depressives.  In fact, mental illness is a contributing factor in the decision to end one’s life, if not the factor for suicide. 

 

What I have learned from Etkind’s book, which not only presents suicide notes from all walks of life and eras of history, since notes were first published in the eighteenth century with the birth of literary, but also analyses their contents, that even for those who leave notes, no answer is found as to why the individual chooses suicide.  There just is no answer.

 

A remarkable book.  …Or Not to Be: a Collection of Suicide Notes by Marc Etkind, published by Riverhead Books in New York, 1997.

 

Till next time, happy reading

L

Indulgence in Death

The latest installment in J.D. Robb’s (aka Nora Roberts) In Death series starts out in Ireland, with Eve Dallas and Roarke on vacation, visiting Roarke’s mother’s family.  Of course, death never takes a break, and Dallas soon stumbles over a body.  But as the entire book isn’t set in Ireland, this murder is an open and shut case and it isn’t until the happy couple return to New York that the meat of the story takes off.

 

While Ireland was a nice interlude, it started the book off very slowly for me.  I would much rather have been thrown in to the “real” murder mystery right from chapter one.  Because it is only when Eve sinks her teeth into the murder of a limo driver does the book finally take off and become the usual page-turner Robb/Roberts is known for.

 

That being said, I still had issues with the book.  I like the In Death books, in great part due to the continuing story of Eve and Roarke and their circle of friends.  But lately, their relationship has stagnated.  They’ve settled into the happy married couple rut you know your beloved romance novel couples do, but you just don’t particularly want to read about it.  I miss the emotional angst of the turbulent early days of their relationship and marriage and having them both deal with the skeletons in each others’ past.  Perhaps Robb/Roberts has mined that part of the story for all she can.  What’s left is mediocre mystery, where the bad guy(s) stand out like sore thumbs because there’re only a handful of characters in each book and most of them are recurring.  Once again, in Indulgence in Death, we learn who done it before we’re halfway through the book and it’s just a matter of how Eve proves it.  I don’t generally like mysteries that read this way.  I’m more of an Agatha Christie fan who loves to read a book peppered with possible suspects and so many red herrings I end up smacking my head at the end, wondering why I didn’t see it, ‘cause once Dame Agatha explains all, you feel pretty silly for missing her clues.  I guess when I read, I want to think, not be instantly gratified with the solution presented before the problem is even read about.

 

But to give Robb/Roberts her due, Indulgence in Death is still one of her better installments to the series of late and although I knew who done it, the fast pace of the story kept me turning pages till the end.

 

Till next time, happy reading.

L J