Another off the TBR pile

Okay, so I can’t say I always pick winners, and admittedly read some really odd stuff, but British writer Jonny Glynn’s The Seven Days of Peter Crumb has got to take the cake for the weirdest book I own.  Definitely bizarre, disturbing, and horrifically graphic, Glynn tells the tale of a bereaved father descending into psychotic hell and taking unsuspecting citizens of London with him in a week of terror told with the blackest of humour and in very graphic detail.  This is not a book for the faint of heart.

 

That being said, I did enjoy it.  There are moments of such abject humanity, that you can’t help being drawn in.  Peter Crumb has lost his five-year-old daughter in a most horrific crime.  His marriage and life have fallen apart, and he now lives in a basement flat dealing with a splintered psychosis.  The story is told from Crumb’s perspective, and so you witness first-hand that psychosis, the movement between rational and irrational thought and action, and Crumb’s splintered personality becomes a separate character, alive and breathing, at turns lurking in dark corners and overtaking Crumb’s body.  Fascinating stuff.

 

Till next time, happy reading.

L J

 

TBR = 7

WPL = 16

L Reads New CanLit for April

I was extremely excited to read Alexander MacLeod’s collection of short stories, Light Lifting, for my April CanLit selection, especially after I was introduced to it as a selection for the ScotiaBank Giller Prize.  MacLeod is the son of veteran Canadian short story writer Alistair MacLeod who is something of a local legend in my adopted city of Windsor, Ontario.  You will sometimes find Alistair in the University of Windsor’s English Department, where he is Professor Emeritus, and I had the very great fortune and pleasure of meeting him several years ago when he sat down with Marty Gervais’s (another local author and publisher) writing group to discuss his writing methodology.  There is nothing more fascinating than listening to a published author discuss how they come up with story ideas and their work habits.  I can still picture Alistair’s 8.5 x 11 exercise book in which he writes all his stories by long-hand.  He writes on one side of the page only, leaving the other side blank for edits and revisions.  That night, he talked about a new story he was working on and the struggle to find descriptions for snow.  Fascinating!

 

So you can imagine how thrilled I was to begin reading Light Lifting, stories written by his son Alexander, who was raised in Windsor, Ontario.  The collection is locally published by Dan Wells’ Biblioasis press, and is filled with references to local sites, which thrills this reader.  I love reading books with local flavor and Light Lifting doesn’t disappoint, from the title story about bricklayers working during one of Windsor’s boom times, laying down driveways in Southwood Lakes, among other neighbourhoods, to the boys racing trains long the underground rail line between Windsor and Detroit, to the story about accidents on Number Three highway and the protagonist who walks down University to Huron Church and along Huron Church to the 401 overpass, heading for the Number Three highway and describes, as he passes, the University buildings, the malls and strip club, Tim Horton’s and McDonalds.  I’ve driven this route, which made the pictures so much more vivid in my head as I read MacLeod’s story.  So much of the CanLit fiction I read is Toronto-based and so it’s nice to read something local and close to home, to remember that Ontario is more than just Toronto, and great fiction can be written about this province’s smaller towns.

 

A delightful read that will bring back memories for many Windsor and Essex County residents, Light Lifting is Canadian fiction at its finest.

 

Till next time, happy reading.

L J

 

 

TBR = 6

WPL = 16

L Reads One of Her Own

Claudia Casper’s The Reconstruction was meant to be my March CanLit read especially since my TBR numbers are lagging behind the WPL books and this is a title I actually own, however, between classes and falling ill, I only just finished it now.  But since I started reading it in February, and read half of it in March, I’m still counting is as March’s book (plus I have April’s CanLit waiting in the wings….)

 

There’s a lot going on in this tiny book.  So much so, that I very nearly abandoned it.  I haven’t wanted to be very cerebral of late, being quite depleted mentally and physically, but I’m glad I stuck it out, because it really is a gem of a book, if you can get past the graphic dental detail.

 

I hate dentists and avoid them like the plague, visiting only under duress.  It stems from childhood trauma in which I had the dentist from hell dig around until he found a cavity, no matter how miniscule, just so he could drill, drill, drill.  Blech.  So when Casper started with her female protagonist, Margaret, in the dentist’s chair, I was quite put off.  But I persevered, and despite Margaret’s repeated visits to the dentist, all richly detailed in Casper’s masterful voice, I did end up enjoying much of the book after all.

 

Margaret is an artist whose husband of ten years has announced he wants a divorce.  This emotional punch leaves Margaret spinning down into depression and apathy as she struggles to redefine her life as a newly separated woman.  When asked to reconstruct an Australopithecus afarensis based on the fossil Lucy, for a display in the Natural Museum, Margaret begins to reawaken a primal being within herself that allows her to face important truths about the past as she places herself firmly within the chain of evolution.

 

As always, happy reading!

L J

 

 

TBR = 6

WPL = 15

L is Hooked on Slice

Okay, okay, I know.  I’ve completely caved to the Bethenny Frankel hype.  I’m completely hooked on her show, and now am reading her books.  Pathetic! 

 

For those who don’t know, Slice TV has tons of reality crap – Real Desperate Housewives of insert city name here, Bethenny, Party Mamas, Project Runway, Little Miss Perfect gag, etc. etc. It’s basically train wreck TV and I just can’t stop watching!

 

So when Bethenny’s latest book came out this March, I had to put it on hold at the public library.  No surprise, there wasn’t much waiting for the book when it came in.  A Place of Yes lists 10 rules for getting everything you want out of life (in fact I think that’s the book’s subtitle) and is all about approaching everything you do from “a place of yes”, or positivity and empowerment.  The book addresses various noise issues we have, like food noise, money noise, childhood noise, etc., and encourages us to address our past hurts, failures, and patterns so that we can move forward and get the wonderful life we’ve always wanted and deserve.  Bethenny’s approach in showing us how to do this, is to parade her life story before us, so that we can learn from her mistakes.  Well, as entertaining as Bethenny’s life is, she’s no expert psychologist, and so her knock-off pop psychology fails to fully deliver. 

 

Don’t get me wrong.  I love Bethenny.  I love what’s she’s doing with her line of Skinnygirl Margaritas and healthful eating message, and her show is just good, plain fun.  It’s the chance to peak through someone’s curtains, into their home, to see all the horrors and triumphs of their lives.  It’s tabloid viewing at its best!  But when it comes to writing a book to help people (namely women) improve their lives, well Bethenny should have stuck to what she knows best – food.  Because as much as I enjoyed reading about her life, there wasn’t much meat on the bones of life-altering, meaningful messages this book supposedly offers.  As a neighbour once said to me of these types of books, “you have to take the meat and leave the bones.”  In other words, take what’s important, what speaks to you and leave the rest.  Unfortunately, I left a lot of this book because rather than being full of advice it really was just all Bethenny all the time.  Quite entertaining, fans will definitely enjoy this book.

 

Guilty pleasure -- check.  Lessons learned or adopted? -- not so much.

 

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

 

 

TBR = 5

WPL = 15

Gail Vaz-Oxlade as the teacher in a Peanuts cartoon

* a very apropos cartoon from http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts

 

Wa wa wa waaaa.  I love Gail.  I devoured her Debt-Free Forever book, implemented her suggestions and have since changed my life immensely (2 credit cards paid off with just my line of credit to go, and all that in only 6 months!!).  So as I got to thinking about saving for retirement and will I have enough, I decided to read her latest book, Never Too Late: Take Control of Your Retirement and Your Future.   Now, I’m no math whiz but I do feel confident that I understand investments enough to choose wisely for myself, but as I read Gail’s book, I started to hear the teacher from the Peanuts cartoon in my head:  wa wa wa wa waaaaa.  Now perhaps it’s just that I’ve been ill lately and unable to grasp all of Gail’s knowledge, but I really struggled to get through this book and came out the end feeling like I didn’t know nothin’ about money and investing.  So the confidence boost I was hoping to get, and the tips on improving my portfolio I was hoping to take from the book fizzled quickly.  Gail was just too technical for me. 

 

If you read the book and make better sense of it than I did, please enlighten me.  Or perhaps I’ll tackle it again later this summer when I’m back in fighting form.

 

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

 

 

TBR = 5

WPL = 14

L Takes a Walk Down Memory Lane

Some weeks ago I stumbled across news of a most epic proportion.  Sweet Valley High, that teen romance series I so loved so much as a kid may be made into a movie.  Yup, Jessica and Elizabeth might just be coming to a big screen near you.  YAY!!!  Okay, so I am that much of a geek that I had to hunt down a copy of the first ever book in the series, Double Love, so I could re-read it and remember what all the fuss was about.  And remember I did, but mostly just what a geek I was at the age of twelve.  Sigh.  I was first introduced to the Wakefield twins when my sister started buying the books.  My sister, ten years older than me, was not much of a reader and I think she thought these short little books would peak her interest enough to actually get her reading.  It wasn’t long though before I got my twelve-year-old hands on the books and fell in love with the series and the characters – who didn’t love Elizabeth?  Okay she was just a little too goody two shoes, playing victim to her evil twin who I abhorred, but really, Jessica did have all the fun.  And then there was Todd.  Sigh.  I always fell for those boy-next-door heartthrobs….

 

Rereading Double Love, I realized just how much of a geek I was back then as whole sentences read so familiarly it was like I’d just read the book … but then I had read and re-read the first dozen ad nauseum because sister dearest was such a slooowww reader, that I could read five books to her one, and she wouldn’t buy more until she read the ones already purchased, so I had no choice but to read them again and again and again (I actually remember reading one of the books out loud to her, as she was working on a quilt, thinking this would help her get through the books faster.  I mean, really, who would quilt when they could read about Jessica’s latest shenanigans?) 

 

Anyway, Double Love introduces us to the Wakefield twins and their classmates in fictional Sweet Valley, California, a land of perpetual sunshine and beautiful people.  Head cheerleader Jessica likes Todd, captain of the basketball team and is desperate to get him to ask her to the upcoming dance, even though whenever Todd calls their house or runs into the girls in the halls of Sweet Valley High, it’s Elizabeth he wants to talk to.  But Elizabeth doesn’t like Todd, so Jessica is free and clear to go after him … right?  What follows is the usual teen heartache as Elizabeth and Todd navigate the rocky road to romance.

 

Considering there are about a couple hundred books written in the series and all its spin-offs, I won’t be continuing this trip down memory lane, but I will be looking forward to the movie, which I hear is being written by Diablo Cody who also penned the screenplay for Juno so I couldn’t be more excited!!

 

Till next time, happy reading.

L J

 

 

 

TBR = 5

WPL = 13

L plays catch-up

Just when I think it’s time to set aside the J.D. Robb books, out comes one that reminds me just what I love about them.  Treachery in Death is J.D. Robb at her best, weaving in just about everything I like about the series and characters.  Eve Dallas is at her kick-ass best, and Roarke is her ever steady, loving, supportive post with just enough print time of his own to make reading this book extra enjoyable.

 

Eve’s stalwart partner, the ever steady Peabody, Detective Delia has overheard a couple of dirty cops plotting death.  While Eve generally stands for murder, this time, she must protect the blue line and route out a squad full of the dirtiest of dirty cops – cop killers. 

 

While I generally don’t like knowing who-done-it right off the bat, Robb makes it work in this latest installment to the series, which is a satisfying read of one-up-man-ship between opposing lieutenants.  It’s good cop verse bad cop at Robb’s finest and a very satisfying read.

 

Till next time, happy reading,

L J

 

 

TBR = 5

WPL = 12