Five Books I Want to Read This Summer - Kristina's Picks

For me summer is reading season (well, okay, every season is reading season but summer is even more so). It's a time when I normally have a great pile of books on the nightstand and a long list of others that I want to get to soon. I checked in with the bloggers here at the Reader and many of them are the same way, and we've all got a few books that we're really excited to find a sunny afternoon to curl up with this summer. Sometimes they are brand new titles, others are recent ones we somehow missed, or classics we've always wanted to get to.

Over the next week or so we'll be devoting some of our posts to telling you about the books that have caught our attention for this summer. Perhaps one will interest you as well - or feel free to include in the comments what you're excited about this summer.

I'll get started with 5 books that I'm planning on reading this summer:

The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano: I can't even exactly remember what it was that turned me on to this book. I suspect it was one of the following: it's a first novel, it was a bestseller in Europe, it's been translated (apparently exquisitely) from Italian, the author is also a mathematician, it's about a deep friendship between two lonely people and has been compared to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time for its insight into a person's inner world.

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann: this book was getting great reviews that captured my attention even before it won the National Book Award last year. Set in New York City in 1974, it opens on the day that Philippe Petit made his infamous tight rope walk between the towers of the World Trade Center buildings. Having recently seen Man on Wire, the documentary film about Petit's walk, I am even more interested in how this bit of history plays out in the novel. But mostly I'm just excited about a novel that has a vivid NYC setting.

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower: another from last year that got great reviews (including being named one of the NYTimes 100 notables for the year). I've been enjoying short stories lately, and this collection mostly focusing on life in contemporary America struck a chord with me. Publisher's weekly said of the book: "Tower's uncommon mastery of tone and wide-ranging sympathy creates a fine tension between wry humor and the primal rage that seethes just below the surface of each of his characters."

Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: a road trip with David Foster Wallace by David Lipsky: I sort of feel like I'll find any way to mention David Foster Wallace on this blog. Last summer I mentioned taking part in Infinite Summer (a summer long event where people around the world read his novel Infinite Jest), I've mentioned him in a post about tennis books (more Infinite Jest), in one about the MacArthur Fellowships and one about math. Clearly I'm a fan and like many of his fans was shocked by his suicide in 2008. So, when a new book comes out about him, I take notice. This one is comprised of conversations between DFW and Lipsky that took place in 1996 in preparation for an article that Lipsky was supposed to do on Wallace for Rolling Stone magazine.

The Man Who Ate the World by Jay Rayner: I am a big fan of the TV shows Top Chef and Top Chef Masters, and watching it over the last few years I've been introduced to British food critic Jay Rayner as a judge on those shows. Each week he's introduced as the author of this book which documents his travels around the world experiencing gastronomical delights. Surely to include his dry wit and extensive knowledge of the food world, this feels like perfect summer reading. (I have to say, I recently read Gael Greene's Insatiable through exactly the same motivation—Greene is also a Top Chef judge—and it was an amazing glimpse into the culinary world, complete with world travel, social gossip and juicy details of Greene's love life and a rollicking good read).

Read Your Way Around Nova Scotia - Halifax

Last year we read our way around Nova Scotia and had such a good time, we thought we'd go again.

Apparently, living in Halifax does not make you immune to run-ins with vampires. In Once a Samurai by D.C. Rhind, Michael Cameron, a Martial Arts instructor, has trouble brewing in all aspects of his life. His loved ones are dying, his marriage has failed and he has lost his boat at sea. Following his travels in the far east, he returns to Halifax only to be asked to add vampire-slaying to his list of credentials. Although at first reluctant it becomes personal when he becomes a target.

Ok, enough with the vampires. Harbour View by Binnie Brennan is a touching novella, really more interconnected short stories, about the residents and staff in a nursing home in Halifax. Reading it brought to mind Hagar Shipley (in fact one of the residents would only choose The Diviners from the reading trolley as the rest of the novels were romances that she couldn't relate to all at). Present and past are interwoven and sometimes confused by the residents. Old age plays terrible tricks, robbing people of their independence in the most basic functions of life. Staff and family who care to take the time to listen learn about their rich pasts. Some residents choose to alter or invent their past in order to either fit in or to wrap themselves in privacy, lending the stories a bittersweet quality. The novella opens with Neil-Duncan (Buddy) MacDonald on his 109th birthday coming to the understanding that his family traditions haven't been lost but have been transmitted down to generations unknown to him.

While many of the residents of Harbour View have a long history in Nova Scotia, the province also has a rich immigrant tradition. In The Immigrant by Manju Kapur, Nina, a university lecturer in New Delhi, finds herself in an arranged marriage with Ananda, a successful dentist in Halifax. While Ananda has already established himself in Canadian society, Nina finds the transition extremely difficult. She, for whom family was so important, finds herself cut off and isolated. She looks for solace in the Halifax Memorial Library, taking comfort in books. A sometimes amusing, yet compassionate look at arranged marriages and the immigrant experience in Halifax.

A pivotal point in Halifax's history is, of course, The Halifax Explosion. Jon Tattrie, in an interview in the Chronicle Herald, speculates about the sanitized versions of the tragedy we've been told over the years. We know about the facts and the family stories, but not of the pain, suffering and fear. He speculates that it was because it happened in the midst of a war and people may have viewed tragedy with more fortitude. In Black Snow: a story of love and destruction, Tattrie doesn't shy away from the more graphic events of the Explosion. In his novel, Tommy Joyce, recently return from The Front, is knocked off his feet by the blast and joins in the rescue effort to both provide relief and search for his lost love.

Peter Temple - Aussie Crime Fiction

Australian author Peter Temple has just won the Miles Franklin Award. He is first ever crime fiction writer to win Australia's top literary prize. This is high praise indeed. If you are looking for a new hardboiled crime fiction reading experience, Temple may be the perfect choice?

Peter Temple is not overly well known in North America. He was first published in 1996, beginning with with Bad Debts, the first of his Jack Irish novels, for which he won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Novel ( Australia). He now has nine novels under his belt, with the most recent being Truth.

Critics praise his strong writing talent and engrossing plots:

"Temple spins a complex and powerful story [Truth] with writing so top-notch that readers might be tempted to slow down and savor the prose if the plot line weren't so compelling" ~ Library Journal.

""The Broken Shore" offers both poetry and gore, and it's best if you have a taste for both. Having read the new novels of Michael Connelly and Martin Cruz Smith, I have to say that Temple belongs in their company. Australia is a long way off, but this bloke is world-class" ~ Washington Post.

So if you like your crime fiction on the gritty and violent side, matched with a modern and edgy writing style, do yourself a favour and check out Peter Temple.

Reading Royalty - Royal Visit 2010

Who would have thought that a pair of naughty runaway corgis could lead to a constitutional crisis in Great Britain. In The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett, Queen Elizabeth follows her recalcitrant dogs onto the Westminster mobile library. Having spent very little time on the kitchen side of the property, she had no idea that the mobile library visited every week. Out of politeness - as one does - she borrows a book. Never a great reader - she was a doer, not a reader - she does finish this one as it is her duty to finish all that she begins. As we know, books are nefarious, in that one often leads to another. Soon, in an unqueenly-like fashion, she is faking illness to spend a day in bed with her latest novel. As she begins to neglect her royal duties, her staff must intervene. An light, funny novella to pass the time while waiting for the royal walkabout.

The Autobiography of the Queen by Emma Tennant has Queen Elizabeth disguised as Gloria Smith seeking solitude and anonymity in St. Lucia. After 50 years of being constantly in public service, she desired to experience life as she never had - independently. For the first time she had to make decisions about caring for herself, choosing clothes, carrying cash and shopping. In this funny and touching story, the Queen realizes, in her time away, her importance to her country, and comes to a greater understanding of her subjects' lives.

In Frances Itani's Remembering the Bones events take a darker turn. Georgina Danforth Whitley was born on the exact day in 1926 as Queen Elizabeth and as a result was always aware of their very different but parallel lives. Georgina was thrilled to be invited, along with 98 other people also born on April 21, 1926, to a birthday lunch at Buckingham Palace. En route, tragedy strikes, and her car plunges into a deep ravine. Immobilized and injured, but conscious, Georgina sustains herself by recalling her childhood, marriage and children, reflecting on the Queen's life, and naming the bones in her body. This is a tense, page-turning read as anxiety soars with Georgie's efforts to both measure and sustain her life.

Deadly Sin by James Hawkins. "Emotions run high when Queen Elizabeth II attempts to heal the schism between Christians and Muslims by attending a London mosque for Friday prayers. David Bliss, newly returned to duty while he tries to find a publisher for his novel, has the task of protecting the royal couple, but is caught off guard when an attack comes from an unexpected quarter. Meanwhile, Bliss's aging friend Daphne Lovelace needs help. Her elderly neighbours have died and apparently left their house to the family from hell. While Bliss desperately tries to protect the queen, Daphne puts on her oldest coat and takes up residence in a seniors' home as she tries to discover what really happened to her neighbours. Age apparently catches up with her, and in no time she appears as senile as the other inhabitants, but Trina Button in far-off Canada smells a rat and forces Bliss to take action. Is someone playing God? And what role does Jack the Ripper play?" - publisher

Fiction to try if you like....

One of my favourite features in book reviews is the comparisons reviewers often make to other books - putting a new book in the context of an older one to help readers to get a feel for it. Finding similar reads to our favourite titles can be a challenge (one that we here at the Reader hope we're helping you with!). In a recent post I talked about an upcoming book that's been suggested for fans of Jodi Picoult. In this post, I've compiled a few other "if you like" recommendations based on reviews.

If you liked dust bowl era circus novel Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, Publisher's Weekly magazine suggests that you'll want to know about The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno by Ellen Bryson. Released this week, it's a debut novel set in late 1800s New York, and centres around the P.T. Barnum (of circus fame) American Museum, which the wikipedia notes was a "combination zoo, museum, lecture hall, wax museum, theater and freak show". When a mysterious new woman arrives at the museum, her mystique is increased when Barnum himself asks Fortuno to keep tabs on her.

If you liked the emotional challenge of reading Hubert Selby Jr.'s novel of the desperate lives of New York drug addicts Requiem for a Dream, Library Journal thinks you'll appreciate Jon McGregor's Even the Dogs. The discovery of a body in an abandoned apartment is the catalyst for this book that looks into the troubled lives of addicts in an unnamed British city. The book jacket describes it as "intense, exhilarating and shot through with hope and fury ... an intimate exploration of life at the edges of society".

If you liked Audrey Niffeneger's romantic tale The Time Traveler's Wife you'll want to know about Anna Brashares' My Name is Memory. Daniel and Sophia have been in love throughout history, but they have also been repeated torn tragically apart. Daniel remembers each of their past lives, but Sophia does not. This novel jumps between present day and various points in the past where the lovers have found one another. (You may recognize Brashares' name from her hit YA series The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants—this is her second title with an adult audience in mind).

If you like the historical setting of Peter Tremayne’s medieval Irish Sister Fidelma mysteries, you'll want to know about the a new series by Cora Harrison. In Harrison's series a lady judge investigates crime in 16th century Ireland. The library owns 4 in the series which begins with Writ in Stone. A new installation, Eye of the Law has just been released.

Read Your Way Around Nova Scotia - Cape Breton

Last year we read our way around Nova Scotia and had such a good time, we thought we'd go again.

Tessie Gillis has been heralded as the "Godmother of Cape Breton fiction". Though she came from away, she described life in rural Cape Breton with keen insight. She married a farmer and moved to isolated, rural Cape Breton. There, she worked tirelessly for her family and her community until she was bedridden with a heart attack. Frequently on oxygen, this was her time to write. This particular volume, The Woman From Away: The collected writing of Cape Breton's Tessie Gillis contains her two novels, short stories and a family memoir. The introduction contains fascinating notes from her editor which describe how she developed as a writer. Her writing is spare, honest and unflinching. She writes about life in rural Cape Breton from a woman's perspective and does not shy away from the darker side of life which often included alcoholism and domestic abuse. She died in 1972 without ever seeing her work in print.

The Bishops Man by Linden MacIntyre has been much in the news (and in The Reader) this year. Father Duncan MacAskill, a young priest in Creignish, Cape Breton in the 1970's witnesses, what he believes to be, an inappropriate relationship between a priest and a young person. He reports the matter and, for his trouble, is banished to Honduras. Upon his return, he becomes "The Bishop's Man", or the troubleshooter who takes care of priests who have behaved badly, banishing them, as he was banished, to remote parishes. It becomes clear that a boy's suicide is linked to a priest he had dispatched in the past. MacAskill must confront his own responsibility and face his dysfunctional family past. MacIntyre, a journalist, gives this book and investigative feel and presents the difficult subject manner with thriller-like intensity.

MacKenzie's Cove by Truman Layton was inspired by tales of his own Scottish ancestors. Forced off their ancestral lands, Scottish emigrants made their way from the Highlands to Cape Breton. They forged a relationship with their Acadian neighbours and endured harsh conditions as they resolutely set about forging their new life. This heartwarming story explores family ties and the experiences of early immigrants in Nova Scotia.

Relative Happiness by Lesley Crewe proves that life in Cape Breton is not just about hardship and isolation. Crewe is a fresh, funny voice whose books have a modern date-movie feel to them. Lexie, a 30 year old woman, is living in Glace Bay and loving her life. She loves her quiet family centered-world , her house and the great big sea surrounding her. Despite her contentment, maybe because of her age, she begins to feel that something is missing. Then enters Adrian, a charming traveler who makes her quiet life much more complex.

Atlantic Authors Day - Coming Soon

With the second annual Atlantic Author's Day coming up this Saturday(June 26th) at local bookstores, I got to thinking about some of my own favourite East Coast literature books. I'm sure I've mentioned all three of these books before, but I think they deserve a second mention.

Here are a few of my favourites, in no particular order:


Scotch River, by Linda Little.

I loved the characters in this story. Linda Little has a way with character description that really works for me. I can still easily picture the main character's faces so readily in my mind. A great Nova Scotia setting was the icing on the cake.



A Forest for Calum, by Frank MacDonald

This book really resonated with me. Like Scotch River, it was the characters of this story that pulled me in. I love it when a book's characters seem so real, that as a reader you forget entirely that it is fiction. I also found the dialogue to be particularly strong. Combined with an intriguing storyline, this book was a pure treat to experience.


George & Rue, by George Elliott Clarke

Based on past tragic events in the author's family. This is a sobering, gut wrenching reading experience. But one worth taking. It is one of those books that gave me a profound reminder of how far we have come as a society, not to say that we don't still have far to go. With the other two books I mentioned, the settings were very familiar. The setting of George and Rue seemed so alien, even though it was set only 20 km from where I live.

Staff Pick: Friend of the Earth by T.C. Boyle

With the news each day documenting the mounting devastation in the Gulf of Mexico as the oil spill there continues into its third month, I find myself thinking frequently about a novel I read a few years ago.

A Friend of the Earth by T.C. Boyle imagines a future where Global Warming has had a disastrous impact on the world, and tells the story of a man who once fought to combat climate change, now living with its results. Although oil doesn't play a big part in Boyle's book, the overwhelming impact large corporations can have on ecosystems certainly does—so the novel can't help but feel topical.

Here's the description from the jacket:

"It is the year 2025. Global warming is a reality. The biosphere has collapsed and most mammals—not to mention fish, birds and frogs—are extinct. Tyrone Tierwater is eking out a bleak living in southern California, managing a pop star's private menagerie that "only a mother could love"—scruffy hyenas, jackals, warthogs, and three down-at-the-mouth lions. It wasn't always like this for Ty. Once he was a passionate environmentalist, so committed to saving the earth that he became and eco-terrorist and, ultimately, a convicted felon. As a member of the radical group Earth Forever!, he unwittingly endangered both his daughter Sierra and his wife Andrea. Now, just when he's trying to survive in world torn by obdurate storms and winnowing drought, Andrea comes back into his life."

I know, I know, it sounds too depressing—especially in the real world context I've now framed it, but in the capable hands of Boyle, it's a story that manages to be entertaining—even at times funny—while making you think about the world we too often take for granted. It's a satirical take on a tough topic. Boyle's descriptive powers are also at their peak: there are scenes in the book that are so vividly described, that a few years after reading it, they feel like personal memories.

I've been a fan of Boyle for awhile. He's a versatile author who can be serious or light—sometimes in the same book. He's quirky, with a sense of humour but not afraid to tackle big topics. He's written novels on historical personalities (The Road to Wellville is about the W.K. Kellogg, The Women is about Frank Lloyd Wright) and contemporary social issues (Friend of the Earth as noted, but also The Tortilla Curtain, which looks at the plight of Mexican illegal immigrants in the US). He's also a noted short story writer. The salon.com Readers Guide to Contemporary Authors calls Boyle "the one-man Barnum and Bailey of contemporary American Fiction, an amazingly kinetic storyteller and lover of words and language..."

T.C. Boyle's book might be a good match for fans of Sherman Alexie, another author who is frequently described as versatile and who isn't afraid to mix the political with (sometimes outlandish) humour. Tom Robbins is probably wackier than Boyle, but his books have commonalities with Boyle that give him crossover appeal. Boyle also gets spoken of as in the same school as post-modern American authors like Don DeLillo and Thomas Pynchon (who Boyle reports as an influence). And of course those suggestions work in the opposite direction too - if you're already a fan of T.C. Boyle but are looking for a place to look next, any of those authors could be a good choice.

Who are the Canadian 20 under 40?

Last week, I wrote a blog post about New Yorker magazine's 20 under 40—their look at 20 young authors who are going to define the next generation of American fiction—it got me wondering ... who are the Canadian 20 under 40?

The New Yorker included 3 Canadian authors on their list David Bezmozgis, Rivka Galchen and Wells Tower, so we'll assume they are already on our list. But who are the other 17? Here's a few possibilities:

Devin Code (1981): Code is from Dartmouth, NS although he lives beyond Nova Scotia's borders. So far he has one published book - short story collection In a Mist - which the Globe and Mail put in its top ten debut releases for 2008. His writing is clear and concise but thoughtful and honest with a strong sense of place.

Nicholas Dickner (1972): fans of CBC's Canada Reads will quickly recognize Dickner's name from this year's competition where his novel Nikolski came out on top. The Globe and Mail called Nikolski "a breathtakingly original perception of the world, mixing geography, cartography and longing in a language and construction both intellectually sophisticated and emotionally affecting." Canada Reads represented a breakthrough for Dickner into English Canada, although in Quebec he was already known. The original French version of Nikolski won several prizes and he has two other collections of stories in print.

Jessica Grant (1972): a co-worker mentioned Grant before I really even had chance to finish my question about what authors to include in this post. Grant has recently published her first novel Come, Thou Tortise "a delightfully off-beat story that features an opinionated tortoise, Winnifred, and an IQ-challenged narrator who find themselves in the middle of a life-changing mystery". The book has won a number of accolades recently including the 2010 Amazon.ca First Novel Award and the Afterword's Canada Also Reads contest. We talked about it here. Her previous book of short stories Making Light of Tragedy, includes the Journey Prize winning "My Husband's Jump".

Annabel Lyon (1971): Lyon's historical fiction title from last year The Golden Mean has definitely been her breakaway hit. Nominated for both The Giller Prize and the Governor General's Award for Fiction, it has thrust her into the limelight. Her earlier works include the short story collection Oxygen and a collection of three novellas called The Best Thing For You. The BC author was also included in the 13th edition of the Journey Prize anthology which celebrates the best Canadian short fiction each year.

Pasha Malla (1978): The library catalogue describes the stories in Malla's debut collection The Withdrawal Method as having "inventive language, clarity, and empathy" and that "Malla constructs resonant and unusual stories that instantly connect with readers". The collection gained him a lot of accolades - winning both the Trillium Book Award and the Danuta Gleed Literary Award and being longlisted for the Giller Prize. He regularly contributes to American literary magazine McSweeney's and other Canadian media.

Zoe Whittal (1976): Zoe Whittal's blog has this highly praising quote from the Globe and Mail as its heading: "Zoe Whittall might just be the cockiest, brashest, funniest, toughest, most life-affirming, elegant, scruffy, no-holds-barred writer to emerge from Montreal since Mordecai Richler...". The quote came from their review of her 2007 novel Bottle Rocket Hearts, which the Globe also named to their top 100 list that year. Her most recent book is Holding Still For as Long as Possible: set in Toronto amongst twenty somethings finding their way in life and love.

Okay, that's only 6 more and I'm not going to try to be definitive. I'll bet The New Yorker had a panel of folks who sat down for awhile and combed through the authors that they had been working with over the years. I'm sure I've missed someone - probably someone really obvious and of course those under the radar folks who never seem to get the attention they deserve. Hey, I'm just one little librarian who sat down and tried to brainstorm this over the course of a week.

So, I'll ask for your help. Who else should be here? Add your thoughts in the comments below.

In Memoriam: Jeanne Robinson: 1948 - 2010

Spider Robinson was the first author I cared to recall, way back in my early teens. I got right into the Callahan series with ‘Lady Slings the Booze’. His writing spoke to me in new and interesting ways. He wrote logically, especially for someone so eccentric. He turned the improbable into the possible. He wrote about women, my greatest weakness at the time. He used puns, my greatest weakness right now.
And he wrote about hopeful futures, justifying his optimism.

“Just as there are Laws of Conservation of Matter and Energy, so there are in fact Laws of Conservation of Pain and Joy. Neither can ever be created or destroyed. But one can be converted into the other.”
- Callahan's Crosstime Saloon (1977)

Somewhere between leaving the States to briefly become Haligonian, he began the Stardance saga, co-written with his wife Jeanne. A dancer, choreographer (formerly of Halifax's Nova Dance Theatre, Dance Co-Op, Halcyon Dance Theatre, DancExchange Studio), and Soto Zen Buddhist-in-training, Jeanne Robinson expertise helped develop the movements necessary to describe the novel’s infamous zero-gravity dance.

The book is set in space, after all. It won a Hugo and a Nebula, so you know it worked out. They headed West and settled in B.C.; the rest of the trilogy appeared shortly thereafter. (Stardance, 1979, Starseed, 1991, and Starmind, 1995)

This impossible dance was almost filmed, if you can believe it, with the aid of the Zero G Corporation and low orbital flights. Will it still be made? As Spider might pun, it is up in the air.
More information here: http://www.stardancemovie.com/index.html

You see, on May 30, 2010, Jeanne Robinson died following a long battle with cancer.

"Shared pain is lessened; shared joy is increased (and bad puns are appreciated)."
-Callahan’s Legacy (1996)

In recognition of his impact on me, and her impact on him, I recommend the following titles. They’re touching, engrossing, and even educational. Mostly though, they're happy endings.

Stardance Trilogy: Stardance, Starseed, & Starmind
Callahan’s Cross-Time Saloon
Lady Slings the Booze
The Callahan Touch
Callahan’s Legacy
Callahan’s Key
Callahan’s Con
The Crazy Years

In Memoriam - José Saramago

News broke on Friday that Portuguese Nobel prize winning author José Saramago had died at home in the Canary Islands. The 87 year old author had been suffering through an illness for quite some time.

Saramago was born in Portugal in 1922 to a farming family. He spent his adult life in a variety of careers—some in government, some in publishing, some in other fields. He published one novel in his youth but largely came to writing later in life, releasing several novels through his 50s but first achieving notable success in his early 60s in 1982 with the book Baltasar and Blimunda. Despite his late start, he quickly rose to prominence and acclaim: between 1982 and 1998 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize, he published an additional 7 books, including Blindness—the book for which he is best known in the English speaking world.

In awarding Saramago the Nobel Prize the prize committee praised him as an author "who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality". Saramago's writing style is best described as experimental and it invariably won him some fans while turning other readers away. He was known for writing in long sentences and paragraphs in what some have called a stream-of-consciousness style. Flipping through a book by Saramago, it is notable that the text fills the pages in blocks, the margins consistently straight down the page with few paragraph breaks with no indication of speaker.

In addition to many fiction titles, Saramago published a memoir in 2009 called Small Memories and in 2000 a book called Journey to Portugal which looked at the history and culture of his native land.


Saramago's writings may appeal to fans of Gabriel Garcia Marquez (because of his association with magical realism), Franz Kafka (similar both in writing style and in his use of allegory), Haurki Murakami (who also uses big metaphors to examine the questions of life) and Cormac McCarthy (who has also been known to eschew standard punctuation and quotation marks).