The Existential War of the Writerly Self
Plus, a look back to the 59 fabulous reviews of 2020!
Welcome to a bumper issue of A Turn of Phrase! A review of Jacob Wren’s brilliant book, Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim, Book*hug, and a look at back to the 59 reviews of fabulous books from 2020 as featured by The Minerva Reader, as well as an interview with Lisa Braxton, author of The Talking Drum.
Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim by Jacob Wren, Book*hug Press.
About the book:
What are the best ways to support political struggles that aren’t your own? What are the fundamental principles of a utopia during war? Can we transcend the societal values we inherit? Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim is a remarkably original, literary page turner that explores such pressing questions of our time.
A depressed writer visits a war zone. He knows it’s a bad idea, but his curiosity, and obsession that his tax dollars help to pay for foreign wars, draw him there. Amidst the fighting, he stumbles into a small strip of land that’s being reimagined as a grassroots, feminist, egalitarian utopia. As he learns about the principles of the collective, he moves between a fragile sense of self and the ethical considerations of writing about what he experiences but cannot truly fathom. Meanwhile, women in his life—from this reimagined society and elsewhere—underscore truths hidden in plain sight.
In these pages, real world politics mingle with profoundly inventive fabulations. This is an anti-war novel unlike any other; an intricate study of our complicity in violent global systems and a celebration of the hope that underpins the resistance against them.
About Jacob Wren:
Jacob Wren makes literature, collaborative performances and exhibitions. His books include: Polyamorous Love Song, Rich and Poor, Authenticity is a Feeling and Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim. As artistic director of the interdisciplinary group PME-ART he has co-created performances such as: En français comme en anglais, it's easy to criticize, Individualism Was A Mistake, The DJ Who Gave Too Much Information, Every Song I’ve Ever Written and Adventures can be found anywhere, même dans la répétition. He is co-founder of the orchestra The Air Contains Honey who recently finished recording their first album. His internet presence is often defined by a fondness for quotations.
My review:
As this book unfolded, I felt increasingly yes, this is an anti-war novel in the truest sense of the word, but it also explores the war of the self against the self. The protagonist feels unworthy of being a protagonist, unworthy of his own protest and yet, it is only with writings such as these, that we can pitch our imperfect tents on the grounds of protest.
In this novel, Wren explores the existential nihilism of the self, juxtaposed by the ego of the creator and the shame of ownership of art. Perhaps, in a Catholic sense, “only say the word, and I shall be healed”, in this case, it might come down to two words: “you matter.” Your protest matters. You as a writer, matter.
Or, “to thine own self be true,” urging us to dry our eyes to perfect our aim of seeing, with unflinching honesty and acceptance, our artistic selves; the muddled, struggling, self-effacing, ego-driven, obsessed, distracted, dissatisfied, caring, passionate and tormented self, the place where imaginative boundaries between the subjective self and the objective others are crossed.
The protagonist is concerned that he’s too self-obsessed. I could say the same about me as a reader of this, or any, book. I read in terms of my life, my views and my projected responses.
I loved the writerly insights:
“I remember an interview I read a long time ago with a writer, about their first book, how they said they were writing it in order to “stay alive,” to keep despair at bay and in the process save themselves.”
And this:
“If I do write about it, it will be because I’m a writer and, short of dying, I can’t seem to help myself.”
And:
Zana: “You don’t see a problem with being a tourist because you don’t actually know anything else. No offence, but it seems to me you’re mostly a tourist in your own life.”
To which the protagonist responded: “I didn’t know if it was true that I was a tourist, but if it was, perhaps the reason had to do with being a writer, that I visit life only, or mainly, so I can write about it later.”
And I loved this issue as raised to the protagonist by a student: “Are you certain you’re being honest with yourself? Because underneath your self-confessed weakness and monumental doubt, I sense an equally monumental ego that expresses itself through the very desire to continue writing books.”
Ultimately, writing an anti-war novel, a protest novel or a novel about the inner war of the self, is actioning the change we wish to see (referring to p. 189).
This brilliant, thought-provoking, timely book is a philosophical treatise, as well as an astute commentary of war, whether it’s an existential war or one waged on a thin strip of land.
DO YOU REMEMBER 2020? I DO!
59 book reviews and an interview with Lisa Braxton, author of The Talking Drum.
A Grave Diagnosis: 35 stories of murder and malaise (A Carrick crime anthology Book 3), Carrick Publishing
About the book:
35 stories of murder and malaise and the dedication says it all:
“This anthology is dedicated to the countless heroes who have worked endless hours to ease our global suffering throughout this 2020 Coronavirus pandemic. The doctors, nurses, paramedics, personal support workers and medical support staff, all of whom so bravely risk their lives and families daily to help our world, deserve our deepest gratitude. At the time of this writing, in the United States alone, over 1,200 medical workers have died due to COVID-19. On October 28, 2020, global pandemic deaths have topped 1,117,562. In the U.S., over 226,000 deaths due to Coronavirus have been reported. Canada has suffered 10,000 deaths, and cases are once again on the rise. These front line medical workers are not alone in their commitment to serve an ailing world. They are assisted by grocery workers, retailers in essential services, delivery staff, and far too many others to name, who often toil in low-paying jobs for the greater good of society. To all of these front-line workers, both in medicine and in essential services, you are an inspiration. May your contribution be never forgotten, and may you be honored by us all, long after wellness has been restored to our planet. To our readers, we wish you good health and safety. Be well, and may we all survive this crisis to share our COVID-19 stories with future generations. We hope our small attempt to entertain will bring you peace, and offer some relief from the worries of this stressful time.
My Review:
A Grave Diagnosis is a delicious buffet of deadly delights. That may seem like an odd way to describe an anthology about terminal diseases and deadly murder but each tasty morsel in this book will enthrall you!
-.-
Death by Association by Madona Skaff-Koren, Renaissance, 2020
About the book:
Computer expert and former marathon runner Naya struggles to recover from a serious multiple sclerosis attack, and settles into a routine of daily workouts at the gym. Frustrated by her lack of progress, she’s in no mood for wheelchair user Larson Rask and his endless prying questions. Noticing that his legs still look muscular, Naya guesses that he’s only been in the chair for a short time. She puts aside her annoyance to patiently listen to him. To her horror, a police Tactical Unit raids the gym and arrests Larson Rask - on three counts of murder. Was he grooming her to be victim number four? Reluctantly, she’s drawn into the world of sleuthing - tracking a ruthless serial killer who will stop at nothing to stay free.
My Review:
Looking for a new heroine? Look no further! Naya more than holds her own with the world’s favourite super sleuths Kinsey Milhone (Sue Grafton) and Pat Tierney (Rosemary McCracken).
-.-
Approaching Fire by Michelle Porter, Breakwater Press
About the book:
Winner of THE MIRAMICHI READER’S 2020 MOST PROMISING AUTHOR AWARD
Approaching Fire, Michelle Porter embarks on a quest to find her great-grandfather, the Métis fiddler and performer Lon Robert Goulet. Through musicology, jigs and reels, poetry, photographs, and the ecology of fire, Porter invests biography with the power of reflective ingenuity, creating a portrait which expands beyond documentation into a private realm where truth meets metaphor.
Weaving through multiple genres and traditions, Approaching Fire fashions a textual documentary of rescue and insight, and a glowing contemplation of the ways in which loss can generate unbridled renewal.
My Review:
And thus, by poetry and prose and the careful unearthing of the truth, is history rewritten. This beautiful work is both lyrical and powerful and worthy of several reads.
-.-
The Long Swim to China Pt 1 by Stedmond Pardy, YouTube
Words By Stedmond Pardy,
Images/ visuals by Michael Strug
Stedmond Pardy's book “the pleasures of this planet aren't enough” will be released by Mosaic Press in 2021
I miss seeing Stedmond Pardy’s powerful poetry performed in person but in a time of Covid, I’ll happily take the cinematic feasts with visuals by Michael Strug. I could listen to Stedmond Pardy’s compelling poetry for hours without end.
-.-
The Narrows of Fear (Wapawikoscikanik) by Carol Rose GoldenEagle
About the book:
The Narrows of Fear (Wapawikoscikanik) weaves the stories of a group of women committed to helping one another. Despite abuse experienced by some, both in their own community and in residential schools, these women learn to celebrate their culture, its stories, its dancing, its drums, and its elders. Principal of these elders is Nina, the advisor at the women’s shelter. With the help of Sandy and Charlene, Nina uses Indigenous practices to heal the traumatized Mary Ann. This is a powerful novel—sometimes brutally violent, sometimes healing, sometimes mythical, and always deeply respectful of the Indigenous culture at its heart.
My Review:
I couldn’t tear myself away from this book. With the unflinching courage and vivid, beautiful prose, Carol Rose GoldenEagle lays bare the hurts and suffering of the past but equally maps the path of healing and wisdom. This is a fine example of the power of literature to educate and change the world. While the past cannot be undone, the future can be changed by works such as this. All the characters in the book moved me with this writer’s fine skills that make the reader truly feel part of the journey.
-.-
Watch Your Head: Writers and Artists Respond to the Climate Crisis by Kathryn Mockler, Coach House Books
About the book:
A warning, a movement, a collection borne of protest.
In Watch Your Head, poems, stories, essays, and artwork sound the alarm on the present and future consequences of the climate emergency. Ice caps are melting, wildfires are raging, and species extinction is accelerating. Dire predictions about the climate emergency from scientists, Indigenous land and water defenders, and striking school children have mostly been ignored by the very institutions - government, education, industry, and media - with the power to do something about it.
Writers and artists confront colonization, racism, and the social inequalities that are endemic to the climate crisis. Here the imagination amplifies and humanizes the science. These works are impassioned, desperate, hopeful, healing, transformative, and radical.
This is a call to climate-justice action.
Edited by Madhur Anand, Stephen Collis, Jennifer Dorner, Catherine Graham, Elena Johnson, Canisia Lubrin, Kim Mannix, Kathryn Mockler, June Pak, Sina Queyras, Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Rasiqra Revulva, Yusuf Saadi, Sanchari Sur, and Jacqueline Valencia
Proceeds will be donated to RAVEN and Climate Justice Toronto.
My Review:
Watch Your Head is a time capsule of art, poetry and prose, perfectly documenting life as we know it in 2020. If one book were to be saved and discovered by future generations who wondered about our lives and this book would be the perfect read. Here are but two quotes to entice you to read from this fantastic and terrifying encyclopaedic collection of poetry, prose and art.
“Apocalyptic or benign – call the changes in our climate what you will, the semantics are irrelevant. The challenge of this time is a crisis of consciousness. We cannot care about what we do not believe; we cannot act if we are not aware. —Notes From a Small Place, Simone Dalton
“I met Lee Maracle for the first time during the writing of the book, and asked her, in a scared whisper, if she ever felt she was haunted. Lee matter-of-factly replied, of course, writing is speaking to our ancestors.” —Writing in a Dangerous Time, Carrianne Leung
-.-
All The Animals on Earth by Mark Sampson, Buckrider Books
* This is one of my all time favourite books! *
About the book:
To solve the world’s depopulation problem, scientists have developed a process known as “pullulation,” which transmogrifies birds and mammals into humanoid form. When a terrible accident occurs, the once desolate planet Earth’s population quadruples overnight with the appearance of strange new beings known as “Blomers.”
Now human, or at least human-like, Blomers bring with them certain talents based on their forebears: foxes are mathematically inclined, blue jays are visually artistic and gophers are courageous and strong. But with these aptitudes come a predilection for a free and open sexuality and a tendency toward violence among their own kind. Humans are at best bemused and at worst horrified by the Blomers’ bizarre behaviour.
Buttoned-down human resources manager Hector Thompson hates two things: change and science fiction. Finding himself in the middle of both, Hector must embark on a road trip across North America to reckon with the full impact of pullulation and what responsibilities he has to the rapidly changing society in which he lives.
My Review:
Quite simply one of my favourite books ever. A hilarious, profound and highly original tale that harkens back to George Orwell's Animal Farm but spins a perfectly timed 2020 tale of love, art, politics and, as an added bonus, offers an extremely funny exploration of the role of human resources. And of course, animals!
-.-
To the Men Who Write Goodbye Letters by Gianna Patriarca
About the book:
The poems in The Men Who Write Good-bye Letters explore and make sense of the choices made when we “end” things, or when things end without our permission, whether it be the end of a life, the end of a romance, or the result of an unexpected tragedy. These poems are a poet’s observation and reflection on the reasons for loss and endings, survival and redemption. They also offer an examination of lives searching for the clarity and value, sometimes obscured by the lack of internal reflection, which would lead to self- discovery and, ultimately, self-affirmation.
My Review:
Exquisite. Patriarca writes:
i could never have imagined
not being here
This collection is testament not only to a single life but to all our lives. Poignant, incisive and unforgettable in the best possible way, Patriarca captures the most pivotal moments of our hearts.
-.-
There is a Place by Ivy Reiss, Published by Aeolus House
About the book:
“Ivy Reiss writes poetry that is equivocally deep, capturing the reader with promises of light and then taking them to realms that are beyond what most people experience, even testing their sense of comprehension. It is as if she carries her own experiences in the palm of her hand, and then passes them on with a friendly handshake and a shrewd smile.” – Norman Cristofoli, publisher of Labour of Love poetry magazine (1996 – 2017)
My Review:
Ivy Reiss is a wondrous powerhouse of energy and creativity and this collection reflects all of that and more.
PAGE OF MEMORY
On this day, near three decades later
I see the chilling change in your eyes
Although you are part of a different storm that blows in I am learning the past always repeats itself
and again I am taken back
back and taken aback
to a page of another memory
and I love this:
FIVE LONG SIXTY SHORT
Nothing can compare to
the blunt breaking in
of un-thought
forgotten things
From childhood traumas, friendships, love, social injustice, happiness, loneliness, loveliness and death, there is most certainly a place in my heart for this rich and emotive collection. Reiss is unafraid to walk into the shadows where truth and hope may reside and possibly triumph. Reading this collection is indeed like watching an evanescent firefly glowing in the dark.
nagyon szép I say to Ivy Reiss, for telling us your story and nagyon szépen köszönjük for this vivid work.
EVANESCENT FIREFLY
Now this ethereal entity,
an afterthought of what may have been in time will become evanescent
like a firefly that disappears
out of sight
amidst blinking bright,
disappearing, into the night
I want to remember this:
CAUGHT A HOLD
Not today! Not tomorrow!
whatever it takes
I’m not interested in sorrow!
-.-
The Enemies Within Us by Sharon A. Crawford, Blue Denim Press
About the book:
“Your dad has cancer.” Ten-year-old Sharon hears these words. Not from her parents. They lied. Set mainly in 1950s and 1960s Toronto, this is Sharon’s story before and after Daddy’s dirty little secret surfaces. Before, she is Princess to her elderly father’s King. He protects her, a shy only child, from best friend, The Bully. Sharon also deals with a bullying nun at school. She distracts herself playing baseball and piano, riding the rails with Mom and railway timekeeper Daddy, and visiting eccentric Detroit and rural Ontario relatives. After learning the truth, Sharon withdraws from Daddy. At 13, she teaches Mom to play the piano.
Then Daddy gets sick again, and again…and dies. Sharon A. Crawford’s memoir is a powerful, sometimes humorous, account of a young girl’s lessons learned from difficult teachers – bullying, betrayal, and cancer.
My Review:
How true: "Family—eccentric or not—defines who we are. We may not all have got along; we may still be in flux. But that is the nature of families." Crawford faces her demons and take us on a journey that paints a picture of Toronto years gone by, to the days of Eaton's and Catholicism for Christmas and childhood bullies. "Practising gardening and religion will finally teach me something about expectations." I loved the photographs, the descriptions of riding the rails, the history of Toronto and Mom's Eight Rules of Honesty.
-.-
Dirty Birds by Morgan Murray (Breakwater Books)
About the book:
In late 2008, as the world's economy crumbles and Barack Obama ascends to the White House, the remarkably unremarkable Milton Ontario - not to be confused with Milton, Ontario - leaves his parents' basement in Middle-of-Nowhere, Saskatchewan, and sets forth to find fame, fortune, and love in the Euro-lite electric sexuality of Montreal; to bask in the endless twenty-something Millennial adolescence of the Plateau; to escape the infinite flatness of Saskatchewan and find his messiah - Leonard Cohen. Hilariously ironic and irreverent, in Dirty Birds, Morgan Murray generates a quest novel for the twenty-first century--a coming-of-age, rom-com, crime-farce thriller--where a hero's greatest foe is his own crippling mediocrity as he seeks purpose in art, money, power, crime, and sleeping in all day.
My Review:
A vast, fantastic and original book, not to mention utterly hilarious. The kind of book you'll devour and then wish you hadn’t read it so quickly, but happily, you can start it all over again! Definitely one of my top ten books of 2020.
I loved this: “Make the world bigger by your being in it. ... the way you pour yourself out into the world to quench another’s thirst, the way you exist and the way you persist.” Words to live by.
-.-
Unchartered Waters by Rosemary McCracken (Carrick Publishing)
About the book:
It’s Pat Tierney’s chance to run her own business, the way she wants to run a business. Without anyone breathing down her neck. She’s done her homework, and she’s found a small financial planning practice that looks like a good fit. Its purchase means taking out a large loan to finance the deal, and she has no idea whether the clients she will acquire will stay with her. It’s risky, but she’s willing to proceed. The one thing she hasn’t factored in is a murder. Dean Monaghan, the business’s vendor, is found stabbed to death in his office shortly after the sale document is signed. Attempting to maintain her business’s good reputation, Pat searches for Dean’s killer—and the reason why he was killed. When Dean’s son, Lukas, tries to put her out of business, Pat finds herself living her worst nightmare. She’s ventured into uncharted waters that are teeming with sharks.
My Review:
This, the fourth adventure in the Pat Tierney series, may well be the best yet. It's no secret that I'm a fan of McCracken's polished prose and clever plots but this one knocks it out of the ballpark.I thoroughly enjoyed the escapades of Pat Tierney and her every growing family as she navigates increasingly perilous waters, this time as she takes over the reins of a business where all is not as it seems.
The plot is so compelling it had me resetting my passwords and checking all my bank accounts – and wishing I had a financial advisor as savvy as Pat. This is another treat read jam-packed with colourful characters and vivid descriptions of Toronto that made me want to take a guided tour of the city with my copy of Unchartered Waters in hand. As always, I can't wait to see what Pat Tierney gets up to next.
-.-
Dancing with Chairs in the Music House by Caro Soles (Inanna Publications)
About the book:
Precocious ten-year-old Vanessa Dudley-Morris knows lots of secrets. In 1949 when she and her family are forced to move into two rooms on the second floor of 519 Jarvis Street in Toronto, a genteel but somewhat rundown rooming house owned by a reclusive pianist, she learns a lot more.
Despite the family’s drastically reduced circumstances, her parents struggle to keep up their old standards. Threatened by blindness due to an eye condition, Vanessa is kept at home, tutored by an erratic succession of eccentrics, some with questionable credentials. Consequently, she spends a lot of time alone, wandering the dim corridors of the old house, silently listening at doors and watching the odd characters who live there. She becomes fascinated by a mother and son who move into a room on the third floor. Eventually she agrees to take secret notes from the son to his mysterious friend at her church, unwittingly unleashing a chain of events that leads to tragedy.
My Review:
An absolute gem of a book. So beautifully written that one glides along with the prose. One truly sees the world through the eyes of ten-year-old Vanessa Dudley-Morris and you slip inside her head so seamlessly that you don’t even notice. Dancing With Chairs in the Music House is The Secret Garden meets A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - thank you, Caro Soles for this moving, memorable and haunting read. The characters are unforgettable and at times they’ll break your heart entirely. And if you live in Toronto and you’ve always wondered who lived in the mansions on Jarvis Street, this book is a must-read but Torontonian or not, read this book.
-.-
Scorpion Scheme by Melissa Yi (Olo Books in association with Windtree Press)
About the book:
Pharaohs’ tombs. Ancient myths. Modern-day murder. Dr. Hope Sze doesn’t need a free trip to Egypt. She can’t afford the flight to Cairo, or the cruise down the Nile, so she’d keep studying in Canada—except her fiancé, Dr. John Tucker, yearns to patrol the pyramids and confront the curse on King Tutankhamun’s tomb. So when a company offers them both a free stay in Cairo in exchange for a month’s work in an emergency department, Tucker lobbies for a pre-honeymoon in the Valley of Kings and Queens, investigating the windswept temple of Hatshepsut, or scuba diving in the Red Sea. Instead, within 90 minutes of arrival, Hope drops to her knees outside the Grand Egyptian Museum, desperate to save a now-comatose 87-year-old Johannesburg man who’d raved about Kruger and treasure after receiving a nail through his skull. Hope usually ignores the ranting triggered by a severe head injury, but Tucker fixates on their one chance at the legendary Kruger Millions, a rumoured fortune that many believe lies secretly stowed somewhere in South Africa. Since Tucker and Hope’s combined student debt load totals almost half a million dollars, Tucker can’t pass up the possibility of $500,000,000 in buried gold.
Hope launches into her first mystery based in a birthplace of human civilization. Where the evil god Set battled righteous Horus and Isis in an 80-year war. Where Antony fell in love with Cleopatra. Where Hope and Tucker must outwit, or fall prey, to a ruthless criminal mastermind.
My Review:
Scorpion Scheme is top-notch historical crime fiction with a fabulous kick-ass female protagonist. The kind of book that you just can’t put down. Scorpion Scheme is Robin Cook meets D.J. McIntosh’s fabulous Mesopotamian trilogy but it delivers a stingingly good tale all on its own steam.
-.-
Skeet Love by Craig Francis Power (Breakwater Books)
About the book:
Think the world can't get any crazier? Think again. Set in near-future Toronto, Skeet Love tells the story of Shane, a conspiracy theorist and aspiring rapper; Nina, his girlfriend; and Brit, the couple's lover. Wildly suspecting the threesome is under surveillance by a secretive religious cult, Shane moves the group to seek refuge with his father, a smuggler and taxidermist. And then the truth really gets weird. Craig Francis Power's third novel is an uber-cool drug and sex-fuelled critique of the world we think we know.
My Review:
Dystopia is supposed to be disturbing. And Skeet Love doesn’t just hit the nail in the head, it skewers a corkscrew through your veins. Fierce, gritty dark and relentless, Skeet Love is the voice of future generations.
-.-
The Path of Loneliness by Candice James (Inanna)
About the book:
The Path of Loneliness explores separateness and the many facets of love, desire, grief and loss that we experience during our life journey. Although we walk with others, some closely, some casually, ultimately, we all walk alone. Love makes the path less lonely and comes in many forms, real and surreal, requited and unrequited ghostly and mysterious. Though lovers walk love’s pathway together, there is always a small loneliness nestled inside each heart and soul that remains separate. This book opens up the secret world of emotion and spirit sequestered inside us, hidden to our outer selves. The book coaxes the reader to delve into those hidden areas and revisit old secrets, some forgotten and some remembered, allowing us to come away with a truer knowledge of our place in life as we walk our own “Path of Loneliness.”
My Review:
Extraordinary and uplifting. I particularly loved the poems in Spirit. This is a collection to carry in your purse and reach for as a meditation or reflection or perhaps to help you take a breath, gather perspective and momentum and then continue on only less alone, and less lonely, than you were moments before.
Here is an excerpt from A Tricky Thing:
The past is a tricky thing:
a cavalcade of images
sometime dissolved in water;
sometimes etched in stone.
…
In the stone-cold aftermath of the tricky past,
Or at the bottom of the half-full glass of the shaky present;
somewhere, at the quantum level,
in our house of mirrors
in our own personal universe,
the present becomes obsessed with its own distorted past
and wonders…
how it ever got this way.
-.-
Underneath the Water with the Fish by Carol Malyon (Inanna)
About the book:
Underneath the Water with the Fish is a collection of short fiction that explores the murky underwater existence of women’s uncensored thoughts and desires. Often the women are on the cusp of change: death, leaving a relationship, starting a new one, wondering how they got to the point where they are. Sometimes they are living a rather marginal existence or are not well grounded in sound mental health and are just getting by. The author tells these stories with a touch of poetry and of humour and a great deal of emotional intelligence.
My Review:
A great range of stories in this collection. We are all drawn beneath the waterline to bear witness to the tiny and profound moments of our lives. Pithy, succinct, insightful, disturbing, thought-provoking and utterly hilarious!
-.-
Dear Hearts by Barbara Miller Biles (Inanna)
About the book:
Dear Hearts is a collection of character-driven stories that are whimsical, sometimes magical, unsentimental yet poignant, and focus on the ways in which girls and women who were teenagers in the 1960s experienced the changing cultural values shaped by feminism. Many of them are about the experiences of young women in high school and university, and explore their response to changing sexual mores. The characters are hearts of longing caught in the irony of the times, transitioning from the sixties right up to the present. Stories are presented in five parts: Tender Hearts, Geneva Stories, Surreal Hearts, Janet Stories and Sorry Hearts and reveal characters with a sense of longing and poignancy yet strength and quirkiness, too.
My Review:
Reading this book was like discovering a long-forgotten box of family photographs. The stories leapt off the page and into my heart where perhaps they’d been all along. Splendid, contemplative, poignant and wise, Dear Hearts is a dear read indeed.
-.-
GUEST POST BY AUTHOR LISA BRAXTON, AUTHOR OF THE TALKING DRUM (INANNA)
I am new to the publishing world, my debut novel, The Talking Drum, was published at the end of May, and I didn’t have a sense of the publishing landscape in terms of the value placed on works by black versus non-black authors. That is, until the arrival of the hashtag #PublishingPaidMe. The hashtag was created by the fantasy novelist L.L. McKinney to highlight the disparities.
I now know that black authors have been having these conversations for quite some time. The conversations picked up speed and drew more attention from the public in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and subsequent protests throughout the United States and other parts of the world regarding police brutality and racial injustice in general.
As an author who is African American, the threads of conversation under the hashtag drew my interest. I followed the tweets closely. Black and non-black authors disclosed the amounts paid for their book advances. The disparities were stunning.
I researched further and came across the Lee & Low Books Diversity Baseline Survey. Lee & Low is the largest multicultural children’s book publisher in the United States. Their 2019 survey—an update and expansion from the 2015 survey—captured information from a large segment of the publishing landscape with all Big 5 publishers participating, all major review journals, and academic presses and literary agencies.
The survey found that overall, the publishing industry is 76% white, 5% black, 6% Latinx, and 7% Asian. Editorial staffs are 85% white, 1% black, 2% Latinx, and 5% Asian. Marketing and publicity departments are 74% white, 4% black, 5% Latinx, and 8% Asian.
I was particularly interested in the findings about book reviewers, being a book reviewer myself and having had my book reviewed by upwards of 40 reviewers during my book launch. I know the impact reviews can have on book sales and publicity. The survey found that among book reviewers 80% are white, 4% black, 3% Latinx, and 4% Asian.
Needless to say, the people behind the books serve as gatekeepers, who can make a huge difference in determining which stories are amplified and which are shut out. If the people who work in publishing are not a diverse group, how can diverse voices truly be represented in its books? The survey found that 71 % of African American fiction is sold by indie and self-published authors. Sales figures show that these books are selling, there is a market for them, but the Big 5 publishers— Penguin/Random House, Hachette Book Group, Harper Collins, Simon and Schuster, and Macmillan—largely ignore them.
It took me 10 years to get my novel published. I have no idea if biases or prejudice had anything to do with the length of my journey. Along the way I got great feedback from literary agents and editors who helped me make the novel better. When I finally got a contract, it was from a small press in Toronto, a women’s press that has the mission of publishing women of all backgrounds.
I wonder if I’ll face similar challenges with my second novel. If I acquire a literary agent, will the agent be unable to sell my book to a major publisher? Will I be shut out because of race?
In this era in which reading lists are popping up on the internet urging the public to read black authors, buy black books, and support black-owned and operated bookstores, there also needs to be an outcry over the lack of diversity in the publishing world and the pay disparities between black authors and white authors and between black authors and other authors of color. Unless the publishing industry is held accountable, improvements will not be made.
https://blog.leeandlow.com/2020/01/28/2019diversitybaselinesurvey/
https://www.inanna.ca/product/the-talking-drum/
-.-
Melt by Heidi Wicks, Breakwater Books
About the book:
Jess is a sensitive creature of habit. Cait is her passionate and impulsive best friend. And in Melt, Heidi Wicks follows the lives of these characters from their teenage years into their late thirties--through drifting desires, fake tans, economic turbulence, kids, grief, job loss, love loss, and personal renewal. Shifting radiantly between the late nineties and the present day, Melt explores the life-sustaining anatomy of friendship and the complex relationships we have with our pasts. (Goodreads)
My Review:
Five Stars for a really fabulous summer-feel-good read! I melted right into the book and let it sweep me away. Funny, sharp, snappy and as bright and energetic as its cover, Melt is a delightful story of friendship ups-and-downs, marriage, jobs and kids. I can't imagine anyone not loving this book!
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The Talking Drum by Lisa Braxton, Inanna Publications
About the book:
It is 1971. The fictional city of Bellport, Massachusetts, is in decline with an urban redevelopment project on the horizon expected to transform this dying factory town into a thriving economic center. This planned transformation has a profound effect on the residents who live in Bellport as their own personal transformations take place. Sydney Stallworth steps away from her fellowship and law studies at an elite university to support husband Malachi’s dream of opening a business in the heart of the black community of his hometown, Bellport.
For Omar Bassari, an immigrant from Senegal, Bellport is where he will establish his drumming career and the launching pad from which he will spread African culture across the world, while trying to hold onto his marriage. Della Tolliver has built a fragile sanctuary in Bellport for herself, boyfriend Kwamé Rodriguez, and daughter Jasmine, a troubled child prone to nightmares and outbursts.
Tensions rise as the demolition date moves closer, plans for gentrification are laid out, and the pace of suspicious fires picks up. The residents find themselves at odds with a political system manipulating their lives and question the future of their relationships.
The Talking Drum explores intra-racial, class, and cross-cultural tensions, along with the meaning of community and belonging. Examining the profound impact gentrification has on people in many neighborhoods, and the way in which being uprooted affects the fabric of their families, friendships, and emotional well-being, the novel not only focuses on the immigrant experience, but the way in which the immigrant/African American neighborhood interface leads to friction and tension. This book thus provides a springboard to important discussions on race and class differences, on the treatment of immigrants, as well as the government’s relationship and responsibility to society. (Inanna.ca)
My Review:
An engrossing, beautifully written novel about reaching deep within when one’s dreams and expectations don’t turn out the way one would hope. The Talking Drum is about what happens when life hurls one challenge and betrayal after another. This is a book about resilience, renewed hope and courage, the power of love, family, enduring relationships and fresh starts, racial tensions, class, friendship and careers, all explored by a rich and vibrant cast of characters.
Let the African drums talk indeed, as this book so successfully does.
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Then the Robins Sang Paperback by Ava Baccari (Author), Gianluca D'Acchille (Illustrator)
About the book:
This is the story of the time when pets couldn't go outside. It was spring, but the cats weren't let out to roam the neighbourhood, and dogs couldn't play with their friends outdoors. For a while, life felt lonely and all the days looked the same. Then the robins started singing. Published by Channel 13 Advertising & Design Inc. 100 percent of the proceeds will be donated to Villa Charities Foundation. (Google)
In mid-March, as the world seemed to collapse around her, Ava Baccari watched her cat, Simba, stare longingly outside the window. She wondered if Simba was feeling as helpless and trapped as she was amid a global pandemic.
“I remember looking at my cat and thinking ‘does he want to go outside?’” Baccari said. “I remember thinking of that as such a metaphor for what we are going through.”
That night, Baccari decided to do what she could as a writer, creating a children’s book about the quarantine and deciding she would donate all the proceeds to Villa Charities Foundation, external link. She drew her inspiration for Then the Robins Sang, external link from Venetian poet Irene Vella, who wrote about spring blossoming despite the crisis in Italy,, external link Shel Silverstein’s profound simplicity and Simba, bored and missing the outside world.
“I think that continuing to do what we do and helping to tell the stories of others is how we connect with these larger movements, social justice issues, and of course, navigate life during a pandemic. At least that is how I'm seeing it,” Baccari said.
Baccari believed children’s books can be powerful even for adults. (Ryerson)
My Review:
What a lovely book! Beautifully written, produced and illustrated. I love this book as a memento of those early Covid-19 times but it’s also a wonderful allegory for all the hard times of one’s life.
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The Pub by Norman Cristofoli, Canam Books
About the book:
The play falls into the category of The Theatre of the Absurd and uses characters from history to portray various aspects and qualities of humankind, and to discuss the basic questions of "Why are we here?" and "What is the meaning of life?"
The protagonist, Paul Satin, finds himself inside a pub, doesn’t know how he got there and can’t seem to leave. He meets and converses with other characters who are a mixture of royalty, psychology, science, philosophy, occultist, disabled and religious. Questions and arguments abound, blended with humour and love.
My Review:
A delightful romp in poetic and philosophical thinking. Comedic and wise, this play seamlessly integrates myriad explorations of the human conditions and I’d be happy take a seat at the bar any day. Actually, come to think of it, we all pull up a barstool daily, like it or not. I love the cast of characters and I’m listing them below to entice you to read the play. This would be a wonderful play to see in action.
Character Profiles
Paul Satin is based on the historical figure of Saint Paul the Apostle, just prior to his conversion on the road to Damascus. The character represents the personage of Saul of Tarsus (original name) who was an active participant in the persecution of early Christians. Saul was a Jew, but also a Roman citizen and was taught to worship the Roman deities. At this point in his life, he was a human that was deeply conflicted in his beliefs and skeptical of all answers put forth to him.
Victoria King was inspired by Queen Victoria of England during the period of her life immediately after the death of her husband Prince Albert. Their love was so widely noted that when Albert died after 20 years of marriage, Victoria became despondent and tried to seclude herself from the world. She was someone who had found love, and when he was gone, all she had left was her duty as the Queen.
Jon James is based on the American cult leader Jim Jones who founded the “People’s Temple.” Jones was infamous for the 918 murder-suicides of the cult’s members in Jonestown, Guyana by cyanide poisoning mixed with “Kool-Aid.” Jones died from a gunshot wound to the head; it is suspected his death was a suicide.
Sally Crow was inspired by the English occultist, ceremonial magician and writer Aleister Crowley. He founded the religion and philosophy of Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the early 20th century. A man of sharp wit and a wry sense of humour, he was labeled the “Wickedest Man in the World” for his dalliances with the occult.
Hiram Digger is based on German philosopher Martin Hiedigger who is best known for his contributions to Phenomenology and the beginnings of Existentialism.
Fred Munzigar was inspired by the Austrian psychologist and neurologist Sigmund Freud, known for his work in the development of psychoanalysis.
Harry Hood was inspired by the American illusionist and escape artist Harry Houdini. In the later years of his life, Houdini was noted for the debunking of fake spiritualists. However, Houdini’s crusade against charlatans was based on his own search for spiritual answers, which included the quest to reach beyond the veil of death and contact the spiritual world.
Sam Johansen is based on Samuel Johnson, the English writer, essayist, moralist, literary critic, and composer of “A Dictionary of the English Language.”
Jake Javelin is based on William Shakespeare, the English playwright and poet, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. All of Jakes lines are direct quotes from Shakespearean plays which are noted in the parentheses (which may or may not be part of the performance).
Eric Johnson was inspired by John Merrick, the Englishman born with severe deformities and who was exhibited as a human curiosity nick-named the “Elephant Man.” He was a meek but intelligent individual who dealt with a life of disability and disfigurement.
Boris Neil was inspired by the Danish physicist Niels Bohr who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory. Niels Bohr was also a philosopher and promoter of scientific research.
The Monk was inspired by a long list of religious and fanatical cult followers throughout history. Through his appearance, he is also meant to introduce the concepts of reincarnation and past lives into the general theories of discussion. It is important that the two characters (portrayed by the same actor) are identifiable as the same.
The Doorman: The concept for the Doorman is for him to be dressed in uniform. The author would see him as a traditional “London Bobby” from the 1920’s era, but any other authoritarian uniform would suffice.
Cloaked Figure – Director’s choice – the character of the cloaked figure can be any of the previous actors who are now offstage, or can be someone the Director has brought in for this small part. The Cloaked Figure can be male, female, young or old and of any ethnic persuasion.
Here are a few of my favourite lines:
“That’s what I like about you Harry, you’re very definite about your non-commitment.“
Elvis: “I came, I conquered, got bored, got lost, got drunk.”
Fred: “After all has been said, after all our actions are complete, nothing can withstand logic and reason.”
Sally: “Except that which is illogical and has no reason.”
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Through Painted Eyes by Valentino Assenza, Piquant Press
About the book:
Through Painted Eyes is Valentino Assenza's first full length collection of poetry. It tells of growing up between Toronto, Canada, and Modica Sicily, and the poems are largely inspired by memories, and experiences from having lived in both of these places.
My Review:
Have you ever wondered what your life looked like from the outside? Through Painted Eyes is a cinematic bird’s-eye view of life, a camera soaring overhead recording every quiet moment as we take a walk with this wonderful poet on a journey of love.
“On my walk tonight I entered a fragment in time.” What a pleasure to enter these fragments of time with this collection. Exquisitely poignant and perfectly capturing pivotal moments of love and loss, sorrow and joy, all with quiet dignity and painterly beauty.
I loved the characters: the barber who takes the place of a shrink, the shoemaker, the tobacconist and the priest – a role played by every vivid character we’re losing to big box stores and genetic consumerism. This collection is a salute to the traditions of yesteryear that were it not for these poems, we’d lose forever.
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The Dead Man by Nora Gold, Inanna Publications.
About the book:
The Dead Man is a compelling novel about a woman who is obsessed. Eve, a composer of sacred music and a music therapist, is well aware of the saying, "Physician, heal thyself," but she just can't seem to do this. For some unknown reason, she -- a sensible, intelligent professional -- can't recover from a brief relationship she had five years ago with a world-famous music critic named Jake. This obsession with Jake is a mystery to Eve's friends, and also to her. In an attempt to solve this mystery, she "returns to the scene of the crime" Israel, where Jake still lives, and where they first fell in love. There she revisits all their old haunts and struggles to complete the song cycle she started composing five years ago about Jake but hasn't been able to finish. Gradually the dark mystery behind their complex relationship begins to unravel. Eve discovers the forgotten childhood memories, losses, and desires that are encapsulated in her connection to Jake. And then, inspired by all the music she hears around her (including the singing of birds, the crying of babies, and the honking of cars), she succeeds in finally completing her song cycle and setting her obsession to rest. This novel, filled with music, dealing with themes of love, grief, early loss, and the power of art, will resonate deeply with anyone who has ever loved and lost, and will continue to resound and echo for a long time afterward.
My Review:
When a love affair ends, what becomes of the memories? And all the memories that led to that love and its demise? How does one begin to untangle the intricate threads that held your heart hostage and won’t let you go? And, once untangled, how do you heal? And how do you deal with the emptimess that replaces the loss of that former obsession? The Dead Man is a gripping tale about why we love and what we remember. Thought-provoking and beautifully written, the book is also fascinating with a behind-the-scenes look at tenured musicology and a lovely taste of Israel. The travel aspect of the novel made me want to book a ticket as soon as this pandemic is over.
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Understan by Gavin Barrett, Mawenzi House
About the book:
Across space and time, crossing continents and decades, in this volume the poet uses memory and the minutiae of daily life to unravel the mysteries of love and death. He examines belief and superstition, on occasion prays, and delights in the sight of the familiar and the strange, the young and the old. In his journey the poet is lost but holds up the map to everywhere and everyone.
My Review:
Gavin Barrett is a renown artisan of words and images so it’s not surprising that Understan is such a wonderful work. There’s such joy in these poems, such sensual, vivid, rich detail. These portraits of fragile and tremulous moments are both cinematic and moving. Lyrical and lovely, the breadth of the poems spans continents, ages, familial love and religions, all with a careful observant eye, compassion humour. When I read Understan, I thought of T. S. Eliot and Leonard Cohen combined. Understan is a wealth of treasures. I am delighted to have received an advance reader copy and I can’t wait to get my printed copy.
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Carousel by April Ford, Inanna Publications
About the book:
Margot Wright has led a deliberate life. At 18, she left her unusual and abusive family situation and never looked back, and then two years later she devoted herself wholly to Estelle Coté, her first and only love. But now, at 45, freshly retired from a career in antique firearms dealing, and settling into a new home with her wife, Margot finds herself feeling restless. Bored. She admits this to herself on the day she visits Le Galopant, a historic carousel that has become bafflingly meaningful to Estelle; and, as with anyone wishing to dodge a midlife crisis, Margot sets her feelings aside, intending to ignore them for as long as possible.
At La Ronde, the amusement park where Le Galopant is showcased, Margot is accosted by a 17-year-old girl named Katherine de Wilde. Katy is hyper and unrefined, “rural,” everything Margot cannot stand, yet she finds herself thinking more and more about the lisping girl in the Converse sneakers and “Meat is Murder” T-shirt as the days tread on. Even after Estelle discovers a massive secret she’s been keeping for a decade, forces her into couples counseling and then on a road trip to confront this secret, Margot is unable to stop Katy from seeping into her thoughts. So when Katy phones her one morning with bad news, “They’re taking down Le Galopant for good. It’s broken!” Margot yields to impulse and pursues her interest in the girl.
Set between Montreal, Quebec and various American cities, Carousel is a story about secrets—secret yearnings, lives, and losses—and the measures we take to protect our loved ones from the monsters we see ourselves to be.
My Review:
What a joyful book! Poignant, heart-breaking, heart-affirming and comedic, the characters are true originals and yet as familiar as long-lost friends. A marvellous debut novel about family madness, sexuality, aging and obsession. Beautifully layered and detailed, this book is full of wonderful surprises.
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Almost Feral by Gemma Hickey, Breakwater Books
About the book:
On July 2, 2015, influential social activist Gemma Hickey began a 908-kilometer walk across the island of Newfoundland to raise awareness and funds for survivors of religious institutional abuse. Almost Feral celebrates the community of support that gathered around this journey and recounts Hickey’s remarkable story of self-discovery which led to the realization that they are transgender. In this thought-provoking and wide-ranging autobiography, Hickey counters memories of sexual assault, bullying, and depression with inspiring reflections on faith, love, family, individual and communal identity, sex, gender, and acceptance. Through complex feelings of empathy and solitude, weakness and strength, suffering and recovery, Gemma Hickey’s Almost Feral chronicles a journey from one side of an island to the other side of personal identity—charting an unknown territory where one’s body becomes the map that leads to home.
My Review:
I loved this passage in the book: “Even though we’ve been conditioned to think in binaries—male and female, gay and straight, Catholic and Protestant, etc.—those divisions are more about social control than about self-discovery or self-awareness. Sometimes two road diverge, and you choose neither, because you have to make your own honest path. We have the power to claim and, in some cases, reclaim ourselves, to chart a new course and invite others to either follow along or make their own way. Some roads are longer than others, some rougher. Sometimes the longest and roughest road you’ll ever travel is the one that leads you back to yourself.”
Some books make a real difference to the world and this is one of them. I was glad to join Gemma Hickey on this brave journey about sexuality, loneliness, abuse, religion, and colonialism, a journey ultimately healed and bolstered by self-growth, family, friendships and a strong societal community. I highly recommend Almost Feral.
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Narrow Cradle by Wade Kearley, Breakwater Books
About the book:
In Narrow Cradle, Wade Kearley explores the midlife encounter with mortality and the ways we strive to resist, deny, cheat, and even bargain with it. Grounded in both traditional and modern poetic forms, these poems find in the transience of life a new kind of freedom, a rebirth independent of personal circumstance. In crisp, direct, and vivid language—swerving between sonnet, villanelle, and sestina—Kearley offers a compelling collection by turns vicious, lost, ragged, and regal.
My Review:
All the things I love about the Canadian wilderness can be found in this book. Every quiet suffering is told, every love and tangled memory. The poems run with the sculpted beauty of a David Adams Richards novel and while they are about the human condition we can all relate to, they are exquisitely quintessentially Canadian and carry the indelible Maritime magic.
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The Little Red Shed by Adam and Jennifer Young, Breakwater Books
About the book:
Once upon a fine morning, a little shed awakens to discover she isn’t quite the same as she used to be. Uncertain and feeling as if she no longer fits in, she decides to leave home and sets out to sea. All alone on the wide, wide ocean, she meets an extraordinary new friend who sees how special she really is, and with newfound confidence, the little red shed returns home and inspires everyone to cherish their differences.
About the artist, Adam Young:
Adam Young is best known for his whimsical and colourful depictions of Eastern Canada, specifically Newfoundland. He was born in Halifax, NS, raised in Moncton, NB and has been living on Fogo Island, off the northeast coast of Newfoundland since 2008. He completed is BFA at Mount Allison University in Sackville, NB (2003). He went on to completed his BEd (Crandall University, Moncton 2007) and MEd (Memorial University, St.John’s 2016). Adam started his artistic career as a freelance illustrator for newspapers and magazines throughout Canada but his professional body of work began after his first visit to Newfoundland in 2005.
My Review:
A truly lovely work that should be read by all ages. I loved the artwork as well as the message about embracing one’s own uniqueness, a message which never gets old, particularly in today’s world. I’m going to make sure my young niece and nephew in Australia get a copy.
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Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood, Anchor.
About the book:
Cat's Eye is the story of Elaine Risley, a controversial painter who returns to Toronto, the city of her youth, for a retrospective of her art. Engulfed by vivid images of the past, she reminisces about a trio of girls who initiated her into the fierce politics of childhood and its secret world of friendship, longing, and betrayal. Elaine must come to terms with her own identity as a daughter, a lover, and artist, and woman—but above all she must seek release from her haunting memories. Disturbing, hilarious, and compassionate, Cat's Eye is a breathtaking novel of a woman grappling with the tangled knots of her life
My Review:
If you’ve missed Cat’s Eye, I urge you to pick it up today. I was immediately transported into another world. Reading this book was like opening up my life to an unexpected archeological dig of the soul. I wrote a personal essay on Goodreads about why this book affected me so deeply and you can check that out here:
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The Island Walkers by John Bemrose, Penguin Random House Canada.
About the book:
A stunning debut novel of power and grace that tells the story of a family that slips from fortune's favour in a southwestern Ontario mill town during the mid-1960s
Within a bend in the Attawan River lies the Island, a small neighbourhood of white-washed houses and vine-freighted fences, black willows and decaying sheds. It is here that Alf Walker, a fixer in the local textile mill like his father before him, lives with his family.
It is 1965, and when a large corporation takes over the mill, and workers attempt to unionize, Alf's actions inadvertently set in motion a series of events that will reverberate far into the future and burden him with an unspoken shame. This is also the year when his eldest son, Joe, falls headlong for a girl he first glimpses on a bridge - and his world is overturned by the passion and uncertainty of young love. The bittersweet story of Joe and Anna is juxtaposed against his father's deepening role in the tensions building at the mill and his unsettling connection with a local Native woman, Lucille Boileau. Meanwhile, Alf's wife, Margaret, must reconcile her middle-class English upbringing with her blue-collar reality, as her marriage is undermined by forces she cannot name.
In The Island Walkers, Bemrose creates a world entire that immediately draws us in. His portrait of the town of Attawan and of the community of people who inhabit it is magnificently drawn, alive with detailed, evocative description. The sense of place, the characters themselves, their conflicts and deepest longings, we cannot help but recognize as our own.
My Review:
I’m going to admit I was disappointed by the ending of this book. So why post a review? Because there was so much about this book that I really loved. The sense of small town Ontario, the hardship of factory work, the relentless toil of life. I also loved the interpersonal relationships and the writing was a joy to read. I felt there were a few unresolved issues too and that some aspects were tied up too quickly. But it was a wonderful read and a great book to fall into.
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The Whisky King by Trevor Cole, HarperCollins Publishers.
About the book:
At the dawn of the 20th century, two Italian men arrived in Canada amid waves of immigration. One, Rocco Perri, from southern Italy, rose from the life of a petty criminal on the streets of Toronto to running the most prominent bootlegging operation of the Prohibition era, taking over Hamilton and leading one of the country’s most influential crime syndicates. Perri was feared by his enemies and loved by the press, who featured him regularly in splashy front-page headlines. So great was his celebrity that, following the murder of his wife and business partner, Bessie Starkman, a crowd of 30,000 thronged the streets of Hamilton for her funeral.
Perri’s businesses—which included alcohol, drugs, gambling and prostitution—kept him under constant police surveillance. He caught the interest of one man in particular, the other arrival from Italy, Frank Zaneth. Zaneth, originally from the Italian north, joined the RCMP and became its first undercover investigator—Operative No. 1. Zaneth’s work took him across the country, but he was dogged in his pursuit of Rocco Perri and worked for his arrest until the day Perri was last seen, in 1944, when he disappeared without a trace.
With original research and masterful storytelling, Cole details the fascinating rise to power of a notorious Prohibition-era Canadian crime figure twinned with the life of the man who pursued him.
My Review:
If a Weegee exhibit walked into a Martin Scorsese film you might well find The Whisky King. Coles’ charismatic writing and wry humour brings this the 1900’s life in Canada with effortless vividness and instantly creates a compelling and fascinating read.
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The Dowager Empress: Poems of Adele Wiseman, edited by Elizabeth Greene, Inanna Publications.
About the book:
Adele Wiseman, lifelong writing friend of Margaret Laurence, is best known for her novels, The Sacrifice, winner of the Governor-General’s Award in 1956, and Crackpot, Winner of the Canadian Booksellers Association Award in 1974. She also wrote essays, plays, and children’s books. Her poetry, the work of the last ten years of her life, and mostly unpublished, ranges in form from haiku to sonnets to subversive feminist epic; in content from poems about poetry (“Instructions for Poems in Progress”), to love poems (“In Our Play”), to nature poems (“Mysteries of Flight”), to family poems, and to political poems, including “The Dowager Empress Suite.” This is Adele Wiseman writing in her most personal voice. The Dowager Empress: Selected Poems by Adele Wiseman rounds out our knowledge of a major Canadian writer.
My Review:
Nothing dies that is remembered. I heard that I was very young and for the life of me, (and the life of Google) I can’t find the source. (If you, dear Reader, knows the answer, be sure to let me know.)
When I picked up a copy of The Dowager Empress: Poems of Adele Wiseman by superb poet and novelist Elizabeth Greeene, unbidden came the thought that nothing dies that is read.
The goal of The Minerva Reader is to sing the the praises of work you might have missed. I wanted to shine a light of love and attention on an unsung hero and so, to read this work was particularly poignantly meaningful because Adele Wiseman never saw these poems published. She never got to stand in the spotlight with them or see them venture out into the world. As we around the world are learning, we are apart but not alone and this message is more important than ever. I agree with Elizabeth Greene that these poems were far too good to end up alone in an archival box but should be shared, read, enjoyed and discussed.
I particularly loved the haikus and observations of the writing process as well as the powerful short poems and the breadth of emotions and insights.
And perhaps you think poetry is not for you? Adele Wiseman wrote novels and screenplays for most of her life, coming late to poetry. I urge non-poetry readers to give poetry at try and start with this book. You'll be astonished at how succinctly the work sum up so much. We fall in love with music for the lyrics as well as the melody, so allow these lyrics to sing to you and your heart will find the accompanying melody.
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Some People’s Children by Bridget Canning, Breakwater Press, publication date: 15th May 2020.
About the book:
Imogene Tubbs has never met her father, and raised by her grandmother, she only sees her mother sporadically. But as she grows older, she learns that many people in her small, rural town believe her father is Cecil Jesso, the local drug dealer—a man both feared and ridiculed. Weaving through a maze of gossip, community, and the complications of family, Some People’s Children is a revealing and liberating novel about the way others look at us and the power of self-discovery.
My Review:
Some People’s Children is a riveting and atmospheric epic you can sink your teeth into. What a journey, what a ride. The complex characters are vivid and well-drawn and I truly felt as if I lived the book. A fascinating exploration of deeply complex familial and community relationships. I’m so enjoying all the books by Breakwater Books.
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The Italian Cure by Melodie Campbell, Rapid Reads.
About the book:
Charlie's world comes crashing down when her fiancé leaves her for another woman. Then Aunt Della wins a trip for two to Rome. Maybe Italy can cure her broken heart? Charlie and Aunt Della board the tour bus in Rome and meet a fun and diverse group of travelers. Rocco, the tour guide, is particularly attractive. Charlie isn't the only one who thinks so. The bus driver, Tony, is also her age. They become friends and explore sites together. Charlie quickly falls in love with Italy. Who needs romance when you have Rome, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast? But with adventure comes danger in the ancient ruins of Pompeii. Charlie wanders from the group and is mugged. She chases the thief who stole her purse into the far reaches of the ruins. Lost and alone, Charlie finds courage she never knew she had. Physical courage is one thing, but will she risk falling in love again? Anything's possible in The Italian Cure. (Goodreads)
My Review:
Travelling isn’t possible right now but take a trip to Rome with The Italian Cure, a lovely feel-good pick-me-up that you’ll enjoy as much as the delicious nougat and other treats described in this wonderful romcom. I loved so much of this – Charlie’s adventures, the cast of characters and the scenery. As one character in the book says, “Then you came here, and it was like the sun came out.” Read this book is like standing in the sunshine so be sure to add it to your reading list!
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Seeds And Other Stories by Ursula Pflug, Inanna Publications, publication date: 14th May 2020.
About the book:
In these stories seers and vagabonds, addicts and gardeners succeed and sometimes fail at creating new kinds of community against apocalyptic backdrops. They build gardens in the ruins, transport seeds and songs from one world to another and from dreams to waking life. Where do you plant a seed someone gave you in a dream? How do you build a world more free of trauma when it’s all you’ve ever known? Sometimes the seed you wake up holding in your hand is the seed of a new world. (Inanna Publications)
My Review:
An extraordinary collection of magical stories that will wrap you in a timeless embrace and carry you away. Pflug’s wonderfully gentle and ultimately wise insights will break your heart, bring you hope, and encourage you to seek out the enchanted portals of creativity and love that you might otherwise have missed.
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This is a time when many lives are being lost, people are suffering job losses and worrying about their children's educations, how to pay the rent and cope with being single stay-at-home moms and all sorts of things that I can't even imagine.
So it seems kind of frivolous for me to be rambling on about books but this is also a time when many people's dreams are being shattered. Authors work for years to bring about a book. They work alone. They work with friends and trusted colleagues, artists and collaborators and then, finally, the book comes out into the world. And, even in the best of times, it’s no easy feat launching a book and in today's world, it's even tougher. Festivals, readings, launches and events have been cancelled. Book stores have, by necessity, shut their doors.
So perhaps, now, more than ever, these small efforts mean more than ever.
I truly hope that you'll take a look at these books and at all the hard work these authors have put into it. These artistic labours of love deserve attention, they truly do and I hope will join me in celebrating these books and the talented writers.
Now, more than ever, we need to rally around the arts, in every way we can and I hope you’ll join me. Buy from independent publishers, they’re all online and have a eBooks and audio books as well as printed books. It’s all there!
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Here’s a lovely guest review of Do You Know Me? by Caro Soles, reviewed by Melodie Campbell. The Toronto Sun called Melodie Canada's "Queen of Comedy." Library Journal compared her to Janet Evanovich. In 2018, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine christened her "the Canadian literary heir to Donald Westlake. Melodie is the past executive director of Crime Writers of Canada, and has been on faculty at Sheridan College since 1992. I’m a great fan of Melodie’s writing.
About the book:
Do You Know Me? is an eclectic mix of genres, reflecting the varied writing styles of Caro Soles. This small window into her world gives you just a taste; literary, humorous, historical, mystery, dark fantasy, military science fiction, and even a taste of erotica. It is an hors d'oeuvre, something to whet your appetite for the rest of the banquet to come!
Guest Review by Melodie Campbell:
Do You Know Me? short stories by Caro Soles, Baskerville Books
Sole's daring anthology Do You Know Me is a feast of emotions. Rarely, have I been so affected by short stories. Bel Canto fascinated me. I loved The Chosen Few, was delighted with Beau Geste, and The Secret Child broke my heart. Be prepared to be whirled into many different alien worlds that shatter conventions and leave you on the edge of your seat wanting more. First rate. 5/5
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My Art Is Killing Me and Other Poems by Amber Dawn, Arsenal Press
About the book:
In her novels, poetry, and prose, Amber Dawn has written eloquently on queer femme sexuality, individual and systemic trauma, and sex work justice, themes drawn from her own lived experience and revealed most notably in her award-winning memoir How Poetry Saved My Life.
In this, her second poetry collection, Amber Dawn takes stock of the costs of coming out on the page in a heartrendingly honest and intimate investigation of the toll that art making takes on artists. These long poems offer difficult truths within their intricate narratives that are alternately incendiary, tender, and rapturous.
In a cultural era when intersectional and marginalized writers are topping bestseller lists, Amber Dawn invites her readers to take an unflinching look at we expect from writers, and from each other. (Goodreads).
My Review: To put it simply, this collection of poems is outstanding. Heartbreaking, illuminating and ultimately healing, Amber Dawn’s insights and succinct, razor-sharp observations are so exquisite I wish I could tattoo them onto the insides of my eyeballs. But instead I will have to revisit this collection, often.
Here are a few excerpts that blew me away:
When the mind processes trauma through metaphor is it compassion?
Or is this only the beginning of another
publish-ready piece for my body-of-work?
-.-
I spent a humble lifetime looking for
others who too labour to live inside their skin
-.-
Survival has always been about omitting parts of the story
about speaking only permissible words in permissible situations.
-.-
But you (literally you) are reading queer and desperate poetry
so may I assume you too have never been afforded
an uncomplicated story? Does streamlining
imply a certain luxury
that is not yours?
-.-
The mind processes trauma through metaphor.
-.-
As well, in ink, presently, on this page: I’m here
for the divine and complex work that is healing.
-.-
Whatever is written becomes beautifully suspended.
Have I transcended or I have stayed my own trauma?
-.-
Look After Her by Hannah Brown, Inanna Publications.
About the book:
Upon the death of their art-loving parents, two young Jewish adolescents are kidnapped by a family friend and taken to a brothel. There they are held captive by their shared shame and by the younger sister's forced addiction to morphine. Love and psychodrama gives them the courage to finally escape Vienna. Once in England, however, Hedy discovers her younger sister Susannah longs to be independent-- and in Italy. But in 1938, despite the safety they each have found among the privileged, they return to Vienna just before Hitler arrives, putting their own lives and those of two children in danger. With the background of anti-Semitism and exploitation, of sex and love and art and dramatic ruses, all during the terrifying rise of fascism in Austria and Italy, Look After Her reveals this truth: no matter how close we are to another human being, even a beloved sister, that's what we are: close-- we all have our own secrets to keep.
Firstly, cogratulations to Hannah Brown – Look After Her is a 2019 Foreword INDIES Finalist, along with nine other books. The INDIES awards recognize the best books published in 2019 from small, indie, and university presses, as well as by self-published authors.
My Review:
Look After Her is a cinematic epic that you can truly sink your teeth into. A book to relish, fall into and follow with absorbed fascination. I particularly loved the complex relationship of sisterly love – complex at the easiest of times, compounded here by war and terrible circumstance. A beautifully detailed feast of a book!
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In The Key of Thirteen, by The Mesdames of Mayhem.
Review by Jack Batten, Special to The Toronto Star
For the fourth collection of crime short stories from the Mesdames of Mayhem, music is the theme, and one of the book’s appeals lies in the often ingenious ways the writers sneak Mozart or the Beach Boys or “Turandot” into the plots. Melodie Campbell deserves a prize in the ingenuity category for saving the only musical mention in her clever story until its last two words which happen to be the title to an Elvis song.
Overall, the stories reach more diabolical peaks than the previous collections. What else but diabolical is a tale about a dentist conceiving nasty things by way of root canal? Or, more playfully, a sinister narrative centred on the value (immense apparently) of a CHUM chart for a week in September 1974?
Probably the most affecting piece in the collection comes from Sylvia Maultash Warsh whose story features the exquisite revenge taken by a Russian survivor of the gulags who, across the world in a lush Yorkville apartment 29 years removed from her internment, finally gets even with her most evil tormentor.
-.-
We Will All be Received by Leslie Vryenhoek, Breakwater Press.
About the book: In 1977, a young woman swipes a duffel bag of drug money and flees her bad-news boyfriend, hitching a ride with a long-haul trucker who points out satellites and enthuses about the future of space cargo. Building a life disconnected from her past, she assumes a new identity as Dawn Taylor, but thirty years later, running a roadside motel on a remote highway, Dawn will host a group of disparate individuals--all desperate to rewrite their own stories. Brody seeks escape from those intent on repeating the narrative of his childhood trauma. Cheryl, whose career as a filmmaker is being dismantled on social media, rushes to rescue her daughter from a vicious cycle. And Spencer, an ex-con with easy access to his criminal past, chases an elusive redemption after seeing a picture of Dawn on a tourism website. In We All Will Be Received, Leslie Vryenhoek offers a range of unforgettable characters--all hoping to reconstruct a truth that's been shattered by perspective--and asks whether anyone can find peace or atonement in a contemporary world where technology makes the past ever present. (Goodreads)
My Review:
This novel starts off gritty and nail-biting, Bonnie and Clyde meets Goin’ Down The Road and it doesn’t let up. Even once you’ve read the last page, you’re still enthralled and you’re still right there, in the refurbished Graceland Inn, hoping there’s more to read because you’re not ready to say goodbye to the characters. You know a book is great when you’re so tired but you read through the night. What extraordinary prose, so fine, so sculpted. I loved the complexity of the characters and the scope of the story. In a way, it rings similar to The Irishman by Martin Scorsese where the sins of the past complicate the relations of the present and cannot help but surface to an action-packed climax. I loved the timeline of this book, how the plot wove back and forth and looped seamlessly to gather up the lives of many. The characters were written with a beautiful subtlety that carried vivid poignancies which spoke volumes.
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Blue Bear Woman by Virginia Bordeleau, Ouriou Susan (Translation), Christelle Morelli (Translation), Inanna Publications.
About the book:
Blue Bear Woman or Ourse bleueis the first novel in Quebec written by an Indigenous woman. The story of a young Cree woman's search for her roots and identity, this is also the author's debut novel, originally published in 2007, and it will be her second book to be published in English. The novel has been described as a "texte de resistance", showing contemporary Indigenous life and the impact on the Cree of the building of the Eastmain dam in northern Quebec, posited as "virgin" territory, yet which has actually been part of the Cree traditional territory since time immemorial. In search of her roots, Victoria takes a trip to the country of her Cree ancestors with her companion, Daniel. It is a long journey to the north along the shores of James Bay. Colours, smells, and majestic landscapes arouse memories that soon devolve into strange and hauntings dreams at night. In bits and pieces, uncles, aunties, and cousins arrive to tell the story of Victoria's family and bring with them images of her childhood that are tinged both with joy and sadness. Guided by her totem, the Blue Bear, she returns home to make peace with her soul, as well as release the soul of her great-uncle, a hunter who has been missing in the forest for over twenty years. (Goodreads)
My Review:
I agree wholeheartedly with James Fisher when he says:
“In Daniel Heath Justice’s seminal book, Why Indigenous Literatures Matters, he states: “Stories are bigger than the texts or the bodies that carry them.” So it is with Blue Bear Woman. Ms. Bordeleau shifts back and forth between her youth (the early 1960s) and the present (2004) as she weaves a mesmerizing story of discovery, loss, family, and spiritual direction that was a pure joy to experience. The patient reader is rewarded with Victoria’s deepest thoughts as she recalls happy times, simpler times, wondrous stories recounted by her elders, and the dreams that compel her to press on. However, always present are the insidious actions of the white man (past and present) and how they have changed the Cree peoples in immeasurable ways. A 5-star read, Blue Bear Woman, is on the 2020 longlist for “The Very Best!” Book Awards for Fiction.
I was enthralled by the story, swept away on colliding emotions and pulled into this visceral, often devastating, but extremely uplifting tale. I was unable to put the book down. This wonderful book speaks to so much. It’s so beautifully written and it’s an important read on many levels.
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THE NOTHING THAT IS; ESSAYS ON ART, LITERATURE AND BEING
(Essais Series #9) by Johanna Skibsrud Published October 1st 2019 by Book*hug Press
About the book:
Addressing a broad range of topics and works by contemporary writers and artists, these essays seek to decentre our relationship to both the "givenness" of history and to a predictive or probable model of the future. They do so by drawing attention to the ways that poetic language activates the multiple, and as yet undesignated, possibilities replete within our every moment, and within every encounter between a speaking "I" and what exceeds subjectivity--a listening "Other," be it community or the objective world. (Goodreads)
Written over a period of more than a decade, The Nothing That Is is a collection about the very concept of "nothing," approached from a variety of angles and in a variety of ways. What exceeds subjectivity? The answer: poetic language. How? I urge you to read the collection of essays!
My Review:
I truly loved The Nothing That Is. It's incredibly thought-provoking and wonderful and is a joy to read. The book gave my brain a workout in the most delightful of ways!
I hate to admit this but I highlighted parts and made notes on the book itself - a travesty, I know, but I wanted to internalize the ideas and come back to them repeatedly, it’s that important to me. It’s a marvellous philosophical treatise or map, as it were.
It’s so easy to lose sight of why one writes - it’s easy to get caught up in the flotsam of marketing and sales and trends and all sorts of things, and that’s why this book is so important to me. This book addresses the fundamental whys behind all artistic endeavours.
-.-
My Totem Came Calling by Thorsten Nesch and Blessing Musariri, Mawenzi House
About the Book: Chanda is a seventeen-year-old schoolgirl in Harare, Zimbabwe, who suddenly starts suffering from memory lapses, which become even more worrisome when she starts seeing a zebra in all sorts of places. The trouble is, nobody else can see it. Afraid of being institutionalized in a hospital, she follows the advice of an old aunt and sets off for her ancestral village, a primitive settlement with none of the amenities she is used to in the city. But there she meets the rest of her family, including her strange and mysterious grandmother, and learns the hard way who she really is—not a superficial, rich city girl with foreign habits but someone who is somebody, whose name carries a history of her African people. (Mawenzi House)
My Review:
Oh, this book is such a joy to read! I requested a review copy from Mawenzi house, thinking it would be interesting since I grew up in South Africa. As a child, we visited Zimbabwe often and I loved the land. I enjoyed the book beyond my hopes or expectations. I loved the characters so much. The book is funny, insightful and beautifully written. The reader is transported to Zimbabwe and one never wants to leave. It’s a YA book but as we know, many adults would do well to read YA not just because it’s good to know what the younger generations are thinking and feeling (if, like me, you don’t have kids) but because crafting a really good YA novel is no easy feat.
I recommend this novel on so many levels – it’s a heartwarming, joyful read from start to finish and puts a lovely perspective on life. The only drawback was that I really miss Africa a lot and this book rekindled my desire to visit it as soon as I can!
-.-
Hundreds & Thousands by Teri Vlassopoulos
I loved Teri’s book, Escape Plans, and when she posted the below on Twitter, I jumped at the opportunity to read Hundreds & Thousands!
About the book:
“So it turns out that if I compiled every single TinyLetter I sent between 2015-2019, it adds up to almost 40,000 words, which is basically the length of a novella. That's a lot of words. Even though I'm not updating this TinyLetter anymore, I wanted to give those words a more permanent home, and a zine felt like the right way to do it: something a little sloppy and lo-fi and straight from the heart, just like the zines I made when I was 16 or 21 or 27 or 33.
“I've edited it down to about 15,000 words and named it after a letter I wrote back in 2017. I tried to distill the zine to the topics I revisited over and over again over the years: early motherhood, aging, trying to be a writer. Also music and reading and travelling and food. I tried to get fancy with the design, realized it was too complicated and stuck with my cut and paste roots. The font is probably too small, there aren't enough pictures, and I just noticed a few margins are cut off. (Some things never change!)”
My Review:
Thank you, Teri, for this truly wonderful collection of insights and observations about life, parenting, love, travel and writing. Reading this made me feel so happy! You helped me get in touch with the happy me, the me who likes hanging out with me! You talked about being in the moment and this collection is exactly that, a collection of happy moments, even when those moments were conflicted and observed for being so. I loved reading parts of this and thinking “Ah, she felt that way too!” A beautiful camaraderie comes by way of Teri’s writing. Fine writing, fine insights and a sprinkle-treat all round!
You can find out more about the book here: https://tinyletter.com/teri_vlass/letters/on-hundreds-thousands
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SEE YOU ON THE INTERNET: BUILDING YOUR SMALL BUSINESS WITH DIGITAL MARKETING
by Avery Swartz
About the book:
The proven, frustration-free way to make your business stand out online, from one of North America's leaders on digital marketing for small businesses.
Today, you can launch a website, create social media feeds, and get products and services to market on some of the world’s most powerful sales platforms in a matter of hours. But marketing your small business effectively takes some careful thought. In See You on the Internet, Avery Swartz, one of North America's top tech leaders, gives you a failsafe framework to plan and execute a brilliant digital marketing strategy with confidence. And you don't need a technical background to follow it. In five simple steps, you will learn to build your brand, increase your customers, and generate more revenue.
Avery Swartz has spent fourteen years on the ground working directly with hundreds of clients as a web designer, instructor, consultant, and digital advisor. With the aid of real-life stories and examples, she will guide you through the ins and outs of website development, e-commerce, search engine optimization, social media, email marketing, and online advertising --- and you'll be able to track all of your results. See You on the Internet is a clear, friendly, and highly usable guide for anyone in a small business or similar organization to thrive in the digital world. (Goodreads)
My Review: I love the way this book breaks things down into easily digestible, clear parts. The internet often feels like an unnavigable ocean with rip tides and hidden dangers and this book maps out stategies and outlines clear goals. This is a good source for authors who are starting out but is equally valuable to seasoned Internet veterans looking to refresh and recalibrate their online activities and expectations.
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The Artis, Volume 1, No 4
About the magazine: "The Artis knows that good art requires more than just skill, it requires dedication that has honed those skills for years. In celebration of the increasingly important need for brilliant art that touches us, The Artis unites words with visual arts to illustrate that there truly is something for everyone in the arts.
The Artis is a literarture, art and culture periodical that captures the raw talent and diversity of the 905 art and culture scene, wit a special focus on the 45+ age demographic.
The Artis publishes an eclectic range of original visual art and literature, from poetry to prose, photography to paintings and multi-media works, essays to opinion-editorials, artist profile interviews, and more."
Good art is here."
My Review:
In a time when good (printed) magazines are becoming increasingly hard to find, The Artis is indeed a treasure. This issue is jam-packed with literary and visual treats, with work by Anna Geisler, Andrea Thompson, Max Layton, Meena Chopra, Betty Sutherland/Boschka, Brenda Clews, Alexandra Innes, Dave Taylor, Frank Veri, Gordon Phinn, Peta-Gaye Nash, Josie diSciascio-Andrews, Norman Cristofoli, Dee Fuhr with featured artists Norman Brown, Sheila Tucker, Bryan Turner and Tom Gannon Hamilton.
It's a beautiful presentation of stellar literary and visual art and I hugely encourage you to subscribe, read and follow The Artis. As Ivy Reiss (Editor-in-Chief and Art Director) says in her editor's letter: “Throughout the ages, art has brought diverse groups together, taught younger generations about their past, and raised the voice of reason in troubled times. I hope this issue strengthens and keeps these traditions alive.”
-.-
Heather Babcock, author Filthy Sugar, Inanna Publications, reviews Anatomy of an Injury by Myna Wallin, Inanna Publications
About the book:
Bringing together the themes of death, of gender and sexuality, the poet creates a speaker whose language and experience, linked from poem to poem, reflects the true complexity of a woman's perspective. Death is a prevalent theme; anxiety, fear and paranoia simmer throughout the poems. Regret, too, is a recurrent theme, as previous experience defines us even by its absence. The societal construct of womanhood, questions of aging, and female stereotypes are opportunities for an analysis of women's roles and the speaker's need to subvert modern ideals of femininity and sexuality. The poems often employ satire or self-parody and wry humour to suggest that a woman's understanding of her options in the twenty-first century, in light of the many waves of feminism, is always in flux and always challenging. (Goodreads)
Heather's Review:
Reading Anatomy of an Injury is like conversing with a mysterious stranger over vodka martinis, the glasses smudged with dark red lipstick, in the dining car of a midnight train. Actually, my use of "train" here is more than a simile for not only does this poetry collection take the reader on a journey - one that is both personal and universal - but I read Anatomy of an Injury while on my own midnight travels (albeit on the TTC with a lipstick stained Starbucks paper cup in lieu of a martini). Thanks to Wallin's strikingly sensual and refreshingly honest poetry, I almost missed my stop!
There is sex here:
"I've always loved a thin man,
the way his spider legs wrap themselves
around me over and over
like an old-fashioned spindle winding wool into yarn." (p. 84, "Suite for John")
Wallin also infuses her poetry with humor ("Ms. Pac-Man Always Rings Twice") as well as hard-won wisdom and intimate truths:
"I worry all the time,
a habit so entrenched, it would feel
as though I was being disrespectful,
if I let my guard down
for even a moment." (p.64 & 65, "Death, Wildlife and Taxes")
Like a film noir vixen, Wallin's poetry is sophisticated, delicious and a little dangerous. The poems in Anatomy of an Injury will both shake and stir you.
-.-
A Roll of the Bones by Trudy J. Morgan-Cole, Breakwater Books
About the book:
In 1610, John Guy established a small colony in Cupids, Newfoundland, on the very edge of a world unknown to Europeans. Two years later, he brought a shipment of supplies to his all-male settlement: 70 goats, 10 heifers, 2 bulls, and 16 women. A Roll of the Bones tells the story of some of these nameless women by tracing the journeys of three young people--Ned Perry, Nancy Ellis, and Kathryn Gale--who leave Bristol, England, for a life in the struggling community. Ned dreams of altering his fate with the promise of a New World. Kathryn only wishes to follow her husband--little dreaming she might find romance outside her marriage. And Nancy, the servant girl, has no desire to leave Bristol, but her fealty will ultimately test her ability to survive. A vivid reimagining of settler life in the early seventeenth century, A Roll of the Bones is the first in a trilogy of novels wrestling with the realities of colonization. Here, Trudy J. Morgan-Cole presents an array of unforgettable characters inhabiting the space where two worlds will collide, where the limits of love and loyalty will be tried in a harsh and unforgiving landscape. (Goodreads)
My Review:
I came to Canada in 2000 literally with one small suitcase and no idea what to expect. I too, expected the 'bone-chilling cold' a la the recent trending tweet but I arrived in summer and it was blissful! But with the summer came the bugs and bugs such as I had never seen. I ended up in emerge with an ear the size of a small child, from a bite. All this to say that I have often wondered what the travellers to this land in 1610 would have encountered and would I have survived?
This vivid, cinematic story gripped me from the start – it's the first of a trilogy which I knew when I set out to read it but then I forgot and imagine my horror at the cliffhanger ending! Needless to say, I can't wait for the next instalment! Likeable characters, smooth writing that truly whisks you into Cupid's Cove, a lovely dash of romance and intrigue, pirates and villains!
-.-
Disfigured by Amanda Leduc, Coach House Books
About the book:
In fairy tales, happy endings are the norm -- as long as you're beautiful and walk on two legs. After all, the ogre never gets the princess. And since fairy tales are the foundational myths of our culture, how can a girl with a disability ever think she'll have a happy ending?
By examining the ways that fairy tales have shaped our expectations of disability, Disfigured will point the way toward a new world where disability is no longer a punishment or impediment but operates, instead, as a way of centering a protagonist and helping them to cement their own place in a story, and from there, the world. Through the book, Leduc ruminates on the connections we make between fairy tale archetypes -- the beautiful princess, the glass slipper, the maiden with long hair lost in the tower -- and tries to make sense of them through a twenty-first-century disablist lens. From examinations of disability in tales from the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen through to modern interpretations ranging from Disney to Angela Carter, and the fight for disabled representation in today's media, Leduc connects the fight for disability justice to the growth of modern, magical stories, and argues for increased awareness and acceptance of that which is other -- helping us to see and celebrate the magic inherent in different bodies. (Goodreads)
My Review:
It's my firm conviction that this book will be an unsung treasure for less than a few minutes – it's that good, that relevant and that thought-provoking. Disfigured should be prescribed reading for all. Kudos to Coach House and Amanda Leduc. I couldn’t put it down and I plan to read it very carefully again. Thank you, Amanda Leduc, for writing this very important book, it’s so dearly needed by our world. It certainly changed mine – I’ll never view fairytales, stereotypical villains, illness or disabilities in the same light again.
-.-
Practical Jean by Trevor Cole, Harper Perennial
About the book:
Jean Vale Horemarsh is an ordinary, small-town woman with the usual challenges of middle age. She's content, mostly, with the life she's built: a semi-successful career as a ceramics artist, a close collection of women friends (if you ignore the terrible falling out she had with Cheryl all those years ago), a comfortable marriage with a kind if otherwise unextraordinary man. And then Jean sees her mother go through the final devastating months of cancer, and realizes that her fondest wish is to protect her dearest friends from the indignities of aging and illness. That's when she decides to kill them...
This eagerly awaited new novel from Trevor Cole combines the humour and sharp observations of contemporary life that he is known for with an irresistibly twisted premise, for fans of the quirkily macabre Six Feet Under and Dexter, and readers of Paul Quarrington, Miriam Toews, Jonathan Franzen, and, of course, Trevor Cole.
In his first two, GG-shortlisted novels, Trevor Cole proved himself a master of drawing us into the shadowy side of human nature with sharp observation and warm wit. (Goodreads)
My Review:
What a deliciously creepy, darkly hilarious, wonderful book! It covered vast tracts of emotional ground, all contained in a small town populated by a cast of fabulous characters. I loved this book – as dark as it was, it was touching, deeply insightful and strangely uplifting.
-.-
Road Warrior by Vivian Meyer, Inanna Publications
About the book:
Abby Faria returns from an extended vacation/work holiday in BC to discover that her friend, Maria is having marital problems, problems that are affecting her children as well. As Abby resumes her job as a bike courier, it becomes clear that Maria's troubles are bigger than she first presented and they are soon compounded with the disappearance of her son. She turns to Abby for help. As usual, as Abby tries to piece together the clues, and to help keep Maria's fish shop running, she makes new friends who help out. Alex, the woman who took over the Community Centre Bike work program for youth in Abby's absence, becomes a close friend as they work together. Handsome Dave, a fellow bicycle and coffee enthusiast, and an RCMP officer on loan to the Toronto police Force, becomes an unlikely ally as well, in the hunt for Thomas, Maria's son. As she continues to work on the case, Abby finds time to go for two or three thrilling rides through the city, develop a relationship with Dave, enjoy some excellent meals in Little Italy and Kensington Market, and learn some little known facts about pedophiles. But, the longer time passes, the more desperate the situation becomes. Ultimately Abby ends up trapped in Alex's house in Little Italy, in danger and frustrated at being unable to help Maria. This leads to an unexpected twist, a hidden room, the rescue of young Thomas, and the tragic death of a new friend, all of which bring relief, and grief, to Abby's community. (Goodreads)
My Review:
I really enjoyed hanging out with Abby Faria, feisty heroine, good friend and dedicated amateur sleuth. With fully rounded-out characters, strong social connections and true-to-life family and life dilemmas, the novel takes you through the streets of Toronto and around Kensington Market. Meyer has a real knack for making one feel part of the action, the reader tastes every morsel and breathes every breath with Abby as she pounds to the finish line.
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CARVE THE HEART by A.G. Pasquella (Dundurn)
About the book: Cassandra, the woman who broke Jack Palace’s heart, is suddenly back in his life. She owes $600,000 to a brutal gangster who has threatened her life, and she needs Jack’s help. Things start to get violent when Cassandra suddenly disappears … but not everyone believes she's in danger. Is Jack being set up? Bikers, mobsters, and strippers collide as Jack storms the mean streets of Toronto searching for Cassandra. To find her, he must rip open old wounds and confront new enemies. But as loyalties falter and secrets are revealed, Jack begins to wonder who he can really trust. If he doesn’t figure it out fast, he — and everyone he cares about — could end up dead. (Goodreads)
My Review:
He’s back! Jack Palace, meaner, grittier and tougher than ever! Carve The Heart cuts clean like a hot knife through cold butter, with characters you’ll think about long after you put the book down. Stylish and funny with a quick and powerful undertow of cruel, Jack Palace doesn’t hold back as he takes a stand in his own inimitable way. A thoroughly enjoyable, pitch perfect noir read! I was a fan of Yard Dog but Carve The Heart enjoys an even deeper groove of menace and humour, as if A.G. Pasquella has tapped into the next level, delivering a seamless tale. And it’s set in Toronto!
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JOURNEYWOMAN by Carolyne Van Der Meer (Inanna Publications)
About the book:
Journeywoman is the story in poems of the explicitly female journey made by women through girlhood, motherhood and beyond. The play on the word journeyman is intentional with the notion of completing an apprenticeship and seeking mastery of the trade implicit. The actual journey, both physical and intellectual, however, is what brings woman to that state of mastery and Journeywoman, through verse, provides just one itinerary. This unique collection explores the stages of womanhood as defined by this author: the waif, the mother and the crone. It invokes the stories of many to describe the process of mastering the craft of being female, with all its inherent complexities. The actual journey is both physical and intellectual and involves not only the physical alterations a woman undergoes through the changing of stages—the metamorphosing required to achieve mastery—but also true travel, the road embarked upon to achieve enlightenment, the attempt to grasp the intangible, the ethereal, the metaphysical, the disembodied, the sacred. (Goodreads)
My Review
Journeywoman was a wonderful collection to read as the sun set on a decade. Reflective, introspective and observant, the work follows the life of everywoman, the loves, losses, triumphs, challenges, hopes and dreams in this circle of life. There was much to relate to.
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MISTAKES TO RUN WITH by Yasuko Thankh (Hamish Hamilton)
About the book:
Mistakes to Run With chronicles the turbulent life of Yasuko Thanh, from early childhood in the closest thing Victoria, BC, has to a slum to teen years as a sex worker and, finally, to her emergence as an award-winning author. As a child, Thanh embraced evangelical religion, only to rebel against it and her equally rigid parents, cutting herself, smoking, and shoplifting. At fifteen, the honour-roll runaway develops a taste for drugs and alcohol. After a stint in jail at sixteen, feeling utterly abandoned by her family, school, and society, Thanh meets the man who would become her pimp and falls in love.
The next chapter of her life takes Thanh to the streets of Vancouver, where she endures beatings, arrests, crack cocaine, and an unwanted pregnancy. The act of writing ultimately becomes a solace from her suffering. Leaving the sex trade, but refusing to settle on any one thing, Thanh forges a new life for herself, from dealing drugs in four languages to motherhood and a complicated marriage, and emerges as a successful writer.
But even as publication and awards bolster her, she remains haunted by her past.
My Review:
Compulsive and compelling reading from start to finish, exquisitely written. I loved the conviction in this novel that writing heals, brings resolution and happiness and absolves the heart and psyche from pain and punishment. That life doesn’t work that way doesn’t mean that we or the writing fails. It’s our inescapable truth-telling. Kudos to Yasuko Thanh for this memoir that leaves me hoping that all is well in this writer’s world and life becomes a kinder place.
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STRANGERS IN THE HOUSE by Candace Savage (Greystone Books)
About the book:
A renowned author investigates the dark and shocking history of her prairie house.
When researching the first occupant of her Saskatoon home, Candace Savage discovers a family more fascinating and heartbreaking than she expected.
Napoléon Sureau dit Blondin built the house in the 1920s, an era when French-speakers like him were deemed “undesirable” by the political and social elite, who sought to populate the Canadian prairies with WASPs only. In an atmosphere poisoned first by the Orange Order and then by the Ku Klux Klan, Napoléon and his young family adopted anglicized names and did their best to disguise their “foreignness.”
In Strangers in the House, Savage scours public records and historical accounts and interviews several of Napoléon’s descendants, including his youngest son, to reveal a family story marked by challenge and resilience. In the process, she examines a troubling episode in Canadian history, one with surprising relevance today. (Goodreads)
My Review:
I once thought history was as objective as a compass needle. But the reality is that it’s often no more than a marketing document espoused by those in power and once the truth is uncovered, it’s shocking and dismaying. This was a difficult book to read because of what we humans do in the name of religion, conquest and power. It was also a fascinating and eye-opening read and I highly recommend it.
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THE CLUB KING by Peter Gatien (Little A, Amazon Publishing, April 2020)
About the book:
Limelight, Tunnel, Club USA, and Palladium—the cutting-edge, insanely successful, and notoriously decadent clubs that dominated New York City’s entertainment scene, their influences reverberating around the world. Across four decades, a single mysterious figure stood behind them all: Peter Gatien, the leading impresario of global nightlife. His clubs didn’t follow the trends—they created movements. They nurtured vanguard music acts that brought rock, house, grunge, hip-hop, industrial, and techno to the beautiful ones who showed up night after night to tear the roof off every party. But as Peter and his innovative team ramped up the hedonistic highs, Rudolph Giuliani was leading a major shift in the city. Under the guise of improving New York City’s “quality of life,” the club scene was targeted—and Peter Gatien’s empire became a major focus of the administration.
In this frank and gritty memoir, Peter Gatien charts the seismic changes in his personal and professional life and the targeted destruction of his nightclub empire. From Peter’s childhood in a Canadian mill town to the freedom of the 1970s, through the excesses of the 1980s and the ensuing crackdown in the 1990s, The Club King chronicles the birth and death of a cultural movement—and the life of the man who was in control of every beat. (Goodreads)
My Review:
What a wild ride! This is a fascinating read! For the most part, I read the book willing Peter Gatien to get off the crazy club carousel while he was still ahead, but I knew full well that a great fall lay ahead.
I was riveted by the hard work and creativity, the ingenuity and the drive, the contributions by Andy Warhol and the entire team of players who worked tirelessly to build the culture that was the lifeblood of a generation. What a cast of characters – only they weren’t characters, they were real people, living the dream of club land, back in the day when clubs were the places you went to dance and dream and live your best life, although at that time, no one was uttering that tired, over-memed clichéd phrase.
Gatien is so right when he observed that club land was where we saw what people were wearing, what the songs were – we didn’t sit on the sofa, staring at our phones, detached while deluding ourselves that we are part of the action. Being part of the action in those days was getting ready to go out, standing in line for hours and dancing your heart out.
The book is an intense read, from rags to riches and then having the magic carpet whipped out from under one. One chapter is aptly title All Yesterday’s Parties and this might well have been a great title for the book.
It makes me sad to think of all the silence left behind, to think of the ghosts of all the vibrant characters that lived so fully and with such vibrancy. Perhaps it’s time to get off the sofa and go dancing but this book took me there, it took me off the sofa and into the Limelight and behind the scenes for riveting insider glances.
I’d also love to read more about Gatien’s adjustment to life back in Canada, after the bubble of his dream had burst. That couldn’t have been easy. This Icarus-tale will leave you wanting to know even more.
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THE TENDER BIRDS by Carole Giangrande (Inanna Publications)
About the book: Matthew Reilly is a lonely priest haunted by secrets. Young Alison is the shy and devoted keeper of Daisy, a falcon that suffered an accident and can no longer fly. When they meet in a Boston parish, Matt tells Alison about the day a decade ago when he missed the plane out of Logan Airport that tore into one of the Twin Towers. What he hasn't told her is that among the victims was a son that no one knew he'd fathered. With no confidantes and close to exhaustion, Matt suffers a heart attack, forcing him to reflect on what's become of his life. He recalls a teaching stint in Toronto a year earlier, his encounter with Gavin, a troubled and predatory man, and his discovery that his son had a male partner who had perished with him. He remembers returning to Boston, only to be perplexed by Alison and the affection that she and her beloved falcon draw from the homeless people who live on the Boston Common, but Matt has forgotten a momentary but fateful encounter with Alison eight years earlier in Toronto and it's only when her falcon frightens a child in the parish that even Alison begins to recall her terrifying ordeal years ago as a homeless person in Toronto. (Goodreads)
My Review:
Carole Giangrande’s writing is, as always, a sheer delight to read. And, from the moment I started it, I felt as if The Tender Birds was written with me in mind - my worldly dilemmas, my contemplations of this confusing and randomly unspiritual era into which we have been cast.
I was brought up Catholic and have been dismayed by the scandals of the Church, leading one to wonder, what, if any of the spirituality, was real?
In the flawed and very real Father Matt, I felt as if my questions were being addressed to the point where I wondered if Carole had seen inside my brain but how ridiculously egotistical! These are the questions of today’s world not just mine.
The Tender Birds is a beautiful, faith-affirming life affirming book that brings us back to the healing power of nature and the quiet magic of being human in a universe of God wonders despite our efforts to destroy it.
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THE WORLD'S LARGEST PERPETUALLY FULL BIRDFEEDER/BEEHIVE: A COLLECTION OF POEMS By David Armstrong (FriesenPress)
About the book:
Life is inspiring, from the beauty and grandeur of nature to the vagaries of everyday life. This collection of poetry captures the moments that make us pause and reflect, putting into words those things that move us, whether to laughter or tears. With charm, humour, and an insight that comes only from a life well-lived, this collection speaks to this journey we all take together, told through thoughtful and well-crafted verses, and it encourages us to stop and take note of the landmarks along the way.... (Goodreads)
My Review:
Why do I love poetry and appreciate poets so much? For their succinct summations of the wrongs that ail the world.
Good poetry taps into the unspoken that should be spoken and The World's Largest Perpetually Full BirdFeeder/Beehive: A Collection Of Poems does exactly that. This is a voice of angst and rage, a welcome manifest of righteous accusations in troubled times.
Politics, loneliness, social media, the thievery of corporations, the mystery of electricity, the wisdom of cartoon characters and a texting God all speak in this collection. This is the voice of Beat poetry now, a refreshing read.
I agree that "we are all smarting ourselves to death" but you never know – poetry might yet save the day.