lkernagh's 1010 Challenge for 2010

After spending some time sitting on the sidelines, I have decided to take the plunge and join this challenge. I will start this challenge on January 1st and will attempt the 10-10 (10 books from each category listed) with the following categories:




1. A Trans Canada Journey: - Canadian authors from coast to coast
2. I Don't Remember THAT From History Class: - historical fiction (pre-1945)
3. This Will Just Take a Minute... or Two: - short stories
4. Follow Thy Author: - more books by authors I have recently discovered
5. What a Debut!: - author debut novels
6. They Made a Movie From That...?: - books made into movies
7. Bloody Victorian England: - Victorian murder mysteries
8. The Envelope Please...: - Prize winners and shortlisted
9. Lost in Translation: - foreign language novels translated into English
10. Out of the Mouths of Babes: - books with teens or pre-teens as the primary characters/ narrators

I will add the books as I read them. I will be back on Jan 1st.

Happy reading everyone!

Your "Bloody Victorian England" category intrigues me! Can't wait to see what you read!

Thanks christina-reads: I figure that one will be pretty easy to fill!

A Trans Canada Journey: - Canadian authors from coast to coast

1. The Sad Truth About Happiness by Anne Giardini - BC
2. The Incident Report by Martha Baillie - ON
3. Finishing School by Helen Fogwill Porter - NF
4. Waiting for Columbus by Thomas Trofimuk - AB
5. Cool Water by Dianne Warren - SK
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

I Don't Remember THAT From History Class: - historical fiction (pre-1945)

1. The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger
2. Purity of Blood by Arturo Perez-Reverte
3. The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander
4. Grace Hammer by Sara Stockbridge
5. The Wet Nurse's Tale by Erica Eisdorfer
6. The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan
7. The Chief Factor's Daughter by Vanessa Winn
8. 31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan
9. The Doctor and the Diva by Adrienne McDonnell
10. Eden Springs by Laura Kasischke

FINISHED!

Overflow:
1.

This Will Just A Take a Minute... or Two: - short stories

1. what the world will look like when all the water leaves us by Laura van den Berg
2. Can'tLit: Fearless Fiction from Broken Pencil Magazine edited by Richard Rosenbaum
3. Landscape with Dog and Other Stories by Ersi Sotiropoulos
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Follow Thy Author: - more books by authors I have recently discovered

1. Carnival by Elizabeth Bear
2. The Sun over Breda by Arturo Perez-Reverte
3. Rasputin's Daughter by Robert Alexander
4. The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
5. The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys
6. To Kingdom Come by Will Thomas
7. Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa
8.
9.
10.

What a Debut!: - author debut novels

1. Moonlight in Odessa by Janet Skeslien Charles
2. help me, jacques cousteau by Gil Adamson
3. Deloume Road by Matthew Hooton
4. The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw
5. The Kingdom of Ohio by Matthew Flaming
6. The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
7. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
8.
9.
10.

They Made a Movie From That...?: - books made into movies

1. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
2. Silk by Alessandro Baricco
3. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
4. The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Bloody Victorian England: - Victorian murder mysteries

1. A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch
2. The Blackheath Poisonings by Julian Symons
3. Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas
4. The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

The Envelope Please...: - Prize winners and shortlisted

1. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout - 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner
2. The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi - 2008 Le Prix Goncourt winner
3. The Gathering by Anne Enright - 2007 Man Booker Prize winner
4. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones - 2007 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Lost in Translation: - foreign language novels translated into English

1. There a Petal Silently Falls by Ch'oe Yun
2. The Perfect Circle by Pascale Quiviger
3. The Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugrešić
4. The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches by Gaétan Soucy
5. A Dog with No Tail by Hamdi Abu Golayydel
6. Translation is a Love Affair by Jacques Poulin
7. My Little War by Louis Paul Boon
8. The Club of Angels by Luís Fernando Verissimo
9.
10.

Out of the Mouths of Babes: - books with teens or pre-teens as the primary characters/ narrators

1. Naming Maya by Uma Krishnaswami
2. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
3. Mathilda Savitch by Victor Lodato
4. When We Get There by Shauna Seliy
5. Ruby's Spoon by Anna Lawrence Pietroni
6. out of my mind by Sharon M. Daper
7.
8.
9.
10.

Wonderful categories. I'll be following your progress.

Hi teelgee - I have started to compile some preliminary choices for my categories and I plan to post these lists in the coming weeks as a record to help me through the challenge and to request suggestions from other LT readers. The preliminary lists will be posted in dribs and drabs as I work on them in the lead up to January 1st as I find time to work on the lists.

Bloody Victorian England - Preliminary List

As you can see by the list posted here, I have started to compile potential books for this category. I understand, based on research, that the Victoria era is the period from June 1837 until Queen Victoria's death on the 22nd of January 1901. This struck me a such a great challenge that I really would like it to be accurate period and location wise - murder mysteries that take place in England during the Victorian Era.

· The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale *
· The Blackheath Poisonings by Julian Symons
· The Frightened Man by Kenneth Cameron
· Walking in Pimlico by Ann Featherstone
· Dead Letters by Joan Lock
· Dead Fall by Joan Lock
· Dead Loss by Joan Lock
· Mr. Timothy by Louis Bayard
· Deathwatch by Ray Harrison
· Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas
· The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry - A Thomas Pitt Mystery
· The Face of a Stranger by Anne Perry - A William Monk Mystery
· Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn *
· The Devil in Bellminster by David Holland
· The Lamplighter by Anthony O’Neill
· The Minutes of the Lazarus Club by Tony Pollard
· The Malvern Murders by Kerry Tombs
· Meaning of Night by Michael Cox *
· Unburied by Charles Palliser
. From Hell by Alan Moore *

Not all of the books posted above are readily available so I am taking the approach of adding to the list to keep my options open. I am open to further suggestions not listed above that would fit into this category.

* denotes LT recommended - and moving to the top of the pile!

Out of the Mouths of Babes - Preliminary List

I have been working on compiling a potential books lists for this category. I didn't anticipate narrowing the scope to "preteens as narrators or primary characters" would pose a problem given the number of books I have read this year that fit into this category that I have filed under the tag 'YA Narrator" including: Amphibian, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Ella Minnow Pea and When You Reach Me. Current preliminary list is:

· Monique Charlesworth – The Children’s War
· Jacqueline Kelly – The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
· Reif Larsen – The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet
· Harper Lee – To Kill A Mockingbird
· Wilson Rawls – Where the Red Fern Grows
· Frances Burnett – The Secret Garden
· Lois Lowry – Number the Stars
· Lois Lowry – The Giver
· Neil Gaiman – Coraline
· Natalie Babbitt – Tuck Everlasting
· Philippa Pearce – Tom’s Midnight Garden
· Jeanne DuPrau – The City of Ember
· Christopher Paul Curtis – Bud, Not Buddy
· Katherine Paterson & Donna Diamond – Bridge to Terabuthia
· Nora Raleigh Baskin – Anything But Typical
· James Fuerst – Huge
· Kate Constable – Cicada Summer
· Louis Sachar – Holes
· Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl
· Roland Smith – Elephant Run
· Robert Alexander – The Kitchen Boy

This is the list that I have compiled so far, with some of the books exceeding the 'preteen' requirement that I placed on the category. If books for the category are lacking, I will consider raising the age restriction to mid-teens. I am open to any further suggestions anyone may have that would fit into this category.

For Bloody Victorian England, I would recommend Alan Moore's From Hell.

I'll be keeping a close eye on your Bloody Victorians--I love a good Victorian murder mystery! The only ones on your preliminary list that I've read are The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, Silent in the Grave, and The Meaning of Night, all of which I enjoyed.

Thanks kristenn and SaraHope - I have added From Hell to the list and made a note of the great recommendations!

Hi, thanks for the welcome! I'll be looking for short story ideas, too - I only have one collection in mind, right now.

Great categories!

Some excellent short story collections:

Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Varieties of Disturbance by Lydia Davis

Alice Munro is always reliable and I get the feeling I'm forgetting another obvious Canadian.

Some excellent authors with more quirky collections include George Saunders, Junot Diaz, Haruki Murakami and Thom Jones.

Zadie Smith edited a charity anthology by big name contemporary writers a couple years ago : The Book of Other People. I bought it but haven't gotten around to reading it.

Thanks kristenn! I have added your recommendations to the potential list I am starting to compile.

I second George Saunders! Funny, scary, political and not quite like anything I've ever read. Pastoralia is my favourite so far.

I second From hell too, by the way. That kristenn has good taste :)

I am very interested in your Trans Canada Journey. I have in the past overlooked Canadian writers but, mostly through LT, have discovered a few that I really like. Looking forward to being introduced to some more.

Hi DeltaQueen50 - What I hope to do with the Trans Canada Journey category is follow the Trans Canada highway from coast to coast (starting on the west coast!) and read a book by an author that is either a current resident of or predominantly associated with each of the 10 provinces. I have been compiling a short list of potential books by province. P.E.I. was a challenge but thanks to LT, I have some options now for P.E.I.!

A TransCanada Odyssey – Preliminary List
The list below will be my starting point for choosing books for this category, which I am posting so I can easily locate it during the challenge.

British Columbia
Douglas Coupland
Anne Giardini – Advice for Italians Boys
Annabel Lyon – The Golden Mean *
Steven Galloway – Ascension *
June Hutton – Underground *

Alberta
Thomas Trofimuk – Doubting Yourself to the Bone
Marina Endicott – Open Arms *
Todd Babiak – The Book of Stanley
Adrian Michael Kelly – Down Sterling Road

Saskatchewan
Martha Blum – The Walnut Tree
Sandra Birdsell – Children of the Day
Joanne Gerber – In the Misleading Absence of Light
Guy Vanderhaeghe – The Last Crossing

Manitoba
David Bergen – The Time in Between
Miriam Toews – A Complicated Kindness *
Armin Wiebe – Tatsea

Ontario
Helen Humphreys – The Lost Garden *
Nino Ricci – The Origin of the Species
Mike Blouin – Chase & Heaven
Giles Blunt – Forty Words for Sorrow *
Edeet Ravel – A Wall of Light *
Lawrence Hill – Any Known Blood *
Emma Donoghue – Slammerkin *

Quebec
Louise Penny – Still Life
Rawi Hage – De Niro’s Game or Cockroach
Heather O’Neill – Lullabies for Little Criminals
Gordon Sheppard – HA!
Yann Martel – Life of Pi
Michel Tremblay – The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant

New Brunswick
Lyn Alexander – A Good Soldier
David Adams Richards – The Lost Highway

Prince Edward Island
Lori Derby Bingley

Nova Scotia
Ami McKay – The Birth House
Linden MacIntyre – The Bishop’s Man

Newfoundland and Labrador
Kenneth J. Harvey – Blackstrap Hawco
Kevin Major –Ann and Seamus
Bernice Morgan – Cloud of Bone

* denotes books that will also fit into other categories for the 1010 challenge.

These are great! A few I have read and lots I am interested in. I will be watching to see what you think as you read through them.

Forty Words for Sorrow is one of the best books I have ever read, and certainly one of the best mysteries. I recommend it very highly.

Thanks DeltaQueen - I am sure the list will grow as I discover more books that would fit the category.

owlie - I read Breaking Lorca earlier this year and found it quite an intense, gripping story. I am looking forward to Forty Words for Sorrow!

Don't forget The Outlander, which is set in Alberta, and The Tenderness of Wolves, set in Ontario.

lkernagh, thanks for your post earlier on my thread - we share two categories, so I wanted to see what you had in your short story list. I'm definitely going to add Unaccustomed Earth to my list, and will check back to see what's in your Lost in Translation category! I think your Canada category looks interesting - one for me to consider for next year.

Book #1 - Moonlight in Odessa by Janet Skeslien Charles
Category: Author debut novels

Moonlight in Odessa is a witty, insightful novel of Daria, a young Jewish Ukrainian's journey as she claws her way through life in a corrupt Odessa where waiters earn more than doctors and the mafia is more powerful than the government. Daria dreams of living in America where everyone is rich and everything works. The story follows Daria as she chases her dream of escaping to America. Life in both the Ukraine and America are presented in a balanced manner with each country having its good points and its flaws. I felt that the ending lacked the strength that had driven the story and Daria's various adventures. Overall, I found the story to be well written and an interesting glimpse into the world of mail-order brides.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Book #2 - Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Category: The envelope please....

I loved this book. Strout, in my opinion, does an amazing job of presenting the reader to the characters of small town Crosby, Maine. Olive, a former school teacher, is the thread that ties the 13 chapters, or more like short stories, together. Each chapter has the ability to stand on its own. I felt a great connection to most of the characters as if they were my friends and neighbors. A powerful story !

Rating: 4.5 stars

Your categories are awesome!

For your trans-Canada category I highly recommend The Birth House for Nova Scotia and A Complicated Kindness for Manitoba. I loved them both. Also, don't forget Mordecai Richler was a Quebecer and if you want some fabulous cross Canada travel essays - Will Ferguson's Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw is awesome.

Thanks glammonkey! The Trans Canada category is really opening my eyes to all the fantastic authors and novels available. I am pretty sure I will be reading more than just the 10 for the category... in fact I am already juggling some that I have come across to slot them into other categories if they will fit so I have a chance of finishing this challenge!

Feel free to post further suggestions if you come across any - I am still rather spare for options for the Maritime Provinces ;-)

Book #3 - Naming Maya by Uma Krishnaswami
Category: Out of the Mouths of Babes

Naming Maya is a charming coming of age story about a 12 year old Indian American girl named Maya and her summer visit to Chennai, India with her mother to try and sell Maya's grandfather's house. Maya's parents had divorced the previous year and this trip to Chennai reconnects Maya with her extended family, neighbors of her grandfather and the eccentric Kamala Mami who for years has been connected to Maya's family. During this visit, Maya struggles to understand her parent's divorce. It is the relationships that Maya establishes with her cousin Sumati and Kamala Mami that help Maya piece together the puzzles Maya is trying to unlock.

This quick read captures the sights and sounds of a bustling Indian town, insight into Indian culture and values, and the joys and pains of being a young girl. A great afternoon read.

Rating: 4 stars

Well, for P.E.I, there is the obvious - anything by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Also for Nova Scotia, Cape Breton specifically, Fall on Your Knees is beautiful. I'm going to read No Great Mischief this year, which is also set in Cape Breton and has been highly recommended to me by friends. For Newfoundland I would suggest The Colony of Unrequited Dreams.

I loved Some Danger Involved. It drew me right in and was just full of adventure and action. Great characters. I understand it is the first of a series too, so that's even better.

Excellent! Thank you glammonkey and cmbohn. There is no such thing as too many choices when it comes to books ;-)

I am going to make one change to how I categorize the books. As some books have the ability to overlap more than one category, I will be posting the alternative categories each book read might fall under so that I can move a book from one category to another near the end of the challenge if I have too many books in one category and not enough in another category.

Book #4 - The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger
Category: I Don't Remember THAT From History Class
Alternative Category: The Envelope Please

The Mistress of Nothing, winner of the Governor General's Award for Fiction, is a fascinating story focused on the lives of two English women, Lady Lucie Duff Gordon and her lady's maid, Sally Naldrett, and their time spend in Egypt in the 1860's. This is a book that lived up to my expectations. I have posted a review on the book page http://www.librarything.com/work/book/55533430

Rating: 4 stars

Wonderful review - sounds like a book I'd love.

#42 A great review - I've added the book to the wishlist, and hope I'll get to it soon.

Thumbs up on your review! I've added The Mistress of Nothing to my wishlist as well.

Thank you all - I am a newbie, in a manner of speaking, to writing reviews. I feel compelled to provide a review when there is none, scary as that can be. The encouragement is greatly appreciated. I will endeavor to provide more reviews.

Lori, you've got a hot review this morning for Mistress of Nothing! Congratulations!

Noooooo...... REALLY!!!?????

Okay, I am stunned and thank you sjmccreary for letting me know! I will try to write more reviews and not take the lazy, default position of not bothering if there already are reviews posted ;-)

Book #5 - Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
Category: Out of the Mouths of Babes

Elsewhere takes a different tact on life - via death, and what one might consider as the afterlife. Have I lost you yet? Zevin presents an interesting premise in this story of 15 year old Liz's adventures in the afterlife a.k.a Elsewhere after she dies on Earth as a victim of a hit and run. Elsewhere is an interesting place - people, upon arriving here via cruise liner, regress in age as time goes on, and they take on avocations to fulfill themselves during their time in Elsewhere. Crafted for the YA audience, this book tackles some interesting topics, besides the rather obvious topic of death, with a dash of lightheartedness and fun to keep the reader engaged.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Book #6 - Carnival by Elizabeth Bear
Category: Follow Thy Author

I read New Amsterdam by Elizabeth Bear last year and was swept away by the characters, setting and plot lines. When I came across a great review here on LT for Carnival, I was ready to give it a go, even though Carnival falls in the science fiction/ dystopia genre that I tend to veer away from as a rule.

The characters were great and I found the plot of diplomats, agents, double agents and the various political factions all chasing different, and some times only seemingly different agendas, is what kept me intrigued. Bear's strength in writing style made it possible for me to visualize New Amazonia - a matriarchal society and setting for the diplomatic mission - but there were times when I found the story was unclear. Overall: a decent story in a genre that I usually do not gravitate to.

Rating: 3.5 stars

January Recap
Following in the footsteps of some fellow 1010 Challengers, I have prepared a recap for the month. Overall, I managed to complete only 6 books but then it was a crazy month. Not a great start to the challenge but there are still 11 more months to go ;-)

Favorite book: Olive Kitteridge with 4.5 stars
Least Favorite: Carnival with 3.5 stars

A Trans Canada Journey - 0/10

I Don't Remember That From History Class - 1/10
The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger

This Will Just Take a Minute... or Two - 0/10

Follow Thy Author - 1/10
Carnival by Elizabeth Bear

What a Debut! - 1/10
Moonlight in Odessa by Janet Skeslien Charles

They Made a Movie From That...? - 0/10

Bloody Victoria England - 0/10

The Envelope Please... - 1/10
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Lost in Translation - 0/10

Out of the Mouths of Babes - 2/10
Naming Maya by Uma Krishnaswami
Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

Book #7 - The Sad Truth About Happiness by Anne Giardini
Category: A Trans Canada Journey
Alternative Category: What a Debut!

I wanted to love this book. I started out loving this book, enjoying the melodic prose, the open invitation to join the main character Maggie as she embarks on an introspective journey of her past and present and then, well, the story started to lose its mesmerizing hold on me in the last 1/3 of the book. I found I was no longer riveted to the story as I had been and came across some gaps in the flow of information that disrupted my enjoyment of the story. Overall effect: A book that held a lot of promise and then just failed to carry it through.

This is the first book I have read by Anne Giardini so I am not sure if this is reflective of her other book(s).

Rating: 3 stars

Love the recap idea - maybe tomorrow!

Book #8 - There a Petal Silently Falls by Ch'oe Yun
Category: Lost in Translation
Alternative Category: This Will Just Take a Minute... or Two

I found this collection of three previously published short stories to be fascinating and have posted a review on the book page http://www.librarything.com/work/5615301/book/56280082

Rating: 4.5 stars

Book #9 - Purity of Blood by Arturo Perez-Reverte
Category: I Don't Remember THAT From History Class
Alternative Categories: Follow Thy Author AND Lost in Translation

I 'discovered' the Captain Alatriste series only last year when I read the first novel in the series Captain Alatriste. As a big fan of historical fiction, I was hooked at the onset and plan to read the series as it has a number of elements that I love: history, mystery, historical romanticism of the period (not a bodice-ripper, so don't be confused on that notion!) swashbuckling and, my all time favorite, individual codes of honor and morality (the tie in to the numerous Alexandre Dumas novels that capture that same theme).

Purity of Blood is book two in the series and picks up where the first book left off. Set in 17th century Spain, under the rule of Philip IV, the story starts out with the discovery of a dead woman found in a sedan chair outside the church of San Gines. Former soldier and swordsman-for-hire Captain Alatriste is hired, via his friend the poet don Francisco de Quevedo to help a desperate father rescue his daughter from a convent under a powerful priest with, shall we say, suspect values. This task quickly derails with sinister intent when the Inquisition becomes involves and Inigo, Alatriste's 13 year 'charge' for lack of a more appropriate term right now, is taken by the Inquisition for questioning.

Filled with vivid descriptions and interesting political prose of 17th century Spain and the royal court, the series is a current favorite of mine for its pure historical escapism.

Rating: 4 stars

Whoops! Forgot to mention above that I was also intrigued with the series when I read on Wikipedia that the author started the series because he was disappointed with the lack of coverage of the Spanish Golden Age in his daughter's Carlota school textbook. Carlota is attributed as co-author of the first book in the series.

I wish they would finally release the DVD of the Captain Alatriste movie in the U.S.

Oooohhhh.... movie..... that would be nice!!!! I can see how the books would translate nicely onto screen. ;-}

And it's Viggo Mortensen!

Book #10 - The Kitchen Boy A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
Category: I Don't Remember THAT From History Class

While there has been extensive research, and speculation, into the final weeks of the Romanov family in the lead up to their execution by the Bolsheviks back in July of 1918, the author presents an interesting tale of suspense, told through the POV of young Leonka, the kitchen boy and youngest member of the staff housed with the Tsar and his family in The House of Special Purpose.

Richly descriptive, with characters that spring to life from the pages, I found this a story that was hard to put down, right to the very last page. Part mystery, part suspense drives the story build on historical facts into a real page-turner.

Rating: 4.5 stars

I read and really enjoyed The Kitchen Boy last year. The author has two more in his Russian trilogy - Rasputin's Daughter and The Romanov Bride. Have you read either? I plan to get to them eventually.

Hi DeltaQueen - I have already placed a hold at the library for Rasputin's Daughter - I want to see if Robert Alexander continues with his storytelling abilities and the book will be a nice fit for the 1010 Challenge.

Book #11 - what the world will look like when all the water leaves us by Laura van den Berg
Category: This Will Just Take a Minute... or Two

Laura van den Berg's debut collection of short stories is a stunning examination of how loss impacts life changes. To say that all of the main characters of the eight short stories are female and have experienced loss of a family member in some manner - by death, separation or merely drifting apart - would be too simplistic a connection. Not only have the narrators encountered loss that they are trying to understand, their lives are impacted by others that have encountered recent losses and life changes of their own. The stories are multifaceted layers of characters and events that resonate pain, and hope for the future, while depicting coping mechanisms employed to face these life changing events.

Each narrative, while searching for answers sweeps the reader along with travels to exotic locales in the quest for answers to larger world puzzles - deforestation impact on the lemur population of Madagascar, searches for the mythical creatures Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster and the search for a rare flower.

I finished all stories in one short afternoon and was saddened to find myself at the last page of the last story. I can only say that I hope to see further stories by van den Berg published in the near future. In summary, I cannot rave enough about this 'new to me' author.

Rating: 5 stars

Book #12 - The Incident Report by Martha Baillie
Category: A Trans Canada Journey
Alternative category: The Envelope Please...

Have you ever wondered what goes on at the public library? How about the types of patrons that utilize the vast services our public libraries provide? Ontario writer Martha Baillie offers readers a surprising, fascinating and touching glimpse into the colorful lives that frequent the fictitious Allan Gardens Public Library in downtown Toronto.

Told in epistolary fashion through 144 incident reports, we are introduced to 35-year old librarian Miriam Gordon, Miriam's childhood, her colleagues, and numerous unforgettable library patrons such as Suitcase Man, Budgie Man, Wire Stripper Man and Lavender Lady, to name but a few. Miriam frequents the Allan Gardens park during her lunch break where she meets Janko, a taxi driver and recent immigrant from Slovenia.

Baillie conveys her story in brief bursts of information, like a series of snapshots capturing instances of place and time. If you enjoy sitting at a sidewalk cafe and watching the stream of humanity as it flows by in all its various forms, you will probably enjoy The Incident Report.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Wow, you are on a roll of some great books! I like the sound of the van den Berg book, may have to snag that one for my short story category.

And I like the sound of The Incident Report, I have liked epistolary books ever since I read Up The Down Staircase many, many years ago.

Great review of The Incident Report. I read it at Christmas, and I enjoyed it too. I agree with everything you say.

Thanks teelgee - hopefully the momentum will continue!

DeltaQueen and Nickelini - As a frequent patron of the local public library, I really think Baillie's novel resonated with her own library experiences!

Book #13 - The Perfect Circle by Pascale Quiviger
Category: Lost in Translation
Alternative categories: The Envelope Please ... AND What a Debut

Hummmm.... What can I say about this novel, winner of the 2004 Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction (French language) and the debut novel for Quiviger? I can start by saying it was an interesting journey of self discovery by the main character, Marianne, a Canadian whom, during her travels through Europe, meets and falls in love with Marco. She is so completely wrapped up in Marco that she returns home to Quebec only to abandon her life in Canada to return to the small village in Italy where Marco lives, surrounded by his family, to be with him.

As you can probably guess, the brief intro I have written above doesn't do the book justice. You are correct, it doesn't. Unfortunately, I don't think I can convey all that Quiviger has crammed into this book. Which is why I am giving it the rating I am - it kind of defeats the purpose of a story if it is difficult to explain to another individual in a brief dialogue without getting exasperated at one's own loss for words to just blurt out "You just have to read it and see for your self". That is the kind of book this was for me.

Rating: 3 stars

Book #14 - Finishing School by Helen Fogwill Porter
Category: A Trans Canada Journey

Newfoundland writer Helen Fogwill Porter's novel, Finishing School, is an insightful examination of the working class of St. John's, Newfoundland during the 1980's. The story focuses on Eileen Novak, a forty-nine year old divorced hair stylist by day and a mature student by night, studying to obtain her high school diploma. The story is really a journal of Eileen's thoughts and feelings, initially started as a class assignment from the community college English teacher, Mrs. Penney. The reader quickly learns that Eileen is comfortable composing her thoughts and speaking frankly about the day-to-day event of her life within the covers of a notebook. The story is a compilation of Eileen's free-wheeling advice, opinions and words of wisdom from her experiences with her Mom, ex-husband Gary, her former boyfriend Bruce, her three grown daughters, her stepfather Herb, her classmate Tom and her group of friends and acquaintances.

A candid, observational view of society and family values of the 1980's, in transition from previous generations, which is what made this novel such a treat to read now, some 30 years beyond the time period. No topic is taboo to Eileen, at least not within the confines of her journal covers. A really great story that I would recommend to others.

Rating: 4 stars

Book #15 - A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch
Category: Bloody Victorian England
Alternative Categories: What a Debut AND Follow Thy Author

I read The September Society last year, not realizing that it was in fact book two in the Charles Lenox series. I loved it so much that I have now read the first book in the series. NOTE: The books do read as stand alone, so it is not a huge inconvenience to read, at least the first two, out of order.

If you are looking for a cozy Victorian murder mystery, this just may be up your alley. Dubbed equal parts Sherlock Holmes, Gosford Park (on the TBR pile) and P.G. Wodehouse, this is a relaxing, Victorian high society detective novel. The lead character, Charles Lenox, is alike-able high society amateur detective with some secret aspirations of becoming a member of Parliament, like his brother Edmund.

The current case is brought to his attention by Charles' life-long friend and neighbor, Lady Jane Grey, when Lady Grey's former maid, Prudence Smith, is found dead in the home of her current employer, George Bernard, politician and once former member of Parliament. Facing obstacles in the investigation from both George Bernard and the newly formed Scotland Yard, Lenox persists in his examination, and when a second death insures, he steps up the investigation.

As I said, a great cozy Victorian murder mystery and I look forward to enjoying further works by Finch.

Rating: 4 stars.

A Beautiful Blue Death is on my TBR pile. I've got a couple of categories I could fit it into, so maybe I'll get to it later this year! It sounds like one I'll really enjoy.

@70 :: I read A Beautiful Blue Death and The September Society last year and really liked them both! I still haven't read the third book, The Fleet Street Murders, but I'm definitely buying it when the paperback comes out! :)

I've had the Charles Finch novels in my wish list for awhile. Your review makes me want to read them!

I'm also working on a movie category. I'll be interested to see how yours pans out, I didn't realize how broad that category is until I started working on my list.

Good luck!

Now that I know that there is a third book available in the Charles Lenox series (many thanks christina_reads!) I will be continuing with this series, hopefully soon.

akrista - you are correct, the books into movies category is HUGE. I just realized that is the one category I have yet to finish a book for.... time to pull one to read for that category, which might not happen until March given the current pile I have going.

Book #16 - help me, jacques cousteau by Gil Adamson
Category: What a Debut!
Alternative category: Follow Thy Author

After reading Outlander last year, I looked for more novels by Adamson. Adamson's debut novel, help me, jacques cousteau is a fun, quirky, offbeat collection of linked stories about the life and times of Hazel, her younger brother Andrew and the colourful cast of characters that comprise their extended family and neighbors. The stories are told from the POV of Hazel, as she maneuvers through the minefields of her parent's and grandparent's squabbles, her brother's 'silent period' and her own struggles to try and understand those awkward teenage years.

If you enjoy the writings of M.A.C. Farrant, Carla Gunn or Miriam Toews, you may enjoy this book, which has been described on the back cover as 'a funny and poignant portrait of an offbeat family'.

Rating: 4 stars

Book #17 - The Sun over Breda by Arturo Perez-Reverte
Category: Follow Thy Author
Alternative category: I Don't Remember THAT From History Class

The Sun over Breda is book three in the Captain Alatriste series. Here, we join Captain Diego Alatriste and his young Inigo Balboa, now fourteen years old, as Captain Alatriste joins the Spanish Army in Flanders to fight in the war with the Dutch rebels, in particular the siege of Breda. This story follows the Spanish 11-month siege at Breda which commenced in August of 1624 and ended when Justin of Nassau surrendered Breda in June of 1625.

Book three is steeped in military strategies, the desperate conditions that the soldiers of the siege found themselves in and the rumblings of mutiny common during the time period when soldiers found themselves without pay, for 5 to 6 months at a time. Unlike the previous two books, this one is a grittier portrayal of combat of the period and, for me anyways, lacks the romanticism of Madrid, the Spanish court, political intrigues and the duals over honor in the alleyways and plazas of Madrid.

Rating: 3 stars

Wow, I love all your reviews. I hope you share your review of Help me, Jacques Cousteau with all of LT. I saw the title on your list earlier in your posts; the LT page only has 1 member review and it's not all the complimentary. I thought yours was better, more balanced.

You've also convinced me to move Captain Alatriste up in my TBR pile. I really enjoyed The Club Dumas and The Flanders Panel, but somehow it got buried in the TBR pile. Reading your review reminds me how much I really enjoy this author. Thanks!

Also, for your Out of the Mouths of Babes, I humbly suggest adding The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It's an outstanding read.

Hi Readermom68 - I have posted my comments, with slight edits, as a review for help me, jacques cousteau to share with all on LT. Thank you for mentioning it.

The Captain Alatriste series provides a great glimpse into what is considered to be the Golden Age of Spain, and the author sought to create the series to fill what he saw as a "gaping hole' in Spain's glorious history. They are a fun read. The third in the series reminded me of the Sharpe's War series by Bernard Cornwell.

Consider Hunger Games on my TBR pile... I have heard great things about the novels by Suzanne Collins here on LT!

Just starred your thread and added three books to my wishlist. Don't know whether to thank you or not! ;-)

NeverStopTrying - I know what you mean, reading threads has a nasty consequence of adding books to one's reading pile and wish list! Oh well, there are worse problems we could have ;-0

February Recap
February, although a shorter month, was way more productive for me, reading wise, compared to January. I finished 11 books, bringing the total so far to 17, so I think it is safe to say that I am on track for completing this challenge on time. I have now managed to read something for each of my categories except for the 'books to movies' category. I have two books lined up in March to start making a dent in that category.

Favorite book for the month: what the world will look like when all the water leaves us with 5 stars
Favorite for the Challenge so far: what the world will look like when all the water leaves us with 5 stars
Least Favorite book for the month: The Perfect Circle with 3 stars
Least Favorite for the Challenge so far: The Perfect Circle with 3 stars

A Trans Canada Journey - 3 for the month - 3/10 completed
The Sad Truth About Happiness by Anne Giardini - BC
The Incident Report by Martha Baillie - ON
Finishing School by Helen Fogwill Porter - NF

I Don't Remember That From History Class - 2 for the month - 3/10 completed
Purity of Blood by Arturo Perez-Reverte
The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander

This Will Just Take a Minute... or Two - 1 for the month - 1/10 completed
what the world will look like when all the water leaves us by Laura van den Berg

Follow Thy Author - 1 for the month - 2/10 completed
The Sun over Breda by Arturo Perez-Reverte

What a Debut! - 1 for the month - 2/10 completed
help me, jacques cousteau by Gil Adamson

They Made a Movie From That...? - 0 for the month - 0/10 completed

Bloody Victoria England - 1 for the month - 1/10 completed
A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch

The Envelope Please... - 0 for the month - 1/10 completed

Lost in Translation - 2 for the month - 2/10 completed
There a Petal Silently Falls by Ch'oe Yun
The Perfect Circle by Pascale Quiviger

Out of the Mouths of Babes - 0 for the month - 2/10 completed

Book #18 - Can'tLit: Fearless Fiction from Broken Pencil Magazine edited by Richard Rosenbaum
Category: This Will Just Take a Minute.... or Two

Can'tLit: Fearless Fiction from Broken Pencil Magazine is an anthology featuring the fiction that Broken Pencil Magazine, dedicated to the zine scene, has published since its inception in 1995. The title, Can'tLit, aptly sets the stage for the short stories contained within its covers: These stories are described in the forward as outcasts that do not fit the traditional CanLit - they are by in large raw, ragged pieces of unabridged, unadulterated 'anti-literature'. Think peripheral indie talent. Think offbeat, weird alternative writing. Think.... well, you probably have the general idea about this collection of stories.

Edited by Richard Rosenbaum, associate fiction editor for Broken Pencil, the collection was put together to promote the work of writers that toil in obscurity and to show emerging writers that there is a place and a need for sharp, offensive urban fiction within the Canadian literary scene. And what a diverse collection this is, with stories that range in style, topics and degrees of literary expertise from the microfiction that reads more like a dangling sound bite to the well-rounded short story.

As someone that enjoys quirky, offbeat stories, I figured this collection would be an interesting read. Interesting it was. Of the 47 independent works contained here, some of the pieces were just too weird for my tastes, some left me thinking "Huh?" with my head tilted slightly sideways, some were alright but not something to write home about, and some were truly remarkable pieces of literary talent. The collection has no bounds, no constraints, no formula of style that the reader can ground themselves to for consistency as they move from story to story. It really is a random compilation! Given the diversity of the material, it was difficult to provide an overall rating for this collection but in all, this was a unique reading experience for me and if a "Can'tLit vol. 2" is published in the future, I will most likely gravitate to it as I did to this first collection.

Rating: 3 stars

Book #19 - Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Category: They Made a Movie Out of That?

This one, first in the movies into books category for me, was a group read here on LT that was a great tie in to this challenge.

The Novel:
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf is a fascinating 'stream of consciousness' novel that captures the POV of various characters over the course of one day in June. It is June 1923 in London England, five years after the end of the first World War. The focus, understandably, is on Clarissa, the Mrs. Dalloway of the title, but the fascination is on the juxtaposition of the various major and minor characters who's lives intertwine with Clarissa's on that fateful day. Flashbacks occur in line with the POV at the time, wiht Clarissa focusing on the summer of 1890 at her family home at Bourton, and her friends and acquaintances at that time.

The story bounces from POV to POV, 'almost as if they were touch points, to create an interesting and captivating story told by the web of individuals that touch Clarissa's life, or briefly touches the life of some in Clarissa's milieu of friends.

There are enough reviews about this book already, so I will focus on my thoughts regarding the story. I am always cautious when it comes to a 'stream of consciousness' novel - will I like it? Will I be able to 'connect the dots' as it flows along? for both questions, the answer is Yes. I loved this novel and the flow of POV to POV was easy to follow. The writing was poetic, descriptive and flowed soft and even, just like the beautiful June day it occurred in.

The Movie:
Yes, I did watch the movie ('Mrs. Dalloway' circa 1997 starring Vanessa Redgrave, Natascha McElhone and Michael Kitchen) after finishing the novel. The movie did take some interesting artistic license in their depiction of the story, but overall, they did not stray from the main focus of the book. One thing I did appreciate in the movie over the book was that the movie took the time at the end to delve deeper into the discussion of Peter and Sarah, to in part explain Clarissa.

Overall, a great experience and I hope to dive into more books by Virginia Woolf.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Book #20 - Deloume Road by Matthew Hooton
Category: What a Debut!
Alternative category: A Trans Canada Journey

Deloume Road is a compelling debut novel by Vancouver Island author Matthew Hooton. The book, chosen by Knoff Canada as one of the 2010 New Faces of Fiction, is an escape to the lazy days of summer in a small rural community on Southern Vancouver Island, where kids play in the forests, by the river and bike the gravel roads near their homes that comprise Deloume Road. Hooton's descriptive prose paints a vivid image that is, in a way, timeless. We are presented with hot summer days of thick waist-high grass, arbutus trees, tangles of blackberry bushes and the hum of birds and insects that vibrate the rural air.

The story is a compilation of first and third person point of views of various inhabitants of Deloume Road. The story follows four pre-teen boys: Matthew, his brother Andy, his friend Josh and the outcast, Miles. The story’s characters quickly expand to encompass the adults of Deloume Road and their internal struggles, including: Irene, a recently widowed, pregnant young woman from Korea who fears for the life of her unborn child while being torn between choosing her new home or a return to her native Korea; Al, a Native artist waiting for news of his son's plane that has crashed in the northern wilderness near the Alaskan border; and a recently immigrated butcher from the Ukraine who is trying to come to terms with leaving his wife and son behind in the old country.

While the adults play a role in this story, the focus of the book is on the four boys. The pieces of the story start to fall into place when, one day, Matthew finds an old object with ties to the historical past of Deloume Road. This object will change the lives of the boys forever.

I really loved this book for a number of reasons. As a resident of Vancouver Island, I could easily connect with the setting - Deloume Road does exist, near Mill Bay and so does Mount Baldy – which was beautifully presented. I found the continual shifts in points of view refreshing and easy to follow. The short chapters made it a great book to pick up is short spurts of reading. Some readers may find the shifting perspectives confusing to follow but I found it really did add to the mystery of the events as they unfolded. This writing style helped integrate the historical chapters, setting the stage for Gerard Deloume's suicide in 1899, and the tie-in to the events about to occur some 90 years later.

A stunning coming of age novel.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Book #21 - The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw
Category: What a Debut!

I picked up The Girl with Glass Feet at my local library because the description on the fly cover sounded interesting and, yes, I liked the cover art. Overall, it was a good tale about some of the unique inhabitants of St. Hauda's Land, a fictitious northern climate archipelago. The main characters of the story are a young resident loner, Miles Crook, and Ida Maclaird, a visitor to St. Hauda's from the mainland. As described on the book's inside cover, Ida is slowly turning to glass and has returned to the islands in the hopes of finding an individual she met previously while on vacation to the island in the hopes to find a cure for her unique condition. Or is it unique?

The focus of the story is on the relationship between Miles and Ida, and the relationships of other characters. I found the mystical elements fascinating, and wish some of these elements had been elaborated on further, instead of being treated as mere mystical filler to the main plot of the story. The descriptions of windswept winter landscapes, while helpful at first to set the stage, seemed at times to take over the story completely. By the end, I was glad to be finished the story as I had started to lose interest in the whole thing.

Rating: 3 stars

#84 - Until I read your message, for some reason I had been avoiding the movie version of Mrs Dalloway. But you changed my mind, and I've discovered that it's available right here, right now on YouTube. I might just get it from the library and watch it properly on the TV rather than on my computer. Thanks for reminding me of this one, and of changing my mind!

I completely understand! I have in the past always either read the book OR seen the movie, never both. With this challenge I am taking a risk, for me anyways, of reading the book and then watching the movie adaptation. So far, with good results. We will see if I am capable of carrying this through for the rest of this challenge :-)

Book #22 - The Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugrešić
Category: Lost in Translation

I found The Ministry of Pain to be a great book in so many ways. Set in Amsterdam, the story focuses on Tanja Lucic, a Croatian exile that has come to Amsterdam, via Germany, to teach at a Dutch university for two semesters. Tanja bluntly faces the absurdity of her position: she has been hired to teach the languages and literature of her former Yugoslavia - Slovene, Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian, Montenegrin and Macedonian literature - to what can best be described as a mixed bag of Bosnians, Croatians and Serbs with varied political perspectives and reasons for leaving Yugoslavia after the breakup of their country. In an effort to reach out to her students, Tanja throws the curriculum out the window and encourages them to indulge in their 'Yugonostalgia' by having them write essays about their personal experiences during their homeland's cultural and physical disintegration.

Overall, the story was a ambitious examination of the struggle and conflicting emotions that can course through a group of people, or an individual, having fled a homeland that, for them, no longer exists, to a land that can never feel like home. The only downside to the book for me, and it is a minor downside, is that I had a difficult time grasping the extensive references to the authors and literary pieces that make up the literature of the 'former Yugoslavia'. Everything else about the book was truly stunning and thought provoking.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Book #23 - Silk by Alessandro Baricco
Category: They Made a Movie Out of That?
Alternative Categories: Lost in Translation AND I Don't Remember THAT From History Class

The Novel:
Silk is such a beautiful, stunning story. Set in the 1860's, young Hervé Joncour is approached by silk merchant, Baldabiou, to make a career change from the military to traveling, first to Africa, and then four trips to the distant lands of Japan, to obtain eggs of silkworms for the growing silk industry of their home town of Lavilledieu. At the start of each trip, Hervé leaves behind his beautiful wife Helene. The trips to Japan encompass multiple months of travel in foreign lands. On Hervé's first trip to Japan, he sets his eyes on the Japanese egg trader's concubine and love blossoms between the two that do not share a common language.

Told in the third person perspective and in a stark 91 pages, this beautiful, enchanting novella quite literally took my breath away. Baricco coveys an amazing visual feast with a minimum of words that is captivating.

The Movie:
I was curious to see if the movie adaptation ('Silk' circa 2007 starring Michael Pitt, Keira Knightley and Sei Ashina) was able to rise to Baricco's strength of story telling. It didn't. It didn't even come close. Talk about comparing apples to oranges. Was I actually watching the same story I had just finished reading???? Helene, quiet simply, is not the Helene of the book. Hervé has some potential. The only character that IMO did transfer from book to screen with some success, was Baldabiou.

The only advise I can offer is this: If you are going to see the movie, DON'T read the book first or else be prepared for a shallow and completely rewritten interpretation of Baricco's beautiful piece of work.

Overall, Loved the book, hate the movie.

Rating: 5 stars

Book #24 - The Kingdom of Ohio by Matthew Flaming
Category: What a Debut!
Alternative category: I Don't Remember THAT from History Class!

Matthew Flaming's debut novel, The Kingdom of Ohio was exactly the type of book that I was in the mood for this week. First off, this story reads as two stories. One story, set in our modern times, is told from the POV of an elderly man that one day comes across a photograph in his antiques store. This photograph is the catalyst for his attempt to put into words a story that he has tried to ignore for decades. His attempt to write this story is the second story, which is set predominantly in New York City in 1901. This story in a story focuses on two main characters: Peter Force - a young man in his early twenties that has recently arrived in New York City from Kellogg, Idaho and finds work as a laborer, then mechanic's assistant for the construction of New York City's subway system; and Cheri-Anne Toledo - a young woman with a mysterious past that Peter encounters on the streets of New York City. Cheri-Anne's story is a difficult one to swallow: she has traveled 7 years into the future from the Lost Kingdom of Ohio, where her father reigned as king over a frontier kingdom in, appropriately enough, Ohio. Understandably, Peter has some difficulty swallowing Cheri-Anne's story but he has a somewhat open mind and wants to help her try to return home, if he can.

Other predominant characters of this story in a story are the inventors Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, and of course, the famous financier, John Pierpont Morgan. They helped make the story, and the footnotes, such a fascinating treat for me to read. Flaming brought these historical characters to life in a way that was easy to visualize; their appearances and personalities, medical conditions, foibles, as well as the historically documented on-going adversarial relationship between Edison and Tesla over their inventive prowess. As for Peter and Cheri-Anne, their adventures through the streets of New York were fun to follow.

Part historical fiction, part mystery and peppered with footnotes of historical facts, I found it easy to fall into Peter and Cheri-Anne's world and obtain a refresher of some interesting pieces of history from the time period at the same time. The concept of time travel during the mechanical era when amazing advances in science and technology were occurring doesn't come across as some far fetched delusional dream and I think that is what makes this story work.

Rating: 4 stars

Book #25 - Mathilda Savitch by Victor Lodato
Category: Out of the Mouths of Babes
Alternative category: What a Debut!

Mathilda Savitch is an engaging debut novel by Victor Lodato. The protagonist is Mathilda, a young girl in her early teens trying to make sense of, and cope with, the sudden violent death of her older sister Helene the previous year and her withdrawn, grief stricken parents. Described as having an 'artistic temperament', Mathilda decides that it is time her parents stop going through life like zombies and makes it her mission to snap them awake and find out why her sister died. In the process, we follow Mathilda as she tries to exert control over her environment: disruptive behavior, pulling hairs from her head to control errant thoughts, building a bomb shelter in her basement, and hacking into her dead sister's email account to try and make sense of her sister's death.

Told through the voice of Mathilda, the story manages to ricochet through a myriad of topics beyond the usual adolescent issues. Mathilda provides her candid, unfiltered and refreshingly unique insights on everything around her, including the war on terror, religion, dream interpretation and my personal favorite, the concept of infinity.

At times hilarious, the story contains a lot of thought provoking clarity around guilt, grief and a child's fear of a world that is unpredictable, unreliable and downright irrational. Mathilda's determination to face situations head on, even as she admits she is scared and has her doubts that she is doing the right thing, makes her such a lovable character.

A great page turner that I highly recommend.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Great review of Ministry of pain! I need to check that out for my Europe Endless challenge for sure. Have very few titles decided when it comes to the Balkans so far.

Book #26 - 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Category: They Made a Movie out of That?

What can I say.... this is a classic that resonates with heart felt emotions, feelings and passion. I am guilty of not having read the book before now.

The Book:
I love books written in the epistolary fashion. What starts out as a simple inquiry in response to an advertisement in the Saturday Review of Literature turns into a long term camaraderie between book lovers Helene Hanff and Frank Doel. The fact that the letters that kept crossing the Atlantic Ocean were composed by real individuals, with their thoughts and feelings conveying a snapshot in time - okay a snapshot that starts on October 5, 1949 and ends 20 years later in 1969 - is beautiful.

And as an aside, I would just like to say that it is impressive that back in 1950 it only took 5 days for a letter to travel between London and New York. ;-)

The Movie:
I curled up this evening and watched the movie (circa 1987 starring Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins) and loved it! It really made the letters come to life in a meaningful way.

I loved both the book and the movie. Reading the book first just made me appreciate the finer details added to the movie.

Rating: 5 stars.

Great review. 84 Charing Cross Road just moved higher up my wishlist!

Wow! I had no idea it was a movie. I will have to look for that one as I loved the book.

The movie looks good too . . . here's the trailer from YouTube . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs01gT67upE

off to see if either of my libraries has this DVD.

I really like the way your handling your Made into Movies category. I'm not sure that I could watch the movie right after reading the book though. I think I would need a little separation between the two to avoid any confusion.

I'm actually think of adding that as a category next year. It's a great idea and I think I have a couple of books in my TBR pile that would fit right in.

Nickelini: Loved the YouTube trailer, and yes, the movie is good!

AHS-Wolfy: That may be part of the reason that I hated the movie Silk so much. In my mind Helene was supposed to be a silent, mysterious woman of stunning beauty with flowing raven locks - NOT the giggling insipid woman that Keira Knightley portrayed. Oh, I still cringe thinking about it. I guess it really comes down to how much artistic license you are willing to accept in the movie adaptation. Little tweaks or omissions sometimes intrigue me.

dudes22: I am overwhelmed at the choices available for the Made into Movies category and will probably keep the category for next year.

March Recap
Well, I finished 9 books during the month of March and managed to find some new authors to follow at the same time. Total # of books read for the first quarter is 26 so if I keep this reading pace going I should be able to complete the challenge by the end of the year as planned. I seem to be avoiding my Victorian murder mystery category – maybe I need the stormy weather of autumn to get me in the mood! ;-) I also need to pick up the pace on the Prize winners category so I think it is time to go browsing through The Prizes group here on LT for some suggestions.

Favorite book for the month: Silk with 5 stars
Favorite for the Challenge so far: Silk with 5 stars
Least Favorite book for the month: Can’tLit: Fearless Fiction from Broken Pencil Magazine with 3 stars
Least Favorite for the Challenge so far: The Perfect Circle with 3 stars

A Trans Canada Journey - 0 for the month - 3/10 completed

I Don't Remember THAT From History Class -0 for the month - 3/10 completed

This Will Just Take a Minute... or Two - 1 for the month - 2/10 completed
Can’tLit: Fearless Fiction from Broken Pencil Magazine edited by Richard Rosembaum

Follow Thy Author - 0 for the month - 2/10 completed

What a Debut! - 3 for the month - 5/10 completed
Deloume Road by Matthew Hooton
The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw
The Kingdom of Ohio by Matthew Flaming

They Made a Movie From That...? - 3 for the month - 3/10 completed
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Silk by Alessandro Baricco
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

Bloody Victoria England - 0 for the month - 1/10 completed

The Envelope Please... - 0 for the month - 1/10 completed

Lost in Translation - 1 for the month - 3/10 completed
The Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugrešić

Out of the Mouths of Babes - 1 for the month - 3/10 completed
Mathilda Savitch by Victor Lodato

Book #27 - Grace Hammer: A Novel of the Victorian Underworld by Sara Stockbridge
Category: I Don't Remember THAT From History Class!

The novel Grace Hammer is set in 1888 Whitechapel. Grace Hammer, a single mother of four children and a thief by profession, discovers that her distant past has come to haunt her in London and she races to protect her family from this threat.

Overall, I found this to be a cute historical romp. Yes, cute isn't the first descriptive term that comes to mind considering the book is billed as "a novel of the Victorian underworld', but cute it is. How else can you describe a story where the family makes a comfortable living picking pockets and minor thieving - so comfortable that when the youngest child Daisy want a new dress for the upcoming Bank Holiday, the family makes a day trip to the West End to purchase the new dress, purchases for the boys, including a cricket bat, and a visit to a tea house for a bit to eat? The Victorian underworld is still present - Jack the Ripper makes a few cameo appearances and the neighborhood is full of opportunists looking for their next cash flow, but I can see why they describe the book as being reminiscent of Dicken's Oliver Twist.

Do people get bludgeoned to death in the book? Yes. Chopped up into body parts? Yes. Is there skulduggery afoot? Yes. Is it cute? Yes. If you are looking for dirt, grit and the desperate clamorous struggle for survival in its raw form, this book is not for you.

Rating: 3 stars

Oops - Double post :-)

@102 :: Grace Hammer looks like fun! :) My TBR list is getting FAR too unwieldy.

Book #28 - The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches by Gaétan Soucy
Category: Lost in Translation
Alternative Category: A Trans Canada Journey

Soucy's slim novel, at a mere 138 pages, packs quite the suspenseful wallop. A finalist for France's Prix Renaudot and told in narrative form, the story is focused on two siblings that have been raised on an immense country estate completely isolated from the outside world by their authoritarian father. Any education they have received has either been gleamed from the pages of books, such as Spinoza ethics and fairy tales, or passed down through their father's neo-Biblical vocabulary and views. Life takes an interesting turn for the siblings at the start of the story when they wake up one morning to discover that their father has committed suicide and the narrator decides that they must go to the village for the first time in their lives to announce the death and obtain a coffin.

This 'first contact' with the outside world presents the reader to the start of what quickly becomes a growing series of startling revelations about the siblings, their family and how the universe as they know it is so divergent from that of the world outside of the confines of their crumbling family estate. The narrator, in an effort to try and make sense of the what is happening, writes down a testament of the events and it is this scrawling testament that draws the reader into its clutches as the suspense builds to a shocking crescendo.

All I can say beyond this is - Wow - and I am now on the hunt for more novels by Gaétan Soucy.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Great review! The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches is very high on my TBR pile because I've borrowed it. I didn't really know much about it, but now I'm really looking forward to it based on your recommendation! My sister-in-law handed it to me and said "this one is really strange" ....one of her university student sons had given it to her, so I thought it probably had potential. Can't wait!

Lori -- I didn't realize you live in Victoria! I'm pea green with envy! Lucky you! Not only is Victoria fabulous in uncountable ways, you have such a wonderful selection of bookstores! Vancouver just doesn't compare, in that regard.

I agree. I live in Vancouver, but do a lot of my book shopping when I visit my family in Victoria. And the little town of Sidney, just north of Victoria, has so many book stores it is like a book buyers' Mecca!

*blushing with embarrassment* - I admit to being spoiled for bookstores in Victoria and up the peninsula in Sidney. My Saturday routine usually involves visits to a number of them (Munro's on Government Street, Russell's on Fort Street, Chapters on Douglas and of course, Books on View - there is just something about going down a flight of stairs into the basement of a building to roam aisles and aisles of used books.) Oh, and the main branch of the public library is only a few blocks over on Broughton Street.

My favorite book event is the Times Colonist book sale. It is delayed this year until the middle of May (15 and 16th) but what an event! Line-ups to get in circle the block and even if you wait for the second day of the sale, there are still tonnes of great books to be had!

Is that used bookstore down the stairs called Books on View? I went there once and it was great! I've tried to tell other people about it but I didn't know the name or what street it's on, and I'm left struggling to describe where it is. Now I know. Thanks!

That's the one!

Book #29 - The Wet Nurse's Tale by Erica Eisdorfer
Category: I Don't Remember THAT From History Class!
Alternative category: What a Debut!

The Wet Nurse's Tale is an interesting Victorian period piece with a focus on a profession that was still employed in the Victorian era, even though some of the medical profession and the church were known to argue against it. The heroine of this story, young Susan Rose, comes from a working family background that was dependent upon work at the Great House to support the family. Susan finds herself with child out of wedlock, courtesy of the son of the local squire, and leaves service on the pretense that her mother is greatly ill and needs her at home. To support herself and her family, Susan takes up wet nursing, just as her mother had done while Susan was growing up. Susan is a plucky heroine who understands the importance of being aware of her surroundings as she moves from one wet nurse position to another and will do anything she can to be with and protect her own child when it is taken away from her.

Told predominantly from the POV of Susan, the story touches on a number of topics of the time period: High infant mortality rate, the shunning an unwed mother-to-be would receive from their own families, the social class system and local travel. Susan's determination in the face of numerous obstacles to be with her son helps carry the story.

Overall, an interesting story that provides a glimpse into the unique position that a wet nurse held in a household.

Rating: 3 stars

@105 Great review, that made me really curious. I gave it a thumbs up!

Thanks GingerbreadMan! I found the story to be a compelling read - I couldn't put it down. I have managed to track down some more works by Soucy and hope to tackle at least one of them later this month.

Book #30 - When We Get There by Shauna Seliy
Category: Out of the Mouths of Babes
Alternative category: What a Debut!

Lucas Lessar has a lot going on in his life. His mother has disappeared, leaving behind only a note that Lucas is not to try to find her. Lucas' father is dead, having been killed by an explosion in the King mine he worked in. Lucas' grandmother, 'Slats', is determined to keep an eye on him while Lucas' great grandfather is not doing well on the farm, health wise. Surrounded by his great Aunts and Uncles and the old world ways of his Eastern European heritage, Lucas is trying to make sense of his world in the mining town of Banning, Pennsylvania, which isn't always easy when you are only thirteen years old. If that isn't enough, Zoli, his mother's estranged and obsessive boyfriend, is determined that the family knows where Lucas' mother has gone, and stalks Lucas for the answer.

Set in the winter of 1974 and told from the POV of Lucas, the story ties together his search for his mother, his friendship with Walter, the son of the local Croatian club owner as well as memories of the stories Lucas has heard his family tell of life in the old country and the boom and then bust of the mining business of the surrounding area. At times, it is surprising to remember that Lucas is only thirteen as he tries to deal with the family problems. At other times, frustration at struggling to understand the events occurring around him surfaces in acts of confusion and anger.

I really enjoyed this story and was rather surprised how quickly I finished it.

Rating: 4 stars

>105 lkernagh: - Another one to add to the wishlist. Love your monthly summaries - maybe next year I'll do it that way.

#116: Thanks! By the way, I LOVE the Easter eggs in your profile picture..... reminds me of Easters spent with my Gran!

Book #31 - The Blackheath Poisonings by Julian Symons
Category: Bloody Victorian England

Set in 1890's Victorian England, this murder mystery focuses on a close knit family that resides in two truly unique homes just outside of London in Blackheath. The matriarch of the family, Harriet Collard, lives in Albert House with her daughter Charlotte and her nephew Bertie 'the Caterpillar'. Harriet's son George and his wife Isabel live a short distance away at Victoria Villa, along with George's sister Beatrice, her husband Roger and her stepson Paul. The family 'firm' runs a successful toy manufacturing business and the family is considered to be well off. The family has a peaceful routine of alternating locations for Sunday lunch. Their peaceful and uneventful routine of life is interrupted by the sudden death of one of the family members. The family doctor waves the death off as a result of gastric fever and life resumes, until months later a second death occurs and the police are brought in to investigate.

Overall, I felt this was a dry story. There were lots of details provided about the family, their interactions, speculations around the deaths and the inevitable court trial. For a murder mystery, it really wasn't that mysterious. As I am not a fan of police procedural or trial cases, I really had difficulty getting into this story.

Rating: 2.5 stars

Book #32 - The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi
Category: ... And the Envelop Please
Alternative category: Lost in Translation

What can I say about this book..... Hummm.... that is difficult. There is some much to be savoured and gleaned from this slim volume. Rahimi has written a compelling story that pushes some interesting boundaries. The main characters are husband and wife. The husband, a jihad fighter is in a coma caused by a bullet in his neck. His wife had been tending to his physical injuries and his spiritual wellness for the past 16 days. The story is focused on one room in a house located in a war-torn town/city in Afghanistan. The name of the town, and the names of the characters are left undisclosed, leaving the reader in a somewhat unsettling position as a voyeur to some very intimate confessions from the wife to the comatose husband.

Winner of the 2008 Le Prix Goncourt, I found this to be a very thought-provoking read and I am still at a loss to adequately convey my thoughts on this book beyond that I feel it is something that should be read to allow the reader to come to their own conclusions. The book has been reviewed quite well here on LT so I will let the reviews speak to the book beyond this post.

Rating: 4 stars

118 - I just found The Blackheath Poisonings on DVD at the library. I really enjoyed it. Part of the fun, I admit, was in seeing which faces I knew from other BBC mysteries. You may not like it, since you didn't really love the book, but I thought it was very good. His mysteries are a little more dry and restrained, but still very well done, IMO.

cmbohn - I must admit to having seen the movie a few years back and liked it, but the book seemed to spend too much time on the mundane, or at least that was my take-away at the end. Symons did create so very life-like Victorian characters and the detailed descriptions of Albert House and Victoria Villa - both very unique buildings! - was interesting to read, but rather difficult to visualize. I am trying to remember if the movie managed to capture that?

And you are so right about familiar faces that crop up in British movies - my boyfriend and I play the 'guess where we have seen them before' game whenever we watch a BBC or other British mystery. Quite fun!

Truth is - I have no idea how that picture of eggs got on my profile. I know I've been meaning to put a picture on since I joined (2 yrs ago), but I never did. Then one day there was a picture of a purple egg. I figured that LT put it there somehow. Then a little while ago, it changed to the egg picture you now see, and I liked it so I still haven't put my dog on here. One of these days, I'll get around to it. Meanwhile, I'm waiting to see if it changes again.

Wow - profile pictures that just appear. Now, THAT is a neat trick, even if the 'ghost in the machine' seems to have a preference for eggs! ;-0

Book #33 - Rasputin's Daughter by Robert Alexander
Category: Follow Thy Author
Alternative category: I Don't Remember THAT From History Class

This is book 2 in a three part Russian series written by Alexander. I loved his first book, The Kitchen Boy, which focused on the days in the lead up to the assassination of Tsar Nickolai II and his family, so I was looking forward to this one.

Rasputin's Daughter is told from the POV of Rasputin's oldest daughter, Maria, a girl of 18 years of age, while she is being interrogated by the Thirteenth Section, the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry for the Investigation of Illegal Acts by Ministers and Other Responsible Persons of the Tsarist Regime - now, is that a mouthful of a title or what ?!?! - that was established by the Provisional Government during the Bolshevik Revolution. The interrogation is taking place in April 1917, 4 months after the murder of the monk Rasputin. The Thirteenth Section has been tasked to investigate the activities of the Dark Forces. No, we haven't suddenly strayed into Star Wars - the Section is investigating the rumors swirling Russia regarding the extraordinary steps taken to kill Rasputin - the monk that was held in high esteem by the Tsarista and as such, had broad political influence and many enemies. Maria's story encompasses her view of the last 7 days of her father's life.

As with his first novel, Rasputin's Daughter is a suspense-filled story of political intrigue, plots, and conspiracies built upon historical facts. Maria is an interesting heroine of choice as she races through the streets and alleys of Petrograd trying to stay on top of the rumor mill she encounters to help her father. Surrounded by security guards that seem to disappear into the shadows at the most inopportune times, Maria quickly fears for her father's, and the family's safety.

The author maintains the suspense level throughout the novel and while it is an interesting fictitious account of Rasputin's last days, the story didn't have the depth or capture my attention to the level that The Kitchen Boy did. Overall, it was a good story and Alexander has proven his ability to write an intriguing historical suspense novel.

Rating: 3 stars

Book #34 - The Gathering by Anne Enright
Category: The Envelope Please

The Gathering is a story about the Hegarty family that has gathered in Dublin Ireland for the wake of their son/ brother, Liam. Liam's sister, Veronica, flies to England to retrieve Liam's body in Brighton, while her remaining eight siblings prepare to congregate in Dublin. Liam's death is the catalyst for Veronica's examination of the memories of events in the family's past as well as dissatisfaction with her own path through life.

As there are almost 100 reviews already posted here on LT, I won't bother to provide my own review. Suffice to say, I found the book scattered in its presentation of the story - jumping forwards and backwards in time with no rhyme or reason - and left me at the end with so many unresolved issues I came away baffled as to what the purpose of the story even was. The characters are not lovable, or even like- able. I am rather surprised that this actually won the Man Booker Prize - was 2007 a drought year for fiction? Maybe the book was just too dark and rambling for my tastes but I have noticed that the book has quite the range of ratings here on LT so I guess it is safe to say I am not the only one a little baffled by this one.

Rating: 2.5 stars

>125 lkernagh: The Gathering

I agree with you.

Book #35 - The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
Category: What a Debut!

The Rehearsal is a unique debut novel by Eleanor Catton. The main premise of the story is an all girls school is rocked by the discovery of a sex scandal within their hallowed halls: The music teacher has become inappropriately involved with one of his jazz band students. The school scrambles to deal with the situation by setting up counseling sessions for the girls and parents approach an outside saxophone teacher to find space in her calendar to tutor their daughters. The news of the scandal, which has swirled through the community, is picked up by the first year students at the local acting school as the basis for their school production.

Catton's approach in telling this story is an ambitious one. Told through multiple POV's the story unfolds through snippets of discussions between the various characters. Catton leave it up to the reader to piece these snippets together to bring the story into focus. Even time-lines are treated as a fluid variable, shifting randomly backwards and forwards in time. The reader is left guessing if a scene they are reading is part of the play the acting school is preparing or reality; if it is being told by actors or the real characters. At times this fluidity of narration and time made the book frustrating to read and I found myself jumping back to pages I had already read to see where I could stitch this new information into the fabric of the story. The writing style is sophisticated and captures the sexual awakening of teenagers with intelligence and refinement. The saxophone, under Catton's pen, has a sexual presence of its own and develops a personality beyond a mere prop or musical instrument. The characters are well developed.

Overall, I grew to enjoy this novel the further I got into it. There is a lot going on and I found that I was stopping frequently to sit back and analyze what I had just read. It is definitely not something that you can pick up and quickly read. Too much of the story is meshed in subtle innuendos and play on words.

This book may appeal to a reader that has an interest in acting as the story goes into some details about acting techniques. The saxophone teacher's vivid descriptions of the personalities of instruments and the people that gravitate to play these instruments may appeal to someone interested in jazz music or music in general.

Rating: 4 stars

Book #36 - The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Category: I Don't Remember THAT From History Class
Alternative categories: What a Debut! AND A Trans Canada Journey

For a change of pace I picked decided to venture back into historical/Canadiana fiction and found Buchanan's debut novel to be exactly what I was in the mood for.... which means it didn't take me long to read it! There are over 100 reviews already posted here on LT so I will just hit what I feel were the high points in this book.

Bess Heath is only seventeen when her family falls on financially hard times. In defiance of her family, Bess falls for Tom Cole, a riverman with a unique understanding of the natural environment. Tom does not offer money, social status or any of the securities a girl in 1915 would look for in a beau. This story follows their relationship with the powerful Niagara Falls as a backdrop. I liked the characters - yes, Bess makes some headstrong choices that don't appear, on reflection, to be the best courses of action, but she has the perseverance to see her decisions through. The story reminded me of all the tales of the stunters/daredevils that had pitted themselves against the raw power of the Niagara Falls, as if I was there watching the action unfold. The historical chase to harness this amazing natural power source is a well documented one and I found it interesting to read Buchanan's presentation of this corporate, political and personal battles to control or conquer the falls.

Overall, a great historical fiction.

Rating: 4 stars

April Recap
Well, I finished 9 books during the month of April, the same number I finished in March so I think I have hit my reading stride. Total # of books read so far is 36. I am happy that I managed to spread my reading out over my categories this month. A lot of my reading this year has been generated by the weekly new arrivals available at my local library. In order to finish the challenge I think I will have to try avoid viewing the weekly list which isn’t going to be easy considering it is posted every Saturday on the library website. ;-)

Favorite book for the month: The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches with 4.5 stars
Favorite for the Challenge so far: Silk with 5 stars
Least Favorite book for the month: A tie between The Gathering and The Blackheath Poisonings, both with 2.5 stars
Least Favorite for the Challenge so far: The Gathering and The Blackheath Poisonings, both with 2.5 stars

A Trans Canada Journey - 0 for the month - 3/10 completed

I Don't Remember THAT From History Class -3 for the month - 6/10 completed
Grace Hammer by Sara Stockbridge
The Wet Nurse’s Tale by Erica Eisdorfer
The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan

This Will Just Take a Minute... or Two - 0 for the month - 2/10 completed

Follow Thy Author - 1 for the month - 3/10 completed
Rasputin’s Daughter by Robert Alexander

What a Debut! - 1 for the month - 6/10 completed
The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton

They Made a Movie From That...? - 0 for the month - 3/10 completed

Bloody Victoria England - 1 for the month - 2/10 completed
The Blackheath Poisonings by Julian Symons

The Envelope Please... - 1 for the month - 2/10 completed
The Gathering by Anne Enright

Lost in Translation - 1 for the month - 4/10 completed
The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches by Gaétan Soucy

Out of the Mouths of Babes - 1 for the month - 4/10 completed
When we Get There by Shauna Seliy

edited to try and fix touchstones - no luck.

Book #37 - A Dog with No Tail by Hamdi Abu Golayyel
Category: Lost in Translation

I received this book through LT's Early Reviewer program. Overall, I enjoyed this one. Full review as posted is presented below:

Hamdi Abu Golyyel is considered one of the new authors that is helping to advance Egyptian literature into areas that have in the past been considered taboo topics, such as the day-to-day lives and hidden ills of society. This novel by Golyyel comes across as the rambling reminisces of his protagonist, a low income construction worker of Bedouin family background, with aspirations of becoming an author of some repute. Lazy aspirations they may be, but aspirations none the less. Each chapter touches on a different 'story' from the protagonist's memory of friends, family and experiences, almost as if the protagonist is trying to draw inspiration from his own past for his yet to be written novel.

The story as a whole has an interesting random, scatter gun approach to painting a picture of Egyptian life in Cairo and the outlying desert villages of Fayoum during the 70's, 80's and 90's. The portrait that the protagonist paints for the reader is of life at a cross-roads: Government intervention has put a stop to the nomadic lifestyle of the Bedouin people, parked them on a plot of land, and left them with the peasants to make the situation work. Golayyel, via his protagonist, presents a view of Cairo as a study of shady dealings, prostitution, drug use and, shall we say, 'enterprising' construction opportunities.

I enjoyed this book but found that my lack of knowledge of Egypt or government activities described in the book made it difficult for me to relate to the characters and events portrayed.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Book #38 - Ruby's Spoon by Anna Lawrence Pietroni
Category: Out of the Mouths of Babes
Alternative category: What a Debut!

Ruby's Spoon is a fable set in 1933 in the industrial Black Country of England in the town of Cradle Cross. When a stranger, Isa Fly, shows up in town looking for a long lost member of her family, 13 year old Ruby is determined to help Isa in her search. Add to the mix Oxford educated Truda, niece of the recently deceased Hector Blick, who was the owner of Blick's button factory and the main employer of the town folk in Cradle Cross. Truda is trying to understand and salvage the financially destitute factory she has inherited. Over the course of two weeks, Ruby finds herself involved in trying to help the two women that the town folk are rallying against. In return, Ruby hopes to have Isa take Ruby away from landlocked Cradle Cross to the seaside where Isa comes from.

Told from the point of view of Ruby, the story has all the interesting makings of a good fable - mermaids; witches; superstitious, gossipy town folk; individuals with mysterious pasts; disappearing items - but it really loses a lot in the delivery. The characters are rich and unique but the story itself gets bogged down in descriptive details that probably weren't necessary and created a stuttering reading experience for me with the town folk's speech characterized in an arcane, old world dialect that, even at the last page in the book, I still didn't have a solid handle on it for ease of reading. At 374 pages, this fable was, in my opinion, too long winded and could have done with some serious editing to par it down in length. That, and the ending left me unimpressed.

Rating: 2 stars

That's too bad about Ruby's Spoon, isn't it a shame that so many books seem to suffer from a lack of editing. Sounds like the author had a great story idea but suffered from someone not knowing how to rein her in a little.

Hi DeltaQueen - The main negative component of the book for me was the flipping in and out of the old world dialect. statements like "Yoom thick wi um, ay yo?" didn't make for an easy, flowing reading experience for me! The length had me groaning, "just tell me who's who, what's what and the identity of the missing relative for pete's sake" - anything to get me to the end of deciphering the conversations of the town folk.

I am confident my current book will be an enjoyable and interesting read - it's The Chief Factor's Daughter by Vanessa Winn.

I'll be looking forward to hearing about The Chief Factor's Daughter, I've got in on my list of books to order from the library.

Book #39 - The Chief Factor's Daughter by Vanessa Winn
Category: I Don't Remember THAT From History Class
Alternative categories: What a Debut! and A Trans Canada Journey

Contrary to the title I have assigned for my historical fiction category, I do remember the history events and people depicted in Winn's debut novel. Over the years that I have lived in Victoria - the location of this story - I have gravitated to books that are based on local history. Winn's novel did not disappoint. The time period of the story - 1858 to 1861 - is when the village of Victoria saw drastic population growth and development: Vancouver Island had been declared a British Colony less than 10 years previously and had recently elected their first House of Assembly, The discovery of gold in 1857 on the mainland had lead to the Fraser Gold Rush, and New Caledonia was proclaimed as the Colony of British Columbia on August, 1858.

Against this historical backdrop and with a writing style and story structure that reminded me of Georgette Heyer, Louisa May Alcott and Laura Ingalls Wilder, the story follows Margaret Work, her sisters and other prominent families of Fort Victoria as they attend parties, balls and assembly rooms hosted by British naval officers and royal engineers far removed from English society. Margaret, in her mid-20's and still unwed, wonders if she is facing a possible life of spinsterhood, but is more concerned at the societal changes that she witnesses occurring around her. Her mixed British-Metis heritage is suddenly a target of elitist snobbery even though her father, John Work, is the Chief Factor of the colony for the Hudson's Bay Company.

Winn has crafted a highly readable and enjoyable recreation of the people and events that have shaped Victoria and British Columbia's history. While having a detailed understanding of the people and events made me savor the book, it can be read on its own without understanding the history it depicts..... knowing the history, in my opinion, enhances the experience.

Rating: 4 stars

Your comparison to Georgette Heyer just convinced me to add The Chief Factor's Daughter to my TBR list!

Looking forward to The Chief Factor's Daughter, I didn't realize it was about Victoria. I come from southern Vancouver Island pioneer stock, so now I really want to read this book.

christina_reads: Just picture one of Heyer's novels set in a frontier setting, minus the sleek horse drawn carriages but still with a heroine that has some strong views and opinions while wanting to fit in with the expectations of society and you are set!

DeltaQueen - I have to admit I appreciated the amount of work that the author went to to capture the events with historical accuracy (and the assistance of BC Archives), including the influx of miners to Victoria courtesy of the Fraser Gold Rush, the ceremonial opening of 'The Birdcages' and of course, the Pig War of 1859. I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did!

Book #40 - Waiting for Columbus by Thomas Trofimuk
Category: A Trans Canada Journey

"We all need Columbus, he thinks. Columbus does not turn away from adventure. He dreams big and then chases those dreams. He sails, fearless or fearfully, into the unknown. He looks toward the horizon with curiosity and wonder. And Columbus loves ferociously."

The quote above is from this interesting novel by Edmonton, Alberta author Thomas Trofimuk. The premise of the story appears simple: Three members of the Spanish National Police Force deliver a patient in a straight jacket to the Sevilla Institute for the Mentally Ill. The only information that the staff at the institute have been provided with is that the patient is named Bolivar and that he had been found in the Strait of Gibraltar... not near it, in it. The patient believes that he is Christopher Columbus, the 15th century navigator, and over time decides to tell Nurse Consuela how he, Columbus, got his boats to make his historic trip to travel in search of a direct route to Japan. While Nurse Consuela searches for clues to the man's true identity in his tales of romance and adventure in the 15 century, a French Interpol officer is on the hunt for a missing person of interest.

I enjoyed this one. It has the suspense of a who dunnit with the intrigue of 15 century politics/religious interests mashed up in the present tense - Queen Isabella's security agents have cell phones and guns, one of Columbus's female interests waits for him in a Starbucks and Columbus appears to have a lack of any intuitive navigational skills. An interesting and intriguing missing person "Who are you?" case that should not be construed as a historical fiction, even if it does contain some elements of history.

Rating: 4 Stars

That sounds very interesting and I love the quote. I believe that almost every book has one line that speaks to a person. I even keep a journal of the lines I've found in books. (Since I'm not a journaling/diary person, it seemed a good use for a journal that I got). This one will be added to my wish list.

* running off to do that

Hi Betty - I agree. Every book does appear to have a quote somewhere within the confines of its covers that resonates with the reader. This one was a keeper!

Book #41 - The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
Category: Follow Thy Author

I was in the mood for a light comfort read and picked up this third book by Addison Allen. I had read and enjoyed her two previous books, Garden Spells and Sugar Queen, and this one did not disappoint. True to Addison Allen's style, this was a sweet, enchanting tale about 17 year old Emily and the quaint and unique town folk of Mullaby, North Carolina where Emily's mother was born and raised. While Emily's mother was alive, she never mentioned her childhood years so Emily is in for an eye opening experience when she arrives in town to live with her grandfather Vance while she finishes high school. Secrets and avoidance of the past abound in Mullaby and I couldn't help but find myself drawn into their world.

As I said, a great comfort read.

Rating: 4 Stars

My friend who got me into BM and LT just finished it also and enjoyed it. And I was thinking she'd be reserving it for me - alas - she read it on Kindle. Glad to know it's as good as the other two - I'll just have to be patient

In my opinion, Addison Allen is comfortably established with her writing style while maintaining the ability to come up with unique characters and creative stories. If you enjoyed the first two, I think you will like this one!

Book #42 - Translation is a Love Affair by Jacques Poulin
Category: Lost in Translation
Alternative Category: A Trans Canada Journey

Translation is a Love Affair is a slim novella by Quebec author Jacques Poulin. The story follows a Quebecois novelist and his young translator Marine whose comfortable work routines have become disrupted by the discovery of an S.O.S. message attached to the collar of a recently discovered stray cat. The two are an unlikely pair of detectives but their search for the writer of the note is only one aspect of this story. Marine, at times, examines her own family history and the dark memories that reside there. The story also delves into the intimate nature of translation and how a good translator will produce a translation that 'hug the curves' of the author's writing. As Marine states near the beginning of the story, "If there was a way to get close to someone in this life - of which I was not certain - it might be through translation." With a mini detective story as a backdrop I felt the story was really more about the importance and beauty of words and how they impact our lives.

As a personal observation, I have noticed a trend in my reading habits when it comes to contemporary French- Canadian novels: books that I have gravitated to and enjoyed have a common thread - almost all of them have been translated by the same individual, in this case Sheila Fischman. I had no idea who Jacques Poulin was when I had picked up this book, but I instantly recognized the translator. Maybe I should consider a "Follow Thy Translator" category...... just a thought.

Rating: 4 Stars

Now that would be a really interesting category. I haven't read enough translated books to identify who translates what but there are enough ideas floating around this site to make that a neat category for next year's challenge.

BTW, thanks for all the great ideas for Canadian literature. I am quite behind in that challenge and plan to make up some time this summer. :)

Thanks Danielle - not sure if searches by translator is something is even do-able to help compile reading choices for the category but I am considering it for next year's challenge!

Book #43 - The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith
Category: They Made a Movie From That ... ?

Ah, the interesting carefree, society driven Victorian era of the late 1800s. According to the preamble in the Penguin edition I read, the English comic novel The Diary of a Nobody originally appeared in Punch 1888-1889 and was published in book form for the first time in 1892.

The Book:
Written in epistolary fashion, the story is a diary chronicling the daily occurrences for the narrator Mr. Charles Pooter, his wife Carrie, his son Lupin and his close friends Gowing and Cummings. The satire comes into play as Mr. Pooter, a city clerk of lower middle class status, is portrayed as a very self conscious, self absorbed and bumbling individual with social aspirations. His attempts at humor, usually involving a weak play on words, provides the reader an insight into his self absorbing nature. Overall I found it to be an alright book and a fast read that was at times tedious.

The Movie
It was due to discovering that my local public library had recently acquired a copy of the movie adaptation of the book that I chose to read the book and watch the movie. The dramatization (circa 2007 starring Hugh Bonneville) was not quite what I was expecting after reading the story. The movie, in staying faithful the the diary approach of the original written work, presented this as a solo performance - the only actor being the one portraying Charles Pooter.

Suffice to say, I made it through the book with some enjoyment. The movie I turned off after 10 minutes as a rather boring monologue in comparison to livelier content of the book.

Rating: 3 Stars

Book #44 - My Little War by Louis Paul Boon
Category: Lost in Translation

My Little War (touchstones not working) is a slim novel that fictionalizes daily life in German occupied Belgium and the arrival of the Allied Forces during World War II. Each chapter reads as a separate entry of the people and events that occurred around the writer. Snippets of overheard conversations are tagged on at the end of chapters, giving the book a slightly voyeuristic quality to it. We learn of neighbors whose viewpoints on the war are as flighty and shifting as the breeze along with any political allegiances, others who are starving and steal coal to sell to survive and business that are selling supplies to the occupying Germans and profiting in the process. The story is written with an abrupt, in your face approach to story telling - as if the author is stating facts he expects the reader to accept. The writer makes no apologies for any discomfort his stories may bring to the reader while venting his outrage at these events and it was his sharp sarcastic tone that leaped from the pages and keep me reading.

This book was originally published in 1947. A second revised, expanded and 'toned down' version was then published in 1960. The notes provided by the translator states he chose the 1960 edition for this translation, even though he understands that the 1960 edition was viewed with criticism by some in Flanders as a compromise to Boon's youthful revolutionary principles. That makes me wish I was able to read the original 1947 text. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be an English translation of that text that I am aware of. I would be curious to compare the two, if and when the opportunity arises.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Book #45 - The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
Category: What a Debut!

Cyrus Ott is an American businessman with a dream: he wants to start an international English-language newspaper based in Rome, Italy to be sold around the world. With that goal in mind, he convinces two newspaper acquaintances of his that already reside in Rome to join him in this venture. They agree and the birth of the newspaper occurs in 1953.

The Imperfectionists is a loose amalgamation of stories spanning the 50 year life cycle (1953 - 2007) of the fictitious newspaper and the mixed bag of newspaper reporters, editors, executives and one truly dedicated reader that are the human machines that try to keep this business venture afloat. They are all damaged, flawed characters in their own unique ways. Some are lovable, some only likable with obvious weaknesses and some are just down right annoying, but annoying in a manner similar to being glued to an oncoming train wreck- you just know it is going to be bad but you can't avert your eyes from the scene unfolding before you.

I loved this book and couldn't put it down once I started reading it. The characters are fantastic, in all their jaded glory, and the historical chapters progress the reader through the time line of the life of the newspaper that lets the reader see how the newspaper evolved to it current form. If you like to root for the underdog and the downtrodden you may enjoy this novel about a group of individuals and how they face the circumstances of their lives.

This is one that I highly recommend.

Rating: 5 Stars

Book #46 - out of my mind by Sharon M. Draper
Category: Out of the Mouths of Babes

I loved this book. I give it a huge WOW! Draper provides a very unique heroine in Melody Brooks. Melody is an 11 year old girl. She has all the normal dreams, aspirations, and goals of all children. Considered by many to be mentally retarded, Melody is a brilliant, impatient fifth-grader with a photographic memory and cerebral palsy. Melody has to endure not only the barriers of physical mobility of her disability, abilities that so many people take for granted, she also faces the social barriers of her peers and others that see her physical disabilities as an indicator of mental disability. Melody cannot talk, she cannot convey to individuals around her what we take for granted as basic communications skills. Her mind cannot force her body to cooperate. Melody is tough and charitable. She faces the world head on - her only dream, if it could be fulfilled, would be to dance and talk.

Melody's life takes a huge leap forward when she discovers a technological device that will allow her to speak for the first time. The technology and the school's Whiz Kids quiz team tri-outs provide Melody with a glimpse into the struggles her school mates have in coming to terms with understanding Melody's disability and Melody's strengths.

Narrated by Melody, the reader really gets to see and feel life from Melody's point of view. This is an amazing coming of age story that I highly recommend. A truly stellar piece of work.

Rating: 5 stars

Book #47 - 31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan
Category: I Don't Remember THAT From History Class!
Alternative category: What a Debut!

This book had all the makings of a perfect fit for my Bloody Victorian England category, except for one thing: This murder mystery is set in New York City - the wrong side of the pond. ;-p

Set in 1857, this story is a fictionalized account of the atrocious murder of New York City dentist Harvey Burdell, found dead in his own home on the stormy winter morning of February 1st, 1857, with multiple stab wounds and his throat slit from ear to ear. A Coroner's inquest is quickly set up in the dentist's home at 31 Bond Street under the control of coroner Edward Connery. Burdell's live-in housekeeper, the young and recently widowed Emma Cunningham, is placed under house arrest as a murder suspect. The press, understandably, are all over this story and it quickly comes to the attention of criminal lawyer Henry Clinton, as well as the direct involvement of the District Attorney, Abraham Oakley Hall. The case becomes a sensationalized criminal trial in the spring of that same year.

The story, building upon actual newspaper accounts, follows Henry Clinton and his legal team as they create their case to defend Emma Cunningham. John, Brudell's errand boy and Emma appear to know more than they are letting on while the disappearance of Samuel, Burdell's African American carriage driver on the night of the murder, has both defense and prosecution trying to locate him.

I found this to be a great, exciting fast paced story with interesting glimpses into New York society as well as the criminal, political and financial power structure of this interesting period in New York's history in the lead up to the American Civil War. A great murder mystery that I recommend!

Rating: 4.5 Stars

@152 :: I saw 31 Bond Street in a bookstore recently and thought it looked interesting -- I'm glad to know it's good!

Hi christina_reads: This books comes across like a true Victorian murder mystery - a dead body (check), possible suspect (check), high society aspirations (check), nefarious back door business dealings (check), political and financial machinations (check) = a great murder mystery!

The characters and the story read as if they leaped solely from the creative mind of the author so I was happy to see that the author does go into some explanation at the end of the book about the real people and events that her story has been based upon, otherwise even I would have assumed the story had no basis in reality.

Your review caught my eye, and your checklist sealed the deal! This one goes on my wishlist immediately. Thanks.

@154 and 155 :: The checklist makes addition to the TBR list inevitable! :)

@156: - Let's see if the next post further adds to your TBR pile! ;-}

Book #48 - Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas
Category: Bloody Victorian England
Alternative category: What a Debut!

As I was in the mood for murder - as in murder mysteries - and 31 Bond Street had fueled that fire nicely I thought I would pick up a murder mystery that did fit my Victorian England category. Some Danger Involved, the debut murder mystery novel by Will Thomas was perfect, or at least pretty darn close.

Thomas Llewelyn is a man facing his last day. A recent Oxford student, Oxford ex-convict and by his own calculations 'unemployable', Llewelyn has decided that if he doesn't obtain employment that day, he will swan dive into the Thames and end it all. The live or die job that he is applying for is assistant to a prominent enquiry agent, a.k.a detective. As per the advertisement, some typing and shorthand required and some danger involved in the performance of duties. Luckily for both Llewelyn and readers alike, he passes the rather unusual interview process and secures the job as assistant to Cyrus Barker.

With 'on the job training' provided, Barker quickly involves his new assistant to help solve a murder - by crucifixion - of a Jewish immigrant and scholar, Louis Pokrzywa, in the Jewish ghetto of London. Told from the point of view of Llewelyn, the reader follows Llewelyn's educational learning curve - understandably steep at times - in his new work environment as assistant to a 19th century P.I., as well as the case at hand. As part of his employment package, Llewelyn is provided with room and board in the home of his employer where we get to meet a unique cast of characters - Barker's dry sarcastic Jewish butler Mac, the temperamental French chef Dummolard, a Chinese gardener and the ankle-biting territorial Pekinese watch dog Harm.

Racing through the streets of London with an enigma of a boss - there is more to Barker than meets the eye - to try and solve the murder and hopefully stop a potential pogrom in its tracks, this story was a great mix of Victorian England flavor, religious and historical background, excellent characters and unexpected twists and turns to the case to keep the reader, or at least kept me, guessing right to the very end.

And even better, this is the first in what is so far a five book series. My local library has book two - actually they have all five books - and I have already placed a hold on the next in the series to see what these new found favorite individuals can get up to next.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Some Danger Involved has been on my TBR list for a long time -- looks like I'll need to move it to the top!

I really liked Some Danger Involved, and I'm glad you enjoyed it too! I thought it was a great debut mystery. To Kingdom Come, the second in the series, was not as good, IMO. It's more of a political story than a straight mystery. But I liked it well enough that I want to find the 3rd in the series.

christina: Some Danger Involved is worth picking up to read. It is quite good!

cmbohn: Good to know about book #2. I have it - it was on the shelf at my local library - and will get around to it sometime soon. If the characters still have their interesting individualism, chemistry and the rather entertaining sarcastic wit, I will probably be okay with a more political angle to the story. I will report back on this thread my thoughts on book two, To Kingdom Come.

May Recap
Well, I finished 12 books during the month of May, up from previous months so I am still happily on track to finish this challenge by year end. I tried to read one book from each category and came up two categories short of that monthly goal. Total # of books read so far is 48. I am already anticipating having ‘extra’ books for some of the categories so I need to work on balancing the reading a little more. This month’s reading made it more challenging to choose my monthly and challenge to date winners and losers, with changes to all four:

Favorite book for the month: The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman with 5 stars
Favorite for the Challenge so far: The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman with 5 stars
Least Favorite book for the month: Ruby’s Spoon by Anna Lawrence Pietroni with 2 stars
Least Favorite for the Challenge so far: Ruby’s Spoon by Anna Lawrence Pietroni with 2 stars

A Trans Canada Journey - 1 for the month - 4/10 completed
Waiting for Columbus by Thomas Trofimuk

I Don't Remember THAT From History Class -2 for the month - 8/10 completed
The Chief Factor’s Daughter by Vanessa Winn
31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan

This Will Just Take a Minute... or Two - 0 for the month - 2/10 completed

Follow Thy Author - 1 for the month - 4/10 completed
The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

What a Debut! - 1 for the month - 7/10 completed
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

They Made a Movie From That...? - 1 for the month - 4/10 completed
The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith

Bloody Victoria England - 1 for the month - 3/10 completed
Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas

The Envelope Please... - 0 for the month -3/10 completed

Lost in Translation - 3 for the month - 7/10 completed
A Dog with No Tail by Hamdi Abu Golayydel
Translation is a Love Affair by Jacques Poulin
My Little War by Louis Paul Boon

Out of the Mouths of Babes - 2 for the month - 6/10 completed
Ruby’s Spoon by Anna Lawrence Pietroni
out of my mind by Sharon M. Draper

edited to fix my basic addition error - 12 books read, not 11! ;-p

Book #49 - The Doctor and the Diva by Adrienne McDonnell
Category: I Don't Remember THAT From History Class?
Alternative category: What a Debut!

This book is one I received through LT's ER program.

This book has a subtle elegance to it. The story, covering an 11 year time period from 1903 to 1914, follows the lives of two main characters: Erika Myrick, a woman from a prominent Boston medical family with career ambitions of becoming a renowned mezzo-soprano opera singer, and Doctor Ravell, a younger Harvard-educated obstetrician. Erika and her husband Peter approach Doctor Ravell, through Erika's family connections, in the hope that Ravell may be the doctor that will help them conceive a child. In the process, Ravell and Erika each come to face difficult choices for their careers and their futures.

Fertility treatment specialist isn't a term that was widely used over 100 years ago, even though amazing medical breakthroughs in this field pre-date the start of the 20th century so I found the substance of the medical background in the story quite fascinating to read. The story vividly captures Boston society, the cosmopolitan nature of Italy and the lush plantation life of Trinidad of the time period. Unfortunately, I found the characters rather two-dimensional and essentially wooden in their emotional delivery, which made the story drag at times.

The story may appeal to individuals that enjoy stories with operatic backgrounds or involve historical travels to exotic places.

Overall, not bad for a debut novel.

Rating: 3 Stars

Regarding your recap - it's interesting that your best book and your worst book were both last month.

I would like to say that it is all about balance but that would be incorrect. Ironically, I thought I would love Ruby's Spoon when I picked it up and was only moderately intrigued with The Imperfectionists - Boy, was I wrong with my initial assessments for those two books! We will have to see what this month brings as surprises for me.

Book #50 - Cool Water by Dianne Warren
Category: A Trans Canada Journey
Alternative category: What a Debut1

Saskatchewan author Dianne Warren's debut novel is a captivating story set in and around the fictitious prairie township of Juliet, Saskatchewan. The story starts out in what I guess to be the early 1900's where a 100 mile horse race between two ranch cowboys occurs on a dry, hot August day. The tale of the horse race 100 years previously merely sets the background for what is to follow.

Told through a series of connected stories and divided into 8 parts, the book follows the lives of a handful of local residents over the course of one hot, dry ordinary 24 hour period - from midnight to midnight. The reader is invited to see inside the complicated lives of the characters of Warren's creation: the young farmer Lee Torgeson, raised as a foundling and now left to manage the farm on his own; the drive in theatre owner Willard Shoenfeld and his quiet sister-in-law Miriam; farmers Blaine and Vicki Dolson and their six children struggling to make ends meet with a farm buried in debt, bank manger Norval Birch and his wife Lila who are not seeing eye to eye on the planning of their pregnant daughter's wedding; and farmer Hank Trass, who's helpful neighborly ways cause his cafe owner wife Lynn to have bouts of jealousy.

Warren bounces from character to character at the start of the book with each new chapter introducing the reader to the group and then revisits the characters in a similar fashion over the course of the 24 hour period, allowing the reader to get inside the characters as they grapple with issues, indecision, worry and reflection. The characters are so richly crafted they leap off the pages of the book, almost as if they are shouting "Hey, look at me, I want to tell you something." Warren's prose and writing style is in keeping with the setting for this story - a slow, even manner in tune with the dry, hot prairie weather where cloudless skies go on for miles and time has its own pace.

I loved this story and was sad when I reached the last page and knew that my visit with the residents of Juliet was over. This is a book I highly recommend!

Rating: 5 Stars

Cool Water sounds interesting, especially since my husband is from Saskatchewan and we have spent a fair bit of time visiting relatives there and hearing stories about life in rural, small town, Saskatchewan. I'll have to hunt this one down.

Book #51 - The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys
Category: Follow Thy Author
Alternative Categories: A Trans Canada Journey, I Don't Remember THAT From History Class and This Will Just Take a Minute... or Two

The Frozen Thames is a compilation of 40 vignettes based on events that actually took place each time that the river froze between 1142 to 1895. I loved Coventry when I read it last year so I was happy to see another book by Helen Humphreys mentioned recently here on LT. This makes it the second book by the author that I loved!

Each short story - vignettes as the book refers to them - are only 3-4 pages in length, easy to read when you have a spare moment. The first story, when the river froze in 1142, tells of Queen Matilda's escape from the Oxford castle she was barricaded in against the forces of her cousin Stephen by walking across the frozen Thames in the middle of the night. Each story is told from the POV of one individual, be it royalty, as in Matilda's story, clergy, shop keepers, journeymen, artists or the common citizen. The river freezing is viewed as an unusual phenomenon that give our story tellers pause for thought and contemplation, even if engaged in ice festivities. The frozen Thames is treated as a unique oddity, an oddity that defies logic and shows the true force of nature - in both the freezing and the thawing of the river.

As I said, I loved this book. The stories provide the reader with an interesting journey through England's political, religious, epidemic (i.e., the Black Plague, etc) and commercial history. It was fascinating to learn that the historical design of old London Bridge, with its multiple mini arches and breakwaters acted like a dam to slow the water above the bridge, most likely contributed to the freezing of the Thames.

Humphreys' descriptive prose conveys the cold the inhabitants of London felt during those frozen times and would have managed to chill me as well had I not been sitting on a hot, sunny patio at the time. A great book I would recommend.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

@168 :: Ooh, that looks really interesting! The title probably wouldn't have caught my eye, except that I read Sharon Kay Penman's When Christ and His Saints Slept earlier this year, which also narrates Empress Matilda's escape across the frozen Thames! I'll be interested to see a different fictional take on the story!

Christina - The Frozen Thames isn't a book that would have caught my eye on a bookshelf either. I should warn you, the Matilda story is only 6 pages in length. The book then jumps to the next date the Thames froze over - in 1205. The stories read almost like a photographic snapshot, which would explain why they are referred to as vignettes on the fly cover. Still a surprisingly good read!

Book #52 - To Kingdom Come by Will Thomas
Category: Follow Thy Author
Alternative category: I Don't Remember THAT from History Class

To Kingdom Come is book 2 in the Barker and Llewelyn mystery series set in Victorian England. Book two finds the enquiry agent Barker and his assistant Llewelyn volunteering their services to infiltrate a secret cell of Irish dissidents by posing as a reclusive German bomb maker and his apprentice after the Special Irish Branch of Scotland Yard in bombed.

This book was more of an espionage novel than a mystery, but one I still enjoyed immensely. The characters, holdovers from the first book, still have their individual charms. Victorian England is vividly portrayed, including the infighting between the different branches of government - Scotland Yard, the Special Irish Branch and the Home Office - as well as some interesting research into bomb making of the era and a visit to the seedy Seven Dials district of London.

Overall, an enjoyable story.

Rating: 4 Stars

Glad you liked To Kingdom Come. As I think I said, I enjoyed it too, but not nearly as much as the first. I'm not crazy about spy thrillers, modern or historical, and I sort of figured out 'whodunnit' pretty early. But I still like the characters, so I'm glad I read it.

cmbohn - I think what makes this series so enjoyable for me is the narrator. You can't help but feel for Llewelyn and the scrapes he gets into while learning the ropes of an enquiry agent, trying to understand his enigmatic boss and the occasional internal questioning he enter into when analyzing his current chosen career path. I keep reminding myself that he is really only 3 months into the job by the end of book 2! I am looking forward to book 3.

>168 lkernagh:

Frozen Thames sound wonderful. I've added it to my WL.

Have you read Down the Common: A Year in the Life of a Medieval Woman? I thought of it because it's a somewhat similar style, although told from the viewpoint of only one character. Each month, one of her days is described from waking to bedtime.

Hi auntmarge64 - No, I haven't read Ann Baer's book but the premise intrigues me - and I happen to LOVE historical fictions! Happily, my local library has a copy available and I have placed a hold. Thanks for the suggestion!

Book #53 - Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa
Category: Follow Thy Author
Alternative category: Lost in Translation

I read Ogawa's The Housekeeper and the Professor last year and fell in love with the prose and the story so I was happy to come across Hotel Iris, recently published in English 14 years after it's original publication date. Ogawa continues to impress me with her exquisite, sparse prose that falls from the pages like transparent cherry blossom petals.

That is where the similarities between The Housekeeper and Hotel Iris end. Hotel Iris has a dark, disturbing undertone to the story that may make this a difficult story for some individuals to read. Taking place at an unnamed seaside resort town on the coast of Japan over the course of one fateful summer, 17 year old Mari develops a sexual relationship with a much older man that lives in the area. This man, a free-lance Russian translator by profession, exhibits some disturbing shifts in behavior, from mild mannered and polite, to demanding, controlling and abusive. Mari's attraction to the abusive side of the translator's personality is a juxtaposition to what one would expect and is at odds with the beautiful words used by Ogawa to communicate this story.

As I said, this story will probably not appeal to a broad audience of readers given what can be characterized as a rather disturbing topic, but I feel that it is a well crafted presentation of the violent side of human attraction and intimacy.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Book #54 - Landscape with Dog and Other Stories by Ersi Sotiropoulos
Category: This Will Just Take a Minute... or Two
Alternative category: Lost in Translation

Not sure what to say about this collection of stories. The prose is beautiful, the characters unique, the settings, in Greece and Italy are varied but overall, the stories didn't grab me. Some character names or minor details are repeated in different stories which left me wondering if they were meant to be recognized as such or not. Ersi Sotiropoulos is considered to be one of Greece's well loved writers. She does a good job of conveying characters in conflict - be it siblings, spouses, other family members or neighbors - and facing their own demons, but overall, I felt that the stories didn't resonate with me and left me feeling rather flat and at times slightly confused as to what I had just read.

Rating: 3 Stars

Book #55 - Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
Category: The Envelope Please

Mister Pip is a fictionalized account of the uprising that occurred on the island of Bougainville, part of Papua New Guinea, back in the 1990's. Told through the voice of the young teenager, Mathilda, we learn that Mathilda lives with her mom and neighbors in a small seaside village on Bougainville, during the blockade when the island is caught in a bitter civil war between the 'rambos" - the rebel fighters - and the 'redskins' that comprised the Bougainville Revolutionary Army. Among the villagers left behind was one white man, Mr. Watts, known by the locals as Pop Eye. As the villagers try to maintain a normal life will the fighting between the rambos and the redskins goes on around them, Mr. Watts re-opens the school and reads to the children a story they have never heard before, Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. With war surrounding them, the children find both refuge and friendship in the adventures of Pip and 19th century London, England, until the war lands square on their doorsteps with devastating results.

Yes, I do love Dickens' Great Expectations but I think this story goes deeper than an appreciation for one of Dickens' works. The story is about the power of imagination and how it can help shelter, grow and protect an individual, even though some will use it as a weapon against you when they don't understand it. I think the following quote from the book sums it up better than I can:

' His survival weapon was story. And once, a long time ago and during very difficult circumstances, my Mr. Dickens had taught every one of us kids that our voice was special, and we should remember this whenever we used it, and remember that whatever else happened to us in our lives our voice could never be taken away from us.'

Winner of the 2007 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book and shortlisted for the 2007 Booker Prize, this is a book I am glad I stumbled across and one I will read again.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Book #56 - The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry
Category: Bloody Victorian England

The main character in this story is Charlotte Ellison, a young woman from a respectable family living in a respectable part of London with her parents, paternal grandmother, her two sisters and her brother-in-law. Charlotte's days are filled with the normal pursuits of Victorian women of some financial standing: painting, needlework, paying social calls and helping her mother and sisters with charity works in the parish.

What starts out as idle gossiping about the recent deaths of first a local girl and then a servant from a neighboring household, changes into real concern when the Ellison family maid Lily goes missing one evening. The police are notified of the missing maid, who is later found in the streets, dead. With three deaths in the area, Inspector Thomas Pitt searches for clues to link the deaths and questions family members and neighbors. As the body count continues to rise, so do the suspicions that the murder is someone they know, and not some stranger in their midst. Suffice to say, wives start suspecting husbands, neighbors start suspecting neighbors and the women are advised to always have an escort when they leave home, even during daylight hours.

The Cater Street Hangman is the first book in what appears to be a long running Victorian murder mystery series (currently 26 books in the series according to fantasticfiction website) featuring Charlotte and Thomas Pitt. This first book introduces the reader, and the characters, to one another. While I found the murder mystery plot of the book to be quite good, I felt that Thomas Pitt's character development was lacking here. Charlotte is portrayed a strong, intelligent woman that believes in voicing her thoughts even if those thoughts run counter to social norms, and I would have preferred a more balanced approach in the introduction and development of both characters. I will be curious to see if book two in the series, Callander Square, picks up exactly where book one finished off.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Book #57 - The Club of Angels by Luis Fernando Verissimo
Category: Lost in Translation.

I really enjoyed this unusual little book. The story is narrated by Daniel, one of 10 members of the Beef Stew Club, an elitist gourmand club created by a group of childhood friends from Brazil's wealthy, uppercrust families. After 20 years of monthly gatherings to feast on gastronomic delights, and two years after the death of the club's chef and spiritual leader Ramos from AIDS, the club is on the brink of disbanding. In a wine shop, Daniel encounters Lucido, a cook with a mysterious, taciturn manner, who offers to recreate the member's favorite dishes, to give them a gastronomic thrill like no other. What follows from this offer is a tale of bewilderment and death as a member of the Beef Stew Club dies at the end of each monthly feast Lucido creates.

This intriguing book is more like a murder mystery told in reverse and a morbid satire of the sins of gluttony. There is no mystery as to who the murderer is. Our narrator covers that piece of information off quite nicely within the first three pages of the book. It is the whys behind the murders that makes this story such a fascinating read, along with the outrageous characters and dialogue.

Overall, quite a good tale from a 'new to me' author!

Rating: 4 Stars

The Club of Angels sounds like something I might like so I'll have to keep an eye out for that one. Thanks for your review.

Btw, the touchstone in your post is pointing to quite a different book.

AHS-Wolfy: Thanks for mentioning the touchstone error. Go in to correct an error in the posting and the touchstones develop a mind of there own ;-P

As for Luis Fernando Verissimo's works, he has written another book I am on the hunt to try and track down as my local library doesn't carry it - Borges and the Eternal Orangutans - it is also billed as a literary detective thriller and the premise sounds interesting!

# 9 -- If you read Mrs. Dalloway (which I didn't know was made into a movie) you should also read The Hours by Michael Cunningham (which was also made into a movie--but I haven't actually seen it). I read it in University and my memory is foggy, but The Hours was definitely inspired by and connected to Mrs. Dalloway.

Hi thinkcarrot - The Hours is one of the books I look forward to reading. I have heard great things about it!

Book #58 - Eden Springs by Laura Kasischke
Category: I Don't Remember THAT From History Class

I can across Laura Kasischke's novel, Eden Springs while surfing my public library's new arrivals listing. The premise of this thin novella (a mere 144 pages) intrigued me. The story builds on historical facts about the House of David religious community founded in Benton Harbour, Michigan in 1903 by the roving charismatic preacher Benjamin Purnell and his wife Mary. The religious commune, which attracted members from as far away as Australia, required its members to refrain from sex, haircuts, shaving and the eating of meat in preparation for their entry into Paradise and eternal youth. The House of David operated a huge orchard and ran the successful "Springs of Eden Park" vacation spot with attractions such as a zoo, aviary, beer garden, live bands and a miniature train. The commune ran into difficulties in the 1920's when newspapers, including the Detroit Free Press, started running articles attacking Benjamin Purnell of public immorality. This story focuses on that time period when, in April 1923, a suspicious death occurred at the colony, a death that "King Benjamin" and his assistant—former teacher turned lover Cora Moon—try to cover it up.

I enjoyed the story and the manner in which it is presented, like a scrapbook compilation of pictures, newspaper quotes, snippets from court proceedings, and interspersed with flashbacks and first person narratives of various female members of the commune. The narratives are written in a sleepy, enchanting prose as if the story tellers are daydreaming, lost in a world of their musings and reflective thoughts. Even with this relaxed air, surrounded by picturesque scenery, Kasischke still manages to convey the eerie nature of the story, a commune where the founder's lechery is in direct contradiction to commune's founding principles. The fact that I knew nothing about The House of David and its history when I started reading this book did nothing to detract the interest the story held for me.

Rating: 4 Stars

I have now finished one of my Challenge categories - only 9 more to finish..... I am going to allow for overflows in the categories just so that I can keep track of the majority of my reading this year under one group.

June Recap
I am currently in a reading slump – having picked up and discarded three books in quick succession – so I won’t be finishing any more books this month. I finished 10 books during the month of June and managed to complete one of my categories! Total # of books read so far is 58. I am busy hunting for books that I will read for the Reading through Time group that will also fit in with this challenge.

Favorite book for the month: Cool Water by Dianne Warren with 5 stars
Favorite for the Challenge so far: The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman with 5 stars
Least Favorite book for the month: Landscape with Dog and Other Stories by Ersi Sotiropoulos with 3 stars
Least Favorite for the Challenge so far: Ruby’s Spoon by Anna Lawrence Pietroni with 2 stars

A Trans Canada Journey - 1 for the month - 5/10 completed
Cool Water by Dianne Warren

I Don't Remember THAT From History Class -2 for the month – 10/10 completed - Category FINISHED!
The Doctor and the Diva by Adrienne McDonnell
Eden Springs by Laura Kasischke

This Will Just Take a Minute... or Two - 1 for the month - 3/10 completed
Landscape with Dog and Other Stories by Ersi Sotiropoulos

Follow Thy Author - 3 for the month - 7/10 completed
The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys
To Kingdom Come by Will Thomas
Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa

What a Debut! - 0 for the month - 7/10 completed

They Made a Movie From That...? - 0 for the month - 4/10 completed

Bloody Victoria England - 1 for the month - 4/10 completed
The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry

The Envelope Please... - 1 for the month -4/10 completed
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

Lost in Translation - 1 for the month - 8/10 completed
The Club of Angels by Luís Fernando Verissimo

Out of the Mouths of Babes - 0 for the month - 6/10 completed

I decided that this thread was getting long and the 6-month mark for this challenge seemed as good a place as any to start a new thread, which can be found over here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/93994#2057741