Women Talking, by Miriam Toews. Pub 2018 I was interested in this book after learning about the movie version from 2022 that won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay. The premise I’d heard was that a group of women in a Mennonite community who are usually mostly silent have some special circumstance to gather and... Continue Reading →
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, by Dorothy L. Sayers. Book report #3 (2024)
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, by Dorothy L. Sayers. Pub 1928 Another enjoyable mystery with Lord Peter Wimsey. This time, an elderly gentleman makes real the saying that London’s men’s clubs are so stodgy that a member could die and no one would notice. The sleuthing is conducting with Wimsey’s usual whimsy, with old... Continue Reading →
Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel. Pub 2014
Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel. Pub 2014 I chose this book based on a recommendation in the acknowledgements of a book I read last year (The End of Men)*. It was interesting to read a second post-apocalyptic book so close after the previous one (Moon of the Turning Leaves), especially one set in... Continue Reading →
Moon of the Turning Leaves, by Waubgeshig Rice. Book report #1 (2024)
Moon of the Turning Leaves, by Waubgeshig Rice. Pub 2023 This book is a sequel to Moon of the Crusted Snow, a book club read in 2020. In the earlier story, an unknown apocalypse event has occurred, cutting off power and communication to a small First Nations community (the "Rez") in Northern Ontario, forcing the survivors... Continue Reading →
The Man Who Died Twice, and The Bullet That Missed, by Richard Osman. Book reports extra #3 and #4 (2023)
The Man Who Died Twice, by Richard Osman. Pub 2021 The Bullet That Missed, by Richard Osman. Pub 2022 More from the Thursday Murder Club (and my fellow book-clubber – thank you!). These next two books in the series bring us back to the septuagenarians of Coopers Chase and their penchant for murder investigation. Their... Continue Reading →
The Schooldays of Jesus, by JM Coetzee. Book report extra #2 (2023)
The Schooldays of Jesus, by JM Coetzee. Pub 2016 This is the second part of a trilogy by Coetzee. In the first book, we meet Simón, Inés, and David, an unusual family in a strange world. The precocious and strong-willed David is beloved and indulged by his “parents”, and causes difficulties at school, leading to... Continue Reading →
Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell. Book report extra #1 (2023)
Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell. Pub 2004 I have been wanting to read this book for years, but have always been daunted by its length and alleged complexity (as per the movie version). After reading The Bone Clocks earlier this year, I was moved to try again. It’s a difficult novel to summarize. It is... Continue Reading →
2023 Reading Challenge – summary
A big year this year - 40 books. As in the past, book selections later in the year had to be more strategic to get through all the categories, which led to some interesting choices. I’m looking forward to a fresh slate for 2024. Here's the final book list for 2023: 1 - Book with... Continue Reading →
Consolations of the Forest, by Sylvain Tesson. Book report #40 (2023)
Consolations of the Forest, by Sylvain Tesson. Trans. By Linda Coverdale. Pub 2010, translation in 2013. I sought out this book as the basis of a film we watched last year, Dans les forêts de Sibérie. The books is actually quite different, which was good as the film, promoted as being about a man living alone... Continue Reading →
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, by John Koenig. Book report #39 (2023)
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, by John Koenig. Pub 2021 This has lingered on my shelves for a while now, something I started and stopped a few times. After the disastrous previous read about language, I decided to try again to make this one my language category. We use foreign words in English to name... Continue Reading →
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