I've owned this book for several years, and thought that I had previously read it. I recall (now) reading at least part of the first chapter, as I remembered the elements of the modern history of mortgages, credit cards, and government loans. However, I realized very quickly that I had stopped reading at about page... Continue Reading →
Women Talking, by Miriam Toews. Book report #4 (2024)
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 →
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. 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 to pack-up and move further north into the bush. This... Continue Reading →
The Adversary, by Michael Crummey. Pub 2023
Michael Crummey is a favourite author. I've read almost all his novels and short stories, and a few books of poetry, too. I heard about this book coming out, and while I'd normally wait till Christmas or for a paperback version, I also saw that Crummey was going to be part of the 2023 Vancouver Writers... Continue Reading →
The Wayfinders, by Wade Davis. Pub 2009
I've had this book for many years, likely from not long after it was published. I recall reading a few previous books in the series - especially Payback (Margaret Atwood) and A Short History of Progress (Ronald Wright) - and purchasing this one when it came out. After starting it, I think I ran out of steam for... Continue Reading →
Pandexicon, by Wayne Grady. Pub 2023
I don't recall where I first heard of this book, but I know it was in the last month or so, likely on a podcast of some kind. Needing a book to fill the language category, this seemed like a timely fit, and promised (according to the cover) to describe "how the language of the... Continue Reading →
All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days, by Rebecca Donner. Pub 2021
I can't remember when or where I first heard of this book, but it would have been last fall sometime, as I bought a copy for myself and sent a copy to a friend. Rebecca Donner is the great-great-niece of Mildred Harnack, an American woman who married a German economist and moved to Berlin in... Continue Reading →
Washington Black, by Edi Edugyan. Pub 2018
I've had this one on my shelves for a while now, and recall starting it at least once but getting distracted from it as it seemed to be going in a very bleak direction. But a few months ago, another reader friend mentioned having finished and enjoyed it, so up it rose in my own... Continue Reading →
Tauhou, by Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall. Pub 2023
This was an impulse purchase last month when picking up some other books. I've been encountering situations with Indigenous communities and relations more and more in my work, and so this book seemed like perhaps a timely way to engage with those, however obliquely. However, the author herself proscribes such engagement, saying in the afterword,... Continue Reading →
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