The Trade Mission by Andrew Pyper

I hate it when a book flummoxes me. I hate it when I feel outsmarted by a book, too. Andrew Pyper’s novel The Trade Mission is probably one of those books which deserves to be read twice: once for the story and once for the deeper philosophical issues that I knew were there, but which somehow eluded me. Mostly, anyway.

Jonathan Bates and Marcus Wallace are childhood friends who have become dot com millionaires for their invention of something called Hypothesys.

“We feel that Hypothesys is something that is truly going to change the way we conduct our lives,” explains Wallace to investors gathered in Brazil. “It’s not another Internet site…Hypothesys helps you make the best decisions of your life.”

Ironically, when it comes to making moral decisions with real consequences, Wallace and Bates are left to their own devices. While playing tourist on the Rio Negro, deep in the Amazonian jungle, they (and their companions Elizabeth Crossman, their interpreter; Barry, their managing partner and Lydia, their European counsel) are kidnapped by pirates. What follows is a strange combination of violence and soul searching.

The Trade Mission is narrated by Crossman and she’s in a unique position; as the only one of the party able to speak the language she can embellish or omit.  She also seems to love and hate Wallace in equal measure.  Truthfully, he isn’t particularly sympathetic. His relationship with Bates is eerily sexual and he often seems smug about his intellectual prowess. As for Crossman herself, she isn’t the most accessible of characters and I have to admit that her role, when the story finally starts to unravel, seems a bit of a cheat. The novel’s section After was too sentimental for me, especially coming after the horrors the characters experienced.

Pyper’s a terrific writer. I’m a fan. I liked his novel Lost Girls, which I read several years ago. But I remember feeling somehow unsatisfied after reading that novel, too.  The Trade Mission is billed as a ‘novel of psychological terror.’ Sure, some of it was squirm inducing, but it wasn’t a page-turner in that ‘oh my God, what’s gonna happen next’ way.

Thus the flummox. And the am I missing something. Still worth a read, though.

Author’s Site

Quill and Quire Review

Canadian Literature Review

The Art of Meaningful Living by Christopher F. Brown

When I worked at Indigo there was an entire section of the store devoted to Well Being. People looking for help with their relationships, sex lives, food addictions, spirituality, and just about everything else related to their personal lives could be found in this section. Perhaps by some weird fluke though, Christopher F. Brown’s new book The Art of Meaningful Living could have been found over in the Art section and, strangely, it would have been equally at home there, too.

The Art of Meaningful Living is a clever hybrid which marries self-help with art.  Brown offers practical advice on how to live a meaningful life and John Palmer contributes abstract art to the book which makes The Art of Meaningful Living a rare bird indeed: it’s the kind of book you’d actually leave on your coffee people for your friends to see.

Many of us reach a certain age and  start to wonder about our place in the world. I don’t mean to be morose, but let’s face it -  we don’t have infinite time on the planet.  More often than not we push that thought away, planning for an unforeseeable future. Eventually, though, life catches up and many of us need help reorienting our ’ship’, so to speak. Brown offers thoughtful and meaningful advice on how to chart your course and he does it without psychobabble. The book is divided into four sections: Wisdom, Action, Resilience and The Art of Meaningful Lives.  Brown asks us, first of all, to consider our lives and  acknowledge our cast -  that is the people who had a hand in bringing you to the place you are right now. He also encourages us to commit to change and assures us that the book will help the reader “learn to build wisdom, take action, develop resilience… manage your mind, cope with the world around you, define what is valuable to you, and move forward with the life you want.”

Palmer considers Brown’s advice and each page offers his colourful,  (and although I can’t claim to have any expertise in art at all) often very beautiful interpretations of the ideas.

Brown and Palmer began their collaboration after they had each lost a parent. They believe The Art of Meaningful Living “provide[s] hope to move past those dark moments.”

Perhaps it is fate, then, that this book came across my desk when it did. My father died of esophageal cancer as I was about half way through it. As a person who has always struggled to balance my creative instincts with the day-to-day slog, The Art of Meaningful Living gives me the tools to move past the grief I feel and on towards attaining a life worth living.

The Art of Meaningful Living

Facebook Page

Podcast Interview with Brown

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

My mother was a geriatric nurse for most of her career. When I was in my late teens I had a summer job working at the nursing home where she was head nurse. Many of the patients had dementia and I remember one lady in particular, Annie. She was sweet and over the summer we became friends…except she never remembered who I was from one day to the next.

Lisa Genova’s novel Still Alice is the story of Alice Howland, renowned Harvard professor, mother of three, happily married to John, also a Harvard prof. After seeing her doctor because she’s suffering from strange lapses in her memory, Alice is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. She is 50.

The novel traces Alice’s diagnosis and subsequent decline. At first she merely struggles to find words (and I don’t do this, but sometimes I start a story and totally forget what I was going to say!) but then her lapses in memory become more pronounced: she gets lost walking a familiar route, she forgets people who were introduced to her only moments before, she mistakes a mat on the floor for a black hole.

Still Alice isn’t literature. Okay, yes, it tells a story, but often times I felt like the author was trying to convey information. Alice says to her neurologist:

“You should also tell them about DASNI. It’s the Dementia Advocacy and Support Network International (247).”

There are several other instances of this sort of writing, places where I felt Genova had an agenda and she was writing to fulfill it. Somehow it lessens the emotional impact of the story because as a reader I was more interested in Alice and her life than I was in hearing about clinical trials.

I can only imagine that being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s is the worst torture imaginable. The disconnect between your life and the lives of the people you love would be beyond horrific. The thought of losing the ability to read (I can’t even imagine my life without books!), to watch a movie, to do simple tasks, to recognize the faces of my children and husband fills me with dread. Yet near the end of the novel, Alice still has the wherewithal to stand up in front of the delegates of a Dementia Care Conference and give an impassioned lecture about how, despite her symptoms, she is still a person worthy of note.

“Please don’t look at our scarlet A’s and write us off. Look us in the eye, talk directly to us. Don’t panic or take it personally if we make mistakes, because we will” (253).

The whole lecture seemed like  authorial commentary…and it didn’t work for me. Strangely, the part that I found most moving in the novel was when Alice attends the graduation of her last grad student, Dan. Even though we’ve seen very little of their relationship and hardly anything of Dan in the novel, his post-graduation moment with Alice is very touching.

People will love Still Alice. My feeling about it is that it’s a timely topic written without artifice.

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Another Review

Talking to the Dead by Helen Dunmore

The events of Helen Dunmore’s beautifully written novel Talking to the Dead take place during a blazing summer on the Cornwall coast. Nina has come to spend time with her sister, Isabelle, who has just given birth to Antony. It is a difficult labour and delivery and Isabelle is having a slow recovery.

You don’t look very alike, Susan said yesterday. I wouldn’t have guessed you were sisters. (29)

Susan has been hired to care for Antony while Isabelle recovers from the complications of Antony’s birth. Although the sisters are, as Susan notes,  unalike physically, they share the bond of family: an emotionally distant mother who worked as a potter, a drunkard father and the crib-death of their little brother, Colin.

They also share knowledge, perhaps suppressed, about the death of their little brother. It is during the hot days that follow that a family secret is revealed and Nina begins an illicit affair that sends shrapnel through the house Isabelle and her husband, Richard, have leased for the summer.

I’m a Dunmore fan. She’s a beautiful writer and much of the prose in this slim volume is breathtaking. So I am going to attribute the fact that I didn’t tear through this  novel (only 214 pages!) to the fact that I’ve had a serious case of book lethargy over the last few weeks. After all, like all of the Dunmore novels I’ve read – as literary as they are – this one has an element of psychological suspense. The pace isn’t fast though; information is revealed slowly, like veils pulled back one at a time. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t be a problem for me…like I say, I was in a bit of a slump.

If you haven’t yet read Dunmore, you really should.  She’s quite remarkable.

Helen Dunmore’s Site

Reading Guide

Q and A with Dunmore about the novel

Book Blogger Appreciation Week…

It’s Book Blogger Appreciation Week…a wonderful celebration of the bloggers who make it their business to entertain, inform, elucidate and extend the hand of bookish friendship.

One of the activities for this year’s festivities was to interview another book blogger. I had the happy task of  interviewing Casse from Litter Box, Scoop Daily.

Let’s face it- even when we don’t read the same genre of books, we can always talk about books! It was wonderful to get to know Casse!

Okay, let’s start by having you tell us a little bit about yourself…as much or as little information as you’re willing to share.

I am an aspiring writer. I am 26 years old and books are my first love. I find the perfect amount of anonymity behind writing words which is why I like writing books and blogs. I am pretty much an open book when it comes to words. I write paranormal and urban fantasy. I am working on a manuscript for Golden Hearts. EEKs! I finished a novella awhile ago and published it through lulu. But I was 18 and I am embarrassed by it. It was garbage. So I just want to keep getting better and better with each thing I write. And read a lot of great books in-between. I am very shy, which is also why I love reading and writing.

How did you get started in the world of blogging?

I have been blogging for a while now on Xanga and myspace just life things for my friends.  To make them laugh about my daily life stories.  I was big into the Christian music scene so I would frequent as guest reviewer on the blogs on those sites.  But books always snuck in all my past blogs so I was like everyone knows where my passion is so just this summer I started a Book Blog.  I love doing it too.  I can’t figure out what took me so long!

Do you have a favourite bookstore? Tell us about it.

My favorite bookstore is one with books lol seriously there isn’t one I like over the other.  I like being in them surrounded by books and book lovers.  I want to own a book store; it’s my dream.  The smell of new books thrills me.  I like having to step over a fat cat sleeping half off a shelf.  That’s what my store will be like; I want to know my regulars so I can say “hey I got a book in today that I know you will Loooove.”  That’s what I like.  The big chains are great but I am a regular in the small ones.  They cater to their customers more because everyone counts there.

Tell us about what books you like to read. Do you ever stray off the beaten path?

I LOOOOVE urban fantasy and paranormal romance. I used to HATE straight romance, well romance period and then I bought a 3.99 book on a whim. It was Forever Yours by JanMarie Anello. It was so great! I use to read historical biblical fiction before Forever Yours and it opened my eyes. Now I buy all books that don’t have the “Clinch” covers. lol But usually it’s Urban Fantasy. Oh YA fantasy too. Because I am bit of a prude, I skip the ba-rump-pa-pum pages in romance and YA there is none of that lol.

For those of us who don’t know – what’s the difference between urban fantasy and paranormal romance? For someone who hasn’t read either, recommend  the best book you’ve read in each genre and tell us why that should be the first book we read.

That is a good question.  The lines have been so blurred lately.  The way it was explained to be on Jeri Smith-Ready’s blog a while ago is…Um in paranormal the plot is the romance often times the couple’s romance isn’t resolved until the last page or after the big events in the books are handled.  Which is just a means to showcase their luuurve strength.  Fantasy the EVENT is the focus and the romance is the happenstance like a just so happen or sometimes not there at all really.  Fantasy is all about the what’s going on, the quest and mission of the main character.  Paranormal the romance IS the story.

First book-wise I can only recommend my first because they hooked me.  Cast in Secret by Michelle Sagara it is one of the non-blurred Urban Fantasies. Then read Urban Shaman by C.E Murphy also UF then Eyes of Crow by Jeri Smith-Ready.  If that has you wrapped like they had me you will go out and buy the rest in those series.  They each are the first books of a series. Paranormal romance: Playing with Fire by Gena Showmaker was my first, though shape shifting isn’t my thing.  I can never get into the romance of it because its like ewwl beastiology lol.  I’m weird; it’s the same with Beauty and the Beast.  He is a giant St Bernard that she falls for! lol Back on topic, my oddness aside,  Playing with Fire is a perfect genre example of paranormal.  I just realized I’m more Urban Fantasy then Paranormal.  Oh Shape-Shifters done right, Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs.  They both have an animal form so it’s like ok it’s hot.  They’d both have to or it be odd and squeeewy. Their wolf or animal side is so much apart of them even as human they have that beast in them so they both would HAVE to have that animal side or it’d be like call animal services this chick is gross but no so its great because the animals are attracted to the animal and ect.  I talk too much when I get on books. Oops. Sorry.

While reading your blog I came across the line: “I have nothing but fan girl rants”. I, too, am a fangirl. Tell me what it means to you. What do you fan girl over?

FanGirl to me means the feeling of closing the book at the end and its “ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod!” And that’s all I can say. And it just puts the world right…for a while at least. lol I go fangirl over Jeri Smith-Ready books and C.E Murphy’s and Prey by Rachel Vincent and My Soul To Take by Vincent as well. Where they can kill my favorites off and tick me off royally but still it doesn’t ruin the book. And they still write a dang good book. Michelle Sagara’s Chronicles of Elantra is pure urban fantasy greatness. I went fangirl for the first time with her!

It looks like you read eBooks. I’ve never read one. So tell this newbie what the appeal is.

There is nothing and I mean absolutely nothing like opening a book. I mean turning the pages and all of that. It’s very…calming. I am sure you know that. But sometimes a book comes out and I can’t find it in my small town and I can NOT wait for shipping. That is when E-books are very convenient. A lifesaver to me sometimes. Or at work when I can’t hide a book I am always on my phone and my current e-reader is small enough to be taken for a phone and I can READ! At work! That is the appeal to me. It’s convenient, it’s easy and it’s just another format to get good books out there. Books are also sometimes given away free e-book format. Depending on the websites. I find Microsoft reader the easiest format to use.

You seem to know your way around the eBook world pretty well. Take the rest of us on a tour. How do we get started?

Okay first you have to realize that there isn’t just one e-book format.  I didn’t know that at first.  Kindles are pretty popular but they ONLY take kindle formatted books which I think is limiting themselves and its owners which I would hate.  I like to shop around with kindle – you have to get it from amazon.  I use the Microsoft reader because it’s compatible with Windows on my computer and on my device.  It’s a pretty universal format.  Meaning book availability is high.  You want to be able to find any book you want to read in the format you use so being universal and availability are a must.  PDF format is sort of high in availability, but my device doesn’t really like it too much.  Well actually it’s me who doesn’t.  The only two formats I see consistently is Microsoft reader and mobipocket.  To start, go to an e-book site (diesel-ebooks.com) was the first store I bought from and they tell you how to download a free reader first (with links to the different format sites) and then a test e-book download to see if it is compatible and working correctly so when you buy the book its not a hassle, waste of time or money.  It sounds Ahhh! But it’s not really if you have it right in front of you doing it.

You’ve said that you’ll never give bad reviews because you’ve never finished a ‘garbage’ book. What happens when you finish a mediocre book…or a book that you liked all right, but had flaws?

I get so frustrated! It’s a let down because I see the potential. I try and dwell on and pick out the good stuff and let the flaws fade away. If the characters are strong enough and the love portion is believable, I can get past a lot of plot garbage. But if the characters are the problem or the chemistry and romance is the problem oh for-get-it! Book closed.

You’ve told us a little bit about what doesn’t work for you in a book. Tell us about the perfect book for you. What are the ingredients that make it perfect?

I love a good best friend in a story.  I like to see the characters interact with other people besides each other so I can see if it’s consistent.  I love when the hero isn’t too what’s the word too grrrr.  Like take the  manli-ness down a notch.  Testosterone!  He is too testosterone filled.  So if the guy is manly but not overbearing  with saying ‘mine’ all the time and if he has this brooding quality *swoons* the book has me!   And when the heroine makes real choices that are realistic.  Also chemistry has to be like a charge for me to buy it and I hate boring predictable couples -  so no fighting all the time and not just sex all the time either.  Some books act like we are just rutting bulls ready to hump every hour.  I like books that have a couple romance each other and kiss goodnight and go separate ways on the first date.  A lot a books just hop in bed the first good convo the hero and heroine have.

What other blogs do you read regularly and why do you like them?

I read Smart Bitches because they are funny and they say somethings that I think while I am reading.  I also read I heart book gossip and leontine’s book realm.  I have a list so I will go down it: Romance book wyrm, book girl of mur-y-castelle, Rachel Vincent’s blog, Jeri Smith Ready, and C.E Murphy’s blog. I read author blogs because I need to see how excited they get about their work for me to say oh they really worked hard let me spend my hard earned money on it.

Tell me about your blogging habits…do you read your favourite blogs every day. Do you write in your blog everyday?

I don’t usually read blogs everyday and when I do it’s only a few.  I try and make time to but I am just so forgetful! I forget to get online.

I always say I am going to get a blogging schedule but I am so not organized I hate schedules and deadlines.  I never can make myself do something when I don’t have that mood.

What are your best tips for increasing readership at your blog?

I don’t really have tips I’m still building mine up, too.  Ask for help from other bloggers similar to your likes and style.   I guess just be consistent, have your own blog voice.  If you are honest and not trying to be anyone else’s blog you build loyalty.  Also getting out on books sites and forums and making friends.  Chat with other book bloggers and that helps too.  They have readers and they may mention you.  But first and foremost I book blog for myself because I love it.

How about giving us your Reader’s Table. That’s a table with your top 20 books on it…books you think everyone should read. What are they and how come they made it to your table?

Only 20 let’s see. Cast in Secret, Cast in Courtlight, Cast in Shadow, Cast in Fury and Cast in Silence by Michelle Sagara.  It’s a vivid world and they each stand alone but also connect its weird.  But its so fantastic.  It pulls you in.  Though none go with me by Jerry B Jenkins.  I rarely read men authors I am not sure why.  I guess I am all about the girl power.  Its a book about a woman’s relationship with God at every stage of life. Awesome. Broken days by Ann Ranaldi because its the first book I can remember really blowing my mind.  Winter Moon anthology from Luna.  It opened my eyes to new authors and now they are on my regular reading lists.  Heart of Stone, house of cards and hands of flame? By C.E Murphy. It has everything love, every single creature, and a black heroine which is rare for a mainstream book. Eyes of Crow, Voice of Crow and reawakening by Jeri Smith Ready.  It is a unique trilogy and It was in my dreams for WEEKS. Forever Yours by JanMarie Anello.  It was just entertaining. I loved it.  Divine by Mistake by P.C Cast I was a good book but it sort of angered me but it was different I didn’t agree with some of the stuff but Cast writes an amazing story. I commented on the book and she is very involved with her readers I love that.  Another book that enraged me because I am such a, femanist isn’t the right word but it fits but the book is so awesome and just read it.  Beloved Leah by Cynthia Davis.  Its about Leah from the Bible.  Her husband was tricked into marrying her but he wanted her younger sister.  Well its from the Bible but still men were buttholes back in those days…I never would have made it.  They’d stone my butt but I’d be throwing those rocks back!  Moving on.  Elphame’s choice also by PC Cast.  Now the next two books are my all time all time ALL TIME favorites, The Weeping Chamber by Sigmund Brouwer.  It a biblical fiction. I use to only read those I was so closed up to all things outside of my faith I am glad I expanded but still I look back on them foundly which leads to the next on my list.  The Witness by G.W Griffiths and that is 20 I believe.

That was terrifically fun! Thanks, Cassie- for taking the time so answer so many of my questions!

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

Several months ago Muriel Barbery’s novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog was chosen as the book for the bookstore reading group I lead. We have a sort of willy nilly way of choosing our books and this novel ended up on the top of the heap. When we came together to discuss it a month later, other than the woman who had thrown it into the pile, no one else had finished the book- including me. I got about halfway through…and I just really didn’t like the book at all. So imagine my dismay when the novel was chosen by my longstanding book club as our first novel for our new reading year! I had no choice but to finish the book.

So, I started again. And strangely, this time around, I didn’t find the book so grating. That’s not to say that I found it all that plausible, either. Still, I did manage to get through it.

Barbery’s novel tells the story of Renee, a concierge at an elegant apartment building in Paris.

I am short, ugly and plump, I have bunions on my feet and, if I am to credit early mornings of self-inflicted disgust, the breath of a mammoth. I did not go to college, I have always been poor, discreet and insignificant. (19)

Renee has, despite what she considers her considerable flaws, a deep and abiding love for literature, art and music. Seriously, the novel opens with a rumination on Marx – which is perhaps the reason why I didn’t groove to the novel straight away the first time around: I know nothing about Marx.

Paloma lives in the building with her parents and older sister. At twelve, Paloma is already sick of the world and everyone in it.

My parents are rich, my family is rich and my sister and I are, therefore rich….Despite all that, despite all this good fortune and all this wealth, I have known for a long time that the final destination is the goldfish bowl. How do I know? Well, the fact is that I am very intelligent. Exceptionally intelligent. (23)

The Elegance of the Hedgehog is about appearances. Renee is forever fearful about giving away her love of the finer things; after all, she’s just a concierge. Paloma,  is keeping a journal of profound thoughts and plotting her own death. And then into their lives comes a Japanese gentleman named Kakuro Ozu. He sees straight through these women, into their very heart of hearts and changes them in ways they might have never imagined.

This novel was a sensation in France. As with any translation, it’s important to remember that you are not reading it in its original form; something is bound to be lost in the translation no matter how good it is.

I have a feeling that when we discuss this novel tomorrow night, most everyone will have loved it. I didn’t love it (in fact I didn’t like the ending at all!), but I did see the novel’s charms- even though I often found the novel pretentious (all these mini-lessons on art and literature) and perhaps just a tad contrived.

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Another review

Book Questions

1.  The book has two narrators:  bizarrely brilliant 12 year old Paloma and short, ugly, plump concierge Renee.  Did the two storytellers detract or add to your enjoyment of the story and in whose head did you prefer to dwell?

2.  A great deal of the book asks a single question that Paloma eventaully poses to Renee. “Do you feel that life has meaning?” Do you?

3. How do you measure a life’s worth? By Paloma’s calculation, what you are doing at the moment of your death is important. Renee died at a moment when she had “met another and was prepared to love.” If you could pick the  moment of your death, what would you be doing?

4. Renee thinks most people take the easy way out when it comes to living their lives. We anethesize ourselves with children, TV and God who “appeases our animal fears and the unbearable prospect that someday all our pleasures will cease.” Have you taken the easy way out?

5. Paloma’s Journal of the Movement of the World is a quest to document whatever is beautiful enough to give life meaning. If you were asked to develop a list of your own, what might make your list?

Food

Biscuits

Oven 450 degrees

2 cups flour

1 T baking powder

2 t sugar

½ t cream of tartar

¼ t salt

½ cup shortening, margarine, or butter

2/3 cup milk

• Stir together the whites
• Cut in the butter
• Add milk
• Stir till dough just clings together

• On a lightly floured surface kneed dough gently for 10 or 12 strokes

• Roll or pat out …Cut the biscuits

Cook for 10 to 12 minutes

(Thanks to S.  for allowing me to use her questions and the recipe!)

The Moment You Were Gone by Nicci Gerrard

Nicci Gerrard writes terrific psychological suspense thrillers with her husband Sean French. As Nicci French they have written a few books I have enjoyed immensely, particularly Killing Me Softly. On her own, Gerrard is a thoughtful and talented writer, generally concerned with the minutia of  daily life and the relationships which both trouble and sustain us.

So I’m going to blame the fact that I didn’t love Nicci Gerrard’s third novel The Moment You Were Gone on the fact that August was a bit of a bust for me reading-wise. Perhaps it was the spectacular weather, but this was the third novel I’ve started in the last couple of weeks (and the only one I finished).

The Moment You Were Gone is the story of Nancy and Gaby, childhood friends. We see them as children, as young adults and then we meet Gaby  again as she’s dropping her only son, Ethan, off at university.  At this point in the story, she and Nancy have been estranged for almost 20 years, although Gaby has an inkling of where her old friend is.  Instead of going home after leaving Ethan, Gaby decides to revisit her past and hops a train to Cornwall where she tracks Nancy down. It is this reconnection which sets off a chain of events which you can see coming a mile off. What you might not see coming, however, is the way these  revelations change and shape the people involved.

This is a novel about friendship, certainly, but is also a novel about love:  the love between siblings and families, between husbands and wives and between friends. As Gaby’s life begins to unravel, Ethan’s life begins to flourish. We watch him navigate those first few weeks away from home and we watch him fall in love with his best mate’s girl.

Despite the secret that is central to this novel, there are no bad guys here. Everyone makes the choices they think are the best for the right reasons. Watching Gaby deal with the fall out from her discovery is more like watching a fender bender than a train wreck, but I think I actually mean that as a compliment. Although I didn’t necessarily warm to Gaby, I did admire the way she moved forward despite the fact that her world had been tipped over.

The last third of this book is a thoughtful meditation on what happens when you reach a certain point in your life.  From this vantage point you can look back.

She asked herself  what point there was in the frantic emotions of the past few weeks if in the end she was just a pinprick on a dot in a galaxy that was itself negligible. All the scrabbling around, the desperate search for happiness, meaning and union – while around us the millions of stars shine on, implacably distant and remote…. How strange, to care so passionately and yet to mean so little and to die alone and go where no one can follow. (362)

It would be impossible not to relate to some aspect of this book and I can’t fault either the story or the writer for the fact that I didn’t love it. Just reader’s fatigue, I guess.

Read a Review

Check me out…

As promised, my book club has been featured at  One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books. I think I might be the third group featured there…so if you’re interested in hearing about how my club or other book clubs organize themselves…(or if you’re interested in talking about your book club) this Wednesday feature is terrific!

Where do you get your books?

Okay, is this too good to be true? The Book Depository, an online bookstore in the UK, says they ship books world-wide for FREE! How is this possible? Has anyone ever used them? This offer is almost impossible to resist! (Especially because it’s possible that they have access to some books not available in North America).

I actually quite like shopping for books online. I get a cup of tea and then I can browse to my heart’s content. That’s not to say I don’t like visiting bookstores I do. Big box stores like Indigo are great, little ’boutique’ stores like Bean Books are terrific too. I don’t go to the library as much as I should because, okay, I admit it, I like to own the books. I haven’t had much success with receiving free copies via publishers. I got one review copy from Indigo and then they stopped the program.

Where do you get your books? If you hook up with publishers, how? Do you pass books on when you’re done with them or hoard them? I’d love to hear about you get your books.

Thoughts for Book Clubs…

I recently answered questions for BookJourney, who is featuring book clubs in a Q and A at her blog.  I’ve been in my current book club for 11 years now and they’re a great group so it was fun to think about how my group works…and why it does. It also reminded me that I put together a little book club primer for people who wanted to start a book club, but weren’t sure how to get going. I thought I’d share it here with you.

Some thoughts for book clubs…

Book clubs work best if everyone is on the same page…so if you have two or three members who just want to get out of the house, never read the book, are more interested in talking about the last movie they saw than the book – maybe they’re in the wrong group…or maybe you are.  So once you have a group of like-minded readers, you’re good to go.

The keys to a successful book club are:

1. Having a venue conducive to talking
2. Having a designated leader or system for discussing the book.
3. Choosing a great book- which doesn’t necessarily mean reading War and Peace

There are all sorts of ways to choose books for your book club and you have to find a way that works the best for your group. One piece of advice I have heard from other clubs, though, is to choose a book that is unknown to you- that is, if it’s your pick don’t choose your favourite book of all time because there are bound to be hurt feelings when someone in your group doesn’t like it.

Some of the ways to choose a book include:

Everyone come to the first meeting of the year with a couple of choices and put all of the choices into a hat and pick randomly. The group can decide out of all the picks what they want to read.

Everyone gets one pick per year. That person is then responsible for hosting the meeting (whatever that means for your book club). In our group it means the person who chose the book hosts at their house, provides the nibblies (or, as is often the case in our group a three course meal!) and leads the discussion.

Leading the discussion can take many forms…and again, there’s many ways to do it depending on your group. We have 11 really chatty women so the leader has to be a bit of a tyrant in order for everyone to have the opportunity to speak. Usually she’s prepared with a list of questions…but we’ve also done it other ways, for example, inviting everyone to make up their own question about the book, putting the questions in a dish and allowing everyone to answer one question and then, if anyone wants to add thoughts, they can.

Vigorous discussion comes from well-thought out questions and a little bit of planning on the part of the hostess. The questions need not necessarily be related to the book, either. Or at least not directly.

Here are my questions for the novel The Myth of You and Me – which was my choice, only mediocre, imho, but we had a great chat about it.
1. When Ruth and Cameron start to pack Oliver’s things up Cameron remarks: “It’s astonishing what a single life accumulates. These things we endow with a certain life- the possibilty that we might use them, the memory we attach to them- and then, when we die, they become just things again.”

What things do you save and what meaning do they have for you? Do you ever purge? What is something you own that is likely meaningless without the weight of your attached memory.

2. When we finally discover what ended the friendship- what is your reaction? How does it change your feelings about Cameron and Sonia? Is it enough of a reason to sever the ties between them?

3. While Cameron searches for Sonia she meets Suzette again and remarks: “All at once it strikes me that as well as I know Sonia, I only know one version of her- that all you knopw of a life are the places where it touches your own.” Do you think it’s true that we offer people different versions of ourselves? Why? Who has the clearest picture of you?

4. Oliver’s second letter to Cameron reveals the truth about his life and his story and, for me at least, offers the book’s most important lesson. Why do you think he waits to tell Cameron the story of Billie, the story of his life?

5. If you could track down one person from your past who would it be and why?

How do you choose your next book?

The Internet makes it easy to do research…but how do you find titles?

Some great blogs:

Ready Steady Book

Bookgirl’s Nightstand

A Guy’s Moleskine Notebook

SavidgeReads

(generally if you find a blog you like, it’s easy to follow that person’s links to other similar blogs- trust me, there’s a HUGE network out there)

What Should I Read Next? – Plug in a book title and it’ll offer up book suggestions…

The Best 100 Novels – Self-explanatory

There’s a whole raft of book communities

Chapters/Indigo

Shelfari

Fantastic Fiction – info on over 300,000 books!

There are also lots of useful sites if you are looking for ways to keep your book club thriving…

Canadian Book Clubs

Vancouver Public Library – Staring a Book Club

Booksprouts

I am always happy to talk bookclubs…and answer questions if you have them!