The Other Side of the Bridge - Mary Lawson

I read Mary Lawson's first book, Crow Lake, when I was living in Africa, and I quite enjoyed it, so I was pleased to see her second novel, The Other Side of the Bridge" when it came out a couple of years ago.  It has taken me a while, but I'm glad that I finally had a chance to read it.

Like Crow Lake, it is set in northern Ontario farm country (but a generation earlier), and many themes and plot devices are similar between the two books - the death of parents; an unplanned pregnancy resulting in an unplanned marriage; the dynamics of a small town; the dynamics of family units.

And like some of the other books that I have read recently (Through Black Spruce and Three Day Road come to mind), it is written as two separate stories, alternating chapters, that come together in the end to form one story.  Arthur and Jake are brothers growing up in the 1930s and 1940s, and to put it mildly, there are "issues".  Ian is a boy finishing high school in the late 1950s who gets a job on Arthur's farm to help pay his way through university.  It is essentially the story of the two brothers, but it is interesting to have half of the story told by an outsider who is unaware of the history between the two.

Well written, an interesting and engaging plot - what more could one ask for in a book!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Two books finished in under a week - a good week!

This is a book that first caught my attention in the bookstore because of it's title.  And then I started hearing some very positive reviews which made me want to read it even more.  And it really is a lovely little book.

Guernsey and the other Channel Islands first came to my attention when I met my friend Judy who grew up in Guernsey and now lives in Devon.  Then I read a bit about it in Elizabeth George's book "A Place of Hiding" (not one of her better books, but I was able to pass it on to Judy from Guernsey when I was done reading it!).  And here is another book featuring the island.

It is set in 1946, immediately following the Second World War, and is told strictly through letters (imagine an era when a letter written would arrive to it's recipient the very next day!) and telegrams.  Thinking back, I can't recall reading a novel set in immediate post-war Europe - it is very interesting to read about in this book, as the war looms large in everyone's memory and thinking, yet they are all trying to move on.

I can't give a brief plot synopsis as there isn't really one - this is very much a character-based book rather than a plot-based book.  There are several stories or plot lines woven together.  The story of how the islanders survived the German occupation during the war, by creating the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (the topic of discussion was books; the potato peel pies were the snacks served).  The story of Juliet, a London-based author who found success during the war and decides to write about Guernsey.  A gentle love story, made the more tender by being offset by a tumultuous one.  Elizabeth's story - her unconventional bringing up, her love affair, her illegitimate daughter, her imprisonment in a German camp.  Remy, who was befriended by Elizabeth in the camp and is now trying to get on with life post-prison camp.  A series of letters written by Oscar Wilde.

The book works.  The characters, as eccentric as they may be, are believable.  As are the letters - each writer has a distinct voice, and the personality comes through.  I was sad when the book ended, and I wanted to know more.  This book will definitely be filed under "to be re-read".

The Private Patient - P.D. James

I love reading a good mystery once in a while, especially one by an author that I know won't disappoint.  I think that it is partly the knowledge that there is going to be a resolution in the end, and partly the journey that gets us to that resolution - the thoughts and feelings of everyone involved.  And some of my favourite mystery authors keep the same cast of characters in terms of the investigators, and allow those character's lives to develop over the course of a series.

Some of my favourite mystery authors include P.D. James, Patricia Cornwell, Kathy Reichs, Elizabeth George, Minette Walters, and of course, some of the grand masters of the genre including Agatha Christie and Conan Doyle.

This latest offering by P.D. James lived up to my expectations - interesting characters, a solid murder mystery, and good writing.  I did correctly guess the murderer about 1/2 way through, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book - as I said, half of the fun comes from the journey to the resolution.  And my favourite detectives - Adam Dalgliesh and Kate Miskin - are back, and I don't think that it is saying too much to reveal that Dalgliesh and Emma get married at the end of the book :-)

The entire book, as well as the ending, beg the question of whether the author is planning another book in the series.  She is 88 years old after all, and still publishing a book every couple of years.  In terms of the characters, there are several hints throughout the book that change is afoot in New Scotland Yard, and that the Special Investigation Squad is about to be dissolved.  Plus with the happy ending of the wedding (as well as Kate and Piers getting together again), the series could end here without leaving faithful readers wanting to know what happened.  We'll have to see what happens...  I, for one, am hoping for more!

So my question for anyone who might be reading this blog - who are your favourite mystery writers, and why?

Three Day Road - Joseph Boyden

I read Boyden's Through Black Spruce last year as part of my Giller shortlist read-athon, and then ranked it as the best book that I had read all year.  It was only after I had read it that I learned that it was, in fact, the second book of a planned trilogy, with the first book being titled Three Day Road.  Having lived in "deepest darkest Africa", there is a 3-year gap in my cultural knowledge, and as Three Day Road was published in 2005, I missed it completely.

Three Day Road is similar to Through Black Spruce, in that it is made up of two distinct, intertwined stories, told by two different people - in this case, Xavier Bird who goes over to Europe to fight in WW1, and his aunt Niska who is trying to keep the old way of life alive, in defiance of the white settlers.  Xavier is the father / grandfather to the main characters in Through Black Spruce.

My big revelation came in the first half of the book, and it involved a complete re-working of my concept of Canadian history.  Back in Grade 7 and 8 history class, we learned about the Hudson's Bay Company, and the fur trade, and the Voyageurs.  Here in Thunder Bay, we are right on the old Voyageur route as they headed out west.  But I had never before considered what the original inhabitants of this beautiful land may have thought and felt about these invaders.

To me, it was Niska's story that had the more powerful impact.  She would have been born in the second half of the 19th century, and she experienced an early childhood with a nomadic lifestyle, following the game and truly living off the land.  Then after her father dies, she and her mother and sister end up in Moose Factory living on the reservation.  (I should probably mention that she is epileptic, and becomes a medicine woman and Windigo-killer.)  After a (very) brief and traumatic stay at a residential school, she and her mother return to the bush where she spends most of the rest of her life.  Later in life, she rescues her nephew, Xavier, from that same residential school, and brings him up the way that she was brought up.  But the resentment towards the nuns, the European system, the fur traders, the alcohol, comes across very clearly.

I love it when a book can make me change my perspective so very completely.

On the other hand, I have a friend who says that it was Xavier's first hand telling of trench warfare that made the biggest impression on her.

Early in the book, I started thinking that this was even better than Through Black Spruce, but unfortunately I found that it dragged on a little too long towards the end.  I kept reading eagerly though, as several questions present in the early chapters (Why did Niska think that Xavier was dead, and vice versa?  How did Elijah die?  How did Xavier lose his leg?) that aren't solved until the very end of the book.

I want to go back now and re-read Through Black Spruce (once I get my copy back), and I look forward to the next book.

The Shack - Wm. Paul Young

This book has had a lot of buzz recently - near the top of best-seller lists for months now, and lots of "word on the street".  The interesting thing is that if you go to a site like Chapters-Indigo and look at the reviews for this book, people either love it or hate it.  It is a very polarizing book.

Well, I am going to buck that trend, and come down in the middle.  If I were rating it, I would probably give it 3 out of 5 stars.  A good middle-of-the-road rating.  But the reasoning behind that rating is thus - I loved the story, but the writing style (or lack thereof) got in the way.  So if I were rating the story, I would probably give it the full 5 stars (or at least 4 1/2).  But when evaluated against great works of literature that have stood the test of time, I would have to give it 1 star in terms of style.  And that is unfortunate.  I would be reading along, and loving the story, and laughing out loud (and even crying at one point - in the middle of an airplane!), but then I would come across an ill-written sentence or paragraph, and I would be jolted out of that world, and reminded that it is only a book.

The story is an allegory - a man suffers a great tragedy, and spends a weekend in a shack in the middle of the mountains, in the company of all 3 members of the Trinity, Father (aka Papa), Son (Jesus) and Holy Spirit (aka Sarayu).  Each chapter centers around a conversation or interaction with one of the Trinity, and an important spiritual lesson is being taught to the man (and also to the reader).  But unfortunately, the writing style gets in the way, and I was never able to forget that I was being taught a lesson in each chapter.

There were moments of pure brilliance - my favourite was when Jesus was trying to persuade the man to walk on water - but then there would come a sentence or paragraph that is supposed to be part of a conversation, that I could never see anyone actually saying out loud.  The book could have used some serious editing by a better writer.

So, as I said, 3 stars.  I enjoyed reading it, and I'm glad that I did.  I may even re-read it in the future.  But it will not make my top-10 list for the year.  Unfortunately, because I really did want to like the book.

Heart and Soul - Maeve Binchy

Opening up a Maeve Binchy book is like curling up under a blanket with a steaming mug of tea - comforting.

This book lived up to all of my expectations.  There is no dramatic plot, but the pages are full of characters that could be my next-door neighbour, or the person in line next to me at the shop, or sitting next to me in the office.

The book centres around a cardiac rehab clinic in Dublin, and reads like a collection of related short stories that are not told sequentially, but are rather are intertwined with each other.  There is some mild drama - a few accidents, a wedding that almost doesn't happen, allegations of impropriety made against a priest - but of course it all works out in the end.  The typical "Binchy bad-guys" make an appearance - the selfish and self-centered boyfriend, the haughty mother-in-law - but most of the characters are sympathetic.

True Binchy fans (like myself!) will recognise characters from some of her other books popping up in this one, usually in a secondary character role.  Aidan and Nora Dunn (Evening Class), Tom and Cathy Feather and the twins (Scarlet Feather), and Fiona and the gang (Nights of Rain and Stars) all pop up in this book.  It is almost as if she has created her own city (which I call Maeve Binchy's Dublin), populated with real people who, of course, will run into each other and interact with each other.

Finishing 2 books in 2 days is a record, even for me, but I was about 2/3 of the way through this book when I got the e-mail saying that Scarpetta was waiting at the library for me, so I really can't brag!

Scarpetta - Patricia Cornwell

I was part-way through another book when I received an e-mail from the library telling me that a book that I had placed a hold on was available to pick up.  Now when there is a waiting list for a book, the rule is that you only get it for a week, so I had to put the other book aside and devote the past week to reading the latest Patricia Cornwell book.  What a hardship :-)  I finished it just under the wire today, and managed to get it back to the library 15 minutes before closing time.

Spoiler alert - if you follow the series but haven't read this book yet, some details may be revealed below.

I have followed the adventures (and mis-adventures) of Kay Scarpetta for the past several years, and this book did not disappoint.  Several loose ends from the end of the last book were cleared up, and more so that some of her other books, there was a happy ending.  I finished the book with a smile on my face, rather than biting my nails wanting another one right away.  Now with a successful series, that may be a mixed blessing.  After the ambiguous ending of her last book, I had my name on the waiting list at the library as soon as this book came out, but I don't feel quite the same urgency to get my hands on the next book (whenever it is written).

The standard cast of characters made an appearance - Kay and Benton, Lucy, Marino - and some old faces make a comeback, including Berger.  There is a tentative reconciliation between Marino (who isn't dead) and the others, and we learn about the death of Rose, shortly after the end of the previous book.

The central mystery itself was conventional and a bit disappointing - nothing too complex, and it seemed designed to further the story of the cast of characters.

I don't think that Patricia Cornwell has ever written a bad book.  This one isn't one of my favourites in terms of the mystery to be solved, but I did enjoy the focus on her characters that I have been following for years.  And it was no challenge to get through the 500 pages in a week - the pages just flew by.

Now back to finish up the book that was interrupted...