The Best Laid Plans - Terry Fallis

I should probably warn any readers from the outset that this post may contain some gushing.

I loved this book!

If I had read it prior to the Canada Reads debates, I probably would have been cheering for it, even over Essex County.

I first heard of this book last summer, when Terry Fallis was one of the authors at the Sleeping Giant Writers' Festival and I was fortunate enough to sit next to him at lunch. It was a very hilarious lunch around our table, even though none of us knew each other, and I figured that if he was as entertaining in print as he was in person, this book would be a good read.

I am also a closeted political junkie who tends to come out of the closet during election campaigns, so this book was custom made for me.

The premise, just in case you don't already know, is that Daniel, a young speech writer for the Liberal Party of Canada, decides to leave Ottawa after a particularly nasty break-up with his girlfriend. As a parting promise to the party, he agrees to find a candidate to run in the "safest Conservative riding in the country." He convinces his landlord, Angus McClintock, to run, on the agreement that under no circumstances would he ever win. Of course, since it is a comedic book, a sex scandal dethrones the Conservative candidate, Angus wins, and he is off to try and change Ottawa with Daniel as his somewhat blinkered executive assistant at his side.

This book is not one that I should try to read in public, as I was laughing out loud at times. It was, however, a book that had me putting on my PJ's at 9 every night this week so that I could get an extra hour of reading in at bedtime.

It was also a very timely book, given the recent federal election. There is definitely the analogy with all of the NDP candidates in Quebec who ran with no expectation of winning (some of them having never been to the riding that they were running in, and spending the election campaign out of the country) and then ended up in parliament. There were no dates given, or names for most of the political figures in the book (they are instead referred to as The Prime Minister, The Speaker, The Leader of the Official Opposition), and the election was a fictional election based on fictional issues; but it all could have been real. Listening to the Speech from the Throne this afternoon had extra meaning, given the fact that the Speech from the Throne following an election plays a pivotal role in the book.

I have been recommending this book left, right, and centre all week, even though I only finished it today. Well, mostly left, since that is the way that I tend to vote, as well as the people that I tend to hang out with. I also purchased the sequel, The High Road, on my way home this morning, even though I hadn't quite finished this book yet.

The book isn't perfect. I thought that the romantic thread running through it was a bit unnecessary and tacked on. I also found the first part of the book more engaging and amusing. The second part was less laugh-out-loud funny, but more plot-driven.

I also loved the story-telling style. Most of the book is first-person narrative from Daniel's point of view, so we see events unfolding from his perspective. But at the end of every chapter, there is a journal entry by Angus, in the form of a letter to his deceased wife, which gives the reader his perspective, including his opinion of Daniel. I just hope that this style carries over into the next book.

In summary, the best book I have read in quite some time!

Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin

I read this book on a dare. Not quite on the scale of the infamous Twilight Dare; more of a self-inflicted dare. Loni first alerted me to the offensive New York Times article implying that women wouldn't watch the new HBO series based on the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series of which this is the first book. The writer, Ginia Bellafante, states,

While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first. “Game of Thrones” is boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half.

Now I have never heard of Lorrie Moore, but I found this to be extremely offensive. Not only have I read The Hobbit, but I also worked my way through the full Lord of the Rings trilogy for the first time when I was 13 years old; Anne McCaffrey's Dragonrider books are among my favourite series; and I have read lots of fantasy books in my time (often recommended by my cousin - waving to Kim if you are reading this!). So based on this article, how could I not read Game of Thrones!

I don't know what I was expecting going into this book, other than "boy fiction" as Ms. Bellafante calls it. I guess I was expecting lots of sex and violence and hopefully a well-developed fantasy world.

Sex - yes it was there, but not as graphic as I had feared. Violence - yes, but again not too graphic or offensive; more as a plot device which was not lingered on for longer than necessary. And the fantasy world? Yes, it was there (with some striking similarities to the European Middle Ages), and while I was reading, it was real to me. And dragons even made an appearance at the end!

I really liked how the story was told, with chapters alternating between different points of view from different characters. It wasn't told in the first person - that would have been too disjointed - but the different points of view gave a very balanced view of different characters. I'm not quite sure who the good guys are and who the bad guys are, but that's real life I guess.

Now for what I didn't like...

The length. This book came in at 800 pages in paperback, and it is the shortest one in the series to date. The 5th book is scheduled to come out in July and there are 7 planned in the series. It is huge in scope with multiple inter-connected plot lines taking place simultaneously (hence the multiple points of view); however I can't help but wonder if it is so broad that it looses focus. I really found that it dragged on by the end, and I can't see myself plodding through further, longer volumes. Plus all of the plot lines ended without any resolution - almost like all 7 books are really one book in multiple volumes - one very long, 5600 page book.

The treatment of women. Maybe there is something to Ms. Bellafante's critique. There are a few stronger female characters, but for the most part, the women are either prostitutes or the property of their men-folk. The only truly strong female character (in my opinion) is Daenerys who takes the lousy hand she is dealt and manipulates the situation so that she thrives. (Another character, Arya, is strong, but gets there only by pretending to be a boy.) Plus there is a very blatant double standard - men are expected to have at least one or two bastards hanging around (or in some cases, many, many bastards); while if a wife gives birth to a child, no-one questions that it must be her husband's.

The despair. Every character seems to be longing for a time of peace, and "the way things used to be;" and yet there is no hint that anyone is going to get there. Plus the so-called good guys keep getting killed.

So am I glad that I took up the dare and read this book? Yes. There were some characters that I really liked (Daenerys, Tyrion, Bran). Will I read the rest of the series? Probably not, based on the length if nothing else; though I may watch the HBO series and from what I've heard, it is a fairly faithful adaptation of the book. Besides, I can always find out what happens in subsequent books on Wikipedia!

Port Mortuary - Patricia Cornwell

I have been reading Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta books for several years now, and can generally count on them for a good diversion - interesting enough to keep me occupied for a week or so, but not so great that I need to rush out and buy a copy as soon as they are released. This one was no different.

When it came out last November, I added my name to the (very) long hold list at the local library. Now when there is a waiting list for a book, you only get it for a week, no renewals allowed; and yet my turn didn't come up until the end of February. I had waited so long that I assumed my name had been taken off the list! And when the e-mail did arrive in my in-box, I was 4 provinces away, at the beginning of a week's holiday. So needless to say, I wasn't able to pick it up in the 3 days specified, and when I got home again, I put my name back at the bottom of the list. And finally this month, I got to read the book.

The story was what I've come to expect from the series - some gory murders, scientific analysis of the evidence, and lots of red herrings. This book focused a lot on the relationship between Sarpetta and her husband, Benton, and I missed the presence of Lucy through much of the story. The writing was so-so. There were several glaring grammatical errors that made me cringe; and yet there was another scene that was so brilliantly written that I was drawn right in to the situation.

Possible Spoiler below.

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(The book is written in the first person with Scarpetta as narrator. At one point, she is accidentally drugged, but didn't realize it at first. As I was reading, I was getting very frustrated with the dialogue and the characters, and I was getting ready to throw the book across the room because none of it was making sense. And then when Scarpetta realized that she had been drugged, it all made sense - we, the readers, were seeing the situation through her drugged view. I was drawn right in, and had no clue what was happening - I just knew that it wasn't making sense.)

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End Spoiler

So I probably will keep reading the books in this series as they are released, but they will remain as library books, rather than purchases.

Skim - Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

This is a book that has been on my "Want to Read" list for a while, and so last weekend, when I was putting in an online order, I decided to add it to the list. And when the order arrived this afternoon, I couldn't wait to pick it up, even though I have 2 library books that I should have read first.

It is a quick read, as I am discovering that graphic novels usually are. But for the hour or so I was reading, I was transported right back to high school, and all of the confusion and insecurity associated with that time. I could relate to Skim (officially Kimberly Keiko Cameron) and her experience of feeling isolated and not quite understanding what was going on. The issues that I remember from high school are not the same as what Skim is facing - I don't remember any suicides at my school, and I didn't have a lesbian crush on one of my teachers - but the issues that I do remember (depression, bullying, teen pregnancy...) resonated the same. I still remember the feeling of wanting to fit in, and yet seeing fitting in as being hypocritical. As an interesting side note, the book takes place in the fall of 1993 when Skim is 16 - I was also 16 in the fall of 1993.

I loved Skim's observations of the crazy world around her. "Truthfully I am always a little depressed but that is just because I am sixteen and everyone is stupid (ha-ha-ha). I doubt it has anything to do with being a goth." "Halloween is when a lot of non-witches dress up like witches. So it's hard to see people as they really are. Unless they are dressed up like Barbie or Nixon or Freddy, in which case you know they are lame-o freaks." "My school = goldfish tank of stupid." "P.S. Mom is NOT a light sleeper. Good thing I'm not a drug addict or anything or I could easily rob her blind."

So who should read this book? Anyone who remembers the real angst of being a misfit in high school. Or anyone who is currently experiencing the angst of being a misfit in high school. (Interestingly, this book is put out by a children's publisher.) Maybe not the "popular girls" from high school - though I'm not saying that they didn't have their problems, they just appeared as though they didn't.

And as an extra bonus, the day after I ordered this book, John over at The Book Mine Set announced a mini-challenge - if 10 Canadian books with a Japanese connection are reviewed in the month of April, he will donate $200 to the Red Cross. As Mariko and Jillian Tamaki are cousins of Japanese origin, this book definitely counts!

Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John - Jean Vanier

This is a book that is very difficult to review. It is a devotional, with meditations written on John's gospel, by a hero of mine, Jean Vanier. Each chapter is devoted to a section of the gospel (usually a full chapter), and reads a bit like a sermon - not the boring kind of sermon that is easy to tune out but more like the type of sermon that engages your attention and causes you to reflect on the implications in your own life.

It was recommended to me by a retired minister a month or so ago, when I phoned him to ask him to cover a Sunday service at my church. He told me about this book, and that he reads through it as a devotional every year during Lent. As I mentioned above, Jean Vanier is a hero of mine; plus I love reading the Gospel of John, so the book seemed like a perfect match. And so it was. It lived up to it's title, "Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus" and at times I could sense the presence of Jesus in the room with me as I was reading.

I also managed to time my reading so that I was reading through the second half of the gospel this past week; reading about Jesus entering Jerusalem last Sunday (Palm Sunday), his arrest and crucifixion yesterday (Good Friday), and then his resurrection today, as the world prepares to celebrate the Easter miracle tomorrow. I suspect that this added extra depth to my reading.

Who would I recommend this book to? Anyone who is a fan of Jean Vanier and his work; anyone who loves the Gospel of John; and also to anyone who is seeking to know Jesus or learn more about Christianity. I suspect that I will join the retired minister who recommended this book to me in making it a part of my annual Lenten devotions.

In Praise of Slow - Carl Honoré

Before I begin this review, I should probably say that Honoré is preaching to the converted in my case! Maybe that is why this book appealed to me so much when I saw it sitting on my friend's coffee table last week and asked to borrow it.

The basic premise of this book is that we live in a world obsessed with speed - that all domains of our lives are dominated by the clock and by our need to do everything faster. He starts out by explaining why this is detrimental to our health (physical and mental), our relationships with others, and the quality of everything we do, as well as our enjoyment of life. He then goes into different movements around the world aimed at slowing down different aspects of our lives - food, cities, mind and body, medicine, sex, work, leisure, and child-rearing - and makes connections between the different movements, connecting them all by the underlying philosophy that if you slow things down, you can enjoy them more. He also clarifies that he isn't a Luddite (there is even a plug for book blogging - not only is reading a Slow hobby, but then you slow it down even more when you reflect on what you have read); nor does he say that everything you do has to be at a slow pace, rather there is a "Tempo Giusto" or proper speed for everything.

As he said, he is preaching to the converted in my case. I work 4 days a week by choice, and my job (as a homecare physiotherapist) allows me to take time with each patient; I cook most of my food from scratch; I enjoy Slow hobbies such as reading, music, and gardening; I drive the speed limit (usually); I no longer have a television that works; and while I volunteer and participate in activities outside of work, I am nowhere near as scheduled as I was 10 years ago and have learned how to say No. My friends laughed at me when I picked up this book, telling me that I was the last person who needs to read it!

I especially enjoyed the section talking about the Tempo Giusto movement in classical music. Basically this says that all music written before 1900 is today played about twice as fast as it was originally intended to be played; and that while the increased speed allows for virtuosity, the music loses meaning when it is sped up too much. I was at a performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony a few weeks ago, and while I came out of the concert impressed with the performance, during it I found it to be too rushed (at least 3 out of the 4 movements) and that I didn't have time to enjoy the music. At a music lesson last week, my teacher told me that one piece by Bach I am working on is "basically correct, but needs to be about twice as fast." I should come back to him next lesson and tell him that I am practicing Tempo Giusto!

The book itself is very readable, well paced, and well organized. Overall, an enjoyable read. And with one week left until Easter, my fiction fast is almost over. I have had some cravings along the way, but have managed to hold out; and have discovered some excellent books along the way. I've placed a couple of fiction holds on books at the library - I just hope that my turn doesn't come up before next weekend!

The Great Work - Thomas Berry

I always approach books recommended by friends with some trepidation. On one hand, the recommendation comes from someone who knows me and what I like to read; but on the other hand, what happens if I don't like the book (remembering Wide Sargasso Sea)?

The Great Work is the all-time favourite book of a good friend, and I finally sat down to read it this month. While I liked it, I didn't love it.

Berry's main premise is that our current geobiological era is ending, due to the devastation that humans have wrought on the planet; and that the Great Work of our present age is to move from our current way of living (all things are placed on the earth for humans to use) to a more benign way of living, in harmony with everything on the planet. (all things have equal right to exist and be). He explains in the first chapter, "We have human rights. We have rights to the nourishment and shelter we need. We have rights to habitat. But ewe have no rights to deprive other species of their proper habitat. We have no rights to interfere with their migration routes. We have no rights to disturb the basic functioning of the biosystems of the plane." Later, he describes standing by a meadow as a child where he observed, "Whatever preserves and enhances this meadow in the natural cycles of its transformation is good; whatever opposes this medow or negates it is not good."

The first part of the book describes the earth's history and emergence of life, with the cycles of seasons and days; with a particular focus on North America. The next part describes what has gone wrong, in human history - the human-centered rather than earth-centered norm; ethical thinking that favours humans over non-humans; corporations that control all aspects of our lives; over-reliance on petroleum; education and political systems that promote the status quo; and an economy that depends on extraction of resources from the earth that by definition must come to an end. And the final part of the book describes what must be done to enter the new era of living in harmony with the earth - re-inventing the human using the wisdoms that we already have but may not recognize (the wisdom of indigenous peoples, the wisdom of women, the wisdom of the classical traditions, and the wisdom of science).

I found much of this book to be very bleak - describing how all aspects of life have gone wrong due to human actions. A quote on the cover calls this book "the modern equivalent of the biblical book of Revelation" however I found myself comparing the author to John the Baptist, "the voice of one crying out in the wilderness," calling on all people to repent of our ways.

This is a book that I do think that people should read. Our current way of living is unsustainable. Petroleum is going to run out, possibly within our lifetime. Life in the future will, by necessity, look different than life today.

I did have a few quibbles with this book though. I found it to be written from a North American (and particularly US) point of view. If our Great Work is to re-invent how we live in relation to our earth, it will necessarily need to involve all people from all cultures. Having lived for a few years in another culture (the Haya people in Tanzania), many of the statements of why life is going off-the-rails don't apply in that culture.

Also, I found the overall impression to be very bleak. Given our capabilities of today, I feel very hopeless that we can as a human species make this transformation into the future. Take an example of food - humans can digest raw food, yet studies show that food becomes more nutritious if it is cooked. What is the way of cooking this food that is in harmony with the planet? Electricity? Coal vs. nuclear vs. hydroelectricity - all of these place stress on the planet. Wood? Air pollution and deforestation? Charcoal? Ditto. Various petroleum options? Air pollution and non-renewable. Even the "cleaner" sources of energy such as solar and wind affect the planet in a negative way though the production and transportation on a large or small scale of the components required. (This example is mine - it doesn't come from the book.)

And at the same time, I found his solutions to be naively optimistic at times. "We need not simply a national or a global economy but local subsistence economies where the variety of human groups become acquainted with the other species in the local bioregion." He does state that local populations will need to adapt to the local environment; but is this truly feasible?

But overall it is a book that made me think and made me consider the way that I am living now. I am the first one to admit that, much as I try to make as small of a footprint on this earth, I am still dependent on petroleum and the extractive economy. Thank you, LM, for the book recommendation!

I am going to end with the poem that serves as the dedication to this book, as I think that it is very beautiful and sums up this book very well.

To the children

To all the children

To the children who swim beneath

The waves of the sea, to those who live in

The soils of the Earth, to the children of the flowers

In the meadows and the trees in the forest, to

All those children who roam over the land

And the winged ones who fly with the winds,

To the human children too, that all the children

May go together into the future in the full

Diversity of their regional communities.