“Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” seems to describe the baker’s dozen books I read in August. A real mix with some very good reads but nothing that totally grabbed me and received a five star rating.

1. The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick
Genre: Non-fiction, History
Dolnick has written a compelling, extremely readable history of the birth of modern science, including calculus, which explains the world around us. Fascinating.

2. The Winter of Our Disconnect: How Three Totally Wired Teenagers (and a Mother Who Slept with Her iPhone)Pulled the Plug on Their Technology and Lived to Tell the Tale by Susan Maushart
Genre: Non-fiction, memoir
Maushart, the mother of 3 teenagers, instituted a ‘screen-free’ home for 6 months. Full of interesting statistics and anecdotes about her family’s time without television, iPod, iPhone, Internet, Gameboy et al

3. Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay
Novel: Fiction, Canadian
Novel set in 1975 and 1976 Yellowknife (capital of North-West Territories, Canada). It’s the story of a group of people who operate the radio station there, and their canoe trip into the wilds of The Barrens, following the route of doomed explorer John Hornby.

4. A Good Hard Look by Ann Napolitano
Genre: Fiction
Fictionalized account of the last years of author Flannery O’Connor’s life in the town of Milledgeville Georgia. Well-written, seamless plot and great insights.

5. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
Genre: Fiction, women’s light
Originally published in 1938. This light-hearted romp, an hour by hour account of Miss Pettigrew’s magical 24 hours was turned into a charming movie starring Frances McDormand and Amy Adams. Delightful.

6. Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico
Genre: Fiction, Women’s light
Another happy-go-lucky oldie, originally published in 1957. Quaint English charwoman Ada Harris falls in love with a Dior dress and decides to go to Paris to buy one.

7. Beautiful Joe – An Autobiography of a Dog by Marshall Saunders
Genre: Fiction, Animal stories
Written in 1893 and winner of a contest sponsored by the ASPCA, this story, told from the point of view of a dog, is a treatise about the evils of animal abuse. Meant originally for school children, it became a best-seller and contributed to worldwide awareness of animal cruelty. Read on my Kindle.

8. Snares of Guilt by Lesley Horton
Genre: Fiction, Police procedural
Book #1 of the Detective Inspector Handford series. A police procedural rather than a mystery as we know in the first chapter who the murderer is. Solid plot, likable but flawed protagonists.

9. Soul Clothes by Regina D. Jemison
Genre: Poetry
A win from LibraryThing, this slim volume of poetry by Michigan lawyer Jemison touches on faith, relationships & life. My review is here.

10. The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Genre: Literary fiction
One of McCullers’ best known works, this centers around one weekend in the life of twelve-year-old Frankie aka Jasmine aka Frances as she prepares for her brother’s wedding.

11. Crossroads Road by Jeff Kay
Genre: Fiction
A win from the author. A novel that tells the story of a dysfunctional family whose overbearing matriarch wins $24 million and offers each of her children $2m and a new home – in her subdivision, Crossroads Road. Review coming. Read on my Kindle.

12. Valley of the Lost by Vicki Delaney
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
Second in the Constable Molly Smith/Seargent John Winters mystery series. A disappointment: the plot seemed contrived and far-fetched, and the writing seemed not to have seen either a proof reader or an editor.

13. The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers
Genre: Literary fiction
Another of McCullers most famous – a novella about the said café and its owner. Odd.

Kindle versions:

Beautiful Joe An Autobiography of a Dog FREE

Crossroads Road

Links for my Canadian readers:

The Clockwork Universe

The Winter of Our Disconnect

Late Nights on Air

A Good Hard Look

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris

Beautiful Joe

Snares of Guilt

The Member of the Wedding

Valley of the Lost

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe: and Other Stories

Amazon Kindle 3G

On the way to the nearest town 45 minutes away, the highway runs by a field in which there is often a white horse. And if the horse is there, so is the goat, following the horse around like a shadow. This summer, there is a new addition – the goat’s kid, who is not visible in the photo.

I think people must stop often for photos and the horse is fed up. Nearly every time I took a shot, he moved his rear-end to the camera. Not amused by the paparazzi , I guess.

Genre: Fiction

Note: This review contains spoilers.

Room: A Novel is the story of five-year-old Jack and his mother and their life as prisoners in an 11×11 foot storage locker (the titular Room). Eventually, they devise a plan for escape and make it out into the world.

Jack narrates the story and, told from his point of view, the horror of the prison sinks in only slowly. Ma was kidnapped before Jack’s birth and he has known no other life. The room contains his life and his world, and he is satisfied with it. They do have a television but Jack thinks of as being ‘outer space’(outside his ‘world’) and not real.

At first, it is a little annoying that Jack speaks of the objects in Room without definite articles. But the reason for that oddity in language is that these objects are who occupy his life.

For TV, I go in Rocker but Ma sits on Bed with Kit, she’s putting the hem back up on her brown dress with pink bits. We watch the medical planet where doctors and nurses cut holes to pull the germs out. The persons are asleep not dead. The doctors don’t bite the threads like Ma, they use super sharp daggers and after, they sew the persons up like Frankenstein.

Jack is slightly precocious but we must remember that Ma has had exclusive one-on-one time with him for five years to teach him, and she has tried to provide instruction, routine and life skills.

The story of Jack & Ma’s life in the room is compelling, and their escape attempt is suspenseful. But I found the really thought-provoking issues were the ones that Jack faced once he & Ma were in the outside world.

Everything is new for Jack – the people, the noise, the sun, even having to wear shoes. As he faces these challenges, Ma struggles with her own re-entry problems.

After some months in his new world, Jack needs to see Room to tie up emotional loose ends. This is heart-wrenching.

We step through the door and it’s all wrong, Smaller than Room and emptier and it smells weird. Floor’s bare, that’s because no Rug, she’s in my wardrobe in our Independent Living, I forgot she couldn’t be here at the same time. Bed’s here but there’s no sheets or Duvet on her. Rocker’s here and Table and Sink and Bath and Cabinet but no plates or cutlery on top, and Dresser and TV and Bunny with the purple bow on him, and Shelf but nothing on her, and our chairs folded up but they’re all different. Nothing says anything to me. “I don’t think this is it.” I whisper to Ma. “Yeah, it is.” Our voices sound not like us. “Has it got shrunk?” “No, it was always like this.”

I’ve spoken to a lot of people who’ve not read Room because they feel it’s too ‘dark’. On the contrary, this is a book about the indomitability of the human spirit, the capacity to adapt, and the power of love. Recommended.

Links for my Canadian readers:

Room

Genre: Literary Fiction

The Stone Angel is a tour de force of Canadian literature. I read this several years ago and then again this past month. The rereading exceeded my memories and expectations.

The book is the story of 90-year-old Hagar Shipley, told in flashbacks as she struggles with her declining abilities.

Hagar was born around 1875, the only daughter of a haughty and stern Scotsman, in the fictional town of Manawaka, Manitoba. Her mother died in child-birth and her father spoiled her and taught her to be proud:

God might have created heaven and earth and the majority of people, but Father was a self-made man, as he himself had told us often enough.

Hagar learned pride well—too well—and pride is her downfall throughout her life. Pride prevents her from taking her father’s advice not to marry Brampton Shipley; pride thwarts her from love in her marriage; pride keeps her from finding joy in her sons. Ultimately, Hagar has lived a loveless, unhappy life largely due to her own haughtiness and resulting failure to recognize and communicate her feelings.

Although she has accumulated wisdom from her mistakes, she seems to stubbornly refuse to relate it to herself, while liberally applying it to others.

Stupid girl. She knows nothing. Why won’t she praise him a little she’s so sharp with him. He’ll become fed up in a minute. I long to warn her—watch out, watch out, you’ll lose him.

Well, the poor thing…Fancy spending your life worrying about what people were thinking. She must have had a rather weak character.

Once strong and self-sufficient, Hagar now depends on her son and his wife, both in their sixties, for care, projecting her self-loathing at her physical infirmities onto those who try to help her.

She can’t sit still an instant, that woman. She’s like a flea. I am under the impression that I myself am sitting quite composedly on this uncomfortable chair until Doris turns to me with a faintly puckered forehead. “Try and sit quietly, Mother. The more you fidget, the longer a time it seems.”

Laurence writes in an authentic voice, with brevity of words but deep insight. Sometimes the sentences are so brief that one can miss the breathtakingly precise understanding of life.

It doesn’t seem so very long ago.

Things never look the same from the outside as they do from the inside.

Nothing is ever changed at a single stroke, I know that full well, although a person sometimes wishes it could be otherwise.

As Hagar’s life draws to a close, she seems to finally admit her failings to herself and the regret and anguish she felt touched me deeply:

Every good joy I might had held, in my man or any child of mine or even the plain light of morning, of walking the earth, all were forced to a standstill by some brake of proper appearances—oh, proper to whom? When did I ever speak the heart’s truth? Pride was my wilderness, and the demon that led me there was fear.

Published in 1964, The Stone Angel has been on Canadian high school English curricula for decades and, despite its eloquence & power, has earned the derision of many students. I think this is because youth doesn’t identify with aging, with the regrets of life, or long-term consequences of things done when they are young.

I maintain that The Stone Angel is Canadian Literature (CanLit) at its finest.

Link for my American readers:

The Stone Angel

Exurbanis is featured today on The Scene of the Blog over at Kittling: Books. Each week, Cathy, who runs my favorite mostly-mystery book blog, profiles a book blog space somewhere in the world. Go on over and have a look at mine!

I’ve been reading books since the middle of the last century, and for all of that time the physicality of books has been important to me.

I have sweet childhood memories of the smell of the old library in St. Thomas Ontario where I whiled away many a summer afternoon, and the weight of the four precious books we could check out and carry home. I love the look of the books on my shelves. I love the feel of a book in my hands-especially one with linen pages and deckled edges.

So, over the past few years, I’ve approached the idea of e-books with mixed feelings. I intensely dislike reading on a computer screen and assumed that an e-reader would give me the same type of experience. But that’s no longer so, if it ever was. And I’ve been increasingly drawn to the convenience of an e-reader. When we went on our road trip to Ontario last month, I filled an entire tote bag with my reading material. It was just one more bag to lug around.

Once I made the decision that I’d like an e-reader, I was frustrated by my budget. So I began entering contests on-line to win one. And—surprise—I did – from Kindle Nation on Facebook. Kindle Nation has frequent posts and newsletters with all the details of the latest Kindle books, especially the free ones. (Pop on over and enter this month’s contest for yourself.)

It’s the latest Kindle with 3G reception which runs off the cellphone network. In the country, any sort of wireless coverage is iffy, but if I aim my Kindle out my open office window, it downloads just fine. And it’s so easy! I can browse from my Kindle or from my Amazon account on my laptop. I choose a book, click ‘purchase with one-click’ and sit back & watch it appear on my Kindle, ready to read. So far, I’ve ‘bought’ only free books, but I’m sure the day is coming when I make the digital equivalent of an all-day trip to Chapters.

As I ferried my new Kindle about, showing it off, I was constantly aware that I could be damaging the screen and that it should be in a cover. But again—the budget! Then a dear friend gave me a surprise gift on Thursday evening – a DEE-LUXE leather Kindle cover with a light for night-time reading. To say I was thrilled is putting it mildly. I’ve already used the light, reading in the car on the way home from the movies on the weekend.

My Kindle (or any e-reader) will never replace books for me. But it’s a great addition for certain circumstances. It’s about ‘versus’ after all. Welcome to the twenty-first century, me.

I first posted about the great Community Supported Agriculture project in Tatamagouche in June, when we received our first box of vegetables. Since then, there doesn’t seem to have been a lot of change in what we get each week, although the last few weeks we’ve seen such diverse food as broccoli, kohlrabi, fennel, and kale.

The problem is the wet weather we’re experiencing here in Nova Scotia this year. It seems like the rain started in early May and hasn’t stopped since. For instance, last week we received 4 inches (100 mm) of precipitation. Then, after a couple of sunny days on the weekend, it started raining at seven o’clock Monday morning and continued steadily all day, giving us another 2 inches this week. And there’s still no sun in sight.

Most of the rest of Canada is having an extremely dry summer and although rain threatens, there hasn’t been enough. When we were in southern Ontario in late July, we saw lawns and gardens, ditches and roadsides burned brown by the sun. Although I’d rather be here with too much rain (at least it’s not enough so far to cause serious flooding), it’s getting to be too much of a good thing – and it’s having a drastic effect on the vegetable crops.

Cammie, who runs the local CSA, advised us in late July that she had lost about 70% of her early crops in the wet and muddy spring (peas, beans, cabbage, broccoli, spring turnips, beets, salad mix, pac choi, Chinese cabbage, & radishes). But the summer really hasn’t been much better weather wise. This is the first week we’ve received beans in our harvest and there have been no peas at all.

But that’s the risk of a CSA program: farmers and members share in the risk of a bad year, as well as the bounty of a good one.

This week we received carrots, ruby-stemmed chard, a lettuce head, cilantro, broccoli, green & yellow beans, and fresh garlic.

Even though the weather and the resulting harvest have been a little disappointing thus far this year, I’m still keen on the CSA program and will join again next year (providing we have the cash in March). And I’m looking forward to many more weeks of superbly fresh and interesting vegetables this harvest season.

There are only a few books I’ve encountered in my life that merit rereading multiple times—Mrs. Mike and Gone with the Wind spring to mind—but A Dog’s Purpose: A Novel for Humans by W. Bruce Cameron is definitely one to add to my list of favorites.

I’ll admit upfront: I’m a dog lover. Over the last twenty years, we’ve owned five dogs (two of them currently) and, although I think these guys are our last, life without a dog is difficult to imagine right now. So my feelings are ready to be drawn into a story about a dog that loves his people and longs to find his reason for living.

The story in A Dog’s Purpose is told from the point of view of the titular dog throughout his four lives. Okay – I don’t believe that humans are reborn, let alone animals. If you feel like I do, don’t let that stop you from reading this book anyway. Although the premise of the dog’s four lives is integral to the story, the story isn’t about that.

Cameron keeps the concept of a canine narrator from becoming overly cutesy by keeping the dog in character as far as understanding what humans are saying. Although he’ll quote their conversations for us, he relays them rather than comprehends them. What he understands of human language is what an average dog would: his name and the commands that he’s been taught.

But the dog fathoms humans and their interactions with each other, and with animals, through other means: mainly scents (and emotions give off scents). He understands other animals in the same way, although he relates to them more on a peer level.

Tinkerbell needed constant assurance from me now that she was the only cat—several times a day I’d awaken from a nap to find her pressed up against me or, even more disconcerting, standing and staring at me. I didn’t understand her attachment to me and knew it was not my purpose in life to be a substitute mother for a feline, but I didn’t mind it much and even let her lick me sometimes because it seemed to make her happy.

The dog also learns from his experiences in each life.

I was beginning to realize that life was far more complicated than it had appeared to be in the Yard [in his first life] and that it was people who were in charge of it, and not dogs. What mattered was not what I wanted, what mattered was that I was (with) Ethan… being his companion.

And, again:

I understood that what was expected of me was to live with the new rules, the way I’d learned to live with Ethan going to do college… a dog’s job was to do what people wanted.

I read A Dog’s Purpose while we were driving through eastern Ontario on a road trip. I laughed out loud many a time and wanted to read passage after passage out loud to my husband; a few minutes later, I’d be sobbing uncontrollably with tears streaming down my face. When we made pit stops, I frantically wiped away streaked mascara and powdered as much of my face as I could to hide the red blotches. The roller-coaster emotional ride of reading this book is much like owning a dog: lots of fun and joy throughout its life, and grief at the end of it when you lose a dear companion.

I borrowed this book from my local library but I’m going to buy a copy for my shelf, to have on hand to lend to friends and to reread myself. Is this great literature? Heck, no. A great read? You bet! I recommend it for all readers, of all ages, who have ever loved a dog.

Links for my Canadian Readers:

Gone with the Wind

What would you do if you suddenly lost your high-powered, high-pressure job in a declining industry, and received a year’s severance pay? Hit the pavement? Take up a hobby? Stay under the covers?

The author of Unfinished Business: One Man’s Extraordinary Year of Trying to Do the Right Things, Lee Kravitz, faced just such a situation in his mid-fifties. After taking stock of seemed to be a very successful life, he decided to spend that year reconnecting to the people in his life. As he says:

As good as my life looked on paper, it was sorely lacking in the one area that puts flesh on meaning: human connectedness.

We all have the kind of unfinished business to which Kravitz refers in the title of his book—emotional loose ends: old friends we’ve lost touch with, promises we made but didn’t keep, family we’ve grown apart from, things unsaid that need saying.

By the time we reach our fifties, most of us have accumulated a long list of such items, partly because we think we’ll get to them later, we need our own time, we’re busy with other things, or it’s just too difficult to or embarrassing to carry through. It’s true that as Kravitz says,

If we remembered how we could be separated from our loved ones at any moment, we would accumulate a lot less unfinished business.

In Kravitz’s year of making amends, he set out on ten ‘journeys’, including catching up with a loved aunt who had drifted out of his life, making an over-due condolence call, paying a 30-year-old debt to an associate, looking up a mentor of his youth, and visiting a high-school friend who is now a Greek Orthodox monk. Along the way, he gains insights into himself and into what really makes a life – his and ours.

Reading this book has made me aware of the emotional loose ends in my own life, but being aware and taking the time and effort to do something are two different things. Kravitz recognized how much of a struggle it would be to keep up the rekindled relationships on an on-gong basis once he ‘re-entered his life’. He determined to make time, and so should we all. I would be interested in a follow-up from Kravitz: how has he handled that intention?

Of course, you’ll relate to this book if you’re a baby-boomer, beginning to question the value of what you’re achieved thus far in life, but don’t wait until then. Read this at twenty, thirty, or forty and perhaps you’ll prevent some of the regret that comes of losing touch over the years with the people you care about. After all, as Kravitz says:

Life goes fast. Click. You are fifteen. Click, click. You are fifty-five. Click, click. You are gone. And so are the people who loved and nurtured you.

Link for my Canadian readers:

Unfinished Business

Note: Amazon.ca is charging twice as much (19.44) as Amazon.com ($10.00 for hardcover), so if you’re in Canada, I’d suggest the Kindle version:

Unfinished Business: One Man’s Extraordinary Year of Trying to Do the Right Things

Another road trip to Ontario in July helped me up the number of books read for the month – and I read a lot of GOOD ones! I hope you get some ideas for your TBR list.

I’m really behind in my blogging because of the road trip and a really bad cold that laid me low before we left, but I do hope to publish detailed reviews of all or most of these titles throughout this month.

1. A Dog’s Purpose: A Novel for Humans by W. Bruce Cameron

Just released in paperback. A wonderful story told by the dog in question: Toby, Bailey, Ellie, Buddy – well, you’ll see….

It made me laugh out loud and sob uncontrollably. It’s my pick for my book of the month – which says something given the quality of the others I read. If you’ve ever loved a dog, you will love this book. My review is here.

2. The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
It’s been several years since I read this Canadian classic and it has held up even better than I could imagine. Told by elderly Hagar Shipley, it’s her story – of love and loss, and the tragedy of not communicating. See my review.

3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Set in WWII Germany, the story of a young girl and her best friend, the boy down the street. If you love to own books, you’ll appreciate this. In a twist that makes it stand out from other books in this genre, the story is narrated by Death.

4. Room by Emma Donoghue
A gripping story told by five-year-old Jack, of his life in “Room” with his Ma who was kidnapped before his birth and has been held for seven years in this one-room prison. Not nearly as dark as it sounds. Jack will warm your heart. You can read more about what I thought.

5. To Fetch a Thief by Spencer Quinn
The third in the Chet & Bernie mystery series, of which I am a huge fan (as you may know). In this story, the intrepid detectives track a stolen circus elephant across the California desert. Chet is, as ever, endearing.

6. The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
My third reading of another Canadian classic by wordsmith Shields. Described as a family album set to a novel, this account of 90-something Daisy Goodwill’s life is rich and real.

7. The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen
The gentle story of two elderly sisters, Twiss and Milly, who live alone in the house where they grew up in Spring Green, Wis. Ultimately, it’s a portrayal of sacrifices made for family – and the roads that lead from them.

8. Unfinished Business: One Man’s Extraordinary Year of Trying to Do the Right Things by Lee Kravitz
After losing his job, Lee Kravitz—a man who always worked too hard and too much—took stock of his life and decided to spend an entire year making amends and reconnecting with the people and parts of himself he had neglected. Much to ruminate about here as Kravitz reaches out to family & old friends, caught up on commitments he meant to keep but didn’t, and looks at roads not taken. My review is here.

9. Diary Of A Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
Originally published in 1931 and surely the basis for Bridget Jones’s Diary and like books. Wry, clever, and, ultimately, more sophisticated than current versions.

10. Gator Aide by Jessica Speart
First in the Rachel Porter mystery series. Novice U.S. Fish and Wildlife agent Porter is called to attend the murder investigation of a stripper because the victim’s pet alligator was found dead at the scene. Rachel’s likable, if a little less-than-mellow in her attitude toward equality with the good ol’ boys.

11. Nancy’s Wedding Feast and Other Tasty Tales by James O. St. Clair & Yvonne C. LeVert
Historical narratives from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, accompanied by recipes that complete the tales, to give the full flavour of Cape Breton’s rich and varied cultural palate. An interesting foray into the history & culture of the island.
This a stop on my Atlantic Canada Literary Road Trip.

12. The Magnificent Spinster by May Sarton
I didn’t finish this so won’t rate it, but did read 260 pages of it, so feel it should count. In response to my request for reader feedback, I received a lovely email which has encouraged me to pick this up at another time, and give it another try.

Links for my Canadian readers:

A Dog’s Purpose

The Stone Angel

The Book Thief

Room

To Fetch a Thief: A Chet and Bernie Mystery

The Stone Diaries

The Bird Sisters

Unfinished Business: One Man’s Extraordinary Year of Trying to Do the Right Things

The Diary of a Provincial Lady

Bridget Jones’s Diary

Gator Aide

Nancy’s Wedding Feast and Other Tasty Tales

The Magnificent Spinster

There’s thunderstorms somewhere around here this evening – we hear them in the distance and every so often see a faint flash of lightning. The dogs are not happy, as unused to the sound of thunder as they are.

Meanwhile, sunset came and went behind the clouds, lighting up the western sky with these gorgeous colors.

I never tire of sunsets; in the city, we seldom saw them as the buildings blocked our view.

The less-than-rich soil and shorter growing season along Nova Scotia’s North Shore means that most of the farmland around is used in woodlot, wild blueberries, hayfields, beef & dairy herds, and sheep – lots and lots of sheep. While many of the area farmers still use dogs to herd and protect their flocks–border collies and Bernese mountain dogs being a couple of the favorites–more and more are turning to the use of llamas.

Llamas are relatively friendly, curious and a great asset in keeping the local sheep from the local coyotes. You can read about their guard qualities here.

Yesterday afternoon, we passed a large flock of baa-ing ewes and lambs (what a marvelous sound!) and caught their protector in the middle of a grassy mouthful.

I thought you’d enjoy seeing this, too.

Maybe I’m becoming more discriminating in my reading tastes – or maybe I’m just getting cranky in my old age. Over the last week, I’ve started three books that I didn’t finish.

Taking a page from Jackie over at Farm Lane Books, I’m throwing this out to you, my dear readers. Is there some compelling reason I should finish any of these books? Do you agree with my decision that my reading time is better spent elsewhere? I’d love to hear from you either way.

1. The Magnificent Spinster: A Novel by May Sarton

Sarton published over a score of novels and nearly four dozen collections of poems between 1938 and her death in 1995, including The Magnificent Spinster in 1985. I found the premise of a “novel within a novel” intriguing and enjoyed reading this for a while. But at about page 200, the exploits of Jane Reid began to feel mundane. At page 220, just over half-way through this book, I quit.

So tell me, is there a plot twist – or even just a plot? It’s going to take more than just well-expressed prose and the rest of the “fifty-year friendship between two women” to keep me reading the last 160 pages.

P.S. This book did yield one of the best cat names I’ve ever heard: Snoozle. Love it!
.
2. The Other Life by Ellen Meister

Quinn Braverman has “two lives that run in parallel lines, like highways on either side of a mountain. On one side, the Quinn who stayed with [an ex-boyfriend] is speeding through her high-drama, childless life in Manhattan. On the other, the Quinn who married Lewis lives in the suburbs, drives a Volvo, and has an adorable young son and another baby on the way.”

Although I don’t read anything to do with the paranormal, I can very occasionally be tempted by science fiction that plays into everyday life. Since I enjoyed the movie Sliding Doors starring Gwyneth Paltrow, I was intrigued by the premise of this book.

In the movie, the Paltrow character finds herself in one of her two parallel lives when the doors of the subway train slide open, with no control over which she happens upon. In The Other Life, Quinn finds ‘portals’ behind the antique ironing board in her basement, and at the bottom of the green beans bin in her local supermarket (!) – and who knows where else in the pages I didn’t read, and the choice seems to be hers to make. A ‘high-anxiety’ day for Quinn, one that might cause her to make the decision to ‘slip away’ into her other life is one in which her toddler has a runny nose (which her husband offers to take care of), and she can’t find a comfortable shirt to wear without resorting to ironing or wearing maternity clothes (which she’ll probably be doing in a couple of weeks anyway). Get a life – (pun perhaps intended)!

So, is there anything in this book that digs down into the nitty-gritty of human emotions? That would cause me to really agonize with Quinn about her ‘choices’? That would be worth spending a day or two reading The Other Life? Let me know.

3. The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark

I love letters, and books that are based on, or include letters. I’ve been intrigued lately books about India. I love reading about the middle decades of the twentieth century. And I love mysteries. So what could go wrong with a book that promises “A sweeping novel that brings to life two love stories, ninety years apart, set against the rich backdrop of war-torn India…In 1947… Martin and Evie find themselves stranded in a colonial bungalow in the Himalayas due to violence surrounding the partition of India between Hindus and Muslims. In that house, hidden behind a brick wall, Evie discovers a packet of old letters, which tell a strange and compelling story of love and war involving two young Englishwomen who lived in the same house in 1857.”

I should have looked more closely at the genre classification for this, because I DO NOT like romance novels, and this is without a doubt a romance novel. I didn’t get beyond the first chapter before the overly-sweet names, abundant co-incidences and cloying prose stopped me cold.

So, what do you think? Can the power of India overcome the romance premise of this story? Is there depth to any of the emotion felt by either Evie OR Felicity?

There you have it, dear readers: three non-finishers . Should I change my mind on any of them?

Links for my Canadian readers:

The Magnificent Spinster

The Other Life

Sliding Doors / Les Portes du Destin

The Sandalwood Tree

Remember how our mothers and grandmothers used to “spring-clean”? It’s not much mentioned these days, it seems. But I learned when I moved to the country and started to heat with a wood furnace, just why Grandma did it – to wash away the wood soot that ends up on everything.

Between cleaning and getting into the garden on the few non-rainy days we had this past month, I ended up spending less time reading. Here’s the eight books I managed to get through.

1. Agnes Warner and the Nursing Sisters of the Great War by Shawna M. Quinn
Agnes Warner of Saint John, New Brunswick served as a nurse in WWI in France & Belgium. She sent letters home, which her friends there bound into a small book to sell to raise funds for Warner to carry out further relief work. That booklet forms the core of this well-researched book about Agnes Warner, her work, and the role of nurses, particularly Canadian ones, in the War (that was supposed) to End All Wars.

2. Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth by Lisa Napoli
Napoli, who works in American radio in Los Angeles, spent several months helping Bhutan’s youths to launch and refine their own radio station. You can read my review of her account here.

3. In the Shadow of the Glacier by Vicki Delaney
First in the Constable Molly Smith mystery series, set in fictional Trafalgar, British Columbia (near non-fictional Nelson). The mystery was decent and I enjoyed the Canadian setting, but the surprise ending that came out of nowhere yet was there all along, elevated this book to above average.

4. The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
Published in 1942, this fictional account of gentry-class girls growing up in 1920s and 1930s England is wickedly funny.

5. Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
The second in the ‘Fanny’ trilogy, this one is still funny, but a little more outrageous as the “lumping Colonial” (from Nova Scotia!) who is to inherit Hampton Court turns out to be Cedric, a swishy “Little Lord Fauntleroy” who becomes the life of 1930 London society.

6. The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley
Published in 1952 and set in the summer of 1900. The jacket says: “While visiting the country estate of a classmate, Leo becomes the charmed and innocent carrier of messages between the beautiful daughter of the house and her lover, a handsome tenant farmer. It is a secret known only by the three, the deeper meaning of which is not perceived by the youngster. Then one terrible night, a sudden and agonizing glimpse into adulthood seals forever Leo’s blighted fate.”

7. The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives by Lola Shoneyin
Set in modern-day Nigeria, in Baba Segi’s polygamous family. An interesting study of personalities, and a culture and a social situation unknown to me. The family dynamic was both foreign and familiar. The secret of the title is easy to discern, though, and seems anti-climatic when it is finally revealed to Baba Segi. The presentation of the subject matter can be a tad raunchy, which detracted from my enjoyment of the book.

8. Tabloid City: A Novel by Pete Hamill
Highly billed, this low-key thriller started out promisingly but built to several anti-climaxes. Set in NYC, a city I love to visit but don’t know as well as I’d like, it may have been more interesting to me if I could have pictured the exact locations cited as each character’s situation was documented. Some foul language, which seemed mostly unnecessary.

Links for my Canadian readers:

Agnes Warner and the Nursing Sisters of the Great War

Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth

In the Shadow of the Glacier

The Pursuit Of Love

Love In A Cold Climate

The Go-between

The Secret Lives Of Baba Segi’s Wives: A Novel

Tabloid City: A Novel

In 2007, L.A. based radio writer Napoli happened across an opportunity to spend several months in Bhutan, a tiny landlocked kingdom in the Himalayas. Bhutan has the distinction of measuring its success in Gross National Happiness rather than GNP, the only nation on earth to do so.

Its happiness seems to have come from its isolation from the rest of the world: there was no need for paper money until 40 years ago, wearing of traditional clothing (the women’s dress is called a kira) is mandatory, and television and Internet were banned until just over a decade ago.

Outsiders have not found it easy to visit either, since there are few roads and only one small airport to which only the government-owned airline (consisting of two planes) flies. In addition, there has long been a $200/day/person tourist tax for visitors (since raised to $250 per day)

But as the fifth king came to power, he insisted that his country have democratic elections for their administration, and gave the youth of Bhutan their own radio station Kuzoo FM. It was at this station that Napoli found herself as a volunteer advisor.

Some of the conditions may sound primitive by North American standards (outside water, no traffic lights, no credit cards, subsistence farming as the main occupation) but Napoli says:

For me, the prospect of a relatively media-free universe was a close to utopia as I could imagine…The promise of a place where life was simpler—unsaturated by the menacing forces of mainstream media…—appealed to me. That Bhutan was guided by intense spirituality, by connection to home and community, held great allure. I was tired of sleep-deprived, stressed-out, too-busy people who shirked downtime in the service of making money so they could buy more stuff; tired of it taking months to see dear friends who lived across town because traffic and overcommitment made it impossible to coordinate a shared meal.

This concept of a simpler life certainly appeals to me, as well—it’s part of the reason we left the city eight years ago and moved to the country—and so I was quite excited to receive this copy of Napoli’s Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth.

Napoli narrates her first impressions of Bhutan and its people, and her ongoing experiences there (& on her return to L.A.) in a thoughtful and insightful manner that does not minimize the hardships of life there. She perceptively considers the present and future impact that contact with the outside world is having on the country.

It was a good thing the government was committed to Gross National Happiness, because that philosophy seemed a crucial necessity to offset the effects of a few hours in front of the television. “Happiness with what you have” wasn’t exactly the backbone philosophy of advertising and media and news.

When I read books, I often like to mark specific passages and quotes. My own books were becoming literally dog-eared from turned-down corners, and putting post-it notes in library books was cumbersome. I recently found these bronze book darts at Lee Valley (that’s not an affiliate link, BTW) and now can easily mark the dozen or so passages I usually find.

This photo shows you how fascinating I found Radio Shangri-la. There were so many points I wanted to share with you, but I suggest you get the book and read it yourself.

Links for my Canadian readers;

Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth

Book darts from Lee Valley

Since I took up gardening in my late twenties (30 years ago!), I’ve never been successful at growing vegetables. I can lose myself for hours pulling weeds and transplanting among the flowering plants, but five minutes in a bean patch seems like drudgery. Consequently, I never developed a sense or an affinity about growing edibles. They remained strangers to me.

So I’ve been stuck buying produce at the supermarket, which has been an increasingly expensive proposition, especially here in rural Nova Scotia. Last year, I was thrilled to hear about a local Community Supported Agriculture co-op, and this past spring sent part of my tax refund to buy a share.

In a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, members sign up and purchase a “share” at the beginning of the growing season which helps to cover the farmer’s cost of operation and production. In return, they receive a portion of the farm’s harvest, distributed throughout the season in a weekly box of fresh, seasonally available, and typically organic, produce.

It’s been a cold, wet spring so the harvesting is off to a late start, but today I picked up our first weekly box of greens. This week we got lettuce mix, spicy mix, Swiss chard, salad turnips, green onions and radishes, along with a recipe for Swiss chard au gratin that I’m eagerly looking forward to trying.

I’m very excited about this program. I get farm-fresh (really & truly farm-fresh) produce straight out of the garden without any of the weeding, and without needing to know how to grow these things. Perfect for the residual city-person in me! (Not to mention the benefits to the local economy.)

If there’s no CSA program in your area, consider contacting a vegetable crop farmer (or even an avid gardener) and starting one.

It’s commonly thought that small towns are safer than cities. And I think Maritimers, particularly, pride themselves on being honest. Even so, people are imperfect, and reality sometimes bites.

So you can imagine the trepidation my husband felt today, after discovering that he had left his cash withdrawal in the bank machine at the SuperStore in Amherst, a town of about 9,500 people. He very nearly didn’t go back to check whether it was there, when he discovered his loss after about an hour.

But go, he did. He spoke to the cashier at the Customer Service register, sheepishly admitting that he thought he had left his money behind. She asked him how much he thought he’d left. When he told the amount, she happily handed him this envelope, containing the cash that an employee had turned in. That young man, who was on his way back in from the parking lot with a load of shopping carts when he spotted the cash, can stand very tall tonight. (Thank you!)

I know that honest people can be anywhere, but I worked in banking for many years in Ontario and, more often than not, when cash was left behind in an ATM, it was pocketed by the next person in line.

It was a small amount today, but it reinforced our belief that living in a small community is the best place to be.

When we came to Nova Scotia, I didn’t realize we were moving near the Cobequid Hills – one of the three mountain ranges here. All of these ranges are part of the Canadian Appalachians, which are an extension of the American mountain chain of the same name.

The Cobequid Hills run along Nova Scotia’s north shore from the Minas Basin to Antigonish, and contain the highest point on the mainland – 1200-foot Nuttby Mountain. (The “mainland” is Nova Scotia without Cape Breton Island.)

My doctor has prescribed walking for my arthritic back and so I try each day to take my dogs for a walk. One of my favorite spots is in the 70-acre hayfield behind our property. This morning was overcast and cool, and the view of the Hills at the back of the field was beautiful.

I’m up to only 15 minutes of walking time, but if you’ve ever tried moving rubber boots through thigh-high grass, you’ll know it’s still a pretty good workout.

I’m not sure how I carved out so much reading time this past month (although I think this most months), but I managed to get through these twelve novels.

1. Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie
Considered to be among the very best from the grande dame’s pen, this Hercule Poirot mystery focuses on five suspects in a 16-year-old murder. Told in Poirot’s conversation with each, and then an accounting by each in a follow-up letter, at first it seemed repetitive. Then I began to notice small inconsistencies between the stories.
This is one of the only Christies that I have solved partway through the book, but rather than being disappointed that it was easy (it wasn’t), it was fascinating to watch the author misdirecting readers. Very satisfying, and worthy of its reputation.

2. The Pig Did It by Joseph Caldwell
Creative writing instructor Aaron McCloud travels from NYC to his Aunt Kitty’s in Ireland’s County Kerry to “suffer. He had come to deepen the lines on his forehead, to implant a mournfulness into his eyes that would forever silence the joyful and inspire shame in the indifferent.” When a pig that Aaron has gotten himself entangled with digs up a human skeleton buried in the backyard, the stage is set for an Irish country comedy of manners in which each of the three main Irish characters are suspicious of the others, and Aaron is left put-upon in his own mind. Caldwell puts farcical doings into lilting language that was beautiful to read for a while, but couldn’t keep me interested in the book which had no discernible plot. I gave up half-way through. Not fair to rate.

3. Wrecker by Summer Wood
A warm story about non-traditional family. You can read my review here.

4. The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
The story of three sisters who arrive at their parents’ home in small-town Ohio, ostensibly to help as their mother undergoes treatment for breast cancer. Each has a secret she is reluctant to share, and problems that must be resolved. I posted my review here.

5. Bullet Work by Steve O’Brien
Murder and mayhem on the backside of a horse-racing track. You can see what I thought here.

6. Skipping a Beat by Sarah Pekkanen
This best seller about a highly successful couple (she, a high-end events planner; he, a soft-drink entrepreneur) was disappointing. Michael & Julia leave behind their poor WV roots and make it big and very rich in Washington D.C. When Michael survives a four-minute clinical death, he decides to give away his wealth. Julia is angry with him for spending so much time making the money, and then angry with him for giving it away. I was ready to vote her as this year’s protagonist you-love-to-hate. If you’re under 40 and haven’t yet realized that wealth is not a security, you might enjoy this – it seems many have.

7. Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
After Max leaves Zoe and a decade of marriage, Zoe meets Vanessa and they become a couple. When Zoe asks Max to sign off on her fertilized eggs that are left from IVF procedures they undertook, the evangelical church he has become involved in takes up the case in “his behalf” and the parties end up in court. If you enjoy John Grisham court dramas, you’ll like this. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, so wasn’t emotionally involved but wondering about the outcome kept me reading to the last page.

8. The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
The story of two sisters, Hannah & Emmaline, told in flashback by 98-year-old Grace who was a maid in their English country home in the years surrounding WW1. Loved the setting, the characters, the mystery, and the story itself. I will definitely read more Kate Morton.

9. Thereby Hangs a Tail: A Chet and Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn
The second book in the absolutely delightful Chet & Bernie mystery series. See my review

10. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
“The book” is a five-hundred-year-old copy of a Jewish Haggadah, a text used at Passover meals. This real-life treasure came to light in Sarajevo in the 1990s and Brooks has imagined a rich history for it in this novel.

11. Murder on Astor Place by Victoria Thompson
First in the Gaslight Mystery series, this features Sarah Brandt, a thirty-something widowed midwife in 1895 NYC. The setting was very interesting, and will be even more so to those who know New York well. Sarah was raised “in society” but now lives simply without her family’s money so we glimpse both the upper & lower classes. Sarah is likable, if a little too competent, and the mystery moderately good.

12. His Majesty’s Yankees by Thomas H. Raddall
A novel set in Nova Scotia, the “fourteenth colony”, during the American Revolutionary War, this follows the life of young David Strang who fights for the “cause” of freedom from the king’s tyranny. A rich lesson in history, geography, politics and culture. Read for the June meeting of our local club, The Loquacious Compendium. This is a stop on my Literary Road Trip.

Links for my Canadian readers:

His Majesty’s Yankees: a Novel of Nova Scotia in the Days of the Revolution

P.S. These links are affiliate links so I will receive a small percentage of any purchase you make after clicking through from this blog.

It’s lobster season again here on Nova Scotia’s North Shore and we’ve been feasting every weekend on those tasty crustaceans. I often wonder just how desperately hungry the first people to crack open these ugly creatures must have been.

Lots of tourists drive home from Nova Scotia with an old-fashioned wooden lobster pot, purchased directly from the fishermen, on roof of their car. But fishermen are using new square metal traps more & more and in a few years those nostalgia-inducing types may not be available except as reproductions.

But there’s always ways to take home parts of the sea trade. The rope that ties the traps together is sometimes fashioned into door mats – think how durable those are! (And until the end of June, The New England Trading Company is listing some of those mats at up to 20% off)

On our first visit east 20 years ago, we paid a dollar for a souvenir mimeographed booklet that explained how to eat lobster. Of course, back home in the middle of the country we never had a chance to test out the method. But here, at least for May and June every year, we perfect our lobster cracking!