Chris Benjamin's Blog

My list of my Favourite Dozen books I read last year (though definitely not necessarily published last year) is now up at https://chris-benjamin.ca/my-favourit....

What were some of your favourites?

I have a new website! Visit me at https://chris-benjamin.ca/.

No one is ever as excited about a new website as the new website owner. But, it is really a big step forward for me because it focuses much more on my books, a nice page for each of them. And you can now buy them directly from my website with either a credit card or google pay. (If you have another tool you prefer let me know.)

All the same content is there, just better organized and with a more modern look. It also works on a smart phone now.

If you want to buy a book, you can do that on my new website. (Shipping may be a challenge until the Canada Post strike is resolved. But if you live near Halifax I will deliver.)
If you want to book me for an event, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to review or comment on any of my books, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to know how much a book weighs or when it was published, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to sign up for my newsletter, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to read nice things people said about my work, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to send me an email, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to connect on social media, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to see pictures of me, you can do that on my new website.

But it WON'T write a book for you. Enough with the AI.

Anyhoo, please take a gander and I'd really love it if you passed it on. If you know anyone looking for gift ideas, tell them, :you can do that on Chris Benjamin's new website."

Oh, and if you find any bugs in the machine i.e. anything not working or looking quite right, please let me know either via email or the handy contact form.

The official URL is https://chris-benjamin.ca/. But if you go to the old chrisbenjaminwriting.com site, it'll take you right there. It's so clever!

HUGE shout out to Frank at Orlando Media, who built this sucker in record time. He is amazing to work with, incredibly responsive and came at it with an extremely "can do" attitude. He's the best!

Inside: Thoughts from a Pandemic by Various Authors
(Published by Nevermore)
I had a story in this one so I'm biased but I really enjoyed these poems, stories and essays trying to make sense of a claustrophobic time everyone shared.

From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle
This is one of the best accounts of addiction I’ve ever read, mainly because it was easy to connect with the author, to understand the loneliness he must have felt even when he wasn’t explicit about it. I got a great sense of his humility, his gratitude for life and survival, and his unwillingness to blame his mistakes on others, even when he was traumatized. I came to better appreciate a lot of the difficulties people I’ve known and loved have experienced.

Pay No Heed to the Rockets by Marcello Di Cintio
I've had this shelved for years, and was inspired to read it by current world events. It was soul food, the words of poets (in interviews) making sense of their ravaged world, not only the wars but also quotidian life, including patriarchy, tradition, faith, literature, the art of great coffee. It was also sad to wonder how they're faring now.

The World of Dew
Julian Mortimer Smith
Speculative fiction from a Nova Scotia author casting light on the world we know and face: social media, climate change, artificial intelligence, virtual planes, hyper commercialization, grifters, war machines, and occasional authoritarianism. A fascinating mix of well crafted stories.

What it Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah
The writing is excellent. On Themes of the roles we play and that are societally foisted on us due to gender, race, nation of origin, or other fated things beyond us. A mix of realism and surrealism. My favourites tended to be the latter, particularly Who Will Greet You at Home, What is a Volcano, and the title story.

We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama
For the first time ever I read all five Giller shortlisted books. This one was my favourite. A beautifully written and well constructed tale of displacement, emphasizing the essential nature of homeland, how place shapes and defines us all, with much resonance in american Indigeneity.

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu
The first story was incredible: innovative in the telling, the dialogue (which was the whole story) was sharp and interesting, and in the end I was moved, and had fresh insights into the nature of reality and technology. Brilliant. The rest of the stories were also quite good, some great.

You Can't Win by Jack Black
“If they would give more attention to the high chair, they could put cobwebs on the electric chair.”
“…the cop is a victim of the same machine which makes the criminal.”
The most interesting part was the postscript, in which the author makes his case for a preventative rather than punitive approach to crime. Having suffered decades of punishment he makes his case quite clearly and plainly, and it is convincing. 100 years later though we remain a vengeful society.

When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut
Beautifully written. It's speculative, imagined, but I'm not sure it's a novel. It's not structured like one, but that's semantics. It's an engaging, fascinating read about the push to understand what is perhaps not really understandable, the consequences for the explorers and the rest of us. Perhaps it would be better if we resisted asking, or were satisfied with imagined answers (like God). But is that even possible for us?

What Comes Echoing Back by Leo McKay Jr.
Written by a Nova Scotian high school teacher who is a novelist of renown. The novel deals with two high school students who have each experienced brutal trauma in different ways. Social media and bullying factor heavily. Music is their common coping mechanism and healer. Beautifully and powerfully written.

Your Blues Ain't Like Mine by Bebe Moore Campbell
Based on Emmett Till's murder, this novel explores the multigenerational impacts on the families of the victims and perpetrators in the North and South. Moore Campbell's genius was inhabiting the damaged psyches of her characters on all sides.

Laughing with the Trickster by Thompson Highway
“What could have been if this worldview, this ideology, this collective subconscious, this pantheistic Indigenous mythology, had been listened to, if it had been respected?”
Perhaps humans would have a better chance of surviving. And as Thompson indicates, living joyfully, laughing till we fart, laughing till we die. Brilliant insights in this book.

1.      Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Epic love story but so much more too, on immigration, culture, race and its relevance in a “melting pot” in a country where ethnic group and race aren’t the same thing, on coming-of-age, on Nigeria, the middle and upper classes in a poor country, a post-colony, on mental illness. I loved the conversations, the dialogue, the characterization. Loved it.

2.      Nova Graphica edited by Laura Kenins
Old stories, graphic style, little slices of Nova Scotia through the years. Some sweetnesses and some of its darker sides. My favourite was “Viola Desmond Had a Dream Too” by Rebecca Roher. A story I thought I knew, but Roher’s telling goes much deeper than others, and brilliantly connects the dots between then and now. She even gets into the land deeds issue facing hundreds of Black Nova Scotian families.

3.      Pass with Care by Cooper Lee Bombardier
Showed me pieces of an experience very different from my own. The writing is so good, poetic in some breathtaking stretches. Every essay was thought provoking; Cooper seems like someone who would always ask plenty of questions. His is a life lived curiously, always pondering, probing, looking for the meaning behind the meaning. But, given the difficulty of the journey, this isn’t a purely intellectual account. It is deeply moving as well.

4.      Animal Person by Alexander MacLeod
The animals are the people, often living on instinct, feeling rational in the moment. With the benefit of context and hindsight, they show themselves to be at the mercy of greater environmental forces. Like all people, they are animals, living moments, accumulating memories that gain significance in the context of expert storytelling.

5.      No Good Alternative by William T Vollmann
Vollmann travels the depths of the fossil-fuel industries, looking at the harms they do, emphasizing our addiction to their products. The long quotations are fascinating, often misguided, and somewhat terrifying, indicating as they do a general denial or lack of understanding of what these fuels are doing to our planet, and to our civilization. I do think this book is best read in conjunction with more hopeful accounts. But Carbon Ideologies is direct and honest. He writes it as a confessional to the future, and it is also damning.

6.      Imagined Truths by Richard Lemm
A careful examination of a life, or certain key moments of it anyway, and also American history–particularly with respect to colonization, Jim Crow, the draft and the Vietnam war and other international armed conflicts. There’s just a splash of Canadian patriotism (the kind particular to those who adopt Canada as their homeland rather than being born to it–and perhaps especially those who fled the draft), and the importance of our tendency to define ourselves with some pride as “not American.” The most insightful parts are Lemm’s reconsiderations of his own family myths of pioneering and settling and creating the “greatest nation on earth” by chopping down ancient trees.

7.      The Divine Ryans by Wayne Johnston
A master class in structure and plotting, filled with wacky characters, some of them likable and some not, a perfect reveal at the perfect time. And families huddled around the tv watching hockey, cheering for the Canadiens from Newfoundland. The focus is on the power of the Catholic Church over communities, but more broadly it’s about the ties that bind us, which are often based on restraining morality laws. While these are effective at creating cohesion, god help you if you’re wired a little differently. I’d call it dark, but there’s great humour in this novel. I enjoyed it immensely.

8.      Scratching River by Michelle Porter
Powerful. A book of vignettes and reflections on the author's brother, who was abused in a group home, and an ancestor who wrote of his childhood on the buffalo hunt, as well as on the changing environmental features--prairie grass, the river, the animals. Porter does an excellent job connecting these themes from a personal perspective, in the process imbuing them with meaning.

9.      A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
I loved these essays and this analysis, not so much because they were instructive, but rather for Saunders’ passion for the stories he considers, and his understanding of what makes them work for him as a reader. I agreed with him on some of the stories; others I didn’t find so incredible. But his thoughts on them were always worth reading and considering. A book for writers yes, but also any lovers of literature.

10.  Apastoral: A Mistopia by Lee Thompson
A man, Bones, is sentenced for the crime of murder to live the rest of his days as a sheep on a penal farm. Using a new and not-quite-perfected technology, his brain is transferred into the sheep’s body. Half the novel deals with the alleged crime and bizarre proceedings of his hospitalization, psychological evaluation and “speed trial.” Thompson doesn’t so much build this world as thrust us into it, through the eyes of his hard-done-by anti-hero, both as a human and in his awkward attempts to live as a sheep while human and bovid instincts battle from within. He does however offer, through the news, deft accoutrements, especially through a buffoonish Prime Minister with his “Nation’s Joke of the Day” and especially his “None Funny But Me law.” It’s satirical of course, and very funny, and creates a scenario that raises many excellent questions about what it is to be human, what extraordinary abilities we’ve been given with even average brains, and what kind of world we want to make with them.  

11.  The Country Under My Skin by Giaconda Belli
Politically fascinating behind-scenes perspective on the Nicaraguan Revolution and Contra war from the perspective of a revolutionary woman, though one who was in exile—but still organizing—during the final stages. I found the most interesting part to be the takeover of the country, before the contras, after the Somoza supporters had mostly fled. The empire had fallen and the guerrillas found themselves in charge. Now what? Kind of a mind-blowing scenario filled with tedious logistical questions rooted in political philosophy. The several factions of the Sandinistas also had to learn to work together. From Belli’s perspective, it was going alright (not perfectly) until the United States, driven largely by cold-war paranoia, involved itself. Her feminist perspective on things, and the ways she was excluded, treated as less than, and treated as a play thing by men with power, was also insightful.

12.  Sotto Voce by Chantelle Rideout
A limited-edition poetry chapbook published by a friend nearly a decade ago. She is fairly self-deprecating about it, as many writers are of their first efforts when they’re still finding their voice. But I loved it, loved the double entendres, and her ample use of musical concepts to explore (and structure) emotional facets of human relations. It was really quite brilliant. She tells me there’s a new collection, slowly being developed over the years. I can’t wait.

13. Insurgent Empire: Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent
A history of thought about Empire, looking at dissidents, moderates, converts and the general public in Britain and some of its colonies, with special attention to rebellions and uprisings. Its main arguments are that freedom and independence never gifts of the British Empire to give, that lands and autonomy had to be taken back by indigenous populations, and that rebellion often served to radicalize settler and homeland English people, some individuals in particular [the author includes profiles of the transition in thinking of some colonialists after subsequent visits to colonies with popular uprisings and exposure to their ways of thinking], and the population in general.

14. So Beautiful by Ramona Dearing
My kind of short stories. The characters are a little bit quirky and are often quite flawed individuals, yet most (with 1 or 2 exceptions) are easy to root for. The final story in the collection, "An Apology," stands out from the rest, with its focus on memory, perspective, and culpability. I've read it several times, in different collections now, and it's an incredible story.

This is probably the earliest I've ever made my best-of books list, but here it is for 2021, my 12 personal favourite reads I read last year, in the order I read them. Hope you find some worthy material here.

Evicted by Matthew Desmond
Incredible ethnographic study/work of gonzo journalistic dive into poverty in an American city, life lived on the margins of housing, the landlords and tenants. It is a hard-edged read, very honest and real assessment of what it means to be housing insecure. The instability that being evicted causes in a family’s lives, the effects and echoes that reverberate for generations.

To Be a Slave by Julius Lestor
Amazing historical documentation of firsthand accounts of slavery, from former slaves. Still very relevant today and enlightening with respect to current race relations in America.

The Ku Klux Klan in Canada by Allan Bartley
Mostly straight reportage, a presentation of years of formidable research into a little-covered topic. It must have been hard at times for Bartley not to editorialize. Fortunately the organization, at least the Canadian version (which infiltrated leading up to WWII, even having a high-ranking MP as one of its leaders), was mostly a clown show (Klown show?) peopled with self-centred con artists rather than a genuine hate movement.

Constant Nobody by Michelle Butler Hallett
My favourite of many books I read for work reasons, this was a great pre-WWII international spy novel/love story written by a St. John’s novelist, set mostly in the Soviet Union during Stalin’s purge. The writing was so, so strong, and the situation so gorgeously taut all the way through.

Greenwood by Michael Christie
I especially loved the middle section focused on the dust bowl thirties, and Everett on the run with the baby (Willow)—from the opium-addicted human hunter. It was kind of Cormac McCarthy meets Woody Guthrie, mixed together with plenty of nature appreciation and contemplation.

The Appendage Formerly Known as My Left Arm by Julie Curwin
I read this primarily because it was on a shortlist with Boy With A Problem. I was very impressed with Curwin’s stories. The two collections actually have much in common. Hers focuses mainly on characters struggling specifically with their mental health—and the many different ways we can become broken, how we attempt to fix ourselves, the mixed results, and also our surprising capacity to love the broken ones.

Before the Parade by Rebecca Rose
An excellent history of LGBT activism in Halifax, how people went about it, and the clever means of fundraising (running a gay bar and using profits for advocacy work) used. Filled with real-life yet larger-than-life characters.

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
Heartbreaking. I loved the multiple storylines and perspectives. Gives a feel for how each individual handles trauma differently. Yet also shows the broad reach of residential schools in Indigenous communities, for generations. The healing stories were particularly powerful and hopeful.

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
Rich storytelling that weaves together many different threads, set in and around Calcutta in the early 1800s just before the First Opium War with China. It’s a slow burn with occasional sparks, illuminating a world that could have existed (some version of which probably did) and I’d have never known without Ghosh’s work.

Chemical Valley by David Huebert
Short stories by one of the best young short story writers around. These have been described as CliFi but that term seems to imply futurism, and these are all contemporary stories, set in Sarnia’s chemical valley, a place of high toxicity. What I love most about these stories is the characters, who are sensitive people and thus troubled by the sickness all around them, and moved to do something about it. Their decisions, of course, are rarely ideal.

Talking to Canadians by Rick Mercer
Another very enjoyable work read. I remember when 22 Minutes first aired and I loved it, it was irreverent and cutting and much better than any Canadian political comedy I’d seen before. Talking to Americans was brilliant. It was fun reading the stories behind these shows, and how Mercer went from directionless class clown type to one of the most successful writers and performers in Canadian television.

Ode to the Unpraised by Abena Beloved Green
Gorgeous collection of vignettes and poems, snippets from the lives of women, mostly in Canada, Ghana and Jamaica. A world apart yet connected in their vulnerability, each offering wisdom and insight.

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. The scenarios, at first, felt unbelievable, even though they were an amplification of current instabilities and hatreds. Maybe I didn't want them to be real. But he rendered them perfectly, developed his narrators' psychology so well. Beautiful writing. And he was only 28! How is that possible?

No Is Not Enough by Naomi Klein. She's a brilliant analyst of contemporary global politics and movements. Here it's basically a deep dive in the 2016 US presidential election and what went wrong for the left, how Trump built his brand, and how to fight back. I think the Democratic organizers followed some of her prescriptions in 2020.

One Good Reason by Sean McCann and Andrea Aragon. McCann was one of the Great Big Sea guys until he realized touring with the band was fuelling his alcoholism. But much more deeply, it was trauma from sexual abuse by a priest, memories he'd repressed. I expected a typical music biography but McCann and Aragon wrote profoundly about mental health and how addiction affects families.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Sadly, my son announced not long before his 12th birthday that he will from now on be putting himself to bed. So, no more nighttime reading to him. Luckily, my daughter's into chapter books now, which has made for some good YA reading. This one here, well I had to censor as I read. I also had to explain what slavery is, and why we don't make light of it nowadays. But the writing and storytelling here are so sharp, and Huck literally believes in hell, and is willing to risk the eternal flame for his friend Jim, a runaway slave. Their long-formed bond on the Mississippi is a beautiful thing.

Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson. I didn't know this was supposed to be YA until I finished. It was very R rated for YA, but in terms of style it makes some sense. Regardless, it was really good. Heartbreaking and funny, with a little bit of magic. The story of a smartass kid who sees ghosts and really needs adults he can trust to take proper care of him. But those are very hard to find.

Teardown by Dave Meslin. Much of the book felt like lunching with a wildly energetic ideas guy: Bam bam bam here's 3 ideas I just thought of, wait bam bam bam here's three more. Here's a story about the time we stopped an environmentally destructive garbage dump in a freakin mine. Bam bam two more ideas that reminded me of. These aren't spontaneous I been doing this for 20 years. The conclusion brought it all together, a day in the life of a fictional young woman named Sarah. I loved the optimism, the energy, the sense that a better world is possible and there are tangible things to do to get there.

Blood in the Water by Silver Donald Cameron. This turned out to be my friend's last book, about the infamous "murder for lobster" case in Cape Breton. Most writers see a dot and the dot is their story. Don saw constellations, and made the connections between the pieces apparent for his readers. He showed "murder for lobster" to be so much more than that, so this becomes a story about culture, community, place, economics, and competing philosophies of law enforcement. Fascinating stuff.

Humanimus by David Huebert. These poems centre around human-environment interactions, with a whole section on oil, its transformation from zooplankton into pollutant. He loves scientific language and plays with it. Despite a heady theme, the book is consistently playful and fun to read. It's also very personal, touching on fatherhood and falling in love, with plenty of pop culture references. It's a post-renaissance renaissance.

Unidentified man at left of photo by Jeff Bursey. Experimental, some might call this, and Bursey in general, and I suppose he is up for trying things out, not inclined to follow standard story structure. This "novel" is a series of vignettes involving the same set of characters, all in Charlottetown PEI. He constantly pokes fun of the concept of character development, offering tidbits about characters and then letting readers know that's enough work on that. And yet I felt I got a sense of the real Charlottetown from it. And I got a good sense of who the characters were. And I laughed at their foibles, mainly because Bursey is very good with the English language.

Doing Time by Carole Glasser Langille. About the author's year of doing workshops for inmates at various Nova Scotia jails, women's and men's. As readers, we benefit from the same insights Langille offers the inmates through poetry. In the main body of the book she quotes many poems to them and they use them as springboards to their discussions and writings, which are often heartbreaking tales of poverty, neglect and abuse. Somehow though, they remain intact, resilient souls determined to do better. We know their odds are long. We get to know them well enough to cheer for them.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. Fantastic novel. As I read it I wondered a lot why he used this device of making the Underground Railroad a literal thing. It occurred to me slowly that the key was in the line by the first conductor, who said American is what you see between stops, which turns out to be nothing. The real story is at the stops, where runway slaves could never be fully free. That is America.

Elsewhere California, Dana Johnson. Beautiful exploration of not only race and class but also the ways we become our adult selves, the choices we make and the hand we're dealt, how the littlest things or encounters can shift us one way or the other, and how all these make us far more complex than the category boxes on the census forms, the stereotypes we put groups of people into.

White Kids, Margaret Hagerman. Fascinating commentary from rich white kids and their parents about race. Of the many messages in this book, I'll most remember the pervasiveness of the belief by some people that they "don't see race." It's not just a harmless self-deception; that belief prevents people from seeing the racism in front of their faces, prevents them from seeing injustice everywhere, and let's them pretend racism is a thing of the past.

The Wanton Troopers, Alden Nowlan
Gorgeous prose, poetic turns of phrase and image; fully realized, complex characters, the people are very real, flawed, and yet Nowlan calls on them with love. Told from the child's perspective, which allows a certain naivete yet never flinches at the sometimes gory details of the story. Dialogue ranges from gritty to bullyish taunting to whimsical to philosophical-theological to drunken carousing. Brilliant book.

The Boat People, Sharon Bala
The three perspectives were all engaging, fascinating, illuminating. Each showed something different about the refugee claimants and Canada's response to them. I got a look at the bureaucracy and politics behind decisions on their 500+fates. I got a look in the jail where they stayed, the psychological machinations--the cage inside the brain. I got a look at life and survival, the brutality in Sri Lanka at war with itself. I got a look at Canadian life from a 1st-generation Canadian, the daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants, who also had a fascinating and complex backstory. This was a great story, very engrossing.

Malagash, Joey Comeau
Young woman records conversations with her dying father and uses them to create a computer virus that will outlive him. Beautifully rendered, brilliant concept, absolutely heartbreaking.

Best Canadian Short Stories 2018, Russel Smith
My favourites were by David Huebert, Kathy Page, Alex Pugsley, Stephen Marche (he wrote a short story forcing himself to follow certain algorithmic restraints of "good literature", and it turned out great), and Bill Gaston.

The Wedding, Dorothy West
Beautiful prose and rich, complex characters set up this tragedy, in which everyone is obsessed with race and skin colour, which made me consider my own privilege of not having to be. The dialogue wasn’t great, but all the other writing was.

The Search for Heinrich Schlögel, Martha Baillie
I loved the character and story of Heinrich Schlögel, the titular and main focus of this novel. His story was a profound exploration of living with our histories—personal and collective--particularly colonial genocide. That sounds like a slog but the prose was so tender it didn't feel like one.

Best American Short Stories, Roxane Gay
Diverse and fascinating selection of American stories, all superbly written with very few misses. Personal favs were Boys Go to Jupiter by Danielle Evans (deep dive into racism and responsibility); Unearth by Alicia Elliott (exploring the trauma and legacy of residential schools); Good with Boys by Kristen Iskandrian (a beautifully simple coming-of-age story set in a museum); A Big True by Dina Nayeri (looking at immigration and changes in status it brings, but also the concept of living a free and creative life); and Whose Heart I Long to Stop with a the Click of a Revolver (again about inter-generational trauma, but also about power and guns).

JAN 22 EDIT:

I can't believe it but I left The Break by Katherena Vermette off my list! This is a Top-3-of-the-year book along with Wanton Troopers and Malagash. What makes this novel so compelling is Vermette's ability to take so many different perspectives, to show the pain and trauma of so many characters, including the perpetrator of a horrific act. Even as the victim’s mother understandably says she doesn’t give a fuck for the perpetrator’s backstory, we the readers know it, and we feel for her as well. 

The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson

Written by the same guy who did the Men Who Stare At Goats documentary, a specialist in deep dives into the absurd power structures of humanity. Here he looks at the seemingly subjective nature of determining who is crazy, particularly psychotic, but also the links between psychopaths and power. Ronson's writing is a joy to read, and often lol funny. I'd have liked deeper exploration of this notion of psychopathic traits among CEOs and other power brokers. But as a general presentation of many of the characters associated with the madness industry, the madness of madness as it were, this was insightful and I generally agree with his conclusions.

The Free by Willie Vlautin

This is a beautifully humane portrait of Americans struggling with working-class poverty, just to take care of themselves and loved ones. The storytelling is simple and straightforward, the characters are plain spoken, honest, and sympathetic.

Invisible Planets by various writers

Probably my favourite of the year. Quite stunning really, and quite different from my usual reading. The most common theme in these stories, I'd hazard, is conformity. The ones that resonated most for me were the ones with broad universal imaginings of civilizations of all kinds - how they can go so right or wrong - even a civilization of Gods, our creators. Favourites were City of Silence, the titular Invisible Planets (one of my favourite short stories period), Folding Beijing, and Taking Care of God.

When the Saints by Sarah Mian

Compelling story and characters with quick-witted and engaging dialogue and genuine laughs, When the Saints' story shows the cycle of rural poverty, the seemingly psychotic nature of its ghosts, the danger of vendetta culture, and how 'bad' families are often people mired in this pattern, haunted by their fathers' mistakes and the ostracization of society's 'lessers.'

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Set in the between-worlds after-death realm, after Abe Lincoln's son dies of illness, and starring the ghosts who greet the boy on his arrival. Saunders uses an unusual, innovative structure, constant dialogue between the ghosts, kind of theatrical, and it created an enjoyable chaos and a lot of layers and perspectives to the story. It took a little work, getting into the characters, keeping some of the minor ones straight, but it was pleasurable work that mostly paid off.

To Live and Die in Scoudouc by Hermenegilde Chiasson

Acadian New Brunswick poetry from the 70s, just translated to English, considered a Maritimes classic . Some of the prose-verse was celestial, other-worldly. In parts I couldn't quite relate, but that might actually be cultural differences, surprising enough given the author and I aren't worlds apart. But, different mother tongues can make a big difference. On the whole, he layers imagery and writes with energy that too many writers can't be bothered to muster. When I was into it, I was waaay into it.

America, the Farewell Tour by Chris Hedges

At first I found myself nitpicking at things I disagreed with but when I started to get a sense of his broader thesis, that resistance must be organized, that it must not just target a specific political party (Republicans) or politician (Trump) but rather take aim against the corporatization of politics in general, I focused more on that. The book is not seamless, but it is well researched, convincing and important. In the end, my biggest criticism is that he didn't start articulating a somewhat clear vision of resistance until the last few pages. This after opening with a reference to the massive influence of a right-wing manifesto of sorts in the 70s, and how it has shaped the US (and world) today. Still, I was inspired to get more active, to seek out strategic ways to make a better world. I agree with his assertion that the US empire is starting to crumble, and that we (not just Americans) need to prepare ourselves for that, to think, and act now to create something livable in its place.

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

I haven't seen the movie but apparently it's a good adaptation. This was set in 50s suburbia where everything is supposed to be great, but one couple wants desperately to escape it. I don't know if this was Yates' intention in 1960 when he wrote it, but their set gender roles prevent them from breaking free from the same lives everybody else lives. The trap Yates constructs for them is immersive and believable, and the ending (like many great old novels) was horrifying.

I posted this on FB but may as well put it here where books are the theme. By request, here is a list of the books I most enjoyed reading last year:

-The Inquisitor's Tale by Adam Gidwitz and Hatem Aly. This is a YA book I read to my son, set in France in the year 1242. It was creative and funny and smart and I enjoyed it probably even more than he did.
-The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. A novel that poses the fascinating question of how to handle bearing witness to atrocity, and whether one can do so and remain innocent. An odd read but it stayed in my thoughts a long time afterward.
-Under the North Star by Vaino Linna. As Mahfouz is to Egypt, Linna is to Finland. This one is the story of a village leading up to the revolution against Russia in the early 20th century.
-Life on Mars by Linda McNulty. Weird and wacky stories with magic realism elements, like Rushdie in Canada, with a lot of fun wordplay.
-Advocate by Darren Greer. A novel about the (fictional) first AIDS case in small-town Nova Scotia. Poignant and powerful.
-One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovych by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Classic gulag short novel, the first overt criticism of Stalin to be accepted by Russian authorities. But the uneasy relationships among the prisoners, each facing the same hopeless situation with dry humour, was what made it a great piece of writing.
-Willem De Kooning's Paintbrush by Kerry Lee Powell. Punchy stories about punchy, crazy people wheeling and dealing to stay afloat. Amazing writer.
-The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy. This is another one that I think is as much a story of a place (India) as it is about the individuals in it. She's got a gift for voice and perspective.
-Best Canadian Stories 2017. They picked the "best" ones (so very subjective), and several of them are indeed really, really good.
-Peninsula Sinking by David Huebert. Short stories about animals and people in Nova Scotia. One story, "Limousines," about dairy farmers, is one of my favourite short stories ever.

A little late, as has become my custom, here are the best books I read in 2015, in the order I read them]:

Miramar by Naguib Mahfouz

miramar

The same story four times in a row, from four different perspectives, all revolving around a building in post-revolutionary Egypt. Reveals much about the time and place and politics and people.

Up Ghost River by Edmund Metatwabin

up ghost river

A straightforward, frank and emotional account of a residential school experience in the context of life on a northern reserve during a time of forced change.

Celia’s Song by Lee Maracle

celiassong

Flat out beautiful writing, mystical and magical but very grounded and honest at the same time. Heartbreaking story.

Prerequisites for Sleep by Jennifer L. Stone

prerequisitesforsleep

Her first book, a collection of short stories. A local writer I was asked to review and these fairly light, fast paced stories took me by surprise. The writing was tight and and impactful.

The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King

theinconvenientindian

King rages against the tricks of colonialism and is clever and funny about it and it’s an enlightening perspective.

When Everything Feels Like the Movies by Raziel Reid

wheneverythingfeelslikethemovies

I was intrigued by the controversy and a friend who said the book was too hardcore for its intended age (junior high). But it was based on real events and I found it believable but frightening thinking of my kids entering that world before too long. Regardless, Reid did a great job creating a memorable character, a not always likable kid who gets bullied in a very tough situation.

Generations Re-merging by Shalan Joudry

generationsremerging

These poems offer a powerful perspective from a young Mi’kmaw woman, a mother, an environmentalist and a community-builder. They are evocative and moving; prophetic and insightful.

The Comeback by John Ralston Saul

thecomeback

It was good to read an optimistic book by a highly regarded Canadian philosopher on a topic where hopeful tones are rarely used. His optimism is not blind; Ralston Saul makes his case well.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

thecolorpurple

It’s a classic for good reason. Amazing storytelling and insight into the American south, particularly regarding the lives and histories of Black women.

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.

sapiens

A brief history of humanity and therefore skims over an immense amount of complicated history/science, but as a broad history and philosophy book it was quite fascinating and enjoyable.

The Story of Gar by Syr Ruus

thestoryofgar

A simple story about a family that adopts crows, only one of which survives and becomes a hesitant pet. Really about wildness and conformity and destiny and authenticity and survival and compromise.

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

thesixthextinction

You might expect it to be depressing but I found it strangely comforting to think that mass extinctions are part of the existence of masses of life, that they have happened many times in our planet’s history for many different reasons without human prompting. But this time we are the cause, which poses the challenging question of what will be humanity’s legacy?

Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie

reservationblues

A sometimes hilarious and sometimes dark depiction (racism/alcoholism/violence/bullying/corruption/abuse) of life on a Spokane Indian reservation in Washington State; the power of music, the draw of the big time whitestream society and the struggle to keep traditions meaningful. Alexie tackles real hardships and tragedies with a smiling narrative.