CanadianContent discussion

Welcome spring... although there is snow in southern Ontario today...

What are you reading? What have you finished and what is waiting on your shelf?

Currently really enjoying Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World. It's an overstatement to say it's blowing my mind, but it's...expanding it? It's got a lot of revelations. And it helps that I'm also reading Call Us What We Carry: Poems, which has a lot of the same concerns and provides for some reading synchronicity. I would love to see an event with Amanda Gorman and Naomi Klein in conversation!

Just picked up a book By Dionne Brand What We All Long For. Very Toronto(centric) so enjoying that aspect immensely. The story that centres around four people in their early 20's and their relationships with their respective families in the what I think is the early 2000's is captivating.

I have 3 stacks of unread books on my shelf each about a metre or so tall. I've got to get to them, or I fear they will soon topple over if I add even one more. : )

I just finished a short story collection The Slow Fix by Ivan E. Coyote . It was my first time reading anything by this author, I was blown away by the articulate way they convey messages through story telling. I will definitely seek out more by this author

I've been immersed in coming of age novels this month. I read something by Ben Phillipe who grew up in Canada and also by Susan Anne Mason, but the latter was romance so a slog for me personally since it was pure romance (read it for a group read.) I gave that 3 stars because it was good for its romance genre.

Today I finished Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I don't know if I'd quite call this UpLit but it is a combination of funny and sad and I thought the writing was very strong. This was nominated for the Amazon.ca First Novel Award a few years ago.

I finally finished reading Barack Obama's very long memoir, so now I'm reading a much lighter memoir, Let's Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc. by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco fame.

I finished A Grandmother Begins the Story by Michelle Porter, a new-to-me Canadian author. The story is about five generations of women in the family.
I am currently reading Old Babes in the Wood:Stories by Margaret Atwood and A Forest for Calum by Frank MacDonald ~ both Canadian authors.

I'm doing a coming of age theme in a game this month, so reread the Canadian children's novel Word Nerd by Susin Nielsen and am now rereading Anne of Green Gables.

Greetings!! I have been reading a lot of PD type of books this spring but also enjoyed reading The Maid and The Mystery Guest after meeting Nita Prose at the Grimsby Author series. they were light, palate cleansing mysteries with terrific, quirky characters. Such fun!

Although short stories are not always my genre, I really enjoyed Chrysalis after meeting the author and hearing her speak about her writing process (sometimes she makes her own writing retreat by going to a hotel for the weekend) and her local references. She writes rich stories from experiences of people of colour and her prose is beautiful.

I just finished The five dysfunctions of a team and How to Win Friends and Influence People. The former was a fable with some great reminders on team work and the latter was originally written in 1936 and although most of the examples are men in business (a sign of those times), the basics of working with others are still sound.

I plan on finishing Fourteen Days and Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals next

@ Kathleen - I enjoyed that collection by Margaret Atwood!

@Karin - I love the Anne series and enjoyed getting out to the exhibit in PEI last summer

@ all - such an eclectic reporting of books so far this spring!

Hello and Happy Spring, everyone!

I have been listening to a number of the Andy Carpenter series. In the past few weeks I listened to Santa's Little Yelpers, Best in Snow and New Tricks. I like the humor in this series and the characters.

I'm currently reading, and enjoying, Tigana. It's becoming quite a page turner.

@Petra - we all need a little more humour in this world!!!

Finished listening to Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin. A great novel,beautifully read. Wonderful experience.
Craving Canlit is out for 2024. I’m taking off for a few weeks but when I return I’d like to try and read as much as I can on the list. Jan Arden has a novel listed.
In today’s New York Times there is a rave review of the audio version of Michael Crummy’s newish novel -The Adversary. The writer is a huge fan of Crummy.

I’m trying to read as much as I can from Craving Canlit-finished Jann Arden’s first novel The book:The Bittlemores on audio yesterday and almost finished a book of short stories. Arden’s book is incredible-just look at the first paragraph and it is hysterical. A wonderful novel that will give lots of readers a great deal of joy. She says it took her twelve years to write it. Jann reads the book and she’s got such a great voice,that was an extra treat.

Dusk in the Frog Pond and Other Stories is a first collection of stories,mostly about life in Bangladesh,but also about Bangladeshi women who have moved to Canada. The details about Bangladesh-the very lush nature,the endless food-are fascinating to read about,but most of the stories are flat,there is no edge to the stories or got you moments. You finish each story and wonder…is that all there is?

Hi Alan - The Adversary is on my TBR list. I am also interested in your review of The Bittlemores as I was not sure about picking this up after reading one of her earlier books.

Has anyone read Table for Two but Amor Towles? although short stories is not my favourite, I am really enjoying the tales he weaves!

❀ Susan wrote: "Has anyone read Table for Two but Amor Towles? although short stories is not my favourite, I am really enjoying the tales he weaves!"

I haven't yet, but I love his work and am hoping to get my hands on it real soon! So happy that you are enjoying it!

HAPPY WORLD BOOK DAY!!!!

What are you reading today? What is your favourite book of 2024?

I will start:

I am reading Breaking and Entering (although struggling with the author's portrayal of a female protagonists inner thoughts) and am committed to finishing it as this author is coming to the Grimsby Author Series.

my favourite book of 2024, so far, is a toss up between The Covenant of Water and The Women

I've just started The Strangers by Katherena Vermette a follow-up (or companion) novel to her previous novel, The Break. I'm only a few pages in and I'm hooked! Love it when that happens : )

Hmm, if you mean favorite book published in 2024, I've only read 2 - Mislaid in Parts Half-Known and The Atlas Complex, neither of which made it to the status of favorite (although the Wayward Children series as a whole probably would).

For favorite book, published anytime, I've read this year, there's much more competition! Probably a toss up between Some Desperate Glory, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World and The Poet X. All in different ways. I've actually had a good reading year - normally I have one or two five star reads a year, but this year there's already been more than that, and even more that I was debating between 4 and 5 for.

Currently reading:
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants - loving it. Library copy, but I think I want to purchase my own.
The Abominable - slow to start. A doorstopper of a book, but I'm 200 pages in and they haven't even left for Everest yet.
Pulling the Chariot of the Sun: A Memoir of a Kidnapping - really interesting. The root story is compelling, but I'm struggling with the writing style (lots of jumping around in time, and I remember this - but that memory can't be accurate, so maybe it was that)
Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table - There's a possibility of a move on the horizon, which has prioritized heavy books I own that I think I'd be okay to leave behind once read, and this one is at the top of that stack.
ASAP - just as a light diversion from everything else!

@Ellen - those are such thought-provoking books!

@Joanna - Braiding Sweetgrass has been on my pile for so long!!

This group will appreciate my excitement that I was at a charity book sale and found a copy of A Quality Of Light that was signed by Richard Wagamese!!! it is signed to "Daniel" but I am very excited with the $3 find... and the Symphony Orchestra usually makes around $60000 from their book sale so a win-win!

❀ Susan wrote: "@Joanna - Braiding Sweetgrass has been on my pile for so long!!"

I'd really recommend it! I just finished - it lagged a little towards the end for me but overall I thought it was fantastic - really appreciated her insights about the natural world. It made me want to go out and plant something - a little tough as I live in a condo!

I listened to a few chapters of Wild Houses listed on Craving Canlit and once again I am completely confused by this inclusion. The author is Irish and he has written two collections of short stories about Irish men and this is a novel again set in Ireland written about Irish men. I think the book even says he’s Irish. It’s just beyond me why his book is included. Anyways I didn’t care for it.

I just looked up Colin Barrett’s biography. He was born in Canada but he left when he was four. I find this so degrading that Canadian literature claims these people to be Canadian. Once again here’s an author taking up the space of someone who genuinely belongs there. It’s very demeaning.

Susan-I loved the book:The Bittlemores up until the end. I’ve never read anything else by Arden but this book is really a lot of fun.

Alan wrote: "I just looked up Colin Barrett’s biography. He was born in Canada but he left when he was four. I find this so degrading that Canadian literature claims these people to be Canadian. Once again here..."

I agree--a book can't be Canadian if someone grew up outside the country, which is why it also irks me when adult immigrant author's books are called Canadian, or even an American living in Canada for a certain amount of time (eg Enemy Women and the author's back in the States. I don't mind that she won a Canadian award when she lived there and published it, but it's not a Canadian novel in any sense of the word.)

But if someone was born and raised in Canada but moves abroad, they are still able to write truly Canadian work, although they don't always. This is why I think of EmmaEmma Donoghue as an Irish author.

I just started reading A Serious Widow after receiving it from my secret sender. Constance Beresford-Howe was such a beautiful writer and I have been inspired to read all of her books after reading The Book of Eve a few years ago after discussing it in this group.

❀ Susan wrote: "I just started reading A Serious Widow after receiving it from my secret sender. Constance Beresford-Howe was such a beautiful writer and I have been inspired to read all of her boo..."

I loved reading Constance Beresford Howe! I was saddened to hear of her passing in 2016. I just happened to be listening to the radio when it was announced, or barring doing research about her I'd not have known of her passing (although, she was 93 and I would have figured it out eventually).

Anyways, I recently picked up a used copy of "Night Studies" at a thrift shop and was delighted to see that it was a signed copy! Dedicated to someone else, but glad to have it just the same.

I've read every one of her novels (since The Book of Eve). But I see there were a few that she wrote ahead of it: The Unreasoning Heart (1946), Of This Day's Journey (1947), The Invisible Gate (1949) and Lady Greensleeves (1955). I'm now on a mission to keep an eye out for them. I agree with you Susan, She was a beautiful writer.

That is awesome Ellen!! I have enjoyed each of her books that I have read. it is so great to find one of her books and extra special to find a signed copy.

Her writing is so beautiful, with early feminist tones and impactful decades later.

I did find it curious how Rowena in A Serious Widow was only 50 yet written as an elderly lady!!! I certainly don't think myself elderly!!!

I haven’t heard anyone mention Constance—-in decades. I completely forgot about her and didn’t even know she was still in print. She was the teacher of a teacher of mine and that was in the late seventies! I’m going to have to check out the rest of her work.

I’ve finished A Great Country and I didn’t like it all. I didn’t realize it is by the same author who wrote another book that was very popular years ago. This is a Heather’s Pick so I guess Heather and I have different taste, I found the whole thing very dull.

Her books are hard to find... the book of Eve is available in paperback and 3 others as ebooks on the chapters website. Sad that these books may be lost to the future...

I started reading Random Illuminations: Conversations with Carol Shields last night, full of conversations and letters between Carol Shields and Eleanor Wachtel which is inspiring me to get back to reading some of Shields' novels next.

I read a Canadian y/a or children's mystery novel since it fit with another challenge, Over the Edge by Norah McClintock. I liked it, but didn't love it.

I've really been struggling to read this year and it's incredibly frustrating. I'm returning to a pile of books that I read part-way through and never finished. First was Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros, which I did finish last night. In terms of (arguably?) Canadian books I have Someday I'll Find You on the list. Otherwise I don't know if I'm ever going to finish Sword Catcher or To Sleep in a Sea of Stars but I'm going to try to finish them both this year.

I don't count the books I read at work on here, but I've read a few lumber industry histories centring around British Columbia. If anyone has any recommendations for books about the history of logging in Canada I am all ears!

I’m so happy to have discovered Canadian author Lesley Crewe, thanks to my Secret Sender, who gifted me a copy of The Spoon Stealer. It’s always a pleasure to find a new author and discover she has written nine other novels. I’m embarrassed to admit I had not heard of these wonderful books. Does anyone have a favourite Lesley Crewe novel?

Elinor, I have only read two of her books, and The Spoon Stealer is my favourite. I do like her writing and want to read more books by her.

Elinor wrote: "I’m so happy to have discovered Canadian author Lesley Crewe, thanks to my Secret Sender, who gifted me a copy of The Spoon Stealer. It’s always a pleasure to find a new author and ..."

I've just added that to my want to read shelf since it looks promising.

I'm currently reading Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton who is another one of those authors whose inclusion in Canadian book prizes is questionable .

I am quite liking the book, but am finding it is a slow read.

I’m trying to read as much from Craving Canlit as I can. It’s interesting to try and guess who will make the long list but it’s impossible because I can never tell how the jury will go. The list of submissions is iinteresting this year because Sheila Heti and Thomas King are the only writers who are known,as is Billy Ray Belcourt who I think has a very good chance of being listed. I read the blurb of every book and so many of them sound so uninteresting but they will pick ten in September and we will see.
Two books have been outstanding-Monday Rent Boy which is sensational but extremely harrowing. The author is from Montreal but the book takes place entirely in Ireland and deals with the Catholic priest scandals and young boys. It’s not an easy read and may be too much for some readers-but even though the story is harrowing the lead young man is delightful as is his journey. He befriends a bookseller and it makes a very painful read into a delightful story. I really hope this book gets long-listed. I thought it was exceptionally well done.
The Bittlemores is a delightful read-maybe a bit too whimsical for the Giller jury but I think it’s the type of novel Canadians will love to read. Right now I’m very close to finishing The Laundryman’s Boy: A Novel an interesting attempt but not very interesting. And I started a boook of short stories but I bailed because they weren’t very good. Almost all of the titles are on my Libby so I continue to read along.