What a long, strange trip it's been

 “The almanac had a strange, soapy smell and made a cracking noise like fire as she turned the pages. She’d never been the first person to open a book.” - Coulson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad

According to my Goodreads profile, I read more than 14,000 pages in 2020. Some of those pages are forgotten already - and some will stay with me for the rest of my life. Among the most memorable are those from The Underground Railroad, which I tackled for an online book club. Other memorable reads from the year included American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins and Lynn Coady's chilling Watching You Without Me. 

Like many other people, I suspect, I had more time than usual to read in 2020, and I delved into the Greg Iles series featuring Penn Cage that culminates in the Natchez Burning Trilogy. I also took recommendations from readers I met at the second-hand bookshop where I work, and tried a little David Baldacci and Harlan Coben. I also had the chance to enjoy some biographies that had been sitting on my shelf this year, including Robert Hilburn's Johnny Cash: The Life, and Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs. 

As tough as 2020 was, any year that offers up instalments from Ken Bruen, Fred Vargas and one of my new favourites, CJ Tudor, can't be all bad. One to miss: Kathy Reichs's A Conspiracy of Bones - alas, the Tempe Brennan series has lost its shine for me. 

Coming up in 2021: a return to Scandinavian noir, with Yrsa Sigurdardottir's Children's House series, and Erik Larson's The Splendid and the Vile is waiting patiently on my bookshelf. 

And the Mountains Echoed a masterful study in perspective

The power of fiction is that it allows you to experience the world through the eyes of others. As someone who is not particularly well travelled, I admit my exposure to different cultures and my world view are shaped enormously by the things I read.

I loved Khaled Hosseini's first two novels, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, and I had And the Mountains Echoed on my shelf for ages. I'm not sure why I left it so long to read it (it was published in 2013), but I finally cracked it open this week - and I was transported from the page to explore three generations of interconnected stories that take place in Afghanistan, France, California and Greece.

While the book is framed by the story of Abdullah and Pari, a brother and sister separated when they are very young, its arc shifts perspectives for each chapter. I am not always a fan of this structure (I found Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing a frustrating read - too many characters, and all were given so little space that just as I connected with them, the perspective shifted to a new one), Hosseini's characters are so honestly drawn and emotionally rich that it was a joy to follow the progression of the families touched by a single life-altering decision through three generations.

For those unfamiliar with Hosseini's work, there is no need to read them in any particular order; just be sure to read them. Also, be sure to check out his beautiful illustrated book, Sea Prayer, which was published in 2018.

No news yet on whether he is working on a fifth book. If so, it won't be sitting on my shelf for long.

A year of variety

Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.” - Paul Coelho, Brida

I designated the year of saying "yes" - and that's how I ended up sampling a sip from a wide variety of literary genres I wouldn't normally uncork. (It's also how I ended up writing material for a self-help course that required splashing around in a stack of new-age books and blogs, but I have since recovered.) 

I also had the great fortune to be hired on part-time at a local shop that sells second-hand books, which while not a great retirement plan, has afforded me a lot of joy and, natch, great exposure to a wide variety of my favourite things. (Check out Pickwick Books in Waterdown sometime – you will love it.)

But back to my experiment. I read a total of 24 books that included my go-to genre, mystery, as well as young adult, CanLit and international lit. I also made an effort to include some bran with the donuts, and was thrilled to discover the delightful 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. Slim and easy to read, the epistolary exchange between a young New York author and a buttoned-up British bookseller captures the place and time (Second World War London/New York) so well, it appears almost effortless.

Alas, there were some misses as well during my "year of yes" reading adventure...and a couple I had to actually Google search to jog my memory of the plot. Best to leave those forgotten in the wine cellar.

Vivid characters, compelling plot make The Suspect compelling reading

I have just spent the May long weekend reading Fiona Barton's third Kate Waters mystery, The Suspect.

For the fist time in ages, I finished a book in two days. And if I had to put it down for some reason (say, to make dinner), I continued to think about the characters and their choices. Check out my Goodreads review here.

Or, better yet, get started on reading the series.

Oh, the places we'll go

"That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet." - Jhumpa Lahiri

I am not a world traveller (unless you include one all-inclusive week in Cuba and the occasional border hop to do some shopping in Buffalo, NY).

But then again, I am. After reviewing my reading list for 2018, I realized I had journeyed to places I will never see in person, and savoured cultures that are completely removed from my own experience. Through books, I learn the language and custom of others, and bring order to my own world. And that is the magic of reading.

As usual, many of my selections were crime procedurals - but even these tended to span the globe in 2018: The Accordianist featuring Fred Vargas's eccentric French Inspector Gamache, Jo Nesbo's chilling Macbeth set in in the grim Norwegian underworld and Ken Bruen's brutal Ghosts of Galway featuring the irascible PI Jack Taylor were just a few of the books to earn a legitimate place on my bookshelf last year. 

For fiction of a more "literary" bent, I delved into Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, Richard Wagamese's Indian Horse and Medicine Walk, and Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere.  Although I had high hopes for Roy's second novel (after the brilliant The God of Small Things), I struggled through sections of the book; still, it will stay with me for a long time. The one that spoke to me the most powerfully, though, was Indian Horse - Wagamese's raw, honest prose evokes characters and the places they inhabit so clearly, the reader connects with them on an intimate level.

Each year, I tackle a couple of non-fiction titles, and my 2018 book list includes two terrific memoirs, Beautiful Scars by Tom Wilson (whom I also got to see perform and do a reading) and Hunger by Roxane Gay. I also developed a fascination for Lt. Joe Kenda of Homicide Hunter reality TV fame, and read his I Will Find You book about solving crime in the city of Colorado Springs. I am still fascinated.

All in all, a pretty great year between the covers!

A year of ups and downs

A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it or offer your own version in return. - Salman Rushdie

The past year has been one of heartbreak for me. So much so, that my reading life has taken a bit of a hit. While dealing with the loss of my mother and two of my pets –  and now my job – it would seem perfectly acceptable, even expected,  that I engage in a period of harmless escapism. And while I did indeed detour into the excellent Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French, the majority of books I tackled were actually pretty weighty. And they got me through by taking me to some difficult places and back again.

I am starting off 2018 with Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness - a long awaited treat that I am just about 65 pages into. I am expecting big things...

As always, my reading list for the past 12 months is a mixed bag. Highlights include the achingly sweet Everything I Never Told You by Celest Ng, The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley and Zoe Whittall's The Best Kind of People. All were pretty dark explorations of family relationships, each fully realized and memorable in their own way.

Thanks to a work colleague, I caught baseball fever over the past couple of summers - and that is reflected in my annual list. After brushing up on a little history with the Buck Martinez memoir Change Up, I devoured Stacey May Fowles's Baseball Life Advice - Loving the Game That Saved Me, a neat little gem that is about much more than the game. Fowles is fearless in exploring some difficult subjects, including her own struggles with mental illness and the sexism that comes with making a living in a male-dominated arena (or in this case, stadium). Finally, I discovered Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding, one of the few books that I fully expect to pick up and read again, just to spend a bit more time with the characters and revisit the world of college baseball so vividly envisioned by the author.

Alas, my expectations got the better of me a couple of times. I was excited as always to pick up a new Wally Lamb title, but I just couldn't connect with I'll Take You There – the suspension of disbelief was just too much of a leap for me. And I abandoned Madeleine Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing - maybe I will go back and try again on this one. Finally, after reading White Tiger and Last Man in Tower, I had high hopes for Aravind Adiga's Selection Day, but it lacked the scope and depth of his first two titles. 

The only book I regret spending time on in 2017: Graeme Simsion's The Best of Adam Sharp. Just a ridiculous story full of unlikeable, selfish characters.

"I have always imagined that  Paradise will be a kind of library." - Jorge Luis Borges

Well 2013, reading-wise, is still at the starting gate; usually by April I have polished off seven or eight books. I am currently on number five so far this year. A continuing heavy work schedule means I'm still forced to put a priority on quality over quantity - and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Looking back at my last post, I was reading Dave Eggers's What is the What. Currently, I am reading Dave Eggers's What is the What. This is an anomaly: generally, I stubbornly ignore the library's pleas to return overdue items until the last page of whatever I'm reading has been turned. But this one, I didn't want to rush...so after going back on the waiting list for this 2006 "autobiography"  for three months, then trying to pick it up from where I left off when I finally got it back again, I have started back at the beginning. And I'm glad I did. I don't really want to write more on this one until I have fully, and properly completed it.

In between my efforts with Eggers, I have read The Ambitious City by Scott Thornley (which I'm happy to report is even stronger than the first MacNeice instalment), Karin Fossum's The Caller (again a study in understated terror with an ambiguous moral centre), Maeve Binchy's A Week in Winter (a collection of short stories, masquerading as a novel - the late writer's literary M.O.) and Ross Pennie's Tampered.

Of this list, the only surprise was Pennie's sophomore work in what is shaping up to be a superlative mystery series that is scarce on detectives but full of intrigue. Pennie has taken the time here to fill in some of the back stories for his characters, including public health officer Dr. Zol Szabo and his new love interest in the form of a petite private investigator, infectious diseases specialist Dr. Hamish Wakefield and health unit whiz-kid Natasha Sharma. The team tackles a deadly gastrointestinal outbreak at a long-term care facility - a plot that sounds dry, but comes alive thanks to Pennie's attention to detail and deft hand with doling clues at just the right pace. (He also resists the urge to take the climactic showdown between the good guys and the bad guys too far over the top, as I felt he did in Tainted). A very satisfying read and highly recommended.

I'm excited to report that according to Pennie's web site (rosspennie.ca), a new book in the series, Up in Smoke" will be released in November. The online synopsis promises a case that leads Dr. Zol and the gang to investigate the illicit tobacco trade. Can't wait.