I'll Take You There by Wally Lamb

Reading Wally Lamb's work makes me nervous. Some of his books are on my lists of all time favourite reads (I Know This Much is True and Wishin' and Hopin'), some have been kind of mediocre for me (She's Come Undone and The Hour I First Believed) and I absolutely hated one (We Are Water).  After my disturbing experience with We Are Water, I was hesitant about reading any more of his work. However, when the synopsis showed that this book revived the characters from Wishin' and Hopin', I bought the book, hoping I'd love it as much as I loved Wishin' and Hopin'.

I didn't. But it wasn't as bad as We Are Water. So I put this one in his mediocre category for me.

Felix Funicello, who was a young boy in the first book, is now in his 60's and is a professor of film studies. He is divorced, and the father of a grown daughter, who is a writer in New York City. While preparing for his Monday night film club at a local theatre (restored to it's original beauty from its beginnings in the 1920's), he encounters the ghosts of Lois Weber, a pioneering film director and Billie Dove, an actress from the 20's. They present Felix with film reels, which hold the contents of his life. He is to watch these films, relive some painful parts of his past, and learn from them.

The book is a look at the struggles women have faced over time, what we have learned from our past, and how far we still need to go. At times it read like a feminism textbook. Some of the conversations seemed forced and unnatural. But it is important to consider how women at different levels of society have been treated over the years, and what our daughters will still be facing in the years to come. Aside from that, I was disappointed in the lack of the humour I experienced the first time I met these characters. But on the whole it is a good read, and I recommend it.

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

I am a big fan of classic literature, but have somehow made it to this point in my life without having read anything by Jules Verne. The kids and I have been wanting to read this book for years, after hearing Doc and Marty talk about Jules Verne in Back to the Future 3. So we started it as our before bed read a couple of months back. One chapter at a time and we finished it earlier this week. We all loved it!

This is the story of Phileas Fogg and his servant, Passepartout, who embark on a journey around the world to settle a bet between Fogg and some of his friends. The book was published in 1873, so the idea of travelling around the world in so short a time was absurd. But Fogg was convinced he could do it, so he and Passepartout set off, leaving London behind them. Their adventure took them all around the world, using all kinds of means of travel, from elephant to ocean liner. They encounter lots of interesting characters in their journey, who add a lot of excitement to the trip. There is also a case of mistaken identity, which makes you wonder if Fogg truly is who you think he is. The ending was very exciting and had us on the edge of our seats. We couldn't wait to hear how it ended.

The language is a bit old fashioned, as you would expect from a book published in 1873. I had to paraphrase a few times, but on the whole we just loved it. Up next, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. 

The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

There seems to be a lot of buzz about this book right now so I picked it up a while back with a gift card. It was on every list of the best books of 2016, and was recommended to me by the reading sites I use as something that would interest me.  So, I decided to read it.

Ugh. I did not enjoy this book. Granted, I was reading it during a very busy time for me (getting married and moving and trying to fit two houses into one) so maybe I wasn't in the best frame of mind to read right now. But I'm not sure there would ever be a time in my life when I would enjoy this book.

It is the story of the Plumb family, mainly focused on the eldest child, Leo, but including the stories of his siblings Beatrice, Jack and Melody as well. Their father had set up a trust fund (which they nicknamed "The Nest") for them that ended up growing beyond any of their expectations. There were each due to receive their share when the youngest child, Melody, turned 40. But a few months short of her 40th birthday, Leo was involved in a serious accident and "The Nest" was used as a legal settlement to avoid a big scandal. The rest of the family had been counting on receiving their share of the money soon, and had each gotten themselves into some financial trouble, counting on this money to come to their rescue.

The result of this is a bunch of entitled, unlikable characters. There are very few redeeming qualities in any of them. Beatrice is probably the most likable of them all, but none of them seemed to be all that interested in working for what they needed, everyone was hoping for a huge sum of money to mysteriously fall into their laps. It made it very hard for me to be interested in reading it at all, so it took me months to get through the book. The final third of the book moved along quickly, and I got through that quickly, but it took me months to get through the first two-thirds.

I'm still not sure where all they hype surrounding this book came from, but a lot of people seemed to like it. I am not one of those people!

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

This book will be our book club selection (my choice) for October. I picked the book up after receiving some rave reviews about it one night while shopping in Indigo. A staff member and some other shoppers had recently read the book and loved it, so I picked it up.

These ladies couldn't say enough about how quickly they read the book, and how they couldn't put it down. I enjoyed the book, but it took me several weeks to read it and there were times when I needed to put it down.

The first page of the book involves an accident in which a young boy is hit by a car and killed. He is walking home from school with his mother, who briefly lets go of his hand. That is enough for him to run out into the street on a rainy night, right into the path of an oncoming car. Jenna Gray's life is changed in an instant and she needs to leave her life in Bristol, England to start a new life in Wales away from the memories of the accident.

Full of twists and turns, the book throws a major twist in at the halfway point which completely changes everything. It definitely gets more exciting from that point on, but there are still times that are very disturbing, including a domestic violence subplot that I struggled to read.

All in all it is a very thrilling read, there are great surprises and interesting characters. I hope the rest of the ladies in the bookclub enjoy it too.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by JK Rowling, John Tiffany & Jack Thorne

It's no secret that we are pretty big Harry Potter fans around here. We loved reading the entire series together so we were pretty excited when we heard about this new release. We pre-ordered it and started reading as soon as it arrived.

Some people were surprised by the fact that this book was actually the script of the play currently running in London, England. I feel that was pretty well publicized when the book was announced, but maybe it wasn't. I found the play format made it hard to read aloud. But we were able to get used to it after a few days.

The story focuses mostly on Albus Severus Potter, the son of Harry and Ginny Potter, and the friendship he develops with Scorpius Malfoy, the son of Draco Malfoy. Albus struggles with being the son of the "boy who lived" and Harry doesn't know how to reach out to him. Albus struggles at school and can't quite fit in anywhere. When he hears Amos Diggory talking to Harry about the death of his son Cedric, Albus gets an idea of how he can make a difference and the exciting adventure begins.

There are elements of time travel, alternate realities, and return visits to some memorable scenes from Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire.

I didn't love the story but the kids did. It was great to see some of our favourite characters again, and to meet some great new ones. We are curious about how some of the magic will be done on stage and we'd like to see a production someday to see how that works. But all in all it was a fun visit back to the world of Harry Potter and I'm glad we read it.

The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce

A few years ago I read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and absolutely loved it. It was the beautiful story of a man who gets a letter from an old friend who has let him know she is dying of cancer. He decides to walk to see her, believing she will hold on until he gets there. The only problem is that he lives in the south of England and she lives in the north. It's quite a long walk, and a personal journey that unfolds. It has become one of my all time favourite books and definitely my favourite in recent years.

I later heard that a parallel book had been written, telling the story of Queenie Hennessy, the woman Harold is walking to see. I was so excited to read it that I apparently bought two copies at different times! However with the kids and school and my reading for book club I never got around to reading it. Plus, I loved Harold Fry so much I was a bit afraid to read this one because I was afraid that this might not be as good and would ruin the original story for me. So I put off reading it for a long time. But last week I finally picked it up and I read it quickly and loved it. Maybe not quite as much as Harold Fry but a lot.

Queenie Hennessy is getting settled into a hospice in Berwick-Upon-Tweed in the north of England when she feels she needs to send a letter to her old friend Harold Fry to let him know about her poor health. When she hears her letter has spurred him to walk across the country to visit her, she realizes she needs him to know the truth about some things that happened in their shared past. With the help of one of the nuns from the hospice she begins to write to Harold, with the nun transcribing on her typewriter. Most of the book is her letter to Harold, but mixed in are some funny and heartwarming scenes from inside the hospice. There are some fantastic characters who live there, all anxiously awaiting Harold's arrival, taking hope and strength from his decision to walk.

It is interesting to read the same story again from Queenie's perspective. Things that Harold didn't know when he was walking are introduced, things Queenie needs to confess before it is too late for her.

It is a beautiful story of friendship, love, the hurts we hide and the pain everyone faces at different times in their lives. I love these two stories so much and recommend them highly. Definitely begin with Harold Fry and then read this one. I hope you'll love them too!

The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff

I have this thing where I have a hard time giving up on a book I'm not enjoying. I have only done it a few times in my life and every time I do it, I feel like a quitter. I feel like the book has got to get better. Sometimes my perseverance pays off, sometimes it doesn't.

I have been reading this book since about March. It was a selection for my book club and I just couldn't get into it. When the meeting came and went (and I was still stuck in chapter 5) I set the book aside to focus on the next month's selection. And then the next month's and on we go. But this summer I was determined to finish this book. Thanks to our train ride to Toronto, I was able to finally finish it. It wasn't worth it.

I don't have a lot to say about the book. I found it confusing and boring. I didn't really grow attached to any of the characters and some of them annoyed me. It is the story of Willie Upton who returns to her hometown of Templeton, NY with her life in shambles, just as a mysterious "monster" is pulled out of the town's lake. She finds out that her mother has been lying to her throughout her life about who her father is, and she decides to find the truth once and for all. It just didn't make sense to me that her mother would finally tell her she'd been lying all these years, but still refuse to tell her who her father is, making her dig through generations of family history to try to find it for herself. The family history was confusing, the family trees included did little to help and it just bored me.

But I finished it, and that is a lot of reading time I'll never get back. Someone posted a meme on facebook recently that said, "Life is too short to read bad books". I really feel I need to take this more seriously. I don't have a lot of time for reading, so why should I waste time? When someone chooses a book for my book club, I like to read it before the meeting. I want to see why they've chosen it. But I never want to take months to finish a book again.

Masterminds by Gordon Korman

Gordon Korman has been one of my favourite authors since I was a kid. I was hooked once I read the first escapades of his fantastic Bruno and Boots characters. Because he started writing at the age of 12, he has had plenty of time in his young life to come up with quite a catalogue of impressive books to his name. I read a bunch of his books when I was a kid and have now read the MacDonald Hall series with my kids. They are now fans too.

Masterminds is a book that Darcy picked up earlier this year and she loved it so much she insisted I read it. This was my first experience with his mystery/adventure writing, everything else I've read has fallen into the comedy genre, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

Masterminds is the story of a group of teens growing up in Serenity, New Mexico. Serenity is a small town which seems to be pretty perfect. There's no crime, no unemployment, no homelessness. It's so perfect that no one ever leaves. 13-year old Eli has never even left town for any reason. Why would he need to? Everything he needs is available to him. But being 13-year old boys, Eli and his best friend, Randy, decide to take their bikes for a ride outside the city to do some exploring. Once they hit the town lines Eli is hit with a terrible illness and finds himself at the centre of huge rescue operation by the town's top secret police force, and being ushered onto a helicopter, even though he has only gone as far as the town line. After he recovers from his illness he begins to think that things aren't quite as perfect as they seem in his little town and he and his friends set out to discover what is really going on. What they discover is more shocking than they ever imagined!

Although this book is geared to 9-12 year olds, I really loved it. It was a fun page turner. If you have a child in this age group, I would definitely recommend it, but you won't be sorry if you give it a quick read too. It won't take long. But be prepared! This is the first in a series so all of your questions won't be answered when you turn the last page.

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick

It is going to take a lot to knock this book out of my #1 book of 2016 spot. I have been in a reading slump for a while and I haven't found a book that really grabbed me. This book was what I was waiting to find.

This is our final book club selection for the spring and I hadn't heard of it before it was chosen as our final book. The title made me curious (see what I did there???) so I immediately bought it to read on my iPad.

One of my favourite books of recent years was The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and I found this to be equally charming.

Arthur Pepper has been a widower for one year. His life has been sad and lonely over the past year and he has relied on his routines at home to keep life "normal". A year after his beloved Miriam's death he decides to clean out her closets. While doing this he comes across a charm bracelet he has never seen before. He doesn't remember ever seeing her wear it. But as he tries to discover where the bracelet came from he learns a lot more about Miriam than he was prepared for.

He begins a journey that takes him far out of his comfort zone, travelling to London and Paris, getting attacked by a tiger, and discovering things about his wife, kids and himself along the way.

It is a beautiful look at how the choices we make each day make up our lives and about how we don't know what kind of impact we are having on the people we cross paths with in our lives.

It is an absolutely delightful book. One of the women in my book club even shared that this book inspired her to reconnect with her dad! Amazing. It will make you think about your life and about the choices you make. It also made me increasingly grateful for the people in my life. I am challenged after reading it to enjoy the moment more, instead of waiting for better times to come. I hope you love it as much as I did.

The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin

After neglecting to read my book club's selection for March, I needed to get back at it for April. The busyness of the end of my school semester really didn't leave me a lot of time for reading, so I needed something light and fun to get me reading again. This seemed to do the trick, and I got through it in a few days.

If you like Downton Abbey this could be a good book for you. This is the story of Cora Cash, the richest young woman in America in the 1890's. Her mother wants Cora to make a great "match" and arranges a trip to England for Cora to meet eligible bachelors with titles. Cora quickly finds herself married to Duke Ivo Maltravers, with her own new title of Duchess of Wareham. She is thrown into her new role with very little preparation, very little knowledge of her new husband and very little understanding of her new culture. Cora finds herself always on the outside, wondering if what she is doing is the right thing. It usually isn't.

At the same time, her lady's maid, Bertha, a black woman, is trying to find her way as well. She also often finds herself on the outside because of her role as a servant as well as for her skin colour.

This was a light, quick, fun read. It's not going to win awards, but it's an enjoyable read. None of the characters are especially loveable, but you do find yourself cheering for Cora even while finding her to be a spoiled brat. Fans of Downton Abbey will see some parallels (rich American woman marrying a Brit and using her wealth to save his estate, the upstairs/downstairs element, character names like Cora and Sybil) and will probably enjoy it.

The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

When the first Harry Potter book was published in 1997, I read it, just like countless others did. For some reason, it just didn't grab me. I've never been a huge fantasy reader and this fell into that category for me. I simply wasn't interested enough to read any more of them. And I thought it would stay that way (like my feelings on The Lord of the Rings). Then I had kids. Kids who love reading together as a family. We have read some great series together already like The Chronicles of Narnia and This Can't Be Happening at MacDonald Hall but were wondering what our next series would be. Darcy suggested Harry Potter because we had received the first three books in a box of books some friends had given us. So we decided to give it a try, with me expecting to be bored the whole time.

There is something about seeing a book through the eyes of your children that changes things. We were all hooked, right from day one. It has taken us a little more than a year to get through the whole series but we have loved every minute of it (well there were a few character deaths we disliked, but you know what I mean). We have a very strict "no reading ahead" policy. None of us is allowed to read anything without the other two present. We all read or no one reads. There were times when we all struggled with this (I sometimes found Wesley just reading the chapter titles trying to find out what was going to come next) but we kept to it.

Earlier this week we turned the last page of the last book and it was a sad moment for all of us. Our time in the world of Harry Potter has been "magical" for us and we were all very sad to see it come to an end. So sad, in fact that we will be stretching it out a little more by reading Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them next.

There's not much I can say about the books that hasn't already been said. J.K. Rowling has created an incredible world, amazing characters and exciting storylines. We laughed, we cried, we were scared, but we loved it all.

I will always look back on this time we've spent reading this series as one of my favourite times in my kids' childhoods. The hours we spent, under the covers of my bed, snuggled up and immersed in this magical world were some of the best hours I've ever spent.

Now we want to save our pennies for a trip to Harry Potter World at Universal Studios in Florida.

I'm so glad I waited to read this series until I read it with my kids. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. But they're still on their own for The Lord of the Rings.

Little Princes by Conor Grennan

I'll be honest, I really didn't want to read this book. I was in the mood for something uplifting so the idea of reading a book about child trafficking did not appeal to me in the slightest. But that is the thing about book club books, you read things you would otherwise not have read.

And I am so, so glad I did. I absolutely loved this book. I can't say enough about it. It is uplifting, challenging, beautiful, heart-warming, and so much more.

This is a non-fiction book, the story of Conor Grennan's time in Nepal. His first visit is to volunteer for a short time at an orphanage before beginning a year-long trip around the world. He has no experience with children, he can't speak the local language and has no idea what to expect with the difficult political situation happening in the country at the time of his visit.

While there the children win him over almost instantly. And during the course of his visit he learned the heartbreaking truth about them. These children were not orphans at all. Their families (from a very remote and extremely poor region of Nepal) had been tricked into paying a man to take their children into Kathmandu where he promised them a home and an education. These families had no money, but sold everything they had to try to give their children a better life. What they had no way of knowing is that the man abandoned them in Kathmandu. Finding this out changed Conor's life forever. He returned to Nepal at the end of his trip around the world and knew that he needed to do more.

While back in the US, Conor laid the groundwork for Next Generation Nepal, an organization that would provide homes for these abandoned children and would work towards reuniting the families. He then travels back to Nepal to begin that work. It is an incredible story that moved me to tears more than once (granted, that's not hard). I highly recommend this book, and I also recommend visiting Next Generation's website to find out more about their important work.

The Only Thing to Fear by Caroline Tung Richmond

What if Hitler had won WWII? What would our world look like? That is what this book sets out to answer

This is a young adult book, which was highly recommended to me by Darcy. She read it in grade 5 and then bought it when given the opportunity at a used book sale at school. She was fascinated by the book and kept on insisting that I read it too. I finally picked it up this past weekend.

Germany and Japan have divided the former United States between them, with Italy taking the west coast and Germany ruling the east coast. So 16-year old Zara St. James is growing up in the Eastern American Territories. She is an orphan (abandoned by her Japanese father and her mother died in a rebel-led raid against the Nazis) being raised by her Uncle in the Shenandoah region of the former United States. She is forced to work cleaning a school for German students where she meets Bastian, the son of the local Nazi Colonel. Rebel forces are assembling throughout the former United States, determined to overthrow the Nazi regime. That is how Zara's mother died and it makes her Uncle extra protective of her.

As you can imagine, the world created by the Nazis is not a pleasant one. Zara is determined to join the rebels and fight for her freedom. Her uncle is hesitant to allow this, but Zara has special skills that could be vital to the success of the rebel's mission. And what are Bastian's true feelings? Can he be trusted?

This was a fun little book and an interesting concept. How would life be different if WWII hadn't ended the way it did? It is definitely far-fetched (humans with super powers have been developed) but still interesting. It's a great way for a younger audience to think a bit about the freedoms they enjoy and what was necessary to make those possible.

Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella

Our book club took a funny turn this month and I'm so grateful! While dealing with fairly serious subject matter, Sophie Kinsella has come up with a funny, engaging novel full of great characters. I wouldn't have expected a book about a teen dealing with mental health issues to be so funny, but it really is.

Audrey is a teenager in England who experienced some serious trauma at her school. That is not fully explained, but it seems to have been some serious bullying from a group of girls who are jealous of her academic and sports success. As a result of this bullying she suffers from anxiety and panic attacks and likely some PTSD (her medical diagnosis is also never fully explained except to say that she is not bipolar). She needs to leave school and spend some time at home getting healthy before moving to a new school.

At home she is surrounded by her parents and her brothers Frank and Felix. Teenaged Frank is, according to their Mum, a video game addict and Mum is determined to get him off the computer and into the outdoors. Felix is only four and adds a lot of humour to the different situations. Frank's friend Linus is also a frequent visitor to their house and becomes very special to Audrey and a big part of her healing.

It doesn't seem like a book about extreme bullying and the subsequent anxiety should be funny but these characters just seem so real. The Mum is absolutely hysterical in her determination to end Frank's video game addiction. Audrey's counsellor gives her the task of making a movie as part of her therapy and the scenes she captures of her family around the house are so funny. I once found myself laughing out loud in a medical waiting room while reading this book.

I do find that Audrey's healing is a little too tidy and easy. I've never dealt with anxiety myself but from what I understand from others who have, it's not that easy. But I do understand that's what fits with the tone of the book. It does seem to give a fairly accurate picture of what happens in an anxiety attack and how someone living with them has to adapt their life as a result of them.

It is a very quick, easy read and highly enjoyable.

A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell

This was our book club's selection for our January meeting (we met on January 17th) and I finished the book today (February 5th). I think that's my worst ever finish for a book club book, unless you count the one I didn't read at all. We had a lot going on in January and I wasn't always in the mood to read a book about the ending days of World War II, so I didn't always want to pick it up at the end of the day. When you're only reading a few pages at a time, 426 pages can last a long time!

The last 100 pages, although brutal in their depiction of the end of the war, were completely compelling and I have been reading a lot over the last two days to get to the end, but I'm getting ahead of myself...

This isn't the story of one person in particular, but many people living in Italy in the early to mid-1940's. It is mainly the story of Jewish Italians (and also some others from nearby countries who had fled to Italy) trying to survive the German attacks of WWII and the Catholic Italians trying to keep them safe. Because there are many characters and interweaving storylines it can be hard to keep everyone straight. Especially when characters are changing their names to protect themselves! I really appreciated the character list included in the beginning of the book to help keep everyone straight. If you choose to read this book, I would recommend a print edition rather than an electronic one, so you can easily refer back to this list and some maps printed in the front of the book.

It is a story of faith, hope, perseverance in the worst possible circumstances, family, and bravery of many different kinds. Characters will grow and stretch themselves in ways that didn't seem possible at the beginning of the book. People who would likely have never had anything to do with each in peace time will risk their lives to save each other. It's really unlike anything else I've ever read and an incredibly powerful portrayal of the final days of the war.

When I had the privilege of visiting a Canadian War Cemetary in Holland one thing that struck me was the number of soldiers who died in the final days of the war, or even after the war was over. After reading this book, I have a better understanding of some of those final battles and the desperation that led to many of those deaths, and the deaths of many civilians as well.

It's been a while since I cried while reading a book, but the last few chapters brought me to tears a few times (a scene of Last Rites being given in a torture chamber wiped me out). Some shocking things happen and are written in a way that completely caught me off guard. The ending of one chapter even made me think of the ending of The Sopranos. Very powerful, captivating writing that told the story beautifully.

I rated this book a 5 on Goodreads. I rarely do that. I would like to read it again one day to get a better understanding of many of the little storylines. But not for a while. I feel like this book will haunt me for a long time. I'm glad our next selection is much lighter. My brain needs a bit of a break!

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

This was a rare book that I chose to read just for fun, not for school or book club or any other reason. Reading just because I wanted to read. What a fun idea! This one had been highly recommended to me, so I picked it up. I finished it in one week, which is a record for me recently. Of course it was a week of vacation, with two long train rides, but still, I finished it quickly.

Broken into two sections, this non-fiction book tells the story of the people of Savannah, Georgia and a murder that happened there in the 1980's. In the first section you meet many of the characters in the book through interviews they each held with the author when he first visited there from his home in New York City. But after he was there for a short time, one of the men he met there murdered a man and claimed it was self defense. The rest of the book tells the story of his trials and the effects his trouble had on others in the city (how can we have a Christmas party if Jim is in prison???).

I saw the movie adaptation of this book years ago and didn't like it, so I was hesitant to read the book. But after hearing that the movie was nothing like the book I decided to give it a try. I was drawn in immediately. The characters really come alive for you. They are all so incredible you often forget you are reading non-fiction (although the author does admit to a few artistic liberties). Then when the murder happens the story unfolds in a really compelling way. I couldn't get enough of it and couldn't wait to find out what would happen to Jim. It is a great mystery and told incredibly well.

So I highly recommend this book for a fascinating people study, but be prepared. You will probably want to take a trip to Savannah when you are done to see these people for yourself!