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.