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.