A Fabulous Find and Fugitive Pieces

What I Read: Fugitive Pieces, by Anne Michaels

Rating: 5/5!

Okay, this post is partly to share the excitement of a fun book room find and partly to rave about a book I read years back but just recently recommended to Sonya (Hi, Sonya!). First, you must hear about this fabulous find we, well, found. Rasha and I were going through book donations as per usual, oohing and aahing as is to be expected when two bibliophiles are paid to sort through books all day, when we came across a rather strange offering. A book called Steamboat Gothic by Frances Parkinson Keyes, which Rasha picked up, oohed and aahed over, and tried to open… but the book wouldn’t open! (Duh duh duh…) She tries again, but only the first few pages move at all, and then I clue in, because I watch a lot of old movies where the characters have to… but I’m giving it away too soon. Anyways, so I clue in. She passes me the box, I shake it around a bit, and out comes a card, reading: “We hope you enjoy this book. We found the contents inspiring and relaxing during times of stress. Put this book on a shelf at the school. You will find it very handy. Have a good summer, thanks for your help and advice.” And it turns out that the inspiring and relaxing contents of this book are… a bottle of aged Canadian Forty Creek premium whisky! In a sealed bottle! And so, Watson, that is how old films about bootlegging and hollow Bibles helped to solve the case of the book with the really stuck pages.

After more sleuthing we found out that the book was made by this really cool Canadian company called The Book Box, which sells books to the public at www.secretstoragebooks.com. Normally I greatly disapprove of book vandalism, but this company seems to take fairly new antiques (which is kind of a contradiction of terms, I know) and books that have multiple copies of that edition in print. They also do a lot of newer books that have a wide circulation: I guess books like The History of Golf blend in better on some people’s shelves. The copy of Steamboat Gothic we found was from 1954 but looks like it’s older… I’ll have to see if I can get a picture of it on here. Anyways, the company advertises itself as “Recycling for Book Lovers”, which I think is adorable and makes me look more kindly on the destruction of the book for the sake of storing booze. If you have a book lover in the family, this would probably make them an amazing gift! No, that is not a hint.

To my second order of business: Fugitive Pieces. I’m still reading Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance, which, by the way, is AMAZING and has already inspired two strangers to approach me to talk about how much they loved the book AND made me miss my bus stop once AND caused me to almost walk into a parked van on my way home. It’s a dangerous book. But so worth it… pick it up, you won’t regret it. But I digress. Fugitive Pieces was recommended and lent to me by my beautiful sister Sarah a couple of years ago, and she couldn’t have picked a more perfect book for me. It is so lyric and poetic in its writing style (Anne Michaels published poetry before this book, her first novel, which I must get my hands on), but the images are still so vivid and relatable that you can’t forget what you see through her writing. It tells the story of a poet who lives through the Holocaust as a boy, and tells of his journey from there through Greece to Canada to Greece again. It is a love story, a story about survival and endurance, a story about poetry and art, a story about the past and the changeability of the past, a story about family and history. I cannot recommend this book highly enough: you will lose yourself in her beautiful writing and the beautiful story.

And once you’re finished, read her newest book, The Winter Vault. She made us wait for years between Fugitive Pieces and this latest masterpiece, but it was well worth it! Anne Michaels, teach me your ways! And take all the time you need on your third book, we’ll wait.

As a note, I’ve been recommended to read Shogun by James Clavell and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (which I’ve found at the book room, yay!), so I’ll be diverting from the reading list I posted to read these two (thank you Dan and Katrina!). And yes, Jon, to finish Jim Butcher’s fantastic Alera series. (I promise you you’ll get those back, although I like them, so you might need to sneak them off my bookshelves.) And also The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, which I started too (will I ever learn?). I have waaay too many books going right now, but that makes me quite happy: during the year we English majors have surprisingly little time to read books that we want to read outside of our school texts. For now I’m going to finish A Fine Balance, because it is just so good. Here’s hoping I don’t walk into traffic or into a stampede of rampaging elephants because I’m so deep into my read!

All the best, and happy reading!

Erin

What I am reading: A Lady Never Tells by Candace Camp

Status: just finished

Rating: 4.5/5

For those of you who don't know me, my favourite genre of books is Regency Romance. I love love love the romance novels that take place in London during the early1800s! I adore everything from the way the scenery is described, the fashion that was worn and most importantly, how two people can fall in love and beat the odds that either society or life in general presents them. The male lead is usually from a high social circle and very aristocratic in behaviour but with a heart of gold and the female is beautiful yet headstrong and different from what women were supposed to be like during that time. OK, i can go on and on describing my love of regency romance so i will force myself to stop right here and actually review this amazing book i read :)

To begin with, I was very excited to grab a copy of Candace Camp's A Lady Never Tells since i believe that i have never read a novel written by her before that i didn't like before. And again, she didn't disappoint. This books gives the reader a little of Adventure mixed with Drama mixed with wait for it, Romance! It was a very interesting read for me mainly because it involved four sisters: Mary, Rose, Camellia, and Lily. These four fictional sisters reminded me so much of my three sisters and I and how, like them, we always stick together and help each other through difficult times. The novel revolves mainly around the eldest sister Mary and the dashing Sir. Royce and the rest is history :) Other than the romance, you will discover how a lady was supposed to dress, talk and behave at that time and how easily a woman`s reputation was tarnished if she didn't stick to society`s rules. All in all, if you have any interest in Historical Romance and fashion then this book is for you :)

Toodles,

Rasha

What I am reading: Daddy's Little Girl by Mary Higgins Clark
Status: Just Finished
Rating: 4/5

Mary Higgins Clark, one of my favourite mystery writers of all time, always seems to amaze me with her breath holding always on the tip of your toes plot lines. This book is just awesome! I love the fact that while being a very interesting read, the story tries to tackle real issues such as watching a very happy family fall apart due to the death of one of their family members. It truely shows that not talking about things and blaming everyone but yourself never helps make the situation any better and sometimes, like in this case, play a very negative role in your life.

All in all, a good story and a I enjoyed it a lot. Hope all of you mystery fans will get the chance to take a look at it and enjoy it like I really did!

Toodles,

Rasha

What I’m Reading: In the Skin of a Lion, by Michael Ondaatje.
Status: Finished!
Rating: 4/5

Oh, this book! A couple of years ago a poetry professor of mine got talking about Ondaatje’s work (we were reading The Collected Works of Billy the Kid), and when she remembered this book her eyes went wide and she started to rave. This book was the book, she said, that she had read in university and which made her fall in love with Ondaatje. She was a VERY enthusiastic teacher, so I filed the book title away for my list of books to read but didn’t completely believe it would be as fan-crazy-TASTIC as she made it sound.

Buuut… when the book was donated to the book sale where I work, I set it aside and bought it for myself. And, much to my surprise, I am now in love with Michael Ondaatje! How did that happen? I was bored for the first thirty pages or so, lost in the beautiful, but dense and slow-moving, description. And then all of a sudden I was reading huge chunks without stopping when I should, burning the midnight oil and almost missing my bus stops! Where? Why? How? I tried re-reading the first part of the book to find where it changes to get good (read: fan-crazy-TASTIC), but now that I’m done the book the initial part seems more beautiful than slow to me and I can’t get the bored feeling back to find where the enthralled feeling begins.

In other words, please read this book so we can discuss! It’s all about Toronto at the turn of the 20th century, into the late 1930s. I had no idea that Toronto had such a rich, storied, and at times seriously crazy past! The Torontonians of yore that make this story so vibrant and startling are a mix of city officials, immigrant workers, and rural Canadians trying to build a life in the city. Nicholas Temelcoff is my personal favourite: we first meet him as a daredevil bridge builder trying to learn English, and we leave him as a baker who will only work in a black suit. The stories of the immigrants living in Toronto are the most memorable, so compassionately and vividly written. Ondaatje himself immigrated from Ceylon to England in 1954, and then relocated to Canada in 1962, which makes his approach to the immigrant community in the book, particularly that community’s relationship to the English language, particularly compelling.

Such a good book. I can’t wait to read The English Patient! But the next book on my To Read list is Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance, which comes very highly recommended by my mother… apparently this is one of the best books I will ever read, so I’m excited. Although finding a book to read next after reading The Best Book Ever is always a challenge! If you have any suggestions for other Best Books Ever, send them on over. And enjoy In the Skin of a Lion!

All the best and happy reading!

Erin