“Shadow Castle” by Marian Cockrell

I read this book when I was a child and loved it. It has always stayed with me and I don’t know how I could have parted with my original copy. I didn’t remember the exact title, but managed to find it on the internet as a reprint and Ray bought it for me for Christmas. Reading the comments about this book was fun because a lot of people had had the same reaction to it that I did.

I enjoyed rereading this book. It was fun recalling pictures and stories from when I read it the first time. I could even tell which section was “never before published.” It really is amazing what sticks with us. I even considered naming my son Robin because of this book.

“Gallows View” by Peter Robinson

This Detective Banks murder mystery was a pleasant enough read. I guess I’ll continue with the series because the author is Canadian, though born in Britain. It’s nice to read about a detective who is well adjusted and has a healthy family life.

“Wild Dogs” by Helen Humphreys

At first I thought this book was quite dreary because of the passive misery of all the characters. And the plot of people congregating in a field to summon their dogs, which had gone wild, seemed bizarre to say the least. But I ended up liking this book very much, due to the subtlety with which the author handles emotions. The characters evolved naturally, rather than through actions contrived by the author.

“Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harare

Though at times slow, this was an excellent book which exposed me to many new ideas and concepts. Surprisingly, it even changed my approach towards life. I am going to work on using Buddhist philosophy to reduce my worries. I will not make myself stressed by wanting things, especially with regard to my children. I will let life flow through me instead. I will accept what is.

“French Exit” by Patrick deWitt

I enjoyed this book. It was amusingly ironic, and the gradual revelation of Frances Price’s true nature was well done. She was far from the heartless, haughty grande dame who appears at the beginning of the story.

“Washington Black” by Esi Edugyan

Overall, I did not like this book, and would not have expected it to be an award winner. It is written from the first person point of view of a former slave, and I could never quite believe that it was a realistic voice. I thought the language was too modern and too sophisticated for a person from that era and background, regardless of how intelligent he was. And though there were some interesting sections in the book, it became too much of Washington’s musings and not enough of plot.

“The English Patient” by Michael Ondaatje

This book is beautifully written, and expresses some beautiful ideas, but I can’t say that I enjoyed it. The writing is too poetic and ephemeral for my taste.

“The Black Book” by Ian Rankin

A decent read. The first half of the book was actually quite boring, but then it picked up.

“The Quarry” by Iain Banks

This last book by Iain Banks is almost totally useless. Written from the point of view of a young autistic man, it consists almost solely of dialogue among a group of friends visiting the one who is dieing, who is the father of the autistic boy. So so useless!!

“Strip Jack” by Ian Rankin

I quite enjoyed this book. Rebus’ relationships are becoming more interesting, and the mystery was fairly complex and kept me guessing.

“Darcy’s Story” by Janet Aylmer

This was an enjoyable enough telling of Darcy’s point of view in “Pride and Prejudice”. I did find it to be a bit too pedantic and explanatory at times, but it did give me some new insights. The relationship between Georgiana and Darcy, in particular, was developed very nicely. This book was definitely true to the original, with everyone’s personalities remaining firmly intact.

“Crazy Rich Asians” by Kevin Kwan

I enjoyed this book quite a bit, especially since it had some unexpected twists and turns and some genuine acts of kindness. Kwan has one or two writing idiosyncrasies that lower the quality of his writing, but he is quite good in character development and dialogue. One of the things that irritated me was that on several occasions, he described grown women as “giggling.” “Discovery of witches” did the same thing.

“Tooth and Nail” by Ian Rankin

Either this was my least favourite of Rankin’s books, or I’m getting tired of him. I did not really enjoy the fish out of water premise, which had Rankin being brought to London to solve a serial killer mystery. And somehow, even after 3 books, Rebus does not quite seem real or even appeal to me.

“A Discovery of Witches” by Deborah Harkness

This book was decent, but I read reviews for the remaining books in the trilogy, and I won’t bother reading them. People who disliked the book objected to the same things I did.... much too much unnecessary description, such as several pages detailing how Diana got dressed for her vampire date. The POV treatment is also very odd, shifting back and forth between 3rd person and first person. I did find the references to alchemy and alchemical drawings interesting. There definitely are some interesting ideas in the book but the writing style leaves much to be desired.

“Hide and Seek” by Ian Rankin

This was a decently entertaining Rebus book. Oddly though, I don’t yet feel close to Rebus. At this stage , he’s just a mishmash of other detectives I’ve encountered. Hopefully, this will change as I read more Rebus books. This mystery itself, an illegal fight club, was quite good.

“Wilderness Tips” by Margaret Atwood

I found this set of short stories to be too gloomy and bleak to be enjoyable. A world of middle aged women where adultery is commonplace doesn’t appeal to me in the least. Also, I found the occurrence of summer camps and people who wrote for a living to be rather repetitive. I suppose that intellectually, Atwood is an interesting writer, but I don’t think her characters are all that appealing

“A Spool of Blue Thread” by Anne Tyler

Anne Tyler writes beautifully about family dynamics. As a result, this novel was quite easy for me to read in long unbroken stretches. And the ending, dealing with Denny, the troublesome son, did theoretically tie everything together very nicely, including that blue spool of thread that fell into Denny’s hand. Nevertheless, I feel that there is something missing. It might be that I have to give the book a more careful analysis to fully appreciate it. I guess I’m troubled because it turned out that Denny was the protagonist, and yet he was absent for long stretches of the book, and many of his motivations remain a mystery.

“The Witches of New York” by Ami McKay

The book’s strongest point was also, I think, its greatest weakness. The author obviously enjoyed writing about the historical backdrop of 19th century New York City and about witchcraft, up to the point where there was in fact, more description than necessary. And I don’t think she was as successful in developing her characters as she was the city. Admittedly, the ghost of the little boy caused me some tears, but I did not become entranced with any of the 3 witches. I suppose I’ll read volume 2 of the series, but I don’t expect much from it.... Perhaps the 2nd novel will be better because the author would have move beyond the point of ”setting the stage”?

“Jailbird” by Kurt Vonnegut

This is the first book I’ve read by Vonnegut, and though it’s not his best, it’s good enough for me to understand his success.

"The Order of Time" by Carlo Rovelli

This is an interesting book about the nature of time. It is written by a physicist, and it contains scientific explanations as well as philosophical thoughts. Considering that Rovelli touched on Greek philosophers and ancient Indian texts, he must be amazingly erudite. I'm sure that I understand only a small bit of the implications in this book. My most important take-away is that we see and understand so little of the actual world... atoms, relationships between objects, relativity etc etc.

“Knots and Crosses” by Ian Rankin

This is the first novel in the Rebus series, and the first book by Rankin that I’ve read. From it, I have learned that Rankin is not a hack writer. He is quite good, though I must say that I’m glad I read Rankin’s introduction. It explains quite nicely why, as an ambitious young author’s first crime novel, the language was sometimes too literate. Also, he developed Rebus as quite a complex character because he did not intend to write any more books about him. Given his complex backstory, I’m interested in finding out how Rebus evolves in succeeding books.

“Diary of a Wimpy Kid” by Jeff Kinney

This is a very well written and funny book for preteens. Lucas loaned it to me and I will honestly be able to tell him I enjoyed it.

“Gargoyles” by Bill Gaston

An enjoyable, mostly psychologically dark, but sometimes uplifting, collection of short stories.

“The Lonely Hearts Hotel” by Heather O’Neill

It is a dark, whimsical tale. And for the most part, I loathed this book because there was so much ugliness in it. It’s about the lives of 2 talented orphans in a Montreal orphanage who have always loved each other, but are kicked around by a disgusting society. Needless to say, their adult lives are no easier. I could not wait to finish the book, and to my amazement, the ending was brilliant. Pierrot’s funeral brought tears to my eyes, and Rose’s destiny was a well written surprise.

“Juliet was a Surprise” by Bill Gaston

This was an interesting and rather sad group of short stories. It took me awhile, but after reading them all, I’ve come to appreciate Bill Gaston. I would say that the overarching theme was extreme self involvement, to the exclusion of living a life.

“Sick of Shadows” by Sharyn McCrumb

I like Sharyn McCrumb as a writer very much, but this was not one of her better efforts, I think. This book is volume 1 in the Elizabeth Macpherson mystery series, and I expect that McCrumb was still developing her skills as a detective writer. One problem is that the pace is kind of slow because it consists mainly of dialogue. Also, the book did not resolve all issues to my satisfaction. I would especially like to know why the schizophrenic murder victim became upset when her psychiatrist arrived for the wedding. Did she infer that he was expecting trouble? And why did the murder victim decide to write a will?

“Barbarian Lost: Travels in the New China” by Alexandre Trudeau

This was a good read that taught me quite a bit about China. I did, however, find Trudeau’s writing style to be occasionally jarring in its casualness, by which I mean use of expletives and slang. In fact, his general writing style was new to me. It was simulataneously a travelogue, diary, and erudite exposition. Also, he quoted the conversations of himself and his guide, throwing in the underlying emotion as well.

“The Three Musketeers” by Alexandre Dumas, Pere

So, I finally read this classic. Overall,it was quite enjoyable. Dumas has written some quite beautiful descriptive passages, and the various incidents in the book are quite amusing. On the other hand, I must admit that afte4 awhile, I found the adventures to be rather repetitive. And I skimmed over much of Milady’s machinations near the end of the book.

As often happens with the classics, I was surprised by how modern it felt. Dumas has a good sense of humour. Also, I very much liked the collaborative decision making style among the Musketeers.

“The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown

Some of the plot twists in this book ended up being quite interesting. But overall, it was too long, too preachy, and described Washington landmarks with too much fawning detail.

"The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman

Lyra and Will... separated forever. This book brought tears to my eyes, which is always a high commendation for a book. I really like Pullman's dedication to goodness, open-mindedness and wisdom.

“The Subtle Knife” by Philip Pullman

I believe I do appreciate these books better the second time round. They cerainly do have a distinctive and intelligently drawn world view.

“Espedair Street” by Iain Banks

This was not my favourite book by Banks because I think it dragged a bit, but it was intelligently written and gave me good insight into the effect of sudden fabulous wealth. Dan Weir, the protagonist, grew up very poor in Scotland and became part of a wildly successful rock band which descended into decadence. The book ends very nicely and was emotionally fulfilling. My only quibble is that I’m guessing there was an awful lot of Banks in the character. I wonder if he’s capable of writing from the viewpoint of only moderately intelligent people.

"Death at La Fenice" by Donna Leon

This was the first book in the Inspector Brunetti series and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It made me nostalgic for Venice.

“About Face” by Donna Leon

I mistakenly borrowed this title thinking it was the first book in the series, but it was the 19th. The writing style is pretty ordinary and a touch too sparing. At times, it is so clumsy I wonder if the author’s first langauge is even English. The only thing that made this book interesting for me was its Venetian setting.

“The Thirst” by Jo Nesbo

This book was disgusting in its violence and ugliness. I am very glad that it is the last Harry Hole book. I’m not going near Nesbo again. And oh yeah! The guy is sickly obsessed with metallic mouth implements. In ”The Thirst”, it was sharp metallic teeth.

“Police” by Jo Nesbo

This was one of my least favourite Harry Hole books. There were too many threads and as a result, the story was confusing and irritating. And killing Beate, a main character was one important death too many. And there were just too many red herrings and teases. In addition, I realized there was a significant plot hole. Harry and his family took great pains to sever their link to a certain firearm, and yet, earlier in the book, several people saw Harry brandishing it.

“We Have Always Lived in the Castle” by Shirley Jackson

This is a good but gruesome psychological study of 2 sisters who are obviously mentally unsound. The story is told from the point of view of the younger sister who is frighteningly insane. It is not a surprise at the end to learn that it was the younger sister, not the older... as was supposed, that murdered her family with arsenic in the sugar. The neighbouring townspeople as well, are an unpleasant study in ugly psychological behaviour.

“The Golden Compass” by Philip Pullman

I enjoyed this book more than I did the first time I read it. I’m guessing that I better appreciated its hilosophical underpinnings second time round.

The Book of Dust vol1 La Belle Sauvage” by Philip Pullman

The book was a bit too leisurely, and Malcolm, the hero, was a bit too perfectly decent, but overall, I enjoyed reading it.

“Warsaw Boy” by Andrew Borowiec

My favourite part of this book was the author’s description of pre-war Poland, because it gave me some understanding of my family’s experiences. It’s amazing how war creeps up on you, despite your expectations and hopes to the contrary.

On the other hand, the descriptions of the Warsaw uprising bored me silly, and the author’s Polish Nationalism was a bit much for ,y taste,

“Fifteen Dogs” by Andre Alexis

This was an amusing, satirical book with a pretty ending. The fact that events were controlled by the Greek gods made it even more enjoyable for me.

“The Goldfinch” by Donna Tartt

This book was longer than I expected, and too long in parts, but I enjoyed it very much. Tartt’s beautiful and immersive writing makes Theo’s wild and bizarre journey totally believable.

I particularly like the book for reminding me that there are so many different ways of living. And I also, of course, enjoyed Boris, who added a strong Polish/Russian element.

“The Imposter Bride” by Nancy Richler

I enjoyed this book very much because so many of its characters were motivated by kindness and ordinary human spirit. There was no ugly, artificial edginess to it. Instead, it was an interesting and realistic look into post World War 2 Jewish family life in Montreal. And as is often the case with this subject matter, it gave me more insight into my own family when I was growing up.
But the ending disappointed me. The fact of Ruth’s mother, and then Ruth’s half brother, not wanting to link with Ruth’s life was a bit too cold for my taste. Family is family and as is stated in the book, this was a waste of blood ties.

“The Gravity of Birds” by Tracy Guzeman

This was a readable book, but I did not like the way Guzeman developed her characters. There was something unpleasantly shallow about them. It occurred to me that she pecked at character development, evoking a bird like feeling. This was in keeping with birds being a prominent theme throughout. The book is filled with cowardly decisions and actions. I do not know why so many people seemed to enjoy it. The word that came most often to my mind was “repulsive”. Artistic geniuses, bitter sister, rheamatoid arthritis.

“Day Shift” by Charlaine Harris

I enjoyed this book. Charlaine Harris’ writing is friendly, inventive and kind and fun to read. Unfortunately, I read the last 2 books in the Midnight Texas series out of order, and so was missing some of the context when I was reading “Night Shift”. I think I’ll likely skim it for the stuff I missed.

“Dickens of London” by Wolf Mankowitz

This was an easy-to-read biography of Dickens. It was written in support of a tv show so it did not go into ponderous detail, but did succeed in giving me a better understanding of the man. He sounds amazing, especially in his concerns with social justice. Nevertheless, I would not have wanted to be either his child or his lover. He was definitely hard to live with. I liked the illustrations in the book as well. I have always had a great fondness for the black and white illustrations of that era.

“The Real Thing” by Doris Lessing

There were a number of good stories in this book of short stories and sketches. The one that I remember best dealt with a social worker’s visit to an immigrant mother in London. It’s always a pleasure to read Doris Lessing because she is so aware of what drives us as human beings.

"The Idiot" by John Kendrick Bangs

I quite enjoyed this humorous collection of stories about an “idiot” and his “tormented” breakfast companions in a boarding house. The idiot likes to tease with wordplay and with exposition on novel concepts such as floating houses. The last chapter is a heartwarming ending. In addition to the humour, I enjoyed picking up some minor tidbits on early 20th century life. Question... why have boarding houses fallen by the wayside?