Binge by Douglas Coupland

I just finished reading Binge, by one of my favourite writers, Douglas Coupland. He did not disappoint. 

Thirty years after Douglas Coupland broke the fiction mould and defined a generation with Generation X, he is back with Binge, 60 stories laced with his observational profundity about the way we live and his existential worry about how we should be living: the very things that have made him such an influential and bestselling writer. Not to mention that he can also be really funny. 

Here the narrators vary from story to story as Doug catches what he calls the voice of the people, inspired by the way we write about ourselves and our experiences in online forums. The characters, of course, are Doug's own: crackpots, cranks and sweetie-pies, dad dancers and perpetrators of carbecues. People in the grip of unconscionable urges; lonely people; dying people; silly people. If you love Doug's fiction, this collection is like rain on the desert.

I really enjoyed the stories in this 60 short story collection. Some are funny. Some make you think. Many are connected. There might be a story early in the book, then 10 stories later, comes a story connected, continued or a prequel to it. Most of the time, you don't realize it till the end of the next story. 

Binge is well written, diverse and keeps the reader on their toes. A terrific book.

About Douglas Coupland 

Since 1991 Coupland has written thirteen novels published in most languages. He has written and performed for England’s Royal Shakespeare Company and is a columnist for The Financial Times of London. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, e-flux, DIS and Vice. 

In 2000 Coupland amplified his visual art production and has recently had two separate museum retrospectives, Everything is Anything is Anywhere is Everywhere at the Vancouver Art Gallery, The Royal Ontario Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, and Bit Rot at Rotterdam’s Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, and Munich’s Villa Stücke. In 2015 and 2016 Coupland was artist in residence in the Paris Google Cultural Institute. In May 2018 his exhibition on ecology, Vortex, opened at the Vancouver Aquarium. 

Coupland is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy, an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Officer of the Order of British Columbia, a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and receiver of the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence.

You Will Remember Me by Hannah Mary McKinnon

I just finished reading, You Will Remember Me, by Hannah Mary McKinnon. 

He wakes up on a deserted beach in Maryland with a gash on his head and wearing only swim trunks. He can't remember who he is. Everything--his identity, his life, his loved ones--has been replaced by a dizzying fog of uncertainty. But returning to his Maine hometown in search of the truth uncovers more questions than answers. 

Lily Reid thinks she knows her boyfriend, Jack. Until he goes missing one night, and her frantic search reveals that he's been lying to her since they met, desperate to escape a dark past he'd purposely left behind. 

Maya Scott has been trying to find her estranged stepbrother, Asher, since he disappeared without a trace. Having him back, missing memory and all, feels like a miracle. But with a mutual history full of devastating secrets, how far will Maya go to ensure she alone takes them to the grave?

I really enjoyed this well written novel. The story alternates between the views of the tree people, Lily, Asher and Maya, all told in first person. It's clever, well crafted and kept me guessing throughout. 

About Hannah Mary McKinnon

I was born in Manchester, UK to British & Swiss parents. A year later they moved my older sister and me to Switzerland. Rather unsurprisingly I love mountains, chocolate and cheese…or mountains of chocolate and cheese, and my sister, of course.

After completing commercial studies in Geneva, I worked as a PA for DuPont. A year later I moved to Neuchâtel and became the Purchasing Manager for a high-tech company that made motors for industrial and space applications. While working, I returned to university, studying part-time for a Bachelor of Science. And then a friend of a friend introduced me to another friend who’d started up an IT recruitment business. I joined the company late 1995, and over the next fifteen years rose through the ranks to become CEO.

Things outside of work were hardly boring, either. A chance encounter back in the dark ages of the Internet in 1999 led me down the aisle with Rob, my Canadian rock, five months later. Actually it was exactly ten weeks after we met face-to-face at the Saint John airport in New Brunswick, Canada – and we’re still married. True story. Our first son was born in 2003, followed by identical twin boys just sixteen months later, so I’m heavily outnumbered (and at 5ft8 officially the shortest of the family).

My writing career began after we moved to Oakville in Ontario, Canada in 2010. Maybe it was the failed attempt at a start-up company, or an early mid-life crisis, but one morning I decided to follow my oldest passion, started writing, and never wanted to look back. My first book was a rom-com, but then I switched to the dark side of suspense (say it with me: muahahaha).

While I may never have enough time to get all of the ideas out of my head and on paper, I’ll be darned if I won’t have fun trying!

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good

I just finished reading Five Little Indians by Michelle Good.

Winner of the 2018 HarperCollins/UBC Prize for Best New Fiction Michelle Good's FIVE LITTLE INDIANS, told from the alternating points of view of five former residential school students as they struggle to survive in 1960s Vancouver—one finding her way into the dangerous world of the American Indian movement; one finding unexpected strength in motherhood; and one unable to escape his demons - and the bonds of friendship that sustain them, inspired by the author's experiences.

This is an amazing read. The story alternates between each of the five characters in the novel, all of whom were kidnapped by the authorities and placed in one of BC,s  residential schools on an island which was run by a church. Most of the story takes place after their release, which sees them leave by different methods and how their lives cross in Vancouver at different points. 

The story of each is well told. I found myself routing for each and every one of them, cursing the system that saw them having to go to one of these monstrous run institutions and hating with a passion, the man the kids knew simply as Brother. Certainly had no love for the sister who ran the institution either.

A powerful story of the effects a horrible system put in place and was kept running by different governments through the decades, had on innocent indigenous children's lives. I can see why it received so much acclaim. it won the WINNER: Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Amazon First Novel Awards and the the Kobo Emerging Author Prize plus was the finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Atwood Gibson Writers Trust Prize. All well deserved. 

About Michelle Good

Michelle Good is a Cree writer and a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. After working for Indigenous organizations for twenty-five years she obtained a law degree and advocated for residential school survivors for over fourteen years. Good earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia while still practicing law and managing her own law firm. 

Her poems, short stories, and essays have been published in magazines and anthologies across Canada, and her poetry was included on two lists of the best Canadian poetry in 2016 and 2017. Five Little Indians is her first novel.

Her Last Breath by Hilary Davidson

I just finished reading Her Last Breath by Hilary Davidson.

When her beloved sister Caroline dies suddenly, Deirdre is heartbroken. However, her sorrow turns to bone-chilling confusion when she receives a message Caroline sent days earlier warning that her death would be no accident. Long used to being a pariah to her family, Deirdre covers her tattoos and heads to Manhattan for her sister’s funeral. 

The message claimed Caroline’s husband, Theo, killed his first wife and got away with it. Reeling from the news, Deirdre confronts Theo on the way to the cemetery, and he reveals both his temper and his suspicion that Deirdre’s “perfect” sister was having an affair. 

Paranoid and armed with just enough information to make her dangerous, Deirdre digs into the disturbing secrets buried with Caroline. But as she gets closer to the truth, she realizes that her own life may be at risk…and that there may be more than one killer in the family.

This is an excellent story which was spun very well. Told in first person from the viewpoint of Deidre in some chapters and Theo in others, it allows the reader to get into the head of both people who have lived screwed up lives. I really enjoyed it.

About Hilary Davidson 

Hilary Davidson was a journalist before she turned to the dark side and started writing crime fiction. Her novels include the award-winning Lily Moore series—The Damage Done, The Next One to Fall, and Evil in All Its Disguises—the bestselling Shadows of New York series—One Small Sacrifice and Don’t Look Down—and the standalone novels Blood Always Tells and Her Last Breath (coming in July 2021). She is also the author of some fifty short stories. Her fiction has won two Anthony Awards, a Derringer Award, and a host of other accolades. Toronto born and raised, she moved to New York City in October 2001. She is also the author of 18 nonfiction books.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

I just finished reading "Station Eleven" by Emily St-John Mandel.

Set in the days of civilization's collapse, Station Eleven tells the story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity. 

One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time—from the actor's early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains—this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor's first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet.

Wow! The story swings back and forth between a number of characters and time periods. It sounds like a complicated read, but is far from it. We're told the story of each character from before the collapse of the world to 20 years post pandemic in bits and pieces..

When the pandemic started I swore that I wouldn't read a book based on the pandemic. This one caught my eye as it was published in 2014, and is an extreme example of a virus. When a person is infected, they are dead in 24 hours. Hospitals and the medical community can't keep up and within a month or two, 98% of the earth's population are dead.

Station Eleven, was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, plus it won the 2015 Arthur C. Clarke award for science fiction.

An excellent dystopian novel which kept me reading.

About Emily St-John Mandel

Emily St. John Mandel was born and raised on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. She studied contemporary dance at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and lived briefly in Montreal before relocating to New York. She is the author of five novels, including The Glass Hotel (spring 2020) and Station Eleven (2014.) Station Eleven was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, won the Morning News Tournament of Books, and has been translated into 34 languages. She lives in NYC with her husband and daughter

Indigenous Toronto: Stories That Carry This Place by Denise Bolduc (Editor)

I finished reading Indigenous Toronto: Stories That Carry This Place. 

Beneath many major North American cities rests a deep foundation of Indigenous history that has been colonized, paved over, and, too often, silenced. Few of its current inhabitants know that Toronto has seen twelve thousand years of uninterrupted Indigenous presence and nationhood in this region, along with a vibrant culture and history that thrives to this day. 

With contributions by Indigenous Elders, scholars, journalists, artists, and historians, this unique anthology explores the poles of cultural continuity and settler colonialism that have come to define Toronto as a significant cultural hub and intersection that was also known as a Meeting Place long before European settlers arrived. 

This book is a reflection of endurance and a helpful corrective to settler fantasies. It tells a more balanced account of our communities, then and now. It offers the space for us to reclaim our ancestors' language and legacy, rewriting ourselves back into a landscape from which non Indigenous historians have worked hard to erase us. But we are there in the skyline and throughout the GTA, along the coast and in all directions. -- from the introduction by Hayden King.

This is collection of stories written by 35 different Indigenous writers. They are all about Toronto, which was at one time known as Carrying Place. They come from different periods of time and from various directions. Some are sad. Some inspiring. All are interesting. In the last section were short biographies of each of the different contributors which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. 

Memoirs of a Noble Man by Raymond McGregor

I just finished reading Memoirs of a Noble Man by Raymond McGregor.

Jack Brown lost both his parents at a young age but continued to grow up understanding the meaning of respect and hard work thanks to a close family friend, Sam. Life for Jack is simple until a dangerous man comes to town seeking a high stakes poker game. Sam's lust for gambling leads the stranger to take Sam's money and his life. 

While collecting Sam's body, he learns that the stranger has also kidnapped a young woman. With nothing left to go home to, Jack decides to save the young woman, whom he finds himself growing attracted to and avenge his old friend's death. Despite his lack of life experience, Jack finds it increasingly difficult to do what he thinks is noble. 

Will Jack Brown find purpose in life or succumb to his fears and emotions?

When Jack Brown goes out to avenge his friends death and rescue a kidnapped woman, he finds himself quickly in over his head. Written from an entirely different perspective than usual westerns, it's a wonderfully told, fast paced story which kept me entertained throughout.

About Raymond McGregor

Raymond McGregor was born in Sudbury, Ontario. He turned his appreciation for literature into an Honours Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Literature at Laurentian University before attending Nipissing University in North Bay for Teachers’ College. He works as a high school English teacher and enjoys fishing, hunting, playing music, painting and reading in his spare time. Raymond has aspired to write for many years and his two children have been the biggest inspiration to pursue this dream. He hopes that they too will follow their lifelong goals. He now lives in Wawa, a small town in northern Ontario.

The Boy on the Bicycle by Nate Hendley

I just finished reading The Boy on the Bicycle by Nate Hendley.

On the night of September 15, 1956, seven-year-old Wayne Mallette, was brutally murdered on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. The chief suspect was a “boy on a bicycle” seen pedalling away from the CNE. 

Investigators zeroed on 14-year-old Ronald Moffatt, a former CNE employee who had the poor timing to run away from home shortly after the murder. Moffatt was located, arrested and interrogated. He eventually confessed and was convicted. 

The problem was, Moffatt couldn’t ride a bike and didn’t commit the crime. The real killer abused and murdered two more children, using his bike as a lure. 

A shocking true story, about a coerced confession, fumbled police investigation, a miscarriage of justice, and the star lawyer who fought to free Moffatt from custody. 

A compelling story of 14-year-old Ronald Moffatt who was wrongly charged and convicted of murdering seven-year-old Wayne Mallette in 1956 Toronto. Nate Hendley weaves facts and narrative to cover all bases –flawed police procedure, the legal system, the hidden psyche of the real killer and Moffatt’s story of his childhood before and his terror during and after his ordeal.

When a friend told me about this book and the true story which happened only a couple of kilometers away, I had to read it. I could tell it was well researched. Told in chronological order, Hendley does an excellent job in telling the story. He explains all the details involved without bogging down the book. I liked the photos in the back of the people involved and of some of the various documents and reports he found while investigating this story. I enjoyed it.

About Nate Hendley 

Nate is a Toronto-based journalist and true-crime author who has written over a dozen non-fiction books about gangsters, wrongful convictions, cons and hoaxes, and illegal drugs, among other topics. His last book, The Boy on the Bicycle: A Forgotten Case of Wrongful Conviction in Toronto, was a finalist in the Arthur Ellis Awards for excellence in crime writing in 2019 and was longlisted for “The Very Best!” Book Awards 2018 by The Miramichi Reader. Nate also hosts a blog, Crime Story, devoted to crime-related topics.

The Listeners by Jordan Tannahill

Today I finished reading The Listeners by Jordan Tannahill.

One night, while lying in bed next to her husband, Claire Devon suddenly hears a low hum. This innocuous sound, which no one else in the house can hear, has no obvious source or medical cause, but it begins to upset the balance of Claire’s life. When she discovers that one of her students can also hear the hum, the two strike up an unlikely and intimate friendship. Finding themselves increasingly isolated from their families and colleagues, they fall in with a disparate group of people who also perceive the sound. What starts out as a kind of neighbourhood self-help group gradually transforms into something much more extreme, with far-reaching, devastating consequences. 

This is a deep engrossing novel which went down a road I didn't expect. Definitely worth reading.

About Jordan Tannahill

Jordan Tannahill is a playwright, director, and author. His plays have been translated into multiple languages and honoured with a number of prizes including the Governor General’s Literary Award for drama and several Dora Mavor Moore Awards. Jordan’s films and multimedia performances have been presented at festivals and galleries such as the Toronto International Film Festival, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Tribeca Film Festival. From 2012 to 2016, Jordan and William Ellis ran the influential underground art space Videofag out of their home in Toronto’s Kensington Market. Born in Ottawa, he currently resides in London, England.  

Inside Comedy: The Soul, Wit, and Bite of Comedy and Comedians of the Last Five Decades by David Steinberg

I just finished reading Inside Comedy: The Soul, Wit, and Bite of Comedy and Comedians of the Last Five Decades by David Steinberg.

From David Steinberg, a rabbi's son from Winnipeg, Canada, who at age fifteen enrolled at Hebrew Theological College in Chicago (the rabbinate wasn't for him) and four years later, entered the master's program in English literature at the University of Chicago, until he saw Lenny Bruce, the Blue Boy of Comedy, the coolest guy Steinberg had ever seen, and joined Chicago's Second City improvisational group, becoming, instead, the comedian's comedian, director, actor, working with, inspired by, teaching, and learning from the most celebrated, admired, complicated comedians, then and now--a funny, moving, provocative, insightful look into the soul, wit, and bite of comedy and comedians--a universe unto itself--of the last half-century. 

 Steinberg, through stories, reminiscences, tales of directing, touring, performing, and, through the comedians themselves talking (from more than 75 interviews), makes clear why he loves comedy and comedians who have been by his side in his work, and in his life, for more than sixty years.

If you're looking for dirt on celebrities in this book, you won't find it. Steinberg has worked with pretty much everyone in comedy and has many great behind the scene stories to tell. I really enjoyed it.

About David Steinberg

David Steinberg CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, writer, director, and author. At the height of his popularity, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was one of the best-known comics in the United States.

 

He appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson more than 130 times (second only to Bob Hope in number of appearances) and served as guest host 12 times, the youngest person ever to guest-host. 

Steinberg directed several films and episodes of television situation comedies, including Seinfeld, Friends, Mad About You, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Golden Girls, and Designing Women. Since 2012, Steinberg has hosted the interview program Inside Comedy on the Showtime network.

Feasting Upon The Bones: A Collection of Twisted Tales by Suzanne Craig-Whytock

I finished reading the short story collection Feasting upon the Bones by Suzanne Craig-Whytock. 

Step into the world of the unexpected, where things aren’t always as they seem. From disturbing jigsaw puzzles and portentous stones to mysterious notebooks and ghostly encounters, Feasting Upon The Bones is a collection of twenty-seven short stories that delve into the themes of love and loss, revenge and retribution, and mortality and immortality. Told with imaginative flair, and the occasional touch of dark humor, this intriguing series of twisted tales has something for everyone. 

Time’s a-ticking, as Mr. Death would say, so open the cover and wander around.

I found it a fabulous collection of short stories. The first story, The Grandmother Tree, really sets the tone for the rest of the collection. Some are thoughtful, others have a delightful twist to them. There wasn't one of the 27 which I didn't enjoy.

About Suzanne Craig-Whycock

Love of literature and writing came to Suzanne Craig-Whytock at an early age and continued into adulthood, leading her to earn an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English Language and Literature from Wilfrid Laurier University. She has worked in education most of her life and was a high school English teacher in Ontario for over 20 years. She has authored both fiction and non-fiction works, from short stories and poetry to academic documents and educational resource materials. She regularly publishes humorous essays focused on city life, politics, current events, and popular culture on her website.

Butterfly Kills (Stonechild and Rouleau Mystery #2) by Brenda Chapman

I just finished reading the second novel of the Stonechild and Rouleau mystery series, having enjoyed the first one so much.

 
Jacques Rouleau has moved to Kingston to look after his father and take up the position of head of the town’s Criminal Investigations Division. One hot week in late September, university student Leah Sampson is murdered in her apartment. In another corner of the city, Della Munroe is raped by her husband. At first the crimes appear unrelated, but as Sergeant Rouleau and his new team of officers dig into the women’s pasts, they discover unsettling coincidences. When Kala Stonechild, one of Rouleau’s former officers from Ottawa, suddenly appears in Kingston, Rouleau enlists her to help. 

Stonechild isn’t sure if she wants to stay in Kingston, but agrees to help Rouleau in the short term. While she struggles with trying to decide if she can make a life in this new town, a ghost from her past starts to haunt her. 

As the detectives delve deeper into the cases, it seems more questions pop up than answers. Who murdered Leah Sampson? And why does Della Monroe’s name keep showing up in the murder investigation? Both women were hiding secrets that have unleashed a string of violence. Stonechild and Rouleau race to discover the truth before the violence rips more families apart.

I found this just as enjoyable as the first. Looking forward to reading the next one.

The Seventh Devil by Suzanne Craig-Whytock

I finished reading a preview copy of The Seventh Devil. 

When nineteen-year-old runaway Verity Darkwood, flat broke and devastated by guilt, takes refuge in a bar to escape the unwanted attention of a stranger, she doesn't expect to meet Gareth Winter, let alone become business partners with him. 

They discover that they each possess the ability to interact with the world "beyond the veil" and, with the help of Horace Greeley III, editor of the fantastical online journal The Echo, Verity and Gareth spend the next two years on the road, helping the earthbound spirits who haunt their clients to cross over, or exorcising the demons that plague them. 

But when they stumble upon a series of unsolved child abductions spanning decades which are eerily similar to the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Verity's younger sister, they embark on a pursuit that will take them across Canada in their quest to find The Seventh Devil, the dangerous and mysterious figure who may be behind it all. 

I don’t usually read ghost stories but I’m sure glad I did this one. It’s a ghost story. It’s a chase. It’s a mystery. All in all it’s a fast paced, engrossing story which should be added to your reading list.

About Suzanne Craig-Whytock

Love of literature and writing came to Suzanne Craig-Whytock at an early age and continued into adulthood, leading her to earn an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English Language and Literature from Wilfrid Laurier University. She has worked in education most of her life and was a high school English teacher in Ontario for over 20 years. She has authored both fiction and non-fiction works, from short stories and poetry to academic documents and educational resource materials. She regularly publishes humorous essays focused on city life, politics, current events, and popular culture on her website.

That’s Why I’m a Doctor: Physicians Recount Their Most Memorable Moments by Mark Bulgutch

I just finished reading, "That's Why I'm a Doctor", After reading mark Bulgutch first book, "That's Why I'm a Journalist," I knew I would need to read this one too.

In That’s Why I’m a Doctor, award-winning journalist Mark Bulgutch brings together forty-six stories from a diverse group of physicians, including pediatricians, interventional radiologists, general surgeons, psychiatrists, family doctors, gastroenterologists, ophthalmologists, gynecologists, neurologists and more. Each doctor’s story describes the moment that left them thinking, “That’s why I became a doctor.”

This volume includes stories of innovation (developing a treatment for cholera); rare and fascinating medical cases (the separation of conjoined twins); the less dramatic but still quietly satisfying times when the doctor was able to have a lasting positive impact on the life of a patient or their family; and, of course, those unexpected moments when the patient taught the doctor an important life lesson that would inform their practice for years to come. 

These stories, big and small, are tied together by a sense of caring. It’s impossible to read what these doctors have to say and not come away with a new understanding of what goes through the mind of the person on the other end of the stethoscope and how dedicated doctors must be to do what they do.

I'm glad I did.

About Mark Bulgutch

Mark Bulgutch’s own entry into journalism started with a paper route. After journalism school, he worked for the CBC News for over 35 years. He was the senior editor of The National for 11 years and retired as Senior Executive Producer of TV News, which put him in the control room for all major special events, from election nights to commemorations of Remembrance Day. He is the recipient of 14 Gemini awards, 4 RTNDA Awards, the Canadian Journalism Foundation Award of Excellence and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Gold Ribbon Award. He currently lives in Toronto, ON.

Find You First by Linwood Barclay

I finished reading Find You First, by Lynwood Barclay this past weekend.

Tech millionaire Miles Cookson has more money than he can ever spend, and everything he could dream of—except time. He has recently been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and there is a fifty percent chance that it can be passed on to the next generation. For Miles, this means taking a long hard look at his past . . .

Two decades ago, a young, struggling Miles was a sperm donor. Somewhere out there, he has kids—nine of them. And they might be about to inherit both the good and the bad from him—maybe his fortune, or maybe something much worse.

As Miles begins to search for the children he’s never known, aspiring film documentarian Chloe Swanson embarks on a quest to find her biological father, armed with the knowledge that twenty-two years ago, her mother used a New York sperm bank to become pregnant.

When Miles and Chloe eventually connect, their excitement at finding each other is overshadowed by a series of mysterious and terrifying events. One by one, Miles’s other potential heirs are vanishing—every trace of them wiped, like they never existed at all.

Who is the vicious killer—another heir methodically erasing rivals? Or is something even more sinister going on?

It’s a deadly race against time . . .

The title "Find You First" certainly fits the story told in this tale. It's a fast moving story with many twists and turns. An excellent read.

About Linwood Barclay

Linwood Barclay, a New York Times bestselling author and with nearly twenty novels to his credit, spent three decades in newspapers before turning full time to writing thrillers. His books have been translated into more than two dozen language, sold millions of copies, and he counts Stephen King among his fans. 

Many of his books have been optioned for film and TV, a series has been made in France, and he wrote the screenplay for the film based on his novel Never Saw it Coming. Born in the US, his parents moved to Canada just as he was turning four, and he’s lived there ever since. He lives near Toronto with his wife, Neetha. They have two grown children.

From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way by Jesse Thistle

I just finished reading From The Ashes by Jesse Thistle. 

Abandoned by his parents as a toddler, Jesse Thistle briefly found himself in the foster-care system with his two brothers, cut off from all they had known. Eventually the children landed in the home of their paternal grandparents, but their tough-love attitudes meant conflicts became commonplace. And the ghost of Jesse’s drug-addicted father haunted the halls of the house and the memories of every family member. 

Struggling, Jesse succumbed to a self-destructive cycle of drug and alcohol addiction and petty crime, spending more than a decade on and off the streets, often homeless. One day, he finally realized he would die unless he turned his life around.

This is an incredible story. Every time I thought his life couldn't become more self destructive, he managed to go even lower. Thistle writes so honestly about his life. He glosses over nothing. This is a hard hitting, true story, of how he guided his life to the darkest depths, then managed to pull himself out of it and thrive.

A truly, amazing story!

The Captive by Fiona King Foster

I just finished reading Fiona King Foster's new novel, The Captive.

In a secessionist rural state that has cut itself off completely from urban centres, where living is hardscrabble and poor but “free,” Brooke Holland runs a farm with her husband and two daughters. Their existence at the fringes of modern society is tenuous—they make barely enough from each harvest to keep going—yet Brooke cherishes the loving, peaceful life they have carved out for themselves. She has even begun to believe she is free from the violent history she has kept a secret from her family.

When escaped criminal Stephen Cawley attacks the farm, Brooke’s buried talents surface, and she manages to quickly and harshly subdue him. Convinced that he has come in retribution for the blood feud that began years ago, Brooke sets out to bring Cawley to justice, planning to use the bounty on his head to lead her family into hiding far from danger. Fearing that other members of Cawley’s infamous family will soon descend on the farm, Brooke insists that Milo and the girls flee with her, travelling miles on foot across an unforgiving landscape to reach the nearest marshal. Their journey, beginning at the onset of winter with little preparation, brings already strained family dynamics to the breaking point. As Brooke’s ghosts—both real and imagined—close in, the ruthlessness that allowed her to survive her past may become the biggest threat to her hopes for a different future. What follows is a harrowing exploration of family loyalty, trauma and resilience.

The Captive is one fast paced, intense novel. It's well told and well written. I love how it unfolds as two tales, one. The story of her past unfurls slowly and explains how Brooke and her family find themselves in the situation, they now must deal with. If this is Foster's debut novel, I can hardly wait to see what she comes up with next. 

About Fiona King Foster

Fiona King Foster was raised in Brudenell, Ontario, a rural community now misleadingly referred to as a “ghost town.” Her writing has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Hobart, Maisonneuve, Midway Journal, the New Quarterly, New World Writing, NOON, New York Tyrant, le Panoptique and Room. She lives in Toronto and works with the national literacy organization Frontier College. The Captive is her first novel.

I am taking part in the 14th Annual Canadian Reading Challenge at Canadian Bookworm.

Indians on Vacation by Thomas King

I finished reading Indians on Vacation by Thomas King.

Meet Bird and Mimi in this brilliant new novel from one of Canada’s foremost authors. Inspired by a handful of old postcards sent by Uncle Leroy nearly a hundred years earlier, Bird and Mimi attempt to trace Mimi’s long-lost uncle and the family medicine bundle he took with him to Europe.

By turns witty, sly and poignant, this is the unforgettable tale of one couple’s holiday trip to Europe, where their wanderings through its famous capitals reveal a complicated history, both personal and political.

This is a fabulous read. Indians on vacation is both funny and thoughtful. Parallel stories run throughout, background stories which makes you think. I loved the differences between the way travel and life are viewed by Mimi and Bird. Still, they share a strong bond between them, which I enjoyed.

This is a book I highly recommend.

About Thomas King 

Thomas King was born in 1943 in Sacramento, California and is of Cherokee, Greek and German descent. He obtained his PhD from the University of Utah in 1986. He is known for works in which he addresses the marginalization of American Indians, delineates "pan-Indian" concerns and histories, and attempts to abolish common stereotypes about Native Americans. 

He taught Native American Studies at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, and at the University of Minnesota. He is currently a Professor of English at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. King has become one of the foremost writers of fiction about Canada's Native people.

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

Today I finished a very enjoyable, fun book by Hench by Natalie Zina Walshots. 

Anna does boring things for terrible people because even criminals need office help and she needs a job. Working for a monster lurking beneath the surface of the world isn’t glamorous. But is it really worse than working for an oil conglomerate or an insurance company? In this economy? As a temp, she’s just a cog in the machine. But when she finally gets a promising assignment, everything goes very wrong, and an encounter with the so-called “hero” leaves her badly injured. And, to her horror, compared to the other bodies strewn about, she’s the lucky one. 

So, of course, then she gets laid off. With no money and no mobility, with only her anger and internet research acumen, she discovers her suffering at the hands of a hero is far from unique. When people start listening to the story that her data tells, she realizes she might not be as powerless as she thinks. 

Wow! What an imaginative story. While Hench could have been told as a graphic novel, it would have missed all the intensity and inner feelings of Anna.

The story is fast moving, deeper and more emotional than I thought it would be and one hell of a great ride. Hench is a contender in this years Canada Reads on CBC and will be represented by Paul Sun-Hyung Lee of Kim's Convenience fame. 

I think it should win.

About Natalie Zina Walschots 

Natalie Zina Walschots is a freelance writer, community manager and bailed academic based in Toronto. She writes everything from reviews of science fiction novels and interviews with heavy metal musicians to to in-depth feminist games criticism and pieces of long-form journalism. She is the author of two books of poetry. In her free time she has been exploring the poetic potential of the notes engine in the video game Bloodborne, writing a collection of polyamorous fairytales, developing interactive narrative classes and composing short text-based body horror games. She also plays a lot of D&D, participates in a lot of Nordic LARPs, watches a lot of horror movies and reads a lot of speculative fiction.

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Ridgerunner by Gil Adamson

Today I finished reading Ridgerunner by Canadian author Gil Adamson.

November 1917. William Moreland is in mid-flight. After nearly twenty years, the notorious thief, known as the Ridgerunner, has returned. Moving through the Rocky Mountains and across the border to Montana, the solitary drifter, impoverished in means and aged beyond his years, is also a widower and a father. And he is determined to steal enough money to secure his son’s future. 

Twelve-year-old Jack Boulton has been left in the care of Sister Beatrice, a formidable nun who keeps him in cloistered seclusion in her grand old house. Though he knows his father is coming for him, the boy longs to return to his family’s cabin, deep in the woods. When Jack finally breaks free, he takes with him something the nun is determined to get back — at any cost. 

 Set against the backdrop of a distant war raging in Europe and a rapidly changing landscape in the West, Gil Adamson’s follow-up to her award-winning debut, The Outlander, is a vivid historical novel that draws from the epic tradition and a literary Western brimming with a cast of unforgettable characters touched with humour and loss, and steeped in the wild of the natural world.

Adamson is a descriptive writer and is able to wonderful the background of a scene in the readers mind. Ridgerunner focuses on the lives of three people, William Moreland aka the Ridgerunner, his son Jack and the nun who agrees to take Jack in, Sister Beatrice. It's a wonderfully told story which I quite enjoyed.

About Gil Adamson

Gil Adamson (born Gillian Adamson, 1961) is a Canadian writer. She won the Books in Canada First Novel Award in 2008 for her 2007 novel The Outlander. 

Adamson's first published work was "Primitive," a volume of poetry, in 1991. She followed up with the short story collection "Help Me, Jacques Cousteau" in 1995 and a second volume of poetry, "Ashland," in 2003, as well as multiple chapbooks and a commissioned fan biography of Gillian Anderson, "Mulder, It’s Me," which she coauthored with her sister-in-law Dawn Connolly in 1998. 

"The Outlander," a novel set in the Canadian West at the turn of the 20th century, was published by House of Anansi in the spring of 2007 and won the Hammett Prize that year. The novel was later selected for the 2009 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by actor Nicholas Campbell. 

Adamson currently lives in Toronto with poet Kevin Connolly.