Reviews and Comments

Written from the point of view of the thirteen year old son of a minister in Minnesota, this books covers the mystery around several deaths in a small town. Yet it is much more than just another mystery book. Instead, it is following the emotional and spiritual journeys of the characters as they struggle with these deaths. It almost seems like a book that should be used in a pastoral care class.

Grace, ordinary, and awful challenges the beliefs of many of the characters. A moving read.

I chose to read this book, as another one in my reading novels set in Canada. It is another emotionally powerful book as an older sister disappears, and elderly neighbor heads to the hospital, a stranger comes to town in Northern Ontario. There are touches of mystery and maybe even Hallmark romance, spun around people dealing with difficult emotional issues. Well worth the read.

I started reading this out of interest in fiction set in Nova Scotia. I prompted me to stop and read about the Annapolis Valley, Black Loyalists, DeWolfe and Mount Hope (aka the NS). The author clearly had a sense of what she was writing about.

The story hit close to home because of plot elements related to my family, which I won't share out of concern for family privacy as well as not wanting to share possible spoilers. Suffice it to say, it struck close to home. I wonder if I would have found it as moving if it wasn't as close to home.

If you have trauma in your family, take a moment to consider if this is a book you should tackle. If so, be prepared for an emotional journey.

We start off meeting the four Garcia girls and their extended family as we learn about the desire to return to the Dominican Republic. As the book works backwards through their lives, we learn about the complexity of each girl's life, their struggles to fit in, and the reasons they end up leaving in the first place. This is a well woven set of stories that helps me better understand the stories of people from the Dominican Republic that I have met.

My paternal grandmother was adopted as a young girl in Nova Scotia. My father always tried to find out about her birth parents and her early life. He died a few years ago with many questions unanswered.

Recently, I've made some connections on 23andMe from people that I believe are related to her. I've still got a ways to go to figure our who she really was. She died years before I was born.

As part of my efforts, I've decided to find some novels about the life in Nova Scotia. Malagash caught my attention. I've spent much of my life working with computers, as did my father, so the idea of a someone trying to capture their father's essence and save it in a computer virus fascinated me.

The book was better than I expected. It is a wonderful gem capturing the last days of a man dying of cancer and his interaction with his family.

One the one hand, this is a wonderfully written exploration of the collision of two cultures as two First Nations young men from Canada go to fight for the Empire in World War I. Issues of residential schools, trading with the white men, and living in the bush are illustrated nicely, along with explorations into First Nations spirituality. For this, it deserves five stars.

One the other hand, it feels like spends too much time telling the war stories of the white men who fought in that war. It feels like too much emphasis is placed on the battles and the glory. For this reason, I would probably give it three stars.

Four stars is probably a good compromise

I had difficulties when I started reading keeping the characters straight. I had difficulties processing the violence of the story. This was due to my lack of knowledge about Kenya and its history. Because of this, I have no way of knowing the historical accuracy of the novel. What is clear, is that the characters were well thought out and complicated.

A lot has been written about the influence Franz Fanon had on Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. I've read a little Fanon, not enough to consider myself well versed, but that which I've read fits very well with the novel. If anything, this novel might be a great entry point into the history of Kenya and Fanon's Fanon’s philosophy about neo-colonialism.

If you want a good read that is thought provoking, this fits the bill. It has left me wondering what other books are out there like it.

On the surface, this book is about an elderly man from Antigua coming out of the closet after fifty years of deceiving his wife and those around him. It is a complicated and challenging journey, told from both his view and the view of his wife. Beneath the surface is an exploration of the social forces of racism and homophobia. It is wonderfully written with fascinating characters which you get to see develop through the course of the book. The word craft is beautiful the violence and sexuality were mild and understated. Well worth the read.

This is a wonderful exploration of the life of Hispanic immigrants in a gentrifying neighborhood in Los Angeles. Like other polyphonic novels that have been grabbing my attention recently, it weaves together many intriguing perspectives.

Klara is a Clever AF. AF, in this book, stands for Artificial Friend. It is great to see the world through Klara's eyes as she evolves. The book challenges us to think about how we perceive things, especially around technology, genetic modifications, privilege, and what it means to be human.

It is a surprisingly engaging story well-woven and carefully told in great detail.

I highly recommend it.

Start with two very light skinned African American twin girls from a small town in Louisiana, a father killed in a lynching, a very dark skinned African American man who works for the FBI in the time of J. Edgar Hoover, a bounty hunter, the Yale educated son of a wealthy banker, an aspiring actress trying to find herself, a young African American woman from a poor family going to medical school, a transgender African American male, transvestites seeing their friends die during the early days of AIDS.

Add masterful writing and mix well. You end up with a compelling novel that will challenge how you think about the people you encounter. What are the stories of the people around you? How can you learn from being part of a more complicated diverse world.

Read this book.

As a kid, I was always drawn to books about children surviving on their own, and over the years, became drawn to books about people living in solitude. So, I cautiously approached this book. Would it live up to those memories from childhood and my young adult years?

I did.

Sure, it look a little willing suspension of disbelief at times, but it was worth it. And, as others have suggested, it was captivating until the surprise at the very end.

Nadine Gordimer has been on my list of authors I want to read for quite a while. When Desmond Tutu died, I looked for some good South Africa literature and Gordimer popped onto my radar again. The story is of the daughter of a fictitious South African Anti-Apartheid leader. It captures the issues of being the offspring of someone famous and the turmoil in South Africa during the Apartheid years.

At times, Gordimer's writing reminds me of Virginia Woolf. It is hauntingly beautiful.

Perhaps it is because the book is from a previous era or something about the writing style, but as much as I loved this book, it did not grab me in the same way some other books have and so I've chosen to give it four stars instead of five. If I could be more precise, I'd give it about four and a half stars.

I read History Of The Rain by Niall Williams and figured I would enjoy This Is Happiness as well. I did. The book wonderfully explores the relationships between people in a rainy part of western Ireland as the area was getting electric energy. It points to a simpler time where relationships were just as complicated and beauty and happiness could be found unexpectedly. It is very much a feel good story that is a much needed enjoyable read.