Our Homesick Songs | 
The last book was terrible, so on to the next one! Pudds is pouting because he got booted off my lap when I needed to stretch out. So tragic.
pickFirst book of 2021 has been finished! When the fish leave the waters surrounding Finn‘s Newfoundland home all of the people start to leave as well. Even Finn‘s family starts to change with his parents taking turns leaving every month for work and his sister off searching for normalcy. A lovely story of a disappearing way of life and a family trying to survive.
It took some time this morning to decide on my first read of 2021 but 50 pages in and I think I made the right choice. #lastfirst I am so glad @BookNAround decided to do this again this year. I have loved seeing how everyone has ended their 2020 reading and started their 2021.
My haul from the local Dollar Tree today. Has anybody read any of these?
#DollarTreeHaul #bookhaul
pickAll songs are homesick songs, Finn.
Even the happy ones?
Especially the happy ones.
Why don‘t authors use quotation marks anymore?!? Normally that would make me bail, but it kinda worked here. I think it‘s because the writing was so poetic. A story set in Newfoundland and Alberta. When the cod surplus hits rock bottom and families had to find a new way to live. They fell on the oil industry. Timely, considering where Alberta finds itself now.
Morning start time. I think I‘ll hit #24B4Monday It‘s looking a little dreary outside my bedroom window this morning. It‘s supposed to snow all day again. I only have 100 pages left in this book, so I‘m going to stay in bed and finish it before breakfast. Bed is the best place for a #LitsyPartyOfOne #MrBook1inAMillion
@MrBook @Lynnsoprano @Andrew65 @TheReadingMermaid @jb72
Took a little break from this one to workout. And listen to an audiobook. Hubby walked with the teen to Tim‘s and they brought me back a doughnut. Good thing I did that HITT workout. lol
#LitsyPartyOfOne #24B4Monday #MrBook1inAMillion
@MrBook @Lynnsoprano @Andrew65 @TheReadingMermaid @jb72
Leftover donair pizza for lunch. It‘s really dark in here, because it‘s snowing and icky outside. Perfect for a #LitsyPartyOfOne
#24B4Monday #MrBook1inAMillion
@MrBook @Lynnsoprano @TheReadingMermaid @Andrew65 @jb72 @Rachel.Rencher @Lucas.Rencher
From Emma Hooper, critically acclaimed author of Etta and Otto and Russell and James, a People magazine “Pick of the Week,” comes a lyrical, charming, and mystical story of a family on the edge of extinction, and the different way each of them fights to keep hope, memory, and love alive.
#homesick #amonthofsongs
pickI tried reading this book 6 months ago and couldn‘t get into it. I‘m SO glad I gave it another chance. It‘s quiet, and beautiful, and I‘m sad it‘s over.
pickMixing the oddities of Claudia Dey's Heartbreaker + familial complications of Paula Hawkins' Into the Water, w/ experimental twists of prose, Emma Hopper created an intoxicating look at hardship of a fishing village in rural Canada. The book flips from the present Finn is trying to save and his sister Cora is trying to find her place in, and their parents' past as told by a witch-like neighbor. Throughout a musical thread drives the story home.
#FallingintoFall #FinallyFall #Graditude30 #Home
Driving home today I actually saw real red leaves on the odd tree-not seen brilliant colors this season until today. Actually was in the 60‘s last two days, so warmth must have been what those scattered reds needed. 🍁🍁
Pictured: The Fall view today from my porch; TBR for November, closing down the porch. 😥😥
I am so grateful for the colors that emerged today & my porch! 💕💕
pickAnother corker. Alternates between the 70s and 90s, following a Newfoundland family struggling on in a near abandoned fishing town where all the fish have gone, and the people have followed. So subtle and lovely. You cant help but root for all the main characters.
Right.... off to the library!
So I came across a traditional Newfoundland baked good in this book so of course I had to go do some research and make it. This is a lassie tart. The crust is molasses and spices (molasses being a staple condiment in the Eastern provinces), the inside is lingonberry jam, the closest in proximity to Partridge berries I could get. It's tasty!
Fifteen 5-star reads (out of 30 books) in one month. That‘s a personal record. I gave 4 stars to eleven other books, so that adds up to an outstanding reading month. I also bailed on 3, making my overall satisfaction (and my average rating in goodreads) that much higher. Thank you to all the wonderful authors!
pickSet in a small fishing village in Newfoundland, it follows two siblings in the 1990s and flips back and forth to their parents in the 1970s. But now the fish are gone, and everyone is leaving.... I loved this novel. It felt whimsical and connected and the end made me cry (!)
Thanks to @lindy for posting about it, your excerpts made me go get it directly from the library.
Folk songs are an important part of this story, and this Newfoundland classic sent me on an internet rabbit hole - "She's Like the Swallow," with drums and guitar in this version https://youtu.be/heN07Tv5gbw
Did anyone hear the episode of the Get Booked podcast where someone wanted something that "felt like the movie Amelie?" I was not convinced by their answers. I feel like this book approaches it, reality heightened by noticing beauty, slightly magical (or maybe real but feel magical) things happening, lonely people drawn to each other... I'm only 1/3 way through but think it fits that void. Can you think of any?
They didn‘t have cameras then, so they didn‘t have photos of home, of where they were from. And most sailors and explorers were rubbish at painting, that‘s why they were sailors and explorers, not painters, so the best way for them to remember home was through singing, through the songs and tunes they knew from home. When they were homesick, when they needed to remember where they were from, they could sing to see, to remember.
pickA lot of similarities to Michael Crummey‘s Sweetland: lyrical, character-based, & set in a remote Newfoundland community facing resettlement when the cod are overfished. Differences: Homesick Songs has more whimsy, a more uplifting ending, lacks Newfie dialect, & shows the typical life after fisheries, working in Alberta‘s tar sands. I gave 5 stars to both books.
(Internet photo of author, who was raised in Alberta, now lives in UK.)
What are you writing?
Music. Violin music.
Aidan stretched out his neck to see over onto the page while still rowing. It was covered in shapes. Each with a number inside. Circles, triangles, squares and diamonds of all different sizes.
I‘ve never seen proper music-writing before, he said.
Oh, neither have I. This is just a way I made up to do it. Each shape is one of my strings and the numbers are a finger and the size is the duration.
Cora took fiddle lessons with Aunt Molly. She had started when she was three, on a small oatmeal box with strings drawn on in pencil. Finn had started accordion when he was four, on an old repurposed fire-bellows painted red and green like Christmas.
#Newfoundland
(Internet photo)
We have to stop at the bakery, Cora called back over her shoulder.
How come?
Mom said.
To get pie?
Yeah.
But it‘s nobody‘s birthday, is it, or a special occasion?
Don‘t think so.
Do we get to choose what kind?
I do.
But I –
I do.
But nobody got to choose, because there was only one, in the whole bakery.
[…]
They got the only pie, dark berries and molasses crust, and continued on towards home.
When Aidan turned 14, his mother put a navy-blue toque on his head, looked him in the eye and said, Don‘t drown.
The boats left at night, just after sunset.
#CanadianFiction
(Image by Oliver Jeffers, from Lost and Found, link in comments)
We take turns hosting a monthly literary salon and the theme tonight is “grace.” Usually I select poetry to read at these events, but yesterday I found a perfect passage in this book, a short chapter. I finished the book this morning and wow! I realized that the entire theme of the novel is grace. If I could, I would read the entire thing to my friends tonight.
After meeting the author at an #edbookfest workshop (it was about mapping your reading experience and she was part of my group/table), I‘m going to start her book today. The reviews are extremely good so I‘m excited for this one. Haven‘t read a Canadian story in quite a while. 😊
#2 Cora transforms abandoned houses into countries - loved that Tasmania got a mention even though it‘s not a country and there wasn‘t anymore description.
pickAn ARC from Netgalley. I loved this - Finn and his sister Cora are wonderfully written. A great story from Newfoundland. A place I now realise that I know next to nothing about. Highly recommended, and I loved the cover.
My #currentlyreading pile is a bit ridiculous. Hoping to finish some of these off this weekend!📚📚📚
pickThis book was beautiful! Simple but descriptive writing. Heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. Im super stingy with 5 star ratings on Goodreads but i gave this one 5.
My next vacation/net galley book.
Only a few chapters in and liking it so far!
Just started reading this. I haven‘t read any of Hooper‘s other books, but this one certainly is evocative. Canadian literature is not something I‘m well-acquainted with either. If Hopper is indicative of literary trends there, I‘ll definitely go digging for more reading material from Canada. This one should hit the streets June 7th and the Hamish edition shortly after in August.
Won this from Goodreads! It came in the mail yesterday.
Sounds interesting, but it‘s from Penguin UK. #NetGalley
