pickJennie‘s Boy, by Wayne Johnston (2023 🇨🇦)
Premise: A memoir of the author‘s childhood living with chronic illness in an impoverished Newfoundland community.
Review: This is close to being a perfect memoir: full of humour, insight, and vulnerability. It does a fantastic job of showing the reader the insecurity of growing up in illness, poverty, and as the child of an alcoholic, but also the power of familial love.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
pickAnother charming installment in the Anne of Green Gables series. This one featured a few of Anne's children but was mostly about a family they befriend.
#gottacatchemall(Cottonee:friends stick together)
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread @BarbaraJean
“I was trying to suggest a reconciliation, but…”
“What was the reason for the separation?”
A third coffee. He definitely needed a third coffee. Normally Trent would be drowning his sorrows with tea, but there were some things in this world that tea could not fix. It was definitely a coffee morning.
“We were having some personal problems.”
“Who had the affair, you or her?”
The way Birch asked disturbed Trent more than the question itself.
so-soThis book was a challenge! It's filthy, disjointed, confusing & offensive to women. AND occasionally transcendent. It's mostly a pan but by the end I was somewhat won over. Like a tiny tiny bit. I would never tell anyone to read it. BUT it was an experience. 🤷 I won't pretend I understood it. 😂
Thank God he switched to songwriting!!
pickLoved!
Roy was a successful mid-century 🇨🇦 writer. Her novel Tin Flute still gets assigned in Canlit classes but otherwise her reputation has dimmed. Which, it turns out, is a shame because this is wonderful! A semi-autobiographical collection of linked stories told from the perspective of a young girl growing up in a large French family in Manitoba. Nothing flashy. Just lovely, rich insights into the complexity of people through innocent eyes.
When he laced up and adjusted his gear, Paul sometimes felt like a gladiator going into battle, complete with his hockey stick of death. Other times he felt more like an overdressed clown, being paid to chase a piece of rubber across an artificial frozen surface in a bizarre outfit to amuse the masses. Still, it wasn‘t as bad as football. At least hockey had some connection to reality, evolving from the need to move on the frozen lakes of Canada.
pickI *loved* these short stories from my IRL group: major bonus was the meeting was attended by the author sharing her lived experience as a Canadian (from my Mom‘s town) of Filipina descent that provided context. Some common characters thread the stories together, but they‘re still quite separate, showing many different facets of life as a new Canadian, especially doing low-income work, or as someone left behind in the Philippines.
Next read is going to be something a bit more wholesome. Book seven of the series and #BookEightOf2025
pickLane & Ins.Darling are planning their wedding when an elderly Russian lady appears searching for her brother. Lane,who speaks Russian, invites her to stay in her home While Darling & new constable initiate a search for her brother, a hunter is found murdered. although LaneLaney desperately wants to escape her past,it rears its head again when she‘s contacted by a British agent to alert her that a Russian spy is headed to Canada. #serieslove2025 ⬇️
pickIn 90's Edmonton, Molly MacGregor dreams of a life worthy of her adored Penguin Classics and of writing The Great Canadian/Edmontonian Novel. But summers selling shoes at West Edmonton Mall and semesters with pretentious English Lit profs don't seem to be cutting it. But this year, she just might find truth and beauty in the place she finds herself.
Charming, witty, and thoroughly delightful. I loved spending time with Molly. Highly recommend!
