I received this book for Christmas from my wish list and I wasn‘t disappointed. It is the story, told in short chapters, of the narrator‘s experience of living in temporary assisted housing for young people with mental illness. It explores themes of the uneven division of power, what it means to be mentally ill, and where does helping cross into abuse. A fascinating short novel.

This is a short novella by a grandson of Che Guevara that expresses the disillusionment and lost promise of the revolution in Cuba. Playing on the theme of a “scratched record” that repeats, it is written as 33 very short chapters. While I thought it had potential, I found the repetition of the scratched record theme somewhat annoying. #europacollective #booksintranslation

This is a strange book - although that can probably be said of all of Ernaux‘s books on some level. Each chapter begins with a photograph snapped during her love affair with the co-author. Both Ernaux and Marie then write, separately, about the photograph giving context and meaning and placing it in time. Ernaux had just been diagnosed with breast cancer when the affair began, and the idea of mortality is a through line through the book. More ⬇️

I very much enjoyed this book, tearing through it in a single night. The narrator has a fever, during which she plumbs her memories of a handful of people from her life. This is very much a character book, with no driving narrative except for how relationships form, change and fall apart. I found the choice of the final chapter somewhat jarring, but I think it worked in terms of perspective on the narrator‘s other relationships. Thoughtful!

Of late, I have been drawn to more “literary” or “challenging” books and this one certainly challenged me! These stories are spare and minimalist and require work of the reader. All of them deal with the lives and experiences of women and the way they interact with the world, in ways both big and small. While some of the stories were opaque in their meaning, I think this is a book that would be served well by being re-read.

This was a fast read - a novella really - about a woman who is a second wife, and her obsession with her husband‘s former wife. She is also step-mother to his two older children. The book rips along - the husband is a bit of a blow hard, the former wife seems faultless, the step children have a good relationship with the new wife, and yet the new wife cannot seem to control her impulses leading to a wild ending.

This is one of those slower books that examines the long-lasting trauma on one man. The main character is writing a letter to his daughter with whom he has not had a relationship most of her life. He is a former alcoholic and the letter is a telling of the story that led him to this place - he was a young man in the British Army stationed in Belfast during the troubles where an incident occurred. More in comments ⬇️

I had expectations of this book going in based on many indie bookstores including it in their year end round up, but I didn‘t love it. Perhaps a lot of the symbolism and meaning went over my head, but I just couldn‘t understand the main characters reasoning for fixating on killing her former roommate and how that related to the unknown continuous movement/earthquakes that have occurred. I finished the book confused.

Another one from the Ghost Story Collection. I quite enjoyed this particular story, centred on the belief that the dead can be disturbed in their sleep through a modern railway. A fun, quick read!

I‘m really loving the Little Clothbound Classic series and how it introduces me to lesser known works. This short story collection was particularly good with many of the stories really standing out. In particular I found the title story, Moonlight, Happiness, Madame Husson‘s Rose King and especially Boule de Suif to be exceptional and thought provoking.

We read this for a book club I‘m in… it isn‘t the type of book that would usually attract me. Margo is in her 60s when her second husband dies suddenly and she finds that she is left with nothing as he gambled it away. She is unused to doing anything for herself so this is essentially a coming of age for seniors. Lots of quirky characters and everything always works out. I can see the appeal as it is charming and funny but just a little too twee.

Another book in translation… this one centres on Saga - a woman who wakes from a grand mal seizure with chunks of memory missing for key events - such as why her and her husband are divorced. The book is an exploration of family dynamics and secrets, trauma and repression. Overall a good book, even when I couldn‘t always feel sympathy for Saga.

More from the Christmas Ghost Story series. I really enjoyed this one and while not specifically about Christmas, there is a message that makes this a particularly appropriate story for the holidays. Looking forward to the next one!

I‘m really enjoying this series of ghost stories for Christmas although admittedly this was not my favourite. I just didn‘t find it engaging enough. Still, sort of like an advent calendar, a fun way to enjoy the time before the holidays.

This slim book had a slightly menacing quality from the first page. Set on a slaughterhouse in Brazil, it primarily follows Edgar, the man responsible for “stunning” the cattle who takes his job seriously, blessing each cow that passes by him. It examines the violence and madness that such a job entails - and the (for many) unacknowledged reality of how the meat gets to your table and the sacrifice of those who make it happen.

This was a low pick for me. Bourdouxhe was a writer in France prior to and after WWII. Most of these stories focus on the experience of women around this time. I found there were a few stories that really grabbed my interest, and a few that didn‘t (not unlike a lot of short story collections). I am really enjoying diversifying and reading more in translation and non-contemporary works.

This was a recent read for book club and… yeah. It purports to be about what would happen if you could do your relationship over again (as my friend said, a Life After Life- type book), except that it is not. There is cannibalism which is over the top and a hammer-like metaphor for an all-consuming love. This book grew out of the author‘s own relationship (yes, one of the characters is named Myriam) and MFA process and it *really* shows.

I think that when a book makes it to the process of translation, perhaps there is a greater expectation of that book‘s worth. Ultimately, I found this just to be another horror story of the way that a man, with deep distrust, paranoia and mental health issues, is violent and destroys the woman he “loves”. It is not a story that says anything unique about Russia as it is a story found in every culture and offers nothing new.

In many ways a difficult read, due to the subject matter. We follow the narrator - a young woman born to famous parents and grandmother, who have been cold and distant with her her entire life. After a bad breakup with an older Director, she heads to Montana where she meets with another older man who diagnoses her inability to feel pain. The story quickly turns dark as she finds herself in yet another dysfunctional relationship. Con‘t in comments

Another book in translation. I was intrigued with the origins of these stories - each based on the artwork that precedes each story in the collection - and the idea that a story based on an artwork takes the story being told by the original artist in an entirely new direction. That said, while I enjoyed the first several stories, I found later stories and essays just too abstract and difficult to parse for my liking.

Last of the recently read books. Another one from the Biblioasis Christmas Ghost Stories. This one is about the haunting of a small cottage that a woman lets for her aunt in a small village. Ghostly happenings ensue! The delightful thing about these books is the lack of gore or true horror… just a quick ghostly story suitable for almost anyone or age level. Terrific for family story time.

I think of myself as an adventurous reader, not put off by a more challenging book, but I have to admit i nearly gave up on this book. What is it about? No idea. The blurb says it is about a man revisiting memories, but there is so little structure or consistency it is hard to say. If you read it is poetry, I think it might work better. Aggressively defying categorization or narrative is the best I can say.

Another short story from the Christmas Ghost Story collection by Biblioasis. This one is about the strange happenings on a nearby island to Venice and what happens when two people are rowed to the island one day, encountering a stray kitten.

I am adoring this series of short, illustrated ghost stories that are put out by Biblioasis Press. It was a tradition during Victorian times that ghost stories were read at Christmas (although not necessarily about the holiday). This one was pretty good - about a bereaved father who suddenly finds enlightenment while walking home during a wild storm of thunder and lightning.

I am spending a lot of time lately with small press or non-North American writers. This book was fantastic - set in Angola during the revolution, it is the stories of a number of interconnected characters told in a manner similar to a short story. I enjoyed how we saw various sides of the conflict through different eyes, and the disillusionment of revolutionaries as time passes.

Not always an easy read, but a compelling story of two sisters. Ollie is the sun around which her family revolves. Ollie also has severe mental health issues and blows in and out of their lives, causing chaos. Amy is the diligent, fastidious younger sister who spends her life cleaning up and making herself small. The story is told from Amy‘s point of view of loving, and sometimes hating, her sister and her effect on her own life.

I wasn‘t sure with the first book in this series but I‘m so glad I continued because I‘ve grown incredibly fond of this gang. The mysteries are fun enough, but the real strength of this series lies in the humour and the genuine empathy Osman has for his characters and the beauty, and the losses, of aging. The characters are real - with all the same fears and longings that transcend age. I am very much looking forward to the next one.

It took me a long time to finish this series of short stories as they were often challenging or were somewhat bleak in their outlook. They deal with modern society including our impact on the earth, and sometimes wander into speculative fiction. Standouts were the title story - of an offshore ship providing abortions, and the story “2020” - a pandemic story told from the perspective of a family of Covid deniers. A thought provoking collection.

A rather bleak novella about a group of people working at a firm where they moderate online content for a significant, unnamed client. In only a handful of pages, it demonstrates the bureaucratic, corporate-speak nonsense the determines what remains online and what goes. It also shows, rather than tells, in incredibly detrimental nature of such work, and its impact and insidious effect on those who work in the industry. Depressing but important.

Another book that took me longer to finish than it should have. These are older stories as Csath was writing in the early 1900s. The stories themselves were quite oppressive. Csath was an opium addict who eventually murdered his wife before committing suicide and many of his stories reflect the noise in his head. CW for animal abuse, etc. One of the few Europa that wasn‘t really for me. #europacollective

For a short book, this felt remarkably long. It is a translation from French, about a middle aged woman, Anna, who has a wonderful relationship with Guillaume. One summer she becomes obsessed with another man, with whom she embarks on an unusual affair. She is torn between the two men and much of the time is spent in her head trying to justify. She‘s an incredibly selfish and self-centred character and I just didn‘t care about the outcome.

Just finished the 7th book in the Gamache series and I have to say I am finding these books better the further I go along. It absolutely required a suspension of belief that no one can find this village, that there are this many murders per person and that one man can be *this* good. And yet, I enjoyed the dive into the art world, the continued character development, and the examination of the many ways we hurt, and heal, others.

Terrific day at the used bookstore with lots of great finds from Europa and other small presses. Also was able to hit the amazing periodical store (which unfortunately is closing after many years due to a rent hike - hoping desperately they can find a new location) and snagged the two most recent Paris Reviews. #europacollective

Read this one for the Heliconian Lecture Series. Maya works for a NGO in an unnamed African country and is asked to rush in site when a young woman from the community accuses one of the staff of rape. It is an examination of what the meaning of charity is, the chasm between the community and the visitors to that community. It is also a story of bias and complicity. Parts of the book didn‘t work and there is some clunky language, so a low pick.

Another from the Massey Lecture series. Steiner‘s premise is that western civilization continues to look for certainties - in Marxism, in Freud, in astrology and the anthropology of Levi-Strauss - to fill the gap left behind by the decline of the Christian religion. He further posits that the search for ultimate scientific truth (for ex. that one day the earth will cease to exist) is something we cannot grasp which is why we turn elsewhere. Con‘t

The last update on recently finished books. I read this on a combination of audio and kindle. An Irish family in London faces the possibility that their 11 year old daughter/granddaughter/niece has been accused of murdering a young girl in their housing estate. The death of the young child is just the route that it takes to examining unwed parenthood in Ireland in the 1980s, alcoholism, generational trauma and unintended consequences. Con‘t >

“The cults of unreason, the organized hysterias, the obscurantism which have become so important a feature of Western sensibility and behaviour during these last decades, are comical and often trivial to a degree; but they represent a failure of maturity, a self-demeaning, which are, in essence, tragic.”

As relevant today as it was in 1974.

After seeing @BarbaraBB post about this book, I realized I had never reviewed it even though I continue to think about it months after I read it. A group of women has been imprisoned below ground by men. The youngest does not remember the before times and a sudden incident has the women released into a world where it seems everyone has perished. > more in comments.

This was an absolutely lovely fable about the power of grief. A father with two young boys faces the unexpected death of his wife. A crow - is it real? imagined? - comes to help heal the family through their grief. Despite the premise, it is never saccharine or sappy but instead raw and real in the ways people grapple with the death of a loved one. It reads in many parts like poetry and I feel it is a book I will return to. Highly recommended.

Another recently finished book. This one sits between a so-so and a pick for me. A difficult and challenging read, I suspect that I would glean more from it on a second read. Set in the present in a norther country, it is a story of historical injustices and the ways that communities avoid facing their past, and personal complicity in those injustices. Not a fun read, but I think there is something worth the difficulty here.

Catching up on some reviews of recent books. This is an older CBC Massey Lecture from 1985 that is just as relevant today. Lessing addresses our human tendency to fall prey to political rhetoric and unquestioning belief. She also examines our own personal responsibility for those “prisons” of unquestioning belief that we choose to live in. Thought provoking and timely.

This was a recent vacation novel and as with all Valerie Perrin novels I have read thus far, quite good. Perrin is an expert at telling the stories about the secrets we keep, their long term impact and how we hurt and are hurt by others and how we heal. Perrin also doesn‘t need to tie everything up with a bow at the end or find resolution where perhaps it cannot ever exist. Thoughtful and sad.

I recently read this for a book club that I was then unable to participate in, which was unfortunate as I would like to have heard others views. This is a book of short stories all centring on the indigenous Canadian experience. I felt some stories were stronger than others, and in cases some stories seemed repetitive. These stories were written before the author‘s first novel that was quite large and I think it shows.

This is my first Lane Winslow mystery and I really quite enjoyed it. Set in post-WW2 Canada, the characters are quite delightful, as was the mystery. Cozy but not twee. Will definitely be reading more from this series!

A quick read that was hand sold to me in the local bookstore. Generally uplifting in that slightly twee way that seems to be a hallmark of this genre of a Japanese fiction. Talking animals and life lessons and all that. The translation was better than others out there with dialogue that flowed a bit better. I think if you love this genre of book, you will enjoy this for sure.

Nothing better than a book stack haul after a vacation (this time in Palm Springs and Los Angeles where I visited The Best Bookstore in Palm Springs and Skylight Books, respectively. Tagged book is part of the Wildsam travel guides which I highly recommend. Where most travel guides just give you a list of things to see, this is more like a mini history of the location. Absolutely fabulous!

My first Inspector Banks book and I have to say I‘m a fan. While it was written many years ago now - leading to some outdated scenes (smoking in an office!) - it still contained some frank and interesting observations about changing views and gender roles, marriage, sexuality and policing - all while covering three interesting and entertaining mysteries. Definitely going to be back for more!

Another book that didn‘t quite work for me although I can see how and why it would be quite popular. A group of women have all been murdered by a serial killer and have been brought back to life by the “Replication Committee”. One woman works to investigate the mystery of her murder. An interesting conceit and covers some heavy issues like post-partum depression, but ultimately it just felt too far fetched for my liking.

I read this for an upcoming book club, and while I wanted to love it, it just didn‘t quite work for me. It attempts to grapple with the effects on women who lived through the era of the Scarborough Rapist/Paul Bernanrdo, told through a fictional lens. Unfortunately there was just too many other topics that covered and it didn‘t quite gel for me. There was also some horrendously bad dialogue. I appreciated the attempt but it didn‘t quite get there.

I‘ve been on a real small press/translation kick lately, and this slim volume did not disappoint. This is set in modern Russia on a train traversing the country. Two strangers meet - a French woman leaving a relationship and a young man recently conscripted into the army and travelling to his post with a group of conscripts. A stifling view of modern Russia where freedom is still incredibly limited.