The Postmistress, by Sarah Blake

Straddling two continents during the tumultuous early years of the second world war, Sarah Blake's novel is a masterpiece, evoking bygone days with clarity and insight.

Moving back and forth from Franklin, Massachusetts, a small town in Cape Cod to overseas in London, England, Sarah chronicles the lives of two women. Iris James is Franklin's postmistress - her deeply held belief in the orderliness of the U.S. postal service mirrors a life with rigidly held beliefs of right and wrong.

In London, U.S. news broadcaster, Frankie Bard, is one of only a handful of women on the radio during wartime. Working under the tutelage of Edward R. Murrow, Frankie is learning how to report the insanity of the Blitz and how people's lives are being destroyed or simply disappearing in the aftermaths of nightime bombing.

The lives of Iris James and Frankie Bard intersect with the letters of Will Fitch, Franklin's medical doctor, who volunteers to help in the war effort in London while his wife Emma waits at home, praying for his safe return. Every day Emma walks to the post office gathering Will's daily letters under Iris James' watchful eye. As Iris starts to take Emma's welfare to heart, a letter arrives from Will's landlady in London, bringing the worst kind of news. Despite her fervant belief in the sanctity of the post office credo, Iris decides to hide the letter from Emma. But yet another letter exists, this one being held by Frankie who meets Will in an Underground station after a night of bombing. Will either of these letters ever find their way to Emma?

Sarah Blake's voyage into the lives of ordinary people dealing with extraordinary times is more than the story of a husband, a wife, a postmistress and a radio broadcaster. Sarah ably conveys the atmosphere of wartime, where the adrenaline rush of staying alive can make some wish the war would never end. But when friends and familiar faces fail to show up and the death toll mounts, those left behind must find ways to cope with these continuous loses. And, as Frankie discovers, unlike the randomness of war in London, which strikes down civilains and soldiers with no discernable pattern, the war in other parts of Europe contains a much more systematic and meticulously planned carnage - to mobilize and move all of European Jewry into ghettos, work camps, and utlimate death, as the Nazi regime begins it's implentation of a greater Aryan world.

I highly recommend this book. Sarah Blake has found a private and intimate voice for the horrors of World War Two, which does much more to bring the reality of loss to the reader than any list of casualties and deaths could convey. For more information on the author, and to listen to the author share her inspiration for the story, you can link to Sarah Blake's website, at http://www.sarahblakebooks.com/

The Other Family, Joanna Trollope

I think Joanne Trollope is a wonderful writer and was looking forward to diving into her latest [2010] book, The Other Family.

As always, Joanna finds new ways to explore human characteristics and emotions so well.

It seems that quite a few books I've been reading lately are taking the time to explore both sides of relationships in greater detail. Rather than learning how the "wronged" spouse feels when husband/wife leaves for another, more and more writers are trying to understand how both parties are impacted. And there is also more attention paid to the pivotal character who is leaving one relationship for another. No longer merely a selfish villian, the betwixt/between character is now often portrayed as another frail human being caught in an emotionally fraught situation -- loving two people, not wanting to hurt either party.

Emily Griffin portrayed the complexity and humanity in this now common reality, in her recent release [2010], Matters of the Heart. And, the difference is important. Rather than seeing a situation as simple "good vs. evil" or "moral vs. immoral" writers are portraying all parties as vulnerable human beings capable of both altruistic and selfish behavior. It makes for much more believable characters and a greater sense of realism.

In The Othe Family, we learn how the first wife Margaret -- left behind over two decades ago-- and the second wife Chrissie, left behind by her husband's recent death, cope with the lose of a key husband figure in both their lives - Richie Rossiter.

Richie, a talented piano player and singer whose career was definitely on the wane prior to his sudden death, leaves behind two families who are deeply affected by his lose. More unexpected, if possible, than his death, is his bequest to leave his prized piano and early musical scores to his first wife.

Margaret must come to terms with the lose of hoping that her husband will one day come back to her. Her son Scott has forgiven his father for abandoning his first family and is even willing to befriend his new-found stepsisters. But are they willing to accept his friendship?

Chrissie and her three daughters are bereft, abandoned, stunned by both the loss of a beloved husband and father, and trying to cope with the new reality that their lifestyle must change as their new financial picture is bleak.

Chrissie expects her daughters to rally around her, to staunchly defend themselves against all others, especially her husband's former family.

There are no villians in this story, just people trying to cope with change and loss. I think Joanna has done a wonderful portrayal of six lives affected by the same tragedy, each needing to find their own way through the grieving process.

I love being able to recommend Canadian authors, so I was happy to get my hands on Robert J. Wiersema's latest book, Bedtime Story, as part of my holiday reading. His first novel, Before I Wake, received great reviews, and I am confident this second novel will be likewise acclaimed.

The novel contains two plots, a book within a book, and plots within plots unfold as we read along. The main characters are Christopher Knox, an almost separated husband who still lives over the garage and helps raise his son, David who shares the main house with Christopher's almost-ex wife Jacqui.

Christopher is a writer whose first novel succeeded quite well. However, too many years have gone by without finishing his second novel for Christopher to not be losing faith in his ability as a writer. Coupled with his lack of failure as a husband, Christopher is desperate to be a success in at least one area of his life: fatherhood. As a way of marking his son David's eleventh birthday, he buys him a rare copy of a book he had enjoyed himself as a young boy.

David, at first disappointed he didn't get the Tolkien series, Lord of the Rings, soon finds himself immersed in his Dad's gift and becomes more and more distracted by the plot. Christopher is thrilled to have captured his son's attention, until the day that David suffers a seizure while reading and enters what becomes an enduring coma. The doctors are completely at loss as to the cause of the coma. Christopher is determined to figure out what is going wrong and soon begins to believe that the book itself has caused the coma.

The story now becomes two stories, the first being Christopher's attempts to find out how a book can be causing his son's coma, the second being David's story and how he is magically drawn into the knights and wizards legend where his own survival may depend on his succesfully completing a fictional quest.

This book delivers on many levels and is a fun blend of modern fiction writing and fantasy fiction. I am sure it will appeal to many types of readers.


To read the Globe and Mail review of this book, you can link to: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/bedtime-story-by-robert-wiersema/article1805935/

Life among the Lutherans, Garrion Keillor

As we approach the holiday season, it's time to indugent in a few sweets. Garrison Keillor's newest books, "Life among the Lutherans" definitely falls in the "sweet" category of easy reading.

Poking gentle fun at the mid-west American breed of Lutherans -- no hugging allowed except perhaps a sideways hug, but only after 30 years of friendship -- Garrison shares slices of daily life for Pastor Ingqvist and his flock.

Life for the Lutherans in Lake Wobegon is not without its ups and downs, but Garrison coats it all with a gentle soothing self-depracating humour. I enjoyed the first few stories the most, but by the end I was getting little drowsy.

Anyway, it's a fun read for a quiet afternoon.

True Porn Clerk Stories, by Ali Davis

Everyone has to work somewhere and sometimes you take what you can get. For Ali Davis, an artist and writer, working in a video store that rents porn is just a golden opportunity to diversify her life's experiences.

With a wry sense of humour, Davis ruminations on the clientele who favor porn and the incidental disgusting bits, like "spooge" (semen) blobs on returned videos tell a tale not often heard in polite society.

Who rents porn? The lonely, the disenfranchised, the disturbed? Or merely the curious? Have a great read with this one - Ali's writing is to the point, honest and real.

After the Fall, by Catherine Gildiner

This book is a continuation of Catherine Gildiner's life story which she started in her previous novel, "Too Close to the Falls."

Catherine Gildiner's childhood was, even by her standards, a little precocious. Unable to sit still, she was taken to a professional who advised she get a job. Since she was only four years old at the time, this might have proved a little difficult. But, since her parents were not constrained by what the neighbours might think, her father, who owned the local pharmacy, starting bringing Catherine to work. It was the basis of her informal life education and as this second book proves, work became a constant she could return to whenever life become too overwhelming.

When Catherine's father sold his pharmacy at a loss in order to move Catherine to a better neighborhood school, Catherine lost her roots and found herself struggling to make it in the cutthroat social caste system known as High School. Her quirky and original thinking often led to rebellious acts but Catherine was at heart, just looking for truth, justice, and functionality. Surviving high school, Catherine moved on to University and began a relationship with football hero cum poet which eventually led to her invovlement in the civil rights movement.

Catherine's recollection of her teenage and college years coincide with the turbulence of the sixties' generation. Searching for meaning in a life with very few tangible roots and little direction to help her make adult choices, Catherine's story of learning to live with and love her parents and herself reveal a lot about the choices we all make in our live. Once again Catherine's naivete and guilelessness tinged with fear of men and lack of experience bring her to the brink of once again floundering in her life's choices.

This book is very well written and makes for an excellent read.

Inheritance, By Nicholas Shakespeare

Written in 2010, this is Shakespeare's sixth novel, but the first of his books that I have read, and I am eager to read more!

Some people just seem to fall into their lives and Andy Larkham is a perfect example. When he is late for his professor's funeral and rushing to arrive before the ceremony is completely finished, Andy ends up at the wrong funeral service. It takes a while to realize the eulogy is not for his professor, but for a man he doesn't know. It's an even bigger shock when he finds out he is inheriting millions of dollars for merely showing up to the funeral regardless of his lack of relationship to the deceased.

When the furious daughter of the deceased finds out her inheritances is threatened by Andy's appearance, she befriends him and in embarrasment or perhaps fear of her contesting the will, he creates a fictitious relationship with the deceased. To assuage his guilt, he finally starts researching the deceased's history and ends up on a roller coaster trip through the history of Armenia, immigration to Australia, and finds the true rags-to-riches story of the man whose past life now guides Andy's path even though they never met.

This is a wonderful story, very original and has terrific character development. While the plot does digress here and there, we are drawn along with the story because the characters are so believable. In the end, we learn a bit about different cultures and a lot about human nature.

We are all made of glue, by Marina Lewycka

Marina's newest book (2010), is her third published novel. I enjoyed her first two books, and am happy to report that I believe her third is her best accomplishment.

There are several threads to follow in the book. First, we meet Georgie Sinclair, lately moved to London from Leeds, she is about to experience the end of a rather traditional relationship with her husband, and embark on a very unusual, comic, sad, mysterious relationship with the elderly Naomi Shapiro. Naomi's experiences in the second world war inform her current condition of squalor and decrepitude. But her wit and humour keep her oblivious to the rundown condition of her home, her clothes, even the rotten food she relishes eating at reduced prices.

Georgie's son, Ben, is bewildering her. After watching his parents separate, Ben seems to find religion, and is busy preparing his soul for the End of Time, and is worried that his heathen parents won't make the cut to heaven because of their lack of faith in Jesus.

Add one or two other oddball characters, including a dark-eyed real estate agent bent on seducting Georgie, and an unscrupulous social worker determined to oust Mrs. Shapiro from her home so she can get a commission on the sale of Naomi's historic estate, and it's a wonder Georgie can keep it together enough to focus on her job of writing promotional material for the wonders of glue!

It's an amazing mix of characters, and a fascinating overview of war, politics, the Middle East, Jewish-Arab relations, and friendshop, romance, and lust. A great read.

Fly Away Home, by Jennifer Weiner (2010)

Jennifer Weiner's latest book certainly captures a recent trend in U.S. politics! For all those politicians who get caught cheating on their wives, there is a wife whose life is shattered by the betrayal. Many married men (and women) cheat on their spouses, but not all spouses suffer the consequences on national press and television.

In "Fly Away Home," we are given a wonderful portrayal a family coping with just such a situation. Senator Richard Woodruff gets caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar! His wife, Sylvie, has spent her entire marriage, being the quintessential politician's wife. She organizes her life around his political needs, even at the expense of her daughter's lives.

The Senator's daughters have each coped with an absent father in their own way: the elder, Diana, is a workaholic perfectionist who finds herself in a lustful relationship of adultery with one of her students. The younger daughter, Lizzie, is trying to recover from a decade of alcohol abuse. Both daughters feel neglected by their father for his busy political career and abandoned by their mother who gave all her attention to the needs of the political machine.

But Sylvie and her daughters have to deal with the fallout of a husband and father who has broken the rules. Can Sylvie forgive her husband? Can she reconcile with her daughters? Give this book a read and find out. It will draw you in and the ending may surprise you!

Time's Legacy, by Barbara Erskine (2010)

Fans of Barbara Erskine can look forward to a good read with her latest title, Time's Legacy. I had been a bit disappointed with her previous release, Warrior's Princess, which, to my mind, seemed a bit stilted and contrived at times. But, in Time's Legacy, Barbara recaptures her smooth storytelling style, weaving us back and forth between the past and the present.

As in Warrior's Princess, we are once again in present-day England, and we are also, once again, in the past, around the time of Jesus. This time, there are three psychic links between ancient and modern times. Abi Rutherford, a young curate assigned to a small church in eastern England, has always known she has a "sensitivity" for ghosts and spirits. Kieran Scott, her new boss, and senior priest in the area also has psychic abilities but is trying his best to bury them within a strict regime of Christian doctrine and dogma. The third psychic link is Justin Cavendish, a modern-day druid whose powers to roam in the past may help all three psychics survive the ordeal awaiting them.

As the story opens, Abi is sent to her new post in St. Johns, Cambridgeshire, and her new boss, Kieran Scott. A romantic attraction blossoms quickly, but things do not go smoothly for the pair. Struggles at her new position are exacerbated by the sudden illness of her mother. When her mother gives her a secret gift of an unusual crystal, Abi's life begins to unravel and her sensitivity to ghosts increases beyond her wildest imagination. Soon she finds herself watching slices of the past, a time when the Roman presence in England was still small and druids were the healers and the religious leaders. Abi is brought into the life of one of the druid priestesses, Mora, and her apprenctice from the East of the Empire, Yeshua. Yeshua is no ordinary apprentice, his ability to heal with the touch of his hands is very different than the herbal medicine that Mora knows. Yeshua's claim to follow one god is foreign to the myriad of gods and goddesses that Mora follows as a druid.

As Abi witnesses the events from two thousand years ago, she is drawn into the lives of Yeshua and Mora and when their lives are endangered by a Roman solider, Abi wants to help but doesn't know how.

Barbara Erskine has done a commendable job blending fiction with mystery, and blending the past with the present. I hope other readers enjoy this title as much as I did.

Juliet, by Anne Fortier

I quite enjoyed this new novel by Anne Fortier, which marries a modern mystery with a bit of history in the form of Shakespeare's famous novel, Romeo and Juliet.

Julie Jacobs is the shy half of a twin set, who spends her summers directing children's theatre. She and her her twin, Janice, were raised by their Aunt Rose in a life of relative luxury. Julie has never worried about the future, banking on inheriting half of her Aunt's estate, which she believes to be sizable. But when Aunt Rose dies suddenly, Julie learns her Aunt broke a lifelong promise to split her estate evenly. Janice inherits the entire estate while Julie is left with a key to a safety deposit bank in Sienna, Italy. Julie and Janice were born in Italy but were brought to the U.S. as toddlers when their parents both died.

Julie has no idea what is in the safety box. She hopes it's a stash of bonds or gold, but it turns out to be photocopies of old documents. Disappointed but intrigued as to why her mother would leave something that seems worthless in a safety deposit box, Julie starts to read the information and slowly learns the true story of Juliet and Romeo, the famous ill-fated young lovers made famous by Shakspeare. But, it turns out, Shakespeare was borrowing and building on a true story that was based in much earlier history, way back to the year 1340 and to the birthplace of Julie's ancestors, Sienna, Italy. As Julie gets drawn into the historic tale, she comes to realize that her mother has left her a message and a clue to her own heritage. As she learns more of her own past, she is drawn into multiples mysteries about her heritage, the mysterious death of her parents, and what really happened to her namesake, Guiletta Tolomei.

This book weaves several plots together beautifully. The pacing of the book keeps the reader wanting to learn more and more as bits of late medieval history and modern mystery come together in a very satisfying conclusion.

How did you get this number, Sloane Crosley (2010)

Life in New York seems to be a favourite source of humour for U.S. comedians. In Crosley's second book (following up on her first title: "I Was Told There'd be Cake"), we meet up once again with her witty take on being poor in the city, on looking for apartments, the perils of stinky taxis, and other Manhatten joys.

We also get to travel abroad with Sloane to Portugal and France for more adventures with getting lost (a perennial theme for Sloane who has a temporal spatial deficit disorders that makes is impossible for her to follow a map), getting accultured and getting through customs safely.

This book is fun to read, a little slow in places, but overall very enjoyable.

The Red Thread, by Ann Hood (2010)

I loved this book! It's not often I will forgo sleep to finish a book, but I really couldn't put this one down.

The book follows Maya Lange, owner of a private adoption agency, The Red Thread, which brings together orphaned and abandoned girls from China with families in the United States. The book shows us both sides of the story, weaving together the lives of the Chinese mothers and fathers who are faced with the decision to give up their baby girls and the lives of the American families who are brave or desperate enough to travel half way around the world to adopt a child.

With the Chinese government levying a cap on how many children families can have, the need for a son to take care of the parents forces many families to choose to give up their girls secretly for adoption so they can try again to have a boy. If found out, they can be punished by the government (and sometimes by the baby's father who is pushing the mother to give up the daughter) and made to take back their infants. So mothers must sneak into nearby cities and leave the baby in parks, docks, wherever they feel is the best chance for the child to be found quickly.

On the other side we get to know the lives of couples who are wanting to adopt and learn how they cope with the stress of a strenuous and lengthy adoption process. Lives falter as the wait for news pushes some couples to the brink, leaning time and again on the solid shoulder of Maya Lange, whose own secret tragedy was the impetus for her life's work to find homes for unwanted children.

The Solitude of Prime Numbers, by Paolo Giordano

Originally published in Italian as "Las Solitudine dei Numberi Primi," in 2009, Paolo Giordano's debut novel is now translated into English for the North American market.

The book follows the lives of Alice and Mattia, two people who don't fit in, who are solitary (like prime numbers). As each recoils from childhood trauma into a life of solitude, their stories start to intersect when they find one another in high school. Drawn together as outcasts often are in high school, they find comfort in each other's presence. If they are too broken to love a normal person, could they love each other? Perhaps they can find happiness, or at least inner peace, by combining their two solitudes. But, when Mattia chooses to travel far away, Alice is left behind and and know each is alone again, trying to live amongst "normal" people, trying to erase who are they really are.

Giordano's book is full of solitude and melancholy. It is beautifully written and captures the inner torment that Alice and Mattia cope with and the always emergant need for love and acceptance, for forgiveness and release.

In the Shadow of the Cypress, by Thomas Steinbeck (2010)

I love a book that teaches me something about history. Thomas Steinbeck's book weaves a great story of the history of the Chinese immigrants to California in the early 1900s. The story begins in 1906, in a small fishing village in California, where Chinese fisherman and their families live their lives almost completely apart from the mainstream residents.

When a 400-year-old Chinese imperial seal and plaque is uncovered beneath a fallen Cypress tree, the Chinese elders of the village want to keep the object in their village temple. The more powerful Chinese factions in nearby San Francisco learn about the artifact's existence and want them to be moved to their protection.

The artifacts are proof that the Chinese visited North America before any Europeans, but it's value to the fisherman goes much deeper and they fear it's loss will bring bad luck to the entire village.

The story of the missing artifacts becomes it's own mystery when, a century later, two young men try to unravel the tale and redisover the items that once stood in the middle betweenthe two groups.

No, I Don't Want to Join a Book Club, by Virginia Ironside

If you are a fan of British self-deprecating humour, you will love Virginia Ironside's latest book. As Marie Sharp girds her loins to hit the big Six-O, she is beside herself with glee at all the senior discounts coming her way. The downside is nonexistant, a status unlikely to change as she decides that sex always involves too many compromises, especially for the woman.

Marie's look back at her wild years in London during the 1960's and her look forward to impending grandmotherhood make this a wonderfully joyous read.

I highly recommend this book!

The Last Time I Saw You, by Elizabeth Berg [2010]

There's nothing quite as satfisfying as heading home for the weekend with the newest book by one of my favourite authors, Elizabeth Berg.

I was completely swept away into the narrative the author weaves amongst men and women who are about to embark on that dreaded ritual: The 40th high school reunion.

As always, Elizabeth's characters come alive through her storytelling. As we bear witness to a slice of their lives, we can relish the change to peek into each classmate's psyche as they reconnect to their past selves and the roles they each played back in high school. It is a time to reflect and measure one's life against the expectations of the past. Who has come out ahead, and what does "being a winner" mean anyway 40 years after the fact.

The Very Thought of You, by Rosie Alison

Rosie Alison's first novel (published by Alma Books, 2009) is amazingly mature read for a debut effort.

As part of mass emigration of London's children in 1939, we follow the life of eight-year-old Anna Sands who is sent off to the countryside to be safe from the impending bombing of the city. She arrives at an adhoc school hastily converted from a large private estate in Yorkshire. The patrons of the estate, Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton, provide a safe haven for the children who must cope with the loss of home and family. Anna quickly forms a special bond with Thomas Ashton and is drawn into the his life and the emotional turmoil of his marriage.

Alison's book captures the double-edge sword of lives turned upside down by World War II. For Anna's mother, her sincere heartbreak at sending her daughter away is offset by a new found freedom to be a single women in the heightened emotional times of a city under siege. For Thomas Ashton, the children arriving at his estate bring meaning and hope to a life left unfulfilled by the paralysis to his legs caused by an adult bout of Polio. How will these characters survive the war and who will emerge from the maelstrom and chaos? I strongly recommend this book for telling the story of evacuee children and for bringing her characters to life so vividly.

Remarkable Creatures, by Tracy Chevalier [2010]

Tracy Chevalier has a way of making history come alive. If you have read her earlier books, The Virgin Blue, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Falling Angels, The Lady and the Unicorn, and Burning Bright, you will probably enjoy this latest novelization of a non-fictional slice of history.

Set in Lyme Regis, England, in the mid 1800's the novel brings together two women from very different social positions. Mary Anning, born to an impoverished family, is a fossil hunter. Elizabeth Philpot, a middle-class spinster, exiled to the small town of Lyme with her two equally spinstered sisters, befriends Mary and they become unlikely partners in their quest and love of fossil remains.

In an age where women should be seen not heard, when women were counted only as useful as the dowry they could bring to a man, these two women set their sights on charting their own destinies. In real life, Mary Anning become a well-known name in the Royal Geological Society, and had many admirerers. The fame she garnered was tempered by the fact that she spent her entire life in relative poverty and was never formally acknowledged for her contributions to the understanding of our fossil history until long after her death.

Tracy Chevalier weaves a beautiful poignant story of two intelligent, curious women who tried to break the bounds of convention and be what they longed to be--fossil hunters and scientists!

Noah's Compass, by Anne Tyler (2009)

Are we who we are because we can remember our past, or are we who we are despite our recollections? Liam Pennywell, 61, and facing retirement from his school teacher career, is about to deal with the question.

When Liam loses memory of moving into his new apartment, his life is thrown for a turn. In trying to recover his memories, he finds his life, which has been quite solitary from estranged children and wives, is now filling up again as his family reaches out to him. When he meets a professional memory collector, Liam believes he's found a simple way to regain his past. Instead, his life is about to get very complicated!

Very well-written, this slice-of-life story of the singular Liam Pennywell is an easy read with some interesting themes and surprises.