The Secret Christmas Library

 by Jenny Colgan

Mirren Sutherland stumbled into a career as an antiquarian book hunter after finding a priceless antique book in her great aunt's attic.  The book is on display at the British Museuim with a note giving her credit for finding it.  A man in the museum asks about who found the book and Mirren introduces herself.  He tells her needs someone to find a book for him, she thinks he is joking but eventually calls him.

She is sent by her company to the man's scottish castle, ostensibly to survey the building.  While she is there the owner Jamie, his sister Esme, Theo, an antique book dealer prowl around the castle which has books piled haphazardly everyone around the house.  The books had been collected by Janie's grandfather.  Jamie is stressed because he has inherited the castle but it is in very poor condition.  His grandfather had hinted at a valuable book.  So the four young people set out to solve various puzzles they find from the grandfather.  

It is a stormy winter and their lives are threatened as they look through a maze for clues.  To get out of the maze they set fire to a section thinking that the snow will put out the fire.  Unfortunately the fire is not put out and eventually reaches the castle and destroy's most of it.  As they search for clues they find letters that indicate the grandfather had a love and likely affair with a housekeeper.

However Jamie and Mirren are able to find a valuable book in the housekeeper's house. The housekeeper had passed away but her granddaugher has been working as the sole housekeeper.

In the end Mirren is laid off from her job, no explanation of if her salary for doing the supposed survey was ever paid.  She moves to Scotland to be with Jamie.  They have rescued some books and offer tours of what is left of the property.

It was an okay read, a bit slow going at times but you knew Jamie and Mirren would eventually hook up. 

The Midnight Bookshop

This is the story of three people who meet at a food bank.  One is a rich girl who is dropping off food, another is a woman who is in an abusive relationship and whose husband doesn't earn enough money as a car salesman and another, a teen whose mother is ill with fibromyalgia and can't work.  His brother has him delivering drugs for him because if he gets caught he will get a lighter sentence as a youth.

 The three people briefly meet and get a brochure which invites them to go to a midnight bookshop.  They are reluctant at first but decide to go.  They find a magical place and a strange woman who invites them to find a book that wants them to find it.  The rich girl finds The Great Gatsby, the older woman finds Oliver Twist and the young boy finds One flew over the Cuckoos Nest.

They read the books and come back to discuss them later.  They find the books reflect on their own lives, the rich girls parents are like Gatsby, the young boy is trapped like the characters in the Asylum and the older woman has an evil controlling man in her life.

Eventually the married woman is able to get rid of her husband, the young boy flushes his brother's drugs down the toilet and gets beat up by drug dealers and the young girl decides to move out from her parents home to get away from the loveless family.

The older woman invites the boy and his mother to come to live with her, with financial assistance from the rich girl.  She also decides to apply for a job in a library.

As they go back to the library they realize that the place is magical and the bookseller seems to have been around for more than 100 years.  Once is it is clear that they have written new lives the bookstore disappears.

Five years later the young girl and boy are living together.  She has become a teacher and he is working on an English degree.

It was a cute story, obviously with a feel good theme. 

 

The Paris Express

 by Emma Donoghue

This book is one of the bestsellers right now.

It is the story of one journey on a steam train that leaves from Normandy heading to Paris.  The author creates some very detailed depictions of the various travellers on the train and the crew.  The engineer and his assistant are working hard to keep the train on time, despite various delays including a big wig politician insisting he have his private train car attached to the middle of the train.

The friendship, comraderie of the engineer and his assistant is well detailed.  Some of the passengers include a prostitute, a priest, a young pregnant woman, a Russian woman, a young black American painter, a young female scientist, a businessman and his mistress, a rich man travelling with his wife and sick daughter, and several politicians.  One passenger of note is a young woman who has brought on board a lunch box in which she has concocted a bomb.  She is against the establishment and plans to blow up the train, and herself, in protest.

As the story proceeds some of the passengers engage in some conversations among themselves.   

As the story nears its end two tense situations develop.  The engineer decides to speed to make up ten minutes they are behind schedule because he wants the Christmas bonus the company gives for good perrformance, and the young pregnant woman does into labour.  While this is all going ont the Russian lady suspects that the young girl might have evil plans but when she tries to bring this up to the officials they are too worried about the late train to listen to her.

As the train approaches the young girl is called to help with the pregnant woman and doesn't explode her device and the braking mechanism fails on the train so it ends up careening into Montparnasse station and the engine ends up going through the far wall of the station.

The author does a wonderful job or portraying the jobs and concerns of the crew, of depicting what life would be like for people and on the train at the time so it was an interesting read.

The story is based on an actual historical event in which no passengers were killed but a woman newspaper seller was crushed by debris in the station, 

 

Life at the Precipice

by R.F. Vincent

This is an absurd story about a man who hears about a fabled settlement in northern Vancouver Island, a land cut off when there was an earthquake which modified the landscape.

He makes his way to the area and is welcomed into the settlement which is centred around a lake surrounded by steep cliffs.  Some of the locals belief and ogopogo type monster lives in the lake and one man has a home in a tree at the edge of the cliff so he can watch for it.  

The settlement has several queer characters who live in strange dwellings designed by a local eccentric architect.  The architect has an assistant, he will not let the assistant into his house but invites the guest.  He explais that the assistant cannot enter until the house is finished, however he admits it is indeed finished.  It has a huge exterior and a small room inside in which he dwells. Another house is shaped like a book, you enter through the spine of the book.  The characters and the description of the houses were very creative.

The community is fed by a local couple who won a lottery years before.  They bring in supplies periodically.

The book introduces us to the various eccentric people who live there include a man who writes a local newsletter which he circulates out into the world on occasion.  

The book is interesting in its description of the characters and their housing options.  In the end the narrator of the story decides to stay there.  I guess that is no surprise but it seemed somewhat anticlimatic.

A Slowly Dying Cause

 by Elizabeth George

This is the first book I have read by this author.  It is a book about Inspector Lynley and Sgt Havers.  I have to say I did not enjoy the book, Lynley and Havers only showed up about 3/4 of the way through the book.

The book is about a man who is murdered.  He had divorced his wife after falling in love with a 19 year old girl them met on a cruise for his wife and his 25 anniversary.  The man is an artisan working with metals that are mined near his property.  The man and other local people are being wooed by an agent who is trying to buy their land or get licences for their property to mine for lithium.  This agent has left his wife and is in love with a 17 year old girl who is anxious for them to wed.

The book jumps from the present back to text by the dead man about his life.  The book is very very wordy, almost 600 pages.  

The dead man has a father and his somewhat slow son working for him.  The young man is found murdered based on very incriminating evidence.  The sister of a love interest of Lynley's asks Havers, who is on leave after the death of her mother, to help prove the young man innocent.  Eventually Lynley finds out and steps in to help investigate.  The story also considers whether the man's children might have murdered him to get money from the sale of the property.

We eventually find out that the young woman and the dead man's husband convinced the slow son that she was being abused by her husband, he gets so worked up that he does kill the man to protect her because he really cares for her.

I felt there was too much verbiage, and the extra storylines of extra family members, the lust of the agent, and visits by Havers to Lynley's family home which is in crisis because of the need for major repairs. I forced myself to finish reading it and am glad I did, sort of, as I wasn't expecting the ending, nor Lynley professing his love for his love interest.

I am not sure I will read other books by her....

There is a new series on TV with Lynley and Havers but it isn't nearly as good as the original. 

 

 

 

 

Aflame

Pico Iyer

This is a book by a travel writer about his time spent at the Mount Baldy Benedictine Monastery in California.

He finds out about the monastery when he becomes homeless because his mother's house is destroyed in one of the devastating california wildfires.    He goes there and finds a cheap, very peaceful place that promotes contemplation.  

He takes a lot of time for himself but also meets other visitors and some of the monks.  One of the monks he becomes friends with is Leonard Cohen.  He is as also acquainted with the Dalai Lama.

He talks about how the silence stimulates his mind and spirit and how he goes there to escape when life gets too hectic.   He references various philosophers and authors, Lichtenstein, Camus, Thoreau.

The book is a bit slow, understandably I guess,  it is a meditation on being still, communing with nature, the value of solitude but also the value of community and connections.

The book ends with:

"You can just se the lights through the mist," I saym looking up, to where people robed and otherwise are sitting in rich silence.  Cyprian (the head monk) turns to e, and with a quiet smile says ' Yes".

In the acknowledgments the author says " The book is about the beauty-- you could say, the sanctity of clarity and ssilence.  It's also aobut how something of such treasure are available to us in many settings, not always monastic.

He wrote the book at the Banff Centre for the Arts where " I have been given the greatest of presents: the freedomm to think, to wander and to lose myself in what's around me." 

 

Snap

by Susin Nielsen

This book is by a BC author and takes place in the Vancouver area. It is a sad book at times but also funny.  The story is about three people who are assigned to take anger managment sessions and do community service cleaning up local parks.  The three people are a girl who was sexually approached by an old actor while she was a costume assistant on a tv program set, when she is approached by a leche in a mall she pushes him down an escalator, the second person is a children's author who is going through a divorce because her husband has decided he is gay.  The author has a meltdown at a school when a young student is rude while she is talking.  She takes him by the shoulders and shakes him.  This episode goes viral and she loses her publishing deals and her school talk income.  The third person is a man who wanted to buy into a muffler franchise and after he has put down a downpayment finds his boss is having an affair with his wife.  He defaces the bosses car and pees in his fountain.

The man's husband wants to get sole custody of their son, the man is really upset about this.  The two women try to talk to the boss to get him to remove a restraining order removed and also encourage his lover to let her ex have access to the son.  The boss recognizes the children's author and this is bad news for the man when he goes to court.... he is associating with a child abuser.....

Eventually all three become close friends supporting each other, and each find some peace in their lives.

The book was funny, the references to local bc made it interesting.  I enjoyed it and especially how the story developed. 

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

 by Gail Honeyman

This is the story of a young woman who is working in an accounts office.  She has been badly burned on her face and body and seems to be autistic or at least very reclusive.  Her co-workers make fun of her ocd tendencies.  She looks forward to the weekend when she can drink herself into a stupor.  She hates Wednesday evenings because that is when her mother phones and constantly berates her.

One day the young woman sees a musician online and falls for him.  She seeks all the information she can about him and dream about them becoming a couple.  She even buys a computer so she can do more research about him and track him online.  She also goes about getting a new, modern wardrobe and hairdo to impress him and fit in with him.

 She had consulted an IT guy in the company for advice about what computer to buy.  One day she and the tech are leaving work and walking in the same direction when they see and old man fall down onto the sidewalk.  Her reaction is to leave the scene but the techy insists they call 911.  She tells him she doesn't have a cell phone so while he calls 911 she talks to the old man.  The man is taken to the hospital and Eleanor gathers up his groceries.  She eats the perishables.  The next day the IT guy convinces her to go visit the man in the hospital and she does so taking him his remaining groceries. The man's family are there and are very thankful to the young couple for saving their Dad's life.  Eventually the family invite Eleanor and the IT guy to some family events.

Eleanor finally gets a ticket to the concert of her heart throb.  She is shocked to find he is a rude jerk.  She is so upset she ends up going home and drinking so much booze she passes out.  She considers suicide.  She is lying on the floor of her apartment when the IT guys shows up to clean her up and help her.  After going to hospital she goes on sick leave and starts seeing a psychiatrist.  She does not want to talk about her mother.

Eleanor and the IT guy meet for coffee on occasion and he stays in touch with her.  Eventually we find out that Eleanor's mother is not really alive, her other died when she said fire to the family home. Eleanor's sister also died in that fire.  Eleanor escapes with burns.

In the end Eleanor is able to return to work and she is warmly welcomed by her boss and co-workers.

It was a sad book at times but in the end it appears Eleanor may start to have a more normal life. 

 

 

Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop

 by Hwang Bo-Reum

This is a story about a bookstore in Korea.  A young woman is fed up with being in a non permanent job.  She had been told if she kept working hard she would get a permanent position but after years of struggling she is told it won't happen.  She decides to quit and follow her dream -- setting up a bookstore.

She opens up a small bookstore and coffee bar.  She thinks she probably can survive for a couple years.  She enjoys reading but finds that running the business takes up more of her time especially as the store gets busier.  She ends up hiring a young man the coffee bar.  He becewing.omes very interested in the art of roasting beans and brewing coffee and becomes close friend with the woma who owns the bean roasting company who is in an unhappy marruage,

As the book proceeds the young woman is busy posting online reviews of books and organizing book clubs and author talks.  One of the authors becomes attracted to her but she seems oblivious to his attention.  The store also attracts a woman who has quit her job and comes to the store to knit and drink coffee and a young boy whose mother allows him to hang out at the bookstore.

The people form a casual friendship.  The story talks a lot about jobs and job and life satisfaction.  The knitting woman eventually goes back to work, the coffee roaster decides to leave her husband.  The book reinforces the importance in doing what you love even though society may not judge your choice as  the  best or most profitable choice.

It was a nice friendly read/ 

Six Days in Bombay

 by Alka Joshi

This is the story of a young half Indian/half English nurse who is working in a hospital in Bombay.  She becomes very friendly with a patient who comes in after an apparent miscarriage.  The woman is not recovering as would be expected.  The patient, Mira Novak is a somewhat well known painter.  Despite her state her husband only visits a few times and doesn't seem much concerned.

The young nurse has a colleague who doesn't like her and gets her in trouble at times.  The nurse lives with her mother who is a seamstress, they are ecking out an existence.  The patient dies and it is determined she may have received a heroine overdose, or possibly committed suicide.  The young nurse, Sona, is accused of malpractice and is fired. She is devastated.

Before she died Mira asks Sona to retrieve four paintings she has left in a storeroom in the hosptial and distribute them as follows, Sona is to keep one. one she is to take to a friend in Prague, a former art dealer in Paris and an art instructor/former lover in Florence.  Mira doesn't know what she should do, can she accomplish this with little money.  Her mother then tells her about some money that had been sent to her over the years by her father.  Her father and left her mother and her to return to his original family in England.  At the same time another patient of hers, a elderly gentleman, asks her to accompany him as he travels to Istanbul to meet with his son.  She feels she has nothing to lose so decides to do it.  She meets the man's son and is attacted to him.  He is a British diplomat and offers to help her locate Mira's friends so she sets off.

She meets the first friend in Prague and discovers Mira was not as nice as she had imagined.  She was a wild person and used people in her life.   Mira delivers the first painting.  Then she moves on to Paris and meets the art dealer who was also wronged by Mira.  Then off to Florence to meet the artist/lover.  She finds he is married to an older woman.  All Mira's friends are devastated at the news of Mira's death but especially her lover.  It turns out Mira had agreed to have a child for them.  The child she lost was hers and her lovers progeny.  The artist and his wife wanted a child to guarantee his wife's father would continue to support them financially.

Sona is ready to return to India but the elderly patient urges her to go to London to meet her father.  She has been angry with her father for abandoning her, her brother who died at three years of age, and her mother. She eventually gets up the nerve to do this only to find out he died a few years previously.  She meets his wife who had discovered the truth about his Indian family.  Despite the hurt the woman seems to welcome her and invites her to meet her half brother and sister. While in London she meets a doctor she knew from the hospital in India that she had a crush on.  They have sex and he invites her to consider joining him as he embarks on some humanitarian work he is beginning, but she declines.

She returns to India where she meets up with the old patient and his son.  She was attracted to the son and they marry a month later.  She never tells her husband that their daughter was actually the result of her liaison in London.

It was an interesting story, there were many stories of love/relationships that were abandoned, in addition to all the above, the old patient had a fiance in England that he abandoned when he fell in love with an Indian woman.  The story talks about the challenges of the half breeds in India -- half Indian/half English and also hints at the resistance to British rule that is building in India.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snow Road Station

 by Elizabeth Hay

This is  the story about an aging actress who is devastated when she cannot remember her lines when she is performing in a Samuel Beckett play.  She leaves town for a few days in rural Ontario where a friend of hers has a property on which she harvests maple syrup.  The woman is distraught about her future  but is amazed by the beauty of the nature.

As the story progresses we meet the family of the woman the actress (Lulu) is staying with.  Lulu has an unfortunate, disgusting encounter with her friend's ex husband after the wedding of the friend's son.  When Lulu returns to Ottawa she is shocked to find they have replaced her in the role because they thought she as awol.

As the story progresses Lulu develops a relationship with a man in Snow Road Station, develops a deep affection for a young baby, granddaughter of ther friend, and revels in the beauty of the nature around her in Snow Road Station.  She is instrumental in getting her brother to tell her friend that he loves her.

As the book ends Lulu is in the process of selling her condo in town and moving permanently to Snow Road Station.  It seems she is happy, probably for the first time in her life.

The book does a beautiful job of describing the scenery and the tiny moments of joy the nature provides. It was a lovely calm read, fortunately and unusually, with a happy ending.

 

The Retreat

 by Sarah Pearse

This book seems to reflect some of an Agatha Christie vibe.

A police officer, who is recovering from PTSD, is sent to an island to investigate an accident/murder.  The island had a violent past.  The island has a huge rock formation that looks like the grim reaper.  Some students on a school trip were murdered there.  However now the island is home to a luxury resort designed by the police officer's boyfriend.

When she arrives, with a colleague, she discovers her boyfriends sister is the Manager of the resort.  I don't think she knew this.  The incident they are investigating is the death of a woman.  It appears she fell over a glass wall to rocks below.  It first seems an accident.  However, upon further investigation it is determined to be murder.

The officer finds out that family of the woman, and their boyfriends as well as her boyfriend are on the island but the woman was not supposed to come -- too busy at work.  She did not tell them she changed her mind.  Shortly after another member of that group, the son of the man who owns the island is found drowned.  He had been diving and was an experienced diver.  Now tension escalates.  The police officer asks for more support but is told other staff are busy on another serious crime(s) so she and her partner are on their own.   Some guests leaves after the second death, the others are gathered into a central area in the resort.  The police officer's boyfriend arrives and he gets angry when she questions his sister, their relationship seems on the edge.  At one point the boyfriend's sister disappears, she has been kidnapped and left to die by the murderer.  The police officer finds her and saves her.

In the end we find out one of the "family" group is the murderer.  He wants to avenge? his father who was imprisoned for murdering the young people years before.  He is angry the island was turned into a resort rather than designated a nature sanctuary.

This was an okay mystery and kept one guessing except it was hard to keep everyone straight with so many characters in the book.

 

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

 by Sayoshi Yaisawa

This is the story of a young Japanese girl who is distraught when she finds out that the man she thought was her boyfriend announces he is getting married to another woman.  She is so upset she quits her job and hides in her apartment.

She goes to visit her uncle who is running a very specialized bookshop.  When he finds out her situation he ofers her space in this store so she can save money.  She reluctantly decides to move in and gradually starts to help running the shop.  She had been a reluctant reader up to that point.

There comfortabe life is disrupted when the man's wife, who had left 10 years before returns to the scene.  At first the young woman doesn't like the woman.  Then the woman invites her to go on a little trip into the mountains.  The girl learns about how her unce and his wife met in Paris and how devastated her aunt was when she lost her baby.  She was so depressed she felt she had to leave.  The aunt had gone into the mountain and worked at the building she and the aunt visit in the mountains.

The girl strikes up a friendship with a young man she meets at a coffee shop   They discuss books.  At first the young woman thinks the young man is waiting for her.  She is sad to learn he is really hoping to reconnect with his former girlfirend/

The girl tells her uncle the truth about why his wife left.  It looks like the couple will be reconciled. We know  the young girl leaves the shop.  

It was an okay read but left a feeling of unresolved matters.

Paris Bohemian

 by Michelle Fogle

This was a book about the friendship and then rivalry between the composers Debussy and Eric Satie. It does and interesting job or represening the lives of the composers and the life and activities of the creative types in Paris.  I didn't really know anything about Satie before this.  It was an interesting read.