CanadianContent discussion

Greetings readers! It is hard to believe that we are in the final weeks of the summer vacation! As we enjoy the final half of August, what are you reading? Are you reading one of the monthly reads? Still reading across Canada? or filling in more BINGO squares? What is on your bedside table?

Looking for something new? Check out the books to be released in the book list section to get ideas for fall reading... like we need more options in this group!! lol

TGIF!!

Good morning! I have FINALLY finished Bellman & Black and I am hoping my reading slump is finished along with it. Next up is Dear Mrs. Bird, which I think will be a quirky, fun read.

I just got my car back today after three days without and I am in audiobook withdrawal! I finished I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer this morning and will be starting Us Against You next.

Glad to hear your slump may be over, Allison ༻hikes the bookwoods༺. I read Dear Mrs. Bird a few months ago and it was cute.

I didn't finish any books this week but have been dipping into an experimental novel Downdrift and a really good nature non-fiction book:Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death .

I'm also loving Ursula K. Leguin's The Wave in the Mind: Talks & Essays on the Writer, the Reader & the Imagination. One of the things she says in it is:

"Fiction is really often much more useful than lived experience; it takes much less time, costs nothing (from the library), and it comes in a manageable, orderly form. You can understand it. Experience just steamrollers over you and you begin to see what happened only years and years later, if ever. Fiction is much better than reality at providing factual, psychological, and moral understanding."

I thought that was interesting...do you agree or disagree with her?

That's an interesting quote for sure and I find myself sort of agreeing and sort of not. As wonderful as fiction is, I don't think it can replace personal experience. What's so fantastic about fiction, in my opinion, is that it allows us to experience, at least on some level, so very much more than would be otherwise possible. There's a glimmer of truth to what she says though. Sometimes in the midst of personal experience, we can't see the forest for the trees, and it may truly take years to fully understand the experience. Fiction is much speedier!

Thank goodness we are staying on Vancouver Island this month, away from the smoke. I worry about my friends and family in the interior, since the forest fire smoke is now so thick and dark that they have to keep their lights turned on during the day! And just think about the poor animals. Our local Parks Canada staff had to go out after the fires last year and put down all the badly burned wildlife. So tragic.

How terrible, Elinor. I've been thinking about friends and family in BC, as well as in California and northeast Ontario. A very bad year for fires, and one wonders about the longer term.

Allison, what did you think of I'll Be Gone in the Dark? I had mixed feelings about it.

I finished an Australian novel, The Eye of the Sheep, this week - child narrators, especially with disabilities, are tricky and I wasn't entirely convinced, but it was a good read. I also read Open Heart, Open Mind. I don't know if I've read an athlete's memoir before. It was written straight-forwardly and was pretty interesting.

Hi Friends,

I too have been thinking about friends and acquaintances in BC this week, and of course, the beautiful places and creatures that are destroyed by this terrible summer of fire.

I haven't been around much all summer, we usually leave on Fridays for the lake (we have a trailer and its a wonderful respite) where we are completely unplugged. But alas, summer is coming to an end. I even heard an ad this morning for The Ex, which always makes me feel sad that summer is ending.

I have read a LOT more than usual this summer so I will highlight some of my favourites. I LOVED Beartown and am about to begin its sequel Us Against You. I also finished Craig Davidson's new title The Saturday Night Ghost Club which was quite fantastic as well.

@Allison-hikes in the woods - I read Dear Mrs. Bird earlier this summer and really enjoyed it.

Other things I read these past few weeks: Lear's Shadow was quite good, not at all what I expected. I just started Our Homesick Songs and I am enjoying it so far, although I'm not yet 50 pages in.

That's it really, I'm preparing for an empty nest... I think I'm feeling ok about that... but I don't really know. We'll see how I am when he's actually gone. :o(

Happy Friday!

I’m in Jackson, MS, where I’ll be attending the Mississippi Book Festival tomorrow. It’s a great event and I’m looking forward to it!

This week I finished Megan Abbott’s Give Me Your Hand, which was a lot of fun. I always tear through her books. I also read Donal Ryan’s From a Low and Quiet Sea, a short novel that I absolutely loved, and Nick Drnaso’s Sabrina, a disturbing graphic novel that was compelling if not entirely enjoyable. Both of these are long listed for the Booker.

I’m currently reading Belinda Bauer’s Snap, also long listed for the Booker. Last night I was feeling quite bored by it but I listened to a big chunk of it in the car today and it got more complex, so my opinion of it has improved. But I don’t think it is Booker worthy so far.

I’m also still reading Ben Rhodes’s The World as It Is, a very interesting memoir of the Obama White House written by a former foreign policy adviser.

Greeting readers! My reading drought is over! I devoured Educated: A Memoir. It was like a train wreck that you just can't look away from. it is hard to believe what this author experienced living with a fundamentalist, survivalist family led by a father with mental health issues. I would highly recommend this book.

I also finished listening/reading People of the Book which was not only entertaining but taught more details of history as well as The Forgotten Road which was a bit of a predictably, beach/easy read like a fable telling a life lesson. I am not sure what is next!

@Storyheart - interesting quote; I think that fiction enhances personal experience but not sure i would agree that it is better.

@Elinor - i hope your friends and families stay safe. It is terrible that this year has been so dreadful for wildfires.

@CynthiaA - glad you liked The Saturday Night Ghost club, this one is on my list after enjoying his non-fiction.

@Susan - sounds exciting!! I look forward to hearing about the event!

@Emmkay, I thought I’ll Be Gone In The Dark was okay, but there was way more detail than I needed. I’m not really into true crime, so perhaps I’m not the best judge.

@CynthiaA, I really liked The Saturday Night Ghost Club. Enjoy!

Happy Friday!
This week I finished Number One Chinese Restaurant, The Murder on the Links and Poirot Investigates, both 2 and 3 of the Hercule Poirot series. I enjoy the wit of Agatha Christie so much more now that I am reading her books as an adult!
Starting The Ghost Keeper and looking forward to it.
Have a great weekend everyone!

@May, hard to believe but I have only ever read 1 Agatha Christie (And Then There Were None) and that was just year. Another series of books to add to the list!!!

❀ Susan wrote: "@May, hard to believe but I have only ever read 1 Agatha Christie (And Then There Were None) and that was just year. Another series of books to add to the list!!!"

@Susan, I did not realize how many books Agatha Christie had written, thanks to GR and google searches! This quest of trying to read the Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple will take a while, LOL!

Hello Everyone! I just returned from a two week vacation to my home province New Brunswick, and haven't been as dedicated to my summer reads as I would have liked. I have started Tin Man for my book club at the end of the month. Still making my way through A Little Life which is beautifully written but incredibly depressing - definitely not an easy read for summer vacation travels!

I have been in a reading slump for the past two weeks, as I was away on a fabulous trip to the Northwest Territories. We absolutely loved the north, and met some wonderful people there. The highlight was a day trip by float plane over the Nahanni National Park Reserve. This has been marred by the fact that I discovered yesterday the plane in which we flew crashed on Thursday, killing three people, just ten days after our flight. So I can't quite focus on books at the moment!!!

@Gail and Colleen - sounds like some great trip but so sad to hear about the plane crash, Gail.

Hello! I’m back from zero cell reception camping in the foothills. I can’t link books because I’m on mobile.....I’ve been reading Braiding Sweetgrass, which was incredible. I finished reading surfacing by Margaret Atwood and now I’m about to start the slow fix for my cross Canada challenge.
Challenge wise I have 2 books left for cross Canada and about 5 left for bingo.
I’ve really enjoyed the cross Canada challenge this year it’s stretched me to read a little outside my usual bubble.

Gail wrote: "I have been in a reading slump for the past two weeks, as I was away on a fabulous trip to the Northwest Territories. We absolutely loved the north, and met some wonderful people there. The highlig..."

What an awful thing to have happened! Do you know what caused the crash? You must feel as if you had a narrow escape. Horrifying.

Gail wrote: "I have been in a reading slump for the past two weeks, as I was away on a fabulous trip to the Northwest Territories. We absolutely loved the north, and met some wonderful people there. The highlig..."

Wow, that will shake you up. That is incredibly sad. You must feel like you have had a close call. So sorry to hear that.

I have been slowly reading Middlemarch all summer and I'm getting close to the end. I think I will miss it when I'm done. It has really grown on me. I am also reading Our Hearts will Burn Us Down by Anne Valente. I have read a collection of short stories by her and loved her writing but the subject matter for this book is very heavy. I'm not too far in so I'm not sure what I think yet but I really do like her writing. And I am listening to A Higher Loyalty by James Comey. He has got some great stories to tell but I'm not too sure how I feel about him.

Colleen wrote: "Hello Everyone! I just returned from a two week vacation to my home province New Brunswick, and haven't been as dedicated to my summer reads as I would have liked. I have started [book:Tin Man|3111..."

Colleen - A Little Life haunted me. I don't think I have ever been so emotionally affected by a book. I couldn't even read it at night when I was tired. Now having said that I am really glad I read it. It was a real experience.

@ Elinor...no idea what caused the crash. The investigators are there today. I do know that it was not the same pilot that we had.

Anna wrote: "Colleen wrote: "Hello Everyone! I just returned from a two week vacation to my home province New Brunswick, and haven't been as dedicated to my summer reads as I would have liked. I have started [b..."

Anna - Your satisfaction in having finished is encouraging. I am definitely having a difficult time with it. I am so emotionally invested in these characters and it's leaving me raw. But I have a feeling that this one will stay with me for a long time after finishing it . . . whenever that may be. Little breaks are certainly needed.