CanadianContent discussion

The summer has gone by so quickly!! what was your favourite read this summer? What are you reading now?

Freida McFadden. I’m on my fourth right now. Very easy to read and very creepy. Helped me break a very long reading slump. Just entertaining fun.

My favourite read this summer was, predictably, a nostalgic reread of The Fellowship of the Ring. The audiobook from the late '90s is really good.

I binge-read the latest three instalments of the Thursday Murder Club series, and am now working my way through The Happy Ever After Playlist

@Alan - one of my colleagues recommended her novels! Glad it is entertaining.

@Julia - always nice to have a nostalgic read!

I spent some time on the first 3 of the Pillars of the Earth this summer... large tomes... makes me grateful to be a woman in this day and age!

I finished reading my first Giller nominee todayThe Sideways Life of Denny Voss . I listened to it on audio and it was the best way to “read” the book. Denny narrates his story and he is neuro-divergent . The story reads very much like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and the author acknowledges this in her end notes. It’s an extremely entertaining book,the characters are wonderful and it should become a huge best seller,but it’s a popular novel and it never reaches any level of surprise or real intellectual depth. That’s ok for a book,but I expect more from a Giller nomination even if I don’t care for the book. Now onto my next one.

My second Giller nominated book -The Tiger and the Cosmonaut is interesting, it raises a lot of important issues and I guess it’s a bit of a mystery story. I was a bit not sure about where the plot goes-but that will be something readers are going to want to talk about. The author is from Vancouver.

Two Giller nominees Pick a Colour and You’ve Changed are both on my TBR after seeing the authors at the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival. I’d love to hear what others think about them.

I am also working my way through the newest Giller Prize list. I've read:

The Paris Express, which was good but not sure I think it was Giller quality. They seem to like this author though and I'm not a fan.
The Tiger and the Cosmonaut, I liked this one better but thought the first half was better than the second.
The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus, I liked this story, a bit of mystery and screwed up family, but nice to have a positive ending, and I liked Pen and her friends.
We, the Kindling, was okay, liked the style or writing but didn't care for the story.
Other Worlds: Stories, was again okay, good writing but didn't care for the subject matter. This one is short stories.

I have been immersed in history lately and ran across this lovely little biography of a guy who should be well-known to ALL Canadians, George Dawson: The Little Giant. Despite his physical deformity, he explored and mapped much of Western Canada, and Dawson City is named after him. It's categorized as YA, so it's a quick and easy read.

In response to Mel’s query about You've Changed,I’ll probably be finished with it tomorrow. It’s a humorous book which I found very entertaining at first but I’m getting tired of the humour and I don’t find any of the characters particularly appealing or sympathetic. It’s the first book by Ian Williams I’ve read and I don’t see myself picking up another one for some time. Giller worthy? It’s clever and topical-the characters and plot just don’t appeal to me.

Dawn-did you find the ending of The Tiger and the Cosmonaut less than plausible?

I keep trying to find information on the release of the Governor General long list and I can’t find anything online. I find their picks tend to be very different than the Gillers.

Ok October 21st for the long list and the winners two weeks later.

I've just started You've Changed and I'm not hopeful. Doesn't really seem like my kind of book at all. I have read another of the authors work, Reproduction, the 2019 Giller winner. I didn't like it at all.

Alan wrote: "Dawn-did you find the ending of The Tiger and the Cosmonaut less than plausible?...."

Yes. Seemed pretty out there. I liked most of the book but thought the ending was rushed, maybe if it had been written different? Instead of just kinda dropped into the story like that?

Alan wrote: "Ok October 21st for the long list and the winners two weeks later."

I've never paid any attention to the GG Awards. Maybe I should see what they pick this year.

I’ll be finished You've Changed tomorrow but I’m ready to quit now. If you don’t like the beginning-the rest is just more of the same. As I mentioned above it’s tedious and the characters are really unappealing. Why this has been long-listed I have no idea. The whole plot is so inconsequential and silly. I feel I should be reading something about a subject that matters-this is just trivial silliness.

Just finished Other Worlds: Stories and I think it’s exceptional. I haven’t read ten of the other books but I feel pretty certain that this will win or come very close to winning. A wonderful read.