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November 06
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 Len Richman is an educator, actor, playwright and loving grandfather who has taught and been associated with the West Island College in Quebec, severa...
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October 29
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Laura
gave  to:
Rankin Inlet: A Novel (Paperback)
by
Mara Feeney
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my rating:
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read in October, 2009
Laura said:
"I love reading books that help me discover a new culture or country. Although I am Canadian, I felt I discovered for the first time part of my country with this novel set in Rankin Inlet in Nunavut, formerly the Northwest Territories. It’s the Cana...more
I love reading books that help me discover a new culture or country. Although I am Canadian, I felt I discovered for the first time part of my country with this novel set in Rankin Inlet in Nunavut, formerly the Northwest Territories. It’s the Canadian Arctic after all and very different from my own multi-cultural Montreal.
The story begins with Alison Clark, a young British woman who in 1970 leaves England to work as nurse-midwife in the remote village of Rankin Inlet. She experiences a sense of community belonging there and falls in love with the land and its people. It's a moving story of love and losses, changes and adaptations, ingrained beliefs and traditions.
The story is told through diary entries and correspondence of several of the characters, mainly Alison, as well as Ivaluk and Nikmak—both Inuit man. Through Ivaluk (Nikmak’s son) and his letters to his adopted kid brother Thomasie, we learn what the life of an Inuit is like, their joys, struggles, beliefs and customs. Through Nikmak, an Inuit elder, we get a true sense of the older generation and the changes and adaptations they experienced throughout the years into our modern era. Feeney also explores such topics as alcohol, inter-racial marriages, depression, and the influence of modern technology on a traditional people.
The beginning of the novel is a little confusing as Nikmak’s entries are initially seven months ahead of Alison’s and Ivaluk’s, but when theirs catch up to his, their stories intertwine beautifully. I feel the author truly grasped the voice of the Inuit people and brought them to life through the Inuktitut language and expressions. For example:
Snowflakes fat as ptarmigans are spinning down from the sky now. p.190
My legs feel as weak as a newborn tuktu calf. p.234
Nikmak’s entries would always end with a sing-song expression such as Aiyayayaaiieh and I could clearly hear in my mind his deep male voice singing.
As the story evolves and spans thirty years, we see the changes that take place among the Inuit people who went from hunt-gatherers to wageworkers. Positive political and cultural changes were brought about with the 1993 Land Claims Agreement Act that finally entitled Inuit with certain aboriginal rights. Because of this, the Inuit culture, beliefs and customs are now taught in Canadian schools so that I was somewhat familiar with some of the things I read in this novel, such as the food called bannock. My daughter came home with the recipe one day from her Social Studies class.
There are some sex scenes in this novel, but they are short and not explicit. One is described briefly but does not involve the main character.
Mara Feeney is a talented writer who has written a novel that kept my interest throughout, with believable, remarkable characters and a setting unlike any I have read before. I would certainly read another novel by this author.
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October 22
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Laura
gave  to:
The Crown of Anavrea (Paperback)
by
Rachel Rossano (Goodreads author)
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my rating:
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read in September, 2009
Laura said:
"The moment I began reading, the Crown of Anavrea, I was hooked. The story begins with action and suspense, laced with danger and intrigue pulling the reader into the world of Labren and Eve, in the kingdom of Anavrea, a fantasy world where kings rule...more
The moment I began reading, the Crown of Anavrea, I was hooked. The story begins with action and suspense, laced with danger and intrigue pulling the reader into the world of Labren and Eve, in the kingdom of Anavrea, a fantasy world where kings rule and slavery is legal.
It is the story of Labren, a man on the run, hunted and badly injured when he is found by Eve, a slave from birth. Eve risks her life to care for Labren and saves his life. In return, he offers her freedom in the form of marriage. As they journey to his land, these two strangers who were thrown together by circumstance, must come to trust one another as their story is unveiled. Not much is revealed about Eve’s background and why she has been a slave from birth. Labren’s true identity is revealed and the reason he is a hunted man.
There is so much promise in the first dozen pages that I had high expectations for this book. However, because this book is a novella, only 79 pages long, I felt I had just read a small part of a book. And I wanted to read more! Because the characters are interesting and the premise of the story good, I feel this book could have been expanded into a full-fledged 350-page novel, with the characters and plot more fully developed, as strong conflicts (expected from the reader because of the great beginning) were missing. As a result the danger, suspense and intrigue were short-lived. The enemy doesn’t turn out to be an enemy after all, and although reconciliation is an honourable end result, the struggle and journey to get there is what readers look forward to most.
Nonetheless, despite my disappointment, I enjoyed reading this book. I liked the author's style and her voice. She wastes no time with flowery descriptions, but instead has a talent for painting a vivid picture through her characters and their interactions, making me sorely wish I had a few more hundred pages to read so I could be immersed in their world a little longer.
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Laura
marked as to-read:
Musical Chairs (Paperback)
by
Jen Knox (Goodreads author)
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my rating:
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Laura
marked as to-read:
Raindrops, Glimpses, Moments: An Unconventional Memoir of an Unplanned Journey (Trade Paperback)
by
Len Richman
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my rating:
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Laura
gave  to:
RED HOT INTERNET PUBLICITY: An Insider's Guide to Promoting Your Book on the Internet (Paperback)
by
Penny C. Sansevieri
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my rating:
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read in October, 2009
Laura said:
"Red Hot Internet Publicity is the kind of book you must read using a highlighter and post-it notes. Warning: You will spring into action less than five pages into the first chapter. And it won’t stop. Sansevieri’s book promotion advice is meant f...more
Red Hot Internet Publicity is the kind of book you must read using a highlighter and post-it notes. Warning: You will spring into action less than five pages into the first chapter. And it won’t stop. Sansevieri’s book promotion advice is meant for you to get out there and do it. She expertly leads you by the hand and shows you the way.
Red Hot begins with a compelling introduction explaining exactly why the book marketing industry has shifted because of the Internet and why authors need to understand this explosive change. This grabbed me immediately because most people, including authors, still have the notion that author events and book signings are all one has to do to get one’s book noticed. This is no longer the case.
If you’re not Internet market savvy, you will be once you’ve studied this book. I say studied because this isn’t the kind of book one can read once and put away. It is a loaded resource book that packs a powerful punch. And best of all, it’s up-to-date because the latest copy is a newly revised edition. And because of the Internet’s ever-changing, expanding nature, this would be expected of a quality book about Internet publicity.
As an author with a Web site and two blogs, and active in the social networking world, I still learned an amazing amount of new stuff. As a matter of fact, I realized how much I didn’t know. Sansevieri covers a multitude of topics including: how to build a Web site (these chapters had me scrambling to my computer, making simple but effective changes that enhanced and improved my site considerably); keywords, search engines, online selling, and how to generate traffic to your Web site (more scrambling to the computer); everything you might possibly want to know about blogs, blogging, videos, and podcasting ( I wasn’t doing too bad in this area, but I learned great tips about working in blogosphere); social media, especially Twitter (if you haven’t embarked on this bandwagon, you’ll most likely do so after reading this section); virtual book events (I absolutely loved this part of the book!); virtual networking with articles, autoresponders, and email newsletters; ebooks, and so much more.
The chapters are short and to the point, and Sansevieri makes skilful use of bullet points, boxes and numbered points in articles, rendering the book easy to read and to search for specific topics. In addition, the book is sprinkled with sections that cover quick tips, Did You Know?, quotes, statistics, links, and tons of helpful tidbits. Speaking of links, I can’t wait to visit all the recommended sites, and there are many. Some information is repeated, but I certainly didn’t mind as topics overlap. The more one hears or reads of something the better it will be retained.
Bottom line: this book is worth every penny and more. If you’re an author who wants to get your book out there, don’t look any further. Read this book today and start selling your book.
(less)
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Laura
gave to:
The Last Whale (Paperback)
by
Chris Pash (Goodreads author)
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my rating:
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read in October, 2009
Laura said:
"It never fails that when my five year-old borrows a book from his school’s library it’s about whales or dolphins. Feeding the belugas and watching the orcas at Canada’s Marineland was the highlight of our family vacation. So when I had the oppo...more
It never fails that when my five year-old borrows a book from his school’s library it’s about whales or dolphins. Feeding the belugas and watching the orcas at Canada’s Marineland was the highlight of our family vacation. So when I had the opportunity to review The Last Whale by Chris Pash, I was thrilled.
The minute I began reading it, I had flashbacks of the movie Free Willy 3: The Rescue, where whalers illegally hunted killer whales. The Last Whale, though, is the incredible story of how whaling came to an end in Australia, the last of the English-speaking countries to do so in 1978. The author says he was a pimply reporter at the time (1977), when activists launched Greenpeace’s first direct action in Australia. This small group of men and women risked their lives as they daily went out in open dinghies (Zodiacs), and became a human shield between the whales and the towering steel ships. They braved the rough Southern Ocean, the blistering sun, flying harpoons, and endless hours miles away from land in water that was also home to great white sharks. The threat of their appearance was real every time a whale was killed and its blood spilled.
What I loved most about this well-told story was that the author gave us a detailed account relating not only the actions and feelings of the anti-whaling activists, but also the fears, motives and actions of the whalers. We get a chance to know their story and their history as some of the whalers learned their trade from their fathers who in turn learned from their fathers. It is a story about Albany, the town where it all took place, whose port is one of the five largest in the world, and the unemployment rate one of the highest in Australia. The struggle they all faced with the ethical issue of whether it is right or wrong to hunt whales was clear, and it needed to be addressed. The world took notice, and the small band of activists soon had many allies.
Although the book is a non-fiction account, it reads like a novel thanks to Pash’s writing skills. I felt I was in Western Australia in the seventies watching the fight unfold before me. The black and white photographs add drama to the account as we could see exactly what a whale chaser looked like with a loaded harpoon gun at its helm, or the upclose face shot of The Phantom—as one of the leading activists was known—as he sits in the open seas with a chaser seen clearly behind him. And the book’s cover is so attractive. It led me to really want to read this account. By the end of the book, I wanted to meet some of these interesting folk, both from the activist and whaler groups.
I highly recommend this book to conservation groups, whale and animal lovers, activists, journalists, and just about anyone who loves happy endings. It is an inspiring tale. One that will surely come to mind when next summer I visit Tadoussac in my own province of Quebec, where the mouth of the St-Lawrence River opens invitingly to welcome back the migrating whales—those beautiful ocean creatures that fascinate both young and old alike.
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October 11
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Laura
gave to:
Saving Madeline (Paperback)
by
Rachel Ann Nunes (Goodreads author)
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my rating:
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read in October, 2009
Laura said:
"When I first heard of this book, I visited the author’s Web site and learned that the idea for her story came from the sad case of “an infant in Utah who was found dead after ingesting methamphetamines she had found in a plastic bag on the floor ...more
When I first heard of this book, I visited the author’s Web site and learned that the idea for her story came from the sad case of “an infant in Utah who was found dead after ingesting methamphetamines she had found in a plastic bag on the floor of her home.” What made this tragic circumstance even more notable and horrific is that weeks earlier her father had kidnapped the child, crossing state borders in hopes of protecting his little girl from her mother’s substance abuse.
Needless to say, I couldn’t wait to read this book. We meet Caitlin McLoughlin, a public defender sick of her job defending criminals, and dreaming of a different life for her and her mentally challenged sister, Amy, who is left in her care after the death of their parents. Then Parker Hathaway walks into their lives, charged with kidnapping his four-year-old daughter, Madeline. Is he just another criminal or a man truly claiming to protect the child he loves?
In truth, I expected this book to be a courtroom drama. It turned out to be more of a romance story. I like romance stories, but I really craved the suspenseful, battle-of-the-wits, keep-em-guessing-til-the-end kind of story. It’s perhaps for this reason that I was frustrated with Caitlin when she easily lost her head for her client the minute she set eyes on him, encouraged no less by her detective-cop friend to pursue a relationship when they both had no proof Parker was telling the truth about his ex-wife’s drug situation. Sometimes, I felt they acted like a couple of schoolgirls and not professionals bound to respect the ethical issue of romantic involvement with one’s client. I had nothing against the fact that Caitlin was attracted to her client, because this added emotional conflict to an already emotionally charged situation, but I wanted the tension between them to be more palpable because of their situation, to really build up until the very end. Their romance was too predictable.
However, once I got past this, I enjoyed the book. The ending was satisfying. And the secondary characters added much to this book. Madeline and Amy especially gave a sense of how vulnerable the young-minded are, and how responsible a parent or caregiver must be to protect them. Most of all, this story opened my eyes to the reality of many of today’s children. The author succeeded in creating a story that makes a parent stop to think if they are inadvertently doing anything that could jeopardize their children’s safety.
The author dedicates this book to the many young children in the world who don’t have anyone to fight for them, hoping this book could be their voice. That alone gets a big thumbs up from me.(less)
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Laura
gave to:
Worlds Unseen (The Seventh World Trilogy, #1)
by
Rachel Starr Thomson (Goodreads author)
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my rating:
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read in October, 2009
Laura said:
"The themes are universal—good conquering evil, the quest for the Truth, a good king who will return to rule. In this Christian-based fantasy novel, Rachel Starr Thomson introduces us to these themes as we become immersed in the Seventh World where ...more
The themes are universal—good conquering evil, the quest for the Truth, a good king who will return to rule. In this Christian-based fantasy novel, Rachel Starr Thomson introduces us to these themes as we become immersed in the Seventh World where the Blackness rules and a small band of people will fight for the freedom they once knew.
The Council for Exploration into Unseen Worlds once sought the Truth and their quest was cut short when they were betrayed by one of their own. Forty years later, young Maggie Sheffield is given a scroll from a former dying member of the Council, and she is sent on a journey that changes her forever. Along the way, she meets the Gifted gypsy Nicolas Fisher who accompanies her to find Jarin Huss, the only member of the Council who could decipher the ancient writing on the scroll. They are later joined by a cast of colourful characters whose lives reach a momentous event. Clearly, the premise of the story is appealing.
From the onset, the author easily transported me to a medieval-like world, where I could feel the dampness of the fog at night, smell the earthiness of the underground tunnels, and hear the flapping wings and the eerie cawing of the black ravens enough to conjure images of Hitchcock’s The Birds. The imagery is captivating, and I was plunged into the scenes, walking with them through the dense, thick forest or running through musty, dark tunnels. The action is well paced and vivid as Maggie and Nicolas live through heart-stopping and heart-warming experiences together.
Now, I knew where the journey would lead but I was hoping to be surprised, jolted even, by some twist and turn of events. But maybe this is not where the author wanted to take me. Nevertheless, the ending was anticlimactic for me. Good conquers evil, but not totally, not really, not yet. (Of course, that’s why there’s a sequel!) But still, let me explain what I mean.
The scenes involving the Blackness and its evil prowess when it hunted down any who were connected with the truth overpowered the book. The gloriousness of the Truth about the good king who was to return to bring blessings in the upcoming future did not come through powerfully enough for me. It was too elusive. I was expecting joy, elation, a sharing of the truth to revive the Council and empower the people. But the people had their own agenda; they were going to stage a rebellion and overthrow the Empire. And the king?
Only a few (out of the eight members) of the Council were stalwart believers in the king’s return as being true and not a legend. The Council came across as a weak organization, breaking up after only three or so months together. Jarin’s whole life was spent teaching secret truths at the University but none of his students really knew of the king and the true circumstances that drove him away. The important role, played by Virginia, a blind Gifted one, “to wake the world” to the king’s return is still confusing to me. No one (did he truly have followers?) was really prepared for the king’s return—a king who is nameless and mysterious. The few that put faith in him do so because of signs and portents but not true knowledge. The words of the prophet Aneryn were unknown because they were lost and written in an ancient language most couldn’t read; yet suddenly some of the characters knew them instinctively during the war?
Despite all this, Thomson has weaved a fantastical tale with enough unanswered questions to have us anticipating the second book in this trilogy. I was left wondering about Lord Robert and Evelyn. And also Lucas Barrington, the only member of the Council mentioned twice but who does not appear at all in the story. And what exactly is Patricia’s past? And Maggie’s?
Albeit some foibles in the plot, I truly liked the characters in this book. The author has cleverly staged the prelude to personal conflicts, and I look forward to joining Maggie and Nicolas again as the journey will undoubtedly continue.(less)
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October 02
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