Ibis3’s Comments (group member since Sep 06, 2010)

Ibis3’s comments from the CanLit Challenge group.

Opening this thread if anyone is reading any of the Giller nominees and wants to discuss them.

Here's the long list:

David Bezmozgis for his novel, THE FREE WORLD

Clarke Blaise for his short story collection, THE MEAGRE TARMAC

Lynn Coady for her novel, THE ANTAGONIST

Michael Christie for his short story collection, THE BEGGAR’S GARDEN

Patrick DeWitt for his novel, THE SISTERS BROTHERS

Myrna Dey for her novel, EXTENSIONS

Esi Edugyan for her novel, HALF-BLOOD BLUES

Marina Endicott for her novel, THE LITTLE SHADOWS

Zsuzsi Gartner for her short story collection, BETTER LIVING THROUGH PLASTIC EXPLOSIVES

Genni Gunn for her novel, SOLITARIA

Pauline Holdstock for her novel, INTO THE HEART OF THE COUNTRY

Wayne Johnston for his novel, A WORLD ELSEWHERE

Dany Laferrière for his novel, THE RETURN (translation, David Homel)

Suzette Mayr for her novel, MONOCEROS

Michael Ondaatje for his novel, THE CAT’S TABLE

Guy Vanderhaeghe for his novel, A GOOD MAN, McClelland & Stewart

Alexi Zentner for his novel, TOUCH

I'm taking nominations for the Book of the Month for November. The nomination period will end and the poll will go up on the 20th of September.

Eligible are

1) Any book that already has a discussion thread in the group forum.

2) Any fiction or non-fiction book written by a Canadian, set in Canada, or about Canada that is not on the list.

[For now, the list can be viewed here if you're not sure: http://www.readerofthestack.com/cl_title
I do plan on putting up a sticky post with the list, but it's going to take a while since I want it to be all hotlinked to the GR catalogue.]

Buried In Print wrote: "Seems likely that this would boost discussion. The books you're reading for your personal challenge are of interest to me, too, of course (I think we're working from the same NCL list?), but someti..."

Yes, pretty much. I do have some additions (e.g. Robertson Davies) and some more planned (e.g. Timothy Findley), as well as a hope to add some Francophone lit in translation that NCL doesn't do (?).

No worries, I kind of stalled (not really--I put it aside on purpose) because there are a few books I need to finish by the end of the month. So I'm still at the same spot. :)

The Gray book sounds really good.

I'm interested in getting more people involved in discussions and more people interested in the group. I've been thinking that one way to do this is to have a group-selected book up for discussion every month alongside whatever official CanLit Challenge book I myself am reading.

Members would be free to nominate a book either from the CanLit books already read (i.e. any book that already has a discussion thread) or one that isn't on the List* at all (obviously a Canadian book though, fiction or non-fiction). I'll put up a poll where the book can be voted on and the winning title would get a thread in the General Fic or Non-fic folder if it doesn't already have a thread.

Any thoughts?

--
*If a nominated book is not on the list, but ought to be, I'll just add it to the list instead of to the poll.

I guess it's just us.

Another thing I didn't quite have a handle on until I'd read some of the other books in the Challenge, is how different the various regions were in terms of settlement etc. When Ontario was still frontier bush, Nova Scotia and Quebec were much more settled. When Ontario was relatively urbanised and modern at the beginning of the twentieth century, the west was still very much like the east had been a couple hundred years before.

I'm up to Charles Sangster in the book, btw.

Rachelle wrote: "Hi everyone. I've recently read Never Cry Wolf : Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves by Farley Mowat, and now in the middle of reading [book:People of the Dee..."

I've read Never Cry Wolf a few times. I know that the truth of it has been questioned, but it does make a good story (not to mention a good case for living in peace with wolves instead of exterminating them).

Since it seems like no one else is planning to read this one, at least not right now, I'm going to postpone it for a while.

I still haven't managed to go beyond the first 20 pp. I'm so behind in my Challenge! Not only that, but I don't see that I'm going to be able to continue on with it for a few weeks yet.

I'm starting this thread a few days early. I'm not ready to start on this book yet, but I was wondering if anyone in the group is planning to read it along with me?

Pierre Berton

Buried In Print wrote: "Another collection I might follow my mood, but I'm with you on this one, thinking historically, at least for now, until I've had more of a taste of the volume...mainly because I'm not sure I'd ever..."

So far, it's all new to me, and yeah, the first 30 pages or so were kind of a blur of anonymous and unknowns.

I'm still reading Canadian Poetry, and I've made a very small dent in Crackpot: A Novel. It's probably going to be a while before I'm onto anything else because I'm trying to finish up some long, non-Canadian ones.

I've read The Book of Negroes too. I gave it 8 out of 10 stars. It was a real page-turner, but it did seem rather more contrived than realistic. Three Day Road is on my TBR shelf. (I read Through Black Spruce first and really liked it 9/10 - it made my top ten in 2009.)

Hi Meghan. Welcome to the group. History teachers are some of my favourite people. :) What grades do you teach?

You might be interested in using excerpts from Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada or Children of My Heart.

Buried In Print wrote: "A copy of this has just made its way to me via inter-library-loan; I haven't read poetry like this since high school. Are you working through them methodically, or just browsing through according t..."

Cool.

I'm reading them in order because I wanted to get the sense of the evolution over time (it's the historian in me). It doesn't feel like a chore though, because I'm reading several other books too. I'm currently reading Oliver Goldsmith's poem (Village Rising I think it's called?). It's kind of fun because I can see echoes of some of the other CanLit books in it.

Are you planning to browse according to mood? I'd be keen to hear whatever you have to say about any of the poems.

Sorry about not getting this thread up for so long! I'd forgotten all about it, since once the date the reading is supposed to start, the book disappears from the page. I have to manually move it to the currently-reading shelf. [/meta]

I was hoping to be done one of my other big books by now, but I'm still working on them. Despite that, I'm officially beginning this as my new poolside book. Anyone else reading this right now?



"Hoda is the earthiest, most captivating character ever to walk out of a Canadian novel." Sounds promising. Adele Wiseman

I've read the first few poems. I was kind of floored by Anne Hecht's bridesmaid poem. Well, not really. But still. It's like reading a poem in praise of slavery.

In addition to the book of Canadian poetry through the First WW, I'm also currently reading The Frozen Thames.

I forgot to share my final thoughts on the book here:

(view spoiler)[Ginger Coffey is, to put it bluntly, a misogynist jerk. But the thing is, he really has no clue. Everything is about him and his inability to succeed the way he wants to. His wife and daughter are adjuncts, just reflections of his failure. They are not people with their own lives and needs, they are there to serve him sandwiches, make him eggs, and (in the case of his wife) open her legs for his pleasure. I was disappointed by the ending, the fact that she surrendered and went back to the drudgery just because the guy who was going to sweep her up was a bit of a jerk himself. This book just illustrates how truly awful women's lives were in the so-called "golden age" of the 50's. I liked the wintry Montreal setting as seen through the eyes of an immigrant. I'm sure we'll see more of that in future books. (hide spoiler)]

Ah, just when I've decided to self-exile myself from the web for 24 hrs so I can get some work done tomorrow...

Well, I hope someone else will come by and keep you company.