As this is the fourth edition of Shelf Life, if you’ve been reading this blog with any regularity, you probably have a pretty good idea what it’s about. If you don’t, check out past editions for more info.

I’m going to try to make this as brief as I can, as we’re almost halfway through November, and I still have to get October’s written as well.

Onward:

96. Summer of My Amazing Luck, by Miriam Toews

I read A Complicated Kindness after it won the Governor General’s Award and loved it. When The Flying Troutmans came out I devoured it and declared it my favourite read in 2009, so I was eager to read Summer of My Amazing Luck when I stumbled across it in a used bookstore.

Unfortunately, this story wasn’t up to par. I wasn’t buying Lucy, the down on her luck single mom who doesn’t know who the father of her child is, and isn’t interested in finding out.

She becomes enamoured of Lish, who seems to be the heart of the novel, but I had such difficulty with Lucy that it just didn’t work for me. She lacked personality, and I never felt like I got to know who she was, and therefore, why I should care. It sounds harsh, but I adored the first two books I read from Toews, and I’m still looking forward to reading more.

Irma Voth, I’ve got my eye on you. Continue reading »

I found this review from May 2010 in my Drafts folder. It was whole and complete, but for some reason or another it remained unpublished.

It’s a great book, so I thought I’d post it as is. Better late than never, right?

As mentioned earlier, our book club pick for May was The Complete Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi.

Satrapi is an Iranian living in Paris, and Persepolis is an autobiographical graphic novel, originally published in French in two parts (as Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return), and is now available in a single volume.

Persepolis begins with her childhood in Tehran, and carries her story through the Islamic Revolution, and to her university days in Vienna. It’s a tale beautifully told with stirring images and humour.

I’d read a few pages the night before, and with six minutes left on the washing machine, I thought I’d read a few more while I waited for it to finish. Suddenly I realized I’d finished the book and it was well after one in the morning. Oops. Continue reading »

Happy Canada Day, kids! I love it when it falls on a Friday and we get an extra long weekend in the summer.

I mentioned yesterday how I’d like to get more social in regards to books and reading – normally such a solitary activity – so I’m going to try a new series I’m calling Shelf Life.

Each month I’ll post brief notes and reviews of the books I’ve read, and solicit recommendations from you guys.

June was an eclectic month, reading everything from cookbooks to novels to poetry. A couple of humour books, and two graphic novels which did not live up to their potential.

Yes, it is possible to read a cookbook.

56. Gourmet Preserves Chez Madelaine, by Madelaine Bullwinkel
I’m rather inexperienced when it comes to making jams, jellies and preserves – in fact, I wasn’t clear on the difference between those three terms before I read Gourmet Preserves. I didn’t know how to tell if a batch has reached its gel point. Or what that even meant. I’d made exactly one jelly before, and I required my hand to be held throughout the entire process. It turns out it’s not actually that hard.

The introductory chapters give clear step-by-step instructions for everything you need to know to make preserves work, and the recipes are delicious. I’ve tried three so far: two batches of strawberry jam, a rhubarb and fig jam, and a blueberry jam – all came out fabulously.

57. A Storm of Swords & 58. A Feast for Crows, both by George R R Martin
I read the first two books, A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings, in May, and they were followed closely by the final two books in print so far (the fifth volume, A Dance with Dragons, comes out in July).

Initially I began the first one to prepare myself for the show (which was excellent). I’m not a huge fan of fantasy, but this series largely revolves around political intrigue at court with an extensive cast of characters who can – and do – die.

Ok, ok, there are hints of wights and, eventually, dragons, but they take backstage to war, betrayal, honour and, above all, complex characters worth knowing. I’m hooked.

59. A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
It’s billed as a novel, but it’s really more a series of linked short stories spanning several decades. Characters weave in and, more often, out. Narrator changes; point of view changes from first, to third and, yes, even second. One story is told through PowerPoint. The concluding tale is kind of sci-fi speculative fiction. It’s crazy.

It won this year’s Pulitzer Prize. I’m not sure how much that means. Prizes are notoriously inconsistent and given for various reasons, but I enjoyed Goon Squad. A very different sort of book. Continue reading »