January 2019 Reading Round-Up

Highlights from my usual eclectic mix of books this month include:

Best in Translation:
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
Audiobook 13 h; performed by Julia Whelan

While Edmonton Public Library has categorized this existential, free-wheeling novel as short stories, I disagree. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I am sure that I love it. It's an electrifying accumulation of fragmentary flights of fancy in historical and contemporary settings, interconnected in a variety of ways, most especially by the themes of escape and the preservation of human corpses. (Doesn't that sound appealing?) I listened to the audiobook first, and then picked it up in print so that I could better absorb Tokarczuk's magnificent mastery of language. Translation from Polish by Jennifer Croft.

That smile of theirs holds--or so it strikes us--a kind of promise that perhaps we will be born anew now, this time in the right time and the right place.

Best Indigenous Novel:
Terra Nullius by Claire G Coleman

Escape. Pursuit. A desperate quest for freedom. In this impressive, red-hot novel that pays homage to Rabbit Proof Fence and other Indigenous Australian survival narratives, the action shifts between concurrent scenes in multiple Western Australia locations, gradually widening out into a much larger perspective on humanity. Wow.

Stealing something to eat, that is a crime that would get me flung into jail. Stealing everything, that is just good government.

Best Poetry:
When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen

Instead of my paltry review of this invigorating collection, read Chen Chen's own words:

Trying to get / over what my writer friend said, All you write about is being gay or Chinese. / Wish I had thought to say to him, All you write about is being white / or an asshole. Wish I had said, No, I already write about everything-- / & everything is salt, noise, struggle, hair, / carrying, kisses, leaving, myth, popcorn, / mothers, bad habits, questions.
-
I'm envious of the clouds who can from time to time fall completely apart & everyone just says, It's raining, & someone might even bring cats & dogs into it, no one says, Stop being so dramatic or You should see a professional.
-
Dreaming of one day being as fearless as a mango. 
As friendly as a tomato. Merciless to chin & shirtfront.
-
I tried to ask my parents to leave the room,
but not my life. It was very hard. Because the room was the size
of my life.

Best by Edmonton Author. Also, Best Essays:
Little Yellow House by Carissa Halton

Social justice, humour and a warm heart. A collection of essays about raising a young family in Alberta Avenue, an inner city neighbourhood in Edmonton, and being an activist for social change and strong communities. An added attraction for me is that I used to live there (but in the early 80s, before prostitution had shifted into the area). I'm excited about the author being at our book club in February.

Even the truly dejected properties are transformed in spring by resilient low-maintenance lilacs whose early blooms pop purple and unleash a scent with a special kind of power in our winter city: walkers who for months hurried along the sidewalks navigating ice and poorly-shovelled sections with their heads down, suddenly stop, then turn towards a stranger's home and inhale so deeply that their chests strain the buttons on their soon-to-be-stored parkas.

Best Audiobook About Essays:
The Art of the Wasted Day by Patricia Hampl
Audiobook 9 h; performed by the author

A gorgeous memoir/meditation on the art and importance of daydreaming, of solitude and the time to imagine, read and create; an elegant, perceptive reminder about what is precious; and musings on historical figures like Montaigne, who invented the essay form.

an essay is an attempt... to locate meaning between the irretrievable then and equally unfathomable now.

For the worker bee, life is given over to the grim satisfaction of striking a firm line through a task accomplished. On to the next, and the next. Check, check. Done and done. It explains--and solves--nothing to call this workaholism.

Best Irish Audiobook:
A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne

Audiobook 12 h; performed by Richard E Grant, Richard Cordery, Nina Sosanya and Laurence Kennedy

The psychopath at the heart of this novel is so disturbing that I almost abandoned it when I was only an hour into the audiobook. I'm very glad that I stuck with it, because it's brilliant. It's about extreme literary ambition--which is like a ladder to the sky. Also, in West African tales, Anansi built a ladder to get stories from the sky god. From now on, when I'm at an author event where someone asks: "Where do you get your ideas?" I will think of this book (and wonder if the author would ever kill someone for story ideas).

Best Children's Audiobook:
No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen
Audiobook 6 h; performed by Nissae Isen

The endearing, funny and sincere first-person voice of 12-year-old Felix is what makes this novel special and it's perfectly conveyed in the audio performance by Nissae Isen. Mental health issues and the housing crisis in Vancouver contribute to a mother and son family being homeless in this uplifting tearjerker for ages 10 to adult.

"What the heck is in your gene pool?" a girl named Marsha asked me one day.
"50% Swedish, 25% Haitian, 25% French," I answered. "Add it up and it equals 100% Canadian."
She pursed her lips. "You look like a clown."
It wasn't the first time someone had made fun of my hair.

Best Toddler Boardbook:
A Bubble by Genevieve Castree

Canadian cartoonist Genevieve Castree was dying of pancreatic cancer when she created this book as a legacy of love for her 2-year-old daughter. A heartbreaking story, yet it's also gorgeous, tender and comforting. I can imagine it being treasured by families going through similar circumstances. The cardboard pages and stubby shape are especially designed for toddlers. Its content is meaningful for all ages.
Note: I reviewed Castree's autobiographical Susceptible here.

Best Picture Book:
Little Red Hood by Sarah Ardizzone

I love sassy retellings like this picture book translation from French. Just a few words on each page, expressive scribbly art, and a slam dunk of an ending. Smart girl. Stupid wolf. All ages.

Best Book About Cows:
The Secret Life of Cows by Rosamund Young

"The seemingly mundane day-to-day existence of a cow or a calf is perhaps not a subject that would capture everyone's imagination," states UK farmer Rosamund Young in her introduction. If, like me, you are curious about the surprising things cows get up to when allowed a lot of freedom, this quiet, meandering collection of anecdotes is a treat. Some anthropomorphism, some lovely asides about other farm inhabitants, much sweetness.

In the house we label the milk jugs with the cows' names and we all have our particular preferences.

As calves get older and genuinely need to spend most of the day eating, they develop a routine for games at dusk. This is the time of night when we have seen calves playing tag with a fox, chasing pheasants, and organizing heats in race-me-to-your-mother-and-back with the eventual winner leading a lap of honour round the perimeter of the field.

Best Comics:
Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles by Mark Russell and Mike Feehan

Heavens to Murgatroyd! A smart, funny and touching mashup of Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters with real-life writers Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner, plus the New York City 1950s gay scene and the American Cold War communism scare. Lots of delightful pop culture references in the artwork and dialogue.

My Top 18 Books of 2018

Out of 370 books in 2018... so hard to choose favourites. I agree with Neil Gaiman, who has said "Picking five favourite books is like picking the five body parts you'd most like not to lose." Nevertheless, I go bravely forward. Here are eighteen books, not all of which were published in 2018, and only the top one is in order of preference:

Best of the Best:

Machine Without Horses by Helen Humphreys
This genre blend of grief memoir, writer's guide and historical fiction made every part of my brain tingle.

Best Picture Book:

The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris
An oversize book of acrostic nature poetry, celebrating words - from acorn to wren - with sumptuous illustrations.

Best Audiobook (tie):

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo 
Vibrant, authentic and moving verse novel in the passionate Afro Latina voice of a young slam poet; audiobook performed by the author.
The Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett 
Interconnected stories and vignettes of an eccentric woman living in extreme solitude in Ireland; an exploration of human connection to the physical world, the link between our outer and inner selves... a sensory experience. As I listened to this audiobook performed by Lucy Rayner, I could almost feel myself vibrating with the book's energy.

Best Poetry (tie):

Welcome to the Anthropocene by Alice Major
Humanity and our relationship to the cosmos: these witty poems address the big questions. Edmonton author.
Insomnia Bird by Kelly Shepherd
Wordsmith collage that maps the exterior and interior places where city people, the natural world and work intersect. Edmonton author.

Best Essays:

The Flower Can Always Be Changing by Shawna Lemay
Stunning poetic fragments by an introvert musing about her interactions at work at a public library, photography as a daily practice, and seeing beauty in ordinary things. Edmonton author.

Best Fiction in Translation (three-way tie):

Baba Dunja's Last Love, Alina Bronsky, translation by Tim Mohr
The unforgettable voice of an elderly woman in Chernobyl after the nuclear "incident."
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translation by Ginny Tabley Takemori 
Another unforgettable voice, this time a pithy non-neurotypical Japanese in contemporary Tokyo.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translation by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
It's all about the dark and delightful voice; an eccentric 60-year-old vegetarian English teacher in a remote village in Poland investigates the deaths of local hunters. Canada publication: February 2019.

Best Nonfiction:

The Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography by Deborah Levy
Clear, urgent and inventive documentation of Levy's passage into a new life, post marriage, at 50.

Best Graphic Novel (tie):

The Park Bench by Chaboute
Crisp black-and-white art uses a park bench to anchor a story of urban public life across decades. Warm, funny and nearly wordless.
On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
An epic boarding school/science fiction space adventure with beautiful art and a cast of fascinating queer characters.

Best Fiction by an Indigenous Author:

There, There by Tommy Orange
Set in contemporary Oakland California, brilliantly crafted with 12 alternating points of view, the multiple strands drawing together with increasing urgency. Best ending too!

Best Literary Fiction (a catch-all for all the rest):

Motherhood by Sheila Heti
Introspective, elegant and funny - in the style of a personal journal - as much about having a mother as it is about ambivalence towards being a mother.
Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper
Lyrical, character-based, uplifting story of a remote community facing dissolution in Newfoundland.
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
"Writers have to bear witness, it's their vocation." What grieving illuminates about our truest selves. Differing views on artistic expression. The special bond between humans and dogs.
Winter by Ali Smith
The thawing of frozen relationships, interwoven with current issues - Brexit, Syrian refugees, fake news, the power of protest, etc. Wise and full of heart.

December 2018 Reading Round-Up

My highlights from December include a designer box of short stories, world-class local poetry, a translated novella set in Ukraine, science fiction, historical fiction, a couple of memoirs, and lots of graphic novels.

2018 Short Story Advent Calendar, produced by Michael Kingston and Natalie Olsen

A limited annual edition. One short story per day, each in its own beautifully designed booklet. For four years in a row, I've enjoyed this treat. It's hard to pick favourites, but some of the standouts were by George Saunders, Jessica Westhead, Sara Levine, Doretta Lau, Rodrigo Fresan, Liliana Heker, Kim Fu, Eugene Lim, and RO Kwon.

I've been inspired to continue the daily habit by embarking on a project starting January 1, 2019: reading one chapter per day of The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, an epic Japanese classic.

Insomnia Bird: Edmonton Poems by Kelly Shepherd

New and found text, woven into a warm and witty nest of poems that map the exterior and interior places where city people, the natural world, and work intersect. Public transit, magpies, the North Saskatchewan river valley, and construction crews. A glorious celebration of the confounding way in which we experience our lives.

Magpie: twilight bird - two-lighted bird -
feathered yin-yang,
nest builder and robber of nests -

you hop and clatter on the road like hail.
Black and white offspring of the raven

Kelly Shepherd, book launch
at Audreys, September 2018

and the dove, the only bird

who did not go into the ark with Noah -
you gather in loud tidings,
you point the direction of the wind.

You pull behind you invisible threads,
you stitch stories together,
you needle through the sky!

(from Picamancy Charm)

Baba Dunja's Last Love by Alina Bronsky 
Translation from German by Tim Mohr

"Bronsky instinctively understands that the way to a reader's heart is through great characters." -Library Journal. That pull quote from Library Journal is on the front cover and it's spot on. Baba Dunja is such a memorable character. A tiny Russian Ukrainian in her 80s, she's the first to move back to her home in Chernobyl's "dead zone" after the "nuclear incident." I loved this short novel so much, for its heart and humour. It reminded me of Olga Tokarczuk's forthcoming (February 2019) Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead.

A biologist explained to me later that the stuff was stuck in my bones and gave off radiation around me so that I was myself like a little reactor.

But God was abolished from our land when I was little and I haven't managed to get him back.

I ask Marja if she needs anything from the city, I ask Petrow, and [...]
Petrow asks me for good news.
"Don't joke around," I say. "I can bring you honey."
"I don't want any honey," he says. "I don't eat honey because it's made of bee vomit. Bring me good news."
That's how he always is.

An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim

An amazing, lyrical and intellectually stimulating novel. Time travel, dystopia, romance and refugees. It reminds me somewhat of Exit West, in the way science fiction elements are used as a shortcut to get to the real issues: displacement, social inequality, and the human heart. I raced through this in two days.

One car behind them honks. The voice of their driver, made tinny by the intercom, says, "You gotta go." They squeeze each other's hands so hard the skin of his suit bites the web between her fingers and there's no way they can touch skin to skin and the seat of her heart falls away and so does her resolve. But there is no more time. All the cars honk like the end of days.

You cannot put life on hold to have a moment of grief, so every second, half the people in the world are split in two. This is what they mean by life goes on, and the worst is that you go on along with it too.

On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden, Graphic novel

What fun! A boarding school/science fiction space adventure with a diverse cast of mostly lesbian characters plus one nonbinary. It's over 500 pages long and I wanted more. So good!

[Elliot is non binary and mute. When their construction crew gets a new boss, Jules comes to Elliot's defence.]
Boss: You are all on very thin ice. Your insubordination will be reported and there will be consequences. Now, Jules, tell me about your work today.
Jules. Hmm. You know it's really tough to remember, Jo. But I'm sure you get that. You can't remember one person's pronouns.

Sanity and Talulah by Molly Brooks, 
Graphic novel

100% girl power, mad scientist madcap adventure on a space station. Action + friendship + supportive families + a cat with three heads = a winning graphic novel for readers of all ages.

A nice diversity of characters.

Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka, Graphic novel

A moving memoir about growing up in a difficult family situation: Krosoczka's mother was a heroin addict, often in prison, and he didn't know his father, so his grandfather became his legal guardian. His grandparents were heavy drinkers and smokers, but they loved him. One of the best things they did was to pay for art classes after his school stopped offering his favourite subject. The ink wash art is wonderful, the story inspiring.

All the Answers by Michael Kupperman, Graphic novel

A fascinating father-son relationship memoir. Award-winning cartoonist Michael Kupperman's father Joel experienced trauma as a result of his childhood fame on the radio and TV show Quiz Kids. As an adult, he became ill and had to leave the room if someone even mentioned the show. So, nobody talked about it and it was like a rot that soured the relationships in the Kupperman family. A touching story of a son trying to understand his dad.

Where the World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean

An atmospheric survival story in gorgeous prose with a slow pace and yet inexorable forward movement. Nine Scottish boys and three men are left stranded on a tiny island of rock in 1727. Based on a true story. Suitable for ages 10 to adult.

She was nothing akin to anyone Quill had ever met. There was the talking, for one thing. In sentences! Sentences as long as an anchor chain sometimes. They had him holding his breath to hear where they would end. Hirta folk were not great talkers.

"Jesus made all the herring in the world, am I right? So the herring surely came when He whistled? So when He was on the shore and His friends were out on the sea, He whistled up this huge shoal of herring and walked over the water on their backs--to reach the disciples, yes? And Jesus told St Peter to try it too... which Peter did--and managed it, of course! Then the herring said enough was enough and stopped cooperating and Peter started sinking."

Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq
Audiobook [6 hr] performed by the author

The most memorable audiobook I listened to all month. I read the print version last month and loved it. (See my November Round-Up.) Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq not only performs her own words (short stories and poems) on the audio edition, she also includes a short vocalization between each piece.

We sipped the air. It was too cold to chug.

Timmies Times Three: More Tim Hortons in Literature

I continue to document my encounters with Tim Hortons in Canadian literature. The first two installments of quotations can be found here and here. This time I've got a really long, really funny excerpt from Eden Robinson's Trickster Drift, so I'm going to stop at three instead of waiting for more.

Johnny watches the steady onslaught of Sunday afternoon coffee-junkies gushing in and out of Tim Hortons. The drive-in cars lined up all the way into the hotel parking lot across the way like some nullified serpent. Two girls tucked in under the one umbrella, wolfing back a smoke. A man with a small boy on his shoulders and the boy cracks his head off the doorframe on the way inside. Johnny watches through the front windows at the boy screeching and the gangly man, the boy's father or uncle or something, tryna quiet him down with a five-dollar bill.

-from We'll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night by Joel Thomas Hynes, p. 78
______________________________________________________

Mave rolled down her window and studied the menu board as if it were a secret treasure map. Jared willed himself to unclench his jaw.
"Welcome to Tim Hortons," a young woman's voice droned over the intercom. "How can I help you?"
"I don't think you understand your potential," Mave said.
"I didn't catch that, ma'am. Are you ordering poutine?"
"Potential!" Mave yelled into the intercom. "The possibility contained within you before full realization."
"Good, 'cause we don't make poutine here."
"How did you decide what you wanted to do with your life, if you don't mind me asking?"
The line of cars was growing behind them. A man yelled, "Fucking order already!"
Jared peered in the side mirror. The yelling man was behind them in the black SUV. He laid on his horn. Jared sighed. Trust his luck to finally make it to Vancouver and get shot because he was between some asshat and his caffeine fix.
"I hated retail," the attendant was saying over the intercom. "This was close to my apartment and I don't have to do the night shift. It's kind of boring, but I like being home when my kids get home."
"Order a fucking coffee like a normal person!" the SUV guy shouted.
"He's going to shoot us if you don't order," Jared said.
"Some people," Mave said.
"Amen," the woman said. "I miss real winters. I'd move home if there were any jobs there."
"Where's home?"
"Just a sec, honey," the woman said.
Honk. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" Honk. Another voice chimed in: "Some of us have lives, you know."
The intercom crackled. "Uh-huh. Okay, uh, my manager is going to give you a free coffee if you get out of line."
"What a sweetie! Do you want anything, Jelly Bean?"
"No, nothing. I'm good."
"Don't worry. I'm paying."
"Let's just move."
"Are you too shy to ask for what you want?"
"He sounds shy," the woman said.
Honk. Honk. Honk.
"A grilled cheese panini," Jared said. "Okay? Can we go?"
"Oh, that sounds good. I'll have one of those too."
"My boy loves it with ham."
"That sounds better," Mave said. "One regular and one with ham on multigrain."
He checked his phone, more for something to look at, something to do.
"I worry too," Mave said as they pulled up to the takeout window and a pale blond woman with black rings of eyeliner leaned over and smiled at them.
"Sorry if I got you in trouble," Mave said to her.
"Not a problem. That guy behind you is a regular. His wife left him for his business partner and he's cheesed at the world."
"Hey, add his order to my bill, okay? Tell him I understand heartbreak."

-from Trickster Drift by Eden Robinson, p. 73-75
__________________________________________________________________________

The postscript was always something Zareena missed about Canada. Her words brought the taste of maple dip donuts and too-sweet hot chocolate to his lips. Their father, Raheem, used to treat them on the way back from Sunday morning Islamic school when they were kids. Before Zareena went away.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"You made me look bad in front of those horrible women," Nani said in Urdu. "They're going to think we didn't do a good job raising you. I'm going to teach you how to cook, right now. Grab some onions and garlic-ginger paste."
Ayesha looked alarmed. From the living room came Nana's voice. "Beti, you promised to take me to Tim Hortons."
"But Nana, you just had tea," Idris said, his lips twitching. Unlike his older sister, he got a kick out of causing trouble.
"I wish to purchase an apple fritter," Nana said with dignity. "I shall be waiting in the automobile."
"You can teach me to cook when I come back. Or maybe tomorrow," Ayesha said. She kissed her grandmother on the cheek and hurried outside.

-from Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin, Chapter 3 and 10