The Expats by Chris Pavone

The Expats are an American couple with two children who move to Luxembourg and then Paris, both of them keeping huge secrets from each other. Chris Pavone's novel has been compared to Robert Ludlum's early works. That was enough to make me want to read this book; I went through a bit of a spy thriller phase in the 80s and Ludlum was my favourite back then.

I've only got good things to say about The Expats:

• It's a first novel, which in itself is an attraction for readers like me who like novelty.
• The plot is enjoyably twisty.
• The narrative flips back and forth in time, with convenient font changes to keep present-day Paris separate from two years earlier in Luxembourg. 
• There are enough details of daily life in a foreign country to feed my appetite for travel writing. 
• The children are never in danger.
• The open-ending is of the sort that concludes the main storyline while leaving lots of room for imagining what might come next.

Highly recommended.

Food and the City by Jennifer Cockrall-King

Earlier this month, the city of Whitehorse was completely cut off by road for several days due to washouts, flooding and mudslides across the Yukon. News services published photos of empty grocery store shelves in Whitehorse. Supermarkets carry only an illusion of abundance. Grocery stores at any given time in any North American city are stocked with only about 3 days worth of food. If transportation routes to a city are cut off due to natural disaster, unusual weather, terrorism, fuel shortage or whatever, people living in that place will face a major food crisis.

"If that is not sobering enough, consider that there are a mere five corporations behind 90 percent of the US food supply." Americans typically pay the lowest ratio of income-to-food in the world (9.4% of disposable income), but that's because the industrial food system hides the real costs. The effect of industrial agriculture on the environment is not factored into the cost of food. Neither are social and health costs. The "cheap-food diet has rendered two out of three Americans overweight and strains the healthcare system to the breaking point." The solution? Growing food in cities.

Edmonton author Jennifer Cockrall-King found exciting examples of urban agriculture in cities across North America as well as in Europe and Cuba. So much of our population is urban and it just makes sense to grow food where we live. Vegetables, mushrooms, fruit, honey, nuts, eggs and fish can be easily produced in an urban environment. (Exactly the kind of ingredients that contribute to a healthy diet.) For people who do not have time or space for gardens of their own, there are more and more urban farmers offering ultra-fresh, very local produce.

In my own yard in Edmonton, where we average
only 140 frost-free growing days in a year, I
am pleased to have apples, cherries, raspberries,
highbush cranberries, saskatoons, strawberries,
rhubarb, hazelnuts, and various perennial herbs,
as well as vegetables (seen here).

Government action and policies make a big difference in the urban agriculture movement. Cockrall-King documents success stories, such as London's ambitious initiative to source food for the 2012 Olympics locally. "There will be an estimated 25,000 loaves of bread, 232 tons of potatoes, 75,000 liters of milk, 19 tons of eggs and 330 tons of fruit and vegetables consumed in the Olympic Village during the games." Other stories are not so happy. The 13-acre South Central Farm, created in Los Angeles to help unite a battered neighbourhood after the Race Riots of 1992, was a community success that came to a tragic end in 2006. View the trailer of the award-winning documentary, The Garden, here.

Food and the City: Urban Agriculture and the New Food Revolution, published in 2012 , pulls together a lot of information that hasn't been collected into one book before. I hope that it will inspire even more innovations in urban food production. I also hope that there will be future, updated editions complete with colour, rather than black and white, photos. See Cockrall-King's website here.

Readalike: The Omnivore's Dilemma (Michael Pollan) and Fast Food Nation (Eric Schlosser).

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

Set in the wilderness of colonial America, Toni Morrison's exquisite short novel, A Mercy, reminded me of one of her earlier books, Beloved. An enslaved mother feels that she must make an unthinkable choice, one that will have long-reaching ramifications. The point of view shifts between characters of various ethnic backgrounds who are landowners, indentured workers and slaves. Morrison explores love in its many guises, between parents and children, husband and wife, gay men, close friends, and the unrequited kind too.

I listened to the Random House audiobook [6.5 hours], narrated by the author. Morrison has a beautiful, rich voice that, unfortunately, tended to lull my brain into a drowsy state. A Mercy is compelling enough to have kept me from daydreaming, but there were some close calls. I also had to work to figure out who was speaking every time the narrative shifted, since Morrison does not alter her voice for different characters.

It's unusual for me to listen to two books in a row with a similar setting, yet A Mercy and Year of Wonders both take place in the 17th century. I appreciated that the women in both books act like they belong to their time, not like modern women who have been plunked down in the midst of historical trappings. In A Mercy, Rebekka travels from England to the colonies in order to wed a stranger, believing that of her three options -- servant, prostitute, or wife -- the last is the safest option, although she is well aware that this will depend on the "character of the man in charge."

Rebekka's male siblings had "learned from her father their dismissive attitude toward the sister who had helped rear them." I came across a similar sentiment in Are You My Mother? in the part where Alison Bechdel asked her mother "What's the main thing you learned from your mother?" Her immediate reply: "That boys are more important than girls." Will that ever change? I hope so.

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

In 1665, a shipment of cloth from London carried a deadly plague infection to a remote village in Darbyshire. Geraldine Brooks based her novel Year of Wonders on historical records of an actual event, a small village of lead miners that volunteered to close itself to the outside world, rather than to spread the disease further.

It sounds like this would make for a grim tale, which is why I have avoided this book for years, even though friends who know my tastes strongly recommended it and I've enjoyed other books by the author. Turns out that Year of Wonders is not depressing at all, but the opposite.

Anna Frith, an eighteen-year-old mother of two, narrates the story of what happens to relationships and social order in the extreme circumstances of the time. So, we are a witness to family violence, extreme poverty, lunacy, mass hysteria, alcohol and poppy addiction, wantonness and religious fanaticism... as well as many, many deaths. The uplifting part is seeing what gives a person strength to carry on in spite of multiple tragedies. Anna's development of strong friendships, her appreciation of nature's beauty, the miracle of new life, the possibilities of love and the power of faith are some of the wonders that Anna encounters in the year of the plague.

Anna's ability to read and write is highly unusual for the time, but believably explained. Her period turns of phrase are charming: "I found a strange cock discomposing my hens." Anna's personality is modest, polite and within the bounds of social propriety, even in what she records: "She called us all manner of ill things that are not set down here."

Year of Wonders has something for every kind of reader: an eventful plot, fascinating characters, a detailed historical setting, and gorgeous language. The Penguin audiobook [10 hours] is read by the author, who has a soft, dreamy voice.

Readalikes: Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel) and Curiosity (Joan Thomas).

The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman

If you're in the mood for something along the lines of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, then Robin Wasserman's The Book of Blood and Shadow is for you. An eccentric professor and a group of five modern day American college students run afoul of an ancient religious cult when they decipher an ancient manuscript. Nora, the narrator, isn't sure if she can trust any of her companions -- while they are still alive. "I should probably start with the blood." is the first line in the book. It's a thrill-a-minute, especially when they travel to Prague where all the really scary stuff happens.

The dialogue is sassier than you'll find in Dan Brown's work. For example, when Nora translates the following sentence from Latin -- The sperm of Sol is to be cast into the matrix of Mercury, by bodily copulation or conjunction, and joining of them together -- her friend responds: "This is how you build a telephone to God? Looks more like porn for chemistry nerds."

The arcane book that is at the center of the adventure does actually exist; it's called the Voynich manuscript. (More about that document can be found here). The Book of Blood and Shadow contains an entertaining mix of humour, suspense and alchemical secrets.

Readalikes, in addition to Dan Brown: Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Laini Taylor); Angelology (Danielle Trussoni); and The Eight (Katherine Neville).

Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy Delisle

Jerusalem was created after Quebecois cartoonist Guy Delisle and his family spent a year living in Israel. Delisle cared for their two small children while his wife worked for MSF (Doctors Without Borders) in Gaza and the West Bank. His vignettes of their everyday lives are like a series of postcards sent home to friends: his search for interesting playgrounds for his kids, the frustrations of transportation within the city, the omnipresence of soldiers with rifles... that kind of stuff.

They lived in East Jerusalem, which is the Arab quarter. The disparity between the east and west sides of the city are illustrated in Delisle's clear, cartoony style. He has a quirky way of drawing himself in profile, with both eyes on one side, Picasso-like. The artwork is mostly black and white, with one other soft hue, except for occasional effective splashes of a brighter colour. Images from Jerusalem can be seen in this brief clip on YouTube.

single panel from Jerusalem

When he wasn't with his children, Delisle enjoyed sketching scenery. He was particularly fascinated with the graphic design possibilities offered by the giant wall that separates the two sides of the city. Sometimes soldiers made him move, telling him he wasn't allowed to sit alongside the road. One day he met a man who lived right next to the wall, selling roasted corn at the roadside after losing his land when the wall was built. Delisle sketched the man and I like this panel (from page 271) because it shows two different sides of Delisle's art.

About 10 years ago, Canadian author Deborah Ellis interviewed a number of Israeli and Palestinian children, then published their voices in Three Wishes. One of the questions she asked was if the Israelis knew any Palestinians and vice versa. The answer was no in almost all cases. Delisle asked a young graphic artist in the West Bank if he had ever met any Israelis. "I met one once in Jericho. A real nice guy. I remember I asked him if he'd ever been to Ramallah. He said, 'Yeah, I've been to Ramallah... in a tank.'"

The original French language edition was awarded the prestigious Angouleme award. Drawn and Quarterly published the English translation in April 2012. The situation in Israel and Palestine is such a complicated tangle that I welcome the opportunity to read observations from outsiders like Delisle. Jerusalem is an absorbing travelogue and memoir.

Readalikes: Joe Sacco's masterpieces of comics journalism: Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza; How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less by Sarah Glidden; and also Delisle's earlier travelogues, Pyongyang, Shenzhen and Burmese Chronicles.

The Antagonist by Lynn Coady

The Antagonist by Edmonton author Lynn Coady was discussed at one of my book groups earlier this week. We were nearly unanimous in the sentiment that we would not have read the book if not for book group. Which is one of the reasons that most of us are in this group -- to stretch our reading horizons. And everyone said they were glad to have read this dark, literary, character-based novel. Our conversation was lively from the start, as we debated who could be the antagonist of the title.

Rank -- Gordon Rankin -- is as initially unpleasant as his nickname suggests. Over the course of the novel, the reason for Rank's anger, guilt and self-hatred is related through his one-sided email correspondence with an old friend from his university days. It doesn't take long to see past Rank's vulgar language and big brute persona to the troubled man within. Readers are taken on Rank's existential journey as he comes to terms with past events that he has avoided for too long.

Readalike: It is set in Lebanon rather than Canada, but De Niro's Game by Rawi Hage has a similar gritty feel with a focus on character.