Linda Reads

Straphanger

linda — Thu, 10 May 2012 19:10:50 +0000

Straphanger by Taras Grescoe is not a book for everyone. If you’re like alot of North Americans and addicted to your car you won’t be the least bit interested in reading this. And if you don’t know what a straphanger is you really do spend too much time in your car. But if you’re more inclined to travelling on foot, by bus or metro, or even bike, then you might like to read about how cities all over the world deal with creating an environment that is not focused on cars. Boy, are we ever in trouble here in North America. Here’s an interesting fact… the average American household owns 1.9 cars and spends $16,700 a year keeping them running, not including parking and tickets. That’s more than it spends on food and healthcare combined. Grescoe gives us a first hand glimpse of what it’s like to be a metro user in Paris (a city he loves by the way). They have more miles of track in their city center than London or New York. The chapter on Copenhagen made me drool, which isn’t hard because I love Copenhagen anyway. Between the bikes – everyone has at least one! – and the honour system on the subway (no turnstiles), they seem light years ahead of most cities in Canada. And when the Cityringen, a circle line that will add 15 new stations is completed in 2018, only the residents who live in the most isolated districts will be more than a 600 yard walk from a metro station. Imagine! And more people commute by bike in Copenhagen (population 1.8 million) than cycle to work in the entire US. Shanghai China got its first subway line only 15 years ago and now it has the largest system in the world. Compare that to Ottawa where we’ve been debating and bickering over a light-rail system for the past 17 years and still haven’t put shovel to the ground yet. I found the chapter on Toronto sad. Opportunities lost, bad decisions made by city council, and way too much urban sprawl. He even mentions Toronto’s illustrious Mayor Rob Ford giving the axe to the approved transit plan for the future. The car definitely rules in TO. Grescoe lives in Montreal, which is where in 2010, the transit system was voted the best in North America. Go figure! (That boggles my mind.) He’s been all over, seen it all, and chooses to live there. And he’s really committed to public transit. The dedication at the beginning of the book says it all… “To desmond, who arrived, unexpectedly, after his parents rode the 80 bus to the hospital for a routine ultrasound.”

J.K. Rowling is Back!

linda — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 12:54:19 +0000

Listen up people… hot off the press… J.K. Rowling has a new book coming out in September. It’s called A Casual Vacancy. This time, it’s for adults, not kids. The blurb that reached my desk says it’s “blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising”. Sounds good to me! But I sure hope they don’t expect me to line up at midnight to get a copy.

Trauma Farm

linda — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 12:21:20 +0000

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Trauma Farm by Brian Brett. I picked it up to take away and I wasn’t sure it would be suitable and keep my attention while I was visiting friends. But I was engrossed in it from the get-go til the last page. This is the story of Brett’s farm on Vancouver Island, his 18 years of hard work and experience written into a single day from morning to night. He’s a wonderful writer and there’s more humour, insight, and meaningful though in this book than I’ve read in a long time. Who knew eggs and pea hens could be so fascinating! The description of his 24 year old pet parrot Tuco yelling “It’s partytime!” when he spots a car coming up the road sent me into fits of giggles. So did “I’d be the first to admit that humping through the forest on a recently installed artificial knee, using a bad flashlight to search for a blind, black, deaf dog is not intelligent behaviour.” I read whole paragraphs out loud to anyone who would listen, and ended up with oodles of post-it notes stuck to pages for reference and reminders. Every farm is centered around life and death and his is no exception. Lambs are born and horses die and it’s all written with exceptional beauty. And his attitude towards weeding certainly made me happy. He said weeding is an activity, not a result, so a good gardener learns not to fret about finishing a job. He talks about the “community” of small farms, how hard it is for small farms to make a profit, the problems with government regulations, and the threat of disease and issues relating to the massive factory farms that now supply us with most of our food. It’s a wonderful book, even if you’re not prone to reading about animals or nature or food (he even ponders the origin of soup). And he ends the book with the most meaningful sentence… “I’m embarrassed by how much we’ve taken, and when I witness the sense of entitlement of people around me I can only feel ashamed of the angry members of my First World Culture.” It won the Writers’ Trust of Canada Non-Fiction Prize, the B.C. Booksellers’ Choice Award, and it was the bronze medal winner of the IPPY Awards in the Environment category. All well deserved for this fantastic book. I can’t say enough good things about it. It’s one I would definitely reread, and I hardly ever reread anything.

Eating Dirt

linda — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:08:08 +0000

This book isn’t for everyone. But I’m a tree hugger, so it stands to reason that I’d be intrigued by it. (In my neighbourhood trees are such a hot button, I’d keep the trees and get rid of some of the neighbours if I could.) Eating Dirt by Charlotte Gill is a memoire of Gill’s 20 years as a tree planter starting in northern Ontario when she was a student, then eventually going on to Vancouver Island. It’s back breaking, tedious, dirty, dangerous work, so why would anyone want to do it? She explains… “There are so many living creatures to touch and smell and look at in the field that it’s often a little intoxicating. A setting so full of all-enveloping sensations that it just sweeps you up and spirits you away”. How about that! She also gives a natural history lesson of area which I found fascinating. But I would, wouldn’t I. The biggest Douglas Fir in the world is 242′ tall. It’s on Vancouver Island near Port Renfrew. It’s a dwarf compared to the 400′ tall specimens that lived to be 1,000 years old in the first half of the 20th century. But they’re all gone. Six billion trees have been planted in British Columbia. At the height of the tree planting trade there were an estimated 18,500 tree planters in the country. The average career of a tree planter is 5 years. 5 back-breaking years. Gill did it for 20. Back in her student days in Toronto, her housemate Aimee, a tree planter herself, was her inspiration. She said… “I’d never seen her cry, never seen her anxious or upset, never heard her complain and I never heard her utter a jealous word. I could stand to have my back broken if this was the way a spine could grow back.” At the end of planting one day in B.C. Gill and her group of fellow tree planters came upon a travelling kitchenware salesman who had car troubles. They managed to help him put chains on his tires to try and get his wheels out of the snow. When they told him him they’re tree planters he said… “Thank you for healing the planet”. Will it work, all this planting to replace humongous forests that have been stripped bare of all the trees that have been growing for eons? 6,000,000,000 trees planted! No one knows. Only time will tell. Thank God some people think so and are willing to do the actual work.

The Betrayal of Trust

linda — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:57:23 +0000

Susan Hill is one of my favourite British writers (Kate Atkinson is another). The Betrayal of Trust is her 6th book in the Simon Serrallier crime series. 14 year old Harriet Lowther disappears one day at a bus stop on the way to meet her mother at the hairdresser, and is never seen again. 16 years later, during a flash flood, her remains are discovered and Simon Serrallier is called upon to reopen the case that led nowhere when they first tried to solve her disappearance. Trawling through the old evidence and trying to find new clues to her death seems an impossible task, especially with the staff shortages and economic cutbacks in the Lafferton police force. And hovering in the background are two additional stories… one involving dementia and assisted living and one of assisted suicide. It sounds a depressing read, but it’s not, it’s fascinating and it makes you stop and think. As the book jacket says “it takes a brave, truthful look at old age and the associated problems of terminal illness”. Hill is a great writer and everything gels really well. And for a complete change of direction, while trying desparately to find young Harriet’s killer, Simon almost becomes unhinged by the realization that he’s fallen in love - with a married woman. Will there be more to come in future books about Rachel Wyatt. I think so. Lately I’ve picked up and put down lots of books without finishing them because I lost interest, but not this one. This is a good book. Susan Hill doesn’t disappoint.

Looking Ahead to Spring

linda — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 12:44:45 +0000

The Sins of the Father, book #2 in Jeffrey Archer’s Clifton chronicles, is due out the beginning of May. And since Archer left us hanging with the ending in Only Time Will Tell, the first book in the series, I can’t wait to get my paws on this next installment. So read up people, you don’t want to be left behind!

Also, Robert Rotenberg, one of my fave authors, has a new book called Stray Bullets coming out in early May. He’s a terrific writer. And if it’s anything like his previous books, Old City Hall & The Guilty Plea, it will be well worth the read and a huge success.

Accounting for Crime

linda — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:15:17 +0000

I liked this book, and that surprised me. It’s not often that someone in the book world can turn around and write their own, and be successful… just because you sell ’em doesn’t automatically mean you can write ‘em. Richard King, the author of Accounting for Crime, is the co-founder of Paragraph Bookstore on McGill College Ave in Montreal. I was a little unsure of whether or not he could pull off a book involving an accounting firm and a hostile takeover of a cosmetic company and keep the reader hooked, but he has. I enjoyed this tremendously. Of course it might have a little to do with the fact that it takes place in Montreal, my hometown. The accounting firm of Scroyle, Caitiff, Rudishe and Spavin (honestly! names like that don’t just roll of your tongue) somehow finds themselves involved with 2 potential takeovers of the same company, one just under the radar of the law, and one involving a most notrious member of the Portuguese underworld. Robert Scroyle, the senior partner of the firm, ends up being kidnapped, forced by the big boss Bastinhado, to make this happen to his advantage and ignore the honest, well semi-honest, attempt of Lorenzo Villagio of Ravishing Cosmetics to buy Fresh Start, the company that Ravishing sends all their imperfect items, “rejects”, to for resale. The characters are all interesting and well written, and the bits of the city he mentions piqued my curiosity. Having lived in the west end, I couldn’t help but be intrigued by “a shopping centre in the west end of Montreal, close to the suburb of Cote-St-Luc”. Hey – I got groceries there for years! Check this book out… it’s fun… well written… and full of interesting tid-bits of Montreal.

Ocean Ranger Disaster

linda — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:22:33 +0000

30 years ago today, on the morning of February 15th, the Ocean Ranger drilling rig sank off the coast of Newfoundland during a violent storm killing all 84 on board. One of the best fiction books I’ve ever read is based on this disaster. It’s called February and is written by Lisa Moore. Moore tells the story of Helen O’Mara and her family of young children after their husband/father Cal died on the rig. It’s a gripping read, full of emotional moments that make you pause and reflect (read my earlier review). It’s a very timely read, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Extra Virginity (The sublime and scandalous world of olive oil)

linda — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:39:47 +0000

Boy oh boy, if there was ever a book that shouted “buyer beware” this is it. The world of olive oil is exposed and laid bare in Tom Mueller’s Extra Virginity. This is a fascinating read, a bit research-paper-like in places with too much info, but definitely worth the read, even if you skim over parts. Surprise, surprise… it seems all is not as you’re lead to believe in the olive oil industry. If you’re a food purest you’ll hyperventilate when you learn that most of the olive oil produced in Italy is made with oil imported from other countries. Just because the label sounds Italian doesn’t mean anything. They don’t even import the olives! Just the oil, in huge oil tankers. And since most consumers probably wouldn’t know a true authentic tasting olive oil if they tasted it, and probably wouldn’t like it if they did, companies actually alter the flavour to make it pallatible to the average consumer. Go figure! Unless you actually go to the farm where they make their own oil and buy it there, you have no idea what you’re buying, and where it’s from. So it’s buyer beware, buy what you like, and worry about more important things. But it certainly makes you wonder about the entire food industry and what else is not quite Kosher. I found this book fascinating!

Death Comes to Pemberley

linda — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:59:21 +0000

P.D. James is a brilliant writer. She has millions of fans around the world, and at the age of 91 she’s still putting pen to paper (or maybe fingers to keyboard? – who knows). And this time she’s outdone herself. Every writer has his/her own style of writing, and to get into another writer’s head and write like they do is next to impossible… I would think, but what do I know anyway. James has combined two of her favourite things in this book… her love of Jane Austen and her love of writing mystery novels. Death Comes to Pemberley is a sequal to Jane Austen’s beloved novel Pride and Prejudice. I won’t go into too much detail about the book except to set the stage… the Darcys, Fitzwilliam & Elizabeth, have been married for 6 years and are happily esconsed at Pemberley. They’re dealing with the details of the much anticipated annual St. Ann’s Ball, when a chaise hurtles (I’m beginning to sound like Jane myself!) to their front door with Lydia, Elizabeth’s empty-headed sister, screaming that her husband, George Wickham, has been murdered. As it turns out he isn’t dead, but discovered drunk, hysterical, and covered in blood, bent over the lifeless body of his best friend, Captain Denny. The book moves slowly at first, (some might even say it drags and disappoints) but this part sets the stage perfectly for the trial and conclusion, and eventually, it doesn’t disappoint. It’s expertly crafted. At times I had to remind myself this was P.D. James writing, not Jane Austen. It’s that astonishing. If you’re a fan of either author you’ll love this book. I can’t say enough about how skillful a writer James is to pull this off. She’s definitely brilliant!