Compared to August, this is going to be an exceptionally busy reading month. And these stacks don’t even include the lists of prize-list nominees and IFOA attendees, whose books are also cluttering every flat surface at home.
Greg Iles’ The Bone Tree – Having finished Natchez Burning in August, I was suprised to find that no time elapses between that book and this. In fact, The Bone Tree begins within an hour of the ending of Natchez Burning, but offers another perspective to its resolution. The narrative is stuffed with detail and there is a broad cast of characters, but the plotting is tight and the characterization is solid: the story pulls me onwards.
André Alexis’ Fifteen Dogs – This book comes highly recommended from every corner – family and friends and prizelist-jury members – but I’ve been scarred by Watership Down and Where the Red Fern Grows. It barely matters that I’ve recently read A (such skinny and clever little volume published by BookThug, a new favourite publisher of mine) and Pastoral, which is the first in the cycle of five books, in which Fifteen Dogs is the second. Fortunately, Steph (of Bella’s Bookshelves) and I are reading together so we can pass each other tissues as required.
Tracey Lindberg’s Birdie – Last month I officially signed up for The Book Mine Set’s Tenth Canadian Book Challenge, and to add another layer to the challenge, I’m going to read 13 books by indigenous authors. (Here are 13 of my favourites which have inspired my choice of theme.) My first read for the challenge was Robert Arthur Alexie’s Porcupines and China Dolls (named for the shapes of the uniform hair cuts which church officials gave to the children yanked into government residential schools). If Birdie is this good, I’m in for a treat.
Jane Smiley’s Early Warning – Even though this year I’m supposed to be finishing series which I’ve left unfinished, I’ve started a few new ones as well, in an effort to prove to myself that I can start and finish them in short order. This is the second volume in a series which Danielle (of A Work in Progress) and I are sharing. The first volume captured her more immediately, which is just the kind of encouragement one needs sometimes, to settle properly into a story. By now I’m fully invested in the family’s story, which is told with one chapter devoted to each of one hundred years.
Hanya Yanagihara’s The People in the Trees – I think it was Sharlene (of Real Life Reading) whose raves about this one first caught my attention, but it’s hard to squeeze a thick book like this one into the stacks, so it’s taken me awhile. By now, Yanagihara has another chunkster to tempt me, but I don’t think I’ll get to A Little Life this month.
Robert Wiersema’s Walk Like a Man – Even though I thought I was a Springsteen fan, I realize now that I’ve read the first few chapters of Robert Wiersema’s memoir that I just listened to Springsteen a lot. Nonetheless, I felt strongly enough about some of his songs, that I am throughly enjoying this collection of pieces. It begins with a brief biography of The Boss, just enough to situate readers who don’t already have their factsheets memorized, then shifts into a series of shorter essays named for specific songs which makes for a great playlist of course. Most mornings, I read and listen to one track: it’s great.
Steve Hely’s How I Became a Famous Novelist – Even though this was on my TBR list, I’d completely forgotten about it until Jaclyn (of Literary Treats) was raving about his newest book. But it’s the link with writing which cinched the deal for me, along with her assurances that it was her funniest book of that reading year. Not only is this the Month-of-Fifteen-Dogs, but none of the other books in my stack here are exactly happy stories (though the Springsteen collection isn’t as tough as the rest – get it?): I’m counting on this one to lighten the mood.
Care to comment on how my use-the-library-less project is going?
Riel Nason’s All the Things We Leave Behind – Last month, I finally read The Town that Drowned, which I really enjoyed. All the Things We Leave Behind is her follow-up, which unfolds a few years later in the same region. Brian Francis describes it as “full of heart, honesty and beauty”. If it’s even half as enchanting, I’ll be taking a lot of notes.
M.G. Vassanji’s Nostalgia – This is a slimmer volume than many of his novels and, containing some notebook entries and long swaths of dialogue, it seems like a book which will read quickly. “New memories in new bodies. New lives. That’s the ideal, though we are still far from it. The body may break and wobble: memory develop a crack or hole. In the leaked memory syndrome, or Nostalgia, thoughts burrow from a previous life into the conscious mind, threatening to pull the sufferer into an internal abyss.”
Christie Blatchford’s Life Sentence – Drawing on 40 years of working as a court reporter, this seems certain to be a riveting read. Particularly given her unadorned prose and journalistic experience. Athough I haven’t read a lot of true crime, this volume intrigues me greatly.
Jared Young’s Into the Current – The premise of this debut novel interests me, but I’m even more keen having spotted it on the shelves of Bakka Bookstore, when I thought it was realist story-telling. “Strapped into his seat thousands of feet above the merciless Earth, time suddenly stops, the wreckage of the plane freezes in place, and Daniel discovers what ti means to have your life flash before your eyes. Transporting himself into the past and re-experiencing his memories in real time – but helpless to change the present – he plunges into the detritus of his all-but-concluded life.”
Olive Senior’s The Pain Tree – For a change, I’ve read more of this author’s poetry and short fiction than I have of her novels. The Pain Tree has been underway for many years and I’m eager to revisit the landscape of her stories.
Darren Greer’s Advocate – It’s been a long time since I read (and loved!) Still Life with June. In between, I read Strange Ghosts, a collection of essays, but I’m eager to return to his longer fiction. “With wit and emotional depth, Greer describes the formation of one boy’s social conscience and takes us to a resolution that is truly satisfying.”
Melanie Mah’s The Sweetest One – There was a huge stack of these on the counter of “Another Story” when I was in there last week, signed. How can you resist her debut? “Now in her final year of high school, Chrysler – though smart, strong-willed, and longing for change – is debilitated by fear. Fear that she’s unlovable; that, like the other residents of Spring Hill, she’s doomed to live a scripted life; that Trina, if she’s still alive, may never return; that the same thing that killed her siblings will also kill Chrysler.”
Are any of these on your TBR stacks? Have you already read one/some? If you were going to choose just one to read right now, which would it be? What are you looking forward to reading this month?
Reading thirteen books by indigenous authors sounds like a great reading challenge. I’m close to finishing Birdie and I have mixed feelings about the main character, but I like the themes of the story. I look forward to reading your review!
I think she has mixed feelings about herself, so that makes complete sense to me! I’m still formulating my thoughts about it overall, but found it very powerful. I’m a little surprised there wasn’t more talk about it at the time of publication, but maybe other readers – like us – were slow to get reading?
Oh man, I loved Birdie! I think it will be a good fit for you too. I’d pick up Riel Nason or Melanie Mah next if I had either of them to hand — they are the two that I’ve had on my tbr for a while now.
I see you’ve already read Nason’s book: you beat me to it! Heheh And you’re quite right: Birdie was exactly to my taste. Not what I was expecting exactly, but remarkable indeed!
Happy to see you are supporting the library 🙂
I borrow epubs from them all the time.
I’m doing a better job of supporting them than I am of reading from my own shelves these days. But that’s what new-book season does, right? Soon enough I’ll behave with a degree of restraint. Perhaps not an admirable amount of restraint, but SOME restraint (comparatively speaking).
Wow. That is alot of books. And some big ones too. Hope you finish all by the month’s end. I am interested in How I became a famous novelist. Haha,that sounds like a book of confidence. I have not read Hanya Yanagihara. But she is so well loved. I hope you will enjoy it
The Steve Hely novel was a lot of fun. It read brilliantly in about 30-page chunks, especially at the end of a difficult reading session (I’m looking at you, Fifteen Dogs, because you might be brilliant, but you are still breaking my heart daily in my memory of all your four-legged characters).
And I didn’t make it through all of them; I read 19 books in September but only about half of them from these stacks; it’s even easier to distract me from my reading plans at this time of year. The others will slip into October (except for Yanagihara’s, which I’ve swapped out for A Little Life instead, for now).
California is awesome and all, but oh, I miss IFOA! And as always, I’m struck by how few Cdn titles make it here. I need to make a trip to Toronto ASAP!
If you need a place to stay – and some to tag along and encourage you to buy more – I’m your gal. 🙂
You’ve got a wonderful assortment of books. I wish I could say I’ve read one of these but nope, none. With all of these surely there will be some great reading ahead!
I thought for sure that Greg Iles would’ve been in your log; you read so many more mysteries than I do! (I’m only halfway through though, and it’s nearly the end of September already!)
I’m afraid I haven’t read any of the books on your massive TBR! This month I am looking forward to finally getting round to reading A Feast For Crows by George RR Martin (Game of Thrones #5) 😀
I still haven’t decided whether to read that one or not; at this point, I might just settle for watching instead (I know, that’s kinda blasphemous for a bookish person to admit, isn’t it). Good luck with it!
That’s a lot of books! I read Some Luck by Jane Smiley earlier in the year and enjoyed it, so I’m hoping to continue with Early Warning soon too.
I’m still hoping to finish the last volume this year as well, before I have a chance to forget any of the family members! Have you read other Jane Smiley books too?
You’re a super reader, I’m kind of jealous.
I look forward to your review of Birdie and People in the Trees. The latter especially because I’d like to see how you review such a dark book.
Birdie was pretty dark too, but in a strangely uplifting way (which comes up in your chat about Esperanza Rising too). You read a tonne of great books too: what are you talking about?! 🙂
This is one months reading??? This would be about three months at minimum for me so the height of this stack feels daunting. People, in the Trees calls to me most – I read A Little Life and found it compelling though written in an odd style so I’m intrigued if this was just because she wrote it so fast.. the earlier novel should help provide an answer
Well, one month’s intentions, but not necessarily reality, if that helps; I did end up reading more books than this, but only about half of these (although I read Olive Senior’s collection twice – amazing) and I just didn’t feel drawn into People in the Trees, so I swapped it out for A Little Life (will return to PitT another time).
You are sure to love Fifteen Dogs (as long as you don’t find it too sad or disturbing – it also had me laughing at times), Birdie, and People in the Trees. All 3 are so good! If I had to pick one to re-read it would probably be Fifteen Dogs.
I didn’t realize Wiersema is the author of Walk Like A Man.
I’m feeling envious of your copies of All the Things We Leave Behind, Into the Current, and Advocate. If i had to choose just one to read right now, I’d pick Into the Current – I was just reading about it recently and I’m so curious to know what it’s like. Riel Nason’s would be a close second, but at least I already have an idea of what that one’s going to be like.
I just found out that our new band room (I play in the town’s concert band) is going to be in the basement of the new library. Do you suppose anyone will notice if I just pop upstairs for a few minutes? 🙂 Honestly, I’m on the verge of a major spree…
Surely nobody would mind: they should have known that including you in an event housed at the library would open up a series of possibilities.
It’s Wiersema’s only NF, I think; I really enjoyed it, the whole process of reading it one song at a time, and it got me watching a lot of concert footage, which I didn’t think I’d find interesting but, in fact, I did.
You’re quite right: Fifteen Dogs was awesome. And I totally know what I was avoiding it for, and those were good reasons too. I have not been able to shake the story. Not even slightly.