Category Archives: Book Review Blog

My book reviews and fun bookish news as a book blogger. All about other people’s books, and not my own. :-)

Happy Canada Day!

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Charles Pachter, Flag # 43, 1981, acrylic on canvas (source: https://www.msu.edu/course/iah/211c/skeen/Flag43.html)

Charles Pachter, Flag # 43, 1981, acrylic on canvas (source: https://www.msu.edu/course/iah/211c/skeen/Flag43.html)

Just because practically everything in the world makes me think of books, I wanted to celebrate Canada Day with a glimpse back into my first experience of Canadian literature. These definitely won’t be the first books I read by Canadian authors — L.M. Montgomery and Margaret Atwood are literary icons even in the Philippines — but truth be told, I only learned these authors were Canadian when I moved here. Still, these were the first books I read primarily because they are by Canadian authors, at a literature class in Thompson Rivers University (then called the University College of the Cariboo), Kamloops, B.C.

The Good Body by Bill Gaston

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I remember being really touched by this book. Retired hockey player Bobby Bonaduce is stubbornly ignoring a medical condition that’s causing him to gradually lose control of his body. In an effort to fix past mistakes, he returns to his hometown and scams his way into university.

It seems almost lazy to choose a book about hockey, but Bobby Bonaduce’s story really spoke to me. When I read it, I had never watched hockey and while many of my classmates seemed to share some childhood memory of playing the game, I had only the most basic idea of how the game worked. What got me though was the horror of Bobby’s experience — I can only imagine how frightening it is to lose control of your body. How much more horrible must it be for a professional athlete, whose whole life revolved around perfect control of one’s body?

Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King

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Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water blew me away with its brilliant, unconventional writing style. It begins with a creation story, and involves four ancient aboriginals who escaped from a psychiatric ward and have a very important mission to fulfill. There’s a bit of a linear, realistic narrative, about a group of people who live in a nearby town, but mostly it’s a lot of myths and Western pop culture references all coming together in a way that’s somewhat chaotic but still really, really works. It’s hilarious and touching, and just a mind blowing reading experience.

I have since read many other books by Canadian authors, and have explored a much wider selection of Canadian literature. Even within that class at TRU, I remember reading more than just these two books, although I really can’t remember the rest of the list. These were the books that stuck with me. When I moved to Ontario, these were the only books from all my classes that I took with me. It’s been eight years since I took that class, and to be honest, I don’t think I’ve read these books since. Still, they’re both on my shelf, partly for sentimental reasons, and partly because I do hope to read them again.

If I were asked now to list my top ten Canadian books, would these even make the list? I don’t know — I’ve read a lot of amazing Can Lit since then. But eight years on and I still remember the impact these books had on me. That’s saying something, eh?

What is your favourite book by a Canadian author? For those who moved to Canada from a different country, do you remember the first Canadian book you read? How’d you like it?

And from me and my bookshelf — Happy Canada Day!

Review | Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Saenz

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12000020This is by far one of the best books I’ve read all year. It’s a story about friendship and family and all the things people don’t say. It’s about silence, and the consequences of that silence, and it’s told in lovely, heartfelt prose. Saenz’s gift is subtlety — beneath a story ostensibly about a friendship between two Mexican American boys is so, so much more. The prose invites the reader to reach deeper, to attempt to grasp what lies between the lines, and yet the story works because there is so much more than what is within our grasp. Like Aristotle and Dante, we sense the depth of secrets the universe has to offer, and as they eventually realize, we find the answers much closer than we might expect.

One late afternoon, Dante came over to my house and introduced himself to my parents. Who did stuff like that?

“I’m Dante Quintana,” he said.

“He taught me how to swim,” I said. [p. 32]

Ari is a bit of a misfit. He has no friends, literally, and always feels out of place when talking to boys his age. His older brother is in jail, for a crime Ari has never been told; his parents never want to speak of the brother, and his father, a stoic, distant man, is struggling with PTSD from the Vietnam War. So when Ari meets Dante, a friendly, open book of a boy who is casually affectionate with his parents, it almost makes no sense for them to get along, and yet they click immediately.

In both family and friendship, while the connections that form may be easy, the relationships are never quite that simple. The contrast between the boys’ families is sharp, and Ari understandably finds it difficult to trust that Dante’s family’s warmth toward him is genuine. Then an accident alters Ari and Dante’s friendship, and forces both to face things they may have been much more comfortable keeping hidden.

And yet there are consequences to keeping silent, and the characters understand that all too well. The refusal of Ari’s parents to talk about his brother causes Ari to have nightmares, all these memories struggling to surface and yet being held back. Similarly, when Dante gives Ari his sketchbook, which he has never shown anyone else, and Ari refuses to look at it, it’s because of what Ari fears — and knows — he’ll find inside. Each time, not talking about something is the easy choice, and each time, it also turns out to be the more problematic one.

I discovered Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe at Glad Day Bookshop. I asked the bookseller for the best novel he’d read recently. Without hesitation, he handed me this book. Turns out I’d bought the last copy he had in stock, and I discovered on Twitter the next day that there was someone after me who also wanted to buy it. I read it, absolutely loved it, and recommended it to my sister. Upon reading it, she marked it as a favourite in Goodreads and did a Google search for other books by this author. That’s just the kind of book this is. So read it. I hope you like it, and if you do, pass it on.

Review | Beautiful Day, Elin Hilderbrand

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4984cdf8952a88d0371a815d73eca7eeElin Hilderbrand’s Beautiful Day is a fun, soap opera-like beach read. Jenna Carmichael and Stuart Graham are getting married on a beautiful Nantucket beach… What could go wrong? For one thing, it turns out that the bride’s sister is bitter about marriage in general and about her role as the responsible mother figure. She also happens to be having a fling with a much older man. The groom’s parents have divorced over an affair, and subsequently remarried, and the woman who caused the divorce in the first place will be at the wedding with her son (the aforementioned cause of the divorce). Bridesmaids and groomsmen are in and out of each other’s beds, and soon various skeletons in various closets are brought to light. What can I say? Beautiful Day is a fun, absolutely fluffy, ride of a book. Take it with you to the beach and enjoy!

Even better, amidst the fluff and melodrama are some real tender moments. Central to the wedding is a notebook left behind by Jenna’s mother before she passed away. In it, Jenna’s mother writes down her hopes and dreams for her daughter’s wedding — a sweet way for her to be involved even though she is no longer physically around. I admit, my own mother has passed away, and the realization that she won’t be around to see it if I ever do get married is almost too painful for me to contemplate. My mom was a major romantic, much more so than I am, and to be honest, she’d probably have enjoyed the ceremony of my wedding much more than I would have. So Jenna’s mother not being around and instead leaving a notebook for Jenna to refer to did make me somewhat teary-eyed.

I can also see how the notebook, while a sweet gesture, puts far too much pressure on the family. As Jenna’s stepmother points out, Jenna has had hardly a say in her own wedding — everything had already been detailed by her mother. The notebook also, understandably, puts a strain on Jenna’s father’s current marriage — his previous wife is a much more dominant presence than even the bride herself.

There are also moments of sharp social insight. The Best Man’s boyfriend Jethro for example is hyper aware not just of being one of the only two openly gay men on that Nantucket beach, but also being the only black man at the wedding apart from a server and the bandleader. His tongue-in-cheek commentary is funny, and the way some other characters comment on his adding a welcome touch of “diversity” to the wedding is a hilarious bit of satire about the white bread nature of that predominantly upper class resort.

Beautiful Day is just a fun page-turner for the summer. Take it with you to the porch, or to the beach if you’re lucky, and lose yourself in the delightful soap opera of the Carmichael and Graham families.