Bibliomama

Photo by roujo All the Broken Things  by Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer. Goodreads synopsis:  A novel of exceptional heart and imagination about the ties that bind us to each other, broken and whole, from one of the most exciting voices in Canadian fiction.        September, 1983. Fourteen-year-old Bo, a boat person from Vietnam, lives in a small house in the Junction neighbourhood of Toronto with his mother, Thao, and his four-year-old sister, who was born severely disfigured from the effects of Agent Orange. Named Orange, she is the family secret; Thao keeps her hidden away, and when Bo's not at school or getting into fights on the street, he cares for her.      One day a carnival worker and bear trainer, Gerry, sees Bo in a streetfight, and recruits him for the bear wrestling circuit, eventually giving him his own cub to train. This opens up a new world for Bo--but then Gerry's boss, Max, begins pursuing Thao with an eye on Orange for his travelling freak show. When Bo

Photo by roujo Mystery: Deadline by John Dunning. Goodreads synopsis:  When a circus tent fire calls "Tribune" reporter Dalton Walker into action, he's disturbed to find that no relatives have come to claim the body of a young victim. Dalton is also covering the story of a young Amish woman turned famous New York dancer. But not every story is what it seems, and soon Walker is heading down a terrifying seductive path toward the truth, and the unrelenting deadline. Fawcett reprint. I love John Dunning. I love Cliff Janeway's rambling discourses about books and bookstores, I love the labyrinthine plots revolving around long-lost first editions and people who love books to an insane degree. This is an earlier book, and it has the same delicious aura of printer's ink and page dust, although the protagonist is a reporter rather than a used bookstore-owner. I love the rapturous musing on old-style journalism and the ferocious need to get to the bot