Books I read in 2014

The first thing you need to know is that I feel like a failure. I was ultra geared up and ready for year two of the 50 Book Pledge, and I didn't make it, mostly because my belated charge to the finish line --- armed with poetry collections and graphic novels --- was interrupted by the arrival of the baby in mid-November. Ah, well. I came close! 43 books in 2014. And it would be more if I counted all the Dickens and Austen rereads, or the reread of a bunch of Lois Lowry's Anastasia Krupnik series, after I found a bunch of them at the McGill Book Sale. Or if I hadn't abandoned quite so many books partway through...or gone travelling for three weeks in UK (awesome), instead of sitting around at home reading (typical). 

You can see what I read here. Or find me on Goodreads.

Here is the breakdown according to the same categories I assessed last year:

By genre*

22 novels

7 children's/YA

4 poetry collections

3 graphic novels

3 memoirs

3 non-fiction 

1 short story collection

Compared to last year, I read the exact same number of poetry collections and children's/YA (huh), and just one shy in memoir and graphic novels. I read three more short story collections last year, but then again I read a LOT of short stories in 2014 for the Room fiction contest and the Journey Prize jurying. Five fewer novels.

* Some of the books fall into more than one genre, e.g. a graphic novel that is also a YA book or a graphic novel that is also a memoir, but I've kept each book to one basic genre.

By nation

15 American 

9 Canadian 

3 English 

1 Scottish 

1 dual American-Canadian 

1 Australian

1 New Zealander

1 Nigerian

1 Dutch 

I think this must be the first year in my life where I did not read mainly CanLit! Interestingly, the same number of Americans as last year.

By gender

30 books by 25 women

13 books by 8 men

Highlights

The first two books I read in January, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and The Dinner by Herman Koch, remain among the most memorable reads of the year. I also really liked Americanah. 

The last two fiction titles I read in 2014,  The Opening Sky by Joan Thomas and The Freedom in American Songs by Kathleen Winter, were also outstanding. I have so much love and admiration for these women, so while I might technically be biased, I truly adored these books and you should still run out and buy them immediately. And as many of you might know, sometimes it is harder to be completely transported by the writing of someone you know...and I was. 

Also, the Susin Nielsen books are wonderful. Strongly recommended for the young people in your life, or just, you know, you. 

Lowlights

The Happiest Baby on the Block by Dr. Harvey Karp was thoughtfully gifted to me by a friend and it was full of useful information that I have already put to use...and I can definitely endorse the basic premise and techniques outlined in this book. However, I feel like it was written for morons, or at least people with some kind of hyper-amnesia, like the guy in Memento. It really sticks with that principle of "Tell them what you're going to say, say it, then tell them what you've said," but it adds in "say it seven more times." It would be a lot better if it were condensed into about twenty pages written for neurotypical readers, or maybe just a large infographic. I cannot express the annoyance of having a newborn baby and precious little reading time that I then spent trying to power through this repetitive book that kept trying to prove a premise I was already willing to accept merely by picking it up. (Fourth trimester, yo.) That being said, thanks, Dr. Karp, for your valuable techniques!

And I didn't really love any of the Divergent trilogy, but the last one, Allegiant, was especially annoying to me in the way it ended. 

Best Discovery?

Well, I had a very relaxed stretch of reading after I finally picked up a book by Alexander McCall Smith at the library. I ran through a bunch of his Edinburgh-set mystery series (the Isabel Dalhousie books), which made for excellent light pregnancy fare.   

Winnipeg moments

I feel like there’s more to write about than this Winnipeg trip, but what I want to write about is less of any actual thing and more about that expectant, spring-y feeling of possibility that seems to be in the air right now…in spite of Montreal’s continuing iffy weather.  Maybe I just feel that way because I’ve come to the end of a long string of public writerly responsibilities (which are really wonderful to have, but which weigh on me heavily), and I feel like I might be able to get back to some happy medium of actual writing and seeing friends, neither of which seems to have happened very much in weeks and weeks.  In other words: hurray!  It truly does feel like school is out, and me with it.  Maybe that’s really all there is to say about it, so… done!

This past weekend, I went to Winnipeg to give a reading at McNally Robinson as part of the Thin Air Winnipeg International Writers’ Festival. I view this trip as a landmark in that it is probably the first trip in my entire life where I did not overly stress out about packing for it in advance.  (Yes, it’s only a weekend trip, but that hasn’t stopped me from insane packing stress in the past.)  I spent almost no time packing and my suitcase was even really light (especially for me)….until this happened:

A fundraising book sale for the Thin Air festival...can't beat those prices!

My friend K enabling me.  Her hubby A. carried their adorable baby 

while my books got wheeled over to the hotel.

I know my husband and I need to go through and prune our collection…and I know we just paid a back-breaking sum to clean the ones we have, but I couldn’t help myself.  This was actually the restrained pile because as I was browsing I noticed a bunch of books (mostly CanLit) that I’ve purchased over the years and STILL haven’t read.  With my selections this time I tried to take into consideration a) what I will actually read  and b) what is not likely to be available at the university library (hence the inclusion of more than a few mysteries/thrillers/YA books).  Unfortunately, I was so excited about my purchases that I actually managed a faux-pas of plugging the used book sale while at the bookstore for my reading (doh!!)  But in my experience, book lovers aren't deterred from buying new books by the prospect of buying used books at some point later, so I hope no harm was done.

Thanks to some very accommodating friends, I was able to pre-schedule seven separate hang-outs over the course of the weekend, along with the planned bookstore reading. I saw new babies, new houses, and shared a cup of bacon.  I had the most delicious homemade brunch in St-Boniface, a wonderful salad at Prairie Ink, and gin and tonics in Wolseley.  I dished with poets, fiction writers, graphic novelists, and above all, loved all the low-key hanging out and catching up with friends. I miss you, Winnipeggers!  So nice to see you all. The reading itself went well, I think, and at least was not entirely populated by people I know.  Most importantly, there were people there (never a guarantee!).  Thank you so much to everyone who showed up!!

Check out this amazing display!!! McNally Robinson is the best.

Me and the indefatigable G.M.B. Chomichuk, just before the reading.

Before the reading, I had a nice dinner and chat with fellow Banff alumnus and brilliant novelist (and reviewer, as previously blogged here) Joan Thomas, whom I'm sorry I didn't get a picture with because she was looking lovely and so summery.  On the other hand, it gives me an excuse to post this photo instead, from a few years back, that I don't think I ever blogged:

Hanging out in the Rideau Hall bathrooms

 at the Governor General's Literary Awards (2009?) 

The few parts I’ve been reading from Bone and Bread at different events didn’t seem to be quite long enough for the time I needed to fill, so I decided to read a section that I haven't read aloud in ages.

I last read it at the QWF mentorship reading many moons ago, and I remember hearing my voice high, tight, and probably near-hysterical sounding.  Definitely my worst reading ever.   For some reason, the section felt so strange and raw and interior, and I could sense it wasn’t connecting with anyone in the audience.  I think it’s possible the readings or some selections of them were being recorded for broadcast on the radio (and this might have contributed to some extra nervousness), but I’m sure they wouldn’t have used mine.                     

So I was happy I decided (at the very last minute…while standing at the podium!) to read that part and kind of own it, for lack of a better term.  It might not have been the most brilliant delivery in the world, but it wasn't awful, which was the previous baseline.  I don’t think the passage has changed at all (if so, only very slightly) in the intervening years, but I’ve changed, and the way I was able to read it in front of an audience has changed, and that makes me really happy.  

The next three photos below all courtesy of my friend Greg Chomichuk (you can follow him on Instagram here):

 Me in conversation with the lovely Charlene Diehl, 
the warm heart at the centre of Thin Air

 Signing stock at McNally Robinson

After the reading, I went out with some friends, most of whom used to be part of a writing group I was in that grew out of a class with Dennis Cooley at the University of Manitoba.  At least four people from our class have now published books (some more than one), and I expect that list to grow in years to come. 

Writers group alumni! (Can Lit quiz: can you spot the 

experimental Canadian poet and critic?)

All in all, it was the perfect trip (including being bumped up to first class on the way in!!) except for a small hiccup in calling a cab to pick me up from the Neighbourhood Bookstore and Cafe, which was so neighbourhoody it didn't appear to have a street address! The guy who was working asked me to check my receipt and then ran outside to look, to no avail. And apparently if you only provide an intersection, the taxi company doesn't actually dispatch you a cab...although they don't tell you that until you call back fifteen minutes later after being eaten alive by mosquitos and getting anxious about missing your flight.  

Even the employee couldn't figure out where it was.

A la prochaine, Winnipeg!

the art of the elegant review

For all that we ("we") decry the lack of quality criticism in Canada, there have been and continue to be people who have written some really stunning reviews.  

In a Facebook exchange with an old friend, I mentioned that an old acquaintance of ours had always reminded me of Zenia in The Robber Bride, or rather, that when I read the novel, Zenia reminded me of her.  Something about chaos, I wrote, or falseness.  

But then I wondered how accurately I was remembering the book (the acquaintance, well, I'm not sure it matters how well I remember her), so I looked it up and found a review by Joan Thomas, who is a lovely person as well as an amazing writer.  She was a books reviewer and columnist for the Globe and Mail and the Winnipeg Free Press for many years, so the quality of the review was no surprise --- and yet it was.  It's so good.

Her piece in Books in Canada is not some kind of boldly negative exposé (that's at least what some people (not me) mean when they wish we had more "real" reviewing), but an insightful and elegant take on the novel in light of Atwood's oeuvre.   Plus it has lines like this: 

Every sober-sided history is at least half sleight-of-hand: the right hand waving its poor snippets of fact, out in the open for all to verify, while the left hand busies itself with its own devious agendas, deep in its hidden pockets.

And this is just slipped in there...mere throwaway lines in the middle! 

Granted, most newspapers can't spare the column inches for lines like these if they want to cover even a fraction of the worthy books to write about, and Books in Canada no longer exists.  There are not many forums remaining for mid-length and long reviews in Canada.  (Though I happily await correction or elaboration on this point.)  I suppose it could be what the internet is for now, though as a forum I think it lends itself a little better (for the most part) to brief reviews, star ratings, Likes and +1s.  (My love of the internet in helping to point the way to wonderful new books probably requires its own post.)

I'm happy that Joan is busy writing novels instead of reviews, but I know that books sections everywhere are poorer for it.  For that matter, I'm happy and grateful for all writers and readers who take reviewing seriously.  

It's time-consuming, it's almost thankless, it's difficult, and there are always going to be people who disagree.   We're so lucky that fearless books columnists are doing this day after day, week after week!   

Hug a critic, if you see one.