Book Nook – Blog #1

As I start this blog, I am working under a few assumptions.  First, as a supporter of libraries in general, and Springwater Public Library in particular, I assume you are a reader.  Second, as we ‘hunker down’ for the winter, I assume you are anticipating curling up with a good book.  Third, I assume that it is far too easy to keep reading the same authors and same types of books.

In my first year of teaching, I had a primary grade student who fell in love with C. W. Anderson’s “Billy and Blaze” books.  Each time his class came to the library, he would eagerly sign out another, until he had read them all (there were about two dozen books in the series). He was bereft when his supply had run out.  Regardless of what other books I suggested, he rejected them all since the horse’s name didn’t start with “B”.  After all these years, I can’t remember whether his teacher or I were successful in getting to read anything else, or whether we let him re-read his favourites.

It is comforting to read something familiar. (Disclaimer – I devour mysteries as quickly as potato chips!)   I promise not to inundate you with mysteries, while suggesting other authors I have enjoyed, and hope you will too.  I welcome your comments, suggestions, and criticism (please be kind!)

An excellent website to research books is www.fantasticfiction.com  Using either a book title of an author’s name, you will get a brief bio, a chronologically list of works with synopses, and some recommendations for similar authors.  Although it is heavily skewed to British and American authors, there is a good representation of Canadian and international authors.

Donna Kenwell - President

Book Nook – Blog #2

Kate Morton is an author I ‘discovered’ a year ago when I won two of her books in an auction.

The House at Riverton is her first novel, published in 2006. It follows the story of Grace, who enters into service at the manor pre-WW1. In 1994 Grace is interviewed by a filmmaker doing a documentary on a poet who committed suicide at the estate 70 years prior. The novel progresses, in what has become Morton’s forte of intergenerational linkages, coincidences and surprises.

Morton’s second novel The Forgotten Garden begins in Australia with a girl being raised by her grandmother. When Nell dies, Cassandra travels to Cornwall determined to discover why she has inherited Cliff Cottage. Interspersed with the modern tale are chapters about an impoverished brother and sister in Victorian London, and a young girl abandoned when a ship docks in Australia.

The Darkest Hours finds the three elderly, frail Blythe sisters in a decaying manor. It is up to Edie, who has reluctantly been granted an interview, to uncover the secret from WW2. She also discovers her own family connection to the estate.

It should come as no surprise that The Secret Keeper involves a family secret. A ‘Grande dame’ of British theatre is poised to return home, for the first time in half a century, to celebrate her mother’s 90th birthday.

Sadie is a London police officer on administrative leave visiting her grandfather in Cornwall in The Lake House. While out for a walk, she discovers an abandoned house. The home was the site of a 1933 unsolved child kidnapping. The lives of post-WW1 veterans, and the beginnings of the disintegration of the British class system, have a role in the solving of the mystery.

The Clockmaker’s Daughter is the most complex of Morton’s novels. There is the plot line of the titular character who becomes the muse for a mid-19th Century British painter. He buys a house on the Thames as an artists’ retreat, from which she disappears. It becomes an ‘Avant garde’ girls’ school in the late 1800’s, which closes after a drowning. It is the site of a WW2 affair between musicians, and a current enigma to Elodie, an archivist researching the artist.

Homecoming, Morton’s latest novel, is set in her native Australia. I haven’t yet read it, so, please, no ‘spoilers’ in your comments.

Book Nook – Blog 3

Terry Fallis became an ‘overnight sensation’ in 2007 when his self-published Best Laid Plans won the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour. Daniel Addison, a young Parliament Hill staffer, is sent to a rural riding to find a candidate for the upcoming election. Enter Angus McPhail, a crotchety engineer. Angus agrees to the candidacy, on the condition that Daniel teaches his ‘English for Engineers’ course. Mayhem ensues. If the plot sounds familiar, Best Laid Plans was adapted as a 6-part CBC miniseries, as well as a play.

We encounter the duo again in The High Road to experience Angus’ foibles and transgressions as a rookie cabinet minister.

The third appearance of Angus & Daniel occurs in 2021’s Operation Angus.

Fallis’ third novel Up and Down follows the space industry. NASA is attempting to forestall budget cuts as public interest in the space race wanes. A marketing firm is hired to select an American and a Canadian ‘citizen astronaut’. The winning Canadian is a female physician who flies her own plane to patients in northern Canada. The only snag – she is 80, not the young photogenic scientist NASA wants. Chaos ensues.

No Relation won a second Leacock Award for Fallis. It follows a group of people who have formed a self-help group. Their ‘affliction’ is in having the same name as a famous person.

Poles Apart introduces us to a struggling writer living above an adult entertainment bar. His only success to date is as a feminist blogger. When Eve of Equality comes to the attention of day-time TV, mayhem ensues.

Alex is painfully introverted. He starts to unravel a family secret among his mother’s papers. One Brother Shy follows Alex’s quest from Ottawa to Moscow, delving into his connection with a Soviet era hockey player.

Albatross is a metaphor for an encumbrance that hinders accomplishment. It is also a golf term for achieving 3 shots under par. Both apply to Adam, a golf prodigy who had never picked up a club until high school phys. ed.

A New Season is Fallis’ latest novel. It is a bittersweet tale about Jack, a marketing writer and ball hockey devotee who is mourning the death of his wife from Covid. After some urging, he agrees to spend 3 months in Paris reviving his passion for its 1920’s literary scene.

Book Nook - Blog 4

Travis McGee is a ruggedly handsome rogue living aboard a houseboat moored in Florida. “The Busted Flush” was won in a poker game. In times that he is not at a card game, McGee operates as an unofficial ‘repo’ man. He returns assets to their rightful owners for a 50% reclamation fee.

All John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee novels (there are 21) have a colour in the title. The Deep Blue Goodbye appeared in 1964; The Lonely Silver Rain was published in 1985, a year before the author’s death. Although I suspect many of these Knopf / Fawcett publications are out of print, they should be available through interlibrary loan, or at a reputable used bookstore

In addition to the Travis McGee series, MacDonald published 45 other novels. Condominium was written in 1976 in the era of such disaster epics as Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure. It is eerie to realize his foreboding was realized more than 40 years later with the 2021collapse of the Champlain Towers in Miami.

One More Sunday was MacDonald’s 1984 expose of the big business corruption masquerading as evangelical religion.

Barrier Island was published in 1986, just prior to his death at age 71. Again, it warned of the dangers of greedy overdevelopment. In this case, it was on environmentally sensitive lands prone to hurricanes.