The Girl with Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee

I appear to be on a non-fiction kick of some kind.  It's weird, I sometimes seem to get really into one topic and I'll read everything I can on that topic - I did it at one point with Henry VIII, with the Fundamentalist Mormon Cult, Evangelical Christianity/Quiverfull cults, and North Korea.  So, when a new book comes out on any of these topics I am all over it and I was very excited when this title came across my desk.

I've read a few other memoirs by people who have escaped North Korea but this was the first by someone who enjoyed a relatively privileged life there before they left.  I think the largest difference is that this is the first time I've heard someone talk about their strong desire (and attempt to make plans) to move back.  Obviously, this plan never happened and I can't think it would have ended well, but still.

Another thing that struck me was how easy their family lead their double life as stand up North Korean citizens and also ran a successful smuggling business - and how there was no conflict of interest in their minds.  Obviously, I have never lived in communism but this is a common theme I've heard of from people who have.  It seems that "communism" (and I don't think we can really call North Korea communist, but that's another conversation) in practice can't meet the needs of it's people adequately and the need for a grey or black market is part of the system - it's how the people get their needs met.

Anyway, this was a well written book by a woman who has lived an incredible life and has shown herself to be tough as nails - she's about my age and now I feel like a schmuck only speaking one language and complaining about my life.  So thanks for the public shaming, Hyeonseo Lee.  Four illegal South Korean pop CDs out of five.

Bonk by Mary Roach

I am a terrible book reviewer, i've been meaning to write this post for like, six weeks.  Anyway, ages ago I read Bonk on the recommendation of a book club chum.  This is a really engaging review of how science has chosen to study sex.

Everyone loves reading about sex.  I mean, come on.  It's so fun!  Mary Roach understands this and you can tell - she loves talking about it.  Her commentary, while always professional, is witty and observational.  I loved her footnotes - they were arguably the most interesting little side bits and I definitely looked crazy laughing to myself on the bus.

Mary Roach has written other books, one about the science around paranormal investigation and one around death.  I have put both of these on my list - definitely worth a read.  Five glass dildo-cameras out of five.

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín

I started this book right after reading Station Eleven and that was a mistake.  Brooklyn’s prose just didn’t hold up.  Although, to be fair, Station Eleven was a hard act to follow. 

Brooklyn centres around the story of Eilis, a young (early twenties?) Irish girl who leaves her family in the early 50’s to seek out better opportunities in America.  And she did.  It was really straightforward!

I think if you suggested this book as a novel for a Catholic church book club, you’d have a winner on your hands.  The church features prominently and you can tell that the author himself is “of the people” (I can say that because so am I, haha).  He really nails the RC factor.  What I can’t tell is if everyone in the 50’s was really this pious or if that’s just the way Colm writes ‘em.  Like, what 20 year old girl is checking everything with her priest?  I don’t think my own Oma did that and she’s both a big RC fan and of the same era as this character. 

What made this book only ok was that it tells you exactly what’s going on.  There is never any subtext.  Most of the writing was along the lines of “She thought this was what he was thinking.  She was wrong, he thought this.  Then they went to the beach”.  I mean, obviously the author did a better job than me, but you never had to wonder what was going on or what people were thinking.  He really just spelled it out for you.

Overall, this was pleasant and forgettable – the fantastic A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or the Namesake does a much better job of bringing the pre-hipster Brooklyn or the immigrant experience to light.  I can actually see how this story would make a better movie than book – the lack of narration would lend it a bit more mystery and gravitas.

It was fine.  I give it three Saturdays at confession out of five.  Now let us all turn to our neighbours and offer a sign of peace.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Station Eleven is the best book I've read in 2016!  It's also only the second, so we will see how long it holds top spot.

That said, this was truly and excellent book.  Recommended to me by my good friend and Librarian extraordinaire, I also received this one for Christmas.  It tells the story of the collapse of society after an epidemic that kills 99% of the population.  Going back and forth through time to before the outbreak and after through the eyes of about a half dozen different characters, it examines how people survive and thrive.

The book centres around the heart attack and death of a famous actor performing King Lear in Toronto, on outbreak day one.  From there, we are taken to twenty years later and a band of roving artists performing shakespeare across the wasteland and their experience with a village of extreme religious fundamentalists.  Back and forth, it jumps through various points of time through a few perspectives as they all move to pull together a final portrait of a dead man.

This book was both a delight to read but also made me want to tell everyone about it - and let me tell you, I don't do that all the time (I read some embarrassing crap).  I think I have awkwardly promised to pass my copy on to a few different people, which should prove to be awkward as they all come calling over the next few days.

I'd give this book five out of five post-apocalyptic car-corpses.  If the end times come, I am going to not do too well, I like my conveniences I have learned.

The Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie

The first book of 2016!  Technically, this was mostly read in 2015 but this is my blog and I make the rules, so it counts I say.

Anyway, coming out of the holidays I was desperate for some relaxation and so I picked the least challenging book from the stack I received at Christmas.  Christmas sets me up for months!

This was a fun, easy read about four sisters who end up over time becoming various mistresses to Louis XV.  It's based in fact but obviously, heavily fictionalized.  I love a good saucy historical novel so I was pretty excited to get into it.  What I liked was that it was well-researched and you could tell that the author did more than a cursory google search.

I also liked that the sisters were all well written without being overly saccharine - they were still products of their time and in some cases, weren't the most likeable of characters.  The book would have been a lot duller if they were all various copies of each other without any sharp points or bad decisions.

Books like this make me think I could do this - write a book or at least a short story that at once appeals to modern audiences but while still being respectful and truthful to the source material.  I am sure it's easier in my head than it is in reality though, haha.

Anyway, The Sisters of Versailles was a great start to 2016 without being too depressing, so I give it three and a half slut-shaming tabloid rags out of five.  On to the next!

Weeeeeeee'rrreeeee Back!

Well, it's been seven years but you know what?  I think 2016 will need to be another book blog year.  It will be kind of cool to see how things have changed.  Have my tastes changed?  What am I making time in my life to read?  Am I more or less patient with books than I was seven years ago?  Mysteries that will all be solved!

One thing that I know has definitely changed is that I don't read as many books as I did seven years ago.  Don't get me wrong, I still read a ton, but I don't think I'll take down 75 books in 2016 like I did in 2009.  But maybe I am wrong!

There are some awesome books that have come out recently or are scheduled to come out in 2016.  I am pretty excited to read a bunch of them.  High on my list are:


Winner of the 2015 man Booker Prize, "A Brief History of Seven Killings" sounds really interesting.  It looks to be an epic that explores the instability of Jamaica in the 1970's and presumably, the politics and lives of Jamaican immigrants over a period of a few decades.  I love politics and I love epics so this should be damn good.  I'm hoping Santa is good to me!

Recommended to me by my good friend and Librarian buddy, "Station Eleven" is a dystopian tale about a band of theatre artists performing Shakespeare across the wasteland.  I've been meaning to read this one for a while (Canadian, threatre, dytopian future, hot damn).




I only got around to reading "To Kill a Mockingbird" for the first time this year.  Of course, it was fantastic.  Now I am excited to read the sequel, especially with the original so fresh in my mind.  I've heard that a lot of lifelong fans of Mockingbird have had a difficult time with the way Atticus is written.  Honestly, in the first one I didn't find him all that enlightened of a person by today's perspective.  Just because he's not SUPER racist doesn't make him an equality freedom fighter - I think Harper Lee wrote a more accurate portrayal of a white man of the time and era who was a little more open minded than most.  I think some of it is a bit of a wishful-reading scenario by a lot of today's well meaning progressive folks.  Anyway, long story short, I'd like to read the follow-up and see for myself.



There are tons more, I think this reboot project is going to be really awesome, I can't wait to start!

Yes My Darling Daughter

Again (and I guess finally as the last book of 2009), we have this library find. The cover makes it look like a cheesy novel for empty-nesters (at least to me), but it was actually a pretty well written story about reincarnation and a young mother trying to help her child through some pretty creepy issues.

Taking place in London and Ireland, the story surrounded a young single mother with a very disturbed little girl, who is apparently stuck in her existence in a past life and the murder that ended it. As cheesy as that sounds, it was actually fairly believable and a pretty decent vacation read - the characters were honest and sympathetic and the mystery wasn't too glaringly obvious. Like most mysteries, the unravelling of the ending gets a bit silly but it was no better or worse than any other book of the genre.

3 creepy abandoned mines out of 5.