Let's take a moment for me to orient you to what's here
On the pages linked to this one there are dozens of book reviews.
To make finding what will interest you easier, I've given you two browsing pages (the Book Shelves) -- one for fiction, the other for non-fiction. If you hover your cursor over the title, my rating of the book appears. Then there are two pages of reviews (right .... one for fiction, one for non-fiction). I've arranged all the books in each category in alphabetical order by author.
I approach my book reviews from the perspective of my subjective experience of reading the book. There is a bit of a synopsis of the book there too, but you will figure out how I feel about it.
Here are the links:
Fiction Bookshelf
Non-Fiction Bookshelf
Fiction Reviews
Non-Fiction Reviews
But that's not all that's here on these pages. Immediately below is a review of my most recent reads. Below that is the title of the book I am currently reading.
And then we get to my faves. There is a memoir I really recommend (and a couple of other memoirs too). Then there are my top picks for each of the fiction and non-fiction categories. Finally, there's an interesting grouping of four books that have helped me come to terms with a perplexing social/ political issue.
To make finding what will interest you easier, I've given you two browsing pages (the Book Shelves) -- one for fiction, the other for non-fiction. If you hover your cursor over the title, my rating of the book appears. Then there are two pages of reviews (right .... one for fiction, one for non-fiction). I've arranged all the books in each category in alphabetical order by author.
I approach my book reviews from the perspective of my subjective experience of reading the book. There is a bit of a synopsis of the book there too, but you will figure out how I feel about it.
Here are the links:
Fiction Bookshelf
Non-Fiction Bookshelf
Fiction Reviews
Non-Fiction Reviews
But that's not all that's here on these pages. Immediately below is a review of my most recent reads. Below that is the title of the book I am currently reading.
And then we get to my faves. There is a memoir I really recommend (and a couple of other memoirs too). Then there are my top picks for each of the fiction and non-fiction categories. Finally, there's an interesting grouping of four books that have helped me come to terms with a perplexing social/ political issue.
RICHLER, Mordecai
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
★★★★☆
What does it take for a man to be a man, to be admired for what he has accomplished?
When we first meet Duddy Kravitz, seemingly the worst of a gang of high school boys, he doesn’t know. A few chapters into the book Duddy’s grandfather gives him the answer and Duddy latches onto his advice. Relentlessly so, despite adversity. Duddy is determined to be that man whom others will admire and his grandpa told him what he needed to do to achieve that. In this story of his apprenticeship he’s not even legally an adult yet, but he is determined he will get there, and do so as quickly as possible.
You gotta respect that eh?
The story of Duddy’s apprenticeship takes us deep into old Montreal in the mid 20th Century. We walk the streets of the iconic neighbourhood of Mile End with him. Duddy’s story immerses us in the Jewish culture of Montreal, not the isolated Hassidic culture but those living and trying to succeed in the world of the goy. His journey also takes him up into the recreation lands of the Laurentian’s to the north. I loved this aspect of the novel because two years ago, I also walked the same Montreal streets and did that journey into those mountains and lakes.
As readers we want to cheer for the protagonist on a hero’s journey, the facing of adversity, the trying of this and that to succeed against all odds. However, we’re left with deep ambivalence about Duddy. By the end of his apprenticeship we fear and loathe his success rather than celebrate it. Even his grandfather doesn’t seem very pleased. I'm even glad Richler never wrote a sequel to the novel to tell us where Duddy went from there.
I couldn’t stop thinking about Donald Trump as I read Duddy Kravitz (although thinking about Trump is the hazard of watching the Canadian news these days). Apparently, Donald Trump has amassed enormous additional wealth through the manner in which he has handled his presidency. Like Duddy he ceaselessly pursues the goal of personal enrichment and to be admired.
Both Duddy and Donald reveal the treachery of what it is to have a goal, to relentlessly work to achieve it without regard for anything else, the shallowness and loneliness of it all.
When we first meet Duddy Kravitz, seemingly the worst of a gang of high school boys, he doesn’t know. A few chapters into the book Duddy’s grandfather gives him the answer and Duddy latches onto his advice. Relentlessly so, despite adversity. Duddy is determined to be that man whom others will admire and his grandpa told him what he needed to do to achieve that. In this story of his apprenticeship he’s not even legally an adult yet, but he is determined he will get there, and do so as quickly as possible.
You gotta respect that eh?
The story of Duddy’s apprenticeship takes us deep into old Montreal in the mid 20th Century. We walk the streets of the iconic neighbourhood of Mile End with him. Duddy’s story immerses us in the Jewish culture of Montreal, not the isolated Hassidic culture but those living and trying to succeed in the world of the goy. His journey also takes him up into the recreation lands of the Laurentian’s to the north. I loved this aspect of the novel because two years ago, I also walked the same Montreal streets and did that journey into those mountains and lakes.
As readers we want to cheer for the protagonist on a hero’s journey, the facing of adversity, the trying of this and that to succeed against all odds. However, we’re left with deep ambivalence about Duddy. By the end of his apprenticeship we fear and loathe his success rather than celebrate it. Even his grandfather doesn’t seem very pleased. I'm even glad Richler never wrote a sequel to the novel to tell us where Duddy went from there.
I couldn’t stop thinking about Donald Trump as I read Duddy Kravitz (although thinking about Trump is the hazard of watching the Canadian news these days). Apparently, Donald Trump has amassed enormous additional wealth through the manner in which he has handled his presidency. Like Duddy he ceaselessly pursues the goal of personal enrichment and to be admired.
Both Duddy and Donald reveal the treachery of what it is to have a goal, to relentlessly work to achieve it without regard for anything else, the shallowness and loneliness of it all.
My most recent non-fiction review
BEATTIE, Owen & GEIGER, John
Frozen in Time:
The fate of the Franklin Expedition
★★★★★
Roughly two centuries separate our current focus on the Canadian Arctic with respect to national defence and sovereignty from when it was the focus of international attention with respect to trade. What happened back in the mid 19th Century was truly the stuff of legends, captured in that classic Canadian folksong, The Northwest Passage, written by Stan Rogers.
Thanks to archeology we now understand what happened to the British explorers leading to such tragedy in our Canadian Arctic Archipelago. And it all comes down to the unintended consequences of a technological advance.
When we think of the challenges of Arctic exploration we consider the deep and profound cold, the ice floes blocking the way and trapping the ships, the months’ long winter night, the lack of locally available food sources. What a perilous journey those explorers took into uncharted territory! But through this book we learn the root cause of the deaths of so many sailors and the failure of the mission: their tin cans of food.
Frozen in Time documents Owen Beattie’s findings as a Canadian archeologist unravelling the mystery behind the Franklin expedition. Beattie puts the story together by following a sparse trail of artifacts left 130 years before to finally exhuming the mummified bodies of sailors buried in the permafrost, performing their autopsies graveside in the Canadian Arctic. The ships had been well-stocked with tinned foods, a recent technological achievement intended to be a defence against scurvy. Unfortunately at that point in history the tins were sealed with lead solder. The lead seeped into the food with the result of severe lead poisoning. Progressive debility, both physical and mental, then took the crews of the ship, rendering them unable to survive.
Frozen in time is compellingly written. There is a smashingly good introduction provided by Margaret Atwood to start the reader off. My reading buddy found a great National Film Board documentary, Passages, covering the same story providing an inside look at the historical context and video of the Canadian Arctic. The documentary is well worth watching as a supplement to the book.
And then there’s that Stan Rogers song which embeds itself as an ear worm, hauntingly adding the emotional element of the saga.
Finally, there is the core message. We can get poisoned by our technological advances. How true. Beware.
Thanks to archeology we now understand what happened to the British explorers leading to such tragedy in our Canadian Arctic Archipelago. And it all comes down to the unintended consequences of a technological advance.
When we think of the challenges of Arctic exploration we consider the deep and profound cold, the ice floes blocking the way and trapping the ships, the months’ long winter night, the lack of locally available food sources. What a perilous journey those explorers took into uncharted territory! But through this book we learn the root cause of the deaths of so many sailors and the failure of the mission: their tin cans of food.
Frozen in Time documents Owen Beattie’s findings as a Canadian archeologist unravelling the mystery behind the Franklin expedition. Beattie puts the story together by following a sparse trail of artifacts left 130 years before to finally exhuming the mummified bodies of sailors buried in the permafrost, performing their autopsies graveside in the Canadian Arctic. The ships had been well-stocked with tinned foods, a recent technological achievement intended to be a defence against scurvy. Unfortunately at that point in history the tins were sealed with lead solder. The lead seeped into the food with the result of severe lead poisoning. Progressive debility, both physical and mental, then took the crews of the ship, rendering them unable to survive.
Frozen in time is compellingly written. There is a smashingly good introduction provided by Margaret Atwood to start the reader off. My reading buddy found a great National Film Board documentary, Passages, covering the same story providing an inside look at the historical context and video of the Canadian Arctic. The documentary is well worth watching as a supplement to the book.
And then there’s that Stan Rogers song which embeds itself as an ear worm, hauntingly adding the emotional element of the saga.
Finally, there is the core message. We can get poisoned by our technological advances. How true. Beware.
What I'm currently reading
A highly recommended memoir.
The Dark Threads (★★★★★) is a memoir of an unnecessary and traumatic journey of a young woman through the mental health treatment system. I have the privilege of getting to know this author (we met on Twitter no less!). We are beta-readers for each other and email pals with daily correspondence. Her memoir depicts psychiatric diagnosis and treatment at it's worse. It is horrifying to read. But she has survived.
I have also pictured below a couple of other memoirs which I really enjoyed.
I have also pictured below a couple of other memoirs which I really enjoyed.
And some other fascinating memoirs...
My Fiction Faves
You can find the reviews for these books with the other fiction reviews through this link
My Non-Fiction Faves
You can find the reviews for these books with the other non- fiction reviews through this link.
A final thought ...
While I worked as a psychologist I didn't have the time or mental energy to read. The books reviewed on the following pages have come into my life over the last seven years. I've found myself expanded by them in understanding the human condition and the context in which we explore our subjective experience of living the life we have. I hope you will find here the books that will do that for you too.