Curled Up With a Good Book and a Cup of Tea

On December 3, 1976, gunmen stormed the house of Bob Marley in Jamaica, two days before he was scheduled to play at a peace concert.  Marley, his wife, and his manager were nearly killed and several others were injured.  But he would go on to perform at the concert two day laters, then leave Jamaica the very next day and not return for two years. At the time of the concert, Jamaica was gearing up for a general election.  The country was divided between the governing People’s National Party (PNP) and the opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), not just at the ballot box but in everyday life.  The parties gave power and wealth to local gangs in exchange for the allegiance of their territories, which led to decades characterized by gang warfare.  The Smile Jamaica concert was meant to bring both sides together, to work toward peace.  But because it was organized by the government, many felt that it was a political event and that by participating in it, M...

Subhash and Udayan Mitra are brothers, fifteen months apart in age and inseparable.  But they are also complete opposites.  Growing up in Calcutta in the 1960’s, the charismatic Udayan is drawn into the Naxalite political movement and drawn into a world of terror and secrecy while under the radar Subhash pursues scientific research and leaves for a quiet life in America. But when Udayan becomes so committed to the movement he risks everything including his life for it, Subhash is drawn back to India, the dutiful son returning to pick up the pieces and heal the family Udayan has left behind.  As decades pass, Subhash’s life is continually touched by the tragedy of Udayan’s life. The Lowland , by Jhumpa Lahiri, is a sweeping story, spanning decades and continents, politics and society.  This a big novel and a touching story that remains long after you turn the last page. This is the first book I have picked up by Lahiri and I did so because of all the bu...

Harold Fry lives in a small English village with his wife Maureen and is recently retired from his job at the local brewery.  Very little distinguishes one day from the next and as each day passes his wife grows more and more annoyed at every thing he does.  They sleep in separate rooms and something remains hanging in the air between them. One morning Harold receives a letter from Queenie Hennessey, a woman he hasn't seen or heard from in twenty years.  Queenie is writing to let Harold know that she is in a hospice and she wants to say goodbye.  Harold writes her a quick reply and sets off to the mailbox on the corner, but when he arrives, he can't bring himself to post it.  So he walks to the next mailbox and then next until he convinces himself that he must deliver his message to Queenie in person.  There are six hundred miles between Harold and Queenie but he knows that as long as he is walking, she will stay alive. With nothing but the clothes on...

Jinx is a woman haunted by her past. Fourteen years ago her mother was brutally murdered in their East London home. She is consumed by the guilt of the part she played in her mothers death and she has let those feelings creep into every part of her life, including her relationship with her five year old son and her estranged husband. But when Jinx thinks she has a handle on things, living the life she deserves, an old friend of her mothers appears on her doorstep out of nowhere. Lemon wants to talk to Jinx and revisit the events that led up to that horrible night. As they spend the next few days immersed in the past, Jinx realizes that this is her one and only chance to confess what she did. But Lemon also has something to confess and Jinx comes to see what really happened the night that changed her life. A Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvette Edwards is a family drama full of jealousy, betrayal, violence and passion. Jumping off the page at you is the richness of the East Lond...

In 1940, war had spread throughout Europe. In Paris, a brilliant young jazz musician named Hiero was arrested by the Nazis. He was a German citizen and Black. Hiero was never heard from again. Fifty years later his friend and fellow musician Sid, who was there the night he was arrested, is at the premiere of a documentary chronicling Hiero's life. The film spurs Sid to relive their time together, a time of brilliant music and culture but also of trouble, racism and war. Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan is an engaging, stunning and original novel set in a time that continues to haunt our world. It is a unique story to emerge from the time period of World War two, giving a voice to to the many stateless people who were lost during that time. What makes this story so gripping is the way it is woven with the beauty and soul of the jazz scene the time. The narrative is in an incredible language of the time, a sort of German-American slang, peppered with jazz and ...

The year is 1851 and Charlie and Eli Sisters, the infamous Sisters Brothers, are travelling from Oregon to California to kill a man. This is what they do as professional killers. But this trip isn't going to be an easy one. Along the way there are many unsettling and violent experiences. And when they arrive in California they find that getting their man isn't going to be as easy as they thought. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt is a fascinating Western taking place in a time when the prospect of gold was enough to make a man abandon all that he has and knows, and when honour and pride are important enough to lead to murder. The book is narrated by Eli, the more sensitive of the two brothers, and chronicles everything whether large or small on their journey. I'm not sure how much of the book stays true to historical details but that doesn't matter in this story. In fact, it probably makes the book much more accessible to readers who don't consider t...

Room is all five-year-old Jack knows. He was born there and it's where he eats, sleeps, learns and grows. Through his imagination, Room has become the real world and what he sees through the television set is just imaginary. Room is also the place where Jack's Ma was imprisoned at the age of nineteen by a man named Old Nick. She has spent seven years in the eleven-by-eleven foot space. Jack's existence and her love for him has led her to create a life in that small space, so that he has no need for or knowledge of the world she was taken from. But as Jack grows physically so does his curiosity about their world and the one in the television, along with Ma's desperate need to escape from Room. Will they make it out and if they do, what awaits them in the Outside? Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Room is deserving of all of the praise it has been getting. This is an easy read about a difficult subject. It has a hint of "ripped from the headlines"...

In the book In A Strange Room we meet Damon, a South African who feels the need to be on the move, constantly travelling from one place to another. The book is divided into three parts, each consisting of a different journey. In the first, Damon is walking through Greece when he meets a German dressed all in black along a trail. Damon is taken by this man named Reiner and later on they meet up and hike through Lesotho. Damon follows Reiner, falling into a curious and unspoken relationship between the two. In the second story, Damon meets a group of European hikers and joins in on their travels through Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya, later meeting up with them in Europe. Here he becomes drawn to and fascinated by one of travellers, though they are separated by language. In the third story, Damon travels to India with a friend who is trying to put her mental illness behind her. But she soon loses control and Damon finds himself as her guardian rather than her travel mate. Each ...

It's the mid-19th century and France is in the middle of a Revolution. Olivier de Garmont is the son of French aristocrats and to say he is a snob is putting it mildly. Parrot is an Englishman who at the age of 12 was forced to flee to Paris after his father was arrested for forging counterfeit currency and ends up working for Olivier's family. When Olivier is sent to America to investigate their penal system, to his dismay he finds that Parrot is being sent along with him as his servant/secretary. The trip does not start out well. Olivier suspects that Parrot has been sent to spy on him by his parents and Parrot deeply resents having to be of service to Olivier, as evidenced through his nickname for him - Lord Migraine. But over time, as they both explore the New World and all of the opportunities it has available for them, their relationship changes and a friendship emerges. Olivier embarks on a wider study of American life and Parrot begins to flourish in the new land....

Born to a field slave on the Amity sugar plantation in Jamaica, July spends her days with her mother in the cane fields. This is until a recently transplanted English widow decides to take eight-year-old July from her mother, move her into the great house, rename her Marguerite and make her a lady's maid. July spends her days taking care of her mistress and remains close to her throughout the Baptist War and eventually, the end of slavery. Even when granted her "freedom" July remains on the plantation with her mistress. But when her mistress leaves the island along with July's lover and young child, she finds herself on her own and starting over as a free woman. The Long Song is an incredible tale of slavery in Jamaica. It encompasses all of the heartbreak, horrors, and tragedies of slavery and yet is a tale of love, determination and resilience. It is told from the perspective of July later in her life, recounting her story as her son has asked her to do. The...