Curled Up With a Good Book and a Cup of Tea

Faye, a British writer, is spending a part of her summer in Athens teaching a writing course.  But it is the people she meets along the way that define her trip.   There is something about Faye that people want to tell her their stories the moment she meets them.  It begins with the passenger sitting next to her on her flight.  He tells her of his childhood, failed marriages, and the boat he owns in Greece, which he offers to take her on.  And from there, she continues to meet people who tell her of their loves and loss, their hopes and dreams, their pasts and presents.  And though Faye is mostly the listener, her story slowly begins to emerge amongst the others. Outline , by Rachel Cusk, is a collection of stories all told to the same person. It’s not a book that is plot-driven, but rather character-driven, told through conversations. Upon beginning this book, I really didn’t think it would be a book for me.  I didn’t think I would care...

Tom and Charlie are two men who have decided to live out the last years of their lives on their own in a remote forest in Northern Ontario.  Their only contact with the outside world are the men who grow marijuana on their land and bring them supplies.  But all of this changes with the arrival of two women. A young photographer comes first.  She is looking for one of the last known survivors of the catastrophic fires that swept the area almost a century earlier.  This man, Ted, used to live with Tom and Charlie but is recently deceased.  The second arrival is the elderly aunt of one of the men who brings them their deliveries.  The woman who wants to be known as Marie-Desneige, has been living in a psychiatric institution since the age of sixteen.  After the four of them come across what Ted has left behind, a magnificent series of paintings about the fires, they put together the history of the man and the region.  And as they do so, th...

Luc Lévesque is known as the Voice of a Generation in the province of Quebec.  A celebrated novelist, his combination of books about his Montreal neighbourhood and his separatist views have made him a hero to many.  His wife Hannah, faithfully translates his book into English.  But she has spent her adult life distancing herself from her family, especially her father who was a special prosecutor during the October Crisis. Hugo is the fourteen-year-old son of Luc and Hannah.  Growing up in Montreal, in a dual French/English household and in the shadow of his father, he struggles with finding his own identity.  One day, when he commits a reckless act at school, the whole family must deal with the fallout.   My October , by Claire Holden Rothman, is the tale of one family in whom the past and present of a province collide.  A family that is torn apart by history and language, the book explores what happens to a family when they all struggle wit...

Snow Falls, a young Iroquois girl, has witnessed the brutal murder of her family at the hands of a Huron warrior.  That warrior, Bird, sees in her the ghost of his murdered daughter and recognizes the special powers that Snow Falls possesses so he kidnaps her to take on the rest of his journey.  One member of Bird's group is Christophe, a Jesuit missionary who has devoted himself to learning the language and culture of the Huron in the hopes that he can bring them to Christ. Bird's tribe have long been at war with other tribes but now they are facing a bigger threat, one that comes from overseas.  As we follow Snow Falls, Bird, and Christophe, we see a people desperately trying to hold on to their way of life and a people trying to lead them to a new life.  As these two worlds collide, life changes dramatically for everyone. The Orenda is Joseph Boyden's incredible new novel that looks at the beginnings of our country and takes readers on an incredi...