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miramichireader's reviews
676 reviews
Tomas and the Gypsy Violin by Robert Eisenberg
4.0
In it's eighty-some pages, author Robert Eisenberg tells a story that all ages can enjoy. After I finished reading it (perhaps reading it too quickly, but one just has to know what happens to Tomas along the way) I thought how interesting it would have been if some of the chapters told the story from Tomas' perspective as a stranger in a strange land. Then I thought, no. The story unfolds is as if it is all new to us too. Often, we may feel awkward around children not our own, but how much more so when the child speaks very little, comes from a background we are unfamiliar with and shows little to no interest in activities or even in other children. Engrossed in the narrative, we sail along with Frank, Anna and Adam on a voyage of frustration and disappointments, but elation as well when something positive happens and Tomas starts to bloom. We learn along with them as Tomas often plays the role of teacher.
Full review at www.MiramichiReader.ca
Full review at www.MiramichiReader.ca
The Lost Wilderness: Rediscovering W.F. Ganong's New Brunswick by Nicholas Guitard
4.0
This is an attractive book, and it will definitely appeal to naturalists (amateur and professional), historians and armchair adventurers like myself. The excellent photos alone add value to the text, which Mr. Guitard has painstakingly compiled, primarily based on Ganong's own submissions to the Natural History Society from 1882 to 1912. Particularly interesting are Mr. Guitard's own notes he adds at the end of several of the field trips. I imagine that he could have written a book about his own adventures alone. While he doesn't delve too much into Ganong's personal history (it would be worthy of its own book too), he does manage to keep the focus on Ganong's field trips and other sundry items that captured Ganong's interest, such as "The Phantom ship of the Bay of Chaleur" and the Great Fire of Miramichi in 1825. I have chosen The Lost Wilderness as October's non-fiction 'recommended read'.
Read the full review at:: http://miramichireader.ca/2015/10/ganong-lost-wilderness-review
Read the full review at:: http://miramichireader.ca/2015/10/ganong-lost-wilderness-review
A Hero by Charlotte Mendel
4.0
Nova Scotian author Charlotte R. Mendel has written a different kind of novel with A Hero (2015, Inanna Publications*). It is different in that it concerns the lives of an extended Muslim family living in an unnamed post-revolutionary Muslim country. While the family is Muslim, it could be any family living anywhere, from the inner city to the suburbs. In fact, as I started reading the book, it seemed to me like a Muslim version of "All in the Family". That is not meant to take anything away from the story Ms. Mendel has conceived. There are similarities: a conservative, outspoken family head, his timid, loving wife, and his younger, more liberal, if not outright activist children and in-laws.
Meet the Family
But this is no TV comedy, and it is no Muslim soap opera either. It is a serious under-the-microscope study of a family (considered middle-class by their countries standards) living in close conditions under the tough-loving oversight of Mohammed Al-Fakhoury, the family patriarch. The rest of his family consists of: his wife Fatima, their children Abdul and Ali (twins), daughter Zayna and baby Naaman. Then there is: Mohammed's older sister Rana, her husband Hamid and their only child, a son, Mazin. Finally, there is the activist Ahmed, Fatima's younger brother.
Sources of Tension
There are several sources of tension at play against the backdrop of a post-revolutionary regime that is having increasing difficulty in subduing revolutionaries (like Ahmed) who want the next government to be a democratic one, and they want it now. Rana supports Ahmed, and would like to participate in the demonstrations too, but women are not allowed. This causes problems between siblings Rana and Mohammed and since it is his house, his word is law. There are also other issues covered in the text, like the use of the niquab, women's rights, and political and religious freedom. Using a middle-class conservative Muslim family allows Ms. Mendel to cleverly cover all these topics to good effect throughout A Hero.
The rest of my review can be read here: www.MiramichiReader.ca
Meet the Family
But this is no TV comedy, and it is no Muslim soap opera either. It is a serious under-the-microscope study of a family (considered middle-class by their countries standards) living in close conditions under the tough-loving oversight of Mohammed Al-Fakhoury, the family patriarch. The rest of his family consists of: his wife Fatima, their children Abdul and Ali (twins), daughter Zayna and baby Naaman. Then there is: Mohammed's older sister Rana, her husband Hamid and their only child, a son, Mazin. Finally, there is the activist Ahmed, Fatima's younger brother.
Sources of Tension
There are several sources of tension at play against the backdrop of a post-revolutionary regime that is having increasing difficulty in subduing revolutionaries (like Ahmed) who want the next government to be a democratic one, and they want it now. Rana supports Ahmed, and would like to participate in the demonstrations too, but women are not allowed. This causes problems between siblings Rana and Mohammed and since it is his house, his word is law. There are also other issues covered in the text, like the use of the niquab, women's rights, and political and religious freedom. Using a middle-class conservative Muslim family allows Ms. Mendel to cleverly cover all these topics to good effect throughout A Hero.
The rest of my review can be read here: www.MiramichiReader.ca
Knife Party at the Hotel Europa by Mark Anthony Jarman
5.0
A man, let’s call him Adam (since one of the stories in this collection is called Adam and Eve Saved from Drowning, and Eve is the name of his cousin and sometime traveling companion) is trying to escape his past: a failed marriage, children grown and out of the house, and the beautiful woman that he left his wife for suddenly departs his life. Might as well go to Italy for the summer where he sweats it out, escapes a knife party (knives figures prominently throughout the book), gets drunk, takes drugs, considers becoming the next Pope and falls in love with his pretty cousin Eve. Among other things.
In a book that is reminiscent of Hunter S. Thompson's [b:The Rum Diary|18864|The Rum Diary|Hunter S. Thompson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1430534762s/18864.jpg|69675] you will see Italy (primarily Rome and Pompeii) in a special, magical kind of travelogue while our man wrestles with his past and stumbles through the present: "I consume Italy and Italy consumes me, devours me like a woman. I love it, love the wild sea and crazy cliffs and hilltop vistas and then the smudged slums on the horizon like magic, spires vibrating over the rails like a charcoal etching and we step off the train into the tremors and treasures of each Italian city."
This book is full of such inspired thoughts and Jarman is a master at putting words on a page like a jazz musician fills the air with myriad notes for your interpretation. Five stars for a very special book, one that is definitely on my to-reread shelf.
In a book that is reminiscent of Hunter S. Thompson's [b:The Rum Diary|18864|The Rum Diary|Hunter S. Thompson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1430534762s/18864.jpg|69675] you will see Italy (primarily Rome and Pompeii) in a special, magical kind of travelogue while our man wrestles with his past and stumbles through the present: "I consume Italy and Italy consumes me, devours me like a woman. I love it, love the wild sea and crazy cliffs and hilltop vistas and then the smudged slums on the horizon like magic, spires vibrating over the rails like a charcoal etching and we step off the train into the tremors and treasures of each Italian city."
This book is full of such inspired thoughts and Jarman is a master at putting words on a page like a jazz musician fills the air with myriad notes for your interpretation. Five stars for a very special book, one that is definitely on my to-reread shelf.
Till the Boys Come Home: Life on the Home Front in Queens County, Nb, 1914-1918 by Curtis Mainville
3.0
I liked this little book, it was especially helpful in understanding how WWI affected the small NB community of Queen's County. For NB armchair historians like myself.
One chapter I found very enjoyable to read was chapter five, "A Community Abroad" in which the importance of letter writing during the war is highlighted. It worked both ways: it made the soldier feel connected to happenings at home and it made the folks at home feel they were encouraging their loved ones fighting in a world so far away. This chapter reminded me of a book I had reviewed previously called Letters Home (2014 Nimbus). The one thing that stands out from all the letters is the determination to see the war through. For example, these words come from a letter home from Sergeant W.W. Allingham: "We would be glad for the sake of the world to see the thing finished, but there is not a man I know who is not glad to stay to the finish, be it long or short."
Also included in the book are two appendices, one is a roll of honour of the Queens County residents who died in the war, the other a list of decorated men and women from the county. There is also a selected bibliography and an index, all of which make this book an indispensable reference work for the New Brunswick/WWI historian or researcher.
One chapter I found very enjoyable to read was chapter five, "A Community Abroad" in which the importance of letter writing during the war is highlighted. It worked both ways: it made the soldier feel connected to happenings at home and it made the folks at home feel they were encouraging their loved ones fighting in a world so far away. This chapter reminded me of a book I had reviewed previously called Letters Home (2014 Nimbus). The one thing that stands out from all the letters is the determination to see the war through. For example, these words come from a letter home from Sergeant W.W. Allingham: "We would be glad for the sake of the world to see the thing finished, but there is not a man I know who is not glad to stay to the finish, be it long or short."
Also included in the book are two appendices, one is a roll of honour of the Queens County residents who died in the war, the other a list of decorated men and women from the county. There is also a selected bibliography and an index, all of which make this book an indispensable reference work for the New Brunswick/WWI historian or researcher.
The Memory Chair by Susan White
3.0
I must admit to a certain guilty pleasure that comes from reading and reviewing Young Adult (YA) novels. First of all, they are an 'easy' read; the stories are often straightforward, devoid of gratuitous sex, profanity and violence (in most cases) and the author's message is clear. Secondly, it makes me see things through the eyes of a young person, often taking me back in time to my own adolescent years. This was the case with New Brunswick author Susan White's The Memory Chair (2015, Acorn Press), which was recently chosen by the Canadian Children's Book Centre as one of their Best Books for Kids and Teens.
It is the story of Betony, a thirteen-year-old girl who is often dragged along by her father when he visits Gram, Betony's great-grandmother. The house is old and stuffy and is way too warm for her, as a wood fire is always burning in the stove. This was the familiar part for me: I usually went along with my father on Saturday mornings when he would visit my maternal grandmother and help her out with odd jobs she needed doing. Her house was old and old-smelling. She was old too (1892-1969, so I was only 8 years old when she passed away at age 77) and kinda scary to a young fellow like me. However, she always had some kind of baked goods available and she always gave me 'coppers' as the penny was commonly known as then. I usually looked through the local Saturday paper as Dad puttered around. I don't recall conversing much with her, but then I was always an introvert and it was still in the day when children were seen and not heard, so I can well identify with Betony's situation.
However, it is her Gram's old chair that changes everything for Betony.
You can read the rest of my review at www.MiramichiReader.ca
It is the story of Betony, a thirteen-year-old girl who is often dragged along by her father when he visits Gram, Betony's great-grandmother. The house is old and stuffy and is way too warm for her, as a wood fire is always burning in the stove. This was the familiar part for me: I usually went along with my father on Saturday mornings when he would visit my maternal grandmother and help her out with odd jobs she needed doing. Her house was old and old-smelling. She was old too (1892-1969, so I was only 8 years old when she passed away at age 77) and kinda scary to a young fellow like me. However, she always had some kind of baked goods available and she always gave me 'coppers' as the penny was commonly known as then. I usually looked through the local Saturday paper as Dad puttered around. I don't recall conversing much with her, but then I was always an introvert and it was still in the day when children were seen and not heard, so I can well identify with Betony's situation.
However, it is her Gram's old chair that changes everything for Betony.
You can read the rest of my review at www.MiramichiReader.ca
Travel is so Broadening by Wasela Hiyate
2.0
Out of the nine stories in Travel Is So Broadening I enjoyed about two-thirds of them, but as they say, your mileage may vary. The ones I liked best were the ones that leave you thinking, considering what you would have done as the tourist in that country, or if you were the one having to live and work in a different country just to escape poverty and strife back home. In this way, these nine stories about travel are broadening in the fullest sense of the word.