Readers Café - Staff Picks

Desperate Romantics: The Private Lives of the Pre-Raphaelites
By Franny Moyle

Reviewed by Emily McLaughlin - Adult Information Services

John Ruskin, art critic extraordinaire, was mentor to two generations of painters and poets in the late Victorian era.  He and his proteges are profiled by Franny Moyle in Desperate Romantics. John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti were painters who secretly formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, signing their paintings with the mysterious initials PRB. They intentionally set out to challenge the stifling authority of the Royal Academy, and their highly unconventional love lives upset the social mores, and class barriers of the day. Later William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, as young Oxford students, sought out Ruskin and Rossetti, and a new cycle of painting, poetry, and the collaborative design of fine home furnishings began.

With meticulous research Franny Moyle depicts the lives of these men and their women (artist’s models), focusing on the art, and creative genius at the centre of the maelstrom. In spite of the subject matter Desperate Romantics is not sensational; it is an astute account of the extraordinary lives of these young bohemians, and the advances they made in art, criticism, poetry and craft. It is a fascinating step back in time, illuminating the art world and social customs of the late Victorian era.

More Than Genes
By Dan Agin.

Reviewed by Nancy Fischer - Adult Information Services

In More Than Genes, Professor Dan Agin presents a highly accessible update of one facet of an age old argument: nature versus nuture. Agin's focus is the interaction of genes and environmental challenges during human gestation. He discusses the importance of the timing of these toxic assaults on the developing fetus. The examples cited are diverse and include chemical agents, radiation, nutritional deprivation, maternal stress, and the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.

In the case of maternal stress, the author reveals a growing body of evidence that maternal stress during pregnancy not only results in intrauterine biochemical changes but can irreversibly affect the stress response of her offspring. Some anxiety disorders can be attributed to gestational stress.

Agin concludes that if we abandon the naïve idea of "immaculate gestation" we will better protect fetal development. Fetal damage should not be accepted as a genetic imperative but viewed as "a tractable problem, much of it man-made."

Aya: The Secrets Come Out
By Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie. Translated by Helge Dascher.

Reviewed by Tina Dolcetti- Adult Information Services

Aya: The Secrets Come Out is full of complicated romances and social change. It's the third book in the award-winning Aya series. Aya, the main character in this colourful graphic book series, is a studious African teenager growing up on the dynamic Ivory Coast of the 1970s.

In this book, Aya patiently prepares her friends Bintou, Adjoua, and Felicite for the local beauty pageant, and provides ongoing support for them throughout all the difficulties they face. The tensions in this book come to a head quickly, when Aya's father's mistress brings her children for a visit and abandons them. Added to this, Bintou's father decides to marry one of Aya's friends, and Bintou plans to leave.

Readers will find that Abouet's writing and Oubrerie's illustrations tell Aya's story in a way that is sensitive, realistic, and at times, even humorous. Additionally, the recipes, tips and glossary at the back of the book give readers a light-hearted wider view of African culture.

A History of Canadian Culture
By Jonathan F. Vance, 2009

Reviewed by Bernadette Preyde - Adult Information Services

Since 'culture' can encompass anything that characterizes a society, in this fascinating new book historian Jonathan Vance narrows the definition to the evolution of the arts in Canada.

Beginning with Canada's First Nations, he discusses Aboriginal art and its inextricable link to their very survival. European explorers of the day were surprised by the song and clothing of the 'savages'. In a very broad study of European contact, Vance traces the impact of geography, war, religion, cultural imperialism, trade, and other factors that would shape Canadian art (painting, music, literature, sculpture and drama) and by extension, Canadian identity. Vance also examines high culture versus popular culture, and the role of the government in subsidizing and protecting Canada's arts. Engaging and informative, full of photographs spanning centuries of art, Vance's book is wonderful storytelling.

Love and Obstacles
By Aleksandar Hemon

Reviewed by Emily McLaughlin - Adult Information Services

Aleksandar Hemon, author of the novel The Lazarus Project, immigrated to the US from Sarajevo in 1992, and has since been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur "Genius" Grant. Love and Obstacles is his most recent work, a collection of short stories unified by the narrator, a young man raised in Sarajevo. The stories set in Sarajevo range from childhood adventures bordering on disaster, to absurd teenage misadventures in search of sex. His parents and sister are a loving though infuriating presence. As an adult he travels to the US just before war breaks out. Trapped there, his experience of the West is at times painfully disjunctive.

Hemon’s use of English is creative and unexpected. His narrator's merciless observations of himself and others are hilarious. These stories resonate together to create a funny, poignant, and deeply insightful work.

How to Lie With Statistics
By Darrell Huff Illustrated by Irving Geis

Reviewed by Tim Neale- Adult Information Services

Over 50 years after its publication, How to Lie with Statistics is still in print and is by far the best selling statistics book ever published.  The main reasons for this popularity are Darrell Huff's entertaining and humorous writing style and Irving Geis' cartoon illustrations that drive home each of Huff's points.

How to Lie with Statistics is only 142 illustrated pages.  The first four chapters deal with the basics of statistical manipulation; chapters 5 and 6 look at graphs and charts distorting "truth"; chapters 7 and 8 examine relating unrelated results.  Chapter 9, titled "How to Statisticulate" illustrates how to throw numbers around to misinform people through statistical manipulation.  The final chapter examines critical analysis and is called "How to Talk Back to Statistics".

Though the examples are dated, each still rings true today.  When examining sample bias, Huff looks at the average Yale graduate making an exorbitant $25,111 per year, before showing how the figure was derived from the results of the most successful graduates and illustrating how the " … clerks, mechanics, tramps, unemployed alcoholics, barely surviving writers and artists …" are least likely to be included in the survey.  The exaggerated graph, another distorted statistic, is alive and well at the stock exchange.  Stock graphs never start at $0 so changes always appear exaggerated.

The book is full of amusing statistical examples that appeared in the media in the decade preceding the book's publication.  The following is an example that highlights the era that the book comes from, " … someone not enamored with coeducation reported a real shocker: Thirty-three and one-third percent of women at [John] Hopkins had married a faculty member!".  Huff goes on to point out that the statistic was based on only 3 women students and only one had married a faculty member.

The examples and illustrations make this timeless book a quick, fun, and informative read.

The Spare Room
By Helen Garner

Reviewed by Nancy Fischer- Adult Information Services

Author Helen Garner is legendary, if controversial, in her native Australia. In her first work of fiction in fifteen years, The Spare Room, she has written a swift, taut, novel exploring the limits of friendship.

Helen agrees to let her eccentric, longtime friend Nicola come to Melbourne and occupy her spare room while Nicola undergoes an extremely questionable alternative treatment for her late-stage cancer. Helen, a recently retired grandmother, has been greatly enjoying the company of her young grandchildren but they can no longer visit when Helen is suddenly compelled into the role of sole caregiver for this difficult and needy middle-aged patient. Clear-eyed and candid, Garner develops the sorrow, the conflicts, the ceaseless physical effort, exhaustion and, most poignantly, the anger as this trying arrangement progresses.

Garner's remarkable observational skill allows her to write with graceful simplicity and complex humour. She relates Helen and Nicola’s story, a story that has a strong autobiographical component, with clarity and honesty. Garner’s masterful treatment of this heartbreaking territory resonates deeply.

Somewhere Towards the End
By Diana Athill

Reviewed by Marilyn Goodchild- Adult Information Services

Somewhere towards the end is a literary jewel, a moving humorous account of old age. Chapters on youthful love affairs, sex over sixty and the indignities of aging are written with an abundance of humour and grace.  The book won the Costa Biography award in 2008.

Now over ninety, Diana Athill helped Andre Deutsch establish the publishing company that bore his name and her work in that industry continued long after normal retirement age.

Luckily for us the best part of old age for Diana Athill has been the luck to discover she can write!

"I depend so much on reading because I never developed the habit of watching television".  Describing her four favourite books makes one want to sit down and read them immediately.

A life lived with few regrets she faces death head on, and her frank honest book is a joy to read.

The Story of a Widow
By Musharraf Ali Faroogi

Reviewed by Kate Gibson- Adult Information Services

A beautifully written novel, Toronto writer, Farooqi, sets his story in Karachi.  Mona is recently widowed.    Her arranged marriage to Akbar Ahmad has been the focus of her entire adult life and now, after 30 years, she suddenly has freedom and financial independence.   She makes tentative forays into her new life.  She shops and goes to the movies on her own but when the neighbour's new tenant, Salamat Ali, flirts with her, she is conflicted.   He is flashy and mysterious and his attention scandalizes her and her family's traditional sensibilities.  He proposes marriage and she, to the outrage of many, accepts.    She has made her first life choice and it has reverberations.

The story isn't predictable.   There are twists as Mona faces each challenge on her own terms. 

American Wife
By Curtis Sittenfeld

Reviewed by Emily McLaughlin- Adult Information Services

Alice Lindgren grew up an only child in the small town of Riley, Wisconsin. She formed a special bond with her paternal grandmother who passed on to Alice a love of reading and an appreciation for life lived beyond the status quo. At the age of seventeen Alice was involved in a car accident in which the life of a young man very dear to her was taken. Although Alice was not seriously injured, this event remained with her for the rest of her life.

Becoming an elementary school librarian she found real joy in the children she taught. One night at a neighbourhood barbeque she met Charlie Blackwell, a charming, funny and fun loving member of the wealthy Blackwell clan. Surprising herself she fell in love. They marry, and for years their relationship seemed just about perfect. As Charlie relinquished his interest in the family business to pursue politics, he found God, and, amazingly, became President of the United States.

If any of this sounds vaguely familiar – it should. American Wife is a well researched, veiled account of the life of Laura Bush. It is a compassionate and intimate portrayal of a marriage of opposites; and a fascinating fictional response to the hypothetical question – what would happen if a Democrat was married to a Republican president?

"Jane Packer's Guide to Flower Arranging: Easy Techniques for Fabulous Flower Arranging"
By Jane Packer

Reviewed by Cherie Thelwell- Adult Information Services

Jane Packer, world renowned floral artist, presents an easy to follow guide to floral design in "Jane Packer's Guide to Flower Arranging". Packer divides her book into three key sections: buying and conditioning flowers, colour theory, arrangements and techniques. Everything you need to know about the fundamentals of floral design.
Clear step by step instructions are accompanied by beautiful photographic images. This technique assists the reader in the construction of their designs.

Packer offers a modern twist on traditional arrangements; she opts for interesting textures and quirky presentation. There is a wide selection of arrangements to make, from garlands to boutonnieres. You can find a project to suit your skill level. "Jane Packer's Guide to Flower Arranging" is accessible to everyone, from novice to expert.

Angel of Vengeance
By Ana Siljak

Reviewed by Bernadette Preyde- Adult Information Services

Pre-revolution Russia is the setting of this exhaustively researched new book by Queen's University professor, Ana Siljak.  The story opens with shy, young Vera Zasulich calmly shooting the Governor of St. Petersburg in an act of revenge, during the winter of 1878.  The back story that follows is as dark and tragic as the most celebrated Russian fiction from the same era.  Vera's story represents a generation of Russians disillusioned with tsarist Russia, who embrace radical revolutionary ideologies in the hope of destroying the regime and establishing a new order.  Her trial is the 'trial of the century' documented by, among many others,  Dostoyevsky, Turgenev, and Oscar Wilde.  This books reads like a novel.  Siljak vividly portrays Vera's life story that sets the stage for the violence and revolution yet to come.

Cold Plague
By Daniel Kalla

Reviewed by Nancy Fischer - Adult Information Services

Daniel Kalla, an emergency room physician, has established a reputation for combining current topics in science and medicine with forensic investigation. His novels are carefully plotted, disturbingly relevant tales of criminal activity.

Cold Plague is a story of extremes:  extremes of location, scientific knowledge and, most compellingly, extremes of greed.  The story opens at a research installation in Antarctica where scientists are exploring the secrets of the pristine lakes locked under two miles of ancient glacial ice.  It then moves to the south of France and an outbreak of an alarmingly rapid onset variety of Mad Cow disease.  Gradually these disparate topics intertwine.

The lead investigator is Dr. Noah Haldane from Pandemic, one of Kalla's earlier novels.  Dr. Haldane uses objectivity and keen observational skills to navigate the growing maze of coincidences.  As is a hallmark of Kalla's novels, the resolution holds surprises to the very last page.

Clean and Green: the complete guide to nontoxic and environmentally safe housekeeping
By Annie Berthold-Bond

Reviewed by Lorraine Armstrong - Adult Information Services

In a society that is becoming increasingly aware of environmental issues and the impact these issues have on our health, this book is a valuable resource. It contains hundreds of cleaning tips and recipes for cleaning products that are earth friendly alternatives to toxic household chemicals.

The Autoimmune Epidemic
By Donna Jackson Nakazawa

Reviewed by Lorraine Armstrong - Adult Information Services

The occurrence of autoimmune disease is increasing at an alarming rate. The author takes a look at triggers of autoimmune disease as well as ways to protect our immune system and, in some cases, overcome symptoms. Real life stories make this book an easy read and give a vivid picture of the impact autoimmune disease has on people's lives.

My Revolutions
By Hari Kunzru

Reviewed by Emily McLaughlin - Adult Information Services

Chris Carver, former member of an English terrorist group from the Sixties is living a quiet life in the countryside under the alias of Michael Frame. His wife and stepdaughter know him as an unassuming househusband and loving father; his former life as an explosives expert is a carefully kept secret. This fragile construct suddenly crumbles when a disturbing figure from his past appears, threatening exposure. Michael/Chris flees the country.

He travels to France in search of Anna, one of his anarchist pals, a former lover and cell leader. As memories of his unhappy childhood, youth and journey into radicalism surface Chris suffers from an existential schism, questioning his present life. What is more real to him now and where does he belong? Chris is an everyman searching for a release from the snare of the past. He finds that release in the most obvious and yet unexpected way.

The fictional collective in My Revolutions is loosely based on the Angry Brigade, a terrorist organization which operated briefly in England during the counterculture of the Sixties and early Seventies. Hari Kunzru draws credible, compelling characters and scenarios from that time. As tensions build, My Revolutions reads at times like a thriller becoming a gripping portrait of a little known period of English history.

Trauma
By Patrick McGrath

Reviewed by Nancy Fischer - Adult Information Services

In Trauma McGrath deftly probes the depths of human psychology and spiritual malaise.   Charles Weir is the product of a comprehensively but not uniquely dysfunctional family.  He has chosen psychiatry as a profession and applies life skills honed in his upbringing to counsel patients with post-traumatic stress disorder.  How profoundly misguided this professional choice was for him is fully revealed only in the last pages of the novel.

 The plot unfolds steadily towards this climax and is compelling in its immediacy. The theory behind Charlie's practice of psychiatry is that the patient must relive the painful aspects of a traumatic experience in order to escape that trauma's debilitating effects.  He relentlessly pursues his patients and those close to him to repeat details of the events that are tormenting them.  The narrative is Charlie's commentary on his perception of progress in several of his patients and partners.  The fate of each is intimately tied to Charlie's own journey.

Charlie's obsession with his role as facilitator has protected him from his own repressed memories. With painstaking precision, McGrath strips away this protection and drives the story to a climactic moment of self-revelation at which Charlie uncovers a forgotten personal trauma.  He is exposed as the most unreliable of narrators.

Beyond human: living with robots and cyborgs
By Gregory benford and Elisabeth Malartre

Reviewed by Tim Neale - Adult Information Services

The authors of Beyond human: living with robots and cyborgs are respected physicist and award winning science fiction author Gregory Benford and noted biologist Elisabeth Malartre.  This book examines current and imminent robotics and medical technology and postulates how these advances might impact our lives.  The authors have drawn on their extensive knowledge of science fiction to link current advances to the speculation of many classic science fiction works.  The subject matter is covered in a very entertaining and readable style and the authors' conclusions are realistic rather than sensational.

The first section of the book looks at how medical and technological advances might improve people's bodies and minds.  The general conclusion in this section is that in the near future most "augmentation" will be invasive and done to correct damaged or failing body parts rather than to just improve ability.  Artificial legs, arms, eyes, ears, or organs will likely not be substituted to just improve performance.  

In the second section of Beyond human, the authors turn their attention to how robots are impacting our lives and how the technology will likely develop over the next few years.  They examine how robots are often better suited to perform certain tasks than humans, especially in hostile environments.  They also examine advances in artificial intelligence and the ethics related to these advances.

Amigurmui: super happy crochet cute
By Elizabeth Doherty
Amigurumi
By Tomoko Takamori
Amigurumi animals: 15 patterns and dozens of techniques for creating cute crochet creations
By Annie Obaachan

Reviewed by Marilyn Goodchild

The Japanese have created a new way of writing patterns and a new use for knitting and crochet in their culture.  "Ami" means knit in Japanese, and "nuigurumi" means stuffed creature.  So if you knit it and stuff it you make amigurumi.  All of the animal characters created in the following books can be made using key shapes such as spheres, eggs, and cylinders. Do you have a new grandchild?  Are you looking for a new craft to help pass the time until gardening season starts?   From a grumpy mohair bear, a tiny elephant, to the wildest doll you could imagine this craft will tickle your funny bone and enchant you with its originality.

Aurora Public Library has a wide variety of craft books on many subjects. Books on the new trends in knitting,  quilt making and flea market transformations are especially popular.

The Uncommon Reader
By Alan Bennett

Reviewed by Bernadette Preyde

What would happen if Queen Elizabeth II became a bookworm?  This is the premise of the funny, new novella by Alan Bennett.

When her beloved corgis wander away from the Westminster gardens, her Majesty finds them yapping at the bookmobile, frequented by Norman, a member of the palace dishwashing staff.  Wishing not to be impolite, the Queen chats briefly with Norman and the librarian and decides to borrow a book.  Soon she is immersing herself in great works of literature and wants only to engage her staff, her prime minister and her subjects in a meaningful exchange of ideas.  But everyone is starting to regard her behaviour as bordering on senility. In the royal world of tight schedules, and strict protocol, mayhem ensues.

Not unaware of the machinations at work to restore palace order and Royal routine, the wise monarch reflects on her new found pensive pursuits and arrives at a clever conclusion.

This is a quick and highly enjoyable read.

Soucouyant
By David Chariandy

Reviewed by Alex Karlovski

Having lost his father at an early age, the narrator is left to take care of his mother who is suffering from dementia. As her mental state deteriorates, the difficult task of living with her drives him to seek a new life in the city.

Two years pass before he returns to his mother's house. Finding her under the care of a young woman, and feeling guilty for leaving her, he experiences confused emotions. The mother barely remembers who he is, and her mental state has declined so much that her actions are shockingly inappropriate. He also uncovers the sad history of the caregiver's life, but only after developing a somewhat bizarre romance with her.

Despite the misleading title of this book, the Trinidadian legend of the Soucouyant - an evil spirit that is said to hunt victims for blood at night - is only discussed toward the end of the story. The unfortunate events of the mother's childhood are believed to have been caused by her interaction with this evil spirit, and consequently, this is said to be the cause of her mental illness later in life.

This book is written by debut author, David Chariandy. The read is quite easy and enjoyable. The most interesting aspects of the book were learning about Trinidadian superstitions and the challenges that immigrants face when arriving to a new country. Chariandy is currently a professor at the University of British Columbia.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
By Junot Diaz

Reviewed by Emily McLaughlin

Oscar Wao is a sweet natured, smart, and articulate Dominican boy with a wry self-deprecating sense of humour. As an overweight, science fiction obsessed, game playing nerd he is destined to become a social misfit while growing up in the Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights. In love with the ladies from a young age, Oscar is unable to get a date, and his few friends are of no help whatsoever. Oscar is lovelorn right into his twenties. He turns to writing as a creative release and refuge.

This is also the story of Oscar's sister Lola, his formidable mother Benicia and the downfall of the Cabral family during the brutal and terrifying Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic. Benicias father Abelard was an independently wealthy surgeon. He, his wife and daughters led a privileged life in a beautiful country home in the Dominican Republic under Trujillo. Her father acquired this idyllic lifestyle by behaving like the three (un)wise monkeys: seeing, hearing, and speaking no evil regarding Trujillo despite evidence to the contrary, until of course the evil turns its terrible gaze upon his family. What happens next is considered by many Dominicans as classic fuku, the name of a timeless curse that apparently entered the New World through Santo Domingo, passing down through selected families for generations. An interesting aside is the perspective on fuku as it pertains to the Kennedy assassination.

IJunot Diaz explores the avenues of these lives; some constricted and destroyed by dictatorship, others by the brutality of plain ignorance. In Oscar's world love in many forms, parental, sexual, and between siblings, binds people together and tears them apart. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a story of Dominican history and modern culture as well as a moving narrative of a family's struggle with adversity.

Silence of the songbirds: how we are losing the world's songbirds and what we can do to save them
By Bridget Stutchbury 2007

Reviewed by Nancy Fischer

Would you be willing to change your brand of coffee if doing so could save thousands of songbirds? This is one of ten simple but empowering suggestions that Bridget Stutchbury, a biology professor at York University, provides in Silence of the songbirds. Cliched as it may be, neotropical songbirds are 'the canary in the coalmine' for the deteriorating condition of the North American natural environment and they are sending an alarming signal.

For decades Stutchbury has studied the intricacies of breeding success in various migratory bird populations. Even without man-made obstacles, a migratory bird's life is an astonishing feat.  The author clearly explains the perils songbirds must overcome in order to survive and maintain a viable population.  These dangers include deforestation in both their southern winter home and their northern breeding grounds; the spectrum of approved and banned pesticides; the obstacle course of illuminated skyscrapers; whirling wind turbines and the marauding family feline.

In spite of the escalating environmental deterioration that the songbird's plight heralds, Stutchbury's tone is encouraging and without censure. She clearly understands the needs and limitations of another population- us.   Her list of 10 things we can easily do to help begins with reaching for a cup of organic, fair-trade, shade-grown coffee.

I’ve got a home in glory land : a lost tale of the Underground Railroad
By Karolyn Smardz Frost

Reviewed by Lorraine Armstrong

In Toronto in 1985, an archaeological dig uncovered the remains of a house that had belonged to Thornton and Lucie Blackburn, fugitive slaves from Kentucky. This well researched story, by Canadian author Karolyn Smardz Frost, follows the Blackburns adventurous journey from Kentucky to Toronto. It brings to life the time in history of the Underground Railroad, giving a good picture of slavery on both sides of the border. Thornton Blackburn became a good businessman, establishing the first taxi business in Toronto in 1837. His horse drawn cab was called 'The City' and it was painted red and yellow.

The China fantasy : how our leaders explain away Chinese repression
By James Mann

Reviewed by Tim Neale

Have you ever wondered how China can threaten reprisals against world leaders who meet with the Dalai Lama, convince Google to censor search results, or persuade Mattel to apologize to their Chinese contractors for the safety recall of toys made by Chinese contractors? James Mann's small book, The China fantasy: how our leaders explain away Chinese repression explains how and why the leaders of the Western World ignore China's disregard for human rights .

Mann's short book describes both the political repression in China today and how western leaders justify appeasing China. Mann also highlights possible futures that western leaders have fabricated for China to justify ignoring the People's Republic of China's repressive political system. Mann illustrates how little evidence there is to support the western argument that China is moving to a more open and democratic society and just hitting a few roadblocks along the way. Equally, Mann claims there is nothing to support the argument that increased contact with western democracies will lead to the collapse of the Chinese one party totalitarian government. Mann suggests that a third scenario, where China will become wealthier and more influential throughout the world but political repression will continue, is the most likely. He also suggests no western leaders recognize this future for China.

This book does not identify solutions to the issues it raises, but it does encourage readers to question what we are being told. Hopefully this will result in a more realistic analysis of the Chinese political system and a western response that is led by more than false dreams and business interests.

Consequences
By Penelope Lively

Reviewed by Marilyn Goodchild

Lovers of British fiction, the land of idyllic cottages, eccentric characters and true love will thoroughly enjoy Penelope Lively's fourteenth novel, Consequences.

The story begins in London in 1935 where Matt and Lorna meet on a park bench. Lorna's well-to-do parents are suffocating her. Matt's sketches of ducks prove very distracting, but the artist even more so. She defies her parents to marry him. Several years in a tiny cottage in Somerset follow as does a daughter, Molly, while Matt's career as a wood engraver blossoms.

But the world goes to war and the little family suffers much hardship. The lives of the next generation, Molly and her daughter Ruth, lead us through the unemployment and power cuts of the 70's, Margaret Thatcher's divisive government, to the present day England where spiralling gentrification in London doubles or triples the value of a home.

Lorna, Molly and Ruth and their personal responses to love and life are examined in Lively's elegant prose. Her astute observations effortlessly convey the story and while at 258 pages it is a short novel, readers will find it particularly satisfying.

The Distant Land of My Father
By Bo Caldwell

Reviewed by Kate Gibson

The distant land of my father is a historical saga beginning in Shanghai in the 1930s. It recounts the beautiful and heartbreaking story of an American family divided by war and circumstance.

The Widow and Her Hero
By Thomas Keneally

Reviewed by Bernadette Preyde

Grace and Leo Waterhouse were newly married in 1943 in Australia. In the final throes of World War II, Australia's efforts included secret military operations to destroy Japanese ships. Thomas Keneally's newest novel is recounted by 84-year old Grace and the diary of her husband, Cpt. Leo Waterhouse. Filling out their stories are details from the documents of a British journalist researching the mission that cost Leo his life. With the wisdom of age, Grace ponders the larger questions about 'the heroic impulse' and why 'lusty boys love it better than...love itself'. Leo's diary chronicles the missions, the eagerness for action and the loyalty of the men to their commanding officer. Betrayal and top-ranked incompetence are slowly exposed shaking Grace's acceptance of her loss.
By cleverly interweaving their narratives, Keneally has, at once, created an elegant story of love and loss, of war and derring-do, and a moving reflection of a life spent trying to make sense of it all.

A Map of Glass
By Jane Urquhart

Reviewed by Pat Damphouse

Canadian author Jane Urquhart tells two stories, one set in present-day Toronto and Prince Edward County and the other in northern Ontario in the nineteenth century. We begin with the death of Andrew Woodman on the rugged and lonely Timber Island. Andrew's frozen body was eventually found by an artist, Jerome McNaughton, who is spending the winter working on the island. Later, Jerome is visited at his studio in Toronto by Sylvia, a former lover of Andrew's, who has read of Andrew's death. Sylvia tells Jerome the story of Andrew and that of his ancestors who had been key players in Canada's fledgling timber and shipbuilding industries. The telling of Andrew's story helps Jerome come to terms with the memories of his own painful childhood.  As well, the autistic Sylvia is drawn out of her insular life by her quest to find out more about the lonely death of Andrew. 

Once again, Jane Urquhart has told a wonderfully connected story based on rich Ontario landscapes both in the present day and in the past.  

IMPERIUM
By Robert Harris

Reviewed by Marilyn Goodchild

Strong historical evidence suggests that a biography of Cicero was written by Tiro, his slave and secretary, and lost during the middle ages.

Best selling author Robert Harris returns to ancient Rome to recreate what Tiro might have written about his famous master.

Marcus Cicero arrived on the political scene at 27 years of age, an ambitious provincial lawyer who was a truly gifted orator. His first legal case was a long battle with powerful Gaius Verres, the corrupt governor of Sicily. An exhausting trip to Sicily to gain evidence to fight Verres, provides a vivid picture of the dangers of travel and daily life in ancient Rome.

Harris's portrait of Rome's political scene is a fascinating glimpse into a world of corruption and intrigue. Cicero matches wits with Caesar and Pompey fighting for the ultimate triumph, the title of supreme power-IMPERIUM.  

The reluctant Mr. Darwin: an intimate portrait of Charles Darwin and the making of his theory of evolution
By David Quammen
W.W. Norton, c2006

Reviewed by Nancy Fischer, Adult Services

In The reluctant Mr. Darwin, acclaimed science journalist David Quammen develops a convincing and engaging explanation for Darwin’s 20 years of apparent procrastination preceding the publication of his theory of evolution.  Quammen begins his portrait with Darwin’s homecoming from his remarkable five-year expedition aboard the Beagle,and draws on information gleaned from Darwin’s secret transmutation notebooks.The author creates an intimate impression of the anguish and ill-health endured by Darwin – a Victorian country naturalist and Cambridge graduate of theology – as his heretical theory incubated.  Of course, eventually Darwin did summon the resolve to publish the book that would reject the existence of divine intervention, and so displace humankind from its position at the pinnacle of creation. 

Amidst the vast literature on Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution, this witty and entertaining book stands out as the Darwinian biography for all.

Reviewed by Lorraine Armstrong, Adult Services

Eight year old Chuyia becomes a child bride in India in 1938.  When her elderly husband dies, the secure life that she knows with her family ends abruptly when she is cruelly abandoned at a widow’s ashram.  Life there is less than ideal for a young child and, in her anger and frustration, Chuyia pushes the limits.  Chuyia’s young widow friend, Kalyani, is forced into a life of prostitution by the widows who need the money largely for nefarious reasons.  Defying Hindu tradition, Kalyani falls in love with an upper class young man who is a Gandhi idealist.  When it becomes apparent that Chuyia is being pushed into the same life as Kalyani, a kindly widow from the ashram sees that Chuyia escapes into the safe hands of Gandhi followers.

Award-winning author, Bapsi Sidhwa, tells a touching story about the lives of widows in colonial India.  “Water” is based on a movie by the same title.

Messenger of truth: a Maisie Dobbs novel
By Jacqueline Winspear
Henry Holt, 2006

Reviewed by Marilyn Goodchild, Adult Services

Agatha Award winning novelist Jacqueline Winspear once again brings to life post-World War I Britain with her fourth novel starring Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator.

In Messenger of truth Maisie is hired to investigate the case of a controversial painter who fell to his death while preparing for a much anticipated art show. His twin sister, Georgia Bassington-Hope, doubts the police verdict and has trouble accepting Nick's death. Her bohemian family seems to accept Maisie's investigation. But do they? Maisie, a former battlefield nurse finds herself moved by Nick's powerful painting of his wartime experiences as she searches for the truth. Her relationship with Dr. Andrew Dene, undergoes a change in this novel while Billy Beale her fearless assistant once again proves his worth.

For history lovers, the mood and atmosphere of the tumultous period between the two world wars provides a wonderful backdrop to this bestselling series and adds and extra layer to the pleasure of a good mystery.

Lord Byron's novel: the evening land
By John Crowley
HarperCollins, 2005

Reviewed by Allison Pelette, Adult Services

Here's one for all fans of Byron, the Gothic novel, or the myth behind Mary Shelley's literary masterpiece, Frankenstein - a story born from the legendary meeting of minds of Mary Shelley, her poet/husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, and friend Lord Byron. While history suggests that Byron never completed the novel that he started following that notorious evening with the Shelleys, Crowley has imagined the possibility that he had and that, after the great poet's untimely death, the manuscript was acquired by Byron's daughter Ada, a young woman and gifted mathematician. It is Ada, terminally ill with only months to live, who reads, annotates and preserves the treasured manuscript for posterity - her enduring devotion and personal yearnings for the father she has never known give the novel a deeply moving tone. Not only is Crowley's understanding of the human condition bang on, he also has a knack for taking the reader to and fro through time and narrative voice: from Byron's novel (a breathtaking literary impersonation), to Ada's annotations and musings (the most poignant voice of all), to the modern-day correspondence of another determined young woman, set to uncover Ada's past and, at the same time, resolve her relationship with her own estranged father. Crowley is obviously a master of this literary art form.