Book 10 (2015) Fugitive Pieces***** by Anne Michaels

This was an e-book read on the road in the Balkans.  A very appropriate reinforcement of the echoes of WW2 and the Holocaust I found everywhere.

This is a story, set in Poland, Greece, and Canada, is about Jacob Beer, a child who survived and was saved by a Greek geologist, and the impact of being a survivor on them, their friends, wives, and their descendants to the present time.

Michaels is a poetic writer meaning you never quite know what is going on and you hope it all comes together by the end.  I am not a fan of this technique but the writing is heart-stopping and the story unforgettable.  

Book 3 (2014) Blink *** by Malcolm Gladwell

Enjoyable, the usual, actually knew it, but he expresses it so well.

Book 14 (2011) The Imperfectionists ** by Tom Rachman

I was surprised that this Canadian (Vancouver) writer was not recognized in Canada until at least a year after the book was published in New York.  


The book has a unique (?) structure of short stories about connected people, knitted together into a very satisfying novel.   The premise is an international English language newspaper, headquartered in Rome, started by a wealthy man who needed a hobby business to add to his conglomerate.   To start with, the premise is very interesting, as are all the characters.   I really enjoyed the book, but all the while I was reading it, I kept thinking --- is this good writing or is it better than good.   

Book 16 (2010) The Book of Negroes ** by Lawrence Hill

Although this is a Canada Reads winner of 2009, I didn't give it my 3 or 4 Dunstars. I found it to be merely an interesting story, and especially appreciated the parts describing the Black Loyalists and the Sierra Leone colony. 
Hill admits the details are not necessarily historically accurate, so that is a bit disappointing, but otherwise it is thoroughly researched. His characters are very strong and one certainly have no doubt of the horrors of slavery and just being black among whites. He leaves the writer with no doubt that African slaves felt just like we would had it all happened to us.  The writing is good but I was conscious of it being too modern in idiom for a historical novel.

Other notable books on the subject of race, civil rights, and slavery:
Inheriting the Trade by Thomas Norman DeWolf
Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball
The Help **** by Kathryn Stockett