Book 7 (2014) The Orenda ***** by Joseph Boyden

Original, amazing writing, educational, shocking.  A stunning history of the Iroquois and the Jesuits in Canada.   This is the reality show version of all that grade school Canadian history. 

Boyden's first novel, Three Day Road, won the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. 

His second novel, Through Black Spruce won the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

His third book, The Orenda, won the 2014 edition of Canada Reads.

Book 7 (2013) Until the Night ** by Giles Blunt

Another John Cardinal mystery, set in northern Ontario.

Book 5 (2013) 419 **** by Will Ferguson

2012 Giller Prize - about Lagos

Book 25 (2013) The Golden Mean ** by Annabel Lyon

This is a big Canadian book, debut novel, Vancouver writer.  Great idea, but super boring book.  Wonder what Sheila will think of it.  I left the book with her in Spain.

Book 20 (2013) Mennonites Don't Dance**** by Darcie Friesen Hossack

Hossack is a short story writer compared to Alice Munro and I can see why.   The stories are about harsh experiences and are upsetting and haunting.  The Mennonite aspect is low key, mostly background, but is also the foundation for how the characters deal with life.  My own experience with the Mennonite life is not so uncompromisingly serious and soul-killing, but enough so I do understand.  Not an uplifting book, but the writing and stories are breathtaking.

Book 34 (2012) title by author

I can't remember anything except it was short stories about Mennonite war veterans and coming back to Steinbach.   Will complete when I get the book back from dad.

Book 33 (2012) Mennonites Don't Dance by Darcie Friesen Hossack

Great short stories.

Book 29 (2012) By Whatever Name *** by Elizabeth Reimer Bartel

She's a first cousin of my mother Evelyn Reimer Doerksen.   This story is fictionalized history of her mother's family bringing in the history of the "holdoman" church (a very strict sect of Mennonites).    The family moves from Manitoba to Kansas and becomes entangled in the US conscientious objector laws, which were much more onerous than in Canada.   Treatment was prison and torture.

She's a wonderful writer but this one's tops them all.   That subtle forboding atmosphere suggested when the all the world seems bright, happy, and prosperous for the Mennonite farmers and business people.   Oh yes, she is 86 years old and apparently getting better.

Book 25 (2012) Irma Voth **** by Miriam Toews

The story of a girl dragged from Manitoba to a Mexican Mennonite colony, getting mixed up in drugs and film making, and breaking out with no money, no passport, no education.  Toews amazes yet again with freshness of her words and story.  

It's hard to chose her best book, but these are musts for any reader ---
The Flying Troutmans
Swing Low
A Complicated Kindness

All prize winners.

Book 23 (2012) Confined Space ** by Deryn Collier

A first mystery, and quite good.   A Bern Fortin novel (he's a Canadianj Forces commander retired, now a coroner in a northern BC town).   Let's hope for more in this series.

Book 19 (2012) Returning Home *** by Loreen Plett

Fiction based on Plett family history.   Mennonites in what is now Poland (then Prussia), the wealthy prosperous family and one who rebelled and left the community.   Some religion thrown in.   Also some gypsies.  
Great story, written by a writer of the romance style.   A must read if you are interested in Mennonite history as it is unique or the history of Prussia/Poland.

Book 18 (2012) Alone in the Classroom** by Elizabeth Hay

I loved Hay's Late Nights on Air (one of my top 5 Canadian novels), but I can hardly remember what this is about.   It's about a school teacher in a one room prairie school, and a girl is murdered.

I heard her read at the Vancouver Institute this winter and she was marvellous.   The mind was fed and glowing for a week.   She was a broadcaster and has the power of voice as well as word. 

Prizes --
Giller Prize for Late Nights on Air

Book 16 (2012) Swamp Angel **** by Ethel Wilson

Now in my top 5 Canadian novels.   Written in the 50's.   I looked for it for years, and finally it was republished.   Bought 2 copies, one to send to Sheila.

Takes place in Vancouver and a northern BC isolated resort.

The story of a woman who is independent, makes mistakes, and then is strong enough to fix them.   I liked Wilson's truths.   One of my favorites is how Maggie Lloyd finds herself in a situation in which she can do no right.   The couple who owns the resort are not competent, but resent her as she takes charge, especially the wife.   Maggie realizes that she must manage the situation because the woman will not, cannot see beyond the jealousy and emotion of the moment, to see how they will have to work together.  

Book 14 (2012) For Now * Gayle Friesen

Well written, had not realized it was juvenile fiction.

Book 7 (2012) This Hidden Thing **** by Dora Dueck

I've spent many weeks in Manitoba this year, read many books on local history and by local authors.   Mostly the Mennonite theme, but also other early settler stories.

This book tells the story of Mennonite refugees from Russia in the 1920's.  Many of these families were supported by sending young teenage girls to be house maids in Winnipeg homes.    My own aunts had this experience.    As with many families with this background of terror, they prospered in Canada, and in one generation with great personal sacrifice, made a wonderful life.   

Very well written and compelling story of not so untypical woman's life.

Prizes -- 2010 Manitoba Book of the Year

Book 3 (2012) Tell It to the Trees**** by Anita Rau Badami

This is an outstanding book on many levels.   The body of a woman is found frozen in the snow.   As in all Badami's books, the theme is the immigrant experience in Canada and this one also features an abusive husband and the Canadian winter.

I heard Badami interviewed on CBC on this book, and she says she had not heard of or read Sinclair Ross's The Painted Room, a short story, and a Canadian definitive.

If you have not read this author before, you must.  

Her previous books (all great):
Tamarind Mem
The Hero's Walk
Can You Hear the Nightbird Call

Book 12 The Flying Troutmans **** by Miriam Toews

This is the story of Hattie, called to help out her niece, age 11,  and nephew, age 15, when their mother suffers yet another mental breakdown, she takes the kids on a mad mad world road trip to search for their father.   They cross into the US in an old van --- and Toews finds new material for a familiar plot in this dysfunctional family tale.

The writing is outstanding, possibly her best in a stunning collection.   The conversations between Hattie and the kids are masterful.  Toews usual themes of people with seemingly insurmountable problems who stumble and struggle through life could be very frustrating, but she draws characters who are battered by life, intelligent, funny, wise, impulsive, self-destructive, creative, in emotional agony, and who learn to love and care for each other.  

Other books by this author:
A Complicated Kindness **** (Governor General's Award)
Swing Low: A Life  ****
The Summer of My Amazing Luck ***

Book 10 Crime Machine ** by Giles Blunt

This is Book 4 in the John Cardinal series.   He's a cop in a small town (North Bay, Ontario) and a great read.

Book 7 Quiet in the Land*** by Anne Chislett

This is a play about some Old Colony Mennonite in Ontario in the last year of WWI.  Although the author is from Newfoundland and not a Mennonite, I found it all rang true, no discord.   Very well written, and a clear portrayal of each character with ove and understanding.   A fantastic play.   I almost gave it four stars but it is not original enough.

Book 6 (2011) The Sentimentalists (zero) by Johanna Skibsrud

A father and daughter story (I think) about a man broken by alcoholism and PST ecxerbated by the Viet Nam war.   It takes place in the Northern Ontario and US midwest. There is also something going on about a town being flooded by the building of a dam.  A very disappointing book.   I skimmed the last 75 pages just to see what really happened in Viet Nam.   Just some killing of civilians --- nothing to distinguish it.  

The writing style made me think of the writing style.   Almost the same as the narration in the old TV show The Waltons. 

Too bad, a great idea.  

2010 Giller Price winner.