Parry Sound Books
41 Church Street P2A 1T5 Parry Sound, ON, Canada

A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch I have just read A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch, the 1st Charles Lenox Mystery. And what a pleasure it is! First published in 2008, the edition I read was printed in 2017 with a new introduction by the author, writing about how the gift of the collected Sherlock Holmes stories, for his 12th birthday, so influenced him. And how one day, as an adult, struggling to write a literary novel, he started to write about a cold London d...ay in 1865 and Charles Lenox was born. And, lucky us, there are now 14 books in this series. Charles Lenox lives well, in a nice house in London. When he comes home, wet and cold, his butler helps him with his coat, the maid prepares a meal, he is served a cup of tea in front of a warm fire. He has no need to work, except as a sort of unpaid private detective. Apart from the staff in the house, he lives alone. Next door though is his lady friend, Lady Jane Grey, a childless widow of just past thirty. Charles and Jane have known each other since childhood and are close friends now. Their friendship might seem odd to others, and perhaps not quite proper, but there it is. It is Lady Jane who comes to Lenox with the request that he look into the death of a young maid. The girl once worked for Lady Jane but at the time of her death was employed in another establishment. Lenox does indeed think the death suspicious, and his friend Doctor Thomas McConnell agrees. A Scotland Yard detective is in charge of the case but, begrudgingly, allows Lenox to continue his own investigation. We fall into a world of men’s clubs, hansom cabs, dark wet London nights, political and financial secrets and rivalries, life in the houses of the wealthy, old money and new. A second murder follows, and Lenox knows it must be one of only a few suspects, but which one? By the end of A Beautiful Blue Death we know quite a lot about Lenox, and his older brother who has inherited the family home and the seat in Parliament. We know about Charles’ feelings for the Lady Jane, and his friendship with his troubled Doctor friend. We are well set up to move on to the next in this intelligent and satisfying mystery series.

NEWS MONDAY 10 MAY 2021 Today we can share the news that we have just signed a new lease for our new/old space in the Beatty Building and we will soon be on the move!! It has been a very long year and I am more than delighted to be moving the business out of my dining room.... We have fixtures and a floor plan, and we are confident that the transition will take only a few weeks and that by early June we will be fully operational at 26 James Street. In the meantime, we will continue to do non-contact business from 41 Church Street, so please keep ordering and picking up books as you have been doing for so long. It is your support that has kept us going, and it is why we are confident that we can bring Parry Sound Books back to the Beatty Building and one day, we hope, it will be business and life - as usual.

NEWS FRIDAY 7 MAY 2021 As so often happens, the days and the weeks fly by! We continue to do business by non-contact service bur really can’t wait to see you all again in person! New books arrive each day ... Katherine Parr The Sixth Wife by Alison Weir I’m Henry the 8th, I am, I am was popular when I was a young teenager. I’m tempted to jump right into this last book in the Six Tudor Queen’s series. Other years I’ve been reading this series on a spring sojourn in Newfoundland but this year I think I’ll save it for a time when I have a couple of days alone at the cottage. Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell is sub-titled A Dream, A Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War. A riveting tale of persistence, innovation, and the incalculable wages of war. The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz is a remarkable literary rediscovery. A novel of heart-stopping intensity and harrowing absurdity about flight and persecution in Nazi Germany, written by a 23 year old at breakneck speed in 1938, fresh in the wake of the Kristallnacht pogroms. Farm, Fire, Feast Recipes from the Inn at Bay Fortune. Sharing the culinary mastery he has created, Chef Michael Smith shares a stunning collection of recipes inspired by his passion for farming and cooking with fire. New In paperback Find You First Linwood Barclay has become a maestro of psychological suspense. This is a riveting thriller in which the possible heirs of a dying man are mysteriously being targeted, one by one. Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes is a love story set in Depression-era America, based on a true story, of a remarkable journey in a novel of richly rewarding women’s friendship and what happens when we reach beyond our grasp for the great beyond. Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell is a tale emerging from London’s psychedelic scene in 1967, and the strangest British band you’ve never heard of. Exile Music by Jennifer Steil is set during World War II. The captivating story of a young Jewish girl whose family flees Vienna for safety in the mountains of Bolivia. Bird Way by Jennifer Ackerman is a new look at how birds talk, work, play, parent, and think in an enthralling exploration of the extraordinary range of behaviour of birds and the new research that is revolutionizing our understanding of it. Glorious Guinness Girls by Emily Hourican tells the story of the descendants of the founder of the Guinness beer empire. They were the toast of 1920s high society, but there was much not known by their adoring public. The Woman with the Blue Star by Pam Jenoff tells the story of an unlikely friendship forged by war. Inspired by harrowing true stories this is a novel of the power of friendship and the extraordinary strength of the human will to survive.

New Additions to the Mystery Bookshelf A Fatal Lie is the 23rd in the Inspector Ian Rutledge series and one of the very best. This time Rutledge is in an area of England not too far from Wales, where he is investigating the death of a man who has fallen or was pushed from an aqueduct that transports narrow boats through an elevated canal. His investigation leads him to a small town where the victim’s widow is managing the family pub, and discovers that their child was kid...napped some years earlier and never recovered. As always Rutledge is tormented by the trauma of war, but perhaps a little less so than in the past. He still runs on adrenaline and little sleep, flying about the country in his fancy car, and never, never giving up on finding out what really happened to the dead man and the missing child. During the First World War, the dead man was a member of the Bantams, a regiment established to allow men, who did not meet the height regulations of other battalions, to enlist and fight for their country. They joined in the thousands. As one expects from a good mystery novel A Fatal Lie is full of interesting characters, some who are, genuinely, innocently good people with their own stories, and others who are deceitful and even cruel. Rutledge is quite astute at knowing who is to be trusted, but he is often in danger from those who cannot. Ragnar Jónasson’s most recent novel in the Ari Thor Arason series, Winterkill, begins just as the Easter weekend approaches. Ari Thor is looking forward to spending time away from work with his family but as so often happens in the life of a Police Inspector he finds he is investigating a crime this weekend. When a young girl is found dead on the ground below a balcony it is not thought to be murder simply and unfortunate accident. But, what was the girl doing in this place. When a spring blizzard brings power outages, and communication is cut off, the investigation and any thought of a lovely holiday weekend with family becomes much more difficult, and dangerous. I will miss Ari Thor if this is truly the last of the series. The investigations are only part of what makes this series so enjoyable to read the rest is the connection readers feel to this quiet, thoughtful, yet somehow naive young man who does not give up looking for answers regardless of the challenges.

NEWS FRIDAY 23 APRIL 2021 New book this week include - Turn a Blind Eye by Jeffrey Archer is the 3rd instalment in the Detective William Warwick series. This time he is tasked with a dangerous undercover investigation to expose corruption at the heart of the police force that goes deeper still. ... World Travel An Irreverent Guide by Anthony Bourdain is a collection of a lifetime of writing about travel entertaining, practical and fun as he relates his adventures in some of the world’s most fascinating places. Simply Julia 110 Easy Recipes for Healthy Comfort Food by Julia Turshen is a most delicious looking cookbook. Recipes for everyone savoury or sweet, vegan or meat, gluten free or not, to cook up some feel good food. Do You Know Where the Animals Live? Discovering the Incredible Creatures All Around Us by Peter Wohlleben, author if The Hidden Life of Trees tells us the secret messages that the creeping, crawling, fluttering creatures all around us are sharing in their clicks, calls and songs. We have new stock arriving each and every day just waiting for more space! Ghosts of the Bay the books and DVD are now in stock again. A guide book with maps highlighting the location of 140 sites around the Bay, telling stories of shipwrecks, ghost towns, and the shattered dreams of Georgian Bay’s forgotten past. The DVD combines historical and contemporary film with animation in colourful tales of adventure. HAPPY SPRING!

NEWS FRIDAY 12 FEBRUARY 2021 This time last year I was packing my summer clothes and bathing suits for a trip to a beach in Mexico this year the only beach I’ve walked on is at Killbear Provincial Park! Not quite the same as a holiday but still very beautiful. We are getting closer to being able to move back into the Beatty Building and I am ordering not only books but all of the other items that we stocked in the past, including cards for birthdays and other special occasi...ons, as well as boxed notecards with art work by Alan Stein. New arrivals this week include A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson, is a long awaited new novel from this wonderful writer. To celebrate the release her publisher is hosting a virtual event with Shelagh Rogers in conversation with Mary Lawson. Tickets will be issued to anyone who purchases A Town Called Solace from Parry Sound Books. The event takes place on March 22, 2021 at 7 pm. The Beekeeper’s Daughter is new from the very popular Santa Montefiore. This is a novel that takes place in England in 1932, and Massachusetts 50 years later, telling a story that will stay in your heart, about a family rocked by tragedy, and a love that lives through time. The Queen’s Fortune by Allison Pataki is now in paperback. I enjoyed this novel about Napoleon Bonaparte, his mistress, and their families, from the beginning of the French Revolution until 1860. I read this book almost a year ago and posted a review 15 April 2020. Look on our website for more information. Really excellent historical fiction!

The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict Marie Benedict has made a career as an author writing historical fiction about women of accomplishment. After novels about the life of Clementine Churchill, Hedy Lamarr, Clara Kelley and Mitza Einstein, Marie Benedict has turned her pen to a period of mystery in the life of renowned mystery novelist Agatha Christie. My husband and I re-read Agatha Christie’s novels every so often, as a sort of comfort food. You know what you ar...e going to get, and it is always satisfying and very very good, and it is also very unlikely that we will figure out the culprit before it is revealed by Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple. And that is exactly as Agatha Christie intended to write a mystery novel with a case that the reader could not possibly solve. As a young woman, Agatha Christie had dreams of marriage and a family, but also of becoming a writer. Her mother encouraged her, and there was a loving rivalry with her sister. In the years before the First World War life was not unhappy and all these dreams seemed possible. Agatha fell in love and married. Her husband went off to war and came home, perhaps changed, or perhaps still the man she married hastily without knowing his true character. Her mother advised Agatha to always put her husband’s needs before her own, to always make him the centre of her attention, even before children. And this she did, resulting in a deep unhappiness, and damage to her own self-esteem and to her relationship with her child. But nothing stopped her from writing, and she found success with her very first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written during WW1 and published in 1920. This novel introduced the world to Hercule Poirot and Agatha Christie went on to write many more novels featuring both Poirot and Miss Marple and others. Marie Benedict describes Agatha Christie developing the character of Hercule Poirot, who she came to know so perfectly that he was alive in her mind and in her novels. But it is less her writing, and more the period of Agatha Christie’s disappearance in December 1926 that is the focus of this novel. The author has closely followed the true facts of what is known about that time and supposed the details that are not known but suspected by many. I’m not going to spoil the story if you do not know it! The Mystery of Mrs. Christie is much the same as Marie Benedict’s previous novels she tells you a story you may not know about a very interesting woman!

News 5 February 2021 I have been working out of my dining room for so long that there are cobwebs growing on my lampshades. When we made this move after the fire on 31 May 2020 we expected to be here for a few months. Now, just over 8 months have passed and it seems possible that we will be able to move into the Beatty Building before too long. I have been busy placing orders to fill shelves and hope that despite pandemic restrictions we can be fully back in business as usual... sometime this spring. It is very exciting to be receiving and labelling new stock, Moulin Roty dolls and baby toys arrived today along with Folkmanis puppets all packed away in boxes to be moved into the new store. Better than Christmas! Among the many new books being published this season, of special note is a new novel by Mary Lawson, A Town Called Solace, being released on 16 February. I have just finished reading an advance copy and can tell you it is wonderful! I have books arriving for the on sale date reserve yours now! Your purchase of the book includes an invitation for an exclusive online event with Mary Lawson on 22 March at 7 pm. New arrivals this past week include Mother Earth Plants For Beauty and Health by Carrie Armstrong is a very lovely book about Indigenous Plants, Traditions and Recipes. Carrie Armstrong remembers gathering plants and berries with my grandmother while she shared her stories and her deep understanding of traditional plants and their uses. This book contains recipes and traditions that reflect the culture and knowledge of the Medicine Wheel, featuring 26 edible and medicinal plants that you can gather in nature as Carrie and her grandmother did. The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone, is a powerful American epic about love and heroism and hope, set during the Great Depression: a time when the country was in crisis, when millions were out of work and even the land seemed to have turned against them. Fair Warning by Michael Connelly is now in paperback. Jack McEvoy, the journalist who never backs down, tracks a serial killer who has been operating completely under the radar until now. Actress by Anne Enright has also arrived in paperback. I loved this book when I read it while lounging on a beach in Mexico at just about this time last year! You can see the full review on our website.

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue Relentless is the first word that comes to mind when I describe the most recent book by Emma Donoghue, The Pull of the Stars, the second is harrowing. These words are not meant as criticism, but rather as praise. I usually make notes when I read but not with this book I did not want to stop reading for even a moment. The Pull of the Stars is set in a hospital in Dublin in 1918. When this novel was published, last July, I wasn’t sure ...I wanted to read a novel about a pandemic and a when a customer described it as good, but gruesome I was even less sure. But floundering around for something to read recently I thought I’d give it a try and I am so glad I did! The action takes place in a hospital treating fever patients, and the department we spend our time in is the fever/maternity ward with women who are about to give birth and are under the care of a nurse midwife, Julia Power. The novel is not only the story of Julia Power, but of her young assistant, Bridie Sweeney, and of Dr. Lynn, who is a skilled obstetrician. Their days are more than full there is never a moment when one patient or another does not have urgent needs. With few resources these women treat their patients with compassion and bravery. There is success, and happy outcomes, for some but there is also death and sadness for others. The treatments are sometimes often very detailed, and sometimes quite brutal. Yet, the scene of an autopsy performed by Dr. Lynn and Nurse Power, in their attempt to learn about the disease by examining the organs of a woman before releasing her body to the family, is done so sensitively and with such respect I found it far less disturbing than the same sort of scene in many a murder mystery novel. What I also found so interesting is that Emma Donoghue did not intentionally decide to write a book about pandemic while the world is the midst of another. She became interested in the story of Dr. Kathleen Lynn who treated patients during the influenza epidemic in Ireland, and in October 2018 the centenary of the great flu she began to write The Pull of the Stars, and submitted the last draft to her publisher in March 2020. I was struck by how similar that time was to our own the lack of supplies and expertise and the lack of capacity to treat patients the wearing of masks the disinfecting the fear. It was relentless, as was the work performed by the medical staff and those assisting them. All the while the patients are always seen as people with needs and desires, wives, daughters, and beloved friends who have every right to compassionate treatment. The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue a great book.

WILL TRAVEL FOR BOOKS

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy Franny Stone grew up in both Ireland and Australia leaving her with an accent no one could quite place. Her mother taught her about the beauty to be found in books, that inside the pages of a novel lived the only beauty offered up by the world.We’d read while we balanced on the low rock walls that Seamus Heaney made famous in his poetry. Early in the novel Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy we meet both Franny and her mother and read about ...a tragedy that will colour Franny’s life forever. But soon, we are in another world, not too many years beyond the present time. It is a world where more and more species have become extinct, including most birds. And it is the birds who are central to the story and to Franny’s existence. Her husband, Niall, is an Ornithologist in Galway, Ireland where they had made a home together, but now Franny has left. She is in Greenland, seeking a ship that will allow her to follow the Arctic Tern migration. Franny struggles with her constant need to leave those she loves, the need to wander. It does not diminish her love, which is fast and strong, and it must be understood that she will always return. I’d never leave you for good she tells Niall. The world was a different place, once. Once there were creatures in the sea so miraculous they seemed straight out of fantasy. There were things that loped across plains or slithered through tall grass, things that leaped from the boughs of trees, which were plentiful, too. Once there were glorious winged beasts that roamed the sky world, and now they are going They are being violently and indiscriminately slaughtered by our indifference. It has been decided by our leaders that economic growth is more important. That the extinction crisis is an acceptable trade for greed. These are the words of Niall, speaking to his students. His despair and rage for what is lost is often overwhelming. I found Migrations a lovely book to read, but also an uncomfortable one. Not only because of the destruction of wildlife on land and in the sea, but also because of the constant state of danger in which Franny Stone finds herself. Often it is danger from her own actions that cause concern for the reader, and for the other characters in the novel, who come to care for her welfare. Late in the novel we read, Niall, listen to me. This restless thingit can take over. If I ever leave you if I have to go I want you to promise that you will wait for me to come back, you’ll wait for me, and if that’s taking too long and you can’t wait any more, you have to come and find me and make me remember. The reader is as relived as Franny, when he says, Yes, I promise. And, is that not what we all need? That absolute faithfulness. There is a desperately sad past slowly revealed in Migrations, and there are certainly many times when readers will fear the worst, but I will say it is redemptive in the end, and really a great novel.

House on Endless Waters by Emuna Elon Every summer customers come to the store with their book club lists for the coming year. Often, they are people who live in other parts of the province or other parts of the world. Many of the books are known to me, but many are not, and sometimes they are a source of discovery of some really wonderful books I might not have known about otherwise. House on Endless Water by Emuna Elon is one of these. It was ordered by a summer resident an...Continue reading

News 25 September 2020 The season is definitely changing I think I’ve had my last swim after a week of cold nights. We are closing the cottage with all that involves, including loss of the sanctuary it provided during the last difficult months. Now, on to plans for the fall and winter, which we hope will include being back in the Beatty Building before Christmas.... One year does follow the next no matter what is happening in the world and the 2021 Wall Calendars have arrived along with a few engagement books for the coming year. If you have a particular calendar or date book that you like please place an order and we will get it in for you in plenty of time to start the new year and hope that we all have engagements to fill in the pages! 2021 Friendship Books will also be arriving. Along with more and more fall releases always something good to read coming in the door each day. Enjoy these lovely days of early fall and keep well. Charlotte

Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland I have said many times that I love getting my hands on a first novel, as it is often the story the writer most needs to tell. And, I have also said that sometimes it is the last book in my to read pile that is one of the best. Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland, is both a debut novel and was the last book I had at hand to read last week and it is truly wonderful. I did have my doubts as the book opens with a lov...ely day on the beach near Atlantic City, with a family enjoying the sun and salt water, as we are introduced to the characters in the novel, Florence Adler, her mother Esther, her father Joseph, her sister Fannie and her husband Isaac, her niece Gussie, and Anna who has come from Germany to live with the family, and Stuart her swimming coach. In very quick order Florence’s dreams of swimming the English Channel are gone, when she drowns on the day the novel opens. Fannie is on bed rest in the hospital awaiting the birth of a baby. She gave birth to a premature boy a year earlier and Esther fears that if she is told about the death of her sister she may once again go into early labour and lose the baby. So, the death of Florence is kept from Fannie and the story unfolds. This is not just the story of a family tragedy. The action takes place over only a few months in the summer of 1934, but we learn about the fear of Jews in Europe and the rising anti-Semitism, which is why Anna has been sent to the United States to live with the Adlers. They are attempting to also get Anna’s parents out of Europe. I found the characters in this novel people I understood and came to care for, each with their own complicated emotions, but all caring people who were doing their best to protect those they love. We, as the reader, know more about what is going on than the individual characters in the story and we watch as sentiments are revealed, secrets are kept, or not, and decisions are made that may or may not be right for those involved. Like life. What was most fascinating is that this novel is based on events in the author’s own family, and she has done a magnificent job of turning a family tragedy into a very fine novel.

News - Week of 18 September 2020 New this week in hardcover are Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre is the true story of a woman spy code-named Sonya who over her career was hunted by the Chinese, the Japanese, the Nazis, MI5 and MI6, and the FBI and she evaded them all.... The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult tells the story of a woman who survives a plane crash and discovers a need to revisit her past, revealing secrets and doubts about what a well lived life looks like. Hatch by Kenneth Oppel is book two in the Bloom Trilogy for young readers. In a world of aliens and invasive species, hybrid teens could be the best defense against the new wave of intruders. New in paperback Before the Crown by Flora Harding is a novel about the early years of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, the years leading up to a very royal wedding. The Darkest Evening by Ann Cleeves is a new instalment in the Vera series. This is a case involving the murder of a young mother which draws Vera into the lives of family members and others who all have something to hide, making the discovery of the murderer difficult indeed. Remember Me by Mario Escobar is a novel based on the true stories of the Children of Morelia, exploring the agony of war, painting a poignant portrait of one family’s sacrificial love and endurance.

The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths and Hunting Game by Helene Tursten After reading a couple of serious literary novels I was ready for a good mystery just as Elly Griffith’s new Ruth Galloway Mystery, The Lantern Men, appeared. Reading a new instalment in this series is like spending time with old friends. Ruth is now living in Cambridge, lecturing at a University there, living with Frank. But it all feels somewhat lacking. DCI Harry Nelson is truly the man in her life even w...hen he is not. Ruth’s colleague Phil, still in Norfolk, has been helping the police with an investigation involving the discovery of the bodies of two missing young women. But, someone anonymously questions his skills and asks that Ruth be called in. When Phil is attacked, Nelson requests that Ruth assist in the investigation, bringing them into close contact once again. Ruth and Harry have shared parenting responsibilities but since Ruth and Frank set up house together there has not been any intimacy, though both feel bereft. There have been several missing young women over several years in Norfolk, near the Saltmarsh, all tall athletic young women with long blonde hair. There was a conviction after two bodies were found, and the question now is where are the others? It is unlikely that they are still alive, and now another young woman has been killed obviously not by the man convicted of the earlier murders. Of course, it is a tangled web of deceit, with far too many possible perpetrators, and others who may not be the killer but must know far more than they choose to disclose. All the while Ruth and Nelson force themselves to remain faithful to others, knowing their hearts are not. There is danger to those they love, and difficult questions about loyalty. As is always the case with Elly Griffiths, the setting on the isolated and beautiful Norfolk salt marsh is perfectly described, and the characters are both familiar and suitably complicated and compassionate. No wonder we wait eagerly for each new book in this series. Hunting Game is the first in a new series by Swedish author Helene Tursten, known for her popular Detective Inspector Huss Investigations. Hunting Game introduces Detective Inspector Embla Nystrom who, in this instalment, has taken a holiday to spend hunting with her uncle. Embla is a strong woman, physically and mentally seemingly tough but struggling with her own demons. She is an experienced hunter and knows well the party of local men who are part of this annual gathering. There is a new member in the group, an attractive man of Embla’s age who she thinks will provide a romantic bonus to her time at home. But what begins as fun may or may not be what it seems. When two long time members of the hunting party go missing, and one is found dead it is not just the poor animals who fear for their lives. Hunting Game is a great beginning to a new series, and the second instalment Winter Grave is just as good! I look forward to many more.

Rabbit Foot Bill by Helen Humphreys Rabbit Foot Bill by Helen Humphreys opens in Canwood, Saskatchewan in 1947. We meet twelve-year-old Leonard, as he describes his friend Bill. There was a time when there were many men like Bill known to people in small towns and in the countryside. Loners, hermits living in out of the way places. Perhaps harmless, perhaps not. In tar paper shacks on the side of the road in New Brunswick on the way out of Sussex as we drove to my grandpare...nt’s farm, or in rural Saskatchewan in a burrowed home in a hillside. These men did odd jobs and appeared to be eccentric but harmless, though children were usually cautious. In the case of Leonard and Bill they were friends of a sort, a lonely boy and a lone man. To the reader, it appears that all is well, and quite innocent - until there is a murder. Helen Humphreys tells us the true story of William Dunn in a way in which only she can do. After the first few pages, I said to my husband, I would not keep reading this book if it were not written by Helen Humphreys. There was a sense of discomfort that I could not place and the reason is not revealed until the end of the book. That being said, it is not long before the reader cares about the boy, Leonard, and the man, Bill and not long before there is a tragic death. We then jump ahead to 1959 and meet Leonard again. Now a man, a freshly graduated Doctor, he is taking on his first job as a psychiatrist at the Weyburn Mental Hospital in Saskatchewan, where there is a new program of treating patients with LSD. Not only are the patients subject to this treatment, but so are the doctors. It is hard to imagine now that anyone thought that this was a good idea and if there were any who benifited from this treatment it is not clear. What is very clear is that there were many who did not who were, in fact, made much worse. Helen Humphreys takes the bare bones of the story and brings it to life. We see Leonard react to the loss of his girlfriend, his estrangement from his family, his reluctance to disappoint his mentors, and his obsession with Rabbit Foot Bill. As the years move on, we follow the lives of Leonard and Bill, as events unfold, until in the end we discover the truth about Leonard’s childhood and the true tragedy of the past. Rabbit Foot Bill is, once again, a small book with a big story, told by Helen Humphreys with compassion and intelligence. Brilliant!

Jackie and Maria by Gill Paul Jackie and Maria by Gill Paul is a novel about Jackie Kennedy and Maria Callas and, of course, Aristotle Onassis, the man who was lover to both women. I was a little hesitant to read this new novel, published so soon after another about Jackie Kennedy published earlier this spring, And They Called it Camelot. I would say that this one is the one worth reading though there are a lot of similarities, perhaps because so many of Jacqueline Kenned...y’s papers have become available to researchers. And, of course, there is a generation of readers, and writers, for whom these people are simply history. For my generation they were celebrities we saw on the daily news. Jackie and Maria is a novel about two women who each lived very privileged lives, though also very public with all of the challenges that brought. The novel takes place over 20 years, from 1957 1977, and chapters alternate between Jackie Kennedy and Maria Callas as their lives move forward, sometimes intersecting. We meet Jackie a few years into her marriage as she and Jack prepare for his race for President, and make plans to have children. Maria Callas is meanwhile becoming one of the most famous opera singers of all time. Each of these women face challenges within their marriages, Maria Callas with her much older husband who treats her as a chattel, and Jackie with the charismatic JFK who was a well know womanizer. When Maria Callas leaves her husband for Aristotle Onassis she finds that her new lover continues to seduce and have sex with other women. As was probably not uncommon at the time, both women choose to accept that the love they have for their partners, and the life they enjoy together is more important than fidelity. And, it is fidelity infidelity really that becomes the theme of much of the novel and the damage that it does to the women who choose to remain in such relationships. Gill Paul concludes Jackie and Maria with a lengthy discussion of the novel and her research and as it is a novel she explains to us what is the truth about the lives of her characters, and what she has invented. All in all, a good read about a couple of complicated and fascinating women. See more

NEWS FRIDAY 11 SEPTEMBER 2021 Typing this date made me realize that it was 19 years ago today that the world changed with the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. I was home that day with the TV on in the background while I was sewing in the next room and of course was drawn to the screen, watching over and over again the horror of that day. Exactly a year later we were travelling in Europe, and in Brussels that evening we went to St. Michael’s Cathedral where... Mozart’s Requiem was performed. Those attending were of many faiths and nationalities, with European and American leaders and diplomats speaking. It was one of the most moving experiences I have known. And now, here we are facing a worldwide pandemic, another crisis that is just as difficult to understand. Teachers and children returning to school causes a new layer of anxiety for all of us, as we have no idea what the result will be. We are all feeling such fatigue, and I expect that many, like me, are having to acknowledge that the stress is exhausting. And yet we can only just keep going, as we head to end of this year, we have to hope things will improve, though we fear they may not. Reading has always been my escape. This past week I have read two truly excellent books. House on Endless Waters by Emuna Elon is a novel that tells the story of an Israeli novelist who comes to Amsterdam to discover the truth of his mother’s life there, the place of his birth, before emigrating to Israel during the Nazi Occupation of the Netherlands. The other is The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne. Again, this is the story of a man’s life a child born out of wedlock in Ireland in 1945, given up for adoption, his realization from a young age that he is attracted to boys rather than girls, and the years that follow. It is magnificent I have cried and sometimes laughed and all the while absolutely lost in both the story and the writing. Just released this week is a new novel from Peter Geye. Northernmost is the fourth novel from this excellent writer. Many of you will remember the evening we hosted Joseph Boyden and Peter Geye at the Stockey Centre a duo I will host again one day when we are able. This new novel takes place in the present time and in the late 1800s weaving together family history, and a love story from the past and in the present. The two big books released this week are Ken Follett’s The Evening and the Morning a prequel to The Pillars of the Earth a literal doorstopper!! Rage by Bob Woodward no need to describe this one either. Finally, thank you to everyone who purchased the wood engraving that raised funds to replace our bookshelves they are now all sold and we are rapidly filling a storage unit with bookcases and fixtures that will be installed when we are able to re-open in the Beatty Building. We are now aiming to be open by 1 December and we will have the place filled up with all you need for Christmas! Fingers and toes crossed.

Yeah - I managed to figure out how to get into my facebook account - with the help of my adult son who is very patient with his old mother. So, I will start posting the reviews I have been unable to post the last few weeks. Berta Isla by Javier Marías It has been many years since I read a book by Javier Marías... but no longer. After reading his most recent novel, Berta Isla, I am going to catch up on the rest. Berta Isla is the woman at the centre of the story, the other character of note, and the centre of Berta’s life is Tomás Tom Nevinson. These two meet in their final years of school, in Madrid. Berta pure madrileña, and Tom the son of a British father and a Spanish mother. They are both smart and attractive and know instantly that they will be life partners. What follows, in the novel, is the next two decades of their life together and apart. Javier Marías was born in Madrid in 1951 making him, and his coming of age, much the same as my own. He writes about the promiscuity and the freedom of choice of the baby boomers in the late 1960s and early 1970s, even in Spain though Franco still ruled. We read about Berta and Tom’s teenage years, and then the years when Tom is studying in Oxford, coming home only on the holidays, until one year when he stays in England. When he graduates and returns, they marry, and set up a home together. Tom is now working in London and commuting to Madrid, his time away sometimes many weeks, even months. Berta has her own career in Madrid, and children are born. This becomes their married life. Berta wonders what it is that is worrying her husband, as it becomes increasingly clear that there is more she does not know about him than she realized. When she does discover what it is, she must make a choice to stay in the marriage, or not. The book is divided into long sections, her story and his. As the reader, we know far more about the life that Tomás is living than his wife does and we know all of her thoughts and feelings, that are never disclosed to her husband. There is no doubt that they are in love with each other, and that this love is forever. But, does it mean that they are able to accept what has happened and have any sort of a satisfactory marriage, and a long life together? This novel is so beautifully written and plotted, it is a pleasure to read. The story unfolds slowly and is exquisitely choreographed. Berta Isla is an examination of a marriage, the truths, the lies, the expectations, the deceits, the acceptance or not of what can or cannot be forgiven. The imperfections of life, the choices made, the possibility of having even a part of each other rather than say goodbye, when perhaps too much has been lost.

For some reason that I cannot figure out I cannot log in or post from my laptop to my Facebook page. If there are any local Facebook experts out there who might be able to help please let me know at [email protected]. Thanks. Charlotte

A Dance of Cranes by Steve Burrows The Norfolk Broads has been the setting for several murder mystery novels, and the most recent by Steve Burrows, A Dance of Cranes, is one of the best. After reading the first five novels in this series I left some time before reading the sixth. It languished at the cottage over the winter waiting for a couple of dreary days to be read straight through. ... A Dance of Cranes takes place in both Norfolk and North America. Inspector Domenic Jejeune made an ill-fated decision to leave his job and his live-in partner, Lindy Hey, and return to Canada for a period of time. The reader knew Jejeune’s reasoning, but Lindy did not. She was left to misunderstand his motives and to recover from his rejection. In Canada Domenic is seeking his brother, Damien, who is lost in the wilds of Wood Buffalo National Park. Thrown into the mix is another character we’ve met in earlier novels their friend, Traz, who is making his own journey toward Canada from the southern United States. Traz and his travelling companion, Verity, are following the Whooping Cranes on their northern migration. All of these travellers will find each other as the novel progresses and the story of duplicity and unsavoury motives is revealed. In the meantime, in Norfolk, it is not only Lindy who is changing her life. Sergeant Danny Mack is also at loose ends, he knows the truth of Jejeune’s decision to leave Lindy and he is watching out for her safety. What he does not know is that there is more of a threat than either he, or Jejune, understood. Detective Chief Superintendent Colleen Shepherd is watching her new Sergeant, Lauren Salter investigate her first serious case as the lead officer. A Case involving the death of an elderly man who once made a Bee Bop group famous for their dance moves. His ownership of the copyright for their choreography could be a valuable asset and his decision to sell could have comprised his own safety, as he is found dead in his home as the novel begins. I was once again struck by Steve Burrow’s clever plotting of the story as each strand weaves together the novel, and at the skill of the author, and the improvement in his ability to write the story, with compassion and clarity, to set the stage and people it with characters who take on the dimensions of real people in behaviour and emotion. I was disappointed that the editor did not realize that canoes do not have oarlocks a jarring error for readers who know better. Domenic Jejune and his brother would certainly have known much more about canoes and paddling than the publisher and author did! The Dance of Cranes leaves the reader hanging, and the series open to a continuation that may, or may not, find those we care about finding happiness in future instalments. Regardless, I expect to find Domenic Jejeune back at work solving complicated crimes and following the birds.

I am delighted that Patti Morel has returned to work with me! We are now open Monday to Friday from 10 am - 4 pm Thanks to everyone for your support during this time of plague and fire!... Keep well, Charlotte