The 6th Canadian Book Challenge- May Round Up (Sticky Post— Scroll down for most recent post)

How to add your link:
1. Click on the icon above
2. Add a link to your review. (Please link to your specific review, not an entire webpage.)
3. Add your name and in parentheses the title of the book, such as John Mutford (Anne of Avonlea)
4. In the comment section below, tell me your grand total so far. (ex. This brings me up to 1/13)

Reader's Diary #1006- James Howe: Return to Howliday Inn

Continuing to read James Howe's Bunnicula series to my son, I'm now into unfamiliar territory. Sort of. I had only read the first three books as a child and Return to Howliday Inn is the fourth. However, it is a return to a familiar setting, with similar plots, and so it's not remarkably different.

We're still enjoying them, mind you. We've always appreciated Howe's humour and wacky personalities. In fact, whereas the first Howliday Inn book (the 2nd in the series) was a bit of a let down, the return was an improvement. On Howe's end, the pacing was better and the abundance of new characters were defined more. On my end, I think I did a better job keeping all the voices straight. (I even channeled the Howells from Gilligan's Island for one particular couple.) Once again, I enjoyed the literary references. In previous novels, Howe has introduced young readers to classic horror and mystery stories. In this one, Shakespeare's Hamlet plays a significant role.

Though I'm starting to wish there was perhaps an underlying story arc that would bring the books together more or at least give the series more of a sense of purpose. It's not quite stale yet, but with just two books left, I'd have figured a closure would have at least been hinted at by now.

Sweet Georgia Brown! I'm a globe trotter!

Or at least an international book blogger.

Reader's Diary #1005- McKay Jenkins: Bloody Falls of the Coppermine

In 1913, two Catholic priests by the names of Jean-Baptiste Rouvière and Guillaume Le Roux, had set out to convert a group of Inuit in the high Arctic, near Coppermine, known again today by its traditional name Kugluktuk. The Bloody Falls usually refer to a waterfall where explorer Samuel Hearne witnessed a massacre of 20 Inuit men, women and children at the hands of Dene men. While Jenkins references that event, his title Bloody Falls of the Coppermine is more of a double entendre; besides recalling the massacre near the waterfalls, Jenkins also uses falls as in falls from grace. Father Rouvière and Le Roux were murdered by a couple of Inuit men named Uluksuk and Sinnisiak.

While I expected the topic to be fascinating, my skepticism was triggered very early on. Near the beginning of the book and in several cases throughout, he refers to the language of the aboriginals in the area as Inuit. It's been my understanding that the people were Inuit, their language was either Inuktitut or Innuiqatun*. But while I lived in Nunavut for 6 years (and to the best of my knowledge Jenkins has never), I certainly don't claim to be an expert. Maybe it's acceptable in some circles, I reasoned, to refer to the Inuit languages simply as Inuit. Still, it started me doubting other facts in the book. It certainly wouldn't be the first time an author misrepresented the north.

Fortunately I came upon a review of Bloody Falls of the Coppermine, written by someone who's knowledge on these matters I do trust: Kenn Harper. Harper is a writer and historian who also speaks Inuktitut and has lived in Nunavut for 30 years. While Harper does point out some inaccuracies in the book (most of which I missed), he still, thankfully, says that the "essential details" are accurate.

I say thankfully, because I quite enjoyed the book. The story details alone are compelling enough, with equal doses of wilderness adventure and courtroom drama, but I especially enjoyed the underlying themes of psychology versus sociology. So often people then as now like to generalize based on the actions of a few. It was apparently easy for people to use the actions of Uluksuk and Sinnisiak to prove some point or other about the Inuit culture. Likewise, people judged (favourably and unfavourably) the actions and mission of the priests, based solely on Rouvière and Le Roux. Yet as Jenkins shows, even these 4 men had remarkably different personalities. If Uluksuk was so different than Sinnisiak, if Rouvière was so different than Le Roux, it would be certainly hard, not to mention potentially wildly inaccurate, to claim that all Inuit were the same or that all priests were the same.

Bloody Falls of the Coppermine is a fascinating, albeit tragic, tale from our history.

(*There are other Inuit languages and dialects than these.)

Reader's Diary #1004- Binnie Brennan: Absolution

If the image to the left conjures up emotions or memories beyond keeping your pants up, the impact of the first paragraph in Binnie Brennan's "Absolution" will undoubtedly be even greater for you than it was for me. Fortunate as I was to have avoided corporal punishment in my youth, I still found the opening to this story powerful and sickening and it certainly did the job of setting the mood for what was to follow.

"Absolution" is basically the coming-to-terms of four brothers with their strict, cold, religious, and abusive upbringing. I've been a brother but haven't had a brother, so I cannot say for sure that Brennan "got it right" but it at the very least felt authentic.

The ramifications for the brothers' harsh upbringing are as you would expect. Even the brothers who found success in some spheres of life (marriage, careers) still suffer from the legacy of their shared childhood. There's at least some sense of relief that at least they have been loyal to each other, but at several points even that threatens to break under the strain on a weak foundation.

At first the only issue I had with the story was the narrator's mother. I thought that while Brennan clearly wished for her to be a significant character, so much attention was put on the brothers and even their father, that her small part seemed to fade into the background and I didn't quite get it. However, when I went  back to read the final scene again, I finally appreciated the understated importance of the character (or at least one of her actions).

(Did you write a post for Short Story Monday? If so, please leave a link in the comments below.)

The Weekly Book Question- Your favourite Farley Mowat books

Farley Mowat has been almost as controversial as he has been prolific. But as I'm trying to keep the Weekly Book Questions on a positive note, I'll focus on the latter, prolific side of things. This week's Weekly Book Question:  

What is your favourite Farley Mowat book of all time? 

How the voting works: You may vote for up to three books, but please indicate your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice. Your first choice will be assigned 6pts, your second will be 4pts, and your third 2pts. (If you pick more than one but don't indicate your favourite, I'll be assigning them a point based on the order you've told me your choices.)

To help you make your choice, here's Mowat's complete bibliography:

• People of the Deer (1952; revised 1975) 
• The Regiment (1955) 
•  Lost in the Barrens (1956) (Also published as Two Against the North) 
• The Dog Who Wouldn't Be (1957) 
• Coppermine Journey: An Account of a Great Adventure Grey Seas Under: The Perilous Rescue Missions of a North Atlantic Salvage Tug (1959) 
• The Desperate People (1959; revised 1999) 
• Ordeal by Ice (1960) 
• Owls in the Family (1961) 
• The Serpent's Coil: An Incredible Story of Hurricane-Battered ships the Heroic Men Who Fought to Save Them (1961) 
• The Black Joke (1962) 
• Never Cry Wolf (1963) 
• West-Viking (1965) 
• The Curse of the Viking Grave (1966) 
• Canada North (1967) 
• The Polar Passion (1967) 
• This Rock Within the Sea: A Heritage Lost (1968) 
• The Boat Who Wouldn't Float (1969) 
•  The Siberians (1970) 
•  Sibir: My Discovery of Siberia (1970) 
• A Whale for the Killing (1972, revised 2012) 
• Tundra: Selections from the Great Accounts of Arctic Land Voyages (1973) 
• Wake of the Great Sealers (1973) 
• The Snow Walker (1975)  
• Death of a People-the Ihalmiut (1975)
• Canada North Now: The Great Betrayal (1976) 
• And No Birds Sang (Farley Mowat) (1979, revised 2012) 
• World of Farley Mowat (1980) 
• Sea of Slaughter (1984) 
• My Discovery of America (1985) 
• Virunga: The Passion of Dian Fossey (1987) 
• Woman in the Mists: The Story of Dian Fossey (1987) 
• The New Founde Land (1989) 
• Rescue the Earth!: Conversations with the Green Crusaders (1990) 
• My Father's Son (1993) 
•  Born Naked (1994) 
• Aftermath: Travels in a Post-War World (1995) 
•  The Farfarers: Before the Norse (1998 - Reprint 2000) 
• The Alban Quest The Search for a Lost Tribe (1999) 
• Walking on the Land (2000) 
• High Latitudes: An Arctic Journey (2002) 
• No Man's River (2004)
•  Bay of Spirits: A Love Story (2006) 
• Otherwise (2008) 
• Eastern Passage (2010)

Canadian Authors Missing in Action- Results

There's a scene in This is Spinal Tap when the band is delighted to hear one of their old classics on the radio. Their mood is crushed however when the dj comes on the air afterwards and saying that Spinal Tap is in the "'Where Are They Now?' file." It's sad because they hadn't retired.

Hopefully this is not the case with the authors who we nagged last week when I asked you "Which (living) Canadian authors have you missed the most?" referring to authors whose last published works you felt were way too long ago. We know it's not the case with the 2nd place author, Joseph Boyden. His latest novel The Orenda is scheduled to come out in September. But what about the author we missed the most...

1. Andrew Davidson- 5 year's since The Gargoyle (One of my favourite books from that year, by the way)

Joseph Boyden, as we said above came in 2nd place. For third there was a 4 way tie for Jacqueline Baker, Alexi Zentner, Dianne Warren, and Ann-Marie MacDonald. In fourth, you were equally missing Steve Zipp, Alistair MacLeod. And finally, Bernice Morgan, Jessica Grant, and Dalene Flannigan are being missed.

Reader's Diary #1003- Julie Doucet: My New York Diary

I first came across this book when I was planning my March break trip to New York. Looking for Canadian books with a New York connection, I was pleasantly surprised not only to find a graphic novel that fit that description but one that was also critically acclaimed.

My New York Diary is actually a collection of 3 autobiographical stories: "The First Time," Julie in Junior College," and the third and longest story of which the collection shares its name.

Writing-wise,  "My New York Diary" is the strongest of the lot with more of a story arc (arguably a coming-of-age story, though Julie is at that point a young adult). The other two stories felt tacked on. As a character, I question whether or not Julie was presented in a self-deprecating way or if she wasn't just irritating. She made some pretty rash decisions and the only evidence that there was any reflection on those choices and their consequences seemed to be the book itself. The only people more annoying than her were the men she surrounded herself with.

The artwork saved the book. Highly stylized, the characters are all somewhat stunted in appearance with slightly oversized heads. They reminded me of Bratz dolls, but presumably without the chlamydia. The backgrounds are typically done in heavy black ink resulting in a woodcut look. But my favourite aspect of the drawings was the detail in the setting. As a child I was always attracted to pictures (drawings and photos) of dumps. I loved to see what treasures I could find from my sanitary safety zone of home. The only thing I liked more than looking at such photos was drawing my own. (Every junkyard I drew had to have a broken lamp, an old tire, a boot and an apple core. The rest could be miscellaneous colourful lumps, but those four items were staples.) Luckily, the characters in "My New York Diary" ranged from grossly untidy to borderline hoarders. Each panel was a veritable smorgasbord of trashy details. Cluttered tables, stuff strewn over the floor, fridge magnets. If the story wasn't really holding my attention, I at least had those distractions to occupy my time.

Reader's Diary #1002- Carol Shields and Anne Giardini: A Wood

Yesterday I reviewed Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, which in hindsight, may not have been the Mother's Daysiest of choices. So today, hoping to rectify that, I found "A Wood," a short story written by Anne Giardini, with her mom Carol Shields.

"A Wood" is a very subtle piece. In fact, through talking about the varying colours found in an elderly character's hand depending on the light, the authors subtly address subtlety. It's oxymoronic metafiction, kids!

"A Wood" is about an elderly woman named Elke, her son, and her companion. At one point Elke asks herself, "why has she always allowed herself to be encircled like this?" as if feeling smothered by others around her. What is clear to the reader however is that Elke has encircled others just as much. It is obvious that Elke is loved and warrants love with her protective nature. People need her. As much as Elke's question implies someone who has given away her soul for others, I sense that it is a fleeting moment. With her music, Elke does escape her confines. It's a telling moment when she picks up her violin and plays from the fifth bar. "Why can't you start anything at the beginning?" her companion Loretta asks. Because she can, because this is Elke's time.

(Did you write a post for Short Story Monday? If so, please leave a link in the comments below.)