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 #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.)

Reader's Diary #1001- Adolf Hitler, translated by James Murphy: Mein Kampf

Paranoid, hypocritical, egomaniac. (I'll return to these in just a bit...)

"Marriage is not an end in itself but must serve the greater end, which is that of increasing and maintaining the human species and the race. This is its only meaning and purpose."- Adolf Hitler

It would be an easy insult then to say that those who, for similar reasons, are against gay marriages are "like Hitler." However, Mein Kampf is a long, long book and with lots and lots of opinions. Anyone who takes the time to actually read the thing will be horrified to find that for the dozens of opinions that they don't agree with (like his views on marriage above), there's probably at least point they do agree with. I usually try my best to avoid my political (and religious) leanings here at the Book Mine Set, but it's hard to discuss a political book without some personal revelations. In case I've been too subtle: I lean to the left. So, in the early pages of Mein Kampf when Hitler showed sympathy towards manual labourers in Vienna, I was stuck agreeing with Hitler that it sucks when workers are exploited by the upper classes, the governments and factory owners. If I was to speak out against workers being mistreated, it's not a far stretch to believe that someone from the right would accuse me of being anti-captitalist (I am), socialist, Marxist, and then... "like Hitler." Except if the right had taken the time to read the book, they'd see, among other contradictions, that Hitler was vehemently anti-Marxist. And if both right and left sides took the time to read the book, they'd see how careless it is to sling that comparison around. You can take isolated points from Hitler and pin them to others, but really, the fact that we're all so quick to throw "Hitler" out as the ultimate insult, proves that we can all agree on one thing: Hitler was a deplorable, evil man. Minor points aside, the major points are what we should focus on.

And what are the major points? As I said in the opening, Adolf Hitler was a paranoid, hypocritical, egomaniac. In the first 100 or so pages, he presents himself as someone who is simply proud of Germany, who wants Germany restored to a former glory, to have workers treated fairly. When he first mentions "the Jew," it's like a record scratching. Of course, I knew it was coming but when it did, it seemed to mark a long descent into hell. At first Hitler tries to justify his racist beliefs. He perceives that he's been slighted or held back by a couple of Jewish people and uses this to generalize all Jewish people as manipulative parasites. The fact that he's so threatened by Jewish people, yet claims to be be superior, results in some pretty fancy (and stupid) mental gymnastics as Hitler tries to convince readers why they should fear Jewish people despite his earlier suggestion that they are so inferior. Later he drops any pretense of "proof" for his condemnations of Jews, no longer even bothering to offer personal anecdotes to back up his claims. He states some wild anthropological theories as fact and becomes more and more obsessed and convinced that he is right and that he will save the human race (by exterminating a large percentage of it).

From a historical point of view Mein Kampf is quite interesting, especially if you're like me and not well-versed in WWII history or its precedents. I didn't know that Hitler was interested, for example, in a possible alliance with England. I'd also been under the impression that the decision to invade Russia was rash. However, reading Mein Kampf which was published in 1925 (Volume 1) and 1926 (Volume 2), it is clear that it had been his plan all along, long before the invasion actually happened. Likewise the alliance with Italy was well in the works long before it happened.

Still, even with the historical significance, Mein Kampf is a long and difficult book. If it is was anybody else who wrote it, it would be easy to just throw it down in disgust as the rantings of an intellectually-sounding lunatic. He reminded me at times of Hannibal Lecter. But it's made all the more difficult since it's impossible to write him off as a nut or a fictional character. The atrocities committed by this monster were only too real.

Anyone who throws the Hitler-insult around lightly should read this book. Only one man should ever be stuck with that.

The Weekly Book Question- Canadian Authors who are Missing in Action

While last week's question didn't drum up enough responses to get a true top 10, I'm hoping that Raidergirl's suggestion will help. This week, I'll open it up to three votes per person. But make sure to rank them with your top choice as #1 and so on. If you can't think of 3, feel free to just vote for 1 or 2. Your top choice will get 6pts, your 2nd choice will get 4pts and your last choice will get 2pts.

 Even if we don't get a top 10 list this week, we'll at least inspire some of these authors to pick up the pen again. Which authors? Those Canadian authors who are still living but leaving their fans waiting impatiently for their next book. Now we don't want to rush quality, we just want to encourage them by saying, "we loved your last book SOOOOO much that it's feeling like FOREVER since you last published anything."

Perhaps you're like me, wishing for Joseph Boyden to finally publish another novel. It's been 5 years since Through Black Spruce and he once told me that he envisioned it, along with Three Day Road, as a trilogy. So the final installment would be nice. Not that he's been slacking— he did publish a non-fiction Louis Riel/ Gabriel Dumont joint biography in 2010.

I've also been thinking about Ann-Marie MacDonald lately. It's been a whole decade since her last novel, The Way the Crow Flies. 9 years since she's published any writing, with the play Belle Moral having been published in 2004.

A few other names that come to mind are Bernice Morgan (6 years since Cloud of Bone), Heather O'Neill (7 years since Lullabies for Little Criminals), Steve Zipp (6 years since Yellowknife), Barbara Gowdy (6 years since Helpless), Lawrence Hill (6 years since the Book of Negroes), Andrew Davidson (5 years since The Gargoyle), Steven Galloway (5 years since The Cellist of Sarajevo), and Mary Lawson (7 years since The Other Side of the Bridge).

Feel free to vote for some of these, but if you other suggestions feel free to vote for someone different.

Which (living) Canadian authors have you missed the most?

Best Canadian Book TV/Movie Adaptations- Results

Well, try as I might, the first Weekly Book Question didn't warrant enough results to get a top 10 like I'd hoped. When asked "What has been the best small or big screen adaptation of a Canadian book?" I was able to get over ten responses, but not enough to have anything more than a 3 way tie for 1st place and an 8 way tie for 2nd (i.e., one vote a piece). That's okay, still worthy of some discussion. First here are the three top vote getters:

1. Anne of Green Gables- Perhaps the least surprising of the lot, but I'd agree that this Lucy Maud Montgomery adaptation was a classic. CBC really pulled off something great with this one. They tried and tried to recapture that with so many similarly styled movies and TV shows, but nothing compared to the original. Then, the source material was far superior too. And how about those amazing performances by Megan Follows and Colleen Dewhurst:

 2. The Hockey Sweater- This one and The Log Driver's Waltz were the best things the National Film Board ever produced, at least in my nostalgically-biased mind. I suspect the film had as much to do with getting a quote on our five dollar bill (not the new one) as did Roch Carrier's original book. As Barbara Bruederlin put it with her vote last week "utterly charming":

3. Inspector Murdoch Mysteries- (I'm told to specify that the votes were for the TV movies, not the series. This one was a bit of a surprise to me. I'd not heard of the movie, the TV show, or even the books by Maureen Jennings.

Other honourable mentions:
- Random Passage (Bernice Morgan), CBC miniseries
- The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje), Movie
- Life of Pi (Yann Martel), Movie
- Hard Core Logo (Michael Turner), Movie
- Margaret's Museum (Sheldon Currie, based on The Glace Bay Miners' Museum)
- Away From Her (Alice Munro), Movie
- Incendies (Wajdi Mouawad), Movie

Reader's Diary #1000- Craig Thompson: Blankets

First off, I should explain why I won't be making a big deal over the fact that this is my 1000th Reader's Diary entry. Truly, if it was the 1000th book or short story I've blogged about I probably would be honouring it as some sort of milestone. However, in the early days of this blog (which began in December of '05) I used to blog about books before I finished them. I'd read a chapter or two, blog, read a bit more. It was more personal, more of an actual diary entry versus a review, but it was also more time consuming, it was hard to maintain the interest of any of my own readers, and even harder to link to a half dozen entries on a single book. Anyway, the point I'm making is that you can probably knock off a couple hundred or so Reader's Diaries if you're trying to get a more accurate picture of how much I've read over the life of this blog. Not that anyone is.

Back to the matter at hand: Craig Thompson's graphic novel, Blankets. Over at the Graphic Novels Challenge blog, the motto is given "comics: not a genre." While I'd agree, there seem to be a lot of graphic novels written in very specific genres. Besides the obvious superhero books, there's an amazing number of graphic memoirs/autobiographies, and even more specific, graphic novels set in the Middle East. Blankets falls into that middle, memoir category.

Craig, however, is the most innocent, moral character I've come across in any previous memoirs. Not that the others have been deviants, but Craig even makes my teenage years seem rebellious in comparison. It's a complex coming-of-age story. While most pages are dedicated to a love story about Craig and a girl named Naima, I'd be hesitant to say that was the focus on the book. Certainly religion and Craig's waning faith is of equal, if not greater importance to the development of his character. His relationship with his family also plays a significant part. As does sexual abuse. There's a lot going on, but at nearly 600 pages Thompson is able to work all of it in seamlessly, without rushing or creating a complicated mess. And while it sounds like it'd possible be too heavy, there are some hysterical moments, some mildly amusing moments, and some down right touching moments to help break the intensity.

The artwork took some getting used to. This will sound really nit-picky but I hated the way he drew mouths so much that I found it distracting at the beginning. Everyone seemed to have jagged holes for mouths with little to no definition at all. Once I got over that however, I liked the rest. Especially when he would occasionally veer into more surreal, artistic expression to capture a mood— done just infrequently enough to give those moods and expression real impact.

It's really a wonderful book and I can understand easily why Time magazine listed it among their top 10 books of the decade in 09.