Far to Go
I loved this story of the Czechoslovakian holocaust to the very last page. The narrator framework Pick uses is brilliant and the ending, too. The narrator, Marta, is so convincing, so easy to forgive with her overarching desire to belong. A favourite.
The Headmaster’s Wager
The Headmaster’s Wager, from Giller-Prize-winning Vincent Lam, is a novel of the Chinese in Vietnam at the time of the Vietnam war. The story is vivid and poignant and rich in detail, so masterfully told. Percival, the imperfect headmaster prone to misunderstandings, is ultimately called upon to act with great courage. He will stay with me for a long time. And now for the kicker, my husband could not put it down for two days, until he’d finished the last page. Rarely happens. Another favourite.
Cloud Atlas
David Mitchell displays astonishing range as he gives us six intertwined stories—two historical, two present day, two futuristic—each written in a mind-bendingly distinct voice.
Girl With a Pearl Earring
I read Girl With a Pearl Earring ten years ago and then read it again once my second novel, which is in part narrated by the model for Edgar Degas’s sculpture “Little Dancer Aged 14,” was out in the wide world seeking a publisher. I feel in love with Girl With a Pearl Earring all over again. Bravo, Tracy Chevalier!
State of Wonder
In Anne Patchett’s latest, Dr. Marina Singh travels to the Amazon jungle in search of a missing colleague and to get some answers from the mysterious Dr. Swenson about the pharmaceutical research she is conducting on behalf of Dr. Singh’s employer. In what turns out to be an engaging cautionary tale, Patchett creates a primitive civilization and setting that is entirely believable.
Up and Down
I was deeply honoured to be asked to provide a blurb for Terry Fallis’s Up and Down. Here it is: In Landon Percival, Terry Fallis brings to vivid life an unexpected hero—tough yet endearing, brave yet vulnerable. As told by the adorably self-deprecating David Stewart, Landon’s highly entertaining story of NASA intrigue and public relations high jinks reminds us of what it means to be Canadian.
Lacuna
This masterful piece of historical fiction is set in the Mexico City of Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo and WWII America. I had the deep pleasure of reading it while staying in very Mexican villa in Puerto Escondido. Such a treat.
Let the Great World Spin
In what has been called “one of the greatest ever novels about New York,” McCann, with humour and tenderness, weaves together the lives of a dozen ordinary New Yorkers. I loved it.
The Reinvention of Love
A huge fan of Helen Humphreys, I could not wait to dive into The Reinvention of Love, her telling of the great love affair between poet and critic Charles Sainte-Beuve and Adele, the wife of the famed egotist Victor Hugo. Poetic, witty and illuminating, The Reinvention of Love is not to be missed.
The Four Ms. Bradwells
When four best friend from law school reunite to celebrate the appointment of one of their own to the Supreme Court, a long hidden secret with the power to change their lives surfaces. The Four Mr. Bradwells is a gorgeous, smart book about women’s friendships and women’s shifting roles.
The Ten Year Nap
Meg Wolitzer nails women, at least the ones I know—myself, my girlfriends and acquaintances—in all our woe and splendor. The Ten Year Nap takes a provocative look at four New York friends. Each has spent the decade largely defined by her roles as wife and mother, but change is in the air. A favourite.
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky
This Bellwether-Prize-winning debut novel tells the story of Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I. who becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy. Rachel is a wonderful creation—vivid, complex, flawed yet to so easy to love. Her voice is pitch perfect, and there is great energy to the writing. The race identity aspect of the story is rich, fascinating and intelligent. Plus, it’s an utterly gripping tale.
The Winter Palace
I adored The Winter Palace, a gripping and richly described tale of Catherine the Great’s rise to power. The story unfolds through the ever-watchful eyes of a servant girl Varvara. Stachniak could not have made a wiser choice of narrator for the story.
Bloodroot
This wonderful multigenerational saga is a dark and riveting story of magic, madness and loss. Greene does a beautiful job evoking the voices of her Tennessee characters and with juxtaposing brutality with the often serene setting. Greene is a Tennessee native, and I could feel the mountain love on every page. As a gal who is still awestruck by the Niagara river and falls I grew up with, I could very much relate.
Love Walked In
Diehard romantic Cornelia Brown thinks she’s met her man when Cary-Grant-look-alike Martin Grace comes into the coffee shop she manages. But with the arrival of Clare Hobbs, an eleven year old abandoned by her mother, Cornelia’s life is turned on its ear and it seems her newfound love is but an omen of a world about to shift. A fun, warm-hearted tale about finding love in the place you’d least expect it.
The Uncoupling
When Stellar Plains High School opts to put on the play Lysistrata, in which women stop having sex in order to end a war, a spell is cast over the school. Female teachers and students alike begin to turn away from their husbands and partners in the bedroom. With brilliance and wit, Wolitzer uses a sex strike in this fast-paced read to examine what makes a marriage strong.
A Visit From the Goon Squad
In this darkly funny Pulitzer Prize winner, we hear from a cast of zany characters, everything from an aging puck rocker turned record executive to a dessert-dwelling artist. Egan intertwines their stories, delivering an entirely satisfying ending. My favourite part: An 85-page powerpoint presentation that will make you weep.
Natural Order
The latest from the author of Fruit, a Canada Reads finalist, Natural Order takes a look at the smothering, often misguided love of a small town mother raising her gay son. With humour and poignancy, Brian Francis perfectly captures the voice of Joyce Sparks. I think I learned a thing or two about parenting teenagers reading this book.
Wolf Hall
I bow down to Hilary Mantel for what she has accomplished with Booker-winning Wolf Hall. The writing is pitch perfect, and the scope of the novel in terms of both breadth and depth is remarkable. Be prepared to think very hard. I was constantly googling characters and referring back to the cast of characters and family trees the preface the book.
By Nightfall
Michael Cunningham, who won the Pulitzer for The Hours, is one of my favourite writers. I was not disappointed by his latest. Peter Harris, an art dealer in his mid-forties, struggles when his wife’s much younger, look-alike brother comes to stay with them in New York. A favourite book for me this year.
February
February is the story of Helen O’Mara, who is left behind when her husband is one of the 84 men killed when the oil rig Ocean Ranger sank off the coast of Newfoundland in 1882. Another favourite of the year for me.
The Paris Wife
My son picked this book out for my birthday based on the facts that I was writing a book set in Paris and that it is a fictionalised account of Hadley Richardson’s marriage to Ernest Hemingway. From the book’s cover copy we find out that, at the end of his life, Hemmingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley. It makes the book particularly heart breaking to read.
The Bishop’s Man
Father Duncan MacAskill is the bishop’s clean-up man, the enforcer sent to tidily deal with wayward priests and avoid scandal. In his new parish, he meets a boy who might have suffered at the hands of a priest that MacAskill perhaps dealt with too expeditiously. A Giller Prize Winner, The Bishop’s Man is timely and utterly convincing.
Galore
This utterly charming book is full of the magic and folklore of Newfoundland. It was a contender in Georgian Bay Reads, which made the The Day the Falls Stood Still win in the competition doubly sweet.
Room
Many fear cracking the cover of a book narrated by a 5-year-old boy born and raised in captivity after his mother is kidnapped. But don’t. Booker prize shortlisted Room is a stunning testament to motherhood, filled with light rather than dark.
The Cellist of Sarajevo
Set is Sarajevo under siege, Steven Galloway’s mutli-point of view narrative is ultimately about the endurance of the human spirit. I particularly loved hearing from Arrow, a female sniper.
Slammerkin
A wonderful evocation of eighteenth century London and Monmouth, Slammerkin follows vividly drawn Mary Saunders , with her insatiable yearning for finery, from humble beginnings to a life of prostitution. I loved this one.
Conceit
Rich in texture and detail, Conceit gives us the story of famous poet John Donne, his wife and the daughter, who seeks the passionate romance that lead to her parents’ elopement. Literary historical fiction at its best.
The Golden Mean
In Annabel Lyon’s masterful The Golden Mean, she imagines the relationship between Aristotle and his pupil Alexander the Great and in doing so takes a look at two very different ways of existing in the world—as a man of action and as a man of ideas. Savour this prize winner.
The Truth About Delilah Blue
Cohen, with characteristic insight and wit, delivers a page turner where the father, mother and teenage daughter of a dysfunctional family find one another and find themselves.
The Death of Donna Whalen
In the book’s foreword Michael Winter tells us he created this highly original work by “selecting” eighty thousand words from over ten thousand pages of court transcripts documenting the brutal murder of a young woman in St. John’s. The result presents an unvarnished account of a community in the wake of a murder. Given his process, I was fascinated to find a book that sounded so much like the Michael Winter I have admired over the years.
The Flying Troutmans
With her wacky sense of humour, Miriam Toews will have you laughing out loud while reading this darkly comic novel.
Best Laid Plans
Terrys Fallis self-published this satire of Canadian politics and then went on to win the Stephen Leacock Prize for humour and Canada Reads. You’ll find out why between the covers of this gem of a book.
The Bells
Astonishing in its originality, epic in its scope, luminous in its richness, The Bells by Richard Harvell is a novel to be savoured page by glorious page. I was lucky enough to review an advance reading copy.
The Doctor and the Diva
The Doctor and the Diva, based on old family letters, takes us on a fascinating journey into the hearts and minds of a woman and a man who commit the unthinkable. Brace yourself for the vortex of their deftly drawn lives. Again, I was lucky enough to review an advance reading copy.
Spin
I read a lot. Literary fiction. Historical fiction. Booker-prize-winners. Seriously hard stuff. And maybe that’s a mistake, because it’s been a while since I read until three in the morning, and that’s exactly what happened with Spin, Catherine McKenzie’s oh-so-wry debut.
Olive Kitteridge
Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer-winning Olive Kitteridge is made up of thirteen stories bound together by brusque, imperfect Olive. Be prepared to marvel, after each story, in quite the same way we do after a really fine novel. It’s that good.
While I’m Falling
I happened to be reading Laura Moriarty’s While I’m Falling when Elle came out with its September reader’s picks, books that were subsequently pitted against one another in a reader vote. I was thrilled to find The Day the Falls Stood Still included in the picks, particularly considering that the other two books on the list were new novels by former Grand Prix Book-of-the-Year winners. My book came in a very close second to While I’m Falling, the very book I was savouring.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
I picked up this book after hearing Junot Díaz read at the International Festival of Authors in Toronto last fall. I was intrigued, at least in part because he is from Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic, like my dad. While I enjoyed this book, I wasn’t wowed by it. The violence was too gruesome for my liking, and I found it repetitive. But then, what do I know? The book has won a lot of awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer.
Donna Morrissey
I discovered Donna Morrissey this year, first reading What They Wanted. I loved it, and I loved Sylvanus Now, too. No one does the Newfie voice like Morrissey. No one makes you feel the feral beauty of Newfoundland in quite the same way. You’ll want to hop on the next plane to The Rock and spend some time with the Nows.