May 2018: What are we reading?

I usually really like Chris Bohjalian's novels, but this one was a bit of a disappointment: The Flight Attendant. The ending was a little too tidy and unbelievable for my liking.

Finished another by a favourite author of mine: Ann Cleeves. This one was good, as usual: Harbour Street

Finished The Breaking Point, a collection of stories by Daphne du Maurier. Excellent stuff. "The Blue Lenses" is still creeping me out two days later.

Couldn't put down this mystery/thriller: I See You by Clare McIntosh.

I really enjoyed this novel: The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson

Planning to spend this afternoon reading Devil in a Blue Dress, by Walter Mosley.

I've nearly finished One Brother Shy by Terry Fallis.

I'm re-starting Tell Me Something True by Leila Cobo.

Needed relaxation reading, with happy endings, so just finished this could change everything by Jill Mansell. Currently reading the biography Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson.

Loitering by Charles D'Ambrosio.

Just started Grey Seas Under, by Farley Mowat. It makes a good follow-up, thematically speaking, to The Silence of the Sea, by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, which I read earlier this week.

Never Let You Go / Chevy Stevens
4.5 stars

Lindsey’s ex-husband, Andrew, has been in jail for the past decade. He was abusive toward Lindsey, and she has since built a new life for her and her daughter, Sophie. Unfortunately when Andrew gets out of jail, he comes back to the town where Lindsey and Sophie live.

I have not yet been disappointed in a Chevy Stevens novel. I found this very fast-paced and suspenseful, and I wanted to keep reading. I listened to the audio, which was very well done; it was read by two different narrators, one for Lindsey and one for Sophie. The book does jump around in time (now and then) and perspective (Lindsey and Sophie). Very very good, in my opinion! There was what I thought of as a coincidence at the end, but without saying too much, it turned out to be planned, so not a coincidence, after all.

Nightfall by Richard B. Wright. Perhaps I should have read October before reading this one- I found this one too jumpy and couldn't really get into it or relate to any of the main characters.

This long weekend I hope to finish reading Black Tudors, by Miranda Kaufmann. The second chapter features a salvage diver who worked on the wreck of the Mary Rose.

Still slowly getting through the Outlander series-I've gotten farther into the series this time than I did 20 or so years ago. Just finished The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon, but it took me months!

I've been on vacation in Japan and Hawaii. On the long flights and while sitting in airports, I managed to get quite a bit of reading done:

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris who is becoming a favourite author;
The Parcel by Anosh Irani;
Leaving Brooklyn by Lynne Sharon Schwartz;
Childhood by Andre Alexis for the second time;
Angel Falls by Tim Wynveen, a new-to-me Canadian author;
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman;
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie;
All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg; and
With Shuddering Fall, which is Joyce Carol Oates's first novel.

>16 LynnB: Excellent work!!

Reading a different history book: Mary Queen of Scots, by Antonia Fraser.

The Headmaster's Wager / Vincent Lam
3.5 stars

Percival is a Chinese man living in Vietnam during the war. He runs an English school, and he longs to go home to China. When his son is arrested and later released, Percival arranges to have his son sent to China so that he’ll be safe. As Percival moves on with his life with Vietnemese-French woman Jacqueline, he worries about his son.

This one started really slowly for me. It went back and forth in time, and with a few characters having both Chinese and English names, I was slightly confused, initially. Once we got about a third of the way into the book (and mostly, those characters with multiple names were known by their English names), it picked up for me. This was about the time Percival’s son was son was sent away – or maybe when he was arrested. Anyway, it really picked up for me. There were some parts that were more political that I wasn’t as interested in. I know next-to-nothing about the Vietnam War, so initially I felt like that also made it a bit harder to follow the story, but again, it seemed to get clearer as the book went along. Overall, I’m rating it “good”.

Back to crime fiction reading; The Moth Catcher by Ann Cleeves. Good read, as always.

I'm reading Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder and One Man's Fight for Justice by Bill Browder.

>20 LynnB:, wow, sounds interesting!

Getting into the home stretch with The Heaven Tree, by Edith Pargeter.

The Concubine's Children / Denise Chong
4 stars

This is a biography of three generations of a Chinese-Canadian family. Chan Sam came to Canada and left his Chinese wife at home, but soon brought a beautiful younger Chinese woman to Canada as his concubine: May-ying. May-ying gave Chan Sam 3 daughters; before the 3rd one (Hing) came along, the other two had been taken back to China to live with Chan Sam’s Chinese wife. Hing, the daughter who stayed in Canada, was mostly neglected by her drinking, gambling mother. Hing’s daughter, Denise, is the author of the book. The book does focus mostly on May-ying, but it also tells the story of the family in China, as well. I can’t recall the phrase in the book, but something along the lines of a split family.

I thought this was very good. It covers a good portion of the 20th century, so it also includes a bit of history of how Chinese people were treated in Canada, and North America, in general, over that century. The story was interesting, and it did primarily focus on the most interesting person, in my opinion, May-ying. There was also a nice set of photos included – photos of those in both Canada and China.

I'm reading The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben.

Today I started Truth Dare Kill, by Gordon Ferris, the first in his Danny McRae series.

I'm reading January: A Woman Judge's Season of Disillusion by Marie Corbett.

I'm reading a second biography in a row: The Shawinigan Fox: How Jean Chretien Defied the Elites and Reshaped Canada by Bob Plamondon.

At Home in the World by Joyce Maynard

Writing in an Age of Silence by Sara Paretsky