Cool Water by Dianne Warren

Juliet, Saskatchewan, is a blink-of-an-eye kind of town -- the welcome sign announces a population of 1,011 people -- and it’s easy to imagine that nothing happens on its hot and dusty streets. Situated on the edge of the Little Snake sand hills, Juliet and its inhabitants are caught in limbo between a century -- old promise of prosperity and whatever lies ahead.

But the heart of the town beats in the rich and overlapping stories of its people: the foundling who now owns the farm his adoptive family left him; the pregnant teenager and her mother, planning a fairytale wedding; a shy couple, well beyond middle age, struggling with the recognition of their feelings for one another; a camel named Antoinette; and the ubiquitous wind and sand that forever shift the landscape. Their stories bring the prairie desert and the town of Juliet to vivid and enduring life.

This wonderfully entertaining, witty and deeply felt novel brims with forgiveness as its flawed people stumble towards the future.

I feel bad. I was supposed to review this book as part of a blog tour MONTHS ago, but then things happened and here I am posting it late! The further behind I am, the harder it is for me to get started on things. That means that things just get worse and then I have an even larger problem to tackle. The good thing is that I wound up loving this book! I wasn't sure if I would because it doesn't seem like the type of book where a lot happens, but that's okay. What does happen made for compelling reading and I really felt like both the characters and the town itself came alive for me. I think this book stands a good chance of going up for some of Canada's awards this year, but I suppose we will have to see what happens.

The book is told from many different points of view. All of the characters are flawed in some way. This is not a book of perfection by any stretch. There are scenes where you want to cry for the characters, but there are also scenes where you can't help laughing. There are scenes that will stick with you long after you have turned the final page. I was also surprised by how some of the events turned out. Things happened that I did not see coming, and there were a couple times where I wondered just what the author was thinking and whether things really were going to work out to a satisfying conclusion.

There is one character who has inherited a farm from his adoptive parents. He is still rather young and not entirely sure how to make things run as smoothly as they did. A chance encounter, though, gives him a chance to stretch his legs and figure out just who he is. I found him to be a crush-worthy character. Then, there is the family that are seriously feeling the pressure of the recession. They have no idea how they are going to get by, but the wife can't seem to be the farm wife-type and the husband doesn't know what to do anymore. It all gets rather over-whelming for them after the book progresses. Their oldest son is taking things the worst and honestly doesn't know what to do anymore. He has to break-away for a while to get some perspective. Those are just some of the characters that make up this novel.

The thing that I really liked about this book is that it was so ordinary. It is about small town people their small town problems. Everything is entirely possible and able to be related to in some way. The stories are just told in such a way that even when they are plain, they still feel like they have a lot of life to them. I really enjoyed this book and hope that it receives lots of recognition in 2010 because it deserves it!

My thanks to Harper Collins Canada for sending me a copy of this book!

3rd Canadian Reading Challenge: Mini Reviews

In the last few months I have read a lot Canadian book for the 3rd Canadian Reading Challenge. The problem is I apparently still need to review 5 books in order to count it as finished. So, I am going to do some mini-reviews. I think that you will see more of this in the next two months because it seems to be the only way I am ever going to review even a large part of the books I have read this year.

The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong (The Darkest Powers Series, Book 2)
I received a review copy of the first book in this series last year, and while I enjoyed it I didn't love it. This time around I decided to get the book from the library. What happened is I actually really enjoyed it! It really is hard for Kelley Armstrong to write a bad book. She is the author of the Women of the Otherworld series which I love! This series is a young adult one. It is a paranormal novel. My biggest problem with this book and with the book that came before it is the main character. She kind of annoys me, but she grew on me a bit more in this book. The other characters are compelling and I am looking forward to seeing what happens with them in the further books. I think there are some surprises in store as the characters grow into themselves and into their paranormal abilities. A recommended read!

As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised As a Girl by John Colapinto
I spoke about this book a bit in one of my Sunday posts. To go into a bit more detail, I don't think this is what I was expecting. I just wanted to read what it was like for a boy to be raised as a girl. I was interested in that story, but I found all the other stuff that was mixed in got a bit unnecessary. There was one chapter I got annoyed and ended up skimming my way through. I think that the author was trying to accomplish too much in such a short book and it got a bit boggled down. I found parts of it really interesting, but overall I found this rather dull.

War Brides: The stories of the women who left everything behind to follow the men they loved by Melynda Jarratt
This book was actually really interesting! It is the personal story of the women and their family involved in the war bride movement during the second world war. The stories are told in their own words and do not just tell the success stories. Obviously when you only know a man for a short time and marry him you don't necessarily know him at all. It was shocking what these women came to Canada to live in. Many of them were from middle-class homes and they went to places where in some cases there was not even indoor plumbing, so it was a bit overwhelming. I think this is the best way to tell this story and I am glad that I read it. I recommend it!

The Iambics of Newfoundland: Notes from an Unknown Shore by Robert Finch
I totally read this book because of the title! It was just fun, so I had to see what it was all about. What happened was I read a really interesting book about Newfoundland. I should mention that while Nfld is near to me, I have never actually been there, so whether or not this is an entirely believable portrait is something that people that actually live there would have to tell you. What did happen, though, is I learned a lot without even stepping outside my living room. Plus, I could see a lot of Nova Scotia in it... Did it live up to the title? Maybe not as much as I hoped, but I still really enjoyed it. I recommend it.

The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys
I read Coventry last year and I really liked it. This book was good, but I think it is a bit lost on me... I read a book for the story and am not a huge fan of fancy writing that sort of takes away from the story. This book was a bit flowery and it was not something that worked for me all the time. I entirely acknowledge that it is just me, though. At its core I really liked the story and the characters. I still plan to read more from Humphreys in the future. For whatever bothers me about her books, there is always wonderful things that keep me reading her. So, I guess I recommend this, but then on the other hand I don't. If that makes any sense...

The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade

There are rumors that a hunchback infant in a gypsy freakshow has the power to transform his appearance. This comes to the attention of Mr. Socrates, a member of the shadowy Permanent Association, who decides to take the boy back to england and raise him for his own purposes. Naming him Modo, Mr. Socrates keeps the boy indoors and never lets him see his deformity, while putting him through training to be a secret agent. When Modo turns 14, his education is complete. He is handed a mirror and confronts his image for the first time, horrified. Then, he is taken to foggy, polluted London and abandoned, penniless, to test his skills.

But Modo is resourceful, and he finds a way to get by, keeping to himself… until one day, when the beautiful Octavia Milkweed knocks on his door. soon, with the help of Mr. Socrates, they find themselves uncovering a sinister plot being carried out in the very sewers beneath their feet. Will they be able to stop the mad scientist Dr. Hyde and his even more terrifying associates before they unleash their monstrous plans upon unsuspecting Londoners?

The start of a fantastic series, in the hot new genre of steampunk, The Hunchback Assignments takes readers into the sewers and alleyways of an alternative Victorian London, in an unputdownable adventure.

From Harper Collins Canada

My Thoughts:

Last year I had the chance to read an ARC of Arthur Slade's Jolted. It was so fun and I finished it shocked that I have never read him before. Actually, if it wasn't for the wonderful Rachel I might not have read him then and I would've been missing out! But, she wrote a wonderful review and one thing lead to another. I have to say that Rachel has never steered me wrong. When she says to read something, you should just read it. I know that I do! Anyway, she warned me that this book wasn't as good as Jolted, and she was right, but it still had merit. I wish it wasn't a series because I really don't need to read anymore series, but since it is Arthur Slade and he is Canadian, I am going to just deal with it.

The Hunchback Assignments is a young adult book with a very interesting cover. I can't decide if I like it or not! It's fun, though, and when I received it in the mail the other day I was actually pretty excited to figure out who all the characters on the cover were. The main character is essentially Modo, but there are a lot of secondary characters that play a key role as well. Frankly, if this was not following up Jolted I would probably have loved the book a lot more, but I couldn't help comparing it to my first read by him and having it not measure up. It is still a novel with an interesting storyline, though, that kept me turing the pages. Modo didn't really grow on me was one of the problems. I liked him, but I didn't feel like I really knew him. I imagine that he will be growing throughout the series and that we haven't seen the last of him!

My favourite thing about Modo was his love of books. For about 13 years of his life, he lived in the written world. For us that are always saying that we never have enough time to read, Modo has more than enough time. To think how many wonderful books he read in that time frame! Not that I would want to be him, exactly, though. Modo was abandoned by his family at an orphanage and then sold to a traveling freakshow. He has the ability to transform his shape, which was actually a very interesting story addition. When Mr. Socrates (great name, huh) finds out about him he sets out to rescue him and begin his education. It is save to say that he does not have a normal childhood!

I also want to mention how much I enjoyed the names in this book. Like I mentioned above, there is Socrates. Then, one of Modo's work associates is Octavia, which is the name of Octavian's sister from Roman history. The 'bad guys' name is Cornelius Hyde. It could be really bad, but it works for the story. By their names, actually, you can figure out a bit about the characters before they are even really developed. I look forward to more from them in future books! I will conclude with saying this was another fun book from Arthur Slade! I would say that I like Jolted better, but really, they are very different books so it actually makes it hard to compare!

Thank you to Harper Collins Canada for my review copy of this book!

The Outlander by Gil Adamson

In 1903 a mysterious, desperate young woman flees alone across the west, one quick step ahead of the law. She has just become a widow by her own hand.

Gil Adamson's extraordinary novel opens in heart-pounding mid-flight and propels the reader through a gripping road trip with a twist -- the steely outlaw in this story is a grief-struck nineteen-year-old woman. As the young widow encounters characters of all stripes -- unsavoury, wheedling, greedy, lascivious, self-reliant, and occasionally generous and trustworthy -- Adamson weds her brilliant literary style to the gripping, moving, picaresque tale of one woman's deliberate journey into the wild.

When Gil Adamson published her first two books, a volume of poetry (Primitive; 1991) and a collection of stories (Help Me, Jacques Cousteau; 1995), readers immediately recognized a unique and unusually compelling voice, one that partnered the random and the surreal with a finely tuned technical brilliance. The Outlander more than fulfills the promise of that voice.

Description from Amazon.ca

My Thoughts:

I finished this book on Saturday. As I am writing this review up, it is Sunday. If only I could do this all the time I would probably have more readers and better reviews! Unfortunately, it takes me forever to get around to review writing this year. I am still writing reviews from months ago and I doubt I will review everything that I read this year. I have to review some books, though, and this is one of the priorities. I try to read a fair amount of Canadian literature. Some I love, while some is just okay. This book falls in the love category! It's crazy popular at my library right now because it was shortlisted for the Canada Reads, but it was so worth the wait! Gil Adamson is going on to my Canadian Authors That I Love List, that's for sure!

When the novel begins we have a 19-year-old girl on the run. We are not told why or what, but we understand that something horrible has happened. She is dressed in her widows black and is so frightened that she does not even plan ahead to bring any money with her. It is only as the novel progresses that we learn anything about her. Then, you have to figure out what the lies are and what the truth is as she begins to tell her tale to the people that she meets along the way. You soon know, though, that a life on the run in Canada's wilderness is not the life she was raised for. She was raised in a good home with at least a couple servants that did all the domestic work for her and she never was taught how to survive in the wilderness on her own. You learn and adapt, though, and it is amazing how much she grows during the course of the novel.

For those that need a reminder, life in Canada's west is not ideal. During 1903 it would have been largely uninhabited and barren. When she decides to run out into the wilds, she runs the risk of dying of exposure and never running into another human being. Even now, there are large sections of the country that are not suitable for large-scale civilization, so it wouldn't be impossible for this story to be taking place now instead of a little over a hundred years before. What I am leading up to saying is that this is not a happy novel. It has happy moments, but life is hard and Adamson make sure you know it. There are moments where you honestly think nothing else horrible could happen to the main character, but it is never unbelievable. Coupled with some great secondary characters, Adamson has herself a winner here.

I strongly recommend this book! It's hard to review it, though, because you are supposed to discover the story as you go along. Even telling you her name, I think, is a spoiler! So, I am going to leave it at this and hope that you will be curious enough to discover what happened for yourself.

Living with the Dead by Kelley Armstrong (Women of the Otherworld Series)

The men and women of the Otherworld – witches, werewolves, demons, vampires – live unseen among us. Only now a reckless killer has torn down the wall, trapping one very human woman in the supernatural crossfire.

Robyn moved to LA after her husband died to try to put some distance between herself and the life they had together. And the challenges of her job as the PR consultant to a Paris Hilton wannabe are pretty distracting. But then her celebutante is gunned down in a night club, and Robyn is suddenly the prime suspect. The two people most determined to clear her are her old friend, the half-demon tabloid reporter Hope Adams, and a homicide detective with an uncanny affinity for the dead.

Soon Robyn finds herself in the heart of a world she never even knew existed – and which she was safer knowing nothing about . . .

It is not even good to consider how out of order I am reading this series. This is book nine, but I am actually not finished reading two of the older books in the series. It all happened because I really did not like Dime Store Magic because Paige DROVE me crazy! So, I was hesitant about reading Industrial Magic, so I skipped way ahead to No Humans Involved. It has just been a jumbled reading order since then. After I finished this book, I read Haunted. That would be book 5 in the series. Yes, I have quite the reading system.

So, this is a story that centres around Hope Adams. She is actually a pretty interesting character. She does not drive me crazy and she has quite the boyfriend! Karl Marsten has been mentioned in the books before, though, don't ask me where because trying to remember which book is which is complicated when you can't read the books in order like a 'normal' person. I also just recently read the short story 'Chaotic' where Hope and Karl meet for the first time. My thought process for that was why on earth would Armstrong include what, to me, is an important part of the series in a short story? Not good marketing because I very rarely have any interest in the rest of the short stories in an anthology, so it takes me forever to buy them.

Getting back on topic. Thank god for Hope because Robyn, her best friend and another main character in the novel, has a real knack for getting herself into severe trouble. She makes one bad choice after another in this book and then, the next thing she knows, she is a murder suspect. We also know more than she does about what is going on, so maybe I wasn't as sympathetic as I should be, but she does seem to make the wrong decision every time. Mind you, if Robyn wasn't in trouble; than Karl and Hope would not have to save her. It also turns out to be a lot more complicated than that, of course. For those that don't know. Hope is a half-demon and Karl is a werewolf. It's quite the match-up. Hope feeds off chaos vibes and Karl's life is chaos. It makes it hard for her to always do what needs to be done because she gets caught up in what is going on around her. She is learning, though, but at the same time her powers are getting stronger. Hope is one of my favourite Women of the Otherworld characters, though, so I always look forward to learning more about her.

I probably should also mention the necromancer. He is a police officer who sees the ghosts of the victims he is sent to investigate (sometimes). It means that people think he is crazy because he looks like he is walking around talking to himself. Add in the fact that he has somehow ended up with a parter that is a ghost, and it makes for an interesting sequence of events. The ghost turns out to be important to the story, but for a while I think he is just there for comedic relief. This really was another great edition to the Women of the Otherworld series. Armstrong sure knows what she is doing and pulls all the different characters off well. Plus, each book tends to focus on one female parnormal character, so while it is a series it is really different everytime. My plan is to be caught up in this series by the end of September when the new book is released. Wish me luck!

On another note... I am really not a huge fan of the covers for this series. They just seem very provactive for a series about strong, female characters. Maybe that is the point, but they just seem like romance novel covers to me.

My thanks to Random House for a copy of this book! Click here to read an excerpt.

Canadian Challenge Meme

A Canadian Reading Meme brought to you by John from The Book Mine Set. Here are my answers:

Your Favourites:

1. Favourite Canadian author? - This changes regularly. I love L.M. Montgomery, Carol Shields, Douglas Coupland, Lesley Choyce, Thomas King, Lynn Coady, Mary Lawson, and so many more... They are all pretty much auto-buys.

2. Favourite Canadian novel? - Wow, I really don't even know. My favourite for the 2nd Canadian Challenge was Turtle Valley by Gail Anderson-Dargatz. (Not including ones already mentioned for other categories.)

3. Favourite Canadian nonfiction? - Ghost Rider by Neil Peart

4. Favourite Canadian picture book? - Probably something by Munsch. It's been a while since I read any, really

5. Favourite Canadian YA or juvenile chapter book? - Jolted by Arthur Slade, most recently

6. Favourite Canadian science fiction or fantasy book? - Women of the Otherworld Series by Kelley Armstrong

7. Favourite Canadian romantic fiction? - Not a clue. Probably something by Montgomery

8. Favourite Canadian mystery? - Lunenburg by Keith Baker

9. Favourite Canadian graphic novel? - Only read a couple, so not enough to really say

10. Favourite Canadian book blog? - Court, Rachel, Nicola, Teddy, and many more!

11. Favourite Canadian fictional character? - Anne Shirley. Mainly because she came to my mind first.

12. Favourite movie based on a Canadian novel or story? - I don't know.

13. Favourite Canadian short story? - A few by Carol Shields.

14. Favourite Canadian poet? John McCray... yep, that's original

15. Favourite Canadian poem? In Flander's Fields

16. Favourite Canadian play? Good question. I don't even know any off the top of my head.

17. Favourite novel by an established Canadian author? - The Republic of Love by Carol Shields

18. Favourite novel by an up-and-coming Canadian author? The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

19. Favourite Canadian book award? Giller Award for fiction

20. Favourite Canadian publisher? Random House Canada

21. Favourite Canadian humorous book? - The Republic of Nothing by Lesley Choyce or All Families are Psychotic by Douglas Coupland

22. Favourite Canadian newspaper? - I don't even know anymore

23. Favourite Canadian magazine or journal? - Canadian Geographic?

24. Favourite Canadian dystopian novel? - Oryx and Crake by Atwood

25. Favourite Canadian epistolary novel? - I don't remember any that I have read off the top of my head, though I imagine there are lots.