Secret Daughter

Secret Daughter 

 

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda interweaves the stories of Kavita and Somer, two mothers connected by one daughter. 

When Somer, in America, realizes she cannot have a child of her own, she and her husband, Krishnan, decide to adopt. Kavita, having already lost one daughter in a country that favours boys, decides to save her second daughter’s life by taking her away to an orphanage in Mumbai. Although she eventually gives birth to a son, which her and her husband, Jasu, are able to keep, her daughter is always on her mind. 

Kavita’s story is one of a mother’s choice to do what is best for her daughter, when she has no choice herself. Leaving her baby, Usha, at the orphanage is a risky trip for Kavita, but is the only way the baby girl can live. 

Usha is one of the fortunate babies to be adopted from the orphanage, as Somer and Krishnan take her home to California, naming her Asha. 

What follows is the side by side tales of each of the women’s lives. The difficulties Somer faces as a new mother of a daughter who does not resemble her, and of a daughter who challenges her Indian roots, is something Somer feels threatened by, and affects her abilities as Asha’s mother.

Meanwhile, Kavita faces her own challenges as she and Jasu try to make a living in India. Moving from the farm, to the slums, to the city, they struggle to support themselves and their son. 

This book is an enjoyable read, and does not gloss over the subjects of infanticide and extreme poverty in India; it paints a vivid picture through the characters and their interaction. This intense description is contrasted by Gowda’s frustrating portrayal of Somer as dismissive of her husband- and her daughter’s Indian heritage; it contributes to her tumultuous relationship with her daughter, and makes it hard to sympathize with Somer’s troubles. 

I recommend this book for anyone who wants a read that tugs at the heart strings, and is a good thought provoking story.

 

 

Wonder

Wonder

 

By Dominique Fortier

Dominique Fortier’s novel Wonder links three different stories connected by time, fate and family… and volcanoes.

We begin with “Monsters and Marvels”.  Set in 1902, the story centres around Baptiste, a working-class black man from the island of Martinique who has never known a real family.  The elites of the island persist in ignoring the warning signs of the bubbling Mount Pelee which soon erupts, leaving Baptiste truly alone as no other survivors are found. His unique position gets him a job with the Barnum & Bailey Circus where he and the other “Phenomena” (the bearded lady, conjoined twins) are the objects of pity and astonishment.  His loneliness is assuaged somewhat when he finally finds a family – as well as a passion which ends in tragedy.  Throughout his journey, Baptiste cannot shake the feeling that he is still the solitary man who wanders the island.

“Monsters” is followed by “Harmony of the Spheres”, in which the intellectually self-absorbed Edward Love finds happiness when he meets Garance, a musician gifted with the ability to hear every sound in her environment.  Edward is obsessed with mathematical formulas, while Garance can often be found with her ear to the earth, listening.  When they visit the ancient city of Pompeii, they immerse themselves in understanding the tragedy that incinerated a vibrant town in the midst going about its daily business. 

Set a century later, “Love Waves” depicts a modern-day romance between a Montreal dog walker and former circus performer, and the grave digger she meets on Mont Royal.  Fascinated by volcanoes himself, her nameless friend is also planning a trip to Pompeii.  Does her history with the circus and his interest in volcanoes connect these lovers to the first two stories?

At times each story is absorbing and Fortier is adept at describing growing romance and passion.  However, very wordy descriptions abound and get somewhat tiresome.  For example, high-society life figures prominently in “Monsters” although it has little to do with Baptiste. Intellectual ramblings make up a big part of Edward’s life in “Spheres”, often slowing the story to a crawl.  And Fortier paints a vivid picture of the forest in “Waves”; but when will the two characters fall in love already?!?

Still, Wonder is worth reading as the heart of each story makes it worthwhile.

To Rise Again At a Decent Hour

by Joshua Ferris

Healthy teeth are much more important to one’s overall constitution than I ever gave them credit for. It all ties in, as I learned from reading Joshua Ferris’ To Rise Again at a Decent Hour- not a dentistry textbook but an offbeat novel about a dentist who becomes the victim of an elaborate stolen-identity mishap.

Paul O’Rourke is an anxious character and that feeling of anxiety, that on-the-edge-mental-game between suppression and collapse, permeates the novel from the first to last. Paul is coddled by his routines and hampered by his inability to hope for anything better- a sort of secret nihilist (“Of course I alienate myself from society. It's the only way I know of not being constantly reminded of all the ways I'm alienated from society”). The twist occurs when our hapless dentist discovers that someone has created a website on behalf of his dental practice-in the guise of O’Rourke himself. He has previously refused to create one, staying away from the internet and social media full stop, and his initial thought is that the website has been hoisted upon him by one of his three employees- which includes former girlfriend Connie. Then comes an unasked-for Twitter account, with someone tweeting about religion under Paul’s name, and emails on a mysterious religious group called the Ulms. Paul’s distress mounts as he attempts to uncover who is this other Paul O’Rourke and what is he doing.

There are moments in the novel when the history of the Ulms bog down the story, taking on such breadth and detail that it feels more like Ferris was having too much fun to rein it in. Nevertheless, the writing is so impressive that I genuinely mourned the end of the novel’s characters, world, and idea. There are quotable lines to be enjoyed, such as: “…the minute he takes up the floss, says to himself, What’s the point? In the end, the heart stops, the cells die, the neurons go dark, bacteria consumes the pancreas, flies lay their eggs, beetles chew through tendons and ligaments, the skin turns to cottage cheese, the bones dissolve, and the teeth float away with the tide”.

For a book that so often delves deep into the uncomfortable feeling of anxiety, this is nevertheless a hopeful and often hilarious novel.

Indian Horse

Indian Horse

By Richard Wagamese

Lately I have been fascinated by Canadian First Nations writers, and the writing of Richard Wagamese shimmers.  Indian Horse is the story of Saul Indian Horse, an Ojibway from northern Ontario.  His life is marred by the horrors of the residential schools, which systematically separated children from families and tore the heart out of generations of First Nations people.

After Saul’s siblings are forced into one such school, his family retreats into the bush.  Gods Lake is a place where the spirit world and physical world meet, and there Saul discovers that he is capable of visions and communion with his ancestors.  His revelations begin an emotional journey to discover his own identity.

Eventually forced to retreat from the bush as winter approaches, Saul finds himself, tragically, in the very place his family was trying to avoid – the residential school.  There Saul witnesses abuse of every kind, as well as the suicides of a number of children.  He goes into survival mode, caring only for himself. 

Yet hope arrives unexpectedly, as the new priest, Father Leboutillier, introduces the students to hockey which quickly becomes the focus of the novel.  Using his ability to “see beyond”, Saul becomes an incredible player.  In scenes of striking beauty, he abandons himself to the game and lifts himself, if only momentarily, into the spiritual realm.

Soon he is taken in by a family on a reserve and joins the local hockey team.  As his hockey prowess grows, Saul begins to identify less as a victim, or a child torn from his family, and more as an athlete.  But identity is constructed of self-perception as well as the perceptions of others.  In the hockey world he experiences the reality of being an Indian in a white world, subject to the bigotry and hatred of the ruling class.  He becomes progressively angry, drinking to quash the pain of racism and the legacy of the residential school that still haunts him.

From the grace and freedom brought on by the game of hockey to the sadness and despair of the residential school, Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse vividly presents the emotional highs and lows of growing up Native in 1960s Canada.

City of the Lost by Kelley Armstrong

City of the Lost
by Kelley Armstrong

Murders, cannibals, and the gorgeous Canadian wilderness, Kelley Armstrong really knows the way to my heart.  I always get a little giddy when Armstrong releases a new book because I know that more often than not, I would like if not love whatever she writes. I really liked City of the Lost. It’s a great mystery with enough twists that had me guessing until the last page and the right amount of suspense that kept me reading well into the early hours of the morning.  

City of the Lost is the first of a new series and follows the story of Casey Duncan, a talented and relentless police detective with a dark secret. 

She once killed a man and got away with it.  

Casey knows that one day her mistake will come back to haunt her, so the only things she allows herself to care about are her job and her best friend Diana. Then there is Kurt. And what starts as a non-string attached relationship suddenly has the potential to become much more. Then on the same night, Diana is attacked by her abusive ex-husband and the past finally catches with Casey in the form of a bullet with her name on it.  

Both women need to run away and fast. Diana knows just the place: Rockton. A mythical town built way up north where people that don't want to be found can hide and be safe. At first, Casey doesn't believe the town really exists, but it turns out that it does and the town council will take them in.  

There is one catch, though.  

Recently, the town has been terrorized by a series of brutal murders. Could it be that victims' past finally caught up to them or is it something more nefarious going on? Could it be one of their own preying on the town habitants or some of the strange wild things that lurk in the forest and mountains that surround them? Gruff and surly, Dalton, the town sheriff is naturally suspicious of newcomers and more so of Casey. However, as much as he resents her help, he needs it or Rockton would be truly lost. 

I recommend this book for people that enjoy suspenseful mysteries and stories set in remote locations in nature.  Fans of Mo Hayder and Robert Galbraith will not be disappointed.   

Murder in the Mystery Suite

Murder in the mystery suite

By Ellery Adams

I picked up this book on the recommendation of a friend. She told me that I would love the setting of this mystery novel. Well she was more than right! Set in the countryside near a quaint town is the hotel of every library employees dreams. The resort hotel of Storyton Hall is filled with a variety of libraries. A getaway for lovers of the written word; Storyton Hall offers quiet reading nooks and exquisite tea services to its guests. The opening chapter describes the manager of the hotel, Jane Steward, climbing the rolling ladder of my dreams to run her hands over old copies of leather and linen bound books. With the whimsical descriptions by author Ellery Adams I could almost smell the ink and bindings.

Jane Steward needs to boost business in order to make some much needed repairs on her beloved hotel. She is inspired by a first edition Agatha Christie to host a "Murder and Mayhem" week of activities at the hotel. This murder mystery inspired week brings in many guests and the hotel gets their much needed bookings. All is going well until one of the guests, a unique character by the name of Felix Hampden, shows up dead in the Mystery Suite after winning a copy of a prized rare book.

The story unfolds with Jane doing her best to maintain composure in front of the other guests. Will the mystery be solved before more people pop up dead in her hotel? Let's hope so because I could love to book a stay at this dreamy sounding hotel. Pick up a copy of Murder in the Mystery Suite today in our Mystery Paperback section at your nearest branch or check it out in streaming audio through Hoopla.

Thing Explainer

by Randall Munroe

Sometimes we find things in the world that are hard to understand, especially things that are very hard to build or that are made of lots of little parts.  This book by Randall Munroe called Thing Explainer helps make these hard things easier to get.  What makes this book (and this group of words that you are reading now) special is that it only uses the 1000 most used words.  Sometimes this make for a strange reading time: when the thing he is explaining is computers, human bodies, or things that people use to fly in the sky, the writer has to find new ways to explain exactly what he is trying to say. It can be very hard to do.

Why does Munroe do this? It forces him to come up with the most simple way to explain things in the easiest words he can find that almost everybody would know.  To show what I mean, I have to break his simple-writing law for a minute*: There is a part about human organs.  He must talk about the liver and kidneys so he calls them "blood cleaners".  The heart's job is made easier to understand by calling it the blood pusher. Everybody knows what a stomach is, but how can it be explained?  Using the normal words you would say "digestion" and "bacteria".  Here he has to call the stomach parts "food hallway" and what helps break down your food "the living things inside you".

This book is made up mostly of his simple explainers and the drawings that go with them.  Randall Munroe's main job is drawing funny pictures about the world on computers. 

Is it any good?  The truth is that it does get a bit tiring: sometimes the simple words are too simple. I had trouble sometimes trying to figure out what he means about some ideas.  Still, the idea is interesting enough. You don't have to read it from front to back. Just look at what interest you and you'll have a good time. One note: it looks like a kids’ book, but it's not.  It's really meant for anybody people interested in the how world works.

*Words I used that are not in the top 1000: Randall, Munroe, organs, liver, kidneys, digestion & bacteria.