July 2015: reading this month...

Reading Revenge of the Vinyl Cafe by Stuart McLean. Can't think of a better way to spend Canada Day.

I've picked up some CanLit as well today: Moonbeams from the Larger Lunacy, by Stephen Leacock. The first couple of selections, about the reading public and the sample of the thousand-guinea novel, had me snorting with laughter at the bus stop.

Reading A Fence Around the Cuckoo Volume one of Ruth Parks autobiography

Finished The Life and Death of Sophie Stark and My Real Children. I tried and abandoned China Rich Girlfriend.

I'm reading a thriller....which I rarely do: The Universal Donor by Craig Nova

Done with that. I'm now starting Waiting for Columbus by Canadian Thomas Trofimuk.

Onto the third in the Book Collector series, The Wolfe Widow, by Victoria Abbott.

#6, great review....'done with that'. Made me laugh!
The First Honeymoon was impressive. Now Im on to I Saw A Man. Pretty slow start, i hope it picks up.

I've finished Solarsystem by the Swiss Laurent Schweitzer. Did not care for it at all: it was a sci fi (which I don't normally read) and extremely violent.
Much more pleasant was Temps glaciaires by one of my favourites, Fred Vargas. This time, Adamsberg is pulled by the call of the Icelandic afturganga. Gripping!

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. Wonderful, wonderful book.

ted, I really liked that one, too.

I'm reading outside my comfort zone with Breath of Scandal by Sandra Brown.

And, I'm also reading The Longings of Wayward Girls by Karen Brown.

Finished Capital by John Lanchester which was fun (but could have been shorter), and have now started Irma Voth by Canadian author Miriam Toews.

Currently reading The Frost and the Fire by Ruth Park

Nickelini, I liked the opening passage of Irma Voth so much, I called a friend and read it to him.

Shoulder the Sky by Anne Perry. Really like this WWI series.

I'm reading Don Quincy de la Mangement by Michel D. Cervesasse.

Just finished And the Birds Rained Down.

fmgee, did you like it?

I'm reading The World Without Us by Robin Stevenson

LynnB: Yes. Once I started it I could not put it down. It was a lovely little book. I would go as far as to say that it is the best book I have read this year.

>14 LynnB: - Irma Voth turned out to be a big disappointment for me. After loving A Complicated Kindness and liking The Flying Troutmans, I expected more. Oh well! Moving along . . .

fmgee: I, too, really liked that book. It was a Canada Reads selection this year and I don't think Martha Wainwright did a good job defending it.

Nickelini, Irma Voth wasn't my favourite, either, but I sure liked the opening paragraphs.

I'm enjoying My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry.
I also read Leah McLaren's A Better Man, not bad but I'd expected more.

Just finished some Canadian history: The Bastard of Fort Stikine: The Hudson's Bay Company and the Murder of John McLoughlin, Jr., by Debra Komar.

I'm reading Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father by Alysia Abbott

I just finished My Mother's Secret by J. L. Witterick. A very quick read, but I really liked it.

23 How was Debra Komar's new book? I really enjoyed the one about Peter Wheeler that came out last year: non-fiction, but with a great narrative pull.

As for Miriam Toews, I also really enjoyed her first novel, Summer of My Amazing Luck. Anyone else found that one?

Currently, I'm dabbling in a volume of poems by Olive Senior, just finished a novel by Ibi Kaslik, and am thoroughly enjoying a collection of vignettes by Gabrielle Roy, Enchanted Summer.

>26 buriedinprint: As for Miriam Toews, I also really enjoyed her first novel, Summer of My Amazing Luck. Anyone else found that one?

It's in my TBR pile. I won't get to it this year though.

>26 buriedinprint: It was really interesting! I especially liked the deconstruction of the witness testimony to try to figure out exactly what happened. Will have to check out her other books too.

I'm reading Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel for a book club.

Currently reading Firewall by Henning Mankell

I'm reading Political Order and Political Decay by Francis Fukuyama for a book club.

I've been reading The Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda during my breaks at work. Finally finished it today. So so; I found it a bit "sappy" and unbelievable in parts.

I'm half-way through Hilary Mantel's Beyond Black. I didn't expect much from this one, so it is a very pleasant surprise. It's also rather funny.

I just started I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes

fmgee: I really liked And the Birds Rained Down too. I convinced my book club to read it instead of When Everything Feels Like the Movies which we had picked before Canada Reads started. I tried reading it and just couldn't get into it. Too much teenage angst for me. Then I read And the Birds Rained Down and really enjoyed it. That is what Canada Reads is all about in my opinion--to introduce books and writers that you would never find otherwise.

I'm finishing off July (and I suspect it will take up a big chunk of August) with Foucault's Pendulum. I don't really understand what I've read so far but I am hoping it will get clearer as the book goes along.

I finished How to Think like a Freak by the authors of the Freakenomics series. Well done but no secrets: lots of data and an open mind.