2019: A Year That Begins in a Reading Binge

This season I have six book discussion groups in Montreal-area libraries and I've been paddling fast to keep my head above water.

Usually in the groups I can count on a couple of repetitions, but for the February series I have six new books that I read in January.  In addition my two "just for fun" reading groups--one of neighbors and the other of women who are vaguely somehow connected to McGill University--met in January and I read books for them too.  The month also was the one when I was working on the final revisions to my own book (now called Frenemy Nations: Love and Hate between Neighbo(u)ring States) and I found I had two more books that I had to read to finish the job.

That brings the total to nine books since January 1, which is not too shabby a way to start a year, I think.  I found all except The Hypnotist (a title that I inherited from the usual group leader for whom I'm filling in until June) worth reading, and some of the books were truly good. 

Here's the list, in case you'd like to do your own binge read:

War Plan Red by Kevin Lippert
Le Plongeur de Stéphane Larue
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
The Mummies of Ürümichi by Elizabeth Wayland Barber
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler
The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg
Transcription by Kate Atkinson
The Marble Collector by Cecelia Ahern

Little Women at 150: Still an Influential Book

I had not realized that this year marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. It was the first chapter book I ever read on my own--the first time took three months, but thereafter I must have read it a dozen times.


Not only did I identify with would-be writer Jo, I was strongly affected by the politics of the book. The girls' father was off acting as a chaplain for Union forces during the Civil War, and obviously deeply involved in a great moral combat. There is not a lot about the war in the story, but the great cause of Abolition in the background fueled my growing concern about equality and the importance of acting as a good citizen. A very great and influential book, for me at least.

So I'm looking forward to reading a new book by Anne Boyd Rioux “Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why it Still Matters.” I think I'll also see that my eight year old granddaughter gets a copy for Christmas.

(This illustration is from the edition I was given: so evocative of an era, both when the story took place and when this edition was published.)

Books to Read in 2018-2019

It's that time of year again: the lists for the book groups I lead in Montreal libraries are now just about finalized.  As you see below, they're quite eclectic, but contain a lot of good reading. 

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Bone and Bread  by Saleema Nawaz

Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf

Lost in September by Kathleen Winter

Swing Time by Zadie Smith

The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall

The Seven Sisters by Margaret Drabble

The Human Stain by Philip Roth

Indian Horse by Richard Wagemese

Daughter of Fortune by Isabelle Allende

The Widow by Fiona Barton

The Door by Magda Szabo

419 by Will Ferguson

Larose by Louise Erdrich

The story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Exposure  by Helen Dunmore

Indian Horse by Richard Wagemese

The Women by T.C. Boyle

The Free World by  David Bezmozgis

The Road Past Altamount by Gabrielle Roy

A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

The Perfect Nanny by Leïla Slimani

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

The Little Red Chairs by Edna O'Brien

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy

 Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

 Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Sélections en français

Nana de Émile Zola
Petit pays de Gaël Faye.
Le Mystère Henri Pick de David Foenkinos
La servante écarlate de Margaret Atwood
Le plongeur de Stéphane Larue
Un pedigree de Patrick Modiano
Un long retour de Louise Penny
L'heure mauve de Michèle Ouimet
Les sirènes de Bagdad de Yasmina Khadra