Story of a severely deteriorating relationship; alternating chapters told from Her and Him perspectives. Not as good as Gone Girls but an excellent read.
Author: AJ
The Romantic – Barbara Gowdy
A beautifully written complicated love story: a child searching for love after being abandoned by her mother, and falling in love with a neighbour boy who can’t reciprocate what is for her an obsessive love.
The Light Between Oceans – ML Stedman
Another sad story about the consequences of lies and guilt, set in Western Australia in the 1920s.
The Shining Girls – Lauren Beukes
A serial killer and time travel, for an imaginative thriller.
Ghana Must Go – Taiye Selasi
A sad story of an estranged family reunited by the death of the husband/father; story in both Africa and America. Issues of (no) communication and secrets.
The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud
Introspective book about relationships (my favourite topic); a single woman teacher and a Lebanese-Parisian family of three. The “woman upstairs” is a female construct – quiet, polite and causes no trouble; because of putting oneself down, becomes invisible and discounted. There is a terrific section describing the difference between longing and desire.
Trans Atlantic by Colum McCann
Trans Atlantic is a wistful Irish-American story that follows 4 generations of women. A beautiful book. (previous book = Let The Great World Spin) –
The Pope’s Bookbinder by David Mason
A memoir by a book lover, a book binder (briefly) but mostly a book seller in Toronto. As a memoir, mostly filled with anecdotes but a wistful look at the era of second hand bookshops that is disappearing.
Falling Angels by Barbara Gowdy
Another dysfunctional family book with abusive father, an alcoholic mother who dropped/threw a child into Niagara Falls (postpartum depression?) and three sisters who are the focus (how children cope). There is a chapter entitled Disneyland which is superb black humour; the next chapter is heartbreaking. Gowdy also wrote Fearless about a 9 year old girl who is abducted; the abductor is delusional and obsessed but amazingly becomes somewhat sympathetic because he tries to suppress his pedophilic tendencies. Both these books are tough reads but excellent.
What David Read 