One of my favorite challenges! The books I enjoyed the most were the Montgomery titles, the play by MacDonald, Atmospheric Disturbances, Fugitive Pieces, and The Tricking of Freya.
Thanks, John, for hosting again. I’ll probably participate each time until I get my fill of Atwood, Shields, Montgomery, and the many other fantastic Canadian authors!
The immigrant Icelanders are so obscure you could easily go your entire life in this country and never hear a word about them. [...] Nobody’s heard of New Iceland. Was it because we were so wretchedly oppressed? Hardly. If anything, the opposite was true. We assimilated more quickly than most, with our fair features and devotion to literacy, our ability to persist through hardship etched in our genes. No, the answer is simple enough, it seems to me: there were too few of us to matter. All said, only fifteen thousand Icelanders emigrated at the tail end of the ninteenth century — a droplet lost among the million-size waves of immigrants who flooded North America’s shores. It’s no wonder we never made it into my college history books.
The Tricking of Freya is a wonderful debut novel by Christina Sunley. Taking place in Canada and Iceland, the book is a love letter of sorts to her Icelandic ancestors and heritage.
Freya is the granddaughter of Olafur, one of Iceland’s greatest poets but who had, much to the chagrin of Icelanders, emigrated to Canada. Though she spends her first 7 years in America, Freya learns first hand about her Icelandic heritage when she and her mother travel to Gimli, just outside of Winnipeg. There she meets her grandmother for the first time and her aunt, nicknamed Birdie. Birdie discovers that Freya’s mother has not been teaching her Icelandic, and she immediately begins that task. Freya takes to Birdie and her Icelandic heritage very well, but also slowly learns that Birdie can be unstable.
When Freya gets the opportunity to go to Iceland, she becomes even more aware of her heritage. One of the most interesting facets of Icelandic life is their love of books:
Cousin, that house was the most marvelous thing I had ever seen. Not from the outside. From the outside was a three-story cement facade painted pastel green. But the inside! Books lined every wall of every room. Books climbed up stairs and rested on landings. Books stretched over the arches of doorways like bridges, stood guard over mantels. Old leather-bound volumes with gilt titles gleamed in glass cabinets. Books in the basement, books in the attic. Four stories of books. How many, I wanted to know.
“Nine thousand, six hundred,” Ulfur answered. ”Approximately. The largest private book collection in Iceland.”
This book’s themes include history, mythology, psychology, and the significance of one’s family roots and heritage. I enjoyed it very much and will look forward to Christina Sunley’s next book.
2009, 342 pp.
[Disclaimer: This copy was obtained from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.]
Do you always read what you know you will like, or do you sometimes try to stretch yourself to see ‘what’s out there’? I go in cycles. Sometimes I have no patience for something that doesn’t fit my personality, and other times I do like to be exposed to books or other art that is far from my own personal norm.
Skim is not something I probably would have picked up if not for the Canadian Challenge or the Graphic Novel Challenge. It was also a quick read. While I very much sympathize with the typical teenage angst in the book, with themes of suicide, w*tchcr*ft, and hom*s*xual*ty, Skim just wasn’t for me. I do give the author credit, though, for writing the characters in such a way that the reader does feel their emotional pain. That alone, though, just wasn’t enough for me to enjoy the book.
Of course it’s every peasant whose forgiveness must be sought. But the rabbi’s point is even more tyrannical: nothing erases the immoral act. Not forgiveness. Not confession.
And even if an act could be forgiven, no one could bear the responsibility of forgiveness on behalf of the dead. No act of violence is ever resolved. When the one who can forgive can no longer speak, there is only silence.
Fugitive Pieces is a must read for those interested in Jewish fiction or the history of World War II. The book is told in two parts. In the first we have Jakob Beer, rescued as a child from the forces of WWII by a Greek scholar. He struggles mightily with the memories of his parents and sister. They haunt him throughout his life, overshadowing even the good. In the second, we have Ben, the son of two Holocaust survivors. He is much influenced by Jakob’s poetry, which helps him understand his parents’ deep emotional pain, and, in turn, his own. In this regard, I found the second section a bit reminiscent of Maus. In both parts, there is always the question of whether or not the survivors really and truly survived or if they are hopelessly caught in their pasts.
I have a difficult time reading anything about the Holocaust, even if it deals primarily about the aftermath of the survivors. But, I feel it is extremely important for me to do so. I highly recommend this book if you have a similar interest in this topic.
The first half of the year is almost over, and I know I won’t finish any more books this month because I’ll be really busy for the next few days. So I thought I’d go ahead and post my mid-year report because I’m a kind of a stats and numbers geek.
Overall, I’m happy with my reading for the first half of 2009, but there are some areas that I’d like to work on in the latter half of 2009. The items in blue are the stats I’m excited about, and the ones in red are the ones I want to work on.
I am happy that I read 55 books, BUT, only 12,489 pages? I usually like to read about 30,000 pages in a year so that’s way below target. I read quite a few Newbery winners and other kids’ books so that’s why the total number of pages are low. The stats I’m happiest with are that 55% of my books were from non-Americans and 25% were originally in other languages. I like to keep it at least 50/50 American/non-American so I was very happy with 55%. And I won’t be too surprised if my 25% translated works even goes up in the second half. I have some German and Japanese reading to do soon.
As far as the other figures go, I aim to go no greater than a 40/60 split either way on female/male authors; and although I think 71% is way too high a figure for books published in the 2000′s, the main reason for it is the Countdown Challenge, so I’m allowing myself a little leeway there.
I had to re-create this post as some of my posts went to never-never-land last week. The ones in brackets are the ones I still have to read. If anyone has any other suggestions for my missing letters, let me know!
COMPLETE!
A
Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson
The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them. (Psalm 145:18-19, ESV)
13 books about or by Canadians
Do you always read what you know you will like, or do you sometimes try to stretch yourself to see ‘what’s out there’? I go in cycles. Sometimes I have no patience for something that doesn’t fit my personality, and other times I do like to be exposed to books or other art that is far from my own personal norm.
by M.T. Anderson (2006, 368 pp.)
by Tiffany Baker (2009, 341 pp.)
by Yoko Ogawa (2009, 180 pp.)
by Yasanuri Kawabata (1952, 147 pp.)
by Martha Brooks (2007, 224 pp.)
