Fanfare and The Wee Book & Photo Studio

It took me five months but I was finally able to visit two more independent bookstores although it did not happen the way I expected.

Last week we made our yearly trip to Stratford, Ontario in Canada to see theater. It's a four hour trip so the first day we saw Waiting for Godot in the evening. The following morning we headed for Callan's. Every year I would talk to the proprietor and get suggestions for new authors. Mostly Canadian writers, Mr. Callan helped me discover Stuart Pawson, Howard Engel, and Donna Leon among others.

The Wee Book and Photo Shop

Imagine our surprise to find that Mr. Callan had sold his store and retired! Now called The Wee Book and Photo Shop, sisters Maureen and Suzanne share the space. One sells books and the other takes photographs including ones in costumes. Check out their website.

Wandering down Ontario Street you will find several additional bookstores, but the one that caught my fancy was Fanfare Books. It is one of those dangerous places that will quickly part you with your money even when you have pledged, as I recently did, to allow no more books into your life.

Fanfare Books

I must confess that I purchased Stuart Pawson's The Picasso Scam (first of his police procedural series and you can't find his books easily in the US), Alafair Burke's Long Gone (got it from the library but had to return it before I had a chance to read it and besides it was on the tempting outside sale table); The Shakespeare Miscellany (well, I was at a Shakespeare Festival after all), and A Writer's Space by Eric Maisel (an impulse purchase).

Peg browsing the sale books

That makes three independent bookstores visited this year and enough new books added to my collection to keep me busy for a very long time.

Catching Up - The Waiting Sky

The Waiting Sky by Lara Zielin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After reading "Donut Days", I decided to read another book by Lara Zielin and I was not disappointed.

Seventeen year old Janey is proud of herself for being able to constantly 'save' her alcoholic Mother and help eke out a miserable life. She resents her older brother, who has escaped and abandoned them.

Then her brother invites Janey to spend the summer chasing tornadoes on the plains. New friends and events help Janey to finally make life changing decisions. RECOMMENDED.

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Catching Up - The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I still haven't recovered from reading THE FAULT IN OUR STARS. It allowed me to know two amazing young people, who found joy in each other under the most difficult of circumstances.

Even after seeing tons of praise for this book, I wasn't inclined to pick it up until it was chosen for book club. How foolish of me!

Hazel Grace has stage IV cancer. A miracle drug, which doesn't actually exist, has kept her alive for several years. When she meets Augustus in Support Group (cancer took his leg), they tentatively begin a relationship.

This may sound like the usual boy meets girl story but the characters are uniquely drawn and the health complications make for an extraordinarily complex story that is very affecting. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

UPDATE: January 24, 2014 PARADE MAGAZINE article.

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Catching Up - The Blackhouse

The list of books I have read but not gotten around to reviewing has grown.

To clear out that backlog, I offer the following mini-review:

The Blackhouse is actually the first book in the Lewis Trilogy. It is dark and drear and absolutely compelling. The remote Isle of Lewis is still attached to the old ways including the hunting of the gugas.

Gannets - Gugas are the chicks

Book Two is The Lewis Man and reviewers on Amazon say it is even better than the first book. Book Three is The Chessmen. Neither title is available directly from Amazon, only third party sellers. They have been requested to be purchased for the Jackson District Library.

Fin Macleod escaped his childhood on this isolated island and now serves as a police detective in Edinburgh. When a brutal murder on the island has similarities to a crime Fin is investigating, he is ordered to return to the island and is plunged back into his unhappy past.

Author Peter May is well-known in the United Kingdom as an "acclaimed author and television dramatist".  His description of the bleak environment and the lives of the people is mesmerizing. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.