Editor’s note: The Current is delighted to once again thank Doreen Yakabuski for suggesting fiction titles for the readers on your holiday gift list. This is the eighth consecutive year that she has shared her reviews with Current readers and we greatly appreciate her generosity.
If you’re looking for gift ideas for book lovers or searching for recommendations for your own to-read stack, here are a few suggestions from my reading this past year.
For those wanting to focus on books by Canadian writers, here are five titles to consider.
The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue
This historical novel takes place on an express train trip from the Normandy coast to Paris on October 22, 1895. The passengers include people from various classes of society, among them a young woman, an anarchist, planning to detonate a homemade bomb on the train. As the journey progresses, because the engineer tries to make up time to keep the train on schedule, the train’s speed towards disaster increases and tension builds. Will she change her mind? Can she be stopped from carrying out her plan?
The Immortal Woman by Su Chang
This multi-generational story weaves the personal narratives of women with historical events. In 1960s Shanghai, Lemai reluctantly becomes a student Red Guard leader and eventually a journalist with a state newspaper. Events during the Tiananmen Square protests cause her to lose faith in her country so she raises her daughter Lin to aim for a life in the West. Years later, Lin arrives in North America but struggles with identity and finding her place in the world.
Bad Juliet by Giles Blunt
This historical novel, by the writer of the John Cardinal detective series, is part mystery and part romance. In 1915, Paul Gascoyne becomes an English literature tutor to patients at a tuberculosis sanitarium in the Adirondacks. There he meets Sarah Ballard, a young woman who survived the Lusitania disaster. Paul encourages her to write a memoir, though what she writes seems to be a mix of fact and fiction. When her health deteriorates, Sarah begs Paul to be the one person in the world who will truly know her so she tells him her secrets. But is she a reliable narrator of her life story?
Jenny Cooper Has a Secret by Joy Fielding
This psychological suspense novel is a great read. Linda Davidson makes regular visits to see a friend in a memory-care facility for the elderly. While visiting, Linda meets 92-year-old Jenny Cooper who tells Linda that she has killed a number of people, mostly men who hurt her. Linda has a lot of stress in her life so she becomes intrigued with Jenny and her stories which provide her a reprieve from daily life. But is Jenny telling the truth or just spinning yarns for Linda’s entertainment? Are her confessions just the confusion of an ailing mind? Does Jenny pose a danger to others?
Merry Bell Trilogy by Anthony Bidulka
This final Canadian recommendation is not for one book but for three. The Merry Bell Trilogy is a cozy mystery series set in Saskatchewan featuring a transgender private detective. The first book is Livingsky which has Merry opening her own agency. She must deal with a dodgy client, the murder of the surgeon who performed her gender affirming surgery, and more than one mysterious stranger. The second book, From Sweetgrass Bridge, has Merry trying to find a missing man, a celebrated player for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The last book, released earlier this year, is entitled Home Fires Burn. When a celebrated philanthropist is found slumped against his car, frozen to death, Merry is hired by his son to find out what happened to bring his father to that desolate stretch of road. In all three books, as Merry reluctantly returns to her hometown, she encounters people she knew pre-transition and decides it’s time to confront her past.
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
The novel, detailing three days in the life of 61-year-old Gail Baines, touches on the joys and heartbreaks of love, marriage, and family life. On the first day Gail learns she has been passed over for an expected promotion, her ex-husband Max and a fostered cat arrive on her doorstep, and her daughter Debbie shares a secret about Kenneth, the man she will be marrying the next day. Max’s visit, Debbie’s revelation, the rehearsal dinner, and the wedding leave Gail thinking back on her own marriage and how it came to an end.
The Cure by Eve Smith
This dystopian thriller encourages readers to consider what might happen if people lived longer. While searching for a cure for the disease that led to her daughter’s premature death, a woman accidentally discovers a vaccine against age-related diseases. A colleague hijacks this vaccine and, with the help of a billionaire obsessed with immortality, creates an upgrade which dramatically extends how long people can live. But what are the consequences for humanity and the planet if people have much longer life spans?
Son by Johana Gustawsson and Thomas Enger
This is the first of a new Nordic crime series. Kari Voss, a psychologist and expert on body language and memory, is asked to assist in the investigation of the brutal murder of two teenage girls in the small Norwegian town of Son. Jesper, a friend of the girls, is arrested and charged after he confesses, but Kari is not convinced of his guilt and continues to investigate on her own. She uncovers several secrets and multiple suspects. The ending will leave you anxiously awaiting the next installment.
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
This book is speculative fiction, social commentary, and a literary detective story. In 2014 at his wife Vivian’s birthday dinner, renowned poet Francis Blundy reads aloud a poem he wrote for her. The poem is never published. For generations people have speculated about this poem, a copy of which has never been found, but it is generally regarded as the great poem of the climate crisis. In 2119, in the aftermath of a hydrogen bomb disaster, much of the western world has been submerged by rising seas. In what remains of England, Thomas Metcalfe has dedicated himself to finding the lost poem. When led to a site where he believes he will find it, he uncovers a truth he had not expected.
The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey
This novel addresses the nature versus nurture question and asks what is acceptable for the advancement of knowledge. The setting is 1979 England but in an alternate world where there was no victor in World War II. After the assassination of Hitler, a treaty was signed which brought peace and allowed for the sharing of scientific research, including studies conducted in concentration camps. Vincent, Lawrence, and William are orphans and identical triplets, the last remaining residents of a home for boys. Cared for by three women, they are given medications to help them with a mysterious illness. What is causing their symptoms? Will they recover and be allowed to leave?
The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce
This family drama explores how children’s lives can be shaped well into adulthood. Four siblings, aged between 33 and 40, gather at the family villa in Italy after the sudden death of their father, Vic Kemp, who had recently married Bella-Mae, a woman 50 years his junior. When they arrive, the siblings can find no sign of a will. Fearing that Bella-Mae may have played a role in Vic’s death, they insist on an autopsy and stay at the villa to await the results. The time spent together forces them to confront their pasts. What they learn about themselves and their father ends up tearing them apart.
These are only a few of the books I’ve read. Check out my blog https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com for over 1,200 of my reviews.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
HAPPY READING!
About the author: Doreen Yakabuski, a Barry’s Bay native, credits the Barry’s Bay Public Library and the Madonna House Lending Library for cultivating her love of reading. After a career as an English teacher/teacher-librarian in Timmins, she and her husband, Jack Vanderburg, settled near Cornwall. Now, Doreen reviews books on her blog: https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/ She can be spotted in the Valley from time to time.