Kingfisher Days - Susan Coyne
Feature December 2001
    We all need a little magic in our life just now. It’s been a long, anxious fall and now Christmas is upon us. Right now. Gifts to buy, food to prepare, schedules to arrange. For the Feature this month, I wanted a "feel good" book. Something that would be a lovely gift for a friend, or a special treat for ourselves. One that would help us reclaim a little bit of lost innocence. Ms. Coyne’s "Kingfisher Days" was at the top of the Wish List.
     Coyne’s memoir is a charming story of her correspondence with an elderly neighbour at her family’s summer home in Kenora, Ontario. When five-year-old Susan discovers an old stone fireplace hidden in the yard, her father explains that it is the home of Uncle Joe Spookdoolak, an elf who runs a boardinghouse for the fairies. Fascinated with the possibility of catching a glimpse of one of these magical creatures, Susan begins to tend the hearth and leave small gifts for the little people. Each token disappears until one day when a letter is left in its place. A letter addressed to Helen Susan Cameron Coyne. A letter dictated by Princes Nootsie Tah at the request of Queen Mab, thanking her for her gifts. So begins Coyne’s introduction to the world of literature, folklore and nature guided by the fertile and scholarly imagination of her delightful friend, R.C. Moir.
     This could have been a sappy, sentimental and cloying read. Instead, Coyne has crafted a timeless classic that has the feel of a British village piece, yet unstintingly Canadian. It is also beautifully produced inside and out making it a remarkable gift for booklovers -- or the perfect book to curl up with Christmas morning amidst the debris.

The Piano Shop on the Left Bank - T.E. Carhart
Feature November 2001
     I know little, or next to nothing about musical instruments. I was never forced to take flute lessons as a kid. I never tried out for the school band. Even as a tail end baby boomer, I never even thought to pick up the guitar and join in a folk song (slightly before my time anyway). But after spending a wonderful respite reading this charming, graceful book I am ready to go out and buy a Steinway grand for my very little house.
    While living in Paris with his family, Thad Carhart became smitten with the small antiquated atelier around the corner. Each day as he walked his children to school, he became more and more intrigued by it’s façade and what could lie behind it. After a few false starts he finds his way into the inner sanctum and is rewarded with an introduction into the complex and magical world of the piano and its history. And what the eventual purchase of a piano brings into his life is not only the music he once abandoned but also many quirky and inimitable friends that share his sweet obsession.
    This warm and unassuming book is a wonderful break from the everyday. Lost amidst the allure of life in Paris and the mystique of its inhabitants, the almost sensual journey of Carhart’s education, and the wry observances of its narrator The Piano Shop on the Left Bank is a gentle and relaxing “Year in Provence” with accompaniment.
    Highly - highly recommended if you didn’t get a holiday in this year.

Forty Words for Sorrow - Giles Blunt
Feature October 2001
   October,being the month of Halloween, requires a scary book. It's easy to pick up a ghost story and get the shivers. What scares the hell out of me is a good well-written thriller. The fantastic may be frightening, but the investigation into the killer of three young people in the fictitious town of Algonquin Bay in Northern Ontario, is much more disturbing - much more chilling because it can and does happen. The fact that this twisted violence is perpetrated by a living human being, and not some headless horseman with an axe to grind, is what can keep me up at night.
    Giles Blunt tells a gripping story of small town detective John Cardinal as he takes up the case again when the body of the first victim is found on a frozen island in the middle of the Bay. Assigned a new partner who is covertly investigating him on a matter of corruption, Cardinal must deal with rapidly mounting evidence of more kids gone missing, a well-loved and much missed wife once again in the hospital for clinical depression and a criminal secret in his own past that haunts him at every step.
    This is a great story with a strong balance between characterization and action, narrative and dialogue. As a truly Canadian mystery novel it seems to be a perfect blend of the hard-boiled American school and the Brit love of examining the mind of its killers. Better than Deja Dead (Kathy Reichs), less graphic (in some areas) than Minette Walters and as charming and poignant a hero as Inspector Morse (alas, gone now). Well done, Giles.

Round Ireland with a Fridge - Tony Hawks
Feature September 2001
   Tony Hawks is not the sharpest pencil in the box. And after reading this charming and hilarious travelogue, you know he would be the first one to admit it. Hung over as hell one morning, "Tone" discovers that he has made a one hundred pound bet with a friend that he could not hitchhike around Ireland with a fridge - in one calendar month. Knowing his friend will never hold him to it, Tony becomes quite enamored with this romantic and decidedly silly quest. A few weeks later he's across the channel with his thumb out, a fridge on a trolley and a rucksack. What he discovers is a country filled not only with people willing to give he and his square friend a lift, but a people willing to grasp the absurd happily and buy it a drink.
    Tony Hawks is a charming and affable character that lets us into his life with remarkable honesty and self-effacing humour. He describes his travels with droll wit and wry observations while giving us an insight into modern day Ireland and the appealing people who live there. This is a funny, funny book. In fact, a warning: Don't read while on a bus or eating - because the funniest bits catch you like a pie in the face. A must read.

Salamander - Thomas Wharton
Feature July 2001
   Our feature is usually a trade paperback, but I was so impressed by this book that I couldn’t resist. We’re all figuring on at least a Giller nomination for this.
   This is a book about books. Their craftsmanship, their beauty, and the hold they have over us. Salamander opens during the siege of Quebec City and travels back to Europe and the serpentine tale of Nicholas Flood, a printer hired to create an infinite book. From London to Hungary to Venice and around the world, the quest becomes a creation in itself as Nicholas searches to master the almost (almost) impossible task.
    Like the Arabian Nights, Wharton writes worlds within worlds till the reader is nearly overcome. Beautifully rendered, an exquisite voyage, Salamander is not to be missed – award nod or not.

The Crime of Olga Arbyenlina - Andrei Makine
Feature June 2001
   Two bodies wash up on the shore of a small French Village during the summer of 1947. One is still breathing - a woman who claims to be a member of the Russian Royal family; and a nasty, much older, soldier, who is quite spectacularly dead.
    From the author of “Dreams of my Russian Summer", this compelling book turns on a dime from wry and puckish to increasingly disturbing and grotesque.  Not for the faint of heart but lives with you long after the reading is done.

Blackberry Wine - Joanne Harris
Feature May 2001
    Another bestseller from the author of Chocolat.  While the first part of the novel is set in England and retold in flashbacks from the main character’s perspective, it soon moves back to the small town of Lanquenet.
   The change of style between the two backdrops is smoothly handled and the cast of characters are just as lovingly magical and quirky as her previous book.
   She is a favorite.

A Trip to the Stars - Nicholas Christopher
Feature April 2001
    Retelling of a native legend of an aunt and nephew separated from each other and the directions their lives take until they find one another again.
    At a New York planetarium in 1965 a young boy is kidnapped. The events that unfold for both he and his young aunt takes the reader into the mysteries of astronomy, the history of the Basque people, Vietnam, Captain Cook, and a Vampire Cult. Amazing serendipity and circumstance reunite them fifteen years later.
    This book absorbed me for the better part of two weeks (a long time for me, giving the amount of reading I do), sending me off on quests for information about the subjects he drops like fresh fruit into the reader’s lap. Complex, intriguing, demanding and passionate. This is a tale well told. So far, my best of the year.

A Conspiracy of Paper - David Liss
Feature March 2001
   Set in 18th century London, Benjamin Weaver is a Jew (not much tolerated in the eyes of British society at this time) and an ex-pugilist (even worse). Now an agent of enquiry (read P.I.), he is asked by a young nobleman to investigate not only his own father’s death, but Weaver’s as well.
    Jewish identity,the birth and development of the stock market in England, fraud, conspiracy and murder -- many elements that have reviewers comparing this novel to “Instance of the Fingerpost” (Iain Pears) and “The Alienist” (Caleb Carr). A great read that makes you wonder why you ever read Anne Perry.

The Land of Laughs - Jonathan Carroll
Feature February 2001
   Jonathan Carroll is the most original, fascinating writer I’ve ever read.  Probably my favorite writer to boot. If he was translated from Spanish or Russian, he would be a literary icon.  But because he’s an American living in Vienna, he gets blown off and pushed from category to category. Land of Laughs is a trade re-issue of his first novel and again, my favorite.
    Thomas Abbey is a teacher at a prep school in New York.  The son of a famous movie actor, he grew up in the shadows - his only companions the novels of Marshall France, a magical children’s novelist. Taking a sabbatical from his job, Thomas decides to write a biography of his hero’s life.  But not is all it seems when he arrives in Marshall’s hometown in Missouri and like any Carroll novel the camera angle tilts and away we go.
    I often envy those of you who haven’t been introduced to this author.  You’re in for a very special treat.

The Master of All Desires - Judith Merkle Riley
Feature January 2001
   Riley is one of the most original historical writers. Intelligent, witty and with a flair for the absurd. She always takes you on a wild romp through her assigned period with solid female characters, many unique interpretations of actual historical figures and a foul mouthed angel or two.
   Set in the sixteenth century, various forces in the Royal Court are trying to unearth the Undying Head of Meander, Master of All Desires -- who will grant it’s owner’s every whim. The Queen wishes to rid herself of her husband’s mistress, a young noblewoman just wants shed of it -- after she wins her true love and Nostradamus (yep, all seeing, all knowing) just wants to make sure no one gets their hands on this wicked and odious spirit. More fanciful (and farcical) than her other books -- it’s still a clever and fun read.