The Probable Future
Alice Hoffman
Feature January 2005

Like all the best of Alice Hoffman, this book has you hooked from the moment you read the description on the back cover.

Every woman in the Sparrow family of New England has received a gift on the eve of her thirteenth birthday - the ability to smell a lie, to see other people's dreams, for example - and, as Stella is about to discover, the rather disturbing ability to see how people will die.

With the consummate skill of a master storyteller, Hoffman weaves magic through what would otherwise be a simple story of mothers and daughters and their struggles to understand one another. Using the psychology of fairy tales, Hoffman draws the reader in to this story of love, self-discovery, forgiveness and hope.

Following Practical Magic and Blackbird House, The Probable Future is my third favourite book by this author, an author who never disappoints but sometimes manages to astound.

(When I changed our feature in January at the last moment - Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah Macdonald did not seem appropriate after the horrors of December's Tsunami - I asked the staff for help and Margo was quick to volunteer this book and her review. I'm sure you will enjoy it as much as she did)

Ballantine Books, #21.00

The Shadow Of The Wind
Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Feature February 2005
If you love books … I mean if you really love books -- if you smile at the smell of age and mystery when you walk into a second-hand bookshop -- if you feel a rush when you discover a previously unknown work by a favourite author - if the definition of bibliophile is terribly inadequate to describe you - then you will adore The Shadow of the Wind.

Set in Barcelona in 1945, Daniel is almost eleven when his father, an antiquarian bookseller takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books - a secret repository and a sanctuary that holds many mysteries. "When a library disappears, or a bookshop closes down, when a book is consigned to oblivion, those of us who know this place, its guardians, makes sure it gets here. In this place, books no longer remembered by anyone, books that are lost in time, live forever, waiting for the day when they will reach a new reader's hands." And with this loving introduction Daniel is offered a chance to choose any book and adopt it.

The book he chooses changes the course of his life. The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax utterly seduces him and begins a quest for other works by this rare talent. This isn't as easy as he might think. What he unearths is a far-flung conspiracy of sinister proportions that any and books by this elusive author are being ruthlessly sought out and destroyed by a character naming himself by the Devil in Carax's book.

A (big "R") Romantic Literary Thriller with powerful writing and excellent characters that leap off the page and into your memory forever. Sexy, riveting and flawless this is a book you can't miss.

Wild Irish
Robin Maxwell
Feature March 2005
One of our front windows this month looks like the Irish have landed thanks to my next-door neighbour who "volunteers" to help with my displays every month. This fabulous St. Patrick's Day display of every Irish book I could muster (which believe me is quite a lot), drums, whistles, a Celtic cross or two and an amazing tapestry is getting us all in the mood to raise a pint (or three). So of course I had to find the perfect Irish tale to match the spirit of the occasion (pun intended).

The Wild Irish is a wonderful literary potboiler. The famous "pirate" Grace O'Malley has come to the court of her arch nemesis Elizabeth I to beg for the life of her son in prison back home -- and sentenced to die by the hand of Elizabeth's heavy-handed Governor Richard Bingham. Although indifferent to O'Malley initially, Elizabeth summons her to her rooms in the middle of the night to hear the tale of her life - a life of adventure and travel that was forever denied the strong willed Elizabeth. What follows is a questionable friendship amidst the trauma of the Irish-English War and the casual brutality on both sides.

O'Malley herself is an unmatched storyteller as her own history dovetails exactingly with the luck of the benighted Irish and their remarkable strength against all odds. The author's interpretations of historical figures are well drawn against a backdrop of outrageous intrigue and politics - but never taking away from the fast moving plot.

All in all a great well-told story to curl up with over that pint … or three.

Harper Perennial, $19.95

Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure
Sarah MacDonald
Feature April 2005
I've never been leaping to go off and travel India. Being a cold climate girl, I generally avoid sultry climates. On the other hand the history … and mystery of India has always fascinated me. My feelings of ambiguity about the country are only mirrored in this raucous, funny and devastatingly honest book.

Fleeing the country in horror after a university trip with a friend, they are stopped at the airport by a beggar who offers to read their palms. Her friend, who is planning to return as soon as possible, is told she will never return but marry and raise a brood of children. Nic's disgust at this obvious ploy is quickly superceded by Sarah's own, who is told she will return to live there. Not a chance, she claims as she bolts for the airplane.

Well, her friend Nic does marry and has a couple of kids and eleven years later Sarah returns to live with her boyfriend in New Delhi. Mercifully she has forgotten much of what she hated, but the lingering resentment is still well rooted. What follows in a long, arduous (not only for Sarah) courtship with a country that will always have the upper hand. MacDonald's honesty about her myopic and, frankly, spoilt-girl attitude are refreshing to view from her now altered perspective. And her adventures are silly, widely spiritual, fun (from our viewpoint), frightening, and poignant.

A great all round read. But you'll forgive me if I haven't bought a plane ticket for India yet.

Broadway Books, $19.95

The Changling
Kate Horsley
Feature May 2005
The author of the acclaimed Confessions of a Pagan Nun takes us to fourteenth-century Ireland for a strange and luminous tale of the elusive nature of identity and of triumph in adversity. The Changeling is the story of Grey, a peasant girl who is raised as a boy, and who, until adolescence, never doubts herself to be male. The revelation of her womanhood marks the beginning of her journey through a succession of changing identities—including son, wife, warrior, and mother—each of which brings its own special wisdom, but none of which, she discovers, can ultimately define her. In the course of her adventurous life, Grey deals with all the challenges of her tumultuous age—from political oppression to corrupt Church hierarchy to the horrors of the Black Death—ultimately finding peace and a kind of redemption by embracing the beautifully impermanent quality of identity that her unusual life has enabled her to understand. (Previously published in hardcover as The Changeling of Finnistuath.)

"Middlesex in the Middle Ages? Almost. In this complex, intelligent novel . . . Horsley raises thought-provoking questions of religion and identity. Told with rich detail, warmth, and wry wit."—Publishers Weekly

"An unusual and beautiful story."—Library Journal

"Horsley's burgeoning following of readers who enjoy witty, passionate novels of ideas should enjoy this one and be stoked for more."—Booklist

Shambala, $21.00

Blackbird House
Alice Hoffman
Feature June 2005
In Cape Cod, there is a small farm compassing a small house, called Blackbird House. It's called that because of the white blackbird-perhaps a ghost, perhaps not-that has haunted the house since the eighteenth century. In it, people lose things; people who are lost find things; desire, love, heartbreak and fulfillment chase each other through the rafters and around the fields full of sweet peas, while the house witnesses and keeps their stories. This isn't the tale of one individual or family but of several, whose only link to each other through the years is the house and the grounds surrounding it, as well as the traces of themselves they leave behind.

If you're unfamiliar with Hoffman's work, you should know that her prose is lucid, sensuous and magical, her characters real, complex and complete, and her stories always imbued with a charm entirely her own. Blackbird House is a good introduction to and a perfect example of her style, which has often been tagged as "magical realism." She takes fantastical elements-a three-hundred pound halibut that bites off a man's leg, cows that give milk so sweet and filling that one cup will slake a day's thirst-and weaves them into psychological realities so honest and compelling that one must believe the fantasy is truer than the fact.

If you are familiar with Hoffman's work, you should know that Blackbird House takes her skill a step further, that each story stands on its own and is as complete in itself as ripe fruit plucked from a tree. Like many of her books, this one will make you crave things, whether they be sweet peas or milk, honeycomb or salt air. There are cranberries, crimson pears and blood-red boots to be found within; women named Violet, Garnet and Ruby; brothers, sisters and snatches of whale-song. It is a beautiful book that will move you to tears for a different reason each time you read it.

(Guest reviewer this month is Amal. Thanks for taking a break from a summer grad course in Medieval Romance to whip this off, kiddo)

Ballantine Books, $21.00

Field of Blood
Denise Mina
Feature July 2005
When mystery writer Ian Rankin was in town last fall (and my sales rep kindly brought him by the shop) he described Denise Mina as the hottest new crime writer out of Scotland. I had already read her Garnethill Trilogy, so I couldn't help but agree with him. Mind you having the good-looking, erudite and witty Mr. Rankin standing in front of me, I wasn't going to argue. On the other hand I wasn't following his advice blindly when I chose her new book for my July feature. And having just come back from two weeks in Scotland (my first time), I'll have to apologize now for the plethora of Scottish authors you will see here over the next few months. But as Canadian Mike Myers claimed in his now famous skit "If it's not Scottish, it's …"!

Field of Blood is a very dark, very powerful crime novel set in the 1980's and centered around the abduction and murder of a three year old by two young boys (this might sound familiar). Paddy Meehan is a young gopher for the Scottish Daily News trying to break into investigative reporting. She accidentally discovers information about one of the young abductors that ties him into her fiancée's extended family. When this info leaks out she is humiliated and abandoned by both her own family and Sean's. Alone and in the face of overwhelming hatred, she is driven to prove what she has felt all along - that the boys did not act alone, and that a well sheltered pedophile and murderer will go free to do this again.

Mina is a find. She writes with superb control and extreme characterization -- like Rankin she can draw those characters in one or two lines and you know them instantly. Her subject can be brutal and almost overwhelming, but written with such heart and soul; you are drawn inexorably to a breathless conclusion.

The comparisons to Ian Rankin will be inevitable, but believe me (and possibly him as well) Denise Mina is a force all her own

Bantam Press, $24.95

Outside The Dog Museum
Jonathan Carroll
Feature August 2005

The first time I read Jonathan Carroll, I was hooked. There's something about his turn of phrase that makes you want to keep reading, even when you're not really sure what's happening or how it relates to the larger story. Carroll's the King of Surreal Fiction — I can't think of anyone else who does it quite as well as he does. It means that when I'm recommending Carroll, I can only approximate my comparisons…he's not like Stephen King or Alice Hoffman, although his novels might have some small similarities; he's not like any of the fantasy authors I've ever read, and yet he's not straight high literature, either. He's like nobody else out there — and I hope he stays that way.

So I guess you could say Carroll's out on his own — in some parallel world populated with strange little talking dogs and fantastic people. And the strange little talking dogs and fantastical people show up again and again in his books — Carroll was one of the first novelists I ever read who re-uses his characters. The main character of one novel often shows up in the background of another one; and when the characters are as well written as his are, it's a real pleasure to know you're likely to meet them again.

Outside the Dog Museum is a strangely compelling little book. This story of a self-centered architectural genius should not be nearly as charming as it is; however, you just can't put it down. Harry Radcliffe, recently recovered from a complete mental breakdown, is approached to build a multi-million dollar dog museum for the Sultan of Saru — in a Middle Eastern country that hates dogs. Harry is not a character easy to like, caught as he is juggling relationships with two seemingly perfect women and more than willing to take advantage of any situation he comes across. Still you find yourself following the slippery magic-realism of the plot intently wanting to know what's around the next corner for him — what will Harry find when he completes his project? What strange little figment is hiding in the Austrian Alps?

I'm afraid to spoil the pleasure of discovery by divulging too much of the plot in this review — part of the joy of reading Jonathan Carroll novels is not knowing what's around the corner, stumbling into surrealism, and then being pulled along to the eventual explanation.

Once you've finished this book, you'll be hooked on Carroll — and he's got other books out that are just as good. Move on to Sleeping in Flame or The Land of Laughs; you just can't go wrong.

(Sam was good enough to write this review for us smack in the middle of starting a new job and trying to get on a plane for Halifax. Thanks a bunch, Samwise — mind you I did promise her first crack at the advance proof of Carroll's new book coming this fall: Glass Soup!)

$19.95, Orb Books

Will
Grace Tiffany
September 2005


I love Shakespeare. I really do. I say this while possessing a passing knowledge of the conspiracy theories about the Earl of Oxford and Francis Bacon, and while acknowledging that very little is known about the man. Was he anti-Semitic? Was he a deadbeat dad? Was he gay?

Does it matter?

Grace Tiffany's take on it implies that no, it doesn't; such debates are irrelevant to the story she actually tells. Will spans Shakespeare's early development as a playwright: his relationship with Anne Hathaway, Kit Marlowe, the London stage and its players, patrons and persecutors. Tiffany succeeds in telling a story about a man who is a Renaissance playwright and lives a Renaissance life, who wrote plays called Hamlet and Richard Third and Henry Fifth, and she succeeds at it with wit and charm and the dexterity necessary to juggling both fact and fiction without letting either one fall. The fact that the man in question is William Shakespeare seems to be almost beside the point.

That's what I marveled at throughout this book. Occasionally I'd find myself wondering, "is that what happened? Is that true? Didn't it happen this other way according to my Elizabethan Shakespeare professor of a couple of years ago?" And then realize, again - it doesn't matter. "The play's the thing," you see, throughout. The beautiful thing about historical fiction - and indeed, about history in general - is how much scope there is for imagination, how much space there is between the dots that need to be connected. To write historically inspired fiction requires a willingness to blur the lines of records and documents in an effort to read between them, while remaining firmly aware of what those lines are It's a skill Tiffany possesses in spades.

Besides which, it's a delight to read. I very much got the impression that Tiffany read all of Shakespeare's plays immediately prior to writing her book. The dialogue is wonderful, and made me laugh out loud a number of times. Her Renaissance London is convincing and obviously well-researched, but that's only something to realize as an afterthought, since it's so thoroughly enjoyable to experience.

As I said, I love Shakespeare. I love him for his plays and his poems, for his wit and his characters, for his indescribable mastery of language. And that's what comes across in Will. It's a story about a man who writes plays and poems. And it's really, really good.

(Amal is our feature reviewer this month. She saved my ass by "volunteering" to write the review as I am up to that proverbial ass in catalogues and fall promotions. Amal is taking her Masters in English this year and a published poet -- also a doomed bibliophile that will have to work for me forever to support her habit).

The Ghost Writer
John Harwood
October 2005


This store is Halloween Central come October. It’s not necessary a prerequisite for my hiring, but it just seems to come up that we all grew up with great memories of this festival. And now that we are all grown up (or pretend to be) we have a lot of fun decorating the store and it’s windows. And of course, I have to pick something fitting for the time of year – and although it’s perhaps a little to skeptical to say The Ghost Writer leapt off the shelf at me, it’s cover certainly caught my inner eye.

John Harwood is an Australian writer who has created a wonderfully evocative and truly gothic tale perfect to curl up with as the nights draw in and the trees create their own unique sound for the season, And not just one story, but entering Harwood’s world is like falling down a spiral staircase of eerie tales within the main account that set a claustrophobic and tantalizing mood.

Gerard Freeman is an isolated and lonely boy in Australia when the book opens. Raised by estranged parents – specifically an obsessive and paranoid mother – his only friend a pen pal from England that he begins corresponding with as a teen. Alice is wheelchair bound after an accident that killed her parents and what starts as an innocent correspondence between children evolves into a long distance affair that holds Gerard in thrall from ever fully committing to his life. Mysteries surround her even though she seems so open. Why allow no photographs? And why not allow him to come and visit when he graduates University? Questions and few answers further bind his life, as his mother grows more oppressive and silent about her past in England. But as our errant knight questions his relationship with Alice and his family’s past he discovers the works of his great aunt Viola, a shadowy Edwardian ghost writer whose stories we get to savour along with Gerard. These stories never detract from the main plot, but instead evoke a greater depth to the background. And Gerard’s voice as narrator alters so subtlety that you could miss it while entranced by Viola’s stories and the mysterious coincidences that pop up around him.

This is a truly mesmerizing novel with a climax not only surprising, but also somehow weirdly expected and even more horrifying for it. Creepy, spine tingling and wholly engrossing, The Ghost Writer is both trick and an amazingly satisfying treat.

Whisky Galore
Compton MacKenzie
November 2005


When I was traveling through Scotland in June, this book was on every shelf, every place I went. And of course, being a total obsessed Scotsphile at present, I read it when I came back and wanted to make it my feature. Unfortunately getting the stock from the U.K. was not as easy at it might seem, and it went from my August feature to my November feature. All in all it worked out pretty well. Considering the state of the world at present we all need to escape to a kinder, gentler time and place where love and good whisky make the world go 'round. And as any true whisky lover will tell you, everything goes down better with a “wee dram”.

Set in 1943 and loosely based on historic events, the Islands of Great and Little Toddy in the Outer Hebrides are meeting the shortages and cutbacks of the War with their usual stoicism. But as Captain Donald Mackechnie arrives home on leave to set the date for his wedding he begins to watch the villagers finally crack – the whisky has run out. As his marriage plans (and a few others) founder under the weight of the crises (how can one possibly get married without raising a small glass to the new couple? Unfortunately even the priest agrees), luck arrives “on the rocks”. The Cabinet Minister and it's cargo of 50,000 bottles of the best of Scottish whiskies runs aground on Little Tod – reparations to the Americans from London – and straight into the arms of a thirsty people. What ensues is wild comedy of manners, morals and delights as the villagers decide to 'protect' the cargo from the Gerrie's and their lone provost.

Made into a delightful film in 1949 (and now available on DVD), reading Whisky Galore wraps you in sweet and warming comfort that keeps the chills at bay, MacKenzie has raised wry (no pun intended) humour to high art in this charming and loving tale of life in an island culture. The joys of fine whisky and true old-fashioned love make it a wonderful treat for yourself or perfect for the true single malt lover on your Christmas List.

So raise a glass and toast the saltire. Saint Andrews day is just around the corner and the haggis hunt is on!