#7 The Woefield Poulty Collective

The Woefield Poultry Collective
by Susan Juby

Wow! Finally a book that I can say, "What a great book," and that I would recommend that people read. It was funny (yes, laugh out loud), clever, and included lots of interesting and disparate topics as part of the plot, ranging from chickens (I loved my chickens!), music (well, bluegrass), The Rapture, and New York life, to fluorescent lightbulbs, specialty radishes and portable fencing methods.

The story starts with the main character, Prudence, a young woman living in New York, longing to be a new age back-to-the-land farmer, who inherits a rundown farm on Vancouver Island. Off she goes and ends up on the farm, which comes with a very elderly "farmhand," one sheep, and a house with many different kinds of linoleum.

Prudence soon acquires an alcoholic metalhead blogger as a boarder, and a young chicken lover who arrives with her fancy chickens. The book speaks in short, alternating sections through the voices of the four main characters. The author does such a great job giving authentic an authentic voice to each of the characters.

Sounds silly, and it was, but it was a great read. Good pacing, easy to read, funny, silly, nice writing, and all the characters are better by the end, despite their many foibles and problems. Yes, it's a feel good book too.

There are laughs, and even a few tears to be shed at the end if you cry easily.

Bonus: B.C. author!

http://news.nationalpost.com/afterword/book-review-the-woefield-poultry-collective-by-susan-juby

Hmm, looks like the title might have changed, according to Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8753451-home-to-woefield

Rating: 5/5
Recommendation: YES! Enjoy!

#6 Come From Afar

Come From Afar
by Gayle Reid

I've been home sick so have had lots of time to read. It may look at though I finished the last book and this book on the same day, but as I've been lying on the couch for the last three days with fever and no energy, today is the first day I've had the energy to write any blog posts.

Set during the Spanish Civil War, this book follows an Australian nurse as she leaves Australia, goes to Britain, marries and Englishman and moves to a small village in Spain (it soon becomes apparent that he is gay, thus their marriage is not a success. He commits suicide.), she then decides to serve in various military hospitals during the war, meets another man, has a baby, etc.

Alas, another book which, in my opinion, is not worth reading. It started off great: good pacing, interesting plot, lovely writing. But then the war. How many details did we need about the wounds she treated, the towns they moved to, the various factions in the war, the bombing, the food they ate, Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, and on and on and on. Of course, some of these details were necessary as the setting of the novel. But on and on and on. Really?

I skimmed through a lot of this novel (the politics mostly) cause I'm really not that interested in the Spanish Civil War, just to get to the end.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15108379-come-from-afar?from_search=true

Rating: 1/5
Recommendation: Only if you are really interested in the Spanish Civil War. Otherwise, don't bother.

#5 The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe
by Romain Puertolas

A quirky little book about a fakir (a Muslim or Hindu spiritual wanderer) from India who flies to France to buy a bed of nails at Ikea. After a series of silly scenarios that see him locked in the wardrobe and transported to England, deported from England and flown to Spain, hiding in a suitcase and flying to Rome in the cargo hold of a plane where he starts writing a novel on his shirt, all the while being chased by an irate Gypsy taxi driver he had ripped off of E100, the story ends with him as a famous author with a French girlfriend.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19347251-the-extraordinary-journey-of-the-fakir-who-got-trapped-in-an-ikea-wardro?from_search=true

There are a number of other novels in the "quirky" category that I've read that are MUCH better than this one, that I would recommend:

"Mrs. Queen Takes the Train"
"Major Pettigrew's Last Stand"
"The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry"
"A Man Called Ove"

Rating: 2/5
Recommendation: A silly little book, perhaps more in the fantasy category?

#4 Unexploded

Unexploded
by Alison MacLeod

Set in Brighton during WWII, as the town prepares and waits for a predicted invasion by the Germans.
I skimmed through a lot of this book. Yawn, just get on with it. It rambled on and on, especially in the middle of the book, and the details and side plots didn't seem to have anything to do with moving the plot forward.

The book could have been 200 pages shorter, and then it would have been better.

Also, I didn't think the extra-marital relationships of the main characters were convincing.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18212386-unexploded

Rating: 2/5
Recommendation: Don't bother.

#3 Cooking for Picasso

Cooking for Picasso
by Camille Aubray

Definitely chic lit, but very readable. In the beginning, the book read like someone writing for a writing class: way too much gratuitous description. I could almost hear a writing instructor saying, "Describe the smells and the feel. What was he wearing? What colour were the walls? What kind of flowers were on the table, etc." But that seemed to lessen as the novel progressed. A blend of history and fiction, focussed around Picasso and his time in a small town in France. Some descriptions of French cooking and recipes.

Cute, readable, fluffy, entertaining, a little bit of romantic fantasy, though that's not until the end.
A bit of a mystery as well which keeps the pace of the book moving.

Rating: 4/5
Recommendation: not literature, but nice, light entertainment.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27876293-cooking-for-picasso

#2 The Heart of Henry Quantum

The Heart of Henry Quantum
Pepper Harding

This book was initially cute and different. However, halfway through, cute and different became incredibly BORING. I managed to finish it, but only because I skimmed through the last half. Don't bother reading this one!!

Rating: 0/5
Recommendation: No!!

#1 The Light Between Oceans

This is the first entry in my book reading journal for 2017. I read so many books, that rarely do I remember them other than vaguely. Then people ask me what books I've read and do I have any recommendations, and of course I remember neither the title nor the author. I do, however, generally remember the cover illustration, though that's often not very helpful. In 2010 I kept a book reading journal. I read 80 novels that year and ended the year with my top 10 list. The winner that year was "Dream Wheels" by Richard Wagamese, one of my favourite authors.

So for 2017 I will keep this online journal of the books I read. I will include my thoughts on the book, recommendations, links to reviews on Goodreads, and movie trailers if there is a movie.

The Light Between Oceans
M.L. Stedman

I just finished this novel today. It takes place in Australia, and is about a lighthouse keeper, shortly after he returns home from WWI. He marries, but his wife, Isabelle, is unable to have children. A boat washes up on the shore of their small island, with a dead man and a living baby inside, shortly after Isabelle has lost a third baby. They decide to keep the baby as their own, telling no one the truth. Four years later………

The book is readable, though I had to find a spoiler website before I could finish the novel. The tension in the book was difficult, as there are so many immoral decisions made by the couple. The suspense keeps you reading until the end.

From Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13158800-the-light-between-oceans

The book is now a movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk7yw00a4fs

Rating:  3.4 / 5
Recommendation: Very readable, interesting description of the life of a lighthouse keeper, good tension that keeps you reading. The moral struggle was difficult.