Suggest-a-book
You’re a reader. You’ve arrived at a reader’s page. Perhaps you’ve browsed around and see that we may share a taste in books. Well, here is an opportunity to leave me (and others) a book suggestion. The comments are open!!
“We were only loggers.”

Outside of Canada, even outside of the Maritimes, not much is known about the 1959 riot in Badger, Newfoundland. It might be something that a someone might have mentioned once, maybe in a discussion of strikes gone bad, a reminiscence from your old uncle perhaps.
But get your hands on a copy of The Badger Riot by J.A. Ricketts, published 2008 by Flanker Press in Newfoundland and you will never forget that little 1950s town where the 3 rivers meet.
Now, I got my copy from my buddy who is co-owner at Flanker Press. He’d been crowing about this book all over the Internet, so I stuck up my hand and said “Hey man, throw a copy my way!” (If you’ve been here before, you know I’m always up for a free book.) To be honest, my mouth started watering when I read the absolutely glowing review from the Globe and Mail, entitled A Lovely Labour of Death:
“The Badger Riot is, on the surface, a novel about an important event in Newfoundland labour history: a three-month loggers strike in Badger, led by the International Woodworkers of America (IWA).
But it is much more than a run-of-the-mill strike drama. The Badger Riot is also a vivid portrait, beautifully rendered, of Newfoundland in the 1950s. Ricketts fashions a scrapbook, sharing with the reader snapshots of the countryside, the people, the architecture, the smells and the history. Ricketts even captures the Newfoundland accents in the dialogue.”
So, as you can see, this is not a book to shy away because you think it’s likely to be dry history — it’s actually a riveting piece of fictionized history that will have you turning pages, caught up in the building tension. I heartily agree with the reviewer:
“A word of friendly warning: Once you start reading the last third of The Badger Riot , you will not be able to stop. Set aside plenty of time. The prose carries you from chapter to chapter like a bobsled.”
The author was one of the children who unwittingly witnessed the riot itself, standing on a snowbank at 14 years old with her friends…as the clarity of the descriptions can attest to. This is not some maudlin’, over-wrought prose — the language is spare and honest, with moving points-of-view to capture a feeling of the whole community.
A book 50 years in the making. Unfortunately, like a special dinner one slaves over for hours, it is devoured quickly.
Thank you, Jerry. It was delicious.
(*Astute readers will note that, yes, this is the first time I’ve used images in a post. I just discovered that WP has made it virtually idiot-proof!)
The Reviewer’s Plight
My faithful readers (all 3 of you!) will have noticed the lack of new posts recently. My apologies for that. It’s part laziness, part the pile of books I received for review a while ago.
Now, I’m an amateur reviewer…’amateur’ in the classic sense in that I don’t do it for money, but enjoy composing my little reviews for CBRA. Up until this last batch of books, all of the reviews I wrote sat in a hardbound annual in libraries across the country…likely very few people actually read them. Now, however, these reviews are going online, where they will (theoretically) be searchable by anyone looking for information on a given book.
And now I’m hesitant. When I blogged the list of books I received, I realized something I’d not thought about seriously before — the author may read my review of her/his book. Oh, I’m sure they did before, in the hardcover annual, but now, they truly will.
And they might respond.
In this day’n'age of tracking mentions of yourself/your book/your cause célébre online, I’m sure every single person attached to the books I received hit my blog.
Two responded.
This is exciting if you’re offering up praise. How every cool to be in touch with someone whose work you admire.
But what if the work is awful? What if it makes you cringe at the state of the book publishing industry in this country?
I will have to decide…to post my opinion, for good or for bad, as it is my opinion. Honest and true-as-I-see-it. It’s all I can do.
And I won’t ignore my blog anymore.
Thanks for listening.
Vampire Fiction: my take
NO, this is not a blog post about Twilight. Oh, spare me that agony. I did read the first book, lent to me by a co-worker, on a bus trip. It was a relatively fun, mindless 2 hours to the end of the book…but it was like eating cotton candy, absolutely no sustenance.
And it is not a post about Anne Rice, although I enjoyed her vampire books. I especially enjoyed the history of each vampire. Fun, sexy books.
Who I would like to talk about is the author Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. A good friend of mine intercepted me after the above-mentioned bus trip, told me, if you want vampire fiction, here is where to go. That was 2 months ago. She has since lent me 5 of Yarbro’s books, all of which I’ve devoured…but I’m only getting around to writing about them now. My apologies.
The website states the over-arching focus of the books much more succinctly than I ever could:
The books of the Saint-Germain Cycle combine historic fiction, romance, and horror and feature the heroic vampire first introduced in Hôtel Transylvania as Le Comte de Saint-Germain. In this initial novel, the character — cultured, well-traveled, articulate, elegant, and mysterious — appears in the court of France’s King Louis XV.
A ‘heroic vampire’ makes for a very readable series (of which I’ve only read 1/4…there are 20+ books so far!). Then, the conflict is in the human world around Saint- Germain as he maintains his life.
As Chelsea Quinn Yarbro explains:
The second level of questions arose from the relationship of vampires to humans — must the relationship be exploitative? And must humans abhor vampires? The more I thought about it, the more I thought it was worth trying to use a vampire as a metaphor for humanism: a person living an unnaturally long life might become alienated from humanity, as a means of avoiding the pain of spending most of your time saying permanent good-byes. Or it was just possible the vampire would, through his very alienation, seek to be part of human experience, which offered a great many more dramatic possibilities.
So, the books follow the efforts of the vampire Saint-Germain to live in each age. Of course, because of his accumulated wealth and knowledge, he finds himself embroiled in public life and that brings its own difficulties. The stories recount his activities in this public sphere, with any sucking of blood kept to the sidelines.
The most fascinating aspect of these books is that the horror and danger in a Saint-Germain novel come from the humans, not the vampire.
Any other Yarbro fans out there?
“Literary Soup” Literature
I’m in the middle of two books, and suddenly I feel like I’m reading one of those artsy-fartsy double features at your local, non-mainstream movie house. You know the ones, where there is a connection between the films, and it is your job as the audience to find it.
The most obscure one I ever came across was where the only link was an ice cream cone in each film. The most delightful was Robert LePage’s Le Confessional (1995) shown with Hitchcock’s I Confess (1953).
So, back to books.
I’m reading two books right now:
- the always erudite, sometimes terribly obscure Umberto Eco’s The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana (2005), and
- a first book by a young woman in the USA, Marisha Pessl’s Specialty Topics in Calamity Physics (Astute BookNook followers will recall that I blogged about the book’s amazing website here!)
While both books are utterly different in plot, character, setting, and genre they have in common a wonderful bookyness to them…they are both a literary soup of references that verge on the border of being overwhelming, but instead are almost inspiring in their bibliophilia.
Two different books, two utterly different characters, but both texts are littered with pop culture:
Eco, being a semiologist, does not really surprise us in this. His other books have been thick with historical references, illuminating his amazing well-readness. This time however, it is a plot point, as our protagonist is an older man suffering from amnesia who uses the books of his lifetime to rebuild his lifeline. The references this time are both classical and current, albeit the focus of the current is on Italian modern history and corresponding pop culture.
Pessl, a young woman writing her first novel, holds her own in general bookyness in comparison to the towering Eco. The character, Blue van der Meer, is not quite 18 but is an astoundingly well-read genius, being the daughter of a rather eccentric, nomadic, genius professor father. As she navigates the teen hell of a yet another new school, her every thought is a literary or pop culture reference, at times against her will. Despite how ponderous that sounds, it is a delightful read, and un-put-down-able once you really get rolling.
I need more books of this genre (is it a meta- or sub-genre?). Any suggestions?
Truly comprehensive?
Wouldn’t it be utterly brilliant to have a comprehensive list of available online books?
This site seems to be a step in that direction. It is a no-frills webpage of links to so many of the online book (including audio books) locations that one would be hard-pressed to say if anything was missing. And if it is, suggest it to the website’s owner, and I’m sure it will be added.
Next, give me a book reader and I’ll be all set.
Since we’re on the subject, if you’re looking to get me a gift (”Really? For me?!?”), I’m opting for the iRex iLiad — pricey but has features that I’d love. Unlike the much-too-hyped Amazon Kindle — where they don’t tell you the fine print (I’ve read this on Cnet, in the user reviews). You know all those thousands of free books online? The ones that you already have on your computer? Well, if you want them on the Kindle, you gotta buy them from Amazon, ’cause they won’t go on otherwise! Yup, Amazon has found a way to inveigle all those book lovers into buying stuff that is otherwise free! [The moral of the story? Do your research before you buy!!]
Ah, Words…
Found a great blog post today about how this woman got a word into the OED.
It is because of her that ‘food coma’ is in the OED:
“food coma n. U.S. a lethargic state induced by eating, esp. a large quantity of (freq. rich or unhealthy) food.”
I’ve written on dictionaries before, online and in meat space (hey, Lyza, can you talk to your buddies about that phrase?), but I thought I’d comment for a moment on the dictionary I use the most:
This online beauty is beyond a doubt the resource I turn to the most on an almost daily basis. Here, you find the meanings and translations of pretty much any word and phrase to/from English, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and German. I use it almost daily at work as I am managing a couple of files with French organizations, and I often have to write emails etc. in French (and read them!). Do a quick search, and if the resulting page of options is not sufficient, scroll down a bit further to the list of idiomatic phrases. And if what you’re looking for is still not there, there’s a list of Forum posts that will help. Still no? Then post your question (follow the guidelines please!) on the forum, and Voilà! within 5 minutes, you’ll have an answer. People are always combing the forums for questions to answer…’tis very friendly, accurate and quick!