Armchair Critics' ArchivesArmchair Critics' Archives
Christopher,
a teenage autistic boy, narrates this detective story about his
quest to discover who murdered the neighbour's dog. During his
investigation, he uncovers a nasty secret about his father and
sets out on a difficult journey to learn the truth about his family.
This historical novel tells the story of Anne Boleyn's
sister Mary, who was the mistress of King Henry VIII for several
years before Anne. Brought to the royal court at a young age,
the two sisters and their brother George are manipulated behind
the scenes by their ambitious uncle. The natural rivalry between
the two sisters is heightened by their perilous position as favourites
to the king.
A seriously disturbed young man, disillusioned with
his Ikea furniture and morally bankrupt job meets a strange and
charismatic new friend, Tyler Durden. Together they form a new
club where groups of like-minded men can come together to relieve
their frustrations by beating each other up. The success of this
club leads to new fight clubs opening up in major cities everywhere.
A future all too near, all too real and all too
frightening. Margaret Atwood sets her tale of post global warming
- post globalization in middle America. Citizens of this future
state live in gated compounds, where they are protected by their
corporate employers from pollution, poverty and criminal activity.
The less fortunate reside in the surrounding Pleeblands where
they must fend for themselves.
The Biblical tale of Jacob is re-told
by Anna Dimante through the eyes of Dinah, his only daughter.
The author portrays the lives of women at the time of the Book
of Genesis in a clear and compelling fashion. The women gather
in the Red Tent during their monthly menstrual cycles to tell
stories, sing and nurture one another. As the only daughter among
eleven sons, Dinah becomes the keeper of the stories and lore
of each of Jacob's four wives, whom she refers to as her four
mothers.
Bel Canto, or "Beautifully Sung" is a
wonderfully orchestrated book about a group of hostages and their
captors holed up in a presidential mansion for several months.
While the first chapters of the book are tense and stressful,
as time passes both the prisoners and the terrorists adjust to
the restricted world created by their situation. Clothes are washed
and meals prepared while written demands are exchanged and the
Red Cross representative makes his daily visit.
Two books were selected this month because the author
of Daughter of God is claiming that some of the research and plot
points in the best-selling DaVinci Code were plagiarized from
his novel. Both books involve a religious secret hidden by the
Catholic Church for centuries. Perdue's novel is a traditional
thriller, with gun fights, explosions and an Indiana Jones type
trek though an abandoned salt mine. Brown's book is also a page
turner, which features a series of puzzles and hidden codes -
deciphered by the protagonists at convenient intervals through
the novel.
Synopsis:
God is the narrator in this gloomy and disturbing
novel about a Thanksgiving dinner party held by a middle-aged
writer for a group of his friends and associates. Through the
eyes of God, we hear the honest and sometimes shocking inner thoughts
of each guest, as we also witness their outward conversations
and routine actions. 
Originally
a serialized novel in six parts, the Green Mile tells the story
of a death row prison guard who is assigned to watch over John
Coffey, an enormous silent man convicted of murdering two young
girls. The "green mile" is the guards' name for the
inmates' last walk along the green linoleum between the cells
on the way to "Old Sparky".
Synopsis:
This
novel describes one day in the lives of three women and interweaves
their actions with the plot and dialogue of Virginia Wolfe's book
"Mrs. Dalloway". Wolfe is herself a character in the
novel, struggling against an eating disorder and her encroaching
mental illness while she begins to write a new book. Laura Brown
is a young bride struggling against post WWII conventions and
suburban lifestyle to find her own individuality. Clarissa Vaughan
is a successful professional woman struggling to come to terms
with the terminal illness of her best friend. As the hours of
the day draw to a close, the outlook and lives of these three
women have all been permanently altered.
Synopsis:
What
happens when the gods from all the religions of the world are
left abandoned and unworshiped in a strange new land? Some scratch
out a living in low wage jobs -taxi drivers, stock boys and fortune
tellers. Others move to the margins of society as grifters, petty
thieves and prostitutes. They watch as the new gods; television,
media and the automobile, rise to power and glory.
When
Maylou's mama suddenly dies in her Florida trailer park, Maylou
sets out to bring her mama's ashes and her father back home to
Kansas. The unhappy pair are forced to bring along their neighbour's
daughter CeCe when she decides to flee her unfortunate marriage.
Magna
Danvers is studying for her final examination. Once a robust,
fiery college professor she now lies in her bedroom dying of cancer.
But Magda sees her death as a unique opportunity to assess her
life. She has nothing to lose or gain and therefore she can judge
the motives of those around her with absolute clarity. Her husband
Francis, who has devoted 25 years to her career and happiness,
knows their marriage is ending, but can not even conceive of his
life without her.
Poor
Claire! Her husband leaves her for another woman on the day she
gives birth to their first child and she travels home to Dublin
to recover from the shock in the bosom of her family. She spends
the next few weeks alternately crying, drinking & exercising
in one of her mother's old nightgown, while her family looks after
baby Kate and tries to sympathise with the unwashed maniac Claire
has become. The Walsh family (consisting of Claire's four sisters
as well as her Mum and Dad) are eccentric and oddly endearing.
When Claire eventually digs herself out of her depression and
starts to question her marriage, it is her family that provides
the financial and moral support to enable her to confront her
husband.
This
book is the biography of mathematician John Nash, the Nobel Laureate
and father of Economic Game Theory. The book traces Nash's childhood,
his college career, his early love affair and bastard child, his
eventual marriage, mental breakdown, treatment and recovery.
Keillor
is an author and humorist known for his weekly radio program "A
Prairie Home Companion", which features folksy tales of life
in the fictional town of Lake Wobegon. Keillor is the author of
several books, including Lake Wobegon Days (1995), Leaving Home
(1992) and Happy to Be Here (1990).
This month
we listened to a four-part presentation produced for the CBC radio
program "Ideas". Each segment was an hour long: Drowning
In Stuff, Marketing Cool, Targeting Children, and More Is Not
Always Better. The program dealt with consumer culture and the
fact that the media normalizes affluence -even though only twenty
percent of the population can afford to live at the standard portrayed
in most television programs. We are no longer keeping up with
the Joneses in our own income bracket - now we are trying to keep
up with Frasier Crane. North Americans can purchase hundreds of
styles of shoes, household gadgets, toys and other products, but
our planet cannot sustain the level of consumption that corporations
tell us we are entitled to.
Reeve's
autobiography looks back at his incredibly active past and forward
to his uncertain future. Before the 1995 riding accident that
left him paralysed below the neck, Reeve enjoyed life in the fast
lane -flying planes, horseback riding, and filming in exotic locations.
Today his daily routine depends upon a small army of staff who
dress, feed and bathe him. Reeve has become a leading activist
for spinal cord research and his Christopher Reeve Foundation
has raised over a million dollars toward the quest for a cure.
A carefully
constructed novel about family loyalty and Gaelic heritage. The
rough, impoverished life of Calum MacDonald, orphan, miner, ex-convict
is recollected by his younger brother, now a successful orthodontist
living in Southern Ontario.
Everyone is familiar with
the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty. In this novel, Robin McKinley
adapts and expands the beloved story. McKinley's fairy tale country
is thick with magic, which must be dusted from the doorsteps and
emptied from the kettles.
Francie Nolan grows up in the school of hard-knocks
in Brooklyn, New York at the turn of the century. Life with her
charming but shiftless father, her lovely but severe mother, and
her younger brother is tough and full of sacrifices. But Francie
takes pleasure in small comforts; the chance to sleep in the front
room; a visit from her Aunt Sissy; or the ability to use her "pinching
penny" to buy a bag of broken sweets.
Inman, a wounded Confederate soldier, leaves the
hospital before he can be sent back to the front lines and begins
the long journey to his sweetheart in the hills of North Carolina.
Along the way, he meets both outlaws and kindly strangers and
each of them become part of his story. As Inman travels through
the mountains he draws strength from the natural beauty that surrounds
him, even as he hides from those who would send him back to the
war.
Rob Zimmerman is the 30-something owner of a used
record shop in London. Rob is a music snob with the amusing habits
of creating endless "top five" hit lists and re-arranging
his record collection during times of crisis.
The heroines of this book are Camilla Xanthakos,
an astronomy professor at a small New England university and her
granddaughter Raffi, a student at the same school. One evening
Raffi comes to Camilla's house and asks, "are you my grandmother
or not?" Camilla then delves into four generations of family
history involving desertion, infidelity, miscarriage, untimely
death, and a four-year-old torn from his parents. It is not until
the final few pages of the book that Raffi's true parentage is
revealed.
It's summer and Lottie Gardner has returned to her
childhood home. She and her teenage son are sorting through her
mother's possessions and readying the house for sale. Lottie is
retreating from a difficult marriage to a widower who is still
grieving for his first wife. As she strips wallpaper and sorts
through old clothes, Lottie tries to make sense of her relationships
with her son and her new husband. Meanwhile, Lottie's childhood
rival, Elizabeth, also returns to the neighbourhood and begins
a steamy affair with Lottie's brother Cam.
The ordinary life of the Chambers family is rendered
in extraordinary detail in Bonnie Bernards first full-length novel.
Although the book spans fifty years, it touches down at odd intervals
- each chapter taking the reader one, five, or seven years into
the family's future. New babies are born, divorce takes place
and romance blooms.
Harry is a young orphan who is living with his nasty
relatives when he's summoned to claim his magical heritage by
attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Instead
of math and literature, he studies potions and care of magical
creatures and learns how to ride a broomstick and use a magic
wand. It's an enchanting world where the mail is delivered by
owls, ghosts roam the hallways and the paintings on the wall visit
one another.
Bill Bryson was born in Iowa, but moved to Britain
in 1973. He lived in the United Kingdom for over twenty years
before returning to the United States with his English wife and
family in tow. Notes from a Big Country is a collection of essays
about his impressions of life in America.
Daisy Bates lived and worked amongst the Australian
Aboriginal people from 1919 to 1945. During this time she studied
their customs, languages and legends. She was given the name of
Kabbarli (grandmother) by the Aboriginals and eventually awarded
the Order of the British Empire. During her time in the desert,
Mrs. Bates lived in a tent on the edge of the Nullarbor Plain,
notably at a place called Ooldea in South Australia. She helped
feed, clothe and nurse the transient population, using her own
money to meet their pressing needs. She died in relative obscurity
in 1951.
According to Oprah's web site, "O" is
the women's personal-growth guide for the new century. It gives
confident, smart women the tools they need to explore and reach
for their dreams, to express their individual style, and to make
choices that will lead to a happier and more fulfilling life.
With one of the most trusted women in America inspiring the editorial
content, this magazine serves as a catalyst for transforming women's
lives.
A personal account of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster.
Krakauer recounts the physical and mental cost of such a climb.
Even under the best of circumstances, each step up the ice-clad
mountain is monumentally exhausting, and the oxygen-deprived brain
loses the ability to make reliable judgements. And on May 10,
1996, when Hall's expedition and several others made their summit
assault, the conditions were far from ideal. The mountain was
so "crowded" that climbers had to wait their turn near
the summit while their bottled oxygen dwindled by the minute.
By afternoon a blinding hurricane-force storm had stranded a number
of climbers on the highest, most exposed reaches of the mountain.
By the end of the day, twelve lives were lost.
A true story of the eccentric characters and steamy
mansions of Savannah Georgia built around the murder trial of
Jim Williams, a wealthy southern gentleman. Berendt travels to
Savannah to write a book and makes the acquaintance of many colourful
locals. He is invited to some of the City's exclusive social events
including the Married Womens' Bridge Club and the Black Debutantes'
Ball.
Following a tragic school bus accident, the people
of a small town try to come to terms with the deaths of their
children. The characters include: the school bus driver, the father
of twins killed in the crash, a New York lawyer out for revenge,
and a fourteen year old girl crippled by the accident. The reader
experiences the story from inside the heads of these four characters
in turn--each knowing things the others don't, each misunderstanding
the facts in his or her own way. The characters are further revealed
through the observations of others in the novel.
After her
pilot husband's plane blows up off the coast of Ireland, Kathryn
discovers bit by bit how little she knew Jack Lyons. First, she
faces a media frenzy when the flight recorder makes clear that
Jack was carrying a bomb in his flight bag. Her illusions of a
her so-called good marriage crumble, despite her belief in the
love she and Jack had and the need to keep Jack's memory pure
for teenage daughter Mattie. As she navigates the dark days following
her husband's death, Kathryn increasingly feels compelled to come
to grips with Jack's hidden life.
This is the classic story of the dashing soldier
with the large nose and larger-than-life personality. Cyrano loves
the witty and beautiful Roxanne but is too ashamed of his physical
appearance to woo her. He enlists the help of the handsome but
tongue-tied Christian who is also madly in love with Roxanne.
Jan Wong is a Canadian reporter of Chinese descent.
"Red China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now" is
a detailed memoir of her years in China and her love-hate relationship
with the country.
Two
men in love with music are at the centre of this novel. Tonio
is a youth from a noble Venetian family who sneaks out at night
to sing in the streets. His future marriage and happiness is destroyed
when a jealous rival has him kidnapped and castrated. Guido is
a peasant sold into the world of song at six who rises to the
top of the class and performs at the opera in Rome. At age 18
he tragically loses his voice. Tormented by this loss, Guido plunges
himself into composition and searches for another wonderful voice.
He eventually finds Tonio and becomes his teacher.
"Angela's Ashes" is the melancholy story
of an impoverished Irish Catholic family as told through the eyes
of their eldest son: Frank McCourt. The strength of the book lies
in the vivid characterizations, the honesty of the narrative and
the beautifully descriptive writing. The McCourt family is reduced
to begging, to painting their legs black in order to hide the
holes in their stockings and to living in a house with an outhouse
used by the entire neighbourhood. "Angela's Ashes" is
a story of survival against great odds. McCourt neatly captures
the feeling of what it was like to grow up in abject poverty,
suffering tremendous hunger and humiliation on a daily basis.
Anna Quindlen's tribute to reading will help you
recall your early printed friends and how you felt when an unread
title by a favorite author appeared at the library. Quindlen boldly
declares that she has been a voracious reader all her life, not
because she wants to educate or better herself, but because she
just loves reading "more than any other activity on earth."
She believes that many people feel this way because books both
"lessen isolation" and help readers escape the demands
of everyday life. Reading, she says, is an "undersung"
source of pleasure and comfort that ranks right up there with
"God, sex, food, family, friends."
In the course of the year recorded in Bridget Jones's
Diary, Bridget confides her hopes,her dreams, and her fluctuating
weight, not to mention her consumption of 5277 cigarettes. In
365 days, she gains 74 pounds. On the other hand, she loses 72!
There is also the unspoken New Year's resolution--the quest for
the right man. Alas, here Bridget goes severely off course when
she has an affair with her charming cad of a boss. Fielding reveals
the lighter side of despair, self-doubt, and obsession, and also
satirises everything from self-help books (they don't sound half
as sensible to Bridget when she's sober) to feng shui, Cosmopolitan-style.
This
novel chronicles the events leading up to the trial of Sibyl Danforth,
a respected midwife in a small Vermont town, on charges of manslaughter.
The prosecuting attorney and the medical community are all anxious
to use this tragedy as ammunition against midwifery in general.
Through it all, Sibyl, her husband, and their teenage daughter,
Connie, attempt to keep their family intact, but the stress of
the trial--and Sibyl's growing closeness to her lawyer--puts pressure
on the marriage.
Vittorio
Innocente's childhood is shattered when his mother, Christina,
has an affair with a blue-eyed stranger. His tiny Italian village
harbours century-old superstitions, and fears. The villagers'
self-righteousness harms Vittorio and his mother. But as he pieces
together the story of his mother's 'crime', Vittorio discovers
the truth about the villagers and gains a new understanding of
human nature.
The Beet Queen Songs of Distant Earth Wilt on High Love in a Cold Climate The Marriage Bed The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood Tiger in a Tiger Pit Whirlwind Sex and Destiny The Summertree The Dieter Much Depends on Dinner by Margaret Visser Diet for a Small Planet The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler Lonesome Dove Gorillas in the Mist Downfall People The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan The Wars by Timothy Findley 100 Years of Solitude Straight from the Heart My Mother, Myself Her Mother's Daughter Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card You'll See it When You Believe It Ladies of Missalonghi Witches of Eastwick The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery Something Wicked This Way Comes The Dancing Chicken The Cider House Rules A Matter of Honour Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy Jean's Way by Derek Humphrey Dance of Anger by Harriet Goldhor Lerner Jurassic Park by Michael Creighton Living, Loving and Learning by Leo Buscaglia The Firm by John Grisham A Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy We the Living by Ann Ryand Fried Green Tomatoes by Fannie Flagg The Tent Peg by Aretha Van Herk The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan Alive by Piers Paul Read Obisan by Joy Kogawa Diana, Her True Story by Andrew Morton The Little Country by Charles deLint A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle Eye of the Dragon by Steven King Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! by Mordecai Richler The Outport People by Claire Mowat Desire by Amanda Quick The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje Die for Love by Elizabeth Peters The Snapper by Roddy Doyle The Rising Sun by Michael Crighton Shadowlands Passage to India by E.M. Forster On the Beach by Nevil Shute Roughing it in the Bush by Suzanna Moodie Interview with a Vampire by Ann Rice The Stone Diaries by Carol Sheilds The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield Dance on the Earth by Margaret Lawrence A City Called July by Howard Engel Virus Outbreak by Robin Cook The Survival of Jan Little Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoyle Murther and Other Walking Spirits by Robertson Davis Shylock's Daughter by Erica Jong Brother Haluin's Confession by Ellis Peters 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen The Bridges of Maddison County by Robert James Waller Five Days in Paris by Danielle Steele The Piano Man's Daughter by Timothy Findley Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus by Robert Gray Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson Traitor's Gate by Ann Perry Neuromancer by William Gibson The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans The Eagle and the Rose by Rosemay Altea Talk Before Sleep by Elizabeth Berg Thirteen Hands by Carol Sheilds Born in Fire by Nora Roberts Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beacher Stowe The Pig and the Python by David Cork The Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomis Cahill Why Bad Things Happen to Good People The Terminal Experiment by Robert Sawyer Undue Influence by Steve Martini Ishmael by Daniel Quinn Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver The Englishman's Boy by Guy Vanderhaeghe Happenstance by Carol Shields The Snow Leopard by Peter Matheson Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God by Joe Coombes The Scarlet Pimpernell by Baroness D'Orczy
