2024 is my year to bring my writing up a notch and I decided in January that more reading would be part of my strategy to do so. In April, I shared with you my first quarter success - if you missed it, check it out here. I’ve continued to do my best to read the pile of must-reads I’ve collected although, full disclosure, most of the ones in this post were acquired during the second quarter. I continue to fulfil my seemingly endless need to support Canadian publishing by buying books!

The Heliconian Club literary series opened my eyes to the wit and wonderful language of Newfoundlander, Michael Crummey in his book, The Adversary. I loved it so much I couldn’t resist buying its companion novel, The Innocents. I made this purchase while on a spring trip to BC where I was drawn like a Wingham moth to a flame to Munro’s Bookstore, that bastion of literary delight in Victoria once owned by Alice Munro herself with her first husband.* Alice’s death was a few weeks later otherwise I might well have picked up one of her books in tribute, but no, instead, it was Crummey. I galloped through The Innocents in early April, finding pleasure in its plot, but also remembering Crummey’s Heliconian lecture on how this book fit neatly temporally, geographically, and character-wise into The Adversary. If I were the sort to ever retrace my footsteps, I would surely have done a chapter-by-chapter reread of The Adversary at the same time. But I am not that sort of person so was left simply to occasionally think “oh yeah, those people appeared in the other book too” and plough onwards through the rich, amusing, archaic text and frequently horrific story. Highly recommend. 

The next on my pile, and the last in the Heliconian series, was Lucien & Olivia, a novella by Haligonian, André Narbonne. A comic love story, I guess? I should know, having finished it, but still not sure the point of it. If it was intended to be funny, it missed the mark for me. It was set partly in Halifax and partly on board a ship on the Great Lakes where Lucien was an engineer. I was glad it was short. Indeed, despite having paid for the full Heliconian series, this was the only author’s lecture I skipped. I should have gone - perhaps I’d have a better sense of what Narbonne was aiming to achieve.  Sorry André, it just left me a bit cold. 

The same, however, cannot be said for the next book I read o,r rather, devoured whole: Looking for Jane, by first-time novelist, Heather Marshall. A friend loaned it, with the words “you just gotta read this - you’re going to love it.” I used the same words when I loaned it to my mother. And I did love it. And so did mom. And she passed it to my sister, and she to a friend, and so it goes. This is a novel about abortion access in Toronto from the late 60s to the late 80s when, with Morgentaler’s 1988 case, the Supreme Court decriminalized abortion in Canada. It should be mandatory reading for everyone with or without a uterus who’s worried about being pregnant, who’s wanted to be pregnant, or who’s worried about someone else being pregnant. Marshall’s easy unpretentious style is exactly the kind of writing that can educate and advocate for access to safe abortion at a time when such hard—fought rights are being reversed in parts of the US. As I shared with you in my piece, Childless by Choice, we should never, ever relax on this issue. 

Terry Falls is a Canadian humorist with a list of successes to his name, including his 2011 CBC Canada Reads winner, The Best Laid Plans. His latest, A New Season, departs from his straight-up comedic content, venturing instead into territory more up my alley, writing-wise. His protagonist is a widower who is ready to renew acquaintance with full living again after his wife’s COVID death two years earlier. He temporarily relocates to Paris, a dream he had with his wife. While Fallis’ book is both amusing and gets much of the grief process right, for me, it fell just short of reality. It’s worth a read though. I barrelled through it to go to a talk he was giving at my mother’s retirement home, only to have to cancel at the last minute. I’m told he was great in person. I hope one day to see him.  

This Summer will be Different is the latest beach-read from Canadian novelist, Carley Fortune. Fortune came to my attention when her previous book landed on the 2024 Canada Reads list. She was eliminated in the first round, but anything CBC is prepared to promote I am prepared to explore. Fortune writes romances in which Canadian places are key characters. Prince Edward Island is the geographic lead in This Summer Will be Different with Toronto in a supporting role. This book kept me awake on the five hour flight between Toronto and Dublin, but I’ll be honest, romance writing is not my jam. Without the strong PEI flavour, I would have left it in the seat pocket ahead of me.  Instead, I passed it on to a Scottish woman I met at the Irish writing retreat. She hasn’t shared her opinion and I might guess that without the geographic connection to the setting, it hasn’t worked for her.

Toronto criminal lawyer, Robert Rotenberg, has seven crime books on the shelf now, with What We Buried being the latest. Although Toronto typically figures large in his books, this one is set in Gubbio in the central Italian province of Umbria, and Muskoka, Ontario’s cottage country. Moving along at a good pace with an engaging but straightforward plot, this was the ideal book for the end of a day at the writers’ retreat or over a solo meal in Dublin. Rotenberg’s characters are well-written and this one has more historical content than the one I’d previously read. If you’re a crime novel fan, give his a look. 

So that’s the score so far in 2024: 6 mos, 12 books read, still 0 written. However, I’ve worked hard at building profile. I’ve increased my blog readership by 35%; I’ve submitted pieces for publications or contest 37 times; had one publication and another pending; and had 35 rejections (some were 2023 submissions). Finally, I’ve retained a writing coach to help me pitch a manuscript based on my blogs, retracing the process of moving from the heavy grief I experienced through Jack’s death and immediately afterwards, through COVID, and into the new life I’ve built for myself in the last 18 months. Stay tuned! 

*Not sure I’d go there now, following the bombshell dropped by Alice and Jim’s daughter in July. But April was a sunnier time for the Munro name and legacy.

(Books are often my dinner companion. I do not plan, however, meals related to the content of the book. Although what a great idea for a cookbook!)

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