thebacklistborrower's Reviews (570)

I haven’t read a ton of war books, but I do not hesitate in saying that this may be one of the best I’ve read, and it set a very high bar for all the others I may read in the future.

The book is about Pasha, a Ukrainian language teacher who is tasked with going to the next city over to get his nephew Sasha out of an Orphanage, where he was left by his mother. However, the Ukrainian war is waging, and the front moves, putting the Orphanage right in the war zone. However, Pasha persists, making his way through the area to rescue his nephew. 

I was about half way through when I realized the names of the countries were never spoken, and that creative choice blew me away. We never really know which country Pasha is in, or what his nationality is. Soldiers he encounters are either not identified, or identified by whether they were flying “the same flag flown at his school”, or a different one, but which is which is never noted. Civilians and soldiers alike are commented as speaking Russian (well, casually, or formally, “as if they learned it in school”), or a mix of Russian and Ukrainian. The reader is never allowed to fully trust or understand who Pasha is dealing with, just as he never really knows where their loyalties lie. It lead to introspection though: in a war, the civilans lose. Is Pasha Russian? Were the kind people he met Russian or Ukrainian? Where the scammers he evaded on his side or the other side? It doesn’t really matter when a man is just trying to rescue his nephew. 

Pahsa too was a fascinating character. A bit of a bitter pushover at the start, he undergoes major growth, at the end, he defends himself, Sasha, and the other civilians caught in the crosshairs of a war zone. Generally apolitical, and ambivalent about his subject and students, he sees what impact he can really have. 

The ending was masterful. It bled between truth and fiction, with a revelatory moment that had me on edge to the last page. You will not regret reading this book. 

 

 

One of just five books on the short-lived CBC Sunday Edition Backlist, initiated by Michael Enright (sigh. I miss that show). It was this list that got me fascinated by underappreciated fiction, after reading Swamp Angel by Ethel Wilson, and Basic Black with Pearls by Helen Weinzweig (which also introduced me to the House of Anansi A List). 

This is the second Austin Clarke book I’ve read. I started with a short story collection called When He Was Young and Free and He Used to Wear Silks, and was very moved by the language used. This book continues that. It takes place over a single afternoon and evening, after two friends who grew up in Barbados reconnect by chance after 50 years in a snowy Toronto street. They take refuge in a bar, and swap stories about their lives, their loves, and their childhood. It is a train-of-thought book. It follows the exact same ebb and flow of a conversation that you’d have with a long-lost friend, including interruptions by the bartender, comments under the breath about folk at other tables, and plenty of reminiscing. 

It is a fascinating book to read, but I felt a little lost by it, as it is --like many conversations-- aimless, wandering here and there without much direction. But as I read on, and the two friends slowly reveal themselves to each other, wearing away at the patina of time and the pressure to look successful, I found my footing. They talk about immigration -- one ended up in Canada, the other southern US (eventually), and money, and family. They are foils to each other, and together are sorting through their collective and separate past to find common ground.

Its a short book, so if you’re looking for a new perspective from a book full of beautiful prose, its a book worth checking out. 

 

 

I received this ARC from @houseofanansi as part of their book subscription bundle, and was immediately interested after reading the synopsis. Agnes is a new writer who, through luck, ends up in a sort-of friendship with Geia, a popular lifestyle celebrity, which earns her a seat at an exclusive wellness retreat led by Geia on a Greek island, with the concept of writing an article about it for Vogue. Struggling with impostor syndrome and a skeptical eye on “Wellness”, Agnes struggles, both with writing about the retreat and participating in it. But she also starts to realize that there is something unusual going on, and starts to investigate.

Overall, I enjoyed this book! There were a few parts of it that didn’t really land with me, but it didn’t stop me enjoying the book. Once it really picked up, I couldn’t stop reading until I got to the end. The mystery is revealed slowly, and it kept me turning pages. I also sympathized a lot with Agnes and her view of “Wellness”. Geia is very much a Gwenyth-Paltrow character, and discussions between her and Agnes have some great tidbits about beauty culture and the obsession with health and wellness quick-fixes.

I think another part I liked is that Agnes seems to change her relationship to wellness at the retreat. Like her, I generally see the cornucopia of wellness activities around my hometown with something ranging from suspicion to cynicism. But that’s not to say that being in such environments and people hasn’t probably been a good influence on me in some ways. I don’t believe that attending an ecstatic dance class will solve my problems, but it might help some people, and really, why shouldn’t we dance like nobody is watching? With maybe some external influence, Agnes seemed to have a similar growth at the retreat.

If you’re looking for a quick, mysterious read, check out Goddess! Publish date January 2023. Thanks Anansi for the copy!

 

I didn’t hesitate for one second to pre-order this book as soon as CL Polk announced it was coming. I had discovered their books last year when The Midnight Bargain was shortlisted for Canada Reads, and promptly read the entire Kingston Cycle as well. 

The book opens with a murder, and a private eye sent to investigate -- with magic. From there, we are very quickly pulled into the magical, sapphic, noir underworld of Chicago through Helen, a magically-trained private investigator and damned woman who sold her soul to the devil to save her brother’s life. Helen knows her debt is coming due, and is hoping to get this last job done to put away a little more money for the love of her life, Edith, who is not aware of Helen’s finite time on earth. The gorgeous Malone, Helen’s wealthiest client, wants this murder investigated, and Helen realizes she’s in way over her head when the investigation shows complex magic beyond anything she ever learned. 

The worst part about this book was its length. As a novella, I wanted more! More Helen and Edith, more Malone, more noir, more magic. But I won’t hold that against the story! Like with their other books, CL Polk pulls the reader into a rich world that hints at still greater depths. Like with their other books, it is up to the reader to draw conclusions and fill gaps in the world and the way of magic, but I love that! 

If you are looking for a dark, fun read, absolutely check this out! And since its short, be sure to check out some of their other books too! The Midnight Bargain is a fun period romance with beautiful feminism and magic, and The Kingston Series has a series of mysteries, queer romances, and fairly-type beings. All are great escapes for this long, dark winter.

 

I feel like I’m pretty good at suspending disbelief, but after reading Bewilderment, I’m realizing that my belief is always suspended by good writing that gives me reason to suspend it in the first place, like a nice view with a perspective I haven’t seen before. But this book bewildered me almost from page one. It started with a reference to a full moon on the horizon while they stargazed. I hate to be pedantic, but even in the backcountry the moon is pretty darn effective at wiping out stars. But, I passed it off as creative license and kept reading.

Minor Spoilers ahead:

However, I realized that repeatedly, I couldn’t connect the dots between what I understood to be the situation, and the actions the characters take. Theo is concerned about the long-term impacts to his son’s brain chemistry and function on medication, but then signs him up in a trial for a procedure that is literally supposed to rewire his brian, with apparently no similar concerns. The mother, a director of a major animal rights organization, died before the book when she took evasive action to avoid possum(s?) on the road and crashed. It’s played off as this extreme eco-warrior move where she martyrs herself to save an animal, but it was just clear to me Powers had never hit an animal on the road. An accident with a beaver ripped the front of my car off. Animals can fly up and smash your windshield. And in her case, the roads were icy, but I can guarantee hitting a possum would have made her lose traction anyways. It made no sense. 

Its set in the near future and there are lots of references to news events and how the world is falling apart, but I didn’t think they made sense, or added to the story at all. And-- this is pedantic-- despite being married to an activist, Theo is apolitical, but also lists Neruda as a favourite poet -- the same Neruda whose catalogue is nearly entirely political poetry. I kept wanting Theo to grow a backbone.

So, I wouldn’t recommend this book. But of course, you do you and let me know what you thought!

 

My second Alice Munro, which I thought was on a reading challenge that I’m doing (it was not), but after reading, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of Alice Munro.

The eponymous story is about a woman who runs away from an abusive husband, but took me totally by surprise by the end. And from there, ‘Chance’ disturbed me, ‘Passion’ had me horrified, yelling at the audio book, ‘Tresspasses’ unnerved me, ‘Tricks’ upset me. And I don’t mean any of those lightly. I mean sitting-in-the-parked-car-staring-blankly-at-the-parking-spot disturbed. Cringing as I flash back to scenes in the stories for days and weeks after I read them. (And months later, thinking about ‘Chance’ still makes my stomach twist and my chest tight). But then there was ‘Powers’, which has most recently had its claim to fame with a cameo on “Fire Island”, a 2022 streaming romcom (and which I now must watch).

Powers is mindmending (pun intended ;)). In five parts over decades, it follows two childhood friends, exploring their relationships, and marriages, and the power we exert (or fail to exert) over others for good or bad ends. It is all at once frustrating, heartbreaking, aggravating, and upsetting, but I do not want to give too much away.

I’m skimping on details for all of these because what I loved about them (and hated, if I’m being honest) is that the endings are never what you expect. Munro sets up a story and you think you see the path forward to the end, but before you know it, you are completely lost in the woods, a cliff to one side, and no sight of the ending until you read that last word, and you stagger out of the forest, dazed and roughed up. I felt like I needed to recover in order to move on to the next story (not that I did). 

If you plan on reading Runaway, read the CWs as these books run the gamut of sensitive topics. Having read it months ago and only writing this review now, I think my love of the book has only strengthened (for all that it roughed me up emotionally). 

 

The subtitle to this book is “What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence”, and that is ultimately what attracted me to the book. I feel like more and more we are hearing about psychedelics to support therapies of all kinds, and that, coupled with the fact that I live in a liberal area with a lot of casual psychedelic use, I thought this would be an interesting read, but I felt like it was mis-sold. 

I expected new information on things we have learned about different mental health challenges through the use of psychedelics, and how those things might be applied more broadly. In reality, the book was pretty much all about the history, controversy, and the major players in the historic and current study of the drugs themsevles. The last few chapters go into some of the current research into end-of-life anxiety, depression, and addictions, but is largely summarized by “results are promising, but the actual impacts are still inconclusive and need further study”. I don’t feel like I learned anything new about any of the issues described in the subtitle. Even Pollan, who describes four different psychedelic experiences he had during the writing of the book, deemed his experiences inconclusive. 

The book was great for factoids though, and throughout I’d mention them to my partner. 

 

~Queue Welcome to My Life by Simple Plan~ 

Were you a rules-follower but also into pop punk in the 2000s? Did you have an edgy friend who was way more emo/scene than you and you were kind of jealous but also not willing to take the risk to start dressing that way? Did you listen to Paramore, Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco, and, yes, Green Day? Then you have to read this novella. 

It dragged me back to my own teenagerhood, when I first heard Boulevard of Broken Dreams sitting in the high school hallway on my friend’s mom’s iPod classic that she had brought from home. When my BFF and I listened to Infinity on High on repeat for days straight. When Marianas Trench toured through Trail, BC and were the first pop punk show I saw, as openers for Lillix, and I listened to Fix Me in my walkman, iPods, and CD Players for YEARS.

But this review could literally just be all the feelings and memories this book brought out for me. Taking place in the middle-aughts, it is the LiveJournal entries of a 12-year-old named Amy in 2007, as she discovered pop punk through Green Day, with a new identity and friend group to go with it, along with all the social challenges, peer pressure, and challenging family dynamics that go with figuring out who you are. Its such a cute and fun read, especially if you also were into that music in the 2000s (and the throwback is a total riot. I literally SCREAMED when Atreyu got name-dropped. I probably had not thought of Bleeding Mascara since 2009 XD).

So, if you answered yes to any of the questions off the start, and ESPECIALLY if you said yes to all of them, pick up this book, and be prepared for a throwback with a great story. 

If I were to describe this book in one word, it would be “vibes”. Like this book is 80% mood, 20% everything else. If that is not your thing, I would not recommend this book as even when I love slow, descriptive books, this one still took me a while to get through. 

My edition is published as a “New Canadian Library Classics” from @mclellandandstewart, it follows David Canaan, growing up in the rural Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia before WWI, the relationships and turning points of his life, and his growing desire to not be a farmer, but to be a writer. This is told in a series of short, interconnected stories through his life, not unlike “Lives of Girls and Women” by Alice Muno. But in this case, it feels very meta, as David himself is writing, and takes great personal pleasure in getting a mood just right, and in writing a perfect description of an event.

But if I may say, this book shocked and wrecked me. The descriptions of a feeling are actually perfect. I’d read a description of how David felt in a certain situation, described in great detail through allegory and metaphor, and agree completely. “Yes” (I’d say to myself), “that is EXACTLY how that feels”. And that is very impressive for a writer to accomplish, and I can’t say I’ve really felt that way before. But the problem was it really hurt. The book is sad at parts, and because of the literally perfect mood descriptions, it is a very visceral sadness. But then there are happy and peaceful parts too, and those made me feel legitimately joyful, until Buckler STEALS IT AWAY (crying face). My chest tightened at the embarrassing parts, and if it was bad enough, made me feel nauseous.

This book is an emotional trip. If you want to read it, give it time, give yourself space. But I absolutely would recommend it for the pure viscerality of the experience. I have said “this book give me all the feelings” plenty, but I’ll never say it again after reading this book. 

 

 

Yet another book from the “30 Books to Celebrate 30 Years of Writers and Company”, and I sure changed my feelings a lot through this book. The book is a retrospective of the life of the narrator, Xuela, from when she was a small girl up to her present as a woman in her 30s, in the fictional island of Dominica.

Cw: abortion, infertility

There were a lot of twists and turns to my feelings of this book. When Xuela was young, I was quite annoyed reading the book, as she is represented as very precocious. Her first words were a fully formed, grammatical, sentence in English (not the Carib language spoken locally). Whether or not this is a case of an unreliable narrator, I didn’t like it. However, as Xuela grew into her precociousness, I started to really like her. She revels in the physical, sensory world, and never apologizes for it. And so often characters are wracked with indecision over courses of action, or uncertainty over their lives and their place in the world, but not Xuela, and I found this refreshing. She did exactly what she wanted to and never questioned it. 

These courses of action include a nearly lethal abortion by a herb-woman, resulting in lifelong infertility, affairs with a handful of men, and identifying as a boy for a period of time to make her living. All throughout, she is confident, and the language Kinkaid uses is beautiful, stark, and, in some cases, like a slap to the face (in the best way possible). The derision that Xuela has when discussing the colonizers was hilarious and sharp, as was her language regarding poor lovers.

In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The emotion of the story and the reflection were beautiful, and its written so well. Kinkaid stunned me to wordlessness, made me literally laugh out loud, and, if I were the crying sort, I would have cried too. Be sure to read this book for the story of a life in a fictional Barbados from the perspective of a strong, independent, black woman.