TOP TEN TUESDAY: New Authors in 2021

I'm a little tardy, but I did want to post my Top Ten New Authors from last year. Obviously, if I read a second book in the same year, the author impressed me. 

Richard Osman - Thursday Murder Club, The Man Who Died Twice

Best new start to a mystery series with so much humour and twists and turns. The follow up was just as good. More please!

Susanna Clarke - Piranesi

Clarke has some pretty well-known books but Piranesi was my first. I found it a fascinating book, and her world building was amazing. Johnathan Strange and Mister Norell, and the Ladies of Grace Adieu.

Silver Donald Cameron - Blood in the Water

Nonfiction Maritime mystery was done really well. I'm not sure what else Silver Donald Cameron has written, but I liked his style.

Laura McHugh - The Wolf Wants In

Just a good solid read set in the midwest, I wouldn't call it a mystery, but there was a mystery.

Helene Tursten - An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good

This was fun, and I started this year with the sequel, An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed. I'd really like to read Tursten's series with the detective who investigates the Elderly Lady.

Karen McManus - One of Us is Lying

Fun YA suspense mystery. McManus has written several more of this type, and they are like a bowl of jellybeans you have to devour.

     Brenda Chapman - Cold Mourning

This was the start of a Canadian police series and I'd read another.

          Alka Joshi - The Henna Artist, The Secret Keep of Jaipur

Liked the first one, and read the sequel pretty soon after. Good historical fiction.

                                                        Claire Fuller - Unsettled Ground

                                               Tom Gauld - Department of Mind Blowing Theories

VIRTUAL ADVENT TOUR: Gumdrops

 

Welcome to An Adventure in Reading! It's been quiet around here this year, but I'm definitely coming out of hibernation for the Virtual Advent Tour, hosted by sprite writes. Everyone is welcome to contribute- head to Sprite's and sign up for a day to share a little something in the lead up to the holiday.

We are into our second pandemic Christmas, and the topic of 'supply lines' has come home for many home bakers and their traditional bakes. Peanut butter balls, which are a particular favourite of mine, made by my sister, might be a rare commodity this year as Rice Krispies can be very hard to find in our neck of the woods. I know I was looking for them last month to make my Frying Pan Cookies, (Advent Tour 2019) and I had to go to several stores to find a box. Of Rice Krispies, the plainest and blandest of the morning cereals! I think most people eventually find them, but it's a moment of panic for the shopper as they have to go to more than one store. 

                                                            

I have always enjoyed Gum Drop Cake, and a few years ago, started making one every year and sharing a section of the Bundt cake with my family. Last year, baking gum drops were impossible to find. Literally impossible. The company in Canada which made the baking gums, which are different from candy gum drops, had a piece of machinery break, and there were no gum drops to be found. I tried a number of small obscure shops, hoping for a wayward dish of missed gum drops, but no luck. I made a cake anyway, but had to use the candy gum drops from Gagnon cut up into bite size pieces.

This year, I kept my eyes out, starting in the fall, for my baking gum drops. I did find Bulk Barn stocked one day in early October, and filled a bag with enough to make my cake. Yay! However, flush with my stash, I started noticing recipes for a Gum Drop Nougat that I really wanted to try. I decided to use my gum drops in a nougat, and hope to find some more for the cake. The nougat turned out well, but still no gum drops by the time I wanted to make my cake, so I had to use the candy again this year. 

My cousin sent me a text yesterday morning from Walmart - Are these the gum drops you want? She had the last couple of bags in her cart and brought them over, having heard my sad story of searching a few weeks earlier. So now I can make another cake, or maybe more nougat, or ...

Gum Drop Cake (a Newfoundland Tradition)

Ingredients

1 ½ cups butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp finely minced lemon zest, optional
3 cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
3/4 cup undiluted evaporated milk
2 1/2 cups baking gums + an additional ¼ cup flour

Cream together the butter and sugar well.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition until light and fluffy.
Beat in the vanilla and lemon zest.
Sift together the flour and baking powder.
Fold dry ingredients into the creamed mixture alternately with the evaporated milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. As a general rule, I add the dry ingredients in 3 portions and the milk in 2 portions.
Fold in the baking gums that have been tossed at the last minute in the ¼ cup flour.
Bake in greased and floured bundt pan or in a spring form pan, tube pan, or two 9x5 inch loaf pans lightly greased and lined with parchment paper.
Bake at 300 degrees F for 1 to 1 3/4 hours depending upon the size of your pan. Small loaf pans may be done just under an hour so test them after 50 minutes. My bundt pan cake took the full hour and 45 minutes in my oven
Baking times vary greatly on this recipe so rely on the toothpick test to ensure that it is properly baked. When a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, its done. Be careful not to go past this stage or the cake will be dry.
Let the cake cool in the pan/s for 10 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

And start looking for gum drops in July.

Enjoy this season of hope and celebration and great food! Check at sprite writes each day for a little treat behind the door. Or join us and pick a day!

NONFICTION NOVEMBER: Your Year in Nonfiction

  

Week 1: (November 1-5) – Your Year in Nonfiction with Rennie at What’s Nonfiction: Take a look back at your year of nonfiction and reflect on the following questions – What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year? Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more this year? What nonfiction book have you recommended the most? What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?

I read a great variety of nonfiction books this year even though I only read 15 books. The most common type would be a memoir type, but I also read a poetry book, a comic/cartoon book, an historical mystery, a medical mystery, and philisophical physics book. 

The top few I read, and the ones that I continually recommended were:

Peace By Chocolate: The Hadhad's Family Remarkable Journey from Syria to Canada by Jon Tattrie 

Wonderfully uplifting story of a Syrian family forced to flee during the war in Syria. They luckily get selected to immigrate to Canada and are sponsored by a community group in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Although they land in rural NS during one of the worst winters and record snowfalls, they fall in love with the community, and vice versa. Looking to make a business, they restart the chocolate business they had in Syria, calling it Peace by Chocolate. Not everything is easy, leaving Syria, and getting resettled in Canada, but the positive attitude of the Hadhad family and the multicultural welcoming community in Canada combine into a happy ending. Made me proud to be Canadian, and I ate a box of Peace by Chocolate while reading.

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants - Robin Wall Kimmerer

I loved reading Gathering Moss by Kimmerer, it made my best of NF list in 2019, so the opportunity to listen to another book by Kimmerer sounded promising. It exceeded my expectations! Kimmerer combines, as the title imples, her Indigenous background, and her biological background into a wonderful treatise on the environment. Composed mostly of essays and personal narratives, this was long, but I also didn't want it to end. It was just brilliant. Recommended for people who are willing to learn from history and science, and are worried about nature and the environment.

Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine - Alan Lightman

Another science-based nonfiction, this one reconciles the cosmos and physics with religion. Based on an island in Maine, Lightman, an English professor at MIT, has also written on of my all-time favorite books, Einstein's Dreams.  I already knew he was a great writer and able to marry the facts of science with the philosophy of time but this one is almost better.  The faith in God, and the faith in science of an overriding set of rules are compared and admired. It is a book I would like to read again.

Crossroads: My Story of Tragedy and Resilience as a Humboldt Bronco - Kaleb Dahlgren (ebook) 

More inspirational Canadian content, Kaleb Dahlgren seems too good to be true, but after reading Alex Trebek's autobiography, I am beginning to think this is a Canadian requirement. Or else, having a positive attitude, and looking beyond the immediate bad and toward a better future is a characeristic of some successful people. Dahlgren was on the Humboldt Bronco's, a prairie junior hockey team whose bus was involved in a horrific road accident, killing sixteen and injuring thirteen, in 2018. Canadians across the country were devastated, putting out hockey sticks on their front porch in a show of support for the survivrs. Kaleb tells his story of growing up with diabetes and becoming a high level hockey player. He was always positive, working hard and a leader in whatever situation he found himself in. 

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family - Robert Kolker 

While a memoir of a particular American family, Hidden Valley Road is also a history of schitzophrenia, both the evolution of an understanding of the disease, and the deveolpment of treatment. The Galvins lived in Colorado and had twelve children - ten boys and then two girls, starting in the 1950s. At first it seems like regular rough-housing boys, but over time the violence  escalates, and eventually, six of the boys were diagnosed with schizophrenia. Kolker was very involved in interviewing most of the family as the two sisters felt it would be helpful for their family to be studied. Even beyond the Galvin's story, the history of studying schizophrenia was very interesting.

The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music - Dave Grohl

I kind of missed Nirvana as I am a little older than their demographic and the Foo Fighters were never a band I followed but this book by Dave Grohl was so interesting! I became a Grohl fan for sure, and spend quite a bit of time after the book looking up videos with Grohl. Although I wasn't listening to Nirvana, Grohl is around my age, so all the cultural markers in the book were identifiable, we just didn't listen to the same music. Except, I completely remember seeing the B-52s on SNL live the same night he did. Little boring me couldn't believe or understand them, but for Dave seeing them was life-changing. He was always into music and had the best mom, who he writes lovingly about. She gives him permission to leave high school and go on tour with a punk rock band called Scream. And after that, he just keeps following his dreams.

While this seems like it would be about sex, drugs and rock and roll, it really just covers the latter. Grohl was a pretty stable guy considering the life he has led. There's a touch of Forest Gump, as he meets up and is in the right spot so many times with so many famous people. But his philosophy of going for it and taking risks are why he ends up where he does. 

The other books:

• Department of Mind-Blowing Theories - Tom Gauld
• Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics - Dolly Parton 🎧
• Murdered Midas: A Millionaire, His Gold Mine, and a Strange Death on an Island Paradise - Charlotte Gray 🎧
• Milk and Honey - Rupi Kaur (ebook) 
• All Together Now: A Newfoundlander's Light Tales for Heavy Times - Alan Doyle 🎧
• Wonder Women of Science: How 12 Geniuses are Rocking Science, Technology, and the World - Tiera Fletcher
• Poison in the Porridge - David Weale 

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Books with Numbers in the Title

 

Hello! Look at me, actually blogging. Top Ten Tuesday, books with numbers, pulled me back. But I challenged myself a bit extra, and made is a Fibonacci series of numbers. And I ran into some trouble at the end as the numbers got too big too fast. For future topics and more links, see That Artsy Reader Girl.

Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson

Sisters in Two Worlds: A Visual Biography of Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill by Michael Peterson

Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story by Leonie Swann

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

Thirteen Hours by Deon Meyer

Book 21: How to Raise an Elephant by Alexander McCall Smith

Fibonacci Sequence

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Ten Most Recent Reads

 

This topic, Ten Most Recent Reads, is always a good one and give me a little push to get some reviews done. I've got a few from reliable series, a few nonfiction, a few Canadian, and several from the Women's Prize for Fiction longlist. Here's the full longlist: 

*The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (audiobook waitlist)
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
*Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (loved!)
The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan (reviewed below)
Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi (reviewed below)
Because of You by Dawn French (want to read, not available yet)
*Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller (not available yet in Canada)
*Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi (liked it)
*How the One-Armed Sister Cleans Her House by Cherie Jones (reviewed below)
Luster by Raven Leilani (not a fan, but better than Burnt Sugar)
*No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (reviewed below)
Consent by Annabel Lyon (Canadian, liked, will try to review later)
Nothing But Blue Sky by Kathleen MacMahon (haven't seen at all)
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters (audiobook waitlist)
Summer by Ali Smith (just picked up from the library!)

*shortlisted

For more lists, and for future topics, check out That Artsy Reader Girl . 

The Consequences of Fear - Jacqueline Winspear  🎧

Book number 16 in the Maisie Dobbs series. It's a good, reliable series with developed characters and a reasonable plot. I might be getting a bit tired of the series, and at times Maisie is a tad annoyingly perfect. In what started as a post WW1 series, has now become mired in the middle of WW2 London. 

Burnt Sugar - Avni Doshi  🎧

I've got a few books that I read this month that were on the Women's Prize for Fiction Longlist and I might not have read otherwise. This was probably my least favourite of the nominees. The plot involves a daughter dealing with her mother's progressing dementia, but their relationship has not been good, and the daughter has a lot of resentment. The mother ran from an arranged marriage to live in an ashram, which sounds like a religious cult house in India, taking her daughter. The mother never really looked out for her daughter, and now the daughter has to look out for the mother. Lots of bad feelings and resentment, and characters that are very difficult to like or cheer for.

How to Train an Elephant - Alexander McCall Smith

Aw, a little mystery, a little time in Botswana, and a little philosophy. I always enjoy my time with Precious Ramotswe, inspiring me to drink some Rooibos (red bush) tea. 

How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House - Cherie Jones 🎧

A Women's Prize for Fiction longlist set in Barbados, with a bit of a mystery. It's a sad story of Lala and her abusive, small-time criminal husband, eking out a living on the tourist beach. Lala comes from a long line of poor women in bad relationships, so she really didn't have much of a chance. There are some crimes and deaths, which lead to the bit of a mystery. The narrator had a very, very strong accent, and while it leant the Caribbean atmosphere, it was also a bit hard to follow. 

No One is Talking About This - Patricia Lockwood 🎧

Probably the Women's Prize for Fiction longlist I liked the best this month. The first part of the book follows the main character, who is a Twitter-star. It's not really Twitter, but it definitely is. There is the mind-think, the quick reactions, the meme-defining people who build a life/career based on a moment in time. It's the kind of clever, funny, a-ha comments that are fun, but aren't enough to sustain a book. Especially since there is not really a plot in this part, although we see the main character and her family a bit. Suddenly, she gets a message, and the on-line world becomes much less important as she deals with a real life family emergency. The clever part was clever, and then there was a bit of a story. The afterward by the author shows that the story was semi-autobiographical. 

All Together Now: A Newfoundlander's Light Tales for Heavy Times - Alan Doyle 🎧

This series of essays, humourous stories is exactly what it claims to be: light tales for heavy times. Alan Doyle, on lock-down like everyone, and unable to tour, wrote these stories to find a way to entertain. Having his voice narrate makes you feel like you are almost at a Great Big Sea concert. Doyle is a natural story-teller, and if you ever get a chance to see Great Big Sea in person, you must. Pure entertainment and enjoyment. The book is part memoir as many of his stories are from growing up in Petty Harbour, Newfoundland and part stories from the road. Fun, fun, times.

Later - Stephen King 🎧

Ooh, a new Stephen King, and it's practically a novella, by Stephen King standards. Classic King - coming of age story of our narrator, from young boy to college age, combined with some freaky supernatural stuff. Jamie can see dead people, like in the Sixth Sense, but a little more, as he can talk to them for a little while. For fans of King, and if you haven't read any before, this is a pretty good representation of his writing, and would be a great way to start. (There is some gore, but there always is!)

Exciting Times - Naoise Dolan (ebook)

An Irish ex-pat teaching English in Hong Kong because she doesn't know what else to do. Making decisions is pretty tough for Ava, and she just lets herself float along, and won't admit any kind of feeling. She's got cynicism down to an art. She ends up living with Julian so she doesn't have to live with her roommates who aren't her fiiends, because she won't even try. Her sad relationship with Julian is that they won't admit they like each other - they agree to use each other essentially. While Julian is away for months for work, Ava meets Edith and forms a possible real relationship, which scares her, a lot, so she finds ways to sabotage herself. So I didn't really like Ava, but I was hoping she could get her act together. I wasn't sure who I wanted her to end up with. 

I liked the Hong Kong aspect, as I have a friend who teaches English in Hong Kong, but I don't think she is anything like Ava!

Wonder Women of Science: How 12 Geniuses are Rocking Science, Technology, and the World - Tiera Fletcher

I won this book in the Early Reviewer program at Librarything where you can get a newly released book in exchange for a review. Here's what I wrote at LT:

It's always good to expand your knowledge of women in science beyond Marie Curie. Even other biographies I've read tend to focus on historical women in science but this book is thoroughly modern. Twelve women from various specialties are highlighted. Each gets a little background on how they ended up in their STEM field, and a description of their contribution and their often unique field. Each also offers some advice and describes their motto in life. While mostly US-centric, there are women from some other countries profiled.

Studying the layers of dirt in the Earth to make predictions for future climate based on past, designing new space suits, studying tapirs and their role in ecosystems, keeping water clean in the ISS - each new topic and field of study was more interesting than the last. There is some information on the topic presented for each biography and could be a starting point for some young person to start investigating.

All of this is written for a late elementary/junior high school aged reader. So while I liked the information, the writing was definitely not for adults. Which is fine - I am not the target audience, and I will be pleased to add this book to my classroom library.

A Town Called Solace - Mary Lawson 🎧

Definitely read the best book of the month last. I was quick to request A Town Called Solace because I've really liked Mary Lawson's books before. In fact, I've read all her previous books: Crow Lake, Road Ends, and The Other Side of the Bridge. What you will get from a Mary Lawson book is a Northern Ontario setting, families, and lots of emotion. She has a way of writing that just breaks my heart. 

Here we follow three main characters - a young girl, Clara, whose sister is missing; Clara's neighbour, elderly Elizabeth who is in the hospital, and twenty-something Liam, who Elizabeth has left her house to. Liam has come from Toronto and the heels of a broken marriage. The three of them have assorted interactions, past and present, and are able to give each other something that they each need. They all make mistakes, and are trying to sort out their lives. My favourite books is still Crow Lake, but this one is pretty close.