8. Cut and Thirst by Margaret Atwood

listened on Audible

35 pgs.

2024
Adult contemporary short story
Finished 2/8/2025
Goodreads rating: 3.13
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary Canada

My comments: A short story set in Canada (that's where the author resides) about three older women who have been friends and colleagues for years.   The decide they must find a way to get revenge on a very disliked (male) member of their university literary community for doing something very mean to a fourth friend, Fern,  who is now declining rapidly and they blame it on this past altercation.  Their reminiscing, thoughts on getting older, and plans for murder (lol) are quite entertaining!  I kept wondering how they'd end the story....that seems to be my problem about reading short stories....but I was not disappointed.  I enjoyed this one.

Goodreads synopsis:  Three women scheme to avenge an old friend in a darkly witty short story about loyalty, ambition, and delicious retribution by Margaret Atwood, the #1 bestselling author of The Handmaid’s Tale.

Myrna, Leonie, and Chrissy meet every Thursday to sample fine cheeses, to reminisce about their former lives as professors, and lately, to muse about murder. Decades ago, a vicious cabal of male poets contrived—quite publicly and successfully—to undermine the writing career, confidence, and health of their dear friend Fern. Now, after Fern has taken a turn for the worse, her three old friends decide that it’s finally time to strike back—in secret, of course, since Fern is far too gentle to approve of a vendetta. All they need is a plan with suitably Shakespearean drama. But as sweet and satisfying as revenge can be, it’s not always so cut and dried.

11. Dead Letter Days by Kelley Armstrong

#.5 Haven's Rock

Read - Kindle eBook
87 pgs.
2023
Adult Novella

Finished 1/31/24
Goodreads rating: 4.36
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary Yukon woods

My comments: Unlike all the other Casey Duncan/Rockton books, this one is from Dalton's point-of-view.  There are a couple of fairly easily solved mysteries, Dalton's dealing with his own childhood miseries, and then Eric and Casey actually get married.  I really like this one, not too repetetive (short!) and quite interesting.

Goodreads synopsis:  Eric Dalton spent most of his life in Rockton, a hidden town in the Yukon for people who need to disappear. Now that sanctuary is gone, and he’s holed up in a wilderness lodge with his girlfriend, Casey Duncan, and their friends, as they scout for a place to build their own Rockton. When Eric and Casey find a literal message-in-a-bottle, it leads them to the mystery of a woman who went missing decades ago, having never received that vital message. As they investigate that cold case, Dalton must finally lay to rest the ghosts of his own past and make some overdue decisions before he’s ready to step forward in his new life with Casey.

Note: This is not a full-length novel. It’s a novella set between the end of the Rockton series and the beginning of the Haven’s Rock spinoff

19. Murder at Haven's Rock by Kelly Armstrong

#8 Casey Duncan/Rockton

listened on Audible - purchased

2023
352 pgs.
Adult murder mystery - series
Finished 2/28/2023
Goodreads rating: 4.41
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary Northern Yukon, Canada

My comments: The Rockton adventure continues, but in a brand new location in the Yukon where their custom-built community is being constructed.  Haven's Rock is almost complete, but they have been summoned because two of its builders have disappeared into the forest.  The forest is again one of the characters in the story, and much of the plot seems similar to previous plots in the series, which gets a little bit boring/trying, I must admit.  However, there's something about these characters and the setting AND the narrator that just keep me looking forward to more, and I'm thrilled that Ms. Armstrong didn't end the series after #7.  We've still got the major players with the addition of a few new ones....Yolanda, Emily's granddaughter, who has supervised the building of Haven's Rock and ???, the handsome self-proclaimed watcher of all the comings and goings of the community from his "perch."  Never a dull moment, and as much as I mutter about the similarities in the stories, I really look forward to them.

Goodreads synopsis:  Haven’s Rock, Yukon. Population: 0

Deep in the Yukon wilderness, a town is being built. A place for people to disappear, a fresh start from a life on the run. Haven’s Rock isn’t the first town of this kind, something detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, know first hand. They met in the original town of Rockton. But greed and deception led the couple to financing a new refuge for those in need. This time around, they get to decide which applicants are approved for residency.

There’s only one rule in Haven’s Rock: stay out of the forest. When two of the town's construction crew members break it and go missing, Casey and Eric are called in ahead of schedule to track them down. When a body is discovered, well hidden with evidence of foul play, Casey and Eric must find out what happened to the dead woman, and locate the still missing man. The woman stumbled upon something she wasn’t supposed to see, and the longer Casey and Eric don’t know what happened, the more danger everyone is in.

14. A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong

#6 Rockton

listened via Libby/Library
narrated by Therese Plummer
Unabridged audio (10:46)
2021
368 pgs.
Adult Mystery series
Finished 2/18/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.23 - 2032 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary Canadian wilderness

First line/s: "As we hitch our horses to a lodgepole pine, shouts and laughter float over on the night breeze."

My comments: This installment has you thinking...a lot...about the "idea" of Rockton.  Casey solves the questions that has always bugged all of them about how the hostiles came to be.  Bears abound in this one, as well as a more clear understanding of settlements one and two and the hostiles.  The ending leaves us with the possibility of Casey and Dalton helping to create a "new Rockton" with the base of most important characters the story has introduced so far.  I get a little bored with some of the descriptions in the woods, but everything else came together quite well.  Unfortunately, it'll be another whole year before the next segment, darn it!

Goodreads synopsis:  Detective Casey Duncan has noticed fewer and fewer residents coming in to the hidden town of Rockton, and no extensions being granted. Her boyfriend, Sheriff Eric Dalton, presumes it’s the natural flux of things, but Casey’s not so sure. Something bigger is happening in the small town they call home.

          When an injured hiker stumbles from the woods, the sole survivor of a hostile attack, it’s all hands on deck. Even a member of the elusive Rockton council comes in to help. This council member also comes bearing news: Rockton is being shut down due to the hostile situation.
          Casey and Eric must now race to save the town that has allowed residents to have a fresh start, away from the mistakes of their past, while also getting to the bottom of this latest attack.

TV Show - Cardinal

Premiered:  6/17/2017
Season 1:  Forty Words for Sorrow
Season 2:  Blackfly Season
Season 3:  By the Time You Read This 1/24/19
Season 4:  Until the Night (the final season) on Hulu, finally, 12/2021
Number of Episodes per season:  6
Length of Episode: 45 minutes
IMBd: 7.7
RT Audience Score: Season 1  89/94
cag: 4
Watched on HULU
Set in Algonquin Bay, northern Ontario, Canada
Produced by CTV (Canadian Television Network?)
Season Synopses on Wikipedia

Characters:
     John Cardinal - played by Billy Campbell
     Catherine Cardinal
     Lise DeLorme - Cardinal's new partner
   
My comments:  Season 2 ended where John Cardinal's wife, Catherine, who was bipolar, has just jumped off a big building and killed herself.  Good mystery.  Good chemistry between Cardinal and his partner, Delorme.
Season 3 was slow and depressing.  I'm glad there are only six episodes.  There are two mysteries unfolding, one of a vigilante woman who has taken in three you adults and brainwashed them into thinking they are helping her create a better world.  And the other is John Cardinal convinced that his wife did not commit suicide in the last episode of season two, and goes on to prove it against everyone else's advice.  Even though it was depressing, it was interesting to watch.

Season 4 was good, but so dark, grey, and SNOWY!  Actually, the killer was killing by freezing his victims' loved ones to death outside in below zero temps.  Gruesome.  All six episodes were in blizzard-like conditions, frigid winter scenes.  The ending had Cardinal staying in Algonquin Bay and Lise heading back to Toronto to take a job there....but before leaving they started a relationship, so you're left knowing that anything could happen between them in the future.

     All four seasons have been pretty dark and depressing, both in story and setting.  I still enjoyed them, though.

Storyline from Wikipedia:
Cardinal is a Canadian crime drama television series, which was first broadcast on January 25, 2017, on CTV (in English) and Super Écran (in French). The series adapts the novels of crime writer Giles Blunt, focusing on police detective John Cardinal (Billy Campbell) and his partner Lise Delorme (Karine Vanasse), who investigate crimes in the fictional city of Algonquin Bay.

45. Dulci's Legacy by Margaret Pinard

read on my iPhone/purchased Kindle book
2014 Taste Life Twice Publishing
192 pgs.
YA Time Travel, mostly CRF, with a tiny bit of HF
Finished 3/5/2020
Goodreads rating:  3.88 - 8 ratings
My rating: 3
Setting:  Current & 1777 Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada

First line/s:  "God, I hope this place is better than junior high, Dulci Oyselle thought as she passed through the tall double doors into Glace Cove High School."

My comments: This book was written and suggested to me by one of my "friends" on Litsy, which is pretty cool.  It's about time traveling, but in just short fits and spurts, and Dulci has to piece all that she's seen together with similar time traveling that her best friend's brother has had for the last four years, making him close to crazy.  I guess you might call them visions instead of time traveling, or a combination of the the two.  A bit of a different premise, though I wish the 1777 story had been a little bit more compelling.  Why would a Sottish immigrant adopt a 10-year-old Micmac girls?  How would something like that come about?  That was just a little bit fanciful for me, or at least I can't seem to understand how something like that would happen, especially so many years ago.  The contemporary part of the story was interesting ... I particularly appreciated being given information about Celtic drumming and rural Canada.  And I learned a bit about the French and Indian Wars, which I don't know a whole lot about.

Goodreads synopsis:  Dulci Oyselle is a modern 13-year-old girl in Cape Breton, who thinks high school is going to be her big new challenge, but then starts seeing visions of things happening that no one else does.
          Snowy hills appear in the music classroom. Dangerous men square off for a fight below her bedroom window. What is she seeing? And why are these visions appearing now?
          It might have to do with the new boy in town, who is really interested in her, despite her shy awkwardness. Or it could have something to do with her best friend's family; Mehron's brother is a recluse with some unexplained mental illness that has suddenly turned violent.
          Dulci will need to figure out what she's seeing, and why. To do so, she'll need to have faith in herself, a strength she's never needed before. Encouraged by her friends and inspired by one particular vision, she just might be able to pierce the mystery.

56. Watcher in the Woods by Kelly Armstrong

#4 Rockton/ Sheriff Eric Dalton & Casey Duncan
listened on Audible, borrowed from CCLS
read by Therese Plummer
Unabridged audio (11:30)
2019 Doubleday Canada
413 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery series
Finished  6/20/2019
Goodreads rating: 4.16 - 2875 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary Yukon, Canada

First line/s:  "I have not seen my sister, April, in two years."

My comments:  ATTENTION:  SPOILERS IN THIS ONE, SO THAT I CAN REMEMBER ENOUGH IN A YEAR OR SO WHEN THE NEXT INSTALLMENT ARRIVES!  Never disappointed in this series, it's always so interesting!  Both the setting and the premise of the little hidden town of Rockton are fascinating.  There are two new inhabitants, and a couple of departures.  Casey's sister, April, will stay as the town doctor and Sebastian, a 19-year old sociopath who murdered his parents when he was eleven and is trying to overcome this mental disorder looks to be a possibly helpful link in the sheriff's department.  He has been apprenticed to Matthias, the town's butcher (And psychiatrist).  The bad guy/murderer is someone who seemed very innocent in preceding books ... so you never know who/what is secretly hidden in Rockton's residents.  Hopefully there will be a fifth installment, but it'll probably be a good year before that happens!

Goodreads synopsis: In #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong's latest thriller, the town of Rockton--and her fans--are in for another hair-raising adventure.
          The secret town of Rockton has seen some rocky times lately; understandable considering its mix of criminals and victims fleeing society for refuge within its Yukon borders. Casey Duncan, the town's only detective on a police force of three, has already faced murder, arson and falling in love in less than the year that she's lived there. Yet even she didn't think it would be possible for an outsider to find and cause trouble in the town she's come to call home.
          When a US Marshal shows up in town demanding the release of one of the residents, Casey and her boyfriend, Sheriff Dalton, are skeptical. And yet only hours later, the marshal is shot dead and the only visible suspects are the townspeople and her estranged sister, in town for just the weekend. It's up to Casey to figure out who murdered the marshal, and why they would kill to keep him quiet.

5. A Fatal Grace - Louise Penny

Chief Insp. Armand Gamache #2
listened to Audio (unabridged 10:31) borrowed from TPPL
read by Ralph Cosham
2006 Minotaur Books
311 pgs. (Hardcover) 417 pgs. (Kindle)
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 1/8/2018
Goodreads rating:  4.11 - 49,781 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting:  Christmastime, Three Pines, Quebec (just outside Montreal)

First line/s:  "Had CC dePoitiers known she was going to be murdered she might have bought her husband, Richard, a Christmas gift.  She might have even gone to her daughter's end of term pageant at Miss Edward's School of Girls, or "girths" as CC liked to tease her expansive daughter.   Had CC dePoitiers had known the end was near she might have been at work instead of in the cheapest room the Ritz in Montreal had to offer.  But the only end she knew was near belonged to a man named Saul."

A quote to ponder:  "So much more comforting to see bad in others, gives us all sorts of excuses for our own bad behavior."

My comments:  Winter in Quebec, a cold, snowy, blizzardy time from just before Christmas until New Years.  I wan't really enamored with the first of the series.  But okay, I'll admit it, there's something special about this guy, this chief inspector.  Or is it Three Pines itself?  The idyllic setting, the quirky characters, the way that almost every piece in the thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle fit together.  And Ralph Cosham, the wonderful reader of this audiobook, who speaks the many French words in a way that I an almost understand them all!  It was definitely more of a "cozy" than the gritty murder mysteries I've always preferred, but it was so much more than a cozy mystery.  Of course I will now read more.  Louise Penny has put many questions into her readers' minds that still need to be answered.
ADDENDUM:  There were so many places that I chuckled during the story, lots and lots of subtle humor.  And every time that Ruth Zardo was in the scene, I loved it.  I want to know more about her.  And I really love her poetry!

Goodreads synopsis:  Welcome to winter in Three Pines, a picturesque village in Quebec, where the villagers are preparing for a traditional country Christmas, and someone is preparing for murder.
No one liked CC de Poitiers. Not her quiet husband, not her spineless lover, not her pathetic daughter—and certainly none of the residents of Three Pines. CC de Poitiers managed to alienate everyone, right up until the moment of her death. 
          When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, of the Sûreté du Québec, is called to investigate, he quickly realizes he's dealing with someone quite extraordinary. CC de Poitiers was electrocuted in the middle of a frozen lake, in front of the entire village, as she watched the annual curling tournament. And yet no one saw anything. Who could have been insane enough to try such a macabre method of murder—or brilliant enough to succeed?
          With his trademark compassion and courage, Gamache digs beneath the idyllic surface of village life to find the dangerous secrets long buried there. For a Quebec winter is not only staggeringly beautiful but deadly, and the people of Three Pines know better than to reveal too much of themselves. But other dangers are becoming clear to Gamache. As a bitter wind blows into the village, something even more chilling is coming for Gamache himself.

81. Everything Beautiful is Not Ruined by Danielle Younge-Ullman

read on my iPhone
2017 Viking Books for Young Readers
368 pgs.
YA CRF
Finished 8/18/18
Goodreads rating:  4.22 - 1251 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting:  The woods of northern Ontario, Canada

First line/s:  "Dear mom,  Thanks.  Really.  I can't wait for this tiny excuse for an airplane to take off into the sky, and then deliver me into the dismal middle of nowhere."

My comments:  I do enjoy these books that put the protagonist ubri a summer camp/survival situation, a sort of upward/outward bound of staggering proportions.  This is the second one I've read this year, but very different from Wild Bird (Van Draanen).  It's told by slipping back and forth between the three-week tough hiking/survival experience and Ingrid's life, which is entirely dependent upon and wrapped up by and with her mother.  A few interesting twists and turns, though not especially unexpected, add to the story, which is set in the forests of northern Ontario, Canada.  And I really did read this in one long sitting!

Goodreads synopsis:  Wild meets The Breakfast Club in this story of a girl who must survive an extreme wilderness experience to prove to her mother that she has the strength to pursue her dreams.
Then 
Ingrid traveled all over Europe with her opera star mother, Margot-Sophia. Life was beautiful and bright, and every day soared with music.
Now 
Ingrid is on a summertime wilderness survival trek for at-risk teens: addicts, runaways, and her. She’s fighting to survive crushing humiliations, physical challenges that push her to her limits, and mind games that threaten to break her.
Then 
When the curtain fell on Margot-Sophia’s singing career, they buried the past and settled into a small, painfully normal life. But Ingrid longed to let the music soar again. She wanted it so much that, for a while, nothing else mattered.
Now 
Ingrid is never going to make it through this summer if she can’t figure out why she’s here . . . and why the music really stopped.

38. City of the Lost by Kelley Armstrong

#1 Casey Duncan
listened on Audible
2016 Sphere
471 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery/Police Procedural
Finished 4/25/18
Goodreads rating:  4.05 - 7644 ratings
My rating:  4.5
Setting: Contemporary Yukon, Canada

First line/s: "'I killed a man,' I say to my new therapist."

My comments: Interesting story, darned interesting. Some really great plot twists and a setting in the forests just below the Arctic Circle that was fascinating. I adored Casey, I liked the way she thought and I loved how smart she was. Great protagonist. About 2/3 of the way through it got a little draggy and went from practically no romance to a little bit too much, but I still took quite a shine to this book.  Looking forward with great anticipation to the next.

Goodreads synopsis: Casey Duncan is a homicide detective with a secret: when she was in college, she killed a man. She was never caught, but he was the grandson of a mobster and she knows that someday this crime will catch up to her. Casey's best friend, Diana, is on the run from a violent, abusive ex-husband. When Diana's husband finds her, and Casey herself is attacked shortly after, Casey knows it's time for the two of them to disappear again.
          Diana has heard of a town made for people like her, a town that takes in people on the run who want to shed their old lives. You must apply to live in Rockton and if you're accepted, it means walking away entirely from your old life, and living off the grid in the wilds of Canada: no cell phones, no Internet, no mail, no computers, very little electricity, and no way of getting in or out without the town council's approval. As a murderer, Casey isn't a good candidate, but she has something they want: She's a homicide detective, and Rockton has just had its first real murder. She and Diana are in. However, soon after arriving, Casey realizes that the identity of a murderer isn't the only secret Rockton is hiding—in fact, she starts to wonder if she and Diana might be in even more danger in Rockton than they were in their old lives.

29. The Drowned Girls by Loreth Anne White

Angie Pallorino #1
read on my iPhone
2017 Montlake Romance (but don't consider this to be in the ROMANCE genre!  It's much more mystery...)
524 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery/Police Procedural
Finished 4/1/18
Goodreads rating:  4.28 - 2282 ratings
My rating:  3
Setting:Contemporary city of Victoria, Canada (British Columbia?)

First line/s:  "We all lie.  We all guard secrets -- sometimes terrible ones -- a side to us so dark, so shameful, that we quickly avert our own eyes from the shadows we might glimpse in the mirror."

My comments: I think I'm going to rate this one a three.  It was a pretty decent murder mystery, but that was only 50% of the story.  The other 50% followed Angie Pallorino on her own quest - mysteries surrounding her own emerging, unidentifiable memories from when she was very, very young.  It also detailed her growing relationship and desire for her new boss, James Maddocks, who was handsome, rugged, smart, and newly unmarried..  Unlike many of the police procedurals that I've read, this had some pretty explicit sex scenes between the two protagonists.  Hmmmm,  interesting, but pretty descriptive for this genre.  The setting of a Canadian island on the western coast was also an interesting factor.
     There is now a second book in the series.  I'm not sure I really like Angie, she is a bit hotheaded and selfish, driven in an almost unhealthy way, and the  reviews I've read about the second book make me feel that her personality is not going toc hange.  We'll see, I'll probably read it eventually....

Goodreads synopsis: He surfaced two years ago. Then he disappeared ... 
          But Detective Angie Pallorino never forgot the violent rapist who left a distinctive calling card—crosses etched into the flesh of his victim’s foreheads. 
          When a comatose Jane Doe is found in a local cemetery, sexually assaulted, mutilated, and nearly drowned, Angie is struck by the eerie similarities to her earlier unsolved rapes. Could he be back?
​          Then the body of a drowned young woman floats up in the Gorge, also bearing the marks of the serial rapist, and the hunt for a predator becomes a hunt for a killer. Assigned to the joint investigative task force, Angie is more than ready to prove that she has what it takes to break into the all-male homicide division. But her private life collides with her professional ambitions when she’s introduced to her temporary partner, James Maddocks—a man she’d met the night before in an intense, anonymous encounter.
          Together, Angie and Maddocks agree to put that night behind them. But as their search for the killer intensifies so does their mutual desire. And Angie’s forays into the mind of a monster shake lose some unsettling secrets about her own past . . . 
          How can she fight for the truth when it turns out her whole life is a lie? 

PICTURE BOOK - I Am Not a Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer

Illustrated by Gillian Newland

2016, Second Story Press, Canada

HC  $18.95

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.29 - 385 ratings

My rating:  4.5

Endpapers:  pale sage green

1^st line/s:"The dark figure, backlit by the sun, filled the doorway of our home on Nipissing Reserve Number 10."

My comments:  I'm not sure if you would consider this a very short fiction book for middle-graders, or a quite long picture book for middle graders, but no matter which you choose it's a powerful story of how the Indigenous people - in this instance Canadian - were treated for most of the 2oth century.  Rubbish!  Ripped from their families, sent away to be practically starved and "taught" by nuns and religious factions, these children were neglected and abused and shamed.  It's sickening, and I'm glad that some of this history is hitting the bookshelves for older kids. This story is true, based on the life of the author's grandmother.

Goodreads:  When eight-year-old Irene is removed from her First Nations family to live in a residential school she is confused, frightened, and terribly homesick. She tries to remember who she is and where she came from, despite the efforts of the nuns who are in charge at the school and who tell her that she is not to use her own name but instead use the number they have assigned to her. When she goes home for summer holidays, Irene's parents decide never to send her and her brothers away again. But where will they hide? And what will happen when her parents disobey the law? Based on the life of co-author Jenny Kay Dupuis’ grandmother, I Am Not a Number is a hugely necessary book that brings a terrible part of Canada’s history to light in a way that children can learn from and relate to.

MOVIE - Maudie

PG-13 (1:55)

Limited release June 16, 2017

Viewed date at Carlisle Theater (downtown) onFirday, July 21, 2017
IMBd: 7.7/10

RT Critic: 90   Audience:  93
Critic's Consensus:  Maudie's talented cast -- particularly Sally Hawkins in the title role -- breathe much-needed depth into a story that only skims the surface of a fascinating life and talent.

Cag:  5.5.Loved it

Directed by Aisling Walsh

Sony Pictures Classics

Sally Hawkins, Ethan Hawke

My comments:  About halfway through the movie I realized that it had to be a biopic, based on a true story.  Had to be.  Maudie Lewis was Canada's Grandma Moses, born in 1903, died in 1970.  Sally Hawkins was amazing as a arthritically crippled painter, aging, becoming more bent and stooped while looking for the good in her curmudgeonly husband, played by Ethan Hawke.  He was pretty decent, too (but MUCH better looking than the real guy probably was), but Sally Hawkins stole the show completely.  Their actual life was lived in Nova Scotia, but the movie was filmed in Newfoundland and was just gorgeous.  The credits at the end of the film were interspersed with some of Maud Lewis's real paintings.  Superb movie, easily a five.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  MAUDIE, based on a true story, is an unlikely romance in which the reclusive Everett Lewis (Ethan Hawke) hires a fragile yet determined woman named Maudie (Sally Hawkins) to be his housekeeper. Maudie, bright-eyed but hunched with crippled hands, yearns to be independent, to live away from her protective family and she also yearns, passionately, to create art. Unexpectedly, Everett finds himself falling in love. MAUDIE charts Everett's efforts to protect himself from being hurt, Maudie's deep and abiding love for this difficult man and her surprising rise to fame as a folk painter.

21. Still Life by Louise Penny

#1 Chief Inspector Armande Gamache
listened on Audible
2005 St. Martin's Press
312 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 4-6-17
Goodreads rating: 3.91 - 63,992 ratings (that's a lot!)
My rating: 3
Setting: Contemporary Three Pines, Quebec, CANADA (just south of Montreal)

First line/s:

My comments:  Dozens of people have told me through the years that this is their favorite mystery series of all of them, and I just HAVE to read at least one.  Just the other day, a coworker got really excited that I was reading this because it's her favorite - she was so excited.  When I asked her "why?" she told me she'd tell me when I finished reading the entire book.  (I'll go see her tomorrow!).  So what is my honest opinion?  The setting was beautifully described, almost like another character.  Characterization was deep and complete.  The mystery was interesting but not entirely surprising.  The process that Gamache goes through and the respect he commands from his people are thoroughly enjoyable.  So why only a "this book was okay" kind of rating?  It was almost too much like a cozy for me.  Which makes me wonder about myself.  Am I looking for blood and guts, thrilling adventure, fast action?  I always thought that it was the deep, intricate puzzle that drew me into totally enjoying a mystery  Well, this book certainly had that.  But it's pacing seemed really slow, just like Three Pines, slow and lazy.  I'm guessing this was intentional on Ms. Penny's part.  And yes, I'll read the next one, to see if I still get the same feeling....

I Think I like this cover better!

Goodreads synopsis:  The discovery of a dead body in the woods on Thanksgiving Weekend brings Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his colleagues from the Surete du Quebec to a small village in the Eastern Townships.
     Gamache cannot understand why anyone would want to deliberately kill well-loved artist Jane Neal, especially any of the residents of Three Pines - a place so free from crime it doesn't even have its own police force. But Gamache knows that evil is lurking somewhere behind the white picket fences and that, if he watches closely enough, Three Pines will start to give up its dark secrets...

TV Show - Between

Premiered: June, 2015 - a Canadian production
Season 1 - 6 episodes; Season 2 - 6 episodes
Uncertain about whether there will be a Season 3
Length of Episode: 45 minutes
IMBd: 6.0/10
RT Audience Score:  71 (Critics = 22) This was for Season 1
cag:  3 (Liked it)
Produced by:

Characters:
     Adam - smart, supposedly geeky, has had a crush on Wiley for many years
     Wiley - had an affair with Chuck's (slimy) father and fathered his child, preacher's kid, main character but not very likable at all
     Chuck - rich father owned most of the town, thinks he knows it all
     Gord - worker/farmer/genuine nice guy, looks 30 not younger than 22
     Ron and Pat- two brothers from the "bad side" of town, one's a good guy, the other's a drug dealer and pretty sketchy at the beginning of the series
     Mark - had been in the penitentiary for murdering his father, incredible light blue eyes

My comments:  Reminds me of "Under the Dome," except with only kids and young adults.  Same sort of storyline, unknown cause of the deadly virus, some try to escape, others cope by helping each other, one faction feels the need for force and tote guns and an attitude....

Storyline from IMBd:  Between is the story of a town under siege from a mysterious disease that has wiped out everybody 22 years and older. The series explores the power vacuum that results when a government has quarantined a 10-mile diameter area and left the inhabitants to fend for themselves.
   

Short Story - Runaway - Alice Munro

"Runaway" - Alice Munro
The story is 45 pgs. long
from Runaway by Alice Munro, (Vintage, 2005)

I love Alice Munro's storytelling.  This one was particularly interesting because I'm not sure exactly what was going on near the end of the story.  I've thought and though about this ending.  Interesting.

This is the first story in Munro's collection of the same title.  It's about a young woman and her husband who run a small horse stable giving riding lessons and boarding a few horses.  Clark is gruff and subtly mean-spirited, and gives off weird vibes right from the beginning.  So with the help of a neighbor, Carla leaves him.  After only a short way she panics, leaves the bus,  calls Clark, and returns to him.  After a weird, epiphany-type happening between Clark and the neighbor, there's also a very odd ending.  I've tried to not include any spoilers, but give enough information to help me remember the story.

MOVIE - Incendies

Powerful - and a masterpiece of storytelling
Released 4-22-11
R (2:10)
5/29/11 at the Loft...alone
RT:  91  cag: 96 (yup, I liked it that much)
In French and Arabic with English subtitles
Director:  Denis Villeneuve (French Canadian)
based on Lebanese-born Canadian playright Wajdi Mouawad's play "Scorched"
Academy Award Nominee for Best Foreign Language Film

I believe "Incendies" means "raging fires."  Fits.  And it's better not to know ahead of time what the plot is entirely about...I'd avoid the trailer and only skem through reviews before seeing.  I watched the trailer AFTERWARDS and was really, REALLY glad I hadn't seen it first.  The trailer gave away at least one surprise that you shouldn't know ahead of time.

Nawal Marwan has just died.  She leaves her twin children each a letter, Jeanne is to deliver her letter to her father and Simon is to deliver his to their brother. This is quite shocking and unbelievable, because they've always been told that their father was dead and they've never heard of any brother.  We accompany Jeanne as she travels from Canada to the mideast, where she begins to search for clues.  The film keeps flashing back to the past to Nawal and lets her, in this way, tell her story.  Telling any more would ruin it.

This was one excellent movie.  Horrifying. Sad.  Mesmerizing. What storytelling...going back in forth in time from mother to daughter and son.....a perfect weaving. A weaving with layers.

There's a very intersting review, particularly because it discusses the absence of an actual locale for the mideastern part of the story.  Apparently it was left ambiguous for a reason.  However, this article in The Yuppie Activist is quite interesting.  Also is one written by Chris Knipp on his blog.There are probably loads more, but these are the ones I found when looking for the locale of the movie.  And ofcourse there's always the IMBd review.

44. The Big Swim - Cary Fagan

for: Middle Grades
Groundwood Books/Toronto, 2010
HC $14.95
128 pgs.
Rating: 2

Ethan, a 12-year old boy who seems quite a bit younger, is forced to go to overnight summer camp for the first time in his life. He dreads it, but it's okay. The story is told in short stories that seem almost like snapshots (blurry snapshots). Much time is spent speculating about a "bad" kid, Zachary, who's supposed to arrive sometime in the summer. Once Zachary arrives he does seem quite interesting, not at all the "bad" kid, he just marches to his own drummer. However, we never really get to know him. The little we get to know the protagonist doesn't make us like him very much, either. I tried to figure out which of my students would enjoy this book. For the most part, I think they'd all consider it "boring," which I hate them to say.....but in many ways it was....

I really don't enjoy writing negative reviews. I feel badly. But this is not to be one of my favorites. Sorry.

MOVIE - Sabah, A Love Story

Delightful - my kind of movie
Released 2005, Canadian Indie
NR (1:30)
Netflix
RT: Not Rated cag: 88%
Director: Ruba Nabba

A wonderful, heart-warming movie about an Arab-Canadian family that is learning that to hang on to their Muslim culture does not mean that they have to abandon the life and norms that they've found in Canada. Sabah, a 40-year old unmarried daughter stays home and "takes care" of her mother. Her sister, no husband that we see, is raising an 18-year old daughter that wants to CHOOSE her husband, not be set up with one by her family. Her brother is the "boss" since her father died many years before. His marriage (which, coincidentally, is one of love and not match-making) looks rocky.

And then Sabah meets Stephen, a Canadian furniture-maker, a really decent, good-looking guy. Slowly she lets her guard down enough to talk to him, and they discover they really enjoy each other. It's a wonderful, real, slow-moving courtship, which it would be in reality, which makes it totally believable. You hope against hope that all will work out for these seemingly star-crossed lovers, but good sense and good humor make this work work work. I really enjoyed it - a lot. (And yes, it had a wonderful, feel-good, giggle-out-loud-with-relief ending.....)

The Canadian actor who played Stephen, Shawn Doyle, was wonderful - and adorable. It looks like he's been a somewhat-regular on HBO's Big Love.

Winston of Churchill - Jean Davies Okimoto

One Bear's Battle Against Global Warming
Illustrator: Jeremiah Trammell
Copyright: 2007
Rating: 4.5
For: Older kids
Endpapers: Lots of happy polar bears carrying signs: Wind Power, Walk, Ride Bikes, Make Less Garbage, Save Our Home, Recycle, Ice is Nice, Pass Up Gas, Solar Power, Turn off Stuff, Turn Down the Furnace, Brrrr is Best, Save Trees....
Green Earth Book Award

Winston, a great white polar bear of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada is concerned about global warming and the loss of ice in his home territory. He calls the bears together (even the teenager bears with spiked green fur, leather spike bracelets and tattoos) to give them all a copy of his book Why It's Getting Hotter. It gives a good explanation for older kids. They then decide to protest - with signs - when the tourist tundra buggy comes by the next day. So we meet a number of tourists and see what they see when they approach the polar bears.

At the end of the book, as a prologue, is an extra explanation about the plight of the polar bears and a bit about Winston Churchill, prime minister of England from 1940 to 1945, our Winston's namesake.

I like the illustrations a lot. The bears are bursting with personality.