Summer: warm sunshine, cold drinks, and good books - an excellent combination! While there are many new books out, sometimes it's nice to revisit some old favourites.
Here are some titles to pique your interest. They're not all new, but they're certainly worth the time.
Two of my favourite Canadian authored novels are Wayne Johnston's The Colony of Unrequited Dreams and David Adams Richards' Mercy Among the Children.
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams is about Newfoundland's entry into Confederation in 1949 and the role that one man played in bringing this about. The story is engrossing, the characters are wonderfully drawn, and the good news is, if you enjoyed meeting them, they appear in three other books: The Navigator of New York, The Custodian of Paradise and A World Elsewhere.
Mercy Among the Children won the Giller Prize in 2000. This accolade for New Brunswick author David Adams Richards is well deserved. The story is absorbing and rewarding - one to lose yourself in while sitting under the shade of a tree. If I had to use only one word to describe his writing, it would be "haunting." You may find yourself reading until the stars come out! If haunting, soaring fiction is not your thing, perhaps you'd fancy a trip to the Antipodes? New Zealand author Emily Perkins' book The Forrests is a beautiful novel about a family that moves from the United States to New Zealand, and about how complicated loving other people can be.
Mister Pip, by Kiwi writer Lloyd Jones, takes place in Bougainville, an island in Papua New Guinea, during a civil uprising. The narrator, a 13-year-old girl named Matilda, recounts their (white) schoolteacher's retelling of Dickens' Great Expectations and its affect on her perception of the world around her.
While the library has lots of new releases, there are lots of treasures in the stacks, ready for you to discover. Where will your next book take you?
