BOOKWORM
NEWCOMERS OF ANOTHER AGE
Finding Flora by Elinor Florence, Simon & Schuster Canada, $24.99. It’s the story of a newcomer to Canada. Fresh off the boat from Scotland in 1905, Flora Craigie jumps from a moving train twenty miles west of Calgary to escape her disastrous marriage to a cruel, uncaring man. Desperate to disappear, she claims a homestead on the wild, beautiful Alberta prairie.
Her nearest neighbours are also female: Mrs Penrose, a Welsh widow with three children; two cohabiting American women in a “Boston marriage”; and a Métis woman who supports herself by training wild horses.
But it’s just the beginning. The laws of the land are heavily weighted towards male homesteaders. Every day, Flora must summon every ounce of her physical and mental energy to battle the elements and the brutal, untamed wilderness. The threat of expropriation always looms as government targets for cultivation must be met. To complicate matters, there are signs that her violent husband is on the hunt for her. And as the competition for free land along the new Canadian Pacific Railway line heats up, an unscrupulous land agent threatens not only Flora’s livelihood but her very existence.
During one of their infrequent visits, Mrs Penrose confided her fear of being bushed. “Beau told me that several of the mental patients in the Ponoka hospital are diagnosed as prairie women. Prairie women! That’s the medical term for it, Miss Craigie! They’re just ordinary folks, broken into pieces by the loneliness and the hardships. One prairie woman put a shotgun in her mouth and blew off her own head!”
Finding Flora is a well researched story that opens a window into the world of newcomers of another age.
Home page image credit: CITY OF TORONTO ARCHIVES.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN PARIS
The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher, Berkley, $35. When Sylvia Beach opened Shakespeare and Company in Paris in 1919, she had no idea that she and her bookstore would change the course of literature itself. It was a bookstore and a lending library. Many of the prominent writers of the time, like Ernest Hemingway, were frequent visitors. It was a space for exchange of ideas and finding kindred spirits. And it’s where an important literary friendship was forged – the one between Irish writer James Joyce and Beach herself. When Joyce found it difficult to get his controversial novel Ulysses published, Beach stepped forward. She published it under the auspices of Shakespeare and Company.
It was a massive financial and reputational risk.
Shakespeare and Company squeaked by with fewer than twenty francs in the kitty after she paid the final rent on Dupuytren and the second installment on her new Odeon location. And though it gave her a crick in the neck, she had to tell Mystrine that she couldn’t pay her that week.
It was a literary event as Europe was emerging from the ravages of the first World War. Beach herself was simultaneously dealing with uncertainties in her live-in relationship with Adrienne Monier, also a storied Paris bookseller.
The publication of Ulysses brought fame and notoriety to the bookstore – and soon other publishers clamoured to woo Joyce away. One of the most consequential literary partnerships of 20th century came under unimaginable strain.
The Paris Bookseller is a layered and nuanced fictionalization of the life and times of a bookseller set against the backdrop of a world at war with itself.
Very 2025.
DREAMING IN COLOUR
All the Colour in the World by C.S.Richardson, Vintage Canada, $22. When Henry (b. 1916) received as a gift his first set of colouring pencils from his Shakespeare-quoting grandmother, he discovered his love for art and colour, and the stories of great artists. All the Colour in the World is Henry’s story, projected against a backdrop of iconic, artistic masterpieces, from his boyhood in 1920’s and 30’s Toronto to the hothouse of art academia and new beginnings in 1960’s Sicily.
It’s all abracadabra, Gran says. A few strokes of line and shade and hue and the ordinary becomes your extraordinary. How you magically appear at Stanley’s elbow, holding his coat while he machetes his way to Livingstone. And isn’t that you sitting in the Cambridge boat?
You gather an entrance portfolio for the Fine Arts department’s admissions board.
It’s restrained, it’s sad, and it’s poetic. And it’s about the restorative power of art.
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE
The Mexico Lunch Party by Sonia Day, Olympia Publishers, $15.99. Four older women, all passionate gardeners from Great Britain, the US, Canada and Columbia, meet up in Mexico.
The plan is to catch up, soak up some sunshine, revel in the tropical beauty all around them – and make a spectacular reunion lunch together with each contributing a signature dish. All is going well, until a strange, unwelcome guest shows up. Who is he, really? Why is he targeting the beautiful Tensie?
Like most people, I normally like to read books in a series in the order in which they were published. But I had so enjoyed The Newfoundland Lunch Party, the second one first – oh, you know what I mean! – that I had to read this to see how the group came to be and what held them together through the different stages and life events.
The Mexico Lunch Party does not disappoint, filled as it is with the colourful palette of plants in Ajijie, Mexico, where the reunion takes place. Long-time garden columnist Sonia Day brings her artist’s eye to the descriptions, plant details and gardening tips.
Like keeping nails short and avoiding nail varnish, rings or bracelets “after discovering that delicate hothouse flowers will pick up bacterial and viral diseases from a multitude of sources, but in particular hands that aren’t properly cleaned...”
Or fascinating tidbits such as that tulips were introduced to Europe by Dutch botanist Carolus Clusius from Turkey.
She dispenses these her tongue firmly in cheek. “Gardeners are such know-it-alls, she often thought, forever rattling off those baffling Latin names, making the rest of us feel hopelessly inadequate.”
The list of plants the friends spot and go into raptures over include some of my favourites – from gardens in Bangalore! Jacaranda, bougainvillea, tabebuia, frangipani or plumeria, ixora, amaranthus...
But what delighted me the most was discovering that a vine called Thungbergia mysorensis “festooned the Vallarta Botanical Garden’s main building” because, of course, it is native to Karnataka, the erstwhile Mysore!
There are desi elements, too. Sari-clad women lugging giant suitcases around an airport and a kurta-clad Sanjay who wants to open a yoga retreat in Mexico.
And must-try recipes. Including one that calls for piloncillo, the desi version of gur!
ONCE WAS BOMBAY
The Silversmith’s Puzzle by Nev March, Minotaur Books, $39. Nev March does historical fiction differently. She’s the first Indian- born author to win Mystery Writers of America’s award for best first crime novel for Murder in Old Bombay.
That was based on the still-unsolved deaths of the Godrej sisters in 1891 Bombay.
The Silversmith’s Puzzle, the fourth in the series, continues the saga of Anglo-Indian detective Captain Jim Agnihotri and his Parsi wife Diana Framji. It is inspired by the first failed business of Ardeshir Godrej, the founder of Godrej enterprises. The tale weaves in and out of old Bombay streets, some of which still retain their original names.
March is also adept at setting the scene. The paved sidewalks had so recently been washed that a haze of steam rose from the pavers. A pair of dogs lay panting in the shade. Turbaned men hurried by, squinting from the glare. A water carrier bearing a leather sack over his back poured into a metal bowl for some passerby.
She shares nuggets of history that pull the curtain back on an era gone by. Such as the mali saying he was not kursi-nashin.
“Natives were required to purchase a certificate that entitled them to sit in the presence of an Englishman.”
As Captain Agnihotri strives to solve the murder of the silversmith, he recalls the words of his favourite sleuth, Sherlock Holmes: “The most difficult crime to track is the one which is purposeless.”
So, why, exactly, was the silversmith murdered?
FINDING STILLNESS
Aflame by Pico Iyer, Riverhead Books, $39.99. From a small Benedictine monastery high above the sea in Big Sur, California, Pico Iyer explores the transformational effect of silence. It’s that inner stillness in all of us, way, way below the chatter of the mind and the cacophony that pervades our lives. Iyer delves into that stillness, discovering what is essential and some things deeper and meaningful that are lost in the blur of everyday life.
Strange, how rich it feels to be cleansed of all chatter. That argument I was conducting with myself on the drive up, the deadline next week, the worries about my sweetheart in Japan: gone, all gone. It’s not a feeling but a knowing: in the emptiness I can be filled with everything around me.
Ageless counsel on the meaning of life.
A SWEET CELEBRATION
A Vaisakhi to Remember by Simran Jeeth Singh, illustrated by Japneet Kaur, Penguin Random House, $24.99. To a little girl growing up in her village in India, Vaisakhi was the best day.
When the family moves to the other side of the world, she wonders how she and her family will celebrate in their new and unfamiliar surroundings.
She soon discovers that Vaisakhi is still the best day, with sweet and familiar touchstones – a special outfit, a trip to the gurdwara, sticky jalebis and delicious parathas (though not as good as nani’s) and new friends. Gorgeous illustrations make the delightful tale a feast for the senses.
BITE-SIZED FUN
Garfield: Do Not Disturb by Jim Davis, Random House Worlds, $22. Garfield, the perennially grumpy, snarky cat has been delighting fans for nearly 50 years.
His 76th book is all about his love for donuts – making them disappear is his superpower! Sit back and devour this latest batch of scrumptious bite-sized fun!
TEEN REVIEW
By KETA BHARUCHWALA
A Long Walk To Water by Linda Sue Park, HarperCollins, $23.99. A Long Walk To Water is a true story about the lives of Salva and Nya, who lived in South Sudan.
This book follows Salva’s courageous life story and Nya’s day to day.
Salva was torn away from his family because of the civil war that reached his city. After this, he had to travel very far to find a new life but he never lost the hope of reuniting with his family.
Nya has to walk for hours each day just to get unclean water to drink which sickens her family and community. Their stories are extremely heartbreaking and unfortunately similar to many others.
Salva’s journey is truly inspirational.
He gives back to his community after all the misfortune he experienced in his life.
One key takeaway is that each intimidating journey can be broken into segments. If you take everything “one step at a time” all goals can become achievable. It is important to be present in the journey rather than keeping the end product the only thing in mind.
This book is a must-read because it can motivate anyone to achieve their goals and start something new.
• Keta Bharuchwala is a Brampton Library youth member.