BOOKWORM
LETTERS FROM THE FRONT
Till We Meet Again by Brandon Marriott, Simon and Schuster, $39.99. Why do nations go to war? Why do men and women enlist to serve in the defence of their country?
Lester Harper, a farmer from Pouce Coupe in northern British Columbia, never imagined that he would trade his hoe for a Lee-Enfield rifle, but he found himself agreeing to join a Canadian regiment headed for France during the First World War. He left behind his wife, Mabel, in the shadow of the loss of their infant daughter, Hilda.
Lester’s love letters to Mabel, written from the trenches, form the basis of Brandon Marriott’s vivid reconstruction of the War in sharp detail.
Marriott weaves Harper’s personal everyday narrative and the sweeping historical context, a war seen through a soldier’s eyes and through the lens of documented military history.
A letter to Mabel from France written on March 24, 1917:
Our battalion is in the trenches just now, but some were left out and I am among that number. We are billeted near a town that Fritz shells a little each day. We move to a safe distance when be starts up. I had a close shave the other day, but one has to take chances for the whole war is a game with a certain amount of chance in it.
Your letter made me homesick. I was so pleased that you and Dad got along so well for I feel guilty of so many things that have happened the last three years. I almost hate to go back to Pouce Coupe and face him. I want to be with you and yours in a home somewhere and, as long as it is a home, I don’t mind where that somewhere is. I hope this world conflict will be cleared up soon ana you and I are reunited.
LIFE AND DEATH
The Eleventh Hour by Salman Rushdie, Alfred A. Knopf, $36. Over five short stories Salman Rushdie explores life and death and what comes into focus at the eleventh hour.
Do we accommodate ourselves to death or rail against it?
Do we spend our eleventh hour in serenity or in rage?
And how do we achieve fulfillment with our lives if we don’t know the ends of our own stories?
“In the South” a pair of quarrelsome old men – Junior and Senior – deal with a private tragedy at a moment of national calamity.
Death and life were just adjacent verandas. Senior stood on one of them as he always had, and on the other, continuing their tradition of many years, was Junior, his shadow, his namesake, arguing.
In “Late,” the ghost of a Cambridge don enlists the help of a lonely student to exact revenge upon the tormentor of his life.
He had now been dead for some months, but at last he began to understand why he was still here, still present within the College grounds. There was something incomplete about his life that needed to be completed before he could rest. Something that might clear away the fog in which, at present, his being was engulfed.
Death is ever-present in the book. And so is an affirmation of life. Sort of.
HIGHS AND LOWS
Enough by Melissa Arnot Reid, Crown, $39.99. American mountaineer Melissa Arnot Reid chronicles her challenging journey from a difficult childhood in a dysfunctional home to becoming an acclaimed mountain guide. She has summited Mount Rainier over 100 times. She has conquered Mount Everest six times. In 2016, she became the second American woman to summit Everest without supplemental oxygen and, having summited, the first to survive the descent without supplemental oxygen.
Written in the candid and page-turner style of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, Enough is the story of a life in which world’s most dangerous mountains become one woman’s refuge from a chaotic personal world. And yet for every summit she conquered, her valleys of inner turmoil grew deeper and self-destructive.
Ultimately, Reid makes the perilous climb towards her true self, finding inner peace after relationships go sour and tragedies take the lives of her mentors and friends.
At thin-air altitudes Reid finds the forgiveness and self-acceptance she has craved all her life...and that takes your breath away.
WE NEED ONE ANOTHER
To Those Who’ve Confused You to Be a Person by Alia Dastagir, Crown, $39. When Alia Dastagir published a story for USA Today as part of an investigation into child sexual abuse, she became the target of an online mob launched by QAnon and encouraged by Donald Trump, Jr. She receives death threats.
While female journalists, politicians, academics and influencers receive a disproportionate number of online attacks because of the nature of their professions, all women online experience hate, creating profound harms for individual women and society.
We’ve read and watched coverage of women being attacked online, but reading Dastagir’s account is gut-wrenching.
Rape threats. For her and her infant daughter.
I sob in my closet, my gut a bundle in my throat. My husband stands outside the closet door. “It’s not worth it anymore!” I scream. He doesn’t know what to say.
In To Those Who’ve Confused You to Be a Person, Dastagir uses critical analyses from psychologists, sociologists, neuroscientists, technologists and philosophers to offer a uniquely deep and intimate look at what women experience during online abuse, as well as how they cope and make meaning out of violence.
She weaves her story together with those of thirteen other women, including a comedian who uses feminist humour to subvert her harassment and an ob-gyn who channels anger over her abuse to fight attacks on reproductive rights.
This book is an urgently needed reckoning with the harm, harassment and abuse women face on the inter-net.
Systemic solutions are key, but the future changes – when and if – do not help women today.
Dastagir’s nuanced examination of the crises offers concrete strategies women can use to manage their experiences, empowering them to raise their voices against the forces that want to silence them.
She offers a toolkit.
Deleting hate, muting it, blocking it, dismissing it, reporting it, tucking it away, in a file, in your body, in your mind, will only ever get you so far. The goal of online abuse is to isolate us. To fight these tactics, we need one another.
BLOOMING GOOD
Where You’re Planted by Melanie Sweeney, GP Putnam’s Sons, $25.99. The dedication hints at the riches in store: For the librarians, for the custodians of our natural green spaces, and for the helpers.
Single mom and children’s librarian Tansy Perkins only has room in her life for her daughter and her library. And maybe another book for her collection.
But after a catastrophic hurricane severely damages her library, she’s forced to temporarily move her branch into the adjacent botanical gardens, were the new director is Jack Reid, the world’s grouchiest gardener who prefers plants to people.
He’s also someone who rescued Tansy and her daughter from the flood.
Forced to work together, they call a truce. But as they grow closer together comes an opportunity for funding that both the gardens and the library need.
And they are faced with a choice: Either the professional future they’ve planned for or the new love they’ve found with each other.
A relationship so precious that she can steal flowers from his wildflower garden and present them in a mug.
ONE LAUGH AT A TIME
One Sinha Lifetime by Paul Sinha, Ebury Press, $45.95. Paul Sinha is an award-winning comedian, a quizzing mastermind and a happily-married husband.
But for much of his life, none of these seemed remotely possible. As a boy, he struggled to find his place in a world where he didn’t quite fit.
Who was he?
An over-achieving schoolkid with the world’s knowledge at this fingertips?
A traditional Bengali son, destined for a career in medicine that he didn’t want?
A young gay man, yearning to breathe freely?
Or was he just another flawed human being on a self-destruct mission?
A hilarious and moving coming of age memoir of one man’s search for fulfillment, One Sinha Lifetime is an unconventional odyssey through love, family, and the joy of general knowledge.
CALL YOUR AGENT!
The Book Tour by Emily Ohanjanians, Dell, $26.95. Despite her popular podcast and sold-out speaking events, Ana Movilian still feels the pressure to prove herself. To her family, who can’t believe she quit med school to build an influencer career, and to literary snobs, who decry her buzzy self-help book.
Her upcoming book tour is the perfect chance to show the world just how bright her star can shine. That is, until her beloved publicist resigns and announces her replacement is the grumpy Ryan Grant.
He specializes in highbrow, “important” books and his perma-scowl in every interaction with Ana makes it clear he does not get her book. He’s the last person she wants to spend two weeks with.
But as her views about him change – for the better – and sparks begin to fly, they risk crossing the line that could derail both of their careers.
There are practicalities to consider, after all –how exactly is more even possible when he works for my publisher?
Emily Ohanjanians was a professional book editor and obviously knows the publishing industry well!
ON A NEW MISSON
The Curie Society: Game of Code by Heather Einhorn, Adam Staffaroni, Barbara Perez Marquez and Sonia Liao, The MIT Press, $33.95. Simone, Taj and Maya, the heroic teen science prodigies, are back for a new mission with the Curie Society.
Every member will need to be in play to defuse a global catastrophe.
A sisterhood united in an engrossing graphic novel.
O IS FOR ONOMATOPOEIC
ABC Zoinks by Claudia Rueda, Candlewick Press, $10.99. A is for Arf, B is for Boing... an onomatopoeic alphabet book featuring the adorable Smushkins!
TEEN REVIEW
By NISHI SHAH
The Selection by Kiera Cass, Harper Collins, $19.99. The Selection by Kiera Cass is set in a world where prestige dictates one’s life and choices.
The protagonist, America Singer, unknowingly enters a contest in which thirty-five girls compete to marry the prince. The competition is full of fun, laughter, sadness, balls, dances, and tea times.
Cass’s writing hooks the reader from the very beginning. The dialogue feels natural, and the extensive world building and story is easy to understand. Fast-paced, never monotonous or repetitive, the plot twists and challenges are enjoyable. The book also touches on many themes like rebel attacks and hierarchy, that help support America’s character development.
America is portrayed as a strong, independent woman, but she struggles between choosing her heart and doing what’s expected of her. This inner conflict makes her realistic and relatable, allowing readers to connect with her.
In comparison to The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, this book is less about survival and more about self-discovery. Representing how one’s choice, courage, and self importance are key elements in defining what they believe. The Selection leaves readers reflecting on identity and the power of staying true to themselves.
• Nishi Shah is a Brampton Library youth member.