Book ~ "The Kitchen House" (2010) Kathleen Grissom

From Goodreads ~ When a white servant girl violates the order of plantation society, she unleashes a tragedy that exposes the worst and best in the people she has come to call her family. 

Orphaned while onboard ship from Ireland, seven-year-old Lavinia arrives on the steps of a tobacco plantation where she is to live and work with the slaves of the kitchen house. Under the care of Belle, the master's illegitimate daughter, Lavinia becomes deeply bonded to her adopted family, though she is set apart from them by her white skin. 

Eventually, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium addiction. Lavinia finds herself perilously straddling two very different worlds. When she is forced to make a choice, loyalties are brought into question, dangerous truths are laid bare, and lives are put at risk.

In the late 1700s, seven-year-old Lavinia and her family are sailing from Ireland to the States for a better life. Her parents pass away during the voyage and when Lavinia and her brother arrive in the States, her brother is sold and she never sees him again. Lavinia is sent to a plantation where she lives and works with the slaves in the kitchen house. They become her family and she doesn't realize that she is different in that she is white.

As Lavinia gets older, the white owners of the plantation start to treat her a bit different ... she is taught to read and write, at church she is to sit up front with the white folk rather than standing in the back with black folk, etc. But Lavinia still doesn't realize she is different. She eventually is removed from the house and groomed to be a lady and marries well, or so everyone thinks.

This was a dreary book ... there isn't much happiness. It's written in first person perspective in Lavinia and Belle's (Lavinia's black "adopted mother") voices. There is a lot of violence ... black women being used by white men when results in lots of babies which become slaves themselves, families are ripped apart when members are sold, male slaves are taught lessons by being brutally beaten, etc. The master of the plantation is nice and caring but he's not around a lot as he has business to attend to. His wife has health issues and isn't mentally there. The plantation manager is stereotypically mean and abusive. After all that happened, I found the ending disappointing ... I was hoping for a happier one.

Book ~ "You Could Live a Long Time: Are You Ready?" (2010) Lyndsay Green

From Chapters Indigo ~ Are you ready to live a long time, or do you dread it? Author Lyndsay Green has interviewed forty successful seniors to talk not just about the problems of old age but its strength and benefits.

These seniors were from all walks of life and from all over the country, living in Victoria, Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, Kingston and Halifax, aged 75 to 100. They have been identified as the self-reliant seniors we would like to be and they share their wisdom and strategies for independent and happy living. The book combines their advice with cutting edge research, to arrive at specific suggestions for what we should be doing now to prepare for old age, and includes resources to help us implement the advice, including:

Money isn''t everything, and won't cure ill-health or loneliness. Cultivate new friendships now. To keep your dignity, give up your pride. You need a work plan instead of a retirement plan To keep a home, consider leaving your house. If you push too hard to stay young you''ll get old faster.

The unique message is that we should not try to avoid old age. Instead of trying to do the impossible to stay forever young, Green comes to the radical conclusion that in order to get as much as possible out of our old age we will need to embrace it.

I work in the retirement industry as an educator ... I conduct seminars encouraging participants to sign up for their company-sponsored retirement plan so financially they can have the retirement they hope for. As such, I like to read books about retirement planning.

This was a unique book in that there was only one chapter on saving for retirement and being financially stable at that time ... and it's towards the end of the book.

The majority of the book is focused on how to have a happy retirement. This includes cultivating friendships now so you'll have them then, deciding ahead of time whether you'll stay in your house or downsize, giving away things you don't need now so there won't be that burden after you're gone, volunteering and feeling needed, hanging out with younger people to keep you younger, staying active and exercising, etc.

I liked that it gave a different twist on retirement planning ... its a good book for everyone to read, no matter what age you are.

Book ~ "Call Me Russell" (2010) Russell Peters

From Goodreads ~ Up-close, personal, and yes, funny - this is the must-have celebrity memoir of the year. 

This candid, first-person memoir chronicles Russell's life from his humble beginnings in suburbia as a scrawny, brown, bullied kid with ADD all the way to his remarkable rise as one of the world's top-earning comics. This is a shockingly honest book filled with poignant memories of his family, his life and his career. 

"Call Me Russell" is a deeply inspirational story for aspiring artists of any culture about having hope, working hard and dreaming big.

Russell Peters is an Anglo Indian comedian from Brampton (about a half hour from Toronto).

Gord and I think he's hilarious and saw him in June 2007 when he sold out a couple nights at the Air Canada Centre.

So that's why I wanted to read his autobiography. It was very honest about how close he was to his dad (who died in 2004), the women in his life (he got married in July 2010) and how he's made it to where he is today.

It's a good read if you are a fan!

Book ~ "Unbuilt Toronto: A History of the City That Might Have Been" (2008) Mark Osbaldeston

From Amazon ~ Unbuilt Toronto explores never-realized building projects in and around Toronto, from the city’s founding to the twenty-first century. Delving into unfulfilled and largely forgotten visions for grand public buildings, landmark skyscrapers, highways, subways, and arts and recreation venues, it outlines such ambitious schemes as St. Alban's Cathedral, the Queen subway line and early city plans that would have resulted in a paris-by-the-Lake.

Readers may lament the loss of some projects (such as the Eaton’s College Street tower), be thankful for the disappearance of others (a highway through the Annex) and marvel at the downtown that could have been (with underground roads and walkways in the sky).

Featuring 147 photographs and illustrations, many never before published, Unbuilt Toronto casts a different light on a city you thought you knew.

If you've ever wondered what Toronto could have looked like had some of the projects gone through, then this is the book for you. Things like the waterfront would have looked so different. The ScotiaPlaza might never have been. Can you imagine a downtown with Old City Hall? How about a community that was built on water down by the Island Airport?

Book ~ "Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto" (2010) Shawn Micallef

From Amazon ~ What is the "Toronto look"? Toronto architecture is rich with superlative facts – "tallest" this, "first retractable" that – but, taken as a whole, the city’s built environment is underappreciated. Here, glass skyscrapers rise beside Victorian homes and Brutalist apartment buildings often mark the edge of leafy ravines, creating a city of contrasts whose architectural look can only be defined by telling the story of how it came together and how it works, today, as an imperfect machine.

Eye Weekly columnist Shawn Micallef has been examining Toronto’s architecture for many years, weaving historical information on its buildings and their architects with expansive ambulatory narratives about the neighbourhoods in which these buildings exist. Stroll collects Micallef's expanded columns alongside a number of new, unpublished essays; together, these psychogeographic reportages situate Toronto's buildings in living, breathing detail, and tell us more about the people who use them, how it feels to be exploring them in the middle of the night and the unintended ways in which they're evolving.

Stroll celebrates Toronto’s details – some subtle, others grand – at that velocity and, in so doing, helps us understand what impact its many buildings, from the CN Tower to Pearson Airport's Terminal One and New City Hall, have on those who live there.

This is an interesting account of one person's walking tours around Toronto, along with high level history of the areas and what is currently there.

One weird disappointment was in his description of being at Tommy Thompson Park (aka Leslie Street Spit) and Vicki Keith Point. He makes no mention of the automated lighthouse ... it is only one of three lighthouses in Toronto and the only active one in the city (though he'll tell you there is a Coffee Time at the corner of King/Queen/Roncie!!).

Book ~ "Breadwinning Daughters: Young Working Women in a Depression-Era City, 1929-1939" (2010) Katrina Srigley

From Amazon ~ As one of the most difficult periods of the twentieth century, the Great Depression left few Canadians untouched. Using more than eighty interviews with women who lived and worked in Toronto in the 1930s, Breadwinning Daughters examines the consequences of these years for women in their homes and workplaces, and in the city's court rooms and dance halls.

In this insightful account, Katrina Srigley argues that young women were central to the labour market and family economies of Depression-era Toronto. Oral histories give voice to women from a range of cultural and economic backgrounds, and challenge readers to consider how factors such as race, gender, class, and marital status shaped women's lives and influenced their job options, family arrangements, and leisure activities. Breadwinning Daughters brings to light previously forgotten and unstudied experiences and illustrates how women found various ways to negotiate the burdens and joys of the 1930s.

I like reading books about Toronto's history ... this is a very interesting book.

It's hard for us to imagine what life was life for women in the 1930s ... having to quit school to get a job to support your family if your father couldn't find one. Taking whatever job you could find and putting up with harassment so you could bring home $12.50 a week. Facing racial biases if you weren't white and of British heritage and having to take jobs as domestics or seamstresses as your only option.

Once women got married, they were automatically fired because it was assumed that she now had a husband who could take care of her so she didn't need a job.

Times have changed (thank goodness!) and we have it so good today.

Book ~ "Toronto: Tales of the City" (2005) Glenn Cochrane

From Federal Publications Inc. ~ Glenn Cochrane's Toronto: Tales of the City is the ideal pocket companion for anyone looking for the underground city not only as it is, but as it was.

For a quarter century, Glenn Cochrane reported for CFTO's daily Worldbeat and Nightbeat news. He left viewers with a smile by scouring the city for the genuine eccentrics and landmark fests that put Hogtown on the map. Now Cochrane comes out of retirement to walk the old beat, unearthing the local lore and historic hijinks that make Toronto come to life. Peter Ustinov once said "Toronto is New York run by the Swiss," but Cochrane shows you a city with chutzpah and flair uniquely its own.

His roaming recollections include anecdotal "streeters" with the famous: Eartha Kitt, Sammy Davis Jr., Rich Little, George Burns, Phyllis Diller, Mickey Rooney, Carol Channing and Paul Hogan — and with the moms and pops of all the best shops. When Mike Myers accepted his place on Canada's Walk of Fame, he gave a nod to the retired newscaster by sporting "a Cochrane" signature mop top and impersonating Glenn’s comedic catch phrase.

From Dave Garrick's free dry cleaning policy for rainy Canadian National Exhibitions to an orangutan receiving CPR at the Toronto Zoo, and from neighbourhood thug Baldy Chard's grip on Cabbagetown to Sammy Taft's "milliner to the stars" on Spadina, Glenn Cochrane's Toronto: Tales of the City walks the old beat, telling tales and unearthing a history you won't find in tourist guides or municipal archives.

Gord read this book during the week and then passed it along to me as he knows I like to read about Toronto's history.

This book doesn't get into a lot of details ... but it gives you a taste of Toronto and its neighbourhoods.

I found Cochrane's writing rambling, which I found a bit annoying. Plus I found it kind of boring.

Book ~ "Law and Disorder" (2009) Mary Jane Maffini

From Amazon ~ Victims' advocate Camilla MacPhee is following the trial of Lloyd Brugel, a ruthless criminal kingpin charged with a fatal firebombing, and she's looking forward to seeing him convicted. But, when his sleazy counsel is found dead, this conveniently delays the proceedings. The lawyer, no saint himself, was both drowned and shot. Someone wasn't taking any chances. There's also the dead judge and then the real estate lawyer who perished in an unlikely accident. How many others are there? None of it makes any sense to Camilla, whose life was already complicated enough, thank you very much. Camilla does her stubborn best to head off the killer, hampered by her assistant, the police, her bossy sisters, and the arrival of her possible stepdaughters-to-be. She comforts herself with the thought that, at least the future stepdaughters are safe.

This is the sixth in the Camilla McPhee series which is set in Ottawa.

There are lots of twists and tangles to try to throw you off. It seemed to start off slow but picked up.

The ending ("whodunnit") is unexpected and seems to come out of the blue. But it worked for me.

Book ~ "The Dead Don't Get Out Much" (2005) Mary Jane Maffini

From MaryJaneMaffini.com ~ It's the Year of the Veteran and that means a lot to Camilla's friend, Mrs. Violet Parnell. But Mrs. P. claims to have had a conversation with a dead man, which sets her on a journey to discover how that could be. Since she doesn't mention that she's leaving or where she's going, naturally this triggers a protectionist panic with Camilla and Alvin. Mrs. Parnell is well past eighty and, according to the emergency room doctors, it seems likely she's suffered a series of mini-strokes. Meanwhile, the extraordinarily patient Ray Deveau's been planning a romantic trip for Camilla and himself but looks like that just fell off Camilla's radar. So it's a transatlantic trauma as Camilla doggedly tracks Mrs. Parnell through the hills of Italy in search of old secrets with deadly ramifications in the present. Will she find Mrs. P. before someone with good reason to silence her does? Will Ray Deveau quit trying to get together? Will Alvin redecorate Camilla's new digs? Will those sisters ever shut up? What a nightmare!

This fifth book in the Camilla MacPhee series takes us from Ottawa to Italy where Camilla is tracking Mrs. P. down around the country.

It was a fun lively story with an interesting ending ... I didn't see it coming.

There were lots and lots of characters and towards the end, I had a hard time keeping them straight. I should have done what Camilla did and written them down.

As with Maffini's other books, this one has typos ... surprising considering Maffini is a former librarian.

Book ~ "The Devil's in the Details" (2004) Mary Jane Maffini

From MaryJaneMaffini.com ~ It's Labour Day, Camilla's favourite weekend of the year. She's planning to relax and ponder what's happening in her newly evolving relationship with policeman Sgt. Ray Deveau (warm heart, cold feet), who is inconveniently located back in Sydney. She's emphatically not planning to get involved in anything that means trouble. No wonder the news that an old acquaintance has had an accident comes as a surprise. There must be some mistake. By the time Camilla unearths Laura Brown's connection to a violent revolutionary group active two decades earlier, she's had several blows to the head and discovered that women she's been talking to or talking about keep ending up dead. Looks like someone will do anything to keep Laura's connections secret. Soon getting arrested is the least of Camilla's problems. Camilla relies on her old friends, like Elaine Ekstein, and her old enemies like Sgt. Leonard Mombourquette and her old clients like that sexy reformed burglar, Bunny Mayhew. But will that be enough to keep her from joining those other women in the morgue?

This is the fourth book in the Camilla MacPhee series, which is set in Ottawa.

I finished the second one in the series last week and found it kind of flat. I must say that I really enjoyed this one. The story was interesting and moved along quickly. Sure, it was far fetched at times but it was fun.

The ending was a surprise but I bought it and was happy with it.

I'd definitely recommend this one.

Book ~ "The Icing on the Corpse" (2001) Mary Jane Maffini

From MaryJaneMaffini.com ~ If someone kills the bad guy, who's the bad guy then? When a deranged serial batterer ends up in an Ice Sculpture competition during the annual Winterlude celebrations, it looks like it might even be good news for his victims. But it's bad news for Camilla and her client, Lindsay Grace. Soon the wrong person is claiming responsibility for the crime and the real killer is lurking, making sure no one gets too close to the truth. Before long Camilla's in hot water with her client, the police, the Law Society of Upper Canada and the Crown Attorney's office. She's in trouble with her family too: but that's because of her sister Alexa's wedding preparations. Camilla would much rather pursue a killer than hunt for a butt-ugly bridesmaid's dress. She's lucky she has Alvin and Mrs. Parnell to rely on in her search for the murderer. Or is she?

This is the second book in the Camilla MacPhee series, which is set in Ottawa.

It was an okay book, not overly exciting, though. I can't say I was feeling much love for the characters other than Camilla, Alvin and Mrs. P.

The person I suspected had done it didn't so it was a nice suprise. I was okay with the ending ... it made sense and wasn't far-fetched.

I like the author's writing style and am enjoying the series and would recommend it.

Book ~ "Speak Ill of the Dead" (1999) Mary Jane Maffini

From MaryJaneMaffini.ca~ In the first book in the series, Camilla's best friend, Robin Findlay, is found in a hotel room with a murdered journalist during Ottawa's annual Tulip Festival. Many many people felt like killing Mitzi Brochu but for some reason the police decide Robin has something to do with the crime. Maybe it's the blood on her hands. Maybe it's because she won't say what she was doing there. It's up to Camilla to keep Robin out of the slammer even as the killer strikes again. And again. Each time the danger gets a bit closer to home. Meanwhile Camilla's family, her so-called office staff member Alvin Ferguson and chain-smoking, sherry-guzzling nosy neighbour, Mrs. Violet Parnell, run interference every step of the way. To make matters worse, her favourite sister is making eyes at her least-favourite police officer. And what the devil are all those damn cats up to?

I read the third in this series in July and liked it ... so thought I'd go back and start the series from the beginning. I like the author's writing style so have been reading the other series she has written.

One of the reasons I like this author is because Maffini is a Canadian writer. She was born in Sydney, NS, (where I went to high school) and now lives in Ottawa.

This series is set in Ottawa. Camilla goes to the Mayflower Restaurant on Elgin Street ... I've been at that restaurant a few times when I've been in Ottawa.

I like the heroine in the series. She's a lawyer so it makes sense that she digs into these mysteries and ultimately solves them (unlike Charlotte who is a professional organizer in another series). And given Camilla's Cape Breton background, she and her family drink rum and cokes ... and you know I like them!

There were lots of kitties in this book which I found cute ... they weren't annoying like the two dogs in the first book of the Charlotte Adams' series.

I figured out who dunnit about half way through but not why so there was still some surprise at the end for me.

Like the other books I've read by this author, there are many typos. This surprises me since she had a career working in libraries. Why aren't the proofreaders or editors picking them up?

Book ~ "Still Life with June" (2005) Darren Greer

From Amazon ~ The people in gay bars on Christmas Day are so desperate for basic human contact that they'd go home with a Doc Marten shoe if it made a move, and maybe even if it didn't.

So begins the story of Cameron Dodds, a disenfranchised writer who visits gay bars on Christmas and works at a Salvation Army Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center in order to steal the stories of the people he meets there. But when Cameron finds a patient hanged in the utilities closet, his infatuation with other people's stories becomes an obsession. Assuming the man's identity, Cameron seeks out and forges a relationship with the victim's mentally challenged sister, who lives in a home uptown. As Cameron becomes more involved in the woman's life, he begins to discover truths that will challenge him to the very core of his existence.

I had read Greer's first novel, Tyler's Cape, last month and enjoyed it. I enjoyed this one too. If I can use one word to describe it, it would be "bizarre".

It's funny, sad, sarcastic, ironic, sleazy, self-indulgent and more.

There are other lies and deceptions in addition to the one with Cameron pretending to be Darrel in order to steal his life to have writing material. BTW, how sleazy is that?!

I didn't see the ending coming ... it was quite a surprise. I can see why some reviewers have said they had to reread it to pick up what they missed.

I'd definitely recommend this book if you are looking for something different and not fluffy.

Book ~ "The Cluttered Corpse" (2008) Mary Jane Maffini

From Reviewing the Evidence ~ We all should have a Charlotte Adams in our lives - our closets would be coordinated, our kitchens would be organized, and all our spices would be in alphabetical order.

Emmy Lou Rhinebeck is in need of Charlotte's skills to sort out her mammoth collection of stuffed animals. As Charlotte and Emmy Lou are working on a plan to put the animals in some sensible order, two immature young men, Tony Starkman and Kevin Dingwall, appear at the window looking menacing, and ready to sneak some pictures. Both women are upset, but Emmy Lou freaks out.

When Charlotte returns for a pre-arranged meeting, she finds Tony dead at the bottom of the steps. Emmy Lou keeps repeating that she is responsible for the death and refuses any legal help that would get her out of jail. Charlotte is totally befuddled, since she is convinced that Emmy Lou is innocent, but the woman is adamant in her refusal of assistance.

This is the second in the Charlotte Adams series. I'd read the first one, Organize Your Corpses, last week and liked it.

I like Charlotte and her friends. They seem like a caring bunch.

I enjoyed the writing style ... it's fast and fun. I was buying everything that was happening until I got to the end. "Who dunnit" was a surprise but a disappointment ... I thought it was lame.

Though I'm an animal lover, I was happy to see that there was less focus on Charlotte's dogs in this second book since they were so spoiled and annoying in the first book.

I didn't get why Charlotte got so involved in solving this mystery. She'd just met Emmy Lou who had admitted she'd done it. I wouldn't risk my life for a stranger or stick my nose in. But if Charlotte hadn't gotten so involved, there'd be no book.

I found it odd that it was hard to find a decent summary of this book ... there is just a line on Chapters Indigo, Amazon and the author's site.

Despite my criticisms, I enjoyed the writing style and the characters and look forward to reading the next book in this series.

Book ~ "Organize Your Corpses" (2007) Mary Jane Maffini

From MaryJaneMaffini.com ~ When thirty-year-old Charlotte Adams returns home to set up her personal organizing business in the historic town of Woodbridge, NY, she's expecting to find clients who need professional help sorting out their clutter, collections and just plain junk. She's expecting to reconnect with her old school friends, the lovable misfits: Sally, Margaret and Jack.  She's expecting that her two rescued miniature dachshunds will help her forget her lying, cheating ex-fiancé and the square-cut diamond she's just tossed into the Hudson. 

She's not expecting to find her first client dead in the debris of a historic home. Not even a little bit. The death of the tyrannical retired teacher Helen "Hellfire" Henley makes the news in a big way. That's got to be bad for business. Naturally things get worse when the police find Charlotte's pen under the body. This is particularly tricky since Charlotte's former friend and current nemesis, Sgt. Pepper Monahan is in charge of the investigation. Try organizing your way out of that, lady.

This is the first book in Maffini's Charlotte Adams series ... and I liked it. I'll read the others.

The story moves along at a good pace. The main character, Charlotte, is likable. The other cast of characters are quirky but also likable. I didn't figure out the ending, the "who dunnit", which is always a fun surprise for me.

Charlotte has a soft spot for animals, as does her pal, Jack, which I liked. Charlotte's two dogs are in dire need of training and discipline, though ... I didn't find them cute.

There were a lot of references to the fact that Charlotte and Pepper, the head of the police, had been best friends in school but hated each other now. It would have been nice to know why.

Better editing would have been nice as there were a couple typos in the "organizational tips" at the beginning of each chapter.

Book ~ "Lament for a Lounge Lizard" (2003) Mary Jane Maffini

From Amazon ~ As if it weren't bad enough being a failed romance writer, poor Fiona Silk has to cope with the spectacularly embarrassing demise of her old lover, the poet, Benedict Kelly in her four-poster bed. It's exactly the sort of thing people notice in St. Aubaine, Quebec, a picturesque bilingual tourist town of two thousand. Now the police start getting nasty, the media vans stay parked on her lawn and the neighbours' tongues keep wagging in both official languages. Worse, someone's bumping off the other suspects. Can Fiona outwit a murderer in the mood for some serious mischief.

I read my first Maffini book last month and liked it so thought I'd check out others by her.

This is the first of two in a series of mystery novels featuring Fiona Silk. It's set in rural Quebec with a cast of colourful characters.

The story was so-so, not overly exciting. The characters are likable ... except for Fiona's best friend, Liz, who is a doctor and annoying. I liked Fiona's sense of humour. And it was nice to read a book with characters my ages, rather than in their twenties or early thirties. I hadn't figured out who dunnit so the ending was a surprise and brought the story together.

It's an easy quick read and I'd recommend it if you aren't looking for anything too heavy.

Book ~ "The Corpse Will Keep" (2008) Pat Capponi

From HarperCollinsCanada ~ Fresh from the success of solving the murder of a roommate, Private Investigator Dana Leoni and her unlikely crew of misfit sleuths have opened a detective agency in the run-down Delta Court rooming house. Genuine clients are hard to come by until a friend from Dana’s past contacts her for help. He suspects his wealthy mother is being bilked in her charitable efforts to help the homeless. Though Dana is reluctant to reconnect with her past, she knows this world well—the church basements and halls where the indigent seek shelter and a hot meal. On the hunt for information, Dana soon falls in with a darkly charismatic church volunteer who is much more dangerous than he first appears. Set in two contrasting neighbourhoods—seedy Parkdale and posh Rosedale—the story’s events vault from extortion to kidnapping to murder. Dana must rely on the underrated skills of her housemates to help her catch a ruthless killer.

With her skilful portrayal of characters who may be down but are never out, Pat Capponi once again brings to life a world few of us know. In Dana Leoni, Capponi has created one of the most likeable—and vulnerable—investigators in crime fiction.

I finished the first book in the series on Saturday and enjoyed it ... and I enjoyed this one more.

It seemed to be more focused and solid. It was more substantial and on par with other mysteries out there. The cases that Dana was working on were interesting.

Though it's set in Toronto, there was less of an emphasis on letting us know all the details and more on the story.

If a third one in the series comes out, I'll read it.

Book ~ "Last Stop Sunnyside" (2006) Pat Capponi

From HarperCollins ~ This is Pat Capponi’s world. No tourist on the mean streets of Toronto’s once prosperous Parkdale neighbourhood, Capponi—a psychiatric survivor who has chronicled her experiences in several bestselling non-fiction titles—has lived there. Now, in this compelling debut novel, Capponi turns her authentic voice and imagination to a gripping murder mystery.

Dana Leoni is Capponi’s heroine, a traumatized woman who has retreated from life to a rough rooming house. Surrounded by the marginalized and the mad, she is devastated when one of her housemates turns up dead. When, despite the disappearance of another neighbourhood woman, the police reach a dead end, Dana and her rag-tag posse of housemates—inspired by the novels of Janet Evanovich—decide to go detective and take matters into their own hands. The result is a terrific mystery read, peopled with authentic characters and evocative in its gritty portrayal of a world few of us know. Infused with compassion and wit, Last Stop Sunnyside marks the beginning of a bound-for-bestseller series.

I met Capponi once, back in the late 1990s. I volunteered at the Gerstein Centre for a couple years and there was a four week training period. Capponi was one of the guest speakers during the training. She was an excellent honest speaker and that prompted me to read her memoirs, Upstairs in the Crazy House and Dispatches from the Poverty Line, at that time.

This was her first fiction book (there's sequel that follows). It takes place in my 'hood and it was interesting to read some history of the area.

The characters are very true to life with some of the residents in the 'hood. They live in the rooming house and have nothing but each other. When one disappears and turns up dead, they band together to find out what happened when the police deem it to be a suicide.

Despite the topic and characters, it's not a heavy read and I'd recommend it.

Book ~ "Never Look Away" (2010) Linwood Barclay

From Goodreads ~ A warm summer Saturday. An amusement park. David Harwood is glad to be spending some quality time with his wife, Jan, and their four-year-old son. But what begins as a pleasant family outing turns into a nightmare after an inexplicable disappearance. A frantic search only leads to an even more shocking and harrowing turn of events.

Until this terrifying moment, David Harwood is just a small-town reporter in need of a break. His paper, the Promise Falls Standard, is struggling to survive. Then he gets a lead that just might be the answer to his prayers: a potential scandal involving a controversial development project for the outskirts of this picturesque upstate New York town. It’s a hot-button issue that will surely sell papers and help reverse the Standard’s fortunes, but strangely, David’s editors keep shooting it down.

Why?

That’s a question no longer at the top of David’s list. Now the only thing he cares about is restoring his family. Desperate for any clue, David dives into his own investigation — and into a web of lies and deceit. For with every new piece of evidence he uncovers, David finds more questions — and moves ever closer to a shattering truth.

I must say that it took me a couple chapters to get into this book as I found the writing kind of ho-hum. But I'm glad I stuck with it because once it picks up, it's great.

Jan has disappeared and everything seems to point to her husband, David, to have killed her. The book is written in David's voice so you know what happened through his eyes and of, course, some it doesn't make sense. So you are carried along with him as he tries to figure out what happened and why.

My only real issue is at the end. Ethan, the son, is kidnapped (sorry for the spoiler, folks) and I thought it was lame as to who had done it, why and how that gets resolved.

I'd definitely recommend this one ... I enjoyed it a lot more than his last couple of thrillers.

Book ~ "Tyler's Cape" (2003) Darren Greer

From Cormorant Books ~ When Luke Conrad's aging mother breaks her hip he must return to the Nova Scotian fishing village of Tyler's Cape for one summer to take care of her. There, as he starts to remember the childhood he has worked so hard to forget, Luke unearths a secret in his mother's past — a secret that could be the key to understanding all that has happened to his family.

Taking the reader on a journey through childhood and memory, Tyler's Cape is a story about the relationship between brothers, the difficult yet enduring nature of family, and the rediscovery of a child's lost world of grace and glory.

What an excellent novel! I'd definitely recommend it.

It's not a happy story at all but I found it hard to put it down. I'm originally from Nova Scotia and could relate to the characters and mannerisms.

Written in the youngest brother, Luke's voice, it follows three brothers, Tom, Billy and Luke, who grow up in a small fishing village in Nova Scotia. Their father dies when they are young and they are raised by their mother, Dora, who is bitter and extremely anti-social. Dora is not likable at all and it's not until you got to the end that you discover why she is the way. I didn't excuse her actions but at least it explained why she had turned out the way she did.

I'll leave you with a quote from Tom, speaking to Luke, when they were adults:

"You're responsible for yourself. Your life is your life. You can drink it away, screw it away, do whatever you want but it's yours. You're responsible."