From light to the dark
The Holiday Swap Maggie Knox Penguin Random House
Collaborating under the pseudonym Maggie Knox, writers Karma Brown and Marissa Stapley whip up a double batch of Christmas romance in this Hallmark-ready confection.
When Los Angeles-based TV baking-show star Charlie Goodwin suffers a concussion and loses her senses of taste and smell, she secretly swaps lives with her twin sister Cass, who runs the family bakery in their idyllic snow-globe of a hometown. It's just 12 days before Christmas, but both sisters manage to fall in love, make life- and career-changing decisions on the other's behalf and cause a whole lot of mistaken-identity confusion among their friends and lovers. Nicely plotted, it's sweet, but not cloying, at least not until the sappy ... er, happy ending. And the writers adhere to what should be a rule for all novelists: When a woman feels woozy or faint, it better be because she has a head injury, not the vapours.
Iskoces Tipiskak: A Spark in the Dark John Langan Self-published
Some kids get a solid head start in life. Children of residential school survivors, John Langan and his brothers, had the opposite experience. Their violent father committed suicide when John was three, a beloved stepfather was eventually lost to drugs, and their mother drifted through a life marred by drugs, alcohol and abuse. Langan could have followed a very dark path. Instead, he is a Saskatoon police constable and long-serving member of the Canadian Forces. Happily married, he is a proud father and role model who embraces spirituality and his cultural identity. Langan had help and guidance along the way, and he's determined to pay it forward. A raw and ultimately uplifting memoir, it is available on Amazon.ca and on Langan's website at asparkinthedark.com.
Open Every Window: A Memoir Jane Munro Douglas & Mcintyre
Award-winning poet Jane Munro recalls the slow-motion ordeal of losing her husband to dementia in this frank memoir. The book isn't only focused on the years-long period of his illness. Munro touches on her own life — early childhood in Vancouver, marriage, children, divorce, a failed romance and her life with Bob, who was 20 years older and in his 70s when the first signs of dementia appeared. Her life takes a back seat throughout Bob's illness as she copes with grief, frustration and the endless demands of being a caregiver. Self sacrifice may be praiseworthy, but it's Munro's determination to reclaim a part of herself that is inspiring.