Some great books to read this spring
I thought I’d share some books I’ve enjoyed recently which would make great books to enjoy this spring.
As part of the Peterborough Public Library’s book club, I have taken part in lively discussions facilitated by librarian Karen Bisschop. Many of the following titles are available from the Peterborough Public Library, Chapters, Take Cover Books, Happenstance or online.
“The Cure for Drowning” by Loghan Paylor, a B.C.-based trans author, is one of the most gripping novels set around the time of the Second World War that I’ve read in a while.
Following the McNair farming family of three siblings and a young woman, Rebekah, who settles in their midst, the story alternates between two perspectives, Kit’s and Rebekah’s, unfolding the complicated relationships that develop among them and the effects of the war on those relationships.
Infused with magical Irish lore about selkies, seals that change into human forms, the novel includes themes of queer love and identity. Its twists and turns will keep you reading until the end.
“Hello Beautiful,” by Ann Napolitano, was a recent library book club pick. In what the author has described as an update to Little Women, “Hello Beautiful” is about a close-knit Italian family of four daughters in Chicago.
When Julia, the eldest, brings home William, a basketball-playing fellow student who is alienated from his parents, he is welcomed into the fold. All carries on swimmingly in the family, until a series of unexpected events threatens to unravel their bonds. This riveting saga carries on into the third generation in an epic tale of loss and grief.
Award-winning Newfoundland author Michael Crummey’s latest novel, “The Adversary,” is set in the 18th century in Mockbeggar, a remote outport on the northeast coast of Newfoundland.
Cornelius Strapp is a merchant whose business interests extend to outfitting fishermen, trading salt cod and salmon and running supply ships up the shore. His two children, a daughter, known throughout the book as Widow Caines, and his son Abe, a drunkard, don’t get along and, upon Cornelius’s death, the business goes to Abe.
When his sister’s husband dies, she inherits his competing business, thus pitting the two siblings against each other in a fight to see who can monopolize the shore. Sprinkled with Newfoundland dialect, the book is a dark tale, in which the residents face stormy weather, marauders, sicknesses, killings, poor fishing and the warring interests of their overlords.
“The Son of the House,” by Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia, is a touching portrayal of two Nigerian women, one a poor housemaid and the other a middle-class independent career woman. They forge their own paths through a traditional, ultra-patriarchal society, where husbands and sons take precedence over everything, when their lives converge and collide in a most-surprising manner.
The book opens with the two women in captivity as kidnapping victims, while each tells their life story, with unexpected results. This dramatic story will have you reading till the end.
This book was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, was a finalist for the Nigeria Prize for Literature and the winner of the SprinNG Women Authors Prize.
My book, “Claudette on Keys,” based on true events, is the story of Ida Fernley, whose stage name is Claudette, and her husband, Harry, a Toronto-based two-pianos fourhands team struggling to find employment in 1936 after being laid off from their radio show.
When they are invited by a British talent agent to work in England, they find fascism on the rise in this tale of intrigue in pre-war times.
The book is available from the Peterborough Public Library, Take Cover Books, Chapters and on Amazon.
For information, visit joanneculley.com.