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The Year of The Flood by Margaret Atwood

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Yesterday I finished The Year of The Flood by Margaret Atwood. The story is about a futuristic society invented by Atwood. Oryx and Crake is the companion to this book, which I haven’t read, but I didn’t feel lost reading this book, without knowing the story line. The first time I started to read this book a couple years ago, I stopped because it didn’t pull me in. This time I finished it, I found the imagined society hit really close to home sometimes and it made you think about how our world is self-destructing in many ways. I liked the strong female characters, who were the main characters in this book but I didn’t feel emotionally connected to them in this story like I did when I read about Snowfalls and Bird in the The Orenda or Wayne in Annabel, but it certainly is a well written book and Atwood is the queen of story telling.

This is the last Canada Reads book, all five were very well written and my favourites were The Orenda by Joseph Boyden and Annabel by Kathleen Winter. I’ll have to wait until March to see the showdown.

I’m reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez now. So far so good at page 50, but I’m always put off when they start the book with a Family Tree. We will see.

Dawn

Annabel by Kathleen Winter

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I just finished Annabel by Kathleen Winter.  One of the five CBC Canada Reads contenders.  This story was about a kid with an identity crisis living in a small Canadian rural town.  It was heartbreaking and powerful.  It was well written, all the character’s story-lines were weaved together seamlessly.  You know it’s a good story when you start to care about the characters.  It will be a tough one to beat.  

 

Now I’m beginning the last book, The Year of The Flood by Margaret Atwood.  One I have started to read before but put it down after chapter one, worth another try.

 

Dawn

Cockroach by Rawi Hage

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I just finished reading Cockroach by Rawi Hage. One of the five books chosen in this years CBC Canada Reads competition. Well I couldn’t put this one down. There is no wasted moment in this book, the story is compelling and every word has effect. I felt inside the story and inside the head of the troubled main character. In a very different way than Half-Blood Blues and Orenda, it shows the effects that war and human suffering can have on the soul.

Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

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This morning I finished Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan, it is one of the CBC Canada Reads contenders for 2014. I definitely learned something after reading this book. I’ve never thought about the black experience in Nazi Germany during WW2. Esi Edugyan certainly was able to put the reader in the middle of all of the chaos of that war. The language and the culture of jazz musicians of that time period seemed to ring true. The only thing I didn’t feel was the emotion. The fear of being hunted and hated for simply being different was present in the novel but I didn’t  feel it like I thought I should. What I did like about this book is the way the story is presented it pulls you in from the beginning and holds you to the last page.