Review 690: In Trees

In Trees: An Exploration by Robert Moor
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This book is somewhat hard for me to categorize other than saying it is a non-fiction book about trees and the human life, well mostly. It’s somewhat philosophical, somewhat scientific, while also being partly autobiographic.

Each chapter, which can be lengthy, focus on different topic. The book doesn’t have a thesis or summation and the subtitle is perhaps very apt as it is an exploration of trees in a variety of ways.

It begins with the author and his personal experiences, first with climbing trees then with bonsai trees. One surprising chapter was genealogy based, looking at how family are like trees branching out, although it is more in-depth there than I’m summarizing here.

There was a chapter on the Korowai people who live in tree houses, and are mostly living as their people have done for thousands of years. The author does visit. There is a chapter on chimpanzees, who make nests in trees and of course Moor has to sleep the night in one. From there we move into tree-sitters and saving old growth. Moor volunteers a few stints then becomes quite involved in becoming an activist to save some old big trees in Canada.

I felt like the trees were more the launching pad for Moor’s discussions than be centrally focused. I didn’t mind some of the explorations, but a few of them I wasn’t too excited about.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 552: The Colony of Unrequited Dreams

The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Very much enjoyed this one. It’s a biography of Joseph Smallwood and Newfoundland, following his career and his dealings with Sheilagh Feilding. They meet in grade school, involved in a pivotal moment for both of them, which also leads to them both not graduating. They meet again a few years later both being reporters for rival newspapers covering the courts. Their relationship, is followed throughout the book, which is of attachment, but not physical.

From what I read on Wikipedia the biography part of Smallwood is accurate. Certainly there is much fiction here, but the aspects of what he did in life is true. Smallwood was ambitious since childhood and kept preserving in a political aspect, or with newspapers. Somehow despite all the energy he would pour into his endeavors they never did succeed immensely, until he landed a role on the radio bringing boosterism of Newfoundland, The Barrelman. In the end, he did achieve what he desired.

This was a long book, there was much here, and it’s the first book of a trilogy. The other two focus on Fielding, which is quite the character. Yet despite my enjoyment of this book just not sure I want to continue on.

Review 538: Flower Diary

Flower Diary: In Which Mary Hiester Reid Paints, Travels, Marries & Opens a Door by Molly Peacock
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I first heard about this book, a cursory description from the publisher, I thought it sounded interesting. Later, after receiving a print copy of the book I wasn’t so sure. What do I know about art and painting? Nothing.

I started reading just the beginning to see if I actually wanted to read the book, and I just kept going. The author started her writing career as a poet and it shows in this book’s writing style. Without knowing who these people are, nor anything about art, the writer drew me in and had me keep reading.

This book describes the life of an American-Canadian woman painter, Mary Hiester Reid (1854-1921). The author does a thorough job of researching her life and finding what little there is her through letters or from the biography of her perhaps more well known husband George Reid (1860-1947). (Knowing nothing about the art world, maybe both are equally well known?) She was a force for her time, breaking through the art world when it was male dominated.

The book includes images of Mary’s paintings, and a few from George. The print copy I have they are all in black and white, unfortunately. I did look a few up on the internet, but the author actually describes the paintings somewhat well, such as discussing the color and brush strokes. The paintings are analyzed, meaning is found and placed upon Mary (or George) and emotion, quite a lot of emotion. And it is using these paintings that give significant meaning to Mary’s life and this biography.

Between each chapter is an “Interlude”. The paper here is not white, but a light gray. Many times the interlude is about the author’s life, Molly Peacock, but sometimes it is tangential to the lives of the Reids. With this interlude we get a bit of autobiography, without this I would say the book tended towards the academic, even though it is fairly readable.

This turned out to be quite an enjoyable and interesting book, and just maybe I learned a tiny bit about art.

Review 527: I Hope This Finds You Well

I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars

I’ve read a few work fiction books; they tend towards satire and have extreme situations that seem quite implausible. This book has a bit of that, particularly of the later, but it also turned out to be more than I expected.

The main character Jolene has extreme anxiety from a situation in high school that dealt with her best friend. It apparently ruined her family as well, and now they live in a different major metropolitan area of Canada. The result is Jolene has trouble with personal relationships, and she has become an outcast at work. Landing in trouble she has to undergo a training program with HR in order to save her job.

What develops is a little predictable at times, but the story was told well enough that it wasn’t enough to turn me off entirely. It has quite a bit of humor but in the end, not as sarcastic as one might expect. I listened to the audio book which was narrated quite well.

Review 522: BOOM

BOOM: Oil, Money, Cowboys, Strippers, and the Energy Rush That Could Change America Forever by Tony Horwitz
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This is a short book. Horwitz traces where the XL Pipeline was proposed to carry the oil from the tar sands in Canada. Starting out in Canada he talks to people who are working on mines in the oil tar sands. Two tons of these sands will produce one barrel of oil, and daily they produce about 3 million barrels a day. That is an enormous amount of sand processed. The size is unfathomable, but Hortwitz does try to describe what the giant mine looks like.

After talking to mainly workers and others, he starts to follow the pipeline location, although it hadn’t been started yet. Most of the people he tries to talk to are land owner who’s land it will be sitting on, and we get their opinion. For the most part people seem to be for this venture, for the jobs and the money it will bring in.

There are some that are completely against it, and Horwitz talks to some of those people too, but there is not a balance. It felt to me that the majority included in this book are for the pipeline for what it will bring. Maybe I didn’t keep close enough track.

This is a journalist travel narrative, with the expected notes on things such as the border crossing and his rental car, along with some other local flavor and experiences.

Review 505: Time Squared

Time Squared by Lesley Krueger
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars


A unique concept for a time travel book. At first it was a little confusing; decades would go by but the characters acted as if it was only months. It only became obvious that the world was changing when technology started to change dramatically. Later characters and situations changed significantly as well. It starts, and takes place for most of the book in the 19th century, but doesn't stay there and briefly visits the 16th and 17th century and of course the 20th and 21st.

Our main character is Eleanor Crosby who lives with her Aunt Clara since her father died, who was a minister. It is time she gets a husband. She has a dear friend Catherine. The Denholm brothers are visiting their area, Middleford, Yorkshire and the eldest is the most attractive catch, as the heir to the family castle, while the younger in uniform about to head out to war.

There’s a quite a cast of characters, the above being the most important, and they all seem to reappear in each time line. The book is held as being a romance through the different eras where Eleanor is trying to be with Robin. It is that in a way, but much more.

It’s an uncommon book and the ending does try to provide some reasoning for what all came before, but I was not much of a fan of that. Despite that part I did enjoy the way the book worked and the style of writing. It was an intriguing book.

Review 490: Sixty: A Diary of My Sixty-First Year

Sixty: A Diary of My Sixty-First Year: The Beginning of the End, or the End of the Beginning? by Ian Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

While I’m not there yet, this age will be in my future (baring something catastrophic), so why not read about one man’s experience with living the age of sixty. This diary is more contemplative than what happened each day, although there is that in the book as well.

Ian Brown lives in Toronto working at the Globe and Mail. He keeps active, sometimes biking to work when he’s at home. Near the end of the book I started to wonder how many days does he actually stay at home? He travels quite frequently, and mostly for pleasure, although there is some work related travel, such as a month-long stint at Banff as he leads the literary journalism program for the fifth year.

Of course aging is a recurring topic, as is health issues, and studies that show what declines and what point – generally everything sooner than you think, just the results don’t start showing until later. Other topics he keeps returning to is sex, his family (a given) and money, worrying about enough to retire. But the primary topic seems to be his own death is on the horizon.

It's quite the readable book, and well done, especially for a diary, but it’s not just a diary. It was written and edited with an eye to publication from the start.

Review 320: The Treeline

The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth by Ben Rawlence
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An investigative journalist, used to working in war zones or refugee camps, went out to investigate the furthest reaches of forest in the far north places, in six locations: Scotland, Canada, Norway, Alaska, Russia, and Greenland. Each place has one tree that dominates, such as the downy birch in Norway and the dahurian larch in Russia; spruce, Scots pine, poplar and ash are the other trees. The research is extensive, and so is his experience with visiting these places. The book is partly travelogue with the people Ben Rawlence meets and how he gets out to these far reaches in the forest.

While the focus is on the trees and the changing landscape, where climate change is more noticeable and effecting the local environment, he also talks about the people, descendants of native populations that have lived in these areas for a very long time. In Norway there is the Sámi people who lived in the far northern reaches for thousands of years, herding reindeer and hunting other animals. In Russia the native peoples, the Nganasan, were isolated from the world living in the far reaches of Siberia until very recently, in the 1930s when they became known to the Soviets.

Rawlence describes how they lived with the land and how the trees that grew there shaped their lives, and how they in turn helped shape the landscape. That humans and nature are intertwined, along with the other plants and animals in the area. And these far northern species of trees can help to restore where the climate is changing.

The book was intricate, with dense rich sentences. The language used was compelling and the topic even more so. While the focus is much on what is being lost, there is also a great amount of hope within the book.

The print book includes line drawings of the trees being discussed in each chapter. There is also a Glossary of Trees contained in the back of the book, with more line drawings and information included. This is a book to return to, read again, as there is so much and done beautifully.

Review 295: The Annual Migration of Clouds

The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A short book, novella that took nearly a third for me to feel grounded in this world; a post-climate change at some unknown point in the future, generations later.

We begin with teenage protagonist Reid who receives an acceptance letter to Howse University, a place in a dome. Everyone is elated for her, except her mother who says this is a fantasy, the place doesn’t exist. What is right? She would have to go out alone to get there, perhaps it is a ruse.

Reid, her mother, and many others are sick with a fungus. The semi-sapient fungus, Cad lives inside, sometimes controls the muscles, forces the infected to stay safe when needed, it appears with tree-link branches on your skin, passed on generation to generation.

This group of survivors live in an old university campus, taking classrooms or offices as living quarters. The community must all work together with some projects to make it work. It's a hard life. If Reid leaves it may harm the overall community, but if she went her life, their lives, could be improved. What does Reid choose, she only has two short weeks to get there, to decide.

I can see this being a start for another book extending out this world. The writing is decent, although as mentioned the setting took some time for me to feel settled into this world, a bit long for such a short book, which makes me hope there is more to this story.

Book rating: 3.5 stars

Review 275: Zachary’s Horses

Zachary’s Horses by Stan Krumm
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



A western! I got into the story. Somewhat fun.

It's (nearly) the wild west, but more subdued as this is Victoria, Vancouver Island soon to be part of Canada. The book has a western feel, the main character Zachary is hiding out from the law with a new name, but he didn't do what he's been accused of. Now he's married to a Chinese woman and run The Celestial hotel. The main focus of the book is a big horse race that Zachary is peripherally involved in, and his son's governess with her mysterious background.

This is book 2 in a series, and did not read the first. It may have improved enjoyment having read the first, but I don't feel like I missed anything terribly important without it.

Review 255: Turbulence

Turbulence by David Szalay
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This is a short book made up of short stories. The stories are connected, slightly, and that was what drew me into reading this book. It is well written but like many short story collections, I wanted more.

The characters are drawn up quickly, you fall into their lives, then they are gone. Well, not entirely as each story has two main people in them, and you follow one of them to the next story with another person. They are connections.

Connections much like at airports when flying. In fact, each story starts with the airport codes from – to, and a third if there is a connection, as each is traveling to another location as well, Hong Kong is one of the most frequent.

I listened to the audiobook which was narrated quite well. But the airport codes were too quick for me to catch which cities are involved. In print that would be easier to deal with.

I enjoyed this, yet left wanting more.

Brief Review 224: Fall on Your Knees

Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Ugh that father! This type of book is hard to read at times, but the writing was good.

Review 206: Foregone

Foregone by Russell Banks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have mixed feelings about this book. There are several layers of confusion for the reader, perhaps to simulate what is going on with the main character, whose mind is no longer clear with the treatments and medications due to his illness, dying of cancer. 

As a reader I didn’t particularly like the lack of quotation marks, the frequent interruptions to the narration, and repetition of some aspects. Yet this helps amplify the tension to mimic what is going on with Leonard Fife, as he is trying to tell his wife Emma who he really is and must do this in front of a camera with her in the room, otherwise he’d lie to her. Leo wants Emma to truly know him before he dies, and this confession feels necessary. He’s a filmmaker and his protégé is happy to film this, although expected a Q&A format, regardless he keeps the camera rolling.

The narrative has a stream of consciousness feel, and full of details and emotions which holds interest. In fact this is what helped me to continue reading. In the end was my curiosity satisfied; well, not really.

I expect this book would bring many discussions and analysis. The writing quality is there, but not always the easiest, or most pleasing, to read.

Thanks to Ecco/HarperCollins Publishers and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 148: Greenwood

Greenwood by Michael Christie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Somewhere in the early part of the book this book was reminiscent of a book I read last year, The Overstory by Richard Powers. Well, soon enough turned out I was mistaken, this book isn’t about trees in that way, with eco-activists and fighting for the trees, although one of the main characters does do direct actions to save trees. Powers book was also a bit more scattered with many stories within, and while this book also has many stories, it’s also more linear and cohesive.

This book is surrounded by trees, it is the subtext, the backdrop, the way all the characters survive, but each has a different approach to the trees. One rails against those cutting them down, while her father was the one doing the cutting. There’s a scientist studying the trees, and another creates thing from the wood.

And yet the book is really about family, and orphans. The opening pages have an image of a cut tree with the rings, with dates attached. This is also the framing of the book, which works great. Each year listed we visit in the book, starting with the future point at 2038, then going back to 1908, stopping along the way at specific years, then going back forward and ending with 2038. The bulk of the book rests in 1934. I like the layers and how the different time periods play upon each other, the years as rings as in a tree.

I enjoyed this book, despite all the bad decisions that the various characters seem to make. I liked the way the family is explored and revealed.

Review 55: In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of the Sasquatch

In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of the Sasquatch by John Zada
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Here's a book with a great cover. The title fits the image and perks my interest, then we get to the sub-title...Sasquatch? Well, why not. My personal belief is much like aliens visiting Earth, so not likely. We would know if any of this was real, the cover-up is too much. I don't like conspiracy theories too much either. Anyway, I thought the book might be a fun read.

As I read the book it felt like we, reader and author, are sitting around a camp fire and he was telling stories. Zada has a lot of stories. This book is a collection of those tidbits her learned and he also writes of how he got those stories. The book has these short exciting stories, between longer periods of what's going on with the author and the people he meets.

The book takes place nearly entirely in the Great Bear Rainforest, which is located in British Columbia, on the west coast near the central and northern coastal region. It is one of the few areas where old growth still exists. There are small towns populated by people of different First Nations who have lived in the area for thousands of years. This area has the most Sasquatch stories, but also it is part of the oral history for the people.

Zada goes into the project with an open mind, trying to truly determine if Sasquatch is real or not, despite his boyhood fascination with the subject. There is only a little review of the history of "Sasqualogy" and some of the most important "Sasquoligists." Perhaps Zada believes people reading this book already knows all that came before. I didn't, but it doesn't really matter too much.

The book was entertaining enough, the writing well done. The story line got a little distracted and sometimes not very focused. For myself, the most interesting parts of the book to me where of the landscape and the First Nations people.

Book rating: 3.5 stars


Thanks to Atlantic Monthly Press/Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 34: Lands of Lost Borders

Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road by Kate Harris
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

The book has some flaws, is it an autobiography or is it a travelogue? Is it about an adventure and how that changes you or is it about the rigors of biking the Silk Road for nine months?

It starts as an autobiography, first when Harris was young and honored for her essay about Mars. There is a few chapters about her college years in Oxford, her boyfriend (why was he in here?) and a little about her next degree. Oxford was a time of fooling around to get a degree in something she really didn't care about. Her main purpose was to get into NASA so she can be a Mars explorer. Then suddenly she is diverted, maybe because biking was around for her and she went on several long haul biking trips already, now there is this trip to take a good part of a year to bike the Silk Road with her friend Mel (Melissa), to finish what they started years earlier. Maybe it was too much research in the lab. Maybe she just wanted to explore.

The bulk of the book is about this nine month journey. but it falters here. She talks about some interesting ideas, but doesn't dive very deep into any of them. She tries desperately, especially near the end, to tie back into NASA and space exploration. Harris wants to be an explorer and she tries to justify her trip as exploration, going into the wilderness and finding something new, but of course it isn't new. She knows this as Marco Polo was someone she looked up to, until she realized he explored for mercantile reasons. And how is it wilderness? She is traveling in "old" countries.

The more the book goes on the worse her descriptions of the local people and places. It becomes horrid at times, appalling. She's supposed to be perceptive, intelligent? Definitely not humble. And she just butchers Buddhism, says nothing about other religions that are expressed in the areas she travels.

Oddly, I had almost no sense of her biking partner Mel, someone who was her constant companion for more than half a year. About the only real description of her personality consisted of how Harris was jealous of her in high school being popular, more pretty. She also seemed to charm the men more on the trip. Even more oddly, I learned more about the boyfriend in Oxford, which I'm not sure why there was so much written about him, to what ends?

It's an uneven book. Clearly Harris can write well when she puts in the effort, as there are some very lovely sentences. This book needed more time in the writing process. There are some good sentences, good writing, but also many false starts into ideas that aren't fully realized. Sadly the thing I came away mostly was the privilege of Kate Harris.

Book rating: 2.5 stars

Review 27: The Sun Is a Compass

The Sun Is a Compass: A 4,000-Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds by Caroline Van Hemert
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a well written book. The imagery is vital in an adventure book like this. Caroline and her husband Pat decide to traverse across mountains, rivers, oceans and glaciers using their own muscles. They hike, row or paddle into the arctic and back.

For me this is what arm chair travel is about. While I would love to be out in the wild, not that far north. It's way too cold and or rainy, very wet. Their time on the river with mosquitoes so thick you can't even eat, ummm, no thank you.

Caroline Van Hemert grew up in Alaska so it's not odd for her to take this long wilderness adventure in her own backyard. She is a biologist, or more accurately an ornithologist. One aspect I loved in this book is her descriptions of the birds they see and hear. It even made me more aware of the birds that are around me in my daily life.

It's crazy what humans will put themselves through. For these two it was worth the physical sacrifice and danger, and certainly won't be their last trip into the wild. This was an amazing adventure, and I enjoyed reading about it.


Thanks to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 18: The River

The River by Peter Heller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a wild ride. The book starts out slow enough, but soon you know things are going to go amiss for these two good friends taking a long summer to paddle through lakes and a river to the Hudson Bay. The first major sign is the smell of smoke. After climbing up a tree to get a look they discover there is a massive forest fire that will become a problem for them. Soon after they run into another couple of guys taking it easy, with whiskey and a motor on their small craft. It makes you wonder if the book is going into a deliverance type direction. But it keeps shifting.

That is what surprised me most about this book, it kept shifting like a river might. You suspect on thing is going to happen, or where this going, then it changes. There is definite action and a little suspense, but this is mainly a thoughtful book. With very little dialogue between the two friends, Wynn and Jack, they are both meditative. We get most information from thoughts in their heads.

One problem I did have with the book is the two main characters are hard to differentiate at first, since the book shifts point of view frequently. It's disorientating at times, particularly when you are trying to learn about who is Jack and Wynn. I was a good way in before I really could distinguish their different personalities and backgrounds, which is why the book rating went down slightly for me. Despite that this was a good book. I could see myself reading it again, now that I know the full story. It's one of those books you can re-read. A mark of a good book.


Thanks to Knopf Publishing and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Book Brief: The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed

The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed by John Vaillant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Heartbreaking book.