Let's Get Back to Blogging

 Here we go!

I am back....And I regret not keeping track of my reading over the past few years, so I'm recommitting to this process. 

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Read it. Enjoyed it.

A very candid account of a young woman's struggle to discover who she is, and what is really important to her.

This autobiography is that account of a woman, who decides to leave her life, and hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert to Washington State by herself.

It was a best seller when it was published in 2012, and I enjoyed reading it.

This book makes me want to go hiking and camping, and unplug and reconnect with myself.

You have to read until the very last page to find out what happens.

Thanks for the tale Cheryl!

We Were Brothers by Barry Moser

I picked up this memoir from the Toronto Public Library as Barry Moser was scheduled to give a book talk event. The memoir sounded interesting as a personal examination of how a relationship between brothers can turn from bond to alienation.  

Here's a summary from Goodreads.com:

Barry and Tommy Moser were born of the same parents, were raised in the same small Tennessee community where they slept in the same bedroom and were poisoned by their family’s deep racism and anti-Semitism. But as they grew older, their perspectives and their paths grew further and further apart. From attitudes about race, to food, politics, and money, the brothers began to think so differently that they could no longer find common ground, no longer knew how to talk to each other, and for years there was more strife between them than affection.

When Barry was in his late fifties and Tommy in his early sixties, their fragile brotherhood reached a tipping point and blew apart. From that day forward they did not speak. But fortunately, their story does not end there. With the raw emotions that so often surface when we talk of our siblings, Barry recalls why and how they were finally able to traverse that great divide and reconcile their kinship before it was too late. 

Featuring Moser’s stunning drawings, especially commissioned for the book, this powerful true story captures the essence of sibling relationships—all their complexities, contradictions, and mixed blessings.

Although well written, I found this memoir lacking in the promised examination of a sibling relationship gone wrong. Moser tells of many situations in which he suffers at the hands of his older, abusive brother. Unfortunately, he doesn't dig into the event and analyze the clear differences between the two boys. Why is the older brother so severe, and what motivates his anger?

Further undermining this novel is a jarring end that takes the reader by surprise. Moser switches to using 3 letters that the brothers exchange and while I understand that this use of the letters give the reader an understanding of the brothers sad relationship, I found myself sympathizing with the brother, and found Moser to sound insensitive and spiteful. The author seems to have forgotten to consider why his brother ends up being intolerant and abusive. It is from his brother's letter that we find out that Tom was in fact abused as a child, and suffered his own trials. Moser fails to really embrace that revelation.

I believe that this memoir promises internal reflection, but delivers a simple recount of many small experiences without any great reflection. 

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris

Here's a total change of pace: David Sedaris' collection of short stories that will have you laughing out loud while reading on public transit, or while reading in bed at night. 

I have never read David Sedaris' work, and this was a quirky and creative start. I will seek out more of his writing as it was a fresh point of view that was playful and engaging.

Many of these stories reminded me of old nursery rhymes that are fundamentally brutal in nature with grim outcomes and cautionary conclusions. They were really fun to discover. 



Summary from Goodreads.com: 

"Featuring David Sedaris's unique blend of hilarity and heart, this new collection of keen-eyed animal-themed tales is an utter delight. Though the characters may not be human, the situations in these stories bear an uncanny resemblance to the insanity of everyday life. 

In "The Toad, the Turtle, and the Duck," three strangers commiserate about animal bureaucracy while waiting in a complaint line. In "Hello Kitty," a cynical feline struggles to sit through his prison-mandated AA meetings. In "The Squirrel and the Chipmunk," a pair of star-crossed lovers is separated by prejudiced family members.

With original illustrations by Ian Falconer, author of the bestselling Olivia series of children's books, these stories are David Sedaris at his most observant, poignant, and surprising."


Ian Falconer is very talented! Here are a few of my favourite illustrations:

After: The Snake who Decided that Mice are Dinner

Before: The Mouse who Insisted on
Keeping a Snake as a Pet

This was Miserable: This Is Happy by Camilla Gibb

Book Club's selection for May 2016, This is Happy was a quick read. I loved that it is based in Toronto, with lots of local landmarks mentioned. That's where the love started and abruptly stopped for me.

Here's a summary thanks to GoodReads.com:

In this profoundly moving memoir, Camilla Gibb, the award-winning, bestselling author of Sweetness in the Belly and The Beauty of Humanity Movement, reveals the intensity of the grief that besieged her as the happiness of a longed for family shattered. Grief that lived in a potent mix with the solace that arose with the creation of another, most unexpected family. A family constituted by a small cast of resilient souls, adults broken in the way many of us are, united in love for a child. Reflecting on tangled moments of past sadness and joy, alienation and belonging, Gibb revisits her stories now in relation to the happy daughter who will inherit them, and she finds there new meaning and beauty. Raw and unflinching, intelligent and humane, This Is Happy asks the big questions and finds answers in the tender moments of the everyday.

I am sympathetic to the struggles that the author faces.  Depression and the struggle to find connection are fundamental challenges to many people. An introspective look at someone's experience can be helpful to others searching for solace. I commend the author for taking on this project and trying to shed light on the quest for happiness in a everyday life. It must have been a very challenging task given the author's ongoing struggle with depression.

That being said, I was left feeling that there were enormous gaps in the narrative that undermined the success of this work. The author neglected to examine of the most interesting elements of her life: her career as an author, an accomplished academic, her work as an instructor. She is a successful and published author after all, writing about her life and struggles. Amazing to find an author owning her own home in Toronto...Where many traditionally employed people only dream of this achievement. And yet, she fails to write about her life as an author and how she is challenged by her choice of work. In fairness, she references book tours and teaching the odd time, but she never further delivers any details on her occupation. Meetings with editors, working scripts, workshopping her writing...None of her daily experiences of being a writer make the pages of her memoire. The fact that she is a single parent, and able to buy a house in Toronto on her salary as a writer is daunting. This in itself is worthy of some exploration. But not in this book.

She also seems to lack introspection on certain events. How can your partner of ten years, just up and leave without any signs or signals? She doesn't offer any hint on this. Also, she barely touches on her relationship with her mother, but choses to obsess about her abusive father who left them when they were very young. Almost absent, the role her mother played is not explored. Maybe Gibb isn't ready or willing to share this aspect of her life.

Emily Donaldson of the Toronto Star.

Gibb’s writing is laser-like, spare — the latter achieved by omitting much of the detail typically found in memoirs (her daughter’s name, her source of income after the split). Though a memoir is necessarily one individual’s point of view, the spirit of this one is collectivist: Gibb is “saved” not by the flamboyant discovery of untapped inner reserves, but rather by the mentally salubrious effects of companionship.

Happiness is a choice. It's not something that is done to you. She seems to have missed the fact that she is constantly looking externally to find happiness--as though surrounding herself with random people will keep her emotionally buoyed. I also felt that Gibb looks at her daughter as the one person in her life who attracts others into her company. She is hesitant to claim any possible draw on people herself. I wonder if this is a symptom of her current medical condition.


About 97% of this memoire is the author seeing only the negative in her life. She dwells on the abusiveness of her father, and plays the victim in many of her life's experiences. When you step back from the narrative, you see a person who has been blessed in so many ways. Gibb enjoys health, is incredibly well educated (Oxford), is very well traveled, is financially solid (owns a house in Toronto), affords a live-in nanny, and continues to enjoy the love and companionship of her family and friends.  She has a beautiful daughter. The most significant take away from this memoire is that clinical depression has robbed her of the enjoyment of these incredible gifts.

So sad with little redemption. I would pass on this one if I had a choice.