Trylinski Books

I was reading Open Book Toronto yesterday and came across this article about Ben McNally Bookstore’s Summer Reading List.  On June 11th, in Toronto, Ben McNally Books hosted their Summer Reading Presentation. They offered a quick introduction to the best books of the season.

Here are some of the Non-Fiction books on their summer reading list:

• The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles
• Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working in Africa and How There is a Better Way for Africa by Dambisa Moyo
• Columbine by Dave Cullen
• Losing Mum and Pup by Christopher Buckley
• and more!!

Here are some of the Fiction books on their summer reading list:

• Attachment by Isabel Fonseca
  
• Six Suspects by Vikas Swarup
• Border Songs by Jim Lynch
• February by Lisa Moore
• Little Bee by Chris Cleave
• and more!!

If you are trying to decide what you want to read this summer, be sure to review Ben McNally Bookstore’s Summer Reading List.

Yesterday we had our Book Club meeting and we discussed the three (3) books we read in February: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, Why Shoot the Teacher by MaxBraithwaite and The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.

Everyone enjoyed these books and we had a lively discussion about them.  Have you read these books? If so, what did you think of them?

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. This is the story of an old Cuban fisherman and his ordeal to catch a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. I had trouble putting this book down, I wanted to see if he caught the marlin and if he got back safely. I thought it was very sad when he kept getting attacked by the sharks and lost more and more of his giant marlin to them.

Why Shoot the Teacher by Max Braithwaite. This book is part of an autobiographical triology by the author. Other books in this trilogy are: Never Sleep Three in a Bed and The Night we Stole the Mounties Car. The author tells of his first teaching job in rural Saskatchewan during the Depression. He tells of his isolation and loneliness living in the teacherage, of the hardships of the families and his students, and more. I enjoyed the part were he tells of the dance that was held at the school, how it lasted all night and his first time square dancing.

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. This play is about the Wingfield famly who live in an apartment. The daughter, Laura has one leg slightly shorter than the other and has a large glass collection (glass mengarie). Her brother Tom works at the warehouse and dreams of adventure and her mother, Amanda is trying to get Laura married off.

In March our book club selection is Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald. We will be meeting in early April to discuss this book. If you are reading along with us, check back to see our blog post about this title and be sure to leave your comments about it.

This evening we had our February book club meeting. We discussed our January selection which was Two Little Girls in Blue by Mary Higgins Clark .

If you have not read this book it is about the kidnapping of three-year-old twins from their home in Connecticut. They are being held for a 8 million dollars. The parents were not rich and did not have this kind of money, but the company that the husband worked for met and decided to pay the ransom for them. The ransom was paid and the children were suppose to be returned safely to the family, as per the Pied Piper, who was the person who had planned this kidnapping. But, unknown to him, one of the kidnappers had other plans and kept one of the twins, for herself. You have to wait until almost the very end to find out who the Pied Piper is and it was not the person I thought it was going to be.

During the story the author writes about how the twins were communicating with each other and how they felt each other’s pain. Do you believe that twins can communicate with each other? Do they feel each other’s pain? This is one of the themes in this book and I found it quite interesting that if one twin was ill the other twin was also ill.

Mary Higgins Clark is known as the Queen of Suspense and she has written many books. Be sure to visit her website where you will find a list of the books she has written and a brief biography.

For February we are reading three (3) classics: The Old Man and The Sea by Hemingway, Why Shoot the Teacher by Max Braithwaite and The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.

Happy Reading!!

What have you been reading?

I have always found it hard to get a lot of books read since I started bookselling. It seems I am always working and I was not taking any time for actually “reading”. Then in November one of the ladies in town approached me and asked me if I would like to join a Book Club.

So in November, 2008 the Pangman Book Club was started. The first book we read was Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan. It was a great read.

In December we read The Ukrainian Wedding by Larry Warwaruk. At our January Book Club meeting we discussed how the author slowly developed the different characters in the book, about the Ukrainian beliefs and old ways they brought with them from the Ukraine, about the relationships between the different families, and how strong the women had to be to survive during that time in Canada.

If you have not read this book, it takes place during the second world war in a small community in Manitoba, and tells of a time when people were in a transition from being European to becoming Canadian. I will not soon forget the many characters introduced in this story: Nelie and Danylo, whose wedding is taking place in July, Lena who has just finished Grade 10 correspondence school, Nick who is back from the war, his parents Panko and Paraska, Lena’s sister Rose and her husband Yuri, and many others. The story begins with Lena going to buy a dress and shoes for Nellie and Danylo’s wedding, the Ukrainian traditions prior to the wedding and the wedding celebration. How Marusia and Yuri ran off during the wedding to Dauphin and the murder of Marusia, and finally the trial of the murderer.

The Ukrainian Wedding was published by Coteau Books of Regina, Saskatchean, in 1998. The author, Larry Warwaruk was born in Regina, Saskatchewan. He has also written: Red Finns of the Coteau, Rope of Time, Sundog Highway: Writing from Saskatchean , Andrei and the Snow Walker , as well as a number of short stories published in Grain, NeWest Reviews and elsewhere.

Our selection for January is Little Girls in Blue by Mary Higgins Clark.

Happy Reading!!