SCIENCE FICTION
SCIENCE
SHORT STORIES
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone What happens when a Canadian poet and an American fantasy author write a book? You get the single most lyrical science-fiction work I have ever read. It is a co-authored, epistolary novel in which each author writes the part of one time-travelling operative. This Is How You Lose the Time War is beautiful, fast-paced, and unreservedly unique.
The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson
Grand Union by Zadie Smith
I love it when a book surprises me. Grand Union is a wild departure from Smith’s novels, which tend to be set in contemporary England. The stories in this collection range not only in setting, but also in time period, genre, style, and voice. Kudos to Smith for taking this imaginative leap.
Here is another meticulously researched, yet completely readable, book by Bryson. He takes the reader through the human body from head to toe, describing all of the amazing processes that make us tick. It may sound dense, but I assure you it is a joy to read.
FICTION
SATIRE
Akin by Emma Donoghue
The Captain and the Glory: An Entertainment by Dave Eggers
ECO LIT
Donoghue is known for portraying interesting character dynamics (see The Wonder and Room ), but in her new novel Akin , she depicts a unique duo. Noah, a septuagenarian man, is given temporary custody of his pre-teen (and previously unknown) nephew Michael just before a trip to research his upbringing in Nice. Donoghue’s dialogue between the two makes this book shine.
Greenwood by Michael Christie
Hilarious and terrifying, this little nugget of a book speaks volumes. An inexperienced and inept man is chosen to captain a ship named the Glory . He steers the ship into increasingly dangerous situations while throwing all the manuals (and much of the crew) overboard. I’ll let you figure out the metaphor.
Many works are popping up in this new genre after the success of Pulitzer Prize winner The Overstory , but Greenwood is the best I have read. Following the story of the Greenwoods down to the heartwood and back out again, Christie masterfully weaves this narrative of family and forest.
MEMOIR
FANTASY
I Miss You When I Blink : Essays by Mary Laura Philpott
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Are you a Type A person who needs to do everything? Is it exhausting? If so, this witty memoir-in-essays is for you. Philpott writes so earnestly about motherhood, work, and family, it is as if she is confiding in you over a cup of coffee.
Fans of Morgenstern’s first book, The Night Circus , have waited eight years for this one. Secret societies, magic, and underground worlds abound in The Starless Sea , a story of fables and fairy tales.
Kristen Johnson is a homesteader and home- school mom who lives in Eastern PEI. She loves to spend her free time between the pages of a book.
WINTER 2020 www.pei-living.ca
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