Winner of the 2012 Giller Prize. Thrilling and suspenseful. When Laura Curtis, a lonely editor in a cold northern city, discovers that her father has died because of an internet money swindle, she sets out to track the culprits down—and corner—her father’s killer. It is a dangerous game she’s playing, however, and the stakes are higher than she can ever imagine.
Riveting and culturally astute, this is a great read.
Winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards, this science fiction classic novel is exciting and fresh. I was captivated by the premise and it has sufficient action and suspense to keep a reader interested.
In order to develop a secure defence against a hostile alien race’s next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn’t make the cut–young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.
Ender’s skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers, Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.
Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender’s two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If the world survives, that is. (amazon description used here)
Edna Annie Proulx is an American journalist and author. Her second novel, The Shipping News (1993), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for fiction in 1994. Her short story “Brokeback Mountain” was adapted as an Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe Award-winning major motion picture released in 2005. Brokeback Mountain received massive critical acclaim and went on to be nominated for a leading eight Academy Awards, winning three of them. (However, the movie did not win Best Picture, a situation with which Proulx made public her disappointment.) She won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for her first novel, Postcards. She has written most of her stories and books simply as Annie Proulx, but has also used the names E. Annie Proulx and E.A. Proulx. (excerpt from Goodreads)
This is a story set in Newfoundland. Reading this novel brings you right down onto the rock of the island province and gives you a very intimate sense of the heart and soul of the place. The story centres around Quoyle, an eccentric and sensitive character who has trouble grappling with the hardships that life throws at him. Overall a great read.
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
Winner of the Canada Reads People’s Choice award and the First Nations Communities Reads program and short-listed for the International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award.
Richard Wagamese is an Ojibway from the Wabaseemoong First Nation in northwestern Ontario. He is the author of four novels, including the award-winning Dream Wheels. His autobiographical book For Joshua was published to critical acclaim, and One Native Life was selected as one of the Globe & Mail‘s Top 100 Books of the Year. He lives outside Kamloops, British Columbia.
This story comes highly recommended by a number of my male students who love hockey. It is hockey that becomes the catalyst that changes the life of Saul Indian Horse, growing up in a northern Ontario residential school.
Excerpt:
‘My grandmother had always referred to the universe as the Great Mystery.
“What does it mean?” I asked her once.
“It means all things.”
“I don’t understand.”
She took my hand and sat me down on a rock at the water’s edge. “We need mystery,” she said. “Creator in her wisdom knew this. Mystery fills us with awe and wonder. They are the foundations of humility, and humility, grandson, is the foundation of all learning. So we do not seek to unravel this. We honour it by letting it be that way forever.”‘
This novel was inspired by the Grimke sisters of Charleston South Carolina who went against their upbringing and became out-spoken advocates, against slavery and for the equality of women. The story begins when Sarah Grimke is given ten year old Handful as a personal slave from her parents. She immediately wrote up her freedom papers. Her father tore up the papers and Sarah was forced to keep Handful. The story progresses through their complex relationship and Sarah’s struggle to shape her own destiny. The story includes many interesting characters and tells a compelling and historically accurate account of the struggles of both blacks and women in that era.
Digitizeme 