Surprise! Bet you weren’t expecting me.

Remember when I said I wasn’t going to do any reading challenges this year? Predictably, that only lasted so long before I could resist. So 2016 Reading Bingo is ON, courtesy of Penguin Random House Canada.

Some of these categories seem a little familiar… coincidence?! I struggled finding a new genre for the Reading Adventure last year, now I have to do it again?!?!

Halfway through the year, halfway through the card:

A BOOK WRITTEN BY A FEMALE AUTHOR

Infidelity, by Stacey May Fowles
(232 pages, published October 1, 2013, by ECW Press)
4 stars

Reasons why I wish I was friends with Stacey May Fowles:

1) She’s a HUGE Blue Jays fan.
2) She’s awesome on Twitter.
3) She writes cool stuff – for The Walrus, Torontoist, Hazlitt and The Globe and Mail to name a few, in addition to blogging for bluejaysnation.com and putting out her own weekly e-newsletter called “Baseball Life Advice.” Oh, and books, too!!
4) I would adore having a friend named Stacey (May).

Alas, I’ve never even met her, I just follow her on these digital platforms and have imaginary conversations with her. And, I read one of her books (so far!). In Infidelity, Ronnie has an affair with Charlie. That makes them bad, right? Not so fast!

A BOOK SET OUTSIDE OF CANADA

The Last Resort: A Memoir of Mischief and Mayhem on a Family Farm in Africa, by Douglas Rogers
(336 pages, published September 7, 2010 by Broadway Books (first published January 1, 2009))
4 stars

The Last Resort is the story of a family trying to maintain the pleasant life they’ve made for themselves amongst dire circumstances. Rogers grew up in Zimbabwe and his parents run a lodge there, but the political strife in that country of the 2000s could be their undoing. The story is nerve-wracking, yet Rogers’s parents are something else, so at the same time it’s funny and awe-inspiring. And of course, the setting comes across as gorgeous, turmoil notwithstanding. It’s been added to my places-in-Africa-I-would-love-to-visit-but-will-probably-never-make-it-to bucket list. (Thanks to my ace yoga instructor Anna for the recommendation. Namaste!)

A BESTSELLER

Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
(350 pages, Published April 1, 2008 by Atria Books (first published 2006), audiobook by Recorded Books)
4 stars

You’ve probably heard of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, even if you don’t remember her name. She’s been a refugee, a Member of Holland’s Parliament, and an international activist. She is a very vocal opponent of the subjugation of women, female genital mutilation and honour violence. Formerly a devout Muslim she’s now a critic of Islam, believing it needs reforming and that western nations don’t do enough to support or protect Muslim women out of some skewed sense of political correctness and not wishing to appear unwelcoming of multiculturalism. This opinion gets her into some trouble, to say the least. In Infidel she tells her story from her birth in Somalia, through a childhood and teen years moving from country to country, her forced marriage, her escape to Europe, her evolution into a politician, her making a film about Islam with Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh who was assassinated on the street because of it, to living with death threats and under armed guard.

A BOOK WITH A BLUE SPINE

This Is Not My Life: A Memoir of Love, Prison, and Other Complications, by Diane Schoemperlen
(368 pages, published April 26, 2016 by HarperAvenue)
4 stars

This is not your typical romance story. How does a successful, award-winning writer fall in love with a convict who is in and out of federal penitentiaries? Is the relationship doomed from the get-go? I found Schoemperlen’s tale both fascinating and, to be honest, a little bit disturbing at the same time.

A BOOK THAT TAKES PLACE IN THE TIME BEFORE YOU WERE BORN

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, by Daniel James Brown
(416 pages, published May 27, 2014 by Penguin Books (first published June 1, 2013))
4 stars

I stole this book. From Adam, so that’s not really stealing, is it? It was a gift for him (hi Effie!) but when an interesting-looking sports/biography/history book comes into my house, I can’t not read it. So, I stole it. And loved it from the first page to the last. Boys is the story of the University of Washington crew team who seemingly came out of nowhere to make a splash (see what I did there?) in a sport dominated by eastern and European elites. Brown combines the story of the team’s quest for Olympic gold, a portrait of America in the 1930s, and a focus on the life of one Joe Rantz – and the result is unputdownable.

A BOOK WITH AN ILLUSTRATED COVER

A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic’s Wild Ride to the Edge and Back, by Kevin Hazzard
(288 pages, published January 5, 2016 by Scribner; audiobook by Simon and Shuster Audio)
4 stars

Now this is one of my favourite genres – books about people with exciting or unusual jobs. Perhaps I seek these out because I still have yet to decide what I want to be when I grow up. There aren’t actually a thousand naked people in this one, just a few, but it is indeed a wild ride and completely enthralling.

A BOOK RECOMMENDED BY A FAMILY MEMBER

The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss
(255 pages, published May 17, 2006 by Norton (first published May 2, 2005))
4 stars

I am a sucker for books with storylines like separate threads that string you along until the author ties them neatly together. I think Jennie must be too, as this is one of her favourites. In this case the strings are stories of love and friendship and war and coming of age and a mysterious book. (I also highly recommend Krauss’s Great House – though I suspect Jennie and I differ on which one of the two we love more!)

A BOOK BECOMING A MOVIE IN 2016

The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins
(316 pages, published January 6, 2015 by Doubleday Canada)
4 stars

I hadn’t read too many psychological thrillers before this one, but I might now! I wasn’t even going to read it initially, but I happened to have an autographed copy and a free evening… and so it went from my TBR pile to my finished pile in a matter of hours. What does Rachel see on one of her daily commutes on the train? It’s a twisty, turning ride to the answer.

A BOOK WITH A MAP AT THE FRONT 

Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story of a Forgotten War, by Matti Friedman
(256 pages, published May 3, 2016 by Signal)
4 stars

“The Pumpkin” = a remote Israeli-held outpost in Lebanon, “flowers” = casualties, and Pumpkinflowers = Israeli-Canadian Friedman’s memoir of his IDF service in the 1990s. He writes with such beautiful turns of phrase, distilling into this little volume his take on what was then and what is now a most complex situation.

A BOOK WITH A FEMALE PROTAGONIST

13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, by Mona Awad
(224 pages, published February 23, 2016 by Penguin Canada)
4 stars

Lizzie is fat, then she’s not, then she might be again, but just a little, or is she really because it’s so hard for one’s brain to tell what size one truly is, and anyway is her life truly better when she’s this size than it was when she was the other size because how do you have time to love someone when you are constantly worried about whether you’re eating only four ounces of fish or make friends when you spend parties with only half your brain in the conversation while the other half is consumed with calorie math? The 13 interconnected stories in 13 Ways are spot on.

A BOOK THAT SCARES YOU

Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath, by Ted Koppel
(288 pages, published October 27, 2015 by Crown)
3 stars

1) This book is pure fear-mongering.
2) We are doomed.

A BOOK BASED ON A TRUE STORY

A Long Way Home, by Saroo Brierly
(288 pages, Published June 2, 2015 by Berkley (first published June 24, 2013), audiobook by Blackstone Audio, Inc.)
4 stars

Boy is born into a poor family in India. Boy gets separated from brother at a train station when he’s just five years old. Boy winds up completely across the country, and doesn’t know the name of the place where he’s from or how to get back. Boy somehow survives on the streets for a bit before being taken in by an orphanage, and then, adopted by an Australian couple. Boy grows up in Tasmania. Boy (now man) searches for years for his Indian family and MOST IMPROBABLY FINDS THEM. True story.

 

That’s it for now! See you again later this year to complete the card. And of course, tell you about 2016’s 5-star reads.