In March 2014 I flew home to Nova Scotia for a much needed break, leaving my late mother’s house in complete disarray.

I didn’t get very many books read this month, because I had three months of magazines waiting for me. I don’t know about you, but I read magazines like a book: from cover to cover. There were 23 of them: Chatelaine, Canadian Living, Style at Home, Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, House Beautiful, Saltscapes, Rural Delivery . . . It took half the month.

I decided I subscribed to too many magazines and now get only Rural Delivery and Saltscapes, both Atlantic Canadian magazines.

1. PAINTED GIRLS by Cathy Marie Buchanan (Fiction, Historical)

This is the story of sisters Antoinette and Marie van Goethem, who live with their widowed, absinthe addicted mother and younger sister, Charlotte, in Paris in 1878.

The only way out of their dire situation is if Marie makes it into the Paris Opera (her older sister Antoinette tried, but didn’t have the talent) as a ballet dancer. While at the dance school at the opera house, Marie comes to the attention of French Impressionist Edgar Degas. Subsequently, she serves as the model (clothed, and naked) for the artist’s famous statue, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen.

This was an eyeopener for me as I had always associated ballet school with the well-to-do. This was not so in nineteenth-century France. 4 stars

2. TEA BY THE NURSERY FIRE by Noel Streatfield (Non-fiction, Historical)

Doesn’t that title evoke a cozy picture? Indeed, subtitled A Children’s Nanny at the Turn of the Century, this is a charming little book.

From Amazon: “Emily Huckwell spent almost her entire life working for one family. Born in a tiny Sussex village in the 1870s, she went into domestic service in the Burton household before she was twelve, earning £5 a year. She began as a nursery maid, progressing to under nurse and then head nanny, looking after two generations of children. One of the children in her care was the father of Noel Streatfeild, one of the best-loved children’s writers of the 20th century. Basing her story on fact and family legend, Noel Streatfeild here tells Emily’s story, and with her characteristic warmth and intimacy creates a fascinating portrait of Victorian and Edwardian life above and below stairs.” 3½ stars

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Since there’s a total of only five books this month, I’m including the mysteries in this post.

 
1. THE TALK SHOW MURDERS by Steve Allen (Fiction, Mystery)

I found this book in mother’s attic and decided to give it a go.

I remember seeing Steve Allen on game shows in the 1970 and liking him, even as a teenager. He seemed to be to be a ‘gentleman’ and he seemed madly in love with his wife Jayne Meadows.

Now I learn that he was a ‘renaissance man’ of sorts. He not only wrote a series of murder mysteries centred on television shows, but he was a composer (This Could Be the Start of Something Big and hundreds of others) and the first host of The Tonight Show, where (Wikipedia informs me) “he was instrumental in innovating the concept of the television talk show.” Who knew?

In the book, Toni Tenille is hosting the television talk show where a guest is murdered on national TV and no one knows who did it.

This book is clever and certainly kept me entertained while I was reading it. If I had more of the series, I’d read them. 3½ stars

 
2. CHARLES JESSOLD, CONSIDERED AS A MURDERER by Wesley Stace (Fiction, Mystery, Historical)

From Amazon: “On the eve of his revolutionary new opera’s premiere, Charles Jessold murders his wife and her lover, and then commits suicide in a scenario that strangely echoes the plot of his opera—which (gentleman critic Leslie) Shepherd has helped to write.

Shepherd first shares his police testimony, then recalls his relationship with Jessold in his role as critic, biographer, and friend. And with each retelling of the story, significant new details cast light on the identity of the real victim in Jessold’s tragedy.”

This was one of The Wall Street Journal’s best fiction books of 2011, but it didn’t blow me away. The ending is phenomenal but the rest of the books is slower than molasses in January (and for all you young, hip city-dwellers: that’s pretty darn slow).

3½ stars

3. COLD COMFORT by Charles Todd (Fiction, Mystery, Historical)

An Inspector Ian Rutledge e-novella set in France in 1915. I suppose the Todds are thinking of mysteries for their character that are set during the war rather than after it, and the only way to write it is in flashbacks.

But my comments for myself when I was finished this were “What was the point of this?” Although I want very much to like the Ian Rutledge books, I was not impressed with this entry. 2 stars

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Of everything I read this month, I think I enjoyed my Saltscapes magazines the most. {sigh} Ever have reading months like that?

P.S. The links are affiliate links so I will receive a small percentage of any purchase you make after clicking through from this blog.

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The folks who run Canada’s Scotiabank Giller Prize have released a list of the CanLit books published during the past year, thereby making them eligible to be 2016 prize winners. They’ve encouraged one and all to make “Crazy for CanLit” lists.

This list – books by authors I’ve read before – is the only one I’m going to publish on my blog. You can find eight more on my Pinterest boards.

2016 CRAZY FOR CANLIT AUTHORS I’VE READ BEFORE

1. Gail Anderson-Dargatz

In August 2012 I read Anderson-Dargatz’s sweet story, A Recipe for Bees.

This new novel, The Spawning Grounds, by the two-time Giller-shortlisted author, is “an intimate family saga rooted in the Thompson-Shuswap region of British Columbia, and saturated with the history of the place. A bold new story that bridges Native and white cultures across a bend in a river where the salmon run.”

2. Alan Bradley

Bradley is the creator of Flavia deLuce, the intelligent, feisty, funny, and down-to-earth pre-teen budding chemist who solves mysteries in her village in rural England in the early 1950s.

I’ve read every book in this series, and I won’t be missing Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d either.

3. George Elliott Clarke

Back in my pre-blogging days I read both Execution Poems (poetry) and George & Rue (prose), accounts of Clarke’s mother’s cousins who were executed for killing a man in 1940s New Brunswick.

This new book, The Motorcyclist, was inspired by the life of Clarke’s father, set in and around Halifax, Nova Scotia. “In vibrant, energetic, sensual prose, George Elliott Clarke brilliantly illuminates the life of a young black man striving for pleasure, success and, most of all, respect.”

4. Emma Donaghue
Who hasn’t read Donaghue’s great novel-turned-movie Room? The summer I read it, many of my friends were saying they couldn’t read it because they were afraid it would be too dark.
But, on the contrary, this is a book about the indomitability of the human spirit, the capacity to adapt, and the power of love.

Her new book, The Wonder, is about a village in 1850s Ireland where a little girl appears to be thriving after months without food. The story of this ‘wonder’ has reached fever pitch.

5. Joy Fielding

I’m amazed to see from my records that I’ve read four of Fielding’s books: Grand Avenue, The Other Woman, Lost, and See Jane Run, all in pre-blogging days.

Her 2016 entry, She’s Not There, is about a woman who, fifteen years after her infant daughter was kidnapped in Mexico, is contacted by a girl claiming to be her long-lost daughter.

6. John Irving

I’ve read five of John Irving’s novels over the years. Nearly all were set in New England so his 2016 offering Avenue of Mysteries sounds a little different.

“Avenue of Mysteries is the story of what happens to Juan Diego in the Philippines, where what happened to him in the past–in Mexico–collides with his future.”

Will wrestling or bears make their appearance?

7. Maureen Jennings

Jennings is probably best known as the author of the series featuring Detective Murdoch, set in nineteenth century Toronto, Ontario. The books are the basis for the popular television series The Murdoch Mysteries.

In addition to the first in that series, I’ve read Does Your Mother Know?, the first installment in Jennings’ Christine Morris series.

Dead Ground In Between is the fourth entry in her D.I. Tom Tyler series, set in WWII Britain. I haven’t sampled this series yet but it’s said to be a “must-read for fans of Foyle’s War, Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series, and wartime dramas.”

8. Margot Livesey

Hmmm . . . Scottish by birth, American by residence, Livesey must use a Canadian publisher, else why would she be on this list?

I’ve read The Flight of Gemma Hardy, a modern retelling of Jane Eyre.

Mercury is said to be “a taut emotional thriller about love, obsession and the secrets that pull a family apart.” Mercury is a horse.

9. Yann Martel

How does one follow up such a smashing success as Life of Pi, which I read in my pre-blogging days?

“The High Mountains of Portugal is a suspenseful, mesmerizing story of a great quest for meaning, told in three intersecting narratives touching the lives of three different people and their families, and taking us on an extraordinary journey through the last century.”

10. Stuart McLean

Most Canadians are familiar with Stuart McLean who is a regular voice on CBC Radio’s Vinyl Café. McLean is a superb storyteller, weaving magical tales about the everyday lives of Dave & Morley and their kids Stephanie & Sam.

But “Dave and Morley are growing older; Steph and Sam are growing up. Moving out and moving on. In this brand new collection of Vinyl Cafe stories, The Vinyl Cafe Turns the Page, the more things change, the more things stay the same.”

11. Donna Morrisey

I love Donna Morrissey’s books and have read the first three: Kit’s Law, Downhill Chance, and Sylvanus Now, all before I started blogging.

That puts me a couple of books behind before I attend her book signing for The Fortunate Brother at the Fables Retreat in Tatamagouche on September 24th.

The Fortunate Brother continues the story of the Now family: Sylvanus & his wife and their children.

12. Kate Taylor

I thoroughly enjoyed Taylor’s second novel, A Man in Uniform, about the infamous Dreyfuss affair in late nineteenth century France.

I’m looking forward to reading this latest offering A Serial Monogamy, which features a woman writing “a serialized novel based on the story of the 19th-century actress Nelly Ternan, the young mistress of the aging Charles Dickens. (The) novel shifts between Sharon’s Toronto and Nelly’s Victorian England.”

13. Russell Wangersky

I first became aware of Wangersky when I heard him read at the 2014 Read by the Sea festival in River John, Nova Scotia. I promptly read his novel The Glass Harmonica, and the collection of short stores WhirlAway which was shortlisted for the 2012 Giller Prize.

The publicity for The Path of Most Resistance says it “is an observant and compassionate look at the feelings of powerlessness that we all share, and will have readers silently cringing and nodding in recognition of their own bad behaviour.”

14. Inger Ash Wolfe

I read The Calling, first in the series introducing Hazel Micaleff, in charge of a provincial police detachment 3 hours north of Toronto, in 2012. I had trouble putting it down and rated it four stars which is high praise for me for a serial killer novel. It’s been made into a film starring Susan Sarandon.

The Night Bell, the fourth in the series, is said to be the author’s best yet. I think this is a series best read in order.

15. Richard B. Wright

Of course I’ve read Wright’s masterpiece Clara Callan, which won three major Canadian literary awards, including the Giller Prize. I’ve also read October and Mr. Shakespeare’s Bastard, neither of which had any chance of living up to the beauty of Clara Callan.

In Wright’s new book, Nightfall, James Hillyer, a retired university professor tracks down the woman he fell in love with so many years ago on a summer trip to Quebec.

16. Alissa York

I’ve read York’s Fauna, which imagines a sanctuary for injured wildlife, hidden in the Don Valley in the middle of Toronto, Ontario, Canada’s largest city.

The Naturalist concerns an 1867 trip by amateurs up the Amazon River.

Isn’t this a gorgeous cover? You can find out what other covers in the list I thought worthy of note, on my “Cool Covers” Pinterest board.

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I’d like to read most of the books on this list, but my MUST-READS: Wangersky, Morrissey and Bradley. How about you?

P.S. Although most links in this post will take you to my past reviews, any links that take you to Amazon or The Book Depository are affiliate links so I will receive a small percentage of any purchase you make after clicking through from this blog.

About four years ago, I read Birth House by Canadian author Ami McKay, which was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, among other accolades. In it two midwives in an isolated village in rural WWI Nova Scotia offered onion juice as a tonic to their expectant and new mothers.
Not unheard of, but surely not the most common treatment either.

The very next book I read was a children’s chapter book and a Newbery Award winner: Holes by Louis Sachar. In it, the peddler Sam went through town shouting “Onions, onions”, because he sold them as medicinal remedies for a variety of ailments. He fed them to his donkey, Mary Lou, who seemed to never age.

 
So, as our eight-year-old grandson would say when confronted by something that seems a major coincidence – WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?

What are the chances that two so very different books would come into my reading sphere at the same time and include the same minor detail?
 

I was reminded of onions this week when I read Canadian author Lisa Moore’s Flannery, a YA novel set in Newfoundland. In it, Flannery says:

I have one of those antique clocks in my room with the numerals on little plastic tabs that flick over every minute. The tabs make a shish-click every time they drop down.

But, wait, I said to myself – I just read that. And I had – in the book I was reading on my Kindle at the same time.

In Ocean City Lowdown by Kim Kash, twenty-something reporter Jamie August works part-time in her uncle’s vacation rental business. In his office,

(she) dropped her smiley face and checked the time on the plastic pre-digital clock, the kind with flaps that drop each minute.

Do you remember these clocks (shown here stripped to its inner workings)? My aunt gave me one as a wedding gift in 1972 but I haven’t seen one in decades. I mean, really, what are the chances?

Have you run into similar reading coincidences?

When February 2014 rolled around I was in my third month of living at my recently deceased mother’s house and sorting through her worldly possessions.

My mother’s name was Bea – and she used the bee as a theme for her life for 35 years.

She had everything bee – bee jewelry, bee teddy bears, bee wind chimes, bee planters, bee notepads: anything you can name that could possibly have a bee on it, she had. After a few close friends took the bees they wanted (generally the ones that they had given her), I filled five cardboard boxes with bee paraphernalia.

Being in the midst of all those bees, I decided to have a bee-themed reading month too.

 

1. ROBBING THE BEES: A Biography of Honey—the Sweet Liquid Gold that Seduced the World by Holley Bishop (Non-fiction, Nature, Environment)

From Amazon: “Bishop — beekeeper, writer, and honey aficionado — apprentices herself to Donald Smiley, a professional beekeeper who harvests tupelo honey in the Florida panhandle. She intersperses the lively lore and science of honey with lyrical reflections on her own and Smiley’s beekeeping experiences. . . . Part history, part love letter”

Both beekeeper Smiley and Bishop are highly likeable and I greatly enjoyed this peek into making a living from honey, bottled yourself, before colony collapse syndrome.

Read this if: you’ve ever wanted to keep bees. 4 stars

 

2. THE BEEKEEPER’S LAMENT: How One Man and Half a Million Honeybees Help Feed America by Hannah Nordhaus (Non-fiction, Nature, Environment, Business)

“Award-winning journalist Hannah Nordhaus tells the remarkable story of John Miller, one of America’s foremost migratory beekeepers, and the myriad and mysterious epidemics threatening American honeybee populations.”

Make no mistake: John Miller is not a beekeeper; he is a big-business man. He moves his bees across the United States in climate-controlled tractor trailers, not in a pick-up truck. The honey he collects is blended and homogenized for the honey industry.

Although this book was as well researched and written as Robbing the Bees, I enjoyed it less because of the big-business perspective, enlightening as that was.

Read this if: you want an up-to-date picture of the health of North America’s honeybees (not good) and the impact of that on our ability to feed ourselves. 4 stars

 

3. TELLING THE BEES by Peggy Hesketh (Fiction, American)

This is a gentle novel about a beekeeper and life. Ali, who blogs over at Heavenali, posted a great synopsis recently. Rather than retell the story, I’ll let you pop over there if you’re interested.

This was pleasant to read but it didn’t sweep me off my feet. 3½ stars

 

4. THE ADVENTURES OF MAYA THE BEE by Waldemar Bansels (Fiction, Children’s Chapter, Classic, Translated)

First published in German in 1912, this series of adventures stars a young rebel bee who leaves the hive despite warnings to the contrary. She encounters good insects and bad, dangers and delights. The overarching theme of the book is a hit-you-over-the-head moral play: obey, work hard, be loyal.

Wikipedia advises that it was originally published as a fable with a political message. “Maya represents the ideal citizen, and the beehive represents a well-organised militarist society. It has also elements of nationalism and speciesism.”

I understand this is now also a comic book and an animated television series with its attendant marketed products. The moral of that series, I’m sure, is not what Bansels originally intended.
P.S. This is a free Kindle ebook on Amazon. 3 stars
 

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Since there is a total of only six books this month, I’m including the mysteries in this post.

1. THE BEE’S KISS by Barbara Cleverly (Fiction, Mystery, British)

Although this is #5 in the Detective Joe Sandilands series, it is the first of the series that I have read. Writing about it now reminds me that I wanted to start at the beginning of the series but haven’t yet done so.

Britain, 1926 (I love these books set between the two World Wars). A society matron is murdered and the investigation uncovers—you guessed it—secrets.

The characters are deftly developed, the plot ingenious, and the reveal stunning. It made me able to calm my OCD regret that I hadn’t started at the beginning of the series. 4½ stars

 

2. DEATH BY A HONEYBEE by Abigail Kearn (Fiction, Mystery, American, Contemporary)

Kobo synopsis: “Josiah Reynolds, a former art history professor, was once a celebrity with wealth, social position, and a famous husband. Now all of that is gone. The professor finds her circumstances drastically altered. Retired, Josiah is now a full time beekeeper trying to stay financially afloat by selling honey at the local Farmers Market.”

I thought the whole set-up—the award-winning house, the obsession with her (much) younger pool boy, and her other friendships—sounded contrived, and Josiah seemed to be being rough-edged for the sake of being so. Plus, I didn’t think the mystery was that big of a deal.

Yvette who blogs at In So Many Words felt much differently, and said so in her recent review. 1 star
P.S. The Kindle version of Death by a Honeybee is free on Amazon.
 

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Did you know that raising bees in the traditional “hive” shaped skep (as depicted in the intro to this post) is illegal in many countries, including the US, because the removal of the honey often causes the destruction of the entire colony of bees?

So, I learned a lot about bees and honey, and discovered a great new-to-me mystery series, in only six books. Not a bad return for my efforts. Plus I seemed to be getting my reading mojo back!

Does anything catch your fancy?
 

P.S. The links are affiliate links so I will receive a small percentage of any purchase you make after clicking through from this blog.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by The Broke and The Bookish!

This week’s topic allows me to share some covers on books that I still have on my shelves. Covers change, shelves change: this is a permutable list!
 

COVERS THAT EVOKE THE COUNTRY LIFE I LOVE

1. Welcome Home: Travels in Smalltown Canada by Stuart McLean

McLean is the host of the very popular CBC radio show The Vinyl Café. McLean’s books of stories from The Vinyl Café have won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour three times.

Before The Vinyl Café, McLean traveled to small towns across Canada to visit for several weeks in each.

I love this book and I loved the cover on my copy, but when I went to Amazon to find that cover, I loved this cover on the re-issue even more!

2. From Stone Orchard: a Collection of Memories

This non-fiction work was my introduction to this icon of Canadian literature.

Findley and his partner purchased a run-down 19th century farmhouse in southern Ontario, Canada and lived there until his death in 2002. They named their estate Stone Orchard, for obvious reasons.

Even in non-fiction, Findley’s writing was lyrical.
 

3. The Corrigan Women by M.T. Dohaney
 
I love this cover: it represents so well the Atlantic Canadian life I’ve embraced.

Along with To Scatter Stones and A Fit Month for Dying, this trilogy is the story of three generations of Corrigan women: Bertha, Carmel, & Tessie.

Set in a Newfoundland outport, the stories are rich and tragic; the writing superb.

Note: Check out the cover on the recent reissue of A Fit Month for Dying. I love it; it made me laugh out loud.

COVERS THAT EVOKE A DIFFERENT TIME OR PLACE

4. The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice

Aren’t these clothes so elegant?

The only complaint I have about this book set in 1950s London is that, after making me salivate at the dresses on the cover of the book, there was very little detail about the party clothes. I’d really liked to have known more than just it was “sparkly mint green dress”!

But don’t let that minor problem stop you from reading this delightful novel.

5. The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith

Book 5 in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series featuring Mma Precious Ramotswe

There is something very touching about this cupboard, “full” of its stripped down essentials. It makes me think of my kitchen cupboards, and wonder what life would be like in Botswana.

And it’s a beautifully balanced montage.

6. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

I know that this 1932 Pulitzer Prize winner has had numerous covers in its many incarnations, but this is the one on the copy that I have.

It immediately evokes traditional China, where peasant Wang Lung’s life is tied up in cycles of that earth that he works so diligently to acquire.

And I love the contrast between the gold and red.

COVERS WITH WONDERFUL COMPOSITION

7. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

This cover is perfect.

The blue is the perfect colour. The beautiful contrasting orange is just enough.

The boat is placed in just the right position, slightly off centre.

And there’s no extra text marring the composition.

Beats me why they issued all the digital “stuff” with a different cover.
 

8. The Underpainter by Jane Urquhart

This brilliant novel won the 1997 Governor-General’s Literary Award.

The cover of the current edition of this book is different. Why? Oh, why?

There’s that country red again in the flowers.

The flowers imperfect; the cloth imperfect. The vase cut off.

Just beautiful.

9. This Cake is for the Party by Sarah Selecky

So far, this cover is the only one this book has had – and that’s a good thing.

You just know these are not “live happily ever after” short stories, but are about real life.

The broken plate. The crumbs.

Amazing how the imperfect makes it perfect.

10. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

This is not a beautiful cover. Frankly, it gives me the creeps.

But, wow, what an impact it had on me when I first read this as a teenager.

That was 45 years ago – and I can still see the cover without seeing it. If you know what I mean.

That blood red. The back of that man. So ominous.

 
I didn’t do this intentionally, and – honest – I read books from all over the world. But six of these authors (McLean, Findley, Dohaney, Martel, Urquhart, & Selecky) are Canadian. I guess I’m on a theme.

What do you think of these? Do any of them appeal to you? What’s your favourite cover?

P.S. The links are affiliate links so I will receive a small

This link-up is hosted by Books Are My Favourite and Best, and was inspired by Hungarian writer and poet Frigyes Karinthy. In his 1929 short story, “Chains”, Karinthy coined the phrase ‘six degrees of separation’. The phrase was popularized by a 1990 play written by John Guare, which was later made into a film starring Stockard Channing.

On the first Saturday of every month, Kate chooses a book as a starting point and links that book to six others forming a chain. Bloggers and readers are invited to join in and the beauty of this mini-challenge is that I can decide how and why I make the links in my chain.

August’s starting book is Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. You no doubt know that this is a story of the plague in the year 1666. When one village receives an infected bolt of cloth from Europe, they decide to isolate themselves from the world in order to prevent the spread of plague to their neighbours. Year of Wonders is perhaps Brooks’ best known book, but the book the won her the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is

1. March in which she imagines the Civil War experiences of Marmee’s husband, and the March sisters’ (Meg, Jo, Beth & Amy) father. It is a stunning story, and I believe that Brooks based the character loosely on Amos Bronson Alcott, father of real-life author Louisa May who wrote

2. Little Women (Kindle edition free on Amazon). I’m certain this link did not surprise you. This classic story of one year in the lives of the March sisters of New England during the American Civil War justly holds its place of honour in American literary tradition. We likely all know that the character of Jo March was the author’s alter-ego.

3. In The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, the only book in this chain that I have not read, the author Kelly O’Connor McNees, mixes fact and fiction to return to the summer of 1855 when Louisa was twenty-two. The cover promises that it is “a richly imagined, remarkably written story of the woman who created [Little Women]”.

4. From the LOST summer, we move a link to LAst Summer in Louisburg by Claire Mowat. The fortress of Louisburg is on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. It’s been partially rebuilt and is a National Historic Site which employs scores of young people every summer to act in character throughout the fort. This book is a novel for young teens and centres on fifteen-year-old Andrea Baxter who obtains just such a summer job working in the fort.

Claire Mowat was the wife of Farley Mowat, famed Canadian author, who left a prodigious oeuvre of non-fiction books about Canada, its people, its wildlife, and its geography. He is perhaps best known for The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float and

5. Never Cry Wolf. This book is based on naturalist Mowat’s work for the Canadian government’s Wildlife Service which in the 1950s sent him north to assess the slaughter of caribou by wolves. Mowat is dropped alone onto the frozen tundra, where he begins his mission to live among the howling wolf packs and study their ways.

Never Cry Wolf should be required reading in every secondary school in Canada, and perhaps the US. It was made into a movie starring Charles Martin Smith and Brian Dennehy in 1983.

The cover on this reissue of Never Cry Wolf is a crime and I wonder how people in publishing who have never read a book are allowed to choose a cover. Nonetheless, the cover leads me to my last link:

6. White Fang (free Kindle edition on Amazon), a classic novel by Jack London first published in 1906. It takes place in the Yukon Territories and Northwest Territories of Canada during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. White Fang, whose mother was half-wolf, is a fighting dog (hence the cover) who inherits a new owner who domesticates him.

So that’s my chain of six degrees: from a seventeenth century English village to nineteenth century Arctic Canada in six links. What do you think?

Why not visit Kate’s blog and see how she made the final connection to The Muse?
 

P.S. The links are affiliate links so I will receive a small percentage of any purchase you make after clicking through from this blog.

Well, I’ve finished the Semi-Charmed’s Summer 2016 Challenge. Not in time to be in any of the winning spots, but well before the August 31st deadline. Here are the books I read:

Categories:
5 points: Freebie! Read any book that is at least 150 pages long. Lost Luggage by Jordi Punti

10 points: Read a collection of short stories or essays.
The Body in the Library edited by Rex Collings

10 points: Read an adult fiction book written by an author who normally writes books for children.
Kiss the Joy As It Flies by Sheree Fitch

15 points: Read a book set in Appalachia.
Appalachian Daughter by Mary Jane Salyers

15 points: Don’t judge a book by its cover! Read a book with a cover you personally find unappealing.
Ocean City Lowdown by Kim Kash

20 points: Read a book that you have previously only seen the film (movie) of. Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum

25 points: Read a book with a punny title. The title can be a play on another book title, movie title or a common expression. MacDeath by Cindy Brown

30 points: Read a micro-history.
Frozen in Time:Unlocking the Secrets of the Franklin Expedition by Owen Beattie and John Geiger

30 points: Read one book with a good word in the title, and one with a bad word.
Sea to SKY by R.E. Donald
The Gray & GUILTY Sea by Scott William Carter

40 points: Read two books that contain the same word in the title, but once in the singular and once in the plural.
Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

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