Tag: #books

Lady Tam’s Circle of Women

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

by Lisa See

“Friendship is a contract between two hearts. With hearts united, women can laugh and cry, live and die together” (Lady Tam’s Circle of Women)

I love it when I start reading a book and it immediately transports me into a world where I am captivated by the characters, intrigued by the plot, and seduced by the setting. I started reading this novel one Sunday and my world stopped for the entire day until I was finished. 

The story follows The life of Tan Yunxian, one of the few female doctors in 15th Century China. We first meet Yunxian when she is 8 where her feet are newly bound and her mother is teaching her traditional ways in which to be a wife and mother. However, upon the unexpected death of her mother, Yunxian is sent to live with her father’s parents. Her grandparents are of a different sort, they are a noble family, but not merchants or politicians but rather, her grandfather and her grandmother are doctors. They soon realize that Yunxian is a brilliant girl and her grandmother begins to teach her how to be a ‘doctor of women’ focusing on the four components of Chinese medicine: listening, looking, touching, and most importantly asking.

Obviously, it’s not easy being a woman in 15th century China where women are treated as belongings and the gaps between social classes are vast, so as Yunxian grows older she has to navigate her traditional role as a wife and mother in a noble family and as a doctor for women of every class without bringing “shame” upon her husband’s family.

This is a wonderful book about female friendship. The bond between mother and daughter, and the bond between women friends is beautifully developed and I found myself tearing up in scenes where the love and loyalty between characters shone. As women we truly are stronger when we stick together through adversity, support each other in our successes, and laugh and cry with each other through heartbreak and joy. 

You will be able to buy this novel June 6th!! An awesome addition to your summer reading list!

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for the free copy.

Closer by Sea

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

by Perry Chafe

It’s been 3 years since 12-year-old Pierce Jacobs lost his father to the sea, and his heartache and guilt haven’t gotten any better, not even with the support of his two friends, Bennie and Thomas. The only person who seemed to know what he was going through was Anna Tessier, a girl a couple of years older than him, but now she, too, has disappeared.
Pierce has always felt the authorities gave up too soon when finding his father. He is determined not to let the same thing happen to Anna, so with the help of his friends and Bennie’s cousin Emily, they go “undercover” to determine who is responsible for Anna’s disappearance. Living on tiny Perigo Island, just off the coast of Newfoundland, their suspects are few. Could it be the “outsider” Solomon Vickers, a recluse who lives on the island for part of the year? Or maybe it’s one of the “Arseholes”, a group of older boys who take pride in bullying the younger kids? Then there is the assortment of visitors on the island, many of whom have the potential to kidnap a young girl. Then there is also the sea itself. Unforgiving and unrelenting in its beautiful destructiveness.
I really loved this book. As soon as I started reading it, I knew immediately it would be perfect for a novel study for junior and senior high. It possesses beautiful imagery, an interesting assortment of characters, and a variety of themes (friendship, grief, coming of age, industrialization, identity, and environmentalism, to name a few) with the potential for rich classroom discussion.
Thank you to Scribner Canada and Netgalley for the free copy.

The Secret Book of Flora Lea

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

by Patti Callahan Henry

Well, this was an absolutely wonderful book.

At the beginning of the book our main character, Hazel is working at an antiquarian bookstore unpacking and itemizing rare books (my DREAM JOB)! However, she is soon off to bigger and brighter experiences moving on to a much more elitist job at an auction house in London. But before she leaves this charming little shop, she comes across a storybook that possesses a tale that shakes her to her very core. You see, when she was a young girl she used to tell her little sister Flora the story of  “Whisperwood” , an imaginative world where they would be safe and happy and distracted from the war. Hazel and Flora have had to flee their home and parents in London to escape the bombing and it is up to Hazel to protect her little sister while they are away. Tragically, one day Flora disappears, everyone believing she accidentally tumbled into the river and drowned. And now, like a ghost from the past, the story she has told to only her little sister has appeared. Hazel then sets out in search of the author of this book in the hopes to find out information on her sister’s disappearance or maybe, hopefully, finding her sister alive after all these years.

A lovely, lovely, story. Well written, suspenseful, wonderful plot complications and characterization. Definitely one to put on your summer reading list.

Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for the free copy. The Secret Book of Flora Lea is in bookstores now!

Lessons in Chemistry

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

by Bonnie Gamus

Ok, so I’ve really, REALLY wanted to settle into a book lately; I mean, I need to be entertained, consumed by a story enough to be distracted from politics, book banning, and wildfires that seem to be closing in around me. But, much to my dismay, I haven’t been able to find the right book. I needed something not too deep and complex that required careful reading and nothing too sugary- simple that was predictable with nothing of substance to hold my attention for longer than a minute. Well, I found the perfect book, and that book was “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus.


A story about Elizabeth Zott, a woman in the 1950s who wanted nothing more than to be a chemist in a world where women were anything but. I was immediately fascinated by Elizabeth’s passion, honesty and intellect. Elizabeth is by no means perfect, her social skills are interesting at best, and her focus sometimes borders on naivety. Still, I love her; she has become one of my favourite heroines of the year.


The plot is wonderful, the characters interesting (especially Six-Thirty), and the themes timely even though the story is set in the 1950s-1960s.


This book is perfect for those times when you find it challenging to settle into a book. Definitely make it part of your summer reading list, or better yet, read it now!

Looking Glass Sound

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

by Catriona Ward

Looking Glass Sound is the second book of Catriona Ward that I’ve read this year, and with it, Ward  has proven to be one of my new favourite authors. 

Our protagonist Wilder Harlow seems to be a troubled youth who, having no real friends at school, is happy to meet two young people at the family’s summer home in Maine. However, what at first seems to be a summer of fun and sun and new friends soon turns into a nightmare when Wilder begins to believe that someone he loves may be a serial killer.

Flash forward and we find Wilder, a university student where he has begun to deal with  PTSD of that notorious summer by writing a memoir about his experience. Unfortunately Wilder’s trauma is exploited by someone he is close to who takes his memoir and uses it to write a best selling novel. To deal with this betrayal, Wilder returns to the summer home to face the memories and heartache life has dealt. 

I was expecting this novel to be an easy mystery with tinges of horror (like Little Eve) but I soon realized that it is also an assortment of complex character studies woven into a layered plot that leaves the reader wonderfully perplexed at times. I’ve read some reviews from people who found it a confusing read, but if you take your time to enjoy the story, all will be revealed with patience. 

I would recommend this novel to my high school students (and use portions of it) for examples of suspense, character building, and author craft.

I loved this book. I will be buying it in hard copy for a re-read. 

Looking Glass Sound will be available to purchase in August!!

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group for the free copy.

The Memory of Animals

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

by Claire Fuller

Claire Fuller’s writing style made me love Unsettled Ground and now that I’ve read another novel of hers, The Memory of Animals, she has absolutely become one of my favourite writers. The Memory of Animals is  a “Pandemic” dystopian story. A new virus has arrived and Netty, our main character, volunteers to be a test subject for a new vaccine. Netty brings with her all sorts of baggage: unresolved family issues, she’s had to take a forced hiatus from her career as a marine biologist because she “liberated” a captive octopus with whom she has an oddly close relationship, and she’s not sure how she feels about her current boyfriend.

While in a state of delirium (having been both infected with the virus and injected with a test vaccine) the world literally goes to hell in a handcart. New variants evolve causing mass death of the citizens and crime runs supreme. In the meantime, a select few individuals, all volunteer test subjects, have been abandoned but safely secluded in a medical facility while the world collapses around them. Along with Neffy are Rachel, Yahiko, Leon and Piper. This crew needs to work together, first of all, to survive in a world that is vastly different from the one they had known before, which isn’t easy for the obvious reasons, but also because they each possess secrets that could disrupt their fragile little community.

To make matters even more complicated,  they possess an object, an object called a “Revisiter” that when used, can immerse an individual so vividly in past memories they feel as if they are  there.

I loved Neffy’s character arc. She starts off as an insecure young woman who, at the beginning of the novel, seems to only volunteer as a test subject in an attempt to escape her reality rather than for selflessly participating in an attempt to find a cure. Her obsession with the Revisitor with an attempt to again avoid her reality also supports this need of her’s to escape when life gets difficult.  As we progress through the action, Neffy becomes a strong, selfless,  rather heroic character, who faces her reality straight on and begins to make decisions and take control in order to not only survive but to also make a little world that is worthy of living in.

So far Fuller is two for two when it comes to my appreciation for her writing. I will be looking to add more titles of hers to my TBR list in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tin House for the Advanced Copy

Hello Beautiful

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

by Ann Napolitano

I loved this book. It has become one of my favourites of the year.
I loved its characters, I loved its themes, and I absolutely loved how it was written.

This is a novel about love and loss and family, and self-discovery and about something near and dear to my heart, it is about sisters. 
Beautifully written, Hello Beautiful is a novel not to be missed. I was lucky enough to be sent an advanced digital copy, but today it will be out on bookshelves and I’m about to buy myself a hard copy to have on my shelf to reread and share with others.
If you’re already compiling a summer reading list this is definitely one to add!

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the free copy.

Remarkably Bright Creatures

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

by Shelby Van Pelt

If you’re looking for a charming story with portions written by an Octopus, then look no further. Remarkably Brilliant Creatures was the perfect read to banish the February Blues.
Marcellus is a grumpy octopus who lives or instead is imprisoned in the Sowell Bay aquarium, where he judges his captors from behind his glass wall. He is not too fond of most human beings, but there is one he grows affection for, and her name is Torva. As the night custodian of the aquarium, Torva knows all of the marine life and often talks to them while cleaning. One evening, much to her surprise, Torva sees Marcellus outside of his tank. She soon begins to realize that the strange “things” she’s been noticing must certainly be part of Marcellus’s mischief, and she soon forms a friendship with this eight-legged creature. Marcellus learns of Torva’s sorrow of losing her son to the sea and takes it upon himself to help solve the mystery behind his disappearance.
I really, REALLY enjoyed this book. It was simple, easy, and a beautifully wholesome narrative perfect for dreary winter days.

Homecoming

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

by Kate Morton

Homecoming by Kate Morton

Kate Morton’s writing is easy to love. Engaging plots, an interesting collection of characters, and secrets of varying degrees begging to be uncovered. Homecoming is probably my favourite of Morton’s novels thus far. The story starts in 1959 with the death of a mother and all her children. The bodies of Mrs. Turner and her children are discovered lying peacefully by the side of a creek, all looking as though as if they were asleep. Was it murder, or a murder suicide?

Sixty years later we meet Jess, a young woman journalist  living in London who is, trying to “find” herself, after breaking up with a long term boyfriend and losing her job.  When Jess learns her grandmother suffered a serious fall, she travels to Australia to care for her loved one, and maybe find a change she needs to find a story worth writing about.

Once in Australia, Jess learns of her familial connection to the suspicious deaths of the Turner family and then begins a journey of research, investigation, and coming to terms with family secrets she never knew existed. Jess finds that sometimes your own family history possesses incredible stories that are worth writing.

I enjoyed this book tremendously. It is a long one though so I would recommend putting it on your summer reading list so you can take  your time immersing yourself in the story. 

Thank you Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the free copy.

You will be able to purchase Homecoming April 4, 2023

If We Were Villains

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

by M. L. Ric

I love Shakespeare and upon reading this novel it is apparent that M. L. Ric loves Shakespeare too! 

The  characters are literally Shakesperian actors, or rather students studying to be Shakespearian actors. Our cast of characters range from a villain to an ingenue.Our main character, Oliver, is neither a villain or an ingenue, rather he is “every man” that one character Shakespeare always includes in his play that seems close enough to the audience that we can understand and believe the events and motivations of the characters more readily.

Like Shakespeare, Ric organizes his novel in 5 acts, then, each scene in each act serves as chapters. I love the parallels in organization. 

The similarities to Shakepeare’s craft just don’t end in how the novel is organized. The themes in the novel are as big as Shakespeare’s themes, love, hate, guilt, power, betrayal and the repercussions from choices taken within each theme. Obviously I have first read this novel for the plot, but it is definitely worth a reread in order to see just how layered and interconnected he made his story to the plays themselves. 

An engrossing story in the genre of Dark Academia (my new favourite) that is totally worthy of a reread. I would also use it to “hook” my high school students into studying Shakespeare. 

So far, If We Were Villains is one of my favourite books I’ve read this year!

The Sleeping Car Porter

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

by Suzette Mayr

“9: 45 P.M. Standing next to his step box, Baxter hovers: immobile and elastic, ready to spring forward to lift a suitcase, dissect a timetable, point to the conductor, nod, lift more suitcases, now hat boxes, answer more questions, and nod, nod, nod. Trouser cuffs drag in the dust, shiny boot heels clap against the train station platform; a child runs toward an observation car, ribbons and cuff-links and tickets and goodbye letters swish to the ground. Hands reach toward him, grab at him for a lift up, grab his coat pocket, wave in his face. A sea swell of passengers, spilling toward his car; a maelstrom of departure-time panic”. The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr pg 11.

I want to write like Suzette Mayr. Vivid descriptions, an interesting cast of characters, and a main character whose story is one of heartache, confusion, and blinding determination.
Baxter is a Black sleeping car porter working the Canadian National railway on routes that span a multitude of provinces. Obviously being a porter is anything but glamorous, and Baxter is constantly taken advantage of, verbally abused, and dismissed by a plethora of passengers who demand attention to the most frivolous of requests. Throughout it all, Baxter attempts to go above and beyond his duties so that he does not run the risk of being written up, gaining demerit points or ultimately being fired from his job. However, what keeps Baxter focused on performing the best job possible is the possibility of tips. You see, Baxter is saving up to go to dental school, and at the beginning of the novel we learn he only needs $101 more dollars in his dentistry fund in order to go to school for four years. Throughout the novel we can’t help but root for Baxter to defeat his exhaustion and survive the demands of the passengers so that this can be his final route and he can move forward to fulfill his dream to be dentist.
I was particularly interested in the way Mayr creates her main character. Weaving together flashbacks, events in the present, and Baxter’s fuzzy hallucinatory recollections and interpretations of his reality (brought on by lack of sleep) Mayr places us as close as possible in the shoes and mind of this man.
I would definitely use portions of this novel as a mentor text in a high school classroom. Using the quote above one could discuss a variety of literary devices (imagery, onomatopoeia, metaphor, personification) and how to use colons and semicolons!
Please note that there are portions of this novel that are sexually explicit so be careful of its use in the classroom.

Girl Out of Time

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

by Clyde Boyer

 Anna Armstrong is a brilliant precocious girl who has always been fascinated by space. In fact, she has attempted to launch herself several times into space but unfortunately her homemade rocket ships did not have sufficient enough power to get her there. Tragically, on the day of one of her “launches”, she learns that her mother and father have died on their way back home from Europe. Thirteen year old Anna then goes to live with her kind uncle Jack on his farm research center outside Smartt Indiana.

 Very soon upon her arrival, Anna sees strange lights in the distance and eventually goes and investigates. There, she discovers a different dimension in time and space, where  girl named Mara exists. Anna soon becomes involved in trying to help Mara save the world from the repercussions of time travel using Science to help them.

This is such a wonderful book about responsibility, friendship and science. The young people presented are supportive and caring towards each other and lessons learned about curiosity, responsibility and friendship abound.

This book should be added to school libraries as well as any little classroom library. It is a science fiction novel that is accessible to upper elementary and middle school students.

Thank you to Girl Friday Books and Netgalley for the free copy. Girl Out of Time is available for purchase on March 7

The Adult

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

by Bronwyn Fischer


Bronwyn Fisher is a master of first-person narration. I cannot remember the last time I felt so connected to the thoughts and emotions of a character. I cared so much for Natalie! I could have very easily found her insecurities and naivety annoying, but instead, I found myself rooting for her in the hope that she would become stronger and more self-confident. I just wanted her to be ok!
Natalie is an 18-year-old young woman who is moving away from home for the first time. She is off to university, and all the “things” university entails. New information, new perspectives, new friends, new loves, new new new…which all ends up so confusing for someone like Natalie, who second guesses everything she says and everything she does.
Early in the novel, Natalie meets Nora, an older woman with whom she starts a romantic relationship. Although Nora seems authentic with her feelings towards Natalie at first, we (and Natalie) soon begin to suspect that there is more to Nora than meets the eye.

Even though I figured out Nora’s secret before Natalie did (I think we are meant to), I dreaded waiting and watching how Natalie would react. I truly didn’t want her to be brokenhearted because I didn’t know if she would be strong enough to recover!

Wonderful book. I will definitely read more from Bronwyn Fisher.

Thank you to Netgalley and Algonquin Books for the free advanced copy.

The Adult will be available for purchase May 23