Looking for a list pf worthwhile reads? Here aref the titles that members of the Revelstoke Book Club are perusing this year:
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (2008). Over 150 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, this funny and moving novel has some eye-opening insights into the human condition.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (2008). Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this wonderful collection of short stories (the recurring characters, especial the protagonist Olive Kitteridge, link the stories together) take place in a small New England town where the drama happens within the residents’ personal lives.
Road Ends by Mary Lawson (2013). A compelling historical story about a woman torn between staying or leaving a fictional small town in northern Ontario during the 1960’s with references to the early 1903 silver rush.
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford (2009). The bestselling novel about a unique friendship between a Chinese American boy and a Japanese American girl during the World War II internment of the Japanese.
The Illegal by Lawrence Hill (2015). Winner of this year’s Canada Reads competition (Hill’s second win after The Book of Negroes) The Illegal is about the timely dilemma of immigration and the tragic plight of the “have-nots” who are simply seeking refuge in places where they are not wanted.
419 by Will Ferguson (2012). Winner of the Canadian Scotiabank Giller Prize this novel is named for the section of the Nigerian criminal code covering acts of fraud; a crime which leaves the protagonist’s family destitute and without a just resolution.
The Little Red Chairs by Edna O’Brien (2015). Renowned Irish author Edna O’Brien’s 20th novel is about love in a small Irish town and evil in the form of a war criminal involved in the 1992 siege of Sarajevo (where 11,541 red chairs were set out to commemorate the siege’s victims in 2012).
The Beauty of Humanity Movement by Camilla Gibb (2010). Set in modern day Vietnam, the story forays into Vietnam’s interesting history, especially it’s repressed “beauty of humanity movement” of the 1950’s which the octogenarian protagonist hopes to revive through food and friendship.
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Marcia Marquez (1967). Nobel Prize winning author Marquez reinvents his beloved Columbia and it’s chaotic history through the creation of the fictional and utopic town Macondo which tragically fails as history unstoppably repeats itself.
Nora Webster by Colm Toibin (2015). Toibin (3-time Man Booker Prize nominee) masterfully creates a wonderful story of the intricate details of a young widow’s life and relationships in small town Ireland in the 1960’s.