Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Twenty Chickens for a Saddle

Twenty chickens for a saddle:the story of an African childhood by Robyn Scott 2008


Keith and Lynn Scott decided to uproot their young family of three and return to Botswana to farm in the wild and pursue their mother's interest in alternative medicine. This biography recounts the 15 years that the family resided in Botswana.

Keith was a medical doctor who flew to remote villages to care for the sick local blacks. The children Robyn, Damien, and Lulu were homeschooled and they enjoyed living on a farm close to the bush with the exotic wildlife nearby. Both parents were very outspoken and befriended many of the local inhabitants. Keith was very concerned with the large number of his patients that were dying of AIDS. He tried to apply political pressure to ensure the availability of medication to ease the symptoms of AIDS. Lynn was interested in the nutritional supplements and their role in boosting the immune system of AIDS patients. Both parents instilled the values of caring and social justice into their three children.

The significance of the title was that Robyn wanted to buy a new saddle for her horse and she decided to raise free range hens and sell eggs to earn the money to purchase the saddle.

Fiction Pick of the Week: The Shadow Year

The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford 2008

The Shadow Year is a riveting coming-of-age novel that reminds me of Robert McCammon's Boy's Life, a favourite of mine. The story is narrated by the younger brother, growing up in a dysfunctional family that still manages to instill a sense of love. The setting of small-town America in the sixties is depicted well, and each character seems so real. There is danger lurking in the town after a classmate disappears and the two brothers set out to solve the mystery, along with other incidents, with a replica of the town in their basement. There is an element of the supernatural when future events often unfold as the younger sister moves the pieces. Suspense is maintained as both a prowler and a sinister man trolling the streets in a white car are almost nightly occurrences. There is a real loss of innocence in this town, and the reader experiences it firsthand.

Fiction Pick of the Week: The Housekeeper and the Professor

The Housekeeper and the Professor
by Yoko Ogawa 2009 (Originally published in Japan in 2003. Translation by Stephen Snyder.)

How do you build a relationship, even one as straightforward as employer-employee, with someone who has almost no short-term memory? This is the challenge faced by the Housekeeper, a high school dropout and single mother, hired to cook and clean for the Professor, a former teacher of mathematics who can recall only the last 80 minutes since suffering a brain injury in 1975. While the Housekeeper and the Professor must start every day anew, they soon forge an unusual bond as he shares with them what he can remember from his pre-accident days: his love of numbers. He particularly enjoys tutoring the Housekeeper’s son as they discover a mutual love of baseball—one of the most statistically driven sports. It is difficult to describe the mesmerizing effect of this novel which is at once deceptively simple yet amazingly complex, touchingly familiar yet entirely unique. If those of us who despised the abstract mathematics of high school had the Professor as a teacher, we would have a much greater appreciation of the beauty, wonder and power of numbers as a metaphor for life and its relationships.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Petite Anglaise

Petite Anglaise: a true story by Catherine Sanderson 2008

Chick lit lovers will enjoy this light and frank true story of a thirty-something British woman living in Paris. Catherine uses her blog “Petite Anglaise” to reach out to the blogging community in Paris and to try and sort out life’s ups and downs. Her writing style and tone remind me of the book Eat, Pray, Love.
What I liked about Petite Anglaise is her endearing descriptions of life in Paris and her amusing portrayal of French customs. I enjoyed getting to know Sanderson’s boyfriend Mr. Frog and her enchanting little daughter, Tadpole. I enjoyed how she incorporated the appeal of chick lit romance and relationships into true life drama.

Fiction Pick of the Week: Olive Kitteridge

Olive Kitteridge
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout 2008

Maybe every New England town has an Olive Kitteridge – a woman who works in the community, has a family, knows all about the neighbours (yet they do not know about her) and feels that she must keep up appearances. Henry, Olive’s stoic yet humane husband, is beloved by all, and is the constant source of irritation to Olive. Olive is the one person whose presence unites each of the 13 narratives, and as each of the townspeople grapple with their problems, a lesson is learned and insights gained into the human condition.

Elizabeth Strout is a seasoned writer winning such awards as the Orange Prize – England and more recently the Pulitzer Prize for this novel.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: The Boomers Retire

The Boomers Retire: a guide for financial advisors and their clients by Lynn Biscott 2008

There are more than four million Canadians over the age of 65, and the proportion of seniors is expected to double in the next quarter century. Financial planning expert Lynn Biscott describes tax-effective strategies to maximize revenue from government benefits, employer pensions, personal savings, and employment income. This book was easy to read, and effectively demystified her subject for the relatively unsavvy as well as those with more knowledge of tax strategies and retirement planning.

Fiction Pick of the Week: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan C. Bradley 2009

It is hard to believe that this debut mystery author and winner of the British Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award so convincingly evokes the British manners and setting of the 1950s when the author , a Canadian, admits that he had "not set foot in England until 2007"!

More surprisingly, most of the sleuth work is done by one Flavia de Luce – a precocious eleven year old girl who has as much passion for chemistry as she does disdain for her two older sisters' tiresome preoccupations with all things feminine. That the author and his protagonist make use of their local library to do their research makes this cozy mystery all the easier to recommend! We cannot wait for the sequel!

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Wildflower

Wildflower: a story of love, murder and the woman who tried to save Kenya
by Mark Seal 2009

This atmospheric biography explores the life and tragic death of Kenyan wildlife conservationist and filmmaker Joan Root. Using Joan’s diaries and writings, author Mark Seal is able to offer the reader a lush love story set in the heyday of British colonialism in Nairobi. Joan, an “Ingrid Bergman lookalike” falls in love and marries nature documentarian Alan Root. Their partnership produced many award winning nature documentaries and television specials. Despite their incredible partnership, their marriage unraveled and Joan dedicated the remainder of her life to trying to save her home on Lake Naivasha from poaching and environmental ruin. This sadly led to her unsolved murder in 2006. Fascinating reading!

Fiction Pick of the Week: Finding Home

Finding Home by Eric Wright 2007

The underlying plot is simple: middle-aged Will Prentice returns to England for his mother's funeral. Suffering from a mild, mid-life crises, he decides to stay on indefinitely, to revisit his roots, to discover who he is and where he belongs, Canada or England. His driving companion is young Fred, his uncle's grandson, a recent Cambridge graduate, interested in Canadian Studies. As Fred drives Will across England, coast to coast, south to north, Will talks him through a journey across Canada. This juxtaposition creates a wonderful sense of place for both countries, England and Canada. Within this simple framework, Wright has written a tapestry of one part entertaining English travelogue, with the emphasis on tourist traps, and one part witty commentary on Canada's societies and attitudes. Another level of interest is provided by a family mystery: where did his mother hide her wealth? The reader learns that home is not only geography and landscape, but also a state of mind.