Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock

Matt Bissonnette’s debut novel, Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock, offers us a look into the lives of five friends growing up in the sex, drugs and punk rock culture of Montreal in the 70s and 80s. The NDG of Bissonnette’s youth serves as richly textured backdrop to a gloomy, frenetic atmosphere punctuated with moments of abrupt humour. The chapters read like the songs the kids worship – short, dirty and hard-hitting, Bissonnette shying away from nothing with his biting prose.

In their own words and their own language, the narratives the kids take turns telling come from some of the most profound and sometimes most mundane moments of their lives. Constantly testing their own limits and those of society, they expose their flaws and fears to the reader. These stories are often shocking, but sometimes heart-staggeringly honest as the friends struggle to make sense of what taking on responsibility for their lives and futures really means.

Over the course of the book, each of the friends learns that they cannot deny their natures, and their antics bear this out repeatedly. The seemingly blind acceptance of that fact is often belied by their frantic inner struggle to break away and finally do something that would liberate them from their bleak existence. Though they often have no idea what shape their future should have or what form the liberation might be, they at least grow to recognize that the future is manifest and that they must keep on, despite often not knowing why or how.

Not a cozy, night-time read, this book is stark yet persuasive in its depiction of youth culture. It is a compelling, candid journey of five childhood friends coming to terms with their own existence, each other, and society…all while trying to stay true to themselves.

Pick of the month - The Gargoyle -

I just finished reading The Gargoyle, by Andrew Davidson and what an incredible read it was. You will be engrossed and (and sometimes grossed out at the gruesome details) but you will not be able to put this book down.

If you love history and mythology and believe in the power of love as well as destiny, this is the book for you! The story is about a gorgeously handsome but soulless man, who stars in pornographic films for a living. One night, while strung out on booze and cocaine, he is in a terrible car accident in which he suffers burns over much of his body.

While in hospital, where he wants only to die, he meets a psychiatric patient who is said to be schizophrenic who tells him tragic and heart wrenching love stories from the past in such faraway lands as Japan, Iceland and Italy, including, she claims, the story of their own love affair which occurred in 14th century Germany.

He tells himself that this is only part of her delusions. But is it? Can they have really have had a romance that has lasted 7 centuries? The story contains meticulous historical details, permeated by Dante references. The writing is smart and at times cheeky, wonderfully hypnotic. The pace is fast, impossible to put down. Don’t miss this one!

Calling all lovers of good books

So I just finished reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, and I must say…it was amazing!! One of my co-workers here at the library, had said enthusiastically of the book “every woman must read this”; I am happy to report that Danielle was so right.

This is a book unlike any I have read in a very long time, and though it most certainly will appeal to many women readers, I think that men many also enjoy this book, which is mostly about being human. This book touches the heart, and speaks directly and clearly to anyone who is searching for something more.

The author has such a way with words that she has managed to illustrate in everyday terms some of the most complex theories and approaches to spirituality and religion in ways that absolutely anyone can absorb. And trust me, you’ll want to absorb every word.

The beauty of Eat, Pray, Love transcends any religious or culture barriers that may exit with other books on…well simply put, life. Everyone will be able to relate to the author as she takes the reader through her unlikely journey across continents in search of absolutely everything. I loved it so much! Please, readers, lovers of good books, do yourselves a favor and READ THIS BOOK

Booker shortlist, 2008

The shortlist for this year's Booker Prize for Fiction has been announced. The official name of the prize is the Man Booker prize and it's the award for the finest of finest in fiction. The award is 40 years old and it rewards an author from either a commonwealth country or the Republic of Ireland. Past winners include: Anne Enright (The gathering), Kiran Desai (Inheritance of loss) and John Banville (The sea).

This year's shortlist is comprised of:

The white tiger by Aravind Adiga (F A2355w)
Relocating to New Delhi when he is offered a new job, Balram Halwai is disillusioned by the city's twenty-first-century materialism and technology-spawned violence, a circumstance that forces him to question his loyalties, ambitions, and past.

The secret scripture by Sebastian Barry (F B281s)
Recording the events of her life from a mental hospital as her hundredth birthday approaches, Roseanne McNulty considers returning to society when she learns that the hospital is about to close, but her situation is complicated by the possibility that Roseanne remembers her life quite differently from what is documented in her patient records.

Sea of poppies by Amitav Ghosh (coming soon)
Preparing to fight China's nineteenth-century Opium Wars, a motley assortment of sailors and passengers, including a bankrupt rajah, a widowed tribeswoman, and a free-spirited French orphan, comes to experience family-like ties that eventually span continents, races, and generations.

Clothes on their back by Linda Grant (F G7622c)
A story about survival - both everyday and heroic - and a young woman who discovers the complications, even betrayals, that inevitably accompany the fierce desire to live.

Northern clemency by Philip Hensher (coming soon)
In 1974, the Sellers are transplanted from London to Sheffield in northern England. On the day they move in, the Glover household across the street is in upheaval: convinced that his wife is having an affair, Malcolm Glover has suddenly disappeared. The reverberations of this rupture will be felt for years as the connection between the families deepens. But it will be the particular crises of ten-year-old Tim Glover—set off by two seemingly inconsequential but ultimately indelible acts of cruelty—that will erupt, full-blown, decades later.

A fraction of the whole by Steve Toltz (F T6546f)
After his father's death, Jasper reflects on Martin Dean, the man who had raised him in intellectual captivity and who had spent his entire life analyzing absolutely everything, and describes his father's failed battle to make a lasting impression on the world.

Book of the Month

My favourite book of the summer has to be The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. This first novel tells the story of a mute boy, his dog breeding family and the dogs he raises and communicates with only by sign language. The story takes place in Wisconsin and tells the story of the Sawtelle family whose grandfather began to breed unusual dogs that come to be known as the Sawtelle dogs.

These dogs are remarkable and highly intelligent being bred for temperament and intelligence and kept and rigorously trained until young adulthood, rather than sold as young puppies then ruined. His sons carry on his work, but among human families, undesirable traits aren't so easily predicted, and family tragedy brought on by bad blood and evil ensues.

When Edgar must vanish, he takes three of his dogs and the story of their journey through the backwoods of Wisconsin is startling bursting with courage, loyalty and undeniable beauty. If you own dogs, you will never look at your dogs the same way!