Category: From My Bookshelf – Lynn Willoughby

By Lynn Willoughby The Nix ~ Nathan Hill What to say about this novel? It has moments that make you feel you are part of the action. It makes you better understand the US electoral process and that there have been violent protests for many elections so it seems timely. It is way too long,…

By Lynn Willoughby I’ll Take You There ~ Wally Lamb I have not been disappointed yet by this author but the beginning of this book was so odd I almost quit. I am so glad I didn’t! Ghosts, old silent films and the history of the cinema didn’t seem to be something one could write a…

By Lynn Willoughby The Piano Maker ~ Kurt Palka Another story with a Canadian setting, with a strong, beguiling woman with a past. She shows up in a small town in Nova Scotia in the 1930s. She is friendly, sensible. talented and completely feminine so I was surprised that this novel was written by a…

By Lynn Willoughby The Fortunate Brother ~ Donna Morrissey I have been a fan of Morrissey since she first published “Kit’s Law”. This novel is a continuation of the Now family story which began in “Sylvanus Now”,  then we read “What They Wanted”.  I have enjoyed all of them and if you happen to be…

By Lynn Willoughby Empty Cradles: Oranges and Sunshine ~ Margaret Humpheys This book begins in the 1980s when a social worker in England, Margaret Humphreys, gets interested in what happens when adopted children try to trace their biological parents. This is a non-fiction account of the  dreadful, covered-up history of child migrants. For three decades…

By Lynn Willoughby The Last Bookstore in America ~ Amy Stewart I seem to be on a binge of Amy Stewart books. This novel is hilarious, is a true character study. If you enjoy Carl Hiaasen, Christopher Moore and their sense of humour, you will like Stewart. As Moore says, in Practical Demonkeeping: “If you think anyone is…

By Lynn Willoughby Lady Cop Makes Trouble ~ Amy Stewart When I reviewed Stewart’s first novel “Girl Waits With Gun”, I said I hoped there would be a sequel.  This is it and while I enjoyed it, the sparkle, the humour, the fun of the first novel were missing! Constance Kopp (is there a pun here?)…

By Lynn Willoughby His Whole Life ~ Elizabeth Hay I like the structure and pace of Hay’s novels. Her descriptions of nature take you there, her characters are well rounded – flaws and all, her political bantering and comments on current events invoke personal memories and opinions. This book, by another Canadian author, is a…

By Lynn Willoughby The Perfect Order of Things ~ David Gilmour What a novel idea for a book! (pun intended). As the story teller writes this he is in his sixties and the book consists of vignettes of his life and the defining moments what made him who he is. Do we all do this…

By Lynn Willoughby Sanctuary Line ~ Jane Urquhart There is a story in here, but you have to read a lot of family history to get to it. I really wasn’t that interested in “the great greats” as uncles, cousins etc and how they set up families in the USA and Canada. What family does not…

By Lynn Willoughby Barkskins ~ Annie Proulx This seven hundred page doorstop of a book begins in 1693 as French immigrants were arriving in Kebec (Quebec) where their first impression is that “Mosquitoes covered their hands and necks like fur”.  “The second impression was of dark vast forest, inimical wilderness,,,”  And so begins the family…