Category: From My Bookshelf – Lynn Willoughby

By Lynn Willoughby Homes ~ Abu Bakr Al Rabeeah with Winnie Yeung This little book was on the 2019 Canada Reads lists and a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Awards.  While we get an intimate view of the Syrian war through the eyes of an eleven year old boy, at times it times it…

By Lynn Willoughby Pachinko ~ Min Jin Lee This is an historical novel with a multigenerational cast.  It begins in Busan, Korea in 1911 but the main location is is Japan.  The opening line is “History has failed us, but no matter.”  I was hooked! The Korean family we follow live in Japanese occupied Korea early…

By Lynn Willoughby Dear Evelyn ~ Kathy Page Harry and Evelyn meet when leaving the library in London, and he walks her home.  It is just as Britain is preparing to go to war against Germany.  The first part of the book is mostly the letters Harry writes to Evelyn from his long ride on…

By Lynn Willoughby Things We Never Said ~ Nick Alexander This novel has an interesting format.  It is written in the present tense – where Sean is struggling with the recent death of his beloved wife Catherine.  While she was undergoing chemo treatments, Catherine had left a series of 29 photographs and a cassette to…

By Lynn Willoughby Mama’s Last Hug ~ Frans de Waal This author has spent four decades researching and studying animals.  His previous book, “Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are” was a best seller which explored animal intelligence.  Mama’s Last Hug deals with animal emotions and feelings. Mama was a chimpanzee matriarch…

By Lynn Willoughby Where the Crawdads Sing ~ Delia Owens This is one of the best novels I have read in some time.  The writing is excellent with well developed characters.  Nature is as much the protagonist as is Kya, the “Marsh Girl.” It is set in North Carolina and begins in the early 1950s when…

By Lynn Willoughby The Island of Sea Women ~ Lisa See While this is a novel about female friendships, life in a village where everyone knows your business and your family secrets, much of it was also about the Japanese occupation of Korea in the 1930s.  Then it moved through the years of American occupation…

By Lynn Willoughby Daughter of Moloka’i ~ Alan Brennert This is a sequel to Brennert’s Moloka’i – a novel about life as a leper on the island over-seen by Father Damien.  It is the story of Ruth, the daughter of Rachel Kalama and Kenji.  Rachel was quarantined as a child on Moloka’i and spent most…

By Lynn Willoughby The Scribe of Siena ~ Melodie Winawer When a New York neurosurgeon finds herself in fourteenth century Siena, she is glad her brother, Ben, made her learn Italian.  He has just died – leaving his home in Siena, his historical research and all his papers to Beatrice.  As she moves into his…

By Lynn Willoughby Uncommon Type ~ Tom Hanks This is a collection of seemingly unrelated short stories.  But they do have a common thread – typewriters.  At the start of each story there is a photo of an antique, or just old, typewriter.  Unbeknownst to me, Hanks is an avid collector and restorer of typewriters…

By Lynn Willoughby Bittersweet ~ Colleen McCullogh This is an apt title, because it describes just how I felt after finishing this novel.  I loved “The Thorn Birds”,  “Tim” was even better, then there was “Cleopatra” and the whimsical “The Ladies of Missalonghi” by this same author.  This novel, however, was just a long story…

By Lynn Willoughby Washington Black ~ Esi Edugyan This Canadian author’s latest novel was a finalist for the Man Booker prize, and winner of the Giller Prize.  It is a big, complicated historical novel with locations all over the world.   It begins on a sugar cane plantation in Barbados in 1830.  Washington Black is…

By Lynn Willoughby Lessons From Lucy: The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog ~ Dave Barry I love Dave Barry’s sense of humour.  Everything I have read – whether fiction or non-fiction, makes me laugh and admire this man who has had an extremely successful career as a humourist writer – both in his…

By Lynn Willoughby Delicious! ~ Ruth Reichl Want to read something light while learning about food and culture and comfort?  This is the book for you, written by the author of Bon Appetit magazine.     “Food define us” is the theme of this book.  “Smells elicit memories, tastes capture our childhood, unique foods remind us…

By Lynn Willoughby How The Light Gets In ~ Louise Penny If you are in the mood for a good mystery, with a Canadian flavour, read this book.  The setting is winter in Quebec, the protagonist is Chief Inspector Armand Gamache – ninth in the series, but the first one I have read.   There…