Village of the Small Houses - Ian Ferguson
Ian Ferguson paints an interesting of living in Canada's North in the early 60s and 70s is this fun (mostly fun) book about his family's experiences there. His neighbours were mostly native peoples who were wary of outsiders and especially white folk. But boy, the adventures that ensue from their life there. The characters are colourful and give a really good feeling of the community he was raised in.
As with most books that are based in fact, it's not all happy and the end of the book is a little sad and pretty sobering. But there's enough laughs along the way that it's not the only part that stays with you.
One thing I really liked about this book is that it didn't smack of canadiana like a lot of Canadian stories do. I understand wanting to give voice to your culture and your country and bringing your story to the outside world but a lot of Canadian authors seem to try too hard to do that and the story gets lost behind the the many references to beer or hockey or continuous place name-dropping. And this is NOT one of those books. The story was about the community he lived in, not it's geographic location (although the trials and tribulations of living far from society do add a lot of entertainment)
This is a light, fast read and well worth the effort for anyone from 8th grade up.
A Bride for Tom - Ruth Ann Nordin
I received an e-reader for Christmas and ABfT was the first book I downloaded... it was one of the downloads available for free on the Kobo website and a small download so I figured I would try it.
It wasn't worth the free download.
So far ABfT is only available in e-book format, and there's a very good reason for that.... it sucks. It came in at about 95 e-book pages, which would probably mean even less pages in print form, and if it ever does by some miracle ever make it to print it will end up in the "bargain books" bin for $1.99
For an "historical romantic comedy" it wasn't terribly funny... nor romantic... and really didn't feel true to the era it took place in. If you get a Kobo e-reader and want to try a free download or two... bypass this one.
****
Book Count: 27/50
