The Music Shop

 The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

Frank owns a rundown music shop on a back street lined with a few more old businesses and dilapidated houses. His suppliers are beginning to avoid him because he refuses to stock CDs, believing the truest sound can only be heard on vinyl. They tell him he soon won't be able to get records and will have to switch to CDs, but Frank is adamant.

Blessed with an uncanny ability to sense what people are feeling and which record would meet their need at that moment in time, he suggests Aretha Franklin to one, something classical for another, or maybe jazz, and he's never wrong. He doesn't make much money, but he likes that he's able to help people 

Also in Frank's out-of-the-way neighbourhood are a funeral parlour run by the Williams Brothers, Mr. Novak's Bakery, Maud's Tattoo Parlour, and the gift shop of ex-priest Father Anthony. Rounding out the cast is Mrs. Roussos, who owns a home on the street and is a frequent visitor to the shop, and Kit, Frank's clumsily enthusiastic young assistant. In flashbacks we are introduced to Peg, Frank's eccentric mother, and learn something of the upbringing that gave him his love for music and explains why he has trouble opening up to people.  

Into this declining neighbourhood comes Ilse, a beautiful woman recently arrived from Germany, who faints outside the music shop window and is taken inside to recover. Once she does, she departs quickly, leaving everyone wondering who she is, where she lives, and why she's here. Though she returns and they get to know her a little, her hesitancy to speak about herself keeps them wondering. and conjecturing. 

With Frank falling for Ilse and a development firm using shady tactics to buy up local properties, things get complicated. Ilse is supposed to have a fiancée back in Germany, but won't talk about him. Some of the shop owners, faced with harassment and even violence, are getting scared and selling out. Frank's shop could be the next target.

This was a touching story with authentic, relatable characters you'd want for friends. Frank and Ilse could be frustratingly reticent - just SAY it for Pete's sake! - but I loved the parts where he spoke about various pieces of music and how to listen to them properly. I want to play some of the ones mentioned and try to hear what he said to listen for. I'm afraid it will be on CDs though. Don't tell Frank. 

Attribution

 Attribution by Linda Moore

Cate, art history student, finds an old and possibly valuable painting in a storeroom at the university. She thinks she recognizes a Spanish artist's style but can't find any mention of it in lists of his works. Telling no one of her discovery, she disappoints her parents who wanted her to come home for Christmas, and instead takes an impromptu trip to Spain to do some research. There, in an apparently serendipitous moment, she meets Antonio, who will become a romantic interest and in whose family home Cate's painting once hung. To begin her research she contacts a local professor who seems willing to help but in fact has her own agenda for the painting. 

I love a book that immerses me in a place, time or culture not my own. Living in the art world of this book for a few days and learning a little about artists and their paintings made this a great reading experience for me. The story is good as well, though I thought it a bit too much of a coincidence that the man she just happened to sit beside on the train also just happened to be the one who's family had a history with her painting. Still, it made for an intriguing story and I very much enjoyed it. 

Close Enough To Touch

 Close Enough to Touch by Colleen Oakley

The story begins "I kissed a boy once and almost died." And she's not kidding. Jubilee Jenkins has an allergy to all skin cells but her own and kissing that boy almost killed her. She swelled up, went into anaphylactic shock and ended up in the hospital. 

She's been a recluse now for the past seven years, but when her mother (who has been supporting her) dies, Jubilee has no choice but to brave the outside and look for a job, which she finds at the local library. There she meets harried single father, Eric, and his quirky son, Aja, who has a sometimes disastrous (but really interesting) fascination with telekinesis. Jubilee and Aja form a connection, but because of her condition they cannot touch. She likes Eric once she gets to know him, but understands she can't get into a relationship with him or with anyone. She's given up hope for a cure, the only possibility left being an experimental treatment she has already considered and rejected.

It's a unique plot with affecting characters and it's only timing that kept it from having the impact on me that other recent reads have had. North and South, Haven, and Fellowship Point are outstanding novels and hard acts to follow. Even a good story like Close Enough to Touch is bound to pale a little in comparison, but it is good and I do recommend it.     

Indians on Vacation

 Indians on Vacation by Thomas King

Mimi and Bird, a middle-aged indigenous couple, are on vacation in Prague. This is one of many trips they've taken in an attempt to discover something about Mimi's uncle Leroy, who left home when he was young, taking the family's sacred medicine bundle with him. He sent postcards home from various locations around the world and Mimi, following his path, hopes to find out more about his life after he left or maybe even find the bundle itself. 

Mimi is an enthusiastic traveler who loves to explore the cities they visit; Bird just wants be home. His grousing about it wore a little thin but the story was interesting otherwise with alternating chapters about other trips they've taken, Bird's youth, and Mimi's mother. And then there are the demons Bird fights continually: catastrophizing, self-loathing, depression, despair, and touchiness. Mimi names them all - Kitty, Eugene, twins Didi and Desi, and Chip - which starts Bird seeing them as actual (though invisible to anyone else) people. His encounters with them are the funniest parts of the book. 

I liked the book's off-beat feeling but didn't find it as hilarious as other reviewers have. Indeed it was quite sad, but Mimi's endearing character and Bird's demons made it real and relatable. 

Not too dark and not too funny, just a good story.    

Fellowship Point

Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark

This is one of those wonderful books that when I finished I wished I could read again for the first time. I will read it again, as an old friend then, but there won't be that sense of discovery, of surprise at finding a treasure. I loved the two main characters and narrators Agnes and Polly, in their eighties and friends for years, and the beautiful location, an unspoiled point of land on the coast of Maine.

Agnes, an unmarried author of children's books, and Polly, wife to a demanding husband and mother of 3, grew up spending their summers at family 'cottages' on The Point. They worry about development ruining the natural beauty of the place, especially the large sanctuary of land, "the Sank", that sits between the houses and the sea. Home to various bird species, including a colony of eagles, and varieties of flowers and trees, it is the heart of Fellowship Point and they want to protect it for future generations. Leaving it to a land trust is one possibility, but because of by-laws set when the houses were first built, nothing can be done without the agreement of all the homeowners together. That's going to be a problem.

A third narrator enters the picture when Maud, assistant to Agnes' editor, asks Agnes to write a memoir, an idea Agnes won't even consider. Maud's story - she has a 3 yr old daughter and a mother who suffers from bouts of mania/depression - adds another layer to the story as she becomes an integral part Fellowship Point life.

This beautifully written story, it's engaging characters and stunning location are a gift. By the time I'd finished I could say with Agnes "I feel so saturated with Maine...". The trees, the wind, the eagles, the water, the characters - I felt saturated with all of it and was truly sad to come to the last page. This one is going on my Favourites list.

A few quotes:

"They were too old not to be friends. Fallings-out were for those who had time to meet new people."

"People had no manners anymore, or even a notion of their utility - how good manners evened out the imbalances between personalities, how they bolstered the shy by making it clear what to do, and how they held the aggressive in check."

"...she still loved the sound of eagle wings beating the air. They cleaved the atmosphere and created temporary yet provocative blank spaces that drew the imagination upward to explore their wake."

Upgrade

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

A novel about gene-editing in humans. Like the future isn't terrifying enough already. 

Logan Ramsey is an agent for the Gene Protection Agency. Gene editing became illegal after scientist Miriam Ramsay, Logan's mother, believing she could increase food production in poorer countries, infected crops with modified genes she'd engineered. Crops died, famine followed, and 200 million people starved to death.

Logan, who'd been working in her lab at the time, went to prison for two years for his part in the disaster and now works with the agency to make sure nothing like that ever happens again. In the course of a routine investigation (if any of this can be called routine) he is infected with unknown genes; in essence, his DNA is hacked, and no one knows what it will do to him or what he might become. He's detained in a lab and subjected to continual testing, but someone breaks him out and they join forces to find out who did this to him and why. Logan has to cope with the frightening changes taking place in his body and mind, and face a revelation about his mother and how it has led to him being in this precarious situation.   

It's written in the abrupt, almost in-your-face style I've seen in other detective novels and I can't say I like that kind of writing, but there were moments that stood out, like this one for its great imagery:

"A violence of black skies, wind, and rain - the final nail being hammered through the heart of autumn."

And this one, simply because it's exciting to learn such things:

"While there are approximately twenty-five thousand known genes, the variance of their interactions approaches infinity. And beyond the known genes, our genome contains numerous control regions and so-called junk DNA, which aren't junk at all but a collective, self-adjusting web of systems, evolved under the selective pressure of existence for more than three billion years. It added up to a system of unimaginable complexity, one where any single change - let alone thousands - might express itself in dozens of unforeseen ways."

Both the plot and the science were mesmerizing. I stayed up too late reading, needing to find out what would happen to him. If the concept of hacking DNA peaks your interest, I think you'll like this chilling, but believable, sci-fi story - a story that may not be fiction much longer and perhaps isn't even now.