Just released. New book for baby boomers in time for Christmas
Click here to order BOOMER BEAT The Voice of Baby Boomers Amazon.com or Amazon.ca
Anna Porter’s memoir is a gift to Canadian readers
If you're a lover of Canadian literature, then you're in for a treat. Anna Porter, author of In Other Words, How I Fell in Love with Canada One Book at a Time, is an author and former publisher extraordinaire with a pedigree spanning decades in the book business. I first became aware of her in the early seventies when she was profiled in Canadian magazines and newspapers as someone to keep an eye on. As a baby boomer and working mother of two young girls Anna Porter moved in the…
How much can a parent withstand?
On October 10th I was honoured to be a guest speaker on The Joy of Retirement at an alumni luncheon for former employees of Coca-Cola Canada Ltd. in Toronto. I was preceded by a former employee of Coca-Cola, Debbie Sands, who had written a book about her family's challenges with their second daughter, Amy. A Moth To The Flame is the story of Amy's struggles with what was most likely Borderline Personality Disorder, a mental illness that Amy seemed to display from the time she was a baby but went…
White Teeth are regular characters in Zadie Smith’s British romp
British author Zadie Smith is not everyone's cup of tea. I gave up on her novel NW after several tries (thought it was an absolute mess) but I enjoyed Swing Time. I was in a bit of a reading dry spell waiting for several books to become available at the library so I decided to have a go at Smith's first novel, White Teeth. It's the multi-layered story of three generations of immigrants living in Birmingham, trying to cope with blending old country cultures and values with their new life…
Anne Tyler satisfies the woman in us
Reading an Anne Tyler novel is like eating an Oreo cookie. It's predictable, consistently chocolate and always satisfying without competing for any great culinary baking stars. Her latest book "Clock Dance" has all the usual ingredients—a baby boomer woman, a reckoning around home and family and it's partially baked in Baltimore, Maryland, a familiar setting for Tyler novels. Willa Drake is the older of two sisters born into a typical family of the 1960s. Her father is steady, solid and the salt of the earth. Her mother, on the other…
Ottessa Moshfegh investigates a Year of Rest and Relaxation
Is life as art a wasted life? That's what author Ottessa Moshfegh aims to find out. The cover of her new novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation could lead readers to think it's an Edith Wharton kind of period piece about fainting ladies. Well, fasten your seat belts because it couldn't be more different. I really enjoyed Moshfegh's earlier novel Eileen and knew she had a quirky style but I was unprepared for what she conjured up this time. The narrator of the story is a desensitized twenty-something woman…