The Passionate Reader

This documentary brought back many fond memories, and some not so fond, of my childhood.

The author, a small league maple syrup producer from Toronto and Madoc, Ontario chronicles the fraught history of producing maple syrup and maple sugar from the earliest records of First Nations using entirely wooden tools to the modern huge industry using suction lines and reverse osmosis. Along the way there have been countless legal and ethical battles, mostly in Quebec, which produces more of the syrup than anywhere else, much of it from tapping trees on Crown Land and on ZECs (Zone Exploitation Contrôle) leased from the Quebec government. The industry in Quebec is mired in controversy with large cartels dictating prices and monitoring operations. One sophisticated heist in 2012 of over half a million gallons of syrup from the strategic reserve was the largest theft in Canadian history.

With a short season of highly variable suitable weather of at most 2 months, the undertaking is at best a risky investment. When the sap is running, it can also be labor intensive with 24/6 work. (On Sundays, even if the sap spilled over the full buckets, many producers refused to work, my father included.

My experience as a preteen was slogging in deep snow to drain buckets into pails and take the sap to a 500 gallon tank on a horse-drawn sleigh to be delivered to a bigger tank by the sugar shack containing the Grimm and Sons Co. long evaporator, fuelled by wood. My father tapped about 800 trees. On a good year that produced about 200 gallons of syrup from 40 times as much sap. He sold it to various town folk. The visits to the sugar shack by pupils from the nearby one room schoolhouse was an annual highlight. In my teens, I helped construct a new sugar shack on the edge of the forest, no longer used.

There is now constant conflict with the logging industry, but my father, with an innate sense of sustainability, only cut down old unproductive trees and used the wood to heat the evaporator, the house, and some nearby one-room schoolhouses.

There is a 1906 law prohibiting mixing of maple syrup with cane sugar, but last week we bought some “maple flavoured” syrup at the Camp Voyager shop.

There are some limitations to this documentary. Lanark county is described as east of Ottawa in one place and (correctly) as west of it in another. Nowhere is there discussion of what chemical compounds in the syrup give it the distinctive aroma, taste and colour, getting darker later in the season. 0ver 98 % of the solid material is sucrose, just like cane sugar, but one would think that in the age of mass spectroscopy, the other compounds should have been identified by now. There is no discussion of taps per tree, as some overzealous producers use several on large trees, perhaps compromising their health and longevity.

Overall, a very informative book.

4.5/5

Thanks, Vera

A painting of my father with his dog Ginger, gathering sap near the sugar shack.

When I realized that the authors of this book were practising chiropractors, my physician bias immediately made me sceptical about its message, expecting snake oil. I soon realized that there was more to it than meets the eye. The first chapter explains the vital signs in language simplistic enough for an average Grade five student to understand and makes endless claims about the health benefits of walking that conflates correlation to causation. Perhaps patients harbouring unrecognized cancers or vascular diseases walk less than their peers because of that rather than the less walking causing the cancer or vascular disease.

The authors never miss a chance to disagree with mainstream medicine advice and argue for the exact opposite approach to many foot, knee, hip and lower back injuries or pains, but are often very convincing in their recommendations. But this oft repeated smug self-congratulatory writing becomes a bit annoying for this retired physician.

The chapter on choosing shoes is loaded wth sage advice like choosing thin soles and low heels to let your foot muscles do the work of walking, and using the foam insert in most store shoes to match your foot size by standing on it.

The many recommended exercises include such details as toe yoga which now makes sense to me and strength exercises and rucking. They have ironically convinced me to vary and reduce my gym routine of one hour every other day flat on the treadmill at four kpm with holding the heart rate bars, to variable speeds and variable inclines with hands free and perhaps even some slow backward walking for less time and less distance. I already do a variety of other strength and balance exercises and over the last year have averaged over 12,000 steps per day but probably not very efficiently.

This book about exercise physiology, much as I hate to admit it, was very useful to me.

3.5/5

This documentary of the long history of the Murdock family is a bit frightening.

Most readers will be aware of the existence of the powerful conservative multimedia mogul Rupert Murdock, and perhaps some of the dysfunctional family dynamics. But fewer will know of the extent to which Rupert has been willing to bend the truth and blatently lie both to friends and family and in his media outlets, to maintain his billion dollar lifestyle and influence. At age 94, he maintains control of media outlets on three continents, and has alienated most of his family and his five wives, by sly legal manoeuvres to ensure that his son, Lachlan who shares most closely his extreme right-wing views will be able to continue the influence- peddling via editorials and TV programs, without any regard for truth. « The truth be damned; give them what they want to hear. »

A sad tale of a cold callous totally amoral man, but, unfortunately, one with vast power and influence. Remind you of anyone else?

3/5

Thanks, The Economist.

The author of this semi autobiographical book, a precocious 17 year old self-described nerd, was an undergraduate at Stanford when he wrote this true tale about the rarified life there and the love-hate relationship between Stanford and the adjacent Silicon Valley. When he found what appeared to be deceptive or even fraudulent data in the president of Stanford’s published scientific research, the explosive accusations lead to campus wide controversy, and eventually to the president’s ouster.

What the author calls Stanford within Stanford consists of restrictive rules about student behavior, and a focus on wealth and power with students and faculty alike starting up billion dollar companies with vague goals and luring in Venture Capitalist companies.

Much of this story relates to the fraudulent or doctored scientific studies published by prominent authors with inadequate oversight, and brutal academic politics within the university community. I can certainly relate to this. The findings of my very first laboratory research, when submitted for publication in manuscript form were sent to the author of a widely cited paper that I directly refuted, for peer review. His paper must have been doctored or even fraudulent, but had lead to a universally accepted theory for ten years, before being debunked.

The author graduated from Stanford in 2026, and is certainly someone to watch.

4.5/5

Thanks, The Economist.

This American journalist and founder of NewsGuard provides a frightening picture of the development of all-pervasive internet companies intent on maximizing followers without regard for the truth of what they are following. He relates this in part to an obscure U.S. amendment to a law in 1996 that left the policing of content largely to the companies themselves. The other major factor cited is the multibillion dollar programmatic advertising industry that results in ads being shown on line indiscriminately, sometimes with conflicting content.

The problems with fake news, conspiracy theories and blatent lies being taken seriously by ordinary folk is not confined to the U.S. as documented by dozens of examples of unidentified Russian, Iranian and Chinese trolls promoting snake oil cures, verifiable lies, and interfering with elections, around the world with outrageous fake news together with impressively doctored and convincing photographs and videos.

AI amplifies the problems as these unthinking powerful programs are never able to discriminate between truth and lies. But as he outlines in the 21 pages of suggestions to improve the online content of news, these same AI systems at least are not subject to the same First Amendment law protection of free speech.

That short chapter on how to minimize the impact of fake news, and blatent lies on the internet was written before Trump won the 2024 election (with Russia’s help) and now seems risibly naive, but includes some useful suggestions, if only they could be implemented in the U.S. But they would do nothing to stop other rogues.

A very depressing but informative book, well written and seemingly neutral politically.

4/5

In this thriller, the late New Yorker portrays his home town as one deeply divided by race, corruption, and self-serving ultra rich Wall street investment bankers and stock market traders. No one escapes his scorn, except for one black youth in the slums of the South Bronx who suffers apparently irreversible brain damage from a hit and run car accident.

That accident is central to the story as it involves one of those Park Avenue investment bankers and his secret lover.

The coverage stokes community outrage, enhanced by dishonest sensationalist print press and TV overage, black anger, and a dishonest clergyman and by equally unscrupulous lawyers for both the prosecution and the defence.

Set in the 80´s the overall picture of New York society is certainly not flattering and British immigrants bemoan the crudity of the Irish, Jewish, and Italian natives. When the bond trader tries to explain his work to his six year old, it’s meaninglessness becomes laughable.

There are problems with this narrative. I doubt that any « subdural concusssion », repeatedly mentioned, exists let alone causes permanent coma, and if it were a subdural hematoma it would have been treated surgically.

I fortunately have little experience with courtroom proceedings nor do I read many John Grisham or Michael Creighton novels, but it seems to me that no judge would ever tolerate, much less use, the very obscene language or the interruptions and shouting here portrayed

4/5

Thanks, Vera.

After reading What We Can See, I didn’t relish another McEwan novel, but had nothing more enticing available at the OPL, and Vera insisted that this was his best.

The complex plot includes a false accusation of rape and a prison sentence, the dramatic rescue of soldiers at Dunkirk, and several attempts of the young girl who accused the man of rape to correct her testimony, the last as she is suffering from vascular dementia as an old woman.

The narrator of an audiobook has a powefull influence on it’s degree of enjoyment. In this case, the staccato high pitched rapid-fire heavily-accented voice varying between inaudible whispers and shill shouts had the effect on me of inducing a losing battle with my eyelids, that kept wanting to close.

I think I would have enjoyed this book far more as an physical book or an ebook.

3/5

Thanks, Vera

This the fourth of this British novelist’s books that I have read and not his best in my opinion. Certain themes seem to dominate all of these books, especially poetry and problematic sexual trysts.

This one is divided into two parts. The longer Part One in twenty-one chapters is set mostly in 2121 , where an adored long poem by the famous but fictional Francis Blundy called Corona for Vivien, dedicated to his wife is sought by academics and is said to be «  the most precious document in the world ». Most of the documentation is of what has happened to the world in the preceding 100 years, including an Inundation, several nuclear wars, and a takeover of America by Nigeria. The population has decreased to four billion. Britain has become a series of islands. AI has become a national resource with limited access. One theory of the missing document is that somehow the fossil fuel industry paid for and destroyed the only copy because of it’s content. But the stress of caring for a demented husband has not dissapeared and is described in exquisite detail.

Part 2 with no paragraph breaks is set in the present time and narrated by Vivien, as she further expands on caring for her demented husband (not Francis). She is obsessed with sex and documents that the adored Francis is actually a self-centered sexual addict and criminal willing to do anything to satisfy his desires. Both characters seem to regard marriage vows as mere suggestions.

The whole premise of this novel is weak and the result is a dissapppointing dystopian futuristic story.

2.2/5

This Jackson Mississippi author of The Help is back with a very new massive tome set in Oxford Miss. in the deepest part of the Depression i.e. 1933. Extreme poverty, racism, misogyny, religious fanaticism and hypocrisy, mental anguish, alcoholism, family separation, eugenics, unemployment -this novel has all of that and much more.

The author switches seamlessly from writing from the viewpoint of an adult to the limited world view of a bright but charming persecuted and simple11 year old uneducated orphan, apparently, abandoned by her single mother, and confined to a cruel religious nut’s orphanage.

The plot is very complex with a host of characters but they are generally not hard to keep straight.There are many suprise twists almost all unpredictable but realistic. The title comes from a secret temporary brothel run by desperate women out of the house of a temporarily absent high society lady, unbeknownst to her.

Ole Miss University, the alma mater for my daughter’s master degree figures prominently, so she may wish to comment, but I really, really enjoyed this book and learned a lot about the deeply flawed past culture of the old South.

A long read but worth every minute.

5/5

Thanks, Carolyn.

This late scientist tries to make sense of the supposedly unique human characteristic of linguistics. He discusses the roles of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace at length in a way that flatters the former. Then he is on to the life of the rogue Noam Chomski with his various theories of linguistics including his insistence on recurrsion, then it’s denial.

I did not understand a lot of the discussion, but it seems to me that there is something self-limiting about using words to try to understand the science of using words. And we are definitely not alone in linguistics, although we seem to be less able to understand the languages of some animals than they do of ours. “Sit.” “Lie down.”

Economics is traditionally called The Dismal Science, but I think the term should be reserved for linguistics- or perhaps for nutrition.

The best thing about this audiobook is its brevity.

2/5

This London, England teacher of creative writing wrote this novel as a former basketball star and white shoe lawyer. Twelve years after his wife has had an affair and his children have become adults, he decides tentatively to leave her and goes on a long uncharted car trip to Las Vegas and Los Angeles with no definite plans for his future.

Everything about his life is tentative, including his vague plans to write a story about crossing America and playing pickup basketball as he does so, and meeting up with old friends, and former lovers.

The writing is set in modern times and mostly narrated in short sentences in the first person singular. He is self-absorbed and describes many mundane shallow everyday life events. There is nothing approaching any deep overriding philosophy. There is little mention of any country other than the U.S.A.

The medical problems he encounters near the end of the book are so rare, but precise, that I doubt anyone who has not experienced them could have dreamed them up, but any doctor who still does physical examinations should be able to diagnose it easily. Apparently few do. But some of the hospital experiences seem unrealistic. Is this at least in part autobiography?

In short, I did not enjoy this book.

3/5

Thanks, Goodreads.

An Arizonan adventurer outlines his experiences in hiking the length of the Grand Canyon and the multiple hazards that inevitably entails. The title subtitle is misleading in that the “spectacular misadventure” should be pluralized.

The history of the small long-persecuted Havasupai and larger Hualapai native tribes is interesting, but somewhat peripheral to the story, although the latter’s air-tourism of the canyon is difficult to justify.

In only one way can I relate to these multiple stories of misadventures. I have visited the Grand Canyon and can appreciate why people become addicted to the views- its beauty can never be adequately described in either words or pictures. About 14 years ago in late winter or early spring my daughter and I hiked down the Bright Angel Trail about half way to the canyon floor. When she slipped on hidden ice under red dust, and fell, she fortunately fell uninjured to the right as to the left would have been a 2000 foot drop. At that point we turned around – I found the climb up easier than the descent. She is much fitter and athletic than I am and has done several hikes there, including the Rim-to -Rim hike.

The writing is chronologically straightforward mostly first person singular, but also wordy. It could easily have been trimmed to 300 pages if an editor or publisher had insisted. The Epilogue adds nothing to the story.

4/5

Thanks, Lois.

This London, England’s science fiction can only be described as weird, and even that does not describe it adequately. Spanning over one thousand years and based in part on the sizable worldwide perfumery industry’s search for the perfect ingredients to put into their products, it includes mainly such efforts in Seattle, New Orleans and Paris. But it includes people who live for over a thousand years.

The missing ingredient seems to be some product of the lowly beet, mentioned repeatedly, but is elusive.

There is abundant graphic casual sex, and magical encounters, but also deep philosophical musings about the meaning of life and death, with ghosts, nymphs and gods all contributing their thoughts.

Of Buddhist teaching one character comments “They teach that much of existence amounts only to misery; that misery is caused by desire; therefore, if desire is eliminated, then misery will be eliminated… if a person forswears pleasure to avoid misery, what has he gained? A life of neither misery nor pleasure is a empty neutral existence…”

The story is so bizarre that at several points I was almost ready to give up, but then I would encounter beautiful puns and similes such as “He was as nervous as a praying mantis at an atheist’s picnic” or “Death is a mistake” or “ She was thick- thighed, broad- hipped and heavy-breasted but so slender of waist that a snail with a limp could circle her belt-line in two minutes flat.” Or there would be more deep philosophical musings.

One of the most bizarre books I have ever read, but with beautiful almost poetic language, I had trouble giving it a rating, but ended up giving it a 4/5

Thanks, Mike and Dirk.

This Pulitzer Prize winning novel is set in the late author’s native Tennessee in 1915, with the iconic loving Folette family, Jay, his wife Mary, and their two young children, Rufus and Catherine. When Jay drives to visit his ailing father, he is involved in an accident and is killed instantly. What evolves from there, is seemingly endless waiting to hear the news, then equally long periods of time as Mary attempts to explain the finality of the tragedy to the children, too young to fully conceive of the concept of death. There then ensues the funeral, with conflicts over the officiating.

The writing is poetical (and in part actual poetry) and the pathos is heart-wrenching. Deep different interpretations about the finality of death are discussed in detail.

Long sections in italics outline the children’s experiences and understanding. (These could be skipped or just skimmed over by the reader who wants to deal only with the main plot.).

There are many Bible quotes that seem to give Mary some comfort, but just annoy others in the extended family.

This was a reread for me as I had read it many years ago, but it is well worth the effort.

4/5

This old classic is narrated by 15 different individuals in Yoknapatawpha county, Mississippi, as they try to get their dear late Addie, mother, grandmother and wife to her designated burial site.

The extensive dialogue is loaded with local jargon and frequent disagreements. The long section as they attempt to get her coffin across a swollen and violent river is just confusing. In fact, I found the whole book to be confusing, even though there is supposedly some deeper hidden truths to it according to other reviewers. There are lots of past secrets of the characters revealed, but they don’t seem to be connected to the main plot.

I cannot recommend this book.

2.5/5

In this Irish/Scottish novelist’s emotionally loaded tale, Jerry, a happy, loving and contented alcoholic Irish architect, and his enabling but somewhat bossy retired teacher-wife, Stella, both from County Londonderry, visit Amsterdam in mid winter.

Jerry uses all the tricks common to alcoholics around the world to conceal how much he drinks. He frequently mocks his wife’s devout Catholicism, while she attempts to repay for what seems to have been a miracle escape from death in her youth, by trying to join a holy order of pseudo-nuns.

The unique geography and tourist attractions of Amsterdam are all on display. Their visit to the historical museum of Ann Frank’s house is particularly touching and emotional, with attempts by Stella to connect to the late famed Nazi victim, through prayer, while he mocks the Church as a bunch of hypocritical, misogynous pedophiles.

There are no dates provided but the plot dates it too before widespread availability of cell phones, and the writing is linear except for Stella’s frequent flashbacks and nightmares, especially when they experience a long delay on returning due to a severe storm.

Thanks, Jean.

4/5

An updated documentary of Trump’s presidency to the end of March this year, from the same NYT reporter who wrote Confidence Man, with the addition of her colleague, Johnathan Swan.

Carefully researched, the extent of Trump’s greed, capriciousness, and willingness to break any law in pursuit of revenge and further his own agenda is on full display. There are revelations that leave no doubt about his sinister intentions to establish an absolute dictatorship. But revelations in this book convinced me that J.D. Vance, though a deeply flawed opportunist, would be theoretically less dangerous than Trump as POTUS.

There is no doubt about the authors’ political allegiance. What is missing from this book is any suggestion of alternative actions to the many foolish actions of the Trump regime.

4/5

When I previously reviewed another book (Women Talking) by this Canadian ex Mennonite, I stated that I would not be reading more of her books. Unfortunately a Goodreads review made me change my mind.

This book is said to be nonfiction and is in part autobiography. It attempts to answer the questions about why she writes at all and what writing, and silence means. She travels the world and receives therapy from a Russian Jungian while dealing with the suicides of both her father and her sister. The time shifts range from the 1970s to 2023. In places, she seems to be psychotic herself with dreams of establishing a museum of the wind and is overpowered by panic attacks. The whole book is laced with foul language and strange sexual encounters.

The answer to the question about why she writes at all is not forthcoming except in a banal and incomplete way, and constitutes a small part of the story. Repeated references to the visits of a demented skunk, and the underground river beneath their Toronto house serve no useful purpose that I could discern.

In short, I did not enjoy this book.

2.5/5

No one recommended this old classic novel, the only book by the young author who died at age 30, but, with nothing on my wish list currently available at the OPL, I decided to try it. Most of it is narrated by some kind of head servant either at the mansion of the title, on the barren English moor or the nearby Thrustcross Grange.

The plot almost entirely features the interaction of the many characters who seem to either passionately love each other, or equally passionately, hate each other with nothing in between, and no tolerance of differences. The hierarchy of British society is on prominent display, and the extreme emotions ascribed to the subjects seemingly on their own can lead to the death of the subject. The psychotic ravings of a Mrs Linton and the garbled speeches of the servant, Joseph, made no sense. I even got confused as to where the action was taking place, as characters are banned or welcomed to Wuthering Heights or Thrustcross Grange, depending largely on the dictates of the dour irascible unlikeable but powerful Heathcliff.

In the style of writing of the day, there are far too many exclamation marks for my liking. I don’t know why the SNL comedian Chevy Chase is mentioned but the script was rewritten with the 2012 edition perhaps with the help of AI.

I did not enjoy this read.

2/5

Full disclosure. Not only is this my much younger 75 year old sister’s contemporary debut novel, published last month, but it is also published by the same publisher who published my first book although the name and location of the company has changed.

The plot gets quite complex with a lot of characters, some despicable rogues and some angelic saints, and some with in-between and changeable traits. However, the reader should be able to keep them straight by paying careful attention to the dates (May, 1990 to the summer of 2013), and locations (Toronto or Montreal), at the start of the 30 chapters. Fortunately there are no time shifts which I personally don’t like, other than in the flashbacks and nightmares of the main character, Hannah Brown.

The first few chapters seem to point to a past incestuous relationship or at least some sexual abuse, and indeed this is confirmed gradually as Hannah learns to accept her past. Even these are described discretely without the pornographic details common in many modern novels.

I won’t give away more of the plot except to point out that there is a distinct feminist flavour to it and many wise insights into the characters, some smart advice for parents of rebellious teens, and some surprises in the simple genetic information those teens uncover. Even the nouns in the title seem to take on new meaning.

Hannah could be accused of being overly introspective, emotional and dramatic in her reactions but they are in response to emotional and physical trauma worse than 99% of readers will ever experience, and these traits are made to seem realistic.

The writing is gripping and there are dozens of surprise twists with no loose ends that I can recall.

4.9/5

Congratulations.