Reclaiming my reading mojo

I’ve been reading up a storm since I returned from the wilds of rural Costa Rica, a place where the humidity curls book covers and forces an avid reader like me onto my tablet. E-books just don’t give me the reading experience I crave, though. I need to hold onto a real book.

Luckily, the first North Vancouver friend I connected with was my friend Betty, a former librarian who works part time at our local bookstore 32 Books. Thanks to Betty, who reads more than anyone I know, I quickly and easily stockpile titles awaiting my eyeballs. She always recommends titles I have either not heard about or might not have considered picking up. How lucky am I to have my own reading consultant?

“The Correspondent: A Novel” by Virginia Evans is a good example of a title that did not pop up on my radar. It’s a story told entirely in letter and emails (the title itself is a strong hint that the format could possibly be epistolary) which appealed to me. I have binders full of letters and emails that I printed out and saved from our time living overseas.

But more than liking the way this story is being told, it’s the reflections and actions of the main character that really grabbed me. I couldn’t put the book down until I quickly finished it. Sybil Van Antwerp is an American woman in her seventies, reflecting on her life, her regrets, and the power of forgiveness. I only wanted to shoot her when she kept calling herself an ‘old woman’. What old woman finds love in her seventies and family she never knew she had?

It ain’t over ‘til it’s over!

At this stage of my life, those words are my mantra. I only wished the titular character could have made that point somewhere in her correspondence. Amazingly, this is the debut novel by the author. An excellent first effort to be sure. Check out your local library or bookstore for a copy.

Despite many head-long dives into the back lists of authors I enjoy, like the Turkish feminist writer Elif Shafak who seems to have an endless library of titles to devour, I had overlooked her 2019 release “10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World” which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. 

It’s a disturbing but beautifully written tragic story of a sex worker in Istanbul who is brutally murdered but her brain lingers on, as well as her memories, for ten minutes and 38 seconds. That story line could understandably put anyone off at first. But remarkably, it has an uplifting message at the end about the importance of the families we choose, not the ones we are born with.

Having spent some time in Istanbul when Rodney and I were building Maple Bear, I enjoy reading books set in Turkey but will readily admit to not having spent much time in the red-light district of Istanbul. The unfairness of the young girls forced to work in the brothels, the poverty, the despair, does not make for light reading. But Shafak’s prose does. I highly recommend this title and her entire back list too!