Book Review: The Halifax Connection by Marie Jakober

Publishe: andom House Canada
Publish Date: 2007

Canada in 1862 was not the proud country we know today. It was still collection of colonies run by the British crown. To the south of Canada in the United States, the Civil War is becoming more volatile. As the fighting gets hotter, people from both sides, Yankee and Confederate alike cross the border into the British Colonies for many reasons. Among the southern gentry flooding into the cities of Halifax and Montreal, there are many spies and military personages. These men and women have ulterior motives to put into action secret plans against the Yankees. Secret plans that may or may not start a war between England and the United States. If a war is started between the two countries, the Confederacy would have an ally in fighting against the Yankees.

Former theater manager and ex-British aristocrat Erryn Shaw finds himself recruited as a spy for the British crown. His job is to befriend the Southern rebels and learn their secret plans. While on a mission to Montreal, he hears about an exceptionally sinister plot being planned by the Confederates. A plan, which the men in charge believe with all their hearts will win them the war.

While in Montreal, Erryn meets and courts a woman he finds intriguing and charming named Sylvie Bowen. Sylvie has recently emigrated to Canada, escaping life of drudgery working in the cotton mills of England. Sylvie also stands firm in her hatred of the Southern rebels. Because of their piracy, she and her aunt Franny were forced to land on Nassau. Only Sylvie would then travel onto Halifax. Her aunt left behind to be buried in a mass grave, for the victims of a Yellow Fever epidemic that was raging through the island when the women were forced ashore by the sinking of the English trader they were traveling on by the confederate ship the Alabama.

Erryn finds himself drawn deeper into the intrigue surrounding the plot he has uncovered. Meanwhile his feelings for Sylvie deepen as he spends more time with her. He finds himself in a race against time. Can Erryn Shaw find a way to stop the Rebel’s plans and keep England from starting a war with the United States? Can he do so and pull out of the spy game before his beloved Sylvie discovers he is a “Grey Tory” siding with those she despises? Or will he run out of time and loose both Sylvie and the hope of defeating the plan that the Rebels believe will end the war.

The Halifax Connection draws its story from actual events in Canada’s history. I was fascinated by the story, as much of my Civil War knowledge had ended with Canada being one of the end points of the underground railroad. This book is a fantastic example of historical fiction. It is superbly written and transports readers back in time to an exiting time in Canada’s colonial history. Author Marie Jakober takes us into the ballrooms and parlors of the bustling city of Montreal to the dirty, military garrisoned port town of Halifax. I originally won this book as a part of the first Hidden Treasures contest held by West of Mars back in the summer of 2007. I’m finding myself sorry for letting this book languish for so long in my “to be read soon" basket. This is one of the best examples of fiction set during the Civil War that I have read in a very long time. Author Marie Jakober has a love and passion for the Civil War and her own country’s involvement in it. This passion shows through in an extremely well crafted and exiting adventure of a story.

book review: The City of Ember

“In the city of Ember, the sky was always dark. The only light came from great flood lamps mounted on the buildings and at the tops of poles in the middle of the larger squares. When the lights were on, they cast a yellowish glow over the streets; people walking by threw long shadows that shortened and then stretched out again. When the lights were off, as they were between nine at night and six in the morning, the city was so dark that people might have been wearing blindfolds.”
-The City of Ember, Chapter 1, page 4.

When the city of Ember was first built, its builders left a plan for its inhabitants to find when they needed it most. Unfortunately, the box it was housed in was moved early, and the one person who knew of the importance of the box passed suddenly away before telling a successor about the box. Thus it was shuffled away, and lost to time.

In the city of Ember, everyone has a job to help keep the city functioning smoothly. The children of Ember attend school until age twelve when they join the workforce. On assignment day Lina Mayfleet, who want to run through the streets of Ember as a messenger, draws a job down in the pipe works. Meanwhile, her classmate Doon Harrow, who wants to learn how things work and fix things, draws a job as a messenger. Lina and Doon decide to trade jobs rather than being stuck with a job that they hate for the three year work period.

The city of Ember is becoming more and more unhappy. The generator providing the electricity for the city is failing more and more often. Leaving the city plunged into darkness for longer instances before it can be fixed. Supplies from the store rooms are running low. The mayor is a corrupt and greedy individual who is more concerned with his plan to keep his own life comfortable than with trying to find a solution for the survival of Ember and the people who live in the city.

When Lina finds the fragments of an ancient document, she convinced Doon to help her decipher it. They discover it contains instructions that seem to lead out of Ember. Can Lina and Doon find out where they lead, and convince the other members of the city to follow them before they run out of supplies and electricity for good?

The City of Ember was written for the young reader, however adult fans of children’s fantasy will find this an enjoyable story as well. Jeanne DuPrau has created a wonderfully intriguing world where sunlight does not exist. The story has high spirited main characters who believe in a good cause, and run up against obstacles that might make most people stop trying. I’ve seen a lot of web sites devoted to questions about the book for teachers to include it in their class curriculum. It was also announced earlier this year that a film version of the book is being filmed with a planned release of next year.

Book Review: Flight Volume 4

Read and Reviewed for armchair interviews and submitted to the Hidden Treasures summer reading contest.

Flight 4 is the fourth book in the flight series. These books are anthologies of stories told through the use of comic format. Each of these collections showcase young, innovative artists, with the intent to create stories that are fun to read for both the seasoned fan of comics, and those readers new to the format.

Flight 4 continues this tradition. Out of the series, the stories in this anthology really make the reader think about their story lines, and are quite introspective. The stories included cover a wide range of subjects. The book contains twenty-five stories by twenty-six talented artists and storytellers. The book is a collection of short stories that are varied in multiple styles and tones from each other.

A few of my personal favorites from this Flight collection are: Food from the Sea by Amy Kim Ganter, The Window Makers by Kazu Kibuishi, Dinosaur Egg by Raina. Each of these stories plays with the ideas of the power of imagination, the joy of finding your own strengths and weaknesses, and the fun of discovering new things and ideas. I’ve been a fan of the Flight collections since reading Flight Volume 3. I’m most impressed with this current collection and look forward to future flight collections.

Because, as the folks over at Flight Comics believe, reading comics should be fun, Flight 4 is defiantly a fun and thought provoking comic collection.

The artists who contributed stories to the book are: JP Ahonen, Graham Annable, Neil Babra, Bannister, Vera Brosgol, Scott Campbell, Pascal Campion, Joel Carroll, Cleo Chiang. Phil Craven, Ryan Estrada, Michel Gagné, Amy Kim Garter, Thomas Herpich, Azad Injejikian, Kazu Kibuishi, Jon Klassan, Sarah Mensinga, Fabio Moon, Ovi Nedelcu, Andrea Offermann, Lark Pien, Dave Roman, Israel Sanchez, Raina Telgemeir, and Joey Weiser.

Publisher: Villard Books
Publishing date: July 2007
Web Site: http://www.flightcomics.com/

Book Review: Sigourney's Quest by Gordon Snider

Read and reviewed for Front street Reviews, and as part of the Hidden Treasures contest.

Sigourney Phillips’ life has taken a turn for the worst. Her husband has left her for a younger woman. Her fifteen year old daughter, Debbie is acting up and siding with her father on everything related to the divorce proceedings. Sigourney finds herself retreating into her research and teaching, and becoming more and more unable to comprehend the depth of the anger and feelings of losing everything important that are becoming a firm part of her every day life.

Then, she receives a phone call that changes her life. Her close friend Martha has passed away and willed Sigourney an ancient manuscript and a diary belonging to Martha’s great grandmother Anne Hopkins. The diary tells the tale of Anne’s travels into Tibet in 1899. Her journey takes place five years before the first recorded contact with Tibet by Englishman Colonel Younghusband in 1904. In a letter that Sigourney finds enclosed with the diary, Martha tells her friend how Anne saved the manuscript during her travels. The manuscript is a very valuable one, which was written during the time that Buddhism was being established in Tibet that sets down the teachings of Buddha. Anne received it from a monk in Llasa, who entreated her to take it with her, out of the country before the Chinese could destroy the holy relic. Martha’s letter further explains that Anne’s spirit has contacted her, and that Sigourney must secretly smuggle the manuscript back into Tibet and return it to the monastery it originally came from.

In quick succession, Anne finds herself taking a leave of absence from the University, leaving Debbie with her father, and flying across the planet to join a tour group traveling into Chinese controlled Tibet. As she gets closer to her destination, Sigourney finds her path becoming more dangerous as the Chinese are alerted to her presence and the fact that she might be bringing religious contraband into the country with her. Sigourney is forced to face many obstacles along the way, and finds herself helped and making friends with the Tibetan people she encounters on her travels. Along her journey Sigourney finds healing for her troubled soul and hope that she will make the monastery, and get out of Tibet and into Bhutan under the Chinese government’s radar.

Gordon Snider has written a story that team with adventure, danger and hope. He strives to show his readers a land that is climatically harsh, but populated with a culture that is friendly, and warm. A people who live their lives steeped in the mysticism and ceremonies of their beliefs. He brings attention to how the Chinese government is trying to subvert the Tibetan’s way of living and turn Tibet into just another part of communist controlled China. The author wrote Sigourney’s quest as a fictional way of trying to record the culture he fell in love with while visiting as a photographer during the 1990’s. This book is a protest to the Chinese control and a testament to the resilience of the Tibetan people.

Summer Contest - Hidden Treasures of Fiction

It's time for the Hidden Treasures Summer Reading Contest!

Susan at West of Mars is having another contest and this time I'm giving all of you lots of notice. This summer's theme is Hidden Treasures of fiction; books or authors who have never gotten near the Best-seller list (any of them) but who you think deserve to be. So review your own books, your best friend, or that weird guy around the corner who happened to write a brilliant book (even if you cross the street when you see him coming) or that deserving author you've been keeping secret. Our hope is that this contest will help promote middle-list authors who are often overlooked in favour of the blockbuster novels and hopefully boost the authors' sales.

The rules are simple:
1. Find a book that's a Hidden Treasure. That means a book that hasn't made it to a best-seller list anywhere that you can find. A suggested reading list will be available at WestofMars.com (at the time of posting the list hasn't been posted but I'll update the link to the site once it is). Feel free to find your own treasure, though.

2. The book MUST be from a royalty-paying publisher. If in doubt, ask Susan.

3. Read it.

4. Post a review somewhere on the Internet between July 15 and August 15 (some popular locations for the last contest were reviewers' websites or blogs, Gather.com, and/or BookCrossing.com).

5. Sign the Mr. Linky at West of Mars. Include the permalink for your review.

6. Yes, you can use a Hidden Treasure book that fulfills another contest or reading challenge.

7. Yes, you can review more than one book.

8. If, for some reason, you don't want to win a prize, let Susan know.

9. If you have suggestions for the Hidden Treasures Suggested Reading List, or a prize to offer the winners, drop Susan an e-mail at susan at westofmars dot com.

10. Prizes will be awarded August 20. Winners will be contacted and winning list will be posted no later than 22 August; be sure to have a way for us to contact you.

Pretty simple right? So spend the next month deciding on your book(s) and I look forward to reading your reviews.

These are the people who have helped in the background to get this contest off the ground and running: West of Mars, Breeni Books, Morsie Reads, Eclectic Closet, Confessions of a Literary Persuasion, Writing Aspirations and Front Street Reviews