Isola by Allegra Goodman

April 30, 2025

Isola by Allegra Goodman

Marguerite de Rocque was orphaned as a small child. Heir to her family's fortune, her cousin Roberval is appointed her guardian and administrator of her estates. But he squanders her money and sells her manor house to finance one last desperate voyage to the new world, taking Marguerite with him. When she falls in love with his secretary, Roberval abandons them to die on a deserted island near Canada without food or shelter.

I liked this more than I expected that I would, since I frequently hate the books selected by those celebrity and TV book clubs. But I had this on my reading list before Reese Witherspoon picked it, so I decided to read it anyway. Based on the true story of Marguerite de Rocque who lived in 16th century France. Marguerite suffers abandonment in a number of ways, and she lived an interesting life. Brought up to be a pampered lady, she perseveres and survives extreme hardship. Recommended for readers who enjoy historical fiction that focuses on strong women.

Some of the islands in the St. Lawrence River, which look a lot nicer in the summer than they do in winter

The Break by Katherena Vermette

October 17, 2023

The Break by Katherena Vermette

In the middle of a snowy night, Stella McGregor witnesses a violent crime in the Break, an open field near her house. Stella is sure that a woman was being attacked by several people and calls the police. Although the police find a large quantity of blood in the snow, they doubt Stella's information, until two victims show up in the emergency room of the local hospital. While the family members want the police to find the perpetrators, they are reluctant to provide any information that might lead back to them.

This was one of my selections for Native American History month, something that I have been meaning to read for a while. Intense but extremely good. Violence against Native American women and girls often goes under-reported and unsolved. My only complaint with the story is that several of Stella's family members are critical of her because she didn't "do" anything to stop the crime or save the victim. Stella is a young mother home alone with two babies in the middle of the night - her husband is at work and there is deep snow outside. What was she supposed to do - leave her two children and run outside in her pajamas to confront the perpetrators? Other than that, it's great writing. Highly recommended for readers who enjoy serious literary fiction like Rene Denfeld's The Enchanted.

Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling

March 4, 2023

Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling

Set in the far north of Canada, in a virtual ghost town called Dominion Lake, three different groups of people are following different agendas: a group of glamorous prostitutes, a female paramilitary unit stationed at an abandoned meteorological post called White Alice, and a warehouse full of men who are doing some kind of manual labor that has to do with mining. Why? That question is barely answered and not in any kind of satisfactory way.

Interesting premise but too many themes: mineral rights, global warming/climate change, ecology, indigenous peoples, patriarchy, privilege, etc. I didn't connect with or care about any of the characters, and the three narrative threads barely came together at the end. It felt like the author was trying to write something like Station Eleven (which I loved) where seemingly separate stories are inextricably linked. Overall disappointing.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

The frozen northern regions of Canada