Hello everyone!
Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Bionic Bookworm! If you’re interested in participating, check out her wonderful blog to get the details and the prompts for each week!
This month, Shanah at Top 5 Tuesday is taking a much-deserved break! That means that there aren’t any prompts this month, which is okay because I’ve missed a few weeks. I decided to go through the Top 5 Tuesday archives and pick out some topics that I wish I would have done, to share with you during June. This week, I’m talking about books set in my country, which is fitting because Canada Day is tomorrow!
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery: When I picked this topic, this was the first book to pop into my mind, because it is such a classic. The first time I read this book was in between semesters at University, and I remember not loving it. After some reflection, I realized that this book is actually fantastic, and I need to reread it at some point. This book takes place in beautiful Prince Edward Island, and it’s one of those books that make you feel good. Anne is such an iconic and multi-dimensional character, and it’s understandable why so many people love her.
The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis: It shouldn’t surprise anyone that I’m including this book on this list, because it’s one of my favourites. This book is a political satire, and in my opinion, it’s laugh-out-loud funny. The opening chapter of this book is one of my favourite opening chapters, and I thought the word-play and political references were brilliant. I stumbled upon this book shortly after I realized I had inadvertently set myself up to minor in Political Science, and the timing was perfect. I always think about this book during Canadian election season, and it makes the 36 to 50 day period a lot more tolerable.
All My Friends Are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman: This is a book that I don’t talk about nearly enough. All My Friends Are Superheroes is a short book about a normal man named Tom, who is married to a superhero, The Perfectionist. Unfortunately, The Perfectionist’s ex-boyfriend, Hypno, hypnotizes her into believing that Tom is invisible, and Tom has to convince The Perfectionist that he’s visible before she leaves, and he loses her forever. This book features a lot of interesting characters, and I think the storyline is sweet. This is a book you can easily read in one sitting (the first time I read it was on a flight from Edmonton to Vancouver), and I highly recommend it.
The Forgotten Home Child by Genevieve Graham: I read this book earlier this year, and I still can’t stop talking about it. This book is historical fiction, and it talks about a dark period in Canadian history that I didn’t know about. Home children were sent from the UK to Canada (and other places), and most of the time, they were essentially indentured servants. Many of the children who were sent to Canada lived in horrid conditions, and they were mistreated. This book flips between the past and the present, as Winny tells her family about what she went through. It’s full of heartbreaking moments, and I can’t believe that I didn’t learn about this dark period in Canadian history in school.
Still Life by Louise Penny: Still Life is a murder mystery that takes place in a charming, fictional, small town in Eastern Quebec. It took me a little while to get into this book because there were a lot of characters to meet, but once I got into it, I fell in love with Three Pines. There’s something wholesome about these books, even though there’s a murder being solved, and I love the relationships between the people of Three Pines. I also adore Inspector Gamache, and even though I’ve only read the first three Inspector Gamache books, I’m excited to read the rest of the series.