Stories of our lives

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/12/2021 (1054 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Free Press Book Club was started in May 2020 as a way to keep folks connected during a time of intense isolation, and to support both a local business — our partners at McNally Robinson Booksellers — and local authors.

Since then, the club has read 17 books together — full-length novels, short stories, flash fiction, memoirs and essay collections — all written by Manitoba authors or by writers with ties to our province in some way.

One common thread that has run through each of the book club picks is the calibre of Manitoba’s local literary scene. Chris Hall, co-owner of McNally Robinson and regular book club co-host, says it best: “What I’ve been struck with is the overall quality of local writing. It’s easy to get swept away by the excitement that surrounds international book releases, but I’ve been very happy with the reading I’ve done for the book club. Local authors hold their own with those international stars.”

The book club is currently reading Waubgeshig Rice’s Moon of the Crusted Snow, a novel that combines the action and suspense of a great thriller with rich Indigenous storytelling traditions. Rice will take part in the book club’s next virtual meeting on Monday, Jan. 31.

To join the Free Press Book Club (free) and for more information, visit wfp.to/bookclub. Then pick up a copy of the book, and you’ll be ready to access the virtual meetings on YouTube.

Here’s a recap of all the literary works the Free Press Book Club tackled in 2021, and a few thoughts about each virtual meeting.

 

Dec 2020 /January 2021

Five Wives 
By Joan Thomas

Thomas’s latest novel, about the families of a group of ill-fated evangelical Christian missionaries in the 1950s who set out to convert the Waorani people of Ecuador, is a richly textured piece of fiction, one that won her the 2019 Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction. She was as eloquent as ever in talking about the process of writing Five Wives (“It’s a heck of a lot easier to write a book from research than make everything up. I find it a very rich experience,” she said), the reaction it received and the history of the real-life characters of her book.

 

February

Songs for the End of the World
By Saleema Nawaz

Ottawa-born Saleema Nawaz’s appearance was one of just two times the book club welcomed a non-local author (although she did complete grad school here), and she was the first writer to tackle a pandemic, albeit a fictional one written pre-COVID. The uncertainty about featuring a pandemic novel during a pandemic abated, however, as Nawaz thoughtfully related how she has coped during the real-life global health crisis and how her large cast of characters navigated their own new realities.

 

March

We Are All Perfectly Fine: A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing
By Jillian Horton, M.D.

Horton’s poignant, heartfelt memoir chronicles her journey into medicine, her work as an internist and her near-breakdown before a five-day retreat in upstate New York. Her book club visit couldn’t have been more timely, as the anxiety of the pandemic has pushed so many to the emotional brink; Horton was thoughtful, engaged and impassioned about her own well-being as well as those of others. It was one of those conversations that felt like it flew by, and is one of our most-watched meetings to date.

 

April

Treed
By Ariel Gordon

Ariel Gordon is a vivid storyteller both in print and in person. Her essay collection Treed is a remarkable series of stories that takes readers through the urban forests of Winnipeg, before travelling to rural Manitoba and British Columbia to ultimately help readers consider their broader relationship with and expectations of nature. Ariel’s passion and emotional connection to the content shone through in her discussion with columnist Jen Zoratti — who joined in on this meeting, as she has done extensive reporting on Winnipeg’s tree canopies — and Chris, so much so that many of our audience members peppered Ariel with questions about her favourite local trails. There were even a few requests from readers to join in on Ariel’s next forest walk.

 

May

Once Removed
By Andrew Unger

The brains behind The Daily Bonnet, a satirical Mennonite website, dropped by the book club with his first novel, about a ghostwriter in a small Mennonite community who’s struggling to make ends meet. Preservation faces off with progress in Once Removed, to hilarious effect; Unger was wryly engaged throughout the chat, which tackled Mennonite artists and culture, history versus shiny and new, everything Daily Bonnet (his new book, Best of the Bonnet, is out now) and more.

 

June

Paul Is Dead
By C.C. Benison

As summer kicked off, a thriller for book club members to enjoy at the beach, the cabin or in the backyard felt fitting. Paul Is Dead, written by Douglas Whiteway under the pen name C.C. Benison, takes readers to the Interlake, skipping back and forth between past and present day as a horrific event begins to take shape. Benison talked about writing mysteries, skipping between decades and even ruminated a bit on the Beatles.

 

July/August

The Paris Apartment
By Kelly Bowen

Historical romance novelist Kelly Bowen jumped from England’s Regency era to the Second World War, turning down the sultry sizzle for a book inspired by real-life women in wartime, art theft and more. Her enthusiasm for her subject matter was infectious in talking about The Paris Apartment; in her detailing of the research she did, Bowen hinted that another Second World War era novel is in the works.

 

September

Fight Night
By Miriam Toews

Presented in conjunction with the Winnipeg International Writers Festival as part of Thin Air 2021, Miriam Toews was as charming and hilarious as ever in talking about her latest (and Giller-shortlisted) novel, told from the perspective of a nine-year-old who navigates life while living with her mom and her spirited grandmother. Between book club members and Thin Air enthusiasts, Miriam drew quite a crowd for the virtual meeting, with more than 160 people tuning in live to take in the discussion that covered a lot of ground — from character and story development, to what puts the “fight” in Fight Night, to navigating a book release during a pandemic. Toews may not live in Manitoba anymore, but she’s still one of our own.

 

October

Hour of the Crab
By Patricia Robertson

The three suites of stories in Hour of the Crab grapple with the migrant experience, climate change, ghosts, mystical symbolism, family and more — told from different points of view but all in Patricia Robertson’s evocative, eloquent prose. Her book club chat was equally thoughtful and illuminating, with Robertson hopeful we can emerge from our current chaotic state with a closer relationship with the natural world.

 

November

Status Update
By George Toles and Cliff Eyland

The final book club meeting of 2021 took the short story even shorter, with a book full of heartfelt, often-hilarious microfictions written by Toles between 2009 and 2013 and initially posted on Facebook, and which the late Cliff Eyland would then illustrate. Toles’ way with words came through in his impassioned discussion about the book, his late friend and collaborator, romanticism, ultra-short fiction, comedic writing and more.