Well I didn't want to be negative and say the 'D' word but you get the idea. 

Back in high school one of the 'cool' teachers (we all had them) made a list of books to read before you die.  I recently got a box of my things from those far off days and went through it.  I found the list.  I thought, 'Hey, this is bloggable'.  So I will post it here and hopefully my bookish friends will post.

I'm currently reading Inspector Rebus novel 'Resurrection Men'.  I notice he uses the term high heid yins

This is a great phrase but very Scottish.  I was trying to think of an equivalent phrase that would be used in Canada but I couldn't.  My parents never used this phrase whilst I was growing up, they never said "Those high heid yins in Ottawa..."

High heid yins is defined as 'upper management' by The Scottish Vernacular dictionary.

Here is high heid yins used in context

"The experts are not the 'high heid yins' - the experts are the 'Teachers on the ground and in the classrooms'. They are the ones whose opinions should be sought in the debate about standards of education."

I just finished an excellent book by Wayson Choy called 'All that Matters'.  This is Choy's second novel, the first was 'The Jade Peony'.  The Jade Peony is the story of a Chinese family that has moved to Vancouver in the 1920's.  Each section of the book tells the story as children are born and the family grows.  All That Matters is about the same family but this time from the perspective of the oldest son.

What an excellent idea!  I loved this book because it is beautifully written but also because a great story is told from another angle.  As a reader I appreciated Choy's decision to write this novel.  It is as though we are standing in the family's house again, this time in a different spot in the room.

Choy is another example of the great new group of writers from Canada who are writing about the immigrant's experience.  I look forward to more and more of this literature.  I get a little tired of the 'Margaret Atwood is our best writer' school of thought.  I like Atwood but her experience growing up in 1950's Leaside to third generation Canadian parents and summers in the Canadian woods is not shared by all Canadians (including me).  I am more excited to read novel's like Choy's and also writers who chose Canada to be their home like Michale Ondaatje, M.G. Vassaniji and Rohinton Mistry.

I started Monica Ali's newest book Alejento Blue.

It was okay but not great.  Authors who have a huge hit with their first book often have a weak follow up.  I assume this is because the publisher rushes them into publishing a second novel.  This book felt like there was a couple of good short stories that got worked into a novel.

I heard an interview with Nick Hornby on Writers and Company.  He talked about how people too often keep reading books that they don't enjoy but that they think they "should" read.  I was reminded, again, that its okay to put down a book.

I also started Dionne Brand's novel At the Full and Change of the Moon.
It was very good but alas due back to the library before I could finish it.  It was a richly written novel and so took me longer to read.  I will definitely be reading more novels by Brand.

I haven't been reading as much lately, I haven't had as much good stuff on request at the library come in and I haven't been sure what to request.

So if any readers have books to suggest, I would be definitely interested in good summer reading!

I read a book over the long weekend - Blackfly Season by Giles Bunt.  This was a well written mystery that takes place in a thinly disguised Thunder Bay.  It was a great summer mystery.

I just finished Midnight at the Dragon Cafe.  It was an excellent novel, especially for a debut novel.  Midnight at the Dragon Cafe portrays the life of a Chinese family that immigrates to a small Ontario town in the 1950's to run a Chinese restaurant.  More than anything, this novel made me realize how isolating life was for the first Asian immigrants who settled in small towns, couldn't speak English and had children who bridged both worlds, the private world at home and the public, Canadian world of going to school. 

Also, like the novel The Jade Peony, this novel illustrates how difficult Canada's immigration policies, restricting women to immigrate for many years, made family life for Chinese Canadians.