Book Review: Her Turn by Katherine Ashenburg

By Tyra Forde

While the plot of Her Turn, the second fiction novel by Canadian author Katherine Ashenburg, spans only a few weeks, it effortlessly illuminates the ordinary and extraordinary (for better or for worse!) moments that make up everyday life. The novel begins in October 2015, where forty-something divorcee Liz, editor of a column called “My Turn,” combs for essays from across the country that capture unique stories with relatable themes. When one submission hits too close to home, not for its content but because of its author, Liz’s quiet life quickly spirals out of control. Her ex-husband’s new wife—the woman he had an affair with—writes in about her marriage, and Liz can’t help but write back as the anonymous editor.

Ashenburg artfully injects drama into the mundanities of Liz’s life. On the outside, her routine is careful and measured, including regular Italian language classes and yoga every Tuesday. On the inside, her schedule also includes a secret rendezvous with her married boss at a nearby hotel each week. The cast of family and friends that fill out her social circle is full of dynamic and inclusive characters, including her mother with dementia, her gay brother’s blended family, her college-age son, and her friends, each at different life stages—not to mention the other men that Liz keeps company. Her dating escapades are documented as if coming directly from a friend’s mouth and in a witty style reminiscent of Bridget Jones’s Diary.  

The novel is broken into chapters identified by the week they take place as fall bleeds into the winter. Set in Washington against the backdrop of Hilary Clinton running for president, Ashenburg explores how politics, with both a capital and lowercase ‘p’, infiltrate and impact daily life, even for apolitical Liz. A perfect choice to read during the holidays, these politics are especially evident in scenes that take place during Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

Most importantly, Her Turn is a story of forgiveness and the power it takes to give and receive it, even in the most difficult of circumstances. While Liz may not always make the right choice in romance, work, or life, her feelings and fears are shared with such honest narration that Ashenburg makes her a character to root for until the very end.   

At just under 230 pages, the novel is witty and heartfelt. I devoured it in one sitting. Ashenburg’s writing style romanticizes the everyday, and even when everything is going wrong in the plot, the novel never misses a beat. Her Turn comes highly recommended and has inspired me to read Ashenburg’s first fiction novel, Sofie & Cecilia.

*Thank you, Penguin Random House Canada, for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review!

Book Review: (Con)Science by P.J. Manney

By Tyra Forde

Content warnings: Graphic descriptions of suicide, violence involving children, domestic violence.

(Con)science by PJ Manney is the satisfying conclusion to the Phoenix Horizon trilogy, for which its debut earned Manney a Philip K. Dick Award nomination. The gritty series presents a global future where biotechnology and humanity are at odds. Manney expertly weaves imagination and intelligence as she blends fiction with fact in her exploration of how technology will affect our collective future, a topic that she is a consultant on, in addition to writing various articles and essays. In the series, she examines the impact of digital lives on psychological identities in what is summed up in (Con)science as “a war of self-definition.” 

The novel opens with a digital family tree of sorts that reminds readers not only of the various identities the main character, Peter Bernhardt, and others have amassed in the previous two novels but also informs them of the identities to come. These identities include human, robot, and artificial human intelligence. Scene breaks keep the reader up to speed as the novel jumps between various points of view.  

Another welcome addition to the novel, and a Manney signature, is the inclusion of a playlist. Not only does it include the music that inspired the author, but also the music that directly impacts the main characters who listen and process information through music. While set in the future, Manney grounds the series with well-known music and lyrics that make this technological dystopia feel even more like a possibility. “Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)” by Billy Joel and the Beatles/George Harrison rendition of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” are two particularly chilling songs in the story. 

The third and final novel in the series picks up five years after the first book. Formerly human scientist Bernhardt is now artificial human intelligence, but another AHI and descendant of Peter, referred to as Major Tom, is trying to rebuild a world changed forever by technology. The only problem is that Major Tom is the force pulling the world apart in the first place. What results is a race to rewrite history and save humanity, but the various identities of Peter and his descendants will require him to determine not only what it means to be human but also what it means to be unique.  

Despite being just under 400 pages, (Con)science feels like a journey at warp speed as the world begins to crumble. Manney makes the most of every page and manages to differentiate each character and their various identities with ease. The novel provides a clever balance of endings and beginnings, and despite being the series conclusion, the story leaves readers hungry for more. A journey of ethics built on music and technology makes for an unforgettable exploration of human identity. 

*Thank you, Wunderkind PR, for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review!

Book Review: You Are What You Click by Brian A. Primack

By Tyra Forde

You Are What You Click by American author Brian A. Primack, MD, PhD, is a guide to getting the best out of your social media usage while shielding yourself from anything less. True to the subtitle of “How being selective, positive, and creative can transform your social media experience,” Primack walks you through several easy-to-follow steps or easy-to-implement habits that will redefine how social media impacts your life. With five parts that are broken down into 39 short chapters in just over 230 pages, the book teaches you how to form a social media strategy that is beneficial rather than detrimental, which is solidified through Primack’s million-dollar question of “how do we balance the challenges of technology with the benefits?”

Primack emphasizes the importance of establishing social media usage that is suited to individual circumstances and lifestyles. Regardless of circumstance, he makes a convincing argument for the dangers of social media due to its correlation to mental health. He discusses the dehumanization of media, body image, “Mean World Syndrome,” and FOMO (fear of missing out) and how creating a social media pyramid, much like the food pyramid, can help create a balanced social media diet. A personality quiz is a unique feature that helps you identify one of the “big five” (conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion) personality traits that you most identify with, which in turn impact social media consumption. 

How social media influences everyday life is also discussed. Primack examines social media literacy, how media impacts addictive tendencies, and how tragedies are remembered and altered through the social media landscape. Where social media can positively impact the ability to maintain friendships, Primack doesn’t shy away from the pitfalls of social media, including when it infringes on professional reputation. Throughout the book, he stresses the importance of being intentional with how social media is used and ends the guides with a fitting comparison to the mindfulness applied to meditation practices. Various pop culture references balanced with scientific studies make the book well-referenced yet also highly relevant to many different demographics, as social media has undoubtedly impacted most, if not, all of them. 

I don’t hesitate to say that You Are What You Click is a book that will change your life because I have seen in my own experience and the experience of others close to me how tightly social media consumption is interwoven with happiness. Through his guide, Primack encourages you to be honest and selective with the social media you consume and to prioritize what media serves you based on your own unique circumstances and personality traits. I read this book quickly as even though the content is heavily researched, it is presented in a way that is more engaging than academic and easy-to-digest. This book has sparked conversations with my friends and family about social media habits and has regularly inspired me to review my usage based on pre-existing, uninformed habits. You Are What You Click is my favourite read of 2021 so far. 

*Thank you, Wunderkind PR, for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review!

Book Review: The Crash Palace by Andrew Wedderburn

By Tyra Forde

Have you ever been on “a joy ride set on a crash course with the past?” With this simple tagline, Andrew Wedderburn paints the lines of the road with Audrey Cole’s lifeline: driving. For Alberta native Wedderburn, his second novel, The Crash Palace, proves that while you can temporarily escape the present, the past will always catch up to you. Audrey Cole is a single mother with a secret: her past as a chauffeur for Alberta indie band the Lever Men. Four years after a fateful December in the Crash Palace, an unregulated refuge for wilderness explorers or escapists, Audrey still cannot shake her memories of the lodge at Two Reel Lake. When a spur of the moment Grand Theft Auto incident gives Audrey the keys, she races to revisit part of her history. 

With her daughter and mother asleep at home, Audrey’s drive into the wilderness in the safety of a stolen Audi begins to blend with the same trip she and the Lever Men took years ago. The novel switches timelines like a midday driver switches lanes. Sometimes, the transition is seamless, like when Wedderburn draws parallels from the band’s visit in 2005 to when Audrey returns alone in 2009. Other times, the timelines are shrouded in mystery, with all the clues to her past ready for the picking but only pieced together towards the end of the book. Even when the story comes full circle, it’s clear the road ahead for Audrey will contain many twists and turns. This ambiguity is part of what makes the novel so captivating. Much like life, or a road trip without a set endpoint, The Crash Palace is about the journey rather than the destination.  

The descriptions of both place and person is what sets this novel apart from others. Wedderburn captures the B-list Alberta music scene of the mid-2000s with accounts so rich it feels as though you’re standing on a sticky floor watching the Lever Men play a late-night set to a mostly empty bar right along with Audrey. Just as easily, he conjures the endless scenery of the Rockies and the open roads that penetrate them with authenticity and vibrancy. Audrey’s love for driving and fond memories of every vehicle she’s ever driven in punctures every hour on the road and every paragraph on the page with her distinct persona.  

At just under 250 pages, The Crash Palace is a book that will be hard to put down and even harder to forget. It questions what happens if we let life pass us by and “coast downhill in neutral,” as Wedderburn puts it, and what happens if we take our eyes off the map and instead explore exactly where we are. It tells the story of people who come together and then drift apart and how our past shapes the present. It also explores how shared interests created shared history. For Audrey Cole and the Lever Men, all it took was a love of music and a long open road. 

Book Review: Adventure by Chicken Bus by Janet LoSole

By Tyra Forde

Content warning: graphic descriptions of injuries

Adventure by Chicken Bus: An Unschooling Odyssey Through Central America by Canadian author Janet LoSole is a travel memoir that reads like vacation stories recounted by an old friend. LoSole documents a two-year journey with her husband and children, unschooling her young daughters through authentic experiences across Central America. The title is fitting, as the family frequently travels via “chicken bus.” As LoSole explains, this is “a colloquial term used to describe the run-down, discarded school buses from North America sold to Latin American countries, where they are repainted in riotously bright colors, outfitted with stereo speakers, and upcycled with more seats to accommodate man, woman, and child along with their potatoes, avocados, and chickens—and in this case, a family of Canadian backpackers.” 

After selling almost everything they own, the family embarks on their adventure with nothing more than what they can hold in their packs and Lonely Planet Central America on a Shoestring as their guidebook. Each chapter sets the stage for the reader by identifying which country they happen to be in (they travel through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and more) while other times the chapter begins by summarizing their recent actions such as when they settle down in the village of Quebrada Ganado, Costa Rica. This is a story of frugality, yet also of the pricelessness of family. 

The family strives to live like locals. They learn Spanish, how to make coconut oil and cheese, and volunteer with several local organizations (that LoSole provides contact information for, should any readers want to reach out). Their volunteer experience working with sea turtles in Parismina, Costa Rica, is especially memorable. The authentic lifestyle challenges the family at times. They experience heat exhaustion, illness, injury, and homesickness. Their strong bond and ability to work together results in them dubbing themselves the “Travel Team,” as their journey forces them to dig deep.

The memoir is written in such a familiar tone that it is easy to picture either yourself or a friend having embarked on this odyssey. LoSole is funny and heartfelt and does not shy away from peeling back the curtain on the trials and tribulations of travelling in general, but especially as a family. The different locales are described as vividly as if viewing a postcard and each excursion documented is unique and a pleasure to read. The occasional inclusion of direct narration from LoSole’s daughters or husband is a witty and clever way to include the whole family.  

At just under 230 pages, Adventure by Chicken Bus is a memoir that will captivate and inspire readers to book their next adventure. During a time where international travel is still limited, it was a pleasure to be transported to Central America through its pages. LoSole’s writing style is honest and her humour turns even the most mundane aspects of travel into wonderful stories. Adventure by Chicken Bus proves that home is truly where the heart is.

Thank you to Janet LoSole for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review!

In Conversation with Marissa Stapley author of Lucky

With Tyra Forde

Photo Credit: Eugene Choi

What inspired you to include in each chapter of Lucky both a flashback from the past and a snapshot of the present? The result formed an incredible overview of Lucky’s life. How did you keep the different timelines separate yet cohesive to form the bigger picture in the story?  

It was so important for me that my reader really want Lucky to be able to redeem that lottery ticket, to be rooting for her the entire book through – and very early on in the writing process I realized the only way to do that would be to go back in time. I knew if the reader understood her the way I did – which is to say, knew everything that had happened to her from birth to the present moment – they’d want her to win. And I wanted that because I wanted the ride with Lucky to be fun, and to feel good. I figured with everything that was going on in the world (and in my personal life; my mother was very ill as I was writing the novel and eventually passed away) this was exactly what was needed. 

Keeping track of timelines is a tricky thing. I have author friends who use special programs and software. I’ve tried that, and I probably should try it again. But I always find myself drawn to simply using large sheets of paper and a pencil, mapping it all out by hand. I get lost sometimes, and other times realize I need to rearrange things so the story flows better. At that point it feels like a jigsaw puzzle, which is to say challenging and frustrating – but also incredibly satisfying to get right. 

As a follow-up to the first question, what was your writing process for Lucky? Did you write each chapter in order or did you write large sections of either the past or present narratives individually? 

I had already written about half of the novel before I realized I needed to start putting everything I knew about Lucky’s childhood on the page. So I ended up writing most of her really young childhood chapter portions at once. But when her past started to catch up with her present, I tended to write those chapters and timelines in tandem. 

What I loved most about writing those past chapters – particularly the ones involving her as a young child – was that I was getting a chance to show what I already knew about her. That doesn’t always happen, even though most authors do know (or should know) everything there is to know about their main characters. In some of my past books, I’ve had scenes I’ve loved and wanted to include, scenes that dealt with past events, but they ended up cut because as much as I liked those scenes they had no proper bearing on the moments at hand. That was never the case here, because I was weaving the past with the present – and as I did it, it came so easily and I knew each of those past scenes had a place in the story. I found writing Lucky to be exactly the pleasure I needed it to be, in large part because of those dips into a past I was already so familiar with and compelled by, and will be grateful for that for a long time. 

Lucky is a character that readers will root for until the very end. How do you write characters that are neither good nor evil but manage to keep them likable to readers even when the characters might make the wrong decision?  

I got to share Lucky’s past with my readers. With other books, I may not have been able to share it all on the page, but I always knew it – which meant, no matter what (even with characters like Miles from The Last Resort) I understood where the character was coming from. Even if I didn’t like that character (Miles!!), I felt something for them. You have to, to write anything truly authentic.  

I remember watching the moving ‘Maleficent’ with my kids when they were little and feeling like it was a lesson for my kids about the world: that people who are hurt and damaged will hurt and damage in return, but that does not necessarily make them bad people (and we need to be careful not to hurt others, because it will start a bad pattern). But it was also a lesson for me about characters. It reminded me to always go back and try to find that moment when the character begins to become who they are when we meet them. With most of my characters, that’s easy to do and a labour of love. With characters who may have more evil than good in them, it can be tough – but it’s still necessary. 

With Lucky, I didn’t want to create a criminal character who was compelling and fascinating, yes, but also unquestionably bad. I never like the way I feel at the end of a story when I’m rooting for someone without a moral compass. I needed her to feel every crime she commited, to have regrets and a desire to set things right. That’s also why I chose to make her a con artist. People love con artists -- in fiction, at least! As far as I’m concerned (and I’m up at the cottage re-watching the Oceans movies with my son, so am really feeling it keenly) there is nothing more entertaining on screen or page than a good con or heist. It’s just so much fun to watch! And was fun to create, too.

Lucky takes readers on a riveting road trip from the West to East Coast. Was there a location featured in the book that had special meaning or was of particular interest for you to write? 

A few years ago I went on a road trip with my family to the Adirondacks. I knew at the time I wanted to set something there, or at least write something where some of the meaningful scenes happened in the Adirondacks. So when Lucky came along, and she was traveling from coast to coast – and, especially when her father wanted to take her somewhere he considered special on vacation – that location came to mind. 

One of our best memories of that trip was swimming at Chapel Pond, so I’m really glad I was able to work that into the book and make it such a poignant moment. Also, I don’t drive so having Lucky needing to get from place to place without the use of a car was easy for me to write. 

Did your former career as a sports journalist influence your career or writing style as a fiction author? 

I love that you asked this question because I’m mulling over a book right now that is bringing me back to those early days in my career as a sports journalist. That’s all I can say at the moment.  It often feels like so long ago that I forget it happened! But it did happen, and working as a journalist certainly did inform my future career as an author. I’m now very deadline oriented, and find it almost impossible to work without one. So if my editors don’t give me a deadline, I create one for myself and work towards it. The people I work with are often surprised by how prolific I can be -- and I know that comes from having worked in a world where deadlines weren’t a choice. In journalism school, the idea of never missing a deadline was really emphasized. And my dad was a newspaper reporter, so I understood the concept of a deadline, and what it meant to miss one, at a very young age.  

Working as a sports journalist also made me able to see the story in everything. To this day I love good sports journalism because it can contain a particular kind of beauty and joy I’m constantly nostalgic for. 

What can we expect from your upcoming novel, The Holiday Swap, cowritten with Karma Brown under the pen name Maggie Knox?

Karma and I hatched a plan to write a feel-good holiday rom com in March 2020, during our first lockdown. We were lonely, and the world was in turmoil. The idea to write a holiday romance was really just a lark at first, a way for us to distract ourselves from everything going on.  I don’t think we believed we’d actually do it, but found it entertaining to throw ideas around and talk about the most delicious and delightful  plot ideas we could come up with – just for fun! But somewhere along the way, we fell in love with the idea. We wrote a book that has everything we love and look forward to about the holidays: snow, baking, family …  and threw in the kind of love stories that can only be found in holiday romance movies, which we both enjoy. (There are two love stories in our book because it’s a twin swap. SO fun!) I think the result surprised us both. It’s charming, but also poignant and compelling. And I think because of who we are as writers it offers more than a typical romance might: it’s modern and feminist, too. It feels like the perfect holiday read, and we can’t wait to share it with readers soon. 

Lucky is a story about hope. What advice would you give to aspiring authors who are hoping to get published?

My best advice is that publishing is a marathon, not a race. It will likely not happen at the pace you want it to – and is a tough road! You have to be resilient and determined. You have to be willing to put one project aside and try something new. I have a few unpublished manuscripts in drawers, and that’s ok! Each had something to teach me. But yes, putting them aside did break my heart at the time.  So maybe that’s the last bit of advice I have: know that even if you do get your heart broken, it won’t be the end of your publishing dreams –but only if you have the strength and will to get up and keep trying. And the ability to learn something from those unpublished books and stories. 

What is your “must-read” book recommendation and what book has had the most impact and influence on your writing?

A Prayer for Owen Meany. My husband doesn’t read much fiction (except mine) and a few years ago asked me to recommend one guaranteed good fiction read. The pressure! The anxiety! But he loved it. (Despite the fact that he spent most of his time reading it dealing with me watching him nervously.) He read the last page,  looked up and told me he was a better person for having read it. 

Owen Meany might be the book that has had the most impact and influence on my writing, too. Or at least, one of them. There have been many. But I know after I read it (and I was quite young, maybe 14?) I felt this call to become a writer who could at least attempt to make people feel the way I did as I read it. A good story should be so much more than just a compelling yarn. There should be mystery, secrets kept and revealed, the unrelenting urge to turn those pages, yes – but for a book to be great, there needs to be more. I want my books – even the holiday rom coms! – to achieve that more. Thinking about this is a good reminder of  what I want to try to create in the future, and why I want to write at all. 

Book Review: Lucky by Marissa Stapley

By Tyra Forde

Content warning: miscarriage, graphic scenes

Lucky, the fourth novel by Canadian author Marissa Stapley, will take you on a road trip so enthralling, pages will be turning as fast as a moving vehicle. The novel isn’t thrilling for its heists, which Luciana “Lucky” Armstrong and her boyfriend, Cary, have already carried out, but rather how long Lucky will survive once she’s left alone. Broke and using an alter ego that is now wanted across the country, Lucky gets a glimmer of hope from an old lottery ticket she purchased. With the tagline of the novel, Stapley asks the million-dollar question: 

What if you had the winning ticket that would change your life forever, but you couldn’t cash it?

From the West to East Coast, Lucky clings to the small slip of paper that could be her getaway car from the life of crime she’s always wanted to leave. But she soon learns to have a chance at the cash, she will also need to cling to her father, who she pushed away; her mother, who abandoned her at birth; and her boyfriend, with whom she has built a life with. A story about integrity, family, and forgiveness, Lucky is a novel with a character you will root for until the bitter end. 

Broken into two parts, each chapter contains both the current narrative and a flashback to Lucky’s adolescence. Now in her mid-twenties, the memories serve to round out her life story without excessive exposition weighing down the main plot. The flashbacks also allow perspectives of secondary characters to shine through, which reveals key information about Lucky’s history. Stapley is successful in this strategy. The flashbacks continue until the past catches up to the present in an exhilarating yet hopeful conclusion that had me craving a sequel even though the standalone novel is nicely bookended.   

Lucky explores the spectrum of good and evil and the importance of honesty through its titular character. Lucky may not always be on the side of right, but her eternal optimism shows her heart is in the right place even when her head makes a wrong decision. 

At just over 230 pages, the novel is fast-paced and well-timed and constantly left me curious about what would come next. Stapley’s writing style is dynamic and easily matches the personalities of the various characters both in Lucky’s life and the characters that she creates to cover her tracks as she races across the country. The novel has been optioned for television and based on my enjoyment of the book, I would gladly watch the TV show and read other books written by Stapley.