Crow Lake: A Novel | 
More #offmyshelf ! @wanderinglynn
Pub'd 10+ yrs ago: Crow Lake - really enjoyed
Award winner: The Forgotten Beasts of Eld - so good! Can't believe I hadn't read it years ago.
Halfway through this bingo board!
Apparently we're halfway through #14books14weeks already? How did that happen? Somewhat to my surprise, I'm halfway through my stack too, I've read 7 total (well, one bail).
Out of my 7 physical books I've finished 3 and started 2. The ones left to go are pictured.
Out of my 7 ebooks I've finished 4 and started 1.
Ebooks left to go:
Cecelia and Kate series books 2&3
Walkaway
@liz_m
pickOur rdg grp this week will discuss this excellent family story perfectly expressing how changes in lifes paths are perceived differently by others. So when a family of 4 children are suddenly orphaned in a small North Canadian town it is left to the two older brs to bring up their yngr sisters. As an adult Kate struggles with Matt's choices + a family event where she reluctantly introduces her partner makes for drama. Loved this my 2nd by ML
Quick read and a cuppa ☕️ before a foggy 😶🌫️ wet dog walk 🚶♀️ I would never have picked this book up if it wasn‘t for my village booklcub and wow 🤩 it‘s blown me away what an amazing writer Mary Lawson is and also a great 👍 podcast with the author available discussing all her books 📚 so even more for my tottering TBR pile 🙈happy Saturday folks
pickEnded my July reading on a high note. This was wonderful. A novel about family and community, about coming to terms with the past and opening your eyes to the present. Quiet, moving and beautifully written.
pickMary Lawson tells the story of 4 siblings who suddenly face the loss of both parents.Against the wish of the family,the oldest brother,only 18 years old,decides to provide and care for his younger brother and sisters so they can stay together in their parents‘ house,in the isolated farming community they love.Great storytelling.I particularly enjoyed the exploration:does who we become professionally make a difference to who we are?
“My great-grandmother Morrison fixed a book rest to her spinning wheel so that she could read while she was spinning, or so the story goes.”
I‘ve been meaning to read more Lawson ever since loving A Town Called Solace. Excited to try her debut!
#FirstLineFridays
pickI loved Lawson‘s A Town Called Solace and have wanted to read more. This turned out to be her debut.
Kate gets invited to her nephew‘s 18th birthday party and this has her remember a particular yr in her past. The yr her parents died in a car crash when she was 7, her older brothers, Luke and Matt, were in their late teens and her younger sister was 1 yr. This yr would change them forever. No surprise, towards the end this book had me crying.
pickThis was a well told story, flitting back to fill in gaps. Whilst it was quite obvious what had occurred, it was told well.
I particularly liked the descriptions of the natural world, especially after watching Crawdads recently.
Having read her more recent novel I was keen to read another. And this was a 99p kindle offer!
I read the tagged book several years ago and it is one that stuck.
#AlphabetGame
What is your favorite C book? @TheRiehlDeal @Megabooks
pickBeautiful, heart wrenching, and thoughtful. Such wonderfully developed and genuine characters and a fabulous sense of place. This one was recommended to me more than a few years ago by another fantastic author, Helen Humphreys. I don't know why it took me so long to read it!
pickThis book was OUTSTANDING. One of the best books I‘ve read in a long time. Reminds me of Ann Patchett…I had never heard of this author before, but someone on here posted a review of one of her books, so thank you to whoever that was for introducing me to Mary Lawson!
pickCrow Lake begins with some family lore: a great grandmother who believed in education as the pathway to success. This fervent belief is passed down to each generation until Matt, the narrator's older brother, destined for university appears to be the the fulfillment of great grandma's dream. But life is never so simple or straightforward, and family lore can haunt as well as inspire. This book is about destiny and choices and how the stories we 👇
pickAfter reading “A Town Called Solace,” I was motivated to seek out Mary Lawson‘s backlist. I started with this, her debut. What a poignant, melancholy, lovely read about family, loss, love, forgiveness and redemption. She has a way of creating characters that feel so present, so current, so REAL. I have my next Lawson already picked up from the library and ready to go.
pickAn incredibly beautiful book.
‘The last stretch of the journey from Toronto to Crow Lake always takes me by the throat. I know every tree, every rock, every boggy bit of marshland so well … as if they were my own bones ‘ 💔
“ But of course that was the most significant year. It seems to me that more happened in that year than in all the other years of my childhood put together. “
I‘m loving this book. I love how this family hit by tragedy , continues, gets on with it. That love is seen as the core of us , is explored. The deep yearning for Crow Lake ..
The particular years , times of our growing up , that define us in our memory..
pickI really liked this. It was slow-moving, but I found even the biology bits interesting. There was tension in Kate‘s family, though she didn‘t understand much of it when she was a kid. And the neighbours had some drama going on at their place, as well. I actually read this over a decade ago, but only remembered siblings and a lake. I really didn‘t remember much at all, but it was chosen as a book club book, and I‘m really glad I reread it
I really enjoyed Town Called Solace , so I‘ve just started this one .. the writing 👌🏻
“.. It‘s only for the last hour or so , when you fork off the main road, heading west, that the paving runs out and the forest closes in and you really feel you‘re going back in time “
AND so she was ❤️ 💔
pickAww I loved this ♥️ beautifully written. Sad and poignant with a bit of a lesson in it. A lovely read.
Hairdresser reading 😁 day off.
I‘ll put on socks & sweatshirt for Happy Reading Hour, but pants would be too close to admitting summer might come to an end. 😬
💔 I can imagine this is true. The numbing shock of trauma.
Last night I ordered two more novels on Lawson‘s backlist.
Rec reading time! I picked this up today, but didn‘t find anything else which saved me a few $. Plus my husband was waiting outside, rather than browsing. He says, “I don‘t need any new books right now.” My response, “That is never the point.” 😉
pickOh my, what a gem. A family tragedy, a sense of anxiety about what happens next, beautiful writing and well drawn characters; this was almost perfection, loved it. And now I‘ve found a new to me author, love that even more!
Found this at a book sale today. Nice rural read in a beautifully rural location.
My favourite coffee ☕️ (Illy dark roast) in my favourite, if slightly world worn, mug and my number 1 #desertislandbook #coffeecoffeecoffee 😊😊😊
Couldn't chase down any #waterfalls, so I'll stick with the rivers and lakes that I'm used to.
#augustgrrrl @Cinfhen
Kate Morrison was a #workaholic for most of Crow Lake. #jubilantJuly @RealLifeReading
My May purchases that are still unread have been added to the #TBR Jar. Now...to find room on my shelf!
so-soThe story is okay but by the end I got sick of the protagonist's hang-ups about her family and the distance between her and her brother. I understand that people grow apart, even in families, it happened to my brother and I, incidentally my parents passed away prematurely too, though not at the same time. I don't dwell on it and my husband has met my brother, I don't hide my family away because of guilt or any other foolish reason.
Finally a day with no early morning commitments, minimal chores, and only one afternoon appointment. On the couch with book, blanket, and dog! Finished my coffee and toast. Finishing this book this morning so I can return it to @Crystalblu New Year's Day. Racing to the year-end goal!
pickI picked up #crowlake on a whim while my students were reading silently. I couldn't put it down. My holiday reading now involves finding all that #marylawson has written. Absolutely beautiful.
pickSweet and sad all at once. Made me think about the perspective I take of others lives.
Library book sale! Aside from the kid's book and Tales from the Crypt, everything is in perfect shape. Not too bad for $9!
On the way home from the cottage, we stopped at the Great Books Cafe which is just such an amazing place. I picked up a couple of things (photos to come because I had to share a picture of this gem!) and it's always good to get out and stretch your legs by the river. This place is an old converted mill and is sort of perfect.
pickA lovely story that meandered along delivering just enough intrigue and humour to keep me interested. The plight of the family suddenly losing both parents and having to give up their goals and dreams kept me hoping for a miracle. There was no huge cloudburst of luck but there were small sprinkles.
I am enjoying this more than I thought I would. Great writing and rounded, believable characters.
