October Geo-Cat: Canada and the United States

The topic of Canada and the United States for our October Geo-Cat gives us an almost unlimited range of books. Stories of fiction or non-fiction from Canadian and American authors and settings will all qualify. You can use this as an opportunity to explore a specific region or to revisit a favorite location.

Enjoy this Geo-Cat and don't forget to let us know what you are going to be reading. Also please post your book to the Wiki which can be found here: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/GeoCAT_2023

I am thinking of reading The Building of Jalna by Mazo de la Roche for another challenge, so that will fit here nicely

I am planning on reading The Whisper on the Night Wind by Canadian author and explorer Adam Shoalts detailing his travels through Labrador.

>3 DeltaQueen50: That sounds really good, Judy! I'm putting it on my WL!

I'm planning on reading Maria Chapdelaine by Louis Hemon. It is set in Quebec. The author is French-Canadian.

I think I'll be reading A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson which takes place in northern Ontario.

I feel the need for something lighthearted, so I'm planning on reading Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer, featuring former VP Biden and former President Obama as amateur private detectives. The story is based in Wilmington, Delaware.

>4 Tess_W: I have read Adam Shoalts previously and really enjoyed the writing.

>5 dudes22: Betty, I loved A Town Called Solace when I read it. She writes beautifully.

>7 DeltaQueen50: - Yes, she does. Her book Crow Lake was our first book when we started our book club. And I've been meaning to get to this for a while.

I suspect I'll find one or two to fit in here. ;-) Even though I really prefer European settings most of the time, I still find plenty of U.S. ones in my wish list.

I can recommend this one: The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

I'm going to read The Devil Loves Me by Margaret Millar, a 1942 crime novel that will also count for the ClassicsCAT.

I'm planning on reading Waste by Canadian author Andrew F. Sullivan. I read his newest work, The Marigold, earlier this year, and it shot to the top of my all-time favorites list--I just adored it. In fact, I still haven't written a review because I'm having so much trouble putting my reaction into words!

Finished The Devil Loves Me by Margaret Millar. A good read. Canadian.

Read The Listening Walls by Margaret Millar. Canadian author, and the book is set partly in San Francisco. Another good read.

I read A Hundred Vicious Turns, set in a United States where magic is real.

I just started Ganymede by Cherie Priest, set in an alternative US in the late 1800's. It's a follow-up to Boneshaker.

I just finished my read of The Whisper on the Night Wind by Adam Shoalts. This was a fun non-fiction read about Shoalts travelling through the wilds of Labrador searching for clues to the unidentified creature that terrified a small settlement over a century ago.

I read From this Dark Stairway by Mignon G. Eberhart and have started Vanish in an Instant by Margaret Millar.

I just read Kerry Winfrey's Faking Christmas, a fluffy holiday romance set in Ohio.

I read True Biz which takes place in Ohio and am just finishing When Ghosts Come Home which takes place in North Carolina.

I didn't read Slouching Towards Bethlehem with this CAT in mind, but after I finished it it occurred to me that it was ideal for this month. 1960s America powerfully evoked in a series of essays.

Amy Barry's Marrying Off Morgan McBride is set in 1880s Montana.

So far this month I've read two books set in the United States: The Order of the Key by Justine Manzano and The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis. The former is pretty good if teen urban fantasy is your thing. The latter is completely hilarious, and I'd heartily recommend it to fans of Willis's humorous work as well as anyone who likes wacky road trip stories.

I read Under Cold Stone by Vicki Delany.
I've missed two in the series but jumping ahead did not affect my enjoyment of this Molly Smith novel, set in the area where I live. The setting for this one was mostly in Banff, Alberta, in the heart of the Rockies, as well as the fictional town of Trafalgar, British Columbia, Mollie's home town on the western edge of the Rockies. I've enjoyed all of the series but this could be my favourite, mostly because of my familiarity with the locations.

Mollie's parents were 1960s hippies (common in this area) who named their daughter Moonlight. Now that she is grown up and a cop, she prefers Mollie. Her widowed mother is in a relationship with police chief Paul Keller, and on a short Thanksgiving break in Banff when Paul's son reported the murder of his roommate. Matt then takes off before he can be questioned, making him a suspect. Molly joined her mother for support and as a civilian tries to find Matt. Meanwhile in Trafalgar a situation is growing between developers and environmental activists regarding the potential development at the Grizzly Resort. The two cases come together in a dramatic conclusion.

November thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/354387#n8256387

Claiming The Selfless Act of Breathing for this. Dual time line, one of which is set in the USA>

I read a story set in Salem, Mass, written by Elizabeth Gaskell. Lois, the Witch.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins, which I read tonight, is also set in Massachusetts.

I also read Jack of Thorns by A.K. Faulkner, which is set in San Diego.

I have finished Lois the Witch about the Salem witch trials.

I read All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny. I was expecting to be visiting Québec with this, but Gamache and his wife travel to Paris in this installment and that is where the bulk of the book takes place. But the author is Canadian, so it still works for this month.

I just realized that Maureen Lee Lenker's It Happened One Fight qualifies for this CAT, as it's set in Hollywood and Reno, Nevada.

Sarah Addison Allen's The Sugar Queen is set in a fictional small town in the North Carolina mountains.

Finished Andrew Pyper's short story collection Kiss Me this morning. It was...fine? Full review written, but as much as I enjoyed some of the writing, there's no question that this is a less mature work than his novels. He's a favorite writer of mine, but the shorts here definitely don't live up to his longer and more recent works.

I read Where Nests the Water Hen by Gabrielle Roy, which is set in a remote part of Manitoba.

Just an FYI that the 2024 group is live, and we are in the process of suggesting CATs for next year, so stop by if you'd like to join the discussion! https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/24125/2024-Category-Challenge

Books Completed from N. America:

The Building of Jalna by Mazo de la Roche (Canada)
Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix (Ohio, USA)
Six Cats A Slayin'
The Pawful Truth
Careless Whiskers all by Miranda James (Mississippi, USA)
Book Boyfriend by Kris Ripper (New York, USA)

Finished Ganymede by Cherie Priest. Though the action starts in Seattle (the underground, because of the zombies who live above ground), most of the plot takes place in New Orleans, Lake Ponchartrain, and Barataria. It is an alternate history, late 1800's, with plenty of flying dirigibles and one very sought-after submersible.

Over the weekend I read Diana Biller's The Widow of Rose House, which is set in 1870s New York.

I read The Secret Life of Bees for USA.

I read my latest Early Reviewer win, Freddie the flyer by Fred Carmichael, Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail, illustrated by Andrea Wulf

Freddie was a boy living in Canada’s far north who dreamed of being a pilot after watching a small plane bring supplies to his remote community. He worked hard to earn money so that he could go to flying school when he was sixteen where he got his pilot’s license one flew home in his own plane.

This is a beautiful book with the wonderful true story of Fred Carmichael’s successful career as the first indigenous commercial pilot in the Arctic. It will inspire a child with confidence to follow their dreams. Easy to read, twelve short chapters are headed by the names of the months, written in English, Gwich’in, and Inuvialuktun. The colourful illustrations are outstanding and impart the ambiance and character of the north.

Five stars.

>41 VivienneR: Freddie the Flyer sounds like a great book and I see it's published by Tundra, which has excellent children's books. I'm glad to see that they're still part of the Early Reviewers program. (I have to boast a bit and take some credit, as I wrote to Tundra in 2009 suggesting they join LT's ER program, and they did!)

For October's GeoCAT, I finished The Spook in the Stacks. This has a connection to both the US and Canada, as it is set in North Carolina's Outer Banks but the author Eva Gates, a.k.a. Vicki Delany, is Canadian.

>42 mathgirl40: Thank you so very much for recommending Tundra join the ER program. I've enjoyed so many of their books. I'm intending to give Freddie the Flyer to a young friend but I'm reluctant to part with it because I love any books related to the Arctic, especially children's books.

I'll take a BB for The Spook in the Stacks. Vicki Delany is well known in this area because of her Mollie Smith series, which was set here. I always enjoy her books.

>43 VivienneR: You're welcome! I really like Vicki Delany's Smith and Winters series, especially the setting. (We have no real mountains to speak of here in Southern Ontario.)

>43 VivienneR: >44 mathgirl40: I love the Constable Mollie Smith series. I thought I'd finished them, but I discovered there is one more. I suspect it came out after I made my list, and I failed to check for a new installment. I will plan to read it next month or next year!