April showers are bringing in May flowers, and that includes the amazing books that are blossoming on the shelves at McNally Robinson Booksellers. Co-owner Chris Hall joined us once again in the Classic 107 studios for this month’s edition of What to Read!
The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien
One of Canada’s most acclaimed authors in recent years, Thien returns with an ambitious novel set in an apartment complex called The Sea. That’s where we meet Lina, who cares for her ailing father, and the three neighbours who embody the spirit of three different real-life writers and thinkers from history.
“The lines of realism blur in this novel as do the stories these neighbours tell Lina,” says Hall.
One of those stories is how Lina and her father first came to live at The Sea, which sets her on a journey that blends time and perspective together into a journey that Hall notes is easy to get lost in in the best possible way.
“It’s like stories from the past tell us about our present,” says Hall. “It’s not like you’re figuring out a puzzle or anything. It’s really just the cycles of history – if you want to think of it that way – and present day is a little fraught and these people have gone through fraught times. There’s a lot of resonance that go through the generations in this case.”
My Friends by Fredrik Backman
McNally Robinson’s Author of the Month for May, Backman’s latest offering in his prolific output concerns three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of a painting. It turns out that they are the images of three teenagers enjoying their summer together, with their friend being the person who painted them. Louisa, an artist who admires the painting, sets out on a journey to learn the stories of this friend group.
Hall describes My Friends as the perfect novel to read out in the spring sunshine; a “very well-told story, nothing too challenging and too deep, but about the power of art, the power of friendship, the process of growing up.”
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
While My Friends is a light read, Hall advises that readers will want a box of tissues beside them for Ocean Vuong’s latest novel. In this case, Gladness isn’t just an emotion, but a place: East Gladness, Connecticut, where we meet 19-year-old Hai in a dark place. A chance encounter with Grazina, an elderly widow with advanced dementia, saves his life, and soon enough, he becomes her caretaker.
“The novel tells the story of this unlikely pair as they develop a bond,” says Hall, “one built on empathy and spiritual reckonings.” It’s a story that Hall notes is especially poignant in this month. “I just see such an appetite for cruelty these days that a novel like this just reset me.”
Is a River Alive? By Robert Macfarlane
The most journalistic book of this month’s recommendations is Robert Macfarlane’s proposition that rivers should be treated as human beings both in our imagination and in the way that we codify our relationships in law. “He argues that rivers all over the world are dying from pollution, drought and damming, but there is a movement underway to recognize the lives, and therefore the rights, of rivers,” Hall says.
Macfarlane’s exploration of this position takes him all over the world from a cloud forest in Ecuador to southern India to northeastern Quebec.
“He’s stylistically very good, but he also has such a wide breadth of reading, everything from literature that I love right through all kinds of things,” notes Hall. “And then, of course, he adds the work of journalism, actually visits these places... and he finds the people to tell him the stories directly. So, it’s a great combination.”
52 Ways to Reconcile by David A. Robertson
An author who’s no stranger to Winnipeg audiences, the Treaty One author is back with an accessible and tangible guide for treaty peoples for actions to take in their lives to advance reconciliation in Canada. “It’s meant for non-Indigenous people who are asking themselves, ‘What can I do?’ says Hall.
Robertson puts forward 52 easily-actionable items to undertake for each week of the year, from attending a powwow to visiting an Indigenous restaurant. Robertson also provides an easy way to achieve one of those action items by giving a talk at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location on May 22 at 7 p.m.
“The benefit of the connections you’ll make over the course of this project while learning and listening will go a long way to building stronger communities, living together with everyone,” says Hall.
Classic 107 listeners can be the first to hear McNally Robinson’s recommendations for What to Read on Morning Light with Nolan Kehler on the first Friday of every month just after 8:30 a.m.