2023-11-05 17:52
Great fun on Saturday at the Read Quebec Book Fair. Got to show off my books and talk to some interesting follks. Read More
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Not So Solitary A Pleasure: A Blog About Books Blog
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Being a regular series of comments about books from Mary Soderstrom, writer and reader.
2023-11-01 12:50
The Shepherd, a great new book platform, launches its "Best Books of 2023" feature today. Here are my picks Read More
2023-01-14 15:37
2022-04-04 13:30
Delighted to say that Shepherd, a new book cataloguing website, now has my picks for five great reads if you're interested in designing a workable, walkable, wonderful city. A shout o… Read More
2021-05-29 13:25
Sometimes called Dutchman's breeches, too. One of the nicest late spring flowers.And after several days of heat, we're back in cool temperatures. No rain though. Drought problem… Read More
2021-05-22 15:03
This is the list we've come up with for the Atwater Book Club. Have fun reading. 2021 September 1 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (Nobel Prize for literature 2017) Klara and t… Read More
2021-01-16 14:37
Construction goes on despite Covid-19, concrete and cement continue to be made--with all that implies for global warming and quality of life.I'll be talking about that and about my n… Read More
2020-11-21 19:41
What to do these long, dark days when you may be in semi-lockdown: Elena Ferrante's top 40 novels by women (from The Guardian) I've read 13, how about you?Elena Ferrante’s top 40 books… Read More
2020-10-03 15:23
Usually when I have a new book come out we have a little launch party at an independent book store. Last year just about now we were preparing for one for Frenenemy Nations: Love… Read More
2020-09-21 19:55
Just thought you'd like to know that are two videos, and interview plus a workshop on writing non-fiction coming up as part of the Winnipeg Thin Air Festival. Check it out: https… Read More
2020-08-04 13:40
First copies of my new book have just arrived. The photos were taken in my kitchen, but I didn't get a selfie of me dancing around! Read More
2020-07-06 18:54
This Covid-19 thing has changed a lot, including many book discussion groups. I led my last in-person discussion March 3, and since the it's been Zoom or nothing.The upside to all this… Read More
2020-05-09 13:25
Like everyone else I've been trying to make sense of what is happening and has been happening these last few months. Far too much time spent reading headlines from all over the world… Read More
2019-11-16 20:04
A great way to spend the morning: talking about Frenemy Nations.Many thanks to Librairie Clio for setting it up Read More
2019-11-02 13:25
It was standing-room-only at la Petite Drawn and Quarterly on Tuesday when we launched Frenemy Nations: Love and Hate between Neighbo(u)ring States. Lots of old friends and even some p… Read More
2019-10-12 13:45
The first copies of Frenemy Nations arrived this week! So nice to see it in the flesh, as it were. Official publication date is October 26, and we'll be celebrating on October 19… Read More
2019-09-14 12:37
The photo is of the Connecticut River which separates New Hampshire and Vermont. It's just one example of how boundaries--arbitrary and otherwise--divide and influence people.In this… Read More
2019-08-25 14:59
Finished Richard Powers' The Overstory last night and then went on to read Caleb Crain's review of Ted Chiang's new fiction in The New York Review of Books. Hmmm, I thought, The… Read More
2019-08-17 14:34
Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls is one of the rare books that I think is better in French translation than in the English original. One of my library groups--a francophone one… Read More
2019-08-02 13:53
Just finished Anna Burn's devastating Milkman. The Mann Booker prize winning novel takes place in an un-named city (obviously Belfast) in the 1970s when violence and inter-community hate… Read More
2019-07-24 13:25
The long list with reviews from one of my favourite newspapers, The Guardian The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (Vintage, Chatto & Windus)The plot: Under lock and key until publicati… Read More
2019-07-18 01:55
André Alexis's wonderful Fifteen Dogs was a tour de force: original, thought-provoking, and clearly a magical fiction from the beginning. This new nov… Read More
2019-07-08 14:36
My cousin Cathy Retterer challenged me to the 7 day, 7 book business. The idea is that you post a book you really like, along with the book cover if possible. No comments, no reviews. S… Read More
2019-06-26 01:51
It takes two people to make a book, the writer and the reader. That's a statement I make frequently when I lead my book discussion groups, and this week I came upon a brilliant example when… Read More
2019-06-17 23:39
When I was about 10 my family acquired a book of the retelling of myths for children. It had some nifty illustrations, as I remember, but I liked the stories even mo… Read More
2019-06-14 15:20
This is the time of year I make book lists for the groups I lead in Montreal-area libraries. Here are the ones which made the cut for 2019-2020, in no particular order. This… Read More
2019-05-19 14:41
Patrick Modiano won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2014 for the body of his work which includes a couple of dozen novels and "autofictions:" the Nobel citation sa… Read More
2019-05-16 11:44
Gearing up for another season of good reading at the Atwater Library! Here are the books and the dates for the 2019-2020 season: all the books are in the library, so start reading! (Of cou… Read More
2019-05-03 14:32
Kevin Kwan's books about the rich and famous in China, Singapore and environs are compulsive reading, I find. The first one Crazy Rich Asians I picked up because I liked Singapore a lot t… Read More
2019-04-29 13:52
Barbara Kingsolver is a wonderful writer, and her Poisonwood Bible is one of the best novels of the 20th century, in my opinion. I think I've read all the ones she's written since, and fo… Read More
2019-04-28 14:59
The first thing I look for in a room where I am to spend the night (yes, seriously) is whether there is good light for reading in bed. This means a lamp on a bedside table that isn't so hig… Read More
2019-04-23 14:14
Very interesting interview in Winter 2018 Paris Review with prolific British writer Pat Barker.I particularly liked her comment about how she began to think about writing about war.&nb&hell…Read More
2019-04-15 15:39
Patrick deWitt's French Exit a strange book! Thankfully, it's not as gruesome as his The Sisters Brothers, but at least there he addresses some interesting things, am… Read More
2019-04-09 13:49
Once again the library discussion group where I'm filling in for the leader this spring turned up a very interesting book. I would never have picked this up, since I don't read mysteri… Read More
2019-03-15 13:20
I probably wouldn't have read Fiona Barton's The Widow, had not one of the women in a book discussion group I lead found herself faced with it shortly after the death of her husband four yea… Read More
2019-03-08 15:59
The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World by Steve Brusatte was one of my Christmas books that I dipped into in early January, but had to put aside for work-related rea… Read More
2019-02-10 14:53
This season I have six book discussion groups in Montreal-area libraries and I've been paddling fast to keep my head above water.Usually in the groups I can count on a couple of repetitions… Read More
2018-09-16 00:16
I had not realized that this year marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. It was the first chapter book I ever read on my own--the first time… Read More
2018-05-28 00:53
It's that time of year again: the lists for the book groups I lead in Montreal libraries are now just about finalized. As you see below, they're quite eclectic, but contain a lot of go… Read More
2018-04-30 13:12
There are times when your concerns circle around and around. The news this morning, with a caravan of refugees at the border between the US and Mexico at Tijuana, seems to be one of th… Read More
2018-03-24 20:54
Great way to start a Saturday: An email announcing that Road through Time: The Story of Humanity on the Move (University of Regina Press) has been short-listed for the 2017 Indies Book… Read More
2018-02-24 14:03
It looks like we've got a title for my book about pairs of places that have much in common, but diverge in significant ways: Borderline Behaviour, Why Place That Should Be Alike Aren't. &hell…Read More
2018-02-10 15:32
At some point I acquired an ornamental orange tree. It was probably 20 or more years ago, and each year I put it outside for the summer and brought it in October, where it migh… Read More
2018-01-15 13:55
One of the delights of having children is revisiting books you've read as a child, or reading books that have been written since then. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis are a cas… Read More
2018-01-02 14:01
Just came across this lovely quote from Voltaire: “Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”Or as he really wrote: Laissez… Read More
2017-10-10 13:38
Hope to see you at 12:30 p.m. Thursday October 12 at the Atwater Library when I'll be talking about Road through Time: The Story of Humanity on the Move (University of Regina Press.) This… Read More
2017-08-12 13:12
The summer is marching on, and I've begun to start thinking of the book groups I'll lead in the fall. Indeed, I've begun reading the books on the lists that I hadn't read before (always risk… Read More
2017-06-24 13:32
Okay, the booklists for the five book groups I lead in Montreal libraries are all set up. Here's what we'll be reading in the English groups, just in case you want to get a head start.In no… Read More
2017-05-09 13:41
The Goodreads Giveaway for Road through Time: The Story of Humanity on the Move ended on the weekend. Here are the winners: Kal Adler, Steven Telly and Muayad Aldarweesh. T… Read More
2017-04-17 14:51
The box with the first copies of Road through Time arrived last week, and this morning I went looking for goodies to share with my friends who will be with us on Thursday when we do the offi… Read More
2017-04-06 17:38
Goodreads Book Giveaway Road Through Time by Mary Soderstrom Giveaway ends May 06, 2017… Read More
2017-03-01 13:52
The plans are firming up, and we'll have the launch of Road through Time: The Story of Humanity on the Move at one of the coolest bookstores around, Librairie Drawn and Quarterly, 211 Bernar… Read More
2017-02-12 14:51
It's been quite a while since I've posted here--many, many things going on, including much reading for my various projects. But today is a quiet Sunday, so I want to catch up. Fi… Read More
2016-10-14 14:11
So Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature? Everyone was surprised: bookies in London had put his chances at 50/1. Some were shocked: Some merely said that the choice… Read More
2016-09-21 12:56
For the last few days I've been correcting the copy edit of my new book Road through Time: The Story of Humanity on the Move. And just as I was finishing up, I received the cover. &hell…Read More
2016-04-17 14:24
Been discussing what to read in the 2016-2017 season of the book discussion groups I lead in Montreal-area libraries. Here's the list of suggestions so far, in no particular order:The… Read More
2016-04-03 13:11
In addition to the usual daily living stuff, I've been become deeply involved in research for a new book, to be called Unidentical Twins. It's about States and states that have a lot i… Read More
2015-11-16 18:09
It's always nice when people that you write about like what you write. I'm no musician, and one of the big unknowns about River Music was what musicians might think. In… Read More
2015-11-07 14:22
This week I finished the revisions on Road through Time, and sent it off to the University of Regina Press which will publish it in Spring 2017. The book, about roads as vectors o… Read More
2015-10-03 02:14
Pleased to say that I've just signed a contract with the University of Regina Press to publish my next non-fiction book Road through Time, probably in Spring 2017. It's about roads… Read More
2015-09-25 13:30
Fall is literary prize time, for better of worse! Here's a novel that may confirm everything you suspected about them.A writer friend suggested Lost for Words by Edward St.Aubyn j… Read More
2015-09-18 13:49
Since I knew there'd be a federal election October 17, I put Terry Fallis's The Best Laid Plans on the reading list for one of my October book group discussion groups. Right now I'm about ha… Read More
2015-08-21 15:46
The heat broke in Montreal overnight, so this is a day that maybe be liveable, sans air conditioning. Makes reading a lot easier, too. Nevertheless I read during the heat wave, and not… Read More
2015-08-03 23:52
Now that Canada is gearing up for the longest Federal election campaign in memory, and the American Republican Presidential hopefuls are set to debate this week, it's time, perhaps, to think… Read More
2015-07-22 19:40
This summer, as I said earlier, I'm reading about corruption for a new fiction project. I asked friends (real and virtual) to suggest books that dealt with the topic in June and got a… Read More
2015-07-02 18:09
In the flurry of activity around here, I forgot to post the Goodreads Giveaway results. The lucky three winners of a copy of River Music are:Barry Kazimer of Campbell River, BC, Kelley… Read More
2015-06-27 13:10
At midnight it will be all over, so enter now for a chance to win one of three copies of River music. Just click here Read More
2015-06-27 01:32
The Shadow was a radio program that I loved to be frightened by when I was a child. It began with a voice (in some cases that of Orson Welles, I just discovered) asking "who knows what… Read More
2015-06-08 19:53
2015-06-06 13:15
One of the thing I learned a long time ago is never to ask a friend if he or she liked one of my books. If they did, they'll tell you. If they didn't, well, they're going to be r… Read More
2015-05-28 18:03
Great launch at Librairie Drawn and Quaterly last night. Now to get back to reading and writing normally Read More
2015-05-26 13:15
Pianist Gloria Murray, the heroine of my novel River Music, specializes at the beginning of her career in Debussy with a bit of Bach thrown in. But as she develops musically, she… Read More
2015-05-16 13:55
This photo's pretty poor, but I had to post it because it gives some idea of the lovely time I had on Thursday, May 14, presenting River Music to about 60 people in the Atwater Library.The b… Read More
2015-04-30 23:22
The life of a great artist is never easy, particularly when he or she must fight for training. The Canadian contralto Maureen Forrester is a brilliant example, and she also had the wit… Read More
2015-04-28 17:51
All right, it looks like everything's a go.Monday I signed off on the copy for the cover of River Music, and Alessandra Ferrari, Cormorant's publicity director, just wrote that copies of the… Read More
2015-04-24 13:25
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Turks, as the Ottoman Empire entered its death throes. There are a number of articles and pro… Read More
2015-04-21 20:07
The informal French language reading goup I belong to--called the Durochères because when it began more than 30 years ago all its members lived on avenue Durocher--just finished readi… Read More
2015-04-15 13:32
The news yesterday was full of images from Nigeria, where people were marking the sad anniversary of the kidnapping of 132 girls and young women by Boko Haram a year ago. What is going… Read More
2015-04-13 15:36
When you lead book discussion groups in libraries, this is the time to think about what is going to be read next season. This week I've promised to come up with the dates for 2015-16… Read More
2015-04-07 18:17
This is book discussion week, and I'm rereading Anne Enright's The Gathering and François Gravel's Adieu, Betty Crocker. Both of them I enjoyed on first reading, or I wouldn't h… Read More
2015-03-30 17:59
At the moment I'm between writing projects--or rather I'm trying to decide which direction to go in. One possibility is a longish short story to be called "Happy Endings:" I don't know… Read More
2015-03-25 20:12
I'll go into more detail later, but here are a couple of interesting (and extremely different) books I read over the last few months:Mornings in Jenin by Susan AbulhawaFrom the Library Journ… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
In this winter of our discontent, The New York Times reports that speculative fiction about climate change is making its way into university curricula. "University courses on global wa… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Now I know that some of my best friends read their books on one of the various electronic readers and are ecstatic about how easy it is to carry around a ton of books this way.But Elin was b… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
We are in the middle of a provincial election campaign here in Quebec, where two of the big issues are whether the province should hold another referendum on separating from Canada, and whet… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
The Montreal Review of Books has been around for perhaps 15 years, and has become a major cultural institution. Started as a way to get some attention for Quebec writing in English, it… Read More
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