Books in Overdrive

After many years of ignoring the wonderful resource of electronic books from the Toronto Public Library (TPL), I've returned to reading e-books by re-downloading OverDrive -- the reader and download app used by the TPL.

A few years back I'd tried using OverDrive to access the library catalogue and found the whole process mystifying.  OverDrive, at the time, was not intuitive at all and made the simple act of signing out a book seem like a Dalian maze of steps.  The current OverDrive app is a bit more user-friendly and I've been able to muddle my way through it.

Here's a list of books I've taken to reading on my phone via OverDrive:

The Bear, by Claire Cameron, is the story of a young girl (5-ish) and her even younger brother who survive the woods of Algonquin Park after a black bear attacks the family of four (mom, dad and kids).  The most unique aspect of the novel is that it's written from the girl's perspective in a way that evokes a sense of mystery (the reader is left to figure out what the misinterpretations of a child's mind really mean), and dread for the fate of the tiny duo.  I was definitely hooked from the first few pages.

The story is based on a bear attack on a couple camping in Algonquin Park's Lake Opeongo in 1991.  I will be going to Algonquin Park far from Opeongo in August.




The Shake Off, by Mischa Hiller, is the story of an orphan of the Sabra and Shatila Massacre in Beirut in 1982.  The massacre lasted two days, carried out by Phalangist (Christian) militiamen, putatively in retaliation for the assassination of Bachir Gemayel, the newly elected President of the Lebanese Kataeb Party (a Christian Phalangist party).  In reality, the two days of killing may have been sanctioned by Israel in order to clear the refugee camps of Palestinian fighters.

Out of this chaos comes a boy, Michel, who is groomed by a high level Palestinian operative to be the ideal spy.  Educated in spy-craft, multi-lingual, able to blend in wherever he may be, easily mistaken as a Jew, or an Arab, or any number of ethnicities and trained in crossing borders without setting off any alarms.  Michel is also a broken individual: a product of witnessing the deaths of his parents and torn by his knowledge of the history of the Middle East from both the Israeli and Palestinians points of view.

The novel initially begins with a little too much of the tradecraft of the business of spying...or what passes as spying for someone unschooled in such matters.  Familiar techniques such as dead drops, fake passports, counter surveillance and honey traps, are outlined in a manner meant to school the reader rather than being worked into the story line.  Nevertheless, once the book picks up speed and the protagonists inner world is revealed, the book comes into it's own.  A revelation in the denouement makes this the ideal book for fans of John Le Carre, where spying is only a pretext for exploring wider and deeper themes.


News from the Red Desert, is a novel by Canadian writer, Kevin Patterson.  I had trouble getting into this book for the same reasons which others have cited as being part of it's charm.  It is told from multiple points of view from the outset.

The lives of the characters (soldiers and journalists) stationed in Afghanistan post-invasion are revealed with each chapter and view points change from chapter to chapter making it difficult to begin identifying with any of the characters.  In the end, I couldn't finish this book for this same reason.