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The only bingo spot found with this book. My second book read this year.

This book was read for #2026FoodandLit @Texreader @Butterfinger @Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick It was a page turner, heartbreak, and oh boy how can such a small country go through what they went through. #2026NewYearsReadathon @Bookwormjillk #Read2026 @DieAReader
#LitsyAtoZ2026 @Texreader the letter "d"

Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx 2), by André Alexis (2015 ??)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Apollo and Hermes grant fifteen dogs human intelligence to settle a bet over whether it is possible for mortals to die happy.

Review: I DNFed this on a first try after it won the 2015 Giller Prize, but I‘ve recently become an André Alexis fan so thought I‘d try again, and I‘m so glad I did. It‘s thoughtful, insightful, and beautifully-written, with memorable characters.⬇️

3.5⭐️ Felt that some sections were way too long and could have been easily made into another chapter; wish that there was a character list that I could refer to as I wasn‘t too sure of all the relationships that the characters had with each other. I can see why it was shortlisted for the #bookerprize & won the #gillerprize and the #governorgeneral in 2016

#2025 #fiction #china #historicalfiction #bookclub

@Chrissyreadit #tagyoureit

Well, this book has boats. It was my first Elizabeth Hay and I remember liking it a lot…as I have liked all the other books I have read since.

A lovely queer Canadian historical novel with just a touch of magical realism! Set just before, during, and after WW2, this book made the extremely overdone time period fresh and interesting. I loved how it centred a #nonbinary bi character and a sapphic woman, straddling a difficult line between celebrating them and being realistic about homo/transphobia / misogyny in the 30s and 40s. Queer historical happy ending!! Fuck that Landon guy though.

I felt fascinated but confused the 1st time I read this. I had sympathy for narrator, but some serious doubts. I reread it to try to get some clarity, but found it equally opaque. Now i see a path of evil intent by our narrator. But i couldn‘t pin her down. She‘s hiding herself. In interviews the author says she wants readers to finish the book with questions, not answers. I have more questions upon rereading. The book is brilliant, by the way.

I'm at odds about this book. On one hand it is gently interweaving multiple story threads with patience and care.
On the other hand it includes lines like this:
"His penis was more narrow than wide, more O Henry bar than chocolate slab, more spring rhubarb than autumn gourd, more canoe than motorboat." ?????
Which might be one of THE worst sentences I've ever read in a novel.
So...a real toss-up right now. ?

A very Booker Prize-ish book - it was a bit tricky. This is a series of stories spanning 1908 to 2025 covering love, both romantic and between parent and child, loss, war and science. What I struggled with was the telling, individual stories moving back and forth in time, the narrative in each story also moving around from paragraph to paragraph. Lovely in parts, but it was harder work than I‘m willing to invest.

Happy Caturday from my favourite napping pals!
Started this 2007 Giller Prize winner today (for #192025 natch). One of those works of Canlit that everyone seems to have read except for me. Decidedly mixed reviews on Litsy including a definitive pan of Hay's writing style by @Lindy 🤨🙂 whose opinion I respect. So we shall see...