The Year of Ice
Brian Malloy

In this beloved, bestselling novel which has been unavailable for some time, young Draper Doyle Ryan tries to come to terms with the mysterious death of his father as he struggles, in touching, comic fashion, with budding adolescence and the strange demands of his proudly eccentric family.

When first published in 1990, The Divine Ryans received unanimous critical praise and won the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award; Wayne Johnston himself was hailed as one of Canada's most distinctive comic talents.

Three thumbs up and one sideways

My Friend Leonard
by James Frey

5 thumbs up

We all enjoyed her rich characters even in all their quirkiness. Also it was amazing how she even brought minor characters to life.

A very enjoyable read.

Two members stated they had read it right after Linda's last book and it was so different in tone they did not enjoy it the first read through but enjoyed it very much when they read it again.

7 out of 7 Thumbs Up

A big ambitious book rich in language, Irish idiom and attractive, believable characters; one that successfully interweaves tender love, friendship, history, politics and homosexuality.

Deluxe. Deserves more than one reading.

General Comments that all agreed to:
the book was a tale of escapism in all it's forms
Joe Kavaliers' life was like a comic book story
an exhausting read but enjoyable

Negative :
long, meandered book, episodic and not woven as tight as could be
some people not interested in comics
author worked to hard on text, subsequently lost some flow to the story
author liked the sound of his own voice
some words were fabricated
too many sub plots - caused skimming
antarctic adventure was unbeleivable but kept us interested, some questioned what that episode was doing in the book

Positive :
writing was good in some cases phenomenal
well researched
gay portions of novel handled good
many salient points throughout

6 thumbs up