Tangles: A Story about Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me is a graphic novel by Vancouver author and artist, Sarah Leavitt. As the subtitle indicates, it’s the powerful and emotional (true) story of Midge Leavitt’s battle with Alzheimer’s and the effect on their family — specifically Sarah herself. Tangles is a memoir of Sarah’s experience and I think it is an important story to tell; while Alzheimer’s is undoubtedly difficult for the person living with the disease, it is equally hard on their family.

Tangles was a finalist for the 2010 Writers’ Trust of Canada Non-fiction Prize (the first graphic narrative to be a finalist in the category), was shortlisted for the 2011 Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize (BC Book Prizes), and has been listed in the Globe and Mail’s top 100 books of 2010.

In the introduction, Sarah Leavitt admits to a bad memory, and states “when my mother got Alzheimer’s disease, I knew I had to record what was happening to her and to our family.’’ Taking six years to complete, Tangles is Sarah’s first book and it is a raw, vivid, unforgiving, honest, humiliating, and yet compassionate, moving and humourous.

Combining simple illustrations with brutally honest narrative, Sarah shares the Leavitt family’s struggle with the symptoms, diagnosis, adapting and coping, and—inevitably—death. With a mix of childhood memories, significant events, and introspective narrative, Sarah takes the reader through each stage of Midge’s disease. The writing is very powerful and the sparse illustration is emotionally expressive. Tangles is not just a long and depressing story, but it certainly brought tears to my eyes more than once.

It was really beautiful to be granted the insight into Sarah’s relationship with her mother and her family: the love, dependency, independence, and pride was all immediately evident. This wasn’t just a memoir exploring Alzheimer’s effect on a family, it was a testament to the strength and beauty of Family.

• Canadian Comics’ review & interview
• BookMadam’s live-to-chat interview
• Sarah Leavitt on CBC Radio‘s The Next Chapter
• National Post book review

Warning: this book may not be appropriate for extremely sensitive people or those coping with depression; it is extremely emotional.

I finished Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid by Evelyn Lau at least a month ago. I’ve had a bit of blogger-block and had difficulties pinpointing my feelings about this book.

It’s very strange to read a non-fiction/memoir that takes place in your city. Add that to the fact that Evelyn Lau is a local author with whom I’ve spoken with at work … and it was really strange to read her story. I admire Evelyn so much for sharing her story and I am very glad I read it.

At the age of six, Evelyn Lau already knew what she wanted from life—to be a writer. Frustrated and discouraged by her parents, who forbade her to “waste” valuable study time writing, Evelyn ran away at the age of 14.

Seduced by the freedom and independence that life on the streets of Vancouver seemed to offer, she was soon trapped in a downward spiral of drug addiction and prostitution. During her two harrowing years on the street, Lau’s writing ambition never left her; almost obsessively, she kept a written record of her days on the street. This record is Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid.

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Alan Bradley wove another enjoyable and intriguing tale starring Flavia de Luce, the darker, British version of Harriet the Spy. I had already fallen hard for Flavia when reading The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag — books one and two in the Buckshaw Chronicles.

In the third installment of this bestselling, award-winning, sister-poisoning, bicycle-riding, murder-investigating, and utterly captivating series, Flavia de Luce must draw upon Gypsy lore and her encyclopaedic knowledge of poisons to prevent a grave miscarriage of justice.

“You frighten me,” the old Gypsy woman says. “Never have I seen my crystal ball so filled with darkness.” So begins eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce’s third adventure through the charming but deceptively dark byways of the village of Bishop’s Lacey. The Gypsy’s vision opens up old wounds for our precocious yet haunted heroine, and sets her mind racing in search of what it could mean.

When Flavia later goes to visit the Gypsy at her encampment, she certainly doesn’t expect to find the poor old woman lying near death in her caravan, bludgeoned in the wee hours. Was it an act of retribution by those who thought that the woman had abducted a local child years before? But how can she prove this crime is connected to the missing baby? Did it have something to do with the weird sect who met at the river to practice their secret rites?

While still pondering the possibilities, Flavia stumbles upon a corpse—that of a notorious layabout and bully she had only recently caught prowling about Buckshaw. The body hangs from a statue of Poseidon in Flavia’s very own backyard, and our unflappable sleuth knows it’s up to her to figure out the significance.

Pedalling her faithful bicycle, Gladys, across the countryside in search of clues to both crimes, Flavia uncovers secrets both long-buried and freshly stowed—the dodgy dealings of a local ironworks, the truth behind the Hobblers’ secret meetings, her own ancestor’s ambitious plans—all the while exhausting the patience of Inspector Hewitt. But it’s not long before the evidence starts falling into place, and Flavia must take drastic action to prevent another violent attack.

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Incite: An Exploration of Books and Ideas is a new reading series curated by the Vancouver International Writer’s Festival and hosted by the Vancouver Public Library. It takes place every second Wednesday evening at 7:30pm in the downstairs rooms at the VPL Central Branch.

I attended the first two events and can’t wait to see more readers throughout the Spring. Some confirmed attendees include 2010′s Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Joanna Skibsrub, Lorna Crozier, Timothy Taylor, Susan Juby, Joyce Carol Oates, Jen Sookfong Lee, Evelyn Lau and more.

On Wednesday, January 26 I attended the inaugural Incite event with Amber Dawn, Michael Christie and Andrew Pyper. All three authors were incredibly charismatic, interesting, and amusing. Read the rest of this entry »

I first learned about Michael Christie’s book, The Beggar’s Garden, at the inaugural Incite reading series programmed by the Vancouver Writer’s Festival and hosted by the Vancouver Public Library. Michael read an excerpt from the first short story in his collection, The Beggar’s Garden. It had gone on sale that day and was being sold at the event, so I picked up a copy.

This memorable collection of nine linked stories follows a diverse group of curiously interrelated characters—from bank manager to crackhead to retired Samaritan to mental patient to web designer to car thief—as they drift through each other’s lives like ghosts in Vancouver’s notorious Downtown Eastside (DTES).

These darkly comic and intoxicating stories, gleefully free of moral judgment, are about people searching in the jagged margins of life—for homes, drugs, love, forgiveness. They range from the tragically funny opening story “Emergency Contact” to the audacious, drug-fuelled rush of “Goodbye Porkpie Hat” to the deranged and thrilling extreme of “King Me.”

The Beggar’s Garden, composed of nine short stories, deals with the characters and issues in a very non-judgmental way. Without being cold, the DTES is just what it is: a place in the city where these characters happen to live/work/pass through. Everyone has a story to tell, and Christie—who worked in a homeless shelter in the DTES and provided outreach to the severely mentally ill—has created nine fictional yet truthful and realistic stories.

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