Another Kind of Cowboy by Susan Juby

Alex has always been a horse person. There is a funny scene where he pretends his bike is a horse while he is riding in circles in his driveway. When he starts taking lessons at Limestone Farm, he is fascinated by the art of dressage - a poised, elegant style of riding. However, Alex’s father wants him to be a “Manly Cowboy”. Throughout the story, Alex tries to live up to his father’s expectations but he eventually faces the fact that he has to be true to himself.

The story is about much more than just horses. The relationships are very realistic and the snappy writing has Susan Juby’s trademark wit and humor stamped all over it.

The Blue Helmet by William Bell

After he gets caught by police during a break-in, Lee is sent off to Toronto to live with his aunt. Working as a delivery boy in Reena’s Unique Café, Lee gets to know some of the regulars. One of his favourite customers is Cutter, a former peacekeeper once posted in the war-torn Balkans, who is now reclusive and paranoid.

This book gives you insight into the thought processes of a wanna-be gang member. You find out how Lee’s attitudes towards violence have been shaped throughout his life and how they change as he learns more about Cutter’s experiences.

This story reminded me a lot of Eric Walter’s Shattered .

The Droughtlanders: Book One in Triskelia Series by Carrie Mac

In this fantasy novel, you get a glimpse of the future and it isn’t pretty. The world is divided into the haves and the have-nots. Keylanders control the earth’s water and the Droughtlanders have nothing but disease. A secret rebel group is trying to overturn the balance of power. Eli and Seth are twins who are rooting for different sides.

If you like dystopian fantasies you’ll like this gritty read. In an interview, Carrie Mac said the political and social state of the world since 9/11 inspired the story.

The End of the World as We Know It by Lesley Choyce

"I hate the world and everything in it. And that includes me." That is what Carson submits for his English assignment. He goes to a “last chance” private school for kids who have flunked out everywhere else. The people who live in the small town aren’t too fond of the “Flunked Out Academy” students and make their opinions known. Carson ends up meeting a local who has it worse than he does - Christine lives alone in a trailer after being abandoned by her parents. They start to look out for each other and try to provide comfort against the hard world.

The characters in this book seems so real - you really feel their pain.

Grist by Heather Waldorf

Charlie has lots of stress in her life: her best friend Sam has just moved to Australia, her father is planning on getting remarried and her creative writing teacher tells her she has to rewrite the final assignment. Charlie decides to get away from it all and spend the summer at the lake with her Grandmother. Things start to get interesting when she meets Kerry, the boy next door. There are a lot of twists in this story and Charlie finds out shocking family secrets - plenty of “grist” for her writing.

Keturah & Lord Death by Martine Leavitt

When I was little I loved to read the Grimm Brother’s fairy tales - no cutesy Disney bunnies in those stories. This medieval fantasy has a lot of fairy tale qualities to it. Set in medieval times, sixteen year Keturah wanders deep into the woods outside her village. After three days she is hopelessly lost and starving. Death arrives to take her away, but tries to distract him with a love story, but doesn’t tell him the ending. Death makes a deal with her: if she can find her true love in one day, he will let her live. If she can’t then she must marry him.
And so begins her quest. If you think a romance novel can’t have Death as a main character, you’ll be surprised.

The Song of Kahunsha by Anosh Irani

My grade four teacher was born and raised in Bombay. She would travel home every couple of years to help the street children in her community. When she came back, she wouldn’t tell us much about the suffering that she saw, but we could sense her sadness.

This book tells the story of Chamdi, a 10 year old orphan who searches for his long-lost father. The only link he has to his family is a blood-stained white cloth that he wears around his neck like a scarf. Despite the seedy underbelly of the city, the hunger and squalor he faces, Chamdi still remains hopeful that Bombay will become a place he calls Kahunsha - City of No Sadness.

The character of Chamdi stayed with me a long time after I finished reading this book.

The Space Between by Don Aker

Jace feels like he is the invisible middle child - sandwiched between his older brother’s suicide and his younger brother’s autism. He spends his birthday at a Mexican resort and vows to get lucky with a beach babe before coming back home. Things don’t go quite as planned. Life is never as straightforward as it seems and Jace also has to deal with family secrets and guilt.
I read a lot of books narrated by female characters, so it is really interesting to get a male perspective on sex and relationships.

The Warrior's Daughter by Holly Bennett

I listen to music while reading, and I matched this book up with Lorenna McKennitt’s “An Ancient Muse”.

Celtic places, names and legends are woven throughout this novel. Luaine’s father is Cuchulainn, Ulster’s fiercest warrior. As a young girl she loses her parents in a battle. Forced into a loveless marriage to an older King, she goes into hiding when she discovers she’s been cursed. Druids, magic and ravens also play a part in this historical fantasy.

I like how the author included a list of pronunciations for the Gaelic names at the end of the book.

Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay

You’ll find history, fantasy, romance , you name it, in this 430-pager. On a trip to Aix-en-Provence with his photographer father, Ned becomes entangled in an ancient love triangle. First he meets a girl his age and a man who’s seemingly ageless, and then he discovers tunnels below the church. There are lots of characters, including villains and the mysterious Ysabel.

What struck me most about the book was all of the research Guy Gavriel Kay must have done. You really get a sense of France’s ancient cathedrals, battlefields and coliseums.