Sunday, July 08, 2012

6th Canadian Book Challenge



Awww....what a face!  Just one look and there was no way in Halifax I could resist signing up for the 6th Canadian Book Challenge.  Actually, in my eagerness to complete my first book, I forgot to send John Mutford an email signifying my intentions, but he knows my heart. Just yesterday, I could have sworn that it was beating to the tune of O Canada.


My first book for the new challenge is Growing Up Amish by Ira Wagler.  The title is a bit of a misnomer; the bulk of the book is about Wagler's struggle as a young adult to find his place as a devout and contributing member of his community.  Over the course of a decade, he left several times, feeling constricted by the laws of the religion, but when he was away, he felt restless, lost and on his way to damnation.

  Ira Wagler's search for spiritual peace makes for compelling reading, and his rough, unpolished style of writing serves him well in chronicling his anguish, although at times his tendency to hastily summarize often raised as many questions in my mind as it answered.  I would be interested in reading a second memoir of his post-Amish years.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I almost joined this challenge just so I could add the button to my blog. It's a great one.

Nan said...

I've joined too, but haven't read anything yet.
This may show my lack of intelligence :<) but I didn't know there were Amish communities in Canada. Embarrassing.

Brad Sinor said...

If I may recomend two Canadian writers you mibht check into Robert Sawyer, probably one of the most succesful sf writers in Canada, and Charles de Lint a fantasy writer who lives in Ottawa, he basically created true urban fantasy (not paranormal junk). Both of these fellows are writers who I will buy books by on the strength of their names