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THE DEFENDER: Susie Saunderson
English was my least favorite subject in school. I firmly believed that Fitzgerald randomly chose to make the light at the end of Daisy’s dock green and I deemed it to be of no particular importance, contrary to the opinion of my English teacher. I liked cut and dry answers, no interpretation needed. I started to enjoy books when marks were taken out of the equation, when I needed a short escape from work or parenting. I began to open my mind to what was hidden beneath the surface of novels in discussions with my book-loving husband (an A English student). It always seemed as though we had read two completely different books.
For social reasons I joined a book club twenty or so years ago. Thirty of us met in the basement of the library, where we sat on the floor in a circle. No food, no wine, just talking about books with people who loved books. I listened and it was fascinating.
In my current book club we read a variety of books: fiction, non-fiction, Canadian, foreign, classics, illustrated novels, historical novels, novels I would never pick up on my own. We go to talks by Canadian authors and Art exhibitions related to books we’ve read. The food and wine we serve often ties in with the book we are discussing. I now do book reports for fun. Reading has become a passion that enriches my life.
Our family moved from Chelsea Quebec to Collingwood 14 years ago. My education includes an HBa, Bachelor of Education and most significantly an education born of raising three boys, in whom we have tried to instill a love of reading, among other things.
THE BOOK: Still Life by Louise Penny
The discovery of a dead body in the woods on Thanksgiving Weekend brings Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his colleagues from the Surete du Quebec to a small village in the Eastern Townships. Gamache cannot understand why anyone would want to deliberately kill well-loved artist Jane Neal, especially any of the residents of Three Pines – a place so free from crime it doesn’t even have its own police force.
But Gamache knows that evil is lurking somewhere behind the white picket fences and that, if he watches closely enough, Three Pines will start to give up its dark secrets…