Temagami Time = Reading Time

Lake Temagami is the one place on earth where I come close to polishing off a book a day. All the gadgets, screens, beeps, ringtones, and jobs that consume my waking hours back home are absent. The island has no electricity, no Wi-Fi, and no running water. That’s right.

If we want water, we pump it. If we want it hot, we put it in a kettle on the propane stove.

If we want light when the sun goes down, we flick a match and hold it under a propane-fueled lamp fixture.

Yes, I do know we could have electricity if we had solar panels on the roof. But that would mean having battery storage, and I now know of two fires from such arrangements. Or we could turn on a gas-powered generator, but we don’t. The noise would drown out the lapping of waves, the call of the loons, the chirps of the chickadees, the rustling of a Ruffled Grouse, and the whirr of the hummingbirds’ wings.

So, each year, it’s with great care that I plan my reading list for our Temagami vacation. I had two books by Julian Barnes, and some recent prize winners in the pile; however, all were set aside after I heard Ann Patchett speak about Louise Erdrich on a podcast: The Shit No One Tells You About Writing. When an author I admire is a fan of an author whose work I haven’t read, that’s a signal to track down the books. I was in luck. The Hamilton Public Library had a good collection; I signed out six.

I could write a review of each book, but I won’t. It would take time away from reading the two I didn’t crack open on holiday (The Night Watchman, 2020 and The Sentence, 2021). But I will say that I was riveted by the storytelling, the depth of each scene, the characterizations, the settings, the history, the spirituality, the magical realism, and the science. Each book was profoundly different from the one before. I only skimmed the surface of Erdrich’s work and read the books chronologically: The Blue Jay’s Dance, 1995; Shadow Tag, 2010; La Rose, 2016; Future Home of the Living God, 2017. The week felt like a Master Class. Now, I need my own copies. I’ll read each one again and take notes, probably in the margins.

I’m blessed. It was a week spent with family who are as happy as I am to have their noses in books. We appreciate that the span of unstructured and unplugged time at Temagami is a scarce and precious commodity. We are the richer for it.

Now tell me, dear reader, what did you read this summer, and where did you read?

^{Bonnie Lendrum is the author of Autumn’s Grace, the story of how one family manages the experience of palliative care with hope and humour despite sibling conflicts, generational pulls and career demands. Autumn’s Grace is a powerful commentary on the need for well-organized and well-funded palliative care in private homes and in residential hospices. It’s a gift to people who would like to be prepared as they help fulfill the final wishes of a family member or friend.} 

Ann PatchettHamilton Public LibraryJulian BarnesLouise ErdrichTemagamiThe Shit Nobody Tells You About Writing