Ruth Anne Latta

The other day, someone asked me to name some of my favourite historical novels - other than the six I have written.  I reeled off some of the books listed below, then came home and thought of several more.   All  have educated me about significant events  of the past and narrative techniques.  These are my current favourites. Isabel Allende's  novel, A Long Petal of the Sea, has compelling characters who survive the Spanish Civil War and come to Chile, where they experience the 1973 right wing coup. Amy Bloom's, White Houses , set during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, shows First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena Hickock trying to sustain a relationship during this time of economic depression and world war. Barbara Kingsolver's, The Lacuna , centres on an American author who crosses paths with Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Leon Trotsky in Mexico in the 1930s, and then pays for it during the Red Scare. Kingsolver's award-winning D...

 "A Striking Woman" is  now in the Ottawa Public Library collection at the Emerald Plaza Branch.

     Copies of A Striking Woman are for sale ($28) at The Spaniel's Tale Bookstore ,1131 Wellington St. West, Ottawa 613-724-3000       Ottawa novelist, musician and heritage activist Kevin Dooley, author of   By the Hob ;  The Angira Legacy and The Catalyst; The Other Man , and A Dog's Breakfast, wrote the following about A Striking Woman:     " A Striking Woman pays wonderful credit to a remarkable woman and her husband...It is a very profound and poignant odyssey through the grim, turbulent years of the fight for justice and dignity for workers.  It shows clearly the obstacles, forces and malice [they] faced.  It portrays, too, the turbulent history of Quebec and its peoples in the face of much adversity.     "The story reads well, has a nice flow, and this reader was inspired."

     Recently, I told someone to check out my blog to see the books I have authored. After the conversation ended, I realized that I shortchanged myself. This blog, ruthannelatta.blogspot.com doesn't include everything.  Some of my earlier books were listed on my old blog, ruthlattabooks.blogspot.com      In 2013, I started publishing Canadian historical novels of particular interest to women, beginning with The Songcatcher and Me , a young adult novel inspired by the life of Canadian folklorist and folk song collector Edith Fowke, whom I met briefly in the 1980s.      In 2016, came Grace and the Secret Vault , another young adult novel, based on the childhood experiences of Grace Woodsworth during the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919.     I followed that with Grace in Love , 2018) a novel for grown-ups, about Grace Woodsworth finding her life's work and her life partner after some trial and error in Paris and in Ottawa.  ...

 My latest novel, A Striking Woman , is for sale at Singing Pebble books, 206 Main Street, Ottawa, ON  Tel.: 613-230-7165

     My poem, "That Old Gang of Mine" appeared as  June 2023 "Poem of the Month" in the online magazine Fiddles and Scribbles , fiddlesandscibbles.wordpress.com THAT OLD GANG OF MINE Nightmare, I rode you hard, put you away so wet with sweat - seemed menopause had struck again, and now I have to face a day that seems devoid of joie de vivre and luck. A search, a chase, the anguish of a loss; such drama in the early morning hours, all in my head. Subconscious, you're the boss. Why can't you let me dream of hearts and flowers? I wonder, "Should I go to meet my friends, have coffee and a donut, crack some jokes?" Upon this gang my psyches so depends. I need the company of kindred folks. I want to hear how Jay's appointment went, and whether Bea's new beau is heaven-sent.    

 My reviews of two new books, one by Barbara Kingsolver, the other by Jerome Charyn, appear in  Compulsive Reader News http://www.compulsivereader. com Volume 25, Issue 7, 1 July 2023