Smith Falconer Financial Group looks forward to sharing our reading recommendations each summer.

We have carefully curated this list with your porch, pool, beach, or Muskoka chair in mind – with a selection that has something for every member of your family!

Lois Smith

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

This is a book that I read 20+ years ago, and it remains top of my list of all-time favorites. As a fan of Ann Patchett, I think this is her best book.

The most influential electronics executive in Japan is invited to celebrate his birthday in an (unidentified) South American country. It’s political instability is demonstrated early on. Midway through a lavish party in his honor, terrorists break in, taking the guests hostage, including the one being celebrated. Partygoers, generals, and guerillas will be trapped there for an unknown period.

As a special gift to him, the revered opera singer “Roxanne Coss”, a beautiful woman with a wonderful voice arrives. Her music becomes their common language.

The attributes of the various characters are captured beautifully by the author. They “bloom like flowers” as a new civilization is born under the same roof under which the 58 people are living. The opera singer’s leadership qualities become immediately evident.

An operatic story, complete with grandeur and drama, it is also absurdly funny, making for a really good story for your summer reading list.

Rodney Falconer

Power Failure by William D. Cohan

General Electric’s financial and leadership success was envied across the globe, as they became the world’s most valuable company.

Culture can make a company thrive or destroy it. In GEs case it seemed to be one of its downfalls.

Having gone through the financial crisis myself, it was interesting to read how it impacted one of the largest companies in the world.

The book is a wonderful reminder that you always need to innovate and adapt with change, or you will get left behind.

Lira Lamaca

Before The Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

What would you change if you could travel back in time?

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café that has been brewing coffee for over 100 years. But this is no ordinary café. When you sit at a specific table, you have the unique experience to travel back in time to reconnect with a loved one or revisit a conversation.

The only caveat is that you must sit at a particular seat and return to the present before the coffee gets cold and more importantly, you are unable to change what’s already happened in the past.

Who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?

Meredith Mercer

Enough by Melissa Arnot Reid

Enough is not simply a book about Everest. It is a memoir which leads to a path of forgiveness, self-acceptance, and compassion for oneself.

At times, the content is difficult to absorb but I walked away with an even greater appreciation of her resilience and strength.

The life lessons and the journey she shares will resonate with anyone that has ever struggled to feel like “enough” in any aspect of their life.

I have followed author Melissa Arnot Reid’s Mountain climbing career with awe for over 15 years. I have not yet had the opportunity to cross paths with her.

Melissa bares her soul and openly shares her life story and leaves me feeling like we are already close friends.

Angela Dang

Love You Forever by Robert Munsch

A mother’s love is like an endless ocean deep, powerful, and always present. The book captures a mother’s care for her son from infancy to adulthood. No matter what he did, whether he made messes, misbehaved or tested every limit, she loved him. As he grew older, he stumbled, grew distant or made mistakes but throughout, she loved him. She loved him quietly, fiercely, and without condition. Forever.

My daughter and I love this book so much. It has become our special moment, every time we read it, we sing it together, softly, like a secret between us.

I’ll love you forever,

I’ll like you for always,

I’ll hold you close forever.

My sweetie Audrey, precious little girl.

Maddie Hubbard

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

I love memoirs, and the insight they provide into perspectives outside our own.

I often joke that “nostalgia is my favourite emotion”, and this story is centered around exploring the impact of food on recalling and processing memories.

Specifically in the Korean supermarket chain, “H Mart”, which provides the author a sense of belonging, and explores her connection to her late mother and her heritage through Korean food and culture.

I had not heard of the author previously (who is best known as the singer and guitarist of band “Japanese Breakfast”), but that is what I appreciate about memoirs, they are insightful and important regardless of if you know who the person is.