Library Matters: May 2020

#IMWAYR June 1, 2020

Hello out there. It's #IMWAYR time again, when readers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to in the past week. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. Whatever you are looking forward to in your next great read, these are fabulous places to start your search.

These days I'm thinking about all my teaching family and friends who return to their classrooms June 1st. On the one hand I understand why our public health leader, Dr Bonnie Henry, has determined that the risk of a covid 19 out break is almost nil. On the other, I understand why teachers are anxious and worried. Many schools did not have adequate cleanliness regimes or facilities for hand washing before the outbreak. I wish all of my friends and colleagues courage and good luck for the next days. I have faith they will ensure a safe environment for themselves and their students.

Meanwhile, around here, renovations proceed more slowly than anticipated. Mudding and sanding is a slog. Thank goodness for audiobooks to take me into a different world while I am working. Sunday we went off to purchase a fancy spray paint system. Today, Monday, my partner is learning how to use it. My job is to move stuff from the next room and start ripping off trim and wall panel in preparation for more mudding and sanding.

I finally gave up on my old ipad air and purchased a new one. It should arrive sometime in the next week or so. I am excited, but waiting is hard. My old one had only 16 GB and was always out of memory. These days I am having to read ebooks and it's a nightmare to load them. This is especially true for Netgalley titles.

On a positive note, my local library is opening up for pick up. I have put a few books on reserve. Soon I will get to hold real library books in my hands again! Ho

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian Author and or Illustrator.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.

BLOG POSTS LAST WEEK

The Eagle Mother by Hetxw'ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson), Natasha Donovan (Illustrations)

NOVELS

5 stars

Banished by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch 🍁

Seriously, is this not one of the most beautiful book covers you have ever seen?
Marsha Skrypuch is one of my favourite historical fiction authors. I especially appreciate that her novels often connect to Canada in some way. Her work opens my eyes to world events that I am unaware of. In this case it is the Armenian genocide from the time of the first world war. Her characters, Ali and Zeynep, won my heart. This is a reread for me for a book club I am in. You can read my full review of their remarkable story here.

5 stars

The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo & Emily Woo Zeller (Narrator)

When Clara Shin and her 'enemy,' Rose, end up in a ruckus at school, their punishment is to work together over the summer in Clara's father's food truck.

While the story of enemies becoming friends and coming into who you really are might be common, Maurene Goo turns it into something fresh and unique. I became attached to these characters. I cared about them, their lives, their families, and their food truck. So will you.

Listening to this book made me happy. It accompanied me while I worked in my garden, applied mud to drywall, and knitted on a baby sweater. I am looking forward to whatever Maurene Goo comes up with next.

5 stars

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

This is a profound book.

Jam is a black, transgendered, selectively mute, teen girl who lives in a utopian world without monsters. Then she accidentally brings Pet, a clawed, horned creature, into existence. Pet tells her it has come to hunt a monster who is connected to Jam's best friend, Redemption.

Together the three of them set out to find the monster and deal with it.

What happens after the victim and monster are identified is terrifying, primarily because all too often this is the reality for abused children. Adults regularly refuse to acknowledge that the monster exits. Thankfully, these kids have Pet on their side.

NONFICTION

5 stars

The Eagle Mother by Hetxw'ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson), Natasha Donovan (Illustrations) 🍁

The Eagle Mother is a book loaded with information about the eagle life cycle. What makes it unique is how it puts this information into a context of indigenous ways of knowing. You can read my full review and see samples of the gorgeous illustrations here.

5 stars

March: Books One, Two and Three by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, & Nate Powell (Illustrator)

This was a reread for me for a book club that meets this coming week.
Prior to reading this series, I knew next to nothing about John Lewis except that he is a politician who enjoyed Preaching to the Chickens as a boy. Learning more about the events of the Civil Rights Movement was fascinating the first time round. It was a more profound experience now.
March One deals with the events of Brown vs. The Board of Education, the murder of Emmet Till, Rosa Parks and the bus strike, the inception of the SNCC, and the Lunch Counter Sit Ins. March Two brings the reader into an intimate awareness of what it meant to be a Freedom Rider. The violence is terrifying, but not as horrific as realizing that we haven't really come very far at all. This book culminates in the March on Washington. March Three begins with the bombing of black churches in Birmingham and takes us into the struggle for voting rights and the Selma March.
These days the news is full of George Floyd, Christian Cooper, Breonna Taylor, and Regis Korchinsky. Reading the series puts this news into perspective and reminds us that that we still have a long march ahead of us to bring real change to our respective countries. I've also come to realize that America's existing president isn't an anomaly at all. He's everything that many white supremacists see as normal.

CURRENTLY

I'm listening to Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. I'm reading A Short History of Indians In Canada: Stories by Thomas King and The Case of the Missing Auntie by Michael Hutchinson. I'm also in the middle of A Portrait in Poems: The Storied Life of Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas by Evie Robillard.

UP NEXT

I'm hoping to finish up and review a couple of Netgalley titles. I managed to find my copy of Zero Repeat Forever by Gabrielle S. Prendergast and hope to get started on it.

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS

Big Books Summer 2020 1/10

#MustReadIn2020: 10/25

#MustReadNFIn2020: 5/12

25 Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors: 10/25

100 books by Canadian Authors: 94/100

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 178/333

Eagle Mother by Hetxw'ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson) & Natasha Donovan (Illustrations)

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. It was released April 28, 2020, by Highwater Press.

The Mothers of Xsan Series highlights the Gitxsan’s way of knowing the world by showing the integration of culture and nature. Each book highlights the Salmon’s role as a keystone species both ecologically and culturally for the Gitxsan people in Northern BC. In this instance, it highlights its roll for the eagle.

This book follows a pair of eagles across a year. It begins with Lasa Ya’a, the Spring Salmon’s Returning Moon. An eagle mother sits high in a cottonwood tree protecting the eggs in her nest against a spring snowstorm. Across the book we see the eaglets hatch, fledge, grow, and learn.

I appreciate that Eagle Mother shows the similarities between the Gitxsan people and the eagles. Both are dependent on the salmon, but the eagle has its own roll to play in the ecology of the forest.

“Nox Xsgyaak and her partner may use this same cottonwood for up to 20 years. The time they spend there not only benefits the cottonwood, but the nitrogen rich skin and bone they leave at the bottom of the tree decays and leaves nutrients to spread throughout the ecosystem.”

Like the others in the series, the text uses Gitxsan terms and doesn’t hesitate to use scientific vocabulary. Most of these words are explained in small text boxes on the same page.

The back matter has additional information about the Gitxsan people with a chart of the different moons. It also shows a map of their unceded territory.

The biological, cultural, and spiritual connection between eagle, salmon and people is integral to this book. It’s there in the use of Gitxsan vocabulary in the text. It's there in Natasha Donovan’s stunning art. Her images, gorgeously coloured in the shades of the rainforest and river, integrate Gitxsan people in the background. What brings it all together is the use of traditional art into the landscapes.

The Eagle Mother is a book loaded with information about the eagle life cycle. What makes it unique is how it puts this information into a context of indigenous ways of knowing.

School Libraries should have at least 2 copies of each of the series. I can hardly wait to see what this team will offer up next.

Here are the other books in the Mothers of Xsan series.

#IMWAYR MAY 25, 2020

I am celebrating.

First because I finished reading all the Chocolate Lily candidates. Mostly they are all really great reads so choosing the finalists is going to be challenging!

Second, because we now have our garden planted! (There is more to come, but for now we are on top of things.)

Tomorrow we start renovations.

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian Author and or Illustrator.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.

NOVELS: High Interest - Low Vocabulary

I need to begin this section by giving a shout out to the Orca Current novels written by British Columbian authors. These are, according to their website, "short, high-interest novels with contemporary themes written specifically for middle-school students reading below grade level. Reading levels from grade 2.0 to 5.0. Interest level ages 10–14." Many of these are written by award winning authors and from what I am reading, many are own voices books. I'm impressed as heck.

4 stars

Embrace the Chicken by Mahtab Narsimhan 🍁

This little novel packs a lot of important messages into it. Like many newcomers to Canada, Shivani is struggling to fit in and find a place for herself in her new school and community. She is terrified that if people meet her mother, who is struggling with English, people will make fun of her. If they do that, they will also end up making fun of Shivani.
I cringed at how Shivani was ashamed of her family and her culture. Thankfully, her parents are smart and their new community is diverse and accepting. I really appreciated how responsible and responsive all the adults in this book are. I also liked how thoughtful the students are. This is the reality of the multicultural world I spent many years teaching in.

4 stars

Tick Tock Terror by Melanie Jackson 🍁

I don't do scary at the best of times. That's why it took me a while to garner enough courage to open this book. As an adult reading books for children, my perspective is different from the target audience. I'm so busy worrying about what will happen to the characters, I don't get involved in the way younger readers might. On the other hand, I know the Edgar Allan Poe story this one references so that might just be another reason for my anxiety.
Anyway, this is a fast paced, tense, thriller for younger readers. Connor, who loves to climb, is coerced into hiding a stolen object high on a 'Pit and Pendulum' fairground ride. Fixing the mess he's gotten himself into isn't easy.
What I really liked about this book is how the many different characters are shown to be more than Connor assumed.

4 stars

Dressed to Play by Jennifer Manuel 🍁

The publisher asserts that "Sports Stories are action-driven sports novels that turn reluctant readers into all-star readers! Plus, they feature characters with diverse racial, physical, mental, and economic backgrounds."
Dressed to Play impressed me much more than I anticipated. I admit to even getting a bit weepy at the end. Jordan loves basketball almost more than anything else, but when she starts getting called names and has to deal with bullying, she almost quits.
I especially appreciated how this book takes a hard look at misogyny and body image within the world of sports. It has made me appreciate all those young women athletes across time even more than I did before reading this.
You can find out more about this series here.
http://www.lorimer.ca/sportsstories

NOVELS

4 stars

The List of Things That Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead & Rachel L. Jacobs (Narrator)

This character driven book is just charming. I loved the authenticity of Bea as she struggles with all the changes in her life. When her father acknowledged he was gay, her parents divorced, but continued to have her best interests at heart. When her father decides to marry Jesse, Bea discovers that Jesse has a daughter. Sonia takes longer to embrace their new sisterhood, but Bea is undaunted.
Throughout the book Bea sees a therapist to help her deal with her anger issues. Eventually we become privy to a big secret that has been eating at her.
I appreciate how much Rebecca Stead deals with in this book - separated parents, living in two different places, therapy as part of a normal life, homophobia, and the ordinariness of spats and arguments with friends and family.

5+ stars

Cold Falling White by G. S. Prendergast 🍁

This book is the jewel of my reading week.
It just wowed me. I started reading and couldn't stop. The world building, the characters, and the story held me in its sway till it was finished. I still can't stop thinking about it.
I have the first in this series somewhere in a box, but alas, we have moved and I have no idea where it is. Otherwise I would have jumped right in. I did read a synopsis before starting this just in case I needed to know what happened before. I don't think it was really necessary.
Earth has been invaded by alien creatures called The Nahx. The Nahx, who are a cross between machine and clone, hunt humans and kill them with a special kind of poison dart. The series focuses on a group of Canadian friends who were camping in the Rocky Mountains when the invasion took place. This saved their lives, but they were still hunted by Nahx soldiers.
This begins with Xander being escorted across Nahx territory by August, a rogue Nahx. August loved Xander's friend, Raven, who died in the previous book. He gives up his life to save Xander who eventually ends up in a refugee camp near Prince George.
Raven wakes up after being darted to find herself transformed into a human version of a Nahx.
The action packed tale is brilliantly told through the perspectives of these three characters. I'm desperately hoping there will be another in series.

It is pure genius. I just can't recommend it enough.

CURRENTLY

I'm reading March: Book Three (March, #3) by John Lewis, and rereading Dance of the Banished by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch for an upcoming book club. I'm listening to The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo.

UP NEXT

I'm hoping to go and reread the the first two in the March Trilogy. All my unread hardcopy books are in boxes so I've just downloaded The Case of the Missing Auntie by Michael Hutchinson and A Short History of Indians in Canada by Thomas King. It's about time I started reading to reach my indigenous goals.

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS

Big Books Summer 2020 1/10

#MustReadIn2020: 9/25

#MustReadNFIn2020: 4/12 one in progress

25 Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors: 9/25

100 books by Canadian Authors: 91/100

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 172/333

#IMWAYR May 18, 2020

I am finally actually feeling relaxed. Our house is somewhat under control and the gardens are almost done. This is a temporary respite as we are planning on starting house renovations in the next couple of days. I am determined to preserve time to read everyday no matter what!

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian Author and or Illustrator.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.

PICTURE BOOKS

Queenie Quail Can't Keep Up by Jane Whittingham & Emma Pederson (Illustrations) 🍁

I enjoyed this story about a little quail who is distracted by the world around her. Consequently, she is always trailing behind her siblings. This turns out to be a good thing when she is diverted by a flash of orange and tracks it to find out what it is. Queenie ends up being a hero and her family come to appreciate the way she sees the world.
I live in the middle of quail country and watch them scuttle around my neighborhood everyday. So here's the rub, the quail in this book are cute, but they just don't look enough like my real ones.

Seaside Treasures: A Guidebook for Little Beachcombers by Sarah Grindler 🍁

This is an introduction to all the different things you can find on beaches around the world. It discusses shells, animals, sea glass and garbage. I appreciated the informative bits about the different kinds of flotsam and jetsam to be discovered on seashores.

If Pluto Was a Pea by Gabrielle S. Prendergast & Rebecca Gerlings (Illustrations) 🍁

I appreciate how this book translates our solar system into common everyday objects. It provides readers with a way to relate to the immensity of the planets and our sun. I like the diversity represented in the two children camping out in a backyard.
This will make a fabulous addition to a collection of books about space for primary school readers.

Dog vs. Ultra Dog by Troy Wilson & Clayton Hanmer (Illustrations) 🍁

This book is full of layers of meanings. It's the story of Dog, who can't live up to the commercial portrayal of a superhero, Ultra Dog. His doubts about his worth are exacerbated by the neighbor's cat. Dog tries his best to compete with Ultra Dog with mostly distressing, albeit hilarious results.

NONFICTION PICTURE BOOKS

Scholastic Canada Biography: Meet Elsie MacGill by Elizabeth MacLeod, Mike Deas (Illustrator) 🍁

Elsie MacGill was one heck of a woman! She lived a life of many 'firsts.' Born in 1905, she was the first Canadian woman to get an engineering degree and the first woman in the world to to get her master's degree in aeronautical engineering. Getting polio in her twenties might have slowed her down a bit, but it sure didn't stop her! In 1938 she became the chief aeronautical engineer in charge of all airplane work at the Canadian Car and Foundry Company. During WW2 she was in charge of a team building Hawker Hurricane planes for the airforce. In 1942, children got to read about her in a comic called 'Queen of the Hurricanes: Elsie MacGill." After the war Elsie became involved with the UN as technical advisor to the International Civil Aviation Organization. In the 1960's she was active in the women's rights movement and became one of the commissioners for the 1967 Royal Commission on the status of Women.
Elsie MacGill is a role model for young women all over the world. She received many awards and honors during her lifetime and now has an award named after her. The Elsie MacGill awards are given out to recognize achievement of women in aviation.

Mike Deas' comic style illustrations are the perfect match for this biography. They provide context to Elizabeth MacLeod's words. I especially appreciate the use of text bubbles to add humour and reality to the story.

This book is a brilliant introduction to this amazing woman's life.

NOVELS

Stowaway by Pam Withers 🍁

If you are searching for a read that gets your adrenaline pumping, look no further than Pam Withers. Do not read this book before going to bed because you will either stay up all night reading, or not be able to sleep because of all that epinephrine coursing through your system.
Owen and his parents live on an island off the coast of British Columbia. His is a solitary life without peers nearby. Eventually we learn how and why this came to be.
When his folks leave him alone for a week, Owen connects to Arturo, a young man who, with his 'uncle,' have sheltered at their marina. When Owen stows away on what he thinks is Arturo and his uncle's friendly boat expecting to get dropped off at the nearest center, is he ever wrong. He finds himself caught up in an international human smuggling syndicate.
Pam Withers takes her readers from one hairbreadth adventure and escape to the next. I like how she alternates the two perspectives of Arturo and Owen in different chapters.

The Horse of the River: A Camp Canyon Falls Adventure by Sari Cooper 🍁

This surprised me. I'm not much of a horse riding fan, but was completely engaged by this coming of age tale.
Gillian is nervous to be attending a horse riding/training camp for the first time. It seems to be going fine until the thoughtless actions of another girl damages her horse. She ends up paired with The Beast, a horse who challenges even more confident riders. When Gillian loses control of The Beast, she lands in a raging river where she is pulled downstream through rapids and over a waterfall. At this point it becomes a survival story with Gillian and The Beast coming to terms with one another.

I appreciated that all the characters end up being thoughtfully rendered with authentic back stories.

The Body Under the Piano (Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen, #1) by Marthe Jocelyn & Sarah English (Narrator) 🍁

I loved this audiobook. It has the feel of Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce series. Aggie Morton is a precocious, imaginative twelve year old writer growing up around the turn of the century in 1902. Many of the characters Agatha Christie would come to write about are integrated into this murder mystery for middle grade readers. Aggie's newest best friend, Belgian immigrant Hector Perot, and her perceptive Grannie Jane, help solve this mystery of the murder in a dance studio. I especially appreciate the depth of characters here and the complexity of the plot.
I can hardly wait for the next one in the series. Unfortunately that won't be until September of this year!

CURRENTLY

I'm reading Embrace the Chicken by Mahtab Narsimhan. I'm listening to The List of Things That Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead.

UP NEXT

I started listening to Maybe He Just Likes You by Barbara Dee, but my life has been already so full of anxiety, that I put it aside. Maybe I will get back to it this week, or I might just try and find the book in text format. This coming week I'm planning of reading Tick Tock Terror by Melanie Jackson, Dressed to Play by Jennifer Manuel, and Cold Falling White by G. S. Prendergast.

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS

#MustReadIn2020: 8/25 one in progress

#MustReadNFIn2020: 4/12

25 Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors: 9/25

100 books by Canadian Authors: 87/100

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 166/333

#IMWAYR May 11, 2020

We have moved. Moving is hell.

The job is partly done. We have said goodbye to our house in Vancouver and moved some of that stuff to our house in our home in Oliver. The majority of it is in storage because we already have a house full of stuff here. Stuff is hell. I have tried amalgamating and sorting, but in this Covid 19 reality, there is no place except the dump to take things we no longer need. My partner has taken a number of loads already, and there is more to go. I just don't have the heart to throw away stuff that can still be used.

On a positive note, we are carving out new garden space and weeding and replenishing the dirt in existing beds and planting there. I've managed to put in a raspberry bed and a herb garden.

In the middle of all this, my reading life took a huge hit. Honestly, if it wasn't for audiobooks I would not have survived. I wish I had made time to write a few comments as I finished each one, but consider myself lucky to have even recorded what I was listening to.

In the last week I have managed to read some books with my eyes. Maybe I'm getting my reading mojo back. Maybe I just have some time to call my own. Whatever, I'm sure glad for it.

The following is a culmination of a month of reading. I'm looking forward to finding out what you have all been up to.

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian Author and or Illustrator.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.

PICTURE BOOKS

Kevin the Unicorn: It's Not All Rainbows by Jessika Von Innerebner 🍁

Kevin the Unicorn is having a bad day. Although he tries to keep his spirits up, his day goes from bad to worse. What helps him is learning that others have bad days too.

NOVELS: Chapter Books

Ruckus by Laurie Elmquist (Goodreads Author), David Parkins (Illustrations) 🍁

This little chapter book delighted me. Ruckus is a well named Jack Terrier pup. Reece, the narrator of this book, worries about a lot of things. Will their father ever come back and live with them? Will their mother make Reece return Ruckus to the breeder? Will Ruckus ever poop out Mom's diamond earrings that he ate?
I loved Reece. Part of what I appreciated is that this kid is almost genderless. Except for the comments on the back cover of the book, I might never have figured it out. All the characters have depth - not an easy feat with this kind of book. I especially liked the earnestness of Reece's character. The issues between the parents is authentic and one many kids can relate to.

Sophie Trophy by Eileen Holland 🍁

Sophie is a delightful girl who is always getting herself into messes while trying to do the right thing. In this case it's trying to save her teacher from the spider crawling on her head. Sophie is sure to appeal to fans of Junie B Jones and Piper Green.

NOVELS: Low Vocab High Interest

Room 555 by Cristy Watson 🍁

Roonie loves her grandmother but can't bring herself to visit her now that she has Alzheimer's and has to live in a care home. Then she ends up volunteering in the geriatric ward at the hospital for school credit. While there she bonds with an aging woman over their shared love of dancing. Her new friend helps her mend fences with her best friend and find a way to connect with her grandmother.
This started out slow, but soon had me fully engaged in these characters' lives. I ended up loving it.

Iggy's World by Gail Anderson-Dargatz 🍁

This book of sibling rivalry taught me more about insects and spiders than I could have imagined. Iggy desperately wants his parents, or someone, to pay some attention to him. His best, and only friend happens to be a tarantula. So he starts a podcast that integrates his real life with his fascination for bugs of all kinds.
To be honest, Iggy's spider attachment kind of freaked me out. Comparing the softness of a tarantula to that of a kitten is just too over the top for me. That said, I was fascinated by how much I learned about spiders and other insects in the course of this short book.

NOVELS

Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens by Tanya Boteju 🍁

This was a delightful look into the world of drag queens and kings. While mostly comfortable with who she is, Nima Kumara-Clark awkwardly enters this queer world. Lucky for her, Deirdre, the bodacious drag queen, takes her under her wing. Under her tutelage Nima figures out how to integrate this world with her old one and create a whole new community. There are interesting subplots that are not fully resolved here, but I'm ok with that since that's how life usually happens.

A Place to Belong by Cynthia Kadohata, Julia Kuo (Illustrations)Jennifer Ikeda (Narrator)

I loved these characters. I'm a sucker for any intergenerational tale, but this one is truly special. Following WW2, after their forced stay in Japanese internment camps, Hanako and her family return to Japan from America. Connecting with her grandparents is the gift in all this, but given the existing Japanese economy, there is no way out of poverty and servitude if the family stays in Japan.
I was enthralled by the story while learning more about a shameful aspect of American (and Canadian) history. This one made my eyes leak.

Me and Banksy by Tanya Lloyd Kyi & Veronica Hortiguela (Narrator) 🍁

This was much deeper and richer than I anticipated. Just wow! Dominica Rivers attends a prestigious school that has surveillance cameras everywhere. When someone hacks into them and shares embarrassing clips of students across social media, Dominica and her friends set out to put an end to it.
Don't miss this. You can read more about it in the Quill and Quire review here.

The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air #3) by Holly Black & Caitlin Kelly (Narrator)

I am so sad to say goodbye to these characters and am heartbroken that this series is done.

Roll with It by Jamie Sumner & Candace Thaxton (Narrator)

This audiobook turned out to be a surprise reread for me, but I'm ok with that. I've discovered that reading series or rereading familiar books is a grand way to visit friends during this time when we can't spend time with our real ones.

My Jasper June by Laurel Snyder & Imani Parks (Narrator)

So much is packed into this book. Something is wrong with Leah, but it isn't until she meets up with Jasper June and starts talking that we come to understand what it is. We soon discover that Jasper June has big problems of her own, one that these two girls are not equipped to handle on their own.

NONFICTIOIN

Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family by Mitch Albom (Author and Narrator)

This is a tearjerker of a story. I would have loved to have read this as part of a book club because I have lots of questions and things I wonder about.
Still, Chika will steal a bit of your heart away as you read this, just like she stole Mitch Albom and his partner's hearts.
The audiobook was just lovely as it included clips of Chika talking and singing.

CURRENTLY

I have started listening to Maybe He Just Likes You by Barbara Dee. I'm reading The Horse of the River: A Camp Canyon Falls Adventure by Sari Cooper.

UP NEXT

The Body Under the Piano by Marthe Jocelyn is qued up to be my next audiobook. Otherwise, this is what I plan to finish up this week.

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS

#MustReadIn2020: 8/25

#MustReadNFIn2020: 4/12

25 Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors: 9/25

100 books by Canadian Authors: 79/100

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 158/333