#IMWAYR November 16, 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.

I had big plans to finish the Piet Mondrian quilt last week, but I ran out of fabric for black sashing. I ordered more online and hope to have it finished soon. In the meantime I have started knitting a pair of socks for my partner as a Christmas gift. He loves his homemade socks and wears them all year long - even in the warmer weather with sandals. 

I'm thinking that while I wait I should start on baby quilts for my two newest grandkids. I've finished designing them based on the goslings from the Gossie and Friends series by Olivier Dunrea. I'm just not sure how to execute these plans. 

I might have gotten more reading in this week but my partner and I started watching The Queen's Gambit and ended up loving it so much we kind of binged on it. Then we watched Okja. It was a wonderful TV watching week. I wish there was more like this!

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. 

RECENT BLOG POSTS

The Paper Boat by Thao Lam

GRAPHIC NOVELS

5 stars

The Paper Boat
by Thao Lam
 🍁

This wordless graphic novel is a refugee tale. It tells the story of a Vietnamese family escaping from Vietnam at the end of the war. Here is the official book trailer.


NONFICTION PICTURE BOOKS


I can imagine my two sons devouring this book back in the days when video games were their passion and before they grew up and took on other responsibilities. I bet youngsters today will be fascinated to learn how the games they play today first began. This will be an important resource for students working on research projects. I sure wish it had been around to pique the interest of students who had a hard time coming up with topics that interested them. I appreciated Beatriz Castro’s gorgeous artwork here. 

NOVELS


This was a spectacular finale to this YA superhero/science fiction/fantasy trilogy.
Since the end of the last book, Mihko Laboratories has ramped up it's nefarious research in Wounded Sky. The community has been cut off from the rest of the world. More people have gone missing. The Upayokwitigo is still around.
How can Cole and his friends deal with all this since Cole was killed at the end of the last book? How can a ghost still dealing with anxiety, be of any help at all?
I was on edge all the way through this book. I kept anticipating something terrible and then it would happen. That would get dealt with, and then my anxiety level would ramp up again as I waited for something terrible to happen again.
Robertson has talked about dealing with anxiety himself. I've been wondering if this pattern of tension and release in the story parallels dealing with anxiety in real life.


This is my book club book for this month. On Sunday we attended a zoom session sponsored by the Vancouver Writers Festival. We will meet later this week to talk about the book among ourselves. 
This is a beautifully written and profound book that looks at the intersection of faith, mental health, addiction and science. Gifty and her family nestled their way into my heart. Bahni Turpin's narration was brilliant as usual. 

DISCWORLD NOVELS


This is another witches' novel. Plans are set for Magrat and Varence's wedding. A young wanna be witch makes a deal with the queen of the elves. Then the Lancre Morris Team gets drunk and dances on a fairy mound. This allows the elves to enter through a portal into the Discworld. Thankfully Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Og, and Magrat Garlick are there to deal with them. 
If you have not read any Terry Pratchett here is what you need to know. At the same time as his books are absolutely hilarious, they are also serious novels that reveal important truths about humankind.
“Shoot the dictator and prevent the war? But the dictator is merely the tip of the whole festering boil of social pus from which dictators emerge; shoot him and there'll be another one along in a minute.”

CURRENTLY 

I've started Bloom by Kenneth Oppel. I'm listening to Sourcery by Terry Pratchett. I've started Class Act by Jerry Craft, but it's hard for me to focus because it has to be read in my browser and I am easily distracted. 

UP NEXT 

My next audiobook will be either How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa, or The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde. Reading with my eyes I hope to get to A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat. I've got a pile of books for must #MustReadIn202 lists that I have to get to soon!

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS 

#MustReadIn2020: 21/25 one in progress

#MustReadNFIn2020: 11/12 

Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors: 22/25 

Books by Canadian Authors: 123/100 

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 297/333

13 comments:

  1. My sons would have LOVED The Boy Who Thought Outside the Box! Too bad they're now in their 30s! Maybe I'll buy it for them anyway, ha ha.

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    1. Mine are in their 30's too. I suspect they would appreciate reading this. Perhaps I might purchase a copy for their children...

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  2. I have heard nothing but good things about the Discworld novels, but I've never checked them out. Thanks for sharing all of these!

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    1. If you even get inclined to read them, I encourage you to start with his witches series. I fell in love with his work by reading Nation (not a discworld novel) and then discovered his Tiffany Aching series within the Discworld. He really is brilliant. My libraries still have holds on books of his that were published in the 1980 and 90's. His work is still relevant.

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  3. I know I will enjoy The Paper Boat, loved seeing the trailer! And I marked Transcendent Kingdom down, too, Cheriee. Good luck with all your projects!

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    1. Thanks Linda. We have snow again here so it turned out to be a good day for working inside.

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  4. I agree that Transcendent Kingdom is a beautiful book. Yaa Gyasi is an amazing writing. Her book Homegoing is one of my all-time favorites.

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    1. I loved Homegoing also. She is a marvelous speaker. If you get a chance to see her don't miss it.

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  5. For some reason, I can't get Goodreads to open. But when I do, I'll need to make sure I have The Paper Boat on my list (I think I do, but we'll see soon enough...). I'm excited to see you're starting Bloom by Kenneth Oppel. I'm enjoying that series so much! I haven't yet read A Wish in the Dark, but it's definitely on my list, too. Thanks for the shares, Cheriee!

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    1. I don't do creepy very well, so I'm not sure how long it will take me to finish this. At least it all starts out with a setting I am familiar with. It makes it all seem ordinary.

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  6. I understand being easily distracted in your web browser—I had to set my Firefox to quit showing me articles on the new-tab page because they were too interesting, and I would get sucked into reading them! The Paper Boat looks awesome—I'll have to add it to my holiday wishlist! The Boy Who Thought Outside the Box sounds awesome—I find video game consoles really fascinating (even though I don't play many video games), and I actually knew of Ralph Baer's name but don't know much about him! Thanks for the great post!

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  7. I've seen The Paper Boat on a few lists lately. I'll have to check it out!

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  8. Isn't Queen's Gambit great?? We just started it recently, too, and are loving it. In fact, I posted on Facebook that we like it and got an avalanche of comments from friends and family who also enjoyed it!

    I really want to read Transcendent Kingdom - and it sounds like the perfect kind of book to read for book group and discuss.

    Hope you enjoyed your books again this week (I am late visiting again!)

    Sue

    Book By Book

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