#IMWAYR January 11, 2021

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.

Last week, like the rest of the world, we spent a few days compulsively glued to our devices while we watched the events in the USA unfold. I waited anxiously to read Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter for her take on the events. Our hearts go out to all our American friends and family. We believe in you. It might not be right away, but we trust you can fix this. 

Our house has been dismantled of all it's decorations. The living room is still cluttered with boxes. We have to take a trip to the dump to empty our trailer of the detritus of house renovations and the tree before we can transfer them to our storage space. I've started knitting on more Christmas stockings for our two newest grandkids. I figure if I start now, they might be done by next winter! 

Other than that, I listen to audiobooks while I putter around the house tidying up and doing finishing work on the renovations while my partner does the primary work. 

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

Saga Boy: My Life of Blackness and Becoming by Antonio Michael Downing

NOVELS

5 stars

Hatch by Kenneth Oppel  🍁

In Bloom, the first in this series, a strange rain fell from the skies and deadly alien plants started taking over the planet.
By the end of it, scientists, with the help of three hybrid teenagers, seemed to have a pesticide to control them. The book ended with a new rainfall, this time dropping eggs of new kinds of monstrous insects.
Hatch begins with the three teens, Anya, Seth, and Petra, being taken from their parents into an underground bunker somewhere in America. They meet other children just like them. As they get physically stronger from the programs in place to learn more about them, they discover that they have telepathy. The person in control of the facility there, Dr Ritter, has nefarious plans for all of them. 

They manage to escape. Most are rescued and returned to Deadman's Island military base where they are kept hidden from Dr Ritter and other governmental agencies. 

While they were underground the insects continued multiplying and evolving to become larger and more dangerous. Seth and four other teens who were not rescued have to deal with them, evade capture by authorities, and figure out where to go to be safe. 

Anya was contacted by one of the aliens who claims to want to work with them to save the planet and in turn, save themselves.

While part of this novel is set in a bunker somewhere in Washington State, like Bloom, it is primarily set in and around Vancouver Canada. I love recognizing the named landscape. 

This is so intense that when I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. I don't know how I am going to be able to survive until May 4th, when Thrive, the third in this series, is published. My library has it on order, but there are already 3 holds on the three copies. I am number 4. 

4 stars

Skunk and Badger (Skunk and Badger #1) by Amy Timberlake & Jon Klassen 🍁 (Illustrations)

This is a delightful odd-couple kind of story for the younger set. Skunk and Badger are two creatures connected through Aunt Lula. Badger was happily living and doing his 'important rock work' in Aunt Lula's house for free. Then she gave Skunk permission to stay in the house as well. If Badger had only opened his letters from her he would have known. He is a bit of a curmudgeon while Skunk is a free spirit who loves chickens. Both are endearing characters. They go through a bit of a rough patch before they end up becoming true friends. I'm looking forward to reading more of this series. 

Jon Klassen's black and white and colour illustrations are the ideal complement to this charming tale. 

4 stars

Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson

My partner is a football fan. A game is on the TV as I write this review. Many years ago he shared with me the stats on injuries for players. I couldn't track them down, but the level of disability is horrific. I think it was %30 on average.
This book takes those stats, especially with regards to traumatic brain injury, and shows us the personal cost. It's set in set in 1999-2000 when understanding of chronic traumatic encephalopathy was just coming to light. 

Zachariah Johnson Jr.'s (ZJ) father is a football star and hero of the neighbourhood. At first his hands begin to shake and he can't play football. As his father deteriorates, ZJ struggles to understand what is happening. Jacqueline Woodson shows us a loving extended African American family doing their best to cope. Those of us who have been paying attention know all too well what their future will bring. 

MEMOIRS

4 stars

Black Water by David A. Robertson

Out of the ashes of the residential school system and a grade eight education, Donald Alexander Robertson ended up going to university to become a church minister. Eventually he became an important leader in Indigenous education here in Canada. He and his wife tried to raise their children without knowledge of their Cree ancestry, a decision he later came to regret. They tried to protect their children from the racism and consequences of colonialism. It didn't help. The younger Robertson writes about feeling different but not knowing why. He experienced racism anyway without the anchor of understanding his roots and who he was. Without this cultural grounding, racism became internalized.
At the same time as his son writes about, and tries to make sense of his father's life, he's writing about himself. David A. Robertson reveals how his father's actions reverberated into the lives of his family - and himself in particular. Visiting the places where his father and grandparents lived, he talks about blood memory, the feeling of having memories of the place himself.
His father, who worked for the province, was rarely home. His mother couldn't manage his coming and going and so while Robertson was a small boy, they separated. The separation lasted for about a decade. It was a difficult time for young David.
This book, against the backdrop of a journey together to Black Water where his father spent his early years, is ultimately a story about the reconnection of father and son.

I would call this a crossover YA/Adult novel. 

5 stars

Saga Boy by Antonio Michael Downing 🍁

This book translates the global ramifications of colonialism into an intimate level. The writing is so beautiful I ache just thinking about it. 

At age 11, when his grandmother died, Downing was uprooted from a loving home in Trinidad and ended up in Northern Ontario. In the following eight years he lived in six different cities, went to six different schools, and had six different guardians. It's more than enough to crush the strongest White boy, never mind a Black youth who, on top of all that, was abused in Trinidad. 

I raged and wept for Downing throughout his experiences as a child, as a young man, and as a young adult. Music and art saved him. 

I would call this a crossover YA/Adult novel. 

The following video is from a new album he is working on to accompany this book. 

DISCWORLD NOVEL

4 stars

Soul Music by Terry Pratchett

Rock and Roll and the music industry are the focus of Pratchett's satire here. Death's granddaughter, Susan, makes her debut when he disappears and she has to take over for him. While he is gone a new kind of music, called Music With Rocks emerges. People who listen to it end up dancing and screaming. The music is an instant sensation. It's alive. The novel focuses on a band called The Band with Rocks In. They don't really play their own music, the music plays them.

Among the many things I enjoyed in this novel are all the sly references to real musicians, music, and other aspects of popular culture. The lead singer in the band's name is Imp Y Celyn which translates into Bud of the holly. He changes his name to Buddy. The names of the rest of the band also reflect significant rock and roll heros of the 1950's, 60's, and 70's. Some of their tunes include: Don't Tread on My New Blue Boots, Good Gracious Miss Polly and Pathway to Paradise.

CURRENTLY 

I'm listening to Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehouse. I started reading All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung, but set it aside to start Strong is the New Pretty by Kate T. Parker. I needed a bit of a break from another intense memoir. The Discworld novel I'm into is Interesting Times. 

UP NEXT 

I'm hoping to return to All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung and read Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson, but I'll be picking up a pile of graphic novels from the library on Tuesday to start reading all the finalists for my role as round 2 Cybils judge. I also have Hogfather, a audio Discworld novel out from the library that I need to get to. 

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS 

 #MustReadIn2021 2/25 

#MustReadNFIn2021 0/12 one in progress

#MustReadPBIn2021 1/100

Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors: 2/25

Books by Canadian Authors: 3/100

Discworld Series 16/41 - one in progress

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 10/333