Hello everyone. 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.
Today is election day here in Canada. I will get around to reading everyone's posts as soon as the excitement dies down.
I'm sharing a couple of weeks worth of reading because family events last weekend took precedence. I'm going to be away the next couple of weekends so I figured I better get a post in this week. Next Sunday I will be heading off for a week with women friends. We usually get together on the May long weekend, but the pandemic put it on hold for two years. I am very excited. The following weekend I will be with my grandkids.
Hope you are all doing well. In spite of getting through a number of books, I am still having a hard time staying focused when reading with my eyes. I appreciate Kelly and Shaye helping me articulate that I've just lost the joy in reading. It feels like work. On Sunday I began sorting through the piles of books from the library. I'm going to return everything that isn't on one of my must read lists or isn't a Canadian author. Thankfully I still enjoy listening to books and I enjoyed the few picture books I did read.
We had a lovely outdoor birthday tea party for my partner on Thursday. Nobody drank tea, but whatever we imbibed was sipped from fancy teacups and saucers. He enjoyed the home made socks I knit him even if they were not really a surprise. He is now as old as me again.
Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator.
Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.
RECENT BLOG POSTS
Bear Wants to Sing by Cary Fagan & Dena Seiferling
PICTURE BOOKS
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| 5 stars |
Watercress by Andrea Wang & Jason Chin (Illustrator) March 30, 2021
Right off the bat, this book reminded me of my mother. She also had eyes "as sharp as the tip of a dragon's claw." Wild asparagus was her speciality.
Like this family, when she spied it, we all climbed out of our car and set off picking bags of it. I'm now thankful that our foraging wasn't fraught with the conflict and history of Andrea Wang and her young protagonist. I will now be keeping my eyes peeled for wild watercress growing in ditches around here.
Jason Lin's artwork is an homage to combining cultures as he brings these memories to life.
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| 4 stars |
Peter & Ernesto: A Tale of Two Sloths by Graham Annable April 10, 2018 🍁
This is a delightful graphic novel for beginning readers. It's a story about friendship, about opposites attracting, and about moving out of your comfort zone. It's full of humour and sweetness.
It reminds me of Sergio Ruzzer's work.
I am Dreaming of... Animals of the Native Northwest by Melaney Gleeson-Lyall with Mervin Windsor & other Indigenous Illustrators January 1, 2017 🍁
I had to read this a few times to fully appreciate this board book. I ended up loving both the poem as well as the glorious artwork. It celebrates the different animals found in this part of the world. Poetry doesn't always work in picture books, but this one, with it's repeated refrain of I am Dreaming, the rhythm and rhyme made me want to read it out loud to my grandkids. They aren't here so I read it to myself.
CHAPTER BOOKS
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| 5 stars |
Charlie & Mouse Outdoors by Laurel Snyder, Emily Hughes (Illustrator) March 03, 2020
I'm such a fan of this series. It tells the story of Charlie & Mouse and their parents on a camping trip. It's a celebration of the power of imagination.
SHORT STORIES
I loved this collection of short stories. They took me far away from my small town in the middle of nowhere. I followed the Chinese diaspora across a hundred years of time and space. Many of these stories were heartbreakingly uncomfortable to read, (or in my case, listen to.) I am enriched and enlightened by all of them.
NOVELS
A young girl plans for a secret sleepover at her absent grandparent's home. It ends up with her being left behind when her community and the surrounding area are evacuated. The neighbour's dog becomes her companion. As the years stretch on, she deals with looters, wild animals, fires and floods.
Malian, a young Wabanaki girl, is quarantined at her Grandparent's home during the Covid 19 quarantine. A stray dog makes its home with them during her stay there.
I liked a lot about this book. I liked the community that looks after one another and the stories by her grandparents that help Malian become more rooted in her culture. I loved the intergenerational relationship.
I liked a lot about this book. I liked the community that looks after one another and the stories by her grandparents that help Malian become more rooted in her culture. I loved the intergenerational relationship.
ADULT NOVELS
This is an exquisitely written debut novel about a Nigerian family. Kehinde and Taiye are twins who, after a bad thing happened, have grown apart. The story moves back and forth in time unravelling what happened, detailing their lives as they travelled the world. They return to Lagos to be with their mother, Kambirinachi, who believes that she is an Ogbanje, a non human spirit who should have died, but stayed alive out of love for her human family. Together the family finds a way to be at peace with themselves and each other.
The descriptions of food in this book are probably some of the finest I've ever read. I was hungry nearly all the time. #CanadaReads
The descriptions of food in this book are probably some of the finest I've ever read. I was hungry nearly all the time. #CanadaReads
I picked this from NetGalley because, thanks to my sons, I am a fan of Josh Ritter as a singer/songwriter. I am now an enthusiastic supporter of his work as an author.
Weldon Applegate could well have been any one of my many uncles who followed their father into the wilderness to cut down ancient trees. I see many of them in his character, but especially my Uncle Harry, who had tears in his eyes when he took my father and our family to see the new technology of helicopter logging. Check out my full review here to find out more.
Weldon Applegate could well have been any one of my many uncles who followed their father into the wilderness to cut down ancient trees. I see many of them in his character, but especially my Uncle Harry, who had tears in his eyes when he took my father and our family to see the new technology of helicopter logging. Check out my full review here to find out more.
This might be my favourite of the series. It integrates reality and fiction. Yes, there is a murder mystery, but there is so much more. It's set at an imaginary end of the Covid 19 pandemic when everyone is vaccinated and everyone is safe. It asks the question, can we ever justify killing? It examines how love can be a motivation for murder. It addresses the lack of morality around our treatment of the aged and disabled. Gamache is haunted by the conditions he found in care homes in Quebec during the outbreak. I am wondering if the research he is gathering will be dealt with in a new book.
CURRENTLY
The (Other) F Word: A Celebration of the Fat and Fierce by Angie Manfredi
The Great Bear by David A. Robertson
The Silence of Bones by June Hur
UP NEXT
Flight of the Puffin by Ann Braden
A huge pile of picture books
BLOG POSTS PLANNED FOR NEXT WEEK (Hopefully)
The Great Bear by David A. Robertson
Gemma and the Giant Girl by Sara O'LearyPROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS
#MustReadIn2021 25/25
#MustReadIn2021 25/25
#MustReadNFIn2021 9/12
#MustReadPBIn2021 54/100
Big Book Summer Challenge 9
Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors 31/25
Books by Canadian Authors: 89/100
Canada Reads 2021 5/5
Discworld Series 41/41
Goodreads Reading Challenge: 333/333
I loved Watercress & now your own connected memories with it, Cheriee. And I love Peter & Ernesto, lots of fun! I know about Rez Dogs & it's on my list, but Alone is a new title. Thanks for all. Have a great time with your women friends - sounds so good!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed my memories Linda. I think it might have been you who turned me on to Peter and Ernesto. I hope there are more stories like it.
DeleteBear Wants to Sing looks stunning. I hope your friend time is all that you need it to be!
ReplyDeleteThanks Earl, I'm sure it will be. If you can't get a copy of Bear Wants to Sing, Cary Fagan & Dena Seiferling also created King Mouse. It's gorgeous and lovely as well.
DeleteThe lack of desire to read much with my eyes is upsetting. Downright terrifying, if I'm honest. I'm listening to a lot of audiobooks, too. Luckily, I just now discovered that I downloaded Josh Ritter's book through Libro.fm - so YAY! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Watercress looks lovely, so I'm making sure I have that one on my list, too. And WOOHOO at another Charlie & Mouse book (that I somehow was not aware of) - adding that to my list.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering what might motivate me to dig more into print books right now (or if motivation has anything to do with it). I'm thinking if Jessica Townsend would just go ahead and release book #4 of the Nevermoor series, that might do it for me. HAHA! It's quite possible that I'm simply at a point where real life is demanding much of my attention. I'm feel so very NEEDED by my children at this time, which is actually quite a wonderful thing when I stop to think about it. Maybe priorities have simply shifted for now. I plan to just keep with the audiobooks and the limited eye reading and hope for the thrill of picking up a new print book again in the near future. The good thing is that this community keeps me coming back for more. Have a good time while you're away, Cheriee!
I am still working away with only print books, but still appreciate your comment here so much. I think a lot of my friends would agree too, that our children seem to need us even more than usual. It is nice in some ways, but also a sign of the times. I hope it does shift, but that our children know even more than before that we are there if they need us.
DeleteI might have to find and listen to Ritter's book. I enjoyed it that much! I suspect that real life is my problem as well. I'm just so darn busy. The piling up of books doesn't help my anxiety level either.
DeleteYes to all this, Aaron and Cheriee! I'm glad for those in the reading community who understand these disorienting reading experiences during a pandemic (including the anxiety it can cause when we're not meeting our regular reading goals). I know this falls under #firstworldproblems, but the bookworm camaraderie is quite comforting.
DeleteYou mention that reading feels like work right now, and it made me think of something I've thought before—reading, in a way, is work! It's not like watching TV or whatever where the ideas just show up and your eyes absorb them—it takes a ton of energy, even with fun books, to dissect them and interpret them and understand them. And it takes that energy even if you're not doing it as a job, or in a literature class, or whatnot. And I think, when it takes that kind of work, it is to be 100% expected that sometimes, we're not going to have the energy to get it done! I think it's braver of you to put the reading work in most of the time and occasionally have trouble with it than it is to get all of your entertainment through something not as effortful. So I'd say, give yourself a pat on the back for that.
ReplyDeleteRant over—now to the books! Although actually, I do want to first say that I hope you enjoy all these fun weekends you have coming up!!! I'm so glad you connected to Watercress personally—it is a beautiful book indeed. Rez Dogs sounds like a great MG novel, and all the adult books look wonderful as well! Thank you so much for the wonderful post!
Thanks for your kind words. Reading print requires a different kind of work than listening I think, but I have friends who can't stand audiobooks so I guess it just depends on how our brains work. I suspect that part of my problem with text is that there is so much going on in our lives right now - house renovations, gardening, fall food to deal with and quilts to finish before Christmas. I am naturally hyper active so that doesn't help either.
Delete