Welcome readers! It's #IMWAYR time again, when bloggers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to. 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. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.
Recently, reading anything except news has been hard.
If you are not Canadian, you might not be aware of what's going on here in our country. It's distressing.
A group of truckers and others (99.9%white) with organizers connected to right wing, white supremacy, occupied our capital city. The citizens of Ottawa are tortured with noise and diesel fumes twenty four hours a day, and harassed for wearing masks. Roads are blocked so that ambulances can't get through. Other cities learned from the errors made in Ottawa, so this weekend, convoys planned in other large centres were thwarted by police and local protestors. On Sunday, more than a week after it began, Ottawa declared a state of emergency.
I am hoping that by the time you read this, the worst of it will be over.
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.
PICTURE BOOKS
 |
| 5 stars |
Bright Star by Yuyi Morales September 07, 2021
This book is is visually absolutely stunning.
My heart swelled at the beauty of the illustrations of the natural world of the Sonoran Desert. At the same time it aches because of it's destruction by the stupidity of some humans.
Dreamers by Yuyi Morales September 4, 2018
I reread this book after finishing up The Last Cuentista.
I've gone through this book at least four times. Each time I find something I missed and end up loving it more. It's an homage to the power of libraries, of stories, but even more, its overflowing with the power of love.
GRAPHIC NOVELS
These days I've been reading graphic novels for the Cybils awards. By the time this is posted, we will have decided the winners. As soon as it becomes official, I will create a post sharing my thoughts on all of them.
I finished this last week.
 |
Nubia: Real One by L.L. McKinney & Robyn Smith (Illustrator) February 23, 2021
NOVELS
I started out listening to this book but then it became so tense I downloaded an ebook and finished it that way.
No wonder this won the Newbery. What a story! I am not a huge dystopian literature fan (I get easily terrified) but this book grabbed me by the throat and wouldn't let go until I finished it. I was deeply, emotionally connected to Petra Peña.
A comet is headed towards earth and Petra and her family leave the planet on a spaceship. They have been chosen to be part of a group who will survive and continue the human race on a new world. Unfortunately the ship has been infiltrated and taken over byThe Collective, a political group who think that everyone must be the same in order to avoid the conflict that made life on earth dangerous. In their efforts to achieve this, art and storytelling have been banned.
Aspects of this book are hilarious if you are a fan of black humour. It all seems so absurd until it isn't anymore.
Katharina Kepler was a somewhat cantankerous, illiterate old widow who was left well off after her father's death. People envied her for this and for her son's success. One aspect of this book that distressed me is how financial gain became a factor in why people made the claims they made against her. When she was finally imprisoned, her property was sold to cover the cost of her captivity. Her detractors then complained that there would be nothing left for them.
This book is terrifying in what it shows us about modern day witch hunts and the capacity for people to be riled up over rumour, lies and misinformation. It shows us the consequences of living in the middle of a world of scientific illiteracy and absence of logical and critical thinking.
But then, I guess we don't need to read a book to figure this out.
CURRENTLY
Spílexm: A Weaving of Recovery, Resilience, and Resurgence by Nicola I. Campbell
History Smashers, Plagues and Pandemics by Kate Messner
The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursu
UP NEXT
Solimar by Pam Muñoz Ryan
and whatever else strikes my fancy
READING GOALS
READING GOALS
#MustReadFiction 3/24
#MustReadNonFiction 1/18 one in progress
Canadian Authors 8/100 one in progress
Canada Reads shortlist 5/5
Indigenous Authors 2/25 one in progress
What a horrible situation in Ottawa! I hope it's resolved soon. I know I've got to read The Last Cuentista. I'm not a fan of dystopian fiction either, but I'm so intrigued by all the praise it's getting.
ReplyDeleteWHAT??!! Why is the situation in Ottawa not major news here in the U.S.? I mean, if that's how far off the deep end those groups have gone in your relatively-*more*-reasonable country, I can't even imagine where we must be over here. I seriously hope that all improves soon! I really want to read Bright Star, and I actually bought Nubia: Real One because it was a Cybils finalist. I also want to cram The Last Cuentista in at some point, if I can manage it, and Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch sounds great too. Thanks so much for the wonderful post, Cheriee!
ReplyDeletePlease read my post
ReplyDelete