#IMWAYR May 23, 2022

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. 

How are you all doing? In spite of the miserable cold weather, I managed to get the vegetable garden planted. When I was at the nursery I also picked up a few flowering plants for the other gardens too. You can never have too much colour in the yard. 

It was a strange reading week for me. I finished a brilliant novel by TJ Klune, and then couldn't get into anything after that. I started listening to a number of books and gave up. I started reading a few titles with my eyes, but couldn't get into them either. Thank goodness I finally found a book that I could connect too. 

Here in Canada we are celebrating the Victoria Day Weekend. It's been quiet since we stayed home and our children did the same. I'm off on Tuesday to Vancouver where I will visit my grandchildren for a couple of sleeps before heading off to my annual Women's Weekend. 

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.

NON FICTION PICTURE BOOKS 

5 stars

111 Trees: How One Village Celebrates the Birth of Every Girl by Rina Singh & Marianne Ferrer (Illustrations) January 1, 2020  🍁

Shortly after Sundar Paliwal became leader of his village in India, he lost one of his daughters. He decided to honour her by planting 111 trees. Then he convinced the villagers to plant 111 trees every time a girl child was born into the village. He brought in engineers from the city to organize an irrigation system to keep the trees alive in the desert climate. Aloe Vera was planted to protect the trees from termites and other pests. From these plants women created health products to sell. Within a short period of time the community's health and wealth grew. Today more than 25000 trees have been planted. The landscape and lives of girls have been radically altered. 

In addition, through a shared community investment strategy, Sundar Paliwal ensured that each girl would go to school and not be married off until she was 18. 

Rendered in watercolor, gouache, and graphite, Marianne Ferrer's illustrations are just gorgeous. 

Our world needs more people like Sundar Paliwal. 

GRAPHIC

4 stars

Roll With It by Lee Durfey-Lavoie & Veronica Agarwal October 5, 2021

Thanks to Max at Completely Full Bookshelf for introducing me to this title. 

It is a story about a young girl with anxiety/OCD issues. In spite of this, her new year in middle school starts out well. She makes a new friend, joins an after school club, and seems to be settling in well. Things at home are mostly good. 

On the down side, one of her sisters might be leaving home, and there seems to be some kind of low crawling creature/monster lurking outside the school. As her anxiety increases, she starts to have trouble finishing homework. 

Maggie is controlled by a kind of magical thinking. Upon arriving home from school she engages in a ritual of switching the lights on and off. She carries a 20 sided die with her and rolls it continuously to help her make decisions. Her parents suggest she see a therapist, but despite the evidence, Maggie insists she is fine. By the end of the book, she realizes she needs help and goes to see one 

I liked a lot about this book. I liked that we see how therapy helped Maggie. I liked the inclusion of the role playing game. It took me back to the days when my sons were engrossed in Dungeons and Dragons. (They still play, but now that they are fathers, less often.) I appreciated the incidental diversity in the characters. I also liked the information in the back matter about how the book was developed. 

ADULT NOVELS 

5 stars

Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune & Kirt Graves (Narrator) September 21, 2021

What happens when a not very nice man dies unexpectedly and doesn't want to move on into the afterlife? Read this and discover one possibility: a possibility full of hilarity, sweetness, rehabilitation and romance. 
I did not want this book to end.
I am now an unapologetic fan of T.J. Klune. 

While this is an adult novel, I would happily include it in a high school library. 

ADULT NON FICTION

5 stars

Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion, Hilton Als & Kimberly Farr (Narrator) January 26, 2021

I have long been a fan of Joan Didion, but until listening to this collection of essays from her earlier life, had almost forgotten why. That woman could write! Didion made everything she wrote about seem fascinating. She challenges her readers to reexamine our own perceptions of subjects she addressed. Her essay on the media (written in 1968) feels scarily prescient for where we are today. 
Also, the introduction by Hilton Als is a brilliant overview of her life.

4 stars

Okanagan Geology South by Murray A. Roed and Robert J. Fulton (Editors) October 2017  🍁

I asked my partner a question about what mountain range we are part of, and he handed me this book. I finished it in one sitting. I suspect that people not acquainted with the area would not be as fascinated as I was to read about the area's geological history and existing features. Being able to make personal connections to the different areas written about made it all come alive. My one quibble about this book is that it was difficult to keep track of all the figures mentioned in the text. I also wish the index was more detailed. 

CURRENTLY

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro & Sara Siu (Narrator)

Cress Watercress by Gregory Maguire

UP NEXT 

Cold by Mariko Tamaki

An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives by Matt Richtel

READING GOALS

#MustReadFiction 11/24 

#MustReadNonFiction 8/18 

Canadian Authors 29/100

Canada Reads shortlist 5/5 

Indigenous Authors 11/25

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 120 /250