#IMWAYR July 18, 2022

Welcome readers! It's #IMWAYR time again, when bloggers share what they have been reading and find out what others have beouten 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. 

Life is as back to normal as it gets around here. The living room has been cleaned of all grandchildren related clutter. It has been replaced by wood flooring. My partner is refurbishing the stairwell to the front door and basement. The carpet was removed a while ago and now he has replaced the banisters and is putting hardwood flooring on the steps and foyer entrance to the house. It looks gorgeous. 

I finished adding a few inches to the sleeves of this sweater and will post it this week. I made four matching ones but didn't take a picture of them before sending them off.

My neighbour gave me some chartreuse patterned fabric she had planned to sew up for her granddaughters (who are now in their late teens.) So I am working on matching dresses for the granddaughters. I have some similar fabric in a teal green that I will use to make something for the grandson. 

So far I have harvested about 25 pounds of raspberries from the patch and there are probably another 5 pounds left before I cut out those canes. Meanwhile the new canes are flowering in anticipation for the late summer harvest. Aside from making raspberry wine, I'm not sure what I will do with all these berries. Maybe I will just make more wine. 

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 

4 stars

Mommy's Hometown by Hope Lim & Jaime Kim (Illustrator) April 12, 2022

After listening to his mothers stories about growing up in a rural countryside, a young boy is surprised by the large city that has replaced it. What I found most fascinating about this book is that other than the Korean characters on the buildings, this could be a large city anywhere in the world.
The digitally created illustrations are rich in colour and light. While the differences between the two landscapes are vast, the river continues to run through it all, and the boy and his mother are still able to explore it and find treasures.

MG NOVELS

4 stars

Traitors Among Us by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch  🍁 September 7, 2021

I wish Marsha Skrypuch had been around when I was a youngster learning about the history of the world. Traitors Among Us is part of her WW2 series and a sequel to her books, Don't Tell the Nazis & Trapped in Hitler's Web. I am always invested in her characters and this one is no different. 

Two Ukrainian sisters, Krystia and Maria, have managed to survive the war, and wait in a refugee camp in the American zone. Then some Red Army soldiers arrive and take them and a few other of their roommates back to a house in the Russian zone. They are to be interrogated for their activities during the war.
Right from the get go this book is hair raising. A young mother and her baby are shot by soldiers when they try to escape. The group are subject to horrifying conditions. Then they are tortured to force them to sign false confessions.
A few of them are released and helped by Brigid, who cooks for the Red Army. They manage to incapacitate the soldiers at the house with drug laced linzer cookies, and rescue the remaining captives.
A note by the author at the end of the book reveals more information about the people this book is based on, and more about the actual death camps created by the Russians after the war.

4 stars

Truckers by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Briggs (Narrator) January 1, 1989

A clan of four inch nomes is forced to leave their dangerous forest home before they all end up dead. One of them, Masklin, devises a plan to try and save them. They sneak aboard a truck and end up in a department store where they are introduced to a colony of other nomes. These other nomes have developed a rich and layered society based on the goings on of the store. They believe it was created especially for them. The nomes from outside bring a sacred 'thing.' When it is surrounded by electricity, it begins to talk to them. They discover that the store is soon to be demolished. Masklin comes up with a plan for how to save them all. It just depends on a crew of nomes figuring out how to drive a delivery truck. 

Pratchett's writing goal was “to take that which is familiar and everyday and therefore no more seen, and pick it up and turn it around and show it to the reader from a new point of view, so that once again they see it for the first time.”

I think that ten year olds will enjoy this novel, but it is older readers who will truly appreciate the satire and humour and once again see the world for the first time.

YA NOVELS

5 stars

The Red Palace by June Hur (Author and Narrator) 🍁 January 25, 2022

Set in Joseon Dynasty Korea in 1758, this is based on the true story of Crown Prince Sado, an untouchable serial killer. 

"There are few options available to illegitimate daughters in the capital city, but through hard work and study, eighteen-year-old Hyeon has earned a position as a palace nurse. All she wants is to keep her head down, do a good job, and perhaps finally win her estranged father's approval."

Then four women are brutally murdered. Hyeon's friend and mentor is accused of the crime. To clear her name Hyeon ends up involved in a clandestine investigation with Eojin, a young police inspector. 

Their questioning sets them against a corrupt legal system that protects the royal family at all costs. The unravelling of the mystery is fascinating. The slow build up of the romantic aspect of the story is brilliantly done. 

I have become a fan of June Hur's writing and read everything she has published so far. She integrates brilliant characters into complex mysteries set against a backdrop of Korean history, religion, culture and class structure. 
The worst thing about finishing this book is that June Hur's next novel isn’t scheduled for release until 2024.

 

ADULT NONFICTION

4 stars

The Body by Bill Bryson  (Author and Narrator) October 15, 2019

I liked this well enough. It's just that after finishing up a couple of nonfiction titles that went deep into their subjects (An Elegant Defence by Mat Richtel and Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake) I wanted more. I suspect I would have appreciated this better if I had read it first. It is a very readable, fairly comprehensive, overview of how our body works and the history behind how we have come to know what we do about it.

CURRENTLY

Three Women and A Boat by Anne Younson

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

UP NEXT

I'm hoping to get to these two next week. Other than that, I brought a lot of books home from the library this week!

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner  🍁

Macy Mcmillan And The Rainbow Goddess by Shari Green  🍁

READING GOALS

#MustReadFiction 15/24

#MustReadNonFiction 11/18 one in progress

Canadian Authors 43/100 

Canada Reads shortlist 5/5 

Indigenous Authors 12/25

2022 Big Book Summer Challenge 5 

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 167 /250