Welcome! 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.
I contemplated skipping this week, but since we are having a huge 70th birthday celebration for my husband next weekend, decided I better do it now.
I have been sewing again. Sewing is usually my happy place. This is true even when I'm not listening to an audiobook, but this dress for my youngest granddaughter caused me a lot of grief! Between technological problems that started with the printer dying as I was printing the pattern, to me screwing up one of my sewing machines, and my brain not figuring stuff out right, If it could go wrong, it did. In spite of all that, I'm happy with how it turned out. Crossing my fingers it fits her!
Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator. 3sewin
Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.
It's hard to imagine that this series could get better, but the addition of the Prince in Pink, might just do it.
The Prince in Pink is a Knight who does the usual knightly things, but when he transforms into the Prince in Pink, he's the person you want to have around when it's time to prepare for a party.
Add a grumpy and misunderstood Emu into the mix, throw in a lot more pink, glitter, and glamour, and get ready for a foot stomping read.
Raven Mother is the most recent collaboration by two brilliantly gifted people. I've written about this series in depth previously. If you follow that link you will see examples of the artwork and see why I love these so much.
I've yet to find such profound nonfiction that looks at different species, not only in the context of their physical environment, but also in the context of the culture of the people who share the land with them. The authors integrate these two realities, in both images and text, so that readers can't help but understand the Xsan's intimate relationship with their part of the planet.
I suspect that this book might be easier to follow if it wasn't an audiobook. This is mostly because it jumps back and forth in time and these transitions might be easier to follow with the regular print demarcations. There are also a lot of supporting characters! In spite of this, I ended up loving this book and hope for a sequel. This is in large part because I became invested in Kai, an immortal, body switching, demon. We meet him as he comes to awareness in an underwater prison where a mage is attempting to capture his energy to use as his own. It doesn't end well for the mage and his compatriots. This is a book I'm going to have to read with my eyes. It's so rich and complicated that I am certain I missed a lot more than I aware of.
"Artist and activist Nahid Shahalimi compiles the voices of thirteen powerful, insightful, and influential Afghan women who have worked as politicians, journalists, scientists, filmmakers, artists, coders, musicians, and more."
This is a book I want everyone to read. It's not an easy one. In the middle of a dystopian reality, these women are so full of hope. It's the recent Barbie movie after Ken returns to Barbieland, only it is real life, and it's much much worse.
CURRENTLY
The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Welcome! 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.
I am happy to say that our neck of the woods is almost completely smoke free. A couple of fires are burning to the north but they are mostly contained.
Thank goodness for audio books! It's the time of year for canning and preserving. At the same time as I am slogging away, I am living in alternative realities. As a bonus, the shelves in our cool room are filling up with jars full of glorious colours.
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.
"The queen of chess, Judit Polgár, dazzled the world as a prodigy, winning tournaments, gold medals, and defeating eleven world champions, including Garry Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen. At her peak, Judit was rated the eighth best chess player in the world."
I confess that I wanted to read this book because I adored the TV series, Queen's Gambit. I just had to learn more about a real woman chess grand master.
Judit Polgár is at least as fascinating (even if the wardrobe isn't as exciting) as her fictional counterpart a couple of decades earlier.
Judit Polgár was a chess prodigy who at five years old, played against and defeated players older and more experienced than she was. At age nine she was winning international tournaments.
If you don't have this book in your library, you should purchase it now! I really wish it had been around when my school library hosted the school chess club.
Two children from completely different parts of the planet are dealing with the consequences of climate change. While reading this I couldn't help but make a connection to Two Degrees by Alan Gatz. In that book he focuses on children in North America. Eoin Colfer shows us the reality for Sami, a boy who lives somewhere in the Indian Ocean and depends on fishing to make a living. His other protagonist, Yuki, lives in northern Canada where the polar ice is melting. She is doing her best to protect the polar bears around her community. What I really liked about this book is that, just like in Alan Gatz's book, it shows the consequences of the climate crisis at a personal level. In this case, the images make it profoundly real.
I could have sworn I wrote a review for this book just after reading it, but if I did, I have no idea where it went. This continues the story of Dez, and Miikwan, two indigenous friends. Dez' grandmother has died and she is living in a group home. Her social worker is a bit of a nightmare, but the woman at the home seems to be a supportive person who understands that Dez is grieving. At school the two friends attend an after school group that focuses on indigenous teachings. Linda, the elder who runs the group, doesn't question the gendered protocols she has grown up with. With the help of Miikwan's boyfriend's mother, she starts to change her thinking and comes to accept Dez being two spirit. I like that both girls are in positive relationships with others, but their friendship is what really matters.
This graphic novel is spectacular. I went into it expecting something entirely different: something fictional or myth. I was gobsmacked by what I experienced. This book is a time travel. It's a portal that opens a passage into the history of the Haida Gwai, an island of the coast of British Columbia.
It begins with Indigenous life before contact with Europeans. In spectacular illustrations it reveals the horrors wrought by white colonialists, including the deliberate spreading of small pox.
At the same time it's the story of Johan Adrian Jacobsen (JAJ), who came to the Haida village of Masset to collect specimens for a German museum.
The artwork is spectacular, a blend of traditional and modern art. It's not organized like an ordinary graphic novel. There is a brilliantly chaotic quality to how it all comes together. I learned at the end of the book that if all the panels are put together it becomes a huge mural that is on display at the Berlin Humboldt Forum.
The following video, taken during a showing of the mural in East Vancouver, gives you a sense of the piece.
This book was a time warp for me. I remember when the local arts community in Vancouver was devastated by the loss of one creative member after another. My partner, a film maker, was much more aware of the tragedy than I was. As a teacher I was only aware of a couple of people who lost their lives to Aids. The book reminded me of listening to The Dr. Peter Diaries, on CBC radio and singing with the the choir at the Dr Peter's Center.
I was deeply invested in these characters: especially the young man, Yale. I wanted so much for him to be a survivor of the carnage around him. One by one his friends get the disease and die. The latter part of the book focuses on Fiona and her estranged daughter. The book begins with the funeral of her brother. It ends with her acknowledging how deeply the epidemic scarred her.
Lucky St. James, a Métis, lives in Toronto with her Grandmother. Just as the two of them are about to be evicted from their apartment, Lucky gets invited to go for a job interview in Salem. There she is invited to join a coven of witches. She barely gets to know the other members when she is sent off in search for the final member of the group.
It takes a while before Lucky realizes that Jay Christos, a truly evil witch hunter is chasing after her.
On the surface this is a simple paranormal thriller. At the same time it's a deeply feminist book about friendship - about the power of women when we come together to support each other. Lucky's grandmother, Stella, is one of my favourite characters in the book. She is one spunky old woman!
The book highlights the evils of the patriarchal system. Fortunately, Lucky St. James' mother equipped her with all kinds of indigenous magic for how to deal with it and the men who try to run it.
I am looking forward to the sequel that I'm sure is coming!
It took me a bit to get into this book, but when it finally grabbed me, I was totally hooked. Part of the reason for this is that someone had compared it to When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill, and thought this was better. I do get the connection between the two novels, but wouldn't say either was better. Both are set primarily in the 1960's and both feature women in STEM. The anger in Lessons in Chemistry is more of a slow burn, while in When Women Were Dragons, it's a screaming rage. To be honest, this was much easier to read because of that. It's the story of Elizabeth Zott, a scientist, who never manages to finish her degree because of being sexually assaulted. It's about not being able to pursue your career because you are a woman. It's a bit of a love story between two brilliant and odd individuals. When she is no longer able to work at her chosen profession, Elizabeth ends up working as a TV star on a cooking show where she teaches her watchers about chemistry. I like the relationships between the women here. I like that even the one that starts out antagonistic becomes supportive. I like that there are some sympathetic men, even if they are not really effectual. I like the weird humour in this. I adored Six-Thirty, who might be one of the best dogs in fiction.
CURRENTLY
We are Still Here by Nahid Shahalimi (Editor)
The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human by Siddhartha Mukherjee
I'm joiningBeverly A Baird,Linda Schuelerand others in a "year long poetry practice – on the first Friday of each Month," when they, and anyone else who joins, will be writing a poem based on the theme of the month and a photo taken relating to that theme.
I forgot about writing this til September 30th, so I begged my photographers Randy Rotheisler, and Ron Peace, to send me inspiration. They told me it didn't work like that. I scribbled off a draft and sent it to them.
by Randy Rotheisler
Autumn
if Spring is the midwife, and Summer, an indulgent mother,
then Autumn, Autumn is the death doula,
ushering Earth's weary players
to the ends of their season
across cinematic pigments of glory
and into Winter's waiting embrace
by Ron Peace
here's one from me
The first time I participated, I didn't get the photograph first bit. I let the theme percolate throughout the month before posting and the poem more or less wrote itself. When I realized my mistake, I sent a half decent draft of it to my partner, Randy Rotheisler, and a friend, Ron Peace, both gifted photographers, asking for images to accompany it. We have continued this process.
In case you are interested, both these photographs can be purchased from the photographers. Let me know if you want their contact information.
