#IMWARY October 30, 2023

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. Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.

I had a great time at my quilting workshop last weekend. It turned out that I had cut some of my background fabric wrong, but it wasn't the end of the world. I just had to cut the rest of it to match. This meant that my blocks were smaller and that I had to cut out a bunch more pieces. (I still need to cut more) Ok, so it was a big deal, but it still wasn't the end of the world. I now have about 70 blocks made. I only need 26 more before I get to the fun part of arranging them. 

I Read Canadian day is coming up soon - November 8th of this year. I'm planning my reading life so that I will be only reading Canadian authors that whole week! What are you scheduling? 

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.

CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOKS

4 stars

How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney? by Mac Barnett, Jon Klassen 🍁 (Illustrator) September 12, 2023

While I was reading this, I really wished my 6 year old grandson could have been here with me. 
It is hilarious!
Of course it is. 
This duo create magic with everyone of their collaborations. 

Is there anyone who doesn't just adore Pigeon? 
Is there anyone who doesn't adore Mo Willems? 
Will that Pigeon really ride the roller coaster? 
Can I can please, please, please keep this book checked out of the library until the grandkids come to visit again?

MIDDLE GRADE GRAPHIC


Besties: Find Their Groove by Kayla Miller, Jeffrey Canino, Kristina Luu (Illustrator) September 27, 2022

I am thankful to Max @ Completely Full Bookshelf for writing about this mini series. It's a spin off from Kayla Miller's Click Series. I like that many of the characters from the main series are included here, but we are focused on two best friends, Beth and Chanda. A school dance is on the horizon and the two girls have to figure out how to make it their best night ever, navigate their way through the morass of what to wear and how to get a date. Do they even need a date? Both of the girls end up learning a lot about themselves and each other before it's over. 
I like how Chanda ended up apologizing for her behaviour. I like how she listened to Beth who has her own issues. I liked that both have older sisters and that those relationships, while they don't always run smoothly, are supportive. 


When Mary Kate Murphy is accepted into a pilot class focussing on Climate Change, she has no idea that she is going to learn about a lot more than the climate. She soon learns that the climate crisis and social justice and interconnected issues. 
There is a lot going on in this book. I really appreciated that the diversity of the ramifications of the climate crisis are explored. Mary Kate's best friend is ill and might be dying until her parents are persuaded to take her to a new doctor. She is finally diagnosed with a number of infections caused by a tick bite. She learns that tick numbers are on the rise because of warmer winters. (This is also why we have had an explosion in pine beetle numbers and the decimation of pine forests) 
I like how we get to know the different class members through their application to the program letters. Each one of them has different climate crisis related concerns. 
If I have any quibble with this book, it is that the existing mayor is a caricature. Nobody is that one dimensionally evil. 
Carrie Firestone's book, Dress Coded, is available from my library, and if I didn't already have so many books on the go, I would have started it as soon as I finished this. 

ADULT/YA FICTION


Ever since reading Dark Matter, I have been a fan of Blake Crouch. I planned to read this as soon as it was published, but other books and life interfered with it. I'm finally getting to it. Friends, this is why I create must read lists. 

This is a fascinating science fiction novel involving time travel. There are two main protagonists: neuroscientist, Helena Smith, and NYC cop, Barry Sutton. A case of false memory lands Barry in a strange hotel where he ends up revealing his worst memory. He comes to awareness in the middle of the memory and discovers that he reliving those events. He has a chance to change history and does. Helena Smith is the creator of the chair that enabled him to time travel.
Like any too good to be true invention, it is. In this case, the mess it creates is made worse by the plans for the machine being stolen and sold. Barry and Helena are forced to relive their lives in an attempt to find a way to stop the end of the world.

CURRENTLY

Take Back The Fight: Organizing Feminism for the Digital Age by Nora Loreto  🍁
Animal,
Mindy Makes Some Space by Nathan Fairbairn & MSASSYK (illustrator) 🍁

UP NEXT 

A New Season by Terry Fallis 🍁

Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis by Britt Wray 🍁

I'm going to continue to tackle that pile of picture books..

READING GOALS 

#MustReadFiction 21/24 one in progress

#MustReadNonFiction 14/20 two in progress

Canadian Authors 44/75 

Indigenous Authors 20/20 

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 170/200 
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#IMWAYR October 23rd, 2023

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.

Life was busy for us last week. We had three special celebratory dinners. We only cooked two of them and were taken out for greek food one night. I am hoping for a calmer week. 
I will be at a quilting workshop on Monday so I won't get to responding to anyone's posts till the next day. I try to read all of them, but I don't always respond. 

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.

CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOKS

4 stars

Penny & Pip by Candace Fleming & Eric Rohmann (Illustrator) June 13, 2023

When Penny is visiting the natural history museum, she notices a dinosaur egg hatching. The little hatchling watches Penny and takes a shine to her. The baby follows her around the place and she feeds him part of her lunch. When it's time to go home, Penny hatches a plan so he won't be noticed when they leave.
I'm very sorry that I overlooked this book when my grandkids were visiting. The two youngest dinosaur mad girls would have loved it.

CHILDREN'S NON FICTION PICTURE BOOKS

5 stars

As Glenn as Can Be by Sarah Ellis & Nancy Vo (Illustrator) April 5, 2022  🍁

Glenn Gould is a Canadian treasure. What Sarah Ellis and Nancy Vo, (both Canadian treasures in their own right) show us in their book, is that he was a child prodigy. He was a quirky individual who liked animals better than people. He gave up public performing to focus on recording.
You can see him performing J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations in the video below.


5 stars

We Are Branches by Joyce Sidman & Beth Krommes (Illustrator) May 2, 2023

After reading this book, readers will become aware of the branching patterns in the world around them. It is beautifully written, and Beth Krommes artwork is just spectacular!
Each page is loaded with of details. I liked that many, if not all the animals and plants are labeled. The back matter has two pages of more information about branching. 


I love this series. I am in awe of how Janae Marks deals with difficult topics with such grace and honesty. Also, Bahni Turpin is the narrator. 
In the first book, Zoe managed to get Marcus, her birth father, who was in jail for a crime he didn't commit, released. In this one she is developing a relationship with him. When she learns that he wants to own his own restaurant someday, she wants to be part of it. They have to downgrade their plans to start out with a food truck, but getting funding is impossible because Marcus doesn't have a credit rating. They set up a go fund me project to try and raise the money. 
At the same time as this is going on, Zoe starts a blog to raise awareness about the hardships for exonerees.  She discovers that her two best friends 'like like' each other. Hannah, a girl who's mother is in prison for drug related offences, reaches out to Zoe and the two of them become friends. 
I appreciate how relationships are negotiated in these books. Zoe's parents and grandmother are supportive of Marcus and Zoe's relationship. They even have Sunday dinners together. I like how Zoe takes her time to think things through before she acts - especially with regards to the growing romantic relationship between her friends. 
As in the first book, there is cooking. I'm not sure I would make these red velvet whoopee pies, but I would certainly try them out!

ADULT/YA FICTION


One of the reasons I read historical fiction is to learn about events I would otherwise probably never be aware of. In Take My Hand, Dolen Perkins-Valdez writes about the illegal sterilization of black, indigenous, latino, and other poor people in the United States. 
Civil Townsend is fresh out of nursing school and dreams of making a positive difference in her community. She wants to help women make their own choices for their lives and bodies. It comes as a shock when she has to give birth control shots to two children, just eleven and thirteen. The youngest hasn't even started menstruating yet. She takes the children and their family into her heart and goes out of her way to make their lives better.
One day a couple of other nurses come to their home, take the children to the hospital, and have their tubes tied.
Civil becomes involved in a court case that ends up becoming bigger than the treatment of these children.
A big theme in this book is that people, even with the best of intentions, can end up causing harm.


I'm working my way through this series and still enjoying them. I'm gobsmacked by the machinations of the leaders at the fictional MI5 headquarters. As usual, the disgraced and discarded operatives at Slough House are left to deal with their mess. 

CURRENTLY

Take Back The Fight: Organizing Feminism for the Digital Age by Nora Loreto  🍁

Recursion by Blake Crouch

UP NEXT 

Mindy Makes Some Space by Nathan Fairbairn & MSASSYK (illustrator), 

I'm also going to continue to tackle a pile of picture books

READING GOALS 

#MustReadFiction 18/24 one in progress

#MustReadNonFiction 14/20 one in progress

Canadian Authors 43/75 

Indigenous Authors 20/20 

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 165 /200 
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#IMWAYR October 16th, 2023

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.

Our sons and grandkids visited for Canadian Thanksgiving last weekend. We all had a fabulous time. We got the feast over with on Saturday so they would be around to help eat the leftovers.We spent the rest of the weekend hiking around the country.


Halloween is drawing near and I've got a few books on my list today that fit the traditional kind of reading for this celebration. Yet, as I ponder other books on my list, as well as current events in the reality of the world today, I am reminded that there is really nothing scarier than real life.

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

FREE VERSE FRIDAY #10 October: Shadow

FREE VERSE FRIDAY #10 October: Shadow (Part 2)

CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOKS


In the third book of this series, Little Wolf has a dream that helps her address racism. She understands that when we hurt others because they are different, we end up hurting ourselves.

3 stars

Big by Vashti Harrison May 2, 2023

This book "traces a child's journey to self-love and shows the power of words to both hurt and heal."
I turned 70 this year and realized it was time to stop hating my body and just love and take care of it. I was never big like this girl, but I have friends who had to deal with the same kinds of crap the child in this book does. Hopefully having this book in the world will make a difference for children like them. 


I like this series from these two authors, but this book didn't do what I wanted it to. I was hoping for something that might help a six year understand more about saying sorry. Instead it's more about feeling sorry but not being able to say the words. It's still a great book that deals with what it's like when friends have an argument and how to make things better. 

I really wanted to love this, but it didn't work for me. The art work is spectacular though.

CHAPTER BOOKS


I loved this book from the very first page. It's spooky, has a formidable girl hero, and is about very different kind of people becoming best friends.
My mind was spinning with questions from the get go.
"One night,
in the middle of the night,
while everyone was asleep,
Otilla finally ran away."
As I read on, I was even more delighted. I couldn't wait to share it with my six year old grandkids.
I shared it with my granddaughter first. When we read that first page we wondered why she had to run away. Ada suggested that maybe she was running away from a residential school. (Kids know a lot these days.) A few times during our reading I had to tell her that everything would end up happily every after. After we finished it together, she picked it a number of times to read by herself. When her cousin finally arrived, he looked at the cover and was having nothing to do with the book. After a few days we convinced him to give it a try. Now he too wants his own copy of it.

4 stars

Charlie & Mouse Are Magic by Laurel Snyder & Emily Hughes (Illustrations)

My grandkids and I enjoyed this sixth book in the series as much as we like the earlier ones. It's like a peak into the lives of two ordinary boys and their parents. Charlie and Mouse are delightful brothers whose antics keep us smiling. In this one Mouse creates a magic potion. It might even work!

GRAPHIC NOVELS


This is a haunting graphic novel. The illustrations come from an animated short film of the same name. It's the story of a young woman discovering the darkness of Canada's colonial past at the same time as she learns about her family history and culture.
You can watch the film here.

I'm a Remy Lai fan so when I learned about this new book, I immediately ordered it from my library. 
July Chen is easily overlooked and forgotten. She can also see ghosts. During hungry ghost month her school holds a festival and her life gets really messy. She meets someone who she thinks is a ghost, but it turns out Will is someone who is in a coma in a hospital and his spirit is travelling. He's the first person to remember her and her name.
The story gets truly complicated as we learn more about how the two of them are connected and that July is the reason Will keeps having near fatal accidents. 
This book is perfect reading for this time of year. It has fascinating characters, well developed ghost mythology, is full of adventure. and the hungry ghosts are really creepy!

ADULT/YA NON FICTION

4 stars

The Perfect Predator: A Scientist's Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug by Steffanie Strathdee &Thomas Patterson  🍁

The Good Virus was my comprehensive introduction to the world of phages. As soon as I finished it I started this. 
I thought that the danger of antibiotic resistant bacteria (superbugs) was at least a decade in the future, but Steffanie Strathdee's memoir opened my eyes to the reality of it today. 
On a vacation in Egypt, her husband picked up Acinetobacter baumanniione, one of the most dangerous of these. As he deteriorated, and nothing seemed to help she came to realize that he was dying and that he was, “quickly becoming the poster child for the dystopian future of the post-antibiotic age.”
Her search for a cure to save his life took her into the world of phages. She sent out emails to phage scientists who might help her find the right phage to destroy the bacteria. A number of them stepped up to search for a cure. Even when they managed to identify some that would work, meeting the FDA standards for emergency treatment turned out to be a whole new challenge. 
Today the two scientists are working on research to turn phage therapy into a viable treatment for antibiotic resistant bacterial infection. 

5 stars

Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation by Andrew Stobo Sniderman, Douglas Sanderson & Greg Rogers (Narrator) August 30, 2022 🍁

I thought I had read a lot of Canadian history from an Indigenous perspective, but after reading this book, I realized I had barely scratched the surface. What makes this one unique is that the authors provide a detailed account of how systemic racism has worked and continues to work here in Canada with regards to Indigenous people. They highlight specific historical individuals and show exactly how their actions led to policies that kept Indigenous people living in poverty. At the same time as they paint this large picture, they show what this means for ordinary people. By following the lives of different families in two communities who live across the river from one another: Rossburn, a town settled by Ukrainians; and the Waywayseecappo Indian reserve; they provide intimate examples of what this looked like in real life.   

CURRENTLY

Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
On Air with Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
Real Tigers by Mick Herron

UP NEXT 

Take Back The Fight: Organizing Feminism for the Digital Age by Nora Loreto
Mindy Makes Some Space by Nathan Fairbairn & MSASSYK (illustrator), 

I'm also going to continue to tackle a pile of picture books

READING GOALS 

#MustReadFiction 18/24

#MustReadNonFiction 14/20

Canadian Authors 42/75 

Indigenous Authors 20/20 

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 159/200 
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FREE VERSE FRIDAY #10 October: Shadow (Part 2)

I've joined Beverly A Baird, Linda Schueler and 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.

You can find out more about this here.

I usually write a poem and send it off to my two favourite photographers to come up with an image to accompany it. I didn't have anything to send to them this month, and begged for help. My partner, Randy Rotheisler, sent me his so I wrote a poem for him first. I said that If Ron Peace sends me something, I'd write a poem for him too. He did. Here is his contribution and the poem I wrote for him. It was a struggle. 

by Ron Peace


Shadows

conceal
unknown
untold
mysteries

dystopian histories
strewn across 
the plains of time

only
the moldering bones 
of memory
remain

Maybe it's because I've been reading about the history of Indigenous people here in Canada, that this image reminded me of buffalo and their deliberate slaughter. 


In case you are interested, the above photograph can be purchased from the photographer. Let me know if you want their contact information.


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FREE VERSE FRIDAY #10 October: Shadow

I'm joining Beverly A Baird, Linda Schueler and 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.

You can find out more about this here.

This month has been busy. I usually write a poem and send it off to my two favourite photographers to come up with an image to accompany it. I didn't have anything to send to them and begged for help. My partner, Randy Rotheisler, sent me this. If Ron Peace sends me something, I'll write a poem for him too. 


Cathedral by Randy Rotheisler

Here is my response:

shadows
articulate,
refine 
lines,
transform 
what's ordinary
into the divine

In case you are interested, the above photograph can be purchased from the photographer. Let me know if you want their contact information.
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#IMWAYR October 2, 2023

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.

My husband's 70th birthday celebration a couple of weeks ago was a smashing success. 

I've just returned from a week away. I spent three days with three of my cousins celebrating all of us turning 70 this year. We had a fabulous time. 
I spent the rest of the time in Vancouver visiting with the grandkids and hanging out with friends. Alzheimers has it's grip on one of them. I stayed to be there for her 78th birthday before coming home. It is a godawful affliction.

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.

CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOKS

4 stars

100 Snowmen by Jen Arena, Stephen Gilpin (Illustrator) November 12, 2013

I really enjoyed this book. I wish it had been available when I was teaching my elementary aged students about mathematical patterns and relationships. It took me a reread to actually identify what the pattern is, although it is laid out on the last page. (Apparently, I'm not as sharp as I used to be.) Even if kids aren't quite ready for that level of mathematics, they are sure to be entertained by the illustrations. Not only are these snowmen full of humor and sweetness, there is an almost Where's Waldo component to some pages.
What I didn't like about this book is that they are all snow men.

This continues the story of Little Wolf, an Indigenous girl learning to live in a city. In this book we meet her mother, White Raven, and learn about her experiences at residential school. This is an ideal book to read to students as we acknowledge the importance of Truth and Reconciliation. The book is somewhat text heavy, which makes it appropriate for upper elementary readers on their own. I really like Natassia Davies illustrations.

MIDDLE GRADE NOVELS

4 stars

From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks January 14, 2020

I'm late to the Zoe Washington party, but I won't be leaving anytime soon. (The second in this series was published in February of 2023.)
When she gets a letter from Marcus, her incarcerated father, she doesn't tell her mother about it. With her Grandmother's help, Zoe starts up a correspondence with him.
He asserts he is innocent of the murder he was charged with, and tells her of his alibi. Zoe and her next door neighbour end up in trouble with their parents when they set off to find her.
This book is rich with authentic characters dealing with serious issues. It's also got a lot of cooking!
I'm really looking forward to the next in the series!

4.5 stars

The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead, Wendy Mass, Christopher Gebauer (Narrator) & Jennifer Blom (Narrator) August 29, 2023

Even though I figured out a number of plot details before they were revealed, I kind of adored this book. It's told from three perspectives: Evan, a boy who is growing up in the same town as his father grew up in; AL who was a librarian assistant in the library that burned down mysteriously 20 years previously; and Mortimer, an aging cat. When AL sets up a free library, Mortimer stands watch over it. Then Evan finds books checked out by his father and a mysterious character calling himself H.G. Higgens. Evan soon figures out that his father was an intern at the library and was suspected of starting the fire and is determined to find out who really started it. 

ADULT/YA FICTION


This was a book club suggestion. It was a delightful surprise! I devoured it and started the second immediately afterwards.
It's about a group of spies who have been kicked out of the main MI5 building into a ramshackle building (Slough House) where their future is never ending desk duty. Each of them has screwed up in some way. In spite of this, they have their own particular brilliance. It's especially true of Jackson Lamb, the head of their cohort. In the end, it's the Slow Horses who rescue a kidnapped Pakistani teen who has been kidnapped by white right wing radicals. 
This spy novel is populated with authentic characters and riveting plots. It is as convoluted and full of machinations as any of the John Le Carré novels I have read and loved. It is also screamingly hilarious. 


By the end of the second book in this series I figured out that at least one of the characters in each book was going to die. I was correct. It did not stop me from enjoying it at all. When a former spy dies under suspicious circumstances, but the pros at Regent Park (MI5 headquarters) overlook this, Jackson Lamb sets out sleuthing. It turns out to be connected to another project that two members of his team have been seconded to work on. 
I'm waiting for the next one to become available. Don't you love it when you discover a series that has been around for a while and you don't have to wait for what seems like forever for the next book?

This sequel to Jemisin's The City We Became, is a brilliant as the first. I really appreciated getting to know the original characters better and am still fascinated by the avatars of the other cities we are introduced to here.
I will read whatever N.K. Jemisin writes!

ADULT/YA NON FICTION


This book is brilliantly written. Not only does Siddhartha Mukherjee make complicated topics easy to comprehend, he is a remarkable story teller. I was fascinated from start to finish and didn't want the book to end.
Aside from all the details about cellular biology, I also appreciated his references to Indian mythology and how they were integrated into the science.

5 stars

The Good Virus: The Amazing Story and Forgotten Promise of the Phage by Tom Ireland & Ben Deery (Narrator) July 19, 2023

I have ordered this and the previous nonfiction book above, so that I have my own copies of them. 
Have you ever heard of phages? I think I had, but wow, by the time I finished this I felt like I'd entered into a new and parallel world. Tom Ireland begins by introducing readers to the original discovery of the world of phages and how they were first used. He integrates their success and failure in social and political contexts. I really appreciated how he painstakingly takes us across time to finally show us what is going on today in the realm of phage research and medical use. 
I've recommended this to be our bookclub read for next month. I hope they enjoy it as much as I did. I would start it all over again except that I've downloaded The Perfect Predator: A Scientist's Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug, another book about phages.

CURRENTLY

Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation by Andrew Stobo Sniderman, Douglas Sanderson & Greg Rogers (Narrator) August 30, 2022

Four Faces of the Moon by Amanda Strong June 8, 2021

UP NEXT 

The Perfect Predator: A Scientist's Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug by Steffanie Strathdee & Thomas Patterson

I'm also going to tackle a pile of picture books

READING GOALS 

#MustReadFiction 16/24 one in progress

#MustReadNonFiction 14/20

Canadian Authors 35/75 

Indigenous Authors 17/20 

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 148/200 
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