#IMWAYR March 17, 2025

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. I'm also connecting up with the Sunday Salon. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.


Hurrah Hurrah! Spring break is here. I have plans for getting a lot accomplished in the next couple of weeks. Tomorrow, right after reading and responding to blog posts, I plan to get my tomato seeds potted! I've already got the dirt and the pots are clean. I also plan to clean out the garden and cut back the raspberry canes. In addition to that I hope to get caught up on my reading with my eyes and finishing up a couple of sewing/quilting projects I've started. I can't help but wonder how successful I will be. Probably not very.

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

This gorgeous picture book takes readers back in time to Tokyo in the early 1970's. The lyrical prose shows us demae (deliverymen) on bikes carrying towering trays of ceramic bowls filled with soba noodles to different places around the city. 

4 stars

My Sister, Daisy by Adria Karlsson & Linus Curci (Illustrator) September 1, 2021

This book is written from the perspective of a loving older brother.  When his younger brother informs the family she is a girl, he does his best to accept this change in their family. In spite of the many positive things that happen, he still experiences jealousy and anger at the special treatment she receives. 
I suspect this kind of reaction is probably common in any family with a child who, for whatever reason, requires extra parental attention. 
In the author's note in the back matter she explains that this book was written for her older child who went through this experience without the support of a book like this. 

"This beautifully illustrated graphic novel is an exploration of grief, love, and finding magic in the wilderness – and in ourselves."
Poppy and her mother are grieving the loss of grandmother and mother. While her mother remains almost immobilized by grief, Poppy is forced to leave the house to take their dog, Pepper, for walks. On one of these outings, Pepper drags her through a hole in a fence into a forest. In the forest she makes a new friend who helps her discover the healing power of wild spaces. It takes a while, but eventually she persuades her mother to join her. 
I especially appreciate that Poppy starts out completely glued to her phone, but eventually doesn't even bother to bring it with her. (I confess that I bring mine with me on hikes, but only to take photos and identify plants.)
The black and white illustrations in this book are jawdroppingly gorgeous. 
It was my mother who introduced me to the beauty and magical power of wilderness. I wish she was still here so I could share this book with her. 

Kiela and her assistant, Caz, a sentient talking spider plant, are forced to flee the Great Library of Alyssium when revolutionary forces set the building on fire. After escaping with a few crate loads of precious spellbooks, they end up on a remote island where Kiela was born and raised.
In the world of this novel, magic has been hoarded by the elite and the rest of the inhabitants suffer. When she settles into her family home, Kiela discovers this means crop failures, record breaking storms, and a decline in magical species.
With the help of a good looking neighbour and a few spells purloined from the books, she sets up a Jam and Remedy shop. Her new life is suddenly endangered when the person rescued during the last storm claims to be a government inspector searching for illegal magic.
I'm not really a huge romance fan, but this book had enough other stuff going on to delight me.


This book is a cross between hard boiled detective novel and noir thriller. I added it to my reading list because Sam Wiebe is a Canadian author, and his protagonist, Dave Wakeland, is a twenty nine year old former cop turned PI who lives and works in Vancouver BC. It's an intimate reading experience when my home, or even a place I know well, is the setting for the novel I'm into. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. 
In this debut novel, Wakeland takes on the eleven year old case of a missing woman, Chelsea Loam. Chelsea's dying mother wants to know what happened to her adopted daughter.
Here in Canada the issue of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls is a huge problem. This book is a fictional exploration into the life of one of them. 
Fans of Dashiell Hammett and Ross MacDonald will enjoy it. 
Even though I'm much more of a cosy mystery fan, I liked this so much that I immediately downloaded the next in the series. 

CURRENTLY 

Dancing Cockatoos and the Dead Man Test: How Behavior Evolves and Why It Matters by Marlene Zuk August 9, 2022

The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism by Jen Gunter  May 25, 2021 🍁

UP NEXT (MAYBE)

Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew 🍁

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino

2025 READING GOALS

#MustRead2025 10/25

NonFiction 11/30 two on the go

Poetry 1/12 

Canadian Authors 21/50 one on the go

Indigenous Authors 6/25

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 43/200

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#IMWAYR March 10, 2025

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. I'm also connecting up with the Sunday Salon. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.


Some day I will write reviews of books as soon as I finish reading them, or at the very least, make notes, but the truth is, I don't. If I had done this the week before last, the unexpected visit from my grandkids wouldn't have interfered with getting in a blog post. I didn't though, and so when I had to choose between writing or spending time with my darling ones, it was a no brainer. 

We probably read more picture books than the one's I'm sharing here, but I can't remember them if we did.

After they left to go home I finished this little wall hanging/placemat for the youngest one who is mad about capybaras these days. The pattern is designed by Kimberley Arnold. The background is more blue green than it appears here.


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

PREVIOUS BLOG POST

PICTURE BOOKS

5 stars

Knight Owl and Early Bird by Christopher Denise (October 15, 2024)

Early Bird might not be able to guard the castle during the night, but that doesn't mean, they don't have many other talents.
This book is a celebration of individual differences and strengths. At the same time, in the end, it's also about the power of many. 
Be warned that this tale can get pretty scary. My seven year old granddaughter was terrified, even though I reminded her it would have a happy ending. 

This is an alphabet book showing creatures that are a combination of two different animals.  The illustrations are delightfully imaginative. It is, ultimately, a book that highlights and celebrates mixed race identity. The author is of European and Japanese descent. 

3.5 stars

Nori and His Delicious Dreams by Jeff Chiba Stearns March 1, 2020 🍁

Nori goes to bed each night dreaming of sleeping with food. What I liked most about this book is that it takes the reader on a multicultural culinary journey. A double page spread in the back of the book explains where all the dishes come from.

My grandkids brought these Jeff Chiba Stearns books with them last weekend. They were excited to share them with me. It's a testimony to the power of having author visits. Ada, the eldest of the girls, arranged to have these two signed for her younger sister. 

Jeff Chiba Stearns is an animator as well as an author. I hope you make time for, and enjoy his animated memoir here. 

   


Elise Gravel is a Canadian treasure. She writes fabulous books, both fiction and nonfiction, for the younger crowd. This is one of them. In here, her charming little little monsters explain quite brilliantly the basics of how our brains work. 


This is a book that would work well as an introduction to a more in depth conversation about gender expectations, stereotypes, and social justice. 

This book won the Andre Norton Award in 2011.
Amid a climate of suspicion and prejudice, Tiffany, now fifteen, is fully immersed in her role as witch of the chalk. It turns out that the Cunning Man, a demonic spirit, is spreading hatred of witches in general, and is coming for Tiffany in particular. Even when she identifies who is responsible, and learns how it all began, it doesn't stop the monster. In the end, Tiffany, like many witches before her, has to figure out how to deal with him herself.
I loved that Eskarina Smith, the witch/wizard from Equal Rites, shows up to offer her guidance.
I appreciate that Pratchett shows us how rumour, hatred, racism and bigotry work in our world. While I value the importance of an individual speaking up, I wish that he had shown a group of individuals working together to overcome this evil, instead of the trope of the lone heroine saving the day. Tiffany might have had only one Cunning Man to deal with, but there are many Cunning Men stoking hatred and division among us today. It is going to take a massive amount of collective effort to defeat it.


Listening to this felt like immersing myself in a dream. It has a mythic quality. The characters are like fleshed out archetypes living a world of magical realism.  
It's a book about relationships, connections and love. It begins with the ill fated romance and marriage of teens, Kismet Poe and Gary Geist, and Kismet's relationship with the brilliant Hugo. We see what love looks like over time through both their parent's partnerships. Because it is also about connections, it's less about romantic love than it is about mother and daughter love, love for family, love for community and love for the land. I suppose it might sound strange given that it seems to focus on the ill fated marriage, yet the marriage feels like a kind of catalyst. It's through that union that we come to understand and connect with the other characters and their motivations. 
It's also a book about tragedy and trauma and how all these people cope with it. 

YA NON FICTION


Like Medicine Wheel for the Planet by Jennifer Grenz, a book I talked about a few weeks ago, this book is all about forging a new kind of relationship with the natural world.
Our world needs this kind of perspective now more than ever. 

CURRENTLY 

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst July 9, 2024

Dancing Cockatoos and the Dead Man Test: How Behavior Evolves and Why It Matters by Marlene Zuk August 9, 2022

UP NEXT (MAYBE)

Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew 🍁

2025 READING GOALS

#MustRead2025 9/25

NonFiction 11/30 

Poetry 1/12 

Canadian Authors 19/50

Indigenous Authors 6/25

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 38/200


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First Friday Poetry March 2025

 I'm joining Beverly A Baird & Linda Schueler again in a year long poetry practice. On the first Friday of each Month we, and anyone else who joins, writes a poem and shares it. This year the focus is going to be on using poems to inspire us.

From Linda: "This Friday for our First Friday Poetry challenge, we are going to be doing a cento (also called a collage poem). What’s a cento? A cento is a poem that is made up from the lines of other people’s poems. You can choose to borrow lines from one poet or many poets. You can even choose to use lines that do not come from poems. Here’s an example from Ronna Bloom. Make sure that you credit all the people whose poems you are taking lines from."

This was much harder than I expected it to be! I collected fragments of poetry and quotes from books all month long. In the end, I printed these out, cut them into strips and started playing around with them. 


Here is what I finally ended up with.


Never get over making everything such a big deal.

The heart is a continuously open wound.

People who simply want to love are instead forced to become warriors.

I do the little each person can do. 

It isn’t much.

A poem cannot stop a bullet. a novel can't defuse a bomb. but we are not helpless. we can sing the truth and name the liars.


In a pattern called a war,

Sunlight carries blessing


Wait awhile for love to come out of the darkness.

It's vast and endless and full of unbreakable hope.

Like the setting sun,

love comes quietly.

It’s subtle, takes practice.  

It is unspeakable.

It is everlasting.

It is for keeps.


Make a list of ten things you love and celebrate them.

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy

give into it.

Dear, these are the things that count.




Here is where each line comes from:

The Last Thing by Ada Limon
Host by Chibueze Crouch-Anyarogbu
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
At the River Clarion by Mary Oliver
Salman Rushdie from speech at at the PEN World Voices Festival.
Patterns by Amy Lowell
Expectancy by William Moore
Rebel Seoul by Axie Oh
Everyone Sang by Siegried Sassoon
Love Comes Quietly by Robert Creely
Ways to Measure Trees by MaKshya Tolbert
For Keeps by Joy Harjo
2010 Interview with Ray Bradbury in The Paris Review
Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver
The Things That Count by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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#IMWAYR February 24, 2015

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. I'm also connecting up with the Sunday Salon. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.


February has been a challenging month! I haven't been able to get much reading done. I've read a lot of news and magazine articles, but not many books. I did manage to finish up my Valentines day fridge magnets, but the grandkids told me they liked the brownies more. 

 
My Aunty Joan finally passed away so the house was full of people for a while. Isn't it fascinating to learn about early life of someone you only new as an over worked wife and mother? I had no idea that in her teen years she took flying lessons to become a pilot!

Then we headed off to Vancouver where we had tickets to see Ronnie Burkett's Wonderful Joe show. We visited with family and friends and tried to do more in six days than we would have done in a month when we were living there.

Adding to all that, the political upheaval has left me feeling worried and anxious. The following cartoon from the New Yorker describes my feelings completely.


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

PREVIOUS BLOG POST
BEGINNING CHAPTER BOOKS

4 stars

The Weird Sisters: A Note, a Goat, and a Casserole by Mark David Smith & Kari Rust (Illustrator) April 15, 2022  🍁

When three witch sisters move to the town of Covenly, not everyone is happy. They open up a pet store, and their first customer is Jessica Nibley, who is missing her pet goat. Together they head off in search of the goat, and whoever is sending nasty messages to the new citizens. Thankfully it all turns out alright in the end.
I really appreciated the humour and Kari Rust's fun illustrations. I'm looking forward to reading more of this series and sharing it with my grandkids.
 
YA GRAPHIC


This is the third book in the Surviving the City series. The teens are forced to address the discovery of children's bodies buried on the grounds of residential schools. 
In the end they conclude that together they can help each other and their people heal from the injustices of the past, as well as those in the present. 
Natasha Donovan's art work is just gorgeous. 

YA/ADULT FICTION


In this third book in the Tiffany Aching series, her new mentor, Miss Treason, takes her to a dark Morris dance - a ceremony where Summer passes the world over to Winter. Unable to stop herself, she joins the dancers and the Wintersmith becomes smitten with her. Because of this, she unwittingly disrupts the passage of the seasons and begins to take on some the characteristics of Summer with greenery sprouting from her feet.
Under the direction of Nanny Ogg the Nac Mac Feegles enlist Roland, Tiffany's childhood friend, to be a hero. Once they've taught him how to use a sword, they descend into the underworld to waken and return the real Lady Summer to the world.
There's another subplot where Miss Treason dies and an incompetent witch, Annagramma, is appointed to take over for her. Tiffany and the other young witches figure out a way to help her.
This time round I was more fascinated by Tiffany's relationship with the Wintersmith, who in his effort to woo her, tries his best to become human. At the same time as he terrifies her, she is also flattered that a god is interested in her. In the end, just in time, she figures out how to stop him. It's all part of how Pratchett messes around with Story and in the process, shows us how we too are capable of disrupting them. 


I listened to this, but think it might have been better to have read it with my eyes. Perhaps it's just that I listened to it in bits and pieces and lost track of the individual stories of these remarkable teens who worked at Bletchley Park.
On a positive note, listening to this against the backdrop of current events I was reminded of the brilliance, bravery, and strength of youth and ordinary people in times of war, conflict, and disaster. It inspired me with hope for the future.


This was a book club book. It's a complicated story about being a Yemeni immigrant in Israel. There are two distinct story lines. One tells the story of a young man and woman, Saida, living in a refuge camp in the 1950's. Although the two fall in love, she is already married. The other story line, set in the 1990's focuses on Zohara, one of the woman's daughters. When her mother dies, she returns  for the funeral. While cleaning up the family home, she learns about her mother's life ends up discovering secrets about her past. In the process, she embraces what it means to be Yemeni. 
There are a lot of characters in this book and at times I got confused. I appreciated learning about what it means to be a minority Jew inside Israeli culture. 


Once a year I spend time with women friends in a cabin on the ocean in what is the traditional territory of the Stz’uminus people. On the edges of the Gary Oak forest are the remains of camas plots originally developed by them. In a small bay just north of the cabin are the remains of oyster and clam beds established by these same people. Learning about this place began to change the way I understood what it meant to live in a hunter gatherer society. 
Jennifer Grenz's book helped me grasp this more fully. It is a book meant to change the way we look at and understand the 'natural' world. She shows us that trying to heal ecosystems in North America, and maybe even the world, without knowing how the Indigenous populations lived on the land, will inevitably fail. Part of this is about realizing that these peoples had an active responsibility for shaping and caring for where they lived, but more than this, it's about how they lived and continue to live, in relationship with their land. 

CURRENTLY 

The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich

UP NEXT (MAYBE)

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer November 19, 2024

2025 READING GOALS

#MustRead2025 9/25

NonFiction 8/30 

Poetry 1/12 

Canadian Authors 15/50

Indigenous Authors 4/25

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 29/200

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First Friday Poetry February 2025

I'm joining Beverly A Baird & Linda Schueler again in a year long poetry practice. On the first Friday of each Month we, and anyone else who joins, writes a poem and shares it. This year the focus is going to be on using poems to inspire us.

This month we are going to be "basing our poem (“How to be…”) on this post from Margaret Simon, who was inspired by Sheri Vasinda, who was inspired by Barry Lane. Often this is very true in life: you are inspired by someone who is inspired by someone else and so on."
This month we chose an animal, researched it, and then had to come up with someway to write a poem about it that was more than a list of facts.

Many years ago Nancy, one of my favourite students, did a research project on earwigs. I've never looked at them the same since. Did you know that earwigs are one of the few non-eusocial insects who nurture their eggs and young until they are prepared to head off on their own? If you find a clutch of them somewhere in your garden, they are most likely all from the same clutch. There may well be older siblings helping their mother look after the younger ones. My fascination with the social lives of these creatures, especially their maternal behaviour, prompted me me to focus on this aspect of their lives in my poem this month. 




how to be an earwig

welcome to the world little one
you might never meet your father,
but don’t fret
your tender hearted mother
has fashioned a cosy home
for you and your eggmates

she will take good care of you,
keeping you clean, safe and warm
until you hatch

satisfying you and your sibling nymphs
won't be easy, but your mama
will ensure you are well nourished

then, after your first moult,
she will open the nest door
and free you 
under her guidance and protection of course,
to forage on your own

be careful you don’t get lost
and come home when she calls

your loving mama will
keep her eyes on you
through all your instars,
even unto when 
you have acquired
your own wings and cerci
and set off into the wild world
in search of your own mate
and your own home.

If I have piqued your interest in earwigs, here is a fascinating article about the European Earwig, the kind we have around here where I live. 


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#IMWAYR February 3, 2025

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. I'm also connecting up with the Sunday Salon. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.


It's been a strange week. Last weekend we had a houseful of people because it looked like my 94 year old aunt was about to shuffle off this mortal coil. She was taken off all her regular medication and given hydromorphone. Our tough old Auntie surprised everyone by rallying! We wait and wonder what will happen next. 

Speaking of waiting and wondering what will happen next, continental politics are also pretty strange these days. Here in Canada, partisan politics had started to divide us, but with the recent election in the USA and subsequent threats, including tariffs that will hurt ordinary people on both sides of the border, we are coming together across provincial and partisan boundaries. I like to think we are also coming together across international borders too. Times are going to be hard for all of us, but I have hope that love and activism in its many formats will get us through this.   

In the last couple of days I've been working on some Valentine's day hearts for my family. I have plans for them to become fridge magnets. Since I took this picture I've created a few more and been attempting to embellish them using gold thread on my sewing machine. It hasn't been as successful as I would like, but I'm sure I'll end up with a few that I can live with.


 
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


This Is a Tiny Fragile Snake by Nicholas Ruddock & Ashley Barron (Illustrator) 🍁

In fifteen illustrated poems, tenderness is shown for different kinds of animals. It is all about letting animals we live in proximity with, just be. I get it. 
When our neighbours discovered a six foot long bull snake curled up in their garden, they waited a few days for it to leave on its own, but it seemed to be content to remain in their rock garden. I said I would take it off their hands and put it in mine where it would keep pests under control, but then I learned that if it was a female, she would make a nest and lay up to twenty eggs, I wasn't sure if I wanted that many baby snakes roaming around in our 1/4 acre plot of land. In the end, the snake was moved to a better home in the wild. 
 So, while I understand most of this, I am not so sure about letting those squirrels proliferate. I know a number of people who have had to come up with a lot of money to repair the damage squirrels have caused in their homes. 
Still, I enjoyed the poems and delighted in reading them out loud to myself. Ashley Barron's cut paper collage illustrations are drop dead gorgeous!  

Inside Cat by Brendan Wenzel October 12, 2021

This begins as a fun rhyming picture book showing an inside cat and its world. It lives in a place with lots of windows and that's all it knows about outside. Then we start to see how the cat imagines what's in the spaces between the windows. 
I ended up reading this twice. By the time I got to the last page the first time round, I had to go back and focus on the illustrations. It turns out this is a profound book about perspective, assumption, and lack of background knowledge. 

MG/YA GRAPHIC


The Ribbon Skirt: A Graphic Novel by Cameron Mukwa November 12, 2024

This is the story of Anang, a young Anishinaabe two spirit preteen. At the same time as they want to own and wear their own ribbon skirt, they worry about what other people will think and say. With some friends, and help from the spirit world, they manage to collect the materials needed for a skirt. 
I appreciated the use of Ojibwe in the text with English subtitles at the bottom of the pages. I also like the additional information in the back matter of this book. It includes a glossary, a history of the ribbon skirt and of powwows, and an explanation of what it means to be two spirit. Also included is a recipe for Manoomin, (wild rice and berry salad) and a bibliography if readers want to learn more about the ideas in this graphic novel. 
My only problem with this book was the finding of enough thread in the wild to sew a skirt. I know it's a gift from the spirit world, but coming from my experience as a fabric artist, sewing with that tangled up mess just didn't make sense to me. 
It was interesting to be reading this at the same time as my nonfiction title, Wînipêk, (see below), where Niigaan Sinclair tells us that two spirit people existed traditionally in Indigenous culture, but that it was colonialism and residential schools that changed this. 

MG/YA FICTION


The Wild Robot Protects by Peter Brown & Kathleen Mclnerney (Narrator) September 26, 2023

Roz and her animal friends are living their best lives on their remote island. Brightbill and his new mate, Glimmerwing, are setting up their own nest and laying eggs. Then they get news that a deadly poison is sweeping through the ocean killing everything in its path. When it reaches Roz' home, she tries to help her animal friends remain calm, but as resources dwindle, eventually their small community begins to fall apart. 
Then Roz discovers that she is water proof and further testing shows she is also poison proof. She decides to head off into the world to find and stop whatever is causing the toxin. The creatures she meet along the way help her find the Ancient Shark, who tells her it is coming from a huge mining station situated in the ocean. He wants a war to stop the mining, but Roz convinces him to first give her a chance to settle the problem peacefully. 
What struck me most about this book was the environmental degradation Roz encounters on her journey. It's a story showing the future reality of climate change as well as humankind's propensity to ignore the consequences of our industrial activity. 
I admit to connecting deeply to Roz' instant, deep attachment to her grandgoslings. 


Hidden Truths by Elly Swartz, Jeff Ebner (Narrator) & Emily Eiden (Narrator) October 31, 2023

Dani and Eric have been best friends since they were in second grade. Then when they are on an end of summer camping trip, their camper catches on fire with Dani still in it. While Eric risks his own life to save her, Dani is still badly injured. Prior to the accident, Dani had just made it onto an all boys baseball team as their pitcher. Her injuries make this now impossible.
Eric fears that he might have forgotten to turn off the gas in the camper and be responsible for the accident. In the hospital Dani becomes friends with Meadow, one of the popular girls at school. When Eric shares his worries with Dani, Meadow uses it to drive a wedge between the two friends.
Even when Eric is exonerated and the blame is shown to be a faulty battery in a remote controlled vehicle, it looks like their friendship can't be mended, and Meadow manages to further divide them. 
It seemed obvious to me that Eric, who had a tendency to forget things, probably had ADHD. I liked that this didn't distract him from accomplishing important things, and in the end, was acknowledged as also a source of strength for him. I liked the strong supportive parents. I appreciated that Elly Swartz gives us enough glimpses into the life of Eric's bully, to enable us to see him as a more dimensional character. 


A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall by Jasmine Warga, Matt Rockefeller (Illustrator) & Michael Crouch (Narrator) September 10, 2024

A painting has gone missing from the art gallery where Rami Ahmed's mother works as a cleaner. Even though both of them are considered suspects, for a while he is still permitted to hang out when she works. When Rami sees a floating girl roaming the halls, he realizes she is the person in the missing artwork.
Rami and new his friend, Veda, who can also see the girl, decide to solve the mystery of the missing painting. It involves breaking a lot of family rules and trusting an artistic turtle before they get to the bottom of the crime.
There is a lot in this book about being abandoned by long time friends and what it feels like to lose one's sense of belonging. It's also about building new relationships and finding yourself and your voice.
 

A Hat Full of Sky (Tiffany Aching, #2) by Terry Pratchett & Stephan Briggs (Narrator)  April 29, 2004
 
One of my goals for this year is to reread all of Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series. An important aspect of Tiffany's personality is her ability to see beyond her first impressions by engaging in different levels of thought. It's this profound level of critical thinking that characterizes a witch. It's also something we need more of in our world. 
Three years after The Wee Free Men, Tiffany sets off to be an apprentice to the older witch, Miss Level. In this coming of age tale she starts to come to grips with who she will become. She struggles to fit in with the coven of younger witches led by the bullying leadership of Annagramma Hawkin, and ends up being laughed at.
Tiffany had already learned the trick of stepping outside of her own body to see herself. While doing this, she attracted the attention of a Hiver, a being with no body, who takes over the mind of powerful people. It manages to take control of her body and abuses her power. With the help of the Nac Mac Feegles and Miss Level, they manage to drive the Hiver off.
Afterwards the most powerful witch, Granny Weatherwax, helps her sort herself out but both know that it's not enough. Tiffany realizes that she has to deal with the Hiver on her own. In the end, using compassion and understanding, she is able to help it get what it needs.
This is a book about finding out who you are. It's about taking responsibility for yourself and your actions. It's also about finding fulfillment through helping others.
The Nac Mac Feegles are important characters in these books. These blue, tattooed, six inch tall, red haired men (pictsies) are a kind of fairy men who consider Tiffany their wee big hag. When they are not looking out for Tiffany, and sometimes even when they are, they spend their time drinking, fighting and stealing. 
Terry Pratchett's fantasy novels are full of comic satire. They are also loaded with advice on how to live a rich and meaningful life. 
"Learnin' how not to do things is as hard as learning how to do them. Harder maybe."

ADULT NON FICTION

Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre by Niigaan Sinclair (Author & Narrator) May 28, 2024 🍁

Niigaan Sinclair is is an Anishinaabe writer, editor, and activist based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is the son of the late and former Canadian Senator Murray Sinclair and and Jeanette Warren.
"In his debut collection of stories, observations, and thoughts about Winnipeg, the place he calls "ground zero" of Canada's future, read about the complex history and contributions of this place alongside the radical solutions to injustice and violence found here, presenting solutions for a country that has forgotten principles of treaty and inclusivity."
This collection of essays will stay with me for a while. Even though I've read a lot of Canadian history with regards to our Indigenous peoples, I still learned more. The essay titled Landfill, is especially poignant as he compares the 'cost and feasibility' of searching the landfill for two murdered Indigenous women to the price of searching for the Titan, an uncertified transport vehicle with white millionaire tourists. "What’s been made evident by this incident though is that some lives are clearly more valuable than others."
On a positive note, since the election of Manitoba's Indigenous premier, Wab Kinew,  the Manitoba government is now searching the Prairie Green Landfill for the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, two victims of a convicted serial killer. 

CURRENTLY 

Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett September 21, 2006

How It All Ends by Emma Hunsinger & Tillie Walden August 6, 2024

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond & Dion Graham (narrator) March 1, 2016

UP NEXT (MAYBE)

Songs for the Brokenhearted by Ayelet Tsabari September 10, 2024

We Are the Medicine (Surviving the City) by Tasha Spillett & Natasha Donovan (illustrator) August 20, 2024 🍁

2025 READING GOALS

#MustRead2025 8/25

NonFiction 6/30 

Poetry 1/12 

Canadian Authors 12/50

Indigenous Authors 2/25

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 23/200

In January I read 20 different titles. These included: 
5 picture books 
5 graphic novels 
6 1/2 nonfiction titles
8 novels
7 audiobooks

The numbers don't jive because there are crossovers in some of the books. The 1/2 is for a novel that included an integrated nonfiction graphic novel written by the fictional character. 
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