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.
Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator.
Julie and the Mango Tree by Sade Smith & Sayada Ramdial (Illustrations) August 8, 2023 🍁
Julie really wants her mango tree to drop one mango for her. She waits patiently, cajoles the tree, and even tries trading four plums for one mango. Alas, she ends up going to bed empty handed. When a storm blows an over abundance of mangos into her yard, she has to come up with a plan for what to do with them.
I loved so much about this book. I loved the generosity, Julie's patience, and her attachment to her tree.
This book made me wish I wish I had a mango tree in my back yard. After looking at the recipes in the back matter, I might have to add mangos to my shopping list.
Dear Polar Bears by Gabrielle S. Prendergast & Marcus Cutler (Illustrator) February 14, 2023 🍁
What happens when some penguins from the Antarctic invite some polar bears from the arctic to come for a visit?
Will they accept? How will they get there? How well will these two different species get along?
Some lines I liked. "The party will be during the day so it could go on for weeks."
It looks like there are some tense moments when the bears first arrive, but luckily, the cache of fish seems to tame them down.
There are two pages of nonfiction text related to the animals, their environments, and the seasons.
Marcus Cutler's artwork is beautiful.
CHILDREN'S NONFICTION PICTURE BOOKS
Kimiko Murakami: A Japanese-Canadian Pioneer by Haley Healey & Kimiko Fraser (Illustrator) May 9, 2023 🍁
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume & Laura Hamilton (Narrator) January 1, 1970
Reading another Thursday Murder Club mystery is like visiting with old friends and meeting new ones. Learning that they are involved in a new murder mystery - this time, one of a friend of a friend, is just par for the course. It's remarkably comforting to listen to their wild adventures because you know they will all come out ok in the end.
Richard Osman's character's are completely authentic. Just like in real life, every visit with them reveals more about their personalities. I can't help but adore them.
This novel was more poignant for me than the earlier ones. Watching a close friend deteriorate from the curse of Alzheimer's has made me more sympathetic to the plight of Elizabeth and her husband, Stephen. I ended up weeping for them, for my friend, and for myself.
I enjoyed listening to the interview between Richard Osman and Fiona Shaw at the end of the audiobook.
This novella is set in the space between Herron's second and third novel in his Slough House series.
John Bachelor, minder of aging spies, finds himself in trouble when one of his aging assets, Dieter Hess, dies and is found to have had a secret bank account. Bachelor soon discovers that Dieter Hess had a secret list of his own assets.
It was a delight to be entertained by Diana Taverner up to her usual nasty shenanigans. When she and Dieter come up with a plan to turn one of those assets, you know it's all going to go terrible wrong.
I'm always happy to see Jackson Lamb in action again and it was interesting to learn more about JK Coe's back story.
Now I can't wait to read Nobody Walks.
Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.
PREVIOUS POSTS
CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOKS
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| 5 stars |
Julie and the Mango Tree by Sade Smith & Sayada Ramdial (Illustrations) August 8, 2023 🍁
Julie really wants her mango tree to drop one mango for her. She waits patiently, cajoles the tree, and even tries trading four plums for one mango. Alas, she ends up going to bed empty handed. When a storm blows an over abundance of mangos into her yard, she has to come up with a plan for what to do with them.
I loved so much about this book. I loved the generosity, Julie's patience, and her attachment to her tree.
This book made me wish I wish I had a mango tree in my back yard. After looking at the recipes in the back matter, I might have to add mangos to my shopping list.
 |
| 4 stars |
Dear Polar Bears by Gabrielle S. Prendergast & Marcus Cutler (Illustrator) February 14, 2023 🍁
What happens when some penguins from the Antarctic invite some polar bears from the arctic to come for a visit?
Will they accept? How will they get there? How well will these two different species get along?
Some lines I liked. "The party will be during the day so it could go on for weeks."
It looks like there are some tense moments when the bears first arrive, but luckily, the cache of fish seems to tame them down.
There are two pages of nonfiction text related to the animals, their environments, and the seasons.
Marcus Cutler's artwork is beautiful.
 |
| 4 stars |
Kimiko Murakami: A Japanese-Canadian Pioneer by Haley Healey & Kimiko Fraser (Illustrator) May 9, 2023 🍁
This picture book biography is created by the same people who wrote Her Courage Rises: 50 Trailblazing Women of British Columbia and Yukon, a book I wrote about last week.
Kimiko Murakami deserves her own book. She was born in Steveston and was five when her family moved to Salt Spring Island just off the coast of British Columbia. They ran a successful farm and were integrated into their community. Kimiko grew up, got married and started a family. Then WW2 was declared, Canada passed the the Canadian War Measures Act, and the internment Japanese Canadians began. Kimiko and her family were taken from their home to live under untenable conditions. Even when the war was finally over they were not allowed to return home. Still, Kimiko was a strong woman who never gave up. She and her husband worked hard to save up enough money to return to Salt Spring Island. When they arrived they discovered that their farm had been sold without their permission. They purchased another and started to build a new life all over again.
I appreciate that this story highlights the life of one person at the same time as it educates readers about the circumstances for Japanese Canadians at this time.
I appreciate that this story highlights the life of one person at the same time as it educates readers about the circumstances for Japanese Canadians at this time.
Kimiko Fraser's gorgeous illustrations enhance the text and add emotional context to the experiences of Kimiko and other Japanese Canadians.
MIDDLE GRADE NOVELS
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| 5 stars |
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume & Laura Hamilton (Narrator) January 1, 1970
Since I finished Forever last week, I decided to read this other Judy Blume book that has had people up in arms ever since it was published.
Reading this book was a kind of time warp for me. The most important thing about Blume's writing is how authentic her characters are. She manages to capture the essence of childhood - no matter the age of her protagonists. I'm pretty sure I went to school with the preteens she writes about here. I suspect preteens today might say the same thing.
Margaret is a delightful young girl learning to navigate her way around a new community, a new school, a new teacher, and new friends. She is trying to figure out what religion she might want to join - Christian, like the faith her mother was raised in, or Jewish like her father's side of their family.
I loved the Jewish grandmother in this book and am sorry for the rigidness of the Christians ones.
ADULT/YA FICTION
Reading another Thursday Murder Club mystery is like visiting with old friends and meeting new ones. Learning that they are involved in a new murder mystery - this time, one of a friend of a friend, is just par for the course. It's remarkably comforting to listen to their wild adventures because you know they will all come out ok in the end.
Richard Osman's character's are completely authentic. Just like in real life, every visit with them reveals more about their personalities. I can't help but adore them.
This novel was more poignant for me than the earlier ones. Watching a close friend deteriorate from the curse of Alzheimer's has made me more sympathetic to the plight of Elizabeth and her husband, Stephen. I ended up weeping for them, for my friend, and for myself.
I enjoyed listening to the interview between Richard Osman and Fiona Shaw at the end of the audiobook.
John Bachelor, minder of aging spies, finds himself in trouble when one of his aging assets, Dieter Hess, dies and is found to have had a secret bank account. Bachelor soon discovers that Dieter Hess had a secret list of his own assets.
It was a delight to be entertained by Diana Taverner up to her usual nasty shenanigans. When she and Dieter come up with a plan to turn one of those assets, you know it's all going to go terrible wrong.
I'm always happy to see Jackson Lamb in action again and it was interesting to learn more about JK Coe's back story.
Now I can't wait to read Nobody Walks.
ADULT/YA NONFICTION
"Britt Wray is a science writer who focuses on the intersection of mental health and climate change."
I struggled at first with this book. I already feel anxious about the state of the planet and what kind of world we are leaving for our grandchildren. Also, when I started it, I had my grandkids visiting and reading in general is a challenge when they are around. Reading something this intense is impossible.
I'm so glad I went back to it.
I have become more and more aware of how my generation's descent into consumerism in all it's aspects continues to exacerbate the problem. Some days I'm wracked with guilt that I didn't do more - that my generation didn't do more, that even those of us who understand the implications of the climate crisis haven't really changed our behaviour. I feel helpless to do anything about the corporate entities who are not only responsible for the majority of carbon now spewing into our atmosphere, have also fomented the spread of enough misinformation that climate crisis deniers continue to flourish. It seems like environmentalists, scientists, and ordinary people of all ages have lost.
Britt Wray explains what this existential dread is like for people of her generation and younger. According to research she sites, more than half of teens now contemplate not having children because of fear of the state of the planet they are growing up into. Suicide ideation among these youth is higher than it has ever been.
I thought this book would focus on this, and while the grim reality is certainly acknowledged, this book is also about how to survive in the face of such an uncertain future. It's full of strategies for how to live your best life on the cusp of catastrophic environmental change.
Throughout the book Wray explores her own eco anxiety with respects to her conflicts about becoming a parent. Along the way she has created a guidebook for how to use our dread as a force for good in the world.
I've read some brilliant books in 2023, but this is the best of the best. I'm not sure how to begin to explain it. Klein's writing is honest, sharp and brilliant. This is a comprehensive analysis that shows us that we are more connected to one another than we might want to imagine. Beginning with her personal history of being confused with Naomi Wolf, she makes profound connections across political and cultural spectrums. Ultimately she shows us that the polarization we see around us at a macro level, exists also at the micro one.
I know this will be a weird connection for some people, but there were numerous times when I couldn't help but think about Tiffany Aching, my favourite Terry Pratchett protagonist. While learning to be a witch she must strive to act ethically at all times. This involves making hard decisions which entails layers of thinking. She has her first, her second, her third and sometimes even her fourth thoughts before she is finished.
Naomi Klein reveals she is capable of at least four layers of thinking here.
The List of Last Chances by Christina Myers
Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat BohannonThe Black Friend: On Being A Better White Person by Frederick Joseph
CURRENTLY
Take Back The Fight: Organizing Feminism for the Digital Age by Nora Loreto 🍁
System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries, #7) by Martha Wells UP NEXT (MAYBE)
READING GOALS
#MustReadFiction 22/24 one in progress
#MustReadNonFiction 13/20 one in progress
Canadian Authors 54/75
Indigenous Authors 20/20
Goodreads Reading Challenge: 192/200
