#IMWAYR March 8, 2021

Hello out there. It's #IMWAYR time again, when readers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to in the past week. 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. Whatever you are looking forward to in your next great read, these are fabulous places to start your search.

Happy International Women's Day Everyone! If you are looking for a strong, YA female literary character to celebrate the day/week, I highly recommend the Binti series by Nnedi Okorafor. You can read about them below. 

The Canada Reads Debate begins today and I have read only two of this year's finalists. (I have read more of the long list though.) I will eventually get to them all, just not in time to agree or disagree with the winner. The two I finished are brilliant. 

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian Author and or Illustrator. 

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book. 

BEGINNING READERS

5 stars

See the Cat: Three Stories About a Dog by David LaRochelle & Mike Wohnoutka (Illustrator)

Quality books for beginning readers are hard to find. They are probably harder to write. Mo Willems hits the sweet spot with his Elephant and Piggie series. See the Cat is an another excellent example of what we hope to find. it’s sweet, funny and clever at the same time. This dog is a character you want to see/read more of.

NON FICTION PICTURE BOOKS

5 stars

Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera by Candace Fleming & Eric Rohmann (Illustrator)

Did you know that before her work is done, a honeybee will have visited thirty thousand flowers and collected enough nectar to make one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey?

With these jaw dropping, illustrations, you will want to pore over this book again and again. It takes the reader through the life cycle of one Apis Mellifera. Readers learn about the different jobs a worker bee engages in before and after she heads off in search of nectar, water, plant sap or pollen. Fleming builds suspense as she marks each stage in her nonfiction poem with a refrain of Flying? Not yet...  

I really appreciated the extra information in the back matter. It includes a labeled diagram of a bee with extensive details about each part.  Additional information includes a section on how to support honeybees and a list of more facts about these important creatures. A bibliography with internet links and print resources finishes this section off. While neither the author or illustrator are Canadian, Dr. Mark I. Winston, the world's leading expert on bees, who they worked with them on this project, is. 

NOVELS

3.5 stars

Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen: Peril at Owl Park by Marthe Jocelyn 🍁

I wanted to love this more than I did. Aggie, her best friend, Hector Porot, and Grannie Jane, head off to the country to spend Christmas with her older sister, Marjorie and her new husband, James. She is happy to be reunited with Lucy, James' niece. Two other guests arrive to spend the season with them. It looks to be a festive season with an acting troupe pulling together servants and family for a tableaux performance on Christmas Eve. The next morning the three children discover a dead body in the library. The police are called in but the trio do what they can to figure out who the murderer is.
I enjoyed this a lot but wish it was not so long. I worry that while older readers like myself will be undaunted, I'm not so sure about the target audience.

5 stars

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots & Alex McKenna (Narrator) 🍁

I loved this book. I know it's a trite way to begin a review, but honestly, this is a fascinating look at people working for super villains. Anna is a data analyst who ends up employed by them because it's the only job she can get. When she ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, a superhero nearly kills her when he throws her against a wall. (She was the token female at a news conference where one of the villains threatened to have the kidnapped mayor's son cut off his own fingers if he didn't get a ransom. It was terrifying.) As she recovers she starts collecting data and realizes that it's actually the superheros, not the villains, who create the most damage and kill the most people. It's all about how it's marketed.

She starts blogging about her findings and ends up head hunted by the most powerful super villain of all. Eventually she ends up in charge of her own department where data collection and analysis is used to create plans to takedown superheros. Unfortunately her boss doesn't have her patience for playing the long game.
I appreciated so much about this book. Anna is not really a sympathetic character, but that didn't stop me from wanting to know how her life might turn out. That she's bisexual adds all kinds of nuances to her relationships. In spite of this, there isn't really sexual content. One relationship that barely gets started ends up in a hilarious disaster. There is some suggestion of a romance between Anna and her boss, but really, this book focuses more on friendships and the role media coverage and marketing manipulate how we see the world. 

This is one of the Canada Reads books. I love that the titles on the list are often ones I wouldn't pick for myself. This is one of those. 

4 stars

Home (Binti 2) by Nnedi Okorafor & Robin Miles (Narrator)

I'm having a hard time separating out what happened in the last two novels in this trilogy because I listened to them back to back. Binti and Okwu, her Meduse friend, return home to earth. Okwu comes in peace as an ambassador. Binti hopes to go on her coming of age pilgrimage, but on the eve of her leaving is taken into the desert by her father's people. One day turns into many as she is initiated into new ways of communicating with the world. While she is away she learns that Okwu and her family have been attacked the Khoush, ancient enemies of the Meduse. It is not known if there are any survivors.

5 stars

The Night Masquerade (Binti 3) by Nnedi Okorafor & Robin Miles (Narrator)

Binti and her new friend, Mwinyi, travel from her desert family back to Binti's Himba family. They arrive to discover they have been murdered by the Khoush and her friend Okwu is missing. The Khoush are patrolling the area searching for him and Binti. Okwu and an army of Meduse are hiding in the lake. In spite of her loss, Binti arranges to meet with the Himba elders to set up a meeting to bring peace to all sides. Even though they betray her by not showing up at the rendezvous, she attempts negotiating with leaders of both armies to try and broker a peace between them. It ends up in disaster, but it's not the end of the book.

The Binti series chronicles a young girl's journey from a small African village in Namibia to a prestigious galactic university, her return home again, and a final departure. It's a metaphor for how we are transformed as we leave home, interact with others, learn and grow. It's about figuring out our identity as we change with each new being we meet and connect to. In the end it's about discovering home inside ourselves.

I'm so excited by Okorafor's writing, I've put a hold on Akata Witch.

 

DISCWORLD NOVELS

I can't believe I didn't finish even one Discworld novel this week!

NONFICTION

5 stars

Call Me Indian: From the Trauma of Residential School to Becoming the NHL's First Treaty Indigenous Player by Fred Sasakamoose

Fred Sasakamoose overcame almost overwhelming obstacles to play hockey for the Chicago Blackhawks in 1954. Even when his time there was over, hockey continued to play an important role throughout the rest of his life. He went on to make huge contributions to his community, the province of Saskatchewan, and Canada. I am not a sports fan, but Sasakamoose is such a gifted storyteller, that his narrative drew me in and wouldn't let go.
I'm working on a detailed review that I'll post closer to the publishing date of May 18. I wish my father-in-law was still alive so I could preorder it for him. He was a hockey fanatic who played the game well into his late 70's. 

It's a testimony to how personable the writing it, that I wept when, after reading the book, I discovered that Sasakamoose died last November of Covid complications. He was one of those who truly left the world a better place than he found it.

CURRENTLY 

The nonfiction title I have on the go is The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert. I'm almost finished listening to Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. I might read it again as soon as it's done. I'm also listening to Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez. I've started Beetle & the Hollowbones by Aliza Layne. I'm making my way through Shopping Cart Boy: Poems of My Life by Joshua Jordan G.H. He was sixteen when he wrote them. They are an emotionally hard read. 

UP NEXT

I plan to read and review a netgalley title, The Case of the Burgled Bundle by Michael Hutchinson. A pile of picture books is waiting for me so I'll try and get to those. I also have a lot of audiobooks lined up. Why oh why does everything come available from the library at the same time?

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS 

#MustReadIn2021 5/25 

#MustReadNFIn2021 2/12 one in progress

#MustReadPBIn2021 15/100

Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors: 7/25 one in progress

Books by Canadian Authors: 21/100

Canada Reads 2021 2/5 

Discworld Series 31/41 

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 87/333 

#IReadCanadian: Books For All Ages

I READ CANADIAN DAY, February 17, 2021, is a national day of celebration of Canadian books for young people (and everyone). This is a day dedicated to ‘reading Canadian.’ The purpose is to raise awareness of Canadian books and celebrate the richness, diversity and breadth of Canadian literature. We have a wealth of talent in our country!

If you are wondering what to read, I've compiled some lists of the best Canadian literature I've read in the past few years. Some are recent publications and others have been around for ages. There are #OwnVoices titles from the many groups of people in Canada. Many are Indigenous authors. Most are fiction, but there are nonfiction, poetry and graphic novels as well. There are books for readers of all ages on these lists. 

Clicking on the heading for each category will take you to a page where you can read more about the titles in the picture. 

PICTURE BOOKS

CHAPTER BOOKS FOR YOUNGER READERS

NONFICTION FOR YOUNGER READERS

NOVELS FOR TWEENS AND TEENS

YOUNG ADULT NOVELS

NONFICTION FOR YA, TWEENS AND TEENS

FICTION FOR ADULTS

ADULT NONFICTION

#IMWAYR January 11, 2021

Hello out there. It's #IMWAYR time again, when readers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to in the past week. 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. Whatever you are looking forward to in your next great read, these are fabulous places to start your search.

Last week, like the rest of the world, we spent a few days compulsively glued to our devices while we watched the events in the USA unfold. I waited anxiously to read Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter for her take on the events. Our hearts go out to all our American friends and family. We believe in you. It might not be right away, but we trust you can fix this. 

Our house has been dismantled of all it's decorations. The living room is still cluttered with boxes. We have to take a trip to the dump to empty our trailer of the detritus of house renovations and the tree before we can transfer them to our storage space. I've started knitting on more Christmas stockings for our two newest grandkids. I figure if I start now, they might be done by next winter! 

Other than that, I listen to audiobooks while I putter around the house tidying up and doing finishing work on the renovations while my partner does the primary work. 

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian Author and or Illustrator. 

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book. 

RECENT BLOG POSTS

Saga Boy: My Life of Blackness and Becoming by Antonio Michael Downing

NOVELS

5 stars

Hatch by Kenneth Oppel  🍁

In Bloom, the first in this series, a strange rain fell from the skies and deadly alien plants started taking over the planet.
By the end of it, scientists, with the help of three hybrid teenagers, seemed to have a pesticide to control them. The book ended with a new rainfall, this time dropping eggs of new kinds of monstrous insects.
Hatch begins with the three teens, Anya, Seth, and Petra, being taken from their parents into an underground bunker somewhere in America. They meet other children just like them. As they get physically stronger from the programs in place to learn more about them, they discover that they have telepathy. The person in control of the facility there, Dr Ritter, has nefarious plans for all of them. 

They manage to escape. Most are rescued and returned to Deadman's Island military base where they are kept hidden from Dr Ritter and other governmental agencies. 

While they were underground the insects continued multiplying and evolving to become larger and more dangerous. Seth and four other teens who were not rescued have to deal with them, evade capture by authorities, and figure out where to go to be safe. 

Anya was contacted by one of the aliens who claims to want to work with them to save the planet and in turn, save themselves.

While part of this novel is set in a bunker somewhere in Washington State, like Bloom, it is primarily set in and around Vancouver Canada. I love recognizing the named landscape. 

This is so intense that when I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. I don't know how I am going to be able to survive until May 4th, when Thrive, the third in this series, is published. My library has it on order, but there are already 3 holds on the three copies. I am number 4. 

4 stars

Skunk and Badger (Skunk and Badger #1) by Amy Timberlake & Jon Klassen 🍁 (Illustrations)

This is a delightful odd-couple kind of story for the younger set. Skunk and Badger are two creatures connected through Aunt Lula. Badger was happily living and doing his 'important rock work' in Aunt Lula's house for free. Then she gave Skunk permission to stay in the house as well. If Badger had only opened his letters from her he would have known. He is a bit of a curmudgeon while Skunk is a free spirit who loves chickens. Both are endearing characters. They go through a bit of a rough patch before they end up becoming true friends. I'm looking forward to reading more of this series. 

Jon Klassen's black and white and colour illustrations are the ideal complement to this charming tale. 

4 stars

Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson

My partner is a football fan. A game is on the TV as I write this review. Many years ago he shared with me the stats on injuries for players. I couldn't track them down, but the level of disability is horrific. I think it was %30 on average.
This book takes those stats, especially with regards to traumatic brain injury, and shows us the personal cost. It's set in set in 1999-2000 when understanding of chronic traumatic encephalopathy was just coming to light. 

Zachariah Johnson Jr.'s (ZJ) father is a football star and hero of the neighbourhood. At first his hands begin to shake and he can't play football. As his father deteriorates, ZJ struggles to understand what is happening. Jacqueline Woodson shows us a loving extended African American family doing their best to cope. Those of us who have been paying attention know all too well what their future will bring. 

MEMOIRS

4 stars

Black Water by David A. Robertson

Out of the ashes of the residential school system and a grade eight education, Donald Alexander Robertson ended up going to university to become a church minister. Eventually he became an important leader in Indigenous education here in Canada. He and his wife tried to raise their children without knowledge of their Cree ancestry, a decision he later came to regret. They tried to protect their children from the racism and consequences of colonialism. It didn't help. The younger Robertson writes about feeling different but not knowing why. He experienced racism anyway without the anchor of understanding his roots and who he was. Without this cultural grounding, racism became internalized.
At the same time as his son writes about, and tries to make sense of his father's life, he's writing about himself. David A. Robertson reveals how his father's actions reverberated into the lives of his family - and himself in particular. Visiting the places where his father and grandparents lived, he talks about blood memory, the feeling of having memories of the place himself.
His father, who worked for the province, was rarely home. His mother couldn't manage his coming and going and so while Robertson was a small boy, they separated. The separation lasted for about a decade. It was a difficult time for young David.
This book, against the backdrop of a journey together to Black Water where his father spent his early years, is ultimately a story about the reconnection of father and son.

I would call this a crossover YA/Adult novel. 

5 stars

Saga Boy by Antonio Michael Downing 🍁

This book translates the global ramifications of colonialism into an intimate level. The writing is so beautiful I ache just thinking about it. 

At age 11, when his grandmother died, Downing was uprooted from a loving home in Trinidad and ended up in Northern Ontario. In the following eight years he lived in six different cities, went to six different schools, and had six different guardians. It's more than enough to crush the strongest White boy, never mind a Black youth who, on top of all that, was abused in Trinidad. 

I raged and wept for Downing throughout his experiences as a child, as a young man, and as a young adult. Music and art saved him. 

I would call this a crossover YA/Adult novel. 

The following video is from a new album he is working on to accompany this book. 

DISCWORLD NOVEL

4 stars

Soul Music by Terry Pratchett

Rock and Roll and the music industry are the focus of Pratchett's satire here. Death's granddaughter, Susan, makes her debut when he disappears and she has to take over for him. While he is gone a new kind of music, called Music With Rocks emerges. People who listen to it end up dancing and screaming. The music is an instant sensation. It's alive. The novel focuses on a band called The Band with Rocks In. They don't really play their own music, the music plays them.

Among the many things I enjoyed in this novel are all the sly references to real musicians, music, and other aspects of popular culture. The lead singer in the band's name is Imp Y Celyn which translates into Bud of the holly. He changes his name to Buddy. The names of the rest of the band also reflect significant rock and roll heros of the 1950's, 60's, and 70's. Some of their tunes include: Don't Tread on My New Blue Boots, Good Gracious Miss Polly and Pathway to Paradise.

CURRENTLY 

I'm listening to Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehouse. I started reading All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung, but set it aside to start Strong is the New Pretty by Kate T. Parker. I needed a bit of a break from another intense memoir. The Discworld novel I'm into is Interesting Times. 

UP NEXT 

I'm hoping to return to All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung and read Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson, but I'll be picking up a pile of graphic novels from the library on Tuesday to start reading all the finalists for my role as round 2 Cybils judge. I also have Hogfather, a audio Discworld novel out from the library that I need to get to. 

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS 

 #MustReadIn2021 2/25 

#MustReadNFIn2021 0/12 one in progress

#MustReadPBIn2021 1/100

Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors: 2/25

Books by Canadian Authors: 3/100

Discworld Series 16/41 - one in progress

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 10/333 

Saga Boy: My Life of Blackness and Becoming by Antonio Michael Downing

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. This crossover YA/Adult title will be released January 19, 2021, by Penguin Random House Canada.

"The Queen designed my brain." is the first sentence in this four part memoir. It is a critical statement hinting at the ramifications of colonialism and the implications of it at an intimate level.

The most important thing about this book is the exquisite writing. Every page is full of swoon worthy prose. I ended up highlighting line after line - way too many to begin to share all of them with you in this review.  

Please forgive me if I've gotten carried away with the quotes.

I will never be able to do justice to the beauty of Downing's words. 

You will have to read it yourself. 

The book is organized into four acts. Each act references a specific time in his life and the different person he was in each of them. 

Act one: Tony

Until he was eleven years old the author lived in Trinidad with his older brother, Junior, and Grandmother who they called Mama. The rest of the community called her Miss Excelly. Mama was a deeply religious woman who gave generously of her love, time and whatever she had, trusting that whatever she needed would come back to her. The gifts she gave Tony would enable him to survive what hell he would end up facing, including the abuse he endured from a neighbour there. Downing wasn't aware of the gifts then, but it's there in his writing when he writes about coming home from school. Mama was always singing. Tony was greeted by it every day. "Her voice perfumes the very air... All of creation became her voice calling me home."

Tony was a excellent student who loved to read. As he read from the white canon of literature, "what unfolded page by page, battle after battle, image after image, was the great river of things that explained the world." He came to understand "the golden rule: there was a place called white, and it was always better." 

He was attending a prestigious school when Mama died. 

Act Two: Michael

At age eleven, Tony and Junior were taken from Trinidad to Waubigoon, an indigenous community in Northern Ontario. They lived with their Aunt Joan who was a social worker working with the people there.

Tony became Michael. His first teacher was a nightmare. Not only did she change his name, she tested him and recommended he be put ahead two grades. I gasped as I read this - already seeing the disaster this was likely to become. I remain angry thinking about how different things might have been for him had he been allowed to remain with his peers. 

He became increasingly isolated: not fitting in with his classmates or the white or the indigenous community. At the same time, even at his young age, he understood he was more connected to the latter group than either of the former. While attending a PowWow he acknowledged that the Indigenous people were as much victims of racism and colonialism as he was. He also came to understand that their power and strength had not been completely destroyed, "they were still here. They were still part of the land." 

Aunt Joan, who knew much about the boy's background, tried to do her best by them. She understood that Michael was 'fragile and explosive.' Still, she allowed Junior to be sent away to go to a prestigious school in the United States where his Aunt Agnes would become his guardian. Agnes then abandoned him, just like she had abandoned the boys' father when he was in her care.  

Joan tried to stop it, but when Michael was twelve, the two boys ended up going to live with their father and stepmother, Al and Hailey. 

There is a pattern to Downing's writing that make me ache for him. It is full of the most endearing moments and memories. Then the next line lets us know they are only fleeting. Writing about a time with his father he shares:

"he would listen to what I had to say. He cared about what I thought. My father- the man I knew only from photos and tales- cared what I thought. I eased back in the seat and tried to lean like he did, sneaking peeks to make sure I got it right. I studied the hair on his face where he had shaved that morning, the brown tinted sunglasses the obscured his eyes but not his vision, and the confidence, as if nothing as square as worry had ever touched him. The way laughter would jerk and explode out of him in a spasm, as if he were four years old and hitting a bike rim with a stick as he dashed down Monkeytown Third Branch. It was the first time I had felt that close to him.
It was also one of the last."

Al and Hailey were addicts. "Living with addicts is like living with zombies: you never know whether they'll eat you or ignore you."  They only wanted the boys for the government money they brought in.

The beginnings of who he could become is hinted at when he writes a 'choon' that is sung by Junior's band. Over time Junior spent increasing amounts of time away from home. Eventually he moved out and became "a space I no longer recognized." Michael escaped the lonely craziness of his homelife by retreating into words and songs. He didn't understand that these were the same things Miss Excelly had needed to survive: "how to read and how to sing." 

Eventually Michael moved in with Ami, his father's second wife. While there he connected with his two younger half brothers and joined the basketball team. Ami, a white woman, worked hard and did her best, but could barely make ends meet, never mind feed an athletic, growing, always starving teen. 

On a basketball trip he responded to the racist bullying of his white teammates and ended up being the one who got suspended. He writes, "I had always understood the pecking order of our basketball team. Certain boys were always given the benefit of the doubt. There was a place called "white:" and it could get away with murder."

Thankfully Coach Barry Lillie and his wife, Elaine, invited him to live with them. Eventually he became part of their family and ended up getting into the University of Waterloo. 

During this time he reconnected to his mother, Gloria and more of his half siblings. He ended up responsible for the reunification of his parents. In the end, it ended up in disaster. 

When he was cut from the university basketball team, he was left with an unfillable void. Downing writes, "basketball had fathered me. I had soaked up second hand daddying from my teammates. Between the sweaty practices, the nail-biting games, and the breathless sprints, I had absorbed the lessons their fathers had taught them."

A new friend, Chachi, introduced him to art and helped him fill the emptiness. Spending time together, Downing wrote while Chachi painted. 

Act Three: Mic Dainjah

Transformed into a new person again, Downing hid from his damaged self through running, women and music. On the surface he was successful. He worked for  Blackberry and became a Canadian citizen. 

As Mic Dainjah, he was the lead singer of a band called Jen Militia. When he was performing he "vanished to a place with no father, no mother, no corporate bosses, no good kids to keep up with - just the certainty of being alive and somewhere I belonged."

Anger simmered beneath the surface. After hitting his girlfriend, he ended up in an anger management program. He writes about this time with brutal honesty. It's loaded with sympathy and empathy for his peers in the program. The men had to take responsibility for their actions, learn to recognize their triggers and de escalate situations. He writes powerfully about acknowledging guilt and shame. This treatment program helped him, but it wasn't enough. It would take much more therapy before he would be able to heal himself. 

He continued to spend time with Elaine and Coach, his unofficially adopted father. But acknowledges that, "Even after fifteen years, it was still disorienting to be loved by them" 

Act Four: John

In this section Downing writes about his ongoing therapy and coming to the realization that 'while I was busy hiding from myself, words and music had saved me. I was still living off an old lady's prayers." He begins to deal with, "the monster lurking at my core." He begins to tend to the little boy who doesn't feel good enough. 

Of course, recovery isn't instant. 

Many friends helped Downing survive. Gada Jane's introduction to the art collective was an important part. Working with her on the John Orpheus project was another. Everyone needs someone who will tell them, "you are enough on your own."  

His friendship with Howard was instrumental in leading him back to Trinidad and a feeling of belonging. The little boy inside him started to become whole again with Howard's help. 

This book translates the global ramifications of colonialism into an intimate level. It's a story about abandoned fathers abandoning their sons who in turn abandon their own children. It's about the power of women who are the"mules of the empire, forced to carry the burden of the Crown's dreadful legacy, of black bodies chained to the spines of ships, of broken families, of men disempowered, stripped of their status in the home, sent to roam the earth with only their sex to prove their manhood, slaves by blood and by circumstance, saga boys."  It's about trying to fit into a mould not made for you. It's about searching for love, family, and home. It's about learning to love and learning to forgive. It's about becoming who you are. 

Over the space of eight years Antonio Michael Downing lived in six cities, went to six schools and had six different guardians. It could have decimated anyone, never mind a Black youth who, on top of all that, had to deal with a history of abuse.

The miracle of Antonio Michael Downing is not that he became a successful professional and artist after all he experienced, but rather that he survived at all. 

I raged and wept many times while reading this book. I am left thankful for the gift of learning a bit about what it means to be a Black Canadian from Trinidad. I hope to be a better ally after finishing it. 

While reading this memoir I spent some time watching John Orpheus music videos. I hope you enjoy this one, from a new album he is working on, as much as I did. 

#IMWAYR December 14, 2020

Hello out there. It's #IMWAYR time again, when readers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to in the past week. 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. Whatever you are looking forward to in your next great read, these are fabulous places to start your search.

I apologise for not getting around to commenting on everyone's posts last week. I did read them all, but time was in short supply so....

I also didn't get in much reading with my eyes. I have been very busy with house painting and sewing. I'm almost finished two Christmas tree skirts for my two sons and their families. They took much longer than I anticipated. I just have to quilt them and will share pictures of them next week. I hope I get them done!

Our house is looking more festive even if we don't have a functioning main bathroom. My winter village and North Pole figurines are on display. My wonderful partner managed to get the windows full of lights. We plan to head off into the hills Monday to cut down a tree. Then on Tuesday we will decorate it. 

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian Author and or Illustrator. 

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book. 

PICTURE BOOKS

5 stars

Finding My Talk by Rebecca Thomas & Pauline Young (Illustrator) 🍁 

A couple of weeks ago I read the companion book, I Lost My Talk, by Rita Joe and Pauline Young. Rita Joe and Rebecca Thomas' father lost their language, culture and ways of knowing the world after being taken from their families and placed in residential schools.
I'm Finding My Talk is a poem about healing and recovering as much of that which was taken away as possible.
Talk is about more than language. Terry Pratchett wrote, "People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way around.”Words have power. Words convey meaning and provide a framework for how we see the world and connect to each other. This book is about coming home to who the Mi'kmaq people were before residential schools took it away.
Both the author and illustrator dedicate the book to their fathers. Reading these dedications nearly brought me to tears.
Pauline Young's paintings are a brilliant homage to the power of Rebecca Thomas' words.

5 stars

Mi'kmaw Animals by Alan Syliboy 🍁 

This board book showcases petroglyph style illustrations of different animals. Each creature is paired with its name on the next page. The names are given in Mi’kmaw with a pronunciation guide and in English.
The art work is just stunning!

4 stars

Blueberry Patch / Mayabeekamneeboon by Jennifer Leason & Norman Chartrand (Translator) 🍁 

First off, the art in this bilingual book is swoonworthy. I want some prints to hang on my walls.
The story shares a memory of travelling with family to the blueberry patch. Set in the late 1940's, it tells of a way of life now gone. The author's family journeyed by wagon train with other members of the community to spend a month living in tents and harvesting blueberries. It's bursting with images of nature that indicate an intimate relationship to the earth.
The pages are a wee bit text heavy even accepting that it is written in English and Anishinaabemowin. The back matter contains a list of activities to accompany the book, a recipe for bannock, and information about the two contributors.

NOVELS

5 stars

Three Keys (Front Desk #2) by Kelly Yang & Sunny Lu (Narrator)

I think I loved this sequel even more than the first in the series.
If you are looking for a book for a young activist, pick this one. Mia Tang and her friends work hard to battle racism in their school and community. It's set against the backdrop of California’s Prop 187, a law that would ban undocumented immigrants from access to health care and public schooling.

5 stars

All the Devils Are Here by by Louise Penny & Robert Bathurst (Narrator) 🍁  

The worst thing about reading the most recent Inspector Armand Gamache Novel, is having to wait for the next one to be published. 

This story takes the Gamache family to Paris, France, where Armand's godfather is deliberately attacked by a hit and run driver. He was involved in a deep investigation of a corrupt corporation and independent security force. 

As the story unfolds, the rift between Armand and his son seems to widen. It becomes more and more difficult to determine who can be trusted, and who is out to destroy them all.

DISCWORLD NOVEL

The more I read Pratchett, the sorrier I am for people who haven't yet discovered him. 

The Discworld collection is a compendium of mini series set in Pratchett's world. I recently found this image for helping keep track of them all. 

I want to give a shout out to https://goldenaudiobooks.com/. I've been listening to many of the Discworld novels for free from here. The books have to be streamed rather than downloaded, but since I'm mostly listening to them while at home working, it's not a problem for me. 

4 stars

Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett & Nigel Planer (Narrator)

The alchemists of Discworld have developed Moving Pictures. Victor Tugelbend, a drop out wizard from the Unseen University, is drawn to Holy Wood. As unskilled as he might be, he ends up paired with Ginger Withel and both become super stars. Of course they are helped out by Gaspode the talking dog.
It soon emerges that Moving Pictures has a detrimental effect on the reality of the Discworld especially because they open up a portal into the Dungeon Dimensions.
This parody of the movie industry is both hilarious and terrifying.

4 stars

Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett & Nigel Planer (Narrator)

The Auditors of Reality decide that Death needs to be replaced since he has started to develop a personality and has lost his objectivity towards humans. He sets off to live life with the rest of the Discworld citizenry. In the process he becomes even more empathic as he learns what it means to be human and die.
All the creatures on the Discworld are left to come up with a new way to configure death. Humans are slow to do this. Consequently, their life force builds up. This makes it impossible for people to die and brings the dead back to life. This is especially difficult for the recently deceased wizard, Windle Poons, who was looking forward to reincarnation. He joins the Fresh Start club, an undead-rights group, who go on to discover that Ankh-Morpork is being invaded by a parasitic life form that hatches from eggs that resemble snow globes.

CURRENTLY 

I'm still reading Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer, a book club title. The Discworld book I'm into is Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett narrated by Nigel Planer. This is at least my third go round with this book and I love it more each time. I just started Give and Take by Elly Swartz. 

UP NEXT 

A History of My Brief Body by Billy Rae Belcourt just became available so this will be my next audiobook. I hope to get to On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Ocean Vuong and Leggings Revolt by Monique Polak. 

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS 

 #MustReadIn2020: 24/25 - one in progress

#MustReadNFIn2020: 11/12 

Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors: 29/25  

Books by Canadian Authors: 129/100 

Discworld Series 16/41 - one in progress

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 326/333 

#IMWAYR November 23, 202

Hello out there. It's #IMWAYR time again, when readers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to in the past week. 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. Whatever you are looking forward to in your next great read, these are fabulous places to start your search.

We almost completely gutted our main bathroom this week (the bathtub/shower part was refinished a couple of years ago.) Still, it's not really functional with everything else awry. We discovered that the wiring is anything but straightforward, so we are waiting for an electrician to help us figure it out. In the meantime my partner is mudding and sanding the gyprock that was behind the wallboard. I usually help him at this stage, but it's just not big enough in there. 

Otherwise in my project life, my fabric arrived on Thursday so I am back at work on the monstrous Piet Mondrian quilt. I've finished one knitting project that I can't share here now because it is a gift for a friend who reads my blog. I've got socks on the go for my partner that I knit on while we are watching TV. These days we are rewatching Deadwood. 

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian Author and or Illustrator. 

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book. 

PICTURE BOOKS

4 stars

The Thundermaker by Alan Syliboy 🍁

This is the story of a young boy, Little Thunder, growing up and learning to become The Thundermaker. Readers learn the role thunder and lightning play in rejuvenating the earth along along with him. As the boy grows up he learns how recognize the seasons through the movement of animals, and how to catch fish, and hunt. Storytelling is most important aspect of this life. It's how he learns to be Mi'kmaw.

"Giju [his mother] explains how one cycle rolls into the next. She says that characters always reappear with a new teaching or a new way of telling an old one.

His mother talks in pictures, and these pictures transport him back in time. There he can find his place as part of this cycle.

When Little Thunder's mother finishes a story, his father picks it up, telling of great hunting trips and how to think like a rabbit or a fox. He tells Little thunder how to know where the animals will be and how to have real respect for these creatures."

Alan Syliboy is a Mi’kmaw artist, filmmaker, musician and social justice advocate. His art is inspired by Mi'kmaw petroglyph and quill weaving traditions. He works in acrylic and mixed media.

5 stars

I Lost My Talk by Rita Joe & Pauline Young (Illustrator) 🍁

Rita Joe was an indigenous poet and songwriter of the Whycocomagh First Nation in Nova Scotia. This poem tells of how she lost her language, her culture, and ways of knowing the world while in residential school.

The back matter includes two pages of information about residential schools and another page with information about Rita Joe.

Pauline Young, a Mi'kmaw artist from Nova Scotia, spent a year creating the paintings for this and the companion book by Rebecca Thomas, I’m finding My Talk. Her art captures the pain and anguish from her own life to portray the darkness and hope in this book. You can read more about her here. 

GRAPHIC NOVELS

5 stars

Class Act (New Kid #2) by Jerry Craft 

This is as good as Jerry Craft's first book, New Kid. It focuses more on Drew, Jordan's friend. Through the characters in the book readers become more aware of the many microaggressions BIPOC people have to deal with on a regular basis.

NOVELS

5 stars

Bloom by Kenneth Oppel 🍁

I read a couple of pages and then got distracted by other things.

When I finally sat down in peace and quiet, I devoured this book. Creepy plants taking over my part of the world - Yikes! Teens who don't just seem like they are part alien, but really are! Thankfully they have lots of courage to deal with this evil flora.

The best thing about starting this sci fi series this late is that I can now start the next one right away without all that waiting. 

After reading this I'm never going to complain about the weeds in my garden again. 

SHORT STORIES

4.5 stars

How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa & James Tang & Kulap Vilaysack (Narrators) 🍁

This collection of short stories won this year’s Giller Prize. The tales portray Laos immigrants negotiating their way in a strange new country. They tell of poverty, heartache and hardship. Souvankham Thammavongsa’s characters are so matter of fact real, it’s like you could run into them on the street. If not them, then people very much like them.

The intimacy of these stories reminds me that everyone, no matter who they are, has an important story to tell.

DISCWORLD NOVELS

4 stars

Sourcery by Terry Pratchett

In the discworld an eighth son of an eighth son automatically becomes a wizard. When that wizard ends up getting married and becoming a father to  eight sons, the eighth child is so loaded with magic he becomes a sorcerer. On the Discworld, sorcerer's have far more power than wizards. When said father has a grudge to settle with the wizards at Unseen University, nasty things are bound to happen. When Coin (under the control of his spiteful father) arrives at the university, the wizards are duly impressed by his power. It turns out he is also a source of powerful magic. In a short time they use it to battle each other for supremacy. Last time this happened they nearly destroyed the discworld. It's up to Rincewind, a wizard renowned for his lack of magic, and the Archchancellor's hat to save the day. The satire in this is brilliant. I laughed out loud numerous times.

3.5 stars

Pyramids by Terry Pratchett

This won the British Science Fiction Association in 1989, but is my least favourite book in the series so far. That said, once I got into it I was certainly engaged. It's set in a desert kingdom, Djelibeybi. which is the Discworld's version of Egypt. Teppic, the hero, went away to Ankh-Morpork to train to be an assassin, but upon his graduation, his father dies. He has to return to and take his place as king. In theory he is the supreme ruler, but he soon learns that in reality he is nothing more than a figurehead. In attempting to appease the high priest, he orders the largest and most elaborate pyramid ever built for his father. In order to create this spectacle, the pyramid makers call upon quantum magic. It ends up spinning Djelibeybi into some kind of time warp where the dead come alive and gods walk the earth.

Teppic misses all this because he has fled the Kingdom with one of his father's handmaidens who did not want to 'volunteer' to die and be interred in the pyramid with him. Upon learning that Djelibeybi has disappeared, he has to figure out how to find it and save them all.

This book, like others  in the series is fully loaded with play on words and parodies of life in our round world. This site here outlines most, if not all of them. 

CURRENTLY 

I'm listening to The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde. With my eyes I'm reading Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat. The Discworld book I've got on the go right now is Eric. 

UP NEXT 

I'm hoping my next audiobook will be Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend, but if it doesn't arrive from the library in time, I've just downloaded the ebook. I'm hoping to read (with my eyes) From You to Me by K. A. Holt. both of these are on my #MustReadIn2020 lists. I fear I may not reach all my goals this year, but I'm going to do my best in the next while. I've paused all my library holds except those on the lists. 

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS 

#MustReadIn2020: 22/25 

#MustReadNFIn2020: 11/12 

Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors: 24/25 

Books by Canadian Authors: 125/100 

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 304/333