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!
Whoohoo!! The Canada Reads longlist was announced last week. I think it will be a good year. "The books on this year's longlist all have the power to change how we see, share and experience the world around us." I've already put reserves on all the books, and when the shortlist is announced on the 23rd, will probably take off the ones that didn't make it.
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
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| 5 stars |
So so I!
When Hanna discovers what she can learn from reading books, she decides to read all of them. She read all the books in her room. Then she finished her brother's books. After she read all the books in her house, including a dictionary, her mother took her to the library where the librarian helps her find more books. When she takes her to an even more immense library, Hanna realizes that she will never be able to read all the books. Happily a friendly librarian there helps her to think about books in a different way.
The Outlaw by Nancy Vo May 1, 2018 🍁
"I was intrigued by the cover of this book. Then I fell in love with the first couple of pages. The first shows only a genderless silhouette and the words, "Once there was a ranger. The next page shows an image of a girl and the words, "Her name was Annie." Annie finds a fox who is in a bad way, rescues it, and in turn the two become friends. What we readers eventually come to understand is that friendship is not about keeping score, it's about supporting each other when we need help without any expectation of payment."
I was collecting up library books to return when I discovered this. I had read it with my grandkids over the holiday, but had forgotten to record it, so I read it again. I remember that we all enjoyed it. One of the kids remarked, I didn't know you could learn so much from books! We all agreed that we all want to read all the books! Two of my half Korean granddaughters liked that Hanna and her mom looked like them.
Annie and Lillemor are best friends who have much in common. Then Lillimor starts playing with, and spending time with Lilianne, a new girl. Annie worries that Lilianne and Lillimor will have more in common, and will no longer be best friends with her. Happily, all three girls become best friends.
Like Hanna, I too like to tell people all about what I've learned from my reading!
This books teems with part of what I love most about being Canadian. It highlights the multicultural friendships I watched grow when I was a teacher in Vancouver. Children know a lot more sometimes than adults do about getting along with others.
The Crow Stories Trilogy by Nancy Vo
I finally read the last in this series, and afterwards had to go and read them all again. It's a western style picture book collection. Each book highlights a different character, but stands on its own. You have to read all three to understand the connection. In each book, sparse text accompanies Nancy Vo's glorious mixed media artwork. The following quoted reviews are from my initial reviews.
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| 5 stars |
"An outlaw terrifies a town with his misdeeds. Eventually he leaves. Years later a stranger arrives and begins mending parts of the rundown town. In time he is recognized as the outlaw. This book makes you question. Can he be forgiven. Can he be redeemed? Is it enough that he is making amends?"
When a young boy loses his mother to cholera, he heads off on his own searching for something. He stays for a while in a town before heading off with a wagon train. Then he takes off on his own. When a couple riding horseback find him, he is in bad shape. They take him home, feed him, and put him to bed. The next day he goes to work for them for room and board. At the end of the book, we find out what he was searching for. I love the resilience of this boy!
ADULT/YA NONFICTION GRAPHIC
I wanted to love this more than I did. It's an example of having high expectations based on other people's reviews. Therefore, I suspect it's all on me. While reading it I couldn't help but compare it to Everything is OK by Debbie Tung, a book that I read last November. Both are graphic novel memoirs dealing with mental health issues. Both are important books. Tung's book felt more intimate to me. Perhaps it's because Ollerton's book is more a collection of stories while Tung's is one narrative. I'm impressed as hell that both of these women manage their work lives and careers while coping with their illnesses.
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond & Dion Graham (narrator) March 1, 2016
A Hat Full of Sky (Discworld, #32; Tiffany Aching, #2) b y Terry Pratchett April 29, 2004
#MustRead2025 5/25
NonFiction 4/30 one on the go
MG YA GRAPHIC MEMOIR - NON FICTION
When he was a teenager, the author worked at a summer camp with seriously ill children and their families. This graphic memoir shows us what happened at his time there. It was a transformative experience that put his own worries in perspective.
We meet a lot of remarkable children in this book. Not all of them make it. Near the end, I wept buckets.
MG/YA FICTION
I really appreciated this intimate exploration into what it's like to have anorexia. It is an intense read. From my perspective as a mother and grandmother, I ached for Jake, and couldn't help but root for him as he went through his treatment. I think this book will educate a lot of people as to what it's like to have mental health issues. I especially appreciated John Schu's notes at the end where he explains that this book is a fictionalized account of his own life. I like how hopeful this book ends. I suspect it will help others with this terrible disease to see that they can get help and live a better life.
Sometimes when I have read a lot of hype about a book, I end up expecting too much from it. I expected a lot from this one, and it more than delivered.
I've been reading a lot of books about people with mental health issues but haven't found one that addresses living with schizophrenia. Can you recommend one?
The Mistletoe Mystery by Nita Prose & Lauren Ambrose (Narrator) October 1, 2024 🍁
I really wanted to like this book because I adored the first two in the series. This one? Not so much. To be honest, I abandoned it about half way in and skipped to read the last chapter. This is more of a romance than a mystery.
ADULT/YA NON FICTION
What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World's Most Familiar Bird by Sy Montgomery (Author/Narrator) November 5, 2024
This was a delightful read. I have been fascinated by chickens ever since reading Kelly Jone's Unusual Chickens Series. I wanted to get a flock of five birds when we moved into our small town here. My husband vetoed this. Instead we get a variety of different shapes and colours of eggs from a friend's daughter. She has a large flock of different breeds of chickens who range freely inside an electric enclosure. Coyotes are a problem. We can spend time with them anytime we want. When the grandkids are in town we take them for a visit. Sarah lets them feed the birds and collect eggs.
The author and her husband adopted a dog while living in the city. They fell in love with it and eventually moved to the country so it would have more space to run around. Soon they end up with more dogs they have rescued. The country seems idyllic, but it's also a complicated place. They befriend a few pups on their neighbour's farm, only to show up one day and they are gone. The dark underbelly in this story is that dogs disappear because of the tradition of eating dogs in Korea. In their village community, there's even a dog-buying truck that travels the neighbourhood.
In an author's note we learn that that the dog meat industry wasn't banned in Korea until 2009.
I adore Keum Suk Gendry-Kim's artwork. I highly recommend this book as well as her two other two graphic nonfiction books, Grass and The Waiting.
ADULT/YA FICTION
The Mistletoe Mystery by Nita Prose & Lauren Ambrose (Narrator) October 1, 2024 🍁
I really wanted to like this book because I adored the first two in the series. This one? Not so much. To be honest, I abandoned it about half way in and skipped to read the last chapter. This is more of a romance than a mystery.
ADULT/YA NON FICTION
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| 4 stars |
This was a delightful read. I have been fascinated by chickens ever since reading Kelly Jone's Unusual Chickens Series. I wanted to get a flock of five birds when we moved into our small town here. My husband vetoed this. Instead we get a variety of different shapes and colours of eggs from a friend's daughter. She has a large flock of different breeds of chickens who range freely inside an electric enclosure. Coyotes are a problem. We can spend time with them anytime we want. When the grandkids are in town we take them for a visit. Sarah lets them feed the birds and collect eggs.
So of course I enjoyed reading about Sy Montgomery's brood of chickens. I learned a lot I didn't know about how they learn and behave. I wish there had been more. She describes a process for dealing with aggressive roosters that I had never heard of. When I told Sarah's mother about it over dinner the other night, she said it was easier to turn them into soup.
Until I read this, I had no idea it was part of a series. I'm now looking forward to reading the rest.
CURRENTLY
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond & Dion Graham (narrator) March 1, 2016
UP NEXT (MAYBE)
Hidden Truths by Elly Swartz, Jeff Ebner (Narrator) & Emily Eiden (Narrator) October 31, 2023
The Wrong Way Home by Kate O'Shaughnessy April 2, 202
The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan April 23, 2024
The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan April 23, 2024
2025 READING GOALS
NonFiction 4/30 one on the go
Poetry 0/12
Canadian Authors 7/50
Indigenous Authors 0/25
Goodreads Reading Challenge: 13/200
Canadian Authors 7/50
Indigenous Authors 0/25
Goodreads Reading Challenge: 13/200
