#IMWAYR July 10, 2017

#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.

Family from out of town came to visit on Sunday. My partner cooked up a pan of paella. The rest of us created tapas to accompany it. There were pitchers full of sangria. We compared favourite books and solved the problems of the world. Babies were held and passed around. Love abounded.

I'm trying really hard to get back on track with my reading goals for this year. I'm doing pretty good so far with respect to my #MustReadIn 2017 nonfiction titles, but I figure I am at least five or six behind schedule with my #MustReadIn2017 fiction list. I also need to focus on reading Canadian Indigenous authors so I manage to reach my goal of at least 50 titles this year.

But apparently, I don't have enough reading goals in my life and have joined Sue Jackson in the Big Book Challenge. I'll get a post up about this sometime this week. 

BLOG POSTS LAST WEEK

The Seven Teachings Stories by Katherena Vermette & Irene Kuziw

PICTURE BOOKS

4 stars

The Seven Teachings Stories by Katherena Vermette & Irene Kuziw

I planned to read just one book from this series, Amik Loves School. I picked it from Netgalley because of the author. I forgot about it and then it expired from my device. In order to review it, I ended up finding a copy at my library. The next thing I knew, I collected almost all of this series of readers to look at and review. The books feature Anishinaabe children in an urban setting. Each title highlights one of the sacred teachings. If you want to know more, go and read my blog post.

GRAPHIC NONFICTION

4 stars

Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi & Anjali Singh (Translator)

I think I might have enjoyed this second installment in Marjane Satrapi's memoirs more than the first. When my partner worked with an Iranian film maker for a while, we got to know a bit about the Iranian community here in our city, as well as learning a lot about the revolution. It was very interesting to experience that time vicariously through the intimate perspective of a young girl. During the war, Marjane's parents sent her away to school in Austria. When she returned neither she nor Iran were the same. It was fascinating to see the dichotomy between how people acted in the street and what went on behind closed doors.

NONFICTION

4 stars

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson 

When I am asked what kind of gift I want, I often ask for a book that that person loved. My oldest son gave me this last Christmas, so I was eager to read it. I ended up reading some of it with my eyes and listening to other parts. 

Bryson takes us through his Victorian parsonage room by room while regaling us with historical details and characters connected to each space. He primarily focuses on British and American reality, although does occasionally wander off into other places. He looks at how technology and culture have changed and influenced us over time. Some parts were more interesting than others. I liked the stories about individual events and people best. One section that stuck with me most profoundly has to do with all the creatures we share our living spaces with. I'm now terrified of flushing the toilet without the lid down. I'm trying to convince my partner that he should do all of his business sitting. I've put bleach in spray bottles in the bathroom and kitchen and spray my toothbrush, my counter tops and dishcloths with it vigilantly. I've replaced pillows. I've turned the mattress. The section on childbirth was pretty horrific too.

NOVELS

4 stars

This Would Make a Good Story Someday by Dana Alison Levy

After reading Dana Alison Levy's novels about the Family Fletcher, I was excited about this book as soon as I found out about it. 

I expected it to be good. 

I was right.

 A part of me missed that Fletcher crew, but I soon became enamoured with Sara Johnston-Fischer and her family. What a collection of marvelous characters! The story is told through Sarah's journal; postcards written by her youngest sister, Ladybug; notes written by her older sister, Laurel; and ideas penned by one of her mothers, Mimi. This coming of age novel is set on trains travelling across America after Mimi wins a trip for the whole family. The only catch is that she has to write about it, and that, much to Sara's dismay, means she wants them to tell her their thoughts, feelings, and impressions. They travel with another family whose father, another writer, also won a trip.

Levy manages to integrate considerable historical information into this entertaining read. Some of it is revealed in fun facts; others in not so fun facts. It's through the latter that readers are exposed to the darker underbelly of the history.

ADULT NOVELS

4 stars

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore & Fisher Stevens (Narrator)

If you enjoy speculative fiction filled with humour, this might be the book for you. The title pretty much describes the trajectory of the novel. An angel brings Levi, also known as Bif, back to life so that he can write about his time as best friend to Christ, known as Joshua in the novel. Imagine two teen aged boys, one who is the son of God, and the other, his horny best friend, travelling across the far east in search of knowledge as to how to become the messiah. Throw in Demons, Yeti, and plenty of sexual encounters to get a sense of what it is about. I enjoyed it at first, but then some of the humour became redundant, and I wasn't looking forward to the end. I mean, we all know how that story finishes.

CURRENTLY

I'm listening to Counting Thyme by Melanie Conklin. I really need to get to get back to these two netgalley titles, Zinnia and the Bees by by Danielle Davis and Miles Morales by Jason Reynolds. I keep forgetting about them. I've started reading with my eyes, The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch, the most recent in the Rivers of London series. I'm having a difficult time because the font is so small and I have old eyes. I need to read with a spotlight on the text.

UP NEXT

I will get to Posted by John David Anderson as soon as I have finished The Hanging Tree. I have 4 more audiobooks downloaded and ready to listen to. At least one of them, Do Not Say We Have Nothing is one of my #mustread titles. I just picked up Rose's Run by Dawn Dumont and am not sure how long I can hold out without getting to it. My next nonfiction title will be The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King.

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS

#MUSTREADIN2017 15/36 - 1 in progress

#MUSTREADNFIN2017 6/12

50 Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors 21/50

Chocolate Lily (CL) 51/51

Big Book Challenge 3/6

Goodreads Reading Challenge 220/333

#IMWAYR July 3, 2017

#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.

My family came over for my birthday celebration last week. It was the best party ever!

Aside from reading and baby minding, I've been working in the garden a fair amount. I started quilting a baby quilt, and while I'm not particularly happy with how this is turning out, I'll live with it since it is the first time I've tried this on my machine. I'm also trying to get my house cleaned and under control. (As if that will ever happen!) 

BLOG POSTS LAST WEEK

Clayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Williams-Garcia

PICTURE BOOKS

5 stars

Big Cat, Little Cat by Elisha Cooper

This beautiful book, with simple black and white illustrations, deals with the cycle of life. It is an important and necessary addition to library collections about grief and death. An older cat shows a young cat around the house and the two of them bond. I especially appreciate the page that shows the whole family having a hard time when the older cat goes away and doesn't come back. That's just how it is.

NONFICTION

4 stars

Esquivel! Space-Age Sound Artist by Susan Wood & Duncan Tonatiuh (Illustrations)

I picked up and read this book because Duncan Tonatiuh is the illustrator. Then I became fascinated by the subject matter, Juan Garcia Esquivel, a brilliant, self taught, pianist, and orchestra leader. When I first started reading I was reminded of the work by Celso Machado, a local jazz musician, who creates music from whatever is at hand. I appreciated the notes from the author and illustrator at the end. After finishing the book I went to Spotify and started listening to the music. Just WOW!

NOVELS

4 stars

Clayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Williams-Garcia

Williams-Garcia creates characters that it is impossible not to fall head over heels in love with. While I really, really miss the Gaither Sisters, Clayton Byrd is a pretty good substitute. When his grandfather, the blues guitarist, Cool Papa Byrd, dies, Clayton grieves deeply. His mother's complicated feelings about her father make this time even harder for him. After an argument between them she takes away his blues harp. In response, Clayton runs away.

ADULT NOVELS

4 stars

Glass Beads by Dawn Dumont

This story tracks four indigenous teens after they leave their reserves to live in cities away from home. This brilliant lead, "They told her that she was no one's baby which would have made her sad except that they had told her that a few times and tears don't come after a while," introduces us to Julie. Her friend Nellie works hard at school and ends up going to university and becoming a lawyer. Another friend from their reserve, Everett, grew up with his uncle's family. Taz, from a northern reserve is passionate about Indigenous politics.

A dark sadness pervades the narrative. It doesn't have the humour of Dumont's Nobody Cries at Bingo, but it does have the all encompassing love. It took me a bit to get into it, just because I had expected something more like her first book, but once I spent time with these complex characters, I was compelled to continue and find out what was going to happen to them as they come to grips with their past, deal with the racism of their present, and carve a future for themselves.

3.5 stars

The Color of Our Sky by Amita Trasi

This story of friendship wasn't the easiest book to read. Set in India, it's the story of two woman. Tara, who returns from America to search for her friend, Mukta, who was kidnapped from their home in Mumbai eleven years before. The story alternates between the two women's voices. Mukta ended up in a brothel, and many of those scenes were heartbreaking to read. I felt like I was bearing witness.

Mukta's story is based on a young girl whose mother worked for her family and was married off at 13. You can read more about this book here. 

CURRENTLY

I'm still working on Bill Bryson's At Home: A Short History of Private Life. At 497 pages, it will be a while. When I'm working I've been listening to it, and when I'm not, I'm reading it with my eyes. I've got too many books on the go! I have two netgalley titles, Zinnia and the Bees by by Danielle Davis and Miles Morales by Jason Reynolds that I'm part way through. I keep forgetting about them. I've also started This Would Make a Good Story Someday by by Dana Alison Levy.

UP NEXT

I've picked up Posted by John David Anderson, and Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi from the library, so I'm planning on getting to those. I also have three audiobooks checked out. My next adult read will be The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch. I paused almost all of my library holds so I can try and get on top of all the books I already have checked out and have at home.

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS

#MUSTREADIN2017 13/36 - 1 in progress

#MUSTREADNFIN2017 5/12 - 1 in progress

50 Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors 14/50

Chocolate Lily (CL) 51/51

Goodreads Reading Challenge 209/333

#IMWAYR April 24, 2017

Hello Everyone! 

#IMWAYR time again, when readers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to in the past week. The adult version of this meme is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. The kidlit rendition is hosted by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers. Whatever you are looking forward to in your next great read, these are fabulous places to start your search.

While I've finished up a number of novels, I have not been meeting my reading goals with regards to the Chocolate Lily titles. I really really meant to finish three from this box, but I've been busy with other things, and you know, life happens.

This photo shows one of the baby quilts I dropped off to be quilted this morning. Finishing up the back of them was a challenge because while working on the wedding quilt, my needle hit a straight pin. The pin was pushed into the cover plate and broke off one of the dodads that holds the plate in place. I had to hold it in place while I finished sewing. I still have 13 more blocks to finish on the wedding quilt. Then I just need to assemble them. As usual, everything takes much longer than I anticipated. My repair person just lives a few blocks away, so I hope to get it fixed soon. 

PICTURE BOOKS

3 stars

Feminist Baby by Loryn Brantz

This is a fun book that outlines the basics of what it means to be a feminist. I've bought two books for my grandchildren to be. I'm a hard core believer that feminism is for everyone, irrespective of gender. So while I liked this book a lot, I wish it had used gender neutral pronouns.

NONFICTION PICTURE BOOKS

5 stars

Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909 by Michelle Markel & Melissa Sweet (Illustrations)

This is a must purchase book for anyone who's raising young activists. Clara Lemlich was a union organizer and main initiator of the 1909 general strike in New York City. We can be thankful to her for the many benefits unions have ensured for all of us.

I really love that Clara wasn't deterred from her goals to improve working conditions for young female garment workers like herself. Despite police brutality, jail, and men in the union who didn't think women were strong enough, she never gave up.

She remains a relevant role model for our time.

3 stars

My House is Alive: The Weird and Wonderful Sounds Your House Makes by Scot Ritchie

The book takes us through the different sounds a house makes at night. The cartoonish illustrations show a young boy's imagination at work at the same time as he learns the science behind what is causing many different noises. It might be helpful for children who are afraid of the dark. 

NOVELS

4 stars

P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia Sisi & Aisha Johnson (Narrator)

If you have not met the Gaither sisters, you are living a deprived life. Somehow I had missed the second in the trilogy, but am delighted to have caught up. Williams-Garcia has created a memorable family full of such real people that I expect that I'll run into them on the street and chat about the old days. I am fascinated by Delphine's relationship with her mother and her father. As an eldest child myself, I sympathise with her in her dealings with her younger siblings. I've been there. Williams-Garcia immerses us in the tension, the urgency and the contradiction of the late 60's and early 70's.  Watching this family live through a time in history that I remember, although I was here in Canada and ensconced in university, is another thing I love about this book. I am desperately hoping there will be a number 4.

4 stars

Adventure on Whalebone Island by M.A. Wilson CL

This book reminded me a lot of Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. In this book, four children spend two weeks of the summer sailing on the pacific coast. They camp out on Whalebone Island for three days by themselves, and end up in the middle of more adventures than they bargained for.

This is a classic adventure story that would make a delightful read aloud. It's got ordinary children dealing with, for the most part, ordinary challenges. All these characters are authentic individuals. The adults are ideal supportive role models.

I'm not crazy about the cover, but I really enjoyed the novel.

ADULT NOVELS

4 stars

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett & Hope Davis (Narrator)

I don't have words to talk about this book here and now. While reading it I made many connections to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Maybe it's because it has been so long since that book, but Patchett's novel felt superior. Perhaps it's that there is so much going on at both macro and micro levels. The setting, her characters, and the situation are so convoluted and complex. I was gobsmacked by the ending.

I wish I could write as brilliantly about it as this review in the New York Times.

  

CURRENTLY

I put my copy of Pandas on the Eastside in a safe place when we had toddlers visiting last week, and I can't figure out where it is. It is guaranteed to be where both little and my old fingers can't find it. I'm reading Last Chance Island by Norma Charles and listening to When Friendship Followed Me Home. It feels a lot like Bridge to Terabithia. I'm going to be really ticked off if there is one more death in this book.

UP NEXT

We have an election going on here in British Columbia, and I am out working for the party of my choice. I have to carve out some time to get in some reading so I'll hold off on getting my sewing machine repaired until later in the week. I'm committing to read The MIssing Skull by John Wilson, Heart of a Champion by Ellen Schwartz, and The Griffin of Darkwood by Becky Citra.

How has your week been?

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS

#MUSTREADIN2017 9/36 

#MUSTREADNFIN2017 4/12

50 Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors 11/50

Chocolate Lily (CL) 40/52 2 in progress

Goodreads Reading Challenge 138/333

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