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. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.
I decided to write a blog post this week because I won't be doing it next Monday.
We are trying to get everything under control for a huge family reunion here this coming weekend. We have been so busy with the house and garden, that I haven't made any progress with the books I'm reading with my eyes. I'm most likely going to be returning them to the library unfinished.
In the middle of this, my husband decided we needed to have a dinner party. So we had six friends over and he cooked up a Thai food feast. Thankfully, everyone else contributed to it. A fabulous time was had by everyone.
While we were enjoying ourselves, a forest fire in Washington State jumped the border. Parts of Osoyoos, the town twenty kilometres south of us, was evacuated and/or put on evacuation alert. On Sunday as I write this, ash drifts past our windows and the sky is tinged in hints of grey and orange.
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.
CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOKS
Becker brilliantly shows the environmental devastation that accompanies human progress.
In the first few pages I thought to myself, "Look at this winding river - what dunces these people are for building here - for sure this river will flood sometime in the year." It took much longer than I expected for this to happen.
This disturbing, dystopian picture book has much to show us about our selves. Will we ever learn?
This is a gorgeous book. I can't wait to read it with my two oldest grandkids. Not only are the illustrations sublime, the section headings almost read together like poetry. I learned a lot from reading this book, and so will they.
Did you know that the largest bivalve is 1.2 meters (4 feet) across and can weigh 180 kilos (400 pounds)?
ADULT/YA FICTION
Back in Nelson the case of the missing husband gets stranger and stranger. Meanwhile, Darling ends up being sent to London to deal with the uncovered body that has ties to Nelson. Working together, Lane and Darling put together the pieces of the puzzle and rescue the sister.
The worst thing about finishing this book is having to wait a year for the next in this cosy mystery series.
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| 4 stars |
The City We Became (Great Cities, #1) by N.K. Jemisin & Robin Miles (Narrator) March 24, 2020
Right from the get go, Jemisin gobsmacked me with her world building. I shouldn't have been so wowed, because in large part, it's what sucked me in and kept me reading her Broken Earth Trilogy.
So there is fabulous world building - but it also seems like a love letter to the city of New York. The premise it that once a city gets to a certain age and size, it evolves into a living being. Most of the time one human avatar represents it, but in New York's case, the city has a main avatar, and each borough has it's own representative. I loved each and everyone of these characters. Not only does Jemisin do magnificent world building, she creates realistic characters you can't help but either love, or at the very least, empathize with.
Upon the birth of New York, the city is attacked by strange forces from a different realm. While under attack from this terrifying opponent, the borough avatars have to find each other, unite, and find the missing and damaged city avatar before the enemy does.
Holy Carumba, Steinbeck could write!
I fell in love with his writing all over again while reading this. Gary Sinise's narration might have had something to do with it.
I thought this would be fiction since that is what I associate Steinbeck with. Instead, it's a semi fictionalized travelogue. The author set out on a 10,000 mile expedition across the USA with his dog Charlie. He muses on the countryside, the people he sees, and the state of country. The last section written about New Orleans was horrific. I know my audiobook will expire soon, but no sooner did I finish this, than I started listening all over again.
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
I thought this would be fiction since that is what I associate Steinbeck with. Instead, it's a semi fictionalized travelogue. The author set out on a 10,000 mile expedition across the USA with his dog Charlie. He muses on the countryside, the people he sees, and the state of country. The last section written about New Orleans was horrific. I know my audiobook will expire soon, but no sooner did I finish this, than I started listening all over again.
CURRENTLY
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
The Mountain in the Sea by Ray NaylerUP NEXT
READING GOALS
#MustReadFiction 15/24
#MustReadNonFiction 11/20 1 in progress
Canadian Authors 27/75
Indigenous Authors 11/20
Big Books Summer 2023 - 11 - 3 in progress
Goodreads Reading Challenge: 112/200