Showing posts with label Adult Fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Adult Fiction. Show all posts

#IMWAYR May 17, 2021

Hello everyone. 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 am excited. We are picking up our new washer and dryer today!

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. 

BLOG POSTS LAST WEEK

Snooze-O-Rama: The Strange Ways That Animals Sleep Maria Birmingham & Kyle Reed (Illustrator)

Etty Darwin and the Four Pebble Problem by Lauren Soloy

Doug doesn't like hugs, so don't try to hug him. It doesn't mean he doesn't like you, he just doesn't like hugs (except from his mom.)
This is an ideal book to begin conversations about consent.

I was wowed by this duo's The Old Truck. This is even more powerful. It's got the aspect of time going by and people aging. It's got the passing on from one generation to the next. It's the focus on the environment and cleaning it up that is profound here. Thank you Linda B for introducing me to these.

5 stars

Evelyn del Rey Is Moving Away by Meg Medina & Sonia Sanchez (illustrator) September 8, 2020

Two best friends must say goodbye because one of them is moving. They enjoy their last day together until the heartwrenching end when they have to part. I was heartbroken for them until I turned the to the last page that gives readers a sneak into the future.

Seo Kim's detailed illustrations are drop dead gorgeous. A Hmong family with a young girl move into a new neighbourhood. They begin a cautious relationship with the elderly neighbours across the street. Soon twin boys are born. As the year cycles round, the young girl collects memories. She ends up sharing them with the older man after his wife dies.
As if this wasn't a wonderful enough story as it is, I discovered at the end of the book that it is essentially a true story.

Charles Darwin and his daughter Henrietta (Etty) take a walk around their gardens. They converse upon the possibilities of fairies. Check out my blog post here to read more and see images of the artwork.


I've ordered copies of this clever bedtime book for my almost four year old grandkids. Check out my blog post here to read more and see images of the gorgeous artwork.
 

Tola lives in a run-down block of apartments in the megacity of Lagos, in the country of Nigeria. In three chapters we learn what life is like for her, her sister, her brother, and Grandmommy. The first involves a visit to the market with plenty of rest stops on the way home. The next shows how the family copes when there is no water or electricity. In the third one, Tola helps out their local tailor when he breaks his leg. All of these vignettes show us a community working together and helping each other. I sure hope there are more Tola books! I adore her!


Amina (pronounced with a short vowels) returns from a summer in Pakistan where she reconnected with extended family. Back at school in September she decides to do a major presentation on Malala Yousafzai. After a mini talk, her classmates interpret the information she shares to mean that all girls in Pakistan are oppressed. There is also a cute boy who is also interested in music. 
I like Amina and her Muslim family a lot. I look forward to seeing where their story takes them next. 


While I am not generally a reader of apocalyptic novels, this one hooked me from the start. I wouldn't have expected that reading about the fallout from a global pandemic would be appropriate given the times we are living in, and yet, it is. When more than 99% of the world's population die from the 'Georgian Flue" civilizations around the world collapse. The story centers around a collection of survivors in the Great Lakes Region of Canada and America. A group of travelling actors and musicians travel around from town to town putting on performances. Although there are some truly dark patches, the book ends up leaving the reader full of hope.


My heart always feels full when I finish a Fredrik Backman novel. Ove is one of those cranky old men you can't help but love. 

NON FICTION
I went through phases of liking this book and then struggling to continue. Once it moved into looking at Tesla and Westinghouse, I became more engaged. I don't mean to take away from what Edison achieved: he was brilliant for sure. He was also vicious as all get out. Tesla is shown as a fascinating genius with no head for business. Westinghouse comes across as a decent man. When he was facing bankruptcy, Tesla helped him out by tearing up his contract with him. Tesla ended up dying in poverty. I wish Westinghouse had honored his commitments when his company was doing well again. 

DISCWORLD NOVELS

I'm so close to the end of the collection that I am reading the last few slowly and savouring each word.  

In an article in the Guardian, Patrick Ness said that his comfort read is the "Discworld by Terry Pratchett. I am always at some point through the cycle (I’m currently on The Thief of Time). They’re not only gloriously funny, they’re humane in a way that makes you actually feel seen and forgiven, with all your faults. He was a one-off, Sir Terry. When I finish reading them through, I simply put the last book down and pick the first one up again."

I suspect that's what I will do too. 

CURRENTLY 

This is what I have on the go:

We Are All Under One Wide Sky by Deborah Wiles
Constellation of the Deep by Benjamin Flouw
Becoming Duchess Goldblatt: A Memoir by Anonymous
Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett

UP NEXT

Love Is A Revolution by Renee Watson
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel 
Anne's School Days by Kallie George
Lentil Soup by Carole Tremblay, ills. Maurèen Poignonec

BLOG POSTS NEXT WEEK

Constellation of the Deep by Benjamin Flouw
We Are All Under One Wide Sky by Deborah Wiles
Anne's School Days by Kallie George
Lentil Soup by Carole Tremblay, & Maurèen Poignonec
 
PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS

#MustReadIn2021 14/25

#MustReadNFIn2021 5/12 

#MustReadPBIn2021 32/100 

Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors 16/25

Books by Canadian Authors: 51/100

Canada Reads 2021 4/5 

Discworld Series 39/41 

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 187/333

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#IMWAYR April 5, 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.


How are all your #MustReadIn2021 goals coming along? This year Leigh Anne Eck at A Day In the Life and I are taking over for Carrie Gelson at There's A Book For That. By April 23, I'll publish a page where you can post your Spring update. These updates are optional, but I have found they are a good way to keep on track.

My partner and I enjoyed a quiet anniversary dinner at home last week. We cooked together without any arguments. I guess that means that after 44 years we have almost got this marriage thing figured out. 

I haven't started back walking seriously yet, but I am spending a few hours everyday in the garden. I'm trying to get the vegetable patch weeded ASAP. My partner is itching to spread the trailer full of compost and rototill it in. I want to try and get the wild geranium and other unwanted plants somewhat under control first. If you have ever tried to manage wild geranium you will understand my frustration. It's even more persistent than creeping buttercup. The only thing I've ever dealt with that was more challenging than this was horsetail. Thankfully we don't have those here. 

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. 

BLOG POSTS FROM LAST WEEK

Tough Like Mom by Lana Button & Carmen Mok (Illustrator)

Rescue at Lake Wild by Terry Lynn Johnson

PICTURE BOOKS

5 stars

Tough Like Mom by Lana Button & Carmen Mok (Illustrator) Apr 13, 2021 🍁

In this picture book about the relationship between a girl and her single mom readers will come to ask, what does it mean to be tough?
Maybe it means that no matter how hard things are, you don't give up. Maybe it means that no matter how much you feel, you don't let the outside world know. I think it also means that when you love someone, you do what you need to do for them, even if it means asking for help.

5 stars

Ten Ways to Hear Snow by Cathy Camper & Kenard Pak (Illustrator) Oct 13, 2020

A young Lebanese girl wakes up to a world of snow. As she heads off on her way to visit her almost blind Sitti to make warak enab, (stuffed grape leaves) she focuses on the different sounds the snow makes.
The book is full of rich descriptive language and stunning illustrations. As soon as I read "No garbage trucks gulped trash across the street," I knew this book was going to be special. It lived up to my expectations. I connected to the many different sounds of snow from the scraaape, scrip, scraaape, scrip of the shovels on sidewalk, to the still quiet as the 10th way to hear snow. It almost makes me long for winter.
The only thing wrong with this book is that it doesn't include a recipe for the warak enab. 


Thomas King gives us the Columbus story from the Indigenous perspective. It's both hilarious and horrific.


Just Wow!
I want to give more stars. I want this book to win more awards.
It's a love letter to a black child that ends up being a love letter to all BIPOC children. I want to share it with my two oldest grandkids. I'm especially thinking of my half Korean granddaughter living in an environment of rising Asian racism.
Bryan Collier's illustrations are as spectacular as always. I noted the quilt imagery while reading this and appreciated his note about his grandmother's quilting at the end.

NON FICTION PICTURE BOOKS

4 stars

A Voice Named Aretha by Katheryn Russell-Brown, Laura Freeman (Illustrations) Jan 07, 2020

This is a gorgeously illustrated biography about the Queen of Soul. Laura Freeman's illustrations highlight her importance to the world of music. I appreciated the additional information in the back matter as well as the notes by the author and illustrator.

NOVELS


As satisfied as I was at the end of this, I went searching in hopes that their might be another book ready to read. Sunny and her friends are wonderful characters full of love for each other, even when they squabble. There's so much love in her family, especially since her parents have come to accept that she is part of the Leopard world. The world building is brilliant, although I did have a hard time dealing with all the spiders...


I can't decide if what I liked most about this book is the gentle love story, the acknowledgement of grief, the personal growth of the protagonist, or the descriptions of food. I loved reading about Lila Reyes' relationship with her abuela and her close knit Miami community. I only wish there was a list of recipes at the end of the book.


This book made me happy. It's been a while since I believed in so many literary characters in in one book. This story of a hostage taking is full of tenderness and humanity and humour. Ultimately it's about love in all its permutations.


The hair-raising rescue of two beaver kits grabs readers in the first few pages of this novel. The tension eases off, but the fascination with these little critters never ends.

NONFICTION


As soon as I finished listening to this book, I started it all over again. Then I decided to order a hard copy to keep and annotate.
Tanya Talaga looks at common themes that plague indigenous cultures from around the world. "From Northern Ontario to Nunavut, Norway, Brazil, Australia, and the United States, the Indigenous experience in colonized nations is startlingly similar and deeply disturbing." It is an ongoing assault on human rights and land ownership. The book is an analysis of policies that look the other way while extermination takes place. While Talaga examines historical issues, much of what she discusses is present day reality.
It's a hard read, but an immensely important one.
You can listen to it here as a collection of the Massey Lectures.

This is my second time reading Wintersmith. It's even better this time round. 
While at a secret Dark Morris dance, Tiffany ignores her mentor, Miss Treason, and ends up dancing with Winter. He gets in a muddle thinking she is Summer, and falls in love with her. In wooing her he creates snowflakes and icebergs in her image. The balance between the seasons goes off kilter as Winter prolongs his season. He brings on a blizzard that buries the mountains, the chalk and everything on it. Tiffany has some of the power of Summer. Strange things happen as plants sprout from her feet and the world turns green where she walks. Tiffany must fix the mess she has inadvertently created before everyone she knows and loves dies. Luckily she has Granny Weatherwax and the Nac Mac Feegles on her side. 

CURRENTLY 

This is what I currently have on the go:
Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett
The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

UP NEXT

My next audiobook will be The Game of Silence by Louise Erdrich,
I hope to get to The King of Jam Sandwiches by Eric Walters
I plan to read and review two Netgalley titles: On the Trapline by David A. Robertson, and Thao: A Picture Book by Thao Lam.

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS

#MustReadIn2021 7/25

#MustReadNFIn2021 3/12 one in progress

#MustReadPBIn2021 20/100

Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors 11/25

Books by Canadian Authors: 29/100

Canada Reads 2021 3/5 

Discworld Series 35/41 

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 126/333 

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