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

#IMWAYR October 2, 2023

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.

My husband's 70th birthday celebration a couple of weeks ago was a smashing success. 

I've just returned from a week away. I spent three days with three of my cousins celebrating all of us turning 70 this year. We had a fabulous time. 
I spent the rest of the time in Vancouver visiting with the grandkids and hanging out with friends. Alzheimers has it's grip on one of them. I stayed to be there for her 78th birthday before coming home. It is a godawful affliction.

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

4 stars

100 Snowmen by Jen Arena, Stephen Gilpin (Illustrator) November 12, 2013

I really enjoyed this book. I wish it had been available when I was teaching my elementary aged students about mathematical patterns and relationships. It took me a reread to actually identify what the pattern is, although it is laid out on the last page. (Apparently, I'm not as sharp as I used to be.) Even if kids aren't quite ready for that level of mathematics, they are sure to be entertained by the illustrations. Not only are these snowmen full of humor and sweetness, there is an almost Where's Waldo component to some pages.
What I didn't like about this book is that they are all snow men.

This continues the story of Little Wolf, an Indigenous girl learning to live in a city. In this book we meet her mother, White Raven, and learn about her experiences at residential school. This is an ideal book to read to students as we acknowledge the importance of Truth and Reconciliation. The book is somewhat text heavy, which makes it appropriate for upper elementary readers on their own. I really like Natassia Davies illustrations.

MIDDLE GRADE NOVELS

4 stars

From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks January 14, 2020

I'm late to the Zoe Washington party, but I won't be leaving anytime soon. (The second in this series was published in February of 2023.)
When she gets a letter from Marcus, her incarcerated father, she doesn't tell her mother about it. With her Grandmother's help, Zoe starts up a correspondence with him.
He asserts he is innocent of the murder he was charged with, and tells her of his alibi. Zoe and her next door neighbour end up in trouble with their parents when they set off to find her.
This book is rich with authentic characters dealing with serious issues. It's also got a lot of cooking!
I'm really looking forward to the next in the series!

4.5 stars

The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead, Wendy Mass, Christopher Gebauer (Narrator) & Jennifer Blom (Narrator) August 29, 2023

Even though I figured out a number of plot details before they were revealed, I kind of adored this book. It's told from three perspectives: Evan, a boy who is growing up in the same town as his father grew up in; AL who was a librarian assistant in the library that burned down mysteriously 20 years previously; and Mortimer, an aging cat. When AL sets up a free library, Mortimer stands watch over it. Then Evan finds books checked out by his father and a mysterious character calling himself H.G. Higgens. Evan soon figures out that his father was an intern at the library and was suspected of starting the fire and is determined to find out who really started it. 

ADULT/YA FICTION


This was a book club suggestion. It was a delightful surprise! I devoured it and started the second immediately afterwards.
It's about a group of spies who have been kicked out of the main MI5 building into a ramshackle building (Slough House) where their future is never ending desk duty. Each of them has screwed up in some way. In spite of this, they have their own particular brilliance. It's especially true of Jackson Lamb, the head of their cohort. In the end, it's the Slow Horses who rescue a kidnapped Pakistani teen who has been kidnapped by white right wing radicals. 
This spy novel is populated with authentic characters and riveting plots. It is as convoluted and full of machinations as any of the John Le Carré novels I have read and loved. It is also screamingly hilarious. 


By the end of the second book in this series I figured out that at least one of the characters in each book was going to die. I was correct. It did not stop me from enjoying it at all. When a former spy dies under suspicious circumstances, but the pros at Regent Park (MI5 headquarters) overlook this, Jackson Lamb sets out sleuthing. It turns out to be connected to another project that two members of his team have been seconded to work on. 
I'm waiting for the next one to become available. Don't you love it when you discover a series that has been around for a while and you don't have to wait for what seems like forever for the next book?

This sequel to Jemisin's The City We Became, is a brilliant as the first. I really appreciated getting to know the original characters better and am still fascinated by the avatars of the other cities we are introduced to here.
I will read whatever N.K. Jemisin writes!

ADULT/YA NON FICTION


This book is brilliantly written. Not only does Siddhartha Mukherjee make complicated topics easy to comprehend, he is a remarkable story teller. I was fascinated from start to finish and didn't want the book to end.
Aside from all the details about cellular biology, I also appreciated his references to Indian mythology and how they were integrated into the science.

5 stars

The Good Virus: The Amazing Story and Forgotten Promise of the Phage by Tom Ireland & Ben Deery (Narrator) July 19, 2023

I have ordered this and the previous nonfiction book above, so that I have my own copies of them. 
Have you ever heard of phages? I think I had, but wow, by the time I finished this I felt like I'd entered into a new and parallel world. Tom Ireland begins by introducing readers to the original discovery of the world of phages and how they were first used. He integrates their success and failure in social and political contexts. I really appreciated how he painstakingly takes us across time to finally show us what is going on today in the realm of phage research and medical use. 
I've recommended this to be our bookclub read for next month. I hope they enjoy it as much as I did. I would start it all over again except that I've downloaded The Perfect Predator: A Scientist's Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug, another book about phages.

CURRENTLY

Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation by Andrew Stobo Sniderman, Douglas Sanderson & Greg Rogers (Narrator) August 30, 2022

Four Faces of the Moon by Amanda Strong June 8, 2021

UP NEXT 

The Perfect Predator: A Scientist's Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug by Steffanie Strathdee & Thomas Patterson

I'm also going to tackle a pile of picture books

READING GOALS 

#MustReadFiction 16/24 one in progress

#MustReadNonFiction 14/20

Canadian Authors 35/75 

Indigenous Authors 17/20 

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 148/200 
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#IMWAYR July 18, 2022

Welcome readers! It's #IMWAYR time again, when bloggers share what they have been reading and find out what others have beouten 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. 

Life is as back to normal as it gets around here. The living room has been cleaned of all grandchildren related clutter. It has been replaced by wood flooring. My partner is refurbishing the stairwell to the front door and basement. The carpet was removed a while ago and now he has replaced the banisters and is putting hardwood flooring on the steps and foyer entrance to the house. It looks gorgeous. 


I finished adding a few inches to the sleeves of this sweater and will post it this week. I made four matching ones but didn't take a picture of them before sending them off.

My neighbour gave me some chartreuse patterned fabric she had planned to sew up for her granddaughters (who are now in their late teens.) So I am working on matching dresses for the granddaughters. I have some similar fabric in a teal green that I will use to make something for the grandson. 

So far I have harvested about 25 pounds of raspberries from the patch and there are probably another 5 pounds left before I cut out those canes. Meanwhile the new canes are flowering in anticipation for the late summer harvest. Aside from making raspberry wine, I'm not sure what I will do with all these berries. Maybe I will just make more wine. 

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 

4 stars

Mommy's Hometown by Hope Lim & Jaime Kim (Illustrator) April 12, 2022

After listening to his mothers stories about growing up in a rural countryside, a young boy is surprised by the large city that has replaced it. What I found most fascinating about this book is that other than the Korean characters on the buildings, this could be a large city anywhere in the world.
The digitally created illustrations are rich in colour and light. While the differences between the two landscapes are vast, the river continues to run through it all, and the boy and his mother are still able to explore it and find treasures.

MG NOVELS


I wish Marsha Skrypuch had been around when I was a youngster learning about the history of the world. Traitors Among Us is part of her WW2 series and a sequel to her books, Don't Tell the Nazis & Trapped in Hitler's Web. I am always invested in her characters and this one is no different. 
Two Ukrainian sisters, Krystia and Maria, have managed to survive the war, and wait in a refugee camp in the American zone. Then some Red Army soldiers arrive and take them and a few other of their roommates back to a house in the Russian zone. They are to be interrogated for their activities during the war.
Right from the get go this book is hair raising. A young mother and her baby are shot by soldiers when they try to escape. The group are subject to horrifying conditions. Then they are tortured to force them to sign false confessions.
A few of them are released and helped by Brigid, who cooks for the Red Army. They manage to incapacitate the soldiers at the house with drug laced linzer cookies, and rescue the remaining captives.
A note by the author at the end of the book reveals more information about the people this book is based on, and more about the actual death camps created by the Russians after the war.


A clan of four inch nomes is forced to leave their dangerous forest home before they all end up dead. One of them, Masklin, devises a plan to try and save them. They sneak aboard a truck and end up in a department store where they are introduced to a colony of other nomes. These other nomes have developed a rich and layered society based on the goings on of the store. They believe it was created especially for them. The nomes from outside bring a sacred 'thing.' When it is surrounded by electricity, it begins to talk to them. They discover that the store is soon to be demolished. Masklin comes up with a plan for how to save them all. It just depends on a crew of nomes figuring out how to drive a delivery truck. 

Pratchett's writing goal was “to take that which is familiar and everyday and therefore no more seen, and pick it up and turn it around and show it to the reader from a new point of view, so that once again they see it for the first time.”
I think that ten year olds will enjoy this novel, but it is older readers who will truly appreciate the satire and humour and once again see the world for the first time.

YA NOVELS


Set in Joseon Dynasty Korea in 1758, this is based on the true story of Crown Prince Sado, an untouchable serial killer. 
"There are few options available to illegitimate daughters in the capital city, but through hard work and study, eighteen-year-old Hyeon has earned a position as a palace nurse. All she wants is to keep her head down, do a good job, and perhaps finally win her estranged father's approval."
Then four women are brutally murdered. Hyeon's friend and mentor is accused of the crime. To clear her name Hyeon ends up involved in a clandestine investigation with Eojin, a young police inspector. 
Their questioning sets them against a corrupt legal system that protects the royal family at all costs. The unravelling of the mystery is fascinating. The slow build up of the romantic aspect of the story is brilliantly done. 
I have become a fan of June Hur's writing and read everything she has published so far. She integrates brilliant characters into complex mysteries set against a backdrop of Korean history, religion, culture and class structure. 
The worst thing about finishing this book is that June Hur's next novel isn’t scheduled for release until 2024.

I liked this well enough. It's just that after finishing up a couple of nonfiction titles that went deep into their subjects (An Elegant Defence by Mat Richtel and Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake) I wanted more. I suspect I would have appreciated this better if I had read it first. It is a very readable, fairly comprehensive, overview of how our body works and the history behind how we have come to know what we do about it.

CURRENTLY

Three Women and A Boat by Anne Younson
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

UP NEXT

I'm hoping to get to these two next week. Other than that, I brought a lot of books home from the library this week!
The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner  🍁
Macy Mcmillan And The Rainbow Goddess by Shari Green  🍁


READING GOALS

#MustReadFiction 15/24

#MustReadNonFiction 11/18 one in progress

Canadian Authors 43/100 

Canada Reads shortlist 5/5 

Indigenous Authors 12/25

2022 Big Book Summer Challenge 5 

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 167 /250
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#IMWAYR June 20, 2022

Welcome readers! 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. 


While I'm not yet back up to my pre Covid energy levels, I am hardly coughing at all these days! My garden is almost under control. If the rain ever holds off, I'm pretty sure that I will finish weeding the out of control areas just in time to start all over again. 

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 

5 stars

A Blue Kind of Day by Rachel Tomlinson & Tori-Jay Mordey (Illustrations) April 5, 2022

This is an important book that addresses childhood depression. It is gorgeous to looks at. Tori-Jay Mordey's artwork fills readers up with empathy for Coen's experience of being blue. I appreciated the author's note in the back matter on childhood depression and helping children deal with emotions.

This is a beautiful book that celebrates the freedom of summer holidays in the Brooklyn neighbourhood where the author grew up. Its full of joyful energy that took me back to wild carefree summers of my own youth in the small town where I come from.

NON FICTION PICTURE BOOKS 

5 stars


Ablaze with Color: A Story of Painter Alma Thomas by Jeanne Walker Harvey & Loveis Wise (Illustrations) February 22, 2022

I knew nothing about Alma Thomas (or Loveis Wise, the illustrator of this book) until reading this picture book biography. Jeanne Walker Harvey introduces readers to Alma Thomas, an African American artist who taught art to children in Washington DC. When she was 70, she began to focus on her own art. She was the first black woman to have her own show at the Whitney Museum in New York City and to have her work chosen for the White House collection. I love how Loveis Wise's artwork integrates Alma Thomas style into the illustrations for this book. 
I encourage everyone to do a google search of both their work.

ADULT NOVELS 

4 stars

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune & Daniel Henning (Narrator)
This sweetly sappy gay romance absolutely delighted me. Linus Baker, a caseworker at the Department of Magical Youth, ends up on a month long top secret assignment at Marsyas Island Orphanage. While he is there he falls in love with the ocean, the island, the children, and Arthur Parnassus, their caretaker.
While this is a satisfying light read, it's full of important messages about the consequences of othering people who are different from us.

ADULT NON FICTION

5+ stars

An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives by Matt Richtel March 12, 2019

This is an intimate, conversational, overview of the evolving science of how our immune systems works. Richtel integrates the science into the stories of four individuals. 
The most important thing about this book is how readable it is.
He talks about the immune system within the contexts of the AIDs crisis, the consequences of overusing antibiotics, the role of autoimmunity and allergies, and cancer treatments.
Readers will learn a lot from this book. The most important takeaway about how to build a strong immune system is to eat food that gets dropped on the floor. Getting a proper sleep and avoiding stress are equally important. Also, smoking is bad, bad, bad. 
He shows how dangerous our overuse of antibiotics is, explaining that, "Bacteria are passing back-and-forth among themselves a genetic code that allows them to fend off attacks from antibiotics. In fact, bacteria that are under attack from antibiotics can effectively call out to their fellow bacteria for help (Send me some protective genetic material!) and the resistance can be transferred."
In the last chapter he talks about what our immune system has to teach us about living our lives. There are important messages about accepting and celebrating diversity. "Our survival, as individuals and as a species, is best served by cooperation. This may sound obvious, but civilization, even of late, has been dominated by the push and pull of our competing instincts to cooperate and alienate, to see what people share in common or prey on what divides them. The lesson of the immune system is that the better able we are to find common ground, the more allies and weapons we have to contend with a greater, common foe."
Highly Recommended!


Clarence Louie is Chief of the Osoyoos Indian Band near where I live. I read this book to learn more about him and the Syilx people, the original inhabitants of this land. In his thirty six years as Chief, he has worked hard to create meaningful, well paying jobs for his people. His business focused leadership has paid off big time.

The band website states:
"The Osoyoos Indian Band currently has 540 members. Because of their work ethic and our diversified investments, unemployment on the reserve is not only less than 3%, but 20% of these band members are in senior positions.
Over the last 6 years, OIBDC group revenues have increased 70% and now sit at $28.2M spanning thirteen different lines of business. Commercial leasing (38%), tourism (20%) and construction related services (14%) contribute the most to OIBDC’s bottom line."

Although I don't see myself as belonging to any group, my grandmother was Menomenie from Wisconsin. Because of this, I've been reading about Indigenous history here in Canada and the United states since my 20's. I only mention this because much of the history Clarence Louie writes about isn't new to me. What is new is what this history means to him and his world view. I also appreciated learning more about the specific history of Syilx here in the valley, and the Osoyoos band in particular - especially with regards to the shameful reserve debacle.
This book is about Louie's perspective of leadership and how the band has come to this remarkable measure of success. Louie believes in the healing power of work. I wondered a bit about his focus on full time employment because I have friends and family with mental and physical health problems who can't manage this - it ends up making them sicker. Yet I see a lot of validity in his thinking - especially with regards to his statement that when you hit a certain age you should either 1. have a full time job, 2. be going to school, or if you can't do either of those, 3. be in counselling. After finishing this book I'm pretty sure that he would be able to make accommodations for people like my friends.
I have a few other quibbles where his focus seems to be one sided, but absolutely none of it takes away from what Clarence Louie has accomplished. Ultimately he's become a master of manipulating business and capitalism on behalf of the people he loves. It's a remarkable legacy.

CURRENTLY

Satellite Love by Genki Ferguson  🍁

The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton

UP NEXT 

Worser by Jennifer Ziegler

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel  🍁

READING GOALS

#MustReadFiction 12/24 

#MustReadNonFiction 11/18 

Canadian Authors 32/100 one in progress

Canada Reads shortlist 5/5 

Indigenous Authors 12/25

2022 Big Book Summer Challenge 2  

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 141 /250
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#IMWAYR May 16, 2022

Welcome readers! 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. 

It's been three weeks since my last update. In the middle of that time I ended up getting my heart fixed. I had paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (electrical issues). I went into the hospital at 11 am for a heart ablation and my husband picked me up at 6 pm to take me home. Isn't modern medicine amazing! 

Has it been as cold a spring where you are as it is here? Temperatures are below average and the forecast is for more of this. In spite of the chill we are thankful for the rain. I did get some tomatoes in the ground and hope to get the rest of the garden planted this week no matter what!

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 

5 stars

I Am You: A Book about Ubuntu by Refiloe Moahloli & Zinelda McDonald (Illustrator) February 1, 2022

This book makes me happy. I would purchase at least 2 copies if I was still working in the library. This unifying idea is one whose time has come! Thanks to Myra at Gathering Books for introducing it to us. 
"Ubuntu means "I am, because you are". In fact, the word ubuntu is just part of the Zulu phrase "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu", which literally means that a person is a person through other people. Ubuntu has its roots in humanist African philosophy, where the idea of community is one of the building blocks of society. Ubuntu is that nebulous concept of common humanity, oneness: humanity, you and me both."

5 stars

Little Witch Hazel: A Year in the Forest by Phoebe Wahl September 21, 2021

I loved this book so much I read it twice. Little Witch Hazel is a witch in manner of Terry Pratchett's witches. She is a kind of community health nurse who looks after the inhabitants of the forest where she lives. This collection of four stories to match the seasons are full of humour, delight, wonder and courage.

4 stars

Out of a Jar by Deborah Marcero February 8, 2022

In an effort to avoid conflict and trouble, Llewellyn puts all their emotions into jars. When excitement and joy end up in jars, Llewellyn has to find a way to deal with all their emotions in healthy ways.

4 stars

Daddy Speaks Love by Leah Henderson & E.B. Lewis (Illustrations) January 4, 2022

This book shows diverse groups of fathers showing love to their children in many different ways. What they all have in common is their support for love, for diversity, and their kids.

Unfortunately this book was not translated into English.
My granddaughter and I still enjoyed looking at the images and trying to figure out what the story might be all about.
I had fun reading this book with my two year old granddaughter. After admiring the endpapers full of mother and baby animals, she looked at the pages just long enough to see what the action was and proceeded to show me how she could do it.
Each two page spread shows an infant animal doing something beside a human child doing the same action. Each spread has two words like, Calves swim, Porcupines nibble.
We both enjoyed this book a lot, but I would suggest you don't try reading it just before bed.

NON FICTION PICTURE BOOKS 


This is an introduction to the life of Mary Anning, the Mother of Palaeontology. Maris Wicks artwork is just perfect. My almost 5 year old granddaughter was fascinated by the end papers. The ones in the front of the book are skeletons while the ones at the back are the artists rendition of what they might have looked like in life.
I thought the main part of the book was a bit short on details. Still, the back matter contains extra information about her and the different animals she found.

NON FICTION GRAPHIC


"Grass is a powerful antiwar graphic novel, telling the life story of a Korean girl named Okseon Lee who was forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War."
A number of years ago my Korean daughter in law and I went to a documentary on the Comfort Women. Her grandmother had told her about them. In the documentary, some were Korean, but others were from China. Wherever the Japanese invaded, young girls were kidnapped and turned into sex slaves. They are still waiting for an apology from the Japanese government. 
As Suk Gendry-Kim gives voice to one woman's experience, she validates the reality of the other women who experienced those horrors.  
 
While this is an adult book, I would purchase it for my high school library. 



This is the perfect example of how the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts. It's poetry, painting, and collage integrated in a way that becomes a new hybrid of artistic expression. On the surface it's the story of a black family living through the Covid pandemic. It goes much deeper than this.
I tried it as an audiobook ages ago, but abandoned it because, even without having seen the book, the words alone were not enough. Without the synthesis of the words and visual art, it just doesn't work. While there really are not that many words, it still took me a couple of days of picking the book up, reading some, letting it percolate, then reading a bit more and letting it percolate, before finally finishing it.
I would like to have a digital version where the text is read by the authors as you turn the pages.

NOVELS

4 stars

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Peach Pie by Erin Soderberg Downing & Lu Banks (Narrator) April 6, 2021

The Peach family have been struggling since the death of their mother and wife. Lucy has taken on most of the responsibility for her younger siblings while her father has abandoned his children and sunk himself into his work. When he is forced to take a sabbatical, he purchases a food truck and decides that they will fulfill one of their mother's dreams by travelling around the country in a food truck.
They all have a lot of learning to do to make the trip a success and win the big prize of $10,000 at the food truck fair in Delaware, Ohio. The best prize of all is, after a lot of challenges, learning how to be a family again.
I really liked this family. Ok, so a lot of the time I wanted to smack the father over the head, but he turns out to be ok at the end. Lucy, Freddy, and Herb are realistic characters. I especially connected to Lucy. As the oldest child in a large family, when disaster struck, I learned what it's like to parent my siblings (and my parents).

4 stars

The Graveyard Riddle (Goldfish Boy #2) by Lisa Thompson & Rosie Jones (Narrator) January 7, 2021

There is A LOT going on in this book!
Melody, Matthew and Jake are three friends. They go through the usual friend issues, but have bigger problems to deal with.
Melody's mother has put their house up for sale and refuses to consider talking to the father about financial support.
Jake is being bullied by one of the teachers at school. It isn't until the teacher ignores Jake's allergic reaction and ensuing anaphylactic shock, that his behaviour is dealt with.
Melody befriends Hal, a boy hiding out in the Graveyard. He tells her he is a spy for MI8 and weaves such a compelling story that she believes him. He even manages to persuade Matthew and Jake of his story. When the children finally deduce what is going on with Hal, it's a heart wrenching tale.

As gorgeous as the cover of this book is, the story inside is even more stunning.
Bitter grew up in foster care. Life was hard until she was chosen to attend Eucalyptus, a special school for artistic teens. Eucalyptus is situated in the town of Lucille, a community ruled by a corrupt billionaire, city leaders and police. Protests are ongoing and the only thing that seems to arise from them is more injury and death of the protestors. The Asata are a significant group that leads these protestors. When a close friend loses an eye after one of the altercations, Bitter uses her blood magic to bring forth Vengeance, an angel of death, who she hopes will stop the corrupt leadership and bring peace to Lucille. Soon an army of 'angels' joins with some of the protestors to hunt and kill Lucille's leadership.
Bitter and other protestors are opposed to this plan for murder and have to figure out how to stop them before it's too late.
While I was reading this I couldn't help but make a connection between The Black Power Movement of 1960's and 70's and The Asata. Both groups supported their community in many different ways.
In the end this book is a profound look into the difference between good and evil.


This was a reread for my book club. It was as profound, if not more so, the second time round.
If you want to understand what went on in the residential ‘school’ system and the ramifications for survivors, this is your book. Even though I was aware of the horror of these places, Michelle Good's story of five survivors brought my understanding of this violence against culture, families and children into a deeper understanding.

5 stars

The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club, #2) by Richard Osman &  Lesley Manville (Narrator) September 16th 2021

I enjoyed this book even more than the first in the series, and I loved the first!
Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron are back. This time the octogenarians have to find 20 million dollars in stolen diamonds and figure out who murdered two MI5 agents. 
As we get to know about the backgrounds of these characters, I adore them even more. It's a reminder to me of how many stories my elderly neighbours have inside them.


I listened to this book, but should probably have read it with my eyes. It's full of fascinating information about the multiple biomes that exist inside and around all things on the planet. I left this book aware of the immense complexity of the microscopic organisms that rule our world. If you are a fan of science nonfiction, read this. It will change the way you think about the world.

5 stars

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber, David Wengrow & Mark Williams (Narrator) October 19, 2021

This is a brilliant book that shakes up what we have been taught about the history of humanity. Highly recommend!

CURRENTLY

Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Didion, Joan
Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune

UP NEXT 

Cold by Mariko Tamaki
Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives by Matt Richtel

READING GOALS

#MustReadFiction 11/24 

#MustReadNonFiction 6/18 

Canadian Authors 28/100

Canada Reads shortlist 5/5 

Indigenous Authors 11/25

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 113/250
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