Category: Review

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Book Diversions Reading Review

Bookish – C & D

Though actually only about the digressions…

In the A & B post I mentioned the TPL 2025 Reading Challenge. So I’m going to try and do that.

There was also this thing on social media to read 12 books recommended by 12 friends. So I’m also going to try and do that.

Those are both “2025 goals.”

I also bought two “scratch off” posters: 100 Essential Novels and 100 Challenging Novels. There is no time limit on these ones!

I’m still trying to mostly read my shelves but occasionally, as I am sure to no one’s great surprise, I get sidetracked.

First: McFadden, Freida: The Widow’s Husband’s Secret Lie. When someone in the TPL fb group mentioned this one I giggled for a while. I had to read it. Listen actually because it’s an audiobook. It was ridiculous. Intentionally. It’s a satire full of all the usual whodunit tropes. McFadden has written dozens of books so it works for the TPL category: a book by an author who has written 25 or more books.

And then Rogers, Janet: Ego of a Nation. TPL category: a book of Canadian poetry. I’m not sure where I heard about her but she is a Mohawk/Tuscarora writer from the Six Nations band here in Ontario. Poetry is not one of my usual genres and I think I just put it on hold as soon as I found it so I wouldn’t forget. I’m glad I did.

And then the big diversion: Lewis, Sinclair: It Can’t Happen Here. When I finished it I noted that it took me 38 days to read about 380 pages. It was written in 1935. The language has changed enough since then that it isn’t quite the same; large parts of it are the same. It’s all just a little bit different too. And I read slowly. Like really slowly.

And then, of course you have the fact that I had to take breaks while reading it. You know, a break after reading the part about the intellectuals fleeing the US to come to Canada. A break after the dissidents were all rounded up into “not concentration camps”. A break after the book burnings. And so on. And it broke my heart so much that when it was done I walked down to the library on a cold dark rainy night, so I could return it and get it out of my house.

And I couldn’t read anything else at the same time for fear I wouldn’t have the nerve to get back to it. So yea. That was a bit of a side-quest from the reading.

Maybe that’s enough for today and I’ll actually get to C & D in another post…. but I’m going to leave the title lol

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Book Diversions Reading Review

Bookish – A & B

October 2024 to January 2025

Yea, I made it to N I think by May 2024. Then fell out of reading again. And clearly out of blog-posting too.

In October 2024 I started the alphabet again; Toby says he’d switch his surname to Allen or something to be sure I would read whatever he wrote lol

Anyway, just a list to catch up with a line or two if I remember anything:

Allan, Clare: Poppy Shakespeare – it centres on day patients at a mental health facility in the UK. It was short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award in 2006. It was really well done I think. And it’s been made into a movie.

Adams, Douglas: The Salmon of Doubt – This was okay but not great. I mean, lovely to find out I was right to like the guy and made me sad he was gone so soon. But I love his fiction best of all. This was also Book 1 of 2025. My goal at the outset was 25 in 2025 just to be sure I got back into reading again. I don’t think I’ll have any difficulties with this goal.

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi: We Should All Be Feminists – Yes, yes we should. An amazing short read. I borrowed it from the Toronto Public Library.

Barry, Kevin: Night Boat to Tangier – I bought this out of the “last chance” box at Book City ages ago I think. I’m going to use it for the TPL 2025 Reading Challenge in the “A book with an unethical main character” category lol. Dark and emotional.

Burton, Jessie: The Miniaturist – Set in seventeenth century Amsterdam, this is not my usual read at all. I quite liked it though. Also a good example of why I don’t like reading reviews by “regular people.” Half of them “so unrealistic, she would never be so worldly in 1690 Amsterdam” and the other half “how the heck did she not realise X before she was forced to? I mean, how stupid is she.” Sigh.

Bradbury, Ray: The Halloween Tree – I hadn’t read this before. It was pretty nifty. A sort of children’s horror story. No photo. I got this one from the Library too.

I’ll update C and D (Feb – May 2025 with a HUGE break while I read – and took forever reading – It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis) soon I swear.

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Book Diversions Reading Review

Bookish – E

Again – 2 instead of 3. I started reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco but then I remembered I am trying to read things I haven’t read before with an eye to whether I want to keep or give away. And well, I am NOT getting rid of my Folio Edition of The Name of the Rose!

A red hardcover book with thorn covered vines reaching towards the top from the bottom. Runes (astrological signs?) across the top.

So on we go…

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Storygraph tags: fiction lgbtqia+ literary; emotional reflective slow-paced

One of those books that travels along with someones life and it’s ups and downs and family histories and family secrets and the problems that always happen when people keep all those secrets.

At the time I posted on socials: I really love reading books about lives so different than mine. I know it’s a famous book (the damn cover says it won the Pulitzer after all) but I had no idea what I was in for. It was just beautiful and full of heart. So there you go.

I didn’t keep it though because I knew I wasn’t going to read it again. I think I put it in a local little free library. (It was almost a year ago. Sigh).

Cover of Middlesex; two adults and 2 children on the deck of a boat looking as they approach land.

The Sentence by Louise Erdich

The Storygraph tags: fiction contemporary literary; emotional reflective medium-paced

I liked this but not as much as I probably would have if I hadn’t been caught up in one of the blurbs saying “a wickedly funny ghost story.” I’m not sure I got the humour then.

I donated this to one of the local free libraries.

Cover of The Sentence - colour blocked, mostly triangles, some beaded triangles; colours are reminiscent of the Indigenous medicine wheel colours.
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Book Diversions Reading Review

Bookish – 3 Ds uhm 2D

Oh I am so behind on this. And I wondered, do I continue with the Ds (where I stopped blogging about it) or jump to the Ks (the books I just finished up). I waffled. As expected. So I thought I would try to write the Ds and if it still came easily then I could keep going and if not then I would jump to the more recent. Let’s see what happens!

It definitely helps that I log everything I read – again, sometimes late but always eventually! I used to use goodreads but then I discovered it was owned by amazon now and I discovered The Storygraph at about the same time so I use that now.

And it turns out I only read 2 Ds. Oops

First up:

Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline

The Storygraph tags: fiction fantasy horror challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Sooo good. So so good. I really enjoyed it and will definitely be keeping this on the shelf until The Mighty Q is a bit older. I think he’d really like the story though he’s still at an age where explicit sex scenes are “no thank you very much” and there is at least one that he would not appreciate at all.

And the other D… I swear, what the hell happened that I didn’t read three? Or at least didn’t log three. Maybe I’ll go stare at the shelf a little bit…

Nope didn’t help. If I read another D author I tossed the book. But I am guessing I just read 2 instead of 3.

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt

This I bought years ago from the remainder bin at the City Hall branch of the Toronto Public Library.

A picture of Toronto's city hall
By Arild Vågen – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62687550

My arrow shows where the library is; though you still enter through the main City Hall doors in the middle

The Storygraph tags: fiction historical adventurous emotional medium-paced

Again, not a usual choice for me. I am not a big fan of westerns. I mean they’re okay and all but not my usual jam. Holy hell this was good. Funny and also so so sad and funny. Toby said he watched the movie and it was very good. The book was too.

Definitely good enough that I picked up another one by DeWitt from a little free library.

Okay well, I definitely remembered enough to write about the Ds so I will just keep catching up.

Do you have a favourite author whose name starts with D? Toby might pick Roald Dahl or Phillip K. Dick. I’m partial to Dickens – he wrote amazingly well AND was a lefty 😉 And if I’m feeling pretentious I will lay claim to Dostoevsky as well.

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Book Diversions Reading Review

Bookish – 3 Cs

I am a little behind on this too! But catching up on posts is kinda fun in a way… These were all read in 2022! Oops

In Cold Blood : A true account of a multiple murder and its consequences by Truman Capote

The Storygraph key words: nonfiction classics crime true crime adventurous dark tense slow paced

Me: This is one of those books I’ve actually had for ages but couldn’t remember actually reading. It was really interesting to see how Capote told the story with the various viewpoints and shifting the narrative around. However now that I’ve read it, I’ve handed it off to my dad who also hasn’t ever read it. So it’s out of the house!

The Wealthy Barber: The common sense guide to successful financial planning by David Chilton

The Storygraph key words: nonfiction business informative fast paced

Me: It was pretty good for a financial book written in the late ’90s 😉 The basics are good and tie in nicely with my supposed focus on being more mindful with money. It talks about “paying yourself first” (we have automatic RRSP/TFSA account contributions on top of our workplace group plans) and those kinds of basics. I also have the sequel somewhere in the house but it can wait I guess: I’ve had this one for years and years. It went into a local free library as soon as I was done.

Nosy Parker: by Lesley Crewe

The Storygraph key words: fiction historical emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Me: this was a fun read. It takes place in Montreal during the expo. You definitely get the idea that family is what you make – friends become family and the “ideal family” just doesn’t exist. It’s told from the perspective of a middle-school-aged kid. I was a little nervous about this but it was actually quite good and not at all cutesy (as I feared). I gave this away on our local free group on FB ’cause I knew I wasn’t gonna read it again.