w/o January 7 to 13, 2022

[❀ Susan]

Good morning readers and my apology for our late thread today!

It is frosty and cold in Ontario as we hunker down to keep safe from wave 5. We can’t control the virus but we can certainly try and use our time for more reading!!

What have you started off 2022 reading? What is next?

Have a wonderful week and stay safe!!

[Petra]

Happy New Year everyone!
It's been quite awhile since I've posted. I decided to make most of my gifts this Christmas and, boy, did that take up my time. I barely read anything in the last couple months of the year.

This week I finished a few books from last year:
First Degree - I really like this character driven mystery series. It's an easy reading, relaxing read with humour and warmth.
Moms - a disappointing graphic novel. The author states, in the epilogue, that this was meant to be funny.....but it's not. These women (his mom & her friends) are portrayed as wanting nothing more than a rich man to take care of them. That's their goal in life. It's sad and the story is mean at times.
The Chimes - we all know A Christmas Carol. I thought I'd read another of Dickens' Christmas Stories. I'm glad I did. This one was interesting and full of meaning. It's a New Year's Story, so a fun follow-up to A Christmas Carol.

I'm making good progress and enjoying the last of The Transylvania Trilogy, They Were Divided.

[✿✿✿May]

Happy New Year!
I read a bit less last year, but finished off achieving my goal with audiobooks and rom-coms, LOL!
For 2022, I plan to again read what I feel, which means historical fictions, mysteries and rom-coms. I just need something to escape from this COVID universe, sigh....
Just finished Lovely War, which I really enjoyed. Currently reading Lying in Wait

[Allison ༻hikes the bookwoods༺]

Petra wrote: "The Chimes - we all know A Christmas Carol. I thought I'd read another of Dickens' Christmas Stories. I'm glad I did. This one was interesting and full of meaning. It's a New Year's Story, so a fun follow-up to A Christmas Carol."

I read The Chimes a few years ago. So happy you enjoyed it. I did too.

[Allison ༻hikes the bookwoods༺]

Happy New Year!

I am currently reading three books. I am just about done reading The Flight Attendant, which I'm rather disappointed with thus far. Many reviews called it a "page-turner" that you "can't put down." This has not been my experience!

I am also reading Amanda Gorman's new poetry collection, Call Us What We Carry, which Santa brought me.

I am listening to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue for book club, but with no daily drive, I'm not sure how I'm going to get through it. Like many across the country, we are back to working from home.

[Susan]

Happy Friday!

This week I finished We Want What We Want. These stories really worked for me! I also read Astonishing Splashes of Colour, which was an odd novel because the blurb and title implied it was about a woman with synesthesia but that was a very minor part of the story. It was really about loss, grief, and family secrets. I enjoyed it.

I'm currently reading Tales from the Heart: True Stories from My Childhood, Amora: Stories, and Olga Dies Dreaming.

[Gail]

Happy New Year!! Last year I planned to check in here about once a month, and I made about three months and then things fell apart. I'm going to try again.

This week has been super cold here in Alberta, so I've been staying inside and reading. I started the year off with Rabbit Foot Bill...short, but very good. Next was Bomb Girls: Trading Aprons for Ammo, which is a very interesting history of the WWII munitions plant at Scarborough, Ontario. Then I read The Victory Garden...a light historical romance set in WWI. I am now reading Paula...sorry, I can't get it to link the English translation, but this is the memoir by Isabel Allende about the death of her daughter.

[Allison]

Hi folks! Happy new year!

I ended 2021 with And Miles to Go Before I Sleep. A good story, but nothing like the beloved And The Birds Rained Down by the same author, in my opinion. The skills of that translator are really amazing with such beautiful and unique writing!

I started Jan with What Strange Paradise which I’ll finish this weekend. It is a short and engaging story, and I’ve been looking forward to getting back to it each time I put it down.

Not sure what I’ll start next but it’ll be a short one, as the Canada Reads long list should be out soon & I always get going on that asap! 😁

[Julia]

It's been very snowy here on the island (for the island, I should clarify) and I've been back to work so I've been mostly reading things for my job (Mohawk Saint: Catherine Tekakwitha and the Jesuits, and Beyond Blood: Rethinking Indigenous Identity], though not the whole book in any of the cases, just the bits that are applicable) I read The Jane Austen Book Club and am starting The Poppy Wife: A Novel of the Great War. I also have a longterm reading project on the go, Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865 which I read before I go to sleep every night so it's been a long haul and is ongoing!

[Wanda]

Hi all! It is frigid and unbearable weather in Manitoba. I am going to stay indoors this weekend and read. Good excuse as any!
I finished a few good books of late. What Strange Paradise, and American Author, Wiley Cash's bookA Land More Kind Than Home. I have decided to get at reading some books that are on my kindle that I have wanted to read for some time, this one was on that list. Published in 2012. I have just started a paperback of The Book of Negroes. I also have The Enchanted cued up on my Kindle. Stay well everyone!

[Rainey]

Hi All - It finally got cold in Bermy - I am so happy - I hate warm weather here.

So my BDA Bookclub meets on Wednesday and we are reading All the Ugly and Wonderful Things - which I am loving - it is a hard read in some parts, but the writing is beautiful. And the audio book is very well done too. I am doing a combo of the book and audible - With my new kindle, I can listen to the audio, and it tracks my place in the book so I can go back and forth between the two.

Also trying to finish What Strange Paradise, in time for the Scotia Giller Book Club meeting on Monday.

[Lisa]

This week I finished The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak. I really liked it. The title is a bit misleading - it is actually one tree and is a character in the story. Takes place in Cyprus and Britain.

I have now started The Strangers by Katherena Vermette. This is a story intertwining different generations of the Stranger family. So far it is a bit raw, but engaging.

[Wanda]

@Rainey I would happily trade you weather any day! I look forward to the Giller Book Club on Monday, I think a few of us are planning on tuning in!

[Katy]

Hello to all. I am new to participating so please bear with me. As it is early in this time period of Jan 7-13 I haven't finished anything. But last week (so should I have posted it in the Dec31-Jan6) I finished Moon of the Crusted Snow and it was quite captivating. Although it is described as "apocalyptic", and it is, it is very entertaining. The story takes place on a fictional reserve in Northern Ontario and author weaves into the plot plenty of references to indigenous folklore, attitudes and ideologies, so it is very interesting.
I also finished The Midnight Library and enjoyed that as well.
Currently am reading Shackled: A Journey From Political Imprisonment To Freedom and it is a very emotion filled memoir that takes place in Afghanistan. The author is writing this on behalf of and with the assistance of his grandfather who was a political prisoner at the age of six in Afghanistan. It is heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time, as the young boy, and his family are incredibly resilient.

[Em]

First off, I would like to thank you all for posting your book choices-This is where I get all of my most memorable reads these days.

Here are the books I have on the go:
Reading: Snow Falling on Cedars for Evening BC-highly recommend it-feels like The Great Alone for the atmosphere and sweeping saga-no idea why it took me so many years to read this?? I hate to put it down.

They Called Me Number One-Bev Sellars for Morning BC -just starting but I am looking forward to getting into this true story.

Listening-One Last Stop-Casey McQuiston-I haven’t read her Red, White and Blue but based on this one I would listen to it...

Finished-Enchanted April-fun! Stoner-Quiet and slow-paced but a good story-for fans of Stegner or Strout

[❀ Susan]

Hi all!

Last week, I learned from Unreconciled: Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance and had no idea of the background experiences that Jesse Wente had experienced prior or after being a movie critic. It was well-written and thought provoking.

Today I finished State of Terror for book club. for some reason, I really did not want to pick it up but I did end up enjoying it. it was a quick read and interesting to read about the diplomacy and ponder how much these situations could be similar to real life politics. I also finished Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised In Brief as a refresher which is helpful to anyone sitting on any board.

I am still in the midst of Minimalista: Your Step-by-Step Guide to a Better Home, Wardrobe, and Life and now pondering what is next.

I am so sad that I have another commitment tomorrow and will miss the What Strange Paradise event. I signed up so am hoping that I can watch it after the fact.

[Karin]

E.M. wrote: "First off, I would like to thank you all for posting your book choices-This is where I get all of my most memorable reads these days.

Here are the books I have on the go:
Reading: Snow Falling on..."

I love The Snow Falling on Cedars and accidentally bought 2 used copies (at different times--actually read a library copy.) Also, the film stays true to the book if you ever watch that, but obviously read the book first!

[Karin]

I read my first Canadian author already, Midnight at the Dragon Cafe by Judy Fong Bates.

Right now I am reading a disappointing book for a group but I have Under the Greenwood Tree here to start soon.

[Kathleen]

Hi folks. Happy New Year!
I finished two non-fiction books that were interesting and instructive - 'Women of the Word:How to Study the Bible with Both Our Hearts and Our Minds' by Jane Wilkin, and 'The Foot Fix: 4 Weeks to Healthier Happy Feet' by Yamuna Zake.
I read 'The Travelling Cat Chronicles' by Hiro Arikawa and translated from Japanese by Philip Gabriel. I really liked this international best seller, mostly written from the cat's point of view.
I enjoyed listening to Liane Moriarty's 'Apples Never Fall'.
Today I finished reading Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams' inspiring non-fiction 'The Book of Hope'.

I haven't read a Canadian book yet this year, but plan to reread 'Medicine Walk' by Richard Wagamese for our "in person" book club, which probably won't be "in person". Tonight I am starting 'I've Been Meaning to Tell You: A Letter to My Daughter' by David Chariandy.

Monday evening I was on Zoom watching Omar El Akkad talk about 'What Strange Paradise' and 'The American War' on The Giller Book Club. It was very interesting.

[Yanlaptak]

This week I read Charles Taylor’s “Philosophical Papers, Volume One: Human Agency and Language.” I also started to read Anne of Green Gables” and finished 5 chapters. Well now, (to use Matthew Cuthbert’a verbal quirk 😜), this Anne is interesting, though I am not sure she is lovely. See what will happen later. Apart from reading the book, I watched the 1979 Japanese animated tv series with it:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw...

(This was a Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata production! That’s why this is so good!)

[Kathleen]

@ Yanlaptak ~ Thank you for sharing the link to the 1979 animated Anne of Green Gables.