Falling Letters
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Hello everyone! My name is Jenna. I’m a 20-something from the Canadian Prairies. I turned my focus to book blogging in April 2014. For me, reviews are the heart of blogging and that’s mostly what you’ll find here. I usually like to read Genre-defying literary fiction for children or adults, including magical realism, fantasy with a twist a la Gaiman, dark and gothic and creepy with a..
Falling Letters
1w ago
Keeping Pace
by Laurie Morrison
I received a free copy for review.
Source: ebook/publisher
Published: 9 Apr. 2024
Publisher: Amulet Books (Abrams)
Length: 304 pages
Genre: Contemporary
Target Age: Upper MG (suitable for +10)
Summary
Grace has been working for years to beat her former friend Jonah Perkins’s GPA so she can be named top scholar of the eighth grade. But when Jonah beats her for the title, it feels like none of Grace’s academic accomplishments have really mattered. They weren’t enough to win—or to impress her dad. And then the wide, empty summer looms ..read more
Falling Letters
2w ago
March turned out to be busier than expected! Overtime at work carried through to the end of the month. I think I ended up doing something like 35 hours of OT in March. I have also been visiting my Grandpa a lot while my parents are away on vacation. Overtime is finished now, my parents return in a few days, and I have adjusted my work schedule so I frequently have Fridays off. Perhaps I’ll be able to return to eight posts/month for April… at least March saw me reading better books than in February!
Books Finished
Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
The Warm Hands o ..read more
Falling Letters
2w ago
Born out of a desire to get a family of book lovers to connect more over what they’re reading, Family Reads is an occasional feature where my mom, dad or sister and I read and discuss a book.
On the night her mother dies, 8-year-old Beatrice receives an invitation to the mysterious Winter Garden. A place of wonder and magic, filled with all manner of strange and spectacular flora and fauna, the garden is her solace every night for seven days. But when the garden disappears, and no one believes her story, Beatrice is left to wonder if it were truly real.
Eighteen years later, on the eve ..read more
Falling Letters
1M ago
Gently to Nagasaki
by Joy Kogawa
Source: paperback/library
Published: Sept 2016
Publisher: Caitlin Press
Length: 214 pages
Genre: Memoir
Target Age: Adult (suitable for 16+)
I read Gently to Nagaski as my first pick for the 2024 Runalong The Shelves Booktempter’s TBR Challenge. January’s prompt was to “randomly choose a book by someone you’ve never read before”. Ogawa is a Japanese Canadian most well known for her novel Obasan, published in 1981. I haven’t read Obasan, but Gently to Nagaski made its way onto my TBR shortly after it was published in 2016. Subti ..read more
Falling Letters
1M ago
Overview
Somewhere at the end of December, I remember considering the idea of doing mini review round ups throughout 2024… I did a post in January with all the books I read in 2023 but didn’t review. This is basically a way to get ahead of having to do one massive post like that for 2024. Thank-you to Annemieke @ A Dance with Books for writing Pocket Reviews and reminding me of this idea!
These books didn’t provoke much reflection in me. I didn’t have many strong thoughts about them – not enough to fashion into a proper review. Or so I thought… you’ll see that once I sat down to write about s ..read more
Falling Letters
1M ago
For this month’s life update, I have more work changes. While my acting term ended on February, optional overtime began a week later on February 19. I’m currently doing 5-10 hours/week of OT. Not sure how long it will last for but I’m striving to bring in the extra dollars while I have the opportunity. Of course, the trade off is that I’m not keen to hop on the computer and blog after work. So 8 posts this month is already looking optimistic… Additionally, nothing I’ve read lately has ignited the sort of thinking and reflecting which lead me to write reviews. I gave The Parliament a sporting ..read more
Falling Letters
1M ago
Tolkien and Alterity
edited by Christopher Vaccaro and Yvette Kisor
Source: paperback/own
Published: Aug 2017
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (Springer Nature)
Length: 261 pages
Genre: Literary criticism
Target Age: Adult (suitable for 17+ due to academic language)
Tolkien and Alterity features essays dedicated to Jane Chance, who has been publishing on Tolkien since 1980. As per the book’s introduction, “[d]ifference in Tolkien’s work is an abiding concern for Chance” (pg 5). Now, I am all over the place when it comes to reading Tolkien scholarship. I may have r ..read more
Falling Letters
2M ago
Born out of a desire to get a family of book lovers to connect more over what they’re reading, Family Reads is an occasional feature where my mom, dad or sister and I read and discuss a book.
Why we chose Jessica Johns’ Bad Cree
While we were driving home from a winter activity during Christmas holidays, we heard a countdown on CBC Radio of the top selling Canadian books of 2023. Bad Cree came in at number 6. Johns spoke about how the novel originated as a short story. She described how the story grew around a woman who found herself bringing objects from her dreams into the waking world ..read more
Falling Letters
2M ago
The Empress of Salt and Fortune/ When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain
by Nghi Vo
Source: Paperbook/library
Published: Mar 2020/Dec 2020
Publisher: TorDotCom (MacMillan)
Length: 121/125 pages
Series: The Singing Hills Cycle
Genre: Fantasy
Target Age: Adult (suitable for 13+)
Representation: Nonbinary protagonist, China-analogue fantasy world, WLW
The Empress of Salt & Fortune is one I’ve been meaning to pick up for a couple years now. Ever since I read The Chosen & the Beautiful, I knew I would need to read the fantasy novellas for which Vo is most kno ..read more
Falling Letters
2M ago
Hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl
Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is Quick Reads/Books to Read When Time is Short (books under 150 pages or books you could read in a day/single sittting). I could easily pack this list with the SFF novellas that have fluorished in recent years. Wayward Children and The Singing Hills Cycle, among others, are well positioned to fill up this topic! So instead, I’m going to try to look farther back. 5 adult and 5 middle grade. For the middle grade, I’ll try to highlight ones that haven’t received as much attention. (I ended up almost exclusively selecting titles I en ..read more