Well, April went by in a flash. So much for getting my posts back up to speed, haha. I don’t have much to update for April… I certainly don’t have any excuses for the low number of posts last month Perhaps I’ll blame it on the improving weather and the fact that I’ve started going for bike rides? Plus that anniversary post alone took me a week to pull together! Anyway, I’ve got a full schedule with a few things already drafted for May, so perhaps I’m on the up and up now. Books Finished Keeping Pace by Laurie Morrison A Grandmother Begins the Story by Michelle Porter Victory of Eagles (Tem ..read more

For this feature, I curate a small list of books that make me think, “I can’t believe I haven’t read that”. Then, you vote on which book I should read next. I hope that I’ll be able to ‘catch up’ on certain books that I ‘should’ have read ages ago and finally be able to discuss those books with my fellow book lovers. #25’s Result – Of Salt and Shore by Annet Schaap I finally made it through this book! I’m pretty sure I have checked it out from the library two or three times over the years. Something about the cover kept putting me off, though. Thankfully I have this feature to push me to fina ..read more

Yesterday (19 April) marked 10 years since I published my first post after deciding to become a book blog! I’ve written this post as a retrospective, a walk down memory lane, a way to see how my blog has evolved over the years For each year, I wrote an overview of how the year went, a brief summary of what life events occurred that year, and a list of my favourite reads and posts. For favourite reads, I selected books I read that year which I still recall fondly, so the answers may differ from what I said at the end of each year. 2014 Overview On 12 March 2014, I wrote the following: I’ve d ..read more

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

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

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

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

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

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

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