Where did June go! Oh right, it went into my two weekends of camping. I leave straight from work on Thursday and return by Sunday evening. Then this past weekend (since June 28), we have family visiting from out of town so that has also kept me busy. But technically I met my blog post goal for this month so that’s exciting. I was reading my way through two +450 page books in June, but both had to go back to the library before I could finish them So this month has turned out to be the month with the least books finished (in 2024). Anyway, to shake things up, here are a few photos from my cam ..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. Why we chose Lesley Choyce’s The Unlikely Redemption of John Alexander MacNeil I plucked this book off my to-read list cos 1) it’s Canadian, 2) it sounded like something Dad might enjoy, and 3) it was available via the public library in both physical and digital copies. (That third reason is the precipitating factor. I was scrolling through my to-read-fiction shelf and specifically looking for books ..read more

Fungal: Foraging in the Forest by Ariel Gordon Source: ebook/publicist Published: 11 June 2024 Publisher: Wolsak & Wynn Length: 242 pages Genre: Creative non-fiction Target Age: Adult (suitable for +14) Summary Fungal is a wide-ranging collection from Ariel Gordon where she explores her fascination with all mushrooms, not just those you can eat. In these engaging essays she takes the reader through ditches and puddles in search of morels, through the hallways of a mushroom factory, down city sidewalks and beside riverbanks as she considers things found and fungal ..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. Why we chose Kelly Barnhill’s When Women Were Dragons Ash and I went for out for breakfast one day in February. We wandered into a nearby bookstore, where When Women Were Dragons was on display. Ash mentioned it was on her TBR – she thought the cover was gorgeous and liked that it’s a standalone. It was also on my TBR. As a fan of Barnhill’s middle grade work (see: my review of The Girl Who Drank the ..read more

Funny how the month I was most optimistic about posting for since January turned out to be the month I posted the least… oh well! I’ve been busy with enjoying warmer weather, opening up the lake for the season, preparing for my own solo camping trips, spending time with family, and returning to kendo. On top of the usual time sinks like work, cooking, eating, cleaning, and sleeping I did fit in a few more reads than April, at least. I finally got started on my Middle-earth reread in May as part of Wyrd & Wonder, so that’s something! Books Finished The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mo ..read more

Tidal Creatures by Seanan McGuire Source: ebook/NetGalley Published: 6 Jun 2024 Publisher: TorDotCom (Macmillan) Length: 464 pages Genre: Speculative fiction Target Age: Adult Representation: A progatonist is American with a Chinese father and Scottish mother, supporting character is Black Summary All across the world, people look up at the moon and dream of gods. Gods of knowledge and wisdom, gods of tides and longevity. Over time, some of these moon gods incarnated into the human world alongside the other manifest natural concepts. Their job is to cross the sky ..read more

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