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

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

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

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