raidergirl3 reads in 2022

I've been on LT since 2007 and have never been good at maintaining a thread, but I do like to read and comment. I use the TIOLI challenge from 75 books to help me decide what to read which satisfies my spur of the moment reading with some planning. I like to read mystery series (I lean to police procedurals but enjoy some cozies), women's fiction, Canadian authors, historical fiction, some non-fiction, and get distracted by lists like The Tournament of Books and The Women's Prize for Fiction.

My name is Elizabeth, and I live on Prince Edward Island, Canada. I am a high school teacher (math and physics) and am starting to think about retiring in a few years. I am 54 years old, married, with three kids - 24 year old son, and 22 and 18 year old girls that all live home right now. I have become more active in the last few years and really enjoy hiking, walking, yoga and pilates. I used to read books, but the vast majority of my reading these days is audiobooks and ebooks. The pile of paper books in my house is protesting but I like being able to walk and move (or play stupid phone games) while listening to a book.
Looking forward to hanging around here!

Books Read in 2022
9. Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures - Kate DiCamillo
13. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler - EL Konigsburg
16. What Alice Forgot - Liane Moriarty
17. The Girl in the Tree - Sebnem Isiguzel
19. They Both Die at the End - Adam Silvera
20. The Magician's Assistant - Ann Patchett
21. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - Jamie Ford
23. Still Life - Sarah Winman
24. A Guide to the Birds of East Africa - Nicholas Drayson
30. The Swimmers - Julie Otsuka
32. The Raven's Tale - Cat Winters
33. The Paris Apartment - Lucy Foley
34. Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan
37. Magpie Lane - Lucy Atkins
39. Out of Line Short Story Collection : This Telling - Cheryl Strayed; Halfway to Free - Emma Donaghue; Shine, Pamela! Shine - Kate Atkinson (ebook)
44. Good Girls Guide to Murder - Holly Jackson
49. The Accomplice - Lisa Lutz

Series books Read
2. Ashes to Ashes (#8) Mel Starr
3. Miss Moriarty I Presume? (#6) Sherry Thomas
7. An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed (#2) - Helene Tursten
12. My Plain Jane - Cynthia Hand (#1 My Janies)
35. Lucifer's Harvest - Mel Starr (#9 Chronicles of Hugh de Singleton)
47. Eligible - Curtis Sittenfeld (Austen Project #4)

New Authors
Katherine May
Louise Erdrich
Gary Shteyngart
Joshua Whitehead
Kirk Wallace Johnson

nonfiction
4. Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times - Katherine May
10. The Feather Thief - Kirk Wallace Johnson
11. Untamed - Glennon Doyle
22. These Precious Days - Ann Patchett
38. Taste: My Life Through Food - Stanley Tucci
42. The Wake: The Deadly Legacy of a Newfoundland Tsunami - Linden MacIntyre
46. Do You Mind if I Cancel? - Gary Janetti
48. Freezing Orders - Bill Browder

Canadian
1. The Apollo Murders - Chris Hadfield
8. Jonny Appleseed - Joshua Whitehead
14. The Woman in the Attic - Emily Hepditch
15. Scarborough - Catherine Hernandez
18. Washington Black - Esi Edugyan
28. When We Lost Our Heads - Heather O'Neill
29. Chasing Painted Horses - Drew Hayden Taylor
36. What Strange Paradise - Omar El Akkad
42. The Wake: The Deadly Legacy of a Newfoundland Tsunami - Linden MacIntyre

Women's Prize for Fiction and other Prize Lists
5. The Sentence -Louise Erdrich (Tournament of Books 2022, Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist 2022)
6. Our Country Friends - Gary Shteyngart (ToB 2022)
25. The Book of Form and Emptiness - Ruth Ozeki (ToB 2022, Women's Prize for Fiction longlist, shortlist 2022)
26. Matrix - Lauren Groff (ToB 2022)
27. Intimacies - Katie Kitamura (ToB 2022)
31. Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead (Women's Prize for Fiction, longlist, shortlist 2022)
40. The Final Revival of Opal & Nev - Dawnie Walton (Women's Prize for Fiction, longlist 2022)
41. Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers (Women's Prize for Fiction, longlist, 2021)
43. Sorrow and Bliss - Meg Mason (Women's Prize for Fiction, shortlist 2022)
45. The Island of Missing Trees - Elif Shafik (Women's Prize for Fiction, shortlist 2022)
50. Their Finest - Lissa Evans (Women's Prize for Fiction longlist, 2009)

Asian Author Reading
JANUARY - Europe of Asia - Turkish Authors - The Girl in the Tree
FEBRUARY - The Holy Land - Israeli & Palestinian Authors About the Night
MARCH - The Arab World - Writers from the Arab world This Life or the Next
APRIL - Persia - Iranian writers
MAY - The Stans - There are 7 states all in the same region all ending in "Stan" The Broken Circle
JUNE - The Indian Sub-Continent - Essentially authors from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh Sea of Poppies
JULY - The Asian Superpower - Chinese Authors A Single Swallow Life Empress Orchid
AUGUST - Nippon - Japanese Authors At the End of the Matinee, Kazuo Ishiguro
SEPTEMBER - Kimchi - Korean Authors
OCTOBER - INDO CHINE - Authors from Indo-China
NOVEMBER - The Malay Archipelago - Malaysian, Singaporean and Indonesian Authors
DECEMBER - The Asian Diaspora - Ethnic Asian writers from elsewhere

Just putting this challenge here with books I have that fit so I'll be ready each month.

After seeing lauralkeet and AnneDC read all of Toni Morrison's books, it got me thinking about which authors I've read all from, and which ones I want to. This is more of a wish list than an actual plan.

I think I've read all of:
Mary Lawson
Carol Shields
Maeve Binchy (all the novels and short story collections, not all her writing, she's crazy prolific)

Want to read all (MRE):
Ann Patchett (Run, The Magician's Assistant, The Patron Saint of Liars, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, These Precious Days, Taft)
Emma Donoghue (Akin, Landing, Slammerkin, Life Mask, Haven )
Tracy Chevalier (only missing The Last Runaway)
Sarah Waters (Tipping the Velvet)
Lori Lansens (This Little Light)
Liane Moriarty (What Alice Forgot, Three Wishes, The Hypnotist's Love Story)
Kate Atkinson (Human Croquet, Shrines of Gaiety)
Lisa Lutz (The Accomplice, The Swallows)
Anne Enright
Barbara Kingsolver
Maggie O'Farrell (Instructions for a Heat Wave, The Hand that First Held Mine)

Kazuo Ishiguro (The Buried Giant, Klara and the Sun)

welcome and glad you started a thread. I love audiobooks, and I used them for my commutes (and sometimes for a walk). I like your list here: >9 raidergirl3:

>6 raidergirl3: Wow, I had no idea Chris Hadfield had written a novel! I think that one's going to have to go on the wishlist.

>10 dchaikin: thanks for stopping by. I read mostly audiobooks these days, I might manage 1 or maybe 2 paper books in a month, but I fly through audiobooks.

>11 bragan: Is there anything Chris Hadfield can't do? I loved his memoir, and the novel is lots of fun! A Cold war-space thriller - it started a little slow, and it was kind of predictable, but there were still lots of surprises.

LOL count me in with the "I didn't know Chris Hadfield wrote a novel" crowd. Going on my wishlist!

I also like your author-completist list. I'll have to think about mine. Jane Austen for sure . . .

Welcome. You and I have 126 books in common. I enjoy a lot of Canadian authors. But I have no idea who Chris Hadfield is.

>14 dianeham: Chris Hadfield is a Canadian astronaut. He was very active on social media while he was in ISS and is still quite active. He’s written a few other books - An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth and a children’s book The Darkest Dark. He has an amazingly positive attitude and I’m a big fan.
I’ll have to check out our common books. Lol, not the three Hadfield books obvs

>15 raidergirl3: I saw him when he came to Perth in (checks internet) 2015 and he was as engaging in person as he was in Astronaut's Guide.

I finished The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. I liked it. But the weird thing is the audiobook I am listening to now is set in the exact timeframe, which is spring 2020. Both books are using the start of the pandemic as a major part of the story. As well, both have the murder of George Floyd as a part of the story. The Sentence, which is in Minnesota makes the demonstrations a much larger part of the story as Our Country Friends is in New York State so they are hearing it on the news. Our Country Friends is actually a group who decide to quarantine during spring 2020 together.
Just weird how similar the books are that I was reading at the same time.

Both books are from the Tournament of Books list, although both are play-in books. I much preferred the Erdrich book.

The pandemic isn't even over- I'm teaching on-line this month, again. I don't think I'm ready to be reading about it yet!

>13 Nickelini: I've only read 2 Jane Austen books and I don't see me completing her. Scandelous, I know.

>14 dianeham: It was neat seeing a couple of good Canadian mystery series on our shared list. I quite liked Hazel Micallef, and of course, Three Pines.

>16 rhian_of_oz: I'm so jealous you got to see Chris Hadfield. I show videos of him to my physics classes all the time. I heard David St Jacques, the next Canadian astronaut who went to space, and he was equally as impressive.

>9 raidergirl3: I love Maeve Binchy, too, and read a lot of her novels as a teenager and some later. I still have a few to go!
I also like your list, although I haven't heard of all of these writers.

I'm finally making my way over here.
>1 raidergirl3: I've never seen anyone else admit to listening to audiobooks while playing "stupid phone games." I swear that is how I spent half of December! Two activities that are perfectly made for each other.

>9 raidergirl3: I've given much more thought to this over the last several days and am about to post the same type of list on my thread. It's nice to see yours. Besides the Toni Morrison project that I just completed, I think the only author I can say I've read all of is Jane Austen. Well, there are some genre-specific authors like Tana French and Louise Penny where I'm up-to-date on their series, and probably there are some authors of childrens books that I've read all of. It's been an interesting way to think about my reading, I feel like I have some long-term plans.

I'm interested in both The Sentence and Our Country Friends.

>18 raidergirl3: Did you also read L.R Wright when she was alive? Her series had a librarian.

>17 raidergirl3: my reading style is not going to get me to Floyd soon unless I sort of redirect it there. So, it's interesting to me to see it popping up in newish novels. Curious if these books change your perspective of his murder and the fallout.

>20 AnneDC: thanks for coming by Anne. I like how you differentiated between the novels and other written material. And looking up all that info gave me some books I want to read sooner rather than later.

>21 dianeham: Ooh, I haven't heard of L.R. Wright, and my library has a couple of the books. Thanks

>22 dchaikin: I don't think the books will change my perspective. The Sentence did a good job of giving a local perspective, and from POC who rallied in support.

I've read a few good books this week.

The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson
This has all the stuff I like in narrative nonfiction. A true crime story, but also a good bit of natural history, and a look at a very strange sub-section of way too much money entitled tie flyers. Edwin Rist walked into the Tring museum and walked out this a few hundred bird specimens. Sounds weird, but the birds were collected back in the Victorian era when fancy feathers and hunting birds to extinction to have the pretty feathers was a thing. Modern days has fly-tiers obsessed with crazy priced (thousands of $$) feathers needed to make ties that will never be used.
I was interested, fascinated, disgusted, bothered, and angry at the whole situation. So Johnson succeeded in getting me involved in the book, including looking up Alfred Russell Wallace the Darwin contemporary who collected birds. Oh, and Sasha Baron Cohen's cousin shows up as a hired psychologist to evaluate the thief.

I enjoyed An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed by Helene Tursten. I read the first book, An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good last year and knew nothing about it and was delighted. The things that made the first book so good don't work quite as well in the second book, but I still liked it. I particulary liked the physcical book - it was small and hard cover and I seldom buy a new book like that but treated myself after Christmas.
I would read more Tursten; she has a series with the detective who investigates the Elderly Lady and I will look into the scandi-crime series.

Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead I requested after seeing it was the most borrowed audiobook at my provincial library. I hate to think I am missing out on something! Jonny is a two-spirit Indigenous young person, making his living as a cyber-sex worker, so there was a lot of graphic descriptions. I wasn't sure about it, but as Jonny tells stories about his youth and his grandmother and life on the rez, I liked it a bit more. Although first nations people have always had two-spirit people, life wasn't easy for Jonny no matter where he was. I would guess that the years of residential schools caused such disruption in the traditional ways that a whole generation missed out on learning that part of their history. So while not specifically about Residential schools, the repercussions of a whole generation lost and unable to raise their children will be felt for years and years.

The books I'm hoping to finish this week are:
The Girl in the Tree by Turkish author Sebnem Isiguzel is my ebook
The Woman in the Attic by Emily Hepditch is my paper book, set in and written by a Newfoundlander
Untamed by Glennon Doyle is my audiobook right now

Books I'm noting from the Recommended book list, so far. Most are ones I've had on a mental TBR list, but seeing people who rec'd books I already like, impresses me even more.

The Dying Detective by Leif G.W. Persson ahef1963 (also rec'd I Am the Messenger and Stephen King)
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman wandering_star (also rec'd I Contain Multitudes)
Why Buildings Fall Down by Matthys Levy by Eliz_M (also rec'd All She Was Worth)
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks by Rhian of Oz (looks creepy, but also rec'd Bel Canto and Being Mortal)
Born a Crime, Trevor Noah by nickelini (rec'd a bunch, inc Lullabies for Little Criminals)
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell by labfs39 (I have this on my e-reader ready to be nudged)

>24 raidergirl3: I really enjoyed The Feather Thief. It definitely hit all the good narrative nonfiction notes, and offered a lot of cool information without being overloaded with the author's research.

>25 raidergirl3: I think you've culled a good list of recommendations! The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is very good, The Wasp Factory is indeed creepy/disturbing, and The Sparrow is one of my favorite sci-fi novels.

>25 raidergirl3: I really liked Spirit Catches You too. It and Henrietta Lacks are two important bioethics-through-memoir type books. I hope you like The Sparrow when you get to it. MDR is a versatile writer. Her book about Doc Holliday was excellent too.

I really liked The Feather Thief too--lots of fascinating tidbits.

I join the hearty recommendations for The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, The Sparrow and The Wasp,Factory.

I think I didn't love The Sparrow as much as most here, but it was definitely an interesting novel—not like anything else I've read.

>26 lisapeet: I just rec’d The Feather Thief to a friend. I found it so engaging, I couldn’t but it down.

>27 ELiz_M: I startle every time I see your name as I am Elizabeth M as well, and how my name looks on FB, Eliz as I was trying not to be so searchable, teaching HS students.

>28 labfs39: I loved Henrietta Lacks! As I looked into The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down neither my in person nor online library gave the book. I may have to purchase it.

>29 arubabookwoman: such good recs when so many people love the books. My theory about genre books is that a well written book transcends its genre, and that’s why they are so good. It’s just a good book, not a good SF book.

>30 lisapeet: sometimes when someone doesn’t like a book, I want to read it especially, to see if I agree, lol.

I think part of what makes The Sparrow different from other SF I've read is that the author has a PhD in biological anthropology from the University of Michigan. This background is very evident in the book, and I found the questions posed to be interesting ones. Another SF book that I think of as in a similar vein is Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card.

>24 raidergirl3: Your review of The Feather Thief prompted me to bump it up higher on my nebulous TBR-wishlist, and I put a hold on the ebook at my local library (they don't have it in print).

Oh, I see you are settling in wonderfully!
btw, I used your suggestion for question #4 on the Questions thread, it's up now. Just thought you would want to know (and thanks)

>32 labfs39: I'm even more intrigued now by The Sparrow. I haven't read that Card book but I've read others.

33> I hope you enjoy the feather thief. I have absolutely no interest in fishing or fly-tying and yet it was fascinating.

>34 avaland: thanks, Lois, for the welcome; I'm quite liking Club Read. I added my answer just now to the QUESTION thread.

Book Report for the week:
I listened to:

Untamed by Glennon Doyle. I'm no good with self-help books as I argue all the time in my head as I read. This book was uneven - there were parts I did like and identify with, but I didn't necessarily think the author had her act together enough to be telling other people what they could do. She had built a career as a memoirist and speaker based on saving her marriage after infidelity, and then leaves her husband as she falls in love at first sight with Abby Wambach. Why would I believe you have answers now, when something else might happen and you will realize this life you write about now is inauthentic? But there were some good things I did like. NF

My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand was a hoot! A retelling/reimagining of Jane Eyre, there is so much the same, and so much different than the original. It was funny, and irreverent, and faithful all at the same time. There are more My Janie books (Calamity, Lady Jane) that I look forward to.

The Woman in the Attic by Emily Hepditch A young new author with a creepy, suspenseful story set on the isolated coast of Newfoundland. The first half could have been a bit tighter, but it set the stage for the big confrontation. It was a little far-fetched, and I had to go back and reread a section that I didn't think made sense, but it's good to see a new author write this kind of book.

I also read a couple children's books, Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler by EL Konigsburg which were pleasant enough and quick reads.

Books for this week look like:
still trying to finish The Girl in the Tree
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty (audio)
Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez (ebook)
Their Finest by Lissa Evans

>36 raidergirl3: I'm interested to see what you think about What Alice Forgot. It was the first of Liane Moriarty's books that I read and I liked it a lot.

>24 raidergirl3: Lots of diverse reading read. Intrigued by The Feather Thief.

>24 raidergirl3: >38 SassyLassy: Also intrigued by The Feather Thief. Added to my TBR.

>37 rhian_of_oz: I finished What Alice Forgot and I liked it, quite a bit. I listened to it in my usual 2-3 days for a 14 hours audiobook, because I can't put down Moriarty. I wasn't sure about the ending/epilogue, but it did work. Moriarty just doesn't disappoint. Have you read her sister Jaclyn Moriarty books? She's more YA, but she had a series called Colours of Madeleine which was super.

>38 SassyLassy:, >39 Julie_in_the_Library: I hope you get to The Feather Thief, it was a great nonfiction read. Another great NF book like this, covering history and science and compelling characters was The Ghost Map by Stephen Johnson.

Along with finishing What Alice Forgot which was very good, I also finished Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez. It is a Canada Reads nominee, defended by Malia Baker. Maybe because I knew nothing about it and it caught me off guard but it was really good. It's a little bleak, following a group of children who attend a Family Literacy drop-in group, so it is all poor people dealing with various levels of success. But the friendships, and struggles, and hope is also there. I also liked the mixed media parts, as the group leader emails back and forth with her supervisor lent an immediacy to the story. Scarborough, a suburb of Toronto is representative of the multicultural, diverse community that is, or can be, Canada.

>41 raidergirl3: I’m on hold for Scarborough and rather eager to read it. I grew up in Brampton but had many friends in Scarborough. I’m reading Velvet was the Night, which was on the CR long list.

>40 raidergirl3: I haven't read any Jaclyn Moriarty. I do read YA though not as much lately but I'll keep an eye out.

>42 Yells: I've only been to Toronto twice (once as a 10 year old, once 3 years ago) and I really enjoyed it. I think you will enjoy it especially if you are from the area and can identify with locales. But it exactly fit how I picture Toronto.

>43 rhian_of_oz: Jaclyn is a unique writer. The series, Colours of Madeline is a bit of everything, but I really liked it. I got the first book in the YA Sync program which gives free audiobooks every summer and then I *had* to find the next 2 in the trilogy to listen to. Science and fantasy and kinda time-travel and mixed up teens.

Weekly bookish check-in:
I finished Scarborough, What Alice Forgot, and The Girl in the Tree.

I have one hour left to listen to Washington Black, another Canada Reads book. I loved Esi Edugyan's Half-Blood Blues and Washington Black is good, but not as compelling. It reminds me of Book of Negro with all the moving around and travelling.

I didn't end up starting Their Finest as The Guide to the Birds of East Africa, which I hadn't heard of before but was listed as a 'comfort' read at labfs39 thread, arrived from the library. So did The Magician's Assistant (ebook) which I am focusing on now. I'll be lucky to get through one of these books this week.
Next audiobook: They Both Die at the End

>45 raidergirl3: I hope you enjoy a Guide to the Birds of East Africa when you get to it. I'm looking forward to your impressions.

Suddenly it is two weeks later since I last updated. Starting a new semester with new classes always takes the stuffing out of me. Reading takes the hit. Since I last updated I finished:
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
It reminded me of The Book of Negroes just for all the world travelling that happened, including a stop in Nova Scotia. While I loved Half-Blood Blues, this one underwhelmed. I liked parts as I was reading, but I didn't see the point of the whole thing. I feel like I missed a layer. At the least, I'll feel knowledgable when it is discussed on Canada Reads, while I cheer for Scarborough.

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
A YA book with dystopian themes. What if you know today is the day you will die? A future society where you get a phone call at midnight letting you know today is your day. A whole industry has built up around this, for finding your 'last friend', having experiences that you wished you had, and so on. I chose it because it fit a category for TIOLI, and was a book my teen daughter had read, and I was intrigued by the hype around it. A perfectly easy YA read.

The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett
I'm looking into Patchett's backlist of books and this was what I've come to expect - a good story with good characters that is not predictable in any way. I could have used more chapter breaks, but that is not a reason not to read this book. What makes your family? Sabine is mourning the death of her magician husband, and discovers she didn't know as much about him as she thought she did. Secrets come out as Sabine deals with her grief.

I am listening to Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, and have an extremely over due library book The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. It was a 7-day loan, in large print, and I'm still only 1/4 of the way through.

Next up: audiobook These Precious Days by Patchett and Still Life by Sarah Winman, print book finish The Midnight Library and Guides to Birds of East Africa both library books.

I always mean to read books I own in my house, but paper books take me a long time these days. I should be correcting school work, so I can't let myself read. Then I don't correct either, and I fall even more behind. So I listen to an audiobook and play phone games, which makes me feel like I'm reading, but still no correcting gets done, so I can't pick up a book. Sigh. I did have fun with the Valentine's Day Hunt.

>47 raidergirl3: I'm sorry RL is inferring with your reading time. I hate it when that happens! Good luck getting your grading done.

>48 labfs39: I returned the book I was trying to read The Midnight Library back to the library unfinished and that helped a lot. I also got some correcting done and feel less behind, so everything is better now!

End of week update:
As I whined in my last post, I haven't been getting as much reading done as I would like, but real life was being a pain. I finished:

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. This was an okay historical fiction, two ways. It was set in the late 1980s (which is pretty much historical fiction now whether you like it or not, lol) and then looking back to 1940s during WW2, set in Seattle. It covers a Chinese family, with the main character Henry. In the 1980s, he's a recent widow, but remembering his time as a 12-13 year old and his Japanese-American girlfriend, Keiko. Keiko's family gets sent to a Japanese Internment camp after Pearl Harbour, and Henry tries to keep in touch. In the first chapter or so, Henry's son is referenced as having dealt with some of his grief of his mother's death by being a part of an online grief group. Nope, this took me right out of the story as that was not going on in the late 1980s. I remember those days, and email was just barely a thing. So I was then suspect about a lot, whether rightly or wrongly.

These Precious Days by Ann Patchett. A book of essays by my author of the year as I read her backlist. This was my second Patchett of the month! Having read a good number of her books now, and in the last few years, I liked the references to her books, and how they were autobiographical. I like Patchett's writing and her musings. I liked the essay about not having children, and about how Tom Hanks narrated her book The Dutch House which led into the title essay about how Hanks' assisstant ended up spending a good chunk of the early pandemic days with Patchett in Nashville.

This week: A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson is my paper book; I've got Ruth Ozeki's The Book of Form and Emptiness as a ebook from Libby; and on audio, I'm just starting to listen to Still Life by Sarah Winman, and I am very excited to start Heather O'Neill's newest book, When We Lost Our Heads

I was also very excited to get the Wordle today in 2 guesses. I got one letter on my first guess, so I felt like it was a pretty good effort on my second, not just luck.
Today was also a beautiful day to get out and have a winter hike with some colleague friends. It was -6 C, and a fresh layer of snow which made for excellent conditions. Fresh air does wonders for mental health!

>50 raidergirl3: Nope, this took me right out of the story as that was not going on in the late 1980s. I remember those days, and email was just barely a thing. So I was then suspect about a lot, whether rightly or wrongly.

UGH! I hate that so much. If you're bothering to write a historical novel, get it right. When I notice mistakes like that it makes me wonder what mistakes I'm missing.


Fresh air does wonders for mental health! Indeed! I try to get out every day

>50 raidergirl3: What a weird, and easy to check, anachronism to mess up—I don't even think The Well was being used like that then.

>50 raidergirl3: I am not a huge fan of Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet either. A simple, rather saccharine story for such an important historical topic. Much preferred When the Emperor Was Divine for fiction or Farewell to Manzanar for nonfiction. I have No-No Boy and Obasan on the TBR shelves.

I should try reading more Pratchett. I loved Bel Canto (I'm a sucker for books featuring translators), but thought Run was only so-so.

I'll look forward to your comments on A Guide to the Birds of East Africa.

Congrats on the Wordle!

Teaching is so stressful. Glad you’re getting some reading. I’m enjoying your comments, especially on Ann Patchett. I don’t like the title “The Magician’s Assistant”, but this is the second recent encouraging CR post on it.

*mini rant*
I can't believe all these school systems are dropping mask mandates! This week I have 6-7 students out who have tested postive, and last week I had a different 7-8 students out and the only reason I haven't had it yet has to be that I wear a mask in school all day. I hate the mask but it seems to be working.
PEI had hardly any cases (in the hundreds) until Omicron arrived in December, and now we are having 300 cases a day. And I'm in a school with 1000+ teenagers, plus 3 young adults in my home. It's everywhere right now. I have a trip to Calgary planned for beginning of April and I almost want to get Covid now so I don't have to worry about my trip getting cancelled. The two teachers beside me are out for the rest of the week as their own kids tested positive for Covid yesterday and today.
thanks for letting me rant.

>51 Nickelini: It's also like reading a book set in your hometown and things are wrongly described. It takes you right out of the book.
We hike every Sunday morning, weather permitting, and it does wonders! I look forward to it all week. The weather has been a bit dicey for my usual evening walks. Hopefully spring arrives soon and I can get back to getting good steps on my Fitbit.

>52 lisapeet: What is The Well? I started thinking maybe Seattle had more internet in the beginning, but the whole point of online groups is that it's people from all over. It made no sense.

>53 labfs39: I thought Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet had good reviews before I read it, but maybe they are more mixed. I know what you mean - if you are going to write about Japanese Internment, it should be a little more than having a 13 year old be able to work at it and sneak in. I should read George Takai's graphic novel memoir about being interred during the war.
I really liked Bel Canto when I read it, many years ago, and then I really liked State of Wonder a few years later, but I still never connected how good she was. I think I also mixed her up with Barbara Kingsolver, and Louise Erdrich as well. This is now my 'year of Patchett', lol.

>54 dchaikin: Yeah, 'Magician's Assistant isn't an enticing title, but it really was about the magician's assistant, and her relationship with the magician is the centerpoint of the book. But still, not a good title! Thanks for the nice comment, Dan.

>56 raidergirl3: Actually it's The WELL, and it was I think the first (or one of the first) internet communities, started in 1985. For a while it was the only game in town, and now it's the oldest of old schools, but I still remember that blinking cursor...

Weekly update:
My 24 yo son tested postive for Covid so we spent the last few days isolating as close contacts and I'm jsut awaiting my test result today to be able to go back to work. Overall feeling less stress about the whole situation, but probably because I haven't been in school since Thursday so I haven't had to deal with the students in/students out issues. And March Break is next week so that is something to look forward to! I am planning a trip to Halifax with some friends from HS to watch a former classmate sing at a cabaret. Class of '85 roadtrip!

I finished two books yesterday:
Still Life by Sarah Winman
I liked it but didn't love it. The author narrated it and I think they should have gone with a professional narrator as I found it hard to have her voice 'stick' in my head. I'm sure I missed a lot of info, espcially in the beginning when all the characteres were being introduced as I had a hard time keeping everyone straight. There were some very good sections, and I plan to read A Room With a View now as Forster makes an appearance near the end. It also made me want to go to Italy. I can see why people really like the book, but I didn't get engaged enough at the beginning to love it.

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson
This was very cute, a 'wrinkly romance' as I heard Major Pettigrew's Last Stand once called. I liked that there was reference to AIDS in Africa, and if I was at all a bird watcher, I would have probably super loved it, lol. I didn't like that two guys were competing for the honor of asking a woman to a dance, which left her opinion out of the whole thing. So, a little sexist, but this all happened at a Gentleman's Club, so it was consistent at least. Nice easy read that I would add to a list of comfort reads like Blue Castle, the Pettigrew's - both Miss and Major, and Bridget Jones' Diary. Romances that aren't chick lit or capital R romance, but just a nice little story.

Books coming up: In audiobooks, I started Matrix by Lauren Groff on my walk to the testing center; also hope to get to Intimacies, as both are Tournament of Books titles that I'd like to have read soon as the 'competition' starts this week. In ebook, I'm still working on The Book of Form and Emptiness which I am liking, and is also a ToB title. I'm about to start a paper book, All's Well which is the final ToB title I have in my posssession but it looks long so it could take a while.

>58 raidergirl3: Sometimes a "nice little story" is just what the doctor ordered. I'm looking for one right now in fact. I need a break from war reading, both past and current.

>58 raidergirl3: Authors as audiobook narrators can be tricky. Some can really pull it off for me (Neil Gaiman and Douglas Adams come to mind). But I generally do like the professionals better. A few months ago I got an Audible free credit, and used it on a complete collection of Sherlock Holmes (over 70 hours I think!) read by Stephen Fry. I've been gradually going through it, and it's an absolute delight.

I follow the Women's Prize for Fiction, which has been known by many names including the Orange and the Bailey. The longlist just came out, and I'll read the ones that interest me and that are available at my library. There are 5 I can get in audio at my library, so I'll start there. Typically, there are a number not released in Canada until later in the year. I'm not so invested that I'll buy a book, lol.

Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith
Careless by Kirsty Capes
Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejidé at library in ebook
Flamingo by Rachel Elliott
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead requested
Remote Sympathy by Catherine Chidgey
Salt Lick by Lulu Allison
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason requested
The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki reading
The Bread the Devil Knead by Lisa Allen-Agostini
The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton requested
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak requested
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller requested
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich already read
This One Sky Day by Leone Ross (aka Popisho)

The shortlist will be announced April 27th and the winner announced June 15th.

I made a list of the longlist for people to share the ones they've read - come play!
https://www.librarything.com/list/43513/all/2022-Womens-Prize-for-Fiction-Longli....

>59 labfs39: I hope you discover a great new book. The best of these kind of books just sneak up on you when you aren't expecting it.

>60 LocusAmoenus: I always wonder who could listen to a 70 h audiobook! But getting a complete collection by a great narrator, and owning it, makes sense. Imagine recording it?
I'm trying to think of which authors I've liked as narrators. Nonfiction seems like a better fit, like Malcolm Gladwell and memoirs by actors like Tina Fey or Dave Grohl. And actors who are already known can be good - Bronson Pinchot, and Tom Hanks.

I’ll look forward to your toB and Women’s Prize reading - two lists I would like to try out but can’t possibly get to

>60 LocusAmoenus: all Sherlock Holmes in 70 hours? That sounds actually doable, maybe with breaks. I’m interested (I’ve never read any).

>62 raidergirl3: I've been listening to it on and off, during sock-knitting sessions. With audiobooks, I'll often take a long time to get through them, because my attention tends to wander when listening.

>63 dchaikin: They're great stories, and Fry is an amazing narrator with all the voices and accents he can pull off.

Matrix - Lauren Groff

Historical fiction from the 1200s, Marie de France is sent from Eleanor of Aquataine's court to a destitute abbey at seventeen where she spends the rest of her life. Marie is smart and takes over the abbey due to her leadership abilities. She maintains contact with Eleanor who is a powerful ally. Monastary life which is often portrayed as being sent away and locked up actually provided women throughout history with a viable option for a life of learning and leadership away from the patriarchy.

I had a grand-aunt who joined the convent at sixteen, basically as soon as she could get away from her home when her widowed father remarried and began having a second family. She went to university, and taught, and then eventually earned a PhD in Education and taught at Boston College. She wrote books, travelling the world to do research. She had opportunities, despite a vow of poverty, that her sister (my grandmother) who married at eighteen and had seven children, did not. The book also portrays the wonderful community of women that a monestary is, and that was also what I saw visiting my aunt.
Maybe knowing a nun added to my enjoyment of the book. They are just people with jealousies (my aunt was pissed another nun horned in on my baptism, as she wasn't related but showed up) and bad habits (my aunt developed a slight Casino gambling habit in the last years of her life - everyone gave her tokens for Christmas).

Marie brings her abbey to prominence and wealth by using her nuns to their best abilities, and keeping contact with the Queen. There are plenty of 'close' friendships as one should expect in a house full of women. I quite enjoyed this book and the look at a different time and life.

>66 raidergirl3: Your great-aunt sounds fascinating. Interesting connection with your reading.

>67 labfs39: She was! I even had her as the MC at my wedding. Payment was a pint of rye.

27. Intimacies - Katie Kitamura (ToB 2022)
This was a good, short read. I listened to it on my 3 hour drive to and from Halifax for my March Break. I read it because it was on the Tournament of Books list, and it moved on from its first round. The main character has moved from NY to The Hague to work as a court translator. She doesn't have many close connections as her mother has moved to Singapore which makes the title interesting. I enjoyed listening to it, but it won't stick with me.

28. When We Lost Our Heads - Heather O'Neill
Loved this Canadian historical book about female friendships, women's roles, and the parallels to the French revolution. I loved the twists and turns and surprises. Let them eat cake indeed!

29. Chasing Painted Horses - Drew Hayden Taylor (ebook)
Not as strong as his previous book I loved, Motorcycles and Sweetgrass, I did still enjoy Taylor's latest. It took a while to get into it because while it starts in the present, the real story is in the past of Ralph Thomas, the indigenous Toronto cop. I liked the Thomas family on Otter Creek reserve and Ralph's bully friend who become acquainted with a little lost soul who can draw horses. There is a lot of unfairness to read about, but it is realistic.

30. The Swimmers - Julie Otsaku
I'm in the middle of listening to a 25 h audiobook, so for a little cleanser yesterday, I listened to this short (4h), lovely book. If you have read Otsaku's other books, you know she has a distinctive second person style, that consists mostly of individual sentences and descriptions, but they do tell a story. I do enjoy her writing and how uniquely she tells a story. The first half of the book is about a city pool, and the swimmers, only Alice is named. The second half is about Alice and her dementia and move to an assisted care home. The pool unexpectedly and for no reason gets a crack. It's not a problem for a while, and it disappears, but then it reappears, and multiplies. Everyone reacts differently. (hint, it's a metaphor for aging). It's just beautifully written. She is able to say so much with so few words, unlike this review which is rambling.
I was trying to remember why I requested this book, but it was because after reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and I was looking for a book that dealt with American-Japanese internment in a better manner. There was a bit of this as Alice had been in a camp.

So overall a pretty good week of reading for my March break. I got a trip to Halifax for a weekend to visit my sister. Also while in Halifax I met up with some girls from high school and we went to watch another friend sing at a Cabaret show. It was great to reconnect with old pals. A few good brunches in the big city.
I even got my front closet cleaned out which has been on my to-do list for a while. Five people in one house sure do accumulate a lot of shoes, and sneakers, and sweaters, and hats and mitts and sports equipment. I also got some correcting done, but there is still a bit to do tonight which I will attempt while watching some basketball.

>69 raidergirl3: What a fabulous break! Friends, family, fun, and lots of good reading (or listening). Productive too. I'm envious. We've all had colds for the last week.

Fun break. Enjoyed your comments on Otsaku. I've listened to The Buddha in the Attic 2...and checking, I see you have rated it. I remember the distinctive collective "we", but I didn't know her other books were narrated that way. I like a lot in short intervals.

ETA - meant to add, enjoy the basketball. It's been a fun tournament, nice to have some hype back after the last two years.

>70 labfs39: thanks, and there was also a lot of relaxation, which was needed. Tonight I walked the 20 minutes to the rink to watch my youngest daughter play her last house league ringette game. She turns 19 at the end of the month and we are going to Calgary for the Ringette Nationals. It hasn't happened in 2 years, so it should be a great time.

>71 dchaikin: I've been watching a bit of the NCAA, and loving the upsets, but our local Canadian University Finals were this weekend too! The Atlantic Univeristy Sport hasn't had their championship in 2 years as well. The team my son played for (two years ago, UPEI) were in the finals this afternoon but couldn't quite hold on. I actually watched the end of the game on my phone while at the ringette game.
What NCAA team are you cheering for? Do you fill out a bracket?

I think that part of what makes Otsaku's books so good is the shortness of them. I saw a comment somewhere else on CR about poetry, and I think her books could be considered poetry the way she says so much with so little, and how she plays with form.

>72 raidergirl3: oh, I agree, Otsaku has a poetic prose.

I'm a pulling for Kansas, Miami and Houston, each representing three of my life stops, and somehow all are in the sweet 16. That's fun. And I filled out four brackets, and they are all terrible. : )

>73 dchaikin: Your brackets are bad because you probably didn't pick Saint Peter's! And Gonzaga didn't do you any favors either I bet. Now that our local b-Ball is done, NCAA is on TV, in between the World Women's Curling, and the Raptors. We watch a lot of sports around here, lol.

I’m on a big road trip with my daughter this week. She is playing in the Canadian Ringette Championships in Calgary this week. A couple of moms and I spent yesterday in Banff and Lake Louise sightseeing. This girl from the East coast is always awed and amazed by the mountains. We have a busy week, 2 games a day for most of the week. The core of this U19 team won silver 3 years ago as a U16 team, so they have some expectations of doing well, but being competitive will be good. No one has been able to play many teams over the last 2 years so anything can happen.
Reading will be limited this week, lol.

>75 raidergirl3: Good luck to your daughter, and enjoy your time in the mountains!