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Mattsbookaday

Mattsbookaday

Joined February 2025

🇨🇦 | 44 | 🏳️‍🌈 | ✝️
review
Mattsbookaday
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Binge, by Douglas Coupland (2021 🇨🇦)

Premise: A collection of sixty loosely connected (very) short stories, all coming at contemporary life from a slightly odd angle

Review: The subtitle to this collection is ”60 stories to make your brain feel different,” and that‘s as good a way to describe this as any. Cont.

Mattsbookaday In this it‘s pretty typical of Gen-X writing, which is hardly surprising since Coupland literally defined that generation. The stories are brief vignettes that left me wanting more. The only downside is that this means they often felt a bit incomplete.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
23h
3 likes1 comment
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Mattsbookaday
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The Postman Always Rings Twice, by James M. Cain (1934)

Premise: A drifter arrives at a California service station, setting off a dark chain of events.

Review: This classic is noir fiction at its absolute best: atmospheric, hard-boiled, and no-holds-barred
Cont.

Mattsbookaday Read this if you enjoy crime fiction and gritty story-telling, but if you need likable or relatable characters you‘d probably be best to skip it. Content warnings for conspiracy, violence, and anti-Mediterranean-origin prejudice.

Bookish Pair: For another classic piece of noir literature, Dashiell Hammett‘s The Maltese Falcon (1930).

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2d
4 likes1 comment
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Mattsbookaday
That's What She Said | Eleanor Pilcher
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That‘s What She Said, by Eleanor Pilcher (2025)

Premise: The friendship between two young London women is strained when one takes the other‘s strange request — to help her both to lose her virginity and understand her body better — a bit too far.

Review: At its best this debut is a fun exploration of contemporary urban life and female friendship, with lots of unique representation (particularly for demisexuality). Cont.

Mattsbookaday At its worst it felt like a discount. Gen Z Dolly Alderton knock-off. My general experience of it was somewhere in between these extremes. In all, I think that it‘s worth a read and that Pilcher‘s writing shows great promise.

Bookish Pair: Dolly Alderton‘s Ghosts (2020) for many common themes and setting

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
3d
4 likes1 comment
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Mattsbookaday
Rizzio: A Novella | Denise Mina
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Rizzo, by Denise Mina (2021)

Premise: A novella reconstructing the events of an attempted palace coup in in the court of Mary Queen of Scots in 1566, revolving around the assassination of her private secretary, David Rizzio.

Review: I really enjoyed this, and, I think, all the more for its brevity. Cont.

Mattsbookaday Mina brings the writing style of crime fiction to this historical setting and it works really well in creating the atmosphere and mood of this fateful weekend.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Medium: Text
4d
3 likes1 comment
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Mattsbookaday
The Thief Lord | Cornelia Funke
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The Thief Lord, by Cornelia Funke (2000, transl. 2002)

Premise: A lovable gang of orphans living in an abandoned theatre in Venice undertake the theft of a mysterious object connected to the city‘s magical lore.

Review: This was a wonderfully enjoyable middle grade novel, featuring easy-to-root-for characters and lots of mystery and adventure. Cont.

Mattsbookaday What didn‘t quite work for me, however, was the fantasy element, which felt like something out of a different book; it‘s about 90% children‘s urban adventure, 10% fantasy and that 10% felt out of place to me. But overall, this was a fun read.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
6d
3 likes1 comment
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Mattsbookaday
The Nothing Man | Catherine Ryan Howard
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The Nothing Man, by Catherine Ryan Howard (2020)

Premise: A man reads a true crime book written by the lone survivor of one of his twenty-year-old crimes.

Review: I don‘t read a lot of thrillers (or in this case thriller-adjacent books) but I try to pick up at least a few each year. I‘d been hearing the praises of this one for years and I‘m very glad I finally picked it up. Cont.

Mattsbookaday I wouldn‘t say that there‘s anything unexpected that happens here, but the author unspools the plot perfectly, and with a lot of psychological nuance. Highly recommended.
Bookish Pair: For a more under-the-radar novel exploring the true crime phenomenon, Kill Show, by Daniel Sweren-Becker

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
7d
6 likes1 comment
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Mattsbookaday
Two Can Play | Ali Hazelwood
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Two Can Play, by Ali Hazelwood (2024)

Premise: Video-game designer Viola is conflicted when she gets the chance to create a game based on her favourite novel series, on the condition that her company collaborate with its archrival, whose proposal is being led by a man who wants nothing to do with her (and who also happens to be her longstanding crush).
Cont.

Mattsbookaday Review: I have nothing to say about this. It does what a romance is supposed to do, nothing more and nothing less. Satisfying and enjoyable but entirely inconsequential

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
1w
BooksandCoffee4Me Kind of sounds like a Hallmark movie 😊 1w
5 likes2 comments
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Mattsbookaday
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Enlighten Me, by Minh Lê (illustrated by Chan Chau) (2023)

Premise: A graphic novel for children introducing some basic tenets and stories of Buddhism.

Review: This was surprisingly fun, sort of a like a kids‘ introduction to Buddhism crossed with the 8-bit adventure of Scott Pilgrim. I do wish however there was more story. Cont.

Mattsbookaday It is framed as the main character learning about Buddhism to help him deal with conflict at school but never actually addresses that in the end. But it was still fun and, pardon the pun, enlightening.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
1w
3 likes1 comment
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Mattsbookaday
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Blood over Bright Haven, by M.L. Wang (2024)

Premise: An ambitious young woman has staked everyone on becoming her society‘s first female high mage, but soon discovers a horrific secret underlying everything she thought she knew.

Review: This is a chilling book, all the more for the way it is all too reminiscent of our own world and the comfortable lies we tell ourselves to hide from inconvenient truths.
Cont

Mattsbookaday Bookish Pair: For another great recent fantasy that constructs new archetypes even as it deconstructs the old, Lev Grossman‘s The Bright Sword (2024).

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
1w
4 likes1 comment
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Mattsbookaday
The Late Monsieur Gallet | Georges Simenon
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The Late Monsieur Gallet (aka Maigret Stonewalled) (Inspector Maigret), by Georges Simenon (1931)

Premise: Inspector Maigret is called to Sancerre to investigate a murder, but the more he investigates the less everything makes sense.

Review: I find the Maigret novels really hit or miss, and sadly this was a miss for me. Cont

Mattsbookaday It excels where Simenon always does: in the atmosphere, setting, and in making the story revolve around the psychology of the victim rather than being a typical ‘who-dunnit‘. But this story just got bogged down in its own complexity. The reader is as stonewalled and frustrated as Maigret is throughout, and the ending doesn‘t pay off in a satisfying way
Rating: ⭐️⭐️💫
2w
5 likes1 comment
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Essential Writings, by Mother Maria Skobtsova (collected 2002)

Premise: Collected texts by the 20th C theologian and justice advocate Mother Maria of Paris.

Review: This is a fascinating collection that includes texts not otherwise available in English translation. Mother Maria‘s incisive intellect, loving heart, and unique point of view come through in every essay. Cont.

Mattsbookaday A collection like this for her is limited by the ephemeral character of the publications in which she wrote–mostly small periodicals–so these felt uneven in their significance. But that said, this offers a rare glimpse into the mind of one of the 20th C‘s most compelling religious figures.
Bookish Pair: Fr. Alexander Men, About Christ and the Church (1996)
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2w
5 likes1 comment
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Mattsbookaday
Ruthless Vows | Rebecca Ross
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Ruthless Vows (Letters of Enchantment 2), by Rebecca Ross (2023)

Premise: As the war between the gods intensifies, newlyweds Roman and Iris find themselves on opposite sides of the battle.

Review: The second half of this duology does what it needs to do in bringing the story to a satisfying enough conclusion. Cont.

Mattsbookaday But I have to admit that it left me a bit cold. It introduces a new complication into the narrative that I don‘t think paid off, and it didn‘t really do anything but check off the boxes it needed to.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2w
4 likes1 comment
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Mattsbookaday
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Everything Is Tuberculosis, by John Green (2025)

Premise: A popular-level take on the history, science, and increasingly sociology, of humanity‘s deadliest disease.

Review: The Green brothers just seem like genuinely delightful, whip-smart, gracious, and deeply curious people, and this book hits on all those strengths. Cont.

Mattsbookaday As someone who works in public health, I appreciated the focus in the later chapters on the social determinants of health and the things we as a culture could do to stop this awful disease in its tracks, if only we chose to make it a priority.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2w
7 likes1 comment
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Strange Pictures, by Uketsu (2022, transl. 2025)

Premise: Apparently disconnected creepy stories fit together to create a disturbing story.

Review: WOW! I can‘t say too much about this without spoiling anything. But, if you love a mystery and can stomach some violence and disturbing imagery, do yourself a favour and read this!

Bookish Pair: For another Japanese puzzle story, Kinae Minato‘s Confessions (2010, transl. 2014)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Mattsbookaday
Murder by Memory | Olivia Waite
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Murder by Memory (Dorothy Gentleman 1), by Olivia Waite (2025)

Premise: On a space ship carrying a remnant of humanity to a new home, the ship‘s detective‘s mind wakes up in a stranger‘s body after years of dormancy — a stranger she quickly suspects may have committed a murder.
Cont.

Mattsbookaday Review: This is a wonderful, quick, fun read. I didn‘t know ‘Sapphic sci-fi cozy mystery novella‘ was a wheelhouse for me but it definitely is now! I can‘t wait to read more in this series.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2w
7 likes1 comment
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When the Moon Hits Your Eye, by John Scalzi (2025)

Premise: The world is stunned to discover that the moon has been turned into a cheese-like substance.

Review: Scalzi‘s two previous books dealt with ordinary people dealing with extraordinary situations, and here it‘s the whole world dealing with an extraordinary situation. On the plus side, this allows him to cover a wide range of opinions and experiences about the event. Cont.

Mattsbookaday The bad thing is that, mileage varied a lot from chapter to chapter, so was a more uneven reading experience from the tight novels I‘m used to from Scalzi. It‘s still a worthy read by a wonderful author, but be warned that it‘s a strange one.

Bookish Pair: There is nothing like this, but another book of connected short stories dealing with a mass human crisis, Sequoia Nagamatsu‘s How High We Go in the Dark (2022)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
3w
8 likes1 comment
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Saint Francis of Assisi, Brother of Creation, by Mirabai Starr (2013)

Premise: A curated selection of texts by and about, and reflections on St. Francis of Assisi by a respected figure in the ‘spiritual-but-not-religious‘ space.

Review: This is a wonderful little collection of reflections and texts on one of the most important and universally beloved figures in Christian history.
Cont.

Mattsbookaday Bookish Pair: Starr‘s take on St. John of the Cross, *Dark Night of the Soul* (2002) is a contemporary classic with its own lore.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
3w
4 likes1 comment
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Mattsbookaday
The Bridge of San Luis Rey | Thornton Wilder
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The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder (1927)

Premise: In the aftermath of a bridge collapse in 1700s Peru, a monk tries to understand why the victims were ‘chosen‘ to die.

Review: This early Pulitzer Prize winner explores evergreen themes of fate, free will, the justice of God, and meaning in a world where terrible things happen every day. Cont.

Mattsbookaday It follows a fascinating set of interconnected characters, each with vivid and complex lives that defy easy classification as they approach their fatal encounter with the bridge. It‘s a great and deserved classic.

Bookish Pair: For another brilliant take on theodicy, Mary Doria Russell‘s The Sparrow (1995)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
3w
MaGoose I know I had to read this in high school, but don't remember much about the plot. I guess that means it's time for a second read. 3w
Mattsbookaday @MaGoose Wow! I can‘t imagine reading his in high school. I don‘t think I‘d have been able to appreciate it then. 3w
MaGoose @Mattsbookaday No, I don't think anyone in my class did. It's that way with most of the classics that we're forced to read in school. I remember reading The Scarlet Letter in school, too. I enjoyed it a lot more and got more out of it when I read it again in my late 40s. I even want to read it again. 3w
BooksandCoffee4Me Oh, I loved teaching/guiding my students through this — remember powerful discussions, similar to those we had when we read Greene‘s The Power and the Glory together. The key to these classics in a 10th-grade classroom was always the Socratic discussions where given a few questions to start, the students take the lead and discuss questions related to themes, issues, people that the novel explores. Purpose to get at the whys, not the whats 3w
4 likes1 stack add5 comments
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Mattsbookaday
Floating Hotel | Grace Curtis
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Floating Hotel, by Grace Curtis (2024)

Premise: The stories of the passengers and crew of a spaceship hotel whose best days are behind it.

Review: This is branded as ‘cozy sci fi‘, and while it takes place in space and has low-stakes, character-driven stories, it felt too distant to be cozy. It also could have been set at a grand European hotel during WWII with very little change. Cont.

Mattsbookaday That said, the sentence-level writing is beautiful and the characters are rich and fully developed, so this is certainly worth reading. But I‘m left feeling that I don‘t know why the author wrote it or what she was trying to say it.

Bookish Pair: Not to damn it with comparison to two far more successful novels, but this felt like a cross between Orbital by Samantha Harvey (2024) and A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (2016)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
3w
5 likes1 comment
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We Are All Made of Molecules, by Susin Nielsen (2015 🇨🇦)

Premise: Two Vancouver teenagers adjust to challenging new realities when their parents decide to move together and blend their families.

Review: This is a rare YA novel with characters who read as young as they are, which is a bit jarring since the book deals with some mature themes. I thought this was pretty successful and had some lovely messages about belonging and found family. Cont

Mattsbookaday Content warnings for attempted sexual assault on a minor, bullying, and homophobia. Bookish Pair: For another YA title about neurodivergence and the Pacific Northwest, Summer in the City of Roses, by Michelle Ruiz Kiel (2021)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
(edited) 3w
4 likes1 comment
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Mattsbookaday
Hunchback: A Novel | Saou Ichikawa
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Hunchback, by Saou Ichikawa (2023, transl. 2025)

Premise: A woman living with myotubular myopathy navigates complex social and parasocial relationships.

Review: This novella is without a doubt one of the most unique and shocking books I‘ve ever read. Cont.

Mattsbookaday It challenges the reader on important but underdiscussed themes of ableism, power, consent, resentment, and the many ways we construct our identities in real life and online. This will not be for everyone, but I thought it was genius. At a slim 110 pages and moving at a brisk pace, there is little to lose and a lot to gain from giving it a try. I will note as a PSA that this has an ambiguous ending, so if that bothers you, be warned! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3w
BarbaraBB Great review 🤍 3w
TieDyeDude My wife @wildalaskabibliophile just picked this up from our local bookstore! 3w
6 likes1 stack add3 comments
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The Secret History of Sharks, by John Long (2024)

Premise: A comprehensive introduction to the long history and evolution of sharks

Review: There is no question that John Long knows his stuff and is able to communicate complex material effectively. I learned more about sharks than I ever wanted to. Cont.

Mattsbookaday That‘s both this book‘s incredible success and slight weakness: It‘s often hard with popular science books to juggle the desire for comprehensiveness with the desire for accessibility, and at times I definitely got bogged down in the sheer volume of information here.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
3w
4 likes1 comment
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Mattsbookaday
Street of Riches | Gabrielle Roy
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Street of Riches, by Gabrielle Roy (1955, trans. 1957 🇨🇦)

Premise: A series of stories about the author‘s childhood in Manitoba‘s francophone community.

Review: This was a marvelous surprise. These stories — seventy years old themselves, but recounting events of thirty years earlier — strike a perfect balance: You feel the foreignness of this version of Canada from a century ago, while also seeing the seeds for the country we‘ve become. Cont.

Mattsbookaday But it‘s the little common touches of universal humanity that I‘ll remember most about this tender and beautiful, deserved Canadian classic.

Bookish Pair:This would be an interesting pairing with a more contemporary collection, such as Bernardine Evaristo‘s Girl Woman Other (2019).

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4w
4 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Lunar New Year Love Story, by Gene Luen Yang (illustrated byLeUyen Pham) (2024)

Premise: A Vietnamese-American teenager is pulled in many directions after she learns of a family curse that means they are all destined to fail at love.

Review: This was a bit of a mixed bag for me, largely because there were a few too many things stuffed in this particular bag for my liking. Cont.

Mattsbookaday For me the best parts were the specificity of the cultural representation — particularly in the similarities and differences among East Asian Lunar New Year celebrations and in the mixture of indigenous and Christian themes in Vietnamese communities — and the moral of the story, which was not what one might expect from this kind of novel. But it did feel a bit over-stuffed.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4w
5 likes1 comment
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Harriet Tubman, Live in Concert, by Bob the Drag Queen (2025)

Premise: In an alternative present where figures from the past have come back to life, a queer Black music producer is confronted with his own internalized oppression when Harriet Tubman asks him to make a record with her.

Review: I really wanted this to be something special, but while it has moments of genuine insight, it didn‘t quite get there for me. Cont.

Mattsbookaday I think the problem was that Bob is, as a general rule, the smartest, deepest-thinking, person in any room; but the main character and narrator of this story is anything but, and I don‘t think Bob able to successfully bridge that gap in this debut effort. There‘s a reason why they always say to write what you know. Still, the strong premise and often difficult discussions within are enough to make this work.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4w
4 likes1 comment
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Mattsbookaday
The Unseen World | Liz Moore
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The Unseen World, by Liz Moore (2016)

Premise: As her odd but doting father recedes into dementia, a young woman discovers that he wasn‘t who he said he was.

Review: This is unquestionably one of the best books I‘ll read this year and I‘m shocked I hadn‘t heard about it until this week!
Cont.

Mattsbookaday The bookish world sure was sleeping on this one! I don‘t want to say too much since so much of the book revolves around things that are best discovered for oneself. But it‘s well-written, with wonderfully-crafted characters, and a lot of heart.

Bookish Pair: This reminded me a lot of the best aspects of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin (2022)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4w
4 likes1 comment
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The Lost Library | Wendy Mass, Rebecca Stead
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The Lost Library, by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass (2023)

Premise: A boy becomes fascinated with the mystery of his town‘s library, which burned down in 1999 under mysterious circumstances.

Review: This is a fun middle grade romp with a memorable set of characters, and a lovely father-son relationship. The problems come if you think about the plot or need a satisfying conclusion to the mystery
Cont.

Mattsbookaday Bookish Pair: For a more successful middle grade mystery, The Only Black Girls in Town by Brandy Colbert (2020)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Medium: Audio
1mo
6 likes1 comment
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A Sweet Sting of Salt, by Rose Sutherland (2024 🇨🇦)

Premise: A queer take on the Selkie Wife legend set in 19th C Nova Scotia

Review: This is a legend ripe for a postmodern retelling, and this works really well. I loved the main character and her found family, and the selkie wife herself more than holds her own in a frightening situation. It‘s not perfect but a great read nonetheless.

Mattsbookaday Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

🦭 Myth Retelling

🇨🇦 Canadian Literature

🌈 Queer Characters
1mo
4 likes1 comment
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Jennie‘s Boy, by Wayne Johnston (2023 🇨🇦)

Premise: A memoir of the author‘s childhood living with chronic illness in an impoverished Newfoundland community.

Review: This is close to being a perfect memoir: full of humour, insight, and vulnerability. It does a fantastic job of showing the reader the insecurity of growing up in illness, poverty, and as the child of an alcoholic, but also the power of familial love.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Ghosts | Dolly Alderton
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Ghosts, by Dolly Alderton (2020)

Premise: An English woman struggles to manage the ever-shifting dynamics of fading friendships, aging parents, and the horror that is twenty-first-century dating.

Review: I‘m pretty sure no author has been able to articulate the highs, lows, and humiliations of the millennial generation as well as Dolly Alderton. Cont.

Mattsbookaday This book deals beautifully with relevant contemporary themes such as the shifting nature of adult relationships, managing a parent with dementia, and online dating. In its humour and point of view, this is very similar to her Good Material (2023), but it didn‘t bother me (maybe just give at least a few months in between them to let the fertile literary ground lie fallow).

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🙃 Millennial Life. 💑 Dating / Relationships
1mo
6 likes1 comment
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Mehso-so

The Abbey, by James Martin(2015)

Premise: Two suburbanites are drawn into the life of a local monastery.

Review: A good effort at fiction by a popular nonfiction writer, but this probably should have stayed a nonfiction ‘monasticism for dummies‘ book.
Cont.

Mattsbookaday Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1mo
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Stop Me If You‘ve Heard This One, by Kristen Arnett (2025)

Premise: A Florida clown struggles with her career and relationships and the ghosts of the past.

Review: This is sharp, biting, and unflinching, especially when it makes the main character look bad. But I‘ve read many books by queer women that share this sensibility and I definitely felt the diminished returns here. Cont

Mattsbookaday . I just wanted more, both from and for the protagonist — more growth and development, more awareness. But the things this does well, it does really well.

Bookish Pair: For a similar tone and themes, Melissa Broder‘s Milk Fed (2021)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌈 Queer Characters

🎭 Performance / the Arts

👩‍👧‍👦 Complex Family

Medium: Audio
1mo
2 likes1 comment
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Mattsbookaday
Water Moon: A Novel | Samantha Sotto Yambao
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Water Moon, by Samantha Sotto Yambao (2025)

Premise: The new proprietress of a magical pawn shop teams up with an unsuspecting physicist to track down her missing father.

Review: I was really excited about this one, but I have to say it completely let me down.
Cont.

Mattsbookaday The premise and atmosphere felt like a delicious cross between Japanese ‘healing fiction‘ and a Studio Ghibli film. But instead this just dragged, as the two characters go from quirky location to quirky location. At the end of the day, nothing happened and I didn‘t care. Bookish Pair: a far better version of something like this is Ben Okri‘s Astonishing the Gods (1995)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️💫
1mo
4 likes1 comment
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Mattsbookaday
Lunar Boy | Jes and Cin Wibowo
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Lunar Boy, by Jes and Cin Wibowo (2024)

Premise: Set in a futuristic world steeped in Austronesian culture, an adopted child comes to terms with his trans identity, new family, and the cultural impacts of colonialism.
Cont

Mattsbookaday Review: I wanted to really love this, but there was just too much going on for me. There‘s still some wonderful representation here, of various queer and cultural identities, and a helpful and hopeful story of discovering how one belongs in an often hostile world. But I‘m not sure how well the various pieces fit together as a story.

Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

🎒 Middle Grade

🖼️ Graphic Novel

🇮🇩 Indonesian Representation

🌈 Queer Characters
1mo
TieDyeDude It sounds like they may have needed to focused on the representation that worked for the story, rather than trying to fit the story to the identities they wanted to represent? Bummer. 1mo
Mattsbookaday @TieDyeDude For me it was more a matter of needing to focus on the story as much as the representation. There are major plot points that are left completely unaddressed 1mo
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Into the Woods | Jenny Holiday
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Into the Woods, by Jenny Holiday (2025)

Premise: In order to reinforce a ‘no more men‘ resolution after being burned out on dating apps, a Minnesotan dance instructor takes a position as a mentor at a summer camp for artistic teens. But fate may have other things in mind, when she meets the grumpy rockstar facing life transitions of his own.
Cont.

Mattsbookaday Review: This was really cute. I don‘t have much more to say about it than that. Just a nice, easy, contemporary romance.

Bookish Pair: While not in a series per se, this is in the same universe as the author‘s Canadian Boyfriend (2024).

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

💞 Romance
1mo
5 likes1 comment
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Mattsbookaday
Tartufo | Kira Jane Buxton
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Tartufo, by Kira Jane Buxton (2025)

Premise: The eccentric residents of a dying Tuscan village dare to hope their prayers have been answered when the world‘s largest truffle is found in their woods.

Cont.

Mattsbookaday Review: My feelings about this novel can be summarized as “damning with faint praise.” It‘s a decent execution of a tired trope, with characters a little too quirky, and writing that skirts the edge between beautiful and purple
Bookish Pair: l Mink River, by Brian Doyle (2010)
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
1mo
5 likes1 comment
review
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Murder Most Royal (Her Majesty the Queen Investigates 3), by S.J. Bennett (2022)

Premise: Her Majesty‘s Christmas celebrations are interrupted by the discovery of a severed hand on the beach near her Sandringham Estate, a hand bearing a signet ring she instantly recognizes.

Review: This is another solid entry in this charming series. The Christmas vibes were fun, and the setting of the end of 2016 added an interesting element to the story.
Cont

Mattsbookaday Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🔎 Mystery Fiction

👑 Royal Family

Medium: Audio
1mo
4 likes1 comment
review
Mattsbookaday
Here | Richard McGuire
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Here, by Richard McGuire (2014)

Premise: The story of a room across the generations of its inhabitants.

Review: This is a brilliant premise brilliantly executed. You really just have to see it to appreciate it.

Bookish Pair: A literary version of this idea was well-executed in North Woods, by Daniel Mason (2023)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🖼️ Graphic Novel

🕰️ Historical

Medium: Graphic Novel

BooksandCoffee4Me Intrigued! Also, I like how you organize your review. 1mo
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All That It Ever Meant | Blessing Musariri
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Mehso-so

All That It Ever Meant, by Blessing Musariri (2023)

Premise: Reeling following a family tragedy, a Black British girl is taken back to her parents‘ native Zimbabwe to regroup.

Review: Despite doing a lot well, this didn‘t hit for me. But I‘m also very aware that I‘m not the target audience for it, and I have little doubt it would work better for those living in a diaspora or immigrant context. Cont.

Mattsbookaday The author had some beautiful ways of describing the sense of displacement such experiences involve. It was also a moving story of a family in free fall and a dad doing whatever he can to keep them afloat.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🇿🇼 African Fiction (Zimbabwe)

🎒 Middle Grade

👧🏿 Diaspora Literature

Medium: Audio
1mo
3 likes1 comment
review
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The Resurrectionist | A. Rae Dunlap
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The Resurrectionist, by A. Rae Dunlap (2024)

Premise: A naive member of the gentry arrives in 19th C Edinburgh, excited to jump head on into the vanguard of the new science of medicine, but is quickly drawn into the seedy realities required by his new passion.
Cont.

Mattsbookaday This had me hooked from the opening paragraph and kept me engaged right through until the end. I loved how the author managed to convey both the brightness of the Enlightenment and the darker realities the emergence of science required. The mixture of true crime into this fictional story was also very successful. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 2mo
4 likes1 comment
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Premise: A young woman at loose ends is forced to solve the mystery of her paranoid great aunt‘s murder in order to receive a life-changing inheritance and keep a small town safe from developers.
Cont

Mattsbookaday Review: I really enjoyed this. While the premise is silly, the actual mystery was intriguing and I enjoyed the slow revelation of the pertinent facts. I also liked the journal entries that brought us into the mind of the late great aunt. This was just good murderful fun and I‘m excited to hear this is becoming a series, with book 2 due out in a few weeks.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🔎 Mystery Fiction | 🤫 Buried Secrets | 🏘️ Small Town
2mo
bookandbedandtea "Murderful fun." I love it! 2mo
5 likes2 comments
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Story of a Soul, by St. Thérèse of Lisieux (ms. 1890s, pub. 1922)

Premise: The spiritual autobiography of a young French nun, whose simple wisdom has inspired generations.

Review: I decided to pick this up again after I read Mariette in Ecstasy last week, since I knew there were a lot of similarities between the lead character in this novel and St. Thérèse. Cont.

Mattsbookaday I can understand why this will absolutely not be for everyone, but also why it has spoken to so many people over the past century. Her life of radical — almost belligerent — simplicity is a real challenge to our cultural norms, and seems equal parts beautiful and irresponsible.

Bookish Pair: Mariette in Ecstacy, by Ron Hansen 1991)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

🙏🏽 Spirituality

✝️ Christianity

🗝️ Classics

Medium: Text
2mo
3 likes1 stack add1 comment
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A Love Song for Ricki Wilde, by Tia Williams (2024)

Premise: Determined to make her own way in the world, the youngest and ‘disappointing‘ daughter of a prosperous Black family moves to Harlem to set up a flower shop. But as she establishes herself there, she becomes haunted by both the neighbourhood‘s disappearing history and a strange and beautiful man she can‘t stop bumping into. Cont.

Mattsbookaday Review: There are a lot of elements here I really liked, including the content around Harlem Renaissance and New York‘s disappearing history. But the supernatural elements, while enjoyable, felt out of place in Ricki‘s story. And while I enjoy Williams‘s writing, a bit of purple prose snuck in here. Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

💞 Romance

👩🏿 African American Fiction

🌆 New York City

Medium:Text
2mo
6 likes1 comment
review
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Kwame Crashes the Underworld | Craig Kofi Farmer
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Mehso-so

Kwame Crashes the Underworld (Kwame Powell 1), by Craig Kofi Farmer (2024)

Premise: As he prepares to travel to Ghana for his grandmother‘s funeral, a Carolina boy is pulled into a dangerous adventure in the underworld of West African lore.

Review: This does a lot well, but was ultimately a disappointment for me. Cont.

Mattsbookaday I liked its purpose of connecting Black kids to west African lore, but felt like it didn‘t know what it wanted to be. It tried on a few themes before settling on grief, leaving a lot unresolved. Bookish Pair: For another book helping kids connect to Black culture(s), Trtistan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, by Kwame Mbalia (2019)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

🎒 Middle Grade | 👦🏿 African American Experiences | 🇬🇭 West African Culture

Medium:Audio
2mo
3 likes1 comment
review
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Life Hacks for a Little Alien, by Alice Franklin (2025)

Premise: Told in second person, the story of what it‘s like to grow up neurodivergent in a world in which one feels utterly alien.

Review: When we talk about ‘window‘ books, this is the kind of book we talk about. The descriptions of the main character‘s confusion at the world and its response to her are as visceral as they are heartbreaking. Cont.

Mattsbookaday Bookish Pair: For a more adult take on life on the spectrum, Emily Austin‘s Interesting Facts about Space (2024).

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🤓 Literary Fiction

🧠 Neurodivergence

🔠 Language and Linguistics

Medium: Audio
2mo
3 likes1 comment
review
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The Widows of Malabar Hill (Parveen Mistry 1), by Sujata Massey (2018)

Premise: India‘s first female solicitor takes the case of three Muslim widows living in seclusion, but must think quickly when the estate‘s overseer is found dead.

Review: This was a fascinating novel. The mystery was compelling but I appreciated it most as a window into the complex relationships between ethnic and religious communities in India under British rule. Cont

Mattsbookaday What didn‘t work for me were the long digressions into the MC‘s relationship with her estranged husband — while it definitely emphasized why the widows‘ plight meant so much to her, a tenth of this backstory would be enough.

Bookish Pair: The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, by Vaseem Khan (2015)
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
🔎 Mystery Fiction
🇮🇳 India
Medium: Text
2mo
5 likes1 comment
review
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Isaac‘s Song, by Daniel Black (2025)

Premise: A Black gay man tasked with writing the story of his relationship with his estranged father uncovers inconvenient truths that upend his assumptions.

Review: While I don‘t think that for me this hit quite as hard as his previous book, this is still an incredible and powerful work of art. Cont.

Mattsbookaday It beautifully captured the weight of generational trauma and the many ways the legacy of oppression twists lives.
Bookish Pair: For another great book about racism‘s constant reinvention, Yaa Gyasi‘s Homegoing (2016)
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
👦🏿 Black History
🌈 Queer Characters
👨‍👩‍👦 Complex Families
Medium: Audio
(edited) 2mo
3 likes1 comment
review
Mattsbookaday
A Minor Chorus: A Novel | Billy-Ray Belcourt
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A Minor Chorus, by Billy-Ray Belcourt (2022 🇨🇦)

Premise: An Indigenous graduate student, jaded by the institutional game and the broader lack of effective action on Indigenous Reconciliation in Canada, returns to his home community to find the voice for the novel he knows he has within him.

Review: This is incredibly well-done and is thought-provoking in all the best, most challenging ways. Cont.

Mattsbookaday Yet it felt like a piece of sociology or political sci with a thin veneer of story thrown on top. That said, this offers a needed perspective I fear many Canadians are unable or unwilling to take to heart in these times of backlash.

Bookish Pair: Conor Kerr‘s Prairie Edge (2024 🇨🇦)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

🧡 Indigenous Fiction

🇨🇦 Canadian Society

🌈 Queer Fiction

Medium: Audio
2mo
2 likes1 comment
review
Mattsbookaday
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Oscar Wars, by Michael Schulman (2023)

Premise: A history of the Academy Awards told through the stories of several pivotal moments across the decades.

Review: This is a fascinating and generally successful piece of nonfiction. My only struggle with it is the decision to tell the story of the Oscars through long, in-depth vignettes, rather than through a traditional survey. (Cont.)

Mattsbookaday The format has the advantage of really zooming in to specific moments in time, but its disadvantage is that it left me still feeling pretty murky about those parts of the history that were not the focus of any of the chapters. But if you‘re at all interested in cinema or pop culture in general, this is an excellent read.

Bookish Pair: n/a

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

🤓 Nonfiction

🎬 Pop Culture

Medium: Text and Audio
2mo
3 likes1 comment