Yesterday was a snow day (!), so I tore through 3 new/upcoming books:
--Bernice Yeung's IN A DAY'S WORK, about sexual violence against immigrant women in agriculture & domestic work;
--Sandhya Menon's FROM TWINKLE WITH LOVE, which is a delight!;
--the fifth Penderwicks book, which was lovely in many ways & disappointing in one.

So now I'm back to this weirdo, which I started a while ago but really need to concentrate on. Creepy and discomfiting.

Well, shoot. Just hanging on to this. (from an ARC.)

I'm pretty sure I've read this particular essay, or a version of it, online--it's about the class Chee took from Annie Dillard. But still, out of nowhere, this paragraph caught me tonight.

My Friday night reading assortment feels like a 1990s "part of a balanced breakfast!" commercial. We have fun.

Making my way through my TBR; a fellow curler loaned me her copy of STATION ELEVEN when I said I hadn't read it yet, and I guess she'll want it back eventually!

The beginning of chapter 10, which maps out the myriad grudges among the Traveling Symphony, is my most favourite thing as a former band kid, all the more because it ends with one final dig at flutes. (Ugh, flutes.) (Some of my best friends played the flute, but as a group...!)

Front: snow day reading, morning edition

Back: three (!) tote bags full of library books that need to be returned, foot of snow or not.

This book is about 15% too weird for me so far, but in a way I'm into. #queerbooks

...and just like that, back to another year of committee reading. (And it's my LAST before I roll off this committee!)

And, with EXIT WEST, my madcap catchup #tob18 reading might be done, unless I can track down GOODBYE VITAMIN this weekend. I do have THE IDIOT on hand to read for round 2.

Right now, I think (maybe?) my personal order of preference is
Exit West
Sing, Unburied, Sing
Fever Dream*
Pachinko
The Animators
The Book of Joan
So Much Blue
The End of Eddy
Idaho
Lucky Boy

*not pictured--already returned

Last-minute #tob18 reading continues.

I didn't really care for this one, but I'm interested to talk it out. There were so many strange sentence constructions and syntax choices; I'm not sure whether they're awkward translation or an accurate reflection of the French text. (The author's also a philosopher so it COULD BE ANYTHING.)

That said, this passage floored me, because it puts a careful pin in something very adolescent and true. #queerbooks

It was fine. A very first-novel novel; a very Iowa Writers' Workshop novel.

I read this immediately after finishing Jen Sookfong Lee's THE CONJOINED, which I read after Samanta Schweblin's FEVER DREAM, so I'm ready to read something a little bit more cheerful now. Maybe without Complicated Mothers and dead children.

(I am trying to catch up on #tob18 reading, though, so "cheerful" seems unlikely.)

This morning's book and breakfast combination.

I bought WICKED WONDERS in Asheville on my way to my parents' earlier this winter as kind of a gentle queer talisman because I had recently finished and adored Klages's PASSING STRANGE. It sat around for a few months because I was afraid it wouldn't live up to my magical hopes.

BUT IT'S SO GOOD; I only have a couple of stories left and I'll miss it when I'm done.

I keep feeling like I need to reread WE ARE OKAY over and over. (I read it for the first time a year ago and gave reread it twice since.)

What I really want, though, are recommendations for adult fiction (not YA; I discover that already for work) where queer women fall in love with one another and are mostly happy. Help me out, #queerbooks readers?

My platonic ideal here is probably something like Emma Donoghue's LANDING.

I've been in a real reading slump the past couple of weeks--probably helped along by some traveling and then some post-travel illness.

But I've still got Scaachi Koul's essay collection in my bedside bookshelf, so I'm seeing if I can chip away at it and get back on track.

With all the talk of being invisible, mythmaking, secrets, hidden truths, "I don't believe people ever change, but I've changed", etc., this is a more effective reading/listening combo than I expected.

I read the first 2/3 of this as a web comic but finally bought the book today! I have really loved the recent wave of church camp books, and I'm dazzled by what Mel Gillman does with coloured pencils.

I'm impressed that the local coffee shop gave me a plate that matches the book cover almost exactly!

Finished my #lastbookof2017 right before midnight. Happy new year and best wishes for 2018, everyone! 🎉

Just the traditional reading-about-Canadian-murderesses while we wait for the rest of the family to arrive for Christmas.

Hooray, I'm actually around for #friyayintro this week!

🍪At Christmas, my favourites are pfeffernusse.
🚗I'm usually the traveler, and I like it!
📚I'm at about 250 right now and still reading... should finish LOVE, HATE, AND OTHER FILTERS today.
⁉️Have never (!) seen Home Alone. Our Christmas pair are Charlie Brown Christmas and the original Grinch.
🏆This year, I asked for curling equipment! And world peace, of course.

@jesshowbooks

Today's reading can pretty much be summarized so far as "families: they're complicated."

I love a religious-seeking memoir from time to time, even though I'm not seeking myself.

It surprises me that Anjali never really gets into service and mutual aid as an aspect of belief-engagement. Her whole search is focused much more on mystical spirituality than religious community, which is really opposite to my own priorities about religion and faith.

So this isn't a review! The book is... fine? But I'll be thinking about it for a while.

Read most of this last night, finished it after running errands today.

Overall: engaging and a good level of suspense for a war romance. I appreciate war books that don't make combat seem easy, or pretend a region was a monolith of support and sentiment, or that defecting was easy.

That said: I used to live very close to where this is set, so there were some TINY localisms that seemed weird to me. But I don't know--they may be period-accurate.

Well, this was where I decided to start with my reading tonight, and a good choice it was. Trying to decide which of my parents to buy a copy for...

Delighted by today's library haul; utterly unsure where to start.

Whittling down my "started & put down" TBR. Bought this one over the summer, stopped because it was A Lot. It's certainly not any less of A Lot now? I'm about 150 pages in & wondering how seriously we're going to take Andrew's HS experience as a parallel predatory situation.

It is funny to me how clearly Avalon Hills is an "American" community written by a Canadian. Every time the text mentions that they're in Connecticut, I'm a little surprised.

I'm not good at finishing short story collections but I finished this one! I don't generally choose horror, but "the horror of being a queer woman with a body" is an exception.

Favourites: The Husband Stitch, The Resident, Inventory

Special mention for being its absolute own weird thing: Especially Heinous

Last book of September, sneaking in just under the wire, and a TRUE DELIGHT.

Style icon: Tove Jansson, very pose-y young painter.

Tonight's book & music combo.

I'm not crying; you're crying.

HA! I was a very specific kid who was, for a while, VERY CLEAR that my favourite colour wasn't "blue," it was CERULEAN, the best blue. A pleasure to find a kindred spirit!

So I'm generally skeptical of self-help books and the writing style in this one is driving me up a wall, but I'm reading it because Sarah Wendell spoke well of it and I mostly trust her.

If nothing else, this overbuyer/underbuyer dichotomy is useful in naming how I differ from my dad, who's otherwise VERY similar to me in personality.

(Me: does not own an umbrella.
My dad: owns every gadget ever made.)

This beaut showed up in a committee submissions box today and I simultaneously want to read it all immediately and want to dole it out over weeks. Aughghghhhhhhhhhh.

Possibly my most anticipated book of the year--I love Akata Witch A LOT.

a) I always enjoy early readers about kids with Very Kid hobbies (in this case, looking for rocks)

b) SUPER into the use of spot purple in Vanessa Brantley-Newton's illustrations

Over the past few years, I've read A LOT of unchecked-patriarch dystopias. I also know a fair amount about the Bible, real Biblical patriarchy movements, and NRMs.

My thoughts on this aren't fully formed, still. But:
--we get a lot of books that spend a lot of time just wallowing in absolute grotesqueness
--TO ME, the transition from "pretty okay" to "cannibalism and child rape" is the most compelling part. Show me THAT, or show me post-escape.

Weekend lakeside reading:

"it's an exciting time to be a vulture lover."

I haven't posted #readingstats in a while, so here's a summer summary!

I had a BUNCH of assigned stuff to read this summer, mostly by white ladies, plus I got on a Louise Penny kick for a while. I am very proud of myself for slightly exceeding a book-a-day average in June!

Sunday morning #queerbooks and breakfast on a cloudy day.

(It takes a certain queer book to introduce AN ENTIRE HOUSE OF RUGBY PLAYERS. 😉)

Well, now I want to incorporate "Assiduously I consulted them all and intentionally ignored none" into every piece of research I write.

I KEEP READING THESE AND THEY KEEP IRRITATING ME.

--You can't use a word as a Caesar Shift key if it has repeated letters.

--The whole "Clara decides whether to confront Fortin" plot was so drawn out and vaguely useless.

--The whole MYSTERY was pretty convoluted; I get the impression it continues in the next book? But holy smokes.

--I don't really care about the new villagers?

BUT I'LL ALMOST CERTAINLY GET TO THE NEXT ONE, eventually.

Well, I guess maybe the "Ruth's been cribbing from other poets" plot I thought I had seen foreshadowed throughout the series is never coming? (I caught it for sure in the second book because I know Margaret Atwood's "A Sad Child" almost by heart.)

Maybe don't steal moderately well-known poems to ascribe to your characters? Or does this only bug me?

Another generally interesting mystery but UGH LOUISE PENNY, stop doing this thing where everyone in the scene can see who "the murderer" is but the narrator plays coy. I DO NOT LIKE IT.

I also thought that the resolution to the emotional family plot was weak, but I liked learning more about Peter.

(I had to skip The Cruellest Month for now because none of my libraries had copies available.)

I have checked this out from libraries SEVERAL times and never read more than about twenty pages--I generally like Connie Willis and wanted to have time to really dig in. A rainy week at the cottage was exactly what I needed--almost done! Went on a long canoe trip today, so I'm ready to chill and finish it.

My one concern is that ALL CLEAR wasn't in at the library when I got this one...

I think I mostly liked this one? But
a) I could've had 100% less of the narrator telling us how "grotesque" the victim's fat daughter looked;
b) I'm still waiting to find out what the hell is going on with "Ruth's" poetry;
c) I haaaaaaaate the thing in the picture above, where things intentionally fade out/elide conversations we should be hearing that contain crucial information.

This started out REALLY disjointed and seemed like just a collection of Very Seventies Things. It did cohere into a couple of storylines by about halfway through, but I think the first Sunny book was stronger overall.

Snagged this one at the library today--I'm pretty sure I've read every Sarah Dessen book. Some have taught me some problematic stuff--I loved KEEPING THE MOON maybe too much? because there was some Fantasy Of Being Thin stuff going on there (same, SAINT ANYTHING). And the Perfect Boy in THIS LULLABY was suddenly really creepy when I got to grad school.

But she taught me about North Carolina before I lived there, and I'll probably always go back.

Reread, prompted by reading DOWN AMONG THE STICKS AND BONES. I definitely noticed Jack and Jill a lot more this time, and I think my mental images of them had changed quite a bit.

Still a near-perfect execution of many things, including the specific adolescent/young adult world of having parents who want their "real child" back, which you know you can never actually be.

Most importantly: I am jealous of a town-wide pajama party.

(Light spoilers, but it's romance, these are the tropes)
This is maybe the first YA I've read that's both friends-to-lovers AND sex-to-feelings?

An interesting read after AMERICAN HOOKUP, since Maggie's decision is motivated in large part by the belief that EVERYONE IN COLLEGE HOOKS UP.

I also always appreciate that Kenneally's teen athletes spend ALL THEIR TIME sportsing and eating.

Most of this was... fine. I'm still not sure whether most of the Monstrous Sea inserts were supposed to be an image from the comic plus text from Wallace's transcription, or Eliza's notes, or the comic itself (which then would be so text-heavy it wouldn't need a novelization?).

In the real world, I would be FURIOUS about Wallace getting a novelization of Eliza's original work published.

But the thing that disappointed me is spoilered in comments

"I'm just going to run in the library to pick up a movie," I said.