Picture books, People and Poetry are in my latest episode of Friday Reads… along with seaweed and literary prize shortlists:

https://youtu.be/aDmpBqd1CxI

I have a few suggestions for Alyisha, who is looking for funny contemporary fiction. I like a dark undertone to humour, so these might not be exactly what you want, but I hope at least a few of these will appeal.

In my latest Friday Reads booktube episode: artisan cheese touring on Vancouver Island; Victoria gardens; and 6 books.

https://youtu.be/B4BlfSUOVi0

#trans authors #OzFiction #kidlit #memoir #Gaza

What are you willing to give up to alleviate someone else‘s suffering? […] the prevailing answer echoing from the mouths of so many of one‘s own neighbours is: Nothing at all.

How does one finish the sentence: “It is unfortunate that tens of thousands of children are dead, but…”

The literary critic Northrop Frye once said all art is metaphor & a metaphor is the grammatical definition of insanity. What art does is meet us at the site of our insanity, our derangement, the plainly irrational mechanics of what it means to be human.

This amazing tale about the bond between a British woman and a wild hare is currently shortlisted for the Women‘s Prize for Nonfiction. I loved it.

I talk about the tagged book and 6 others in my latest booktube video, as well as International Trans Day of Visibility and doing touristy stuff in Victoria BC. #LGBTQ+

https://youtu.be/wLpbL6QsA_k?si=2llFEuO2vFFcfT6H

You are invited to view my latest booktube episode, in which I talk about Nobel laureates, art, the Korean diaspora, speculative fiction, trans nonbinary literature, and trees!

https://youtu.be/An3pG6AV28I

For my friends on Litsy who like a reminder when I post a new video about my reading, here‘s a link: Friday Reads 03/14: 10 books from 9 countries

https://youtu.be/M_NYB1phWlQ

#booktube #CanLit #poetry #LGBTQ #InTranslation

What‘s not to love about a species that comes into its own in the rain if you live in a damp place like the UK? With that rain comes mossy magic, softening shapes, muffling harsh sound, painting our world with greenery and poetry.

You are invited to watch my latest Friday Reads episode #booktube #HighExpectations #kidlit #FeministClassic #LGBTQ

https://youtu.be/2MaNE0Co1fM

Nonbinary British writer Olivia Laing‘s experience of renovating a garden in Suffolk is entwined with an exploration of the role of gardens in history & in particular their connection with sociopolitical issues. The role of gardens in the lives of queer folk during a time when it wasn‘t good to be gay, the therapeutic effect of gardens to this day, the lush botanical language: there‘s so much that I love about this book! #LGBTQ

Sameness was anathema to William Morris. What he liked was individuality amidst common purpose, each person as distinctive as flowers in a meadow.

The study of botany was an exercise in looking. It made the ordinary world more intricate and finely detailed, as if I had acquired a magnifying glass that trebled the eye‘s capacity.

There‘s no point looking for Eden on a map. It‘s a dream that is carried in the heart: a fertile garden, time and space enough for all of us.

Morris thought everyone‘s environment could be & should be more beautiful. He believed it was people‘s right to live in beautiful, unspoilt, unpolluted places & he thought, like Ruskin, that beauty was not a luxury & that luxurious & unnecessary things were actually unbeautiful, since beauty was so closely aligned to necessity & nature.

What makes a garden such an important constituent of a utopia? It is neither a farm nor a wilderness, though it can push up hard against either of these extremes. This means it betokens more than just utility, encompassing beauty, pleasure & delight, while remaining emphatically a site of labour as well as leisure, a place to please puritans & sybarites alike.

A bisexual woman in a fever looks back on four individuals who were significant in her life. These quiet, exquisite character studies are crafted from ordinary details that, together, give us a portrait of the narrator. And a reminder that every one of us is extraordinary. Translation from Swedish by Kira Josefsson. Long, multiple-clause sentences flow smoothly in the audio edition read by Julie Maisey. So good I listened to it twice. #LGBTQ

Some books stay in your bones long after their titles and details have slipped from memory.

In my latest Friday Reads: Big dog, tiny hippo, a fur coat that growls, sacred bones, holiday rentals, mud brick construction, brownstone renovation, rage, joy etc

https://youtu.be/BjJkKy8QAHY

I saw this framed photo while I was travelling recently and thought immediately of the horse in Gliff.

This is a remarkable collection of essays, or perhaps it‘s better described as diaristic musings. Amina Cain‘s thoughts on writing make me feel seen as a reader. I‘m going to the bookstore today to buy my own copy of this because I don‘t want to live without it.

A good title offers something acute without being obvious, without giving something away.

Reading, all on its own, is one of the best things, and yet isn‘t it nice to read in bed at the end of a long day, the darkness of the window meeting the soft light inside the room? Or on the beach, the hot sand and the sound of the waves coming together with the book. Things combine to become other things, other kinds of experiences.

In The Travelling Companions (1862) by Augustus Leopold Egg […] One girl sleeps while the other reads. Each is resting in her own way. All of us need this kind of rest.

When I began looking at paintings of nighttime scenes because I wanted to write about them, I felt immediately comforted. It‘s probably why I was drawn in the first place to write about darkness, but I wasn‘t expecting to be soothed so quickly.

Pleasure, freedom, torment, emptiness: it is what I want my writing to express.

I have never been able to force myself to write about anything, or to avoid anything for that matter, and I don‘t think I ever will, so I‘ll just see what keeps arising, how I approach the difficulties of being alive in this particular moment in time. It‘s freedom I want when it comes to writing, and in life, even within responsibility. Being unrestrained. Like a horse standing in darkness. The pasture gate has been left open.

Yukon travel adventure + recent reads 01/24/25 #booktube #fibrearts #LGBTQ #audiobooks
https://youtu.be/T7K57KCMncU

If you‘re interested in seeing every 5-star book I read in 2024, you‘re invited to have a look at my latest video.
#LGBTQIA+ #booktube #BookPrizes

https://youtu.be/t_qkr__uKBA

Some alpaca yarn dyed with kitchen scraps (pomegranate peels, avocado pits, onion skins) — I am getting ready for a new knitting project. #LitsyCrafters

In my latest video, I share my 2024 reading stats + six stunning books! #booktube
https://youtu.be/Lj6iS4FdYqs

My latest booktube episode includes a dozen recent reads:
https://youtu.be/pLq4BZFeuIY

#LGBTQ #kidlit #picturebook #audiobook #classic #inTranslation #Canadian #essays #science

I‘m back home in Canada & it‘s all Canadian authors in this December 18th episode! #booktube

https://youtu.be/lXJD3Exclio

If you‘re interested in my biblioadventures in New York City, I invite you to watch my latest video:

https://youtu.be/QzWlUxtRse4

I‘m cat sitting in Brooklyn for 2 weeks. In my latest booktube episode, I talk about museums as well as books: Live from New York: books (good & bad) + Brooklyn travel highlights
https://youtu.be/bzle3FV2iRE

I was tickled today to see the MacDonald‘s that‘s mentioned in the tagged novel. #literarytourism

Reflective; emotional; informative; dark: yes, that sounds like my reading tastes. Storygraph is pretty accurate that way.

I love the way that Storygraph makes looking at my reading stats easy.

I read 34 books in November and these are my faves.

My old luggage tag disintegrated so I made a new one out of duct tape and jazzed it up with a bookmark. On my way today to Brooklyn to cat sit for a friend… any Littens want to meet up there before December 14?
#LitsyCrafters

In my latest booktube episode , I talk about 7 Canadian books + recipes #NonfictionNovember #comics

https://youtu.be/EKWSuq0dHlM

When panicked, grant me
the unshakable calm of flowers.

In my latest booktube episode, it‘s all about TRAVEL — in books & in real life ✈️
#WomenInTranslation #Audiobooks #LGBTQ #comics #CanadianAuthors

https://youtu.be/RbeSRuYZI2Q

#endpaperslove

At VWF, Dorothy Grant said she was so proud to see Canada‘s Governor General, Mary Simon—an Inuk woman—wearing one of her garments when she welcomed the pope to Edmonton in 2022.
Look at the two of them in their capes! Who wears it better?
On a serious note, the pope was in Canada to apologize to residential school survivors. Just before he left, he acknowledged: “Yes, it‘s a genocide.”

I was thrilled to hear Haida fashion designer Dorothy Grant talking about her life and work at the Vancouver Writers Fest last month. She said her work was in 5 exhibitions across North America in 2019 & not one curator asked her for info. When she got to the exhibitions, she discovered errors in all of them. This book sets the record straight.

In honour of Louis Riel Day in Canada, and Native American Heritage Month in the USA, here‘s an #Indigenous authors extravaganza (plus a slideshow of appliquéd blankets I made):

https://youtu.be/BDYSgCAiDmk

#NonfictionNovember #comics #kidlit #IndigenousArt #Audiobooks #CanadianAuthors