CanadianContent discussion

Welcome to February. It is chilly in Southern Ontario today and a great day to hunker down with a book!

What are you reading?

Be book cozy. The wickedly cold weather has finally left Manitoba! I have an audiobook on the go.Legends & Lattes
I am halfway through and not understanding all the hype yet. I also have a Canadian bingo book on the go The Embroidered Book

Just started both The Trees and Counterfeit. Not far enough into either to know whether to recommend or not yet.

Happy Friday!

This week I finished Trespasses, a novel set during The Troubles in Northern Ireland that I absolutely loved. Then I read Mexican Gothic, which was fine but wasn't really my thing. It was wacky!

For Black History Month, I'm currently reading An American Insurrection: James Meredith and the Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962 and How Beautiful We Were. And for fun I'm reading Someone We Know.

Happy Friday!

This week I finished American Dirt. I didn't like the writing or the melodramatic way the story was told. Not my cup of tea.

I'm now reading Sacajawea and listening to The Golden Enclaves. Both are entertaining and interesting.

Hi everyone!

I finished a couple of books this week. ATLAS OF THE HEART by Brené Brown and HORSE by Geraldine Brooks. Both were 4-star reads for me.

I am currently reading THE PAPER PALACE for book club and listening to SPARE. I wasn’t sure I’d be interested in SPARE, but I’m very much enjoying it. It’s well written (ghost writer) and Prince Harry’s narration is good.

This week I read Thunder Through my veins by Greg Scofield, Speaking Our Own Truth by Monique Gray Smith, and Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga. All really good - would not call them enjoyable, but they are certainly not meant to be!

Outside of Canadian works, I finished The Islamic Enlightenment by Christopher de Bellaigue. I have mixed feelings about it. I'm still working through A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry and finally got the chance to start seriously reading Adam Rutherford and Hannah Fry's Abridged Guide to Absolutely Everything: Adventures in Math and Science. If Rutherford or Fry wrote it... I am probably into it.

In the past week I finished a Canadian author's book We Are Legion (We Are Bob) as well as Spare, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone so three authors from the Commonwealth of Nations even though Prince Harry now lives in the States.

I am reading Hotline for Canada Reads; and for my BDA book club - Deacon King Kong & Summerwater.

Its going to be hard not to drop everything and read - VenCo - which drops tomorrow.

Goodreads did an article about it
https://www.goodreads.com/interviews/...

I read the next book in the scifi series by a Canadian author, For We Are Many as well as Wedding Night and I'm slowly reading the first volume of The Complete Sagas of Icelanders, including 49 Tales

Thanks to some time off work I have had a relatively busy reading month. Finished The Maid for book club, enjoyable read but not great, This Is How We Love which again was worth reading but not memorable. Maybe because it reminded of Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club because of its winter and Newfoundland setting and this book really stuck with me. Also listened to Moon of the Crusted Snow which I really enjoyed.

Trying to get back into classics so read The Prophet in Cornish. I want to keep this one within arms reach.

Presently reading Half-Bads in White Regalia: A Memoir almost done and one of the reasons I love Canada reads for introducing me to books I would not have known existed. Listening to Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness for book club, and just started The Bell Jar.

Hi everyone! This week I finished Someone We Know, which was a fun domestic thriller, and How Beautiful We Were, which was an interesting novel set in an unnamed African country that dealt with a corporation exploiting the land and people for oil profits.

For Black History Month, I'm still reading An American Insurrection: James Meredith and the Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962 as well as Someday, Maybe.

No Canadian reads for me this week, but I did hit upon that elusive book that hits like a breath of fresh air just when you need it. I'm not sure why I had put off reading I Capture the Castle for so long because I found it to be pure delight.

For book club I am reading The Paper Palace and it's not my cup of tea at all.

Hi Everyone!

I finished Bad Cree by Jessica Johns. This is a supernatural horror. I normally can't do horror, but this wasn't too bad. Great storyline. I finished it in one sitting - probably because there was no way I was going to sleep and dreaming before I knew how the story ends.

I began to read Jen Ferguson’s “Th Summer of Bitter and Sweet”, the winner of the 2022 Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature. I just finished the first chapter. The writing is lively. However, I don’t quite understand why you Canadians care so much of the issues of indigenous people. (As I said before, I couldn’t quite happy with the production of Louise Penny’s Gamache stories, they put indigenous people issues to it.)

@Yanlaptak - here is a link to the Truth and Reconciliation report which will give some information about the horrible treatment of First Nations, Metis and Inuit people in Canada. It is important to know the truth and reconcile to make Canada a better place: https://nctr.ca/records/reports/

It is hard to believe that we are more than halfway through February - this thread has been a bit quiet as I think many are reading through the Canada Reads.

I am midway through a second read of Station Eleven and will then reread Greenwood. I had also previously read Mexican Gothic but once was enough so I won't revisit that creepy book. Since I last posted, I really enjoyed both Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands even though I am not a graphic novel fan and Hotline. I think the Canada Reads discussion will be terrific with this line up although I am not sure how Mexican gothic fits in.

I am still reading You Are Awesome: How to Navigate Change, Wrestle with Failure, and Live an Intentional Life and picking away at poems from Flint and Feather: The Complete Poems. at bedtime, I just finished another Alexander McCall Smith book from the No 1 Ladies Detective series and reading the The Librarian Spy both while I walk and on my kobo

This week I am reading a book by a Newfoundland author called WHAT HAPPENED TO MAGGIE DALTON? that my twelve year old daughter bought for me. Not my usual fare, but I am interested to see what happens.

My current audiobook is MATRIX by Lauren Groff. I’m about a third of the way through and it still hasn’t grabbed me.

Happy Friday!

Since my last post I have finished Someday, Maybe and An American Insurrection: James Meredith and the Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962 for Black History Month. Someday, Maybe is a novel about a woman coping with the suicide of her husband, and American Insurrection is about the shameful events surrounding the first black student attending Ole Miss. I liked them both.

For Canada Reads, I read Hotline, which I enjoyed. I also read Maureen, a short novel that completes the Harold Fry series by Rachel Joyce. All three books in this series have made me sob! Today, for bingo, I will be finishing Under This Unbroken Sky, which was a bit slow to start but has ended up being completely gripping.

I will be finishing out the month with one last read for Black History Month: Don't Cry for Me. And I'm finally reading The Complete Maus!

Happy Friday!
I finished The Golden Enclaves. I enjoyed the entire trilogy (first book: A Deadly Education). It's a dark story but told with humor and wit. I listened to the audio versions of all three books and enjoyed the narration.

I am still reading and enjoying Sacajawea and I will be starting Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds this weekend.

I'm still reading Bobiverse books (Canadian author) plus a few other things.

Hi everyone. I read MEXICAN GOTHIC and STATION ELEVEN for Canada Reads. Thanks again to my Secret Sender for Station Eleven. I enjoyed the novel and am happy to add it to my book collection. The other Canadian book I read was GROUNDHOG NIGHT: SHUBENACADIE SAM'S SHADOW by Doretta Groenendyk. It is a children's book set in Shubenacadie Wildlife Park, Nova Scotia.
I read THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS by Vanessa Diffenbaugh for one book club and THE ROSE CODE by Kate Quinn another book club. Both books were well liked by everyone.

I also read THE LIGHT PIRATE by Lily Brooks-Dalton with some reading buddies. It was a 4.5 star book for me. This fiction novel with flooding, hurricanes, and climate change has tragedy and death, but also has a bit of hope.

I am listening to ONCE UPON A RIVER by Diane Setterfield who lives in England.
I am starting to read TWO CROWS SORROW: Love and Death on the North Mountain by Canadian author Laura Churchill Duke.

This week I listened to THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB, which I thought was a whole lot of fun! I am currently reading LUCY BY THE SEA and I just started listening to BY GASLIGHT.

Last week, I finished The Gilded Ones, which disappointed me - the plot just didn't hang together very well.

Also started on Rabbit Foot Bill, I believe due to recommendations from this group, which I'm enjoying so far, so thanks! It's also funny because one of my book clubs recently read How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, which is a non-fiction look at the history and attempted therapeutic use of psychedelics, so when I got to the scene where he shows up to Weyburn and is given LSD, I was like "hey, I know about this!"

And just got a notification that Mexican Gothic, my last remaining Canada Reads book, is ready for me, so I will run and pick that up at lunch!