If you‘d like to join me on a virtual road trip, I made a short video of my trip along the Alaska highway to Whitehorse:

https://youtu.be/5IbaYIl5WnI

#roadtrip

“It‘s natural selection. Survival of the fittest. Anyway, they‘re just beasts, not humans.”

“I know. But their faces are the same as ours.” This was my Achilles heel, the reason I hadn‘t been able to become a zoologist, and ended up in the laughable, shameful profession of writer instead.

The ironclad rule of a newspaper fiction writer: Never leave out the romance.

A middle grade fantasy inspired by Thai culture and with an adventurous, smart 12-year-old girl protagonist. One of this novel‘s many strengths is that it introduces an ethical dilemma inherent in exploration and mapping: creating a route for unsustainable resource extraction. Consider this propulsive audiobook for your next family car trip.
Author also wrote the award-winning All Thirteen (about the cave rescue of the Thai boys soccer team).

What I‘ve been reading lately:

Saturday Reads June 25
https://youtu.be/TFDPTmi81cM

#CanLit #audiobooks #humour #LGBTQ #weird

It‘s a cozy mystery with three butlers… and none of the butlers are responsible for the murder. Helen—a former Buddhist nun and recent graduate of butler school—investigates a murder at a fictional meditation retreat centre which is based on the real Hollyhock of Cortes Island off the coast of British Columbia. Amusing fluff with a really great central character. #ShadowGiller2022 #CanadianAuthor

Helen got up, opened a window, and then sat back down, trying to ignore her watering eyes. Had he taken a bath in his perfume? It had a top note of rotten citrus, a middle note of pressure-treated lumber, and a bottom note of petrochemical slurry.

I answer questions about my reading in the first half of 2022, including best book so far: Mid-Year Freak Out Tag
https://youtu.be/BWnphz9ju7A

In the UK, between 2010 and 2015, the average price of milk sold in supermarkets fell by one third, making a litre of milk cheaper than a bottle of water. Downward pressure on prices led many dairy operators to operate on a larger scale. Today, the largest corporate dairies can house more than 9,000 cows.
(Photo: my sister carries milk from a single cow to her house)

The red flesh of blood oranges is caused by a genetic mutation. The daily fluctuation in temperature around Etna, from the intense heat of the day to the cool of the night, triggers these oranges to produce anthrocyanin, the compound that makes pomegranates red and blueberries blue.

The mass of the 23 billion chickens alive at any given moment is greater than that of all the other birds on earth combined. We are living in the age of the chicken. One of the geological markers of the Anthropocene is expected to be the amount of chicken bones left behind in the fossil record.

Craig was still murmuring about his childhood in Canada. Stray words reached the rest of us: “kayak,” “chokecherry,” “a lethal politeness.”

“What if Chouette doesn‘t need a fix? What if she is meant to be exactly who she is?”
This is a bracing, surreal fable about motherhood and accepting diversity. It‘s written in second person: a mother addressing her daughter—who seems to be an owl. Bisexual side plot, too. Funny, horrifying and recommended… if this is the kind of weird that appeals to you. #LGBTQ

And in that moment you decide to open your eyes, and you see your mother for the first time—and as I look back at you, my darling, so full of wild beauty in my arms, I feel my heart fly out of my breast, and I remember how precious life is, and how pointless.
(Internet photo)

Now and then the other wives try to engage me in conversation. But these other wives speak in concrete word-bricks, whereas I prefer to speak in metaphor: That way, no logic can trap me, and no rule can bind me, and no fact can limit me or decide for me what‘s possible.

I‘m pleased to see Ruth Ozeki win the Women‘s Prize! 🇨🇦

My latest booktube video is all about LGBTQ books: Friday Reads (on Tuesday June 14): #PrideMonth2022 #QueerLitRead +
Road trip + natural dyes
https://youtu.be/ImX-AFgaznA

If your wheelhouse is character-based fiction with prose that makes you stop and reread to savour its beauty—this is for you. A quiet story set in 1970s Tokyo, about a young unwed mother who goes against societal conventions and is determined to live life on her own terms. Translation by Geraldine Harcourt.

“All drinks are girly drinks.” Mallory O‘Meara has received a James Beard award for this entertaining & fiercely feminist cultural history of women & alcohol. She starts in the palaeolithic, moving through ancient Sumer, medieval times & all the way up to prohibition, tiki bars etc. She writes about women who are leaders in their fields now: brewmasters & bartenders around the world. Audiobook read with enthusiasm by the author.

This full-cast audiobook is a successful adaptation of a middle grade graphic novel, second in a series. You don‘t need to have read the first one—I didn‘t—yet it probably would have given me a quicker connection to the characters. Although we‘re talking about a recording that‘s only an hour long. It‘s about friendship & first crushes & a girl feeling left out because she hates all that romance stuff. #asexuality #LGBTQIA+

Highly imaginative speculative fiction told in interconnected short stories; surprisingly upbeat even though it‘s about humanity coping with a deadly plague. Very enjoyable, with the added bonus of much Litsy discussion via #CampLitsy.

Patients & staff live together in a psychiatric institution in rural France called La Chesnaie. Doctors do their thing; everyone else contributes to day-to-day operations, like cooking, cleaning & entertainment. Graphic novelists Ducoudray & Pourquié document what it‘s like hanging out there, not knowing who‘s staff & who‘s a patient without having a conversation. Most patients are well enough to live on their own after a year. A good system!

“There‘s no such thing as having lived too much.” You said it, Harvey. I loved listening to your distinctive gravelly voice as you reminisced about your life‘s sorrows and accomplishments. #LGBTQ #audiobook

I sum up my latest week of reading, plus give a little tour of my garden:

Friday Reads June 10 - So many journeys through books...
https://youtu.be/eNQdQ8GH_cU

We humans are no more mysterious to cardiologists than toilets are to plumbers. The cardiologist said that the valve replacement was routine and I believed him. He gave me a choice between pig, cow, and manufactured. How serious could this be if it involved shopping?

Maybe someday companies shilling skinny drinks will realize that the last thing a woman needs after a long day is to pick up a bottle that is going to body shame her. Instead, they might use their enormous marketing power to sell women a drink that isn‘t infused with self-hatred.

Party punches like jungle juice are a common drink at college parties. It‘s usually a mildly revolting mix of extremely high ABV grain alcohol, cheap vodka, juices & sodas. The problem is that one full plastic red cup of this mix is usually 5 to 7 servings of alcohol, meaning that drinking one whole cup already constitutes binge drinking. Students, however, consider that “one drink.”

It‘s hard for me to pick a favourite story because every one of them is strong in this debut collection by Helen Chau Bradley, a queer Canadian author who uses they/them pronouns. The two I will probably think about the most are the title story, which is about becoming dependent on a particular ASMR video channel; and the final story, which is about an all-women punk band on tour. #LGBTQ #CanLit #ShadowGiller2022

Each table was contained inside its own little plastic bubble latticed with fairy lights, a throwback to earlier plague days, the fear that it was airborne. Many public spaces now kept these around for ambiance.

No, we don‘t cure them … but just because they can‘t be cured doesn‘t mean they can‘t have good lives! Getting treatment makes it possible to reduce or suppress their delusions. Then, we have to fill the void left by the absence of symptoms with an activity.

My sweetie bought me this because of the final essay, which is also the title of the book. That essay is about Sarah Polley‘s experience with a severe concussion. I wept all the way through, reliving my own sadness and frustration of having a brain injury. All of the essays are brilliant but that last one wrecked me!

Sometimes, after a scenario like this one, my left eyelid sinks and covers half my eye as my head throbs in pain.

(Been there, Sarah Polley!)

What I‘ve read in the past week:

Friday Reads June 3
#PrideMonth2022 #CanLit
https://youtu.be/pH7bwJQ1CpU

There‘s a lot to think about in this book, which examines Western society through an asexual lens. There‘s the idea that people who don‘t want sex are sick, for example. And that all disabled people are asexual. That “rape is not sex” & “no means no” are binary ways of thinking that require an overhaul. Chen emphasizes developing & normalizing language that lets us talk about emotional intimacy. Fresh perspectives shook me up in a good way. LGBTQ+

Rejecting one form of social programming makes it easier to start questioning everything else.

I almost bailed, but I like the audiobook narrator—Emilia Fox—& I told myself this is shortlisted for the Women‘s Prize so stick with it longer & then I was stung twice by a yellowjacket & so I took a Benadryl & fell asleep listening at about 4 hours in & then my phone battery died while I slept & I decided to proceed with the final 4 hours instead of going back to the 3-hour segment I‘d missed & I loved it! (Feel free to skim the middle third.)

She asked me what I did and I told her I created content so that people could consume it.

The vivid young ginkgo leaves enfolded her in their brightness. She half closed her eyes. She had the feeling that her whole body was taking on the transparent colour of their play of light.

I‘ve read other books that combine poetry and art but I don‘t remember any that have done it so well as this one. Heartfelt, high impact, and healing words about living through and then moving forward from the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. All ages.

and he‘s trying to keep the corners of his smile from cracking
trying to keep the cough from coming through
like trying to mute the blues trumpet in his throat

I managed to get about a third of the way through this book before I had to stop because I was weeping too much. Not being able to blow out birthday candles surrounded by friends… it‘s surprising how the small things about the pandemic in 2020 can hold such sadness.
@TheBookHippie

This epic historical novel goes way back in time in India, imagining the life of a prince who became the Buddha. He left all worldly goods & responsibilities behind—including his wife & infant son—and spent years meditating & wandering. So what about his wife Yasodhara? The main viewpoint is hers and kept me captivated throughout. She became so real to me & I suffered along with her. A fine audiobook with richly evoked setting & Buddhist ideas.

I‘ve now read three very different approaches to recounting the life of the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama.

I love the fierce MC Nadia, who was captured by pirates as a girl, sold into slavery, & then freed herself, which is where this immersive fantasy begins. It‘s a standalone, with ties to Kay‘s earlier novels set in the same alternate history Mediterranean & Middle Eastern world, where 3 religions parallel our 3 western faiths. Geopolitics, war & romance. Just a touch of the fantastical (which mainly serves as a plot device). Audio by Simon Vance.

“She read the world in his eyes” is the kind of cheesy romantic writing that makes me roll my eyes, but that‘s me. Fortunately, there‘s a lot more than romance going on in this novel.

Dark, funny and subversive. This fairytale-like novel set in 19th c Montreal has playful parallels to the French Revolution, transposing male historical figures into female characters. The frenemies around which the plot swirls show how passionate & how cruel girls can be to each other. Women‘s labour rights are another important aspect to the story; combined with the lesbian erotic elements, it brings Tipping the Velvet to mind. #CanLit #LGBTQ

Today is World Parrot Day, so I made a short video to celebrate:

#WorldParrotDay: books and birds on May 31
https://youtu.be/5JU_I-2yw64

George was filled with a rage she had never felt before. It sprouted thorny branches out of her heart. She had no idea rage was in the heart. She imagined it would be somewhere in the brain. She had felt many emotions in her stomach before. That was where sadness always seemed to be.

Her quill moved furiously, like the tail of a fox that was halfway down a rabbit hole murdering a family.

I talk about five books plus natural dyes in my latest video: Friday Reads May 27 - Canadian literature; lesbian literature; covid literature; birds; diets
https://youtu.be/Wan4UAoVEBk