My friend‘s Pusheen stuffy now has her own hand-knit sweater. This was reverse engineered from the Barnes and Noble exclusive Pusheen that came with a cable knit sweater. It‘s on upside down because this particular Pusheen‘s front paws are tucked in rather than outstretched 😂 but the sleeve placement works!

#5JoysFriday
1️⃣ got a free bookcase and it‘s already 90% full
2️⃣ met a cat on my way to work and it let me pet it 😍
3️⃣ laughed at a seagull pacing in the bus shelter like an impatient commuter 😂
4️⃣ the bunny that hangs out in our yard was here for like 3 hours on Weds
5️⃣ the Hobbits are coming to ComicCon 🤩

Boy am I glad I finished this at home instead of on the bus. Some tears were shed. This was very good.

All the feels with this installment 😭❤️ and now I‘m caught up!

An exciting story of salvage on the high seas.

This book is in the middle of Turton‘s oeuvre for me: lighter in tone and style than The Devil and the Dark Water, not as fiendishly intricate as Evelyn Hardcastle. I really liked the world of this book and would class it a postapocalyptic story with a mystery at its heart rather than a mystery set at the end of the world, if that makes sense.

Wow! Excellent and thorough. The super technical chapters about how the solid rocket boosters worked were a tougher slog for me than the chapters in which Vaughan laid out the theory of the normalization of deviance, but this was well worth reading overall. I borrowed my copy but need one of my own for a re-read!

#5JoysFriday for week ending July 12:
1️⃣ Reached end credits on Disney Dreamlight Valley (and immediately bought the expansion 😂)
2️⃣ Baked a cinnamon loaf that turned out well
3️⃣ Had dinner with friends on Thursday
4️⃣ Went for a lunchtime walk in the sun yesterday
5️⃣ Now 95% finished my main knitting project!

This installment features David Tennant in a pre-Doctor role, adding a little bit of extra fun to what are very grave proceedings indeed. The stinger line at the very end was perfect, and overall I liked the pacing and was intrigued by what the Daleks are up to. Looking forward to reading on!

I really like the Art Canada Institute series about various Canadian artists. This one introduced me to the breathtaking landscapes of Takao Tanabe, who paints the prairies and British Columbia.

A low Pick for the setting, which was well described. I found the story mostly satisfying, but I got impatient toward the end. That could be my reading mood though.

#BookSpinBingo list for July 2024 is all set. I suspect that of the three named books on this list, the Farley Mowat has the best chance of being read.

I really enjoyed reading Dame Judi‘s reminiscences of past Shakespeare performances and her thoughts on Shakespeare‘s work in general. The book is written as a conversation and it feels like you‘re listening to her in her drawing room over tea. And now I want to read or re-read all these plays!

After 2 joyful weeks in Denmark and Sweden, I‘m getting back to normal. #5JoysFriday

1. Went for a lunchtime walk with a coworker
2. I had a day off on Monday, which helps with getting back into the swing of things 😂
3. I bought some yummy biscuits in Sweden and will have to fill my suitcase with them next time I go.
4. A friend is bunny-sitting, so I had to visit 😄
5. I went for afternoon tea again!

I was in a reading slump and picked this book up. I read 237 pages in a day. That‘s how much I liked it. Cozy and heartwarming, similar to Days at the Morisaki Bookshop but perhaps with more coffee. I‘m not really a coffee drinker but did find myself craving a latte while reading 😂

I loved the setting, having just been to southern Sweden. However, I was indifferent to the main character, felt her professional nemesis was portrayed as an OTT irredeemable jerk, and didn‘t really care about the murder so I bailed without finding out whodunnit.

Y‘all get a handwritten #BookSpinBingo list for June 2024 because I wrote the books down in the wrong order and can‘t be bothered to change my Word document to match 😂 As always this year it‘s half articles for school, half books, and three of the books are my Roll100 picks.

#Roll100 is being ambitious this month, picking out 2 chunksters for me ?

1.The Sunne in Splendour (Penman)

2.The Paternoster Gang: Heritage 1 (Big Finish audio drama)

3.A Fine Balance (Mistry)

#5JoysFriday
1. My classmates in my master‘s program are always super encouraging. We pull each other through each assignment.
2. We‘ve had great weather at lunch, perfect for walking.
3. I‘ve enjoyed all the cat manga I read this week.
4. Chatted with 2 great friends today. I always feel uplifted talking to them.
5. I am off for 2 weeks! 😎

This is cute and made me laugh out loud in places, but definitely better suited for reading in small chunks; it‘s a lot of single-page comics and it is possible to consume too many in one sitting.

Looking forward to this, one of my #Roll100 picks for June 2024!

The manager of the local cat cafe recruits Mr Kanda and Kanda's former student Kuju to help him rescue a cat from an abandoned, garbage-ridden flat, but Fukumaru is not happy about yet another guest in HIS house. I loved this little friend, a talkative Siamese cat, and how he and Kuju have developed a bond.

With regard to the one-page stories, I laughed out loud at “The Cat Is the Hat“. Very simple and very silly. Loved it.

Another great installment in the series. Things are getting serious for Nick and Charlie as Nick starts to think about university and how that will affect their relationship. I remember very well the pressure to know exactly what you want to do with your life at that age, and it's probably worse now. I love the text conversations and the glimpses of side characters' storylines.

#5JoysFriday
1.Afternoon tea with friends outdoors on a perfect sunny day

2.A housewarming gift of The Complete Far Side ❤️

3.A band I love is releasing a new album, first in 10 years

4.Played a bunch of Stardew Valley

5.Got good feedback on the first assignment of my next master‘s course (we won‘t talk about the struggle with assignment 2 ?)

#5JoysFriday on Friday this time ?

1.The in-law family had their 1st BBQ of the year for Mother‘s Day

2.The hosts have a beautiful tuxedo cat with green eyes ?

3.Saw a ? on the way to work on Tue

4.Had a great email discussion with a colleague about my course

5.Received pretty flowers ?from my nephew

3 stars so a pick. I really liked how the main case wrapped up. Was grinning to myself on the bus for that part! So I‘ll hang on to this one.

This was very well done. I like David Mitchell‘s droll humour and he writes well about the subject. No endnoting, but the further reading list contains some good sources. I ended up buying the audio immediately afterward with a spare Libro.fm credit 😄

Once again #FiveJoysFriday goes into Saturday 👀
1. New episodes of Doctor Who dropped on Disney+ this week!

2. Today I had tea with friends I hadn‘t seen for a couple of years.

3. I then went book shopping with these friends 😄

4. We bought some local strawberries (probably greenhouse rather than outdoor), which were good

5. I‘ve been filling my calendar with cool concerts in the fall/winter!

I‘m behind with #5JoysFriday because I had a cold most of the week and was not very joyful ? I‘m feeling better now so here‘s my list.

1.Went for ?on Sunday

2.Played a LOT of Disney Dreamlight Valley while resting on the couch

3.Had a Zoom session with my master‘s course classmates. They keep me motivated!

4.Saw a ? IN OUR BACKYARD!

5.Yesterday was the first day warm enough for sandals ??

I really enjoyed this. I play some video games and like reading about how people make them. The brainpower needed to create a realistic world that covers a mind-boggling array of possible choices is fascinating. My favourite character was Marx because of how he quietly paved the way for Sam and Sadie to do great things. We should all be so lucky to have a Marx in our lives (and need to appreciate them when we do).

Another volume of Dalek Empire begins, this time on the wildlife sanctuary planet of Graxis Major. The commander is a Judi Dench-like character who suffers no fools and takes the mysterious deaths of her crew personally. The Daleks seem to be on the prowl...but they say they're helping end the plague? Hmmm.
(Also of note: David Tennant is in this volume of Dalek Empire. I grinned like a fool when he started speaking :D)

A low Pick because I liked the setting (a book set in Montreal? yes please) and the fact that Denny Durant, the protagonist, has a cat. Cat-owning detectives seem less common in “grittier“ mystery novels. I did find the font annoying, but your mileage may vary.

This met my expectations. It's an academic book and that definitely shows in the language, but I love that this book was written and hope there are many more books about Canadian television. (I think one like this book but about Vancouver's TV industry would be interesting.)

Had some nice moments this week so thought I‘d jump into #5JoysFriday ☺️

1.Reshelving books in our new house

2.Finishing the first course of my master‘s program

3.Seeing a ? on my way to work one morning

4.Attending a friend‘s craft night for the first time in a few months

5.Having a group video call with work friends

Wow, a #Roll100 list without an audiobook 😂

1️⃣ Maigret se trompe (Simenon)
2️⃣ Gideon‘s Risk (Marric)
3️⃣ Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden‘s Syndrome (Scalzi)

A quick and interesting history of the Soo Line, a little-known-today but much beloved railway line from the golden age of passenger rail travel in North America. The author draws on his personal experience working at the Banff railway station for this line, as well as his previous books, to tell the story. The photos and quotations are meticulously sourced (although citing a Wikipedia article felt a little bit shaky research-wise).

Rob's warmth and humour brighten every minute of this audiobook. The audio is a must-listen if you're a fan of Animaniacs. Narf! Zort! Poit!

Dropped this about 14 pages in when the main character and a few others started having a really racist conversation. I did not wish to spend any more time with these characters.

Started off all right, but the explanation for the person(s) behind the whole situation was convoluted and hard to follow.

I came to Mean Girls very late for a millennial (in my 30s) but ended up really liking the movie once I got there. The musical soundtrack is great too. This book is a great overview of the movie's genesis, production, and legacy. There are even a few photos, which I wasn't expecting. I would recommend this if you liked the movie.

Keeping things consistent with the #BookSpinBingo list, just changing out the books in the spaces dedicated to Roll100 picks. Still slogging my way through coursework… might do a 1:1 correspondence next month rather than having 3 papers in 1 space. We shall see.

April 2024 #Roll100 picks add yet more audio to the queue!
🎧 The Essential Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 2
📖 Trouble Follows Me, by Ross Macdonald
🎧 The Order of Time, by Carlo Rovelli (read by Benedict Cumberbatch 😍)

A soft Pick for this because I do love a Moon-based Doctor Who story and Eleven was credible, but the mechanism for alien invasion was not entirely satisfactory.

This series is such a good pick-me-up, even if I am guaranteed to cry (usually happy tears) at least once per volume 😂

An early Dalziel and Pascoe that was pretty good. The three storylines kept things moving well, and there were some thoughtful moments and conversations around aging. Not entirely sure I buy the resolution of one of the storylines, but whatever.

Fascinating and well put together. I think I‘ll have to get my own copy.

Of course the #BookSpinBingo gods chose the one of my three firm picks that is least likely to be read 🤣
#BookSpin: Le Matou, by Yves Beauchemin
#DoubleSpin: three chapters or articles for coursework

I just realized I never posted my original #BookSpinBingo board for February 2024 (just the list), so here‘s the wrap-up:
✅ BookSpin: readings (selections from 3 different course books)
❌ DoubleSpin: Dalek Empire 3.2
1️⃣ bingo: I1 to I5

The good thing about keeping things ultra-flexible for #BookSpinBingo is that I get my lists ready a lot sooner 😂 The firm picks for March 2024 are a French book, a Doctor Who audio, and an older thriller.

March 2024 #Roll100 picks:
1️⃣ Le Matou, by Yves Beauchemin
2️⃣ Destination: Nerva, by Nicholas Briggs (yet another Doctor Who audio 🤣)
3️⃣ The Satan Bug, by Alistair MacLean