read in January

When Josh and I got home from Christmas traveling we both fell victim to the Christmas Sickness, and I nursed an intense head cold basically until a day or two before going back to school on the 8th. I feel like my body was like "I have been holding this off for so long, and now that you've got a break from school and you don't have holiday responsibilities, we're going to suffer." I slept a lot! I extremely lost my voice! I had a very bad headache! I was inhaling day- and nyquil! You know how it goes.

This sickness, besides being a bodily-enforced time of rest, was also a HUGE boost to my 2018 reading stats in that, after I became bored with playing the Sims on Dec 30 and 31, I read a book every day until the 7th. Some of them were comic collections, but I'm still counting them! I also actually used my ereader, please give me accolades. I rode the reading wave until the end of January and ended up reading 14 books. It's really nice to look at my reading challenge on Goodreads and see quite a few books there already. What an absolute boon.

So: what I read. I'll lump the comic volumes together, but other than that this'll be chronological.

• The Coldest City / Antony Johnson - I read this because it's the source material for Atomic Blonde, and guess what: the movie is better. This is a fairly sparse comic, and the movie has more depth and character development. Plus, one of the best things about the movie was how music and sound were constructed around the story, and obviously that's not part of the experience of reading a book. 
• From Here to Eternity / Caitlin Doughty - I've been a fan of Caitlin Doughty for awhile, and so when I learned that she had another book coming out I knew I had to read it. This book is thoughtful, funny, and will make you want to write an advance directive. For starters, if I get embalmed when I die, I will come back and haunt whoever is responsible to the seventh generation. 
• Rosemary's Baby / Ira Levin - Speaking of hauntings, sort of! This book has an increasingly tense and creepy tone, and even if you know what happens and what the situation is, it is still an extremely good read. I haven't seen the movie for various reasons, but I think pretty much everyone knows the jist of the story. Trust me when I say that this book is better than you think it will be. Also, you will hate her husband, TW for sexual violence. 
• Akata Witch / Nnedi Okorafor - Magic school story set in Nigeria! It's very good! There are heaps of adventures and a different concept of magic than I am used to. I have the second book on hold, but realistically probably won't read it until school is done. 
• Monstress, v. 1-2 / Marjorie M. Liu, Sana Takeda - I read this because it was on Jenny's 2017 reading wrap-up, and she made it sound extremely excellent. She was right! The art in this series is absolutely stunning, the mythology is fascinating, and it is so refreshing to see so many women on the page. 
• Hostage / Guy Delisle - This book is monotonous an that is a compliment! It's about a Doctors Without Borders administrator who is kidnapped and held for an extended period of time. It does an excellent job of illustrating how entirely boring it was to be held captive. Guy Delisle is a recurring fave of mine, and while this was a departure from his usual travelogues, both his storytelling and drawing style suit the story extremely well. 
• M / Jon J. Muth - This was only fine. M is arguably the precursor to film noir, so it's an important movie. This book is a comic-ization of the movie, with paintings of various frames. It feels a little bit unnecessary? Like the art is good but what does the book itself contribute to the story of the movie? I don't know. 
• Mr. Higgins Comes Home / Mike Mignola, Warwick Johnson Cadwell - A v short, v fun little send-up of vampire stories. 
• Silk, v. 0-2 / Robbie Thompson, et al - As you may have heard, and which I heard from Alice's 2017 wrap-up, Silk is truly excellent and so well done. I was sometimes a little thrown off when the artist changed issue to issue. It has also been cancelled, apparently, so eff you Marvel. 
• Iron Cast / Destiny Soria - Another book I learned about via Jenny's 2017 wrap-up. It's an alternate history story set just before prohibition, where there are people with special abilities like constructing an illusion by reciting poetry or making people feel an emotion by playing the violin. The friendship between the two main characters is central to the story, and their respective romances are secondary, which is refreshing. It's a good book, and damn I love friendship. 
• Horrorstor / Grady Hendrix - I wrote about this one previously. 

And that's it! I'm fairly certain that February's reading tallies will be much, much smaller than January. When I graduate I'm going to dedicate some serious time to fun reading. 

reading in August-October

   I should start splitting my reading recaps into quarters. It's happening naturally anyways.

   OKAY SO, my reading-for-fun has taken a backseat to my reading-and-writing-for-school, and so I thought that I would be barely reading at all AND YET I remembered that audiobooks exist and I have a bus ride to and from school every day and even with listening to podcasts and music I still have time to enjoy a good audiobook, praise the Lord. I'm still not going to make it to 52 books this year, but I have come to terms with my destiny.

   The books:

• Petty Theft / Pascal Girard - a short-ish comic book about a comic artist living in Montreal who sees a woman stealing books from a bookstore. I read it in an afternoon at the library, and I feel a bit conflicted about it. It was good and enjoyable but also he kinda stalks her? 
• Girls of Riyadh / Rajaa Alsanea - this book was described on the Get Booked podcast as Gossip Girl but in the Middle East and it was VERY GOOD. I am so glad there are places like Book Riot that make recommending diverse reading a priority, otherwise I never would have found this. Highly recommend. 
• If You Feel Too Much / Jamie Tworkowski - a collection of Tworkowski's earlier writing, put into a book from various blog posts etc. Tworkowski founded To Write Love on Her Arms and he really cares about people. 
• The Peach Keeper / Sarah Addison Allen - spooky happenings and interpersonal relationships in a small town in the southern States. Good, but not great. The further I get from having read it the more I say "meh" 
• Witch Child / Celia Rees - MORE WITCHES? Why not?!!?!?
• Why Not Me? / Mindy Kaling - this book starts out with Kaling spilling celebrity beauty secrets and I was like "HEYO" and was on board for the rest of the book. It's very good! 
• Seraphina / Rachel Hartman - dragons and humans and half-dragon-half-humans, oh my! I think everyone I know who has read this has enjoyed it and I am no exception. 
• Stiletto / Daniel O'Malley - I waited so long for this book and you know what? It was Worth The Wait and I loved it. I want to go back and read The Rook again. I want Daniel O'Malley to immediately write and publish another entry in this series. I want him to update his website because he hasn't since 2015?!?! Please, give me more of The Chequy Files, I beg of you. And is The Rook ever actually going to me made into a TV show? 

   That's a lot of books! I'm pleased with the number even if it is spread over three months. If you've never read The Rook you need to do that asap, please, it's for your own good. 

   I shall end this blog post with a recommendation for a computer game. I was at a library conference last week where we were talking about literacy and reading and story and how these things are changing and evolving, and a panelist mentioned the game A Dark Room. It's a text-based quest game, which come with some moral ambiguity and a mystery to figure out. I've played through the app version, and it was amazing. I'm currently partway through the online version, and it is also amazing. If you're looking for a game that is engaging and challenging in a variety of ways and also doesn't require a huge amount of active participation, A Dark Room is the game for you. The online version is free, the app is 99 cents. 

What I Read Since the Last Time I Posted About What I've Read Which Was When, June?

   I'm never going to stop using that gif. 

   Life has been full, but that hasn't stopped me from doing some reading, thank goodness. I've also finally joined the masses and started playing Pokemon Go, and oh boy, have I walked a great deal. If I hadn't found The Adventure Zone and started binge-listening I would have been listening to audiobooks while going for pokeymans and this reading list would be more impressive, but I did find The Adventure Zone and I can't stop won't stop and now I want to play D&D and it is very possible that I have reached Peak Nerd. 

   On to the reading list. 

• The Woods, Vol. 1 : The Arrow / James Tynion IV (yes, that IS his real name); Michael Dialynas - I had almost forgotten that I read this, which is a real shame, since it was quite good. A school full o' teens and teachers gets transferred onto another planet. The planet is hostile! The school quickly devolves into some Orwellian situations! The art is very colourful! I'm gonna get the second volume of this from the library as soon as I finish this post!
• Year of Yes / Shonda Rhimes - I listened to this, and Shonda Rhimes herself reads it, and I loved it. I finished it and was like "I need to say yes to more things". I have so much respect for Shonda Rhimes, and was truly inspired by this book. And when she's like "I'll say yes to scary things, but I'll do it on my own terms"? Uh, I concur. Please everyone read this book if you have not already. 
• Something New / Lucy Knisley - this was charming and good! Luck Knisley talks about planning her wedding, and how crazy the wedding business is, and how she and her now-husband worked to subvert some things and embrace other things and make their wedding reflect their values. She also talks about things like where wedding traditions come from and guess what! A lot of them are pretty gross! This book is about wedding planning and meaning-making and fostering community and includes a recipe. Recommend. 
• Maisie Dobbs / Jacqueline Winspear - This was a fun mystery which not only included unexpected twists and turns, but also had several female characters who displayed competence and individuality. I think I shall return to Maise Dobbs next time I require some mysterious reading. 
• The Selection / Kiera Cass - this book is the first in a trilogy and oh boy can you ever tell. It was satisfactory and fulfilled my reading needs at the time; I don't see myself going back for part two in the near future, but I don't mean that as a disparagement. What a thoroughly lukewarm review. 
• Wolf Winter / Cecilia Ekback - picture here the astonished emoji, the one with the partially-blue face, who is making a face like the one in that painting, which I think is called The Scream but don't feel like googling to make sure. That emoji is how I feel about this book, in the best possible way. I was describing it to a friend and called it a murder mystery/small town dark secrets/ghost story/survival story/historical fiction. It's also set far enough north that it is always dark in the winter and AGH JUST READ IT, OKAY? I am definitely going to read more of Cecilia Ekback's work. (I include here a content warning for sexual violence that is talked about but not described). 
• The Illumination / Kevin Brockmeier - a pal told me about a book by ol' Kev that is sort of about purgatory, where dead people go and stay until no one alive remembers them and I was like "MUST READ", but it was unavailable at the library. Fortunately this book was and I read it and now his other books have been bumped up my TBR list. In this one pain becomes visible in the form of light, and then each chapter follows a different person as they navigate through the world where pain is now visible, and that sometimes changes and sometimes doesn't change things. There's a journal which serves as a unifying element, and I don't think I'm describing it well but it's an all-around A+ read. (Another content warning for self-harm). 
• Room / Emma Donoghue - hey guess what! Everything you've heard about this book is true, it really is a beautiful gem! And the movie is an exemplary adaptation that does everything you'd want an adaptation to do. Lauren Wilford wrote a really good essay about the film which I can't find, but I am still linking to this article that she wrote about Noah (and Mad Max: Fury Road) which is excellent, please read it. And please read Room if you, like me, put it off for far too long. (Obviously: more content warnings. But this book protects you, because Ma protects Jack, and it's told from Jack's perspective. It's quite beautiful, really.)
• Everland / Rebecca Hunt - I was given this book for Christmas and BOY HOWDY, was it ever a good gift. I love Antarctica. I don't see myself ever getting sick of learning/reading about it. This novel is set in Antarctica and is about two expeditions separated by a hundred years to the same place that go badly in eerily similar ways and I am So Here For That. Here are two stories about me reading this book: 1) I was at a music festival with a friend and we were taking a reading break in the shade. She was like "let's go" and I was like "hold on a sec, gonna finish this chapter" because I couldn't tear myself away from it because they were describing GLACIERS and I LOVE TO READ ABOUT ICE. 2) I read a heap of it on a plane on the way back to Canada from Colorado and lo and behold, I actually forgot it was summer because I was so immersed in the freezing cold land of the story. 

   Other things I have done lately include, but are not limited to: deciding that Colorado is pretty choice, moving to a new city, playing so much Pokemon Go, and incessantly referring to Pokemon as pokeymans. It's been a wild ride. 

Reading in May

me @ my exams/papers

   OKAY, wow, May was bonkers. I wrote a zillion words for school, and was subsequently unenthused about any other writing. I also read a zillion words for school, and as a result only read ONE BOOK in May, which is a REMARKABLY low book count. That one book was:

• Yes Please / Amy Poehler - SO GLAD I finally read this, it was GREAT. I listened to it as an audiobook and I'm pretty sure that's the best way to read it. 

   AND THAT'S IT. 

   BUT, do you know what else I did in May? I will tell you. 

• Got a sweet rabbit tattoo
• Wrote/read the aforementioned "zillion words"
• EARNED A DEGREE, yes sir I did

   All in all, I am pleased with May. I mean, I managed to get a degree through distance education without dying, and I am pretty pleased with myself. And now June is bustin' out all over and I have so much time so spend doing fun-reading, and I am stoked. 

Reading in April (and March)

   I definitely forgot to do one of these at the beginning of April, so here we have BOTH April AND March's reading: 

1. Y: the Last Man, vol. 5 / Brian K Vaughan - It's good enough for a reread but not so good as to be stunning. Some problematic stuff but as we know, all of your favourites are problematic. 
2. Burn for Burn / Jenny Han, Siobhan Vivian - This is fine but not super memorable. I don't feel the need to finish the trilogy. 
3. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society / Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows - I laughed, I cried, it moved me, Bob. 
4. Where'd You Go, Bernadette? / Maria Semple - A strong contender for top five books of the year. So good. If you're putting off reading it, please don't for your own good. 
5. The Accident Season / Moira Fowley-Doyle - Bit weird. I wanted more of some things and less of other things. It was fine. The reader for the audiobook has an Irish accent, it's grand. 
6.  Giant Days, issues 11-12 / John Allison, et al. - Continues to be excellent. 

  And that's it. Not much for two months but life has been full. May's reading is mostly things about the Canadian North, gender and consumerism, TV theory (fun!), and media relations (boring!). BUT I am currently partway through Wish Her Safe At Home and it's great and I have the first volume of Genius out from the library so all in all, my reading will be fine. I'll be done my degree at the end of May (LORD WILLING, AGH SO MUCH WORK TO DO) and in June I am going to read hella books. July I'm taking a trip to Denver and guess what, hella books then too. 

   Just realizing now that my non-fiction has been pretty sparse so far this year. I guess I should get into it. I've already given up on a book that I though was about the Black Death but was ACTUALLY about climate change in Medieval times, so I should probably replace that one with some more non-fiction. 

February's Reading

   I feel much better about February's reading, even though I didn't finish any more books than I did in January. But! I am mid-way through a handful of others, and feel more excited about reading in general. I'm counting February as a good reading month. Thank goodness for comics to put an end to reading-disinterest. 

   The books:

• Treasure Island!!! / Sara Levine - I wrote a review of this book, it was an excellent read.
• Rat Queens, vol. 2 / Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch - more shenanigans, more hijinks, more backstory, a little more of a jumble than volume 1.
• Giant Days, vol. 1, issues 5-10 / John Allison, Lissa Treman/Max Sarin, et al. - are you reading John Allison yet? ARE YOU? He writes web comics, and Giant Days is the continuation of a story he started on his site. His writing is excellent and heartfelt and his comics are great, READ THEM. (He does the art for the web comics, someone else does the art for Giant Days)
• Y: The Last Man, vol. 4 / Brian K. Vaughan - I didn't really like this volume the first time I read it and I didn't really like it upon reading it again. Onward and upward, I guess. 

    I'm not sure if you went and immediately started reading Bad Machinery and Mordawwa: Queen of Hell and Bobbins by John Allison but if you didn't you should read this thing he said about the next issue of Giant Days: "It’s not as out there as issue 11 was, but it does feature the constant threat of wolf attack, and the most gloves ever to appear on panel in a direct market comic book." Constant threat of wolf attack. ARE YOU CONVINCED YET? Just read his comics! You will be doing yourself a favour.

   Okay, there's a lot on his website to try to sort through right away, so HERE is a link to the beginning of one of the early Bad Machinery cases (please read it and grow to love Charlotte Grote as much as I do)(did I mention that Bad Machinery is about friendship and mystery-solving and sometimes aliens?). Maybe start there, or with one of the other cases, an archive of which you can find HERE, if that link decides to work properly.

January's Reading

   January was a bit of an odd month for me, but now it is February so let's just look back on what I read. It isn't much, unfortunately.

• World War Z / Max Brooks: A+++++++, read this book asap. So good. 
• Saga, v. 5 / Brian K/ Vaughan, Fiona Staples: I missed meeting Fiona Staples by mere hours, but at least I have a signed copy of this book, which is a small consolation. Her work elevates this book when the story is somewhat lacking. This volume felt in-between-y. 
• Bleak House / Charles Dickens: FINALLY I am done reading this book. It took me so long but it was so good so I suppose I can't complain. I was in a bit of a book hangover for a week or so after finishing it, which I busted out of by reading...
• Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant / Tony Cliff: so fun. Much adventure. Wow. Flying boats. 

   January was movie-heavy and reading-light, hopefully February will reverse that pattern. I now have Media Relations, Geography of the Canadian North, the Television Age, and Gender and Consumer Culture Since 1700 to think about, which will take up a good deal of my movie-watching time. This is my last semester and I am so excited to be finished with this degree, even though it only means two more years of school.

   I also spent January remembering my delight in making playlists, so for your listening pleasure: some Bowie faves, some Monday morning metal, and the songs I have been listing to on repeat lately.

   Here's looking at you, February.

November's Reading

   Anemones have nothing to do with November's reading but I was thinking about the Vancouver Aquarium and remembered that I have a bunch of pictures from the last time I went there uploaded so here we are. Aquarium pictures all up in here.

   At the beginning of November I went on a bit of a reading-rampage which quickly petered out, and I am back to starting books and quickly discarding them or getting books out of the library and then leaving them on my floor for several weeks until I have to return them. My current goal is to finally finish reading Bad Feminist and to finish listening to The Romanov Sisters.

the world's grumpiest frog

   Perhaps my problem with November's reading and therefore my dropoff in reading productivity is just comics-satiation. I read a lot of comics. I also started re-watching Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and oh boy, I love Phryne Fisher to Australia and back. However, I've started Cocaine Blues multiple times and never made it out of chapter one. Should I try again? I don't know.

   The books:

• Through the Woods / Emily Carroll - I highly, highly, highly, recommend this book. Spooky! Scary! Pretty! Moody! It has it all. 
• Revival, vol. 3 / Tim Seeley, et al. - this title continues to be good, I quite like it, recommend. 
• The Night Wanderer / Drew Taylor, et al. - Canadian Gothic in the strictest sense: mysterious First Nations vampires in Canada. 
• The Undertaking of Lily Chen / Danica Novgorodoff - I have mixed feelings about this one, but am inclined towards liking it. Water-colour-y and nice. I would like to know more about the history and mythology and whatnot. 
• Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore / Robin Sloan - a fairly resounding "meh" on this one. 
• The Secret Sharer / Joseph Conrad - I thought I was reading Heart of Darkness the whole time I was reading this, it was very confusing. 
• The Plain Janes / Cecil Castellucci, et al. - enjoyable, but ultimately not super memorable and didn't inspire me to read the next volume. 
• Lumberjames, vol. 1 / Noelle Stevenson, et al. - mysterious monsters at camp! If there's three things I love, it's mysteries, monster stories (sometimes), and summer camp. I'm quite delighted with Lumberjanes. 

   If you read one of these books, make it Through the Woods. I'm still thinking about it. As a bonus, reading comics will leave plenty of time for watching old-timey mysteries. 

October Reading

   WELL. October was pretty much a bust reading-wise, but I did do a great deal of schoolin'. I read a whole lot of academic papers, but only one actual book. So, this month's reading:

• The Monk / Matthew Lewis - and only due to the readalong. 

   And that's it. I have a couple months off of school now though, so November's reading should be a VAST improvement on October's. I have plans to read finally Catcher in the Rye and to read a book with more than 1000 pages called Hunger's Brides (I may die). I am going to read so much while I am not schooling. So much.

I dream of reading

September Reading

   Oh! Hey! It's October??? Not sure how that happened but okay. Here is what I read in September: 

• The Four Loves / C. S. Lewis: I listened to a recording of the man himself reading this, and it was great.
• Revival, v. 2 / Tim Seeley: uuuugh I love it. When will my library get more??!!???
• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up / Marie Kondo: I like to fold now? 
• The Weight of Blood / Laura McHugh: surprisingly good! 
• Saga, v. 4 / Brian K. Vaughan: I juuuust about cried some real tears while reading this. So good. Why don't I own volume five. 
• South / Ernest Shackleton: I have so many feelings about this book, and I love Antarctic exploration so much, and when the Endurance started to sink I had to take a break from reading this book because I was OVERWHELMED. 
• Crocodile on the Sandbank / Elizabeth Peters: I don't know why I waited so long to read this because it was SO DELIGHTFUL, in so many senses of the word. Funny! Clever! Historically believable! It has so many things going for it and I have the second one on hold. 

   With South I passed my yearly goal of reading at least 52 books, which isn't really a difficult goal to reach. I never really know how to count comics towards my final count, so I group them by title instead of volume (because they are SO SHORT) but Goodreads counts every volume toward my yearly count and so everything is all confused. REGARDLESS, I'm happy with my reading amount this month. October is likely to be reading-light, I'm in major school crunch time. Thank goodness for the Monkalong. 

August, or, What I Have Been Doing Instead of Reading

I almost barged in on this Big Horned Sheep Club

   August meant going to camp for ten days, seeing my cousin get married, being sick for awhile, watching more movies than usual, soaking in some natural hot springs, not climbing enough, saying goodbye-for-now to a good friend, eating a great deal of BBQ, reuniting with a far-flung friend, and, in general, having a truly lovely month. Perhaps I did not read very much, but August was genuinely good. It is now September, which means settling into a fall routine and seeing pals go to different cities for school. It's bittersweet, but I love the fall.

   Let's get to the meat of this post. What did I read in August?

• Fight Club / Chuck Palahniuk: I reviewed this one, sort of. Four stars!
• Chew, v. 4 / John Layman, Rob Guillory: I am getting progressively less thrilled by this series but I will give it a couple more chances, I guess. I currently have volume five out from the library, but if it ain't good I am DONE.
• Rat Queens, v. 1 / Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch: YES PLEASE MORE RAT QUEENS ALSO "ROC UPCHURCH" IS THE BEST NAME EVER.
• The Five Love Languages / Gary Chapman: SURE, this book is pretty hokey and pretty basic, but it is also useful and has some good reminders, etc. WHATEVER.

   It's not much, but I am satisfied with it. Maybe I didn't read a ton, and maybe I didn't make much progress in the books I have been halfway through for far too long, but I am content with the amount I did read and the amount I accomplished.  I can feel myself coming out of this latest reading slump and into the light.

   I've started reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up due to PEER PRESSURE, and it is quite good so far, I guess people were right. I've been sloooowly savouring Ernest Shackleton's South, and surprise: I still love Antarctic exploration with an undying fervour. I still haven't finished Bad Feminist, please don't judge me.

   ALSO: I cleaned two of my rings because apparently hot springs + silver = amazingly fast tarnishing, and WOW they look so pretty and shiny, and I didn't realize that they'd gotten dirty/tarnishy in the course of their lives, and consider this a general recommendation to clean your jewelry, you won't regret it I promise. ALSO did you know that if you line a bowl with aluminum foil and put your silver rings in it along with some baking soda and then pour boiling water over them that your rings will MIRACULOUSLY CLEAN THEMSELVES before your very eyes? This is a weird addendum to a bookish post but I am looking at my nice clean rings and they are just SO SHINY, I want all of you to experience this joy. Both hot springs and cleaning your silver come highly recommended, you heard it here first.

I luv 2 climb

July, You Were...Month-Like

I'm looking at you, July.

   Well. It's August. July was...weird, reading-wise. It was hard to get through anything; in comparison to other months I was basically an illiterate slob.  Maybe it's the heat.

   Regardless, here are the three (wow) books I read in July:

• Modern Romance / Aziz Ansari: in a reading slump? Get an audiobook where the narrator calls you lazy for listening instead of reading, it's a bit cathartic. Cathartic might be the wrong word to use there, but I'm running with it. As a bonus, this book was enjoyable and included some good tidbits. Recommend.
• Girl in Dior / Annie Goetzinger: primarily this book is just really pretty to look at. It's charming. The female characters aren't carbon copies of each other. It took a very short amount of time to read.
• The Photographer / Emmanuel Guibert: we already know how I feel about this one. Read it. It's valuable.

   And there you have it! One short comic, one long comic, and an audiobook. Ooof. Here's looking at you, August. Seriously, I gotta get my rear in gear and get some books down my maw (except not, because I don't eat books).  This is a month of much away-from-home-ing though, so who knows what will happen.

Reading in June

   It's Canada Day! A day to celebrate the Our Home and Native Land, the True North Strong and Free! Even though I sometimes say, "what is your deal, Canada?" I do truly love this place where I live. I mean, come on, it's beautiful. Have you SEEN the Rockies? Here's to mountains and beavers and Canada geese and healthcare and saying "eh" and making fun of Americans without them realizing it. It is our way.


   800 miles of paved road! Truly, a monumental day. Rick Mercer is king of keeping a straight face. 

   Enough overt patriotism, let's get to the books. Here is what I read in June:

•  Smoke Gets in your Eyes / Caitlin Doughty: when I finished reading this book I told my mom how I want to be buried, and thought about writing a will. Basically, a good, interesting, sometimes morbid read that inspired action. A+.
• Saga, v. 3 / Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples: OMGOSH READ SAGA NOW, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
• Y: The Last Man, v. 3 / Brian K. Vaughan, et al.: this story is more nuanced than I remember and I'm so glad. I'm waiting on volume 4 at the library.
• The Secret Adversary / Agatha Christie: sometimes you just gotta re-read some Tommy and Tuppence to clear your heart and mind.
• Ms. Marvel, v. 2 / G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona: still good, still totally on board with this.
• Chew, v. 1-3 / John Layman, Rob Guillory: chicken as a controlled substance?! Yes.
• Revival, v. 1 / Tim Seeley, Mike Norton: a zombie-ish story that's nothing like The Walking Dead! Yes please. 
• Sandman, v. 1 / Neil Gaiman, et al.: the art is...distinctly of its time. But the story is engaging so far so I think I shall continue with it.
• The Initiates / Etienne Davodeau: SO GOOD, READ THIS NOW.
• Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, Deadpool Killustrated / Cullen Bunn, Dalibor Talajic/Matteo Lolli: thoroughly underwhelming. A distinct lack of the kind of Deadpool hijinks I know and love which is weird considering these books feature Deadpool traveling through various universes to kill everyone from Captain Nemo to Tom Sawyer to all the Marvel heroes while being chased through space and time by Sherlock Holmes and a crack team that includes Mulan. THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN DELIGHTFUL, but was boring instead.
• Mind the Gap, v. 1 / Jim McCann, Rodin Esquejo, Sonia Oback: yes, very good, volume two come to me soon.
• Starship Troopers / Robert A. Heinlein: did you know that it is possible for science fiction to be more political than Dune? I didn't either! But it can! Robert A. Heinlein has OPINIONS and he means to SHARE THEM.
• Perfume / Partick Suskind: bonkers, but in a good way. I tried to tell a friend of mine what this book was about and she said "you read weird books." Highly recommend.
• Graceling / Kristin Cashore: firmly in the "meh" category with a side of "what the hell." Don't bother with this one. 

   SO MANY COMICS. I've been on a serious comics kick. If I had to recommend one book out of these, I'd have to say Saga all the way with a caveat for adult content.

   I've been pretty lax on the book-review front lately, who knows if that'll change much over the summer. I have rocks to climb and camping trips to go on and a river to float down. July is here and boy do I love summer. I am already sunburnt.

   ALSO, bonus recommendation: if you like podcasts and you like spooky things and you like storytelling then get Lore into your ear-hearts at your soonest opportunity. It is GREAT.

Reading in May

   JUNE IS BUSTING OUT ALL OVER, but what did I read in May? Behold:

• The Sister's Brothers / Patrick deWitt: SO GOOD, READ IT NOW. 
• Ms Marvel, v.1 : No Normal / G. Willow Wilson, Adrain Alphona: yes, yes, yes, yes to everything happening here. 
• A Bunch of Pretty Things I Did Not Buy / Sarah Lazarovich: this book is very short and quite insightful and includes delightful illustrations, I recommend it. 
• Y: The Last Man, v. 1-2 / Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, Jose Marzan Jr: I was somewhat worried about reading this story again, but surprise: it's still good! I'm really quite pleased. I'm going to keep going through it. 
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich / Alexander Solzhenitsyn: I have a lot of thoughts about this book so I am going to review it eventually. 
• Blindness / Jose Saramago: INTENSE. A bit complicated to talk about; there is a lot that happens in this book. Alley at What Red Read reviewed it, which convinced me to read it. I listened to it as an audiobook, which with the lack of quotation marks seems to have been a good choice. 
• The Amber Spyglass / Philip Pullman: absolutely bonkers and not in a good way. Philip Pullman, what is your DEAL. 
• The Year of Magical Thinking / Joan Didion: keepin' it sad. 

   Omgosh that's a lot of reading. Here's some other things I did in May: climbed a bunch of rocks but took no pictures of it. Outdoor climbing is becoming more and more feasible as the weather gets its act together, which means I am in the mountains more and more often. I also climbed some 5.10a routes at the gym and my arms and back are getting HUGE so all in all I love climbing and climbing is great. I was at Grassi Lakes climbing just the other day and everything was beautiful (here I advise a quick image search for Grassi Lakes, because they are quite lovely). 

   Remember in April's wrap-up when I said that the fires would start soon? I was right, unfortunately. There's a province-wide fire ban in Alberta at the moment, and there have been some smoky mornings in the past couple weeks. Grass fires, mostly, if my nose is right. 

   JUNE, what will you bring me? Obvi: heaps o' climbing. But also! Poker nights! BBQs! Reading! More school! Cold-brew coffee! Hopefully some camping! Right now I have seven books on my currently-reading shelf on Good Reads. Oops? 

April's Reading

   I read waaaaaay more in April than I thought I did, primarily due to the wonderful world of audiobooks. Honestly, if it weren't for audiobooks and short memoirs I would've read very little, probably just Villette (because of grand ol' readalong) and Steelheart (because of my low, low level of self-control when it comes to science fiction). I also wrote something like 7500 words for school and who knows how many on here AS WELL AS going to Skaha and climbing so uhhh, what's with you April? I'm definitely not complaining; did you somehow stretch to fit everything I wanted to do??? Are you bigger on the inside than on the outside?

Mary Poppins is a Time Lord

   Here's what I read:

• Girl in the Dark / Anna Lyndsey: rife with choice metaphors. Quick, very interesting. 
• Villette / Charlotte Bronte: this was...an experience. Readalong? Delightful. This book? All over the place but good, and full of evocative writing. Often frustrating, but also moving. We are all Lucy Snowe and Lucy Snowe is all of us, in various ways.  
• Steelheart / Brandon Sanderson: I'VE SEEN STEELHEART BLEED
• The Art of Communicating / Thich Nacht Hanh: useful! Practical! I took a mindful breath just now!
• I Feel Bad About My Neck / Nora Ephron: one essay is mostly about hair removal and one is mostly about death! What? 
• Blue Nights /Joan Didion: I read about grief a lot? 

   WHAT WILL MAY HOLD? I can tell you what it'll hold: Cultural Policy in Canada, Media Ethics, Children in Media, and Psychology and the Mass Media. Hooray for summer semesters? BUT it won't be all schoolin' all the time, since: a) it is nigh on summer and I got hella rocks to climb, b) my cousin lent me her banjo while she is travelling I HAVE A BANJO (for a couple months), c) I got some serious comics-reading to do, and d) there are cliffs to jump off of (into water, of course), lakes to swim in, hikes to go on, bicycles to ride, fires to light (in a fire pit of course), tents to sleep in, and SO ON. I adore summer. The days are long, the nights are short, the sun is hot. There will probably be a drought this year here in Alberta which is less awesome than all these other things, especially since drought = forest fires, BUT summer is great nonetheless and May is the beginning of summer. I say this even though is snowed a bit last weekend, and there is more snow in the forecast.