June Reading Round-Up

Once again, we are at the end of one month and beginning a new one. June sped by, with changeable weather once again –now with high heat and humidity. Thank heavens for AC!.

It’s time to share what I have been reading this past month.

The total read for June was 30 books with the following breakdown:

Fantasy /Paranormal –1

Romance – 2

Women’s Fiction – 6

Historical romance – 6

Non-fiction – 1

Pix books – 13

MG novels – 1

I continue to record in more detail where the books originated – from the library, on my TBR shelves (bought/gifted or won) or an e-book. Here’s the breakdown

Library reads – 27                TBR/owned books –2              E-books –2

 

Favourite Reads

My overall favourite read of the month was Love for Beginners by Jill Shalvis.

I also read 4 historical fiction novels by Grace Burrowes which I thoroughly enjoyed (Beckman, Lady Maggie’s Secret Scandal, Gabriel, Lady Louisa’s Christmas Knight – a separate set of fav. books)

The rest of my top 10 reads:

What You Wish For by Katherine Center

The Moonglow Sisters by Lori Wilde

The Keepsake Sisters by Lori Wilde

The Summer Deal by Jill Shalvis

Tools of Engagement by Tessa Bailey

The Someday Birds by Sally J. Pla

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn

The Viscount who Loved Me by Julia Quinn

Confessions from the Quilting Circle by Maisey Yates

 

I am participating in quite a few challenges (check here for my list) but I have a few that are my favourites and have done these for a few years. Here are the books read for these challenges:

POPSUGAR Ultimate Reading Challenge (Through Goodreads)

This month I was only able to read 2 books for the challenge:

#14 – set in a restaurant – Wind Chimes Café by Sophie Moss

Adv. 6 – Meant to read last year (TBR) – What You Wish For by Katherine Center

52 Books in 52 Weeks

I was only read 1 book for this challenge:

#1 – Set in a school – What You Wish For by Katherine Center

Monthly Key Word Challenge

The key word I used this month: “Find” –A Good Demon is Hard to Find by Kate Mossman

Monthly Motif

The theme this month was “the Great Outdoors”. I read The Someday Birds by Sally J. Pla

Diversify Your Reading

The theme this month was “Romance”. I read:

Tools of Engagement by Tessa Bailey

Wind Chimes Café by Sophie Moss

Looking Ahead to July

 I plan to read more novels by native authors, and I have several on my TBR shelves. I will keep working on the 20 Books for Summer Challenge

 

I am linking with the following:

Monthly Wrap-Up (At Feed Your Fiction Addiction)

 Best of the Bunch (at A Cocoon of Books)

 

Connect Five Friday: Residential Schools

It’s time once again for Connect Five Friday, hosted at Book Date by Kathryn – the meme where we share five book/reading things that connect in some way.

 

With the discovery of more unmarked graves near a residential school here in Canada – this time 751 children in Saskatchewan – I feel it long past time to put action to our “sorries”. For too long non-indigenous people have ignored the terrible legacy of the residential schools. The TRC laid down 94 Calls to Action after they interviewed survivors and wrote their report – and so far too few have been implemented..

One way to stand behind and support Indigenous people is to become more knowledgeable about these “schools” and their tragic aftermath.

Several articles appeared today in the Toronto Star which are well worth a read:

Imagine the Terror of the Children by Michelle Good

My Grandmother’s Sister Had a Name by David A. Robertson

 

The NTRC has an excellent website to provide further information, including the report.

 

As Deborah Dundas of the Star said: “Sharing stories is one of the most powerful ways of understanding each other.”

Here are 5 books that I either have read or plan to read this summer (short summaries from Goodreads):

 

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good  (This book has won numerous awards this year.)

“Winner of the 2018 HarperCollins/UBC Prize for Best New Fiction Michelle Good’s FIVE LITTLE INDIANS, told from the alternating points of view of five former residential school students as they struggle to survive in 1960s Vancouver”

 

Fatty Legs: A True Story by Christy Jordan-Fenton.

“The moving memoir of an Inuit girl who emerges from a residential school with her spirit intact.”

 

Sugar Falls: A Residential School Story by David Alexander Robertson

“A school assignment to interview a residential school survivor leads Daniel to Betsy, his friend’s grandmother, who tells him her story. Abandoned as a young child, Betsy was soon adopted into a loving family. A few short years later, at the age of 8, everything changed. Betsy was taken away to a residential school. There she was forced to endure abuse and indignity”

 

They Called Me Number One by Bev Sellars

“Xat’sull Chief Bev Sellars spent her childhood in a church-run residential school whose aim it was to “civilize” Native children through Christian teachings, forced separation from family and culture, and discipline. In addition, beginning at the age of five, Sellars was isolated for two years at Coqualeetza Indian Tuberculosis Hospital in Sardis, British Columbia. “

Speaking Our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation by Monique Bray Smith

“Canada’s relationship with its Indigenous people has suffered as a result of both the residential school system and the lack of understanding of the historical and current impact of those schools. Healing and repairing that relationship requires education, awareness and increased understanding of the legacy and the impacts still being felt by survivors and their families. Guided by acclaimed Indigenous author Monique Gray Smith, readers will learn about the lives of Survivors and listen to allies who are putting the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into action.”

It’s Monday! What are You Reading?

It’s time once again for Kathryn’s weekly meme, “It’s Monday! What are You Reading?” hosted at Book Date, where we share what we’re reading and have read over the past week.

I did read more this week -although the stress level is still high. The CT has been ordered -for this Wed (which is very quick by Ontario standards). And the polyp is huge, in the sigmoid colon. Then the doctor consult is Friday. Surgery is looking like it will be required whether the lesion is cancerous or not. A scary time Continue with prayers please.

What I Read Last Week

I read 5 novels and 10 pix books – 2 women’s fiction, 1 romance, 1 middle grade novel and an historical romance.

The Keepsake Sisters by Lori Wilde. Imagine being separated at birth and then reuniting decades later. One of the twins needs a kidney – but will she be able to ask her twin? Having been a living donor for my husband 17 years ago, this was a fascinating read. And for the most part, they got a lot of it right.

The Summer Deal by Jill Shalvis. Another engaging story about kidney transplants and this time about half sisters. Enjoyed this one as well.

Tools of Engagement by Tessa Bailey. This was the third one the series and I enjoyed this one the most. Love the older woman-younger man, enemies to lovers’ themes.

Lady Maggie’s Secret Scandal by Grace Burrowes. Another in her historical romance Windham series, which I really enjoyed.

The Someday Birds by Sally J. Pla. This MG novel was so well written. Really enjoyed this story, of a boy with autism who must find the birds on his hospitalized father’s someday list, as his family crosses the country to visit him.

Picture Books:  Here are my favourite pbs of the 10 I read.

We Sang You Home by Richard Van Camp, illus by Julie Flett

The Hike by Alison Farrell

Percy’s Museum by Sara O’Leary illus. by Carmen Mok

What I’m Reading Now 

Sweet Nothings by Catherine Anderson

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (for a book club read)

What’s Up Next

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Connect Five Friday – Birding

It’s time once again for Connect Five Friday, hosted at Book Date by Kathryn – the meme where we share five book/reading things that connect in some way.

I’ve been reading a number of books that involve birding and /or birds and I’m really enjoying them. Here are 5 – some I have read and others I hope to.

READ

Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder by Julia Zarankin. So enjoyed this memoir,

The Someday birds by Charlie’s dad are in hospital across the country and he and his siblings, with the help of a relative stranger, must drive across the country to see him. Charlie feels that finding the birds on his father’s someday list while ensure his father recovers. A most enjoyable MG novel.

READING

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. I am reading this memoir for a book club and it is a challenging bit worthwhile read. Macdonald turns to training a goshawk after her father dies.

WANT TO READ

To See Every Bird on Earth by Dan Koppel. This is on my TBR shelf and looks like another interesting memoir.

Birds Art Life by Kyo Maclear. Another memoir that I have been wanting to read for awhile and now have it from the library.

It’s Monday! What are You Reading?

 

It’s time once again for Kathryn’s weekly meme, “It’s Monday! What are You Reading?” hosted at Book Date, where we share what we’re reading and have read over the past week.

 

I flitted from book-to-book last week– I started at least 10 books – but only finished 4. I just couldn’t concentrate What a stressful week last week was. My hubby had his colonoscopy this week and the news was not encouraging. A couple of small polyps were removed but a large one had to be biopsied. Now we wait to see whether it is cancerous. A CT scan will be needed and possibly surgery. It never seems to end for him. Last year he spent 4 months in hospital – what will this year bring? Prayers please.

What I Read Last Week

I read 4 books – 1 women’s fiction, 1 romance, 1 non-fiction, and an historical romance.

 

The Moonglow Sisters by Lori Wilde. So enjoyed this book and the three sisters and how they worked at reuniting.

 

Wind Chime Café by Sophie Moss. This was a free romance ebook and I was drawn right away into the story. Will need to read the rest of the series.

 

The Next Person You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. I have read several of his books and they all move me. This was no exception.

 

Beckman by Grace Burrowes. Another in her historical romance series “the Lonely Lords”, which I really enjoyed.

 

          

What I’m Reading Now 

Sweet Nothings by Catherine Anderson

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (for a book club read) 

 

What’s Up Next

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

The Someday Birds by Sally J. Pla

#6 Degrees of Separation – Wyld to Gyasi

This is the first Saturday of the month which means that it is time for Six Degrees of Separation, the book challenge, hosted by Kate  from “Books are My Favourite and Best“.

This is such a fascinating challenge and one I am always eager to begin and follow the search for connected books. The fun is in the search for connections and each chain that is created is always so different.

(I have used Goodreads summaries for each book as I have not read most of these book)

 

The starting point for us this round is to begin with the 2021 Stella Prize winner, The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld.

“Surging out of the sea, the Bass Rock has for centuries watched over the lives that pass under its shadow on the Scottish mainland. And across the centuries the fates of three women are linked: to this place, to each other.”

 

I have not read this book or any by Wyld, nor any books which have won the Stella Prize. But I was intrigued by this author and hope to read her books

 

1st Degree: One of her earlier books also won prizes. All the Birds Singing is a story of loneliness and survival.

“a stunningly insightful, emotionally powerful new novel about an outsider haunted by an inescapable past: a story of loneliness and survival, guilt and loss, and the power of forgiveness.”

 

2nd Degree: Another prize winner, one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists (as was Wyle) is Sunjeev Sahota. who wrote The Year of the Runaways.

“A novel of extraordinary ambition and authority, about what it means and what it costs to make a new life—about the capaciousness of the human spirit, and the resurrection of tenderness and humanity in the face of unspeakable suffering.”

 

3rd Degree: Another Man Booker award nominee is Nigerian Chigozie Obioma with The Fishermen.

“In a small town in western Nigeria, four young brothers take advantage of their strict father’s absence from home to go fishing at a forbidden local river. They encounter a dangerous local madman who predicts that the oldest boy will be killed by one of his brothers. This prophecy unleashes a tragic chain of events of almost mythic proportions. “

 

4th Degree: This led to the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe who was considered the founder of the modern novel in Nigeria. His debut novel was Things Fall Apart.

“A simple story of a “strong man” whose life is dominated by fear and anger, Things Fall Apart is written with remarkable economy and subtle irony. Uniquely and richly African, at the same time it reveals Achebe’s keen awareness of the human qualities common to men of all times and places”

 

5th Degree: This led to another debut novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

“A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic.”

 

6th Degree: Another debut novel that looks at the history of her country Ghana,  is Yaa Gyasi with her novel Homegoing.

“Generation after generation, Yaa Gyasi’s magisterial first novel sets the fate of the individual against the obliterating movements of time, delivering unforgettable characters whose lives were shaped by historical forces beyond their control.”

 

I began with Evie Wyld (Bass Rock) and ended with Yaa Gyasi (Homegoing), amazing women writers who have both won awards and write about strong women. Along the way, we visited Britain, Australia, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Ghana.

Next month (July 3, 2021), we’ll start with a nonfiction modern classic, Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss.

Connect Five Friday – Books to Read for Spring

 

It’s time once again for Connect Five Friday, hosted at Book Date by Kathryn – the meme where we share five book/reading things that connect in some way.

 

It is only a few weeks until the beginning of summer and that means only a few weeks to complete my Spring Must Reads. I try hard to read the books I list but I know I won’t get them read in time (some I have already moved to my 20 Books of Summer list).

So here are 5 books I am really going to push to read before June 21:

The Deadly Hours by Susanna Kearsley (and others)

 

Glass Houses by Louise Penny

 

What You Wish For by Katherine Center

 

Becoming by Michele Obama

 

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Guest Post on Equality by M.T. Becker

I am honoured to be part of the WOW! Women of Writing Blog Tour for M. T. Becker’s book Zinger in the Woods.

Today this husband and wife writing duo are visiting my blog for a wonderful guest post on Social Issues.

Welcome to you both:

Equality?

Equality, according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, is the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities. But, how does a nation-state achieve a state of equality? A state where all of its citizens have equal status, rights, and opportunities. Obviously, no country knows how since universal equality has never been achieved. Why? Because no government, elected official, or civil rights leader can change the fact that human beings are not created equal. We are all unique individuals with unique needs and wants. 

Not to mention, if we were all equal, who would determine the standards of equality; the government, societal norms, the majority population…WHO? If I am what the world has labeled a minority, do I strive to be equal to the majority just because their hue is different, or do I realize my self-worth and approve my own message and approve WHO I see in the mirror? I approve who I see in the mirror and become the person I always wanted to become instead of becoming equal to someone else.

Thank you Mark and Tiesha  for your insights on equality.

Be sure to check out all the stops along the blog tour:

May Reading Round-Up

Once again, we are at the end of one month and beginning a new one. May sped by, with changeable weather once again – even frost two days ago. Reading continues to be such a stress-reliever and once again historical romances captured my attention, as well as a rereading of my favourite series – The Others by Anne Bishop.

It’s time to share what I have been reading this past month.

The total read for May was 30 books with the following breakdown:

Fantasy /Paranormal –6

SciFi – 1

Romance – 6

Women’s Fiction – 2

Historical romance – 6

Non-fiction – 4

Poetry – 1

Pix books – 3

MG novels – 1

I continue to record in more detail where the books originated – from the library, on my TBR shelves (bought/gifted or won) or an e-book. Here’s the breakdown

Library reads – 18                TBR/owned books –5               E-books – 7

I’ve decided to change the order of what I post today – placing favourite books first:

 Favourite Reads

My overall favourite read of the month was The Summer of Lost and Found by Mary Alice Monroe 

 

 I enjoyed the historical romances by Grace Burrowes and The Other series by Anne Bishop but will not put them on the list as they would fill it.     

The rest of my top 10 reads:

The Nature Fix by Florence Williams

3 books by T.K Leigh:

The Other Side of Someday,  Dating Games,  Royal Games

The Bookstore on the Beach by Brenda Novak

Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs

Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

Runaway Road by Devney Perry

Sun Kissed by Catherine Anderson

 

I am participating in quite a few challenges (check here for my list) but I have a few that are my favourites and have done these for a few years. Here are the books read for these challenges:

 POPSUGAR Ultimate Reading Challenge (Through Goodreads)

This month I was only able to read 2 books for the challenge:

#1 – published in 2021 – Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs

#29 – set in multiple countries – The Nature Fix by Florence Williams (even tho this was NF, Williams travelled all over the globe to research this amazing book)

 

52 Books in 52 Weeks

I was only able to read 2 books for this challenge as well:

#22 – a family saga – The Summer of Lost and Found by Mary Alice Monroe 

#29 – the environment – The Nature Fix by Florence Williams

 

Monthly Key Word Challenge

I used 2 of the key words this month:

Away – Runaway Road by Devney Perry

Book – The Bookstore on the Beach by Brenda Novak

 

Monthly Motif

The theme this month was “Middle grade”. I read Zinger in the Woods by M.T. Becker 

 

Beyond the Bookends

The theme this month was “Faux celebrity”: I read: Royal Games by T. K. Leigh

 

Looking Ahead to June

 I really need to read more of my own books -I have too many! As this National Indigenous History here in Canada, I plan to read more books by native authors, and I have several on my TBR shelves.

 

I am linking with the following:

Monthly Wrap-Up (At Feed Your Fiction Addiction)

 

Best of the Bunch (at A Cocoon of Books)

 

Inspire Me Monday (at Create with Joy)