The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (books # 1 – 9)

The Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of books that took me much too long to get around to reading. They’re middle-grade books, probably a suitable reading level for kids who are 8-12 years old, more or less. I’m …

All Our Relations by Tanya Talaga

All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward is the second book that Tanya Talaga has written that I have read. The last book I read by Talaga was Seven Fallen Feathers, which tells the stories of seven indigenous teenagers who …

The Song of the Lioness by Tamora Pierce

Recently, I revisited the Song of the Lioness quartet by Tamora Pierce. Alanna; The First Adventure (1), In the Hands of the Goddess (2), The Woman Who Rides Like a Man (3), and Lioness Rampant (4) were a few of …

Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson (Stormlight Archives #2.5)

Edgedancer is a novella written by Brandon Sanderson in the Stormlight Archives and it follows Words of Radiance. It’s technically 2.5. It seems like a common practice for fantasy writers to write these short novella’s to go between their longer …

Just Eat It: How intuitive eating can help you get your shit together around food // by Laura Thomas, PhDd

I learned about Just Eat It by Laura Thomas through Pixie Turner. The full title gives you a pretty good picture about what this is about: Just Eat It: How intuitive eating can help you get your shit together around …

Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City by Tanya Talaga

Seven Fallen Feathers is an intense read; not because it is particularly densely written or hard to understand, but because the subject matter is tragic. Tanya Talaga wrote this book about 7 indigenous teenaged boys who died while attending school …

Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han

Always and Forever, Lara Jean is the third and final book in the series following To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han.

Lara Jean (Song Covey) and Peter Kanisky are dating and in grade 12. The book skips forwards about a year. P.S. I Still Love You takes place over January through June of grade 11, more or less. Now, based on the tone, Always and Forever, Lara Jean takes place roughly April through June of their grade 12 year. Lara Jean is panicking about university and baking a lot of cookies to distract herself from the stress of where she will get into university. She gets surprising news when she learns that she is rejected from her dream school and has to figure out where next; this changes the plans that she made with Peter because now they won’t be going to the same schools.

A few more things include

1. Peters fairly legitimate daddy issues — resolution pending throughout book
2. Lara Jeans dad decides to get married, her older sister, Margot, has a problem with it and is pretty snotty to her step-mom-to-be — resolution pending.
3. Peters mom is a bitch to Lara Jean
4. Chris, Lara Jeans bestie, is actually super helpful to Lara Jean

I really enjoyed all of these novels, including Always and Forever, Lara Jean. I like that it was left on a positive note but sets the tone for Jenny Han to revisit it later, should she wish to do so. Maybe she’ll bring Lara Jean back at the end of her university, but I don’t know if she’s strictly a YA writer or not, so I might just have to be happy with the resolution we have here.

There is a Netflix series based on the books. I haven’t looked into it too much since I wanted to read the books first, so I do not know if it includes all 3 books or not. Now that the books are done, I will definitely be watching it.

I Can’t Date Jesus: Love, sex, family, race, and other reasons I’ve put my faith in Beyoncé — Michael Arceneaux

One of my friends made an Instagram post about I Can’t Date Jesus by Michael Arceneaux. Because I am a religion and sociology major who genuinely enjoyed what I learned during university, this kind of autobiography is right up my …

Elevating Child Care: A Guide to Respectful Parenting by Janet Lansbury

Elevating Child Care: A Guide to Respectful Parenting by Janet Lansbury is the first parenting book I have ever read. No, I am not pregnant and nor do I have a secret child. Obviously, I plan to have a kid …

The Way of Kings, book 1 of The Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson

The Way of Kings is the first book in The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. It is a long, long read. I reading this book at the recommendation of someone I know who loved the series. I definitely wasn’t into …

Millennials & Management by Lee Caraher

Millennials & Management by Lee Caraher is a book that I learned about from the Bossed Up podcast hosted by Emilie Aries. The book is titled as millennials and management, not managing millennials or something because Lee felt that such …

The Law and Harry Potter, edited by Jeffrey E. Thomas & Franklin G. Snyder

Yes, here we have it: incontrovertible proof that I am a gigantic effing nerd! I decided to read The Law and Harry Potter for fun. Yes, for fun, and not because I knew one of the contributing authors, and not …

Becomimg by Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States of America, first African American First Lady, wife to the first African American president, mother of Malia and Sasha, lawyer, advocate, and stunning icon. Michelle Obama is a queen and someone I …

P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han

P.S. I Still Love You is the second book in the series after To All The Boys I Have Loved Before by Jenny Han. Lara Jean has survived the incident where all of her love letters were sent out by …

The Art of Language Invention: From Horse-Lords to Dark Elves, the Words Behind World-Bulding – David J. Peterson

David J. Peterson is the guy who invented Dothraki and Valyrian for the Game of Thrones TV series, amongst other languages seen on TV shows (The 100, Defiance…). In 2015, he published The Art of Language Invention: From Horse-Lords to …

The Wellness Rebel by Pixie Turner

The Wellness Rebel by Pixie Turner is her first book where she debunks a lot of the myths about superfoods, gluten, sugar, fat, detoxes and more throuh evidence based science. Pixie started as a wellness blogger and Instagrammer a few …

Queen of Air and Darkness (The Dark Artifices #3) by Cassandra Clare

The Queen of Air and Darkness is the third book in The Dark Artifices by Cassandra Clare. The Dark Artifices is her third series of books after The Mortal Instruments series, and The Infernal Devices series. For anyone who hasn’t …

If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson

If You Come Softly is a novel written by Jacqueline Woodson. Two or three years ago I also read Beneath a Meth Moon so I am somewhat familiar with Woodson’s quiet but touching writing, focusing on young adult novels that …

The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory

The Other Queen is one of Philippa Gregory’s novels about the Tudor era women featuring Mary Queen of Scots, one of Queen Elizabeth I’s great rivals and family members. Honestly, this was my least favourite of Philippa Gregory’s books. I …

Every Body Yoga: Let Go of Fear, Get on the Mat, Love Your Body by Jessamyn Stanley

I enjoyed this book a lot. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s walked into a yoga studio or class at the gym and felt out of place and I love that people like her are actively working to …

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before ~ Jenny Han

Turning a book into a movie or TV show is a sure way to get onto my radar if it wasn’t already. I feel like this is probably the case for a lot of people and that the lovely Jenny …

Trickster Drift by Eden Robinson

Trickster Drift is the second book in the Trickster trilogy by Eden Robinson. Jared is one of  those kids with a penchant for trouble because, whether he likes it or not, it was kind of marked for something bigger in …

The Tattoist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

The Tatooist of Auschwitz is a book based on real life events retold to the author, Heather Morris, who wrote a book about it. This was based on a real person named Lole. I really wasn’t sure what the cover …

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult is a novel that my mom brought me over Thanksgiving weekend, which was celebrated October 8, 2018. My granny and then her had already read it and it was my turn. Because of how …

The Girl Who Smiles Beads by Clementine Wamariya

In 1994, Rwanda experienced a massive genocide. Starting in April and lasting for 100 days, 800,000 people were murdered in a conflict between the Hutu’s and Tutsi’s. It’s awful; I’m not even all that sure that Hutu’s and Tutsi’s were …

Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson

Son of a Trickster is by Eden Robinson. She is a member of the  Haisla and Heiltsuk First Nations (details courtesy of Wikipedia). She has a BA from the University of Victoria and an MFA from the University of British Columbia. She’s an award …

6 unpopular opinions in the Harry Potter series

I like Ron and Hermione together Why don’t people like them together? Of course, they can totally annoy each other at times, but they also bring out the best in each other (e.g. I think Hermione motivates Ron to want …

The Harem Midwife by Roberta Rich

The Harem Midwife is the second book in a trilogy written by Roberta Rich who is, coincidentally, another Canadian author (yay!). However, I accidentally skipped the first novel, The Midwife of Venice (oops?). I made do and I definitely don’t …

The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman

Joanna Goodman is a Canadian author, just thought I’d put it out there right off the bat because sometimes I feel like all my media (books, tv, etc.) is a certain “type” (whether it is nationally, culturally, racially, etc.) so …

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling)

Lethal White is the fourth of Robert Galbraith’s novels. Just as a quick preface and in case you’ve been living under a literary rock or just happened to stumble across this blog post at random, both of which are valid …

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is a novel written by Hank Green. I have been anticipating this novel for months now, mostly because Hank and his brother, John have a podcast called Dear Hank an John and it’s one of m …

The Kingmaker’s Daughter by Philippa Gregory

My second to last Philippa Gregory novel! Phew! It has been such a long journey trying to catch up on all of her novels centred on the Tudors and the War of the Roses with women voices as the protagonists. …

Bowie; The biography by Wendy Leigh

David Bowie is weird! Please know that I saw this in a positive way though. I think it is what made him so interesting. I started reading Bowie: the biography by Wendy Leigh and my fiancé commented something to the effect …

Still Me by Jojo Moyes

Still Me is Jojo Moyes third novel involving the curious but lovely Louisa Clark. She has moved to New York to work for this uber rich family as the wife’s assistant. Louisa’s employer keeps insisting that they’re friends… but you …

Fat Gay Vegan by Sean O’Callahan

Fat Gay Vegan is the latest in a string of books (or podcasts) about being or becoming vegan. I learned about the book when Evanna Lynch and Robbie Jarvis interviewed the author, Sean O’Callaghan, on their podcast,The Chickpeeps (Episode 7: …

New reading feature: academic articles

Hello one and all! I am planning to try a thing here, which is in that I plan to start reading academic articles and sharing about them here. There will likely be a theme (e.g. I have a selection of …

21st Century Yoga: culture, politics & practice – edited by Carol Horton & Rose Harvey

21st Century Yoga: Culture, politics & practice is a book I grabbed at my yoga studio. I wanted to read about the book because there I have this internal concern I wanted (or needed) to resolve. That is if I …

Watermark by Jennifer Farquhar

The Boat People – Sharon Bala

The Boat People is an extremely resonate book because it is so relevant to our modern refugee crisis. It seeks to look at all of the different perspectives in a fictional case where you can begin to unravel the many …

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Little Fires Everywhere was ok, I guess, but I find I didn’t find it very memorable if I am being honest. I feel bad saying that because I want to love every book I read and there were certainly things …

Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America’s secret wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Steve Coll

Directorate S is a massive book of close to 700 pages (excluding sources and all that). It is Steve Colls follow up novel to Ghost War. In Directorate S, Steve Coll writes about the complicated relationships between the US, Pakistani, and Afghan …

Favourite books of 2018 (so far!)

I read loads and generally I try to find good things to say about all the books I read even if they’re not all for me (I lay out some criticisms too, never fear!). I definitely have my favourite books …

Fat Cats by George Mercer

Fat Cats is the fourth novel of the Dyed in the Green series written by George Mercer. At the end of Jasper Wild, Ben Matthews took a position at a national park in Tanzania so the focus of Fat Cats …

Book of Essie by Meghan Maclean Weir

*Lots of spoilers* The Book of Essie is Meghan Maclean Weir’s first novel. It was a captivating story, one of those ones that I could barely put down until it was done. Ester, known as Essie, is pregnant. Her father …

The Virgin Queen by Philippa Gregory

The Virgin’s Lover is one of Philippa Gregory’s novels that focuses on Queen Elizabeth I (Tudor) and is from the perspective of Elizabeth, Robert Dudley, and Amy Dudley. This is the only one of her novels, to my recollection, that …

Game of Thrones vs History

I am showing my hand with this book and it’s really geeky. Game of Thrones Versus History (Written in Blood) is a book of essays edited by Brian A. Pavlac. The essays look at different aspects of medievalism versus Game …

No Mud No Lotus: The art of transforming suffering | Thich Nhat Hanh

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who lives in France. He’s a spiritual leader, activist, and writer of many books, including No Mud, No Lotus: The art of transforming suffering. I loved this book; it was beautifully written …

Reading List ~ February and March 2018

  ** I am still reading the Right to be Cold and Beyond Words (half done). The links to those blog posts will become active as soon as those are done and posted, so if you’re reading this in early …

Dragon Springs Road – Janie Chang

Set in 1908 to about 1925, Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang is about a young girl, Jailing, whose mother unexpectedly abandoned her on the estate of the family she worked for. She was taken in by that family and …

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimalineo

The Marrow Thieves is set in a post apocalyptic future where indigenous people are being hunted for their brown marrow. Set sometime after 2050, indigenous people in Canada are on the run. It sounds like things were good for a …