The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman My rating: 4 of 5 stars It’s dry — but if you let ideas percolate, rather than racing to finish it, I think almost everyone would find the intersections of engineering and design really useful to their work. Things I will take away: the product needs […]
Talking to Canadians by Rick Mercer My rating: 4 of 5 stars It’s a healthy romp back into the history of Canadian drama and television and politics. I enjoyed reliving my own personal history with these topics through his parallel life — it turns out we’re almost the same age so his references to music […]
Her stroppy daughters want her to be in nursing care but she thinks out she can live independently
Whoever said that teachers don’t work in the summer, doesn’t get it. Summer is when I reflect and wallow in the shortcomings of the work that I’ve done and if I reached my intended goals with students. This year I was blessed with a glorious creative writing class that was entirely online and yet ….my […]
The Wild by Owen Laukkanen My rating: 4 of 5 stars There’s something about this book that makes me think I’ve read it before. We don’t get deep into main character Dawn’s history before she’s thrown into The Wild, a camp to rehabilitate young people into conforming with society’s standards. Dawn’s story is a familiar […]
Zara Hossain Is Here by Sabina Khan My rating: 4 of 5 stars I really liked this book. I found that Zara’s story was compelling as it was told in first person (without any competing voices) and it flowed through to its conclusion in a present tense, chronological order. I think it would be a […]
Don’t Breathe a Word by Jordyn Taylor My rating: 5 of 5 stars I really enjoyed this book! The pace was fine at the beginning, but when Erik entered Eva’s story, I couldn’t put it down. It reads like a grown-up Trixie Belden — sneaking around a private school, having teen morals tested in two […]
Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury My rating: 5 of 5 stars Having read some really strong female BIPOC fantasy lately, Tomi Adeyemi Cherie Dimaline Jael Richardson I was immediately skeptical about how much I would enjoy this, but I loved it. It was filled with diverse characters and real settings in Toronto without being […]
The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur My rating: 5 of 5 stars After reading June Hur’s The Silence of Bones last year, I was eager to see what her newest novel would bring. Hur has a way of embedding the reader into her setting that allows you to fully immerse yourself in the […]
A History of What Comes Next by Sylvain Neuvel My rating: 5 of 5 stars A revisionist historical fiction with a scifi twist…I’m worried about giving away spoilers before you’ve read it. Let’s just say that Sylvain Neuvel handles multiple time periods, and voices, with panache, in a way I’ve rarely seen before. At first […]
Just like Madonna, I’m reinventing myself again and taking a Graduate Certificate in Instructional Design through Royal Roads University. I’m in the last third of my teaching career but I don’t feel nearly done yet. At the same time I’ve been remote teaching since March 2020 and it just isn’t as satisfying as being face-to-face. […]
Becoming Leidah by Michelle Grierson My rating: 5 of 5 stars I waited so long to get my hands on this debut novel for the Nordic setting and it’s dip into mythology. It’s just a quiet little Norwegian fishing village …or is it? One of the local fishermen, Pieter, happens to catch a little something […]
Before reading texts this week, I glanced through Taste (Winter 2020) and noted my first impressions. Generally, I found that the layouts of articles in Taste magazinewere comfortingly similar to the Ontario LCBO magazine Food & Wine, which I have more experience with. Yet the layout within the articles “More For Your Pour” (pp. 12-13) and “Wine & Bonbons” […]
My call to action: stop teaching chronologically.
This is the must-read book of the year and I can’t wait to teach with it.
threadbare beauty 