Coming Họmẹ by Tu Vuong My rating: 4 of 5 stars When I read poetry, I try to let it sort of wash over me like rain, because to capture all of the nuance in meaning at once isn’t possible at the first read. I admire Tu’s ambition of trying to create an arc to […]
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
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 […]
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.
Apocalypse Kitchen by Jen Mt. Pleasant My rating: 4 of 5 stars I can’t wait to try out the recipes! Jen has some whacky treasures of how to save and preserve food for an apocalypse. I particularly enjoyed the section on proteins. She also has a taste for spicier stuff than I usually go for. […]
threadbare beauty 