New year, new book review! I have to say that I’m continually impressed by Eddie for carrying the Reading Roundup torch, and this year I’d like to get back in touch with my roots. I will say that most of the synopses have been copied directly from Goodreads or other sources, with minimal changes by me. Yes, I’m a fraud. >.<

This month I read 5 ebooks and 1 eaudiobook from the library, and 2 epubs, totaling to 8 books.

The numbers as they stand as of January 2026:

Total Reading Goal: 8/100 Canada Reads: 1/5 (when the 2026 Canada reads were announced I was delighted to find out that I’ve actually already read one of them; you cannot imagine how smug I feel). Nonfiction Goal: 0/12 TPL Reading Challenge: ?/? [It hasn’t yet been announced]

Dishonourable Mentions:

Antimatter Blues by Edward Ashton (Mickey7 #2)

Synopsis: Summer has come to Niflheim. The lichens are growing, the six-winged bat-things are chirping, and much to his own surprise, Mickey Barnes is still alive―that last part thanks almost entirely to the fact that Commander Marshall believes that the colony’s creeper neighbors are holding an antimatter bomb, and that Mickey is the only one who’s keeping them from using it. Mickey’s just another colonist now. Instead of cleaning out the reactor core, he spends his time these days cleaning out the rabbit hutches. It’s not a bad life.

It’s not going to last.

It may be sunny now, but winter is coming. The antimatter that fuels the colony is running low, and Marshall wants his bomb back. If Mickey agrees to retrieve it, he’ll be giving up the only thing that’s kept his head off of the chopping block. If he refuses, he might doom the entire colony. Meanwhile, the creepers have their own worries, and they’re not going to surrender the bomb without getting something in return. Once again, Mickey finds the fate of two species resting in his hands. If something goes wrong this time, though, he won’t be coming back.

My thoughts: Because of the recently released movie, I read the first book in the series (Mickey7 aka Mickey17), and thought it was pretty okay, if rather short. So I picked up the next book to try it. Reader, I forgot how much Mickey’s life just sucks. He has no job, slashed rations, his boss hates him, his friends and girlfriend don’t particularly seem to like him, and he is perpetually on the verge of contractually-obligated death. Even worse, he’s not a particularly compelling character to read about. I won’t say that he has zero agency, but he doesn’t have all that much, and I just don’t find him a particularly enjoyable character to read about. Every year I try to give myself permission to DNF more books, and maybe this is the year I listen to myself.

You might like this book if: your life also sucks so much and you kind of also suck

The Real Reviews

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

Synopsis: “Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She's a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she's in New York City, and he's in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven't spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she's stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?”

My thoughts: Starting the year off strong! I have actually read this book before but it was before I started writing Reading Roundups or using Storygraph, so I’m not going to count it as a re-read. I also didn’t remember much about this book at all, so I kind of did feel like I was reading it for the first time. And I had to suffer through the whole movie, meaning that I’ve earned the right to include it on my list of the year. This book was both better and worse than I remembered. Better, because the friendship between Poppy and Alex had a solid foundation, and their friendship was very strong and full of yearning. Worse, because the third act conflict felt so shoehorned into the very end. Alex confronts Poppy about only being able to commit to him when they’re on vacation, and not willing to do so during real life. Because he said this right before he got on a plane (without Poppy) they immediately had to separate and were not really able to talk about this. I also think that Alex was kind of unfair, because at this point their issue was more that they would have been in a long distance relationship, instead of a relationship where one partner has commitment issues. I also think it was clear that Poppy was genuinely unhappy with her life and was looking to make a real change; she obviously was not attracted to Alex just because they were on vacation. Overall the book was charming, and I appreciated it.

Rating: 4/5 stone bear statues that cost $21 000 but really “speak to me”

Peace Talks (Dresden Files #16) by Jim Butcher

Synopsis: When the Supernatural nations of the world meet up to negotiate an end to ongoing hostilities, Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard, joins the White Council’s security team to make sure the talks stay civil. But when his brother Thomas, a white court vampire, is caught trying to assassinate the leader of the Svartalves, Harry is torn between shifting alliances. If he doesn’t rescue Thomas, his brother will be rightfully executed. But if he does, he will have betrayed the Svartalves, whom he greatly depends on, and are fellow signatories of the Accords.

My thoughts: Another year, another book in the Dresden files. OG readers of this blog will remember when Bennet and I started reading this series back in 2023. 16 books later, and we are still not done. This book in particular was not one of my favourites. It wasn’t bad, per say, but it did have strong “nothing ever happens” energy. We didn’t even get to the actual peace talks, which ostensibly should be the most important part of the book, since it’s the literal title, because Harry was too busy faffing around and also dealing with Thomas. We don’t know why Thomas acted so out of character and attempted the assassination in the first place. When Thomas finally was rescued, the peace talks were just about to begin when they were completely interrupted by the titan Ethniu, who will destroy the entire city of Chicago if all of the Accord signatories don’t immediately ally with her. Obviously they don’t, and then everyone starts planning on how to save the city (which I will admit that I loved), and then the book ended. Even with all of my complaints, I think it’s really cool how at this point in the series, everything is about the long game. The entire plot of the previous book, Skin Game, was to acquire an artifact that will likely have critical importance for the next book, Battle Ground. I have already started to read Battle Ground, and I am somewhat enjoying it, but I will be glad when we have made it to the end of this marathon. An 18 book series (with more still to be published) is a challenge even for someone like your girl.

Rating: 4/5 bad cases of conjuritis (I thought only teenagers got conjuritis)

The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlyn Rozakis

Synopsis: When Vivian’s kindergartner, Aria, gets bitten by a werewolf, she is rapidly inducted into the hidden community of magical schools. Reeling from their sudden move, Vivian finds herself having to pick the right sacrificial dagger for Aria, keep stocked up on chew toys and play PTA politics with sirens and chthonic nymphs and people who literally can set her hair on fire.

As Vivian careens from hellhounds in the school corridors and demons at the talent show, she races to keep up with all the arcane secrets of her new society – shops only accessible by magic portal, the brutal Trials to enter high school, and the eternal inferno that is the parents’ WhatsApp group.

And looming over everything is a prophecy of doom that sounds suspiciously like it’s about Aria. Vivian might be facing the end of days, just as soon as she can get her daughter dressed and out of the door…

My thoughts: This was a cute book. I wouldn’t say that it was cozy, but it was certainly cozy-adjacent. Even though it’s set in a fantasy town, it’s mostly about Vivian’s struggles to solo parent her daughter (while her husband works long hours in the city) and adapt to the new society as a mortal who knows nothing about it. I think it could be a good metaphor for families that have children with disabilities, or immigrant ESL families, both of whom often struggle to navigate systems and new cultural norms. (It should be noted that the book is actually poking fun at exclusive private schools, and their overly-rigerous admission policies). Vivian and her husband were able to talk everything out at the end, which was good, and the overall story had a happy ending, which was great. I didn’t actually mind the toxic interpersonal dynamics of Vivian’s “friends” (whom she rightly later abandons), but the whole prophecy plotline felt so cliche, so I’m glad the book poked fun at the trope a bit.

Rating: 3/5 science fair projects that no one would rightly believe that a kindergartener could do by themselves.

The Running Man by Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman

Synopsis: It was the ultimate death game in a nightmare future America. The year is 2025 and reality TV has grown to the point where people are willing to wager their lives for a chance at a billion-dollar jackpot. Ben Richards is desperate—he needs money to treat his daughter’s illness. His last chance is entering a game show called The Running Man where the goal is to avoid capture by Hunters who are employed to kill him. Surviving this month-long chase is another issue when everyone else on the planet is watching—and willing to turn him in for the reward.

Each night all Americans tune in to watch. So far, the record for survival is only eight days. Can Ben Richards beat the brutal odds, beat the rigged game, beat the entire savage system? He’s betting his life that he can…

My thoughts: I thought this book was great. It was a dystopia that felt very possible, and the fact that it took place in 2025 had me a bit nervous. I initially picked this up because a movie adaptation was released recently, and I wanted to see what all of the fuss is about. I don’t think I will watch the movie because I’m not a fan of the plot changes that they made, since I actually really like how the book was structured, as well as how it ended quite poetically. Just another thing that is different in a post-9/11 world. A very gritty read, but I would recommend it.

Rating: 4/5 free-vees that are always on… because they’re free…

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu

Synopsis: This book defies description, so I won’t even try.

My thoughts: I already said this at book club. TLDR; I didn’t really like it, but if we had read it in the original Chinese it probably would have slapped at least a bit more.

Rating: 3/5 film photos with numbers counting down along the edges in a sinister way (this never comes up again btw)

The Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park

Synopsis: When North Korean spymaster Doha Kim is mysteriously killed in Oxford, his protege, Yohan Kim, chases the only breadcrumb given to him in Doha’s last breath: “Soju Club, Dr. Ryu.” In the meantime, a Korean American CIA agent , Yunah Choi, races to salvage her investigation of the North Korean spy cell in the aftermath of the assassination. At the centre of it all is the Soju Club, the only Korean restaurant in Oxford, owned by Jihoon Lim, an immigrant from Seoul in search of a new life after suffering a tragedy. As different factions move in with their own agendas, their fates become entangled, resulting in a bitter struggle that will determine whose truth will triumph. Oxford Soju Club weaves a tale of how immigrants in the Korean diaspora are forced to create identities to survive, and how in the end, they must shed those masks and seek their true selves.

My thoughts: I thought this book was cool conceptually, but I found the pacing to be super weird. It felt like the book ended very abruptly, and I was expecting a lot more to happen. I appreciated how the author structured the chapters; each one was divided into three parts, and covered both the current action and a flashback scene for a specific character. Instead of being specifically named, the sections were called “The Northerner/The Southerner/The American” and then they later switch to “The Exiled/[two more things that I don’t remember ahhh]. It was a really cool exploration of Korean identity, and what it means to be Korean. Despite all of the action, I did find it to be a bit slow (I get that stuff was happening but I just wasn’t super engaged in it, if that makes sense).

Rating: 3/5 bottles of soju that have exactly seven shots, because you can’t ever evenly share it so you’ll always have to order another bottle

Original Sins by Erin Young (Riley Fisher #2)

Synopsis: It's a brutal winter in Des Moines, Iowa, and the city is gripped by fear. A serial attacker known as the Sin Eater is stalking women and has just struck again. It's a tough time and a tough place for Riley Fisher, a former small-town sergeant, to be reporting for duty as an FBI agent on her first assignment.

Teamed with a man she's not sure she can trust and struggling to prove herself – while fighting the pull of her old life and family dramas – Riley is tasked with investigating a vicious death threat against the newly elected female state governor. Gradually, she traces a disturbing connection between this case and the hunt for the Sin Eater. Through snow, ice, violence and lies, Riley Fisher is drawn towards a terrifying revelation.

My thoughts: I picked up this book because I was specifically looking for a dark, psychological thriller about serial killers. In effect, I wanted to read a book that felt exactly like an episode of Criminal Minds. Because of this specific craving, I just picked up the first book that really felt like it matched that vibe, meaning that I accidentally picked up the second book in a series. I ultimately decided not to pivot towards the first book just because it didn’t quite fit the bill, and I suspected I wouldn’t be interested enough to bother completing the series (I was right). Original Sins itself was okay, pretty decent for what I was looking for, but not something I would go back to again. It’s set during mid COVID which makes it feel pretty dated. A large part of the book was framed in terms of feminism/violence against women, and I won’t say that it was out of place or jarring, but it felt strange in a way that I can’t put my finger on. I did think that the serial killer POV was well done, because it still left surprises to uncover as the book went on.

Rating: 3/5 old fashioned hotel key tags that were deliberately planted at the scene of the crime…

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

Synopsis: Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.

But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family’s future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God’s will.

Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there’s more to this job, and the girl’s disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power…and the price might be your very soul.

My thoughts: I am definitely glad that I picked up this book. It was an epic pirate adventure tale, complete with fantasy and magical artifacts (but not in a way that felt forced). I think the setting and the placement of the book was really interesting: the characters travelled around the medieval Arabian sea, and stopped in a variety of countries, including Somalia and Yemen. The main character Amina al-Sirafi is a Yemeni Muslim, but the characters around her represent a huge swath of cultures and religions, and it made for a very rich setting. The book is also stylized as a scribe copying down Amina’s adventures as she was telling them, and the interactions between Amina and the scribe, as well as the scribe’s own interjections, were pretty funny. I think the author could have leaned on the scribe even a bit more. This book is long and it definitely feels long just because so much is happening; it was shocked when we had reached what seemed to be the main destination of the final climax and the book was barely 50% finished. The author seems to have set herself up for a quintology, although I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a paradigm change and the pacing ends up being very different. I will, however, definitely be looking out for book 2 when it drops later this spring.

Rating: 4/5 humanoid parrot creatures that are obsessed with order, law, and justice (in that order)

i am, your most faithful blogger, elisa

The year is 2025. It’s been five years since the COVID-19 lockdowns began, and our lives changed fundamentally. No longer could students and workers simply “go into the office” and continue on with life as normal. Suddenly, it was dangerous to leave your house. Everyone wondered: “will I get sick?” or even worse, “will I get my loved ones sick?” To deal with the predicament, governments and companies alike quickly pivoted to remote work. For the first time, office workers no longer had to physically go into the office. Instead, they could just log in from home and still get all of their work done. But it’s been five years since COVID, and many are wondering why anyone is still working from home. The push for Return to Office (RTO) grows increasingly stronger every year, and people are mad about it. .

You might be asking, “Elisa, why do you even care about this? Your job can’t be done remotely.” You would be right: the vast majority of public library work requires workers to be physically at the branch. I have to sit at the circulation desk and answer questions; I have to assemble craft supplies to test my programs; I have to collect books off of the shelves; I have to sit beside a senior to troubleshoot their computer question. Unless I become some form of manager (which wouldn’t happen for at least a decade), I will never have a remote or hybrid position as long as I stay on this career path. And yet, I am still very passionate about how utterly stupid the RTO mandates are.

Let’s rewind to the year 2022. In Winter 2022, I was completing the first year of my library science master’s degree in Toronto, and desperately hunting for a placement in my field that would employ me over the long university summer. My quest for money and experience was complicated by the fact that my then-boyfriend, now-fiancé, Bennet lived in Kingston, where he was completing his own masters. I scoured the internet, but there were no positions to be had anywhere in the Thousand Islands region. So, it fell to me to make a choice: should I put my career development first, and take a job in a major city, and continue to suffer the misery of a long distance relationship? Or should I choose love and happiness, spend the summer with Bennet in Kingston, and hope to find a retail job that would likely not give me any relevant experience to put on my resume? But then, the answer to all of my problems appeared on a beam of pixelated light, as if sent down from God herself: a remote job. It was the perfect solution; I could gain experience in a new aspect of librarianship based in Ottawa, while still living in Kingston and having a gloriously happy summer with Bennet. So, I took the position, and it was so worth it. Summer 2022 was an excellent one, filled with drive-in theaters, mini-golf, double rainbows, and adventures in upstate New York; none of which I would have experienced by myself in Toronto.

And at the end of Summer 2022, I had a similar yet opposite choice to make. Should I go back to full time classes in Toronto (which I was super disillusioned with) and deal with the one-two punch of seasonal depression and a return to long-distance, or should I take a different work placement in Kingston, where I could continue to learn new professional skills and also generally enjoy life. Due to the perks of remote schooling, I was able to work in-person in Kingston and do a remote class based in Toronto so that I could still graduate on time. Fall 2022 was also one of my happiest ever, featuring corn mazes, fall fairs, bar trivia, and my first Hoco. I will be forever grateful to the time and opportunities that these two remote options (work and school) provided for me, and I think everyone should have that chance.

Now that you know why I am fighting this battle, let's zoom out a bit and clarify what exactly I mean by remote work. In my mind, jobs that are largely computer based that involve minimal physical work or face to face interaction are well suited for remote work or hybrid positions. Obviously not all jobs meet that criteria, but many do meet them at least partially, and their workers could thrive with various levels of remote or hybrid working. To add, I also believe that a remote job should not be constrained to a strict 9-5. If you want to shift your working hours to 10-6 or 8-4, or split your shift so that you can take a longer lunch, or catch up on work on the weekends, I think that remote work should give you that chance. As long as you can attend any meetings and get your work done, I think that employees should be free to choose the hours that they keep.

And now, with all of that exposition out of the way, we can finally get into the many, many benefits of remote working.

Geography

If you have a remote job, then you aren’t physically tied down to your office location. This means that jobs can be distributed out of major cities and provide opportunities for residents of small towns. This is about more than just people who moved rurally during COVID, although this would benefit them too. I’m primarily bringing up this point because it would allow people to stay in their own communities without having to move out. So if the major employer of SmallTown, Ontario goes bust, there are options for people to get jobs without moving away. As an aside: I know that these opportunities are not one-to-one. Obviously someone who has worked a very physical job of manual labour will not be able to seamlessly adapt to a high-tech fully remote computer job, but I think the principle still stands.

Being able to work from anywhere also means that you can work while travelling, whether for pleasure, obligation, or emergency. This is good for employers because it means that their employees are more likely to keep working while out of town, which increases productivity. It’s also good for employees because it gives them much more flexibility to keep working without having to take vacation or sick days. Obviously I’m not advocating for employees to never take vacation days; quite the opposite. Remote work should empower employees to work from anywhere they want to, and still take all of their vacation days. Consider an employee that only has 10 days of vacation per year who wants to take a two week trip. They could take two days of vacation for travelling to and from their destination, and take three full vacation days at their destination, and then work remotely for the remaining five weekdays while at their destination. In this scenario, they are still able to save five vacation days to use another time during the year. Sounds amazing to me. On a personal note, during my summer of 2022 remote job, I had a family emergency back in Toronto. Since my job was remote, I was able to travel to Toronto and be with my family without missing work (and therefore without missing pay). It was a relief for me to not have to worry about taking time off when I didn’t have any vacation days, or not having to choose between paying rent and seeing family.

Even more, the ability to work when travelling doesn’t just have to be about jet-setting to Europe or Asia. Remote working means that you can work from your house, but also your favourite cafe, your friend’s house, your cottage. If you have a stable wifi connection and a power source, the opportunities are endless. My personal favourite place to work remotely that summer was on the front porch of my rental house, where I could sit in the sun and be surrounded by trees and fresh air. It really made working a lot more enjoyable for me.

Traffic & Commuting

When you don’t have to physically go into the office, you no longer have to commute. It’s a simple statement but it makes such a big difference. I have multiple friends who technically live and work in the GTA, but one lives in Markham and works in Mississauga, and two live in Burlington and work in Toronto. For all of them, it takes at least an hour each way to commute into work. Being able to live close to your work is a privilege that not everyone has access to. Often, people are forced to choose between a long commute and a precarious or unaffordable living situation, especially with the current housing crisis. If you work remotely, your commute becomes the 10 second walk from your bed to your desk. And that means that you get those two hours back! You can do whatever you want with them: get on top of your daily chores, get some exercise, do a hobby, spend time with loved ones. The world is your oyster because you have that extra time back in your day.

Less commuting also means that there will be less traffic. Obviously there will still be some traffic for the people who work jobs that cannot be done remotely, and travel that is not work-related. But traffic overall, especially the dreaded rush hour, will be significantly reduced. This has a lot of excellent downstream effects. Less cars on the road means that there will be less reliance on cars, and makes more space for a non-car centric way of existing. If your primary use for your car was commuting to and from work, then remote work could give you the freedom to get rid of your car. This is probably most realistic for larger households, who may be able to downsize from three cars to two cars, or from two cars to one car. This obviously reduces the costs associated with owning a car (maintenance, insurance, gas, etc etc), and likely would be a net positive for households overall.

Fewer cars on the road will also be better for the environment in multiple ways. Obviously it would reduce air pollution, which was memorably noticed during the first few months of COVID, when major cities worldwide began announcing that their smog had visibly reduced during the height of restrictions. However, vehicle emissions are not the only factor that we should be considering. Rubber particulates that are released from car tires as they wear and tear are a huge source of microplastic pollution, reportedly accounting for more than 25% of global microplastics in the environment. The auto industry itself creates so much waste and is also energy and resource intensive. Although remote work cannot by itself solve any of these problems, the chance to reduce the amount of cars on the road, or even reduce the overall amount of cars in use is absolutely one that we should be pursuing. It’s also worth noting that the reduction of cars on the road would help reduce the amount of car accident-related injuries and deaths, for both drivers and pedestrians.

Pivoting away from cars, widespread remote work also has the power to change how public transit infrastructure is planned. Many major cities, including my hometown of Toronto, have their transit prioritized to shuttle office workers to and from the downtown core. This is great if you actually need to go downtown, but makes it a lot more inconvenient to use transit to get across town, say from North York to East York. If there were fewer workers commuting downtown for the traditional 9-5 workday, it would free up transit resources. Instead of being forced to focus on adding capacity to the existing downtown pipelines, they could create brand new routes that spread access more equitably around the whole city.

Illness

Remote working is generally a much more supportive environment for people with illnesses. Let’s start with acute illnesses: a strong work from home policy means that people no longer have to come into the office when they are sick. No one likes it when their coworkers come into work with a cold; it’s easy to spread germs and become the office patient zero. And yet many people struggle with the idea of taking time off for minor illnesses. I personally struggle with this even though I have a healthy sick day allowance, because I don’t feel like a common cold warrants me taking off 5-7 days of work. If I was able to work from home, it would be a non-issue: I could still work as much as I saw fit without majorly stressing out about accidentally infecting my coworkers. Remote work also benefits people with acute injuries. Say you broke your ankle and had difficulty getting to and maneuvering through the office with your cast and crutches. If you were able to work from home, you would not be forced to put unnecessary strain on your body.

Remote working is also great for people with chronic illnesses. They can save a lot of spoons by not having to commute to the office, and well as not having to do other miscellaneous tasks like packing a lunch or putting on makeup that are often necessary for in person work. A flexible remote work setup also makes it a lot easier for people to take the time needed to go to doctor’s appointments. If you have to be in the office 9-5 but you have an appointment, it often requires taking at least a half-day off in order to attend it. Whereas a flexible remote set-up could let you take a few hours in the middle of the day to visit the doctor, and make up the missing hours in the evening. Even without having an appointment, the flexibility provided by remote work would allow people with chronic illnesses to work at their own pace and take breaks as needed. A potentially underrated point in favour of remote work means that people with chronic illnesses wouldn’t have to interact with the physical environment of the office. One of my coworkers is allergic to dust, mold, and perfume, all of which are abundant at my workplace. Other things at a workplace to consider are stairs or other physical accessibility barriers (both at the office and on the way to it), non ergonomic work stations, poor ventilation, and bad HVAC settings (being too hot and too cold). In all fairness, this is based on the assumption that someone’s home is better suited to them than their office, which is likely but not guaranteed. However, I do feel like people often have more control over their living spaces than their offices, which is a major point in the favour of remote work.

Freedom to Be Home

Extending from the previous section, a lot of people consider their home to be their happy place. A place where they enjoy being, and something they have set up and arranged to their specific liking and needs. I don’t think it would be a huge exaggeration to say that most people would prefer to spend more time in their homes, instead of in the office. Homes typically have a lot more amenities than an office, such as a private bathroom, a full kitchen, and access to all of your clothes and possessions. The amount of times that I’ve forgotten something for work at home, or something for home at work is more than you would think, and I know at least that I would appreciate it if I didn’t have to lug a giant tote bag full of all of my things between the two places. Having access to your own kitchen during the work day means that people are more able eat home cooked food instead of having to spend money on unhealthy take out. Having access to your own space means that it’s much easier for you to sneak in a quick workout and shower in the middle of the day instead of having to get it at an unholy time before or after work. The standards at home are a lot more relaxed, so you can work in your own personal uniform of comfortable clothes instead of a stifling office ensemble.

Besides the comforts and luxuries of home, there are also more important reasons one might want to stay home. A big one is pets: many animals benefit from having their human around all day to interact with, instead of being cooped up all alone. If they need to be fed, walked, given medication, or just snuggled with, their human is available to meet all those needs while working from home. Being at home is also convenient if you need to receive any packages (increasingly common while the hysteria of online shopping has a firm grip on our society) or have any repairs done. The last time I had to receive a furniture delivery from Ikea, I had to specifically schedule it on a weekday that I didn’t work in order to get the pieces delivered up into my unit, and also not be charged exorbitantly for a nighttime or weekend delivery. I’m overall very lucky that my in-person job has some flexibility of hours, but it would have been even easier if I was a remote worker.

On a more serious note, being at home allows workers, primarily women, to perform more caregiving duties while still participating in the workforce. Women often bear the brunt of caregiving responsibilities in their households, which means that if the family can’t afford daycare then it’s the woman who most often stays home with the children. This means that women are participating in the workforce to a lesser extent, so they are sacrificing career growth and future earning potential. Some women ideally would like to be stay-at-home moms, and I fully support them. However, I worry for the women who, for whatever reason, want to be working mothers but are unable to work while caring for their children. Being able to work means that you have access to your own income, your own relationships, your own goals, and your own achievements. Women who don’t work and don’t have their own incomes are more easily exploited by abusive partners. So, having a remote position with flexible hours allows women to be at work while actually being at home keeping an eye on their children. It should also be a good reminder for any men who have remote jobs that they too could become the primary caregivers for their children. I clarify that I’m not implying that it’s easy to work full time while caring for your children, but it is at least possible to do so, compared to how impossible it is when you have to be in the office 9-5 every day. It also allows you to perform less intensive acts of caregiving, like picking your kids up from school, or taking your older relatives to appointments, without having to constantly sacrifice work and career. As someone who may have to care for children, and very likely will have to care for parents, this point feels more significant to me, and it’s a non-insignificant factor in my overall thoughts about having kids of my own someday.

I Agree, Remote Work Is Better!

Thanks for agreeing with me! I know I’ve been very eloquent and convincing. :) But to be fair, we should also examine some of the downsides of remote work.

Space and Equipment

I worry that companies may use remote work as an excuse to not adequately equip their workers. In the office, you are ideally provided with a computer, monitor, keyboard and mouse, a desk and a chair, and other more specialized equipment that is required for your role. When working at home, you definitely have to provide your own desk and chair, and potentially even your own tech. It unfairly puts the burden onto the worker, when this is something that the company has and should still be responsible for. In the same way, I have to recognize that not everyone has an adequate space to work from home. Traditionally, it’s the responsibility of the company to provide the office space, but in remote work that goes back on the worker. During COVID a lot of people talked about how they were stuck in their homes with absolutely nowhere to go, and while that’s more of an indictment on the lack of third spaces in our current society, it should be recognized that the office is a space that you get to go to, and might even enjoy going to.

Social Isolation

If you’ve watched any workplace comedy show then you might think that your coworkers will become your best friends, and maybe even your lovers. Television is obviously not the same as reality, but it is true that you often spend more time with your coworkers than anyone else, and that a certain bond definitely forms. I know that if I wasn’t part of this wonderful thing called Code Monkey Cafe then I would have a lot less friends, and would definitely turn more to my coworkers to fill that resulting gap in my life. As much as we love to hate them, our coworkers are indeed a major part of socialization or many workers. In a fully remote position, it becomes much harder (but not impossible) to make social connections when you are always separated by a screen. There is no longer any chatter when you first get into the office, no shared lunch breaks or coffee runs, and no holiday parties. The camera-off culture during video calls also contributes to this lack of social interaction. It’s such a relief to have your own camera off, but it’s so demoralizing to stare into a void of black boxes with no one looking back at you. At my own workplace, we have department-wide meetings once a month; part of the reason why they are such a waste of time is because we don’t actually get to interact with other members of our department. These remote meetings don’t really give us any opportunity to meaningfully connect or build solidarity with one another, and I wish that they were at least occasionally in-person.

Lack of Downtown Customers

An argument against remote work that seems to constantly be brought up is that if there are no downtown workers, the businesses that cater to downtown workers will go out of business. “Oh won’t someone think of the poor workers!” they cry, “the poor dry-cleaners, shoe-shiners, dentists, and lunch-counter workers! Will no one think of them??” Well, I am thinking of them, and I am not too distraught about it. First of all, there will still be downtown workers, because not everyone’s job can be done remotely. Second of all, why should we prioritize these downtown businesses over similar ones that are located in people’s home neighbourhoods? They too have dry-cleaners, shoe-shiners, dentists, and fast casual lunch spots. Ideally neither one of these groups would suffer, but it’s impossible to make a cake without breaking a few eggs. Frankly, I think a widespread shift to remote work would be an excellent opportunity to make more mixed-use neighbourhoods, and redistribute resources around the city instead of only focusing them in certain high-value areas (like the downtown core). This also ties into one of the major reasons that companies are forcing their workers back to being in-person: their office buildings are languishing empty. Corporations have egg on their faces for wasting all this money on a large workspace, and they’re forcing people back to the office just so that they don’t look embarrassing to shareholders. This too could be a great reason to consider redeveloping downtown areas to become more mixed use, but no one wants to foot the bill for the renovations. Tragically, most office buildings can not simply be converted into apartment units with a wave of a magic wand, no matter how much I might want that to be true. But there has to be a happy medium between empty offices and forcing people back to in-person work just to save face.

What does this all mean?

Hopefully you still believe in the many benefits of widespread remote work. All of these advantages that I’ve talked about so far are worthwhile and worth keeping. I’m a firm believer in a healthy work-life balance; whenever possible, people should be working to live, instead of living to work. The flexibility and opportunities granted by remote work can help make the need to work more tolerable and manageable, as well as more affordable.

The return to office mandates that have recently become popular destroy all of the things. Return to office means a return to commuting, pollution, traffic, illness, being uncomfortable, barriers to working, and much more. It should also be noted that the return to office mandates aren’t even being done well. There are hundreds of stories about offices that are not large or private enough to accommodate workers and their tasks, people schlepping themselves to the office just to be on remote calls all day, overcrowded and underfunded amenities and services. But most of all, people are less happy and less productive. Remote work wasn’t perfect, but it granted a lot of possibilities that we could have only dreamed of pre-COVID shutdowns, and it shouldn’t be arbitrarily taken away based on the whims of CEOs and politicians.

And that, my friends, is why I think Return to Office is stupid.

i am, your most faithful blogger, elisa

February

This month I read 3 ebooks and 1 physical book from the Toronto Public Library, totalling to 4 books (my worst month to date). My average star rating for the month was 2.88. My running total of books read in 2025 is 11, so I am 11% of the way to my goal of reading 100 books in 2025.

Dandelion by Jaime Chai Lun Yiew

Synopsis: When Lily was 11-years-old, growing up in the British Columbia interior in 1987, her mother Swee Hua left one day and never returned. Swee Hua was miserable living in a white-majority mining town, and longed to return to Brunei. But everyone was shocked when she never wrote, never visited, never contacted her husband or her daughters. 30 years later, pregnant with her first child, Lily cannot stop thinking about her mother. Determined to figure it out, once and for all, she visits her family in Brunei. But will she like the truth that she finds out?

My thoughts: This is probably one of the only pure-fiction books that I’ve ever read that felt like a biography. Partially because I’ve been reading a couple of biographies (girl who’s only ever read biographies thinks that everything is a biography). But mostly because of the writing style of the book. It just felt so much like the author was recounting things that happened to her in her childhood, and then alternating with her perspective in the present. Also, because the plot didn’t feel like it was structured in a traditional way; it didn’t feel like there was a rising action, a third act conflict, etc etc. Usually you’d only find this when you’re reading a true story, because readers will know that real life doesn’t often follow the classic structure of a novel. This is one of the Canada Reads picks for 2025, and it’s definitely outside of my normal reading, so I’m glad to have been pushed outside of my normal taste in books, especially with the discussion of stateless people. The main character’s father was born in Brunei of Chinese descent, and was stateless, while her mother claimed to have had Malaysian citizenship. Growing up in a jus soli/birthright citizenship country, it feels so foreign to read about people who just don’t have citizenship to any country, despite being born in one, and to read about the helplessness and insecurity that they had to deal with.

Rating: 2.5/5 community meals at your local community chinese restaurant.

Title Score: C (dandelions were symbolically present at the very beginning and end of the book, but it did seem forced)

Watch Out For Her by Samantha M. Bailey

Synopsis: Sarah Goldman is determined to make a fresh start in Toronto with her family. She doesn’t want to think about Holly Monroe. Ostensibly, Holly was hired to babysit her son Jacob over the summer, but she quickly wormed her way into the Goldman’s lives. She moved in with them, started giving Sarah advice, and even getting to know Sarah’s husband, Daniel. But Holly went too far too fast, and Sarah jumped at the chance to move to Toronto for Daniel’s new job. Now she’s stuck in a new city with no family or friends, in a creepy old house with hidden cameras and a suspicious neighbourhood watch. But Sarah has no need to worry; according to the creepy texts from the unknown number, she’s never truly alone.

My thoughts: I’m always a little surprised when a genre fiction book is chosen for Canada Reads, and I was especially surprised by this one because it just wasn’t very good. I suppose it was interesting to read from Sarah’s perspective and experience the dramatic irony of a rational person reading her completely paranoid thoughts. It also was pretty weird for Holly to have some rational explanations for her behaviour, but still also be creepy and obsessed with the Goldmans.

Rating: 2/5 necklaces from exclusive Vancouver boutiques

Title Score: B (a very generic thriller title for an extremely generic thriller)

A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder by Ma-Nee Chacaby with Mary Louisa Plummer

Synopsis: This is the autobiography of Ma-Nee Chacaby, an Ojibwa-Cree Elder who eventually led Thunder Bay’s first Gay Pride Parade in 2013. She was born in Ombabika, Ontario in 1952, and the book chronicles her experiences, relationships, addictions, abuse, and spiritual journey growing up and living across Northern Ontario.

My thoughts: I thought that this was a really gripping and engaging account of Ma-Nee’s life, and it was shocking to hear about all the hardships she had gone through throughout her life. But it was so amazing to watch her get knocked down (sometimes literally) but still get back up again. I was also struck by how much she had experienced at a very young age, for example she had already been married, had kids, and divorced by the time she was in her early twenties. I also really admire her for staying true to her two-spirit identity, even when other Indigenous people hated her for it (because it made their own lives more difficult. Reading the afterward made me really appreciate all the work that Mary Louisa Plummer did to turn Ma-Nee’s oral account into a book that would be easy for the reader to understand but also true to Ma-Nee’s way of speaking. I can’t speak to the latter goal, but she definitely accomplished the former. Plummer definitely treated this as an academic project (it was published by the University of Manitoba Press) and she was determined to not repeat the mistakes of similar memoirs, where the white researchers often took ownership and did not fully respect the stories of the Indigenous women they were recording.

Rating: 4/5 Women’s Music Festivals where you met your soulmate 10 years ago

Title Score: A (this is exactly what the book was about, no notes)

This Will Be Fun by E. B. Asher

Synopsis: 10 years ago, a team of heroes saved the Queendom of Mythria from a terrible darkness. There was beautiful Beatrice, prickly Elowen, ex-bandit Clare, and heroic Galwell the Great, and together they were known as the Four. But saving the queendom did not come without sacrifice, and Galwell gave his life so that his friends could survive and succeed in their mission. 10 years later, the surviving members of the Four have gone their separate ways. Beatrice married a rich but rather dull duke, and has just been divorced by him. Clare has appeared in many advertisements and sponsorships, determined to be able to pay his own way. And Elowen has retreated to a dark forest, where she hopes that no one will brave the treacherous woods in order to bother her. But the Four have been served a summons that they cannot turn down: the marriage of the former-Princess, now-Queen of Mythria to her beloved. They owe it to the Queen to show up, but will Clare, Beatrice, Elowen (and their longtime adversary Vandra) survive the journey without ripping each other’s heads off? And even worse, will they be able to save the Queendom one more time?

My thoughts: This was a lighthearted queer (and straight) romance that was basically all fluff. The magic system didn’t make a ton of sense, and the author’s focus seemed to be on parodying real life with magic as much as possible (Wagons instead of Ubers, heart-magic consultants instead of therapists, brew taverns instead of Starbucks, etc etc etc). That being said, it was still charming, and it was nice to see that Elowen x Vandra and Beatrice x Clare each repair their own relationships with their partners but also with their questmates.

Rating: 3/5 Annual Clare look-alike contests

Title Score: D (this has nothing to do with the book and a bit trite imo)

i am, your most faithful blogger, elisa

Welcome to the start of my third year of Reading Roundups! It's been such a journey to share everything that I read with you, and it's great being able to revisit some of the things I've read in the past two years with such detail.

New this year, I'm introducing another feature to my reviews: title grades! It really bothers me how some titles really do not reflect their books well at all, and I'm giving myself a platform to complain about it (or celebrate it). A, B, and C are passing grades, while D and F are failing grades, so keep an eye out for that! I'm also now on Storygraph, so if you're interested in my progress you can follow me, @elisakuhn . Hopefully I can also use some features from Storygraph to make my roundups a bit more interesting.

Cheers to three years!!!

January 2025

This month, I read 3 physical books and 4 ebooks from the Toronto Public Library, totaling to 7 books. My average star rating for the month was 3.79, dropping to 2.65 when you account for all of the DNFs. Since it's only January, my running total of books for 2025 is still just 7.

Honourable Mentions

Happy Place (reread) by Emily Henry

Synopsis: Harriet has wished for one thing all year: a week at her happy place with her best friends. Residency in San Francisco is draining and isolating, and all she really wants is a week with Sabrina and Cleo at Sabrina’s family’s cottage in Maine. But when she arrives, she received some bad news: Sabrina’s father is selling the cottage, so this will be their last summer there, ever. Even worse, her ex-boyfriend Wyn is there (except they haven’t actually told anyone that they broke up, so technically he’s still her boyfriend). Plus, there’s a tension between Sabrina and Cleo that neither wants to talk about. Is Harriet’s Happy Place gone forever?

My thoughts: I read this book in August of 2023, so I don’t think that rereading it should count as a new book for 2025. Thus, the Honourable Mention. Happy Place was actually better than I remembered. Readers will know that my top two Emily Henry books are Book Loves and Funny Story, and I had Happy Place ranked third overall but couldn’t really remember if it was that good or not. Reader, it is that good. It’s full of emotion, which is the quality that sets it apart from most of the standard romance books that I read. I highly recommend it. Now I’m wondering if People We Meet on Vacation and Beach Read are also just that good.

You would like this book if: you’re counting down the days to the next cottage weekend (and like the fake dating trope except it isn’t really fake dating).

Dishonourable Mentions

Under Lock & Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian

Synopsis: Tempest has returned to her family home, after a humiliating accident destroyed her career as a stage magician in Las Vegas. She’s now back working for the family business, Secret Staircase Construction. But on their newest project, they discover something horrifying: Tempest’s stunt double and sworn enemy, dead. Even worse, she was discovered sealed up behind a wall that was build 50 years ago, even though Tempest saw her only weeks ago in Law Vegas. What is really going on here? Can Tempest solve the mystery and break her family’s curse?

My thoughts: I could not finish this book because I just found everything to be so silly, to the point of cringe. First of all, the main character’s birth name being Tempest is insane to me, and her stage name (Tempest of Destruction) is frankly ridiculous. She’s a magician, not a knight at a jousting tournament or something. Plus, the fact that there was a “real” curse on Tempest that she had to break somehow, especially considering that this isn’t a fantasy and all of her magic is just stage tricks.

You might like this book if: you’re sillier than I am, which I frankly find hard to believe

Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro

Synopsis: There is a mysterious old building in deep rural 1880s Scotland that is filled with many fantastical and horrible things, the most fascinating of which are the children. They each have their own powers: some can turn invisible, some can heal from any injury, some can manipulate dust and old skin cells, and one of them can glow. It is this last child that might be the secret to everything, but they’ll have to band together in order to keep him and themselves safe from the biggest threat they’ve ever faced: one of there own.

My thoughts: I enjoyed the first third of the book, which follows Charlie and Marlowe’s journey from America to the school in Scotland. However, I completely lost interest once it switched to Kamako’s storyline in Japan, and even once it returned back to Scotland with all four kids. I just wasn’t interested in the main conflict anymore.

You might like this book if: you enjoy being dreary and reading dreary stuff

The Stars Turned Inside Out by Nova Jacobs

Synopsis: The Large Hadron Collider at CERN has possibly the largest concentration of smart people in Europe. Unfortunately, one of their esteemed physicists has been found dead, in the bowels of the LHC itself. Dr Howard Anderby was found dead, and even worse, it seems as though he was killed by the radiation from the LHC, which wasn’t even supposed to have been operational that weekend. Private investigator Sabine Leroux has been brought in in order to figure out what exactly happened to cause such a tragedy, while fellow professor Dr Eve Marsh (who was romantically interested in Howard) launches her own investigation.

My thoughts: I thought that the combination of science and murder mystery would be a great mix, but unfortunately this book just did not hit for me. I found myself not wanting to read it, and there’s no point pushing through to read something that you don’t actually like (unless it’s for a bookclub). From the first few chapters, I got the feeling that this book was going to be primarily focused on the interpersonal relationships of all of the scientists, and none of the characters particularly endeared themselves towards me.

You might like this book if: you are an insufferable nerd

And now for...

The Real Reviews

Casket Case by Lauren Evans

Synopsis: There’s nothing left for Nora in Rabbittown, Alabama, and everyone says so. But she just can’t seem to leave after her parents death. After all, who would keep her Grandpa company, and who would run the family casket store in town? The only thing Rabbittown doesn’t have is any eligible bachelors, but who needs a boyfriend when you can watch endless tv reruns? That is, until a handsome stranger walks into her store asking for directions. His name is Garret Bishop and he works in logistics, and, amazingly, he seems interested in Nora despite all her awkwardness. He’s the perfect man, except when Nora finds out exactly what he does for a living (technically still logistics, but just for Death). How can she reconcile his job with all of the grief that she’s experienced?

My thoughts: This was a curious book in that the storyline and the concept were interesting, but the writing was incredibly boring. Everything was just too calm and plodding along, and you didn’t really get any emotion out of it until the very end. (This was kind of a reverse whiplash when compared to the really intense emotions of Happy Place). I also didn’t like how the third act developed into an Edward/Bella/Jacob style love triangle. She did choose Edward at the end, at least, but this is not something that we need in the year of our lord two thousand and twenty five.

Rating: 2.5/5 lifetime achievement awards that you have to accept on behalf of a dead person

Title Grade: C (a begrudging pass because it’s technically related to the contents of the book (Nora is a bit of a basket case, and she does run a casket store) but it’s not very good)

Blood: The Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation by Dr Jen Gunter

Synopsis: This is a very comprehensive book that covers basically everything you ever wanted to know about the menstrual cycle. It ranges from the biological mechanisms behind the menstrual cycle, birth control options and how they work, poly-cyctic ovarian syndrome and endometriosis, abortion, and much much more.

My thoughts: I think this is a great book. It’s perfect as a manual because it covers almost everything you’d want to know. It’s very comprehensive, but at the same time it’s very easy to read and understand, with the major points being helpfully summarized at the end of each chapter. The author also adds in a lot of her own personal commentary which is very relatable, and takes opportunities to refute myths going around on social media.

Rating: 5/5 mythical properties of menstrual blood that we surely would have noticed if it was real by now

Title Grade: A (Tells you exactly what the book was about, no notes)

The Examiner by Janice Hallett

Synopsis: 6 students have signed up for the new Masters of Multimedia Art at Royal Hastings University, and it’s standard procedure for an external examiner to review all of the assignments and student communications to make sure that there’s nothing hinky going on. But it turns out this master’s program is hiding a lot of secrets, and maybe even a death. Will the examiner be able to figure it all out? Or will the truth stay buried forever?

My thoughts: This book made me realize how much I miss reading epistolary novels, especially those that include other forms of media besides just letters. This book included chat messages, assignment excerpts, emails, and other things, and it was fun trying to put the pieces together. Readers will know that I am a former graduate student, and the characters hit a little bit too close to home (especially the contrast between Jem, who wanted to ace every assignment no matter the cost, and Ludya, who just wanted to finish up things with as minimal time and effort as possible). However, the characters and the plot itself was a little bit over the top. I definitely enjoyed the format more than the actual writing itself, so I’m not sure if I want to read another one of her books.

Rating: 3/5 phones that will freak out and call the police if they don’t get an accurate faceID every 5 minutes

Title Grade: B (liked how it framed the book to be about the examiner (and the reader) solving the crime, but not quite memorable enough)

Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder by Asako Yuzuki

Synopsis: Manako Kajii has captured the attention of all of Japan. She’s a notorious serial killer, or at least that’s what she’s accused of. All of her husbands have died under mysterious circumstances, leaving her to inherit thousands of dollars and attend luxury cooking classes. Every journalist, including Rika Machida, is desperate to interview Kajii before her trial starts, but she refuses to talk to anyone. That is, until Rika’s best friend suggests asking Kajii not about her alleged victims, but about the food that she cooked for them. This is the start of a cat and mouse relationship between Kajii and Rika, as Rika attempts to understand Kajii through food, and ultimately understand herself.

My thoughts: I thought this was a really well written book, although it did drag at some times. It was a lot deeper than most mystery books that I read (and it wasn’t even really a mystery), and, appropriately, I felt that it “fed” me more than others. It was very reflective, and it was interesting to watch how interacting with Kajii changed Rika’s perspectives on a lot of things (although she mainly came to her own conclusions, while Kajii became more and more obsessed with her). It’s definitely much more slow paced than any typical thriller, so don’t go into it expecting a psychological horror type vibe, but it definitely has a lot of its own merits.

Rating: 4/5 pathetic apartments that don’t even have an oven

Title Grade: A (This book is about food, but Kajii is obsessed the most with butter. She constantly tells Rika to make recipes that involve a lot of butter, and everything basically comes back to butter).

Death in the Air by Ram Murali

Synopsis: Ro Krishna has had a vexing few months. His cower (unaffectionately referred to as the Latrine) has been creating so many problems that things are impossible to ignore, and the company has instead chosen to fire him so that everything will go away. He has arranged for the Latrine to be dealt with, but in the meantime he needs something to do. His friends keep suggesting that he try Samsara, a luxurious spa for the global elite tucked away in the Indian Himalayas, and so he travels to India. He’s having an excellent time with excellent company, until one member of the group is found dead. Somehow, Ro becomes involved in the investigation, partly because everyone thinks that his background as a lawyer would be helpful, and partly because he just can’t keep himself out of trouble. As the death toll begins to climb, will Ro realize that he’s just in over his head?

My thoughts: I thought this was pretty different than most of the mysteries I’ve read lately. It was reflective, and the Samsara Spa made for a great setting (isolated, unique, and filled with characters). The writing was excellent, and it had some of the dry witty humour that readers will know I adore. There were also some cool details, like Pendy being able to guide Ro to exactly where he was meant to me, and the inclusion of two songs that played pivotal roles in the overall story, with a side-by-side of the lyrics and the action of the book. Definitely it was a breath of fresh air, and I look forward to reading anything else that Ram Murali writes.

Rating: 5/5 recurring nightmares about your car being sabotaged that are surely just nightmares and not anything to really worry about

Title Grade: B (not super related but it does evoke the Agatha Christie-esque nature of the book, which I do respect)

Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis

Synopsis: Amber Kivinen is determined to be the first person on Mars. And she will, if she wins the MarsNow reality show competition. When she announces that she’s leaving, her boyfriend Kevin is completely stunned. Whatever happened to just staying in their basement apartment in Vancouver, growing cannabis plants and occasionally picking up gig work to pay the bills? What was so wrong with the life they built together? As Amber travels around the world for week after week of challenges, Kevin vows to stay in their apartment, and not leave until Amber comes back to him.

My thoughts: Readers will know that sometimes I just crave a book about spaceships, and while this didn’t really scratch that itch, I still did enjoy it. It was interesting to contrast the difference between Amber’s perspective about her challenges and pushing her own boundaries and finding new goals, and Kevin’s desire to never change anything, and to like things because they were the same as they’d always been, although I did find Kevin’s parts a bit hard to stomach. Things really came to a head at the ending, and it was surprisingly (unexpectedly) very emotional.

Rating: 3/5 staged drug busts that certainly felt real enough

Title Grade: B (it is indeed about the male main character's girlfriend on Mars, and how she gets there)

Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper

Synopsis: Etta has lived a long life in Gopherlands, Saskatchewan, with her husband Otto, and their neighbour and best friend Russell. But she’s never seen the ocean. So she simply decides that now is the time. And so she begins her 3200 kilometer walk towards the Atlantic Ocean, and there’s simply no one who can change their mind. The farther she walks, the more the lines between memory and reality begin to blur. Sometimes she’s in the prairies, the canadian shield, the maritimes. Other times, she’s back in Gopherlands 60 years ago, when she and Otto and Russell were so young and full of fears about the war. Otto waits patiently back at the farm, learning to follow Etta’s old recipes, and building beautiful sculptures out of papier mache, while Russell is determined to go after Etta (at least until he understands her). And James is happy to be a faithful companion, trailing after Etta.

My thoughts: This is the first of five Canada Reads nominees that I'll be reading this year, and as always, the first book I randomly choose tends to be one of the stronger ones. This was a really moving book. I enjoyed the past storyline (of Etta, Otto, and Russell growing up together in Gopherlands) more than the present storyline of Etta’s walk. But I found both of them to be very moving and emotional, especially with the ending. The author made a specific choice to not use any quotation marks, and it really added to the ambiance and flow of the book. I thought it was an especially good choice because it allowed James to speak without actually talking.

Rating: 4/5 packets of relish and ketchup that might be the difference between life and death

Title Grade: B (Etta and Otto and Russell and James are the four main characters, although it does make me think of a certain song (Chloe and Sam and Sophia and Marcus) that I've only ever listened to once)

i am, your most faithful blogger, elisa

December

This month I read 5 ebooks and 1 eaudiobook and 6 physical books from the Toronto Public Library, totaling to 10 books.

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

Synopsis: Steve Wheeler’s world is small, but he likes it that way. He has a good routine going; he goes to the pub quiz, he sits on his favourite bench, he does a bit of low-stakes investigative work, and he chats with his daughter-in-law Amy. Amy Wheeler prefers life with a bit more adrenaline. She works for a private security firm, and she’s currently stationed on a private island, protecting the famous author Rosie D’Antonio (she’s not a day over 70). Rosie makes for excellent company, which is good because this job isn’t particularly interesting. That is, until the other security agent assigned to the detail attempts to kill Amy. Suddenly, she’s forced on the run (with Rosie and all of Rosie’s luggage), and it turns out that there’s a trail of bodies that all appear to lead to Amy. And when her boss at the private security firm goes dark, Amy’s forced to turn to the only person she can trust to solve this mystery: her father-in-law Steve.

My thoughts: When I heard that Richard Osman was pivoting away from his Thusday Murder Club series in order to start a new project, I was a little worried. But it turns out I had nothing to worry about. This has the same dry writing style that I adore from The Thursday Murder Club series, and although the characters aren’t quite as charming as a group of seniors, I still loved every minute of it. Readers will know that I’m not a fan of private investigators in crime fiction, but Steve and Amy together were both so competent that it was never an issue for me. It also had a really poignant message about grief, which is part of what makes these novels so much deeper and more enjoyable than your average crime novel. I can’t wait for whatever Osman releases next.

Rating: 5/5 marriage bets that you are waiting to cash in on (for love)

Bad Men by Julie Mae Cohen

Synopsis: Saffy Huntley-Oliver is a socialite with a secret. No, it’s not that she’s having an affair, or that she’s addicted to drugs. It’s that for years, she’s been hunting and killing so-called “bad men;” rapists, abusers, corrupt politicians, and even her own step father (a child molester). And it’s made her pretty cynical about men in general; they all have secrets that make them bad men. Perhaps the only exception to that is Jonathan Desrosiers. He’s a beloved true crime podcaster that covers the cold cases, and his research actually helped solve a murder. Saffy can’t help it; she’s in love. Jonathan’s life is crumbling around him; his wife left him because he only ever focused on the podcast, and the next day a body is left on his doorstep, making him the prime suspect. He’s utterly miserable, but for Saffy, it’s the perfect opportunity. She engineers a couple of meet cutes with him, and suggests that the best way for Jonathan to clear his name is to solve the crime. Reluctantly, he agrees. Will Jonathan finally be able to prove his innocence? And, more importantly, will Saffy finally find the man of her dreams?

My Thoughts: I think this book would have been a disaster if it took itself very seriously. It billed itself as a feminist thriller, but I felt that the feminism was extremely surface level: an upper class white woman killing men that were abusing or harming other women. It wasn’t intersectional, and seemed a bit like a caricature of feminism. However, Saffy’s storyline was very fun and didn’t really take itself seriously, which made it work. It was especially funny to contrast Jonathan (completely stressed out because someone is stalking and poisoning his ex-wife, and he’s the main suspect) and Saffy (suspicious because she thinks that Jonathan is still in love with his ex-wife), but while still giving Saffy a lot of agency and importance even though her stakes were much lower.

Rating: 3/5 latex catsuits that are actually excellent forensic countermeasures

The Outlier by Elisabeth Eaves

Synopsis: Cate Winter is probably the most successful neuroscience ever. She and her team have developed a revolutionary treatment for Alzheimer's Disease, and her biotech company is about to be acquired for millions of dollars. You’d never suspect her darkest secret: that she’s a diagnosed psychopath. After a mysterious fire that killed her family, Cate was sent to the Cleckley Institute, an institution dedicated to the study and rehabilitation of child psychopaths. For Cate, it was a good childhood. She considered Dr M, the institute’s founder, as a surrogate father figure, and as an adult she’s become wildly successful. But Cate was an outlier among her classmates; by age 30, they had all been jailed, killed, or barely managing to earn a living. All except for Cate, and one other student. Armed with the knowledge that she’s not the only outlier, Cate becomes obsessed with finding him. But what happens if she’s finally met her match?

My thoughts: I think this book had an interesting premise, but overall was not very interesting. The other outlier (Hunter) eventually was revealed to be almost cartoonishly villainous. He literally had a tropical lair straight out of a James Bond novel, and his big invention had a water intake pump that doubled as a fish killing machine, which is how he eventually got caught. Hunter didn’t even have any issues with the fish, he just couldn’t be bothered to put in a grate or redesign the intake, or literally anything else.

Rating: 2/5 politicians that are promising to light up the night if they are elected

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett (Emily Wilde #2)

Synopsis: After the success of her Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Emily Wilde is comfortable at Cambridge University. She’s currently working on her new project, a map-book of the faerie realms, and enjoying life with her co-author (and possible fiance) Wendell Bambleby. However, things might just collapse when her colleague Farris Rose accuses Wendell of violating academic integrity principles during the creation of her encyclopaedia. While it’s true that Wendell is actually a faerie and had indeed committed such violations for other scholarly works, there were absolutely zero violations in the creation of Emily’s encyclopaedia. Rose threatens to reveal his suspicions to Cambridge itself, which would be a disaster for Emily’s career. At the same time, Wendell is under threat. His faerie step-mother has sent assassins after him (and did manage to poison him), and he’s clearly no longer safe at Cambridge. The only solution is for the three of them (plus Emily’s niece Ariadne) to immediately travel to the Austrian alps. That way, Wendell can outrun his assassins, Emily can research her map-book and hopefully find a door to Wendell’s realm to find a cure for this poison, and Rose can supervise everything to make sure there’s no impropriety. But the Austrian Alps are inhospitable at the best of times, and especially during winter, surrounded by malicious folk. Will Emily and her crew survive the winter? And will they manage to rescue an esteemed researcher?

My Thoughts: My controversial opinion is that I don’t really like this series, even though everyone seems to rave about it. I listened to it as an audiobook and I did not like the narrator, but beyond that it just didn’t feel like a great book. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but it was definitely lacking something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, and I didn’t find it particularly interesting. I’m also not a huge Emily x Wendell stan, so I wasn’t really impressed by the progression of their relationship in this book. I only read this sequel out of obligation to the first book, but I won’t be reading anything more in this series. I’m also annoyed that the book isn’t called “Emily Wilde’s Atlas of the Otherlands” because she’s working on a book of maps (aka an atlas), and not just a single map. The one thing that I did like was the Danielle de Grey storyline that continued from the previous book. However, the main charm of that storyline was when Emily detailed de Grey’s insane adventures in the footnotes of her diary, and that charm was lost when de Grey became a full character.

Rating: 3/5 tents that blend in perfectly into the surrounding grassy hillsides

The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis

Synopsis: After her parents were killed in a car crash, eight-year-old Beth Harmon was sent to an orphanage. After weeks of observing the janitor play chess, he begrudgingly allowed her to play. It soon became obvious that Beth had more than just a knack for chess; she was one of the best players in Kentucky, if not the whole country. After her adoption, Beth started entering chess tournaments around the country and internationally, eventually supporting her adoptive mother. Throughout the novel, Beth struggles with her addiction to tranquilizers (which was caused by the orphanage staff intentionally drugging all of their charges), and her inability to connect with anyone or anything that is not chess.

My thoughts: I’ll be honest, this was not the kind of book that I like. I only read it because I was looking for a book to satisfy the last category for the 2024 TPL Reading Challenge (A book about games), and because I was getting served a lot of short-form video content about The Queen’s Gambit Netflix show (I’ve never seen it, but I figured if the show was so popular, it couldn’t be that bad). My advice to readers: don’t ever do that! As soon as I started reading it I knew it wasn’t for me, but it was too late to back out. I don’t think that I can declare it to be a bad book, but it was just not enjoyable to read. The whole tone of the book is incredibly dour and grey, and all of the characters’ interactions are mechanical (instead of emotional).

Rating: 2/5 Heists of the century (breaking into the orphanage head office and stealing 200 tranquilizer pills)

Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis (Chaotic Orbits #1)

Synopsis: Ada Lamarr is out of options. Her spaceship has a massive hole in the side, and her oxygen tank is rapidly running dry. Unfortunately, her only hope of rescue is a government-run salvage ship, who are very reluctant to have her on board. They’re here on a classified mission to recover some high-value objects, and they certainly don’t want a loose cannon and illegal salvager like Ada to interfere with things. And Ada is fine with that. She’s more than happy to enjoy the abundant rations and luxurious (in comparison) accommodations on board, and to flirt shamelessly with Rian White, the government-representative in charge of the mission. But Ada and Rian each have secrets to hide, and it remains to be seen who is really manipulating whom.

My Thoughts: This was a short but fun sci fi novella. Readers will know that I’ve been hankering for a science fiction book that’s about science and spaceships (and not a fantasy or a war epic), and this really scratched the itch for me. I thought there was enough meat to the story that the author could have extended it into a full novel, so I’m glad that a sequel novella has been released. My most major complaint was that the name of the main character felt too obvious of a reference to two famous women in computer science (Ada Lovelace and Hedy Lamarr). They both definitely deserve to be memorialized, but it just felt like I was being smacked in the face (especially because it stuck out compared to all of the other character names).

Rating: 4/5 notoriously reliable jetpack booster engines that just happened to fritz out when you were at the bottom of a tall, tall cliff

The Power by Naomi Alderman

Synopsis: This work of narrative nonfiction attempts to chronicle the initial discovery and effects of the ritual power: the ability for women (first teenage girls, and then spreading to older women) to generate electrical shocks from their bodies. It follows four major figures; Roxy, the daughter of a gangster who takes over her father’s empire; Allie, who runs away from her abusive foster parents and accidentally starts a cult; and Margo, mayor of an American city who slowly rises through the ranks. The fourth character is the only man: Tunde, a Nigerian journalist who allegedly recorded accounts of women’s rises to power around the world (it is common knowledge that Tunde’s body of work was actually written and published by his friend and coworker Nina). It is an engaging but ultimately implausible version of events.

My thoughts: I tried to write my synopsis in the style of the prologue and epilogue of the book, which consists of Neil proposing his book concept to Naomi. After reading, Naomi comments that the book is “cute but unrealistic” for depicting a patriarchal society, and suggests that Neil publish under a woman’s name so that he is taken more seriously. In reality, I think this is a great book that is worth the hype, and it explores the concept of rape culture and the overall patriarchy by flipping the script and giving women the power to painfully shock anyone. I loved the alternate history aspect of it, and it reminds me how much I like epistolary-style books, where you have to figure out what’s going on from the letters, reports, and other messages exchanged between characters. I thought that Alderman pulled off the concept really well. In the moment, I was irrationally disappointed that the female characters were complex and often immoral, but I definitely think the book is better for it. A small detail that I really appreciated was that the tissues that generate the electricity in women are called Skeins (which is the name for a bundle of yarn or string, and fibre arts are often portrayed as women’s work).

4/5 packs of glitter smuggled through Eastern Europe on order to support the troops

Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth

Synopsis: Sloane, Matt, Ines, Albie, and Esther were the chosen ones. As teenagers, they used a collection of folklore artifacts and uncontrollable powers to save North America from the catastrophic disasters wrought by the Dark One. But that was 10 years ago. Now, they all cope in different ways, but none of them are really doing well. At the 10th Anniversary ceremony commemorating the defeat of the Dark One, Sloane, Matt and Esther are captured. They wake up in an alternate dimension of Earth. In this universe, magic is everywhere, but so are threats. The Dark One is still active, and the leadership of this alternate Earth have a proposal: if Matt, Sloane, and Esther defeat the Dark One for good, then they can go back to their Earth. Esther and Matt agree, but Sloane is unable to master the magic. More than that, she’s tired of being used.

My thoughts: I thought that this was a cool concept for a book, and the first two thirds were done very well. However, Roth really lost the plot for the last third of the book. I thought it was absolutely insane that the main villain’s justification for constantly destroying the world was because he was immortal and wanted to die. Besides being insane, she didn’t really flesh out the main villain enough, but rather dropped everything in at the end. I’m also bothered that she completely sidelined Ines’s character. Why bother writing in 5 teenagers who saved the world if you’re only ever going to discuss four of them?

Rating: 4/5 origami paper cranes from a deceased loved one that weren’t necessarily acquired legally

A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonia Lalli

Synopsis: Niki Randhawa has always made the practical choice, especially because her sister Jasmine was always the wild card who was breaking their parent’s heart. But being practical isn’t easy; in order to build her career in data analytics she’s been worked to the bone, with no time to make friends or visit relatives in India. But when she suddenly gets laid off from her job, it forces her to make other plans. So, she flies to India to attend her best friend Diya’s wedding. While there, she meets a very interesting guy, Sam, and starts getting in touch with her Indian roots. But Niki and Sam live oceans apart. Could they ever make it work?

My thoughts: This was a pretty standard romance novel, and I wouldn’t say that any part of it stood out to me. I was specifically hoping that this book would be an alternative to the huge influx of Christmas novels, since it was a book about Diwali, but Diwali was barely in the book at all (despite the title). I understand that it made sense for Niki not to know a lot about the history of Diwali and thus have to ask around about its significance (especially for Sikhs), but it felt like way too much telling and not enough showing.

Rating: 3/5 group honeymoons to the most gorgeous beaches you’ve ever seen

The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer

Synopsis: Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt has two big secrets. Firstly, she has myalgic encephalomyelitis, aka chronic fatigue syndrome. And secondly, she (a good Jewish daughter) has made a career of writing Christmas Romance novels. What can you do? The girl just loves Christmas. But when she meets with her publishers, she’s handed a major problem: they don’t want any more Christmas novels. What they do want is a Hanukkah novel, but Rachel hates Hanukkah. Well, she doesn’t hate it, but it just doesn’t have the same magic and charm of Christmas. So the only way that she’ll ever get inspired to write her next novel (and keep her job) is if she can get tickets to the hottest Hanukkah event in New York: the Matzah Ball. She even has an in with the event planner (Jacob Greenberg), because they went to Jewish summer camp together (we’ll skip over the part where he broke her heart). But the only tickets left are for volunteers, meaning that Rachel will have to work for 7 days in order to earn her place at the ball. Will she be able to balance her chronic illness with her assignment? And how can she deal with her unrequited feelings for Jacob after all these years?

My thoughts: I’ve previously read another Jewish romance by this author (Kissing Kosher), and I have to say that I didn’t like The Matzah Ball as much. I wish that Rachel’s CFS had been more of a focal point for the book. In Kissing Kosher, the main character didn’t cure her chronic illness, but she learned how to cope a lot better, and that’s what I was hoping to see again. This time, the chronic illness was not nearly as prominent, and I think the book was a bit less interesting for it. Also, I hated how much Rachel was obsessed with Christmas. The scene where she spent $60 (that she can’t afford) to visit a mall Santa Claus for a makeshift therapy session (that the mall Santa despises), made me almost stop reading the book.

Rating: 3/5 giant menorahs that were delivered with much assembly required

Thyme Travellers: An Anthology of Palestinian Speculative Fiction, edited by Sonia Sulaiman

Synopsis: This is a collection of 14 short stories written by authors from across the Palestinian diaspora. It includes stories about two women digging a tunnel from Australia to Palestine, a father and son in Ottawa who struggle to communicate with each other without the help of AI scripts, an outcast grandson struggles what to do with his grandmother’s memory chips, and more.

My thoughts: I thought this was a great collection, with a really wide variety of stories, both in style and in content. Some were extremely metaphorical, while others were much more concrete; some were set in the present or near present, others were in the very far future or even alternate realities, etc, and I appreciated the variety. It’s also interesting to note that the head editor started this project several years before the war in Gaza began, and the conclusion of the book includes a few calls to action for the readers to take (they primarily involve sharing and uplifting Palestinian voices). Rating: 3/5 alternate realities, where you either stayed with the love of your life, or you married your husband

Lavash at First Sight by Taleen Voskuni

Synopsis: Nazeli “Ellie” Gregorian is so busy with her tech sector marketing job that she barely has time for her lackluster boyfriend, let alone her family's business, Hagop’s Fine Armenian Foods. So when he dumps her, it doesn’t hurt too much. The real issue is that her parents have asked Nazeli to come with them to PakCon, a national food packaging conference in Chicago at the same time as her job is demanding her to be available 24/7 to work on an incredibly important project. The truth is that Hagop’s Fine Armenian Foods is struggling, and this conference could be their last shot at rescuing the business. But there’s a once in a lifetime opportunity: PakCon is hosting a game-show style competition, and the winning business will get an ad spot at the Super Bowl. Nazeli is determined to win, even when she meets the gorgeous Vanya, who just so happens to be at PakCon with her own Armenian food family business, and therefore becomes her biggest competitor. Will Nazeli be able to juggle the expectations of her job, her parents, and the cute girl at the next booth? Or will it all come crashing down?

My thoughts: I thought this was a pretty decent romance book. I read Sorry, Bro (see my July 2023 roundup) by the same author, and this was definitely done in a similar vein, just with the added layer of a cooking competition. I was a little bit annoyed that I saw the third act conflict coming from a mile away (what else could possibly happen when there are cameras everywhere and Nazeli has eaten Vanya’s family’s food before and disliked it, while simultaneous pretending to Vanya that she’s never tried it before??). However, I liked the added layers of Nazeli trying to please her parents (who weren’t caricatures), and the complicated dynamic between her family and Vanya’s family.

Rating: 3/5 hot-ones style competitions with hot sauce so spicy it might kill your father (or your crush’s father).

i am, your most faithful blogger, elisa

This month I read 4 ebooks, 1 eaudiobook, and 1 physical book from the Toronto Public Library, totaling to 6 books.

Dishonourable Mentions

Blood Rubies by Mailan Doquang

Synopsis: Rune thought that this would be her biggest score yet: a bag of Charles Lemaire’s prized rubies. If she fenced it, the money would change her and Kit’s (her boyfriend) lives. But Kit’s younger sister Madee has gone missing, last seen in the slums of Bangkok. And Charles Lemaire is holding Kit hostage until Rune returns his rubies, which she lost while looking for Madee. Will Rune be able to rescue her friends, and herself? Or will she be forced to make an impossible decision?

My thoughts: Readers will know that I love a heist novel, but this one didn’t grab me at all. I didn’t find it engaging, nor were the characters that compelling, and the events of the book were starting to stress me out. So I didn’t feel the need to keep reading it.

You may like this book if: you, like Rune, are mixed race (she’s half American, half Thai)

And now for the Real Reviews:

Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross

Synopsis: It’s been two weeks since Roman and Iris were married at the front lines (the happiest day in Iris’ life). But it’s also been two weeks since the town was attacked, Iris was captured by her brother Forrest (MIA from Dacre’s army), and Roman’s presumed death. Iris has been forced to retreat back to Oath, and has continued writing articles for the Inkridden Tribune. The paper has asked for her and Attie to return to the front lines to continue their reporting. Meanwhile, Roman has been killed, captured, and brought back to life by Dacre and his forces. He doesn’t remember much of his past life, but he knows that he doesn’t trust Dacre. Will Iris and Roman ever survive this war and reunite?

My thoughts: I might have been influenced by reading some bad reviews of this book but I didn’t really like it that much. The first book in the series was driven primarily by Iris’ and Roman’s relationship, which kind of created rose-coloured glasses for the rest of the story. For this book didn’t have the same driving force, and was much more lackluster. I also listened to this book as an audiobook, and I definitely did not like either of the narrators. Usually this isn’t a problem for me, but their voices irritated me and their accents felt pretentious. To me, it definitely detracted from the story. But the main issue with this book isn’t really the presence of something bad, but more the absence of anything that was really good or interesting.

Rating: 2/5 enchanted coffee shops, where your drink never gets cold

The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro

Synopsis: After a scandal that rocked the Boston art world, no one is willing to give Claire Roth a chance. Despite her talent, the only work that she can get is painting reproductions of classic paintings. But suddenly, it seems as though her luck may have changed. Renowned gallerist Aiden Markel waltzes into her studio with a proposition: he’ll stage a show of Claire’s paintings at his gallery. All she has to do is paint a reproduction for him. It’s too tempting to refuse, so Claire agrees. But when she sees the painting that she’s supposed to reproduce, she’s shocked. It’s Edgar Degas’ After the Bath, which was famously stolen from the Isabella Steward Gardiner museum during a robbery in 1990. Claire should report this to the police, but Aiden assures her that the authorities will eventually be notified, once the reproduction is finished. However, Claire isn’t sure. As she falls in love with Aiden, she grows more and more paranoid that this After the Bath is also a reproduction, and that the original one must be somewhere else. And when Aiden is arrested on charges of art fraud, Claire panics, and starts desperately searching for the real version of After the Bath in order to exonerate Aiden. Will she like what she finds? Or is this an art mystery that is best left unsolved?

My thoughts: Overall I thought this book was pretty interesting. Probably its biggest feature was the window into Claire’s mind, where she constantly expresses her love for art and paintings. She’s absolutely transfixed by Degas’ works, and it’s really interesting to see all of the emotion that she feels. However, I was pretty shocked to see Aiden’s (and other’s) perspectives that collecting art was addicting, and that having the only copy of a certain work of art is so intoxicating that it would compel you to commit crimes. It’s the kind of language that I would more associate with addictions like drugs or gambling. As a final note, I was somewhat disappointed that After the Bath was not a real painting. Obviously, if the author is going to speculate about the personal relationships of the artist and his contemporaries, then it makes sense to invent a work of art to be discussed. But I can’t help feeling a bit disappointed that there weren’t more connections to existing works of art.

Rating: 3/5 secret rooms in the Gardner Museum that might just contain the answer we’ve been looking for

Ghost Story by Jim Butcher (Dresden Files #13)

Synopsis: Harry Dresden is dead. Or is he? After being shot in the chest, and falling into the icy waters of Lake Michigan, Harry wakes up in a strange place with a familiar face. It’s Ron Carmichael, a former CPD cop who was killed by a loup-garou in Fool Moon (see my June 2023 roundup). He leads Harry through the Between to a special office building, where Harry meets Jack Murphy (Karrin Murphy’s deceased father). Apparently, there was an irregularity with his death, Jack asks him to investigate his own murder, hinting that his loved ones may be killed if he doesn’t. Harry agrees, and finds himself thrust into a very different Chicago. In the real world, 6 months have passed since his death, and the city has fallen to pieces since it’s no longer under the protection of the White Council’s most notorious wizard. And to make matters worse, Harry is a ghost. He can’t interact with the mortal world, and he can’t perform magic. Will he really be able to solve his own murder and rescue his friends? Or is this really the end of Harry Dresden?

My thoughts: This book was really good, except for one major flaw (which I will discuss momentarily). I liked that Harry had to reflect on his actions that took place in the previous book, especially how he had harmed so many people in his quest to be chivalrous and “do the right thing.” I look forward to seeing how the ramifications of his actions play out in the future. I also liked how this book was drastically different from every other Dresden Files novel. Harry being a ghost severely limited his normal powers, and also showed Chicago from a really unique perspective. However, I thought that the Uriel/Kincaid plotline was really weak, which is a huge problem because it’s the whole reason that Harry became a ghost at all. It just feels like Jim Butcher had a cool concept for a book and had to shoehorn in a reason for it to have occurred. It’s not just that Harry was manipulated, but that the internal logic of the story didn’t really make a lot of sense. The resolution of that whole plotline was a big disappointment for me.

Rating: 4/5 empty graves that have been beautifully maintained for you for this whole time

March Roars by Maureen Jennings (Paradise Cafe Series #4)

Synopsis: Private Detective Charlotte Frayne has recently received a peculiar letter. After the well publicized arrest of two young Black boys for robbery, a woman at Toronto’s House of Industry (the poor house) claims that they are innocent. She says that she witnessed the true thieves (two White men) acting suspicious shortly after the robbery took place, and that she now fears for her own safety by reporting them. Charlotte is forced to interview this woman and try to piece together what exactly is going on.

My thoughts: This book was decent, although it felt somewhat superficial. Charlotte suddenly becomes aware of the struggles of Black Torontonians in the 1930s (some of whom she has been friends with for many years), but doesn’t really use her station to make a difference (besides freeing the two boys from prison). I also feel like this series lacks a “B” plot, where the relationships between the main cast of characters would usually develop. It’s supposed to revolve around the Paradise Cafe, but Charlotte rarely, if ever, appears there. We didn’t develop deeper relationships with anyone else at the cafe, nor really see what was happening there, and that’s a major reason why I felt that this book lacked substance.

Rating: 3/5 single, engraved cufflinks that were pawned by a mysterious woman with a secret identity

The Vortex: A True Story of History's Deadliest Storm, an Unspeakable War, and Liberation by Scott Carney and Jason Miklian

Synopsis: This book describes the lead up and the after effects of the Great Bhola Cyclone, which killed an estimated 500 000 people in the Bay of Bengal in November 1970. The cyclone can be considered the catalyst for the revolutionary movement (and brutal crackdown) that took place in East Pakistan, eventually leading to the formation of Bangladesh.

My thoughts: I thought this book was super interesting and really well written. Readers will know that I am a fan of narrative nonfiction, and I thought it was a great choice by the authors to bring parts of the true story to life. I know that not everything happened irl the way that it’s depicted in the books, but it was much more digestible for me (especially because I didn’t know anything about East Pakistan and the formation of Bangladesh before reading this book). I liked how the authors focused on several different perspectives in order to create a full picture of what was purportedly going on, and it was super impressive to see all the research that they had done.

Rating: 4/5 planned capital cities that were built ahead of schedule and under budget (but were unfortunately the only good thing that you ever accomplished).

Barcelona Red Metallic by Christine Cosack

Synopsis: The hit-and-run death of a small child in Oyster Hill, British Columbia shocks residents of the sleepy small town. The RCMP sends a team to investigate the accident site, and the only tangible clue they find is a fragment of Barcelona Red Metallic paint. Even after the initial investigation, the case stays with Luci Miller. But more than the family of the victim, the family of Jo Nelson (plus her son Oliver and grandson Nico) stays with Luci. Will she ever find out what happened on that fateful morning?

My thoughts: I found this book to be pretty different than other crime novels. The tone was very gentle but not cozy, which is a fine line to walk in mystery fiction. I also appreciated how the majority of the book was about Jo, and how she raised her chronically ill son (Oliver has cystic fibrosis). I also thought the ending was very unexpected (which isn’t generally great), but in a way that made sense with Jo’s character and the information that we already knew about her.

Rating: 4/5 paintings of lung-shaped lichens

i am, your most faithful blogger, elisa

October

This month I read 5 ebooks and 3 physical books from the Toronto Public Library, and 1 audiobook, totaling to 8 books.

Horrorstor

Synopsis: Everyone knows Orsk, your friendly nordic furniture store. But at the Orsk Cuyahoga store, weird things have been happening overnight. Mirrors are breaking, furniture is getting stained with unspeakable substances. Store Manager Basil thinks that vandals must be breaking into the store at night, and recruits Amy and Ruth Anne to work and overnight shift with him to see if they can catch the vandals before Pat from the regional office arrives the next morning. Ruth Anne is delighted to help out; she’s been working for Orsk for her whole career, and lives and breathes it. Amy, on the other hand, is not so happy about it. But Basil has offered to pay overtime and approve her transfer to the Youngstown store, so it’s an offer that she can’t really refuse. Will this unlikely group of employees survive their night in the store? Or will this job kill them all?

My thoughts: I thought this was a pretty well done horror satire about working for a corporation. The author really leaned in to the Ikea aesthetic, and each chapter started with an entry for a piece of furniture in the Orsk catalogue. Major spoilers ahead, but the store was actually built on the site of a destroyed panopticon prison, and was haunted by the prison warden that was obsessed with the idea that hard labour cures all ills. And still, the actual villain ended up being the Orsk corporate office. If you are employed, this book will make you want to quit your job. I did genuinely find the book very unsettling (readers will know that I don’t even really like horror media, so I probably shouldn’t have read this at all). Something else I appreciated was that Amy actually showed a lot of character development. Some of this was definitely because she started out as a shitty person, but I still give the author credit for actually having her meaningfully change.

Rating: 4/5 stylish BODAVEST chairs, that will confine the penitent and oppose the agitated movement of blood towards the brain, forcing the subject into a state of total immobility, conducive to self-reflection and free of stressful outside stimuli

Changes by Jim Butcher (Dresden Files #12)

Synopsis: Harry Dresden’s life has changed forever in an instance. His ex-girlfriend and half-vampire Susan Rodriguez has come back into his life after years apart, and she has two devastating pieces of news. Firstly, she and Harry have a child together. A daughter, who’s name is Maggie (after Harry’s mom). (Concealing this fact alone is enough to make Harry rage with anger.) And secondly, Maggie has been kidnapped by Dutches Ariana Ortega of the Red Court of Vampires, and will be used as a blood sacrifice if Harry and Susan can’t rescue her in time. Now, Harry is apoplectic. Even though he’s just now learned of her existence, Harry is determined to save Maggie’s life. It will take every single favour, ally, artifact, and ounce of luck that he can get his hands on. But is he prepared to pay the price?

My thoughts: I think “Changes” is an extremely accurate title to describe this book. Even the fact that it’s one word, compared to every other two-word title, helps to set it apart from the rest of the series. Over the course of this book, Harry loses everything. His car is destroyed, his apartment and laboratory burned down, and he breaks his back (rendering him paralyzed). He is in a truly desperate situation, and sacrifices everything in order to even have a chance at saving Maggie. Karrin Murphy also loses her job for good, finally severing her link to the Chicago Police Department, and I’m very curious as to where she’ll go now. There are also a lot of consequences to his actions, most of which are not even fully realized until the next book. The one exception to this was the magic wayfinding stone that Harry received as a belated gift from his mother, which helps him navigate passages in the Way and effectively allows him to arrive anywhere. It’s described as being very dangerous, and that Harry has to accept all of the risks if he chooses to accept it, although none of the risks ever materialize in this book or the next one.

Rating: 4/5 dream teams known simply as “the eebs”

Sweet Sweet Revenge LTD by Jonas Jonasson

Synopsis: Victor Alderheim cares only about one thing. Not his wife, Jenny, from whom he swindled millions of dollars and her family’s art gallery. Not his teenaged son, Kevin, whom he abandoned in the middle of the Kenyan savannah. He only cares about his gallery, and making sure that the right kind of art (realism) gets featured there. But after growing into a mostly-fledged Masaai warrior, Kevin returns to Stockholm and crosses paths with Jenny. After discovering that they’ve both been wronged by the same man, they become fast friends. They desperately want to take revenge on Victor, but how can they with only 20 kroner to their names? Luckily, they run into Hugo, adman and CEO of Sweet Sweet Revenge LTD, a boutique firm that promises to ruin lives for the right price. And to top it all off, Kevin’s adopted father, full-fledged Masaai warrior Ole Mbatian leaves Keny for the first time ever in search of his son. Will this dubious quartet pull off SSR LTD’s biggest job yet? Or will it end up exploding in their faces.

My thoughts: The events of the book were extremely goofy and silly, but the dry/dark comedy writing style helped a bit to tamp down everything so that it didn’t feel too obnoxious. Even still, it was definitely a lot to take in. I think I would have enjoyed it more if my sense of humor was a bit more open and accepting. By far the best character was Ole Mbatian, who was funny and charmingly optimistic. Victor, on the other hand, was cartoonishly evil in a boring way. Overall this book is definitely difficult to describe, and I would encourage readers to try it for themselves to really get a sense of what the heck is going on.

Rating: 3/5 salmon pate sandwiches that are honestly worth any deal you could make with the devil

A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue by Dean Jobb

Synopsis: In the 1920s and 30s, one of the greatest jewel thieves in American history was on the loose. He captured the imaginations of thousands all while he snuck into mansions and estates, prowling around silently, and making off with thousands of dollars worth of gold and jewelry. His name was Arthur Barry, and he was the best of the best. When he was finally captured after being set up by his partner in crime, he immediately confessed so that his wife, Anna Blake, would not go to prison. And when Anna Blake was dying, he broke out of prison so that they could spend their last years together.

My thoughts: Readers will know that I love a heist, and I thought this book was a fascinating look into Arthur Barry’s life and crimes. It’s a work of narrative nonfiction, so it was extremely easy to read, while still being packed full of accurate historical detail. I thought it was really well researched and put together, and would definitely highly recommend it to anyone who’s into true crime but wants something a little lighter.

Rating: 5/5 strings of rose pearls that scratch your teeth and are worth millions of dollars

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Synopsis: After attempting to rob a cashless bank days before Christmas, the robber flees into an empty apartment to hide from police. Except, it’s not empty: a real estate agent is showing the property to 8 prospective buyers. There’s Ro and Julia, a young couple who are nervous about becoming first time moms. Zara, a wealthy bank manager who tours apartments to see how the middle class live. Anna-Lena and Roger, an older couple who flip apartments and are very competitive, and Lennert, an actor who Anna-Lena has hired to bring down the property’s value. And Estelle, whose husband is just parking the car and will be here momentarily. They (plus the real estate agent) have all been taken hostage by the bank robber, who is trying desperately to figure out their next move. On the other side of the door are two police officers, reluctant father and son team Jim and Jack, who are out of their depth and struggling to keep the situation from spiraling out of control. But is that what’s really going on?

My thoughts: I hate to admit it but I did read this book because I saw it all over the internet. It was a booktok darling, but I do think that it was worth the hype. I still went into it pretty blind, but it was not the thriller I was expecting. Instead it was like sitting in a very good therapist’s office; cozy and comfortable, emotional, probing, and soul-searching. And eventually, after peeling back the layers, you finally discover what’s really going on. The book has a big focus on anxiety, depression, and loneliness, but there was still enough going on to drive the plot forward without getting bogged down. I also liked that the unreliable narrator wasn’t crazy or trying to protect themselves, but was instead misconstruing things to protect someone else, which I found new and interesting. Similarly, I liked that the book unraveled a mystery (how the bank robber escaped) that wasn’t a murder. Overall, I think that this is what I was hoping for when I read Sweet Sweet Revenge LTD, but Anxious People actually accomplished it.

Rating: ⅘ dead bodies filled with so much gin and tonic that you don’t dare cremate them (although that doesn’t mean they didn’t have good advice to offer)

The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther by Jeffery Haas

Synopsis: In 1969, Fred Hampton was a revolutionary leader, and Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. At only 21 years old, the FBI considered him a major threat and started surveilling and discrediting both Hampton and the Black Panthers as part of their COINTELPRO operation. On December 4th, 1969, the Chicago Police, working in tandem with the FBI, raided Fred’s home and shot him while he was drugged and unconscious in bed. The book is written by Fred’s lawyer Jeffery Haas, and chronicles his 12-year journey with the People’s Law Office in an attempt to gain justice for Fred’s family and the other survivors of the raid.

My thoughts: This book was really comprehensive and well written, and painted a pretty horrifying picture of how Black people were treated by police and the justice system both in the 1960s and today. Judge Sam Perry was particularly egregious, constantly ruling against Haas even when it was nonsensical to do so, and actively impairing their progress and ability to try the case. It was also insane that despite these giant court cases, and the settlements that the families eventually got, that the FBI and the Chicago Police still basically got away with murder. The only real consequence that any of the defendants ever experienced was not getting re-elected, which is overall very minor compared to how Fred was brutally murdered. He didn’t love long enough to see the birth of his son, and without him, the Black Panther movement crumbled. If Fred hadn’t been assassinated (especially at such a young age), I think that the future would have been noticeably different with him in it. I’m really glad that I got to read this with our book club, because it helped me engage with the text on a deeper level, and notice things that I had previously missed.

Rating: 4/5 perfect homecooked meals by Iberia Hampton

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

Synopsis: Malcolm Kershaw owns a mysteries-only bookstore in Boston. Years ago, when he was just starting out, he wrote a blog post about eight perfect murders in crime fiction. It was just a little something for the bookstore’s blog, hoping that it was help increase sales. But now, years later, FBI Agent Gwen Mulvey thinks that someone is using that article as inspiration to commit a series of perfect murders in real life. She’s determined to get Malcolm, the resident subject-matter expert for crime fiction, to advise her in order to catch the murderer. Malcolm reluctantly agrees, but when the victims seem to be getting closer and closer to his personal life, it seems that he may be in way over his head. [The Eight Perfect Murders are: The Red House, Malice Aforethought, the ABC Murders, Double Indemnity, Strangers on a Train, The Drowner, Deathtrap, and The Secret History]

My thoughts: I feel like the concept for this book was really cool, but the execution was not great. I was not at all convinced that the unsolved murders were connected to each other or the eight perfect murders for the first third of the book, which is definitely too long. I would have preferred the irl murders to be a lot closer to their fictional counterparts. I also was pretty doubtful when Mal started getting paranoid that the murderer was coming after him/his loved ones. Not everything has to revolve around him (although he actually did end up being the center of everything, for an unexpected reason). My final problem (readers will know that’s an allusion to a Sherlock Holmes story) with Mal was when he revealed that he might have done some things in a dream/suppressed his memory of doing them. I think the allusion to The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was cool, but c’mon, you can’t just say “i thought i was dreaming but turns out it happened irl” and expect to get away with it. There are plenty of other ways to conceal something from the reader without being so outlandish (like, for example, just lying). The Gwen plotline felt super rushed. I thought that her suspension from active FBI service would actually go somewhere but she just was sidelined until the end of the book, when Mal confessed everything to her over a phone call. He claims that this would be enough evidence to prove to the FBI that her theory was right, but an unrecorded phone call would prove absolutely nothing and only serve to be for dramatic effect.

Rating: 3/5 pet cats that you adopted from the scene of the crime

The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton

Synopsis: In the year 2041, humanity’s last hope was a spaceship called the Providence I. It was manned by the world’s best, with a goal of flying out to Proxima Century B and starting a new civilization on a goldilocks planet. Cleo grew up obsessed with the Providence mission, especially Captain Wilhelmina (Billie) Lucas. But on the day of the launch, the moment that the dark matter engines were powered up, the entire crew simply vanished. Humanity never recovered, and the Providence remained on Earth. Now, in 2061, an adult Cleo and her friends are determined to explore the Providence and see if they can solve the mystery of the crew’s disappearance. But while on board, they accidentally power on the engines, and get launched into space. They’re trapped on the ship, with only a hologram of Captain Lucas to guide them. Can they figure out what happened to the old crew? And what will happen when they start reacting strangely to the dark matter engines?

My thoughts: despite this being intended as an adult sci-fi novel, it was incredibly YA-core. The writing style and the actions of the characters felt pretty immature, considering that Cleo and her friends were supposed to be 29 years old. The voice of the novel also felt very targeted to a teen audience, and I was genuinely confused as to what age group the book was really written for. It was also not very science-y for a science fiction book, and I usually read sci-fi books because I am craving some hard science. I don’t think that just any book set in space/on a spaceship should get to call itself science fiction without actually embodying the principles of science fiction. This book ended up being more a teen romance between Cleo and the hologram of Billie. I thought it was a little odd that there was basically a love triangle between Cleo and holo Billie and real Billie (each Billie thought that Cleo would choose the other Billie over her). I’m glad that it was resolved, but at the same time felt that it was resolved a little too neatly.

Rating: 3/5 3D printers that can cook up (literally) whatever your heart desires.

What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund

Synopsis: In this book, Peter Mendelsund explores what we see when we read, and our misconceptions about our own minds’ eye.

My thoughts: I’ve been on an odyssey to read this book for seven months. As readers will know, I am hypophantasic, and rarely, if ever imagine things in my head when I read. (For those asking, yes, I just focus on the words, and the descriptions of what’s going on are more than enough for me.) I thought it would be interesting to understand how other people experience reading, so I figured this book would be perfect. The book itself played around with a lot of images, and interesting layouts for text. However, I really struggled with this book. The main thesis was that the images we imagine are made up, and often extrapolated from few details in the text. Mendelsund treated this like it was a revolutionary observation, but to me it seems pretty obvious? If something is not being exhaustively described, but you imagine it fully, then you have to be making up some of it in order to get a complete picture. He acted as though this was a controversial statement that would upset readers if pointed out to them. I also found Mendelsund was very prescriptive, eventually to the point of irritation. He didn’t really leave room for any interpretations or experiences other than his own. I also found the tone overall to be pretty pretentious. So no, I did not enjoy this book, and I’m perfectly happy to live in my words-only, pictureless world.

Rating: 2/5 mental images of Anna Karenina (even though you don’t actually know what she looks like)

i am, your most faithful blogger, elisa

September

This month I read 3 books, 4 e-books, and 1 e-audiobook, all from the Toronto Public Library, totaling to 8 books.

Before we begin:

Dishonourable Mentions

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

Synopsis: Mira Bunting is the founder of the activist gardening group Birnam Wood. They’re based in New Zealand, and are dedicated to growing local produce wherever they can find the land for it, even if it’s illegal. But Birnam Wood is struggling financially to survive. Then Mira finds an isolated plot of land that would be perfect for a secret urban farm. But it seems she’s not the only person interested in it.

My thoughts: Every synopsis I read of this book makes me want to like it, but I just could not get into the story. The narration felt very detached, and it was difficult to get invested in any of the characters. I also was hoping for something similar to Devolution by Max Brooks, but apparently that’s not what “eco-thriller” means.

You may like this book if: you got the MacBeth reference in the title

End of Story by A.J. Finn

Synopsis: Sebastian Trapp is a famous mystery novelist with a tragic family past. He’s dying, and invites longtime fan Nicky Hunter to come to San Francisco and interview him for a memoir. Will Nicky be able to figure out what really happened to Sebastian’s wife and son, or is she just another fly caught in the spider’s web?

My thoughts: In contrast to Birnam Wood, I actually did read the first third of the book, but I still wasn’t impressed. The central mystery was finally starting to be revealed, but it just didn’t seem like it was going to be interesting enough to be worth all the time I would have spent reading it. The characters also felt either irritating or very distant (or both), so it was hard to get invested.

You may like this book if: you are obsessed with the meta of mystery fiction

And now for the real reviews:

The Third Wife of Faraday House by B.R. Myers

Synopsis: Emeline Fitzpatrick is a ward of Judge and Mrs Shackleton in 1816 Halifax. Emeline is penniless, and her only redeeming feature is her beauty, so Mrs Shackleton is determined to marry her off to a suitable suitor as soon as possible (before her beauty fades). But Emeline only has eyes for one man: the handsome British navy lieutenant Ned Fletcher. He has promised to whisk her away to sunny Bermuda, and Emeline is desperate to leave gloomy Halifax behind. But when they are caught kissing at a debutante ball, Ned abandoned Emeline to face the shameful scandal all on her own. In a desperate maneuver, the Shackletons accept a marriage proposal for Emeline on her behalf, but it’s not for Ned. Instead, she’ll be married off to Captain Graves, who lives on a remote island on the Nova Scotia coast, and won’t have heard about her scandalous actions. Emeline is distraught. But when she reaches Faraday House, things are worse than she could have ever imagined. Captain Graves’ first wife Esther died years ago, and his second wife Georgina is currently dying. After Georgina’s passing, Emeline will become his third wife. The house itself is a veritable haunted mansion, with only a few staff to struggle with the upkeep. Day by day, Georgina’s condition worsens, and Emeline becomes more and more desperate for Ned to rescue her. Will her knight in shining armor come to take her to Bermuda? Or will Emeline have to use her wits for once, and figure out what’s really going on at Faraday House?

My thoughts: Overall I did like this book. I’ve read B.R. Myers’s previous book in my July 2023 roundup, and I like that she’s used the same formula of 19th century mystery where most of the things have a reasonable explanation, but there’s still a little bit of supernatural activity (as a treat). I also liked how Emeline had a lot of character development (although most of that was only possible because she had such a long way to go). Considering her relationship with the Shackletons at the beginning of the book was so contentious, I was pleased that she was able to repair it and build a great life for herself.

Rating: 3/5 shillings hidden in your mom’s tea that caused her to choke and die, that you only mention as an afterthought because apparently we don’t have time to unpack all that now

Worst Case Scenario by T J Newman

Synopsis: It’s a beautiful day in Waketa, Minnesota, but that’s all about to change. 35,000 feet about them, a pilot has a heart attack while flying a commercial airliner with nearly 300 souls on board. Dead, he slumps over the controls, pushing the stick forward and sending the plane into an unrecoverable trajectory towards the ground. It’s headed for Waketa, and ends up crashing into the Clover Hill nuclear power plant. Post 9/11, government official claimed that all nuclear plants in the US were plane-proof, but nothing in the world can stop an 80-ton jetliner travelling at 500 miles per hour. Now, Clover Hill is completely decimated, and the radioactive water that cools the spent uranium rods is leaking. If the rods aren’t cooled, they’ll cause a meltdown as bad as Chernobyl. But if the leaking, radioactive water reaches the nearby Mississippi river, it’ll contaminate the entire river basin, leading to a global food and immigration catastrophe. Will the people of Waketa be able to band together and save the day?

My thoughts: I really enjoyed reading Drowning by this author last month, so I had high hopes (but was also a bit apprehensive) at the thought of reading her newest release. Unfortunately, the plane crash was not really the central point of the book, and that’s always my favourite part. The crash itself did feel a bit unrealistic. I’m no expert, but you’re telling me that a plane colliding with a power line (before it even touched the ground) was enough to send debris all over Waketa and nearly level it? Maybe I need to see it rendered by the crew of Mayday to really believe it. Overall, the whole premise of a plane crashing into a nuclear power plant did seem a bit silly. I didn’t like how the timeline in the book was managed. The crew of the power plant had about 16 hours to avert major disaster, and they addressed the first problem within the first 3-4 hours. But then the book jumps forward to them discovering the second problem when there was less than one hour to address it? What were you doing with all that extra time? (Logically I know the crew was working very hard but you can’t just skip to the end to make it more dramatic). I also had some issues with the American President; namely, that he was flirting with Joss during the crisis, and that seemed to be the main reason why he cared about her at all. He kept going on long tangents whenever they were on the phone together. There’s literally an emergency going on, now is not the time to be flirting with your employee! I also didn’t love how Joss and Ethan were set up to be flirting when Ethan literally has a wife and kids. This time I know the point was for Joss to reflect on how different her life could have been, and I guess in a round-about way contributed to her making the choice to make a sacrifice, but still. I was also kind of annoyed that the local firefighters spent all their time trying to rescue a single child that was stuck in a single-car accident, instead of dealing with literally anything else (like the 17-car pileup on the only major highway in and out of Waketa, or the nuclear powerplant itself).

Rating: 3/5 folks who hate the government but have the only set of underwater welding gear in town

The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian

Synopsis: Cassie is a flight attendant with a secret. The secret is not that she’s an alcoholic, or that she likes flirting with the first class passengers on her flights (and many others). It’s that she met Alex Sokolov on her flight to Dubai; they went out to dinner, had a lot to drink, and hooked up in his luxe hotel room. And when she woke up in his hotel room, Alex Sokolov was dead. But Cassie was black out drunk, so most of the night was a complete blur. Did she kill him? Considering that she woke up next to his body covered in his blood, does it matter? So she cleans herself up, leaves his hotel, and catches her flight back to the US, determined to quit drinking, and to not tell anyone what really happened. But the scandalous murder is soon making headlines internationally, and the FBI have started to investigate. Can Cassie lie her way out of this situation, or has she finally gotten herself in too deep?

My thoughts: I picked up this book because critics were raving about the HBO series of the same name, so I figured I’d go right to the source. However, I was not impressed. The book was very introspective but in a shallow way: Cassie kept thinking about how bad her habits were but was never able to do anything about it. Also the fact that the killer’s identity was revealed really early meant that all of Cassie’s wondering about whether she could be a killer was kind of pointless (we know that she’s not a killer). Circling back to Cassie’s lack of character development, she basically did not change at all until the epilogue (Readers will know that I hate it when the author skips over really important stuff that happens between the end of the book and the epilogue). She had very little agency (except to make stupid small decisions) and I thought it was super unrealistic that she had been recruited to the CIA after the entire debacle and proving how unreliable she was. Additionally, I was really disappointed about the overall plot. When the author started dropping unusual details into the FBI interview transcripts, I thought they would amount to a lot more than they did. This was the thing that made me keep reading when I was initially unimpressed, and I unfortunately remained unimpressed. Those details were in fact clues to the big reveal, but they didn’t really go anywhere, and the final reveal itself was incredibly rushed.

Rating: 2/5 primal urges to summon a waiter to bring you Tsingtaos

Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice

Synopsis: 10 years after the world ended, Evan Whitesky and his family are thriving. They’ve left behind the old rez and are living in the bush, using ancestral Anishinaabe practices and knowledge to build their own community. But after 10 years, resources are running low. The lake has fewer fish, the berry bushes have smaller yields, and the deer and bears avoid the area. If they’re going to keep surviving, they’ll have to move somewhere else. The remaining elders dream of returning to their ancestral homelands, where the birch trees grow by the water, and they decide that it’s time to send out a small expedition in the hopes of finding a new home. But this isn’t the first time that members of their community have left in order to explore, and it’s risky. Will Evan and the others be prepared for what they might find?

My thoughts: I enjoyed the first book in this series (Moon of the Crusted Snow, see my July 2023 roundup), and I was really pleased to see that Evan and his community were thriving 10 years after the apocalypse. However, it did make me wonder how possible it is for communities to survive 20 or 50 years after the end of the world. Evan’s community was still using a lot of goods that were industrially manufactured pre-apocalypse (like clothing, knives, guns, etc), and they’ll all eventually be used up without any possibility for replacement, unless they can come up with alternatives themselves. Otherwise, I thought it was super satisfying that all of the indigenous communities were flourishing, while the white people had devolved into racist militarism, and the determining factor mainly seemed to be how people were engaging with the land. The indigenous communities were very aware of how the land was doing, and one of the main reasons that Evan wanted to move to a new area was because there weren’t enough resources to support the natural wildlife plus the humans.

Rating: 3/5 useless Leaf’s fan’s iPhones

A Life Consumed: Lilly Samson’s Dispatches from the TB Front by Diane Sims

Synopsis: In 1923, Lilly Samson was 22 years old, and had just started teaching near Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. She had a wonderful fiance, Bill, and a loving Swedish family. That year, she caught tuberculosis (TB). After months of illness, she wasn’t recovering, so she was sent to a sanatorium in Gravenhurst with the hopes of recovering her health. Instead, she spent 3 years in that sanatorium, and eventually died in 1927. Decades later, her niece Diane found the letters that Lilly sent to her family while in the “san” and compiled them into a book.

My thoughts: I actually discovered this book when I was looking for travel guides for Gravenhurst, Ontario (Readers will know that I took a little trip to Gravenhurst this summer and thoroughly enjoyed it), and it piqued my interest. I thought this book was a really interesting look into TB, as well as a snapshot of life and medical care in Ontario in the 1920s. It doesn’t really go too much into the actual medical care or the science behind the treatment that Lilly received; instead, it covers the life of Lilly and the other “sanites”, as portrayed in her letters. The author faithfully transcribes the letters into the book, and also uses a bit of creative liberty in order to add scenes of life in the san, which are inspired by events referenced in the letters. In the epilogue, she mentions that getting a diagnosis of TB a hundred years ago was about equivalent to how we’d receive a diagnosis of cancer now: extremely scary, and often fatal, and that comparison really stuck with me.

Rating: 3/5 fashionable jackets ordered from the Eaton’s catalogue

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske (The Last Binding #1)

Synopsis: After the death of his parents (who weren’t particularly good people so it’s not that much of heartache for him), Sir Robert Blyth needs a job in order to keep the household afloat. Robin’s been appointed to the British Home Office, as the Assistant in the Office of Special Domestic Affairs and Complaints. But when he arrives for his first day, at what he expects will be a boring middle management position, it’s nothing like what he expects. It turns out that there are magicians all over Britain (and possibly the world), who use cradling (a series of hand motions that you would use when playing Cats Cradle) to perform magic. Robin is told all of this (unbushelled is the term for it) by Edwin Courcey, the liaison to the Chief Minister of the Magical Assembly. Robin is flabbergasted by this reveal, and Edwin is frustrated. The person who Robin has replaced, Reggie Gatling, has been mysteriously missing for weeks, and Edwin is very concerned that something very bad has happened to him. This impression is only strengthened when Robin is attacked on his way home from work by a mysterious group of men, who curse him with runes (and now his having visions of the future too). Will Edwin and Robin uncover this mystery and remove the runes? Or are they in way over their heads?

My thoughts: Readers will know that I don’t visualize things in my head while I read, but I think this definitely worked to my advantage for this book. If I had seen what cradling actually looks like, I would not have been impressed at all, and figured it to be a ridiculous and silly way to do magic. But since all I see are the written word, I don’t have a problem with it, and I appreciate the author for creating something unique. At the beginning, this book seems like it’s going to be about bureaucracy and administration (because of Robin and Edwin’s jobs), but it is mostly adventure and intrigue, so don’t be worried. I thought the romance between Robin and Edwin was adorable (the classic jock/nerd alliance), and they generally worked well together as a team. My biggest complaint with this book (and the whole series in general) is that Robin’s assistant, Adelaide Harita Morresey, doesn’t get a bigger role. I thought she was an excellent character, and was super disappointment that she’s barely in any of the books despite having tons of potential.

Rating: 4/5 enchanted mazes that will destroy any magician that dares to enter

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske (The Last Binding #2)

Synopsis: Robin and Edwin have uncovered Walter Courcey’s plan to find all three items of the Last Contract, and use it to unlawfully redistribute magic from British magicians. Unfortunately they were forced to give Walter the coin, they're committed to stopping him from finding the cup and the knife. Robin dispatches his sister Maud to travel to America and warn the current holder of the cup that Walter’s men are coming for her. But the elderly Elizabeth Navenby is determined to return to England and help fight. Unfortunately for her, Mrs. Navenby is killed (and the cup stolen) almost immediately after setting sail to England with Maud aboard the RMS Lyric. Now, Maud is trapped alone on a giant steamship with a group of mysterious killers, and only Robin’s journal of recorded visions to guide her. She manages to recruit a few reluctant allies: Jack Alston, Lord Hawthorn, noted ex-boyfriend of Edwin’s and overall brooding figure, who mysteriously lost his magic; Violet Debenam, a actress in America who delights in doing the most scandalous thing at all times (and who has become a recurring character in Robin’s visions); and Alan Ross, a journalist interviewing the first class passengers about their luxury experience on the voyage, and also stealing jewelry and selling pornography on the side. Will Maud be able to rally her allies and find the cup? Or will this voyage be her last?

My thoughts: Overall I also enjoyed this book. I thought that everyone being trapped together on an ocean liner made for an interesting dynamic between characters, especially considering the societal norms that they all had to adhere to. Maud and Violet were constantly encountering their enemies and having to act cordially towards them because they were in public. The Lyric was also a great setting because it provided a wide variety of places, events, and other characters for the main cast to explore while looking for the cup. For this book, the main romantic pairing was between Maud and Violet. I didn’t like this romantic subplot as much for a couple of reasons. I was still holding out for an Adelaide Morrissey-focused book, so I was disappointed that she wasn’t there. I also think that the author was looking for ways to push the envelope, and it felt like a few things were included for the sake of being shocking and scandalous (which you are allowed to do, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it).

Rating: 4/5 zoobreak scenarios

A Power Unbound by Freya Marske (The Last Binding #3)

Synopsis: There are three objects needed to reenact the Last Contract, and start redistributing magical power between British Magicians. Walter Courcey has the coin, but his brother Edwin (and Edwin’s friends) have the cup. The last object is the knife, which is thought to be hidden in a magical house that was recently inherited by Violet Debenam. Now, it’s a race against time: by day, Violet is desperately trying to unlock the secrets of the house in order to locate the knife. By night, she’s defending the house against attempts by Walter’s lackeys to breach it and take control. It doesn’t help that Walter also has the support of the Magical Assembly on his side, and is attempting to contest the will that names Violet as the rightful owner of the estate. Will the group be able to defeat Walter and protect British magicians, or are they all doomed?

My thoughts: I did enjoy this book, but I thought it kind of fell apart in the second half. Since it takes place around 1910, I was really expecting that the “looming threat” that Walter wanted to prepare for was the Great War, but there didn’t appear to be any references towards it. I also found the final climax to be confusing: I wasn’t really clear what exactly happened to magic. No one has any magic, except if you live in a magical estate? Personally, I don’t know if that makes people substantially better off than if Walter had succeeded. I also really did not care for the dynamic between Alan and Jack (the main romantic pairing for this book). I thought it was a good idea for the author to branch out into different kinds of love interests (particularly Alan, who is a poor immigrant worker, and thus lived a very different life from Jack Alston, who is literally a Lord). However, the class dynamic completely pervaded all of the romantic aspects of their relationship to a point where it felt like Jack was continually wielding his power over Alan. I was hoping that the author would take the opportunity to flip the dynamic, or even make it reciprocal, but that never really happened.

Rating: 3/5 trees that have an ancient magical aura and know your greatest secrets

i am, your most faithful blogger, elisa

August

This month I read 4 ebooks and 2 eaudiobooks and 1 physical book from the Toronto Public Library, totalling to 7 books.

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

Synopsis: All of Cambria has been torn apart by the ongoing divine war, after the Underling god Dacre was unable to recapture his estranged wife, the skyward goddess Enva. Although the City of Oath, in the Eastern Borough, is attempting to minimize the effects of the war, it’s having a huge impact on rivals Iris Winnow and Roman Kitt. They’re both interning for the Oath Gazette, fighting over a single columnist position. Iris dropped out of school to support her alcoholic mother, who has spiraled ever since her brother Forrest enlisted to fight in the war for Enva. She’s only at the Oath Gazette after winning an essay contest. Roman, on the other hand, comes from a privileged family and got his internship through family connections. But he’s dreading his upcoming arranged marriage to the daughter of one of his father’s clients, who appears to be developing illegal chemical weapons for Dacre’s side. Fed up with the Gazette’s commitment to Dacre propaganda and reeling after her mother’s death, Iris quits her internship to sign up to be a war correspondent for the Inkridden Tribune, hoping to find some sign of her brother. She’s sent to a small town near the front lines, armed only with her magic typewriter that has been allowing her to exchange letters with a mysterious penpal named Carver, her only solace in these tough times. But Carver is actually Roman Kitt, and the connection that he and Iris are forming has left him desparate to protect her, no matter what.

My Thoughts: For me, despite its issues, this book was unputdownable, and I quickly devoured it. I thought the mythology was cool, and appreciated how it made a classic WW1-style war feel a bit more unique. I also liked how Iris and Roman were depicted as journalists: dedicated to reporting the truth, instead of harassing people in order to get the scoop. Readers will know, however, that I am a hater of the you’ve-got-mail trope, and it was one of the big issues I had with this book. By itself, I probably would have been able to look past it, but it went hand-in-hand with Roman being incredibly paternalistic towards Iris. I didn’t like that he had all the power when he knew Iris’s identity but refused to reveal his own when they were penpals. I also thought it was crazy that he followed her to the front lines based only on the connections formed in their letters (which is not real life), even though Iris couldn’t stand him at the office (which is real life). The book ended on a devastating cliffhanger, and I’ve heard that the sequel isn’t executed well, so we’ll see how I fare once I actually get my hands on it.

Rating: 4/5 honeymoons at a picturesque bed and breakfast run by lesbians

Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421 by TJ Newman

Synopsis: A summer day at the pool ended tragically when Annie slipped and hit her head on the concrete. She died that day, and her mother, Chris, and father, Will, never really recovered. 6 years later, their marriage is falling apart, and their remaining daughter Shannon is desperate for the independence that her parents are too scared to give her. Shannon is frustrated that her dad insists on flying with her from Hawaii to summer camp in San Francisco; she’s 11 years old, and can definitely handle herself. But two minutes into their flight, the airplane loses an engine, all hydraulics, and is forced to ditch into the ocean. By some miracle, the plane lands largely intact, and passengers are faced with an impossible scenario: leave the plane (conditions are rough and the water is covered in flammable jet fuel), or stay in the plane and risk being trapped inside. Will and Shannon decide to stay inside. Within minutes, the plane fills with water and sinks to the ocean floor, trapping a few survivors with a limited bubble of air. Will they make it out alive?

My thoughts: I’ve seen Falling (the author’s first book) by the same author for AGES in bookstores, and I’m pretty sure that I did read it, but the only thing I remembered is that I didn’t like it. However, I’m glad that I decided to give Drowning a chance. Readers will know that I love fire and rescue shows, and also that I love air crash investigation shows, so it was a match made in heaven. It definitely made me very emotional but sometimes you just want to feel some adrenaline and have a good cry. I would definitely recommend it.

Rating: 4/5 messages in a water bottle

VenCo by Cherie Dimaline

Synopsis: Lucky St. James has always been unlucky. After her mom died when she was young, she was taken in by her grandmother Stella. Stella was a doting grandmother, but they only ever scraped by. Now, Stella’s dementia is getting worse, and their rent is being raised again. Lucky’s job at a temp agency doesn’t make enough to cover the bills, and she can’t bear to take her grandma out of the Toronto apartment where they grew up together. It’s full of memories and ghost stories, like the one Stella loves to tell about the psychiatric hospital that used to be down the block, and how one of the inmates dug a tunnel to try to escape. One afternoon while doing laundry, Lucky discovers the legendary tunnel, but the only thing in it is a strange silver spoon. A few days later, she’s approached by a beautiful woman with a tantelizing offer: come work for her company, VenCo. It’s a huge woman-run company with offices around the US, and they're looking to open a publishing house. For Lucky, an aspiring writer, it’s too good to be true. The woman invites Lucky and Stella to visit their Salem, Massachusetts office, so that Lucky can learn more about what the position entails; so they pack up the car for a road trip. Except when they get to Salem, it’s not what Lucky was expecting. Instead of corporate glass and steel, they’ve arrived at the historic mansion belonging to Mina Good and her wife Wendy. There, Mina explains that VenCo is isn’t what you might think. Mina is collecting a coven of witches. Once they find all seven, each with their own silver spoon, the coven will be complete and they’ll be able to change the world. Lucky is the sixth witch, and she has less than two weeks to find the seventh and complete the coven. Is Lucky (who, by the way, has no magic powers to speak of) out of her depth? Or will she really be able to find the elusive seventh witch and save the coven before it even begins?

My thoughts: I really enjoyed reading a book that was written from a very feminist and women-centered lens, especially one that was very pro-seniors. Readers will know that belonging to a coven full of feminine energy is literally the dream. I also really liked how Lucky made her magic all her own by drawing on the lessons from her mother, Arnia. They were a mix of Indigenous spirituality and general life lessons, and I thought they were used really well for the final battle. I also thought it was kind of cool that the cross-country road trip happened from the northern US down to the south, instead of being the typical east-west (I don’t know if it was intentional but it was cool to have a trope subtly flipped like that). My main nitpick is that I wish that the other witches in the coven had more character development and presence besides the story of how they each got their spoons, but I understand that 5 supporting characters can be a lot to balance. As a final note, this book had HUGE prequel energy (becuse it involved Lucky getting her powers, and the formation of the coven), which I haven’t ever seen before in a book that wasn’t intentionally advertised as being a prequel. From my research it doesn’t seem like the author is turning this into a series, so I thought it was a bold choice for her to focus on the building-up aspect of the storyline, and I appreciated it.

Rating: 3/5 elderly women that seem to attract gay men in spades

The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield

Synopsis: What if Apollo 17 wasn’t the last ever mission to the moon? It’s 1973, and NASA is preparing to send a group of astronauts back to the moon in the Apollo 18 mission. But this isn’t any ordinary mission; it’s funded primarily by the Deparment of Defense, so the priorities are a lot less about science and a lot more about National Security. The Soviets have just launched Almaz, a spy satellite with astounding resolution and capabilities. If it becomes operational, it’ll be very difficult for the US to keep their own secrets on their own soil. So, Apollo 18 will have to do something that’s never been done before: rendezvous mid-spaceflight with Almaz, incapacitate it, and continue on to the moon. But mission control is fully confident that the crew of Luke Hemmings, Michael Esdale, and Tom Hoffman have what it takes to pull off the most complicated Apollo mission yet. Except, just weeks before launch, Tom is killed in a routine helicopter flight, forcing backup commander Chad Miller to take his place. Commander Kaz Zemeckis, a former test pilot and current liaison between the White House and Misson Control, has a bad feeling about this. Thankfully he’ll be acting as the CAPCOM, communicating directly with the astronauts once they’re in space. Can he keep the mission afloat and bring the astronauts safely back to Earth? Or are there more surprises in store?

My thoughts: I don’t necessarily think that my summary does the plot justice, because it’s a bit of a slow burn, so I didn’t want to give everything away. The title is a bit misleading because it’s an alternate history novel with cold war intrigue, not a murder mystery, but I really did like this book! Especially how the author tried to line up things in the book with real-life people and events, in order to make things as plausible as possible. Funnily enough, I’m pretty sure this is my second time reading it. I don’t actually remember reading it for the first time, but the plot beats definitely felt familiar (but not in a predictable way). I am glad that I came back to it for another go-around though.

Rating: 4/5 mysterious, possibly bottomless, holes on the Moon

The Defector by Chris Hadfield

Synopsis: It’s the day before Yom Kippur, 1973. A soviet fighter pilot, callsign Grief, has crashed his MiG-25 fighter plane into the Levantine Sea just off the coast of Israel. Except, Grief didn’t actually crash. In reality, he landed his plane safely in an Israeli hangar and is attempting to defect to the US. The MiG-25 is currently one of the best recon and combat aircrafts in the world, and the Americans would love dearly to get their hands on one. So Commander Kaz Zemeckis is assigned to keep an eye on the pilot accompaning this miracle plane. Can Grief be trusted? Or is there more than meets the eye?

My thoughts: Based on the success of The Apollo Murders, I was really excited to try the second book in the series. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a let down. For me, the pacing was really off, because the book felt like it ended in the middle of the plot, immediately after the incident at Groom Lake. Anything that got wrapped up had to be addressed in the epilogue, and a lot of things were not. I was also expecting the Apollo Soyuz plotline to matter a lot more. I’m hoping that this is all building towards a third book that will pick up where everything left off, but I’m not really counting on it. However, I definitely enjoyed the first three quarters of the book.

Rating: 3/5 tickets to see old blue eyes

Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians but Were Afraid to Ask by Anton Treuer

Synopsis: Anton Treuer, an Obijwe from the region around the Leech Lake Reservation in Northern Minnesota, has put together an introductory guide that covers everything you may have wanted to know about Indians but were too afraid to ask. It covers things like terminology, history, economics, politics, and languages. Each section is split into direct questions with easy to understand answers.

My thoughts: This is a really great introductory book for people who are vaguely aware of issues facing Indigenous peoples but don’t really know a lot of concrete details. It might be because this is the Young Readers Edition (randomly, TPL has a lot of copies of the Young Readers Edition, but not nearly as many of the original edition for adults), but this book is extremely clear, direct, and to the point, so it’s very easy to digest and understand. I think the book was structured really well, and could easily serve as a reference material, especially if you only want to explore a few of the questions or topics that are covered. I really liked that the author injected a lot of his own personal experiences and even family photos. It made sure that he wasn’t generalizing to all Indigenous people, and also made everything discussed seem more concrete for the reader. I also found the comparisons between the US and Canada really interesting; I’m glad that the author made sure to emphasize that even though Canada is farther along in the conversation of reconciliation than the US, things are not necessarily substantially better for Indigenous peoples in Canada, and that there’s still much to be done.

Rating: ⅗ White mechanics that say “Miigwech” and “Gigawaabamin miinawaa” to their Ojibwe customers

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher

Synopsis: Mona is one of the few wizards that are left in Riverbraid, although you wouldn’t know it, since she’s only 14 and her magic only works on bread. When anti-wizard sentiment, spurred by Inquisitor Oberon, starts increasing, she’s perfectly happy to stay at her aunt’s bakery with her animated gingerbread man and her sourdough starter Bob. But early one morning, Mona enters the bakery to find a dead girl on the floor. The girl’s name was Tibbie, and she was killed by the mysterious Spring Green Man simply for being a wizard. Now, Mona can’t just ignore everything that’s going on. With the help of Tibbie’s brother Spindle, she’s determined to contact the Duchess of Riverbraid. Surely once a responsible adult finds out what’s been happening they’ll put a stop to everything, right? Right?!

My thoughts: I’ve read adult books by T Kingfisher before (see my April 2023 roundup) I think this was technically a middle grade book, and although I wasn’t intending to read a kids book I’m not mad about it. Overall I did like it! I thought the themes were interesting; they revolved around the idea of reluctant heroes and war veterans, and also the idea of children having to take charge when adults cannot or willnot. The characters were charming, and the final siege was cool. I appreciated that the author did a bit of world-building with regards to the magic system, by teaching Mona about sympathy magic.

Rating: 4/5 provinces where rats are NOT ALLOWED (very Alberta-core)

i am, your most faithful blogger, elisa

July

This month, I read 5 ebooks, 1 e-audiobook, and 2 physical books from the Toronto Public Library, plus 1 digital book from Mangadex, for a total of 9 books.

Dishonourable Mentions

The Woman with No Name by Audrey Blake

Synopsis: Yvonne is desparate to help with the British war effort in World War II, but as a woman in her forties, she’s constantly being overlooked and underestimated. When she is finally recruited to help, it’s to become a British spy in France. But will she have what it takes?

My thoughts: I unfortunately found this book to just be boring. I think that starting out with Yvonne’s spy work and then flashing back to her spy training was definitely the wrong way to do it. We already know that she passed spy school, which appeared to be the main conflict of that storyline. Overall the book just didn’t grab me.

You may like this book if: You have a think for WWII and also for MILFs

Honourable Mentions

Small Favor (Dresden Files #10) by Jim Butcher

I already read this in July 2023, so I'm not counting it as a book. See my thoughts on it below.

And now for the Real Reviews

Educated by Tara Westover

Synopsis: Tara Westover had an unusual childhood, to say the least. She grew up off the grid in the rural mountains of Idaho, in a family that belonged to an extremist morman sect. Instead of going to school, she learned how to sort scrap metal in her father’s junk yard, or harvest medicinal herbs with her mother. Tara reflects on her childhood, and the experiences of going to university, being cut off from her family, and eventually earning a PhD.

My thoughts: I’ve been a bit reluctant to read this book because I’ve heard a lot of hype about it over the years, and worried that it might be overhyped. Reader, it is not. Recently, I was discussing memoirs with a friend. We agreed that a lot of celebrity memoirs are not it, because the majority of them seem to be made becuause the author is a celebrity, not becuase the have anything interesting to say. Memoirs by regular people tend to be a lot better, because generally they have had some sort of interesting life experience that warrants a memoir, besides just being famous. Educated definitely falls into the later category. It was so well written that I had a hard time believing that it was in fact a true story. The fact that Tara went from a girl who never attended school and barely got her GED to someone with a PhD was almost unbelievable (not saying that I don’t believe her, but that that I’m even more shocked that she was able to pull it off). I also thought the arc of Tara’s mom was really facinating and tragic, how she at first was in opposition to Tara’s dad and his abuse (and seemed relatively normal), but then how she got deeper and deeper into homeopathic remedies (making her seem less sane), and then how she literally girlbossed a homeopathy empire for herself and the whole family (becoming the largest employer in the area). I’m really glad that Tara was able to grow up (more or less) whole, and reflect on the insane and abusive experiences that she survived.

Rating: 5/5 nickels that you’d have for every time that you left the Sun Belt at night in order to drive back to Idaho during a storm, in a car that was speeding severly over the limit and had no seat belts, ultimately resulting in a serious car crash

White Night (Dresden Files #9) by Jim Butcher

Synopsis: A serial killer in a grey cloak is killing women in Chicago, and it’s Harry Dresden’s worst nightmare (partially because he is too chivalrous to allow anything bad happening to women without doing anything about it, and partially because HE wears a grey cloak and lives in Chicago, so it directly implicates him). And it's especially bad because these women are all magic practitioners; not powerful enough to be wizards, but definitely powerful enough to be targets. Fortunately, it’s not too difficult to prove that he’s innocent. Unfortunately, it seems to implicate his half-brother Thomas, notable vampire in the White Court. Will Harry be able to save the women, vindicate his brother, and win back the trust of his ex-girlfriend and rival PI Elaine?

My thoughts: It’s been a bit of a slog, but it’s kind of vindicating to have read so many Dresden Files books that I understand the way the series works. For example, one year ago I was reading Grave Peril (see my July 2023 roundup), and was annoyed that the author kept referencing an incident before the start of the book. If it was so important, why didn’t it deserve its own novel? Turns out that Gravel Peril actually was that novel. Now, when reading about the New Mexico incident that was continually referenced in this book, I just patiently waited for all to be revealed (and it was). This book also marked the end of Lasciel’s arc (Lasciel is a fallen angel and a member of the Order of the Blackened Denarius. Since Death Masks (see my October 2023 roundup), She’s been trying to tempt Harry to accept enormous power in exchange for becoming evil, but Harry has stubbornly resisted her advances for three years. It was really cool to see how Lasciel changed over several books, and their final interactions were a great capstone to end off the arc.

Rating: 4/5 french hair salons that are addictively good

Small Favor (Dresden Files #10) by Jim Butcher

This was the first Dresden Files novel that I ever read (see my June 2023 roundup), and it represents a big “full circle” moment for me. It means that I’ve now completed the first 10 novels (17 are currently published, and I believe that 22-25 are expected in total). I kind of feel like I’ve graduated from unconscious incompetence (I don’t know what I don’t know) into conscious incompetence (where I now know how much I don’t know). The first time I read this book I lacked a lot of context and had so many questions, but now that I have all of the context, my questions are more about the future implications for the rest of the series. I do plan on reading as many Dresden files as possible, although we’ll have to see if Jim Butcher ever finishes it. It’s also funny to think that this series has been released across my whole life (the first was released when I was only a year old, and more books are expected in the future), and that hopefully it will continue to be released as I get even older.

Turn Coat (Dresden Files #11) by Jim Butcher

Synopsis: Donald Morgan, a member of the White Council of Wizards, has hated Harry Dresden for close to a decade. So it’s a huge surprise when he shows up at Harry’s door, gravely injured and wanted for the murder of a member of the wizard Senior Council. The evidence against Morgan is pretty strong; he was found holding a knife over the body, and had recieved some mysterious payments. On the other hand, he’s the most staunchly lawful person Harry has ever met (part of the reason why Morgan despises Harry’s unorthodox ways). And Harry kind of believes him. So now, he has to harbour a wanted criminal on the verge of death, solve the crime he’s being accused of, and also fight off a naagloshi. What’s a naagloshi, you ask? Only an extremely powerful Diné creature that literally eats magic and is the most terrifying thing that Harry has ever witnessed with his wizard’s Sight. Plus, this investigation will require him to get tangled up with the White Court of Vampires again. What could possibly go wrong?

My thoughts: The best thing about slogging through 11 Dresden File novels is seeing how the overarching pieces are starting to work. This book definitely advanced that overall plot forward, and even if I don’t quite get everything, I’m excited to read more about the new Grey Council, and Deamonreach island. I also liked how the relationship between Harry and Luccio was set up in the previous book, and became a really major plot point in this book. I will definitely soldier on with the series.

Rating: 4/5 Private Investigator tasks that you subcontracted out to a different private investigator (which may or may not have been further subcontracted out to even more private investigators).

Champions of the Fox (Thieves of Shadow #3) by Kevin Sands

Synopsis: After their adventures in Children of the Fox and Seekers of the Fox, the gang is back for their ultimate adventure with this third book. Our crew consists of: Cal, the defacto leader who grew up as a gaffer running cons with his mentor, the Old Man; Meriel, a girl from the neighbouring kingdom of Torgal, who has at least 8 knives hidden in her dress at all times; Lachlan, a street urchin that has many contacts within the Breakers (the collective name for members of the criminal underworld); Gareth, very shy but incredibly smart and knowledgeable; and Foxtail, a mysterious girl who is an expert at acrobatics but wears a steel plate covering her whole face and does not speak. Together, they’ve travelled across the Empire of Areyth, stealing the Dragon’s Eye (an amber monocle that has attached itself to Cal’s face, granting him epic powers of perception but often demanding much from him), and the Dragon’s Teeth (a pair of swords with the power to transfer life energy between them). Cal is tired of doing the Eye’s bidding, and worried that he’s getting himself and his friends into trouble. But now, the Eye has commanded Cal to find the Hollow Man (who is currently being kept in the most secure prison in the Empire). Breaking the Hollow Man out of prison will require their biggest gaff yet. But what will the costs really be?

My thoughts: This series of books is absolutely kid kino, bordering on real kino. I (readers will know that I am a grown woman) have thoroughly enjoyed the entire series without reservation. (I read books 1 and 2 in the Fall of 2022, prior to starting my Reading Roundups) It’s full of excellent heists (readers will know that I love a heist) with a really engaging and dynamic cast of characters. Callan in particular made for an excellent narrator and overall group leader. The mythology and lore of Areyth was very interesting and connected to the plot without being overly complicated or detracting from the story. I generally like books that have a Dickensian/England in the 1800s asthetic with a little bit of magic thrown in, and this series definitely delivered. If you’re trying to get back into reading, I definitely recommend this series!

Rating: 5/5 enchanted rings that make the wearer look like they have the weeping sickness

The Parliament by Aimee Pokwatka

Synopsis: Maddie isn’t happy to be back at her hometown. She has a lot of bad memories, and is really only there as a favour to her friend Farrah, a librarian. All she has to do is teach a bath-bomb making workshop to a group of teenagers, and then she can go home. But the small town West Virginia library is surrounded by owls. At first it’s just odd, but it quickly becomes dangerous. The owls begin to attack the windows, and devour anyone who dares to step outside. Trapped in the library, with dwindling hope of rescue, and few supplies (except for a copy of Maddie’s favourite childhood book, the Silent Queen), will Maddie and the others have what it takes to make it out alive?

The Silent Queen synopsis: Every year the 8-year-old girls of the Kingdom get their Enrichment, a power that will help them and their communities. Surely a finger, or a hand, or a leg is a small sacrifice to keep the Monster satiated and the community safe. Alala knows this. Even she, the Silent Queen, had to undergo an Enrichment, although she has never told anyone what power she recieved. But the Monster is growing hungrier. When Desperia, a princess of a rival kingdom, kidnaps Alala out of desperation that she could fix everything, Will Alala have what it takes to defeat the Monster and save the next generation of girls?

My thoughts: This book had an element of meta-fiction in it, where each chapter alternated between the universe of Maddie stuck in the library, and the universe of The Silent Queen (which Maddie was reading to the kids). I personally think it was overkill to swap each chapter. I was way more interested in the library universe, and I found The Silent Queen storyline overall to have been kind of boring. Every 2nd or 3rd chapter probably would have been fine. I also didn’t really like the ending. I understand that the point was “the only thing to fear is fear itself” but in The Silent Queen, I didn’t really feel satisfied when Alala was just able to use her voice for the first time, because it didn’t really feel like she had earned it. Yes, her journey was challenging, but did she really experience enough personal growth to “deserve” getting her voice back (in the context of the structure of the story)? I was way more interested in the library storyline. I thought that the fear of the incompetent small town government was kind of unusual and really hit the spot (ie, that Maddie could not rely on police or emergency services to rescue them) and ramped up the tension. Things kind of went off the rails a bit towards the last third of the story, but overall it was not bad.

Rating: 2/5 antique chairs that have historical value and should be preserved at all costs

A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston

Synopsis: The year that no one in the book club can attend their annual cottage trip is of course the year that Elsy needs it the most. She’s still trying to get over her broken heart, and is struggling to cope with the endless grind of her job as an English professor. So when each member of their romance book club cancels, one after the other, Elsy refuses to quit. Even if it means having to spend a week in their usual cabin totally alone, it’s still worth it. After the rough year she’s had, the one thing she needs the most is her favourite romance series: the Quixotic Falls series by Rachel Flowers. Set in the picturesque small town of Eloraton, each of the four books captures the love story of a different couple. But the series was never finished, after Rachel Flower’s tragic death, and Elsy is so disappointed that she’ll never learn how it ends. But on the way to the book club cabin, Elsy’s car breaks down, and she’s forced to pull over in a small New England town that feels oddly familiar. She had stumbled into Eloraton. Could she really be inside her favourite romance novels? Everything is exactly the same as described, except for a mysterious grouchy bookstore owner. Can Elsy help conclude the Quixotic Falls series? Will she ever get her own happily ever after?

My thoughts: This book definitely wasn’t bad, but after absolutely devouring Ashley Poston’s other books, it just wasn’t as good (which was a devastating blow for me). I didn’t really like how the book-come-to-life plot was executed. It wasn’t like Elsy was trapped in a groundhog day-style time loop (although the author didn’t make it that clear); she could have left at any time as soon as her car was repaired. I think the stakes could have been higher, especially because Elsy was about to mess with the cannon without repurcussions (despite her own worries about it). I also think “Quixotic Falls” is a pretentious name for a book series. The stakes being low also meant that this book didn’t stand out to me among the other small town romances I’ve read (particularly When in Rome and Practice Makes Perfect, reviewed in my January 2024 and November 2023 roundups, respectively).

Rating: 3/5 bags of honey taffy (even though you don't like sweet things)

This Summer Will Be Different by Carely Fortune

Synopsis: Lucy and Bridget have been best friends for years, and Lucy is so glad that she’s been folded into Bridget’s family in PEI so easily. The first summer they went back, Bridget missed her flight, so Lucy had some time to kill. She hooked up with a handsome stranger, only to realize the next morning that he was actually Bridget’s brother Felix. This is a huge problem, because Bridget’s last best friend dated Felix and broke his heart so that she could “find herself”. So Lucy has careful instructions: don’t fall in love with Felix. Except that every year when she goes back to PEI, they always end up hooking up. But this summer is too important to mess up. Bridget is getting married, and Lucy (a florist) is doing the flowers for the wedding. And when Bridget unexpectedly flees back to PEI just days before her wedding, it’s up to Lucy to follow her, figure out just what the heck is going on, and make sure to NOT hook up with Felix.

My thoughts: This was a very steamy romance (so much so that I struggled to listen to it in public), but it was also very sweet and heartwarming. Overall I did like it, especially because a lot of the action revolved around Lucy and her best friend, instead of Lucy and her boyfriend. (A similar technique is used in my favourite Emily Henry novel Book Lovers, reviewed in my March 2023 roundup). The major issue that I had was in the climax of the book. Lucy and Felix are about to make their relationship official, but she accuses him of only seeing her as a hookup; in order to prove that he really loves her, Felix declares his love for her, and they proceed to hook up. Personally, I think that is completely missing the point. I would much rather have seen Felix prove his love in a non-physical way, like by making a big sacrifice or doing some kind of act of service for her. I never doubted that he loved her, but it’s about the principle of the matter. But other than that, Carely Fortune has produced another winning romance novel, and I’m excited for whatever she publishes next.

Rating: 4/5 Cow's Creamery cows named Wowee that live in the Charlottetown airport

Fifty-Four Pigs by Phillip Schott

Synopsis: Peter Bannerman is a veterinarian in New Selfoss, Manitoba (just north of Gimli). Despite growing up in town, he’s always been a bit of an outsider, preferring logic and objective thoughts over emotions and irrationality. He and his wife Laura and their dog Pippin live a quiet life together. Although Peter has started to gain a reputation as someone with a knack for solving small crimes, largely thanks to Pippin’s superior sense of smell (one of the best in Canada). Early one morning, Peter witnesses a large explosion in Tom Pearson’s barn. The structure is level, but thankfully the only victims are 54 pigs. That is, until RCMP officer (and Laura’s brother) Kevin discovers the remains of one human in the rubble. Who blew up Tom’s barn? Peter decides that perhaps he and Pippin should do a bit of unofficial investigating, just in case the RCMP miss something. But what is Peter really getting himself into?

My thoughts: I did have high hopes for this book based on my previous love of the Rockton and Haven’s Rock series (see my April and May 2024 roundups), because of the similar rural Canadian setting. Plus, this book was touted as a Canadian version of the Thursday Murder Club series (see my July, August, and October 2023 roundups), and I thought it might have a similar dry wit. However, I was pretty disappointed. The setting of rural small town Manitoba was interesting, but it wasn’t really enough to carry the rest of the story. Instead of witty and charming, Peter Bannerman came off as manipulative, because he kept lying to his wife that he wasn’t investigating the crime even after the RCMP told him to stop. (Readers will know two of my major pet peeves: people that don’t respect their wives, and people that try to solve crimes even after the police have told them to stop.) Even when he wasn’t annoying me, Peter was not an exceptionally interesting protagonist. I was disappointed that Pippin didn’t have a larger presence of character throughout the overall book. I also thought that the lightbulb moment kind of missed the mark, because the connection that Peter made was both too direct and too obscure. A great lightbulb moment that solves the crime should ideally be something that the audience can put together at the same time. In this case, the eureka was a very obvious connection to a very obscure thing: Peter was discussing polar bear gall bladders with someone else when he realized that the killers had probably been smuggling polar bear gall bladders. In this instance, the leap of logic was very easy to make but the fact it was based on was obscure (how am I supposed to know that polar bear gall bladders are extremely valuable on the black market??) In my opinion, this moment would have been more satisfying if the fact that it was based on was more accessible to the audience, but the leap of logic was more complex, because then it’s up to the reader to use their own critical thinking skills to solve the case, instead of relying on trivia. I have to admit, this normally wouldn’t really bother me. Readers will know that generally for mystery novels I am just happy to be along for the ride, and don’t necessarily try to solve it myself before the detectives. I just found this specific mystery solve to be unsatisfying. When added to all of the other notes I have about this book, I will likely not finish the series (which I have to admit surprised even myself).

Rating: 2/5 subnationalists who believe that the division of the Prairies into three separate provinces was arbitrary and inefficient

Dungeon Meshi by Ryoko Kui

Synopsis: After his sister Faylin is eaten by a dragon, Laios must rally the remaining members of his adventuring party to go back into the dungeon with only meager supplies. They’ll have just enough money to make it through, but his plan requires doing the unthinkable: eating monsters!

My thoughts: Even though this manga was published in 14 volumes, I’m only going to count it as 1 book (to do otherwise would feel like artificially inflating my stats for the year). It’s actually the first manga I’ve ever read, and I liked this manga a lot more than I was expecting to. My favourite parts were the monster-of-the-week format at the beginning. As the plot and lore became more complicated in the middle, it wasn’t really to my taste. But I really liked how the ending revolved a lot around the themes of eating and desire. I definitely related to Marcille the most, even her flaws! which I think is a sign of a good character. Plus she’s a blonde, Italian magic user, and readers will know that’s literally me. I was also disappointed that chilchuk and itzizumi didn’t really get much character development (yes, they both were given official backstories, but it didn’t feel like they go to do much in the present timeline of the story, which was definitely a shame). In the translation that I read, I really enjoyed the glossaries at the end, which helped English readers understand more of the Japanese cultural context as well as references to previous chapters.

Rating: 3/5 servings of spirit-cooled holy water sorbet

i am, your most faithful blogger, elisa