March

This month I read: 6 TPL e-books and 2 books from the University of Toronto Libraries, totaling to 8 books overall.

Lots of Spoilers! Reader beware!

Before we begin:

Dishonorable Mentions

A Bad Day for Sunshine by Darynda Jones

Synopsis: After leaving her hometown following a traumatic assault, Sunshine Vicram and her young daughter Auri must come back to Del Sol, New Mexico because she was elected sheriff without even running. Sunshine will have to protect the town from new crimes while trying to get justice for her own.

My thoughts: No shade to the author, but I just couldn't get into this book.
You may enjoy this book if: you enjoy hunting serial criminals but also want a goofy tone and love story.

Twin Crowns by Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber

Synopsis: Wren and Rose are twins that were separated at birth, and now lead vastly different lives. Rose is the crown princess, and Wren is one of the last witches (who are persecuted and in hiding). Desperate to make a real change, Wren captures Rose and trades places with her. How will the twins be able to navigate dangerous situations, shifting politics, and romance?
My thoughts: Actually, I will shade the authors because I had high hopes for this. I read at least a third of this book but it was such a drag the whole way through. It was basically a worse version of the Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy: spunky but inept young princess gets captured and is forced to travel through the desert (see my February review for more details), but Twin Crowns also had a twin sister.
You may like this if: you enjoy fluffy YA fantasy/romance

The Real Reviews

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

Synopsis: There’s a wedding happening on a secluded island off of the coast of Ireland. We meet the wedding planner (who is hosting the wedding on her island), the bride, the maid of honour, the best man, the plus one, and the dead body. All the guests are in the wedding tent to shelter from the storm, and the power has just gone out. The wind is screaming outside, but is it just the wind? Told through revolving POVs in a series of flashbacks to the 36 hours leading up to the wedding, we eventually unravel the guest’s darkest secrets and figure who is not who they seem.
My thoughts: I actually read this book in February but somehow forgot to include it in February’s roundup. From what I can remember, the vibes were extremely spooky (derogatory). I wasn’t actually scared, and I thought the effect of the storm was quite heavy-handed, especially with all of the noises of the wind, and the thought that “someone” was out there. I think that the body could have been discovered by a nameless guest, and then eventually more and more named characters get added to that scene, thus narrowing down who the body could have possibly been. That would have given it more of a whodunnit feel. But the author’s ending did wrap up everything in a nice bow, so I will give her props for that. I also totally thought that the wedding planner was a man and he had a gay chef husband. That was not true (her name is Aoife, pronounced something like Eve); my apologies to the Irish.

Rating: 3/5 bottles of whiskey that you pretended were produced by your fake distillery to distract from the fact that your life sucks

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Synopsis: Nora Stephen’s life is like a romance novel, except she’s not the main character. Her past 4 boyfriends have all abandoned her, the high-powered workaholic city woman (known to some as the Shark), for sweet small town girls who run bed and breakfasts and family-own ranches. When Libby, her sister, begs for them to have a girls trip, Nora reluctantly joins her for a month in Sunshine Falls, North Carolina, the platonic ideal of a small town. Nora is a literary agent based in New York City, and Sunshine Falls was the setting of her biggest client’s recent bestseller, Once in a Lifetime. Her client just submitted a great new manuscript for another book, and Nora is happy to sacrifice her vacation to help edit it. Except, the book is about Nadine Winters, a ruthless and bloodthirsty film agent, who is a lot like Nora. Even worse, she keeps running in to Charlie Lastra, a dry, monochromatic New York literary type, and the editor who rejected Once but is determined to edit the new manuscript. Plus, things with Libby aren’t quite what they seem.

My thoughts: This is perhaps the best romance novel ever. I actually already read this in the fall but I was craving something familiar that I knew was excellent, and I lucked into a skip-the-line copy. I adore Nora and Charlie together, they fit really well and it’s a nice way to rebel against the “city man leaving his ex for a new country girl” trope. Any romance scenes that may or may not exist are moving but not explicit. I love that Nora and Charlie do everything right and don’t get into stupid arguments or miscommunications, and that the third act conflict is mostly based around Nora and Libby’s relationship instead. I also love that Nora is a New Yorker who adores many different aspects of New York, so there’s a reason to set the book there (readers will know that I hate when books are set in New York arbitrarily; there are so many other census metropolitan areas to choose from). There are some fun easter eggs that reference Emily Henry’s other books, so look out for those if you’ve read them (which I also recommend). On my second read-through there were a couple of scenes that I skipped, but they were pretty short and not egregious. All in all, I adore this book.

Rating: 5/5 local small town businesses with charming names like Poppa Squat and Mug + Shot

Love and Other Disasters by Anita Kelly

Synopsis: Dahlia’s life is falling apart. She just divorced her high-school sweetheart and is now running out of money; the only joy in her life right now is cooking. When she gets the opportunity to appear on Chef’s Special (a reality cooking show), she quits her job to fly across the country and compete for prize money. London’s life isn’t falling apart, but things still aren’t great; they’re feeling unmoored and directionless, and their relationship with their still father hasn’t recovered even though they came out as non-binary two years ago. Maybe competing on Chef’s Special will help get them out of their rut. When London and Dahlia meet on set, sparks fly. But they come from such different lives; will they ever be able to make it work?

My thoughts: If you are looking for queer or w/nb stories (aka slash fiction, as I was recently taught), you will enjoy this book. I do ship London and Dahlia because they clearly fit very well together. For all you degenerates, yes there are plenty of steamy scenes, but they do feel very one-sided. From my expert perspective (readers will know that I am very straight and very sex-negative), if you’re going to write a queer love scene, don’t be a coward; you have to actually do justice for both parties. Low-key, I also wish that the author had spent more time explaining how the cooking show work (even though I know it’s not the point of the book). I feel like books about cooking reality shows are everywhere now; perhaps the cooking-show-writers-guild has banded together to ensure that no fictional cooking shows ever get described in an effort to prevent rebel authors from undercutting their competition with a detailed explanation of the rules, regulations, and strategies.

Rating: 3/5 boxes of roasted vegetables that I shipped across the country to you as a big romantic gesture that went very rotten because I couldn’t afford refrigerated packaging

Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan

Synopsis: Ana Dakkar is a student at Harding-Pencroft Academy, an exclusive private high school dedicated to marine sciences and also combat. At HP, there are four houses: Dolphins (main character syndrome, linguists, recon); Sharks (jocks, combat, weapons); Cephalopods (nerds, engineers); and Orcas (medics, archivists). HP is actually named after Cyrus Harding and Bonadventure Pencroft, the protagonists of The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. But surely it’s just a quirky reference, right? They’re fictional characters; they can’t have actually founded the school, right? And when HP is attacked, will Ana have what it takes to lead her freshman class and defeat the Land Institute?

My thoughts: “Rick Riordan?” you say, “Isn’t that the guy who did Percy Jackson? Isn’t this a middle grade book?” In this cafe we stan middle grade adventure books and we especially stan Rick Riordan. (He actually started Rick Riordan Presents, a publishing imprint where authors who’ve written Percy Jackson-style books for other mythologies (Korean, Hindu, Navajo, Mayan, African/Afro-American, etc) can get published, and Rick helps by promoting their books. It’s a genius idea and seems to be very successful). Now that we've cleared that up, I wish that the evil rival school in Daughter of the Deep was the Annorax Institute (named for Pierre Annorax) and that the evil submarine was the Harpoon or the Land Shark or something like that (referencing Canadian Ned Land, a harpooner), instead of the other way around. The Land Institute is giving way too much earth vs water vibes and I struggled to get past them. I know that Riordan thrives in a middle grade environment, and the kids here were in grade 9, being attacked by grade 12s. However grade 9 (and only one year of prior training) just seems way too young for these kids to be as violent and efficient of a militia as they are (Would I defend middle grade books until my dying breath? Yes. Am I also annoyed that the characters are in middle grades? Also yes). But despite the insanely high stakes, I did enjoy the book, and I would read a sequel if he wrote one. If you are a Jules Verne girlie, you will definitely like this book.

Rating: 3/5 orangutans who love The Great British Bake Off and can make you any food you desire out of microalgae synthates

The Life Lucy Knew by Karma Brown

Synopsis: Lucy's life is going well. She's happily married to Daniel, and is the head of communications at consulting firm in Toronto. But after a nasty head injury, Lucy wakes up in the hospital to hear that not all of it is true: she and Daniel broke off their engagement years ago, and now she's dating Matt, who she thought was just a co-worker. What is going on? It turns out that Lucy has developed false memories while she was in a coma, and they’re completely fabricated even though they feel very real to her. How can she go back to living her life when she's not the same person any more? And how will she navigate her current relationship when she thought she was married to someone else?

My thoughts: This book had a cool premise, and I like that it explored how memories (and life experiences) can really shape a person. It was also set in Toronto (readers will know that's where I live!), although it didn't feel quite authentic (the author lives in the GTA not in the city, so that must be why). I binge read this while motion sick, and unironically I felt very #unreality while reading this book, almost as if I was struggling to distinguish book from reality. I assume this is what it’s like to read while high. However, I'm not really in love with this book. I think I've read too many thrillers, because I was expecting a lot more malicious energy (eg. that Lucy hit her head because she was pushed, and that Daniel's current wife was trying to poison Lucy). I understand that for plot reasons, not everything can be resolved in the first act of the book, but surely Lucy should have had the nerve to ask Daniel why they broke up sooner instead of staying hopelessly in love with him for far too long. Also, Lucy recognizes that multiple false memories aren't entirely made up: they are usually based in reality with some false details. No she didn't get married but she went to her sister's wedding. The fancy party for her parent's 25th anniversary was actually for Matt's parent's anniversary. I wish that Lucy had been able to accept these facts and apply the same concepts to her false memories about Daniel: yes she had a romantic bubble bath date, but it was with Matt, not Daniel. I think understanding her feelings were real but just misplaced would have really helped her (readers will know I've taken one (1) psych class about memory, so I'm something of an expert in this area). Generally, the entire Matt vs Daniel romantic subplot made me super uncomfortable. The ending also hit me like a brick wall: completely anti-climactic, glossed over all of the issues that the protagonist took so much time to reveal, and just fast-forwarded to months later after they had already resolved their issues.

Rating: 2/5 blue and grey striped ties that are utterly boring and unremarkable and definitely aren't a metaphor for the valuing the simple joys in life

Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohammed

Synopsis: This graphic novel is set in an alternate reality Egypt where wishes exist. Sentient spirits (jinns) that can grant wishes are extracted and bottled (or canned), and then sold in all over the world. Not all wishes are created equal. Third-class wishes aren’t bound very well, so the spirits have enough freedom to monkey’s-paw-ify most requests. But first-class wishes can grant the wisher virtually anything. Shubeik Lubeik (an Arabic phrase that means “your wish is my command”) chronicles the day-to-day realities of Shokry, a street kiosk owner in Cairo, as he tries to sell three first-class wishes (It’s not as easy as it seems; wishes aren’t really allowed in Islam, and many Muslims deeply distrust wishes). Over about 5 years, we see the stories of Aziza (a poor worker who is unfairly arrested for buying a first-class wish), Nour (a university student who contemplates using a wish to cure his depression), and Shawqia (an old woman who is dying of cancer), as well as Shokry himself.

My thoughts: I really enjoyed reading this book and I highly recommend it. Nour’s section was my favorite, both because it used a lot of graphs and charts to illustrate Nour’s inner thoughts as a university student, and for its realistic portrayal of mental illness issues. Shawqia and Shokry’s stories were also so rich and detailed, and had a lot of emotion. The art style was really fantastic, and I especially like how the jinns were depicted as being made of Arabic letters instead of having a defined shape. There were also two vignettes that gave more context into the system of wishes (for all you amateur economists, they are valued like money and extracted and regulated like oil). In general, I really liked the worldbuilding surrounding wishes, including how they co-existed with governments, religion, and international relations. The only issue I had was that since the book was originally published in Arabic, it’s supposed to be read from right to left; I wasn’t always sure which order the panels should have been read in, especially since they varied in shape, size, and placement. But that’s because I’m a dirty westerner; definitely not the author’s fault.

Rating: 4/5 advertisements using just the most atrocious graphic design you could imagine

Women Talking by Miriam Toews

Synopsis: After the news about the mass rapes in Manitoba Colony, a Mennonite community in Bolivia, broke in the early 2010s, Toews created “an imagined response to real events.” The novel starts when the men of the Molotschna colony left to bail out the 8 perpetrators in the main city after they were arrested for their own protection. Eight women meet in a barn hay loft; they represent two main families (the Loewens and the Friesens) and three generations, and have all been directly harmed by the perpetrators. They are there to decide the future for women of Molotschna: they can stay and fight, stay and forgive, or leave Molotschna altogether. Over the course of two days the women talk, debating and discussing issues of life, religion, the world, and misogyny. August Epp is a man, but he’s an outsider, and only returned to the colony after the perpetrators initially confessed; he is there to take minutes (because he’s the only one who can read and write), and he narrates the story. This novel was the inspiration for Sarah Polley’s Oscar-winning adapted screenplay for the film of the same name.

My thought: I am pretty sure that I read this book when I was going through a Can-Lit phase several years ago, but I’m not sure if I finished it then. I definitely finished it now though, and it’s a very powerful read. It’s very interesting to hear the inner thoughts of the women of Molotschna, considering that they can’t read or write, and are incredibly oppressed by the men in their colony. Ironically, we are only able to read the story because they have a man there to transcribe it, highlighting just how little freedoms the women have (But August is definitely an ally to the women; yes he’s weird and awkward but I won’t hear any slander towards him). They truly live in a different world to us, even though it’s set only 10 years ago. The book is very lyrical and thoughtful, so it may not be everyone’s cup of tea (usually it’s not mine).

Rating: 3/5 stolen horses that you didn’t really steal but instead freed so they could join an equal socialist society but you got in trouble anyway

Spin: A Novel Based on a (Mostly) True Story by Peter Zheutlin

Synopsis: Anna Cohen Kopchovsky wants more out of life. Only 22, she’s already stuck in a passionless marriage with three small children underfoot. The best part of her day is when she can leave the house for her part-time job of selling newspaper advertisements. It’s the 1890s, and bicycles have just become all the range. In order to popularize cycling for women, the president of the Columbia Bicycle Company has issued a challenge: he’ll award $10 000 (an absolute fortune) to any woman that can cover 10 000 miles in 15 months, while earning $5 000 along the way. For Anna Cohen Kopchovsky, who has never ridden a bike in her life, that would be impossible. But for Annie Londonderry (sponsored by Londonderry Spring Water Company), there is no such thing as impossible. Annie accepts the challenge, and thus begins her trip around the world. This book is actually based on the life of the real Anna Kopchovsky, who is the great-great-aunt of the author, although Zheutlin admits that it’s heavily fictionalized because there just weren’t enough records.

My thoughts: I had actually already heard of Annie Londonderry (literally heard of, since she was an episode of the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast), so I was vaguely familiar with her story. Annie was an impressive protagonist, and although she wasn’t exactly the epitome of be gay, do crimes, she did her very best. The crime in question is just lying, but she lies more than my lawful-good ass can normally tolerate. It was pretty interesting to see how Annie interacted with the media (her press strategy was to be as sensationalist and inconsistent as possible in order to become even more of a sensation, and create enough public pressure to ensure that she would get the prize money, even if she didn’t quite fulfill all the conditions). Certified girlboss behaviour. In terms of being gay, I absolutely had no problem with book-Annie’s sexual orientation, but it made me a bit uncomfortable for real-Annie; in the epilogue Zheutlin shares that he’s written several books about Annie, but that he had to falsify a lot of the events in the novel in order to create a cohesive story. I don’t actually know what the real Annie’s sexual orientation was, so I can’t say how truthful or authentic the lesbian storylines really were, but the idea of making these kinds of speculations doesn’t totally sit right with me.

Rating: 3/5 serendipitous meetings with the two biggest feminists of the 1890s, Susan B. Anthony and checks notes Buffalo Bill Cody

And finally:

The Bonus Bracelet of the Month

This bracelet uses pattern #143531, and it's my first ever pattern! It's not really original though, since I took an existing pattern and just doubled the amount of strings from 12 to 24. I have been wanting to try out a braid-style pattern but it takes a lot of string so I was irrationally nervous (any other fibre arts girlies constantly worry about using up string/yarn? or am I just crazy), so instead I actually foraged the string for this bracelet from an activity on campus. So yeah, I guess you could say I'm a Gatherer. However, it's a thicker cord material that I'm not used to and don't really like (plus tangles super easily). I also didn't have a great selection of colours to choose from, so I wish that the purple colours were inverted. This bracelet took me nearly 6 weeks to finish, and it's easily my longest bracelet to date (it fits around my wrist 1.5 times). Eventually I'll trim the ends to get rid of the loose strings, but for now I'm just glad to be done with it.

i am, your most faithful blogger, elisa