Partly because the humidity makes it hard to inhabit my own skin, this summer was a tough one for me. It felt like I started to read a dozen different collections of short stories—but never finished one. I’ve written about Carleigh Baker’s Last Woman (2024) and the Russian stories
You might recall that I filled my first #ShelfofMexico shortly after the current American administration renamed The Gulf of Mexico. There were some fabulous suggestions and all year, so far, I’ve been reading. (Shelf One is the first photo; I've already read all but one.) I knew that I
Douglas Bruton’s Blue Postcards (2021) came to me via ILL (thanks to the Forest Hill branch of the Toronto Public Library) because Susan, Mme Bibi, Kaggsy and Simon all loved it; so I was expecting to enjoy it, but I was not expecting to find summer in it.
Earlier in June, I was saying that I had read another seven books towards this challenge, and here they are. By Ojibwe/Cree, Dene/Métis, Swampy Cree-Beaver Clan of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, Secwépemc, Haisla/Heiltsuk, Couchiching First Nation/Ojibwe] authors. Nope, I’m not deliberately selecting different nations; that’s happening by-the-by. For those
Earlier this month—with Indigenous History Month in mind—I wrote about Thomas King’s latest Thumps Dreadfulwater mysteries, and my theme of Indigenous reading for this year’s Toronto Public Library Reading Challenge, including seven books by Indigenous writers that align with challenge themes. Now, on the other side of Indigenous Peoples’
