The Wisdom Found in Hen's Teeth (Pottersfield Press) When I read Been There, Ate That a couple of years ago, I felt like Jules and I had a lot in common. I could relate to her nostalgia to the junk food of the 80s and 90s; we share a similar sense of humour and playfulness … Continue reading Jules Torti: hen’s teeth, coincidences, gastro-intestinal matters, and being weird
It's hard to say who I admire more: a person who spends chunks of their life underwater with oxygen tanks strapped to their back, or a person who spends chunks of their life on their feet with a backpack filled with necessities strapped to their back. In Search of the Great Canadian Shark by Chris … Continue reading Maritime Memoirs: Chris Harvey-Clark and Emily Taylor Smith
Hearty is made up of 18 essays about food: andrea bennett cooks food, they eat food, they grow food, and they write about how food has shaped their life. I am always here for books about food. "When I cook, I make hearty food. For subsistence but, just as importantly, for pleasure. To keep myself … Continue reading Hearty: On Cooking, Eating, and Growing Food for Pleasure and Subsistence by andrea bennett
Message in a Bottle is a book that combines some of my favourite things: the ocean, seabirds and other marine animals, biology, snow and ice, and Atlantic Canadian stories. Holly Hogan is now one of my heroes, literary and otherwise. (And she's married to one of my other literary heroes - Michael Crummey. The two … Continue reading Message in a Bottle by Holly Hogan
As always, the best thing about book blogging is the bookish community, online and in "real" life. I have loved getting to know so many passionate readers and bloggers and writers and reviewers and publishers. Thank you for reading and commenting and visiting and chatting and writing and publishing! 🙂 ATLANTIC CANADA Seven years ago … Continue reading Highlights of 2022
This was an exceptional batch of audio books. These Precious Days by Ann Patchett I loved these essays. Ann had me crying several times, and it would be no hardship to listen to them all again. This book would make a lovely gift. At the heart of Patchett's essays is her friendship with Sooki, a … Continue reading What I’ve Been Listening To: Life is short so ignore your email, fight for yourself and others, and be still
The Library Book by Susan Orlean: In The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries across the country and around the world, from their humble beginnings as a metropolitan charitable initiative to their current status … Continue reading What I’ve Been Listening To: Books, Bodies, and Bacteria
After a series of memoirs about illness--then my octopus palette cleanser--I went back to social justice. So You Want to Talk About Race Ilejeomo Oluo I loved this book. I was invested in, not only what she was saying about racism and micro-aggressions, but about how it has affected her own life as a black … Continue reading What I’ve Been Listening To: three that made me think and three that made me laugh
After my rocky start to audio books, I am on a roll. I would recommend all of these, except maybe don't listen to the two cancer memoirs and depression memoir back to back to back like I did. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson This book is as good as everyone says it is. Even now, … Continue reading What I’ve Been Listening To: justice, cancer, depression, and octopuses
We can’t stop shopping. And yet we must. This is the consumer dilemma. The Day the World Stopped Shopping is a "thought experiment" taken on by the author. MacKinnon was curious to know what would happen if the world just stopped shopping one day. Would chaos ensue? Would the economy collapse, and along with it, … Continue reading The Day the World Stops Shopping by J.B. MacKinnon
Consumed by Ink 