Deedledee continues to read during the plague

Hi folks,

I'm Dee, a 40ish (*cough* almost 50 *cough*) librarian in rural Nova Scotia. I live with two evil cats in a house that looks like it might be a craft store.

Reading goals for 2022:
-complete Popsugar Reading Challenge
-read 100 books
-finish Les Miserables

Popsugar Reading Challenge
*A book published in 2022 - Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover (Feb 27)
*A book set on a plane, train, or cruise ship - Falling by T. J. Newman (July 1)
*A book about or set in a nonpatriarchal society - Wonder Woman: Earth One, Vol. 1 by Grant Morrison (Mar 1)
*A book with a tiger on the cover or "tiger" in the title - Tiger, Tiger by Galaxy Craze (Sep 12)
*A sapphic book - Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily R. Austin (Aug 2)
*A book by a Latinx author - Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez (Feb 26)
*A book with an onomatopoeia in its title - The Woo-Woo by Lindsay Wong (Apr 10)
*A book with a protagonist who uses a mobility aid - The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix (Apr 30)
*A book about a "found family" - Five Little Indians by Michelle Good (Mar 9)
*An Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winner - Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey (May 21)
*A #BookTok recommendation - Heartstopper v.1 by Alice Oseman (May 7)
*A book about the afterlife - Annihilation by by Jeff VanderMeer (July 25)
*A book set in the 1980s - Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones (Jan 22)
*A book with cutlery on the cover or in the title - Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson (July 24)
*A book by a Pacific Islander author - Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn (Sep 17)
*A book about witches - Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch by Rivka Galchen (Sep 30)
*A book becoming a TV series or movie in 2022 - Bones & All by Camille DeAngelis (Jan 30)
*A romance novel by a BIPOC author - Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert (Feb 12)
*A book that takes place during your favorite season - The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys (Mar 8)
*A book whose title begins with the last letter of your previous read - Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins (May 13)
*A book about a band or musical group - Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente (June 3)
*A book with a character on the ace spectrum - The Consumption of Magic by T.J. Klune (Feb 9)
*A book with a recipe in it - The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner (Jan 23)
*A book you can read in one sitting - Wisdom in Nonsense: Invaluable Lessons From My Father by Heather O'Neill (Jan 4)
*A book about a secret - The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel (Jan 3)
*A book with a misleading title -Shakespeare's Pub by Pete Brown (June 24)
*A Hugo Award winner - All Systems Red by Martha Wells (July 13)
*A book set during a holiday - We Are Okay by Nina LaCour (Aug 12)
*A different book by an author you read in 2021 -Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel (Jan. 1)
*A book with the name of a board game in the title - Fire by Kristin Cashore (Jan 9)
*A book featuring a man-made disaster -A Bunch of Pretty Things I Did Not Buy by Sarah Lazarovic (Jan 11)
*A book with a quote from your favorite author on the cover or Amazon page - Birdie by Tracy Lindberg (May 5)
*A social-horror book - Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff (June 10)
*A book set in Victorian times - The Five by Hallie Rubenhold (May 16)
*A book with a constellation on the cover or in the title - Aurora by David Koepp (Oct 23)
*A book you know nothing about - Weather by Jenny Offill (Jan 16)
*A book about gender identity - When Everything Feels Like the Movies by Raziel Reid (Mar 8)
*A book featuring a party - Heartstopper v.2 by Alice Oseman (June 2)
*An #OwnVoices SFF (science fiction and fantasy) book - A Wish Upon the Stars by TJ Klune (June 25)
*A book that fulfills your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge- Good Habits, Bad Habits by Wendy Wood (Apr 10)

Advanced
*A book with a reflected image on the cover or "mirror" in the title -Long Red Hair by Meags Fitzgerald (Mar 14)
*A book that features two languages - Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Feb 28)
*A book with a palindromic title - MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood (Sep 19)
*A duology (1) -The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson (Oct 6)
*A duology (2) - Hunting by Stars by Cherie Dimaline (Dec 11)
*A book about someone leading a double life - Killers of the Flower Moon: the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI by David Grann (Jan 31)
*A book featuring a parallel reality - The Russian Cage by Charlaine Harris (Aug 13)
*A book with two POVs - Mrs. Fletcher by Tom Perrotta (Feb 12)
*Two books set in twin towns, aka "sister cities" (1) - In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje (Apr 4)
*Two books set in twin towns, aka "sister cities" (2) -Fool Moon by Jim Butcher (Aug 4)

Books read in 2022:
January
1. Only Human (Themis Files #3) by Sylvain Neuvel
2. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
3. Wisdom in Nonsense: Invaluable Lessons From My Father by Heather O'Neill (ANF)
4. Fire by Kristin Cashore (read by Xanthe Elbrick - CD)
5. A Bunch of Pretty Things I Did Not Buy by Sarah Lazarovic (ANF)
6. Weather by Jenny Offill
7. Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones (ebook - hoopla)
8. The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner (read by Lorna Bennett, Lauren Anthony, and Lauren Irwin - hoopla)
9. The Look-alike by Erica Spindler (read by Tavia Gilbert)
10. Bones & All by Camille DeAngelis
11. Killers of the Flower Moon: the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI by David Grann (read by Ann Marie Lee, Will Patton, and Danny Campbell)(ANF)
February
12. Love You to Death by Gail Bowen
13. The Consumption of Magic by T.J. Klune (ebook - hoopla)
14. Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert (read by Adjoa Andoh - hoopla)
15. Mrs. Fletcher by Tom Perrotta (read by Carrie Coon and Finn Wittrock - CD)
16. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
17. Black Dahlia by Rick Geary (graphic novel non-fiction)
18. Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez (ebook - hoopla)
19. Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover (read by Brittany Pressley and Ryan West - CD)
20. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
March
21. Wonder Woman: Earth One, Vol. 1 by Grant Morrison (AGN)
22. When Everything Feels Like the Movies by Raziel Reid (YF)
23. The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys (ebook - hoopla)
24. Five Little Indians by Michelle Good (read by Kyla García - hoopla)
25. The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah (read by Julia Whelan - CD)
26. Long Red Hair by Meags Fitzgerald (AGN)(ANF)
27. What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad (ebook - OverDrive)
28. Good as Gone by Amy Gentry (read by Karen Peakes - CD)
29. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (read by Dion Graham - hoopla)
April
30. In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
31. The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family by Lindsay Wong (ebook - OverDrive)
32. Good Habits, Bad Habits: the Science of Making Positive Changes that Stick by Wendy Wood (read by Wendy Wood - CD)
33. The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls by Ursula Hegi (read by Angela Dawe - CD)
34. The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
May
35. Birdie by Tracy Lindberg (read by Alyssa Bresnahan - hoopla)
36. Heartstopper v.1 by Alice Oseman (YGN)
37. Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins (read by Barrie Kreinik - CD)
38. The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold (ebook - hoopla)
39. Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir by Natasha Trethewey (read by Natasha Trethewey - CD)
June
40. Heartstopper v.2 by Alice Oseman (YGN)
41. Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente (read by Heath Miller - hoopla)
42. Gulp: Adventures in the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach (ANF)
43. Heartstopper v.3 by Alice Oseman (YGN)
44. Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
45. Sting by Sandra Brown (read by Stephen Lang - CD)
46. Shakespeare's Pub: A Barstool History of London as Seen Through the Windows of its Oldest Pub - The George Inn by Pete Brown (ANF)
47. Yeah, No. Not Happening: How I Found Happiness Swearing Off Self-Improvement and Saying F*ck It All—and How You Can Too by Karen Karbo (read by Karen Karbo - hoopla) (ANF)
48. A Wish Upon the Stars by TJ Klune
49. Dead Silence by SA Barnes
July
50. Falling by T. J. Newman (read by Steven Weber - CD)
51. Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman (read by Tupelo Hassman - hoopla)
52. Heartstopper v.4 by Alice Oseman (YGN)
53. Icefields by Thomas Wharton (ebook - hoopla)
54. Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier (read by Anne Twomey - CD)
55. All Systems Red by Martha Wells
56. Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson (ANF)
57. Annihilation by by Jeff VanderMeer (ebook - hoopla)
58. Before My Time: a Memoir of Love and Fate / Daughter of Family G: A Memoir of Cancer Genes, Love and Fate by Ami McKay (read by Ami McKay - OverDrive)
August
59. The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl (read by Dave Grohl - CD)
60. Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily R. Austin
61. Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
62. Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid (ebook - OverDrive)
63. We Are Okay by Nina LaCour (YF)
64. The Russian Cage by Charlaine Harris (read by Eva Kaminsky - hoopla)
65. Len and Cub: A Queer History by Meredith Batt and Dusty Green (ANF)
66. Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries #2) by Martha Wells
67. Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries #3) by Martha Wells
68. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
69. Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune (ebook - OverDrive)
70. Marilla Before Anne by Louise Michalos
71. This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Medical Resident by Adam Kay (ANF)
72. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (read by Bernadette Dunne, Katie MacNichol, and Mark Bramhall - CD)
73. Summerwater by Sarah Moss (read by Morven Christie - hoopla)
September
74. Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries #4) by Martha Wells
75. Tiger, Tiger by Galaxy Craze (ebook - hoopla)
76. Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn (read by Kaleo Griffith, Jolene Kim, Tui Asau, and G. K. Bowes - hoopla)
77. Threshold by Angela J. Reynolds (YF)
78. MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood (read by Bernadette Dunne, Bob Walter, and Robbie Daymond - CD)
79. Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch by Rivka Galchen (ebook - OverDrive)
October
80. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson (ebook - hoopla)
81. Aurora by David Koepp (read by Rupert Friend - CD)
82. Cultish: the Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell (read by Ann Marie Gideon - OverDrive)
November
83. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
84. The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune (YF)
85. The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty
86. Crazy Love by Leslie Morgan Steiner (ANF)
87. The Diary of Mattie Spenser by Sandra Dallas (read by Celeste Ciulla - hoopla)
88. Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems 1962-1996 by Al Purdy
89. Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
December
90. Hunting by Stars by Cherie Dimaline (YF) (ebook - OverDrive)
91. Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Roberto Innocenti (JF)
92. Brother by David Chariandy
93. Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley (YF) (read by Isabella LaBlanc - OverDrive)
94. Fairy Tale by Stephen King (read by Seth Numrich - CD)
95. Bitcoin Widow: Love, Betrayal and the Missing Millions by Jennifer Robertson (ANF)

That's quite the challenge. If my TBR list ever stops growing faster than I can read, I might try something like that.

I also wish to express my gratitude for folks in your profession. Without libraries, my reading addiction would get very expensive.

I've done (I guess I should say "attempted" since I didn't finish it) the Popsugar reading challenge in previous years, it can be fun to search out books for it. I'm interested to see how it shakes out for you in 2022. :)

This group always helps me to read; welcome back, Dee.

Happy reading in 2022, Dee!

Hope you enjoy your 2022 reads with those evil cats curled up beside you!

Hi Dee! Came here for the evil cats lol your intro post is funny! Hope you have a good reading year ahead!

Happy new year, Dee! Wishing you all the luck with the PopSugar challenge.

Book 1.
Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel
The final book in the Themis Files trilogy.
*Spoilers for the first two books may lie ahead - proceed with caution*

At the end of Waking Gods, Vincent, Rose, Eva, and Eugene are beamed to the planet of Esat Ekt on board Themis. This was done accidentally and the the Ekt have no idea what to do with them. Meanwhile on Earth, anyone who has a certain percentage of alien blood is rounded up and put into camps.
In this final book of the trilogy, Neuvel focuses more on the human (or maybe alien) aspect rather than on the giant robots. It's more about how we deliberately look for differences to exploit, to look down on, to make problematic.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A different book by an author you read in 2021

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Dee! Good luck with the Popsugar challenge!

Book 2.
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
I really, really loved Station Eleven but when I first read the description of Glass Hotel it didn’t sound appealing at all. A friend of mine told me to give it a try and I trust her book recommendations. She was right. I just plowed through this book.
What’s the secret? Well one of them is a Ponzi scheme that Johnathan Alkaitis is running. But there are many other secrets in this novel. There is the disappearance of Vincent’s mother. There is a fake marriage. Lots and lots of moral ambiguity.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book about a secret

Book 3.
Wisdom in Nonsense: Invaluable Lessons From My Father by Heather O'Neill
The Canadian Literature Centre's 2017 Kreisel Lecture was O'Neill expounding on the lessons she learned from her father. Her father's lessons are... interesting to say the least. Amongst all his weird and questionable lessons is one that is very important - that she is extraordinary and can be whomever she wants.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book you can read in one sitting

Book 4
Fire by Kristin Cashore

Years ago I read Graceling and I always meant to get around to reading this companion novel.

In the Dells, monsters are beautiful creatures so beautiful that they can make people lose their minds.
Fire is the only human monster and her beauty is renowned. She also has the ability to read minds and in some cases manipulate people's thoughts.
The king of the realm wants her to come to the capital and use her powers to help him find traitors and defeat his enemies.

The thing I can't quite wrap my head around is how much happens in a short period of time. And yet, in trying to write a summary of the book it's all just a jumble.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book with the name of a board game in the title

Book 5.
A Bunch of Pretty Things I Did Not Buy by Sarah Lazarovic
An anti-consumerism book that talks about fast fashion and its impacts on our environment and on us.
Lazarovic doesn't claim to be perfect instead she talks about her short comings and the ways she's looking to overcome them while providing some tips to reduce our unadulterated purchasing.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book featuring a man-made disaster

Book 6.
Weather by Jenny Offill
Kind of like an inner monologue but more structured than stream of consciousness.
Set around 2016, this novel explores the ideas of political unrest, climate change, and overt racism while based around mundane things like family and relationships.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book you know nothing about

Book 7
Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
Dana Yarboro has known her whole life that she is part of her father's second family. That has always meant being in second place. Her father's real family always came first. But then as a teenager she becomes friends with her half-sister. The half-sister who doesn't know she exists.
Chaurisse Witherspoon is jealous of the "silver girls" and longs for a friend. When she meets Dana in the drugstore there's an instant connection. Little does she know it will tear her whole life apart.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book set in the 1980s

Book 8.
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
I wanted to like this based on the description but it really didn't do it for me.
I think I would have enjoyed it much more if it was just historical fiction without the present day touch that made me cringe.

Nella is an apothecary that delves out poison to women who have been done wrong. The women in question are being cheated on, abused, or are watching their husbands going after children. Why does Nella do this? What has made her into a murdered by proxy?
In the present day, Caroline has come to London on what was supposed to be a trip for her 10th anniversary. She comes alone because just before the trip she discovers that her husband has been cheating on her. In a twist of fate she discovers one of the vials of the apothecary in the Thames which leads her on a path to find out it's history.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book with a recipe in it

Book 9.
The Look-alike by Erica Spindler
Ugh! I don't even know why I finished this book.
Sienna has just returned home from 10 years of living in London, having left after finding a murdered woman on her college campus. She wants put the past behind her and be close to her mother and brother again. But the killer was never caught and might still be after her.
What did I dislike about this book:
Sienna was whiny and immature. Her brother, ostensibly taking care of her mother all this time, doesn't seem to check on her at all. The killer was easy to guess but yet didn't really make sense. The insta-love with the across the street neighbour - who's back story I won't even mention.
This book was a real dog's breakfast.

Book 10
Bones & All by Camille DeAngelis
A coming of age romance about a cannibal.
Maren eats people, starting with her babysitter when she was only 2 or 3 years old. For years she and her mother have been moving from place to place to avoid the law. Then one day she wakes up and her mom has gone, leaving her only a few hundred dollars and a copy of her birth certificate. Sixteen year old Maren now has to navigate the world on her own.

Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet star in this movie slated to be out sometime this year.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book becoming a TV series or movie in 2022

Book 11
Killers of the Flower Moon: the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI by David Grann
So much to unpack in this book!
The true crime aspect looking at the murders of several members of the Osage nation, known as the 'Reign of Terror'. In the end, 24 people were killed, almost all of whom were from one family.
How the FBI became the large organization it is today. The FBI agents were able to solve these murders because they actually tried rather than just being bought off or being involved as other local and state lawmakers.
And, the most important is just how terrible the Osage people were treated. They were considered to be children and were not allowed to spend their own money how they wished. The "Guardians" who had charge of their funds were almost all corrupt.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book about someone leading a double life

Book 12.
Love You to Death by Gail Bowen
I picked this up because my coworker and I were talking about books you can read in one sitting on the radio. It wasn't terrible but not really my thing.
Charlie is the host of a talk radio show that has regular callers with whom he has become quite close. But someone is killing those callers off because they're getting in the way, and next she's coming to find Charlie.

Just catching up, Dee. Have a great weekend.

Book 13
The Consumption of Magic by T.J. Klune
The 3rd book in the Tales from Verania series.
Things have become a bit darker for Sam of Wilds, although he and his merry band of misfits are still wise cracking and engaging in lots of adventures, and sex, and sexual adventures. But now Sam has fought Myrin and barely come away with his life. And the prophesy is bearing down on him.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book with a character on the ace spectrum

Book 14
Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
A cute romance that touches on chronic illness, class divide, and the aftermath of an abusive relationship.

Chloe Brown has fibromyalgia that often leaves her in pain. After a close brush with death she decides she needs to stop taking the safe path and get a life. So she makes a list to help her take steps to accomplish some changes.

Red is working as the superintendent of Chloe's apartment building but is also an artist. Chloe knows this because she's been spying on him, watching him paint. Although they seemingly can't stand the sight of each other it just masks their attraction.

Both of them have been hurt in the past and have a hard time trusting and being vulnerable. Which is frustrating because as the reader you know they should be together but there need to be obstacles in the way.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A romance novel by a BIPOC author

Book 15
Mrs. Fletcher by Tom Perrotta
This book seemed familiar to me while I was reading it so I looked back in my reading list and discovered I read it in 2017. Apparently it takes about 5 years for my brain to lose the details of a book.

Eve's son has just left to go to college. She's trying to figure out how to live with an empty nest. She tries new things, meets new people, and even explores her sexuality a little bit.

Meanwhile, her son Brendan, discovers college life is not all it's cracked up to be and what worked for him in high school isn't going to fly in college. He can't seem to figure out where he fits and academics are not really his forte.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book with two POVs

Book 16
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

A Pulitzer prize winner that I'm surprised I've never read before.

Book 17.
Black Dahlia by Rick Geary
This case is infamous but other than passing mentions in a few shows I didn't know much of the details.
Elizabeth Short's body was found mutilated on the morning of January 15th, 1947 in Los Angeles. To this date her murder has not been solved.
Geary doesn't just talk about the brutal crime but also recounts Short's life, her relationship with her family, the lose of her fiance, and her behaviour in the last days of her life.

Book 18.
Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez
A contender for Canada Reads this year, Hernandez refers to Scarborough as a love letter to her community.
Heart warming and heart wrenching, it is interconnected stories of people living in a community of Toronto that is predominantly poor and is very ethnically diverse. The people in this novel are just doing their best to try to get by and yet many of them have such compassion.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book by a Latinx author

Book 19
Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover
Ugh! I don't know why I kept going with this book. Part of the premise worked for me but the insta-romance just made me angry.
Kenna spent 5 years in prison for manslaughter. She drove drunk and her boyfriend, Scott died. While in prison she gives birth and Scott's parents win sole custody of the baby. Kenna never even got to hold her child. Now she's back in town and hoping to build a relationship with her daughter.
Her first day in town she meets Ledger, Scott's best friend and there is an instant attraction.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book published in 2022

Book 20
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
I know there are some folks out there that just love this book. I liked it ok but didn't feel the love.
An alien microorganisms (astrophage) is eating the sun’s energy which will make Earth colder and lead to another ice age. This is an apocalyptic event. In just a few short years it is anticipated that half of the population of the planet will be dead from starvation due to crop failure.
Eva Stratt has been tasked with building a group of experts to solve this problem for the world and she's absolutely ruthless about it. Among the scientists she recruits is an 8th grade teacher, Ryland Grace.
At the beginning of the book, Grace wakes up in a space ship with no memory of how he got there or even his name but bit by bit he remembers he's on a mission to find a way to kill astrophage and save Earth.
Then he meets another creature out in space looking to save their planet from the same menace.
I have to say the alien, Rocky, is my favourite part of the book.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book that features two languages

Book 21
Wonder Woman: Earth One, Vol. 1 by Grant Morrison
Diana, Princess of the Amazons, is bored with her life - the same for millennia. When Steve Trevor crashed on their hidden island it changes everything. She heads into the forbidden "Man's World" and finds that it needs their help. Back on Paradise Island, Diana is put on trial.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book about or set in a nonpatriarchal society

Book 22
When Everything Feels Like the Movies by Raziel Reid
I'm working my way through former Canada Reads books to prep for a radio show. This YA novel was shortlisted in 2015. It also won a Governor General's Award in 2014, despite the fact that some folks protested it.
Jude is obsessed with the movies and being a star, but first he has to escape his small town and get to Hollywood. Really, this is just Jude's way of coping with his life. He's queer and very out about it and because of that gets beat up and harassed a lot. His stepfather relegates him to a room in the basement because he doesn't want him sharing a room with his son.
Jude's best friend, Angela, and he are outsiders but her coping mechanism is having lots of inappropriate and unprotected sex. They also drink, take drugs (some stolen from Angela's mother), skip school, etc. In short, they're the bad kids you were warned to stay away from.
I understand that this book won't be everyone's cup of tea but I found it touching and cried at the ending. It doesn't matter that society is supposedly more accepting of LGBT+ people, they are still bullied and worse.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book about gender identity

Book 23
The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys
Continuing to make my way through Canada Reads books, this novel was shortlisted in 2003.
Gwen volunteers to leave London in 1941 to lead a division of the Women's Land Army in Devon. These women were agricultural volunteers tasked with growing food. Gwen has lived a fairly sheltered life, primarily of her own accord, and doesn't initially get along with the women she's to take charge of.
Although the garden metaphor was beyond heavy handed, the writing is beautiful

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book that takes place during your favorite season

Book 24
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
I have read a few books about residential school survivors, both fictional and non-fiction, but this is the first that really gives me an idea of what it would be like after leaving the institution. Residential Schools did next to nothing to teach children, instead they destroyed Indigenous culture, language, and relationships.
Following five survivors of a residential school in BC, it shows their lives after release. Lucy, thrown onto a bus to Vancouver on her 16th birthday with no life skills to speak of, only survives because she's taken in by Maisie. Kenny runs away so much to escape abuse that he can't settle down. Howie gets out of prison with no prospects for work. Clara joins the American Indian Movement because of her anger at how Indigenous people are being treated.

This is more important as more and more graves are found on the grounds of residential schools.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book about a "found family"

Book 25
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
Elsa Martinelli only wants the best for her children, that's why she packs up and heads to California with tens of thousands of others. Her youngest, Anthony, has dust pneumonia and will die if he remains in Texas. But California is not the land of dreams. It is evil people paying starvation wages and treating the workers worse than dirt. It's unrelenting poverty and bleakness.
I get that Hannah is trying to convey the time period - a time period that sounds absolutely terrible - but it's like she came up with a list of all the bad things that happened to a person at that time and made them all happen to Elsa.

Book 26
Long Red Hair by Meags Fitzgerald
Tiny snapshots of Fitzgerald's life - growing up, going to school, hanging out with friends, discovering her sexuality, etc. etc.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book with a reflected image on the cover or "mirror" in the title

Book 27.
What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad
One of this year's Canada Reads titles, it explores the refugee crisis through the eyes of a young boy. I did find this one a slow starter but was fully engaged with the story at the end.
Amir's family is fleeing a crisis. They end up in Egypt but following his uncle one night he ends up on a boat. The boat is filled - overfilled - with other refugees and eventually washes up on the shore of an island. Amir is likely the only survivor. He is befriended by a teenage girl who takes him under her wing and works to keep him safe in a land that is very biased against the refugees landing on their shores.

Book 28.
Good as Gone by Amy Gentry
I'm reading more thrillers these days and I love one that has a twist at the end that I can't guess.
Julie disappears from her home one night at the age of 13. Her little sister sees the kidnapping but is so scared she hides for hours before alerting her parents.
One night, eight years later, the doorbell rings and Julie is standing there at the door. But is it really her?

Book 29.
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
This week is Canada Reads and I hope this novel will be the winner.
Edugyan's novel is very much patterned after 19th century adventure novels, giving a somewhat fantastical tale with many coincidences and travels to far off lands. It even has the same tone and cadences of one of those earlier novels. But it is also a poignant story of a young boy growing up as a slave on a sugarcane plantation who through a measure of luck is pulled out of that life and ends up traveling the world.
George Washington "Wash" Black was owned by Erasmus Wilde but "loaned" to his younger brother Titch to help him with his scientific experiments. That Wash has a natural talent for drawing and a curiosity for the world around him is just a bonus as he was selected merely for his size. By following Titch to the literal ends of the earth Wash is freed of slavery but he is never freed of the colour of his skin and how people use it to treat him as lesser. While he works, contributes to scientific discoveries, travels the globe, falls in love, never is seen as fully human.

“Freedom, Wash, is a word with different meanings to different people,” he said, as though I did not know the truth of this better than he.”

Book 30
In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
I've decided to go back and read all the Canada Reads books that I missed in the last 20 years. I'm doing this on top of the also trying to complete the Popsugar Reading Challenge. So... yeah, I maybe have a problem.

In the Skin of a Lion won the inaugural Canada Reads competition in 2002.

The book is set in Toronto in the 1930s and focuses on a couple of main characters. The writing is beautiful but the story really didn't do it for me. It skips around a bit. And there's something about the romanticizing of poverty that really pisses me off.
What I found really interesting was the description of building Toronto in the 1920s and 30s, specifically the Bloor Viaduct and the water treatment plant. The image of a man swinging under the bridge tightening bolts was thought provoking, I rarely stop to wonder how infrastructure was built before heavy machinery did much of the work.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: Two books set in twin towns (1)

Book 31
The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family by Lindsay Wong
This memoir was a Canada Reads contender in 2019.
The first part of the memoir was interesting, Wong talks about growing up as first generation Canadian in a Vancouver suburb. She discusses her family's inability to show affection, their mental illness, and how they reward callousness. But then it became really repetitive. How many times can I read that her parents call her "retarded", crazy, and fat? She spoke of all of this as from a distance, it would have been nice to show some personal growth or reflection at the end of the book. Otherwise what's the purpose?
Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book with an onomatopoeia in its title

Book 32.
Good Habits, Bad Habits: the Science of Making Positive Changes that Stick by Wendy Wood
Lots of interesting information on how habits and rituals can help to make good habits but not a lot of information on how to make this happen.
Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book that a prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

Book 33.
The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls by Ursula Hegi
The story of three mothers and the lengths they go to for their children. Lotte, who loses three of her children to the sea; Sabine, whose daughter will never mature; and Tilli, whose daughter will be taken from her.
These women become friends and rely on each other but before that they have to go through a lot of heartache.
And in the end a dangerous fantasy could easily lead to disaster.
Set in 1870s Germany, this novel explores love and how far parents will go for the the love of their children.

Book 34.
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
This is not among my favourites of the novels by Grady Hendrix. I loved My Best Friend's Exorcism and The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires and I just don't think this book captures that fun, funny, horror story in the same way.

The Final Girl is the last one standing at the end of a slasher movie. In Hendrix's novel, the final girls are real and all the slasher movies have been based on their real life stories. The women who have survived these horrible attacks meet monthly for group therapy to work through the trauma they've experienced at the hands of killers and those who want to take advantage of them.
Then a group member doesn't show up and it turns out that there is another killer out there targeting all the final girls. Lynnette sees this but no one wants to believe her. What follows is a crazy and unrealistic journey as Lynnette tries to prove they are being targeted and that the killer might be "inside the house" as it were.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book with a protagonist who uses a mobility aid

Book 35
Birdie by Tracy Lindberg
The publisher describes this book as "darkly comedic" and I would say that's right on the money.
Bernice "Birdie" Meetoos goes on an inner journey to heal her soul. From the outside it looks like she's lying in bed wasting away but from within she's exploring her past and trying to reconcile it. Birdie takes us through her childhood with parents with substance abuse issues, at least one uncle that takes preys on her, and an aunt that loves her fiercely.
It also uses Canadian television as her vehicle of self-exploration with her love for Jesse from The Beachcombers and constantly watching The Galloping Gourmet.
Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book with a quote from your favorite author on the cover or Amazon page

Book 36.
Heartstopper v.1 by Alice Oseman
I've been hearing so much about this graphic novel series, several people at work have been waiting breathlessly for each installment and now with the tv show it's even more popular.
This is a lovely teen romance. Charlie and Nick are in the same class group and assigned to sit together. This starts off a great friendship, which leads to a crush, which leads to months of them wondering if the other one is interested.
After finishing the first volume I immediately put the 2nd on hold at my library.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A #BookTok recommendation

Book 37.
Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins
Lux followed Nico to Hawaii with the promise of adventures to come. Instead she ends up cleaning hotel rooms in a resort while he repairs boats. She's worried that she's going to get stuck there until
Nico is offered the opportunity to charter two friends Brittany and Amma, to a mysterious and remote island.
Meroe Island is known for being beautiful, isolated, and having a creepy past. When Nico, Lux, Amma, and Brittany arrive they are disconcerted to find a boat already at anchor. They were hoping for a week away from people but they quickly become friends with Eliza and Jack. What starts as a fun island getaway with beautiful people and booze soon turns dangerous. And the remoteness of the island makes it worse. There's no one to turn to and nowhere to get help

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book whose title begins with the last letter of your previous read

Book 38.
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
by Hallie Rubenhold

What an excellent book! Rubenhold tells us nothing of the sensational crimes that all the other books focus on. Instead she delves deep into the lives of the women who were murdered. My main take away - being an impoverished woman in Victorian London was the worst! Women weren't paid a living wage because that was for the men, they had to have a man as a protector or they were considered fair game, but if that man wasn't their spouse well they were "fallen women" anyway so they were fair game. And if you had a substance abuse issue on top of that...
This book was absolutely fascinating and a strongly recommended read.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book set in Victorian times

Book 39.
Memorial Drive: a Daughter's Memoir by Natasha Trethewey
Using beautiful and poetic language, Tretheway describes the horrific abusive relationship between her mother and step-father, leading to her mother's murder in 1985. In this act of remembering she also describes what it was to grow up as a mixed race child in Atlanta in the 1970's, her early closeness to her mother that dissolves after her step-father enters the picture, and the years she has spent running away from her memories before this.
A deeply disturbing yet beautiful memoir.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: An Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winner

Book 40.
Heartstopper volume 2 by Alice Oseman
Amazing and heartwarming! I cried a little bit when I read it.
Oh Charlie and Nick, you two are too cute.
Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book featuring a party

Book 41.
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
Valente emulates Douglas Adam's style in this novel, part Hitchhiker's Guide part knock down drag-out Eurovision competition.
After the Sentience War nearly tore the universe apart the various factions got together to create the Metagalactic Grand Prix. This song competition is supposed to replace wars.
Humans are the newest entry, out to prove their sentience. If they don't the whole species will be annihilated to allow the Earth to try again. All they need to do is not come in last. But other teams will try to sabotage them.
Who do humans have to rely on? Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros, a has been band. Can they save the human race?

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book about a band or musical group

Book 42.
Gulp: Adventures in the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach
A fascinating, and often disgusting, look at the human digestion system. From putting things in your mouth (how many times should you actually chew your food), right through to how we poop. Maybe don't read it while you're eating.

Book 43
Heartstopper v.3 by Alice Oseman
I'm just loving this teen romance graphic novel. Charlie and Nick are officially dating and just trying to figure out when to tell people. It's all the typical teen insecurities and figuring yourself out stuff. Very sweet.

Book 44
Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
The majority of the horror in this book is the treatment of Black people. I know it is an accurate depiction but still shocking to someone who has never had to deal with it.
Atticus Turner and his uncle, George (publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide) are on a road trip to find his missing father, Montrose. In the course of this road trip they experience horror, both of the supernatural and the super racist kind.
The Order of the Ancient Dawn wants Atticus to help them with a ritual and they lure him by using his father as bait. What then transpires is the whole family becoming entangled with the Order and the powerful Braithwhites, a family of wizards.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A social-horror book

Book 45.
Sting by Sandra Brown
I'm not actually sure why I finished this book, other than it was the only audiobook I had at the time.
I guessed one of the big twists early on, although I didn't guess the small twist.
I was SUPER annoyed by the relationship. It was so annoying and when it started.. well...
Mostly I found this book subpar.

Book 46.
Shakespeare's Pub: A Barstool History of London as Seen Through the Windows of its Oldest Pub - The George Inn by Pete Brown

I want to go to this place! The George Inn's current building dates back to 1677, having been rebuilt after a fire. The building is now owned by the National Trust.

Brown explores the history of Southwark, London through the lens of an inn that (although it may now be a different building) that traces back to the late 1400s. He talks about various forms of transport (from horseback, to carriage, to trains) and the evolution of the neighbourhood. A fascinating history and fun read.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book with a misleading title

Book 47.
Yeah, No. Not Happening: How I Found Happiness Swearing Off Self-Improvement and Saying F*ck It All—and How You Can Too by Karen Karbo

We're told time and time again that we are not enough the way we are. Not thin enough, successful enough, nurturing enough, etc. Karbo talks about the pressures on women and challenges you to think about living your life as your true self and to walk away from the rest.

Book 48.
A Wish Upon the Stars by TJ Klune
The fourth book in the Tales from Verania series.
Writing a review of this would be difficult because it would definitely lead to spoilers for the other books. What I'll say is this series funny and heartfelt and disgusting (I'm looking at you Kevin and Gary) all at the same time.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: An #OwnVoices SFF book

Book 49.
Dead Silence by SA Barnes
Sci-fi / horror
Claire is the Team Leader on a small space ship. She and her crew of 4 are out doing repairs on communication satellites. When they finish this mission they will be replaced by robots.
They pick up a distress signal. Out in space there aren't many places to get help and when a distress signal is received, it's something that has to be investigated. That's when they discover the Aurora, a luxury spaceliner missing since it's inaugural voyage more than twenty years ago. A discovery like this could make them all rich.
But something is wrong on the Aurora. Very wrong. Is it ghosts or is Claire just losing her mind?

Book 50
Falling by T. J. Newman
The premise was great and the beginning (other than the dream sequence) was good but at about the halfway through mark I found myself just trying to get to the end.
Bill Hoffman is flying from LA to New York. While on the flight he finds out his family has been kidnapped. If Bill doesn't crash the plane his family will die. If he does crash the plane the passengers, crew, and others on the ground will die. What would you do?

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book set on a plane, train, or cruise ship

Book 51
Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman
In reading reviews for this book I found that many complained of the disjointed style of the narrative, perhaps because I listened to the audiobook I did not have the same feeling about it.
Rory Dawn Hendrix lives in a trailer park near Reno with her mother Jo. She is the youngest of Jo's 5 kids and the only one at home. Rory's a smart kid who knows she's not going to be able to go anywhere. Her mother's one wish for her is that she not get pregnant at 15 as she did.
Told through a collage of styles including math problems, social worker's reports, excerpts from the Girl Scout handbook, letters, and Rory's personal narrative, it is a bit choppy but I think that style fits the story.

Book 52.
Heartstopper v.4 by Alice Oseman
The continuing story of Nick and Charlie's relationship. This is a little heavier than the previous ones because it discusses mental health issues.

Book 53.
Icefields by Thomas Wharton
A 2008 contender for Canada Reads.
Dr. Edward Byrne takes a break from his life in England to explore the Rockies. He falls in a crevice while climbing a glacier and can't get the vision of what he saw out of his head. The obsession causes him to return over and over again to find it, leaving behind his previous life.
His detailed knowledge of the glacier causes him to spend years trying to save it from development.

Book 54.
Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier
Beginning at the death of Queen Victoria and ending at the death of King Edward VII, this novel describes life in Edwardian London through the eyes of two families and those in their immediate circle.
Maude Coleman and Lavinia Waterhouse meet at the cemetery that is to become a central part of their lives, when they are both 5. Their friendship links their families in ways they could not have foreseen.

Book 55.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Murderbot (as the SecUnit calls itself) just wants to be left alone to watch a soap called Sanctuary Moon but when the humans it’s hired to protect are threatened it has to do its job.

Book 56.
Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson
After living in England for over 20 years, Bryson decides to move back to the US. But prior to his return he takes a farewell tour of the UK. This is the sarcastic, curmudgeonly tour of England, Wales, and Scotland. Bryson spends as much time complaining as much about the places he visits as he does expressing his love for them. Among his chief complaints, lack of train service, lack of bus service, selecting the wrong hotel, the price of anything, and modern architecture.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book with cutlery on the cover or in the title

57.
Annihilation by by Jeff VanderMeer
This is the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy and I vacillated between being bored out of my mind and being interested enough to try to figure out what was happening. But I also think I will be thinking about this for a while.
The 12th expedition to be sent to Area X is made up of a psychologist, an anthropologist, a surveyor, and a biologist. The biologist's husband was on the 11th expedition and came back changed. It seems that she has gone to this place to find him or some remnant of him. But what is the Southern Reach keeping from the team. What exactly is Area X?

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book about the afterlife

Book 58.
Before My Time: a Memoir of Love and Fate / Daughter of Family G: A Memoir of Cancer Genes, Love and Fate by Ami McKay

Originally published as Daughter of Family G but with a title change when it was published as a paperback, which McKay explains in her blog.

McKay's family has been tracked for cancer since the late 1800s. In this memoir she discusses how that came about, the impact on her ancestors, her mother, herself, and her children. It is educating and moving. Strongly recommended read!

Book 59.
The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl
I think Grohl's impetus for this memoir is to talk about the things that don't make the celebrity magazines or other interviews. He talks about his early love for music, how he taught himself to play drums (on pillows), and then later on how he made his family part of his touring life.
It does jump around a bit but still entertaining.

Book 60.
Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin
Gilda is suffering from undiagnosed depression and crippling anxiety. Due to this she loses her job. Seeing a flyer for free therapy she decides to give it a try. When she arrives at the location she realizes its a Catholic church but although she's an atheist, she decides to go in. The priest, Father Jeff, assumes she's actually there for the church secretarial job. She needs a job and so lies - about her religion and her sexuality.
This leads to her having a double life. She doesn't tell her family or her girlfriend about her new job. Lies to those in the church, and even begins to accidently date a man.
The only part I really didn't like about this book was the end. I don't want to spoil it but I just felt it was a little bit too neat.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A sapphic book

Book 61.
Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
The 2nd book of the Dresden Files series.
Harry Dresden is back with a new supernatural challenge. When a series of murders that take place during the full moon period start to rock the Chicago area, Special Investigations department of the police reaches out to Harry.
Harry is a wizard who does a lot of work for the police, although many don't believe in his abilities.
In this novel he faces up to a lot of werewolves, and pisses off both a biker gang and a mobster.
Popsugar Reading Challenge: Two books set in twin towns, aka "sister cities"

Book 62.
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
This is a good book, just not as great as Daisy Jones and the Six or The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
Nina Riva is a famous surfer/model. Her brothers are a famous surfer and a famous surf photographer. Her youngest sister is well on her way to being a famous surfer. It's August 1983, the Riva's annual summer party is about to explode.
The Riva kids didn't grow up with all the privilege. Their dad, a hugely famous musician, walked out on them when they were young and they struggled for years to make it. But what does "making it" entail? Does being famous bring happiness?

Book 63.
We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
Marin is grieving the loss of her grandfather while coming to terms with his not having always been honest with her.
Her best friend Mabel comes to visit her in dorm in a snowy New York just a few days before Christmas. They haven't talked since Marin's grandfather died because Marin just up and left and completely cut her friend out of her life. Over the course of a few days we find out the depth of Marin's grief and how her life fell apart.
Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book set during a holiday

Book 64.
The Russian Cage by Charlaine Harris
Book 3 in the Gunnie Rose series.
Picking up shortly after the end of A Longer Fall, Lisbeth gets a letter from her sister letting her know Eli is in jail. She wastes no time getting on a train to the Holy Russian Empire (formerly California, Washington, and Oregon) to break him out.
In this alternate history Tsar Alexei survived but was exiled from Russia. When California ceded from the US they decided to put the Tsar in charge. Things are very different here than in Texoma (formerly Texas and Oklahoma) but with some help Lisbeth finds out why Eli is jailed and comes up with a plot to get him out.
Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book featuring a parallel reality

Book 65.
Len and Cub: A Queer History by Meredith Batt and Dusty Green
Dusty Green came across a collection of photographs taken by Len Keith in the early 20th century, while working at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. Len and Cub Coates obviously had a very close relationship and the donor of the collection noted that they were boyfriends. This is hugely significant as they lived in a very small, very rural New Brunswick village. Green and Batt researched them and the collection to bring this story to light. An important contribution to the establishment of gay history in New Brunswick.

Book 66 & 67. Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries #2) and Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries #3) by Martha Wells

I'm loving these Murderbot Diaries books. They're fun and action packed.

Book 68.
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
Generations of family secrets become untangled.
In 1913, a small child disembarks from a ship in Australia with no family and no memory of her name. All she has is a small suitcase with a new dress and a book of fairy tales. She's taken in by a lovely family and raised as theirs. Many years later she tries to track down where she's from. And then after her death leaves a cottage in England to her granddaughter, who then takes on the mystery herself.

Book 69.
Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
A book about grief, death, love, and second chances.
Wallace Price is a real ass! He is a partner in a big law firm and his whole life is about work. When he finds himself at his own funeral, listening to the few people there talk about what a jerk he was, he can't believe it.
In the afterlife, Wallace actually has a second chance to fix his life. Mei, the Reaper, takes him to the ferryman, Hugo, to cross over. Wallace learns so much from Hugo, Mei, and the rest of their motley crew.
Klune has said that this was a personal story him and you can read that feeling in it.

Book 70.
Marilla Before Anne by Louise Michalos
I liked how this book started out but then the coincidences and outlandishness of the story really put me off.
Young Marilla Cuthbert meets and falls in love with a dock worker who her parents don't approve of. Determined to get married as soon as she comes of age, tragedy strikes that changes everything. Thus Marilla becomes the spinster that we get to know in the Anne of Green Gables books. But the tragedy doesn't stop there, year after year she and Matthew have to deal with heartbreak.

Book 71.
This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Medical Resident by Adam Kay
It completely baffles me as to why anyone would want to be a doctor. Don't get me wrong - we need all health professionals, but I just don't see how someone would sign up for the long hours, missing important family time, the crap pay, the crap treatment, etc.
Kay goes over his years from starting as a resident (or junior doctor in the UK) to a more senior specialist. He's not always kind or compassionate but he is honest. The National Health System is, I assume, fairly similar to the Canadian health system. Doctors are underpaid and underappreciated, they have no work/life balance, and are almost considered to be non-human.

Book 72.
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
I'm still working my way through the complete list of Canada Reads books, this one was a contender in 2014. It was the 3rd book of Atwood's to make it onto the Canada Reads shortlist.
It's been years since I read Oryx and Crake and I didn't go back and re-read it so I may have missed a lot of the ways these two books connected.
This takes the events from Oryx and Crake and tells them from a different point of view, primarily focusing on God's Gardeners - an environmental Christian fringe group.

Book 73.
Summerwater by Sarah Moss
It's a terrible, rainy, and cold summer day in northern Scotland. Over the course of the day, we meet 12 people spending their summer holidays in a cabin park at a loch. The mother of the young children, the runner, the teens that are absolutely hating their time away from their friends, the retirees. The groups don't really interact but they all watch each other, mostly out of boredom. There is one group that doesn't fit in, the ones throwing noisy parties. And at the end there is a confrontation.

Book 74.
Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries #4) by Martha Wells
Murderbot has come back from another adventure and has discovered Dr. Mensah has been kidnapped by GrayCris. What's a Murderbot to do but save the one human that's shown it care and respect?

Book 75.
Tiger, Tiger by Galaxy Craze
May's mother, Lucy, is searching for something to make her life feel whole. She has a tempestuous marriage and is often running off with the kids in tow to find happiness.
In the novel, her mother takes May, and her brother Eden, from London to a California ashram, to do some healing. May is excited at first but then realizes her mother plans to stay there. They begin to make friends and go to school on the ashram, and their mother becomes more and more involved in the spiritual teachings of their guru, Parvati.
But then her mother is removed from the ashram and the children are alone with no way to reach their father or return to the UK.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book with a tiger on the cover or "tiger" in the title

Congratulations on reaching 75 books already, Dee.

Congrats on hitting the goal!

>84 Deedledee: Congratulations on reaching 75, Dee!

Book 76
Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn
Nainoa is the special middle son, saved from drowning by sharks, his parents have always treated him differently than their other children. But his gifts are also his downfall. The eldest brother, Dean, tries to use sport to gain his parents' attention. Meanwhile the youngest, Kaui is brilliant and completely ignored.
But their lives are hard and poverty prevails. Even the most gifted can't escape the difficulties that generational poverty brings.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book by a Pacific Islander author

Book 77.
Threshold by Angela J. Reynolds
Terra is spending the summer with her aunt Kendall, close to the beach. Her mom sent her there so she can focus on her little brother, Dylan who is quite ill.
While at the beach she meets a mermaid (Murgelt) called Minne who befriends her and brings her underwater to learn about their culture.

Book 78
MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood
The final book in the trilogy. In this novel, Atwood provides a lot of the background on Zeb and Adam, the forming of God's Gardeners, and we learn more about the Crakers.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book with a palindromic title

Book 79
Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch by Rivka Galchen
Katharina Kepler (mother of Johannes Kepler) has been accused of witchcraft. It starts small, as these things usually do, but as the gossip gets going more and more people pile on their own accusations. She's accused of making people lame, barren, of killing cows, goats, and pigs, and just general witchery.
Unlike most historical fiction that covers witches, this does not focus on the torture and imprisonment but instead is a darkly funny exploration of what rumours can do.
Told mostly in her own words, and first person narration by her friend and neighbor Simon, who acts as her guardian, with transcripts from the trials are sprinkled throughout the book - and some of the statements are just so ridiculous it's hard to believe that any adjudicatory panel would believe them.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book about witches

Book 80
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
Cussy Mary aka Bluet, works for the Pack Horse Library Project, delivering books to people in the very rural Kentucky mountains. In addition to the dangers of traversing the dangerous terrain and dealing with the wildlife, Cussy has the difficulty of being a blue skinned person. She was born with blue skin and fear and prejudices put her on the lowest rung of humans, in the minds of the racist people in the area.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A duology (1)

Happy Thanksgiving weekend, Dee.

I'm super, super excited! TJ Klune is coming to read at my library this week!

Book 81
Aurora by David Koepp
In the not too distance future, a coronal mass ejection (a giant solar flare), is poised to take out the power grid throughout the Earth. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predict its arrival only a few hours in advance. Some folks use this time to get ready, others have been prepared for this for years.
Aubrey and her teenage stepson are trying their best to get set up. Her ex-husband, Rusty, is sniffing around for money. Thom, a tech millionaire, has a bunker set up in the dessert just for this eventual situation. These lives intersect in unforeseeable ways as the world becomes desperate.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book with a constellation on the cover or in the title

Book 82.
Cultish: the Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell
What makes a cult? Do we throw around the term too easily? Montell's focus in this book is to talk about how language influences people to become members of a "cult", from love bombs to exclusionary language and all the things in between.

Book 83.
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
It's been 2 years and 7 months but I have finally finished this book.
So much happens in this book that it's hard to summarize. Let's just say it's the story of Jean Valjean and those around him who impact his life.

Book 84.
The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune
The same offbeat sense of humour and fantasy that made me love the Tales from Verania series.
This young adult novel centers on Nick, a high school student fixated on real superheroes, the Extraordinaries. All of Nick's friends know about his obsession with Shadow Star, a superhero who protects Nova City from the supervillain Pyro Storm. He even writes fanfiction dedicated to his hero.
But Nick has some tough things going on in his life. He lost his mom to senseless violence and his relationship with his dad is a bit rocky, his ADHD makes it hard for him to concentrate on school, and his ex-boyfriend keeps hanging around. Oh, and he maybe has a crush on his best friend.

Book 85.
The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty
One of Moriarty's early novels, it focuses on a family and the mystery that took place on their small island home over 70 years ago.
Things didn't quite work out with Sophie and Thomas, but a few years later his aunt Connie leaves her house on Scribbly Gum Island to Sophie.
Sophie has always been fascinated with Scribbly Gum Island, it may have been the reason she initially started dating Thomas, and is hoping to get the insider scoop on the Munro Baby Mystery. But as she settles in she becomes enmeshed in the family and their life.

Book 86.
Crazy Love by Leslie Morgan Steiner
22-year-old Leslie Morgan is living the dream, she's just graduated from Harvard, has a job she loves at Seventeen magazine, and is living in New York. Then she meets a man on the subway and agrees to go on a date with him. This is the beginning of a terrible and abusive relationship.
Conor starts off charming but then he follows the typical path of an abuser, he becomes very controlling, separating her from her friends, and escalating mental and physical abuse.

>97 Deedledee: Les Mis is definitely one for the ages, Dee. Well done on completing that imposing but memorable tome.

Book 87.
The Diary of Mattie Spenser by Sandra Dallas
I listened to this one while I was driving, otherwise I may not have finished it.
Mattie married Luke Spenser after a very short courting period. He then takes her off to his claim in the Colorado Territory. This is 1865 and the journal talks about their trip from Iowa to Colorado, including all its dangers, and their living in a dugout until the soddie is built.
Mattie does everything she can to be a good wife but Luke is often callous. He tells her the reason he asked her to marry him is that he thought she'd be a good cook and worker and be able to handle the tough conditions. Ah, the romance.
The diary covers a 5 year period in which their life is full of both upheaval and the humdrum everyday chores of trying to keep a farm running.

Book 88.
Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems 1962-1996 by Al Purdy
I read this because I'm trying to work my way through all of the Canada Reads books. I'm not a big poetry reader and I'm certainly not a fan of Purdy's style.

Book 89.
Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Taylor Jenkins Reid made me care about tennis, that's saying something.
Carrie Soto was the number 1 tennis player in the world when she retired. She had more Grand Slam titles than anyone. But now, 6 years later, Nicki Chan is threatening to take that title. Carrie decides to get back on the court to keep her record intact.
In the way that Reid does, you climb inside Carrie's head and really get to know her, both the good and the bad. A compelling novel.

>103 Deedledee: For some reason I hadn't realised that Carrie Soto was about tennis, Dee. That should be a spur to me to add it as I do love that racquet.

Book 90.
Hunting by Stars by Cherie Dimaline
The follow up to The Marrow Thieves, it picks up right after the end of the first book. I don't want to write much about this book because it is a spoiler for the first book.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: a duology (2)
With this title I have finished this year's challenge!

Book 91.
Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
I can't believe I've never read this book before. It has some real funny bits in it too.

Book 92.
Brother by David Chariandy
A Canada Reads selection in 2019.
Michael and Francis grow up in Scarborough in the 80s and 90s. Their father is out of the picture and their Trinidadian mother works multiple jobs to keep them afloat. She has dreams for her children but class and race make them hard to reach. Then in the summer of 1991 things go very wrong.
Years later, Michael cares for their mother who has never recovered.

Book 93.
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
I picked this novel up because of the absolutely beautiful cover.
Daunis Fontaine has just graduated from high school but decided not to go away to university but rather live at home with her mother. They've just been through a terrible year with the death of her uncle David and her grandmother's stroke.
When she witnesses a terrible murder she become involved with the FBI investigation as a confidential informant.
Daunis' father was Ojibwe and her mother is white. She's grown up between the two communities feeling like she doesn't fully belong to either. She's very invested in her heritage and throughout the novel we see her observing many Ojibwe customs and beliefs.

I think Boulley did an excellent job weaving Ojibwe language and customs throughout the novel. I do wish, however, that there were less subplots. These just became a tangle and not all of them fed the plot well.

Book 94.
Fairy Tale by Stephen King

Charlie Reade hears a dog howling behind an old, rundown house. He finds old Howard Bowditch in the back yard after falling off a ladder. Bowditch has been a recluse and has no family. Charlie, being the good kid, decides to help him out. He cares for Bowditch while he recuperates and they become friends. When Bowditch dies Charlie inherits his house ... and the gateway to another world.
This is when the story takes a turn. It becomes an adventure novel in which Charlie is in a fairy tale land with a princess in distress, monsters, ogres, and an evil king.

Book 95.
Bitcoin Widow: Love, Betrayal and the Missing Millions by Jennifer Robertson
Squeaked this one in under the wire to make it 95 reads for the year.

This book is 334 pages of Robertson justifying herself. She spends a lot of time saying she knew nothing about her partner's business - although at one point she's literally helping him stuff envelopes full of money to sent to clients, and that she has no idea where the money went.
Robertson and Quadriga CEO, Gerry Cotten marry in Oct. 2018, and on their honeymoon in India two months later Cotten dies. This is when the world discovers that Cotten was running a Ponzi scheme and that their investments are gone.
In the years that Robertson and Cotten were together they travelled in world in luxury, visiting exotic locales, buying multiple houses, a yacht, an island, and more. In the end, Robertson was only allowed to keep her wedding ring, her car and some personal effects and has to work a normal job now.
You should really only read this book if you're interested in Quadriga because the writing isn't that great and Robertson isn't all that fascinating.