July
- Shoplifters (2018)
- Continuing on the Koreeda film train from before.
- Plemya/The Tribe (2014)
- Following up on trying another production entirely in sign language after The Black Drum. No subtitles were included at all, which was surprising since I was told by someone else who had seen it before that there were subtitles... That being said, I think the gist of the plot was not lost on me, and I can say that I enjoyed The Tribe more in a way that I was not able to for The Black Drum.
- The Wife (2017)
- Beautiful Corn by Anthony Boutard
- At times I found the writing to be rather dull, or simple in a way that was more instructional than the tone I generally look for when searching for a microhistory, but overall an interesting subject and read. I felt a bit like I was aforebemoaning my corn that will not have enough time to fruit and produce actual corn this season throughout the reading of this title (least of all because either skunks or rabbits/hares have taken down 2/5 cornstalks), so it was a bit bittersweet, to say the least.
- I'm Afraid of Men by Vivek Shraya
- Quick read, made you think a little bit about trans experiences in the world. That being said, despite the fact that Shraya's experiences are obviously her own and experienced on a personal level, I can't help but feel as though it simply adds to an existing literature rather than produces much that is new. I should say that I didn't know who Shraya was prior to this book - still don't, really, having done no research into her or her musical background, for example - so just read this completely without context.
- Fox 8 by George Saunders
- I couldn't finish Lincoln in the Bardo because it was requested, but I remember it was a very interesting concept - if I understood it correctly - and that I wanted to continue reading, if only because it was a novel idea. So when I saw this much shorter and less intense novella by Saunders, I decided to test the waters a bit with his writing using Fox 8. Which turned out to also be rather experimental in nature, though highly enjoyable.
- Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Rosemary Valero-O'Connell
- Freddy remained irritating in her self-absorption throughout, but this was one of the primary draws, in the end. Stunningly illustrated and beautifully paced, I can't wait to see more from this duo!
- Sheets by Brenna Thummler
- When will we stop shoehorning in romance where it's completely unnecessary?
- Otherwise, I hear this is the debut work of Thummler, and I do look forward to future publications.
- Accident! by Andrea Tsurumi
- RELATABLE. I basically had to recommend the entire book, not even just show one or two pages, to a friend of mine because this catastrophization is so incredibly well portrayed in a way that's easy to understand (for the age group it's intended for) while being deeply relatable in a funny way by adults (or at least, by me).
- The Red Word by Sarah Henstra
- I'm not too sure how I feel about this overall, or what my final thoughts are, though I definitely got sucked into the story.
- Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed
- The afterword was poignant and I feel like did well in the short amount of space it used to direct children who enjoyed the novel to dig a bit deeper and learn more about indentured servitude around the world.
- This actually choked me up a bit, no joke; I finished it in a day. Overall, well written and paced - at first I was confused because nothing that was described in the synopsis was happening at all in the first few chapters (where Saeed did some world building to set the stage), but once it happened, I loved how Saeed refused to give Amal a powerful benefactor who would take her under their wing without question (i.e. that Fatima was the one who served as Amal's first friend rather than someone her own age, a resourceful older girl, etc.).
- Mary Queen of Scots (2018)
- Dancer (2016)
- I was really looking forward to this, since I was one of the many who had fallen completely in love with Sergei Polunin when the Take Me to Church video came out, but I feel like it was published somewhat prematurely.
- You Know You Want This by Kristen Roupenian
- Some of the stories are compelling, like Cat Person, obviously, as well as Sardines, but others I'm not so sure about. A mixed bag overall.
- From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty
- I'd love to learn more! I hope there are microhistories of death rituals around the world so I can read more in-depth about what was presented by Doughty in this introduction to a variety of cultures' rituals and ceremonies surrounding death. What I found most interesting is probably the ways in which human impact on the environment has changed how methods of dealing with the dead have remained the same or are in need of change (for practical reasons, such as in the case of sky burial where the carrion vultures are no longer as populous as before and corpses are left rotting in the tower).
- The Fruitful City: The Enduring Power of the Urban Food Forest by Helen Moncrieff
- This was a really fun book to go through, especially since one of the organizations Moncrieff introduces, Not Far From the Tree, is actually based in Toronto! It's a bit late into the season this year, but I'm bookmarking it for the next.
- A Quick & Easy Guide to Queer & Trans Identities by Mady G. and J. R. Zuckerberg
- G. and Zuckerberg did a really good job of balancing the tone between educational fun, maintaining a plot throughout with the one-pager between chapters that was quite cute. I enjoyed this a lot, and think it'd be a great introduction for someone who's just starting out on their journey of learning more about different identities, or even for someone who's already knee-deep in LGBTQIA+ culture.
- Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama
- I don't usually include manga, but it came into the library as a physical book so I will this time around. It reminded me somewhat of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle by Clamp, though I don't think I've read it in full - I did watch it.
- Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World by Aja Raden
- Raden has a stronger thesis than I think they are able to defend completely simply by focusing on precious stones. That being said, I enjoyed each of the chapters and the way Raden takes us through history to find different stories relating to the ways in which jewels have played a large role in shaping history.
- A Star is Born (2018)
- Relatively predictable. It was just about what I expected, and enjoyable.
- No Somos Nadie (2002)
- Yikes. I'm not sure if it's in response to any particular event, but this was a good - funny? not really, but kind of? - and exceedingly direct commentary on religion and the media. It was almost too over the top, but that's kind of the point, and I think it worked well in this case.
August
- Crosstalk by Connie Willis
- Interesting. I don't like the pacing, but I think that the feeling I'm getting that Willis is smacking me over the head with the completely overwhelming degree of distraction and information and people trying to get in contact with Briddey is actually deliberate. Reading it is actually giving me anxiety, which is a good sign in this case because it just means I'm getting totally immersed in the writing!
- Conviction by Denise Mina
- Well written and it got me very into it, but I can't help but feel as though Conviction fell through for me at the end.
- The Book of Essie by Meghan Weir
- YA? Adult? Kind of on the cusp of it. It had me hooked for a good portion, then I finished it because I was already so close to being done. I wish Liberty had more time to develop.
- Bring Me Back by B.A. Paris
- Wow was this ever bad! I try not to blanket statement review like this, but boy this was poorly written and delivered. Even the entire plot was just. Ugh.
- Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
- READ THIS.
- Reminiscent of Garcia Marquez, for me, but I realize this is probably just because of the embracing of both belief in magic in conjunction with faith in Christianity, as Rojas Contreras writes not in magical realism, in that there is nothing fantastical happening, but there is still a magic to her realism.
- Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms by Eugenia Bone
- Microbia: A Journey Into the Unseen World Around You by Eugenia Bone
- Both of these were incredibly interesting and fun to read. I'm not sure whether it's just because I was reading both at the same time, but I found that entire paragraphs seem to have been repeated once or twice throughout the books. It could have been that they were repeated across titles rather than within them.
- The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi
- My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry
- Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019)
- You bet I watched it. Strong beginning and good end, but very mediocre in the middle.
September
- The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
- Gripping family saga.
- The Dead Husband Project by Sarah Meehan Sirk
- Golden Child by Claire Adam
- Listen to the Marriage by John Jay Osborn Jr
- Cicada by Shaun Tan
- Proof that children's books don't have to be simple or moralistic.
- Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Pérez
- How gender gaps in data collection perpetuate gender bias in everyday life. Prepare to be infuriated, most of all by the fact that this could all so easily be changed if we took women seriously and treated them as people worthy of consideration, i.e. if we were not to exclude women from data collection because of one reason or the other.
- Seaweed Chronicles by Susan Hand Shetterly
- Good start, but I was really hoping for something a bit more meaty. Given the size of the book, I shouldn't have expected as much as I did from it, so my disappointment is my own fault here.
- Extreme Makeover by Dan Wells
- Good reading for fun but honestly I can't say it was good. It was alright, and was entertaining enough. If you enjoyed Crosstalk or The Circle, you'd enjoy this one.
- Ghost Water Kiss by Jessica Bromley Bartram
- While I really enjoyed the interplay between image and text, I feel like the text was not quite enough to capture me.
- Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
- Oh wow this was quite different from the miniseries I watched before. I kind of enjoyed the miniseries more since it fleshed out the characters more, though I felt like the Hester bit was a bit out of place even then.
- The Tale (2018)
- Splash (1984)
- Jallikattu (2019) at TIFF
- This was INTENSE.
- Parasite (2019) at TIFF
- ALSO THIS.
- Intermezzo (1939)
Gave Up!
- What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera
- Somehow, not particularly compelling... I was wanting a lighthearted romantic read, so perhaps I should've taken the hint from the fact that this is divided into three parts, not to mention the girth of the book itself. And someone else had a hold on it, so I relinquished the title. I'm pretty sure I won't be picking it back up again anytime soon (or in the further future).
- Milkman by Anna Burns
- I'm about three chapters in and already fuming at the fact that the nameless narrator, the 18-year old girl, cannot justify to herself being able to extract herself from the situation where a man interrupts her run and inserts himself into her life and personal space, narrating all that he knows about her - EVEN THOUGH THEY DON'T KNOW EACH OTHER.
- I really wanted to get into this one. I really did. I think I stopped about 1/5 of the way through.
