It’s really good actually. It’s both a great introduction to the major arcana and just like … a very sweet book with good art. I legit recommend it to people who aren’t woo and just want a nice book.
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I’ve read some books lately that I really liked. Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey, The Briar Club by Kate Quinn and The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore.
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I forgot I was waiting for Sig and Chloe! On hold!
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Finished _ Woman, Watching: Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay_
It is a biography of a woman who had an extraordinary life (born in Sweden, became a nurse during WW1, fell in love with a Russian aristocrat, joined him when he went back to Russia to fight the Red Army where he was apprehended and killed, moved to Canada, became a nurse for the Dionne quints, published a book about it that went nowhere, became an expert bird watcher, wrote and published books about birds that won awards but didn’t sell well. Perhaps the thing that most Canadians engaged with from her was that she wrote a few of the ‘Hinterland Who’s Who’ scripts.
She lived mostly tucked away in her log cabin, where her time was spent in exceptionally heavy and detailed data collection about her birds, and then writing about them. She also had a deep ongoing correspondence with other birders, both amateur and academic.
I don’t know what to do about this book and her life. What kept her going on this path she took, especially when book after book failed to make a mark, as she tried to get people to care about the loss of songbirds due to human impact on the world. The author ends thinking about the loss of the dawn chorus even in her own life, and that Louise had known something even more populated and complex.
Even on my street, the loss of the big century trees means we have so much less bird song and squirrels than when we moved in 20 years ago. Maybe 2 robins going right now just before dawn.
But she kept going, observing and data collecting and tramping around the forest well into her 90s.
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I asked in my journal but I will also ask here for people who don’t follow- I am looking for StoryGraph friends if anyone wants to read with me!
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I’ll dm you my username!
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Please do!
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April reading. Brag but all four were finished on planes, and 3/4 were each read cover to cover on one flight.
Last samurai: I have said enough, highly recommend.
Severance: 2019 novelist predicts COVID and also (redacted). Most stressful flight of my life. GREAT book.
Time War: read for gay book club, really enjoyed, I think I remember people here liking it too?
Pedro Paramo: if you have ever thought, what if the most confusing parts of 100 years of solitude were even more confusing and also goth, have I got the book rec for you. Had to buy wifi on the flight to read a plot summary to figure out what was going on.
@plainjane still haven’t finished Jhereg, but gotta do it for straight book club.
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Love Time War. Amal is in town on Saturday for her next book so I’m hoping to get to the event (I have the book but want to be in the right headspace to read it).
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I read Severance during the start of COVID, it was wild
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May books. First week of May: books I finished on flights.
Jhereg: fun story, I wish the writing were a little better
Invention of Morel: extremely good, recommend if you like sci fi or classics or weird Latin American fiction
Never Lie: I read a lot of thrillers and this is the worst I’ve ever read by a wide margin? Telling myself her books can’t all be this bad but will not be reading more
Dark Places: fun thriller, it’s giving second term Obama if you find that comforting (I do)
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The book you can’t see is James Nestor’s Breath.
I really really loved the Daevabad trilogy. Also bought But the Butter, Make the Bread after reading it from the library - it was very good.
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Freida McFadden has written like 15 books in 5 years, they aren’t actually very good. She is also a doctor, so there can’t possibly be time to write well in those parameters. Some are better than others, but I should probably stop reading her.
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I know lots of folks love her! I must have picked up one of her weaker titles.
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I read Iron Window last month for book club and now I’m obsessed. Join me in reading the sequel, Heavenly Tyrant.
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I read that in May! It just wasn’t one of my top three, I guess. Didn’t make it onto the graphic.
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Reading Sarah Polley’s Run Towards the Danger and I wonder if anyone who wasn’t over the age of 10 in Canada in 1994 would appreciate it, or if I’m just smack dab in the middle of the target demographic.
First essay, pulling no punches. I’m uncertain at this point if I’ll buy a copy for myself.
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I’ve now requested it from the library. Thanks!
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