Time for the reading update. FICTION The Shamshine Blind, Paz Pardo. California noir set in a world in which Argentina defeated the US thanks to the use of psychopigments, colourful chemicals that produce emotion on contact. Our heroine is a the classic downtrodden detective hero – a Psychopigment Enforcement Agent caught up in a tangled […]

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Here’s the best of what I read in the first three months of this year. Sadly, the ‘to read’ list gets no shorter. FICTION The Buccaneers, Edith Wharton. The Wharton-fest continues (I’m currently working on The House of Mirth). This edition just has the actual Wharton text, without the later happy ending. And yes, I […]

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Another year, another 140 books (or so) books read. Of these, 44% were non-fiction on topics from science to politics to history to biography to (of course) ‘how to write’ books. Because hope springs eternal on that front. Here’s a quick summary of some of my favourites. Climate (yes, it’s bad): Arboreality, by Rebecca Campbell. […]

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A while ago, I did a list of my favorite books featuring female vampires for Shepherd, the book discovery site. They’ve just published a new featured called “Favorite Reads in 2023”, featuring the selections of almost 900 authors. We were asked to choose our three favorite books from our reading over the last year, with […]

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I didn’t keep a close record of cottage reading, but did get through a few books between July and the end of the September. Here are some of my favourites. FICTION The Poppy War and The Dragon Republic, R.F. Kuang. I motored through the first two parts of this trilogy and finished the final book […]

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*once a business manager, always a business manager! Another period heavy on the non-fiction, so we’ll start with that. Fire Weather, John Vaillant. Valliant’s previous book, The Tiger, is one of my favorites so I jumped on this one. It’s a vivid and dramatic recounting of the Fort McMurray fire, a science lesson on the […]

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For whatever reason, the first 3 months of 2023 have been the months of reading non-fiction, though a couple of memorable novels did end up on my ereader. NON-FICTION Below the Edge of Darkness, Edith Widder. Another fascinating book about life in the ocean, this one focusing on creatures that inhabit the zone between light […]

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This year’s total, give or take, was 126 (not counting some rereads and some physical books for which I can’t use the library’s lending history as a substitute for my lousy memory). Of these, 60% were fiction and 40% non-fiction. My favourites for the year as listed below. FICTION Strong-minded Old (and oldish) Women, mostly […]

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First up, Nanowrimo. I set the usual goal of 10,000 words and managed 10,095 despite being away for a few days. The usual caveats apply: I don’t know what I’m doing, half of the words will/should be cut, blah, blah, blah. My goal for December is to nail down the mechanics of the ending and, […]

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It’s been an eventful few months. Some parts have been good (family visit, getting stuff done) and some parts have been bad (husband’s injury, death in the family). I’ve been getting a bit of writing done and, as always, a fair bit of reading. Here’s what stands out from the last few months. FICTION Termination […]

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