Our House in the Middle of Our Street

  Glen Valley dyke trail, early July, 6AM Watership Down (graphic novel) adapted by Richard Adams - I have never read this classic novel, but the graphic novel has stunning illustrations and I knew I'd read it this way if I had it from the library. I'm glad I read it as a graphic novel - I don't know that the premise of the story would entice me (well, it hadn't thus far anyway) to read it in its original format, but having the illustrations certainly helped me understand the storyline.  Swim Team (graphic novel) by Johnnie Christmas - Just a little piece of middle-grade, graphic novel candy for summer. The equivalent, I suppose, of most people's "beach reads"! The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbury - I followed along (late, however) with Joy Clarkson's online book club on her substack. I had bought this book at least a decade ago at a thrift store, then gave it away to someone (who?!) and then finally got it from the library and I finished i...

  Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in late May Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard - This book was both poetic and raw, and had a few disgusting parts, along with a few achingly beautiful parts. I will never forget that a type of waterbug can literally suck out the guts of a frog and leave the skin like an orange rind. (If I had to know it, you do, too.) The depth of discovery Dillard found around Tinker Creek, not only of the active natural world, but what that means to us as humans, was surely why this book won a Pulitzer in 1975. Highly recommend, but it's not a page-turner, it's a slow savour.  Worm  (graphic novel) by Edel Rodriguez - This graphic memoir was SO good! It is the story of Edel (mostly his childhood) in Cuba and his life from 'before' and then the communist takeover, through his family's escape by boat in the Mariel Boatlift of 1980 . Rodriguez went on to become a very famous artist, and has had numerous artwork on...

  Whistler in early March on a bluebird day Sigh. It's September 5th when I'm writing this. I hate that I'm so late with these because I can't remember much from 5 months ago. I remember liking or not liking a book, and I might have a memory or two - an image or a sentence I liked, but I didn't keep great records of some of these. So, peanuts. It's what I can offer! Above Ground by Clint Smith - This book of poetry was (very likely found) via Padrig O'Touma's Poetry Unbound podcast, where I find most of my poetry books to read. I remember liking this book, but I can't remember anything else about it. Sorry! Parasitic Oscillations by Madhur Anand - I also remember liking this one. There was nature, grieving the poet's parents, and tension. Darn it I wish I could give you more, but I guess you'll just have to read it and get back to me.  Somehow by Anne Lamott - I will read anything this lady writes. This one was okay. It wasn't her best...

  a December sunrise in Fort Langley  A final nod to the books I read in 2023! Just squeezing by on Jan 1, 2024.  For how busy the last six weeks before Christmas break were, I sure was able to read a lot! A few of these were poetry or comics, which do go faster than a memoir or novel, but the four read-alouds done for homeschool with the kids were NOT easy reads (well, aside from Little Women ), and one was incredibly long and bleak...! What Kind of Woman? by Kate Baer - This poetry collection was probably my favorite of the year. It had poems that made me go "YESSSS" by the end of it; mostly they were about motherhood and how society views women, hilarious and honest and just the right amount of description/editing.  All My Knotted - Up Life by Beth Moore - One of the best memoirs I read this year, I've been an avid fan-girl of Moore's for over a decade. I love her bible studies, her humor, and her integrity, and in this story of her life she reveals some things t...

  a gorgeous early sunrise in Fort Langley As noted earlier, this list is compact and July - Dec titles' posts are being completed (finally. Hallelujah!) over my Christmas break. Onto the Fall! The kids and I have read some excellent classics this year so far, with more on the Winter/Spring horizon.  Revenge of the Librarians: Cartoons by Tom Gauld - This was a silly little comic book that was almost like the Far Side but with Librarian/book people humor. Read it in one sitting, laughed a lot. LOTS of book references; for the literati that's enticing.  Hidden Systems by Dan Nott - Ok. Another comic book (non-fiction) that was SO fascinating I actually made Ani read it for part of her Science work. This book describes in words AND helpful drawn pictures how the internet, electricity, and water systems are all around us and yet I knew next to NONE of this information. When any of these systems don't work, our lives basically come to a standstill, so I'd guess that most pe...

                                                summer's evening scene on the Glen Valley dyke trail  I've prepped this months ago, but I'm writing this post (and sharing it on it's proper share date, ahem ) on December 29, 2023. I just can't seem to get these posts up on time, at any time, during my very active life. I have a good life, but those who warned me the teen years are just a different kind of busy (mostly driving) were telling the truth. These two weeks of school break I decidedly am doing only about 3 things, and outside of that, have 16 days of REST. Reading, catching up on my computer tabs (I think the highest point was over 60 (!!), cue embarrassmen t), and getting these forsaken book posts out.  I like to record my reading, and I like sharing it with others, I just have to have time, and BRAIN...

  Whistler snow peaks I am so woefully behind in my Titles posts that I will (mostly) just be getting right to it. This past school year was an intense literary one, and while I read aloud some amazing novels, most of them classics or Canadian historical novels, I didn't have much time for things like documenting and writing about found authors, etc. Thankfully, I kept my Pinterest board alive and documented everything completed in my Leuchtturm notebook that I keep religiously for a few years before its completely done.  That, and finally, my third check - my two libraries' borrowing history section! Reading Black Books by Claude Atcho - Not to start off with a bang, but this I knew when I completed this book it'd easily be one of my top 10 of the year. I found this book via a webinar by the Trinity Forum with the author and had the library purchase it. It is one of the best literary criticism anthologies I've ever read, and not only that, the writing itself is aca...

  View somewhere on Whistler or Blackcomb Mountain Canadian Geographic Dec/Jan issue - I really enjoyed the most recent issue, and loved the cover articles - on owls and also the grasslands of Canada, and the health of that ecosystem over the last 200 years.  New Kid by Jerry Craft - This was a fun and easy comic I finished in about two days. It's about a ...yes...new kid to a new school and the friend group he makes. The pictures are done well, and the story has a really nice flow. I don't even know if I've ever read comic books before this year, but it's quickly becoming a fun 'beach read' for me when I need a break. YA Comic Book I can finish in 2 hours? Why not!? Especially when this one won the 2020 Newberry Medal.  The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo - This book was created in little niche that I love, also-books in verse (poetry). This book won the 2018 National Book Award in Young People's Literature, and it's well deserved. The poetry is engaging...

  a private property landscape after beaver-proofing saplings with A Rocha Canadian Geographic Sept/Oct issue - Although this issue was interesting, the only thing I really remember from it was the article on how the soundscapes of nature are changing due to constant industrialization and development. You can read that article online HERE .  This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel - This was the book I chose to lead with my book club, because I knew it would be a great conversation starter. This book is about a boy who transitions into becoming a girl at a very young age, and about the family as a whole with how to deal with that situation, along with the aftermath of friends 'finding out' after years of knowing the child as a girl. I will say, I found some of this book was trite and unappealing, but the general theme of the story was a fast way to have a controversial conversation-something I love! A Man with a Rake by Ted Kooser - Although I love Ted Kooser, this is the...

  May and June were easier for me to get books completed, because  we were so close to the end of the school year (and still had so much to do!) but I also read quite a few short books on my own. Each of these books below were under 250 pages, except MAUS but that was a novel set in comic book form, so I read it in a day (and it was completely absorbing- a true story!).  There are another couple of books in this photo above that got abandoned due to time (darn that new Julie Bogart book! I want to read it and so does everyone else!) or lack of interest. I'm much better about not finishing books I don't really want to read. Years ago I would have pushed through and now I am just more realistic. Time moves too fast to read books you don't love.  May Titles  * Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman - Gorman was the National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017 and penned a poem for President Biden's inauguration. She had yet to publish a complete work of poetry until Call ...

 Finally, I'm sharing just a few photos and bits about our 2021 family vacation to Sooke, BC (only 18 months later!). Sooke is on Vancouver Island; near the southern most tip. It is about an hour's drive to Victoria, the biggest city on the island, and about an hour's north-westerern drive to Port Renfrew, which touches the tip of the Carmana Walbran Provincial Park .  We stayed at this wonderful little house (fawns! quail chicks! hummingbirds! in the morning) right outside and it had a great ocean view and was so tranquil on a bit of property. Because we found this listing last-minute and it was brand-new, they had offered it at a discount and we scored big. I think we paid roughly 100$/day. It's now quite a bit more, but if you have the budget, it's a beautiful house.  an orca skeleton at the Royal BC Museum Orcas: Our Shared Adventure exhibit was at the Royal BC Museum, and the first section was all about the science of the whales, and the second part was about...

  The Christmas book bin next to the tree As I'm finally getting down to the wire to create any last blog posts about book titles and whatever else, I'm realizing that although I felt I didn't read as much (and my Completed amount says so), I realize I did still manage to finish quite a bit of reading even though it was about 40 titles short compared to other years. I'm okay with that; 2020, the year of unmet expectations! The lost focus was real.  Did any of you experience the inability to read deeply this year? Or did you plunge into the hobby ever-deeper, reading more than you would in a normal year because there was so little to do outside our homes? I hope it was the latter!  The Color of Compromise by Jamar Tisby -  This was probably the most interesting and important book I read all year. It's a look at the Christian church in America's complicity role in racism throughout American history. It. Was. Fascinating. Tisby is a Christian who presents the read...

Showing a page from "The Little Book of Lykke" by Meik Wiking I feel behind in my reading. The libraries have recently reopened two weeks ago and I now have a stack of three books I can't wait to read, and yet, I'm struggling to read them. My brain won't sit still long enough to relax into a book. It has nervous energy and I'm finding sometimes reading feels like a chore. There is so much going on in the world and reading is my happy and relaxed place; somehow the firm boundaries of my mind have been disrupted and distressed to the point of just shoving away the comfort foods of words and paper and turning off the light instead.  This looks like a big list, but it is two months worth, and most of it was either already half-completed, or read aloud to my kids. I recently led our kids' co-op in an Upper Level Book Club (gr 5+) with two of these books, also helping my reading on track. I know I'm not behind in anything (in what?), but at this point in  y...