I resolved to read something I had not read before for This Old Thing, and Goodreads gave me a list of recommended books that are over 100 years old. I picked The Scarlet Pimpernel, because it is famous and important and written by a woman. It turns out that I do not have the reading fortitude I had in university, and I just couldn’t get into it. Despite having promised myself to not do re-reads for CBR10 Bingo, I felt like reading something warm and […]
Women talking, getting comfortable with anger
I picked up Miriam Toews’ newest novel, Women Talking, in the airport recently. I felt very lucky because it ticked so many boxes for me – I had run out of reading material on a work trip so really needed a book, it was in those new resell displays at the news stand so it was discounted enough to get through my NO NEW BOOK PURCHASES embargo, it fits with my vow to read more Canadian literature, and it was published in 2018. Toews has […]
I should have enjoyed this more than I did
This book feels like it is right up my alley – it’s written a Canadian author, it’s clever and well thought out, there is humour, it was nominated for Canadian literature awards. It’s BAIT, but I just struggled to force myself through it after it sitting on my TBR pile for two years. The narrator here is a 500 year old parrot named Aaron, telling the part of his life story he values the most. He tells of “his shoulder,” a young Jewish man named […]
It just feels young to me
Do you remember that discussion on the internet about how the world at large is always so eager to dismiss and mock the things that young girls love? I think about that a lot, and have tried harder to not do that myself. So, when I heard Rupi Kaur reading her poems on CBC Radio, talking about her youth and success and her dreams, I decided to give The Sun and her Flowers a try. This is Rupi Kaur’s second book; her first book Milk […]