Chorus of Mushrooms | 
pickWhat a beautiful book! Quite amazing it was Goto's debut as well. A magical realist tale about family, immigration, stories, food, the land, and culture. I loved Naoe the grandmother character! So funny and wise. Her relationship with her granddaughter was also great. A fantastic Canadian feminist classic. #CanLit #WeNeedDiverseBooks
I'm making good headway on this lovely, surprising book! The green tea with cinnamon and other spices is helping to wake me up I think! #Readathon #Deweys24HourReadathon
I cheated a little bit with the #Readthon and slept in til 6 (technically it started at 5 for me) but I am awake now and made tea and am ready to keep reading CHORUS OF MUSHROOMS! This is the morning view of Vancouver from my apartment. #Deweys24HourReadathon
Planning my TBR for tomorrow's #Readathon! This is probably ambitious, but I'm already reading the Hiromi Goto novel, two are YA, and one is a comic. Anyone else planning? #Deweys24HourReadathon
So many great books last month made it hard to pick favourites. All four that I chose made me feel changed.
Notice the question mark in counting nonwhite authors. Joseph Boyden appears to have backed himself into a corner regarding his Indigenous status.
pickFeminist. Poetic. Power of storytelling. Three generations of women in an immigrant family on an Alberta prairie farm. Slippery, shifting perspective, interwoven with Japanese folk legends. Vibrant. Strong. Gorgeous.
Sapphie is taking her cue from #Bitsy. She seems to think that since I've finished my book, it's time for a belly rub. #dogsofLitsy @LauraBeth
If your name is Hank and you have three blond kids, no one will come up to you in the Safeway produce section and point at a vegetable and ask, "What is that?"
"You're not holding your chopsticks quite properly," he said.
"I know. I don't hold my pen properly either. But I can still write. And I can still eat."
[People have commented on my unusual way of holding my pen, so I'm happy when I hear of others.]
It's easy to travel distances if you fly on a bed of stories. My mom didn't tell tales at all. And the only make-believe she knew was thinking that she was as white as her neighbour. I wanted to hear bedtime stories, hear lies and truth dissembled. I wanted to fill the hollow with sound and pain. Roar like the prairie wind. Roar like Obāchan.
I'm leaving today on a 3-week trip and only packing these two print books. BUT my iPod is loaded with audiobooks and an ebook AND I'm going to be staying with a friend who's a former editor at Random House and I know she has great books on her shelves at home PLUS she works at the public library in Auckland. I'm not worried about running out. 😊✈️
