Litsy

Bear | Marian Engel

I'm sorry, sometimes I can't resist a good pun. My review for the tagged?
Ice Planet Bar-Bearian
(In all seriousness, an unconventional novel about a bibliographer who forms a close relationship with a bear at an estate she is tasked with itemizing for her employer. “Unhinged women“ seem to be all of the rage right now & this one is a bit of an outlier. This is a love it/hate it. I found some of the reveals of the MC at the end made me (CONT,)

vivastory reevaluate what I thought that I knew about her earlier. I entirely disagree with any reviews that might label this as “erotic“ or “salacious“. Definitely uncomfortable at times,a short read, or listen (4 hours on audio) but I do think Engel a Canadian writer helped pave the way for works like the boldness of the subject matter in Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy. 7h

vivastory -I listened to this one but I just noticed the Atwood blurb, so definitely feel justified lololol 7h

Ruthiella I love à good unhinged women novel. Plus, @merelybookish gave it a thumbs up too. ? 6h

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vivastory @Ruthiella She did!I don't know if you listen to the One Bright Books Podcast, but it's one of the co-host favorite books and I know he's made a few coverts over the years, including the lovely co-hosts of Mookse and the Gripse 5h

Ruthiella @vivastory Yes! I listen to that podcast as well! Three recommendations now. So I really need to try it. Maybe I can ask @Jess861 if we can work it in for #OhCanada . (edited) 5h

Jess861 @Ruthiella I'm always excited to get recommendations for OhCanada! I've already set the next reads vote by someone who posted on authors/topics they are interested in - but nothing set in stone after that. I'll be happy to have this as the book we read for the May/June read 😊! 5h

Ruthiella @Jess861 Awesome! 🤩 4h

LeahBergen I bought an old edition of this ages ago but just haven‘t nerved myself to read it somehow. 😆 3h

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melissajayne

They Left Us Everything: A Memoir | Plum Johnson

#fridayhappyreadinghour

Sparklemn Cider sounds refreshing 💚 4h

25 likes1 comment

ChaoticMissAdventures

The Robber Bride | Margaret Atwood

bailed

Bailing at 41%
I hated this and it isn't interesting enough to hate read. I have been avoiding even listening to this for 2 days. Every woman in this novel is the whiniest privileged woman and it is boring. We are spending all of our time with Toni a war obsessed professor who took Zenia's bf in college and who lives in fear Z will come back and take him back? He is not even a great guy? There are so many moments I swore out loud in disgust

SamAnne Hmmm….maybe I unstack this. Doesn‘t sound like my cup of tea. 2d

ChaoticMissAdventures @SamAnne it gets high reviews from others. But I can tell you the moment I knew I was done was when the MC was saying she wanted babies but her husband never brought it up so she has pushed the feeling aside..... Even as a child free person this was a big yikes. 2d

dabbe #hailthebail 🙌🏻 #betterbooksahead 2d

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BarbaraBB On to the next Atwood 😉 2d

ChaoticMissAdventures @BarbaraBB yes! I have her new memoir which I hear good stuff about! 2d

BookishMarginalia Onwards! 2d

rebcamuse I took an Atwood seminar in college and it‘s funny—I only really loved Handmaid‘s Tale but I had some recollection of enjoying this one, but I couldn‘t tell you anything about it. I did not like Edible Woman or Bodily Harm, likely because they both seemed to have the many of the same theme. Reading pretty much her entire oeuvre at that point in one semester was… a lot. 1d

PatriciaU Atwood is an author everyone loves and I have never “gotten.” I‘ve heard her speak in person and she was spectacular, but I just can‘t read her books. 18h

ChaoticMissAdventures @rebcamuse this would have been a fascinating class! I would like to take that now, especially through a modern lenses when her older things were both regressive (this one) and so forward thinking like HT. 15h

ChaoticMissAdventures @PatriciaU she is amazing in person (I also like to watch her fight with people online lol) I have decided I don't like her contemporary books, but I did really enjoy HT and her oryx and crake series when I read it many many moons ago. 14h

45 likes10 comments

Bookwormjillk

Late Nights on Air | Elizabeth Hay

pick

The slow pace of this book made it hard to follow on audiobook, but I loved loved loved the setting in a radio station in small town NW Territories.

BarbaraBB Sounds like a book for you @TheKidUpstairs 💕 3d

TheKidUpstairs @BarbaraBB I've had this on my shelf forever! It won the Giller years ago, and for some reason I've just never gotten around to opening it. But i LOVE Hay's most recent book, so maybe I should prioritize this one, soon.

Snow Road Station: A Novel

JuniperWilde I absolutely loved this book. I read it as a physical book. It‘s a treasure 🇨🇦 2d

Bookwormjillk @JuniperWilde I need to re-read it as a physical book 2d

62 likes4 comments

suvata

The Home for Unwanted Girls | Joanna Goodman

pick

3.5 Stars • In 1950s Quebec, teen Maggie is forced to give up her newborn daughter Elodie after a forbidden romance. Elodie grows up in an orphanage reclassified as a mental hospital under the Duplessis Orphans scandal, facing neglect and abuse. ⬇️

suvata The story follows Maggie's hidden grief and search, and Elodie's traumatic childhood and fight for freedom, leading toward reunion. Emotional historical fiction about maternal love, cultural divides, and systemic injustice. 3d

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bookandbedandtea

The Takedown | Lily Chu

pick

This book tried to do too much: Dee‘s parents & grandmother have moved in with her due to Gma‘s poor health; her mother is a font of toxic positivity; Gma has a history of treating Dee, her father, and sister w disdain due to their race; she meets a man she likes & w/ whom she has much in common, she loses her job & gets a new one where she is assigned to a local fashion house to help them w/ diversity hiring, which is greeted w/ plenty of…

bookandbedandtea pushback. All of that would make for a good story but we also have: neither of the diversity consulting companies she works for walk their own talk; her new guy, Teddy, is the son of the CEO of the fashion house &, as his dad rejects all of his suggestions, he's given up trying to make changes at work, which Dee, hypocritically, as she hasn't been able to push back against her own family, blames him for; AND, Dee discovers that the head of design (edited) 4d

bookandbedandtea at Teddy's company is stealing designs from young, marginalized designers which leads to her doing some amateur sleuthing in an attempt to prove it. Whew! A lot of this was good, some of it was absurd, and some things were simply plot devices (Teddy's father being utterly unable to listen to reason didn't make sense) so this lands at a low pick for me. But the good stuff was good enough that I'll try this author again.
4d

AnnCrystal 💕🌱💝. 3d

31 likes3 comments

vivastory

Bear | Marian Engel

Bailed on Patel's I'm A Fan earlier. The sporadic brilliant insights unfortunately couldn't save it (never a good sign when nodding off repeatedly while listening). Up next one championed by @merelybookish OR I might opt for Max Porter's Shy: both audio. Will definitely still give both a go this month!

KT1432 This seems to give a whole new meaning to “choosing the bear!” 😳 4d

merelybookish Oooh how exciting! I hope you enjoy it but will be interested to hear your thoughts regardless. A Canadian classic!! It won awards. 3d

51 likes2 comments

ChaoticMissAdventures

Robber Bride | Margaret Atwood

What is it about books about women written in the 1990s?
They are such push overs, so whiny, so boringly priggish. I am hate listening to the tagged at this point, mostly because I need 2 Atwood's to push down a bad man from my most read list. I am begging 1993 Atwood to give these women spines!! .

Ruthiella I looked at this book as an allegory and a riff on the fairy tale The Robber Bridegroom. It‘s been a few years but I believe Atwood made the three women intentionally frustrating. 4d

ChaoticMissAdventures @Ruthiella yes I read a few reviews that said it was fairy tale related, but goodness. What whiners! But I gave a thing against books written in the 90s, not sure what happened that decade (I was late teens early 20s) but I don't love them! 4d

BarbaraBB I didn‘t enjoy this one as much as I expected too either. My favorites will always be Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin and The Handmaid‘s Tale (hated Testaments though). 4d

32 likes3 comments

melissajayne

Isola: A Novel | Allegra Goodman

My December selection #12booksofchristmas

Not exactly a shocker, but 9 out of the 12 books chosen here were historical fiction.

Thanks to Ellie for hosting.