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Mattsbookaday

Mattsbookaday

Joined February 2025

🇨🇦 | 45 | 🏳️‍🌈 | ✝️
review
Mattsbookaday
Hungerstone | Kat Dunn
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Mehso-so

Hungerstone, by Kat Dunn (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A Sapphic retelling of Carmilla set in Industrial Britain.

Review: This was a disappointment for me. A Sapphic retelling of an already Sapphic novel, retold in essentially the same time period (though a different location), I was left wondering … why? ⬇️

Mattsbookaday Everything in the new setting — the cruel industrialist husband, the poor little orphan girl abused wife — was just so OBVIOUS. Leave this on the shelf and just pick up the original, which is still accessible in all its Gothic subtlety. 22h
8 likes1 comment
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Hit Girls, by Nora Princiotti (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A closer look at the female pop stars that defined pop culture in the ‘00s

Review: Nora Princiotti is a staff writer for the pop culture site The Ringer (where she also cohosts the popular Every Single Album podcast), and she brings that site‘s patented blend of informed, personal, and referential writing to this book. ⬇️

Mattsbookaday A lot of the information was new to me , and she did a great job of contextualizing these often denigrated artists, their legacies, and lasting impact on pop culture.

Bookish Pair: For another popular history of popular music by women, Shine Bright by Danyel Smith (2022)
2d
5 likes1 comment
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Strange Houses, by Uketsu (2021, transl. 2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: The discovery of an unmarked space on the floor plan of a house for sale piques the curiosity of a writer and his architect friend, to creepy effect.

Review: Like so many others, I was totally taken by Uketsu‘s Strange Pictures earlier this year. This one doesn‘t quite hit the same highs, but was still a delicious dose of the author‘s macabre and mysterious sensibilities.

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Mattsbookaday
Vanishing World | Sayaka Murata
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Vanishing World, by Sayaka Murata (2015, transl. 2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: This speculative novel explores the social impacts of a world in which sexual reproduction is considered obsolete (and kinda gross).

Review: This is my favourite kind of speculative fiction, changing a single detail about our present world then exploring its impacts to a logical extreme. ⬇️

Mattsbookaday Here we see how one change—the total move to IVF—completely changes how people might view the family, marriage, and sex. There‘s no moralizing here on any side, just a fascinating (occasionally bumpy) ride. It‘s been a long time since a book made my synapses fire as brightly or as often as this one did.

Bookish Pair: This would pair well with Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley (1932)
4d
Chelsea.Poole Great review! I want to read this one. 4d
Mattsbookaday @Chelsea.Poole I hope you enjoy it! It‘s incredibly thought-provoking! 4d
10 likes3 comments
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Mattsbookaday
Medea | Euripides
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Medea, by Euripides (431 BCE)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Spurned princess Medea plots revenge upon her faithless lover Jason

Review: Euripides‘ plays have stood the test of time for a reason. They demonstrate a keen and nuanced understanding of the human psyche. Is Medea portrayed as a monster or as a sympathetic victim? ⬇️

Mattsbookaday The answer is yes and it‘s amazing how well that still comes across almost 2500 years later. Do yourself a favour and find a good translation and sink into it.

Bookish Pair: For a humorous take on an unlikely production of Euripides, Ferdia Lennon‘s Glorious Exploits (2024)
5d
7 likes1 comment
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Mattsbookaday
A Week to Be Wicked | Tessa Dare
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A Week to Be Wicked (Spindle Cove 2), by Tessa Dare (2012)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Premise: A burgeoning geologist enlists the help of a notorious rake to get her across the country so she can deliver a paper to a society.

Review: I adored the first book in this series, as well as the holiday novella released before this official book 2. Sadly this didn‘t hit the same highs for me, though this is not likely the fault of the book. Cont.

Mattsbookaday While I love a ‘bluestocking‘ heroine in my historicals, I‘m not a fan of road trips, or smart women being railroaded by the system, so this one just wasn‘t for me. But as always, Tessa Dare delivers wonderful characters with swoonworthy connections. 6d
8 likes1 comment
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Warriors of Anatolia, by Trevor Bryce (2019)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A survey of the rise, reign, and fall of the Hittite Empire from one of the major English-language scholars of the field.

Review: Hittite history is notoriously difficult to understand, due primarily to a lack of solid evidence. This volume is a solid attempt at putting the available pieces together. Cont.

Mattsbookaday Unfortunately, I don‘t think the author succeeded in telling the story in a compelling way. The fact that it look me 15 months to finish it says pretty much everything you need to know. But the material is solid and it‘s a helpful addition to understanding the Ancient Near Eastern world.

Bookish Pair: 1177 BC, by Eric H. Cline (2021)
7d
6 likes1 comment
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Mattsbookaday
Flux | Jinwoo Chong
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Mehso-so

Flux, by Jinwoo Chong (2023)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A young man‘s life takes a bizarre turn when, after miraculously surviving a fall down an elevator shaft, he‘s recruited to a work a new tech company that promises to revolutionize the energy sector.

Review: this book is incredibly high-concept—the premise above only touches half of what‘s going on—and every plot line comes at things at odd angles. Cont.

Mattsbookaday I did enjoy it in the end, but it‘s very weird and I do hope the author‘s next effort is a bit tighter, because he clearly has a lot of interesting ideas!

Bookish Pair: Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu (2020)
1w
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Heart Berries: A Memoir | Terese Mailhot
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Heart Berries, by Terese Marie Mailhot (2018 🇨🇦)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: An unflinchingly honest memoir about growing up and living with abuse and mental illness while Indigenous

Review: This memoir takes a no holds barred # approach and I think is much better for it. Mailhot bares all here, in all her intelligence and education and all her trauma, illness, and heartbreak. Cont.

Mattsbookaday The juxtaposition or even mixing of them all is at times jarring, but incredibly real. This is not an easy read, but it‘s beautiful in its stark reality.

Bookish Pair: For another bold memoir by a Salishan woman, check out Red Paint, by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe (2022).
1w
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Proto, by Laura Spinney (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A look at the latest evidence about the history of the Indo-European languages and the people who have spoken them.

Review: This is a truly excellent work of popular history, incorporating archaeological, linguistic, and increasingly genetic evidence to piece together our current best guesses about this diverse language family, which is as mysterious as it is common. Cont.

Mattsbookaday I appreciated that the author gave space to non-Western voices and dissenting opinions, and the measured and responsible way she delivered the evidence. 1w
7 likes1 comment
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Mice 1961 | Stacey Levine
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Mehso-so

Mice 1961, by Stacey Levine (2024)
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: A mysterious narrator looks on as orphaned half sisters find themselves at crossed purposes during a neighbourhood potluck.

Review: This was a surprise finalist for the Pulitzer Prize this year so I was very curious to pick it up. This is an absolute masterclass in setting and atmosphere, and unique in its approach to storytelling. Cont.

Mattsbookaday Most of the book is told in snippets of overheard conversations, meaning that it jumps wildly from character to character. This skiddish narration effectively mirrors the mental state of the main characters. But it also makes the book very frustrating to read. There‘s also very little plot and so it‘s just largely a scattershot of high-emotion, low-stakes neighbourhood pettiness. So this impressed in what it did well, but left me cold overall. 2w
4 likes1 comment
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The Girl and the Galdurian (Lightfall 1), by Tim Probert (2020)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: An anxious girl teams up with an adventurous stranger to search for her missing wizard grandfather.

Review: This is an adorable graphic novel featuring charming characters and stunning illustrations. I have some quibbles about the plotting, mostly how book one ended without any resolution and I‘m still not sure what the stakes are. Cont.

Mattsbookaday But overall this was really lovely and I‘ll definitely read on.

Bookish Pair: For another gross-generational unlikely pairing fantasy graphic novel, Nimona by ND Stevenson (2015)
2w
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Mattsbookaday
Run Away With Me | Brian Selznick
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Run Away with Me, by Brian Selznick (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Two teenage boys fall in mysterious and magical first love in 1986 Rome.

Review: This was very sweet but ultimately I think it felt a bit too scattered. At first I thought there was some fantasy element to the pairing, but that turned out to be a misdirect. And there was a compelling secondary plot involving a mysterious book that deserved more attention. But overall this was fun.

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Liquid: A Love Story | Mariam Rahmani
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Panpan

Liquid, by Mariam Rahmani (2025)
⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: An Iranian-American woman struggling to find sustainable work as an academic rethinks her priorities.

Review: Despite some promising marketing copy, this turned out to be my least favourite type of literature: a cancerously excessive postmodern critique that devolves into complaining about everything in the most obvious ways. It‘s also filled with unnecessary pretentious literary references. Cont

Mattsbookaday This finally lights up when the main character travels to Tehran at about the 2/3 mark, but even here it felt like the author pulled her punches. All in all this was a huge disappointment and a waste of the author‘s obvious talent.

Bookish Pair: For a far more successful book about a queer Persian Angelino going to Iran, check out Abdi Nazemian‘s YA masterpiece Only This Beautiful Moment (2023).
2w
6 likes1 comment
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Woodworking | Emily St James
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Woodworking, by Emily St. James (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Things get complicated in a small town when a high school teacher just beginning to come to terms with her trans identity befriends a brash trans student.

Review: This is a fascinating and unique exploration of the complexities of trans experiences. I love how realistically messy the main characters are: when there are no good options, it stands to reason. Cont.

Mattsbookaday The reverse mentorship aspect is as understandable and thought-provoking as it was improper—and this is just one of the many muddled boundaries in the story.If there ever was a ‘window‘ book it‘s this one, and I came away with a more visceral understanding of the issues this often willfully misunderstood community faces.

Bookish Pair: For a trans-male window book, check out Some Strange Music Draws Me In, by Griffin Hansbury (2024).
2w
6 likes1 comment
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Scientific Marvel: Poems | Chimwemwe Undi
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Mehso-so

Scientific Marvel, by Chimwemwe Undi (2024 🇨🇦)
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A collection of poems largely about the poet‘s feelings of erasure from the Canadian, and specifically Manitoban, story.

Review: I‘m not in a good position to offer an opinion on this one. Cont.

Mattsbookaday I don‘t read a lot of contemporary poetry, so it‘s hard for me to judge it. And, being a White, settler Canadian, I‘m in no position to comment on the kinds of feelings and experiences described in this collection. I will simply say that it didn‘t really work for me, but that is unlikely because it isn‘t good.
2w
4 likes1 comment
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In The Absence Of Men | Philippe BESSON
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In the Absence of Men, by Philippe Besson (2007, transl. 2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: In 1916 Paris, a queer teenager experiences love for the first time in very different relationships with a middle-aged writer and a soldier on leave from the War.

Review: Once again, Philippe Besson has demonstrated his knack for exceptional, short, melancholic, queer fiction. Cont.

Mattsbookaday This excels in evoking both a moment—Paris during WWI—and a time in life—the first experience of real adult relationships. I have to say the ending involves a revelation that felt unearned and silly to me, but overall this was a great success.

Bookish Pair: Besson‘s previous book translated into English was Lie with Me (2017, transl. 2019)
(edited) 2w
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The Horse, the Wheel, the Language, by David W. Anthony (2007)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A thorough exploration of the evidence in favour of the Kurgan hypothesis of Indo-European origins.

Review: This did a great job in filling in the pieces for me in where this area of study has been at this century.It offers a detailed defense of the Kurgan hypothesis through a mixture of linguistic and archaeological evidence. Cont.

Mattsbookaday That said, in this thoroughness it got awfully repetitive, knocking it down a bit for me. It‘s also now 17 years old, so we‘ll have to see how it stands up to the new release on the topic.

Bookish Pair: For a new title on the subject I‘m excited to read, Proto by Laura Spinney
3w
6 likes1 comment
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YHWH‘S Divine Images, by Dan McClellan (2022)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: An academic study of Ancient Near Eastern conceptions of divinity and what they might mean for the interpretation of the Tanakh/Old Testament.

Review: The author here is a popular social media personality in the informed religion space, so I was intrigued when his academic work found its way to me. Cont.

Mattsbookaday As someone with a linguistics background, I appreciated the cognitive approach he took to the study, and his findings were in keeping with some other ideas I‘ve seen about the issue coming from less academic places. (It‘s always nice to see when academic work validates one‘s ‘pet‘ ideas!) 3w
5 likes1 comment
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The Farm | Tom Rob Smith
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The Farm, by Tom Rob Smith (2014)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: A London man must sort out the truth when his father tells him his mother has had a psychotic break, but his mother insists she‘s being railroaded for uncovering unspeakable crimes.

Review: I don‘t read a lot of psychological thrillers, but this really worked for me. The author did a great job in setting up the story and added just enough to keep me guessing till the end. Cont.

Mattsbookaday I also liked the journey of self-realization the main character takes as the image he had of his family starts to shatter. I can see how some people might think the ending was a little too pat, but I found it very satisfying.

Bookish Pair: For another book involving a discomforting quest for truth, A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson (2021).
3w
4 likes1 comment
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The Voyage Home | Pat Barker
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The Voyage Home (Women of Troy 3), by Pat Barker (2024) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A Trojan nurse accompanies the doomed prophetess Cassandra to her fate as Agamemnon‘s entourage returns home.

Review: In a landscape overstuffed with retellings, once again this effort from Pat Barker elevates the genre to its full potential. It was jarring not to have Briseis as our point-of-view character in this third book. Cont.

Mattsbookaday But, I was glad to see Cassandra‘s story brought to its satisfying, sad and fated end. There‘s a reason why these stories have survived for thousands of years; they reflect incredible psychological depth and complexity, and I‘m grateful for Pat Barker for going above and beyond in shining a new light on them.

Bookish Pair: For a fun recent novel that uses Euripides‘s take on this saga as a backdrop, Ferdia Lennon‘s Glorious Exploits (2024).
3w
7 likes1 comment
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The Summer of Jordi Perez, by Amy Spalding (2018)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A Los Angeles teen‘s plans for her Summer internship at a fashionable boutique are complicated when she catches feelings for her colleague and rival.

Review: This is a sweet YA novel perfect for Pride. While the romance is solid, where this really impressed me was in its unique take on body positivity and teenage male-female friendships.

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Set Piece, by Lana Schwartz (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: Five years after a passionate chance encounter, an up-and-coming Hollywood production designer gets a second chance with one of the industry‘s hottest actors.

Review: This was a really solid romance, with great characters with strong chemistry and understandable conflict.

Bookish Pair: For another good Hollywood romance, Olivia Dade‘s Spoiler Alert (2020)

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Elizabeth Rex | Timothy Findley, Paul Thompson
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Elizabeth Rex, by Timothy Findley (2000 🇨🇦)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: On the night before her lover is put to death on her orders, a restless Queen Elizabeth I spends time with William Shakespeare‘s troupe and gets into a battle of wits about the performance of gender with a man who has spent his whole career in drag.

Review: This is probably my favourite play-as-literature thus far. Cont.

Mattsbookaday The premise is great, the dialogue sharp (and often funny), and the exploration of power, gender, and love utterly fascinating. The scenes among the two ‘queens‘ and Shakespeare are absolutely where this shines; the rest felt mostly inconsequential, but was far from dragging the play down. 3w
7 likes1 comment
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Under the Eye of the Little Bird, by Hiromi Kawakami (2016, transl. 2024)
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: A novel in linked short stories about the distant fate of humanity.

Review: This will no doubt work for a lot of readers, but despite the fact that I can recognize that it‘s very well done, it was not for me. Told in short stories, all at different moments in the future,, this is meant to keep the reader off guard. Cont.

Mattsbookaday And while it succeeded at that, it also left me unable to really care about anything that was happening. And that made this a really tough slog for me, and while I‘m glad I read it, it‘s not one I‘ll ever be tempted to revisit.

Bookish Pair:For another scifi novel-in-stories, Sequoia Nagamatsu‘s How High We Go in the Dark (2022)
4w
5 likes1 comment
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My Own Lightning | Lauren Wolk
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My Own Lightning (Wolf Hollow 2), by Lauren Wolk (2022)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: After getting struck by lightning, a 1940s Pennsylvania girl begins to see the world—and people—around her differently.

Review: With the first book in this series being such a triumph for me, I was a bit unsure what to expect with this sequel. But wow! I think I like it even more! Cont.

Mattsbookaday There‘s such good and nuanced insight here, along with a heart-warming middle grade story. Pure middle grade brilliance. 4w
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Nimbus | Robert P Baird
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The Nimbus, by Robert P. Baird (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A Chicago couple‘s relationship frays when their youngest son starts glowing and they have drastically different reactions.

Review: This is not going to be for everyone, but it was absolutely for me. The premise is big, and, while the author didn‘t go where I‘d have wanted him to, there‘s no doubt where it goes is as realistic as it is unsettling. Cont.

Mattsbookaday This is a good fit for readers with an interest in academia, the uncanny, religion, and realistic portrayals of marriage.

Bookish Pair: For both setting and themes, this plays well with Nathan Hill‘s Wellness (2023).
4w
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The Dad Rock that Made Me a Woman, by Niko Stratis (2025 🇨🇦)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A memoir in essays about the role of music in the author‘s Northern childhood and burgeoning trans identity.

Review: I don‘t have too much to say about this. Each chapter focuses on the role a different artist played in a stage of the author‘s life. Some of these connections are stronger than others. Cont.

Mattsbookaday Overall, I was never not going to appreciate this as, like the author, I‘m a queer, music-loving millennial with a Yukon childhood. This does what it needs to do and offers a timely glimpse into a trans journey that doesn‘t fit into the normal narratives. 4w
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Travels with Charley, by John Steinbeck (1962)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: The famed author undertakes a road trip across the United States to reconnect with ‘real America‘, accompanied by a beloved aging pet.

Review: This is a fascinating portrait of a divided country that is still enlightening 65 years later. Cont.

Mattsbookaday Particularly harrowing is his description of traveling through the South at the height of the battles for racial integration. Obviously aspects of the discussion are problematic from a 2025 perspective, but Steinbeck‘s keen eye and discerning mind make it a valuable snapshot of a time and place.

Bookish Pair: Jack Kerouac‘s On the Road (1957)
1mo
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How to Seal Your Own Fate | Kristen Perrin
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Panpan

How to Seal Your Own Fate (Castle Knoll Files 2), by Kristen Perrin (2025)
⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: A fortune teller‘s words once again set murderous events in motion, and old journals once again hold all the clues.

Review: This was such a huge disappointment for me. The first book in this series was great, but this just repeated the premise from the first, even involving the same cast of characters and inciting incident, cont.

Mattsbookaday and they were barely interesting enough to sustain one good book, let alone two. This also stretched the limits of credulity past the breaking point: at one point, the main character literally causes an accident that almost kills someone while fleeing arrest, with zero consequences. What a mess. 1mo
4 likes1 comment
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God: an Anatomy | Francesca Stavrakopoulou
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God: An Anatomy, by Francesca Stavrakopoulou (2022)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A reassessment of common ideas about the biblical God‘s body (or lack thereof) in light of parallels in neighbouring ancient civilizations.

Review: This book has a simple and incontrovertible premise: Since the Bible talks about God the same as neighbouring cultures did, there‘s no reason to think ancient Israelites believed God not to have a body. Cont.

Mattsbookaday From this premise, it then demonstrates just what this God looked like. While I do think it could have done this in a third the length, and I wish she‘d exercised both more academic humility in some of her conclusions and more curiosity towards the traditions that shifted belief into the more abstract conception of God that has been standard for centuries, this is very successful.
1mo
6 likes1 comment
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Fabulous Zed Watson! The | Basil Sylvester
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Mehso-so

The Fabulous Zed Watson!, by Basil Sylvester w Kevin Sylvester (2021 🇨🇦)
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A flamboyant nonbinary kid embarks on a road trip with friends on a quest to find the lost chapters of a cult classic book

Review: I wanted to love this but sadly it just didn‘t work for me. The plot was laughably implausible and the main character—far from fabulous—came off as insufferable. Cont.

Mattsbookaday I won‘t pan this, though. I think the protagonist would probably play better for the book‘s intended middle grade audience, and I appreciated the nonbinary representation and the book‘s big-hearted message.

Bookish Pair: For another MG title with a nonbinary lead, Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston, by Esme Symes-Smith (2022)
1mo
5 likes1 comment
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The Diviners | Margaret Laurence
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The Diviners, by Margaret Laurence (1974 🇨🇦) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: When her daughter leaves home to find herself, an author recollects her own often difficult journey of self-discovery

Review: This is a deserved classic of Canadian literature, even if it left me feeling a bit empty. It succeeds best in its thematic exploration of storytelling, identity, and dispossession, and how those intersect with race, class, and gender. Cont.

Mattsbookaday Where I found it a bit wanting was in the plot, which got too bogged down in stereotypical second-wave feminist tropes to feel original or interesting to me. In this it‘s very much a product of its time—a smart and forward-thinking one to be sure, but it just left me wanting a bit more.

Bookish Pair: For a more recent CanLit take on similar themes, Jane Urquhart‘s In Winter I Get Up at Night (2024).
1mo
5 likes1 comment
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The Railway Conspiracy | SJ Rozan, John Shen Yen Nee
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Mehso-so

The Railway Conspiracy (Dee & Lao 2), by John Shen Yen Nee & S.J. Rozan (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Judge Dee and his lecturer sidekick Lao get pulled into a series of murders related to an international conspiracy against China.

Review: After how much I enjoyed the first book in this series, this was a huge let-down. Cont.

Mattsbookaday I kept waiting to be pulled into the story and it just never happened. There were a lot of characters, including White Russian gangsters and Japanese samurai amidst the expected assortment of Chinese expats and Brits, and it was just convoluted to me. The one area where this shone was in its nuanced exploration of early Chinese Communism and why many — including our narrator — found it an attractive solution. 1mo
6 likes1 comment
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Once Upon a Winter‘s Eve (Spindle Cove 1.5), by Tessa Dare (2011)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A Christmas ball in Spindle Cove is disrupted by the arrival of a stranger — and possible French spy — who collapses at the feet of a resident about to be sent home to London, and who thinks he seems eerily familiar.

Review: This is a fun holiday romance novella that‘s a delightful addition to the Spindle Cove series.

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The Women of Troy (Women of Troy 2), by Pat Barker (2021)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: As the victorious Greek armies are stranded by impossible winds and tensions rise in the camps, the enslaved women of Troy ponder what comes.

Review: I was blown away by the first book in this series, and the sequel did not disappoint. Cont.

Mattsbookaday Once again we‘re in the mind of Briseis; but now she has a tenuous position of power over women she had once counted as friends. The depiction of the rapidly deteriorating mood in the Greek camps is compelling in its own right. This is a great triumph and I will be reading book 3 as quickly as I can!

Bookish Pair: For a glimpse at what Penelope was doing while all this was going on, Margaret Atwood‘s *Penelopiad* (2005)
1mo
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Everything on a Waffle | Polly Horvath
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Mehso-so

Everything on a Waffle, by Polly Horvath (2004 🇨🇦)
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: A Vancouver Island girl‘s life is turned upside down when her parents go missing

Review: This is one of those middle grade novels that is incredibly silly while dealing with difficult themes and ideas. Cont.

Mattsbookaday The ideas piece is where this really shone; it could be a great way to introduce age-appropriate philosophical conversations with a deep-thinking tween. I‘m less keen on the plot itself, which felt like a hodge-podge of different elements but didn‘t really resolve them. 1mo
7 likes1 comment
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Lion's Legacy | L. C. Rosen
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Mehso-so

Lion‘s Legacy, by L.C. Rosen (2023)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Fresh off a breakup that puts him in a difficult social position, a teenager reunites with his estranged tv archaeologist father to find a piece of ancient queer history.

Review: This is a queer YA Indiana Jones, with all the fun puzzles and booby-traps and ridiculous ‘archaeology‘—and teenage drama—you‘d expect from it. Cont.

Mattsbookaday As long as you turn your brain off and enjoy the ride, there‘s a great story here and some important reflections on the erasure of queer history.

Bookish Pair: For actual queer history, Tales From Beyond the Rainbow, by Pete Jordi Wood (2023)
1mo
4 likes1 comment
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Futbolista | Jonny Garza Villa
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Pickpick

Futbolista, by Jonny Garza Villa (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: A hotshot college freshman struggles to harmonize soccer culture and his Mexican heritage with his emerging realization that he isn‘t as straight as he thought he was.

Review: It took a while for me to sink into this one and appreciate the main character; this also doesn‘t do much that‘s not been done well before. But I‘m very glad I stayed with it. Cont

Mattsbookaday There‘s a lot of heart, and the journey of self-discovery is a great representation of the eye-opening experiences many have when they start college. All in all, this is a very strong coming out romance with great bisexual representation.

Bookish Pair: For more bisexual representation, Once Upon You & Me, by Timothy Janovsky (2025)
1mo
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The Emperor of Gladness, by Ocean Vuong (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A young recovering addict in 2010 New England develops an unlikely friendship with an elderly Lithuanian immigrant living with advanced dementia.

Review: Oof. I‘m not sure what to say about this one. It is unarguably a brilliant and important piece of literature, telling a story with a strong point of view.
Cont.

Mattsbookaday It also has an incredible sense of place, and profound empathy for all of its down-on-their-luck characters. As it explores themes of dreams and delusions, it rips Western society open to devastating effect, with no sentimentality. But it‘s so effective in doing this and its perspective is so pessimistic that it almost made wonder if life is actually worth living. I‘m giving this five stars because it deserves them, but I‘m not happy about it! 1mo
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The Weather Detective, by Peter Wohlleben (2012, transl. 2018)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: An exploration of how to get more out of one‘s garden by understanding it as part of the natural environment.

Review: This is a very good book that suffers because of its English translated title, which bears no connection at all to the book‘s content! Cont.

Mattsbookaday I have no idea what they were thinking since it‘s a huge departure from its title in other languages and is very misleading. But taking the book for what it is, it‘s excellent, offering gardeners helpful information about not only climate and weather, but also about soil composition, animal sensation, and ecological balance. I‘m just not sure how it will find its audience with such a misleading title! 1mo
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Run for the Hills, by Kevin Wilson (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Very different people become an unlikely family discover they share the same father and embark on a cross-country road trip to find him and ask why he abandoned them all to forge very different lives for himself.

Review: Wilson is the king of profound but off-kilter fiction, and this is no exception. Cont.

Mattsbookaday This is a fascinating exploration of family, the psychological impacts of abandonment, and the capacity for reinvention. Despite the immense suspension of disbelief required to buy that these strangers would road trip together the way they did, I can‘t help but give this five stars.

Bookish Pair: My favourite Kevin Wilson book is Now Is Not the Time to Panic (2022)
1mo
7 likes1 comment
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The Wind That Lays Waste, by Selva Almada (2012, transl. 2019)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: Four lives are changed when an itinerant charismatic pastor and his daughter stop for car repairs at a mechanic shop in drought-ridden rural Argentina.

Review: There‘s a lot to like about this. In barely over a hundred pages, Almada creates and rips open a whole world, with vivid characters and stunning dramatic tension. Cont.

Mattsbookaday I also liked the balanced (if simple) portrayal of religion here. Unfortunately, it just felt incomplete; we needed more time and space with these characters to justify their motivations and the book‘s radical conclusion — and ideally, get a glimpse into the aftermath.

Bookish Pair: Because of the ambivalent religious themes, this pairs well with Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland (2003).
1mo
5 likes1 comment
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A Night to Surrender (Spindle Cove 1), by Tessa Dare (2011)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Susanna will do whatever it takes to preserve her seaside village that‘s become a haven for independent women, but she meets her match when their quiet life is disrupted by the arrival of a young lord tasked with setting up a local militia.

Cont

Mattsbookaday Review: This is not only a charming Regency romance, but is also one of the most fun and funniest books I‘ve read in a long time. Highly recommended! 1mo
5 likes1 comment
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A Month in Siena | Hisham Matar
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A Month in Siena, by Hisham Matar (2019)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: The Libyan-British author‘s reflections on a month spent in Siena, adrift after coming to terms with the reality that he will never find out what happened to his father.

Review: Hisham Matar is a brilliant writer (I still can‘t believe his 2024 novel My Friends didn‘t make the Booker short list!) and this short memoir shows why. Cont.

Mattsbookaday The writing is gorgeous and the reflections on art, history, life, loss, similarity, and difference are often profound. The only thing this lacked for me was a bit of thematic glue to hold things together. But this is a wonderful memoir.

Bookish Pair: Anthony Doerr‘s Four Seasons in Rome (2007)
2mo
7 likes1 comment
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Hey Nostradamus! | Douglas Coupland
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Pickpick

Hey Nostradamus!, By Douglas Coupland (2003 🇨🇦)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: A 1988 school shooting in Greater Vancouver reverberates across fifteen years.

Review: I graduated high school a year before the 1999 Columbine shooting and was 21 on 9/11, two events which haunt this novel. Cont.

Mattsbookaday I say this because this is clearly a novel of its time and I really have no idea how younger readers would engage with it. But for me, I found this remarkable: thought-provoking, insightful, and unsettling in its handling of big themes such as love, loss, grief, survivor‘s guilt, purity, faith, and the contradictory roles religion and faith can play in our lives. A remarkable short novel. 2mo
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The Shots You Take | Rachel Reid
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The Shots You Take, by Rachel Reid (2025 🇨🇦)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: After not speaking for twelve years, a retired hockey player returns to his former roommate (and occasion lover)‘s home town to try to make amends for the disastrous end of their relationship.

Review: This is a hockey romance, but it‘s not really a hockey romance. Cont

Mattsbookaday It‘s far more a story of two middle aged men coming to terms with their fraught past in the hopes of building a better future. It‘s the perfect second-chance romance, with every beat feeling earned and pitch perfect. Bonus points for a great dog sidekick and lovely Maritime setting.

Bookish Pair: For another great second-chance romance (MF), Kennedy Ryan‘s Before I Let Go (2022)
2mo
4 likes1 comment
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The Last Smile in Sunder City (Fletch Phillips Archives 1), by Luke Arnold (2020)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A hard-boiled private investigator, haunted by his actions in a war that destroyed his world‘s magic, takes the case of a missing vampire.

Review: This was actor Luke Arnold‘s debut, and he set himself a big challenge, having to introduce us to a complex world in addition to his main character and the story itself. Cont.

Mattsbookaday Overall, I think he did a commendable job, even if the mystery sometimes felt like an afterthought to the world-building. I‘ll note that he leans in heavily into the tropes of noir fiction, including in his descriptions and depictions of women. So if you‘re sensitive to such issues, it‘s something to be aware of. 2mo
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My Friends | Fredrik Backman
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My Friends, by Fredrik Backman (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A dying artist‘s friends find a kindred spirit in an awkward but talented young woman who has just aged out of foster care.

Review: I had a hard time figuring out how I felt about this at first; I generally find Backman‘s writing to be a little clunky, and here I was also confused because the teenage characters felt far too articulate and self-aware for the story. Cont.

Mattsbookaday But then there‘s a comment about an artist painting not what things looked like but how they felt, and that opened up the whole novel for me: It‘s written to capture what teenage friendship feels like. And wow does it ever. This is a truly beautiful story about grief and loss, the length and brevity of life, and the things that make it worth living despite it all. A truly beautiful novel.

Bookish Pair: David Nicholls‘ Sweet Sorrow (2019)
2mo
10 likes1 comment
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Mehso-so

Grimoire Girl, by Hilarie Burton Morgan (2023)
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: During a season of loss, an actress reflects on the simple things that provide meaning in life.

Review: I find this hard to rate and review. As a celebrity memoir about the author‘s search for meaning during a trying season this works really well. Cont.

Mattsbookaday As a book about developing one‘s own quasi-witchy spiritual practices, it left a lot to be desired. But, if you‘re a fan of the author, or if you‘re curious about everyday witchiness and want a very approachable place to start, this could be for you. 2mo
4 likes1 comment