I‘ve been reluctant to try #audiocycling in case my earbuds pop out due to bumpy roads and/or extreme sweat, but I had a 70-minute ride home tonight and I really want to finish TOLL THE HOUNDS, so I gave it a go. My earbuds stayed in and I‘m now at 83% with the book. The end is in sight!

I read the first three chapters of DEATHMAKER while I drank this delicious Stone Cutter Sour from Namesake Brewing. (The promised ginger is pretty subtle, but the tart lemon shines.) The book‘s action-packed so far, with a good hook. I‘ve done a bit of scrambling to remember the wider conflicts introduced in the first book, which I read months ago, but Buroker makes it easy to catch up.

Doing the long weekend thing with Daisy and a vintage mystery. This is my first Mary Roberts Rinehart, plucked from Kobo‘s freebies selection many long years ago. I‘m about a third of the way in and I‘m interested in the story but I strongly dislike the narrator. We‘ll see if I stick with it or if my distaste for this guy drives me away from the book.

I basically suspended everything until I‘d finished THE FIFTH, a polyamorous love story that mostly happens in the intense, reactive moments between the action. Daisy agrees it‘s fabulous stuff.

I read sixty pages of MIGHTY GOOD ROAD before bed last night and I‘m very much here for Melissa Scott‘s vibes. She‘s mighty good at building intricate, fun-to-discover worlds inhabited by intriguing characters. I can‘t wait to read more.

ALSO, I found a Leonardo Hello Kitty and while I‘m sad for the kid who lost it, I‘m super happy for me. Leonardo was my childhood fave because he had TWO SWORDS like a BADASS.

I‘m on to the final Nancy Drew title I found last time I was in this area—and once again, I seem to be reading it right around when the Litsy group preps for their discussion. Huh.

So far, this one‘s proven educational about bells and coastal delicacies like puffed shrimp and fish pudding topped with salmon mousse (…okay?). Lots of unconsciousness, too, thanks to drugs and mysterious caves. We shall see how it unfolds.

I just finished rewatching TED LASSO and it left me in the mood for MORE SPORTS. I‘ve had ON THE ICE lingering on my Kobo for ages since I wasn‘t wild about another of Amy Aislin‘s books, and I figured I might as well give it a try while I‘m in this mood. It‘s much sparklier than the other one! I do find the excessive American college talk grating, as always (and especially from non-American authors), but the character dynamics are great. Yay!

Onward through X-FACTOR, with a reading buddy who finds Sabretooth pretty durned alarming. (Don‘t we all, Ivy.) The mid-late 90s isn‘t my favourite X-period, but it‘s still been good to fill some gaps. I‘ve finally read all of EXCALIBUR, and I‘ll soon achieve WOLVERINE completism! Alas, Marvel Unlimited‘s still missing a fair chunk of X-FACTOR, but I can wait.

I got a day with Casey! Hurray!

He‘s currently helping me tackle the last story in this Korean collection about a skyscraper city. Alas, it‘s the sort of ideas-over-people SF I struggle to click with, so I ain‘t as wowed as the folks who recced it to me. There‘s enough meat here that I‘ll finish it, at least, but it won‘t make my list of stellar short fiction recs.

Got through 14% of TOLL THE HOUNDS while I installed my tiny loft‘s tree, connected the lights, baked Ted Lasso‘s iconic shortbread biscuits, and threw a batch of apple cheddar scones in the oven to boot because hey, it was already warm.

I felt very much like diving into this book at the start of the month, but someone borrowed it just when I was ready, then kept it out a full 21 days. I‘m no longer in quite the right mood, but I persevere.

Did another puzzle while I listened to this great Japanese mystery. Hoopla‘s got two more books by Yukito Ayatsuji and I‘ve already added both to my list for the next time I have a gap in my listening schedule. #audiopuzzling

I only remembered three things about THE LAST LIGHT OF THE SUN:

1. There were vikings.
2. They blood eagled people.
3. I didn‘t enjoy it as much as Kay‘s other books.

Now I‘m rereading it for the first time, eighteen years on, and I‘m loving it. Kay hits me hardest when he‘s PERSONAL, above mythic or political, and this book is very much that. I can‘t wait to plunge onwards.

Also of note: it‘s Allie‘s 8th birthday! She loves it under her tree.

I went to the library to get Josephine Baker‘s memoir, but of course I also had to grab two things from the New Purchases stand. Then I passed by a couple of LFLs, where I was able to tuck my Eric Wilson mystery in for someone else to find and claim a couple of Christopher Pikes for the next time I want late 80s/early 90s YA horror. There were TONS in there, but I didn‘t want to be greedy.

We recently passed the tenth anniversary of my last visit to the US. If more American voters felt like Beast, I might go back someday. With this Genoshan soldier‘s attitude in play, I doubt I‘ll ever cross the border again.

The very nicest thing I have to say to anyone who voted for their own personal Hitler is that I hope they find their way past the hate that governs their hearts. I hope they manage it before they kill everyone like me.

Did a puzzle while I listened to another great Bangalore Detectives Club mystery. My favourite thing about these books is how Nagendra illuminates 1920s India; especially the class divisions Kaveri navigates, the growing push for independence from Britain, and the ways women support each other given the social limits placed on them. #audiopuzzling

Marvel Unlimited‘s got a four-months-for-$4/month deal on now, so it‘s time for me to catch up on a year of additions to their X-books catalogue.

This OGN seems like more of a Ghost Rider book so far, but Wolvie‘s there too so onto the list it went. Only 350 issues to go before I can once again say I‘ve read every single X-Men comic on there.

I check every LFL I come across for the years I‘m still missing for my personal All My Years challenge, and last week I finally found a 1985 publication! I know I read Eric Wilson when I was little, but I don‘t remember if I ever read this particular mystery. It‘s been interesting to approach it as an adult, since I‘ve spent time in the Uclelet area. I even visited the very library where Tom does his pre-internet case research!

Casey was reluctant to pose with this horrible cover, even after I assured him the book is actually great. The current edition is WAY prettier, but we take what we find at the used bookstore.

I‘d love to finish this today, but I‘ve got tons to do so it might not be possible. Still, I‘ll enjoy whatever time I‘m able to scrounge with it.

I finished THE TAINTED CUP with my surprisingly calm new buddy, Stormy, then popped on here and saw it just won the Hugo! Good times.

I had the wind at a frontways angle to me all the way to the park, then straight in my face all the way back, which basically means I cycled uphill both ways. This made me very grumpy. I had no choice but to stop at the library and borrow some diverse YA, even though I‘ve got a bunch of other stuff to read over the next couple weeks. It cheered me up.

At last, a new book! I started THE TAINTED CUP over breakfast and carried on while I ate lunch at this excellent park (following a ride there across the prairie and a hike through the woods). It‘s got a lot of promise so far, with murder and spores and kaiju galore.

We finally had a low-smoke, no-rain day, so I got to have my ride along the Harte Trail! I also stopped off for a couple of reading breaks: one on a bench a little ways past where this photo was taken and one at Ikea with a free coffee.

I‘m now about 160 pages from the end of THE GATHERING STORM and I‘d love to finish it tonight, but I‘ve got other stuff to do this evening so I don‘t think it‘ll be possible. Tomorrow, then.

My latest meal from DELICIOUS TONIGHT was Arabic chicken & potatoes. The potatoes didn‘t take on as much flavour as I‘d hoped, but they still had a great texture and some nicely crisped bits. The chicken was moist and tasty, with a nice tang from the sumac.

Also of note: I only needed a slight filter to make mine the same colour as the example photo.

I planned to do a TON of cycling on my vacation, but so far I‘ve only had one day where it wasn‘t pelting down rain and/or so smokey I couldn‘t safely spend 8+ hours outside. Sigh.

So today I went shopping with my mum instead. I came away with some much-needed new clothes and a couple of books: the tagged, plus an omnibus of three culinary mysteries from the 1980s.

I found myself in a vintage SF mood last night, so I plucked STAR BORN out of my Kobo library. (By the way, my Finish My Ereader project‘s at 98%! Victory is in sight!) It hasn‘t blown me away so far, but it reads up quick and I ain‘t in a place where I NEED to be blown away, so all is well. I shall read a bit more in this park so I‘ve got a picnic shelter to retreat to if those clouds turn into rain.

The rain has trapped us inside on this warm afternoon, but at least there‘s a great book to hand. Courtney Milan is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! I can‘t wait to see how everything unfolds for Naomi and Kai.

Brewery lunch + Malaysian vampire novel. It‘s still too early to say whether I‘ll click with the book, but my gourmet hog dog was great and I would‘ve had another glass of the PB & Jam Session Sour if I hadn‘t had to get home to Finian. Poor buddy was SO SAD when I went out without him, even though we had a great walk first thing this morning.

I finished LES FILLES DU ROI over breakfast. What an excellent, nuanced play! I‘d love to see it staged someday.

In the afternoon I bought Haitian peanut butter and in the evening I found it referenced in Haitian-Canadian poet Junie Désil‘s powerful poetry collection. Désil digs deep into Haiti‘s history and the impact colonial violence has had on her family, returning time and again to the image of the zombie especially in relation to her father. I‘ll definitely read more from her.

My other holiday Monday project involves this big, complicated puzzle and the tagged book, which I was beyond glad to find on Hoopla. Michelle West is my favourite epic fantasy author and I‘m excited she‘s brought us back to Breodanir with this one. Her Sacred Hunt duology is my favourite and it‘s great to revisit that setting after many, many long books set elsewhere. #audiopuzzling

My holiday Monday plans involve a loooooong walk with the fabulous Finian followed by lots and lots of reading. First up: the rest of this so-far-excellent McRae & Maltese offering about theatre actors in a May/December relationship.

I finally have a way to read the sixth book in Kate Elliott‘s Crown of Stars series (NO ONE gets rid of that book—I‘ve searched for years—and the ebook is $24, but the audio‘s on Hoopla), so here I am, tackling the fifth volume at long last. It pushes 1000 pages so I‘ve made it my in-between read. I‘m enjoying it so much I‘ll probably upgrade it to primary when I‘m a little closer to the end.

WHAT I KNOW ABOUT YOU is my penultimate book from this year‘s Canada Reads Longlist, and it‘s yet another I‘d like to see jump to the shortlist in a year or two. While I can‘t say there‘s anything truly unexpected in the story, Chacour draws the reader into his characters‘ world so completely that I forget I know pretty well what‘s coming. And hey, I‘ve still got 80 pages or so left, so he might surprise me!

It took me a smidge longer to sink into the series finale than I needed with the first two books, but ooooh boy. A COVENANT OF ICE builds beautifully as it delves into its wider themes of colonialism and displacement, and it remains deeply personal to Lilley‘s struggle throughout. I‘ve had a wonderful time considering everything Lowachee does here, and I can‘t wait to revisit all three books in one fell swoop.

Highly recommended.

I took a deeply excellent bike ride past the bilingual library today. While the letters of Madame de Sévigny were, alas, a bit too bulky to carry away, I still grabbed some poetry and a trilingual play.

My nonfiction reads are in sync. ALFABET/ALPHABET, which I should finish today, is intimately concerned with how language guides identity and creative action. While not all the essays in LUMINOUS INK explore similar questions, a fair few of them do. I‘m loving both books.

Fabulous book + fabulous dog. I think I snagged THE SCANDALOUS LETTERS OF V AND J during one of those Stuff Your Ereader events, and I‘m super happy with Past Me‘s choices. This gender bending epistolary historical fantasy is all kinds of moreish. I know what I‘m doing with the rest of my evening.

Throwback to yesterday evening, when I read A COVENANT OF ICE while I hung out with a cute blond. This was a highly anticipated ARC, and I wish I‘d reread the first two novellas right before it, because the bulk of the book didn‘t hit me the same way as its predecessors. The ending was great, though—the kind of conclusion that snaps everything else into focus—and I know I‘m gonna come back to this trilogy time and again. Full review coming soon.

Saturday morning Nancy Drew with sweet Finian. He lives close to quite a few Little Free Libraries, so I figured I should knock this off the list while I‘ve got so many convenient places to stick it when I‘m done! The last one I read let a lot of educational opportunities pass it by, which seemed weird, but this one‘s back on form with a fair bit about fabric production and antiquing.

I had enough issues with THE SINS ON THEIR BONES that I couldn‘t love it (and was surprised at the number of critics who called it amazing), but I enjoyed the worldbuilding and the general vibes and I knew I wanted to read the sequel. Now here it is, in all its oversized, hard-to-hold glory, and I‘m enjoying it—but it rests so firmly on my issues with the first book that I dunno if it‘ll earn my love, either. Let‘s find out.

Further tiny bookshelf progress (now with personal touches like polished rocks from my childhood) while I listened my way to 66% of SHADOWS & DREAMS. I liked the first book in the series a couple years back, but somehow my memory of it didn‘t prepare me for the ABSOLUTE DELIGHT this second one serves up. So much hard boiled paranormal investigation! So many jokes! So many digs at Twilight! #audiocrafting #showandtelltuesday

At first, I thought HOW TO SUMMON A FAIRY GODMOTHER was one of those stories I‘d rather watch than read, but it hooked me good as soon as Theo started doing tasks for Cecily. I‘ve giggled and theorized and very much enjoyed seeing Theo‘s antagonistic prickliness take on new weight as we learn what she‘s been through.

(But seriously, this would be SUCH a fun K-drama. The filmmakers of Korea would have a ball with it.)

I listened to more than half of HEAVENLY TYRANT while I built the structure for a new miniature (a garden loft!) and made most of the stuff for its all-important bookcase. Even at 3x, that was kind of an obscene amount of miniature assembly. Gonna call it quits for the day.

The book is definitely a departure from IRON WIDOW, but it‘s a logical one. I‘m interested to see where the story ends up. #audiocrafting

Doing the late 80s SF thing with my favourite schnauzer. THE CHILD GARDEN is definitely ideas-over-people, which is often a hard sell for me, but I love the vibe Ryman gives off. This book is creepy in all the right ways, with lots about theatre and opera.

I got a great deal on pears yesterday, so today‘s all about using them up before they rot. I consulted my cookbook collection and found some promising pear recipes in Nigella‘s body of work, starting with these pear & ginger muffins. They could‘ve used a bit more ginger, but they‘re mighty tasty overall.

I‘ll be honest with y‘all: I‘ve got other things I‘d rather do with my evening, but I really want to move on to another book tomorrow so I‘m gonna plug on through the last hour of HoFaS tonight. It still isn‘t bad, and it‘s still a showcase for all the bits of Maas‘s writing I ain‘t so wild about.

The thing Ruhn did on Avallen was pretty great, though. Probably my favourite part.

I shall also eat cheesy puffs, for obvious reasons.

Today‘s kitty tether time is all about poetry with that WOW factor. QUESTIONS I ASKED MY MOTHER is a powerful entry in the prairie Mennonite literary canon. Brandt‘s questions aren‘t just for her mother; they‘re for the whole world, with an emphasis on how people perform their faith and how femininity manifests within her childhood community.

I did the return two books, borrow two books thing at the library. I always check the poetry section to see if they‘ve got anything from the years I‘m still missing from my personal challenge where I read a book from every year I‘ve been alive, and this branch had Di Brandt‘s 1987 collection. The tagged book came from the shelf beside it, because I can‘t resist a tiny memoir.

Manga + kitty tether time. (He mostly left the ornamental grass alone! Hurray!) This was a reread for me, thanks to another LFL last summer, and I sort of dismissed it back then because of the teacher-crush aspect. This time, I appreciated it as a story about a girl who adjusts to new circumstances. I hope the next two volumes focus more on that than on Suzume‘s emerging feelings for Shishio.

Tonight‘s plan: dive into Lily Chu‘s latest print release (which I guess has been available on audio for a looooong time?) and drink this delicious nonalcoholic sweet & spicy beer Caesar. I was gonna pop into the Liquor Mart on my way home, since hot days call for refreshing drinks, but the grocery store had these so I figured, why add another stop and shell out extra for alcohol? I just want the taste, and Farmery‘s zero proof stuff delivers.