Read another M.C.A. Hogarth story this morning alongside Casey, who‘s not feeling well at all. His regular doctor‘s in surgery all day, so he‘s going to spend some time at another vet‘s place this morning and hopefully they‘ll be able to pinpoint what it is. He‘s had a history of gut ailments ever since his pancreatitis a couple years back, and as you can see in the picture his nose also looks a little off right now. 😔

Ooh, I have so much love for A.J. Demas‘s books! THE HOUSE OF THE RED BALCONIES was just marvellous. It‘s about a friendship between an engineer and a host (in the Japanese sense), on a quirky island, with lots of great side characters and gardens and public water utilities.

I think I‘m gonna dive right into another of her books. Only two left. I‘ll be so sad when I‘ve caught up.

This week‘s little library haul features another play by Tomson Highway (love his stuff), a couple volumes of poetry, and a crime comic.

Alexandra Rowland reliably delivers books that blend melancholy, hope, and delight in just the right measure. This was a wonderful novella about two people who encounter their gods in a dark wood and come away more fully themselves. I loved it.

My eggplant was also great. I dug out a new recipe on the quick when I realized I didn‘t have enough miso glaze left, and I‘ll definitely make it again. The sauce is Chinkiang vinegar-based.

This morning I took my mom to an appointment near the doughnut store, where I had a credit for a free doughnut and coffee. Good times.

I finished the monster fantasy in and around all that, and I‘m divided. I stuck with it because in theory, it‘s MY THING right down to its core, but I never connected with the characters and I felt no chemistry between them. I mostly finished it because I very much wanted Homily‘s family to get eaten.

And now, a monster fantasy. It‘s too early for me to say how I feel about this one, but I‘m getting a strong “it could go either way” vibe that the Litsy reviews seem to back up. Here‘s hoping I fall into the OMG SO AWESOME camp.

I‘m loving GIRL ON FIRE! Hogarth describes it as reminiscent of Mercedes Lackey, and the vibes totally match. It‘s full of the thrill of discovering a new place with different customs, different social mores, and increased opportunities. I can‘t wait to devour the back half today.

In other news, Casey turned seven yesterday! What a mature little fellow he is.

It‘s finally warm! I sat outside and read this creepy novella from K.J. Charles. It‘s set in an alternate Victorian England where King Victor II‘s rule has the country crumbling apart, and I‘m sorry she‘s never returned to the setting. It feels like she intended to, but I guess her non-alternate historicals have taken precedence in recent years. It‘s been ages since she published any fantasy, too.

Ah, friends, my tiny skull and I are loving SORCERY AND SMALL MAGICS! One of the blurbs calls it Ghibliesque and this is entirely accurate. I‘m excited to wolf down the last 60 pages tonight.

In other news, I‘ve gone a week without infecting the household with my eye cold, so I figure my hand sanitization regimen is strong enough for the Real World (combined with a mask). I ventured out today and bought a TOOTHBRUSH and some FROZEN FRUIT! Whee!

Still in isolation with my books. It‘ll be nice out this afternoon, so at least I‘ll get to sit outside for a little while.

In the meantime, I‘ll hunker down with ELYSIUM, Nora Sakavic‘s very dark urban fantasy. It‘s gripping so far and it does some really interesting stuff with the Basic Buffy Plot that usually pushes me away from UF, but I lost momentum when I fell asleep for five hours yesterday afternoon. Oops. Gonna avoid that today.

For you ACOTAR fans: my favourite indie ordered a huuuuuuuge copy of the book for Indie Bookstore Day! This isn‘t my favourite Sarah J Maas series, but I‘m still disappointed I missed the chance to see it in person. Hopefully they‘ll keep it on display long enough for me to make it down there once I‘m no longer contagious.

I only managed to read 20% of this novella before I very much needed to sleep for twelve hours, but now I‘m back on the case with my mood light to comfort me in my infectious solitude. It‘s great so far! I‘m such a sucker for anything about the theatre.

Well, my 34th consecutive Readathon is very far from my most distinguished one. Between attending to my horrifically gross eye cold and the exhaustion I‘m dealing with from six straight nights of frequently-interrupted sleep, I only finished my first book at the start of Hour 6. Now I‘m finally starting my second. I hope I can squeeze at least one more in, but I‘ll probably have to sleep again, so. 🤷‍♀️ #readathon #deweyapril

And my 34th consecutive Readathon kicks off with this second book about food detectives in Kyoto. I wish I could be happier about it, but my cold is still going strong AND it‘s spread to my eyes, which I didn‘t know could happen. I won‘t inflict the physical details on you, but it‘s basically my personal nightmare and it‘s left me depressed. Gonna try to distract myself with books today. #deweyapril #readathon

Fancy noodles + an important book. When you start reading about Indigenous rights in Canada, you run into a LOT of legal cases. Gabriel does a thorough job of discussing how those cases are weighted against Indigenous folks and the role state-sanctioned Indigenous governments play in that process. It‘s another Canada Reads Longlist title I‘d be glad to see jump to the shortlist in a year or two.

I finished catching up on SKIP BEAT! while Ivy and I enjoyed the outdoors together, and oooh! I loved this volume! Great interactions between Kyoko & Ren, intriguing new characters and settings, and some long running plot threads heading for fruition.

Also, a cat named S‘more. I love it when animals have food names.

Looks like this‘s a two-volume year, so I‘ll anxiously await Vol 51 in the autumn.

Turns out, I need to know what happened in the Prince‘s Game series before I can dive into the M.C.A. Hogarth novels I‘m really keen on. I did read and like EVEN THE WINGLESS a few years ago, but it was very long and very slow-paced and it looks like the rest of the books are the same. I just don‘t want to invest that amount of time in them when I might only keep Kobo Plus for another month.

So here I am, reading Hogarth‘s official summary.

Rainy day reading with Ivy. HOWEVER FAR AWAY isn‘t bad so far, but it all feels extremely EXPECTED. I‘m hoping for some surprises now the wedding‘s about to start.

ONE NIGHT IN BOUKOS is really good, but I‘m limping through it at a glacial pace because I can‘t seem to sit down and actually READ it. Blah. I‘m definitely enjoying it less than I should be. Reading slowly is the worst.

Today I figured I‘d give a big chunk of my afternoon to it, but I‘m dealing with one of those energy-sucking hell colds. I had to NAP. Napping is the other worst. Now I‘m gonna make another push, wrapped in tweed for warmth.

My first library haul in a looooong time features a couple more titles from the Canada Reads Longlist, a couple that just looked good, the latest Dublin Driver mystery, another Auld Lang Spine pick, and a couple of sequels.

Short fiction, coffee, and a hot cross bun (made with mixed fruit, of course; I cannot approve of the raisins-only version). My PROPHECIES, LIBELS, & DREAMS reread has brought me at last to “The Lineaments of Gratified Desire,” which is maybe my all-time favourite short story (/novella). I first read it in a YBF&H anthology and immediately knew I had to seek out and devour everything by Ysabeau S. Wilce. This was one of my better resolutions.

I‘m glad to have an A.J. Demas novel to read and a Casey to snuggle. France is great for dog watching but less great for random doggie interactions. They‘re all so well-trained they don‘t even come say hi to you when they‘re on a long leash.

I‘m sad to be back somewhere cold and brown, where most stuff was built in the 1970s or later and I‘ve gotta pay attention to my expensive food‘s country of origin again. 😔

Here I am on the TGV, listening to my audiobook as we barrel towards Paris. I had all sorts of problems with this ticket when they decided to shrink the train, only to discover yesterday that, despite the gymnastics the lady at the station did to get me a downgraded seat, they automatically reassigned me to a fairly decent one right across from the smaller-train equivalent of my original seat. And no one sat in my first seat, so here I am in it.

Leftover dandan for breakfast, alongside the next Dreamhealers novel. I think I‘m just gonna punch through to the end of this series now. It‘s nice to have sustained time with the characters instead of wondering when I‘ll get to see them again. The individual books are expensive and they‘ve never gone on sale the whole time I‘ve had them on my wishlist, maybe because of their inclusion in subscription services.

This particular series has always been a lamentable gap on my Roan Parrish reading list, so I was glad to see IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMEWHERE on Kobo Plus. I hit 26% while I ate supper, and it‘s great; lots of deeply felt emotion, academia, strong friendships, and a dog.

Alas, this delicious dandan defeated me. I don‘t think I even managed half; possibly because of my Happy Hour beer in Place Plumereau. It‘ll be breakfast or an early lunch tomorrow.

Just bobbing around from park to park with my still-delightful book (which also takes a serious look at marital difficulties, in amongst all the fun bits). The Jardin Botanique de France was especially nice.

I absolutely bought this beer because of Jean Cocteau, and it‘s actually delightful. Yay! So is this madcap murder mystery from Alexis Hall. It‘s jam packed with references and oh, how I‘ve GIGGLED at it so far. Gonna read another big chunk while I finish the beer.

I‘ve come across a few Little Free Libraries here in France, but tonight‘s find had the best selection! It‘s located in a little park devoted to Fritz, the iconic elephant of Tours, who I met at the Musée des Beaux-Arts last week.

I made the trip over to the far railway station this morning so I could visit Chenonceau, which was lovely! I spent a good hour tromping around the grounds before I even went into the chateau, and I had a lunch & book break in a whimsical garden dedicated to landscape architect Russell Page, with sculptures by François Xavier Lalanne.

I finished DREAMHEARTH when I got home, and it was another lovely read from Hogarth. Such great characters.

I haven‘t read much since I last posted because I did make it to Villandry along the Loire à Vélo! It was an amazing day. The path itself is beautiful and these gardens were absolutely worth the trip.

This was also my longest bike ride ever—more than 50km! It was my first ride of 2025, too, so we‘ll see if I can move tomorrow.

Now I‘m gonna chill with my book. I‘m excited to dive back in.

I‘m up earlyearlyearly to see if I can rent a bike and explore the Loire à Vélo, but first: coffee and book. I read the first third of DREAMHEARTH while I waited for the rain to back off yesterday, and I‘m excited to read at least a third more today. If the bike rental isn‘t possible, or if there are lots of scenic lookouts to stop at, maybe I‘ll even finish it.

I didn‘t get to do a huge amount of outdoor sit-n-read earlier because it was kinda cold, with impending rain. (Three cheers for my superlight umbrella!) I did start another Jackie Lau novella in front of this ruin, though! The wall was part of a 16th century townhouse that was destroyed in the 1940 bombings. Behind me, a post-war building has incorporated the townhouse‘s chapel, which looks mostly intact.

I‘m still feeling pretty raw about the problems I‘ve faced since I got to Tours (in brief: a railway fire means it‘ll be way harder for me to visit chateaux AND way less comfy for me to return to Paris, since they inexplicably shrunk the TGV and I lost the great seat I chose and paid for weeks ago), and my foot still hurts like a bitch, so I think I‘m just gonna limp between reading spots today.

First up: my couch with this lovely novella.

I woke up to a scary email about changes to my train back to Paris. I rushed over to the station at 10:00 to resolve it, but the office didn‘t open until 10:30 so I killed time in this nice little park.

The staff tell me there‘s no issue with my seat, no matter what the email says, but I‘m still gonna worry until I‘m actually on the TGV.

In other news, THE SHABTI is great! Interesting characters, strong horror elements, solid conflict.

So, it turns out the restaurants of Tours mostly don‘t open until 18:00 or 18:30. I NEEDED food, so I had another half a baguette and some salmon salad someone left in the cupboard.

I also have language fatigue. My written comprehension is great, but my aural stinks, and I‘m tired of always being embarrassed and ashamed because I can‘t understand people. I‘m just gonna hole up inside and be kinda hungry with this historical mystery.

I listened to THE HOUSE OF LIGHT AND SHADOWS in its entirety on the bus ride to Tours, where my view was mostly shrubberies and canola fields and I learned French rest stops are called aires. The book was a good ghost story complete with a creepy house, late 19th/early 20th-century trick photography, and sisterly bonds torn asunder.

The Palais Garnier, where the Phantom lives, has a deal where, on the day of the performance, only at the box office, you can get a limited-view seat for €10.

I had to lean in sometimes, but my €10 view wasn‘t all that limited. (And I took this when photos were allowed again!)

Also, I felt very much like Thara Celehar today, because I searched for graves in a cemetery the size of a small village, then went to the opera and sat in a strange box.

I finally made it to Pere Lachaise today, and Proust was my #1 dead person I had to visit. The map I found online turned out to be wildly unspecific (right quadrant, wrong position for EVERYONE), but I ran into a nice lady who offered me help and steered me right to him.

Alas, I never did find Sarah Bernhardt, but I also said hi to Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison. The latter is so rowdy they‘ve got metal event barriers around him.

And now, a short historical mystery by Elizabeth Bear and Katherine Addison, begun near the Chapelle Expiatoire, where Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette‘s bodies rested after their executions and such revolutionary figures as Manon Roland are interred.

The book‘s great so far, but I completely crashed at about 50% and had to fall asleep immediately. I shall finish it while I wait to see if I can land a (steeply discounted) opera ticket for tonight.

Today‘s tourist site reading. I did the Musée d‘Orsay this morning, then headed to the Musée Rodin for their excellent gardens.

I had a lot of fun with A CAPTURED CAULDRON and it was great to see all the characters again, but it didn‘t sparkle the same way A RIVAL MOST VIAL did. So I‘m in that weird position where I‘m disappointed with something I really liked. Still, I‘ll read any other Side Quest Row books Ashwick throws at me.

Every day I bring home a baguette, and maybe some meat & vegetables if I‘ve run out, and I have a sandwich while I listen to a couple stories from the tagged book. One of today‘s was an intense Warchild-universe story by Karin Lowachee.

Today‘s baguette came from a bakery established in 1889. It was good, but the less established shop around the corner from me does a better one. #audiocooking

I‘m four hours into my Louvre visit and I‘ve still got most of the sculptural gallery to go. Before I tackle it, I need to sit on a red velvet couch (my favourite thing I‘ve found in Paris, seriously) and read my book for half an hour or so. My left foot‘s been in agony for about four and a half hours now and I‘ve just got on with it, because what else can you do, but now I need a BREAK.

I‘ve rather neglected my SKIP BEAT! reread since I got off the plane, but I‘ll dive back into it tonight while I finish this old-style blonde beer courtesy of my cheap grocery store. (Everyone says Parisian food is expensive. Just shop at Carrefour City and you‘ll be fine!) (Unless you want candy. THAT‘s expensive.) NB: I didn‘t have a bottle opener until I found this Eiffel Tower-shaped one hanging outside a kitschy tourist store. It was €0.50.

Today I walked 16.75 km around Versailles, with occasional stops to read bits of THE SITCOM STAR. It‘s cute, and I continue to loooooove how Jackie Lau doesn‘t Americanize her work in the slightest. Y‘all will appreciate that my tolerance for Americanization is currently at an all-time low, which is saying something.

My sandwich was great, too. Honestly, the bread from my cheap grocery store is better, but the filling was SO TASTY.

Flowers and coins for Victor Hugo. He shares a tomb with Alexandre Dumas and Emile Zola, but nobody‘d left anything for them as of early this afternoon. 😔 Hopefully they also receive cool presents and the Pantheon staff just clear them away periodically.

Finished the tagged book while I waited in line for the Sainte-Chapelle security screening. I thought it was gonna be delightful, but it ended up being more heartwrenching with a SIDE of delight. What a great story about learning how to treat people right and accept that you deserve good treatment, too.

And OOF, the CHAPEL. I haven‘t taken tons of photos in Paris because I‘m too busy doing stuff, but I took a ton in here.

Today involved a trip to Shakespeare and Co, as one must do when one is in Paris. I wrote a little in their Reading Room (a very little; someone else got to the convenient desk ahead of me) and bought some postcards since they don‘t allow photography.

My library discarded this third Gethsemane Brown mystery (but not the rest of the series), so I was very glad to see it on Kobo Plus. I read it in transit the other day, including during a long stint by the tin trees at the Calgary airport.

So, I didn‘t sleep on the plane, then I walked all the way to Le Marais, toured the Museé Carnavalet, and walked back. That only left me time for 15% of YIELD UNDER GREAT PERSUASION before I passed out, but that 15% makes me think this is gonna be DELIGHTFUL. I shall make up the time tonight, alongside my excellent (and cheap!) baguette sandwich and the second cheapest wine my new favourite grocery store had. It‘s actually pretty good.

Last morning reading alongside this lopsided cutie before I go to France! I‘d be a lot more excited if my Airbnb host, who insists on meeting guests instead of using a lockbox, would respond to me. As it is, I‘m stressed and angry and very much hoping I don‘t need to call on Airbnb‘s insurance policies to find another place on the quick. We‘ll see if I can concentrate well enough to tackle another chunk of this excellent novella.