P&PS

2016 wasn't a great reading year; I squeaked in under the wire with 50 books. I hadn't expected the beginning of 2017 to be much better, but then I started looking at the books I managed to finish last year (thank you GoodReads) and realized I had had a lot of good reading experiences. Most of my frustration seems mainly to have come from my lack of reading and a couple of ill-chosen or ill-timed books. I had periods of avid reading and months where I read little and finished nothing, which was a big change from my previously mainly consistent reading habit. Realizing this, I'm feeling much more optimistic about the books I'm considering for 2017. While I had hoped to read more globally, I did read books from 14 different countries. Including several which were new to me: Poland, Iceland, Spain, Philippines, and Denmark. Of these, I particularly enjoyed Smaller and Smaller Circles (Philippines) and Reykjavik Nights (Iceland) for their glimpses into societies I knew...

While I would usually include other media in  my annual statistics dump like I did last year I didn't watch much TV or see many films. The first TV episode I watched was in March, the second at the end of May. If we exclude marathons by friends and family in which I participated I watched 6 films, 10 shorts, and 79 TV episodes. 2 films I watched on a flight, 2 were Canadian indie films, and 2 were documentaries. The shorts were mainly Canadian. The TV episodes were unsurprisingly mainly split between Motive, The Newsroom, and Criminal Minds with a smattering of new discoveries: Happy Valley, The Bletchley Circle, and Countdown to Life. Since that pretty much covers most of the topics of interest I don't have any graphs, but don't worry I have a new book related chart to make up for it. Reading wise I read 100 books in 2015, averaging 8.3 books and 2,560 pages per month. In 2015 my average book rating was 3.93 stars out of 5, with an average of 306.5 pages per book. ...

A couple of years ago when I first heard about Ann Morgan's resolution to read one book from every country, I thought it was a nice idea, an exercise too impossible for me to bother with. Lately though, with the growing momentum behind the various reading diversely campaigns I've started to see how dismissive I was. Even now, it certainly isn't an easy goal but it's not impossible. Not to mention with the (slowly) growing attention being paid to the lack of international and translated literature, projects like this are just as important now as they have been. Part of the reason I started to read more diversely was to draw attention to diverse literature, to seek it out and learn about it and to share it with others. To ignore the larger global scope of the problem is, at best, foolish. Because I already have my 2016 reading goals in place, I'm not making this a challenge for 2016, but I am making this part of my resolutions; I want to read more diversely on an i...

I did quite a bit of reading in 2015, started a handful of book reviews, and finished even fewer. To help remedy that I thought I would post mini book reviews for some of my favorite books of this year. To see the complete list of favorite books from this year, check out my  2015 favorites . This is the second part of my reviews, the nonfiction section. Since it feels disingenuous to discuss personal narratives (most of which these are) I'm going to stick with discussing what it is that stuck with me most. And as with the other mini reviews I've included short summaries at the top of each review so you can have a more complete idea of what I'm talking about. Most of them come straight from Goodreads, so if you're looking for more details that's a good place to start. Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq by Riverbend In August 2003 a young Iraqi blogger began reporting her experiences as a civilian observer in Baghdad. Describing the reality of regime change i...

I did quite a bit of reading in 2015, started a handful of book reviews, and finished even fewer. To help remedy that I thought I would post mini book reviews for some of my favorite books of this year (now last year oops). To see the complete list of favorite books from this year, check out my 2015 favorites . To kick this off I'm going to start with the fiction books (nonfiction coming soon). Since I don't talk much about the plot in any of these I've included a short summary for the book at the top of each review, most of which were taken from Goodreads. 72 Hour Hold  by Bebe Moore Campbell Keri's 18-year-old daughter, Trina, has recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. As Trina grows increasingly abusive, both verbally and physically, and substitutes illegal drugs for prescribed medications, Keri's desperation heightens. After a 72-hour hold fails to get Trina the help she needs, Keri learns about an underground group called the program. When Keri ca...

As I was putting together the list of books I wanted to read for the 2016 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge I thought it would be nice to compile a list of recommendations. I've tried to include as many books and categories as possible, but the numbers are a bit unequal given my reading preferences and my weariness of particular categories (mainly due to assigned reading). I've also tried to stay away from as many massively popular books as possible, so that you can hopefully find something new. Watch this space if you're interested in mini reviews for any of these books. As before, the categories listed are abbreviated, to see the full descriptions check out the challenge post linked above. Horror Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix Night Film by Marisha Pessl The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma Syndrome E (Franck Sharko #3) by Franck Thilliez (can be read as a stand-alone) Science Nonfiction General Notes; I've read a lot of environmental science nonfiction that I...

Originally I was going to answer the same set of questions I did last year , but ultimately I felt a bit like I was repeating myself either from 2014 or because most of 2015 was pretty consistent.  The first third of 2015 was somewhat rough, lots of work and not much else, so most of the rest of the year was regrouping from that, much like in 2014. Thematically the year was mainly about coming back to myself, centering, relearning patience, and finding gratitude. Travel-wise the summer was a mix of new adventures and old favorites (mainly from 2013). Most of my favorite memories for the year come from that time. In particular, Toronto and Victoria were both new favorites of mine. Both places felt freeing and peaceful; Victoria was more centering while Toronto was empowering in an energetic sort of way. I have a post with all of my 2015 favorites , but a few other highlights include seeing  The Way We Get By  in May as well as Joy Williams at the Gramercy, an...