Quick post on a Snowy Monday...

It’s been declared a Snow Day for the Region today, and although it’s already 2pm, since I’m enjoying a hot cup of chai and a Date Bar (my traditional "posting" treat), I feel that I have to write a quick post before getting back to my book, which I was hoping (optimistically!) to finish today. 

I read an interesting book last week that reminded me so much of my move to Toronto when I was young, all the friends I made and the experiences I had.  The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill tells the story of Darby, a young trans man living in New York.  At the start of the book, he's just lost his job creating maps for a start-up, his rent is about to skyrocket, and he’ll be turning thirty in a couple of weeks.  While out celebrating a birthday with a group of his queer friends, he makes the decision to move back home to Oak Falls, Illinois, to put some distance between himself and his NY life and maybe gain some perspective.  But when he returns, he finds that Oak Falls has changed almost as much as he has since he left a dozen years before.  His mom is selling the house and moving into a brand new condo, so he uses this as an excuse for being back any time he runs into someone he knows.  The person he least/most wants to run into is his former best friend Michael, a friend who supposedly ghosted him after Darby (the girl) came back from a semester at boarding school in their senior year.  Maybe if they reconnect, he can finally figure out what happened and will be able to move on and ahead, and possibly also figure out where he belongs.  The only thing that hasn’t changed at all is the bookstore Darby used to work at when he was a teen, The In-Between Bookstore… at least it hasn’t changed for Darby.  In fact, as soon as he walks into the bookstore, he’s transported back to 2009, and is confronted by his teen self working behind the counter.  What is he supposed to do with this?  Is there a reason for him to be travelling back in time (impossible, according to his research)?  Should he be finding something out? Imparting wisdom to his younger self to help make the trans road easier?  Or is it all random and pointless?  In between bookstore visits, Darby gets swept along by his mother and by adult Michael into helping with the move, planning a party and participating in social and sports events, none of which he’s excited about.  Where does he belong?  Is Oak Falls the place he should settle, or should he try to get back to his friends and life in New  York?  In order to find out the answers to these and many other questions, you’ll have to read this whimsical, moving, delightful novel.

That's all for today. Stay warm and keep reading!

Bye for now... Julie

Two books to start 2026...

Riley is sitting on me right now so I’m typing with one hand and can only see half the keyboard, which is very very challenging!!  I’ve read two books since New Year’s Day. 

The first is Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet by Thich Nhat Hanh… well, I’m nearly finished, but I had to stop because I had to read a book club book and wanted to make sure to give myself enough time to finish it.  I’ve learned a lot, not so much about actually saving the planet, like protesting and writing letters or using more eco-friendly detergent and eating less avocado, but about having the right mindset to make a difference.  This includes right-thinking and right-decision-making, living in ways that respect the earth and all the creatures on it (being vegan!), and being a “buddha in action” to help others change their mindsets and their habits to embrace a more environmentally sustainable lifestyle, leading to a healthier future for the planet (and for us!).  It was quite a lot to take in and I welcomed the break, but will get back to it soon. 

And I read a rather long, complex mystery for my book club meeting tomorrow night, The God of the Woods by Liz Moore.  This book focuses on a current mystery and an unsolved one from more than a decade before, and explores the possibility that these are not isolated incidents  Set mainly at Camp Emerson, a children’s survival camp in the woods of New York, readers are introduced to a large cast of characters who appear in both storylines, as we read about not one but two tragedies that seem to have befallen the Van Laar family.  It’s the summer of 1975, and thirteen-year-old camper Barbara Van Laar has gone missing.  This would be an emergency no matter who the camper was, but Barbara is the daughter of the camp’s owner, Peter Van Laar.  Barbara’s brother, Bear, also went missing fourteen years earlier and was never found.  Are these two disappearances connected, or is it simply bad luck for Peter and Alice Van Laar to have lost both of their children at or near the camp?  This book had backstories for all the many characters, and the various storylines were detailed and overlapping, and while at first it was challenging to read and understand, once I got far enough into it, I was able to keep everything straight (mostly!).  It was a great read, very interesting and informative, and the author did a good job of portraying the 1970s convincingly.  As I read, I was reminded of Garth Stein’s excellent “environmental supernatural mystery”, Sudden Light.  I’m looking forward to discussing it tomorrow and finding out what the others thought.

That's all for today. Stay warm and keep reading!

Bye for now... Julie

Post on New Year's Day...

Well, there’s really no excuse.  I don’t know what happened, except to say that “December happened”, the only excuse I can come up with.  I guess I haven’t been posting this past month because I’ve been reading so much!  I have five books to tell you about (very briefly!), then I’ll have my usual “Best of” lists to start off the first post of the new year. 

The first book I’ll tell you about is A Family Matter by Claire Lynch.  This debut novel tells the story of a lesbian mother’s fight for custody of her daughter in Britain in the 1980s, and is set in dual timelines, one in 1982 and the other in 2022, focusing on family secrets, prejudices, grief, love and loss.  It was an excellent novel that explores the ways in which the past affect and shape the present and future, and how what we know can come unraveled when family secrets are brought to light. 

The next book is Cold as Hell by Kelley Armstrong, book #3 in the “Haven’s Rock” series.  Casey and Eric are still ironing out the bugs of running a town and trying to do better than Rockton, and their efforts are complicated by Casey’s complicated pregnancy.   She’s already had two scares and has been prescribed more rest, less chasing criminals, a prescription she’s (mostly) adhering to.  When one of the women from the town leaves The Roc after a night of drinking and socializing, only to find herself woozier and more dizzy than her few drinks warrant, she gets nervous but is attacked and dragged in the woods before she can do anything about it.  Fortunately she’s rescued by another resident and no harm comes to her, but as they try to figure out what happened and who slipped the drugs into her drink so that they can reprimand the perpetrator, another woman goes missing during a snow storm and is found naked in the snow days later.  Who can Casey and Eric trust, and who will conduct the investigation and keep the townspeople safe in case they have to leave town due to yet another pregnancy scare or early labour?  Armstrong’s books are always a pleasure to read, and this was no exception.  They are dependable, consistent and complex, and while at first this one seemed more focused on “baby” than “crime”, the plot got very twisty very quickly and it was really a race against time and the elements to see if peace and safety could be restored to Haven’s Rock… but the very ending, which I can’t tell you about, was the icing on the cake! 

I also read a new mystery by Michael Robotham, The White Crow, featuring Detective Constable Philomena McCarthy.  Phil is the daughter of a renowned London crime boss, but no convictions ever stuck.  She’s hoping that she can keep the two sides of her identity separate and secret, at least from her colleagues, but when she discovers a child wandering the streets one night while on patrol, she unwittingly becomes entwined in a complicated case involving her father and uncles, as well as at least one ruthless killer.  Can she help solve the case despite her family connections, and is it even safe for her to do so?  This book was as good as I’ve come to expect from Robotham, not his best, in my opinion, but still very, very good.  I suspect that this will be another new series, along with the “Joseph McLoughlin” and “Cyrus Haven” series, all excellent series. 

I read Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice, a post-apocalyptic thriller set in a northern Anishnaabe community, for my January book club meeting that will happen on Saturday.  When the satellite service, then cell service, then electricity all go out in this small community, at first no one worries too much, as these things are always going out, just not usually all at the same time.  But when two college boys from the South return to their community, they bring tales of the same issues happening in the cities and the chaos and deaths that ensue.  The community members mostly know how to hunt and can take care of themselves and each other, but when a mysterious white man arrives asking for help, they don’t know if they can, or should, trust him.  You’ll have to read the book to find out what happens, but let me tell you that it’s not uplifting and left me with more questions than answers.  I guess there’s a sequel, Moon of the Turning Leaves, that may provide answers, but I’m not ready to read another depressing book yet… maybe in the spring. 

And last but certainly not least, I read This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel, which was awesome!  This novel explores the challenges of raising a transgender child, but it was so much more than that.  It explores marriage and family, growing up and staying together, and so very much more.  It reminded me so much of Catherine Newman’s book Sandwich (probably my favourite book of the year), but was like a prequel.  I loved it!  

OK, now it’s time to sum up the year in reading.  I read 58 books and listened to 18 audiobooks last year.  Here are my “Best of 2025” lists:

Best Adult Fiction

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
A Family Matter by Claire Lynch
Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip WIlliams
Audition by Katie Kitamura

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
Endling by Maria Reva
Denison Avenue by Christina Wong
A Great Country by Shiilpa Gowda
Code Name Hélène by Auriel Lawhon
Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger
Storm Child and The While Crow by Michael Robotham
Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell
Last Flight by Julie Clarke
Sandwich and Wreck by Catherine Newman
The Believers by Zoë Heller
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
We Are Watching by Alison Gaylin
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
The Death of Us by Abigail Dean
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Cold as Hell by Kelley Armstrong
Women Talking by Miriam Toews

WOW, that’s 24 books, which means nearly half of the books I read last year were winners !  And many of the others were great books but they were for the Silver Birch award and I’m not listing them here.  I do have a few others on a separate list, combining Non-Fiction and YA:

Red Pockets by Alice May (NF)
The Secret Life of a Cemetery:  the wild nature and enchanting lore of Père LaChaise by Benoît Gallot (NF)

No Mud, No Lotus:  the art of transforming suffering by Thich Nhat Hanh (NF)
Someone is Always Watching by Kelley Armstrong (YA)

And the Best Audiobooks of 2025 are:

Christine Falls by Benjamin Black
The Women by Kristen Hannah
How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley
The Lie Maker by Linwood Barclay
The Better Sister by Alifair Burke
Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
Stay with Me by Ayòbámi Adébáyò

Phew!  That’s a lot for a single post!  But now I’m all caught up and will try to post more regularly in the new year.  Happy 2026!  May your year be filled with an abundance of books books! 

Bye for now…

Julie