Top Ten Tuesday – Fall TBR (Sept. 23, ’25)
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that is hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week a different topic is posted inviting the participants to come up with a list of ten things to do with the topic.
This week’s topic is ‘Books on My Fall 2025 to-Read List’. The books pictured below, five fiction and five non-fiction, are all books I’d like to get read before Christmas. Some i’ve had for a while, others I recently acquired, but they are all ones I’m looking forward to reading.
- Raven Black – Ann Cleeves. I’ve watched all the Shetland seasons, but have read none of the books on which the show is based, so I thought I should rectify this.
- The Saga of King Henrik the Wise – Christopher Tolkien. This is a recent reprint, released to celebrate the centenary of the author’s birth.
- More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop – Satoshi Yagisawa. I read the first book last year and bought this sequel then, but never got round to reading it yet.
- The Keeper of Lost Causes – Jussi Adler-Olsen. We watched Dept. Q, which was based on this book, on Netflix a couple of months ago. I’m looking forward to reading this soon.
- The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry – Gabrielle Zevin. We watched the movie of this book earlier this year. I’ve had this book for a long time, so it’s time I got it read.
- Being Here: Prayers for Curiosity, Justice, and Love – Padraig O Tuama. I picked this one up fairly recently and am looking forward to praying my way through it soon.
- Revenge of the Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell. I started this book earlier this year, then got distracted by other books. It’s time to get it finished.
- Opening the Prayer Book – Jeffrey Lee. This is kind of a manual/companion to The Book of Common Prayer, which I started using earlier this year. I’m hoping that reading this book will help as I endeavour to use the prayer book each day.
- Convictions: How I Learned What Matters Most – Marcus Borg. This is a recent purchase and looks like a good read.
- A Seven Day Journey with Thomas Merton – Esther de Waal. This one has been sitting on my shelf unread for too long.
There are obviously lots of other books that I’ll probably pick up this fall, but I’d like to think that I could try and prioritize these at some point soon.
Top Ten Tuesday – Canada Day Reads (July 1, 2025)
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that is hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week a different topic is posted inviting the participants to come up with a list of ten things to do with the topic.
This week’s topic is ‘Freebie/Throwback (Come up with a topic you’d like to do or go back and do an old topic you missed or just want to do again!)’ Because today is Canada Day, I thought I’d go with a Canadian theme. These are all books that I’ve read by Canadian authors. I’m not saying that these are the best ten Canadian books, but they are ten of my favourites that I also own a copy of.
- The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America – Thomas King. This is a hard one to describe, but it is worth the read. King is one of the foremost indigenous writers in Canada. This book is kind of a history, with personal reflections and anecdotes thrown in. I was one of the nominated books for Canada Reads 2015 and was described in The Globe and Mail as “Essential reading for everyone who cares about Canada and who seeks to understand Native people, their issues an their dreams.”
- Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know – Malcolm Gladwell. This is by one of my auto-buy authors and is probably my favourite of his books so far. his books are always thought-provoking and this one didn’t disappoint.
- We Are All Made of Molecules – Susin Nielsen. This is a great YA novel, written by one of Canada’s best authors of this genre. Don’t be put off by the YA label, this is a funny and thoughtful book that anyone can read, full of laughs and showing that in the end we all have one thing in common – we are all made of molecules.
- Daddy Lenin and Other Stories – Guy Vanderhaeghe. A great short story collection by one of my favourite Canadian authors. Any of his short story collections are worth checking out, but this is as good a book to start with as any.
- The Answer Is…:Reflections on My Life – Alex Trebek. A great autobiography by the late long-time host of Jeopardy.
- The Collected Essex County – Jeff Lemire. The author is one of Canada’s foremost cartoonists/graphic novelist. This collection contains his award-winning trilogy of graphic novels set in an imaginary version of his hometown. The artwork is great, as is the story.
- Five Little Indians – Michelle Good. This debut novel about the lives of five residential school survivors won Canada Reads 2022. It’s a very powerful and moving book that will touch you in ways you never expected.
- My Effin’ Life – Geddy Lee. A wonderful autobiography from the frontman of Canada’s best rock band, Rush. Funny, moving, entertaining, and much much more.
- The Farfarers: Before the Norse – Farley Mowat. This book was my introduction to the late, great Canadian gem that was Farley Mowat. Since then I have read and enjoyed many more of his books, but this is the one that set me out on that journey and remains my favourite.
- Off the Record – Peter Mansbridge. For many years the author anchored CBC’s nightly news broadcast, The National. This autobiography shows the story of his life, which eventually led to him becoming one of Canada’s moat well-known and loved news anchor.
These are the ten Canadian books that grabbed me today. On another day some of these may have been swapped out by others. There are also other great Canadian reads that I have read, but don’t own a copy of. Any of the ones listed here are worth checking out anyway.
Top Ten Tuesday – Summer 2025 TBR (17 June 2025)
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that is hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week a different topic is posted inviting the participants to come up with a list of ten things to do with the topic.
This week’s topic is ‘Books on My Summer 2025 to-Read List’. The following books are an eclectic selection of unread books or editions from my shelves. Some I’ve had for too many years, while others are some I acquired during the last few months. Hopefully I’ll manage to tackle this pile over the summer. I will have some time off work and we’re not planning on going far this year, so that should give me the opportunity to tackle a few, if not all, of them. We’ll see how it goes!
- The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki. You can’t beat a good saga, so I’m looking forward to this one.
- More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop – Satoshi Yagisawa. I read the first book in this series last summer and enjoyed it. Hopefully this one is a good as that one.
- The Hobbit (First Edition facsimile) – J.R.R. Tolkien. The Hobbit is my favourite book of all time, which I’ve read countless times. However, this is a facsimile of the first edition, which I’ve never read before. I’m sure it will be a great read and it will be interesting to see the differences from the edition that is currently available.
- The Storied Life of A.J. Firky – Gabrielle Zevin. I picked this up a few years ago and never got around to reading it. I heard lots of good things about it, so it’s time I got it read.
- Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety – Henri J.M. Nouwen. I always enjoy reading Nouwen and this is one that I haven’t read before.
- No Place Like Home – Linh S. Nguyen. This is an ARC that I received a few years ago, but I sadly never got around to finishing it. I hope to rectify that this summer.
- Etta and Otto and Russell and James – Emma Hooper. This is the only one of this year’s Canada Reads nominees that I haven’t read yet, which is a good enough reason to add this to my summer TBR pile.
- Opening the Prayer Book – Jeffrey Lee. I bought this a few years ago along with the most recent edition of The Book of Common Prayer. I’m hoping that by reading this I’ll get around to understanding The Book of Common Prayer more so that I can make it a part of my daily life.
- There and Back Again: J.R.R. Tolkien and the Origins of The Hobbit – Mark Atherton. This is the story of how The Hobbit came to be, so it may go well together with my reading of the first edition.
- Tove Jansson: Life, Art, Words – Boel Westin. This is a recently purchased in-depth biography of the author of the Moomin stories. I’m really looking forward to this one.
Well, that’s the ten books on my summer TBR. Maybe I’ll do a follow up post later in the year to see how I got on and to share what I though of each of them.
The end of the week…a day late (10 Feb. 2025)
I meant to post this last night, but I watched the Super Bowl instead. I hadn’t intended to, but the game sucked me in. I was glad to see Kansas City losing, but I would rather have seen the Bears in action. There’s always next year! Last week was a fairly tiring week (I think it was the weather), including the following:
- It was a very mixed week for my sports teams. I don’t even want to talk about Rangers. Liverpool destroyed Spurs in the League Cup, but failed to overcome lower opposition in the FA Cup. The Leafs won a couple of games, but lost the other one.
- I finished 4 more books, bringing my total for the year to 18 so far. My favourite was probably A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby, which is one of the five finalists in this year’s Canada Reads. I also read another of the finalists this week – Jennie’s Boy by Wayne Johnston. I’m trying to read all of this year’s finalists, so that’s two of the five read already.
- In politics, the threatened tariffs by the unhinged guy south of the border were given a stay of 30 days, but he’s still continuing to make crazy daily threats on Canada and the rest of the world. It’s going to be a long four years. Hopefully we all survive it intact.
- Most of my music listening this week was a blast from the past, with AC/DC as my top artist and their ‘Let There Be Rock’ as my top album. My top track was a cover of another song from my teen years, although it’s a recent version – ‘The Trooper’ by the HU.
- I’m continuing to catch up with ‘Better Call Saul’ on Netflix. I don’t think I’ve reached new to me episodes and am almost finished season 3 out of 6. I haven’t watched any movies yet this year. Nothing has really grabbed me, although I’d like to get to one of the IMAX theatres in the city to see the new Led Zeppelin documentary at some point soon.
The end of one week and the beginning of another (2 Feb. 2025)
It’s hard to believe that it’s the beginning of February already. We had another really cold spell at the end of the week, as well as some snow earlier, but at least the days are getting longer. Another week of interesting things:
- So the guy down south finally released the details of his long promised tariffs yesterday. I guess we’ll be tightening our belts for the next little while. If that’s the way he treats his friends, who would want to be his enemy. Or, maybe the only friend he wants is the one he looks at in the mirror. Never mind friends, it’s not even a good way to treat your neighbours. He seems keen to quote Jesus, but no point in him doing this if he completely misses the main points of the Christian message. When asked what the most important commandment was, Jesus said: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Maybe the guy down south’s Bible is just a prop to keep his supporters happy. I was impressed with the retaliatory speech given by our out going Prime Minister last night. I liked the way he initially addressed our neighbours, reminding them of the special relationship that has been enjoyed for a long time, but has now been broken. He also reminded them that in the long run it’s going to hurt them, too. It’s not something we should take lying down and I think our response has been well measured. Hopefully some common sense will eventually emerge, but it will hurt people on both sides of the border for longer than it needs to.
- Beyond politics watching, I was able to finish two books this week, bringing my total for the month to 14. One of the two that I read surprised me in that I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. That one was ‘Legends & Lattes’ by Travis Baldree. I decided against signing up for some year long reading challenges, but I’m still doing some monthly ones on Instagram.
- I’m still enjoying the Fitbit I got for Christmas. This week I earned the ‘London Underground’ badge, which means I’ve walked over 250 miles since I got it. I’m also on a 40 day streak of walking at least 10,000 steps a day. I guess having it keeps me interested in making sure that I’m getting enough exercise.
- My music listening this week was, as usual, fairly eclectic. My top artist was ‘Ennio Morricone’; top album was ‘Powerage’ by AC/DC; top track was ‘Up to My Neck in You’ also by AC/DC.
- I had to work my first Sunday for the year today. It ended up being a fairly enjoyable day, with some interesting conversations. Working today means I have tomorrow off. I’ll still get up for my early walk, because the car is due in for a service at 8:45am. I’m not sure what I’ll do with the rest of the day, but I’m sure I’ll find something to do.
Top Ten Tuesday – New Authors To Me I Discovered in 2024 (28 Jan. 2025)
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that is hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week a different topic is posted inviting the participants to come up with a list of ten things to do with the topic.
This week’s topic is ‘New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2024.’ I really expanded my reading habits last year, so I read a lot of books by authors I’d never read before. Here are the top 10 for the year, with the titles of the books I read:
- Toshikazu Kawaguchi – The first of a number of Japanese authors I read for the first time in 2024. I read the first four books of his Before the Coffee Gets Cold series.
- Carley Fortune – a Canadian romance writer recommended to me by a friend. I read all three of her novels published so far: Every Summer After, Meet Me At the Lake, and This Summer Will Be Different.
- Satoshi Yagisawa – Days at the Morisaki Bookshop. I also bought the sequel to this one, but haven’t read it yet.
- Tillie Walden – a new to me graphic novelist. I read quite a few of her books, my favourites being On a Sunbeam and Spinning.
- Emily R. Austin – another new to me Canadian author. I read two of her books: Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead and Interesting Facts about Space.
- Nakatani Nio – I tried Manga for the first time, including all eight parts of Bloom Into You by this Japanese author.
- Catherine Ryan Howard – I’d heard a lot about this Irish author, but had never read anything by her. So, I gave 56 Days a try and was not disappointed. I need to read more of her stuff now.
- Kristen Bailey – an English romance writer. I read two of her Christmas books: Five Gold Rings and We Three Kings.
- Christina Wong – another Canadian writer, whose Denison Avenue (wonderfully illustrated by Daniel Innes) was one of my favourite reads of the year.
- Liz Moore – I hadn’t heard of her before, but her The God of the Woods was getting a lot of buzz, so I gave it a go and it was well worth the read.
There were quite a few other new to me authors for the year, but these were probably the best of the bunch.
Another week ends (26 Jan. 2025)
It’s the end of another seemingly long week. I think that the extremely cold weather just seemed to make it drag on, but it was only seven days just like the rest of them. Some things from the week past:
- It’s hard to ignore what’s been going on south of our border. The things the person inaugurated last Monday does, or tries to do, or threatens to do, get worse on a daily basis. The next four years are gong to be some kind of nightmarish roller coaster ride, especially for those represented by the colours of the crossing pictured on the right. The one bright spot was the emergence of my new superhero – Bishop Mariann Budde. Read the latest HERE.
- In more local politics, it looks like Ontario’s will be going to the polls next month, with Premier Ford looking likely to call a Provincial Election next Wednesday. It will probably be closely followed by a Federal Election some time in the spring. Once the Liberals get a new leader in place, it’s likely that the Government will fall soon after, triggering the election. Interesting days ahead.
- I finished six books this week, bringing my total read for the year so far to 12. My favourite was ‘Me Effin’ Life’, Geddy Lee’s autobiography. It is well worth the read. I was also happy to reacquaint my self with C.S. Lewis’s ‘Surpised By Joy’. It’s been a few years since I read it, but it was good to read through it again. This year i’d like to read at least one C.S. Lewis book a month. I’ve read most of what he wrote, but there’s nothing wrong with a reread.
- It’s been a mixed week for Rangers. We narrowly lost to Man. Utd. on Thursday, but it could’ve been a draw hd it not been for a lapse of concentration in injury time. However, it was not a result to be ashamed of and we’re at least guaranteed a place in the playoff round. The last group stage game is this Thursday at home against USG. Today’s game away to Dundee Utd. could’ve been one of those games that we struggle to get a result in, but we came back to win 3-1. We’re still 10 points adrift of the other team at the top of the league, but we just need to keep winning like we did today and hope that they start dropping points. Liverpool just go from strength to strength – 100% record in the Champions League group stage and six points clear at the top of the Premier League table with a game in hand.
- I seem to have listened to a lot more music this past week than I have in a long time. According to last.fm my top artists of the week were AC/DC, Rick Wakeman, Hans Zimmerman, U2, and The Beatles. My top album was ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ (Rick Wakeman), and my top track was ‘Killers’ (Iron Maiden).
I’m looking forward to a warmer week this week, but there will probably be some more snow as well. At least next weekend sees the start of February, and maybe spring will just be around the corner.
Book Beginnings on Fridays – Etta and Otto and Russell and James (24 Jan. 2025)
Book Beginnings is hosted by Gilion at Rose City Reader, who invites anyone to join in, saying: ‘Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author. Leave a link to your post. If you don’t have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.’
The beginning of Etta and Otto and Russell and James:
Otto,
The letter began, in blue ink,
I’ve gone. I’ve never seen the water, so I’ve gone there. Don’t worry, I’ve left you the truck. I can walk. I will try to remember to come back.
Yours (always), Etta.
This book, written by Emma hooper, has been chosen as one of the finalists for this year’s Canada Reads, hosted by the CBC. It’s been on my shelf for a long time, so it’s probably time that I got it read. One of my hopes this year is to read all of the Canada Reads finalists. Last year I read 4 of the 5, so I hope to do one better this year. If the above excerpt piques your interest, then maybe give it a go. This is what GoodReads has to say:
Eighty-three-year-old Etta has never seen the ocean. So early one morning she takes a rifle, some chocolate, and her best boots and begins walking the 3,232 kilometers from rural Saskatchewan, Canada eastward to the sea. As Etta walks further toward the crashing waves, the lines among memory, illusion, and reality blur.
Otto wakes to a note left on the kitchen table. “I will try to remember to come back,” Etta writes to her husband. Otto has seen the ocean, having crossed the Atlantic years ago to fight in a far-away war. He understands. But with Etta gone, the memories come crowding in and Otto struggles to keep them at bay. Meanwhile, their neighbor Russell has spent his whole life trying to keep up with Otto and loving Etta from afar. Russell insists on finding Etta, wherever she’s gone. Leaving his own farm will be the first act of defiance in his life.
Top Ten Tuesday – Most Recent Additions to My Book Collection (21 Jan. 2025)
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that is hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week a different topic is posted inviting the participants to come up with a list of ten things to do with the topic.
This week’s topic is ‘Top Ten Most Recent Additions to My Book Collection’. I’ve slowed down on the book buying the past couple of years, plus I buy ebooks more or borrow ebooks and audiobooks from the library. So the following are the most recent physical books that I’ve added to my shelves:
- The Narrow Path – Rich Villodas. I’m currently reading this one as part of this year’s Renovare Book Club.
- Epiphany: The Season of Glory – Fleming Rutledge. One of the six books in the recently published Fullness of Time series.
- Christmas: The Season of Life and Light – Emily Hunter McGowin. Same as book number 2.
- Following Jesus – Henri J.M. Nouwen. I saw this for a good price at BMV Books and usually buy a Nouwen book that I haven’t previously acquired.
- A History of Scotland – Neil Oliver. I picked this one up in a used bookstore in North Bay.
- Revenge of the Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell is one of my must buy authors, so I’ll get round to reading this soon.
- Home and Away – Mats Sundin. Interesting and enjoyable autobiography from a Maple Leafs legend. Worth the read.
- A Clergyman’s Daughter – George Orwell. This one and the following one were a couple of Orwell books I hadn’t previously bought, so I bought them when I saw them for a good price at BMV.
- Keep the Aspidistra Flying – George Orwell. See previous book.
- Spiritual Care for Non-Communicative Patients: A Guidebook – Linda S. Golding and Walter Dixon. We read and discussed this one at work as a team over the last few months. Essential reading for the field I work in.
The end of another week (19 Jan. 2025)
I got through another wintry week, but still haven’t come up with a name for my weekly update. Maybe I’ll think of something for next week, or maybe not. Five things from last week:
- I finished three books this week, so that’s six for the year so far. One of these was Exit by Belinda Bauer. It’s the first book by her that I’ve read, but it won’t be the last. It’s a kind of mystery thriller, written in a similar style to that of Jonas Jonasson, not too heavy, but with the right dose of dark humour. I also finished the fifth book in Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. If you’re looking for a new series to get into, I’d recommend this one.
- It was a better week for Rangers, thankfully. Two home wins, eight goals, and two clean sheets. It was particularly satisfying to get the 3-0 victory against Aberdeen, even though it took a couple of injury time goals to seal the deal. Today’s 5-0 victory against Fraserburgh was expected, but these kinds of games are the ones that can trip you up. It was good to see quite a few of the youngsters getting a run out too. Next up is Manchester United at Old Trafford on Thursday in the Europa League. They’re kind of struggling at the moment, so who knows what might happen. Liverpool left it late yesterday, with a couple of injury time goals by supersub Darwin Nunez sealing victory against stubborn Brentford. I almost didn’t bother watching the last two periods of the Leafs game last night, as they were losing 3-0 to the Canadiens at the end of the first. Fortunately, I decided to wait and see what happens and I’m glad I did, because the Leafs scored seven unanswered goals in the rest of the game. The Leafs are sitting in first in the division at the moment, which is great as long as it translates to a decent run on the playoffs for a change.
- I tend not to watch the news much these days, but it’s good to see the ceasefire in Gaza, which will hopefully lead to peace and more stability. It’s such volatile region, but we’ll see what happens. In Canada we are waiting with bated breath to see what happens after the inauguration in the US tomorrow, with Trump promising to hit us with major tariffs.
- We cancelled our Netflix subscription a few years ago, as we were getting a little tired of it. However, our son decided t o subscribe recently and added us to the account (as long as we follow his ground rules?!). One of my regrets when we cancelled it was that I never got to see the end of Better Call Saul. So, I decided to rectify that, but have started at the beginning again. My watchlist is also steadily growing, so I’m not sure of this is a good thing or not!
- The weather is expected to take a very cold turn in the next few days. Hopefully it won’t last for too long. We haven’t had too much snow so far, which suits me fine. Having spent a few winters in Saskatchewan, the cold spell shouldn’t bother us too much.
Roads go ever ever on...