Category Archives: Reading Aloud

The happy blur of another year (2022) in reading

Looking back on my years in reading in 2020 and 2021 was challenging because those were uniquely challenging years for all of us, in all ways. Enough said.

Looking back on my year in reading in 2022 is also proving challenging. The third year into whatever-we’re-calling-this-stage-of-yes-it’s-still-a-pandemic, we’re all coping, semi-resuming pre-pandemic activities and practices and forging new versions of normal. Some of the challenges I’m finding are actually not so bad, like, say, this challenge to this bookish household:

Mavis the Airedale puppy sits on a black leather ottoman, surrounded by books

Actually, Mavis (named after Staples, Gallant and Wilton) joined this household late in 2022, so she didn’t so much distract my reading as distract me from assembling my customary “year in reading” post this month. After work, playing with puppy, reading and hanging out virtually with book friends, writing about my reading feels kind of further down the list these days. And in all fairness to Mavis and her mentor, Tilly, our dogs are generally conducive to our reading, not a distraction. I am still feeling sharply the loss of a very dear reading companion, Jake, who was also a silent but influential presence at many of our silent book club zoom meetings.

Vicki's stack of recent reading, with dearly missed Jake the beagle-basset under the desk

Here are the books I read, reread and read aloud in 2022.
For each book on this year’s list, I’ve sought out links to reviews – not my own, but ones with which I concur – author interviews and/or publisher information. Hope this is helpful if you want to learn more about any of these titles.

I’ve remarked on the following in reference to our silent book club combined reading lists. I realize more and more that the same thing applies to me as a reader, one with a penchant for finishing all or most of what I start: Any title on any of our group’s lists means that at least one (often more) readers have given that title some consideration. That is encouragement, I’d say, for other readers reading our reports and lists to consider it, too. Is that a recommendation? It might be, but not exactly or necessarily. It always means that a title has been given attention and thought by our readers, which counts for a lot. So, that I have devoted my precious time as a reader to every book from the first page to the last means – at least to me, I hope to you too – that everything on my reading lists every year have been fully considered and overall, at least appreciated, often much more than that.

I’m also incorporating a feature in this year’s list that is perhaps as close as I’ll ever get to a “top x reads of the year” kind of distinction. As I was laying out this list of titles, some of them just glowed with memories of particularly satisfying or striking reads, likely paired with good settings, ideal company (or not), perfect timing and more. So, I’ve bolded those glowing titles. That’s it.

My 2022 year in reading, reflected in a page of my handwritten Book of Books, next to the poetry collection Hell Light Flesh by Klara du Plessis

January 2022

1. Hell Light Flesh by Klara du Plessis
2. Undersong by Kathleen Winter
3. The Art of Falling by Danielle McLaughlin
4. Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz
5. The Storyteller by Dave Grohl

My 2022 year in reading, reflected in a page of my handwritten Book of Books, next to the poetry collection Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz

February 2022

6. Strange Things by Margaret Atwood
7. Some Integrity by Padraig Regan
8. Emma by Jane Austen

March 2022

9. Reacher: Killing Floor by Lee Childs
10. Next Time There’s a Pandemic by Vivek Shraya
11. Such Color by Tracy K. Smith
12. Infinity Network by Jim Johnstone
13. Hail, the Invisible Watchman by Alexandra Oliver

April 2022

14. H of H Playbook, Euripides translated by Anne Carson
15. Gabriel by Edward Hirsch
16. Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah
17. Mad Shadows by Marie-Claire Blais, translated by Merloyd Lawrence

May 2022

18. O Cidadan by Erin Moure
19. Suit by Samarth
20. Cluster by Souvankham Thammavongsa
21. A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe
22. Shaheen Bagh by Ita Mehrotra
23. Say This by Elise Levine
24. Chhotu by Varud Gupta and Ayushi Rastogi
25. Still Point by E. Martin Nolan

My 2022 year in reading, reflected in a page of my handwritten Book of Books, next to the graphic novel Chhotu by Varud Gupta and Ayushi Rastogi

June 2022

26. Erebus: The Story of a Ship by Michael Palin
27. Almost Visible by Michelle Sinclair
28. Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
29. The Space a Name Makes by Rosemary Sullivan

July 2022

30. The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft
31. The Worst Truth by John Metcalf
32. Blue Portugal and Other Essays by Theresa Kishkan
33. State of Terror by Louise Penny and Hillary Rodham Clinton, narrated by Joan Allen (audiobook)
34. Poguemahone by Patrick McCabe
35. None of This Belongs to Me by Ellie Sawatzky

My 2022 year in reading, reflected in a page of my handwritten Book of Books, next to the novel-length poem Poguemahone by Patrick McCabe

August 2022

36. Swelles by Sina Queyras
37. Personals by Ian Williams
38. Who is your mercy contact? by Ronna Bloom

My 2022 year in reading, reflected in a page of my handwritten Book of Books, next to the poetry chapbook Who is your mercy contact? by Ronna Bloom

39. Romantic by Mark Callanan
40. Third State of Being by Cassidy McFadzean
41. The Day-Breakers by Michael Fraser
42. The Bannisters by Paul Muldoon
43. Mother Muse by Lorna Goodison
44. Patient Frame by Steven Heighton
45. The Junta of Happenstance by by Tolu Oloruntoba
46. These Are Not the Potatoes of My Youth by Matthew Walsh
47. Starting With the Roof of My Mouth by Claren Grosz
48. Deepfake Serenade by Chris Banks
49. I’ll Fly Away by Rudy Francisco
50. The War Works Hard by Dunya Mikhail, translated by Elizabeth Winslow
51. Skin & Meat Sky by Klara du Plessis & Kadie Salmon
52. Palaces for the People – How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life by Eric Klinenberg
53. Answer to Blue by Russell Thornton
54. DC Poems by Joe Neubert
55. Pebble Swing by Isabella Wang
56. Durable Goods by James Pollock

My 2022 year in reading, reflected in a page of my handwritten Book of Books, next to the poetry collection Durable Goods by James Pollock

57. Paper Radio by Damian Rogers
58. The Lost Time Accidents by Sile Englert
59. Guest 16 [A Journal of Guest Editors], edited by Kirby
60. Letters in a Bruised Cosmos by Liz Howard
61. Pilgrim’s Flower by Rachael Boast
62. The Affirmations by Luke Hathaway
63. The Deleted World by Tomas Transtromer, versions by Robin Robertson
64. Blue Sonoma by Jane Munro
65. Selected Poems [1926-1956] by Dorothy Livesay
66. The Alphabet in the Park by Adelia Prado, translated by Ellen Watson

September 2022

67. Be Ready for the Lightning by Grace O’Connell
68. On the Trail of the Jackalope by Michael P. Branch
69. Not the Apocalypse I Was Hoping For by Leslie Greentree
70. Intruder by Bardia Sinaee
71. Sweet Home by Wendy Erskine
72. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

My 2022 year in reading, reflected in a page of my handwritten Book of Books, next to the short story collection Not the Apocalypse I Was Hoping For by Leslie Greentree

October 2022

73. The Story by Michael Ondaatje, drawings by David Bolduc
74. Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club by Megan Gail Coles
75. Dubliners by James Joyce
76. The Whole Singing Ocean by Jessica Moore

November 2022

77. Straggle – Adventures in Walking While Female by Tanis MacDonald
78. My Grief, the Sun by Sanna Wani
79. The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li

My 2022 year in reading, reflected in a page of my handwritten Book of Books, next to the essay and poetry collection Straggle by Tanis MacDonald

December 2022

80. But the sun, and the ships, and the fish, and the waves. by Conyer Clayton
81. Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell
82. Shimmer by Alex Pugsley
83. The Year of the Puppy by Alexandra Horowitz
84. Foster by Claire Keegan
85. To float, to drown, to close up, to open by E. Alex Pierce

My 2022 year in reading, reflected in a page of my handwritten Book of Books, next to the short story collection Shimmer by Alex Pugsley

In 2022, I read a total of 85 works. That’s down from the dramatic-for-me total of 102 works in 2021, but it’s still darned good. That total broke out as:

  • 26 works of fiction (novels and short story collections)
  • 49 poetry collections and
  • 10 works of non-fiction.

I reread 13 books. (I’ll blog about it next – our silent book club inaugurated its new themed format meetings with a discussion about delights and pitfalls of rereading.) I read 7 works in translation, read 3 graphic works and read 52 works by Canadian authors. My husband and I read 5 books aloud to each other this year, a lively and intriguing cross section of subjects and authors:

  • The Storyteller by Dave Grohl
  • Erebus: The Story of a Ship by Michael Palin
  • Palaces for the People – How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life by Eric Klinenberg
  • On the Trail of the Jackalope by Michael P. Branch
  • The Year of the Puppy by Alexandra Horowitz

I also kept track again this year of the publication dates of the books I read. In 2022, the oldest book I read was published in 1816 (Emma by Jane Austen), and I read 8 books before 2000, improving on my intention in recent years to read more older books. More than half of the books I read this year were published in 2021 or 2022.

So far in 2022, I’ve read or have in progress:

  • The Descendants by Robert Chursinoff
  • The Thinking Heart: The Etty Drawings (1983-1984) Claire Wilks by Jessica Hiemstra
  • Towards a General Theory of Love by Clare Shaw
  • Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan
  • Lessons by Ian McEwan
  • Young Skins by Colin Barrett

To wrap it up in consistently Groundhog Day-ish fashion (just barely before Groundhog Day, actually), here are my observations from the last couple of years, which are still very applicable again this year:

For yet another year, I’m looking back with quiet satisfaction (and with gratitude to the practices and people who helped and inspired) on my reading during an extraordinarily difficult year, and looking forward with quiet optimism to where my reading this new year will take me. I’m grateful to the writers, publishers, reviewers and fellow readers who have spurred on and broadened my reading. I’m thankful as always for the bounty of beautiful words that came to me via so many conduits, evoking such an array of ideas, trains of thought, memories and associations, providing so much off the page, too.

I’ll simply conclude, once again …

It’s not how many books or works you read (in whatever form) that counts. It’s that you read that counts – and it counts so very much.

And I might add … If you can read in good company, be it a partner, a four-legged reading companion and/or a group of trusted bookish friends, your reading will always be imbued with a special, warm glow.

A year in reading to redeem the year that was

Coming round to another January, it occurs to me that the pandemic has turned entire years into Groundhog’s Day. I’m doing my usual ponder of my year in reading, taking a look at the reflections of other readers and the books and reading that filled their year … and it’s all feeling like, well, we’ve been here before, in almost exactly these same circumstances.

That’s not entirely a bad thing. As I remarked this time last year, reflecting on 2020, our reading then was a source of diversion, comfort, inspiration and more, and it was again – as it needed to be – again in 2021.

Early in 2021, I was delighted to team up with writer and blogger Liza Achilles to tackle the subject of how to maintain one’s enthusiasm and focus for reading (essentially, to keep the reading mojo workin’) during the pandemic. We exchanged blog posts, with Liza’s piece appearing here and my piece appearing on Liza’s blog – and what a revealing and energizing exercise that was.

Again in 2021, most of the events and gatherings normally enjoyed live and in-person were online. The silent book club groups in which I take part all moved online during the first wave of pandemic closures and lockdowns, and largely continued on as such this past year. Once again, the attendees of our silent book club gatherings collectively helped each other through struggles with our reading – intermittent concentration, flagging attention span, lessened energy, emotions triggered and so on – and I chronicled some of that in our reports. As I mentioned last year, I was determined to keep up our groups’ reports and not only did that throughout this year, but got many of our group members to write the introductions, all lively and interesting in their own fashions.

Respecting local guidelines and restrictions, our silent book club members still managed to meet for brief, physically distanced, but still heart lifting gatherings in the park … even as the weather grew colder again.

Silent book club in the park in fall

Silent book club in the park in winter

Along with silent book club meetings, most of the book launches and poetry readings I would normally enjoy in person were largely online again in 2021. Virtual gatherings are getting more sophisticated and are smoothing out the technical challenges (although some of the zoom oopsies occasionally add welcome whimsy to the occasion) … but still, nothing can compare to live events. How uplifting that the indefatigable poetry force knife | fork | book was able to present live readings in a singular setting in east end Toronto, as part of the launch of kfb’s retail presence at Great Escape Bookstore. I rhapsodized about it all on Twitter.

knife fork book poetry reading at the Great Escape bookstore

Again this year, I took up the somewhat intimidating but rewarding Sealey Challenge for reading yet more poetry. Started in 2017 by American poet and educator Nicole Sealey, and steered through social media with the hashtag #thesealeychallenge, the idea is to commit and do your best to read 31 works of poetry over the course of 31 days in August. I managed to do it again this year. I always have had a poetry collection on the go, but reading at this pace turns it into a whole new, mind-expanding experience – at times overwhelming but always exhilarating. Again, it was such a boost. Yes, I will aim to do it again. This past challenge, I roughly planned out a reading sequence of full works, chapbooks and a mix of new, new to me and rereads, and am already mapping out my August, 2022 poetry playlist.

I continued my commitment in 2021 to a daily devotion to at least one poem … and usually more, as friends on Twitter continued to generously share their poem choices and reflections via the #todayspoem hashtag. I have now completed 10 years of uninterrupted daily poetry tweets and am barrelling on into year 11.

Another practice that continues to enhance my weekly reading joy as I navigate through books is that of #sundaysentence, championed by author David Abrams. As I’ve observed before, seeking a beautifully or uniqued crafted sentence each week sharpens my attention when I’m reading. I also love discovering new works through the #sundaysentence choices of other readers.

In years past when I’ve looked back on my reading, I’ve reminisced about where I was when I was reading this or that, or I’ve linked to longer notes and reviews here on this blog, on Goodreads, etc. As I refrained in 2020, I’m not going to do that again this year. Somehow, in spite of it all, I had a bountiful year of reading by just ploughing ahead – with, of course, a little help from my bookish friends. I’m going to keep doing that again this upcoming year in reading, and wish the same for everyone.

Here are the books I read, reread and read aloud in 2021.
(For each book on this year’s list, I’ve sought out links to reviews – not my own, but ones with which I concur – author interviews and/or publisher information. Hope this is helpful if you want to learn more about any of these titles.)

My 2021 year in reading, with selected books by Ken Babstock, Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, Elaine Feeney, Christy Ann Conlin and brandy ryan & Kerry Manders

January 2021

1. Rachel to the Rescue by Elinor Lipman
2. One Year at Ellsmere by Faith Erin Hicks
3. Dearly by Margaret Atwood
4. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
5. Swivelmount by Ken Babstock
6. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
7. Word Problems by Ian Williams

February 2021

8. Book of Wings by Tawhida Tanya Evanson
9. The Age of Phillis by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
10. Beasts of the Sea by Kate Sutherland
11. As You Were by Elaine Feeney
12. Me Then You Then Me Then by Kathryn Mockler and Gary Barwin
13. silence, then by R. Kolewe
14. Ask About Language As If It Forgets by Hoa Nguyen
15. After Pulse by brandy ryan and Kerry Manders

March 2021

16. Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
17. Phillis by Alison Clarke
18. Their Queer Tenderness by Neil Surkan
19. The Speed of Mercy by Christy Ann Conlin
20. OBIT by Victoria Chang
21. The Devil by John Nyman

My 2021 year in reading, with selected books by Ani Gjika, Michelle Butler Hallett, Yaa Gyasi, Dallas Hunt and Doireann Ni Ghriofa

April 2021

22. Strangers by Rob Taylor
23. Villa Negativa by Sharon McCartney
24. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
25. A Short History of the Blockade by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
26. Rabbit Foot Bill by Helen Humphreys
27. the debt by Andreae Callanan
28. Against Amazon – Seven Arguments / One Manifesto by Jorge Carrion, translated by Peter Bush

May 2021

29. Magnetic Field – The Marsden Poems by Simon Armitage
30. How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue
31. Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri
32. The Ouroboros by Jim Johnstone
33. Creeland by Dallas Hunt
34. Constant Nobody by Michelle Butler Hallett
35. The Clothing of Books by Jhumpa Lahiri

June 2021

36. Little Housewolf by Medrie Purdham
37. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
38. Dual Citizens by Alix Ohlin
39. Crow – From the Life and Songs of the Crow by Ted Hughes
40. The Beguiling by Zsuzsi Gartner

July 2021

41. The Family Way by Christopher DiRaddo
42. A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ni Ghriofa
43. Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead

My 2021 year in reading, with selected books by T.S. Eliot, Chad Campbell, Cory Lavender, Selina Boan, Elizabeth Brewster and Joseph Dandurand

August 2021

… including #thesealeychallenge (reading 31 works of poetry in 31 days)

44. Poisonous If Eaten Raw by Alyda Faber
45. Bread on Running Waters by Ani Gjika
46. Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
47. Imitation Crab by Hamish Ballantyne
48. A Promised Land by Barack Obama
49. The East Side of It All by Joseph Dandurand
50. The Pit by Tara Borin
51. Nectarine by Chad Campbell
52. Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot
53. guys named Bill by Leslie Greentree
54. Walt by Shane Neilson
55. The Essential Elizabeth Brewster, selected by Ingrid Ruthig
56. This Is How It Is by Sharon King-Campbell
57. Me by Elton John
58. Deriving by Jennifer Bowering Delisle
59. DBL by Andy Verboom
60. Audio Obscura by Lavinia Greenlaw
61. Too Much Love by Gianna Patriarca
62. Undoing Hours by Selina Boan
63. The Bad Wife by Micheline Maylor
64. Ballad of Bernie “Bear” Roy by Cory Lavender
65. Smithereens by Terence Young
66. The Sacramento of Desire by Julia Bloch
67. Country by Michael Cavuto
68. All the People Are Pregnant by Andrew DuBois
69. Methodist Hatchet by Ken Babstock
70. The Wild Fox by R. Kolewe
71. 1996 by Sara Peters
72. I Am Still Your Negro: An Homage to James Baldwin by Valerie Mason-John
73. The Good Dark by Ryan Van Winkle
74. Morning in the Burned House by Margaret Atwood
75. Gospel Drunk by Aidan Chafe
76. Yes, I Am a Corpse Flower by Travis Sharp

My 2021 year in reading, with selected books by Margaret Atwood, Lucy Ellmann, Dana Spiotta, Jaspreet Singh and David OMeara

September 2021

77. Rain and Other Stories by Mia Couto, translated by Eric M.B. Becker
78. Wayward by Dana Spiotta
79. The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam
80. Things Are Against Us by Lucy Ellmann

October 2021

81. Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
82. The Tradition by Jericho Brown
83. Masses on Radar by David O’Meara
84. My Mother, My Translator by Jaspreet Singh
85. goodbye, already by Ryanne Kap
86. On the Proper Use of Stars by Dominique Fortier, translated by Sheila Fischman

November 2021

87. Unreconciled by Jesse Wente
88. The Tinder Sonnets by Jennifer LoveGrove
89. Poetry is Queer by Kirby
90. How to Be Happy Though Human by Kate Camp
91. Ghosthawk by Matt Rader
92. To Star the Dark by Doireann Ni Ghriofa
93. Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
94. Myself a Paperclip by Triny Finlay

My 2021 year in reading, with selected books by Salena Godden, Triny Finlay, Silmy Abdullah, Patrick Radden Keefe and Victoria Kennefick

December 2021

95. Mrs Death Misses Death by Salena Godden
96. Best Canadian Poetry 2021, edited by Souvankham Thammavongsa
97. Home of the Floating Lily by Silmy Abdullah
98. Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
99. Dante’s Indiana by Randy Boyagoda
100. The Historians by Eavan Boland
101. Disorientation – Being Black in the World by Ian Williams
102. Eat or We Both Starve by Victoria Kennefick

In 2021, I read a total of 102 works. That broke out as:

  • 27 works of fiction (novels and short story collections)
  • 63 poetry collections and
  • 12 works of non-fiction.

I reread 5 books. I read 5 works in translation, read one graphic work and read 64 works by Canadian authors. My husband and I read 2 books aloud to each other this year – A Promised Land by Barack Obama and Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe – both absorbing works that felt like long but very worthy journeys.

I also kept track again this year of the publication dates of the books I read. In 2021, the oldest book I read was published in 1925 (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos), but only read four books before 2000, kind of backtracking on my intention in recent years to read more older books. More than half of the books I read this year were published in 2020 or 2021.

So far in 2022, I’ve read or have in progress:

  • Hell Light Flesh by Klara du Plessis
  • Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz
  • Undersong by Kathleen Winter
  • The Storyteller by Dave Grohl (read aloud)

To wrap it up in consistently Groundhog Day-ish fashion, here are my observations from a year ago, which are still very applicable again this year:

For yet another year, I’m looking back with quiet satisfaction (and with gratitude to the practices and people who helped and inspired) on my reading during an extraordinarily difficult year, and looking forward with quiet optimism to where my reading this new year will take me. I’m grateful to the writers, publishers, reviewers and fellow readers who have spurred on and broadened my reading. I’m thankful as always for the bounty of beautiful words that came to me via so many conduits, evoking such an array of ideas, trains of thought, memories and associations, providing so much off the page, too.

I’ll simply conclude …

It’s not how many books or works you read (in whatever form) that counts. It’s that you read that counts – and it counts so very much.

Celebrating what, where and how I read in 2019

Early January, in that sweet cushion of time between post-holiday festivities and pre-back to work, has become a time I relish for contemplating my year past in reading and for absorbing and appreciating the musings of fellow readers as they share their own reflections. Interestingly, I find myself leaping/flipping/scrolling past the “best of” lists and instead gravitating more and more to the reflections about reading as exploration, revelation, often deliciously meandering journey, shared experience, opportunity to bust out of staid categories and forge new ones … and more.

Those who read steadily and think about reading inspire me, including Shawna Lemay, Kerry Clare, Tanis MacDonald (who, if you’re fortunate to be connected to her on Facebook, has done some mighty category-busting this year). Those who gather to share with delight and fervor their varied reading experiences, such as the generous attendees at two different silent book club gatherings I attended regularly this year, bring my reading enthusiasm and devotion to new levels every month.

Reading is not a competitive sport, but that doesn’t stop me from challenging myself (and, I hope not intimidatingly, others at times) … and this turned out to be a banner year, particularly after the struggles with which I contended in 2018. I read the most books ever in a year since I’ve been keeping track – 65 – and I came this close to considering posting a “10 best” list this year because some of the reading was that good. But I reminded myself that sometimes the setting and circumstances and company and more around each particular read often elevated what I was reading, and it’s those experiences I want to celebrate and strive to have more of in future.

In addition to my year’s reading list, I continued my commitment in 2019 to a daily devotion to at least one poem … and usually more, as friends on Twitter continued to generously share their poem choices and reflections via the #todayspoem hashtag. I’m now heading into my ninth uninterrupted year (that’s right, I have not missed a single day) of poetry tweets.

Another practice that heightens my weekly reading joy as I navigate through books is that of #sundaysentence, tirelessly championed and curated by author David Abrams. As I observed last year, seeking a weekly gem seems to sharpen my attention when I’m reading, and I love discovering new works through the #sundaysentence choices of other readers.

Last year, my husband arranged for my then 35-year-old book of books (in which I’ve recorded my reading since I graduated from university in 1983) to be beautifully rebound, by bookbinder Don Taylor. Now 36 years old, it is still the place I go to first to record my continued adventures in reading.

Here are the books I read and read aloud in 2019, with a few recollections of where I was when I was reading them.

    2019books-endofyear1-600

  1. Milkman
    Anna Burns
    2018
  2. “Knowledge didn’t guarantee power, safety and relief and often for some it meant the opposite of power, safety and relief – leaving no outlet for dispersal either, of all the heightened stimuli that had been built by being up on in the first place. Purposely not wanting to know therefore, was exactly what my reading-while-walking was about.”

    I so enjoyed getting lost in the feisty and singular voice of reading-while-walking maybe-girlfriend middle sister in Anna Burns’ Milkman. This book was a steady companion for the first couple of weeks of the year, at home, on transit and at silent book club.

  3. Years, Months, and Days
    Amanda Jernigan
    2018
  4. Voodoo Hypothesis
    Canisia Lubrin
    2017
  5. Machine Without Horses
    Helen Humphreys
    2018
  6. I remember reading this at home in a fairly swift and gorgeous swoosh. Helen Humphreys is consistently masterful at creating lush prose around sometimes unlikely subjects, this time the imagined life and thoughts of real life salmon-fly dresser, Megan Boyd, a craftswoman who worked for sixty years out of a bare-bones cottage in a small village in the north of Scotland. That remote cottage was visited by Prince Charles, an avid user of her uniquely crafted flies who made the trip there to present her with the British Empire Medal.

  7. OBITS.
    tess liem
    2018
  8. The Emissary
    Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani
    2018
  9. The Long Take
    Robin Robertson
    2018
  10. “He walks. That is his name and nature. / Rows of buildings, all alike, / doors and windows, people going in, looking out; / inside – halls and stairs, halls and stairs, / and more doors, opening and closing.”

    Robin Robertson’s The Long Take is a singular and hypnotic blend of poetry and prose, sometimes starting as one and ending as the other in one paragraph, sentence or phrase.

    2019books-endofyear2-600

  11. City Poems
    Joe Fiorito
    2018
  12. Reproduction
    Ian Williams
    2019
  13. From the very, very cold January night when Ian Williams launched his debut novel to a very cold night in November at the end of the Canadian literature awards season, it was a pleasure to cheer on Reproduction. The book is challenging in its experimental approach to how language on the page can evolve – clearly drawing on the poetry foundation of Williams’ oeuvre – and its cast of characters is thorny, but diligent readers are rewarded for giving this book full and concentrated attention.

  14. Wuthering Heights
    Emily Bronte
    1847
    (read aloud)
  15. Yes, dear readers, we read Wuthering Heights aloud … and its tempestuous plot and characters and often exquisitely overwrought prose made it a surprisingly entertaining experience from beginning to end. As the likes of Meghan Cox Gurdon contend – and my husband and I have known and appreciated for years – “Storytime isn’t just for young children”.

  16. Indecency
    Justin Phillip Reed
    2018
  17. Can You Ever Forgive Me? Memoirs of a Literary Forger
    Lee Israel
    2008
  18. In rapid succession, I read the book and then we saw the movie, where Lee Israel is portrayed unforgettably by Melissa McCarthy. Book and movie are an unusually well-matched pair of interpretations of an intriguing bookish tale and singular character.

  19. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
    Kathleen Rooney
    2017
  20. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk made the rounds as a popular choice of our silent book club.

  21. Nirliit
    Juliana Leveille-Trudel, translated by Anita Anand
    2018
  22. Human Hours
    Catherine Barnett
    2018
  23. This collection of sometimes rueful but always very grounded poems about everyday human frailties and foibles was one of my favourite poetry reads of the past year.

  24. Living Up To a Legend
    Diana Bishop
    2017
    (read aloud)
  25. The Quaker
    Liam McIlvanney
    2018
  26. The Organist – Fugues, Fatherhood and a Fragile Mind
    Mark Abley
    2019
  27. 2019books-endofyear3-600

  28. Wonderland
    Matthew Dickman
    2018
  29. Gingerbread
    Helen Oyeyemi
    2019
  30. These are not the potatoes of my youth
    Matthew Walsh
    2019
  31. “I get so worried when I see space news. I heard astronauts
    incinerate their underwear and the ash falls to Earth.”
    Couch potato by Matthew Walsh from These are not the potatoes of my youth

    Indisputably my favourite title of the year, this was also one of my favourite poetry reads of 2019.

  32. Quarrels
    Eve Joseph
    2018
  33. This haunting prose poetry collection won the 2019 Griffin Poetry Prize.

  34. Belonging – A German Reckons with History and Home
    Nora Krug
    2018
  35. This book presents an intriguing approach to a non-fiction/memoir piece tackling troubling subject matter. Nora Krug uses a beautifully realized illustrated / graphic novel format to confront her family’s wartime past in Nazi Germany. I came to this book by way of a trusted recommendation from a silent book club friend.

  36. No Bones
    Anna Burns
    2001
  37. This early Anna Burns novel was also recommended to me by the silent book club friend from whom I learned about Nora Krug’s Belonging – A German Reckons with History and Home. It was interesting to see Anna Burns building her craft to what culminates so exquisitely in Milkman.

  38. The Perseverance
    Raymond Antrobus
    2018
  39. The Perseverance by Raymond Antrobus – moving, fierce, unforgettable – garnered awards and attention galore in 2019, particularly astonishing and gratifying for a debut collection. How wonderful that the work was shortlisted for the 2019 Griffin Poetry Prize, which means we got to see and capture a powerful presentation of his poems:

  40. Women Talking
    Miriam Toews
    2018
  41. Girl of the Southern Sea
    Michelle Kadarusman
    2019
  42. “You’ll know when the Queen of the Sea is here because she calms the waters and the clouds gather overhead.”

    I enjoyed Michelle Kadarusman’s gorgeous middle grade novel Girl of the Southern Sea myself before giving it to a young friend. The book was a highly deserving finalist for the 2019 Governor General’s Literary Awards in the category of Young People’s Literature.

  43. Watching You Without Me
    Lynn Coady
    2019
  44. This book is astoundingly well-crafted, a perfect balance of contemporary family drama, intriguing and cautionary character study and flat-out pageturner suspense thriller. Lynn Coady has created something singular, giving us food for thought about how we care for each other and how life evolves and sometimes changes abruptly and demands that we cope – all while mining our deepest fears yet never losing sight of the value of human compassion and resilience.

  45. Normal People
    Sally Rooney
    2018
  46. The Art of Dying
    Sarah Tolmie
    2018
  47. “This is of course why love exists.
    Love, that coping mechanism
    That lets you live while something isn’t

    Wholly satisfactory.”
    56 by Sarah Tolmie from The Art of Dying

    These sly, feisty, sometimes disarmingly vulnerable poems are packaged within my favourite bookcover of the year.

    2019books-endofyear4-600

  48. There Are Not Enough Sad Songs
    Marita Dachsel
    2019
  49. “Tell me, as we take in this splendour,
    have we run out of firsts – the ones that glow,
    that bring joy? Old friend, please say no.”
    now is the season of open windows by Marita Dachsel from There Are Not Enough Sad Songs

  50. Most of What Follows is True
    Michael Crummey
    2019
  51. On Looking – Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes
    Alexandra Horowitz
    2013
    (read aloud)
  52. Anything by Alexandra Horowitz is read-aloud friendly, in our experience.

  53. Heave
    Christy Ann Conlin
    2002
  54. Into That Fire
    MJ Cates
    2019
  55. The Teardown
    by David Homel
    2019
  56. Watermark
    Christy Ann Conlin
    2019
  57. Having just read Heave (again, another spot-on recommendation from a silent book club friend), it was a particular treat to then get an advance copy of Christy Ann Conlin’s riveting short story collection Watermark, in which one of the stories is a variation on the startling opening sequence of Heave (which, by the way, was written 17 years earlier).

    Our annual cottage weekend with friends includes an evening of readings, for which I selected the Flannery O’Connor-esque story “Full Bleed” – whoa.

  58. Casting Deep Shade
    C.D. Wright
    2019
  59. “For healing, esp asthma in a child: core out a hole in trunk, put lock of asthmatic’s hair in hole. Plug hole. When child has reached height of hole, asthma will be all gone.”
    from Casting Deep Shade by C.D. Wright

    At its very simplest a meditation on the power and presence of trees, C.D. Wright’s posthumously published Casting Deep Shade is a treasure with which to spend concentrated and devoted time as it runs the emotional and intellectual gamut and takes you through poetry, prose, folklore, technical and scientific discourse, history and much more.

  60. The Flamethrowers
    Rachel Kushner
    2013
  61. Broke City
    Wendy McGrath
    2019
  62. The Nickel Boys
    Colson Whitehead
    2019
  63. The Mars Room
    Rachel Kushner
    2018
  64. 2019books-endofyear5-600

  65. House Divided – How the Missing Middle Will Solve Toronto’s Affordability Crisis
    edited by John Lorinc, Alex Bozikovic, Cheryll Case and Annabel Vaughan
    2019
  66. Late Breaking
    K.D. Miller
    2018
  67. The stories in this collection gain additional resonance as each one is associated with an Alex Colville painting.

  68. The Caiplie Caves
    Karen Solie
    2019
  69. “it’s no crime to resemble discarded inventory
    not a crime to regard others
    with what appears to be only basic species recognition”
    An Unexpected Encounter with He Who Has Been Left Alone to His Perils by Karen Solie from The Caiplie Caves

  70. Mister Sandman
    Barbara Gowdy
    1996
  71. The Innocents
    Michael Crummey
    2019
  72. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
    Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
    2018
  73. Spirited Janina is one of my favourite characters tromping determinedly out of the pages of another one of this year’s reading highlights. And again, it seems it was a great year for titles, too … this one stirs my blood!

  74. A Choosing – Selected Poems
    Liz Lochhead
    2011
  75. This collection was a thoughtful gift from a silent book club friend.

  76. Hologram
    P.K. Page
    1994
  77. So thrilled to find this treasure in a used bookstore …

  78. Deaf Republic
    Ilya Kaminsky
    2019
  79. “Air empties, but for the squeak of strings and the tap tap of wooden fists against the walls.”
    And Yet, on Some Nights by Ilya Kaminsky from Deaf Republic

    Unnerving, astounding, incredibly moving …

    2019books-endofyear6-600

  80. In My Own Moccasins – A Memoir of Resilience
    Helen Knott
    2019
  81. Say Nothing – A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
    Patrick Radden Keefe
    2019
    (read aloud)
  82. Patrick Radden Keefe has crafted an absorbing and compelling combination detective story and oral history out of one of the most heartrending of the unsolved murders during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. This was absolutely amazing to read aloud, too.

    View this post on Instagram

    While he makes delicious things, I read aloud.

    A post shared by Vicki Ziegler (@vzbookgaga) on

  83. Ducks, Newburyport
    Lucy Ellmann
    2019
  84. Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann was not only the reading experience of the year for me, but it will remain as one of the most indelible of my life as a reader, I predict. The 1,000-page one-sentence tome capturing the rambling thoughts of a nervous pie-making mother and homemaker in contemporary Ohio could be dismissed and avoided on so many grounds, perhaps, but it is not to be missed. As she runs the gamut from recipes and grocery lists to concerns for her four children, love for her second husband, memories of her mother and other family members, anger and fear at the state of her home and nation under the odious shadow of Trump … and more … and more … and more … her voice doesn’t just remain in your head, it sinks into you at a cellular level. How her life seemingly inexplicably intertwines with that of a mountain lion tirelessly seeking the children that have been taken away from her turns the last pages of the book into a suspenseful ride that is almost unbearable … but by then, you simultaneously do not want it to end.

    Even with its heft and awkwardness, I couldn’t help taking it everywhere with me … which means I’ll associate it with reading on the subway, in bed, at the cottage, at the blood donor clinic … and being utterly absorbed and entranced, no matter where I was.

  85. Mobile
    Tanis MacDonald
    2019
  86. “By the Don, beneath the bridge, gargoyles brought to earth, scale-model dragons and angels of revisionist history, beasts of Bay Street brought low and eye to eye with ideology and staghorn sumac …” Jane and the Monsters for Beauty, Permanence, and Individuality by Tanis MacDonald from Mobile

    Who better than a poet to orchestrate uncommon magic on a gray Saturday morning in the heart of noisy #Toronto? Read the whole story here.

  87. I Am Sovereign
    Nicola Barker
    2019
  88. A new Nicola Barker is always cause for celebration, at least by this reader. This novella is signature Barker brilliance, and another step in her experimentation with breaking down the walls between characters, reader and writer. Utterly fascinating!

    This captures, by the way, one of my favourite places and times of the day to read – breakfast on a working weekday, after I’ve done my initial check-in for email and work-related social media updates and have my working day mapped out.

  89. The Man Who Saw Everything
    Deborah Levy
    2019
  90. Deborah Levy’s interview with Eleanor Wachtel in November at Revival Bar was peculiar and strangely recalcitrant, but Wachtel’s team ably edited it for broadcast. I love Levy’s work, so I tried to block out the odd interview behaviour as I read The Man Who Saw Everything and enjoyed it immensely. It’s the sort of book that I suspect I will go back to and glean different gems of insight with each reread.

  91. Renaissance Normcore
    Adele Barclay
    2019
  92. My Father, Fortune-tellers & Me
    Eufemia Fantetti
    2019
  93. Night Boat to Tangier
    Kevin Barry
    2019
  94. Kevin Barry offered a lively reading and generous insights to interviewer Charles Foran at the Toronto Public Library in September, still fresh in my mind when I read and was utterly enthralled with the book in November.

  95. Good to a Fault
    Marina Endicott
    2008
  96. One of three rereads this year, Marina Endicott’s Good to a Fault has been calling to me for a while, and I’m so glad I heeded the call. This was a wonderful, affecting revisit.

  97. Crow Gulch
    Douglas Walbourne-Gough
    2019
  98. “All this hard living just to stay alive.
    Nice to escape, though. This feather bed.
    Dream up whatever life you want.”
    Escape by Douglas Walbourne-Gough from Crow Gulch

    2019books-endofyear7-600

  99. Something to Write Home About
    Seamus Heaney
    1998
  100. Such a lovely Christmas present …

  101. Alias Grace
    Margaret Atwood
    1996
  102. Another of three rereads this year, a final silent book club meeting during the holiday season helped me to finish this hefty but absorbing read. I was inspired to reread it after binge watching the superbly realized mini-series of the book. The first time I read this book (the book was published in 1996 and I first read it in 2003), Margaret Atwood’s voice was the narrator in my head. This time, Sarah Gadon as Grace was the voice.

  103. Worry
    Jessica Westhead
    2019

In 2019, I read a total of 65 works, a considerable leap from my challenging 2018 reading year:

  • 33 works of fiction (novels and short story collections) – the exact same as my 2018 total
  • 21 poetry collections and
  • 11 works of non-fiction.

I reread 3 books, read 3 works in translation, read one graphic work (interestingly, not a novel but non-fiction) and read 36 works by Canadian authors (again, surprisingly, the exact same as my 2018 total). My husband and I read 3 books aloud to each other this year and have another one in progress as we greet the new year.

I also kept track again this year of the publication dates of the books I read. In 2019, the oldest book I read was published in 1847 (Wuthering Heights, which was also a read-aloud book and, oh my, quite the rereading experience), and I also read a number of books published in the 1990s, further fulfilling last year’s intention to read or reread some more older books (a yearly practice I intend to keep up). More than half of the books I read this year were published in 2018 or 2019.

Currently in progress, heading into 2020:

  • Grand Union
    by Zadie Smith

  • Arias
    by Sharon Olds

  • I’ll Take You There: Mavis Staples, the Staple Singers, and the March up Freedom’s Highway
    by Greg Kot
    (reading aloud, with gusto!)

For yet another year, I’m looking back fondly and with great satisfaction on my 2019 reading and looking forward eagerly to where my 2020 reading will take me. I’m grateful to the writers, publishers, reviewers and fellow readers who have spurred on and broadened my reading. I’m thankful for the bounty of beautiful words that came to me via so many conduits, evoking such an array of ideas, trains of thought, memories and associations, providing so much off the page, too, from solace and companionship to challenges and even healthy discontent.

I’ll simply conclude (as I always do) …

It’s not how many you read that counts. It’s that you read that counts.

2019 – The year in reading (so far)

Most years, I try to do a little check-in partway through every year to see how my reading is going. As I’ve done in years past, I’m taking a look around the halfway point (ish) in the year at the books I’ve read so far, with links where they exist to books that I’ve reviewed or at least jotted a brief note or impression on Goodreads. As I’ve always pointed out, it’s a competition with no one but myself, but it is always useful and interesting to stop and reflect a bit where one is at with one’s reading, both quantitatively and qualitatively.

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Here’s the quantitative part: Of the 38 books I’ve read so far this year, 6 were non-fiction, 14 were poetry and the balance of 18 were fiction (novels and short story collections). One book was a reread. Two books were works in translation. Twenty-one of the books were by Canadian writers. Three books were read aloud in their entirety (over a period of time, not in one sitting), which is a wonderful way to share the experience with another reader/listener.

I continue to keep track of my reading in my handwritten, 36-year-old, recently beautifully rejuvenated book of books. I’ll include some pictures of my 2019 pages in this blog post.

Qualitatively, it’s definitely another good year. There are some selections on this year inspired by book club recommendations, particularly from our much beloved local silent book club here in east end Toronto, which you know I go on and on about. I’ve been privileged to read some more books in advance of their release and hope to share some enthusiastic reviews of them in the late summer / early fall.

I always have multiple books on the go, with me wherever I go, and I am one happy reader so far in 2019. Hope you are too!

    2019-books1-600

  1. Milkman
    Anna Burns
    2018

  2. Years, Months, and Days
    Amanda Jernigan
    2018

  3. Voodoo Hypothesis
    Canisia Lubrin
    2017

  4. Machine Without Horses
    Helen Humphreys
    2018

  5. OBITS.
    tess liem
    2018

  6. The Emissary
    Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani
    2018

  7. The Long Take
    Robin Robertson
    2018

  8. 2019-books2-600

  9. City Poems
    Joe Fiorito
    2018

  10. Reproduction
    Ian Williams
    2019

  11. Wuthering Heights
    Emily Bronte
    1847
    (read aloud)

  12. Indecency
    Justin Phillip Reed
    2018

  13. Can You Ever Forgive Me? Memoirs of a Literary Forger
    Lee Israel
    2008

  14. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
    Kathleen Rooney
    2017

  15. Nirliit
    Juliana Leveille-Trudel, translated by Anita Anand
    2018

  16. Human Hours
    Catherine Barnett
    2018

  17. Living Up To a Legend
    Diana Bishop
    2017
    (read aloud)

  18. The Quaker
    Liam McIlvanney
    2018

  19. The Organist – Fugues, Fatherhood and a Fragile Mind
    Mark Abley
    2019

  20. 2019-books3-600

  21. Wonderland
    Matthew Dickman
    2018

  22. Gingerbread
    Helen Oyeyemi
    2019

  23. These are not the potatoes of my youth
    Matthew Walsh
    2019

  24. Quarrels
    Eve Joseph
    2018

  25. Belonging – A German Reckons with History and Home
    Nora Krug
    2018

  26. No Bones
    Anna Burns
    2001

  27. The Perseverance
    Raymond Antrobus
    2018

  28. Women Talking
    Miriam Toews
    2018

  29. Girl of the Southern Sea
    Michelle Kadarusman
    2019

  30. Watching You Without Me
    Lynn Coady
    2019

  31. Normal People
    Sally Rooney
    2018

  32. The Art of Dying
    Sarah Tolmie
    2018

  33. 2019-books4-600

  34. There Are Not Enough Sad Songs
    Marita Dachsel
    2019

  35. Most of What Follows is True
    Michael Crummey
    2019

  36. On Looking – Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes
    Alexandra Horowitz
    2013
    (read aloud)

  37. Heave
    Christy Ann Conlin
    2002

  38. Into That Fire
    MJ Cates
    2019

  39. The Teardown
    by David Homel
    2019

  40. Watermark
    Christy Ann Conlin
    2019

  41. Casting Deep Shade
    C.D. Wright
    2019

Currently in progress:

  • The Flamethrowers
    Rachel Kushner
    2013

  • The Caiplie Caves
    Karen Solie
    2019

  • Broke City
    Wendy McGrath
    2019

  • Say Nothing
    Patrick Radden Keefe
    2019
    (read aloud)

How is your reading going so far in 2019?

What, where and how I read in 2018

As I confessed recently, 2018 was a challenging reading year for me. I read some great books and attended some memorable readings and book events, but how I read (mostly books, sometimes on screen) and my normal reading tempo was impeded by vision problems. My vision deteriorated in an alarmingly short period of time due to the swift and severe onset of cataracts. (I didn’t mind being told I was too young to be experiencing this problem so acutely, but that was the only meagre comfort at the time.)

For a time, I didn’t know if these vision problems would be protracted or even permanent. If it was, I knew I had to accept changing how I read and would have to adapt accordingly. Other readers read in other ways, and I could too if I had to. As it turns out, surgery and support from excellent professionals means I’ll be able to continue casting my gaze on the printed page, my preferred way of reading. I’m grateful I have that option, and have heightened respect for those who come to the written word with patience and resourcefulness in other ways.

Because I was tussling just to read, I didn’t write about my reading much this year – except, as you may have noticed, about our beloved silent book club. Still, I did my best to share a few thoughts on my reading as I went along, and managed to put up some snippets on Goodreads, Twitter and even Instagram. Sometimes those wee comments sparked a bit of conversation with fellow readers, which was nice and some continued reassurance that not all of social media is a relentless dumpster fire.

I continued my commitment in 2018 to a daily devotion to at least one poem … and usually more, as friends on Twitter continued to generously share their poem choices and reflections via the #todayspoem hashtag. I’m now heading into my eighth uninterrupted year of poetry tweets. In 2017, I gathered up all my tweets here. I’ll try to do something similar with my 2018 #todayspoem tweets in the near future.

Another reading practice that sparks joy (ahem) as I navigate through books is that of #sundaysentence, tirelessly championed and curated by author David Abrams. Seeking a weekly gem seems to sharpen my attention when I’m reading, and I love discovering new works through the #sundaysentence choices of other readers.

An important milestone this reading year just past is that my treasured but admittedly battered, over 35-year-old book of books got a much needed restoration.

bookdiary2017-1-550

My husband arranged for the book (in which I’ve recorded my reading since I graduated from university in 1983) to be beautifully rebound, by bookbinder Don Taylor. If you need something that further sparks reading joy, get yourself a gorgeous book in which to record your reading – you won’t regret it.

2018-bookofbooks-renewed600

2018-bookofbooks-endpapers-600

Here are the books I read and read aloud in 2018, with a few recollections of where I was when I was reading them.

    2018-bookofbooks1-600

  1. Stranger, by David Bergen
  2. The Left-Handed Dinner Party and Other Stories, by Myrl Coulter
  3. Cat’s Eye, by Margaret Atwood … here too
  4. This was the only book I reread this year, but it was a splendid one to revisit. As I remarked at the time, it’s a moving, intimate and instructive look at how women can be each other’s best allies and worst enemies.

    2018-bookofbooks2-600

  5. Scarborough, by Catherine Hernandez
  6. The Finest Supermarket in Kabul, by Ele Pawelski
  7. This book was good company during my subway travels.

  8. Quantum Typography, by Gary Barwin
  9. The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas
  10. Still Life, by Louise Penny
  11. I very much enjoyed this introduction to Louise Penny and Chief Inspector Armand Gamache thanks to enthusiastic recommendations from my silent book club friends.

    View this post on Instagram

    Still Life … with beagle-basset …

    A post shared by Vicki Ziegler (@vzbookgaga) on

  12. Loop of Jade, by Sarah Howe
  13. Wisdom in Nonsense – Invaluable Lessons from My Father, by Heather O’Neill
  14. Studio Saint-Ex, by Ania Szado
  15. Seven Fallen Feathers, by Tanya Talaga
  16. Sun of a Distant Land, by David Bouchet, translated by Claire Holden Rothman
  17.  

    2018-bookofbooks3-600

  18. This is How You Lose Her, by Junot Diaz
  19. Antigone Undone, by Will Aitken
  20. Not only was the book captivating, but it was great to hear about it firsthand from Aitken and Anne Carson (gasp!) about a month later at the Toronto Reference Library.

  21. Winter’s Bone, by Daniel Woodrell
  22. This stunning book was a Little Library find!

  23. Magenta Soul Whip, by Lisa Robertson
  24. French Exit, by Patrick deWitt
  25. I have to live. by Aisha Sasha John
  26. This Wound Is a World, by Billy-Ray Belcourt
  27. A Death in the Family, by Karl Ove Knausgaard
  28. Kudos, by Rachel Cusk
  29. The Built Environment, by Emily Hasler
  30. I enjoyed both Kudos and The Built Environment at silent book club.

  31. The Bleeds, by Dimitri Nasrallah
  32. Warlight, by Michael Ondaatje
  33. Dreampad, by Jeff Latosik
  34.  

    2018-bookofbooks4-600

  35. Collected Tarts & Other Indelicacies, by Tabatha Southey
  36. My husband and I read this book aloud. Much, much laughter …!

  37. Ties, by Domenico Starnone, translated by Jhumpa Lahiri
  38. Muskoka Holiday, by Joyce Boyle
  39. My husband and I read this book aloud at the cottage. I remember quite vividly that this was when my vision was just about at its worst, about a month before the first of two eye surgeries. I was pleased to be able to read this book, though, because of its large print.

  40. On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood, by Richard Harrison
  41. Chicken, by Lynn Crosbie
  42. Deer Life – A Fairy Tale, by Ron Sexsmith
  43. The Deserters, by Pamela Mulloy
  44. If you’ve read them both, you might not think Lynn Crosbie’s Chicken and Pamela Mulloy’s The Deserters have much in common. I gathered notes for, but my weary eyes never allowed me to complete a review comparing the two books on the theme of troubled relationships.

  45. Wade in the Water, by Tracy K. Smith
  46. The Outlaw Album, by Daniel Woodrell
  47. Heartbreaker, by Claudia Dey
  48. Beartown, by Fredrik Backman, translated by Neil Smith
  49.  

    2018-bookofbooks5-600

  50. Transcription, by Kate Atkinson
  51. As I remarked when I finished it, Transcription‘s Juliet is an endlessly fascinating creature – who, of course, we still don’t entirely know in the end – and her adventures and dilemmas are absorbing and, at times, horrifying. This incredible book was a favourite amongst the readers in our silent book club, and a bunch of us went to here her read from it and converse with Rachel Giese at the lovely Church of the Holy Trinity in downtown Toronto.

  52. The Blue Clerk, by Dionne Brand
  53. Both a stunning book and a gorgeous book object, this was one of the most pleasurable reading experiences of my year.

  54. Split Tooth, by Tanya Tagaq
  55. God of Shadows, by Lorna Crozier
  56. Sugar and Other Stories, by A.S. Byatt
  57. If They Come For Us, by Fatimah Asghar
  58. Zolitude, by Paige Cooper
  59. The Game, by A.S. Byatt
  60. The Mobius Strip Club of Grief, by Bianca Stone
  61. Stereoblind, by Emma Healey
  62. Dear Evelyn, by Kathy Page
  63. Theory, by Dionne Brand
  64.  

    2018-bookofbooks6-600

  65. My Private Property, by Mary Ruefle
  66. Virgin, by Analicia Sotelo
  67. No Good Asking, by Fran Kimmel
  68. Liminal, by Jordan Tannahill
  69. The Library Book, by Susan Orlean
  70. We read this aloud – voraciously and with immense delight – and finished it on New Year’s Eve, which felt rather perfect.

In 2018, I read a total of 54 works: 33 works of fiction (novels and short story collections), 16 poetry collections and 5 works of non-fiction. I reread one book, read 4 works in translation, and read 36 works by Canadian authors. My husband and I read three books aloud to each other this year and have another one in progress as we greet the new year.

I also kept track this year of the publication dates of the books I read. In 2018, the oldest book I read was published in 1953, and I also read books published in 1967, 1987 and 1988, fulfilling last year’s intention to read some more older books. Exactly half of the books I read in 2018 were published in 20 18.

Currently in progress, heading into 2019:

  • Milkman
    by Anna Burns

  • Voodoo Hypothesis
    by Canisia Lubrin

  • Wuthering Heights
    by Emily Brontë
    (reread and … read aloud!)

For yet another year, I’m looking back fondly on my 2018 reading, looking forward eagerly, with anticipation and even some curiosity to my 2019 reading, I’ll simply conclude (as I always do) …

It’s not how many you read that counts. It’s that you read that counts.

What I read in 2016

When I graduated from university, I started to keep track of my books read in this wee diary that was a gift from my roommate.

bookdiary1

I started the books diary in 1983. It’s coming apart at the seams a bit. Over the years, I’ve backed up my list in databases, spreadsheets, Goodreads and other book apps du jour … but I’ve always updated this little diary as part of my reading routine. Yes, this book and this part of my reading ritual is getting on 34 years …

bookdiary2

Here are the books I read in 2016 – once again, diligently recorded in my book diary, along with a backup spreadsheet and Goodreads – with links to reviews where I have them. By the way, this is an exhaustive, “all of” list, not a “best of” list.

I continued my commitment in 2016 to a daily devotion to at least one poem … and usually more, as friends on Twitter continued to generously share their poem choices and reflections via the #todayspoem hashtag. Now five years in, I still haven’t missed a day, both contributing and enjoying selections from others in this edifying, often spirit-lifting and vital communal experience. I’ve now pondered the works of close to 1,000 unique poets, writers, translators, songsmiths and wordsmiths I’ve revisited or unearthed myself, and countless more via others wielding that often revelatory hashtag. On into its sixth year, I’m continuing with my #todayspoem habit every day heading into 2017. I hope many contributors will continue or join anew.

I welcomed some wonderful and insightful guest reviewers and correspondents to this blog in 2016. I’m so grateful for the time and thought they spent on their pieces, from which I learned a lot and hope you did, too. Let’s revisit them again:

Here are the books I read, reread and read aloud in 2016. Wherever I go, I try to carry a book with me, so for each book, I’m also going to try to recall where I was when I was reading it.

  1. Hope Makes Love
    by Trevor Cole

    I vividly recall reading this book at the cottage during the wintry first days of the new year.

  2. The Beauty of the Husband
    by Anne Carson

    I was reading this amazing book while waiting for a friend who was arriving by GO Train at Toronto’s Union Station. We were meeting another friend to go to a poetry reading – how perfect is that?

  3. Fates and Furies
    by Lauren Groff

    I distinctly recall reading this engrossing book snuggled in bed.

  4. A Little Life
    by Hanya Yanagihara

    I went through a protracted period of insomnia last winter and if, after trying to relax and consciously breathe myself back to sleep, I was still wide-eyed in the dark, I would turn on my little book-light and read. This book actually didn’t help get me back to sleep – quite the contrary – but it was stunningly memorable company during those sleepless hours. What an unforgettable wallop of a reading experience.

  5. The Mark and the Void
    by Paul Murray

    I read this two-volume paperback (a very interesting packaging of the story) mostly at our dining room table. It was February, when this household observes a month of abstinence from alcohol, so the accompanying beverages were likely tea and coffee.

  6. bookdiary3

  7. Between You & Me
    by Mary Norris

    I took this entertaining book with me on more than a few subway rides.

  8. When Words Deny the World
    by Stephen Henighan

    This book kept me company on streetcar rides to physiotherapy appointments.

  9. The Brief Reincarnation of a Girl
    by Sue Goyette

    I read this gorgeous book (also a gorgeous book object) at home.

  10. Just Watch Me – The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1968-2000)
    by John English
    (read aloud)

    A lot of our reading aloud takes place in the kitchen, with my talented husband cooking and me singing for my supper. We actually read a lot of this book during the interminable 2015 Canadian federal election and it was a great reminder that there were dedicated, thoughtful and honorable politicians of all political stripes as recently as just a generation or two ago.

  11. M Train
    by Patti Smith

    I read this sweet, luminous book at home.

  12. All the Gold Hurts My Mouth
    by Katherine Leyton

    This poetry collection was company on several subway rides.

  13. Birdie
    by Tracey Lindberg

    This book was warm and fascinating company on streetcar rides to physiotherapy appointments.

  14. Innocents and Others
    by Dana Spiotta

    Among his many talents, my husband is a great seeker and finder of first editions of books. When I fell in love with author Dana Spiotta on the basis of this intriguing New York Times Magazine interview, he made it his mission to find all of her novels for me. And then I read them all this year. To a book, they were amazing. I already can’t wait for what she’ll do next.

  15. Don’t Be Interesting
    by Jacob McArthur Mooney

    I read this collection (which had me at the John Darnielle references) at home and on public transit.

  16. Model Disciple
    by Michael Prior

    This collection was fine company during the continued streetcar rides to physio appointments.

  17. Tell: poems for a girlhood
    by Soraya Peerbaye

    You know what? I was so wrapped up in the entrancing, often horrifying but also heartwrenchingly beautiful world of this collection that I in fact don’t recall a specific place or moment when I was reading it. What does that say?

  18. Lightning Field
    by Dana Spiotta

    I read this book at home, probably mostly at my desk and the dining room table.

  19. Providence
    by Anita Brookner
    (reread)

    I read this tiny, battered, much loved paperback on the subway, where a fellow passenger remarked that it was her favourite Brookner.

  20. Frayed Opus for Strings & Wind Instruments
    by Ulrikka S. Gernes, translated by Per Brask and Patrick Friesen

    This poetry collection accompanied me on more than one road trip.

  21. Who Needs Books? Reading in the Digital Age
    by Lynn Coady

    I pretty much read this in one sitting … with lunch.

  22. Sustenance … lunch with Lynn Coady's nourishing Who Needs Books? @clcualberta #canlit #books #bookstagram

    A photo posted by Vicki Ziegler (@vzbookgaga) on

  23. Caribou Run
    by Richard Kelly Kemick

    I read this very fine collection at home, on public transit and I recall packing it along to the cottage, too.

  24. The Mercy Journals
    by Claudia Casper

    I remember reading this haunting novel late at night at the cottage.

  25. Zero K
    by Don DeLillo

    I vividly recall reading most of this book in an incredible, absorbing whoosh while driving home from the cottage. (No, I wasn’t driving.)

  26. Saints, Unexpected
    by Brent van Staalduinen

    I remember reading this fine and amiable book while relaxing on the back porch.

  27. All That Sang
    by Lydia Perovic

    I pretty much had this captivating book read in a couple of subway rides and a sit on the front porch.

  28. Stone Arabia
    by Dana Spiotta

    I remember being absorbed in this book while sitting on the cottage dock with a refreshing beverage or two.

  29. The Quotations of Bone
    by Norman Dubie

    Subway reading, I do believe …

  30. Independent People
    by Halldor Laxness

    This one took a while to read – which was fine, as it was a read to savour and get immersed in – so I had it with me everywhere. It’s another book that a fellow subway rider remarked on, most enthusiastically.

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  32. I’m thinking of ending things
    by Iain Reid

    I had the good sense to only read this book during daylight hours.

  33. The Hatred of Poetry
    by Ben Lerner

    Some subway rides went quickly with this wise book for company.

  34. Thirteen Shells
    by Nadia Bozak

    I was reading and enjoying this book during a weekend visit with friends at our cottage.

  35. Yiddish for Pirates
    by Gary Barwin

    This book was thoroughly delightful company during a week’s vacation at the cottage.

  36. History’s People
    by Margaret MacMillan
    (read aloud)

    We read this book aloud – and learned a lot about greater and lesser known historical figures – during cozy reading sessions at home and at the cottage.

  37. The Cauliflower
    by Nicola Barker

    Not my favourite Barker, although Barker remains one of my favourite writers … I read this book while on my own for a working week at the cottage.

  38. The Dancehall Years
    by Joan Haggerty

    Remembering this book reminds me of our shade-dappled dock at the cottage.

  39. The Clay Girl
    by Heather Tucker

    I will remember The Clay Girl and the next book on this list, Still Mine, side by side and as my constant companions everywhere (home, out and about, cottage) for two or three weeks. I had the honour in 2016 of moderating a couple of special book club events for the Toronto Word on the Street Festival. Selected contest winners qualified for small, private book club meetings with authors Heather Tucker and Amy Stuart, and it was my job to introduce them to their book fans and keep the conversations going with pertinent questions about their respective books. I prepared exhaustively with questions and observations … but then didn’t need a lot of those preps because those book fans showed up excited, motivated and brimming with their own wide-ranging queries and reflections. It was really rewarding to see such warm and dynamic meetings of readers and writers – truly wonderful!

  40. Still Mine
    Amy Stuart

    See my comments about The Clay Girl … I also recall enjoying Still Mine on a coffee shop patio on a sunny Saturday morning while waiting for my husband.

  41. English is Not a Magic Language
    by Jacques Poulin, translated by Sheila Fischman

    This charming novella was good subway company.

  42. 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl
    by Mona Awad

    I read this book at home and out and about.

  43. The Best Kind of People
    by Zoe Whittall

    I read this book at home and out and about.

  44. The Last White House at the End of the Row of White Houses
    by Michael e. Casteels

    I recall being wrapped up in this enchanting little collection while waiting for my husband to join me for dinner out.

  45. The Tobacconist
    by Robert Seethaler, translated by Charlotte Collins

    I read this fascinating and rather prophetic book at my desk in my home office, as I prepared the readers’ guide / book club questions for this book, offered by House of Anansi Press.

  46. The Emily Valentine Poems
    by Zoe Whittall

    A squirrel jumped up next to me on the park bench I was sitting on as I read this while waiting for a friend in a parkette outside her office in downtown Toronto.

  47. Wenjack
    by Joseph Boyden

    I read this small, moving book in one sitting at home.

  48. Thrillows & Despairos
    by Chris Chambers

    I discovered this collection when I heard Chris Chambers read from it at the 2016 International Festival of Authors, and I ran to the book table and purchased it right after the reading. Immersive indeed!

  49. Do Not Say We Have Nothing
    by Madeleine Thien

    This beautiful book was constant, contemplative company at home throughout the fall.

  50. The Goddess of Fireflies
    by Genevieve Pettersen, translated by Neil Smith

    I remember standing on subway platforms with this book in my hand.

  51. Where’d You Go, Bernadette
    by Maria Semple

    I remember carrying and reading this sweet book on transit and waiting for friends at restaurants and before musical events in late November.

  52. Eat the Document
    by Dana Spiotta

    I read this intriguing book, the final in my year-long Dana Spiotta-fest, at home.

  53. Based on Actual Events
    by Robert Moore

    Devoured in just a few subway rides, I believe …

  54. The Break
    by Katherena Vermette

    I had this absorbing book with me at home, out and about and even on a wintry trip to the cottage.

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  56. Life On Mars
    by Tracy K. Smith

    I stayed up late reading this gift on Christmas night.

  57. #Poetry break after all the holiday excitement … #airedalesofinstagram

    A photo posted by Vicki Ziegler (@vzbookgaga) on

  58. Pond
    by Claire-Louise Bennett

    I treasure this quirky read, a spontaneous gift from a lovely colleague.

  59. The Albertine Workout
    by Anne Carson

    Another Christmas gift, I read this poetry pamphlet pretty much in one gulp while sitting at my home office desk.

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In 2016, I read a total of 54 works: 32 works of fiction (novels and short story collections), 15 poetry collections and 7 works of non-fiction. I re-read one book, read 4 works in translation, and read 35 works by Canadian authors. My husband and I read two books aloud to each other this year and have a third in progress as we greet the new year.

Currently in progress, heading into 2017:

Looking back fondly on my 2016 reading, looking forward eagerly and with anticipation to my 2017 reading, I’ll simply conclude (as I’ve done in previous years) …

It’s not how many you read that counts. It’s that you read that counts.

Postscript (added January 11, 2017)

I love the discussion this post has sparked, both here and on social media, including some debate about whether or not such list-keeping is usual or kind of nutty/anal-retentive. Obviously, keeping these lists every year is part of enjoying my reading. I’ve added a bit more to my scrutiny of what I’ve read every year, not so much with a view to altering the flow of what I decide to pick up and read every year as to just be aware if there was more or different directions in which I should explore. So, for example, I’ve looked in recent years at how much fiction vs non-fiction vs poetry I read, and how many works in translation, how much Canadian versus international literature, how many rereads, read-alouds, etc, etc, etc. Because the lists are easy to scan, I can quickly figure out the author gender mix every year … just to see how I’m doing, usually not to be corrective in my reading habits.

One thing I’ve decided to add to my record-keeping in 2017 is the publication year of each book read, to gauge how much current/hot-off-the-press vs back catalogue/older stuff I’m reading. I love that everyone who has joined this conversation loves their reading, loves to examine it to some extent and loves to share it. We all learn and benefit from that.

Another postscript (added March 17, 2017)

emsley-book-journal2Sarah Emsley has segued a career teaching writing at Harvard University to her beautiful blog, where she writes about Jane Austen, Jane Austen for kids, Edith Wharton, Lucy Maud Montgomery and other writers, and about places she loves (especially Nova Scotia and Alberta). I am thrilled that she has taken a cue from this blog post to restart her own handwritten “books read” journal … and oh my, her journal and mine are twins!

2016 reading list (so far)

Hope Makes Love, by Trevor Cole

I like to do a little check-in partway through every year to see how my reading is going. As I’ve done in years past, I’m taking a look around the halfway point (ish) in the year at the books I’ve read so far, with links where they exist to books that I’ve reviewed (either here on this blog or briefly on Goodreads). As I’ve always pointed out, it’s a competition with no one but myself, but it is always useful and interesting to stop and reflect a bit where one is at with one’s reading, both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Here’s the quantitative part: Of the 34 books I’ve read so far this year, 7 were non-fiction, 9 were poetry and the balance of 18 were fiction (novels and short story collections). One book was a reread. One book was a work in translation. Twenty of the books were by Canadian writers. Two books were read aloud in their entirety (er, over a period of time, not in one sitting), which is a wonderful way to share the experience with another reader/listener.

On the qualitative front, I think it’s been especially good year so far. Apart from where I’ve reviewed a particular work, I can say in broad terms that I’ve enjoyed and can enthusiastically recommend everything I’ve read so far this year (with perhaps some qualifications for subject matter with which individual readers might be uncomfortable). Could this be why my overall reading count seems to be up so far this year? A happy reader is a prolific reader? Well then, here’s to happy reading!

  1. Hope Makes Love
    by Trevor Cole

  2. The Beauty of the Husband
    by Anne Carson

  3. Fates and Furies
    by Lauren Groff

  4. A Little Life
    by Hanya Yanagihara

  5. The Mark and the Void
    by Paul Murray

  6. Between You & Me
    by Mary Norris

  7. When Words Deny the World
    by Stephen Henighan

  8. The Brief Reincarnation of a Girl
    by Sue Goyette

  9. Just Watch Me – The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1968-2000)
    by John English
    (read aloud)

  10. M Train
    by Patti Smith

  11. All the Gold Hurts My Mouth
    by Katherine Leyton

  12. Birdie
    by Tracey Lindberg

  13. Innocents and Others
    by Dana Spiotta

  14. Don’t Be Interesting
    by Jacob McArthur Mooney

  15. Model Disciple
    by Michael Prior

  16. Tell: poems for a girlhood
    by Soraya Peerbaye

  17. Lightning Field
    by Dana Spiotta

  18. Providence
    by Anita Brookner
    (reread)

  19. Frayed Opus for Strings & Wind Instruments
    by Ulrikka S. Gernes, translated by Per Brask and Patrick Friesen

  20. Who Needs Books? Reading in the Digital Age
    by Lynn Coady

  21. Caribou Run
    by Richard Kelly Kemick

  22. The Mercy Journals
    by Claudia Casper

  23. Zero K
    by Don DeLillo

  24. Saints, Unexpected
    by Brent van Staalduinen

  25. All That Sang
    by Lydia Perovic

  26. Stone Arabia
    by Dana Spiotta

  27. The Quotations of Bone
    by Norman Dubie

  28. Independent People
    by Halldor Laxness

  29. I’m thinking of ending things
    by Iain Reid

  30. The Hatred of Poetry
    by Ben Lerner

  31. Thirteen Shells
    by Nadia Bozak

  32. Yiddish for Pirates
    by Gary Barwin

  33. History’s People
    by Margaret MacMillan
    (read aloud)

  34. The Cauliflower
    by Nicola Barker

Currently in progress:

  • The Dancehall Years
    by Joan Haggerty

  • Being a Dog
    by Alexandra Horowitz
    (read aloud)

  • Slow States of Collapse
    by Ashley-Elizabeth Best

How is your reading going so far in 2016?

Friends reading aloud / #sundaysentence for July 24, 2016

bookcover-mammals-ontario“Although most of us will never see a Wolverine, the knowledge that it maintains a hold in remote forests may reassure us that expanses of wilderness still exist.”

from Mammals of Ontario by Tamara Eder
(2002 Lone Pine Publishing)

My Sunday sentence comes from one of many vibrant sentences read aloud on Saturday night. Four longtime friends gathered at a cottage by a lake, comfortably tired after a sunny day of swimming, dogwalking, birdwatching and more, comfortably full after a delicious and lovingly prepared meal, to read aloud to each other. The reading selections came from a charmingly eclectic range of sources:

Such a wonderful way to knit together a special weekend spent with beloved friends …

Enjoy more #sundaysentence selections here.

World Read Aloud Day – March 6, 2013

World Read Aloud Day

March 6, 2013, is World Read Aloud Day, an awareness day advocating for literacy as a human right. The event is championed by LitWorld, a non-profit literacy organization fostering resilience, hope, and joy through the power of story. Since 2010, the organization has been encouraging people worldwide to celebrate by reading aloud, giving away a book, or taking action in any way you can to “Read It Forward” on behalf of the 793 million people who cannot yet read or write.

As LitWorld describes it, World Read Aloud Day creates a community of people who are advocating for every child’s right to learn to read and technology that will make them lifelong readers. Read It Forward creates a ripple effect that resonates around the world with the power of story and shared words.

LitWorld invites everyone to visit them online to join the Read It Forward movement. They offer free downloadable activity kits full of ideas for children, teens, families, educators, and professionals. You can also follow LitWorld on Facebook and Twitter.

Countless articles and studies tout the many benefits of reading aloud – of teachers, parents and caregivers reading to children, children to adults, children to each other, aspiring writers of any age reading aloud to themselves. Less documented, perhaps, but equally enjoyable and potent, is adults celebrating the joys of reading with each other. Here among my book blog reviews, I’ve noted that most satisfying practice as enhancing and even markedly improving upon the reading experience with some books, including:

At our house, we’re enjoying this as our read aloud book du jour:

Big Day Coming: Yo La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock, by Jesse Jarnow

All pretty varied subjects and subject matter, but what they share and what makes them all great are passionate narrators telling lively, vibrant stories with arresting characters (in these cases, all real life) … which makes it a rewarding experience to bring them to life with your own voice and to share them with others.

However you choose to observe World Read Aloud Day, do it with gusto!

A Ride in the Sun, or Gasoline Gypsy, by Peggy Iris Thomas

A Ride in the Sun, or Gasoline Gypsy, by Peggy Iris Thomas

I’ve mentioned before that my husband Jason and I have combined our love of books with our love of dogs (Airedale terriers in particular) by building a library of books in which Airedales have starring or supporting roles, or at least appear in all their handsome splendour on book covers. Jason and I also, by the way, regularly enjoy sharing our books by reading aloud to each other. We combined all of these pleasures when we read together A Ride in the Sun, or Gasoline Gypsy, by Peggy Iris Thomas, earlier this year.

This book has many charms. The author recounts the myriad adventures she and her Airedale, Matelot, enjoyed as they embarked on a 14,000-mile motorcycle trek through Canada, the United States and Mexico from 1950 to 1952. As an unassuming paean to a considerably more innocent time, it’s a delight. At every hairpin turn along the way, Peggy miraculously finds a trucker who will pick up her woefully underpowered and overloaded motorcycle and transport it to the next garage. With only one or two comically villainous exceptions, those garages are staffed by resourceful mechanics willing to figure out the vagaries of her unusual model of bike and get her back on the road again – often no charge. At times fearless and self-sufficient, at times naively hapless, Peggy is always captivating, and Matelot is the epitome of canine patience and fidelity.

We relished all of these charms and they seemed to shine through most brilliantly when we were sharing the book together, reading it aloud, laughing, pausing to comment on Peggy’s misadventures, close calls and feisty spirit, and to stray into our own stories. When we paused to stumble just a bit over yet another repetition of Peggy’s stock phrases or stilted prose, the fact that we were reading it all aloud helped us to compensate, laugh it off and carry on. The few times we tried to read portions of the books to ourselves, the story fell calamitously flat, freighted under the words of someone more comfortable riding a motorcycle or training dogs than capturing any of it in sentences. And hence the glory of reading aloud to redeem great stories somewhat awkwardly told.

See also:

60th anniversary edition of A Ride in the Sun, or Gasoline Gypsy, by Peggy Iris Thomas

Benefits of reading aloud
(While there is much to be said about children reading aloud, adults reading aloud to children, and adults reading their own prose aloud to remedy problems in expression, it’s hard to find much about the joys of adults reading aloud to adults. Leave a comment on this post if you find anything, OK?)