This book was a 2021 Christmas gift from a colleague, and I read it in early 2022, but somewhat superficially, looking for the key takeaways. I recall some of the points as being adjacent to areas of management, leadership, and life besides money, so decided to read it again. Through a series of 20 chapters,... Continue Reading →
The Absolution, by Yrsa Sigurdardóttir. Pub 2016. English translation by Victoria Cribb.
This was the third of a trio passed on to me by a friend during a visit in 2023. This series features the detective Huldar and the child social worker Freyja, brought together to investigate and get caught up in various horrific crime sprees in Reykjavik. There is the de rigueur romantic tension between the... Continue Reading →
Item #31: Robyn Mug
In a holiday tidy-up of my desk, I repatriated some mugs from their roles as pen-holders to their proper place in the kitchen cupboard. This one I call the Robyn Mug for obvious reasons. The mug comes from one of those paint-your-own-pottery places called Crankpots (the Vancouver location is no longer operating). As a team... Continue Reading →
Women Talking, by Miriam Toews. Book report #4 (2024)
Women Talking, by Miriam Toews. Pub 2018 I was interested in this book after learning about the movie version from 2022 that won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay. The premise I’d heard was that a group of women in a Mennonite community who are usually mostly silent have some special circumstance to gather and... Continue Reading →
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, by Dorothy L. Sayers. Book report #3 (2024)
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, by Dorothy L. Sayers. Pub 1928 Another enjoyable mystery with Lord Peter Wimsey. This time, an elderly gentleman makes real the saying that London’s men’s clubs are so stodgy that a member could die and no one would notice. The sleuthing is conducting with Wimsey’s usual whimsy, with old... Continue Reading →
Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel. Pub 2014
Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel. Pub 2014 I chose this book based on a recommendation in the acknowledgements of a book I read last year (The End of Men)*. It was interesting to read a second post-apocalyptic book so close after the previous one (Moon of the Turning Leaves), especially one set in... Continue Reading →
Moon of the Turning Leaves, by Waubgeshig Rice. Book report #1 (2024)
Moon of the Turning Leaves, by Waubgeshig Rice. Pub 2023 This book is a sequel to Moon of the Crusted Snow, a book club read in 2020. In the earlier story, an unknown apocalypse event has occurred, cutting off power and communication to a small First Nations community (the "Rez") in Northern Ontario, forcing the survivors... Continue Reading →
The Man Who Died Twice, and The Bullet That Missed, by Richard Osman. Book reports extra #3 and #4 (2023)
The Man Who Died Twice, by Richard Osman. Pub 2021 The Bullet That Missed, by Richard Osman. Pub 2022 More from the Thursday Murder Club (and my fellow book-clubber – thank you!). These next two books in the series bring us back to the septuagenarians of Coopers Chase and their penchant for murder investigation. Their... Continue Reading →
The Schooldays of Jesus, by JM Coetzee. Book report extra #2 (2023)
The Schooldays of Jesus, by JM Coetzee. Pub 2016 This is the second part of a trilogy by Coetzee. In the first book, we meet Simón, Inés, and David, an unusual family in a strange world. The precocious and strong-willed David is beloved and indulged by his “parents”, and causes difficulties at school, leading to... Continue Reading →
Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell. Book report extra #1 (2023)
Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell. Pub 2004 I have been wanting to read this book for years, but have always been daunted by its length and alleged complexity (as per the movie version). After reading The Bone Clocks earlier this year, I was moved to try again. It’s a difficult novel to summarize. It is... Continue Reading →
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