New Girl by Cassandra Calin

I read a compilation of the author’s comics and enjoyed them. I found this middle grade graphic memoir loosely based on her life immigrating to Montreal. This was easy going and enjoyable for an hour read.

March 24, 2026.

Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare

I am having a great time reading Shakespeare again and listening a production in tandem. For this one, I listened to the 1998 Arckangel audio drama with Saskia Reeves as Beatric and Samuel West as Benedict. After finishing, I found two productions with David Tennant including one with Catherine Tate opposite as Beatrice. I’ll have to listen to those later. I really enjoyed this play because Beatrice was awesome. She was clearly the the wittiest and quickest character in whole play. I did not buy the romance at the start, but it somehow won me over when Benedict started falling for her. Maybe because I was a Beatrice fan by then too. The other hijinks were fine albeit depressing that a woman can be slandered so easily. All of this added to good background to the lively banter and relationship between B&B. This was fun and probably became my second favourite Shakesperean comedy after Twelfth Night. This is the last of my standalone Shakespeare books. From now on, I should be reading Shakespeare from an omnibus edition that I have been meaning to unwrap for 15 years.

March 22-24, 2026.

Sweep by Louise Greig with Júlia Sardà

A picture book about a little boy who sweeps on a dramatic scale to deal with things during his bad mood. It was fine. I picked it up because I really like Sarda’s illustrations and they were nice as usual. Not enough of the art compared to the others.

March 27, 2026.