Posted on May 28, 2026 in Books
The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 1 by Beth Brower
This lighthearted Victorian epistolary novella series had high ratings. It seemed up my alley. It was funny with a plucky heroine. I liked the tone and the main character but Emma had financial problems because of annoying family members and misogynistic laws. I realized that financial stress was a trigger for me especially when the protagonist has little power against them. It was not dark but I did find it irritating for most of the book until things ended on a more hopeful tone. I’ll likely continue.
April 26-30, 2026 on Kobo Libra 2.
Posted on May 18, 2026 in Books
Miffy by Dick Bruna
I went to Japan and got a Miffy tote bag but I hadn’t read or consumed any Miffy media before hand. The tote bag was a collab with Kinokuniya, an international Japanese book store chain which I adore. I also am addicted to bookstore tote bags. This Miffy tote bag is one of the best tote bags I own. It was the right size, had external and internal pockets, and an internal water bottle sleeve.
My library had a few Miffy books and they were mostly in French. That was fine for me as I need the French practice. These are definitely children’s books for babies and toddlers. The plot was very thin. We barely met Miffy in this book which means I have to read another book from the series. I have yet to see the charm.
April 22, 2026.
The Early Cases of Hercule Poirot by Agatha Christie with Charles Armstrong (Narrator)
There are 25 stories in this collection but oddly enough, they were split up on Libby by each story. Some of them were not even available from the same library. We had heard about half the stories already so we skipped those. There a couple unavailable we could not verify or remember if we had read. Enjoyable from the approximately eight new to us ones.
April 20-26, 2026.
Lu and Ren’s Guide to Geozoology by Angela Hsieh
I heard this book from a podcast interview which mentioned that this was very similar to The Tea Dragon Society and it was. I really enjoyed the soft art style. The storyline had a lot about friendship and families including being part of a family that does not value one of the children. The two leads were still immature but there was sufficient character development. I liked it.
April 26, 2026.
The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
So much Christie. It’s been a very big Christie and mystery reading year for me and it will likely continue. I was in bed and wanted to read something cozy so I started this on a whim. It’s been on my list for awhile though since I am trying to read the Marple novels in order now since there are only 12 of them. This one was a tad less enjoyable than the Marple short stories and the most recent Marple novel that I had read (A Pocket Full of Rye). There were too many characters and too much misdirection. The ending was still mostly satisfying because I really like Miss Marple and Christie’s character work was great as always.
April 22-26, 2026. Read on Kobo Libra 2.
Posted on May 14, 2026 in Books
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell with Ann Marie Gideon (Narrator)
I had fun with Wordslut that I quickly listened to the next Montell book. For some reason, she did not narrate this one. The narrator did a good job though. While some bits of the book were interesting including the section about fitness, the actual cults did not have a lot of new to me info. I still like Montell’s writing and will listen to her latest book this year as well.
April 13-18, 2026.
Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie with Juliet Stevenson (Narrator)
We had listened to a few of these already in the other anthology collections. It was still good because I really like Miss Marple and I adore Juliet Stevenson’s narration. I thought most of the stories were well done and generally more consistent than the Poirot short stories.
April 8-18, 2026.
Evenings & Weekends by OisÃn McKenna
Another Irish literary novel. I am hoping to read about five this year as opposed to the dozen last year. This one was very similar to Greta & Valdin and had a similar style to Sally Rooney but with quotation marks. It was set in modern London and most of the events of the book happen over the course of one day. The setting did a lot of the work for me since I lived in the same part of London as one of the main characters. I regularly visited the same big Tesco. London was one of the characters and the author was able to describe the tired and scummy yet alive feeling of London in summer. There were themes of repression, miscommunication, stress, and past trauma. There were too many characters and perspectives and it could have been tighter around the main core characters. It was a nice debut.
April 15-19, 2026.
Grandma’s House by Alice Melvin with Alice Melvin (Illustrator)
This was a lovely children’s book which used cutouts in the illustrations. Very cozy and I would have loved this kind of book as a kid as well. As I learned English through ESL, I had less time with children’s books so I am discovering a lot of them now.
April 19, 2026.
Crumble by Meredith McClaren with Andrea Bell (Illustrator)
This was in my library pile for awhile. I kept putting it off because the art style looked too bright and juvenile. I was not sure if I would like the visuals. I grew to like it with the good writing. It felt like a cozy video game. It had baking, grief, family, and friendship. Very well done middle grade graphic novel.
April 19, 2026.
Posted on May 11, 2026 in Books
Country Christie: Twelve Devonshire mysteries by Agatha Christie with David Suchet (Narrator), Christopher Lee (Narrator), Hugh Fraser (Narrator), Isla Blair (Narrator), Judith Boyd (Narrator), Juliet Stevenson (Narrator)
We are moving through the Christie short story collections very quickly. There was no repeat from the previous batch but I did find one Poirot story had a similar plot to The Blue Train. I liked Tommy and Tuppence a bit more even though their story had a really silly ending related to twins. There was another Poirot where we did not quite grasp the structure. There was a really chilling and dark one called “The Edge” which was excellent.
April 2-7, 2026.
Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Julie Smith with Julie Smith (Narrator)
A psychology based self-help book by a British psychologist. This was like a crash course on modern therapy techniques. It felt like a session that I had with my psychologist a couple years ago when I needed to work on my anxiety. There were also sections about depression and grief. I liked listening to it because I already used a lot of these techniques including the meditation and gratitude journalling. In that way, I did not learn many new things. It was a good reminder of the practices which have helped me in the last few years.
April 8-11, 2026.
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Not enough of Marian Halcombe. She was awesome. I love classics. I really like mysteries. I am not big on thrillers. This one had more suspense and thriller vibes after the first 20%. It was Victorian paced so it was slower but the plot and the characters moved so things did not feel wasted. As a modern reader, a lot of the twists were predicable. Count Fosco was a fun villain too so having two memorable characters made this book enjoyable. Very good writing. Looking forward to reading The Moonstone in the future since I liked Collins’s character and story telling.
April 5-14, 2026.
Posted on May 7, 2026 in Movies, TV
We got Netflix again so that increased my TV watching.
Queen Charlotte – This was really good and much better than the novel tie-in I read for it. I liked the costumes, the leads, and Lady Danbury had a nice B storyline too. Of all the seasons in the Bridgerton storyline, this was the best overall since it was so tightly done in writing, acting, and production.
Heated Rivalry – I felt like I watched most of this in reactions before watching this in full. It was fun and extremely well done. I am proud that it was a Canadian TV show and it feels Canadian in the best way too. Satisfactory watch all around.
Bridgerton Season 4 – I can write essays about this season. It was by far the best season of Bridgerton and eclipsed even Queen Charlotte for me. For personal reasons, this affected me much more. I had not felt that way about a TV or movie romance in years. I loved the acting, the characters, and the show finally stuck the landing in terms of bringing all the plot lines together. This will be on my rewatch like Pride and Prejudice (1995) and North & South as top TV romances. Aside from the romance, episode 7 was the best episode of the series as it centered on the family and showcased great acting.
Sense and Sensibility (1995) – Rewatch as this was leaving Netflix. I remember listening to the DVD commentary for this and all the insights from Emma Thompson and Ang Lee. Lovely film. I really miss Alan Rickman.
The Thursday Murder Club – Fun. I knew from reading the novel and the cast that it would be at least somewhat good. I also like Chris Columbus as a director. They did change things around including an ending that was not in the book. It seems like some book readers were not pleased but I was fine with it since I tend to treat books and adaptations separate.
The Survivors – This was a Netflix limited series starring Charlie Vickers from Lord of Rings: Rings of Power and Yerin Ha from Bridgerton S4. It was set and filmed in Tasmania. These three things were the only reasons I watched it and made my spouse watch it with me. I am not really a fan of domestic thrillers which often humourless, dysfunctional families. It was depressing and a drag for the first few episodes since there were many unlikable or dour characters. The acting and the last episode were good though. I thought Vickers and Ha had limited chemistry since their characters were unhappy people. It’s too bad since their chemistry was constrained since they are both capable of more knowing their other shows.
Posted on May 4, 2026 in Books
Capital Christie: Agatha Christie’s London Mysteries by Agatha Christie with Judith Boyd (Narrator), Christopher Lee (Narrator), Hugh Fraser (Narrator), David Suchet (Narrator), Juliet Stevenson (Narrator), Ciaran Saward (Narrator)
We are back to listening to the Agatha Christie short story collections. One of the Christopher Lee ones was in a previous collection so I remembered the ending. Whenever I listen to these Christie collection, I notice her repeated plot points. I also notice one of the Poirot stories had a really hard to grasp motive. There was also one a sentimental story “The Lonely God” about two lovers which we found quite nice.
March 25-April 1st, 2026.
Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language by Amanda Montell with Amanda Montell (Narrator)
Been wanting to try Amanda Montell’s nonfiction for awhile. This one focused on words, language, and feminism. It was interesting. I enjoyed Montell’s style of writing and learning so many random language facts especially when done from an intersectional perspective.
Since I am walking less these days, it means less audiobook time. I listened to the second half of this while doing chores and knitting. I am in a knitting slump so I may need to listen to knit more while listening to audiobooks at home.
April 3-5, 2026.
The No-Pressure Book Journal by Brea Grant and Mallory O’Meara
Supporting my favourite book podcast. There was less than hundred pages of text content and the rest was journal and prompts. I am going to use this book to track for high five star reads and to track my wheelhouse. I have noticed my reading doorway has veered towards Language a lot more in the last year. As I grow and change through time, so do my reading preferences and this journal will reflect some of those changes for the next couple years at least.
April 3-5, 2026.
The Art of Spending Money: Simple Choices for a Richer Life by Morgan Housel
DNF after 28 pages. I thought this was a personal finance book but it was more of a self-help finance book. I flipped through it and read some reviews. It seemed to have a lot of common sense tips which would be good for younger people but not for me.
April 6, 2026.