Barrel Fever: Stories and Essays by David Sedaris with Amy Sedaris (Narrators)

This was one of Sedaris’s earliest books which includes both essays and short stories. I am not a fan of Sedaris’s fiction. I find more humour in his observations about life and people. While that is reflected somewhat in the short stories, the tone was very different as well. I found most of the stories quite boring and not to my taste. The only thing that saved this was the narration and performances of the siblings.

July 9-12, 2026.

Beard on Bread by James Beard

This was a cookbook that’s been on my radar for the last year and I actually found a used copy at a book sale recently. I read the many amusing introductions to the recipes. James Beard loves food so it was nice to read about all the breads he liked. He does not like sourdough though and the book uses only volumetric ingredients so that limited some of the recipes I would do. I made the cream biscuits recipe and converted it to metric since it was only a handful of ingredients. Normally, I used King Arthur’s cream scones recipe but this was better. I’ll only need to take out some of the salt and could add some mixins like raisins or currants.

July 7-12, 2026.

Ascendance of a Bookworm (Manga): Part 4 Volume 1 by Hikaru Katsuki, Miya Kazuki, Quof (Translator)

So good to return to this series and start part 3. New mangaka too who I like better than Part 3’s style. Ferdinand was more empathetic and sympathetic as a character in this manga volume. As usual, I became verklempt with all the lower city family member scenes. Myne’s mother always seems to get me.

July 13, 2026.

A Murder Is Announced: A Miss Marple Mystery by Agatha Christie

Another good Marple. I called one out of the many twists in this book. I particularly liked how Marple entrapped the killer at the end. The explanation took a whole chapter which felt a tad excessive. Other than that, I think the Marples are trending upwards again.

July 12-15, 2026.

White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky with Ronald Meyer (Translator), Luke Thompson (Narrator), Leo Edwards (Narrator)

Read in tandem with audiobook. I want to read The Brothers Karamazov at some point in the near future and had heard good things about this short story. Luke Thompson became one of my favourite actors and narrators recently. As I liked Crime and Punishment, it was nice to dip back into Dostoevsky. White Nights was a very well written story about a dreamer in unrequited love. If I had read this 20 years ago, I would have been knocked over by a feather since I could see a younger version of myself in the nameless protagonist. Beautiful prose and some good one liners including a great last line. The second half of this little novel has another short story called “Bobok” which is a dark humour story about a man who hears the dead in a cemetery. It was read by another narrator and was less interesting than “White Nights” but had a couple funny moments.

July 14-17, 2026.