12 Days of Christmas Book Cover Scavenger Hunt

 

I've been loving the #bookscavengerhunt posts over on Instagram this year -- I think I found them all thanks to @barbaras.book.obsession ! This is a festive themed one to round out the year, started by @wendyreadwhat I shared it over there this week but thought I would also share it here, as it is a fun challenge to look through your shelves and see what you have to meet the prompts -- and I know bookish readers here might enjoy. 

It's the 12 Days of Christmas & the prompts are:

12 Drummers drumming, 11 Pipers piping
📚 A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT
A cello on Elizabeth Pewsey's Unaccustomed Spirits (set around Christmastime)

10 Lords A Leaping, 9 Ladies Dancing
📚 SPORT OR DANCING
Ice skating on the cover of Jenny Diski's Skating to Antarctica

8 Maids a Milking
📚 A DRINK
Martini on Beggar's Choice by Patricia Wentworth

7 Swans a swimming, 6 Geese a laying, 4 Calling birds, 3 french hens
📚 A BIRD
Book of Wings by Tawhida Tanya Evanson

5 Golden rings
📚 GOLD FOIL DECORATION
The Fairy Doll by Rumer Godden (7 stories, some of them Christmas stories)

And a Partridge in a Pear Tree!
📚 A TREE
Not a pear but a flowering tree on Elizabeth Jane Howard's Mr. Wrong

Have fun if you want to try this yourself! Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to All!

Merry Christmas 

to all my readers who celebrate! 

May your holidays be peaceful and full of the quiet sounds 

of turning pages and crackling fireplaces, and pens scratching

out reading lists for 2023!

 

#WITMonth Roundup

 

And that's a wrap for this year's Women in Translation Month! I really enjoyed my reading this month, and have found another batch to add to my TBR thanks to reviews and publisher's highlights as well (many of those shared on Translation Thursday posts).

I read from a few different languages and styles -- the most unusual language this year was Esperanto, while the most common was either Canadian French or Japanese. I love reading all these different books and seeing reviews out there highlighting things I might have missed in my reading of a book. 

Women in translation matter all year round, of course, and it's important to keep reading them. I have a few titles that I've finished and will post my reviews shortly, carrying this over into September. And do take a look at the Women in Translation website, to find out more about this project, why it's done and why it matters, and what you can do to both read along and encourage more books by women to be translated. 

I still have a large number of translations on my shelves to read, and I realized that I hadn't read any Italian books this year. So I made a reading stack of translations that I'm going to try to focus on to the end of the year. I do have quite a lot of Italian reading waiting! 

Of course there are many other great titles which are tempting me and may make me stray away from Italy now and again. But I'm sure I'll get to them all, eventually.

What was my favourite book of this month's reading? It's hard to say, since I read a variety from short stories to speculative fiction to historicals. I did find some great reads though, and plan to continue exploring all this year, right up until next August, as always.

Happy Christmas Eve!

Happy Christmas Eve!

"Aren't we grand tonight?" she laughed. "We might be expecting company, so fine we are. When I was little, it was Santa Claus himself who came round on this night, and weren't we excited! I do love Christmas Eve."...

"It's lovely, Mary. You've made it grand. I've never seen it so nice before. You can make a feast when there's an empty pantry. You make everything pretty you handle."

She leaped to her feet with joy at his words, and danced round the room, putting the final touches to the holly and ivy that decked the walls. Along the edge of the stone mantelpiece hung a chain of scarlet berries which she had threaded that afternoon, and in each brass pitcher and pan she stuck a spray of greenery. 

There were not many pictures in the little room -- a wool-work embroidered picture of Christ blessing the children, a cross-stitch sampler, and a painting of a cart-horse. Round the frames she had twisted garlands of holly and sprays of ivy, and sprigs of berries decked the looking-glass and the dresser.

From the middle of the ceiling hung the Kissing-bunch. It was a large bunch of holly with the choicest berries, all trimmed neatly in to a round smooth ball of greenery. It was suspended by a string from a hook, and underneath it a visitor must take a kiss. Such was the custom of those times, when Christmas trees were hardly known.

"It's as lovely a Kissing-bunch as ever I remember," said Simon, gazing up at it. The ball glittered in the firelight. The rosy apples and yellow oranges hanging in the bunch gleamed, and the silver bells, gilded walnuts and little flags of paper stuck in the Kissing-bunch made a brightness that seemed to shine out like a lamp.

Simon rose to his full height and drawing his little wife close to him he kissed her under the prickly bunch. "Thank you for making so many pleasures out of nothing,"said he. 

~from Christmas Stories by Alison Uttley

Write For Rights with Amnesty International

I spent part of my weekend with our local Amnesty group, participating in the annual Write For Rights Day. Amnesty International chooses 10 cases to focus on for this event each year, and groups hold public events across the world encouraging people to write letters in support of the cases. Our words matter!

Our local group has been doing this for 5 years, and every year it grows -- this year there were over 75 participants and 497 letters written. It's a really great event.

I've been helping out for the past two years doing a bit of Craftivism. This year I ran the craft table where we were created postcards for two of the individuals featured, and a banner of support for another. Handmade items give people the opportunity to really get their shared humanity across, and to encourage the feel of hands reaching out to one another. It's also a colourful and cheerful way to encourage those people who are facing political pressures, and to engage people here and now at events like this -- it's even easy for children to join in.

And of course, I got some letter writing in as well.

If you weren't at a Write for Rights event in your neighbourhood, you can still check out the dedicated page at Amnesty Canada for these 10 cases: they still need more letters sent on their behalf (if you're not in Canada like I am, just check the Write for Rights page for your country for the correct addresses for you to use). The focus this year was on ten women's human rights defenders, so do check them out and if you are so inclined - send out a letter.

It's Women In Translation Month!

August brings with it a sense of melancholy, a sense of the year turning, a back-to-school feel in the air. But it also brings the excitement of Women In Translation Month!

I love this initiative! First begun by Meytal Radzinski of Biblibio.com in 2014, it serves to encourage readers to read and celebrate books by women in translation.

According to Meytal's work, "approximately 30% of new translations into English are of books by women writers. Given how few books are translated into English to begin with, this means that women are a minority within a minority." This is definitely something I want to help address. 

If you're interested, you can visit Biblibio.com, WomenInTranslation.com, the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, or follow @Read_WIT on twitter, or use the #WITMonth and #womenintranslation hashtags.

Everyone is encouraged to read, review, share, promote and highlight books by women in translation during August, and keep it going throughout the year. As a reader and blogger, I am aiming to review as many translated works as I can this month, as well as share some of the titles that have been catching my eye from all the other reviews I know I'll see! As a librarian, I have a list in our catalogue of some of the books by women in translation in our collections, and am planning a big display for August as well. 

What about you? Do you enjoy reading books by women in translation? Do you have a favourite I should check out?

Brief Reviews: a collection

There are a number of books I've read over the  last few months that I've never reviewed here: some because I didn't have enough to say about them, some because I reviewed them for the Library Journal as part of my professional duties & so can't do so here. But I can share some brief thoughts about all these kind of reads, and today is the day!

First off, some Library Journal reads:

Wildwood / Elinor Florence

A Canadian novel of survival in a remote farming community, the heart of the story is in its focus on women's relationships throughout the generations. Really enjoyed it; wholesome writing, great setting. Forthcoming in 2018.


The Other Mother / Carol Goodman 

Haven't reviewed this one yet, just finished it -- it is forthcoming. But as with most of Goodman's books I can recommend it. This tale moves toward the very popular domestic suspense genre but still carries the aura of Goodman's gothic predilections. 

The Marriage Pact / Michelle Richmond

Loved it! A fun, suspenseful read that I like to call "the Da Vinci Code for marriage counsellors". You can see some of my LJ review on the author's website if you scroll down a bit.
 

Modern Lovers / Emma Straub

While I wasn't a huge fan of Straub's novel The Vacationers, I really enjoyed this one. It has heart. See my LJ review here.


And now for a few random reads that I never got around to talking about after I'd finished them.

The Snow Child / Eowyn Ivey
I had this on my tbr for years! I finally got around to it this year and was sadly underwhelmed. Perhaps I wasn't in the right mood but the story seemed too slow paced for me and the ending was a bit of an eyeroll. Sorry to those who've loved it! 

The Clothes on their Backs / Linda Grant
This story of an immigrant family in England faced with the existence of the main character's flashy uncle (involved in things that aren't always just so) was a complex and interesting read. I felt a little disconnected from the narrative though. I was engaged while I was reading but found the ending a bit of a let down. Lots of very tactile description in it, however, which I really liked.

Under Plum Lake / Lionel Davidson
This classic children's book was recommended to me as a vision of true utopia. I read it. I disagree strongly that the vision of a life under the sea with a very masculine focused society and a snotty know-it-all main character who condescendingly references his mother and little sister is a utopian vision. Times change, thankfully.

Mr. Rochester / Sarah Shoemaker
I read this "true story" of Mr. Rochester of Jane Eyre fame quickly -- I liked it despite my usual hesitation over either real people or other writer's characters being used in new books. The writing was good and it seemed to stick to possibilities suggested by the original text. But it has quickly faded from memory. I think my own Mr Rochester is stronger in my readerly brain. But the cover is too gorgeous!

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler / E.L. Konigsburg
I would have LOVED this as a kid. I don't know how I missed this story of unappreciated Claudia who runs away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with her little brother when I was the right age for it. I liked it as an adult reader but it just doesn't have the same magic when you don't find it at the right time.


I hope that I've now caught up a bit; this year has been getting away from me! More reviews and a yearly roundup to come, though... 

Bookish Days Off Are Best

I had today off work, and sometimes a nice day plus free time to go bookstore hopping is the best of all possible worlds. 

One of my favourite excursions is to head down the road to London (Ontario) and check out all the thrift stores, ending up at the glorious 3 floor used bookshop downtown, Attic Books. It's a clean, well-organized, affordably priced and well-stocked place that I can spend quite a bit of time and money in! 

Today's sunshine and free time led us that way, and this is the result... I held myself back, by the way, and didn't buy everything I'd looked at. This is my summer book haul from both Attic and 3 thrift shops. 

Bottom to top:

An excellent book on embroidery, by Thomasina Beck

An Alan Bradley to add to my colourful series

Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, something I have been looking for for a while

Gloria Naylor's The Women of Brewster Place, ditto

Two unread titles by Kyiv author Andrey Kurkov, in perfect condition

Two Viragos that I didn't yet own, Storm Jameson's Company Parade and Radclyffe Hall's The Unlit Lamp

Two Scandinavian women in translation that I've been wanting to read, Rosa Liksom (Finnish) and Therese Bohman (Swedish)

Classic SF, Asimov's Foundation

Classic Helen MacInnes, one of the only titles of hers I haven't read

And then topping it all off, a score: 6 titles by my favourite Harlequin author, Mary Burchell (originally Ida Cook). That should keep me going for a while! 

It's always fun to uncover treasures and stock the home library. You can see a handful of my husband's purchases in the background of my picture as well... we really can't help ourselves! 

Happy Malanka!

photo credit: PlastCalgary via Flickr

Happy New Year, according to the Julian calendar -- today is New Year for Ukrainians, and the big celebration, Malanka, is New Year's Eve. If you were at a Malanka last night, you'll probably be too tired to read this...


The good thing is that it is New Year's all over again -- so if any of my suggested possibilities for a resolution so far have been interesting, you can make them now! Great redo if your first choices aren't working, too ;)

Imagine

I don't usually make complex resolutions at the New Year; I like to set an intention instead. And the recent trend of choosing a word to represent your overall aim for the year resonates with me, even if I don't choose one every year.

This year, though... this year. It seems to call for a strong intention. I just wasn't sure what mine was, well, not until I spent some time writing in my journal on my Christmas break. Taking time to pause, to write, really clears my mind. And while I was doing this, my husband was reading some fascinating literary essays by Northrop Frye, including one on Wallace Stevens, one of our shared favourite poets.

He kept reading bits out to me. "Listen to this," he'd say, "or this --" and then as I was writing my way toward a word, The Word, he said, "Oh wow, listen --" and he read me this.

"The consciousness fighting back...is the consciousness rising to imagination."

So. Imagine is my word for 2017.
Imagine the world that could be. Imagine how to engage. 
And foster the imagination in general, foster creativity and hope and ideas, with others.

Imagine.

Merry Christmas to All!

May there be great feasting & relaxation for all my readers, 

and of course, many books under the tree! 

Happy Holidays to all

Interlude: #7favWITreads

Over at Biblibio, host of this wonderful Women in Translation month, she's just shared 7 of her favourite WIT reads -- as suggested by another reader, Jacqui at JacquiWine's Journal.

I think this is a great idea! So I'm sharing mine here -- some favourites, not favourites-of-all-time, that is too hard to whittle down. Share yours too if you would like!



Kitchen / Banana Yoshimoto (translated from Japanese by Megan Backus)

Please Look After Mom / Kyung-Sook Shin (translated from Korean by Chi-Young Kim)

Wildlives / Monique Proulx (translated from French by David Homel & Fred A. Reed)

Fairy Ring / Martine Desjardins (translated from French by Fred A. Reed & David Homel)

The Artificial Silk Girl /Irmgard Keun (translated from German by Kathie von Ankum)

Broken / Karen Fossum (translated from Norwegian by Charlotte Barsland)

Three Bags Full / Leonie Swann (translated from German by Anthea Bell)







 

August is #WomenInTranslation Month

It's the 3rd annual Women in Translation month, created and hosted by Meytal at Biblibio.

She says:

As the weather begins to turn, the time has come once again to prepare for the third annual Women in Translation Month! This year's goal is simple. No bells, no whistles, no drama.
Just read....

 Read women writers in translation. Share books you love. Seek out new ones. Learn about untranslated masterpieces.... Research and learn. Read.
And spread the word.

I think that is a pretty relaxed reading challenge, right up my alley. And it's also a call to action from a blogger who is doing an awful lot to examine the stats and trends in the field of translation. She tells us that only 30% of new books translated into English are by women. And there are more charts and stats to learn from at her blog, which is always being updated. So, pick up a book by a woman which has been translated from another language this month, and share it. Show that there are people reading and wanting more.

I have a handful of  books I've read recently that I'm going to share this month. Many of them are books translated from French, written by Quebec authors. Even within Canada, access to Quebecoise fiction is an issue that comes up often...I do my best to read it when I can.

You can find suggestions on Meytal's blog, on WomenInTranslation, or by asking some of your favourite book bloggers and/or librarians for ideas.

I recently built a library list sharing some of the books by women in translation that are held by my own library. If you're interested, you can take a look here and maybe get some ideas of your own. (fyi, it is 3 pages long so keep clicking)

Any favourites? Please do recommend any must-reads to me in the comments!

10 Years of Blogging: How the Time does Fly!

Today is the anniversary of the birth of my blog, ten long years ago! How does that happen?

Ten years ago when I desultorily started writing blog posts, I had no idea that I'd turn out to be still reading and reviewing a decade later. I didn't even know at the start that this was going to turn out to be a focused book blog. SO MUCH has changed in ten years of book blogging. For example:

• the book blogosphere has exploded with new bloggers
• book review and author scandals come and go and come again....
• the focus on social justice and diversity in our reading is so much stronger and more active
• reading challenges are both broader and less common these days
• professional book review sites are much more in evidence
• other social media avenues, like Booktube and twitter, have garnered some of the original book talk from blogs
• BUT book bloggers are still reading and talking and sharing bookish thoughts!

Can you think of any other startling differences that have happened over your own blogging career?

On the phone, er, internet, nobody knows you're a dog

What has blogging done for me over the decade?

Well, I find that my reading community is fantastically huge. I love all the bloggers I've met, some of whom have become real life friends, and many of whom have become online friends who I follow eagerly. People have disappeared from the reading community, some who are simply tired of blogging and some who have left us altogether - and who we all miss greatly.

Book blogging has enriched my professional life as a librarian. I've made connections, I've deepened the habit of reflection on my reading, and I have a record of those thoughts! I often check in to see what other bloggers are talking about when I am thinking about purchases or about book recommendations. And the book talk about all kinds of issues in the publishing world and the reading community is enlivening and refreshing, and helps me stay on top of the issues I need to know as a professional book person.

Blogging has been a lifeline for me into a vibrant, thoughtful community of readers, a community that I am very grateful to be a part of. While the amount of blogging I've done has varied over the years, I've counted myself in as a book blogger for the past ten years. And I don't really see that changing - I enjoy my blog, and I love sharing my love for books.

Here's to another ten years ahead!

*all photos thanks to the British Library & the Library of Congress flickr streams

BBAW: Book Discovery via Book Bloggers!

 

Day Three's challenge is to talk about books that you've read due to other bloggers talking about them. There are plenty I could refer to here - over the last decade I have found many, many new titles to explore, some of which have found a place in my all-time favourites now.

But today I want to talk about a whole genre: graphic novels. I would not have started reading graphic novels with such enjoyment - or maybe not really at all - if not for bloggers who were so enthusiastic about this format early on. I'm thinking of people like Andi at Estella's Revenge, Nymeth at Things Mean a Lot, Kailana at The Written World, or Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings -- sharing all the excitement about new graphic novels like Fables or Lumberjanes or Nimona.


I started out picking up Fables and thought they were really interesting -- but graphic novels as a whole didn't catch me until I discovered the many strong women who were writing them. I found Kate Beaton, Noelle Stevenson, Vera Brosgol, Fanny Britt, and more. I read Anya's Ghost, thanks to Carl; I read Nimona and Lumberjanes thanks to the many bloggers who raved about them (and were right); I came across Jane, The Fox & Me and Girl in Dior in my library collection; I discovered others by interesting men, like Harvey by Hervé Bouchard or Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley.


I have to say that I still don't read a large percentage of graphic novels on balance within my overall reading, but I have been enjoying them much more than I ever thought I would, and it is all down to enthusiasm from my book blogging friends who got me started.

I'm so glad to have been led to this very enjoyable new reading habit. If you have a favourite graphic novel, please do leave me some tips in the comments! Thanks!

Lost Oceans...of Colouring

Lost Ocean: an Inky Adventure & Colouring Book / Johanna Basford
Toronto: PenguinRandomHouse, c2015
80 p.

I love the new trend of adult colouring. I'm not exactly a convert to the idea; as noted by my earlier use of adult colouring, I've been a long-term fan.

But Johanna Basford's Enchanted Forest & Secret Garden were really the beginning of the huge surge of popularity which colouring books are currently enjoying. I am seeing adult colouring everywhere! So I was really delighted to see a new book from Basford, called Lost Ocean.

Basford's books are different from other colouring books in a couple of ways. She adds in a treasure hunt, with items to find in all of the images listed in the front of the book (and a key to their location at the back in case you are totally frustrated...but don't look at it first or you'll ruin your fun!) There's also a foldout banner at the back so that you can colour in a long image -- I think that taking out this banner and making it into a table runner would make for a great party activity :)

The paper is good quality, though the images are double-sided, unlike some other colouring books that are set up to remove each image, and/or colour with markers which may bleed through. The images are so delicate and detailed in this book though, that I think nice pencil crayons or gel pens would be best to use anyhow. And some metallic pens, like the image on the cover suggests, would be fun with all the buried treasure here!

So if you're looking to jump on the adult colouring trend, this is a great choice -- for yourself or for Christmas gifts (throw in some pencil crayons too). This would be a great activity for those holiday hours.

(and, for my fellow Canadians, it is currently on sale for $10 at ChaptersIndigo - that's 54% off!)

ps - that is not an affiliate link. I don't have affiliates on this blog. I just think it's a great deal!

Nancy Drew the short straw in the kitchen

Look what I was lucky enough to uncover at the thrift store today!

It's a classic cookbook created by the Nancy Drew team, incorporating recipes purportedly from many of the characters, and using the titles of many of the early books.

Not only is Nancy a stylish teen who dresses well, drives a cute car, and is both superbly popular and preternaturally clever at solving mysteries, she is also, apparently, a wonderful hostess who can throw together a charming dinner party.

Using these recipes.

Too bad I didn't have this cookbook before the weekend...I could have served some of these delicious salads at our Thanksgiving feast.

 Should the word "Diary" appear in any recipe name?

But since there were just two of us, maybe this pair of pears would have made a more suitable salad course.

And this tasty sounding autumnal soup could have been the clincher.

Okay, now that I've made myself a little nauseous simply by reading these recipes, I think I'd suggest that Nancy stick to dressing well and zooming around town solving crimes, and leave the cooking to Hannah Gruen.

To be fair, some of the hot drinks and dessert ideas do sound edible, and very suitable to the younger audience I'd assume this book was originally created for back in 1972. I would have adored this book with its weird recipes and seasonal menus (and little one-page mysteries interspersed) when I was a preteen and fond of Nancy Drew & the Hardy Boys. I had a strange fascination for retro party planning as a kid, even though all the parties I planned were imaginary....

A Distinctly Bookish Tea!

As longtime readers may know, I'm a big tea drinker as well as a reader -- "tea & books" is one of the best combos I can think of.

Last year, I worked with our local tea store, Distinctly Tea, to develop an Evergreen Tea Blend in celebration of the Ontario Library Association's Evergreen Award (part of the Forest of Reading). It was a special "Evergreen" blend made up of organic green tea with a touch of piney, smokey Lapsang Souchong. It's the signature blend, but it's also one that divides tea drinkers into those who love lapsang and those who really, really don't. (I love this blend by the way, and it's still available)

This year, thanks to the continued enthusiasm of Dianne Krempien, tea sommelier and owner of Distinctly Tea, we've created a new blend. Introducing....

the Evergreen OWL Blend!

(Orange With Lime Rooibos blend)

It's $10 for the 75 gram tin; it is a delicious, fruity non-caffeinated blend that smells absolutely luscious. I can attest to its yum factor both as a hot tea and as iced tea. And because it's non-caffeinated while being revivifying, you can have it day and night, and it's great for kids too. (tea party, anyone?) And don't forget to check out the Ontario Library Association's 2015 Evergreen Nominees for some fantastic reading suggestions to go along with your tea.

Distinctly Tea ships outside of Canada, and are generously donating 30% of sales to my library. Celebrating great reading with a marvellous tea, how could it be better? I encourage you to take a look -- order online or use it as a reason to come and visit Stratford!

But be sure to say hello if you do ;)

Welcome Poetry Month!

Welcome April...Welcome Poetry Month!

While I try to celebrate poetry year-round by reading it and sharing it, this month is an opportunity to focus on it a little, in the company of many others.

There a few neat things to investigate this poetry month.

To start off  -- I was lucky enough to get involved with this year's online Celebration of Canadian Poetry being hosted by Brick Books -- my appreciation of the poetry of Lorri Neilsen Glenn has just been posted. Check it out -- there are 4 mini-essays a week by various poets and readers of poetry, focused on a poet of the writer's choice. You will find many new names to explore by reading through the short and entertaining stories. (and you can see my original blog review of my favourite of Glenn's books from 2010 too)

As I say in the write-up, her vision has inspired me to combine my love of poetry with my love of sewing, and I am making up a poetry skirt using her words, and this pattern:

Poetry Skirt

Next, check out the Toronto Public Library's new interactive Poetry Map that has just been launched. It's very cool; they've linked lines of poetry which mention Toronto location to that spot on a map -- you can click on each link to find the poetry collection in the library's catalogue. Great idea, and it gives a great random browsing experience.

I'm also lucky to have a handful of beautiful new books of poetry, both from Brick Books and other Canadian publishers, that I'm reading this month, and will of course be sharing with you all. And don't forget to follow Serena at Savvy Verse & Wit this month -- while she always has interesting blog posts, during Poetry Month she outdoes herself and highlights her affection for verse! 

Canada Day!

In these parts it was a holiday yesterday, a national holiday to celebrate Canada Day!

I sat outside and read, and drank red cocktails, and then worked on some sewing a bit later on in the day...all in all, a very relaxing break. Cheers everyone!

I was in such holiday mood that I didn't even turn on the computer yesterday, thus my Canadian Book Challenge 8  post is coming to you a day late. But still oh, so, Canadian!

John at the Book Mine Set created and has been hosting the Canadian Book Challenge since its inception, and it's always great fun. I've been doing it each year, and I still find Canadian titles new to me thanks to the other readers. It runs July 1 - July 1, and it's always fun to begin a new challenge in the middle of the year!

The "challenge" part of it is to read and review 13 Canadian books -- originally it was one from each province, thus the number 13. But these days anything goes! If you read 13 books, you reach the finish line -- read John's full instructions for all the details.

For version 7, I read and reviewed 41 books. For this upcoming year, I'm challenging myself to beat that total. Plus I'm going to carry on with my attempt to make 13 of my reads epistolary novels -- I'll allow myself rereads but am open to any suggestions -- please share if you have a favourite Canadian epistolary novel.

Happy (late) Canada Day and hope you are all planning a luxurious summer of reading.