Raging Clouds by Yudori
Books sometimes find me. I was going to the library to pick up some I had ordered and Raging Clouds by Yudori was sitting off to the side of the entrance. I almost didn’t go that way to the checkout desk (I usually go left, not right) but something made me go right. And there it was. Fat, shiny and new. It was shyly facing away from me. And that’s the last time this book was shy. Even the librarian when I checked it out wasn’t […]
Women Talking by Miriam Toews
CBR 17 BINGO: Citizen. While Mennonite women theoretically have the same citizenship rights as anyone else in their country, this isn’t the reality for the women of Molotschna. Women Talking, adapted for film in 2022, is a fictionalized response to very real and appalling incidents that occurred in Bolivia between 2005 and 2009. During that period, more than 100 women in a remote Mennonite colony woke up to signs that they had been raped during the night. Their claims were dismissed by the colony elders: […]
The Paper Bag Princess by Story by Robert Munsch, Art by Michael Martchenko
I absolutely loved this book growing up, and I make sure to look at it again at least once a year. The art alone would have me coming back, never mind the ending. The book starts out with the title Princess Elizabeth and her Prince Ronald, dressed in their best gown and hybrid tennis/medieval ensemble respectively. Which is when the dragon bursts onto the scene, kidnapping the prince and burning everything the princess has, including the clothing on her back. (I do have to give […]
Loud: Accepting Nothing Less than the Life You Deserve by Drew Afualo
If you don’t follow Drew Afualo on TikTok, your FYP is doing you dirty, because Drew is a delight. I mean, for me, anyways. Not so much for the ignorant, the misogynistic, the bullies, the shit talkers. For them? Drew is – or she should be – the absolute last person they hope to see. And she revels in it, as is obvious in her book Loud: Accepting Nothing Less than the Life You Deserve. The book is rooted in her work on her platform […]
The Thorn Key by Jeana Jorgensen
The very cool Jeana Jorgensen – folklorist, professor, dancer, and sex educator – has published a gorgeous collection of her fairy tale themed poetry in her new book The Thorn Key! I love Jeana’s academic work. Her books Fairy Tales 101 and Folklore 101 are amazing introductions to both studies, teaching its readers a TON in a way that is fun and conversational. I should have reviewed those here LOL! If you have been interested in learning more about the history and study of fairy […]
Et dukkehjem (A Doll's House) by Henrik Ibsen
I don’t know if a spoiler warning for a nearly 150-year-old play is necessary – but I will be revealing significant plot points when writing about this historical drama, so if you want to remain unspoiled, go read the play (it’s only three acts, it’s a relatively quick read) or watch a dramatisation, and come back when you’re done. Nora and Torvald Helmer are a middle-class couple living in Christiania (what Oslo was named for a few centuries in the before times) in the late […]
