Happy Canada Day, friends! I am celebrating by blocking off the afternoon to do nothing but read a book by a Canadian author, and will wear one of the three pieces of red clothing that I own. I am currently wearing an ancient red Tri-Y top, but it will be very sweaty before long.
Speaking of reading, I wanted to share my reading – and NOT reading – list from my recent trip to London and South Africa. Before my trip, I was chatting with my friend Nicole (HI NICOLE). She and I have had a monthly check-in since January 2018, and we’ve never missed a month, despite Covid, vacations, and a cross-province move. She is the person who best knows my reading taste, and she asked what I had loaded up my Kobo with. I cheerfully told her that it was mostly filled with random romances and other light-sounding books from the library and from the Kobo website; I had several very long flights and stopovers in my future, and I wanted the reading to be fluffy and fun.
And let me tell you, this was a mistake.
I’m the problem, hi, it’s me. Something I know about myself is that too many “light and fun” books in a row, and I start to become very unengaged with the tropey stories. I am also not a Spicy Romance girl; I find graphic sex scenes to be weirdly boring and, in the case of a few very descriptive anal ones, alarming. I have been known to inadvertently Kegel whilst reading them. I prefer a sexy, fade-to-black Closed Door Romance. I just don’t want to read about throbbing cocks penetrating wet pussies, I AM SORRY, BUT I DON’T.
Unrelated to spiciness, I plodded my way through The Friend Zone and Kitchen, and then I ran out of patience. I was in the midst of Ready or Not, which deals with a woman who gets accidentally pregnant from a one-night stand with a bartender, even though they used condoms, which, as we all know from sex ed and also from that stupid storyline of Ross and Rachel, are only 97% effective. Okay! But the pregnant woman is seemingly completely unaffected and unaware that her life is going to change, and starts a romance with her best friend’s brother, at which point I said ENOUGH. I started, and DNF’d, four more books IN A ROW: Book People, Strangers Tend To Tell Me Things, Exit Lane, And Then There Was You. I began to despair for myself as both a reader and as a writer.
Then something changed, and my reading life brightened up again. Thankfully! So here’s the low down on what I DID finish, the lows, the highs, and the in-betweens.
Vacation Reading: London and South Africa 2026
The Friend Zone. In my 20s, a friend told me she and her husband divorced because he wanted kids and she didn’t. “There’s no compromise,” she said. “It’s you have kids or you don’t.” That’s kind of the premise of this romance – a guy wants kids, a woman has extreme fibroids and maybe can’t, they never discuss it…you know what, this book is kind of dumb. But it was an easy read for travel and all’s well that ends well. Also, the author based it on her friend’s lived experience so…great for her, I guess? A meh read, kind of disappointing as I like this author generally.
Kitchen. This was a original little read about found family and the power of food to bring people together. I didn’t find it overly compelling or engaging, but it was short.
Why We Hate Cheap Things. Also titled, Why I Hate My Kobo Which Keeps Glitching So That I Read A Random Book In My London Hotel Room. But honestly, this WAS an interesting read about society’s devaluation of low-cost consumer goods, from pineapples, which once were extremely expensive and rare and are now frequently found on pizzas and in jello salads, to clothing. There was an entire series, with titles like Why We Will Marry The Wrong Person, but my Kobo started working again and we left London.
The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife. Oh lordy did I need this refreshing little book after my string of DNF’s. This was very sweet, the definition of heart warming. After an elderly man dies, another is mistakenly taken for him – and as the dead man was a dementia patient, no one listens to his protests. Soon he assumes the nursing home life that the deceased had…and ends up with friends and family he never dreamed of. Just a fun, lovely little read.
Always Pack a Candle. This was fantastic. I very much enjoyed this memoir of a public health nurse who worked in the Williams Lake/ Cariboo region in BC in the 1960s. Thanks to Birchie (HI BIRCHIE) for the recommendation!
Hamnet. Late to the party but I loved, loved, loved this book! Maggie O’Farrell can WRITE, wow. This is such an incredibly loving and beautiful story about every mother’s worst imagining – the loss of her child. This is the kind of historical fiction that I love – often I dislike that genre, but this has beautiful writing, fascinating characters, and a rich story. I finished this on the plane and then thought I would watch the movie – and I lasted all of ten minutes before turning it off. Too soon? I don’t know.
Definitely a mixed bag of books, and my ongoing resolution to DNF more was definitely upheld. What are you reading these days, what have you DNF’d, tell me everything. xo
Might I suggest that you check out “The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano”? It’s about the same topic as The Friend Zone, but it’s so well done. It’s about a couple that has differing views on having children and the 9 ways the woman’s life might have played out based on different decisions (they don’t have kids and stay married, they do have kids and stay married, etc, etc). I really really liked it and read her sophomore novel in June.
Right now I am reading “Culpability” and it’s so good, especially with all the chatter around AI. It’s my book club book for August when I am the leader and it’s going to make for such a great discussion!
I should have DNF’d Into the Blue but I had to see what all the buzz was about. I would skip it. Books I DNF’d recently were “Love By the Book” (I was so bored!), “The Reservation” (quite a buzzy book but the change in POV in each chapter was not working for me and I did not care who took the gd steaks from the restaurant), and “With Her Own Hands” (sadly our July book club book but it read very academic – I need more of a narrative non-fiction structure to a book).
Happy Canada Day! I dream of visiting you in your lovely province some day!!! I’ll come crash your house and eat all your delicious veggie-laden meals (I’ll do the dishes! And weed! And walk Rexie!) and we can talk about books and gossip!
I used to teach Kitchen in a World Lit by Women class when I was a grad student. We could pick our own books but there was a list of recommendations and it was on it. I liked it pretty well (I think, it was a long time ago– LAST CENTURY).
Hamnet is a gem.
I have four books in progress right now: The 1619 Project (which I’ve been meaning to read for years, not as dense as I feared), The Rose Field (last book in the Book of Dust trilogy, more complicated than it needs to be, but I have to know how it ends), Tokyo Express (a Japanese mystery from the 1950s, just started so no judgement), and Brigands and Breadknives (cozy fantasy, a fun palate cleanser). If I had to pick one for you, it would actually be the history book.
I LOVED Always Pack a Candle (I think that’s how Birchie heard about it; can’t remember how I heard about it??). AND… Birchie let me know she has a follow-up book. I cannot wait to read it.
I’m currently reading My Life in France by Julia Child and it is long and wonderful and I will be so sad when it’s over. Perfect bedtime reading to calm the nervous system.
I feel like I’ve DNF’d a lot recently, but I don’t really keep track of those books. Maybe I should??
I started The Let Them book since it is SO BIG right now but could not get through it. Earlier this week I finished Theo of Golden which is having a moment. It was good, but I didn’t love it.
AND, my first stack of paper books is in for me at my library. I paused all my holds when we went away. It is going to be so weird to not read off a Kobo. I generally prefer paper books, but have to admit that it is so nice to not have a big stack cluttering up my bedside table, so I think I’ll lean more heavily on my Kobo during non-travel times, too.
I TOO FIND GRAPHIC SEX SCENES UNAPPEALING. I like the descriptor “boring.” I am going to mull that over to see if it fits my feelings too. If I’d had to pick a word before reading, I think I would have gone with “cringe” or “unappealing,” but I like the vibe of “boring.”
I am always interested in your books section, because I take so many of the recommendations, like a lil vampire. I recently read the Frederick Fife one and enjoyed it so much.