thepurplebones

[carriagelamp]

Summer really is just a time to read and read and read as much as absolutely possible. We’ve had some rainy weather as well, so it’s been very nice to have a cut to the heat and be able to sit by an open window, with tea and a book, and listen to a summer rain!

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels

Subheader: “The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made” which about sums it up. This is a nonfiction book that looks into the rough development cycle of some big name games, including Dragon Age Inquisition, Stardew Valley, The Witcher 3, Shovelknight… and plenty others besides! It was fascinating to hear about the highs and lows, what worked and what didn’t… especially for some of the games that I’ve actually played! It was just narrative enough to keep me interested, never felt overly dry, and was accessible to someone like me who is only like… a periphery gamer at best. A really enjoyable read. 

The Brave Little Toaster

I never knew this was originally a book, I only knew of it as a movie! It’s written to be a “modern fairytale” about appliances who have been seemingly abandoned in a summer cabin. When their “master” doesn’t return over several years, a few of the remaining, functional appliances decide to set off into the woods in an effort to find him again. It’s a harrowing adventure with many obstacles for them to overcome, and some honestly rather unsettling scenes — those weren’t only reserved for the movie! Ultimately the movie and book have some significant differences, but if you liked one it would be worth trying the other. A very neat kids novel.

The Brides of High Hill (Singing Hills Cycle)

I’m completely enraptured with this series and I don’t know how I’m going to wait for the next novella ;^; it doesn’t even have a release date yet to my knowledge! Augh! You can see my reviews of the early books in the series for more detail, but the general premise is that it follows a cleric from a monastery which is specifically tasked to collect and record stories (both historical accounts and fictional tales) to bring back to be recorded in the archives. With this as a framing device, Chih travels all over an intriguing fantasy world with their magical bird companion, getting into strange adventures, meeting interesting characters, and hearing stories within stories. In this one, Chih finds themself accompanying a young lady who is travelling to marry an older man of questionable character…

The End of the Line

A youth novel that takes place in Holland during the Nazi occupation. Brothers Lars and Hans run a street tram, and are shocked one day when they witness the Nazis find and arrest a Jewish woman on their very tram. What leaves them even more shocked, is what the woman is able to stealthily leave behind: her young daughter. Scared, overwhelmed, but unable to bear abandoning the child completely, the brothers end up sneaking her through the city and back to their own home, to try to figure out what they can possibly do with a Jewish child during the Holocaust.

Finna

An interesting little novella. It takes place in a fictional “Ikea” called LitenVärld. However, this company is known to experience strange occurrences from time to time… wormholes will occasionally open in their stores, linking to other LitenVärld in countless other universes. At one time they had entire teams trained specifically in dealing with these wormholes and ensuring customer safety, but overtime there’s been budget cuts and layoffs and no nothing exists but old tech and dated instructional videos. When a customer’s grandmother disappears in one of these wormholes, a pair of employees get strong armed into “volunteering” to take on the task of entering the wormhole and finding her once again. It’s a fairly creative scifi adventure that offers some decent (though not subtle) criticism of modern life and capitalism. 

…Not a bad read, I enjoyed it, but honestly if you want “Weird Upsetting Ikea Story That Mocks Retail Life” then you should really go read Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix instead which, imo, was a much tighter version of this sort of story, with a much more effectively delivered message. Seriously, just go read Horrorstör, one of my favourite reads from this year so far.

Heaven Official's Blessing v7 (TGCF )

Heaven Official’s Blessing just gets better and better! We’re in boss fight territory and it’s getting so intense! This series has way more Gundam battles than I expected but honestly I am here for it! And I’m such a sucker for any story where all the friends (?) you made along the way begin to amass to help in the big final confrontation! Ahhh. So good, so good.

If you haven't heard of this one: it's the story of Xie Lian, a prince who ascended as a god... only to be banished. And then ascend again. And then get banished again. The series starts off after his third ascension (to the exasperation of everyone in Heaven) and is a gradual series of adventures and mysteries that tie together events of the past and building tensions in the present. It's lots of fun, with a ton of humour and heart built into it to cut the tragedy

Night Witches

More WWII, this time not a youth novel! Night Witches takes place in Russia, beginning during the Battle of Stalingrad. It follows a teenage girl whose father is already gone to fight, and who is forced to watch as both her mother and grandmother die to German bombing. After losing her mother, her only goal is to find the elusive Night Witches — an entirely female and very infamous branch of the Russian air force. Having grown up flying with her father, she’s determined that there she can do the most good, and fights her way across a war-torn city in her effort to join the forces to repel the Nazis. Night Witches (the actual, historical Night Witches, which are cool in and of themselves and very worth looking up if you’ve never heard of them before) were known for flying a special type of light-weight plane which could go much quieter and much slower than other planes, allowing them a shocking amount of stealth and maneuverability on bombing missions.

The writing of this one wasn’t my favourite, but the subject matter was interesting enough to buoy me through it, especially in how it portrayed some of the absolute horror that goes along with urban warfare and trying to fight with scant resources, under the Soviet regime, during a Russian winter. Lots of tragedy.

More About Paddington / Paddington Goes To Town / Paddington On Top /Love From Paddington / Paddington’s Finest Hour

Travelling to the UK in July got me on a Paddington Bear kick! I got to see his statue in Paddington station and honestly it was too delightful not to drag me back into the books. I’d only ever read a couple as a kid, so this was both a reread and a chance to read some of the stories I’ve never heard before, these were especially nice as audiobooks to listen to as I was falling asleep. For some reason my Libby is missing quite a few so I mostly listened to later ones in the series. I particularly enjoyed Love From Paddington which was a different format from the rest of the series and kind of a need deviation.

If you’ve somehow never heard of Paddington, these books are about a young bear “from Darkest Peru” who immigrates to England when his grandmother enters the Home For Retired Bears and can no longer care for him. He’s adopted by the Brown family, and the books are a recount of the everyday mishaps and misadventures he gets up to around London. They’re sweet and charming and funny! 

Pinocchio

I’ve never read the original story of Pinocchio and I found it a very interesting contrast to the Disney version. It’s very much a coming of age story, in which Pinocchio, a wooden puppet — who can serve as a stand-in for any child — is constantly confronted with a need to balance what sounds enjoyable in the moment versus what is a morally upright choice that often requires more effort. He’s constantly being tricked, fooled, or lured off the moral path, but is never portrayed as irredeemable. He’s a child who is “trying to become a real boy” and is always given chances to fix his problems and return to his loving father. It’s a sweet story with a satisfyingly harrowing adventure and lots of fun naughtiness!

I specifically got this version because of Gris Grimly's art, because he helped out with Guillermo Del Toro's film, and man it was worth it. The art was so cool and creepy!

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System v1

Now that I’ve reached the end of Heaven Official’s Blessing and have previously finished Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation I inevitably have to start MXTX’s first series, The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System. This was the one I was most leary about since, as a rule, I don’t really enjoy isekai stories, but I enjoyed her other two series so much that I figured it was worth giving the first book a chance. And boy! Am I glad I did! The first book started off like a gunshot, it pulls you right into the action and it really doesn’t slow down! Shen Yuan, upon dying while furiously reading the worst webnovel he’s ever seen, finds himself transported into the story… specifically into the villain who is destined to be torn apart by the protagonist during a revenge plot! From there, Shen Yuan — now Shen Qingqiu — begins to desperately scheme how he can change his character enough without becoming OOC (which the mysterious “System” that governs this world won’t allow) while still giving him a chance to avoid a horrible death.

This book is hilariously satirical without ever feeling dull or jaded, which is an impressive mix. Shen Qingqiu may scoff at the ridiculous tropes of this world or the author’s poor world-building, but he’s just as swept up in it all as anyone else. He’s a cunning, calculating character, while also managing to run around like a chicken with its head chopped off, rife with misunderstandings and humour and adventure. I’m very very excited to continue!

Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer

I wasn’t sure about this book at first, I almost quit part way in, but in the end I’m really glad I kept with it! It ended up being much more charming and delightful than I anticipated! This is a youth novel about a girl whose family has just moved to their late great uncle’s farm. While trying to get her feet under her, she comes across a catalogue advertising “unusual chicken for the exceptional poultry farmer”. Though her parents don’t seem keen on having animals on the farm, she decides to write to the company. To her surprise though, she doesn’t need to wait for an order of “usual chickens” because it would appear her great uncle already had some… and she’s found one. And “unusual” really doesn’t even begin to cover it. Things only get stranger as the woman from the catalogue writes her back, and when the first attempt is made to steal this strange new chicken.

Winner Takes All (Doctor Who)

This is a standard fare Doctor Who novel. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t good. It was an enjoyable little thing to read just for the sake of reading something relaxing and Doctor Who related. This one follows the Ninth Doctor and Rose who have returned back to Earth so that Rose can visit her mom, and along the way they get to learn all about a strange new give-away that’s being promoted in the local shops. There’s lottery tickets and free vacations and a new video game and all sorts of curious things… including some unexpected disappearances. 

If you like Doctor Who and feel like reading an extra story about Nine and Rose, this one is as fine as any, especially considering that there are some real stinkers out there. The story is compelling enough with some decent stakes, Nine and Rose is a dynamic I always really enjoy and want more of, and the characters they introduce for this story are reasonably enjoyable. A very comfortable middle of the road read.

[picturebookshelf]

How many Robert Munsch stories can you identify from this picture?

(art by Michael Martchenko from Show and Tell)

[lgbtqreads]

hi do you know of any queer fiction by canadian authors(i know a dark and hollow star and witchmark are)preferably fantasy but any genre would be fine thanks

Sure - try The Afterward by EK Johnston and Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao. (They also both have queer sci-fi works, as does Amal El-Mohtar - That Inevitable Victorian Thing, Iron Widow, and This is How You Lose the Time War, respectively.) Some other Canadian authors who write primarily/entirely queer fiction are Tom Ryan, Robin Stevenson, 'Nathan Burgoine, Jen Ferguson, Billy-Ray Belcourt, and M-E Girard.

[doctornerdington]

Holy shit this Alice Munro news is depressing.

[flaviathebibliophile]

Countess by Suzan Palumbo (ARC Review)

Title: Countess Author: Suzan Palumbo Type: Fiction Genre: Adult, Science Fiction, Novella, Queer Publisher: ECW Press Date published: September 10, 2024 A complimentary physical copy of this book was kindly provided by ECW Press in exchange for an honest review. A queer, Caribbean, anti-colonial sci-fi novella, inspired by the Count of Monte Cristo, in which a betrayed captain seeks revenge on…

[googledocsdyke]

“It’s true that the world was failing at its one task—of remaining a world. Pieces were breaking off. Seasons had become postmodern. We no longer knew where in the calendar we were by the weather.”

Pure Colour, Sheila Heti

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

Thoughts on a solarpunk "canon"

In this blog post, Ariel shares her thoughts about the impulse to build up a #literary #canon and its relationship to #solarpunk. Or is there even a relationship to speak of? What #books would you give to a newcomer to the #genre?

In an upcoming episode of the podcast, Christina and I discuss briefly whether there’s such thing as a canon of solarpunk literature. Given my background as an English Literature PhD who studied the formation of the Canadian canon of literature at mid-century, I hate the idea. CanLit is a trashfire for many reasons, not least because it was wholly constructed by the academy about 60-70 years ago…

[northernbookworm]

Hello! How have you been? What were your top 5 favorite romances you read this year? 🌼

Hi! 👋 I’ve been well, thank you! My top 5 romances of 2023, in no particular order:

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune 

The Pumpkin Spice Café by Laurie Gilmore

Impossible Saints by Clarissa Harwood

The Lost Letter by Mimi Matthews

I’d love to know what your favourites are, I need more book recs. 😊

[boook-whore]

“Old medicine has a way of being remembered, of haunting the land where it was laid. People are forgetful. Medicine is not.”—Cherie Dimaline, “Empire of Wild”

I had heard a lot of hype for this novel so I went in with high expectations—and this book did not disappoint. I very rarely reach for mystery novels, but this has to be my favourite mystery novel I’ve ever read. The story takes place in an Indigenous community in Northern Ontario where Joan’s husband has gone missing and a year later she is still looking for him. The search for Victor kept me so curious, I could not put this book down! I read it in one day and was so sad when it was over (I wish there was a sequel!).

I love Cherie Dimaline’s writing. This is such an easy read, but not because the writing is simple, but because it’s so engaging that it feels almost magical. I love how she combines traditional knowledge and storytelling with modern technology. Chasing a rougarou with the help of an iPhone? Nothing short of genius!

[carriagelamp]

All I can say is why did it take me so long to finally try reading Wodehouse? I knew I would like the Jeeves books and yet it took me until now to finally crack one. Definitely my highlight for this month, though I was also very into the two nonfiction books I read.

I'm finding more and more that I enjoy a nice, narrative nonfiction... any one have any similar recs? Nonfiction has never been on my radar but now I really want to find more that follow this narrative vein...

Candy Color Paradox Assorted Pack

A collection of short bonus stories collected from various points in the series. Kaburagi and Onoe both work for the same weekly magazine and are initially forced to work together on stakeouts. Their relationship gradually grows from antagonistic coworkers to lovers to genuine boyfriends who are learning how to make their relationship work. One of the things I appreciate about this series is that once they decide to date, their relationship stays fairly stable — there’s hiccups as they work on their own insecurities or relationship complications, but there’s no breaking up or will-they-won’t-they once they’re actually dating and the drama shifts to their shared work and making a relationship work in a fairly homophobic society. This particular volume was fun though nothing outstanding, but it will help tide me over until the next book in the series.

Console Wars

A non-fiction book I read on my brother’s recommendation. I only have a vague sort of interest in the video game industry, I mostly enjoy hearing my brother talk about it because he has a lot of knowledge about it, but I really enjoyed this book! It describes the ins-and-outs of the Nintendo relaunched the video game industry in North America with the Entertainment System, and then the competition that gradually developed between them and the underdog that was Sega. It was an exciting, amusing, and engagingly narrative look at that period in history! I would definitely recommend it to anyone that has an even passing interest in that point in time, this book really makes you root for everyone involved!

Five Nights At Freddy’s

You know what, this one was on me. I should have known exactly how bad it would be and I still chose to try it. The problem is, back when the first… three-ish FNAF games came out in 2014 and 2015 the lore was actually kind of neat. I had a lot of fun playing through them with my cousins trying to find out more about the story. Obviously it devolved into something completely different and a lot more get-that-money-from-those-kids over the years, but I, naively, thought hey… if they’re making a movie… maybe they’re returning to some of those original plot ideas? Maybe it will even be… kind of interesting? The Silver Eyes was a fairly neat novel, even if the lore felt very different so… maybe this one would be too?

Nope. Read a chapter, loathed everything from the writing, to the attitude, to the characters, and then slung it back at my local library unfinished. Don’t even bother picking this up, good lord.

My Happy Marriage 2

This was… fine. I rather enjoyed the first book of My Happy Marriage since it was a Cinderella-esque story set in the Taishō era with some fun magical elements. Lots of class division, the main character suffered very clear abuse and it wasn’t just brushed away, and her arranged fiancé was clearly overwhelmed and sympathetic when faced with this very different fiancée on his doorstep. The writing wasn’t great but the plot was fun. In book two the writing continued to not be great, but the plot also just… didn’t catch my interest. I’d still recommend the first book for some pleasant, light reading, but I don’t think I’ll continue with this series. Might try watching the anime instead…

The Inimitable Jeeves

I’ve been meaning to read the Jeeves books for years, and I finally got the push I needed from a mutual who was recommending it to me. It was everything I could have hoped for! Really made me think fondly of The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde, or even Terry Pratchett’s writing to a certain extent — you can tell Pratchett read this author and picked up bits of his tone. Anyway, it’s exactly the sort of humour I enjoy and the whole thing is aided by having incredibly loveable characters. There’s the clever, unflappable valet Jeeves who seems capable of omniscience and of solving every problem to ever arise, as well as Bertie Wooster who I love with my entire  heart. If Bertie was a different sort of character or narrator, this might have been a much less enjoyable  series but he is a genuinely very kind, generous, likeable sort of person who is cheerfully aware that he’s a bit of an airhead and is happy to have Jeeves around to do this thinking. What a blessing. Highly recommend if you like short story collections and want something silly and fun.

The Last Firehawk v.11-12

This is a young children’s series that keeps compelling me to return to it for some reason. The first part of the series I actually quite liked and thought was very well done for the 5-8ish age group, depending on reading level. It’s easy reading but it’s a nice introduction to a linear quest plot and has reasonably nice art. There was a sharp decline in quality for most of the second series but I decided I should read the last two books just to say I’d done it. I’m happy to say that books eleven and twelve improved the story a little bit, with characters Tag, Skyla and Blaze discovering that their enemy from the first series (The Shadow) had returned and had taken a new host: a rat king that lived in the Underland.

The League of Lady Poisoners

An excellent nonfiction volume that contains short overviews of some famous female poisoners throughout history. It includes some nice, stylized art that was a treat, and I enjoyed the way the writer explored some of the motivations or reasons that a woman in these various time periods might resort to poisoning without painting every figure with a ubiquitous brush of Evil Monster. It was pretty light and I would read a story or two in the evenings.

The Long Patrol

I love Redwall books and felt like picking up one I hadn’t read before would be a nice treat for the spring. You pretty much know exactly what you’re going to get when you read a Redwall book and this one didn’t disappoint. It focused on various hares of the Long Patrol, the current Badger Lady, and a fun cast in Redwall Abbey. The dilemma arises because one of the Abbey walls is caving in and needs to be repaired, while a band of Rapscallion vermin are marching to try to take the Abbey for themselves. Standard fare. Lots of good food descriptions, a coming of age story for a young hare who had run away to join the Long Patrol, and a Goonies-style adventure with the Abbess and some of her friends as they explore the caverns beneath the Abbey. I can’t say I loved the book, but I enjoyed it. If you want a Redwall adventure, it delivers.

Owls in the Family

A cute chapter book that’s set in Saskatchewan during the middle of the century. It focuses on Billy who has a tendency to adopt strange pets that he collects from the plains. His newest acquisition is a pair of owlets — one he finds in a bush under a storm with a very spunky personality, the other a very meek, nervous one that he rescues from a group of older boys who were throwing stones at it. The book is filled with a variety of fun adventures that come from having a pair of loyal owls as pets that lightly terrorise the neighbourhood. It’s considered a school classic, though be prepared for some light racism considering it was published in the sixties…

She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat

A sapphic food manga! It follows a protagonist who enjoys being able to cook and post about the meals she creates. She is somewhat resentful of the men who then expect that this means she will be a very “domestic” sort of girlfriend, someone who will consistently cook them meals and keep house. That’s not the point! She likes the artistry of cooking! One thing she’s never gotten much of a chance to try though is to create larger, more robust or complex meals, because as a single person there’s no way to eat it all. When she meets a neighbour from down the hall though, she’s delighted to have found someone who is very appreciative of her cooking and will enthusiastically join her in cooking and eating the meals. Such begins their relationship.

The Very Very Far North

This book feels like a modern day Winnie-the-Pooh. There’s a charming timelessness to it; it made an excellent bedtime book. The story follows Duane the polar bear as he gradually makes friends with some of the other animals who live in the Very Very Far North and the lighthearted adventures they have around the Arctic. The main theme of this story is how one can be friends with people who have very personalities and interests from yourself, and it does a great job of setting up each character as very different and then makes them learn how to coexist and get along.

Minecraft: The Village

The last of Max Brook’s Minecraft trilogy. I also can’t believe I’ve read three entire Minecraft novels considering I couldn’t give two hoots about the game in general, but Max Brooks treats the topic surprisingly seriously and creates a compelling story. The series began with the protagonist, Guy, waking up in this strange world with very few memories of his life before, and now forced to learn how to understand the bizarre rules of this world and learn how to survive. Each book in the series (The Island, The Mountain, The Village) expands the scope of Guy’s world and the challenges he has to overcome. The first book focuses on how to survive as an individual, how to learn and respect the natural world, and how to find a moral compass even on one’s own. The second book introduces a new character, Summer, and focuses on learning how to compromise and work alongside another person, and is all about friendship rules. The second was, imo, the weakest of the series but since I am not the intended audience the friendship lessons also felt the most dull to me. This third book was another uptick and may be my favourite of the series. Guy and Summer leave the Mountain in an effort to find a way to return to their true homes and along the way discover a Village that’s filled with villagers. In this book their world expands to include other people and cultures as they have to learn how to respect other people’s autonomy, and question what it means to exist as a society. It really poses some neat questions, I enjoyed the discussion a lot. A nice strong ending to the series.

[picturebookshelf]

a collection of Pride-related picture books I read this June!

[lyswritesnow]

(Re) Intro

If you're already subscribed to this blog, don't fret. I'm not a glitch. You might remember me as This Accidental Hipster, from eons ago. I was the university kid with sensory processing disorder who made a viral post about eating raspberries with a Hannibal twist. T'was a golden era.

I'm Lys Morton, a QueerCanLit journalist located on the west coast. You can usually find me writing for The Discourse, a community focused news organization. I've also been known to publish Queer Normalcy fiction, essays on transition, and tales of masculinity shenanigans.

In the age of Twitter migration, I thought I'd come back this way and see what community I can create here.

I'll see you on the flip side.

[solidandsound]

It occurred to him, and had occurred to him before, that there was after all something to be said for dealing with things the way most people of his age seemed to do. It was sensible perhaps to stop noticing, to believe that this was still the same world they were living in, with some dreadful but curable aberrations, never to understand how the whole arrangement had altered.

Alice Munro, "Walking on Water," Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You

[shirleywhere]

[flaviathebibliophile]

Mad Honey by Katie Welch (Review)

Title: Mad Honey Author: Katie Welch Type: Fiction Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Mystery Publisher: Wolsak & Wynn Published: May 10, 2022 A complimentary physical copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. When Beck Wise vanished, his girlfriend Melissa Makepeace poured herself into caring for the family farm, silently absorbing the fact that another…

[translitsupplement]