We saw a ton of new birds on our trip and I’m just going to drop the images here. Note that many of these are very low quality to flat-put bad, and are included here simply as proof-of-life.
NOTE: If you are on Facebook, you may have seen these already, in which case just scroll on by.
Birds of the Amazon
Birds of the Andes
Birds of Lima
Amazon Jungle – April 11
Our flight to Iquitos was at 6:45, so we were up and out the door at the appalling hour of 4 am. Because of our fancy, late dinner last night, I’m pretty sure I slept for exactly 0 minutes last night. This will not be the last ungodly early morning. Good times.
Quick side note: Interestingly(?), the cabs all play English 80s rock music at high volume. Nobody knows why.
Domestic flights in Peru permit carry-on liquids of any size so we absolutely took a bottle of wine in our luggage for the jungle trip. After a quick 2-hour flight, we met our personal guide Oscar in Iquitos (holding another personalized “Risa Rene” sign) where we loaded into a van with two other private tour groups and their guides and headed off for a two-hour drive to the town of Nauta. This was the most hellish drive* along severely potholed roads.
Iquitos is a ramshackle town of half a million people with no access by road – goods are floated in on boats or flown in. The town/city seems to be one long paved road interconnected with side dirt roads, and is full of 3-wheeled “motokar” taxis, cats, and many mongrel dogs. I swear I saw one dog that looked like a hyena from Lion King.
Just when I thought motion sickness was going to win, we arrived at the dock in Nauta and boarded a covered aluminum speedboat to navigate the various rivers to our treehouse lodge. We were visiting during “wet” season, so the boat ride only took an hour because the high waters created a short cut. During dry season the boat trip takes two hours. Two hour increments is a common duration of trips in Peru.
At the treehouse lodge we got the run-down on things – where our personal treehouse was located, when and where meals would be served, how to get clean drinkable water, and other important tips. Then we met with Oscar to start planning our tours. Oscar will be our guide for every excursion, and was willing to customize things to suit our wishes. Our first tour was that day at 3:00, a sunset jungle boat ride to see pink dolphins and maybe a sloth.
The treehouse lodge is exactly as it sounds, a collection of single-room treehouses built in the jungle canopy and accessed by steep staircases and suspension bridges. To protect against insects, each lodge is fully encased in mosquito netting (as is the food / recreation building), and the king beds are further protected by another layer of netting. There is a sort-of-private bathroom in each treehouse with a shower, although no hot water. The tap water is non-potable, but it turns out this is the case everywhere in Peru. Bottled water is always available, and we learned the hard way that it is advisable to use the bottled water for teeth-brushing as well as drinking**.
Lunch consisted of a breaded arapaima (known here as “paiche”) appy and a main course of chicken. The treehouse staff gets extra kudos for presentation. I got a bit of grief from the waiter for not finishing my food as it was “wasteful” and I suggested in that case that he bring me smaller portions. From this point on, my meals were approximately 10% smaller than the norm. I would have preferred closer to 50%.
The river tours at the Treehouse Lodge were run in a little aluminum boat. We would spend many, MANY hours in this same boat. The river level of the Amazon fluctuate by as much as 15 metres (metres!!) and we were visiting during high water season. This meant 90% of our tours were on the water and it also meant we could take the boat into many little forested areas. Our afternoon river boating adventure lasted about 3.5 hours, during which time we saw many, MANY birds, the famous pink river dolphins, a couple of iguanas, and a quick flash of a family of squirrel monkeys,, but my favourite were the sloths!
Despite being DEAD tired we went on a 40 min night time jungle walk after dinner and were treated to the likes of a baby pinktoe tarantula, who I liked very much, and a scorpion spider, who I did not. We also saw several species of ants: leaf cutters (good), fire ants (bad), and bullet ants (very bad). And we saw a cute little Amazonian tree boa, some sort of large Amazonian frog the name of which I didn’t catch, a couple of opossum,, fruit bats, a sleeping dove and a pair of screech owls.
Amazon Jungle – April 12
Today was an extremely adventure-filled day, although we later found out this was likely because our guide Oscar thought we were leaving tomorrow (Monday) instead of Tuesday due to a miscommunication with the Treehouse staff, and he was probably trying to cram as much in as possible. So there may be some repeat adventures on Monday.
As if getting up at 4 and having a fun-filled day yesterday wasn’t quite enough, today we were up and at the dock ready to leave at 5:30 am for a sunrise and birding tour. We boated out to the main part of the river to watch the sunrise but it was very cloudy so once it was light enough we headed off down an assortment of tributaries to do some extremely successful birding. I’m sure I’ve forgotten some – I will later start keeping notes in my phone – but based on the birds I could remember, I estimate we saw about 20-25 species in an hour. No photos here, but I’ve compiled an extensive bird photo gallery in the next post.
At 9:00, after a buffet breakfast, we headed right back out on the boat for some piranha fishing. Piranha fishing is pretty simple. It involves scouting for a tiny spot on the water tucked in a grove of several trees and then taking a piece of wood (bamboo maybe) strung with about 3 feet of fishing line and a hook. You simply drop the hook baited with meat into the water, attract the piranha by swishing the end of the “pole” back and forth rapidly in the water, and then just wait for a bite. When piranha hits, you just pull the line straight up. Sounds simple but we sucked at actually hooking the fish, although there were plenty of them around. You could actually watch the disturbance on the surface of the water as they swam to the bait. We caught many tiny little piranha and Jeff almost hooked a full sized one. In the end our guides gave up and saved the two biggest tiny ones for us to eat as a lunch time appetizer. It’s probably worth mentioning that when I say “eat” I mean they cooked the fish for us and served it to us for lunch.
Right after lunch, again because our guide was under the incorrect assumption that we were leaving the next day, he decided to combine a wildlife / birding tour with an evening nocturnal wildlife tour, for a 4.5 hour adventure on the water. I think it’s worth briefly mentioning at the point that during all of this we were both suffering a bit due to the contaminated Peru water** … make of that what you will, this is as much description as you’re getting (you’re welcome).
Apparently on the night tours that normally go out after dinner (I think?), the guides head to lakes to find caiman and will catch them for the tourists to hold for a photo op. Either because we were out earlier or because caiman luck wasn’t on our side, we were unable to catch any. We did manage to see both grey and pink Amazon dolphins, sloths, and various monkeys (squirrel, monk sake, and grey titi). The birds were too many to name (perhaps there will be an appendix in case you are having trouble falling asleep), however the most prehistoric and fantastical bird was the hoatzin. We only have very bad photos, so I included one from Merlin for your enjoyment. Apparently hoatzin hatch with tiny little claws on their wings, like baby pterodactyls, which fall off during their first molt. The most glorious sighting was a pair of blue-and-yellow macaws shimmering in a patch of sun. Breathtaking.
This seems like as good a time as any to insert a gallery of our amazon boat tour photos:
Amazon Jungle – April 13
Remember when our guide Oscar thought we were leaving today? Well, he hastily put together two simple tours for us. A morning wildlife tour that joyfully didn’t start until after breakfast, allowing us for once to sleep in, and an afternoon jungle walking tour to explore Amazonian medicinal plants.
On the morning tour, Oscar specifically wanted us to find a rare kingfisher. No bueno on the rarity, but we did find 7 new species of birds, including a stunning blue-crowned trogon, as well as most of the usual suspects (striated heron, cacique, parakeets).
Our afternoon walking tour was actually the most humid and jungly thing we did. Our boat driver became our trail blazer, complete with a machete for hacking away vines and breaking open fruit and nuts. It was also very muddy, and our clothes are in major need of a proper washing machine. The interesting plants that I remember:
Two Tips for the Amazon
Amazon Jungle – April 14
It’s a travel day, and for breakfast I focussed primarily on toast – both plain and French. At 9:30 we began the gruelling 8 hour boat-van-plane-taxi trip back to Miraflores. It wasn’t as bad as feared until we had a 40 min frustrating delay on the plane in Iquitos because someone “didn’t close a hatch properly”.
We arrived back at Paul and Vanessa’s dirty (no cold shower this morning, and still wearing our jungle-mud-covered clothes) and discovered that five of Vanessa’s friends had shown up unexpectedly for an impromptu dinner party to meet her friends from Canada. They were all dressed in Peruvian style – beautiful clothes, hair styled, makeup, jewelry. We did not blend, so we tried to clean up and find something in our minimalist-packed suitcases to wear that looked even halfway fancy.
Best treat – Peru melt-in-your-mouth cookies with a caramel filling, called “alfajors”. My new fave.
*We had yet to experience the roads in the Andes.
**Montezuma’s reach extends much farther than Mexico.
This past April Jeff and I went on the trip of a lifetime to Peru. Peru was never in my “top ten” list of destinations, however there is a story as to how this came about. Jeff has a friend, Paul, who he used to work with. Paul is married to a Vanessa, who is from Peru and although they now live in Vancouver, they own a couple of condos in Peru that they AirBNB when they aren’t using them. Jeff and Paul also worked with another friend, Cameron (wife: Jennifer). Paul has been asking Jeff and Cameron to visit him and Vanessa in Peru for the past decade or so, and this year it all just fell into place.
I am eventually going to write up the whole trip, but I am slowly working my way through a few thousand photos from 3 different cameras plus a few hundred extra shared and therefore downloaded from WhatsApp, so this may take a while to unravel. It’s possible this process may take as long as the vacation itself! But here, at least, is the beginning.
April 9: Arrival
Vacation began with dropping off a much-unamused cat at the Paw Prints pet motel. We’ll see if she is impressed with us in 3 weeks when we pick her up. (Spoiler: she is not). 2 1/2 hours later, we dropped the car off at the Pearson Airport Park ‘N Fly. About the Park N Fly … it’s amazing! You get valet parking, and we paid a hundred bucks extra for detailing while they have the car. I am for sure doing this from now on!
Our flights are not fun. We depart at 11:15 pm for Bogota, land at 4:00 am, have a 3 hour layover, and then a 4 hour flight to Lima (3 hours, sorry, there’s a one hour time difference. Interestingly, Peru is in the same time zone as Ontario except we are in Daylight time. You can see this more clearly if you look at a globe.) This travel itinerary would turn out to be a harbinger of much of our trip – drive a few hours, wait, fly somewhere, drive a few more hours, see something really cool! Much more on that later.
The international terminal at YYZ is no big whoop, let me just say. There was nowhere to sit at any “restaurant” and when we did find a shared table with another couple we had to order via QR code which navigated us to the most up-sell-y ordering site I’ve ever encountered. Right off the top it asked “would you like to order a bottle of water?”. I clicked “no” and then added a Steamwhistle to my order, at which point it suggested “other people who ordered this also ordered Blue Moon”. I actually got asked this question twice because I had to add the Steamwhistles one at a time. I clicked the check out button and another question: “would you like to add tiramisu or cheesecake?” Mmmmmm beer and cheesecake! My fave! You know, if it had said “big bag of chips” I might have been tempted!
We flew luxury (“premium economy”) which turned out to mean retro furnishings and an almost-but-not-quite flat reclining seat. The retro 70s look terrified me, making me think the plane was going to fall apart and drop out of the sky at any moment. In the Bogotá airport we were directed through the international connections security line, and then we were shuffled down a weirdly empty hallway like we were being trafficked and inexplicably found ourselves at a second security line. Doubly secure, I guess. We had hours to kill so found a little airport cafe and enjoyed a couple of 40,000 pesos coffees (about $8).
In Lima, we passed through an extremely efficient customs review where the officer pronounced my name with perfection and regretfully didn’t stamp our passports. Then it was off to meet our driver – finally we are the people someone is holding a sign for! Paul and Vanessa live in Miraflores, a nice and apparently quite safe part of the city about an hour drive from the airport. Their condo is on the 6th floor with a narrow balcony that is just they right size for an egg swing chair and some patio furniture. It’s also a short 20 min walk to the beach – this is a stony surfing beach, not a lie-on-the-sand-and-suntan beach. Waiting for Paul and Vanessa to arrive, we walked around a nearby park where vendors tried to sell us tourist crap every twenty feet or so. The park is beautiful, up on a high bluff that overlooks the ocean – in fact walking down the stairs from the cliff top is why the walk to the beach takes 20 minutes instead of 5. There was a nice looking pier on the ocean that Jeff wants to walk out on at some point.
When P & V arrived, we had dinner at Rosa Nautica, a restaurant that conveniently turned out to be on the very pier that Jeff coveted. Their friend Ernesto joined us. We ordered a variety of Peruvian dishes to share: paella, clams, scallops, pasta / tomato, ceviche. All delicious. Paul also introduced us to the Pisco Sour, which would become the mascot drink of our Peruvian vacation.
While we were eating, a large flock of Inca Terns came by showing off their sardine catches. I later found out these birds have a very limited range and that we were lucky to see them, but you’d never know by the numbers hanging out on the roof. We also got to see an amazing sunset.
April 10: Lima
After the overnight flight and interrupted sleep, we forced ourselves to stay up until 10 which turned out to be wise because I still got up at 6 after a solid 8 hours of sleep. Jeff, or course, slept for something like 11 hours. Typical.
Since we head to the jungle tomorrow, I was regretting my decision not to pick up a Peru birding field guide, so we walked to several bookstores, but no bueno on a local field guide. There was one interesting book of birds, but on close inspection it seemed more artistic than practical, AND it weighed about 50 pounds. We shopped instead at a nearby “plaza” – a sort of outdoor 3-story shopping mall where I picked up a couple of Under Armour sports bras and a lovely linen top. Which leads me to my first lesson on underpacking:
Vanessa booked us another fancy dinner at a popular bar (ranked 13th of the world’s 50 best bars of 2025) called Lady Bee, which had a spectacular menu of cocktails and one single piece of paper for food. What more could you want?!
Next Stop: Amazon Jungle!!
I am hastily wrapping up March books in anticipation of … TRAVEL! Expect a bit of a hiatus, followed hopefully by some posts about Peru! I’ll try to keep the bird photos to a minimum 🙂
Brotherless Night, by V. V. Ganeshananthan
I live under a rock. This fantastic book is written from the perspective of a young woman named Sashi who lives through the terrible early years of the Sri Lankan civil war, and the uprise of the Tamil Tigers, now designated a terrorist group. This is stuff of which I knew literally nothing. Of course, if I wasn’t so news-averse these days I might have read about how Canada’s public safety minister pressed immigration officials to approve the immigration application of a Tiger member. At least I think that’s what happened. Anyway. Her writing is so incredible that I had to stop and check whether it was actually a biography (it’s not). It’s a fantastic book and I can’t recommend it strongly enough. For those who like a strong feminist tone, just have a look at this quote: “Unlike men, they were not interested in credit, only success, and laid their plans accordingly.” This from a group of mothers who secretly planned a massive march on the government offices to demand the release of their young sons, all of whom had been “detained” by the Tigers. (PS it worked). 10/10.
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, by Omar El Akkad
Unlike What Strange Paradise, which I didn’t love, this is a compelling and interesting read. It’s a non-fiction set of personal essays where the author contrasts the horrific events taking place in Gaza with the lack of outrage from western countries. Nobody is safe from his criticism, and rightly so, but you will need to suspend any tendencies to self-defense while reading. It’s absolutely worth it. 9/10
The Nine Tailors, by Dorothy L. Sayers
This mystery novel, written in 1934, takes some patience to get to the crime (a murder) that must needs solving by amateur detective Lord Peter Wimsey. You first have to resign yourself to almost, but not quite, learning all there is to know about campanology, the scientific and musical study of bells. There are a few interesting bits, like how church bells are meticulously scripted to ring out tunes by highly skilled bell-ringers – sometimes for as long as 9 hours! And then there are some trying bits, like the weights and casting and order and process of bell ringing. It all pays off, though, if you can make it through the first 100 or so pages, as the bells become the mechanism behind a secret code that unlocks the mystery of who the murderer is. I would give this 3/10 to start, with a fun 7/10 finish.
The Devil and the Dark Water, by Stuart Turton
And that’s a wrap on Stuart Turton’s current bibliography. This, the second of his books, is a blend of historical fiction (it takes place in 1634), a Sherlock-Holmes style locked-door murder mystery (technically multiple murder mysteries), and some mystical prophesy thrown in for good measure. It’s entertaining, with strong, central female characters that I liked very much. It does tend to unravel as the book wraps up in a rush, which tracks with his other books. It’s less hasty than Evelyn Hardcastle and more than The Last Murder, so maybe he’s getting better at wrap-ups. 7/10 for some clever bits and for the likeable female characters.
January is a blah month and we doubled-down on the blah-ness this year, drifting into our 5th week of never-ending winter as we tromped through the snow to put away the Christmas decorations and take down the lights. And now, ass we close out on Feb, winter has lasted for 13 weeks of the coldest and snowiest we’ve had in forever. Good: lots of sun, and no news of Canadian forests burning down. Bad: not one single day above zero to tease us of a potential early spring. Erratic global politics also made concentrating on reading a struggle but the stats tell a different story. Here, then are my first 9 books of the year.
Rogue Male, by Geoffrey Household
An exciting cat-and-mouse story of a would-be assassin who escapes certain death and goes on the run from foreign agents who will stop at nothing to finish the job. Eventually he finds himself holed up (literally) in the English countryside and the chase becomes a siege from which it seems there can be no escape. Or can there?? I thought it would make a great movie, and in fact, one was made in 1976 starring Peter O-Toole, which might be worth a watch. 8/10 for the inventiveness of the chase!
The Bullet That Missed, by Richard Osman
Not much to say here. If you like this series, you’ll like this book. Personally, I am still deciding. I don’t dislike the series, but I also don’t love it. But it’s a perfect book if you’re feeling the January winter blahs and are looking for an easy way out. It’s an enjoyable read. 7/10 for that.
The Last Murder at the End of the World, by Stuart Turton
A wonderful post-apocalyptic sci-fi book! The last 122 people on Earth live peacefully on a little island, which is surrounded by a murderous fog that has killed everyone else. The fog is held at bay by a security system, until an island scientist is murdered and a countdown begins – in 107 hours, the security system will fail, unless the murder is solved. As time runs out, mysteries about the island, the residents, and the fog are tantalizingly revealed bit by bit, until the very satisfying ending. 9/10 – Highly recommended for all you dystopian and non-space-faring science fiction genre lovers!
The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton
I loved Last Murder so much, I immediately reserved Stuart Turton’s first novel. Very different from Last Murder, although with an equally clever premise. In this case, the protagonist is forced to relive the same day over and over a la Groundhog Day, in an effort to solve the upcoming murder of a guest at a fancy weekend birthday bash. The first catch is that he lives each day as a different party guest and needs to figure out how to piece clues together in an order that helps his future selves. The second catch is that if he doesn’t manage to solve the murder, he is condemned to repeat the process over and over until he does. It’s very well done, and I actually had to go back and start over after getting about 200 pages in, because you do have to pay fairly close attention to things, especially in the beginning. Unfortunately, Turton does kind of lose his way near the end, when things start to spiral a little too much out of control. It ultimately turns a really good book into a pretty good book. 7/10 for effort.
When Elephants Weep, but Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
Do you think animals experience emotions? I mean, of course they do! But many animal scientists argue that they don’t, and we are anthropomorphizing behaviours that are in fact just based in evolutionary survivalism. Your dog is happy to see you? Wrong! Canine survival depends on the expression of behaviours that welcome members of the pack. Female elephants mourn the death of an infant elephant? Wrong again! They are just engaging in evolutionarily developed protective behaviour. This idea that animals do not feel or express emotion is nonsense IMO, and anyone paying even a modicum of attention feels it as well. When Elephants Weep contains a wealth of amazing examples of where all sorts of animal behaviours could easily be interpreted as emotional. Sounds like a top notch book to read, right? Well, buyer beware. In order to prove his case that animals experience emotions, Masson relates stories of horrific, cruel, and, in my opinion, immoral experiments conducted on animals by scientists attempting to prove animals do not. It’s a difficult read, and there is a point where Masson could have stopped citing examples of terrible actions by scientists, or at least put them in an appendix where reading them becomes a choice. He seems to forget that he is preaching to the choir – there is very little in the way of scientific evidence to support his case (because, of course, scientists aren’t studying animal emotions given they don’t believe they have any). And because we are already believers, we don’t need to tales of horror to convince us. If I were to rate this book I’d say 10/10 for the positive content, but it drops to 4/10 because of what you have to wade through to get there.
My Friends, by Fredrik Backman
A very sweet book by the author who wrote the very sweet book “A Man Called Ove”. Ove is better – books with precocious teenagers sometimes ring a little untrue to me, and this one is no different. But what it misses in slightly peculiar teenage behaviour it makes up for in love, friendship and the mystical impact and importance of art. 8/10.
An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green
The best I can say about this book is that it succeeds in its goal of being a cute little teenage sort-of romance, but sadly doesn’t transcend it’s YA genre. Sadly, it also tries to be a nerd book, leaning heavily into obsessive anagramming and a slightly complicated math formula. Tries, but does not quite hit the mark. I feel qualified to judge in this arena, being a pretty big cryptic crossword AND formula math nerd. 6/10 for effort. In case you’re in the market, The Fault In Our Stars is a better choice.
Who We Are: Four Questions for a Life and a Nation, by Murray Sinclair
I told our book club that I found this book a bit unusual in its use of colloquial language given Murray Sinclair’s background as a lawyer and senator. However, it turns out that Sinclair dictates his story to his granddaughter Sarah. With that in mind, I highly recommend listening to this as an audiobook which is read by Sinclair himself! The hardcopy that I own half Sinclair’s story answering the following four questions: Where do I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here? Who am I? The order is important and deeply meaningful, and provides insight into his Anishinaabe culture. The second half of the hardcopy is a summary of the summary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, of which Sinclair was committee chair. This half is probably better read than listened to, and is worth your time. 10/10 for its impact in raising awareness of our Indigenous communities.
The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse, by Vinh Nguyen
Vinh Nguyen, along with his mother and siblings, flee Vietnam after the Vietnam war, and spend years in a refugee camp awaiting approval to enter Canada. His father follows months later but vanishes enroute and is presumed drowned. This memoir is Nguyen’s attempts to create a past for a father he never really knew, and come to terms with the loss of his home and culture. It wanders a bit for my taste, but I did appreciate the perspectives that he shares and is a good reminder of all we take for granted. 6/10.
2025 may have been a sucky SUCKY year in terms of, well, everything on earth, but it was a banner year for reading for me. I read 61 books, a new PB, and only about a half dozen fell into the “hated it” category.
For 2026, I am sticking with my 2 books clubs because I love them. One club is dedicated to reading books from the Amnesty book club list and although we seem to be down to just 3 regular members, I adore them and the books we’ve read have been the most enlightening. The second club is the Big Island “read whatever you want” club, where we each share what we’ve read over the past month. This is a wonderful group of women with varied tastes in reading, which exposes us all to a wide range of interests. I’ve read several books this year based on recommendations from this group.
I also need to rethink my rating system. It’s become apparent that a single, one-dimensional rating system is not really sufficient to convey important details. I’m not sure where to go with this yet, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to evolve a better system through my 2026 reading. In fact, that’s my only challenge for 2026: to develop a more informative rating system.
And with that, if you are interested in a quick recap of the year, here you go!
The Best of the Best
Because I like the author, and you might too.
If you want a new perspective
Cozy fun, no need to think to hard
Sciency books make me happy
A collection of books that don’t fit my categories, but all worth reading!
The Worst. Maybe give these a pass.
I owe you an apology for the length of this post. It seems I procrastinated on the November post right up until it was time for December, and presto! I have 10 books to cover in order to finish off the year. Whaaat?? How could I read 10 books when I was so busy in November that I couldn’t make time to write one little post? No idea. I will say that at least 3 of the books were very short, always helpful!
It’s now January and I am not busy for real, so expect a year-end wrap up coming soon as well. No plans for a reading challenge in 2026 other than once again to stay off my phone.
A Deceit of Lapwings, by Steve Burrows (A birder murder mystery, book #9)
Hmmm, not his best TBH. Interesting concept, but a certain amount of laziness is creeping in, as evidenced by some major writing/editing errors (in one case a key character is referred to by the wrong name, and one paragraph later is referred to correctly). I also disliked immensely the way Dom (the DCI) and Lindy’s (his GF) relationship is starting to swirl the drain. I know he’s looking for additional drama but jeepers, can he not look somewhere else? There are some les likeable characters who could maybe get into some kind of scrap. At any rate, this book was just published so there will be a break before there’s another potential disappointment for me to read. Which I will, because I’m invested now, for better or for worse. 5/10
The Sentence is Death, by Anthony Horowitz (Hawthorne and Horowitz, book #2)
It takes some guts to write yourself into your fictional detective story as a half-wit writer who faffs around and bungles key aspects of the case in an attempt to out-detective a seasoned (albeit annoying) detective. That said, doing this once was fun and different, but twice starts to be a little trying. My hope is that he dials this down a bit in book #3, but then again, I don’t see myself reading any further so maybe I don’t actually care. 7/10 for being at least a decent murder mystery.
A Life Worth Living, by Nicole Flynn
Nicole is in my Toastmasters club, she is a young woman with Down Syndrome who has become, among perhaps a dozen other things, an outspoken advocate for accessibility, inclusion, equity, and diversity. And by “outspoken” I mean she has spoken at the UN, she had an audience with PM Justin Trudeau, and she has presented at a number of educational and community organizations. Just to really cement your feelings of inferiority, she is also a multiple gold-medalist in competitive synchronized swimming, a published photographer, author, and poet, and workshop designer/facilitator. Her book is worth reading, as it will raise your awareness of things we take for granted that are, in fact, barriers for people with disabilities. Read more about her here, and if you have $20 to spare, buy a copy of her compelling book.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery (a re-read)
I first read this book in 2013 and would have likely rated it 8 or 9 out of 10. I definitely remember really liking it! Then a new friend here in PEC told me it was her favourite book, a surprise since I doubt very many people have heard of it, let alone read it and loved it! So I re-read it and still liked it (except for the ending which I very much disliked). However, another new friend here in PEC also read it on my recommendation and she hated it. HATED it. Interesting!! She did pick up on something, though. One of the main characters is a very intelligent and well-read woman who pretends to be not smart because her job is concierge and she feels the being smart is not consistent with her job, and would cause people to question her. This friend predicted that the book resonated for me because I “probably hid my intelligence to deflect bullying and unwanted attention in high school”. Insightful! And true. Anyway … giving it some rethinking, I’d probably now rate it 7, and if you hate reading about self-indulgent philosophy then maybe a 5.6 or 6.
Death at the Sign of the Rook, by Kate Atkinson (Jackson Brodie, book #6)
Jackson Brodie is back. It’s been 20 years since the first JB book was publish, and Jackson is now 20 years older, a feature of this series that I find extremely endearing. Describing all the ins and outs of this mystery could never do justice to the enjoyment of reading it, but think Downton Abbey meets Clue (the 1985 movie) meets Agatha Christie. Lots of LOL moments for me. 8/10 for entertainment value.
real ones, by Katherena Vermette
A story about two Michif sisters who must deal with the revelation that their mother has been masquerading as Indigenous, seemingly in order to advance her art career. Lots of love out there for this book, but not from me. Apart from the confusing way the chapters switch the first person narrative back and forth between the sisters (and don’t get me wrong, I have no issue with this kind of structure, it’s just that the writing here made it challenging for me to tell whose chapter I was reading), it felt like it could have dug a little deeper into the impact on the sisters (who are still legitimately Metis on their father’s side). 5/10 for how 50% of the time I had to go back and look at whose chapter I was reading.
The Briar Club, by Kate Quinn
One of my friends recommended this book, if only I could remember who! It qualifies as historical fiction, one of my new fave genres, because it takes place between 1950-1054 during the anti-communist McCarthy era. The story revolves around the lives of women who live at Briarwood boarding house who, as the name would suggest, form a weekly club known as the Briar club where they meet in one room to share food, drinks, and stories. The book also charmingly shares the recipes of the food and drinks that are consumed, for the reader to made and also enjoy. It’s a lovely book, very women-centric, and has a nice little murder mystery thrown in for good measure. 8/10
Murder on the Inside: The True Story of the Deadly Riot at Kingston Penitentiary, by Catherine Fogarty
In April of 1971 the inmates at the notorious Kingston Penitentiary (“The Pen”) staged a riot to protest the inhumane conditions present at the prison, and the prison system in Canada generally. Although details are apparently hard to come by, Catherine has managed to compile a fairly thorough story. I wasn’t overly impressed with the writing, from a technical perspective. The structure is promising – the day of the riot unfolds hour by hour interwoven with a historical timeline outlining the key events that led to the volatile state of mind of the inmates. Except the characters are introduced clumsily, and often re-introduced with no reference to or acknowledgement of their prior appearance. I spent a lot of time flipping back and forth when “new” names seemed familiar and I would find that they had, in fact, already made an appearance. It did get better as the book progressed, and it’s a story worth reading to understand the debate between punitive versus rehabilitative systems of incarceration. Or, you could read the much shorter Wikipedia entry that references extensively from Fogarty’s book. Maybe 6.5/10 for its local historical interest.
August Into Winter, by Guy Vanderhaeghe
Many stories are sewn together in this highly stressful thriller. I was put off at first by the jacket which described a criminal on the run with a 12 year old girl in tow (ask! lolita vibes!) but have no fear, there is no sexual assault against this child, although they do have an unusual bond. It also qualifies as historical fiction, as the hunt for said criminal and child takes place in 1939, with WWII looming. I did find it hard to stay connected to this book, it felt like too much. There was a very suspenseful chase, then relief from the chase, then another chase, a break and yet another chase! Once a chase was over, I just wanted the book to be over as well. 6/10
The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
Someone please tell me why so many people love this book!? The writing was weirdly simplistic, lessons were weirdly easily learned, the idea that everyone is capable of going on a quest to find their “Personal Legend” (whatever that is!) is weirdly unrealistic. Oh, and FYI women get a bum rap here, where it seems the personal legend of the most significant female character in the book is to “wait and stare at the desert while her lover seeks his treasure and then returns to her – maybe”. Barf! I am especially disappointed because I’ve read Coelho’s “Eleven Minutes” and loved it, loved the writing, loved the story. So I was surprised to find this such a disappointment. Perhaps Paulo was on a personal quest to write the most pointless self-help book, in which case, well done! 2/10. The only reason it’s not a 1 is because that honour has been reserved for 50 Shades of Grey.
The sins accumulate just in the course of this month of reading. Japan, Russia, and USA ruin Korea. China ruins itself. The catholic church ruins young, unwed pregnant woman and steals their babies (pro-life indeed). White people think it’s ok to ruin other human beings by owning them as property. Ultimately it takes a light-hearted murder mystery to recover.
Do Not Say We Have Nothing, by Madeleine Thien
I’ve never had any cause to wonder about the 20th century history of China. My ignorance is vast: I didn’t know how or when communist China was formed, I knew nothing at all about “land redistributions” that followed this formation, nor of the Cultural Revolution and the harsh punishments inflicted on intellectuals, political opponents, and perceived counter-revolutionaries. I am now much better informed. Do Not Say We Have Nothing, follows the intertwined lives of two related families who struggle to live through the Cultural Revolution, and of their children, gifted musicians, living within the times leading up to Tiananmen Square. There are many layers to the story that I can’t even begin to do justice to. The book is long and weighty, it requires you to be attentive in order to absorb all of the detail, and you will learn a lot of extremely unpleasant things about Communist China’s formation and history. In the end, I thought the book was worth it. 9/10
The Island of Sea Women, by Lisa See
This book takes place on Korean island of Jeju, home to the Haenyeo, a group of women divers who work in the sea to harvest food for their livelihood. It is the story of two of these women who start out as best friends, growing up and learning to dive together, until an unforgivable act of betrayal destroys their friendship. Whether it is truly unforgiveable is the central theme of the book: to understand everything is to forgive. It will take you right until the end to decide if this is true.
Meanwhile, the backdrop is Jeju struggling to maintain its culture under Japanese occupation until the end of WWII, when Russia and USA take over, one fighting to enforce communism and the other fighting to end it. In the middle, thousands of Jeju people are horrifyingly massacred. I’ll say, along with Britain, these countries seem inclined to willfully ruin other countries for almost nothing. Don’t be put off, this is a fantastic book, the best so far this year (and it’s already November), 10/10 and I’d give it an 11 if I could.
Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan
A very short novella that packs a big punch. An unassuming Irish coal merchant picks up on some oddities while delivering coal to a local convent. He figures out that the convent is actually a Magdalene Laundry, an institution run by the catholic church to house fallen (pregnant) women, who suffer abuses at the hands of the nuns and have their babies sold off to the highest bidder. This man finds it in his heart to rescue one young woman, and the book ends with that small message of hope.
In reality, much like Canada’s shame of residential schools, the unmarked graves of 155 women were found at one such laundry, the last of which closed in 1993 (1993!!!!!). Shame on you yet again, catholic church. 9/10
Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert, by Bob the Drag Queen
This is a very odd book. I regrettably purchased a copy (an expensive hard cover!) because a) the Reading Glasses podcast I occasionally listen to recommended it and b) Bob the Drag Queen was cast as a traitor in Season 3 of The Traitors US, my new super-shamey indulgence! Somehow, in a manner that I quickly forgot because it frankly doesn’t matter at all to the story, Harriet Tubman and her crew are reanimated in the present day and Bob, who may or may not be writing autobiographically, decides to produce a musical show of her life. So very odd. I give it 4 for teaching me some previously unknown things about Harriett Tubman, and overall it therefore gets a 4.5/10.
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, by Benjamin Stevenson
In the course of trying to solve a murder mystery, Ernest Cunningham reveals how everyone in his family has killed someone. His brother, stepsister, wife, father, mother, sister-in-law, uncle, stepfather, aunt, and even himself. It’s a fun book after a world of heavy drama. Stevenson uses the equivalent of what’s known as breaking the fourth wall in film, to entertaining effect. If you need something light and easy, this is a perfectly find choice. 7/10.
For my 3rd birding walk* with Chris, Bird Whisperer, he invited me to go along while he conducted the census for PEPtBO. I should explain. In addition to catching and banding birds for 6 hours, beginning at sunrise, the station also does two “census” counts, where experienced birders walk a preset path and count the birds they see and/or hear. The first census is a 30 minute count around the net lanes, and the second census is a more extensive 1 hour count through the various nearby habitats, including waterfront. Chris invited me on the 1 hour walk. And let me just say, if Chris invites you on a bird walk, you should definitely go!
The birds were much quieter than on the 72-species day, which meant Chris could point out a bird call and we could wait in the quiet until we heard it again, making it much easier for me to start picking up on some IDs. Also unlike the 72-species day, I can confidently say I witnessed each of the species we found. Surprising to me, given things have been slower at the nets these day, we identified 35 species within the bounds of the census, and one exciting bonus that came after!
Bonus Bird
I have been dying to see a fox sparrow. Funny story: I was going through old photos of my very first season volunteering at the Observatory, back when I didn’t even know “warbler” was a type of bird, and wouldn’t you know it, there is a photo of me actually holding a fox sparrow. So my modified goal was to see a fox sparrow while knowing what it was! As luck (“destiny”!) would have it, we passed a couple of birders who casually mentioned seeing one in the bushes and we managed to find it! Score!!
The even bigger bonus was that the very next day, while volunteering once again, we caught one in the net and I was able to extract it. You just have to put it into the universe for it to manifest. This is totally true. Tomorrow I am planning to manifest a million dollars.
At the risk of boring you to death, here’s the list, along with a few notes to make it marginally more interesting.
Water birds: We saw all of these at the harbour, pretty basic water birds, except that this was my first Greater Yellowlegs, and I only saw it as it was flying away, thanks to our appearance on the shore. (sorry, GRYE!!) So I still await the day I can see one walking along the shore.
Raptors/Hawks: Let’s just say for sake of argument that my ability to ID hawks in flight was about, mmm, zero. It’s now about 0.2, in that I now know Sharp-shinned hawks look like they are hunching their shoulders when they fly and Coopers hawks stretch out their necks and look like a cross. Pro tour time!
Birds I can (sort of) ID by sound: I added some mnemonic hints for the ones I’m really just learning.
Flying in large flocks overhead
Spotted in the trees
*on October 16, 2025
The plan: A 2-hour birding tour* with Chris, this time to Beaver Meadow Conservation Area, a local wetland habitat. Beaver Meadow is not a hiking adventure. Instead you walk a trail for about 1/2 km to a viewing platform that looks out over a large marshy area. Then you settle in with your binoculars and just wait for the birds.
The goal: I wanted to see a Bittern (a type of heron). There are 2 species of Bittern found in NA, the Least and the American and I would be happy with either. Turns out we would encounter both (!!) – three American Bitterns flying overhead and one Least Bittern that we both heard calling but never managed to see. I recorded the American in my life list, but will wait until I *see* the Least to do the same.
Species Prediction: My guess going in was that we’d see the typical birds you find at a marsh or a small lake. A few kinds of ducks (that Chris would be able to tell apart for me), swans, geese, maybe terns. Call it around 20 species if we were lucky. Achievement: 50 species! To be fair, I wasn’t far off as far as water-located birds are concerned. What I didn’t expect was to find 30 or so species of songbirds, which I can once again attributed to Chris’s bird finding superpowers.
Nature Walk Bonus: In addition to being an amazing birder, Chris is an expert naturalist, and along our very short walk he pointed out a myriad of fauna specimens. I only remember one, because I learned about it in school but have never actually seen it – a Jack-in-the-pulpit!
Here, for record keeping, is the complete list of bird species.
*Date of tour: May 28, 2025. Seems important for context.
