My Nerdy Friend

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

• The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood. A classic and way too prescient.
• This Is Happiness, by Niall Williams. It’s about happiness, and that’s how it will make you feel.
• The Ministry for the Future, by Kim Stanley Robinson. A hopeful view of fixing the climate crisis, one we will not achieve.
• The Premonition, by Michael Lewis. How to properly fight a pandemic (hint: do everything the opposite of what we did during COVID)
• This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. A love story set across all time.
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith. A much better positive outlook story than the Alchemist.
• Do Not Say We Have Nothing, by Madeleine Thien. My favourite of the Amnesty books.
• Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan. A short and simple story that packs a powerful punch.

Because I like the author, and you might too.

• Written on the Dark, by GGK
• The Trespasser, by Tana French 
• The Secret Place, by Tana French
• The Hunter, by Tana French
• A Shimmer of Hummingbirds, by Steve Burrows
• A Tiding of Magpies, by Steve Burrows
• A Dance of Cranes, by Steve Burrows
• A Foreboding of Petrels, by Steve Burrows
• A Nye of Pheasants, by Steve Burrows
• A Deceit of Lapwings, by Steve Burrows

If you want a new perspective

• A Life Worth Living, by Nicole Flynn
• The Serviceberry, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• How to Pronounce Knife, by Souvankham Thammavongsa
• We Have Always Been Here, by Samra Habib
• Good Citizens Need Not Fear, by Maria Reva
• The Inconvenient Indian, by Thomas King
• Laughing All the Way to the Mosque, by Zarqa Nawaz
• The Message, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• The Island of Sea Women, by Lisa See
• real ones, by Katherena Vermette

Cozy fun, no need to think to hard

• Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies, by Catherine Mack
• A Room With a View, by E. M. Forster
• Evvie Drake Starts Over, by Linda Holmes
• Flying Solo, by Linda Holmes
• How To Read A Book, by Monica Wood
• The Bookshop on the Corner, by Jenny Colgan
• The Book Club for Troublesome Women, by Marie Bostwick
• Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett
• Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, by Benjamin Stevenson
• The Sentence is Death, by Anthony Horowitz
• Death at the Sign of the Rook, by Kate Atkinson
• The Briar Club, by Kate Quinn

Sciency books make me happy

• Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler
• The Year’s Best Science Fiction: 24th Annual Edition, Daryl Gregory
• Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
• The Poppy War, by R. F. Kuang
• How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog, by Chad Orzel

A collection of books that don’t fit my categories, but all worth reading!

• Frog Music, by Emma Donoghue
• Black Swan Green, by David Mitchell
• Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman, by Lindy West
• What’s Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies, by Tim Urban
• Open Secrets, by Alice Munro
• Look What Flew Through the County, by Yvonne Buys
• Ducks, by Kate Beaton
• Human Croquet, Kate Atkinson
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery
• Murder on the Inside: The True Story of the Deadly Riot at Kingston Penitentiary, by Catherine Fogarty
• August Into Winter, by Guy Vanderhaeghe

The Worst. Maybe give these a pass.

• The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. Ugh, this spiritual self-help stuff is not for me.
• Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert, by Bob the Drag Queen. Why you should never read a book by a reality TV star. Likely you didn’t need to be told that.
• Blue Monday, by Nicci French. At least one of these two authors is not a good writer.
• Beautiful Ugly, by Alice Feeney. Just plain dumb.
• The Life Impossible, by Matt Haig. A controversial take, with apologies to those who loved this one.

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.

Things I don’t understand: Quantum Physics and the Israeli-Palestine conflict. Things I love: coming-of-age books about girls. This month I read four books on all of these things.

How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog, by Chad Orzel

For some insane reason I decided to re-read this book. I think I was intent on recalling some of the everyday applications that quantum physics makes possible. You know, so that when someone says “quantum physics is ridiculous” I could say “yes, but then MRI scanners wouldn’t be possible if it didn’t actually work”. But here’s the basic problem. First, no sane person uses the phrase “quantum physics” to begin with. Second, nobody actually cares why MRI scanners work, they just want to know why there is a 4 month wait to get one.

The last time I read this book, I wrote this:

It’s hard to say if this book is truly something to be recommended to quantum physics newbies, however, as I read it with a pretty decent lay-person’s understanding of the concepts involved and am far beyond the “what the hell are you even talking about” stage. My impression is that this book would be a challenge for a person with a beginning interest in this area, unlike Orzel’s second book which I found to be remarkably accessible. That said, this is a book I will want to keep and reread.

In retrospect, it’s very easy to say if this book is something to recommend … it isn’t. I admittedly enjoy the mind-bending and inaccessible nonsense of things like “Schrodinger’s cat is both dead and alive” but I’m not really all that interested in details that require a graduate degree in Quantum Electrodynamics. I stand by my original claim, however, that Orzel’s second book, How To Teach Relativity to your Dog, is a worthwhile endeavor and does a terrific job at explaining things like why time slows down the faster you travel.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith

I reserved this book because it is constantly being referenced as a “favourite childhood book” by characters in other books, much like The Velveteen Rabbit, which I read a while ago for the same reason. And guess what? It deserves it! It’s a very sweet book told from the perspective of a young girl named Francie growing up in a dirt-poor neighbourhood of (you guessed it) Brooklyn. I would call this a story of survival and resilience. Francie’s mother teaches her and her brother to nail a soup can to the floor of their closet and deposit a penny every time for every two they make selling scrap metal, saving to one day perhaps buy a small piece of land. But something seems to eventually happen requiring them to open the can and take use the money for something else. Like food. But then they nail down another soup can and start again. Francie learns to fight her way into the best school in the area by pretending to live in the catchment area and thereby manages to graduate, even though the family is in dire need of money she could otherwise earn if she was working.

Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first time or last time: Then your time on earth will be filed with glory.

Human Croquet, Kate Atkinson

Kate Atkinson writes sometimes confusing but always enjoyable books. This one is no exception, happily blending some strange scifi-esque time warps, a murder mystery, a disappearing / reappearing father, a coming-of-age story, crotchety old relatives. It’s full of intrigue. Maybe too full.

Human Croquet is a confusing title, until you get to the end where she provides a delightful pictogram… My summer garden party plans are starting to come together!

The Message, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi shares his thoughts about his reckoning with slavery and racism in the US through a series of three short essays. In the third essay, he spends an inordinate amount of time sharing regrets about an earlier paper he wrote called The Case for Reparations. It takes a while to get there, but ultimately it seems his regrets stem from his narrow, US-centric perspective. He begins to realize, while visiting Israel, that Palestinians in occupied territories are being similarly mistreated, facing theft of their lands, extreme racism, apartheid, genocide. Much of what he writes about his time in Israel is reminiscent of Apeirogon, which I wrote about here.

Interestingly, all of the negative 1/5 reviews I read on Goodreads predictably argue that speaking out against the actions of Israel is tantamount to antisemitism. How we got here, where criticism of current racist and genocidal actions against one group is proof of racism against another group, is baffling to me. Call me ignorant if you want, but I can’t think of anything that would justify the purposeful denial of food and aid to a group of people that is literally dying of starvation.

Anyhow … controversy aside, these are some of my favourite quotes from the book.

Football: A game that valorizes violence and then is horrified by its consequences.

I have been surrounded by people who, on some level, think of me as an exception that does not disprove their theories of white supremacy.*

Even the great American democracy could not have been created without the annihilation of the Indians. ~Israeli historian Benny Morris

*Replace “white supremacy” with “male dominance” and you have the bulk of my working career life.