Last 10 Books I Read

1. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

The cute part is that we all get to choose the size of our inner and outer world, and the stories we tell about them. The less cute part is that sometimes those stories are false and they hurt us. The other not cute part is the stories other people tell about us.

2. The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth

Non-stop thrill ride! The only way I could enjoy this book even more if it was summertime and I read it at the beach. Contains: Mad Men vibes, a game of cat-and-mouse but the mouse is actually another cat, tension between the French and the British, people figuring things out from subtext.

3. V for Vendetta by Alan Moore

4. The Book of George by Kate Greathead

In TV, movies, and books, “George” is usually the name of a boring man, or a large animal. I’m not bitter about that except that I am, so obviously I can’t resist a “The Book of George”. Anyway, this was a pretty fun book and only minor extra reputational damage was done to the proud name “George”.

5. Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

6. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore (Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, #1) by Robin Sloan

7. Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto by Shawn Micallef

I love Toronto so much, but I don’t even understand it. I read this book, and now I understand it a little better and love it even more!

8. The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin

Le Guin does it again! It’s Space Communism vs. Space Capitalism. Le Guin is the undisputed heavyweight champion of taking a mild scifi mcguffin and hiding a big huge awesome moral tale of humanity under it.

9. New Teeth: Stories by Simon Rich

I read this book of short stories (my favourite kind of book) and laughed a whole bunch of times, but also nodded my head and made the “not bad” face at a lot of the charming and interesting and funny and touching thoughts in it. If you’d like to laugh a bunch and make the “not bad” face, try reading this book!

10. The Right Attitude to Rain (Isabel Dalhousie, #3) by Alexander McCall Smith

I pick up Alexander McCall Smith books because they have a pleasant cozy sameness to them, and then somehow get mad at them for being the same as the last one. I think I accidentally read a summary of this book and then got confused and upset when exactly the thing I read started happening. I then spent a good part of the book rolling my eyes at how Scottish and prim and proper and moral and slow it is, which, again, that’s what I showed up for! Anyway I had a nice time reading this book, and then at the end a bunch of unexpected stuff happened all at once!