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12th Annual CanBook Challenge
I’ve decided to participate in this year’s CanBook Challenge, which is a challenge that’s new to me but has been around for an impressive 12 years now. The goal is to read and review at least 13 Canadian books between July 1st, 2018 to July 1st, 2019 (Canada Day to Canada Day). Any format or genre is acceptable, and the book can either be written by a Canadian or just be about the country. I’m a naughty Canadian who doesn’t read nearly enough books from his own Country, which is something I’ve been trying to remedy these last few years with varying degrees of success, so this is the perfect…
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The Diary of a Bookseller
The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell My rating: 5 of 5 stars Published: 2017 Narrated by: Robin Laing Length: 09:41 (310 pages) I’m sure nearly every bookish person has daydreamed of owning a bookshop at one time or another, and this is a very funny and cynical account of that process. Shaun Bythell owns The Bookshop, Scotland’s largest second-hand bookshop, located in the south-western town of Wigtown. This is a journal he kept throughout 2014, and it details the day-to-day interactions and struggles that come up in the store. Shaun Bythell is hilarious. He mentions he’s been compared to Bernard Black from Black Books, and you can really…
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Blood, Sweat, and Pixels
Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made by Jason Schreier My rating: 4 of 5 stars Published: 2017 Narrated by: Ray Chase Length: 07:57 (304 pages) This is a great one for anyone who enjoys a behind-the-scenes look at how games are made from a project management point-of-view. It covers both major Triple-A titles and indie games, from Uncharted 4 to Stardew Valley. There’s a look into the fairly new phenomenon of crowd-funded games (a craze that has already become much more subdued), with Pillars of Eternity, as well as what went wrong with some of the more well-known disappointments in the industry…
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Akira, Vol. 2
Akira, Vol. 2 by Katsuhiro Otomo Translated by: Yoko Umezawa Series: Akira #2 Publisher: Kodansha Comics Published: 1984 Length: 301 pages This second volume really ramped up the action. The entire thing was basically a string of action scenes connected with short bits of dialogue. It made for a very fast and exciting read, while still moving the plot along. In the first volume, we were left with a lot of questions, but this did a great job of answering a lot of the big ones while leaving more to discover, so it didn’t feel like the reader was being teased along continuously as can happen sometimes in some serialized…
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The Princess Diarist
The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher Published: 2016 Narrated by: Carrie Fisher Length: 05:10 (257 pages) I was sad to finish this one, knowing this will be the last of Carrie Fisher’s memoirs. I would have kept reading these memoirs for as long as she published them. She was just hilarious, and that really comes out in her writing. This focuses on her Star Wars career and the events surrounding it, something she usually skirted around in her other memoirs. The more you read of Carrie Fisher, the more you understand that Star Wars was one of the least interesting things about her, but it’s still fun to hear some…
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May in Review
Books Acquired: Raw Spirit: In Search of the Perfect Dram by Iain Banks The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid Blood, Bones, and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton In One Person by John Irving Acquired Tastes by Peter Mayle Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas…
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Paper Girls, Vol. 1
Paper Girls, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan Illustrated by: Cliff Chiang, Matthew Wilson Publisher: Image Comics Collects: issues #1–5 Published: 2016 Length: 144 pages Having seen this described as The Goonies meets Stranger Things, there was really no choice for me but to make the purchase. There’s something about an 80’s story featuring foul-mouthed kids riding their bikes down the street that just hits that perfect nostalgia note for me, and this particular story is centred around that very premise, but this time with a central cast of girls rather than the usual token friend for tagalong girlfriend, which is a refreshing change. This features a group of papergirls…
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Stir
Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals That Brought Me Home by Jessica Fechtor Published: 2015 Length: 271 pages Jessica Fechtor suffered a brain aneurysm while running on a treadmill one day and nearly died. At 28, she was in good health, as fit as she’d ever been, and ramping up to finish her schooling. This memoir begins with that day, and we follow along through her rough recovery. There are multiple surgeries involved, unfortunate side-effects, but she was at least lucky enough to have quite a strong support group backing her during this time. We learn more about her life through flashbacks, and those memories are always tied, in…
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2018 Times Colonist Book Sale Haul – Part Two
Part two of our consumerist – nay, charitable – tour of what I found at the book sale. The first post covered the left column of books, and here I’ll go over the right column. This year's #tcbooksale #BookHaul! I did donate one more book than I bought, so overall I'm still in credit… A post shared by Rob McMillan (@mcmillan) on May 6, 2018 at 12:09pm PDT The Go-Away Bird and Other Stories by Muriel Spark Last year I read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Driver’s Seat, and I have basically decided to read everything she’s written now. Which is actually quite a lot, with twenty-two…
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2018 Times Colonist Book Sale Haul – Part One
Our favourite book sale has come and gone. A couple of weeks ago I donated a large number of books and have basically bought the same amount back, so the circle of life continues. This year's #tcbooksale #BookHaul! I did donate one more book than I bought, so overall I'm still in credit… A post shared by Rob McMillan (@mcmillan) on May 6, 2018 at 12:09pm PDT This is a big list of books, so I thought I’d split this into a couple posts. This first one will go over the pile on the left. A Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes I was looking for this last year…
