never the same girl twice

2024 has felt pretty uninspired media-wise. I've reread a lot of books and stuck to mostly the same kinds of things: urban fantasy has been the overwhelming theme. I've found it harder to commit to a new book than I used to, preferring so-called comfort reads in an effort to find something good and familiar in the world. I still read as much as usual though, hitting my 100 book goal even when I take out the DNF. I'm also getting more comfortable with DNFing a book, which is great - there is just not enough time to read something terrible.


2024 READING RECAP

103 books total
99 fiction
11 non-fiction
2 in French (this is a bit of a cheat - I DNFed one, and the other was a graphic-heavy non-fic)
I will no longer be tracking books by POC or LGBTQIA+ authors, because I tend to read heavy on that spectrum anyway, and the field is becoming increasingly diverse (yay!)

Breakdown by genre:
52 fantasy (like last year, an overwhelming amount of urban fantasy, between rereading the Kate Daniels series and several Hailey Edwards series this year)
8 YA
1 sci-fi (again, I'd like to lean more heavily into sci-fi)
25 romance (reading more and more of these since they are becoming more available, and Romantasy counts)
3 mystery
11 manga/graphic novels
0 "classics"
6 horror/gothic
8 DNF (not counted towards the overall total read)

22 of my books were rereads, which is actually down from last year. I wasn't expecting that.

the never-ending TBR shelf update: well, I thought I had made some headway in the summer, but it's full to bursting again. That's not a bad thing, I try to view it more as a library of possibilities rather than a chore to be gone through. I've got more fiction than last year, and about the same amount of non-fiction.

fiction: 55
non-fiction: 29


Top Books of the year:

* Starling House by Alix E. Harrow - I've been reading more horror this year and leaning into it. This was a perfect blend of horror, mystery, great characters, and a bonus haunted house.

* Band Sinister by K.J. Charles - the perfect blend of historical romance and utter ridiculousness. Think Pride and Prejudice written by Terry Pratchett. I normally don't like silly things, but I was so invested in the characters that I was able to just laugh along.

* Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers - this took me entirely by surprise. It's a love story about letting go of your expectations, allowing yourself to feel, and maybe, just maybe, falling in love with a complete stranger.

* Bad Cree by Jessica Johns - another creepy horror story, with Indigenous storytelling, great characters, a dark secret, and great plot.

* Funny Story by Emily Henry - I hate to endorse something that is already so hyped up, but I like Emily Henry's writing. Her stories are interesting and well-written, with fun characters, good pacing, and a captivating romance at the heart of it all. Hard not to love it.



MOVIES & TV 2024

Still haven't been to see a movie in theatres! This is getting ridiculous (though I do have the best of intentions to see Wicked on the big screen). I watched a lot more movies at home though, for a total of 20.

* Nimona (2023) - I started watching this as a throw-away background noise movie. I ended up laughing like crazy and being so, so impressed with the characters, the snark, the animation... everything but the plot, really. If you can ignore the morality being pushed down your throat, it is FANTASTIC.

* A Haunting in Venice (2023) - I love a good historical locked-room mystery, so I stuffed down my dislike of Hercule Poirot as a character. Amazing casting, good story (I mean, it's Agatha Christie, of course it's a good story), and great settings.

* Good Grief (2023) - Gotta love Daniel Levy. This was another little gem of a movie that I wasn't expecting. It was emotional, raw, but also healing and lovely all at once.

* Lift (2024) - just a good heist movie all around.

As for TV, I watched and enjoyed all of Schitt's Creek, lots of Great British Baking Show (and it's Canadian equivalent), Star Trek: Strange New Worlds seasons 1-2, lots of QI, and I think I watched Blue Eye Samurai this year (though it may have been last year?)

SHOWS & EXHIBITS 2024

- Come From Away at the NAC - I hadn't seen a musical in a long time and this one had gotten good reviews, so I took a chance. I didn't even know what the plot was until it started, and that was probably the right way to go into this, because it hit me emotionally like a ton of bricks. Fantastic show.

- We Call it Ballet: Sleeping Beauty - this is one of those candlelight-type shows, the hype for this one being that it was supposed to be illuminated and glow-in-the-dark. It was held in a small church, which added to the atmosphere but made it hard to see the tiny stage, and the illumination level was pretty sad. There were light-up crowns and skirts with lights, but that was it. It distinctly felt like a B-list of dancers (who were very good, but nothing spectacular) and the lights only went down for about 10 seconds at the very end. Overall, disappointing but glad I tried it.

- Mariana's Trench with opening band LOLO at the NAC - I was looking forward to this for months. The opening band felt like an Avril Lavigne spin-off and must have played their entire album, but the actual concert itself was great. My one disappointment was that they didn't play a single song from the Phantoms album, which is one of my top 5 albums of all time. I'd definitely see them again.

- I was supposed to see Donovan Bailey in concert as well, but it was postponed to February, so that'll be for next year.


MUSEUMS ETC:

- First Royals of Europe exhibit at CMH (which we'll be taking down in a few weeks)
- Olmecs and the Civilizations of the Gulf of Mexico at Pointe-a-Calliere (with the nieces) - as usual, PaC puts on a stunning exhibit design-wise!
- The Heart and Soul of Saint-Henri at Pointe-a-Calliere (with the nieces) - interesting to find out more about the neighborhood


Music
Rather than trying to list top songs or artists (because Spotify was skewed this year, I swear), I'll admit to the following:

- listed to a lot of Taylor Swift, Against the Current/Chrissy Costanza, Mariana's Trench, Jordan Davis, and VOILA
- discovered Friday Pilots Club, Kelsea Ballerini, and Lost Stars
- played Mariana's Trench, Kelsea Ballerini's "Interlude (Full Length)", and the Boyce Avenue cover of "Stick Season" over and over again

2022 has been a struggle from beginning to end. I feel like I dragged myself through the year, so it's only natural that I read a lot. However, apparently I read less than last year, which is a bit surprising. Still hit my 100 book goal (by less than I thought!)

2022 READING RECAP

106 books total
95 fiction
11 non-fiction
0 in French (clearly this needs improvement!)
36 by POC and/or LGBTQI2A+ authors

This is also the first year I look at various genres:
55 fantasy (no surprise there, especially since it's just a wide genre)
13 YA
10 sci-fi (the Tanya Huff series helped with that!)
10 romance (another surprise, but KJ Charles and Ilona Andrews are the main culprits)
7 mystery (Kelly Armstrong series)
5 manga/graphic novels

TBR shelves: I did a quick count as I was boxing them up for the renovation, and came up somewhere in the mid-70s. I'd say it's because I focused on reading more from my own shelves this year, but I also did some cleaning of old series and things from the TBR pile, so that definitely helped (goodbye, 7-volume Kate Elliot series that's been taunting me for over 10 years! If I haven't read it yet, I wasn't ever gonna read it).


This year's favorites were, in no particular order:

* A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows. This book is drama-filled, tragic, and emotionally heavy-handed... and I loved every second of it. This is probably the closest I have seen to my own writing and I never wanted it to end.

* Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley. A story about community, murder, and identity, I couldn't put it down.

* Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert. Haunting and creepy, this novel captured everything I liked about The Hazel Wood and took it to a new place.

* This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. I hate books told through letters or diaries. I am very picky about sci-fi. This... this was magic. My only complaint was that it was too short.

* People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry. I am surrounded by romance-readers and finally caved. I couldn't put it down and I was thoroughly emotionally invested the whole time. Loved it.

* All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir. This book was intense and uncomfortable and wonderful and everything all at once. It was a difficult read but so, so worth it. Probably my favorite read of the year.

* Slippery Creatures by K.J. Charles. Oh, my heart. I stumbled across this M/M romance and couldn't resist a WWI veteran bookshop owner as a protagonist... Loved the time period, the characters, the plots, the romance, everything about this was magic. The whole series was great, though I've been disappointed in the other books by this author I've tried since then.


MOVIES 2022

Still haven't been to a movie theatre! I've actually had little patience for TV and movies this year (other than my usual compulsion for food and home renovation shows), so this list is a bit sadder. The highlights include:

* Encanto (2021) - probably my favorite Disney movie in a very long time. The characters are fantastic, the music is good, the representation is well done... and they get bonus points not just for tackling intergenerational trauma and refugees in a kid-friendly fashion, but snapping me right back to the same mentality of denial and survivor's guilt that permeated so many of the Holocaust survivors I've worked with. Absolutely my favorite thing this year.

* Persuasion (2022) - huge points for making a Jane Austen movie that is both true to the original feel and simultaneously snarky and quirky. 100% recommend.

* Knives Out (2019) - ok, I will admit, I actually just watched this a few days ago. It does the murder-mystery genre perfectly, while still giving you something new and interesting. The cast are great and I was thoroughly entertained, can't wait to watch the second one.

* Turning Red (2022) - another great animated movie that manages to tackle puberty and immigrant culture in an approachable, identifiable way for a younger audience. Just lovely.



SHOWS & EXHIBITS 2022

My nieces came to visit for a few days this summer, so I actually got out into the city and did things! It also helps that I now work in a proper museum and can see the exhibits as they open, or even work on them... I even crawled out of my shell and saw two concerts!

- ONE OK ROCK (with You Me at Six and Fame on Fire) @ Club Soda, Montreal: yes, yes, yes. SO GOOD in concert. I am obsessed.

- Olafur Arnalds @ Algonquin Commons Theatre, Ottawa: a lovely show, my first time seeing classical music live (other than a full orchestra). It definitely felt like a different kind of show than I'm used to but it was nice.

- From Pepinot to Paw Patrol: Television of Our Childhoods @ Canadian Museum of History: cute, definitely surreal to see things like Bibi and Passe Partout, as well as some of the old Reading Rainbow and Mr. Dress-up stuff.

- Unexpected! Surprising Treasures from Library and Archives Canada @ Canadian Museum of History: ok, this is cheating a bit since I was part of this project, but I still enjoyed the exhibit, especially the Decadog!

- Haunted Walk tour of Ottawa: great tour guide and lots of fun historical details! Not scary but a great way to pass an evening with two teenagers.

- General Idea exhibit @ National Gallery of Canada: I walked into this one blind (we were visiting the rest of the museum) and I was pleasantly surprised by this foray into modern art (which I don't usually love).




MUSIC 2022

This year I added 274 new songs to my music rotation, about half of what I did the year before. I've felt like I've been in a slump for much of the year, sadly. Even my #wednesdayweeklysoundtrack has fallen mostly dormant.

The highlights for this year were the following:

TOP 5 ALBUMS

* ONE OK ROCK - Luxury Disease
* CHVRCHES - Screen Violence (Director's Cut)
* Halsey - If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power
* All Time Low - Last Young Renegade
* Lights - Pep

TOP 5 SONGS
* Winnetka Bowling League and Sasha Alex Sloan - barcelona
* ONE OK ROCK - Save Yourself
* Tove Lo - No One Dies From Love
* Mother Mother - Hayloft II
* CHVRCHES - Bitter End

One thing I have to say for 2020, it left me plenty of time and urge to read, to listen to music, and get lost in other worlds. I beat my own goal of 100 and last year's record of 106 with a total of 117 books read this year, and have kept up my focus on POC and LGBTQIA+ authors and stories. GoodReads is helping me focus and keep track, and I've joined a friend's book club for the upcoming year, since their reading list is not a set list of books but a theme, letting you choose what you want to read. My reading goal for 2021 is to reduce my 3+ shelves of TBR books into something a bit more manageable - let's say 2 shelves? Let's see how well I manage.

(update: I just counted. There are 65 fiction and 34 non-fiction books physically on the shelves here, waiting to be read. That is a terrifying 99 books. Yep, definitely need to work my way through some of those...)

2020 READING RECAP

117 books total
95 fiction
21 non-fiction
9 manga/graphic novels
2 in French
33 by POC and/or LGBTQI2A+ authors


This year's favorites were:

* The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab - I waited months to get my hands on this book. While I loved the "A Darker Shade of Magic" trilogy, I was underwhelmed by the "Vicious" books, so I held off buying this in hardcover. That meant that I finished the book this afternoon, scraping in right before the deadline for this year. This is probably the best thing I read this year, bringing me back to my love of "The Starless Sea" and "Life After Life". A girl that no one remembers, a boy who feels too much, and a god you should not pray to after dark... Just magical.

* The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - a masterfully woven tale of two sisters and the many, many ways to navigate "passing" and invisible borders.

* La fille dans l'écran by Lou Lubie and Manon Desveaux - this graphic novel caught me by surprise. It was recommended to me by a friend who is obsessed with comics and graphic novels of all kinds, and it did not disappointed. Two women who meet by chance online and who become increasingly tangled together, the characters are drawn and written by two seperate artists, creating a unique canvas of visual and storytelling imagery. The story is marvelous but it is the art that pushes this one into the best of the best category.

* Clearing the Plains: Disease, the Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life by James Daschuk - this book was hard. It was so difficult to absorb the history untold, the damage done, and the echoing repercussions of these policies decades and centuries later. It was difficult going but everyone should read this book. Ignorance is a luxury.

* Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse - urban fantasy with a distinct Native American flair, it takes all the best things about the genre and creates something new, something rich and interesting and addictive. I'm anxiously awaiting the third in the series.

* L'ami retrouvé by Fred Uhlman - this novella gets an honorable mention, not strictly Top 5 but firmly a contender. Despite the looming backdrop of the rise of Hitler in Germany and the conflicts between Jews and Nazis, this book is essentially a book about friendship. It is hopeful without being naïve, focusing entirely on the friendship that develops between two teenagers. When the political situation inevitably begins to intrude, the results are everything you expected... and completely different.


Movies were a bit harder to come by this year. I think I managed to see 2 movies in theatres before the pandemic hit (Downton Abbey and Wild Rose), and didn't have the attention span for movies at home. So I only saw 25 this year, including documentaries. Sadly, most of the pickings were slim and I only really want to highlight one:

* The Grizzlies (2018) - Based on a true story, the movie traces the formation of an Inuit lacrosse team and the harsh realities of life in the Arctic.


As for shows and exhibits... it was, needless to say, a slim year. People did what they could, however, and made concerts and musicals available online, so I managed a few:

- Hamilton: I was so, so sceptical of this. All the hype, all the obsession... and it was just THAT GOOD.
- Phantom of the Opera (25th anniversary at the Royal Albert Hall): so much better than the stage show we saw.
- Port Cities did a small free concert on Instagram, lots of technical difficulties but fun to watch nevertheless
- Mother Mother did a virtual acoustic concert that was wonderful
- Bears of Legend did a virtual concert of their album "Good Morning Motherland", and it was great


And finally, last but not least, I listened to a LOT of music this year, keeping Halsey, ONE OK ROCK, and Dermot Kennedy on repeat, but adding in BLACKPINK, Amy Shark, the Treble, Donovan Woods, and Fly by Midnight to the rotation.

This year I continued with the challenge of reading more books by POC or LGBTQA+ authors and did pretty well, I think, with about a quarter of all my reading by those categories (more if you count manga).

I also hit the 100 mark this year for the first time! 105 books in total this year (again, manga and graphic novels are only counted as one, no matter how many volumes I read).

76 fiction
15 non-fiction
12 manga/graphic novels
3 in French
24 by POC and/or LGBTQA+ authors


This year's favorites were:

* Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant - because everyone needs killer mermaids in a Battle Royale-type setting, with the author's particular brand of humor, heart-wrenching moments, and a plethora of diversity

* Witchmark by C.L. Polk - a stunning debut novel that had everything I was looking for, and a few things I didn't know I was missing. I am eagerly awaiting the author's next book!!

* The Tensorate Series by J.Y. Yang - another marvelous discovery. These novellas take fantasy to places I hadn't been before and I loved immersing myself in them.

* Passing Strange by Ellen Klages - another strange little fantasy novel that defies convention or explanation.

Now that I look at them, I'm seeing a pattern: all of them have been Nebula or Hugo nominees. All of them contain a diverse cast of characters and highlight queer relationships. This is what has been missing from what I've been reading. It makes me happy... and makes for damn fine storytelling.



I also managed to see 47 movies (new and new-to-me), despite almost never getting to the movie theatre! Netflix continues to be my friend... My favorites for the year were:

* Black Panther (2018) - this needs no explanation

* I Kill Giants (2017) - surprising and visually stunning

* Room (2015) - amazing acting, it yanks at your heart the whole time



This year, I decided that I needed to see more concerts and shows, to get out a bit more and do things, even if it's on my own. The result: some truly fantastic shows!

- Les Miserables (Place des Arts): I can't explain how much I loved this production. I saw Les Mis years ago when I was a teenager and was sorely disappointed, so this was taking a chance. But the production floored me, leaving me in tears over "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" in particular.

- Death in the Ice exhibit at CMH: a culmination of the last 2 years of work! I got to visit opening night, and then play tour guide the following day for the visitors.

- Lights with Dear Rouge (Algonquin Theatre): so many flashing strobe lights! Not my favorite concert.

- Mosaicultures: I'd wanted to go last year but never made it, so I took the opportunity to go with my mother when she was visiting. Beautiful artistry but not something I'd see again.

- Medieval exhibit at CMH: interesting but nothing special

- Bears of Legend (Salle Jean-Desprez): lovely, intimate concert as usual, made a little difficult by the freezing rain outside and some technical difficulties. A great show but not as strong as the last one we saw.

- Stars with the NAC Orchestra (NAC): I bought this ticket on a whim and oh, I did not regret it! My favorite concert of the year, they had such stage presence, sang all my favorites and things I'd never heard, and were just so in awe of the orchestra playing with them that it was lovely to see.

I gave myself the goal last year to seek out books by minorities and people of colour in an effort to widen my knowledge base and encourage non-mainstream authors. I've done alright with the challenge: 22 of the books I read this year were by people of colour or LGBTQA authors. Admittedly, probably almost half of those were manga series (again, I only count the first volume), but it's still a respectable total.

I also managed to read one more book than in 2016, completely coincidentally. Apparently I have a predictable pattern of reading. 83 books total this year, with 48 fiction, 9 non-fiction, and 3 French novels. I also reread 23 novels.

This year's favorites go to:

* the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. I read several volumes this year and each one is better than the last.

* the A Conjuring of Light series by V.E. Schwab. A standout trilogy that starts off well and ends with a huge bang.

* Binti by Nnedi Okorafor. I was surprised when I got my copy from the library: it's an itty-bitty thing, almost a short story, barely a novella. But it was perfect. Sci-fi and space aliens meet tribal Africa and deep-rooted tradition.


I also managed to see 28 movies (new and new-to-me), despite almost never getting to the movie theatre! The joy of Netflix and spending long hours in the dentist's office...

* Boy Meets Girl (2014) - a cute story of a transgender girl in a small town. It was refreshing not just that this movie was out there, but that it cast an actual transgender person in the leading role.

* Beauty and the Beast (2017) - oh, I was so afraid going into this movie! But they struck the right note over and over, fixing the discrepancies, edging away from Stockholm syndrome, and generally making me fall in love with this movie all over again.

* Your Name (2016) - I saw this completely randomly and loved every second of it. Boy and girl swap bodies, and desperately try to seek each other out.


And finally, last but not least, I managed no less than 2 concerts this year! I saw Mother Mother at the NAC with K.Flay opening, and Bears of Legend (again) at, of all places, the CMH theatre. I also saw Phantom of the Opera at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, and the movie airing of George Takei's Allegiance.

The insanity, the insanity. It looks like I read a lot, but half of these are manga.

( November booklist )

Hard month.

( September booklist )