Right now, I’m between degrees and only working in the archives part time, which means that I have more time for myself than I’ve had in years. The biggest trademark of my English degree was the way it structured my reading and not always in great ways (hello, Chaucer) but now I have full freedom to choose what I want to read and when. This is the perfect opportunity to work through my unruly TBR pile that has been steadily growing for years. Since at any given moment I’m either reading a book, looking for books or talking about books (sorry), I want to document them all in one place and keep myself accountable to keep going. I’ll be posting reviews and musings about the books I read, and I’ll also be using the public library as much as possible to save both my bank account and my poor overworked bookshelves. Please send me all of your book recommendations too! I’d love to know what you’re reading.

What I’ve read so far this summer (fun fact: 9 start with the prefix the)

• The Taxidermist’s Daughter – Kate Mosse
• Little Sister – Barbara Gowdy
• Restlessness – Aritha van Herk
• I’m the King of the Castle – Susan Hill
• Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
• The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson
• The Romantic – Barbara Gowdy
• The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
• The World According to Garp – John Irving
• The Bear – Clare Cameron
• The Girls – Emma Cline
• Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? – Jeanette Winterson
• The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
• Even this page is white – Vivek Shraya

Fiction I need to read (fun fact: only 11 begin with the but 3 are about birds!)

• The woman who gave birth to rabbits – Emma Donoghue
• The Afterlife of Birds – Elizabeth Philips
• The Genius of Birds – Elizabeth Philips.
• The End of the Story -Lydia Davis
• In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
• Villette – Charlotte Brontë
• Beloved – Toni Morrison
• Ulysses – James Joyce
• Astray – Emma Donoghue
• The Back of the Turtle -Thomas King
• The Waves – Virginia Woolf
• The Studhorse man – Robert Kroetsch
• White Teeth – Zadie Smith
• Swing Time – Zadie Smith
• Ophelia’s Muse – Rita Cameron
• Agnes Gray – Anne Brontë
• The obituary Writer – Ann Hood
• Moonglow – Michael Chabon
• Angela’s ashes – Frank McCourt
• The Break – Katherena Vermette
• The way the crow flies – Ann-Marie McDonald
• Son of a Trickster – Eden Robinson
• Moshi Moshi – Banana Yoshimoto
• Yesterday, at the Hotel Clarendon – Nicole Brossard
• Ana, Historic – Daphne Marlatt
• Wise Blood – Flannery O’Connor
• The Falls – Joyce Carol Oates

Poetry I need to read:

• Nets – Jen Bervin
• Recyclopedia – Haryette Mullen
• Joy Kagawa – A Garden of Anchors

Non-fiction/biography I need to read:

• Shirley Jackson, A Rather Haunted Life – Ruth Franklin
• Virginia Woolf, A Biography – Hermione Lee
• Charlotte Brontë – Clare Harman
• Anais Nin, A Biography – Deirdre Bair
• Bad Feminist – Roxanne Gay
• How to Build a Woman – Caitlin Moran

This list is probably about one hundredth of the books I want to read, but it’s a good start! Please send me book recommendations (especially for new poetry). I’m always up for something new!