March 2023 – What Are You Reading?

This month I ended up focussing a lot on getting through some graphic novels. A friend of mine lent me a whole bunch awhile ago and I wanted to return at least some of them in a timely fashion. I also attempted to read a novel called Windflower, but I ended up stopping because the book failed to draw me in within the first 30 pages (I normally try to give books a little longer, but it was a shorter book, and I really was having a hard time even wanting to keep reading it).

Nonfiction

Fiction

• Black Cat: Infinity Score by Jed MacKay and C.F. Villa (graphic novel)
• Captain Carter: Woman Out of Time by Jamie McKelvie and Marika Cresta (graphic novel)
• The Last Ronin by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Tom Waltz, et al. (graphic novel)
• Domino: Killer Instinct by Gail Simone, David Baldeon and Michael Shelfer (graphic novel)

I’m not sure what my favourite was. Captain Carter: Woman Out of Time was really good. So was The Last Ronin, which was a really different Ninja Turtles story.

I think next month I’m going to try to focus on clearing up more of the books that people have lent me. We’ll see how it goes. 🙂

So what have you been reading?

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Interview #99

The ninety-second author interview went live today on TBPL Off the Shelf! This time I interviewed Sandi Boucher. We talk about how she became a motivational speaker, choosing the content of her new book, and why her book on reconciliation is a must-read.  You can find the interview here.

The Return of the Author Interviews on TBPL Off the Shelf

After a few month hiatus, I’m once again working on author interviews on TBPL Off the Shelf, the Thunder Bay Public Library’s blog. This month I interviewed Marianne Jones, a local Thunder Bay author. We talk about what inspired her literary novel, Maud and Me, and why painting appears so often in her writing. You can find the interview here.

It also looks like I also neglected to post about the last few interviews here on this blog. In August 2022, I interviewed Brent Scollie, a historical nonfiction writer. In September, we ran two interviews, first with the local author Nancy Mauro, who wrote a fictional tale about the origins of the famous Thunder Bay pastry, the persian. The second interview was with Lorene Shyba and Magda Stroinska, the editor and translator of Перша Книжечка / The Little Book, which is an old Ukrainian reader that was rereleased last year with proceeds helping the Ukrainian people. And finally in October, I interviewed La Carmina about her new book, The Little Book of Satanism.

So that makes this month’s interview with Marianne Jones the ninety-eighth interview on TBPL Off the Shelf! (I think I lost count somewhere along the way – I thought it was the ninety-seventh).

February 2023 – What Are You Reading?

This month I had a whole pile of graphic novels out from the library, along with some other books. So I really wanted to get through some of them before moving onto other novels.

Nonfiction

Fiction

• Ahsoka by E.K. Johnston
• A Pros and Cons List for Strong Feelings by Will Betke-Brunswick (graphic novel)
• Big Ethel Energy Volume 1 by Keryl Brown Ahmed and Siobhan Keenan (graphic novel)
• Dungeons and Dragons: Mindbreaker by Jim Zub and Eduardo Mello (graphic novel)
• The Fifth Force by Matthew Medney and Morgan Rosenblum. Created by Hero Project and Catherine Loubier (graphic novel)
• Knighted by Gregg Hurwitz and Mark Texeira (graphic novel)
• Five Stalks of Grain by Adrian Lysenko, illustrated by Ivanka Theodosia Galadza (graphic novel)

Of the graphic novels, I really liked Knighted. It’s the story of an ordinary guy, Bob, who accidentally kills the Knight, a superhero who is a lot like Batman, and must take up his mantle to save the city. While it’s fairly graphic at times, the story itself is a lot of fun. I liked Bob and found myself really rooting for him. I’ll definitely keep my eye out for volume 2!

January 2023 – What Are You Reading?

Welcome to the first What Are You Reading of 2023! I had grand plans for reading this month, but unfortunately only managed to read one book. But that’s okay – there’s still plenty of time for reading this year. 🙂

Nonfiction

Fiction

• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

My family read Where the Crawdads Sing last year, and I wanted to read it too so we could all talk about it. Delia Owens has some beautiful descriptions. I also really liked how the ending took me by surprise. Now that I’ve read it, I’m hoping to watch the movie as well.

So what about you? Have you read anything interesting this month? 🙂

Hello 2023!

Hey everyone, Happy New Year! I hope your holidays were good! Mine, unfortunately, were not this year – I was sick. 😦 We’re hoping to have some of the missed gatherings later in January though, so hopefully that will be good. 🙂

With a new year, it’s time to reflect on the goals I set last year, and set some new ones for 2023. Last year I set four goals: read 25 novel-length books I already own, continue working on my story from Script Frenzy, work on a new story, and accomplish seven language learning tasks I set for myself. I know that overall things didn’t go very well…

Book-wise, I managed to read 13 novel-length books that I own (the picture on the left shows 15 titles, but two of them were graphic novels, not novel-length). Of those 13, 9 were older books, 4 were new. Overall I did read 24 novel-length books, but fell far short of the hoped for 25 that I already own. But I did manage to read Dune, which is the size of 2-3 books, so that made me happy. 🙂

Regarding the Script Frenzy story, I unfortunately didn’t do much work on it during the year. I do not have a draft at this time.

I did, however, do some work on a new story over the summer. I didn’t get terribly far with it, but I am happy that I did manage to do some writing this year. 🙂

The language learning goals were a complete failure. I was progressing really well on the French tree in Duolingo, but then Duolingo changed their interface for me in October, and that goal was no longer reachable (they took all of my progress and plunked me on the new tree, so I could no longer work my way back to where I’d unlocked before). I didn’t finish reading any books in either language, and I also failed to finish Ukrainian Lessons Podcast seasons 2 and 3 (I’m still on season 2). I also stopped learning sign language (after a few months, the family member I was learning it for admitted they were not really interested in learning after all; being language #3 for me, it made sense for me to drop it so I had more time for French and Ukrainian).

All in all, 2022 wasn’t the most productive year for me. It was a somewhat difficult year in many ways (chief of which was dealing with some health issues on and off throughout the year), but was a good year in other ways (I started seeing someone). 🙂

So for 2023, I’d like to get myself back on track, creatively speaking. Time has always been an issue for me (I always try to fit too much in), so I need to be mindful that I don’t overwhelm myself. So with that in mind, here’s what I’d like to accomplish this year:

1. Read 25 novel-length books this year, 15 of which are books I already own. I think this is a fair trade-off: I have room in case something new catches my eye at a bookstore or at the library, but I will try to read more of the books that I already own.
2. Write (creatively) for one hour a week. Yes, I’d like to bring back #WriteMonday/Tuesday/Thursday/Friday (it’s changed days over the years). I don’t have a specific day in mind at the moment (and it will probably change from week to week). But I am going to commit to working on some kind of creative writing, be it writing or editing, for one hour every week. I’m going to change the tag to #WritingDay and use that every week (as of this writing the tag is #WriteTuesday, since that was the last day I was able to devote to writing every week).
3. Finish First Ukrainian Reader for Beginners. I’m about halfway through the book. It’s getting a bit harder (and more intimidating because the texts are getting longer). But I am positive I can make my way through the rest of it this year!
4. Read a book in French. I’ve started 101 Conversations in Intermediate French several times and never get beyond the first few conversations, so I think it’s safe to say I should try something else. I have a number of French readers and short story collections, so I need to find one that appeals to me and finish it. 🙂
5. Finish Ukrainian Lessons Podcast season 2. I have about 10 episodes left to go, but they’re more difficult: these last episodes are a short history course on Ukraine. I will need more time to digest them, and need to listen to each one several times before I feel confident moving onto the next one (I’ve already been struggling with the first of these episodes on and off for a month now).

There are a few other things I was considering adding as well (such as committing to writing small pieces in Ukrainian or French every week or month), but I don’t want to overwhelm myself, especially since I am also fitting in my two hours of French every week and other language lessons on iTalki as time permits. If I manage to accomplish those last three goals quicker than I anticipate, I will add some new goals (such as reading another book in either language, or making my way through Ukrainian Lessons Podcast season 3).

So how about you? Have you set any goals for yourself this year?

December 2022 – What Are You Reading?

I did it! I managed to finish Dune this month!!!! Even more exciting, I finished it a bit earlier than planned: I was hoping to have it finished by Christmas, but managed to finish it a whole week early (giving me a bit of extra time for something else this month, too). 🙂

Unfortunately I was also sick a lot this month. 😦 But that ended up meaning a lot more reading time than I otherwise might have had, particularly around the holidays.

Nonfiction

• Make Space for Happiness: How to Stop Attracting Clutter and Start Magnetizing the Life You Want by Tracy mcCubbin

Fiction

• Dune by Frank Herbert
• One for Sorrow, Two for Joy by Clive Woodall

I also made it through a bunch of magazines (I’m now actually up to date with the Walleye!), and attempted to read another fiction book that I’ve had on my shelf for awhile. Unfortunately, after about 35 pages I really wasn’t into it, so I decided to stop in favour of something else, rather than forcing myself through it.

I think my favourite book was Dune.

How about you? What have you been reading? What was your favourite?

November 2022 – What Are You Reading?

I’ve been planning on reading Dune since September, but needed to read a couple of other things first (I wanted to reread the Die graphic novels so I could lend them to someone, then I needed to finish Namwayut, which I started reading for Canada’s National Day of Truth and Reconciliation).  I finished Namwayut at the beginning of November, clearing the way to start Dune (which is still ongoing)!

Nonfiction books:

• Namwayut: We Are All One – A Pathway to Reconciliation by Chief Robert Joseph

Fiction books:

So what have you read over the last month?  What was your favourite book?

October 2022 – What Are You Reading?

I forgot to mention this last month, but I started slowly trying to get through some of the magazines I have stashed.  I believe in September I read 2 MacLean’s and 2 or 3 issues of The Walleye.

This month though, those magazines once again took a back seat as I decided to concentrate on finally finishing Die by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Haas. It’s been a long time since I read volume 3, so I once again needed to reread the entire story. I’ve found that this is well worth it – every time I read them, I seem to get a lot more out of them!

Nonfiction books:

•  

Fiction books:

• Magical Boy: Volume 2 by The Kao (graphic novel)
• Die Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreakers by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Haas (reread, graphic novel)
• Die Volume 2: Split the Party by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Haas (reread, graphic novel)
• Die Volume 3: The Great Game by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Haas (reread, graphic novel)
• Die Volume 4: The Great Game by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Haas (graphic novel)
•  

My favourite

So what have you read over the last month?  What was your favourite book?

Duolingo Redesign :(

Last week, my Duolingo app changed on me! 😦

Duolingo’s new linear path

I had no idea that Duolingo was rolling out a change in their learning path (or tree, as I’ve been calling it). They decided to replace the old tree, which had between 1-3 lesson bubbles per level that you would work on before moving on, with a much more straightforward learning path, making the app more beginner-friendly.

While right from the beginning I was disappointed with the unexpected change, I wanted to give the app a fair chance. I started with Ukrainian, and right away was not happy with the new path. I completed my Ukrainian tree about a year and a half ago, and have been using it every second night to practice. This has been a really big help in getting the grammar patterns down with some of the basics. I also relied on the lesson bubbles breaking, which was a good reminder on what to practice. But all of that is gone now. The lessons no longer break. And with the redesign, it’s hard to find where individual lessons are now; as you can see in the first picture, there are no labels – the old tree had a title under each lesson, like “food” or “animals,” making it easy to find at a glance what you want to practice. On the new tree, you can click on the lessons to find out what they are (see the second picture), but that takes a lot of time to find anything.

I did find a spot for practicing (if you click on the hearts in the top right corner, you have an option to practice). The problem with that though is the app decides what to give you to practice. You can’t go and practice a particular grammar point, or work on particular vocabulary. This very much took the fun out of using the Ukrainian tree.

But I still had French to try. Under the old tree, I was progressing steadily, turning my tree to gold. I was nearing another checkpoint and very proud of my progress. So losing my spot with it was rather sad. But Duolingo said you wouldn’t lose any progress, so I figured I would give it a shot.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take into account the fact that I had unlocked a lot more of the tree than I had been working on (I was almost at I think the 6th checkpoint turning the tree to gold, but I had unlocked lessons part way between checkpoints 7 and 8). So Duolingo probably used some of that to account for where I was placed on their new path. And I felt utterly lost by the lesson they put me at. I had no connection to what I was doing before (what I was literally in the middle of finishing before the app changed for me).

Another thing that they changed were the stories. Stories were the most fun part of Duolingo, in the courses that had them (unfortunately, Ukrainian didn’t). The stories used to be on their own tab – I would go and do a few for fun when I was having a hard time with French (or just wanted to do something easy and fun for a night). Now they’re incorporated into the new paths as well. This once again takes out the fun for me – the path is making me do the stories to progress, and it’s hard to go back and find the ones I like and want to redo.

After trying the new path for a few nights, I found that it wasn’t for me. I was sad and no longer having fun at all with it. So I made the difficult decision to stop using the app, saying goodbye to an 822 day streak. 😦 To make everything extra sad, my mom, who has been my Duolingo partner since the beginning, still has the old tree. So she’s continuing on until the app changes for her as well, at which point she said she will quit, too.

I will now have to figure out what I’m going to do instead. Duolingo was my nightly anchor for language learning, so I will have to find something else to take its place. At this point I’m thinking my time will be better spent with books and podcasts, rather than a new app I’m going to see how that goes for a bit, then report back in a few weeks!