Finished reading: I really enjoyed The Bees by Laline Paull. Such an imaginative story about a bee hive 📚
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Finished reading: Mavericks by Peter C. Newman is a fun collection of vignettes of infamous Canadians throughout history 📚
Finished reading: In Lament for a Literature: The Collapse of Canadian Book Publishing, Richard Stursberg gives a stark review of the collapse of Canada’s book industry. Tough to maintain a culture without a literature and ongoing national conversation. Fortunately he includes recommendations for how to fix it 📚
Finished reading: The Dollar A Year Men by Allan Levine is an impressive reminder of what Canada was once able to accomplish by connecting government with industry. I like to believe that something like this is possible again, though it seems much harder now and required an existential war then 📚
Finished reading: When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . . by Steven Pinker is really interesting. I hadn’t appreciated how essential common knowledge (you know that I know that you know…) is to so much of what we do 📚
Finished reading: The Emergency by George Packer is a very good story about the collapse of empire, complexity of parenting, optimism of youth, and our terrible capacity to create “others” 📚
Finished reading: The Second Mountain by David Brooks raises many important questions. According to Brooks, the first mountain is about personal achievement: career progression, wealth, and achievement. The second, more fullfilling mountain is about community, marriage, and religion. Although positioned as a “how to” book, Brooks provides many examples of paths to the summit of the second mountain. I think that’s appropriate. Each of us needs to find our own path, but good to know that the mountain exits and is traversable 📚
📚 Thanks to my family for a great set of books for Christmas this year.
Finished reading: Breaking Point by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson provides a very clear description of Canada’s challenges. Thankfully it also provides good ideas on how to fix them. Pairs well with Andrew Coyne’s recent book, though they disagree on electoral reform. Although daunting, I’m optimistic that this is an exciting time for Canada’s rejuvenation 🍁📚
Finished reading: The Random Universe by Andrew H. Jaffe is an interesting exploration of probability and models in physics and cosmology. I also appreciated the historical context that showed how the models developed 📚
Finished reading: As a Canadian public servant, I’m not the target market for Scaling People by Claire Hughes Johnson. Nonetheless, I found the sections on managing teams and navigating conflict useful 📚
Finished reading: Seemed inevitable that The Last Town by Blake Crouch would become a mostly straightforward action plot with lots of shooting. Still entertaining, though not nearly as good as the first book in the series. 📚
Finished reading: Sword & Citadel by Gene Wolfe continues a great series. I can’t understand how I lasted this long without reading these books. So many elements that are what I look for in a book: sci-fi, fantasy, and an unreliable narrator 📚
Finished reading: I enjoyed Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky. An imaginative mix of ecology, evolution, and sociology📚
Finished reading: Medieval Horizons by Ian Mortimer makes a good case that the Middle Ages were a dynamic period that made many contributions to our modern world 📚
Finished reading: Wayward by Blake Crouch does what a second book in a trilogy needs to do. I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve read the third book to see if it pays off. 📚
Wednesday, November 19, 2025 →
Finished reading: Frustrating that 1984 by George Orwell is still so relevant 📚
Finished reading: Greener Than Thou by Mark Leiren-Young is a scathing, and funny, look at the Canadian Green Party. I’ve voted for them in some previous elections, but doubt that will happen again📚
Finished reading: Although less cozy than previous books in the series, The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses by Malka Older was still entertaining 📚
Finished reading: The Book of the New Sun: Volume 1 by Gene Wolfe is a great mix of fantasy and sci-fi. I enjoyed it and will carry on with the rest of the series 📚
Finished reading: After hearing a recommendation for the Fifth Business by Robertson Davies on The Paul Wells Show, I decided to reread it after about thirty years since the last time. Such a great story. I’m glad I revisited it 📚
Finished reading: The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami is a dystopian view of where we’re headed with data-driven algorithms. I enjoyed the story, despite the scary implications 📚
Finished reading: Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a really good first contact with aliens story 📚
Finished reading: Pines by Blake Crouch is an exciting start to the series. I appreciated the Twin Peaks vibes 📚
Finished reading: The 51st State Votes by Justin Ling is a good overview of what happened in Canada’s recent, strange election campaign 📚
Finished reading: The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman is great fun: humour, adventure, and imagination, as a thief tries to rescue a queen 📚
Finished reading: I’ll confess that I skipped through parts of Foreign Bodies by Simon Schama. I appreciated the message of the book that vaccination has always been controversial and only diligent science with careful public health communication have been persuasive. I just found the details of the book too overwhelming: so many names, dates, and locations to keep track of, which I wasn’t up for 📚
Finished reading: City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer is an imaginative, richly detailed, and difficult book to read. I appreciated the world building and overall strangeness, but the lack of plot and central characters made for a challenging read 📚
Finished reading: I really enjoyed Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. A clever and poignant story. Not sure why it took me so long to get around to reading it 📚
Finished reading: Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe is a fascinating and disturbing book about The Troubles in Ireland with interesting questions about political violence and accountability 📚