"Botchan" by Natsume Soseki

Odd little book translated from the Japanese. Apparently it's very popular in Japan and can be compared to Huckleberry Finn. I got the feeling that it lost a tremendous amount in the translation and in cultural differences. Nice to have a tiny view into Japanese culture. I bought the book because Botchan sounds like the name of a bird (stork or flamingo?) in Polish.

"Blood Rites" by Jim Butcher

I enjoyed this story. It has some interesting plot twists. Dresden finds a brother etc etc.

"Death Masks" by Jim Butcher

I enjoyed this book. It contained several interesting revelations about Dresden's powers and about his family. I also enjoyed Susan's character and will actually miss her. I read part of this book in Montreal and on the Greyhound bus... 

...visit to my mother to go with her to the the bazaar in Holy Trinity Church where I had tripe soup for lunch and a nalesznik for dessert. I enjoyed brushing up on my Polish and French

"Far from the Tree" by Andrew Solomon

I bought this thick scholarly book because it caught my eye when I was passing through the downtown Chapters. The cover was a nice gold colour, it had some award stickers on it, and the subject matter interested me. It is written by a gay guy, who used his own experiences to extrapolate to other types of children who are different from their parents, and so horizontal, as opposed to vertical. It includes deaf people, dwarves, schizophrenia etc etc. I quite enjoyed most of the chapters but I did skip the one on children of rape, and most of the one on musical prodigies. I had been hoping for intellectual prodigies instead, and have very little interest in musical giftedness.

To my surprise, I found the chapter on schizophrenia to be totally boring to me. I had thought I would be riveted... perhaps the problem was too much knowledge. I did end up skipping or skimming quite a bit of stuff, but I am glad I read this book. It definitely broadened my knowledge of the human condition,

"The Casual Vacancy" by J. K. Rowling

I read this book on Eva's recommendation. I just texted her in Winnipeg to let her know I think it's one of the ugliest and most realistic exposes on the ugliness in human nature that I have ever encountered. The book describes the internal politics and machinations in a small narrow minded English town that is much more interested in naval gazing than in helping the needy. It's all judgement and no understanding.  Kind of like Republicans in the United States who had a major victory in the midterms last night.