My 2016 in Books

It has been a tough year for many communities around the world: politically, environmentally, economically, socially. I have had despairing moments this year, too, but crises are often accompanied by victories, and we can look upon certain things with joy and pride this year as well: for one thing, it appears that more and more people have begun to participate, individually and collectively, in conversations and actions the focus of which is the betterment of our world. This can only be a good thing.

A healthy reading life enhances a person’s sympathetic capacities, increases one’s understanding and engagement with the world, and helps keep one’s wits sharp. What better way to become a contributor to one’s neighbourhood and, by extension, world? So, while I do have a full-time career and spend many “off” hours engaged in community-building activities, cooking and homemaking, and some exercise (admittedly I could use more), I also make time for reading. Or, rather, I mostly read and begrudgingly make time for other things, which I admit are important.

My reading life developed further in a couple of ways this year: I joined Goodreads, and I co-started a Bahá’í book club with a few friends who wish to support one another in our independent studies of the Faith (we are currently reading The World Order of Baha’u’llah by Shoghi Effendi). In my work, I had the great privilege of editing two plays, proofreading a number of books, and designing a selection of covers and interiors, including Farrant’s The Days and Tremblay’s Yours Forever, Marie-Lou.

As has been my practise for the last few years, I tracked my reading this year. In 2014 I set some criteria, and I abide by them still: I counted books only, not newspaper or blog articles, periodicals, or other documents; I did count novel-length fan works, but not shorter fanfictions; I did not count books I only skimmed or didn’t finish; and I made a distinction between “work-related” books (which I read for work-related purposes) and books I discovered “via work” (books published by the company I work for and which I read for pleasure).

Below is my record for 2016 in the form of a table. This year, I read 9 works of non-fiction, 16 plays, 3 collections of poetry, and 36 works of fiction (mostly literary fiction, and mostly CanLit, but also some YA and some short stories – more short stories than I would have guessed). This year also marked the first time I’ve read a cookbook through from start to finish. I reached 64 books in total. (When I get older / losing my mind / many years from now / will you still be sending me a valentine? / …)

#	Title	Author	Publisher, Year	Subject Category	Why did I read this? How did I get it?
1	Writing the Okanagan	George Bowering	Talonbooks, 2015	Fiction (Short Stories) & Poetry	Work-related
2	The X-Files: Ruins	Kevin J. Anderson	HarperCollins, 1996 (ebook 2009)	Fiction (Novel)	Prior to the #XFilesRevival I pledged to read all six original tie-in novels.
3	When Everything Feels Like the Movies	Raziel Reid	Arsenal Pulp Press, 2014	Fiction (YA Novel)	Discovered through publisher promotion; borrowed from library
4	Library of Souls	Ransom Riggs	Quirk Books, 2015	Fiction (YA Novel)	3rd in trilogy
5	Sextet	Morris Panych	Talonbooks, 2016	Drama	Work-related
6	Pedal	Chelsea Rooney	Caitlin Press, 2014	Fiction (Novel)	Discovered through publisher promotion; borrowed from library
7	Forever Yours, Marie-Lou	Michel Tremblay; translated by Bill Glassco and John Van Burek	Talonbooks, 1971	Drama	Via work
8	Injun	Jordan Abel	Talonbooks, 2016	Poetry	Work-related
9	The Oh She Glows Cookbook	Angela Liddon	Penguin Canada, 2013	Non-fiction (Cookbook)	Bought with gift card received for Christmas
10	Dead White Writer on the Floor	Drew Hayden Taylor	Talonbooks, 2011	Drama	Via work
11	Gut: The Inside Story of our Body’s Most Underrated Organ	Guilia Enders	Greystone Books, 2014	Non-Fiction (Health and Science)	Discovered through publicity & bookstore browsing; borrowed from V.W.
12	The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society	Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows	Dial Press, 2009	Fiction (Novel)	Recommended by S.V., bought second-hand
13	The Days: Forecasts, Warnings, Advice	M.A.C. Farrant	Talonbooks, 2016	Fiction (Short Stories)	Work-related
14	The Night Stages	Jane Urquhart	McClelland and Stewart, 2015	Fiction (Novel)	Ayyám-i-Há gift from R.W. (suggested by me)
15	Five Little Bitches	Theresa McWhirtier	Anvil Press, 2012	Fiction (Novel)	Via work
16	The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant	Michel Tremblay; translated by Sheila Fischman	Talonbooks, 1981	Fiction (Novel)	Via work
17	For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again	Michel Tremblay; translated by Linda Gaboriau	Talonbooks, 1998	Drama	Via work
18	Inside the Seed	Jason Rothery	Talonbooks, 2016	Drama	Work-related
19	A Line in the Sand	Guillermon Verdecchia and Marcus Youssef	Talonbooks, 1996	Drama	Work-related
20	The World Before Us	Aislinn Hunter	Doubleday Canada, 2014	Fiction (Novel)	Attracted to the cover, bought second-hand
21	The Commons	Stephen Collis	Talonbooks, 2008	Poetry	Via work
22	Espresso	Lucia Frangione	Talonbooks, 2004	Drama	Via work
23	The World of Jeeves	P.G. Wodehouse	Arrow, 2004	Fiction (Short Stories)	Part of wedding gift from M.B. in 2011
24	Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid	Evelyn Lau	Harper Perennial, 1989 (ebook 2011)	Non-Fiction (Memoir)	Read excerpts as a youth; reread
25	Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life	Jenna Woginrich	Storey, 2010	Non-Fiction (Memoir)	Discount bin at Book Warehouse
26	The Bicycle Eater	Larry Tremblay; translated by Sheila Fischman	Talonbooks, 2005	Fiction (Novel)	Via work
27	Yes Please	Amy Poehler	Dey St., 2014	Non-Fiction (Memoir)	Gift from V.J.F.
28	The Watershed	Annabel Soutar	Talonbooks, 2016	Drama	Via work
29	Go Figure	Rejéan Ducharme; translated by Will Browning	Talonbooks, 2003	Fiction (Novel)	Via work
30	City of Glass: Douglas Coupland’s Vancouver	Douglas Coupland	Douglas & MacIntyre, 2003	Non-Fiction (Memoir and Travel)	Thought I should read some Coupland, found this at Sally Ann
31	The X-Files: Antibodies	Kevin J. Anderson	HarperCollins, 1997 (ebook 2008)	Fiction (Novel)	Prior to the #XFilesRevival I pledged to read all six original tie-in novels. (I still have one to go.)
32	A Fine Balance	Rohinton Mistry	McClelland and Stewart, 1997	Fiction (Novel)	A CanLit classic I had meant to read for years
33	Carry On	Rainbow Rowell	St. Martin’s, 2015	Fiction (YA Novel)	Recommended by S.D.; borrowed from library (ebook)
34	Running on Fumes	Christian Guay-Poliquin; translated by Jacob Homel	Talonbooks, 2016	Fiction (Novel)	Work-related
35	The Man Who Loved Books Too Much	Allison Hoover Bartlett	Penguin, 2010	Non-Fiction (Journalism / memoir)	Won in contest on The Word Blog in 2012
36	U Girl	Meredith Quartermain	Talonbooks, 2016	Fiction (Novel)	Work-related
37	One Good Story, That One	Thomas King	HarperPerennial, 1993	Fiction (Short Stories)	Borrowed from A-M.M.
38	Price Paid: The Fight for First Nations Survival	Bev Sellars	Talonbooks, 2016	Non-Fiction (Law and History)	Work-related
39	Ana Historic	Daphne Marlatt	Anansi, 1997	Fiction (Novel)	Had wanted to read Marlatt’s only novel; found it in the mobile library at West 16th and Oak
40	Concord Floral	Jordan Tannahil	Playwrights Canada Press, 2016	Drama	Recommended and lent by V.W.
41	Salt-Water Moon	David French	Talonbooks, 1998	Drama	Attended the Plan Z Theatre production (Vancouver)
42	Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Parts 1 & 2)	J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany	Little, Brown, 2016	Drama	#8 in series
43	The Miniaturist	Jessie Burton	Ecco Press, 2014	Fiction (Novel)	Was attracted to the cover art; borrowed from V.W.
44	Yours Forever, Marie-Lou	Michel Tremblay; translated by Linda Gaboriau	Talonbooks, 2016	Drama	Work-related
45	Reading Sveva	Daphne Marlatt	Talonbooks, 2016	Poetry	Work-related
46	The City of Ember	Jeanne DuPrau	Random House, 2003	Fiction (YA Novel)	Recommended by A.D.P.; borrowed from library
47	The People of Sparks	Jeanne DuPrau	Yearling, 2004	Fiction (YA Novel)	#2 in series
48	Persuasion	Jane Austen	Vintage Classics, 2014 (orig. 1818)	Fiction (Novel)	Had wanted to read for years; bought new
49	Nymph	Fransesca Lia Block	Talonbooks, 2015	Fiction (Short Stories)	Kobo discount; also had enjoyed Weetzie Bat in 2003/2004
50	In a Blue Moon	Lucia Frangione	Talonbooks, 2016	Drama	Work-related
51	Eleven	Paul Hanley	FriesenPress, 2014	Non-Fiction (Environmental and World Issues)	Reviewed for subTerrain Magazine (Winter 2016-17 issue)
52	The Envelope	Vittorio Rossi	Talonbooks, 2016	Drama	Work-related
53	Irish Ghost Stories	David Marcus (editor)	Bloomsbury, 2000	Fiction (Short Stories)	VPL used book sale, 2014
54	The Namesake	Jhumpa Lahiri	Mariner Books, 2004	Fiction (Novel)	Recommended and lent by V.W.
55	You Will Remember Me	François Archambault; translated by Bobby Theodore	Talonbooks, 2016	Drama	Work-related
56	The Prophet of Yonwood	Jeanne DuPrau	Yearling, 2006	Fiction (YA Novel)	#4 in series
57	Crees in the Caribbean	Drew Hayden Taylor	Talonbooks, 2016	Drama	Work-related; also saw the play’s premiere in Saskatoon in 2015
58	Tying the Threads	Anne Rose, Autopilot, Cassatt, Kayla, K.J., LA, LauraJo, Mary S., Sängerin, Shayenne, and Sheri; edited by Cassatt and Shayenne	koffeeklub.net, 1999	Fanfiction	Related: watched all of Star Trek: Voyager this fall, got hooked
59	Plain Sailing	Missyhissy3	fanfiction.net, 2014	Fanfiction	See above
60	Middlemarch	George Eliot	Riverside Editions, 1956 (orig. 1871)	Fiction (Novel)	Began a decade ago for my fourth-year Victorian Studies seminar, finally finished
61	If on a winter’s night a traveler	Italo Calvino	Harcourt, 1981	Fiction (Experimental novel)	On the syllabus for my Experimental Fiction course a decade ago, finally read it
62	Next Year, For Sure	Zoey Leigh Peterson	Doubleday Canada, 2017	Fiction (Novel)	A.R.C.s given out at Giller Light Bash, Vancouver
63	Guano	Louis Carmain (translated by Rhonda Mullins)	Coach House, 2015	Fiction (Novella)	Publisher publicity (Coach House Books e-newsletter & catalogue)
64	The Night Circus	Erin Morgenstern	Anchor Canada, 2012	Fiction (Novel)	Bookstore browsing; borrowed from B.W.

My favourites included Italo Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler, which I began years ago and then finally began again – in the spirit of the novel itself, one could argue? The City of Ember was another favourite, and I highly recommend it to junior youth (ages 10 to 14) for its wonderful world-building, relatable characters, and messages of hope, fortitude, perserverance, community building, and unity building. Ana Historic by Daphne Marlatt; One Good Story, That One by Thomas King; and U Girl by Meredith Quartermain were my favourite CanLit selections, although I will also say that Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance slayed me emotionally, and one of the bravest on the list is Chelsea Rooney’s Pedal, an unsettling but quite sympathetic novel.
If you only take away one or two recommendations from this list, though, I highly recommend Price Paid: The Fight for First Nations Survival by Bev Sellars and Eleven by Paul Hanley. These are the kind of books that will help change the world.

Also see my 2014 and 2015 lists, if you are short on book recs and share my tastes.

Happy new year! If you are seeing 2016 as a graveyard of buried hopes, then may 2017 be for you bright and magical.

Victory At Last: A Speech on the Occasion of Samuel and Safiya’s Wedding

Me, speechifying like it’s nobody’s business (Photo by Zach Miloff)

—   V I C T O R Y   A T   L A S T   —

A speech on the occasion of the wedding of Samuel and Safiya, November 28, 2015, to be delivered with tenor Churchillian bombast, and given in recompense for Samuel’s unforgetable speech at my own wedding five years prior

* * *

To find Samuel a wife. This was our charge. This was the battle.

One score and eleven years ago Samuel’s parents brought forth in this nation a new boy, conceived in hope, and eventually dedicated to the cause of spiritual and social advancement and the true liberty of mankind …  and also, a bit later, dedicated to the hope of marriage.

The first step on the way to victory is to recognize the enemy. In this case, the enemy was a life of bachelorhood: abstinence from home-cooked meals; abstinence from in-law-related obligations; and, of course, standard-issue abstinence.

You ask, what was our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory. Victory at all costs! Victory in spite of all potential embarrassment! Victory, however long and hard the road! For without victory there could never be the hope of adorable, cappuccino-coloured progeny.

He had nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. He had before him an ordeal of the most strenuous kind. He had before him years of struggle and long-suffering. He faced the most daunting of tasks: to seek out and investigate the character of one who could be his match, his intimate helpmeet.

What were our tactics? We would see him off on outings with young ladies. He would date in North America, he would date in China, he would date in Africa, he would date in India, and he would date online. He would go on dating to the bitter end. Or would it be the sweet end? And he would never surrender.

We were all in this together – you and I, families, friends –  rallying around the noble cause of pairing this guy off, sending our warrior into the loving arms of eventual matrimony. We took up our task with buoyancy and hope. We knew in our lion hearts that this cause would not be suffered to fail among men. Through thick and thin, we have stood by him: ever the suitor – but ever to be the groom?

“Always the wedding crasher, never the bridegroom,” or so it has been said, just now.

I, among his comrades-in-arms, have done what I could to stand by him – mostly over the phone, since, despite our apparently undying friendship, we have never in fact lived in the same place. Living far apart from your BFF can be difficult –  but it may have been a mercy to those around us, considering that when we did get together we insisted on doing such things as: challenging everyone in sight to Scrabble tournaments; pretending that the somewhat dry gatherings we attended were actually taxidermy conventions, and then trying to hold in our giggles; calling up acquaintances to ask them ludicrous questions that purported to have something to do with their fields of expertise; and, of course, hosting our own preemptive funerals.

My spiritual brother was not always the paragon of manhood you see before you today. I first came to know this now decorated hero [point to wedding ring] as a small, blonde –  nay, see-thru-haired – boy at a summer camp. Camp, in particular ROBSI (the Rideau-Ottawa Baha’i Schools Initiative), became our primary stomping ground, and we were royals in our day. Our campfire skits were the cleverest, our noodle fights the noodliest, and our spice-eating contests the most hilarious. One fateful year, we were at last put together as a counsellor team, only to be split up later that summer, after the camp directors received complaints from campers in other groups that our group was having too much fun and it wasn’t fair.

On other occasions, we would be found drawing faces on pieces of fruit, writing and illustrating comics that mysteriously didn’t seem to be funny to many other people, and of course, having excellent ‘girl talks.’ Wherever we were in the world, messages would be exchanged. Had I ventured into that vault, this speech would have been many hours long. I will only say that one of my favourite emails from Sam came when he was in Macau, near China, doing volunteer work, and I was starting my undergrad in Peterborough, Ontario. The email, which warmed my heart to no end, simply said, “Could you come here for a sec?”

In later years – the globe-trotting, single years – my memories of Samuel comprise long hours of preparation for this or that trip abroad: staying up all night, packing up his literal baggage, unpacking his proverbial baggage, mending his clothes, and exchanging all the music we could download from one another in the space of about ten hours. Ship-shape in the barracks, and then ship out.

So you see that I have had my share of valour on this battlefield. It has been my honour to have Samuel for so many years monopolize my time, belittle my cities of residence, malign my friends, make fun of my family, and on early mornings sic his dogs on me as a wake-up call. And it is my hope that we will once again into the fray. That is to say, I hope we will make time again for some of our creative projects, for example, now that his all-consuming wife search is over.

The battle was not always dignified, but it was always honourable! Tens of tens have been left in the dust of the unrelenting juggernaut that was Samuel Benoit, bachelor. The statistics speak for themselves: one out of all Baha’i women in eastern Ontario and western Quebec have now fallen victim to his crusade. I first learned of Safiya – or “Amusement Park Girl” as I would come to catalogue her – over the phone, after a discouraging encounter about which the bridegroom may one day tell you. Suffice to say, rather early on in their acquaintanceship, all seemed lost. And yet, victory is sweetest when one has known defeat.

But God is not heedless to the sighings of the soul. When we desire something good, Good will side with us. When we pray ardently and truly seek some outlet for the realization of our hopes, sooner or later the occasion will present itself. And later is better than never.

Never have so few owed so much to so many. Today is a day for the annals of history. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty, and so bear ourselves that, if this union is to last for a thousand years or more, through all the worlds of God, we will still say, “This was one of Samuel’s finest hours!”

Where there is unity, there is always victory. God bless you all. This is your victory! It is the victory of the cause of unity between two families. Everyone, mother or father, sister or brother, niece or nephew, friend or frenemy, has done their best. Everyone has tried. Neither the long years, nor the false alarms, nor the rocky starts in any way weakened the unbending resolve of Samuel Benoit in his efforts to find a delightsome wife, and find one he has: a wife beautiful and sweet, one who has already begun to temper him, and – best of all – one who makes him look tall in photographs. Here’s to you, Safiya! [Raise drink in toast. Others should join in.]

Let us now, at the last, unfurl the standard of victory in the name of these two beloved friends! [Unfurl the standard!]

The new Benoit coat-of-arms. (Photo by Samuel)

And if you’re thinking, Samuel, What on earth am I going to do with that giant flag? I do not want to keep it, then I say unto you, “too bad,” and I suggest that you might find uses for it someday – say, for example, as a baby blanket.

Thank you for indulging me this evening. Please continue with your merry-making (for a minute or two, after which we will hear from the illustrious groom).

* * *

With thanks for some of their words
, which I brazenly lifted, 
to, most especially,
 Winston Churchill, and to Martin Luther King Jr., 
Gandhi, Teddy Roosevelt, 
Publilius Syrus, Malcolm Forbes, 
Sun Tzu, Abraham Lincoln, and to Bahíyyih Khánum (the latter being 
the only words I took entirely seriously)

---

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—   APPENDIX A  —

The happy groom and bride at their recent reception (Photo by Melody R.)

The coat of arms, in progress (1)

The coat of arms, in progress (2)

Me and my derpy face, speechifying. Now with 100% more coats-of-arms! (Photo by Zachary Miloff)

---

---

—   APPENDIX B  —

See the inspiration for the coat of arms here. (It was inspired by a historical coat of arms of the de Benoit family.)

Also, I submit the below photograph into evidence. The photograph shows a scrap piece of paper on which, in perhaps early 2012 (more than three years before Samuel’s wedding), I wrote down the idea for this speech.

Evidence that I had planned this speech years before the wedding. (When you get a good idea, write it down! Keep it for as long as it takes!)

My 2015 in Books

Well folks, I didn’t even get to 50 this year. AND I’m a bit late publishing my list. But it’s about quality, not quantity, right?

But I enjoyed the many books I did read, and I began a number of larger works I hope to finish in 2016. My favourites of the past year – difficult as it was to choose favourites – are in red text in the list below.

Happy new year!

#	Title	Author	Publisher, Year	Subject Category	Why did I read this? How did I get it?
1	Meeting the Other Crowd: The Fairy Stories of Hidden Ireland	Eddie Lenihan with Carolyn Eve Green	Tarcher-Penguin, 2004	Non-Fiction (Short Stories)	VPL second-hand book sale
2	The Heart Laid Bare	Michel Tremblay	Talonbooks, 2002	Fiction (Novel)	for work (ebook production)
3	MaddAddam	Margaret Atwood	Vintage Canada, 2014	Fiction (Novel)	finale of series
4	The Ocean at the End of the Lane	Neil Gaiman	William Morrow, 2013	Fiction (Novel)	found in mobile library near Heather and 16th, Vancouver
5	Mambo Italiano	Steve Galluccio	Talonbooks, 2004	Fiction (Drama)	for work (research)
6	Hidden Bounties: Memories of Pioneering on the Magdalen Archipelago	Larry Rowdon	Nine Pines, 1994	Non-Fiction (Memoir)	intended to read for many years
7	Birth of a Bookworm	Michel Tremblay (trans. Sheila Fischman)	Talonbooks, 2003	Non-Fiction (Memoir)	via work (ebook production)
8	The Trouble with Brunch: Work, Class, and the Pursuit of Leisure	Shawn Micalleff	Coach House, 2014	Non-Fiction (Essay)	press, reviews, publicity
9	What’s True, Darling	M.A.C. Farrant	Polestar, 1997	Fiction (Short Stories)	gift from GTM in 2013
10	The St. Leonard Chronicles [manuscript]	Steve Galluccio	Talonbooks, 2015	Fiction (Drama)	for work (copy-editing)
11	Veronica Mars: Mr. Kiss and Tell	Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham	Vintage, 2015	Fiction (Mystery)	series fan
12	Pastoral	André Alexis	Coach House, 2014	Fiction (Novella)	publisher catalogue
13	Get Me Out of Here	Sachiko Murakami	Talon, 2015	Poetry	for work (proofreading)
14	The Hatch	Colin Browne	Talon, 2015	Poetry	for work (proofreading)
15	Fifteen Dogs	André Alexis	Coach House, 2015	Fiction (Novel)	gift from HW
16	Dead Metaphor: Three Plays	George F. Walker	Talonbooks, 2015	Drama	for work (proofreading)
17	Shadow Scale	Rachel Hartman	Pengun Random House Doubleday Canada, 2014	Fiction (YA)	second in a series, first of which won Sunburst Award
18	Fairy Ring	Martine Desjardins	Talon, 2001	Fiction (epistolary novel)	via work
19	The Miner’s Son and the Farmer’s Daughter: The Story of D.H. Lawrence and Jessie Chambers	P.K. Ridgway	unpublished playscript	Non-Fiction (Drama)	attended a rehearsal, wanted to read the ending
20	Holy Cow	David Duchovny	FSG, 2015	Fiction (Novel)	tweets & general publicity
21	in event of moon disaster	arbitrarily	Archive of Our Own, 2013	Novella-length Fan-Fiction (Mad Men)	browsing a shipper tag
22	The Divine	Michel Marc Bouchard	Talon, 2015	Fiction (Drama)	for work (proofreading)
23	That Summer	David French	Talon, 2000	Fiction (Drama)	for work (ebook production)
24	The X-Files: Goblins	Charles Grant	HarperCollins, 1994	Fiction (Mystery)	got excited about the #XFilesRevival, pledged to read the original tie-in novels
25	Cosmophilia	Rahat Kurd	Talon, 2015	Poetry	for work (proofreading)
26	The X-Files: Whirlwind	Charles Grant	HarperCollins, 1995	Fiction (Mystery)	got excited about the #XFilesRevival, pledged to read the original tie-in novels
27	The X-Files: Ground Zero	Kevin J. Anderson	HarperCollins, 1995	Fiction (Mystery)	got excited about the #XFilesRevival, pledged to read the original tie-in novels
28	Winners and Losers	Marcus Youssef and James Long	Talonbooks, 2015	Non-Fiction (Drama)	for work (ebook production)
29	Monkey Beach	Eden Robinson	Vintage Canada, 2001	Fiction (Novel)	intended to read for years; finally got around to it
30	Takeover in Tehran: The Inside Story of the 1979 U.S. Embassy Capture	Massoumeh Ebtekar (as told to Fred A. Reed)	Talon, 2000	Non-Fiction (Memoir)	for work (ebook production)
31	Rom Com	Dina Del Bucchia and Daniel Zomparelli	Talon, 2015	Poetry	for work (typesetting)
32	Darcy’s Story: Pride and Prejudice told from a whole new perspective	Janet Aylmer	Harper, 2006	Fiction (Novel)	bought as gift for CS
33	Sila: The Arctic Cycle	Chantal Bilodeau	Talon, 2015	Fiction (Drama)	for work (proofreading)
34	Mend the Living	Maylis de Kerangal, translated by Jessica Moore	manuscript [forthcoming from Talon, 2016]	Fiction (Novel)	for work (cover design)
35	In a World Created by a Drunken God	Drew Hayden Taylor	Talon, 2006	Fiction (Drama)	for work (cover redesign)
36	Cerulean Blue	Drew Hayden Taylor	Talon, 2015	Fiction (Drama)	for work (ebook production)
37	Moss Park and Tough!: The Bobby and Tina Plays	George F. Walker	Talon, 2015	Fiction (Drama)	for work (proofreading)
38	Jabber	Marcus Youssef	Talon, 2015	Fiction (Drama)	for work (ebook QC)
39	Men Explain Things to Me	Rebecca Solnit	Haymarket Books / Dispatch Books, 2014	Non-fiction (Essays)	publicity through Consortium Book Sales and Distribution
40	Prophet’s Daughter: The Life and Legacy of Bahíyyih Khánum, Outstanding Heroine of the Bahá’í Faith	Janet Khan	Bahá’í Publishing, 2005	Non-fiction (History/Religious Studies)	Bahá’í community & personal study
41	The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary	Simon Winchester	Harper Perennial, 1998	Non-fiction (History)	Enjoyed other work by the same author
42	Sugar Blues	William Dufty	Warner Books, 1976	Non-fiction (Wellness)	Re-read
43	Practical Magic	Alice Hoffman	Putnam, 1995	Fiction (Novel)	I have a soft spot for the movie, and I’d never read Hoffman, so I figured I’d give her a try.
44	A Credit to Your Race	Truman Green	Anvil, 2011	Fiction (Novel/YA)	Free book!
45	Her Son’s Hero	Vicki Essex	Harlequin, 2011	Fiction (Romance)	Recommended by SD
46	Hild	Nicola Griffith	FSG, 2013	Fiction (Historical novel)	Bookstore browsing

Let’s Read the X-Files Tie-In Novels from the 1990s, Part 3: Ground Zero

 

I finished this book months ago but couldn’t post about it until now owing to a photo-uploading problem. My apologies to anyone who even remembers, at this point, that I once pledged to read all six X-Files tie-in novels by January 2016.

This was the best one so far. By that, I mean I had trouble identifying ways to make fun of it. Thus, it could also be said to be the worst so far. My review is going to be mostly screenshots, so the book can speak for itself. Kind of.

Ground Zero comes from a different author, and this one seems to trust the reader to know what the X-Files are, while still managing to remind the reader, gently, about a few of the nuances in the show that might have slipped their minds. Thank you, Kevin J. Anderson.

Here we have the Skin-man’s first  appearance in the series, a very apropos one:  

Highlights from this book:

• The word “supercomputer” is used five times in the first chapter, so that’s fun.
• Mulder’s hair is described as “fluffy.” (!)
• Scully apparently went to Berkeley for her first year of college and nearly became an activist. Did we know this before? Anderson is playing fast and loose with canon fodder.
• Mulder’s “long-standing revulsion of fire” surfaces for a moment. Remember how Mulder hates fire? Well he does.

  

 

Chapter Twenty-Four is a major highlight, all of it. In it, Mulder and Scully get ready for a trip and travel together, and we see much of it; it doesn’t get edited down as it normally would on the show. If you are into the X-Files primarily because of the relationship between these two characters, you should certainly read this chapter of this book. 

Teaser:  
Aww,  he knows her favourite.

Fun thing: Mulder owns Hawaiian shirts! Proof:  

Imagine, if you will, the adorable situation implied by this syntax:  Moose and squirrel, buckled into one seat together.

Asbestos mention! So ’90s:  

It seems that one more tie-in novel has been released just this month or last, I presume to prime the pump for the release of the new season of the X-Files in January – which was my original finish line. So if we add this new one to the list, there are seven in total – and I have only read three yet. I might not make the goal. We’ll see.

Let’s end with Wisecracker!Mulder:  

Recent Google Searches, A–Z: A Found Poem

clarion call
United Kingdom, 1743
Osiming, NY

Saskatoon, SK
Rawlco Radio

Portland, OR
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Vancouver, BC
event listings
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Joey on Broadway
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X-Files publicity event?
Quest Food Exchange

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Toy Story honest trailer
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Good Wife season 4 episode guide
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