In Search of Lost Time: Reading Proust in a Pandemic @bigalbooksforever

bigalbooks Did you read anything game-changing during the pandemic? For me, it was Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time.

I ramble about life stuff at the start of the video, so please skip to 10:30 if you just want to hear about the book :)

~~Topics of Conversation~~
3:24 - How reading Proust helped me throughout the pandemic
10:30 - Important ideas explored in the text
23:42 - 3 reasons why Proust is worth reading

~~Books Mentioned~~
In Search of Lost Time - Marcel Proust
(I read the Lydia Davis translation for Swann’s Way and then switched over to Everyman’s Moncrieff/Kilmartin/Enright translations for the rest!)

~~Videos Mentioned~~
My Misconceptions About Proust:
youtube.com/watch?v=Zbn1_ome6Iw

updated 3 years ago

In Search of Lost Time: Reading Proust in a Pandemic

bigalbooks 2020-12-17 | Did you read anything game-changing during the pandemic? For me, it was Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time.

I ramble about life stuff at the start of the video, so please skip to 10:30 if you just want to hear about the book :)

~~Topics of Conversation~~
3:24 - How reading Proust helped me throughout the pandemic
10:30 - Important ideas explored in the text
23:42 - 3 reasons why Proust is worth reading

~~Books Mentioned~~
In Search of Lost Time - Marcel Proust
(I read the Lydia Davis translation for Swann’s Way and then switched over to Everyman’s Moncrieff/Kilmartin/Enright translations for the rest!)

~~Videos Mentioned~~
My Misconceptions About Proust:
youtube.com/watch?v=Zbn1_ome6Iw

Mid-Month Reading Update (March of the Mammoths Readathon)

bigalbooks 2023-03-16 | We have reached the halfway point of the March of the Mammoths Readathon!

Let us know how your reading is going so far!

Books mentioned:
-The Weird Compendium (ed. Jeff & Ann Vandermeer)
-The Mirror and the Light - Hilary Mantel
-The Tale of Genji - Murasaki Shikibu (trans. Edward Seidensticker)
-Ulysses - James Joyce

March of the Mammoths TBR 2023

bigalbooks 2023-03-01 | Happy 1st of March! Here is what I'll be ~~attempting~~ to read this month for the March of the Mammoths readathon :)

March of the Mammoths Announcement 2023

bigalbooks 2023-02-12 | It’s Mammoth Season! March of the Mammoths is back for another round this March.

Check out creator and host Jason’s announcement video:
youtube.com/watch?v=m3Sj7iJeMVk

Music Credits:
youtube.com/watch?v=Mgw6oKGt4iE

Quintessential Summer Reads

bigalbooks 2022-09-16 | Hi all! I’m not ready to say goodbye to summer, so I wanted to reminisce about some of the standout books I read during July & August. What do you think makes for a perfect summer read?

~~Books Mentioned~~

-When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations (ed. Joy Hard)
-Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life - William Finnegan
-The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje
-The Bay of Noon - Shirley Hazzard
-A House in the Country - Jose Donoso (Trans. David Prichard)
-Cereus Blooms at Night - Shani Mootoo
-The Marvellous Equations of the Dread: A Novel in Bass Riddim - Marcia Douglas
-Lucy - Jamaica Kincaid
-The Bridge of Beyond - Simone Schwarz-Bart (trans. Barbara Bray)
-Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison
-Moby Dick - Herman Melville

~~Music Mentioned~~
Foundation Roots Reggae Mix: youtube.com/watch?v=MjL0ipgT7xg

March of the Mammoths - Update #1

bigalbooks 2022-03-10 | Checking in on the first week of March of the Mammoths!

Also mentioned is an *unofficial* 24 in 48 hour readathon happening this weekend (Mar 12 & 13th). :)

~Books Mentioned~
Pessoa: A Biography - Richard Zenith

The Forsyte Saga (Vol 1) - John Galsworthy
Kristin Lavransdatter - Sigrid Undset (trans. Tiina Nunnally)

The Best Poems of the English Language - Ed. Harold Bloom

March of the Mammoths TBR (2022)

bigalbooks 2022-03-01 | March of the Mammoths 2022 is officially upon us!

~Books Mentioned~
Pessoa: A Biography - Richard Zenith
An American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser

The Forsyte Saga (Vol 1) - John Galsworthy

Kristin Lavransdatter - Sigrid Undset (trans. Tiina Nunnally)

The Best Poems of the English Language - Ed. Harold Bloom

March of the Mammoths 2022 Announcement!

bigalbooks 2022-02-06 | Does reading an 800+ page book in the month of March sound like a fun time to you? Join us in the March of the Mammoths! :)

Check out:Jason @OldBluesChapterandVerse & Lukas @acruelreadersthesis5868

youtube.com/c/OldBluesChapterandVerse

youtube.com/channel/UCUboZP1VriVO2aYVBexY5rw/featured#marchingmammoths2022

Favourite Reads of 2021

bigalbooks 2022-01-13 | HELLO AGAIN :)

~~~Books Mentioned~~~
The Sentence - Louise Erdrich
Crossroads - Jonathan Franzen
Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbon
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek - Annie Dillard
The Turquoise Ledge - Leslie Marmon Silko
The Dawn of Everything - David Graeber & David Wengrow
The Dispossessed - Ursula K. LeGuin
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain - George Saunders
In the Skin of a Lion - Michael Ondaatje
Possession - A.S. Byatt
The Transit of Venus - Shirley Hazzard
The Oresteia - Aeschylus (trans. Grene & Lattimore)
An Oresteia - trans. Anne Carson

~~Videos Mentioned~~
Agamemnon: youtube.com/watch?v=mdv3vkECqXA&t=1195s
Dark Academic Reading Playlist - youtube.com/watch?v=Otqp3M3elzU&t=3089s

March of the Mammoths Wrap Up

bigalbooks 2021-05-12 | Hello again long lost friends! Welcome to my better-late-than-never March Wrap Up. March ended up being a hectic month, but I still managed to read three fantastic mammoth-sized books. If you participated in March of the Mammoths, please let me know how it went! :)

~~~Books Mentioned~~~

Tom Jones - Henry Fielding
Red Comet: The Short Life & Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (trans. Louise & Aylmer Maude)
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

Mammoth Update - Week #1

bigalbooks 2021-03-12 | #Marchingmammoths

March of the Mammoths TBR

bigalbooks 2021-03-01 | #MarchingMammoths

Happy March of the Mammoths! Here's what I'll be attempting to read this year :)

~~~Books Mentioned~~~
Tom Jones - Henry Fielding
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (Trans. Louise and Aylmer Maude)
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
Red Comet - Heath Clark

~~~Channels Mentioned~~~
Jason @OldBluesChapterandVerse

Black History Month Book Tag

bigalbooks 2021-02-08 | ~~~Channels Mentioned~~~
@booksbyleynes (original tag creator)
youtube.com/watch?v=DuDYy5GJjk

The Artisan Geek
youtube.com/channel/UCamkpihJtPvMuH49D6FejEw

Tiana Tea
youtube.com/c/TianaTea/videos

~~~Books/Films Mentioned~~~

****Canadian Nonfiction/Fiction recommendations****
Black Writers Matter (Ed. Whitney French)
The Hanging of Angelique - Afua Cooper
Policing Black Lives - Robin Maynard
Black Like Who - Rinaldo Walcott
The Skin We’re In - Desmond Cole
Fifteen Dogs - André Alexis
Washington Black - Esi Edugyan
The Rage of Dragons - Evan Winter
Frying Plantain - Zalinka Reid-Benta
Brother - David Chariandy
Reproduction - Ian Williams
Bread Out of Stone - Dionne Brand
Half Blood Blues - Esi Edugyan
Things Are Good Now - Djamila Ibrahim

***Other Books/Films Mentioned***
The Wizard of the Crow - Ngugi wa Thiong’o
House of Stone - Novuyo Rose Tshuma
Sunjata - Bamba Suso & Banna Kanute
I Am Not Your Negro - James Baldwin
The Old Drift - Namwali Serpell
The Deep - Rivers Solomon
The African Trilogy - Chinua Achebe
Four Hundred Souls - ed. Ibram X. Kendi & Keisha N. Blain
One Hundred Boyfriends - Brontez Purnell
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev - Dawnie Walton

~~~Questions~~~

1. What is a book everyone should be reading during Black History Month? (give one fiction and one nonfiction title)

2. Which Black booktuber would you recommend watching and why?

3. What is your favorite book written by a Black author from an African country?

4. What is your favorite Black classic?

5. Which movie / book-to-movie-adaptation / documentary would you recommend watching during Black History Month?

6. What’s on your TBR for Black History Month?

7. Which new releases by Black writers are you looking forward to the most this year?

March of the Mammoths 2021 - Announcement!

bigalbooks 2021-02-04 | #marchingmammoths2021

The March of the Mammoths readathon is back for another round this year! Challenge yourself to try and read at least one 800+ page book this March.

~~Videos Mentioned~~
Jason @OldBluesChapterandVerse
youtube.com/watch?v=g4nq_mOwIj0

Lukáš @acruelreadersthesis5868
youtube.com/watch?v=zYrxR52AUuQ

Favourite Reads of 2020

bigalbooks 2021-01-02 | Welcome to my attempt to try and highlight a few favourites from the 286 books that I read this year!

~~~Books Mentioned~~~~

***2020 Honourable Mentions***
Disparates - Patrick Madden
Sing Backwards and Weep - Mark Lanegan
Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart
The Subtweet - Vivek Shraya
Noopiming - Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
The Beguiling - Zsuzsi Gartner

***Top 10 Favourites***
Grendel - John Gardner
Daytripper - Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá
The Copenhagen Trilogy - Tove Ditlevsen (trans. Tiina Nunnally and Michael Favolla Goldman)
Measure for Measure - William Shakespeare
A Streetcar Named Desire - Tennessee Williams
The Novel: A Biography - Michael Schmidt
The Red and the Black - Stendhal (trans. Burton Raffel)
Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer
Notre Dame de Paris - Victor Hugo (trans. Katherine Liu)
In Search of Lost Time - Marcel Proust (trans. Davis/Moncrieff/Enright/Kilmartin)

~~~ Videos Mentioned ~~~
Reading Proust in 2020:
youtube.com/watch?v=_w1-g49DpsU&t=1280s

Catch Up Wrap Up (Pt. 2)

bigalbooks 2020-12-10 | Here's what I was up to in September and October!

SEPTEMBER READING - “Reading My Heritage”
~~Books Mentioned~~
The Love Story of the Century - Märta Tikkanen (trans. Stina Katchadourian)
The Woman Who Borrowed Memories: Selected Stories - Tove Jansson (trans. Thomas Teal & Silvester Mazzarella)
Tove Jansson: Work and Love - Tuula Karjalainen (trans. David McDuff
Purge - Sofie Oksanen (trans. Lola Rogers)
The Colonel’s Wife - Rosa Liksom (trans. Lola Rogers)
The Seven Brothers - Aleksis Kivi (trans. Richard Impola)
True - Riika Pulkkinen (trans. Lola Rogers)
Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart
Summer - Ali Smith
The Trick Is To Keep Breathing - Janice Galloway
Poems - Thomas Hardy
Roseanna - Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (trans. Lois Roth)
La Celestina - Fernando de Rojas (trans. Lesley Bird Simpson)
Les fluers de mal - Charles Baudelaire (trans. Francis Scarfe)

OCTOBER READING - “Gothic Lit/Books that Goths Would Like”
~~Books Mentioned~~
The Castle of Otranto - Horace Walpole
The Monk - Matthew Lewis
The Italian - Anne Radcliffe
Vathek - William Beckford
Lost Souls - Poppy Z Brite
Silk - Caitlin R. Kiernan
The Crow - James O’Barr
The Goblin Market and Other Poems - Christina Rossetti
Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury
Disparates - Patrick Madden

Catch Up Wrap Up (Pt. 1)

bigalbooks 2020-12-06 | Well, look who showed up again...

***Books Mentioned***

~~~Shakespeare!~~~
Henry VIII
King John
Two Gentlemen of Verona
As You Like It
Love’s Labour’s Lost
Troilus and Cressida
The Sonnets
The Narrative Poems
Sonnet’s Shakespeare - Sonnet L’Abbé
Vinegar Girl - Anne Tyler

~~~Classics~~~
The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo (trans. Catherine Liu)
The Red and the Black - Stendhal (trans. Burton Raffel)
The Stranger - Albert Camus (trans. Matthew Ward)
A Laodicean - Thomas Hardy
Walden - Henry David Thoreau

~~~Women in Translation Month~~~
Flights - Olga Tokarczuk (trans. Jennifer Croft)
Hurricane Season - Fernanda Melchor (trans. Sophie Hughes)
Will and Testament - Vigdis Hjörth (trans. Charlotte Barsland)
Kamouraska - Anne Hébert (trans. Norman Shapiro)
Selected Poems - Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (trans. Edith Grossman)

~~~Canadian Content~~~
Noopiming - Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Rage of Dragons - Evan Winter
The Dodecahedron: Or A Frame for Frames - Paul Glennon
Frying Plantain - Zalinka Reid-Benta
Black Writers Matter - Ed. Whitney French
Black Live Who - Rinaldo Walcott
The Hanging of Angelique - Afua Cooper
The Skin We’re In - Desmond Cole

~~~Misc. Memoirs~~~
Wow, No Thank You - Samantha Irby
I Will Never See the World Again - Ahmet Altan (trans. Yasemin Congar)
Tomboy Survival Guide - Ivan Coyote

July Wrap Up Pt. 1 - South American Literature

bigalbooks 2020-08-06 | ~~~Books Mentioned~~~

0:01:56 Colombia
The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (trans. Randolph Hogan)

0:04:11 Chile
Multiple Choice - Alejandro Zambra (trans. Megan McDowell)
By Night in Chile - Roberto Bolaño (trans. Chris Andrews)

0:09:38 Brazil
Daytripper - Fábio Moon & Gabriel Bá
The Passion According to G.H. - Clarice Lispector (trans. Idra Novey)
26 Stories - Machado de Assis (trans. Margaret Jull Costa & Robin Patterson)

0:18:24 Argentina
Santa Evita - Tomàs Eloy Martinez (trans. Helen Lane)
Blow Up - Julio Cortazar (trans. Paul Blackburn)
Comemadre - Roque Larraquy (trans. Heather Cleary)
People in the Room - Norah Lange (trans. Charlotte Whittle)

0:33:33 Misc. Countries
The Seven Madmen - Roberto Arlt (trans. Nick Caistor)

~~~Videos Mentioned~~~
Ask a Mortician - Iconic Corpse: The Preservation of Eva Perón
youtube.com/watch?v=FIwj0ybenmM

Canadian Book Recommendations (Read-Eh-Thon)

bigalbooks 2020-07-31 | ~~~Check out some more information about the Read-Eh-Thon~~~
Announcement Video: youtube.com/watch?v=CyAkvDiQxKA

Bingo Card: booksandlala.com/blog/the-read-eh-thon

~~~Books Mentioned~~~
Refuse: CanLit in Ruins
Islands of Decolonial Love - Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
This Accident of Being Lost - Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Dancing on the Turtle’s Back - Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
As We Have Always Done - Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Where Did You Sleep Last Night - Lynn Crosby
Dionne Brand - Theory
A Complicated Kindness - Miriam Toews
Clearing the Plains - James Daschuk
No Surrender: The Land Remains Indigenous - Sheldon Krasowski
Children of the Broken Treaty - Charlie Angus
In My Own Moccasins - Helen Knott
Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations - Richard Wagamese
Split Tooth - Tanya Tagaq
Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club - Megan Gail Coles
Policing Black Lives: State Vilence in Canada from Slavery to the Present - Robyn Maynard
Shut Up You’re Pretty - Téa Mutonji
Five Little Indians - Michelle Good
The Dishwasher - Stéphane Larue (trans. Pablo Strauss)
Jonny Appleseed - Joshua Whitehead
Nîtîsanak - Lindsay Nixon
Fierce Feems and Notorious Liars - Kai Chen Thom
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me - Mariko Tamaki (Ill. Rosemary Valerio-O’Connell)
The Subtweet - Vivek Shraya
The Skin We’re In - Desmond Cole
Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-Up Call - Arthur Manuel
Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Issues in Canada - Chelsea Vowel
Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
Fifteen Dogs - André Alexis
Days by Moonlight - André Alexis
Fifth Business - Robertson Davies
The Salterton Trilogy - Robertson Davies
Reproduction - Ian Williams
We Have Always Been Here - Samra Habib
A Chorus of Mushrooms - Hiromi Goto
In Another Place, Not Here - Dionne Brand
Washington Black - Esi Edugyan
From the Ashes - Jesse Thistle
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground - Alicia Elliott
Black Writers Matter (ed. Whitney French)
The Doll’s Alphabet - Camilla Grudova
The Book of Jessica - Maria Campbell & Linda Griffiths
Louis Riel - Chester Brown
Hark! A Vagrant - Kate Beaton

June Wrap Up - 30 Books in 30 Days Challenge

bigalbooks 2020-07-19 | I had the greatest time reading Indigenous authors throughout the month of June.

I know that this video is super long, but I think that all these authors/books are well worth discussing! Please find some timestamps listed down below if you want to skip around :)

0:1:38 ***Reasons why I found this to be a valuable reading challenge***

0:6:19 *** My Favourite 5 Reads of the Month ***
-Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer
-Dancing On Our Turtle’s Back- Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
-Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers - Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton
-Memory Serves: Oratories - Lee Maracle
-Shell Shaker - LeAnne Howe

0:16:54 ***Nonfiction***
-Bobbi Lee Indian Rebel - Lee Maracle
-Nîtîsanak - Lindsay Nixon
-The Truth About Stories - Thomas King
-Tsawalk: A Nuu-chah-nulth Worldview - E. Richard Atleo
-The Truth that Wampum Tells - Lynn Gehl
-Peace, Power, Righteousness: An Indigenous Manifesto - Taiaiake Alfred
-Red Skin White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition - Glen Sean Coulthard
-The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present - David Treuer

0:29:20 ***Novels***
-Ravensong - Lee Maracle
-Five Little Indians - Michelle Good
-Tracks - Louise Erdrich
-Keeper ’n Me - Richard Wagamese
-Medicine River - Thomas King
-Truth and Bright Water - Thomas King
-Kynship - Daniel Heath Justice
-Wyrwood - Daniel Heath Justice
-Dreyd - Daniel Heath Justice
-Blood Sports - Eden Robinson
-The Girl Who Grew a Galaxy - Cherie Dimaline
-Crow Winter - Karen McBride

0:45:13 ***Short Stories/Novellas***
-Midnight Sweatlodge - Waubgeshig Rice
-One Good Story, That One - Thomas King
-The Stone Collection - Kateri Akiwenzie Damm

0:46:44 ***Drama***
-The Rez Sisters - Tomsom Highway
-Dry Lips Outta Move to Kapuskasing - Tomson Highway

0:48:06 ***Poetry***
-When My Brother Was an Aztec - Natalie Diaz
-Passage - Gwen Benaway
-Witness, I Am - Gregory Scofield
-NDN Coping Mechanisms - Billy-Ray Belcourt
-Hope Matters - Lee Maracle, Columpa Bobb & Tanya Carter

0:50:19 ***Comics/Graphic Novels***
-Hiawatha & the Peacemaker - Robbie Robertson
-Wendy Vols. 1-3 - Walter Scott
-Carpe Fin: A Haida Manga - Michael Nicolls Yahgulanaas
-A Tale of Two Shamans - Michael Nicolls Yahgulanaas

-------------------------------
In this video I'm wearing lipstick made by Cheekbone Beauty. The company is Indigenous-owned and they produce cruelty-free, vegan make up. You can check out their website here: cheekbonebeauty.ca

24 Hour Reading Vlog: National Indigenous Peoples Day

bigalbooks 2020-07-09 | This year I decided to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day (June 21st) with a 24 Hour Readathon. Here are the results! :)

~~Books Mentioned~~
-Midnight Sweatlodge - Waubgeshig Rice
-Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers

-Keeper 'n Me - Richard Wagamese
-NDN Coping Mechanisms - Billy-Ray Belcourt
-The Truth About Stories - Thomas King

-Nitisanak - Lindsay Nixon
--The Stone Collection - Kateri Akiwenzie Damm

-Wendy: Master of Art - Walter Scott
-Braiding Sweatgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer

Mid Year Book Freak Out Tag - 2020

bigalbooks 2020-07-04 | I was tagged by Alex @whatpageareyouon

youtube.com/watch?v=v0FugSHYgrE

~~~Questions~~~
1) Best book
2) Best sequel
3) New release haven’t read yet but want to
4) Most anticipated release for the second half of the year
5) Biggest Disappointment(s?????)
6) Biggest Surprise
7) Favorite new author (debut or new to you)
8) New Fictional Crush
9) New Favorite character
10) Book that made me cry
11) Book that made me happy
12) Most beautiful book I bought or received
13) Books to read by the end of the year

May Wrap Up

bigalbooks 2020-06-17 | ~~~Videos Mentioned~~~
Asian Readathon Long Weekend Reading Vlog
youtube.com/watch?v=XG9lbZAVBIA&t=584s

~~Books Mentioned~~
Life for Sale - Yukio Mishima (trans. Stephen Dodd)
The Factory - Hiroko Oyamada (trans. David Boyd)
Ghachar Ghochar - Vivek Shanbhag (trans. Srinath Perur)
Kitchen - Banana Yoshimoto (trans. Megan Backus)
Audition - Ryu Murakami (trans. Ralph McCarthy)
My Kind of Girl - Buddadeva Bose (trans. Arunava Sinha)
Hear the Wind Sing/Pinball 1973 - Haruki Murakami (trans. Ted Goosen)
The Paper Menagerie - Ken Liu
The Plotters - Un-Su Kim (trans. Sora Kim Russel)
The Subtweet - Vivek Shraya
The Captive and the Fugitive - Marcel Proust (trans. Moncrieff/Scott/Kilmartin)
Time Regained - Marcel Proust (trans. Moncrieff/Scott/Kilmartin)
Watership Down - Richard Adams
Beowulf (trans. Seamus Heaney)
Grendel - John Gardner
The Mere Wife - Maria Dahvana Headley
Howards End - E.M. Forster
On Beauty - Zadie Smith
Two Noble Kinsmen - Shakespeare & Fletcher
Timon of Athens - Shakespeare (and Middleton?)
Measure for Measure - Shakespeare
Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft & Mary Shelley - Charlotte Gordon
Heart Berries - Therese Marie Mailhot
Sing Backwards and Weep - Mark Lanegan
I Live Inside - Michelle Leon

June TBR: 30 Books in 30 Days (Reading Indigenous Authors)

bigalbooks 2020-06-01 | This June, I will be spending some serious time decolonizing my bookshelves. Looking forward to sharing the process with you all! :)

~~Books Mentioned~~

***Nonfiction***
-Bobbi Lee Indian Rebel - Lee Maracle
-Nitisanak - Lindsay Nixon
-Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers - Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton
-The Truth About Stories - Thomas King
-Memory Serves: Oratories - Lee Maracle
-Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer
-Tsawalk: A Nuu-chah-nulth Worldview - E. Richard Atleo
-Dancing On Our Turtle’s Back- Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
-The Truth that Wampum Tells - Lynn Gehl
-Red Skin White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition - Glen Sean Coulthard
-Peace, Power, Righteousness: An Indigenous Manifesto - Taiaiake Alfred
-The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present - David Treuer

***Novels***
-Wyrwood - Daniel Heath Justice
-Dreyd - Daniel Heath Justice
-Midnight Sweatlodge - Waubgeshig Rice
-Keeper ’n Me - Richard Wagamese
-Truth and Bright Water - Thomas King
-Medicine River - Thomas King
-Tracks - Louise Erdrich
-Blood Sports - Eden Robinson
-The Girl Who Grew a Galaxy - Cherie Dimaline
-Crow Winter - Karen McBride
-Five Little Indians - Michelle Good

***Short Stories***
-One Good Story, That One - Thomas King
-The Stone Collector - Kateri Akiwenzie Damm

***Drama***
-The Rez Sisters - Tomsom Highway
-Dry Lips Outta Move to Kapuskasing - Tomson Highway

***Poetry***
-Witness, I Am - Gregory Scofield
-NDN Coping Mechanisms - Billy-Ray Belcourt
-Hope Matters - Lee Maracle, Columpa Bobb & Tanya Carter
-When My Brother Was an Aztec - Natalie Diaz

***Comics/Graphic Novels***
-Wendy Vol. 3 - Walter Scott
-Carpe Fin: A Haida Manga - Michael Nicolls Yahgulanaas
-A Tale of Two Shamans - Michael Nicolls Yahgulanaas

April Wrap Up

bigalbooks 2020-05-31 | ~~Books Mentioned~~

***Novels***
Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie
Childhood, Youth, and Dependency - Tove Ditlevsen (trans. Tiina Nunnally)
Sodom and Gomorrah - Marcel Proust (trans. Montcrieff/Enright/Kilmartin)
The Enchanted April - Elizabeth von Arnim
The Man Who Loved Children - Christina Stead
Dangerous Liaisons - Chodleros de Laclos (trans. Helen Constantine)
Dunbar - Edward St. Aubyn
If We Were Villains - M.L. Rio
The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

***Nonfiction***
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century - Barbara Tuchman
The Black Count - Tom Reiss

***Drama***
1 Henry VI - Shakespeare
2 Henry VI - Shakespeare
3 Henry VI - Shakespeare
Richard III - Shakespeare
Twelfth Night - Shakespeare
The Misanthrope - Molière (trans. Richard Wilbur)
The Theban Tragedies - Sophocles (trans. Wycoff/Grene/Fitzgerald)

***Comics/Graphic Novels/Manga***
Fables Vol. 2 and 3
Heathen Vol. 2
Glass Town - Isabel Greenberg
Uzumaki - Junji Ito

~~Not mentioned in this video, but it still needs to be said~~

Black Lives Matter

Here is a link to a google doc that includes anti-racism resources, recommended places to make donations, and contact information for political officials.
docs.google.com/document/d/1-0KC83vYfVQ-2freQveH43PWxuab2uWDEGolzrNoIks/preview?pru=AAABcod_c7g*5rNQ6ITOabUly2LZbfCDkg

Asian Readathon Long Weekend Reading Vlog

bigalbooks 2020-05-26 | My long weekend was spent reading novellas and hanging out with pugs... no complaints!

~~Asian Readathon Information~~
youtube.com/watch?v=qweYGWPAmWU&t=693s

~~Books Mentioned~~
Hear the Wind Sing/Pinball 1973 - Haruki Murakami (trans. Ted Goosen)
Ghachar Ghochar - Vivek Shanbhag (trans. Srinath Perur)
The Factory - Hiroko Oyamada (trans. David Boyd)
Life for Sale - Yukio Mishima (trans. Stephen Dodd)
Kitchen - Banana Yoshimoto (trans. Megan Backus)
My Kind of Girl - Buddadeva Bose (trans. Arunava Sinha)
Audition - Ryu Murakami (trans. Ralph McCarthy)

Long Weekend Reading Vlog (4 Shakespeare Plays in 4 Days)

bigalbooks 2020-04-16 | I decided to make the most of the Easter long weekend by immersing myself in the bloody spectacle of the War of the Roses #noregrets

~~Books/Plays Mentioned~~
Henry VI Pt.
Henry VI Pt. 2
Henry VI Pt. 3
Richard III
If We Were Villains - M.L. Rio

March of the Mammoths Wrap Up

bigalbooks 2020-04-09 | Thanks to everyone who participated in the March of the Mammoths readathon this year :}

~~Mammoths Mentioned~~
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (trans. Robin Buss)
The Guermantes Way - Marcel Proust (trans. Montrcrief/Kilmartin/Enright)
The Novel: A Biography - Michael Schmidt
The Decameron - Giovanni Boccaccio (trans. Michael A Rebhorn)
Fathers and Crows - William T. Vollmann

Choosing Each Others TBR

bigalbooks 2020-04-04 | Taylor and I decided to assign books to each other... what's the worst that could happen? In this video we examine our bookish compatibility and share our TBRs with each other :)

February Wrap Up

bigalbooks 2020-04-02 | Let's dig up the past and talk about some books I read back in February!

~~~~Channels Mentioned~~~~~
books by leynes: youtube.com/channel/UCI3s7BuaU9KZiFw7IBNL-yw

~~~~Books Mentioned~~~~~
Locke & Key Vols. 1-6 - Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez
Antigone - Sophocles
Emma - Jane Austen
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf - Edward Albee
Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present - Robin Maynard
Chester Himes: A Biography - Lawrence Jackson
Mama Day - Gloria Naylor
House of Stone - Novuyo Rose Tshuma
Reproduction - Ian Williams
Bttm Fors - Ezra Clayton Daniels & Ben Passmore
From the Ashes - Jesse Thistle
We Have Always Been Here - Samra Habib
Radicalized - Cory Doctorow
Within a Budding Grove (In Search of Lost Time Vol. 2) - Marcel Proust (trans. Montcrieff/Kilmartin/Enright/)

March of the Mammoths - Check-In #2

bigalbooks 2020-03-24 | We've finally made it to the homestretch of the #marchingmammoths readathon! Let me know how you're doing down below :)

March of the Mammoths - Check-In #1

bigalbooks 2020-03-15 | How are we already halfway through March already?!? #MarchingMammoths

March of the Mammoths Readathon TBR

bigalbooks 2020-03-01 | Happy March of the Mammoths :)
#marchingmammoths

~~Readathon Announcement Videos~~
Jason: youtube.com/watch?v=Yt1-Z1xSHf8

Lukas: youtube.com/watch?v=8iLQaJm1HcQ

Mine: youtube.com/watch?v=FPXvBNaXYWk&t=2s

~~~Find me on Goodreads :) ~~~
goodreads.com/user/show/10922578-big-al

January Wrap Up

bigalbooks 2020-02-21 | January's Reading Experiment: reading only authors who I have never read before!

~~~Videos Mentioned~~~
-December Wrap Up (reading only previous-read authors)
youtube.com/watch?v=Yp0wsOjn7V8&t=1623s

-My Misconceptions About Proust
youtube.com/watch?v=Zbn1_ome6Iw&t=4s

~~~Novels Mentioned~~~
Swann’s Way - Marcel Proust (trans. Lydia Davis)
Life: A User’s Manual - Georges Perec (trans. David Bellos)
The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish - Katya Apekina
Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club - Megan Gail Coles
Theory - Dionne Brand
Sanaaq - Mitiarjuuk Napaluuk (trans. Bernard Saladin d’Anglure/Peter Frost)
Sleepless Nights - Elizabeth Hardwick
The Grimoire of Kensington Market - Lauren B. Davis
The Snow Queen - Eileen Kernaghan

~~~Plays/Poetry/Short Stories/Nonfiction~~~
Caesar and Cleopatra - George Bernard Shaw
The Spanish Tragedy - Thomas Kyd
Brute - Emily Skaja
A Guide to Being Born - Ramona Ausubel
In My Own Moccasins - Helen Knott
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder - Caroline Fraser

~~~Comics/Graphic Novels~~~
Agnes, Murderess - Sarah Leavitt
The Backstagers Vol. 1: Rebels Without Applause - James Tynion IV (Ill. Rian Sygh & Walter Baiamonte)
Rat Queens Vol. 1: Sass and Sorcery - Kurtis J. Wiebe (Ill. Roc Upchurch)
Revenger - Charles Forsman
Punk’s Not Dead Vol 1: Teenage Kicks- David Barnett (Ill. Martin Simmonds)
Heathen Vol. 1 - Natasha Alterici (Ill. Rachel Deering)
Fables Vol 1: Legends in Exile - Bill Willingham (Ill. Terry Moore/Mike Allred/Lan Medina)

~~Goodreads~~
goodreads.com/user/show/10922578-big-al

March of the Mammoths ROUND 2 (Readathon Announcement)

bigalbooks 2020-02-05 | Your favourite extinct-animal themed readathon is back for another round this March! #MarchingMammoths

The Challenge: Read one 800+ page book in the month of March

~~~Find me on Goodreads! ~~~
goodreads.com/user/show/10922578-big-al

~~~Channels mentioned~~~
Jason's announcement video: youtube.com/watch?v=Yt1-Z1xSHf8

Lukas' announcement: youtube.com/watch?v=8iLQaJm1HcQ

~~BONUS~~
A nifty playlist of March of the Mammoths vids from last year:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQR7MV0gwHp09TLzJtEe8H6I1e2LWZesN

My Misconceptions about Proust

bigalbooks 2020-01-29 | My journey from avoidance to obsession :}

December Wrap Up

bigalbooks 2020-01-19 | Sorry that this video is kinda late & lengthy, but I am so excited to talk about one of my best reading months ever! :D

~~~Books Mentioned~~~
The Icelandic Sagas (various translators)
We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson
Acadia - Tom Stoppard
The Unnamable - Samuel Beckett
The Keep - Jennifer Egan
The Rehearsal - Eleanor Catton
Cleopatra: A Life - Stacy Schiff
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
Pastoralia - George Saunders
His Excellency Eugène Rougon - Emile Zola (trans. Brian Nelson)
There but for the - Ali Smith
Mildred Pierce - James M. Cain
The Castle - Franz Kafka (trans. Mark Harman)
Days by Moonlight - André Alexis
The Ice Shirt - William T. Vollmann
The Winter’s Tale - William Shakespeare
Antony and Cleopatra - William Shakespeare
The Heart of a Dog - Mikhail Bulgakov (trans. Michael Glenny)
Memoirs from the House of the Dead - Fyodor Dostoevsky (trans. Jesse Coulson)
The Sandman Vols. 4-11 - Neil Gaiman
Snow, Glass, Apples - Neil Gaiman

Favourite Reads of 2019

bigalbooks 2020-01-05 | Trying to narrow down 180 books into a list of 10 was no easy feat, but this list reflects some of my most memorable reading experiences of the year :}

~~~Books Mentioned~~~
Milkman - Anna Burns
Stories of Your Life and Other Stories - Ted Chiang
The Ice Shirt - William T. Vollmann
Deep River - Karl Marlantes
Black Leopard Red Wolf - Marlon James
(review: youtube.com/watch?v=HNY-5Jg0YcQ&list=PLgNo8gDGvtkvOd32AiRgR2D5Tgu66sCkj)
My Struggle 6: The End - Karl Ove Knausgaard (trans. Martin Aitken and Don Bartlett)
The Mandarins - Simone de Beauvoir (trans. Leonard M. Friedman)
The Sandman - Neil Gaiman
Cousin Bette - Honoré de Balzac (trans. Marion Crawford)
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (trans. Chistine Donougher)

Catch Up Wrap Up Pt. 2 (November: Novellas, Novels, and Non-Fiction)

bigalbooks 2019-12-31 | Didn't mean to upload this so late in the year, but my computer mysteriously died for a few days before returning to life like nothing was ever wrong!

| Books Mentioned |
~~~Novellas~~~
Suddenly the Minotaur - Marie-Hélène Poitras (trans. Patricia Claxton)
Double Indemnity - James M. Cain
Margaret the First - Danielle Dutton

~~~Novels~~~
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
GOTH - Otsuichi (trans. Andrew Cunningham)
Everything I Never Told You - Celeste Ng
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
The Dishwasher - Stéphane Larue (trans. Pablo Strauss)
DNF: Sweetbitter - Stephanie Danler
Sandman Vols. 1-3 - Neil Gaiman
Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars - Kai Cheng Thom

~~~Non-Fiction~~~
Waterloo You Never Knew - Joanna Rickert-Hall
Horror Stories - Liz Phair
Year of the Monkey - Patti Smith
Sounds Like Titanic - Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman
Semicolon - Celia Watson
The Victorians - A.N. Wilson
In the Dream House - Carmen Maria Machado
The Ravenmaster: My Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London - Christopher Skaife

Catch Up Wrap Up (August/September/October)

bigalbooks 2019-12-16 | Hellooo, long time no see!

~~Books Mentioned~~

***Women in Translation Readathon***
August - Romina Paula (trans. Jennifer Croft)
The Lover - Marguerite Duras (trans. Barbara Bray)
The End - Fernanda Torres (trans. Alison Entrekin)
Glory and Its Litany of Horrors - Fernanda Torres (trans. Eric M. B. Becker)
The Party Wall - Catherine Leroux (trans. Lazer Lederhendler)
Other Russias - Victoria Lemosko (trans. Thomas Campbell)
City Folk and Country Folk - Sofia Khvoshchinskaya (trans. Nora Seligman Favorov)
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Olga Tokarchuk (trans. Antonia Lloyd-Jones)
Mad Shadows - Marie Claire Blais (trans. Merloyd Lawrence)
The Complete Moomin - Tove Jansson

***Victober***
The Return of the Native - Thomas Hardy
Agnes Grey - Anne Bronte
Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

***Canadian Novels***
No Great Mischief - Alistair MacLeod
The Book of Negroes - Lawrence Hill
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel

***20th Century Reads***
Petersburg - Andrei Bely (trans. David McDuff)
The Reed - Edith Wharton
Howards End - E. M. Forster
The Talented Mr. Ripley - Patricia Highsmith
Salem's Lot - Stephen King

***Misc.***
Dom Casmurra - Joaqium Machado de Assis (trans. Helen Caldwell)
Falling Is Like This - Kate Rockland
Deep River - Karl Marlantes
This Place: 150 Years Retold (various authors/illustrators)
Refuse: CanLit in Ruins
Trick Mirror - Jia Tolentino
o
***Shakespeare Related***
The Taming of the Shrew
Much Ado About Nothing
Othello
New Boy - Tracy Chevalier (Hogarth Shakespeare Series)
HAMLET!
Shakespeare - Anthony Burgess

TBR - Women in Translation Readathon

bigalbooks 2019-08-24 | ~~More Info/Hosts of the Readathon~~

Matthew Sciarappa
youtube.com/watch?v=m11uD1rZruc

Kendra Winchester
youtube.com/c/kendrawinchester

~~Books Mentioned~~

The Party Wall - Catherine Leroux (trans. Lazer Lederhendler)
Mad Shadows - Marie Claire Blais (trans. Merloyd Lawrence)
The Lover - Marguerite Duras (trans. Barbara Bray)
The Passion According to G.H. - Clarice Lispector (trans. Caetano Veloso)
Feebleminded - Ariana Harwicz (trans. Carolina Orloff and Annie McDermott)
August - Romina Paula (trans. Jennifer Croft)
People in the Room - Norah Lange (trans. Charlotte Whittle)
City Folk and Country Folk - Sofia Khvoshchinskaya (trans. Nora Seligman Favorov)
Other Russias - Victoria Lemosko (trans. Thomas Campbell)
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Olga Tokarchuk (trans. Antonia Lloyd-Jones)
Collected Fiction - Leena Krohn (various translators)
The Complete Moomin - Tove Jansson

August Wrap Up (Pt. 1)

bigalbooks 2019-08-22 | ~~~Books Mentioned~~~

My Struggle Book 6: The End - Karl Ove Knausgaard (trans. Martin Aitken & Don Bartlett)
Wendy’s Revenge - Walter Scott
The Late Mattia Pascal - Luigi Pirandello (trans. William Weaver)
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town - Stephen Leacock
Molloy and Malone Dies - Samuel Beckett
Ship of Fools - Katherine Anne Porter
A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again - David Foster Wallace

~~Videos Mentioned~~
20th C Reading Challenge: youtube.com/watch?v=gFQWcYd-d8k&lc=z23ruzfzxxfwvjic1acdp43220fjd0g4ytfdulfj13tw03c010c

20th Century Reading Challenge

bigalbooks 2019-08-15 | Some details about my 2019 (and beyond) reading challenge where I am trying to read one book published in each year of the 20th century.

Please leave any 20th century must-read recommendations down below :)

July Wrap Up

bigalbooks 2019-08-08 | ~~Books Mentioned~~
Howl’s Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones
Madame de Pompadour - Nancy Mitford
Honoré de Balzac - V.S. Pritchett
Feel Free - Zadie Smith
The Mystery of the Yellow Room - Gaston Leroux (translator unknown!)
Eleven Stories for the Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize
Chanson Douce - Leila Slimani
A Heart So White - Javier Marías (trans. Margaret Jull Costa)
The Merry Wives of Windsor - Shakespeare
Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham
The Woodlanders - Thomas Hardy
Bunny - Mona Awad
A Complicated Kindness - Miriam Toews
Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen

June 2019 Wrap Up (20 books!)

bigalbooks 2019-07-04 | Here are all the books I read for Pride Month and National Indigenous Peoples Day! :)

~~Books Mentioned~~
Akata Witch - Nnedi Okorafor
The Sun King - Nancy Mitford
The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy
Claudine à l’école - Collette
Three Lives - Gertrude Stein
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me - Mariko Tamaki (ill. Rosemary Valery-O'Connell)
Bloom - Kevin Panetta (ill. Savanna Ganucheau)
Blue is the Warmest Colour - Julie Maroh
Wendy - Walter Scott
This Wound is a World - Billy-Ray Belcourt
Holy Wild - Gwen Benaway
No Surrender: The Land Remains Indigenous - Sheldon Krasowski
Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography - Chester Brown
Why Indigenous Literatures Matter - Daniel Health Justice
Celia’s Song - Lee Maracle
Love Medicine - Louis Erdrich
The Bone People - Keri Hulme
Trail of Lightning - Rebecca Roanhorse
Moccasin Square Gardens - Richard Van Camp

Mid Year Book Freak Out Tag

bigalbooks 2019-06-22 | I was tagged by:
Alex @ whatpageareyouon
youtube.com/channel/UCsUwugvMAROjWUpnKYSdWJw

Laura Frey
youtube.com/channel/UCFuViUPHXpzj4D8jlsvmO5w

~~Questions~~

1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2018.
2. Best sequel you've read so far in 2018.
3. New release you haven't read yet, but want to.
4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year.
5. Biggest disappointment.
6. Biggest surprise.
7. Favourite new author. (Debut or new to you)
8. Newest fictional crush.
9. Newest favourite character.
10. Book that made you cry.
11. Book that made you happy.
12. Favourite book to film adaptation you saw this year.
13. Favourite review you've written this year. (Booktube version: Favourite video you have done so far in this year)
14. Most beautiful book you've bought so far this year (or received)
15. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

I Tag: The Weird Book Book Club
youtube.com/channel/UCFBsV4a0F4PuJiZaPcQSHHQ

May/Asian Readathon Wrap Up

bigalbooks 2019-06-15 | Here are the books I read in May for the #asianreadathon :)

~~~Books Mentioned~~~
Spring - Ali Smith
Samuel Butler - The Way of All Flesh
The Postman Always Rings Twice - James M. Cain
The Best We Could Do - Thi Bui
The Sympathizer - Viet Thanh Nguyen
The Collected Schizophrenias - Esme Weijung Wang
Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata (trans. Ginny Tapley Takemori)
I Am A Cat - Sōseki Natsume (trans Aiko Ito & Graham Wilson)
Chorus of Mushrooms - Hiromi Goto
Pachinko - Min Jin Lee
Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
Stories of Your Life and Other Stories - Ted Chiang

~~~Asian Readathon Hosts~~~
youtube.com/readwithcindy
youtube.com/c/xreadingsolacex
youtube.com/bookswithchloe
youtube.com/channel/UCw-jjUaVPq5N_vngwwZefZw
youtube.com/channel/UCU-5uFv6XnhfV2qr_RC60iA

~~~Asian Readathon Challenges~~~
1. Read any book by an Asian author.
2. Read a graphic novel featuring an Asian character or written/drawn by an Asian author (manga, manhua, manhwa, and comics count).
3. Read a book featuring an intersectional Asian character or written by an intersectional Asian identity (i.e. queer, mixed, disabled, neurodiverse, etc).
4. Read a book by Asian author that was originally written in their native language (translated books and graphic novels count).
5. Read the group book: A Thousand Beginnings and Endings by Ellen Oh

April Wrap Up (Part 2)

bigalbooks 2019-05-18 | ~~~Part 1: youtube.com/watch?v=vwfO-B1nJLo&lc=z23cux3h5nmuztmspacdp43424wm1wvnpjw1ize5qj1w03c010c.1557322423170589

~~~Books Mentioned~~~
Monet: Itinerant of Light - Salvia Rubio & Ricard Efa
Vampires in the Lemon Grove - Karen Russel
Milkman - Anna Burns
Cousin Bette - Honoré de Balzac (trans. Marion Ayton Crawford)
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground - Alicia Elliott
The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family - Mary S. Lovell
Hons and Rebels - Jessica Mitford

April Wrap Up (Pt. 1)

bigalbooks 2019-05-05 | ~~~Books Mentioned~~~

The Killing Joke - Alan Moore/Brian Bolland
Megahex - Simon Hanselman
When I Hit You - Meena Kandasamy
Trust Exercise - Susan Choi
The Hound of the Baskervilles - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Idiophone - Amy Fusselman
Live Through This (33 1/2 Series) - Anwen Crawford

Bookish Boxes & Buzzwords Tag

bigalbooks 2019-04-28 | Original Tag (@ LizziefayeLovesBooks)
youtube.com/watch?v=ECYgnIPxHsw&t=2s

~~Questions~~
1. Your go-to genre or favorite type of book
2. Retellings you are drawn to.
3. Lifestyles or careers of the book characters.
4. Places or settings you are drawn to.
5. Relationships you enjoy reading about.
6. Buzzwords in the title of the book.
7. Things on book covers that drawn you in.
8. Non fiction buzzwords. Type of nonfiction are you drawn to.
9. Medical or physical conditions of characters.
10. Time of year, or time in history or future that you are drawn to.

~~bonus questions I didn't answer in the video but I'll answer here~~
Bonus #1: Any other bookish boxes or buzzwords not already mentioned.
-creepy clowns/carnivals/circuses
-hags/crones

Bonus #2: What Bookish boxes or buzzwords turn you away from a book?
-Math/Physics/Hard Science
-books with "Girl" in the title
-historical fiction set during WWII (over-saturated genre?)
-Recent Canada Reads winners ;)