I'm still working through Moby Dick (very dense book but I'm enjoying it).
My non-fiction read atm is Plutocrats - The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else by Chrystia Freeland.
Figured I might as well understand what is happening even if I don't like it, lol. It's a pretty intellectual slog but I'm doing all right. Chrystia Freeland is amazing.

I wanted to put a rug under our loveseat and I had to move it. And when it was this angle I took another look and thought, you know, this actually looks kind of good. I sat on it and you can actually see the TV alot better from it in this position and you're closer to the TV (we do alot of TV/movie watching in this room). Also, this makes more space in our dining room. So far, I'm loving it. I've been waiting for possible downsides. Now the only thing would be when we have a group of people over, the angle it's at doesn't really facilitate a communal gathering. But since that doesn't happen very often, and most days we need optimized TV viewing, this works well. We could always put the loveseat back when we have guests over. This angle also works for reading on the loveseat, because if I sit with my back against the arm, I get the light from the sliding doors.
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In this photo I have heavy books flattening the corners of the new rug.

Oh, and by the way, this is my dog Ollie:

*SPOILERS*

I can't believe we got Akasha in this episode! I didn't think we would see her until the end of episode six, or in episode seven.

Okay, favourite parts of this episode were Lestat's song for Claudia (obviously) and the entire Marius, Lestat, Akasha flashback. I thought they did this so well and it captured all of the important aspects of this part of the story in the book. Sheila Atim was incredible. They definitely picked the right actor.

Shoutout to seeing Lestat in all the beautifully bespoke period clothing!
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Love the band so much but I'm sad it looks like we won't be seeing Christine (I was just starting to like her alot), Fareed, Dee, or Larry (sob) anymore. Armand is BACK.

Can't wait to see how Alex, Salamander and especially TC take to vampirism. I'm excited. I hope they thrive.

When is Lestat going to give Gabriella the boot?

Akasha was saying all sorts of things but I distinctly recall her saying "I am the girl" several times. My theory is still that Regina is either Akasha channeling Claudia's ghost, or is actually Akasha manifesting as Claudia through Lestat's and Louis' memories.

So excited to find out what happens next!!!

I took a break from Moby Dick to read God of the Woods by Liz Moore, which is a mystery thriller set at a summer camp in the Adirondack mountains in the seventies. It was very good and a compelling read. I wasn't sure exactly what was going on until the final chapters. Also a good commentary on rich people compared to us regular folk.

Now, back to Moby Dick. I'm still reading White Fragility which is a really informing and necessary read.

We are going to G's brother's place for a barbecue tonight and I'm excited to watch Episode 5 of The Vampire Lestat tomorrow. I saw a teaser clip that made me laugh out loud. I love the humour in this show.

Happy Canada Day!

Let's celebrate our considerable freedoms and the lands we share, and the fact that we are not our neighbours.

Have a great day everyone and stay cool!

I GOT THE ROADIE TOTE BAG!!!

It's my birthday today and my husband, 22, and 19 all pitched in together to get me the Lestat merch I wanted. I'm so happy! Here's the other stuff I got:

The pin looks amazing on my satchel and the necklace is as lovely as it looked online. It's so subtle and well-designed, I love it. And nobody other than fans of the show will recognize that logo.

​I also got a huge Charles Dickens collection from 19:

I've read A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations but not The Adventures of Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities. I'm a huge Dickens fan so I'm looking forward to this! It's a beautiful volume.

I'm actually re-reading this one. Like The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, I read Moby Dick in my Myth and Language Class at university. It's been a long time since then and I want to revisit Captain Ahab, Ishmael, Queequeg, Starbuck, and so many more wonderful and distinct characters, including the white whale. There is a group of people who see a homosexual subtext between Ishmael and Queequeg, and although I think they are reading more into the behaviour of the time period than I would, I'm not averse to keeping my mind open. At the very least these two men are intensely joined in spirit, which is a joy to read. And I'd forgotten about the humour in the story. Parts of it are very funny.

As I mentioned, I like to read a non-fiction book at the same time that I'm reading a fiction book. This one is next in line.

I watched the documentary, Speechless, and felt no sympathy for the white professor who felt attacked by a request to join a peaceful protest that supported black students and faculty at his university. That professor (ex-professor now, I believe) referenced the author of this book as one of the left-leaning people who are promoting the ideology of (what he believes is) a radical and disproportionate examination of racism in white society.

So, of course I looked her up. And now I'm going to read her book, because, as a white woman with a ton of privilege, I feel a responsibility to educate myself about/ and uncover my own inherent racism. 

My kids came through for my husband yesterday on Father's Day.

Although 22 couldn't be here, she brought him a lovely bouquet of flowers on Saturday. 19 gave him a Father's Day/Birthday gift combined which is the LEGO Mersk Container Ship. My husband's birthday is this Wednesday but he will be at a golf tournament, so 19 thought to give him the gift yesterday when he would have time to build it, which he did. I gave him a new bathrobe but I don't have a photo as he wanted to wash it. It's black with grey trim and very soft.

After husband's birthday comes my birthday, on Monday, June 29th. We are having some family over on Saturday for a big June birthday celebration (there are 3 in one month). And then it's Canada's birthday (Canada Day) next Wednesday (July 1st), with another planned family get together.

I did NOT realize the print was going to be as large as it was, lol.

This is a book I read for the first time in a Myth and Language class at university and I remember enjoying it. I should have re-read it when I was researching for my pirate series because there is alot of great 'what happens on board a sailing ship' stuff, particularly when the weather is bad. There are definitely problematic elements to it, as when the titular character finds himself on an island that is not inhabited by people familiar to him. Interesting to recognize, though, the racist and colonialist attitudes that were prevalent at the time. One of the things that Arthur and his men assess on the island is what is there that they can sell and profit from, ignoring completely the fact that the indigenous peoples living there should have first rights to all of it. Written by Edgar Allen Poe, the story is suitably haunting and unsettling and it is plain to see that Poe has a deep fascination with men being buried alive or trapped in tight confines. He did write The Cask of Amontillado, of course.

I like to read two books at the same time, and one of them is generally non-fiction. 

This one is interesting. I almost stopped reading it during the first chapter when he postulated some things concerning the toys that children are drawn to that I didn't fully agree with, but I kept reading. The chapter on gender and identity is quite good and he supports most of the things I believe. I'm not sure we align completely on our ideas about gender, and I don't think studying chimps and other apes adequately represents our uniqueness as humans. I don't believe humans are better than other animals, but that our use of language and complex tool using brain puts us in a very different category, so that discussions of gender and identity are a specifically human phenomenon.

What am I reading on Sunday, June 14th, 2026?

I found this on a recent trip to my local Indigo, in the bargain books section (LOVE the bargain books section!). I was immediately drawn to the cover and when I realized that it was a curated collection of writings about famous cities, I knew I had to have it.

Peter Furtado takes excerpts from various diverse voices throughout history and aligns them with an alphabetical list of the best known cities in the world. It's enchanting and eye-opening. I enjoyed the way it was structured, with a brief description (by the editor) of each city and why that city was renowned. Then the date of the excerpt and a description of the author and why they found themselves in the city they were describing. 

​I think I paid $20 for this hardcover edition and it was totally worth it.