Pearl Pirie’s lists, reviews, interviews, etc. since 2005

Fav Reads 2025, Addendum

Still a couple days left to read but I’m adding to best of list now,

The Garbage Poems by Anna Swanson, illustrated by April White (Brick Books, 2025) which gave so many aha moments on chronic illness and concussion, and consumer culture, and pure amazement at her rendering poems from trash container text.

and from backlist titles,

But Then I Thought by Kyla Houbolt (above/ground, 2023) which impels me to buy her book too. What a crisp, alert alive mind!

New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit, 2017) which apparently people know about and love. Onto The Ministry for the Future next.

And for cozy reads, fluffy romance comedy, Christmas in the Scottish Highlands by Donna Ashcroft (Bookouture, 2021) which I encountered in a Little Free Library. She’s got something like 18 novels published. Such a fun one.

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I will probably update my year’s stats since I might still finish 2 more books before NYE.

I won’t make it through Ireland’s Welcome to the Stranger (Annotated): or, an excursion through Ireland, in 1844 & 1845, for the purpose of personally investigating the condition of the poor by Asenath Nicholson. Although I did splurge on it, finally. (It dropped from twenty odd dollars for digital to six.) I had read the rather generous length of sample early in the year. Fascinating stuff.

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I don’t know that I got any usable photos from the PFYC reading, it being dark and me lurking at the back. But it was a cheerful night. It haunts me Michelle asking, (I paraphrase) do we not all write poetry from love? I and one other voice said yes. Did people in the front nod or is it a way minority position?

Fav Reads 2025

The top 10 and the top 2 dozen of the year. Some of these were really tight calls. And a have a dozen still underway that I may finish this year. Could happen.

2025 Poetry:

Toward an Origin Story by Laurie D Graham (Model Press, 2025)
Seed Beetle by Mahaila Smith (Stelliform Press, 2025)
Hawk & Moon by Han VanderHart (Bottlecap Press, 2025)

2025 Essay:

No straight road takes you there by Rebecca Solnit (Haymarket, 2025)

2025 Novels:

The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam by Megan Bannen (Orbit, 2025)
We Could be Rats by Emily Austin (Simon & Schuster, 2025)

2025 Fan Fiction:

Daily Affirmations by Raxacoricofallapatoriusrulez (AO3, 2025) [Prodigal Son]
The Earthbound Chronicles by Regal_Beezer (AO3, 2025) [Good Omens]
Are we meant to read the footnotes by RiaTheDreamer (AO3, 2025) [Good Omens]

2025 Kids Book:

A Home for Spark the Dragon by Michael Sheen and Jess Webb, Illus by Sarah Massini (Penguin, 2025)

2 dozen “Backlist” Favs

Poetry:

Gay Girl Prayers by Emily Austin (Brick, 2024)
To Assemble an Absence by John Levy (above/ground, 2024)
Sweet Vinegars: poems of wildflowers by Claudia Radmore (Shoreline, 2024)
Heliotropia: poems by Manahil Bandukwala (Brick, 2024)
Slowly Turning by Marco Fraticelli (Yarrow Press, 2024)
Small Arguments: poems by Souvankham Thammovongsa (M&S, 2003, 2023)
A “Working Life” by Eileen Myles (Grove, 2023)
Notes on Drowning by rob mclennan (Broken Jaw Press, 1998)
still the dead trees: haiku by Robert Piotrowski (Red Moon Press, 2017)
The Weight of Oranges: poems by Anne Michaels (M&S, 1997)

Essays:

From Desire Without Expectation by Jacob Wren (above/ground, 2024)
Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit (Haymarket Books, 2004, 2016)
The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture by Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté (Alfred A. Knopf, 2022)

Fan fiction:

Sky Clear Blue by klikandtuna (AO3, 2024)
Find Every Sky by klikandtuna/Steph (AO3, 2024)
Old Vines by Sevdrag (AO3, 2021)

Short Stories:

Nothing Without Us Too, ed. by Cait Gordon and Talia C. Johnson (Renaissance Press, 2022)

Novels:
Everyone in this room will someday be dead by Emily Austin (Simon & Schuster, 2021)
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence (Doubleday, 1928)
Looking for Her by Carolyn Marie Souid (Baraka Books, 2024)
Undefeated: Sydney Rye Mysteries, book 15 by Emily Kimelman (EK, 2022)
The Undermining of Twyla and Frank by Megan Bannen (Orbit, 2024)
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit, 2012)

History:
Divergent Paths: Family Histories of Irish Immigrants in Britain, 1820-1920 by John Herson (Manchester University Press, 2015)

What was my favourites before? Favourites in 2015.

Favourite Books from 2015

My fav reads of 2006.

I use inconsistent terms so a bit hard for even me to dig out posts.

Year End Audit

I suppose I could do this Jan 1st and to a degree will.

I had a few guiding goals going into the year: Abandon books instead of slog, read more BIPOC, more queer, more in translation
more by disabled, more in French.

About 10% BIPOC. On French, I finished none. What/who counts as disabled? Bit hard to quantify. 8% self-declared queer. I quit more books, so this year no books 1 star of 5 completed.

Because our world is interconnected, I am not attempting to read Canada, but observe where. 4/5 Canadian, a quarter American, almost a tenth British.

28 books were re-reads, which is the highest year for me. A push to revisit.

Reading books that are not current took a hit by not making that a focus. Half were published within a year, almost 80% within 12 years. Deep history, not so much. Only 10 titles are from over a century ago.

But 7 sci-fi fantasy, a growing section. I read half the amount of fan fiction compared to last year.

60% poetry last year. 52% this year. Same number of chapbooks as last year, 70-some. A tange of 8 pages to 1200 pages. So far the average is about 145 pages of a title. About half for free by library, Little Free Library, gift or review copies.

Where do these things come from? House gnomes?

Online, book fairs, directly from the author or publisher mostly, nearly 60% that way. Next 13% from a library or Amazon. Only 13 titles new from a bookstore. That strikes me as few but twice as much as last year. Used book stores are close to the same.

Next I suppose, the fav list of most recommend…

Elsewhere

A funny thing for you to come here for me to send you away again, but some tome ago blogger stopped working for me so I migrated those sites to my own dang server. And my old cat blog got deleted by WordPress as dormant on their server. I got the files restored.

The only files you control can’t be hosted by someone you can’t control. See Meta(stasize) empire of Instagram, Facebook. The twitter, the blue sky, the what have you.

Long story not too short, Looking on the Bri Side , Pearl Essence and Catnips & Catnaps are now housed here. The dog he just scatters though all my social media. Should I build him a blog retroactively? He’s pretty old. He might live a year or six…

And a reminder to those reading in close to real time, there’s that event at 1 Canal St. Ottawa of the Refused.