Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith My rating: 4 of 5 stars I find it a pleasure to read mysteries set in a country other than UK or US (yes, I didn’t include Canada because it’s not a big setting either), and I like this series because not only is the setting — [...]

Update to Case Management drama: I met with my case manager from COTA (see previous post for the story so far). I told her to get to it; I didn’t even give her a chance for her usual draining chit-chat. I needed my energy to get through the session with her; thankfully my moral anger [...]

“Now listen, you who say, ’Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ ’Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” (NIV James [...]

Ill Wind by Nevada Barr My rating: 4 of 5 stars Another good read by Nevada Barr. What made me admire her more as a writer is that she had a scene where a lesser author, going for the easy titillation, would’ve thrown sex in. Instead Barr adds credibility and excitement and interest by not [...]

Friends and Readers: May your end-of-year Be happy And 2012 Be blessed And your tastebuds be acquainted with good macarons.

The Dead of Winter by Rennie Airth My rating: 1 of 5 stars OK, it’s rare for me not to finish a book. I’m endemically inclined to finish any book I pick up, even if it takes me years. But this writer has a really annoying habit of jumping around in time. At first, I [...]

A Superior Death by Nevada Barr My rating: 5 of 5 stars This book won’t leave my head. I keep feeling the coldness of a Lake Superior summer, the lushness of a temperate climate, the aliveness of the protagonist Anna Pigeon. I’m sure I’ve read Nevada Barr before — I have memories of reading a [...]

Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat My rating: 4 of 5 stars I had heard great reviews of this book, but I found it a difficult read — not style-wise but content-wise. And so at first I read it on and off. “People just don’t talk about it,” [the Iranian woman] said. That’s true for [...]

I have a brain injury. That means, through some incomprehensible bureaucratic logic, I receive social work, occupational therapy (OT), physiotherapy, etc. through my local CCAC or Community Care Access Centre, and case management through COTA Health, which stands for something to do with occupational therapy. And they only talk to each other if CCAC makes [...]