Transformative Explications http://www.randymetcalfe.com/ communications consultancy | technology and open source software | creative writing Mon, 29 Dec 2025 18:49:59 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Sourdough year in review – 2025 http://www.randymetcalfe.com/2025/12/26/sourdough-year-in-review-2025/ http://www.randymetcalfe.com/2025/12/26/sourdough-year-in-review-2025/#respond Fri, 26 Dec 2025 13:29:18 +0000 http://www.randymetcalfe.com/?p=1504 I was away at the beginning of the year. My sourdough starter waited patiently for me in the refrigerator. As a result I didn’t mix my first sourdough until nearly the end of January. As I was on my own for these months, I slowed the rate of production. It turns out I can only […]

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]]>

I was away at the beginning of the year. My sourdough starter waited patiently for me in the refrigerator. As a result I didn’t mix my first sourdough until nearly the end of January. As I was on my own for these months, I slowed the rate of production. It turns out I can only eat so much bread even if it is sourdough. Then the starter went back in the refrigerator for all of April as I was away again. I didn’t mix a dough again until early May.

I transitioned to using an autolyse when mixing my boules dough at the start of the year. An autolyse involves mixing just the water and flour together and letting them rest for up to a few hours before incorporating the sourdough starter and the salt. I’m not sure whether it made for better bread in the end, but it certainly was nicer dough to work with.

I moved to a much better system for introducing steam during the baking of my demi-baguettes. I now use a cast iron skillet on the rack below the rack with my oven stone. I boil a cup or two of water just prior to scoring the baguettes and placing them in the oven. And then I carefully add the water to the very hot skillet. There is steam in abundance. After about ten minutes I carefully remove the skillet which may still hold some hot water and let the baguettes continue their bake without steam.

At the end of June I made my first brioche style sourdough hamburger buns. Very happy with the results. Whenever I add a new product to my repertoire I do extensive research on many different recipes first in order to find one that I think will best fit my environment. Sometimes it takes a bit of experimentation but this one worked well the first time.

Sourdough Hamburger Buns
Sourdough Hamburger Bun

In September I made my first sourdough English muffins.

Sourdough English Muffins
English Muffin

In October I significantly improved my sourdough pizza methodology. Sometimes I take advice from one source and use it with a recipe from another. Eventually I find a combination that gives me the result I’m looking for.

I kept learning as the year went on. Late in the year I started getting unsatisfactory demi-baguettes after having produced lovely ones for months. Eventually I traced the cause. I think it was due to the drop in house temperature. We had a very cold November and a super cold December. Our house temperature doesn’t get above 20c and it doesn’t even reach that temperature until 8:00 am. During the summer the house temperature is around 23c or higher. To compensate I increased the time of my bulk fermentation significantly. It really is better to go by the look and feel of the dough and the amount it has risen. Results have returned to near normal finally.

It has been another rewarding year. Apart from enjoying a lot of sourdough products, I’ve been able to give many items away to friends. And since we didn’t purchase any bread products over the entire year (except for when we were living in the UK), I can say with some certainty that we have saved a fair bit of money. The total cost of all ingredients used in 2025 comes to just over $362. With those ingredients I made:

  • 70 boules
  • 128 demi-baguettes
  • 18 olive ciabattas
  • 24 pitas
  • 26 pizzas
  • 32 hamburger buns
  • 24 English muffins

Already looking forward to where my sourdough adventure will take me in 2026.

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]]> http://www.randymetcalfe.com/2025/12/26/sourdough-year-in-review-2025/feed/ 0 Sourdough year in review – 2024 http://www.randymetcalfe.com/2024/12/19/sourdough-year-in-review-2024/ http://www.randymetcalfe.com/2024/12/19/sourdough-year-in-review-2024/#comments Thu, 19 Dec 2024 09:55:48 +0000 http://www.randymetcalfe.com/?p=1414 I baked my first (successful) loaf of sourdough bread in the middle of January 2024. It had taken me more than two months to get a viable starter working. My initial attempts at baking sourdough bread were dismal. I’m a bit surprised that I didn’t give up. I’m glad I didn’t. Once I knew that […]

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]]> I baked my first (successful) loaf of sourdough bread in the middle of January 2024. It had taken me more than two months to get a viable starter working. My initial attempts at baking sourdough bread were dismal. I’m a bit surprised that I didn’t give up. I’m glad I didn’t.
Once I knew that I could produce an edible loaf, my project was to improve upon it. And then to branch out. That first loaf was a 100% white bread flour boule. By February, I moved to a boule of 50% white bread flour, 40% wholewheat flour, and 10% rye flour. That is my current standard loaf. It has 75% hydration. And it looks like this:
By the end of February I had added ciabatta bread to my repertoire. This was a 100% white bread flour dough with 80% hydration. I liked the ciabatta buns I was making. But in late September I had a game changer: my first olive ciabatta loaf. Really nice.
During the year I also experimented with sourdough pita bread, sourdough pizza dough, and sourdough focaccia.
The biggest challenge though was the baguette. My early efforts were unsatisfactory for a number of reasons. Baguette dough has to be handled a fair bit prior to going in the oven. It requires patience and solid technique. My first attempts probably had too high of a hydration for my skill level. Once I reduced the hydration to 70%, I was able to achieve something like what I was aiming for. I also had to learn that for my oven, demi-baguettes are the better size. I’m still not 100% satisfied with them. It’s an ongoing project.
It has been a very rewarding year. Apart from enjoying lots of sourdough bread, I’ve been able to give some nice loaves to friends and family. And since we didn’t purchase any store-bought bread over the entire year, I can say with some degree of certainty that we saved a fair bit of money. I made a point of tracking the costs of all my ingredients during 2024. The total cost of all ingredients comes to just over $340. With those ingredients, I made:
  • 86 boules
  • 6 baguettes
  • 84 demi-baguettes
  • 52 ciabatta buns
  • 3 ciabatta loaves
  • 21 olive ciabatta loaves
  • 1 focaccia
  • 8 pizzas
I’m taking a break over the holidays since I am travelling. I will be back in 2025 with lots more sourdough. I’ve got a list of things to try in order to improve the bread I’m currently making, and some ideas about how to broaden my repertoire further. Looking forward to it!

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]]> http://www.randymetcalfe.com/2024/12/19/sourdough-year-in-review-2024/feed/ 4 Sourdough Bread http://www.randymetcalfe.com/2024/02/09/sourdough-bread/ Fri, 09 Feb 2024 17:02:48 +0000 http://www.randymetcalfe.com/?p=1369 I have been on a bit of a sourdough journey recently. So I thought it might be useful to add a few pages to my site for those who might like to learn more. But if a picture is all you need (and it probably is), you can feast on this, my current standard sourdough […]

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]]> I have been on a bit of a sourdough journey recently. So I thought it might be useful to add a few pages to my site for those who might like to learn more. But if a picture is all you need (and it probably is), you can feast on this, my current standard sourdough loaf.

If it is all about the crumb for you, then I offer the following.

If you would like to learn more about what I’ve been up to, I’m adding a few sourdough bread pages to the site. But skip it if you find the droning on of sourdough newbies boring.

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]]> Reading – a year in review, 2023 http://www.randymetcalfe.com/2024/01/01/reading-a-year-in-review-2023/ Mon, 01 Jan 2024 17:11:29 +0000 http://www.randymetcalfe.com/?p=1312 Another year when my reading totals were down, especially during the summer months when some challenging elder-care out of town meant that I got almost no reading done. That resolved itself satisfactorily and recently my reading has picked up again. As is my habit, I’ve posted short reviews on each of these books I read […]

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]]> Another year when my reading totals were down, especially during the summer months when some challenging elder-care out of town meant that I got almost no reading done. That resolved itself satisfactorily and recently my reading has picked up again. As is my habit, I’ve posted short reviews on each of these books I read on LibraryThing.

Writers who impressed me this year include Helen DeWitt, Percival Everett, Claire North, Elif Batuman, Rivka Gelchen, Carys Davies, George Saunders, and Suzette Mayr.

Stats from my 2023 reading list:
  • 23 were borrowed from the public library
  • 2 have Canadian authors
  • 9 were chosen due to personal recommendations from friends
  • 1 was being reread
  • 13 are ebooks
Books read in 2023 (44):
  • Perrin, Valérie. Fresh Water for Flowers
  • Mayr, Suzette. The Sleeping Car Porter
  • Chou, Elaine Hsieh. Disorientation
  • Everett, Percival. Dr. No: a novel
  • Foley, Lucy. The Paris Apartment: a novel
  • Garmus, Bonnie. Lessons in Chemistry: a novel
  • Sanders, George. Liberation Day: stories
  • Murakami, Haruki. Novelist as a Vocation
  • Winman, Sarah. Still Life: a novel
  • Everett, Percival. The Trees: a novel
  • Henry, Emily. Beach Read
  • Powers, Richard. Bewilderment: a novel
  • Powers, Richard. Orfeo: a novel
  • Wilson, Kevin. Now Is Not The Time To Panic: a novel
  • Everett, Percival. Telephone: a novel
  • Ellis, Warren. Nina Simone’s Gum
  • Tevis, Walter. The Queen’s Gambit
  • Strout, Elizabeth. The Burgess Boys: a novel
  • Ayoade, Richard. The Book That No One Wanted To Read
  • Strout, Elizabeth. Amy and Isabelle: a novel
  • Smith, Ali. Companion Piece: a novel
  • Davies, Carys. West: a novel
  • Marche, Stephen. On writing and failure, or, on the peculiar perseverance required to endure the life of a writer
  • Galchen, Rivka. Everyone Know Your Mother Is A Witch
  • Davies, Carys. The Mission House: a novel
  • Porter, Max. Shy: a novel
  • Link, Kelly. White Cat, Black Dog: stories
  • Hay, Elizabeth. Snow Road Station: a novel
  • Friedman, Elyse. The Answer to Everything: a novel
  • Batuman, Elif. The Idiot
  • Godden, Salena. Mrs Death Misses Death
  • Ayoade, Richard. Ayoade on Top
  • Tomine, Adrian. Shortcomings
  • Everett, Percival. I Am Not Sidney Poitier: a novel
  • Wells, Martha. Witch King
  • North, Claire. House of Odysseus
  • Ayoade, Richard. Richard Ayoade Presents: The Grip of Film by Gordy LaSure
  • Aoyama, Michiko. What you are looking for is in the library: a novel
  • Henry, Emily. Happy Place
  • Wells, Martha. System Collapse
  • Driver, Minnie. Managing Expectations: a memoir in essays
  • Rovelli, Carlo. White Holes
  • Everett, Percival. Assumption
  • DeWitt, Helen. The Last Samurai

 

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]]> Reading – a year in review, 2022 http://www.randymetcalfe.com/2023/01/08/reading-a-year-in-review-2022/ Sun, 08 Jan 2023 13:15:32 +0000 http://www.randymetcalfe.com/?p=1284 My reading numbers are down again this year. Too many out of town obligations, I guess. But at least I read some wonderful books and not too many duds. As per usual I’ve posted short reviews on each of the books I read on LibraryThing. Writers who impressed me this year include W.G. Sebald, Gwendoline […]

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]]> My reading numbers are down again this year. Too many out of town obligations, I guess. But at least I read some wonderful books and not too many duds. As per usual I’ve posted short reviews on each of the books I read on LibraryThing.

Writers who impressed me this year include W.G. Sebald, Gwendoline Riley, Claire-Louise Bennett, and Chinua Achebe. Special mention for Muriel Spark, seven of whose books I devoured this year happily.

Stats from my 2022 reading list:
• 23 were borrowed from our public library
• 5 have Canadian authors
• 7 were chosen due to personal recommendations from friends
• 1 was being reread
• 10 are ebooks

Books read in 2022 (51):

● Whittall, Zoe. The Spectacular: a novel
● Fraser, Jackie. The Bookshop of Second Chances: a novel
● Heiny, Katherine. Early Morning Riser: a novel
● Le Tellier, Hervé. The Anomaly: a novel
● Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart
● Vila-Matas, Enrique. Mac and His Problem
● Spark, Muriel. The Ballad of Peckham Rye
● Spark, Muriel. The Finishing School
● Bennett, Claire-Louise. Checkout 19
● Spark, Muriel. Loitering With Intent
● Tyler, Anne. French Braid: a novel
● Spark, Muriel. Aiding and Abetting
● Gardam, Jane. Crusoe’s Daughter
● St. John Mandel, Emily. Sea of Tranquility
● Spark, Muriel. The Abbess of Crewe
● Humphreys, Helen. And a Dog Called Fig: Solitude, Connection, The Writing Life
● Spark, Muriel. A Far Cry From Kensington
● Kawakami, Hiromi. People From My Neighbourhood
● Barnes, Julian. Elizabeth Finch
● Natsukawa, Sosuke. The Cat Who Saved Books
● Rovelli, Carlo. There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness and other thoughts on Physics, Philosophy and the World
● Modiano, Patrick. Sundays in August
● Austin, Emily. Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead: a novel
● Henry, Emily. Book Lovers
● Lipscomb, Benjamin J.B. The Women Are Up To Something: How Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch Revolutionized Ethics
● McCall Smith, Alexander. The Sunday Philosophy Club
● McCall Smith, Alexander. Friends, Lovers, Chocolate
● Runyon, Damon. Guys and Dolls and other writings
● Snyder, Carrie. Francie’s Got a Gun
● Sean Greer, Andrew. Less Is Lost
● McCall Smith, Alexander. The Right Attitude to Rain
● McCall Smith, Alexander. Emma: a modern retelling
● Sebald, W.G. The Rings of Saturn
● Coll, Susan. Bookish People: a novel
● Riley, Gwendoline. My Phantoms
● Henry, Emily. The Love That Split The World
● Walter, Jess. The Angel of Rome and other stories
● Kawakami, Mieko. All The Lovers In the Night: a novel
● North, Claire. Ithaka
● Spark, Muriel. The Comforters
● Nunez, Sigrid. Salvation City: a novel
● Nunez, Sigrid. What Are You Going Through
● Strout, Elizabeth. Lucy by the Sea
● Riley, Gwendoline. First Love: a novel
● Drnaso, Nick. Acting Class
● Maass, Donald. Writing 21st Century Fiction: High Impact Techniques for Exceptional Storytelling
● MacLeod, Alexander. Animal Person: stories
● Ignatieff, Michael. On Consolation: Finding Solace in Dark Times
● Vandermeer, Jeff. Hummingbird Salamander

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]]> Reading – a year in review, 2021 http://www.randymetcalfe.com/2022/01/01/reading-a-year-in-review-2021/ Sat, 01 Jan 2022 13:02:46 +0000 http://www.randymetcalfe.com/?p=1256 My reading numbers in 2021 are down a bit compared to the previous year. Not to worry, they bounce back. And I still had a good year of reading with very few weak books read and only one true dud. As per usual I’ve posted short reviews of each of the books I read on […]

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]]> My reading numbers in 2021 are down a bit compared to the previous year. Not to worry, they bounce back. And I still had a good year of reading with very few weak books read and only one true dud. As per usual I’ve posted short reviews of each of the books I read on LibraryThing.

Writers who impressed me this year included Patrick Süskind, China Miéville, George Saunders, Jon McGregor, John Berger, and Muriel Spark. And a special mention goes to Martha Wells, whose Murderbot Diaries novellas were a wonderful distraction.

Stats from my 2021 reading list:

  • 40 were borrowed from our public library
  • 6 have Canadian authors
  • 6 were chosen due to personal recommendations from friends
  • 2 were being reread
  • 5 are ebooks

Books read in 2021 (55):

  • Ewen, Paul. Francis Plug: Writer in Residence
  • Kingwell, Mark. On Risk
  • Setiya, Kieran. Midlife: a philosophical guide
  • Dillon, Brian. Suppose A Sentence
  • O’Farrell, Maggie. Hamnet & Judith
  • Bennett, Claire-Louise. Pond
  • Wells, Martha. The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red
  • Smith, Zadie. Intimations: Six Essays
  • Berger, John. Here is where we meet
  • Kinsky, Esther. River
  • Leilani, Raven. Luster: a novel
  • Murata, Sayaka. Earthlings
  • McEwan, Ian. Machines Like Me
  • Miéville, China. The City & The City
  • Wells, Martha. The Murderbot Diaries: Artificial Condition
  • Wells, Martha. The Murderbot Diaries: Rogue Protocol
  • Pratchett, Terry. The Colour of Magic
  • Wells, Martha. The Murderbot Diaries: Exit Strategy
  • Ishiguro, Kazuo. Klara and The Sun
  • Robinson, Eden. Return of the Trickster
  • Wilson, Kevin. Nothing To See Here
  • Bernhard, Thomas. The Loser
  • Saunders, George. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
  • Walschots, Natalie Zina. Hench
  • Williams, Eley. The Liar’s Dictionary
  • Wells, Martha. The Murderbot Diaries: Network Effect
  • St. Aubyn, Edward. Double Blind
  • Kawakami, Mieko. Heaven: a novel
  • Wells, Martha. The Murderbot Diaries: Fugitive Telemetry
  • North, Claire. Notes From The Burning Age
  • Cusk, Rachel. Second Place
  • Weir, Andy. Project Hail Mary
  • Toews, Miriam. Fight Night
  • Süskind, Patrick. The Pigeon
  • Bechdel, Alison. The Secret to Superhuman Strength
  • Rovelli, Carlo. Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution
  • Segal, Lore. Shakespeare’s Kitchen
  • Nunez, Sigrid. The Friend
  • Porter, Max. The Death of Francis Bacon
  • Calvino, Italo. Last Comes the Raven and Other Stories
  • Alexis, André. Ring
  • Mills, Carolyn Huizinga. The Good Son: a novel
  • McGregor, Jon. Lean Fall Stand
  • Austen, Jane. Persuasion: An Annotated Edition edited by Robert Morrison
  • Sáenz, Benjamin Alire. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
  • Erpenbeck, Jenny. Not a Novel: A Memoir in Pieces
  • Smiley, Jane. Perestroika in Paris
  • Kawaguchi, Toshikazu. Before the Coffee Gets Cold: a novel
  • Strout, Elizabeth. Oh William!: a novel
  • Bordas, Camille. How to Behave in a Crowd: a novel
  • Spark, Muriel. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
  • Moshfegh, Ottessa. Eileen: a novel
  • Modiano, Patrick. Young Once
  • Spark, Muriel. The Girls of Slender Means
  • King, Lily. Five Tuesdays in Winter: stories

 

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]]> NaNoWriMo 2021 http://www.randymetcalfe.com/2021/11/01/nanowrimo-2021/ Mon, 01 Nov 2021 15:07:08 +0000 http://www.randymetcalfe.com/?p=1248 A bit to my surprise I’ve committed to writing 50000 words of a new novel over the course of November. Thousands of people have done this in previous years and now I too am one of those taking part in NaNoWriMo. I spent the previous ten or eleven days prepping, going down various blind alleys, […]

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]]> A bit to my surprise I’ve committed to writing 50000 words of a new novel over the course of November. Thousands of people have done this in previous years and now I too am one of those taking part in NaNoWriMo. I spent the previous ten or eleven days prepping, going down various blind alleys, deciding on a structure, main characters, and more. It’s the most consistent writing work I’ve done in a few years. And it was fun!

I note that there are lots social media options for NaNoWriMo including for the Kitchener-Waterloo area group. I don’t see myself participating in that way but I’m glad these options are available for those who enjoy them.

I’ll add a note to this post at the end of the month to report on whether I met my goal.

19 November: Earlier today I passed the 50000 word mark for this novel. I’ve got a complete first draft and I will now set it aside for a time before I return to it to work on the second draft. It was a fun experience, but I was really glad I did that prep work before starting writing.

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]]> Reading — a year in review, 2020 http://www.randymetcalfe.com/2021/01/01/reading-a-year-in-review-2020/ Fri, 01 Jan 2021 14:01:58 +0000 http://www.randymetcalfe.com/?p=1209 2020 was a very unusual year for reading. For everyone. When our local public library was forced to close its physical doors in late March, I was motivated to switch to their digital offerings. I had read a few ebooks in the past, but was unimpressed and hadn’t bothered with them for years. Now, for […]

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]]> 2020 was a very unusual year for reading. For everyone. When our local public library was forced to close its physical doors in late March, I was motivated to switch to their digital offerings. I had read a few ebooks in the past, but was unimpressed and hadn’t bothered with them for years. Now, for a time, ebooks became my mainstay. Our local independent bookseller, Words Worth Books, was also forced to shut its doors. However, they were soon up and running with a safe collection system via the back door of the store. Select your books online, place your order, pay, and when you come to collect just ring the doorbell and step back six feet until a staff member brings your books to you (wearing a mask, of course). Remarkably, as business after business in Waterloo fell under the weight of the pandemic, our bookstore has survived. So far.

One of the other features of 2020 has been podcasts. One of my favourites is the BBC podcast, A Good Read, in which host Harriet Gilbert and two guests share their selection of a good read and then proceed to have a lively discussion. I’ve picked up numerous excellent suggestions for my reading list from this podcast. One, which rather surprised me, was for a high-concept thriller call The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North, a pseudonym of Catherine Webb. The story was so strange and almost philosophical (despite clearly being a thriller) and all of the participants equally enthused about it. So I put that in my first closed door order at Words Worth Books back in the spring. And I’ve ended up reading all of the Claire North novels over the course of this year. What fun!

Highlights of the year included books by Lily King, Richard Ayoade, Cees Nooteboom, Max Porter, Jess Walter, and Claire North. So, a lot of good books!

As has been my way in recent years, I have written short reviews of each of the books and posted those on LibraryThing.

Stats from my 2020 reading list:

  • 49 were borrowed from our public library
  • 10 have Canadian authors
  • 2 were chosen due to personal recommendation from friends
  • 1 was being reread
  • 5 are non-fiction
  • 19 are ebooks

Books read in 2020 (79):

  • Braithwaite, Oyinkan. My Sister, The Serial Killer
  • Kawakami, Hiromi. The Ten Loves of Nishino
  • Pratchett, Terry. The Bromeliad: Truckers, Diggers, Wings
  • Tomes, Susan. Speaking the Piano: Reflections on Learning and Teaching
  • Amis, Martin. The Rachel Papers
  • Morgenstern, Erin. The Starless Sea: a novel
  • Oyamada, Hiroko. The Factory
  • Simsion, Graeme. The Rosie Project
  • Porter, Max. Lanny: a novel
  • Aronson, Elliot and Tavris, Carol. Mistakes Were Made (but not by me): why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts
  • Strugatsky, Arkady and Boris. Roadside Picnic
  • Bank, Melissa. The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing
  • Headley, Maria Dahvana. The Mere Wife: a novel
  • Nooteboom, Ces. The Following Story
  • Han Kang. Human Acts: a novel
  • Groff, Lauren. Florida
  • Hay, Elizabeth. All Things Consoled: a daughter’s memoir
  • Capote, Truman. Breakfast at Tiffany’s and three stories
  • Iyer, Lars. Nietzsche and the Burbs: a novel
  • Tawada, Yoko. The Emissary
  • Gini, Al. The Importance of Being Funny
  • Alexis, André. Beauty and Sadness
  • Ross, Leone. Come Let Us Sing Anyway and other stories
  • Berryman, John. 77 Dream Songs
  • St. John Mandel, Emily. The Glass Hotel
  • Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, Red Harvest
  • Nneka Arimah, Lesley. What it means when a man falls from the sky: stories
  • Lim, Thea. An Ocean of Minutes: a novel
  • Irani, Anosh. Translated From The Gibberish: seven stories & one half truth
  • Evaristo, Bernadine. Girl, Woman, Other: a novel
  • O’Neill, Joseph. Good Trouble: stories
  • Offill, Jenny. Dept. of Speculation
  • Ayoade, Richard. Ayoade on Top
  • Sloan, Robin. Sourdough: a novel
  • O’Brien, Edna. The Country Girls
  • Babiak, Todd. The Empress of Idaho: a novel
  • King, Lily. Writers and Lovers: a novel
  • O’Neill, Joseph. The Dog: a novel
  • Rooney, Sally. Conversations With Friends: a novel
  • Smith, Ali. Spring: a novel
  • Polek, Nicolette. Imaginary Museums
  • Murata, Sayaka. Convenience Store Woman: a novel
  • Ford, Richard. Sorry for Your Trouble: stories
  • Rooney, Sally. Normal People: a novel
  • Vandermeer, Jeff. The Southern Reach Trilogy: Annihilation; Authority; Acceptance
  • Choi, Susan. Trust Exercise: a novel
  • Offill, Jenny. Weather: a novel
  • Barker, Emily Croy. The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic
  • North, Claire. The Sudden Appearance of Hope
  • Gailey, Sarah. Magic for Liars: a novel
  • Li, Yiyun. Must I Go
  • Moshfegh, Ottessa. Death in Her Hands
  • Tyler, Anne. Redhead by the Side of the Road
  • Bergman, Ingmar. The Magic Lantern: An Autobiography
  • Ferrante, Elena. The Lying Life of Adults
  • Chiang, Ted. Stories of Your Life and Others
  • North, Claire. Touch
  • North, Claire, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
  • Choo, Yangsze. The Night Tiger
  • Chiang, Ted. Exhalation: stories
  • Walter, Jess. The Cold Millions: a novel
  • North, Claire. The Gameshouse
  • DeLillo, Don. The Silence: a novel
  • North, Claire. The End of the Day
  • Clarke, Susanna. Piranesi
  • North, Claire. 84K
  • Evans, Danielle. The Office of Historical Corrections: a novella and stories
  • North, Claire. The Pursuit of William Abbey
  • Thammavongsa, Souvankham. How to Pronounce Knife: stories
  • Dimaline, Cherie. Empire of Wild
  • Smith, Ali. Summer: a novel
  • Rosoff, Meg. The Great Godden

 

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]]> Reading – a year in review, 2019 http://www.randymetcalfe.com/2020/01/02/reading-a-year-in-review-2019/ Thu, 02 Jan 2020 13:51:21 +0000 http://www.randymetcalfe.com/?p=1175 My reading numbers are down for 2019. Only 56 books read this past year. In part that was due to a variation in reading habits — for example, spending a long time dipping into a large collection of essays on jazz, which I didn’t read in whole and thus didn’t count. In part it was […]

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]]> My reading numbers are down for 2019. Only 56 books read this past year. In part that was due to a variation in reading habits — for example, spending a long time dipping into a large collection of essays on jazz, which I didn’t read in whole and thus didn’t count. In part it was due to having a few months where I barely read at all. However, it didn’t feel like a bad reading year because so many of the books that I read were excellent. And very few were bad (and none were awful).

Highlights of the year included books by Ben Lerner, Don DeLillo, Anna Burns, Max Porter, and Taffy Brodesser-Akner. But also highly regarded were works by Pat Barker, Ottessa Moshfegh, Jean-Philippe Arrou-Vignod, Erika Swyler, Daniel Pennac, Antonio Damasio, David Salle, Colm Tóibín, Jessie Kanelos Weiner, André Alexis, Meg Rosoff, Jesmyn Ward, Rachel Kushner, and George Saunders. So, a lot of good books!

As has been my way in recent years, I have written short reviews of each of the books and posted those on LibraryThing. I’m confident that 2020 will be an even better year for reading.

Stats from my 2019 reading list:

  • 25 were borrowed from our public library
  • 13 have Canadian authors
  • 5 were chosen due to personal recommendation from friends
  • 0 were being reread
  • 13 are non-fiction
  • 0 are ebooks

Books read in 2019 (56):

  • Saunders, George. Fox 8: a story
  • Kushner, Rachel. The Flamethrowers
  • Ward, Jesmyn. Sing, Unburied, Sing
  • Rosoff, Meg. Good Dog, McTavish
  • Peterson, Oscar. A Jazz Odyssey: The Life of Oscar Peterson
  • Mistry, Rohinton. A Fine Balance
  • Homes. A.M. Days of Awe: stories
  • Li, Yiyun. Where Reasons End: a novel
  • Swyler, Erika. The Book of Speculation: a novel
  • Barris, Alex. Oscar Peterson: A Musical Biography
  • Plett, Casey. Little Fish: a novel
  • Russell, Karen. Swamplandia!: a novel
  • Baker, Dani. Macarons and Murder
  • Alexis, André. Days by Moonlight
  • Weiner, Jessie Kanelos and Moroz, Sarah. Paris in Stride: An Insider’s Walking Guide
  • Tóibín, Colm. Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know: The Fathers of Wilde, Yeats, and Joyce
  • Salle, David. How To See: Looking, Talking, and Thinking about Art
  • Gros, Frédéric. A Philosophy of Walking
  • Callanan, Liam. Paris By The Book
  • Fowler, Christopher. Full Dark House
  • Pennac, Daniel. Le Roman d’Ernest et Célestine
  • Damasio, Antonio. The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures
  • Miller, Tom. The Philosopher’s War
  • Pennac, Daniel. L’oeil du loup
  • Swyler, Erika. Light From Other Stars
  • Porter, Max. Grief is the Thing with Feathers
  • Arrou-Vignod, Jean-Philippe. Le professeur a disparu
  • Moshfegh, Ottessa. My Year of Rest and Relaxation
  • Gopnik, Adam. A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism
  • Burns, Anna. Milkman
  • Brodesser-Akner, Taffy. Fleishman Is In Trouble
  • Crummey, Michael. The Innocents: a novel
  • Ewen, Paul. How to be a Public Author by Francis Plug
  • Cusk, Rachel. Coventry: essays
  • Du Maurier, Daphne. Rebecca
  • Barker, Pat. The Silence of the Girls
  • Baker, Carleigh (compiler), Hernandez, Catherine (compiler), Whitehead, Joshua (compiler). The Journey Prize Stories 31
  • DeLillo, Don. The Angel Esmeralda: nine stories
  • Lerner, Ben. The Topeka School: a novel
  • Robinson, Eden. Trickster Drift
  • Eisenberg, Deborah. Your Duck is My Duck: stories
  • Lerner, Ben. Mean Free Path
  • Tannahill, Jordan. Liminal
  • Westover, Tara. Educated: a memoir
  • North, Ryan. How To Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler
  • Skibsrud, Johanna. I Do Not Think That I Could Love A Human Being
  • Bernhard, Thomas. Wittgenstein’s Nephew
  • Strout, Elizabeth. Olive, Again: a novel
  • Smith, Zadie. Grand Union: stories
  • Kaufman, Andrew. The Ticking Heart
  • Rosoff, Meg. McTavish Goes Wild
  • Patchett, Ann. The Dutch House
  • Aylett, Steve. Lint
  • deGrasse Tyson, Neil. Letters From An Astrophysicist
  • Ferrante, Elena. Incidental Inventions
  • Yoshimoto, Banana. Kitchen

 

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]]> Reading – a year in review, 2018 http://www.randymetcalfe.com/2019/01/01/reading-a-year-in-review-2018/ Tue, 01 Jan 2019 14:00:52 +0000 http://www.randymetcalfe.com/?p=1061 2018 was a good year for reading. I discovered new authors whose work I enjoyed: Aleksandar Hemon, Sarah Meehan Sirk, Simon Armitage, and Rachel Kushner. I continued my affection for authors with whom I had already been acquainted: Don DeLillo, Jenny Erpenbeck, John McGahern, Rachel Cusk, Sarah Selecky, and Lisa Moore. I also wrote short […]

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]]> 2018 was a good year for reading. I discovered new authors whose work I enjoyed: Aleksandar Hemon, Sarah Meehan Sirk, Simon Armitage, and Rachel Kushner. I continued my affection for authors with whom I had already been acquainted: Don DeLillo, Jenny Erpenbeck, John McGahern, Rachel Cusk, Sarah Selecky, and Lisa Moore. I also wrote short reviews of each book I read this past year and posted them on LibraryThing. I’m already looking forward to another great year of reading ahead.

Stats from my 2018 reading list:

  • 40 were borrowed from our public library
  • 21 have Canadian authors
  • 25 were chosen due to personal recommendations from friends
  • 7 are by authors who appear more than once on the 2018 list
  • 0 were being reread
  • 0 was read aloud by my wife and me
  • 18 are non-fiction
  • 0 are ebooks

Books read in 2018 (86):

  • MacAskill, William. Doing Good Better

  • Chast, Raz. Going Into Town: A Love Letter to New York
  • Bausch, Robert. In The Fall They Come Back: a novel
  • 
Alderman, Naomi. The Power

  • Baker, Dani. Santa’s Last Muffin
  • 
Coetzee, J.M. Late Essays: 2006-2017

  • Proulx, Joanne. We All Love The Beautiful Girls
  • Anglin, Emily. The Third Person: stories

  • Mayr, Suzette. Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall

  • Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven

  • Smith, Ali. Winter: a novel

  • Hemon, Aleksandar. The Question of Bruno: stories

  • Winters, Michelle. I am a Truck
  • Humphreys, Helen. The Evening Chorus
  • Kaufman, Andrew. Small Claims

  • Flood, Cynthia. What Can You Do
  • Barnes, Julian. The Noise of Time
  • Chabon, Michael. Summerland
  • Sirk, Sarah Meehan. The Dead Husband Project: stories
  • Howe, Murray. Nine Lessons I Learned From My Father
  • Hardcastle, Kevin (compiler), O’connell, Grace (compiler), Tsabari, Ayelet (compiler). The Journey Prize Stories 29
  • Johnson, Denis. The Largesse of the Sea Maiden: stories
  • DeLillo, Don. Zero K
  • Evans, Danielle. Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self: stories
  • Updike, John. The Complete Henry Bech: Bech: A Book, Bech is Back, Bech at Bay, His Oeuvre
  • Boast, Will. Daphne: a novel
  • Smith, Zadie. Feel Free: essays
  • Armitage, Simon. Kid
  • Erpenbeck, Jenny. Go, Went, Gone
  • Egan, Jennifer. Manhattan Beach
  • Link, Kelly. Magic For Beginners: stories
  • Groff, Lauren. Fates and Furies: a novel
  • McGahern, John. The Collected Stories
  • Moore, Kate. The Radium Girls
  • Barnes, Julian. The Only Story: a novel
  • Tomine, Adrian. Killing and Dying: stories
  • Cusk, Rachel. Kudos
  • Rovelli, Carlo. The Order of Time
  • Miller, Madeline. Circe
  • Han Kang. The Vegetarian
  • Greer, Andrew Sean. Less
  • Johnson, Denis. Nobody Move
  • Despentes, Virginie. Vernon Subutex 1
  • Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West
  • Ginzburg, Natalia. The Little Virtues
  • Bernstein, Gabrielle. Judgment Detox
  • Moody, Rick. Demonology: stories
  • Hill, Nathan. The Nix
  • Cather, Willa. The Troll Garden
  • Pennac, Daniel. Cabot-Caboche
  • Groff, Lauren. Florida
  • Erpenbeck, Jenny. The Book of Words
  • Somer, Bradley. Fishbowl
  • Barclay, Linwood. Broken Promise
  • Selecky, Sarah. Radiant Shimmering Light
  • Miller, Tom. The Philosopher’s Flight
  • Drnaso, Nick. Sabrina
  • Kushner, Rachel. The Mars Room
  • Yoshimoto, Banana. Moshi Moshi
  • Chang, Jade. The Wangs vs. The World
  • Nussbaum, Martha C. The Monarchy of Fear: A Philosopher Looks at our Political Crisis
  • Honeyman, Gail. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
  • Ryan, Donal. From a Low and Quiet Sea
  • Armitage, Simon. The Unaccompanied
  • Galchen, Rivka. American Innovations: stories
  • Ondaatje, Michael. Warlight
  • Lemire, Jeff. Roughneck
  • DeWitt, Patrick. French Exit
  • Moore, Lisa. Something for Everyone: stories
  • Edugyan, Esi. Washington Black: a novel
  • Tasumi, Yoshihiro. A Drifting Life
  • Powers, Richard. The Overstory: a novel
  • Wohlleben, Peter. The Hidden Life of Trees
  • Berlin, Lucia. A Manual For Cleaning Women: selected stories
  • Robinson, Eden. Son of a Trickster
  • Bujold, Lois McMaster. The Curse of Chalion
  • Rovelli, Carlo. Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity
  • Rakoff, David. Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish: a novel
  • Li, Yiyun. Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to Your in Your Life
  • Bala, Sharon (compiler), Clare, Kerry (compiler), Peterson, Zoey Leigh (compiler). The Journey Prize Stories 30
  • Tatsumi, Yoshihiro. Abandon the Old in Tokyo
  • Tatsumi, Yoshihiro. The Push Man and other stories
  • Kakutani, Michiko. The Death of Truth: notes on falsehood in the age of Trump
  • Johnson, Charles. The Way of the Writer: Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling
  • Moore, Lisa. Flannery

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