November

1. The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, a Soulpepper production
• Missed the first 15 minutes or so.
• I was not prepared for that ending. Not prepared. At all.
2. The Gift of Reading: A Guide for Educators and Parents by David Bouchard
• I agree with what Bouchard is saying - I really do - but I found it pretty repetitive overall, and pretty commonsensical. Especially seeing as I currently work at a library, it's kind of like he's preaching to the choir. That being said, I'm going to take as one of the biggest lessons here to actually read some of the popular children's series (e.g. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Adventures of an 8-bit Warrior, Dork Diaries, Captain Underpants, Gordon Korman books, Eric Walters, etc.) so at least I can have some idea of what they're all about and what people who like one might be looking for next. It's always been on my list of things to do, but I've never gotten around to it, so let's make it a goal to at least read 3 books from popular children's series (or just plain ol' popular children's books) before the end of the year.
3. Daughter at the Theatre Centre
• What an intense performance!
• I was left wondering what exactly to think - there were certainly a great number of instances where I was completely appalled by what came out of his mouth, accompanied by sudden - and not so sudden - changes in the atmosphere when the audience was no longer able to laugh. Part of me wanted to ask why people were laughing at times: was it because they genuinely found what he was saying funny, or was it a nervous titter?
• Am I the only one who's exhausted hearing about violence against women? I don't mean to say it's not a conversation we should have, because it definitely is, but there's just so much of it, all at once, that everything I want to watch or read seems to be bringing up the conversation, whether it be LO (or Dear Mr. Wells), Daughter, or the various articles about violence against women, or all the sexual harassment and assault allegations that are coming out - it's as a flood. It's timely, and part of the point of Daughter, I think, so the fact that I'm thinking this at all is great - for Daughter.
4. Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
• Well that only took a year to finally finish! Though to be honest, this was read over a day or so, with this talk & screening at the TIFF being my main motivation to get it done. I'm really glad I did finish it, though, especially because I ended up rewatching Stalker and I think it helped in adding a bit of background information that maybe wasn't necessary, but was still appreciated. I think what was said in this article about Call Me By Your Name on LitHub also applies to Stalker and Roadside Picnic: "I have to say that I’ve never encountered an adaptation of a novel that felt as much like a companion piece to the original text, as opposed to being simply an imperfect version of the same thing in another medium" (Temple, LitHub).
• Also very much looking forward to Call Me By Your Name coming out at the TIFF soon! Hopefully I'll also get the book around that time, since there's quite a waitlist for the only copy we've got floating around in our system. To be honest, I didn't even realize it was a movie adaptation of a novel before I came across the article, since I marked it down as something I wanted to watch (but ultimately didn't end up going to) when the actual festival was going on at the TIFF.
5. Rewatched Stalker at home because I didn't make it to the screening above.
• OK. So that last scene: is it the train, or does Monkey have telekinetic abilities?
• How good is our position in being able to tell what our truest desires are - the ones we keep buried - and is it for the best that they never be fulfilled, and remain unknown to ourselves all our lives?
• The way the Stalker is presented in the movie is much different than in Roadside Picnic, and I'm not sure which I enjoy more. I'm more attached to the Stalker version, but I suspect it's somewhat due to my having been exposed to him first, before reading Roadside Picnic and meeting Redrick Schuhart. Also, Guta's character has been changed completely! I've found that scene where she's falling to the floor tearing herself apart (almost literally) in ancient Greek fashion somewhat hilarious, but I wonder if that's something that makes more sense in terms of Russian film?
6. Leonard Cohen: Une brèche en toute chose/A Crack in Everything at the Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montreal
7. Bill Viola: Naissance à Rebours & L'Offre at DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art
8. The Curious Explorer's Guide to the Moominhouse by Tove Jansson
• Those peek-a-boo cutouts are so well done. So. Well. Done. 
9. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
• I'm not sure that I can do this novel justice in my review of it, but let me start by saying this: READ IT.
• The whole novel almost feels like one incredibly lush, self-contained solitude that would fill your imagination for one hundred years before collapsing in on itself as you read and re-read and re-read it again and again, with each reading providing a different world and a different interpretation, I imagine. I already want to revisit it from the beginning, though I'm sure it'd be good to give myself maybe at least a week or two to fully absorb everything in my memory before going through it all again.
• Some parts of it read as pretty straightforward political critiques, but at the same time, I'm not sure how straightforward they actually are, because everything grows and dies and contorts itself, interbreeding and confusing everything as it does so.
• So I've just finished reading Norse Myths: Tales of Odin, Thor and Loki by Kevin Crossley-Holland, illustrated by Jeffrey Alan Love, and somehow the way that all of the generations and myths and tales of the Norse gods ties itself back up so well, beginning and ending with the king of Sweden who disguises himself reminded me a lot of the shape of One Hundred Years of Solitude. Would it be too much to say that One Hundred Years of Solitude is as epic a myth as the Norse myths?
10. The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse by Mac Barnett illustrated by Jon Klassen
• The dynamic duo, once again.
• I loved it, but there was something that I do feel like this one missed just a smidge from the mark? I really love that line from the duck, though: "I may have been swallowed, but I have no intention of being eaten", or something to that effect? Hilarious! And the logic that goes, it's better to have already been swallowed rather than live constantly in fear of being swallowed. It took me for a loop when Barnett and Klassen made it into an "and this is why the wolf howls at the moon" story though!
11. Mr. Shi and His Lover (Tarragon Theatre)
• Where does the performance end and become reality? Also questions the nature of truth and of lies - he let himself be deceived; he let himself believe in the performance, but didn't the performance at some point become the truth?
12. Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea
• I've gotten at least 2 requests to place books of this series on hold in I think just as many weeks, and my coworker also urged me to read it after I asked her about it. This is a tearjerker of - maybe not the highest, but - at least moderate degree! And I love that it doesn't talk down to children's experiences at all, or even try to wink at adults who might be reading it (though I do also love that kind of writing), and takes seriously the concerns and growth of each of the students. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series!
13. Solaris (1972)

Reading

1. Wildwood (Wildwood Chronicles #1) by Colin Meloy, illustrated by Carson Ellis
• While I'm not actually sure how popular this series is, it caught my eye a while back and I've finally placed them all on hold for myself and am starting to make my way through them.
2. Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult by Bruce Handy
• So I bookmarked this article thinking, "Hey! I'm reading this book about pretty much the same thing! It's pretty cool that this article should happen into my periphery", without knowing it was a review of the exact book.

Articles

1. On Rape Culture in Crime Fiction
2. Choosy Eggs May Pick Sperm For Their Genes, Defying Mendel's Law (Quanta)
• Well I mean, didn't Mukherjee also note how Mendel's stats seemed to be way too perfect in The Gene? (Or, I'm pretty sure that's where I read it.) So I'm not too surprised that something built upon an experiment which results - I suppose? - no one tried tried to duplicate (though this sounds suspect to me: someone must have tried to replicate the results, right? Considering the importance of Mendel's Law?) should now be proven to not work across the board as perfectly as was assumed.