I'm reading Mirrors & Smoke by our member @Adrienne Stevenson for fiction. It's about a herbalist and midwife in Niagara, Upper Canada, before and during the War of 1812. For non-fiction, I'm re-reading The Pinks by Chris Enss. It's about the first women detectives in the Pinkerton Detective Agency in the 19th century. Do you read outside when the weather's nice? I always like the *idea* of it, but rarely do it these days, even though I used to love reading in parks when I was a student.

Some good news for your Monday. "The decline [of physical bookstores] actually ended years ago, and the latest numbers from the American Booksellers Association show independent stores expanding at a pace not seen this century." https://www.kpbs.org/news/arts-culture/2026/05/28/independent-bookstores-are-multiplying-find-booksellers-in-your-community

Okay, I'll be honest. I picked this one up thinking I knew exactly what I was getting into. Another WWII novel. I'd read plenty. I thought I had it figured out. I did not have it figured out. The Ragged Edge of Night by Olivia Hawker is quietly devastating in the best possible way. Set in a small German town from 1942 to 1945, it follows Anton... a friar who loses his religious order when the Nazis shut it down. With everything crumbling around him, he answers a widow's newspaper ad. Elisabeth needs security for her children. He needs purpose. Their marriage starts as a transaction… and becomes something neither of them planned on. The writing? Oh my goodness. You can feel the cold of a German winter. The heaviness sitting over every meal, every conversation. And underneath it, the fragile warmth of a home where love is trying, carefully, to take root. What got me most was Anton's interior life. He's not a soldier. Not a hero in the conventional sense. He's a man haunted by guilt, wrestling with his faith, doing small faithful things in the dark. When a local priest pulls him into carrying resistance messages, he doesn't say yes for money or glory. He says yes because it feels like a calling. That distinction matters. It's the whole book, really. By the end, I saw him clearly as a quiet man, full of doubt, who chose hope anyway. And used that hope to fuel his courage, one small act at a time. And then I found out it's a true story. Olivia Hawker wrote about her husband's grandfather. The story had been told at family gatherings for many years. In her case, she heard it at a Thanksgiving dinner. "Opa and the bells," they called it. When the family learned she was a writer who specialized in historical fiction, they said: write it. She did her research. Found most of it was true. Changed very little. Her Author's Notes at the back of the book lay it all out — what was real, what she kept, and why. Actually, there's so much there I hope she writes about him again!

That name was the clear winner from our poll. Thank you all for voting and for offering your name suggestions. I appreciate it 🧡

Vote for your favourite name for our cat mascot! 🐈‍⬛ Polls in here are very basic. There can be only 10 options and you can vote for only one option. So, vote for your first choice. If you have a strong second choice, mention it in the comments. I'll give 2 points to the names voted in the poll and 1 point to names in the comments. If there's a tie, I'll cast the deciding vote. I'll announce the winner tomorrow (26th May). If you want to see the explanations behind the names, see this post: What should we name our cat mascot?