Happy New Year! I didn’t get to Mt. Scott Park for my traditional January 1st photo, but snapped one at Mt. Tabor Park that’s reminiscient:

The last couple of days have been delightful, with lots of puttering, eating leftovers, and having time for all the things. (You guys I even scrubbed the kitchen floor for the new year.) I’m sorry to say goodbye to that aspect tomorrow when my job starts up again. My new year’s resolution, if it can be called one, is to get my chores done on Saturday and reserve Sundays for this kind of empty time and unplanned projects.

Of the books I read in 2023, the one I’ll shout out is middle-grade fiction, Maggie Lou, Firefox by Métis author Arnolda Dufour Bowes. I think I learned about it from Betsy Bird’s review, which covers a lot of what I love about it. The #1 thing for me is the representation of current indigenous families hunting, because I was one of the white city kids who did not understand that cultural context at all. But other particulars that appeal to me specifically are

• in parts one and two (of three), lots of cleaning! I continue to be a sucker for reading about cleaning.
• the adults in the family have their own individual lives and perspectives and stuff going on and don’t feel like generic Grown-Ups, even when we’re seeing only their interactions with Maggie Lou. Right up there with the Quimbys, Krupniks, and Bagthorpes in this respect. Probably because I’m an adult reader of middle-grade, this is a big plus for me.

Author photo next to cover art by Karlene Harvey (she/they) (Tsilhqot’in and Syilx). Love the resemblance– according to the author’s note, the story is based on the author’s childhood, with a little of her daughter’s mixed in.