When does the morning start?
« It depends », was part of the answer a search engine gave us, dear writers and readers.
On Saturdays, the dog’s morning starts at 4:30am with the visit of newspaper boy… who is an actual grown man driving a car around in this little town nestled by a roaring river, to deliver a real newspaper.
Sometimes, one sleepy « woof » seems to satisfy her sense of hospitality. However, she usually welcomes him with a concert of barking.
Our dog has no taste for people merely dropping stuff on our doorsteps without having the courtesy of coming in to pet her.
Getting her to understand that, in this house, we do not indeed entertain before the crack of dawn will take time.
On the other hand, this lovely furry dog-beast of ours is the perfect can’t-snooze-wake-up-call I needed to get out of bed to start the 2024 New Year a couple of days before the bell strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve.
Books to Read in 2024
I’m very glad to be a libraire again (and for good this time).
Being surrounded by books, from beautiful children’s picture books to intense geopolitics essays, is a blessing in itself.
(Nope. It doesn’t pay well to be a bookseller in a bookshop, and it will never pay well.)
(I made my peace with that.)
It also means making a choice within all the wonderful stories waiting to be read is haaaaard.
When I say waiting to be read, I do mean the majority of the books on my list have been out in the world for a while or might have been forgotten too soon.
Here’s a tiny preview of my list of books I wanna read in 2024, from novels, essays and biography, YA novels, graphic novels, kids novels:
- Miss Islande, Audur Ava Olafsdottir
- Hors-la-loi, Anna North
- La librairie Morisaki, Satoshi Yagisawa
- Les têtes brûlées, Catherine Dorion
- Histoire des agricultures du monde, Marcel Mazoye et Laurence Roudart
- Jane Austen : entre raison et sentiments, Catherine Rihoit
- A tempest of tea, Vol. 1, Hafsah Faizal
- Mille pages plus tard… Je n’ai toujours rien compris, Marie Potvin
- 24 jours pour survivre au réveillon, Audrée Archambault
- A First Time for Everything, Dan Santat
- Saving Sunshine, Saadia Faruqi
- Family Style, Thien Pham
- Trèfle, Qin Leng et Nadine Robert
- Ours et le murmure du vent, Marianne Dubuc
- Yéti, Taï-Marc Le Thanh et Rébecca Dautremer
Stories to Write in 2024
To write stories in 2024 is gonna be a real big, humongous challenge for me.
For a long while now, I’ve been struggling through a thick fogginess that left me mostly sad, anxious, empty.
Everything… making lunches, driving to Saturday’s activities, going to a family thing… everything was taller, colder, scarier than the tallest, coldest, scariest gigantic mountains you can imagine.
Every progress made was followed by a long, slow fall down a long, long, looong, sloap.
Sometimes, for a short period, say two-three days, my energy level was good enough to open my notebook, take my pen and write.
And then, craaaaash.
After a particularly dark December, a few days before Christmas, sparkles shined through.
Then grew stronger. Brighter.
Very slowly.
Now, holiday music is playing, kiddo is dancing. People are coming over in a few hours. I’m wearing the softest clothes anyone can imagine. And I’m writing this post without wanting to throw everything in the garbage.
Improvement comes in many kinds of forms and shapes, isn’t it, dear fellow readers and writers?
I wish you a very happy New Year. May 2024 bring you joy and laughter. May you stay safe, and healthy.
May you feel loved, even when the thickest fog comes crawling your way.
Marie Alice Writes & Reads 