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January was another lockdown month worse than ever, because now we have a curfew at 8 PM and huge fines for breaking it, which means it’s not just illegal but pretty much impossible to see anyone. Isolation is really getting to me. The numbers are going down, though, which is good, and people are starting to be vaccinated, though I am low on the list. In any case, I spent a lot of time in January on pure escapist reading, and I read twenty-eight books in a variety of genres, with a very high rate of excellence. A delightful romance, recommended by a friend. Two men in London who haven’t been making relationships work pretend to be each other’s boyfriends and of course end up falling in love. Really well written, memorable, and really fun to read. As an attempt to read feel-good romances that are not set in Italy but are actually good, this was really successful. ....
November was another totally locked down month here, with Montreal in the red zone and no socialization allowed. I saw a total of three other human beings, four if you count the time I saw the UPS guy. I read twenty books, and some of them were great. Six re-reads, the rest new, one epic, one non-fiction, three short story collections, and the rest novels. Cucina Tipica, Andrew Cotto (2018) A romance novel set in Italy, but written by a man with a male protagonist, and also American. In many ways it was very satisfying, but in others it was odd. It strangely kept writing about things I’m quite familiar with but recasting them as elite experiences. For instance, the characters go to Teatro del Sale, but instead of describing the typical experience, he has their experience be mediated and special. The whole point of Teatro del Sale is the democratization of excellent food, making it inexpensive and yet still great, and so this is especially weird. There were some more things ....