Get Well Soon almost feels like a godsend in this era of the Covid-19 pandemic. Some parts feel too prescient to be real. I thought that reading a book about plagues would stress me out, but instead it made me vaguely hopeful.

Jennifer Wright tackles these topics with a wry sense of humour that helps ease the fears that come with plagues. Not to spoil everything from the start, but this is an excellent book. It has plenty of stories about death and pestilence, but told in a way that makes it fun somehow.

I thought it would be too dark, but during this pandemic, it should be essential reading for all of us.

The Indifferent Stars Above invites you to imagine that you’re trapped. The snow is falling down and you’re stuck in the mountains with dwindling food, limited supplies, and no modern conveniences. The only way for you to call for help is to climb a mountain and hope you find help on the other side. Or you could stay where you are, camp, and hope that the snow melts before you starve.

Either way, there’s a high chance you and your family will die. So… what do you do?

This really puts the whole Oregon Trail game into a different light, doesn’t it?

So, I’m a little obsessed with Little House on the Prairie. Ever since I read the first book decades ago, I’ve been searching for a specific kind of nonfiction that reads like fiction. The entire reason I picked up Heida in the first place was to chase that high. I want large outdoor spaces, working both with and against the elements, and that ever-present sense of awe. Heida: A Shepherd at the Edge of the World mostly delivers on that promise.

On the surface, it looks like it checks all the boxes. Heida Ásgeirsdottír is a sheep farmer, model, green activist, and now a best-selling author. She has that same, straight-forward down to earth feeling that Laura Ingalls Wilders’ journals do. More than that, Heida is a poet. She was a police officer and she served as an ultrasound technician for the community’s sheep.

Basically, she’s lived through enough for three lives, but that didn’t stop the memoir from falling flat.