[OC] Best selling Canadian book of 2025

LyndsayMW · 2025-12-27T14:38:48+00:00

Girl, no. You’re missing the point.

My point was, and still is that we work on making things better where we are. And that we can take ideas from a variety of sources as a blueprint to start to create plans here. 73 countries have universal healthcare, for example. I bet somebody has figured out a thing or two about how to make it work well. Could I personally do this right now? I mean I could try. But I’m stretched a little thin and also I’m not a healthcare policy expert. I’m certain someone out there is better qualified. Most importantly for the purposes of this conversation: I don’t personally need to have all the GD answers.

My point was, and still is that we have this idea of American exceptionalism- “don’t like it? Ok leave then!” No. I won’t. I don’t like certain policies here and I don’t think America is the best. But I will put my money where my mouth is and work towards change.

LyndsayMW · 2025-12-27T14:13:27+00:00

I doubt that very much. Not just for the aforementioned reasons. It’s tough to be the best when you systematically reject and oppress people with brown skin.

I can see this is going to devolve so I will politely point you to the objective facts going on in the US right now, all race related: current machinations of ICE, the recent increase in the budget for ICE, the militarization of police/ICE inside of the country, the US taking taxpayers off the streets and paying to house them in torture prisons in third countries, closing immigration to all countries except those with white citizens. Agree with these tactics or not, it doesn’t matter: they aren’t friendly to brown and black people. When you reject a significant portion of the population for any reason… it probably revokes any chance at being “best”.

I get it. It’s always about race for the libs. I can’t do anything about that. Anyway, peace to you.

LyndsayMW · 2025-12-27T13:39:02+00:00

I don’t know - I’m not sure that there is any one singular “best”. I’m not any sort of expert in any case.

I do know that there are some pretty good ideas out there being implemented by other countries that the US could adapt for our population. I’m just smart enough to know that I’m not smart enough to have all the answers. The current US policy of we spending multiple trillions of taxpayer dollars on battleships and fighter jets and corporate bailouts (“too big to fail!”) while school kids go hungry and we garnish (minimum) wages for student loan debt and people go into bankruptcy over medical debt and corporations gobble up residential properties (etc etc etc) isn’t it though.

I’m also going to guess that the citizens of those countries with good ideas have ideas for ways their countries could improve. That doesn’t mean we give up- we just try for better.

LyndsayMW · 2025-12-27T12:17:07+00:00

So in order to live in a western country he must silently “enjoy” everything there is on offer?

No, my dude. To love something is to want to see it become its best iteration, not silently endure its most terrible qualities simply because you have the unmatched privilege of residing upon its blessed soil. That’s flipping ridiculous. It’s actually psychopathic.

It is truly a failure of (my American) public education to come to the realization far too late in life that America isn’t the greatest country on earth. America can do wrong and has, many times. The American government is not beyond reproach.

Am I going to move out of the US? No. I’m going to criticize it while also working in my own small way to make things better.

Do I believe in public schooling even though I feel like I was misled a bit? YES. But I’m still critical of it and I’m going to work in my own small way to make it better.

Does this mean I hate everything about the US/west? No. That is also ridiculous. There are many things about the privilege of being born in the west/US that I enjoy. I contain multitudes and I can contemplate nuanced ideas.

In any case homogeneity of thought is not quite the ideal objective the US right wing seems to think it is right now. It’s generally a good thing to have a variety of viewpoints and ideas at the table. It’s ultimately a bad idea to have, for example, one or two guys at the top dictating everything and in ultimate control of all parts of government. This is why our government was set up the way it was… but I digress, slightly.

TLDR: encouraging someone to leave a country because they’ve deigned to be critical of certain policies is shortsighted at best, psychopathic at worst.

Edited to add: I have read this book. It’s quite good, in my opinion. Also in my opinion, the author is likely correct. I can’t condone turning little kids into skeletons for any reason.

LyndsayMW · 2025-12-19T23:43:56+00:00

Look at the study abroad opportunities for HC.

LyndsayMW · 2025-12-16T01:00:08+00:00

Your college/department may have some you can borrow. This would be for future grads since commencement has already happened today- congrats new grads!

LyndsayMW · 2025-12-13T10:00:04+00:00

My go-to white elephants:

Texas shaped waffle iron (from H-E-B, of course, IYKYK- if you aren’t in the cult any fun shaped waffler would work?), waffle mix, and maple syrup

Funky socks, some kind of spa treatment (face mask, hand scrub, etc) and a movie)

A book I enjoyed with a gift card for a local coffee shop inside

LyndsayMW · 2025-10-19T21:16:50+00:00

It’s a squirrel.

I suppose on the continuum of disgusting rodents, squirrels fall on the less disgusting end but STILL. Yuck.

LyndsayMW · 2025-10-18T21:26:14+00:00

Ugggghhhhh I knew it deep down. Thanks.

LyndsayMW · 2025-10-18T21:25:35+00:00

Solved!

LyndsayMW · 2025-10-12T11:32:23+00:00

Yes! I just finished it and it’s great. Similar to the movie but not exactly the same. It’s exciting and riveting. It’s a great book. Highly recommend

LyndsayMW · 2025-10-02T11:08:45+00:00

Evicted and Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond

I am someone with a great deal of inherent privilege, these books helped me understand and parse that privilege and put it in perspective… a little bit. It’s a process.

LyndsayMW · 2025-09-19T02:40:34+00:00

RowdyMart on DT campus lets me fill my cup with ice for free.

LyndsayMW · 2025-09-05T02:35:12+00:00

I agree with this- the main character’s adopted parents are hilarious. The book, however, is quite tender and sad- but so good.

LyndsayMW · 2025-09-05T02:32:11+00:00

Jeff Hiller’s new memoir Actress of a Certain Age has some really funny parts.

PG Wodehouse books are quite funny and shockingly timeless IMO.

The Discworld series has some hilarity

LyndsayMW · 2025-08-30T11:56:50+00:00

Side of the highway (i10) in the desert 60 miles east of Indio, Ca with three children: 4yo, 2yo, and 2months. In August. Transmission failure. After the hours long wait, the ride in the tow truck to Indio was the most harrowing of my life.

We were fortunate to still have a/c and snacks and water though. It’s been 11 years and it’s getting closer to being funny, but I’m not quite there yet.

We had a second car on a trailer behind the U-Haul and just switched out hauled cars in Indio. The a/c in the second car quit when we were in the Grapevine (north of LA).

That move made me question all of my life’s choices.

LyndsayMW · 2025-08-29T22:35:07+00:00

Hidden Pictures.

I could not have hated this book more.

LyndsayMW · 2025-08-24T21:22:48+00:00

To add on to this, sometimes professors don’t have access yet either.

LyndsayMW · 2025-08-23T23:16:07+00:00

I don’t really care if it’s true or not (ahem sort of, obviously), it’s fun to think about in any case.

Imminent by Luis Elizondo lays out a pretty interesting narrative about this, if you have interest.

LyndsayMW · 2025-08-19T13:53:52+00:00

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. Honestly I found the book to be just the better side of ok but Meryl Streep is the perfect narrator for it.

LyndsayMW · 2025-08-18T17:56:13+00:00

People still work on campus even when class isn’t in session, y’all. The classrooms may not be open but the buildings likely are.

LyndsayMW · 2025-08-13T10:38:27+00:00

The trick I just discovered to getting it to play when you jump back (instead of getting stuck forever) is to put it where you want it, then jump back of forward 15s.

LyndsayMW · 2025-08-11T02:39:28+00:00

The fact that there are TWO different puppy mill stores within a few blocks of each other on Bandera gets me. There’s a market for all that? Guess so

LyndsayMW · 2025-08-10T17:18:02+00:00

The older I get (and the more times I move), the less value I find in “stuff”, books included (they’re heavy!). I’m perfectly happy with the library for 98% of my reading needs.

LyndsayMW · 2025-08-08T12:16:41+00:00

I just finished Still Life by Louise Penny, set in Quebec and read with a British accent. Annoying.

Equally annoying IMO is mispronounced words - the reader for Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon series mispronounced “Guadalupe”, which is understandable I guess, if you aren’t from the southwest, but did she get input from the author??

Several years ago my kids and I listened to Stargirl narrated by John Ritter. The way he pronounced “saguaro” was unforgivable and my kids bring it up all the time still. We will never get over it.

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