Tea Time with flo. - December

Cozy up with a cup of tea for a recap of our favourite December reads!

Erin—nonfiction editor

This month, amidst all the holiday spending, I resisted the urge to buy new books and pulled a collection of poetry off my bookshelf that had been waiting to be read for months. Natasha Kanapé Fontaine’s Bleuets et abricots paints such vivid image of her grappling with loss of land and culture that reading her poetry is almost a tactile and tastable experience. Her honest and raw exploration of self through prose is gently heartbreaking and painfully beautiful.

Though blueberry or apricot tea would have been fitting, I have been sipping a spiced orange tea all holiday season to keep warm and cozy despite the ravaging snowstorm and holiday madness.

rating: 🍵🍵🍵🍵🍵

Senka—poetry & visual arts editor

As the winter blues hit and I find it increasingly more difficult to pick up (much less finish) a book, Benjamin Labatut’s When We Cease to Understand the World reminded me that at least I’m not a mathematician. Interweaving fact and fiction, Labatut creates his own version of history as he explores the lives of many of the mathematicians, physicists, and scientists that contributed to quantum physics.

I cannot in good faith recommend a tea for this book knowing that it is best enjoyed with a double espresso: if the caffeine doesn’t make you bounce off the walls, the book will.

rating: 🍵🍵🍵🍵🍵

Katrina—fiction editor

The month of December was very busy for me. Between exams, work, and holiday festivities I had very little time to read for pleasure. I did, however, manage to squeeze in a Christmas themed read by Maggie Knox titled All I Want For Christmas which was in all honesty a bit of a let down. It was sweet but it was also immensely frustrating and both the plot and characters weren’t very memorable.

My tea of choice for the month is peppermint which pairs quite nicely with my December read. .

rating: 🍵🍵🍵

Jen—poetry first reader

I spent December reading quite a few things, but the most notable of my growing pile of books was Beast at Every Threshold by Natalie Wee. The collection of poetry features a vivid introspective of grief, identity, and memory as Wee explores what it means to be "other." Diaspora, Queerness, language, and loss of self are just a few of the themes she depicts in an attempt to define her experience as a "shapeshifter" in a world she constantly must adapt to.

Additionally, I found myself trying lots of new tea this month, my favourite being high mountain oolong. It is a transformative tea that takes on completely new flavour characteristics depending on how you prepare it. With a bit of sugar, I'm reminded of wildflowers and springtime.

rating: 🍵🍵🍵🍵🍵