I'm kinda bummed that this is the book that will push me over the 10,000 page mark. I'm pretty proud of that milestone, but this book was only mediocre.
I feel like a lot of the details I could overlook with moderate ease in the first book - the misogyny, the oversexualized everything, the arrogance of the main character - I could not ignore in the context of this book's plot. I found myself hoping I was almost done. I think most of my surprise moments in the book consisted of how willing French women were to sleep with the chauvinist main character. I've known a few French women - and they don't sleep with just anyone!
If there were more books in this series, I would not read them. But this is the last one.
Title: Merde Actually
Author: Stephen Clarke
Published: 2005
Pages: 448
Total Books Blogged: 35
Total Pages: 10,272
Thursday 3 September 2015
Friday 14 August 2015
Completed (again): A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke
Why is this titled Completed (again)? Well, I have read this book before. It has been years, and it was as though I was reading it for the first time, as I had no recollection of the story - nothing rang a bell. Hard to believe I once read it at all!
It was OK. I have the follow-up, too, which is called Merde Actually. I'll probably power through it quickly. Paul (the main character) is a bit of a chauvinistic pig, and so relatively distasteful. The kind of person I used to avoid in bars because I (rightly) guessed about his opinions of women. He kept finding beautiful, confident French women to sleep with, and, having known a few beautiful, confident French women, I would be surprised that they would all fall into bed with that kind of guy.
Meh - it was a fluffy summer book, with some fun comedy mixed into some things that made my feminist self cringe. We'll see if book #2 does any better!
Title: A Year in the Merde
Author: Stephen Clarke
Published: 2004
Pages: 383
Total Books Blogged: 34
Total Pages: 9824
It was OK. I have the follow-up, too, which is called Merde Actually. I'll probably power through it quickly. Paul (the main character) is a bit of a chauvinistic pig, and so relatively distasteful. The kind of person I used to avoid in bars because I (rightly) guessed about his opinions of women. He kept finding beautiful, confident French women to sleep with, and, having known a few beautiful, confident French women, I would be surprised that they would all fall into bed with that kind of guy.
Meh - it was a fluffy summer book, with some fun comedy mixed into some things that made my feminist self cringe. We'll see if book #2 does any better!
Title: A Year in the Merde
Author: Stephen Clarke
Published: 2004
Pages: 383
Total Books Blogged: 34
Total Pages: 9824
Completed: Fifteen by Beverly Cleary
Oh, it has been a long time since I read a Beverly Cleary book. I think anyone about my age read some when they were a teen, but I don't think I've picked one up in, oh, 15 years?
This one was quaint. In many ways nothing like my teenage years, and in many ways exactly like my teenage years.
It is set in the 50s, it would seem. There is discussion of girdles, buckled shoes, soda floats, wearing gloves and hats on dates, and dieting (which you wouldn't see in a book about teenagers nowadays!). There's dates to dances, trading dances with another couple, and of course, everyone's old-fashioned favorite, 'going steady'!
None of these were part of my teenage years (except for desperate dietary attempts to GAIN weight, as I was quite pitifully underweight due to my out-of-control metabolism as a teen!).
However, the second-guessing, always trying to fit in, trying to find confidence, frustrating babysitting gigs, cute boy crushes, long phone calls with your best friend, and parents just not getting it, well, I had all of those things...!
It was an easy read. I'm finding that tossing a young adult novel in every once in awhile just adds a nice balance to my reading - not everything needs to be an intense roller-coaster of prime-quality, award-winning literature. This quick read is proof that spending a few nights having a heartfelt, nostalgic trip down teen memory lane is just as good a time.
Title: Fifteen
Author: Beverly Cleary
Published: 1956
Pages: 203
Total Books Blogged: 33
Total Pages: 9441
This one was quaint. In many ways nothing like my teenage years, and in many ways exactly like my teenage years.
It is set in the 50s, it would seem. There is discussion of girdles, buckled shoes, soda floats, wearing gloves and hats on dates, and dieting (which you wouldn't see in a book about teenagers nowadays!). There's dates to dances, trading dances with another couple, and of course, everyone's old-fashioned favorite, 'going steady'!
None of these were part of my teenage years (except for desperate dietary attempts to GAIN weight, as I was quite pitifully underweight due to my out-of-control metabolism as a teen!).
However, the second-guessing, always trying to fit in, trying to find confidence, frustrating babysitting gigs, cute boy crushes, long phone calls with your best friend, and parents just not getting it, well, I had all of those things...!
It was an easy read. I'm finding that tossing a young adult novel in every once in awhile just adds a nice balance to my reading - not everything needs to be an intense roller-coaster of prime-quality, award-winning literature. This quick read is proof that spending a few nights having a heartfelt, nostalgic trip down teen memory lane is just as good a time.
Author: Beverly Cleary
Published: 1956
Pages: 203
Total Books Blogged: 33
Total Pages: 9441
Wednesday 5 August 2015
Completed: Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons; also, The Tayinat List
Once upon a time, in 2005, I was on an archaeological excavation in southern Turkey. We flew in and out of an airport about 2 hours' drive away. On the very last night, we all sat up in our outside hang-out space - it was lovingly known as the Languidarium. The flight was at maybe 6 in the morning. But this meant heading for the airport at about 3. We chose not to sleep before we left.
I passed around a piece of paper. I asked everyone to contribute books that they thought I shouldn't live my life without reading, for whatever reason mattered to them. I got a varied and eclectic list. And although Watchmen got mentioned that night (for some reason I remember it distinctly), it is not in fact on the list. But lots of other great books are. I've read 11 of them:
I passed around a piece of paper. I asked everyone to contribute books that they thought I shouldn't live my life without reading, for whatever reason mattered to them. I got a varied and eclectic list. And although Watchmen got mentioned that night (for some reason I remember it distinctly), it is not in fact on the list. But lots of other great books are. I've read 11 of them:
- Life of Pi
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- Eats, Shoots and Leaves
- Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
- My Name is Red (very much NOT my favorite book - took me 8 months to force myself to finish)
- The Bluffer's Guide to Archaeology
- Away by Jane Urquhart
- Baghdad Without a Map
- Pillars of the Earth (one of my all-time favorite books)
- Eye of the Needle
- Murder in Mesopotamia
I haven't read more, mostly because I tend to forget about the list - though I still have the original piece of paper:
So - should I get around to reading any more of these books, I'll tag them with The Tayinat List tag (Tayinat being the site I was working at), so that they're recognized as pieces of contribution by my colleagues that summer to my reading enjoyment (except for My Name is Red - that book was just terrible to me!).
OK so back to Watchmen (which I always want to call The Watchmen, but it's not). This book is in the Time Magazine Top 100 Best Novels (of all years since 1923, all genres). It is one that has been made into a movie - a movie I did not watch, as I always try to read the book first.
This was my first graphic novel, and I've never really read comic books or anything either.
So, with that precursor, this was not my favorite book. I truly understand some of the brilliance in the writing, in the story, and in the implications of the subject matter. But I really had to make myself read it - it didn't grip me, and having now read a graphic novel, I'm not sure if it is my favorite medium to read. So I guess this is a classic where I understand why it's a classic, but it's also really not my thing.
My favorite pieces were Dr. Manhattan's reflections - on himself, on earth, on humanity. I loved his perspective, despite its heartbreaking coldness at times.In chapter IV, he talked about stars - that was my favorite quote, so here you go - upon reflecting on an old photograph of him and Janey: "I am going to look at the stars. They are so far away and their light takes so long to reach us... All we ever see of stars are their old photographs."
Title: Watchmen
Author: Alan Moore. Illustrated and lettered by Dave Gibbons
Published: 2008
Pages: Amazon tells me it's 416
Total books blogged: 32
Total pages: 9238
Sunday 2 August 2015
Completed: The 8:55 to Baghdad by Andrew Eames
Andrew Eames seems a bit arrogant, in the way he wrote this book. It is written in the style of someone whose nose is always a bit up. Jumping over that relatively minor hurdle, I enjoyed about half of this book. Sorry in advance about some of the rambling-ness of this post...!:
It's somewhat similar to The Year of Living Biblically, in that I very much enjoyed parts of it, but very much didn't enjoy other parts. The parts about Agatha, about Turkey, Syria and Iraq, and about the lead-up to the Iraq War (which Eames was right on the brink of, during his travels) were phenomenal, and gave me much food (and many words) for thought. But the long, drawn-out pieces of European and near eastern history, which seemed both out-of-place in the text (they weren't linked directly to the later pieces about the author's travels) and written, again, in a bit of a condescending tone. As though, if only history had listened to Eames, much of this ridiculousness would not have happened.
But outside of this, there were a few really excellent moments. Talking about realizing your own destiny (p19) made me want to more consciously think through my wants versus my needs, and it made me all the more glad that I'm going back to school in the fall, and doing that for me.
I loved the discussion on p37 of 'transport' versus 'holiday': "The essential difference was not the speed or the plate of guinea fowl, but the fact that, for us, the process of getting there was at least as important as the destination." This was quite profound for me - it has been a long time since I enjoyed the travel-to portion of a getaway. Made me long for a train journey myself (though not strongly - I've never been able to sleep well on trains).
Along his journey, Eames met a man named Alp Aslan, in Turkey on the train. Alp was from Konya (a place I have always wanted to go). And here I really loved Eames' description. He wrote Alp as follows: "He had the serenity of someone who'd seen the world and was now happy to have returned home, where he could share that experience with others and to listen to theirs..." - I really loved this. I hope I'm like Alp someday. I need to get my feet to a few more countries first.
The other favourite moment did not include Eames' words, rather Max Mallowan's (Agatha's second husband, an archaeologist). Max described their lives together as "forty-five years of a loving and merry companionship. Few men know what it is to live in harmony beside an imaginative, creative mind which inspires life with zest." Such a beautiful love story, those two. I look forward to reading Mallowan's memoirs, which I also own! So many more books to read...
Total Books Blogged: 31
Total Pages: 8822
It's somewhat similar to The Year of Living Biblically, in that I very much enjoyed parts of it, but very much didn't enjoy other parts. The parts about Agatha, about Turkey, Syria and Iraq, and about the lead-up to the Iraq War (which Eames was right on the brink of, during his travels) were phenomenal, and gave me much food (and many words) for thought. But the long, drawn-out pieces of European and near eastern history, which seemed both out-of-place in the text (they weren't linked directly to the later pieces about the author's travels) and written, again, in a bit of a condescending tone. As though, if only history had listened to Eames, much of this ridiculousness would not have happened.
But outside of this, there were a few really excellent moments. Talking about realizing your own destiny (p19) made me want to more consciously think through my wants versus my needs, and it made me all the more glad that I'm going back to school in the fall, and doing that for me.
I loved the discussion on p37 of 'transport' versus 'holiday': "The essential difference was not the speed or the plate of guinea fowl, but the fact that, for us, the process of getting there was at least as important as the destination." This was quite profound for me - it has been a long time since I enjoyed the travel-to portion of a getaway. Made me long for a train journey myself (though not strongly - I've never been able to sleep well on trains).
Along his journey, Eames met a man named Alp Aslan, in Turkey on the train. Alp was from Konya (a place I have always wanted to go). And here I really loved Eames' description. He wrote Alp as follows: "He had the serenity of someone who'd seen the world and was now happy to have returned home, where he could share that experience with others and to listen to theirs..." - I really loved this. I hope I'm like Alp someday. I need to get my feet to a few more countries first.
The other favourite moment did not include Eames' words, rather Max Mallowan's (Agatha's second husband, an archaeologist). Max described their lives together as "forty-five years of a loving and merry companionship. Few men know what it is to live in harmony beside an imaginative, creative mind which inspires life with zest." Such a beautiful love story, those two. I look forward to reading Mallowan's memoirs, which I also own! So many more books to read...
Title: The 8:55 to Baghdad - From London to Iraq on the Trail of Agatha Christie
Author: Andrew Eames
Published: 2004
Pages: 390Total Books Blogged: 31
Total Pages: 8822
Friday 31 July 2015
Words of the ?Week: Doyenne, blowsy, truculent, charivari, full anorak, and loquacity
Andrew Eames likes to use fancy words! The author of The 8:55 to Baghdad left me with lots of word food for thought.
Here they all are, my new words:
doyenne: "A woman who is the most respected or prominent person in a particular field."
Well, that seems quite appropriate for Agatha. I like the sound of the word, very elegant. But I tend to dislike words that specify gender as part of the equation. She's a tremendous author and a tour de force. Why does the fact that she's female matter in that at all?
blowsy: "(of a woman) coarse, untidy and red-faced."
Yet another gender-charged term. There was a bit of haughty-British-attitude in how this was written, but now all the gendered vocab is making me far more irritated than the fact that he chose to use all sorts of fancy words in the first place.
truculent: "eager or quick to argue or fight; aggressively defiant."
Within an analogy, referencing a particular diesel engine acting like a petulant child kicking a can. I like truculent better than petulent.
charivari: I don't think he used this word correctly. He is referring to bits and pieces of shipping bits laying in a yard; however, the term refers to a discordant mock-serenade given to newlyweds in France, involving much hitting of pots and pans. Was he looking for hodge-podge instead of charivari? Or was he just trying to be clever? Not sure.
anorak: An impressively bundle-y looking winter coat.
In reference to someone explaining trains, the description was 'too much the full anorak for me.' I guess it was too much description?
loquacity: "talkativeness"
Yet again referring to a woman, in the text - not too many complimentary descriptors for women in this book!
So there we have it, some new words. Considering that this wasn't my favorite book, I have enough to write about it! More to come in the 'Completed' entry...
Here they all are, my new words:
doyenne: "A woman who is the most respected or prominent person in a particular field."
Well, that seems quite appropriate for Agatha. I like the sound of the word, very elegant. But I tend to dislike words that specify gender as part of the equation. She's a tremendous author and a tour de force. Why does the fact that she's female matter in that at all?
blowsy: "(of a woman) coarse, untidy and red-faced."
Yet another gender-charged term. There was a bit of haughty-British-attitude in how this was written, but now all the gendered vocab is making me far more irritated than the fact that he chose to use all sorts of fancy words in the first place.
truculent: "eager or quick to argue or fight; aggressively defiant."
Within an analogy, referencing a particular diesel engine acting like a petulant child kicking a can. I like truculent better than petulent.
charivari: I don't think he used this word correctly. He is referring to bits and pieces of shipping bits laying in a yard; however, the term refers to a discordant mock-serenade given to newlyweds in France, involving much hitting of pots and pans. Was he looking for hodge-podge instead of charivari? Or was he just trying to be clever? Not sure.
anorak: An impressively bundle-y looking winter coat.
In reference to someone explaining trains, the description was 'too much the full anorak for me.' I guess it was too much description?
loquacity: "talkativeness"
Yet again referring to a woman, in the text - not too many complimentary descriptors for women in this book!
So there we have it, some new words. Considering that this wasn't my favorite book, I have enough to write about it! More to come in the 'Completed' entry...
Thursday 18 June 2015
Completed: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
What a tour de force, and an appropriate round-number 30th book to add to the blog.
It has been some time since I was unable to put down a book. I must confess that I read a bit beyond my lunch break today in order to wrap up this book, as I couldn't tear myself away.
I find it hard to write about this story. I really want to pour it all out, but I also REALLY want you to read this book - and I can't say much about it if I want you to read it properly. The book is perfectly built. It creates its universe and slowly, tantalizingly grows. It is addictive.
I will write about Ruth instead. Ruth is the narrator's best friend. However, she reminds me tremendously of someone who I used to consider a best friend, and that person's flaws ended up driving me away. They crept under my skin and made me resentful, suspicious and frustrated, and I chose to walk away from it. Therefore, I am shocked that Ishiguro managed to write a character so similar to this person so as to bring up all of these unpleasant memories, and yet I STILL became strongly attached to this book. Normally, if I find a character unappealing, it shades the book as a whole and I find it more difficult to read. Perhaps if Ruth had been the narrator it would have turned me off of the book altogether. But somehow, this book still held me, despite this (to me) unsavoury character.
Breathtaking, thought-provoking, and challenging. Read this book.
Title: Never Let Me Go
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Published: 2005
Pages: 288
Total Books Blogged: 30
Total Pages: 8432
It has been some time since I was unable to put down a book. I must confess that I read a bit beyond my lunch break today in order to wrap up this book, as I couldn't tear myself away.
I find it hard to write about this story. I really want to pour it all out, but I also REALLY want you to read this book - and I can't say much about it if I want you to read it properly. The book is perfectly built. It creates its universe and slowly, tantalizingly grows. It is addictive.
I will write about Ruth instead. Ruth is the narrator's best friend. However, she reminds me tremendously of someone who I used to consider a best friend, and that person's flaws ended up driving me away. They crept under my skin and made me resentful, suspicious and frustrated, and I chose to walk away from it. Therefore, I am shocked that Ishiguro managed to write a character so similar to this person so as to bring up all of these unpleasant memories, and yet I STILL became strongly attached to this book. Normally, if I find a character unappealing, it shades the book as a whole and I find it more difficult to read. Perhaps if Ruth had been the narrator it would have turned me off of the book altogether. But somehow, this book still held me, despite this (to me) unsavoury character.
Breathtaking, thought-provoking, and challenging. Read this book.
Title: Never Let Me Go
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Published: 2005
Pages: 288
Total Books Blogged: 30
Total Pages: 8432
Completed: Louisbourg Portraits by Christopher Moore
As a fan of both history and human stories, I thought I would absolutely love this book. In truth, I enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as I thought I would.
I think it is difficult to write something like what Moore has tried to do. He wanted to write an accurate historical portrayal of true histories of these people, but also tried to write them to be as fun as a fictional tale of adventure. He succeeded in some respects, but a true 'story' doesn't have as many maybes and perhapses as Moore's writing does. I think that's where I lost interest a bit. I recognize that he was, indeed, telling a history rather than a historically-inspired story. I just can't help but feel that I would have become more submerged in the stories if they had used a bit of 'inspired by' instead of 'historically, it went down in one of these ways to the best of our knowledge'.
For the history itself, I was entirely unfamiliar with Louisbourg, and the fact that Ile Royale was important enough to compete with New England on an international stage. This is a piece of Canadian history that I did not know. (I have had several conversations with fellow Canadians about this book, and so I don't think I'm ENTIRELY alone in not knowing, but I still feel a bit doofish). This is one of many reasons why I am excited to be going back to school for history in the fall - the history that I don't yet even know the basics of, in many ways. I randomly selected this book from the bargain book bin at the university bookstore and learned something new. I'm so stoked for what is yet to come from my upcoming history courses!
Total Books Blogged: 29
Total Pages: 8184
I think it is difficult to write something like what Moore has tried to do. He wanted to write an accurate historical portrayal of true histories of these people, but also tried to write them to be as fun as a fictional tale of adventure. He succeeded in some respects, but a true 'story' doesn't have as many maybes and perhapses as Moore's writing does. I think that's where I lost interest a bit. I recognize that he was, indeed, telling a history rather than a historically-inspired story. I just can't help but feel that I would have become more submerged in the stories if they had used a bit of 'inspired by' instead of 'historically, it went down in one of these ways to the best of our knowledge'.
For the history itself, I was entirely unfamiliar with Louisbourg, and the fact that Ile Royale was important enough to compete with New England on an international stage. This is a piece of Canadian history that I did not know. (I have had several conversations with fellow Canadians about this book, and so I don't think I'm ENTIRELY alone in not knowing, but I still feel a bit doofish). This is one of many reasons why I am excited to be going back to school for history in the fall - the history that I don't yet even know the basics of, in many ways. I randomly selected this book from the bargain book bin at the university bookstore and learned something new. I'm so stoked for what is yet to come from my upcoming history courses!
Title: Louisbourg Portraits - Five Dramatic, True Tales of People Who Lived in an Eighteenth-Century Garrison Town
Author: Christopher Moore
Published: 2000 (originally 1982)
Pages: 270Total Books Blogged: 29
Total Pages: 8184
Friday 12 June 2015
Completed: Hungry Planet - What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio
After enjoying What I Eat so much, I checked at the library if Menzel and D'Aluisio had written any other books on food. I'm not sure why, but Hungry Planet was shelved with the kids books, even though it is essentially the same concept - families' food-for-a-week, rather than individuals' food-for-a-day.
It was enlightening in a different way than What I Eat. What I eat had more recipes, Hungry Planet has more country facts, and it really lays a family bare to make them put up everything they eat in a week. The hypocrisy of the American families, touting healthy eating when their foods include corn dogs, Nutri-Grain bars, tons of pop, chips, instant freezer-foods. It made me take a harsh look at my kitchen, and I truly believe I eat at least half as much junk as any of them, and that I am much more selective of my processed foods. But it certainly made me want to look one more time at how much processed food I eat, and what I can cut out.
I think the biggest one is that the kids always eat boxed breakfast cereal or hot cereal for breakfast. We pick the relatively healthy ones (Cheerios, Mini-Wheats, Corn Flakes, and Special K top the list, along with Quaker Oatmeal with plain oats added), but it's still always boxed cereals. After all the recent evidence around egg cholesterol not being so bad, I wonder if I should start making them eggs and toast for breakfast (we get our bread from an awesome local bakery that uses excellent ingredients). Hmmm.
In other news, I have been following through on my desire to expand my culinary repertoire around especially south/southeast Asian foods at home. I made the best dal of my LIFE (At Home with Madhur Jaffrey - check it out), and have gone on Pinterest and pinned a ton of foods to try: Sambar curry, ful, tah-chin, pho, bhorta. So excited for my culinary adventures!
I'm too lazy to post a picture of Hungry Planet - it's after 11pm and this book is due back at the library tomorrow. It was a good read, but if I was going to pick one, What I Eat was more inspiring to me than Hungry Planet. Either way, they are both an excellent photo atlas of how diverse the food of the world is, and I love eating around the planet!
Title: Hungry Planet - What the World Eats
Authors: Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio
Published: I have no idea - the book really doesn't seem to say
Pages: 277
Total Books Blogged: 28
Total Pages: 7874
It was enlightening in a different way than What I Eat. What I eat had more recipes, Hungry Planet has more country facts, and it really lays a family bare to make them put up everything they eat in a week. The hypocrisy of the American families, touting healthy eating when their foods include corn dogs, Nutri-Grain bars, tons of pop, chips, instant freezer-foods. It made me take a harsh look at my kitchen, and I truly believe I eat at least half as much junk as any of them, and that I am much more selective of my processed foods. But it certainly made me want to look one more time at how much processed food I eat, and what I can cut out.
I think the biggest one is that the kids always eat boxed breakfast cereal or hot cereal for breakfast. We pick the relatively healthy ones (Cheerios, Mini-Wheats, Corn Flakes, and Special K top the list, along with Quaker Oatmeal with plain oats added), but it's still always boxed cereals. After all the recent evidence around egg cholesterol not being so bad, I wonder if I should start making them eggs and toast for breakfast (we get our bread from an awesome local bakery that uses excellent ingredients). Hmmm.
In other news, I have been following through on my desire to expand my culinary repertoire around especially south/southeast Asian foods at home. I made the best dal of my LIFE (At Home with Madhur Jaffrey - check it out), and have gone on Pinterest and pinned a ton of foods to try: Sambar curry, ful, tah-chin, pho, bhorta. So excited for my culinary adventures!
I'm too lazy to post a picture of Hungry Planet - it's after 11pm and this book is due back at the library tomorrow. It was a good read, but if I was going to pick one, What I Eat was more inspiring to me than Hungry Planet. Either way, they are both an excellent photo atlas of how diverse the food of the world is, and I love eating around the planet!
Title: Hungry Planet - What the World Eats
Authors: Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio
Published: I have no idea - the book really doesn't seem to say
Pages: 277
Total Books Blogged: 28
Total Pages: 7874
Wednesday 29 April 2015
Completed: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
I first read The Phantom Tollbooth in Grade 5 or so, I think. I didn't like it.
I therefore don't know what possessed me to take it back out from the library in order to re-read it. But I did. It sat there for a bit before I got to it.
But WOW. I'm so glad I re-read it. I think I'd put it in the top ten best books I've ever read. I think I'll likely read it many more times, as I feel there is so much more to get out of it. The way Juster writes is just magic. His imagination to create this world is incredible. I couldn't pick out my favorite part, because each and every sentence makes you think and wonder. Everything he wrote just made me gasp and laugh and reflect - it's brilliant start to finish.
Maurice Sendak (author of Where the Wild Things Are) says in the introduction that "The Phantom Tollbooth is concerned with the awakening of the lazy mind." I love this, as I think it's an excellent way to sum up how I feel after reading it.
Oh. And The Pilgrim's Progress by Paul Bunyan is on my to-read list - I have a beautiful old copy of it to read. Maurice Sendak recommended it to me...
Title: The Phantom Tollbooth
Author: Norton Juster
Published: 1961
Pages: 256
Total Books Blogged: 28
Total Pages: 7,853
I therefore don't know what possessed me to take it back out from the library in order to re-read it. But I did. It sat there for a bit before I got to it.
But WOW. I'm so glad I re-read it. I think I'd put it in the top ten best books I've ever read. I think I'll likely read it many more times, as I feel there is so much more to get out of it. The way Juster writes is just magic. His imagination to create this world is incredible. I couldn't pick out my favorite part, because each and every sentence makes you think and wonder. Everything he wrote just made me gasp and laugh and reflect - it's brilliant start to finish.
Maurice Sendak (author of Where the Wild Things Are) says in the introduction that "The Phantom Tollbooth is concerned with the awakening of the lazy mind." I love this, as I think it's an excellent way to sum up how I feel after reading it.
Oh. And The Pilgrim's Progress by Paul Bunyan is on my to-read list - I have a beautiful old copy of it to read. Maurice Sendak recommended it to me...
Title: The Phantom Tollbooth
Author: Norton Juster
Published: 1961
Pages: 256
Total Books Blogged: 28
Total Pages: 7,853
Monday 27 April 2015
Completed: What I Eat - Around the World in 80 Diets by Peter Menzel & Faith D'Aluisio
This is one of those books that has inspired me. I think great books either really make you think, really make you take action, or really make you feel. This one falls into the second category - it really made me take action.
This book surveys, as a photographic art project, a day's food for 80 people - men, women, and children - from all over the world. I believe the only Canadian was a teen from an earth-hugging vegetarian family in Quebec. I was impressed to see her eating paneer!
The American 'days' were horribly depressing. Processed meat and foods. Pop (sorry - soda). Candy. Empty carbs. Artifically-pumped-up beverages of all sorts and varieties. A large slab of bologna. The only redeeming person from the whole country was a Hispanic lady who owned a restaurant - her food looked awesome. But it made me realize I want my home to be more reflective of the diversity of colour, flavour, texture, and taste of the world. Though we already eat very well - almost everything from scratch, lots of fruit and veggies - there is so much to explore in terms of cuisine from various cuisines around the world. All of the food from Mexico, China, Vietnam, Iran, Palestine, India - it all looked so incredibly delicious.
So. Yet again I have fallen victim to the library. I started with India, and have three different cookbooks out. I dragged my whole family to Fruiticana market in order to get the proper spices (the ones I didn't already have, like curry leaves), and various dals. This weekend I made potato curry and coconut curried lentils and cilantro carrots and it was all awesome! I'm so glad my kids love Indian food too.
I want to do some southeast Asian cooking too - stir fries, green veggies, and Pho. Looking at other peoples' diets made me want to actively enrich my own, despite being in a good place compared to many of those with whom I share a continent (the guy whose only daily vegetables were half a can of peas, for example).
Read this book. It'll make you realize how much more is out there to explore!!
This book surveys, as a photographic art project, a day's food for 80 people - men, women, and children - from all over the world. I believe the only Canadian was a teen from an earth-hugging vegetarian family in Quebec. I was impressed to see her eating paneer!
The American 'days' were horribly depressing. Processed meat and foods. Pop (sorry - soda). Candy. Empty carbs. Artifically-pumped-up beverages of all sorts and varieties. A large slab of bologna. The only redeeming person from the whole country was a Hispanic lady who owned a restaurant - her food looked awesome. But it made me realize I want my home to be more reflective of the diversity of colour, flavour, texture, and taste of the world. Though we already eat very well - almost everything from scratch, lots of fruit and veggies - there is so much to explore in terms of cuisine from various cuisines around the world. All of the food from Mexico, China, Vietnam, Iran, Palestine, India - it all looked so incredibly delicious.
So. Yet again I have fallen victim to the library. I started with India, and have three different cookbooks out. I dragged my whole family to Fruiticana market in order to get the proper spices (the ones I didn't already have, like curry leaves), and various dals. This weekend I made potato curry and coconut curried lentils and cilantro carrots and it was all awesome! I'm so glad my kids love Indian food too.
I want to do some southeast Asian cooking too - stir fries, green veggies, and Pho. Looking at other peoples' diets made me want to actively enrich my own, despite being in a good place compared to many of those with whom I share a continent (the guy whose only daily vegetables were half a can of peas, for example).
Read this book. It'll make you realize how much more is out there to explore!!
Title: What I Eat - Around the World in 80 Diets
Authors: Peter Menzel & Faith D'Aluisio
Published: 2010
Pages:329
Total Books Blogged: 27
Total Pages: 7597
Monday 20 April 2015
Reading out loud: Bedtime with my kids
As long as I have known my sons, I have read to them before bed. They brush their teeth, they curl up with myself and/or D on our bed, and we read to them.
The past year or so, we have moved on a bit from picture books. G is ten now; J is 7. Both still love a few of our story books, and we read them occasionally. But they now have both the attention span and desire to have longer books read to them. The first of these was Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King, and we have since read several others - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Witches, and Kai: Ninja of Fire (a novel based on the Lego Ninjago series). Currently we are reading How to Steal a Dragon's Sword from the How to Train Your Dragon series.
I originally did not include these in my blog but then I thought - why shouldn't I? Even more than the novels I read by myself, I read each and every word of these out loud, very carefully (and doing all the voices!). They are just as much a part of my repertoire as everything else I read.
So! Here a smidge on each book:
Nicholas St. North: Amazing! What a brilliant young-adult book. The author has done others, and I would love to read them - just haven't made the time yet. This one's inspiration is 'St. Nick', or father Christmas. There is one about the Easter Bunny as well, and several others besides. SUCH a great book. I don't even remember where we got it, but I wish I could let them know how much we loved it!
The Witches and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Roald Dahl is incredible. The boys loved Charlie, and they liked The Witches, though they found the witches a bit scary (as did I! I forgot that some parts were quite graphic...). They got a boxed set of his collected works for Christmas. Also a somber reminder to all of us: His daughter was lost to measles at just 7 years old. Vaccinate!!
Ninjago's Kai: Ninja of Fire: Not the worst thing I've ever read, and thankfully short. The kids enjoyed it...?
Completed:
Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King by William Joyce and Laura Geringer
The Witches by Roald Dahl
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Lego Ninjago - Kai: Ninja of Fire by Greg Farshtey
Altogether now:
Pages: 228 + 201 + 180 + 74 = 683
Total Books Blogged: 26
Total Pages: 7,268
The past year or so, we have moved on a bit from picture books. G is ten now; J is 7. Both still love a few of our story books, and we read them occasionally. But they now have both the attention span and desire to have longer books read to them. The first of these was Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King, and we have since read several others - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Witches, and Kai: Ninja of Fire (a novel based on the Lego Ninjago series). Currently we are reading How to Steal a Dragon's Sword from the How to Train Your Dragon series.
I originally did not include these in my blog but then I thought - why shouldn't I? Even more than the novels I read by myself, I read each and every word of these out loud, very carefully (and doing all the voices!). They are just as much a part of my repertoire as everything else I read.
So! Here a smidge on each book:
Nicholas St. North: Amazing! What a brilliant young-adult book. The author has done others, and I would love to read them - just haven't made the time yet. This one's inspiration is 'St. Nick', or father Christmas. There is one about the Easter Bunny as well, and several others besides. SUCH a great book. I don't even remember where we got it, but I wish I could let them know how much we loved it!
The Witches and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Roald Dahl is incredible. The boys loved Charlie, and they liked The Witches, though they found the witches a bit scary (as did I! I forgot that some parts were quite graphic...). They got a boxed set of his collected works for Christmas. Also a somber reminder to all of us: His daughter was lost to measles at just 7 years old. Vaccinate!!
Ninjago's Kai: Ninja of Fire: Not the worst thing I've ever read, and thankfully short. The kids enjoyed it...?
Completed:
Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King by William Joyce and Laura Geringer
The Witches by Roald Dahl
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Lego Ninjago - Kai: Ninja of Fire by Greg Farshtey
Altogether now:
Pages: 228 + 201 + 180 + 74 = 683
Total Books Blogged: 26
Total Pages: 7,268
Monday 13 April 2015
Completed: Where I Belong - Small Town to Great Big Sea by Alan Doyle
Oooooh I do love me a good autobiography or memoir. Getting to enjoy someone's life with them is just brilliant, and Doyle sure tells a story. His childhood in rural PEI is a perfect story for a good Canadian read.
Alan Doyle today is the lead singer of Great Big Sea, one of my all-time favorite bands. This made me tremendously nervous to read the book - what if I liked him as much as I liked A. J. Jacobs?
I need not have worried. If anything, I'm even more enamored with the band, knowing where some of the songs came from. That they perceive "Ordinary Day" as a song that changed their lives (p. 282). I've found some new music (Berry Picking Time, and the band Wonderful Grand Band, one of their inspirations). Hearing about how important writing a hockey tune was (my kids love 'Helmethead').
Some wonderful takeaways from Doyle's life:
On why to own a painting: "Because it will make [a] home a happier place." (He met the painter Jean Claude Roy when he came to paint Petty Harbour - it made such an impact on him that he bought that very painting years later and it hangs in his home). (p.29-31)
On what work is, for Sean McCann's father: "Nobody works for you and you don't work for nobody. You only work with people." (p.109)
On how to approach each day: Doyle is talking about his parents when this thought came up, and it's my new motto for every bad day I'll have - take it with you, too:
"Spend exactly all of your time making the most of what you have and exactly none of your time whining about what you don't have." (p.14).
I'll try, Alan. Thank you for your story. Write another one, please?
Title: Where I Belong - Small Town to Great Big Sea
Author: Alan Doyle
Published: 2014
Pages: 308
Total Books Blogged: 22
Total Pages: 6585
Alan Doyle today is the lead singer of Great Big Sea, one of my all-time favorite bands. This made me tremendously nervous to read the book - what if I liked him as much as I liked A. J. Jacobs?
I need not have worried. If anything, I'm even more enamored with the band, knowing where some of the songs came from. That they perceive "Ordinary Day" as a song that changed their lives (p. 282). I've found some new music (Berry Picking Time, and the band Wonderful Grand Band, one of their inspirations). Hearing about how important writing a hockey tune was (my kids love 'Helmethead').
Some wonderful takeaways from Doyle's life:
On why to own a painting: "Because it will make [a] home a happier place." (He met the painter Jean Claude Roy when he came to paint Petty Harbour - it made such an impact on him that he bought that very painting years later and it hangs in his home). (p.29-31)
On what work is, for Sean McCann's father: "Nobody works for you and you don't work for nobody. You only work with people." (p.109)
On how to approach each day: Doyle is talking about his parents when this thought came up, and it's my new motto for every bad day I'll have - take it with you, too:
"Spend exactly all of your time making the most of what you have and exactly none of your time whining about what you don't have." (p.14).
I'll try, Alan. Thank you for your story. Write another one, please?
Title: Where I Belong - Small Town to Great Big Sea
Author: Alan Doyle
Published: 2014
Pages: 308
Total Books Blogged: 22
Total Pages: 6585
Monday 6 April 2015
Completed: Packing for Mars - the Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach
I have never read so much about poop in my life!
I have to commend Mary Roach for taking on such an interesting project - the mundane details of a spectacular career. Being an astronaut is one of the careers children dream about - but they certainly don't think of the logistics of going to the bathroom or taking a shower, or eating low-flatulence foods.
I'm not a huge fan of Roach's writing style - I feel sometimes like she is trying too hard to be funny or witty. But the subject matter kept me going. I don't think it's for the delicate who don't wish to discuss intimate details of hygiene! I don't have too much more to reflect on it, other than that I am now sure I would not relish life as an astronaut...
I have to commend Mary Roach for taking on such an interesting project - the mundane details of a spectacular career. Being an astronaut is one of the careers children dream about - but they certainly don't think of the logistics of going to the bathroom or taking a shower, or eating low-flatulence foods.
I'm not a huge fan of Roach's writing style - I feel sometimes like she is trying too hard to be funny or witty. But the subject matter kept me going. I don't think it's for the delicate who don't wish to discuss intimate details of hygiene! I don't have too much more to reflect on it, other than that I am now sure I would not relish life as an astronaut...
Title: Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
Published: 2010
Pages: 321
Total Books Blogged: 21
Total Pages: 6277
Completed: Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman
I was checking online as we were heading to the library, on our accounts, to check what needed to head back. I couldn't, for the life of me, find one book. Our library helpfully (or not) calls most of the books in the kids' section "Children's paperback" if they happen to be a paperback in the kids' section. So, I was faced with number 93873834 "Children's paperback". I could not find it. We searched the car, the kids' backpacks, and their rooms. I checked the library shelf three times over. No book.
So, later last night I was working on my stamp collection (yes, I'm a proud dork) at my desk, and suddenly, I noticed Fortunately, the Milk sitting there, waiting to be blogged. I had taken it on a trip to a friend's wedding, and finished it in about half an hour. But I hadn't gotten around to blogging it. I checked the top - 93873834. Yay! Book!
So I will quickly blog this book so that it can go back to the library prior to having fines attached to it.
I will precurse this review by saying that I have never read any of Neil Gaiman's books for adults. I picked up this book to see if G might like it, as his avid love of reading shows no sign of slowing down.
It was just OK. The story was a bit generic and lacked creativity. However, the artwork was incredible, and so for that alone I would recommend picking it up. It is short and sweet - I was very glad to have brought a second book on my trip, as I hadn't realized quite how quick a read it would be (I'll blog the other one soon, as I finished it as well!).
Favorite little bit of the book:
"We can't eat our cereal," said my sister, sadly.
"I don't see why not," said my father. "We've got plenty of cereal. There's Toastios and there's muesli. We have bowls. We have spoons. Spoons are excellent. Sort of like forks, only not as stabby."
There's some excellent Dad humour for ya!
Title: Fortunately, the Milk
Published: 2013
Pages: 110
Total Books Blogged: 20
Total Pages: 5956
So, later last night I was working on my stamp collection (yes, I'm a proud dork) at my desk, and suddenly, I noticed Fortunately, the Milk sitting there, waiting to be blogged. I had taken it on a trip to a friend's wedding, and finished it in about half an hour. But I hadn't gotten around to blogging it. I checked the top - 93873834. Yay! Book!
So I will quickly blog this book so that it can go back to the library prior to having fines attached to it.
I will precurse this review by saying that I have never read any of Neil Gaiman's books for adults. I picked up this book to see if G might like it, as his avid love of reading shows no sign of slowing down.
It was just OK. The story was a bit generic and lacked creativity. However, the artwork was incredible, and so for that alone I would recommend picking it up. It is short and sweet - I was very glad to have brought a second book on my trip, as I hadn't realized quite how quick a read it would be (I'll blog the other one soon, as I finished it as well!).
Favorite little bit of the book:
"We can't eat our cereal," said my sister, sadly.
"I don't see why not," said my father. "We've got plenty of cereal. There's Toastios and there's muesli. We have bowls. We have spoons. Spoons are excellent. Sort of like forks, only not as stabby."
There's some excellent Dad humour for ya!
Title: Fortunately, the Milk
Published: 2013
Pages: 110
Total Books Blogged: 20
Total Pages: 5956
Wednesday 25 March 2015
Completed: The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs
This book, unfortunately, does not live up to the title of my blog.
The subcaption of the title is The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. As an archaeologist, it sounded like a very interesting thing to attempt. It was on my Amazon wishlist and was purchased for me by my sister as, I believe, a Christmas gift back a few years. I had several other books by the author on there too. Had.
This book divided me wholeheartedly. I would give it 2/5. The two stars are for some of the reflection that Jacobs did on religion and belief, and for some of his advisors along the way. One of the most interesting factoids that I took away from the book was the existence of the Jefferson Bible - here is how Jacobs described it, which has triggered enough interest in me to want to put this on my Amazon wishlist instead of Jacobs:
"[Jefferson] stripped away all the supernatural references [in the Bible]... Jefferson's idea was that Christ was a great moral philosopher. So Jefferson kept only Christ's moral teachings: forgiveness, loving thy neighbor, and striving for peace. He called them 'the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.'" (p. 256)
Sounds like an awesome read.
The Year of Living Biblically also helped me to continue exploring two parallel issues in me. One is that I am not a religious person. The other is that I am fascinated by religious history and the history of the interaction of various belief systems. Jacobs, when discussing religion, keeps it legible for those of us who don't know it all, and makes it both interesting and relatable.
Jacobs' religious advisors along the way were all very wise and interesting to read about. I loved the perspective of Steven Greenberg, a gay rabbi that Jacobs chatted with. Here are his words, which I'd love for all of the people who use the Bible as an excuse for hate to read:
"Never blame a text from the Bible for your behavior. It's irresponsible. Anybody who says X, Y, and Z is in the Bible - it's as if one says 'I have no role in evaluating this.'" (p. 268)
Fantastic perspective, that people should really think, not just be sheep.
However.
He loses three stars for being a completely trite jerk, and for having one of the most unpleasant marriages I've ever had to read about . I'm shocked he wrote about it at all, to be honest.
My least favorite passage, one that still makes my skin crawl, is on pp. 273-275. He describes in detail how, in order to get back at his wife during spats, he keeps a damn list of her past mistakes on his phone. He literally says the following: "When I forgive, I file away the other person's wrongs for possible future use. It's forgiveness with an asterisk." There is no such thing as forgiveness with an asterisk, and it makes me want to stay ten feet away from him at all times, it's so slimy. His wife may laugh, as he states in the book, when he confesses about his list, but it just makes me squirm. Yuk.
His wife is no peach herself. While pregnant with twins, and her husband (our intrepid author) is interested in being intimate, her reply is "I can't think of anything I'd rather do less." (p. 285). Wow. I don't know if it's just my marriage, but I would never speak to my husband that way. She doesn't have to take him up on the offer, but being that mean about it? She also gags when Jacobs expresses how thankful he is for his family (p. 293). She just seems like the type of person that I would not want to be around.
Then there's her teary meltdown when she discovers that, in addition to her first son, she is pregnant with twin boys.
I have witnessed wonderful people struggle to conceive, despite their absolute desire to have children. They would be amazing parents, and it just won't happen for them. I've also known a woman who so wanted a girl that she would not hold her newborn second son. I am completely revolted by parents who are ungrateful for a healthy baby of either gender.
There's a lot here in this post. I had a lot of feelings around this book. I can say for sure that I don't want to read anymore of Jacobs' books, mostly because I find him and his wife to be such unsavoury people. But the religious part itself was enlightening, and enriching. So there you go - a very mixed review.
Title: The Year of Living Biblically - One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
Published: 2008
Pages: 332
Total Books Blogged: 19
Total Pages: 5846
The subcaption of the title is The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. As an archaeologist, it sounded like a very interesting thing to attempt. It was on my Amazon wishlist and was purchased for me by my sister as, I believe, a Christmas gift back a few years. I had several other books by the author on there too. Had.
This book divided me wholeheartedly. I would give it 2/5. The two stars are for some of the reflection that Jacobs did on religion and belief, and for some of his advisors along the way. One of the most interesting factoids that I took away from the book was the existence of the Jefferson Bible - here is how Jacobs described it, which has triggered enough interest in me to want to put this on my Amazon wishlist instead of Jacobs:
"[Jefferson] stripped away all the supernatural references [in the Bible]... Jefferson's idea was that Christ was a great moral philosopher. So Jefferson kept only Christ's moral teachings: forgiveness, loving thy neighbor, and striving for peace. He called them 'the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.'" (p. 256)
Sounds like an awesome read.
The Year of Living Biblically also helped me to continue exploring two parallel issues in me. One is that I am not a religious person. The other is that I am fascinated by religious history and the history of the interaction of various belief systems. Jacobs, when discussing religion, keeps it legible for those of us who don't know it all, and makes it both interesting and relatable.
Jacobs' religious advisors along the way were all very wise and interesting to read about. I loved the perspective of Steven Greenberg, a gay rabbi that Jacobs chatted with. Here are his words, which I'd love for all of the people who use the Bible as an excuse for hate to read:
"Never blame a text from the Bible for your behavior. It's irresponsible. Anybody who says X, Y, and Z is in the Bible - it's as if one says 'I have no role in evaluating this.'" (p. 268)
Fantastic perspective, that people should really think, not just be sheep.
However.
He loses three stars for being a completely trite jerk, and for having one of the most unpleasant marriages I've ever had to read about . I'm shocked he wrote about it at all, to be honest.
My least favorite passage, one that still makes my skin crawl, is on pp. 273-275. He describes in detail how, in order to get back at his wife during spats, he keeps a damn list of her past mistakes on his phone. He literally says the following: "When I forgive, I file away the other person's wrongs for possible future use. It's forgiveness with an asterisk." There is no such thing as forgiveness with an asterisk, and it makes me want to stay ten feet away from him at all times, it's so slimy. His wife may laugh, as he states in the book, when he confesses about his list, but it just makes me squirm. Yuk.
His wife is no peach herself. While pregnant with twins, and her husband (our intrepid author) is interested in being intimate, her reply is "I can't think of anything I'd rather do less." (p. 285). Wow. I don't know if it's just my marriage, but I would never speak to my husband that way. She doesn't have to take him up on the offer, but being that mean about it? She also gags when Jacobs expresses how thankful he is for his family (p. 293). She just seems like the type of person that I would not want to be around.
Then there's her teary meltdown when she discovers that, in addition to her first son, she is pregnant with twin boys.
I have witnessed wonderful people struggle to conceive, despite their absolute desire to have children. They would be amazing parents, and it just won't happen for them. I've also known a woman who so wanted a girl that she would not hold her newborn second son. I am completely revolted by parents who are ungrateful for a healthy baby of either gender.
There's a lot here in this post. I had a lot of feelings around this book. I can say for sure that I don't want to read anymore of Jacobs' books, mostly because I find him and his wife to be such unsavoury people. But the religious part itself was enlightening, and enriching. So there you go - a very mixed review.
Title: The Year of Living Biblically - One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
Published: 2008
Pages: 332
Total Books Blogged: 19
Total Pages: 5846
Monday 16 February 2015
My issue with the library
The original intention of my blog was to read MY books. I have hundreds that I have not yet read, all of which I specifically chose to own for a reason. A reason like "I want to read that".
The problem, or blessing perhaps, is that my children love to read as much if not more than myself and my husband. I truly believe in building a home library, but this should consist of things that last, including classic story books and small kids' books.
A lot of books that they take out each week or two as we visit our local library branch are things we don't need to keep timelessly in the house - graphic novels and comic books, leveled readers, endless numbers of Geronimo Stiltons and Percy Jackson novels. I certainly couldn't afford to buy them all, and they play such an enriching role in my kids' lives. So for that reason, I love that we can take 20 books a week out and take them home at no cost whatsoever to us. (I do pay my taxes, though!)
On the flipside, I also love books, and me in a library is like a very cliche bull in a china shop. I can't get out of there without a book, no matter how hard I try to resist. My current reading segway into young adult fiction and classic kids' books is due to browsing the shelves as my kids do the same in the kids' section. The Borrowers. Tuck Everlasting. Currently reading The Phantom Tollbooth. I have A Wrinkle in Time and Fortunately, the Milk on my library shelf waiting for me. Picked up the Alan Doyle biography OFF THE RETURNS TABLE even ("Sorry, is that being returned? Can I take it out, in that case?"). UGH.
At this rate I will never even begin many of my books... Perhaps the hubby needs to take the kids to the library instead of me...!
But in the long run I can't complain. I'm reading good books, aren't I?
The problem, or blessing perhaps, is that my children love to read as much if not more than myself and my husband. I truly believe in building a home library, but this should consist of things that last, including classic story books and small kids' books.
A lot of books that they take out each week or two as we visit our local library branch are things we don't need to keep timelessly in the house - graphic novels and comic books, leveled readers, endless numbers of Geronimo Stiltons and Percy Jackson novels. I certainly couldn't afford to buy them all, and they play such an enriching role in my kids' lives. So for that reason, I love that we can take 20 books a week out and take them home at no cost whatsoever to us. (I do pay my taxes, though!)
On the flipside, I also love books, and me in a library is like a very cliche bull in a china shop. I can't get out of there without a book, no matter how hard I try to resist. My current reading segway into young adult fiction and classic kids' books is due to browsing the shelves as my kids do the same in the kids' section. The Borrowers. Tuck Everlasting. Currently reading The Phantom Tollbooth. I have A Wrinkle in Time and Fortunately, the Milk on my library shelf waiting for me. Picked up the Alan Doyle biography OFF THE RETURNS TABLE even ("Sorry, is that being returned? Can I take it out, in that case?"). UGH.
At this rate I will never even begin many of my books... Perhaps the hubby needs to take the kids to the library instead of me...!
But in the long run I can't complain. I'm reading good books, aren't I?
Sunday 8 February 2015
Completed: Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (*spoilers again!*)
The large number of posts of late has more to do with the fact that I had stockpiled completed books, even renewing some from the library to hold onto until I got to write about them (rather than me all of a sudden reading a tremendous number of books...!)
It wasn't a lack of time to write; it was a lack of will. I go through phases where I don't feel like it - for weeks or even months at a time. But now and again I just get on a roll and enjoy it so much. Even working on my other writing - sometimes by hand, as I feel I just never get a chance to write with a pen much anymore, apart from list after list of to-dos. It's nice to write with a pen for fun, it reminds me of my diary in high school, only much less dramatic now.
Along with The Borrowers, and now Tuck Everlasting, I feel like I'm catching up on some of the classics that I never read in school. And much like The Borrowers, I was sadly disappointed with the ending to Tuck Everlasting. But I'll get to that in a moment.
First I'll share my favorite, very poignant, part. It's when Tuck is sharing, teaching Winnie about why their life is not a life at all. "...[D]ying's part of the wheel, right there next to being born. You can't pick out the pieces you like and leave the rest. Being part of the whole thing, that's the blessing. But it's passing us by, us Tucks." (p. 63). It's a heartbreaking moment, when Tuck shares their pain with someone for the first time in such a long time. And Winnie, a child, can only process it so far.
Perhaps it is her naivete that causes her to do what she does - give the spring water to the toad. I just... the romantic in me wanted her to run away with Jesse. But I suppose it was the teen in Jesse that wanted Winnie to come, the youthful idealism. And Winnie would have been just as miserable as the Tucks. But I just - that's where I wanted the story to end - a teen Winnie off into the night, into the world, with Jesse.
I still don't understand the toad. But would definitely recommend you read it!
Title: The Borrowers
Author: Natalie Babbitt
Published: 1975 (originally), 2007 (my copy)
Publisher: Square Fish
Pages: 139
Total Books Blogged: 18
Total Pages: 5514
It wasn't a lack of time to write; it was a lack of will. I go through phases where I don't feel like it - for weeks or even months at a time. But now and again I just get on a roll and enjoy it so much. Even working on my other writing - sometimes by hand, as I feel I just never get a chance to write with a pen much anymore, apart from list after list of to-dos. It's nice to write with a pen for fun, it reminds me of my diary in high school, only much less dramatic now.
Along with The Borrowers, and now Tuck Everlasting, I feel like I'm catching up on some of the classics that I never read in school. And much like The Borrowers, I was sadly disappointed with the ending to Tuck Everlasting. But I'll get to that in a moment.
First I'll share my favorite, very poignant, part. It's when Tuck is sharing, teaching Winnie about why their life is not a life at all. "...[D]ying's part of the wheel, right there next to being born. You can't pick out the pieces you like and leave the rest. Being part of the whole thing, that's the blessing. But it's passing us by, us Tucks." (p. 63). It's a heartbreaking moment, when Tuck shares their pain with someone for the first time in such a long time. And Winnie, a child, can only process it so far.
Perhaps it is her naivete that causes her to do what she does - give the spring water to the toad. I just... the romantic in me wanted her to run away with Jesse. But I suppose it was the teen in Jesse that wanted Winnie to come, the youthful idealism. And Winnie would have been just as miserable as the Tucks. But I just - that's where I wanted the story to end - a teen Winnie off into the night, into the world, with Jesse.
I still don't understand the toad. But would definitely recommend you read it!
Title: The Borrowers
Author: Natalie Babbitt
Published: 1975 (originally), 2007 (my copy)
Publisher: Square Fish
Pages: 139
Total Books Blogged: 18
Total Pages: 5514
Wednesday 4 February 2015
Completed: The Borrowers by Mary Norton (*spoilers*)
I try to not to give away the punchline of books in my blog, as I am not a spoiler of good books (although I've certainly accidentally spoiled enough hockey games for a friend of mine at work - blessings of PVR).
But I can't talk about this book without talking about the ending! So look away, readers, if you haven't yet read this book.
I loved the Borrowers. I'm loving the young adult fiction genre lately, and this was no exception. The interesting world of the little family beneath the floor was a joy, and also an interesting perspective on the world. Not knowing that the sky is blue, constant fear of discovery. Arrietty's constant adventurousness, curiosity, and naivete.
But the ending nearly ruined it all for me. I've found this with several books over time - most notably Life of Pi. But goodness - Mrs. May's brother had the same writing? They were just a story from his imagination? No! I wanted them to be lost to the storyteller - that the items disappeared, were taken by the Clocks, and that they were never seen again. Not to find out in the end that he was, in fact, Arrietty. I mean, what a wonderful story to create, but I really didn't, within the context of the fiction, want them to be imaginary. I wanted them to be real. And so I was so sorely disappointed at the end. Utterly crushed.
I suppose, though, that speaks to the book's quality. Mediocre books don't inspire that kind of emotion. So I supposed it's a great book that I don't like the ending of at all. At all at all.
Title: The Borrowers
Published: 1981? (Originally 1953)
Pages: 180
Total Books Blogged: 17
Total Pages: 5375
But I can't talk about this book without talking about the ending! So look away, readers, if you haven't yet read this book.
I loved the Borrowers. I'm loving the young adult fiction genre lately, and this was no exception. The interesting world of the little family beneath the floor was a joy, and also an interesting perspective on the world. Not knowing that the sky is blue, constant fear of discovery. Arrietty's constant adventurousness, curiosity, and naivete.
But the ending nearly ruined it all for me. I've found this with several books over time - most notably Life of Pi. But goodness - Mrs. May's brother had the same writing? They were just a story from his imagination? No! I wanted them to be lost to the storyteller - that the items disappeared, were taken by the Clocks, and that they were never seen again. Not to find out in the end that he was, in fact, Arrietty. I mean, what a wonderful story to create, but I really didn't, within the context of the fiction, want them to be imaginary. I wanted them to be real. And so I was so sorely disappointed at the end. Utterly crushed.
I suppose, though, that speaks to the book's quality. Mediocre books don't inspire that kind of emotion. So I supposed it's a great book that I don't like the ending of at all. At all at all.
Title: The Borrowers
Published: 1981? (Originally 1953)
Pages: 180
Total Books Blogged: 17
Total Pages: 5375
Monday 2 February 2015
Completed: The Confederados - Old South Immigrants in Brazil, edited by Cyrus B. Dawsey and James M. Dawsey
I started this book forever ago, and this is not one of the ones that sat around awhile waiting to be blogged - I only just finished it a week or so ago.
I first heard about the subjects of this book on Imgur (www.imgur.com - check it out if you need an awesome place to waste time but also hear about cool things like the subject of this book). Someone put up a post about southern American (as in from the south of the USA) emigrants who moved to Brazil following the end of the Civil War. They moved to avoid a Yankee government, to avoid the poverty and lawlessness of the South following the war, to evangelize.
"Never was there greater nakedness and desolation in a civilized society" - this is how one southerner described life in South Carolina following the war. They went to escape this, if they could afford to go. Although Brazil still practiced slavery at this time, it doesn't appear to have been a primary impetus for the move. It is amazing to think of some elderly folks in Brazil whose first language is English, with a pure southern sound from a century ago (the linguistics of which is fascinating - see chapter 10), who get together to reminisce about the past and to speak fondly and protectively of their adventurous grandparents.
I think my favorite anecdote was the final one of the text. It discussed Jimmy Carter, prior to his presidency, along with his wife Rosalynn and press secretary Jodie Powell, visiting the Southern settlement now known as Americana in Brazil. Ms. Powell later reflected on the visit, admitting that all three of them became quite emotional when speaking to a crowd at a commemorative monument in Americana. She wrote that "[n]one of us could explain exactly why Americana touched us so deeply. Part of it was the feeling that we had discovered a part of ourselves that we hardly knew existed." (p. 210). I think I would feel similar emotions if I learned of a small group of Canadians who had moved to somewhere far away and maintained language and traditions from a century ago. A group that history had mainly forgotten - it's amazing to think.
Title: The Confederados - Old South Immigrants in Brazil
Published: 1995
Pages: 210
Total Books Blogged: 16
Total Pages: 5195
Thursday 29 January 2015
Completed: The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman
I am contemplating embarking on another undergraduate degree, focusing on North American history. I grew up away from my home continent. I studied mainly European history. And I enjoyed it. However, I feel like I don't know my own continent very well.
Tuchman's book, though not in North America, was a very enlightening history of the beginning of World War I. I found it fascinating; it was written in a way that read like a novel, with character sketches, humour, and sarcasm. And yet it is a record, a history, of the events and happenings of those first few months (primarily the first month). It was a readable history. So much of the history we all get to read is written to be so dry. Tuchman actually made an engrossing history book.
I think the invasion of Belgium, and the needless political puffery that caused the war in the first place, were the parts that impacted me the most. The arrogance of the politicians in feeling that war would somehow be a noble resolution of their differences. The slow, creeping realization that the war would not be over quickly.
My blogging of this book comes on the tail end of reading a National Geographic article about the underground 'cities' of the front line in World War I - the quarries excavated out behind the trenches, with soldiers living underground for weeks at a time in damp conditions, listening for tunneling soldiers from the other side set to bomb their enemies. Carving their lives into the soft chalk. It was the life of so many millions of soldiers for so many years.
Tuchman's book gave me a better understanding of the political personalities, military tactics and decisions that led to the horrid near-stalemate that was much of the first World War. National Geographic added the humanity of the soldiers to this picture. The two reads complimented each other. In the vast numbers of casualties and wounded that one sees when studying WWI, we must always remember that each one of those millions was a person of their own, with a family, parents, children perhaps, a wife maybe. A dream.
Title: The Guns of August
Published: 1962 (my copy is a crap 1980s paperback)
Pages: 489
Total books blogged: 16
Total pages: 5474
Tuchman's book, though not in North America, was a very enlightening history of the beginning of World War I. I found it fascinating; it was written in a way that read like a novel, with character sketches, humour, and sarcasm. And yet it is a record, a history, of the events and happenings of those first few months (primarily the first month). It was a readable history. So much of the history we all get to read is written to be so dry. Tuchman actually made an engrossing history book.
I think the invasion of Belgium, and the needless political puffery that caused the war in the first place, were the parts that impacted me the most. The arrogance of the politicians in feeling that war would somehow be a noble resolution of their differences. The slow, creeping realization that the war would not be over quickly.
My blogging of this book comes on the tail end of reading a National Geographic article about the underground 'cities' of the front line in World War I - the quarries excavated out behind the trenches, with soldiers living underground for weeks at a time in damp conditions, listening for tunneling soldiers from the other side set to bomb their enemies. Carving their lives into the soft chalk. It was the life of so many millions of soldiers for so many years.
Tuchman's book gave me a better understanding of the political personalities, military tactics and decisions that led to the horrid near-stalemate that was much of the first World War. National Geographic added the humanity of the soldiers to this picture. The two reads complimented each other. In the vast numbers of casualties and wounded that one sees when studying WWI, we must always remember that each one of those millions was a person of their own, with a family, parents, children perhaps, a wife maybe. A dream.
Title: The Guns of August
Published: 1962 (my copy is a crap 1980s paperback)
Pages: 489
Total books blogged: 16
Total pages: 5474
Wednesday 7 January 2015
Sitting at a new desk
Quite some time ago now, I shared my now-not-so-new reading nook with you, and today I can share that I am sitting at my new desk. We have completely shuffled our three bedrooms so that G and J are happily split into each having their own rooms. This necessitated removing our large but unwieldy and tremendously heavy desk from the 'office', as it is now a bedroom. We now have a cute little computer desk in our own bedroom, set up just for me to work at.
"What is this, a desk for ants?" ~my interpretation of my husband's reaction to my tiny work nook
Tonight I caught up on paperwork. Next I will catch up on books - I have four to blog! And am more than halfway through a fifth. I have done more reading than I expected to get done in the past few months, but haven't had the urge to write until recently, when I have found myself inspired by someone I barely know.
A friend of a friend, a sweet and kind heart, has recently left her day job to pursue writing full-time. I admire her tenacity and courage (though she has asked that people stop calling her brave!). I truly admire those who throw themselves headlong at their passion and make it happen despite obstacles, or fear of the unknown. My quest is much more humble, but I am in the process of trying to carve out a bit more 'me' time in my life, and it feels wonderful to sit here today and finally update this page. There are many things that I enjoy, and this blog is one. I shall make some time for me. A Mom who takes time for herself is, I truly believe, a more balanced person and thereby a better Mom. This new year I will find a better balance.
"What is this, a desk for ants?" ~my interpretation of my husband's reaction to my tiny work nook
Tonight I caught up on paperwork. Next I will catch up on books - I have four to blog! And am more than halfway through a fifth. I have done more reading than I expected to get done in the past few months, but haven't had the urge to write until recently, when I have found myself inspired by someone I barely know.
A friend of a friend, a sweet and kind heart, has recently left her day job to pursue writing full-time. I admire her tenacity and courage (though she has asked that people stop calling her brave!). I truly admire those who throw themselves headlong at their passion and make it happen despite obstacles, or fear of the unknown. My quest is much more humble, but I am in the process of trying to carve out a bit more 'me' time in my life, and it feels wonderful to sit here today and finally update this page. There are many things that I enjoy, and this blog is one. I shall make some time for me. A Mom who takes time for herself is, I truly believe, a more balanced person and thereby a better Mom. This new year I will find a better balance.
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