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!

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: 270

Total Books Blogged: 29
Total Pages: 8184

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

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

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!!

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

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

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

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...

Title: Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

Published: 2010

Pages: 321

Total Books Blogged: 21

Total Pages: 6277