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Making Your Life Hard

2009-09-25T12:15:00.002-04:00

Yes, I am.

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How to Lose Friends & Alienate People by Toby Young

2009-09-03T13:01:00.002-04:00

This book should really be called, If You Ever Wanted to Write for Vanity Fair, Here are Fifty Million Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Bother, because, really, that’s exactly what I got from it.

Toby Young moved from London, England to New York City in the mid-90s to become a contributing editor for my favourite magazine, Vanity Fair. The LA Times called it “an undistinguished six-month stint at the magazine”. It was a little longer than that—three years, but who’s really counting?

This book is his memoir of his time in New York City amid the people who make up NYC: the rich, the famous, and those who think they are.

It was eye-opening. I suppose a part of me knew already what he had to say about life in NYC. Life is shallow, it’s hard to make friends or get a date, and ultimately people will leave in the lurch when you need them most. I’m sure there are lots of people in NYC who aren’t like that, but the world that I’ve always wanted to live in—the one Toby moved into—is that one. It really is Sex and the City, only it’s much more ruthless and everyone is trying to get into it. Who am I to compete with that?

It’s hard living in any large city without succumbing to the jadedness. Yesterday, Michael Bryant, a former Attorney General of Ontario was charged with dragging a cyclist to death with his car. It’s a sensational story getting a lot of coverage in the city. But I can’t seem to work up any feeling towards either the victim or the man who allegedly killed him.

I’ve only been living in Toronto for a year, but I feel like I’m already turning “cold”. Where is my innocence going? Is it possible to remain guileless while living amid the soot and grime? Or does it get beaten out of you by the people you meet and the things you see?

I thought about all of this after reading How to Lose Friends & Alienate People. In a way, I feel like it saved me from going down a path that would find me facing the same people Toby did. I don’t know whether to thank him for saving me the trouble, or steam forward, regardless of the warning signs I saw in his book.

No matter what the city’s affect has been on me, I don’t think I’m a lost cause just yet, though. My favourite part of his memoir was his story of Caroline, his wife. It gave me comfort to know that there are people out there who still fight for their love.

Anyway, I think I’ve veered a little bit in this review. If you want a great memoir from someone who lived and breathed the glossy magazine world for several years (and anyone who loves the zeitgeist would), you should pick up How to Lose Friends & Alienate People. Plus, it was hilarious.

Hey, I'm Back!

2009-09-02T14:45:00.001-04:00

You would assume, by my lack of updates here, that I haven't been reading. That's untrue. I've been reading like a fiend. So much so, that I had to stop blogging about it.

You see, when I read too much, I tend to just over-do it. I don't read books one after the other when I'm in this frenzy; I read them all at once. And that leads to a lot of abandoning because if one book is less interesting than the other, say, four books I'm reading, I'll stop reading that one since I have so many others on the go.

Added to that is my slight aversion to writing book reviews for books I've not finished. I just can't do it. I don't feel right about critiquing a book I haven't finished because I'm not committed to it long enough to get to the end. It just feels like cheating, you know?

So I stopped writing here. But I kept reading! So I thought I'd mark my return to The Punnery with a brief overview of the books that I have finished and really enjoyed over the summer!

Oh, and...I was also pretty busy this summer. Can't blame a girl for wanting to get a tan, right?

Anyway, here's what I read (and loved) on my summer vacation:

1) Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind

Little known fact: I've always wanted a more refined palette. I suspect years of living in a smokers home has reduced my ability to taste and smell to a fraction of what it could have been. Of course, over time it will improve. I have no doubts about that, but if only I could have the ability to smell like Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, the main character in Suskind's tale of intrigue. Set in eighteenth-century France, Suskind creates a tale of a man whose greatest passion is his own sense of smell. As he learns to create his own perfumes, he is consumed by the desire to create the perfect scent, taken from the still-warm bodies of young virgins.

Such a good tale. I cried out in disbelief at some parts of the book and couldn't stop talking about it as I was reading it. Ask, Kiki. She couldn't get me to shut up about it.

2) A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

This was my first trip into an Ernest Hemingway book. Previously I'd tried reading The Old Man and the Sea, but I was young and I didn't really have the patience. I'm glad I read A Farewell to Arms, though. It's about an American ambulance worker stationed in Italy during the First World War. At the front he meets a beautiful nurse and they fall in love. It's a really simple story, but it's really about the characters in this one. I knew that Hemingway was known for his words, the simplicity of his narrative, but the beauty within it, but I didn't really understand that until I read his book. I was taken in by the love between Leutenant Henry and Catherine Barkley, the beautiful English nurse.

3) The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

I wasn't going to add this at first because it's one of the books that I didn't finish, but I felt I needed to address it. This is the second time I've given up on this book. I even wrote a blog post about it on gloryfades.org. Simply put, this book is my Moby-Dick. I want to catch this bloody white whale SO badly, but it's TOO MUCH for me! The conversational latin, the theological and philosophical discussions, and the reams and reams of descriptive paragraphs...I just can't do it. I got further into it the second time around, but it got to the point where I would groan thinking about picking it up each time. I carried it in my purse like a ball and chain for a week before I left it on the sideboard finally and picked up Too Good To Be True by Kristin Higgins—the exact opposite to this book. I wish I could say that I loved this book. It has SO much potential, but I fear that Umberto Eco is just too smart for me, and for that, I have to concede defeat. No one likes to think they're dumb, especially when they're reading.

Right now I'm reading two books, and I'm on the verge of abandoning one as I'm not really enjoying it. The first (the one high alert) is The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud. I see too much of myself in the navel-gazing New Yorkers, and I'm really looking for an escape in my books right now. The second is How To Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young, a memoir of his five-year tenure at VANITY FAIR, a publication that I absolutely love. It's a real eye-opener about the magazine and I'll say more when I actually finish the book (very close to it!)

Book Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

2009-06-09T10:38:00.004-04:00

I realize that The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins has been reviewed by nearly every single book blogger on Blogspot, but I felt the need to toss my hat into the ring anyway. Better late than never, right?

The reason why it took me so long to read it is because I'm a library patron these days. I can't remember the last time I bought a recent release. It's just not in my budget, unfortunately.

So I had to wait patiently while the sixty-three people in front of me in the hold list read the book.

I'm glad I did.

If you know the premise of the story, skip ahead, intrepid reader. For those not in the know, Katniss Everdeen is a young girl who lives in the Seam in post-apocalyptic North America. The United States has been transformed into Panem, a twelve-district colony that is ruled cruelly by the Capitol. Katniss' district happens to be the twelfth—the poorest, saddest district out of the dozen. She takes care of her mother and sister Prim by hunting and gathering in the forests.

Each year, the Capitol holds the Hunger Games, a battle royale between twenty-four tributes, a male and female from each district. Every child between the ages of 11 and 18 is eligible to be chosen through a lottery system called the reaping. This is Prim's first reaping and she is chosen.

Katniss volunteers in her place to save the child from certain death, even though it might mean her own death.

I love a good dystopic society story. I think it makes me feel better about living in my own society because, hey, at least they don't make children battle each other to the death in an arena while the rest of the nation watches anxiously through television. Plus, these sort of stories are challenges to the author because she essentially has to create a brand new world, without making it sound like it's a Brave New World, if you catch my drift.

Collins successfully constructs a world that I have not read of before. It's different than a lot of the other dystopic novels I've read in that it's a much more natural world. A lot of authors assume that if society is going to get worse, it's because everyone moves into the cities and plugs in, but Collins sets the society back by wiping the slate clean and creating a new colony, one she can virtually play with endlessly.

Given that this is Book 1, I'm eager to find out what happens next. I won't spoil the outcome of the novel for you, but it's definitely worth a read.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Monthly Wrap-Up: May 2009

2009-06-09T10:18:00.003-04:00

Books Read:

1. Jaime Hernandez: Locas: The Maggie & Hopey Stories
2. Andrew Davidson: The Gargoyle
3. Neil Gaiman: Coraline
4. Neil Gaiman: The Sandman Vol 2: The Doll's House
5. Jason Lutes: Jar of Fools
6. Laurie R. King: The Beekeeper's Apprentice

Books Currently Reading:

1. Geert Mak: In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century

Challenge Update
1. To-Be-Read Challenge: 2/12
2. Graphic Novel Challenge: 8/12

Book Review: The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman

2009-05-12T14:13:00.002-04:00

I'm not really sure why, but it's taken me years to finally read a book by Neil Gaiman. Yes, I've heard lots of things about him, and they've all been good things. He sounds like he would be right up my alley: dark, brooding stories about mysterious people in interesting and (sometimes) made-up lands.

Part of the problem is that Neil Gaiman has a huge bibliography and I didn't know anyone who could point me in the right direction. This is the same problem I have with Terry Pratchett. I would love to read Pratchett, but I don't know where to begin. If anyone would like to recommend me a Pratchett book to start reading, I would be thrilled.

Anyway, back to Gaiman. I have finally broken through the bibliography and started where I probably should have years ago: The Sandman, Volume 1: Preludes and Nocturnes.

Preludes and Nocturnes introduces us to the Sandman, the king of the Dreamworld. When we first meet him, he is captured by an ambitious magician, stripped of his clothing, his helmet, his magic sandbag and his red jewel. Naked and powerless, he is imprisoned in the basement of the magician's estate for decades inside a magical sphere. Years go by and the magician dies of old age, feeble and no closer to the Sandman's power than before he had captured the demi-god.

The magician's son, frightened by the Sandman's power, is too afraid to set the king of dreams free after so many years of imprisonment. Finally, when the son is nearing his own death, the Sandman is able to break through his prison and wrecks revenge on the cowardly magician's son.

Meanwhile, the Dreamworld is in a shambles. While the Sandman is imprisoned, chaos reigns through the dreams. Some people simply stop sleeping, while others fall asleep and never wake up again—until the Sandman escapes.

While he finally has his freedom, the Sandman must now find his stolen possessions, no easy feat now that they have been scattered. The Sandman travels through hell to challenge a demon for his helmet, finds his sand in the possession of a former lover of John Constantine, and his red jewel in the hands of a crazed man who has turned it into a weapon powerful enough to bring down society.

To say that this introduction to the Sandman is fast-paced and rivetting is not giving the book justice. I can see why people rave about the series. Gaiman is a masterful storyteller. Part comic book hero, part fairy tale, it's unlike any comic book I've read in awhile.

Rating: 4/5

Book Review: The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King

2009-05-11T15:52:00.002-04:00

I'll be honest, I had a hard time writing this review. Not because the book is bad. On the contrary, I found this book so wonderful, I passed it onto my mother. The reason I'm finding it hard to write a review is because it's so hard to for me to explain it. There's so much that I want to tell you about The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King!

To begin with, it's a mystery. Not just any mystery, though. It's a Sherlock Holmes mystery. On the other hand, it's not a Sherlock Holmes mystery because a) it's not written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and b) it's not about Sherlock Holmes.

The book is about Mary Russell, a brilliant young woman who one day stumbles upon the great detective while out on a stroll across the Sussex Downs. From that moment, her life changes completely.

Already graced with her own keen intellect, she is taken under Holmes's wing the summer before her first semester at Oxford. Under his tutelage, she learns the art of detection and disguise.

Yet there's more. Holmes and Russell are not just tutor and pupil. They're kindred spirits. A brilliant mind is hard to find, if you believe the serendipity in Laurie R. King's book, and their's is a partnership that seems to have been divined by the stars. Russell is hungry for knowledge and Holmes is more than happy to provide her with the foundations of a sound detective's mind, yet he recognizes her as an equal, not just an untouched block of clay.

The story begins with Russell's tutelage under Holmes in his Sussex cottage and quickly shifts to the first mystery of the novel. Holmes and Russell travel to Wales to find the kidnapped daughter of an American senator. Disguised as wandering gypsies, they rescue the girl from an unnamed villain by working together. This sets the stage for the main conflict of the story—someone is after Holmes and his close friends, including Russell.

I can't get over how well-written this book is. King is a master at writing well-crafted dialogue that sounds natural. And the narration provided by Mary Russell herself stirred me to read some passages aloud for the simple pleasure of having the words come out of my mouth. With such weighty characters as Holmes and Dr. Watson to work with, there's a danger in losing the true voice of the character, but King doesn't. Each character, both her own and any that she has borrowed, sounds genuine. Holmes in particular is a masterpiece. Compassionate, witty and brilliant, he is a Holmes that you can believe in.

When it comes down to it, though, I have to say that Russell is by far my favourite character, but I believe we're meant to root for her anyway. She holds her own against Holmes' scathing wit and has her fair share of well-crafted passages.

I'm excited for the next book in the series, and then the next, and then the next. I think Ms. King is a fantastic author and I plan on reading the entire Mary Russell series.

I was inspired to read The Beekeeper's Apprentice because of A Striped Armchair. Not only did A Striped Armchair write a great review on the book, but then the wonderful Laurie R. King came along and wrote a guest-post for her!

Rating: 5/5

What the Hell is Dick Lit?

2009-05-06T11:25:00.004-04:00

In my last review, I mentioned the genre dick lit, but I didn't really give it a definition. Upon googling the phrase, I found that I don't actually have to. It's already been done for me!

Dick lit, lad lit, guy lit…whatever, is typically written by men, about men, who are young, selfish, insensitive and afraid of commitment. Just picture Chuck Bass and you've pretty much got your quintessential dick lit character. If I had to put the blame on anyone, I'd start with Holden Caulfield. Which makes me realize that that I now understand Catcher in the Rye. Because I didn't before. I just thought he was a huge asshole.

While most men don't read chick lit, the same cannot be said for the other way around. Despite the fact that dick lit protagonists are essentially&133;dicks, women love dick lit.

Dustin Rowles explains:

"The penis ejaculates yarns rich with metaphor and, because young men aren't big readers, dick lit also has to appeal to women to be successful. In a way, then, dick lit is written by the music-loving, sensitive men so worshipped in the chick lit genre."

Hands up, who doesn't picture John Cusack when she's reading her dog-eared copy of High Fidelity?

And the Book Ninja has more to add (through the help of The Chronicle, but their own article has been taken down):

Each work is written in the first person, by a destabilized, unreliable narrator; these books are like one long run-on sentence of self-justification and rationalization. "I don't want your wholesome values, your reasonably good judgment," says Jeb Braun, protagonist in Erik Barmack's The Virgin. "My goal isn't to please you. So if you're expecting the whole handshake and nod routine, you can stop reading right now." (Several authors refer to "the book you hold in your hand," as if to distance themselves even further from their own sad story.)

Despite this holier-than-thou attitude, we want to keep reading. It's like you know your boyfriend's an asshole and he never goes down on you, but you still keep him around cause he makes you feel smarter just by being there. Eventually, though, you realize he's a dick and you dump him. But a part of you will always miss that boost of intelligence he gave you by his mere selfish, insensitive presence.

My personal dick lit hero is Tyler Durden. I'd follow that crazy mofo to the ends of the earth. How about you?

Image source: Save Ophelia

Book Review: A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

2009-05-06T10:51:00.003-04:00

I picked up this book from the library because I recognized the title, and an old boyfriend of mine raves about Philip K. Dick, so I thought I would give it a shot.

The plot is convoluted, but I'll do my best to explain it. In the near distant future, the United States is no closer to winning the 'War on Drugs' than it is today. In fact, it's even worse. Large pockets of communities have devolved into drug havens and little can be done to break people from their addictions. A new drug called Substance D is particularly addictive and popular. Those who are hooked eventually come to a point where they either must check into rehab and get clean, or they go crazy. Rehab is an unpleasant option though because it's difficult to kick the addiction and the system is cold, unfriendly and doesn't always work. Essentially it's a last resort before the habit kills the user.

Bob Arctor is an undercover cop who lives deep inside one of these drug pockets in L.A. He's trying to crack the supply chain and has been assigned to spy on the addicts who he has befriended. The only problem is, Arctor is heavily addicted to Substance D himself. Because of his addiction, his brain begins to separate—the left side stops communicating with the right side—and Arctor can no longer recognize himself. This is when he is assigned to spy on himself because his unit believes he is responsible for supplying his friends with large quantities of the drug.

A Scanner Darkly is the best known of Dick's work given that it was released as a film in 2006, starring Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Winona Ryder and directed by Richard Linklater. The film is fantastic, and (from what the old boyfriend says) pretty true to the book. Unfortunately, I couldn't finish the book. I read a good two-thirds of the book before I decided I wasn't interested in reading any more descriptions of car mechanics, or how the brain works.

Dick loves his science, and he fills this book with people who love to talk about science. Given that my brain can neither picture mechanical functions nor does it really care, this was a bit of a snoozefest. The story is interesting though, and if you're willing to read through the parts that might bore you like they did me (who knows, maybe they won't bore you...I'm just not mechanically inclined!) you'll enjoy the book.

I like to call this book Dick Lit, because I think men would be more inclined to read Dick than a woman would. Other writers I would classify as Dick Lit would be Chuck Palahniuk and Chuck Klosterman.

I would say rent the movie and watch Robert Downey Jr. play one of the most interesting characters I've ever seen on screen. Hell, they all do a fantastic job in the movie, even Keanu Reeves. I'd say skip the book entirely and watch the movie if you're really interested, but I'm glad I gave Dick a shot. It was worth it, even if I didn't finish the book.

Rating: 2.5/5 (Unfinished)

Monthly Wrap-Up: April 2009

2009-05-05T10:12:00.004-04:00

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone. :)

Books Read:

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman

The Reader by Bernard Schlink

Berlin Book Two: City of Smoke by Jason Lutes

The Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw

Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware

Red Colored Elegy by Seiichi Hayashi

Aya of Yop City by Abouet and Oubreri

Books Currently Reading:

The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King

Yoga For People Who Can't Be Botherd by Geoff Dyer

Locas: The Maggie and Hopey Stories by Jaime Hernandez

Challenge Updates:

To-Be-Read Challenge: 2/12

Graphic Novel Challenge: 6/12

Hmm, I think I need to start writing more reviews, wouldn't you say? Especially the ones that were included in the challenges! And I really need to get on that TBR Challenge. 2/12? That's pitiful!

Booking Through Thursdays: So What?

2009-04-23T10:26:00.002-04:00

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

Is symbolism an older literary device, like excessive description, that is not used much any more? Do you think there was as much symbolism as English teachers seemed to think? What are some examples of symbolism from your reading?

Ah, symbolism, the bane of my English class existence. When I was in high school, a favourite English teacher of mine used to drive us crazy by asking the same question after each passage we'd read: "So what?"

Meaning, so what does this mean? What do you get from this part of the story? What else can you see in here?

Like I said, it would drive some of us crazy. Especially if the answers were never very clear.

While I was never one of those people who couldn't 'get' symbolism, I wasn't the quickest on the uptake. So I normally wouldn't pick up on it until after my teacher would explain it. However, over the years I've gotten a little better at it through self-study. I read The Odyssey as an adult and found the symbolism much easier to pick up than I would have as a child. I guess that really only comes through experience, though. If you read enough books, you start reading in between the lines yourself.

I still hate those individuals who seem to find symbolism in every book and don't hesitate to point it out. That's probably why I've never joined a proper book club. Eventually I'd want to throw the book at someone if I had to deal with that nonstop.

The last book I finished was The Reader by Bernard Schlink and I'm trying to think of what symbolism I can garner from that story.

Nope, nothing comes to mind.

Okay, so maybe I haven't gotten any better at identifying literary symbols over the years. Or perhaps the question posed is right—books these days are less likely to carry symbols, but somehow I doubt that. There are plenty of books written each year that you can read further into if you stop and look past the main plot.

Book Review: My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler

2009-04-22T11:15:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to review Chelsea Handler's My Horizontal Life for awhile, but I've been dragging my feet here at the ol' Punnery. My apologies. I'll strive to get back on track. The list of books that I need to review is starting to get long and unwieldy and I'm afraid I might just give up on some of them soon enough. But anyway! Onto the book review:

My Horizontal Life is a collection of memories from Chelsea Handler's life growing up as a young, hot sex-kitten and the sort of antics that I could only dream of experiencing, given that I was never a hot sex kitten, not even in my wildest dreams. So to say that My Horizontal Life is my way of living vicariously through the glory days of some blonde skinny chick is a pretty good sum up.

The best part about the book is that it's actually good. Handler's funny as hell in a way that only fearless women can be. Her good looks have allowed her to get away with essentially murder, and she knows it, and she rolls with it. She recounts some of her most embarrassing morning-afters (the ones that we've all had but are hesitant to admit to). Midgets, male strippers, black guys, rich guys, weirdos, Chels has done 'em all.

Plus, she's funny. You can't hate a girl who willingly admits she has a drinking problem and it's led to some incredibly awkward situations in bed. All you can do is laugh and thank God it wasn't you. Unfortunately, I don't think her brand of humour really translates well to TV (thus, I've never been able to get through an entire episode of the Chelsea Handler Show), but I'll keep reading her books if she's willing to keep embarrassing herself further.

Rating: 3/5 stars

Booking Through Thursdays: I'm Rich! Let's Go to the Bookstore

2009-04-16T13:50:00.002-04:00

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

Yesterday, April 15th, was Tax Day here in the U.S., which means lots of lucky people will get refunds of over-paid taxes. Whether you’re one of them or not, what would you spend an unexpected windfall on? Say … $50? How about $500? (And, this is a reading meme, so by rights the answer should be book-related, but hey, feel free to go wild and splurge on anything you like.)

It certainly depends on the windfall! As much as I love books, I don't know if I can lay down $500 on new books. Perhaps if I were able to find a complete set of Winston Churchill's memoirs (I have The Hinge of Fate...someday the rest will be mine!) in good condition, it'd be worth it to spend that windfall on books. Otherwise, I'd probably splurge on something else. A vacation is more likely.

How about you? Would you spend your tax refund on books? Or would you reserve it for something else?

Book Review: Aya of Yop City by Abouet & Oubreri

2009-04-14T13:44:00.005-04:00

Aya of Yop City, written by Marguerite Abouet and drawn by Clement Oubrerie, is the sequel to Abouet and Oubrerie's 2007 graphic novel, Aya. It's about a teenage girl named Aya and her group of family and friends set in the 1970s, in the Ivory Coast. It paints a very different picture of life in Africa than we normally get.

Aya's friend Adjoua has just had a baby and she needs help to rear the child. The father—nicknamed the 'Skirtchaser'—is missing and she's set to be married to the lazy son of a wealthy brewery owner. When they discover who the real father is, the wedding is called off and life starts to resume a normal pace. Aya's busy helping Adjoua with the baby while their friend Bintou falls for a rich-looking Parisian.

Life is delightfully normal in Abouet and Oubrerie's Aya of Yop City. The drama in their lives is not unlike the drama we find in our own, and it's a refreshing take on African culture. I would recommend it anyone whose looking for a quick and light read.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Booking Through Thursdays: Oh, I'm a Book Slut

2009-04-09T09:23:00.004-04:00

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

Some people read one book at a time. Some people have a number of them on the go at any given time, perhaps a reading in bed book, a breakfast table book, a bathroom book, and so on, which leads me to…

1. Are you currently reading more than one book?
2. If so, how many books are you currently reading?
3. Is this normal for you?
4. Where do you keep your current reads?

If I could ever proclaim that I’m a slut, it would be because of books. And, for the record, I can’t actually call myself a proper slut as I’m a bit of a prude, even with the women’s fiction job. But! Books, well…they are my Achilles’ heel. Give me a stack of books and a hunk of man-meat and I’ll ask to read the back cover copy first before I make my decision.

That being said, yes. I read way more than one book at a time. I’ll read anything at any time. Currently, if you’ll look down to my Shelfari widget, you’ll see that I have five books on the go that I’ll admit to. That doesn’t account for the book in my parent’s bathroom (Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It by Geoff Dyer), or the book by my bed that I haven’t touched in about four months cause it’s really boring, the countless books in my office, or the others strewn around my apartment in various states of completion (I’m looking at you Absurdistan).

I’m perfectly happy to flit from book to book. Sometimes I’m not in the mood for that dark, wordy nine hundred page tome about the Middle Ages. Sometimes I need something light and airy. Right now I’m on a graphic novel kick. I’ve finally acquired several of the books from my Graphic Novel Challenge list and I’m busy getting through those. And where do I keep them all? Everywhere. A Scanner Darkly is hiding in my purse. I found a book in bed with me this morning, I rolled over and came face to face with the cheeky monkey gracing its cover like it was the morning-after and it’s time for that awkward conversation.

Thankfully, books don’t talk back (well, they can if you get the audio, but you know what I mean). And that’s why I’m more of a book slut than anything else.

Book Review: Red Colored Elegy by Seiichi Hayashi

2009-04-08T18:47:00.004-04:00

The more books I read by Japanese authors, the more I think that I do not possess the level of self-awareness and intellect needed to read Japanese authors.

Introspective, moody and steered primarily through the body language of the characters, Red Colored Elegy is a poetic graphic novel about a couple, Ichiro and Sachiko. Written by Seiichi Hayashi in the seventies, it feels very much like I'm 'reading' a Japanese arthouse film.

It's about love, heartbreak, death, and the mishmash of feelings that every young person struggling with making a living for the first time has to go through. That's pretty much the best way I can sum up this book. Ichiro and Sachiko are a young couple, living in Japan in the seventies, trying to make it as a comic artist and an animator respectively. While it's set in a politically turbulent time in Japan's history, Ichiro and Sachiko skirt around the politics, as they are focused on their own personal struggles.

It's a pretty graphic novel, and it didn't take me long to read at all. Perhaps if I had reflected more on the meaning behind the art it would have taken me longer. I'm really shitty at doing that though, especially if the art is a little more obtuse than I'm used to. It's the same thing that makes me think poetry is boring. Admitting that is probably the most embarrassing thing I can do on a blog, but I make no claims that I'm a genius critic. I likes what I likes.

That being said, I didn't hate Red Colored Elegy. Like I said before, I'm probably just not the sort of person this book is meant to be for.

Rating: Three Stars

Booking Through Thursdays: National Library Week

2009-04-02T10:54:00.003-04:00

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

“I saw that National Library week is coming up in April, and that led to some questions. How often do you use your public library and how do you use it? Has the coffeehouse/bookstore replaced the library? Did you go to the library as a child? Do you have any particular memories of the library? Do you like sleek, modern, active libraries or the older, darker, quiet, cozy libraries?”

Oh, the public library. I have had a tumultuous relationship with my various public libraries as I’ve grown up. I suppose I should start from the beginning. But don’t worry—I won’t go through the entire sordid history.

My earliest memory of the library was of my first library card. A true rite of passage, we were assigned our first library cards in the first grade. I was lucky enough to go to school within walking distance of the nicest, prettiest library you could find in an East Toronto suburb. To this day, I still frequent the same library. Of course, none of the librarians recognize me since I was knee-high to a grasshopper when I first patronized the branch, and it’s been at least ten if not fifteen years since then.

Still, it fills me with joy to go back to the same library where I fell in love with the written word. While things may have changed a little since those first tentative years, I can still find anything I need in that branch. And if it’s not there, I can certainly put it on hold. At first I devoured old copies of Asterix comics, Baby-Sitters Club adventures, and Goosebumps, but eventually I branched off—I found the non-fiction section, romance novels, mysteries, magazines. I would spend whole summers in that tiny branch.

And I've certainly given my library card a work out; if I’m in a reading mode, it’s hard for me to curb how many books I take out. Over the years I’ve learned to be prudent though. The first and only time I ever found myself faced with a $90 library fine (because I refused to return the books…oops!), I knew I couldn’t let that happen again. I’m happy to report that it’s never happened since. *knocks on wood*

When I first moved back to Toronto, I couldn't afford cable. The library kept me from going insane with it's DVD collection and it introduced me to such memorable characters as Ginger Rogers, Clark Gable, and Audrey Hepburn. Everyone should watch old movies. They are amazing.

Now I’m happily in between two really great libraries: Main Street and Beaches. I couldn’t live without my local public library because it’s like a bottomless bag of crack—without it I would be strung-out and broke from all the books I’d buy (and I still buy a lot of books.)

Image Source: Chuck Kahn

Book Review: The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

2009-03-29T21:19:00.006-04:00

I had to check to make sure The Plot Against America was fiction. Perhaps that makes me gullible. I think that makes it a really good novel.

There's a reason Philip Roth has won the Pulitzer. He’s a great story-teller, and everyone should read his books.

New York Times’ Paul Berman does a much better job extolling the wonder of this book, so I’ll leave the rest of the praise for him. What I can say is that this novel is terrific, but it’s a real struggle for me to finish it.

It's long-winded, sort of like your grandpa (my dziadek) is telling me a story about his life, except it’s much better because it’s a story—and you can't tell. You get lost in the words and, before you know it, night has come and you’re still reading.

Set at the beginning of the Second Great World War, it's the story about a Jewish family from a tiny suburb of Newark, New Jersey. There are a vast number of characters, and they do not all stay in the story. They come and go as transiently as the members of your own circle of family and friends. Yet the story is told in a singular voice, that of the youngest son.

Through his eyes, I watched Charles Lindbergh, the first pilot to complete a solo flight from New York City to Paris, France, become a politician. And as quickly as that, he becomes the president of the United States. But Lindy has an agenda—he is in league with Nazi Germany and it terrifies the Newark Jews.

Slowly, but surely, we watch the United States descend into a chaos that chills the bone, even though you know it’s not real. Roth uses his words to make you think it’s real; not just a story, he teaches you about the time period.

For instance, The Plot Against America introduced me to the historical meaning of a party line—having to be on a phone line with several people on it at the same time because you can't afford to have your own private line.

This book is chilling because it makes you wonder if it really happened (or could have happened). Berman says it best, “The novel is sinister, vivid, dreamlike, preposterous, and, at the same time, creepily plausible.”

This is one I’m recommending to everyone.

Booking Through Thursdays: Worst Best Book

2009-03-19T11:12:00.002-04:00

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

What’s the worst ‘best’ book you’ve ever read — the one everyone says is so great, but you can’t figure out why?

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous. I read this when I was about twenty I think, so maybe I didn’t like it because I could no longer relate to Alice. Or maybe I just didn’t like the way she was portrayed? I don’t know. My friend TJ absolutely loves this book. In fact, I read her copy of it.

Normally I like things that have a tinge of mystery around them. I’m fascinated by celebrity deaths, mysterious disappearances, etc. But even that didn’t help this book. The story was just flimsy. She starts off as a pot-smoker and turns into a full-on drug addict? I think it’s just a scary story meant to keep kids on the straight and narrow. Which is fine, but it’s not a very good story.

Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. I know…this is supposed to be The Book. Countless people consider this as their book. But I just didn’t understand it. I couldn’t relate to this upper middle-class snotty kid who has no interest in doing anything and holds everything in disdain. The kid needs a good smack.

I guess it doesn’t help that I didn’t read this as part of my high school English curriculum. I read it by myself because I was told by everyone—including TJ—that this was The Book. I guess I needed that extra education to really appreciate the book. Reading it alone just made me mad at Holden!

George W. Bush Writing His Memoirs

2009-03-19T11:01:00.005-04:00

He didn’t want to come to Canada first when he was in office, but yesterday George W. Bush gave his first speech post-retirement in Calgary, Alberta. Figures he chooses the oil sands first.

Anyhoodle, don’t mind my political grumblings. I reserve those for the other blog.

As is expected, Bush is in the midst of writing his memoirs. Unlike previous presidents, though, he plans to focus on twelve key decisions in his life. Topics he plans on discussing include the juicy ones: 9/11, Katrina, Afghanistan and Iraq.

As much as I hate to admit it, I want to read this book. I’m not expecting much, though.

The book is set to be published in 2010 under Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House.

Link via Book Ninja

Yann Martel Sends Stephen Harper a Book Every Two Weeks

2009-03-16T00:27:00.000-04:00

I think (mostly) everyone has read Yann Martel’s Life of Pi by now. I read it several years ago, in my first class of university. I was enchanted by Martel’s fable of an Indian boy’s journey across the ocean in a lifeboat with a tiger.

Because I closely associate the book with my first magical year in university (when everyone was fresh and all the doors had something behind them!), my eyes brighten whenever I hear mention of Mr. Martel.

Last week I was delighted to find a new project Mr. Martel is working on called What is Stephen Harper Reading?

For non-Canadians, Stephen Harper is our prime minister. Our commander-in-charge, if you will, although he looks more like a sleepy accountant than the head of our state. No matter, though.

Mr. Martel vows “to send [Mr. Harper] every two weeks, mailed on a Monday, a book that has been known to expand stillness.” The author reasons that, while the PM is no doubt insanely busy (if he wasn’t, I think we would seriously question his ability AS a leader), he must have moments of stillness. Mr. Martel hopes that these books will be the very things to fill the stillness with. He is committed to showing Mr. Harper that the arts are worth taking time for.

His dedication is amazing. He has already sent 50 books and they aren’t limited to just Canada either—Ernest Hemingway, Michael Ignatieff, Paul McCartney, Jorges Luis Borges…these are just a few of the authors Mr. Martel has mailed to Mr. Harper.

I wonder if it’s worth it. The author boasts exactly one response from Mr. Harper’s office, sent after the first book (by Leo Tolstoy) was received. I really want to believe Mr. Harper does “expand his stillness” with these wonderful presents from Mr. Martel, but a part of me is unconvinced. After all, I hear the PM’s a busy guy.

Photo Source: Wikipedia

Book Review: Mister Wonderful by Daniel Clowes

2009-03-16T00:24:00.001-04:00

Ah ha, success! I have FINALLY read a graphic novel from my list! No need for applause, gentle reader. I’m merely performing the bare minimum required of me. Given that I took up the lofty mantle of Major level participation (twelve books), I’m not doing a very good job in this challenge.

I blame society.

Anyway! The first graphic novel to get crossed off is Mister Wonderful by Daniel Clowes. I’ve read a lot of his work and when I found this FREE online graphic novel, I was happy to add it to the list. Not only is it a quick read, but it’s awesome, just like all of Clowes’ print books.

Clowes’ writes and draws the mundane in a delightfully weird fashion. From the snobby outsider Enid Coleslaw in Ghost World to the thoughtful pick-up artist David Boring, Clowes’ characters are unique in that they don’t strive to be anything more than regular people.

In Mister Wonderful we meet Marshall, a middle-aged divorced guy waiting for his blind date in a café. The graphic novel runs twenty chapters long and spans the course of his date with Natalie and the morning after.

See? Clowes writes the mundane, but manages to make it interesting! The dialogue is snappy and modern and the pictures are typical Clowes—colourful crosshatched image of regular people. The difference is that onscreen they are vibrant. The colours really pop. While I’m not a fan of reading regular books on the computer, Mister Wonderful is easy on the eyes.

Clowes is also a master at making the image fit with the words. For instance, when Natalie discloses to Marshall that her last relationship fell apart after she told her boyfriend she wanted a baby. Her boyfriend’s reaction was a derisive laugh. Clowes draws this laugh, filling Natalie’s apartment with the big block letters HAHA. The laughter haunts her.

Great graphic novel by a stellar writer and artist. I highly recommend Mister Wonderful. It doesn’t take long to read, and it’s a great introduction to Clowes’ work if you’ve never read anything else by him. One thing to note if you plan on reading this, the New York Times posted the conclusion first for some odd reason. Skip the first link and go straight to chapter one. Unfortunately, I read the conclusion first so I had a sense of where the story was going.

Rating: Four stars

Blogging Schedule

2009-03-13T10:54:00.001-04:00

Wow, maintaining a daily blog is hard stuff. I’m not giving up yet, though. I love to read and I love to blog, so I don’t see how these two can’t happen together.

Starting next Monday I’m going to blog based on a schedule. I think this will help tamp down the terror I feel each time I think about the Punnery. Terror felt largely because I can’t think of what to post. Sure, I have lots of content, it just needs to be organized.

So here is my upcoming schedule. This is subject to change at a whim, but don’t worry. You’ll know when I change things up.

Monday

Author spotlights—news, reviews, possible interviews (fingers crossed!) and everything else about authors, both old and new.

Tuesday

Book reviews—I started this blog as a book review and damnit if it’s not going to continue being a book review blog!

Wednesday

Publishing news—anything related to the book industry: social media, publishing houses, industry speculation, etcetera, etcetera.

Thursday

Booking Through Thursdays—while I’m not a fan of memes, BTT consistently puts out great questions about your personal reading habits and I love answering them.

Friday

Blog carinval—links to notable book reviews that I’ve read in the past week.

It’s pretty bare bones, but this is the ideal amount of content I would like to publish on this blog. I don’t want to get too ambitious for fear of burning myself out or simply overwhelming myself with work. However, I still want to put forth some effort into this because I enjoy it and I think it will improve with time. Hopefully you’ll come along for the journey!

Book Review: Silent on the Moor by Deanna Raybourn

2009-03-01T17:27:00.005-05:00

Dear Internet,

How do I convey my utmost respect for the beguiling Lady Julia Grey series ? My words simply spill out exhorbitantly when I attempt this endeavour, and the verbiage is enfused with such hyperbole that you'll think I've gone off on a bender or something.

And that is my attempt at trying to write like Deanna Raybourn. It simply can't be done.

Darling, darling, darling Deanna Raybourn. Thank you for saving my faith in romance novels. Twilight didn't do it. Neither did The Time-Traveller's Wife, The Notebook, nor anything by Debbie Macomber (Sorry Debs).

With that first electric kiss in the shadows of a gypsy camp, you made my heart sing. I was so taken, I had to text a friend.

The last time I was so moved by a book, I was sitting on my mother's couch, weeping over a bespeckled Catholic school boy.

Just go out and find Silent on the Moor. It's on-sale March 1 and it makes me smile so. (But don't forget to read the first two!)

Love,

Get Thee to a Punnery!

Booking Through Thursdays

2009-02-26T09:42:00.002-05:00

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

Collectibles:
• Hardcover? Or paperback?
• Illustrations? Or just text?
• First editions? Or you don’t care?
• Signed by the author? Or not?

I’ll pretty much collect any and all books that fascinate me. I don’t really have the money to collect valuable books right now, but that doesn’t stop me from collecting. I have a pile of moldering old books I got from an estate sale. Seriously. They are actually moldering. The spines are crumbling, the pages are transluscent and I’m fairly sure the covers have been nibbled by mice. And they’re probably not worth much, but they make me happy so I keep them.

And I always keep my author-signed books. Most of them are specifically addressed to me, so they're not valuable to any one else other than...you know, the army of other Olgas!

Image source: heidiologies

Links of Interest

2009-02-24T09:56:00.006-05:00

Tired of reading my stuff? Why not try these links?

- That Shakespearean Rag is celebrating Freedom to Read week by publishing a book each day that has been censored.
- Even comic books are starting to feel the economic pinch.
- Laurie King, author of The Beekeeper's Apprentice posted a guest blog at A Striped Armchair and it convinced me to read her book!
- Speaking of authors, my favourite author blog, Chickens in the Road, travels back in time to 1960s Virginia.

What do you think? Do you like this post? Are you interested in the links that I've posted? Feedback is appreciated!

B(u)y the Cover

2009-02-20T09:17:00.006-05:00

They say you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but it's hard not to. Especially when there are a thousand books all vying for your attention with their shiny surfaces, embossed lettering, and misguided portraits.

These are delightful cover remixes of the Harry Potter series by M. S. Corley. Retro and funky, you can almost smell the musty scent of these books as you discover them on a shelf in a secondhand store.

He's also remixed the entire Lemony Snicket series and the Spiderwick Chronicles.

Booking Through Thursdays

2009-02-19T15:24:00.003-05:00

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

How do you arrange your books on your shelves? Is it by author, by genre, or you just put it where it falls on?

Ooh this is a great question! I used to have a pretty mundane order to my bookshelf; paperbacks on top, trade in the middle, and hardcovers on the bottom.

One day I was looking at the shelf and thought, "God, this looks boring." So I came up with the idea of colourcoding my shelves.

I'll give you a minute to laugh at my intense nerdiness.

It took about an hour or so, with the help of A, my best friend, but we did it. We colourcoded my bookshelves! They run from white to black and span two bookshelves. I think it looks great, except it's a bit more haphazard, and it's difficult to put books back onto the shelf. Plus, I broke apart series, like A Series of Unfortunate Events, to fit the colour-scheme, which I wasn't terribly happy to do, but felt it would look best entirely colourcoded. The final drawback is that it's difficult to put new books onto the shelves because they're pretty much packed to the gills. Fitting even a single book would mean snaking the entire collection down some shelves, and that's a lot of work in a small space.

So, was it a worthy endeavour to colourcode my books? Dunno. I'm still undecided as to whether I want to keep it; it certainly looks nice, but it might be best to just revert back to the original organization.

Book Review: The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq by John Crawford

2009-02-11T11:28:00.004-05:00

I broke my recent reading stalemate with The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq by John Crawford (Riverhead Hardcover, 2005).

The name attracted me to it when I was in the library looking for Young Stalin. While I couldn't find the Stalin biography, I decided to take a chance with Crawford's tale. The title seemed interesting, and I liked the movie Jarhead, so I figured this was a good bet.

I promptly fell into my reading hiatus and forgot about it until last week. When I finally picked it up, I read it in one sitting.

The title says it all, frankly. This is a tale of an accidental soldier—a man who took advantage of the National Guard's free school tuition for the price of a weekend a month. He's deployed to Iraq where he spends three years as an infantryman patrolling the streets of occupied Baghdad and collecting his stories.

Crawford's writing is simple and straightforward, the prose of a man who isn't interested in crafting a beautiful tale. Yet, there are lines of real beauty in the book as well. The story is propelled by his words and how well they fit together.

Despite the title, I feel no pity for Crawford's situation. Yes, most soldiers sign up so they can go to school, but they make the decision to take the risk and Crawford is no different. His story happens to be well-crafted, though, and worth telling. No one can really explain to you what it's like to go to war, but you can get a small sense of it when you read accounts like Crawford's.

There are moments when you can almost feel the regret in his mind, especially in the final moments of the book as he recounts his final days in Iraq. After three years of patrolling a war-torn country as an American conqueror, he is suspicious of everyone, right down to the children. He makes no attempt to hide the fact that the Iraqi people considered the occupying forces as conquerors, not saviors. So you can understand his motivation when he spots a child holding a gun. It still chills you to the bone, though. You don't know whether or not he shoots the child in the end, but he does tell the reader that the gun was merely a shell with no chance of being a threat.

It's a sad story, but there are funny parts, despite the grim subject. If you liked Jarhead, you'll like The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell.

Rating: Four Stars

Wordle Circling the Blogosphere

2009-02-09T21:42:00.005-05:00

If you haven't seen this yet, this is a Wordle.

Anyone can make one, as long as you've got some text and capability to copy and paste. If your blog has an Atom or RSS feed, you can even create one out of your own words! I was mildly amused the first time I saw it, and now that I've tried it out I declare that I am tickled pink. There's something fun and delightful in seeing the words you have written in a mass jumble of different colours and sizes.

Give it a shot, or take a look at the inauguration speech wordles people created. They look like thumbprints!

Bad Sex Award Proves Literary Heavy Weights Can't Handle Sexytimes

2009-02-06T22:30:00.005-05:00

Paulo Coehlo, John Updike, and Simon Montefiore all have something in common—they should leave the love scenes for the professionals. All three have been shortlisted for the Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award.

As a woman who has read a lot of sexy books and written some exceptionally distasteful sex scenes in her time (read on for an explanation), I am not surprised that these illustrious literary heavey-weights have been brought down a notch. It's not easy writing sex. There's a fine balance between just enough exposition and the purple prose that keeps the reader wanting more.

Plus, is sex really something a novel needs anyway? Obviously if the literature has been published, and it hasn't been cut in the rigorous editorial process, one can assume that some one made the executive decision to keep it. Sex sells, right? So maybe if we keep Coehlo's love scene (set upon a park footpath), we'll sell a few more copies. What say you, Coehlo?

"At last, she could no longer control the world around her," Coelho continues, "her five senses seemed to break free and she wasn't strong enough to hold on to them. As if struck by a sacred bolt of lightning, she unleashed them, and the world, the seagulls, the taste of salt, the hard earth, the smell of the sea, the clouds, all disappeared, and in their place appeared a vast gold light, which grew and grew until it touched the most distant star in the galaxy."

If I had read this in context, I still would have snorted out laughing. Then rolled my eyes, because never have I emitted "a vast gold light." But then, I'm probably too artless for the type of sex Mr. Coehlo composes. For the longest time, my literary sex life was rooted in fanfiction written by and for teenagers like me, a world full of dominant males and eager to please sexual novices. Heck, I even wrote some of that garbage myself. And no, you cannot see it.

And nowadays I've got a pile of Harlequins a meter high, waiting to be devoured in between Don Quixote and On the Road.

I'm not saying that sex should stay in genre fiction. Heaven knows there are great examples of good sex in literary novels (The Time Traveller's Wife, anyone?) But it's awfully difficult to write a good love scene.

Image source: Stewf

Book Review: American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

2009-02-06T09:53:00.001-05:00

Forgive me if this review is short; I made the mistake of reading this and then avoiding the review like it was made of plague until today. Part of the reason is because I’m lazy. Another part is because I sort of lost my drive and zeal for reading and have been overdosing on Dog, the Bounty Hunter.

But I’m back, baby!

So what can I tell you about American Born Chinese? Yang’s graphic novel is actually three stories in one. The first is a mythical folk tale about The Monkey King, who, despite being a powerful god, is laughed at by the other gods. The second tale is of Jin Wang, a Chinese-American boy who endures the pressures of being a minority in his new school. And finally, the third story follows the life of a white boy named Danny and his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee, who visits every year to wreck havoc on Danny’s life. Chin-Kee is the ultimate in Chinese stereotype—his dialogue is written phonetically, his clothing is stereotypically Chinese (right down to the conical hat); Yang is almost vicious in his depiction of Chin-Kee—the words of all Chinese stereotypes embody the character.

These three stories appear to run parrallel together, but at the end the characters begin to appear in each other’s stories.

I don’t know much about Chinese-American culture, but I can understand the pressures of wanting to be someone you are not. I think everyone has at some point in their life longed for something different, but it’s not possible to change who you are fundamentally.

Deep down, the story of American Born Chinese is that you should accept your heritage, and love your family and friends, no matter what their culture is. It may take a demi-god Monkey disguised as a Chinese stereotype to knock that into you, but ultimately you can’t run away from who you are.

It’s an old lesson, but it’s told in a unique way with lovely cartoon graphics, and a fun set of stories. I felt like I learned a bit more about what it’s like to be Chinese in America.

A good graphic novel, and I would even recommend it for children. The lesson is easy to grasp and the story moves quickly enough that you can share it with your kids.

Rating: Four stars

Book Review: I'm Not the New Me by Wendy McClure

2009-01-31T11:24:00.002-05:00

I'm Not the New Me was recommended to me several years ago by a friend. It was on my original To Be Read challenge book list, therefore I consider this a win for that first challenge. Sure, I didn't read it two years ago, at the time of the challenge, but it's now off my pile, so there's something to be said about that, right?

She recommended this to me as a memoir of a fat girl. She failed to mention that Wendy McClure is a fat girl with a blog. I've never actually read a memoir by a fat girl with a blog. Being one myself, it was a little jarring at first. Kind of like looking into the window of a shop and seeing your outfit on a mannequin.

What did I see? A lot of self-loathing and introspection. Did I see myself in her, though? No, not really.

The thing about being a fat girl is that I tend to base my opinions of myself in relation to how different I am to someone else. Okay, my arms are thinner than hers, I don't have a double chin like she does, oh god she's got nicer legs than me, etc. etc.

The thing is, I don't think I overly obssess about my fatness. Essentially, Wendy and I are the same person. We both work in publishing, we're both big girls, and we both write blogs. That's where the similarities stop, though. This is where I begin formulating an opinion about myself through her. Her weight is a major issue in her life. It haunts her from her earliest childhood memories and carries through into her adult life like a scale attached to her ankle.

I found myself disliking Wendy in parts of the book. Part of it is because she's so consumed by her own low self-esteem, but mostly it's because she has this successful online presence, yet she seems taken aback and suspicious of the other women who reach out to her through her website.

I realize this book is written in 2005, and a lot has changed in the mean time. The nature of the weblog itself has changed drastically and I'm sure Wendy's opinion of the community that grew around her is not nearly as negative as it once was.

But I still can't help but feel like she's really just a bit of a whiner.

Rating: Two Stars

The Rise of Digital BooksShould the Printed Book be Worried?

2009-01-29T10:03:00.004-05:00

The topic at Booking Through Thursdays is one that I have already covered briefly in a previous post, but I think it bares rehashing. Ebooks are here to stay. Digital media is here to stay. I think that is something that we all have to get used to. Some people are already embracing the technology full tilt, while others are…dubious to say the least.

I think I fall somewhere in the middle of this spectrum. I’m curious about ebooks, although I haven’t actually read an entire one. I don’t own an ebook reader because I believe I have to make a conscious decision to go digital, and that time hasn’t come yet. I work in digital and internet in publishing, though. I’m part of the publishing world that is trying to convince readers that digital production is where books are headed to.

And the funny thing is, I can see it working.

When I first started my job, I was dubious to say the least about digital books. The only time I’ve ever read a digital book is on my computer, and I nearly went blind from the experience. It’s hard reading from a computer screen.

But when you shrink that computer screen down to the size of, say, a paperback novel, the argument starts to take a different shape.

And then there’s the iPhone. That shiny beacon of forward thinking is the advanced guard, the first in a long line of a new generation of personal computers that have the potential and the capability of convincing the world that you can read a book digitally. BlackBerry has already come out with a competitor called the BlackBerry Storm, and I dare say by the end of 2009 most major cellphone manufacturers will have a similar model. This is where we are headed, and it’s full steam ahead.

The iPhone is the greatest enemy to the printed book.

But that isn't to say that the print book is about to go extinct. I think there will always be a following of the printed word, but—as with everything else threatened by a newer, shinier version of itself—that following will gradually shrink over time. It may take generations, but it might happen.

Think about it—technology is guided by convenience. So, in twenty years time, when everyone is hooked into their personal mobile computers (because, essentially, that is what an iPhone is, is it not?), what will the reader be carrying? An iPhone AND a book, or just an iPhone with fifty books loaded into it, perfect for every mood, along with the capability to download another fifty in ten minutes, should her mood change?

I'm conflicted. I want to believe that the printed word is not dying, but it's hard to see the evidence to the contrary. I feel like I'm just clinging to my library at a moment when I should be embracing the changes.

So what will happen to the book? I predict the printed word will have a renaissance—the book will become a collectible once again. Books will be made with care, with proper material that can stand the test of time. Because if people aren’t buying throwaway paperbacks anymore, you need to change the look of them. Convince people that your books are worth the paper they are printed on again. Remind us why we covet the smooth, bleached pages, and the alluring scent of the ink.

Digital books are here to stay, but they won’t kill the printed book entirely.

I'm All Read Out

2009-01-27T20:14:00.003-05:00

I fear I am in a literary slump. Currently I have several books on the go: Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore, I'm Not the New Me by Wendy McClure, The Tales of Beedle the Bard by oh, you know, and Don Quixote.

Two nights ago, tired of all of these books, I picked up Gina Showalter's The Darkest Night, the first in a trilogy of ancient Greek warriors cursed with the personified demons of Death, Violence, Pain, Lust, and I can't remember the last one, but I'm sure it's a doozy.

Yeah, I know.

Sometimes you just need fluff, though. I have been pushing myself so hard to read so many diverse things, that I just snapped. I haven't touched a library book in days, and I haven't so much as sniffed at the challenge list that I created for myself in December, apart from the half-hearted attempt at Montefiore's tome.

I don't know what it is, but I'm kinda read out.

Do you ever get that way? Do you ever push yourself so hard to read so much that you need to step back for a minute and rest your eyes? I do. Perhaps that's why I read so many books at once; I need to have a variety of books in order to match the mood I am in.

I don't apologize for liking fluff. And no one should have to. Genre fiction, trashy books, whatever you call it—sometimes they are the best remedy you can ask for.

I expect I'll get my mojo back soon enough. It's not like I've stopped reading entirely. The Darkest Night is half through already and The Darkest Kiss is waiting on my shelf, next in line!

Photo source: tabrandt

E-Books are Catching On, New Digital Books Site from Chapters Indigo

2009-01-22T11:55:00.004-05:00

Chapters Indigo (my former boss, loved you guys!) has just announced they will be launching a new e-books service called Shortcovers. They're betting on readers who are gradually turning away from the conventional book (clunky, undignified, hard to hold?) and towards their laptops and cellphones (shiny! digital! sexy!)

The site will offer free and paid digital content, much like (my current boss, love you guys even more!) Harlequin already offers, along with a host of other web 2.0 features—news articles, blogs, social networking, etc.

I'll be honest, I have not read a digital book ever. Well, does fanfiction count? I suppose that counts. Okay, scratch that; I have read a digital book, but not your traditional digital book. I'm intrigued by the idea, especially the mobile aspect. If I had the money I would probably already have a Sony Reader (Kindle, sadly, is not available in Canada as of yet.) Since I'm a poor bugger who needs to pay off her student loans though, I've got to stick to the traditional paper-and-ink. But the idea of storing several books in a tiny device that can fit in my purse for whenever and wherever is an enchanting one.

How about you? Are you already or are you thinking of taking the plunge into digital?

Image by libraryman.

Books I Want to Read: Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell

2009-01-22T11:20:00.004-05:00

Josh Bazell's Beat the Reaper was recently reviewed by USA TODAY. And I'm left intrigued.

If you don't like extreme gun violence, blow-by-blow descriptions of surgical procedures performed by doped-up, angry doctors, the lack of care administered by bitter nurses, misdiagnoses and a huge dose of vulgarity, this novel is not for you.
~ Carol Memmott, USA TODAY

I'm not normally one for gore, but I can take written gore much easier than visual gore.

Booking Through Thursdays

2009-01-22T09:08:00.003-05:00

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

Since “Inspiration” is (or should) [be] the theme this week … what is your reading inspired by?
Good question! My reading is mostly inspired by a combination of friends and my own stumblings through the internets. I'm basically a sponge, and it takes very little to get me to try a book. If you like it, or if you think I will like it, I will likely put it on the TBR pile. Alternatively, I read a lot on the internet as well.

When I lived in Hamilton, I used to go on the public library website and search through the new books, placing holds on things that looked interesting, or just writing them down on my list to come back to another day.

And when I worked at Chapters? Those were heady days...I never had so many recommendations from people in my life! It was truly amazing working in a bookstore because I got to talk about books with everyone (apart from those poor souls looking for webkinz.)

These days a lot of inspiration comes from the challenges I've joined, and the people at work who love to read as much as I do.

So you can see, my inspiration comes from many sources. Every book has potential, as far as I'm concerned.

Book Review: The Fountain by Darren Aranofsky and Kent Williams

2009-01-21T17:12:00.006-05:00

Darren Aranofsky’s The Fountain (published by Vertigo Comics in 2005) is a visually interesting over-sized graphic novel based on the movie of the same name. Published a year before the film was released, Aranofsky’s intentions were to preserve a part of his project just in case Hollywood “f**ks him over.” A prudent notion, considering his film was met with mixed (and confused) reactions.

Having never watched the film, I borrowed The Fountain from the library thinking I could read this instead and get pretty much the same thing, albeit with ninety percent less Hugh Jackman. The film runs at about an hour and a half; in today’s world of thirty hour Lord of the Ring marathons, this is a fairly quick watch. But at 176 big pages full of cool drawings, the graphic novel wins. I think I read this in under an hour.

As can be imagined, the story is similar to the film. It revolves around the same couple in three different time periods—1535 Spain and Central America, present day, and “the future” wherein we will all be riding around in giant space bubbles in the nude, if Aranofsky gets his way.

The central theme of all three stories is the loss of the great love. Tomas traipses through each time period, bellowing, crying and nearly stamping his feet in effort to save the woman he loves. Inevitably, they all die, though. Sorry, I didn’t give away the ending. It’s pretty much a given.

I wasn’t terribly impressed with the graphic novel, and I can understand why the film was met with mixed reviews. The story is a great idea. It has so much Romeo-and-Juliet potential, it could be Romeo and Juliet. But the execution falls flat on its face. The novel is drawn by Kent Williams, an artist widely respected in the industry. While some images are visually spectacular, there are parts of the graphic novel wherein background characters are little more than drawn lines. Perhaps one could argue that Williams and Aranofsky are trying to emphasize Tomas’s intense focus on his love, and so the rest of the world appears little more than hazy outlines, but it just looks unfinished.

See for yourself:

Each story ends with Tomas’s love dying in some fashion. In 1553, she sacrifices herself for the glory of her queendom. In the present day, she quietly dies in a hospital bed as Tomas receives word that they have found a cure for her cancer. Most bizarrely, in the future (remember, floating through space in a bubble), she is sacrificed to give life to the tree inside the bubble.

That I don’t get. The first two, I’m cool on. Tragic, romantic, ideas I can grasp. The final pair I can’t come to terms with. Why are they in that bubble? What’s the point of her dying if Tomas is just going to float through space alone?

Perhaps it’s just too meta for me.

Rating: Three stars

Best Social Networking Site for Readers?

2009-01-19T12:19:00.000-05:00

Dear Author is asking bloggers to vote on their favourite social network for readers. Thus far, my favourite network Shelfari is coming in at fourth with only 16% of the votes. It does have it's issues. For one thing, I hate that it's so "widget-like". I would much rather it be more text-based like Goodreads or LibraryThing. I'm just not really in the mood to switch, though. It would mean having to export all of the books that I've selected in Shelfari and then importing them into a new network (i.e. selecting them all over again). They really have to offer me a good incentive to move my collection. It's not ridiculously large, but it would still take at least an hour out of my day to do that. Plus, I kind of really prefer the Visual Bookshelf on Facebook anyway. I keep that updated the most, and I even write reviews on it when the mood strikes.

Booking Through Thursdays

2009-01-15T16:52:00.001-05:00

Booking Through Thursday asks:

If you’re anything like me, there are songs that you love because of their lyrics; writers you admire because their songs have depth, meaning, or just a sheer playfulness that has nothing to do with the tunes.

So, today’s question?

* What songs … either specific songs, or songs in general by a specific group or writer … have words that you love?
* Why?
* And … do the tunes that go with the fantastic lyrics live up to them?

You don’t have to restrict yourself to modern songsters, either … anyone who wants to pick Gilbert & Sullivan, for example, is just fine with me. Lerner & Loewe? Steven Sondheim? Barenaked Ladies? Fountains of Wayne? The Beatles? Anyone at all…

This is an excellent question! I love to sing, and songs with memorable lyrics tend to stay in my playlists much longer than songs with memorable melodies. There are songs that have been in my iPod Alphonse for years because I love to sing the lyrics.

Three songs come specifically to mind, and I can even pinpoint the lyrics that I love. These are:

Ryan Adams’s Let it Ride—this entire song is fantastic. Twangy, dirty country; Ryan Adams tends to polarize people, they either love ‘im or hate ‘im. I lean more towards loving him. How can you not when he croons songs like these:

27 years of nothing but failures and promises that I couldn't keep / Oh lord, I wasn't ready to go / I'm never ready to go

That line specifically (and others that follow in the same song) fall off the tongue so easily that it’s difficult not to sing along with him. I picture myself as a barmaid-cum-country-singer whenever that song rolls around and I get to singing.

Then there’s a newer song in my playlist. City & Colour is a one-man band by the name of Dallas Green of Alexisonfire fame. If you’re into Canrock, you’ll know him well, but if you’re not, then…you’re missing out! Beautiful voice often coupled by just a guitar, he’s a great mellow singer-songwriter. Perfect for when you’re chilling at home, or (like I was when I first listened to his second album) on a long cross-country driving trip.

This song hits write at home because it describes me so well. Observe:

At least I know I'll never sleep at night. (Sleep at night) / I'll always lie awake until the morning light. (Til the morning light) / This is something that I'll never control. /My nerves will be the death of me.
Good melody, and lyrics I can relate to. This will be in my playlist for years to come.

Finally, the last song that I could think of is by my all-time favourite band Nine Inch Nails. Only was released on the With Teeth album, and I can recite the following to you as a poem if I didn’t know how to sing it:

Well the tiniest little dot caught my eye / And it turned out to be a scab / I had this funny feeling / Like I just knew it’s something bad / I just couldn’t leave it alone, kept picking at that scab / Like it was a doorway / Trying to seal itself shut / But I climbed through

Oooh gruesome imagery, eh? I love it.

Canadian Readers, Where You At?

2009-01-14T17:04:00.001-05:00

Well, you aren't reading my blog, that's for sure. Chances are, you aren't reading much of anything. A recent poll commissioned by Canada Heritage of 1,502 people over the age of 15 revealed Canadians read an average of 17 books a year. 12 percent don't read at all.

I know none of this is surprising. Anyone with a television can tell you that reading is a dying hobby, if he bothered to turn away from the warm glow long enough to do so.

What’s surprising is that fifty percent of the people polled couldn’t name a single Canadian author. At all. Not even Margaret Atwood or Mordechai Richler.

I realize if you poll Canadian readers you'll have much better luck, but this is just shameful. I love CanLit, and there is a lot of it to choose from. You'd be hard pressed to find a genre that Canadians haven't written in. That's what makes CanLit (indeed, Canadian culture even) so inclusive—because we live in such a large country that includes so many different cultures, the nature of CanLit changes with its location. CanLit from B.C. is different from CanLit from Ontario, or Nova Scotia, or Quebec.

Despite this dismal poll, I think Canada has a really healthy reader culture. For instance, we have plenty of well-respected awards like the Giller and the GG's that help promote CanLit at home and abroad.

Plus, the CBC (another wonderful Canadian institution) holds a debate each year called Canada Reads. I started following Canada Reads a couple of years ago. Five books are chosen by five Canadian celebrity panelists, who are then asked to defend their choice. The week-long radio series airs on the CBC this year March 2 to 6, if you're interested.

This year one of my favourite artists, Sarah Slean, is a panelist. Previous panelists include Jim Cuddy (lead singer of Blue Rodeo), Scott Thompson (Kids in the Hall alumnus), Olivia Chow (Liberal MP), and Justin Trudeau (sexiest member of Parliament and son of late Pierre Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada).

Canada Reads is sort of the ultimate in CanLit selection, in my opinion. It's chosen by well-known Canadians, and presented by the CBC, the Canadian media. I don't always get to read every book on the list in time for the debates, and indeed, sometimes I just don't have an interest in the book, but it's always interesting and engaging.

Despite what the Calgary Herald thinks, CanLit certainly is not dead. The fact of the matter is, people just don't read any more. That doesn't mean that Canadian authors will stop writing, though. And as long as they keep writing, I'll keep reading.

Source: Calgary Herald by way of Book Ninja
Photograph by low.

Blogs to Newspapers: "Aren't You Dead Yet?"

2009-01-13T16:52:00.000-05:00

If you've ever wanted to be a published journalist, but haven't been lucky enough yet, you might have your chance now. If you have a blog, that is. 'Course, everyone has a blog these days. This plant has a blog. My sister has a blog. If you don't have a blog, you should just stop reading.

BUT, if you do have a blog, and you live in San Francisco or Chicago, you might find your posts published in a new local paper. It's called The Printed Blog; the paper aims to publish blog posts from local writers and journalists. It's the 'best of the web on the newsstand.'

Oh, newspapers. You're sure trying hard, aren't you? I'm not saying this is a death knell, but...well, it's a death knell.

Blogs are interactive. They don't end at the end of the entry because the reader can choose to browse the links provided in the blog, find similar blogs, browse the writer's blogroll, or even the post history. Newspapers are static and hard to edit or comment on. Besides, do I really want to read last week's news in the paper when five new entries have been posted on the internet?

What do you think of this aggregate of blog posts in print form?

Book Review: Zot:! The Complete Black and White Collection by Scott McCloud

2009-01-13T15:34:00.004-05:00

Zot! is a comic created by Scott McCloud, who is better known for having written and drawn Understanding Comics, a comprehensive work on the creation of comics. I found Zot! The Complete Black and White Collection at my my library after not finding a book I was looking for. I seem to have this allergy that prevents me from leaving the library empty-handed. So, I chose Zot!

Zot! is a series that combines the superhero elements of classic comic books with the newer genre of real-life, relationship based graphic novels. I suppose if you were to ask me the difference between a comic book and a graphic novel, that would be it, although that's not necessarily always the case. The definition of a graphic novel and a comic book is highly debated, and this review isn't where I would necessarily lay my lines down about that.

Anyway, I digress.

Zot! tells the story of a blonde-haired superboy named Zot who comes from an alternate earth, and his relationship with Jenny Weaver, a teenage girl from our own earth. The first half of hte collection is comprised of the 'superhero' stories in the series. Zot (real name Zachary Paleozogt) battles a host of villains who are all in some form or another caricatures of the villains McCloud grew up on.

The second half of the collection deals with more introspective, personal stories. McCloud deviates from the classic superhero format by literally exiling Zot in Jenny's (i.e. our) earth and moving the focus away from him. Entire issues of Zot! are devoted to characters that were introduced as minor players in previous issues, such as Ronnie, a comic book obsessed school friend, or Terry, Jenny's best friend who comes out in an issue.

Zot! was published in comic form from 1984 to 1991, and the stories that McCloud introduces, if you look at the time he was writing and drawing them in, are ground breaking. My favourite story has to be Jenny and Zot's first time. The story is left open to allow the reader to decide for themselves if anything actually happens.

What I liked most about the collection was McCloud's commentary. He provides insight into his drawing habits and his personal thoughts about each story. You can really tell he's an incredible perfectionist and it pains him in some ways to publish this collection, warts included. Personally, I didn't think there were any warts, but I'm not an artist, let alone a graphic novel artist. I liked knowing what he thinks of his own stories.

The stories themselves were fun to read. While not terribly complicated by any standards (McCloud admits that he had little knowledge of how to write a story when he first started drawing Zot!), they're interesting and humourous, as well as touching. I could understand Jenny's (I want to say motivation here, but it's not a play...c'mon Olga, work that vocabulary!) desire to flee her world and live in Zot's, where everything is just better. We've all been there before, and we don't have to be fifteen to feel like that.

The characters also made Zot! a good read. Each one, be it a villain or a friend, has a story and they're all interesting. I could go on and on. Seriously, if you happen to stumble upon this collection at the library, I suggest you take it out. It's not McCloud's best work, but it's a really great read nonetheless.

Rating: Four Stars

Booking Through Thursdays

2009-01-08T09:37:00.003-05:00

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

It’s a week or two later than you’d expect, and it may be almost a trite question, but … what were your favorite books from 2008?

For someone who hasn't been tracking every book she's read in 2008, this is kind of a hard question.

For light and fluffy reads, I would have to go with Deanna Raybourn's Silent in the Grave. A good mystery, and really good chemistry between the characters made it an instant fave with me, and I've started to convert people as well.

For nonfiction, hands down, it has to be Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food. Informative, inspiring, horrifying, yet uplifting. It made me want to hide in a farmer's market and not come out until the spring.

Book Review: Stuck in the Middle: 17 Comics From an Unpleasant Age edited by Ariel Schrag

2009-01-07T14:41:00.001-05:00

Stuck in the Middle: 17 Comics from an Unpleasant Age collects the unpleasant, embarrassing, and often humourous memories of a group of artists from the junior high years. Best friends, horse camp, betrayals, first kisses, and parachute pants all combine to breathe life into the childhood memories that so many of us try and repress. It’s true. We all have, to varying degrees, really effed up stories of pre-teenage years.

In the spirit of Stuck in the Middle, I give you a tale of my own from those tender years when I thought in all honesty I would grow up to be the bride of Leonardo DiCaprio (or one of the Backstreet Boys.)

I never went to middle school, but that didn't prevent me from going through similarly painful juvenile rights of passage. As a child my family moved around a fair bit. By the time I was in the seventh grade, I was in my sixth grade school. As everyone knows, moving not only uproots you, it also turns you into the newest pariah of any given school. I don’t blame my parents for changing my schools very often, but I certainly know that I will never do the same to my own children.

In the seventh grade, after moving once again in the summertime, I happened to be close enough to go back to my very first elementary school. Figuring that I would at least have somewhat of a connection to these group of children, I begged, whined and complained until I was enrolled in St. J’s once again.

Of course, nothing ever goes right, especially not when you’re the new kid. I was immediately ostracized by former friends, having made the grave mistake of leaving on a bad note the first time around—I stole a robin’s egg from my class and was caught. That was the very last thing my schoolmates remembered about me before I moved away, and so I was the pariah once again.

But, I was resourceful. I made friends quickly, girls who came to St. J’s long after the incident, and thus had no memory of my egg-stealing.

Fairly soon I was fully embraced by a group of about five or six girls. The number of us changed constantly since we were always not speaking to this girl or that girl, but for the most part we got on really well.

The problem with prepubescent girls is, they are like mercury. Moods and alliances could change in an instant, without provocation. We were like ticking time-bombs, ready to go off at one another.

This became a harsh reality for me one evening. Out of nowhere I received a phone call from R.—she accused me of making fun of her voice. Bewildered, having done no such thing, I denied it vehemently, but there was no use. I was already a Benedict Arnold. The news spread quickly—Olga’s a teaser. And that was that.

The next day at school I was ignored by all of my friends, left to stew in the mess that I had made for myself by allowing myself to become a target.

Heartbroken, I was forced to tell my mother the details (after being yelled at on the phone once again by a friend the following night). My mother was livid, and no doubt even more bewildered than I was, having received a hysterical and no-doubt confusing explanation from a distraught pre-teen.

The next day, she took me to school. Instead of dropping me off, she went down to the schoolyard with me, and—to my horror—bitched out the very girls who had ostracized me for the past thirty-six hours in broken English.

God bless my mother. She was my greatest champion, fighting that battle as best she could with half-finished sentences growled at the girls. At least they had the courtesy of looking shame-faced.

I was convinced this was the end of my social life completely. R. and the rest of the girls apologized half-heartedly in front of my mother. When she left, I was left alone once again.

But then something miraculous happened. At lunchtime, I was invited to sit with them. Once more I was welcomed back into the fold, and in the blink of an eye all was forgotten. There was no need to discuss what just happened—it was over! Why bring up the pain, when we could just move on with our lives and share a bag of Doritos and talk about our crushes again?

I’ve never been able to forget that event, even though the details have become fuzzy. I still don’t quite get what happened, but it serves as a reminder that middle school—your thirteenth year especially—is f**king scary. You couldn’t trust anyone, and you couldn’t be trusted. That best friend who just yesterday was braiding your hair over lunch, could be pointing the finger of blame on you today.

I’m glad I’m not thirteen anymore. This collection of comics from that unsettling age is a great journey down memory lane, but it makes you think about your own hellish recollections. The best part of the book is knowing that everyone goes through the same thing—no one gets out of middle school without having been scarred by it.

Rating: Four Stars

Book Review: Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin (aka Diana Norman)

2009-01-04T12:58:00.000-05:00

Mistress of the Art of Death has been in my TBR pile since its publication. In fact, it probably should have gone on my TBR Challenge list at least a couple of years ago, but the list is so long, it sort of got lost in the depths of it.

Like a lot of books that find their way into my TBR pile, this one happened to casually announce itself through my former job as a sales girl at the local big-box bookstore. I would scower the shelves and the display tables for something new and interesting (and there was always something new and interesting), then write down the title or the author to take home. My pockets were full of slips of paper by the end of most of my shifts.

Despite the fact that I would ritually spend half my pay cheque on new books, I never picked this one up. I thought about it during my weekly trip to the bookstore. As I was checking out the graphic novels, for some reason my eyes shifted to the next shelf over. Lo and behold, there it was, staring me in the face.

Mistress is set in twelfth century England. Four children from Cambridge and the surrounding area have been kidnapped and murdered in a horrible fashion. The first child was found crucified and the local Jews have been accused of the murders. Cambridge, incensed by these brutal killings, force the Jews to flee to the castle, where they are protected by the sheriff, but not before Chaim, Cambridge’s most successful moneylender (and the unfortunate soul who discovers the first murdered child), is lynched, along with his wife.

King Henry I is shrewd—he is not interested in seeing the most profitable citizens of his kingdom expelled or massacred. Not when there are wars to be won and coffers to be filled.

His answer arrives in a pilgrimmage. An unlikely trio arrive in Cambridge: Simon, the best investigator the King of Naples can send, Mansur, a Moor, and Vesuvia Adelia Rachel Ortese Aguilar—mistress of the art of death. Salerno, home of Europe’s best medical experts, is where they come from, and they are commanded to find the murderer, and (hopefully) exonerate the Jews.

Adelia is a wonder—a female doctor in a world where even male doctors are considered an oddity, she is faced with the task of examining the corpses to determine who could have committed such a heinous act, while evading the notice of the Cambridge townfolk. It isn’t always easy to avoid notice, being the only group of foreigners in town.

Of course, this is Adelia’s story. But Franklin does not allow the other characters to become one-dimensional. They each have their quirks, which makes the book much more than just a mystery—it’s a novel about ordinary people in a historical setting reacting to extra-ordinary circumstances.

Child-killers are rare even in today’s society. To find your community invaded by a serial killer during that time must have been a truly frightening experience, and you can see how such events can create monsters and demons to frighten us in the dead of night. Indeed, Franklin ultimately turns him into a demon by his ritual--when he kills he transforms himself into an animal by wearing a pair of antlers, and he lures children to his den with jujubes, the Pied Piper of the fens.

I enjoyed learning the history of the fenland people, their accents especially. At times it was hard to get the gist of what they were saying, and I can only imagine how much harder it would have been for poor Adelia.

I didn’t enjoy Mistress right from the beginning. For one thing, the book’s language is frilly. But as the mystery soon enfolded, I was quickly sucked in. It’s part-CSI thriller, part-historical fiction, with a dash of romance thrown in to round it out completely. I’ll add The Serpent’s Tale on the TBR pile, because I like Adelia a lot and I’m interested to learn more.

Having also read Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth, I have a greater appreciation for the history as well. Franklin’s novel paints a different side of Henry I—in Mistress he is more than just the instigator of Thomas á Beckett’s death, he is a sensible and fair king who struggles with the limits of his own power. He also has some of the best lines in the book.

Definitely worth a read if you’re interested in the time period, or enjoy medical mysteries.

Rating: 4 stars

Booking Through Thursdays

2009-01-01T22:24:00.000-05:00

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

So … any Reading Resolutions? Say, specific books you plan to read? A plan to read more ____? Anything at all?

I only have one reading resolution this year--do it more often. Some people say I already read too much, but frankly I don't think there is such a thing. Perhaps my resolution should be that I would like to read more of my own writing? So I secretly want to write my own novel. Who doesn't, frankly.

As for things I really want to read, I'm eagerly awaiting the release of Deanna Raybourn's Silent on the Moor. Lovely series, can't wait to have it in hand.

Rating System

2008-12-31T11:50:00.001-05:00

Since this is a book review blog, I should probably consider some sort of rating system for the books I review. Right now I've just been giving fairly arbitrary stars to the books I've reviewed. Most have been between three and five stars. In order to restrict the number of five stars (because I'm a generous person, as long as the book doesn't make me want to throw it at someone. I'm looking at you, Breaking Dawn.) I present my very own rating system. I'll add it to the sidebar for easy reference (which keeps growing longer and longer, I noticed):

1 star: I wanted to throw it out the window.
2 stars: I didn't resort to violence, but I wasn't terribly impressed either.
3 stars: I could take it. I could leave it. Probably won't read again.
4 stars: A lively read, but I won't be picking it up again any time soon.
5 stars: Fabulous—it left a profound impact on me and I'm putting it right back on the TBR pile.

On the Eve of 2009

2008-12-31T09:18:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone! Hope your celebrations go well, and all that jazz.

I've thought about making some bookish new year's resolutions, but I can't really think of anything other than to read more. I have joined three challenges, all meant to get me to read more, and I think I will; even if I don't read all of the books on my lists, at least I will try. I don't think the point of new year's resolutions is to reach them all; it's an occasion to set yourself new goals for the year, or remember the goals you set for yourself last year, and think about your accomplishments from the previous year. Once you pick yourself up off the floor from New Year's Eve, that is...

Maybe that's why New Year's Day is such a perfect day for reflection? If you've done the night before proud, you're lying in bed anyway. So once you've slept off that hangover, you've watched enough movies to make you go blind, you can start thinking about the year ahead. What's in store for you? What are you planning on doing? Who was that guy from the night before?

On a related note, I had a most extraordinary day yesterday. I had a haircut appointment at 6:00 o'clock that evening. Having arrived about an hour early (why drive all the way home and then go back downtown, right?), I went to the Toronto Reference Library intent on grabbing a book and reading for the forty-five minutes, instead of window-shopping. Yorkville is lovely, and there are many wonderful shops (I'm looking at you, The Cookbook Store), but it's like taunting a starving dog with a big marrow bone—just plain cruel.

I didn't miss the window-shopping at all. The Toronto Reference Library has an extensive graphic novel collection. I was in heaven. I picked out Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (book 1 in my challenge reading list!) and found a table (with a cute guy already there, no less...reading's great; reading in the presence of a hottie is even better, though).

I didn't get to finish my book. Wasn't even a quarter of the way into it when I had to go, but I knew I would be back. So perhaps this is a new year's resolution? Or maybe just a plan: I'm going to go back to the library on a weekend in January, and I'm going to spend the whole day there reading. My favourite Mexican restaurant is across the street as well. I'm considering splurging and having lunch there or perhaps capping the day off with dinner with a friend there.

If nothing else (other than reading more), I plan on doing that more often in 2009—enjoy days with myself. I know it seems silly to have to plan them, but I think we all do. We're accustomed to making plans with other people, but not with ourselves.

Book Review: Laika by Nick Abadzis

2008-12-28T11:33:00.000-05:00

I should have known this book would be sad. I should have known, because I know the basic story of Laika, the first animal in space. Launched in 1957 in Sputnik II, Laika survived a total of five hours in space before succumbing to heat exhaustion and stress. She became the first animal to orbit the earth, and the first to die in space.

Nick Abadzis details the short life and death of Laika (Kudryavka, to the scientists and lab technicians who knew her best—she is actually renamed by the scientists shortly before launch), her trainer Yelena, and Koralev, the chief designer of the Sputniks in his graphic novel.

After the successful launch of Sputnik I, Koralev is ordered by Khrushchev to build and launch another satelitte to be launched by the anniversary of the October Revolution, a deadline only a month away. To make the launch stand out from the original Sputnik, they decide to send an animal. Little is known about the conditions a living organism can withstand in space, and with such a short deadline, they can make it a one-way trip.

These are the facts surrounding Laika's doomed flight. To fill out the story, Abadzis creates a world for Laika, focusing on her relationship with her trainer, Yelena. The real sorrow lies in how this relationship grows, and must ultimately be cut off. There is really nothing Yelena or anyone else can do to prevent the dog's death, and it makes the launch a sombre affair.

As the launch approaches the characters (the historical figures, indeed) try to rationalize to themselves and each other that the dog's death is for a great cause, but they cannot deny that it is a sad way for an animal to die.

I've never read anything so sad as this simple story about a Russian dog in space. It's made even more poignant by the final page of the book, a quote taken from Oleg Gazenko, the scientist who chose Laika:

"The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it. We did not learn enough from the mission to justify the death of the dog."

The facts exist, cold and austere. Abadzis gives Laika a new story, one that shows that she was loved, even as an experimental animal. Her death may have been unnecessary, but she will always be remembered.

This is an excellent graphic novel, but I wouldn't read it if you've just lost a pet.

The Graphic Novel Challenge Book List

2008-12-26T17:56:00.001-05:00

Image by anna-in-chicago

Looks like I've convinced myself to join another book challenge. This one is unique though—a graphic novel challenge! I've been a fan of graphic novels and comics since I was a child, so I feel fairly confident I can take on this challenge. Plus, anything that encourages me to read more of them is a-okay in my book. The best part is I'll be blogging about it over at the Graphic Novels Challenge Blog.

Given that I'm fairly certain I'll do well at this challenge (not to toot my own horn or anything, I just really love graphic novels), I'm opting for the Major level (twelve choices). Here are my picks:

1. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware
2. The Umbrella Academy: Vol. 1 by Gerard Way
3. Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw
4. Watchmen by Alan Moore (re-read; it's been awhile since I've read it)
5. Too Cool to be Forgotten by Alex Robinson
6. The Sandman Vol. 1-? by Neil Gaiman (how many of them can I read in 2009?)
7. Mister Wonderful by Daniel Clowes
8. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
9. Loca: The Maggie and Hopey Stories by Jamie Hernandez
10. Berlin, Book Two: City of Smoke by Jason Lutes
11. Red Colored Elegy by Seiichi Hayash
12. Aya of Yop City by Abouet & Oubreri

Ambitious? Yes. Really fun? Most definitely. Some of these I have been dying to read for ages, though. Nothing like a challenge to finally cross them off my list! I thought about cheating and putting the two graphic novels I'm currently reading on the list, but I decided not to. There were too many choices as it were. I couldn't think of what to remove!

Here's to 2009—the year of the graphic novel.

Book Review: The Girls by Lori Lansens

2008-12-26T12:22:00.000-05:00

Twins. When I was little I wished my family had a set of twins. An instantly large family—that was what I always wanted. It remained just the four of us, though, until my sister Kathy got married and had her own children.

I sometimes wonder what life would have been life if my sister and I were twins, though. We're pretty similar to begin with...would it have only intensified by being born at the same time? Or perhaps, being twins, we would naturally want to differentiatae ourselves as best we could?

What if we were conjoined though?

In Lori Lansens's The Girls, the Darlen family is very similar to my own. An older mother and father, a strong tie to Eastern Europe (Slovakia in the Darlen's case), and a pair of girls. That is where all similarity stops, though, for Rose and Ruby Darlen are born conjoined at the head. The novel is written as a memoir, primarily in the voice of Rose, with chapters from Ruby interspersed throughout. On the eve of their thirtieth birthday, they are the oldest living set of craniopagus conjoined twins. This mighty feat prompts Rose to begin her autobiography, but because her life is so closely tied to Ruby's she cannot tell the whole tale, which is why Ruby is given a chance to tell her story as well.

The two voices compliment each other, revealing pieces of the story that the other chooses not to. It gives the story greater depth, because you feel like you are being treated to two sides of the same tale. You feel true sorrow by the end of the book, for the hardships and frustrations these two very unique individuals have gone through. Living in smalltown Ontario is hard enough as it is. To be a local oddity makes it infinitely worse.

In the end, though, the girls learn that they are more than the sum of all their parts. While they have lived together for thirty years, they have still lived separate lives. What one girl sees, the other may not have, and you come to realize that as they tell you more about themselves.

This was a fantastic book, and I was really pleased to have read it. I bought it on a whim, and it was very worth it. I recommend it to anyone who has a sister, a twin, or just thinks their family is a little weird. You will fall in love with these girls and they will break your heart.

Booking Through Thursdays

2008-12-25T13:31:00.000-05:00

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

What are the most “wintery” books you can think of? The ones that almost embody Winter?

While I haven't finished reading it, I would say Orhan Pamuk's Snow is probably the winteriest book I can think of. It's still on my TBR pile, as I had borrowed it from the library and couldn't finish it in time before it was due back (and with a 100+ person waiting list, I couldn't renew it). What I remember vividly from the first chapter was the description of a remote Turkish village, covered in a thick blanket of snow, as we are introduced to Ka, the poet who has finally returned after twelve years of exile. It was so wildly different from the image I have of Turkey in my own mind, that it stuck firmly. It's hard not to when the story begins thusly:

The silence of snow, thought the man sitting just behind the bus driver. If this were the beginning of a poem, he would have called the thing he felt inside him the silence of snow.

With that, I bid you a Merry Christmas. :)

At LastThe 2009 To-Be-Read Challenge

2008-12-23T13:34:00.001-05:00

It's here! It's here! My favourite reading challenge is here!

No themes this year. This list has been carefully compiled from my to-be-read pile, and I am ready for the challenge. Twelve books, twelve months. Personal goal is five out of twelve. I know, I know. Given that my average is four out of twelve, I'm not setting my goals high.

1. Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore
2. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
3. In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century by Geert Mak.
4. Fangland by John Marks
5. Forbidden Fruit: Banned, Censored and Challenged Books from Dante to Harry Potter by Pearce J. Carefoote
6. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
7. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
8. No Fixed Address: Life in the Foreign Service by Christine Hantel-Fraser
9. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
10. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
11. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
12. Night by Elie Wiesel

I've tried mixing more non-fiction into the collection because I feel like I don't read enough, even though A LOT of my TBR pile is non-fiction. Maybe that's why I don't read enough? They're all waiting...?

Anyway, I'm EXCITED. This is gonna be fun! Wish me luck. :)

It's Okay to Eat Food* Book Review: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan

2008-12-23T10:58:00.000-05:00

* Food being the operative word.

In Michael Pollan's newest book, a response of sorts to his previous work, The Omnivore's Dilemma, he suggests that it's okay to eat food. In fact, he has a manifesto: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

With that, he begins In Defense of Food, a roughly two hundred page essay on the problem with what we consider food today, and how we can change the way we eat.

Pollan has a real issue with the western diet, which largely consists of processed foods, made from grain like wheat and soybean. According to him, much of the diseases found in western civilization, like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, are linked to these foods. Never before in history has man been so "underfed yet so undernourished." The reason we eat so much, yet remain so unhealthy is because the food is so highly processed. Much of the nutrition from processed foods is removed, and then replaced by vitamins, and 'nutrients' like omega-3 fatty acids by scientists. But, because we know so little about the science behind nutrients and how our bodies absorb them (even after at least a couple of centuries of experimentation), we aren't actually getting any healthier from these "healthy foods."

He laments the loss of our former diet inspiration—our mothers—and vilifies nutritionism as a demon who has taken our cultural diet and turned it into a mass-produced industry.

Pollan's book joins a number of voices who are now calling for a return to whole foods. And with the rise of the slow movement, it feels like western society is slowly but surely moving towards a healthier diet.

Of course, while Pollan's manifesto is an important one, it doesn't offer any insight into how an entire population can achieve this, only the individual. Organic, whole food diets are expensive, and cannot feasibly support an entire country's population. Weight and health are proportional to income. The people most likely to suffer are the ones who need a change in lifestyle the most—the poor. But when a Big Mac a day costs less than a full week's worth of groceries, and you don't have to make it yourself, it's hard to change your lifestyle.

Still, for those of us who can afford to adopt Pollan's ideas, it's worth a try. Today we are encouraged to do everything as quickly as possible, but switching to a diet of whole foods automatically slows down your lifestyle. Even if you don't eat "mostly plants," you're already a step ahead of the curve.

Rating: Five stars

The Ghost of Christmas Reflection

2008-12-19T11:11:00.000-05:00

According to Wikipedia, Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol was published today in 1843. It's hard to believe, but Dickens wrote the class tale about generosity and family togetherness during Christmas at a time when Christmas wasn't celebrated with much fanfare. England still held a largely Puritan belief regarding Christmas, making it a holiday left uncelebrated by much of the population. So the Christmas that we know and love today—full of good tidings, joy, and mountains of cookies—owes a lot to Tiny Tim and Ebenezer Scrooge.

Within a week of publication, A Christmas Carol sold over 6,000 copies in London. That's no small feat in mid-ninteenth century England! Since then Christmas has transformed into what it is today. I know many people complain that Christmas is too commercial, and doesn't really reflect the moral ideals of society anymore, but even with the over-commercialization, I still think a big part of why Christmas is so important in western society is that it brings families together. Only in December do we make the conscious effort to really see each other, even if it's for a cup of coffee on a blustery December afternoon.

So I just wanted to say thanks, Charles Dickens. You may have just been trying to fill the coffers, but what you inadvertantly changed was our very belief in the holiday. I don't think you really need much more praise than you already get, but I think it's important to note this significant contribution.

Booking Through Thursdays

2008-12-11T21:00:00.000-05:00

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

1. Do you get to read as much as you WANT to read?

(I’m guessing #1 is an easy question for everyone?)

2. If you had (magically) more time to read–what would you read? Something educational? Classic? Comfort Reading? Escapism? Magazines?

1. No, not at all. However, this has improved over the years. Looking back two years ago I would have emphatically said no because I was still in school, and consequently mired in required reading and seminar notes. Now, I at least don't have as much homework to do. Still, there are never enough hours, are there?

2. I would read more nonfiction if I had more time. Although, I may just be saying that. There are lot of nonfiction books in my TBR pile, but they always seem to fall shorter than the fiction. I guess I just like escapism a lot more than furthering my knowlege. Is that sad? I don't think so. I read enough nonfiction to keep satisfied for now. *points to current Shelfari icon*

To-Be-Read Challenge End of Year Update

2008-12-10T11:23:00.000-05:00

Image by mintlips

This is the second year I took part in the TBR Challenge. Last year, I forgot about it. I ended up reading 4/12 novels. While it wasn't the full twelve, I'm glad I read some of them. After all, the whole purpose of the challenge is to read books that have been on your TBR pile for ever. Taking four books off of that list leaves four whole spots to fill!

This year I came up with the brilliant idea of making the challenge themed. I chose the Great American Novel as my theme and whittled the list down to these twelve books:

1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
2. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
3. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
4. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
5. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
6. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
7. Animal Farm by George Orwell
8. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
9. Beloved by Toni Morrison
10. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
11. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
12. Fear of Flying by Erica Jong

The bolded books are the ones I ended up reading. So four seems to be my constant. I guess next year's goal is to beat four. I don't think I'm going to make it themed again, though. It made it tougher to choose from my TBR pile, and I ultimately had to pick a few that weren't on there, which defeats the purpose.

I'll publish the next twelve books in the TBR challenge shortly. There's still time in December. Perhaps I'll beat my goal yet and read a fifth before January 1, 2009!

Book Review: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

2008-12-10T11:00:00.000-05:00

I've never read a Cormac McCarthy novel. I was at the library, fifteen minutes before closing time, and I couldn't find a single book in all of the trade paperback section to take with me. Finally my eyes settled upon The Road and I grabbed it instantly.

I didn't know much about it, other than the cannibalism, which I spoiled for myself (and perhaps you as well) by reading an article about the soon-to-be-made film version. Regardless, the scene which I ended up ruining for myself was much worse than anything I could have imagined, mainly because of McCarthy's writing. Stark and rich with words that I can't rightly say I understand, it's a novel about family, hope, and survival.

Creating a post-apocalyptic world helps make it easier for the reader to bond with the characters because their survival in a world that exists outside of our own (a world a handful of people could one day see; cause, let's face it, not ALL of us will...) hinges upon staying together. By not telling the reader WHY all of this has happened, McCarthy forces the reader to consider the characters alone. Frail creatures who could be any of us.

The end is heartbreaking, but ultimately satisfying. I was convinced throughout the novel that This Would Not End Well. Indeed, while your heart bleeds for what ultimately happens, there is still hope. Ultimately, that's what McCarthy wants us to believe. Despite all of the pain and suffering one must go through...there is always hope.

Book Review: Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn

2008-11-25T11:07:00.000-05:00

A co-worker here at the Romance Factory (aka Harlequin) suggested I read Deanna Raybourn's Silent in the Grave after I told her how much I love historical romance. Not being a regular fan of mystery, though, I wasn't too excited about picking it up. However, this particular co-worker was sweet enough to hunt down and steal copies of both Grave, and its sequel, Silent in the Sanctuary for me, so I had little choice but to put it on the TBR pile.

Honestly, I am so glad I did! Even for the casual dabbler of mystery such as I this book was fantastic.

Silent in the Grave begins at a party in Lady Julia Grey's lavish townhome. Her husband Edward collapses and dies in front of their guests, a victim of his family's history of heart illness. Julia, left to ponder the next stage in her life, is visited shortly after the funeral by Nicholas Brisbane, a mysterious tall drink of water that I picture as either Gerard Butler or Stephen Moyer (Bill from Showtime's True Blood). To her surprise, he informs her that her dearly departed husband may not have simply died from a weak heart—he may, in fact, have been murdered!

It starts off incredibly well and keeps you glued to the pages as you dive deeper and deeper into intrigue. There's gypsies, there's lesbians, there's even absinthe! The writing is clever and whitty, and, best of all, it's a good whodunnit. While there are no "lemons" to be found, the most romantic moment in the book actually made me swoon. Swoon! I immediately put down the book, and texted my best friend to tell her she needed to read it.

Perhaps I'm too enthusiastic, but I don't particularly care. In a world where romance novels can be dreary and tepid at best, with a single kiss Raybourn ignited the romantic tension in the book. It's a perfect case for how less can somtimes be so much more.

Book Review: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

2008-11-04T14:10:00.000-05:00

Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth was a success in 1989 when it was first published, but it’s seen a resurgence of popularity recently due to Oprah’s golden touch (i.e. Book Club). I try not to gauge what goes on my to-be-read pile based on what Oprah endorses, but I can’t deny that her team chooses good books.

The Pillars of the Earth is no exception to that.

Set in the 12th century, the novel is about the building of a cathedral in a fictional English market town called Kingsbridge. Every character, of which there are about fourteen major and ten minor, is in some way connected to this town or its people. The novel is bookmarked by two factual historical events – the sinking of the White Ship, which ushered in the period known as The Anarchy, and the murder of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury.

It’s easy to see that this was Follett’s magnum opus—the incredible amount of detail in describing the cathedral, through its many states of creation (and destruction) indicate Follett spared no expense for this novel.

Personally, I found the detail to be, at times, too much. I don’t visualize buildings easily so it was a lot of meat that could have been spared for more story. Still, I feel I have a better understanding and appreciation about the sheer amount of work a cathedral in the twelfth century took. I already appreciate the architecture to begin with (that attracted me to this book initially), but having read Pillars I feel that I can look upon these buildings and visualize the masons and carpenters working high atop the scaffolding. I guess the amount of detail wasn’t lost on me after all!

The fuel that really drove this opus though was the characters. Their lives intertwined fluidly, and there were few that I didn’t have an opinion on. Follett’s writing really gives these characters a sense of who they are through their own words. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been to write each person’s voice!

I felt he lost some of that, though, when he wrapped up the story. Some characters were forgotten and it felt insincere, especially after spending 800+ pages reading about their lives. I’m thinking specifically of Richard, Aliena’s brother, who isn’t a major character in any way, but (I felt) was major enough to get more than a one sentence death scene (that was only reported about—not even an eyewitness account!). Still, I really enjoyed this book. It sucked me in right away by introducing the first set of major characters. There were parts that I needed to force myself to get through (church-building in particular), but in the end it was worth it.

Book Review: Slightly Single by Wendy Markham

2008-10-08T19:14:00.000-04:00

Wendy Markham's Slightly Single was a good read. Her story revolves around Tracy, an overweight twenty-something living in NYC. Her boyfriend, Will, is an actor and as the summer begins, Tracy is faced with her biggest fear--spending the summer alone. Will is off to upstate New York for summer stock. Without her.

I could relate to Tracy's character in a lot of ways. We're both overweight, we both have overbearing families at least an hour's drive away from us (her's is a bit farther...in Jersey no less!), we're both broke and we're both horribly self-aware. On the other hand, Tracy and I are different. While I battle issues with self-image, I'd like to think I'm not quite as abusive to myself as she is. Maybe I should be, though. Through the course of the summer, Tracy ends up losing forty pounds.

I liked the ending because it was hopeful. While Tracy ends up breaking up with Will, she's not utterly devastated by it. She realizes she can go on. I recently broke up with my long-term boyfriend and, despite it being really effing hard, I'm trying to keep that same mentality. Reading this book at this point in my life is sort of like a nice girlfriend reminding me I'm totally not alone. You can never have enough of those girlfriends.

Well-written and full of good characters, I really liked Wendy Markham's Slightly Single. I'm looking forward to reading Slightly Married next.

Book Review: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

2008-09-30T09:08:00.000-04:00

This book is so full of old-timey goodness that it makes me want to buy a pair of pantaloons and a corset, strap myself in and haul butt to New York City, circa 1916.

Times is tough for Francie Nolan and her family. Betty Smith paints a vivid and imaginative picture of life in turn of the last century Brooklyn, New York. Your heart breaks for the sorrow of Johnny Nolan, the doomed patriarch who drinks himself to an early grave, leaving behind his wife, Katie, and their two children, Francie and Neeley. Despite the hard life, Francie, who narrates the story, is able to find joy in her life.

I'm a bit of a promiscuous reader, in that, I read several books at a time. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn started off as a lazy Sunday read which led to a nightly ritual wherein I would read well into the night, bedtime be damned. I even took it on the work commute a few times, just to get a few more pages in. I really liked this book; like I said, it made me want to time travel. And to be honest, isn't that what a good book is supposed to do?

Book Review: Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

2008-09-30T09:06:00.000-04:00

What can you say about Anne of Green Gables that hasn't been said by every 10 year-old girl in Canada and a good chunk of the remaining world? Anne is...beguiling; you can't help but fall in love with the little girl that sweeps through Avonlea, winning hearts and minds.

I started this book in prep for a sisterly trip to PEI and I just finished it, over a month after our return. I didn't read any of it while we were there, knowing that I would likely be saturated by all things Anne. I was not wrong. I'm glad I left the rest of the book for my return. After visiting Avonlea, I read the rest of the book with a new-found appreciation. PEI is unlike anywhere else I've been to and it's magic and beauty is captured by L. M. Montgomery's classic tale. It's no wonder people love it still, a hundred years later. While the language may be old-fashioned, the beauty and innocence of a little orphan girl seems to be timeless.

I think I need something contemporary next. Between Anne of Avonlea and Francie Nolan (see previous review, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) I'm starting to turn into a real puritan, methinks!

Book Review: Beyond Compare by Candace Camp

2008-09-30T09:05:00.000-04:00

Candace Camps' Beyond Compare is a fun and quick romantic adventure centered around Kyria "The Goddess" Moreland and Rafe McIntyre, an American oil tycoon. Kyria and Rafe have some great moments together--their first romantic encounter is particularly steamy. I've always found that Camp writes romance well and she certainly didn't disappoint.

The story is fairly interesting, in that it kept the novel moving quickly. Rafe and Kyria meet at her sister's wedding to his best friend, and are soon befallen by an intrigue around an ancient, possibly stolen reliquary that arrives at her door. I didn't feel at all like it was dragging and the action was well written and stayed true to the time period.

All in all, I enjoyed the book. Camp's Regencies are well-written and the characters are likeable. Four out of five stars!

Book Review: Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

2008-09-03T11:47:00.000-04:00

Sweet glittery vampires! This book...well, I have to be kind, don't I?

I'll be honest. I haven't finished it. I'm trying very hard to finish (mostly because I want to return it to Chapters, but that's another story...) but boy does Meyer make it hard.

I've been hauling this 700 + page tome around for the better part of a week and a half and I just can't get into the story. It's long, it's over-wraught with ridiculous emotions that make absolutely no sense and - can I just say - the name Renesmee is quite possibly the silliest one I have ever heard. Mashing two people's names together to create a new one is only awesome if you do it to mock them (e.g. Brangelina); it's rarely going to turn into a good name, as evidenced by Meyer's poor, linguistically-challenged attempt. Most of the characters start calling the poor kid "Nessie" for short. Personally, I would have gone with "Smee", but that's just because I hold a candle for Peter Pan's Smee (and it's fun to say)!

I'm sorry...I'm trying to be nice. It just makes me mad, though. Here was a perfectly nice trilogy of silly, fluffy, teenage vampire romance (fairly certain that's how she sold it to Little, Brown) and she had to go and ruin it by cashing another cheque. You can't convince me otherwise.

Shoulda stuck to three, Meyer. This one's an F for me.

Book Review: Changing Places by David Lodge

2008-08-14T15:39:00.000-04:00

This is definitely a book I will re-read, which is saying a lot because I don't re-read a lot of books.

I was given this book by a very good friend of mine with the promise that I would thoroughly enjoy reading it and she was quite right. The story revolves around two professors, one British and one American, who switch places at their respective universities for a semester in the 1960s. For those six months they find themselves fully ensconced in the lives, politics and families of their counterparts.

Lodge's book captures the elements of student life in the 1960s on the thinly-veiled campuses of Berkley (called Euphoria by Lodge) and a smaller, perhaps universal? vision of a British college (Rummidge). Riots, sit-ins, committee meetings, hearings, crazed former masters running through halls, looking for revenge... Lodge creates mayhem on both sides of the Atlantic by simply dropping professors Zapp and Swallow onto their counterpart's homebase.

There are parts in this book where I literally laughed out loud. A story that can make me do that is golden because so few often do.

Book Review: When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

2008-07-21T10:44:00.000-04:00

The first David Sedaris book I read was Me Talk Pretty One Day on a train traveling to Florence from Verona in June 2006. I was alone and craving the English word. The bookstore that I found tucked away in piazza sold all of about fifty English novels and Sedaris instantly popped out at me.

At the time, I had no expectations of the book. I had vaguely heard of it and knew it was a collection of short stories. I'm weary when it comes to short stories - the number of collections I've read can be counted on one hand, I think. Still, I paid my six euros and caught my train, book in hand.

I was surprised to find myself stifling guffaws on a packed train. Knowing all of a handful of Italian, I wouldn't have been able to apologize for my outbursts so I tried to keep it to a dull roar. The odd giggle still managed to escape, though, and I was greeted with knitted brows.

Since then, I've been a huge fan of Sedaris. If ever there was a life I wished I could have, it would be his. He is one of those people who gets into situations and has the knack and the talent for describing them so well that you can't help but believing every word, no matter how preposterous it gets.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames is his latest collection of stories about life and family and it is no less appealing than any of his previous works. It's been forever since I actually devoured a book, but I spent the majority of my Friday night (wow, I'm a real winner...) entertained by Sedaris' tales, which include the schizophrenic house-mate who was too handsome for his own good, his total dependence on his long-time boyfriend Hugh for everything, a strange but really beautiful relationship he builds with a spider in Normandy, and his attempt to quit smoking...in Japan.

What surprised me, and perhaps what I liked most about this collection, is his candidness about his alcohol and drug problems. It seems like he's wrestled with some mighty demons in his past. His narrative is nothing short of amazing though - even when he describes arguing drunkenly with his former NY neighbor Helen, a crazy old bat with a mouth to match a sailor, you are aware that even though this was a major problem in his life, he could find the humour in it and he lets that be the focus of the story. He isn't seeking pity or sympathy for overcoming addiction, he's just describing the sheer lunacy of those times in his life.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves to laugh or thinks their life is screwed up. Not much compares to Sedaris' tragi-comic adventures through his life. With each new book you wonder just how much this guy has gone through but by the end of the last page you wind up wishing there was more!

5/5 Gold Stars

Book Review: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

2008-07-14T08:55:00.000-04:00

Pirates. Vampires. Ruthless tycoons. Lately, hot cops. Those have been the men that turn me on fictionally. Never once did a Highlander come into the equation. They wear kilts! As a Catholic schoolgirl, I wore a kilt and it was none too comfortable, let me tell you. I can't fathom wearing one in a balmy Ontario winter, let alone while traipsing across the Scottish moors.

So you can appreciate my level of skepticism when I purchased Diana Gabaldon's Outlander, the first book in the Outlander series. To be fair, I bought it during my brief stint as a bookseller and I was convinced by the cohorts of women who would ask me where the book is kept that it was worth the read.

I can finally say that they were right. Having had a bit of a stressful May and June, I wanted something light and fun to read - I certainly got it.

We meet Claire Beauchamp (my ten years of mandatory French refuses to let me pronounce it "Beach-am" as Gabaldon states in the book), a pragmatic young nurse, on her honeymoon with Frank, in the Scottish Highlands. Having been married for several years already, they haven't had the time to go on a honeymoon due to a little thing called World War II. Frank is a stodgy sort of fellow, a historian by profession, who seems more interested in Scottish history than he is in Claire.

Claire is transported into the strange and unfamiliar world of sixteenth century when she falls through a rocky portal on an ancient hill called Craig na Dun. There she meets a young Scotsman named James Fraser. Fraser is the exact opposite of her twentieth century husband - a clansman by birth, an outlaw by circumstance, he is courageous, swarthy and fills out a kilt like nobody's business. I'm not even a fan of red-haired men, but boy, did I fall in love with Jamie!

Invariably, Claire does as well, which makes this one of the best historical romances I've read. No wonder the series is so popular - Gabaldon infuses the characters with such personality that it's hard not to love them. Claire is a spitfire - smart, funny and handy when you need a shoulder relocated. As I said before, Jamie makes me swoon.

Still, I'm not convinced I'll read the rest of the series. I want to think they will all be as good as the first one, but they never really are, are they? I'm a fan of quality, not quantity, and if that means I have to settle with just a taste of Claire and Jamie, I don't really mind all that much!

Bathroom Reading

2008-03-26T19:59:00.000-04:00

Let's be honest, we all read on the can. Okay, fine. If you don't want to admit it, I will. I read on the can! It's a great place to read, and here's why:

Peace and Quiet.
Depending on how regular you are, ifyouknowwhatImeanandIthinkyoudo, you can read quite a bit in a short amount of time.
Saves you from reading the back of the shampoo bottle for the eight billionth time.

G, my boyfriend, owns nearly the entire Uncle John's Bathroom Readers library, and if you've ever been to a Chapters and glanced past these tomes of interesting tidbit information, you'll know that there are quite a few in the series. So I know I'm not the only one here who enjoys reading whilst enthroned, so to speak. Perhaps it's just further evidence that we're meant to be together? A couple who reads in the bathroom together stays together? Can't say we've done that yet, but who knows what's on the horizon!

Lately I've been reading A Series of Unfortunate Events sans pants. My mother bought me the series as a grad gift after I whined one day in the local Costco. That's right, I'm not ashamed to admit it. I still shop with my mom.

I'm on Book 10, The Slippery Slope, and recently came to a part that made me love this series even more.

Excerpt:

"Busheney," Sunny said, which meant something along the lines of, "You're an evil man with no concern whatsoever for other people."
"Shut up!" Count Olaf roared.

If you're unfamiliar with the series, Sunny is the youngest of the Baudelaire orphans, and a baby. Her dialogue mainly consists of made up words that are then translated into longer and often funnier sentences by Lemony Snicket.

Busheney = "an evil man with no concern whatsoever for other people". Is it a coincidence that Busheney is a pretty obvious contraction of the names Bush and Cheney? C'mon, I'm not the only one who had a chuckle over that, right?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go to the washroom.

Review: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

2008-03-18T23:47:00.001-04:00

I started my TBR challenge with Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man simply because it was the first to arrive from the library. And I sorted of cheated. I took out the books on tape. I got my comeuppance, though—the last bloody tape was messed up! Therefore, I didn't actually get to finish the book. The last thing I remember is something about eating yams on the street.

In any event, Ellison's classic novel about the plight of the African American male in early-twentieth century America was pretty good. I didn't hate it. I didn't always understand it, but the story was fascinating enough. I'm not in a huge hurry to finish it, even though there was no closure, but eventually I'd like to find out just why he is an Invisible Man, preferably if I can get the same audio tape. Whoever it was that read the story had a lovely, deep baritone voice. I think the reason I was so captivated was because he did such an amazing job of reading the story.

2008 To-Be-Read Challenge

2008-03-18T23:38:00.000-04:00

In 2007 I took up the To-Be-Read Challenge but ended miserably. I completed two out of the twelve that I set myself to read. How embarrassing! Part of the reason was that I actually forgot about the challenge until October. That’s right, I actually forgot about it entirely until G. mentioned it. However, I still managed to read a whopping 30 books in total last year, which is still quite a few considering I spent the first part of the year in school.

This year, I’ve decided to go with a theme with the books I’ve chosen. I’ve been interested in The Great American Novel ever since I read John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. So, in honor of that great book, I have picked 12 novels that have been written by American authors in the past two centuries:

1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
2. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
3. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
4. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
5. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
6. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
7. Animal Farm by George Orwell
8. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
9. Beloved by Toni Morrison
10. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
11. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
12. Fear of Flying by Erica Jong

I’ve tried to put an equal mix of male and female writers but it’s hard to be even. It looks like a pretty good list, though. Some of these have been on my master list for years and years.

Introduction Post - Well, Hello There!

2008-03-17T22:09:00.000-04:00

Hello, welcome to my new blog Get Thee to a Punnery. I've wanted to start a book blog for ages and ages so I finally bit the bullet. No more procrastination; the time has come for me to write.

Here's the thing - I read quite a bit. According to the Associated Press, one in four Americans didn't read at all in 2006. I wish a) I had a more current statistic and b) that it was a Canadian statistic but this will have to do.

My goal in writing this blog is to discuss the books I read and other aspects of reading culture. I think literacy is tremendously important and I will always be an advocate for it. I also think I don't reflect very much on books. A lot of what I read is interesting but once I'm done the book I generally move onto the next one. By writing reviews I'll also help formulate my own thoughts on the books that I'm reading as opposed to pushing them to the back of my mind.

Currently I'm reading the following books: I am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, and Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley. You can see why I don't really think much about books after I have finished reading them. I generally have several others on the go at the same time!

If you've just come across my blog, welcome to it. I hope you enjoy what you see!

Get Thee to a Punnery!

Making Your Life Hard

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People by Toby Young

Hey, I'm Back!

Book Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Monthly Wrap-Up: May 2009

Book Review: The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman

Book Review: The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King

What the Hell is Dick Lit?

Book Review: A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

Monthly Wrap-Up: April 2009

Booking Through Thursdays: So What?

Book Review: My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler

Booking Through Thursdays: I'm Rich! Let's Go to the Bookstore

Book Review: Aya of Yop City by Abouet & Oubreri

Booking Through Thursdays: Oh, I'm a Book Slut

Book Review: Red Colored Elegy by Seiichi Hayashi

Booking Through Thursdays: National Library Week

Book Review: The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

Booking Through Thursdays: Worst Best Book

George W. Bush Writing His Memoirs

Yann Martel Sends Stephen Harper a Book Every Two Weeks

Book Review: Mister Wonderful by Daniel Clowes

Blogging Schedule

Book Review: Silent on the Moor by Deanna Raybourn

Booking Through Thursdays

Links of Interest

B(u)y the Cover

Booking Through Thursdays

Book Review: The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq by John Crawford

Wordle Circling the Blogosphere

Bad Sex Award Proves Literary Heavy Weights Can't Handle Sexytimes

Book Review: American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Book Review: I'm Not the New Me by Wendy McClure

The Rise of Digital BooksShould the Printed Book be Worried?

I'm All Read Out

E-Books are Catching On, New Digital Books Site from Chapters Indigo

Books I Want to Read: Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell

Booking Through Thursdays

Book Review: The Fountain by Darren Aranofsky and Kent Williams

Best Social Networking Site for Readers?

Booking Through Thursdays

Canadian Readers, Where You At?

Blogs to Newspapers: "Aren't You Dead Yet?"

Book Review: Zot:! The Complete Black and White Collection by Scott McCloud

Booking Through Thursdays

Book Review: Stuck in the Middle: 17 Comics From an Unpleasant Age edited by Ariel Schrag

Book Review: Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin (aka Diana Norman)

Booking Through Thursdays

Rating System

On the Eve of 2009

Book Review: Laika by Nick Abadzis

The Graphic Novel Challenge Book List

Book Review: The Girls by Lori Lansens

Booking Through Thursdays

At LastThe 2009 To-Be-Read Challenge

It's Okay to Eat Food* Book Review: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan

The Ghost of Christmas Reflection

Booking Through Thursdays

To-Be-Read Challenge End of Year Update

Book Review: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Book Review: Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn

Book Review: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Book Review: Slightly Single by Wendy Markham

Book Review: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Book Review: Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

Book Review: Beyond Compare by Candace Camp

Book Review: Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

Book Review: Changing Places by David Lodge

Book Review: When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

Book Review: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Bathroom Reading

Review: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

2008 To-Be-Read Challenge

Introduction Post - Well, Hello There!

The Rise of Digital BooksShould the Printed Book be Worried?

At LastThe 2009 To-Be-Read Challenge