Tag Archives: 2009

End of The Year Post 2009

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Last year, I did a favorite books post of all of them that I had read, adored.  This year I am doing the same with my favorite 25 of the whole year.  In the past year, I have read a total of 148 books in varying shapes and sizes, it was such a hard decision to make.  Some were good, while others just jumped off the page as I wrote down all of the books I had read by the month.

Here is the list in no particular order -

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean Dominque Bauby (which also was made into a movie)

Follow Me by Joanna Scott

My Little Red Book edited by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff

Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland **Canadian Author

Everything Under The Sky by Matilde Asensi

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Hannah’s Dream by Diane Hammond

Gardens of Water by Alan Drew

Crazy for The Storm by Norman Ollestad

February by Lisa Moore ** Canadian Author

The Disappearance of Irene Dos Santos by Margaret Mascarenhas

Italian for Beginners by Kristen Harmel

The Day The Falls Stood Still by Cathy M. Buchanan ** Canadian Author

Bending Towards the Sun by Leslie Gilbert Laurie and Rita Laurie

The Wives Tale by Lori Lansens ** Canadian Author

The Soloist by Steve Lopez ( also made into a movie starring Robert Downey Jr & Jamie Foxx)

The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafron

The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe by J. Randy Taraborelli

After You by Julie Buxbaum

The Disappeared by Kim Echlin (Giller Short List) ** Canadian Author

The Carnivore by Mark Sinnett ** Canadian Author

Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden Giller winner 2008 ** Canadian Author

Soup – Wholesome – Seasonal – Fresh Forward by Eric Schlosser

Tomato – A guide to the pleasures of choosing, growing, and cooking by Gail Harland and Sofia Larrinua Craxton

I would like to take this time as well to thank all of my fellow blogging buddies, friends, and publishing people as well as the people who come to read the reviews I post on my blog  to give my heartfelt thanks and most festive wishes for you all for the new year ahead.  You have all truly made it a more wonderful place for me to be able to share my love with books with you all just makes it all that much better.

Do you have any favorites of 2009, what are they, what was it about them that made it a favourite in your mind?

Soup – Wholesome, Seasonal, Fresh – Forward by Eric Schlosser

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This hardcover at 352 pages, it is literally packed with everything you need to know about making stock, making soup in general – ingredients, tools, how to chop and dice, along with 200 of tried and true recipes for you to make, freeze, and make over again if you find one favourite.

Full of elegant, gorgeous colour photographs to help you along the way, with easy to understand writing, step by step instructions are a god send for those who are chosing to make their first pot of soup to an old pro that has been making soup from the ground up with extra suggestions on new ways to use the multitude of ingredients that you would never imagine that can be used.  I was even surprised.

Here are few more pictures from inside the book -

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DK Books

Browse Inside Soup

Remarkable Creatures – Tracy Chevalier

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Mary Anning was struck by lightning when she was a baby.  Since then it’s been said she was touched with greatness.

She hunts fossils on the beaches by her home in Lyme, England.  Elizabeth Philpot and her sisters have recently moved from London to Lyme.  Elizabeth meets Mary when visiting her father’s cabinet shop wanting a cabinet to fill with the fossils she finds on the beaches.  She gets to know Mary by going with her and learning about the fossils they find and Mary sells to help her family.  Mary’s family is poor and need every bit of money.

You can always find the spinster and the young child on the beaches hunting fossils when they come across one quite larger than the small ones they usually find.  One that somewhat resembles a crocodile.

The small town is shaken with this discovery, as some think it is evil and shouldn’t be talked about.  Some want it for their own collections; where they claim they were the ones that find it as their own, when it was Mary and Elizabeth.

This relationship that Mary and Elizabeth have is mutual admiration, loyalty, and supressed envy that the 2 share.  As Mary begins to become famous for her finds, Elizabeth is left on the wayside; the geological society leaves both of them behind, since there are only men allowed into the society, men that have been published with finds and theories.

I am on the fence with this book.  At first, it didn’t really evoke any sort of feelings for any of the characters.  It just seemed to run flat for me.  The discoveries were and are very much real, later on to be finally published in books with the names of Mary since she was the original person who found them to begin with I think was a huge victory for women in that time who wanted to be finally accepted into the world as men always had been.

Remarkable Creatures will be available to purchase on January 5th, 2010.

Tracy’s Website

Penguin Books / Dutton

The 13th Hour – Richard Doetsch

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Nick Quinn and his wife Julia have been soul mates since high school.  In love from the day they met, their love grows stronger by the day, until the unspeakable happens – Julia is murdered in the garage where they live.

As Nick is brought down to the police station for questioning, he then learns that he is the primary suspect when something strange happens – a gentleman who is thought to be his attorney enters the room, hands him a watch that he is instructed to never lose, as well as a letter explaining what will happen.  What Nick doesn’t know is that the watch enables him to go back into time to change the events that surround his wife’s death, and whatever he does do, will change the time lines of many if not hundreds in the next 13 hours.

The twist of the whole thing is that he is going back in time, changing events as he knows it already happened. which, may have it own repercussions – changing the future, the events that happen, their lives forever.

I was so engrossed in this plot.  The idea of taking back and changing what has already happened is quite the novel idea.  I couldn’t put it down for a moment – even as my eyes closed while I laid in bed reading ( I have to admit, I had to go back in the  book to see what happened the next day to see what I skimmed over).

An original thinking on the premise of how a crime/thriller/adventure novel is written at least in my mind, he pulls it off with flair, intelligence, the plot twists and turns, the double crosses, as well as the cliff hangers, ultimately the cliffhanger of all cliffhanger that come to the end of the novel for the first time.

I really loved it and the concept he used.

Simon and Schuster

Richard’s Website

Eyewitness Vietnam War – Stuart Murray

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This copy of EyeWitness Vietnam War DOES NOT have the clip art cd and full size wall poster.  Hopefully it will be reissued soon with the new improvements!

Nick’s Likes

  • How it describes the situation of why the war started and their beliefs towards why the war started.
  • The weapon descriptions and armed vehicles they used are shown
  • Talks about the countries involved and how the US president at the time was assassinated (JFK)
  • Talks about how the new warfare that was being implemented and used
  • Vietnamese money and what they spent money on
  • Pictures are bright and Detailed

DK Books

Eyewitness Russia – Kathleen Berton Murrell

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I am sorry to say, this Eyewitness book is NOT one of the new re issued books, which includes a clip art cd and a full size wall poster, but, I hope that they re issue this one and the rest soon these are GREAT books for kids!

Nick’s Likes

  • The history of Russia – early history, 9 different names
  • Russian Civil War – weapons, vehicles they had
  • Talks about modern Russia and being an independent democracy
  • Communist faction and how it was destroyed
  • Wealth of the nation and how they make money
  • Famous writers – Tolstoy – how they interpreted life in Russia
  • Religions – Past and Present how it is and how it was
  • How growing up in Russia is like
  • The Bear being the National Symbol of Russia
  • Cyrillic writing and translations

DK Books

Eyewitness Spy – Richard Platt

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I have to admit, these have to be the BEST books ever the Eyewitness Series – full of colour photographs, and information that makes them a one stop book for many topics imaginable.  Here are Nicks thought’s on this particular book, yes, he is back and will be form any books to come.

Nick’s Likes

  • description of the different types of spies
  • the first spies and the history of how they started
  • the modernization of spies – how they work now compared to how they started and what has advanced since they started
  • the technology has sure changed from simple (pigeons) to the complex (iPods, computers)
  • most famous rogue spies  such as George Blake for the way he betrayed the beliefs of their old countries because of being upset and wanting something different.

This is also one of the newer revamped books which includes a clip art cd and a full size wall poster.

DK Books

Sea of Poppies – Amitav Ghosh

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This is the first book in the three book Ibis Trilogy.

As the old slave ship comes into port at the cocoa plant near Calcutta, the ship is being revamped, so that it may be able to avoid the disruptions in the cocoa distribution and the war with China trying to stop shipments.

The crew, strangers composed of sailors, coolies, convicts, people running from their past and demons make it quite the eclectic group of people.

The bankrupt raja who has been found guilty of forgery – his boss is the master of the ship

The french runaway – running from the family that has raised her when her own parents died

The widowed opium farmer – who was raped on her wedding night by her brother-in-law because her husband was unable to because of his addiction to opium, she eventually gave birth to a daughter.

Amongst all of the crew, there is one reason or another why they are all there – to start a new life in a new place.  It gives you the sad circumstances of where these people are here and why they want a new life for themselves whether it be the caste system that is in effect, or acts that made them on the ship to begin with makes for an interesting and scary place to be.

I was engrossed into the whole of the novel with the richness of the land and place of characters, the historical setting of the late 1880′s in the midst of the Opium trade, how it was affecting the people who worked in the middle of it, as well as, the people who benefitted from it.  The intracity of the language that is used ( it does take a bit to understand what is being said, and there is a dictionary in the back of the book) how authentic it is with all of the research incorporated make it a great book to read.

I have tried to see when the 2nd book would be published, and no luck so far.  I really want to finish the trilogy.

Sea of Poppies Website

Amitav’s Website

Roses – Leila Meacham

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This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for months now taunting me,  now that I have finally read it in less than 24 hours, It left me wanting more; you all know how that happens when you are reading a book and you feel as if you were in the middle of the story as a fly on the wall, wanting more, until the end when you feel like you have at least lived a part of their lives while reading, then at the end you feel jilted like a lover because it is over.  That is exactly how I felt after finishing this book – jilted and thrown away.

Like those mini series that used to be on television years ago that follows a family from the beginning, this is similar – Following the families that started to develop a small town in Texas in the early 20th century to present-day – with all of the background of their struggles, triumphs, hard-working folk, their personal lives, and the secrets they kept to themselves that would cast them in a different light. Until the past creeps up to the present living characters, wondering why it was such a deep dark secret, until now.

There was the cotton tycoon ( the Tolivers) the lumber tycoon ( The Warwick’s) who had founded the small town, on values and morals that to this day are threaded through the families and the town as times have changed.

Mary Toliver the matriarch of the Toliver family, has shed blood sweat and more than just tears into the family cotton business.  Bequeathed the family farm and the responsibility of it when she was a small child after her father dying; She has seen to the family legacy ever since.  Above all else, the love she and Percy Warwick have shared since seeing each other in their crib’s, it was a partner ship that everyone had accepted and knew would happen, but never did because of Mary’s devotion and somewhat obsession to the farm and the legacy.

When Mary ( in present-day visits her lawyers office to sign the codicil that will accompany her will) no ones knows she has cancer, the lawyer is upset that she has changed her will, the thoughts it will do to the family once she is gone.  Mary is trying to avert disaster – the so-called curse that she is sure of that changed her life and Percy’s all that time ago.  Tomorrow, she will fly to her niece’s home to explain everything, but before that she must get to the attic of the house to get something.  As she is lounging on the porch from a long hot day in the sun sipping champagne, she has a heart attack and dies before she has a chance to explain.  This sets in motion the anger and resentment she was determined to avoid by explaining herself.

Threaded with scenes from the past and present, it is reminiscent of like I had mentioned of those tv mini series such as the Thorn Birds and North and South.

This book will be available to purchase on January 6th, 2010.

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Hollywood Moon – Joseph Wambaugh

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When it is getting close or very near to a full moon, do you notice things that wouldn’t usually happen?

Well in the Hollywood, things sure do happen.  The Hollywood station says it happens more and more.  The population being transgendered, aspiring actors, addicts, and other forms of life is to say that the earth really isn’t round.  The hollywood area always has a thing for being in the news as well, not all of the time good news either.

From the inhabitants of the area to the police officers who are just as quirky and interesting themselves, they talk about all of their expericences as they encounter the people of their district as they take calls from the public – a prowler who is attacking women, which will bring them a more sinister plot of one trying to thrown each other under the bus, to be able to get what they want, before the others realize what has happened.

I really enjoyed this book, from the eccentric characters, the stories behind the stories, to the theory of the wackiest that happens in Hollywood Division on a full moon.

Joseph Wambaugh is surely a master of combining the odd, the violent, and the stories that make it all a well-rounded and sometimes laugh out loud funny theories from the characters themselves as if it is just another day on the beat while the bad guys are meeting their demise in the midst of carrying out their bad deeds.

Listen to an excerpt

Watch the Video

No Survivors – Tom Cain

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In this political thriller from Tom Cain, Samuel Carver is at odds of who he is…

He’s presently in a sanitorium in Switzerland not remembering why he is there.  But the images that he feels and sees in his nightmares are driving him to panic attacks along with the amnesia he is currently suffering from.

Once the love of his life for many years, former Russian agent Alix, who is with him trying to help him regain his memory and get well.  One day, she leaves him alone and comes into contact with her former boss with a mission and a chance to return to the life she lived previously in comfort.  Samuel is gaining his memory back, and comes back as never before.

Once long ago, briefcases were made and put in all different places around the world that have nuclear bombs inside them.  No ones knows where a specific list is where all of the locations of these briefcases are, but rumours are saying it is being auctioned off to the highest bidder.  Everyone that knows of this list is trying to get their hands on it for one reason or another. Good or Bad.

One briefcase is found in Alaska, where a team of scientists are determining how it is there, why is it there, how long has it been there for, and how to deactivate it.  No one knows how many more are out there, and as they search for the list themselves and to avoid some sort of worldwide catastrophe, it should be soon…

It was really an engaging read.  With all of the plot turns & twists, the double  and triple crossing going on to get what each individual wants was really interesting.  It will leave you wondering has the list gotten into the right hands, or was it really safe in a box that wasn’t  found for decades.

Penguin

Knit The Season – Kate Jacobs

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This is the third installment in the Friday Night Knitting Club series where we see a lot of the past characters not only knitting, but sharing their lives as well – going off in different directions, new professions, new countries, marriages,  wondering where and when they will be all together again.

As they all get ready for Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and New Years all of the characters you have come to know and love are back with some major changes in their lives, as well as a trip to Scotland to celebrate one last Christmas with family.

I am not familiar with the series,  this is the first I have read of Kate’s work, but for me it was a good read for those who want to continue or even as a stand apart book.

The coming together of women from many generations who not only share their love for knitting and of course each other – the trials and tribulations of life itself make the coming together of these women all the more important.  I felt the cohesiveness of the group even though they all had their disagreements with one another,  sharing their closely knit lives as they all go and do their own individual needs as they grow and experience life.

The winners have been picked for the mitten giveaway that I held in honour of this book coming out, so the ones that have won, your packages have been mailed out, and I hope that they reach you before the coming holidays ! So, congratulations.

Penguin / Putnam

Kate’s Website

Nibble and Kuhn – David Schmahmann

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Derek is a lawyer at one of Boston’s leading law firms where he is up for partner when he is handed an injury case that will have him injuring himself when and if it is over.

The previous lawyer has been selected to become a judge  leaves Derek with the unbridled mess she has made of it.  Not to mention the huge amount of money the firm has already spent on the case when Derek has been told no more money.  Once he gets the files and begins to go through them, he is defeated already knowing that if he does go to court he will surely lose it and possibly his promotion when the trial starts in a few weeks.

To complicate things even further, the firm is re-branding itself, moving, and his current co-worker Maria who he has been having a romantic relationship with is giving him a hard time.  They both love one another, but Maria is promised to a someone who has known her since they were both children.  Derek isn’t one to take no for an answer.

As Derek is preparing the case, juggling all other stuff that is hovering him – the senior partner, Maria, the case, as well as all of the gossip and innuendo; he is finding that the case itself was even worse off then he originally thought.  The people who hired the firm are suffering from Cancer ( and in true Erin Brockovich style) he goes after the defendants.

He starts to ask questions that will either sink or have him swim…

Will it work?

While the writing was good, I felt that the amount of detail and exploration the author tries to convey may be too much for a person trying to understand what he is going for in the novel with specific legalese, but then again I may be wrong and it may make you a new fan to the author or its genre.

David’s Website

Academy Chicago Publishers

Lord Wraybourne’s Betrothed – Jo Beverly

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Jane has just been betrothed to one of England’s most eligible bachelor Earl Wraybourne.  Both being from Rich families (Jane’s is more wealthy) she had lived a very sheltered life away from court and society in general.

When she is making the trip to London to be formally introduced to society and to her new life away from her family,  being able to spend more time with her fiance as well as the people in society.  She wonders if she is feeling more than she should, are her feelings more than she suspects? But, then again he is asking himself the same questions as he admires her in the midst of getting information about a suspect terrorizing women in the community know as “The Whisperer”.

The whisperer, has been accosting the young, single women of the area for a time now, when he approaches Jane it is an entirely different matter.  When the Earl is asked to investigate she doesn’t want to come across as being helpless, but, eventually it is known to the Earl that it very well could be a person in their circle that is doing this awful acts, but whom?

Who it is, will certainly surprise you…

As the Earl is speaking to a woman who was attacked and able to get away, Jane notices this which sends  second thoughts and feelings that she is experiencing for the Earl;  until of course when all of the facts have been revealed.

I enjoyed this book, the storyline for me had something to be able to get into and go along with the plot. I liked the fact that the characters had very interesting plotlines instead of the usual fluff and empty characterization that is found in these genre’s of books.  The other facets of thriller, romance, jealousy, and when the final act was revealed, it would be and is a perfect read.

Penguin Books

Nanny Returns – Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

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Nanny is back !

After marrying “Harvard Hottie” and jet setting around the world, working and enjoying the good life for the last 12 years, they have moved back to civilization – New York and bought a brownstone that needs more than a bit of TLC.

Nan is starting up her consulting business while attempting to get the house in shape for when Ryan come home from working around the world. Until, someone who in her wildest dreams she would have never thought she would have ever seen again – Grayer.

Now 16, he arrives at her door drunk and in the middle of the night.  Once again, the X’s life is in turmoil, but then again when isn’t it? and Nan feeling that she left without explaining the reason why she left to Grayer, and still after all of these years feels guilty.  But the predicament she is forced into partially by her own accord is far crazier and chaotic then it once was.  But then again, it is the X’s.. you remember them and all the outlandish things they used to do and say right? How could you not?

Mr X is always working at his own consulting / money-making firm

Mrs. X is feigning some sort of major illness, and cannot possibly attend to her younger sons private school appointment in their home.

As with the first book, filled with the antics of the X’s and the wild adventures that have them going all over the Hampton’s, all over the City, and the impossibility of Ryan wanting children, Nan is sucked into the X’s vortex again to make her think about how her life is going, does she really want children, and her own future with Ryan; and was that house buying really such a great idea? Right now she is thinking not so much.

For all of the outrageousness of the X’s, the real life questions, answers, as well as the dilemmas that Ryan and Nan are going through outweigh the negatives in my opinion.  This novel gives you thought and laughter when those times of needing “brain candy” with a glass of wine are needed.

Simon and Schuster

I, Alex Cross – James Patterson

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Alex is at home one night celebrating his birthday with his family when he receives a call from work, and it isn’t a good one either.

His niece Caroline has been murdered.

This sets off a Washington wide search for who killed her, and why they did it in the first place.  Alex is surprised to find out that his niece has some hidden skeletons in her closet, not in his mind that he could have ever imagined, since he hasn’t seen her in years after they moved away from the Washington area.

A high-priced escort…

As the investigation continues with all of its plot twists and turns, there have been similar murders happening not only in the past, but continue to happen as well.  That and the high society Alex goes into investigate the murders, where people have more to lose then being caught in a compromising situation – their lives and social status.

But until a cryptic call from a person that Alex doesn’t know in another state with some surprising information, they may not have revealed the killer; trust me it is a BIG one, someone you would have never imagined.

With all of the protection this killer has, you would think that they may not have ever found the killer responsible, but then again Alex Cross is on the case.

Listen to audio excerpt 1

Listen to audio excerpt 2

Watch Video

Leviathan – Scott Westerfield

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First off, I just have to say this is a gorgeous cover with all of the texture and colour this is one of my favorites.

Just at the beginning of WWI, some nations have taken to steam-powered machines and some have taken to more animatistic made machines that they use for battles.

Aleksander Ferdinand has been kidnapped after his parents were killed by their own people.  There are only a few who are still faithful to Aleksander and his beliefs, and have taken precautions to keep him safe.

Deryn, a girl who is clambering at the bit to be able to become a pilot has disguised herself to try and join the British Air Service.  With her taking chances the way she is one thought came to me – will she be discovered? what will happen if she is?

With war starting, will both sides be able to reclaim or overcome the other side to get what they want?

I have to say, this is a great book for kids who in my case with my son is a reluctant reader, and when this book arrived he was actually interested in what it was all about.  It is also great for those exploring what genre’s of books they will ultimately want to read in adulthood to help them decide.

My son is reading this at school and at home, it is really holding his attention, and he is actually talking about what he thinks may happen in the chapters he hasn’t read.  Will Deryn be discovered, will the war change things that were once quiet and calm? What will really happen when the machines take over Europe, or when the Animals take over? The humour is great as well I find it is quite agreeable for kids.  I did hear my son chuckling at a few passages while he read quietly and then asked what part he was at, and once he told me I chuckled as well.

Like I mentioned before, the texturization of the dust cover as well as the full colour diagrams and illustrations in the novel make it quite unique and would be a keepsake just for that alone.

Scott’s Website

Simon and Schuster

Tomato – A Guide to The Pleasures of Choosing, Growing & Cooking – Gail Harland and Sofia Larrinua-Craxton

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If you are contemplating starting to grow tomatoes, or just have a love of eating them then this book is definitely for you.

This smallish hardcover book has literally everything you will need to start to grow your first tomato plants to adding to your repertoire of gardening.

The detailed advice on every part from growing, varieties, diseases, pests, growing them in the ground, growing them in bags, pots or hanging baskets.

There is also a section for when you are ready to harvest, a selection of over 30 recipes to entice you to use your bountiful harvest of tomatoes.

I was really impressed with the full colour photographs and diagrams, along with the descriptions makes this in my opinion the Tomato Lovers Bible.

Who knew that there are over 5000 different varieties of all shapes and sizes that first originated in the western coastal highlands of South America that were grown by the Aztec’s and Mayans.  They also grow wild in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Northern Chile and Peru?

Here is a sampling of the full colour photographs and details from part of the book -

DK Publishing

Sofia’s Website

Help Me, Jacques Cousteau – Gil Adamson

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I have to say this little book had me laughing out loud, I just loved it.

This is a reprint of Gil’s work that was originally published about 10 years ago by a small press The Porcupine’s Quill, which until now had a limited print run and was quite hard to find.

Through the eyes of oldest Hazel along with her younger brother Andrew are born into an eccentric and quirky family.  Through vignettes of the short stories, they have travelled and lived in Australia when their father taught there then moved back to Canada.

Talking about her family through her eyes, as only one could – her brother that once just stopped speaking and read books instead; her father the amateur inventor where the house they live in has been re wired more than once; the house is strewn with old and new inventions; the grandfather who once kept a deceased dog in the back of his car and drove around for a while.

There were many instances where I either laughed out loud, shook my head, and jaw dropped at the antics this family encountered.  Unbelievably funny, with a side of insanity will have you in the same boat as I was – in stitches, unable to comprehend what else was in store while being a part of this family.

Immensely addictive, full of personal insights and flowing like poetry, this would be a great book for an afternoon of reading when you need a pick me up on a snow falling day in front of a window with a hot beverage of your choice.

House of Anansi

Gil Adamson’s Website

Through Black Spruce – Joseph Boyden

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I have to say, this book totally blew me away with its really strong narrative,  literally whisking me away to a place that I have lived close to in Northern Ontario that I had a hard time to even take a breath, much less do anything else until I finished the book.

I had heard all of the buzz surrounding this particular book, but I am now a confirmed new fan to Joseph’s works.  I will be looking for Three Day Road as well, the book he published before Through Black Spruce.  It is also book two of a three book trilogy, where Three Day Road is the first book, but they are also stand alone books.

Will has been a Cree bush pilot for decades and finds himself in the hospital suffering from a coma.  Annie, his niece has her own problems as well.  Looking for her sister that succumbed to the modelling world and some of its perils is number one on her agenda.  The family hasn’t heard from her in months, they are worried, and want to know if she is still alive.  Something happened to her when she was in New York smoozing with people in the industry and all of the deals and plans they have for not only one another but themselves as well.

Will, Annie and the rest of the family come from a small northern Ontario community that is mostly inhabited by native people.  They use snowmobiles in the winter to travel across the lake to other parts of the area, as well as hunt and fish.  In this cold climate, the smell of black spruce, the wood burning stoves, and the problems of drugs and alcohol gives this book the authentic yet real problems that this and other communities face within the Native community.

As Will is laying in his coma, Anne comes to him to tell her story of how finding her sister is becoming a lost cause and how she feels about the whole situation – her sister, her boyfriend who is involved with drug dealing, and the modeling world may have added to her disappearance.  Annie goes to Toronto where she started her modeling career where it then takes her to Montreal and then to New York.  The rumours and conflicting stories don’t bode well for her sister she feels; and praying that she is safe somewhere, anywhere, so that she has enough time to find her.

Will in his own way is communicating how he ended up in this whole predicament – the persons who are responsible, the reason why.  Will has other demons as well – alcohol, losing his wife and young child in a house fire shortly after being married all contribute to how he lives his life now, and the dreams still yet to be realized, with a woman who he has been friends with for years, but just got reconnected.

Rife with heartbreak, fierce love – for one another and others, ancient feuds that have gone on for years with no chance of reconciliation, along with the bonds that hold friends and family together are just impeccable.

I have to say that if I didn’t already know the area Joseph talks about in the novel I think it would have been a totally new experience of seeing it through his eyes for the first time; alas, since I do know the area, I can re imagine the sights and sounds of a small town far away from the nearest larger city, isolated with the cold Ontario winter howling in the background.  The rich and storied cast of characters along with the storytelling will want you to savour this novel and then possibly re read it again to gain a different perspective each time you do.

Through Black Spruce won the Scotia Bank Giller Prize for 2008, CBA Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year for 2009, and was long listed for the I.M.P.A.C Dublin Award in 2009

Penguin

Quill and Quire’s Review

Joseph’s Website

Love Your Body, Love Your Life – Sarah Maria

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I was a bit sceptical about this book when I received an email for it, but alas, it had me intrigued just by the content of what may or may not be in the book.

With the advent of all of these celebrity shows that tout how slim, skinny or large one or many celebrities have become is basically 6pm news nowadays.  The images of slim people exercising, on diet plans are on every channel that you may or may not watch on a continuous basis 24/7 wanting you to buy that excercise system, go on that diet, or make you feel even worse about how your body image is against one or any people who are healthier and look like they are having way more fun then you have had in a while.  Remember those?

Love Your Body, Love Your Life will hopefully assist you to diminish or end the 5 negative body obsessions, and have you start to live happily and confidently, as well as end the self-destructive thoughts and behaviours that we all do at one time or another.  Yes, you heard me right.  We ALL do it even if we do have a healthy self-esteem.  We are human after all.

It all talks about the 5 steps to end Negative Body Obsession and to start living happily and confidently…

Throughout the book I felt and this is my opinion, it was giving me a case of negative body obsession by how many times it referred to it.  It is threaded throughout the whole book, no matter the positive things it wants you to do.  Like an addiction, that negative body obsession is lurking behind the blinds watch out ! mentality.

Yes, we all have negative images and thoughts that come to us throughout a variety of outlets – television, internet, radio, magazines, but that doesn’t mean that we have to be a size 2 like the model do we? We can be healthy, by doing what we can with what is in our control – eating healthy, controlling our portions, decreasing our junk food binges.  Getting more excercise.

Now, for me I didn’t relate to this book.  For one, the old message of Negative Body Obsession or Image was throughout the book.  I feel as thought if you want to get over the negativity of how you are feeling, the author could have just described it in one chapter and then went onto the more important aspect of the book – giving you the tools you need to overcome feeling like this.

There is quite a long list of recommended reading in the back as well for you to peruse and pick and chose at your leisure.

Author’s Website

Adam’s Media

 

 

The Recipe Club – Andrea Isreal and Nancy Garfunkle

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Lilly and Val have been best friends since childhood.  As a way of being better friends and combining their love of cooking they came up with The Recipe Club.

As there are only 2 members, they would send letters back and forth to one another with recipes sometimes because of how the other was feeling and to lift their spirits, and to add to the mix of what was going on their lives at the time.

Once adults, a situation happened that threw them apart, then the letters and recipes stopped.  After the death of Val’s mother, the emails started again, as well as arguments from the past have come back into focus – Lilly’s father paying for Val’s education, the way he paid more attention to her then Lilly; the unknown history that both sets of parent’s had that have now come to the surface, with new and old feelings that haven’t been dealt with.

As the years went by, the girls eventually went their separate ways Val becomes a doctor, Lilly wanted to become a singer and performer, but eventually becoming a caterer.  When they start to communicate once again it is like a long-lost part of them has been stitched back together.  They love and admiration for one another back as it was before.  As they are older now, they come to the things that have spilt them apart in the first place.  With neither wanting to talk about it, it does get solved and both eventually realize that they are the ones that were somewhat taken advantage of, and with that and dealing with it; they become even better friends for the long-term.

With the recipes that are included in the book, they are quite interesting.  You can use the recipes in your own home.  For me it showed the real basis for making and keeping a friendship.  It was also the ability to reclaim the friendship that was once abandoned long ago.   The family dynamics was quite interesting, yet unorthodox as well.

The Recipe Club

The Recipe Club on ABC’s Good Morning America

This book is also being published by HarperCollins in a new edition.

 

 

 

The Carnivore – Mark Sinnett

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In the fall of 1954 Hurricane Hazel hit Toronto with such a force that killed 81 people and injuring many more.

Ray and Mary Townes who were recently married have that typical Canadian life – he being a police officer and Mary a nurse that anyone would want to have and see from the outside as one that is destined to succeed.  Ray is not only young but being hailed as a hero on that fateful night that the hurricane hit, he has a lot to live up to.  Mary, a young nurse working at St. Joseph’s has that persona of a Florence Nightingale working the night shift in her own way.

50 years later, Ray is on his deathbed from emphysema just by chance reading the paper one morning  Ray has made the papers once again;  with the same picture that had haunted him then as it does now.  Mary is still irked to this day about their life so long ago, just waiting patiently until Ray breathes his last breath; what she thought they once had as you will see is a total fabrication, or at least it is in her eyes and she will have nothing of it.  She also knows more than she is letting onto;  Ray, who is telling the whole story throughout this work of fiction that had me engrossed to the point of stalking the characters in a way that you are allowed to when reading a book.

The story itself jumps from present-day to those fateful days when Hurricane Hazel hit, with all of the force it intended.  Ray seems to think that coming clean after all of these years will absolve him of the things that he hadn’t had the guts to reveal to his loving wife Mary.  He fully intended to, but when things got right down to it, he chickened out.

Mary finding the notebook in-between his bed wasn’t exactly the cleverest place to hide his journal for anyone not to find it, but when Mary goes back, she can’t find it with all of the secrets her husband kept from her.

Like I had stated earlier, I was literally stalking this novel – it didn’t matter if I was reading it, or it was sitting on my table eyeing me from where it sat, the story along with all of the characters were on my mind like a woman possessed wanting to know if Ray and Mary would reconcile before Ray took his last breath, or would the animosity of all the heartbreak and sadness of things already done would still fester like a wound would that hasn’t been tended to.

I wasn’t disappointed in the least.

ECW Press

The Brightest Star in the Sky – Marian Keyes

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This is the first book that I have read by Marian and I have to say, I am sitting on the fence.

Marian writes about a 4 plex townhouse at 66 star street, where there are some very eclectic characters in the mix.  The differences almost immediately discernable, yet they all come together in the end by a force that is in the stars so to speak.

Kate is the one that owns the top flat, who works as a PR representing rocks bands that are making their comebacks to the spotlight, who is turning 40 and has never been married.

There are 2 Polish men that share a flat with Lydia who are cab drivers.  Yes they share a flat, but what else will they share? Only time will tell.

Jessica is the octogenarian in the building.  She is the brains behind the whole building.  She brings into the mix her foster son who is starring in his own TV gardening show that is being recorded.  Did I mention she is also a pay per talk psychic as well?

Then there is Meave and Matt who have been married for a few years, and are happy the way they are, or at least it looks and feels that way until you dig a bit deeper into their lives.

Then there is this force of sorts that is the buildings guardian angel so to speak, who oversees everything, good and bad, feels what they feel and think in quiet ways.  St first the residents do come across this “being” that is looking over them, which makes some think they are being watched, but nothing comes of it, until the last day of the 60 that this “being” is there for and needs to make a huge decision about who and when.

I liked the way that Marian tackles some of the really tough issues of today – older parents aging and getting ill, violent acts that may take hold of a person after the fact, instead of keeping it all buried and not dealt with.

I think that if it could have been laid out differently than  adding a fantasy twist to it, but it was ok.

Penguin / Michael Joseph

Sex, Drugs, & Gefilte Fish – Edited By Shana Liebman

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9780446504621_388X586When I received the offer to read and review this book it had me intrigued.  Even the title had me wondering right away what it was all about, and I have to admit, I was laughing out loud laughing, shaking my head, and open mouth shocked at some of the stories in this collection from the Heeb Story Collection.

From scoring drugs for your uncle, to spending a New Year’s Eve with porn stars (yes, you heard me correct) it was a hilarious ride into what is to be Jewish, and the stories of living anywhere in America , and what it could have in store for you.

There are 50 stories from the downright laugh out loud laughing funny to sentimental of what it meant for these people to be “Jewish”.

Strangely unique, it had me reading story after story wondering what was next in the queue.

I loved it.

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