Monday, March 29, 2010

awesome

You know what's awesome? When you come home to a package slip and think "Ooh a package for me?" and then remember that it's the books you ordered on-line last week!! Awesome!
I received the selection for my book club meeting in April-The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar and Dave got two books too....Changing Toronto: Governing Urban Neolibralism and The Shape of the Suburbs: Understanding Toronto's Sprawl. If you ask nicely maybe he'll do a guest blog on them!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

i'd rather be cleaning

I finally finished More by Austin Clarke today. I did not really enjoy it. In fact I spent about 6 hours cleaning on Friday night INSTEAD of reading my book. The best thing I can say is that now it's done. I wouldn't say it was "bad", but other than the fact it was set in Toronto and it makes me happy to recognize landmarks and street names, I didn't feel any connection to the book.

My next selection is Wicked by Gregory Maguire.I've been eying (eyeing-that looks weird) is for about a month or so at BMV and finally decided to buy it and the second book in the series because they were very reasonably priced (7.99 and 2.99). I've heard good things about the musical and am looking forward to reading this series!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

it's a Pretty Modern life

A friend at work has an amazing blog (it's a Pretty Modern life) that I recommend you check out if you are interested in anything crafty. If I remember correctly, when she started the blog she was new to sewing and crochet and basically taught herself to crochet from the internet. I also tried to learn crochet from the internet. I was not as successful and needed a real life lesson-but she, like me-taught herself to make Amigurumi. If you've ever seen my stuff and think it's cute...well... her stuff is fantastic!! She even gives tutorials and offers up her own patterns!! I highly recommend checking it out, and she has a pretty sweet contest right now!

Here's to you Amanda!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

an uphill battle

I am struggling through More by Austin Clarke in honour of The Toronto Public Library's Keep Toronto Reading month. I'm really not enjoying it. To the point where I have twice considered not finishing it. I never do that! The redeeming factor is that it is set in Toronto and whenever I recognize a landmark/intersection/street I think "Hey I know where that is!" and to be honest with you, I kind of like that feeling.

So I guess I have to finish to keep getting those warm fuzzy "I live in Toronto" feelings that make this feel more and more like home! (Sorry mom!!)

What do you do when you aren't enjoying a book-Keep plugging along or close up shop??

Monday, March 22, 2010

MAGIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(You'll understand the button reference if you read the book.
And yes I am aware that my photo is kind of dorky!)


THANK YOU MARCIA AND JESSE!!! I get so many good recommendations from these two-and access to their wonderful collection of books!! I actually have a list on THEIR fridge of the books they own that I want to borrow. I usually ask Marcia to surprise me when I borrow a book-but I specifically requested Lev Grossman's The Magicians. It was wonderful!! It's a bit of a mixture of Harry Potter stirred into The Chronicles of Narnia, with a handful of adult characters and a sprinkle of adult subject matter. LOVED IT! I highly recommend this book if you could use a little magic in your day (or week, or month-depending on how long it takes you to read it).

Saturday, March 20, 2010

In between

I recently asked a friend to read A Fine Balance at the same time as me. I bought the book a few weeks ago (at Seekers for $4.99!!) and started it last week, but forgot to mention it to her until I was about 100 pages in, and am now about a third of the way through. I decided to set it aside to read a few other books in between to let her catch up.

I just finished What Boys Like and Other Stories by Amy Jones, a Canadian writer. I don't typically read short stories because in my mind I don't really like them. Why you ask? Ummmm...I'm not sure. This is similar to how I often think I don't like certain foods even though I've never had them. Fish and seafood do NOT belong in this "I think I don't like it" category because I try it every opportunity I get and STILL DON'T LIKE IT!!

OK, back to the book-I found myself reading this collection because I somehow made my way to Amy's blog-which is pretty awesome, and figured if I liked her blog maybe I'd like her short stories. Guess what?? I did!!

What are your feelings on short stories?

Movie Day

I usually spend most of the weekend reading. Not this weekend!! This is what I did instead:

9:50am Wake up-I love sleeping in!

11:00am Watched The Golden Compass-thank you Toronto Public Library!

1:00pm Showered

2:00pm Started laundry

4:00pm Finished laundry, went for a walk

5:00pm hung out at Chapters

5:30pm Went to the movie theater to watch Avatar (it started at 6:10 but we were done with Chapters). When we got there the theater was EMPTY!!

6:10pm Theater is now packed!!! Put on the awesome "Real D" 3D glasses

6:20pmHeadache sets in from the 3D and the suffocating smell of perfume from behind AND beside us

9:00pm Leave theater, walk home. (Didn't really expect to like the movie but REALLY enjoyed it!!)

9:45pm Get home...how did it take so long to walk?? Not sure.

10:00pm Pretty in Pink is on!! Did you realize that Ducky is Alan on Two and a Half Men!!!

Now Watching Pretty in Pink and Blogging

Up next Reading! Or falling asleep.

My awesome 3D glasses. Every time Dave looked at me in the theater he started laughing...and then I looked at him and started laughing.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Keep Toronto Reading


The Toronto Public Library is hosting Keep Toronto Reading from April 1-30, 2010.

One of the themes is to "Share The Books You Love"which is part of the reason I started this blog in the first place!! On that note here are some of the books that I love most (in no particular order):

1. The Book of Negroes
2. The Poisonwood Bible
3. The Josephine B. Trilogy
4. The Anne of Green Gables Series
5. The Shadow of the Wind
6. The Chronicles of Narnia
7. The Time Traveler's Wife
8. The Gargoyle
9. The Hobbit
10. The Diary of Anne Frank

I'm sure I'm missing something, but at this moment these are my top ten books/series of ALL TIME!

What are yours?

Back from vacation


I am back in Toronto after a wonderfully relaxing week in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic with my sister. We spent the majority of our time on the beach reading. It was fantastic.

One thing that I thought was pretty neat at our resort, was that there was a self-serve library thingy. There were basically a few shelves on the side of the kid's centre where you could pick up a book that someone else had left behind-and if you're so inclined, to also leave a book as well! It was neat to see popular books not only in English, but French and German as well. Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Angel's Game was even there!!

I read my way through two books (Shutter Island: so-so, good ending, might be too scared to see the movie still, and The Cure For Death by Lightning: not great). I left TCFDBL on the shelf and brought back Innocence by Kathlene Tessaro-total chick lit, exactly what I was in the mood for.

Does anybody have any book recommendations for me??

Friday, March 5, 2010

Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay

I just finished an AMAZING book!!!! Sarah's Key is a story
told from two perspectives: Sarah a Jewish girl whose family
is torn apart in Nazi occupied France during July 1942, and
Julia, an American woman living in Paris in 2002. This was
such a fantastic book I highly recommend it!!








You won't be seeing any new posts for the next week-I'm off
to the Dominican Republic with my sister for some R&R!!
I have Shutter Island and The Cure For Death By Lightning
packed-as well as a few magazines!

Happy reading!!

Monday, March 1, 2010

What I'm reading...

I am finally reading the book I am Hutterite by Mary-Ann Kirkby. It's a first hand account by a woman that grew up on a Hutterite colony near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. My mother-in-law lent me this book a few visits ago and I put it in the back flap of my suitcase and somehow forgot about it for over a year!! At Christmas I was trying to decide which suitcase to bring and realized there was a book still in one!! This book is amazing!! It's not very long and I'm sure I'll have it finished in the next day or too, but I highly recommend it!!!



(I just read through my post and realized I had a lot of exclamation marks...I think I'll leave them.)

!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope you're having a good Monday!!!!!!!!!!!!!