Friday Fill-Ins #199

It's Friday Fill-Ins...my answers are in RED...So...here we go!

1. When pigs fly is a weird saying.

2. Summer is really over...seriously?!

3. Call me if you wanna chat!

4. I like to sleep if you know what I mean.

5. The most entertaining person in my life is David because he makes everything more fun!

6. OK...who's next?

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to hanging out at home, tomorrow my plans include sleeping in and Sunday, I want to relax!

Booking Through Thursday: War Stories

This week's Booking Through Thursday question is: It is November 11th, known here in the U.S. as Veteran’s Day, formerly Armistice Day to remember the end of WWI but expanded to honor all veterans who have fought for their country, so …
Do you read war stories? Fictional ones? Histories?

My answer: I don't read war stories per se, but I do LOVE stories set during World War I or II, especially in England, and especially love stories and I really like Charlotte Bingham!! I like to read about the people whose lives were affected by the war that were not necessarily the ones fighting. I find it interesting to read about what it is was like for the people "left behind". Actually one of my favourite books as a kid was by Kit Pearson about British kids sent to Canada to be safe during the war. I also like anything to do with the experience of the Jewish people and the Holocaust.

How about you readers?

Canada Reads 2011-Top10

CBC announced the top ten books from 40 today! The five celebrity panelists and their selections for Canada Reads 2011 will be announced November 24th.

The top are:

• Bottle Rocket Hearts, by Zoe Whittall
• Essex County, by Jeff Lemire
• Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
• Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson
• The Best Laid Plans, by Terry Fallis
• The Birth House, by Ami McKay
• The Bone Cage, by Angie Abdou
• The Book of Negroes, by Lawrence Hill
• Three Day Road, by Joseph Boyden
• Unless, by Carol Shields

I think I will probably read the final five again..anybody else??

On another note-the winner of the Giller Prize will be announced tonight!
**UPDATE: And the winner is...Johanna Skibsrud for The Sentimentalists!!**

Book Review: Secret Daughter

I read Shilpi Somaya Gowda's Secret Daughter last week/end for my November book club. As usual, I like to save my thoughts for my book club selections for my meet ups but I can't say NOTHING...

I loved this book!!! At first I wasn't really in the mood to read another book set in India because I feel like I've read quite a few lately but this was fantastic. The story is set partially in the US and partially in India and follows the lives of an American couple trying to conceive that ends up adopting a little girl from India, the husband homeland, and the woman who gave her up. It was fantastic and I HIGHLY recommend Secret Daughter!!

One last thing to share with you is a passage from Secret Daughter that I thought was just perfect:

"But her mother always said the key to a successful marriage was for each spouse to give as much as they thought they could. And then, to give a little more. Somewhere in that extra giving, in the space created by generosity without score keeping, was the difference between marriages that thrived and those that didn't." (p. 270)

Friday Fill-Ins #198

IT'S FRIDAY!!!! My answers to Friday Fill-Ins are in RED as usual....
So...here we go!

1. Sometimes, I wish I could sleep ALL DAY!

2. I could eat just about the whole thing.

3. Small things make me smile.

4. Reading is very enlightening.

5. I keep meaning to clean up my desk.

6. I haven't seen snow on the ground...yet.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to relaxing, tomorrow my plans include a BBQ with friends and Sunday, I want to enjoy setting back the clocks an hour!

Booking Through Thursday: Good or Bad

This week's question: "I’ve seen many bloggers say that what draws them to certain books or authors is good writing, and what causes them to stop reading a certain book or author is bad writing. What constitutes good writing and bad writing to you?"

My answer: Plain and simple: Good writing is when you are so absorbed in a book you can't put it down, bad writing is when you have to re-read passages over again because they don't flow, repeated use of the same more unusual adjectives within a few pages, and poor plot and character development!

Short and sweet this week-what do you think?

abandoned

I ordered Jonathan Franzen's Freedom a few weeks ago after coming across numerous reviews  (ie: here) AND the fact that it was named as the new Oprah book club selection. Wow am I disappointed that I actually bought this book. I abandoned it yesterday after trying  to get into it for like 3 days!! I'm not sure if it's the writing or the characters but I found Freedom to be soooooo pretentious!! I could not get into it and found all of the characters basically loathsome! So I put it down and may not get back to it!!

I also want to mention that I loved the Oprah book club selection from the past-I think I read over 80% of them. My book club is even called the "Oprah type book club"! But the past few years-basically since 2007 have been very disappointing!!
To be specific: (my comments in GREEN)
2010
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen - pretentious

2009
Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan - still on hold at the library so no comment YET

2008
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski - terrible!!!
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle -terrible-I know this book was meaningful to a lot of people but I just could not see why!

2007
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - okay this was fantastic
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez -  terrible-the movie was awful too
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - also fantastic
The Road by Cormac McCarthy - I totally did NOT get this book!!
The Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier - I read it but it was not memorable

Oprah-what happened??