Cute...

The Value of Book Clubs

I'm not going to lie, sometimes the damn book gets in the way of a good Book Club meeting.

Love my Book Club friends!

The Rosie Effect: Beach Read in Mexico

The sequel to The Rosie Project

Read The Rosie Effect on the beach in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico on Dec 26-27.  I enjoyed Graeme Simsion's sequel to The Rosie Project. It was entertaining with several laugh out loud moments. Excellent beach reading.

Author Graeme Simsion

Mixes Well With Mexican Margaritas

Milosz by Cordelia Strube

Having taken a creative writing course this fall at Ryerson University, I wanted to read a few of the instructor's novels. This is the second of Stube's novels that I read...I may read Lemon in the new year.

Here's a brief summary thanks to Goodreads.com:

Milo doesn’t quite have it all together. His acting career has stalled. His Latvian girlfriend dumped him. His miserable father has vanished. And Pablo and Wallace – and then Wallace’s mother too – seem to have moved in to his house. Really, the only person Milo likes is Robertson, the autistic eleven-year-old who lives next door. So when Robertson gets bullied and his dad moves out, Milo is finally spurred to action. Milo being Milo, though, even his best intentions go awry, and soon Robertson’s dad is in the hospital, Milo’s lost in the woods during an acting experiment and Gustaw, his dad, may have returned from the dead. 

As a endnote, I have to say that I enjoyed the creative writing course very much. Strube was a friendly and approachable instructor, who encouraged each student with their work. She listened patiently and encouraged all class participation. I found out that writing well is very difficult, and involves much effort. In the meantime, I will continue to hack along with my blog...It's no great demonstration of good writing!

Cheers!

Journeyman…Sean Pronger Gets Around!

So I've neglected to blog for some time…not because I don't like to write, but because I haven't been reading all that much these days. I am a real estate agent, and this is my busy time of the year. Not too many days go by that I don't read, but spring and summer time are my busy work times, so I haven't finished as many books lately.

Sean Pronger's Journeyman has kept me company during these last few months. I bought this book as a Christmas present for Claudio. He's not much of a reader, but I have these secret hopes that he will, one day, find as much pleasure as I do from reading. (OK, I guess that's not likely, so I decided to pick up Journeyman and read it for myself.)

Manitoba Moose:
His Happiest  Time

Surprisingly, I really enjoyed Pronger's autobiography. It was an honest and entertaining story of a man who bounces from team to team and from league to league always with aspirations of making a living by playing professional hockey. Living a hockey life in the shadow of his younger brother Chris Pronger, Sean tells an entertaining story of his ups and downs. He is honest and self deprecating. He never overstates his talents, and he tries to be as honest as possible with his feelings about team mates and coaches.

This hockey story as a straight account of one persons attempts in the NHL and other lower leagues. I really enjoyed his gritty accounts of the locker room and team bus experiences (and charter planes when he's in the Big Show). These stories were funny and eye opening. They made me respect the  3rd and 4th line grinders a lot more than I had ever thought.

I've read Ken Dryden's book called The Game (see one of my previous blogs). Boy was that a pile of bullshit piled a mile high. What can you expect from Dryden: written by a lawyer turned politician, it was so contrived and manipulated, there was never any genuine stories that were believable.

This isn't the case with Journeyman. Here, the author makes every effort to keep it real, and to name names when necessary. Sean Pronger isn't an elected official, and as such, you get a real life account of the trenches. He isn't afraid to call certain coaches jerks (Pat Burns), and some trainers inconsiderate. He names certain players as selfish and spoiled. On the other hand, he also is very gracious in his praise for the players, coaches and agents who cared about the journeymen of the game.

Sean Pronger's Biz Venture

On a personal note, I wanted to mention that I thought it was wonderful that Sean didn't spend a lot of time discussing the merits of his younger brother's abilities. Sure we all know about the hockey superstar Chris Pronger, but that is not the subject of this book. Sean dismisses Chris quite authoritatively throughout the book, and justifiably. This is not the story of a superstar. It's the story of a player who lived in the shadows of the shining star. Sean allocates less than a chapter to the examination of his relationship with his brother. This amount of discussion is entirely fair given that it's his story, not Chris'.

I have experienced the force of nature that is created by a brother who makes a mark in the NHL. It creates a huge shadow for the siblings, and it sometimes shapes how they are treated by others. Without a simple greeting or introduction, "Hey, how's your brother?" is tossed out at the sight of the star's sibling. It really is sickening for the sibling after some time. It can really be offensive, and I appreciate Sean's honesty when it came to discussing this aspect of his family dynamic. I loved his honesty when he said he wanted to  fill in some of the people who see right past him without any consideration of his well being first. (Unfortunately, it's a common occurrence for many siblings of NHL stars.)

SUPER EXCELLENT!!! Popularity Papers; Words of (questionable) Wisdom...

This was my favourite from the series:
#3.

Just when I thought that kids fiction was getting a bit predictable and boring, along comes Amy Ignatow to show me a new face of children's literature.

MOM'S TAKE NOTE: Amy Ignatow's Popularity Papers shine like a beacon of creativity and fun. These books are unlike anything I have ever seen or read, and I am raving about them to everyone that will listen. If you have girls ages 8-12, these are a must read!

On with my book review of the Popularity Papers:

A few weeks before Christmas, I came across Amy Ignatow's Popularity Papers at VV, and I was fascinated by the colourful cover. Being entirely illustrated by hand, and the narrative being hand written dialogue between two twelve year old best friends.  Julie Graham-Chang is a budding illustrator, so she draws all the pictures to illustrate the narrative. Lydia Goldblatt is her spunky friend who tries out new things, gets into pickles and generally is a scream.

They see eye to eye on most things and enjoy similarly quirky humour.  They are totally honest with each other and are a refreshing couple of girls. At times, they see themselves as outsiders to the mainstream school population, but they have each other, and as such, they encourage and maintain each other's unique personalities.

My Daughter and I now have a
Trunk List too!!!

There are currently 6 novels that make up this series, and when I bought Popularity Papers #3: I didn't realize that I was starting in the middle of the series.  Didn't make much difference though, as each novel is a stand alone snapshot of Lydia and Julie's antics. I have since read them all, (out of order too), and I can whole-heartedly recommend these books for any girl ages 8-12. I'm going to admit that I loved reading these books too, and found myself laughing hysterically in my bed at Julie and Lydia's antics. At times, I feared I was laughing too loud and would wake the kids.

Amy Ignatow is incredibly talented. She not afraid of difficult subjects and describes that from the perspective of a twelve year old girl. She shows Julie and Lydia supporting and encouraging each other through these life experiences. There are moments of true tenderness and and insight from a girls perspective.

Turns out Jen Mattocks is the Doctor's
daughter!

There are belly laugh moments, like the one here about Jen Mattocks.

It's a Beautiful Thing to be 12 and
full of Sunny Hope.

Amy Ignatow's Facebook page is a bit of fun and worth checking out:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Popularity-Papers/212256315882?id=212256315882&sk=photos_stream

Happy New Year to all the Girls of the World!!!

From the Toronto Star Saturday January 11, 2014

Funny Video: Don't Interrupt Mom...She's Reading a Book!

If you ever feel like you get interrupted a million times from your book, have a look at this quick video! It might drive the point home with the teenagers!!!

If you have any funny book related videos, please share them with me! Have a great weekend!

CFUW and A Night with Robert Hough

Last night, I attended the CFUW Vaughan Chapter's Annual Winter Fundraising Dinner at the local Woodbridge Legion Hall. The night consisted of a hearty roast beef dinner followed by a presentation by Robert Hough, author of Dr. Brinkley's Tower.

Although I haven't yet read this novel, I couldn't help picking up an autographed copy of the fictional novel. It sounds like a fun tale about a larger-than-life conman from the 1930's.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Here's a little info about CFUW:

The Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) is a voluntary, non-profit, self-funded, non-partisan, non-governmental organization, which serves to improve access to education for women, for peace, justice, human rights and to support programs that improve the environment. This dedicated group is about 10,000 members strong in 112 clubs across the country.

If you’d like more information on becoming a member or to learn about the work done by the CFUW, visit www.cfuw.org.

What Stinks Around Here?!? Day Late and a Dollar Short...OH YAHHHH!!!!!

What a drag...

Well, it pains me to say that this book was a real disappointment. Talk about perpetuating stereotypes, with little attempt to create a portrait of a real life family. "Well, you're reading fiction Claire!" you say. Ok, I realise that this is fiction, but Dollar Short just seems to be painfullly predictable.

This is a summary of the novel by Book Reporter: "Through the literary device of the talk story, we explore the ups and downs of "the Price family." At the opening, everyone is at odds with each other. Viola and her husband Cecil have separated after a tumultuous, 38-year marriage. Viola's second oldest daughter Charlotte and she are not speaking. Viola is troubled by a situation with her youngest daughter Janel. The only son, Lewis, is an alcoholic, in and out of jail and alienated from the family because he feels he is the "failure" among his middle-class sisters. Paris, who admittedly is living out her mother's dream, is the only one at peace with Viola. But even Paris is harboring secrets. Meanwhile, Charlotte is not speaking to Paris because she feels Viola and Paris triangulate against her. The whole family is in turmoil."

Here's my overview of the dysfunctional characters:

-Overbearing fat black mother who's on her deathbed and needs to fix everyone's problems
-Four siblings who are fighting in lumps;
-One daughter is constantly popping pills and abusing prescription drugs
-One daughter married to a man who is sexually abusing her daughter...and she is in denial about it
-One daughter who's husband has a secret child with another woman and is paying child support behind her back
-One alcoholic brother who has a son that he never parents

Needless to say, it's grim. So painfully grim and predictable in some ways.

This was my book club's September read, and it was chosen from the local library's Book Club collection set. We try to use this moving collection at least 50% of the time, so that we don't have to buy a new book every month.

This month's selection was really disappointing though, and I question how it could have been included in the library's collection.

Oh well, onwards and upwards. October's read will be much better, I am quite sure!

Life's Getting Too Complicated!

This video makes me chuckle. The more complicated our world becomes, the more silly we become! Enjoy!

The Uncommon Reader

A gift from my mom, The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett is something that I wouldn't have chosen myself. For one, it's very short; only 121 pages...a novella really. Also, it's written with the Queen of England as protagonist, and so it would not have grabbed my attention.  That said, my mom suggested that I'd really get a kick out of it, so I gave it a shot! I am pleased to report that it was a bit of fun!

Quite by accident, Queen Elizabeth stumbles upon a travelling library on the grounds of Buckingham Palace. She goes inside the van, and chooses a book to read. Admittedly, she hasn't read anything for years. Although her choice is a tough slog, she does opt for another book after a week, and discovers the passion of reading.

Comically, her love of reading overtakes her Royal Duties, and she becomes quite delinquent and uninterested in her scheduled obligations. There is one passage in which she relies on Prince Philip to wave from the Carriage to the "cripples", because she's too busy with a good book!

With her new found passion, the Royal staff become increasingly concerned that her performance as Queen is slipping, and they do everything that they can to intercept her reading, and discourage her hobby. This angers the Queen and she begins to see the ignorance that surrounds her--especially the ignorance of the Prime Minister and other elected officials.

Author Alan Bennett

While this is an entertaining comedy, it does make the serious statement that reading can change your perspective on life. At the culmination of the novel, the Queen declares that she is going to write a book about her reflections on life, and her analysis of her times. Through books, she has been led to writing.

There are lots of witty recommendations for Alan Bennett's novel. These primarily come from the British press. I wonder whether some of it's "brilliance" is lost on this Canadian reader. It is a short, easy read that made me chuckle in places.  I wouldn't call it "A perfectly formed book." as does the Daily Mail. I wonder if the Queen of England has read it? What would she think of such a book? I'm sure I'll never know!