A New Blog

Kate and I have started a new book blog: Two Canadian Readers. We'll be posting reviews of books we've enjoyed.

Why a new blog, especially when I've been having trouble enough keeping this one up to date? First, I've been posting book reviews on LibraryThing regularly for the past year. I've not included the reviews here because I didn't want to clutter up this blog for those who come here for knitting patterns and family updates. More importantly, Kate was eager to have a place where she can post her own thoughts on her favourite books.

So we'll see how this new venture goes. The difficulty, of course, is in keeping it going once the initial enthusiasm wanes. However, if it gets both of us reading and writing more, even for a short time, then that's a good thing!

48-Hour Book Challenge

It's time again for MotherReader's 48-Hour Book Challenge! This event will take place June 4-6, and the goal is to read as much as possible over a 48-hour period. Related activities include writing reviews on one's blog and visiting other participants' blogs to read their reviews.

I had so much fun doing this last year that I'll be joining again. Last time around, I read for 16 hours and finished 4 books, and I hope to increase those numbers this year. Kate has decided to join me as an unofficial participant.

For every hour I read/review/blog, I'm going to donate a dollar to The Literacy Group of Waterloo Region, an organization that provides adult literacy training. For every hour Kate reads, I will donate a dollar to her pick, The Central Asia Institute. This is the organization started by Greg Mortenson of Three Cups of Tea fame, to provide educational facilities in remote parts of central Asia.

Kate and I both have a stack of books ready to go. I've cleared my calendar of all commitments and warned the rest of my family that I will not be available for non-reading social activities or chores that weekend. Kate and I do have to attend a parent-child book club meeting on Sunday, but that sort of counts, doesn't it? Julia won't be joining, as she will be spending the entire weekend studying for her final exams, which take place the following week. The house will be very quiet, as long as Todd doesn't decide to hold a jam session.

Please consider joining us for this fun event or donating to these two very worthwhile charities!

Dewey's Read-a-thon: Summary

Well, the read-a-thon is done and I managed to finish A Thread of Sky, 10 minutes after the official end time. I will eventually post a review on my LibraryThing account. My total reading time was 9.5 hours. As a summary of the event, I'll post my answers for the End of Event meme:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
   11pm to midnight, right before I decided to go to bed.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
   There are a lot of great young-adult books out there. I had no trouble getting through Half Life, the first book I finished for the read-a-thon.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
   A separate page listing all the mini-challenges announced up to the current time, with start and end times, would be helpful.
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
   The event was very well organized, and I appreciated the comments from the Cheerleaders. I'm glad that a good portion of the prizes were reserved for the cheerleading squad.
5. How many books did you read?
   Two, and about one-third of another.
6. What were the names of the books you read?
   Half Life by Hiromi Goto
   A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei
   Clouds of Witness by Dorothy Sayers (still in progress)
7. Which book did you enjoy most?
   I thought Half Life was exceptionally good, but I also enjoyed A Thread of Sky.
8. Which did you enjoy least?
   I like Dorothy Sayers, and I'm sure I'll enjoy the rest of Clouds of Witness, but the witty upper-class banter tends to be less appealing in the late hours of a read-a-thon.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
   I wasn't a Cheerleader, but I really appreciated having them visit my blog.
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
    I definitely want to participate in the Read-a-thon again, and I'll be sure to sign up for at least an hour of cheerleading next time. One thing I regret is not taking enough time to visit other reader's blogs. I still plan to do this in the next few days, to see what others had read and hopefully get some good book recommendations.
    

That's it for now. Many thanks to the organizers and cheerleaders of this terrific event!

Dewey's Read-a-thon: Update #4

Got up at 7am and I've been reading since. Getting a good stretch of sleep was a great idea, though I am truly impressed by the read-a-thon participants who were reading through the night. The event is officially over, but as I moved my own start time to 9am EDT yesterday, I still have an hour to go. I've got about 75 pages left in Thread of Sky.

Location: Montreal
Hours into challenge: 23
Hours read: 8.5
Pages read: 570
Books finished: 1
Books in progress: 2

Dewey's Read-a-thon: Update #3

I only managed 3 hours of reading since the last update. Apart from reading, I spent a couple of hours at the hospital with Mom (who is doing better today), and after visiting hours were over, had some time with Dad and my cousins. I did manage to read a bit at the hospital, while Mom was resting or someone else was visiting with her. Indeed, there was some fuss made over my Sony e-Reader in the waiting room, as a group of friendly strangers started crowding around me, eager to check out this gadget. Using a combination of English, French and hand gestures, I managed to describe the main features of the device. Now, I'm back at my parents' home and trying to catch up with the reading, but I don't think I'll be able to stay awake much longer.

Current progress:
Location: Montreal
Hours into challenge: 15
Hours read: 7.5
Pages read: 510
Books finished: 1
Books in progress: 2

Still working on Thread of Sky. Am about two-thirds of the way through and enjoying it more and more as I continue. At the hospital, I had only my e-Reader with me and started Dorothy Sayer's Clouds of Witness.

Dewey's Read-a-thon: Update #2

The Dewey's Read-a-thon Cheerleaders are great! The next time I do this Read-a-thon, I will definitely sign up to do some cheerleading myself. I wish I could visit more of the other readers' blogs right now, but the battery is dying on my laptop, the Internet service is unreliable and, with the swaying of the train, it's really hard to type. So I will make a quick progress report and save the book reviews and blog visiting for later.

Current progress:
Location: on VIA train 6006, heading into Montreal
Hours into challenge: 7.5
Hours read: 4.5
Pages read: 375
Books finished: 1.5

I am halfway through Deanna Fei's Thread of Sky. The story is about 6 American-Chinese women from 3 generations of the same family who embark on a tour of China to reconnect and discover their roots. The first third of the book was focused on developing the characters and revealing their backgrounds. Now, I'm reading about the journey itself and it is eerily familiar, reminding me of our own family's big trip to China in 2006. That was my parents' first trip back since they arrived in Montreal in the 1960's, and there were 20 of us, from immediate and extended family, from three generations. The characters' travel itinerary is almost the same as ours too. Coincidence?

Dewey's Read-a-thon: Update #1

First of all, thanks to those who have left comments of encouragement as well as good wishes for my Mom! Your kind words are appreciated.

Here is the current progress report:
Location: on VIA train 6006, heading east, just past Oshawa.
Hours into challenge: 3.5
Hours read: 2 and a bit
Pages read: 225
Books finished: 1

Following advice found on the read-a-thon site, I decided to start with an easy read, so I could start the day with a feeling of accomplishment. I chose Hiromi Goto's Half World, containing wonderful illustrations by Jillian Tamaki. This young-adult novel is one of the Ontario Library Association's White Pine Award nominees for 2010. This was a terrific read, set in a crazy, scary fantasy world not unlike one of Neil Gaiman's.

What's next? First, catch up with news on the Dewey's Read-a-thon blog, eat one of the yummy Rise 'n Shine bagels Todd and I picked up on the way to the train station, have a short nap, and then on to the next book.

Dewey's Read-a-thon: unexpected changes

I had big plans to spend most of the day curled up on the couch next to a pile of books, taking the occasional break for exercise (i.e. walking around the neighbourhood listening to an audiobook on my iPod). Well, things have changed. Yesterday, my Mom, who has been ill for some time, was readmitted to hospital. I don't want to go into the medical details here (though friends and family members are welcome to e-mail me for updates). Suffice it to say that she is very weak now but we are optimistic that an upcoming surgery will restore her health.

The consequence of this news is that I decided last night to leave for Montreal this morning to spend some time with her and my Dad and hopefully to speak to her doctors in person. My initial thought was to withdraw from the read-a-thon, but then it occurred to me that I'll be spending many hours (at least 7 if I take the train, and ironically, almost as many if I fly) reading anyhow. Internet access may be spotty, so I won't be able to update the blog often, but rest assure I will be reading.

I'll be bringing along A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei, Oonagh by Mary Tilberg and maybe Half World by Hiromi Goto if I have room in my bag. I'll also have my handy e-Reader with me. For your entertainment, here is a rant. I'd just started Margaret Atwood's Year of the Flood, but the enormous tome is just too big to stuff in my backpack. I would dearly love to have this on my e-Reader but I balk at spending $19 for the e-book after I'd already spent $25 for the hardcover. Many publishers are talking about bundling print and electronic versions of books. I wish they'd stop talking about it and get on with doing it! I considered buying other Atwood books, but Kobo has only two others, one of which I've already read. The Sony e-book store has more Atwood selections, but they are only available to US customers. Margaret Atwood is possibly Canada's most well-known author ever, and you can't get her e-books in Canada?? Ridiculous!

Off to pack now and do the last-minute chores before heading out. Given the circumstances, I will probably set my official start time to 9am EDT instead of 8am.

Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-Thon

I had so much fun with the 48-Hour Reading Challenge last year that I am seriously considering participating in Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-Thon. It starts on Saturday, April 10 at 8am EDT and goes for, as the name suggests, a full 24 hours. I'm a realist, so I'll aim for 8 hours, and any more will be a bonus.

Usually, Saturdays are packed with activity for us. However, Todd has graciously offered to take care of cooking, chores and children on Saturday. Seeing that he has been away most of the week on business, I can accept this offer guilt-free.

So what to read? Based on the Web site's recommendations, as well as past experience, it seems best to avoid anything long or heavy. Maybe this is a good time to go through some of the mysteries (P.D. James, Agatha Christie, Eric Wright, M. C. Beaton, Dorothy Sayers) I've collected on my e-Reader.

Anyone want to join me? If you're in the area, stop by for a cup of tea or glass of wine, but bring a book with you!

The 2009 Evergreen List

One of my goals this year was to read most of the books on the 2009 Ontario Library Association's Evergreen list. I didn't think at first that all of them would interest me or even if that were the case, I'd manage to get through all of them, but I did! Even better, some friends and family members joined me in reading these through our book club. Here's a quick run-down:

• Apples to Oysters: A Food Lover's Tour of Canadian Farms by Margaret Webb. Journalist Webb examines 11 Canadian foods and how they are produced, with a focus on sustainable farming. Fascinating stuff. I bought Ambrosia apples for the first time after reading this book. Would like to try dulse too, but not sure where to get it locally.
• The Calling by Inger Ash Wolfe. This is a psychological thriller, gruesome at times, written by Wolfe, a pseudonym for a supposedly well-known Canadian writer. Wolfe develops the characters well and does a good job of portraying small-town Ontario. The second book in the series, The Taken, has just been released.
  
• The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway. This is a compact but intense story about three people trying to survive during the siege of Sarajevo. The title refers to the real-life cellist, a mostly symbolic character in the novel, who risked his life to play Albioni's Adagio to honour the dead. Definitely recommended!
  
• Coventry by Helen Humphreys. Humphrey's spare and poetic style really appealed to me and it was a pleasure to read this story about two women whose lives cross during wartime.
  
• Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott. This book, about a middle-aged woman who takes in a family after she accidentally crashes into the car in which they've been living, explores the notion of being "good". It's an engaging story.
  
• In Spite of Myself: a Memoir by Christopher Plummer. Plummer's book is long and verbose, with names dropped on every page, but it is full of hilarious anecdotes and a must-read for fans of the theatre.
  
• The Killing Circle by Andrew Pyper. This is the story of a struggling writer who joins a writing circle and finds himself and his son drawn into the world of a serial killer. Wonderfully suspenseful, scary and disturbing!
  
• The Outlander by Gil Adamson. The story of a young widow's flight through the wilderness of western Canada and US in the early 1900s, this was my favourite book of the ten. Beautifully written and a page-turner at the same time.
  
• Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by Margaret Atwood. Taken from the Massey Lectures, Atwood's discourse on debt (a historical, philosophical and literary view rather than a financial guide) is thought-provoking and timely. I do enjoy her fiction more, though.
  
• Ragged Company by Richard Wagamese. This was the biggest surprise for me. Had never heard of Wagamese but absolutely loved this book about four homeless people who win the lottery. Wonderful storytelling!

And the winner is .... The Cellist of Sarajevo! The Distinction of Honour goes to Coventry. See the announcement on the Ontario Library Association's Web site.

The new Evergreen list will be released in February 2010. However, the other 2010 OLA Forest of Reading lists are available now. Kate plans to participate in the Silver Birch Fiction program again this year.

A Literary Weekend

I had the great pleasure of seeing Margaret Atwood at the Kitchener Public Library yesterday. Actually, I saw her via a live video feed, in a room adjacent to the library auditorium where she was speaking. The overflow crowd was enthusiastic all the same. It was enough to be next door to greatness.

When I saw the announcement months ago, I planned to show up early for the ticket distribution that took place two weeks before the event. I arrived 15 minutes before the doors opened, figuring that would surely be early enough. After all, we're talking about a reading by a novelist who writes serious literature, not a U2 concert. By the time I got to the front of the line, I was told the auditorium tickets were all gone and there were only a handful of overflow tickets left. I managed to snag two for myself and my friend Fei Min, and I saw over 50 people in the line behind me go home disappointed.

Margaret Atwood read from her new work, Year of the Flood, but much more enlightening and entertaining were her comments during the Q&A period. She covered utopian and dystopian literature, the purposes of blogging and Twittering, anecdotes from her early writing days, and much more. I didn't envy the interviewer, as this is one very sharp and quick woman. It must be tough keeping up with her.

We then lined up with the rest of the crowd to get our books signed. I had the new one, while Fei Min had her cherished copy of Alias Grace, which might very well be my favourite Atwood work, of the ones I've read so far. (I'd read this novel during the long hours breastfeeding Kate right after she was born; it was so compelling and disturbing that I didn't manage to get the sleep that I so badly needed at the time.) Fei Min and I then spent the next hour rehashing the event over a couple of sushi rolls. All in all, it was a terrific way to spend a Saturday!

This afternoon, I headed over to Victoria Park for the Word on the Street Festival. I picked up a few books for the kids and listened to a couple of readings. The highlight for me was attending Shane Peacock's reading from his first Boy Sherlock Holmes book, Eye of the Crow. I already knew he was a first-rate writer, but I discovered that he is a superb speaker as well. He spoke about his passion for Victorian England and his inspirations for this series. He also warned would-be young writers that it's very hard work to write. I believe him, as his books seem to be meticulously researched. After the reading, I got Kate's copy of Death in the Air signed. She couldn't come with me to the reading because of a previous commitment, but she was thrilled to see the signed book when she returned home in the evening.

A Renaissance of Sorts

I've been reading a lot lately. I'd always read a lot, spending hours a week at the library in my youth and taking literature courses all through university as my non-technical electives. However, sometime in the past decade, I became brain-dead. With the pressures of raising kids and working, I found myself reading mostly paperback mysteries, knitting magazines, and children's books, while only occasionally picking up something more substantial.

So what happened to change that? I'd been reading more the past couple of years, but the real turning point occurred in March. Kate participated in the Ontario Library Association's Silver Birch program and raved about the books. At the same time, Julia started studying Shakespeare in her grade 8 class. With some feelings of envy, I realized that my kids were reading more interesting and weighty material than I was!

I seem to be making up for lost time now, though the reading is seriously cutting into my craft time. (I'm still knitting every day though!) I've recently discovered LibraryThing, an online service for readers that's just as fun and comprehensive as Ravelry is for knitters. I'm working through my 7th book from the Evergreen list and also finished The Book of Negroes by Laurence Hill, our region's "One Book, One Community" choice. The Book of Negroes was fantastic ... can't really say much more about it that's not already been said in all the glowing reviews. I also loved Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games, a novel from the "young adult" category. On our way home from our Montreal vacation, I made Todd drive the entire seven hours because I couldn't put the book down. I'm also slogging through Mark Danielewski's The House of Leaves, after being tempted by an online event announced at the Wordsworth Books blog. This is one bizarre, challenging and mesmerizing read!

48-Hour Book Challenge: Summary

The 48-Hour Book Challenge hosted by MotherReader is done! Here is the final summary:

• Hours spent reading: 16
• Hours spent blogging and writing/reading reviews: 2
• Books finished: 4
• Pages read: 1268

These are the books I read:

• Good to a Fault, by Marina Endicott
• Eye of the Crow, by Shane Peacock
• Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell
• 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter, by W. Bruce Cameron
  

I also convinced Kate, my 10-year-old, to do some extra reading this weekend, and she completed 4 hours. She suggested we donate to our local Humane Society, for each hour we've read. For each of her hours, she will donate 50 cents from her allowance and I'll match her donation, and then I will donate $1 for each of my own hours, for a total of $20.

I enjoyed the weekend immensely (even though I have a lot of unfinished housework waiting for me now), especially having my friend Sharon join me for a few of those hours. It is great to be able to read with good friends, without feeling the obligation to make small talk during the process, but being able to exchange recommendations and ideas with them afterwards.

I am also happy to have discovered this challenge and MotherReader's blog. Many of the other bloggers doing this challenge seem to be particularly interested in children's and young adult books, and a good number regularly review books in these categories. I mainly read literature (especially Canadian literature) and mystery myself, though I do read a good number of children's books recommended by my kids. However, these days, I'm always on the lookout for good young-adult novels for Julia. I only managed to read a small sample of the many reviews posted during the 48-Hour Book Challenge, but I'm looking forward to going back to some of the blogs in the next week.

It was a great weekend of reading, and I certainly hope to do it again next year!

48-Hour Book Challenge: Update #4

I spent my final 3 hours reading W. Bruce Cameron's 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. As the mother of a teenager and a preteen, I found this book absolutely hilarious and sadly all too true. Here's a typical morsel of wisdom from Cameron: "The teenage years represent a formative period in which your daughter goes from wasting money on childish things to learning how to waste money like an adult. Your job is to fund this process." I tried to persuade Todd to read this book, as it is written from a father's perspective. However, he probably feels he is too busy surviving the arduous process to read the survival guide.

While we're on the topic of how to cope with a teenager, a truly useful book is Get Out of My Life, but First Could You Drive Me & Cheryl to the Mall? This book had been recommended to me by a number of people, and it offers good, practical advice, written in a succinct manner. Of course, even after all this reading, I still don't feel like I understand the mind of a teenage girl (despite the fact that I was one a few decades ago). If you ask Julia, she'll probably tell you it's equally difficult understanding and coping with parents.

48-Hour Book Challenge: Update #3

I've read another 4 hours now (3 yesterday evening and 1 this morning), for a total of 13 hours. There are still 8 hours left in my 48-hour challenge, but I have to squeeze some exercise and chores (maybe even a shower and meals) in there as well. In those 4 hours, I read Malcolm Gladwell's Blink.

Blink is about how people make decisions, and it contrasts the decisions made from "snap judgments" and those made from prolonged, rational thought. The book is mainly a collection of anecdotes. I'd read Gladwell's Outliers earlier, and there is similar criticism of both, that Gladwell is not providing original research, that he doesn't show the whole story, that some of the conclusions are flawed. However, I enjoyed both books immensely. Whether or not I agreed with every conclusion he draws, he made me think about details I'd missed and re-examine assumptions I've made about the way I perceive the world.

I loved, in particular, the closing story about trombone player, Abbie Conant, who faced an enormous struggle in the classical music world because she was a woman. The whole story, as written by her husband, is here.

48 Hour Book Challenge: Update #2

It is almost 5pm, the halfway point in the 48-Hour Book Challenge. I managed to read for another 4 hours today, and a friend will be arriving shortly (with her own stack of books) to join me for the evening. I'm pretty pleased with the number of hours logged so far, considering that I also squeezed in the following tasks: hosted a sleepover party for a bunch of teens (not so hard, since my job was mainly to put out food and then stay out of the way), finished two loads of laundry, went for a 40-minute walk, and interacted (a very small amount) with the rest of my family.

I finished Marina Endicott's Good to a Fault, one of the books on the Evergreen list that I'm tackling. The story is about a middle-aged woman who takes in a family after she accidentally crashes into the car they have all been living in, and the mother is discovered, while being examined in the hospital, to have cancer. The novel explores the notion of being "good" and what it means to be selfish or selfless. It's an engaging story and well worth a read, though it didn't have the same impact for me as some of the other books (like The Cellist of Sarajevo) on the Evergreen list.

48 Hour Book Challenge: Update #1

Yesterday evening, I managed 5 hours of reading, which was actually more than I'd hoped for. The bad news is that I stayed up until 1am reading but woke up at 6am, as I do every morning, and couldn't back to sleep, so I'll have to see if I can focus today. I got halfway through Marina Endicott's Good to a Fault before opting for something lighter. I then finished Eye of the Crow by Shane Peacock.

Eye of the Crow tells the story of the 13-year-old Sherlock Holmes's first case and shows how his origins lead to his developing into Arthur Conan Doyle's famous character. Kate read this book as part of the Silver Birch program and recommended it to me. I've read all the original Sherlock Holmes books, seen many of the Basil Rathbone movies, loved the Jeremy Brett TV series and dragged my family through the Sherlock Holmes museum when we were in England a couple of years ago. I thought Peacock did a great job of developing an interesting plot, forming a faithful characterization of the young Sherlock Holmes, and recreating the atmosphere of 19th century London. Kate found some of the scenes rather scary but loved the novel, and I hope this will inspire her to read the real series when she's older. It looks like Peacock plans to develop this series further, as there is now a second book, Death in the Air, available.

48 Hour Book Challenge: Starting Line

I'll be starting the 48 Hour Book Challenge at 5pm, Eastern Daylight Time. The goal is to read as many hours as I can before 5pm on Sunday! I'm starting with Marina Endicott's Good to a Fault and Shane Peacock's Eye of the Crow.

48 Hour Book Challenge

I recently found out about this 48 Hour Book Challenge, and I'm seriously tempted to join in the fun. The idea is to read for as many hours as possible over a 48-hour period on the June 5-7 weekend. MotherReader, the blogger hosting the challenge, emphasizes the "guilt-free" aspect. The problem is that I have to get the rest of my family to buy into this, as laundry, cooking, cleaning, and chauffering will become very low-priority tasks for a couple of days. Actually, Kate wants to read along with me, and we've vowed to give up TV, computer games, Internet surfing and unnecessary social contact for the weekend. However, friends who are willing to BYOB (bring your own book) are welcome to come over and join us.

The timing is good, as I have a huge stack of books to get through. I'm currently reading from the Ontario Library Association's Evergreen list. From it, I've finished Gil Adamson's The Outlander, Steven Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo, Christopher Plummer's In Spite of Myself: a Memoir, and most recently, Andrew Pyper's The Killing Circle. (I'm still shivering from that one!) I'm also working through Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes, our region's "One Book, One Community" pick for the year. Then, there is a long list of recommendations from my kids, including the Twilight series that Julia loved and the Silver Birch fiction list that Kate enjoyed immensely this year. I'm going to need way more than 48 hours ....

A Loss to the Literary World

I was saddened to read that David Foster Wallace had died, at the age of 46. I'd read a number of his essays years ago, when I subscribed to Harper's Magazine. (That was before I had kids, when I actually had the attention span to read 20-page magazine articles.) I was amazed by how he could explore every facet of a seemingly mundane topic and draw me into that fascinating world. After reading his essay on cruise ships, "Shipping Out", in my formative years, I'm not sure I'll ever truly enjoy a cruise. (Well, OK, I did go on a cruise with my family. Once. And I enjoyed it ... sort of. Maybe I need to read Wallace again.) Harper's has collected his essays here.