The Year of Living Biblically - A.J. Jacobs

It pains me to give this a poor review. I am an A.J. Jacobs fan from The Know it All and from Drop Dead Healthy (lesser from My Life as An Experiment).

Disclaimer: I am not a religious person, I bought this because I am a fan of Jacobs. This book meandered all over the place and despite his sense of humour I found it pretty dull and in many parts irritating.

Four takeaways that bothered me:

1. Like many who say they are going to "live biblically", picking and chosing passages that work for them and ignoring anything that they don't want to do...drives me insane.
2. The chicken incident, that's all I'm saying.
3. Thanks for the big Anna Karenina spoiler, some of us haven't read it yet!
4. There is a comment following his visit to a church based youth group that said something like "you rarely see atheist youth groups". This irritated me as it assumes only youth in religious affiliation gather together to do good. Let's just ignore all of the non-denominational youth based groups that do great things on their own...not because they are following the bible or doing what they think is expected of them by a higher power. Same can be said for adult groups of all sorts.

This book just irritated me and his wife is a saint! I should have bailed but I finished it.

Until Next Time

Helene
The Canuck Reader

Be Frank With Me - Julia Claiborne Johnson

What an utterly charming book. This is the story of Mimi Banning, a reclusive eccentric"one hit wonder" writer who wrote a classic book and then hid away from her adoring fans. She has money problems and needs to write another book (guaranteed to sell) to bail herself out. 

Her editor sends his star assistant Alice to attend to her daily affairs while she is writing said book, and a major part of her duties involves caring for Mimi's equally eccentric, highly precocial (yet fragile) nine-year-old son Frank. Frank is a unique child who dresses like a 30s movie star and I couldn't help thinking that if you looked up Sheldon Cooper As A Child ( a la Big Bang Theory), Frank's picture would be there. He's a walking encyclopedia of everything you ever wanted to know, and has a dirth of social skills. 

The story is told from Alice's perspective as she navigates the family that is Mimi, Frank, and a mysterious regular vistor named Xander. 

This is a quick read that moves along at a steady pace, and Frank is one of my favourite characters in a long time. I hope we see him again. 

9/10 for me and I will pass this to others over and over again. Hope to see more from this author. 

Keep Reading...

Helene

Year of Yes - Shonda Rhimes

I listened to this as an audiobook and I'm so glad I did, I'm not sure it would have been as fun if I had read a print copy. It kind of felt like Shonda Rhimes was right there having a chat with me, and it didn't feel like someone was "reading" the book to me. That can make or break an audiobook.

As can be  guessed from the title, this book is about the year (and then some) that the author decided to say yes to things that she was nervous about and took her out of her comfort zone. Fellow introverts will identify with her life pre "Year of Yes" (raising my hand here!) and will laugh along with many of her reasons for saying no to invitations. It was nice to get some insight into how a person of her "power"  on TV could still be insecure about social situations.

Grey's Anatomy fans will love this book for the insights into how the show started and grew and the origins of the characters. Sounds like that set is an intense but fun place to be. 

I'm giving this a 9/10 as an audio and it will appeal to many. Would also be a good first choice to anyone experimenting with audiobooks. 

Keep reading!

Helene

The Little Paris Bookshop - Nina George

I really wanted to love this book. The jacket description sounded irresistible: a book seller travels down the river in a book barge giving people the exact book they need to help make everything right for that particular person.

There was a small amount of this in the book, but not enough to justify the description and most of the rest of the story was about a lost love. This tale and the rest was quite disjointed and tended to meander aimlessly in many parts. Not sure if the novel was lost in translation but it made for a rather slow read.

There were a few lovely quotes about books and reading but not enough to ring true.

"Reading - an endless journey; a long, indeed never-ending journey that made one more temperate as well as more loving and kind. "

The worst part is that I  accidentally bought this book twice before I read it, because of the enchanting book jacket summary. Anyone want a copy?

Keep Reading

Helene

The Speed of Light - Elizabeth Rosner

I can't even remember where I heard about this book but so glad I found it. It brings together three individuals who all have their own tragedies to deal with and who are all broken in some way. Through friendship and bearing witness to the struggles each character faces, all gain some strength and a new start, while still honoring the past. Poignant yet powerful.

The Miniaturist - Jessie Burton

After a brief  hiatus I'm back at it, sorry for the absence.

So this book was a page turner for me and was very well written. It's historical fiction and one thing it taught me is I'm glad I wasn't alive in this time period. There were some very dark themes and the social norms in this time and place are horrifying. The treatment of LGBT people is simply shocking. The story was great though and I will watch for other work from this author, great writer.

Keep Reading

Helene

The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell

I read this after hearing about it on the "Books on the Nightstand" podcast. I did like this book and though I knew going in it was about Jesuit priests in space (I kid you not) having the first contact with an alien planet and race, I was still not expecting a huge underlying theme to be about faith in god. I am not religious at all (pretty much a flaming atheist), so some of that brought on some internal eye rolls, but I tried not to let it overshadow the book as a whole. Interesting commentary on our treatment of other people, other races, and other species..and though some of it may seem shocking there are an alarming number of parallels to present day life. The question is...do I read the sequel?

Keep Reading!

Helene

Food Rules: An Eater's Manual by Michael Pollan (Illustrated by Maira Kalman)

This is a quick but informative little guide but the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan. It has eighty-three little rules for eating food, many of which the average person would probably love to have printed on a nice little poster for the kitchen. They all revolve around the summary statements from his books on nutrition. Quite simply...Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Some examples include: Eat close to the earth, and Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. All are accompanied by an explanation if necessary and most have charming illustrations.

Not too much to say here, it will always have a place on my cookbook shelf. Enjoy. 8/10 from this reader.

Food writing rules!

Helene

Close your Eyes, Hold Hands by Chris Bohjalian

I've only read one previous book by Chris Bohjalian, The Sandcastle Girls. That was about a 9.5/10 for me and I started to collect his books as I love his writing style. Sometimes the next book by an author is not what you expected but this one delivers and I now have a favourite author whose books I plan to savour, slowly. Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands is a relatively short read at just under 300 pages but there is so much in here. It's been a while since I've read one that makes me stay up late to squeeze in a few more pages.

It's about a teenage girl named Emily whose father may be responsible for a meltdown in the nuclear plant where he works. Suddenly orphaned (her mother also worked at the plant) and afraid the world would hate her because of her parents, she becomes a street kid and invents a new identity for herself. She frequently references her favourite poet Emily Dickinson so fans of her poetry will like the regular references. As expected, she has a frightening existence on the street and toss in a minor child she starts to care for, some dangerous people and an undisclosed mental illness to contend with, Emily manages to survive her self-imposed exile. Almost everything that happens in this book is poignant and relevant and the most memorable part for me was the revelation of the source of the book title. Enjoy the mastery of Mr. Bohjalian and the life of Emily.

 9/10 for this reader.

What to read next...

Helene

10% Happier - Dan Harris

I first heard about this book on Gretchen Rubin's podcast "Happier", where Dan Harris was a guest.  Gretchen is the author of " The Happiness Project" and often reviews and introduces books and other items that she thinks may contribute to the happiness of her readers.

This book is about Dan's path to reducing his stress after a live melt-down on a national TV show. He goes through many avenues to search out a way to calm his anxiety and focus, and includes interactions with such noted gurus as Depak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle, and even the Dalai Lama. The first third was engaging as he described his life leading up to the wake up call for things to change. The middle felt a bit repetitive and self-indulgent (but what memoir isn't) and the last part was surprisingly useful with tips and steps that many people could incorporate into daily life. Meditation and Buddhist practices play a large part in his self-help methods and I think provide an incentive that would appeal to more average people, than other books that may appeal to those who need to be all or nothing in their approach. This is one book I will listen to again as learning how it all came together in the end can help bring focus to the methods he found most useful. The book was narrated by Dan himself in the audiobook so it's more like storytelling than reading. 8/10 from this reader.

Keep reading!

Helene

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

So I neglected to mention that while I was reading one book, I also had an audiobook on the go too. I drive a lot so it gives me more opportunity to get more "reading" into my world.

I'm not sure how I missed Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides in the past. It won the Pulitzer prize in 2003 and I say well deserved. This is a sweeping three generation saga about the events leading up to the birth and life of the main character, Calliope Stephanides. Calliope is a hermaphrodite, and this is not a spoiler as this is revealed in the first few sentences of the book. She is from a Greek family and the trials and tribulations of their history is played out in great detail. It's not for everyone as there are explicit descriptions of some activities that some may consider taboo, but they are necessary for the story. I suspect many things happening were and are not uncommon in some parts of the world, but unsettling nonetheless. As mentioned, I listened to this as an audiobook and it was great. The narrator did a great job assigning voices to the many characters. Sometimes this spoils the listen for me but not in this case. Shout out to narrator Kristoffer Tabori. I'm going to rate this a solid 9/10 for me.

I am still slogging through " The Rosie Effect". It's not the ride that " The Rosie Project" was but I'm going to finish it. I've pledged to read 50 books this year so every one counts.

Until next time, keep reading!

Helene

Life With Books - The Pilot

Life With Books - The Pilot

So here it is Jan 1, 2016 and I'm starting my little vanity project. I have always been a bookworm, from very early in childhood and happy to say I still suffer from the affliction. I'm always looking to chat with people about books and talk about the ones I've read. I've found some kindred spirits online and in real life but this blog will let me steer in the direction I want to go. It might just be for me but if I find a few who want to follow along, all the better!

In this little corner of the universe I plan to talk about books, review books and whatever else bookish or paperish (I just made that word up!) comes to mind. Did I mention I'm also addicted to stationery? Must be the paper thing!

Every year I try to do some sort of cataloging of the books I read or do some sort of challenge. This year I am doing a reading challenge on Goodreads and I aim to read 50 books. My last book for 2015 was The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion and to follow up my first read for 2016 will be the continuation of that book, The Rosie Effect. Speaking of Goodreads, if you haven't checked out this website you need to. Great community of readers and authors and a great place to catalogue any books you have read or want to read. Here's my profile page, check out my shelves.

Until next time, happy reading!

Helene