Quotable Saturdays ver. 1

May 23, 2009 Quotables

Will there ever be a ver 2? Who knows? But it’s so titled just in case.

I love tulips better than any other spring flower; they are the embodiment of alert cheerfulness and tidy grace, and next to a hyacinth look like a wholesome, freshly tubbed young girl beside a stout lady whose every movement weighs down the air with patchouli. Their faint, delicate scent is refinement itself; and is there anything in the world more charming than the sprightly way they hold up their little faces to the sun? I have heard them called bold and flaunting, but to me they seem modest grace itself, only always on the alert to enjoy life as much as they can and not afraid of looking the sun or anything else above them in the face.

- Elizabeth and Her German Garden, Elizabeth von Arnin

Declaring Blog Bankruptcy

May 19, 2009 Biography/Memoir,Fiction,Non-Fiction,Romance,Women,Young Adult

I have a pile of books that I need to blog about but honestly, it’s just not going to happen. The list just kept getting longer and my time kept getting shorter and well, blah. You’ve all heard of email bankruptcy right? Well this is my version of book blogging bankruptcy. I suppose I could have just as easily called it a hit and run post. Without further ado, here are the books that I’ve read in the last month and have not blogged about because life is like that sometimes.

Things I’ve Kept Silent About by Azar Nafisi - I always want to like Nafisi more than I do. She loses me when she stays away from the main “story” to talk about history or mythology. I think she’s brilliant but for whatever reason we just don’t “click”. Listened to it on audio. Good reader but sometimes her S’s are really sharp.

Flygirl by Sheri Smith – Awesome story of a black girl passing as white in order to fly for the US during WWII. She kicked butt. Almost wish it was a true story. Was left wondering if she got a reply to that letter and if so what it was.

Penalty Box by Deirdre Martin – I do wish that the hockey player romance novels actually involved actively playing athletes. First two did, the next two did not. Good romances but I haven’t decided if I’ll continue to read the series.

Blue Flame by Jill Shalvis – Firefighter romance meets cowboy ranch romance. What more could you want in a contemporary novel? Totally figured out who the bad guy was as soon as he appeared though. It must be repeated – Shalvis writes a darned good contemporary romance.

On Rue Tatin by Susan Herrmann Loomis – Entertaining look at buying and renovating a house in France while trying to write a cookbook and raise a family. Don’t think I’d try many of the recipes included, though they did make me hungry.

Mom Will This Chicken Give Me Man Boobs? by Robyn Harding – How green can your family go? And if you live in a really green community how far are you willing to go? You know, before everyone outside the community thinks you are totally nuts.

Why I Let My Hair Grow Out by Maryrose Wood – I had a hard time getting into this YA fantasy novel. I read it in bits and pieces and never really felt drawn back to it. I’d still read the sequel though.

And now I’m almost up to date. Whoo!

Well that’ll shut me up

May 14, 2009 sometimes I ramble

Just the other day on twitter I was saying how I don’t often get books for my birthday. Well, today’s my birthday and what’d I get? A freaking Sony Reader.

It’s purty and shiny and I love it.

Hello. My name is Sassymonkey and I am spoiled rotten.

(And disappearing for a few days going to who knows where as I haven’t been told because it’s a birthday surprise.)

Julia’s Chocolates

May 7, 2009 Fiction,Women

Cathy Lamb’s Julia’s Chocolates because the description of it on the library new orders page seemed interesting. As like a box of chocolates, with untried authors you never know what you are going to get. Sometimes you find something really, really good and sometimes you do not. This one falls somewhere in the middle for me.

Let’s start with the cover. It’s a pretty good cover for the story as the very first line is “I left my wedding dress hanging somewhere on a tree in North Dakota.” (I liked the first line and new I wanted to remember it so I entered put in a “First Lines” thread on the BlogHer Book Club.) See? Good start. You know, if you completely ignore the fact that the dress on the cover looks nothing like what was described in the novel, which normally wouldn’t bother me so much really irked me in this case. Why? Hmmm maybe it was because of why her wedding dress looked the way it did, which is part of the reason why it ended up on a tree in North Dakota as Julia ran away on what was supposed to be her wedding day. In a word, Robert.

Robert wasn’t just mean. He wasn’t just abusive. Robert was downright psychotic. Somehow Julia managed to find a way to leave him and go hide out in Oregon with her Aunt Lydia. She figures she has a little while before Robert finds her and oh, tries to kill her.

There were some parts of this that I really liked. There were great characters. I loved Aunt Lydia. Who can’t like a character that hosts evenings like “Getting To Know Your Vagina Psychic Night”? (Oh man are the google searches going to love that…can you image the traffic (and spam) I’d get if I made that the post title…) Stash was a great character. And Caroline.

While there are light moments (see “Getting To Know Your Vagina Psychic Night”) there are also many dark moments as Julia reflects on her childhood, her life with Robert, and the circumstances surrounding the two children, Shawn and Carrie Lynn. Some parts will be far too dark and violent for some people to enjoy. I didn’t really have a problem with (most) of it. It helped that it was balanced by some pretty funny things.

What did tend to frustrate me was Julia. I know she was scared and abused and untrusting and so many other things but there were times when I just wanted to shake her. I also felt that things were tied up just a bit too neatly in the end. I seem to be developing an aversion to things being wrapped up a little too easily and neatly.

Great first line though. You have to admit that.

Briar Rose

May 6, 2009 Fiction,Recommend

(I’m starting to feel like this week was sponsored by the letter “B”.) Jane Yolen’s Briar Rose was wow, just wow. It’s a very good reminder that we should all take a step back from the recently published books and revisit those that have been on our lists for ages but we never seem to get around to reading. For example, if you haven’t read this book I do recommend trying it.

Rebecca grew up listening to her grandmother Gemma’s version of Briar Rose. This tale of sleeping beauty was a bit different than the Disney version most children were used to (and Rebecca did not take well to her guests pointing that out). As the years wore on and her grandmother aged Gemma began to insist that she was the princess, that it was her story. While everyone else took it for dementia after her death Rebecca decided to find out what Gemma’s story was. Armed with only a fairy tale and a box with a few photographs she starts out on a journey that will take her from home to one of the least well know death camps of the Holocaust.

Why oh why I wait so long to read this? It was a gripping read. Of course Sleeping Beauty is possibly my most favourite fairy tale so I may be biased. Rebecca was a great main character. The other characters were good, even the sisters who were rather loathsome but well, it is a fairy tale so a couple of evil sisters is rather fitting). One part retelling, one part history, all parts good.

(This was the last book that I read for the 24 hour readathon – it was only a week later that I realized all the books I had read started with “B”.)

Not Done Yet

May 5, 2009 Authors,Biography/Memoir,Canadian,Non-Fiction

Laurie Kingston is Not Done Yet. I can say this with the utmost authority because I know her. I got to know Laurie a few years ago through BlogHer. She started showing up on posts that I was also commenting on (or writing) and we discovered we were both from Canada, both read books, and both knitted (her much more so than me – in fact the cover of this book is her own knitting). We read and comment on each other’s blogs. Now we live in the same city and are able to get together every couple of months.

I had been eagerly waiting for her book to come out. Our first outing post-publication was delayed but a couple of weeks ago we managed to get together for our usual – an afternoon of knitting and drinking pints at a pub. When she pulled it out of her bag and handed it to me my first thought was that it had a great cover. Not just the image but the feel of it as well. It was soft and smooth…you know how some books just feel good in your hands? This is one of those books.

The contents of the book are a collection of writing from her blog, Not Just About Cancer. It’s a very apt title – neither she, her blog nor her book are just about cancer. Ok, the book is a lot about cancer. It is, after all, her story of what happens when an otherwise healthy 38 year old woman who is in the best shape of her life finds out she has breast cancer. It covers the chemo and the hair loss. It covers the recovery process. It covers what happens when you find out that the cancer is back and that you’ll never not have cancer again.

Laurie writes about life. There are times when the book will make you laugh, and other times where you’ll want to kick someone in the shins on her behalf. There are moments, both good and bad, that take your breathe away. Laurie shares the tough stuff but she also shares the soft side of her life, like the song by Daniel on May 8, 2007 that starts, “I love my mama and she is so beautiful.”

I read Laurie’s book the same day she gave it to me. Parts of it, those at the very beginning where new to me. I can’t pinpoint exactly when I started reading her blog but I know it was before her November 27, 2006 post, “Metastatic.”  I remember reading that post and feeling like I had been kicked in the gut. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what the last month had been for her.

I’ve learned so much from Laurie, both from her blog and from reading her book. I have a hard time putting it in words but the best I can sum it up is this – she’s taught me more about living life with grace than I ever could have hoped to learn. Life isn’t about the big stuff. Life is lived in the in-between moments. It’s the walk to the library on chilly fall morning, the skate on the canal in the winter. It’s cooking dinner. It’s afternoonns with friends. It’s pints and knitting and books.

The Ottawa launch for Laurie’s book is this Thursday May 7, 7-9pm at the First Avenue Day Care, 73 First Avenue. There will also be a Toronto launch on June 11 at the Toronto Women’s Book Store.