Book Review: Chu's Day

When Chu Sneezes bad things happen. How bad? So bad that his parents always ask Chu with great concern if he is going to sneeze.

We got the Bean the latest of the great Neil Gaiman's books, which was illustrated by one of our favourite artists Adam Rex; Chu's Day for her Birthday gift. She thinks making pretend sneezes are the ultimate in comedy.

The book was a smashing (or should I say nose tingling success at the first ahh ahhh ahhhh... and since then we have read it to her multiple times a day. Until today; when the reading wasn't at nap time or snuggle time but when the Bean pushed herself between me and the kitchen counter where I was doing kitchen things and demanded Chu Day Chu Day! and like all Moms of a just starting to speak child I looked at her in bafflement and said "what is that you want today?" and she replied with "Chu Day!" and I said "yes it is Today" and she looked at me with infinite patience (which in a two year old is a miracle in and of itself) and said again "Chu Day" and then the light bulb of comprehension kicked in.






The Bean was demanding that I stop and read her a book. A specific book, the book we got her for her birthday and the book that in the deepest part of my heart I had hoped she would adore so much that I would be reading it over and over and over. Wish granted.

In case I've not been clear We love this book. It's short and sweet and so lushly illustrated that we can look into the art and tell more stories to each other based on the characters in the pictures. The tale of the snail for example. So I read it to her and then I read it again and I recorded me reading it to her and though I'm not Mr. Gaiman I think it went well and the bean is watching the video and shouting Achoo achoo so it's a keeper.

If you would like to read Chu's Day to your little one click on the picture above of Chu with his father at the diner and you'll be transported to Harper Collins where you can find your very own copy.

some things fall by the wayside

which is what happened with my Orange List project. This year I just couldn't get into reading after the first few books and it has taken me up until the last three weeks to actually feel a yen for a little reading. So what got me between the covers again?

Oddly enough it was a combination of a little Terry Pratchet "I Shall Wear Midnight" and a dash of autobiography featuring Anthony Kiedis' "Scar Tissue".

I started reading again on my trip to Alberta. I took the girls with me to attend my Grandma's memorial. I'll post a little more on that soon. I absolutely have to share the elegant and beautiful urn that my uncle chose.

Another One Off the List

For some reason (personally I'm going with the theory that a one year old is not conducive to long periods of reading) I'm not getting through the books as fast as I'd like to but I've finished another, about three chapters in on one more and have three more ready to be picked up from the library.

Roopa Farooki's The Flying Man was a pretty good story. I read it in fits and starts, but when I was reading I was absorbed. The main character seems to have a split personality having been born the surviving twin of a still born brother in effect he has stolen the life force of his brother in the womb. He becomes throughout his life the charming grifter, making no firm attachments leaving a trail of wives and friends in his wake as he easily walks out the door without notice or farewells. (with the constant companion he refers to as my, he and we; perhaps the spirit of his twin who he carries in his head and speaks aloud to when he is alone)  finally ending up alone in a discount hotel presumably writing his life story for someone to find. As a character he isn't very likable and I found the characters of his family much more interesting. The parallel ending between our heroes death and his sun's movement forward with his life and how different each ones life was based on their choices was a perfect closing to the book.

I'm not sure that this book will cling to my brain but it was a good story.

• Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg 
• On the Floor by Aifric Campbell 
• The Grief of Others by Leah Hager Cohen - On deck
• The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue 
• Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan - Finished
• The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright
• The Flying Man by Roopa Farooki - Finished
• Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon 
• Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding 
• Gillespie and I by Jane Harris 
• The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kay
• The Blue Book by A.L. Kennedy 
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - Reading Now
  
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick - Finished
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
• There but for the by Ali Smith
• The Pink Hotel by Anna Stothard
• Tides of War by Stella Tillyard - On deck
• The Submission by Amy Waldman  - On deck

 While I was about half through Flying Man, I  started on Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus. I'm finding the tone to be somewhat similar to China Miéville. I'm enjoying it so far but then I'm a sucker for stories about magic. Are you reading along? Which book are you reading, what do you think of it?

Slow Goings but going none the less

I think I may have wildly overestimated my ability to get through the long list. I'm still at it though. The flying man is so far an absorbing read whenever I get a chance to be absorbed. The main character is a charming minor villain, leaving broken hearts and families behind his wandering feet.

I've started The Night Circus as well. When I say I've started I mean I've read the prologue and the first page of the first chapter. The premise is very promising but I haven't heard good things about it. I'll keep on it and let you know if I have anything bad to say about it. Tides of War is sitting on my kitchen table waiting for me to get through Flying Man before it can be started...

Are you reading along? What books are you reading, what are your thoughts? 

• Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg 
• On the Floor by Aifric Campbell - On deck
• The Grief of Others by Leah Hager Cohen
• The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue 
• Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan - Finished
• The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright
• The Flying Man by Roopa Farooki - about half through
• Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon 
• Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding 
• Gillespie and I by Jane Harris 
• The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kay
• The Blue Book by A.L. Kennedy 
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - started
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick - Finished
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
• There but for the by Ali Smith
• The Pink Hotel by Anna Stothard
• Tides of War by Stella Tillyard - on deck
• The Submission by Amy Waldman 

Book Two: Foreign Bodies

And on to Book number three. I can't tell you what it seems to be about because I haven't even taken a look past the cover art. I'm super tired today since the Bean has been keeping odd hours, going to bed on her own in her own bed and then waking up two to three time a night and fighting going back to sleep. Between the husband and I, we are both exhausted.  I don't recall sleep training the Peanut to be this tricky... but on to the reading:

Foreign Bodies was filled to the brim with foreign bodies of all make and manner. From the intrusion of estranged family members in one characters living room to the literal foreign bodies that inhabit post war Paris. If I was an English Lit Student, this would be a great book to write an essay on based on the Foreign body theme alone. It was a good read; I'm just not sure that it's going to inhabit my brain the way a really superb book would.

Are you reading along? what book have you started on? Let me know what you've read and if you want what you thought about it here or in another Orange Prize labelled post. 

• Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg 
• On the Floor by Aifric Campbell - On deck
• The Grief of Others by Leah Hager Cohen
• The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue 
• Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan - Finished
• The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright
• The Flying Man by Roopa Farooki Starting
• Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon 
• Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding 
• Gillespie and I by Jane Harris 
• The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kay
• The Blue Book by A.L. Kennedy 
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick - Finished
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
• There but for the by Ali Smith
• The Pink Hotel by Anna Stothard
• Tides of War by Stella Tillyard
• The Submission by Amy Waldman

Book one: Half Blood Blues and Foreign Bodies

So here's the list. I also have it on my last post as well. I'm posting it here again because I'm going to mark off the books as I've read them, about to read them or reading right now. When I went through the list the other day I was pleasantly surprised to see that Half Blood Blues could be marked off as read.

I finished the book a few months ago and it's one of those books that takes you in. Set during Nazi occupied France as well as in Germany and modern day. For some reason (possibly the referrals from my good friend who just happened to be obsessed with literature set during WW2) a lot of my most memorable reads over the course of the last six months have WW2 settings. Half Blood Blues tells the story of a group of black jazz musicians who escape to Paris. It hops back and forth between modern day when two of the characters are heading to a film festival celebrating the youngest member of the group and the events leading up to that member's capture by German soldiers in Paris. It's a book whose characters still hop into my mind here and there, as I go about my days; which to me, is a pretty good indication of it's booky goodness.

Yesterday I said I was starting off with On the Floor but that changed when the Husband brought home my library holds and Foreign Bodies was cracked open first. I'm enjoying it. I don't really like any of the characters (my vote is still out on the main character) but then I'm also enjoying not really liking them. The concept of the story is very interesting. Cynthia Ozick has taken the Henry James's The Ambassadors  and rewritten it, giving it new meaning. This is at least what it says on the book flap. As I said I'm not too keen on some of the characters but not because I'm not relating to them.  I expect to have the shading on Foreign Bodies at bright orange by early in the coming week if not by the end of the weekend. What are you reading now?

• Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg 
• On the Floor by Aifric Campbell - On deck
• The Grief of Others by Leah Hager Cohen
• The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue 
• Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan - Finished
• The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright
• The Flying Man by Roopa Farooki 
• Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon 
• Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding 
• Gillespie and I by Jane Harris 
• The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kay
• The Blue Book by A.L. Kennedy 
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick - half way through
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
• There but for the by Ali Smith
• The Pink Hotel by Anna Stothard
• Tides of War by Stella Tillyard
• The Submission by Amy Waldman

Reading Reading Reading

Last year about this time a good friend tossed out the idea of reading as many of the Orange Prize long list books as possible before the Long list became a short list. So what's the Orange Prize you ask? It's a literary prize that was launched in 1996 which celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing from throughout the world. The books I read from last year ranged from about four or five that were so fantastic that I'm still thinking about them; considering the themes, the characters the ideas; to very good reads that I wouldn't have picked up otherwise, to one that I just couldn't get into.

When the long list for 2012 came out yesterday I was poised at my computer with my local library's site open on search so that I could place holds on any and all of the titles that are on the shelves there. I was fortunate that most of the titles are either at my library or on the Vancouver Public Library 's list. Now I'm waiting for the first titles on my list to come available so I can dive right in.

if you're interested in joining me here's the list:

• Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg (Quercus) - Swedish; 1st Novel
• On the Floor by Aifric Campbell (Serpent's Tail) - Irish; 3rd Novel
• The Grief of Others by Leah Hager Cohen (The Clerkenwell Press) - American; 4th Novel
• The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue (Picador) - Irish; 7th Novel
• Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (Serpent's Tail) - Canadian; 2nd Novel
• The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape) - Irish; 5th Novel
• The Flying Man by Roopa Farooki (Headline Review) - British; 5th Novel
• Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon (Quercus) - American; 4th Novel
• Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding (Bloomsbury) - British; 3rd Novel
• Gillespie and I by Jane Harris (Faber & Faber) - British; 2nd Novel
• The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kay (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) - British; 2nd Novel
• The Blue Book by A.L. Kennedy (Jonathan Cape) - British; 6th Novel
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Harvill Secker) - American; 1st Novel
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury) - American; 1st Novel
• Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick (Atlantic Books) - American; 7th Novel
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (Bloomsbury) - American; 6th Novel
• There but for the by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton) - British; 5th Novel
• The Pink Hotel by Anna Stothard (Alma Books) - British; 2nd Novel
• Tides of War by Stella Tillyard (Chatto & Windus) - British; 1st Novel
• The Submission by Amy Waldman (William Heinemann) - American; 1st Novel

First up on my holds list is The Flying Man. I haven't read any synopse of any of the books. I won't until I pick up the book to start it. Once I've started I'll post here about how it's going. 

Any good books on your reading list?

Books Books Books

I may have mentioned before that I'm a reader.

Wiki pageBooks, books and more books, magazines, blogs the back of a cereal box.... if it's there I'll read it. Last year a friend sent out a challenge to read as many of the Orange Prize long list as possible before the short list was announced. I took up the challenge and read some very beautiful and heart wrenching and gut gnashing books; many that will stay in my mind and whose stories will become a part of my personal mythology (Jamrach's Menagerie I'm looking at you) . I'm thinking I may just have to have a go at this year's long list when they announce it in March.

I'm a little embarrassed to say this but up until last year I'd become stuck in a little rut of reading. I'd found a circle of writers who I read and re-read and then maybe read again. Adding an author here or there and then including them to my rotation. Tolkien, Pratchett, Gaiman, Gibson, Lackey, Tepper, Ondaatje, Atwood and Coupland are all well worn and traveled worlds in my private library as well as in my local public library and I know that I'll take their paths many more times to come. Last year I read so many new and new to me authors that some of them have melded together into a melange of plots characters and landscapes. My circle of authors grew with the additions of Miéville, Wynne Jones and a few others who are escaping my still addled Mommy Brain.


So what am I getting at? Where am I going with this? Well, I just thought that I'd like to share a few of the books I've got in my diaper bag, on the bedside table and sitting on the edge of the couch right now.


Starting with one of my Good To Go To Authors; Douglas Coupland's All Families Are Psychotic  is in my diaper bag. I've been reading it when I wait for the Peanut to be done for school and the Bean has fallen asleep. It's a story about a very dysfunctional family who has come together to watch the daughter who is an astronaut be launched into space. So far it's told from the point of view of the Mother and the Eldest son who both suffer from AIDS. I find Coupland's books always make me think outside of the story. 


On my Bedside table is Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible a twist on the super hero comic book. It's a novel told from the point of view of the Super Villain Dr. Impossible and Fatale the newbie member of his defunct nemesis super hero group reformed after the disappearance of the worlds most powerful super hero Corefire. This is a re-read for me since I saw it on the shelf at the library and could remember reading it sometime in the last two years but couldn't remember anything about it other than I had enjoyed reading it.

Stacked on top of that is Heather B Armstrong, better known as Dooce' It Sucked and Then I Cried I'm laughing out loud and nearly peeing myself with this one. The episode in the first part of the book where she eats the Pizza to bring on labour springs to mind. I made the husband drop what he was doing and run to the bedroom to read it.

In addition I have books on deck to read including the Bio of GNR guitarist Slash (in between when the husband has it to read). What are you reading? What would you recommend? Want to read one that I'm currently in and compare thoughts when you're done?

An evening Out

So I'm still sans computer and because I've got me a sorry sad case of Mommy Brain keeping track of passwords is not my strong suit at the moment which means that I have a big rig-a-ma-roll to go through in order to sign in and upload a post here which is my long winded run on sentence way of letting you know that I'm still breathing and why it's been almost a month since my last post.

So anyway, Sunday night was my very first night out( that wasn't school related) since the Bean made her momentous debut last January. I went out for Dinner with one of my best friends and then out to An Evening with Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer. It was awesome. Sitting in the packed theater it felt as though all of us in the audience had been invited into home, the effect heightened by the random false starts and stumbles made during songs, it was as if we were a group of friends all there to celebrate with song some dance stories and laughter. As a couple they are charming and the affection that is between them is damned near romance personified, the kind that allows for wisecracks, silliness, liberal use of the F-bomb and love poems.

Before last night's outing I had not been very well acquainted with Amanda's music but the moment she opened her mouth before the festivities began and then to sing the duet Makin' Whoopee with her husband I knew that I'd found my new girl crush. If you need to know why just take moment to watch this youtube video of one of the songs performed while I escaped for an evening (warning: the song below does make use of questionable language, if you don't approve of the f-word I'd love you to go and find Amanda's version of Radiohead's Creep"



And once my evening was over I was sent back to mommy land where the Peanut had been busy puking all over the place in my absence and the Bean who had been sleeping soundly since 7 had woken promptly at 11 to have to fight for attention from Daddy who was awash in sick Peanut (and the laundry that comes with a sick peanut) so she began to scream/cry herself back to sleep until I managed to get home at 1am.

It is Tuesday and the Peanut is still home with a delicate stomach and the Bean is out of sorts because the time change and I've managed to steal a few minutes to write about my amazing night and all that followed behind it... I'm hoping to steal more time here and there to post again soon but until then how have you been? I've missed keeping in touch you know.

Osmosis

Sometimes when I read a really well written book (and there have been a lot of those over the last six or so months) I get so caught up in the experiences of the characters that I will identify very strongly with the characters. Sometimes if the story is one that I can really identify with, there can be confusion about whether I'm remembering feeling something that I've read about, or something I've done. Not often, but sometimes.

One thing that I've noticed over the last year or so is that I'm a big old sponge for soaking up the residual emotions of the people around me. Anger, depression, anxiety... it all seems to flow right into my frame of mind like water into a cup.

The trick is to know when it's happening, separate myself from the outside emotions as much as possible and keep on keeping on.

It's not easy. Hell no, it is so not easy. It's not easy because on top of that, I need to be there to give my support to those people in my life whom I love.  I've got to be there to listen to their bad days and hurts and frustrations. Not only do I have to be there, I want to be there, I need to be there. I love my husband and he deserves and needs my emotional support. I love my daughters and I need and want to give them my emotional support.

So where am I going with this? I needed to get it out, put it down so that it isn't so tied up inside me that I'm not sure where my anger, depression, anxiety starts (if it starts at all) and where the other begins. Things have been a bit (and when I say "a bit" I'm understating the case) tense around here lately and I've been writhing with the possibility that post partum depression is trying to set down some roots. And I'm breathing, deep deep breaths, reminding my self to eat, getting (well, as much as I can with an almost crawling teething baby) enough sleep and double checking with myself about how I'm feeling and how everyone around me is feeling.

And this is where I end this post.

books books books

I'm on a bit of a new book binge. Not that I'm buying new books just borrowing them from the library. I mentioned before the Bean was out and about that I was planning on getting lots of reading in over the next little while. I was a tiny bit worried that I was being a little optimistic regarding how much I was going to be able to read after she made her entrance, but I've been pretty lucky so far.

I'm not reading as fast as I normally do but I have been able to finish off a healthy stack of books over the last three weeks. So far I've been keeping to authors who I'm familiar with; Nick Hornby, Terry Pratchet, Neil Gaiman, and a newer member of my must read if written by list China Mieville.

In the Hospital and during our first week home I was reading Good Omens by Pratchet and Gaiman. I also read Hornby's Juliet Naked, a handful of Gaiman's Graphic novels, and I'm now reading Mieville's Un Lun Dun and loving it.

What's on your reading list right now?

I may be deluding myself

But I've got a big stack of books for reading over the next week or so. Of course I'm not taking into account the whole going to be taking care of a newborn in about 3 days or so.

The thing is, is that I can't not read. I read and re-read books just to have a story going at all times. The problem is that I get in author ruts and find it hard to pick up a new one without some sort of recommendation. To be honest my book reading practice has become very much like that of a finicky eater who is longing to break out of a rut. I read books that I've love and re-read them because the choices open to me when I step into the library are so vast that it's easier to pick the tried and true than it is to venture into uncharted territory. And then when I do taste something new and fresh and I enjoy it; it becomes an obsession and I collect the plots of a new author.

I'm fortunate in that I have this amazing friend who is as avid a reader as I am... OK if I'm going to be honest she's more avid a reader than I am, she devours books like chocolate, she always has something new in her bag to read. She's been tossing the odd suggestion my way over the last little for which I'm very grateful, after all, there's only so many times you can read the same book in one year...

So with the Bean on the verge of reality I'm piled high with some new reads and looking for more, What else should I be doing while I'm breastfeeding? Watching TV? What's on your night table? What book are you reading that you just can't put down, can't stop thinking about? Me? I've been reading China Miéville; courtesy of a suggestion by my above friend, I just finished Kraken, Looking for Jake and Iron Council and I'm looking forward reading Un Lun Dun.

An award for lil' ol' me

agoodwitchtoo was nice enough to pass on this cute little award to me. As I mentioned in my last post about wicked good deals, I was fortunate enough to wander into Witches chat room last week on Etsy and consequently onto her blog. The Copper Cauldron is chock full of fun little anecdotes, and features a lot of wonderful Etsy shops and artists. I'm looking forward to reading more from her.

Here are the rules:
1. Post a copy on your blog.
2. Mention who gave you the award.
3. Pass the award on to 10 others.
4. Leave a message on their blog letting them know the honor has been bestowed upon them.

Here are the awarded:
1. ...Ramblings of E
2. ArtMind
3. Black Mustard
4. dilly-dahle
5. Has Anyone Seen My Cape?
6. I am the Burgerfan!
7. Is There Any Mommy Out There?
8.Kitty Genius
9. Melody and the Pier to Forever
10. The Adventures of KJ & The Dreamy Giraffe

These are all great blogs, I like to check in on them every time they post, if you have a chance you should take a read too.