CanadianContent discussion

Here is to hoping that April showers bring May flowers... and lots of time for great books.

What is on your bedside table this week? What have you finished and what is next?

Happy Friday! It's another "beautiful" day of RDF here in Newfoundland.

I'm still working on Lullabies for Little Criminals and The Bronze Horseman. Lullabies for Little Criminals is still not done because I haven't had much reading time this week. The Bronze Horseman is just long!

Next, I'm reading Did You Ever Have a Family and listening to The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World.

I finished several books over the week so mostly on a fresh new set. Still working on Impact to Contact: The Shag Harbour Incident and I've started: The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje and The Diviners by Margaret Laurence for our May Classic Canadian challenge. I have a couple of giveaways on the table so I will probably start one of them as well. Can't believe it's almost May!

@Diane, I enjoy seeing these posts trickle in across the Canadian time zones each week. It often starts with me in Newfoundland followed by you in Nova Scotia. ☺

Happy Friday, everyone!

This week I read Scott Pilgrim, Volume 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together. I've really been enjoying this graphic novel series.

I'm still reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. I'm also reading a collection of stories by Mary Miller, Always Happy Hour: Stories.

Happy Friday everyone!
This week I finished Broken Angels for my book club. Written from the perspective of 2 girls in Poland taken from their families because of their Aryan traits in order to breed for the Germans and the doctor who was trying to save them. It was a definite 4-star read for me.
I'm almost done A Long Way Home. It was a fascinating memoir! How the boy survived in the streets of Calcutta when he got separated and lost from his brother, relying on the limited survival skills that he had was beyond me. I'm now really looking forward to watching the movie.
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk is next for this weekend and I plan to start May's challenge with The Edible Woman, which I had never read.
Have a great weekend everyone! Looking forward to the author event with @Susan tomorrow at Niagara-on-the-Lake with Heather O'Neill :)

And now Ontario!

My report will be short, as I only finished one book: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which I used for the YA square for BINGO (even though it's not Canadian). I warmed to this book as I went through it, and I got quite attached to the brave and awesome main character, Junior. I am not a big YA reader, but I can see that this is a really good one to get some message through to this audience. I'd recommend it!

I am making my way through Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations. It's quiet and slow, and I'm enjoying it for sure. I need more quiet time in my life to focus on it!

And I might also just mention that I'm reading 101 Letters to a Prime Minister: The Complete Letters to Stephen Harper over a few years, reading the letters alongside the books. I read one this week (about Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood), and it was just so FUNNY! Like, belly laugh funny. The writing is just so fantastic.

May wrote: "Have a great weekend everyone! Looking forward to the author event with @Susan tomorrow at Niagara-on-the-Lake with Heather O'Neill :) ..."

Have so much fun, @May and @Susan! Can't wait to hear about it!

@Allison, thank you! Wish you were there too :)

Good morning from Manitoba! Still hovering around Zero here.

This week I did a quick listen to Never Cry Wolf for my Bingo Square for a book published in the year you were born. It is a very interesting read, but it really is about wolf behaviour and a lot of details on things like what was in their scat.

I am currently reading A Beauty by Connie Gault. this book was on the longlist for the 2015 Giller. I had never heard of it, until I was searching past Giller longlists looking for a book for my Bingo square. I am just starting it, but it is a very haunting book.

I am also delving into Brooklyn which I am enjoying.

Yay, Friday!

This week I finished Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria and Iraq, a very interesting graphic novel about journalistic ethics and the wars in the Middle East.

I also read The Mothers, which has been very buzzy. It was a complete page-turner, but more of a melodrama than I'd expected.

Now I'm reading the very light and frothy Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged. Good brain candy.

@Allison - I really loved that book - Diary of a Part-time....


This week I am reading Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter. It is a fast read but I haven't had much time to actually pick it up. So far so good.

I finished earlier in the week - Dragon Springs Road. Really enjoyed Jiang's previous book Three Souls. I preferred it over Dragon Springs as I think it did a better job educating me on the Chinese culture, in that case around the concept of 3 souls. Dragon Springs focused more on the concept of a Fox Spirit which was interesting too but for some reason did not resonate with me as much as the 3 souls thing did. Hope that makes sense. :)

Happy Reading all.... not sure what will be next on the pile but possibly The Gilded Years

Hello from my mountain in Montana, where spring seemed to have settled in only to be surprised by a day of snow yesterday.
I finally finished Lullabies for Little Criminals, which I really liked but I found the ending a little too sudden and not completely believable.
I finished Felidae on the road, the second in the series about an intelligent and principled cat who cannot resist a mystery. Did I say he can read and discusses philosophy. In the first book, the author explored what happens to cats after scientific experimentation, and in this second, the author explores what happens to cats when they are discarded, and what happens when they are displaced to repopulate areas where local populations have disappeared. The author is from Turkey but lives in Germany. There is only one other in the series that has been translated into English.
I am currently reading Walkaway, The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future, and The Nightingale Won't Let You Sleep.

Also !!! I won my very first giveaway!! The Essex Serpent is on its way to me!

Good Morning from Alberta! It's been snowing/raining all week but the sun is shining today. :)

So many awesome reads happening (as per usual!) I LOVED The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

@Emmkay, I have Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged on my TBR list. Let me know how you like it.

I've been really remiss in my reading this week. I'm still picking away at Caught.
The library just notified me that I have Kiss of the Fur Queen ready for pick up, so I need to get reading a bit faster.

I won 4 giveaways last month, so I should also start reading some of those as well!

Lots of books being listed here that are new to me. Not sure if that is good or bad, because my TBR list certainly does not need to get any longer.

Congrats on winning your first giveaway Mary Anne.!

Amazing @Mary Anne & @Megan for winning the giveaways!!

I've only ever won 1 in 4 years of entries, so this has been a pleasant surprise.

Happy Friday to everyone! Great books are being read across the time zones! I have been reading The Virgin Cure and have to finish for my Monday night library book club- not sure I'm going to make it... race is on.

I'm also listening to The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story and finding it both interesting and heart breaking.

I have such a hard time with audio books and find myself rewinding constantly. Too many distractions, whereas with a paper book I am in the zone and tuned out of the entire world around me- funny how that works.

@ Allison- Loved The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian- so honest and relatable to my lived experiences.

@Shannon- I have Dragon Springs Road on my tbr and also embrace learning more of Asian culture, I find it fascinating and mystical.

@Mary Anne- Please let me know your thoughts on The Nightingale Won't Let You Sleep as I am half way through and still plugging along with mixed feelings.

@Emmkay- I am intrigued by Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged- added it to my list!

Hope we can all enjoy sunny days ahead.

Always great to hear about giveaway winners!!

It has been a slow reading week for me. I finished listening to The Two Family House (sorry no links as I am on my phone as my computer is "sick" with a virus). It was entertaining, if not predictable but good to listen to in the car. It was about two families sharing a home - the sister in laws both went into labour during a snow storm when the husbands were stranded on a trip. Something happened that night that changed the trajectory of their lives...

I am in the midst of The Girl who was Saturday Night before meeting the author with @May tomorrow which is quite bleak like Lullabies. I am also starting to read Home from the Vinyl Cafe for my book club which is celebrating the late Stuart McLean.

Happy reading weekend to all!

waited till today to check in as I have a bit of time on a desktop for links. Congratulations to MaryAnne and Megan (hope you are healing nicely) for their wins. The Essex Serpent sounds like something Id like too. Have never won.

Just finished Field Notes on the Compassionate Life: A Search for the Soul of Kindness by Marc Barasch Its very matter of fact about some amazing things, and hopeful rather than preachy.

Also finished my first read of Miracle Fair: Selected Poems by Wisława Szymborska Some of the poems are powerful and others, for me, obscured by my lack of comprehension. Still working on Hard Light by Michael Crummey This one is a real challenge for me to relate to, but there have been vivid moments where he does get through to me. And for the ultimate poetry challenge for a pacifist like me, Ive begun Bloody Jack by Dennis Cooley

Did enjoy The Beautiful Miscellaneous by Dominic Smith and loved Joan Haggertys The Dancehall Years
Have begun another book recommended by someone in this group, Want Not by Jonathan Miles Because I am interested in the topic, I persisted through choppy opening and am now beginning to enjoy.
Next week I am planning to read The Best Spiritual Writing 2010 edited by Philip Zaleski and Walking to Japan: A Memoir. Apparently the authors wife has published his account.
Eager to hear about the meet and gape with Heather O!

Hi everyone,

Am taking a quick break and didn't read too much last week. as I have been pretty busy with work. I did finish Men, Money and Chocolate: What more could there be to life? as I wanted to read something upbeat. I’ve read 2 other books by Menna van Praag - both were positive, uplifting reads with some magic realism. This book was Van Praag's debut novel and while billed as fiction, it seemed to be rather autobiographical. It was an easy and pretty light read but quite different from her other books. It is really a self-discovery book written in a fictional format. She does provide some excellent advice in a fairly predictable plot - look within not without for joy, love yourself first, only then can you love others, we’re all perfect as we are etc. etc. All her statements are universal truths that sound simple when you read them but not quite as easy to integrate into one’s everyday life.

Have stalled in my Bingo Square progress but hope to get back on the horse next week when tax season is over. Have a number of books in hand ready to go including Lullabies for Little Criminals. Today, I started read Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai. Am 1/3rd of the way through and quite enjoying it.

Have a great week whatever you're up to!!

Mary Anne wrote: "Also !!! I won my very first giveaway!! The Essex Serpent is on its way to me! ..."

Congratulations, Mary Anne!

Megan wrote: "I won 4 giveaways last month, so I should also start reading some of those as well! ..."

Megan, that's wonderful! That's a streak of wonderful wins!

This has been a busy week and all I've managed to read is The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See. It was wonderful. I'm a big fan of hers and this one did not disappoint.

I'm not sure what to start now.

@ Petra. Try Three Souls or Dragon Springs Road. I think they are similar in style to Lisa See.
I'm looking forward to reading hummingbird too.

Congratulations on the Giveaway wins Mary Anne and Megan! Not much to report on the reading front as I've been appreciating but struggling a little through the loneliness and (at this point) "careening towards disaster" aspects of Baby's life in Lullabies for Little Criminals. But it is beautifully written.

I had a look at what I've been reading and have "accidentally" completed four Bingo squares (a very similar approach to the one I took last year). Eventually I'll get my laptop fired up and solidify my plan.

For the May Challenge I have The Handmaid's Tale on my nightstand, along withSurfacing by Margaret Atwood for the year I was born. I have been wanting to read Inger Ash Wolfe's The Calling since Mary Anne recommended the series, so I'll be tackling that one as well. Still haven't looked for a YA title, but I hope I can find one written by a Canadian author that intrigues me.

Enjoy your Sunday everyone.

We had our children's Hospital used book sale on the weekend, and I manged to pick up The Polished Hoe Late Nights on Air Sexing the Cherry and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius for only $7.00

Score!

@ Heather(Gibby) Great finds for a good cause!

@Heather (Gibby) - that sounds dreamy. Used book sales are my nemesis!

LOL -mine too!! We had the Brantford Symphony Orchestra sale last week and I brought home a whole box for $20... did get a couple of duplicates since I forgot I had them in my TBR pile so have increased the TBR pile of a friend!

Well ladies, I have been in quiet mode for the last 2 weeks or so.

I have a function on Friday that I have been planning for 140 people. 100 of whom are coming to BDA from the States, UK and Asia. There is morning presentation, plus 2 afternoon activities and a dinner.

Along with that I finished 10 exams (50 in total) in the last 2 weeks and have completed my Regulatory Compliance Designation of CRC (Chartered Regulatory Counsel).

No I can go back to reading after Friday.

Rainey wrote: "Well ladies, I have been in quiet mode for the last 2 weeks or so.

I have a function on Friday that I have been planning for 140 people. 100 of whom are coming to BDA from the States, UK and Asia..."

Wow, Rainey!! Nice job! You need a vacation -- which is crazy to say when you live in Bermuda!

And speaking of which... I'll be there Monday & Tuesday!! :)

You will. Cruise?

We need to meet for lunch.

I know! I was thinking that but I'm with some other people -- yes, a cruise. I'll PM you to see if we can work it out. Imagine! The group's first international meet up!