December and Bookish Goodies

It's been a whole week since I've posted anything...time seems to go so quickly this time of year. I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday planning and Happy Hanukkah to those celebrating tonight!

I've been busy with work, events and life in general. I'm behind on all my blogs! But, oh well. Stuff happens. I have some reviews that I'm working on, but today I just wanted to share a look at the bookish goodness I've gathered at the library this week. I don't know how much time I'll have for reading but I just could not resist these titles ~ sharing the covers along with the publishers' summaries for quick reference. Are any of these on your radar?

A Stitch in Time by Penelope Lively

A quiet lonely child spending her holidays by the sea is changed by an inexplicable link with people and events of one hundred years ago and also by the very real and lively family next door. 

This is a nice reissue of a Lively book I haven't yet read. Children's.

Malarky by Anakana Schofield

Recommended to me by Pickle Me This, I knew I wanted to grab this one!

Swamped by a confusion she refuses to let overcome her, Philomena embarks on a rural odyssey that skirts madness, passes through grief, and returns her to the remarkable resilience of spirit that will make Our Woman the character of the decade.

Psychology and other stories by Craig Boyko

"Psychologists are people we admire and resent. They're all in this book, and so are their patients." 

A singularly nondescriptive blurb... I've read this author's short stories before and liked his work quite a lot.

Magnificence by Lydia Millet

This stunning novel introduces Susan Lindley, a woman adrift after her husband's death. Suddenly gifted her great uncle's Pasadena mansion, Susan decides to restore his extensive collection of preserved animals, tending to "the fur and feathers, the beaks, the bones and shimmering tails." Meanwhile, a menagerie of uniquely damaged humans-including a cheating husband and a chorus of eccentric elderly women-joins her in residence. 

The Circus of Ghosts by Barbara Ewing

New York, late 1840s, and in the wild, noisy, brash and beautiful circus of Silas P. Swift a shadowy, mesmeric woman entrances crowds because she can unlock the secrets of troubled minds. Above them all her daughter sweeps and soars: acrobat and tightrope-walker. People cannot take their eyes from the mysterious woman in the Big Top who can help so many others but she cannot unlock dark, literally unspeakable, memories of her own. In London memories fester in the mind of an old and venomous duke of the realm. He plots, with an unscrupulous lawyer (and a huge financial reward) against the mother and the daughter: to kill one, and to abduct the other and bring her across the Atlantic to him.

Dark of the Moon by Tracy Barrett

Retells the story of the minotaur through the eyes of his fifteen-year-old sister, Ariadne, a lonely girl destined to become a goddess of the moon, and her new friend, Theseus, the son of Athens' king who was sent to Crete as a sacrifice to her misshapen brother. 

 I have to read this, since it has some connection to the myth of Ariadne, the minotaur and the labyrinth.

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Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Library Loot!

I've been too busy getting ready for the craft show I was a part of this week to do much reading, and certainly to do much blogging. Now it's over (yay!) and while it was fun, now I can just relax and read some new books. Ahhhhh. (and here's one of my flower quotes for your entertainment)


To celebrate, I want to share some of the great books I've brought home with me this week. I haven't done a library loot post in a while; I've been so busy I've mostly just been adding books to the list to bring home some other time. But since I finally have time to read again, I'll share my finds with you! I'm snatching some book descriptions from the publishers this week as I haven't had time to write up proper summaries myself, sorry.

The Spare Room / Helen Garner

From Publisher: The Spare Room is the extraordinary writer Helen Garner's first work of fiction in fifteen years, and an intense, moving investigation of the boundaries and limits of friendship. As the novel opens, Helen lovingly prepares the spare room in her home for her dear friend Nicola, who is coming to visit for three weeks while receiving controversial treatment for late-stage cancer. From the moment Nicola staggers off the plane, gaunt and hoarse but still somehow grand, Helen becomes her nurse, her guardian angel, and her stony judge. The Spare Room tells an unforgettable story of the complex humour, rage, and compassion that informs and changes a lifelong friendship.


The Heart Specialist / Claire Holden Rothman

I've been hearing a lot about this one, and it is published by one of my favourite Canadian publishers, Cormorant Books. I'm thinking this might be a good one for my upcoming list of books to read for the Women Unbound Challenge!

From Publisher: Inspired by the life of Doctor Maude Elizabeth Seymour Abbott, The Heart Specialist is the story of a woman pursuing her dream at the dawn of the twentieth century. Stripped of a regular childhood when her father is accused of a horrific crime and abandons the family, Agnes was never considered ladylike. She is drawn to the wrong things, such as anatomy and dissection, which lead to her calling as a doctor. Yet despite a rapid rise to stardom in the medical community, she finds herself up against the same glass ceiling faced by women in her field.

Find a quiet corner / Nancy O'Hara

From Publisher: Going beyond daily meditation, Find a Quiet Corner teaches us effective ways to release stress, boost energy, tap into creativity, improve our well-being, and above all, achieve spiritual fulfillment. Readers will benefit from its lessons on how to increase self-awareness and personal satisfaction through careful attention to breath.


Little Fingers / Flip Florian; translated from the Romanian by Alistair Ian Blythe

From the Publisher: In a small town in the mountains, a mass grave is discovered. Public prosecutors, journalists and former political prisoners arrive ; the issue becomes the main topic for the press and a daily source of political wrangling. The explanation that it was a crime perpetrated by the communists (in the 1950s) seems the most likely. Petrus, an archaeologist, researches old archives, visits and listens to the town’s old folk, seeking a convincing lead, in order to quell the furore surrounding the bones. As the credibility of the military prosecutors is zero, given their ties to the former and current regimes, a number of investigating Argentinean anthropologists arrive in the small mountain resort. Their verdict is disappointing for a country where communism murdered wholesale and mutilated lives: the mass grave is the product of the mediaeval Black Death and not red machineguns.

Heavy Words lightly thrown : the reason behind the rhyme / Chris RobertsFrom Publisher's Weekly: A librarian by night and a London tour guide by day, Roberts deploys an informal style of scholarship to dazzling effect, transforming a catalogue of familiar nursery rhymes into a treasure trove of tantalizingly slippery archaisms, hidden etymological layers, arcane associations and buried meanings. Having explained how the Victorians sanitized nursery rhymes' traditionally earthy content, Roberts attends to each ditty separately, printing obscure variants and tracing historical references, from British constitutional history to bygone pagan customs. Unlocking the secret meanings of the past, Roberts also finds plenty of refreshingly straightforward modern-day analogies for the nursery rhymes—the chanted taunts of the average British soccer fan illustrate certain rhymes' original tone and purpose. In a fluidly digressive style, he debunks accepted theories and confidently asserts his own.


I also received my first e-book ever from an author & her publicist this week! I'm excited to see how I like reading it in that format. It's a book on journaling (a topic I love to learn about, practice, and share information on); specifically about journaling for caregivers. It looks great; watch for a review soon. It's called:

You want me to do what? / B. Lynn Goodwin

From Lynn's website: Writing relieves stress and saves lives. As a caregiver, you spend every spare minute driving to medical appointments, stopping at the pharmacy, cooking, answering questions, paying bills, and helping with matters that used to be private. Why write about it? Journals never argue. They let you vent, expound, rationalize, elaborate, and imagine best and worst outcomes. They let you breathe. A journal welcomes your questions and invites you to explore and analyze possible answers. Journals never talk back. Journals let you finish your thoughts and offer silent, unconditional acceptance. Writing gives perspective and restores sanity. Writing is a lifeline as well as a record. Writing saves lives. Do not underestimate its power.


So that's what I have ahead for myself this week. Let's see if I get as much reading done as I hope to!

Library Loot: September Scores!

Library Loot is hosted by Eva and Marg each week, and this week I really had to participate as I brought a bagful of great items home with me. (though never as many as Eva finds!)


Here is what I have to read in the upcoming weeks:

Family Album / Penelope Lively

I have been waiting for this one for ages and am so excited it is finally here. Although the cover is rather dull, nowhere near as delightful as the British cover, all I need to know is that it's the new Lively. Excellent!

The cover on the right is the one I am reading: I am also appending the British cover and an alternate North American cover. Which would make you pick this up?





Gourmet Rhapsody / Muriel Barbery

And another new book by a great author...I read Elegance of the Hedgehog a few months ago and simply LOVED it. How can I resist another book about a food critic who was one of the characters in Hedgehog? And the cover is in the same style as well, very charming and very appetizing. :)





Reckless Appetites / Jacqueline Deval

This novel from 1995 intrigued me because it is about food -- Pomme is French and the daughter of a chef. It is packed with historical recipes (fascinating!) and is written in what seems to be a bit of a pastiche of correspondence, Pomme's own essays, and told in different voices... it looks very interesting and could be either really good or not so good. We'll have to see.


Spilling Clarence / Anne Ursu

The odd title caught my eye, and when I saw it was a novel about memory, I was hooked. Reading so much Penelope Lively lately has attuned my reading eye to the vagaries of history and memory; this one promises a modern, American take on what purpose memory serves in our lives, and what and how we remember. The town of Clarence is split in two between a university on one side and a pharmaceutical factory on the other -- as the book opens there is a chemical spill at the plant. After a few hours, the townspeople are told all is well, nothing to worry about. But the spill has released deletrium, a chemical which allows all your memories to resurface, and it is affecting everyone in town...



Read for Your Life: Literature as a Life Support system / Joseph Gold

I just ran across this again and since I've been meaning to read it for ages, I brought it home. This sounds like a definite must read: Dr. Gold is a former literature professor and family therapist who is talking about literature's role in self therapy. As the blurb says: "both a self-help guide and a testimonial to the power of literature. Offering a wide range of familiar books and clinical examples, Dr. Gold illustrates the ways our daily reading can lead to sound mental health and personal empowerment." Sounds delightful!

And my last library find was a cd: Oliver Schroer's Camino: Solo Violin and Ambient Recordings from the Camino de Santiago. On his website it's described as "the musical and photographic record of a thousand kilometre trek along the Camino de Santiago." It is utterly gorgeous, and you can listen to clips at the website. Sadly, Oliver has passed away due to leukemia, but he has left a beautiful legacy in his stunning music.

Library Loot

Once again Eva's weekly library loot post draws me in... she always finds so many great reads it is inspiring. Here are my finds this week:

The Earth hums in B Flat / Mari Strachan

Recommended by a number of bloggers, this first novel by Welsh writer Strachan takes place in Wales, and features a young girl as narrator. Gwennie is a bit odd; she's certain she flies at night, and she sees things she doesn't understand. Her innocence is not cutesy, rather her lack of knowledge of the adult world results in a plot in which she slowly chips away at the secrets her family holds. It sounds intriguing, and is set in a place I haven't read much about.

The Art of Salvage / Leona Theis

My first read for the Canadian Book Challenge, this one takes place in Saskatoon -- might as well start in my home province. :) It tells the story of Delorie, new to Saskatoon from a small town, and all that occurs after she becomes pregnant then gives the baby to her own mother to raise. According to the dictates of the day, she maintains an emotional distance from baby Amber. It's told in alternating sections from Delorie's and Amber's perspectives (though not in first person).

Spiderweb / Penelope Lively

Another book to feed my recent Penelope Lively fixation! This one features Stella Brentwood, retired anthropologist who retires to a small cottage in Somerset, only to discover that her new neighbourhood may be more difficult to understand than any of the societies she's studied over the years.

The Storyteller's Daughter / Cameron Dokey

An entry in the "Once Upon a Time" series, this YA retelling of the story of Sheherezad looks appealing. Out of all the authors who write for this series, Dokey is my favourite, and she always has something to say about the act of storytelling itself.

And, not a library book, but a book I purchased off the library's sale cart -- something I am very excited about as I didn't even know it existed -- Elizabeth Goudge's autobiography, The Joy of the Snow!! I love Elizabeth Goudge even is she is a bit "old fashioned" and I'm thrilled by this find. On first flip through there does look to be a chapter or two about her religious views but also a fair amount on the writing life so it should balance out. Plus she talks about all the houses she's lived in, something I find strangely fascinating.

Library Gleanings

As I am finally back at work this week, I was able to gather up a few more goodies from the new arrivals. Some of them are ones I've been waiting for and some I found via serendipity. So I'll play along with Eva and Alessandra's Library Loot finding this week.

Here are the ones I carted home with me:

(I've already started three...)

The Family Man / Elinor Lipman

Exchange / Paul Magrs

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow / Jessica Day George

Wondrous Strange / Lesley Livingstone

The Little Stranger / Sarah Waters

Friday's Child / Georgette Heyer

This week's Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event sponsored by Eva and Alessandra

I haven't posted about my library books for a couple of weeks now; Eva's latest haul has inspired me, so here are the books I've brought home from the library this week (although they are equal to only a fraction of Eva's optimistic stack!).

Love Mercy / Earlene Fowler

A stand alone story by the author of the Benni Harper mysteries (which I love). This one has some of the Benni characters showing up in 'cameos', so to speak, but is not a mystery. It's a story of a woman and her estranged granddaughter, set in coastal California, full of small town characters and values.

The Grift / Debra Ginsberg

What happens when a woman who has worked as a (fake) psychic all her life discovers she really has the gift? It screws up her business and her life -- until she can figure out how to deal with her new reality. (I've already read half and am enjoying it. And it has a great cover.)

Come, thou tortoise / Jessica Grant

Audrey Flowers (called Oddly by her family) has to fly home to Newfoundland from Portland Oregon when her father gets very ill. She has to leave her pet tortoise in the hands of friends. She has a quirky way of speaking and her tortoise shares some of the narration. This all seems way too intentionally fey to be something I'd want to read. But, I was convinced to pick up this debut Canadian novel by Kerry's review.


The Outlander / Gil Adamson

I'm sure most people know the plot by now; Mary, at 19, widowed by her own hand, is fleeing through the backwoods country of Alberta from the vengeance of her former husband's brothers. A recent Canada Reads choice, I finally got my copy I've had on hold at work for ages.

Bag Bazaar / Megan Avery

Something crafty to get me sewing again. Who doesn't need a new bag for Spring? There are 25 designs in this book, and they are not all just variations on the same pattern as I have found in some books. These are 25 great ideas -- can't wait to get started. And Megan also has a really nice crafty blog.

This is all I could handle this week what with the high number of books on my own shelves waiting for their turn!

Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event hosted by Eva and Alessandra

This week it seemed to be about non-fiction for me. I brought home:

1. People are Idiots and I can prove it / Larry Winget (already finished it: see previous post)

2 . Tofu Cookery / Louise Hagler (25th Anniversary Edition)
Because I love cookbooks and surprisingly don't have this one

3. Rich Brother, Rich Sister / Robert Kiyosaki and Emi Kiyosaki
This one is a look at money and spirituality, from the viewpoints of Robert Kiyosaki, well known financial writer and originator of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad franchise, and his sister Emi, a Buddhist nun. So far I've read about 75 pages and it is a fascinating study in contrasts.

4. Dreams from my Father / Barack Obama
Does this need an explanation?

And some fiction:

Purple for Sky / Carol Bruneau - Canadian fiction, set in Nova Scotia, dealing with women and family secrets and family legacies; this seems to be a theme in my Canadian reading lately!

Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard / Eleanor Farjeon - more on this tomorrow; it is a book from the 20's and is a perfect choice for Valentine's Day. I've finished this one already.

Library Loot

Library Loot is hosted each week by Eva at A Striped Armchair and Alessandra at Out of the Blue

These are a few of the items that caught my fancy at the library this week:

Sarah's Key / Tatiana de Rosnay

Publisher's Summary:

Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.Paris, May 2002: On Vel’ d’Hiv’s 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.

The Hatbox Letters / Beth Powning

Publisher's Summary:

Beth Powning offers readers an unforgettable story of love, grief and renewal — both past and present — as well as her extraordinary perceptions of the natural world. At the age of fifty-two, Kate Harding has hit a crossroads: the pain that overwhelmed her when her husband died suddenly from a heart attack the previous year hasn’t diminished, and she is at a loss as to how to go on with her life. Living alone in her large Victorian house, its emptiness magnified by memories of better days, Kate can only dream of a time when her grief will abate, at least enough to allow her to hope for change.

The Duchess

Something to watch as well, if I can get over my Keira Knightley aversion. I am hoping that Ralph Fiennes cancels her out. And I hear that the costumes are beautiful.

Library Loot

Eva over at The Striped Armchair has come up with a great idea; a weekly post of your library finds! Since I am always finding tempting items I thought this would be a good one to participate in. I often bring books home, flip through them and end up not even reading them, but the browsing is half the fun!

This week's haul:

The Post Office Girl / Stefan Zweig

A Thousand Shades of Blue / Robin Stevenson (YA)

Beatitudes / Hermenegilde Chiasson (poetry)

Reading by Lightning / Joan Thomas