Thursday 14 June 2012

“Why would anyone say this stuff about themselves on the Internet? It's crazy!”

Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler have teamed up and written a wonderful teen novel called "The Future of Us."  Here's what it's about:

"It's 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They've been best friends almost as long - at least, up until last November, when Josh did something that changed everything. Things have been weird between them ever since, but when Josh's family gets a free AOL CD in the mail,his mom makes him bring it over so that Emma can install it on her new computer. When they sign on, they're automatically logged onto their Facebook pages. But Facebook hasn't been invented yet. And they're looking at themselves fifteen years in the future.

By refreshing their pages, they learn that making different decisions now will affect the outcome of their lives later. And as they grapple with the ups and downs of what their futures hold, they're forced to confront what they're doing right - and wrong - in the present"


Such a clever concept and one that is so prevalent in today's day and age!  Asher and Mackler's writing styles flow nicely together and they have created characters that you are interested in and rooting for in Emma and Josh.  I read this in a day and really enjoyed it.  While I would say this is a fairly light read, there are some profound moments in the novel.  One of my favourite scenes happens between Emma and her best girl friend Kellan when they are talking about boys.


“Emma:“He broke your heart! How can you call it love when he hurt you so badly?”
Kellan:“It was love because it was worth it.”

That sums it up nicely I say.

“I guess it goes to show that you just never know where life will take you. You search for answers. You wonder what it all means. You stumble, and you soar. And, if you’re lucky, you make it to Paris for a while.”

Ever since I returned from a vacation in Paris, I have been consumed by a desire to read books about the city of lights.  I recently came across a biography by Amy Thomas, "Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Lights (and Dark Chocolate)" and immediately grabbed it.  A very sweet (pun intended!) story about Thomas and her move from New York to Paris for work.  She gets a dream job working as a writer for a fashion house in Paris and decides this is a sign that she is meant to see how living in her favourite city is.  What makes Thomas' story even more enticing is that she is a dessert junkie and this memoir not only chronicles her life in Paris but the many many wonderful sweets that she eats while she is there.  She does a compare and contrast of the desserts she fines in Paris with the ones from New York, ranging from chocolate chip cookies, to macarons, to cakes, and to hot chocolate.  I was pretty much drooling the entire time I was reading this yummy memoir!  An added bonus is that she lists her favourite spots in both cities so if you are going to visit either then you know just where to go to get your favourite sweet treats! Another thing that was really great about this memoir was that it often talks about how Thomas is taking a chance making this move and how sometimes we have to take the leap to find what it is we really want and need in life.  She quotes Joseph Campbell at the beginning and I want to share the quotation she uses because I just think it is fantastic:

"And I have the firm belief in this now, not only in terms of my own experience but in knowing about the experience of others, that when you follow your bliss, door will open where you would not have thought there were going to be doors and where there wouldn't be a door for anybody else. If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track, which has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living"

 A fun and light summer read and definitely one that will make you hungry!

Archie Andrews is all Grown Up!

A couple Christmas' ago, I got a great collection of Archie comics called The Married Life.  It told two parallel stories of what happens to the town of Riverdale and all the gang if Archie married Betty vs. if Archie married Veronica.  It was a really cool idea and for a Archie fan such as myself (I had stacks of these comics when I was younger!) it was very nostalgic.  I recently found out that they have created more comics following the married life of Archie and his two best gals and I got the opportunity to read two volumes which goes into more detail about what happens to the two very different Andrews families from the time they get married.  This critically acclaimed series (called by some the best comic writing in years) is fantastic and so much fun to read!  Whose team will you be on? Team Veronica or Team Betty?  I've personally always been a fan of Betty (her being a blond like me!) but I had someone recently lay this tidbit on me that has gotten me thinking: Betty is too good for Archie; Archie and Veronica deserve each other.  What do you think?  Whatever team you are rooting for, this is definitely a series to check out, especially if you want to revisit Riverdale!

Thursday 7 June 2012

Recent Reads

I haven't posted in awhile! Life has been to busy apparently! However, no matter how busy I am, I always have time to read a good book and I have read some excellent books lately!  Here's are several that I have read in the last month that I think you should know about:

Daring to Dream by Nora Roberts
The first book in her Dream Trilogy, it tells the story of Margo, the wild child who left home at a young age and now returns to the small town she grew up in to try to get her life back together.  Being a Nora Roberts novel, there is naturally a romantic element.  A definite beach read.

Jeneration X by Jen Lancaster
Love Love Love Jen Lancaster! Her most recent memoir chronicles, as she eloquently puts it, how "one reluctant adult attempts to unarrest her arrested development; or, why it's never to late for her dumb ass to learn why Froot Loops are not for dinner."  Not my favourite of her's (that would be "Bright Lights, Big Ass") but still a very fun read.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson
The hot memoir of the summer (so far), this is a very very funny, and at times horrific, read.  I enjoyed the first half the most where Lawson shared stories of growing up with a taxidermist for a dad.  A few of her stories had me howling with laughter and causing my husband concern about my sanity.  Loved it.

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
Such a beautifully written and incredibly moving novel.  This tells the story of 5 incredible  women in 70 CE.  During this time, nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on a mountain in the Judean desert, Masada.  According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived.  This is Hoffman's telling of this story and it is just fabulous.  A great read for the summer.

A Stopover in Venice by Kathryn Walker
I really liked this book because I a) Love Venice, and b) love art history, especially the Renaissance period.  If you are thinking, :hmm that sounds like me!" then you should pick this one up! 

Goddess of Legend
Warrior Rising
Both by P.C. Cast
These are two books in Cast's Goddess Summoning Series.  One of my favourite fun, fast, and sexy series! Cast puts a really fun spin on ancient myths and the Greek gods, these two dealing with the Trojan War and the legend of King Arthur and Camelot.  Other books in the series include:

Goddess of the Sea
Goddess of Spring
Goddess of Light
Goddess of the Rose
Goddess of Love

The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer
Reading Georgette Heyer is always a delight.  This one was lots of fun!  This tells the story of Sir Richard Wyndham who finds himself running away from a potential marriage with a beautiful young fugitive, who he finds climbing from her window by knotted sheets, who is also looking to escape a marriage of her own.

The Council of Mirrors (Sisters Grimm #9) by Micheal Buckly
The final book in the amazing young reader series, The Sisters Grimm.  I love this series and always recommend it to younger readers.  Lots of fun, great characters, well written, and full of fun illustrations.  This was a great finish to a great series.







“Most of the time, there is no truth, only various levels of interpretation. Fact is a construct we provide to the public.”

The Ashford Affair  by Lauren Willig I really enjoyed Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation series and thought I would give one of her stan...