[  Mood: Sick ]
[ Currently: About to place a scholstic order. ]
Given the BBC List(s) that has (have) been bouncing around Facebook recently, I thought I needed to turn to a more Can-Con list. Below are the top forty novels of the last ten years as voted on by CBC listeners in the lead up to the 10th Anniversary of Canada Reads. I asked myself, how many of these have I read. Sum total = one. Am I a bad Canadian because I have only read one of these? I don’t think so, but I do think that I am poorer in my knowledge and understanding of Canada.

(To be fair to me, I started reading Book of Negroes, but stopped as I had just had my son and with the main character about to take a transatlantic voyage in a room full of pregnant slaves, I knew what was coming, and I knew I needed to walk away.)

So here we go: Bold if I read it. Italicized if I started it, but didn’t finish it.

A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews

Bottle Rocket Hearts by Zoe Whittall

Clara Callan by Richard B. Wright

Come, Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant

Conceit by Mary Novik

Crow Lake by Mary Lawson

Drive-by Saviours by Chris Benjamin

Elle by Douglas Glover

Essex County by Jeff Lemire

Far to Go by Alison Pick

February by Lisa Moore

Galore by Michael Crummey

Heave by Christy Ann Conlin

Inside by Kenneth J. Harvey

Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill

Moody Food by Ray Robertson

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

Room by Emma Donoghue

Shelf Monkey by Corey Redekop

Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb

The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis

The Birth House by Ami McKay

The Bishop’s Man by Linden MacIntyre

The Bone Cage by Angie Abdou

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan

The Fallen by Stephen Finucan

The Girls Who Saw Everything by Sean Dixon

The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe

The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart

The Way the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden do

Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden

Twenty-Six by Leo McKay Jr.

Unless by Carol Shields

[  Mood: Angry ]
Just a quick note that I need to share before I go to bed.

I came across a link to this story via the Nerdist about a little girl in Grade 1 who didn’t want to carry her Star Wars water bottle because the boys in her class were teasing her, telling her that girls didn’t like Star Wars.

I dropped her a line, and I urge you all to do it too. Especially any women who may read this. Go viral with this. We have to let her (and the boys) know it is OK for little girls to love Star Wars. And someone find a way to get this to Lucas.

[  Mood: Amused ]
[ Currently: Editing the Podcast ]

Julie Kenner is one of my favourite authors. She of the "Good Ghouls Do" series and the "Demon Hunting Soccer Mom" series, her writing is usually full of humour and zany actions. The Givenchy Code follows in this tradition, except it is missing the supernatural elements.

This novel finds out heroine, Melanie Prescott, stuck in another series of dead-end jobs. She is studying math and history at university and is a wizard at codes. Suddenly she is sucked into a live-action version of a on-line video game she used to play.

Hunted through the streets of New York by a mad man, Melanie must trust, Matthew Stryker, a complete (and very handsome) stranger, to help her solve the puzzles and make it through the experience alive.

This book is a nice tour of New York and run through math puzlles and theories. It was a fun read. Not going to change your life, but like most of Kenner`s work, fun.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[ Currently: About to get ready for work. ]

I loved the Mortal Instruments series, burning through it at an incredible rate. So when I found out that author Cassandra Clare was releasing a prequel series taking place in Victorian London, I got very excited. As soon as it came in from the library, I put aside all other reading to immerse myself.in this book.

And I have to say, I came away disappointed. The action is interesting, and I like the take on the Shadowhunters in this time, but the characters left me feeling more of the same. Tessa is so heavily influenced by Clary it is ridiculous. She is an ingénue with mysterious powers who is swept up into the Shadowhunter world. You are left to wonder if she can master the powers in time to save herself and help her new friends. Sound familiar?

The character of Will is an even worse copy. An orphaned, angry bad-boy, she might have well called him Jace. That becomes doubly clear when (SPOILERS) you find out his parents may not in fact be dead. Jem, the soft-spoken young man with a mysterious illness also bears more than a passing resemblance to Simon.

It is the secondary characters that give us something new. Jessamine is the young female Shadowhunter who just wants to be a lady. The head of the institute, Charlotte, and her mad scientist husband, Henry, are also interesting.

This book is really only for the die-hard fan. The rest of you are going to find more of the same.

Needless to say, this won’t be making my After Harry list.

[  Mood: Shocked ]
[  Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]
Those of you that are my friends on Facebook know my views on Remembrance Day. It is sacred to me. I am the granddaughter of Dutch Resistance fighters. I grew up on stories of what it was like to live in Nazi occupied Netherlands. Steeped in my blood is the reality that war is hell, but it is sometimes necessary.

I also learned that I owe my life to the Canadians who liberated the Netherlands. Canada, a country with no ties to the Dutch, sent their sons and daughters to fight so the Dutch could be free. The Dutch have never forgotten this. And neither have I.

So this brings me to the white poppy. Apparently this is a campaign for peace. You wear the white poppy to symbolize your opposition to wars and your desire for peace.

Personally, I find the white poppy campaign offensive. The poppy has been a symbol of remembering the sacrifices of soldiers who died in war since WWI. It should stay that way.

I applaud the organizers’ desire for peace. But I do not approve of their methods. Pacifism would not have saved the Dutch from Hitler, nor did it do much for the Jews of Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia.

These pacifists should use the symbol that has stood for peace for years. The dove. And they should use it at another time of the year. They have clearly chosen this time of year for their campaign, because they are protesting the symbolism of Remembrance Day. And they think they can get some easy press.

And both show me that they are not quite as much about peace and pacifism as they think they tell us. They are far more about advancing their cause at all costs, no matter who you piss on to get there.

[  Mood: Amused ]
[ Currently: Editing the Podcast ]

Flavia de Luce is a polarizing figure. Some people (OK a lot given the sales figures) love the precocious eleven year-old chemistry savant. Others find her abilities to both create complex chemical formulae and fight crime to be a bit hard to swallow.

What is certain is that author Alan Bradley has created a richly woven tale that takes place in post WWII Britain. Flavia gets involved in the investigation of the murder of a puppeteer who is preforming in her town. The murder investigation also sheds light on the mysterious hanging death of a young boy many years ago.

What makes the book eminent readable is not the mystery, but rather Bradley`s writing style and strong characterization. Flavia`s ongoing war with her two older sisters is so true to life and funny, that the reader finds themselves alternately cheering and scolding the young heroine. And who wouldn’t want to give their sister noxious gas laced chocolates.

So pick it up for the writing, not for the mystery.