holiday reading list
in my family, christmas is mostly for reading(also, puzzles, and the christmas crossword, and skating) :) when i arrived home my little sister showed up with a stack of books for me to borrow while i was there. and i got some as gifts. and i read other people's gifts!
Anansi Boys : i did this one on mp3; originally cds from the library. it worked out really well for airports and planes so i could keep my eyes closed and tune out all the hustle and bustle. i enjoyed it except the ending seemed to take forever. any one of the endings would have been sufficient. it has a neat theme about finding the extraordinary in yourself and allowing it to guide you. it's mostly about brothers and fathers and a little of daughters and mothers. also, ancient gods and the world in between. always interesting! the audio was fun, most of the characters require caribbean accents, and i was really impressed with the god voices.
Twilight, and New Moon : these are my sister's. big fat young adult books about... the morality of vampires, with a side helping of guardian werewolves. it's also a sickly sweet teen romance, a la Romeo and Juliet. much scoffing and snorting was done. :) but i couldn't put it down. the vampire premise and history were fairly well thought out. the werewolves, not so much.
Doubting Yourself to the Bone : my words are completely inadequate to describe the beauty and truth of this book. poetic, aided by the fact that it's set in several wonderful places i've actually been to: Field(in BC not too far from Banff), Vancouver Island, and Edmonton. it's about a family trying to reconcile the death/possibly suicide of their wife/mother. there's a quintet of buddhist monks, a bartender/handiman, and a lesbian hotel manager thrown in to add spice and help things along. it's fantastic.
A Very Fine Line : my mother got me this, i'm not sure why other than it's set just outside of Ottawa. it's also a young adult book, about the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter who inherits clairvoyance from her grandmother, and fights to understand and then avoid this "gift". nothing earth shattering, a quirky coming of age story. oh yeah, she decides to be a boy for a while to avoid being the seventh daughter and hope that would make the visions go away. i really enjoyed the family scense, very realistic sisters. :)
my mom always gets me picture books, which i adore. usually they involve mice. this year, i got two, one about bagpipes called Wee Gillis and a counting book with paintings of skating canadian mice.
i intended to read The Greater Good which is about US philanthropy and the economics of govt funded charity vs private/community donations. double checking my canadian brain washing :) but it seems like work and i've been in a more escapist mood lately.
I did manage to read a bit of Life Everywhere which is a surprisingly accessible ( for me, having a physics and chem background but no biology; it does actually give scientific details ) run through of theories of the origins of life on earth, and the possible forms life in other places might take.
Anansi Boys : i did this one on mp3; originally cds from the library. it worked out really well for airports and planes so i could keep my eyes closed and tune out all the hustle and bustle. i enjoyed it except the ending seemed to take forever. any one of the endings would have been sufficient. it has a neat theme about finding the extraordinary in yourself and allowing it to guide you. it's mostly about brothers and fathers and a little of daughters and mothers. also, ancient gods and the world in between. always interesting! the audio was fun, most of the characters require caribbean accents, and i was really impressed with the god voices.
Twilight, and New Moon : these are my sister's. big fat young adult books about... the morality of vampires, with a side helping of guardian werewolves. it's also a sickly sweet teen romance, a la Romeo and Juliet. much scoffing and snorting was done. :) but i couldn't put it down. the vampire premise and history were fairly well thought out. the werewolves, not so much.
Doubting Yourself to the Bone : my words are completely inadequate to describe the beauty and truth of this book. poetic, aided by the fact that it's set in several wonderful places i've actually been to: Field(in BC not too far from Banff), Vancouver Island, and Edmonton. it's about a family trying to reconcile the death/possibly suicide of their wife/mother. there's a quintet of buddhist monks, a bartender/handiman, and a lesbian hotel manager thrown in to add spice and help things along. it's fantastic.
A Very Fine Line : my mother got me this, i'm not sure why other than it's set just outside of Ottawa. it's also a young adult book, about the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter who inherits clairvoyance from her grandmother, and fights to understand and then avoid this "gift". nothing earth shattering, a quirky coming of age story. oh yeah, she decides to be a boy for a while to avoid being the seventh daughter and hope that would make the visions go away. i really enjoyed the family scense, very realistic sisters. :)
my mom always gets me picture books, which i adore. usually they involve mice. this year, i got two, one about bagpipes called Wee Gillis and a counting book with paintings of skating canadian mice.
i intended to read The Greater Good which is about US philanthropy and the economics of govt funded charity vs private/community donations. double checking my canadian brain washing :) but it seems like work and i've been in a more escapist mood lately.
I did manage to read a bit of Life Everywhere which is a surprisingly accessible ( for me, having a physics and chem background but no biology; it does actually give scientific details ) run through of theories of the origins of life on earth, and the possible forms life in other places might take.