One of a collection of items kept in the brown suitcase, this small box contains a diverse collection of buttons, badges and lapel pins from various points in my childhood. Spilling the box out was little trip down memory lane. Various pins and buttons from places lived, events attended, and memorable dates, I remember having... Continue Reading →
Book of Treasures: Grade 4
Grade 4: 1975, Van Bellingham Elementary School, Winnipeg, MB Teacher – Mrs. Delaquis Both Mrs. Delaquis and I graduated to Grade 4, and with many of the same kids in my class again. The “room” was open-area again, right next door to the previous year’s room. With the same school, teacher, room and classmates, I was... Continue Reading →
The Children Act, by Ian McEwan. Book report #6 (2017)
The Children Act, by Ian McEwan. Pub 2014 A friend who shares my fondness for “authors from the Brit circle”, such as Julian Barnes, sent me this book, a thoughtful and loving get-well gift. I had read just one other by McEwan – On Chesil Beach – which I did not love, or even really... Continue Reading →
The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes. Book report #5 (2017)
The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes. Pub 2011 This is a book I've read before (more than once), which is something I've done with a few books by Julian Barnes. This is a short one - just ~150 pages - but it is as full and evocative as his other writings. The characters are... Continue Reading →
Book of Treasures: Grade 3
Grade 3: 1974, Van Bellingham Elementary School, Winnipeg, MB Teacher – Mrs. Delaquis We moved in the summer of 1974, from a townhouse in East Kildonan to a duplex in Southdale. Complete suburbia, right down to the white fence. The school was right at the end of our street, so now I could walk to and... Continue Reading →
Foodville, by Timothy Taylor. Book report #4 (2017)
Foodville: Biting dispatches from a food-obsessed city, by Timothy Taylor. Pub 2014. This little slip of a book is especially appealing to me as it highlights some of restaurant culture and history in Vancouver over the past 20 years, overlapping exactly with my own time period of dining here. From that point of view, this... Continue Reading →
Love Sonnets and Elegies, by Louise Labé. Book report #2 (2017)
Love Sonnets and Elegies, by Louise Labé. I was introduced to Louise Labé last year - a site on FaceBook posted one of her poems (Sonnet 18, "Kiss me, rekiss me, & kiss me again") on Valentines Day, as a promotion for a reissue of their English translation. I was hooked. A 16th-century quasi-feminist (I... Continue Reading →
Shady Characters, by Keith Houston. Book report #1 (2017).
Sh@dy Charac+ers: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks. By Ke!th H*uston. Pub. 2013. Fun and interesting read, but not for non-pedants, there is some very interesting history about lesser known marks (pilcrow, anyone?) and more common ones. The book is enlightening and fun, especially for fans of the written word. There... Continue Reading →
2017 Reading Challenge
I started a new list and challenge this year, borrowed from something I saw on Facebook - read 26 books this year, satisfying a list of criteria designed to keep the list diverse and encourage exploring new styles, genres, etc. With a few friends, we came up with our own version of the list, and... Continue Reading →
I’ll Ask You Three Times, Are You Okay? by Naomi Shihab Nye. Book report #3 (2017)
I'll Ask You Three Times, Are You Okay? Tales of Driving and Being Driven, by Naomi Shihab Nye. Pub. 2007 I don't recall how I came to this book - likely another Facebook item. This is a well done collection of personal essays and memoirs by an active writer, teacher and poet based on her... Continue Reading →
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