*****
Let's start with the day trip.
About three weeks ago is was gorgeous on the weekend so we decided to rent a car and go for a day trip. We talked about going shopping in the States but figured we didn't need to spend a ton of money so we decided to just drive. We usually head south to Steveston so this time we decided to go East and see where we ended up. We had to stop for gas somewhere in Port Coquitlam and after realizing we had no idea where we were we bought a map. We looked at the map and headed north to the village of Belcarra hoping to find a cute little restaurant where we could grab a bite to eat. We didn't end up finding a restaurant but we did find a lovely park so we stopped and walked down to the water. I forgot my camera at home so had to make due with the camera on my cellphone. Here is the view from the park.
*****
On to the books.
I've held off on discussing book #3 for a while because it was the first selection of the book club I started and I wanted to wait until we had our first meeting which was this past Saturday.
The Accidental by Ali Smith was my suggestion and I picked it mainly because I had received it as a gift for Christmas. The Accidental is about a dysfunctional family (Eve, Michael, Magnus & Astrid) whose lives are turned upside down when a stranger named Amber arrives at the house they are renting for the summer. At our meeting many people mentioned that they had a difficult time getting past the first chapter but that once they got into the book they really enjoyed it. Personally, it was the beginning of the book that sucked me in and I really enjoyed reading from Astrid's perspective. I didn't like the character of Michael but his part of the story did round everything out. While I was doing some research for I meeting I discovered that the Daily Mail had chosen The Accidental as their book club choice last April and they had developed some discussion questions so we used those to get our own discussion going. Overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to others.
Book #4 was Monster: the Autobiography of an LA Gang Member by Sanyika Shakur aka Monster Kody Scott. The cover of this book caught my eye one day while browsing Chapters so I decided to pick it up. I don't usually read biographies but something about this one really peaked my interest. Sanyika wrote this book while in prison and he gives the reader an all-access pass to his life as a member of the Crips' Eight Tray set. He started out his "banger" career at the age of 11 and his main goal was to work his way up to the upper ranks of power. The book is gritty and real and uses a lot of gang talk and while sometimes those things are hard to read it is also those qualities that make this book impossible to put down.
I'm not going to say a lot about book #5 which was The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold because this is the next selection for our book club. Needless to say, I sped through this book in three days and it will be one that I continuously recommend to people.
*****
Last but not least, A. and I have finally decided to take a vacation and I am really looking forward to getting away for two weeks. We are heading out East to visit his parents for a few days and then we are going to rent a car and head South. We don't have a plan except to see how far we can get before we have to turn around. I'd love to see some of the Carolina's and maybe even Georgia but just going somewhere is enough for me.
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