"The Heart and the Bottle" by Oliver Jeffers

M. received a lovely book for her third birthday called “The Heart and the Bottle” by Oliver Jeffers. I was unfamiliar with Jeffers’ work before seeing this book but knew that the gift giver was a big fan of his books. The first time I flipped through the book I thought the illustrations were wonderful and that the story was cute, if a little sad. Obviously, I wasn’t paying attention to the message in the illustrations.

Last night, M crawled into my lap and I convinced her to let me read “The Heart and the Bottle.” Lately, she has been obsessed with Madeline and only wants to read that book over and over again. While I was reading I pointed out things in the illustrations and asked M. questions about what she saw. As we turned the pages I finally got the true meaning of the book and broke down crying.

Essentially, “The Heart and the Bottle” is about a little girl who is endlessly curious about the world around her and experiences these things with (who I take to be) her father. (As an aside, while I was reading reviews most people take the older man to be her grandfather and Jeffers has said he prefers to leave the interpretation up to the reader. So, father fits my personal experience better.) One day the little girl runs to show something to her father and finds his chair empty. At this point she decides to close her heart in a bottle so she can’t be hurt again. She grows and loses the sense of wonder at the world, only feeling the weight of her heart. It is only when she meets a little girl (who probably reminds her of herself) that she tries to free her heart.

M. wasn’t sure why I was crying (I just told her it was a sad story) so I’m not quite sure what she got out of the story aside from enjoying the illustrations. Either way, I think this book is a great addition to any library, young or old, and provides a great message about loss and grief.


{Image sources: LittleElfMan & where is my tomato}

I'm loving...

These Hibiscus Stay On Coasters from Dimmalimm. I think these will make great Christmas gifts. (Yes, I'm already thinking about Christmas.)


The Serena drum chandelier from Oly. When we were picking out lighting for the new house I fell in love with this chandelier. I thought it would just the right amount of sparkle and romance to the dining nook. Too bad it was waaaaay outside my price range. Damn, good lighting is expensive! I also love this Round Old Silver iron pendant. It was more affordable at $500 but I couldn't find anyone that supplied it to the lighting store we were working with.


When we get into our new house I hope to do an art wall featuring all of the places A. and I have traveled and this DC Love print by Art Shark Designs would be the perfect addition.


I'm in the middle of reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and it has been transforming. I've been thinking more about what we feed our family and have been especially wary of conventionally grown produce. With this in mind, we purchased a half-share with Oxyoke Farms. I don't think I've eaten so many salads in my life but, it has been fantastic and I would gladly eat garden lettuce all year if I could!

First books of '08

#1: The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith continues the tradition of entertainment that was started with The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. I enjoyed this one just as much as the first three and look forward to reading the rest of the series.

#2: Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille. I gave Andrew this book for Christmas and we started reading it at the same time so we traded it back and forth while I read another book. This newest one from DeMille focuses on a plot by a group of rich civilians and high ranking US government employees to launch a (fictional?) mutually assured destruction-type counterattack called "Wild Fire." An entertaining read.

#3. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. A Christmas gift from Andrew. This story revolves around the interconnecting lives of Miriam and Laila and their stories are told in heartbreaking detail. The books takes us through the traumatic events of Afghanistan's recent history and how it impacts the main characters. Although reading this book was a different experience that reading The Kite Runner (which I read in my tent in Kabul), I think I enjoyed this story more. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone!

#4. The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman is book no. 2 in the His Dark Materials series. I found this book more suspenseful and not as confusing as The Golden Compass and I enjoyed it more. Anyone who enjoyed Harry Potter would probably like these books.

*****

I have started an Intro to International Relations course at the college so I am also reading a large number of political and economic articles and am getting more and more articulate in my debates with A. It's nice being able to hold my own for once. :)

Read in 2007

30. Tears of the Giraffe
29. The Golden Compass
28. The Great Gatsby
27. Runaway
26. Atonement
25. Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe
24. In Cold Blood
23. A Long Way Gone
22. The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette
21. Night
20. First Among Sequels
19. Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures
18. Mr. Maybe
17. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
16. Bookends
15. Summer Sisters
14. She's Come Undone
13. Shopaholic Takes Manhattan
12. Confessions of a Shopaholic
11. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
10. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
9. The Coffee Trader
8. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage
7. A Spot of Bother
6. Wonder Boys
5. The Lovely Bones
4. Monster: the Autobiography of an LA Gang Member
3. The Accidental
2. Danny: The Champion of the World
1. A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali

Final books

Here are the final two books of 2007. I did better this year than last so maybe the trend will continue in 2008.

Book 29 was The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. We sent to see the movie with some friends before I read the book but unfortunately, the theatre was really hot and I fell asleep so I can't tell you what I thought of it. The book though was quite interesting and I got into it in the same way as I got into the Harry Potter books. I'm looking forward to reading the next one.

And finally, book 30 was Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith. This is the second book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series and was just as good as books 1 & 3 which I had already read. I really want to go to Botswana to discover the country so lovingly described in the books and I also look forward to seeing the movie based on the first book.

Book 28

I recently finished rereading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and was happy to discover that I still love it as much as I did in high school.

The characters and the setting and the imagery all make me want to go back and live in that time. It's such a timeless story and I look forward to rediscovering it in the future.

*****

Only 4 days left of NaBloPoMo. This experience definitely cemented the fact that I don't have enough interesting things to write about everyday and frankly, I amazed I've made it this long.

Gifts for library/book lovers

{Updated Nov 2011: renewed links and added photos!}

Being a library and/or book nerd myself I know that sometimes we are hard to shop for. We have somewhat particular, if not peculiar, tastes and most people think that, if it's worth reading, we've probably read it already. While that is not always the case I thought I'd provide a couple of gift ideas for the nerd on your list.

1. Don't be afraid to give a copy of your favourite book or something you recently read that you loved. Books are ALWAYS welcome and if you go the extra step and add a personal inscription, the gift will be extra special.

2. Since most book nerds have large collections, their friends tend to want to borrow books from them. Need an easy way to keep track of what you've lent out? Try the Personal Library Kit.

3. Any book nerd will tell you that they have long lists of books to read and sometimes it's hard to remember all of them. This Book Lover's Diary provides one handy location to record all of the books that you've read, are wanting to read, quotes that you like as well as other information.

4. Sometimes even the most well-read person gets stuck for something to read. An easy place to turn to for recommendations are books filled with just that. Book Lust by Nancy Pearl or 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die by Peter Ackroyd are two such books.

5. Most library nerds I know are really into anything that is aesthetically pleasing. Candida Hofer's Libraries is a hefty hardcover book filled with gorgeous photos of libraries from around the world - a lovely addition to any coffee table. Another popular option is this Renaissance Library Calendar. {Updated Nov 2011: no longer available.}

{This is the UK cover, but frankly I think it's nicer.}

6. And, as we all know, reading IS sexy. Let your nerd proclaim it loudly with this t-shirt by Sarah Utter. (Here's the guy's version.) Another option for the grammar nazi in your life is this bad grammar makes me [sic] shirt.

Happy Giving!

Runaway

Book 27 was Runaway by Alice Munro.

Incredibly, this is the first year I have ever read any of Munro's short stories and frankly, I don't know what took me so long. I love her writing style, her landscapes are familiar and the characters are interesting. If you've never read Munro before this is a good place to start as it's easy to see why she is called one of the greatest writers of our day.

I've been bad

It's been so long since I posted that I'm having a hard time coming up with something to write.

I had a fairly busy summer which included having gallbladder surgery and buying a brand new Mazda 3 with A. We also went on our first solo camping trip together, attended the wedding of some good friends and saw a lot of great films at the film fest. Now we are looking forward to going to Calgary in December for my cousins wedding and Christmas!

Until I can come up with something more to write I will list the books I have read since my last update.

9. The Coffee Trader by David Liss

10. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (a reread)

11. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (reread)

12. Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella (reread)

13. Shopaholic Takes Manhattan by Sophie Kinsella (reread)

14. She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb (reread)

15. Summer Sisters by Judy Blume (reread)

16. Bookends by Jane Green (reread)

17. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

18. Mr. Maybe by Jane Green (reread)

19. Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam

20. First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde

21. Night by Elie Wiesel

22. The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette by Carolly Erickson

23. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

24. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

25. Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe by Stuart Mclean

26. Atonement by Ian McEwan

The dub dub

For those of you that don't know (which is probably a small number since I've been broadcasting it), I joined Weight Watchers on May 3. So far it's been going fairly well and I've lost 8.4lbs which means I'm almost half-way to my 10% goal! People have been talking about goals lately so I thought it would be a good idea to get mine written down. Besides, public humiliation is always a good motivator! :)

• Control high blood sugar - don't want to take medication!
  
• Feel good about myself again and finally believe A. when he tells me I'm beautiful.
  
• Be able to buy clothes that I want and not worry if a store will have my size.
  
• Be generally more healthy.
  
• Tone mid-section.
  

I've been sticking to the plan pretty strictly (aside from this past weekend - oh, the wine...) so hopefully I don't fall off in a spectacular fashion! Here's to watching the numbers get smaller and smaller!

*****

I finished reading Alice Munro's Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage a while ago and I really enjoyed it. It's the first of Munro's books I've read (shocking, I know) and it won't be the last. The stories were interesting and entertaining and it always makes the reading fun when you recognize the places she's describing. A definite recommendation!

Oops

Well, it's been quite a while since I last posted and a lot has gone on, most of which I can't remember details of.

I've been reading slowly but I was able to add a book to the tally. A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon is Haddon's sophomore effort and was just as enjoyable as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. I don't remember my initial impressions of the book but it was hard to put it down.

*****

We bought two new Ikea bookshelves and some throw pillows for the couch - I'll add pictures once I get them onto the new computer we bought yesterday. We also got a sweet 22" LCD monitor.

Edit: Here are some pictures of our Ikea bookshelves and pillows from Pier 1.




*****

Several weekends ago we decided to get out of the city so we drove down to Leavenworth, WA, a gorgeous Bavarian village in central Washington. It's surrounded by mountains and rivers, has fantastic German food, and Andrew said it took him right back to Germany. It's a 4 hour drive on a twisty two-lane highway, but it was definitely worth it.



*****

We also finally went up to Whistler last weekend with my Mom and Gary. The village was nice and we went up the gondola and chair lift which was amazing, but I have to admit, I think I like Banff better.

The mysteries of Philadelphia

Unfortunately the blogging spirit isn't strong in this one at the moment but I do have a book to add to the list.

Before I get to book number six there are a few points about The Lovely Bones that I wanted to mention that were discussed at our book club meeting this past Sunday. Overall, I loved the book and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to people however, there were some flaws. The thing I had the biggest problem with was the "fall from heaven" sex scene. If you haven't read the book I won't say much more than it caught me off guard and kind of interrupted the flow of the book for me. Several people mentioned that the characters were basically just two dimensional outlines and, while I agree in some respects, I also think if Sebold had tried to flesh them out any further the book would have been a lot longer than it was. This was an incredibly emotional read and I think this is why I enjoyed it so much - I let myself be immersed by the story rather than thinking about the details too much.

Once I finished reading The Lovely Bones I moved on to Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon which I received as a Christmas gift. I really enjoyed the movie version (even with Tobey Maguire) and have wanted to read the book. While most of the story was similar to the movie there were large chunks, as with any adaptation, that were left out. I especially enjoyed the Passover scene with his in-laws and the "rescue" of James Leer from his family. This is one of the rare times where I don't have a definite opinion on whether I liked the movie or the book better - both were highly entertaining and I will return to both again in the future.

*****

A. and I leave for our holiday on Monday and we couldn't be looking forward to it more. We will spend time with his parents and then we are heading into the States for a 5 day road trip. If anyone has been to Philadelphia or Washington, DC and has any suggestions of things to do or see or restaurants with fantastic food, please leave a comment.

*****

We have spent an obscene amount of time watching the first three seasons of 24 and A. is now hooked. I think I've created a monster.

*****

I took a bunch of pictures of the condo and posted them on Flickr. If you have a good eye for furniture arrangement or have any organizational ideas, please comment on the photos or let me know.

Quick update

It's been a while I know but I do have books to add to the list and a photo from a day trip A. and I took.

*****

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.

Kicking it off right

This reading year has already started off with a bang as I've managed to complete two books and am well into a third one (which is for the book club I've started.)

I started book #1 last year but I finished it in 2007 so I am counting it as the first completed book. I decided to read A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali by Gil Courtemanche because A. and I went to see the film based on this book at last year's Vancouver International Film Festival. The film was incredible - the lighting was perfect, the actors and story ripped my heart out and twenty minutes after I left the theatre I still thought I was going to burst out crying. The book was no different. Courtemanche is able to portray both the horror of genocide and the wonder of falling in love without getting lost in one or the other. This book made me grieve and it made me rage and above all it showed me how powerful love and friendship can be.

It seems that, without fail, after I finish a heavy book I need something a little lighter. With that in mind I decided to reread Danny: The Champion of the World by Roald Dahl. Growing up, Roald Dahl was one of my favourite authors. I loved his imagination and his crazy stories and the language he used and I still do. This particular book was read to my class in elementary school. I don't remember which grade I was in or who the teacher was but I do remember being enthralled with this story and it was as good as I remembered. It's funny that even years later, the way someone removes a bookmark from their book will bring back fond memories of reading time in class. I have to admit that I have an affinity for reading young adult books I loved when I was younger. There's something about the really good ones that stand the test of time and only seem to get better as I grow older. That is one of the things I'm really looking forward to if I ever have kids - being able to read to them the stories that I loved.

To cap off the year

It's a little late I know, but I did manage to read one last book before the end of 2006.

Book 25 was Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. I had heard from several people that this prequel to The Da Vinci Code was the better of the two books and I agree with that sentiment to a point. Angels and Demons was definitely not as adjective heavy as The Da Vinci Code but both books had interesting stories and characters and both were easy to read. At a time when life is so busy and at times overwhelming, it was nice to be able to escape in some easy reading.

*****

I was a little surprised by how few books I managed to get through in 2006. Hopefully, with the help of our little book club, I will be able to discover some fantastic books this year and get back on track. That is one of my resolutions for this year.

Speaking of resolutions, I've made them in the past but have always made them vague enough that I didn't feel too bad if I didn't achieve them. While I decided that I wasn't going to make resolutions this year, there are a few goals that I'd like to work towards, specifically:

• Get on track with losing weight - eat more veg, less carbs and make a concerted effort to exercise.
  
• Be a better housekeeper - put the laundry away as soon as it is done.
  
• Make use of all of the cookbooks I have and make more interesting meals.
  
• Go on at least 5 hikes this summer.
  
• Attend more concerts and see friends more often.
  

Read in 2006

25. Angels and Demons
24. The Constant Princess
23. Out of Poverty: and Into Something More Comfortable
22. Something Rotten
21. The Eyre Affair
20. Well of Lost Plots
19. Lost in a Good Book
18. Morality for Beautiful Girls
17. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
16. The Bean Trees
15. Saturday
14. Little Earthquakes
13. The Complete Stories of Truman Capote
12. The Da Vinci Code
11. Without Remorse
10. Deep Six
9. The Virgin's Lover
8. Anne of Green Gables
7. A Breath of Snow and Ashes
6. Blankets
5. Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return
4. Me Talk Pretty One Day
3. The Lion's Game
2. Shake Hands With the Devil
1. Plum Island

Book update

Finally, an update on what I've been reading (unfortunately, it hasn't been much.)

Book #23 took me a long time to read and I'm not totally sure why. The subject matter was interesting and the book was engaging and easy to read but I found that I wasn't in the mood to sit and read for hours on end about poverty. That said, I learned a lot from reading Out of Poverty: and Into Something More Comfortable by John Stackhouse. Stackhouse is a foreign correspondent with the Globe and Mail and in this book he travels to impoverished villages and war-torn countries in order to discover some of the ways the people were trying to raise themselves up without the aid of NGOs. He discovered that people could be incredibly resourceful and savvy when given a push in the right direction. This book was incredibly insightful and if you are at all interested in international development, I would recommend it.

For book #24 I decided to go with something light after spending months reading about poverty. I've always enjoyed Philippa Gregory's historical novels so I sat down with The Constant Princess. I wasn't immediately drawn into this book about Katherine of Aragon's rise to the throne but as I read more I found it harder to put down. Like all of Gregory's novels, she portrays Katherine as a strong woman who has a few flaws. There's not much else I can say about this book except that if you've read and enjoyed some of Gregory's other books you will most likely enjoy this one as well.

The Fforde Affair

Books 19 to 22 were delights to read and I've been recommending them to everyone I know. If you've ever wondered what it would be like to be able to live inside fiction or ever fantasized about trading places with a fictional character (I've always wanted to be Elizabeth Bennett) then the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde is perfect for you. I read the series out of order but my enjoyment of the books was not diminished and I was able to easily follow all of the plot lines.

I read Lost in a Good Book, which is the second book in the series, first, and by the end of the first chapter I was hooked. Fforde has an incredible imagination and has created a parallel universe in which there is a yearly mammoth migration, people keep reengineered dodo's as pets and travel long distances either by airship or in tubes that go through the center of the Earth. This is a world in which the Crimea War is still raging in the year 1985 and there is a policing agency called Special Operations that oversees everything too "weird" for the regular police. SpecOps has a vampire and werewolf disposal unit, a Chronoguard division whose operatives can stop time, and the Literary Detectives of which the main character, Thursday Next, is a member. Thursday usually spends her days investigating forgeries and dealing with crazed fans who insist the Shakespeare's plays were written by someone else (Francis Bacon being the popular favourite), until she has to find a way into fiction to stop a madman from destroying Jane Eyre. I wouldn't call these books science fiction or fantasy or even just regular fiction - they are a genre all to themselves.

The third book in the series, The Well of Lost Plots, is the one that I read second. In this one Thursday decides to take a vacation from the real world and joins Jurisfiction's (the policing agency of the Book World) Character Exchange Program. She takes up residency in an unpublished book currently residing in the Well of Lost Plots and tries to solve several mysteries that have occurred in the book world all while trying to regain her memory.

The Eyre Affair was third and gave me all of the background that I was missing from the other two books. This is the one that started the whole series and takes the reader on a wild ride as Thursday follows advice and clues that she doesn't totally understand.

Finally, I read the fourth installment in the series, Something Rotten. Thursday seems to take on more than she can handle as she tries to save the world by winning a seemingly unwinnable croquet match, foiling the Goliath Corporation yet again, finding an escaped Minotaur and trying to defeat a long-time enemy. This final book will keep you enthralled and the ending will reveal all.

Pandora

I realize that I'm probably behind the curve on this one but I recently discovered Pandora.com and I'm loving it! I like listening to music at work and most of the time my station of choice is CKUA, a listener supported radio station out of Edmonton, but occasionally I like to listen to music that I know and this is where Pandora comes in. I've created stations based on some of my favourite artists from different genres such as Hawksley Workman, Belle & Sebastian, Edith Piaf and Loudon Wainwright III and Pandora then creates a custom station of other artists based on similar musical characteristics. You can also create stations based on a song you like rather than just an artist. If you haven't already tried it I suggest you do.

Listen: Hawksley Workman radio

******

As for our condo issues, things are moving slowly and when we stopped by the condo on Sunday the carpet was still half torn up, there were still giant gaps in the drywall and nothing else had been done.

Our temporary accomodations are working fine for now but we'd both rather be home. Hopefully things will start moving along and we won't be out for too much longer.

******

On the reading front, I've completed several books that I need to write about and after I'm done my current one I'm going to move on to some International Relations non-fiction. I'm contemplating possibly doing a correspondence degree in International Relations from the University of London so I thought I'd do some reading first to see if it's something I'm actually interested in it.

Any advice on taking courses by correspondence or on the usefulness of an IR degree would be appreciated.

The art of getting things done

I've been incredibly bad about posting anything lately so instead of boring you with long "we did this and then we did that" paragraphs, I give you my favourite time saver - the bulleted list.

• During the long weekend, A. and I rented a car so that we could GTD (get things done). We ended up with a shiny Mazda 6 that we both fell in love with.
  
• Went to IKEA, spent way too much money but ended up with a great half-round gateleg table, two wooden chairs, two folding chairs, and a shoe rack that I have wanted since it came out.
  
• That same night we went to Steveston and had a delicious dinner at Sockeye City Grill.
  
• Woke up early Sunday morning so we could head down to Washington. Spend 1.5hrs in the line at the border.
  
• Stopped at Anacortes because we wanted to head over to the San Juan Islands but the next ferry wasn't for another two hours and it would have taken up the rest of our day so we decided to nix that idea and head down to Seattle. (Pictures here.)
  
• Drove around downtown Seattle looking for a hotel and ended up at the Hotel Monaco.
  
• Did some shopping and then went up the Space Needle.
  
• Had another amazing dinner, this time at The Brooklyn.
  
• Monday morning, went to Pike Place Market for wandering and breakfast. Also saw the first Starbucks.
  
• On the way home we stopped at Alderwood Mall and Seattle Prime Outlets and spent waaaay too much money. Got dinged at the border.
  
• Emma and Laurel hosted a kick-ass "Hobo Reunion" on the 12th at which everyone had a hobo name. Mine was Gnarles Boxcar and A. was Spits McGrifter. People also brough hobosnacks, ours being worms and dirt.
  
• This Saturday A. and I went to Sears and checked out new washer and dryer teams (I love that they call them teams.) We are probably going to wait for Scratch and Save next weekend and go back for the Kenmore front-loaders. Is it sad that I can't wait to do the first load of laundry in the new washer and dryer?
  
• We also lusted over a pair of Movado watches. I love the Rondiro watch.
  

***************

Books I've read recently

Despite the warnings that other book bloggers have written about, I have waited way too long to write about what I've read recently. I don't really remember characters or what my initial reactions were so here again, is another list.

15. Saturday by Ian McEwan. I'd never read any of his other books but had heard excellent things about this one so I picked it up at Chapters one day. I really enjoyed the story and love the way McEwan can bring a scene so vividly to mind.

16. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. I've had The Poisonwood Bible on my shelf of to-be-reads for years but hadn't heard anything about any of her other books. I read this one on the recommendation of A. who said he had really enjoyed it when he was in school. This was a heartwarming tale about the power of family and friendship and I sped through it. An excellent story.

17. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith is another book I have heard a lot of people talking about over the past few years. I discovered that they had it at work so I started reading it on my lunch breaks. The story and the main character of Precious Ramotswe captured my imagination and, like the Outlander books made me want to go to Scotland, this book made me want to visit Botswana. Maybe one day...

18. Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith is the third book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series but I read this one second because they also had it at work. Again, an excellent read with intriguing characters and subplots. I'm looking forward to reading the rest in this series.