This and that

I want to thank you guys for all the kind thoughts with the loss of Mittens and now Lana. It means a lot to check my email and see all sorts of people dropping in to pay their respects. I have tonnes of Lana pics, and I am calling the troops (aka the family) to acquire more. So, there will be lots of Lana moments until I run out of pics. I am still in shock, I think. I knew she wasn't going to come home today, but I still think I was hoping for a miracle. Everything just happened so fast, I am not sure I have totally digested everything.

In other news, I bought The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason today. I also bought a copy for my friend, because I am good at advertising and she has been telling me she wants to read more vampire-type books. Anyways, one copy I got through the internet, but the copy I got today recquired me to go to the store and locate it. It was not in the general fiction. I had to go to the romance section! Do not laugh, but I do not even think I have ever LOOKED at the romance section before. So, the person I was with was looking at me funny. Too bad they do not read, so my explanation fell on dead ears. Anyways, that was my adventures in getting this book. I plan to start it when I finish this post.

Also, I am a bit behind in my reviews. Okay, more than a bit. I am just going to do a big post with a brief summary and rating to finish off last year. I think I am going to rework my reviews so that I am more apt to not fall behind. But, since I seem to be having a bad week, just in case something else catastrophic decides to happen, there are two books that I have to mention that I read last year and did not review yet:

First up is Heat by George Monbiot. I thought this book was very eye-opening, it talks about global warming and what we have to do about it. The reason I was slow reviewing this book is that it is about a topic that I feel I would have to read more non-fiction books on in order to best rate how the book worked for me. I do not think I could give it a number value without reading other books pertaining to the same subject, which I plan to do. Anything about global warming is eye-opening, and I learned a lot about the subject, but I feel that I am too uneducated on the topic to give it justice without doing more research.

The other book is Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, the winner of the Giller. I am not big on short story collections, but I really enjoyed this one. I liked how the stories were interconnected and flowed together really well. I thought following the lives of four med students was a very good idea, and you see progression in characters, something that a short story collection does not always present. I would not give it a 5, but I would give it a 4.5. I STRONGLY recommend it. I cannot say he deserved to win the Giller, as I have not read all the other nominees, but I will say that I really enjoyed reading it and that for me, it was totally the best short story collection I have read to date. I will be looking for more books by him, as I believe he is working on a novel.

The reason I mentioned these two above all others is because they were from Random House, and I am very grateful for both of them. So, thank you Random House! I promise better reviews for all the books I read after, just have been disorganized lately.

To learn more about Colleen Gleason's book, click here and for more on Vincent Lam and George Monbiot's books, click here.

Book Talk

Back in September I talked about two non-fiction books that I was very interested in, This is my Country, What's Yours? by Noah Richler and Heat: How to Stop the Planet From Burning by George Monbiot. I have both of them now, and have been reading them. I thought instead of just posting about them all at once, I am going to talk about them as I go along. Why? Because I think both of them are very interesting books!

So, let's start with the Noah Richler book. It sort of vanished for a while, and I only found it yesterday. I am just about to start chapter 4, so not very far into it yet, but now that I know where it is, I am sure you will see me read more of it.

Anyways, the chapters have explanations about what they are about, so I will show you what I just read about:

Chapter One: The Virtues of Being Nowhere
In which the author, seeking to understand the psycho-geography of the country, travels to Iqaluit, Nunavut; Don Mills, Ontario; and Steinbach, Manitoba; encounters the novelists Margaret Atwood, Jane Urquahart, Colin McAdam, Barbara Gowdy, Lawrence Hill, Paul Quarrington, Lee Henderson, Wayne Johnston, Miriam Toews, M.G. Vassanji, Rohinton Mistry, and Douglas Coupland, and discovers Nowhere has three stages.

My Thoughts on the Chapter:
Awesome list of authors, I know who most of them are, so it was interesting to hear what they thought about "Nowhere". It's rather funny, in Canada, you can be pretty much anywhere and feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. It is just the way the country has built up. A very interesting chapter about living in Canada.

Part One: The Age of Invention
Chapter Two: Stories and What They Do
In which the author recalls a bygone conversation with the Ghanian novelist B. Kojo Laing that suggested that stories do battle, prompting him to wonder whether the novel is sometimes a bullying thing and to seek illuminations from the poet Robert Bringhurst in the woods of Quadra Island, B.C.

My Thoughts on the Chapter:
I learned a lot from this chapter. The author really travels to odd places. Before I get much further I need to get a map of Canada, because I don't know where all the smaller towns are.

Chapter Three: Igloolik, 1822
In which the author accepts an invitation from his friend John MacDonald to attend the Inuit Festival of the Return of the Sun in Igloolik, Nunavut, where he remembers a conversation he had in London with the anthropologist Hugh Brody and converses with several Inuit, including Leah Otak, Louis Tapardjuk, and the filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk, and discovers oral stories about First Contact that compel him to make the case that the novel served settlers' interests better than creation myths did the Inuit's.

My Thoughts on the Chapter:
This has been my favourite chapter so far, because while I know where Nunavut is, when I was in school and learning all about Canada, it was still part of the Northwest Territories, so I have never studied it when it is alone. Also, we discuss the Natives of Canada in great detail in school, still did in university, but we hardly ever talk about the Inuit. Just from this chapter I think I learned more about them than all my schooling. The Creation Myths and how technology has changed their way of life is very interesting.

Then, today, I plan to read Chapter Four:

Chapter Four: The Circle in the Square
In which the author travels to Inuvik, in the Northwest Territories; to Wanuskewin, Saskatchewan; around the city of Toronto, Ontario; and to Frace to meet the aboriginal storyteller Louis Bird, the poet Louise Halfe, and the novelists Robert Arthur Alexie, Eden Robinson, Tomson Highway, Joseph Boyden, and Lee Maracle, and discovers that in the hands of peoples it once helped oppress, the novel defends aboriginal culture, and becomes the exponent of a prior, contrary view of life.

The next non-fiction book that I am concentrating my time on is Heat. It is not out yet, sadly, so I am not allowed to say much about it. I was just wondering, what do you guys think about global warming? Do you think it is our fault or was going to happen anyways? Feel free to say whatever you want. Then, I think it is on the 17th, I will talk about what George Monbiot has to say on the subject. I just need to sort of talk about it or I will forget parts of it by the time I can post about it.

Anyways, if you are interested in either of these books, click here for Heat and here for Noah Ricler's novel. (Yes, I found it now, it is a McClelland book, not a Random House one. I should pay more attention to these things.)

Interesting New Non-Fiction Book for Fall Release

As some of you must have noticed by now, I have been reading books from Random House a lot in the last few months. I just wanted to bring your attention to a new book coming in October. It is called Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning by George Monbiot. I am not a very vocal speaker on the subject, but I am always trying to do my part for the better of the environment. Deanna, the blogger responsible for My Tragic Right Hip, is very big on this subject. She also works for Random House, and sent me this list compiled by the author of this new book. The list is as follows:

How You Can Stop the Planet From Burning
Ten Tips by George Monbiot

Author of Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning

1. Cut your flights. Nothing else you do causes so much climate change in so short a time.
2. Think hard before you pick up your car keys. On average, 40% of the journeys made by car could be made by other means - on foot, by bicycle or on public transport.
3. Organise a "walking bus" to take the children to school.
4. Ask your boss to devise a "workplace travel plan" which rewards people for leaving their cars at home.
5. Switch over to a supplier of renewable electricity. You don't have to erect your own wind turbine, but you can buy your power from someone who has.
6. Ask a builder to give you an estimate for bringing your home up to R2000 standards.
7. Ditch your air conditioner.
8. Turn down your thermostat: 18 degrees is as warm as your house ever needs to be. You just have to get used to it.
9. Make sure every bulb in your house is a compact fluorescent or LED.
10. Do NOT buy a plasma TV: they use 5 times as much energy as other models.

I know that some people believe that global warming is a hoax, while some people just pretend it all away. But, even if you don't believe in it, what harm can these ten simple things do.

Anyways, the new book comes out October 17, 2006. I have it on order, because I think it sounds like an interesting book! For more information, visit this link:

http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385662215

Also, be sure and check back in here in October for my thoughts on this book! Maybe it sounds silly, but people are always looking for ways to make a difference, maybe this book will be just what you are looking for.