best books i read this year

Once again, YA fiction, food and non-fiction makes it to the top of my year end list. Only 6 books out of the near 50 books I read in 2010 get my emotional, totally unscientific 5 star rating. The above photo are books on my to-read shelf & I might be able to add one of these to my GoodReads list before the year is through.

What can I say...I'm a teenager at heart. Here are the top YA titles I read this year. All of them really resonated with me and I recommended them to friends. Engaging, compelling and full of heart.

How To Say Goodbye In Robot

What They Always Tell Us

When You Reach Me

The next 3 books aren't YA, but fall into the non-fiction realm. Eating Animals was outstanding and while it didn't make me vegan or vegetarian, it gave me a huge understanding about what eating animals really does mean. Hits on a personal level and leads you to greater pastures. The other 2 books I read around the time my mom was dying. One funny, one heavy and true. Both recommended reading.

Eating Animals

Prayer Requested

The Mercy Papers: A Memoir of Three Weeks

All my reads of the past year have been documented on my GoodReads account.

best books I read this year

I love Good Reads. It's a perfect way for me to not only keep track with what books I've read, but I always get great recommendations on what to read next from friends. Thought I'd just fill you in on some of the best books I read this past year. Obviously, I'm a sucker for Young Adult and memoirs and food. All 5 stars based on my emotional, personal and totally un-scientific ratings scale.

Beginner's Greek: A Novel

Along for the Ride

The Giver

An Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination: A Memoir

A Homemade Life: Stories & Recipes from my Kitchen Table

The Hunger Games

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food

I should also note that the books above are on my night table and I'm almost through with Catching Fire which is the 2nd book in the fantastic Hunger Games series. It's looking like it will make the list as well.

book autopsies

After seeing this link via swissmiss, I was in a state of visual swoon. Oh my! How beautiful.


From the article, "Brian Dettmer carves into books revealing the artwork inside, creating complex layered three-dimensional sculptures."

But enough about link browsing, I've got so much holiday stuff to get to! Candy making, cookie baking, grocery shopping, gift-buying, oh boy! One week to Christmas!! Yikes.

jack-o-lantern

Every year a form an unhealthy bond with my jack-o-lantern. When I was a kid, I'd spend the whole day planning out my perfect pumpkin face, drawing out various templates until I found the best one. After Halloween, I'd keep my jack-o-lantern in my room for a few days as a doll house of sorts, and then in the backyard to watch it decompose. I still have that strange attachment with every pumpkin every year.

under the sea

*Photos by Meomi

My friend, Vicki with her partner Michael who together form the great Meomi, have recently put out a lovely book, The Octonauts. They just did a few book readings & signings in SF and soon will be doing publicity in Vancouver. This Saturday (October 28) they'll be at the Vancouver Aquarium for a reading:

Meomi will be reading at the Vancouver Aquarium : 11 am, come visit wonderful fishies and hear an octo-yarn. Free colouring pages and postcards! If anyone wants to dress up as an Octonaut for Halloween, we'll have special prizes!

They will also have a Vancouver launch party at Sophia Books on November 30, 7pm. Wine, art and paper hats! I'll be there and so should you!

Buy the book.

books. yum!

This morning I read a short story by Alice Munro in her book, Runaway, and then I read another and another. Her writing is so beautiful and sharp that it makes me weep. I've been doing a lot of reading lately.

Toast by Nigel Slaterwas very enjoyable. I love food writers and memoirs and his memories of people and time and place are so entangled with food and tastes and smells that to share in them is decadent and delightful as the darkest chocolate cake.

I also just finished reading Garlic & Sapphires by Ruth Reichel. I've read all of her books and this one was as wonderful as her first. Her writing makes me want to visit the best restaurants and try foods as poetic as they must be in the mouth as they are on the written page. Reading her books makes me want to be a better writer and be less flippant or quick to hit "post". And I guess any book that leaves you with that feeling that you can do better, has done more than it's job.

i *heart* the library

My next door library was closed for the month of August. It's the only branch in the whole Vancouver system that takes a long break like that and it's probably the only library that sits within an elementary school. So when Tuesday, September 5th rolled around I was so pleased to receive my huge bounty of holds that had been waiting around just for me! What's in my library goody bag? Let's take a peek inside:

• Murderball (dvd)
• Munich (dvd)
• Rollercoaster (dvd)
• The Man with the Golden Arm (dvd)
• North Country (dvd)
• Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 2 (short stories)
• Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger (non-fiction)

As you can see, I'm putting my new tote to good use!

when you were small

I first saw this book at a children's boutique and instantly fell in love with it's outsides. With it's dolphin smooth robin egg blue cover and chocolate brown cloth spine, the pleasure is both tactile and visual. The hand drawn illustrations, hand lettered drop caps and muted colours harken back to an earlier time. It's almost like a treasure that I could find hidden on a thrift store shelf and I'm almost amazed I could purchase it brand new.

The story is quite simple. Henry asks his dad every night, "Tell me about when I was small".

"When you were small you couldn't hold a spoon so you used to sit on the edge of my porridge bowl and dip your head in like a baby bird."

When You Were Small, by Sara O'Leary with illustrations by Julie Morstad. Published by Simply Read Books.