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Ballistics: Poems
Ballistics: Poems by Billy Collins Published: 2010 Length: 113 pages After reading Poems That Make Grown Men Cry, Billy Collins stuck in my head as someone to further explore. I enjoyed his poem The Lanyard, which was J.J. Abrams’ choice for the collection, but I also really liked Collins’ choice, Bedecked by Victoria Redel. He was the Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003, and while I don’t actually know what that is, it does sound very impressive. So while we were in Portland last year, I picked up this small collection of his. There were poems in this that I did really enjoy, but I felt…
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Foodies Read 2017
I’m also joining the Foodies Read challenge again this year. The goal is to read any book that is somehow related to food, be that a cookbook, a foodie memoir, or a murder mystery in which the killer slays his victims using only spotted dick. The challenge levels are as follows: Short-Order Cook: 1 to 3 books Pastry Chef: 4 to 8 books Sous-Chef: 9 to 13 books Chef de Cuisine: 14 to 18 Cordon-Bleu Chef: More than 19 I’ll be aiming for the Pastry Chef level again, although I would like to read more than the bare minimum this year. My initial choices, which may change, will be: How…
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Back to the Classics 2017
I will be taking part in the Back to the Classics 2017 challenge to read classic books that fall into twelve categories. The more you read, the more entries you receive for a draw at the end of the year. Complete six categories, and you get one entry in the drawing Complete nine categories, and you get two entries in the drawing Complete all twelve categories, and you get three entries in the drawing Here are the categories and my tentative choices: A 19th Century Classic: The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope A 20th Century Classic: Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank A classic by a woman author: The Prime…
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2016 in Review
Well, that year turned out a bit differently than we all thought, didn’t it? Oh well, I guess now that we’ve rolled over to a new arbitrary calendar year EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE. Donald Trump will definitely not start a war over Twitter and all of our favourite celebrities will stop dying. I can’t wait! The Weblog Nearly six years I’ve been keeping this weblog now, and I’m still enjoying it. I love being able to look back on what I’ve read, and I feel like taking an hour or two to write about a book really helps me get more out of my reading. If you had told fifteen-year-old…
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December in Review
Books Acquired: Appetites: A Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain Six Poets: Hardy to Larkin: An Anthology by Alan Bennett Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi My Dad Wrote a Porno by Jamie Morton, Alice Levine, James Cooper, Rocky Flintstone Books Read: The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan Born a Crime by Trevor Noah The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle Sex Criminals, Volume Three: Three the Hard Way by Matt Fraction Hope everyone had a great holiday to end 2016! Lee-Ann and I took a last minute trip to Maui over Christmas this year. This was my first warm Christmas, and I could definitely get used to it. We came…
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Foodies Read 2016 Wrap-Up
The second challenge I took part in this year was the Foodies Read challenge. My goal was the 4 – 8 book level, and I ended up just barely coasting in having read four books. French Milk by Lucy Knisley Heat by Bill Buford Double Cup Love by Eddie Huang Fresh Off the Boat by Eddie Huang I enjoyed all four, but French Milk was probably my least favourite. I wanted it to be more about food and found it to be mainly about moping about in Paris. Both of Eddie Huang’s memoirs were entertaining and interesting, and I’m excited to to see what he comes out with next. He’s…
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French Milk
French Milk by Lucy Knisley Illustrated by: Lucy Knisley Published: 2007 Publisher: Touchstone Length: 188 pages I really enjoyed Relish when I read it last year, so I’ve been meaning to try Knisley’s other graphic novels since then. Her Wikipedia page shows five books released through publishers and a number of self-published works as well. This one is a food-centric travelogue through Paris, which ticked all the right boxes for me. Lucy Knisley wrote this at the age of twenty three while spending six weeks in Paris with her mother. It’s a great way to keep a journal, a mix of traditional journaling and illustration. I love the idea of…
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Back to the Classics Challenge 2016 Wrap-Up
The Back to the Classics Challenge 2016 was one of the two challenges I took part in this year. The goal was to read classics from twelve categories. There’s a draw associated with how many you read, but I mainly take part because I love lists. When I first joined in on this, back in 2012, it really gave me a push to incorporate more classic fiction into my reading. This and The Classics Club actually changed how I read for the better over the years, so I’m a big fan of taking part in these reading prompts. Here’s my 2016 list: A 19th Century Classic: Three Men in a…
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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle Published: 1892 Series: Sherlock Holmes #3 Length: 307 pages I’ve never been a fan of short story collections. I find I can enjoy a single short story, but reading twelve of them in a row is just too much. By the end of the collection, I remember half of it and don’t care about the other half. So when I decided to read this book, the first collection of Sherlock stories, I thought I’d try a different tactic. Instead of reading it straight through in one go, I read one or two stories between each novel I read and jotted down…
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Laughter in the Dark
Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov Published: 1932 Translated By: Vladimir Nabokov (from Russian in 1938) Length: 292 pages This was written twenty-three years before Lolita and also deals with a relationship between an older man and a younger woman. These are the only two Nabokov novels I’ve read so far, so I’m hoping he does branch out a bit in his other novels, but this was still a much different story than what happened between Humbert Humbert and Dolores. Where Humbert is a calculated predator, Albert Albinus, this story’s older man, is a fumbling and naive fool. He’s a well-off art critic living in Berlin who meets Margot,…