What I Read – July 2016

Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates (Vintage Contemporaries, 2008) A Tangled Web - L.M. Montgomery (Bantam Books, 1989) The Painted Kiss - Elizabeth Hickey (Atria Books, 2005) The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers - Elizabeth Pantley (McGraw Hill, 2005) Six Walks in the Fictional Wood - Umberto Eco (Harvard University Press, 1994) The Vegetarian… Continue reading What I Read – July 2016

Book Review: The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers by Elizabeth Pantley

In sixteen months of parenting, this is the first parenting book I've read. While I've definitely been guilty of the middle-of-the-night-google-search (Always a bad idea. Always), my parenting resource so far has been friends. I have a few trusted friends who are slightly further along the road on this gig than I am and whose… Continue reading Book Review: The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers by Elizabeth Pantley

Reading with Pearl: The Ferryboat Ride by Robert Perry, illustrated by Greta Guzek

This is a thoroughly West Coast book. All about riding the B.C. Ferries, an experience well known to anyone who lives on our little peninsula here. Pearl rode the Queen of Surrey for the first time when she was just three days old, on her way home from the hospital in Vancouver. Fittingly, we barely… Continue reading Reading with Pearl: The Ferryboat Ride by Robert Perry, illustrated by Greta Guzek

Book Review: Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

Unhappy suburban families in the 1950s has become something of a cliche, but it's easy to imagine that Richard Yates before the cliches began. He certainly is able to avoid them. Frank and April Wheeler are in their late twenties, have two children, and live in Connecticut. Frank works in New York City and April… Continue reading Book Review: Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

Reading with Pearl: Janet & Allan Ahlberg

One of the fun things about being a parent is getting to re-discover things you yourself loved as a child and being able to introduce them to your own kid. The books of Janet and Allan Ahlberg definitely fall into this category for me. My favourites by the Ahlbergs were the Jolly Postman series -… Continue reading Reading with Pearl: Janet & Allan Ahlberg

Book Review: Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein

I read this book in the hopes of finding a good read to give to my niece for her 11th birthday. (Don't worry, her birthday is past and I don't think she reads my blog anyway so I'm not ruining a surprise!) I wanted to get her something fun, not overly challenging but just a… Continue reading Book Review: Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein

Book Review: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

I had put off reading Cutting for Stone for quite some time, mostly, I think, from a fear that it couldn't live up to its hype. The good news is, it definitely can and does The book is set in Addis, Ethiopa in the 1950s and 60s. Knowing very little about that time and place,… Continue reading Book Review: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Our Summer So Far

Our summer got off to a hectic start and things are just beginning to settle down again. At the tail end of June, we headed to the Okanagan for a wedding. We left directly after Peter got off work on the Friday and drove straight, taking the Coquihalla Highway. (Well, one stop of burgers at… Continue reading Our Summer So Far

Reading with Pearl: Actual Size by Steve Jenkins

(Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004) Steve Jenkins does all kinds of creative and interesting books for children about the natural world. His book Actual Size lets children get up close and personal with wild animals in a unique way. The premise is simple but fascinating: every picture of an animal in the book is the actual… Continue reading Reading with Pearl: Actual Size by Steve Jenkins

Reading with Pearl: Home by Carson Ellis

Pearl's favourite books are the ones with the stock photos of babies. You know the ones, generic babies of various ethnicities doing generic baby things like taking baths and wearing hats. She loves them and coos over those babies like she's looking at herself. (Which I guess is the point.) I, on the other hand,… Continue reading Reading with Pearl: Home by Carson Ellis