Month: October 2015

Winter 2015 Book Challenge

So, I’m going to do another reading challenge! I loved the Literary Ladies Challenge and I love planning books for various categories and really spreading my wings with reading different things.

Here’s my preliminary list for the Semi-Charmed Life 2015 Winter Book Challenge hosted by Megan at Semi-Charmed Kind of Life (anyone else always get Third Eye Blind in their head when they head over to her blog?? I think that’s part of the point!!) 🙂

5 points: Read a book that has between 100 and 200 pages. 

I’d recommend this list here and I’m going with A STUDY IN SCARLET (Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes # 1) 

10 points: Read a debut book by any author. (The book does not have to be a 2015 debut.)

NORTHANGER ABBEY or SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (Jane Austen)  (There is a bit of a debate over which was her actual debut book but I plan to read both of them during this time frame so here we go).

10 points: Read a book that does not take place in your current country of residence. 

BLACKMOORE (Julianne Donaldson) 

10 points: Read a book that someone else has already used for the challenge. — Submitted by SCSBC15 finisher Kristen @ See You in a Porridge. 

WONDER (R.J. Palacio) (used by What Low Reads en Francais!!!)

15 points: Read a book published under a pseudonym (e.g. Robert Galbraith, Sara Poole, J.D. Robb, Franklin W. Dixon, Mark Twain, etc.). — Submitted by SCSBC15 finisher Megan M.

THE SILKWORM  (Robert Gailbraith AKA J.K. Rowling)

15 points: Read a book with “boy,” “girl,” “man” or “woman” in the title (or the plural of these words).

LITTLE WOMEN (Louisa May Alcott)

15 points: Read a book with a one-word title (e.g. Attachments, Americanah, Uglies, Wild, etc.). 

WINTER (Marissa Meyer) can’t wait for this one!!!!!

20 points: Read a book with a person’s first and last name in the title (e.g. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle).

ARTEMIS FOWL – (Eoin Colfer) OR BRIDGET JONES’ DIARY (Helen Fielding) depending on my mood…haha

20 points: Read a food-themed book. — Submitted by SCSBC15 finisher Jamie @ Whatever I Think Of! 

BELLA’S CHRISTMAS BAKE OFF (Sue Watson via Netgalley) 

20 points: Read a book with a verb in the title. (For any grammar nerds out there, I mean “verb” in the most general sense, so gerunds count. For non-grammar-inclined people, just use any book that appears to have a verb in the title!) 

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE (Anthony Doerr) or WHAT ALICE FORGOT (Liane Moriarty) depending which one comes to me first in my library holds 🙂

30 points: Read two books with the same title (by different authors). — Submitted by SCSBC15 finisher bevchen @ Confuzzledom. 

THE ALCHEMIST (Paulo Coelho – REREAD) and THE ALCHEMYST (Michael Scott) and can I just say that I had an absolutely impossible time picking this category even though it’s fun??

30 points: Read a nonfiction book and a fiction book about the same subject (e.g. a biography and historical fiction novel about the same person; two books about a specific war or event; a nonfiction book about autism and a novel with a character who has autism, etc. The possibilities are endless!). 

I am pretty indecisive when it comes to non-fiction so I made two possibilities (well, 4 total) for this category and I will do one of these (LOL).
POSER: MY LIFE IN 23 YOGA POSES (Claire Dederer) and  CORPSE POSE (Diana Killian) 

OR:

THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER BOOK CLUB (Heather Vogels Frederick) and HELP WANTED: MOMS RAISING DAUGHTERS (Darlene Brock)


Check out others’ lists here and follow along as I update my progress on this over at Goodreads! The challenge runs Nov 1 2015 – Jan 31 2015!!


Freaky Friday thoughts

This week has been a complete and utter whirlwind. Today I am feeling a mix of “wow, it’s already Friday!” and “Wow, what a long week!” Work has been busy, home has been busy, but it has been mostly fun too. However, our kiddos have alternated (or both have tried) waking up at 5 am almost every day this week, so they are exhausted!! It doesn’t bode well for Daylight Savings time on Sunday because their 5 am wake up will be 4 AM ON THE CLOCK. Ahhhhhhh. I am hoping they fall into a slight sugar coma from Halloween and sleep in. They don’t have sugar very often so it might only take a treat or two 😉

Anyway, here are some random thoughts going through my head this week.

  • My 10 K run on Sunday went well, and I am proud to say I finished it *almost* in the time I was hoping for – 1:10:20 (off by 20 seconds, ugh!). I was in a bit of pain later that day, but fine the next day. I know that for some people, 10K is nothing, but for me it was a long way to run and I can’t wait to get some more races in next year (winter is coming here soon – haha).
After the race with my favourite little cheerleaders 🙂
  • On Sunday night, we finally made it out to see The Martian in theatres. I loved it! I also love that Brian now knows why I am so obsessed with it (he is not a big reader at alllll). I thought it was pretty close to the book in a lot of ways, but I also feel like I was at that perfect window between reading the book and seeing the movie. Does that make sense? If I read a book and then see the movie immediately after, I am almost always disappointed in the movie. This happened to me 3 times with Harry Potter. However, if I’ve forgotten some parts of the book, I’m usually able to enjoy the movie more because I’m not dwelling on the parts they left out. Anyway, The Martian on the big screen was fantastic and I loved the casting & all of the scenery. 5 stars for me for sure. My friend Laura also hosted a Moms Reading online (Facebook) book club chat on Wednesday night and we chatted about The Martian! The book club questions really stimulated my thoughts on the book/movie and it was fun!!
  • Although I was in a bit of a reading slump (too busy at night? Too tired? I don’t know?), I have finished a few books this week and right now I’m partway through The Husband’s Secret and SO HOOKED. What is it about Liane Moriarty’s writing? I felt the same way about Big Little Lies when I read it this summer. I get completely hooked and absorbed in the novel to the extent that I can barely think of anything else until I’m finished, and then when I finish it, I still ruminate on it for days. I started The Hypnotist’s Love Story awhile ago on audiobook, but it just didn’t captivate me, so we’ll see how that pans out. I hate not finishing books, but I feel these days that I just don’t want to waste my time reading something that I am not enjoying!! 
  • I’m trying to do some better meal planning in November. In October, I tried to plan all of our suppers in advance, but I think this plan will work out better if I do it weekly. I did manage to reduce our grocery budget significantly in October, but I know I can do even better with it this month. In a lot of ways, I feel like November is a bit of a “blah” month. The weather is kind of chilly, kind of grey, kind of stormy sometimes, the only holiday is a solemn one (Remembrance Day), and you’re stuck between beautiful October and exciting December. I’m planning to make our November really count this year so that I can enjoy everything coming our way this year at Christmas time. 
  • I am torn between desiring a weekend away with my husband (we need one!!) and a weekend in my house by myself so that I can clean and tidy a la KonMari. SO torn. Can’t I have both?!?! haha.

Links and posts I loved this week:

  • This post about making social plans with new parents. We are absolutely fortunate because our family and friends will happily come to our house to hang out with us and see our kids, or we’re easily able to have someone babysit them and go out ourselves but not everyone is up for that.
  • These apple carrot oatmeal cookies were delicious and my kids gobbled them right up
  • My go-to-book-recommender posted her 10 books that she can’t stop recommending today…I haven’t read all of these yet, but I can say with certainty that they are great recommendations!!!
  • I need to follow this video on foam rolling. Last week, I foam rolled my upper back and caused red lines all over it (I have since had it checked out and it is fine – but I need more education on foam rolling, obviously)
  • 10 Best Yoga Moves for Beginners to increase mobility – love this.
  • Printable Adult Colouring Pages – I never seem to have time to colour (#avidreaderproblems) even though I bought myself an adult colouring book, but these ones look nice!!

Happy Halloween everyone! We have a butterfly and a bumblebee lined up for tomorrow, but the bumblebee is 18 months old and runs to hide in a corner every time she sees her costume – so we’ll see how that turns out!!! 🙂

Friday Faves this week

It has been a busy and tiring week here with not as much sleep OR downtime as usual. I still have the same 4 books on the go as last week and I just had SO little time to read this week! I am trying to finish up some photobooks online for which the coupons expire tomorrow so that has been occupying my evenings and work and kiddos have occupied the rest of my time, of course!!! Both our girls have drippy noses and headaches but they are hanging in there. It’s definitely going around.

Overall, it’s been a good week though! The results of the Canadian election were crazy but it will be great to see how things change moving forward. I think our country was ready for a change. Brian is still 100% glued to the Blue Jays, who might get eliminated tonight (but hopefully not!) It has been an intense series (I have watched a total of about 2 mins) 😉

I bought a new blog design template this week and I will be trying to put it up on the weekend, but we’ll see how it goes!! I’m also doing my 10K race on Sunday (nervous, but excited!!)

Here’s to a relaxing and cozy weekend!!!

Favourite Song:

Enjoying this upbeat and chill tune these days

Favourite Funnies:

If you haven’t checked out The Awkward Yeti yet, you should. The comics are extremely humorous (In my opinion).

This dad who writes hilarious (and embarassing) late notes for his teenagers. HILARIOUS read.

Another funny dad out there at Fowl Language who posts hilarious comics about parenting.

Favourite Links from the WWW:

Favourite photo:

❤ my little lady

See ya next week sometime!! I’m finalizing my list for the Semi-Charmed Winter 2015 Book Challenge…are you?!?

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Wishes I’d ask the Book Genie To Grant me

Top 10 Tuesday is a weekly link up at The Broke & The Bookish and some of the prompts are really fun! This one really made me think and I am looking forward to reading some others’ responses to it later tonight!! 🙂

TOP 10 WISHES I’D ASK THE “BOOK GENIE” TO GRANT ME

1) Prevent J.K. Rowling from killing off Sirius, Hedwig or Dobby…s(spoilers are in white ink in case you are the last person on earth to read Harry Potter!)

2) Also make Hermione come and be my best friend in life 🙂

3) Have J.K. Rowling write another Harry Potter book about their life as adults (no return of Voldemort though thanks)

4) Help encourage Veronica Roth to write the ending to Allegiant a little bit differently…

5) Get Rob Thomas to write more Veronica Mars books

6) Allow me to read books while I’m sleeping so that I can read every book I want to in my lifetime

7) Allow me to remember every book I read before Goodreads so that I can see how many Sweet Valley High/Goosebumps/teenage dramas from the library I read as a teenager

8) Give me a bookwormy career 🙂 (Maybe someday!!)

9) Find a cure for book hangovers

10) Get Brian to read some of my favourite books with me

Check out the link up over here!!! What would you ask for from the Book Genie, if he or she existed?!?

Friday Favourites – what I’m loving this week

It’s been a short week here (thank you, Thanksgiving!) but it still seems like it has been a long one! Haha. I am trying to keep a lot of balls up in the air right now, but this weekend will be a nice chance to catch up a bit. We’re spending the night (with the kids) at a friend’s house on Saturday which means wine and board games – can’t complain about that!! Sunday will probably mostly be a cleaning day!!

I mentioned yesterday on Instagram that I currently seem to have 4 books on the go…I have one that I am losing interest in and another couple that will take me longer to read, but I am very much enjoying The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (longest title ever though, haha!). Megan at Semi-Charmed Kind of Life put up the topics for the Winter 2015 Reading Challenge and I think I’ll participate for the first time! I am doing some major brainstorming for some of the categories…i.e. a fiction & non-fiction book about the same topic…hmmm….

Linking up with Amanda to share some of my favourite things this week:

Jamberry Nails

My friend Laura became a Jamberry consultant this year and I had originally only tried some nails for Canada Day. I hosted a party a few weeks ago and ordered some new nail wraps and I am LOVING these fall ones (as in, I might cry when they come off) 😉 A few of my friends have asked if I am selling them now, which I’m not nor do I think I would ever be able to – it’s just not really my thing – but I still love to wear them!! So easy to put on and last for 10-14 days!! 

The Toronto Blue Jays
This team is really bringing Canada together! Being not even that close to Toronto, it is still crazy to see how their playoffs are sweeping the nation. Brian is a huge fan and he is so excited to be watching his team advance in the playoffs.

Kale Caesar Salad
I’ve been making a variation of this recipe for a couple of months now. Kale is delicious, but it can be a bit bitter and tough unless you “marinate” it a bit in olive oil and lemon juice. I basically shred/cut the kale into bite sized pieces, add the olive oil and lemon juice, let it sit for 5-10 mins after “massaging the kale”, add parmesan and garlic powder and croutons if we have any, and BAM, delicious and healthy salad. We grew a ton of kale in the garden this year and this recipe really helped me to eat it all 😉

The Show Us Your Books Link up
So many great recommendations and a giveaway this month!

A Haircut
All through university, I had pretty short hair, but I’ve always had it shoulder length or longer since I met Brian. I finally went back to short this week after wearing ponytails daily for weeks and I’m loving it!!

Running & Yoga
I have a whole post on my thoughts about these two activities but I am really loving running and I am living for yoga these days. I’m taking a once/week class with Yogaheart and it is beginner level, but so informative and SO relaxing. I also discovered Erin Motz via Instagram this week and I am loving her philosophy towards yoga as well. I find even a few minutes a day really makes a difference to me.

This Tea
Gives you a chocolate fix without the sugar. Really yummy in the afternoon for a little pick me up 🙂

This Kid

We’ve had a few ups and downs behaviour wise this week, but she is such a sweet child and brings so much joy to our family. She loved the pie too 😉

And this one too 🙂

Poor quality photo but she loves to bring us our shoes so we can all go outside 🙂
Hope you all have a great weekend!!!


Show us your books! (September-mid October reads)

I’m still working towards my goal of 100 books in 2015 on Goodreads…I think I’m at 75ish now, so I’m a few “behind schedule”, but still hopeful!! 
It’s been awhile since I linked up with Steph and Jana for Show Us Your Books, and today is the one year anniversary of the link up! I love following along with this link up because I always find a few great recommendations to add to Goodreads and maybe even find a new blogger or two to follow.

Looking back on the last month or so, I read a lot of YA novels that are “easier” to read. I have some more adult things coming up soon though to balance that out 😉 Here’s what I read in September up until today in October – so this is over about 6 weeks instead of a month…(thank goodness Goodreads keeps track for me):
This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen (3.5/5) This was a cute YA read and I enjoyed it for what it was. I will probably try some more Sarah Dessen sometime later in the fall or next year.

Perfect Fifths by Megan McCafferty (4/5) Great ending to this series. I was thrown off at first by the timeline compared to the other books, but I think it suited the final novel well.

The Royal We  by Heather Cocks (5/5) I mentioned how much I loved this book before and I’m not ashamed of it. No, it is not literature in the same caliber as Great Expectations, but I loved the take one what it could be to be like Will and Kate (or anyone else in that spotlight).

The Princess Diaries/Princess in the Spotlight/Princess in Love by Meg Cabot (3.5ish/5)…these were quick reads, and I enjoyed them, but eventually I was just kind of finished with the series and I might pick it up again another time. Humorous writing but I needed to read something more adult-ish.

The Geography of You and Me  by Jennifer E. Smith – (3/5) – I read this one pretty quickly, but was a bit frustrated with the ending and it seems like a book that I’ll forget

The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay – (5/5) I’ve mentioned before that I loved this book. It was a captivating read and I know a lot of others loved it too. Would definitely recommend it if you’re into YA at all.

Me & Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter – (3/5) this book was OK, but I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. I found it difficult to finish, actually.

Fairest by Marissa Meyer – (3/5) I listened to most of this on audiobook. While I appreciated the unique perspective of this book, I still found it annoying and was a bit outraged at the evil Levana, even though I was interested to learn more information about her sister…this book did serve to increase my excitement about Winter in November though!!

Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson (5/5) – One of my best books of the year. I loved it and I think I will buy a copy so I can re-read it. It was a great story and I loved the writing style too. I’d absolutely recommend it if you are a fan of Regency novels or Jane Austen. I read that the author was inspired by Georgette Heyer (and Jane Austen) and I haven’t read any of her books yet but put some on hold at the library!!

My True Love Gave to Me (various authors – edited by Stephanie Perkins) (3/5)- I was planning to read this one closer to Christmas, but the ebook became available at the library for me so I read it this month. I loved some of the stories, and didn’t enjoy others, but that’s how it often works with anthologies. Still some good reads! Here’s my review.

The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg (4/5) – I used to love the Stephanie Plum books but I quit them when they got to about 10 or so… this was written in a similar way, but I liked the characters and story line a lot more. I think I will definitely read a few more in this series.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple (4/5) I listened to this on audiobook too, and while I enjoyed it overall, I did find some parts of it annoying. Once I got closer to the end, I was much more inrigued by how it would end and I felt like it wrapped up well. It’s definitely not a book for everyone though, and I don’t think I’d read it again. Some of the characters were just a bit too much for me.

Carry On  by Rainbow Rowell  (4/5) – this book isn’t for everyone either, but I liked how it paralleled Harry Potter and expanded on the fanfiction the story from Fangirl. I have enjoyed most of Rowell’s books, and this one kept me up all night reading it on the weekend.The story, while similar to Harry Potter, is its own as well, and I appreciated it for what it was.

Brown Eyed Girl by Lisa Kleypas (3/5)  – Picked this up at the library in the “rapid reads” section and enjoyed all of its fluffiness over the holiday weekend. Apparently it’s the 4th in the series. It reminded me a bit of Nora Roberts’ Bride series and I liked that about it. Not overly memorable, but a cute read nonetheless.

The TL;DR Edition of this post: I highly recommend The Royal We if you’re a fan of the younger monarchy, Edenbrooke if you like Regency novels, and Carry On if you like Harry Potter or Fangirl. If you don’t like any of those types of books, give The Heist a try if you’re into light-hearted mysteryish novels. 🙂

Right now I’m reading A Thousand Nights and intrigued so far! It’s such a pretty book, too!!

Head over to Steph and Jana’s blogs to see the link up and find out what other bloggers have been reading this month!! They also have a giveaway going on today since it’s the anniversary of the link up!

Life According to Steph

Check out yesterday’s post about 10 Great Websites for Book Lovers too!! 

10 Great Websites for Book Lovers

All of the reading I’ve done this year has really made me a lot more interested in book websites and book blogs. I could write a whole separate post about my favourite book blogs, so maybe I’ll do that someday, but today I’d like to share some book websites that I love. Let me know if there are any great gems out there that I missed!!

1) Goodreads (Obviously. You can connect with me here).

I love the ability to track what I’m reading. It’s also so easy to read others’ reviews and see recommendations. The groups are great. The lists are addictive. I will admit that I do find it overwhelming at times, and I try not to think about the fact that my to-read list is massive. I am trying to add books that absolutely only interest me and not just books that are popular with my Goodreads friends. So many books, so little time! 😉 Here are a few great posts about enhancing your experience on Goodreads:

Get Organized on Goodreads from Hannah at So Obsessed With
11 Ways to Love Goodreads Even More (I learned a lot from this one – especially about adding your library in the Bonus Round section)

And one humorous read that I can’t help but agree with: How I will Improve Goodreads when I rule the World. <– Totally agree with the half stars!

2) BookBub

I’m not sure how I first stumbled upon this, but it is a GREAT source for finding free or cheap e-books at Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo, etc. You can choose which categories you’d like to hear about, and which platforms you read on (I’d highly recommend selecting as many as you can – I have a Kobo and I still subscribe to the Amazon ones because I can read those on a tablet with the Kindle app if I really find a good book for free!) This is a wonderful resource and I can’t recommend it enough. I get an e-mail every day and some of the offers only last for that day, so I usually skim it quickly but if you end up not checking it every day, no big deal either. It’s like Groupon for books. They also have a BLOG which you can access here. A similar service to this one is called ManyBooks.

3) BuzzFeed Books

I get an e-mail from Buzzfeed books once or twice a week with some great lists about books and book-related things. It won’t be relatable all the time, but it’s still fun to check out.

Some examples:
Charts for People who Love to Read
Things Everyone who grew up a booknerd will understand.
46 Brilliant Short Novels You Can Read in a Day (in case you need some helping reaching your Goodreads reading goal!)

4) Reading Room

I follow this site on Facebook and they are always sharing interesting things, like beautiful pictures of libraries or places you should go if you like “…”. Again, maybe it’s not for everyone, but they do share some great recommendations and I think every book lover should at least check it out 🙂

5) Librivox

Home of many, many audiobooks that are in the public domain. Very easy to use and some GREAT narrators. You can search by novel, author, narrator etc. Elizabeth Klett is my personal favourite so far. I’ve listened to Pride & Prejudice and Jane Eyre via downloads from this website and I have Little Women cued up too. I kind of want to be a reader for this site someday. I think it would be fun!!!

6) Project Gutenburg (Canadian) (American)

This is the e-book equivalent to Librivox, and it has hundreds of titles that are in the public domain available for download. Great for reading the classics!!

7) Whichbook

Some might say that you can accomplish this site’s idea through Goodreads and while that is definitely true, this one is still fun to check out if you’re really looking for a general recommendation, or if you feel like you’re in the mood for something in particular (then you can go and look up their suggestions on Goodreads :)).

8) Overdrive

I read or listen to most of my books via my public library or the above mentioned resources. The Overdrive app is AWESOME because you can listen to audiobooks from it directly (kind of like Audible), renew, or read e-books in it. I prefer to read my ebooks on my Kobo, so I usually download them onto that from the Overdrive site, but I am loving it for audiobooks. You can easily link your library to it so you can browse and sign out immediately!

9) NetGalley

I don’t consider myself to be a big blogger by any stretch of the imagination and I have still scored a few books via NetGalley (one of which I haven’t read yet and one of which I still have to review). It’s worth checking it out because it doesn’t seem extremely hard to get approved if you are either a blogger, active on Goodreads, or very interested in books. The selection isn’t always the best, but it’s worth checking out!!

10) Audible

I’d be pretty amiss if I didn’t at least mention this one. While I don’t subscribe to this (I’m not into audiobooks enough to really use the subscription service, but maybe someday), I have still used it occasionally and I definitely appreciate its value. Here are a few great posts on getting the most out of Audible:

A trick to save bigtime on Audiobooks from Modern Mrs. Darcy
Get the most out of Audible
Getting the most out of your Audible Membership


HONOURABLE MENTIONS:

  • #Bookstagram #books #currentlyreading #bookblogging and other book tags on Instagram and Twitter – here are a few posts with suggestions: HERE, HERE, HERE.
  • I am intrigued by Scribd and Oyster, but I don’t want to read books on our tablet (too much screen time) and I don’t have a Kindle so I am uncertain whether they’d be worth my time and effort. Any input on these “Netflix for Books” sites, anyone??
What book websites do you love??

PS – Tomorrow is the monthly Show Us Your Books link up with Steph and Jana…the one year anniversary! Check it out for even more book love!!!