Curled Up With a Good Book and a Cup of Tea

August was a pretty slow reading month for me.  I started the month by starting a few different books and finishing none of them.  They won't end up a DNF's for me, I will finish them soon but they just weren't what I needed to read at the time.  A mid-month Bout of Books did help get me reading and now I think I'm back on track.  You know how summer can be.  Now that school is starting, I'm sure I'll get much more read. Here is what I read with GoodReads ratings in August: Atlas Girl by Emily Wierenga ***** The Love Detective by Alexandra Potter ***** When I Fall in Love by Susan May Warren **** OMG Baby! by Emma Garcia **** Wait For It by Jesse McLean **** Ice Creams at Carrington's by Alexandra Brown **** Challenges Canadian Book Challenge (1), Diversity in Books (0), TBR Pile (0), Classics Club (0) What I'm Looking Forward to in September The announcement of the ScotiaBank Giller Prize long list on September 16th.  That will dec...

Ruby Miller is a best-selling romance author who gave up on love after her fiancé cheated on her.  Which would explain why she is suffering from a terrible bout of writer’s block.  When her editor tells her she should clear her head by going away on vacation, she takes the opportunity to go visit her sister in India. Ruby is happy to see Amy and she enjoys the rest and relaxation a week at a yoga retreat in India can give you.  But when her sister informs her on the day they are supposed to head home to London that she is staying behind to marry Shine, a yoga instructor, Ruby’s bliss comes to an end.   Soon, Ruby is on a chase across India, trying to track down her sister before she make a terrible mistake.  And with the help of a sexy American she meets on a train, she may actually find her before it’s too late.  But maybe, before she gets there, Ruby will discover that love isn’t something to run from but rather toward. The Love Detective ...

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish . This one is hard for me.  People generally don't recommend books to me, probably because I'm always recommending books for them.  So I honestly couldn't pick ten books that people have been telling me I must read.  But there are two books that for the last year anyone I talk to about books asks if I have read and when I say no, they tell me I really should.  Those two books are:   It always makes me laugh when people recommend these two books because as much as I like reading award winners, I don't really like reading very long books (reason being with so many other books I want to read I don't feel I have the time to devote to them.)  I did start The Luminaries  but I couldn't finish it before I had to return it to the library. What do you think?  Should I take everyone's advice and read these books or should I be okay with missing ...

Nine years ago Robin, Ted, Marshall, Lily, and Barney came onto our televisions and into our hearts.  We watched as the five best friends experienced highs and lows, love and heartbreak, success and failure.  We saw them get jobs, travel the world, buy homes, get married, have children, and we waited in anticipation of finding out how Ted met the mother.   It’s safe to say that for many, How I Met Your Mother was more than just a television show.  And Jesse McLean is here to share all of that with you.   Wait For It is the ultimate companion book for fans of How I Met Your Mother .  Whether you are a new or old fan, you’ll lose yourself in the stories, gags, and behind the scenes sharing inside this book.  McLean begins by introducing you to the people behind the show - the creators, writers, and actors.  After that he takes on the show season by season, discussing the overall themes and stories, the viewership numbers, and its p...

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish . This week's list is Top Ten Books I'm Not Sure I Want to Read.  I've divided this list into two - the first half is books I have bought but I'm not sure I want to read and the second half is books I put on my Classics Club list and I'm not that amped to read anymore. Books I've Bought Who doesn't love a good bargain on books.  I can't resist the Buy 3 Get the 4th Free sale at Chapters Indigo especially on the bargain books.  Nor can I resist the bookshelves at the Goodwill down the street.  So that is how all of these books ended up on my shelf but I'm not sure I'm going to read them considering they've been on my shelf for a few years now (some, over a decade.) Books on my Classics Club list I joined the Classics Club so that I could achieve my goal of reading more classics and I chose 50 books off of the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list th...

It all started when Greg Pembroke posted a few pictures online of his son crying for what to adults seems like a completely trivial reason - he had broken his bit of cheese in half.  Parents around the world completely understood what was going on and soon Pembroke’s blog, Reasons My Son is Crying, became a pop culture success. Now, Pembroke has turned that blog into a book titled Reasons My Kid is Crying .  The best submissions to his blog, each picture comes with one sentence explaining what made the child cry.  Some of my favourites include: “I told him he didn’t need that band-aid anymore.” pg. 58 “Water got on his bathing suit.” pg. 150 “I wouldn’t let him play with the dead squirrel he found in the yard.” pg. 152 “We took her to see Santa.” pg. 181 “I have no idea why my son is crying.” pg. 192 This is a lovely book, one that you can quickly flip through.  Reading through it, I didn’t find it to be about poking fun at children or...

Ever since a reality television show put Carrington’s Department Store in Mulberry-on-Sea on the map, life has been incredible for Georgie Hart.  She is in her element working in the personal shopping department of the store, in addition to writing her own magazine column.  And oh yeah, she’s happily coupled up with Tom, aka Mr. Carrington, owner of the store. But when Tom’s mother Isabella comes to town for a visit, everything goes crazy.  Georgie is convinced isabella hates her and in her bid to impress her, she finds herself roped into planning Mulberry-on-Sea’s Regatta.  And just when she finds herself deep in the planning, she is sent to New York on a whirlwind trip that may derail all of her hard work.  Add to that an aging father driving around Europe in an old van, a best friend who is stressed as a new mother, and a boyfriend who is growing increasingly distant, and Georgie isn’t sure if she’ll be able to pull anything off. Ice Creams at Carr...

This is my first time participating in Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish .  I've been reading many bloggers posts for this feature for a while, so I thought it was time I jumped in!  And so, here are The Top 10 Books I'd Give to Readers Who Have Never Read CanLit.   I'm such a big fan of CanLit, and I know a lot of readers outside of Canada may not be familiar with many of our talented writers.  And while there are many fantastic books written by Canadians but set outside of Canada, I've decided to focus on the books that take place in Canada and highlight our beautiful country. 1.   The Orenda by Joseph Boyden The words I used to describe this book are "sweeping, powerful, epic, breathtaking." Following a young Iroquois girl, a Huron Warrior, and a Jesuit missionary, this book takes readers on an incredible journey into the history of our First Nations people.  Longlisted for the 2013 Giller Prize and shortlisted for the 2013 ...

I'm thrilled to be a part of the blog tour for Not Quite Perfect  by Annie Lyons, the best-selling digital book and very first print title from Carina UK.  Today I would like to welcome Annie to the blog to discuss what she plans on reading this summer. Summer Reading Heaven I hate packing. I’m not alone here, am I? I mean going on holiday is brilliant, just brilliant. It’s an honour and a privilege and a much longed-for treat but packing? Eesh. I have a theory that packing is the thing that was invented to make you really appreciate the holiday. Okay, so it’s not a theory of Einsteinian levels but it’s all I’ve got. What can I say? I need a holiday. When my children were babies, packing to go away was organised with the kind of precision that would make army generals applaud in admiration. There were lists and counter-lists, and sub-lists to those counter-lists. We packed enough chemicals to sterilise all the baby bottles in the world ever and half the hospitals in...

Move over ladies who lunch, the Chelsea Wives are taking over.   Imogen is a beautiful former model who cut her career short when she married her husband Sebastian, a wealthy banking CEO.  When a chance to get back into the modelling world comes her way she is hesitant but decides to give it a go.  Unfortunately, her husband feels threatened by this and uses his money and influence to make sure she doesn’t get the job. Calvary is a former fashion editor, committed to her husband Douglas who unfortunately doesn’t seem to be as committed to her.  She has always turned a blind eye to his infidelity as divorcing him would mean giving up her social standing and the life she is accustomed to.  But when she discovers that his latest conquest is a little too close to home and then meets a handsome, young man who gives her what her husband won’t, she may just change her mind. Yasmin has married a wealthy Lord much older than her and she knows that the labe...