Curled Up With a Good Book and a Cup of Tea

Oh Canada! Happy 144th Birthday! I'll be out celebrating all day, but I thought I would celebrate here by sharing some of my favourite Canadian books. We're a diverse, fantastic, and sometimes strange people and our literature here encompasses all that is amazing about being Canadian. Here is my list of must-read Canadian books. The Book of Negroes - Lawrence Hill In the Skin of a Lion - Michael Ondaatje The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood Cool Water - Dianne Warren How to Be A Canadian - Will Ferguson Room - Emma Donoghue Life of Pi - Yann Martel A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry and of course... The Hockey Sweater - Roch Carrier

In the spirit of the Twitter Friday Follow, the Book Blogger Hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and share our love of the written word! This weekly B O O K P A R T Y is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books! It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs to read! This week’s question comes from Elena who blogs at Books and Reviews ! Thanks for submitting a question for our Hoppers, Elena! Be sure to visit her blog and tell her thank you! “When did you realize reading was your passion and a truly important part of your life?” My answer: Very, very, early on. Both of my parents were teachers, my mom a Kindergarten teacher, and they were big on early literacy. They made sure that from the beginning they read books to us each night before bed. My mom says that at the age of 3 I picked up a book and started reading it. I ...

With only a week left of school to go we've been looking ahead at our summer plans and we are so excited because we have a busy summer planned - amusement parks, baseball games, barbecues, and a couple of trips. Add to that trips to the park, three birthdays in July and my first ever 30 day Bikram Yoga challenge and it's going be one fun-filled summer. So I think my blogging is going to be slowing down a bit. I appreciate everyone who reads my blogs and my reviews and I love being a part of the book blogging community so I won't be completely gone, I just won't be around as much. I still plan to hop around a bit on Fridays and I plan to post one review a week, and I will be posting reviews at Faith Filled Reading , but that will be all. I will still be reading throughout the summer though, so when things go full swing again in September expect tons of reviews, especially if you love chick lit! Have a great summer!

Nineteen-year-old Anjali Bose is an ambitious girl born into a traditional lower-middle class family in tiny Gauripaur, India. Successful in school with an aptitude for languages, especially English, Anjali is facing what she has been dreading for a while - an arranged marriage. But Anjali's expat teacher, Peter Champion, sees a spark in Anjali that needs to be nurtured and he encourages her to set off for Bangalore, India's fastest-growing major metropolis. In Bangalore, Anjali quickly falls into the huge, highly ambitious crowd of other young men and women who have come from all over the country to get jobs as call-centre agents. They spend their time immersing themselves in American culture, shopping and partying, learning the right accents from television shows so they can pass themselves off as American on the phones, meanwhile earning more than their parents could ever have dreamed of. Anjali sees her opportunity to Bangalore to leave her past behind and reinven...

The warm weather is (finally) here and school is only a couple of weeks from letting out. We are halfway through 2011 and the summer is here! At the beginning of the year I set myself some new goals and challenges for reading. I think it's time to check in and see how I'm doing (and if I need to get my butt in gear.) Read 100 books I tried this last year but due to illness at the end of the year I only made it to 99. So this year, I'm determined to read that one extra book. So far, I'm at 44. Not bad. My reading should hopefully pick up over the summer which keeps me on track to make it to 100. POC (Persons of Colour) Reading Challenge My goal is to read 10-15 books written by or featuring main characters of colour. I have already read 13 so I hit my goal and it will be interesting to see how many I do actually read this year. Canadian Book Challenge This challenge actually starts in July, so it is wrapping up at the end of this month (and a new one is beginning on Cana...

According to the World Christian Encyclopedia , the church spends $1,551,466 for each new follower of Jesus. With that kind of statistic it would seem that the church's outreach efforts aren't the most effective. What is the church doing wrong, and what would be a better way to share our faith? In Branded , Christian radio personality Tim Sinclair explores the ways in which the church has been essentially "mass-marketing" Jesus in the last few decades and how in many cases, it has failed to excite newcomers to the church and faith. Using examples of successful businesses, Sinclair looks at the consumer culture of today and posits that if we were to stop turning Jesus into a brand and instead market our faith relationally, person to person, honestly and authentically, that we would be more successful in our outreach efforts. Branded is a fantastic book. What I enjoyed most about the book was how well-researched it is, how Sinclair really understands his audience ...

I never really noticed before but my reading is very seasonal. I like deeper topics and real-life stories in the winter and fluffy chick lit in the summer! And with the summer here I have drawn up what I think is a great list for my summer reading: The Baby Planner - Josie Brown Summer and the City - Candace Bushnell The Beach Cafe - Lucy Diamond Celebrity Shopper - Carmen Reid New York Valentine - Carmen Reid The Girl in the Mirror - Cecelia Ahern Spa Wars - Chrissie Manby Tales from the Yoga Studio - Rain Mitchell Mum on the Run - Fiona Gibson My Single Friend - Jane Costello Something From Tiffany's - Melissa Hill The Single Girls To Do List - Lindsay Kelk The Wedding Writer - Susan Schneider But it won't be all fluffy chick lit all summer, I need to give my brain some sort of workout by switching things up. So I also plan to read: Escape - Barbara Delinsky It's Not Really About the Hair - Tabatha Coffey The Girl Who Fell From the Sky - Heidi Durrow The Kid - Sapphire On...

Starring in Hot in Cleveland , hosting SNL , stealing the scene in a Snickers Commercial - who isn't loving Betty White these days? Whether you are a fan of hers from back in the day on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls (I still love watching the re-runs) or know her from her more recent appearances, you can't help but be in love with Betty White. She's witty, smart, kind and always current. At the age of 89 she is still charming people of all ages. If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't) is Betty White's fifth book and is a sweet, humble and thankful look at her life and the wisdom it has given her in the last couple of decades. As you read this book you will feel as though Betty is sitting next to you on the couch sharing all the little gems and insights she has about life. The book is divided into short sections on different topics such as love, her career, animals and aging. Each is full of insight and humour, and is written in such a personal an...

Imagine that when your life ends you are sent back to Earth as a guardian angel. And not for just anyone but a guardian angel for yourself. Imagine you had the opportunity to observe and alter the life you have already lived. This is what happens to Margot Delacroix when her tragic life comes to an end at the age of forty. Renamed Ruth, she is sent back to Earth to encourage Margot to make the right decisions, in the hopes of making her life a little easier. Not only does Ruth now have the opportunity to fix the wrongs of her life, but she also is able to understand why her life turned out the way it did. Will Ruth be able to give Margot the life she truly deserves, or will Margot continue to do things her own way and leave Ruth to be a witness to her own self-destruction? The Guardian Angel's Journal by Carolyn Jess-Cooke is not the type of novel I would usually read. I tend to stay away from novels about angels and the spiritual realm that don't line up with my fai...

After drawing a number through Random.org, the winner of the Vega Smoothie Mix prize pack is Elizabeth!!! I will contact you soon via email to get your details. Thanks everyone for entering, and I hope you'll all pick up a copy of Whole Foods To Thrive.

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is an awesome meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey . It's a great way to get your reading plans organized for the week and find great reads from other book bloggers. What I Read Last Week: The Guardian Angels Journal by Carolyn Jess-Cooke Losing It by Zaria Garrison What I'm Reading Now: The Blueprint by Kirk Franklin Miss New India by Bharati Mukherjee What I Plan to Read Next: The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow Branded by Tim Sinclair

Happy Friday! It's time for the Book Blogger Hop! Usually hosted by Jennifer at Crazy For Books , this week it is hosted by Lori at Lori's Reading Corner . Hop on over, check out the rules, and link up! This week's question is: Who is the one author that you are dying to meet? My answer: Only one? Really? Well, I've never been one to follow the rules, so I've picked two. Alexander McCall Smith . I love the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and I would love to discuss the series with him. Also, he was born in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and taught at the University of Botswana and I would love to hear about his experience living in Africa and how it influenced him to write the series. Sophie Kinsella . I just love her books and think she would be so much fun to hang out with and talk chick lit with. Which author would you like to meet? Have you met any authors before?

Canada Day (July 1) is almost here! It's one of my favourite holidays full of parades, barbecues, fireworks, and of course the red maple leaf flying everywhere. If you are a Canadian reader, why not celebrate Canada Day this year by signing up for the Canadian Book Challenge (CBC...get it?) If you're not Canadian, why not sign up and discover some of the amazing books our country has to offer. We're a strange people, very polite, apologetic and we know how to brew a good beer. We're diverse, talented and have an interesting sense of humour. We like u's in our words (see humour) and pronounce z "zed" not "zee" (the way it's supposed to be!) We occupy a vast, spacious piece of land that has only two seasons - winter and construction. And because of all that, we tell great stories. The Canadian Book Challenge begins on July 1 2011 and the goal is to read 13 Canadian books in a year. You can sign up by heading over to The Book Mine Set ...

Brendan Brazier is a former professional Ironman triathlete, and a two-time Canadian 50 km Ultra Marathon champion. And would you believe he is a vegan? Many people may find it hard to believe that a vegan diet would be compatible with being a high-performance athlete, but in Whole Foods to Thrive Brazier shows just how easy it can be. Brazier explains why he believes a nutrient-dense, plant-based foods are the best choice for both your health and the health of the planet. The book is packed full of information on topics such as how our health is dependent upon nutrition, the environmental toll of food production and the eight key components of good nutrition. It also includes 200 plants based recipes that are allergen-free and contain no wheat, yeast, gluten, soy, dairy or corn. Whole Foods to Thrive is not a book aimed only at vegans, it is a nutritional resource for everyone. Even if you are a meat lover, this book will help you integrate more whole foods into your di...

It's Monday! And all I can say this Monday is wow, my reading has been suffering. But I'm blaming it on this beautiful weather we're having, and that's not a bad thing at all. Yesterday I took the kids to the park and I was able to sit under a tree and read while they played, I certainly look forward to more of that in the weeks to come. It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey . It is a fun meme that will help get your reading organized for the week to come. What I Read Last Week: If You Ask Me, And Of Course You Won't by Betty White What I'm Reading Now: The Guardian Angel's Journal by Carolyn Jess-Cooke What I'm Reading Next: Losing It by Zaria Garrison I can really only plan for one book a week right now, and hope for more. Do you find you read less, more or the same when the summer weather arrives?

Anthony and Rachel have lived a quaint, artistic life near the Suffolk coast raising their three sons. Their family has always been close knit and as the boys grow older and begin families of their own, their home continues to be the centre of their successful family. But when Anthony and Rachel's youngest son marries and a third daughter-in-law enters the picture, the family dynamic begins to change. The children begin to develop lives independent of their parents and Rachel responds to her empty nest by alienating everyone in the family. As the family deals with a major crisis each characters' true self begins to emerge and the fragility of the family begins to show. Daugthers-in-law is Joanna Trollope's 16th novel and a fine one. It explores the rocky relationship that often occurs between mothers and daughter-in-laws, showing that even those that look perfect are not what they seem. But this story isn't just about the women, it includes the role of the son...