Curled Up With a Good Book and a Cup of Tea

In 1978, three generations of a Latvian Jewish family arrives in Rome. It is here that they, along with thousands of others just like them, will spend a half year waiting for visas that will take them to a new life in North America. Samuil Krasnansky, the patriarch of the family is a Red Army veteran and devout Communist. He and his wife Emma have come along with their two sons and their families, the travels being of more importance to the younger generations. During their time in Italy Karl, a father, finds himself drawn to the black market, while Alec gets a job with an immigration agency which to his surprise aids in his womanizing ways. Their time in Italy may be short, but it is a time of great importance - of limbo, of passage to a new and unknown life. The Free World by David Bezmozgis chronicles a half-century of the Jewish experience in Eastern Europe through the three generations of the Krasnansky family. Rich in history and strong in story, the book is a fascinat...

It's been pretty hard to miss Ellen DeGeneres these past few years. Whether it's dancing on her hit television show, judging on American Idol, or striking a pose in a Cover Girl commercial, Ellen is everywhere. And now she's back on bookshelves. In Seriously….I'm Kidding , Ellen takes on everything from the best way to fall asleep to the difficulty of being royalty with her trademark humour. The book is comprised of short essays filled with witty observations on celebrity culture and life in general. It seems that Ellen can find the lighter side of almost anything as well as the absurdity of almost anything. Some of the essays give the reader some great and important thoughts on life (for example her chapter about courtesy) and some of them are meant for nothing but laughs. I must say though, for as funny as Ellen is on her talk show it didn't completely translate on to the page for me. Some of the essays had me laughing out loud, but for the most pa...

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon is underway! Well as I mentioned before I went to bed, my snooze button and I have a wonderful relationship (though it seems to be a bit one-sided.) I didn't get up to finish my reading this morning, kids waking up in the middle of the night had me pretty tired when my alarm went off. So my total for my first readathon is: 3.5 books 748 pages 12 full hours spent reading. Can't wait to try and better those totals at the next readathon! End of event meme Which hour was most daunting for you? I'd say the last hour I was awake, it was getting to be a struggle to admit I needed to put the book down and go to sleep Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia was a great one for me. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Nope What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? I can't think of one ...

I have decided to participate in my first 24 hour readathon. Starting at 8am tomorrow I will read for 24 hours str....ok let's be honest here, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to read for 24 hours straight, but I will be trying to read as much as I possibly can in 24 hours. I will be getting all our meals ready tonight and letting my husband know that he gets to handle all matters with the kids. Here are the books I have chosen to read: Tales From the Yoga Studio by Rain Mitchell One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia My Life and Lesser Catastrophes by Christina Schofield The House of Hope by Elizabeth Gifford The first two I have chosen from my to read pile because they look like they will be easy reads (One Crazy Summer is a book aimed at tweens) and the second two are books I have been given to review. Should I actually finish all 4 tomorrow, then I will dive back in to the Giller Prize shortlist. So head back tomorrow as I'll be checking in to let you know how...

Thank you to everyone who entered the Literary Giveaway Blog Hop, I'm so pleased to see so much interest in CanLit! And thank you to Leeswammes for hosting the giveaway. The winner is: The Book Whisperer ! In your comment you said you would love to read The Last River Child, congratulations! You will be contacted by email soon.

It's Week 4 of the Fall Into Reading 2011 Challenge. I haven't read much from my list but that will change once I'm done reading through the Giller Prize shortlist! This weeks question: How large is your personal/family collection of books? And where do you keep them? I think most people would say that my collection is pretty big. That is if I could ever get it all together in one place. I have one bookshelf next to my bed which is now spilling over onto the floor. It consists of recent books I have been reading. My children have a very large collection of books, so big that last year I donated 1/3 of the books to my daughter's school and the bookshelf is still overflowing. And now we're adding French books to the collection. But the majority of my books are in boxes. We live in a two bedroom apartment and don't have much space for our books. My husband used to work in the warehouse of a major publishing company and was allowed to bring home any damage...

Stephen, an Anglican priest, has returned to his hometown of Sawgamet, a northwest, north-woods boomtown gone bust on the eve of his mother's death. As his family settles in, Stephen finds himself confronting his past, its mysteries and its losses. Alexi Zentner's Touch is a beautiful story of a pioneering family, the three generations that carved their place in the wilderness and the ways in which the wilderness remains forever imprinted on their lives. Monsters, witches and golden caribou roam the woods as the townspeople face love and death amidst the crippling cold of the logging town. Evocative, stunning, haunting, page-turner - the perfect words to describe Zentner's debut novel. From the beginning I was drawn in and could not put the book down, which surprised me. From reading the book jacket this did not seem like a book I would be interested in at all but I gave it a try because of its Giller Prize nomination. This book proves once again why I love the G...