Curled Up With a Good Book and a Cup of Tea

4 books.  That’s all I read in May.  4 books.  Wow. Admittedly, I didn’t have a lot of time to be reading, but even when I did, I just didn’t feel like it.  For some reason, the books I picked up weren’t speaking to me.  The Knockoff ended up changing things, but I’m still not feeling things when it comes to the books I’m selecting.  I really hope things will pick up in June.   Here are the books I read in May with their GoodReads ratings: The Knockoff by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza ***** The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham ***** Shifting Stats by Patricia Paddey ***** Hello From the Gillespies by Monica McInerney *** Challenges The Classics Club (1) What I’m Looking Forward to in June Reading more.  Actually, I’m very excited that Kevin Kwan’s China Rich Girlfriend is coming out this month.  This month I’m really going to focus on just reading what I feel like, rather than what I have or getting my ...

May was a different sort of month for me. I started my new job which means I’ve been reading less and watching less television.  I miss not reading as much, but missing the television is okay with me.  I know that once school is out I’ll be doing a lot more binge watching though. Watching Television Of course, I’m still watching my Toronto Blue Jays. Something about us Toronto sports fans, we enjoy the pain. My television show watching was all over the place. I’ve really only watched bits and pieces of television shows rather than my usual watching one season of a show at a time. I’m still working through season 2 of Broadchurch , almost at the end.  I started watching Episodes and really like it but am only a few episodes in.  My husband and I FINALLY started watching season 4 of The Walking Dead , but again we only made it a few episodes in.   I did watch the entire series of Scrotal Recall on Netflix.  If you can get past the t...

Forty-two-year-old Imogen Tate has returned to her job as editor in chief of Glossy magazine to find that her twenty-something former assistant Eve Morton has taken over.  Eve is fresh out of Harvard Business School and had decided that the high-fashion magazine, best known for its 768-page September issue, would be better off as an app. But she isn’t stopping there.  Eve has fired all of the “grey hairs,” the older and experienced staff members, and replaced them with a heavy rotation of lookalike twenty year olds who text, tweet, and instagram throughout meetings.  Organic foods and nap rooms are always available not because it is a supportive place to work but because employees are rarely allowed to go home.  And then there are the co-ordinated dances to Beyoncé's music. Imogen, a part of the old guard of fashion journalism, refuses to let Eve take over the magazine but it quickly becomes apparent that if she is going to hold on to her power, she needs ...

For thirty-three years, Angela Gillespie has faithfully sent out her Christmas letter to friends and family around the year.  Titled “Hello from the Gillespies,” it has always been full of good news from their beautiful homestead in the Australian Outback. But this year, Angela can’t bring herself to write the usual cheerful letter because there’s been very little cheer to speak of.  Her husband is having difficulty keeping things together on the farm.  Her thirty-two-year-old twin daughters have come back home after suffering embarrassing career meltdowns.  Her third daughter is deep in debt having failed at yet another job.  And her ten-year-old-son spends all of his time talking to his imaginary friend.   And so Angela decides to write a letter full of the truth, not holding back anything.  Of course, it’s purely a cathartic exercise, she doesn’t actually plan to send it out.  But it does get sent and it results in fracturing the fam...

This month I fell into a bit of a reading slump. And because of that, I thought I didn't get much reading done until I started writing this post and realized that I didn't do so bad.  That is all thanks to a reading sprint at the beginning of the month and one at the end.  Here are the books I read this month with their GoodReads ratings: God Help the Child by Toni Morrison ***** Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed ***** Dreaming of Elsewhere by Esi Edugyan ***** Adventures in Saying Yes by Carl Medearis **** The Mother and Child Project by Kay Warren **** The Year of Taking Chances by Lucy Diamond **** At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen **** AsapSCIENCE by Mitchell Moffit and Greg Brown **** Challenges Canadian Book Challenge (3), Diversity on the Shelf (3) What I'm Looking Forward to in May  I decided that for the month of May I will be reading only from books I already own.  I was never one to have a very big physical TBR pile, I would alw...

April was a weird month for me.  Not a lot of reading, not a lot of watching or listening either.  What was I doing?  Well, here are the few non-bookish things I was doing. Watching Television Now that baseball season is in full swing, I’ve been watching less television shows and the Toronto Blue Jays every single day.  Not a bad thing, though I tell you, they put my nerves through something fierce. I am currently watching Broadchurch .  I’ve just finished season 1 and have moved on to season 2.  This is an incredible show and if you like dramas, I highly recommend it.  As you’ll have noticed if you read this column each month, I watch mostly British television.  And up until recently, it’s always been comedy because I prefer their brand of comedy.  I can’t explain why, but I didn’t think I’d enjoy the dramas as much.  Boy was I wrong.  Between Broadchurch , Happy Valley , and Scott & Bailey , I’m hooked. I ...

Holistic Nutritionist and Certified Nutritional Practitioner Sarah Britton has been blogging about healthy, whole foods on her blog, My New Roots , since 2007.  She has been inspiring others to make delicious, simple plant-based eating and now she is bringing 100 all-new recipes to her first cookbook, My New Roots: Inspired Plant-Based Recipes for Every Season . The book is divided into 5 sections: Spring, Early Summer, Late Summer, Autumn, and Winter with, as you can guess, beautiful recipes crafted for foods that are at their peak.  The photos in the book are absolutely stunning and will have your mouth watering.  Sarah also shares her own journey to plant-based eating, includes essential techniques, and gives tips for stocking your pantry. On my first go-through of this book, I picked out three recipes to try that I knew were easy enough for me and new to my recipe collection: Sprouted Wild Rice with Pistachios and Spring Vegetables - I loved this recip...