Tag: reading

Word Wednesday: I Grok That (finally)
Word Wednesday: I Grok That (finally)

After a bit of a respite from Word Wednesday, I’m back at it again. I didn’t think I would miss it but I did. I am an unabashed logophile (more on that another week) and truthfully, picking a favourite word each week isn’t a chore, it’s more of a labour of love. I’ve been working on the craft of writing more this year and have dedicated some time each week for professional development – for the first few months of the year that means reading about writing. Currently, I’m in the middle of Stephen King’s wonderful book On Writing. While I’ve never been a huge fan of King’s horror novels (I still have a mild case of coulrophobia thanks to It – but only those with Pennywise makeup. other clowns aren’t objects of abject terror but I once rode 2 stops past where I needed to get off on the TTC because there was a guy dressed as Pennywise on the platform I needed to use) I appreciate the thought and hard work he devotes to his craft.

King devotes a lot of energy to the notion that writers must be, above all, readers. He says that it really doesn’t matter if the books are classic or even good. Indeed, he argues that “One learns most clearly what not to do by reading bad prose – one novel like Asteroid Miners (or Valley of the Dolls, Flowers in the Attic, and The Bridges of Madison County to name just a few) is worth a semester at a good writing school, even with the superstar guest lecturers thrown in”. I’m inclined to agree, though there are some books I haven’t been able to force myself to finish because the grammatical errors were so egregious that they muddled the plot. At the end of On Writing, King offers up a list of books that he has enjoyed – he says he’s not Oprah and this isn’t a book club reading list but simply a list of books that he has enjoyed and that have helped him grow in his craft. This got me thinking and I’ve been trying to stretch my reading muscles in the weeks since. (Yes I read the “And Furthermore, Part II” section before finishing the book – I’m a rebel like that). One book that I picked up recently and started reading (I typically have at least 3 or 4 books on the go at any given time – I pick and choose which book to read depending on my mood) is the 1961 classic Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. It was here that I came across the word I want to write about today.

%{include image.html url=“/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/If-you-dont-have-time-to-read-you-dont-have-the-time-or-the-tools-to-write..png” alt=“A notebook with a pen across it and the text: If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. If you want to be a writer you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. Stephen King” description=“Words to live by”}

There’s no etymology of this word since it is out of the mind of Heinlein. I have many awesome and geeky friends who use this word often enough that over the years, I’ve figured out the meaning by osmosis. I didn’t truly grok it until I read the definition given by Heinlein in the book:

Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed—to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science—and it means as little to us (because of our Earthling assumptions) as color means to a blind man.

So now when a friend comments that they grok something, I can smile knowing that I’m in the know. I grok what it means to grok.

%{include image.html url=“/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/coollogo_com-23492915.png” alt=“Stylized word Grok” description=“Grok”}

Grok (grok) verb
1. To understand thoroughly and intuitively.
February 3, 2016
Book Review – No Relation by Terry Fallis

Book Review – No Relation by Terry Fallis

“What’s in a name?” Juliet famously queried. “That which we call a rose, would smell as sweet” were it called something else, she noted as she contemplated the trouble that was caused by her true love having the last name of her family’s sworn rival. In his latest novel, Terry Fallis has taken that question to the next level and the result is the hilariously funny book, No Relation. No Relation is Fallis’ fourth book – and the third I’ve read (I have Up and Down on my nightstand – queued up for reading when I finish my current book). As a political junkie, I adored The Best Laid Plans and its sequel The High Road. They were laugh out loud funny, and I was a little concerned about whether the smart and poignant political satire would transfer into a book that wasn’t at all political.

You can watch the book trailer for No Relation here https://youtu.be/CUPO1FKetmY

I needn’t have worried. No Relation is not only as funny as Fallis’ earlier works, it packs the same emotional punches too. You can’t help but feel for the protagonist, Earnest Hemmingway; in the span of the first few chapters he loses his job, his wallet, and his long time girlfriend. At this point I figured the book was going to be one of those uplifting stories about how he bounced back and made his life awesome again, which, in a way it was, but the devil is in the details and when you have a famous name, things aren’t quite as easy as they seem. Things are particularly hard for Earnest, who, by the way, cannot stand the writing of his famous namesake. Take replacing your driver’s licence – a giant pain for anyone, but it enters 4th circle of hell proportions for Earnest when the nice (or not so nice) bureaucrats at the DMV don’t believe him when he gives his name, which leads to an epic scene and ends with Earnest not only not getting a replacement but his outburst going viral on YouTube. I laughed so hard I cried while reading that chapter.

Earnest, or Hem as he prefers for obvious reasons, eventually does get his driver’s licence replaced, but the incident at the DMV sparks something in him and he sets out to find other people who share his fate by having a famous name. Enter the Name Fame group. Mario Andretti (who can’t pass his driving test), Mahatma Gandhi, Diana Ross, Jackie Kennedy, Clark Kent, Peter Parker,James Moriarty Marie Antoinette (who owns a bakery) and other New Yorkers with famous monikers who bear – No Relation to their famous namesakes. They form a support group to help each other through the trials and tribulations that come with having a name that everyone knows (even if you have the wrong face to go with the name).

The name fame group sets out to help Hem with his writer’s block (yes, Earnest Hemmingway decides to pursue his goal of writing a novel when he is laid off -which is exactly what I expect out of a Terry Fallis character) and hilarity ensues. Add all of this to the subplot of Earnest’s father (who is also named Earnest Hemmingway) wanting Hem to take over the family underwear business – a business Hem wants absolutely nothing to do with, and you have the makings of a book that is not only uproariously funny, but also deeply touching.

No Relation is available for e-readers and trade paperback with a fabulous deckled edging (those are the awesome ruffled edges found on some trade paperback books and I’m a huge fan) from Amazon.ca (You can click on the link to check out the book – it has the cool Amazon preview thing where you can look inside the book). The book is also available as a podcast – I listened to the book after I’d finished reading it as Fallis reads it himself and does all the different voices which alone make it worth listening to. I adore audiobooks but I’m weird in that I always want to read the physical book in addition to (and if possible before) listening to an audio book. Maybe this is why I rarely run out of things to read. If you’re in need of a good laugh, and who isn’t these days, pick up a copy of No Relation. I should mention that the book is also on the short list for the 2015 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. I’ve read 3 of the other short listed books and I’d vote for No Relationif I was on the panel. The others were funny but not laugh-until-your-sides-hurt-and-your-family-looks-at-you-like-you’ve-lost-your-mind funny. No Relation is as funny as Fallis’ political humour books and is a must read for fans of smart Canadian literature.

April 17, 2015
Book review – Juliet’s Nurse by Lois Leveen

Book review – Juliet’s Nurse by Lois Leveen

The Roman Philosopher Marcus Aurelius said that: “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth”. This is true even of the greatest works of fiction. The stories we know and love come to us from one perspective – that which the author has chosen to give us. Major characters are (usually) well developed and minor characters are often not given a second thought by the reader.

In Juliet’s Nurse, we are presented with an alternate view of characters in William Shakespeare’s famous play Romeo and Juliet. Told from the point of view of Juliet’s wet-nurse, we get to meet Juliet and the Cappelletti (aka Capulet) family from the day of her birth until her tragic demise. Juliet, however, is not the focus of this rich and well written tale – though without her there would be no story – it is instead her nurse whose life we step into in this book.

%{include image.html url=“/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/juliets-nurse.jpg” alt=“Book cover with the title Juliet’s Nurse by Lois Leveen. The cover art is a Renaissance style painting of 2 people laying across the top and bottom of the cover respectively. You can see the face and hand of the top person who presents as female and the lips, chin, neck and torso of the lower figure whose gender is indeterminate” description=“The cover art got me again”}

The story begins with tragedy as Angelica (the nurse) loses her own child; in an attempt to ease her grief, her husband, Pietro, finds her a position as a wet-nurse to the Cappelletti family. The author takes us through Juliet’s childhood years, while also giving life to another minor character in the play – that of Juliet’s cousin Tybalt. Indeed, it was Tybalt who captured my heart in the story – the descriptions of his childish antics were so vivid that I could see him outside the nursery scaling trees and getting into mischief as if looking through a window.

The book is divided into two parts, with the first part being considerably longer than the second. The back-story, the history, and the years between Juliet’s birth and her teenage years are covered in lavish detail. The second part deals with the story as we already know it – but with the added benefit of Angelica’s point of view and with a more robust character to Tybalt. The book is rich with details of everyday life in 14th century Verona, right down to the descriptions of the designs for the dresses worn to the now infamous masquerade ball. As a work of historical fiction, Juliet’s Nurse reminded me of the works of Eva Stachniak author of The Winter Palace and Empress of the Night, in the way the reader was able to vividly visualize the scenes.

As a lover of history, and of Romeo and Juliet, I really enjoyed this new take on an old classic and think that it is a wonderful choice for a spring reading list.

March 14, 2015
Book Review: Emily Giffin’s The One and Only

Book Review: Emily Giffin’s The One and Only

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For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a complete and total football junkie and have been since I was a toddler. I’m also an avid reader and quite enjoy the genre known as “chick lit”. One of my favourite writers in this genre has been Emily Giffin . I find her work engaging and fun to read with characters I can relate to. Given this, imagine my glee when I found out that Giffin’s latest book, The One & Only, was going to feature a female football reporter as the protagonist. I may have squealed. Loudly. Then I made an almost fatal mistake – I crowd sourced. I often hit up Goodreads when I find a book I like just to see what others have thought about it. I saw a lot of negative Nellies complaining about the book making generalizations about women who love football always being in it for a guy, that there was too much football (no such thing imho) and not enough plot, or that the characters weren’t relatable. I hate feeling disappointed or let down by an author I love so I put the book aside for a few days to think about whether or not I wanted to read it. I took it up to the cottage with me because I’m always running out of books to read (especially when the weather is as dismal as it was this summer, rainy and cold for most of my vacation) and I’m really glad I did. Had I not read the book based on those few Goodreads users who really disliked the book, I would have missed out on one of my favourite books so far this year.

I could immediately relate to the main character, Shea Rigsby. I lost track of the number of times I said “Oh My God, Yes. That.” while reading after the first 3 chapters. I thought there was just the right amount of football details in the book, especially considering that a portion of the target audience wouldn’t have much prior knowledge of the intricacies of the sport. Giffin was careful to give readers enough information to be able to understand how football worked within the context of the plot but didn’t overload readers with useless tidbits. Being Canadian, I am more used to how college football works up here, so the extra insight into the NCAA and how the organization impacts every team was eye opening.

The One & Only isn’t just a book about football though; it is a book about love, loyalty, football, and change. None of these themes operate in isolation and they all complement each other beautifully to make this book impossible to put down. I think almost every reader can relate to Shea’s struggle to follow her heart and the questions of loyalty that doing that create for her. We have all been in Shea’s shoes at one point in our lives – trying to decide if we should step off the edge into the unknown or stay close to home, with our security blanket. For Shea, stepping off the edge means leaving the town she grew up in, the one where her best friend lives, where she went to college, and where she got a job working for the athletic department at the school. Shea has begun to wonder if all she has ever known is enough – or if there is something better out there in the wider world. Along the way, Shea finds that some of the people in her life aren’t who she thought they were and that loyalty is more than wearing a team jersey on game day. In essence this is a coming of age novel, where the protagonist is left to discover The One and Only thing that makes her life worth living.

In the end, I was not able to put the book down until it was finished and have re-read it once already and recommended it to random strangers in bookstores if I saw them hovering near a copy of the book. The moral of my story is pretty simple – don’t judge a book by it’s cover (although this one is gorgeous and understated and perfect), and don’t be put off by a few negative reviews on a social media site. You may miss out on an amazing read.

The One & Only is available in Hardcover, Trade Paperback, Audio, and E-book editions.

September 22, 2014
Only Children…

Only Children…

Some recent news articles have made me think about my status as an only child. My mum, asked me a few months ago whether I felt left out because I was an only child.   I didn’t then and I don’t now. I loved being an only child. I’m sure I would have loved siblings too but being an only gave me advantages I wouldn’t have otherwise had. That’s not to say that I was spoiled. My parents took great care to avoid that. For starters I had a bunch of cousins within a 10 minute drive from my house who were over a lot and tortured me like siblings.   They took my stuff and roughhoused and generally had a good time.

I was also involved in Guiding, hockey, and swimming lessons plus occasionally other things like a little chefs course. I was well socialized and I’m not sure that I could have done all those things if there was a sibling in the mix.

I wasn’t lonely. I was the type of kid who was happiest reading a book, and in books I found all sorts of wonderful people and stories. I also had a lot of friends who I could go and call on and play with after school or on weekends.    Yes… go out and play – around the corner or, when i got a little older, down the block and through the walkway. I played with my friends, got annoyed by their siblings and returned to my cozy home.

I am both my father’s daughter and my mother’s daughter. Mum and I would sit and do crafts and she would patiently teach me how to knit day after day when I forgot. Would we have had all that 1 on 1 time if I had siblings?   Dad treated me like one of the boys – I got to watch sports with him. Hockey, Auto racing, and football. Dad loves football and as he put it, they were pretty sure they were only going to have 1 kid, there was 1 tv, mum tolerated football but didn’t love it and he wanted to make sure the vote would be 2 vs 1 FOR football. Hence my beginnings as a football junkie. I wonder if I had had a brother, if my dad would have spent as much time explaining all the nuances of football to me? I’d like to think so but I’m not sure.

I know i missed out on things by not having a sibling. Mum’s big worry is that I won’t have family to support me when they die. I told her that I have friends and that just because people are related by blood doesn’t necessarily mean that they can stand each other.    I feel loved and supported by the friends I have made and that is enough for me.

I wouldn’t have minded to have had someone else to blame things on either, come to think of it.    When there was trouble in the house or something got broken, it was almost always my fault and I took the blame. If I’d had a younger sibling, I could have blamed them. There’s only so much you can blame on a dog.

Overall I feel like I had a well-rounded, happy childhood. I don’t think that I missed anything huge by not having biological siblings, I have a few friends who are as close to me as they are to their biological siblings if not closer.

I know quite a few only children, and none of us feel like we were deprived in any way of part of our childhood. I’ve had friends worry that they don’t have a sibling for their child yet. Relax, I tell them, even if you don’t ever end up with another kid, your firstborn won’t be horribly scarred. I may not get the mushy “sister” cards, but that’s ok with me.

August 17, 2011