Category: Good Reads

Have you tried accessing the free online magazines you can get through the Toronto Public Library? There’s so much great stuff on there. In addition to the big titles (Vanity Fair, Wired, The New Yorker, etc) there are some great lesser-known magazines. The one Ian and I have really been enjoying lately is mental_floss. It’s a little bit of culture, a little bit of science, a little bit of art. They describe themselves as “mental_floss magazine is an intelligent read, but not too intelligent. We’re the sort of intelligent that you hang out with for a while, enjoy our company, laugh a little, smile a lot and then we part ways. Great times.”  I encourage you to check it out.

Other than a few Neil Gaiman comics I read in high school, I don’t often read graphic novels. But I’ve heard of two recently that intrigue me, and both are by Toronto writers. The first is This One Summer by illustrator Jillian Tamaki (whose work I adore) and her cousin, writer Mariko Tamaki. It’s about two girls on the cusp of becoming teenagers, during one summer at their families’ beach houses. Sounds like the perfect summer read.

The second graphic novel that interests me is Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley (you know, the guy who made Scott Pilgrim). Apparently it has a strong female lead (which you know I love).

Have you read any graphic novels that you really enjoyed?

[images via Jillian Tamaki’s blog]

Seriously. The best book I’ve read in years is The Goldfinch. Obviously I’m not alone in my opinion – author Donna Tartt won the Pulitzer yesterday for it.  At almost 800 pages, it’s taken me a while to get through the book (I started it on vacation in February, and I’m just at the end now), but it’s worth it.

I’m not going to tell you anything about the book, because I didn’t know anything about it myself before reading it. I had just heard that it was good, so I dove right in. I recommend you do the same. Enjoy!

 

 

Adding this to my Christmas list. (and if you haven’t seen the website, you’re in for a treat)

 

That’s my pal Jessica Tudos (she’s a Canadian Olympic gymnast!) talking about her new kid’s book, Kika The Upside Down Girl. She’s running a Kickstarter campaign to get the book published. There are 12 days left to her campaign, and I’m confident she’ll reach her goal.  Help her out and order your copy of Kika The Upside Down Girl – it will be delivered to you in time for the holidays. What a great Christmas gift idea!

I read about Nautilus in an email I receive from Smashing Magazine, where it was described as a science magazine that “concentrates on only one single topic a month and explores it from a scientific, cultural and philosophical point of view to finally create the big picture that connects to our lives”.  It even promised to be like “a New Yorker version of Scientific American”.  Wow, tall order.

The website is gorgeous, and from the little I’ve read, Nautilus delivers. I’m bookmarking it for my upcoming summer vacation, when I’ll have more time to do a deeper dive into the content. Right now Nautilus is only online, but a print version is planned for the fall.

This past weekend was NOT one the best for my family.  I have a nasty chest cold, and Clara has the stomach flu.  Neither of us are seriously sick, but just sick enough to feel really out of it (or in her case, seriously cranky).  So each night after finally putting her to bed, I would curl up with Jenny Lawson’s book Let’s Pretend This Never Happened.  Humour can’t take away my throbbing sinus headache, but it can definitely help lighten my mood.

I loved the book, and am sad it’s over.  I’ll have to just keep reading The Bloggess regularly (as I already do) for more sick, twisted, delightful Jenny Lawson humour.

While on holiday last week, I read a fantastic book – Everybody has Everything, but Katrina Onstad.  I enjoy the columns she writes for the Globe and Mail, and I really savoured this book.  It’s about a married couple who unexpectedly become guardians to their friends’ 2-year-old boy.  The book deals with issues of parenting, getting older, marriage, and living in Toronto (with a great section about the frustrations of street parking).  Highly recommended.