Book Reviews

UrbanMoms Online Book Club sponsored by Indigo - The Help

2010-06-14T15:20:58Z

Those of you who haven't read The Help, UrbanMoms Online Book Club's latest literary choice, have got about a year to finish it before the movie adaptation comes out. The good news is that you won't need a year; the book is a compelling novel and a really interesting story that you'll have trouble putting down once you pick it up.

All UrbanMoms Book Club members enjoyed this novel, and the discussion was as lively and spirited as the main characters in this great novel.

The Help introduces the reader to three strong-willed and remarkable women whose paths cross in 1962 Mississippi. Skeeter is a young university graduate who has returned home ready to start her life, but is being held back by the social constraints of her time. Abileen is a regal and proud black maid, raising her seventeenth white child. She's starting to have doubts about her role in society and in the families she works with. Minny is Abileen's best friend; she's funny, proud and her sassiness has gotten her in trouble with one boss too many. These three women tell their wonderful stories in amazingly aunthentic voices.

What made this a fantastic book club choice was that, while the story was set half a century ago, in a very different place, we were able to recognize some themes that make it timeless and universal.

First, we all recognized that one could be a good mother and a flawed person. There are a number of characters in The Help who helped with this discussion. Hilly is obviously an unlikeable and racist person, but she really does seem to care about her children and struggle with the same dilemmas that many of us do as mothers.

Like Hilly, Skeeter's own mother is a prime example of someone deeply flawed and yet somehow sympathetic. Book club members could see that she clearly loved Skeeter and wanted the best for her daughter, but struggled with that. It was not until later in the novel that the reader could see that she'd mellowed in some way, and it took much of the novel before she could see her daughter for who she was.

We also had a really interesting discussion about the notion of whether racism was a trait taught at home or inherent in pre-Civil Rights Southern society, and the challenges an individual would face in rising about that racism.

Our own book club conversation veered off into the direction of how we see nannies being treated in the families within our own society. Do they suffer the same challenges as "the help" in the novel?

The Help proved to be a wonderful book club choice; it was an enjoyable book, a glimpse into another era, and led to a lively conversation about society and women's relationships with each other.

UrbanMoms Online Book Club sponsored by Indigo - Half Broke Horses

2010-06-14T15:19:30Z

When we chose Half Broke Horses, by Jeannette Walls as our second Online Book Club selection, many of us were familiar with the author's work. Jeannette Walls' 2005 bestselling memoir, The Glass Castle, was a book club favourite when it came out. It was her memoir of growing up in the midst of a family struggling with alcoholism and mental illness.

Half Broke Horses tells the life story of the author's grandmother, Lily. Lily is a remarkable woman who overcame many hardships during her years growing up in Texas, California, Chicago and Arizona. Throughout the pages of the book, we accompany Lily as she survives tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression and person tragedy. She emerges as "an amazing and admirable woman, especially considering the time in which she grew up."

While The Glass Castle succeeded in its autobiographical genre because of its ability to be completely honest, in Half Broke Horses, Walls is able to flesh out her grandmother's story with her own strong storytelling skills. Walls uses the first person narrative, so the reader is once again completely immersed by an authentic and natural voice.

One of the first things that our book club members remarked upon was the "pace" of the book. Set up in short chapters, each telling a bit of Lily's story, Half Broke Horses is almost more like a collection of short stories than a novel. All readers enjoyed the style, and found the book very easy to pick up and put down...always a critical consideration for reading mothers!

I heard one reviewer describe Half Broke Horses as "Laura Ingalls Wilder" for adults, and I think it's a valid comparison. With Lily Casey Smith, the reader is introduced to a no-nonsense, strong and fascinating heroine, who leaves you wishing you could spend a little more time with her.

Book club members enjoyed Lily's amazing ability to change the direction of her own life. There were certainly times when she could have blamed others for where she ended up. Instead, when faced with adversity, she was able to pick up and start over in a way that we all admired. Our book club discussion veered into an interesting conversation about how we'd react to such adversity in our own lives.

Overall, the UrbanMoms Online Book club found Half Broke Horses to be a compelling story about a strong woman. Many of us have passed the book along to our husbands, who have also enjoyed it, so this is an easy book to recommend to all readers!

BOOK GIVEAWAY: The Swan Thieves and an Interview with Elizabeth Kostova

2010-03-29T11:16:36Z

The Swan Thieves is Elizabeth Kostova's much-anticipated second novel. Back in 2005 Kostova made headlines when her first novel, The Historian, became the first debut novel in history to enter the New York Times Bestseller List at number one. The Historian tells the tale of a young girl who finds a medieval manuscript in her father's library and learns the disturbing story of his quest to find his mentor who had disappeared twenty years earlier after admitting to certain knowledge that Vlad the Impaler (the Historical inspiration for the Dracula myth) is still alive. The Historian was the fastest-selling hardback debut novel in US History.

Kostova took five years to write her follow-up novel -- half the time it took her to write The Historian (which she worked on while working and earning a BFA at the University of Michigan). Kostova's fascination with history continues in her second novel, which explores the world of French Impressionism. Kostova juxtaposes past and near-present (late 20th-century US) in The Swan Thieves while exploring the world of art and the nature of genius and mental illness. The Swan Thieves is told partly through the voice of Psychiatrist Andrew Marlow (also a gifted amateur painter), who is asked by a colleague to take on the care of renowned painter Robert Oliver who has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital after attacking a painting at the National Gallery of Art. Marlow quickly becomes fascinated not only with his patient but with Oliver's obsession - a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism.

Beyond these broad thematic brush-strokes, Kostova explores themes near and dear to the hearts of women and mothers - balancing the pursuit of creative expression, independence and the demands of motherhood and marriage. While each of the women in The Swan Thieves experiences her own unique challenges in this regard and none of them succeeds entirely, it is inspirational to read their stories and share in their struggles.

I am thrilled to be able to offer one lucky reader both of Elizabeth Kostova's remarkable novels, The Historian and The Swan Thieves. To be eligible to win, you must be an urbanmoms.ca member (it's free, so why not join now?). Your ballot is your comment below. Tell me who your favourite impressionist painter is and why and you could be our lucky winner!

I had the great opportunity to speak with Ms. Kostova about her novel recently, and I'm thrilled to be able to share that conversation with our readers here:

A theme I've noticed in both your novels is the power of the written word to control - in The Historian it's the dragon book, and in The Swan Thieves it's Béatrice de Clerval's letters. The characters in The Swan Thieves largely spurn the use of email, text messaging, etc. in favour of written letters. Tell me a bit about your feelings about the power of the written word, and the impact of modern technologies on it?

We are using it very casually and at a very fast clip. But I think that for example teenagers write a lot more to one another than they have in a long time because they're using text messaging and email. And of course it's a very different kind of writing: it's almost like chatting, but it's interesting to me that we are and we aren't using the written word now and it's something we've never experienced before and it'll be interesting to see how it changes language. But I think that the letter, you know the real, honest-to-goodness written letter is a dying art. I mean, obviously it's a dying art. And there's something so intimate about letters, and the fact that they used to be a major form of communication between people, and of course in the period in which Béatrice is writing they were almost exclusively written by hand. And I loved the act of imagining those letters: what they would have looked like, what the handwriting would've looked like, the ink on the paper, the experience. And there's a thing in which Béatrice is actually rereading a letter from someone, and she's unfolding and refolding the pages as she stands in the snow. And that's become such an exotic and a novel image for us now: the feeling of opening and rereading a letter on paper. I wanted to try hard to give a sense of the intimacy of that kind of communication. A letter allows you to savor things.

Both books explore the nature of obsession, but the obsession in The Swan Thieves takes the form of madness, instead of the supernatural. In the earlier parts of the novel I almost felt the plot would unfold in favour of the supernatural, with Béatrice somehow controlling Robert through her letters. But it doesn't turn out that way. Was this a conscious decision, or did it evolve naturally?

I never expected to find myself writing novels about the supernatural at all. That's not what comes naturally to me. And it was only because of the nature of the legend I wanted to explore that I found myself doing that in The Historian. But for me the irrationality in the Swan Thieves is psychological or mental in a way, and we all have elements of that in our lives, but it's of course extreme in Robert Oliver's life. I've had a couple of readers tell me that in the scenes when Robert seems to not be in the room, when he seems to be looking at someone through a doorway, that that's similar to haunting - in this book as well. That's something that affects the other characters as well. Mary has it when Marlow jokingly asks her to marry him, Marlow is immediately aware that there's someone standing in the doorway and that someone is Robert Oliver, his rival. So I guess I wasn't thinking of a very clear delineation between the supernatural and what we experience and invent in our minds consciously when we're writing a novel and unconsciously for someone like Robert Oliver who experiences it as obsession.

The setting of The Swan Thieves is very different from that of The Historian - how was it different to set a novel in your own place and time?

I found it very challenging. I'm glad you asked that because it was the first time I had written about places in the US, places I grew up in, places I knew really well. And in the Historian I was writing about places I knew well, or had traveled in or had lived in recently, but those places were almost all European. And these US settings were actually really challenging for me, because I think when we're in a place for a long time and it's second nature and sort of feels like a home place, we don't observe it as closely, and there's this kind of numbing process that makes things familiar and yet not sharp anymore. And so we may know things very well but we're not observant about them. So I found that I actually had to go back to some really familiar places and look at them as a visitor or traveler or a searcher. And sometimes it was something very ordinary like the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, which I had been at many times, but when I realized that scene in which Marlow is threading his way among all the people - that I really needed to revisit that place to get it right. And I couldn't remember: were there really hot dog stands at the bottom? So I ended up having to do some of the same kind of research for that. I think the other thing that's really confusing about writing about places you know well is that you don't have the same imaginative vision, yet you're having to sort of place yourself far away so you can place other characters in those spots. And at the same time I found it kind of a relief in that a lot of the settings in Greenhill, where Kate allows Marlow to visit is a house I know very well, and the little college where Robert taught is a college I attended for a year, although I changed names and identifying characteristics, so in a way it was kind of a relief, but on the whole I found it harder, not easier.

How was the experience of writing the second novel different?

I think the main way in which it was different was that I had more time to write. I had always written around the edges of a lot of intense work and jobs and sometimes had only 10 or 20 minutes a day to work on The Historian and it did take a long time. So I found it wonderful to be able to focus on it although I still had lots of other responsibilities; I could still put in writing time in a more intensive way. And then the other thing that was really new for me and also very helpful in some ways was writing on a deadline - I had never done that before. You know with a first novel that no-one has ever seen you have this sort of total freedom and privacy and also open-ended time and its really up to you whether or not you ever finish the damn thing. And deadlines create their own good kind of energy. I really actually enjoyed that very much. It did make me feel a kind of urgency about it that was kind of new, and that I did need to get through certain portions of the research for it for example. I didn't feel a lot of pressure to make a book that would perform in a certain way. My publisher is wonderfully open-minded and they bought an idea for a second book and said "have at it" and they never pressured me to write a certain kind of book or to write a sequel. But you know I really appreciated their letting me do what I do and trying something different, and I knew already that I wanted to write a very different kind of book or at least a different subject matter because it's important for me to learn something new in every project myself. And there's also something about the actual process of composition that I find so absorbing, and I think most writers say this, unless the writer is really writing formulaic fiction, but I think any writer who's writing from the gut and trying to do something serious would probably say the same thing: that you feel this kind of absorption when the work is going well that makes everything else go away. So very often when I was composing in the voices of these new characters I didn't remember when I was born or what my name was, let alone the fact that I'd even published a first book. So I think the writing process itself kind of protected me from that.

Your novels are both very richly researched; and you immerse us so deeply in the worlds of your characters. In this novel you've chosen the worlds of clinical psychiatry and painting...why these fields?

I had wanted for a long time to write a novel about a painter and about painting and to try to describe painting and also to try to describe the point of view of the painter and I wanted to try to do it through other people's voices. So out of that emerged the idea that I needed this main character to have some very strong reason why he wouldn't speak to other people - and that was how those two subjects came together for me.

You refer often in the book to the modern world's ennui with the works of the Impressionists, yet the clear message of the novel is that these works - although overexposed - are still as important and revolutionary. Does this reflect your own opinion? Why did you choose impressionism instead of another period?

I love a lot of different periods of painting history, so when I was thinking about what this artist's obsession would be - with what part of history he would be obsessed with - and it wasn't quite that sort of objective decision, but this was just the way it unfolded. I thought about the impressionists because I'd been interested in them for a long time. And because I did suffer from a little bit of that burnout and that feeling that oh I'd seen it all, and I'd seen too many exhibitions (and certainly too many umbrellas and tote bags) and I had the experience Andrew Marlow has, of going back to a museum or two and looking hard at the work in the flesh and being so blown away by it: for one thing it doesn't reproduce very well - I mean for one thing not only does it not reproduce very well on a tote bag, but it also doesn't reproduce very well in a fine art book because you really have to be able to see the surface textures, and all the evidence of the artist's hand, and all that brushwork, it's so remarkable when you see it up close and I was very moved in the way marlow was when I went back and started looking at original impressionist paintings and started reading about them a little at a time and realizing how extremely different they were from what came before and what they were rebelling against. And yes I did have the same kind of experience - actually while I was beginning the book. So when marlow speaks in that passionate way on both sides of that - that is something I very much shared with him.

While doing some research in preparation for this interview I discovered that Robert Oliver wasn't the first person to attack a painting of Leda and the Swan with a knife - Louis, Duke of Orléans attacked a Correggio canvas portraying the myth sometime in the 1700s, apparently in a fit of moral conscience. Is this a coincidence or did it influence your work in any way (after all, as Mary says, it's very easy to find out a great deal of information with the internet, and I'm sure you wouldn't have missed that piece.)

I actually discovered that too, after I started writing. It was a coincidence but not a total coincidence in the sense that it makes sense that a subject like Leda and the Swan would provoke people to that kind of reaction. That real attack was very interesting in that it was sort of repentance. I was very entertained when I stumbled on that - and of course it's very different than Robert Oliver's motivation.

Although the story seems to be mainly about one painter (Robert Oliver), the three major female characters in the novel are all painters themselves. However, as women they are not able (or choose not?) to be consumed by passion for their work, tending instead to the necessities of daily life (both Kate and Mary comment on this in their first-person accounts of life with Robert Oliver). Both Kate and Béatrice give up painting after becoming mothers. Are you conveying a message about motherhood and/or the challenges of women artists?

I'm glad that comes through because I did think about that a lot and in a similar way, you know, Mary doesn't have children until she's going to at the end of the book. But even without children she says the same thing, Robert Oliver never offered to pay any of the rent when he lived here and somebody had to be paying that, and somebody had to fix dinner and after a while it was me. And when that becomes annoying enough to her she has the personal strength to throw him out. And I think that it's partly a comment on the clash between women's lives and their art and I guess there is a sort of message buried in it, because Robert, for whom there is no boundary, really, he also ends up doing a lot of damage, that these women don't have to live with in themselves. And I don't mean that as a sort of moralizing about art, but it's a different set of choices or non-choices (depends how you look at it). But the character of Mary was very important to me because I think she kind of stands on the shoulders of the others. Mary, as the youngest of all those women has gained strength from the earlier generations enough to say, "I will support myself even though I come from a moneyed background, I wont ask for help, I will live alone". For me she's the woman who will break those other moulds. She will have a child and a job and she will go on painting.

Robert's name "Oliver" and the character "Olivier" in the letters - was that intentional?

Yes. I wanted to have lots of references to colour in the book. Robert has eyes the same colour as his name, for example, and Olivier has the same name. I had written all these French characters and I didn't know what their names meant. When I looked up the name Béatrice, I discovered that it means "blessed one" or "bringing blessings", and the two French men were named for trees: Olivier (olive tree) and Yves (yew tree).

Don't forget to enter the contest to win a copy of Elizabeth Kostova's novels The Historian and The Swan Thieves by telling me who your favourite Impressionist painter is (and why) below!

Contest closes April 14th, 2010. Remember only UrbanMoms members are eligible to win so don't forget to sign in. Not a member yet? Click here to join!

†See full contest rules and regulations for details.

UrbanMoms Online Book Club sponsored by Indigo - First Book Meeting!

2010-03-14T13:59:01Z

Wednesday was an exciting evening. The UrbanMoms Online Book Club met to discuss our first book, Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert. We'd met a month earlier to set up the book club parameters (how often to meet, what types of books to choose, who would host, what types of wine and cheeses would be served...the important stuff!) and most of us had made it out last month to hear the author in conversation with Heather Reisman discussing Committed.

We didn't all know one another before this book club was pulled together, and that always makes for some nervous moments for me, meeting new people, knowing we'd be spending time together. It felt a bit like the first day of high school with each of us sussing out the other. By the end of those first couple of meetings we were all laughing like we'd known each other for years, and complaining the next morning that the conversation (and wine) obviously flowed a little too easily.

But this past Wednesday was a different type of test; we were all going to sit in a room and talk about our chosen book. Book clubs can be fraught with social landmines; will someone dominate the conversation? what if someone hated the book that was my choice? what if someone never reads the books? what if we have nothing to say?

Committed was a great first book club selection, because love it or hate it, everyone had something to say about it. If you haven't heard about it, read a little more here, but essentially it's the author's thorough examination of the history and realities of marriage in the western world. The subtitle says it all, "a skeptic makes peace with marriage".

A couple of us came to this book very wary, having not necessarily embraced Gilbert's last bestseller, Eat, Pray, Love . But as one member pointed out, "she's a completely changed chick."

We all thought the concept was very interesting and everyone whipped through the first one hundred pages. However, the book is very research intense, and became a bit more of a slog for some midway through. In the interest of full disclosure, a couple of members hadn't finished the entire book ("the author just kept going on and on" ), but were still able to contribute to our conversation about the book, the state of marriage and the state of women.

Where members most enjoyed the book, was where they were able to relate the concepts to their own marriage. We talked for a while about how this would be a great gift for a daughter once she was ready to contemplate marriage. You could almost compile a "top ten tips" for a successful union. Favourites included the advice to "be careful with what you say" when moving towards an argument.

Personally I loved the fact that Gilbert could spend pages and pages determining that marriage was not in any way good for women (married women earn less than single women, suffer more from depression, are less healthy and more prone to alcoholism among other truths). Ultimately, though, the author concludes that, "Sometimes life is too hard to be alone, and sometimes life is too good to be alone."

We all thought Gilbert had hit the nail on the head with her discussion of the need for intimacy in a marriage; not of the physical kind, but that "lying in bed in the dark at 2am intimacy that only develops in a marriage". With nineteen kids amongst our members, we've all had stages in our marriages when we go days (or weeks) treating our spouse as a colleague in this job of parenting. One member put it so well when she said, "I realized we don't have pillow talk without purpose anymore; all our pillow talk has purpose."

Some of us bemoaned the amount of time that Gilbert was able to spend navel-gazing. None of our lives afford us the time for self-discovery that Gilbert was able to do while traipsing through SouthEast Asia for a year. However, we all felt that the lesson that we need to understand our selves, and be happy with our selves, before entering into marriage with another, was a lesson worth passing on. One member read from the book, "One of the things I refuse to burden Felipe with is the responsibility of completing me."

Some members found Gilbert's tone to be judgmental. Her view of motherhood is that it's a selfless act was rejected because all members felt that motherhood can in fact be quite self-serving. At this point in our own lives, we can look at the relationships we have with our children and know we're taking away as much as we're putting into them.

Finally one member thought that Liz (we were calling her Liz by this point in our discussion) spent an awful lot of time figuring out how to make her marriage work based on where she and her husband were at that stage of their life. This member pointed out that "we're not static people; we're dynamic. The things I want now are different from what I'll want a year from now." In the end, while taking time before entering in to marriage to determine what you want from it is critical, it's not going to offer a money-back guarantee on the longevity of your union.

So in the end, concerns about our members not having much to say about this book were obviously not an issue. We talked about the book, the author, ourselves and our friends. The evening was exactly what I'd hoped for from a book club; different members bringing their own baggage to the chosen topic and all of us benefitting from seeing the book we'd read through different eyes. The next day, I was still getting e-mails from members. One wrote to remind UrbanMoms readers that "this is a serious book; not a light read, but there are glimmers of insight throughout."

So here's where the Online aspect of the Book Club comes in. We rely on UrbanMoms members out there in the internets to weigh in with your thoughts on Committed. Did you read it? What did you think? Are you part of a book club that has discussed this book? Contribute a comment and become part of this Online Book Club. You'll be part of a great group of women, and the only part you're missing out on is the cheese.

Also, if you're dying to hear what our next book club selection is, then follow me on Twitter, to be among the first to know. I'm @JenTrend

Four copies of next month's book selection will be given away to one lucky Book Club! You must be a Go2Girlz to be eligible to win. Only the Go2Girlz will have an opportunity to take part in this exclusive offer.
Not one of the Go2Girlz yet?

Click here to join!

Sookie Stackhouse True Blood Giveaway!

2010-02-22T17:55:42Z

Are you a fan of the HBO True Blood series? Then have we got a giveaway for you! The series is based on the Southern Vampire novels by Charlaine Harris, and we're giving away 10 copies of EACH of the 7th and 8th novels in the series. It won't be until June 2010 when season three of True Blood airs, so this is a great chance to get caught up on Charlaine Harris' entire series (Penguin is currently re-issuing the entire Sookie Stackhouse backlist).

Here's a bit more information on the two titles:

All Together Dead (7th novel): Louisiana cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse has her hands full with the shapeshifter Quinn, a possible new man in her life, and the upcoming vampire summit. With her power base weakened by hurricane damage to New Orleans, Vampire Queen Sophie-Anne is vulnerable to those hungry for a takeover. Sookie's job at the summit is to support Sophie- Anne. But she'll soon discover just how dangerous that job can be, as she is drawn further and further into the vampire world.

From Dead to Worse (8th novel): After the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina, and the manmade horror of the explosion at the vampire summit, Sookie Stackhouse is safe but dazed, yearning for things to get back to normal. But her boyfriend Quinn is among the missing. And things are changing, whether the Weres and vamps in her corner of Louisiana like it or not. In the ensuing battles, Sookie faces danger, death-and once more, betrayal by someone she loves. And when the fur has finished flying and the cold blood ceases flowing, her world will be forever altered.

Vampires figure frequently in the literary canon - everything from Bram Stoker's Dracula to Twilight to the Southern Vampire series. Let us know what your favourite vampire story is and you could win a copy of both books! Ten lucky urbanmoms.ca members will win a set of both All Together Dead and From Dead to Worse! To be entered to win, write a comment below telling us about your favourite vampire story.

†See full contest rules and regulations for details.

UrbanMoms Online Book Club sponsored by Indigo - Exclusive Event Update!

2010-02-07T18:53:50Z

Welcome to the first edition of the UrbanMoms Online Book Club! The concept of an online book club came about around the same time that I was invited to join a real life book club (with real life women and real life wine!). Jen and I chatted about the idea of bringing that book club community to the rest of the UrbanMoms community. Over glasses of wine and discussions of book choices, we developed this concept; a column which will be part personal book review, part book club report on whatever it is that we're reading.

Our group intends to meet every six weeks or so, and I'll share our book selection with you when we make it, so that you (or your own book club) can read along in real time, and wade into our virtual book club discussion through comments. With each book announcement, Go2Girlz participants will be sent an e-mail, inviting them to enter a draw to win a set of our chosen book for their own book club. (If you're not already one of the Go2Girlz yet, simply click on the Edit Profile link at the top of the page and check the box to join).The first book that our book club will tackle is Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert. If you'd like to pick it up yourself, you can find it in Indigo stores, or order it online.

From the Publisher

At the end of her bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert fell in love with Felipe, a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship who'd been living in Indonesia when they met. Resettling in America, the couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but also swore to never, ever, under any circumstances get legally married. (Both were survivors of previous horrific divorces. Enough said.) But providence intervened one day in the form of the United States government, which--after unexpectedly detaining Felipe at an American border crossing--gave the couple a choice: they could either get married, or Felipe would never be allowed to enter the country again. Having been effectively sentenced to wed, Gilbert tackled her fears of marriage by delving into this topic completely, trying with all her might to discover through historical research, interviews, and much personal reflection what this stubbornly enduring old institution actually is. Told with Gilbert's trademark wit, intelligence and compassion,Committed attempts to "turn on all the lights" when it comes to matrimony, frankly examining questions of compatibility, infatuation, fidelity, family tradition, social expectations, divorce risks and humbling responsibilities. Gilbert's memoir is ultimately a clear-eyed celebration of love with all the complexity and consequence that real love, in the real world, actually entails.

Our first Book Club meeting will be on March 10, and I'll post our review the following week, as well as an announcement about our next book selection. Please come back then and share your comments about Committed.

Indigo, the sponsor of UrbanMoms Online Book Club, has also invited our book club members to join them at an exclusive Indigo event, In Conversation: Elizabeth Gilbert and Heather Reisman on Wednesday February 24. They've even thrown in a 2 pairs of extra tickets for virtual members, so if you're a Toronto-area mom, and would like to join us for a fun evening and the opportunity to hear from these two amazing women, please comment below. What I'm looking for are some book suggestions as we plan the next few picks for our book club. Tell me what you've read, what you've loved, what you're dying to read, and let me know why you think it would be a good book club choice.

If you'd like to join us at the upcoming special event, you can order reduced tickets at $17 (including all taxes and services charges) exclusively as an urbanmoms member. Simply purchase them from Ticketmaster online or by calling (416) 870-8000 and using promo code ING.

The UrbanMoms Online Book Club is sponsored by:

Her Fearful Symmetry

2009-11-24T03:55:34Z

I waited to start Her Fearful Symmetry until I knew I would be able to devote several days to reading it. That's because I found Audrey Niffenegger's first novel, The Time Traveler's Wife, so engrossing that I stayed up until 2 a.m. on two consecutive nights in order to finish it, so I wanted to be sure I could devote adequate time to her compelling second novel.

Her Fearful Symmetry opens with a letter that alters the fate of every character. Julia and Valentina Poole are semi-normal American twenty-year-olds with seemingly little interest in college or finding jobs. Their attachment to one another is intense. One morning the mailman delivers a thick envelope to their house in the suburbs of Chicago. From a London solicitor, the enclosed letter informs Valentina and Julia that their English aunt Elspeth Noblin, whom they never knew, has died of cancer and left them her London apartment. There are two conditions to this inheritance: that they live in it for a year before they sell it and that their parents not enter it. Julia and Valentina are twins. So were the estranged Elspeth and Edie, their mother.

The girls move to Elspeth's flat, which borders the vast and ornate Highgate Cemetery, where Christina Rossetti, George Eliot, Radclyffe Hall, Stella Gibbons and Karl Marx are buried. Julia and Valentina come to know the living residents of their building. There is Martin, a brilliant and charming crossword-puzzle setter suffering from crippling obsessive compulsive disorder; Marijke, Martin's devoted but trapped wife; and Robert, Elspeth's elusive lover, a scholar of the cemetery. As the girls become embroiled in the fraying lives of their aunt's neighbors, they also discover that much is still alive in Highgate, including -- perhaps -- their aunt.

Author of one of the most beloved first novels in recent years, Niffenegger returns with an unnerving, unforgettable and enchanting ghost story, a novel about love and identity, secrets and sisterhood and the tenacity of life -- even after death.

This is a very worthy successor to The Time Traveler's Wife -- an engrossing tale with riveting characters whose stories you will want to continue to follow long after you finish the book. Be prepared to clear your schedule for this book, because once you start it you won't want to put it down until you're done!

Don't Shoot the Dog

2009-11-17T18:05:18Z

Once in a while, I read a book that I just feel compelled to write about. Now, granted, many of the books we review here on urbanmoms.ca are generously donated to us by publishers (which allows us to offer so many amazing book giveaways to our members), but we do frequently review books that we feel our members really need to know about, even if we do it on our own nickel.

Don't Shoot the Dog, by Karen Pryor (published by Random House) is one of those books. it was originally recommended to me and my husband by a psychologist for behavioural issues our daughter was experiencing. "Don't prejudge it," she said as she handed over a loaner copy.

I'll admit, at first it was hard for me to take the book seriously. It is - mostly - written for people who are training animals; primarily dogs. The author is a renowned dolphin trainer (okay, getting closer, anyway). There were many times when I thought, dripping sarcasm, sure, I'll just clicker-train my kid to sit and heel. That'll be swell! But as I persevered, I came to see that, indeed, we are all animals deep down inside, and anyone can be "trained" to adopt new and better behaviours, while also being "trained" to drop bad or undesirable behaviours.

Yup, seems good ol' B.F. Skinner and and his operant conditioning were right after all (ring, ring: drool, drool) - to a point. Granted: we're all animals and even the dumbest of us can be trained (Pryor gives an example of training crabs in her laboratory); conversely, even the smartest of us can be conditioned to exhibit specific behaviours on specific cues (to wit: tap your water glass with a knife during a noisy reception and watch the crowd go silent almost immediately).

However, by far the most important and consistent message this book has to offer (for new puppy owners right on up to parents of poorly behaved 'tweens) is this: positive reinforcement works. Consistently and quickly. And conversely: punishment almost never works; at least not consistently.

Sounds obvious, I know, but I challenge each of you to take a good hard look at most of your parenting behaviours over the next few days. Do you consistently (as in, ALWAYS) recognize and/or reward good behaviours that you want to see repeated? I didn't think so. In fact, many people believe that those behaviours don't need to be even recognized, because they should be taken for granted: Suzy made her bed this morning? Big deal. It's expected. Well, guess what? If you want Suzy to continue to make her bed, consistently, on time, well and happily, you need to recognize her (at the time!) for having done it.

I know when I took a good, hard and most importantly, honest look at my parenting, I found that I was always giving corrective feedback - in other words, telling my kids what they did wrong, what not to do, what to stop doing, etc. etc. It's exhausting and it gives the home environment and the ultra-important parent-child relationship a negative tone. Since I switched over to reinforcing every positive behaviour I observed (in the moment), things have gotten a lot happier around here. And we haven't been having the same fights about going to school, or doing homework, or helping around the house. Heck, even the sibling fighting has gone down significantly.

Hugs and kisses are up, praise is up and conflict is down. And that's something I can get behind, dog-trainer or not.

Marian Keyes Winners!

2009-11-11T02:32:30Z

Congratulations to our 15 winners of Marian Keyes' latest novel, The Brightest Star in the Sky:

Erin
Kathryn
Newfiescreech
tempest1952
Dasing
Angela
Ally
Mahar
marci-h
janetm
legsmom
Pamela
Ginger
ebickell
Cheryl

Our lucky winners will be contacted by an urbanmoms.ca representative.

Be sure to check back for more amazing book giveaways to come!

Finding It, by Valerie Bertinelli

2009-11-03T23:13:30Z

Kirstie Alley did it, Oprah did it, even Marie Osmond did it. I'm talking about the celebrity weight-loss sellout. Oprah lost, gained, and re-lost her weight, before coming to what seems to be a manageable truce. And poor Kirstie Alley is still making large (really large) headlines with her weight gain on tabloid covers.

But what about Valerie Bertinelli? Remember a few years back when she very publicly went on the Jenny Craig program and successfully managed to lose weight? She followed that up with the publication of her book, Losing It, which made it to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.

I'll admit I didn't read Losing It. Part of that was out of mild chagrin that her book shared the same title as my own personal weight loss blog, but the much larger part was because I simply didn't care to read how an extremely wealthy and privileged celebrity lost weight. With free Jenny Craig, endless hours with a personal trainer and no need to cook for your own family or -- hey, try this one on -- work, who couldn't lose weight and have a totally kick-ass bod?

So you can see why I was reluctant to read Bertinelli's follow-up book, Finding It. But read it I did. And you know what? I'm glad I did. You see, what Valerie Bertinelli does in Finding It is to address the least talked-about challenge of weight loss: keeping it off. Having been on this roller-coaster of weight loss more than once myself, I know that the hardest part is not the weight loss itself, but rather conquering the demons that got you fat in the first place. And that's what Bertinelli really attacks in this book. As the jacket notes say:

...she's hungering for another transformation -- to become better, not just thinner. Forget the scale; the real change is happening inside...

And that, I know from my own experience, is the most profound and important (but least visible) change of all. To anyone who's ever stepped on the scale with trepidation, this is an excellent read.

Hot New Title: Marian Keyes Giveaway!

2009-10-20T15:35:28Z

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

The Irish have produced a good many of the English language's best writers: Joyce, Wilde, Yeats, Shaw...the list goes on. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, Irish women authors have really come into their own, both in popular and critical opinion. Think Maeve Binchy, Sheila O'Flanagan and Marian Keyes. Keyes is well known as a very smart, funny and warm Irish women's fiction author with a flair for drawing compelling characters and addictive, feel-good plots. Her new novel, The Brightest Star in the Sky, will be released on November 7, 2009.

So how would you like to read it before it's even released in stores?

It sounds impossible, but our generous partners at Penguin have offered us fifteen review copies of Keyes' new novel to give away to fifteen lucky urbanmoms.ca members! Review copies are pretty much exactly what you'd think - they're versions of soon-to-be-released books that are sent to reviewers, so they can read the book and go to press with their reviews on the book's release date. Review copies are just like "real" books - they're very well done and contain the exact text of the actual book, except that they're produced in paperback and they're available before the book even comes out in stores!

So then: who wants to win one of our fifteen review copies of Marian Keyes' The Brightest Star in the Sky? To enter, all you need to do is enter a comment below - tell us why you love Irish women's novels and we'll enter your name in our draw. But remember, you need to be an urbanmoms.ca member to be eligible to win, so please sign in to UM when you comment. Not a member yet? Join now, it's easy and free. If you'd like to find out more about Penguin, click here.

Critical Acclaim for Marian Keyes:

A writer who pips Maeve Binchy in Irish bestseller lists, Marian Keyes is chick lit's class act.'
The Independent

'There's no question that she's hot property'
Heat

'The reigning queen of romantic fiction'
The Times

'The doyenne of satire'
Daily Mail

'Marian Keyes is the queen of feel-good fiction...the hottest young female writer in Britain and the voice of a generation'
Mirror

'Her writing sparkles and the world is a better place for her books'
Irish Tatler

Book Description:
At 66 Star Street in Dublin someone is watching over the lives of the people living in its flats. But no one is aware of it--yet... One of them is ready to take the plunge and fall in love; another is torn between two very different lovers. For some, secrets they want to stay buried will come to light and for others, the unveiling of those secrets will have tragic consequences. Fate is on its way to Star Street, bringing with it love and tragedy, friendship and heartbreak, and the power to change their lives in the most unexpected of ways...

Marian Keyes is the international bestselling author of Watermelon, Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, Rachel's Holiday, Last Chance Saloon, Sushi for Beginners, Angels, and, most recently The Other Side of the Story, a Sunday Times Number One Bestseller. She is published in twenty-nine different languages. A collection of her journalism, called Under the Duvet, is also available in Penguin. Marian lives in Dublin with her husband.

November 7, 2009│THE BRIGHTEST STAR IN THE SKY│By Marian Keyes Penguin│ISBN 9780718149864│Hardcover; $34.00

The Lost Symbol Review

2009-10-06T20:39:19Z

I must admit that we at urbanmoms.ca Book Reviews are normally lucky enough to get advance copies of the books we review, so that we can come to you with our take on new titles when they're still hot off the presses. However, in the case of The Lost Symbol (Dan Brown's sequel to his massive bestseller The DaVinci Code) we had to line up at the bookstore just like everyone else. This book was kept under serious lockdown, and only the biggest bigwigs were able to get their hands on advance copies. So, like all the other small-time literati, I was out there pawing over the book table at Costco for my copy of The Lost Symbol, which I finished in record time, although I will admit I sacrificed the better part of two nights' sleep for it.

So, what did I think? Well, first of all I should come clean and admit to being a major Robert Langdon fan. I've read The DaVinci Code at least three times, and Angels & Demons (Brown's first Robert Langdon novel) twice. I've seen (and enjoyed) the movie adaptations of both books, and I was looking forward to seeing what kind of adventure Professor Langdon would get himself mixed up in this time around.

Some of the advance buzz around this book worried me a bit, though, and here's why: most of the rumours related to the prevalence of Masonic symbols/codes, etc. in Washington D.C. Now, gee, where have we heard that one before kids? National Treasure, anyone? Plus, one of the things I had loved most about Robert Langdon was his bookish skepticism, and the sense that he really was an urbane and intellectual citizen of the world and not your rah-rah American patriot type. I just had a niggling suspicion that a book set in the American capital, written by an American, and related to secret messages encoded centuries ago by the founding fathers might be, well, too rah-rah.

All right, so we've covered my reservations. Were they borne out? Yes and no. I was fascinated to learn about the Masonic symbols hidden in all kinds of American icons (including the famous pyramid on the dollar bill), and I was interested in the echoes of ancient civilizations (especially the famous Roman Republic) in Washington's architecture - I had forgotten the Potomac was orignally named the Tiber, and didn't know Washington's first name was, actually, Rome. So that was cool. And the plot was riveting, right up until the last ten chapters or so - which explains the two nights where I stayed up until 2am reading. Brown is a master of the cliff-hanger chapter: "ohmygod! I have to find out what happens to Robert!" so you read on, but the next chapter is about Katherine. Now you need to know what happens to both Robert and Katherine, and the next chapter is about Peter! I find that kind of suspense almost irresistible, and end up falling asleep with the book on my chest.

The only problem is that - for me - things started to fall apart towards the end of the book. For one thing, it got predictable. I hate predictable. Then I felt like it carried on for about five chapters too many. I remember at one pivotal point in the book thinking: the real controversy is never going to live up to the hype he's building here. And I was right. When he reveals the "threat to national security" near the end of the novel, it's one of the great anticlimactic moments in literature. I read it and thought: 'that is what all this fuss is about?' Then there was the major cop-out of the actual meaning of the eponymous "lost symbol", which actually turns out to be a word. Word with a double-entendre. A predictable cop-out of a double-entendre, in my opinion. But to say any more would be to spoil the ending, so I'll leave it there for now.

As for the rah-rah patriotism, I'll give Brown points for tempering it with really interesting and non-conventional tidbits of information about the founding fathers. Masons, deists and utopians all, Brown paints them in an admiring yet realistic light, providing great insights into the history and psychology of the world's only remaining superpower.

And noetic science, which Brown predicted would be one of the touchpoints of controversy in this novel...meh. Didn't grab me at all. And that's probably the root of my disappointment in The Lost Symbol...the real scandal and controversy created by Angels & Demons and The DaVinci Code just don't exist. There isn't anything all that controversial about the Masons - they're no Priory of Sion, and noetic science has no substance whatsoever.

So: arcane knowledge? Check. Suspenseful plot? Check. Killer ending? Not so much. In the end, I think it's well worth the read for Langdon-ites, but if you're not already a fan, don't shell out for the hardcover version...wait until it's released in (cheaper) paperback.

A Classic Returns

2009-09-29T20:10:05Z

Now this is truly exciting news! Dutton Children's Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, will publish the first authorized sequel to A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh and The House At Pooh Corner entitled Return to the Hundred Acre Wood. The book will be released October 5th 2009, and Egmont Publishing will publish the book simultaneously in the UK.

Of course, sequels have a way of inspiring anticipation and trepidation in equal measure, particularly in the case of such an iconic childhood classic as Winnie-the-Pooh, and particularly when a new author is involved. But fear not - the managers of the E. E. Milne estate have searched long and hard for just the right author to pen the Pooh sequel, and they've found him in David Benedictus, who adapted and produced the audio adaptations of Winnie-the-Pooh starring Dame Judi Dench, Stephen Fry and Jane Horrocks. He worked closely with illustrator Mark Burgess who has illustrated countless classic children's characters including Paddington Bear and Winnie-the-Pooh.

Return to the Hundred Acre Wood is sure to become an instant childhood classic, and you can get a sneak preview (including beautiful illustrations) by reading the first chapter here!

Click to download the first chapter of Return to the Hundred Acre Wood.

The Lost Symbol Excerpt

2009-09-22T01:07:27Z

Yes, we know the book's been out a week already, but we thought our Fall Fiction Preview Contest was too exciting to be bumped for it. And perhaps you're one of the people who hasn't got their hands on a copy of it yet. Or maybe it's on your wishlist.

In the spirit of better late than never, we're excited to be able to bring you an excerpt of the new Dan Brown novel, featuring everyone's favourite symbologist, Robert Langdon. The Lost Symbol is the long-awaited sequel to Dan Brown's earlier Langdon thriller, The DaVinci Code. Brought to life on the silver screen by Tom Hanks, millions of people the world over have been waiting to read this next installment in the adventures of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon.

Be sure to click through to the publisher's website for more details on this hot new bestseller!

The Lost Symbol
By Dan Brown

Prologue
House of the Temple
8:33 P.M.

The secret is how to die.

Since the beginning of time, the secret had always been how to die.

The thirty-four-year-old initiate gazed down at the human skull cradled in his palms. The skull was hollow, like a bowl, filled with bloodred wine.

Drink it, he told himself. You have nothing to fear.

As was tradition, he had begun this journey adorned in the ritualistic garb of a medieval heretic being led to the gallows, his loose-fitting shirt gaping open to reveal his pale chest, his left pant leg rolled up to the knee, and his right sleeve rolled up to the elbow. Around his neck hung a heavy rope noose--a "cable-tow" as the brethren called it. Tonight, however, like the brethren bearing witness, he was dressed as a master.

The assembly of brothers encircling him all were adorned in their full regalia of lambskin aprons, sashes, and white gloves. Around their necks hung ceremonial jewels that glistened like ghostly eyes in the muted light. Many of these men held powerful stations in life, and yet the initiate knew their worldly ranks meant nothing within these walls. Here all men were equals, sworn brothers sharing a mystical bond.

As he surveyed the daunting assembly, the initiate wondered who on the outside would ever believe that this collection of men would assemble in one place . . . much less this place. The room looked like a holy sanctuary from the ancient world.

The truth, however, was stranger still.

I am just blocks away from the White House.

This colossal edifice, located at 1733 Sixteenth Street NW in Washington, D.C., was a replica of a pre-Christian temple--the temple of King Mausolus, the original mausoleum . . . a place to be taken after death. Outside the main entrance, two seventeen-ton sphinxes guarded the bronze doors. The interior was an ornate labyrinth of ritualistic chambers, halls, sealed vaults, libraries, and even a hollow wall that held the remains of two human bodies. The initiate had been told every room in this building held a secret, and yet he knew no room held deeper secrets than the gigantic chamber in which he was currently kneeling with a skull cradled in his palms.

The Temple Room.

This room was a perfect square. And cavernous. The ceiling soared an astonishing one hundred feet overhead, supported by monolithic columns of green granite. A tiered gallery of dark Russian walnut seats with hand-tooled pigskin encircled the room. A thirty-three-foot-tall throne dominated the western wall, with a concealed pipe organ opposite it. The walls were a kaleidoscope of ancient symbols . . . Egyptian, Hebraic, astronomical, alchemical, and others yet unknown.

Tonight, the Temple Room was lit by a series of precisely arranged candles. Their dim glow was aided only by a pale shaft of moonlight that filtered down through the expansive oculus in the ceiling and illuminated the room's most startling feature--an enormous altar hewn from a solid block of polished Belgian black marble, situated dead center of the square chamber.

The secret is how to die, the initiate reminded himself.

"It is time," a voice whispered.

The initiate let his gaze climb the distinguished white-robed figure standing before him. The Supreme Worshipful Master. The man, in his late fifties, was an American icon, well loved, robust, and incalculably wealthy. His once-dark hair was turning silver, and his famous visage reflected a lifetime of power and a vigorous intellect.

"Take the oath," the Worshipful Master said, his voice soft like falling snow. "Complete your journey."

The initiate's journey, like all such journeys, had begun at the first degree. On that night, in a ritual similar to this one, the Worshipful Master had blindfolded him with a velvet hoodwink and pressed a ceremonial dagger to his bare chest, demanding: "Do you seriously declare on your honor, uninfluenced by mercenary or any other unworthy motive, that you freely and voluntarily offer yourself as a candidate for the mysteries and privileges of this brotherhood?"

"I do," the initiate had lied.

"Then let this be a sting to your consciousness," the master had warned him, "as well as instant death should you ever betray the secrets to be imparted to you."

At the time, the initiate had felt no fear. They will never know my true purpose here.

Tonight, however, he sensed a foreboding solemnity in the Temple Room, and his mind began replaying all the dire warnings he had been given on his journey, threats of terrible consequences if he ever shared the ancient secrets he was about to learn: Throat cut from ear to ear . . . tongue torn out by its roots . . . bowels taken out and burned . . . scattered to the four winds of heaven . . . heart plucked out and given to the beasts of the field--

"Brother," the gray-eyed master said, placing his left hand on the initiate's shoulder. "Take the final oath."

Steeling himself for the last step of his journey, the initiate shifted his muscular frame and turned his attention back to the skull cradled in his palms. The crimson wine looked almost black in the dim candlelight. The chamber had fallen deathly silent, and he could feel all of the witnesses watching him, waiting for him to take his final oath and join their elite ranks.

Tonight, he thought, something is taking place within these walls that has never before occurred in the history of this brotherhood. Not once, in centuries.

He knew it would be the spark . . . and it would give him unfathomable power. Energized, he drew a breath and spoke aloud the same words that countless men had spoken before him in countries all over the world.

"May this wine I now drink become a deadly poison to me . . . should I ever knowingly or willfully violate my oath."

His words echoed in the hollow space.

Then all was quiet.

Steadying his hands, the initiate raised the skull to his mouth and felt his lips touch the dry bone. He closed his eyes and tipped the skull toward his mouth, drinking the wine in long, deep swallows. When the last drop was gone, he lowered the skull.

For an instant, he thought he felt his lungs growing tight, and his heart began to pound wildly. My God, they know! Then, as quickly as it came, the feeling passed.

A pleasant warmth began to stream through his body. The initiate exhaled, smiling inwardly as he gazed up at the unsuspecting gray-eyed man who had foolishly admitted him into this brotherhood's most secretive ranks.

Soon you will lose everything you hold most dear.

Chapter 1

The Otis elevator climbing the south pillar of the Eiffel Tower was overflowing with tourists. Inside the cramped lift, an austere businessman in a pressed suit gazed down at the boy beside him. "You look pale, son. You should have stayed on the ground."

"I'm okay . . ." the boy answered, struggling to control his anxiety. "I'll get out on the next level." I can't breathe.

The man leaned closer. "I thought by now you would have gotten over this." He brushed the child's cheek affectionately.

The boy felt ashamed to disappoint his father, but he could barely hear through the ringing in his ears. I can't breathe. I've got to get out of this box!

The elevator operator was saying something reassuring about the lift's articulated pistons and puddled-iron construction. Far beneath them, the streets of Paris stretched out in all directions.

Almost there, the boy told himself, craning his neck and looking up at the unloading platform. Just hold on.

As the lift angled steeply toward the upper viewing deck, the shaft began to narrow, its massive struts contracting into a tight, vertical tunnel.

"Dad, I don't think--"

Suddenly a staccato crack echoed overhead. The carriage jerked, swaying awkwardly to one side. Frayed cables began whipping around the carriage, thrashing like snakes. The boy reached out for his father.

"Dad!"

Their eyes locked for one terrifying second.

Then the bottom dropped out.

Robert Langdon jolted upright in his soft leather seat, startling out of the semiconscious daydream. He was sitting all alone in the enormous cabin of a Falcon 2000EX corporate jet as it bounced its way through turbulence. In the background, the dual Pratt & Whitney engines hummed evenly.

"Mr. Langdon?" The intercom crackled overhead. "We're on final approach."

Langdon sat up straight and slid his lecture notes back into his leather daybag. He'd been halfway through reviewing Masonic symbology when his mind had drifted. The daydream about his late father, Langdon suspected, had been stirred by this morning's unexpected invitation from Langdon's longtime mentor, Peter Solomon.

The other man I never want to disappoint.

The fifty-eight-year-old philanthropist, historian, and scientist had taken Langdon under his wing nearly thirty years ago, in many ways filling the void left by Langdon's father's death. Despite the man's influential family dynasty and massive wealth, Langdon had found humility and warmth in Solomon's soft gray eyes.

Outside the window the sun had set, but Langdon could still make out the slender silhouette of the world's largest obelisk, rising on the horizon like the spire of an ancient gnomon. The 555-foot marble-faced obelisk marked this nation's heart. All around the spire, the meticulous geometry of streets and monuments radiated outward.

Even from the air, Washington, D.C., exuded an almost mystical power.

Langdon loved this city, and as the jet touched down, he felt a rising excitement about what lay ahead. The jet taxied to a private terminal somewhere in the vast expanse of Dulles International Airport and came to a stop.

Langdon gathered his things, thanked the pilots, and stepped out of the jet's luxurious interior onto the foldout staircase. The cold January air felt liberating.

Breathe, Robert, he thought, appreciating the wide-open spaces.

A blanket of white fog crept across the runway, and Langdon had the sensation he was stepping into a marsh as he descended onto the misty tarmac.

"Hello! Hello!" a singsong British voice shouted from across the tarmac. "Professor Langdon?"

Langdon looked up to see a middle-aged woman with a badge and clipboard hurrying toward him, waving happily as he approached. Curly blond hair protruded from under a stylish knit wool hat.

"Welcome to Washington, sir!"

Langdon smiled. "Thank you."

"My name is Pam, from passenger services." The woman spoke with an exuberance that was almost unsettling. "If you'll come with me, sir, your car is waiting."

Langdon followed her across the runway toward the Signature terminal, which was surrounded by glistening private jets. A taxi stand for the rich and famous.

"I hate to embarrass you, Professor," the woman said, sounding sheepish, "but you are the Robert Langdon who writes books about symbols and religion, aren't you?"

Langdon hesitated and then nodded.

"I thought so!" she said, beaming. "My book group read your book about the sacred feminine and the church! What a delicious scandal that one caused! You do enjoy putting the fox in the henhouse!"

Langdon smiled. "Scandal wasn't really my intention."

The woman seemed to sense Langdon was not in the mood to discuss his work. "I'm sorry. Listen to me rattling on. I know you probably get tired of being recognized . . . but it's your own fault." She playfully motioned to his clothing. "Your uniform gave you away."

My uniform? Langdon glanced down at his attire. He was wearing his usual charcoal turtleneck, Harris Tweed jacket, khakis, and collegiate cordovan loafers . . . his standard attire for the classroom, lecture circuit, author photos, and social events.

The woman laughed. "Those turtlenecks you wear are so dated. You'd look much sharper in a tie!"

No chance, Langdon thought. Little nooses.

Neckties had been required six days a week when Langdon attended Phillips Exeter Academy, and despite the headmaster's romantic claims that the origin of the cravat went back to the silk fascalia worn by Roman orators to warm their vocal cords, Langdon knew that, etymologically, cravat actually derived from a ruthless band of "Croat" mercenaries who donned knotted neckerchiefs before they stormed into battle. To this day, this ancient battle garb was donned by modern office warriors hoping to intimidate their enemies in daily boardroom battles.

"Thanks for the advice," Langdon said with a chuckle. "I'll consider a tie in the future."

Mercifully, a professional-looking man in a dark suit got out of a sleek Lincoln Town Car parked near the terminal and held up his finger. "Mr. Langdon? I'm Charles with Beltway Limousine." He opened the passenger door. "Good evening, sir. Welcome to Washington."

Langdon tipped Pam for her hospitality and then climbed into the plush interior of the Town Car. The driver showed him the temperature controls, the bottled water, and the basket of hot muffins. Seconds later, Langdon was speeding away on a private access road. So this is how the other half lives.

As the driver gunned the car up Windsock Drive, he consulted his passenger manifest and placed a quick call. "This is Beltway Limousine," the driver said with professional efficiency. "I was asked to confirm once my passenger had landed." He paused. "Yes, sir. Your guest, Mr. Langdon, has arrived, and I will deliver him to the Capitol Building by seven P.M. You're welcome, sir." He hung up.

Langdon had to smile. No stone left unturned. Peter Solomon's attention to detail was one of his most potent assets, allowing him to manage his substantial power with apparent ease. A few billion dollars in the bank doesn't hurt either.

Langdon settled into the plush leather seat and closed his eyes as the noise of the airport faded behind him. The U.S. Capitol was a half hour away, and he appreciated the time alone to gather his thoughts. Everything had happened so quickly today that Langdon only now had begun to think in earnest about the incredible evening that lay ahead.

Arriving under a veil of secrecy, Langdon thought, amused by the prospect.

Ten miles from the Capitol Building, a lone figure was eagerly preparing for Robert Langdon's arrival.

Excerpted from The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown Copyright © 2009 by Dan Brown. Excerpted by permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House of Canada Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

CLOSED: Fall Fiction Preview and CONTEST!

2009-09-08T21:00:06Z

As summer winds down, we're looking forward to those chilly fall days when we can cozy up with a good book. Here is a sneak peek at five hot novels you can warm up with.

Which books have buzz this Fall? Visit BooksBuzz.ca for your sneak peek!

Tell us why you love to curl up on a fall day with a great novel in the comments section below and you could win all five titles in the Fall Fiction Preview from Random House! Two lucky urbanmoms.ca members will win!

The Wife's Tale by Lori Lansens

Available August 18, 2009

In Lori Lansens' Leaford, Ontario -- home of Rose and Ruby Darlen, the sorrowing parents of Larry Merkel, and not far from Rusholme where Addy Shadd once looked after an abandoned child -- love and grief combine to awaken an obese woman from her loneliness.

When her husband doesn't come home on the eve of their 25th wedding anniversary, Mary Gooch, who has never learned to be self-sufficient, sets out on a truly remarkable journey of self-discovery that takes her first to the big city and then to another country.

Visit LoriLansens.com for book club videos and more.

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore

Available September 8, 2009

Set just after the events of September 2001, it is a story about Tassie Keltjin, a twenty-year-old making her way in a new world and coming of age. Tassie is a "smile-less" girl from the plains of the mid-west. She has come to a university town, her brain on fire with Chaucer, Sylvia Plath, and Simone de Beauvoir. In between semesters, she takes a part-time job as a nanny for a family that seems mysterious and glamorous to her. Though her liking for children tends to dwindle into boredom, Tassie begins to care for, and protect, their newly adopted little girl as her own. As the year unfolds, she is drawn even deeper into the world of the child and her hovering parents, and her own life back home becomes alien to her. As life reveals itself dramatically and shockingly, Tassie finds herself forever changed -- less the person she once was, and more and more the stranger she feels herself to be.

Download the Reader's Guide for your bookclub.

Mathilda Savitch by Victor Lodato

Available September 15, 2009

Fear doesn't come naturally to Mathilda Savitch. She prefers to look directly at things nobody else can even mention: for example, her beloved older sister's death. She was pushed in front of a train by a man who is still on the loose, and after a year of searching for clues, Mathilda has come no closer to the truth about Helene's murder...until she cracks her email password and a whole secret life emerges -- one that swiftly draws Mathilda into her sister's world of clouded motives and strange emotions. If she can find the keys to Helene's past, she's sure she can wake her family from their nightmare of grief. But in crossing into that underworld and tracing her sister's footsteps, she has to risk everything that matters to her.

Check out the video teaser for this book.

An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon

Available September 22, 2009

Readers have been waiting with bated breath for the seventh volume in bestselling author Diana Gabaldon's epic Outlander saga -- a masterpiece of historical fiction featuring Jamie and Claire, from one of the genre's most popular and beloved authors.   Jamie Fraser, erstwhile Jacobite and reluctant rebel, knows three things about the American rebellion: the Americans will win, unlikely as that seems in 1778; being on the winning side is no guarantee of survival; and he'd rather die than face his illegitimate son -- a young lieutenant in the British Army -- across the barrel of a gun. Fraser's time-travelling wife, Claire, also knows a couple of things: that the Americans will win, but that the ultimate price of victory is a mystery. What she does believe is that the price won't include Jamie's life or happiness -- not if she has anything to say.   Claire's grown daughter Brianna, and her husband, Roger, watch the unfolding of Brianna's parents' history -- a past that may be sneaking up behind their own family.

Join the fun and add the official countdown clock to your blog!

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Available October 6, 2009

Another brilliant, original and moving novel from the author of The Time Traveler's Wife.

Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers -- normal, at least, for identical "mirror" twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cozy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn't know existed has died and left them her amazing flat in a building by Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin ... but they have no idea that they've been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the OCD-suffering crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt's mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them, and even to their aunt herself, who never got over her estrangement from the mother of the girls -- her own twin -- and who can't even seem to quite leave her flat....

Become a fan on Facebook.

Don't forget: to find out which books have buzz this fall, visit BooksBuzz.ca for your sneak peek!

CONTEST CLOSED

Thank you everyone for your participation, and congratulations to our lucky winners ebickell and Julie!

And remember, we have two (count 'em: TWO!) Fall Fiction Preview prize packs to give away. All you have to do to be entered is to tell us why you love to curl up on a fall day with a good novel. Write your entry in the comments section below, and remember: you must be an urbanmoms.ca member to win! Click here to join. It's easy, and free.