urbanmoms.ca Book Club

Book Giveaway: The 10 Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer

One of the greatest things about writing this blog has been the opportunity to meet some really great authors.  I had a wonderful chance to chat on the phone with MEG WOLITZER, author of The Ten Year Nap and although I was supposed to be conducting an interview, I felt like I was making a new friend.

Meg  likes Bob Dylan, The Beatles and the Zombies. Two of her  favourite movies are Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and The Wizard of Oz. Her favourite books include Brideshead Revisited, The Bell Jar, The Great Gatsby and Valley of the Dolls and Middlemarch. She is a wordsmith who plays Scrabble almost everyday.

And, she likes Chicklit, especially the writers she has termed the "Pink Ladies" - British writers such as Marian Keyes, Sophie Kinsella and Helen Fielding of Bridget Jones fame - whose book covers are usually bubble gum pink. and she has written and published 8 literary novels of her own. Aside from the 8 novels, I could be Meg Wolitzer.  Well that, and the fact that I am 7 years younger, have two more children in my house, live in Toronto instead of New York, graduated from Queen's instead of Brown, summer in Muskoka instead of Long Island and am not nearly as smart.

What I really liked about Meg, was her admission that she was a bit judgemental about stay at home moms before she started writing her book and learned a lot about herself, her beliefs and everyone's personal struggles to live a life of meaning. 

The title, The Ten Year Nap, is based on the 10 years that the 4 main characters, Amy Lamb, Roberta Sokolov, Karen Yip and Jill Hamlin have taken from their careers in order to raise their children. 

Each character narrates her own story and the reader learns first hand of her struggles. Most of them centre around self-worth although Amy has financial concerns, Roberta begins to envy her husband's new found success, Karen tries to deal with her own parents who are disappointed with her lack of return of the work force,  and Jill worries about her adopted daughter and her own parenting skills when she seems unable to force the mother-daughter bond which she assumed would be so natural.

These stories are interlaced with the perspective of previous generations who had their own battles with feminism, careers and the motherhood, wife and work balance.

Although Meg Wolitzer is a reader of Chicklit, her novels are literary in nature. She takes her time in developing a scene and creates evocative moods and pictures that enhance the plot of each character. Her novel is character driven and the reader becomes engrossed in each woman's struggle to achieve harmony with herself, her family and her life. There is some humour, some tears, some smut, some romance, a lot of growth and a lot of friendship. A perfect read for moms, any season.

WIN: Marty's World Famous Cookbook

MARTY WILL BE ON BREAKFAST TV ON JULY 30TH!!!!!

I like to think of myself as a Muskoka Girl. For the few short weeks that I am here every summer, I start every day with a polar bear dip and try to end each the same. I lie in my hammock,read on the dock, ride in the boat, shop in the small towns, hunt for worms, fish, swat bugs, avoid mice, bears and raccoons, barbecue and roast marshmallows and hot dogs on the fire. I must be a Muskoka Girl.

Yet, last week when I went to Bracebridge to meet Marty Curtis of Marty's World Famous Cafe, I was humbled in my Muskokaness. Discovering that Marty and his World Famous Buttertarts, Big Ass Pies and World Famous Bean Salad have been at 5 Manitoba Street for 12 years - his ice cream for 13 -and that I had never been there was a shot of Muskoka humiliation, which I quickly washed down with a Big Ass Brownie and the yummiest cup of Indian Chai I have ever had.

I made the trek from Whiteside Bay to this Muskoka landmark cafe

in order to meet Marty and review his new book ,MARTY'S WORLD FAMOUS COOKBOOK. The book itself is beautiful.  Evocative photos of boathouses, Muskoka chairs, sunsets and loons drifting along quiet bays encased in mist interspersed with scrumptious, mouth-wateringly real pictures of Marty's creations. The recipes are simple, with ingredients that are easy to obtain. I am afraid of pastry. I cannot make it, I cannot roll it, I do not actually like it very much when someone else makes it, I am more of a filling girl! But Marty assures me that his pastry, passed down by the Grey Nuns of Quebec, through his family, is fail safe and his manner is so calm and reassuring that I believe him and have promised to give it a try.

My favourite parts of his cookbook are the burgundy pages.  Each of these contains words of wisdom , folk stories, personal essays or advice from Marty, not only on how to cook, but on how to be - "IN THE ZONE

- the place deep inside our soul that harbours our ability to achieve anything we put our mind to."

Marty asked me if I remembered those Sunday dinners my would make and my mind went immediately to how much work I put into a special family dinner. But, he had a different focus; one I'd never really thought of myself and one I will now work towards. Marty remembers how delicious his mom's Sunday dinners were because of the care and mindfulness she put into preparing them. She had the day to work at it, enjoyed the process and could cook from "the zone." The meals weren't rushed; it wasn't a race home from the office, a quick grab and defrost from the freezer with some boil-in-the-bag veggi.es. Sunday meals are delicious because they are a labour of love.                                                                                                   

I like to apply Marty's theory to just about anything we cook at the cottage, especially if it is barbecued or made with bacon.  This morning I made BLT's with fresh cut bacon from the Cottage Butcher in Bala, Ontario grown tomatoes and Cosmo's handmade 4 year old cheddar from the Bala Farmer's Market and toasted scones from Don's Bakery. I've made this meal a number of times when I've smuggled these same ingredients into Toronto, but somehow, food always tastes better up here. Now I know that it is because when I come to the lake and get away from city pressures, time constraints and endless demands, I am in my Muskoka zone.

Thanks to Marty and his World Famous Cookbook, I will be there a little more often with some magnificent recipes like Buttertart BBQ Rub, Candied BBQ Asparagus, The Ultimate Canadian Back Bacon Sandwich, Big Ass Quiche, Soul for the Chicken Soup and Marty's World Famous Buttertarts.                                                                                             

CONTEST::::Is your mouth watering?  Send in a story about a great food experience you and your family shared: a reunion, a birthday celebration, a holiday feast and win a copy of MARTY'S WORLD FAMOUS COOKBOOK for yourself.

...The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling...

Alberta and Saskatchewan

The plot of Robert Kroetsch's Badlands follows the last letter and field journals that paleontologist William Dawe have left to his daughter Anna about his journey down the Red Deer River and into the Badlands in search of the fossilized remains of dinosaurs still skeletally intact. Anna retraces her father's steps and encounters many of the characters with whom he worked and learns many the truths and lies of her father's life. As required reading for one of my Can. Lit. courses in university, this book was incredibly painful to get through. But as a description of one of the most beautiful places in Canada, it is awesome. Visit www.canadianbadlands.com to see the photos that go with the description, "The Canadian Badlands embrace many unusual landscapes, eroded badlands, big sky prairies, coulees, sand dunes and soaring hills."

My initial introduction to Who Has Seen the Wind by W.O. Mitchell was via Mr. Lavery in Grade 10 English. I HATED it. It was a painful read, made even more so by an essay on symbolism I spent writing over a Thanksgiving weekend while everyone else enjoyed a last Indian summer at the cottage. The year I graduated from university, one of my closest friends, who has a brain I greatly admire, told me that WHSW was his favourite book of all time. Incredulous, I gave Brian O'Connal, the Young Ben and the sweeping wheat and dew drops another chance and found it to be  passable. Not a favourite by any means, but much better than my original go-round. So much so, I wrote my teacher a letter announcing my late appreciation of a novel about which he could scarcely forget my very vocal displeasure. When I challenged my friend to the idea that this was his favourite he insisted I had had too much sambucca on the night in question and that Who Has Seen the Wind was never one of his faves, rather it was How I Spent My Summer Holidays! Whether it is one of these, or Jake and the Kid or any other W.O. Mitchell classic, throughout these stories of adventure maturity and coming of age the hot sun beats down on the vast fields of wheat and prairie grass as the wind rustles along the tops and the only places for respite are the small town watering holes and a cold pop at the main street diner.

Joy Kogawa drew me even closer to an understanding of the vastness of the praire landscape and the wheat through her protagonist in Obasan. In the wake of Pearl Harbour, young Japanese Canadian, Naomi, had been removed from her home in Pearl Harbour and dispersed to Saskatchewan. Sick for her home and her family she stares out at the endless miles of wheat undulating in the prairie wind and equates it to the view of the sea she has known, loved and lost.

Finally, if you need a little more prairie in your life, Sinclair Ross' As For Me and My House is set in a 'Main Street' town during the Depression. It is the journal of Mrs. Bentley, the very lonely wife of the town preacher who has more failings than successes in this very Canadian story of desperation, isolation and hardship.

Next round in the "This Land is Your Land, this Land is My Land' series is Manitoba.  Suggestions are always welcome and feel free to add to this list!

The 2nd Canadian Book Challenge

The other challenge I have joined is the THE CANADIAN BOOK CHALLENGE. There are complete details on John Mutford's site which I have linked for you. This is a little more demanding than THE CLASSIC BOOK CHALLENGE in that you have to read 13 Canadian books between now and July 31, 2009, but I love the concept. Mutford has listed a number of different approaches and is approaching the challenge himself by reading one book for each province and territory...hence 13!

I am going for the "Free Spirit" which means 13 from any category, mostly because there are some new books coming out this fall that I do not want to miss.

The idea with this, as in the Classic Challenge, is that after you have finished reading you blog a quick review. You don't have to have a blog. You can put your review here in the comment section and I will link it to the Canadian Book Challenge site, or you can post the review in a couple of other places described on the site.

Here's my list, in no particular order....I hope to see yours soon!

LATE NIGHTS ON AIR - Elizabeth Hay

CANOE LAKE- Roy MacGregor

THROUGH BLACK SPRUCE- Joseph Boyden

CHARLOTTE AND CLAUDIA KEEPING IN TOUCH- Joan Barfoot

LULLABIES FOR LITTLE CRIMINALS - Helen O'Neill

OTHERWISE- Farley Mowat

THE RETREAT - David Bergen

FALLING - Anne Simpson

THE FILM CLUB - David Gilmour

ROBERTSON DAVIES: A PORTRAIT IN MOSAIC- Val Ross

OLLIE'S FIELD JOURNAL: A 9/10THS HAPPY STORY FROM AFRICA- Patti McIntosh (author) and Tara Langlois (illustrator)

KING LEARY- Paul Quarrington

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES- Lucy Maud Montgomery ( a re-read, but a must do in light of the 100th anniversary and the fact that it's one of my favourite books)

The Classic Challenge 2008

I have just discovered a world of reading challenges out here in cyberspace and impulsively joined two. I'm hoping some of you will join with me. 

The first is the THE CLASSIC CHALLENGE 2008  the rules and information are available through the link, but essentially you have to read 5 classic books in the next 6 months.  Ideally, Trish, who has initiated the challenge would like us all to review on our blogs, but you can write your review on my comment section and I will link it to her blog.

Here are my 5 choices. I am not going to declare which one I will read for which month. Some of it may depend on the availability of the novels at the library.

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (I know, I can't believe I have never read it either!)

The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton

and I re-read as a treat for reading the previous 4, one of my all time favourites: Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

Here is the link to a list I used from SPARK NOTES to get ideas of classic titles if you are trying to pick 5 of your own.  Please let me know if you sign up and what books you are reading. I'm looking forward to all of the reviews and discussions.

The second is the THE CANADIAN BOOK CHALLENGE 2008-2009 which I will write about next time!

The Last Summer (of You and Me)

Thank goodness the Gaffer and I are alone at the cottage and that I had a mother's helper this morning and that I locked my keys in the car in Bracebridge and had to wait for CAA to come and save me.  Because of all of these events, I had time the opportunity to keep my nose in

ANN BRASHARES' first adult novel most of the day.  I started it yesterday and finished it today....aaaah the luxury of summer.

Brashares is the author to the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series, and although they are written for teens, I found all four of them difficult to put down. I loved their intimate friendship, the struggles they had with themselves, their parents and each other, and how ultimately, the four friends were strongest when they relied on each other.

THE LAST SUMMER OF (YOU AND ME) has similar themes of loyalty, love and friendship, but at its core are three beautiful stories of love between sisters, friends and lovers. Most of the story takes place during the summers on Fire Island which makes it a great beach read. The book evokes smiles and tears. The ending is slightly predictable but the story unfolds so naturally that the reader can forgive this. This time, it is a triangle of three, older sister Riley, her best friend Paul and the younger sister Alice. Their trio is just as tight and devoted as the four girls of the sisterhood.  Their enviable friendship is unique in their depth of understanding of one another and at the same time, their inability to share their deepest fears.

I was a bit concerned when I turned the first page of The Last Summer of You and Me, because although I did enjoy Judy Blume's adult fiction Summer Sisters, I didn't think she really made the leap to adult stories. I would not say the same for Brashares, and I am eagerly looking forward to her next venture into adult fiction.

This Land Belongs to You and Me...

Mr. Husband and I are spoiled by being members of two families who each have family cottages. We are also devoted winter road warriors for our ski weekends in Collingwood. This leaves us with two months a year when we are actually home in our house - November and April, affectionately termed, the shoulder seasons.  We would both love to travel and see more of Canada, but since our love of our cottages far outweighs our desire to travel, I have seen precious little of this beautiful country. I am a fairly staunch nationalist and proud Canadian for someone who has traveled the provinces and territories so little and who is actually spending Canada typing this blog, instead of rah! rahing! our heritage on Parliament Hill.

I have grown to love and appreciate Canada through the words, pictures and ideas of those who know it best: Our fiction writers. When I was in high school, Can. Lit. meant "The Stoned Angel, A House Full of Birds, The Handjob's Tale and Who Can Smell My Wind." - mature re-inventions for Cathlic school girls, don't you think?

But Canadian Literature has become so rich, so prolific and so varied in its themes, that it is as powerful and diverse an entity as the cultures who form our mosiac.

British Columbia

Cure for Death By Lightning by GAIL ANDERSON-DARGATZ takes me to the home of 15 year old farm girl Beth Weeks in Turtle Valley, B.C. Through Gail and Beth, I have seen the mud of spring turn a vibrant and disturbing red as the seasonal migration of the turtles competes with the necessary frequency of travel by the farmers to and from town in order to prepare for the planting season. I have been through thick BC forests and along winding dirt trails. Later, when Beth's daughter Kat returns home in Turtle Valley, I learn first hand about the devastating fires that can ravage these magnificent forests.

   

TIMOTHY TAYLOR has taken me on a more modern and cosmopolitan tour through his novel, Stanley Park. Chef Jeremy Papier tries to find balance between his desire to cook and serve meals based solely on indigenous ingredients, keep his restaurant from becoming victim to the over-caffeinization of the city by the ubiqiuouts coffee chain, "Inferno", and come to terms with his estranged anthropolical father who has taken up permanent residence in Stanley Park. Throughout Jeremy's struggles , we explore Vancouver and are provided an exceptional and intimate look at the extraordinary Park that borders the city.

EDEN ROBINSON takes me through life on a Haisla settlement of Kitamaat on the West Coast. The powerful and heart-rending tale of Lisa and her younger brother Jimmy, whose disappearance in the ocean provides a catalyst for the tale of Monkey Beach to unfold, is coloured with their native traditons and culture. The importance of story-telling, legends and the spirit-world, as well as the symbol for water for this coastal community create a BC much different than the farming communities of Anderson-Dartgatz and Taylor's urban Vancouver.

My plan when I started this was to list books for each province and territory in this blog, but looking at the length of this and the time it takes on the summer of "dial up" I have decided to do a province/territory a week.  I will also continue to do individual book reviews. Please feel free to provide suggestions and ideas. Enjoy the sunshine and the little tour through BC!