Category: Books

Book review – Austenland

Posted on by boj Posted in Books

One of the reasons why I avoid romance novels is that, unlike Austen, many authors can’t construct a good relationship if their life depended on it. The main character in this novel had a series of decent sounding relationships, some even serious (i.e. talking about baby names, buying a dog together, etc…) but then within two years the boyfriend would bow out. This abandonment was inexplicable to both main character and the narrator. Consequently the narration did nothing to assure us of the success of the relationship claimed to be successfully beginning at the end of the novel.

Hats off to the idea of Austen theme park. I really liked it, but I would prefer to have a novel exploring logistical and ethical issues arising from existence of such a place more than describing an unconvincing romance.

Book review – “Brain rules for baby”

Posted on by boj Posted in Baby, Books, General

Here is something you probably did not know about me, I sometimes read parenting books. Like any other non fiction, these can be very informative and sometimes I blindly follow their advice (particularly when it closely allines with my own theories) and sometimes I toss it because it is a bunch of self-serving trash (the author has one issue, probably all due to a trauma suffered while a spool boy, and he keeps harping on it for pages and pages).

“Brain rules for baby” is of the first kind. It makes a claim of heavily relying on current research (whether it does or not, I can’t tell not really being a follower of child brain studies) but it is intelligently written and it makes sense to me. A lot of it was stuff I already knew or intuited. There were two things that I learned from it:

Thing 1: do NOT stress the pregnant lady. If I had any reason to believe that anyone would give a hoot about my opinion I would go to the hospital and ask them to re-examine their risk informing practices. For example, I had to sign a form stating that the risk of Bad Things Happening during birth is twice as high for my subsequent deliveries because of a previous c-section. Instant stress for mom. Do you know what the change in risk was? It went to 0.5% form 0.25%. That is not sign-the-form worthy.

Thing 2: lots of empathy. I never though of saying “you are really upset that you are thirsty” when the kid is crying and we are nowhere near water, but what the heck, I am trying it now. It can’t hurt and at worst I will just sound silly.

Books review – “Prisoner of Teheran”

Posted on by boj Posted in Books, General

I think the theme of this year’s Canada reads program must be: “Go Canada! – because the rest of the world is scary, dangerous and all-around unpleasant”. Initially I was not going to read “Prisoner of Teheran” because between having already read a political book this month, having previously read about situation in Iran and having had talked to a number of ex-pat Iranians I figured I already knew a lot and could live without it. It arrived from the library sooner than I though possible so I figured I would just read the first couple of pages to get the sense of the narrator’s voice. Well, the narrative was so interesting I finished the book in three days. It is a memoir of a woman who, at sixteen, is arrested and spends the next two years in a notorious political prison. Compared to “Something Fierce”, “Prisoner of Teheran” is surprisingly easy to read due to narrator not focusing too much on negative things which is a pretty big feat considering the circumstances. I am not sure which book I think would be better suited to win the Canada reads. They are both informative about the part of the world and they both discuss difficulties living in a particular kind of state. “Something Fierce” is more emotional while “Prisoner of Teheran” is more pragmatic and balanced.

The other kind of spinning

Posted on by boj Posted in Books, Higher Education2 Comments

As part of my continuing education program, I took a spinning course this Saturday. I have no interest in actually spinning out any significant or useful quantity of wool, but I have wanted to understand the process for quite some time.

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A fresh rowing is on the left, my first, rather indifferent, attempt is in the middle and a little bit more tolerable sample from this morning is on the right. I have since misplaced the spindle (well, I put it somewhere the boys can’t get at it but I can’t remember where).

The class was interesting. Did you know that the Sleeping Beauty is actually a story about tetanus? I wonder what all the other Grimm fairytales are about. I wonder is there exists one of those lecture series on CD about that.

Anyhow, due to general business a few months ago, I was late with my Canada Reads 2011. To my advantage, I have read one of the contenders, Unless, a few years back, so I was technically ahead. I started reading The Best Laid plans a week before and only got half way through the book by the time the contest was held. I am glad this book won, it is hilarious! I have since also read Essex County and I have enjoyed it. I felt that it was treated unfairly in the contest, being voted off first because it is a comic book. It has a teenagey sadness element to it which would stop me from recommending it to just anyone, but it is definitely a worth while read.

Film – Young Victoria

Posted on by boj Posted in Baby, Books, Film, General

Today might not be the first day of spring, but it felt like it was. Owen and I went for a nice walk. He is getting very heavy, this was probably the last time I will carry him in the sling for a longer period of time.

I just realised the next week is the Canada Reads panel on CBC. I managed to get through two of the books and am half way through the third one. I really hoped to have read all the books but I just was not in the mood lately. I finished “Good to a Fault” and “Jade Peony”. Both were pretty good. I am now reading “Nikolski” which is promising as well. I don’t think I will get to the other two, but I will try. Last year I was hoping to save the podcast for until I am done with the novels, but with radio and internet, I ended up seeing/hearing who won before I was ready.

An itsy-bitsy break

Posted on by boj Posted in Baby, Books, Engineering Princess, General, Higher Education

I finished up my paper on Monday two full days before it was due. I then took two days to play with Trevor and go to sleep pretty much as soon as he did. I am starting to feel a bit more relaxed and the continuous slew of Holiday lunches at work is getting me in the festive mood. In fact, I am baking Christmas cookies right now, or I will, as soon as I finish this post.

I am not going to be working on my thesis until January, but I will spend some time getting everything set up. I want to install and configure CVS on my laptop and do a bit of clean up of the design.

Apart form that, I want to set up budget for next year, clean up the house, finish up my Christmas shopping, make my holiday crafts (I am making gift bags this year – goodbye stupid wrapping paper that people just rip and throw away!), bake and freeze a few bread loafs, catch up on reading, figure out how to make food in the slow cooker etc, figure out a new fitness schedule…

This is the first year that I will be working through holidays as my company changed policies. I used to look forward to the break because it forced me to relax right at the time when I needed it the most. I am sort of glad that I have more vacation days as a result of the change, but still feel a bit awkward about working during that time. I am bringing Trev to work on Christmas eve, because that’s the tradition in my department. There will be other kids there whose parents promised me they will entertain him.