Ashes of Honour

I actually feel like I write terrible reviews of Seanan McGuire's work. I say this in the best possible way, but it's because I genuinely have loved everything of hers I've read so I feel like it's a sort of repetitive "Yup. You should go read the book."

So as I've said a million times, I love the October Daye series, and if somehow you aren't already reading it, you should go read it. So lets tackle this review from a different angle - why you should go read this series. First and foremost, because the series hasn't let me down yet - and I'm picky. I hate it when series start strong, and then just kind of taper off. I hate it because there's this obsessive compulsion in me to keep reading the stupid series because somehow I'm emotionally invested in these stupid characters who are making stupid decisions and doing stupid things and I'm annoyed but why can't I stop reading. We've all been there.

But McGuire, gloriously, doesn't make me feel that. Her characters are lovely and human even though none of them are actually human. They grow and change and are flawed and learn and are broken and Well. Damn. Done.  Toby is everything you want out of a heroine, guys, I'm not gonna get into it, but I think we're all guessing who Quentin's parents are, Tybalt is everything that is amazing with everything and just go read this damn series.

She's also got at least 4 more books planned (for this series), which is basically amazing.

Midnight Blue-Light Special

Wait. Wait. Hold the phones. Two posts, one day? Not a YA book? I know guys, it's confusing but it's still UF so we're probably still ok.  The weird thing is the majority books I read aren't actually YA/UF. I just don't review them because I'm boring or something.

So I love Seanan McGuire. This is not news, and not a secret, so by that logic this was a bit of a biased book choice on my part. I'm firmly on camp McGuire can do no wrong, and luckily this book didn't disappoint. So, here's the thing - I love her Rosemary and Rue series. Verging on slightly obsessive level of love. As in trying to figure out how I can get/beg/borrow/steal an ARC for Chimes at Midnight, but then is it awkward if I still buy a copy so it fits properly on my shelf? Because I'm weird like that.

Anyways. The great thing about Midnight Blue-Light Special is that it's one of those rare books that outshines the original.  Like I said in that review, I didn't love Discount Armageddon as much as I love her Rosemary and Rue series, but I thought it was a solid set up for the series. Turns out, I'm right. By I'm right, I mean McGuire is a fantastic writer, and I now have another series I love equally as much as Rosemary and Rue. Well Played Ms. McGuire. Well Played.

Basically Verity Price is a fantastic heroine - she's charming and funny and loves what she does even though she sometimes wishes she didn't have to do it. Her best friend is the most human not human that I've ever read. She's apparently a giant psychotic bug who looks human but is supposed to be terrifying but is just really really appealing.  So Cryptozoology. As a rule, I have little patience for it. Yes, I love faeries, the supernatural and everything else of the like, but Cryptozoology for some reason has always set my back up. I don't know why, but you know what, it works. Possibly because of the Aeslin Mice. Hail. Hail indeed. But all the supporting cast - the other Cryptids are everything that goes bump in the night (yes, including the Boogyman).

Basically McGuire has the ability to world build in a way that makes it real - even when that reality is fantastically un-real. She's made reading about monsters fun since the first book of Rosemary and Rue, and for this series, actually made the monsters someone you'd want to have a coffee with.

The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking

Full Disclosure I won this book as a Goodreads Firstreads. The thing is though, I entered the contest because I read the summary and immediately laughed because hand to god this book was almost exactly a conversation I was having with a good friend recently.  Basically we were talking about how we find the whole "self-help" thing boring.  My problems (not that I have any, obviously) do not stem from me not having any faith in my ability to get through things, so why do I need to wake up everyday and tell myself it will be a good day. Sometimes it isn't. You deal, and you move on.


... Anyways.

So the stars aligned and I won this book.  I was pretty excited, because you know, I wanted it.  Burkeman is a writer for The Guardian who (I believe?) (I should know this) (If not know, find out, since I'm a Librarian and it's what I do) explores psychology in his weekly column. The Antidote looks at finding contentment from different perspectives, moving your focus outside of yourself, not focusing on finding security, realizing your own mistakes and weakness and sometimes damnit realizing that being negative is actually the most positive outlook you can have. Basically this books is giving legitimacy to something we all kind of hoped - it's ok to not be perfect, it's ok to not be happy, it's ok to just plow through some things muttering to yourself about how this bleeding sucks and you just want it to be over so you just get. it. done. 

So long story short, I loved this book. It's funny, and smart and counterintuitive enough that it makes a whole damn lot of sense. What it's not is a self-help book. Well for me it almost was - it's one thing to have your friends agree with you - it's another thing when somebody wrote a whole book with actual facts about how it's ok to not force yourself to be happy.

So go. Buy a copy. Take out out from the library. Lend it to a friend (or few).  But make them buy their own copy after, because They should probably lend it to their friends.

Stealing Magic

Blah Blah Blah I love Tanya Huff. This is not a secret. Wizard of the Grove is one of hands down my favourite books ever, the Blood Series is one I adore and the Keeper series this one I've read so many timees I've destroyed two copies. I haven't recommended these books to anyone who hasn't liked them. Huff is funny, smart and a fabulously entertaining writer.

Stealing magic is a collection of short stories (man I really do hate most short  stories.), really it's a double header of Huff’s comical short stories featuring Magdelene (the world's most powerful and laziest wizard) and Terazin (a top-notch thief). The book is charming, funny, and once again proves that Huff has no regard for the conventions and boundaries of genre I don't really know WHICH genre to effect. The Magdelene stories in Stealing Magic are certainly some of the few ‘high fantasy’ short works that I have ever liked. I'm pretty sure my favourite of the two are the Magdelene ones. Originally an apprentice to Adar, a castle wizard she unknowingly dismantles his most powerful spells like they don't even exist. She gains Adar's powers, just before he is turned into a pile of gray ash (oops), and decides to leave the castle. Traveling with H'sak, a demon trapped inside a mirItror, she finds that the most bucolic villages have the most unique customs concerning wizards, like welcoming them with axes or chains and manacles. Probably awkward. Basically I love that Huff gives us a lazy heroine who does not suffer from heart pangs, unhappy love, "save-the-world" complex and takes life, magic and men as something to be relaxed about. It's hot outside guys.

Fall on Your Knees

So here's the thing about Fall on Your Knees. I first read it when I was 17 and doing an independent study of Canadian literature. Again, while moving it made my list of books I want to re-read even though I really should be reading the 30 odd books sitting beside my bed that I haven't read yet. So obviously, I re-read Fall on Your Knees. I wondered if I would still love it as much the second time around and the answer was yes. Yes I do. MacDonald's novel is intense and admittedly a little overwhelming in the telling of the lives of the Piper family in the early 20th century.  It begins with trouble when James elopes with 13 year old Materia - trouble both to her family's horror, and to himself as he realizes the reality of her youth, and Lebanese heritage.  James consoles himself with their firstborn Kathleen - beautiful and with the voice of an angel - a love that consumes him to the point on incest. To cope James enlists in WWI and fathers two more surviving children Mercedes and Frances. Kathleen goes to NYC to become a famous singer, but ends up returning ruined, pregnant and no longer singing.

This is a long novel, but the characters keep the readers going - you can't decide if each is sympatheticor not, and they hover between forgiveness and unforgivable in what they do and how they cope. There are bizarre turns, and reality isn't always clear but the mysticism is a significant part of what makes the story appealing. It's a story of survival in impossible circumstances. Oprah recommended or not, do yourself a favour and grab a copy - it's well worth a read.

Spider Robinson

I briefly touched on my love of Spider Robinson in my ancient post about Super Secret Guilty Reading Pleasures. Spider Robinson was just one of those authors - along with David Eddings he arguably shaped why exactly I love reading for fun. I picked up Callahan's Crosstime Salon for 100% the opposite reason most people do - I got a kick out of the cover. I've heard time and time again that people hate the cover of this compilation book. Well, it made me laugh and for better or for worse, I grabbed it.  So here's the long and the short of Spider Robinson's writing: The puns are so bad you can't help laughing out loud, and the characters are so delightfully human (mostly, but you know) that you really really wish Callahan's existed because it's somewhere you really do want to hang out it. The books aren't just about a bar and the people who drink there, they're about what happens to the regulars at a bar.

I don't think I've ever read a science fiction series that has so little to do with science fiction. These are stories I've carried around with me since I was 16, and are ones I'll carry around with me for the rest of my life. Both the Callahan's series, and the Lady Sally's series (hand to God, just go get it. It takes place in a brothel and it has Nikola Tesla as a main character.) and the post-Callahan's series are ones that will just put a smile on your face. One thing you'll hear time and time again from people who read these series is that they'll spend the rest of their lives looking for a place like Callahan's - and really, we should only be so lucky.

So here's the real thing about this book. This book is basically why I'm a librarian. “Librarians are the secret masters of the world. They control information. Don't ever piss one off. ” is a part of the book that's stuck with me since I was 16. I can't help but feel nostalgic whenever I pick up one of his books. They're some of the most human books out there, even if not all the characters are entirely (or at all human).  I'm not going to say this book will change your life like it at the very least impacted mine. But you'll finish it with a smile on your face, and the desire to go build yourself a community. I think we're missing a lot of community right now.

Something other than Laurel K. Hamilton.

Look. I have nothing against her as an author. I liked Anita Blake (quite a bit) up until Obsidian Butterfly, but I felt that after that the books lost all sense of plot and were just sex sex sex. Which is fine. Her Merry Gentry series had a lot... a lot of sex, but it always felt like it worked better with the plot. Anne Bishop's Black Jewels series has a core of sex, sexual slavery and sexual control through it. But it works. It works well with the plot, and you don't feel the urge to just skip till you find the plot, like I did by the time I gave up on Anita Blake. I think it bothered me the most because I really did like Anita Blake. It was a great series, with characters I could get behind and a plot I enjoyed. Que Sera.

At any rate here are some suggestions of female authors other than Laurel K. Hamilton.

• Anne Bishop. The Black Jewels Trilogy is fabulous. So fabulous, she kept it going (and I admittedly don't love what comes before/after the original trilogy, but the trilogy itself is wonderful. My roommate suggested I read it, and it's hands down one of my favourite series'. There is sex, and quite... intense sex at that, but it's a really really worthwhile read.
• Ilona Andrews. On the Edge and Kate Daniels are both solid series. I personally like Kate Daniels a bit more, because I feel it's just a little bit tighter and cohesive. I randomly grabbed it off the shelf after ignoring it for a long while, which, was dumb. I started reading them about a year ago, and am excited for what's coming up next
• Kim Harrison. Arguably the best Urban Fantasy writer out there (I feel), and at least one of the top 3. The Hollows series is brilliant, I know more then a few people who read it, and are avidly waiting for the next installment (coming soon!). Just read her, this series I can promise you won't regret it
• Seanan McGuire. Rosemary and Rue is a fantastic series. There's nothing wrong with it, at all. Great plots, great characters, a fascinating take on Fae. This being said, I read Newsflesh (Written as Mira Grant) and did not love it. I wanted to, but didn't. I am still giving InCryptid a chance.
• Patricia Briggs. I've really only read the Mercy Thompson series, and I kid you not I avoided it for years because I always felt the covers were too trampy. I have no clue why I thought this, but it's an oddly popular mindset. My roommate and I were discussing how we really had nothing to base that on, because compared to most of the other urban fantasy covers it's really not that bad. Like... really. Either way, it's a good series. Don't be ridiculous like I was.

Angelina Ballerina

Summary: With Katharine Holabird's lively writing and Helen Craig's charming illustrations, the original story about the feisty little mouse who wants nothing more than to dance still keeps young ballerinas leaping with delight.


Why I recommend it: (There's a theme) because I loved it. It may not have made me want to be a ballerina, but I loved Angelina. I had a stuffed animal and everything.

Man of The Century

Summary: "I am the spy of the century," said Woodrow Lowe, age 108, to his interviewer. "I was also a white slave, a heavyweight contender, the ruler of China [until the Dowager Empress cruelly deposed him], and the man who started World War I; and if you don't believe me, you can get out of my house." Were the ancient husk's pronouncements those of a liar or madman? At first it seemed the answer to both was yes. Yet over the years emerged unimpeachable evidence of these and many other feats. Man of the Century is Woodrow Lowe's story, unlike any ever remembered or read. He fought John L. Sullivan in the Dakotas; he was the first man up San Juan Hill during the charge of the Rough Riders and stood with Teddy Roosevelt at his Second Inaugural (Teddy bailed him out more than once). He carried off Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassin, never to be heard from again. He was a slave of the Dervish in the Sudan. Diamond Jim Brady met his match in Woodrow. He was the blond boyo who, a club fighter with a distinctive cauliflower ear (thanks to John L.), found himself mixed in with a century of American and world history, and, remarkably, lived to tell about it in his fashion, at once a rollicking, shrewd recital, dramatized to the hilt, that defied the challenge of the dry historiographies, and created a fulsome story filled with characters - real and some mythic you'll never forget.

Why I Recommend it: This is in no way the best book ever written. It's not overly popular, well known and I believe it didn't even make it to paperback printing. The thing is, I have no idea why. I read. A Lot. And this book is wonderful. I love it. It's funny, well written, the characters are appealing and it seems at the same time fantastical and realistic. I love it, though I can't put my finger on why. It's more than worth a read if you can find it, your best bet is ABEBooks or the Library.

The Balloon Tree

Summary: Balloons! They are the favourite playthings of Princess Leora. When her father, the king, goes to a neighbouring kingdom to participate in a tournament, he tells Leora to signal him with balloons if anything goes wrong. But the archduke, planning to take over the kingdom, promptly locks the princess in her room and orders all the balloons in the kingdom to be popped. With the help of a wizard and a boy with the only balloon left in the kingdom, Leora is able to plant a balloon tree that blossoms into thousands of balloons. But will it be in time to save the kingdom?


Why I recommend it: Oh, hey. Look! It's Phoebe Gilman again! She's brilliant. Read everything.

Enchanted Forest Chronicles

Summary: Cimorene, the youngest princess of the Kingdom of Linderwall, is frustrated by her cloistered, sheltered life. Unlike her petite, blonde, blue-eyed sisters, who can "gaze up through their long eyelashes" at their various suitors, Cimorene, tall, dark-haired and intelligent, is not satisfied with the stifling and close-minded interests of her parents and their kingdom. She is bored with her "proper" lessons in etiquette, embroidery, dancing, and how loudly to scream when being carried off by a giant.


Why I recommend it: This series is second only to the Immortals, and even that is arguable. It's a princess, who doesn't want to be a princess, who runs off to live with Dragons and refuses to be rescued. This is another series that to this day I re-read, recommend and love. Brilliant. Strangely, Patricia C. Wrede also wrote Snow White and Rose Red, fairytale fantasy (for adults) (no really, it's way more... mature), being a retelling of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale "Snow White and Rose Red" (not "Snow White") set in Elizabethan England and including elements of the Thomas the Rhymer ballad as well

Jillian, Jillian Jillian Jiggs

Summary: No one can keep up with Jillian Jiggs. With boundless energy and imagination, Jillian rushes from game to game. One minute she''s a robot, the next minute she''s a tree. How can she take time to clean up her room when there are so many wonderful things to make and do? No one knows what Jillian will think of next- especially not her mother!


Why I recommend it: I Loved this book when I was a kid. Loved. I remember Jillian Jiggs and her pigs. It's funny, endearing, and memorable. Read it, you'll love it.

The Immortals Series

Summary: The Immortals quartet, by Tamora Pierce, is the story of Veralidaine Sarrasri (known as Daine), an orphan with an unusual talent: she can speak with animals. Veralidaine (Daine) Sarrasri who was orphaned when raiders attacked her village. Daine has an unusual (and extremely strong) gift of wild magic which is mistaken as insanity because she is unable to control it . Though convinced she has no magical Gift, it is discovered that she has 'wild magic' - a magic that is not uncommon, but for some reason is a disregarded branch of magic. What is rare is the amount of it that Daine possesses, and what she is able to do with it. This magic gives her a unique connection with animals. Her abilities manifest gradually throughout the series, allowing her first to speak with animals, to heal their injuries and eventually to shape-shift into animal forms. The series covers a timespan of four years, following Daine as she learns to communicate with humans, animals and Immortals.


Why I recommend it: This is arguably the best series for teenage girls ever written. Daine is identifiable, courageous and entertaining. Most of my friends read this growing up, and each of them had the same reaction I did - to this day we still re-read it, and name it as the best series we ever read. The covers change, but the series is always more then worth a read. Every one of Tamora Pierce's series is well worth a read, but start with this one - no matter how old you are!

Danger in the Painting Field

"Meanwhile, in the painting field, Old Witch laughed her "heh-hehs" and "he-he-hes" while swooping here and there, picking up egg after egg (rocks) and ravenously swallowing them whole, eating them as appetizers for the real feast to come - rabbits!"

Shortening up a lot of moving, I spent most of my childhood in Stratford, and most of my time there was spent at the library. I remember getting books on tape for trips (remember when books came with a book AND a tape? in the plastic bag with a handle? yeah. awesome), I remember story time, I remember getting so excited on friday night when I got to take home a movie and I remember going through the children's section for HOURS for a new few books to take home and begging my mom to take just one more book home. I also remember loving certain books, and taking them out again and again and again, a trait that's continued on to this day.


The Witch Family, by Eleanor Estes was one of those books. I LOVED this book. I remember reading it so many times, mom caved and bought it for me (though, I'm not sure it was caving, books weren't a present in my house, they were a fact) and I read it again and again and again. I forgot the name of the book for years, and on a whim Googled "Witches on a glass hill" and found the book today. I was shocked at how many people were looking for the same book - for the past 35 odd years, people have loved this book.

I'm not going to lie - I just bought it again.

""May I go down tonight?" asked the little witch girl. "please, please, please say yes. I'd love to be seen on my broomstick in the light of the moon."

Well, I can cook too.

I don't really blog about it (mostly because I can rarely get my act together enough to photograph when I cook, and who cares about me talking about food, unless there are pictures. Right? Right.). Here are 4 of my absolute favourite books

 Lucy was a friend of my mom for years, I've spent a few of the High Holidays with her and her family, it was at one of her Sedar's that the Jewish child's right-of-passage of drinking kosher wine, and thinking it's grape juice happened. Either way, Lucy is an amazing cook, and a lovely person. The recipes are simple, clear, and delicious - I'd recommend to anyone (And I do, to everyone)!

Arguably my favourite single recipe in any cookbook is in this book - Saute de Veau aux carottes la boutarde. Basically, carrots, veal and wine. Yes, please! I grew up refusing to eat veal (it's a long story that involves a pet baby calf) and a hatred of cooked carrots. This recipe changed that.  This is a brilliant book, and if you don't have it quite simply, you should. Every recipe is a winner, and it has some great stories and explanations to go alone with it!

 If you ever, ever, buy only one cookbook, this should be it. Granted, I may be a little biased because this cookbook is basically Ashkenazim comfort food that I grew up with. My chicken soup (which, is amazing) (no really, it is) is basically the recipe from this book. My borscht (which, also, is amazing) is basically the recipe from this book. Matzoh balls, brisket, chicken, every recipe is pure comfort, even if you aren't Jewish. It's what these foods should taste like, and has the details you need, like throwing a beat in SO FAST to give chicken soup broth the right colour. Buy it. PLEASE. It's out of print. I suggest ABEbooks. 

Mary's another of my mom's friends. She and my mom have been friends for... almost 40 years. ahem. wow. Anyways. Almost 40 years, and I grew up eating some amazing food she cooked. By day, she's a Librarian in the Toronto District School Board (See, Librarian, Chef, totally possible) who also runs cooking classes and spends a good few months every year in her house in Tuscany. It's traditional, wonderful Italian and Italian Canadian (there's a difference) food. 










So above are four great cookbooks, that I think everyone should have in their collection. They aren't fancy, but I promise, you'll love them!