#2 The Rosie Project by Graem Simsion

#2 The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

 My Dear Reader,

The Rosie Project was captivating from the get-go.  It follows Don, a man on his quest to meet the perfect woman which he is confident he will find through a personally designed questionnaire to which he has pre-determined the correct responses. Case in point, when Claudia, the wife of his good friend Gene reviews his questionnaire she says, ‘For an appointment, I’m guessing (a) a little early?’ To which Don responds that that is patently incorrect and that the correct answer is on time because habitual earliness is cumulatively a waste of time. He is patently not a romantic man at heart!

Through his “Wife Project” we get to know him and all his quirkiness. Don is hyper efficient as demonstrated in his daily schedule which is designed to maximize his time through multi-tasking (only you’ve never seen multi-tasking quite like Don’s). He doesn’t pick up on social cues and is pragmatic to the nth degree (he sees sharing a cab with a woman as a sensible use of fossil fuel). In many ways, Don reminds me of Sheldon from the sit-com “The Big Bang Theory”. Don, like Sheldon is extremely intelligent, often clinical or scientific in his thought process making conversation with average humans virtually impossible because he misses the nuances inherent in most social situations. This failing only compounds his misunderstanding of women which leads him to revise his questionnaire on the basis that women don’t fit into a one-size-fits-all box. Who knew!  

Enter Rosie, an “unconventional but extremely attractive” woman who flunks his questionnaire within the first few questions yet manages to pull Don into her life by convincing him to work on her Father project. As they work together to discovery who Rosie’s father is, Don becomes enlightened in the ways of women and the world and is forced to adjust his very large brain and all that is in it.

It finally dawns on Don that the questionnaire he designed is not structured to find a woman he could accept but is really designed to find a woman who could accept him and after all, isn’t that what were all searching for? Someone who will love us, quirks and all? This was a very lighted-hearted book, funny and a quick read and I highly recommend it. Until next time, have you read a book today?

Julie

#1 Wenjack by Joseph Boyden

#1 Wenjack by Joseph Boyden

Given the news coverage in Canada of the residential schools, dear reader, I was eager to read this book and perhaps gain a little insight from a different perspective other than that of the media.  Although this book does not delve deeply into the experiences had within the walls of these institutions, it does allude to the atrocities that occurred in these schools since they were established in the 1870’s until the last school was finally closed in 1996.  I must say that after learning the last of these schools was shut down so recently, I was shocked and ashamed of my own ignorance. 

Wenjack is the story of Charlie who escapes the confines of a residential school and tries to make his way home to his families.  It follows his journey, along with two brothers,  through the harsh Canadian wilderness as the seasons evaporate from fall to winter and we are shown how unprepared the boys are when the wind blows and night falls.  Travelling with them on their journey are several spirits of the forest who tell us Charlie’s tale through their eyes. We meet a sucker fish, a crow, a beaver, and a snow goose among other animals and spirits that follow the boys on their journey, encouraging them, sometimes taunting them all the while knowing the boys fate before they do. 

Although this is a sad story, it is written with such simple language, gracefully capturing Charlie’s thoughts as he has them and richly describing his experience on the long journey home. During his travels, Charlie shares with us his sadness at leaving his family, his determination to remember his language and we are given a brief but clear glimpse into his life at school and the pain and humiliation he endured there. He goes on to say… “One day I will run.  One day they won’t hurt me anymore.” And it is through this simple statement that we come to understand his determination to escape no matter the cost. 

The author’s note at the end of the story is also a must-read.  It not only describes the origins of the story (which is based on the real-life story of Chanie “Charlie” Wenjack) but also highlights one of the longest and darkest periods in Canada’s history.   The author goes on to say that it was the events of this boys’ story that led to the first inquiry of residential schools and set in motion their abolishment. We, as a country must now reconcile our grave mistake and try to make amends to the families who were violated. Until next time…have you read a book today?

Julie

Welcome to my blog!

Welcome to my blog! 

Dear readers, for those of you who don’t know me, my name is Julie and I would like to invite you to join me on my first real foray into blogging. I say “real’ because I started to blog last January 1^st which marked the first day of my 50^th year but in my techno innocence, chose the wrong blog host. From March til May I was unable to access the site at will and then it crashed completely in June and I lost several blog posts to the cyber nether-regions.  (Thank goodness I began copying them into Word documents, I only lost four…it could have been worse)! While much of my blog last year was a commitment to challenging myself during my 50th year on this planet, which I might add was rather successful, I’d like to continue with one of my BIG 50 ideas, using this blog as its forum.

The challenge that I was most excited about from my 50^th year, and what I planned on blogging about was this: I planned on reading 50, count ‘em, 50 books last year.  After I told my sister, we had a good laugh and then she suggested I might want to start with half that and go from there. At the time I thought she was probably right. After all, she is older and wiser and over 50 (sorry sis, I couldn’t resist!) A book a week with two weeks wiggle room to play catch up did seem a bit extreme. But if I was going to do it, I might as well attempt the full 50. My own full Monty, if you will!

Now that my 50^th year is complete I must confess, dear reader that for a person with a life, 50 books was an insane amount of books to get through. I’m not a book editor.  I don’t do this for a living. I teach elementary music to children in Grade 1-6, I’m a newly published author (check out Erosion: a novel), I have a new husband and recently moved to a new city so life is busy, as it is for all of us. 

So here’s my commitment to you, O wonderful blog reader(s): I will write my own version of a review for each book and will post 50 book review blogs before December 31st, 2017. The reviews will be a combination of new books that I will read this year and books that I read for my BIG 50 whose reviews sat on my computer due to my blog crash. These will be novels or biographies (not reading material for work, sorry “This is Your Brain on Music”.  You will not make it onto my night table!) These books must be new-to-me books, ones that I’ve never read before.  I will attempt to step outside my favorite genres (the classics like Austen and Bronte or historical fiction like the Outlander series) and favorite authors (Kate Morton and Sue Monk Kidd, and there’s always Julie M…sorry, I couldn’t resist another plug for my own book, Erosion). My first review will appear in the next few days as I’ve already finished reading my first book.  Yeah, me!

If you’ve made it all the way to this point, dear reader, you have my gratitude for reading and my sincere apologies. Know that I will try to shorten my posts as I go along, as this is not the forum to write my next novel. I will keep you updated on my book count and latest review. Until the next time…have you read a book today?

Julie