Today In History

17th January, 1949 : The first Volkswagen Beetle ( The Peoples Car ) in the U.S. arrived from Germany, designed by Ferdinand Porsche at the request of Adolf Hitler.

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A Complicated Kindness

Last year I made a personal resolution, a challenge I guess you can say. I challenged myself to read more Canadian authors. And a what better way in selecting the authors and the books by using the CBC Canada Reads lists. The other plus in this was that I didn't have a timeline.

Not only did I read A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews for my Canada Reads Challenge but also for Book Awards II Challenge. A Complicated Kindness won The Governor General's Award in 2004.

Basically here's the story of a girl who is discovering herself, being a teenager is hard, but when you there are family member missing, it gives an added edge. Nomi's sister and mother both left, she now lives alone with her father in a Mennonite community which she feels that strangling her. She wants to break free, discover new things, live in the East Village (the one in NYC!), she wants to experiment. But the strong ties that her father has to the community and their way of life is too strong.

I want to share with you a paragraph from the first chapter, I love her humor, or I guess you can say her sarcastic humor:

We’re Mennonites. Five hundred years ago in Europe a man named Menno Simons set off to do his own peculiar religious thing and he and his followers were beaten up and killed or forced to conform all over Holland, Poland, and Russia until they, at least some of them, finally landed right here where I sit. Imagine the least well-adjusted kid in your school starting a breakaway clique of people whose manifesto includes a ban on the media, dancing, smoking , temperate climates, movies, drinking, rock’n’roll, having sex for fun, swimming, makeup, jewellery, playing pool, going to cities, or staying up past nine o’clock. That was Menno all over. Thanks a lot, Menno.

I found the idea of this book very interesting. I live very close to a Mennonite community, and I find them fascinating. I know a few and they're hard working, family oriented people, who follow different rules. I thought that this book would be more of a celebration of her individuality, but it really is a book about her self discovery. Her confusion, her wanting to know what happen to her mom and her sister rule her. I was expecting something and I get something totally different.

I found the way the book was written to be a little hard to follow the storyline. It jumps from present to past and back again without warning. Which confused me at times and I had to go back a couple of pages and re-read them again.

Overall I found the story just okay. There wasn't really anything that grabbed me, but I did find the last couple of chapters more interesting than the previous ones.

I do have to mention that this book was the winner of the Canada Reads in 2006. I guess a part of me can understand why this book was (and still is) so well liked, but I have problems with it being the favourite. Oh well....

A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews (3/5) General Fiction; Published: Alfred A. Knopf Canada (2004); Canada Reads; Winner of Governor General's Award 2004; Book Awards II (5); 2009 100 + Reading Challenge (5); 2009 Support Your Local Library Challenge (3);

Today In History

16th January, 1920 - U.S.A. : Prohibition takes effect stopping the sale and consumption of alcohol when the 18th Amendment went into effect it ended in 1933.

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Today In History

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was born 15th January Atlanta, Georgia, USA



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Today In History

14th January, 1934 : More reports are coming in from Loch Ness in Scotland from tourists and locals of sightings of the Loch Ness Monster. It is described as a sea serpent estimated at over 50 ft long and the secretary of state for Scotland has forbidden the capture or shooting of the creature.

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Today In History

13th January, 1915: A massive earthquake that extended 300 miles across Italy killed many thousands.

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Alice In Wonderland

Do you have a book from your childhood that you look back at with wonder and delight? I have several, I loved (and still do) Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, but the one book that I found the most magical and the one that really got my imagination rolling was Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures In Wonderland.

When I signed up for Young Readers Challenge and Celebrate The Author, I had an inkling that I would be (re)reading this book. I read it now, and my daughter will be reading it very soon, and I cannot wait to hear what she thinks of it. She has yet to watch the Disney movie, so I'm hoping that she will be blown away just like I was when I first read it. And then, we may rent the movie. Still thinking about it.

The book is a classic. You know that it's surreal, funny, confusing, but always entertaining. It's the story of a young girl who is bored with what her sister is doing and wonders off, only to fall in a rabbit hole, and discover a new land. In that new land she meets interesting characters, like the White Rabbit, Mad Hater, March hare, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, the Duchess and the Queen. She has these wonderful, albeit strange, adventures and when she thinks that end is near, she's waken up by her sister.

I don't know what else to say about this book, other that it's enchanting. It's a must read for everyone!

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (5/5) Classic Children Literature; Published: Macmillan (1865); 2009 100 + Reading Challenge (4); Celebrate The Author (1); Young Readers Challenge (1); Keeper Shelf;

Today In History

12th January, 1915 - U.S.A. : The House of Representatives voted Down the Women’s Suffrage Bill, which would allow women the right to vote. The actual vote count was 204 against and 174 for this bill. Women’s Suffrage leaders such as Ann Howard Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt (pictured) stated they would continue to find for the right to cast a ballot. The right to vote was granted to women in 1920.

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I've been awarded!

I'm so honored by this award, Premio Dardos Award. Given especially by a blogger that I recently discovered, DivineMissB from Less Traveled By. I love her humor! She brightens my day! I cannot thank you enough! If you haven't visited yet, don't forget to do so.

And now for the award details:

This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day. The rules to follow are:

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person that has granted the award and his or her blog link.

2) Pass the award to other 15 blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment. Remember to contact each of them to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

The blogs that I'm awarding the Premio Dardos Award, are the ones that I cannot live without. They make me laugh, discover new things (books, recipes, movies, etc), and reflect on many things. They make me a better blogger and I like to think, a better person.

Aneca's World

Diary of a Stay at Home Mom

Reading Adventures

Random Ramblings About My Crazy Life

Juggling Life

It's All About Me

Amy's Corner of the World

Bola de Berlin

The Written World

Becky's Book Reviews

Lynne's Little Corner of the World

Today In History - January 10th

10th January, 1946 : The first General Assembly of the United Nations, comprising 51 nations, convenes at Westminster Central Hall in London, England.

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The Virgin of Small Plains

I read The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard as part of Book Awards II challenge. This book won and Agatha Award in 2006, for best novel.

Here's the blurb for The Virgin of Small Plains:

Small Plains, Kansas, January 23, 1987: In the midst of a deadly blizzard, eighteen-year-old Rex Shellenberger scours his father’s pasture, looking for helpless newborn calves. Then he makes a shocking discovery: the naked, frozen body of a teenage girl, her skin as white as the snow around her. Even dead, she is the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen. It is a moment that will forever change his life and the lives of everyone around him. The mysterious dead girl–the “Virgin of Small Plains”–inspires local reverence. In the two decades following her death, strange miracles visit those who faithfully tend to her grave; some even believe that her spirit can cure deadly illnesses. Slowly, word of the legend spreads.

But what really happened in that snow-covered field? Why did young Mitch Newquist disappear the day after the Virgin’s body was found, leaving behind his distraught girlfriend, Abby Reynolds? Why do the town’s three most powerful men–Dr. Quentin Reynolds, former sheriff Nathan Shellenberger, and Judge, Tom Newquist–all seem to be hiding the details of that night?

Seventeen years later, when Mitch suddenly returns to Small Plains, simmering tensions come to a head, ghosts that had long slumbered whisper anew, and the secrets that some wish would stay buried rise again from the grave of the Virgin. Abby–never having resolved her feelings for Mitch–is now determined to uncover exactly what happened so many years ago to tear their lives apart.

Three families and three friends, their worlds inexorably altered in the course of one night, must confront the ever-unfolding consequences in award-winning author Nancy Pickard’s remarkable novel of suspense. Wonderfully written and utterly absorbing, The Virgin of Small Plains is about the loss of faith, trust, and innocence . . . and the possibility of redemption.

This was one of those books that you start reading and you cannot put it down until you are done. I started reading it late afternoon, while I was making dinner and all throughout the evening the book was with me. I admit, I had to put it down at dinner time, because rules are rules. No reading while we're having dinner. I finished it around 2am.

The story comes down to the lies, secrecy and trying to protect your family. But somehow all goes wrong, and three families suffer the consequences. Each of the main characters knows something, and it's only when the get those facts together that the truth comes out. But to who's expense.

The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard (4/5) Mystery/Suspense; Published: Ballantine Books (2006); Book Awards II Challenge (4); 2009 100 + Reading Challenge (3); 2009 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge (3);

Today In History - January 9th

9th January, 2007: Apple introduces the 4.5 inch X 2.4 inch Apple iPhone which epitomizes the next generation of mobile phone devices, with a super cool look and touch pad for navigation and includes a virtual keyboard.

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