I himed and hawed about whether to read this book or not. The last thing I wanted was “fluff”. I decided to give it a go, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. It was terrific!! The Help (published by Penguin) is Kathryn Stockett’s first book. She is an wonderful writer and the story she told is one that surprised me a whole lot. I knew things were bad for blacks in the south, but heavens, I had no idea that they couldn’t even use the toilet that the white family used. Set in the 1960s, it involves the white women of Jackson Mississippi and their “help”, the black maids that cater to their every whim and wish, not to mention their dirty dishes and often their dirty laundry (yes, pun intended). Among the maids there’s Aibileen and Minny, both work for who you’d call the southern belles of Mississippi, women who belong to the Junior League, who raise money for the poor children of Africa, but who treat their hired help like dirt. There’s Miss Skeeter, a white woman who doesn’t fit in very well and wants to be a journalist. She decides that the time has come for change and enlists the help of Aibileen and Minny to help her accomplish the nearly impossible. Remember, this was the 60s. It’s a wonderful story. Stockett divulges a bit about her own life at the end of the book that I found really interesting.  One unusual thing about the book is that I didn’t mind reading the southern drawl that is so often used in conversations in books based in the south. Usually I can’t stand it. I was so immersed in the story I didn’t mind it one bit. I find that amazing! Anyway, it’s a great book. All 451 pages kept me totally absorbed. Check it out.

I’m going to bite the bullet and give it a try. I’ve accepted the challenge. Hubby has a Kobo. (In The Globe & Mail they said that buyers of e-readers are mostly men over 40 – well – DUH!! it’s a gadget.) The only thing I have to do is find a book that I think will be appealing and hold my interest because I’m entering into this endeavour with more than a little scepticism – I am a ”feel-the-paper-in-the-book” kind of person. But I’m going to give it a try. Who knows!!

What can I say but “FANTASTIC”! Stieg Larsson certainly didn’t disappoint his readers in the end. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (published by Penguin) is definitely my favourite of the 3. It’s brilliant! I think they get better with each successive book. It’s full of intrigue, suspense and keeps you on your toes, page after page. Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander didn’t disappoint one bit!!  I kept thinking “this is SO good!”. It’s probably the best series of books I’ve read since I can’t remember when. They are phenominal reads, all 3 of them. Bite the bullet and buy the trilogy. Join the crowd and get hooked!  I guess I’ve got to see the movies, everyone says they’re great. Now… what to read after this??

Aug 15th… Today is Stieg Larsson’s birthday. He would have been 56. Penguin Canada has announced that his books are their all-time best sellers, having sold 1,000,000 copies in Canada to date.

Wow!!! What a great book! Stieg Larsson’s second book, The Girl Who Played with Fire (published by Penguin) is riveting. It’s a page-turning thriller and I couldn’t put it down. And it’s by no means a small book – 724 pages in the paperback edition. I think you can actually read this book independent of his first one, but why in heaven’s name would you want to do that. If you’re like me you can’t get enough of journalist Mikael Blomkvist and punk hacker Lisbeth Salander. And kudos to the translator who’s done such a fantastic job. Did I read something awhile back that you can now go to Sweden and do a Millennium Trilogy tour of the places mentioned in the books… amazing. At one point in the book, when all hell broke loose, all I could think of was “Lisbeth, what have you done!”. I won’t tell you what happens in the story – I don’t want to spoil the suspense… just go read it. The dog days of summer are upon us and I can’t think of a better way to spend your time. Now… on to book #3! … on second thought, maybe I should read something different just to prolong the suspence. I don’t want the trilogy to end!

February by Canadian writer Lisa Moore has been long listed for the Man Booker Prize for 2010.

I told you it was good… it’s one of my favourites so far this year. Read my review I wrote in March.

From The Globe and Mail…

“A book worth reading is worth buying.”  – John Ruskin

This is a really powerful book. My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor (published by Penguin Books) is an amazing story. Jill Taylor wakes one morning in 1996 and discovers that she’s having a stroke. She’s 37 years old and is a Harvard trained brain scientist. Within hours she couldn’t walk, talk, read, write or remember any of her life. This is her story. The amazing part is that she fully recovers (but it takes many painful years), and she says the stroke was a blessing and a revelation to her. Not many people would think this, but she tells how she discovered feelings of well-being that she never experienced before. There is a very interesting chapter called “Finding Your Deep Inner Peace”… it well worth studying. She underwent brain surgery, and had to relearn everything. I can’t begin to tell you the obstacles this woman faced… talk about courage and determination! This is also a great book to read if you know someone who has had a stroke. She lists 40 things she needed the most after she had the stroke that everyone should pay attention to, such as “come close, speak slowly, and enunciate clearly”. The book isn’t large (under 200 pages) and it certainly is well worth reading.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery by Alan Bradley (published by Random House) is a multiple award winner (4 awards including the Debut Dagger Award for first time writers). It’s a ”cute” story about Flavia de Luce, an 11 year old who has a penchant for chemistry, is constantly at battle with her 2 sisters (Daphne and Ophelia aka Feely) who don’t understand her constant need to “experiment”,  and how she discovers a man lying in the garden of her home and hears him utter his last word… “Vale”… before he dies. There’s also the incident of the dead bird on the doorstep with a stamp pinned to it’s body that needs to be explained. And the heated conversation that Flavia overheard between her father and some man she couldn’t identify late the night before she comes upon this dying man. All clues or connections? Of course what else could a budding chemist do but try to solve his murder. Bradley has set his book in 1950′s Britain, it’s quaint, bang-on as far as setting and characters go (the cook is called Mrs. Mullet – how funny is that) and it’s a “jolly good read”. Flavia seems constantly to be on her trusty bike, Gladys, heading hither, thither and yon (just thought I’d continue the British feel here) to search out clues as to why this man, who no one recognizes, took his last breath in their cucumber patch at the back of their decaying English mansion called Buckshaw. Bradley has included just enough chemistry bits to make the book interesting, and Flavia is back in book 2, The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag, which we’re tempted by an excerpt from at the end of this book. I’m sure you’ll want to read it just as soon as you’ve finished book 1. It’s a great read for summer, either on holiday or lying on the sofa with the air conditioning on to escape the heat.

This book is amazing.   C’mon Papa: Dispatches from a Dad in the Dark by Ryan Knighton (published by Random House) is a really fascinating read. Knighton discovered at age 18 that he suffered from a condition called retinitis pigmentosa. This meant that slowly, very slowly, he would go blind. This book is about him and his newborn daughter Tess. How he coped, or didn’t, and how he learned to bond with his daughter without being able to see her. In otherwords, how he learned to be a Dad. There was a huge amount of trial and error, and a huge dose of creativity too. Imagine trying to put a diaper on a baby when you don’t know what’s where and most importantly, what you’re going to find where! Imagine trying to stick a soother into a wailing baby’s mouth without sticking it in her eye. Try crossing the street with her in the baby carrier strapped to your chest with just your white cane. It’s a story full of humour, love, courage, exasperation, and frustration. The best line in the book for me was when Ryan went to a convention for stay-at-home Dads and some guy asked him if he had a picture of his daughter with him and he thought to himself  that he barely had one in his mind, let alone in his wallet. He said “Sorry, blind guy thing. I forgot.” This book isn’t meant to be a pity-party. Knighton is a wonderful writer. His one-liners are fantastic (he teaches English at Capilano University). If you’re looking for something different to read this summer, this is a good choice.