I read Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert (published by Penguin Books) years ago when it first came out so this is not a new book on my list of recent reads, but I thought it worth mentioning because I’ve recently discovered that it’s STILL on the best-seller list… 134 weeks and counting. Quite a coup for any author. The book is essentially divided into 3 sections, the first taking place in Italy (the “eat” bit), then India (the “pray” bit) and finally Indonesia (the “love” bit). Personally I read the book for the India bit… her stay at an ashram intrigued me and I wanted to know more about it. And I wasn’t disappointed. Anyone who’s ever taken a yoga class should read this book. It’s fascinating. I was not as intrigued or interested in the other parts so I won’t comment on the “eat” or “love” sections of the book. Now Gilbert has a follow-up book on the market called Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage (the love part really worked!), and I’m sure it will be every bit as popular as it’s predecessor.

Fans of Linwood Barclay… and who isn’t!!… will be happy to know his next book, Never Look Away, will be available  March 2nd. This one follows on the heals of No Time for Goodbye and Fear the Worst and also deals with missing family members. This time it’s the wife.

An esteemed bunch of wordy people who are language experts has decided that Google is the word of the decade. Yea Google!! (It’s funny that these so-called experts weren’t able to find a word to represent the nameless decade.) Anyway, Google beat out 9/11, blog, text, war on terror, and Wi-Fi. Google received twice as many votes as blog, and both words completely outdid all the other nominees.

Tweet was the word of 2009.

The only word I can think of to describe this book is “brilliant”. It’s a crime novel full of humour. Snow Job by William Deverell (published by McClelland & Stewart) is another Arthur Beauchamp novel (some of his previous ones are mentioned earlier in my blog).  Arthur and his wife Margaret, now head of the Green Party of Canada and esconsed in the House of Commons in Ottawa, and their rag-tag band of neighbours on Garibaldi Island on the west coast, get involved in mischief that has you rolling with laughter on the sofa. But remember, this is a crime novel, and there’s a mystery to solve too. And the antics of the federal government… talk about life immitating art! I heard Deverell on the radio awhile back saying that he actually lived in Ottawa while writing this book during the never-ending winter of snow in 2008. And he certainly has a feel for the city and how politics works, or doesn’t. Talk about shenanigans!! I can’t go into the plot of the book, it’s way too complicated. But I’ll tell you there is murder, kidnapping, terrorism, political intrigue, eco issues, the whole nine yards of stuff to keep your mind occupied. And Canada even invades a foreign country (Bashyistan) - go figure! How’s that for fiction!! There are chapters in this book that made me laugh out loud they were so funny – whole chapters! This book was a brilliant start to my reading in 2010 and I have to be careful what I pick up next to read. It will have to be something totally different otherwise I’m bound to be disappointed.

For those of you who have been following my blog for awhile you might not have noticed that you can now “search” for your favourite author or title (check on the right hand side of the screen). I had a few requests for this and even I was having difficulty finding stuff I’d written previously. Hope this makes things easier for you.