November 12, 2009
There is no excuse
There is no excuse for the accompanying photo, except that my baby is adorable. Alright then, bookishly. I thumbed through the new Pierre Trudeau biography the other day, and now I am afraid I’m the only woman in Canada who never slept with him. He didn’t even want me to live with him and have his child, like Liona Boyd (who is Liona Boyd?) on the cover of Hello. This may or may not be unfortunate. I just finished reading What Boys Like by Amy Jones (review forthcoming!) and have just started Mother Knows Best: Talking Back to the “Experts”. Patricia has directed my attention to what seems to be the worst picture book ever: The Mischievous Mom at the Art Gallery by “high-octane duo” Rebecca Eckler and Erica Ehm. A new level of narcissism— we have to be reflected in our kids’ books now? “Finally — a picture book for the Starbucks-armed, BlackBerry-checking, gym-going working mother.” Perhaps you’re meant to read it on the treadmill. Chapters/Indigo includes a “Green Matters” option on its online catalogue, narrowing searches to books printed on FSC/Recycled Content. On the best Sesame Street songs (in honour of the show’s fortieth birthday). They forgot ladybug picnic. Charlotte on The Children’s Storefront, a neighbourhood institution that was lost in a fire last week. Rona Maynard’s secrets to decades upon decades of marriage. I’ve been enjoying books/music site Sasquatch Radio. WriterGuy directed me towards the interesting “How Waterstones killed bookselling” (in light of my recent post about how Waterstones killed book buying, for me, at least). And I’m wondering if I’m the only one who starts carrying around my next book to be read once the current read is down to the last fifty pages or so. Indeed, if I don’t have something fabulous to read within arm’s length at all times, I do start to get a little nervous.
i am grumpy because i am not reading anything i am in love with at the moment, and the three books I do have going, while good, are just not enthralling.
and your baby IS adorable so thank you for cute baby pics. post away!
I *think* that my hated book is one of the ones that you're currently reading. No wonder your grumpy. Here's hoping you find something better.
Definitely adorable and should probably be in all your posts just because you gave birth to her and have the right to post pictures of her daily. (Or at least this is what I tell myself with my Daily Moira project.)
That Eckler/Ehm book had me gagging – and that was just the write-up on Amazon. Your comment: "A new level of narcissism– we have to be reflected in our kids' books now?" is spot on. This seems to smack of "I want to be my childs best friend and not just their parent" parenting. What's wrong with being the parent?
And I'm reading something that is making me grumpy right now too. After tweeting the Gillers I just want to read some of those books but I am committed to pushing Roughing It forward. Or maybe I'm just trying to get committed.
Eckler just wanted to write a book that she could finally read all by herself, without the help of an editor, dictionary or nanny.