Archive for the ‘Books’ Category

1. Australian Shepherd groomed

2. Chocolate lab bathed

3. Summer reading purchased (more about those choices later)

4. Magazines that I need to catch up on piled on coffee & bedside tables

5. Pinot Gris and Chardonney ready to chill

6. Front garden perennials starting to bloom, pots of annuals scattered here and there

7. Strongest sun block purchased

8. Stocked up on ice cream treats – Dairy Queen for Chris/Haagen dazs for me

9. Candle supply checked in case of summer storms

10. Favorite black turtleneck moved to the back of the closet shelf (sob)

Knowing that summer in Alberta is brief and unpredictable………priceless

For me a visit to a book store, is like a wonderful meal starting with the appetizing business section, I have a few sips of some authentic, full-bodied self-help, then onto fresh, well-roasted biographies & memoirs, to finish off with a dessert of rich chocolaty fiction.

This meal is best enjoyed in a small intimate place but all to often we have to go to an indistinguishable cafeteria. Where the experience is inevitably one without flavor or connection with the staff or other guests.

In Banff, Alberta there is a bookstore called Banff Book & Art Den & they are going head to head with the Indigo chain of bookstores. I obviously hope that they can hold there own against this retail giant. This is more than yet another small business being swallowed up, it is about the whole experience of book browsing and buying and you either get that or you don’t.

1. Victoria’s Secret’s cotton panties 5/$25. Great colours and they wear well.
2. Bagged spinach and lettuce – so convenient & quick!
3. Books:
   • A Breath of Snow & Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
   • My Camino by Sue Kenney
   • Iris & Rudy by Rosie Thomas
   • Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
4. Dark chocolate & Starbucks coffee
5. Online banking – I love paying bills in my slippers
6. Amazon’s Used books – saves money (especially on business books)and they are usually in great condition
7. Hiring a house cleaner – even if she only comes in once every two weeks it is a huge help
8. Body Shop’s Satsuma Soap
9. Style at Home Magazine – with a 1979 house in Alberta that needs updating & a circa 1823 house in Nova Scotia that needs everything, I am grateful for their articles and great photographs.
10. Boston Legal – while it isn’t my beloved West Wing it’s quick and edgy

This list appeared in the Too Real Women blog, that I share with friend & Psychotherapist,Vicki Wolfson. We also have a Too Real Advice blog.

I finally went into Amazon and reserved a paperback copy of the DaVinci Code. On my nieces’ advice I ordered the illustrated edition. As it has been on the New York Times Bestseller list for 155 weeks, Dan Brown didn’t need me to pay the price for the illustrated hardcover. Even though his recent legal woes must be getting costly.

As many readers know what book to read and when has very little to do with bestseller lists and everything to do with time of year and mood. Right now it is the end of winter in Alberta, there is still a lot of snow on the ground and everything seems grey and dirty.
I clearly need escapism! My choice?
Educating Alice: Adventures of a Curious Woman by Alice Steinbach, while it doesn’t have the same flow of story interwoven with travel of her first book “Without Reservations”, it is taking me into the Hotel Ritz cooking classes, behind the scenes of Havanna’s streets and allowing a glimpse at the lifestyle of Kyoto’s geisha.

The DaVinci Code will start the pile of books that I will choose from when I go away this summer. After all, picking just the right book for a vacation is as important as what clothes we decided to take.

Each year since 1975 Nicholas Nixon has taken a group portrait of his wife with her three sisters.
This book of those photographs is testimonial to what time means in a woman’s life. Each picture is set up the same; what is different is clothing, hair, facial lines and the subtle changes to their expressions and body language.

A fasinating look at four women & a great gift for yourself or a female friend.

Amazon.com: The Brown Sisters
Amazon.ca: Nicholas Nixon – The Brown Sisters