Watching this is worth more than eight minutes of your time.

[via @jianghomeshi]

Will piracy ever die? is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

Love love love.

(And look for some Hoopla action. It’s a fabulous embroidery book.)

The Joy of Books is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

Thankfully, we’re all sleeping these days and I’m back to my normal (not very fast) reading pace. Really, the thing that’s keeping my reading back is that I’ve been knitting and crocheting so much. Oh, the directions we’re pulled in.

Here’s what I read in 2011, with a bonus list of awesome kids’ books.

1. A Novel Bookstore, by Laurence Cossé. I asked for this last year, and began reading it as soon as the gift was given. It’s a lovely novel about passionate readers and the bookstore they open. If you love reading books your local indie bookseller recommends to you, read this book.
2. The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer, by Harvey Karp. The premise of this book is great. That it’s a book and not a pamphlet is a shocking waste of paper (or, in my case since I read the ebook, pixels). It’s cloyingly repetitive (even to my at-the-time fatigue-addled brain), and I hate the convention of having baby books filled with testimonials from parents. Oh god, I’m about to rant about baby books. Deep breath. This one doesn’t suck. If you have a newborn at home or expect to have one soon, this book gives great advice (over and over and over again). The gist: Some old wives’ tales are worth respecting – rock, shh, swing and swaddle your infant, and white noise is a godsend.
3. The Passage, by Justin Cronin. This book was all the rage in 2010, and for good reason. It’s a vampire book, like OMG. But a good one. And a very, very long one. Which means you’ll enjoy it for a good stretch. After I hated The Strain so much last year and put it down, I was wary to start The Passage. But my worries were unfounded. I’m eagerly awaiting the second book in the trilogy.
4. 13 Little Blue Envelopes, by Maureen Johnson. Maybe you follow young-adult author Maureen Johnson on Twitter. She writes one of my favourite feeds. She’s hilarious and she’s passionate about a lot of things I, too, feel are very important. So I finally read one of her books, and it was lovely. It’s the tale of a timid teenager led by her quirky aunt on an adventure as dictated by thirteen notes in blue envelopes. I was a timid teenager, and I’d like to think that I, too, would have dived in like Ginny did.
5. Don’t Look Back, by Karin Fossum. After loving Smilla’s Sense of Snow last year, I had a conversation with my friend Elin who’d recommended it to me, and we thought it might be fun to go on a kick reading Scandinavian crime fiction. I’m not sure I can endure a proper kick, but I do think I’ll read more in the future (and you’ll see another title in this list).
6. Drums of Autumn, by Diana Gabaldon. The fourth in Gabaldon’s epic time-travel-Scottish-fantasy-romance series, I read this in part out of excitement that the books are now available as ebooks (sans piracy). Though I thoroughly enjoyed the first book, Outlander, I’m not a big fan of the series. Drums of Autumn was okay. Better than the third book by far, so maybe I’ll eventually read the fifth.
7. Embassytown, by China Miéville. June must be when I started functioning in society again, because this is the first more challenging book I read. It’s one of the most inventive, refreshingly original sci-fi books I’ve ever read. That the plot centres on a feature of alien linguistics made my reading that much more satisfying. The ending fell flat, but I’m eager to read more books by him.
8. Faceless Killers, by Henning Mankell. Mankell is lauded as the most popular crime-fiction writer in Sweden, and it took me a while to find the first in his very long series of Kurt Wallander novels. I’ll read more Mankell, for sure. I’m also curious to see the British television series, featuring Kenneth Branagh playing Wallander.
9. Jesus Land, by Julia Scheeres. I tweeted a lot as I read this memoir about a white teenager and her adopted black brother growing up in a brutally religious family in bigoted rural Indiana in the ’80s. It’s a heart-breaking, anger-inducing story. One that lead me to write to the author immediately after finishing it. I told her that as an adoptive parent, I smothered my child in kisses as I read her book, in which she describes her parents treating their adopted children differently than their biological ones. The story doesn’t focus on adoption, though. It focuses on the brutality people inflict upon one another, specifically in the name of God. It’s a must read.
10. The Baby’s Table, by Lauren Bramley. If you skip the prose section at the beginning (insert rant about baby books here), this book is an invaluable guide to feeding your kid once they start on pureed food, and well beyond their first birthday. My friend Krista gave us a copy at my baby shower, and at this point it’s dog-eared, stained and a little bloated from getting wet. Especially for someone like me who doesn’t really cook but insists on making my kid’s food, Bramley’s instructions for how to prepare the simplest of foods has been an education. Now that Owen’s eating more sophisticated foods, I feel like I can actually cook. And my kid eats like it’s his mission in life (which may or may not be related to the food being appropriate and good).
11. Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell. Hands down one of the best books I’ve read. Not Top 5, but possibly Top 10. In what seem to be six unrelated short stories, Mitchell tells a tale of religion, consumption, selfishness, generosity, humanity and society. It’s that big. And it’s enjoyable to read, even though I didn’t particularly like a couple of the short stories. Mitchell’s skill with language blew my mind. I usually don’t enjoy short stories, so if you, too, are not a fan, don’t let that keep you from this brilliant book.
12. World Made by Hand, by James Howard Kunstler. This is not a book about crafts. It’s a book about how people must live once runaway climate change and geopolitical disaster render people pretty much on their own, sans conveniences like electricity and gasoline and government. I’m passionate about staving off climate change and I love love love me a good apocalypse novel, but I hated this one. Kunstler writes with a hand so heavy it’s a wonder he was able to type. He’s preachy and annoying. Which is unfortunate, because his protagonist is interesting and there’s a lot he could have done with the unexpected bit of supernatural wahoo he tossed in at the end of the book. But he didn’t. Don’t waste your time with this one.
13. The Wise Man’s Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss. The much-anticipated second novel in the Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy, this one was a delight to read. I loved The Name of the Wind, and bought The Wise Man’s Fear in hardcover – that’s how excited I was for it. I didn’t even buy the ebook, despite the challenge of reading a 900-page book in hardcover. Whether you’re a fan of fantasy novels or not (I’m not really), read this series. I have no idea when the conclusion is expected, but I’ll read it in hardcover, too, no doubt.
14. How I Live Now, by Meg Rosoff. My mother-in-law and I have fairly incompatible taste in books, and we’ve learned not to recommend them to each other. But she gave me a copy of this one with great enthusiasm, and I read it in a couple of days. One of my favourite genres is young-adult dystopian fiction, and this is one of the best I’ve read. It’s about an American teenager with very real personal issues (though issues some might be inclined to label first world), who finds herself in rural war-torn England with cousins she’s only just met. In a surprisingly short novel, Rosoff paints a vivid picture of a teenager’s experience of a confusing, terrifying time. It’s a very moving story. If you enjoyed The Hunger Games or The Book Thief, I highly recommend How I Live Now.
15. How to Knit a Love Song, by Rachael Herron. I can’t remember what compelled me to read a knitting book, let alone a knitting romance novel. I’m not a big fan of either. Maybe it’s that I’ve read Rachael’s blog for eons. Regardless, I read it. And I loved it. It was a delightful escape. And, uh, hot.
16. How to Knit a Heart Back Home, by Rachael Herron. Uh, yeah. So I finished the first and immediately bought the second. Probably should have waited a week or two, on account of the romance-novel formula, but I enjoyed it. Now that a few weeks have passed, I’m ready for her third instalment. And how.
17. The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern. This is my current read, and I’m sure I’ll finish it in the next week or two. It’s about, you guessed it, a circus that only performs at night. But more than that, it’s about the people who created such a thing, and about the fantastical things that go into it. And it’s about a man and a woman raised from childhood to compete in magic in a game with few rules. I’m enjoying it immensely.

Look at that! Seventeen books. Goal = surpassed.

I also started and put down several books that just didn’t match my mood. None of them was terrible, so I anticipate finishing them eventually.

And now, baby books. A note to those inclined to give books as presents when a baby is born (I do this, too): Books with few words are useless to babies until they’re old enough to interact with them in a more linguistically advanced manner (i.e., when they’re learning to talk, or at least to understand lots of words). Books with a good story and lots of words are great for babies, because adults can actually read them aloud. We’ve been reading to Owen since he was a week old, and he’s delighted us by developing a great interest in books.

Here are some I think are great, that my kid also loves. (He loves lots of others I’m not going to list; these are the ones I think everyone should know about.) We’re limited to board books right now, so I’m leaving out the lovely paper ones we just can’t read until Owen can handle paper with care.

• The Gruffalo, by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. We’ve been reading this to Owen since Day 1, and I can now recite it from memory. It’s delightful and clever.
• Indeed, anything by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. My other favourites are Room on the Broom and The Snail and the Whale, and The Smartest Giant in Town is also fabulous, and is Owen’s current favourite.
• Monkey and Me, by Emily Gravett. It’s a simple, beautifully illustrated book about a girl and her sock monkey and all the animals they went to see. You build up the suspense, then turn the page and it’s ELEPHANTS! they went to see. Owen giggles.
• The Odd Egg, also by Emily Gravett. “All the birds have laid an egg. All except for duck.” Duck finds an egg, and sits with it even as all the other birds’ eggs hatch. To tell you more would venture into spoilers.
• I Took the Moon for a Walk, by Carolyn Curtis and Allison Jay. The artwork in this book is absolutely beautiful, and the story is simple and sweet.
• The Paper Bag Princess, by Robert Munsch and Michael Marchenko. I loathe I’ll Love You Forever with the fire of a thousand suns, but Munsch is redeemed by this classic feminist tale of a prince and princess thwarted by a dragon.
• Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, by Mem Fox and Helen Oxenbury. It’s diversity that’s not annoying, and Owen loves to look at all the babies.

The Books I Loved and Hated in 2011 is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

If you’re wholly unfamiliar with it, Evernote is a combination note-taker and filing system that syncs your saved notes across pretty much any platform. It’s the kind of app that’s so powerful in its simplicity that it can be very difficult to figure out what to do with it. It’s free to use, with paid upgrades. (I have not needed to pay for it yet. Though I’m inclined to, simply because I find it so darn useful.)

The foundational unit of Evernote is, as you might guess, the note. A note can be anything: text, an audio clip, a photograph, whatever. You can organize your notes into folders, and each note can be tagged for further organizational and retrieval purposes.

Perhaps examples of how I use it will be helpful in explaining how it works.

Evernote on my desktop, displaying a pattern I saved from Knitty (by the lovely and talented Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark).

As a crafter:

• First and foremost, Evernote has allowed me to stop printing simple patterns. (I still do print parts of more involved patterns, because I mark those up as I go.) When I find a pattern on someone’s blog, I use the very handy web clipper to save it in Evernote. When I buy a PDF pattern, I can drop the PDF into Evernote.
• This allows me to keep a library of patterns with me at all times, so I can easily remind myself what size needles or hook I need for a project, or how much yarn. And since Evernote syncs automatically, I don’t have to actually do anything to keep this information up to date, say, on my phone if I saved the pattern on my computer.
• When I start writing a pattern, I do it in Evernote so the draft is always with me. I rarely draft things using a word processor anymore. For simple text writing, Evernote is faster, cleaner and keeps all the relevant information I need available at a click, even if I switch the device I’m working on.
• Tutorials! When I started knitting my (still unfinished) February Lady Sweater, I saved a buttonhole tutorial into Evernote so I had it with me wherever I was, regardless of whether I had an internet connection. I do this with all sorts of helpful info.
• I also keep any published pattern errata in Evernote, so I have it at the start and don’t have to do a panicked search later.
• I have a note containing my measurements, and one for Greg’s and Owen’s, too.
• I’ve saved standard measurements, too.

Evernote on my iPhone, displaying the same pattern (zoomed in).

As a writer:

• When I write an article or guest post, I usually draft it in Evernote. This way I can work on it wherever I want, whether I’m working on my laptop or iPad, and sometimes in desperate moments on my iPhone.
• I capture ideas. Say I’m in line at the grocery store and an I think of something nifty. I jot it down in a new note and file it in my Ideas folder. Or I see something that sparks an idea: I’ll take a photo of it in Evernote.
• I organize research. Say I’m writing an article that requires the collection of background information. I’ll slurp relevant info into Evernote using the aforementioned web clipper. This is a bookmarklet you keep in the bookmark bar of your web browser. When you click the bookmarklet, you can then save all or some of a web page into Evernote, and Evernote automatically records the URL. You can file it into a folder and tag it, too. By the time I’m ready to write, I have all the background info in one place, complete with citation information.

How I Use Evernote as a Writer and Crafter is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

Here are my crafts books (most of them). They’re not going to live in this book case forever, but we’re still in the midst of making sense out of our stuff, and books fall into the category of there-are-too-many-and-we-don’t-know-where-to-put-them-all-so-we-postpone-decision-making-indefinitely. I should consider de-stashing, really. But I love them all. Even the ones I that break my heart.

It’s hard for me to choose favourites, so here are simply some notable ones:

1. The Knitter’s Book of Yarn, by Clara Parkes (such good info, with lovely patterns)
2. 200 Crochet Blocks, by Jan Eaton (one of the first books I was sent to review on CrochetMe.com)
3. Quilting for Dummies (bought when we decided to make our chuppah when we got married, and we had never quilted)
4. Weekend Knitting, by Melanie Falick (the first knitting book that made me swoon)
5. Brave New Knits, by Julie Turjoman (I love the profiles of new and established designers and their online presence)
6. Crochet History and Technique, by Lis Paludan (the definitive work)
7. Loop-d-Loop, by Teva Durham (Teva is an inspiring genius)
8. Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, by Joelle Hoverson (a classic, for good reason)
9. Okay, yes, there’s the section where I keep my books (I wrote them, therefore they are notable to me)
10. There’s also the section of Japanese crafts books (these make my heart sing)

Oh man. On any given day this list would look different.

Your turn! Show your crafts books and tell about your favourites.

Crafty Bookworm is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

It was 1990; I was in Grade 9. There was a big event at a park in downtown Albany, NY, and I was very excited to go. And I had also just gotten my period for the first time. Obviously, I was mortified and I didn’t want to leave the house. But I had read 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth. When I was fourteen, see, the Earth was barreling toward Hell in a hand basket. It was. And I was going to fight it.*

So I mustered my courage and left the house and went to the Earth Day event downtown. It was a gloriously sunny, warm day. And I wore a big red sweatshirt because OMG I had my period and people might notice. I shvitzed and shvitzed as I walked around looking at all the tables and buying hemp necklaces and collecting pamphlets and trying very hard to barely move my legs at all.

Yes, Earth Day has always been special to me.

In honour of today’s Earth Day, I’m going to pick up a copy of There’s Lead in Your Lipstick, by Gillian Deacon. It’s about how to avoid toxins in body-care products, which is something I’m even more interested in learning about now that there’s a four-month-old who, in addition to puking on me daily, seems intent on  sucking on my hands constantly and occasionally on my neck. So rather than using no moisturizer on my cracking cuticles, at least overnight, I’d like to learn more about what might not kill us both. Also, I’d like both for my lips not to be chapped and to be able to kiss that baby all over pretty much all the time.

As it happens, Penguin Canada, publisher of the book, invited me to participate in the blog tour for it, and I’m very happy to offer up a wee DIY excerpt, along with a chance to win a copy of the book with a rad lip-gloss prize.

Make It Yourself: Moisturizing Mask
Excerpted from There’s Lead in Your Lipstick by Gillian Deacon (Penguin Canada). Copyright © Backbone Inc. FSO Gillian Deacon, 2011

(Greek yogourt is also very moisturizing and can be used as a base for this mask.)
1/2 medium to large avocado
1 to 2 tbsp honey (5 to 15 mL)

Puree ingredients together in a blender or whip by hand.

For dry, sensitive skin, add one tablespoon of oatmeal and one tablespoon of water.

Mix together into a smooth paste and apply to the face and neck area, leaving on for about ten minutes.

Hm. Seems almost too easy.

Now for the giveaway! Note that it’s open only to residents of Canada. One lucky Canadian resident will win a prize pack of There’s Lead In Your Lipstick and an Eco Kiss kit from Saffron Rouge (total retail value about CDN $48.95).

You have three chances to enter! (Note: you must leave a separate comment for each chance.)

1. Leave a comment here about anything related to DIY skincare or toxins in body-care products or your first Earth Day memory.
2. Tweet the link to this contest and leave a (separate!) comment saying you did so.
3. Share the link to this contest on Facebook and leave a (separate!) comment saying you did so.

The contest ends at noon (Pacific time) on Friday, 29th April, after which I’ll use a random-number generator to pick the winner.

Good luck!

Here’s the whole blog-tour itinerary:

April 11 Rayment’s Readings, Rants and Ramblings
April 12 My Ever Expanding Library
April 13 Jacob’s Beloved
April 14 Bella’s Bookshelves
April 15 Cindy’s Love of Books
April 18 Rowangarth Farm
April 19 Lost for Words
April 20 Curled Up With a Good Book and a Cup of Tea
April 21 A Bookworm’s World
April 22 You’re right here!
April 25 A Mom After God’ Own Heart
April 26 The Literary Word
April 27 Just a Lil Lost
April 28 In the Next Room

* Twenty-one years later I can see no evidence the Earth has escaped the hand basket; it’s just a much longer trip than I’d thought it would be when I was a teenager.

“There’s Lead in Your Lipstick” Blog Tour, DIY Face Mask Recipe and a Giveaway for Earth Day is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

Through Melissa over at YA Book Shelf, I discovered The Perpetual Page-Turner’s End of 2010 Survey. It’s a better way to revisit what I read this year than my original plan of best-ofs.

What were your favourite and most hated books of the year?

1. Best book of 2010?
   Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout – a beautifully written portrait of a woman as conveyed through tales about her and others. Also: The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins; The Shipping News, by Annie Proulx.
2. Worst book of 2010?
   Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer, by John Grisham. Though I also thought The Gunslinger was a terrible book, the awful failure of John Grisham to bring a kid’s story to life makes it far worse than Stephen King’s terrible tale. Also: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, by Tom Robbins (never before have I felt such entertaining writing was such bad storytelling).
3. Most Disappointing Book of 2010?
   The Strain, by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. It was so hyped and geeks were in such a frenzy for it, but it was amateurish, unoriginal and flat. Also: The Secret Hour, by Scott Westerfeld, because two of my favourite bookish people recommended it and I found it shallow, slow and predictable.
4. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2010?
   The Book of Fires, by Jane Borodale. Though I requested a review copy of this book from Penguin Canada, I was skeptical. It wasn’t billed as “women’s fiction”, though other women’s fiction books I’d received from Penguin made me want to pour lemon juice on self-inflicted wounds. It’s a period piece, too, and that’s not generally my thing. But this book is lovely. The setting is rich and almost tangible, the characters believable and the story compelling. I highly recommend it.
5. Book you recommended to people most in 2010?
   The Hunger Games trilogy. Also: Smilla’s Sense of Snow, by Peter Høeg, and The Swarm, by Frank Schätzing.
6. Best series you discovered in 2010?
   Again with The Hunger Games. Read it. Do it now.
7. Favorite new authors you discovered in 2010?
   This is impossible to answer, since I didn’t read more than one work (or trilogy) by an author this year. I’d like to read more by Peter Høeg and Annie Proulx, for sure.
8. Most hilarious read of 2010?
   Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, even though I hated it.
9. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2010?
   The Hunger Games and The Swarm, even though the ending of The Swarm was odd and heavy-handed and rambling.
10. Book you most anticipated in 2010?
    The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, by Stieg Larsson (which, by the way, I found unworthy of the anticipation; in fact, I thought it was a full-on disappointment). Also: Olive Kitteridge.
11. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2010?
    The Book of Fires (see right).
12. Most memorable character in 2010?
    Katniss Everdeen, from The Hunger Games trilogy. Also: Abdulrahman Zeitoun, from Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers (which, though an excellent book and an important recounting, didn’t match the brilliance of What Is the What).
13. Most beautifully written book in 2010?
    The Shipping News. Also: Olive Kitteridge.
14. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2010?
    Best Friends: The True Story of the World’s Most Beloved Animal Sanctuary, by Samantha Glen, which tells the tale of the sanctuary where I volunteered earlier this month, and is, ultimately, proof that when you follow your convictions, with honesty and integrity and perseverance, you can achieve wonderful things. Also: The Hunger Games, out of its sheer brilliance.
15. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2010 to finally read?
    The Swarm, which I first discovered in around 2007. And The Shipping News.

Book Blogging in 2010 (optional; I decided to go for it)

1. New favorite book blog you discovered in 2010?
   YA Book Shelf. I’ve always enjoyed good YA fiction, and I’m starting to properly devote some thought to it.
2. Favorite review that you wrote in 2010?
   The Hunger Games trilogy. Also, I did have a lot of fun ripping Theodore Boone; I just don’t think I wrote as well as I could have.
3. Best discussion you had on your blog?
   Related to books, it would be two: 1) There was great discussion about the book and films and books and films on my post about the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; 2) There was a ton of questioning and answering in my giveaway post for Shannon Okey’s book The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design.
4. Most thought-provoking review or discussion you read on somebody else’s blog?
   I have a terrible memory for blog reading! Sigh.
5. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)?
   The Twitter interview I did with Shannon Okey for her book (see #3).
6. Best moment of book blogging in 2010?
   I’m not sure what this means, so I’m just gonna skip it.
7. Best bookish discovery (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?
   Reading books electronically. I knew it existed before 2010, duh, but I didn’t do it till I got my iPad. And though the iPad’s back-lit screen isn’t ideal and I’ve been totally coveting a dedicated Kobo ebook reader to give my eyes a break, I just love it.

The Best (and worst) Books I Read in 2010 is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

One of the sad publishing-industry events in Vancouver in 2010 was the shuttering of Duthie Books, one of the last great non-used indie bookstores in town.

I admit I had mixed feelings about its closing. I loved the idea of Duthie’s, but I’d often felt kind of intimidated going in there. And the rhetoric coming from the owner once the closing was announced was of the “you can’t compete against the box stores and Amazon and ebooks” variety, which frustrates me to no end. (For crafters reading this, I’m of the opinion that bookstores and yarn stores are two sides of the same coin as far as business models go, and I get equally frustrated when yarn-store owners who choose not to innovate and experiment cry that the market climate made them fail.)

Then there was a phoenix that rose from the ashes of Duthie’s, and it was announced that several of the folks who worked at the store were going to open a new indie bookstore a couple of blocks away. Sitka Books and Art (far more books than art, and fully mainstream despite what the Papyrus font of their logo may indicate) is a fabulous addition to Vancouver’s book scene, and I hope they feed our collective literary appetites for decades and decades to come.

Greg and I went in to Sitka last week to buy our holiday gifts for family. The first thing I noticed was that the quiet, perhaps-we’re-too-literary-for-you feeling I got from Duthie’s was gone. We were enthusiastically greeted when we walked in, and the store’s staff helped us pick books for the folks we were least sure about.

We left with an armload of books, and Greg pulled a brilliant stealth move and bought me one without me even noticing.

During our gift exchange, we learned that my in-laws went by Sitka the day after we went, and they, too, raved about how much help they received. I mean, ok. Evidence: They got me a copy of Sylvia Olsen’s Working with Wool: A Coast Salish Legacy and the Cowichan Sweater. Perfect gift, and they wouldn’t have even known it existed without the help of a fabulous staff. (I’ve read the first chapter, and I’m really excited about the rest of the book. If you’re a lover of regional, cultural knitting tradition, I already highly recommend it.)

2011 is going to be an important year in the book business. Ebooks have arrived; they’re no longer for early adopters. Box stores are hurting and indies continue to scrape and claw to stay in the black. Here’s my plan: I’m going to continue to buy genre books I’m unlikely to re-read or lend out as ebooks or used books (and if Google brings their e-bookstore to Canada, I’ll do my best to buy ebooks through indies so they get a cut). And I’m going to go to Sitka Books or my other local favourite, Pulp Fiction, for everything else and when I need a good recommendation. There’s simply nothing like that shopping experience, and it’s important to me to support its continued existence.

What about you? Do you have a favourite local bookstore? And if you’re crafty, do you have a favorite local craft or yarn store? I find there are similarly fabulous shopping experiences in yarn stores as bookstores, amiright?

Holiday Win: An Ode to the Indie Bookstore is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

So I decided to be systematic.

Here’s a list of the books I’ve read in the last year, and either how I found out about them or why I chose to read them.

What and/or who influences your reading decisions?

1. The Echo Maker, A Novel/Richard Powers – Chosen for book club. (Hated it.)
2. On Writing/Stephen King – I’d heard about it online. (Loved it.)
3. Darwin’s Radio/Greg Bear – My partner Greg recommended it. (Loved it.)
4. Black Hole/Charles Burns – My in-laws gave it to me. (Liked it.)
5. The Gunslinger/Stephen King – I’d read it as a kid and wanted to revisit it. (Enjoyed it as a kid. Hated it as an adult.)
6. Zeitoun/Dave Eggers – I love Eggers and followed reviews and news of this book online. (Liked it.)
7. Darwin’s Children/Greg Bear – Sequel to Darwin’s Radio. (Meh.)
8. Olive Kitteridge/Elizabeth Strout – There was unending buzz amongst bookish types online. (Loved it.)
9. The Book of Fires/Jane Borodale – I was sent a review copy by Penguin Canada. (Loved it.)
10. Body of Lies/David Ignatius – My brother gave me a copy when he finished reading it. (Meh.)
11. Lowboy/John Wray – I’d asked for it for the holidays a while back, I believe because I’d read a blogger’s review somewhere. (Loved it.)
12. The Swarm/Frank Schatzing – My friend Kevin had suggested it for our book club a few years back and it stuck in my head though we never ended up choosing it. (Liked it.)
13. Starfish/Peter Watts – Greg recommended it because of our discussions of The Swarm. (Liked it.)
14. Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer/John Grisham – I was sent a review copy by Penguin Canada. (OMG I hated it so much.)
15. South of Broad/Pat Conroy – My father-in-law lent it to me. (Liked it.)
16. In the Land of Invented Languages/Arika Okrent – Heard about it online. (Loved it.)
17. The Shipping News/Annie Proulx – Common knowledge. It had been on my list for a long time. (Loved it.)
18. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues/Tom Robbins – Common knowledge. I’d picked up a used copy. (Hated it.)
19. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest/Stieg Larsson – International phenomenon. (Didn’t like it.)
20. Smilla’s Sense of Snow/Peter Hoeg – My friend Elin recommended it during a conversation about enjoying The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. (Loved it.)
21. The Strain/Guillermo del Toro and Peter Hogan – Lots of buzz amongst geeks online. (Hated it.)
22. The Hunger Games Trilogy/Suzanne Collins – In the last few weeks, I noticed lots of talk of it online amongst friends and others. (OMG I loved it so much.)
23. The Secret Hour/Scott Westerfeld – My friends Michelle and Stephanie recommended it. (Enjoying it.)

How I Find the Books I Read is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

The Hunger Games trilogy chronicles the tale of Katniss Everdeen, a teenager whose big heart, indomitable spirit and rage land her on the front lines of a fight to change a reality she never really thought to question.

It’s sometime in the future, and the all-powerful Capitol rules over the twelve districts of the country called Panem. The rules are designed to prevent rebellion from the citizens after the government won a war against them 75 years earlier. Where “prevent rebellion” means each district is walled off and cut off from the others. Food is rationed. Everyone lives under martial law. And every year, as a reminder to the citizens of who’s in charge, the Capitol puts on the Hunger Games. A boy and a girl between twelve and eighteen from each district are chosen to participate in a fully televised and dramatized fight to the death.

The rich, frivolous citizens of the Capitol delight in this ultimate form of entertainment. Each of the twenty-four tributes is assigned a prep team that makes them up, dresses them up, and puts them in front of cameras so they instantly become celebrities. Except to the people of the districts, who are forced to watch but who experience no entertainment from it.

When Katniss’s sister is chosen during the annual reaping, Katniss volunteers to go in her stead. That’s allowed. She’s joined by Peeta, the baker’s son. And so begins one of the most horrifying young-adult stories I’ve read.

Katniss leaves behind her widowed mother, her beloved sister and her best friend Gale. Gale, who we think might be her boyfriend someday, maybe if she wins the Games and comes home.

It’s hard not to compare this series to other YA stand-outs, so I’ll do it. Collins achieves the pacing of Harry Potter and the poignancy of The Book Thief. The two-boys-who-love-her storyline blows right through the trite drivel of the Twilight series. Where I complained that Twilight didn’t have evil that was evil enough, The Hunger Games has more evil than most books I’ve read of any genre. And nothing about that evil is supernatural. No, this is a tale about the darkest depths of human depravity and the prices people pay to fight it.

It’s an indictment of our culture of manufactured “reality” entertainment; of how we seem to simply accept and devour it rather than question what it means to us as humans that we delight in watching the worst moments of others.

It’s a study of war and peace and poses the hefty question of how far the means can go before the justified end is just as unpalatable as the beginning.

This is no simple triumph-of-the-human-spirit story. Every triumph comes with a price, and many human spirits are broken, some never to be repaired.

I gasped, I cheered, I cried my eyes out, I felt ill. I finished reading last night, dreamed about these characters, woke up and started writing this before finishing my coffee.

You should read these books. They examine questions we’d all be better for having pondered. Teenagers should read these books. I probably would have experienced them fully when I was around fourteen, but they’re gruesome and Collins pulls no punches. So it’s possible a teen might not be ready for it till they’re a little more mature.

Ok, a little more beyond the vagueness.

**Spoilers ahead. Some minor, some major. BE WARNED**

You might be inclined to think that Katniss’s Hunger Games will be different. Something about this story will be different from the norm, right, or why would the novelist tell it to us? So you think in this Games the tributes would do something like refuse to kill each other. They don’t. Children die. Horribly. At the hands of other children.

Of course Katniss wins; for the first time, there are two winners. She and Peeta, the baker’s son who’s loved her since childhood. But right away, you know this isn’t the same kind of YA book we’ve read before. There is no tidy ending like in Harry Potter. No return to the warm hearth of home, with everyone safe and cozy. No. Katniss and Peeta are plagued by the lives they’ve taken and seen taken. Of course they are.

The simple act of defiance that Katniss made to result in Peeta winning too was the catalyst for the inevitable rebellion of the districts against the Capitol. And thus we’re thrown into the second and third books – the stories of politics and war.

Katniss is about as not Bella Swan as a kickass teenager could be. Gale and Peeta, in loving and wanting her, are as not Edward and Jacob as they could be.

In Mockingjay, the third book, it’s impressive how complicated Collins makes the relationships between these three. She never, ever falls back on cliché with them.

Katniss choosing Peeta in the end is the right choice. Really, it seems more an acceptance than a choice. Peeta’s the only person who can make Katniss’s life bearable after all she’s been through. Because he’s been through it, too. The intensity of their losses – of loved ones, of innocence, of moral clarity, of sanity, of health – binds them.

Even the brief epilogue, twenty years after the end of the story, shows those scars will never heal. How could they?

In 1165 pages, Suzanne Collins built up and knocked down, tortured, burned, blew up, stabbed, poisoned, drowned, shot and chewed up some of the most relatable and therefore lovable, flawed, triumphant, strong, vivid human characters I’ve ever encountered. And she managed to reflect it all back on our current reality – to force us to question, examine and maybe even to get a little better acquainted with our own moral existence.

The Hunger Games Trilogy, by Suzanne Collins: Book Review is a post from Kim Werker's blog.