Cecilia Read-Along: Summer Reading for People Who Don’t Like “Summer Reading”

Cecilia Readalong Button edit

What do you look for in a summer read?

  • Almost 1000 pages?
  • Obscure 18th century author?
  • Difficult to find in print?

You are in the right place, friend. It’s the #SummerofCecilia and over the next ten weeks or so, we’re going to polish off this old-school English classic: Cecilia by Frances Burney.

Who?

Frances Burney was a totally important author who wrote four novels and a ton of letters and diaries, was wildly successful in her day, and then was ignored by critics for decades, but she’s back, baby. Thanks to feminist scholars and critics, including BookTube’s own RonLit, and the ladies of Hidden Histories podcast, she and her pre-Austen contemporaries are back in the public conscious.

Virginia Woolf also called her the mother of English fiction. NBD.

Why Cecilia?

I’ve been advised by several smart people to start with Evelina, a shorter and more accessible work, but damn it, sometimes you feel like reading a thousand page novel that wasn’t written by some bro-ish literary darling *cough City on Fire cough*

And the premise is fascinating! Cecilia is an heiress, but there’s a catch: any man she marries must take her name if he is to get access to her cash. Pretty out there for 1782.

Oh yeah, and a quote from Cecilia inspired the title of another book you might have heard of…

The whole of this unfortunate business,” said Dr. Lyster, “has been the result of pride and prejudice. … If to pride and prejudice you owe your miseries, so wonderfully is good and evil balanced, that to pride and prejudice you will also owe their termination.

What do I have to do?

Cecilia is made up of ten “books”, each of which is just under one hundred pages. I figure we read a book a week for the next ten weeks, which will take us through the summer, and then some.

If you’ve done my previous read-alongs, you know I’m pretty low key. This is an approximate schedule, and I’ll aim to post on Mondays, but you can read and post whenever you like, or just comment on my posts, or just snapchat with me, whatever. I might do a little Booktube too. You can bookmark this post and I’ll link it all up:

Usually this is where I bribe you

The nice thing about reading-along (read-alonging?) Dead White Dude classics is that there are ready-made prizes galore at Out of Print Tees. Burney swag? Not so much. So let me think on that a little. But suffice to say, anyone who even tries to participate in this is a summer-reading rock star in my books.

 

bring_back_the_fanny_pack_t_shirts-rc547fecb133e4b00a78ec30bad2e7003_jg4de_512

This is the best I could find

Okay, where do I start

Now that you’re super excited about reading Cecilia, I have some bad news: it is not easy to get a physical copy of this book. My local library has nothing at all for Burney but an old biography, and it’s not on the shelves in any of the Chapters in town. I have the Oxford World Classics edition, which I got from The Book Depository, but not without a lengthy email exchange with customer service and almost two months of waiting. So I suggest you either order online (from somewhere reliable) or grab the ebook. I got a Harper Collins edition on my Kobo for 99 cents, and it works fine so far.

#SquadGoals: Here’s who’s signed up so far. Leave me a comment and join us!

If order of when they joined, this is #SummerofCecilia squad. If you’re in this list and want me to link to something else (or not) let me know

  1. My mom, who also goes by Mary and has the best tweets.
  2. Rainey
  3. CJ of ebookclassics who I will see in person during the read-along. I think we should go hat shopping in Cecilia’s honour.
  4. Emma of The Paperback Princess
  5. Kristine
  6. My sister Cait who is back at it again with her third read-along
  7. Vikzwrites of Weird Marginalia
  8. xkurwamacz
  9. Rick of Read the North (formerly Book-a-Week Project, and Canon Fodder, and Another Book Blog, and the original Book-a-Week Project… what’d I miss?)
  10. Lindy of Lindy Reads, best book club leader ever
  11. Sarah-Jane of Mercurial Vicissitudes
  12. Melanie Kerr, author of Follies Past and Mary Green
  13. Netta Johnston of Stonehouse Publishing, our resident Cecilia expert, meaning she’s actually read it before

Conspicuous Consumption #2: Podcasts

A feature in which I tell you about my book-related media consumption in a conspicuous manner.

I’ve been driving for about seven years now, and I’ve wasted so much time listening to the radio.

It took me more than five years to realize I could borrow audio books from the library. That was great and all, but I’m trying to cut back on reading this year, so rather than go back to terrible radio commercials, I finally figured out podcasts.

If you are thinking “what is there to figure out?” please remember I am old and that those audio books I listened to were on CD. Anyway, here’s what I needed:

  • Android app: Pocket Casts
  • Speaker  (Not affiliate, just a tip so you don’t have to go through two duds like I did)
  • Some good podcasts. See below.

The must listens

overdueOverdue: I love this concept: each week, one of the hosts reads a book that “you should have read by now” and explains it to the other. These guys are funny and take the books just seriously enough, which is to say, not terribly. I enjoy the episodes about books I’ve read more than those about books I haven’t, but, you can definitely still enjoy an episode without reading the book. That’s kind of the point.

Try this episode: Peter Pan

 

writereadsWritereads: Yes, I am a frequent guest host, but hear me out! CanLit is woefully under served in the literary podcast world, and Writeread’s monthly themes ensure there’s something for everybody. Writereads is a book club, so you really should read the book before listening to the podcast, but when I haven’t, I just listen to the first portion in which Kirt and Tania talk about their current reads and CanLit happenings.

Try this episode: The ones with me, but also a classic Tania-and-Kirt one like this one, about an L.M. Montgomery book that features filthy language (…the episode, not the book.)

 

cantlitCan’t Lit: Besides having the best name, Can’t Lit fills in a very specific niche by interviewing Canadian writers with a heavy focus on poets. No stuffy pretentiousness here, the interviews are offbeat and funny. No need to do the reading, though you’ll probably want to read all the author’s stuff afterward.

Try this episode: Michael Christie

 

 

backlistedBacklisted: British writers John Mitchinson and Andy Miller (also an excellent Twitter-er at @i_am_mill_i_am) resurrect a forgotten backlist title every two weeks and it doesn’t matter if you’ve never read it, or heard of the author, or even intend to read it, the discussion is fascinating. I do hope to read one of the backlisted titles one day, and might start with this one:

Try this episode: Good Morning Midnight

 

hiddenhistoriesHidden Histories: This six-episode series is over, but it’s worth going back and listening. The topic at hand is “the great forgetting” of British female authors prior to Austen. I’d heard of Frances Burney and Mary Wollstonecraft, but I learned about Aphra Behn and Hester Thrale and many more. And the episodes are blessedly short.

Try this episode: Bluestocking culture: how did women become writers?

 

Honourable Mentions

  • Reading Envy: A recent episode features “book speed dating,” in which the host reads the first 50 pages of a bunch of books and decides which ones to continue and which to get rid of. Brilliant!
  • Lit Up: Interviews with totally important authors, like Nell Zink.
  • No Resemblance: This podcast hasn’t even put out an episode yet, but check out the intro: writers submit short stories, which will be read by the host. This one’s local and I’m excited to see what kind of stuff comes in.

So, do you like stuff? Specifically podcasts? Tell me which ones!

 

 

NYT By The Book Tag

I was so inspired by compiling my favourite Booktube channels that I made another contribution to my own. This is my very first “tag” video, which is kind of like Top Ten Tuesday except people do them for months or even years after they’re created. I like that. This one was created three months ago by Marie Berg and has spread like wildfire through the literary-inclined Booktube community.

Here are the tag questions:

1. What book is on your nightstand now?
2. What was the last truly great book that you read?
3. If you could meet any writer – dead or alive – who would it be? And what would you want to know?
4. What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves?
5. How do you organize your personal library?
6. What book have you always meant to read and haven’t gotten around to yet? Anything you feel embarrassed never to have read?
7. Disappointing, overrated, just not good: what book did you feel you were supposed to like but didn’t? Do you remember the last book you put down without finishing?
8. What kinds of stories are you drawn to? Any you stay clear of?
9. If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?
10. What do you plan to read next?

Conspicuous Consumption #1: Booktube

A new feature in which I tell you about my book-related media consumption in a conspicuous manner.

I can’t imagine a scarier scenario than being forced to sit down and watch, listen to, or read every single thing I subscribe to: every video on my YouTube feed, every new podcast on PocketCasts, every blog post on WordPress.

Okay, scary is a but much. Excruciating? Exhausting? Can’t-even-ing?

My feeds are way out of control. While there’s plenty of incentive to “curate” media that forces you to consume everything – think scrolling through Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook- it’s all too easy to stay subscribed to stuff you don’t care about when you can just stop clicking. Eventually, though, it gets to be too much and steps must be taken.

Let’s stay positive. While I curate my feeds (i.e. unsubscribe like whoa) here’s what’s made the cut, starting with Booktube.

The must watches

 

Steve Donoghue: Daily videos, reads everything, fastest Booktube-drama outrage-to-redemption cycle I’ve ever witnessed (#fakereadergirls, what?) and most of all, he has so much fun with this. He’s always on the verge of a laugh. Happy one thousand subscribers!

The Poptimist: High production values, hilarious, great taste, and (extremely important to me) a soothing manner and voice. His videos are the only ones I watch twice in a row, because they are that entertaining; and so packed with goodness, I miss things the first time around.

WhatKamilReads: Great taste (in books and style) and seems so warm and humble. His book recommendations are genuine and heartfelt. His video always make me smile.

exlibris: Makes classics seem just as vital and relevant as the new releases everyone else is reading.

Virginia Woof: As the kids say, I am “here for” everything she does: book hauls, book unhauls, condom hauls… yep. CanLit and LGBTQ focused and her makeup is always “on point.” (you watch too much Booktube and you just start talking like this, sorry.)

Jason Purcell: Guess who’s back? Take everything I said above and combine it in one Booktuber and you’ve got Jason.

Honourable mentions

  • Amanda Centre: Delightfully off kilter. Become one of her fellow cyborgs, you won’t regret it.
  • Emma Tobias: The only #fakereadergirls response I deigned to watch and it was a gooder.
  • Brixton: A brand new channel, endorsed by Jason Purcell.
  • Books Beauty Ameriie: It’s just one thing that’s got me subbing… if you get that reference, you should get why I died when I realized who this Booktuber is.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a blogger, so tell me, is Booktube a big part of your book-related media consumption? Who are your must watches?

 

 

 

Talking Birdie

birdie

May is new release month at Writereads, your favourite-with-a-u Canadian book club podcast. I am guest hosting once again, which means I get to choose the book, and I’m taking liberties. Birdie by Tracey Lindberg will be nearly one year old by the time the podcast comes out, so it doesn’t really qualify as new. But we need to talk about it. Not just because it’s by a local author, or about a contemporary Indigenous woman, or because it’s brilliant, but because I don’t think it got a fair shake on Canada Reads.

Birdie was the third book to get booted off Canada Reads this year (Americans: this is our public broadcaster’s annual books game show, like a televised Tournament of Books, and we are super smug about it,) and it was frustrating to see so much left unsaid. To be fair, there’s not enough time to really get into any of the books, even with four hours of air time (though they could cut down on the trailers and title sequences and dramatic pauses.) Here are a few thing I want to talk about:

  • Contestants were frustrated that Birdie’s timeline is not linear. At one point, Birdie’s defender, Bruce Poon Tip, said that to want Birdie to conform to the type of narrative we’re used to, we’re “colonizing” the book. What does that mean? We didn’t get to find out.
  • There was little mention of humour. Birdie’s teenage obsession with The Beachcombers and The Frugal Gourmet are so absurd and so specifically Canadian. Skinny Freda’s penchant for white guys, all of whom she refers to as “Phil,” reminded me of Cher Horowitz’s “Barneys.”
  • A lot of time was spent on how “other” this book is. Non-linear. Stream of consciousness. Compound words and Cree poetry mixed in. Yeah, it’s different (and made the other books sounds BOR-ing) but it also reminded me of so many other books! It has the unrelenting focus on interior life of Villette, the absurdity of Malarky, the horror and hope of Push. Birdie is unique but it’s also part of a tradition of women writing about women.

So, read Birdie, subscribe to Writereads, and listen in as Kirt, Tania, and I try to cram all this in to a one-hour podcast. It should be up in mid-May.

The trailer from Canada Reads.

What’s a Readathon, anyway?

I’ve written one self-indulgent feeeeelings post about aspects of book blogging culture this year, so forgive me for going on about one more: readathons. I didn’t write about them before because I didn’t know what to say. I don’t get them.

I know what they are. This one in particular, Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon, involves everyone around the world reading for the same 24 hour block, documenting progress online, and cheering each other one through mini-challenges, blog-hopping, and literal (but virtual) cheerleaders.

I kind of get why readathons exist. Community building. Blog discovery. Blog motivation/mojo-getting-back incentive.

It’s the “24 hour” thing I can’t reconcile: the rules are lax, but the name kind of implies that it’s about reading as much as possible for 24 hours. Some people take this very seriously and block off parts or all of their days. Some actually stay awake for 24 hours. I just feel like, I already read as much as I can. I already fit reading in to small pockets of time and read at times when I really shouldn’t (the bathroom comes to mind) and ignore my children when I’m on a roll and stay up till my eyes cross. I’m supposed to do more? Why?

A lot of the “fun” of readathons seems to be figuring out how to avoid those pesky things that get in the way of reading time. Readathoners discuss cook-ahead meals, so as to avoid cooking on the day. Snacks are purchased and kept in arms reach. Cozy clothing is laid out. TBR stacks are arranged.

Brock of Let’s Read helped me understand the disconnect a little better with this video from a previous readathon. He’s got a couple of young kids and demonstrates how he fits reading in between feeding and playing and bedtime – things you can’t reschedule.

I can’t reschedule the things that interrupt my reading time. I can cook ahead as much as I like, but only my four year old knows what specific item of food he will demand at a to-be-determined time loosely associated with “lunch.” I could throw my kids in front of screens all day while I read, but I would rue the day (or part of the day?) come bedtime. If you’ve had to put two pent up, bug-eyed, overstimulated-with-Minecraft kids to bed, you know it’s not worth it.  I could stay up till the MST end time, 6:00am Sunday, which would give me an hour or so till breakfast. And if you’ve ever spent, oh, give or take, three years of your life not sleeping through the night, you know there is nothing worth missing a night’s sleep.

Giving in my my cynical side: If I actually wanted to get rid of something that impedes my reading, it would be my phone; but then how would I document my reading/snacking progress across multiple social media channels? Also, aren’t -athons usually for charity or something?

Anyhoo, I clearly don’t understand the appeal but I’m going to try and find it. I’m officially doing Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon! Here are the deets:

TBR

No.

No.

  • The Liar by Nora Roberts: My personal challenge is to start and finish my first Nora Roberts book during the readathon. For details on why, see ebookclassics on popular books. My mom is reading along with me and she’s 125 pages in already!
  • The Diviners by Margaret Laurence: My current read, and I’ll switch to it if The Liar becomes tiresome.
  • The Wizard of Oz: Benjamin’s current read.
  • Stupid Ninjago book: Henry’s current obsession. You know, it’s bad enough when kid’s books are thinly-veiled marketing material, but this is literally a catalog.

Snacks and meals

  • Mini Eggs. Not nearly enough were consumed at Easter.
  • We’re going out for lunch and having frozen pizza for supper. Yep, phoning it in on the meal front.

Book-related activitieseventhispage

  • I’m taking the boys to their first comic book store in the morning. We’re going to Happy Harbor Comics downtown. I hope they have Lumberjanes in stock…
  • Later, I’m attending the Edmonton launch of Even This Page is White, the new poetry collection by Vivek Shraya. I got a babysitter, as I don’t think the kids are ready for their first poetry reading.

Impediments/family members

  • Benjamin, 6
  • Henry, 4
  • Did I mention Jason’s in the States, and I’m solo-parenting?
  • Jason gets home around 10pm. I may have to look up from my book, as I have’t seen him in a week.

Good luck, readathoners. I shall document my progress in all the usual spots, look for (or temporarily block) @lauratfrey.

*Imagine the title of this post sung of the tune of that part of “Writing to Reach You” by Travis in which they acknowledge their debt to an even bigger Britpop band. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, uh, brush up on your late 90s Britpop?

Stonehouse Publishing launches five novels, also talks Buzzfeed, Burney, and Bookstagram

The opening of a new publishing house in Edmonton would be a momentous affair no matter what. Add in a literary and historical fiction focus, an intriguing debut run of five novels by Alberta authors, and the most opulent book party I’ve been to apart from the one I attended with Gwyneth Paltrow, and Stonehouse Publishing‘s launch looks like the literary event of the year thus far.

The Books

Stonehouse Publishing wants to publish “the best in Canadian fiction, but not necessarily ‘Canadiana’.” So, not this stuff (though someone really should write a novel about a troupe of French Canadian clowns.) They also plan to reissue forgotten classics, kicking off with Evelina by Fanny Burney next year.  As of May 1st, you can get your hands on five books: Three historical novels, set in WWI-era Canada, Regency England, and revolutionary France; a thriller set in contemporary Ukraine (Course Correction,) and a murder mystery set in rural Alberta (Edge of Wild.) I took the three historicals home:

  • Mary Green by Melanie Kerr: I reviewed Kerr’s first book, Follies Past, a few years back and was pleasantly surprised by the Pride and Prejudice prequel, which stands on it’s own easily while still capturing the style of Jane Austen. I’m very excited to meet Mary Green, who is not an Austen character, but does exist in Regency England and is a neglected orphan who (presumably) must rely on her wits to cope in London society.
  • League of the Star by N.R. Cruse: Hearing the first few pages, in which a sheltered teenage girl sees a man for the first time on a ship, while escaping the French revolution, got me hooked.
  • Kalyna by Pam Clark: I’ve read plenty of WWI-era CanLit but never from the perspective of Ukrainian immigrants. Time to fill in a few gaps.

The Party

The majority of book parties in Edmonton take place in the basement of Audreys Books and feature coffee and cookies. To be clear, I’m not knocking that! This was just on a different level. Hosted in the beautiful Boyle Street Community League, there was a DJ, a photo booth with historical costumes, a snack bar loaded with tea and scones, and a cash bar. Authors met readers in elaborately decorated booths, and readings took place in a comfy armchair in the middle of it all.

I saw and was seen, particularly by Matthew Stepanic of Glass Buffalo and Claire Kelly of NeWest Press. I also met author Melanie Kerr in person for the first time, after corresponding by email on and off for years. She is a delight, and her blog, though not updated so often these days, has some gold in the archives, including this post, if you’re a “begs the question” stickler like me.

It all went off beautifully. The only oddity was that author N.R. Cruse, who was apparently in the crowd, never sat at her booth, signed any books, or read a passage from her novel (her editor read for her.) Cruse is known to be reclusive and claims to be a direct descendant of Daniel Dafoe. I think of her as Alberta’s answer to Elena Ferrente.

Q&A with publisher Netta Johnson

Editor Julie Yerex and Publisher Netta Johnson were much too busy to chat the night of, so I asked some questions by email.

Reading in Bed: I recently read an article about how historical fiction is seen as less prestigious than contemporary literary fiction. This has always confused me. When I see a book classified as “historical fiction” and it’s clearly got tons of literary merit (e.g. Wolf Hall) I wonder why the setting makes it a whole different genre. Do you think historical fiction is seen as less prestigious than contemporary, and did this influence how you chose your focus for Stonehouse, your first run of books, how you market them, and so on?

Netta Johnson:  I thought this question was very interesting, and it serves to highlight how much things change, and yet stay the same. Lately, I have been reading the whole set of novels by Dumas. I had tried to read the Three Musketeers many years ago, but somehow couldn’t get properly interested. Without knowing it, I started to read the 3rd in the series, The Vicomte to Bragelonne and was pretty captivated by the portrayal of the Musketeers at age 50; the characters were so much more interesting in their middle-age. Reading the introductions to these books, I was struck to discover that these challenging and intricate novels (my words) were considered rather fluffy and insubstantial at the time of their publication, and often dismissed as ‘romances’. Perhaps popularity is the heart of the problem, and then and now, it is hard for reviewers to take books seriously when they are popular? Or maybe it is hard to separate the literary historical fiction from the genre historical fiction sold in grocery stories?

RIB: I’m super excited about your plans to publish forgotten classics. Can you tell me how you came to choose Evelina by Fanny Burney for your first book? (By the way, I’m going to host a Fanny Burney readalong this year. I’m thinking Cecilia. I’ve never read her but I’m noticing she’s trending a bit. I first heard about her on RonLit’s YouTube channel.)

NJ: I found Fanny Burney about 18 years ago, via Jane Austen. I began reading Evelina with the expectation that it would be dry and educational, and soon found myself laughing through much of the book. Cecilia is twice the size, and much more serious. It has a very personal appeal to me, so I am never sure if that will translate to others. Julie and I sometimes joke that she is Kanye and I am Jay-Z (thank you, Buzzfeed quizzes!), and in terms of 18th century heroines/books, she is Evelina and I am Cecilia. Evelina is so much more approachable, lighthearted, and when it was first released (anonymously), it spread like wildfire. Cecilia is a longer, darker novel, and it had some pretty famous intellectual admirers (Dr. Johnson, Edmund Burke, Hester Thrale, Napoleon). In Cecilia, FB takes a pretty sharp look at a number of social issues/problems of that time. Cecilia introduces you to misers, superficial friends, gamblers, social climbers, struggling tradesmen (and the poor in general), while showing the social problems with dueling (unavoidable, but the main two consequences were either death or jail, whether you won or lost), and the aimlessness of the aristocratic class. As an underage woman and an heiress, Cecilia is at the mercy of various different people, and as she waits the last few months till she comes of age and inherits her money, she is prey to every kind of snare. There is even a public suicide! Another amazing thing about this book is that we don’t even meet the hero for 120 odd pages. For any time, it is rather unconventional.

RIB: As publishers, are you in tune with all the bookish new media out there: blogs, Booktube, Bookstagram, and so on? Any favourites? How about Snapchat?

NJ: We have to look some of these up! Right now, we think we have a handle on Facebook, Twitter and just staring with Instagram. I didn’t even know the other ones existed!

Note: they’re humble, but their hashtag game was on point: if you missed the big launch, check out #Stoholaunch on Twitter and Instagram.

 

35 Books update: Books 1-6

I’m reading 35 books this year, as you may recall. I made a video about the first six.

Books mentioned:

  1. Asking For It by Lilah Pace, as recommended on Book Riot
  2. The Hunter and the Wild Girl by Pauline Holdstock, with thanks to Goose Lane Editions
  3. The Outside Circle by Patti Laboucane-Benson
  4. The Vegetarian by Han Kang
  5. Mislaid by Nell Zink
  6. In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner

The first six of the year were a bit of a bust. The Vegetarian blew me away at first, but hasn’t stuck with me. Since then, I’ve read two phenomenal books, which you will hear more about soon: Birdie by Tracey Lindberg and Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood.

How we spend our days is how we spend our lives

ADayintheLifeWelcome to the second year of A Day in the Life, hosted by Trish of Love, Laughter and a Touch of Insanity. At first glance, this is not my type of blog event. What do I care what people do with their days? Yet, somehow, I do care. I guess it’s true that how we spend our days is how we spend our lives, which is not a quote from Days of Our Lives, it’s from a serious book (The Writing Life by Annie Dillard.) I participated on a whim last year, and read every single post linked up – more than fifty. This year, seventy two bloggers have already linked up, so I’ve got some reading to do.

My day in the life was not a standard one at all; I was on vacation, the kids were in school, and my sister arrived from Minneapolis.To mix things up, I documented my day with Snapchat*. I kind of messed up, though. Instead of saving all the individual snaps I did that day, I saved my story as a video. So take a little look see, or read on for the text version.

Wednesday, March 23 2016

6:07 am: Wake up for the day. This is a sleep-in, I’m usually up for the day by 5:30. Leisurely breakfast (green smoothie), get ready, catch up on social media.

6:57 am: Wake Benjamin up, give him breakfast (dry Cinnamon Toast Crunch)

7:00 am: “Wake” Henry up, as in, dress him and brush his teeth while he sleeps

7:24 am: Make school lunch with disgusting soy-based “peanut” butter

7:43 am: Henry still sleeping, Benjamin is ready to go

7:48 am: Benjamin dropped off at school. Benefit of living across the street is that I can go from “one child still asleep” to “at school” in five minutes.

7:53 am: Henry eats breakfast (Cheerios, he must pour his own milk, and the milk must fill the bowl)

8:20 am: Henry dropped off at daycare. FREEDOM… to do errands. Also, snow.

8:45 am: Errand number one: get car washed at fancy car wash. This is a once-per-year treat. This year I let them upsell me on the vinyl package. It’s so shiny! I read a devastating chapter of Cat’s Eye while I wait.

9:27 am: Errand number two: I am the Easter Bunny. I love London Drugs. I contemplated buying a copy of Birdie by Tracey Lindberg (I got it from the library,) not knowing it had been kicked off Canada Reads just a half hour earlier. Rude!

10:03 am: Errand number three: groceries. First time in Oliver Square Safeway since they renovated; it’s pretty uppity now. I’m also pretty sick of Jamie Oliver’s smug grin everywhere I look.

10:38 am: Pit stop: I pay almost ten bucks for a cup of tea and toast with peanut butter and jam in a fancy cafe (Cafe Blackbird) because I’m on vacation, damn it.

10:58 am: Errand number four: stock up on bras at My Filosophy. When you find the one, you just know. And you go back to buy it in multiple colours. I also tried on some clothes (vacation!)

11:29 am: Pick up Benjamin at school. I could pick up Henry at this time too, but, decide to have some one-on-one time.

12:03 pm: Lunch at Delux. Benjamin enjoys watching soccer highlights on the big screen (“why do they take their shirts off when they’re happy? Do girl soccer players take their shirts off?”) and free cotton candy.

1:21 pm: Emails and stuff while Benjamin watches some bizarre BBC Kids program.

2:45 pm: Screen time continues; blog for me, TV for him.

3:00 pm: Hide and seek. Neither of us are very good.

3:15 pm: Pick up Henry at daycare.

3:44 pm: Head to the park. Drama ensues when they don’t want to play the same game, and Benjamin finds a friend to play with and Henry doesn’t, and I end up carrying Henry home crying. Henry weights almost 50 lbs, so this counts as cardio.

4:30 pm: Read the boys a Star Wars book they bought at yesterday’s book fair.

5:00 pm: Jason arrives home with 24 beers in preparation for my family visiting this weekend. Not clear if the beer is for them, or him. I start making supper – trying a new recipe from Simply Nigella (out from the library and I’ll likely purchase; I’ve now made five recipes and they’re all great! Tonight I made Cauliflower & Cashew Curry.)

5:41 pm: All three boys refuse to eat the DELICIOUS curry. Jason barbecues hot dogs.

6:00 pm: My review of The Wake goes up on The Rusty Toque. This is the first ever piece of writing I’ve been paid to do. I’m a little excited!

6:30 pm: Boys are back on screens after supper. I spend some… alone time with Jason. Five minutes later, Henry needs his butt wiped. So much for romance. No snaps of either of these events.

7:16 pm: Board game with Benjamin. Sequence Letters is great for letter recognition.

7:43 pm: Snack time. The boys made me buy a dragon fruit yesterday, so today I make them try it. I end up eating most of it. Very mild. Then we hang out and read/ have screen time for a bit.

8:15 pm: Jason puts Benjamin to bed. Benjamin goes down easy (always does.) I begin the nightly rigmarole with Henry, which includes stories, additional snacks, bathroom trips, stuffies, back rubs, and sometimes, all-out tantrums.

9:05 pm: Henry demands warm milk.

10:19 pm: Almost done. We’re in the “lying in bed beside him in a dark room, breathing steadily, trying to fake sleep/not really fall asleep” phase.

10:38 pm: He’s down. FREEDOM! (i.e. wasting time online)

11:30 pm: My mom drops my sister off at my house. She’s just picked her up from the airport; she is visiting for a couple days over Easter. Oh yeah, I bought a signed copy of Freedom and had it shipped to her house in Minnesota to avoid international shipping, and she’s brought it with her. Eeek! We stay up yakking for an hour.

12:30 am: To bed, more wasting time on my phone.

1:00 am: To sleep.

*It’s totally cool and normal for a 35 year old to be on Snapchat. Here are some tips for elder Snapchatters I found. Follow me, I’m lauratfrey!

Snapchat-7582390527469711202

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My review of The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth

thewake…and my very first professional book review! After five years of writing about books here at Reading in Bed, I’m so proud to review The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth, my favourite book of 2015, in The Rusty Toque.

I’ve hinted about my super-duper, super-long review of The Wake for months. And it did take months to write. It also took some particular experiences, pieces of advice, and pep talks. I want to give a few shout outs, and a little preview, as it’s definitely in TL;DR territory. I’m proud, but also nervous. I wrote about The Wake, a novel about the Norman Invasion in 11th century England, in the context of Reconciliation in Canada.

It is controversial to suggest we need yet another account of colonization from the English point of view, but The Wake is an important novel in much the same way as Joseph Boyden’s The Orenda. The Orenda is one of Canadian literature’s first balanced accounts of first contact between Indigenous peoples and Europeans, including French and Indigenous points of view, and importantly, multiple Indigenous points of view (it is quite common that Indigenous peoples and their perspectives are presented as a monolith, despite the plural “peoples.”) The Orenda won the 2014 Canada Reads competition, and has been recommended as required reading for all Canadians.

The Wake should also be required reading for Canadians, not for its balanced perspective, and only partially for the old “those who don’t know, doomed to repeat” reasons, but mostly because learning that the Norman invasion was itself a colonization and that English people are no more a monolith than Indigenous peoples are and that the way we label people “Anglo-Saxon” is almost as misguided as the way we used to label Indigenous peoples “Indians” is very much in the spirit of reconciliation. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s mandate states that “The truth of our common experiences will help set our spirits free and pave the way to reconciliation.” The Wake addresses the themes of common experience, colonization, violence, and even cultural genocide.

Thanks to the people who helped me write this:

  • Jennifer Quist for encouragement and suggesting I get in touch with The Rusty Toque
  • Jane and Miranda for organizing a “Read the TRC” group, which I wrote about here
  • Wab Kinew and Ray Saddleback Jr., who spoke at a City of Edmonton employee event last year, where I first heard the phrase “renegade tribe” which made me think of England’s “greenmen” and  inspired the direction this review took
  • Carolyn of Rosemary and Reading Glasses for her review, which informed mine
  • My sister Cait for proofreading and advice

If you make it through this monster review, please let me know what you think.