Buying Books for A Baby Shower

I buy books for baby showers.  All the time.  The last baby shower I was at, I bought for the parents-to-be, Ten Apples Up On Top and Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?.  I love these books.  I love them because my children love them.  They weren't ones I read as a child, they were gifts.  Seeing my kids love them makes me want to spread the baby bookish love. I've bought loads of different books for showers, The Paperbag Princess, Goodnight Moon, Goodnight, I Love You and so many more. I've even included Go the F*ck To Sleep so that new parents can get a warning about how difficult it can be to put their child to bed.  I want to add, I don't typically buy only books (though I had a friend tell me to only get her books and pick the ones my children liked best).  Usually the books go with toys or something on the registry or a cute onesie.

For an upcoming shower I purchased, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and The Cat In The Hat. They are classics and loved by children everywhere.  I was told by someone, who asked what I had bought for the shower - well I don't think the parents are readers.  They disapproved of my shower gift.  I might have been offended, I definitely got defensive.  My reply was something like, they better become readers. There are so many benefits to reading to your children.  I could angrily list them all here, but if you're reading this, you probably know what many of them are.

What I'm wondering is: would you NOT buy books for a baby shower if you knew the parents weren't big readers?  I guess I think books are classic, can't go wrong, loved by children, gifts....

Top Ten Books I'd Like to See Made Into Movies

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic from The Broke and The Bookish was originally done on April 2011 (wow, I've been doing this meme a long time!)  Here is my original list, plus a few comments:

1. Oryx and Crake, 2. The Year of the Flood – I’d like to see both books made into movies. I think they’d be horrific and disturbing and fantastic films. They’d (hopefully) be the kind of movie that makes an impact, where you never really forget the story, just like the books.

Comment: This still holds.  I don't know if it will ever happen, though.  I'm reading MaddAddam right now and so far could be added to the list too.

3. The Hunger Games – Oh wait. They’re already making this into a movie. Yay! It better be good.

Comment: I really enjoyed The Hunger Games movie and I'm looking forward to Catching Fire.

4. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – Oh wait. They’ve already made a Swedish movie, now we’re just waiting for the “Hollywood Blockbuster” to come out. I’ve heard the Swedish movie is amazing. The Hollywood movie better be good.

Comment: I never got around to seeing either version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.  I don't know why.

5. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell – Though parts of the book dragged, if you take some of it out, this would make for an exciting movie.

Comment: I think this would still make a good movie, but after reading some awesome books in the last couple years, I might replace it with John Scalzi's Redshirts.

6. Wicked – It’s a musical already, but it’s not as close to the book or as dark as the book. I think a movie could really show Elphaba at her best and worst.

Comment: I would still love to see a dark, movie version of Wicked.

7. Remember Me? – This one might make up for not having a great interpretation of Confessions of a Shopaholic I think the premise and outcome are unique and interesting. It wouldn’t be another formulaic chick-flick.

Comment: I think someone did a TV show with this sort of premise.  It didn't work out.  Instead, I think I'd like to see Wither, though I don't think a movie that has pregnant teenagers would fly.

8. The Paper Bag Princess – If they’ve done Where The Wild Things Are, why not The Paper Bag Princess? Let’s give the girls someone fantastic to look up to. It’s one of my favourite children’s books and I think a movie of it could be wonderful.

Comment: I still would love to see a movie about Elizabeth besting a dragon.

9. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – This would be so awesome.

Comment:  I don't know if this movie is ever going to happen.  It was, then it wasn't, and now I don't know.

10. A Series of Unfortunate Events – I know they did a movie encompassing the first three books, which was fantastic. I enjoyed the performances of Jim Carrey, Glenn Close and the actors who played the Baudelaire siblings. They’d probably have to start over since the actors have aged so much, but they’re such wonderful books, I think it would be worth it.

Comment: I think a movie of Who Could It Be At This Hour? would be pretty cool instead.

What books would you like to see made into movies?  For those who did this topic before, do your choices still hold?

Finding Christmas

I recently bought Robert Munsch’s Finding Christmas to read to my daughter, to get help get her in the Christmas spirit (she’s three and a half).  I didn’t really need to.  She is very excited about Christmas already and she LOVES this book because it is about Christmas.  It’s a story about presents and parents and family.  I thought the illustrations were cute, almost telling their own story too.   I love the message that the family being together on Christmas morning is the best part about Christmas, that family is the best present you can get.  Is that a sappy sentiment?  Yes?  I don’t care.

I’ve read a couple of negative reviews about this book.  Commenting on the parents giving the presents instead of Santa and that Munsch just churned this book out for money.  I didn’t realize it was a new Munsch book; it’s not like I have his back catalogue memorized.  Yes, there is no Santa in the story.  Does Santa need to be in every holiday story?  Can’t this book be about family?  Does Munsch need the money?  Who cares? 

A lot of the time I judge children’s books by my daughter and son’s reactions to them.  My daughter loves this book. 

It’s Always Difficult To Pick Favourites

My blog has been around a long time.  I started it back in 2006.  Six years!  I’ve read a lot of books.  As The Broke and The Bookish have requested, I’ve narrowed it down to ten (or thirteen).  You can see the progression, looking back at 2006 to now, how much more verbose I am in my reviews.  I’ve also read across the genre and age spectrum.  In no particular order, here are the Top Ten Favourite Books I’ve Read During The Lifespan of My Blog.

1. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseinni
2. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
3. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, by Gregory Maguire
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling
5. 1984, by George Orwell
6. Wicked:  The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, by Gregory Maguire
7. The Dark Tower III:  The Waste Lands, by Stephen King
8. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (re-read)
9. Dead to the World, by Charlaine Harris
10. The Gum Thief, by Douglas Coupland
11. The Paper Bag Princess, by Robert Munsch
12. Wither, by Lauren DeStefano
13. World War Z, by Max Brooks

I couldn’t do it!  I couldn’t just pick ten.  What are your favourite books that you’ve blogged about?

* Some of the early reviews seem to not have any spoiler warnings on them.  Oops!

*All book links lead to my reviews.

You Deserve A Kick In The B@##$! - Top Ten Jerks In Literature

This week The Broke and The Bookish want to know about our Top Ten Jerks In Literarture. Were they jerks all the way through, did they pretend to be jerks or did they learn and overcome their jerkiness? There would be more descriptions of these guys, but I’m trying to keep the spoilers to a minimum.

1. Prince Ronald from The Paper Bag Princess – I know I had him on my bitch list, but sometimes being a bitch is more about attitude than gender. In any case, he makes both lists.

2. Finnick Odair from Catching Fire & Mockingjay – He comes off at first like a pretentious hot guy, who uses his looks to get whatever he wants and expects women to fawn after him. How wrong that assumption is...

3. Jimmy from The Year of The Flood – Jimmy might be the main character of the previous book, Oryx and Crake, but in The Year Of The Flood he’s a major a$$hole. He knows how to mess with a girl’s mind.

4. Eric Sinclair from the Undead series – Eric basically tricks Betsy into making him the King of the vampires. He uses destiny and prophecy as an excuse, but I’m still not sure he has Betsy’s best interests at heart.

5. Edmund from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – Edmund suffers from serious sibling rivalry. Even though he can sense that something is wrong, Edmund still goes down the darker path, putting his brother and sisters in danger.

6. Edward Cullen from Twilight – First, he makes Bella think she smells, then over the course of the series, he is completely insensitive to her emotions. He shouldn’t be the teenage romantic ideal, when he makes decisions for the relationship unilaterally and the girl he can’t live without has to deal with the repercussions. Is he too old for communication? How about they talk things through?

7. Lestat from Interview with the Vampire – If he was also just more honest with Louis, they could have avoided centuries of heartache.

8. Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter series – Maybe the real jerk is Lucious Malfoy for raising, essentially, a racist son.

9. Willoughby from Sense and Sensibility – I think Willoughby really cared about Marianne, but his love of money was greater.

10. Wickham from Pride and Prejudice – He’s a user and a loser. Austen created some great cads. Wickham makes Lizzy think Darcy is horrible, not that Darcy helps much with that. Then he goes after the most naïve of the Bennet sisters. He’s an opportunistic pig.

Darcy from Pride and Prejudice almost made my list, but that would be three Austen men and I thought that would be too much. This list was almost too easy. Who do you love to hate? Do you ever wonder how an author can come up with such and Asshat?

Why Do You Hate Me? – Top Ten Mean Girls In Books

This is a great idea for a list. The Broke and The Bookish present, The Top Ten Mean Girls In Books. This was a fun, but difficult list. It was a stretch for me to get to ten. Because of a couple of the girls I chose there might be minor spoilers while describing them, but hopefully none of them give away too much. In no particular order…

1. Galinda from Wicked. Galinda at first is the typical popular girl and school who makes life difficult for Elphaba, the girl who doesn’t fit in. I really like Galinda, however. She learns real life lessons from her time with Elphaba.

2. Serena Joy from The Handmaid’s Tale. Serena Joy fought for a world that has now subjugated her; taken away all her power and recognition. She fought for a world that has made her into little more than an object. How could she do that to herself and to every woman?

3. Lucy Steele from Sense and Sensibility. I think most people who have read S&S love to hate Lucy Steele. She manipulative and cunning. She’s so mean to Elinor, who doesn’t deserve it.

4. Kitty Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. I almost couldn’t decide between Kitty and Caroline Bingley. Caroline at least wasn’t Lizzy & Jane’s sister! Kitty is self-centred and is constantly looking at herself as better than her sisters, when it clearly isn’t the case.

5. Bernice from The Year Of The Flood. I know Ren and Amanda did a bad thing to her family, but Bernice was never a really good friend to Ren. She pushed Ren around a lot, controlled her, then got jealous when Amanda came along. I thought Bernice’s behaviour was terrible, but there was obviously no parental guidance. Maybe I wouldn’t dislike her so much if she had just let Ren apologize or something when they met again later in life. I almost didn’t include her, but she was definitely a mean girl.

6. Cuckoo from The Good Earth. I always wonder why people in the lower classes try to best each other instead of working together.

7. Prince Ronald from The Paper Bag Princess. Okay, I know he’s not a mean girl. He’s a mean boy. Princess Elizabeth goes through all the trouble of rescuing him and he turns out to be entirely superficial. The Paper Bag Princess was on my list of books I want to see turn into movies, but I can see why they haven’t made this into a movie. Not everyone will want to see the male lead be a loser in the end.

8. Arlene from the Southern Vampire Mysteries. This probably only makes sense if you’ve read up to at least the eighth book, but you would especially need to read the ninth. If you’ve never read the books and only watched the television series, you’re probably wondering what I’m talking about. Let’s just say, if you were Sookie, you’d want to do more than punch Arlene.

9. The Seeker/Lacey from The Host. Stephenie Meyer has a knack for creating really annoying female characters. The Seeker is supposed to help Wanderer. Instead she just infuriates her. By the end you wonder if it was really The Seeker’s personality coming through or Lacey’s annoying behaviour that drove The Seeker crazy.

10. Elinor Sherman from Shopaholic Ties The Knot. Elinor Sherman isn’t a mean girl, she’s a mean adult. She is a nightmarish mother/mother-in-law. Elinor Sherman wants her son, Luke Brandon, to be more like her and is constantly on the watch, wondering if loveable Becky Bloomwood is just in it for the money. You’d cross your fingers that your boyfriend/husband wasn’t into spending a lot of time with his mother.

I enjoy and author who can create such hated characters. These girls definitely deserve a good punch.

Who are your favourite mean girls?

Top Ten Books I'd Like to See Made Into Movies

This week, the Broke and The Bookish want to know, what books we'd like to see made into movies.

1. Oryx and Crake, 2. Year of the Flood – I’d like to see both books made into movies. I think they’d be horrific and disturbing and fantastic films. They’d (hopefully) be the kind of movie that makes an impact, where you never really forget the story, just like the books.

3. The Hunger Games – Oh wait. They’re already making this into a movie. Yay! It better be good.

4. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – Oh wait. They’ve already made a Swedish movie, now we’re just waiting for the “Hollywood Blockbuster” to come out. I’ve heard the Swedish movie is amazing. The Hollywood movie better be good.

5. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell – Though parts of the book dragged, if you take some of it out, this would make for an exciting movie.

6. Wicked – It’s a musical already, but it’s not as close to the book or as dark as the book. I think a movie could really show Elphaba at her best and worst.

7. Remember Me? – This one might make up for not having a great interpretation of Confessions of a Shopaholic I think the premise and outcome are unique and interesting. It wouldn’t be another formulaic chick-flick.

8. The Paper Bag Princess – If they’ve done Where The Wild Things Are why not The Paper Bag Princess? Let’s give the girls someone fantastic to look up to. It’s one of my favourite children’s books and I think a movie of it could be wonderful.

9. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – This would be so awesome.

10. A Series of Unfortunate Events – I know they did a movie encompassing the first three books, which was fantastic. I enjoyed the performances of Jim Carrey, Glen Close and the actors who played the Baudelaire siblings. They’d probably have to start over since the actors have aged so much, but they’re such wonderful books, I think it would be worth it.

I wanted to add that I’ve wanted to see a movie or movies based on the Dark Tower series by Stephen King for years. Now that I’ve discovered what they’re doing, I hope they don’t mess it up.

I also considered adding A Thousand Splendid Suns but I think I’d cry the whole time. It’s probably why I haven’t seen the film version of The Lovely Bones.

Top Ten Inspirational Characters

I’m back doing the Top Tens from The Broke and The Bookish. They have a great topic this week, Inspirational Characters.

1. Éowyn – The Lord of The Rings, The Two Towers & Return Of The King (J.R.R. Tolkien)
2. Offred – A Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
3. Mariam – A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hoseini)
4. Elphaba – Wicked: The Life And Times Of The Wicked Witch Of The West (Gregory Maguire
5. Elizabeth Bennet – Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
6. Susannah Dean – The Dark Tower Series (Books 2 to 7) (Stephen King)
7. Princess Elizabeth – The Paper Bag Princess (Robert Munsch)
8. Hermione Granger – Harry Potter Series (J.K. Rowling)
9. Danica – The Cleric Quintet Series (R.A. Salvatore)
10. Atticus Finch – To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

Honourable Mentions to Lisbeth Salandar from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre.

After re-reading the list, I realize that all but one of my characters is female. Maybe they’re who I identify with? About half of them live in male-dominated societies. Most of the characters deal with some kind of oppression. In their own ways, they’re all fighters. They fight for the truth, what they believe in, their own ideals. Maybe I like a person who can overcome the odds.

Top Ten Tuesday: My BFFs!

In no particular order:

1. Hermione Granger from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. I love her; she’s so smart and grows into such a wonderful person.

2. Cuthbert Allgood from Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. He’s Roland’s best friend. He has a dark sense of humour. He’s attractive, but next to Roland, often falls into the “friend” category. Sorry Cuthbert, I’d want you to be my friend too.


3. Susan Cleath-Stuart (Suze) from Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic series. While I love Becky Bloomwood, she’d drive me crazy. Suze is a loyal and true friend through all of Becky’s craziness.


4. Eowyn from J.R.R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings. She kicks ass! In a male dominated world, she doesn’t listen to her uncle; she goes onto the battlefield and does herself and us proud.


5. Laila & Mariam from Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. I think they deserve a mention. They are maybe not my best friends, but each is the best friend the other could have.


6. Pam from Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampires / Sookie Stackhouse series. She is such an interesting individual. I’m sure she’d had great stories to tell.


7. Lestat from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. He’s so wicked. I need a wicked friend.


8. Danica from R.A. Salvatore’s The Cleric Quintet. Another strong female character, who kicks ass. I like a person who is as powerful at love as they are at fighting.


9. Willow Rosenberg from Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight. I know she’s a television character, but she’s a graphic novel character now too! With the freedom of a graphic novel, her powers are growing and becoming more complex, just as she is as a person. She’s not just Buffy’s sidekick anymore.


10. Princess Elizabeth from Robert Munsch’s The Paperbag Princess. Another strong, ass-kicking lady. I see a trend.


I’m feeling a bit better, so I thought I’d throw this list together. I know it’s late in the day, but I hope there are a few people who enjoy it.

Added Later:  I'm still so out of it, I forgot to say, Thanks to the Broke and The Bookish for another great Top Ten Tuesday!

Robert Munsch's Admission

I just reviewed The Paper Bag Princess.  This doesn't change my opinion on it or any of this other books.  He's still a great writer.  I wonder why he came out with this now.  It's not like there was some scandel.  Was it because of his stroke?  Did he want to clear the air?  Is he trying to set an example?  It's okay to admit your mistakes?  I think he could have continued to go on with his career and no one would have ever known.

A NOTE TO PARENTS – The Official Website of Robert Munsch

The Paper Bag Princess

Since I had my daughter, it seems that I’m slowly re-reading stories I read as a child. The result wasn’t favourable in one instance. Since then, it has made me a bit weary. There’s no reason to be with The Paper Bag Princess. I loved it as a child. As an adult, whenever it came up, it still gave me a good feeling, though I couldn’t remember exactly what it was about.

Well, let me tell you… It is about a girl, Princess Elizabeth, who is brave, resourceful and intelligent. Robert Munsch did an incredible job in creating a princess who is not a “damsel in distress”. When Princess Elizabeth’s belongings are destroyed and her fiancé kidnapped, she finds something (a paper bag) to wear and goes to rescue him. She doesn’t fight the dragon with a sword and kill him. She uses her mind and tricks the dragon. She rescues the prince, but all he seems to care about is how she looks; he’s not even grateful for being rescued. Well, the princess decides he’s a bum (or a toad if you’re in England) and doesn’t marry him.

I think Robert Munsch sets a great example for young girls. The girl can be the hero. You don’t have to use violence to defeat the bad guy. Just because a guy is good looking, you might think he’s a prince, but he could actually be a terrible person and you don’t really want anything to do with him. These are messages which are often lost on young girls.

I hope I’m not gushing. I love this book. I have nothing bad to say. The story is wonderful. The illustrations are great. They’re signature; they let us recognize The Paper Bag Princess without words. Every parent should read this to their children, sons and daughters alike.

*A note on the edition:

I bought a couple copies of The Paper Bag Princess for the loot bags for my daughter’s first birthday party. The Paper Bag Princess along with a few other of Robert Munsch’s books are available in mini-editions (3.5x3.5 inches) from Chapters.Indigo for about $1.99. You can’t seem to order them online, but trust me, there are a bunch in the stores. You can order a few online at Amazon (for $1.99), but not The Paper Bag Princess, sadly. I just think they’re great for travel, so you always have a cute little story for your cute little baby.