We’ve made use of the Family day to do the (possibly) last outdoor skate and the first bike ride of the season.
Book review – “The Game”
I think four books is the most I have managed to read for any given Canada Reads season. As I have read four books again this year, I would say that this is a good year. I am also very pleased with the way they published the debates online. Despite expectation to the contrary, I found the debates more interesting to watch than to only listen. Also, by adding an extra section of debate to the video, CBC managed to counteract the superficiality of the relatively short air time they usually have for the show. Form now on, I will only watch the debates online. Canada Reads remains my favourite (and only) reality show.
I enjoyed the last of the four books, Ken Dryden’s “The Game”. I can very well believe that it is the best book about hockey ever written. I am still glad “Something Fierce” won the Canada Reads contest. In fact, I would vote for “Prisoner of Teheran” and “The Tiger” above “The Game” if it were up to me. I am still glad I read “The Game”. It is a very intelligent and introspective book and it gives a good insight into a Canadian public figure especially since Ken Dryden continued on to be involved in politics etc. I found the bits about hockey strategies and the team members pulling pranks a bit long winded, but then again I am not as big a hockey fan as to be interested in that. I enjoyed his take on the kids playing hockey, the violence in hockey, the financial aspect and the discussion of the background of the different team members. Prior to reading this book, I only knew Scotty Bowman as my english teacher’s older jock brother, it was interesting to read about him from a different perspective.
Book review – “The Tiger”
The first episode of the Canada Reads is today and I have finished three of the books, I am more than half way through “The Game” and I have not been able to get my hands on “The Cold Road”.
I liked “The Tiger”. The story under discussion would, if written succinctly, take up no more than twenty pages without missing any details. The book discusses many other aspects from the nature of the Russian Far East to history of modern hunting and effects of poverty. The result is the book that is equally fascinating and annoying. It reads something like this:
“The hunters have been tracking the tiger for days. They saw him and he was about to pounce. Before I tell you what happens next, let me spend five or six pages on Sino-Russian politics over the last hundred years.”
Can you say choppy narrative? Despite being choppy, the discussion is well placed and the author definitely manages to paint a picture very successfully. Good read though the narrator intrudes much more than I would wish.
But where is the pretty?
Ever since the days have been getting longer, I have been missing biking something fierce. I do have a “winter bike” in the garage, but it is not winterized enough to handle whatever is on the roads right now (ice covered with slush) and Markus is still not old enough for me to have enough time to just myself, I have not been using it.
My dad sent me the picture of this bike the other day and I took a look into it. For one thing, this bike gets it exactly right (by my standards) as far as accessories go. It has:
– rear rack
– integrated 7 speed hub
– fenders
– chain case
– lights
– hub dynamo (I have never seen this standard on any bike. I actually went to the store to have my bike fitted with it but the store owner talked me out of it because it is non standard for my bike and very expensive)
I absolutely love that it has all these features and it is a step-through.
The price on the handlebar translates to just under $1000 in Zagreb. I looked this bike up and there is a store in Toronto that carries the brand and these bikes go for $1300 in the States (so more in Canada).
On one hand this bike is very much for people like me. It has all the features that I would want on the bike except for one – looks. This bike is not intended for sporty people and yet it is painted for the lycra set. I don’t get it. It is like the otherwise perfect purse that is made to look like a plastic bag on the outside. Maybe it is made for women who want to feel sporty without breaking a sweat.
This bike is a more upscale version of the Africa I am currently riding. Apart from having lights and dynamo hub (drool), I am assuming that it is a smoother and faster ride because it has more gears (7 rather than 3), bigger wheels and it is one of those posh brands that girly transportation blogs write about. It is aluminium which makes it lighter, but I prefer steel so that’s a draw. on the other hand, my bike is half (or even third) of the price and it looks more stylish. Big drawback of both bikes is that I can’t fit three kids on either.
Book review – Austenland
One of the reasons why I avoid romance novels is that, unlike Austen, many authors can’t construct a good relationship if their life depended on it. The main character in this novel had a series of decent sounding relationships, some even serious (i.e. talking about baby names, buying a dog together, etc…) but then within two years the boyfriend would bow out. This abandonment was inexplicable to both main character and the narrator. Consequently the narration did nothing to assure us of the success of the relationship claimed to be successfully beginning at the end of the novel.
Hats off to the idea of Austen theme park. I really liked it, but I would prefer to have a novel exploring logistical and ethical issues arising from existence of such a place more than describing an unconvincing romance.
Book review – “Brain rules for baby”
Here is something you probably did not know about me, I sometimes read parenting books. Like any other non fiction, these can be very informative and sometimes I blindly follow their advice (particularly when it closely allines with my own theories) and sometimes I toss it because it is a bunch of self-serving trash (the author has one issue, probably all due to a trauma suffered while a spool boy, and he keeps harping on it for pages and pages).
“Brain rules for baby” is of the first kind. It makes a claim of heavily relying on current research (whether it does or not, I can’t tell not really being a follower of child brain studies) but it is intelligently written and it makes sense to me. A lot of it was stuff I already knew or intuited. There were two things that I learned from it:
Thing 1: do NOT stress the pregnant lady. If I had any reason to believe that anyone would give a hoot about my opinion I would go to the hospital and ask them to re-examine their risk informing practices. For example, I had to sign a form stating that the risk of Bad Things Happening during birth is twice as high for my subsequent deliveries because of a previous c-section. Instant stress for mom. Do you know what the change in risk was? It went to 0.5% form 0.25%. That is not sign-the-form worthy.
Thing 2: lots of empathy. I never though of saying “you are really upset that you are thirsty” when the kid is crying and we are nowhere near water, but what the heck, I am trying it now. It can’t hurt and at worst I will just sound silly.