A Man and His Cat

Finished October 6

A Man and His Cat, Volume 1 by Umi Sakurai, translated by Taylor Engel

This manga is a feel good story about an older male teacher who adopts a kitten and develops a close bond with it. We see the man both in his professional life and in the home he now shares with this chubby neurotic animal. We also see the cat's thoughts as he waits for the man to arrive home and as he interacts with him. As a person who has owned several cats over the years, the thoughts of the animal didn't fit with my relationships. My cats have shown more independence and crazy behaviour than this cat. The cat, named Fukumaru, did fill a void in the man's life, improving his mood and attitude. 

The colours used a warm and cosy while not being energetic or unexpected. The cover reflects the colour choices. 

Simple, and without a lot of plot, this was a quick yet relaxing read.

The Life Impossible

Finished October 31

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

This is a story of life, of loss, of connection. It is about appreciating the world, and how everyone has their own story. 

The story is structured around emails by a man to his former teacher, and her response. Her response is the major portion of the novel and tells of her life, particularly when she received an inheritance from a former fellow teacher of a house in Ibiza, Spain. 

The narrator, Grace Winters is a retired math teacher. She tells of the brief friendship she had with Christina, an art teacher, particularly one Christmas that they spent together. Christina left for Spain soon after, and Grace went on to marry, have a child, and experience loss. Mathematics is both a comfort and a coping mechanism. Whenever she feels overwhelmed, she does math in her head. 

When she decides to go to Spain to see this house, she doesn't know what to expect, but it certainly isn't this ugly little house in the middle of nowhere. She finds she has also been left a car, and a list of recommended things to do. There is also a plan that she isn't aware that involves one of Christina's friends. The experience she undergoes changes her life forever. It takes her grief and loss, and her depression and takes her out of them, to see the world around her, in all its beauty and pain. Grace finds that she has been given a task, but also an opportunity, and she must open herself up to this experience as she faces her past and her pain and recognizes that others have their own stories that also resonate with her.

There is an amorphous being that is part of this story, a life presence from another place, that has power that Grace learns to draw from. This is a tale that feels both fantastical and relatable. A very interesting book that is hard to define. 

A Smile

Finished August 31

A Smile attributed to Raoul Follereau, illustrated by Hoda Hadadi

This picture book takes French author and humanitarian Raoul Follereau poem and brings it to life with Iranian artist Hoda Hadadi's illustrations. This poem was written more than a century ago and has been translated into many languages since. 

The illustrations follow a family as they awake in the morning, set off on a walk, visit a bakery, inspire people both well-off and in need, take treats to school, listen to music, and enjoy life with others in their community. 

With a wide variety of smiles, exuberant and quiet, and fun details to seek out in the illustrations, this book will have readers smiling as well, eager to share the story with others.

I loved the bright and colourful illustrations with elements of collage and paint, and the endpapers with the smiling plants. Each page has animals, signs, or other small details to delight the observant reader. 

A short description of Follereau's humanitarian work in included at the end of the book. 

My Summer of Magic Moments

Finished September 8
My Summer of Magic Moments by Caroline Roberts

This is a feel good romance novel. Claire Maxwell, a newspaper reporter and columnist, has recently finished her treatments for breast cancer and been given the all clear. Then her husband announced that he's found someone else. Now divorced and back to work, she's decided to take most of her annual vacation and go back to the seacoast she spent many a childhood vacation to spend some time alone and reflect. She still has to prepare her newspaper column for the week she returns and that is on her mind, as well as the upcoming sale of the marital home.
The cottage she rented is a bit more dilapidated than she expected and her journey to get there wasn't smooth, but the views are spectacular and she enjoys the sea and the challenge of the walk to the nearest small seaside town, where she can buy supplies. The magic moments idea in the book's title comes to her here, those small moments in life that can lift one's spirits, assuage the soul, and provide comfort through memory. She tries to gather these moments from those around her, and those she meets.
She makes a new friend in the small town as she begins a new hobby, baking bread, and starts to reengage with life through her mom and her sister and sister's family. She is also intrigued by the man who is staying at the cottage nearest hers, who she sees first at a distance, and then later when she needs some help with something that goes wrong at her cottage.
As she prepares to move house, and create a new home for herself, she is also looking forward to life again, realizing that life is precious and we don't know how long we have, so she is savouring it and taking hold of those moments as they arise, however unexpected.
A great read, especially for the times that we find ourselves in. The author reached out to the public for the magic moments in their lives as part of her writing of this novel, trying to include as many as she could within the confines of the story.

My Heart Fills With Happiness

Finished February 13
My Heart Fills with Happiness / sâkaskinêw nitêh miymêyihtamowin ohci by Monique Gray Smith, illustrations by Julie Flett, translation into Plains Cree by Mary Cardinal Collins.

This small picture book was the TD Grade One Book Giveaway for 2019. It is told in both English and Plains Cree, with both languages together on the page. The story depicts a young girl and boy as they tell of the many things that fill each of their hearts with happiness, from people to activities to food and comfort. The illustrations bring these things to life, showing job and contentment in the children, their family members,
I loved the use of colour and the depiction of the indigenous people in a positive way that allows children to see themselves in a story. A fantastic choice.

Wild One

Finished October 7
Wild One by Jane Whittingham, illustrated by Noel Tuazon

This fun picture book shows a young girl going through her day energetically, and compares her escapades with the actions of various animals, from bats to eels. She is happy, enjoying the way her body can move. Whether alone, with friends, or with her parents, she is a creature of nature. The illustrations show her pleasure in what she is doing, as she goes through her day.
This is a good book for bedtime as well, as it ends with the girl tucked up in bed, ready for sleep. I also liked that the animals that she is compared to aren't always what I would have guessed they would be, but they still fit perfectly with her movements. A short, fun read that will likely become a favourite for little ones.

Memoirs of a Mongol without a Pony

Finished October 11
Memoirs of a Mongol without a Pony by R. G. Stern

This memoir was dictated to his father by Shane Stern, a man born with Down's Syndrome. Shane tells us his life story from his earliest memories in Florida through moves to Minneapolis, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and most recently Tucson. Shane is a happy person, looking for things that interest him, and game for a try at most activities. His mother is an artist, and his father a doctor, and through them he has been exposed to many wonderful opportunities to meet a range of people. But Shane is also a friendly and outgoing person unafraid of strangers, approaching each of them as a potential friend. From a young age, he was interested in sports, spending hours engaged in physical activity such as basketball, swimming, and gymnastics, giving him an interest in others engaged in the same activities. He analyzes activities and figures out for himself the best way to go about doing them for himself, from bowling to sweeping. He is a particular fan of the Temple basketball team, and has a longstanding superfan notoriety with them. He also is non judgemental, expecting people to behave well, and thus often leading them to behaviour well. However, he is capable of mischief, and has a fondness for swearing, along with a good sense of humour.
He makes friends wherever he goes from inner city schools to sports events to art galleries. He looks for the fun in life and therefore usually finds some. I like his attitude.
His life story, thus far, is filled with wonderful friends, a vast array of experiences others would envy, and love and caring from friends and family.

Happy City

Finished November 1
Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery

I really enjoyed this book. Montgomery is a journalist particularly interested in the urban experience, and that interest definitely drives this book. Montgomery looks at a number of cities that have tackled the issue of livability for their inhabitants to see what the process has been for them, what barriers they faced during implementation, and what the outcomes were.
He discovered that the advent of the automobile changed urban planning significantly, and this change is still the driving force behind much of the planning models used by cities, particularly in North America. Some of the changes he looks at feed into those that decry the "war against cars", but he reminds us that cities should be for the inhabitants first, not one mode of transportation that some of them use. Many cities that underwent significant changes that lessened the importance of the car on planning decisions had initial pushback, from a number of sources: people with cars, people with retail establishments, and industrial organizations. But after implementation, many of these groups agreed that the change was good. Many of the changes to improve the lives of urban dwellers, also had positive environmental impacts, positive impacts on retail areas, and positive impacts on the city's finances.
While many changes had to do with lessening the role of cars on the urban plan, they also included good transit planning, good housing planning, good neighbourhood planning, good greenspace planning, and good networking between stakeholders.
I learned a lot about the trends in urban planning, the ways that cities learn from each other's experiences, and the importance of involvement at all levels from the neighbourhood level to the national level to see a variety of changes take root.
Montgomery has done his research and includes references to it here, so others can study and learn what might apply to their own neighbourhoods, communities, and cities.

Radio Shangri-La

Finished March 5
Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth by Lisa Napoli

This memoir tells of Napoli's experience consulting with a small radio station in Bhutan, how she got there, the experiences she had in Bhutan, and the relationships she developed as a result. She developed an ongoing love for the small country, and has returned there several times since her initial consulting trip. This is a story of her life, and what led her to this experience, but it is more than that. It is also a story of Bhutan as it  tackles change, much of it radical, as a country. Measuring its success with Gross National Happiness instead of the more common GDP, Bhutan sets itself apart even as it accepts technology, media, and tourism into the country. It is interesting to see the effect of change on its inhabitants and their experience with culture shock as they travel beyond its borders. The experience changed Napoli's outlook on life, and she talks about this change in attitude as well.
A very interesting memoir, and I learned a lot about Bhutan as well.

So Good They Can't Ignore You

Finished February 24
So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Cal Newport

I'd seen a mention of this book and was intrigued. The book captured me right from the get go. It counters the prevalent mindset (started for real purposes in the 1970's) that to have work you really enjoy, find what you are passionate about and make a job out of that. Newport digs deep into this premise, finding that it isn't as simple as that. He comes up with four rules around finding work you love.
Rule #1 is Don't Follow Your Passion. He looks at successful people, including many who espouse the "follow your passion" mantra and finds that even they didn't follow that path. Those that do have a passion, and follow that without proper preparation find themselves failing. So following it can actually be dangerous to your continued happiness.
Rule #2 is Be So Good They Can't Ignore You (or, the Importance of Skill). Newport looks at a number of people who are working in something they are passionate about and thus loving their work, and finds the truth behind their stories is getting really good at what they do, even better if it is something relatively rare. He calls this Career Capital. Trying to work at a passion without the practiced skills won't get you where you want to go. Here is where I hear my parents' voices exhorting hard work, because hard work, not just lots of work, but work that is actually challenging and difficult and success with it takes you to the next level is what is necessary. You have to be willing to seek out that work, and keep doing it, getting better with every iteration, until others see that skill in you and are willing to pay you for it. That pay may be in money, time, or other things, but that is what takes you further toward working with real passion.
Rule #3 is Turn Down a Promotion (or, the Importance of Control). Here, Newport shows that finding real passion in one's work means having a certain level of control about what you do and how you do it. Again, this is not something you can try without having those skills in place. This is about choosing what path you take, knowing that you can make a successful life with your skills in different ways and choosing the path that offers you the level of control you want, even if others try to dissuade you. As he says, because you have those skills, others are likely to try to talk you out of taking this path. Employers may value you highly and not want to give up even a portion of your time, colleagues may not understand you turning down a promotion that limits your control of your work due to the high compensation associated with it. That is why skills are important here, because if you try to exert control without having those skills, then you won't get that control. Here he talks about control traps and the law of financial viability, which is "using money as a way of determining whether or not you have enough career capital to succeed with a pursuit".
His Rule #4 is Think Small, Act Big (or, the Importance of Mission) which is about finding that unifying mission to your professional life that gives you that satisfaction or love of work which we aspire to. Again, he finds that you have to get things in the right order and finding a true mission only comes when we have gained those skills and control that we can see the possibilities and links between things. Visibility is important here, where you can market those ideas in a venue that draws you recognition. This means that you need to have the skills to be one of the top in your field (and this field can be quite narrow) so that you are working at the leading edge of discovery, in what he calls the adjacent possible. He also talks about the importance of the law of remarkability, the need for a project to be remarkable both in the drawing attention meaning and the venue that is conducive to such attention.
He wraps up the book with how he has applied and is applying these rules to his own life, the thought processes he follows for each and the actions he takes to further his career.
This book offers a lot to think about, and would be a great gift for a graduate to get them on the right track earlier.

Guardians of Being

Finished August 12
Guardians of Being, words by Eckhart Tolle, art by Patrick McDonnell

I picked this one up because I'm a huge Mutts fan. It is a short, thoughtful book that encourages you to be in the moment, showing how our animals can help us remember to no think, but to be. McDonnell's art is wonderful, of course, and some of it is from previous work in his Mutts series, as our the characters used. A reminder of what is important in life, and how to take the time to enjoy life for what it is. Just like his comic art predecessor Charles Schultz, McDonnell reminds us with the help of Tolle's words that happiness is indeed a warm puppy (or in my case a purring cat).
A nice little book.

The Enchanted April

Finished June 4
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim

This novel was written after World War One and is a happy one. Two young women both see an advertisement in a newspaper while at their club, and one approaches the other to suggest they follow through on renting the castle in Italy for a month. This is a very daring action for both women. Mrs. Wilkins feels taken for granted in her marriage and unloved and feels that this would be a good use of the money she has put aside for a rainy day. Mrs. Arbuthnot has devoted herself to good works and the poor since an unhappy event in her marriage pushed her towards a judgemental religious outlook. She has grown apart from her husband.
In an effort to make her small savings go further, Mrs. Wilkins suggests they invite another couple of women and they place an ad of their own. One of the two is an older woman, Mrs. Fisher, much caught up in the past glory of association with writers and important men. The other is a young, beautiful lady, who feels that her beauty is an obstacle to her happiness.
As the four arrive at the castle, they at first exhibit their personalities, but as the gardens bloom around them, they bloom too, and begin to make connections and soften their outlooks.
A lovely story of happiness, renewed love, and the power of rest.

Personal Pleasures

Finished May 5 
Personal Pleasures by Rose Macaulay

This collection of essays about things that bring pleasure has a bit of a quirk to it. Not only does Macaulay write about the reasons that those things bring her pleasure, but she also includes the drawbacks, the potential non-pleasurable side effects, of those same things. It is kind of the opposite to finding silver linings in storm clouds. Although since she was a novelist famous for her satire, this is rather in keeping with her outlook. Many of the things she finds pleasure in, I do too. Some essays have a dated feel to them, but seeing that she died in 1958, that is not totally unexpected. It was interesting to see those things that still persist in bringing pleasure more than fifty years on.

Memoir

Finished May 22
My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor
This memoir is of Taylor's stroke, how she recovered, and what she learned from it. First she gives us the background to her life before her stroke, and what led her to her career as a neuroanatomist. Then she gives us information on how the brain works, which is useful to see what her stroke affected and why she reacted the way she did. Following this we see what she went through when she had her stroke, her thoughts during this time and her actions. Her stroke was severe and affected her ability to get help for herself. This section was very interesting and informative. Following this are several chapters telling of her recovery, first her making herself strong enough for the surgery required and then her slow recovery beyond that. As she says, her life is different know and as she recovered she made choices to not recover some of the negative things in her life, not an easy task. She ends with finding the peace that is within all of us, something she learned from her experience and wants to share with others who haven't gone through the trauma, but can still access that peace if they try. All in all a very interesting book, offering something to think about.

A Way of Looking at Life

Finished July 28
The Joy of Appreciative Living: your 28-day plan to greater happiness in 3 incredibly easy steps by Jacqueline Kelm
I've actually had this book out of the library for a while, reading it slowly and had to break away from it at one point to think about what it was saying. I started doing the daily appreciations, got off track and am only now getting back on.
For me, this book was about attitude, that is maintaining a positive one. Many other authors have touched on the idea of a gratitude list, but this plan also includes weekly visioning and monthly assessments. Reflect not on what you don't like in your life, but on what you want more of. Just figuring that out might take you a while, and for me it is something I am still thinking about. This plan isn't hard to do, but you do have to commit a small amount of time daily to get real results out of it.

Change Your Life

Finished April 18
The Power of Less: the fine art of limiting yourself to the essential . . . in business and in life by Leo Babauta
This short book addresses the issues we all face of having limited time and many things to do. Babauta addresses the issues of attention, productitivy and motivation as he gives advice to help you do less, but do it better. One of his key concepts is to only make one change at a time. Trying to change too many things at once is a recipe for failure. Another concept is to start small. When we go to make a change, the tendency is to make a big change, but that can be hard to keep up. If you start small and add to it gradually, you are more likely to stick with it. Another key concept is to go public with your change. Let others know you are doing it and keep them up to date with your progress. This reinforces the change you are making and adds external motivation.
Babauta talks about both work and personal life, and his later chapters deal with health and fitness as necessary changes to make. There are a lot of good ideas here. Just don't get too excited about that and try to do more than one thing to start!

Canadian Fiction

Finished January 2
The Outlander by Gil Adamson
I've had this one beside my bed for ages and have been reading it in small doses. The book follows the trail of a young widow, as she flees from her dead husband's brothers who want her for killing their brother. The action takes place in the early part of the twentieth century and the widow, Mary Boulton, flees across the prairies and into the Rockies. Mary is not well-educated despite being born well-off and never enjoyed an affectionate family life. Her marriage took her from an unhappy middle class life to an unhappy poverty-filled one and her flight now is one that also seeks a kind of happiness that she has never known. Benefiting from others' interest, Mary manages to survive in the mountains, and ends up in the southern Alberta town of Frank, where she is taken in by a preacher. Mary is a fascinating character, sympathetic and yet independent. She learns about community and happiness along her journey and I rooted for her the whole book.

A Great Nonfiction book

Finished March 7
Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
This was a great read. It had a lot of very interesting information about how our minds work and communicated the information in a very conversational manner. There was also humour in it Gilbert explains how our minds allow us to be bad at predicting future happiness or unhappiness as well as reflecting on our past emotions. He refers to scientific studies, but not in a dry way. The book is split into six parts: Prospection, Subjectivity, Realism, Presentism, Rationalization, and Corrigibility. I found it fascinating to see how our minds work and how they fool us into believing things are other than they really are.

Finished a few books since Thursday

Finished Sunday, Mar 4
Specialty Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
This is a fascinating first novel.
Blue van Meer writes of her senior year in high school. It is the first year she spends all in one place in years. When she was in kindergarten, her mother Natasha was killed in a single car automobile accident. Since then her professor father, Gareth van Meer, has moved from one visiting lecturer position to another. She is drawn into a group of students nicknamed the Bluebloods, who meet weekly at the home of one of the teachers, Hannah Schneider. But in a disturbing incident at spring break, Hannah dies, and Blue's life is changed forever. The book is formed with each chapter representing a work in the western canon relating to the content. And yes, there is a final exam at the end of the book, so pay attention!

Finished Saturday, Mar 3
The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom by Jonathan Haidt
This book was a slog. The hypothesis may have had value to it, but the writing was not inspired and I had to force my way through it. Too much academic style to the writing. Reading was not a happy experience.

Blogging by Nat McBride and Jamie Cason
From the Teach Yourself series, this basic guide is a good introduction to blogging and uses examples from both Blogger and Typepad. Very readable and organized to help you easily focus on specifics.

Finished Friday, Mar 2
Charles the Bold by Yves Beauchemin, translated by Wayne Grady
The first in a planned trilogy, this book takes us from the birth of Charles to his entry to high school. Details are abundant, and the style has been compared, fairly, to that of Dickens. I found it slow in spots, but the characters stayed interesting. Charles loses his baby sister, followed by his mother, and his father is less interested in him than alcohol. Charles has an affinity for dogs and they play large roles in his life. He is a good-natured hardworking boy with a quick smile and a tendency to fairness. Various people in his community take an interest in him and participate in his development. I'm already looking forward to the next book.

Finished Thursday, Mar 1
Snowblind by P.J.Tracy
Read by Mel Foster
Listened to the audiobook in the car. This is in the Monkeewrench series, although the Monkeewrench crew play a less central role in this one. Their role is important, but they don't appear that often. The reading is good, with the phone calls being done in a hollow sort of way, very different. Magozzi and Rolseth play central roles as does the new sheriff of Dundas County to the north of Minneapolis, Iris Rikker. The crimes start with the bodies of two policeman being found inside snowman at a snowman competition and thus ensure a public eye is being laid on the case from the start. Iris Rikker is a newbie police officer, a former teacher, but well aware of her own shortcomings. I really enjoyed her as a character. The compound of Bitterroot, a safe town for abused women starts coming up during the investigation and plays a role in the outcome. Altogether an interesting premise with moral questions and no easy answers.