The Advent Book Blog is a which runs from December 1st through the 25th. It’s run by Books on the Radio and Book Madam, and it’s now in its third year.

It offers reader-sourced recommendations – ad-free. I’ve just recommended The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern (click here to find out why). If you’re interested in sending in your recommendation, you can do so here.

I’m also helping out as an elf, so I get to see behind the scenes. There’s a ton of great stuff lined up, and I highly recommend checking it out and following @AdventBookBlog on Twitter.

Happy holidays.

As this is the fourth edition of Shelf Life, if you’ve been reading this blog with any regularity, you probably have a pretty good idea what it’s about. If you don’t, check out past editions for more info.

I’m going to try to make this as brief as I can, as we’re almost halfway through November, and I still have to get October’s written as well.

Onward:

96. Summer of My Amazing Luck, by Miriam Toews

I read A Complicated Kindness after it won the Governor General’s Award and loved it. When The Flying Troutmans came out I devoured it and declared it my favourite read in 2009, so I was eager to read Summer of My Amazing Luck when I stumbled across it in a used bookstore.

Unfortunately, this story wasn’t up to par. I wasn’t buying Lucy, the down on her luck single mom who doesn’t know who the father of her child is, and isn’t interested in finding out.

She becomes enamoured of Lish, who seems to be the heart of the novel, but I had such difficulty with Lucy that it just didn’t work for me. She lacked personality, and I never felt like I got to know who she was, and therefore, why I should care. It sounds harsh, but I adored the first two books I read from Toews, and I’m still looking forward to reading more.

Irma Voth, I’ve got my eye on you. Continue reading »

I took this picture on Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011, during a Books & Martini Night with a few friends (before martinis, I might add), on Bloor Street West, somewhere between Bathurst and Spadina.

My first theory was that at some point in 2012 I will travel back in time to whenever the sidewalk was laid, and inscribe my name and year. Though Brendan Myers suggested on Facebook that it may be the pavement itself that’s travelling back in time. Mind blowing – I know.

Over the course of many martinis various alternative theories emerged, but either way, it seems clear that time travel will happen. Has happened.

Why such a short message, a mere eight characters? What could it mean? Is it a warning, or a promise of awesome things to come? Will we finally get flying cars and jetpacks? Gosh, I hope so.