Books Read - Winter 2016

27. The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket (#4)

26. The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket (#3)

25. The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket (#2)

24. The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket (#1)

23. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

22. The World According to Garp by John Irving

21. Pewter Angels by Henry Ripplinger

20: All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood by Jennifer Senior (audio book)

19. Little Copper Pennies: Celebrating the Life of the Canadian One-Cent Piece (1858-2013) by Susan Harris

18. Hardy Boys: Mystery of the Whale Tattoo by Franklin Dixon

17. Hardy Boys: The Secret of the Old Mill by Franklin Dixon

16. The Introvert's Way: Living a Quiet Life in a Noisy World by Sophia Dembling (audio book)

15. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

14. The Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory (audio book)

13. Chasing the Night by Iris Johansen

12. Grand Avenue by Joy Fielding

11. The Husband by Dean Koontz

10. Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs (#2)

9. Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs (#1)

8. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

7. Space by James Michener

6. A Recipe For Bees by Gail Anderson-Dargatz

5. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (abridged audio book)

4. The Box Garden by Carol Shields

3. Little Children by Tom Perrotta
2. Great Civilizations ed. by Brenda Ralph Lewis

1. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

Books Read: Fall 2015

14. The Spare Room by Helen Garner

13. New Finnish Grammar by Diego Marani

12. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini

11. By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart

10. Eldest by Christopher Paolini

9. Six Years by Harlan Coben (abridged audio book)

8. Eragon by Christopher Paolini

7. Stay Close by Harlan Coben (abridged audio book)

6. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

5. Introducing Chomsky: A Graphic Guide by John Maher and Judy Groves

4. Blood Game by Iris Johansen (audio book)

3. Vinyl Cafe: Coast to Coast Service by Stuart McLean (audio book)

2. The Favourite Game by Leonard Cohen

1. The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy

Books Read: Summer 2015

25. Ottawa: The Unknown City by Rob McLennan
24. Go Wild: Free Your Body and Mind From the Afflictions of Civilization by John Ratey and Richard Manning (audio book)
23. Secret Montreal: An Unusual Guide by Philippe Renault
22. Exploring Old Montreal by Alan Hustak

21. Top 115 Unusual Things to See in Ontario by Ron Brown

20. Food Lovers' Guide to Montreal by Patricia Harris and David Lyon

19. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (audio book)

18. Butter Off Dead by Leslie Budewitz

17. Crime Rib by Leslie Budewitz

16. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (audio book)

15. Death Al Dente by Leslie Budewitz

14. David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell (audio book)

13. Claudius the God by Robert Graves

12. Vinyl Cafe: New Stories by Stuart McLean (audio book)

11. A Sudden Light by Garth Stein (audio book)

10. A Place Called Hope by Philip Gulley (audio book)

9. Porch Talk by Philip Gulley

8. The Woman Who Stole My Life by Marian Keyes

7. Architecture by Jonathan Glancey (DK Eyewitness Companions)

6. The 100: Day 21 by Kass Morgan (audio book)

5. The 100 by Kass Morgan (audio book)

4. The Face of Deception by Iris Johansen (audio book; Eve Duncan #1)

3. Seizure by Kathy Reichs (audio book; Virals #2)

2. I, Claudius by Robert Graves

1. Virals by Kathy Reichs (audio book)

Books Read: Spring 2015

16. Dressing Up for the Carnival by Carol Sheilds

15. An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage (audio book)

14. MoneySense's Guide to Retiring Wealthy

13. The Litigators by John Grisham (audio book)

12. The Secret of Shadow Ranch by Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew #5)

11. Rumpole of the Bailey by John Mortimer (audio book)

10. The New Millennium Collection: Malta

9. Culture Shock: Britain (A Guide to Customs and Etiquette) by Terry Tan

8. The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht

7. Cloisters of Europe: Gardens of Prayer by Daniel Faure & Veronique Rouchon Mouilleron

6. The Republic of Love by Carol Shields (Cdn)

5. Incontinent on the Continent: My Mother, Her Walker, and Our Grand Tour of Italy by Jane Christmas (Cdn)

4. Mary Poppins Comes Back by P.L. Travers

3. Thomas Cook's Traveller Guides: Beijing & Northern China

2. My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead (audio book)

1. The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

Book Sale!

Book sale! Book sale! Book sale!
I didn't show much restraint...

Fiction

The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood

The Cunning Man by Robertson Davies

The Heart of a Peacock by Emily Carr (short stories)

The House of Blue Mangoes by David Davidar

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

The Coral Island by R M Ballantyne

World Without End by Ken Follett (sequel to The Pillars of the Earth)

The Illuminator by Brenda Rickman Vantrease (read 04/2016)

The Song of Troy by Colleen McCullough (about Helen and Paris, Odysseus, and Achilles)

Songs in Ordinary Time by Mary McGarry Morris (an Oprah Book Club book)

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Carol Shields:
Small Ceremonies
The Orange Fish (short stories)
A Celibate Season
The Stone Diaries

Kathy Reichs (Bones):
Death du Jour (#2) (read 02/2016)
Cross Bones (read 04/2016)
Spider Bones (read 05/2016)

James Patterson (Alex Cross series):
Along Came a Spider #1 (read 03/2016)
Kiss the Girls #2
Cat & Mouse #4

For Erin
12 Nancy Drew books

Non-Fiction

The Infernal World of Branwell Bronte by Daphne du Maurier (about the brother of Charlotte and Emily Bronte)

Sisters in the Wilderness: The Lives of Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Trail by Charlotte Gray

Little Copper Pennies: Celebrating the Life of the Canadian One-Cent Piece (1858-2013) by Susan Harris (read 02/2016)

An Apple a Day: The Myths, Misconceptions and Truths About the Foods We Eat by Joe Schwarcz (read 10/2016)

Odyssey Illustrated Guide to China by Charis Chan

Madame Benoit's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Microwave Cooking (with a thorough vegetable section, compatible with all the Tupperware I have in my cupboards)

Singer Sewing Books:
Sewing Essentials
101 Sewing Secrets
Timesaving Sewing
The Perfect Fit

Teach Yourself Machine Piecing & Quilting by Debra Wanger

For Dad
The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht (read before giving 05/2015)
Culture Shock: Britain (A Guide to Customs and Etiquette) by Terry Tan (read before giving 05/2015)
30 Great Runs in London by Chris Downham
Ancestral Castles of Scotland by Hugh Cantlie and Sampson Lloyd
New Millennium Collection's Malta (read before giving 05/2015)

For Danaya
Dressing Up for the Carnival by Carol Shields (short stories) (read before giving 06/2015)
Cloisters of Europe: Gardens of Prayer by Daniel Faure and Veronique Rouchon Mouilleron (read before giving 05/2015)

Questions to Ask During an Interview

1. What is the wage? Benefits? Pension? Vacation time?

2. How many hours qualifies as FT? Is overtime common or expected?

3. How many employees do your payroll clerk(s) oversee? How much access do the employees have to the payroll clerk(s)? 

4. How many payroll clerks are there?  How is the job divided among them?

5. How would you describe the atmosphere or office culture?

6. How would you describe the manager in charge of payroll?

7. What would the payroll clerk(s) say is their greatest frustration?  Do the payroll clerks ever compain about not have the information necessary to do their jobs properly?

Books Read: Winter 2015

15. The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton

14. Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven by Susan Jane Gilman

13. The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler

12. Middlemarch by George Eliot

11. The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy (audio book)

10. Flash and Bones by Kathy Reichs (audio book)

9. Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin

8. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

7. The Knitting Way: A Guide to Spiritual Self-Discovery by Linda Skolnik and Janice MacDaniels

6. Taliesin by Stephen Lawhead

5. Virgil and Beatrice by Yann Martel (audio book)

4. King Arthur by Frank Thompson

3. Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life by Karen Armstrong (audio book)

2. The Willows in Winter by William Horwood

1. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

I wish to see myself clearly.

Books Read: Fall 2014

17.  Plum Pudding Murder by Joanne Fluke

16. Larry's Party by Carol Sheilds

15. Bringing Up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Drucker (audio book)

14. Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close (audio book)

13. Sphere by Michael Crichton

12. Congo by Michael Crichton

11. The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler (audio book)
10. 13 Things That Don't Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time by Michael Brooks (audio book)

9. Bones to Ashes by Kathy Reichs (Cdn)

8. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

7. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

6. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

5. The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent (audio book)

4. Insight Guides: Las Vegas

3. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris (audio book)
2. Stirring the Pot: My Recipe for Getting What You Want Out Of Life by Jenny McCarthy (audio book)

1. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (audio book)

Greeting

When Mom left for South Africa, I asked her to say hi to a giraffe for me.  And she did!! There he is!!  A real live giraffe. She has also seen zebras, wildebeests, lions, rhinos, impalas, warthogs, elephants and buffalos!  Then after two more game drives, her next stop will be Victoria Falls, which is also pretty exciting.

I enjoy travelling vicariously through my Mom.  =)

Books Read: Summer 2014

18. Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott

17. Insight Guides: South Africa

16. The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence (Cdn)

15. Next by Michael Crichton

14. The Valley of Horses by Jean Auel (audio book)

13. Déjà Dead by Kathy Reichs (Cdn)

12. Benjamin Franklin by Edwin Gaustad

11. The Garden of Burning Sand by Corban Addison
10. Night Music by Jojo Moyes

9. Surviving the Toxic Workplace: Protect Yourself Against the Co-workers, Bosses, and Work Environments That Poison Your Day by Linnda Durre

8. Bones are Forever by Kathy Reichs (audio book) (Cdn)

7. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris (audio book)

6. Wicked by Gregory Maguire

5. The White Bone by Barbara Gowdy (Cdn)
4. The Emotional Life of Your Brain by Richard Davison (audio book)

3. Don't Look Behind You: A Safari Guide's Encounters with Ravenous Lions, Stampeding Elephants, and Lovesick Rhinos by Peter Allison

2. The Only Boy in the World: A Father Explores the Mysteries of Autism by Michael Blastland

1. Canadian Pie by Will Ferguson (Cdn)

Hummus was on sale this week - 16 little single servings for only $4!

And then my Mom came and brought me garden carrots.

And this is amazing food.

P.S. Welcome, C!

Factorials

Remember "factorials" from high school math? (Yeah, I know, that was a long time ago.) Factorials is the chapter where we talked about how "5!" means 5+4+3+2+1, (for example). 

I've been playing this sudoku-esque game lately called Kakuro lately, where you have to add numbers (1-9 with no repeats) together to equal a certain sum in a number crossword fashion (you can take a look at www.kakuro.com or on wikipedia). It's made me play with factorials (without even realizing it) because I've come to recognized that if the total is 15 and it has 5 boxes, it has to be 1,2,3,4,5 and a total of 35 in 5 boxes is 9,8,7,6,5.  I started to notice some patterns...

1+2   =   3   =   1x3

1+2+3   =   6   =    2x3

1+2+3+4   =  10   =  2x5 

1+2+3+4+5   =   15   =  3x5 

1+2+3+4+5+6   =   21   =   3x7

1+2+3+4+5+6+7   =    28   =   4x7

1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8   =   36   =   4x9

1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9   =   45   =   5x9  

1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10   =   55   =   5x11

In every case, the two numbers that multiply to equal the factorial (sum of the reducing numbers) increases by one every second time for the first number, and two every second time for the second number.

The first multiple is the biggest number added together divided by two (rounded up if the biggest number is odd). The second number is the biggest number added plus zero (if the biggest number is odd) or one (if the biggest number is even).

So any number plus the sum of all the numbers beneath it (n!) equals that number divided by two, times that number (maybe plus one) (n/2 x n+1 for even numbers).

Memories from math tell me that this can also be written as (n^2+n)/2 = n!  (it's a little clearer when it's not restricted by typing). And that works even for the odd numbers - the rounding up and the adding one offset each other.

That means that if you want to know the sum of a number plus every number beneath it, you times the number by itself, add it in again, and divide the whole thing by two!

I think that this is the formula they taught us in high school - I haven't actually discovered anything new here - but I am super pumped to have figured it out by myself.  =)

I'm not so good at Kakuro though... I only get the really hard ones that my Mom saves me from her city's Saturday comics (it shares a page with the crossword and wordsearch), so I can't build up my skills - I'm thrown into the five star puzzles and consistently not getting very far.  Knowing the formula to solve factorials isn't actually helping me.  But I'm having fun with this!

Books Read: Spring 2014

15. The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

14. A Morbid Taste for Bones: A Mediaeval Whodunnit by Ellis Peters

13. I Am Morgan le Fay by Nancy Springer

12. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (audio book)

11. Belonging: Home Away from Home by Isabel Huggan (Cdn)
10. Wiped: Life with a Pint-Sized Dictator by Rebecca Eckler (Cdn)
9. Hail to the Chiefs: Presidential Mischief, Morals & Malarky from George W. to George W. by Barbara Holland

8. The Brethren by John Grisham
7. The Testament by John Grisham
6. Belle: The Slave Daughter and the Lord Chief Justice by Paula Byrne
5. Capitol Murder by Philip Margolin (audio book)
4. The Book of Madness and Cures by Regina O'Melveny (audio book)
3. The Land of Painted Caves by Jean Auel (audio book)
2. DK Eyewitness Travel: Cambodia and Laos 
1. Any Known Blood by Lawrence Hill (Cdn)

Imitation

I like it when my friends say, "You inspired me to..." I like seeing myself, in their habits, in their houses. I like mattering to them.