This Girl's Wish List 2013

Many a night was spent sprawled out on my family's living room coiled rag rug dog-earring pages from the annual Sears Christmas Wish Book.  That puppy by the time good ole' St. Nick made it's trek to our Christmas Tree, was in tatters, with the Barbie/Star Wars pages blurred unrecognizable by sticky little frantic fingers. Like most Canadian children, my brother and I set our lists and future play happiness from what we discovered in that tome of wonder. The Big Guy and Sears must have had quite the partnership, I wonder who received the royalties, Santa or Sears? Either way, hands down, it was a win-win.

Now that I am grown, less in mind than in body (forever 8 at heart) I wish I could flip through an adult version of the Wish Book and obviously (NOT booze, but good guess) tag my books for the coming year. Once completed would then leave the book lying haphazardly in the path (draped over his face while sleeping should do the trick) of a certain gift buying husband. Like Sears and Santa, a win win for our family too. With the internet and the ability to shop, gift, share, wish, harass and ship any single thing you could desire the Wish Book has become a child-hood tangible memory. With the memory looping in my head like an earworm, I can't help but post my Wish Book List and maybe influence a certain hubby and even yourself. You too must have a list and or have a list you need to buy for.

Is it necessary for me to qualify why this is on my reading list?  The Ocean At The End Of The Lane is by Neil Gaiman. Although I have yet to explore his highly acclaimed Sandman graphic novel series (one of my many skeletons in the closet) I am a huge fan of his novels. American Gods, coming first to mind is an exploration into the workings of religion and it's place in current times. American Gods is the baby that Twin Peaks and Fifth Business would have procreated. Weird, full of allegories and am hoping when I read The Ocean At The End of The Lane I it too takes me into a world that wraps me in mysticism.

I purchased Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell for my Mom the year it came out, leaving it with her in a Mexican, sea-side RV park never to see again. I regret to this day not reading it before gifting it to her. Of all the books on my little list it is this one that I expect to cherish the most. Not the smartest knife in the draw at times, it is only this past year that I figured out that I really, really like space opera and really, really, really like books about magic. Funny how you don't know a person, especially when that person is yourself.


I don't know about you, but there is nothing like a six- hundred page historical account to make you feel all cosy inside. Having pined after and yet to squeeze the time in to read Paris 1919:  Six Months that Changed the World, I feel I am now significantly rested and ready to take on both. Plus, when done, I have the perfect books to press summer flowers in. Margaret MacMillan, renowned history prof, dives into the melee that is pre-war Europe trying to uncover and properly express the quagmire that resulted in WWI, the war that to this day, shapes our world for the better and the worse in her new book The War That Ended Peace. I cannot wait.


Trilogies are a bitch. Reading one, results in reading book two which results in reading book three. A scientific law, trilogies are one of the Laws of Physics or Thermodynamics or is it Gravity, quantified as a force of nature. It takes effort and commitment from readers, making us all impatient weirdos waiting for the next book to be published. With MaddAddam out, I find myself reluctantly ready. Atwood's trilogy is not a funny romp, it paints quite the disturbing post-apocalyptic future with chapters of violence that haunts me today. I am not really selling this, am I? My point is while this may not be the best book to read during the holidays, it is a triumph of a series, one that captures the brilliance that is Margaret Atwood.


Finally, Allegiant, the third (see what I mean, force of nature) in the Divergent series by Veronica Roth is here and apparently has raised quite a bit of hullabaloo. Being on a self-enforced library-only policy, I haven't been able to add this to my collection and thus am hoping to receive it as a gift. Dripping with heart-ache, first love drama that seems to accompany most YA (young adult) novels, The Divergent series takes the drama of teen-land, and places it firmly in an authoritarian future in which humanity is defined not by blood but factions. If you liked The Hunger Games, read this series, you will find a more original theme, controlled with better writing and tighter editing. 

The Gift of Sci-Fi

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the Death Star

Not a Storm Trooper was stirring not even a bounty hunter

The stockings were hung by the chimney with fear,

In the hopes that Darth Vadar soon would be there.

Welcome to the first annual how to turn your loved ones into sci-fi nerds this Christmas.

For the wee ones:  Have a little one who finds the dark scary?  Pick up The Woods by Paul Hope , cuddle up together and learn that as long as you have someone to hold your hand, there is no reason to be afraid of the unknown.

The Safe Bet:  Buying for someone who likes adventure books but not adventurous enough to go full Vernor Vinge, spiders that drive, adventurous?  Grab  Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, wrap it up, chuck it under the tree and be confident in your choice.  Why?  Well, you just happened to gift  one of the hottest books of the year jammed  with 80's nostalgia that takes the reader on one hell of ride.  Bonus points to you if your loved one is a fan of RPG (role player games!).

For the tortured soul:  Have a tween girl in your life lying around the house like a sack of sad goo willing to venture beyond zombie/vampire love?  The Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth is a must.  These books are similar in theme to the Apocalyptic violent blood bath found in The Hunger Games but in my humble opinion better written with a more swoon worthy love story.  Your tween can spend the holidays lost in a land of violence and gore pining over Tobias while you can spend it lost in rum. 


For the reader:  This is for The Reader in the family.  You know that person who is most often identified because of the book they are nose deep in than there facial features.  Time to impress this reader in your life and introduce them to time travel.   Black Out/All Clear by Connie Willis are on my personal top ten books of all time. (holy shit balls) Bonus points if The Reader is WWII nerd.  And no I do not think these books are too long.  The longer the better. 

For the nut job:  Have someone willing to read anything, not judge and likes to get nuts? A couple of holidays ago, my hubby gifted me the Gaea Trilogy by John Varley and it was the best Christmas ever as far as reading crazy ass, what the crap is going on kind of holiday.  All I remember is drinking rum and cokes, and living in a world where an orbital satellite is sentient and manifests itself into an image of Marilyn Monroe.  Honestly people, this shit is crazy!  

Teenland: Comparative review of Divergent by Veronica Roth

My heart fluttered in my ribcage through out the summer as I dove deeper and deeper into the Sci-Fi Teen genre.  I thought I had broken free from those old binds that used to confine me as a 15 year old.  You know, the binds of first love, stupidity, despair and stupidity.  But alas, no; one child, one husband, a world of experience cannot completely erase the teen in me.   

Stupidity is the theme of my self-imposed teen summer.  I seemed to ebb and flow from pure enjoyment to pure frustration while reading both  The Hunger Games, and the Divergent  trilogies.   Katniss's and Tris's lack of emotional intelligence drove me to distraction.  How could Roth and Collins  develop  strong, vibrant female protagonists who both come across as emotional morons?  For God's sakes ladies, the boy likes you!

Contemplating my summer of stupid that was basically spent under my backyard maple tree ( got one tree and a deck....resist the urge to picture some type of Canadian dream retreat with loons and shit)  I am surprised at  how long it took me to come to terms with both of these series. I realized that to  embrace the books I had to look back to my own teen years and more specifically the level of idiocy I displayed.   Katniss and Tris are morons because guess what, that is what being a teen is all about. Sure, they are dealing with death, blood and murder but they are still young women experiencing love for the first time.  Am I selling the series to you?  Or like me is the thought of walking in your old beat up Doc Martins (!) really a quick trip to the first level of hell?  However you view it, both authors successfully capture the tortured,  touching emotions of  first love.  

There is a great amount of stupid behaviour in both these series but as I came to realize, good stupid.   I should also mention there is a great amount of violence that acts as the backdrop to  Katniss's and Tris's world view.  I must say I had quite the enjoyable reading summer skipping through pages of utter carnage while sitting looking out over various wading pools making sure my son was not drinking the water or taking off naked down the street.   Having already climbed high on top of the bandwagon that is The Hunger Games let me officially state that while The Hunger Games manages to have the glamour attraction to it, it is Veronica Roth's Divergent series that displays a more original plot with tighter, more controlled writing.