April Book Update

Another month gone..

Secret Daughter - Shilpi Somaya Gowda - I really loved this book. It was the tale of one woman (American)'s fertility and an Indian woman's inability to produce male heirs. It's fairly easy to figure out what happens, but the tale is amazing.

My Horiztonal Life - Chelsea Handler - WHAT WAS I THINKING? I think I heard or read about this book somewhere, but it was just another horrible book about a slutty girl. Waste of time.

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins - Book club book for April. Unbelievably easy to read, but well-written too. I enjoyed it, and am going to start reading the second one soon.

The Wednesday Letters - Jason F. Wright - Found The Wedding Letters, realized it was a sequal and decided to find the first one. This is the story of a family whose parents both died at the same time! in bed, and how the husband wrote letters to the wife every Wednesday. Lots of family secrets learned.. blah blah blah. Not super thrilling, but whatever.

A Boy of Good Breeding - Miriam Toews - Ah, Miriam Toews. She's such a bizarre author! The main character's daughter in this book was named "Summer Feelin'" .... Yep. It was really well-written though. I'd recommend it, along with the rest of hers.

The Wedding Letters - Jason F. Wright - Second to the book above. Still not that exciting.

The Uncoupling - Meg Wolitzer - This was a book about a high school drama teacher that decided to put on a Greek play where women decided to abstain from sex to end a war.. (It was called Lysistrata). All of the women are suddenly repelled by their men... It was really good, and I would recommend it!

Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver - I love Barbara Kingsolver. This book was the tale of three different people - one woman living in a forest alone, one woman living on a farm and dealing with some tragic events and one old man living with a neighbour who he kind of hates. It's entertaining and I enjoyed it too.

Overall, a good month of reading.

Homemaker Sunday

Today was a really chill day.. in a good way. We got up, read for a bit (or at least I did), had breakfast and continued to read/study. We bought some apples to make applesauce so I started making that. I did it in the slow cooker because I'm lazy.. I used about 8 apples and got about 5 cups of applesauce. I didn't add any cinnamon, sugar or cloves to it. We'll add those in as we use them. I thought that this would be way cheaper than buying applesauce at Safeway, but it only marginally cheaper. Perhaps apple season will be better.

While I was bored at work on Friday (whoops), I found another food blog - www.ezrapoundcake.com. It's incredible! I found so many recipes that I can't wait to try - and the best thing is that there are tons of vegetarian ones. We aren't strictly vegetarians, and R will probably hate me for saying that.. but we do eat a lot of meatless dinners. I enjoy eating veggies and stuff, although I prefer protein in the form of beans than in the form of tofu..

I also made pizza dough that we'll use for a flatbread one night as a side for something, and pizza dough for tomorrow night's cilantro-bean-corn-tomato pizza. We also made cilantro pesto.

Busy day (but also lazy?) but somehow I feel better about jumping into this week, knowing that dinner will be ready soon after I get home. I also have yummy fruit (kiwis and apples) and cookies (oatmeal chocolate chip) to get me through the week.

Hike: Lynn Loop

The hike this weekend was a shorter (2 hour) hike on the North Shore - this time, in Lynn Valley, which is a place that R and I have been to often. There's lots of loops, a suspension bridge (lower than where we were today) and some really gorgeous old forest.

The weather was a bit grey when we started, but about a quarter of the way through, the sun came out and it turned into another lovely day! :)

 View of Vancouver (it looked better in person..)

 Trees! I love parallel lines in forests.

Lynn Creek. Beautiful water.. it's very clear, and presumably quite cold.