Month: September 2008

Title: Reality TV Bites
Author: Shane Bolks
Date: 2006

The book is a woman named Allison. She is a reality tv junkie. She works in an Interior designing firm. Her boss signs the company up for a reality tv show. The show is sorta like the Iron Chef. Its two teams (them and a japanese firm).

They have 8 hours to decorate a room in a house. They have to do it in a bold design and use unorthodox materials (the first one is really funny-won’t say what it is in case anyone wants to read the book).

Then one of the producers (Nicolo) tries to seduce Allison. She finds out he is a prince. A real prince. He gives and shows her how the rich and famous live. There is this other guy in Allison life. His name is Dave. He is as equally good looking. But they have a love hate relationship. He shows her how the common people live with beer and basketball games. It ends up that Allison broke the contract with the reality show cause she was dating the producer and he makes her live a living hell to say the least. She is hounded by the press day and night cause the story was leaked thanks to Nicolo. She wonders if she will ever get her life back. She fights all the way though.

Will she get the Prince in the end?

Title: The Xmas Factor
Author: Annie Sanders
Date: November 2006

This is by a British author. Its about 2 women who approach the holidays very differently.

The first lady is Beth (stepmom to two grown kids–her step daughter basically hates her and tries to ruin the holiday) Beth lives in a neighborhood that is similiar to the stepford wives. The villiage she lives in throws a big xmas bash each year and up until 4 years ago it was Beth’s husbands wife that ran it (the wife died). Beth deals with having to do that as well has arrange xmas for the family at her house.

The second lady is Carol who is a magazine editor for a magazine that is on the verge of shutting down but she gets a huge story that brings the magazine out on top. She is in the midst of this huge story and forgets about the holiday approaching. She is panicked and wracked with guilt for not being better prepared…but she is determined to make this a perfect xmas for her son who broke his leg just before they left to go away for xmas. One of her writers (which turns out to be Beths step daughter) wrote an article about this cute little cottage so Carol ends up booking this place but its a total dump ….so things come to head when poor Beth breaks down cause of the storm the xmas party is a bust but Carol steps in the save the day and thats when she finds out who Beths step daughter is.

Title: All Our Wonder Unavenged
Author: Don Domanski
Date: April 2007

This was the winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2007. It won for Poetry. Its a collection of his poetry. There is 40 beautifully written poems. I had a hard time to pick a favorite to really brag about but too choose one I would have to say Three Ribbons. The reason why?

“I could remind you that the world
is still here in deepest space
that the human heart is still
three ribbons tied to a belief
in flesh and form.”

When I was reading them I could actually invision myself there. He writes beautifully. Plus he is Canadian. Born and raised in Cape Breton NS. He now lives in Halifax, NS. He has published eight books of poetry. Two of his books (Wolf Ladder, 1991, and Stations of the Left Hand, 1994) were short-listed for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry. In 1999 he won the Canadian Literary Award for Poetry. Published and reviewed internationally, his work has been translated into Czechoslovakian, Portuguese, and Spanish.