In book number two of The Jewel Fairies by Daisy Meadows, Kirsty and Rachel meet Emily the Emerald Fairy. The girls are at one of the biggest toy stores they have ever seen. Wall to wall with every toy they could possibly imagine, they wonder if they are going to meet any new fairies today or even find a missing jewel that Jack Frost has hidden in their world. The girls love helping the fairies from Fairyland and love that they have the coolest secret ever between them. They even get a laugh out of a fairy doll that they see in the toy store because to them, it looks nothing like a real fairy.

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Like most little girls, my daughter loves fairies and everything magical. While she still loves her “scary” books and mystery books like Nancy Drew and The Clue Crew, she has found a new series to fall into. Daisy Meadows has created a cute book series called The Jewel Fairies. They are all under 100 pages making them perfect chapter books for new readers such as my little girl. Kicking the series off are the Jewel Fairies and the first one we were able to read about (the first book in any series is almost NEVER available at the library, but we learn to deal) was Scarlett the Garnet Fairy.

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This is one of the best self-help books I may ever have read.  Richard Wiseman is one of my favorite self help/psychology authors.  Between his easy, entertaining writing style and his solid scientific underpinnings, Wiseman is justifiably popular.  

Another thing to like about Wiseman is that if he has a question that no other researcher has answered, he does the study himself.  Such is the case with his question about "What wallet contents ensure that the wallet will be returned to its owner?"  

Unable to find scientific literature testing this question, Wiseman bought a whole whack of wallets and started stuffing them with various items, then dropping them around town.  (The most successful item, by the way, turned out to be a picture of a smiling baby.  Put one of those in your wallet and if it's lost, it's a lot more likely to be returned.)


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As a mom, I can tell you that I have mastered the art of holding it. In fact, I used to hold it even before I became a mother. I remember standing in lines at amusement parks, getting that nervous/excited pre-rollercoaster feel while in line that made me feel like I’d have to pee, and I’d tell my then-boyfriend, “I have to pee!” and he’d roll his eyes, knowing that A. I wouldn’t stop to pee and B. I would say the same thing in the next rollercoaster line. Maybe I’m just weird like that.

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Like its predecessor Poison Study, Magic Study is an awesome adventure featuring the young magician and former food tester Yelena and her company of brave friends. In Magic Study, Maria V. Snyder takes us even further along Yelena’s journey as she goes home to discover the family she had never known existed. Once there, she is met with a hostile brother and others who doubt her sincerity, believing her to be a spy from Ixia. (Spoilers ahead.)

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I got an ARC copy of this book through @DevourerOfBooks’ book blog. It comes out in bookstores on August 17, and if you’re into creative renderings of classic problems, I recommend it.

In short: It’s a meandering, interwoven story about the lives of a half-dozen loosely connected women across generations and their struggles with life, love and men. It’s an easy read with refined soap opera emotions that I would say is ideal for a weekend at the cabin or several airline trips.

The book is set in a town called Haven in Michigan. The most interesting part, for me, is the narrative structure. Riggle switches up the narrator every few pages, titling each chapter with just the new speakers’ name. We have:

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You may already have seen, and presumably been charmed by, Tanya Davis' video poem titled "How To Be Alone."  It is a step-by-step guide to re-entering the world as a single person after a break-up.  And, frankly, it's adorable.

But not to The Globe And Mail columnist Russell Smith, it's not.  

He calls it "pair-bonding-obsessed weepiness," which confused me.  Did we watch the same video? 

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I like China Mieville's work a lot, not least because he operates in the fantasy genre, without writing about elves and unicorns.  YOU know what I mean.  Fantasy has the potential to be so much more, and Mieville takes it there.

Mieville has announced that he wants to write one novel for each kind of genre, and this is his take on the mystery genre.  And it is, as you might expect from a China Mieville novel, mind-bendingly bizarre. 

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Women have always been thought of as “the weaker sex." Now the world is finally becoming aware that women are no longer weak and are also taking charge of their lives.

In the book and the movie “Eat, Pray, Love,” one woman takes an enormous risk by getting a divorce and traveling the world alone in search of herself. Traveling worldwide may seem extreme to some, but to really find herself this woman felt that she had to gain distance from all that was comfortable for her.

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