REVIEW: 360 Degrees of Longitude

360 Degrees of Longitude by John Higham

Our Family's Journey Around the World

How I came about this book I just can't remember, and it was just a few weeks ago! I found the authors website based on the book and then I pre-ordered it and got it only the day after it was officially released on July 1st, 2009. WARNING: Full on raving and 5 star shenanigans ahead...

I read this book in 2 days. Not an easy feat as I look after two girls, 9 and 2, AND a 44 year old kid posing as my husband.

Once I read the first few sentences I could not put it down. Now, granted, my husband and I have been talking about a trip like this for as long as we have been together, and we place world travel very high on our priority list, so that could be why I just inhaled the thing. But don't take my word for it either! Just check out Amazon.com! In just 6 weeks this non-fiction delight has garnered ONLY 5 star ratings, and rave reviews. And I can totally understand why.

John Higham is a rocket scientist. Not as in, "Oh gee, it doesn't take a rocket scientist." No, he really IS one. He and his wife took 10 years to plan the "world the round" trip (as one of his children exclaimed in their toddler years), and he not only gives great detail of their travels but it is entertaining as heck and hilarious at times! When was the last time you laughed out loud while reading a travel memoir other than a Bill Bryson? Not only is it wildly entertaining, it is also educational without being text-booky, and honestly? You just feel like you are along for the ride, the tandem bike ride, as that is how this family largely travelled. Surviving on ham sandwiches and hitting the off-off beat track and getting sidetracked by some crazy stuff, you will feel like you know each and everyone of these people intimately. Not only that, if you have any interest at all in travelling the world? This will definitely inspire you to google earth yourself an itinerary.

The other neat thing the author did, he created a layer within Google Earth and there are many photos and extra little anecdotes to follow along as you read. Every time you see the little Google Earth symbol in the text you can visit the website and see the added bonus! GENIUS!

All in all a FANTASTIC read for anyone, but especially those of us wanting to travel with our kids.

RATING: 5 stars

SUNDAY SALON

Welcome to my very first Sunday Salon! The Sunday Salon is like a virtual "reading room" where fellow bibliophiles "gather" and do some relaxed reading on Sunday's and share what they have read.

Today I took up my usual spot on my living room couch, at my usual time of my youngest's naptime, and stretched out in a slash of sun and continued my re-read of The Fiery Cross. Before Diana Gabaldon announced the impending release of the next Outlander book, I started to re-read the entire series about 2 years ago. Once I heard, via her personal blog, that she was writing the next installment in the series I got much more focused in my reading. Nothing like a deadline to get the pages turning!

Re-reading a series is something I have done since childhood, starting with the Little House Series. I have probably re-read that series about 30 times in my life. Once I found, through my older sisters, the Gabaldon series, I knew I wanted to keep Jamie and Claire alive and well around me at all times. So, since reading the first in the series, "Outlander" in 2002 I have basically always got one on the go. I liked the Fiery Cross when I first read it, but at the time it was my least favourite of the series. Mostly because (and I had been fair warned ahead of time) the entire first 147 pages takes place in ONE DAY. It felt endless. I was apprehensive about reading it again, but reading them all for a second time I am actually enjoying them a lot more. The thing about them is that this is very smart historical fiction, written not only for women, but many men I have heard (my Dad being one of them) have loved them too. Not purely "chick lit".. which is not my preferred genre.

So now every single day I sit down and read for at least an hour because in 7 weeks the new book comes out and I have to finish this one AND re-read the LAST one which is well over 900 pages! Can she do it??! We'll see.....

REVIEW: The Book of Negroes

The Book of Negroes (released in the U.S. as Someone Knows my Name)

Harper Collins Publishers Oct 15, 2007

This is one of those books that I kept going to on the bookshelves at Chapters. I kept picking it up and wanting to buy it, but for whatever reason I didn't. You know how it is. When I finally did buy it was after about a year after we brought our adopted daughter home from Ethiopia, so the story had even more meaning to me.

This book is one of my all time favourite reads. Written by a Canadian Author and highlighting much of the history of slaves who were sent to Nova Scotia. I have to admit I knew nothing about that history, and I was blown away by the accounts. But let me back track a bit. The story follows a young African girl named Aminata Diallo, a fictional character, but the "face" of many many slaves of all sexes and ages that went through the living hell that was her life after her capture. It was an extremely compelling read that had me, at times, almost in tears at the absolute terror that this young girl must have felt during her captivity. Lawrence Hill is an incredibly gifted writer that, for a man, captured his heroines heart and soul and laid it out on the page. Not knowing any of the history of the journey to Nova Scotia or of Freedomland I was on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next!

This is a piece of historical fiction that is beautifully written, educational as well as heart wrenching.

It is interesting to note that before the novel was released in the US they had to change the name reportedly because the publishers or distributors down there thought the name might be to inflammatory. But the truth is there really is a record of names of slaves that travelled via ship to Nova Scotia from Africa and it is actually called "The Book of Negroes."

RATING: 4.5 STARS

REVIEW: Mutiny on the Bounty by John Boyne

'>Mutiny on the Bounty by John Boyne

Published Feb 2009 Doubleday Canada - To purchase click this link:

Mutiny on the Bounty

The day I bought this book I was doing my annual birthday browse at a Chapters and had literally a pile of books in my arms. Normally I don't wander up and down the fiction aisle and look at every book that's there, but this day I did. Beside a shelf in a pile was Mutiny on the Bounty by John Boyne. Personally I love books about life on ships, and I haven't read many of them. So I picked it up and read the first page. HOOKED.

To say I loved this novel is an understatement. The language the author uses in the dialogue is ingenious! Words like "scut" to describe a scumbag, or "squits" for... well.. obvious bodily issues you may or may not get on a ship, and my personal favourite when our hero John Jacob Turnstile suddenly finds himself in the company of a lady, let's say, he "gets the motions." Honestly, I laughed out loud at this almost every single time.

I was not familiar with the Bounty story so for me this was a great read on that level as well. The story of Bligh and his ill fated voyage is told from the perspective of a 14 year old n'ere do well Turnstile. He narrowly avoids jail time by agreeing to serve time as Bligh's personal "assistant" on the Bounty for an eighteen month voyage. The interesting thing about using Turnstile to tell the story is we get to "be there" and watch the events unfold as a fly on the wall, so to speak. Boyne uses the boys perspective that filter the story as well as his reaction to what he sees and often overhears that helps us to understand what went wrong. The story is a fictional account of what happened, but follows the historical version pretty closely. And the characters you love to hate are much more fun when you interact with them thru a 14 year old boys impatient and rebellious yet controlled manner.

This is one of those books that I could not put down. I read it every spare moment I had and talked of little else. It was funny, heart breaking, compelling and unpredictable. (At least for me since I had no idea what actually happened in the history books) After I finished it I was thoroughly satisfied right to the very last page, which in and of itself is an amazing feat for an author.

RATING: 5 STARS