On Writing by Stephen King

I have listened to writers recommend Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft over and over again and finally picked it up near the end of 2019. I remember listening to an interview with him on CBC where he talked about how happy it makes him that people want to come home after a long day at work and pick up one of his books. It was so clear how much he loves reading and I found the interview really endearing. That being said, I've never read a single book by King... but I somehow consider myself a long-time admirer. On Writing is the first work I've picked up from him, and I'm really glad I did.

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American Sniper by Chris Kyle with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice

My husband has a ton of army memoirs and war books, he really likes history and the military, but he doesn't really like reading. I don't know what he planned to do with his collection but it would take him an entire lifetime to get through it. I decided to try some of his books that interested me. I've seen the movie adaptation of American Sniper and thought it would be cool to read and compare. I'm not a history buff but I like modern military stories and am fascinated with their training.

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The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion

The Last Thing He Wanted is one of my favourite fiction books by Joan Didion. I've read it four times and the reason I return to it over and over again is because I think this book is the best representation of her writing style. I remember being so impressed with the way it was written that I didn't really care that I found the plot incredibly difficult to follow. I was joking with Meg that even on my fourth re-read I still don't really know who did what, but that is absolutely not the point of reading Elena McMahon's story.

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10 Upcoming Adaptations To Get Excited About

After reading, watching TV and movies is our second favourite activity. When we reunite a few times a year we always try to binge at least one season or series together - some favourites in the past have been The Fall, Fleabag, and Sharp Objects - which is of course, a book adaptation! Here's a look at some upcoming books being turned into TV and movies in the future that we are very excited to check out.

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I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella

I wanted to give this a try because I really, really love the Shopaholic series and hadn't read anything else by Kinsella. I found it at the thrift store and it's her newest fiction book. I was prepared for it to be a cheesy chick-lit novel but either I've really matured in my taste or I didn't realize how vapid chick-lit could be. In either case, this was not great. 

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A Night to Remember by Walter Lord

Never in my life have I watched James Cameron's Titanic... until of course I last visited Meg, and as her husband said "I'm not going to bed until I see that ship sink." We convinced Scott to save the three-hour-plus epic until daylight hours and ended up watching it Thanksgiving Monday. I love a love story almost as much as I love a disaster movie, so naturally I was a fan. Michael had lent me A Night to Remember: The Classic Account of the Final Hours of the Titanic a month or so earlier than I watched the movie, and I'm glad I waited to read the book until now.

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2020 VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIAL: 10 Fictional Men We'd Leave Our Partners For

Nothing like Valentine's Day to remind your partner that they are 100% replaceable. If we've learned anything from Brad and Jenn its that we are all capable of rising to new heights (to be clear, we mean Jenn and not Brad, he is the loser of this story as the SAG Awards have clearly shown). In typical BB fashion we've put together a sapless list for all you lovebirds of men from books we would leave our partners for tomorrow. If you don't have a man in your life this V-day, here are 10 great fantasy options to fall in love with...

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Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow

I saw so many people posting this book all over social media towards the end of last year and added it very high on my wish list hoping my husband hadn't gone Christmas shopping yet (safe bet). Not only are the cover and title very cool, but I've been looking for an objective way to learn more about all this Weinstein stuff and what better way than directly from the horse's mouth... 

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Marlena by Julie Buntin

Meg and I won this book almost two years ago and I'm just getting around to reading my copy now... I had never heard of Marlena or Julie Buntin, but I remember seeing a lot of celebrities (Jenny Slate) posting photos of the book. It was selected as a Belletrist pick (an online book club run by actress Emma Roberts and her friend Kara Preiss) and this is how we won our copies. It was an easy race ... all we had to do was submit a selfie of the two of us (we have plenty) and tag each other in the post. This "win" did cost me duty from U.S. shipping though... still pissed about that.

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Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team and A Dream by H. G. Bissinger

If you keep up with this blog you'll already know that I loved this book so much I included it on my list of top 3 reads of 2019. I didn't even know about its existence until we made our list of books we were inspired to read from television series, but I am a big Friday Night Lights girl (the show) and immediately added it to my list. I was lucky enough to find it at a Value Village not too long ago and finally finished it after a full month of reading.

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We Are the Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer

I was secretly so happy that Meg didn't get this book for Christmas so that I could buy it and read it ASAP. I think her review would have been interesting because she's a vegetarian, BUT I am a long-time lover of Jonathan Safran Foer's writing so I wanted to get to it first.

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Fortune's Rocks by Anita Shreve

Anita Shreve is one of my favourite fiction authors and she sadly passed away last year at 71 years old from cancer. I wrote a whole author spotlight on her here and can't say enough good things about her writing style. Sadly I only have a handful of her books left unread and I'm torn between whether to savour them or just read them all in one go and eliminate the stress of their finale. I've been wanting to read Fortune's Rocks for a while now because it's set on the American east coast (one of my favourite places) but am sad to report that this is actually one of my least favourite books of hers, if not my actual least favourite.

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