The Hippie Moose: books

If you recall, last year I resolved to read a book a month. No problem. I think I went a bit off the rails in posting my reading adventure so I will briefly sum up….

January: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years (Miller) ~ spiritual

February: Ignore Everyone (Macleod) ~ art, creativity

March: Super Freakanomics (Levitt) psychology

April: Buyology (Lindstrom) ~ psychology & marketing

May: The Kind Diet (Silverstone) ~ vegetarianism
June: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Larsson) ~ fiction
July: Rework (Fried & Hansson) - psychology and business
August: The Poisonwood Bible (Kingsolver) ~ fiction

September: The Lovely Bones (Sebold) ~fiction

October: The Girl who played with Fire (Larsson) ~ fiction

November: The Girl who kicked a Hornets Nest (Larsson) ~ fiction

December: Exiles (Frost) ~ spiritual

I don't think I read a book I didn't like. If I had to pick a favorite I would say my favorite fiction was The Poisonwood Bible, non-fiction was A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. Here's hoping 2011 brings more good reading! If you want to read more about what I though of the books you can hit BOOKS in the label list and there should be reviews for at first half of the year at least!

January 16, 2011 2 comments

LiveJournal Tags: December Photo Project,photography

December 23, 2010 No comments

Oooops! I thought I had posted my August book, my bad! A Great Book!

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.
It's amazing to see all the girls from the same family go in such different directions. Makes me want to visit the former Congo. Also makes me so mad that people on the other side of the ocean can have such a huge part of destroying a culture so far away. Read it. You'll love it. Here is the summary, because they do it better than I ever could: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Poisonwood_Bible
Thanks so much to Deb for lending it to me!

September 10, 2010 No comments

Loved this book. End of story. OK, I will expand on that for you...
This is actually a business book but when I read it it came to me how many different areas of my life it applied to. And before you get your knickers in a knot, it's like the anti-business book.

It was written by Jason Fried and David Hansson, the ideas presented only take up a page or two at a time so it's really easy to pick up and put down as you have time.

Here's a list of some of the "chapters":
Why Grow?
Make a Dent in the Universe
Live it or Leave it
Meetings are Toxic
Press Releases are Spam
How to say you're Sorry
Send people Home at 5

... and the list goes on. I picked it up because I own my business, I love reading about economics, and it came highly recommended. I wasn't disappointed. Check for it at your library, I found it at mine!

July 18, 2010 2 comments

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson. This was a great read if you like a mystery.... it is a bit gorry and some parts were very disturbing ~ so be warned (overall nothing you wouldn't see during prime time TV). I hear they are making it into a movie again, it would make a great movie in my opinion.

There is a lot to the storyline and I wouldn't know how to go about telling it... so.... there is a great synopsis HERE on wikipedia.

I will be looking for the next one in the series.... "The Girl Who Played With Fire".

July 02, 2010 2 comments

Well, let's catch up on some reading again...
For May I read "The Kind Diet" by Alicia Silverstone. Normally I'm not into anything written by a celebrity but this one got such good reviews I decided to check it out anyway. I actually think she did a great job. She had lots of good info, lots of Dr.'s backing her up, and I was inspired. Nice. She has a website that's really good in case you can't get your mitts on her book: The Kind Life Website

While I'm not a vegan I would say after reading her book I might qualify as a quasi-vegan. I'd say I'm now vegan about 90% of the time. But lets face it.... cheese is from cows, and that's a hard drug to drop. I also love my cream in my coffee in the morning. Other than that I have cut out pretty much all my other animal products. I feel pretty darn sweet. If I could just break the cheese addiction....

June 23, 2010 2 comments

I just realized I missed posting my March and April books so here we gooo....

March I read something....hmmmm, oh yeah...

THIS ONE:

SUPER FREAKONOMICS by Levitt & Dubner.

From The Hippie Moose

I loved it. But I loved the first Freakonomics book so I knew I would. It's just a lot of really interesting true facts and how they effect economics today or in the past.

A breakdown of what's covered:

Introduction: Putting the Freak in Economics

Chapter 1: How is a street prostitute like a department-store Santa?
Chapter 2: Why should suicide bombers buy life insurance?
Chapter 3: Unbelievable stories about apathy and altruism
Chapter 4: The fix is in---and it's cheap and simple
Chapter 5: What do Al Gore and Mount Pinatubo have in common?

OK, onto April. That one was a bit more disturbing.

BUYOLOGY by Lindstrom

From The Hippie Moose

It was a bit of a wake-up call in terms of being more aware of advertisers and how pervasive the whole business is. It's everywhere, the price they pay to do it could end world hunger, and it makes me sick. If anything I have stopped buying anything I don't need to.
I will cover one of those things in my next post...... but I digress.

Both books came from my local library and I would recommend both for different reasons.

NEXT BOOK.... something a little more uplifting.

May 18, 2010 No comments

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm not Irish but will celebrate just about anything.

To mark this special day my sons and I made Peppermint Patties from "How it all Vegan".

These things were SUPER easy to make and very yummy.

We tried to make hearts and shamrocks but once they were dipped it was really hard to tell. So do yourself a favour and go with round balls, much easier to shape and dip.

The filling is SOOO easy:

2 cups of powdered sugar

1 tbsp. vegan marj.

2 tsp peppermint extract

2 tbsp vegan milk ( I used rice milk)

Blend it all together until its a paste, form into balls, freeze 15 min. Dip into melted chocolate with a bit or margarine. SWEET!

March 17, 2010 3 comments

I just finished reading "Ignore Everybody; and 39 other keys to creativity." by Hugh MacLeod. It's actually an extension of his blog: Gaping Void

I really loved Chapter 7 about getting our crayons back. Somewhere along the line of "growing up" our crayons are taken away and we need to demand them back. To do art for the sheer enjoyment of the process and not the possible outcome of the endeavor.

I also REALLY love his art, very real life and he does it all on the back of business cards. Brilliant. Check out his gallery at: http://gapingvoidgallery.com/

February 26, 2010 No comments

As you might recall from last year my resolution was to read a book-a-month. I was successful and feel that I like my odds for 2010 so here we go again! Here is the list from 2009:
January: "The Shack" (Young)
February: "Irrisistible Revolution" (Claiborne)
March: "The Book of Negros" (Hill)
April: "The Alchemist" (Coelho)
May: "The Book of Negros" (Hill) ~ yes, again.
June: "So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore?" (Jacobsen)
July: "Three Cups of Tea" (Morentson)
August: "Three Day Road" (Boyden)
September: "Any Known Blood" (Hill)
October: "They Do It With Mirrors" (Christie)
November: "A Good Yarn" (Macomber)
December: "Alice in Wonderland" (Carroll)

It would be hard to pick a favorite from 2009, The Alchemist has been a long time favorite and I read it once a year. In terms of books I had never read before I will have to say my favorite fiction was "The Book of Negros" and favorite non-fiction was "Irrisistable Revolution".

So here we go with 2010.
January: "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" (Miller)

Yes, I have already finished my January book. It was SO good I couldn't put it down and was so dissappointed when it was over. It's all about living a good story, and what it takes to change the story you are living.

January 08, 2010 7 comments

2009 is over half way complete. Scary. I'm usually not one for making New Years Resolutions simply due to my poor track record in the past. This year I made one I have never made before and this morning I realized I'm still on track to complete it. Shocking.

What was this miraculous resolution that is actually attainable?

I decided to read a book a month. Simple.

So far this is what I have read this year:

*January: The Shack (Young)

*February: Irresistible Revolution (Claiborne)

*March: The Book of Negros (Hill)

*April: The Alchemist (Coelho)

*May: The Book of Negros(Hill) - no this isn't a typo... I just HAD to read it again.

*June: So you don't want to go to Church anymore? (Jacobsen/Coleman)

July: Three Cups of Tea (Mortenson)

I have a stack of books to pick from for the rest of the year but if you have a suggestion for an amazing book you've read please post it... I'm open for suggestions! I have put an asterisk beside the books I own so if you would like to borrow one... just give me a shout, I would recommend all of them.

(If you live outside of Canada the book by Lawrence Hill was released as "Someone knows my name" instead of "The Book of Negros".)

July 20, 2009 5 comments

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