Monniblog

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Author Monnibo

Monica (aka monnibo) is a Vancouver blogger working in publishing. She blogs about life on the West Coast of Canada, including arts & crafts, book reviews, technology and various geeky things.

Book Review :: The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

I enjoyed the second book in Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy in a different way than I enjoyed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (book review / movie review). In the first book, it’s very much about the mystery at hand, and… Continue Reading →

FO: Herringbone Cowl

This has been my “stupid knitting” project for some time. Why is it “stupid knitting”? #1: It’s simple pattern is perfect to take to Knitting Meetup where I am constantly distracted and just plain chatty. #2: I’m stupid and forget… Continue Reading →

Book Review :: The Outlander by Gil Adamson

I wanted to read this book after I listened to the Canada Reads debates in 2009. It wasn’t the winning book (that was The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill), but the positive things said about The Outlander by Gil… Continue Reading →

Book Review :: February by Lisa Moore

Lisa Moore’s second novel, February, got some good reviews when it first came out including The Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire, and shortlisted for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. In February 1982, the oil rig Ocean Ranger sank off… Continue Reading →

Winding Yarn & Casting On

A couple months ago my dad helped me make a yarn swift to go with the ball winder I got at FibresWest in March. We used this DIY Yarn Swift tutorial and I decided to video the yarn winding. The… Continue Reading →

Knitted Snakeys for Charity

I’ve mentioned several times that Henry is a yarn snob, so I knit him a new snakey out of 100% wool scraps (Cascade 220). Once I finished his snakey, I moved on to the three snakes I’ve committed to knit… Continue Reading →

Book Review :: Underground by June Hutton

Underground by June Hutton covers the adulthood of Albert Fraser, a young man from BC. As Al grows and changes, the book follows his story, thoughts, and confusion in life. Sometimes I felt like the book lacked direction, but it… Continue Reading →

Dad’s Second Pair of Felted Slippers

Dad loved his felted slippers that I made him for Christmas 2007. In fact, this past summer I had to mend them just so he could keep wearing them. For his birthday (in April) I planned to make him a… Continue Reading →

Book Review :: Beatrice & Virgil by Yann Martel

When I heard that Life of Pi author Yann Martel had a new book coming out in April 2010, I was very excited. I read The Life of Pi when I was about 12 years old and remember discussing the… Continue Reading →

Book Review :: Having Faith in the Polar Girls’ Prison by Cathleen With

Having Faith in the Polar Girls’ Prison is a moving story about a 15-year-old girl who is locked in a prison with her premature baby (named Faith). Narrated by Trista in a stream-of-consciousness style, she tells her past through memories… Continue Reading →

Book Review :: Gemma by Meg Tilly

I’ve been sitting on this review for a few days because it is a very hard book to read, let alone talk about. Meg Tilly tells the story of Gemma, a twelve-year-old girl who is being raped by her mother’s… Continue Reading →

Book Review :: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

This book has been at the top of international bestseller charts for quite a while now and is “destined to be regarded amongst the best crime novels ever written”. The most intriguing part for me is that the novels have… Continue Reading →

Book Review :: The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley

As soon as I finished the first book in the Buckshaw Chronicles, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, I picked up my ARC of The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag. I am so pleased I had it… Continue Reading →

Carrot Ginger Soup :: Recipe

This fat-free vegan-friendly recipe will make any soup lover’s tummy smile. I combined a couple recipes to create this bad boy: a carrot-coriander soup that called for milk to make it creamy, and a butternut squash soup with ginger that… Continue Reading →

Book Review :: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

I have been remiss in posting this review because I’m already absorbed in the next book in the series. However, I really enjoyed The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley and believe it should get the… Continue Reading →

Book Review :: 8 x 10 by Michael Turner

8 x 10 has been recently shortlisted for the BC Book Prizes’ Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. I think it is best to start with the publisher’s description, because if I had been handed this book without recommendation or any idea… Continue Reading →

Illustrious Illustrations

It’s been a long while since I participated in Booking Through Thursday, so here we go! How do you feel about illustrations in your books? Graphs? Photos? Sketches? As long as they relate to the text and illuminate it in… Continue Reading →

Crochet Success!!

Chelle taught me to crochet probably two years ago. She gave me a gift with a gorgeous crochet hook, WIP bag and 2 balls of KnitPicks Shine in garden green. It was a lovely gift and I went around in… Continue Reading →

Book Review :: Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald

I know this post should have gone up sooner since the debates for Canada Reads begin today… but I procrastinated reading Fall On Your Knees and procrastinating writing this review. Why did I procrastinate? Tammy kept saying, “It’s so depressing,… Continue Reading →

Book Review :: Generation X by Douglas Coupland

Honestly, I don’t get what the big deal is about Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. Although I found the writing witty I didn’t really get the point. Besides “understanding” the generation and telling these 20-somethings’ story, what was… Continue Reading →

Knitted Kitty, Sleeping Cowl

As you may know, Henry is a yarn snob. He only fondles fibres with 100% natural content. Therefore, I believed my cowl being knit with Nashua Ivy (50% alpaca, 45% merino, 5% synthetic) was safe. I thought wrong: Fortunately he… Continue Reading →

Painted Plant Pots

Last Wednesday I showed Henry inspecting my new houseplants. I bought them from the Garden Centre at Home Depot and chose plain terracotta pots to plant them in. I asked at the Paint Centre in Home Depot if I would… Continue Reading →

Book Review :: Inferno by Robin Stevenson

Dante thinks high school is an earthly version of hell. She hates her new home in the suburbs, her best friend has moved away, her homeroom teacher mocks her and her mother is making her attend a social skills group… Continue Reading →

Canada Reads Indie & Canada Also Reads

Some people have been disappointed with the Canada Reads 2010 list. Reasons include the authors/publishers/books being too well-known already. There are two new grassroots challenges called Canada Reads Independently and Canada Also Reads which aim to shed light on the… Continue Reading →

Book Review :: Nikolski by Nicholas Dickner

Initially I was apprehensive about Nikolski, written by Nicholas Dickner, because it was translated from French. Translations can go one of two ways and I was worried that a lot would be lost in translation. However, I was pleasantly surprised… Continue Reading →

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