There has been a huge consumerism shift towards local, organic, and all-natural products, and I am not immune. I’ve mentioned offhand the dietary issues I’ve been having, and so I am looking to cut out extremely processed foods in my daily diet.

But what I’ve also become interested in, is the chemicals and synthetic ingredients we cover ourselves in daily — deodorant, hand cream, toothpaste, shampoo, soap, laundry detergent, even feminine hygiene products are bleached.

Some of the issues that concern me:

• Known chemicals seeping into my body. For example, formaldehyde is in some makeup products. Yes, embalming fluid.
• Chemicals washing into the ocean or other natural water sources, contaminating animal habitats and drinking water
• Sensitivity issues to ‘parfum‘ and fragrance in products
• Unknown effects of chemicals. For example, bisphenol-A (BPA) and parabens have been linked to cancer.

Finding Out What’s in My About Cosmetic Chemicals

First step was to educate myself. This involved a lot of reading from reputable sources. I relied mostly on local health magazines, or websites with a healthy focus. I know that some people feel the “granola-eating, organic hippies” blow things out of proportion, but with proper journalism, you need to credit your information sources. These are not scare tactics, they are just facts.

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A couple months ago I saw a tweet from Leanne Prain, one of the authors of the book Yarn Bombing: The Art of Knit and Crochet Graffiti. The tweet linked to the yarn bombing website and said they were organizing a yarn bombing of the Historic Joy Kogawa House’s cherry tree.

This immediately sparked my interest as it merged two of my passions—yarn and books! And I immediately knew the perfect yarn to use (from my stash too) and started crocheting blossoms.

I also had a thought— at my new internship I’ve got the chance to contribute to various magazine websites (I’m in the digital editorial department). So I mentioned the yarn bombing to Granville Magazine‘s editor, Hilary Henegar. She liked the idea and said to go ahead with the article.

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Canada Reads will be celebrating it’s 10th anniversary in 2010/2011 and have decided to change things up a bit. Before, Canada Reads picked five Canadian public figures and had them champion books for a week-long debate in February. The books were announced in October to give everyone time to read them.

This year, Canada Reads has opened it up to the public: what book would you like to see championed during Canada Reads? There are also some more solid rules than before:

1. It has to be written by a Canadian author
2. It has to have been published in the past 10 years,
3. It has to be fiction (mainly because it’s hard enough to compare novels, much less different genres)
4. It has to be selected from a list

All the books being recommended are currently being voted on (via the Canada Reads website, Facebook and Twitter). The votes will result in the top 40 essential Canadian novels of the past decade (to be announced Tuesday, October 26). Next, it will be whittled down to the 10 Canada Reads selections on November 9th. Normally it’s 5 books, but this year it’s 10 for their 10th anniversary. I honestly don’t know how they’re going to pick the champions… or get us to.

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My Recommendations:

I went through all of my recent reviews (back to 2007) and found several books that I think could be enjoyed by a wide audience. I also noticed some themes in the books I selected: they’re often about the people and their stories in a Canadian environment. I also saw that stories from Northern Canada and the Maritime provinces were much less common. I’ve read several books about the West Coast, a few books about the Prairies, and a number of stories centering around Toronto. I really enjoyed Annabel, February, and Having Faith in the Polar Girls’ Prison particularly because they explored fictional characters within unique areas in Canada.

So, without further ado, my recommendations are….

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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 for the Vancouver Fibre League’s charity challenge. They’re due on Thursday, May 27 but Sara (aka wenchlette) is already winning with 15 blankets for the SPCA. I’ve already committed to donating a prize (a pair of earrings designed by Monnibo Designs) and so I checked with Sara what colour she wanted.

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, I’ve put it in my basement and just want to forget it’s there.” Which made me not want to read a depressing book after finishing the delightful Nikolski by Nicholas Dickner.

I have to admit, yes it was a somber story, but it is quite brilliant writing. I enjoyed the characters, how honest they were, and how real they were. At times I felt the book dragged on, but by the end, I was fully satisfied. My favourite character is Mercedes because I think that she is an unsung hero of the family. I was also constantly in awe of how she maintains faith while questioning the ways of her God.

At the start of the 20th century, James Piper sets fire to his dead mother’s piano and heads out across Cape Breton Island to find a new place to live, eventually eloping with 13-year-old Materia Mahmoud, the daughter of wealthy, traditional Lebanese parents. And so, from early on, Ann-Marie MacDonald establishes some major themes: racial tension, isolation, passion and forbidden love, which will gradually lead to incest, death in childbirth, and even murder.

At the centre of this epic story is the nature of family love, beginning with the Piper sister who depend on one another for survival. Their development as characters — beautiful Kathleen, the promising diva; saintly Mercedes; Frances, the mischievous bad girl, who tries to bear the family’s burden; and disabled Lily, everyone’s favourite — forms the heart of the novel. And then there is James, their flawed father.

[From the publisher, Random House]

At our book club discussion we basically agreed that it was well written, depressing, and wasn’t going to win Canada Reads 2010. I know this sounds pessimistic, but honestly, Fall On Your Knees‘ somber subject matter is not for everyone. Ann-Marie MacDonald deals with incest, faith, murder, pregnancy, and racism. The book really crosses a number of terrains and comes out the other side.