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.

The David Suzuki Foundation is dedicated to protecting the earth we live on. Such a simple mandate allows them to take a broad approach to activism. They’ve published a report called The Dirty Dozen, which lists 12 chemicals commonly found in cosmetics and beauty products.

A really interesting video is called The Story of Stuff: Cosmetics. And although it only discusses the USA, many things still apply to Canada. They really address the backwards way the personal care industry operates and how we need to change. We need to get the governments involved to regulate the restrictions for companies.

A recent report indicated that kids today are born pre-polluted (which gives a new meaning to Lady Gaga’s song, Born this Way). Tests from umbilical cords showed Teflon, lead, mercury and even pesticides.

These things may seem small compared to the radiation that the Fukushima 50 are being exposed to… but I can’t do anything about that radiation. However, I can begin at home and focus on toxins we willingly allow into our bodies on a daily basis.

Changes I’m Making

This is the part that I’m finding the most difficult; finding reputable and affordable products. Fortunately, I have discovered some gems.

Rocky Mountain Soap Company are my go-to-shop for soap, hand cream, lipbalm and even deodorant. Every product I’ve used has been incredible, save for the deodorant. I find the roll-on crystal deodorant a little hit or miss, literally. I have to make sure I get total coverage and let it dry totally without rubbing any off on clothes or skin. However, when I manage this, I don’t smell at all during the day, yet I’m still able to perspire safely (the difference between deodorants and antiperspirants).

I just picked up some all-natural shampoo and conditioner. Most of the stuff I found online was super expensive. Whole Foods / Capers carries a line called Prairie Naturals that my friend recommended. I ended up picking up the brand Aura at the salon for nearly the same as drugstore prices. One of the co-founders of Aveda started making it after they sold Aveda to Estée Lauder in 1997. My stylist was saying that Aveda has gone slowly downhill in terms of their original all-natural formulas.

More Research Needed

• Laundry detergent. I don’t like fragrances and I want something that is biodegradable once it’s done its job.
• Toothpaste. This is more difficult because my dentist says I need to use ProNamel or Sensodyne. I may have to concede on this point depending on the ingredients in those brands.
• Feminine hygiene products. Some have suggest the DivaCup or all-natural pads and tampons similar to natural/recycled toilet paper and paper towels.
• Shaving gel. I suppose I could just lather up soap, or use the men’s shaving soap that Rocky Mountain has…

Resources I’ve Found

• The Dirty Dozen from the David Suzuki Foundation
• More information on chemicals in all types of body care products
• Want to find out if your products contain a toxic chemical? Check the Skin Deep, the cosmetic safety database
• Read Gill Deacon’s new book, There’s Lead in Your Lipstick: Toxins in our Everyday Body Care and How to Avoid Them. There is even a handy little wallet card that you can download (or pick up at your favourite all-natural store).
• Health Canada report on formaldehyde in hair products
• Sign the petition for smarter regulations of chemicals in cosmetics [On hiatus during Canadian federal election]
• Follow The David Suzuki Foundation’s Queen of Green on Twitter or read the Queen of Green blog
• Check out the Environmental Defence (Canada) or the Environmental Working Group (USA) for reliable information
• Check out the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (one of the supporters of The Story of Stuff video)

Do you have any favourite resources or products? What should I check out?

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.

I attended the first of two knit-ins that Leanne and the other co-author, Mandy Moore (tech editor of Knitty), planned at the Historic Joy Kogawa House. It was a roaring success with at least 30 people in attendance and standing room only. I interviewed Mandy and Leanne as well as the Historic Joy Kogawa House’s volunteer executive director, Ann-Marie Metten.

Here is my article in Granville online: Yarn bombing a literary landmark on Vancouver’s south side

I also attended the second knit-in because I’m passionate about raising awareness for the Society and I had about 45 more blossoms to drop off (I’d left about a dozen the first knit in).

My blossoms are ready to go

Mandy Moore teaches someone how to crochet

Attendee crochets a chain of blossoms

Blossom box after the second knit-in

I’ve placed a call for help on Ravelry because out-of-towners can mail in contributions:
Historic Joy Kogawa House
1450 West 64th Avenue
Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6P 2N4

Submissions will be accepted up until March 1, 2011. All cherry blossoms should be made out of pink yarn. Or you can knit/crochet large chunks of “bark” out of brown yarn.

I’ll be attending the “bombing” on March 6 to stitch all of the cherry blossoms (and bark!) into place. And I’m hoping to do more of a ‘photo essay’ with a photographer friend.

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.

—————-

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….

Annabel by Kathleen Winter

• Shortlisted for the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize
• Shortlisted for the 2010 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize
• Shortlisted for the 2010 Governor General’s Award for Fiction

I read this book fairly recently, so it is quite prominent in my mind. Winter’s prose is lyrical and lonely, yet relatable. Wayne’s story is magnetic, powerful, and has an unexplainable energy. The novel raises a lot of questions about who people are, and why you choose the paths you choose. I think Wayne’s story teaches tolerance and acceptance, both of oneself and those around you.
Read my full review for Annabel.

February by Lisa Moore

• Selected by Globe and Mail for Top 100 Books of the Year (2009)
• Selected for Quill & Quire’s 2009 Books of the Year
• Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Canada and the Caribbean) — Best Book 2010
• Selected as Editors’ Choice (2009) by the New York Times

The book is very striking and you really feel Helen’s pain, see her emotional distance after the disaster, and heal with her through her life. The story isn’t a particularly plot-driven or linear story, it is all about the characters and their struggle through the disaster of the Ocean Ranger and their life following it.
Read my full review for February.

Having Faith in the Polar Girls’ Prison by Cathleen With

• Winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize 2010
  

Having Faith is quite an emotional story that sticks with you. Trista, and many of the other Polar Girls, have encountered molestation, rape, drugs, alcohol-abuse, and both physical and mental abuse in their young lives. Cathleen With worked as a teacher in Inuvik in the Northwest Territories and it was her experiences up North that inspired Having Faith.
Read my full review for Having Faith in the Polar Girls’ Prison.

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Stephen Galloway

• Nominated for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize 2010
• Longlisted for the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize for Fiction
• Nominated for the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award – Fiction Book of the Year 2009

I was alive when this occurred and I don’t remember ever hearing it in the news. I suppose I might have been too young, but it definitely pulled me back to reality regarding wars. The writing is beautiful and honest. The story itself follows several characters and really shows the breadth of human spirit and resilience.
Read my full review for The Cellist of Sarajevo.

—————-

Canada Read’s Current Recommendations:

There are quite a lot of books being recommended and many authors I really want to read. Here are some off the top of my head:

• Margaret Atwood (particularly Oryx and Crake)
• Camilla Gibb
• Paul Quarrington
• Jane Urquart
• William Gibson
• Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden

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 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.

I think my favourite thing about the book was the inscription; I picked the book up at a local secondhand bookstore (MacLeod’s in downtown Vancouver) and the following was written on the title page inside:

To Sean of:
Generation X

From Mom & Dad
of Generation Grey Hairs Remember

Easter 1995

At book club yesterday, there were a couple people who read and enjoyed it when it first came out. So I asked “why did you enjoy it so much?” One person said that it was probably something to do with feeling misunderstood, and Coupland, in talking to and about that generation, really identified with their feelings. Another common frustration was the side notes in the margins. The only time they seriously bothered me was when they didn’t relate back to the novel at all. Sometimes I could reread the asides and see how the witty definitions related to the story… but when it didn’t it annoyed me to a degree.

I think the main problem is that I’m from a whole different generation, not that unlike generation X-ers, but just different enough to not “click” with the book. I am now curious to read Generation A, Douglas Coupland’s latest novel (published September 2009 by Random House). Right now, we are living in a very digital and connected society and I’d be curious to read Coupland’s Generation A to see if I connect with the sentiments in a way that generation X-ers did with Generation X.

P.S. If you haven’t vote for your predicted win and your favourite book for Canada Reads at the Canada Reads Challenge, go vote! CBC also has a poll on their website. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast, or the videos, or listen live! The debates begin tomorrow, Monday, March 8th!

CANADA READS INDEPENDENTLY

When I first heard about Canada Reads Independently 2010, I thought it was a list of books from independent presses. Wrong. It turns out that Kerry Clare of Pickle Me This launched Canada Reads 2010: Independently for a different reason. Kerry says, “I’m not going to knock [Canada Reads] because I love the spirit behind the whole thing… but it just wasn’t the reading list for me. What I wanted was what I found from (most of) the 2009 lineup– book recommendations out of nowhere, books I’d never pick up otherwise, that challenge my sensibilities, and that I might just fall in love with.”

In an interview with Julie Wilson (aka BookMadam) at CBC Book Club, Kerry said, “I’m going to be reading the five books over the next two months, posting reviews as I go, and rating the books against one another. I’ll be inviting other readers to comment on my reactions to the books, perhaps have some guest posts and coverage of other readers’ reviews, and then I’ll choose my own favourite of the bunch, and we’ll have a vote to come up with a readers’ choice champion as well. And I’m hoping my “celebrity panelists” will be able to weigh in from time to time in their book’s defence, which should be fun.”

The books:

• Moody Food by Ray Robertson
  (championed by Steven W. Beattie of the Quill & Quire)
• How Happy to Be by Katrina Onstad
  (championed by author Rona Maynard)
• Wild Geese by Martha Ostenso
  (championed by Melanie Owen of Roughing it in the Books)
• Hair Hat by Carrie Snyder
  (championed by illustrator Patricia Storms)
• Century by Ray Smith
  (championed by publisher/bookseller/editor Dan Wells of Biblioasis)

CANADA ALSO READS

The National Post’s book blog The Afterword has released a selection of titles called Canada Also Reads 2010. When the Canada Reads list was released, they agreed with “many of the 140-character-or-less comments that appeared in the moments after this year’s crop was unveiled: these are great books, but haven’t they already been read?” And so Canada Also Reads was born. They are “a fan of what Canada Reads has done to promote CanLit, we figured this would be a great opportunity to help shine a light on some of the books sitting in the shadows. What books should Canada also read, we asked? We were immediately inundated with hundreds and hundreds of submissions from readers across the country.”

The books:

• My White Planet by Mark Anthony Jarman
  (defended by writer and critic Steven Beattie)
• The Day The Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan
  (defended by author Tish Cohen)
• Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis
  (defended by singer/songwriter Andy Maize)
• The Last Shot by Leon Rooke
  (defended by poet Jacob McArthur Mooney)
• Yellowknife by Steve Zipp
  (defended by blogger John Mutford)
• You And The Pirates by Jocelyne Allen
  (defended by author Lisa Pasold)
• Come Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant
  (defended by author Neil Smith)
• Fear of Fighting by Stacey May Fowles, pictures by Marlena Zuber
  (defended by author Zoe Whittall)

The story itself is more of a character journey than a standard plot-based story (as many of these Canada Reads books seem to be). I loved all the little details that would crop up later as well as the decisions of these unique and surprising young characters.

In the spring of 1989, three young people, born thousands of miles apart, each cut themselves adrift from their birthplaces and set out to discover what — or who — might anchor them in their lives. They each leave almost everything behind, carrying with them only a few artefacts of their lives so far — possessions that have proven so formative that they can’t imagine surviving without them — but also the accumulated memories of their own lives and family histories.

Noah, who was taught to read using road maps during a life of nomadic travels with his mother — their home being a 1966 Bonneville station wagon with a silver trailer — decides to leave the prairies for university in Montreal. But putting down roots there turns out to be a more transitory experience than he expected. Joyce, stifled by life in a remote village on Quebec’s Lower North Shore, and her overbearing relatives, hitches a ride into Montreal, spurred on by a news story about a modern-day cyber-pirate and the spirit of her own buccaneer ancestors. While her daily existence remains surprisingly routine —working at a fish shop in Jean-Talon market, dumpster-diving at night for necessities — it’s her Internet piracy career that takes off. And then there’s the unnamed narrator, who we first meet clearing out his deceased mother’s house on Montreal’s South Shore, and who decides to move into the city to start a new life. There he finds his true home among books, content to spend his days working in a used bookstore and journeying though the many worlds books open up for him.

Over the course of the next ten years, Noah, Joyce and the unnamed bookseller will sometimes cross paths, and sometimes narrowly miss each other, as they all pass through one vibrant neighbourhood on Montreal’s Plateau. Their journeys seem remarkably unformed, more often guided by the prevailing winds than personal will, yet their stories weave in and out of other wondrous tales — stories about such things as fearsome female pirates, urban archaeologists, unexpected floods, fish of all kinds, a mysterious book without a cover and a dysfunctional compass whose needle obstinately points to the remote Aleutian village of Nikolski. And it is in the magical accumulation of those details around the edges of their lives that we begin to know these individuals as part of a greater whole, and ultimately realize that anchors aren’t at all permanent, really; rather, they’re made to be hoisted up and held in reserve until their strength is needed again.

[from the publisher, Random House Canada]

**SPOILER ALERT** I’m not going to go into details but some might consider me discussing Point Of View (POV) to spoil the plot.

Nikolski had such a charm that it often made me wish I could read French well enough to read the original. The characters were unique and engaging, and all of them were interconnected. The only thing I didn’t care for was the switch in narrative. The first character we meet (whose name we never learn) tells his story in First Person. The other two characters, Noah and Joyce, are both told in Third Person Omniscient. The issue I have is that the narrators are obviously different; the Unnamed Man obviously isn’t the second narrator. (According to Wikipedia, this is a rare POV called First Person Omniscient.) The main reason this bothered me is because the characters never fully discover the connections between them, Unnamed Man would never have had the chance to learn Noah and Joyce’s stories.

We met yesterday to discuss Nikolski as part of our Canada Reads book club. Beentsy and MrsQuimby both loved the book and expressed a desire to reread (which made yarnpiggy want to finish it all the more quickly). All of us agreed that being a translation would have initially been off-putting for us. Some people mentioned that having fish on the cover was also not something that would initially entice us. I mentioned that the Governor General’s sticker would have been a pro for me (although not always entirely reliable). My main issue was that I had trouble finding the book in the bookstore (checked my local independents) and ended up going to Chapters/Indigo. Beentsy ordered hers online and both MrsQuimby and Janellum ordered the Canada Reads Book Bag Pack.

To be honest, I don’t think I’d reread it. 1. I already have enough books I haven’t read, and 2. I didn’t care for the open-ended finish. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great book, the characters were fantastic, and the writing was beautifully crafted. However it left me wanting more — to know the details, to learn what actually happened to the minor characters. If you don’t mind open endings, this is a fantastic book and a brilliant translation by Lazer Lederhendler.

Last year when I posted about Canada’s Freedom to Read Week, I was trying to read The Handmaiden’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and/or Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov as part of the challenge. Unfortunately, I haven’t read either book as I got distracted by my huge TBR Pile. However, this year, I’ve got more exciting news: my friend Diane has begun a challenge on BookCrossing to Release Challenged Books as part of Freedom to Read Week 2010. The challenge to release banned/challenged books, or books by persecuted/jailed authors (especially Canadian) during the month of February.

Freedom to Read Week is from February 21-27, 2010 and lots of Canadian libraries celebrate with special events and challenges. Make sure to check out the Calendar of Events on the Freedom to Read website to see if your local library is planning anything. If they aren’t, why not ask if they will!?

Can’t think of any banned or challenged books or authors? You’ll be surprised by some of the names on these lists.

• Freedom to Read Week has a list of Challenged Books & Magazines
• Wikipedia list of books banned by governments around the world
• Amnesty International USA has updates on Banned Books each year
• PEN Canada helps to protect and aide persecuted writers

Please release your Canadian banned or challenged books and authors via BookCrossing and help spread the freedom to read.

I finished this book several weeks ago but wanted to wait until after I met with our book club to discuss it. I missed the last discussion for Good to a Fault, so I was very excited to join in on The Jade Peony gathering. I’ve just returned from our discussion, but I will do my best to convey my before, during, and after feelings. It’s amazing how much your ideas can change once discussing a book!

My initial impression of the book was general enjoyment and actually a little bit embarrassed for the way Canada treated immigrants. I enjoyed how Wayson Choy examined Vancouver’s Chinatown from the perspective of three young children, as each take their turn to narrate the novel. I thought the novel was well-written and had some valuable insights into living in Vancouver as a Chinese person in the ’30s and ’40s. We got to see how a girl-child was treated, the middle-boy, and the youngest boy.

Chinatown, Vancouver, in the late 1930s and ‘40s provides the setting for this poignant first novel, told through the vivid and intense reminiscences of the three younger children of an immigrant family. They each experience a very different childhood, depending on age and sex, as they encounter the complexities of birth and death, love and hate, kinship and otherness. Mingling with the realities of Canada and the horror of war are the magic, ghosts, paper uncles and family secrets of Poh-Poh, or Grandmother, who is the heart and pillar of the family.

Wayson Choy’s Chinatown is a community of unforgettable individuals who are “neither this nor that,” neither entirely Canadian nor Chinese. But with each other’s help, they survive hardship and heartbreak with grit and humour.

[from the publisher, Douglas & McIntyre]

At book club, we started by talking about all our favourite characters. The discussion was very organic and sometimes we strayed far from topic (which I enjoyed too). I think my favourite was Jook-Liang and Monkey King (Wong Suk) and their relationship. A lot of people really liked Poh-Poh (Grandmother) as she is a very strong character and represents “old China” as well as being part of Vancouver. I think Stepmother is a very underrated character. There was some discussion about her role and position in the family as “second wife” and even her own birth children call her “Stepmother”.

Should this book win Canada Reads 2010? My first, gut response was no. My thought-process was: The Jade Peony won the City of Vancouver Book Award in 1996 and I think this book would be a great selection for the Vancouver Public Library’s One Book One Vancouver... but I don’t think that it is something that all Canadians “need to read”. I think that this is definitely something that Vancouverites and Lower Mainland residents should read and reflect upon.

But upon discussion with the book club, it was brought up that the books that win Canada Reads don’t necessarily have anything to do with Canada, they are just written by Canadian authors. With further discussion, I came to feel that this could be a good book for all Canadians to read… because really, who is Canadian? It is one of the points brought up by the children: “Am I Chinese or am I Canadian?” One of the great things about Canada is that we are a mosaic, you can be Canadian as well as something else — Chinese, Japanese, Ukranian, Croatian, Korean, etc.

The Jade Peony is all about characters and their environment. You would have a very different story if you took the book to Eastern Canada and tried to make it work there. Because it is a story of immigration and being from somewhere — a story of identity — you’d be hard-pressed to change the location. I think that it works and it opens your eyes to a whole different side of Canada and the government’s treatment of immigrants during this era. It is a story that would touch many Canadian people, whether they were born here or not, or their parents immigrated here or not.

The question of identity is never really answered by Wayson Choy in the novel, and I think that is okay. It is a continuing struggle to find out “who am I”, not just as an immigrant, or a Canadian, but as a person. At book club, one person teaches ESL and she related a story where her students were talking about a Canadian person they saw on the bus. She asked the students, “what made the person Canadian?” and they couldn’t really answer. To open their eyes to the lesson, she brought in several other teachers with different heritage and backgrounds and asked if they were Canadian or not.

I don’t really have an answer for “what is Canadian” or which book should win Canada Reads (I haven’t even finished all the books yet)… but I will say that The Jade Peony certainly opened my eyes to a part of Canadian history that I had forgotten. I was reminded about what I learned about the Cariboo Goldrush and the building of the CPR, and the Chinese Head Tax, and the Japanese Canadian internment… but it really is a different fact when you read a novel from the point of view of child experiencing these things within their own family. It’s an honest, yet confused portrayal of the time and the experiences of the people. I really enjoyed The Jade Peony for those reasons.

In addition to our “real life” book club, I’ve also joined the online Canada Reads Challenge! [Fun fact: another person from "real life" book club also joined the online challenge!]