Books bought (by accident) by my toddler

Like all toddlers, David loves everything with a touch-screen. He climbs furniture, flashes his winning smile and any other stratagem to get just a few minutes with our phones or tablets. The Kindle isn’t his favorite but it’ll do if nothing else is available.

Over the last few month he accidental bought 6 books (thank heavens for Kindle’s return policy!). He seems to have an eclectic taste: a couple of mysteries, a romance, a sci-fi, one non-fiction that sounds really depressing and finally (my boy, sniff) a Lonely Planet!

Have your kids ever bought anything by accident?

(Blurbs from Goodreads)

Obsessed (Lizzy Gardner #4) by T.R. Ragan

Desperate for better ratings, radio psychologist Madeline Blair tells her listeners she’s being stalked, unaware that her long-time listener and biggest fan, Seth Brown, will do anything to protect her. When her publicity stunt is revealed, Seth becomes enraged by her deceit and dangerously unhinged.

When her friends mysteriously begin to vanish and damning evidence points to Madeline, she turns to private investigator Lizzy Gardner for help. Lizzy knows her way around a murderer’s mind, after surviving her own horrifying ordeal at the hands of a serial killer years ago. As Lizzy closes in, Seth Brown is undeterred. Madeline wanted a stalker and now she has one. Nothing is going to stop him. He’s obsessed.

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True Crime (Nathan Heller #2) by Max Allan Collins

Nate Heller survived his confrontations with Al Capone, only to find himself facing Ma Barker, Baby Face Nelson, and perhaps the biggest and most dangerous question in his life: Who was the man shot down in the alley next to the Biograph Theater, the man the FBI had confidently identified as John Dillinger?

Heller’s search for the answer leads him into a confrontation with J. Edgar Hoover, and into a much more comfortable meeting with Sally Rand…but not before the streets of Chicago run red with blood.

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I Want To Marry My Boyfriend by Lynn Enright

She has a fulfilling career, a wide friendship group, a supportive family, a lovely boyfriend and quite nice hair. So why does Lynn Enright’s life seem to be missing something? Why, she wonders, does she still care so much about getting married?

Armed with a suspicion that she is not the only one, she sets out to explore the role marriage plays for women of her generation. It’s an outdated institution, which seems to fail so very often – so why are we still in thrall to the idea of being wed?

A listicle with ambitions above its station, this is a hilarious and moving account of being a woman in love in 2015.

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Speaker for the Dead (The Ender Quartet #3) by Orson Scott Card

In the aftermath of his terrible war, Ender Wiggin disappeared, and a powerful voice arose: the Speaker for the Dead, who told of the true story of the Bugger War.

Now long years later, a second alien race has been discovered, but again the aliens’ ways are strange and frightening…again, humans die. And it is only the Speaker for the Dead, who is also Ender Wiggin the Xenocide, who has the courage to confront the mystery…and the truth.

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Silence of the God by Max Gray

The other side of the story to great history is not as pretty as they teach us in grade school. ‘Silence of the God’ by Max Gray is a book filled full of live excerpts from eyewitnesses for the outrageous crimes against humans ever recorded in history.

These people had no chance of survival. There are only so many ways to describe babies getting their heads bashed in, women and children raped, men and women having their body parts chopped off and burnt to death.

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Lonely Planet Europe on a shoestring

A guide to traveling in Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland features information on galleries, museums, motoring tours, and more. Original.

 

 

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The Swiss Chalet Experience

Last weekend we rented a Swiss Chalet up in the mountains and had an amazing time. Like us, none of our friends skies (gasp! goes everyone in Switzerland), so we just hanged out with the kids, ate, drank, read, played board games, walked in the snow, sledged and generally relaxed.

I could’ve gotten used to the 1% life…

The view

A new experience for David: running in the snow

Perfection: cheese fondue lunch

Husband in the hot-tub (yes, there was a hot-tub!)

Reading Patrick O’Brien during kid’s nap

The boys, marvelling

General fun was had

The swap shelf, no Nora Roberts in sight, all very high-brow at the Swiss Chalet

Bookish event in Geneva

I’ve already started with bookish activities in Geneva. Joined a bookclub (discussing Virginia Woolf’s Orlando this week) and this Saturday we went to the Book Festival of Early Childhood and Families. They had activities planned for different age groups and even almost-15-month-old Davidhad the chance to join in.

It was also an opportunity to know more about Geneva’s libraries and the upcoming events they’re organizing. At the moment I’m having an information overload because there’s just too much I want to do, including an informal chat between librarians and readers about books for the summer, a “Read with your baby” atelier, a “Create a photonovel” workshop and several concerts.

David exploring the books in the Yurt Library.

André and David listing to stories and songs in the baby tent.

Something that might interest my librarian readers. At the Festival, organizers were distributing this really interesting publication called “La Ville, mon doudou et moi“. It’s a set of children’s books recommendations about living in the city, including about what are streets, neighborhoods, public gardens, markets and transports,  the homeless (in photo) and infrastructures like libraries and hospitals. Super interesting and useful. Available for download here (in French).