The Bust DIY Guide to Life

I remember when I was about 9 years old or so, I found a copy of a Girl Guides compendium that had belonged to my Aunt Connie when she was a girl. The book was a thick hardcover that covered many topics such as: how to play hopscotch properly (there is a method!), how to knit, when to start wearing makeup, how to clean your home. I was enthralled with the tips and ideas inside that could lead me from girlhood to being a young woman.

I felt the same sense of enthrallment when I discovered Debbie Stoller's most recent book, The BUST DIY Guide to Life. Stoller is the editor of BUST magazine and the author of the Stitch 'N Bitch series of knitting and crotcheting books. I have been reading BUST magazine since it was a quarterly zine printed on newspaper. The magazine is a new wave feminist mix of politics, funny interviews, DIY fashion, and tongue-in-cheek humour.

Just like the magazine this DIY guide runs the with the same humorous language. It's an updated Girl Guide compendium for the modern times AND the modern gal! Covering everything from funky home decorating and sewing clothes, to making your own deodorant and doing up a 50's style bouffant, to living on a budget and cleaning your home with homemade environmentally friendly cleaners. It even includes a tutorial on how to ride a skateboard - which I can assure you was not included in the Girl Guide book I used to have.

Here are some of the things I am planning on trying out in the coming months:
- Making Tye-dyed tights (this project I will be doing with my two daughters)
- Create ear-muffs (with my headphones inside!)
- Have a fizzy bath bomb creating party
- And paper mache a pinata from scratch for one of my kid's birthday parties

- Bronwyn

First Words: Our Daily Bread by Lauren Davis

"Near the top of North Mountain a tumbledown shed leaned against an old lightening-struck oak at the edge of a raggedy field. Inside Albert Erkskine bent over a sprouting box and gently, methodically, planted the marijuana seeds he'd soaked last night. He placed each one half an inch deep in the soil-filled paper cups, pushing the seed down with his index finger, the nail black-rimmed. The air, hazy with dust motes, smelled of warm moldy earth mixed with the fertilizer he used in the sprouting mix. The seeds had been perfect, virile and had given off a good solid crack when he'd tested them on a hot frying pan. Once the seeds were settled in their nest of humus, soil, and fertilizer, he'd water them and leave them in the locked shed under a grow-light fueled by a small generator. Later, in a couple of weeks, he'd plant the seedlings out in the field. In the meantime he'd prepare the field with hydrated lime and a little water soluble nitrogen fertilizer.

Growing a good cash crop of marijuana took smarts and Albert was well aware of how smart he was. He knew, too, the power of his physical presence. He would have been called handsome in another place, with the cleft of his chin, and the furious shine in his brown eyes. Even as a whip-thin, lock-jawed boy there had been something about Albert, some flash of sinewy grace."

What moral ambiguities result when we view our neighbors as “The Others,” as “those people”? This is the conflict between the Erskine Clan, long-shunned by the people of Gideon, who live in secrecy and isolation on North Mountain, and whose bootlegging enterprises are expanding into methamphetamine production and the God-fearing townspeople

of nearby Gideon. For generations the clan’s children have suffered unspeakable acts of rape, child abuse, incest, and psychological torture. The intolerant, self-righteous Gideonites decline to intervene, believing their neighbors to be beyond salvation. “That’s the mountain,” they say. “What do you expect from those people?” Yet in both groups nearly everyone has a secret and nothing is as it seems.

Twenty-one-year old Albert Erskine dreams of a better life and explains to a new teenage friend from the town, Bobby Evans, the meaning of the “man’s code” on the mountain: “You keep your secrets to yourself and you keep your weaknesses a secret and your hurts a secret and your dreams you bury double deep.” Bobby’s eight-year-old sister, Ivy, suffers incessant bullying by her classmates. Her father, Tom Evans, a well-liked local

bread delivery man, struggles to keep his troubled marriage together. As rumors and innuendo about the Evans family spread, Ivy seeks refuge in Dorothy Carlisle, an independent-minded widow who runs a local antique store. When Albert ventures down from the mountain and seizes on the Evans' family crisis as an opportunity to strengthen his friendship with Ivy's brother Bobby, it sets in motion a chain of events which can only result in unexpected and dire results.

Winterberries & Apple Blossoms

Naomi is a young girl who has been raised in the Old Order Mennonite community. She lives a simple life with few modern conveniences or posessions. Naomi spends her time helping her parents on their farm, playing with her siblings or going to her one room school. 


This lovely book is a glimpse into a year of Naomi's peaceful, simple life. Each month of the year features a wonderful poem perfectly complimented by Peter Etril Snyder's lovely illustrations. 


In the winter, Naomi is included in a quilting bee for the first time, and she discovers treasures in the general store. March brings the promise of maple syrup in the sugar bush. Spring brings the hard work of clearing the fields and learning to ride a bike. Summer promises homemade ice cream and baseball games. Autumn brings with it apple picking and selling at a road-side stand. 


At the back of the book, there is a recipe for each month featuring seasonal ingrediants. These are child-friendly and easy to make. I'm looking forward to make vanilla ice cream in a can with my kids. 


This book is a lovely keepsake, and would make a great Christmas gift. Nan's poetry is evocative and charming and Peter is the perfect pick as the illustrator.

- Bronwyn

Linwood Barclay does it again...

Admittedly I am not the biggest mystery fan in the store - I leave that department to David. However, a few years ago we hosted Linwood Barclay after his book, No Time for Goodbye, was released, and since then I've been hooked on anything he writes. 
What I enjoy most about Linwood's style is his ability to take what looks like an ordinary accident (in this novel's case) and pokes holes into it, creating domestic suspense. His pacing is superb and you can't help but keeping turning the pages to find out what happens next. I also love how he takes common everyday dilema's along with the poltics of the times to build his stories. 
In The Accident, it is the new normal of tough economic times in small town USA suberbia. Glen Garber, a local blue collar contracter, is watching his business falter and shake with the earthquake of the housing crisis. His wife Sheila is taking a night course to better her chances of getting a higher-paying job. The book opens when she is late coming home from her course. Glen is waiting for her, while their eight-year-old daughter is sleeping. Turns out Sheila parked her car on an off ramp and killed not only herself, but two other people. The police say she was drunk but Glen KNOWS that she would never do something like this. As their daughter is bullied by her classmates about her mother being a drunk driver, Glen discovers that his wife (and many of their neighbors) may have been involved in more creative measures to help make ends meet. 
As the twists and turns build, Glen must question everyone he has known in his community to find the truth. The surprise ending left me shocked at who was really responsible for his wife's demise. (Just be aware of knock-off designer goods!) Linwood has written another nail-biting page-turner again!
- Bronwyn

How Dave Became A Reader...

I’ve admired David Gilmour and his novels for many years and dropped whatever I was reading to rip into his latest offering, whatever it was. I believe him to be one of the finest writers Canada has.  His characters however, are entirely atypical to the Canadian novel.
They are complex, not easily explained, possessed of powerfully conflicting motivations and emotions, and in some cases, deeply unpleasant.

They are also a great deal more interesting than the standard.


After about twenty five years of reading the modern novel, I think one is largely able to see where the writer is going a fair amount of the time. Far from being a bore or a failed parlour trick, this can work to mutual advantage when a favourite writer mines their own life and does so with absolute honesty.

Through six novels and his bestselling memoir The Film Club, published a few years back, David Gilmour has consistently hit the sweet spot for great modern fiction. He’s a literary guy to be sure, but everything moves like a gazelle, and because Gilmour has a light touch chronicling flawed human behaviour (always more interesting than correct human behaviour) there’s a lot to like here.

In his latest novel, The Perfect Order of Things, Gilmour has mined a storied life (his own) and has fashioned a tale of literary brinksmanship, a curious amalgam of sex and romance, suicide, the Beatles, Tolstoy and finally  redemption (of a sort).

He single-handedly made me a reader years ago with How Boys See Girls and I’ve been hooked since. He’s my favourite novelist, full stop, and I can't wait to introduce him to you again on October 13th!

- David Worsley

We go way back with Helen Humphreys!

Helen Humphreys and Words Worth Books go back a long way. Helen read from one of her earlier novels, The Lost Garden years ago in Waterloo and I remember it to this day. Those assembled at the old Waterloo Stage Theatre hung on every word and there was a sustained moment of absolute silence followed by celebratory applause. I have seen many authors read from great books, but never have I been witness to that kind of transformative power.

I've always said that one never goes wrong setting a novel in Paris, and it's the poets who have the tools necessary to make the novels special. Helen's new book is set mostly in Paris, and she's a wonderful poet, so it follows that The Reinvention of Love is spectacular.
Set in the mid 1800's, this is a story of a  love affair between Adele, the mercurial wife of Victor Hugo, and Charles Saint-Beuve, a French journalist and minor man of letters. The two gentlemen are comrades and travel in much the same circles, so there is much to conceal, but as with all of Humphrey's fiction, it's the clarity and power of the writing that carries the day.

"Who sees love arriving?  Who can gauge the movements one person makes towards another?  Movements so slight, so tentative that they are almost invisible. It is impossible to watch love arriving, but it is abundantly clear when it has arrived. I remember that moment perfectly." Her language is unadorned, clear and powerful.

We believed that The Lost Garden was the finest Canadian novel published in 2002, and The Reinvention of Love is in the front rank of work published thus far in 2011. This is a beautiful book. Please don't miss it! 

- David 

My Favourite Caterpillar!

Eric Carle's delightful book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a classic children's book for a good reason. Follow along the ravenous caterpillar's path as he eats his way through a variety of fruits, the days of the week, and literally the book. Finally on Friday the caterpillar starts to eat through junk food and has a tummyache. This book shows children how to count, the days of the week, and what food you should and should not eat. The pictures are delightful collages filled with vibrant colours and simple shapes. The story repeats the same lines over and over "And he was still hungry" which is important for a child's reading development. One of my favourites that I love to share! - Bronwyn

Join us (in store) on Friday, September 30th at 10:30am for a fun-filled hour of stories, crafts, and games all centred around our favourite caterpillar! Wild Rumpus Time is suitable for pre-schoolers to older children. See our website for more details: http://www.wordsworthbooks.com/.