sassymonkey

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  1. Happy Cybils Day: The 2011 Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards

    2/14/12 7:11am by sassymonkey
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    Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach

    February 14 is one of my favourite days of the whole year. No, I'm not talking about Valentine's Day. February 14 is the day that the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards, or as they are better known Cybils, are announced. I have been a big fan of this award since it launched in 2007 and each year I wake up on the 14th and start bouncing because I generally know who I want to win the awards... but will they?  Read more >

  2. Happy Library Lovers Day!

    2/14/12 5:53am by sassymonkey in BlogHer Book Chat Comments (10)
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    February 14th isn't just St. Valentine's Day, it's also Library Lovers Day! Yay libraries! Ok, so it's mostly Library Lovers Day in Australia -- we celebrate Library Appreciation Day in April -- but can you really ever spread too much library love?  Read more >

  3. Meal Plan Monday February 13

    2/13/12 7:50am by sassymonkey in Loving food and sharing recipes! Comments (8)
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    I am sick of roast chicken. I'm not a big fan of chicken anyway (two bouts of salmonella in ten years will do that to a person) but I do eat it. Occasionally. Except whole chickens keep going on sale and we keep buying them and gah, tired of roast chicken. Because really, in the end it all more or less tastes the same even if I rub it with different spices and I am bored of something I don't like very much in the first place. There are still two more whole chickens in the freezer. Yay?  Read more >

  4. Author Jeffrey Zaslow Dies in Car Accident at 53

    2/10/12 3:26pm by sassymonkey
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    Jeffrey Zaslow

    Best-selling author and journalist Jeffrey Zaslow died February 10 in a car accident in Michigan. He was 53. His loss is felt keenly in the BlogHer community. We had the privilege of working with Mr. Zaslow, and his most recent book, The Magic Room, was one of our BlogHer Book Club selections.  Read more >

  5. Have You Been on a Picnic?

    2/9/12 2:08pm by sassymonkey
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    In Seré Prince Halverson's The Underside of Joy, Ella found herself faced with many decisions after Joe's death. Most, especially those involving the children, were difficult to make. Perhaps the one I enjoyed the most was what she decided to do with the failing family business.  Read more >

  6. Which Of The Weird Sisters Are You Most Like?

    2/8/12 7:18am by sassymonkey
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    Eleanor Brown's The Weird Sisters is the story of three sisters. They are bound by familial love, but really they don't particularly like each other. They are too different from one another and were never really bothered to get to know one another until they are all called home by their mother's illness.  Read more >

  7. The Weird Sisters: Can You Ever Get Along With Your Sister?

    2/8/12 7:10am by sassymonkey
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    Shakespeare Sign

    Eleanor Brown's The Weird Sisters is the story of three lost women. Rose, Bean and Cordy were named after Shakespearian characters and raised in a household where the Bard ruled all. They spend their lives attempting to both live up to and defy the roles that where laid out for them. As all three are pulled home by their mother's illness, they start to learn that sometimes you need to go home before you can move forward.  Read more >

  8. Meal Plan Monday February 6

    2/6/12 8:36am by sassymonkey in Loving food and sharing recipes! Comments (15)
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    Last week wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, seeing as we didn't really have a meal plan. There was one take-out meal (I had a shawarma craving) and for the rest we rummaged in the freezer and pantry and found plenty to eat. But this week we have, more or less, a proper meal plan. I feel very relieved.  Read more >

  9. Redefining Our Ideal Body

    2/3/12 9:52am by sassymonkey
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    I thought that one of the most powerful messages in William D. Lassek, M.D. and Steven J. C. Gaulin's Why Women Need Fat: How "Healthy" Food Make Us Gain Excess Weight and the Surprising Solution to Losing It Forever was that our bodies are at their best when they feel healthiest, not when they were at a certain size or looked a certain way. What the authors were saying is that our thinnest point may not be our healthiest.  Read more >

  10. BlogHer Talks to William Lassek & Steven Gaulin

    2/3/12 9:33am by sassymonkey
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    Grass Fed Cow

    BlogHer caught up with William D. Lassek, M.D., and Steven J.C. Gaulin, Ph.D., co-authors of BlogHer Book Club's pick, Why Women Need Fat for more information on what women eat and how it affects them, especially as they age.  Read more >

Karen Ballum

Full Name
Karen Ballum
Member Since
January 2006
About Me: 

Hi, I'm Karen Ballum. but I'm better know around the web as Sassymonkey.

I live in Ottawa, Ontario -- Canada's national capital. (No, I do not work politics or the government.) Keeping me company are my husband and cat, commonly known on the internet as the Fake Husband and the Fake Cat. Last I checked they were both still very real to most people but according to Denise, it's not real unless she can see it.

I have been blogging since 2004 on my personal blog, Sassymonkey.ca, and started my book blog, Sassymonkey Reads, in August of 2005. I read a lot and found I was starting to forget which books I had read and what I had thought of it. So I started my book blog as way of helping me track the books I had read.

I may have a slight addition to the overuse of parentheses. (Maybe.) (Sometimes.) (It's a sickness but one I am not seeking help for.)

I am the Section Editor for Books here on BlogHer as well as the BlogHer Book Club Host.

 

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