This is one of those times I’m tempted to start my book review with a simple, “Wow! That was great!” I’m giving you the spoiler alert right upfront. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel is a current best-seller but it is hard to qualify by genre. It’s a bit mystery, a bit historical fiction and a bit ephemeral in spirit. It’s particularly satisfying for me…
10 reasons why I love being an old lady
As we celebrate Canada Day this week on July first, I found myself thinking about how we won the lottery being born in this country. Canada is now 153 years old and I’m approaching 73. We’re growing old gracefully and joyfully. We have so much to be thankful for and in particular, the freedom to grow old gracefully and peacefully. When I woke up the…
It’s Not All Downhill From Here . . . a great story about the value of female friendships
For some strange reason, when I downloaded It’s Not All Downhill From Here by Terry McMillan, I thought the author was a male Canadian humour writer. Obviously I somehow got my wires crossed because Terry McMillan is, in fact, a black American woman who has written several books including the best-sellers Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back. You’d have thought the cover art would…
They’ve just added another questionable chore to our beauty regimen . . . scalp exfoliation!
This should come as a surprise to no one, but the beauty industry has miraculously come up with another new product they insist needs our immediate attention. Get your credit cards out girls. In order to constantly create demand for useless and questionable beauty treatments, clever product lines are continually being introduced as new and improved, now with blowfish and fairy wing DNA, or, cleaner,…
And . . . she’s out of the gate!
After months in lockdown, my credit card was begging, gasping for air. So, when Nordstrom emailed me to announce they had reopened their Sherway Gardens store in Toronto’s west end after three months in COVID darkness, plans for my coming-out began. They missed me! What to wear? What time of day is best to go? Will their café be open for lunch? Will they be…
Big chemical and personal care companies are killing us slowly with their secrets
Last week I watched a horrifying two-hour documentary on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) television called “Toxic Beauty”. I stumbled on it while channel surfing and was stunned by the information imparted. A large portion of the program was dedicated to the coverup by Johnson & Johnson about the dangers of using their baby powder. A class-action suit initiated by thousands of women who developed ovarian cancer…