Category: General
If You’re Going to Read One Book In May, Make It This One!
Warmer weather is finally here, and it’s the ideal time of year not too hot, not too cold to find a comfortable outdoor spot and cozy up with a new book. Try some of May’s best new book releases to help fill your days with sun and plenty of exceptional literature.
One book to take special note of this month: “Things We Lost to the Water,” Eric Nguyen’s debut novel. Nguyen’s story spans three decades and chronicles the lives of a Vietnamese refugee family. Who later fled to the U.S. “Things We Lost to the Water” is a lustrous portrait of first and second-generation immigrant life in America — full of joy, sorrow, secrets, and deceits — and showcases one family’s desire to survive in life and with each other.
The novel starts with a pregnant Huong arriving in 1979 New Orleans alongside her young son. She traveled without her husband, Cong, still in Vietnam, and Huong is jobless, disoriented, and without a home. After settling into an apartment building filled with other Vietnamese refugees, she’s hopeful that she will soon reunite with her husband, and so Huong begins sending tapes and letters back to Cong in Vietnam. However, she soon realizes that Cong will not be joining them in the U.S., and while Huong tries to come to terms with his absence, her two sons, Tuan and Binh, must grow up without their father.
Nguyen’s powerful and moving debut touches on immigration, racism, finding one’s identity both as a family and an individual, and what brings people together (and pushes them apart).
Best Mini Eggs treats to find around Calgary
Easter is only a few hops away, and there’s no better way to celebrate than with some treats involving chocolate Mini Eggs.
No matter how old we get, Easter will always be a good excuse to indulge ourselves with Mini Egg donuts, cupcakes, cookies, and more.
This year, we’re saving you from the hassle of trying to find them so you can use your time devouring them instead.
Here is a list of where to find the best Mini Egg treats in and around Calgary.
Everyone loves a classic cream puff. For an Easter twist, Crème Cream Puffs are offering Mini Eggs cream puffs filled with Mini Eggs cream. If you’re not feeling like having cream puff but still want to indulge on some Mini Egg-flavoured desserts, you can choose to order their Mini Eggs cake instead. Easter pre-orders will be available for pick-up from March 30 to April 3.
Address:150 – 221 62 Avenue SE # 150, Calgary
Phone: 587-917-1319
BFF Cookies are dropping an Easter-themed chocolate chip cookie topped with some chocolate icing, sprinkles and Mini Eggs. They bake their cookies during the week and do deliveries every Friday. You can place an order through their website and get free delivery if you’re in Calgary.
YYC Food Trucks are going all out for Easter offering three different types of desserts involving Mini Eggs. They have Mini Eggs marshmallow blocks for $9, Mini Eggs Salted Chocolate ice pops in a pack of nine for $36, and lastly, Mini Eggs edible cookie dough for $18. Through their website, you can place an order or check to see where their next truck stop location is going to be.
Phone: 403-605-8806
If pies are your go-to for desserts, then check out Pie Junkie YYC. They are offering their chocolate silk nest pie in-store during Easter week, or you can place a special order if you want it sooner. Pie Junkie YYC also offers the option of curbside pick-up or city-wide delivery with 24 hours’ notice for $10.
Address: 8 Spruce Center SW, Calgary
Phone: 403-452-3960
Phone: 403-605-8806
Want to set your New Year off Right?
The holidays are over, the new year is here, and we’re nothing if not shell-shocked, still, over what transpired in 2020. While I know my situation isn’t everyone’s, I spent many of my days simultaneously overloaded by the stimulation of so many people in the house all the time (all seven of my family members, including me), and lonely from missed opportunities to connect and be together that I relied on in the past and, honestly, took for granted.
This Weekend: Call a loved one.
Start the year off tending to one of the things that fill life with meaning: your relationships with others. No need to set up a Zoom, if you don’t want to. In fact, being off-camera allows you and whoever you’re calling to focus on the conversation rather than any self-consciousness. (But you can video-chat if that’s your thing!)
On the heels of a holiday season that may have left you feeling hollow, wishing you could have been with the ones we love, now is the perfect time of year to check in on a loved one or two over the phone. The connection will warm their hearts and yours and set the tone for the year to come.
