A sweet and fun book about a small bear from "darkest Peru" adopted by the loving Brown family. Paddington is one of those characters, like Anne Shirley, to whom things always happen. Whenever Paddington is missing or lost, the Browns eventually learn to just look for the crowd or the chaos, though Paddington always seems to come out on top, fortunately for us, since we can't help but love him. Looking forward to reading this to Reason in a year or two.

Living Oprah

This is one of those books that just caught my eye and I read it on a whim.  It was actually pretty engrossing and turned out to be a great piece of thoughtful journalism (blogism?).  I am not a particular fan of Oprah, I don't watch her show (or any other show--we have not had cable or TV for several years and I REALLY don't miss it) or read her magazines, so I only know of her influence in the general culture, which, in the case of Oprah, is a considerable share.  The topics that this book covered in Ms Okrant's one year experiment are quite divergent, from clothing and accessories to spiritual guidance, and she frequently delves into the struggles that she experienced in reconciling some of these often contradictory messages.  Great read for any student of popular culture!