Especially because I spend so much time in the studio, where paint and intuition rule, I feel it's important to feed that other part of my brain when I'm not painting; by reading. I'll admit that I devoured an awful lot more literature earlier in my life than I do now. But aside from my beloved weekly New Yorker magazine, which is a wonderful cheater's way of being intimately -and instantly- informed on all current matters that may hit the dinner party conversations, I always have a few new discoveries ready to be broken in. Here are two books that are on top of the stack right now.

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As the Ladybug Foundation looks forward at the economic crisis we see that homelessness, hunger and poverty impacts us all. My hope is that when everyone looks back on these troubling times we remember how we all cared and helped each other. The Ladybug Foundation has raised over two million dollars to help Canadian hunger and homelessness and support more than forty shelters, missions, soup kitchens and food banks across Canada. We all have a lot of work to do.

The most exciting thing at the Ladybug Foundation right now is the fact that Rick, who has struggled with poverty for more than 20 years, now works with us on our advisory board. He is one of my heroes and he shows us all that anything is possible.

I love McNally Robinson. They have a beautiful and caring heart because they don't just care about books, they care about the people reading the books, just like me. I read a novel about every week. Here are the three books that I love and want to tell you about.

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Novelist, playwright, and musician Paul Quarrington passed away yesterday in his Toronto home at the age of 56.

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Robert B. Parker, best known for his Spenser novels, passed away due to a heart attack on Monday at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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