November 12, 2007

Red is best

Will shortly be now-reading Lucky Jim, upon the recommendation of Rona Maynard, and Kate Christensen. How exciting! Exciting also that today, albeit from a cardboard box on the sidewalk, I acquired the marvelous children’s book Red is Best. (When I was six, illustrator Robin Baird Lewis came to my school and I met her!) And finally today is the twentieth anniversary of my writing aspirations, which were born when I wrote a poem called “War” in grade three.

October 25, 2007

Point Form

Anansi‘s 40th Birthday is amusingly recapped at the Descant blog.

A new Mitford book is out today– a collection of letters between the sisters, edited by Charlotte Mosely, which I can’t wait for. Remember how much I loved Decca’s? On here for how “no one will ever write letters like this again”.

Kate Christensen, whose first novel I enjoyed last month upon introduction by Maud Newton, is interviewed by said Newton. Of the bits I loved best: “In my late teens and early 20s, when I was developing my idea of how I wanted to write, I glutted myself on twentieth-century English novelists. It seemed to me that, en masse, Drabble, Pym, Spark, Mantel, and Wesley, as well as quite a few equally brilliant Englishmen, had signed a British-Writer Pact agreeing to foreswear heavy-handedness, egotistical earnestness, and didacticism and to embrace instead black humor, deft social insights, wit, lightness, and a float-like-a butterfly sting-like-a-bee verbal dexterity. I wanted to sign that pact, join their gang and live in London and drink in their pub.”

I used to enjoy Maud Newton’s Friday Blogger Stephany Aulenback, and so I was happy to find out she was blogging again. And even happier when I saw she’d published an interview with Sara O’Leary. She is the author of When You Were Small, which is one of the most beautiful children’s books I’ve ever seen.

September 23, 2007

13 Ghosts of Halloween by Storms and Muller

I’ve loved Patricia Storms’s blog for ages now, and have come to admire her bookish enthusiasm, her humour and intelligence– not to mention her artistic talent. (Her bookslut is one of my favourite images ever). And so last week I was quite excited to purchase 13 Ghosts of Halloween by Robin Muller, which Patricia has so beautifully illustrated. A singable tale of a group of friends exploring a haunted house, the book was delightful. Pictoral highlights were the twelve werewolves howling, the redhaired girl with glasses, and cool effect created on the thirteenth stroke of midnight. I loved it. This book is adorable, and I am so pleased it has joined my children’s library, to be pulled out in October for many years to come.

February 6, 2007

From YA to Feldman

My favourite bookish link of the week is Lois Lowry’s blog. She has a website too. I loved her Anastasia books when I was young, and I am going to be rereading the first one in the near future. It occured to me yesterday that my first references to Freud, Gertrude Stein and Billie Holiday were courtesy of her. I’m glad she’s made a such a fine place for herself online. Another YA author I enjoyed who has done so is Marilyn Sachs, and looking through her bibliography brought back quite a few memories.

Speaking of ghosts of books past, I found Stump the Bookseller recently while searching for the book Me and Fat Glenda. My google query was “burgers” and “inez” (marvelous thing seach engines) and evidently someone had had a similar question because this book had appeared at Stump the Bookseller. Readers write in with bits they can remember of long-lost books, their queries are available for perusal, and you can fill in other readers’ gaps, or check out the “solved” section to bring back memories of your own. It’s quite cool.

Along the lines of YA, I’ve been inspired to read The Unreluctant Years: A Critical Approach to Children’s Literature by the most famous Toronto librarian of all, Lillian H. Smith. Recommended by the booklet “100 Memorable Books” which I picked at my local branch of the Toronto Public last week. And you should get one of those if you’re able. It’s a list of books recommended by TPL librarians as not necessarily the best or most important books, but books which have had an impact on their own lives. It’s a lovely booklet with great commentary and best of all, it’s free. Thank the TPL. I always do.

Further in Toronto things, check out Write Around Town, a new column by Ragdoll whose blog I enjoy. February is bursting with bookish business.

And finally, I think I’m starting a new feature here at Pickle Me This. This past month I’ve been banned from the internet Wednesday to Friday between 8:30 and 5:30. I’ve made my husband take the internet cable to work with him because I have the most incredible talent of whiling my time away on internet inanities. Last week’s was my high school’s ‘where are they now’ page, which provided an afternoon of fun to my BFs Britt and Jennie when I sent it their way. “This is a goldmine” quoth Britt. Oh Britt, it gets better. This week’s time-sucker was the best site on all the net, Corey Feldman’s homepage. This site is essential. If it weren’t for this site, we couldn’t have had this conversation tonight at dinner:
S- (talking about something I can’t remember) is very zen.
K- Corey Feldman’s son is called Zen.
S- Who’s Corey Feldman?
It seems they didn’t have him in England. But really folks, if it weren’t for Corey Feldman’s homepage, I could never have segued into the most important conversation my husband and I have ever had.

June 26, 2006

My Book News

Now rereading The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. Like the last few books I’ve read, I don’t remember being massively affected by it, so the reread has been more of a catch-up than exploration. Though it did spurn on my fascination with Soviet history in first year university, so it is important to me. I like it. I reread A Wrinkle in Time before that- children’s book and sci-fi fantasy, there for all of you who are so annoyed that I won’t read Harry Potter. And no surprise- it didn’t thrill me. I don’t even remember loving it in my youth, but I was profoundly moved by A Swiftly Tilting Planet– the third book in the series- and I still absolutely adore that one, so I wanted to revisit its origins. And it was all right, but I kept wanting to skip by the floaty bits and learn more about the people, and see them interact on their own planet. I really have to say that I am awfully fond of books that take place on earth.

In further bookish news, I pruned my shelves today and got rid of books that didn’t need to be there. I am clearing space for new growth of course (and Stuart promised we can get a second bookshelf next year!). I got rid of Ulysses, which I said I kept as a joke, to be ironic, but really in the back of my mind I wanted to read, but I never will. I know I won’t. I am going to stand up now for a live lived without ever having read Ulysses which might indeed be less of a life, how I guess now I’ll never know the difference.

June 26, 2006

Things

Now, I love things, which is a fine thing now that my globe trotting days are behind me, I plan to live in my apartment for many years to come and perhaps live in this city forever. Thingness is such a joy, and if I may celebrate a bit here, please allow me to share with you my magnificent birthday haulage. Includes, a yellow china dish with dragon flies that is a bit Dillardesque from Sk8, earrings from my sister/fashion advisor, an exceptional amount of book vouchers, a tea cosy from Harrods and a Miffy mug from Aunt etc, a copy of The Guardian that I spent the weekend reading (the book reviews- such a pleasure!) from the in-laws, a pink cake stand from Jennie, Miffy magnets and other fine paraphrenalia from my sister in law, a Penguin Room of One’s Own tea towel, and the following books: The Octopus and Other Poems by Jennica Harper, the fun Don’t You Want Me? by India Knight and Kitchen Confidential. Stuart bought me the book bag I wanted from Type Books (with a picture of a bicycle on it) and Olivia, the wonderful children’s book by Ian Falconer. This is not an exhaustive list. I am an exceptionally lucky young lady. Which is not news to me by any means, but still, how absolutely lovely.

January 15, 2006

Virginia was a blogger

I enjoyed making newspapers when I was little, with household or neighbourhood news. It’s a common childhood pastime I think, with often entertaining results. If you’ve ever read “The Golden Road” by LM Montgomery, you might remember the King children’s “Our Magazine”, which was really quite hilarious. Anyway, the Stephen children of Hyde Park Gate (who would become Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell et. al.) were also involved in such endeavours, and The Hyde Park Gate News has now been published in a book I would love to get my mitts on.

More reading, on small bookshops and where they’re going wrong. On why “Hostel” is alarming. On preserving twentieth century ruins. (You can Google these if you want to read them in full text for free). And we’re excited at our house because Globe Style says tea is cool. What validation!