October 14, 2008
Attending
Tomorrow night I’ll be attending the Toronto launch of What It Feels Like for a Girl by Jennica Harper. Will be way more interesting than election returns. From 8-11 at Clinton’s (693 Bloor Street W.). See you there?
September 30, 2008
A Tower of Books
Courtesy of the Victoria College Book Sale Half-Price Monday, I come home with Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier, According to Mark by Penelope Lively, Flowers for Mrs. Harris by Paul Gallico (original hardcover!), Glass Houses by Penelope Farmer, Best Way You Know How by Christine Pountney, Oleander, Jacaranda: A Childhood Perceived by Penelope Lively, Rainforest by Jenny Diski, Gates of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerland, Diaries of Jane Somers by Doris Lessing, 84 Charing Cross Road and The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff, Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee, Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard, Liar by Lynn Crosbie, Child in Time by Ian McEwan, Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner, Regards: Essays by John Gregory Dunne, Between Friends: A Year in Letters by Helen Levine and Oonagh Berry, The Good Terrorist by Doris Lessing, and Cleopatra’s Sister by Penelope Lively. Indeed, 25% written by various Penelopes, which is something, no?
September 17, 2008
How fortunate
Oooh, Giller Longlist. And I’ve read not a one. How fortunate, however, that only three of them are by women, and I can only ever be bothered to read books by women, so my bedside stack won’t stack too intimidatingly (and topple in the night and kill me in my sleep, etc.). Indeed, I did somehow find myself in a bookshop today, standing at the cash clutching The Boys in the Trees and Good to a Fault. I’ve been meaning to read the first one for ages, as it’s been recommended by esteemed readers Maud Newton, Stephany Aulenback and Rona Maynard. Of the second book, I know nothing, but the blubs were all by authors I liked, and so I thought, Why not?
September 9, 2008
Once in the world
“I think,” writes Rebecca Rosenblum, of the moment she first saw her book, “once in a while, something can be exactly as good as you dreamt it would be.”
Rebecca’s story collection Once is now out in the world, and we spotted it yesterday in a stack at the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival. I bought a copy immediately, and soon after had the great pleasure of listening to Rebecca read from the first story “ContEd”. Pleasure even in spite of the rain, because Rebecca read so beautifully. She even made the sun came out, and so for the rest of day we were dry.
Afterwards, we saw every author I was hoping to see as noted in the post below. And also Dennis Lee, who didn’t seem to remember me from the time he came to my school when I was five.
- Click here to buy Rebecca’s book. She is not the kind of writer I promote because she’s my friend, but rather because she’s the kind of writer so talented I can’t quite believe that she’s my friend. Once should stocked in the shops by some time next week.
- Attend Rebecca’s launch if you can. Monday September 15, 2008 at 7:00. The Gladstone Hotel, Toronto.
September 5, 2008
Eden Mills & Weekend
We’ve got a packed weekend here, with three (3!) social engagements tomorrow: out for brunch, friends for tea (with a baby!) and then a friend for dinner.
On Sunday I’m off for the day to the Eden Mills Writers Festival with Rebecca Rosenblum. I am looking forward to hearing Rebecca read (from her forthcoming book, out in over a week), and other writers too, including Shari Lapena, Janice Kulyk Keefer, Mariko Tamaki, Susan Juby and Leon Rooke. Looking forward also to the announcement of the winner of the 2008 Literary Contest, particularly as my short story “Still Born Friends” is on the shortlist!
September 5, 2008
Coach House Open House
I love Coach House. They keep publishing books I really want to buy and then love reading, which I think is a mark of achievement for an independent press. Tonight we attended the Coach House Open House tonight over on bpNichol Lane, and we had more fun than
you think we would have standing around a parking lot. And not just because there were food and bevvies, or because there was a tour and a chance to see the printing press in action. And not just because we got to see Crissy Calhoun, Ivor Tossell and Julie Wilson either. And not even because we got take advantage of the book sale. (I bought The Girls Who Saw Everything.) But I would probably say that the fun was most definitely a culmination of all these things.
July 16, 2008
Scream in High Park
Our trip last night to The Scream Literary Festival’s “Scream in High Park” Mainstage was quite well-documented. Off we went, waving good-bye, with a picnic full of carbs in tow. Took the subway to High Park Station and then walked deep deep into the woods, and claimed some prime seating at the venue.
The menu consisted of pasta salad, Rosenblum bread, avocado scones, cheese, and sweet snacks ala Enright. But if you can believe it, such a delicious spread wasn’t even the main event.
First up was the magnificent Mariko Tamaki, writer of Skim, which I’ve been lusting after for a while. (See Tamaki to the right). She opened her set with a poem comprising Facebook statuses of yore, read and excerpt from Skim, and then an essay about ephemerality that was well and truly lovely.
Another delight was seeing Claudia Dey read again from Stunt. As a reader she is as compelling as Tamaki, though in a different way, and I would have run right out and bought her book if I hadn’t done so already.
I also loved Sonnet L’Abbé, Wayde Compton with Jason de Coutu, Ray Robertson and Motion. I would have loved even more too, except I had to work in the morning and so we left before the final set. And it was too dark by then to take a photo of us waving goodbye.
Such a magical evening, assembled there with friends and strangers. Inside a forest in the midst of this big city, a summer night that grew cool as the sun went down. Fireflies stealing the show, those luminous acrobats– I could hardly keep my eyes off them.
And in terms of the human performers, I’m not sure who stole the show most, though the lineups at the booksale provided a very good indication…
June 24, 2008
Bookish Happenings
I visited This Ain’t the Rosedale Public Library this weekend at their new location in Kensington Market. Which was my first time at This Ain’t… altogether, actually, so I’ve nothing to compare it to, but I was impressed. A great selection of journals and magazines, and shelves and shelves of bookish spines. I bought Girls Fall Down by Maggie Hellwig, because all the reviews I’ve read have intrigued me, and because I love the quality of Coach House books.
In other bookish news, I am beyond excited to discover that my favourite poet has a new book forthcoming: Jennica Harper’s What It Feels Like For a Girl is out in September by Anvil Press.
June 11, 2008
Rosenblum Reading
It’s not quite fair, as I booked the day off three months ago and you’ll only get a few days notice, but I wanted to let you know about an excellent event this Friday. Rebecca Rosenblum will be reading this Friday at 12:30 pm at Toronto Public Library’s Northern District Branch as part of the Luminato Festival of the Short Story. David Whitton will also be reading, Lynn Coady moderating. I am terribly excited. Rebecca’s book comes out in September.
May 25, 2008
The Wait is Over
“The earliest recipes for this vegetable are about 2500 years old, written in ancient Greek and Egyptian hieroglyphics, suggesting Mediterranean as the plant’s homeland. The Caesars took their asparagus passion to extravagant lengths, chartering ships to scour the empire for the best spears and bring them back to Rome. Asparagus even inspired the earliest frozen food industry, in the first century, when Roman charioteers would hustle fresh asparagus from the Tiber River Valley up into the Alps and keep it buried there in snow for six months, so it could be served with a big ta-daa at the autumnal Feast of Epicurus. So we are not the first to go to ridiculous lengths to eat foods out of season.” — Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Last summer it was well-documented when three events coincided to change our lives. The first was the garden, our first, and through some miracle it grew, bearing melons, tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber. Second was our local farmer’s market, which we started attending at the end of July, and these visits brought us yellow tomatoes, blue potatoes, abundant squash and extraordinary cheese. And third was that we both read Animal Vegetable Miracle, an extraordinary story, from which we learned about seasons, how we’re connected to them and to the earth through the variety of things we eat. Because we’d really had no idea before, and coming to understand was the most amazing (and delicious) education. I’d missed twenty-seven asparagus seasons by that point, and so I swore I’d never miss another.
Ontario asparagus appeared in our grocery store last week, and we’ve been eating it by the bundle. Looking especially forward to the local farmers market here in our new neighbourhood starting up in less than two weeks, so we’ll be able to catch the end of the asparagus crop there.
And then we’ll follow the culinary season, as we’re learning to do, feasting on the vegitannual. I’m rereading Animal Vegetable Miracle too, but taking it slow, following its seasons as they mirror our own. We’ve also got a garden here at our new house, albeit in pots–the plants of which some failed to survive a run-in with squirrelly types sometime last night. Such are the challenges though, and how pleased we are to face them. Here at our house we’re looking forward to a delicious summer ahead.
Below, check out the pie I baked last weekend, made with the localest of rhubarbs. And do note that we’re going to see Barbara Kingsolver on Tuesday, reading at This is Not a Reading Series. I think that tickets are still available.
