My Five-Star Bookshelf, Part Twelve

Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

While I love all of this novel, what made it a five-star book for me is a line of description of Tea Cake, one of the characters the protagonist marries. It begins, "Ready with his grin." Something about this passage sticks with me even now, years after reading this novel.

But there are many reasons to read Their Eyes Were Watching God. The language is certainly one of them: it's dazzling. Most of the novel is presented in dialect, so acutely captured I can imagine voices speaking the story. It is a Modernist novel, although it defies the sterile and emotionless wasteland that had by the 1930s largely become the Modernist space; Their Eyes is sensual in a wide-ranging way, far beyond sex and sexuality. Their Eyes is also something of a romance, albeit involving a very complicated series of relationships, some of them bleak. Most importantly, it is the text of a black woman writer from an era that would happily have silenced her voice, and simply to read her story is to experience a world that we might never otherwise have known.

This book was not well received on its original publication; apparently the novel required feminist rediscovery and the rise of race studies in the 1980s and 1990s to find its real place in the canon (assuming, of course, that there is such a thing). Another reviewer succinctly captures my wish for this book: "Just read it. Please." Indeed.

My Five-Star Bookshelf, Part Eleven

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Keri Hulme, The Bone People

I read this novel in a course about popular literature and had no idea at the time that it was a prize-winning or important book. What I remember about my initial reading of this book was that it was dazzling, horrifying, and captivating.

The Bone People is the story of Kerewin, an artist who has isolated herself in a tower; Simon, a wild child with a mysterious past; and Joe, the man who is raising Simon despite troubled circumstances. The novel is about various kinds of love that persists despite brutal happenings. It is also a novel about the Maori and the power of myth, story, and language.

At the time I first read this novel, I knew almost nothing about post-colonial discourse or the resistant colonial writer. You don't need this knowledge to enjoy this novel. It is not an easy text to read; you will likely feel the pain these characters endure, and the ending will not necessarily bring resolution. But reading this novel may open our eyes to other ways of being, to other configurations of family, and to other ways of understanding the world.

An assignment I regularly ask my students to complete is an investigation of various literary prizes; I ask them to consider the value of such prizes in the configuration of the literary field, the reputation of the author (and his/her consequent Author Function), and the fortunes of the physical object of the book itself (that is, whether it sells better as a result of the award). The Bone People leaves me intrigued today with many ideas for academic writing; but here I want to convey how I much enjoyed this novel as an undergraduate. In giving me, a sheltered nineteen-year-old Canadian female, a larger, violent but magical view of life, this novel certainly changed my world.

My Five-Star Bookshelf, Part Ten

Janette Turner Hospital, Charades

I didn't realize how privileged I was to attend the University of Alberta in the late 1980s, when abundant Canada Council funds meant that I could attend a reading from a Canadian writer almost every week of my undergrad life. One of these readers was Janette Turner Hospital, who on that occasion read from Charades (note that the second A is pronounced AH: sha-rahdz). The passage the author read was well selected: tense, unusual, disturbing, full of strange religion and difficult family relationships. I bought the novel a short time later and devoured it, and have reread it several times since graduation. I have also read other novels by Hospital, but none has stuck with me like Charades.

The novel follows a young Australian woman named Charade Ryan, who is searching for her father. Coming from an unusual family, she is acutely aware of language and deliciously tangled in story. Her narrative is by turns erotically coy, brutal, and insightful. Its themes resonated for me at so many levels. Charades is set in Australia and Canada, and ranges from the Holocaust to classical music to theoretical physics. It is exquisitely constructed and very smart, but also emotionally shocking.

Just writing about it now, I want to dig up the book out and read it again. This is a book I give as a gift when I can find it, although it is apparently out of print at this time. If you find it used or in the library, read it. The thousand and one moments of this novel are sure to stay with you.

Oh, not again

So, it must have been a really, really, really slow news day to generate this story.

Really? The whole Habitat for Humanity thing wasn't enough? This former "alderman" felt he needed more press time? OMG.

So glad I don't live in St Albert any longer, so I don't have to be associated with the idiocy of some people who do.

 

My Five-Star Bookshelf, Part Nine

David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism

As the writing of my dissertation went on and on (and on and on), my focus began to shift from the English Language Arts curriculum per se to the construction of class identity through the politicization of text. One of the most important sources for my specific focus on Alberta political economy was A Brief History of Neoliberalism. If you want to understand concepts like the shrinking of the middle class, the growing gap between rich and poor, and the destruction of the so-called Nanny State, you need this book. It will help you recognize both the specific political entity that is neoliberalism and the historical and philosophical contexts that brought it into being — and that allow it to remain strong. The retrenchment of economic survival of the fittest following the systemic weakening of the welfare state is not an accident, he explains: it is a deliberate and calculated effort to protect the interests of the power elite around the world.

David Harvey is really, really smart. He doesn't just make a claim; he makes an argument, and he knows what he's talking about. He's critical. His analysis of the political economy of developed and some developing countries is acute (look Harvey up on Youtube if you want to see/hear him in action). This book, as well of some of his others, gave me both a model to describe what I perceived in my own location and had read about in other texts and the analytical tools for situating and connecting various forms of neoliberal thought. Given my theoretical orientation, the careful parsing of classical liberal, contemporary liberal, and neoliberal (and of conservative and neoconservative) is crucial. Harvey's text was, and remains, an important basis for explaining the significance of my dissertation topic.

But there's another layer to Harvey's book. Following the familiar paraphrasing of Marx, Harvey does not merely explain the world; he seeks to change it. He is not arguing for the sake of argument; he is arguing to spark, to rally, to mobilize. We are best prepared to struggle for change when we can recognize that this world is structured to benefit one group at the expense of another and that another world is possible. This perspective is perhaps the greater lesson of this book, and Harvey provides strong, global systemic analysis to support your local, specific resistance.

OK, you probably won't read this book. It's dense and difficult, and many political philosophers have moved beyond class analysis in the aftermath of George W. Bush and the War on Terror. But I promise you, this text is worth the effort you'll put into it. And just having it on your bookshelf may make you feel smarter and stronger — and may remind you that fair change is possible.

If I had my own call number

          
So there's this thing called a Dewey Decimal Quiz that will categorize you with just a few keystrokes. I like my theoretical call number — it seems rather apt! Now, what would I be in the LOC system, I wonder?


           

           

                La's Dewey Decimal Section:

                175 Ethics of recreation & leisure

                L—— V—— = 2592952583558 = 259+295+258+355+8 = 1175

               
Class:
100 Philosophy & Psychology


                Contains:
Books on metaphysics, logic, ethics and philosophy.
               


                What it says about you:
You're a careful thinker, but your life can be complicated and hard for others to understand at times.  You try to explain things and strive to express yourself.
           

            Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com
           

           

Want to find out your own Dewey Decimal call number? Click here   and follow the steps.

Glory of the Eighties

(I've been such a busy bee, working working working and editing editing editing. Will get back to posting my five-star books soon. In the meantime, here's something that's been tumbling around in my head.)

So it would seem that the Eighties are another long decade. Somehow the Seventies contracted, allowing the Eighties to begin in late 1978 or early 1979; the Nineties graciously reciprocated by allowing the Eighties to continue until the release of Nevermind in late 1991. In much the way that we refer to "the Sixties" to evoke the period from the Summer of Love to the break-up of the Beatles, today's young writers and editors refer to the Eighties to evoke the period of crass consumerism, allegedly bad fashion, neon colours, and big hair. Hmm, that sounds pretty familiar to — well, to the life we live today — and maybe that's why so many people now find the Eighties so evocative. The Eighties may offer a touchstone to help us understand what we're going through in the 2010s. That's kind of glorious, right?

Or maybe just depressing. That whole thing about history repeating itself... Hmm.

Then again, I kinda liked the hair...

My Five-Star Bookshelf, Part Eight

Jeff Gailus, The Grizzly Manifesto: In Defence of the Great Bear

If you know me at all, you know I have a fascination with bears. Jeff Gailus' book makes an intellectually fierce and personally impassioned argument for paying attention to the fate of the grizzly bear. For its topic alone, the book would have my attention; but for its insights, its argumentation, and its voice, it has a position as one of my five-star books.

Bears are culturally fascinating because of their intelligence, their strength, and their behaviours; and the grizzly, with its huge range and towering stature, is a mythic creature living in our midst. Unfortunately, living in the midst of modern humans has set the grizzly on its downfall: most of what we read about grizzlies today has to do with attacks on humans, deaths of bears on railway tracks, or lotteries for hunting permits. Grizzlies in Canada are in peril, and Gailus' book explains why. Interestingly, he offers a trans-national perspective for bear management, suggesting provocatively that — gasp! — the United States may, in Yellowstone Park, at least, be doing a better job than Canada in managing its grizzlies and other large carnivores. Given that the bears' natural range extends from the Arctic tundra to far south of the forty-ninth parallel and that the bears don't notice national boundaries, we must start thinking internationally if we hope to keep grizzly populations viable.

But there is the pivotal point: do we have the will to keep these large carnivores alive when our continued social wealth depends on moving increasingly into the bears' remaining habitats? If we examine Alberta headlines from the last ten years, we might conclude the answer is no. Gailus provides a strong reason for that answer to be yes.

This slim book should be required reading for both environmentalists and policy-makers. If you live in Alberta or British Columbia; if you visit Canada's mountain parks; if you care about the fate of North American ecosystems, read this book and discover how you are implicated in the death of grizzlies and how you can change the fate of the grizzlies that remain. I promise you, this book is worth your time.

Saturday's Playlist

"The going water and the gone..." This is the way the world revealed itself to me on a warm weekend night.

1. Melissa Etheridge, "Angels Would Fall"

2. Tori Amos, "Happy Phantom"

3. Stevie Nicks, "Edge of Seventeen"

4. Kim Wilde, "You Keep Me Hangin' On"

5. Oh Susanna, "You'll Always Be"

6. Eurythmics, "Sex Crime"

7. Tears for Fears, "Mad World"

8. Lady Gaga, "Poker Face"

9. Hawksley Workman, "Smoke Baby"

10. Robbie Robertson, "Somewhere Down the Crazy River"

11. U2, "With or Without You"

12. Aerosmith, "Remember (Walking in the Sand)"

13. U2, "Hawkmoon 269"

14. Suzanne Vega, "Marlene on the Wall"

15. Kate Bush, "Leave It Open"

My Five-Star Bookshelf, Part Seven

Garret Freymann-Weyr, Stay with Me

There is absolutely no reason this book should be one of my favourites. It's a YA novel about an exceptionally privileged daughter of an exceptional family, the kind of people I would not know in my real life. But this book is written sensitively and beautifully, and tackles issues not commonly discussed in this genre.

After Leila's sister kills herself, Leila tries to heal from the loss. Her healing is complicated by the unique way she perceives the world because of a learning disability. Leila eventually begins a relationship with someone significantly older than herself, a troubling decision for some people around her (and for many readers). Through this journey, she discovers more about who she is, why people leave us, why love matters, and how she can go on. I found it a poignant, touching story.

Garret Freymann-Weyr writes YA novels about subjects and from perspectives that most of us don't consider; I think this point is one of the reasons I like Stay with Me. Another reviewer describes the book as "challenging, strange, intelligent" and these words too explain why I was so deeply moved by it. This book may sneak up on you; trust it, let it reveal itself to you, and you may enjoy the experience as much as I did.

My Five-Star Bookshelf, Part Six

Timothy Findley, Famous Last Words

One of my favourite Canadian writers. A character imagined by an important Modernist poet. Combine the two and you have a fascinating and beautiful literary thriller about World War Two, the British Crown, and fascism. This is how history might have been, and the idea is chilling.

I read this novel between my third and fourth years of university. At that point, I was just beginning my serious study of Modernist poetry and knew little of Ezra Pound. Earlier that year I had read Not Wanted on the Voyage, after another student gave a presentation on it in one of our seminars. (That subsequently became one of my mother's favourite books.) Suddenly I was on a Timothy Findley roll, reading everything of Findley's I could get my hands on. Famous Last Words stands out for me, though, for its powerful images and curious imagining.

Some of Findley's work is overblown. Some of his novels are profoundly bleak. I didn't really care for The Wars, and there is one novel of Findley's that I still haven't read. (And I should acknowledge really enjoying his short fiction and his memoirs.) But this novel (along with The Piano-Man's Daughter, which should also be on this list) worked perfectly for me.

My Five-Star Bookshelf, Part Five

Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction

It was with the reading of this book that I grew up intellectually.

Terry Eagleton is an astonishing critic. An inspired Marxist and breath-taking intellectual, he writes incisively and clearly about literature — text — as it affects our lived reality. You may think literature doesn't affect your lived reality. You are wrong, and Terry Eagleton will explain why — definitively, authoritatively.

The discipline of English — the realm that has held my conscious attention for nearly thirty years, and likely much longer than that at an unconscious level — is a construct. Prior to the late nineteenth century, the idea of seriously studying English — the poor man's classics — was laughable. Within a few decades — and here I paraphrase Eagleton — the idea of not studying English was laughable. What the construction of English as a discipline has meant, and what emerges from the way that discipline understands and talks about texts, affects our political economy in far-reaching, profound ways that I am still discovering. A lifetime of potential scholarship has sprung, in part, from this book.

As undergraduates in Honours English, we were required to take a fourth-year seminar in literary theory. For many of us, this course was a slog. Week after week after dreary week, we met to discuss yet another theorist, yet another theory; for many of my classmates — and for me at the time — this seminar was simply a requirement to fulfill. Looking back, though, I recognize how important literary theory has been to my academic work and even to my professional work. Today I am grateful I took that seminar, and even moreso that I discovered Literary Theory: An Introduction a few years later. Its twenty-fifth–anniversary edition was published a few years ago, so others too must feel it is a significant book.

With my doctorate finally completed, I can point to this book as one that truly changed my life.

My Five-Star Bookshelf, Part Four

Roddy Doyle, A Star Called Henry

Do most people remember the circumstances of their first time reading a book that changed their lives? I read this one on a houseboat vacation in northern Saskatchewan, and despite the spectacular scenery and astonishing late-summer weather, I was captivated by this book.

A Star Called Henry is a phenomenally engaging retelling of recent Irish history, narrated by one of the most outrageous and compelling characters in modern fiction. I adore Henry Smart! Absolutely larger than life, he is a prodigious liar, a smashing ladies' man, a dubious hero, and the owner of an unforgettable narrative style. Once you've met Henry, you will never forget him — and you may fall in love with him.

Some of my favourite literature endures for me because of the characters. As they do for many people, memorable characters — like Samuel Hamilton in East of Eden or Amanda Ziller in Another Roadside Attraction — feel real to me, like people I've known. Henry Smart is someone I'd likely be terrified to meet but would love to know. He is surrounded by other quirky and fierce personalities that make him shine all the brighter. And this book has even more: romance, adventure, tragedy, history... It is a rollicking novel that will make you laugh aloud and may move you to tears.

This book changed my life with its reach, its shimmer, and its point of view. It inspired me to remember my love of reading, writing, and learning. And perhaps to ride my bicycle more often.

If you enjoy A Star Called Henry, there are two more books featuring Henry Smart: Oh, Play That Thing! and The Dead Republic (another book I loved, although it didn't make my five-star list). I hope you'll read them all.

My Five-Star Bookshelf, Part Three

Judy Blume, Tiger Eyes

It seems that most girls of my generation read at least one Judy Blume novel. Tiger Eyes wasn't the most popular choice, though; Forever... generally was, with its explicit language, discussion of sexuality, and sometimes-comical references to anatomy. (Of course, there was also Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret. But that's a different story...) And while Forever... is, for its own many reasons, an important novel, Tiger Eyes really changed my adolescent life.

Tiger Eyes is the story of Davey, whose father is murdered during a corner-store robbery. Her mother moves the family to New Mexico, where Davey tries to reintegrate into school and "normal" life. She starts spending time in the nearby canyon, where she meets Wolf, a young Hispanic man; she also starts volunteering in a hospital, where she meets a variety of patients. With these relationships, Davey begins to work through the grief, anger, and guilt surrounding her father's killing.

This is absolutely a young-adult novel: it deals extensively with issues of identity, sexuality, and individuation. It also persists for me in ways that other Blume books did not. The setting in Los Alamos allows the author to contrast Davey's personal emotional realm with the larger issues associated with nuclear weapons and the military–industrial complex. However, it is Davey's outsider status that I responded to most, and in particular I drew hope from her fraught relationship with Wolf. The tiger's eye stone at the centre of that relationship became a poignant, personal symbol for me.

There is much about this book that is forgettable. Some of the family by-play is quite silly relative to the introspection of Davey's moments in the canyon, and some of the themes are too much of the moment (e.g., the slogan "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle"). But for me, being able to identify with the general experience of alienation and grief (even through very different circumstances) was important to getting through some difficult moments of growing up. I hope everyone who needed books to help them through growing up found a book like this one.

My Five-Star Bookshelf, Part Two

 

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale

Those of you who know me well know that I normally read only hand-picked, highly recommended Speculative Fiction. For whatever reason, very little under the umbrella of this genre appeals to me. The Handmaid's Tale, however, is a speculative fiction that I would recommend to anyone. And, regrettably, as the years go by, elements of Atwood's imagined world are realized in our own world more and more frequently.

The brief plot summary is this: much of the United States, now called Gilead, has been taken over by extreme Christian fundamentalists. Women's rights (along with the rights of non-whites, gays and lesbians, and other people identified as undesirables by the leaders of Gilead) have been quashed, and a caste system has emerged among women, due to widespread infertility as a result of environmental toxins. The story of the regime change is told by a handmaid now named Offred; through her telling we learn about what led to the change, how life continues under the new regime, and what potential exists for resistance under fanatical rulers. The novel is exquisitely written, rich with word play and images that linger.

I read this book in my first year of university. I bought it one Saturday afternoon, started reading it as soon as I got home, and did not move from my seat until I finished it about ten hours later. It was completely transfixing, particularly for a reader who did know many of the conventions of the genre.

Then again, the genre is to some degree irrelevant in this text. There are feminist themes; there is political critique; there are questions about religion and ritual; there are questions about the construction of class, order, and power. But most importantly, Atwood was a poet before she turned to novel-writing, and language play — serious work in this dystopian world — forms the core of the text. This book opened my sixteen-year-old eyes to the potential of contemporary fiction; by the following year, I had changed my faculty and major, and started on the trajectory that has brought me to today.

I have re-read this book several times, and it always impresses and frightens me. An essential text in my personal canon.

***

Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

Some fifteen years after first reading The Handmaid's Tale, I read The Blind Assassin. This is a densely layered story within a story within a story. Once again, I read this text very quickly, although not completely in one sitting, as the structure of my life no longer permits such luxuries. It is, however, transfixing to peel back the layers of this telling and observe how intricately structured and clever it is.

What does it mean to write? Whose truth is true? How do we go on when what we believe is revealed to be a lie? These are some of the questions raised by this novel, told in retrospective pieces by Iris, now an elderly woman. Her life has been marked by fame and loss, power and intrigue; at the end of her life, she has decided to set her story straight, thereby overturning decades of "knowing" and the comfort of conformity. Like many of Atwood's strong woman characters, Iris is complicated, contrary, sometimes cruel, sometimes disturbing. And then there is the book at the centre of the novel, the science fiction text "The Blind Assassin." From the question of what it means to write, we are also invited to ask what it means to read. The art of creation is never innocent, and it is particularly troubled in this intersection of texts, lives, and lives-as-texts.

I believe I respond to this book particularly because of the period it evokes — I still love the Modernists! But there is so much going on in this text: mystery, betrayal, love, violence, courage, and, as always, Atwood's sumptuous writing. The book rewards re-reading, and as I write this about I'm thinking of reading the book again. While it is a very different experience from that of reading The Handmaid's Tale, The Blind Assassin will captivate, frustrate, and unsettle you. The feeling of this book remains with me. I hope you will experience it, too!

My Five-Star Bookshelf, Part One

I am a devoted fan of LibraryThing (LT). Other people check their Facebooks daily; I check LT. I have more than three thousand books listed on LT at present, with more added every week. If you love books, LT is a great place to catalogue them, talk about them, learn about them, and share them with others.

On my LT profile, I've explained how I rate books, noting that a five-star book is one that "changed my life." So I've decided, as a writing exercise, to discuss the twenty-nine books (to date) that I've rated at five stars. Over the coming weeks, I will post a brief and personal book talk for each of the titles on my five-star list. I am posting them in alphabetical order by author last name, not in chronological order of reading.

As a disclaimer, I would note that my list is, not unexpectedly, idiosyncratic and strongly Canadian. I'm certainly interested to know what you think about these books, too, and if you haven't read some of them, I strongly encourage you to do so.

Happy reading!

***

Carmen Aguirre, Something Fierce

I am delighted to have read this book long before it was the Canada Reads 2012 winner. I learned about this book from hearing a tiny excerpt from Aguirre's play, The Refugee Hotel, on CBC. A short time later, I read a review of Something Fierce and ordered the book immediately (despite that the review was negative). I am so glad I read this book; reading it was a transformative experience.

Something Fierce is a memoir of resisting the Pinochet military dictatorship, told through the eyes of a child and young woman. Aguirre is the daughter of Chilean revolutionaries and eventually worked for the resistance herself. Her story is astonishing. She describes what her family went through to escape Chile, how her family members and friends were tortured for their beliefs, how her family lived in exile for years, how she attempted to live as a "typical" teen, her work in the resistance, and how she decided to continue the fight for social justice in South America and in Canada.

You may not agree with her politics (I do), but Aguirre writes with such passion, integrity, and courage that it is impossible not to be moved by her book. The people are real; some of their stories are heart breaking. The telling reveals how violence, treachery, and injustice work in ways both large and subtle. Yet moments of terror, paranoia, frustration, and anguish are relieved by moments of humour, beauty, and joy. The ending is not happy, but it is hopeful. This book may change the way you think about all we in Canada take for granted. I hope you will read it.

And by the way, the published script of The Refugee Hotel is also very good.

Lest we remember

I love this article on the federal Conservative government's sense of history.

Thank goodness there are still a few sensible journalists on the Hill.

L

Ten days to go!

Here's what I am ruminating over.

Celtic Cross:

Significator: Queen of Cups

Theme of reading: 8 Swords: "damned if you do; damned if you don't"

Crosses (for or against): 10 Swords: "the worst has been done"

The future: 7 Swords: "be on your guard" (thievery)

The foundation: Justice: "excesses have consequences"

What precedes it: 1 Pentacles: "effort for prosperity"

What is to come: 1 Swords: "the mind awakening for new challenges"

Immediacy (effect on significator): High Priestess: "take time to listen to inner voice"

Context: Page of Cups: "matters of the heart"

Hopes and fears: Sun: "day in the sun"

Outcome of the reading: 6 Cups: "a known joy"

Hmm.

But not for me

So, if I needed another reason not to vote Tory in the upcoming election, here it is.

This story announces that the Tories can promise $650 million to certain Calgary universities, but not to Edmonton universities.

Huh. I guess we're already too smart up in here in Edmonton. Certainly too smart to vote PC again, anyway.

Anything else you'd like to do to shoot yourself in the foot, Ms Redford?

The Rest Is Silence

...hmm.

In other news, it's done. Before midnight on the date of the deadline. Off to defence with fingers crossed.

L

Have You Bleached Your Underarms Today?

B often reminds me that we live in a highly decadent society on the edge of decay. As a socialist, however, I try to maintain a more hopeful outlook, believing in some remnant of the social good and humankind's historical fumbling toward progress.

That remnant hope became just a little more tattered last night when I watched an advertisement for deodorant that masks the signs of underarm discoloration. Seriously.

Admittedly, we live a society that believes in bleaching teeth and other ... parts ... of the anatomy, lest these parts be socially or intimately offensive. And we believe that surgery can correct cosmetic issues with faces, breasts, bottoms, and other regions.

But underarms? Seriously?!?

Perhaps one's underarms do in fact become discoloured over time. So what? Must humans be infinitely perfect? Must we appear as ageless and timeless at fifty as we did as newborns?

Apparently the people who sell deodorant feel we don't have enough social concerns: now we must also worry about (in addition to revealing that our healthy, functioning bodies sweat) underarm discoloration. Of course. We need another rhetorically constructed socio-physical anxiety. Toe cleavage and unibrows and cankles and cellulite and curly/straight hair just don't move us sufficiently today, I guess.

After seeing this ad, I have to say that I agree with B. If a multinational corporation feels it should invest its advertising revenues in the made-up issue of underarm discolouring, then this society really is on the downward slope.

L

Now that's a review!

As I was explaining to my book-editing students the other day, Canadian book-reviewing practices are quite anemic, mostly because most well-known writers and reviewers know each other (or have friends who know each other), have encountered each other on panels and juries, or are afraid of burning bridges on someone they may work with in the future. Thus we end up with terribly pabulum-like reviews much of the time.

But this review of a film shows us what's really possible. An excellent review — and a movie to avoid, I suspect!

L

Karma...

... has got a mean left hook.

Gob-smacked,
L

Stats, Damn Stats, and Lies

According to a recent study of 1,000 Alberta men, some men still believe it's OK to hit a woman if she makes a man angry enough, and quite a few more think that by acting or dressing in a certain way, a woman is inviting rape.

Srsly. I think the sands of time are running backward. Is it 2012 or 1962?

See one article on this study here (click on the word "here" for the link).

Sigh and sigh again.
L

Bugs Bunny understands

The Winter 2012 term has been, so far, quite unpleasant. To put it in perspective, I'll use the words of Bugs Bunny (here illustrating the rhetorical scheme of apophasis): "I won't say it hasn't been a pleasure, because it hasn't."

Here's to an improvement after Reading Week. Or, failing that, here's to a lot of drinking ahead.

L

Nouns and verbs

Somewhere in the twisted jungle of my mind, the children's song "No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!" morphed into "No More Monsters Lying in the Bed!". Huh. Apparently someone had a disturbed childhood.

L

Metrical patterns are cool!

These are the final nine lines from a sestina. Who doesn't adore poetry?

No matter what may come
give me this: that all this time I stood here
ignored to death and loved you while you let
every chance go; say your glances at me
suggested almost anything but love;
say I know you cried in bed, poor you.

Believe in love. You know that I am here
to let you loose. Here is my flesh for you
who may abide with me till kingdom come.

— Miller Williams, "Love in the Cathedral"

(In case you don't get it, read the final word of each line for the poem's integral message.)

iTunes' Big Surprise

Although I live in a culture obsessed with size, it would seem that bigness is a limited song-writing concept. Or at least it is in my iTunes library, which features only the following "big" titles:

"Big Bang Baby" (Emm Gryner covering Stone Temple Pilots)
"Big Big Love" (k.d. lang)
"Big Bird in a Small Cage" (Patrick Watson)
"Big Boned Gal" (k.d. lang)
"Big Bottom" (Egg covering Spinal Tap)
"The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine" (Simon and Garfunkel)
"Big Fun" (Inner City)
"Big League" (Tom Cochrane and Red Rider)
"Big Log" (Robert Plant)
"Big Love" (Fleetwood Mac)
"Big River" (Rosanne Cash)
"Big Shot" (Billy Joel)
"The Big Sky" (Kate Bush)
"Big Stripey Lie" (Kate Bush)
"Big Time" (Peter Gabriel)
"Big Wheel" (Tori Amos)
"Big Yellow Taxi" (Joni Mitchall)
... and the comparative "Bigger Man" (Tom Cochrane) and superlative "Biggest Part of Me" (Ambrosia).

Interestingly, for the sake of comparison, I own only the following:

"Small Blue Thing" (Suzanne Vega)
"A Small Dose" (Minstrels on Speed)
"Small Illusion" (Jorane)
"Small Town" (John Mellencamp)
"Smalltown Boy" (Bronsky Beat")

and

"Tiny Angels" (Roger Whittaker)
"Tiny Dancer" (Elton John)
"Tiny Grief Song" (Sinead O'Connor)
"Tiny Thing" (Jensen Interceptor).

Unexpected. But now I've discovered more title themes to consider...

Here's to Sunday!
L

204

Have begun 2012 with the aim of continuing to count the books I read. Week one has been fabulous: a book a day.

How does she do it?!?

The secret is volume.

No, no, the secret is variety. I read poetry, drama, young-adult novels, and mysteries in addition to all that serious scholarly stuff.

OK, but 200+ books in a year means an average of four a week.

Yup.

When you're an insomniac, you have a lot of time for reading.

Happy new year, one and all!

L
(204 is the number of books I read in 2011; it does not include most of the graphic novels or any of the children's picture books)

Quite Quarrelsome

It's been months since I've posted. Too much else to write, I suppose. In the absence of a real post, here's a placeholder.

Top 25 Most Played Songs on my Desktop iTunes

1. "Dirrrty" — Christina Aguilera
2. "Map of Tasmania" – Amanda Palmer
3. "Tiny Thing" — Jenson Interceptor
4. "Feel It Again" — Honeymoon Suite
5. "Firecracker" — Frazey Ford
6. "Gold Guns Girls" — Metric
7. "I Did It for Love" — Harlequin
8. "TikTok" — Ke$ha
9. "Burning Bridge" — Kate Bush
10. "Hidin' from Love" — Bryan Adams
11. "Pour ton sourire" — Jorane
12. "Girls with Guns" — Tommy Shaw
13. "Black on Black" — Dalbello
14. "Caramelldansen" — Caramell
15. "Evacuate the Dance Floor" — Cascada
16. "Silver Blue" — Roxette
17. "When I Get You Alone" — Thicke
18. "Whiskey in the Jar" — The Limeliters
19. "The Adventure" — Angels and Airwaves
20. "What the Water Gave Me" — Florence + the Machine
21. "Superstitious Feeling" — Harlequin
22. "Hazy Shade of Winter" — The Bangles
23. "Just Dance" — Lady Gaga
24. "How Do I Make You" — Linda Ronstadt
25. "Summer Breeze" — Seals and Crofts

Despite that I reset my play counts a couple of years ago, I see some continuity in my listening habits.

Currently, I'm listening over and over (on streaming audio) to "Snowed in at Wheeler Street" from the forthcoming Kate Bush album 50 Words for Snow — can't wait for the disc to arrive!

Poetry finds us

Back to school: week two. Sometimes, ironically, words are what sustains me.

Raise an unexpected glass to long, cold winters
and sweet, hot summers and the beautiful confusion
of the times in between.
To the unexpected drenching rain that leaves you soaking
wet and smiling breathless.

— Taylor Mali from "Silver-Lined Heart"

White Daisy Days

... quickly heading for another one of those autumns. You know, I already know how this one turns out. Couldn't we do something else instead?

Sigh.

L

The Radio in My Head

You can't hear it, but I'm listening to Heather Nova's South album over and over and over again. Great summer music!

Trudging toward the conclusion,
L

OMG, Another Sequel

A review of Sisterhood Everlasting: A Novel by Ann Brashares, published by Random House, 2011

After reading Ann Brashares' first novel for adults, the dreadful The Last Summer (of You and Me), I told myself I would not read her work again. Last week, when I saw Brashares has published a new volume in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, I relented, thinking I would enjoy a light summer novel. My mistake.

The characters of the Sisterhood are now twenty-nine years old. Once again, as in the earlier books in the series, they have lost touch with one another. Carmen is an actress based in New York. Lena teaches art in Rhode Island. Bridget remains restless after years of doing nothing in San Francisco. At last Tibby initiates a get-together in Greece, where a death occurs. The plot then focusses on grieving for and reassembling the Sisterhood.

There are so many things wrong with Sisterhood Everlasting that reviewing the book seems almost futile. The protagonists (sections are narrated from various characters' perspectives) are still as vapid and self-absorbed as they were as teens — apparently they all failed to mature in the decade since their last book together. Other characters appear only to advance the plot. Eric, Brian, Effie, Jones, Eudoxia, and various walk-ons are flat, wooden, undeveloped, and sadly uninteresting. Unlike many other writers, Brashares rarely digresses to provide back story for the people Carmen, Lena, and Bridget interact with or to flesh out the details of the Sisterhood's world. Her narrative camera follows strictly her main characters, reducing the story to something like paper dolls marching across various cardboard backdrops. As writing technique, it's unsatisfying.

Although they are staring down thirty, the members of the Sisterhood still act like girls. Carmen and Bridget are unwilling to commit to, or break up with, the men in their lives (with whom they have sophomoric, simplistic relationships), and Lena has not moved beyond Kostos, her long-ago summer love. Only Tibby has set down roots — in Australia — and only unintentionally. These spoiled, privileged girls flit around the globe carelessly, apparently without having to worry about work, bills or rent, other friends and family, or the larger world. As in her previous work for adult readers, Brashares treats sexuality coyly, off stage — an ironic choice, given the plot. Characters' emotional arcs are self-centred and adolescent; apparently for Brashares, adulthood doesn't arrive until one's thirties. None of these characters are likable as women in their late twenties, and the story of their coming together again is stupidly implausible. (And haven't any of these characters heard of Facebook?)

The novel concludes, as have all previous books in the series, with the Sisterhood's renewed commitment to love one another and themselves. Brashares has also introduced at least two plot points that will keep the series alive. For some readers that may be good news, but this book is my last journey with the Sisterhood. The hackneyed prose, the overburdened sentimentality, and the Oprah-style affirmations are simply too cloying for my taste.

The novel is ostensibly intended for adults but reveals the genealogy of a weak strain of YA books. It is formulaic, superficial, and trite. It is also likely to be a summer 2011 bestseller, as the readers of the original Traveling Pants books may follow the author into chick-lit lite. Even as beach reading, Sisterhood Everlasting is a throwaway effort, not worth your time.

When is a contract not a contract?

For the last few days, Premier Ed Stelmach has been blaming teachers — and the Alberta Teachers' Association in particular — for the coming layoffs in schools. According to Stelmach, it is teachers' fault that the government is unable to fund schools appropriately; he is quoted in the Edmonton Journal this morning saying that this year's contractual increase is "'unachievable' for a government struggling financially." Clearly, Mr Stelmach hopes the electorate has a very short memory.

Mr Stelmach's tactics are the worst form of political deceit. The contractual increase is an artifact of the contract that Mr Stelmach initiated in the early days of his leadership. The ATA didn't seek the contract; rather, the government approached the ATA with a deal that would guarantee the province five years of labour peace in education. It was the province, too, that offered the terms tying salary to cost of living; the province also agreed to cover the teachers' unfunded pension liability in exchange for a five-year deal.

In retrospect, such generosity was surely too good to be true. The ATA should have predicted that the government would fail to honour the terms of its agreement. The Alberta government doesn't honour its citizens; why would it honour a contract?

But for Mr Stelmach to blame teachers themselves for the state of the Alberta economy — arguably still the strongest economy in Canada despite the recession — is particularly galling. Mr Stelmach is supposed to be the leader — is supposed to set the agenda for the province. It is by his government's choice that we "cannot afford" basic social rights like health care and education. Perhaps if Mr Stelmach had had the guts to demand an appropriate royalty rate on behalf of the citizens of Alberta, we could "afford" to pay for schools and hospitals. Or perhaps if the Alberta government didn't subsidize tar sands development as richly as it does, sufficient funds could be allocated to citizens' needs — rather than corporations' needs.

Blaming teachers for a mess of the government's own making — for a contract for which Mr Stelmach himself is directly responsible — is flagrantly dishonest. In doing so, Premier Stelmach dishonours himself, his office, and the citizens of Alberta.

Excellent book title!

This is the best book title I've seen in ages:

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride.

Apparently a YA novel; sounds like urban fantasy perhaps. Will have to check this out — all based on the title.

Thus, the moral of today's story is that a good title sells books. (Or at least encourages readers to take books out of the library.)

Fondly remembered and deeply missed

"He was a bright man who made bad puns and verbal quips, injected trivia, big words and foreign phrases into his teaching, joked about popular culture, politics, the world around us. No one like this had entered my orbit before, and I was transfixed by both his intelligence and his obvious love for his profession." — from an assignment for EDSE 504, July 2006

There are no words.

L

How Social Media Will Contribute to the Erasure of History

Have you ever looked up one of your favourite musicians or actors on Wikipedia? Was that person ever involved in any sort of criminal activity (for instance, spousal battering)? If so, chances are the celebrity's PR people are actively monitoring the Internet to ensure that any references to that criminal activity, whether proved in court or not, are absent.

Say you were a relatively important Seventies folk-rock singer. Say you were involved in the 1980s with a beautiful, talented, well-known actress. Say your relationship ended and subsequently allegations of domestic assault arose. Could it be possible that you, formerly important musician, have enough resources to sue the allegations out of existence, and to ensure that these allegations (now "retracted") stay extinguished? Even to the point of ensuring that your PR handlers tell journalists foolishly seeking to interview you NOT to raise "The Thing"?

Well, ha, Mr Formerly Famous Musician. Ha. I may like your music, but you personally just may be a waste of skin as a human being.

The Insomnia Defence

The Best Health blog reports today that "A study done by business school professors and published in the Academy of Management Journal that looked at the behaviour [of] sleep-deprived students and nurses found that those who lacked sufficient shut-eye increased bad behaviour such as rudeness, inappropriate responses and even stealing."

This explains a great deal, I think!

Sleepy and surly,
L

Outraged, again

According to an article in this morning's Edmonton Journal, Helena Guergis' abrupt dismissal from the federal cabinet and Conservative Party of Canada last year was "an employee–employer relationship" issue.

Strange, that. This is Canada, where MPs serve not at the pleasure of the prime minister but at the will of the Canadian public.

Perhaps the prime minister in question forgot that point.

According to the article, Guergis' error was that "she didn't come clean with her employer," according to the private detective who made the allegations against Guergis.

There was no reason I would have voted for the CPC anyway, but this item adds to the mountain of evidence condemning the Harper government as secretive, petty, and autocratic.

An MP is accountable to the people of her constituency. The people employ her — or fire her. The prime minister's heavy-handed tactics in this matter, based on vague and still-unproved allegations, compromised Canadian democracy.

But then that's hardly unusual for this administration, is it?

It's been a bad week, Mr Harper. I hope the next two are even worse.

Looking forward to the day Harper is no longer in power,
L

Politics: No thinking allowed

So CBC reports that Stephen Harper is pledging to eliminate the deficit a year earlier than planned: here

How? Magic!

Seriously, if he could eliminate the deficit a year earlier than planned — a deficit HIS government created and a debt-elimination timetable that HIS budget introduced — then why didn't HIS government do so this year?

Makes me wonder. But then I read this.

Oh. That's the magic. Huh.

L

What my FB status should be...

... is "so tired of the bullsh*t". Hrmph.

Capturing synecdoche and hyperbole in an anecdote

Or, there is no antidote for antimetabole.

Or, as scholar Jila Ghomeshi remarks, "You can't always look at a word and know how to pronounce it and you can't always hear a word and know how to spell it. Mastering English spelling is a spectacular feat of memorization."

Something to think about as I write my chapter (number six!) on readers, writers, and the language arts as social processes.

L

Leonard Cohen reminds me of E.E. Cummings

From "The Great Divide"

And when I gathered up to leave
You drew me to your side
To be as Adam was to Eve
Before the Great Divide

And fastened here we cannot move
Except to one another
We spread and drown as lilies do
From nowhere to the centre

And here I cannot lift a hand
To trace the lines of beauty
But lines are traced and love is glad
To come and go so freely

And here no sin can be confessed
No sinner be forgiven
It's written that the law must rest
Before the law is written

And here the silence is erased
The background all dismantled
Your beauty cannot be compared
No mirror here, no shadow ...

Note the feminine ("almost") rhymes, B!

L

Blogger doesn't recognize less than three

MCMLXXXIII.

RIP. IOU. BRB.

L

My hope for the world

If I could teach students, writers, and copyeditors only one thing, it might be this: the past tense of lead (verb, pronounced LEED: to guide others by going in advance of) is led, not lead (noun, pronounced LED: a soft grey metal). I see this error made so commonly that I'm starting to doubt that the distinction is correct (but it is: I checked!).

Professional editors should not make this mistake. But perhaps I am a lone voice in this particular language wilderness.

Sighfully,
L

Toward the new year

From "It Won't Take Long" (as performed by Indigo Girls; original lyrics by Ferron)

...oh beware you sagging diplomats
for you will not hear one gun
and though our homes be torn and ransacked
we will not be undone
for as we let ourselves be bought
we're gonna let ourselves be free
and if you think we stand alone
take a look around and you will see

we are children in the rafters
we are babies in the park
we are lovers at the movies
we are candles in the dark
we are changes in the weather
we are snowflakes in july
we are women grown together
we are men who easily cry
we are words not quickly spoken
we're the deeper side of try
we are dreamers in the making
we are not afraid of why

Ah.

Snowbound,
L

What Book Am I?

Took a quiz to find out what book I am. Here is the result:

You're The Dictionary!
by Merriam-Webster
You're one of those know-it-all types, with an amazing amount of knowledge at your command. People really enjoy spending time with you in very short spurts, but hanging out with you for a long time tends to bore them. When folks really need an authority to refer to, however, you're the one they seek. You're an exceptional speller and very well organized.

Wow! I'm amazed.

Want to take the book quiz yourself? Go here. Enjoy!

Procrastination!

Nothing adds to putting off the inevitable like a joke...

Q. What's a dyslexic agnostic insomniac?
A. Someone who lies awake all night wondering if there really is a dog.

L,
wondering whether she in fact knows a dyslexic agnostic insomniac

I think I can; I think I can...

This comic describes exactly the state of my life right now.

Love PhD Comics!

L

An aphorism ...

... demonstrating rhetorical schemes ...

"Do you have what you need? Do you need what you have?"

L

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's hoping it's wonderful for everyone.

L

(And is there anything as satisfying as shredding documents for an hour?!? woot!)

I hear a lot of stories; I suppose they could be true

What to believe: what one says or what one does? After all, I have faith; I just want proof...

Very very tired,
L

Brer Rabbit Days

As a wise man once wrote, "I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams." Or, to put it another way: "You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal..."

Hmm.


"Landslide"

I took my love and I took it down,
Climbed a mountain and turned around
And I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills
'Til the landslide brought it down

Oh, mirror in the sky, What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?
I don't know, I don't know

Well, I've been afraid of changing
Because I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder,
Even children get older
And I'm getting older, too

So, take my love, take it down
Climb a mountain and turn around
And if you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills
Well, the landslide will bring it down
The landslide will bring it down...

Musicians Are Bossy

The other night, B observed that there are many songs that instruct listeners "don't" do something. Being who I am, I wanted to know how many songs in my iTunes would demonstrate the concept. Here's the list (and there are others that I know but don't own). — L


Don't Ask Me No Questions - Lynyrd Skynyd
Don't Ask Me Why - Billy Joel
Don't Ask Me Why - Eurythmics
Don't Be Cruel - Cheap Trick
Don't Be Lonely - Quarterflash
Don't Bring Me Down - ELO
Don't Close the Door - Gerry Rafferty
Don't Cry for Me Argentina - Sinéad O'Connor
Don't Cry Out Loud - Melissa Manchester
Don't Explain - Herbie Hancock
Don't Fade Away - Milla
(Don't Fear) The Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
Don't Fence Me In - David Byrne
Don't Fight It - Kenny Loggins
Don't Fight It - Red Rider
Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone) - Glass Tiger
Don't Forget to Dance - The Kinks
Don't Get Mad, Get Even - Aerosmith
Don't Get Me Wrong - The Pretenders
Don't Give Up - Peter Gabriel
Don't Go - Yaz
Don't Go Breaking My Heart - Elton John and Kiki Dee
Don't Go to Strangers - Joni Mitchell
Don't Interrupt the Sorrow - Joni Mitchell
Don't Leave Me This Way - Thelma Houston
Don't Let Him Know - Prism
Don't Let It End - Styx
Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight - James Taylor
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood - The Animals
Don't Let Me Down - No Doubt
Don't Let Me Go - Billy Squier
Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me - Elton John (also by Oleta Adams and by Roger Daltry)
Don't Make Me Come to Vegas - Tori Amos
Don't Mess with Orgasmatron - DJ Earworm
Don't Pass Me By - The Beatles
Don't Pull Your Love - Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds
Don't Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake - Kate Bush
Don't Put It Down - Hair Soundtrack
Don't Say No - Billy Squier
Don't Say You Love Me - Billy Squier
Don't Speak - No Doubt
Don't Stand So Close to Me - The Police
Don't Stop - Chilliwack
Don't Stop - Olivia Newton-John
Don't Stop - The Rolling Stones
Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough - Michael Jackson
Don't Stop Believin' - Journey
Don't Stop Believing - Olivia Newton-John
Don't Stop Me Now - Queen
Don't Stop the Music - Rhianna
Don't Tell Me - Blancmange
Don't Think of Me - Dido
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right - Bob Dylan
Don't Walk Away - ELO
Don't Worry 'Bout Me - Joni Mitchell
Don't You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds

Why the internet is dying...

...advertisers. Sitting, watching, waiting for pages to load. Pages that can't load, won't load, until the streaming video ads load. Time to close that tab. I'm just not interested enough to wait and wait and wait...

I am slowly going crazy
1 2 3 4 5 6 7!
Crazy going slowly am I
7 6 5 4 3 2 1!

L

End of long day

All of my friends who think that I'm blessed
They don't know my head's a mess
No, they don't know who I really am
And they don't know what I've been through...

— Brandi Carlile

The Imperative Playlist

For your mind's ear's aural pleasure!

Be My Girl
Be Near Me
Burn It to the Ground
Bust a Move
Call Me
Don't Stop the Music
Dream On
Evacuate the Dance Floor
Give Me Some Love
Pour Some Sugar on Me

L

nr: _Schooled_ by Gordon Korman
np: "Little Wing" by Jimi Hendrix

How do cats feel about baths?

I love this passage!

It's not that cats don't _like_ baths. It's not that cats have a difficult relationship with baths. It's not that cats chose not to vote for baths in the last election. It's not that cats would rather choose vanilla over baths. It's not that cats neglect to send baths a card on their birthdays. It's not that cats pick baths last when choosing sides for a kick ball game. It's not that cats think about baths in the same way a fire hydrant thinks about dogs. It's not that cats look at baths in the same way that a vegetarian looks at ten pounds of raw liver. It's not that cats once bought baths an awesome present that cost an entire month's allowance, and then baths didn't even have the decency to say "thank you."

It's simply that ...

CATS HATE BATHS!

Despite this warning, if you want to know how to give a cat a bath, read Nick Bruel's Bad Kitty Gets a Bath.

If nothing else, you'll have something to smile about while you heal from the shredding your kitty's going to give you.

L

Meet the iPhone, ca. 1945

Your interesting fact of the day, from an article by Vannevar Bush, 1945, about his proposed device, the memex:

... a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.

Apart from the mechanization (which has been supplanted by digitization), Bush foresaw smart phones and similar hand-held devices. He did recognize, though, that computers would be integral to the realization of the memex, which he did not live to see produced.

L

Happy places

Libraries have long been my happy places. Tonight on the Edmonton Public Library site I found these pictures. Good times.

The first image shows one of the ducks from the children's section at the Centennial Library. I miss the ducks! And the iguana!



The second image shows the exterior of the Dickinsfield Library, a location where I spent vast amounts of formative time and where my independence began to grow. On the other end of the mall were chocolate donuts, always an incentive.



These are my happy places; these are my heart songs.

L

For Elephants, Whenever I May Find Them

Back to the grind after a long, long weekend. Gird yourself!

Not once in our history
Has an ant gone out and captured
An elephant single-handedly.

Hafiz; Daniel Ladinsky, trans.

Art and Philosophy

Reading about and looking again at my beloved Klimt. Ahh.


The sun will stand as your best man
And whistle

When you have found the courage
To marry forgiveness,

When you have found the courage
To marry
Love.

— Hafiz; Daniel Ladinsky, trans.

From the mouths of Dusty and Lefty

Dusty and Lefty may be two of most under-appreciated characters in recent film memory, and these lines could be theirs — but they're not. Still, this "cowboy wisdom" should give you a laugh. Enjoy your Saturday!

*

• Don't squat with your spurs on.

• Don't never interfere with something that ain't botherin' you none.

• If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.

• Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

• The easiest way to eat crow is while it's still warm. The colder it gets, the harder it is to swaller.

• Never smack a man who's chewin' tobacco.

• If it don't seem like it's worth the effort, it probably ain't.

• It don't take a genius to spot a goat in a flock of sheep.

• The biggest liar you'll ever have to deal with probably watches you shave his face in the mirror every morning.

• Never ask a barber if he thinks you need a haircut.

• If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else's dog around.

• Don't worry about bitin' off more'n you can chew. Your mouth is probably a whole lot bigger'n you think.

• Always drink upstream from the herd.

• Generally, you ain't learnin' nothin' when your mouth is a-jawin'.

• Tellin' a man to go to hell and makin' him do it are two entirely different propositions.

• Generally speakin', fancy titles and nightshirts are a waste of time.

• Trust everybody in the game, but always cut the cards.

• If you're ridin' ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there.

• If you're gonna go,...go like hell. If your mind's not made up, don't use your spurs.

• Never kick a fresh cowpie on a hot day.

• After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him. The moral: when you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.

• Never drop your gun to hug a grizzly.

• When you give a lesson in meanness to a critter or a person, don't be surprised if they learn their lesson.

• The best way to have quiche for dinner is to make it up and put it in the oven to bake at 325 degrees. Meanwhile, get out a large T-bone, grill it, and when it's done, eat it. As for the quiche, continue to let it bake, but otherwise ignore it.

• There's two theories to arguin' with a woman. Neither one works.

• When you're throwin' your weight around, be ready to have it thrown around by somebody else.

• Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier 'n puttin' it back.

• Always take a good look at what you're about to eat. It's not so important to know what it is, but it's critical to know what it was.

• The quickest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it back in your pocket.

• Never miss a good chance to shut up.

At the end of your rope?

Here's a knot to tie and hold on with:

I’ve never understood suicide. I’m a big believer that if things are so bad you’re willing to kill yourself off, you should consider what else you’d be willing to kill first — like a shitty job or a bad relationship or the part of yourself that you’ve been too afraid to change. — Lisa Rosman (for the larger context of this excerpt, go here )

Something to remember when the black dog is baying.

L

Happy Canada Day!

Whee! We're one hundred forty-three years old, and it's one of those unbelievable summer mornings that remind me why I live in a northern town.

Happy to be here,
L

Oscar + me = BFF

Here's a great thought about the ways in which we spend our free time:

It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it. — Oscar Wilde

I guess that explains my inner fifteen-year-old girl!

Getting ready to celebrate,
L

The continuing relevance of booksellers

Clearly acknowledging that he knows nothing of the longer history of publishing and bookselling, Michael Edwards, CEO of US-based book giant Borders, recently said, "the onus is on booksellers to prove their continued relevance in the digital age. If they continue to innovate in the services and experiences they offer and the ways they engage the community, consumers will continue to make bookstores a vital part of their lives. If they fail to adapt to changing market conditions and consumer needs, they'll deserve the empty aisles -- and cash registers -- that result. The next chapter is up to them."

Ah, that's clear. But what's with the us and them rhetoric? Isn't Borders ... a bookstore?

In the last year there has been a noticeable shift in the book industry's panic. Now, with the rise of e-books and e-readers, it's not the book that's dead; it's the bookstore. Consumers don't want to be troubled with the hassle of shopping among other people when they can buy from the sanctity of their homes, and they don't want to have to wait for a physical book when they have so many other screen-based entertainment options available instantly, on a whim. Doesn't help when leaders of the book industry talk junk in the press, though.

Maybe if we stopped insisting on market dominance and started contemplating market stability, market sustenance, we could put an end to the panic. But that's not the way the invisible hand of the market works, is it?

This business of publishing has endured so much over the centuries, and booksellers have been part of the business for most of that time. What if — shockingly — we tried to work together? This crazy idea worked for centuries; it could work again.

Wednesday thoughts

Ah, Wednesday. The mid-way point in the treadmill of the week. So much better when Wednesday represents Friday, no?

And now to the commonplace book:

The absence of the Witch does not
Invalidate the spell —

— Emily Dickinson

L

Me 'n' Jesus used to hang

Note to copyeditors: Quotations within quotations or speech are important. Omitting the interior quotation marks can change the meaning of both expressions.

For example, note the significant difference in meaning in these sentences:

Reverend Warren said, "Jesus said I am the resurrection and the life." (wrong, and now Reverend Warren seems like he's boasting)

Reverend Warren said, "Jesus said, 'I am the resurrection and the life.'" (right)

Just something to consider, anonymous-copyeditor-of-book-I-am-currently-reading. Something to consider.

From the other side

"Oh, with a mind that renders everything sensitive
What chance do I have here?"

— Kate Bush

What a piece of work is a man

"A man is unapologetic, unless he knows you are mad at him, in which case he is busy." — Alison Rosen

Really, quotations like these make me wonder if feminism ever really happened.

L

Good morning, starshine

It's a beautiful spring morning (despite the smoke in the air). Whenever people ask me why I live in Edmonton, mornings like this are the answer.

Last night was the Alberta Book Awards — nice to see everyone, and a great way to wrap up a very long week.

And Happy Birthday to all the Tauruses: here's to the year ahead!

Off to start the day,
L

The rewards of poetry

After a long day at school, one finds something like this:

"How to photograph this,
the dark when one has said
too much. The dark
of sudden feeling. Love's
darkness."

— Anne Michaels, "Fontanelles"

Ahhhh.

The moon and mothers

Looking up again, I saw what has always been,
suspended since time began, for anyone to discover—
God's eternal clue:
the moon in its wet skin of light,
the moon not less in its halfness.

What I learned then sustains me
through every sorrow:
it's the believer who keeps looking for proof.

— Anne Michaels, "A Lesson from the Earth"

Happy Mother's Day!

L

Canadian Children's Books You Should Know

If you've ever read my blog before, you know that I have a little addiction issue with books. B has taken to referring to the near-weekly arrival of books from around the world as my "power-ups." (I like the image of myself as a video-game character!)

Today I read two recently published books for children that I think deserve a little more attention than they're currently getting:

• Mom, What Can Be Done? by Jason Leo Bantle and Lori Nunn
• Theo in the Spotlight by Patti McIntosh

Mom, What Can Be Done? is a photographic picturebook that tries, through verse, to introduce environmental concepts like climate change, habitat loss, and environmental responsibility to young readers. The book is set in the Arctic, using perspectives from various arctic animals to convey the themes of critical climate change and environmentalism. There is clear passion and urgency behind the simple presentation.

Theo in the Spotlight is intended for a slightly older, school-aged audience. In this book, Theo, a "soccer-playing kid," turns social activist by raising money and awareness in his school. (The book builds on an earlier volume by the same author, Ollie's Field Journal: A 9/10ths Happy Story from Africa.) Through the first-person narrative, it steps the reader through the process of setting up a benefit concert, evoking the figure of George Harrison for inspiration.

I am particularly pleased with Theo in the Spotlight and wish it had better reach. However, according to Library Thing, neither of these books is carried by Amazon, and neither one came up in a search through Chapters.Indigo.ca. That's a shame, because children need more books about social activism, social justice, and global awareness.

I've spent the last two weeks immersed in Web 2.0 concepts. This post is, I suppose, my tiny attempt to bring some peer-to-peer exposure to these two deserving books. I'm doing so not just because I love books, especially Canadian books, but because I believe in the missions of these particular books.

So, if you have or know children — early readers or Grades 3 to 4 — who might benefit from greater awareness of global issues, presented in an accessible, attractive way, please consider picking up these books. You can learn more about them here:

• Mom
• Theo

Best of luck, little books!

Postscript: On Friday, 14 May, Theo in the Spotlight won two awards at the Alberta Book Awards. Well deserved!

Reiterative

Learning again that too much is not enough. Too much is not enough. Too much is not enough.

Srsly.

L

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday, Bruce! Here's hoping today's festivities mark a year of happiness, fun, and laughter to come.

love,
Leslie
and
Zak

So glad that's over

The site visit was overall a success. And we finished homicide free: a bonus!

Now back to my regularly scheduled chaos.

L

Poetry Isn't Commonplace

But my blog is. From Apostrophes VI: open the grass.

Whatever you have held —
not roses but the air that they exhale that is a breath inside
your breath — that is the hush that rises there, the sound of it the sound
of nakedness and nothing more, every moment of a life
surrendered then, the asking that is in the light, the stance of trees,
not asking but the what of what we are, birds turning at night.

— E.D. Blodgett, "Turning"

Saturday Poetry

Because no-one can mark for twelve hours in a row!

There are three kinds of teachers, you said.
One who teaches by making you afraid,
one who makes you angry.
The third makes you love him.

— Anne Michaels, "The Day of Jack Chambers"

Eleven Things

This evening I gave my Creative Nonfiction students a very difficult exercise: to write two pages of concrete or demonstrable facts about their individual pasts. I generally try the exercises I ask my students to do, but haven't had time to do many of the exercises for this course. Tonight I thought I'd give this one a go. Here are my first eleven facts.

• I was born in the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

• My maternal grandfather was Scottish and was a fur factor for the Hudson's Bay Company.

• My maternal grandmother was French-Canadian and was a nurse in Manitoba.

• I have one sibling, a brother, who is younger than I am.

• I once learned the entire libretto of "The Pirates of Penzance" by memory.

• My first hamster was named Maurice, after one of the Bee Gees. The hamster was female. I didn't listen to the Bee Gees.

• I was once given detention for writing a personalized verse of the camp song "At the Quartermaster's Store" for each member of my Grade 6 class. I ran into trouble for rhyming with Chris with piss.

• My son was born in the Misericordia Hospital, directly across the street from West Edmonton Mall.

• I learned to slam dance on a choir trip to Saskatoon.

• The first CD I owned was Prince's "Purple Rain". I still have it.

• My first radio was a hand-me-down. It was pink. I no longer have it.

You probably think it's easy to make a list like this. Not so! Give it a try -- and then share it with me!

L

Because I want to remember this

Hello hello,

Such a long time since I've written. But time is beginning to resume its regular course again. In the meantime...

"The hand is a much more reliable and durable instrument than anything that has yet been proposed to replace it." — Robert Bringhurst, January 2010

L

Breakthrough!

Suddenly the reason that I've been teaching mass communications for the last three years snapped into focus.

Look out, doctorate. Here I come.

L