The Slow Reading Movement

All readers, but maybe librarians and book reps in particular, are familiar with, and perhaps are even living embodiments of the phrase "so many books, so little time" But maybe we really are just trying to cram too many pages into our busy little brains and losing the real joy of savouring a good book. John Miedema, a library student at the University of Western Ontario, has a very cool blog devoted to the Slow Reading Movement that has some very interesting discussion going on and links to other library news. You can read it here. He's also written a wiki entry on slow reading. He was inspired by Carl Honore's book In Praise of Slow which I highly recommend - an entertaining and thought-provoking look at slow eating, slow driving and slow sex among other activities. Sound advice. Honore's blog has even recently advocated slow blogging. You can read it here. Everyone take a deep, cleansing breath now. And. . . exhale. Feel better? Okay, back to the e-mail.

Take Care of Yourself - Sophie does it again...

I’ve blogged about Sophie Calle before; she’s one of my favourite contemporary artists who never fails to make me laugh – mostly because she does such a good job of laughing at herself, always seriously dissecting her life in interesting yet playful ways. Her latest project and new book is Take Care of Yourself (recently published in an English translation). When her boyfriend broke up with her by e-mail , she printed out the letter, (which you can read at the beginning of the book), and sent it to 107 different women, asking for their comments. The women form a very diverse group embodying a whole slew of different professions ranging from judges to police officers to philosophers, romance writers, criminologists and psychoanalysts. Their reactions are all in keeping with their professions and some of them are just hilarious. A proof-reader points out all of the boyfriend’s awkward sentence structures. A journalist turns the letter into a press release. A headhunter analyzes the letter writer as a potential job applicant and concludes that there are reasons to be concerned about the boyfriend's “instability”. There are screenplays, poems, songs, a children’s story, a bodice-ripping romance tale, a cartoon and even a crossword puzzle. Several hours of DVD material is also included – many actresses such as Jeanne Moreau and Miranda Richardson are filmed reading and commenting on the letter and singers such as Feist are filmed responding to it in song. Opera singers, clowns, puppets and even a parrot are all featured. The parrot is a hoot.
Take Care of Yourself is a fat, shiny, sumptuous, glorious art book and though it’s a bit pricey it’s completely worth the money. What a great xmas gift, either for yourself or anyone you know who has ever had one of those HUH??? letters from an ex. The photographs of all the women reading the letters are beautiful (some stunning interior and exterior settings) and the book design is original and a piece of art in its own right (the endpapers feature the letter in morse code, Braille, shorthand and even as a barcode). I absolutely adore Sophie Calle’s work.
Violette Editions has also recently re-issued Double Game – about Calle's interaction with the American novelist Paul Auster who based a fictional character on her in his novel Leviathan. Some of the art he attributed to this character was taken directly from Calle’s work but some was made up. Calle then proceeded to create and play with these fictional art pieces that Auster had devised for his character and Auster follows up with an invented guidebook on how Calle can make life better in New York City. Lots of intriguing and thought-provoking fun.

Spooky Reads for Halloween

It was dark and stormy night this past Saturday night; the wind howled down the chimney and an (almost) full moon peeked out between rainclouds as they raced across the night sky. Perfect conditions for curling up on the couch with a cup of tea to read a spooky ghost story! My book of choice was The Harrowing: A Ghost Story by Alexandra Sokoloff. This book was released last year in hardcover and was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel as well as an Anthony Award for Best First Novel. It has just been released in paperback, and with Halloween just around the corner, I decided that the timing couldn't be better to finally give this a read.
A group of five loners who stay behind at their college dormitory over the Thanksgiving weekend to avoid going home to various dysfunctional family situations. The residence is an old rambling converted mansion complete with turrets, balconies, gabled rooms and meandering hallways. With a massive storm brewing, and the creepy gothic atmosphere getting to them, the five find themselves together in the lounge. Drunk, and stoned, they find an old Ouija board from 1920 that looks like it has been burned. Filled with artificial courage, they decide to play with the board and end up summoning what they believe is the ghost of a student that died (along with four others) in the attic of the residence years ago. To their horror, they discover that they've actually summoned much more scary- an ancient evil that will not give them any peace until it gets what it wants. While the characters are quite archetypal (the jock, the suicidal loner, the intellectual nerd, the brooding musician, and the promiscuous girl), the book itself is fast paced, creepy, suspenseful, and highly entertaining.

Another good creepy read is James Herbert's The Secret of Crickley Hall, one of my picks from last fall. Herbert is one of the U.K.'s top horror writers and this is his take on a classic ghost story. A couple mourning the loss of one of their children move to an old mansion in the countryside. What seems like an ideal place to regain their bearings, soon turns to a nightmare as it is revealed that the house has a very sinister past. The supernatural occurrences start almost as soon as they arrive and continue to escalate as the book progresses. Herbert is a master at creating a sense of increasing menace and tension. Read this one with the lights on!

A good spooky read for teens (Ages 12+) is Andrew Nance's Daemon Hall, which came out this June. A horror writer named Ian Tremblin, who writes a series of chillers for teens, sponsors a short story writing contest. The five finalists have to spend the night in the rumoured-to-be-haunted Daemon Hall, telling each other their spooky stories by candlelight. Anyone too scared to make it through the night forfeits their chance to win. As the teens are telling their stories, spooky and menacing events start happening in the background and the teens have to decide if the chance to win is worth risking their lives. The different stories are done in various fonts, so it is quite easy for readers to follow along. Some are comic, others downright creepy. My favourite was the entry that retold the classic 'babysitter' story using instant messaging! This book has been nominated as a 2008 YALSA Quick Pick.

Happy Halloween!

A weekend with Nigella

It's nice to be home for the weekend with a real fall nip in the air. Perfect for doing some homecooking. I've been a huge fan of Nigella Lawson ever since I saw her first television cooking show. I love her sense of humour about cooking and she has the same reverence for frozen peas and Marmite that I do. I tested out her latest book Nigella Express this weekend with four recipes - all of which turned out great. Friday night, I made her Cheddar Cheese Risotto - the perfect comfort food! Then it was on to her Cocktail Sausage recipe. Be honest with yourself - have you ever cooked chicken wings at home? Of course not - they are a pain to clean and coat and cook. Nigella goes one better. These sausages are baked in a sticky coating of honey, sesame oil and soy sauce (I threw in some chili flakes for a bit of heat) and they are SO delicious. I used regular beef sausages (you can confidentally substitute with Nigella's recipes) and depending on the time of day that you cook these, you can either mop up the excess sauce with toast, or as I did, boil up some linguine, cut up the sausages, add some green onions and pour the whole gooey mess on top of the pasta. Absolutely yummy. For Sunday brunch, I tried her Orange French Toast (delicious), and then for my Sunday afternoon treat, her Chocolate Pear Pudding. So simple. None of this cutting up and soaking pears in brandy for ten days - you just open up a can of tinned pears, mix up a chocolatey batter, pour over the pears and bake. It takes about ten minutes of prep and thirty minutes of baking while you're reading a book on the sofa. Your reward is a light spongey cake which you can serve with the chocolate sauce that Nigella provides a recipe for, or just some vanilla ice cream. There are lots of other great recipes in here to try. Her Eton Mess - a jumble of strawberries and whipped cream - and her Pea and Pesto Soup, and Potato and Mushroom Gratin all have my tastebuds watering (the photographs in this book are wonderful). Rosalyn is the real chef and baker of our group, but if you are the type of "cook" that wants quick, easy recipes that don't require a lot of ingredients, then Nigella is definately for you. Plus, how can you resist a celebrity chef who was once a Booker judge?

Dewey Diva Picks: Our links now available on the righthand side

Apologies if you've been trying to access our book lists on our website and are getting stalled or out-of-date links. To cut a long, technical story short, our website has a separate host and it's a bit complicated to make changes on it. I'm currently working on a way to post a PDF of all of our lists that can be downloaded and printed off when needed, or just opened up if you want a quick peek. I'll blog about it when it's available.

In the meantime, you'll see a new category on the righthand sidebar of this blog. Many of us have our lists posted on our individual publishers' websites and I've added links to those pages which will contain our latest picks and also some of our archived picks from past seasons (great if you are looking for bookclub suggestions among last year's books, as they may well be in paperback by now).

Just a note to our international and American readers - the isbn and publisher information listed is for Canadian distribution. However, many of our favourite books have been published worldwide, albeit by other publishers, so just check your local library or bookstore under the title and author. Many independent bookstores have terrific special order services and can probably obtain any of these books for you, so check out your neighbourhood indy.

Hope you find some good suggestions either for your own reading pleasure or that of your library patrons or bookstore customers. Hey, Xmas is just around the corner too...

By way of introduction: ah, sweet nostalgia...

Due to a series of events (not important here) I came into the possession of a number of my old books that I'd stored many years ago and had forgotten about. Upon opening the dusty boxes many memories came flooding back, mostly good, all vivid. This instant personal library situated my thoughts in a particular stage in my life. It yielded a warm and chilly feeling at the same time. Warm, because I flashed back to that idealistic era of university and that first job (as a bookseller). Chilly, because I was immediately afraid of what I'd find upon closer scrutiny. I'm sure I'm not alone in discovering that my taste in movies, TV, music and, yes, books from that time in my life has not, shall we say, always "stood the test of time". And that was my predicament: do I keep all these biographical documents (my biography) or do I dispense with them en masse sight unseen? Afterall, it had been decades since I'd had any contact with these items. I could continue my life and never give them a second thought.

I did no dispensing. I began opening the boxes and taking out every volume.

Among the collection was a number of titles by the late SF novelist, Philip K. Dick. There were, maybe, twenty-five or thirty books made up of various editions (several titles from three or four different publishers with different covers). I began to smile and knew that I was about to begin a journey through the past. But what if those tomes that I'd deemed to be so brilliant all those many years ago are, in reality, so painfully, embarrassingly sophomoric? Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

OK, so let's cut to the chase...

I've begun my ongoing reacquaintance with Dick's We Can Build You.

Here's a bit of context: I was never a big fan of Science Fiction and Fantasy because I always found that technology (in the case of SciFi) or archaic customs (in the case of Fantasy) overpowered the human being (read: character). But Philip K. Dick was different. Technology is always incidental to the story, not the end all, be all. For Philip K. Dick, how the "little guy" confronted the establishment (often represented by technology) and refused to be subjugated or destroyed by it made a much more compelling story than a bunch of robots fighting. And, to me, that's why his books still work so brilliantly today. Sure, some of the science Dick envisioned in his novels seems quaintly naive now but the science plays such a small roll that it does not often intrude on all of his fascinating stories.

In We Can Build You, the main character, Louis Rosen, recounts the story of how his company's (MASA ASSOCIATES - Multiplex Acoustical Systems of America) intention to move out of the making of home electronic organs and spinets into the making of simulacra (robots that look like and pass for human beings) of actual historical figures goes horribly wrong because of greed and the inability of the characters to fully divine the scope and significance of their decisions. The story is populated with many compelling characters, including a manic depressive, anorexic young woman (this book was written in the late 1960's/early 1970's!) who is the creative source of these simulacra and a scarey, amoral real estate mogul who sees a way to get even wealthier by getting a hold of these "fake" people. The story begins (as all Dick novels do) in a typical day-to-day environment but slowly descends into a nightmarish world (not unlike Kafka) of fear, helplessness, mystery, paranoia and doom. But our "little" hero doesn't accept it and fights back. If it sounds like the product of a mind nurtured by the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Kennedy/King Assassinations, Watergate, Vietnam, Kent State, the My Lai Massacre, the Cold War (and possibly some mind altering substances) you'd be right but the ride is lots of fun and, in the end, thought-provoking. There are definitely several strong connections with the world today (though the story is set in 1982) and will leave the reader impressed by just how "spot on" Dick was despite the drugs.

I'll be popping in from time to time, adding more reviews of Philip K. Dick novels as I make way through all those boxes. If you're curious about his work you could try just about any novel on the shelf and enjoy his unbridled imagination. His novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was made into the movie Bladerunner (a fine movie but missing an important plot line that adds much more depth to the novel), his short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale was made into the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Total Recall, and most recently his novel, A Scanner Darkly was adapted into the Richard Linklater rotoscoped (the process that transforms conventional film footage into cartoon/animation to create an other-worldly effect) movie of the same name.

In conclusion, let me say my "chilly" fears were unfounded. I am enjoying every moment I'm spending with my old friend. But I'm sure you figured that out already.

Oh, and may I suggest you listen to some Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Chambers Brothers, Moby Grape, Quicksilver Messenger Service or Jimi Hendrix while you're reading him. That's what he was listening to when he wrote these books all those decades ago.

Beautiful Libraries - Westmount Public Library

In our ongoing homage to the beautiful libraries we visit, here are a few pics from the interior of the Westmount Public Library in Montreal. It was built in 1897 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and is one of the most stunning libraries that we get to talk in. The decor is very much indebted to the arts and crafts movement - huge windows, lots of natural light, gorgeous ceilings. We could happily move in permanently! A history timeline can be found here on their website.

On the road, in which we invent a new verb...

. . . Galley-vanting: the art of finding the perfect place (a cafe, a park bench with a view, a library) to read a few chapters of the advance readers' galley of a yet-unpublished book, that is inevitably residing in a book rep's bag.

A few of us are just back from a week long road trip to Kingston, Montreal and Ottawa and lots of fun it was. Thanks to all the host libraries and enthusiastic librarians and school teachers who listened to us prattle on about the books we love. Montreal is of course, the perfect city to practice the art of galley-vanting as it is a walker's paradise. Galley-vanting is of course the perfect way to explore a city - the idea is only to read a few chapters at any one place and then move on and if you happen to pass a few enticing shoe/clothing/bookshops along the way, well, one must do what one must do. You can of course substitute a real book for a galley and so if you are planning a trip to Montreal, I offer two walking tours that you might like to try if you have a few hours to kill. Montreal is of course built on Mount Royal so if you are visiting for at least two days, start with my horizontal tour first as a warm-up and then proceed to the vertical one.

Horizontal tour: Start on Ste. Catherine, the city's main shopping street, a little bit east of University and first pop into La Maison Simons. This is a Dewey favourite for buying trendy, stylish work clothes with a bit of French flair at very reasonable prices. Their sweaters in particular are beautifully designed and unique. They also have great coats, lingerie, tights, and even bedding. Then head west. Depending on your time, you could go as far as Greene Ave, another lovely shopping street that includes two great bookshops, Babar en Ville, a delightful, well-stocked children's bookstore with knowledgeable staff, and Nicholas Hoare which has branches in Ottawa and Toronto, but their Greene St. store is one of their nicest. Great classical and jazz CD selection as well. Head up Greene to Sherbrooke and then start walking east. You'll pass the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts which is always worth a stop. They also have a terrific bookstore/giftstore with lots of one-of-a-kind items and they often feature the work of Quebec artists. Continue along and you'll reach the McGill University Campus - I like to lie on the lawn and read while pretending I'm an undergraduate again (and I always wanted to go to McGill). The university bookstore is located on the corner at Sherbrooke and McTavish and has a decent selection of books. You can also pop into Paragraphe, a trade bookstore/cafe on the corner of Sherbrooke and University. By now you are probably famished and looking for a meal. If you want to practice your less than perfect French (and don't want the waiters to automatically answer you back in English), then head east to either St. Laurent and head north up to Prince Arthur, or a few blocks further east to St. Denis and head south. Both streets offer a variety of restaurants and cafes. You'll also pass the campus of UQAM, one of the French universities in the city - their new buildings are quite stunning and modern.

Vertical tour: Have your breakfast in Old Montreal - lots of great cafes with wonderful coffees and pastries and you'll need your calories today. Browse the delightful old streets and pop into Librairie Raffin, an English and French bookstore at 3 rue de la Commune that has a very ecclectic selection and some great children's books as well. Also worth a stop is Librissime - a luxury bookstore that caters to custom made collections but is also a wonderful shop to browse and dream in. I love their $20,000 old vintage trunks filled with collections of art books. Then start heading north and uphill (zig-zagging is best). At the corner of Peel and Avenue des Pins you'll find yourself at the foot of Parc Mont-Royal and follow the paths and the steps to the big staircase that will lead you to the top of the mountain and this terrific view of the city and the St. Lawrence river.

Depending on how much time you have, you can spend hours walking all over the mountain - lots of great reading spots. Then when you come down, walk east along Avenue des Pins until St. Laurent and head south to Prince Arthur for a great meal or coffee. Along the way, you'll pass Librairie Gallimard, a French language bookstore connected to the publisher. At the east end of Prince Arthur you'll encounter St. Louis square - enjoy the architecture and the people watching. If you're still not tired, a few more blocks east and you'll end up at Parc Lafontaine - again, another great reading spot in the city.

The Art of Book Jackets

If you work in the book business, sooner or later you'll fall in love with a book cover as a piece of art and want to frame it. I have a colleague who papered his powder room with Vintage U.K. covers (don't worry, no books were destroyed in the process; reps get extra covers in their selling kits) and a librarian friend of mine frames beautiful and interesting catalogue covers and hangs them in her kitchen and bathroom. With shadowboxes readily available at IKEA and other home furnishing outlets, you can also frame actual books, particularly mass market paperbacks. I'm enthralled with this new book out from Penguin which will give you lots of great ideas. Seven Hundred Penguins celebrates some of the publishers' best book covers of the twentieth century and it's a beautiful, inspiring art book.
I particularly love the green Penguin crime covers of the 1960s, many of them designed by Romek Marber. I have four Dorothy Sayers titles framed in my living room - a white stick figure lies dead against a graphic black and green background of stark geometric design or photomontage. They look terrific in black frames with a white matting. You could have a lot of fun roaming your neighbourhood's used bookstores looking for interesting groupings. Pick your favourite author and collect all their books in a series, or pick just a favourite book, such as Wuthering Heights or Lolita and collect different historical cover treatments. You could collect books that just had interesting type on their covers or used the same font, or all contained a key word in their titles. Or collect by designer. You could hunt for certain images, say books with wine bottles on their covers for a kitchen or dining room, or books with typewriters on them for your study, or books with various body parts for hanging in the bathroom. After all, as Anthony Powell coined, books really DO furnish a room.

Beautiful Libraries - Amsterdam and Uxbridge

I'm always visiting libraries either for work or when I'm on holiday, and I do judge a city or town somewhat by their libraries - not only their collections and displays, but also their architecture and location. There's nothing I love more than a beautifully designed and user-friendly space that becomes the true heart of a community. I was recently in Amsterdam and popped into their central library for a few hours as it was raining cats and dogs outside and I could think of nothing I wanted more than to read some international newspapers, check my e-mail and have a cup of coffee, homemade soup and some delicious apple cake in their cafe on the seventh floor (recommended highly by my guide book to the city). This has to be one of the most gorgeous libraries I've ever been in. This is the outside and then the view of the city from the cafe. Wouldn't you want to spend hours here?

The stacks were beautiful as well. The shelves seemed to be made of a thick, white, slightly translucent plastic and they were lighted with white fairy lights so it seemed as if they were glowing. The underside of the escalators located in the middle of the building were also made fo this same material. The shelving end units were cabinets with various artifacts on display, so the whole effect was of being in an art museum or high end department store - yet completely devoted to books. The floor containing DVDs and CDs had very curvy, custom made white shelves that snaked around the floor. And the whole building was drenched with natural light. It was all very slick and modern but inviting at the same time. Definately stop in if you are visiting Amsterdam; it's not far from the Central Train Station and is a great place to have a cheap and hearty meal.

Small towns also have charming libraries. The Deweys were recently doing a presentation in Uxbridge, Ontario and I wish I'd brought my camera. Their library was constructed in 1887 and was originally a school. It has a lovely and elegant war memorial in front of it and inside, murals devoted to L.M. Montgomery and Glenn Gould who had ties to the town. You can see a photo of it here. (Click on the first photo in the left-hand corner).

and the Nobel goes to....

Doris Lessing - the oldest writer to win it, and only the 11th woman so congrats to her on both counts. I've only read her most famous book, The Golden Notebook, back in university when I was trying to read all the great feminist works, (it made a great companion piece to Simone de Beauvoir's The Mandarins - still one of my favourite novels). I still remember being struck by Lessing's narrative complexity and her ingenuity in creating all these competing stories contained in different coloured notebooks. And in a strange bit of serendipity, I received my sample of Potter Style's latest little stationery offering today. It's a four pack of tiny travel notebooks with shiny faux snakeskin covers, inspired by classic steamer trunks. I'm crazy about them, especially since in the back of each one is a world time zone map and US/UK/Europe clothing and shoe size charts. Perfect for slipping in a purse or back pocket, or, if The Golden Notebook inspires you, for jotting ideas for your own novel.


Speaking of the Nobel, it would be a great reading adventure to tackle at least one book by every Nobel Laureate (I've read 33 of them). You can find the complete list here.

Journeys of a Lifetime...

You can start your Xmas list early - National Geographic has just published a wonderful book for dreamers and travel buffs alike. Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 of the World's Greatest Trips, organizes its adventures by mode of travel. There are chapters on trips by water, by road, by rail, by foot and by air. Also included are culture adventures, action-adventure trips, a chapter entitled "In Gourmet Heaven", and pilgrimages for literary and history buffs. There are also lots of fun sidebars containing lists such as "The Top 10 Steam Train Trips", "The Top 10 Shopping Streets" or the "Top 10 Trolley Rides" (Toronto's 501 Queen Streetcar comes out on top, three spots ahead of San Francisco which is a bit puzzling, but hey, I never knew it was one of the longest streetcar routes in North America. I obviously have to spend more time exploring my own backyard).

It's quite fun to check off those trips one has already done and plan/dream for the future. Having just returned from a combined holiday of two of these journeys - a fantastic river boat cruise down the Rhine, Main and Danube rivers, I can vouch for it being a truly life-affirming and wonderful vacation. Lots of literary hotspots as well - a stop in Mainz where the Gutenburg Museum is, statues of Goethe and Schiller, and a literary tribute to Graham Greene's The Third Man, with a turn on Vienna's famous giant Ferris Wheel. Sorry if you have the zither music in your head now. Also in Vienna, I was able to knock off another of these 500 must-do experiences by making one of their "Top 10 Food Pilgrimages" to the Hotel Sacher to savour the famous sachertorte - a delicious chocolate cake with a tiny ribbon of apricot in the middle. It was so divine, I just had to take a photo!

As if I didn't already love Jonathan Coe enough. . .

. . . he writes this great article about his love affair with Virago Modern classics (which I collect, especially out of print Viragos). His new novel, The Rain Before It Falls (out in the spring in North America), pays tribute to one particular Virago author, Rosamond Lehmann, but I have also discovered numerous amazing writers brought back into print by this publisher. To his list of Lehmann, Dorothy Richardson, FM Mayor and May Sinclair, I'd add Rebecca West, Vera Brittain (her novels as well as her groundbreaking autobiography, A Testament of Youth), Rose Macaulay, Storm Jameson, and especially Elizabeth Taylor. Being a bit of a Bronte buff, Virago was responsible for my reading May Sinclair's The Three Sisters (which transports the Bronte story to the 1910s and has quite a few riffs on Bronte lore - the hero's name is Rowcliffe for example) and Rachel Ferguson's The Brontes Went to Woolworths, a wonderful comic novel about three fatherless sisters who create a imaginative fantasy world in which to cope. Though these last two are out of print again, you can still find copies in libraries and used bookstores. Virago also publishes new books by women writers; I recently read Michele Roberts' terrific memoir Paper Houses about her life as a feminist and a writer while moving from flat to flat in 1970s London. Incidentally, Virago also published her novel, The Mistressclass which pays tribute to Charlotte Bronte's Villette.

This is quite possibly the first time a male (famous writer or not) has ever admitted to being an avid reader of Viragos. Maybe it's the start of a new trend. In the new movie, The Jane Austen Bookclub (quite enjoyable in its way), based on Karen Jay Fowler's novel, three male characters actually end up reading Persuasion.

The Fabulous Mo Willems Strikes Again!

Fans of Mo Willems should be very happy this fall, with three new books being published.

The first is Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity, the much-anticipated sequel to the Caldecott Honor-winning book Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale. Trixie is now in Pre-K and is bringing her beloved one-of-a-kind Knuffle Bunny to class to show him off. When she gets there she finds that another girl in her class -Sonja- has THE EXACT SAME BUNNY. Bickering ensues, including a hilarious back and forth between the two girls that finally lays to rest the 'how to pronounce Knuffle' debate. For the record, Trixie pronounces it 'Kuh-nuffle'. The bunnies are confiscated and a mix-up at the end of the day results in a hilarious 2:30 a.m. rendezvous for an 'exchange of the bunnies'.

Next are the two new installments in the 'Elephant and Piggie' series of easy

readers, There is a Bird on Your Head! and I am Invited to a Party! . Poor Gerald! In 'There is a Bird On Your Head', first one bird lands on his head, then another. To make matters worse, the two birds are in love and are soon joined by one nest and three eggs. What to do? In 'I am Invited to a Party', Piggie receives her first party invitation and invites friend Gerald along too. But the invitation doesn't specify what type of party it is, so party expert Gerald and increasingly skeptical Piggie don various outfits so they are ready for any situation!

With large font, simple illustrations, colour-coded text bubbles, word repetition and hilarious situations, these books will be a hit with beginning readers. And of course, Pigeon makes an appearance on the endpapers of each book.

Speaking of the Pigeon, you might have heard that there is a new Pigeon book coming next April. The title so far is simply 'The Pigeon Wants a...'. The object of Pigeon's affection is a secret, which will be revealed to all on April 1st, 2008- Pigeon's birthday.

For those who can't get enough of Mo, check out the website http://www.pigeonpresents.com/. This fun interactive site has a hot dog dress up game, a colouring page-of-the-month, downloadable activity sheets, information on the books and characters, teacher's guides and much more!

A Passion for Baking

A Passion for Baking is a new cookbook from Montreal author Marcy Goldman which I highly recommend. Cookbook fans will recognize from her Julia Child Award-nominated book A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking as well as her popular website, http://www.betterbaking.com/. When this book appeared in a catalogue, my immediate response was 'why yes, I do have a passion for baking', followed shortly after by 'I MUST get a copy of this book as soon as possible'. Try as I might to give up carbs, I can't go more than a few weeks without getting itchy to fire up the old oven and cover my kitchen with flour.

Make sure you take the time to read the first section of the book, which is packed with Goldman's advice on ingredients and equipment. Goldman shares her trick of using shredded butter in recipes that call for softened butter, which is perfect for bakers (like me) who always forget to take the butter out of the refrigerator in advance. I've already used her shortcut to room temperature eggs and have a new wish list of baking tools and bakeware.

Next comes the over 200 recipes accompanied by 160 colour photos. There are chapters dedicated to breads, scones, muffins, cookies, squares, cakes, pies, a chapter on cooking with whole grains, and a chapter of baked goods for cooks in a hurry. I started flagging recipes to try and had to stop as I found myself marking every page! I have already tried the Blueberry-Blackberry Honey Butter-Glazed Scones and the Lemon-Yogurt-Poppy Seed Muffin recipes, which both produced excellent results.

My birthday is coming up in the next few weeks, and I've decided to make one of the cakes in this book for my family. The Italian Cream Wedding cake and the Fallen Souffle Chocolate Torte were contenders, but I've decided on 'La Diva Chocolate Cake'. Aside from the name, what convinced me that this would be the perfect cake for a chocolate lover like myself is that the cake is topped with TWO ganaches (milk chocolate & dark chocolate) and leftovers can be frozen for two to three months. Perfect for unexpected dinner guests (or late night chocolate emergencies)!

Other recipes that are on the 'need to make soon' list are 'The Skinny Jeans Cookie' (for after the birthday cake), and the Cheesecake Truffle Bombs (frozen cheesecake tidbits coated in chocolate) which would be perfect for a potluck I'm going to next month. I usually make biscotti as holiday gifts for people in my office, and now I have ten delicious-sounding new recipes to try.
This cookbook make a perfect gift for anyone who loves to bake. I know I'm going to be baking from these recipes for years to come!

Two Haunting Diaries. . .

This blog may be a bit quiet over the next two weeks - I'm heading to Europe for a vacation. First stop is Amsterdam. I've never been and one of the places I'll be heading to is the Anne Frank Museum. In preparation, I recently re-read her diaries which I hadn't looked at since I was a kid (and I'm fairly sure I read the censored version back then). It's an odd but satisfying experience to come back to a work after decades; I was struck anew by the maturity of Anne's voice and her continual optomism and complete conviction that she would be someday be a writer. I'll also be making a literary pilgrimage to 6 Gabriel Metsustraat, to look at the former home of Etty Hillesum. Her diaries and letters were reprinted a few years ago by one of my favourite publishers - Persephone Books - as An Interuupted Life: The Diaries And Letters of Etty Hillesum 1941-43. Etty was 27 when the diary begins, and she's almost a grown up version of Anne Frank. Reading the two back to back was uncanny at times. They both shared similar dreams of becoming a writer, were preoccupied with exploring their sexuality, the role of women in their societies, and questioning personal ideas of God, and both maintained an unflagging confidence in the essential goodness of humanity, even in the extraordinarily desperate times they were living in. Etty ended up working in Westerbork, the Dutch interim camp where the Jews (including the Frank family) were temporarily kept before being sent to the concentration camps, and her letters describing the conditions are strikingly powerful. She died in Auschwitz in November, 1943. Her writing is mesmerizing and not just as an historical record. This is from the opening entry:

"So many inhibitions, so much fear of letting go, of allowing things to pour out of me, and yet that is what I must do if I am ever to give my life a reasonable and satisfactory purpose. It is like the final, liberating scream that always sticks bashfully in your throat when you make love. I am accomplished in bed, just about seasoned enough I should think to be counted among the better lovers, and love does indeed suit me to perfection, and yet it remains a mere trifle, set apart from what is truly essential, and deep inside me something is still locked away. " Quite a beginning isn't it?

Later on near the end of her diary, she writes: "I have the feeling that my life is not yet finished, that it is not yet a rounded whole. A book, and what a book, in which I have got stuck half-way. I would so much like to read on." I started crying when I read that sentence.

If you are not familiar with Persephone Books, they are perhaps the most beautifully packaged imprint in the world and I've yet to read one of their titles that I didn't enjoy. All their books are trade paper, with dust jackets in a uniform silvery grey with a small cream coloured label for the title and author. The paper is also a beautiful and weighty creamy white and feels wonderful to touch. But it's really their endpapers that are stunning as they are always a reproduction of a fabric that was either from the period in which the book was written or set in. A bookmark with the design is included with each book. For Etty's diaries, Persephone chose a Bauhaus fabric manufactured by a Dutch company and designed by Otti Berger who also died in Auschwitz. Though it was no doubt created for a very different purpose, its evocation of barbed wire gives me the chills.

A Brief Encounter with Coward

Hooray - a new Noel Coward play, written in 1921 and never performed has been found by a pair of scholars looking through a British Library archive. You can read more about it here. Coward is one of my favourite playwrights and I'm even a member of the Noel Coward Society although I don't do much beyond reading the newsletters as alas, most of their events either take place in London or New York. I'm hoping in my lifetime to actually attend a performance of every single one of his plays, which is probably impossible since so many are rarely revived. Still, I'm up to 12 and of course I've seen popular ones like Hay Fever and Private Lives, in many different productions. I never tire of him. This November will see the publication of the The Letters of Noel Coward and I'm already giddy with anticipation. Soulpepper is also mounting a production of Blithe Spirit later this fall, directed by Morris Panych and featuring a terrific cast including Fiona Reid, Brenda Robins and Nancy Palk. Definately catch this if you can.

I was so excited about this "new" Coward play, I spent last night watching one of my favourite movies - Brief Encounter - with its fabulous Rachmaninov score and beautifully restored by Criterion. Train stations have never been the same since. I like a themed double-bill, so I then stuck Humouresque into my DVD player. Joan Crawford falls for a younger man, played by John Garfield who is obsessed with his career as a violinist. A young Isaac Stern did the actual playing of yet another fabulous classical score that includes pieces from Carmen and Tristan and Isolde (you can guess this film doesn't end happily). You could do worse on a Friday night - two films and two concerts in one!

A Master Class for Creative Writing

There are endless debates about whether or not good writing can be "taught" and numerous creative writing programmes available where you can plonk down your money and take your chances. Many fine writers have graduated from these courses and gone on to publication and fame. However, a lot of the advice usually boils down to two basic things: read an awful lot and then just get down to the actual work and discipline of writing itself. So, for any aspiring writers out there here's a great and free way to get started.
I have long been a fan of Susan Hill ever since I read her WWI novel, Strange Meeting. Recently she's turned to crime writing and I'm anxiously awaiting the next installment of her Simon Serrailler series, the last of which was Risk of Darkness. This fall, Vintage Classics is also bringing out a new edition of her novel The Woman in Black. But in addition to writing, Hill is also the publisher of the small press Long Barn Books and is married to Shakespearean scholar Stanley Wells, so she knows a heck of a lot about the book business in all its various permutations. She used to publish a wonderful little literary journal/magazine called Books and Company, which I used to subscribe to and still miss. It was filled with wonderful articles about writers and the books they loved - many often sadly neglected. Hill has two blogs - one for Long Barn Books (which is wonderfully candid and informative on the realities of publishing, particularly for small presses) and her own writer's blog, where she has recently started an online creative writing course. She will periodically set certain exercises to challenge and improve both the reading and writing mind and a forum for discussion is shortly to be installed. Though the "course" has already started, it hasn't progressed too far yet, so there's plenty of time to either catch up (just read back through her archive for the assignments) or dive in with the most recent task. And unlike the fictional teacher in Douglas Coupland's The Gum Thief, I very much doubt that Hill will be asking students to write a description of a piece of toast being buttered - from the toast's point of view. Her blogs are well worth a regular read, even if you aren't interested in participating in the creative writing - she muses often on the beauties of the English countryside around her home and is always recommending interesting books that she's read.

But who's in charge of the dusting?

Bookninja has linked to this post on a blog called Curious Expeditions. It features dozens of photographs of some of the most beautiful libraries in the world - churches to the sacred religion of bibliomania. Take a look and be prepared to gasp. Or be really envious.

Coupland and Coetzee

I never thought I'd ever couple these two authors in the same sentence but the latest new novels by Douglas Coupland and Nobel prizewinner J.M. Coetzee are oddly complimentary. Thematically, both books feature men looking retrospectively at all the failures in their lives and forming connections with a woman partially through their writing. Structurally both play loose with narrative forms but in ways that are not only clever and entertaining, but also readable.
Coupland's The Gum Thief (out in Canada at the end of the month) features a group of characters who work at a Staples office supplies depot. Roger is a washed-up man in his forties who is also writing a novel called Glove Pond (an updated riff on Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), which he leaves around for Bethany, a depressed Goth-dressed co-worker, to read and comment on. Or does he? Apart from the comic digs at the inanities that accompany mindnumbingly boring retail jobs, this novel also hilariously skewers creative writing courses. One of the assignments is to write a description of a slice of toast being buttered - from the toast's point of view. Don't drink hot tea while reading the various responses to this exercise. It's not a pretty sight when it splutters out of your mouth and all over your white (of course it would be white) t-shirt. Enormous fun!

Coetzee's A Diary of a Bad Year (available in Canada in October) is a more sober reflection on life by a man (who may or may not be Coetzee himself) nicknamed SC (Senior Citizen) by Anya, the young woman he has hired as his typist. The man is a famous writer commissioned by a German publisher to write a series of essays on the state of the world for a collection called Strong Opinions. As Anya types them up, she discusses the wide-ranging topics with her boyfriend Alan, who is suspicious of the novelist's ulterior motives regarding Anya. This is a bit of a two-for-one novel, in that you get all of the essays on the top half of the pages, and then the writer's story below. Later on Anya becomes another narrator and the page is split into three. Thus I found my reading patterns constantly changing throughout the novel which is part of the point. Kudos to the typesetter! I began the first few chapters reading each page fully, encouraged by the fact that each portion of "narrative" always contained complete sentences. Then the sentences started running over to the next page, so I would read the top narrative right through to the end of the chapter and then turn back to the beginning and start the second narrative. And then the sentences ran through into the next chapter. This may sound annoying, but it really did not irritate me; it was quite fun. And of course the narratives intersect and speak to each other. Coetzee is always challenging, but worth the effort. Now if only his protogonists could find women their own age. . .

2007 Booker shortlist

Just announced, the six books that made it to the final shortlist are:

Darkmans by Nicola Barker
The Gathering by Anne Enright
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

Animal’s People by Indra Sinha

I'm crossing my fingers for Mister Pip although I've read good things about Darkmans and I've previously enjoyed Anne Enright's fiction, so I'll definately pick up The Gathering. I'm surprised to see McEwan on the shortlist and will be rather annoyed if he wins, only because while I enjoyed On Chesil Beach, it's a much slighter effort than either Atonement or Saturday - two books that really did deserve to win the Booker. The winner is announced on October 16th.

A Dance to the Music of Time

Anthony Powell's magnificent series of books known as A Dance to the Music of Time (available in either 12 volumes or in 4 omnibuses under Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter) is one of my all-time favourite works of literature. Chronicling the lives of four schoolboys at the end of the First World War, through the partying and politics of the 1920s and 30s, their participation in WWII and ending in the 1960s, this brilliant work could be characterized almost as a sequel to Proust's similarly ambitious In Search of Lost Time, if Proust had jumped onto a ferry, crossed the Channel and taken up British citizenship. There's even a lovely tribute to Proust in one of the later volumes and how can you resist a series that includes the aptly titled Books Do Furnish a Room? Powell examines and skewers the lives, loves and superficialities of England's ruling classes through the eyes of two outsiders - the detached, observing narrator, Nicholas Jenkins, who like Waugh's Charles Ryder in Brideshead Revisited, is alternatively intrigued and repulsed by what he sees, and Kenneth Widmerpool, the pudgy, awkward misfit, who is constantly the butt of everyone's derision but later gets his revenge. Widmerpool is quite simply one of the most wonderfully complex and original fictional characters ever created. A Dance to the Music of Time is a big time committment but a completely absorbing and rewarding one. However, if you only have eight hours at your disposal, the DVD of the 1997 British mini-series is finally out! This is a very good adaptation with abundant opportunites for some of Britian's greatest actors to play up to their characters' eccentricities with typical aplomb. The cast is fabulous - John Gielgud, Alan Bennett, Miranda Richardson (as a terrific vamp), the very fetching James Purefoy as Nicholas and one of my favourite British actors - Simon Russell Beale - in the role of Widmerpool, a part he does brilliantly. Beautiful costumes, Oxford and stately home scenery and Noel Coward's Twentieth Century Blues - one of my favourite songs - wafting in the background; there's just nothing better than to escape into this world after a stressful day at work.

School Daze. . .

Ah, the first day back at school. Doesn't it make you want to go out and buy some pencil crayons and a binder? If you are feeling nostalgic for compulsory afternoon naptimes, getting your first high school locker, or sitting under a tree on a beautiful campus with a great book, then the Deweys empathize. Here's a list of our favourite books set in schools.

Eleanor: Kindness is Cooler, Mrs Ruler by Margery Cuyler. I just love this picture book as it takes a typical class situation- classroom management issues – of course! where the kids could be jumping off the walls, or, better yet, put that energy to good use with a surprising great result fostered by a creative teacher!! This is ideal for any day at school – first , 100th, or last! And if you are a teacher , check out SimonSaysTEACH.com for downloadable classroom activities! Another great book for a slightly older crowd would be No Talking by Andrew Clements. This is vintage Clements – reminiscent of Frindle. This book also reflects kindness as a theme but in a grade 5 class, with girls pitted against the boys, to see which team can say the fewest words. I won’t reveal the twist at the end! It's also a great book to listen to as well as read.

Lahring: Mean Boy by Lynn Coady is a darkly funny, pitch-perfect dissection of a dysfunctional university English department (if that’s not redundant), exposing the politics, oversized egos, shifting allegiances and gradual disillusionment of previously starry-eyed undergraduates. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli captures the essence of high school and the fluidity of who and what are in and out and how the mainstream deals with eccentricity without resorting to Mean Girls superficialities. And How to Get Suspended and Influence People by Adam Selzer contains a creative, smart-mouthed kid (more fun to read about than parent) who takes on the school system by producing La Dolce Pubert, a sex education film in the manner of Fellini. Entertaining rather than edifying.

Maylin: When I was a kid, I devoured Enid Blyton's books and in particular, I loved her school series' (Malory Towers and St. Clare) where in each book her characters would move up a grade (or form), a narrative progression that I think is one of the factors in the success of Harry Potter. But my favourite was the Naughtiest Girl in the School series. It made me really want to go to an all-girls boarding school. And then I did (though I didn't board) and there was another illusion shattered. For a great high school read, one of my favourite books is Tobias Wolff's Old School. This is set in a boy's prep school in 1960, where the students compete through essay writing, to meet and spend time with their literary heroes. Robert Frost and Ayn Rand both visit the school, but it's the anticipation of Ernest Hemingway that pushes one boy too far. The writing is beautiful, and how refreshing to read about teenage boys who are passionate about literature. I could blog endlessly (and may well do so) about all the humourous campus novels in which professors endlessly bonk their graduate students, but I'm recommending Stoner by John Williams precisely because it breaks that comic mold. Instead this is a portrait of a quiet, studious man who teaches English Literature in an agarian university and falls prey to faculty politics and an unhappy home life. Okay, he too gets involved with a graduate student, but the love affair is poignant and tragic. This is a terrific novel that really explores the solitude of the academic life.

Susan: my recommendation is Teacher Man by Frank McCourt. My sister is a teacher and I gave her a copy for a birthday present a couple of years ago. She really loved it. It’s a memoir which reflects on McCourt’s teaching experiences in New York high schools and colleges.

Anne: When you feel that crispness in the air and see the subtle change in the colour of the leaves, that going back to school feeling returns once more. Who can forget the smell of pink pearl erasers and new pencils? School also reminds me of a simpler time. When I say simpler, it does not mean that people had easier lives. In some ways they were very hard indeed. I am thinking of the values and the attitudes; my favourite books about school reflect that as well as the fact that I have lived in the Canadian prairies a good portion of my life.
Children of My Heart by Gabrielle Roy is the story of a young teacher, just eighteen years old, who was sent to a small, poor town on the prairies to teach. The time is the 1930’s and many of the families were struggling immigrants trying to cope with a new country and the strange ways of the community around them. In this rather lonely setting, the passionate, impressionable teacher finds the challenges and attitudes frustrating and she becomes strangely attracted to one of her older male students. It is a wonderfully written book that reflects Roy’s own memories of living on the prairies as a young woman.

Why Shoot the Teacher by Max Braithwaite is also set in an isolated country school in Saskatchewan, during the Depression. The poverty is everywhere and this young teacher has to rely on the charity of the community for his food, heat and lodgings. The kids he taught were rough and tumble and the townsfolk tough and hardened. Because Max is writing from his own experiences, the story he tells is humourous, eye-opening and very entertaining. I felt I was in that drafty classroom smelling the wet wool and chalk.

I used to think the Miss Read books about teaching and living in the fictitious towns of Thrush Green and Fairacre in the Cotswold’s in England in the 40’s and 50’s were for little old ladies. A friend introduced me to these wonderful, warm stories of village life and the single woman, who as the head teacher, was at the center of village activity in these small farming communities. I have read all the 55 plus books that she has written and in fact own them all. They are wonderful books that you can pick up in moments when you just want a quiet read. The action is set around daily living and the personalities of the community and the children in the school house. You feel like they are neighbours once you get hooked. The muddy boots in the cloakroom, school lunches, the first snow flakes, Christmas parties and jumble sales. Treat yourself.

Maureen: Bilgewater by Jane Gardam. I am a sucker for the coming of age novel. This stands out as one of my favourites. Bilgewater (Marigold-you decide which is worse) is a young girl growing up in a boy's private school, facing first love and relying on poor female role models. When I first met my husband-to-be, we traded titles back and forth of our personal best reads. Bilgewater is now on his list. A very sensible man. The Pride of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark. I am still not sure which I like best, the book or the movie. Certainly, once seen in film, Maggie Smith becomes Jean Brodie for the reader. Maggie Smith inhabits the role so completely and perfectly. I find both the novel and the film rather uncomfortable. All of us have had teachers that have formed us in some way. Is Miss Brodie dangerous? Vulnerable? My discomfort is, as yet, undefined. Matilda by Roald Dahl. Dahl knew how to describe a child's reality. Mrs. Trunchbull is a particularly evil principal and her demise is delicious. Remember standing with your hands on top of your head through recess? Perhaps students aren't routinely whirled around a classroom by the roots of their hair. But to a persecuted child in limited control of their environment, that is WHAT SCHOOL FELT LIKE.

A Dewey Pick - Handcarts

Everytime we do a presentation, people always gawk with amazement at our hand carts and how many heavily loaded boxes we can wheel in, seemingly with ease. This is a rep's secret, but no reason not to share it with everyone. These carts are absolutely amazing - strong, sturdy and they fold up wonderfully - wheels and all - to fit on top of all the boxes in your trunk. They even go up stairs fairly easily. You can buy them at Lee Valley Tools and here's some more information. If you transport heavy items on a regular basis you NEED to get one of these carts - an investment you won't regret.

A Splice of a Rep's life. . .

How does one tackle the absolute tediousness of trying to get out of Toronto during rush hour while already dreading a long drive to Ottawa? Well, if you are the Deweys you just look at the map and find a route you've never taken before. We took Highway 7 which had lovely rolling hills and twisty bends and beautiful colourful countryside. This route took us through Peterborough where we stopped for dinner and a stretch. It's been over 20 years since I was last in this city but what a charming downtown. Thank god all the shops were closed or we'd never have reached Ottawa. But then there is always the trip home. How can you resist wanting to pop into a lingerie shop called I See France? (I see London, I see France, I see - insert name here - 's underpants). We dined at a very cool tapas restaurant called Splice where against our waiter's friendly advice that four dishes might be too much food, we cheerfully defied him and polished off the lot. Then we drove through a lock, and continued on to Ottawa with a beautiful harvest moon shining out in front of us and awkwardly parallel-parked into the very last hotel parking spot around midnight. Now we're off to do a Dewey for a school board and then tomorrow we'll tackle our first sell of the Spring 2008 season.

Curing a Literary Hangover

We apologize for the lack of recent book blogging but most of us are currently mired in our sales conferences for the Spring 2008 books. These usually run for a week or so and we basically don't stop talking about books the whole time. Then there's at least a week prior to sales conference of prep and non-stop reading, and then a week after it for absorbing all your notes and compiling all the sales material to go out and sell. Three weeks of exhausting exhilaration all in aid of finding that perfect 30 second pitch to a book buyer. So the good news is that we'll all have lots of exciting new books to blog about in the future, but bear with us as we recover from our information overloads.

Last weekend, I got home, flopped on my couch and didn't want to leave. So I didn't. And found the perfect solution to a literary hangover - a mini filmfest. I piled all those DVDs I've been meaning to watch into a large pile and chose at whim. I was intending to watch 5 films over the weekend. I ended up seeing 13 with not a dud in the bunch. There is something about popcorn and PJs at 6am that feels very decadent. And these films were all so good; I was completely and happily absorbed through all of them. My favourite "escape" destination is always Paris so first up was Jean-Luc Godard's classic Breathless - a film that will have you making funny grimaces in the bathroom mirror. Avenue Montaigne (a delightful, romantic French comedy) and Truffault's The Last Metro (with Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu) followed. One of the books we discussed at sales conference was Chinese author Su Tong's latest, Binu and the Great Wall. He wrote the novel that the movie Raise the Red Lantern was based on, so that went into the DVD player next (gorgeous cinematography with of course a lot of focus on red). Which led to Krzysztof Kieslowski's Trois Coleurs: Rouge. After Breathless, I wanted to see some more experimental film classics, so Ingmar Bergman's Persona was next (I can't even find the words to describe it, but one of the most terrifically stark, disturbingly beautiful films I've ever seen) followed by Cocteau's Blood of a Poet (no, I didn't understand it either, but who cares?). On Criterion's DVD of this film, there' s a fascinating documentary on Cocteau which led me to the only bit of reading I did do this weekend. Cocteau talked at length of his admiration for Raymond Radiguet, a French author who died tragically at the age of 20. His masterpiece is Count D'Orgel's Ball which has an introduction by Cocteau, and is the story of a triangular relationship acted out amidst the superficial French society similar to that portrayed by Proust, but Radiguet does it in only 160 pages. There are quirky characters such as a man who becomes obsessed with the number of commas in Dante. I'm halfway through and loving it. Wars continue to pervade the backgrounds of a lot of upcoming novels so I was inspired to watch three very different war movies. King and Country is a very moving anti-war WWI movie about a deserter on trial. Europa, Europa follows a Jewish teenager through various countries and disguises as he tries to hide his identity from the Nazis. And the BBC recently released a number of filmed productions of Shaw plays, so I watched Heartbreak House with John Gielgud and Lesley-Anne Down. (Zeppelins will play a big part in Russell Banks' new spring novel The Reserve). Then my final three were Good Bye Lenin! (absolutely wonderful but had me in tears by the end), an amusing Irish film called Intermission (Love Actually meets Pulp Fiction) and my one American film on the list, The Prestige (great suspenseful script). Hangover cured, emotional catharsis reached, and I'm ready to go out to sell. Which is a good thing as I hit the road later today.