Open a book this minute and start reading. Don’t move until you’ve reached page fifty. Until you’ve buried your thoughts in print. Cover yourself with words. Wash yourself away. Dissolve.
Carol Shields
Republic of Love
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Audrey Thomas has been nominated twice for the Governor General’s Award (for Intertidal Life and Coming Down from Wa, in 1984 and 1995).
She has won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize in three years, including for The Wild Blue Yonder in 1990.
She has published ten novels, seven collections of stories, and was made an Officer [...]
The story begins with background about the strange, magical being called the Qalupalik.
Are you acquainted? Readers learn that they have an amauti made of eider duck skins, which they use to kidnap children, and they live in the water, so their skin is like fish scales.
Inhabit Media, 2011
Readers — and not [...]
It’s no coincidence that a story titled for ‘luck’ follows one titled for ‘providence’ in this collection of stories by Alice Munro.
Indeed, folks in Hanratty could well have a saying, that one man’s luck is another man’s providence. Or vice versa.
And Rose is never far from Hanratty, from those early experiences of shame, [...]
Once Upon a Time has wrapped up for another year, but I haven’t properly mentioned some books, including two terrific books of Inuit folktales which I’ll discuss tomorrow. But, first…
Cameron Dokey’s The World Above is part of the series of retellings from Simon Pulse; there are about twenty retellings in all, and they all seem to [...]
If only the word ‘waltz’ appeared like a stain on the sheets — this would be the perfect cover image.
For now, Gina Moynihan stands back and looks at the bed that she and Seán Vallely shared, and it’s a messy sight. Messy, but still fresh: you can see the indents and folds in the fabrics.
[...]
June has been a month of dabbling. It has also been a month of magazines (and for good reason).
The only book which has consistently made an appearance in my bookbag? A Game of Thrones.
More than anything? I’ve been reading short stories. Alice Munro (but you knew that), Audrey Thomas, Elizabeth Crane. But I don’t [...]
At first glance, Mr. Morel might seem a perfect mate for a bookish woman. “Now I’m cleaned up for thee: tha’s no ‘casions ter stir a peg all day, but sit and read thy books.”
But, to begin with, he’s quite a drinker, though perhaps working in the mines all day is only tolerable if you’ve [...]
In “Providence”, Rose and her husband separate, and at first — with her new job and apartment and her casual lover — Rose is all about the possibilities and promise.
(Note: There are events in this story which reveal the outcomes of earlier stories; if you plan to discover the collection on your own, you [...]
It’s legendary now, that Madeleine L’Engle’s classic novel was rejected by numerous publishers and eventually even its agent handed the book back to its author.
How I loved my tassled bookmarks: you too?
It was “too different”, different because it credited young readers with being able to grapple with the concept of evil, and [...]
In which I chat about reading Dr. Brinkley’s Tower in a single day. (You can’t build a tower that quickly, but you can read about it.)
Admittedly, I shuffled this volume amongst my stack of current reads for weeks before I started reading. (There is always a book in there that is trying on the idea [...]
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