Favorite Childhood Book

Even though it scared the crap out of me, this is the one book that has stuck with me through the years!  Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss does an amazing job of invoking childhood terror at the idea of this goop taking over the planet.  I had the audio book (on record - yes I'm that old) and could never get very far in before I had to shut it off.  I suspect the narrator may have been Boris Karloff, which perhaps explains my terror. A book that creates such an intense reaction has to be considered a favorite!  I want to books to have an impact on me and this one most certainly did.

A Favorite Author

I adore Ann Patchett.  I never fail to be enthralled by her novels, with her most recent "State of Wonder" being an aboslute favourite. I felt that she captured the essence of the Amazonian jungle so perfectly and you didn't want to put this book down it was so perfectly executed.  She has written some non-fiction, which I haven't picked up but I look forward to trying them to see if they match the caliber of her novels.

Favorite Quote

Elizabeth Hay is such a vivid writer and this is one of my favorite quotes (even though the book itself didn't do it for me).

I left the library and bicycled home through a city of tulips, thanks to a grateful Dutch queen.  Every year they bloom, then lose their heads to an army of black squirrels that go about them like little guillotines, decapitating, decapitating.

I can just imagine this in my mind and it makes me smile.  Squirrels rule!

Book I'd Most Like to Live In

This is a tough one for me as I tend to like reading books where the characters struggle with big problems.  It is the drama in these books that makes them interesting for me.  That said, not sure that I'd actually want to live with all this drama.  Would I really want to live in New York when Polio was flourishing as in Philip Roth's Nemesis.  Possibly not.  There is a spot in one Australian book though that I'd certainly love to visit.  I read Utopian Man a couple years ago now and it took place at the beginning of the 20th century in Melbourne.  The main character (Cole) creates a magical bookstore filled with all sorts of curiosities, including live music, a conservatory and a tea salon.  Visitors to the bookstore were encouraged to sit and browse the books at their leisure (ahead of his time I'd say).  His vision was inspired and I would love to have seen it in person.  The fact that it is based on a real place, makes this all the more intriguing.

Author I Wish People Would Read More

I'm going to cheat a little here and just say "read more Canadian authors".  There are some amazing ones out there and I don't think they all get the readership they should, from David Adam Richards to Michal Crummey to Kathleen Winter to Elizabeth Hay to Andrew Westoll.  There are some talented Canadians out there.  Give there books a go!

Book to Read When You're Sick

In honour of my cold, I thought I'd write about which book would work really well to read when one is sick.  For me, it would likely be the political satire entitled Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis.  I think this one would work well as it is funny (gets your mind off being sick and feeling sorry for yourself), and is also quite easy to read (doesn't require too much of the fuzzy brain).  So, when you're feeling under the weather, make it more tolerable with Best Laid Plans.  The Rosie Project is a close second here!

Most Aspirational Character

I'm going to use this post to also review a recent book that I read.  So, I recently finished Beautiful Mystery, which is part of the Inspector Gamache series.  It followed Gamache and his second in command Beauvoir to a remote monastary where a murder had been committed.  Relationship-wise, there was also a great deal going on between the two police officers and this offered a complexity that isn't always evident in these books.  Despite that, this wasn't my favorite of this series as I really missed the characters from Three Pines who always add a certain jocularity to the proceedings.  This book did remind me however, of a character whom I would love to be more like.  Inspector Gamache is intelligent and successful, but what I think makes him truly special and aspirational is his kindness.  He looks out for the underdogs and brings them under his wing and he only sees the worst in people when its actually there.  Some would say his faith in people makes him naive, but I think the world could do worse than to have a few more people like him in it.