Do you know what the CBC is doing for Canada Book Day? They’re running a Canada Reads! project hosted by Mary Walsh. The question: “Is it possible to find a single book that captures the imagination of an entire country?” The thesis of the project is simple: five notable Canadians get together, each recommending a Canadian book of their choice which they believe all of Canada should read. There’s a daily debate between these guests, moderated by Walsh, and each day one book is voted off the list leaving a single book at the end, to be announced on Canada Book Day, April 23. This will be the book that Canada Reads.

The gests are pretty diverse: Kim Campbell, our first (and only, so far) female Prime Minister, who is defending A Handmaid’s Tale by Maraget Atwood; speculative fiction author Nalo Hopkinson, who is defending George Elliott Clarke’s poetry collection Whylah Falls; Leon Rooke, novelist, story story author, and widely published, defending Margaret Laurence’s Stone Angel; Megan Follows, actor, who is defending Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance; and Steven Page, co-founder and lead singer of the Barenaked Ladies, is arguing for In The Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje.

Tough choice!

The debates are terrific – they’re seriously arguing the pros and cons of each book, the themes, the meanings, the strengths and weaknesses. They’re all terribly good books, and the guests are having difficulty choosing one to vote off.

You can vote for your favourite work of Canadian literature too – check out the Canada Reads! website and click on the People’s Choice – Cast Your Vote link. I must go into the library room and try to decide on which Robertson Davies book or Timothy Findley book to vote on. Then there’s always the L.M. Montgomery oeuvre, and Jane Urquhart’s Away… damn…

Well, here we are: a typical Montreal summer day, and it’s only mid-April. You can feel the water hanging in mid-air, and my hair is frizzing. Ah, summer. Two and half weeks ago we had two feet of snow fall. Only in Montreal!

Neat things I�ve done lately (other than take a new bus home):

Picked up the new Mediaeval Baebes album, The Rose. In my opinion, their finest collection to date. Yes, I have my tickets to the concert here on May 3rd. Found a nifty article on the Baebes “coming out” as Pagan, too. This surprises me not at all.

Watched the third season finale of Buffy. Wow. My convocations were nowhere near that exciting. Joss Whedon really took the old clich� of �graduation is a rite of passage� to extremes, didn�t he.

Read a lot. I�m noticing that I�m rarely in the midst of a book when I blog; this stems from the fact that I read fast. Books I have read: Child of the Prophecy, the third book in the Juliet Marillier’s Sevenwaters trilogy. Not as good as the earlier two; explores the theme of family and belonging in a different way, and didn�t have as likeable a main character. In fact, I found myself getting a bit exasperated with her. Yes, yes, you moan because your grandmother has you completely under her control � ever wonder why she�s so intent on keeping you there? Maybe because you threaten her? Get past the limp and stand up for yourself! The ending was a little too pat, as well. A Pilgrim In Ireland by Frances Greenslade: a very good first-hand narration of her solo trip to Ireland to search for roots, and the feeling of unbelonging that rose up to stop her. Where does a Canadian belong when we feel like intruders in our own land, and exiles from the land of our ancestors? I also finished Tea With the Black Dragon, a lovely little tale of history and innate magic transcending time and death (sort of).

CURRENTLY READING:

Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope. The first chapter is designed to not make you want to read the book. I am convinced of this. It’s not very portable, either; two and a half inches thick will make it difficult to slip in my purse while going to work.

You may have noticed that I�ve been rather silent these past few days.

Darn right! I told myself I wasn�t going to sit at my computer all weekend, since it was so beautiful, and since I sit at a computer all week. I’m very proud of myself: apart from a short trip here to check email on Sunday morning, I didn�t touch it.

Then yesterday, after my hiatus from surfing and typing, I checked the on-line job postings for summer teaching positions at the local CEGEPs like I�m supposed to do every day. Eep! They�re up! They�ve been up for four days and I hadn�t been checking!

Well, my stomach sank and I panicked. Job postings only go up for a week; you have to have your application in by the end or you�ve missed it. The deadline is this Friday. After telling myself that it�s an essential step towards submitting applications for fall teaching positions, and taking a walk to clear my head, I was ready. By the end of the day I�d retooled my C.V. (again), written a short cover letter, and asked for a reference letter from someone with whom I�m currently freelance teaching. I�ll expand the cover letter to point out how suitable I am and how appropriate this freelance teaching is, then drop it off on Thursday on my lunch break. Then they�ll fall in love with my C.V., call me for an interview, and offer me a job.

I�ve been psyching myself up for this for a couple of months now. I don�t think I ever expected it to actually happen, for some reason.

Why does change have to be so difficult?

I just got in! I did something very exciting today: I took a new bus home.

I love taking new buses. I like seeing where they go, how they get to the end of their journey. I enjoy finding new ways to get from there to here. So today, I left work at 5 on the dot to walk to Atwater and catch the 104, which MLG informed me stops two blocks away from my apartment building.

It does. It did. I�m home, without having had to descend into the depths of the subway, switch cars, and stand on the packed 105 on a day as beautiful as this one.

One simple bus. I�m thrilled.

On the other hand, I still have to bus-metro-metro in the mornings because the 104 passes here at either 8.40 or 9.31 AM. Twenty or twenty-five minutes in to the city, and wow, look I�m either really, really early or just a bit late.

The quick and easy trip home on a Friday after a long week is quite the gift, though. Hurrah! Let the weekend begin!

Sigh. Wake up – can’t talk. Growl and gurgle at cats until some semblance of vocal production returns.

I discovered, to my immense annoyance, as I was proof-reading another contract last night, that we have no corrector fluid. No Liquid Paper. No corrector tape. Anywhere. I deliberately hid the corrector tape from my klepto-like husband who walks off with supplies and loses them somewhere (probably the same place my cat hides pretty sparkly things she finds), and he apparently found it because it’s not there any more.

Why is this a Bad Thing? This is a Bad Thing because I was given hard copy to edit. In future, I will make a photocopy and scribble on that, because I obviously can’t be trusted with an original. At least, not after an eleven-hour day in retail.

I will go to work early and make use of the corrector fluid there. Ha.

I got bad news last night that the two elderly foxes at the EcoMuseum didn’t survive the winter. I feel odd – a group of friends got together and adopted one for me for twelve months as a birthday gift last year (quite possibly the best birthday present I’ve ever received – I can’t think of others which have thrilled me that much as this one did!). Rusty was my personal favourite, although Claudius had his charm. Now they’ve both gone to foxy-heaven where I am sure they will dance with mice before eating them whole, sun themselves, and play hide and go seek in long waving grass, striped with sunlight and shade.

The good news is that the EcoMuseum will be receiving fox kits as replacements! So I’ll have to go along and see them and pick one that I will cherish as my very own – at least until my last four months are up.

I�m feeling bit run over this morning. The editing job was wonderful, but would have made a whole day�s work on its own if I�d had the choice; as it is I did 5 hours of data work for the day job, then hit the computer again at 5.45 PM to start the freelancing. Tumbled into bed at 1 AM, got up at 5.30 for another appointment with my osteopath, dragged myself home and now am engaged in a very delicate reheating of a chocolate croissant as I contemplate my green tea. I think orchestra�s going to be dropped on my list of priorities tonight in favour of coming home and sleeping. Please gods, let this day be gentle.

On top of that, that fever which turned into a cold seems to have chosen my throat and only my throat as its victim. Swollen, sore, and my voice has dropped an octave. The rest of me feels fine. Go figure.

The one thing I don�t feel so good about is not being able to put that document away for the night and look at it again all the way through the 110 pages before I sent it back. I like to walk away from my work for a bit to see it with fresh eyes, just to be certain. It was a rush job though, and it was needed before a 9 AM meeting today, so off it went. All in all, I feel terrific about the editing. I�m good at it, I helped someone else, I made money doing it. Amazing.