Recent Journal Entries
"Waiting for Columbus" released in the UK Today!!!
February 5, 2010
We are all very excited about the UK release of Waiitng for Columbus. I am NOW, officially, a Picador-ian…I already am a proud McClelland & Stewart-ian, and a Knopf-Doubleday-ian. And a very proud Blackstone Audiobook-ian… God-speed little book….
Listen, I recently did an “A-Z” style interview with Picador — a sort of top-of-mind lexicon from the left side of my brain…It’s right here for your viewing (reading) pleasure. It was really fun to do…
Also, we are now starting to ramp up conversations about the paperback editions of WFC. It just never slows down.
Mexico research mission...semi-report
January 30, 2010
Just back from Mexico…Mayan Riviera…where Pinsky was in fine form. The Mexican pólice are not a funny group. Rather serious and totally immune to any attempted “charm” from Pinsky. Pinsky listened and did exactly what the machine gun toting policeman said and everything was fine…
We are four days away from the UK release of Waiting for Columbus!!! I am about to become a Picador-ian…I already am a proud McClelland & Stewart-ian, and a Knopf-Doubleday-ian. My God; what the hell am I talking about? Listen, I recently did an “A-Z” style interview with Picador — a sort of top-of-mind lexicon from the left side of my brain…It’s right here for your viewing (reading) pleasure. It was really fun to do…
And, we’re starting to ramp up conversations about the paperback editions of WFC. It just never slows down.
Here are a few images from the east coast of Mexico….
First, is Pinsky and Inka and the little one…Second, is the view from the balcony — not a snow flake in site. Third, is Mr. Iguana hanging on a Mayan ruin…
The book club and a list...
January 20, 2010
I‘ve talked a bit about book clubs. I believe that if you want to find out how you’re doing, you ought to listen to the folks who read your book — folks who read. Hanging out with writers is fun but really, you’ll just drink a lot and get into trouble. So, I’ve been going to book clubs and listening…Went to one last Saturday…a group that’s been together for roughly ten years. Now, most book clubs are women. Most are predominantly women. I have been to an all-guy book club and it was really good. But over the years, I’ve found that most are comprised of women. The club on Saturday, was comprised of couples. And an incrdible full-course meal was served!!!! The conversation and questions were insightful and lively. These were really bright readers. The Louster and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Now, I always ask what they’ve been reading and on Satuday, I got a list. I’m going to share that list with you…so you can see what this club has been doing, and maybe so you can do an informal comparison to your book club. Anyway, I’d like to know how you’re doing with your own reading…What were your top three reads from last year?
The unofficial name for my Saturday book club is Cheryl Mahaffy’s Book Club — because Cheryl is the one who asked me to sit in. (By the way, I’ve read 23 of the 75 books on this list)
Fugitive Pieces — Anne Michaels,
Waiting — Ha Jin,
No Great Mischief — Alistair MacLeod,
Lambs of God — Marele Day,
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin — Louis de Bernieres,
Stones From the River — Ursula Hegi,
Atonement— Ian MacEwan,
Stone Angel — Margaret Laurence,
Peace Like a River — Leif Enger,
The Constant Gardener — John Le Carre,
One Hundred Years of Solitude — Garcia Marquez,
Revelation — Flannery O’Connor,
White Oleander — Janet Fitch,
Life of Pi — Yann Martel,
Fury — Salman Rushdie,
The Polished Hoe — Austin Clarke,
The Shadow of the Sun — Rysgard Kapuscinski,
A Tourist’s Guide to Glengarry — Ian McGillis,
The Last Crossing — Guy Vander Haeghe,
Family Matters — Rohinton Mistry,
Prodigal Summer — Barbara Kingsolver,
The Stone Carvers — Jane Urquart,
Breathing Lessons — Anne Tyler,
Scent of Eucalyptus — Daniel Coleman,
Truth and Bright Water — Thomas King,
The Seed and the Sower — Laurens Van der Post,
Unless — Carol Shields,
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter — Carson McCullers,
How Green Was My Valley — Richard Llewellyn,
The Kite Runner — Khaled Hossenin,
The Birth of Venus — Sarah Dunant,
Gilead — Marilynne Robinson,
Saturday — Ian MacEwan,
A Complicated Kindness — Miriam Toews,
Peace Shall Destroy Many — Rudy Wiebe,
Blood of the Lamb — Peter De Vries,
I Heard the Owl Call My Name — Margaret Craven,
The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios and Other Stories — Yann Martel,
Under the Banner of Heaven — Jon Krakauer,
The Time In Between — David Bergen,
Acts of Faith — Philip Caputo,
Water for Elephants — Sara Gruen,
All the Pretty Horses — Cormack McCarthy,
The Bookseller of Kabul — Asne Seirstad,
Headhunters — Timothy Findlay,
Of This Earth — Rudy Wiebe,
Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures — Vincent Lam,
Places in Between — Rory Stewart,
What the Body Remembers — Shauna Singh Baldwin,
The Secret River — Kate Grenville,
Three Day Road — Joseph Boyden,
Middlesex — Jeffrey Eugenides,
Ragged Islands — Don Hannah,
Huckleberry Finn — Mark Twain,
Sweetness in the Belly — Camilla Gibb,
To Kill a Mockingbird — Harper Lee,
The Golden Compass — Philip Pullman,
King Leary — Paul Quarrington,
Late Nights on Air — Elizabeth Hay,
King Leopold’s Ghost — Adam Hochschild,
Cloudstreet — Tim Winton,
The River Why — David James Duncan,
Tiger Claw — Shauna Singh Baldwin,
The Book Of Negroes — Lawrence Hill,
East of Eden — John Steinbeck,
The Outlanders — Gil Adamson,
Home — Marilynne Robertson,
Friend of My Youth— Alice Monroe,
Cutting for Stone — Abraham Verghese,
This Much I Know Is True — Wally Lamb, and
Waiting for Columbus — Thomas Trofimuk.
The light bulb
January 14, 2010
He calls at 7AM to let me know that one of his light bulbs in the kitchen has burned out. “There’s only one left,” he says, “and if it goes I won’t be able to cook or get up and take my pills.” There is urgency in his voice. This is important. It’s an emergency. He needs me to come over and change the light bulb. All the time he is talking, I am thinking about Haiti and the thousands dead and stranded – without power, without telephones, without food, many without shelter. Most definitely, without light bulbs.
But this is a dire emergency for my father. Even when he was not frail and ninety years old, he did not know how to change a light bulb – left those duties to my mother and I. Oh, I’m sure he could change a bulb if it only required unscrewing and screwing, but this ceiling light is old-school – you have to climb up on a chair and unscrew four pegs that hold a heavy glass cover in place – and then the light bulbs.
So, I will go to his house and change a light bulb, today, at lunchtime. I will right my father’s world, which has come undone by the death of a single light bulb.
Craig Ferguson, Boobies, and why Best Buy sucks...
January 13, 2010
Have I mentioned here how funny I think Craig Ferguson is? I was turned onto him by my good friend Gail Sobat who left a cryptic message on some machine alluding to the fact that Craig Ferguson reminded her of me. I let it go for a long time. Eventually, I check old Craig Ferguson out and Christ he’s freakin’ funny! I am nothing like Craig Ferguson but I’m glad I finally found the guy. He’s definitely a bit undone! I’ve laughed out loud repeatedly while watching his show. Johnny Carson never made me laugh. Jay Leno does not make me laugh, will never make me laugh. David Letterman used to make me laugh but not anymore (He was funny when he had the barely controlled Chris Elliot on the show doing hilarious impersonations of Marlon Brando and a bag of chili and the “Man under the Stairs” bits.) Okay, Jon Stewart makes me laugh too…but in a sort of stunned horror about how right he is about what’s going on. But Ferguson is COMPLETELY HILARIOUS!!! When he said he only liked movies with “boobies” in them, he had me. He had me at “boobies.”
I promised a rant on Best Buy and how much they suck, but I just don’t have the energy to rant right now. Suffice it to say, Best Buy sucks. They’ve whacked me upside the head twice now with their pricing policy. They’ll refund the difference on a purchase that goes on sale for 30 days. Their prices are covered for 30 days. They dropped the price $400 on a printer I’d purchased 35 days after I’d bought it. Same thing with the new TV. Thirty-one (31) days after my purchase, they drop the price $500. Here’s the thing. Nobody should buy anything from Best Buy unless it’s roughly 20 days before Christmas. Even if it appears to be on sale, trust me, it isn’t. So, twenty days before Christmas, Best Buy is okay – the rest of the year; Best Buy sucks. It’s as if there’s some sort of Trofimuk alert that monitors when I buy something from their goddamn store: “Oh look, Trofimuk bought something; drop the price on that item in 31 days.” I’m done with this store. I’ll never go back. You shouldn’t either.
Older Entries:
- 2010•01•09 ~ Updated Columbus page and reviews, and MG Creative {1}
- 2010•01•06 ~ The myth of writers' block and the cardboard man... {3}
- 2009•12•31 ~ New Year's Eve Tonglen
- 2009•12•29 ~ Confounded by Pinsky, again... {1}
- 2009•12•23 ~ Happy Festivus
- 2009•12•17 ~ To be "good" or to "drink a lot and get into trouble" -- that is the question {1}
- 2009•12•11 ~ Is the book, as we know it, dead? {5}
- 2009•12•04 ~ We love Alberta Views Magazine!! {1}
- 2009•11•26 ~ On McCarthy's "The Road" {3}
- 2009•11•18 ~ Mr. Robert Kroetsch was in the building {2}
- 0000•00•00 ~ Complete Journal Archives
