More to read: The Orange Prize Nominees

I am so close to actually being able to read again-- these are all on my list of things to read for the summer. I loved Sarah Waters' The Night Watch--it's really fantastic. All of her books are compelling, engaging reads but I think this could be her best.

Nicole Krauss, The History of Love
(Viking): Alma's little brother Bird thinks he may be the Messiah, and Leo remembers a love 60 years ago.

Hilary Mantel, Beyond Black
(Harper Perennial): Alison Hart is the spiritualist of the M25, a medium whose spirits plague the life out of her.

Zadie Smith, On Beauty
(Hamish Hamilton): Howard Belsey's three teenage children seek the passions, ideals and commitments that will form their lives.

Ali Smith, The Accidental
(Hamish Hamilton): Eve and her unhappy family do their separate things on holiday - until an intruder messily unites them.

Sarah Waters, The Night Watch
(Virago): Kay and her colleagues on ambulances in the worst of the Blitz in wartime London.

Carrie Tiffany, Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living
(Picador): In 1930s Australia an unlikely love affair develops on a train carrying cattle, pigs and wheat.

Looking for something to read?

Spread the word: the Waterstone's list of 30 books that deserve to be rediscovered

Monday April 24, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

Revenge Of The Lawn by Richard Brautigan
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
Death and The Penguin by Andrey Kurkov
The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies
The Dark Is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper
Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry by BS Johnson
Hunger by Knut Hamsun
Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
Dry Bones by Richard Beard
Mirror Lake by Thomas Christopher Greene
Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman
Journey By Moonlight by Antal Szerb
Too Loud A Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal
Trip To The Stars by Nicholas Christopher
Daughter Of The Forest by Juliet Marillier
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Woman On The Edge Of Time by Marge Piercy
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
The Pursuit Of Alice Thrift by Elinor Lipman
Drama City by George Pelecanos
Wooden Sea by Jonathan Carroll
The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Ridley Walker by Russell Hoban
Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
Double by José Saramago
Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum
Mists Of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

This week on my iPod

If you’ve had a conversation with me in the past month or so, I’ve probably raved about Death Cab for Cutie’s new album “Plans.” It took me a few listens to know how to listen to it but I’ve come to adore it. There’s a funky, funny, heartbreaking beauty about it. The closest I’ve come to articulating what makes it so magical is that it’s like a fabulous collection of inter-connected short stories. Each song is—musically and lyrically— like a small, interesting narrative. I’m not sure how this happens but each song stands alone but there is a remarkable cohesion between them. For example, listen to “I Will Follow You Into the Dark,” “Your Heart is an Empty Room,” “Someday You Will Be Loved,” “Crooked Teeth” and “What Sarah Said.” Each of them reminds me of a deceptively simple short story—it’s easy enough to listen to them and move on. However, if you go back to them, they’re like onions with their numerous layers—some thick, others membrane thin. There are lovely lines I envy: “eyes like the summer, all beauty and truth” (“Someday You Will Be Loved”) and “You’re so cute when you’re slurring your speech, they’re closing the bar and they want us to leave” (“Crooked Teeth”).

It’s all so inspirational and enlivening… they’ve got song clips on their site so do check them out. http://deathcabforcutie.com/index_site.html

Their video project is so fascinating too. Art begets art. Read about it here: http://deathcabforcutie.com/directions/

An Ode to my iPod

I got my iPod a year and a half ago, just after I began shuffling between Windsor and London every week on the train. At first, I thought my iPod would mean I could bring a lot of music with me without carting CDs back and forth. However, as the months wore on, I found that my iPod became a locus for a kind of musical renaissance. Given the amount of time I was traveling on trains and buses and the late hours I was working, I had more time than ever to listen to music.
I also made a conscious effort to put new music on my iPod rather than fill it with old standbys (though there are a few). My iPod and iTunes on my laptop have really altered the way I listen to music. Sometimes, I create a large shuffled play list of new things; other times I listen to one album over and over; other times still I listen to one song and pour over every nuance to it. Right now, on a wee break from data entry, I am listening to CBC Radio 3’s podcast and I’m enlivened by what I'm hearing. It has occurred to me that my iPod, iTunes and podcasts replicates the height of my music loving past (circa high school?) where friends and I would talk about new bands, share music, listen to just about anything new and interesting. “This Week on my iPod” will be a way to have those conversations again.

What I've Just Read: Or, April is the Cruelest Month

I like to think TS Eliot was talking about student/ faculty life when he wrote "April is the cruelest month." As I write this, the cherry and magnolia trees are blooming, my tulips are about to snap into their springly splendour and I am sitting here entering data into a database... or, taking a wee break from entering data if truth be told. This is the way the term ends this is the way the term ends, not with a bang but a whimper...

I am ashamed to admit how little I've read in the past few weeks. At the end of my paper writing days, we've been working our way through Buffy the Vampire Slayer seasons and I've spent my usual reading time on the train staring out the window listening to the Pod. And, in so doing, I've seen 5 deer, one fox, one freakishly giant hawk, two wild turkies and the lovely horses near Glencoe galloping in the spring mud-- gifts indeed.

This month I have read one amazing novel that I highly recommend. I'd heard about how Matthew Skelton (who did the U of A Honours English program at the same time as my brother and me) had written a novel called _Endymion Spring_ so I picked it up.

Here's the blurb: Endymion Spring is set in present-day Oxford and in Germany in the 1450s, at the dawn of printing. A young printer's apprentice discovers a mysterious chest, held tightly closed by clasps that look like snake's heads - with fangs that are rumoured to be poisoned. When he touches it, the fangs pierce his fingers, drawing blood, and the chest opens. It contains a secret that will endure for over 500 years � until one lonely boy accidentally discovers it, beginning a quest for knowledge and power that puts him � and us � in grave danger.

It's sort of like a biblio-Harry Potter but it's also like nothing I've read before. I started reading it in the London VIA station, got on the train and read 2 hours without looking up. The same thing happened on the next train ride causing the man across from me to say "what were you reading? You never looked up once." It's a great read and I highly recommend it. If you live in Windsor, I'll lend it to you.

http://www.achuka.co.uk/achockablog/archives/001460.html

End of MLIS-hood; beginning of a new blog

Hurrah... I am indeed done! Shortly, I hope to put up some more engaging content. I've got three regular features planned:
1. "My iPod this week"-- a feature suggested by my friend Ken as a way to continue our "so, what are you listening to this week" conversations
2. "I just read____" -- similar to above
3. Friday's Weird Site of the Week
I'm also going to set up a site feed too.

I've got some rather ominous deadlines for work I should have done over the past month so it's going to be a bit slow for a while. Until then, here are some favourite Weird Sites of the Week to keep you going. See you, H

Strindberg and Helium ("Heliiuuuuuum!")
The original site
Some of the videos are now on Comedy Central

Cupcakes Take the Cake
What Not to Crochet

Last week someone asked me "how you take an interesting photograph?" This question raises a lot of questions-- the least of which is what is meant by "interesting"? I've been thinking about this and, while I'm far from coming up with answers, here are a few thoughts.

It seems to me that there are photographs that are interesting because the subject matter itself is unusual-- maybe some thing or some place we've never seen before. Then there are photographs that are interesting because the photographers have taken an image of some thing or some place that we've seen a million times before but we see it like it's brand new. They take something rather ordinary and made it extraordinary.

For example, in the fall I was fascinated by a photograph I saw at the Art Gallery of Windsor (c 1920 by a woman photographer, Canadian I think). It was of a white porcelain mug on a kitchen counter; ordinary in subject matter but extraordinary in its shape, lighting, colour, mood and composition. Of all the things in the gallery, that was what stayed with me from that visit.

Lately I've found myself being very interested in Henri Cartier Bresson's work and thinking about what makes it interesting. Perhaps he himself offers the best explanation: "To take photographs means to recognize-simultaneously and within a fraction of a second-both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one's head, one's eye and one's heart on the same axis."

Food for thought. What do you think?

Check out some of Henri Cartier Bresson's work http://www.afterimagegallery.com/bresson.htm

To Blog or Bark Pointlessly and Incessantly, That is the Question.

I am a reluctant blogger. In setting this one up for my photo site, I was reminded of a New Yorker cartoon (Sept 12, 2005) where one dog says to another, “I had my own blog for a while, but I decided to go back to just pointless, incessant barking."
I am hoping this blog will not be pointless, incessant barking. My goal for setting up this blog is that it could become a sharing space for conversations about photography and about other things.

Recently, I've had some very interesting short conversations about photography and this blog seemed like a way to take those conversations into some new directions and bring in some visuals. In the posts to come, I will add some links and offer some questions to start discussions. Please feel free to grab a coffee and join the conversation.