Remind Me

I love books, and I live with a book designer who also loves books so our rambling old house is full to the brim. It was fun to look on the bedside table and see the mish-mash piled there - to look at it simply for what it is, rather than thinking of how messy it looks. Almost as interesting an exercise would be to look through the bookshelf in the kitchen which is supposed to hold only the cookbooks. My favorite cookbook is Wild Plums in Brandy by Sylvia Boorman (McGraw Hill, 1962) which contains many odd recipes, including one for porcupine baked in clay, and was beautifully illustrated by Boorman's husband. Beside Wild Plums in Brandy, in the kitchen, is The Spectacle of the Scaffold by Michel Foucault (Penguin, 1977).

But I wasn't asked about the cookbook shelf, and so here is a sampling from what is on the bedside table:

The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman (Penguin, 2007)

I have leafed through this book, which belongs to my husband. It is a fun book, full of interesting thoughts and scribbles and drawings. About a month ago we had overnight guests who slept in our room. They didn't emerge for breakfast until mid-morning, choosing instead to lounge in bed reading Maira Kalman. I have not lounged on a Sunday morning with this book but I should. It is the sort of book that I open randomly because each page stands on its own, but I think that the next time I open it I should start and the beginning and not get out of bed until I am finished.

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (Harper Collins, 2007)

This is a book that I could not put down. That's all there is to it.

Until You are Dead by Julian Sher (Vintage Canada, 2002)

Julian Sher is an award-winning investigative journalist and this is his magnificent in-depth chronicle of the Steven Truscott story. Steven Truscott was a fourteen year old schoolboy in 1959 when he was accused and convicted of the murder of his classmate. This book offers a poignant and frightening example of how the machinery of justice can go terribly wrong and how the system can sometimes very systematically fail.

Songlines by Bruce Chatwin (Penguin Group Canada, 1986)

This book is not my bedside table yet because I have had to order it, but I can't wait for it to arrive in the mail. This book is about Chatwin's research in Australia and his musings about aboriginal songlines and the belief that it is the Dreamtime which sings the land into being. I plan to read this book in August while sitting on the rooftop deck. It may not ever make it to my bedside table.

Clayton's Kids: Pioneer Families of the Hearst Public School (edited by Terry West, Frank Pellow, and Ernie Bies)

My family is originally from Hearst, Ontario, deep in the northern Ontario bush. My mother was Franco-Ontarian and was part of the French Catholic majority in the town. My father was anglophone and went to school first in the old Orange Lodge and then in the Hearst Public School once it was built. In 2009, as part of the 100th anniversary celebrations for the school, a dedicated group of retired former students put together a beautiful 389 page book full of rich oral history and photographs. I wrote a story about my father and one of his teachers, Ford Rupert, which is included in this book (and is also included in The Camino Letters). To be honest, it was this project and that story which gave me the courage to write.

The Moral Obligation to be Intelligent: Selected Essays by Lionel Trilling (Northwestern University Press, 2008)

This is another book that belongs to my husband, I think perhaps because he designed the cover. Trilling was an American literary critic, described on the jacket cover as "mentally indefatigable". I, however, appear to be not mentally indefatigable because I am finding it a bit dense and difficult to read. But reading this book will be good for me and so it is staying on the bedside table until I am able to get through it.

The Peterborough Review (Water issue, 1994)

A long time ago, before I went to law school, my husband and I published a little literary journal. We published four issues and then called it a day. At the time it was amazingly well reviewed and we published some great pieces by some great people. I pulled out the Water issue a couple of weeks ago after speaking with writer Janette Platana, whom I have not spoken to in years. We talked about writing, and my book, and how life moves in these circular meandering ways. Janette's brilliant short story "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a River" debuted in The Peterborough Review. I should not have waited so long to read it again.

Poinsettia and Her Family by Felicia Bond (Thomas Crowell, 1981)

This is a childhood favorite in my house. I'm not sure how it ended up on the bedside table because the kids are all a bit big for it now. The story is this: all Poinsettia the Pig ever wanted to do was curl up on the red leather window seat to read while the sun spread like warm butter across the pages. But there were too many piglets running around for there to ever be peace. "This house would be perfect, except for one thing," Poinsettia fumes. "There are too many of us in it." But when her family moves, and mistakenly leaves her behind, Poinsettia changes her mind.

The Law of Habeas Corpus in Canada by D.A Cameron Harvey (Butterworths, 1974)

This is work related - related to my law work. The book, written in 1974, is a bit outdated but the law of habeas corpus dates back about eight hundred years. The words themselves mean "bring me the body" and allows a court to review the imprisonment of a "subject" by the State. Habeas Corpus is a good thing to remember in case none of the modern solutions work.

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When Canadian writer and lawyer Julie Kirkpatrick decided to walk the ancient pilgrimage of the Camino de Santiago in the summer of 2009 she was not looking for a life-changing experience. Thinking that it would help to pass the time she asked 26 friends to set tasks for her - one task for each of the 26 days of the walk. At the end of each day she would write a letter to the day's taskmaster. But the tasks came as unexpected gifts, full of meaning and love, and what began as a light-hearted diversion soon became a journey into the labyrinth of her life.

Join Julie at 2:00 pm this Sunday, August 22nd at McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park where she will read & sign her resulting work, The Camino Letters: 26 Tasks on the Way to Finisterre.