Off to see the wizard...again

From the lofty heights of higher education at the foot of Mont Royal, tomorrow I return to the Yellow Brick Road. I'm sure it will be just as much fun as the last time.

Book of the year

In the past I've listed my favourite books of the year. This year I dabbled in my usual genres: not only literary fiction but also historical romance, mystery and even young adult fiction. There were many good reads, including:

• Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad: the Myth of Penelope and Odysseus
• Sarah Dunant's Mapping the Edge — a woman disappears, leaving behind a small child and the child's godparents, who imagine what might have become of the wayward mom, presenting the reader with two very different scenarios
• Martin Davies's The Conjurer's Bird — a contemporary quest centred around an extinct bird, and framed by a mystery surrounding an eighteenth-century naturalist-adventurer and a mysterious woman
• Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson — an inspired and well-written prequel to Peter Pan
• Tales of Desperaux by Kate DiCamillo — a tale about a mouse, a rat, a princess, and a poor serving maid, all set within the confines of an ancient castle.

Notable losers included Kate Mosse's The Labyrinth, so badly written that I couldn't get past Chapter 3 (so much for recommendations by the UK's Richard and Judy), and Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, just too plodding to lure me in. The big loser this past year was James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, not because he lied but because I got so tired of all his moaning and whinging...although if I'd done drugs in my youth, I might have had a decidedly different opinion.

What was your favourite book of 2006?

Happy New Year

A little late, I know, but at least it's still January.

One more note on the weather...yesterday we awoke to a fresh blanket of snow. During breakfast the snow turned to freezing rain, and by the time Kassie and I ventured out it was drizzling and, later on, raining.

This is not my idea of winter. Below is a picture of Kassie and one of our hosts venturing out on New Year's Day. We spent the evening and night at their cottage up North and awoke to find everything encrusted with ice. Thank goodness we took our front-wheel drive car up to the top of the hill the night before (and well before the wine, champagne and Crème de Cassis started flowing.)

Is this the new winter landscape?

It's official!

Several weeks ago I reported that a friend of mine from Nantwich received "the call" (otherwise known in writer circles as the much-coveted yes, we love your book and agree to pay you oodles of money to publish it). Today she explained how it all happened on the Pink Heart Society website. Check it out. Way to go, India!

Global warning

This photo speaks volumes, which means I need not mention the plight of animals unable to hibernate, nor the effect of lack of hard ground frost on crops, plants, insects...



Jump down a few posts and contrast this photo, taken at Christmastime, with a similar shot snapped two years ago: same time of year, same place (the so-called snow belt between Sarnia and London, Ontario).