Books Etc.

I've been reading and writing like a petit maniac! It's that time of year. Now reading The Rules of Engagement by Catherine Bush, which is my favourite book by her. I am quite pleased to be enjoying so many young Canadian authors, as my years abroad had put me out of the CanLit habit. The book is hardly flawless, but she writes about England in a way that is so relevant to my own experience there (perpetually being asked "Are you all right?" for example) and I love that the narrator is a scholar of "war studies" and therefore I get to learn through the novel. This is the difference between popular fiction and literary fiction I think- you come away from the latter knowing something new. The former is more an affirmation of the familiar, which is fine but not the same. This of course is on my mind because I am writing an essay about Chick Lit for my Authors and Institutions course. This came about as a result of my consciously anti-chick lit phase, where I only wrote about lesbians, boys and circus freaks. I began to wonder how professional writers are influenced by the threat of the chick lit label, the ways they speak out and write against it. I read "Chick Lit: The New Woman's Fiction" yesterday and it was really interesting (and fun). I also read Living by Fiction by Annie Dillard. And still reading Grace Paley's wonderful stories, one at at time.

Articles on ghostwriting. Naomi Wolf on trashy YA fiction. On re-marketing adult fiction for teens here. Douglas Coupland interviews Morrissey. On JamesBluntMania- currently sweeping America.

Today was exciting because I bought my bridesmaid's dress for Katie's wedding. Oh for the love of bridal shops. And I paid the bills last night. For about five minutes, we owed nobody nothing.