From YA to Feldman

My favourite bookish link of the week is Lois Lowry's blog. She has a website too. I loved her Anastasia books when I was young, and I am going to be rereading the first one in the near future. It occured to me yesterday that my first references to Freud, Gertrude Stein and Billie Holiday were courtesy of her. I'm glad she's made a such a fine place for herself online. Another YA author I enjoyed who has done so is Marilyn Sachs, and looking through her bibliography brought back quite a few memories.

Speaking of ghosts of books past, I found Stump the Bookseller recently while searching for the book Me and Fat Glenda. My google query was "burgers" and "inez" (marvelous thing seach engines) and evidently someone had had a similar question because this book had appeared at Stump the Bookseller. Readers write in with bits they can remember of long-lost books, their queries are available for perusal, and you can fill in other readers' gaps, or check out the "solved" section to bring back memories of your own. It's quite cool.

Along the lines of YA, I've been inspired to read The Unreluctant Years: A Critical Approach to Children's Literature by the most famous Toronto librarian of all, Lillian H. Smith. Recommended by the booklet "100 Memorable Books" which I picked at my local branch of the Toronto Public last week. And you should get one of those if you're able. It's a list of books recommended by TPL librarians as not necessarily the best or most important books, but books which have had an impact on their own lives. It's a lovely booklet with great commentary and best of all, it's free. Thank the TPL. I always do.

Further in Toronto things, check out Write Around Town, a new column by Ragdoll whose blog I enjoy. February is bursting with bookish business.

And finally, I think I'm starting a new feature here at Pickle Me This. This past month I've been banned from the internet Wednesday to Friday between 8:30 and 5:30. I've made my husband take the internet cable to work with him because I have the most incredible talent of whiling my time away on internet inanities. Last week's was my high school's 'where are they now' page, which provided an afternoon of fun to my BFs Britt and Jennie when I sent it their way. "This is a goldmine" quoth Britt. Oh Britt, it gets better. This week's time-sucker was the best site on all the net, Corey Feldman's homepage. This site is essential. If it weren't for this site, we couldn't have had this conversation tonight at dinner:
S- (talking about something I can't remember) is very zen.
K- Corey Feldman's son is called Zen.
S- Who's Corey Feldman?
It seems they didn't have him in England. But really folks, if it weren't for Corey Feldman's homepage, I could never have segued into the most important conversation my husband and I have ever had.