recent birthday wishes

I've mentioned this before, but I really do think of TSS and Erin as sort of co-bloggers -- they regularly offer insightful comments at Brilliant title to go here, and frankly they make the experience of writing a blog about books very rewarding.

In honour of their very recent birthdays, I offer nods to two fantastic (male) authors.

For TSS, Haruki Murakami -- a lovely author TSS and A introduced me to when it was my birthday a few moons ago. I've never read What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, but I've heard it's very very good.

For Erin, Timothy Findley -- one of the great authors of 20th century Canadian literature. Obviously, I am in love with his fiction. But, I absolutely recommend his travel collection, Journeyman, for a snapshot of a very Canadian sort of life.

of werewolves, fairy tales and confusing acrobatics

We had book club this afternoon (I made frittata from this recipe, except with Gouda instead of Fontina), and discussed A Student of Weather. Now, I'm still stuck on the idea Elizabeth Hay was trying to tell her story in fairy-tale fashion.... And these lines from a Walrus profile of Michael Ignatieff gave me pause:

French Canadians grow up on the fable of the dark, handsome stranger who comes from the faraway city and woos the innocent farm girl with his honeyed words. Beware, goes the moral, for he is the loup-garou.

I've also been thinking lots lately about what it would be like to be a writer. This is in part because I've been reading (loving) Timothy Findley's Journeyman. Also, I was a titch inspired by Shelf Discovery (should I own to that?).

But, this afternoon, our little book club absolutely ripped apart a sex scene in A Student of Weather. (I'm not excerpting it here. But you can find it on p. 155 of the 2001 McLelland and Stewart paperback, should you happen upon it. Some readers might question whether the acrobatics described are physically possible.) And so, I can't help but wonder how scary it would be to put a sex scene out into the universe. Imagine a living room of individuals you don't know trying to figure out what you meant to say, or what image you were trying to draw? Intimidating....