Letter from Sandra Birdsell

I received  a nice note from novelist Sandra Birdsell. Her latest novel, Waiting for Joe, was reviewed in this blog. Here is a bit of what she says.

I've since logged on to your blog. I must say thanks for the great things you had to say about Waiting for Joe.  A do appreciate the time you take to tell others.

And along the way, I was delighted to read the letter from Charles Wilkins.  Charlie and I go back a long way to Winnipeg where we were both starting out on the adventure of becoming published authors.

And there he is about to row across the Atlantic - another great adventure - while I continue to row my way through another novel. I admire him.

Plan to keep track of his voyage and your blog. Have good memories of Thunder Bay from the times I've visited..... Sandra,

Two Great Books

Waiting for Joe. Sandra Birdsell has crafted a masterpiece.  She has created two characters you won't soon forget.  Laurie and Joe made big money and blew it.  Now they are living in a stolen, clapped-out RV on a Wal-mart parking lot.  Laurie is an impulse shopper, a fashionista and home decorator, a collector of objects, the epitome of the shallow, media-driven, over-merchandized 21st century. Even though she no longer has money, Laurie is unable to stop spending. Joe, once the golden boy, alternates between fits of rage, self pity and the desire to leave.  The couple stand in contrast to Joe's father, Alfred, a tough old bird who survived Japanese prison camps and is now surviving the indignities that arrive near life's end.  Neither Laurie or Joe can stick to a plan.  They live by impulse.  But they are not cardboard cut-outs.  They are real people with families, childhood histories, past tragedies and loves. This is a rock-hard book but fortunately, it has an up-beat ending.

Wonderful news this week. The incidence of childhood athma is down.  Why? Children are less exposed to cigarette smoke. The incidence of ear pain in childhood is also down.  Who knew that smoke causes children to suffer ear infections.  Will the tobacco companies be cheered?  Not if they are the samelow-life decribed in Rob Cunningham's book Smoke and Mirrors,the Canadian Tobacco War. Our big cigarette companies have not been good corporate citizens.  These are thugs in three peice suits.  They set up smuggling rings to bring illegal cigarettes into Canada. They hid the evidence of the health problems and addictive properties of the nicotine delivery sticks they were flogging.  Now they are fighting hard to prevent more prominent labels on the packaging.  They used every trick in the book, legal and illegal.  This is a well written account that will make you mad.

2008 Fovourites

Writer and avid reader Laura Atkinson offers her best reads for 2008:
Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill
My Dream of You by Nuala O'Faolain .
Children of the Day by Sandra Birdsell
Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood

I did not read Lullabies for Little Criminals but it is on my list. Anything by the late great Irish writer Nuala O'Faolain is first rate. Most of her books are in Mary J.Black Library. I enjoyed Children of the Day by Manitoba writer Sandra Birdsell. Her novel, The Russlanders is one of my lifetime favourites. Moral Disorder by Atwood is a collection of her incomparable stories. I read the first story in the Guardian when I was in England. This story is a masterpiece and it alone makes the price of the book worthwhile.