Thérèse Neelands

Nikolski, a novel by Nicolas Dickner

…and I finished the book.

I am now highly caffeinated, and deliciously taken away. It’s Sunday morning, the dawn of my weekend, and since the dogs push me out of the house very early in the day, I was able to brew up a bodum of dark coffee and settle under the covers with my new book, “Nikolski”.

Recommended by Stef (read her review here), this book is pure magic. It’s an English translation from the Québecois born Nicolas Dickner. It’s about three people, leading separate but slightly connected lives. It’s about ‘getting up and going’, travel, maps, searching, self discovery, chance, coincidence, Canada, and much more. The language is always a surprise. Dramatic, witty, well-informed.

The book design is scrumptious - just take a look at the cover. But inside is just as good. The pages are velvety soft, and smell fresh and bright like an unopened magazine. I love the wide margins on the outsides of the page, with pagination shifted a quarter of the way down and to the side. At the start of each part is a spread simply adorned with the year to date, and an illustration of a fish.

Inside "Nikolski", a novel by Nicolas Dickner

Join the debate on CBC Radio One for Canada Reads 2010. Nikolski is one of the five books chosen for debate between five panelists backing up their favourite Canadian read. I’m hoping Nikolski comes out a winner.

Helen Gregory's Blue Tanagers courtesy of the artist and the Rooms

I discovered Helen Gregory in the National Post on Thursday and I haven’t stopped thinking of her since. She has a show in Newfoundland (where she’s from) at the Rooms called Unrequited Death: Helen Gregory and it is curated by award-winning novelist Lisa Moore.

Helen has a fascination with collecting things (be still my heart). What she collects is organic detritus - bird’s nests, eggs, skeleton’s, dead flowers, rocks, and the like. What is dead and repulsive, is at the same time, exuisite.

Apart from the image above, Helen uses lush Victorian designs as back drops for her still lifes. Think natural history, William Morris, Darwin, Victorian museums and Dutch Still Lifes (be still my heart, again.)

Aside from looking at her own collection, she was able to study the collections from natural history museums - at the Rooms in St. John’s, the Redpath Museum in Montreal, and the Canadian Museum of Nature near Ottawa.

You can find a really great video of Helen’s process on You Tube. I’ve already watched it about 20 times. The exhibition continues until May 16.

You can read the Q & A in the National Post here. I think this is a condensed version. And P.S. Leah Sandals who wrote the article has a pretty cool blog.

Posting this link seems a little futile, since readers of this blog are few and far between. But if you’re reading this, please take the time to follow this link

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/09/margaret-atwood-birds-review

and read the article by Margaret Atwood.

It’s very important.

P.S. so important, I’m actually posting this while I’m at work…

Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris

Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris is filled with food. I’ve never read (gasp!) Chocolat (yet!), but I imagine that it was also filled with food, although of the sweeter kind. Five Quarters starts out sweet, then almost half way, gets dark and then darker and then a little mysterious. It’s about pleasure and repression. About family feuds past and present, innocence and experience, guilt, lies, and bold, fiesty hearts.

The writing is the best part. It’s simple but sumptuous and very real. And goes deliciously well with a stack of home made chocolate chip walnut cookies.

Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies (not to be eaten with lemons)