Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, tonight we have a special edition of What’s On My Book Shelf as we explore not one BUT TWO shelves dans la bibliothèque de moi. It’s been a while since we took a peek at my taste in literature, and this edition is going to be a delightful treat for all the Can Lit fans out there. For yes, these two shelves hold (the majority of) my collection of Canadian Literature and Short Story Collections*!
Canadian short story writers are my favourites. Especially the women. Carol Shields, obviously, is the champion. But my ALL-TIME favourite short story is “boys growing” by Zsuzsi Gartner. I discovered it in Write Turns: New Directions in Canadian Fiction and have read it a hundred times. Every time I read it, I highlight another amazing passage.
But this one is the best:
He went for milk in the driving rain wearing only shorts and my trench coat, bare feet in Nikes, umbrella held so high above his head it did no good. I found this so endearing I would have chewed my right leg out of a steel trap to follow him if I had thought he wasn’t coming back. On all fours, my own blood puddling off my chin.
Hot chocolate and a thin jolt, then backgammon with our eyes wide open, skulls flaring like jack-o’-lanterns.
I lined up all the other dark-haired boys I’ve ever loved and shot them like ducks in an arcade.
Fadiman, Clifton. The World of the Short Story: 20th Century Collection.
Dudek, Louis. In Defence of Art.
Skene-Melvin, David. Crime in a Cold Climate: An Anthology of Classic Canadian Crime.
Atwood, Margaret. Cat’s Eye.
Shields, Carol. The Collected Stories.
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale.
Atwood, Margaret. Alias Grace.
Nicholson, Colin. Margaret Atwood: Writing and Subjectivity.
Atwood, Margaret. Payback.
Friedman, Elyse. Long Story Short.
Various. The Vancouver Stories: West Coast Fiction from Canada’s Best Writers.
Oates, Joyce Carol. On Boxing.
Wolfe, Morris and Daymond, Douglas. Toronto Short Stories.
Grady, Wayne. The Penquin Book of Modern Canadian Short Stories.
Lawrence, Margaret. The Stone Angel.
Lawrence, Margaret. The Tomorrow-Tamer.
Cohen, Leonard. Beautiful Losers.
Munro, Alice. Selected Stories.
Gibson, Graeme. The Bedside Book of Birds.
Nicholson, Colin. Margaret Atwood: Writing and Subjectivity. (yes, I have two)
Atwood, Margaret. Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature.
Harris, Florence A. A Packet of Prose.
Richard, Rohmer. Separation Two.
Grove, Frederick Philip. Consider Her Ways.
Shields, Carol. The Stone Diaries.
Leacock, Stephen. Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich.
Maclennan, Hugh. Two Solitudes.
Various. Write Turns: New Directions in Canadian Fiction.
Remnick, David. The New Gilded Age: The New Yorker Looks at the Culture of Affluence.
Brown, Ian. What I Meant To Say: The Private Lives of Men.
Heilpern, John. John Osborne: The Many Lives of the Angry Young Man.
Crosbie, Lynn. Click: Becoming Feminists.
Smith, Patricia Juliana. The Book of Gay & Lesbian Quotations.
Sawyer, Robert J. Identity Theft.
Chong, Denise. The Penguin Anthology of Stories by Canadian Women.
Gallant, Mavis. Home Truths.
Munro, Alice. The Moons of Jupiter.
Bök, Christian and Atwood, Margaret. Ground Works: Avant-Garde For Thee.
Various. The Common Sky: Canadian Writers Against The War.
Scobie, Stephen. Intricate Preparations: Writing Leonard Cohen.
Grobel, Lawrence. Endangered Species: Writers Talk About Their Craft, Their Visions, Their Lives.
Berry, Michelle and Caple, Natalee. The Notebooks: Interviews and New Fiction from Contemporary Writers.
Dewdney, Christopher. Acquainted With The Night.
Sullivan, Rosemary. Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen.
Weaver, Robert. Canadian Short Stories.
Crane, Milton. 50 Great Short Stories.
Shields, Carol and Anderson, Marjorie. Dropped Threads: What We Aren’t Told.
Anderson, Marjorie. Dropped Threads 3: Beyond the Small Circle.
Sherman, Jason. Canadian Brash: New Voices in Fiction, Drama, Poetry.
McClymont, Christine. Something to Declare: Selections from International Literature.
Atwood, Margaret. Surfacing.
*Please note: I am normally quite OCD about arranging my library, but unfortunately I never seem to have the shelf space to keep the subjects completely together. So there exists three shelves of randoms that drive me crazy but I am forced to live with. I assume these three will be my final WOMBH posts! I’m sure you find this très exciting.
And yes, I had a lovely Friday night writing this post, playing with my books, drinking a Coors Light, and blasting The Signal on CBC Radio 2.
To quote myself: “Nerd Alert!”
Enjoy,
x