Magnificent Octopus

To stop and smell the roses in January in Montreal is to take a half-hour to walk the half-block from school to home. For a 6-year-old, it i...

Some days, I walk into bookstores and I buy things — books! On impulse! Just like that! Some days, I don't know why I do it. But some da...

I've been reading. I've been lost in my reading — in good ways and in bad. It started with The Savage Detectives . I started it over...

[...] Anyway, somewhere back there, a very small girl had fought for and won a cat who kept her days and nights company; and then she lost i...

Ham, anyone?

I came to bed late last night. J-F brings me a coffee this morning, and I try to talk out my predicament. "I'm having trouble with ...

We all know Canada's been reading for years; now Canada writes as well. This week Canada writes about your favourite song . I've a...

The moon ! Did you see the moon!?! Helena offers to show me the yoga positions she knows. She assembles herself into a lotus, palms together...

Really. Dumas is wonderful. And great in bed. I did finally finish The Last Cavalier late last year. The first couple hundred pages moved s...

Today I bought pink, jewel-encrusted shoes. (For my daughter.) Yesterday, we went to Narnia together. ( Here's how .)

Of all the islands he'd visited, two stood out. The island of the past, he said, where the only time was past time and the inhabitants w...

It is. I keep reminding myself. Was. Has been. Wonderful. I fully believed it a month ago, when the world first lay white at our feet, crowd...

That same day I saw him again. I spent all afternoon talking to Maria and then we went downtown to buy a scarf, I think, and we kept talking...

Behold the unholy Santy Claws and the TOE-nenbaum ! All profits from the sale of this book will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation® in Canada ...

All the witches were asleep on the grass, and so were Will and Lyra. But surrounding the two children were a dozen or more angels, gazing do...

...and with Helena. And with pomegranate. Recently someone asked me if I can cook, and spontaneously I answered, "Yes, of course!"...

On the whole, I'm starting to get poetry. I had a breakthrough this year, I thought. For a year and a half now, I've been smitten w...

Last week I woke up in a riding that holds the distinction of having elected to provincial parliament a member of Québec solidaire. I live a...

Stanislaw Lem, it turns out, is very funny. Imaginary Magnitude is a collection of introductions to nonexistent books. One of my favourite ...

Helena is frantic as we're gathering her things for school. Today's Thursday! It's chess club! She needs her folder! Where's...