Wendy E. Middleton

I can't wait for the third book in this trilogy, Sep 24 2009

In 1972, Margaret Atwood published Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature, in which she proposed that Canadian literature to that point had been based on the need to survive, whether against nature or against human opposition. Thirty-seven years later, Atwood has defended her thesis by making literal survival the entire goal of the characters in The Year of the Flood. We follow two main characters, Toby and Ren, who have managed to survive, by their isolation, the waterless flood, a plague affecting most human beings. However, to continue to survive, they need to get out of their safe houses and out into the dangerous, and possibly infected, world.
Both Toby and Ren are… Read more

It left me wanting more and less, May 30 2009

The writer honoured this year at the Blue Metropolis Literary Festival in Montreal was A.S. Byatt, and she launched her latest novel there. Other people compared this novel to Possession, Byatt's best known novel. I liked this novel, but I don't think it will be the best I read this year. It is a sprawling story spanning the years from 1895 to the end of World War I. Also there is a large cast of characters, including Olive Wellwood, a children's writer, who writes personal books for each of her seven children. The families of the children's cousins and friends are also part of the story, and as the children grow up, they start to get individual plotlines. However, at times Byatt… Read more

I loved this CD/DVD collection, Feb 6 2009

The title of this retrospective collection of Paul Simon's solo work is absolutely accurate. The two CDs cover much of Simon career after he left Art Garfunkel. The real strengths are in his earlier work up until Graceland, his masterpiece album. Some of his later work for film and stage are more simplistic. The three tracks from his Broadway musical, The Capeman, explain why the run of the show was curtailed. Simon is obviously a musical genius, but at times his lyrics can be silly, and some of the later songs demonstrate this weakness. However, those final songs are outnumbered by so many great hits like "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover", "Me and Julio", "Mother and Child Reunion", "You… Read more