Summer is all about compromise and eating popsicles before
they melt. It might not be the best time—humidity kills ambition—to
pick up that 1,000-page tome you’ve been telling everyone you’re going
to read. The purists are gasping, but if Jane Austen can be torn apart
in terrible “chick” movies, why not let the undead have their turn? In
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Seth Grahame-Smith’s update to
the classic novel, the Bennets are also trained zombie-hunting
ninjas.
If you can’t figure out the right sun and page-turning balance, try
audio books. Once the domain of potboilers and self-help nuts, iPod
audio books are on iTunes in almost every genre: a random browse
returned Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart, This American
Life: The Cruelty of Children and Bend, Lick, Insert, Send,
brought to you by the helpful editors at Penthouse (hey, no one
will ever know).
Closer to home and much less skeezy, Rattling Books, a publisher
based out of Tors Cove, Newfoundland, has a fantastic series of audio
books called Ear Lits—collections of short stories from
popular Newfoundland writers like Joel Thomas Hynes, Kathleen Winter
and Russell Wangersky.
Fans of Rock-lit should also race out and grab a copy of Lisa
Moore’s wonderful new novel, February, and for those who still
get lusty over physical books, turn to Gaspereau Press and their
letterpress-printed jackets. Anne Simpson’s The Marram Grass is
perfect cottage material. In a series of essays Simpson makes
connections between her poetic process and the natural life around her
home in Antigonish. But if you prefer the great indoors, Annapolis
Valley Tastes, by former Five Fisherman sommelier Sean Buckland, is
a collection of recipes from Valley restaurants such as Tempest and the
Blomidon Inn. Considering this is the only time of year that tomatoes
don’t taste like shit, take advantage of the summer bounty and get
cooking.
This article appears in Jun 18-24, 2009.