Saleema Nawaz's Blog, page 5

It's curtains for this one

The home improvements have been continuing. On Tuesday night we put up some curtains we'd purchased on the weekend, along with the hardware to put them up. 

The first photo is at a different angle from the one below because this isn't technically a 'Before' shot, but rather a photo I took with me when shopping for the curtains in the first place. I'm great at visualizing things (even people, places, events) that don't exist, but when it comes to reality, photos are safest. 

You can see some empty boxes I'd left in the window to hide the gap between the end of the blind and the windowsill. I don't want to tell you how long those boxes have been there. (Actually, I don't want to tell you how long it took me to realize how clearly you can see right into the room from the street below through that little six-inch gap.)

Before: messy, curtainless room

After: curtains! Here they are open.
The curtains do the same thing that the new wall of pictures above the couch did instantly, which is make the tiny space feel larger by drawing the eyes up. Plus they increase the coziness factor by, like, literally a billion!

And here: closed! And with my writing table a little bit back to its usual clutter.
I've been enjoying them every time I come in and out of the room, not to mention at night and in the early morning. This little alcove where I do my writing is attached to our bedroom, and while these aren't blackout curtains, they definitely keep out a lot more light than what was seeping in before. 

Progress, bit by bit

Bit by bit, that's how things get done. This weekend I framed and hung a bunch of pictures on a previously blank wall:


I also put up a mirror that has been sitting in our powder room for weeks!

A bunch of furniture we’d purchased over the holidays was delivered (now we have CHAIRS around our dining room table! AND a coffee table which isn’t just the piano bench dragged back and forth between piano and couch). Tables might not sound thrilling, but they really are when you’ve gone without for six months.

We also had the opportunity to go see the Habs playing the Blackhawks…


and the Habs won!


Am I lucky or what?

There were a few projects I didn’t get to, but headway was made on a few: curtains and curtain rod purchased for our bedroom, if not yet installed, and a story outlined – if not yet finished. I also dug into The Little Friend (Donna Tartt's second novel) and watched a little TV but not too much (Girls is back!). And here's another great link about why reading novels is good for you...(it boosts brain function for days). All the more reason to carve out some reading time in your week if you're not doing this already!

Holiday 2013 and the ice storm at Glen Villa

(A belated word on my holiday, as I wrote this last week but have only just now started looking at my photos.) 
A number of things on my holiday to-do list remained undone (going to the movies, various home improvements), but the important things got done, such as reading and writing. I read a LOT and started a new story. We even managed to be a little bit social with two birthday outings and a New Year’s Eve Party.  And we kicked off the break by hosting one teeny tiny holiday gathering where eggnog was consumed (and I learned again: never drink eggnog) where we truly got in the holiday spirit.

We also went snowshoeing once out in the Eastern Townships, where the ice storm had wrought its beautiful damage. It was hard to stop taking photos. These were all taken around 4 p.m., as the light was starting to fade.








I clicked something on my phone and accidentally empowered Google to 'auto-awesome' my photos whenbacking them up and somehow I got this gif! But I like it.

My favourite book of 2014

There’s something wonderful and terrible about finishing what you’re sure will be your favourite book of 2014 on January 2nd. That’s when I finished The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.


It’s wonderfully Dickensian, and I loved it from the first page. I had to force myself to put it down now and then so that I wouldn’t finish it too quickly. It’s hard not to feel that an ~800 page book ought to last longer than two days.

Read it!

More Best of 2013

It was lovely to see a mention of Bone and Bread in Cult Montreal's Best Books of 2013!

There was a great review in Cult Mo ntreal that I never got around around to mentioning back in the spring, as well as a little profile in the March print issue, which I'll post if I can track down my copy.

Cult Montreal is the free alt-weekly that has risen from the ashes of the former Montreal Mirror.  It is a labour of love and I love that it exists!   

100 Blog Posts and Other New Year's Resolutions

It was hard to separate this year’s resolutions from actual goals, but along with the general resolution to write more this year than last year (very doable, I think), I've resolved to finish one specific project and make a start on another. (I’d love to undertake more than this, and I might, but these two at least seem within the realm of reality.)

Another goal is to write 100 blog posts in 2014. In 2013, I blogged more than I ever have before, with 88 posts, but there were still many months where I barely wrote at all. I’m aiming to do better in 2014 and I think it’s possible. Blogging was a great outlet for me last year, as well as a good way of supplementing my disastrous memory and giving me a feeling of accomplishment that is often hard to find when one is working on lengthy projects.

Other resolutions include not buying chips (note: not not eating chips…that seems too harsh…so you may see me standing outside a dépanneur clutching a five-dollar bill and coaxing passersby to help me out) and eating out less in general, both of which I’m feeling pretty optimistic about.

Another goal is to take a photo every day this year -- a goal I've had each of the last five years (or longer!) and which I've failed at every time. Not this year, though. At least if I don't have anything to say for 100 posts, there should at least be some pictures...
 
So what if they're all selfies, right?

Canada AM's Favourite Books of 2013!

I'm grateful to my mom and friends on Facebook for pointing this out to me -- Bone & Bread was mentioned as one of Canada AM's Favourite Books of 2013! Books producer Katie Jamieson discussed it on the show the other morning along with some other amazing titles. (Did you know they featured 144 books on the show this year?!) My mom is visiting family in Nova Scotia at the moment and saw the segment as it aired and called to leave me a very nice message (my phone was off because I was still asleep!), and if I'm not mistaken she sounded a little choked up. Awww. Thanks so much, Canada AM, for facilitating some spontaneous parental pride! 

If you follow the link below, you can watch the clip and see all the featured books (Bone & Bread is mentioned first, if you want to hear what they say about it):
http://canadaam.ctvnews.ca/video?binId=1.1195618           It's not the first video that will start playing, but you can select it from the available clips in the library underneath.

2013: Year in Review

It has been a crazy year. And so much has happened, I feel like I’ve blogged about 50% of it. Maybe 2014 will be quieter and I'll spend the next 12 months just catching up.
Some of the big things:
I changed jobs (back to my old job, but still)My book came outWe renovated our new apartment (note: this was happening concurrently with both of the above)We had a major fire in our old apartment, where we were still livingWe moved in (temporarily) with my in-lawsWe moved into our new homeI travelled all over for writers festivals and other book-related events: Montreal, Ottawa, Eden Mills, Toronto, Winnipeg, Kingston, Victoria, and VancouverI won a prize! 
I blogged more than I ever have, and I read more, too. There were a lot of other things I wish I'd accomplished (more writing, for one), but as I keep reminding myself, this was an unusually busy year. I can't be too upset that I haven't finished unpacking all of my boxes or hanging all my pictures. I had a lot of commitments, as well as all the necessary preparation and pre-event anxiety that inevitably accompanies them. 
2013 book-related stuff by the numbers, as far as I can remember:

2 CEGEP talks2 library talks 2 book launches (MTL and TO) 1 public lecture 9 writers festival events2 other miscellaneous public readings 2 book club visits 1 awards ceremony1 gala2 TV appearances3 radio spots10 (?) interviews3 cover photos 6 photo shoots 1 nearly nude fundraising calendar

When I remember that all of this was alongside working full-time and moving (twice! kind of), I'm inclined to go a little easier on myself. I really am so lucky to have had all of these opportunities to  promote Bone and Bread, and I hope that I haven't let the book down in this regard. There are writers who are so much better at talking about their books, and just better at talking, period, that it's hard not to feel like one is constantly letting down one's novel. I hope that this is something one can get better at over time.
2013 really has been a year of highs and lows (though mostly highs). Notable best moments were the winning the QWF Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, the Arcade Fire show at Salsatheque on 9/9/9 (!!!!! times a billion), the Ottawa Writers Festival, and my trip out west to Victoria and Vancouver (if ten days can be lumped into 'moments'). 
Worst moments include the fire, losing my grandmother, and some other passing moments of doubt and insecurity that aren't worth dwelling on.  
Actually, the fire was a kind of mixed lowlight and highlight in that I've never felt more overwhelmed by kindness than I was through the generous messages and offers of help we received in its aftermath. It's probably counterintuitive for a disaster to make one feel safer, but it really kind of did. And it made me feel so grateful for what we have and for the amazing people that we know.  
I haven't made my resolutions for 2014 yet, but among them I'm definitely going to include some non-book-related travel and a lot of writing. I also need to listen to more new music and go to more shows, so any suggestions on these fronts are very welcome...
Happy New Year, everyone!

Books I read in 2013

This year is the first year I've ever kept a list of the books I read, mostly thanks to joining Goodreads last December.  I took an inordinate amount of pleasure in tracking my progress in the 2013 Reading Challenge, for which I set a modest goal of 34 books. Modest --- and at the same time more than what I would probably have read in years past. It's hard to tell for sure, though, since I've never kept a list. 

Once I saw that I was on track for reading fifty books, I joined the 50 Book Pledge site, which has a very satisfying shelf graphic. 

You can see what I read here.
The list doesn't truly reflect the number of pages read in 2013.  I didn't include rereads as part of the count, which this year tended to be Victorian novels that I read here and there on my phone (it seems wrong not to count Dickens, even as a reread, but there you go). There are also some books (four or five) I abandoned halfway, which obviously are not part of the list either. A few of these abandonments were only because I lost track of the book in our multiple moves, so as soon as I find them they will likely make an appearance on my 2014 list!
A few of the books I read this year
The list is endlessly fascinating to me (a few of these titles I would have forgotten if I hadn't recorded them), and in case you're interested in the breakdown, too, it's as follows:
By genre:



4 poetry collections4 short story collections4 memoirs4 graphic novels7 children's/YA books27 novels 
By nation:
21 Canadian15 American13 UK1 Japanese
By gender:
16 titles by 12 men34 titles by 30 women
And which was my favourite? Well, to tell you the truth, it's easier to pinpoint the disappointments. The newest Bridget Jones novel, for instance, was a let-down, though it was a decent enough companion during an endless flight delay. My Sister's Keeper, too, was generic in the ways you'd expect (though truly a page turner, in that I literally read it in a day). The Agatha Christie novel is probably the worst of hers I ever remember reading (maybe I should have stopped when I noticed the dedication to her dog), and the Neil Gaiman book, while interesting and genuinely a little frightening (!) is something I somewhat regret buying in hardcover. I seem to have petered out on the Jasper Fforde Thursday Next series, but only after the fourth book. I couldn't stop talking about the first three. 
The Interestings stands out among the novels I enjoyed the most in 2013, maybe partially due to length, as I spent some time with it. I remember loving Juliet, Naked and finding it hilarious, though at this point I couldn't tell you what it was about! In terms of contemporary novels, Malarky and Our Woman has probably lingered the longest in my memory, especially considering I read it in January. The Juliet Stories, too, was beautifully written and has stayed with me in unexpected ways. I sobbed throughout most of the astounding February, and The Fault in Our Stars made me cry a little, too. It pretty much lives up to the hype. The Wayne Johnston novels both made me laugh and laugh, as did Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple. 
The book I may have been quoted as saying I wished would never end is The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett, who not only wrote beloved children's books (including my all-time favourite A Little Princess) but a number of books for adults, as well. From a (guilty pleasure?) narrative point of view, this one truly has it all: rags-to-riches, romance, a murderous plot, all wrapped up in a delightful Victorian package. Even writing about it kind of makes me want to read it again.  
My best discovery of the year is Margaret Drabble, whom I've never read before. I also read my first Judy Blume! (My mother confiscated the only one I'd ever started.) I'm sure I'll read more. 
I also liked how many funny books I read this year. I might not look like a very diverse reading list (certainly it pales in comparison to those of many librarians and reviewers and full-time writers I know, especially in terms of numbers), but many of these books were outside of what I might normally have read in the past (Serious Canadian Novels). 
Most of all, this year I read almost entirely for pure enjoyment (not to bolster something I was working on, or for a panel or for a review I needed to write, etc.), and I really loved almost all of it. Even the handful of books I didn't love were still pretty okay (say, three-star books). Just looking at this list makes me pretty happy about 2013.
I'm not sure what goals I have for next year, though I'm tempted to say Read Exactly Whatever I Want. (This remains, to date, the greatest thing about not being in school. I still savour this freedom, even after having it for so long.) It would be nice to read a little bit more poetry, as I'm always really happy when I'm in the middle of a collection. I also wouldn't mind reading one really great non-fiction book that isn't a memoir.
What are your reading goals for 2014?

Snow, reading, holidays

Not much is happening here except for this....

 There is a lot of snow.
I took this photo of our street last week some time (and, rather pathetically, almost slipped and fell down the stairs in the process). Since then, it has snowed the same amount three times over. Yesterday, neighbours with snowblowers were out in force in the back alley, while neighbours without snowblowers hailed and cajoled them or blessed their all-wheel drive.

It took some doing, but we finally got our tree up last week! There are even a few presents under it.

 Our tree!
Today is my last day at work, and I'm looking forward to our first Christmas in our new home. And to heading out to North Hatley for more family time, and some time for snowy walks and cozy reading, too. I complained on Twitter that Goodreads sent me an email congratulating me on having read 45 books this year. But I plan on making it to 50! It's not the end of the year yet, Goodreads! This weekend I finished another, which leaves four to finish before the end of the month. The one I mention here, in this round-up of what the McGill community will be reading over the holidays, I likely won't start until January. And it will probably give me a less impressive total for 2014.
What are you planning to read over the holidays?