Hey Malarek!

Shortly before we bumped into Amanda and Charles in the Market, Stephen and I, walking on Wellington, ran into Victor Malarek. He's in town for a visit. Malarek is one of my heros. (okay, that's enough name dropping for one day.)
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Can you take it? It's a heavy dose of books in the Citizen's arts & books section today: opens with piece on CBC's Canada Reads; James MacGowan has some words and praise for author Kenneth J. Harvey's new novel, Inside; a review of Timothy Taylor's 2nd novel, Story House; some brief notes on several books in Hot Type section; and just in time for the Easter holidays, four books on mathematics you might consider giving to your kids to read over the long weekend...not. Oh yes, one more name drop...the Blog About Town column features several suggested events during the upcoming Writers Festival. (Oh, and I figure an Ernest Hemingway reference or two couldn't hurt.)
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Ottawa poet rob mclennan called my Bonanza photo mash-up (seen below) 'smarmy'. I completely agree. Smarmy fits. Last week, by the way, he sold me a copy of name , an errant his latest book of poetry all the way from the UK. It's published by Stride. You don't really have to wait for it to arrive from the mother country, just ask rob for a copy when you see him at the fest. I like the one called Ottawa. Here's the first section complete with jwcurry reference:

where I live in a (former) brothel

give it, all___________ you cant

each city a chinatown, each chinatown
a small borough
________________curry above
& rice below, a sometimes
sleepy bed

______________& asphalt back

puts a cigarette out in the ground

__(light bulbs the garden)
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okay, one last name dropping tidbit:
Broadcaster and book lover Nigel Beale (aka Ben Cartwright) is a hit with Richard Charkin of http://charkinblog.macmillan.com. Mr. Charkin is the Chief Executive at Macmillan's UK office, and two of Mr. Beale's interviews are featured on Charkin's latest book blog entry.