flowers or Valium?

The title of this post is something funny K said to V in her piano lesson last week, when asking her if a chord was major or minor.  K is a brilliant pianist, choir director extraordinaire, and gifted piano teacher.  It is amazing to see him inspire and coax out the gifts of two people who, before the fall, could not even really read music.  Sometimes on Tuesdays, I end up having a mini-nap during V’s lesson (Tuesday evenings, like Friday evenings, are sometimes characterized by the compounded exhaustion of too many late night-early mornings in a row), but it’s so much more fun to be energized and puttering about the apartment and listening to everyone’s progress in the background.  Last night I made supper to this pleasant musical backdrop (including a salad that was a hit…hurray), and we ate together after everyone was finished. 

Randomly, around our kitchen:

 The inspirational scrap of paper was torn from an eclectic 

loot bag that also featured a life-sized neon gummi mouse.

The jury for the 2013 Giller Prize was announced this morning: Margaret Atwood, Esi Edugyan, and Jonathan Lethem. I think it’s a wonderful combination, though I truly can’t imagine the kind of list they’ll come up with as a team.  Something inspired and eclectic, no doubt!  Somehow I still haven’t read any of Jonathan Lethem’s novels, but I really enjoyed his book of essays The Disappointment Artist.  

Giller longlist

What does everyone think of the Giller longlist this year?  I have heard it described as both uninteresting and astonishing, but I am having a hard time deciding what I think given that I have not yet read any of the books -- nor have I read most of the books that people are surprised not to see there. So it's hard for me to have an opinion which is in any way, say....valid.

I already wanted to read the Katrina Onstad book, and now I am also pretty excited to take a look at Y by Marjorie Celona  (Mark Medley calls it the Book of the Fall!  Plus it sounds 100% up my alley.)