pickIn 90's Edmonton, Molly MacGregor dreams of a life worthy of her adored Penguin Classics and of writing The Great Canadian/Edmontonian Novel. But summers selling shoes at West Edmonton Mall and semesters with pretentious English Lit profs don't seem to be cutting it. But this year, she just might find truth and beauty in the place she finds herself.
Charming, witty, and thoroughly delightful. I loved spending time with Molly. Highly recommend!
"Last night, I found myself perusing the shelves in our family library the way one might gaze reflectively into the refrigerator looking for that perfect bedtime snack."
"What's weirder," Eugenie asked, "that Maureen has so many shoe-store guys after her or that they're all named Gordon?"
"Being surrounded by Gordons does seem to be a distinctly Canadian occurrence."
#InGordWeTrust #CanLit
It's possible I have too many books checked out from the library at the moment....
I like to think Miss Austen would have liked Motown. I do wonder, however, if all the Miss Austen novels I‘ve read and all the Motown songs I‘ve sung have given me a messed-up sense of what love is.
Last night, I found myself perusing the shelves of our family library the way one might gaze reflexively into the refrigerator looking for that perfect bedtime snack. My literary needs, I realized, are not unlike Canada‘s Food Guide. On any given day, I need the equivalent of 6-11 servings of fiction, 3-5 servings of late-18th-century novels by women, & at least 2-4 servings of Jane Austen just to feel healthy.
pickA sweet, funny novel with a sharp sense of human nature. Between semesters, university student Molly MacGregor works at Le Petit Chou Shoe Shop in West Edmonton Mall. Time to put away the Victorian novels she loves and focus instead on “tutorials for advanced shelving techniques.” As she bumbles along, hoping to someday write the great Canadian prairie gothic novel, she turns to Jane Austen characters for their advice on life & love. #CanLit
Maybe I should start wearing a toque now as a signal to the world that “I am doomed to a life that is antithetical to romance and beauty.”
(Photo: I scrolled to the first image I found with a toque. I disagree with Molly—I will love toques forever.)
I have retired to my room in an indignant huff, and will spend the evening with Miss Austen helping Marianne recover from her Willoughby-inspired heartbreak. Sometimes, I think I am only understood by fictional characters.
“There are times, like perfect May days when lilacs are in bloom, when I wonder why there are no lovely poems about Edmonton.” (From tagged book)
Photo: Me, leading 50 people in a poetry walk in downtown Edmonton in which we stopped at various places which had been immortalized in poetry; and where volunteers read the poems aloud. The lovely poems HAVE been written, Molly.
Why did he have to get me a book? When someone gives you flowers, at least you know what they‘re thinking: red roses, they love you. Pink ones, they like you. Yellow roses, they think you‘re nice. Daisies, they think you‘re cute. Carnations. Well, either they don‘t realize you shouldn‘t send carnations to a girl you like, or they‘ve given you the floral brush-off.
(Internet photo)
I just looked up consumption in my dad‘s Encyclopedia Britannica. Consumption is just another word for tuberculosis. Suddenly consumption doesn‘t seem romantic at all. The Encyclopedia Britannica is inconclusive about whether boredom can be an actual cause of death. I fear I may find out by the end of summer.
(Internet photo)
Molly of the Mall: Literary Lass & Purveyor of Fine Footwear | 
