On February fourth I'm going to be guest blogging and doing a Q & A on the Teens Read Too Book Club blog. I'll be checking in there throughout the day so if you have a question drop by and post it for me. Anyone who comments will be entered into a draw to win an advance reader copy of The Lighter Side of Life and Death. This is the very first Lighter Side contest which is pretty exciting stuff. It feels like it's on its way to becoming a real live book!

There's a groundswell of anger rolling across this country. Canadians aren't taking Prime Minister Harper's prorogation of parliament lying down. They're contacting our Governor General (who approved the temporary suspension over the telephone this time!) and their local MPs to voice their disapproval and they're planning protests—nation wide. When I joined the Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament Facebook group last night at around nine o'clock it had already soared to 48,000 members and now stands at 67,000 strong and growing fast.

It's been one short year since our last proroguement (Stephen has a nasty habit of running scared when times get tough for his Conservative government) but Canucks have run out of patience with the tactic. In an interview Harper told CBC-TV correspondent Peter Mansbridge that Canadians aren't concerned “about allegations that the government engaged in a cover-up over the abuse of Afghan detainees.” Nope, he's confident that we're fixating solely on the recession. The same recession he tried to deny was in progress for as long as humanly possible. It's pretty clear that Stephen Harper would prefer if the citizens of this country didn't concern themselves with much of anything and just let him throw his weight around. Democracy! Such an inconvenient thorn in Stephen's side!

Read comedian Rick Mercer's incisive thoughts on the matter:

* Proroguing is for children (and Stephen Harper)

and then, if you want to show our Prime Minister he's wrong, and that we are indeed concerned about the torture of Aghan detainees and Harper's obvious contempt for democracy, join the Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament Facebook group and prepare to protest in a city near you on January 23rd. In the meanime, if you want to tell the Governor General you're pissed with her decision email her at:

* info@gg.ca

* and then fire an email off to your local MP. If you're not sure who your representative is you can find the info here.

Last week, to work out some of my prorogation frustration, I did my habitual anti-Harper blogging and took the Billy Bragg message “The revolution is just a T-shirt away” to heart and designed, along with Paddy, a suitable Emperor Harper T-shirt for myself and a few other folks. If you happen to want one I've made the profit margin on these a big fat zero so the only folks making any $ on this will be the ones at CafePress. Here's the front image:

And the back:

I've made it available in a few different styles and will leave the design up on CafePress for the duration of the proroguement, which, if the people reclaim power in this country, hopefully won't be long!

A little ditty for our power-hungry PM, from the citizens he purports to represent:

I know it's a wee bit early to start talking about favourite 2010 books and hell, I actually finished reading This World We Live In during the final days of 2009 but I'm confident that come the end of this freshly started year I'll still be raving about this no holds barred YA novel about the continuing struggle for life in a world forever changed.

If you've read Susan Beth Pfeffer's previous two meteor books, Life As We Knew It and The Dead and the Gone, like me you're probably already hooked on Pfeffer's vision of the earth ravaged by a sudden and permanent change in the moon's orbit after its struck by a meteor.

In This World We Live In we learn what became of Miranda, the main character from Life As We Knew It, and The Dead and the Gone's Alex. During the course of the novel both teenagers struggle with responsbilities and haunting choices they could scarcely have imagined before the planetary tragedy.

Death and destruction are all around. The sun no longer shines. Food is scarce and may stop showing up in Miranda's hometown any week now. Scavenged soap is a luxury. Safe cities (where vestiges of civilization like hospitals still exist) are few and space in them is reserved for those with connections. Can family ties survive in a world like this? Can genuine new love take root?

Susan Beth Pfeffer is fearless in what she reveals about characters we've already come to care about and the nightmare realities of a broken and bloody world. This isn't a story for the faint of heart but I highly recommend it to everyone else. If you can handle it, This World We Live In will be one of the best things you read all year.

Out February 17th!

Today I'm one of the guests celebrating the season over at Reading is Bliss (Thanks, Jill!):

Christmas 1993: Faraway & So Close

I flash back to a Christmas I spent in Dublin in 1993 and you can enter to win a prize pack consisting of a signed paperback of I Know It's Over, a signed hardcover of One Lonely Degree and a Lighter Side of Life and Death journal.

***

I also want to say a big congrats to Sherri L. Smith whose fabulous YA book Flygirl, about a young African American girl training to be a WWII pilot, was named one of the six best books for teens by The Washington Post. Would make a terrific Christmas present and while you're at it, pick up Sparrow by Sherri too. I liked Kendall so much that I keep hoping there'll be a Sparrow sequel!

Christmas is coming up fast and inevitably I'll be spending less time blogging (and more time watching Christmas movies, listening to my favourite holiday music, eating the chocolate and cinnamon chip cookies I plan to bake today and hopefully figuring out how to kill yet more angry giant insects in Wii game Escape From Bug Island).

Although you won't see me around here as often I'll be making appearances on other blogs during the holiday season. You can catch up with me here:

December 18: Reading is Bliss - Guest Blog
December 23: Juiciliciousss Reviews - Interview
TBA: Books Obsession - Interview

And now I have to get back to listening to that magical Pretenders tune. It's true, it's colder day by day. And listening to Chrissie Hynde sing about diamonds in the snow makes me love that.

Canadian Our Lady Peace fans probably already know that they're doing an extremely cool Canadian tour this coming March through May where they'll play the Clumsy and Spiritual Machines albums in their entirety on 2 separate nights. The second set will be a selection of songs from their other albums.

As if that's not exciting enough their Toronto dates are at my favourite T.O. venue, Massey Hall. The only trouble is, how to choose between such two amazing albums. And so I pored over the albums and what it came down to is, I can't miss the chance to see OLP sing the song Clumsy live. Maybe they'll play it on the Spiritual Machines night anyway, but well, if I have to choose I've gotta go with the sure thing.

And what about 4 AM for that matter? Can't miss that either. Automatic Flowers. Superman's Dead...But hey, how about Life, In Repair and Right Behind You from Spirtual Machines. Do you see the torture I've been dealing with this morning!

I was an OLP fan before One Lonely Degree but writing about main character Finn and her feelings about Our Lady Peace actually made me an even bigger one and now I can't really hear the band without thinking about her. I almost wouldn't be surprised to see her at the Massey Hall gig in March and, you know, I bet she has better tickets than me and is going both nights. One of the big questions this gives rise to is, who would Finn be at the concert with? I'm going to scope out the first few rows in front of the stage and take a close look at the redheads to see if I can figure out the answer. If anyone catches sight of her on the Spiritual Machines night let me know!

* Read more about OLP's Canadian tour and next album on Chart Attack

* Finn Kavanagh of One Lonely Degree writes about Our Lady Peace on Shooting Stars Mag before the release of Burn, Burn last May.