Carol Shields has often said she writes the sort of books she wants to read. And since the long-time Winnipegger began writing at age 40 some 25 years ago, she's managed to fill a void for other readers as well, with poetry and eight novels and short story collections leading up to her latest book, Dressing Up For the Carnival.
Writers are the subjects in a handful of stories.
A middle-aged couple find their marriage in the doldrums after weather forecasters go on strike and they're faced with days on end of cloudless, sunless skies. And one story, Flatties, is devoted entirely to cataloguing the various types of bread-like food on a group of related islands. And always, there's a sense she's in fine tune with the minute pleasures and daily foibles that make up larger life. Having lived in Winnipeg since 1980, she taught at the University of Manitoba and was named chancellor of the University of Winnipeg in 1996. Click here for our Book Reviews .