Book News Vol. 5 No. 49

BOOK NEWS

AWARDS & LISTS

Miguel Syjuco has won the Quebec Writers' Federation prize for his debut novel, Ilustrado.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/miguel-syjuco-wins-quebec-writers-federation-prize-for-ilustrado/article1810662/

Patti Smith's Just Kids, a memoir of a youthful affair with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe has won the National Book Award for Non-fiction. Jaimy Gordon’s Lord of Misrule won the award for fiction. A complete list of award-winners and finalists in all categories is here:
http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2010.html

Valerie Wyatt's and Fred Rix's How To Build Your Own Country has won the Children's Literature Roundtables of Canada 2010 Information Book Award. Finalists and shortlisted titles:
http://vancouverchildrenslitroundtable.wordpress.com/information-book-award/

Stevie Cameron’s On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver's Missing Women and a new biography of late Montreal writer Mordecai Richler by Charles Foran are among the ten books longlisted for British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-fiction.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/17/bc-non-fiction-book.html

Scott Griffin, the founder of the Griffin Prize, has launched a new competition designed to revive the art of poetry recital among high school students. The bilingual Poetry in Voice competition will offer $10,000 in prizes to students in 2011.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/scott-griffin-launches-school-poetry-reading-competition/article1810722/

Annabel Lyon's lauded The Golden Mean is among the books short-listed for the Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction Award. The complete list of those nominated for the dubious distinction is here:
http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/badsex.html

NEWS & FEATURES

Thanks to Douglas and McIntyre’s production of 70,000 paperback copies of The Sentimentalists—in the stores this week—Gaspereau Press has returned to producing handprinted copies of the book.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/18/gaspereau-sentimentalists-giller.html

Laura Miller asks why the National Book Awards bar fairy tales. Are humanity’s favourite stories punished for their vaguely disreputable origins?
http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/index.html?story=/books/laura_miller/2010/11/16/fairy_tales

Jack Zipes explores why fairytales are immortal.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/why-fairy-tales-are-immortal/article1805784/

Nick Hornby is following the example of Dave Eggars and Roddy Doyle in opening his shop Ministry of Stories—plus the world's first supply store for monsters—all efforts to get kids writing again.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/18/nick-hornby-ministry-stories

John Crace calls Nick Hornby the "Everybloke of modern British fiction".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/17/nick-hornby-jamie-oliver

In The Novelist's Lexicon, published by Columbia University Press, 77 authors each come up with a single word that creates a window on their work. To be fair, a few cheat.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2010/11/nanowrimo-aid-the-novelists-lexicon.html

The most recent issue of Geist includes The Authoritative Field Guide to: Language Vermin, a comic by Sarah Leavitt. Learn how to identify a parasitic passive verb and other dangerous language vermin.
http://www.geist.com/comix/authoritative-field-guide-language-vermin

Kate Bittman explores what makes grownups love Harry Potter.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2010/11/adult-education-at-hogwarts.html

BOOKS & WRITERS

André Alexis writes that Paul Auster’s Sunset Park can be read as the chronicle of a community's rise and fall at a time when communities are disappearing or breaking down all over the United States. But there's more going on beneath the surface.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/sunset-park-by-paul-auster/article1796347/

Helena de Bertadano interviews Auster for The Telegraph.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/authorinterviews/8128941/Paul-Auster-interview.html

Tony Judt’s The Memory Chalet is a book to treasure, says Peter Preston.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/21/tony-judt-memory-chalet-review

Both the Globe and The Star focus this week on children’s literature. Deidre Baker focuses on three authors’ books that are, in part, about fishing.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/893962--tales-of-the-sea

Susan Perrin reviews seven books for children ages 0 to 9, ranging from fairy tales and bedtime poems, rude stories and more, including the origin of "the real McCoy".
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/childrens-books-the-best-of-the-current-crop/article1805865/

Maggie de Vries’ Hunger Journey is her first young-adult novel, and reviewer Marcy Shaw believes it will both entertain and teach teens about a part of Second World War history that is often forgotten.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Author+paints+picture+wartime+Holland+through+rich+characters/3858814/story.html

Tracy Sherlock writes that Myra Goldberg’s The False Friend explores the cruelty of pre-teen friendships in an honest and heartbreaking story.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Cruelty+teen+friendships+explored/3858816/story.html

Hans Keilson may be the greatest novelist we've never heard of. His Comedy in a Minor Key, written in 1947, is about to be released in England and his other books, translated into nine languages.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/21/hans-keilson-novelist-holocaust

Francine Prose describes Comedy as a masterpiece and its author, a genius.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/books/review/Prose-t.html?_r=1

Shilpi Somaya Gowda’s Secret Daughter is a runaway success story in Canadian publishing.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/895026--secret-daughter-a-runaway-success

Modern Canadian Poets: An Anthology, the most exhaustive and important anthology of Canadian poetry in two decades, according to Leah McLaren, was launched last week in Manchester. Ex-pats Todd Swift and Evan Jones, are on a mission to change the way the world sees Canadian poetry.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/leah-mclaren/rescuing-canadian-poetry-from-international-obscurity/article1806319/

Robert Buckman writes that in The Emperor of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee has written an interesting, and often absorbing, account of the most significant milestones in the history of cancer research and treatment. "He is a superb storyteller."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-emperor-of-all-maladies-a-biography-of-cancer-by-siddhartha-mukherjee/article1805916/

COMMUNITY EVENTS

HELEN PIDDINGTON
Author of Rumble Seat: A Victorian Childhood Remembered, tells the story her childhood growing up in the Victoria suburb of Esquimalt in the 1920s. Thursday, November 25 at 7:00pm, free. Capilano Branch Library, 3045 Highland Blvd. More information at 604-987-4471.

**POSTPONED** ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Gurjinder Basran and Jack Hodgins. Thursday, November 25 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Library/Bookstore Robson Square, Plaza level, 800 Robson Street. For more information, visit www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.

ATLANTIC/PACIFIC: AN EVENING OF POETRY
Readings by Judy Halebsky and Sandy Shreve. Thursday, November 25 at 7:30pm, free. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive.

MIKE MCCARDELL
Mike McCardell signs his newly released book Everything Works. Saturday, November 27 at 11:00am. Coles in Abbotsford (Seven Oaks Mall, 32900 S. Fraser Way, Abbotsford). For more information about the signing, phone Coles at 604-854-3233.

CITY OF LOVE AND REVOLUTION
Book launch of Lawrence Aronsen's account of the Sixties. Sunday, November 28 at 2:00pm, free. Free poster of the cover with every book purchase. Psychedelic artist and cover illustrator Bob Masse will be on hand to sign posters. Vancouver East Cultural Centre, 1895 Venables Street. More information at http://www.newstarbooks.com/news.php?news_id=40103.

WORDSTORM READING SERIES
Join Daniela Elza, Peter Morin, Shannon Rayne, and Kim Clark for a reading. Monday November 29 at 6:30pm, free. The Red Room Grill, 75 Front Street 1, Nanaimo. More information at http://www.wordstorm.ca.

DON GAYTON
Man Facing West is a story of commitment to the causes of peace, rural development, and ecology. Respected author Don Gayton chronicles an American childhood infused with guns, Republican politics and dissent. Monday, November 29 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting Room, Level 3, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information please contact VPL - Popular Reading Library at 604-331-3691.

VOGON POETRY SLAM AND VOG-OFF
Come to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe for our first-ever Vogon Poetry Competition. Ten of the universe's worst poems will be presented slam style for your pleasure (or not). Monday, November 29 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye Rooms, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.

ISLAND WRITER MAGAZINE
Come celebrate the launch of the Winter 2010 issue of Island Writer with readings from our published authors. Wednesday December 1 at 6:30pm. Oaklands Community Centre, 2827 Belmont Avenue (near Hillside Ave), Victoria. For further details see http://www.victoriawriters.ca.

BETTY LAMBERT TRIBUTE
Please join Anakana Schofield for a revisiting of Canadian playwright Betty Lambert's only published novel, Crossings (1979). Wednesday, December 1 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye Rooms, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.

AFTER CANAAN
Acclaimed poet Wayde Compton will launch his first book of essays, After Canaan, which "offers an alternative epistemology for thinking about race in Canada." Wednesday, December 1 at 8:00pm, free. The Brickhouse Late Nite Bistro & Bar, 730 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-687-4233.

EVERYTHING WORKS
Mike McCardell at two book signings for his newly released book, Everything Works. Saturday, December 4 at 11:00am at Save On Foods in Coquitlam (Pinetree Village, 2991 Lougheed Highway). Also at 3:00pm at Save On Foods in Surrey (South Point, 3033 152nd Avenue). For more information about the signing, phone Save On Foods at 604-552-1772 (Pinetree Village) or 604-538-7331 (Surrey).

Upcoming

AN EVENING OF POETRY
Join Bibiana Tomasic and Sandy Shreve reading from their latest works at Vancouver's newest independent bookstore. Wednesday, December 8 at 7:00pm. Sitka Books & Art, 2025 West 4th Avenue. More information at 604-734-2025 or http://www.sitkabooksandart.com.

ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Anna Swanson (The Nights Also) and Deborah Willis (Vanishing and Other Stories). Thursday, December 9 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Library/Bookstore Robson Square, Plaza level, 800 Robson Street. For more information, visit www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.

BOOK SIGNING
Vikram Vij, author of Vij's at Home and Evaleen Jaager Roy, author of Four Chefs One Garden are signing their new cookbooks. Saturday, December 11 at 12:00pm. Chapters Granville, 2505 Granville Street.