Book News Vol. 6 No. 7

BOOK NEWS

Incite @ VPL

The next installment of Incite (http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/readingseries) will feature Steven Galloway interviewing Alexander MacLeod and readings by Gabriella Goliger and Théodora Armstrong.

7:30 pm on Wednesday, February 23
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incitefebruary23
Admission is free
Alice MacKay room, Central Library

Let us know you're coming by registering here, http://incitevpl.eventbrite.com. Please note that registration is so that we know how many people to expect. Admission on the night is always on a first-come-first-served basis.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Jodi Picoult - March 13, 2011
The bestselling author of My Sister's Keeper will read from her new novel, Sing You Home, accompanied by guitarist Ellen Wilber. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/picoult.

Howard Jacobson - April 13, 2011
The Finkler Question is a scorching story of friendship and loss, exclusion and belonging, and of the wisdom and humanity of maturity. Funny, furious, unflinching, this extraordinary novel shows one of our finest writers at his brilliant best. Presented in partnership with the Jewish Book Festival. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/jacobson.

Simon Winchester - April 18, 2011
The bestselling author of Krakatoa, returns to the natural world with his epic new book, a "biography" of the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories. http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/winchester.

Elizabeth Hay & Miriam Toews - May 5, 2011
Two of Canada's most acclaimed and beloved writers will discuss their new books, Alone in the Classroom and Irma Voth. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/haytoews.

AWARDS & LISTS

Anna Porter has won the 2011 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing for her book Ghosts of Europe, an examination of democracy in Central Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/02/16/shaughnessy-cohen-prize-for-political-writing-announces-winner/

The £50,000 Warwick prize for writing—one of Britain's richest, and certainly strangest, books prizes—has announced its shortlist, pitting poetry against anthropology, politics, science and fiction.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/11/prize-books-about-colour-shortlist

P.E.I. poet Tanya Davis was commissioned to write and read a poem in honour of the athletes at the opening ceremonies of the Canada Games in Halifax last week.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2011/02/10/pei-davis-canada-games-584.html

The winning Jackpine Sonnet is by Monica Kidd, a physician in St. John's Nfld. for her poem A Large Stake, which can be found here.
http://www.geist.com/poetry/large-stake

Five emerging writers of promise are this year's finalists for the Sami Rohr Prize in Jewish Literature, a $100,000 prize for best Jewish literature.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/02/finalists-for-sami-rohr-prize-for-jewish-literature.html

Charles Foran's biography Mordecai: The Life and Times is the 2011 winner of the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/in-other-words/charles-foran-wins-charles-taylor-prize/article1906370/

NEWS & FEATURES

Vit Wagner describes the experience of serving on a jury for a major literary award, in this instance, the Charles Taylor Prize.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/936057--the-charles-taylor-prize

Here are thumbnail sketches, with jury comments, on the five finalists for the $25,000 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, awarded Monday.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/937654--it-s-a-fact-charles-taylor-prize-contenders

Paul Laity interviews Edmund de Waal about his pottery, how he managed his ceramic projects and writing at the same time, and how his inheritance of netsuke led to his writing the 2011 Costa Award-winning The Hare with Amber Eyes.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/12/edmund-waal-life-profile-interview

The NY Times offers a preview of an essay by Robyn Cresswell on the cultural revolution in Egypt.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/books/review/Creswell-t.html?_r=1&nl=books&emc=booksupdateemb4&pagewanted=print

The Paris Review will be running Roberto Bolaño's "lost novel" as a serial in four issues, over the course of a year. Titled The Third Reich, the first installment will appear in the Paris Review's spring issue.http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/02/lost-roberto-bolano-story-to-appear-in-the-paris-review.html

The Guardian has an extract of an essay by the travel writer Paul Theroux on his experience as an alien living in Britain. The full essay will appear in Granta 114: Aliens.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/13/paul-theroux-this-was-england

The San Francisco Chronicle elaborates on the Caldecott and Newberry medal winners announced last month.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/28/RVU01HE004.DTL&type=books

British author Martin Amis created an uproar when he said, during an interview, "If I had a serious brain injury I might well write a children's book".
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/amis-irsquod-write-for-children-only-if-id-had-a-brain-injury-2212493.html

Macy Halford responds in the New Yorker's Weekly Reader.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/02/weekly-reader-february-5thfebruary-11th-2011.html

Russell Smith comes to Amis' defence.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/russell-smith/kid-lit-authors-get-over-yourselves-amis-has-a-point/article1910155/

Adam Clark Estes writes that "Malcolm Gladwell, the zany-haired Canadian who loves to write bestsellers, just got meme-ified." Comedy writer Cory Bortnicker has designed a simple template that lets you apply Malcolm Gladwell's wisdom to pretty much everything."
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2011/02/08/malcolm_gladwell_book_generator

Adam Gopnik reviews a series of books explaining why books no longer matter, dividing these many new books about the Internet into Never-Betters, the Better-Nevers, and the Ever-Wasers.
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/02/14/110214crat_atlarge_gopnik

Groups on the internet have organized to remove books from libraries they believe are inappropriate for children. They assume that professional librarians don't have the expertise, that they're pushing porn on kids.
http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/book-banners-finding-power-in-numbers-28097/

Salon has awarded its first-ever Good Sex Awards to James Hynes for Next.
http://www.salon.com/books/good_sex_awards/index.html?story=/books/feature/2011/02/14/good_sex_awards_hynes

What makes a good sex scene? Salon's judges discuss their favourite (and least) favourite) finalists—and the delicate art of erotic writing.
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2011/02/14/good_sex_winner_announcement/index.html

BOOKS & WRITERS

In her review of Maggie O'Farrell's award-winning The Hand That First Held Mine, Emma Hagestadt writes: "the book tears down the walls between the generations and, in an inspired upending of convention, places a father's post-natal ravings centre-stage."
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-hand-that-first-held-mine-by-maggie-ofarrell-2210891.html

Vit Wagner writes that Dan Vyleta's The Quiet Twin, which has the unsettlingly noirish quality of Hitchcock's Rear Window, should only enhance his reputation as one of Canada's emerging literary talents.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/937514--the-neighbours-are-watching

Jackie Kay's poems shimmer with a sense of place, home and identity, says Ben Wilkinson in his review of Fiere, Kay's latest poetry collection. ("Fiere" is an old Scots word meaning "companion" or "mate".)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/12/fiere-jackie-kay-poetry-review

Bernie Goedhart acknowledges that with the volume of books being published, it's inevitable some will slip through the cracks. Only after hearing its author/illustrator Chris Raschka read Little Black Crow at a children's-lit conference did he look for it.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Little+Black+Crow/4226640/story.html

J. D. Salinger spent the first third of his life trying to get noticed and the rest of it trying to disappear. He would have hated "J. D. Salinger: A Life," Kenneth Slawenski's reverent new biography, writes Jay McInerney.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/books/review/McInerney-t.html?ref=books

Bride of New France, a novel by historian Suzanne Desrochers, gives readers a new understanding of early settlement in Quebec through the experiences of the filles du roi: horrors reminiscent of Charles Dickens' stories, but engage the mind and imagination nonetheless.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/bride-of-new-france-by-suzanne-desrochers/article1903956/

Michiko Kakutani says of Humphrey Bogart, "He was cool before cool was cool", "the very image of the quintessential American hero". Stefan Kanfer's title for his Bogart biography Tough Without a Gun is a quote—about Bogart—from Raymond Chandler.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/books/15book.html?ref=books

An excerpt is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/books/excerpt-tough.html?ref=books

Language is a weapon of war, e.g.,US soldiers distinguished Japanese spies from friendly Filipinos by their enunciation of "lollapalooza". Jonathan Sale writes that Henry Hitchings' The Language Wars: a history of proper English is on the winning side.
http://www.independent.co.uk/artsentertainment/books/reviews/the-language-wars-a-history-of-proper-english-by-henry-hitchings-2214958.html

COMMUNITY EVENTS

ON EDGE READING SERIES
Reading by Aaron Peck, author of The Bewilderments of Bernard Willis. Thursday, February 17 at 7:00pm, free. SB406, Emily Carr University, 1399 Johnston Street, Granville Island.

CATHY SOSNOWSKY
Author reads from her memoir, Snapshots: A Story of Love, Loss and Life. Thursday, February 17 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.

LISA ROBERTSON
Reading by the author of Debbie: An Epic, and XEclogue. Friday, February 18 at 8:00pm, free. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive. More information at http://www.newstarbooks.com/news.php?news_id=40111.

MICHAEL CHRISTIE
Day for Night: Films in the Afternoon, The National Film Board of Canada, and Michael Christie, author of The Beggar's Garden (2011) present a screening of The Devil's Toy (1966) directed by Claude Jutra and The Ernie Game (1967) directed by Don Owen, featuring Leonard Cohen. Sunday, February 20, doors at 2:00pm, films at 2:30pm. The Waldorf Hotel, 1489 East Hastings. More information at www.waldorfhotel.com.

PEN IN HAND
Readings by Blaine Marchand and Gabriella Goliger. Monday, February 21 at 7:30pm. Fee: $3 honorarium. Serious Coffee, 230 Cook Street, Victoria. More information at ainbinder.collins@gmail.com.

BOOK LAUNCH
Launch of Steve Weiner's new novel Sweet England and George Bowering's new historical novel Caprice. Tuesday, February 22 at 7:00pm, free. The Sylvia Hotel, 1154 Gilford Street. More information here, http://www.newstarbooks.com/news.php?news_id=40110.

EVELYN LAU AND RAY HSU
Readings by the authors of Living Under Plastic (Lau) and Cold Sleep Permanent Afternoon (Hsu). Thursday, February 24 at 1:00pm. Dodson Room (level 3), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC. More information at http://ow.ly/3C8k7.

ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Eve Joseph, Lydia Kwa and Kenneth Radu. Thursday, February 24 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Library/Bookstore at Robson Square, Plaza Level, 800 Robson St. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca/#Kwa.

GEORGIA NICOLS
Author introduces her first book, You and Your Future. Thursday, February 24 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.

CHARLOTTE GILL
Author discusses Ladykiller, her debut collection of short stories.Thursday, February 24 at 7:00pm. Call 604-733-1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com to register. Christianne's Lyceum, 3696 8th Ave. W.

GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
Readings, interviews, writing workshops, panel discussions, and small press production. Featuring Gurjinder Basran, Don Calame, Ivan E. Coyote, Des Kennedy, Meg Tilly and many more. February 25-28, 2011. Complete information at galianoliteraryfestival.wordpress.com.

SERENDIPITY 2011: A GRAPHIC NOVEL EVENT
With Gene Yang (American Born Chinese), Raina Telgemeier (Smile), Matt Holm, co-creator of Babymouse, Aaron Renier (The Unsinkable Walker Bean and Spiralbound) and Jason Shiga (Meanwhile). February 26, 2011 @ SCARFE 100 (the Education Building), UBC 8:00-3:30 pm. Early Bird (before Feb 1): Student $50.00 Members $125.00 Non-members $140.00. Lunch included. Registration: http://vancouverchildrenslitroundtable.wordpress.com.

GETTING STARTED IN CHILDREN'S BOOKS
Join seven professional children's authors and illustrators to find out how they broke into this exciting and competitive field and how they built their careers. Monday, February 28 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.

RUBIN CARTER
Dr. Rubin Hurricane Carter - Eye of the Hurricane: My Path from Darkness to Freedom, with host Neil Boyd. With a brand new release, Rubin Carter tells of the metaphoric and physical prisons he has survived: his poverty-stricken childhood, his troubled adolescence and early adulthood, his 19-year imprisonment with 10 years in solitary confinement and the knowledge that his life was forever altered by injustice. Monday, February 28 at 7:30pm. Tickets $28/$22. Capilano University Performing Arts Theatre, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver. Details here: http://ow.ly/3G5oO.

Upcoming

RUSSELL SMITH
Author reads from his novel, Girl Crazy, a fast paced cinematic ride through one man's obsession with a younger woman. Wednesday, March 2 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kay rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.

DAVID J. SMITH
Launch of the author's new book This Child Every Child: A Picture Book for Children About the Rights of Children. Friday, March 4 at 6:00pm, free. Ardea Books & Art, 2025 4th Ave. W. More information at http://ardeabooksandart.com/event/?event_id=34.

YARN BOMBING
Yarn Bombing (the art of crochet and knit graffiti) at Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver. Help stitch knitted blossoms in place on the Kogawa cherry tree (whose story is told in Joy Kogawa's book Naomi's Tree) on Sunday, March 6, 2 to 3:30pm. More details: http://www.kogawahouse.com/node/251.

ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by John Gould and Terence Young. Thursday, March 10 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Library/Bookstore at Robson Square, Plaza Level, 800 Robson St. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.

RACHEL WYATT
Reading and discussion of the author's new novel, Letters to Omar. Thursday, March 10 at 7:00pm, free. Ardea Books & Art, 2025 4th Ave. W. More information at http://ardeabooksandart.com/event/?event_id=31.

CABIN FEVER
Anna Swanson, Bren Simmers and Maleea Acker - three former fire lookouts - read from their debut collections of poetry. Monday, March 14 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.