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.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Book News Vol. 5 No. 48
BOOK NEWS
Special Event
Gary Shteyngart
Tickets are still available for Gary Shteyngart on November 21. The Vancouver International Writers Festival and the Cherie Smith JCGV Jewish Book Festival present the author of Super Sad True Love Story in conversation with Eleanor Wachtel. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/shteyngart.
In a recent Granta interview, Gary Shteyngart was asked: Do you see yourself in a certain 'tradition' – national, ethnic, comic, tragic? Shteyngart's response: "I am definitely America's tragicomic national ethnic."
http://www.granta.com/Online-Only/Interview-Gary-Shteyngart
AWARDS & LISTS
Dianne Warren's Cool Water has won the 2010 Governor General's Award for Fiction and Alan Casey's Lakeland: Journeys into the Soul of Canada, the Award for Non-fiction. Both authors are from Saskatchewan. Richmond B.C. school librarian Wendy Phillips has won the Children's Literature award for Fishtailing (a book for teens).
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/list-winners-of-the-2010-governor-generals-literary-awards/article1801004/
Eleven of this year's 14 recipients were honoured for the first time.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/16/governor-generals-literary-awards-winners.html
The shortlist for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-fiction has been announced.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/17/bc-non-fiction-book.html
Saskatoon author Arthur Slade's The Hunchback Assignments is the winner of this year's $25,000 TD Canadian Children's Literature Award. Manitoba's Colleen Sydor's Timmerman Was Here, won the $20,000 Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award. A complete list of award-winners is here:
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/888883--arthur-slade-wins-children-s-literature-award
National Book Awards were presented Wednesday and include Jaimy Gordon, author of Lord of Misrule, for fiction.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/books/18awards.html?_r=2&src=tptw
The shortlist for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize includes six titles for those aged 6 and under and six for those aged 7 to 14.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/13/roald-dahl-prize-philip-ardagh
Fifteen Canadian authors' books, including Annabel Lyon's The Golden Mean and Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood, are among the 162-book long list for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/15/impac-dublin.html
British historian Diarmaid MacCulloch is the 2010 winner of the $75,000 Cundill Prize, McGill University's non-fiction historical literature honour, for A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/15/cundill-2010-prize-macculloch-christianity.html
The Costa book prize shortlist has been announced, even with a shortage of biographies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/16/costa-book-prize-shortlist-unfilled
NEWS & FEATURES
Adam Gopnik comments on why we care (and should) about the Nobel Prize for Literature.
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/10/18/101018taco_talk_gopnik
Marsha Lederman interviews Robert Wiersema about the backstory to Bedtime Stories. Wiersema writes his books in longhand in notebooks with a fountain pen, even when books like Bedtime Stories are over 500 pages.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/robert-wiersema-tells-the-backstory-of-bedtime-story/article1793905/
The Guardian claims the Internet is saving literary magazines. One result: it makes the short story an essential art form again.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/nov/10/literary-magazine-technology-internet
Yiyun Li writes about her hero Michel de Montaigne who, she says, looked at everything with curiosity, and tried to make sense of everything he studied – for the benefit of his readers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/13/montaigne-my-hero-yiyun-li
Robert McCrum argues that Jonathan Franzen, Tony Blair and Ken Follett—indeed all modern books—are guilty of crimes against brevity.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/14/why-books-are-too-long-robert-mccrum
In her introduction to The Granta Book of the Irish Short Story Anne Enright answers the question she posed earlier on why the Irish excel at short stories.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7168613.ece
Ian Tyson's autobiography The Long Trail: My Life in the West, and Charles Foran's Mordecai: The Life & Times, about the late Mordecai Richler raise questions about the ethics of art, writes Crawford Kilian.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2010/11/15/RichlersEmbrace/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=151110
Good news for those who worry about their bad memories for faces: superior reading skills may be to blame.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19720-bad-memory-for-faces-blame-your-reading-skills.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news
Have publishers lost interest in serious books? Ask biographer Victoria Glendinning.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/14/victoria-glendinning-biographies-publishers
The Star's publishing reporter Vit Wagner outlines the five things learned or confirmed during Canada's fall book award season.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/891649--book-prize-season-lessons
BOOKS & WRITERS
Ian McGillis writes that Johanna Skibsrud's The Sentimentalists is not only a coup for small presses, but for unapologetically challenging fiction.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Johanna+Skibsrud+protagonist+Sentimentalists+finds+that+some/3813590/story.html
The Star adds that the scarcity of copies of The Sentimentalists is a boon to eBook sales. The book is Kobo's top-selling title in Canada.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/889818--scarcity-of-giller-winning-sentimentalists-a-boon-to-ebook-sales
In its commemoration of Remembrance Day, CBC News created a photo essay in which Scott Chantler describes how and why he created the book, Two Generals.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2010/11/10/two-generals-scott-chantler.html
Armistead Maupin reunites scattered "Tales of the City" characters in San Francisco after decades apart, with Mary Ann in Autumn. Maupin's quirky yet engaging characters still speak to him, writes David L. Ulin.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-armistead-maupin-20101109,0,7389603.story
Joseph Salvatore says that Mary Ann's is a tale of long-lost friends and unrealized dreams.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/books/review/Salvatore-t.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3
Google Books offers an excerpt.
http://books.google.com/books?id=gxizgOuEebsC&printsec=frontcover
Martin Morrow writes that Dinaw Mengestu is one of the hottest new writers in the U.S. In his second book, How to Read the Air, the Ethiopian-American writer offers a unique take on the road novel.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/12/dinaw-mengestu-how-to-read-the-air.html
Carolyn Kellogg describes Mengestu's book as an intimate account of the narrator's immigrant parents' journey in the U.S.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-1104-book-mengestu-20101105,0,5178482.story
"What a pleasure to read this smart, warm novel about getting older -- not getting decrepit or sick or depressed, but just getting older, with all the perspective such maturity can endow" writes Ron Charles about Gish Jen's World and Town.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/11/09/AR2010110905603.html
Jane Smiley's review of Rose Tremain's Compass informs us that this is a Gothic novel, not the historical fiction she frequently writes. A maestro, says Smiley.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/11/08/AR2010110805791.html
After a hospital stay that was longer than anticipated, Hilary Mantel wrote up her hospital diary—and reminds us that the visitor's idea of hospital is different from the patient's.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n21/hilary-mantel/diary
Salon.com reprints the Barnes & Noble review on Ian Frazier's Travels in Siberia, calling the book "the genius Siberian travelogue you should not miss".
http://www.salon.com/books/our_picks/index.html?story=/books/feature/2010/11/09/travels_in_siberia_ian_frazier
Jeff Parker notes that Frazier makes the case that the book's genre is tripartite: travel story, slave narrative, picaresque.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/travels-in-siberia-by-ian-frazier/article1796536/
Joanne Briscoe calls Lloyd Jones' Hand Me Down World, an extraordinary book, a story of a nameless "woman whose history, emotions and responses are foggily obscure, and yet we will follow her to the end, hopelessly in the thrall of her overriding motive: to be with her abducted child".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/13/hand-me-lloyd-jones-review
Stream of consciousness, experimentation, sharp satirical riffs on the day's events, Mark Twain was doing all of the above in a book meant to be published only after he had been dead 100 years. Shelley Fisher Fishkin describes the work as "simple, direct, unpretentious...moving and eloquent." Stay tuned for the next installments.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/autobiography-of-mark-twain-volume-1/article1796491/
David Evans describes Mavis Gallant's The Cost of Living as "an exquisite collection".
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-cost-of-living-by-mavis-gallant-2130462.html
John Barber finds Sandra Birdsell's Waiting for Joe to be "100-per-cent genuine, bone-chilling Canadiana".
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/sandra-birdsells-bone-chilling-canadiana/article1797313/
Hadley Freeman interviews Curtis Sittenfeld, whose American Wife Freeman describes as "easily one of the best books written so far this century".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/16/american-stories-curtis-sittenfeld?CMP=EMCGT_161110&
Here is an extract:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/16/extract-american-wife-curtis-sittenfeld
Tracy Sherlock describes Richard B. Wright's Mr. Shakespeare's Bastard as a delightful foray into 17th C. England; she was hooked.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/17th+century+tale+love+lust/3822638/story.html
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SCIENCE FICTION BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP
The sci-fi book under discussion this month is Poul Anderson's A Midsummer's Tempest. Thursday, November 18 at 7:00pm. The Grind & Gallery, 4124 Main Street. More information at darthbuddy2000@yahoo.ca.
CHRIS CZAJKOWSKI
Presentation and slide show by the author of A Wilderness Dweller's Cookbook: The Best Bread in the World and Other Recipes. Thursday, November 18 at 7:00pm, free. Capilano Branch Library, 3045 Highland Blvd., North Vancouver. More information at 604-987-4471.
HOUSE OF NORTHERN LIGHTS
Author Valen Watson reads and discusses her new novel. Friday, November 19 at 7:30pm, free. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive. For more information, phone 604-253-6442.
SEE THE VOICE
Visible Verse's 10th anniversary celebration and festival. November 19-20, 2010. Pacific Cinematheque, 1131 Howe Street. For complete program details, visit http://tinyurl.com/24u5n3z.
JEWISH BOOK FESTIVAL
Authors include Stanley Coren, Martin Fletcher, Myla Goldberg, Daniel Kalla, Gary Shteyngart, and Eleanor Wachtel. November 20-25, 2010. Jewish Community Centre, 950 W. 41st Ave. More information at www.jewishbookfestival.ca.
LEANNE AVERBACK WITH MYNA WALLIN
Get intimate with the hearts and words of Tightrope Books authors, Myna Wallin and Leanne Averbach, and MC Dennis Bolen! Sunday, November 21 at 7:00pm, free. The Jazz Cellar (3611 West Broadway).
KAT VON D
Join tattoo artist and television star of LA Ink, as she signs copies of her new book The Tattoo Chronicles. Monday, November 22 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson Street.
SHORT LINE READING SERIES
Memewar Arts and Publishing Society presents readings by Ashok Mathur, Glen Lowry, and Ayumi Goto. Tuesday, November 23 at 6:30pm, free. Railway Club, 579 Dunsmuir St. More information at www.memewaronline.com.
A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK
An author luncheon, reading, and book signing with Arthur Black. Thursday, November 25 at 11:00am. West Point Grey United Church, 4595 W. 8th. More information at 604-224-4388.
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.
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.
Upcoming
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.
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.
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.
Special Event
Gary Shteyngart
Tickets are still available for Gary Shteyngart on November 21. The Vancouver International Writers Festival and the Cherie Smith JCGV Jewish Book Festival present the author of Super Sad True Love Story in conversation with Eleanor Wachtel. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/shteyngart.
In a recent Granta interview, Gary Shteyngart was asked: Do you see yourself in a certain 'tradition' – national, ethnic, comic, tragic? Shteyngart's response: "I am definitely America's tragicomic national ethnic."
http://www.granta.com/Online-Only/Interview-Gary-Shteyngart
AWARDS & LISTS
Dianne Warren's Cool Water has won the 2010 Governor General's Award for Fiction and Alan Casey's Lakeland: Journeys into the Soul of Canada, the Award for Non-fiction. Both authors are from Saskatchewan. Richmond B.C. school librarian Wendy Phillips has won the Children's Literature award for Fishtailing (a book for teens).
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/list-winners-of-the-2010-governor-generals-literary-awards/article1801004/
Eleven of this year's 14 recipients were honoured for the first time.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/16/governor-generals-literary-awards-winners.html
The shortlist for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-fiction has been announced.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/17/bc-non-fiction-book.html
Saskatoon author Arthur Slade's The Hunchback Assignments is the winner of this year's $25,000 TD Canadian Children's Literature Award. Manitoba's Colleen Sydor's Timmerman Was Here, won the $20,000 Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award. A complete list of award-winners is here:
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/888883--arthur-slade-wins-children-s-literature-award
National Book Awards were presented Wednesday and include Jaimy Gordon, author of Lord of Misrule, for fiction.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/books/18awards.html?_r=2&src=tptw
The shortlist for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize includes six titles for those aged 6 and under and six for those aged 7 to 14.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/13/roald-dahl-prize-philip-ardagh
Fifteen Canadian authors' books, including Annabel Lyon's The Golden Mean and Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood, are among the 162-book long list for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/15/impac-dublin.html
British historian Diarmaid MacCulloch is the 2010 winner of the $75,000 Cundill Prize, McGill University's non-fiction historical literature honour, for A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/15/cundill-2010-prize-macculloch-christianity.html
The Costa book prize shortlist has been announced, even with a shortage of biographies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/16/costa-book-prize-shortlist-unfilled
NEWS & FEATURES
Adam Gopnik comments on why we care (and should) about the Nobel Prize for Literature.
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/10/18/101018taco_talk_gopnik
Marsha Lederman interviews Robert Wiersema about the backstory to Bedtime Stories. Wiersema writes his books in longhand in notebooks with a fountain pen, even when books like Bedtime Stories are over 500 pages.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/robert-wiersema-tells-the-backstory-of-bedtime-story/article1793905/
The Guardian claims the Internet is saving literary magazines. One result: it makes the short story an essential art form again.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/nov/10/literary-magazine-technology-internet
Yiyun Li writes about her hero Michel de Montaigne who, she says, looked at everything with curiosity, and tried to make sense of everything he studied – for the benefit of his readers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/13/montaigne-my-hero-yiyun-li
Robert McCrum argues that Jonathan Franzen, Tony Blair and Ken Follett—indeed all modern books—are guilty of crimes against brevity.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/14/why-books-are-too-long-robert-mccrum
In her introduction to The Granta Book of the Irish Short Story Anne Enright answers the question she posed earlier on why the Irish excel at short stories.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7168613.ece
Ian Tyson's autobiography The Long Trail: My Life in the West, and Charles Foran's Mordecai: The Life & Times, about the late Mordecai Richler raise questions about the ethics of art, writes Crawford Kilian.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2010/11/15/RichlersEmbrace/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=151110
Good news for those who worry about their bad memories for faces: superior reading skills may be to blame.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19720-bad-memory-for-faces-blame-your-reading-skills.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news
Have publishers lost interest in serious books? Ask biographer Victoria Glendinning.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/14/victoria-glendinning-biographies-publishers
The Star's publishing reporter Vit Wagner outlines the five things learned or confirmed during Canada's fall book award season.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/891649--book-prize-season-lessons
BOOKS & WRITERS
Ian McGillis writes that Johanna Skibsrud's The Sentimentalists is not only a coup for small presses, but for unapologetically challenging fiction.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Johanna+Skibsrud+protagonist+Sentimentalists+finds+that+some/3813590/story.html
The Star adds that the scarcity of copies of The Sentimentalists is a boon to eBook sales. The book is Kobo's top-selling title in Canada.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/889818--scarcity-of-giller-winning-sentimentalists-a-boon-to-ebook-sales
In its commemoration of Remembrance Day, CBC News created a photo essay in which Scott Chantler describes how and why he created the book, Two Generals.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2010/11/10/two-generals-scott-chantler.html
Armistead Maupin reunites scattered "Tales of the City" characters in San Francisco after decades apart, with Mary Ann in Autumn. Maupin's quirky yet engaging characters still speak to him, writes David L. Ulin.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-armistead-maupin-20101109,0,7389603.story
Joseph Salvatore says that Mary Ann's is a tale of long-lost friends and unrealized dreams.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/books/review/Salvatore-t.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3
Google Books offers an excerpt.
http://books.google.com/books?id=gxizgOuEebsC&printsec=frontcover
Martin Morrow writes that Dinaw Mengestu is one of the hottest new writers in the U.S. In his second book, How to Read the Air, the Ethiopian-American writer offers a unique take on the road novel.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/12/dinaw-mengestu-how-to-read-the-air.html
Carolyn Kellogg describes Mengestu's book as an intimate account of the narrator's immigrant parents' journey in the U.S.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-1104-book-mengestu-20101105,0,5178482.story
"What a pleasure to read this smart, warm novel about getting older -- not getting decrepit or sick or depressed, but just getting older, with all the perspective such maturity can endow" writes Ron Charles about Gish Jen's World and Town.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/11/09/AR2010110905603.html
Jane Smiley's review of Rose Tremain's Compass informs us that this is a Gothic novel, not the historical fiction she frequently writes. A maestro, says Smiley.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/11/08/AR2010110805791.html
After a hospital stay that was longer than anticipated, Hilary Mantel wrote up her hospital diary—and reminds us that the visitor's idea of hospital is different from the patient's.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n21/hilary-mantel/diary
Salon.com reprints the Barnes & Noble review on Ian Frazier's Travels in Siberia, calling the book "the genius Siberian travelogue you should not miss".
http://www.salon.com/books/our_picks/index.html?story=/books/feature/2010/11/09/travels_in_siberia_ian_frazier
Jeff Parker notes that Frazier makes the case that the book's genre is tripartite: travel story, slave narrative, picaresque.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/travels-in-siberia-by-ian-frazier/article1796536/
Joanne Briscoe calls Lloyd Jones' Hand Me Down World, an extraordinary book, a story of a nameless "woman whose history, emotions and responses are foggily obscure, and yet we will follow her to the end, hopelessly in the thrall of her overriding motive: to be with her abducted child".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/13/hand-me-lloyd-jones-review
Stream of consciousness, experimentation, sharp satirical riffs on the day's events, Mark Twain was doing all of the above in a book meant to be published only after he had been dead 100 years. Shelley Fisher Fishkin describes the work as "simple, direct, unpretentious...moving and eloquent." Stay tuned for the next installments.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/autobiography-of-mark-twain-volume-1/article1796491/
David Evans describes Mavis Gallant's The Cost of Living as "an exquisite collection".
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-cost-of-living-by-mavis-gallant-2130462.html
John Barber finds Sandra Birdsell's Waiting for Joe to be "100-per-cent genuine, bone-chilling Canadiana".
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/sandra-birdsells-bone-chilling-canadiana/article1797313/
Hadley Freeman interviews Curtis Sittenfeld, whose American Wife Freeman describes as "easily one of the best books written so far this century".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/16/american-stories-curtis-sittenfeld?CMP=EMCGT_161110&
Here is an extract:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/16/extract-american-wife-curtis-sittenfeld
Tracy Sherlock describes Richard B. Wright's Mr. Shakespeare's Bastard as a delightful foray into 17th C. England; she was hooked.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/17th+century+tale+love+lust/3822638/story.html
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SCIENCE FICTION BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP
The sci-fi book under discussion this month is Poul Anderson's A Midsummer's Tempest. Thursday, November 18 at 7:00pm. The Grind & Gallery, 4124 Main Street. More information at darthbuddy2000@yahoo.ca.
CHRIS CZAJKOWSKI
Presentation and slide show by the author of A Wilderness Dweller's Cookbook: The Best Bread in the World and Other Recipes. Thursday, November 18 at 7:00pm, free. Capilano Branch Library, 3045 Highland Blvd., North Vancouver. More information at 604-987-4471.
HOUSE OF NORTHERN LIGHTS
Author Valen Watson reads and discusses her new novel. Friday, November 19 at 7:30pm, free. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive. For more information, phone 604-253-6442.
SEE THE VOICE
Visible Verse's 10th anniversary celebration and festival. November 19-20, 2010. Pacific Cinematheque, 1131 Howe Street. For complete program details, visit http://tinyurl.com/24u5n3z.
JEWISH BOOK FESTIVAL
Authors include Stanley Coren, Martin Fletcher, Myla Goldberg, Daniel Kalla, Gary Shteyngart, and Eleanor Wachtel. November 20-25, 2010. Jewish Community Centre, 950 W. 41st Ave. More information at www.jewishbookfestival.ca.
LEANNE AVERBACK WITH MYNA WALLIN
Get intimate with the hearts and words of Tightrope Books authors, Myna Wallin and Leanne Averbach, and MC Dennis Bolen! Sunday, November 21 at 7:00pm, free. The Jazz Cellar (3611 West Broadway).
KAT VON D
Join tattoo artist and television star of LA Ink, as she signs copies of her new book The Tattoo Chronicles. Monday, November 22 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson Street.
SHORT LINE READING SERIES
Memewar Arts and Publishing Society presents readings by Ashok Mathur, Glen Lowry, and Ayumi Goto. Tuesday, November 23 at 6:30pm, free. Railway Club, 579 Dunsmuir St. More information at www.memewaronline.com.
A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK
An author luncheon, reading, and book signing with Arthur Black. Thursday, November 25 at 11:00am. West Point Grey United Church, 4595 W. 8th. More information at 604-224-4388.
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.
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.
Upcoming
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Book News Vol. 5 No. 47
BOOK NEWS
Special Event
Gary Shteyngart
Vancouver International Writers Festival and the Cherie Smith JCGV Jewish Book Festival present the author of Super Sad True Love Story in conversation with Eleanor Wachtel. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/shteyngart.
"Gary Shteyngart's latest novel, Super Sad True Love Story, signals his move out of Soviet territory and into a near-future New York City, where books have no place in a hyper-technological society", writes Natalie Jacoby in The Paris Review.
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2010/07/27/gary-shteyngart/
However, Amelia Glaser, in a review called Gary Shteyngart, Old Man, concludes: "This book made me a little less frightened of growing up with him".
http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/gary-shteyngart-old-man/
AWARDS & LISTS
Johanna Skibsrud is the winner of the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her book The Sentimentalists was handprinted by Gaspereau Press.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-giller-prize/johanna-skibsrud-wins-giller-prize-for-the-sentimentalists/article1792687/
Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winning U.S. author Toni Morrison has been made an officer of the French Legion of Honour. France's culture minister, Frederic Mitterrand called Morrison, "the greatest American novelist of her time."
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/03/toni-morrison-legion-honour.html
Michel Houellebecq, who has fanned controversy with his writings and comments on women and Islam, has won the Prix Goncourt for his latest work, La Carte et Le Territoire. The 105-year-old prize comes with a €10 ($14) purse, but it guarantees literary acclaim and high sales for the winner.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/controversial-author-michel-houellebecq-wins-frances-top-literary-prize/article1789772/
The (Australian) Prime Minister's Literary Awards, each with a $100,000 Australian cash prize, have been awarded.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/08/australian-literary-awards.html
Rebecca Skloot's "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" has won the £25,000 Wellcome Trust Book Prize. The book is, in part, the history of a poor black tobacco worker who died of cervical cancer and whose cancer cells, taken without her knowledge, became an essential part of medical research in the 20th century.
http://www.wellcomebookprize.org/News/Announcements/WTX063313.html
Three B.C. children's authors—K.L. Denman, Gina McMurchy-Barber, and Wendy Phillips—are finalists for this year's Governor General's Literary Awards. Adult English-language author finalists include Sandra Birdsell, Emma Donoghue, Drew Hayden Taylor and Kathleen Winter. The full list of nominees can be found here:
http://canadacouncil.ca/prizes/ggla/2010
Canadians voted for their favourites from a list of the essential top 40 Canadian novels of the past decade, resulting in the following ten titles on the Canada Reads shortlist.
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/
NEWS & FEATURES
Each autumn's literary awards season highlights a publishing conundrum: the big publishers tend to dominate—and have the capacity to print many additional copies of their shortlisted titles, with opportunities for economies of scale in printing and distribution.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-giller-prize/giller-list-highlights-a-publishing-conundrum/article1787892/
Small presses such as Gaspereau Press in Kentville, N.S., where each book is printed and bound on the premises, focus on considerations other than economies of scale.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/gaspereau-press-and-the-peril-of-the-giller/article1771622/
Talking Books started as an aid for blinded World War I veterans and elderly people with failing eyesight. Seventy-five years later, recorded books are enjoyed by millions as an alternative to the printed word.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/sales-soar-as-talking-books-mark-75-years-2127347.html
John Barber recommends that writers preparing for reading tours examine David Sedaris' readings, including his understanding of audiences.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/wowing-an-audience-the-david-sedaris-way/article1784572/
Why are the Irish so good at the short story, and why do they love it so much, asks Anne Enright.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/06/anne-enright-irish-short-story
An interview with Garry Trudeau on the occasion of the publication of 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective, a collection from the most important, and most hilarious, comic strip of our era.
http://www.slate.com/id/2271947/
The memoir of a former Boston prison librarian reveals prisoners' book preferences.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/27/memoir-prisoners-book-choices
Mordecai Richler is considered an icon of Canadian literature, but a fledgling campaign calling for Montreal to rename a public space after the author is drawing some opposition.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/886214--petition-to-name-street-in-quebec-after-mordecai-richler
Readers are furious at sudden and significant increases in Amazon's Kindle prices with some digital editions now costing the same as, or more than, printed books. They are protesting by giving books one-star reviews on the retailer's website.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/03/ebook-prices-kindle-amazon-protests
Savethewords.org offers people a chance to adopt a disappearing word and then drop it casually into everyday conversation.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/07/rescuing-obscure-words
Stuart McLean, whose Vinyl Café Notebooks (Penguin Canada) is currently enjoying bestseller status, has reportedly recorded a special episode of The Vinyl Café in which he talks about some of his favourite bookstores. The program is scheduled to air on November 20, 21, and 23.
http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/home.php
BOOKS & WRITERS
The Star's Book Editor Dan Smith has compiled an annotated list of book titles dealing with Canadian military history and related themes, ranging from World War II to Afghanistan, standard military histories and personal narrative, biography, poetry and graphic art.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/887035--canada-at-war-remembrance-day-by-the-books
The National Post offers a more detailed review of Scott Chantler's Two Generals.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2010/11/05/book-review-two-generals-by-scott-chantler/#more-16141
Samantha Nutt writes that Romeo Dallaire's book is a sobering look at at the systematic failure of peacekeepers, UN agencies, NGOs and others to effectively deal with the pervading abuse of children in combat.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/they-fight-like-soldiers-they-die-like-children-by-romo-dallaire/article1787085/print/
Sue Montgomery writes that Dallaire provides clear solutions in They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/crime+against+humanity/3784807/story.html
Sunday's New York Times' Book Reviews includes a special section of reviews of Children's Books and Y.A. blockbusters.
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/index.html
Robert Wiersema's BedtimeStory is entirely consuming, writes Roz Spafford.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Wiersema+work+power+devour+readers/3787883/story.html
It is possible to begin ones life's work at seventy-two, we learn from Molly Peacock's biography of Mary Granville Pendarves Delaney, a woman who invented a new art-form and created a body of work considered a national treasure.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Peacock+delights+story+woman+invented+form+18th+century/3787887/story.html
Stacy Schiff's biography of Cleopatra portrays the Egyptian ruler as a shrewd political strategist, writes Wendy Smith.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-stacy-schiff-20101107,0,2749115.story
Kathryn Harrison adds: "Cleopatra mythologized herself before anyone else had the chance."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/books/review/Harrison-t.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema1
Here is an excerpt:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/books/review/excerpt-cleopatra.html?ref=review
The Independent (UK) describes John Vaillant's The Tiger as a book that moves with subtlety and grace, commands a vast terrain--and has the power to shake the observer's soul.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-tiger-by-john-vaillant-2125185.html
Whether he sets his tales in Africa, his native Trinidad or anywhere else, writes Eliza Griswold, V. S. Naipaul is always writing about V. S. Naipaul. But The Masque of Africa marks a startling shift: Naipaul is willing to express a new attitude, one of self-doubt.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/books/review/Griswold-t.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3&pagewanted=all
Salon.com asks: Is Adam Levin the new David Foster Wallace? The Instructions is a brilliant new novel about a young Jewish boy that recalls Philip Roth and Infinite Jest, writes Maud Newton.
http://www.salon.com/books/our_picks/index.html?story=/books/feature/2010/11/02/adam_levin_the_instructions
In her review of The Hilliker Curse, Elaine Showalter describes James Ellroy as the Ancient Mariner of LA Noir. She recommends the book, both to Ellroy cultists and as a marketing guidebook for aspiring women writers who struggle with diffidence, modesty and self-deprecation.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7168318.ece
In an interview with Sarah Crowne, Bernard Cornwall discusses how his most recent novel The Fort challenges American long-held assumptions about Paul Revere.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/video/2010/nov/03/bernard-cornwell-fort-novel
COMMUNITY EVENTS
ROMEO DALLAIRE
Author of They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children: The Global Quest to Eradicate the Use of Child Soldiers discusses the practice of using children in conflicts. Thursday, November 11 at 7:30pm. Tickets $20. Kay Meek Centre, 1700 Mathers Avenue, West Vancouver. More information at http://www.kaymeekcentre.com/on_stage/979.
MIKE MCCARDELL
Book signing by TV personality and author of Everything Works. Two appearances on Saturday, November 13: first at 1:00pm at Black Bond Books White Rock (Semiahmoo Mall) and then at 3:30pm at Black Bond Books Ladner (Trenant Park Square Shopping Centre). For more information about the signing, phone Black Bond Books at 604-536-3336 (Semiahmoo Mall) or 604-946-6677 (Ladner).
CBC RADIO STUDIO ONE BOOK CLUB
Singer/songwriter, rancher and grassland conservationist Ian Tyson will be here with his new memoir The Long Trail: My Life in the West. Ian reflects on how his love for the West started in Victoria, nurtured and inspired his musical talent, taught him life lessons in the saddle, and has saved his soul. Sunday, November 14. Enter to win free tickets at www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub.
PEN-IN-HAND
Readings by poets bill bissett, Jim Christy, Susan Stenson and Linda Rogers. Monday, November 15 at 7:30pm. Serious Coffee, 230 Cook Street, Victoria.
JUNE HUTTON
White Rock Library in partnership with the Community Arts Council of White Rock & District hosts June Hutton for a discussion of her book Underground. Tuesday, November 16 at 2:00pm, free. Register by phoning 604-541-2201. White Rock Library, 15342 Buena Vista, White Rock. More information at www.fvrl.bc.ca.
SEMIAHMOO ARTS' LITERARY SERIES
Reading by June Hutton, the author of Underground. Tuesday, November 16 at 7:30pm, free. Pelican Rouge Coffee House, 15142 North Bluff Road, White Rock. More information at www.semiahmooarts.com.
HUMANITALES
An evening of storytelling with Jan Derbyshire, Julie McNamara, and David Roche. Tuesday, November 16 at 7:30pm. Pay what you can at the door. W2 Storyeum, 151 W. Cordova. More information at info@kickstart-arts.ca.
DRAWING LIFE
Learn how to illustrate your own guide to life, the universe, and everything, with graphic-novel artist Julian Lawrence. No experience necessary; materials provided. Wednesday, November 17 at 6:30pm. Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at www.vpl.ca/obov.
PLAY CHTHONICS
Surrey-based poet and author Phinder Dulai and Ontario author Daniel Heath Justice read from their works. Wednesday, November 17 at 7:30pm. Graham House, Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road. More information at www.playchthonics.blogspot.com.
SAY WHA?
Comedic performers Morgan Brayton, Riel Hahn, Shaun Stewart, Ryan Steele, Sarah Szloboda, and host Sarah Bynoe read from the most cringe-worthy, awful, and painfully earnest writing in print. Wednesday, November 17 at 8:00pm. Tickets: $10/5. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main Street). More information at www.sarabynoe.com.
SCIENCE FICTION BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP
The sci-fi book under discussion this month is Poul Anderson's A Midsummer's Tempest. Thursday, November 18 at 7:00pm. The Grind & Gallery, 4124 Main Street. More information at darthbuddy2000@yahoo.ca.
CHRIS CZAJKOWSKI
Presentation and slide show by the author of A Wilderness Dweller's Cookbook: The Best Bread in the World and Other Recipes. Thursday, November 18 at 7:00pm, free. Capilano Branch Library, 3045 Highland Blvd., North Vancouver. More information at 604-987-4471.
SEE THE VOICE
Visible Verse's 10th anniversary celebration and festival. November 19-20, 2010. Pacific Cinematheque, 1131 Howe Street. For complete program details, visit http://tinyurl.com/24u5n3z.
JEWISH BOOK FESTIVAL
Authors include Stanley Coren, Martin Fletcher, Myla Goldberg, Daniel Kalla, Gary Shteyngart, and Eleanor Wachtel. November 20-25, 2010. Jewish Community Centre, 950 W. 41st Ave. More information at www.jewishbookfestival.ca.
KAT VON D
Join tattoo artist and television star of LA Ink, as she signs copies of her new book The Tattoo Chronicles. Monday, November 22 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson Street.
Upcoming
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.
Special Event
Gary Shteyngart
Vancouver International Writers Festival and the Cherie Smith JCGV Jewish Book Festival present the author of Super Sad True Love Story in conversation with Eleanor Wachtel. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/shteyngart.
"Gary Shteyngart's latest novel, Super Sad True Love Story, signals his move out of Soviet territory and into a near-future New York City, where books have no place in a hyper-technological society", writes Natalie Jacoby in The Paris Review.
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2010/07/27/gary-shteyngart/
However, Amelia Glaser, in a review called Gary Shteyngart, Old Man, concludes: "This book made me a little less frightened of growing up with him".
http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/gary-shteyngart-old-man/
AWARDS & LISTS
Johanna Skibsrud is the winner of the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her book The Sentimentalists was handprinted by Gaspereau Press.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-giller-prize/johanna-skibsrud-wins-giller-prize-for-the-sentimentalists/article1792687/
Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winning U.S. author Toni Morrison has been made an officer of the French Legion of Honour. France's culture minister, Frederic Mitterrand called Morrison, "the greatest American novelist of her time."
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/03/toni-morrison-legion-honour.html
Michel Houellebecq, who has fanned controversy with his writings and comments on women and Islam, has won the Prix Goncourt for his latest work, La Carte et Le Territoire. The 105-year-old prize comes with a €10 ($14) purse, but it guarantees literary acclaim and high sales for the winner.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/controversial-author-michel-houellebecq-wins-frances-top-literary-prize/article1789772/
The (Australian) Prime Minister's Literary Awards, each with a $100,000 Australian cash prize, have been awarded.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/08/australian-literary-awards.html
Rebecca Skloot's "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" has won the £25,000 Wellcome Trust Book Prize. The book is, in part, the history of a poor black tobacco worker who died of cervical cancer and whose cancer cells, taken without her knowledge, became an essential part of medical research in the 20th century.
http://www.wellcomebookprize.org/News/Announcements/WTX063313.html
Three B.C. children's authors—K.L. Denman, Gina McMurchy-Barber, and Wendy Phillips—are finalists for this year's Governor General's Literary Awards. Adult English-language author finalists include Sandra Birdsell, Emma Donoghue, Drew Hayden Taylor and Kathleen Winter. The full list of nominees can be found here:
http://canadacouncil.ca/prizes/ggla/2010
Canadians voted for their favourites from a list of the essential top 40 Canadian novels of the past decade, resulting in the following ten titles on the Canada Reads shortlist.
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/
NEWS & FEATURES
Each autumn's literary awards season highlights a publishing conundrum: the big publishers tend to dominate—and have the capacity to print many additional copies of their shortlisted titles, with opportunities for economies of scale in printing and distribution.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-giller-prize/giller-list-highlights-a-publishing-conundrum/article1787892/
Small presses such as Gaspereau Press in Kentville, N.S., where each book is printed and bound on the premises, focus on considerations other than economies of scale.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/gaspereau-press-and-the-peril-of-the-giller/article1771622/
Talking Books started as an aid for blinded World War I veterans and elderly people with failing eyesight. Seventy-five years later, recorded books are enjoyed by millions as an alternative to the printed word.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/sales-soar-as-talking-books-mark-75-years-2127347.html
John Barber recommends that writers preparing for reading tours examine David Sedaris' readings, including his understanding of audiences.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/wowing-an-audience-the-david-sedaris-way/article1784572/
Why are the Irish so good at the short story, and why do they love it so much, asks Anne Enright.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/06/anne-enright-irish-short-story
An interview with Garry Trudeau on the occasion of the publication of 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective, a collection from the most important, and most hilarious, comic strip of our era.
http://www.slate.com/id/2271947/
The memoir of a former Boston prison librarian reveals prisoners' book preferences.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/27/memoir-prisoners-book-choices
Mordecai Richler is considered an icon of Canadian literature, but a fledgling campaign calling for Montreal to rename a public space after the author is drawing some opposition.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/886214--petition-to-name-street-in-quebec-after-mordecai-richler
Readers are furious at sudden and significant increases in Amazon's Kindle prices with some digital editions now costing the same as, or more than, printed books. They are protesting by giving books one-star reviews on the retailer's website.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/03/ebook-prices-kindle-amazon-protests
Savethewords.org offers people a chance to adopt a disappearing word and then drop it casually into everyday conversation.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/07/rescuing-obscure-words
Stuart McLean, whose Vinyl Café Notebooks (Penguin Canada) is currently enjoying bestseller status, has reportedly recorded a special episode of The Vinyl Café in which he talks about some of his favourite bookstores. The program is scheduled to air on November 20, 21, and 23.
http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/home.php
BOOKS & WRITERS
The Star's Book Editor Dan Smith has compiled an annotated list of book titles dealing with Canadian military history and related themes, ranging from World War II to Afghanistan, standard military histories and personal narrative, biography, poetry and graphic art.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/887035--canada-at-war-remembrance-day-by-the-books
The National Post offers a more detailed review of Scott Chantler's Two Generals.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2010/11/05/book-review-two-generals-by-scott-chantler/#more-16141
Samantha Nutt writes that Romeo Dallaire's book is a sobering look at at the systematic failure of peacekeepers, UN agencies, NGOs and others to effectively deal with the pervading abuse of children in combat.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/they-fight-like-soldiers-they-die-like-children-by-romo-dallaire/article1787085/print/
Sue Montgomery writes that Dallaire provides clear solutions in They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/crime+against+humanity/3784807/story.html
Sunday's New York Times' Book Reviews includes a special section of reviews of Children's Books and Y.A. blockbusters.
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/index.html
Robert Wiersema's BedtimeStory is entirely consuming, writes Roz Spafford.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Wiersema+work+power+devour+readers/3787883/story.html
It is possible to begin ones life's work at seventy-two, we learn from Molly Peacock's biography of Mary Granville Pendarves Delaney, a woman who invented a new art-form and created a body of work considered a national treasure.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Peacock+delights+story+woman+invented+form+18th+century/3787887/story.html
Stacy Schiff's biography of Cleopatra portrays the Egyptian ruler as a shrewd political strategist, writes Wendy Smith.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-stacy-schiff-20101107,0,2749115.story
Kathryn Harrison adds: "Cleopatra mythologized herself before anyone else had the chance."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/books/review/Harrison-t.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema1
Here is an excerpt:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/books/review/excerpt-cleopatra.html?ref=review
The Independent (UK) describes John Vaillant's The Tiger as a book that moves with subtlety and grace, commands a vast terrain--and has the power to shake the observer's soul.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-tiger-by-john-vaillant-2125185.html
Whether he sets his tales in Africa, his native Trinidad or anywhere else, writes Eliza Griswold, V. S. Naipaul is always writing about V. S. Naipaul. But The Masque of Africa marks a startling shift: Naipaul is willing to express a new attitude, one of self-doubt.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/books/review/Griswold-t.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3&pagewanted=all
Salon.com asks: Is Adam Levin the new David Foster Wallace? The Instructions is a brilliant new novel about a young Jewish boy that recalls Philip Roth and Infinite Jest, writes Maud Newton.
http://www.salon.com/books/our_picks/index.html?story=/books/feature/2010/11/02/adam_levin_the_instructions
In her review of The Hilliker Curse, Elaine Showalter describes James Ellroy as the Ancient Mariner of LA Noir. She recommends the book, both to Ellroy cultists and as a marketing guidebook for aspiring women writers who struggle with diffidence, modesty and self-deprecation.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7168318.ece
In an interview with Sarah Crowne, Bernard Cornwall discusses how his most recent novel The Fort challenges American long-held assumptions about Paul Revere.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/video/2010/nov/03/bernard-cornwell-fort-novel
COMMUNITY EVENTS
ROMEO DALLAIRE
Author of They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children: The Global Quest to Eradicate the Use of Child Soldiers discusses the practice of using children in conflicts. Thursday, November 11 at 7:30pm. Tickets $20. Kay Meek Centre, 1700 Mathers Avenue, West Vancouver. More information at http://www.kaymeekcentre.com/on_stage/979.
MIKE MCCARDELL
Book signing by TV personality and author of Everything Works. Two appearances on Saturday, November 13: first at 1:00pm at Black Bond Books White Rock (Semiahmoo Mall) and then at 3:30pm at Black Bond Books Ladner (Trenant Park Square Shopping Centre). For more information about the signing, phone Black Bond Books at 604-536-3336 (Semiahmoo Mall) or 604-946-6677 (Ladner).
CBC RADIO STUDIO ONE BOOK CLUB
Singer/songwriter, rancher and grassland conservationist Ian Tyson will be here with his new memoir The Long Trail: My Life in the West. Ian reflects on how his love for the West started in Victoria, nurtured and inspired his musical talent, taught him life lessons in the saddle, and has saved his soul. Sunday, November 14. Enter to win free tickets at www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub.
PEN-IN-HAND
Readings by poets bill bissett, Jim Christy, Susan Stenson and Linda Rogers. Monday, November 15 at 7:30pm. Serious Coffee, 230 Cook Street, Victoria.
JUNE HUTTON
White Rock Library in partnership with the Community Arts Council of White Rock & District hosts June Hutton for a discussion of her book Underground. Tuesday, November 16 at 2:00pm, free. Register by phoning 604-541-2201. White Rock Library, 15342 Buena Vista, White Rock. More information at www.fvrl.bc.ca.
SEMIAHMOO ARTS' LITERARY SERIES
Reading by June Hutton, the author of Underground. Tuesday, November 16 at 7:30pm, free. Pelican Rouge Coffee House, 15142 North Bluff Road, White Rock. More information at www.semiahmooarts.com.
HUMANITALES
An evening of storytelling with Jan Derbyshire, Julie McNamara, and David Roche. Tuesday, November 16 at 7:30pm. Pay what you can at the door. W2 Storyeum, 151 W. Cordova. More information at info@kickstart-arts.ca.
DRAWING LIFE
Learn how to illustrate your own guide to life, the universe, and everything, with graphic-novel artist Julian Lawrence. No experience necessary; materials provided. Wednesday, November 17 at 6:30pm. Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at www.vpl.ca/obov.
PLAY CHTHONICS
Surrey-based poet and author Phinder Dulai and Ontario author Daniel Heath Justice read from their works. Wednesday, November 17 at 7:30pm. Graham House, Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road. More information at www.playchthonics.blogspot.com.
SAY WHA?
Comedic performers Morgan Brayton, Riel Hahn, Shaun Stewart, Ryan Steele, Sarah Szloboda, and host Sarah Bynoe read from the most cringe-worthy, awful, and painfully earnest writing in print. Wednesday, November 17 at 8:00pm. Tickets: $10/5. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main Street). More information at www.sarabynoe.com.
SCIENCE FICTION BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP
The sci-fi book under discussion this month is Poul Anderson's A Midsummer's Tempest. Thursday, November 18 at 7:00pm. The Grind & Gallery, 4124 Main Street. More information at darthbuddy2000@yahoo.ca.
CHRIS CZAJKOWSKI
Presentation and slide show by the author of A Wilderness Dweller's Cookbook: The Best Bread in the World and Other Recipes. Thursday, November 18 at 7:00pm, free. Capilano Branch Library, 3045 Highland Blvd., North Vancouver. More information at 604-987-4471.
SEE THE VOICE
Visible Verse's 10th anniversary celebration and festival. November 19-20, 2010. Pacific Cinematheque, 1131 Howe Street. For complete program details, visit http://tinyurl.com/24u5n3z.
JEWISH BOOK FESTIVAL
Authors include Stanley Coren, Martin Fletcher, Myla Goldberg, Daniel Kalla, Gary Shteyngart, and Eleanor Wachtel. November 20-25, 2010. Jewish Community Centre, 950 W. 41st Ave. More information at www.jewishbookfestival.ca.
KAT VON D
Join tattoo artist and television star of LA Ink, as she signs copies of her new book The Tattoo Chronicles. Monday, November 22 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson Street.
Upcoming
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.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Book News Vol. 5 No. 46
BOOK NEWS
Special Events
Sara Gruen
Tonight, the Vancouver International Writers Festival and Random House Canada present the author of Water for Elephants reading from her new book Ape House. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/gruen.
In her profile of Sara Gruen for McClatchy Newspapers, Connie Ogle describes how the bonobo apes decided to meet with Gruen. The bonobos communicate using American Sign Language and lexigrams. We discover that animals have always played an important role in Gruen's life, both at home and in her prior novels.
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/10/25/2352236/author-sara-gruen-talks-to-the.html
Gary Shteyngart
Vancouver International Writers Festival and the Cherie Smith JCGV Jewish Book Festival present the author of Super Sad True Love Story in conversation with Eleanor Wachtel. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/shteyngart.
Igor Shteyngart, of Leningrad who, at 7, became Gary Shteyngart of Little Neck, Queens returned this month to Russia—a country he revisits every year or two—to do an informal book tour. A Russian-language translation of Super Sad True Love Story is being published soon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/books/25gary.html?ref=books
An excerpt of Super Sad True Love Story (in English) can be found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/books/excerpt-super-sad-true-love-story.html?ref=books
AWARDS & LISTS
The Rogers Writers' Trust Awards were announced Tuesday: Emma Donoghue's Room, for Fiction; James FitzGerald's What Disturbs Our Blood: A Son's Quest to Redeem the Past, for Non-Fiction; Devon Code's story Uncle Oscar, for a short story or novel in progress; Miriam Toews, for a body of work. Lifetime of distinguished achievement awards went to Myrna Kostash and Polly Horvath. John Macfarlane, editor of The Walrus, received the Distinguished Contribution Award.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/884922--donoghue-s-room-wins-writers-trust-prize
Canada Reads 2011 has issued a list of the Top 40 books in contention for the annual book debate, to be held next February. CBC Radio has asked readers to help choose the best novels of the 2000s before five are chosen from that list for the book debate.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/10/28/canada-reads-2011.html
Czech playwright and former president Vaclav Havel has won the Franz Kafka literary prize for what a jury called "artistically exceptional literary work by a contemporary author."
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/10/27/kafka-prize.html
The new DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, worth $50,000 US, created to increase awareness of South Asian literature around the world, is open to authors of any nationality so long as the work is based on the region and its people. A shortlist has been announced.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/26/new-prize-south-asian-literature
Stonewall awards for adult books began nearly 40 years ago. This year, the Stonewall prize will honour "English-language works for children and teens of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered experience" and will be included in the American Library Association's annual announcement of children's prizes.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/01/library-prize.html
Unhooking the Moon, a first novel by Gregory Hughes about two orphaned siblings who take a road trip from Canada to New York, has won the Booktrust Teenage prize. A Liverpudlian by birth, Hughes currently lives in Vancouver.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/01/gregory-hughes-booktrust-teenage-prize?CMP=EMCGT_021110&
Manu Joseph has won the Hindu Best Fiction award 2010 with his first novel, Serious Men, a story that examines caste in contemporary India.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/02/manu-joseph-india-serious-men
The National 1st Book Competition, sponsored by The Writer's Studio at Simon Fraser University announced this year's winners at the Vancouver International Writers Festival: Birthmother by Myrl Coulter, creative nonfiction; Nondescript Rambunctious by Jackie Bateman, fiction; and Galaxy by Rachel Thompson, poetry. The winning manuscripts will be published in 2011.
http://www.thewritersstudio.ca/
NEWS & FEATURES
In anticipation of next week's Giller Prize announcement, the Globe and Mail features a look at the shortlisted authors and their books.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-giller-prize/
A young (27) indie bookstore employee's excitement about a little-known book led to a Pulitzer Prize for the book.
http://www.nhmagazine.com/home/886019-101/the-2010-it-list.html
Five days after the Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize in Literature, he walked into a Princeton classroom where 25 students awaited their weekly seminar. Vargas Llosa continued to teach.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/30/books/30masterclass.html?ref=books
Adam Gopnik writes that Vargas Llosa is exactly the kind of writer the prize ought to go to.
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/10/18/101018taco_talk_gopnik
Independent publisher Melville House, whose The Confessions of Noa Weber won the 2010 Best Translated Book award for fiction earlier this year, has vowed to boycott the American prize for translated fiction after Amazon.com was announced as a sponsor.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/29/publisher-boycotts-prize-protest-amazon-sponsorship
The northern Labrador town of Rigolet has won a competition to be the focus of the next book by children's author Robert Munsch. The Pick-A-Munsch competition, which drew 150,000 votes, encouraged people to pick their favourite Munsch story idea.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/01/nl-munsch-labrador-1101.html
The Booker prize-winning writer Arundhati Roy has made a strident defense of comments she made over the disputed territory of Kashmir after the Indian government threatened to arrest her for sedition.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/arundhati-roy-called-a-traitor-for-kashmiri-rights-plea-2117400.html
This past weekend, Ms. Roy's Delhi home was besieged by protesters demanding that she leave India because she supports Kashmir independence.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/31/arundhati-roy-home-besieged-protesters
Poet Mark Ford writes that "Last Letter", the draft of a poem by Ted Hughes, is unlikely to do much to rehabilitate Hughes with those who hold him responsible for the deaths of Sylvia Plath and Assia Wevill.
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2010/oct/28/ted-hughes-last-letter/
Mike Doherty interviews author Jonathan Franzen on pleasing readers, reconciling with Oprah and meeting Obama.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/10/30/jonathan-franzen-freedom.html
"No country has the right to point only at the Germans. Everybody has to empty their own latrine," says Günter Grass in an interview with Maya Jaggi on his life in writing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/nov/01/gunter-grass-interview-maya-jaggi
BOOKS & WRITERS
Lisa Appignanesi calls Michael Holroyd's A Book of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers "a gem of a book".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/31/book-secrets-michael-holroyd-review
Ken McGoogan's How The Scots Invented Canada immodestly, and accurately, credits Scots blood as the defining element of our fair nation, writes D. Grant Black.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/882600--how-the-scots-invented-canada
In The Mind's Eye, Oliver Sacks offers up his usual elegant mixture of case history and street-level observations of the struggles of those afflicted with visual disorders, writes neurologist Robert Burton in the San Francisco Chronicle.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/31/RVNL1FU1S9.DTL
Psychiatrist Norman Doidge comments that unlike earlier books, here Sacks' observations are based on his own experience of going blind due to eye cancer.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-minds-eye-by-oliver-sacks/article1777708/singlepage/#articlecontent
One of the central issues Kevin Major explores in New Under the Sun is a question poet John Newlove posed many years ago: "Whose land this is, and is to be." It's a question that concerns all of us. Gary Geddes finds Major's exploration of this fascinating.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/new-under-the-sun-by-kevin-major/article1778682/
Imagine Alan Bennett writing the X-Files and you get some idea of the offbeat genius of Paul Magrs's Whitby fantasia. "An audacious collision of craziness and mundanity" says David Barnett.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/oct/28/brenda-and-effie
Readers mourning the loss of Stieg Larsson will enjoy this book by Larsson's friend Kurdo Baksi, says Rosie Swash in the Observer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/31/stieg-larsson-my-friend-kurdo-baksi-review
Peter Ackroyd's The English Ghost: Spectres Through Time is a compilation of true ghost stories.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-english-ghost-spectres-through-time-by-peter-ackroyd-2117355.html
COMMUNITY EVENTS
GURJINDER BASRAN
Author reads from her book Everything Was Good-Bye, winner of the Search for the Great B.C. Novel contest, chosen from 64 manuscripts by Jack Hodgins. Thursday, November 4 at 7:00pm, free. Central Branch, VPL, 350 West Georgia Street. More information at www.vpl.ca.
AGNES TOEWS-ANDREWS
Reading with author of The Goddess Lives: Poetry, Prose, and Prayers in Her Honour, about her world travels and her search to uncover the long-forgotten tradition of Goddess worship. Friday, November 5 at 7:00pm, free. Capilano Branch Library, 3045 Highland Blvd, North Vancouver. More information at www.isismoonpublishing.com.
CONVERSATION ABOUT CRIME
Canadian Crime Writers' Association authors Robin Spano, Debra Purdy Kon, and Elizabeth Elwood talk about the art of writing murder mysteries. Saturday, November 6 at 1:00pm, free. Black Bond Books, 5251 Ladner Trunk Rd., Delta.
IN LOVE WITH THE MYSTERY
Singer and performer Ann Mortifee launches her new photo illustrated book of inspirational writings, along with a companion CD by her husband flutist Paul Horn. Saturday, November 6 at 7:30pm. Tickets: $10. St. Mark's Anglican Church (1805 Larch). More information at www.inlovewiththeymystery.com.
THE ESSENTIALS: 150 GREAT B.C. BOOKS AND AUTHORS
Alan Twigg discusses his book, a guide to writing and writers that have shaped our literary landscape. Monday, November 8 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kaye Room, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia. More information at www.vpl.ca.
MARTIN FLETCHER
The NBC political correspondent talks about his latest book Walking Israel. Tuesday, November 9 at 8:00pm. Tickets: $18. Norman Rothstein Theatre, 950 W. 41st Ave. More information at www.jewishbookfestival.ca.
THE HEART DOES BREAK
Readings on grief and mourning by authors Stephen Collis, Joan Givner, Anne Stone with editors Jean Baird and George Bowering. Wednesday, November 10 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Library/Bookstore at Robson Square, plaza level, 800 Robson Street.
MEMORY FESTIVAL
Events include readings and performances by Lee Henderson, Sarah Leavitt, Hiromi Goto, Faith Moosang (interviewed by Hal Wake!) and Marcus Yousef. Art exhibition featuring David Campion and Sandra Shields, Goran Basaric and video storytelling by the Thursdays Writing Collective Workshops on writing your own memories, from graphic to poetic memoir. November 10-19, 2010 at the Roundhouse Community Centre. Information at www.memoryfestival.org.
JOEL HENG HARTSE
Reading by the author of Sects, Love, and Rock & Roll. Wednesday, November 10 at 7:00pm. The Wired Monk, 2610 4th Ave. W. More information at http://ow.ly/30vW8.
ROMEO DALLAIRE
Author of They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children: The Global Quest to Eradicate the Use of Child Soldiers discusses the practice of using children in conflicts. Thursday, November 11 at 7:30pm. Tickets $20. Kay Meek Centre, 1700 Mathers Avenue, West Vancouver. More information at http://www.kaymeekcentre.com/on_stage/979.
MIKE MCCARDELL
Book signing by TV personality and author of Everything Works. Two appearances on Saturday, November 13: first at 1:00pm at Black Bond Books White Rock (Semiahmoo Mall) and then at 3:30pm at Black Bond Books Ladner (Trenant Park Square Shopping Centre). For more information about the signing, phone Black Bond Books at 604-536-3336 (Semiahmoo Mall) or 604-946-6677 (Ladner).
CBC RADIO STUDIO ONE BOOK CLUB
Singer/songwriter, rancher and grassland conservationist Ian Tyson will be here with his new memoir The Long Trail: My Life in the West. Ian reflects on how his love for the West started in Victoria, nurtured and inspired his musical talent, taught him life lessons in the saddle, and has saved his soul. Sunday, November 14. Enter to win free tickets at www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub.
Upcoming
PEN-IN-HAND
Readings by poets bill bissett, Jim Christy, Susan Stenson and Linda Rogers. Monday, November 15 at 7:30pm. Serious Coffee, 230 Cook Street, Victoria.
JUNE HUTTON
White Rock Library in partnership with the Community Arts Council of White Rock & District hosts June Hutton for a discussion of her book Underground. Tuesday, November 16 at 2:00pm, free. Register by phoning 604-541-2201. White Rock Library, 15342 Buena Vista, White Rock. More information at www.fvrl.bc.ca.
SEMIAHMOO ARTS' LITERARY SERIES
Reading by June Hutton, the author of Underground. Tuesday, November 16 at 7:30pm, free. Pelican Rouge Coffee House, 15142 North Bluff Road, White Rock. More information at www.semiahmooarts.com.
SEE THE VOICE
Visible Verse's 10th anniversary celebration and festival. November 19-20, 2010. Pacific Cinematheque, 1131 Howe Street. For complete program details, visit http://heatherhaley.com/visibleverse.php.
KAT VON D
Join tattoo artist and television star of LA Ink, as she signs copies of her new book The Tattoo Chronicles. Monday, November 22 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson Street.
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.
Special Events
Sara Gruen
Tonight, the Vancouver International Writers Festival and Random House Canada present the author of Water for Elephants reading from her new book Ape House. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/gruen.
In her profile of Sara Gruen for McClatchy Newspapers, Connie Ogle describes how the bonobo apes decided to meet with Gruen. The bonobos communicate using American Sign Language and lexigrams. We discover that animals have always played an important role in Gruen's life, both at home and in her prior novels.
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/10/25/2352236/author-sara-gruen-talks-to-the.html
Gary Shteyngart
Vancouver International Writers Festival and the Cherie Smith JCGV Jewish Book Festival present the author of Super Sad True Love Story in conversation with Eleanor Wachtel. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/shteyngart.
Igor Shteyngart, of Leningrad who, at 7, became Gary Shteyngart of Little Neck, Queens returned this month to Russia—a country he revisits every year or two—to do an informal book tour. A Russian-language translation of Super Sad True Love Story is being published soon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/books/25gary.html?ref=books
An excerpt of Super Sad True Love Story (in English) can be found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/books/excerpt-super-sad-true-love-story.html?ref=books
AWARDS & LISTS
The Rogers Writers' Trust Awards were announced Tuesday: Emma Donoghue's Room, for Fiction; James FitzGerald's What Disturbs Our Blood: A Son's Quest to Redeem the Past, for Non-Fiction; Devon Code's story Uncle Oscar, for a short story or novel in progress; Miriam Toews, for a body of work. Lifetime of distinguished achievement awards went to Myrna Kostash and Polly Horvath. John Macfarlane, editor of The Walrus, received the Distinguished Contribution Award.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/884922--donoghue-s-room-wins-writers-trust-prize
Canada Reads 2011 has issued a list of the Top 40 books in contention for the annual book debate, to be held next February. CBC Radio has asked readers to help choose the best novels of the 2000s before five are chosen from that list for the book debate.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/10/28/canada-reads-2011.html
Czech playwright and former president Vaclav Havel has won the Franz Kafka literary prize for what a jury called "artistically exceptional literary work by a contemporary author."
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/10/27/kafka-prize.html
The new DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, worth $50,000 US, created to increase awareness of South Asian literature around the world, is open to authors of any nationality so long as the work is based on the region and its people. A shortlist has been announced.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/26/new-prize-south-asian-literature
Stonewall awards for adult books began nearly 40 years ago. This year, the Stonewall prize will honour "English-language works for children and teens of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered experience" and will be included in the American Library Association's annual announcement of children's prizes.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/01/library-prize.html
Unhooking the Moon, a first novel by Gregory Hughes about two orphaned siblings who take a road trip from Canada to New York, has won the Booktrust Teenage prize. A Liverpudlian by birth, Hughes currently lives in Vancouver.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/01/gregory-hughes-booktrust-teenage-prize?CMP=EMCGT_021110&
Manu Joseph has won the Hindu Best Fiction award 2010 with his first novel, Serious Men, a story that examines caste in contemporary India.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/02/manu-joseph-india-serious-men
The National 1st Book Competition, sponsored by The Writer's Studio at Simon Fraser University announced this year's winners at the Vancouver International Writers Festival: Birthmother by Myrl Coulter, creative nonfiction; Nondescript Rambunctious by Jackie Bateman, fiction; and Galaxy by Rachel Thompson, poetry. The winning manuscripts will be published in 2011.
http://www.thewritersstudio.ca/
NEWS & FEATURES
In anticipation of next week's Giller Prize announcement, the Globe and Mail features a look at the shortlisted authors and their books.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-giller-prize/
A young (27) indie bookstore employee's excitement about a little-known book led to a Pulitzer Prize for the book.
http://www.nhmagazine.com/home/886019-101/the-2010-it-list.html
Five days after the Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize in Literature, he walked into a Princeton classroom where 25 students awaited their weekly seminar. Vargas Llosa continued to teach.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/30/books/30masterclass.html?ref=books
Adam Gopnik writes that Vargas Llosa is exactly the kind of writer the prize ought to go to.
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/10/18/101018taco_talk_gopnik
Independent publisher Melville House, whose The Confessions of Noa Weber won the 2010 Best Translated Book award for fiction earlier this year, has vowed to boycott the American prize for translated fiction after Amazon.com was announced as a sponsor.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/29/publisher-boycotts-prize-protest-amazon-sponsorship
The northern Labrador town of Rigolet has won a competition to be the focus of the next book by children's author Robert Munsch. The Pick-A-Munsch competition, which drew 150,000 votes, encouraged people to pick their favourite Munsch story idea.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/11/01/nl-munsch-labrador-1101.html
The Booker prize-winning writer Arundhati Roy has made a strident defense of comments she made over the disputed territory of Kashmir after the Indian government threatened to arrest her for sedition.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/arundhati-roy-called-a-traitor-for-kashmiri-rights-plea-2117400.html
This past weekend, Ms. Roy's Delhi home was besieged by protesters demanding that she leave India because she supports Kashmir independence.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/31/arundhati-roy-home-besieged-protesters
Poet Mark Ford writes that "Last Letter", the draft of a poem by Ted Hughes, is unlikely to do much to rehabilitate Hughes with those who hold him responsible for the deaths of Sylvia Plath and Assia Wevill.
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2010/oct/28/ted-hughes-last-letter/
Mike Doherty interviews author Jonathan Franzen on pleasing readers, reconciling with Oprah and meeting Obama.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/10/30/jonathan-franzen-freedom.html
"No country has the right to point only at the Germans. Everybody has to empty their own latrine," says Günter Grass in an interview with Maya Jaggi on his life in writing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/nov/01/gunter-grass-interview-maya-jaggi
BOOKS & WRITERS
Lisa Appignanesi calls Michael Holroyd's A Book of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers "a gem of a book".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/31/book-secrets-michael-holroyd-review
Ken McGoogan's How The Scots Invented Canada immodestly, and accurately, credits Scots blood as the defining element of our fair nation, writes D. Grant Black.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/882600--how-the-scots-invented-canada
In The Mind's Eye, Oliver Sacks offers up his usual elegant mixture of case history and street-level observations of the struggles of those afflicted with visual disorders, writes neurologist Robert Burton in the San Francisco Chronicle.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/31/RVNL1FU1S9.DTL
Psychiatrist Norman Doidge comments that unlike earlier books, here Sacks' observations are based on his own experience of going blind due to eye cancer.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-minds-eye-by-oliver-sacks/article1777708/singlepage/#articlecontent
One of the central issues Kevin Major explores in New Under the Sun is a question poet John Newlove posed many years ago: "Whose land this is, and is to be." It's a question that concerns all of us. Gary Geddes finds Major's exploration of this fascinating.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/new-under-the-sun-by-kevin-major/article1778682/
Imagine Alan Bennett writing the X-Files and you get some idea of the offbeat genius of Paul Magrs's Whitby fantasia. "An audacious collision of craziness and mundanity" says David Barnett.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/oct/28/brenda-and-effie
Readers mourning the loss of Stieg Larsson will enjoy this book by Larsson's friend Kurdo Baksi, says Rosie Swash in the Observer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/31/stieg-larsson-my-friend-kurdo-baksi-review
Peter Ackroyd's The English Ghost: Spectres Through Time is a compilation of true ghost stories.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-english-ghost-spectres-through-time-by-peter-ackroyd-2117355.html
COMMUNITY EVENTS
GURJINDER BASRAN
Author reads from her book Everything Was Good-Bye, winner of the Search for the Great B.C. Novel contest, chosen from 64 manuscripts by Jack Hodgins. Thursday, November 4 at 7:00pm, free. Central Branch, VPL, 350 West Georgia Street. More information at www.vpl.ca.
AGNES TOEWS-ANDREWS
Reading with author of The Goddess Lives: Poetry, Prose, and Prayers in Her Honour, about her world travels and her search to uncover the long-forgotten tradition of Goddess worship. Friday, November 5 at 7:00pm, free. Capilano Branch Library, 3045 Highland Blvd, North Vancouver. More information at www.isismoonpublishing.com.
CONVERSATION ABOUT CRIME
Canadian Crime Writers' Association authors Robin Spano, Debra Purdy Kon, and Elizabeth Elwood talk about the art of writing murder mysteries. Saturday, November 6 at 1:00pm, free. Black Bond Books, 5251 Ladner Trunk Rd., Delta.
IN LOVE WITH THE MYSTERY
Singer and performer Ann Mortifee launches her new photo illustrated book of inspirational writings, along with a companion CD by her husband flutist Paul Horn. Saturday, November 6 at 7:30pm. Tickets: $10. St. Mark's Anglican Church (1805 Larch). More information at www.inlovewiththeymystery.com.
THE ESSENTIALS: 150 GREAT B.C. BOOKS AND AUTHORS
Alan Twigg discusses his book, a guide to writing and writers that have shaped our literary landscape. Monday, November 8 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kaye Room, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia. More information at www.vpl.ca.
MARTIN FLETCHER
The NBC political correspondent talks about his latest book Walking Israel. Tuesday, November 9 at 8:00pm. Tickets: $18. Norman Rothstein Theatre, 950 W. 41st Ave. More information at www.jewishbookfestival.ca.
THE HEART DOES BREAK
Readings on grief and mourning by authors Stephen Collis, Joan Givner, Anne Stone with editors Jean Baird and George Bowering. Wednesday, November 10 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Library/Bookstore at Robson Square, plaza level, 800 Robson Street.
MEMORY FESTIVAL
Events include readings and performances by Lee Henderson, Sarah Leavitt, Hiromi Goto, Faith Moosang (interviewed by Hal Wake!) and Marcus Yousef. Art exhibition featuring David Campion and Sandra Shields, Goran Basaric and video storytelling by the Thursdays Writing Collective Workshops on writing your own memories, from graphic to poetic memoir. November 10-19, 2010 at the Roundhouse Community Centre. Information at www.memoryfestival.org.
JOEL HENG HARTSE
Reading by the author of Sects, Love, and Rock & Roll. Wednesday, November 10 at 7:00pm. The Wired Monk, 2610 4th Ave. W. More information at http://ow.ly/30vW8.
ROMEO DALLAIRE
Author of They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children: The Global Quest to Eradicate the Use of Child Soldiers discusses the practice of using children in conflicts. Thursday, November 11 at 7:30pm. Tickets $20. Kay Meek Centre, 1700 Mathers Avenue, West Vancouver. More information at http://www.kaymeekcentre.com/on_stage/979.
MIKE MCCARDELL
Book signing by TV personality and author of Everything Works. Two appearances on Saturday, November 13: first at 1:00pm at Black Bond Books White Rock (Semiahmoo Mall) and then at 3:30pm at Black Bond Books Ladner (Trenant Park Square Shopping Centre). For more information about the signing, phone Black Bond Books at 604-536-3336 (Semiahmoo Mall) or 604-946-6677 (Ladner).
CBC RADIO STUDIO ONE BOOK CLUB
Singer/songwriter, rancher and grassland conservationist Ian Tyson will be here with his new memoir The Long Trail: My Life in the West. Ian reflects on how his love for the West started in Victoria, nurtured and inspired his musical talent, taught him life lessons in the saddle, and has saved his soul. Sunday, November 14. Enter to win free tickets at www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub.
Upcoming
PEN-IN-HAND
Readings by poets bill bissett, Jim Christy, Susan Stenson and Linda Rogers. Monday, November 15 at 7:30pm. Serious Coffee, 230 Cook Street, Victoria.
JUNE HUTTON
White Rock Library in partnership with the Community Arts Council of White Rock & District hosts June Hutton for a discussion of her book Underground. Tuesday, November 16 at 2:00pm, free. Register by phoning 604-541-2201. White Rock Library, 15342 Buena Vista, White Rock. More information at www.fvrl.bc.ca.
SEMIAHMOO ARTS' LITERARY SERIES
Reading by June Hutton, the author of Underground. Tuesday, November 16 at 7:30pm, free. Pelican Rouge Coffee House, 15142 North Bluff Road, White Rock. More information at www.semiahmooarts.com.
SEE THE VOICE
Visible Verse's 10th anniversary celebration and festival. November 19-20, 2010. Pacific Cinematheque, 1131 Howe Street. For complete program details, visit http://heatherhaley.com/visibleverse.php.
KAT VON D
Join tattoo artist and television star of LA Ink, as she signs copies of her new book The Tattoo Chronicles. Monday, November 22 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson Street.
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.
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