BOOK NEWS
SPECIAL EVENTS
Michael Ondaatje - September 21, 2011
Join us for an evening with the Booker Prize-winning author of The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje, as he discusses his forthcoming novel, The Cat's Table. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/ondaatje.
An Evening with Anthony Bourdain - 8pm, October 29, 2011
The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts. Tickets: $47.50/$55.00/$62.50/VIP package: $152.50. Tickets now on sale at Ticketmaster. Support the Writers Festival: use the code "writers" when purchasing your ticket, a portion of the ticket proceeds will go to the VIWF and you will receive a $5 discount per ticket. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/bourdain.
An Evening with David Sedaris - 8pm, November 5, 2011
The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts. Tickets: $45.00/$50.00/$57.50. Tickets now on sale at Ticketmaster. Support the Writers Festival: use the code "writers" when purchasing your ticket, a portion of the ticket proceeds will go to the VIWF and you will receive a $5 discount per ticket. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/davidsedaris.
Wade Davis - November 10, 2011
An evening with scientist, anthropologist and bestselling author Wade Davis discussing his latest book Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/wadedavis.
AWARDS & LISTS
Alison Pick, author of Far to Go; Patrick deWitt, The Sisters Brothers; and Esi Edugyan, Half Blood Blues, are among the 13 nominees on the long list for the 2011 Man Booker Prize. This represents a timely triumph for the independent Canadian publishers that published all three books, says John Barber. The short list of six will be announced in September and the 2011 Man Booker Prize, on October 18.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/three-canadian-novelists-make-man-booker-long-list/article2110041/
Priscila Uppal, poet-in-residence for Canadian Athletes Now during the Vancouver Olympics, has been named poet-in-residence for next month's Rogers Cup Tennis Tournament in Toronto.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/poetry-anyone-rogers-cup-names-a-poet-in-residence/article2104978/
The Crime Writers' Association has announced the winners of a number of this year's Daggers, the prestigious awards that celebrate the very best in crime and thriller writing. They include: Anders Roslund & Börge Hellström (Three Seconds); Douglas Starr (The Killer of Little Shepherds); Mo Hayder; Phil Lovesey (Homework); Michele Rowe (What Hidden Lies). The winners of the CWA Gold Dagger (http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/2011/gold.html), the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger (http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/2011/newblood.html), and the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger (http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/2011/steel.html) will be announced in early October.
http://www.thecwa.co.uk/
Lee Child, the creator of the All-American hero Jack Reacher has won the 2011 Theakstons Old Peculier crime novel of the year award with the 14th instalment in his bestselling series, 61 Hours.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/22/lee-child-crime-novel-award-theakstons
Celebrated for his plays, novels and journalism, Michael Frayn's first work of memoir, My Father's Fortune, has been awarded the PEN/Ackerley prize, the UK's only dedicated award for autobiography.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/22/michael-frayn-memoir-father-prize
P.D. James received an Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction award at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival last week.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/a-longer-shelf-life-for-seasoned-scribes-2325855.html
NEWS & FEATURES
Vancouver continues the search for its third Poet Laureate. Nominations and submissions will be accepted until Aug. 24.
http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/covertocover/archive/2011/06/23/vancouver-seeking-third-poet-laureate.aspx
The Federation of BC Writers Annual Literary Writes Competition invites submissions in the category of short fiction. The competition is open to all BC writers and residents. Deadline for entries is August 7, 2011. Winners will read their pieces at the Word On The Street Festival in Vancouver in September. For guidelines and other information:
http://www.bcwriters.ca/fed-programs/fed-literary-writes-competition/
Iain Reid, author of One Bird's Choice, describes how he discovered why there's still a place in the world for literary readings.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/07/22/iain-reid-why-theres-still-a-place-in-the-world-for-literary-readings/
100 years after the birth of media visionary Marshall McLuhan, Douglas Coupland reflects on 'the medium is the message' as explanation of what Google and YouTube do to our souls.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/20/marshall-mcluhan-chilling-vision
Literary icon Margaret Atwood has joined the fight against a consultant's proposed cuts to Toronto's library system, marshalling her 225,200 Twitter followers, crashing a server hosting a petition.
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1028941--margaret-atwood-fights-library-cuts-crashes-petition-server?bn=1#.TimhvuvPx-I.facebook
Toronto City Councillor Doug Ford has fired back at Margaret Atwood for her criticism of suggested library cuts, telling reporters: "I don't even know her."
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1030746--doug-ford-blasts-margaret-atwood-for-defending-libraries?bn=1
He later 'clarified' his remarks.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/07/27/toronto-atwood-libraries.html
Canada's Garfield Weston Foundation is among those that have contributed donations toward the purchase of the St. Cuthbert Gospel, a rare book dating from the 7th century and believed to be the oldest intact European book. The book belongs to the British Province of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) who set a deadline of March 2012 for the library to raise enough funds. The Jesuits have owned the book since 1769. The British Library is more than halfway towards its goal of raising £9 million ($14 million Cdn).
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/07/20/st-cuthbert-gospel.html
British Conservative MP Louise Mensch who asked Rupert Murdoch at the House of Commons media committee: had he considered resigning? is also the author Louise Bagshawe. Since her election last year, Mensch's career as a bestselling author is apparently bandied about as an indication of her lack of gravitas, with the word ‘chicklit' used often.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/21/sneering-chick-lit-female-authors
Jennifer Egan, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer prize for fiction, on expectations of female authors. says: "I don't think the world is out there looking for the next genius female fiction writer, they don't tend to think genius is going to come from the female side."
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/05/jennifer_egan_goon_squad_inter.html
Boyd Tonkin reflects on the possible repercussions of the Murdoch debacle for the publishing arm of News Corp, HarperCollins in the UK.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/boyd-tonkin-boris--a-dance-with-dragons-2318126.html
Robert McCrum believes that the e-revolution will be a bigger problem for Murdoch than phone hacking.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jul/21/e-revolution-problem-murdoch-phone-hacking
Erica Jong, Ann Patchett and 12 other writers give their take on the downfall of the Borders book chain.
http://www.salon.com/books/bookstores/index.html?story=/books/feature/2011/07/22/borders_liquidation
Newly released files reveal that the RCMP spied on literary scholar Northrup Frye because of his involvement in political activities, including the anti-Vietnam War movement, and efforts to end apartheid in South Africa.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/rcmp-spied-on-noted-literary-scholar-northrop-frye-newly-released-files/article2108224/
Governor-General and other Awards-winning, Edmonton-based author Gloria Sawai, has died, at the age of 78. Among her best-known works is the 1975 short story entitled, The Day I Sat with Jesus on the Sundeck and a Wind Came Up and Blew My Kimono Open and He Saw My Breasts.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/07/21/edmonton-gloria-sawai-obit342.html
Historians and archaeologists are hunting for the bones of Don Quixote author Miguel de Cervantes in a Madrid convent, to reconstruct and reveal Cervantes' true face, and to discover the cause of his death.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/25/cervantes-bones-madrid-convent-search
In an interview with P.D. James, Julie Bindel writes: "While many contemporary female crime writers are increasingly developing plotlines involving serial killers and extremely violent sex crime, James can appear almost genteel and quaint in comparison." At almost 91, James is (hand-)writing a new novel, not Dalgliesh.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/21/pd-james-lifetime-of-crime
John Banville writes about the birth of his dark twin, Benjamin Black.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/22/john-banville-benjamin-black-author
A collection of nine short stories by Alexander Solzhenitsyn—that reveal the writer was still experimenting in his final years—is to be published in English for the first time. The collection will appear under the title Apricot Jam and Other Stories, fulfilling the author's long-held desire that the work be available to the English-speaking world.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/24/alexander-solzhenitsyn-short-stories
A landmark hearing last Tuesday marks the first judicial review into proposed library closures in Britain as angry campaigners prepare to take their case to the courts.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/fight-to-save-local-libraries-gets-its-day-in-court-2314964.html
What does Australia's best-known author do when he wants to downsize his 2500-book library? Thomas Keneally has donated his book collection to be enjoyed by others.
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/a-library-he-calls-his-own-20110723-1huil.html
Publishers Weekly reports that sales of print books in Canada dropped dramatically (10.9% in units sold) in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the first quarter of 2010, according to new figures from BookNet Canada. Until BookNet can track digital sales (expected in a year), it's hard to know whether the total sale of all types of books has changed.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/48114-canadian-book-sales-dropped-10-in-first-quarter.html
As the digitization of human culture accelerates, publishers and academics have begun addressing a basic question: Who will control knowledge in the future? So far, the answer has been Google, a private company, says Richard Beck. Robert Darnton, a cultural historian and director of Harvard University's library system, has raised the prospect of creating a public digital library: a vision for the largest library In history.
http://articles.boston.com/2011-07-24/bostonglobe/29810463_1_google-books-robert-darnton-digitization
The indie bookstore Bookhampton has a section called Hipster Lit. The titles listed under Hipster Lit can be found here:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/
BOOKS & WRITERS
Jay Bahadur has spent time in Somalia discovering the background to, and the reality of, the lives of pirates and those who harbour the high-seas criminals. Bahadur has turned his research into a compelling and insightful book, says Daniel Sekulich.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-pirates-of-somalia-inside-their-hidden-world-by-jay-bahadur/article2106671/
After many years' work in Haiti, Dr. Paul Farmer offers a prescription for Haiti in Haiti After the Earthquake, writes René Bruemmer. "...food and shelter, education and health care, jobs that promote dignity", prescribes Doctor Paul.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Paul+Farmer+prescription+Haiti/5145455/story.html
The New York Review of Books includes Deborah Eisenberg's new short story Recalculating.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jul/14/recalculating/
Dimiti Nasrallah's Niko reminds Donna Bailey Nurse of Nasrallah's stating "how a people's history complicates their personal lives". With superb powers of description, Nasrallah reminds us that every crowd of refugees consists of scores of people like Niko and Antoine. says Bailey Nurse.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/niko-by-dimitri-nasrallah/article2102212/
Ian McGillis regrets that the newest Granta—The F Word—dedicated to the theme of feminism, went to press too late to incorporate a response to VS Naipaul's pronouncements on the inferiority of women writers. Two highlights for McGillis are Helen Simpson and Rachel Cusk.
http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/2011/07/09/103971/
Kenneth J. Harvey's Reinventing the Rose delivers timely counterpunches against the economic and cultural policies of every political regime that uses the language of stable government and family values to overturn women's rights, says T.F. Rigelhof.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/reinventing-the-rose-by-kenneth-j-harvey/article2106452/
Philip Marchand writes that Jacob Striker, the cop hero of The Survivor, is well named. He strikes while the iron is hot. This novel, by Vancouver police officer Sean Slater, is a "police procedural" that highlights procedure.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/07/22/open-book-the-survivor-by-sean-slater/#more-40826
Like The O'Briens, Peter Behrens has spent much of his life crossing the Canada-U.S. border. The O'Briens, originally planned to precede the award-winning The Law of Dreams, now takes place two generations later. Many of its characters are composites of Behrens' family members, says Vit Wagner.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1028527--the-o-briens-by-peter-behrens-running-in-the-family
The lives of Flaubert and Florence Nightingale are intertwined in Anthony Sattin's A Winter on the Nile, a fascinating account of their pre-fame trips to Cairo, says James Purdon.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/24/winter-nile-anthony-sattin-review
The daughter and granddaughter of diamond merchants, Alicia Oltuski is understandably fascinated by the trade. Precious Objects is simultaneously a portrait of the tiny, insular world of the diamond business—its secrecy, trust, and history—and a family memoir.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/jonathan-yardley-reviews-precious-objects-by-alicia-oltuski/2011/07/07/gIQALrWaSI_story.html
George R.R. Martin's fantasy is not far from reality. For all its extravagant and far-fetched trappings, A Song of Ice and Fire has much to tell us about our day-to-day world, says Damien Walter.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/26/george-r-r-martin-fantasy-reality
The Globe and Mail has commissioned short stories to run over six weeks. This week: Safety issue by Peter Robinson.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/stories-for-summer-safety-issue-by-peter-robinson/article2106747/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
THE LIFE CELEBRATION OF E. PAULINE JOHNSON
World Poetry, Aboriginal Writers Collective West Coast, and the City of Richmond present a First Nations welcome by World Poetry First Nations ambassador Roberta Price, a biography by Loretta Todd, music by Russell Wallace, and readings of Johnson's poems. Friday, July 29 at 6:30pm, free. Richmond Cultural Centre, 180 - 7700 Minoru Gate.
MARY AND CAROL HIGGINS CLARK
The American mystery-suspense writers promote their two new titles I'll Walk Alone and Mobbed. Wednesday, August 3 at 7:00pm, free. Chapters Granville, 2505 Granville Street.
CROSS BORDER POLLINATION READING SERIES
Literary readings by authors from both sides of the Canada-US border, curated by Rachel Rose, featuring John Barton, Jen Currin, Lydia Kwa, Elizabeth Colen, Carol Guess and Wayne Koestenbaum. Wednesday, August 3 at 7:30pm; donation. Roundhouse Exhibition Hall, 181 Roundhouse Mews. More information at queerartsfestival.com.
HAIKU NORTH AMERICA
A long weekend of papers, presentations, workshops, readings, and other activities in celebration of haiku poetry, held at the Seattle Center. August 3-7, 2011 in Seattle, Washington. More information at www.haikunorthamerica.com.
SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Canada's longest running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers, featuring Charles Foran, Susan Juby, Alexander MacLeod and Margaret Trudeau and many more. August 4-7, 2011. Rockwood Centre (5511 Shorncliffe Ave.), Sechelt, BC. Complete details at www.writersfestival.ca.
THE ARTIST HIMSELF: A RAND HOLMES RETROSPECTIVE
Display of Rand Holmes' art curated by Martha Holmes and Patrick Rosenkrantz. Holmes, who passed away in 2002, is best known for his Harold Hedd comics and covers for the Georgia Straight in the '70s. Saturday, August 6 at 7:00pm. Lucky's Comics, 3972 Main Street. More information at www.luckys.ca.
QUEEROTICA
Ten local authors traverse not only the wide breadth of queer sex, desire and identities, but also explore how different literary genres and modes of storytelling all make fine bedmates for erotica. Monday, August 8 at 7:30pm; donation. Roundhouse Exhibition Hall, 181 Roundhouse Mews. More information at queerartsfestival.com.
Upcoming
CBC STUDIO ONE BOOK CLUB
For the next CBC Studio One Book Club, author William Gibson suggested British writer Sarah Salway. Her three novels and her short stories all share a common theme of how identity is formed through the stories we tell about ourselves - or those that are told about us. William is a big fan of Sarah's writing, so he's going to co-host with Sheryl MacKay, on Thursday August 25th at 6:30 pm. Check out Sarah's writing and enter to win free tickets at www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub.
KOOTENAY BOOK WEEKEND
The 8th Annual Kootenay Book Weekend will take place in Nelson B.C. September 23, 24 an 25. The featured books are: Christos Tsiolkas' The Slap; Kathryn Stockett's The Help; Li Cunxin's Mao's Last Dancer, and special guest Ruth Ozeki and her books My Year of Meats and All Over Creation. Further information and registration forms can be found at www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Book News Vol. 6 No. 29
BOOK NEWS
SPECIAL EVENTS
Michael Ondaatje - September 21, 2011
Join us for an evening with the Booker Prize-winning author of The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje, as he discusses his forthcoming novel, The Cat's Table. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/ondaatje.
An Evening with Anthony Bourdain - 8pm, October 29, 2011
The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts. Tickets: $47.50/$55.00/$62.50/VIP package: $152.50. Tickets now on sale at Ticketmaster. Support the Writers Festival: use the code "writers" when purchasing your ticket, a portion of the ticket proceeds will go to the VIWF and you will receive a $5 discount per ticket. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/bourdain.
An Evening with David Sedaris - 8pm, November 5, 2011
The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts. Tickets: $45.00/$50.00/$57.50. Tickets now on sale at Ticketmaster. Support the Writers Festival: use the code "writers" when purchasing your ticket, a portion of the ticket proceeds will go to the VIWF and you will receive a $5 discount per ticket. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/davidsedaris.
Wade Davis - November 10, 2011
An evening with scientist, anthropologist and bestselling author Wade Davis discussing his latest book Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/wadedavis.
AWARDS & LISTS
Correction. The 2011 winner of the Caine prize for African writing is Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo, for her short story Hitting Budapest. Last week's notice that Sierra Leone's Olufemi Terry had won the Caine was listed in error: Olufemi Terry won the Caine prize for 2010. The Caine prize is known as the African Booker. Chair of the Caine prize's judges, the Libyan novelist Hisham Matar, said of Hitting Budapest: "the story's language ‘crackles'."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/12/noviolet-bulawayo-caine-prize
Geoffrey Hill, Oxford Professor of Poetry is one of the six names on the all-male shortlist for the prestigious £10,000 Forward prize for poetry. Six young poets have also been shortlisted for the £5,000 Felix Dennis prize for the best first collection of poetry. Four poets have been nominated for the best single poem.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/14/forward-prize-for-poetry-shortlist?CMP=EMCGT_140711&
Leslie Stark has won First Prize in the 7th Annual Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest for her postcard story The Glamour.
http://www.geist.com/postcard-story/glamour
Although readers have submitted titles for consideration for the Guardian first book prize, the Guardian continues to ask: What's missing from the list?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jul/18/first-book-award-missing-list
NEWS & FEATURES
Vancouver is seeking its third Poet Laureate. Nominations and submissions will be accepted until Aug. 24.
http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/covertocover/archive/2011/06/23/vancouver-seeking-third-poet-laureate.aspx
Poetry for summer: Lie back, and let the verse wash over you, suggests Suzi Feay, who claims to read over 100 books a year.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/poetry-for-summer-lie-back-and-let-the-verse-wash-over-you-2314863.html
Some of the keynote readers among the 70 poets participating in the Vancouver 125 Poetry Conference include Governor-General's Award and Griffin Prize winner Don McKay, and esteemed U.S. writers Fanny Howe and Martin Espada. Espada is a Pulitzer Prize finalist (for The Republic of Poetry), who has been compared to Pablo Neruda. The 125 Poetry Conference is working in collaboration with the Writers Festival, including poets performing evening cabarets as part of the Festival.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/vancouver-to-hold-major-canadian-poetry-conference/article2095906/
Why is it that the book for which an author is best known is rarely their best? asks John Self. He proceeds to list a few instances of a writer being famous for the wrong book, with suggestions for where their greatest achievement really lies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/19/famous-wrong-book-vonnegut-waugh-ishiguro
Mary W. Walters, The Book Charmer, examines the question: How much do you really earn when you self-publish?
http://maryww.wordpress.com/2011/07/16/how-much-more-do-you-really-earn-when-you-self-publish/
Yuki Noguchi offers an analysis of why the Borders bookselling chain failed while Barnes & Noble survived.
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/19/138514209/why-borders-failed-while-barnes-and-noble-survived
The only remaining privately-owned fragment of a Jane Austen novel, in the author's own handwriting, has sold at auction in London for nearly £1m, three times its estimate. The fragments of the unfinished novel The Watsons reflect the author's wit, says Stephen Bates.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/14/jane-austen-manuscript-the-watsons
Over the past 20 years, male poets in the UK have outperformed female poets by a ratio of nearly 7:1 in the Forward Prize stakes. Who got rid of the women? asks Sarah Crown, as she ponders the all-male shortlist for this year's Forward Prize.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jul/14/forward-poetry-prize-women
British author Helen Humphreys describes how reading Charlotte's Web as a child resulted in her becoming a writer.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/book-of-a-lifetime-charlottes-web-by-eb-white-2308557.html
Dr. Theodore Roszak, historian, social critic and novelist, who coined the word ‘counterculture' and studied the social uprising of American youth beginning in the mid-1960s, has died, age 77.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/books/theodore-roszak-60s-scholar-dies-at-77.html?_r=1&ref=books
John Lucas wonders if relentless focus on plot is edging something of value out of our literary culture. He quotes a leading London literary agent who stated that, in his opinion, it is highly unlikely that Kafka would get published as a first-time writer today.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/14/plot-driven-out-other-kinds-story
There is a sad irony to the fact that a book about contemporary India, while available in full in most of the world, appears only in partial form for Indian readers. The book is Siddhartha Deb's The Beautiful and the Damned.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/15/beautiful-damned-siddhartha-deb-india
The publication of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique was one of those events that seem, in retrospect, to have divided the sixties from the fifties as the day from the night, writes Louis Menand, as he explores why the women's movement needed Betty Friedan.
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2011/01/24/110124crbo_books_menand?currentPage=all
Raymond Chandler was fifty when his first book was published. But, writes Carolyn Kellogg, it's hard to imagine Marlowe's particular blend of hardness, weariness, and empathy coming from a younger writer. In anticipation of the birthday they share—July 23—Kellogg describes Chandler's circuitous and tortured path to literary fame.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-ca-raymond-chandler-20110717,0,4725526.story
While many of us might recall library vans visiting small towns with books for residents to borrow, it is much less common to discover a bookseller on a barge.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/book-barge-how-to-stay-afloat-as-a-bookseller-2313594.html
A grandfather with fond memories of a childhood book about a magician wanted his grandson to experience that book as well. Unfortunately, the grandfather couldn't remember the book's title. A request to the Guardian for help elicited several possible titles and brought to readers' attention the existence of a website that might be helpful to many.
http://whatwasthatbook.livejournal.com/profile
The 50 best summer reads, as determined by The Independent, range from gripping thrillers to books such as Adam Foulds' The Quickening Maze: shortlisted for the 2009 Booker, a tale of the nature poet John Clare incarcerated in a radical asylum in the mid-19th century with Alfred Tennyson.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-50-best-summer-reads-2003160.html?action=Gallery&ino=49
BOOKS & WRITERS
By any measure, writes Bill Sheehan, George R.R. Martin's A Dance With Dragons is one of the Big Books of the summer. It's safe to say that no work of fantasy has generated such anticipation since Harry Potter's final duel with Voldemort. And, says Sheehan, A Dance With Dragons was worth the wait.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-review-george-rr-martins-a-dance-with-dragons/2011/06/20/gIQAuJ1z9H_story.html
In a review of a prior Martin book, Lev Grossman of Time called him 'the American Tolkien'. A wide range of reviews can be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jul/12/a-dance-with-dragons-george-r-r-martin
A Dance With Dragons has been excellent news for bookstores, with copies (even 1,000 pages long) flying off the shelves.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Dance+with+Dragons+flies+bookshelves/5110067/story.html
Irma Voth is funny and skillfully drawn and shows the real appeal of tales set in unknown communities, says Rachel Shabi. Underneath the unfamiliar surfaces are the exact same people, driven by familiar dreams and desires.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/15/irma-voth-miriam-toews-review
James Morton's The First Detective explores the life of Eugène-François Vidocq a thief–turned-cop who paved the way for today's investigators. Yet it's harder to imagine a more antimodern figure, writes Matthew Battle.
http://www.salon.com/books/history/index.html?story=/books/2011/07/11/the_first_detective_james_morton
The research behind Judith Flander's The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime was excellent, and the subject matter fascinating, says Charlotte Grey. However, she found the cruelty of Victorian life overwhelming.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-invention-of-murder-by-judith-flanders/article2098662/
Eleven years after London: The Biography, Peter Ackroyd completes the picture with the subterranean city in London Under—the clay bed, sewers, stone, subway stations, and the phantoms some see. Some maps would have helped. Still, Philip Marchand calls the book fascinating.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/What+under+London+streets/5109446/story.html
John Farrow's River City opens with a description of the geological processes that formed Montreal. But there is no shortage of action in this historical whodunit, says François Lauzon. And the author holds the reader in his grip to the end.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/whodunit+John+Farrow+Trevor+Ferguson+captures+grit+Montreal/5109055/story.html
Sandy Nairne, known in Canadian as well as British galleries, has written an account of his search for two stolen Turner paintings. Art Theft and the Case of the Stolen Turners is a tale of fraud and dodgy underworld characters, writes Laura Cumming.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/17/art-theft-case-stolen-turners-review
Many know Martha Gellhorn was married to Ernest Hemingway but who knows of the first of his four wives? In The Paris Wife, Paula McLean describes Hadley Richardson, who Hemingway ultimately acknowledges as his truest love and the best woman he had ever met.
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/his-first-and-truest-love-20110714-1hekj.html#ixzz1SPL5f8rm
In The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning, Maggie Nelson suggests that the fine arts, literature, theatre—even poetry, enlist violence and cruelty, inflicted physically or affectively on the psyches of the audience. Laura Kipnis describes it as an important and frequently surprising book.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/books/review/book-review-the-art-of-cruelty-by-maggie-nelson.html?_r=1&nl=books&emc=booksupdateema1
An excerpt is here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Mbh-IL8YLb8C&printsec=frontcover
Responding in The Shock of the Cruel, Alan Wolfe asks: Do artistic portrayals of viciousness help us overcome it?
http://www.slate.com/id/2298718/pagenum/all/#p2
The works and speeches of Nobel prize-winner Imre Kertesz, including Fiasco, all converge on one theme: the Holocaust, the one inescapable event that weighs on those with memory or imagination, writes Anna Porter. Well worth the effort to read Fiasco, says Porter.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/fiasco-by-imre-kertesz/article2098988/
A California wildfire, five monks, hoses pumping water from a creek. Colleen Morton Busch's Fire Monks conveys what it is like to stand in the face of a fire's fury without flinching—the place where the vocations of monk and firefighter merge, writes Michael Haederle.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-et-book-20110713,0,6750328.story
Defense lawyer Clarence Darrow is examined in enlightening detail in John Farrell's Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned. Farrell's rich narrative shows Darrow remaining true to the cause and his faith over the course of a tumultuous life, says Wendy Smith.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-ca-john-farrell-20110626,0,4503692.story
The Globe and Mail has commissioned short stories to run over six weeks. This week: Miriam Grey Steps Away From Her Desk by Tish Cohen.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/stories-for-summer-miriam-grey-steps-away-from-her-desk-by-tish-cohen/article2098687/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SCIENCE FICTION BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP
Read and review William Gibson's Burning Chrome, a collection of short stories that deal with cyberspace and the information age. Thursday, July 21 at 7:00pm, free. The Grind & Gallery, 4124 Main Street. More information at darthbuddy2000@yahoo.ca.
BUILDING STORIES - SCENE WRITING WITH MAGGIE DE VRIES
Come prepared to talk about several scenes in favourite novels and then to write a scene of your own. Monday, July 25 at 3:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia.
CHEVY STEVENS
Reading by the author of Never Knowing. Monday, July 25 at 7:00pm. Chapters Granville, 2505 Granville Street. More information at 604-731-7822.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Crackerjack Lipsmacker youth slam with Justin McGrail. Monday, July 25 at 8:00pm. Tickets: $6/$3. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
FARZANA DOCTOR
The Toronto-based author reads from her novel Six Metres of Pavement. Tuesday, July 26 at 7:00pm. Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium, 1238 Davie Street.
Upcoming
SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Canada's longest running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers, featuring Charles Foran, Susan Juby, Alexander MacLeod and Margaret Trudeau and many more. August 4-7, 2011. Rockwood Centre (5511 Shorncliffe Ave.), Sechelt, BC. Complete details at www.writersfestival.ca.
KOOTENAY BOOK FESTIVAL
The 8th Annual Kootenay Book Festival will take place in Nelson B.C. September 23, 24 an 25. The featured authors are: Christos Tsiolkas' The Slap; Kathryn Stockett's The Help; Li Cunxin's Mao's Last Dancer, and special guest Ruth Ozeki and her books My Year of Meats and All Over Creation. Further information and registration forms can be found at www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Michael Ondaatje - September 21, 2011
Join us for an evening with the Booker Prize-winning author of The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje, as he discusses his forthcoming novel, The Cat's Table. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/ondaatje.
An Evening with Anthony Bourdain - 8pm, October 29, 2011
The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts. Tickets: $47.50/$55.00/$62.50/VIP package: $152.50. Tickets now on sale at Ticketmaster. Support the Writers Festival: use the code "writers" when purchasing your ticket, a portion of the ticket proceeds will go to the VIWF and you will receive a $5 discount per ticket. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/bourdain.
An Evening with David Sedaris - 8pm, November 5, 2011
The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts. Tickets: $45.00/$50.00/$57.50. Tickets now on sale at Ticketmaster. Support the Writers Festival: use the code "writers" when purchasing your ticket, a portion of the ticket proceeds will go to the VIWF and you will receive a $5 discount per ticket. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/davidsedaris.
Wade Davis - November 10, 2011
An evening with scientist, anthropologist and bestselling author Wade Davis discussing his latest book Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/wadedavis.
AWARDS & LISTS
Correction. The 2011 winner of the Caine prize for African writing is Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo, for her short story Hitting Budapest. Last week's notice that Sierra Leone's Olufemi Terry had won the Caine was listed in error: Olufemi Terry won the Caine prize for 2010. The Caine prize is known as the African Booker. Chair of the Caine prize's judges, the Libyan novelist Hisham Matar, said of Hitting Budapest: "the story's language ‘crackles'."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/12/noviolet-bulawayo-caine-prize
Geoffrey Hill, Oxford Professor of Poetry is one of the six names on the all-male shortlist for the prestigious £10,000 Forward prize for poetry. Six young poets have also been shortlisted for the £5,000 Felix Dennis prize for the best first collection of poetry. Four poets have been nominated for the best single poem.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/14/forward-prize-for-poetry-shortlist?CMP=EMCGT_140711&
Leslie Stark has won First Prize in the 7th Annual Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest for her postcard story The Glamour.
http://www.geist.com/postcard-story/glamour
Although readers have submitted titles for consideration for the Guardian first book prize, the Guardian continues to ask: What's missing from the list?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jul/18/first-book-award-missing-list
NEWS & FEATURES
Vancouver is seeking its third Poet Laureate. Nominations and submissions will be accepted until Aug. 24.
http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/covertocover/archive/2011/06/23/vancouver-seeking-third-poet-laureate.aspx
Poetry for summer: Lie back, and let the verse wash over you, suggests Suzi Feay, who claims to read over 100 books a year.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/poetry-for-summer-lie-back-and-let-the-verse-wash-over-you-2314863.html
Some of the keynote readers among the 70 poets participating in the Vancouver 125 Poetry Conference include Governor-General's Award and Griffin Prize winner Don McKay, and esteemed U.S. writers Fanny Howe and Martin Espada. Espada is a Pulitzer Prize finalist (for The Republic of Poetry), who has been compared to Pablo Neruda. The 125 Poetry Conference is working in collaboration with the Writers Festival, including poets performing evening cabarets as part of the Festival.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/vancouver-to-hold-major-canadian-poetry-conference/article2095906/
Why is it that the book for which an author is best known is rarely their best? asks John Self. He proceeds to list a few instances of a writer being famous for the wrong book, with suggestions for where their greatest achievement really lies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/19/famous-wrong-book-vonnegut-waugh-ishiguro
Mary W. Walters, The Book Charmer, examines the question: How much do you really earn when you self-publish?
http://maryww.wordpress.com/2011/07/16/how-much-more-do-you-really-earn-when-you-self-publish/
Yuki Noguchi offers an analysis of why the Borders bookselling chain failed while Barnes & Noble survived.
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/19/138514209/why-borders-failed-while-barnes-and-noble-survived
The only remaining privately-owned fragment of a Jane Austen novel, in the author's own handwriting, has sold at auction in London for nearly £1m, three times its estimate. The fragments of the unfinished novel The Watsons reflect the author's wit, says Stephen Bates.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/14/jane-austen-manuscript-the-watsons
Over the past 20 years, male poets in the UK have outperformed female poets by a ratio of nearly 7:1 in the Forward Prize stakes. Who got rid of the women? asks Sarah Crown, as she ponders the all-male shortlist for this year's Forward Prize.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jul/14/forward-poetry-prize-women
British author Helen Humphreys describes how reading Charlotte's Web as a child resulted in her becoming a writer.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/book-of-a-lifetime-charlottes-web-by-eb-white-2308557.html
Dr. Theodore Roszak, historian, social critic and novelist, who coined the word ‘counterculture' and studied the social uprising of American youth beginning in the mid-1960s, has died, age 77.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/books/theodore-roszak-60s-scholar-dies-at-77.html?_r=1&ref=books
John Lucas wonders if relentless focus on plot is edging something of value out of our literary culture. He quotes a leading London literary agent who stated that, in his opinion, it is highly unlikely that Kafka would get published as a first-time writer today.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/14/plot-driven-out-other-kinds-story
There is a sad irony to the fact that a book about contemporary India, while available in full in most of the world, appears only in partial form for Indian readers. The book is Siddhartha Deb's The Beautiful and the Damned.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/15/beautiful-damned-siddhartha-deb-india
The publication of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique was one of those events that seem, in retrospect, to have divided the sixties from the fifties as the day from the night, writes Louis Menand, as he explores why the women's movement needed Betty Friedan.
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2011/01/24/110124crbo_books_menand?currentPage=all
Raymond Chandler was fifty when his first book was published. But, writes Carolyn Kellogg, it's hard to imagine Marlowe's particular blend of hardness, weariness, and empathy coming from a younger writer. In anticipation of the birthday they share—July 23—Kellogg describes Chandler's circuitous and tortured path to literary fame.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-ca-raymond-chandler-20110717,0,4725526.story
While many of us might recall library vans visiting small towns with books for residents to borrow, it is much less common to discover a bookseller on a barge.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/book-barge-how-to-stay-afloat-as-a-bookseller-2313594.html
A grandfather with fond memories of a childhood book about a magician wanted his grandson to experience that book as well. Unfortunately, the grandfather couldn't remember the book's title. A request to the Guardian for help elicited several possible titles and brought to readers' attention the existence of a website that might be helpful to many.
http://whatwasthatbook.livejournal.com/profile
The 50 best summer reads, as determined by The Independent, range from gripping thrillers to books such as Adam Foulds' The Quickening Maze: shortlisted for the 2009 Booker, a tale of the nature poet John Clare incarcerated in a radical asylum in the mid-19th century with Alfred Tennyson.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-50-best-summer-reads-2003160.html?action=Gallery&ino=49
BOOKS & WRITERS
By any measure, writes Bill Sheehan, George R.R. Martin's A Dance With Dragons is one of the Big Books of the summer. It's safe to say that no work of fantasy has generated such anticipation since Harry Potter's final duel with Voldemort. And, says Sheehan, A Dance With Dragons was worth the wait.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-review-george-rr-martins-a-dance-with-dragons/2011/06/20/gIQAuJ1z9H_story.html
In a review of a prior Martin book, Lev Grossman of Time called him 'the American Tolkien'. A wide range of reviews can be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jul/12/a-dance-with-dragons-george-r-r-martin
A Dance With Dragons has been excellent news for bookstores, with copies (even 1,000 pages long) flying off the shelves.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Dance+with+Dragons+flies+bookshelves/5110067/story.html
Irma Voth is funny and skillfully drawn and shows the real appeal of tales set in unknown communities, says Rachel Shabi. Underneath the unfamiliar surfaces are the exact same people, driven by familiar dreams and desires.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/15/irma-voth-miriam-toews-review
James Morton's The First Detective explores the life of Eugène-François Vidocq a thief–turned-cop who paved the way for today's investigators. Yet it's harder to imagine a more antimodern figure, writes Matthew Battle.
http://www.salon.com/books/history/index.html?story=/books/2011/07/11/the_first_detective_james_morton
The research behind Judith Flander's The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime was excellent, and the subject matter fascinating, says Charlotte Grey. However, she found the cruelty of Victorian life overwhelming.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-invention-of-murder-by-judith-flanders/article2098662/
Eleven years after London: The Biography, Peter Ackroyd completes the picture with the subterranean city in London Under—the clay bed, sewers, stone, subway stations, and the phantoms some see. Some maps would have helped. Still, Philip Marchand calls the book fascinating.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/What+under+London+streets/5109446/story.html
John Farrow's River City opens with a description of the geological processes that formed Montreal. But there is no shortage of action in this historical whodunit, says François Lauzon. And the author holds the reader in his grip to the end.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/whodunit+John+Farrow+Trevor+Ferguson+captures+grit+Montreal/5109055/story.html
Sandy Nairne, known in Canadian as well as British galleries, has written an account of his search for two stolen Turner paintings. Art Theft and the Case of the Stolen Turners is a tale of fraud and dodgy underworld characters, writes Laura Cumming.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/17/art-theft-case-stolen-turners-review
Many know Martha Gellhorn was married to Ernest Hemingway but who knows of the first of his four wives? In The Paris Wife, Paula McLean describes Hadley Richardson, who Hemingway ultimately acknowledges as his truest love and the best woman he had ever met.
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/his-first-and-truest-love-20110714-1hekj.html#ixzz1SPL5f8rm
In The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning, Maggie Nelson suggests that the fine arts, literature, theatre—even poetry, enlist violence and cruelty, inflicted physically or affectively on the psyches of the audience. Laura Kipnis describes it as an important and frequently surprising book.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/books/review/book-review-the-art-of-cruelty-by-maggie-nelson.html?_r=1&nl=books&emc=booksupdateema1
An excerpt is here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Mbh-IL8YLb8C&printsec=frontcover
Responding in The Shock of the Cruel, Alan Wolfe asks: Do artistic portrayals of viciousness help us overcome it?
http://www.slate.com/id/2298718/pagenum/all/#p2
The works and speeches of Nobel prize-winner Imre Kertesz, including Fiasco, all converge on one theme: the Holocaust, the one inescapable event that weighs on those with memory or imagination, writes Anna Porter. Well worth the effort to read Fiasco, says Porter.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/fiasco-by-imre-kertesz/article2098988/
A California wildfire, five monks, hoses pumping water from a creek. Colleen Morton Busch's Fire Monks conveys what it is like to stand in the face of a fire's fury without flinching—the place where the vocations of monk and firefighter merge, writes Michael Haederle.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-et-book-20110713,0,6750328.story
Defense lawyer Clarence Darrow is examined in enlightening detail in John Farrell's Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned. Farrell's rich narrative shows Darrow remaining true to the cause and his faith over the course of a tumultuous life, says Wendy Smith.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-ca-john-farrell-20110626,0,4503692.story
The Globe and Mail has commissioned short stories to run over six weeks. This week: Miriam Grey Steps Away From Her Desk by Tish Cohen.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/stories-for-summer-miriam-grey-steps-away-from-her-desk-by-tish-cohen/article2098687/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SCIENCE FICTION BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP
Read and review William Gibson's Burning Chrome, a collection of short stories that deal with cyberspace and the information age. Thursday, July 21 at 7:00pm, free. The Grind & Gallery, 4124 Main Street. More information at darthbuddy2000@yahoo.ca.
BUILDING STORIES - SCENE WRITING WITH MAGGIE DE VRIES
Come prepared to talk about several scenes in favourite novels and then to write a scene of your own. Monday, July 25 at 3:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia.
CHEVY STEVENS
Reading by the author of Never Knowing. Monday, July 25 at 7:00pm. Chapters Granville, 2505 Granville Street. More information at 604-731-7822.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Crackerjack Lipsmacker youth slam with Justin McGrail. Monday, July 25 at 8:00pm. Tickets: $6/$3. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
FARZANA DOCTOR
The Toronto-based author reads from her novel Six Metres of Pavement. Tuesday, July 26 at 7:00pm. Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium, 1238 Davie Street.
Upcoming
SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Canada's longest running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers, featuring Charles Foran, Susan Juby, Alexander MacLeod and Margaret Trudeau and many more. August 4-7, 2011. Rockwood Centre (5511 Shorncliffe Ave.), Sechelt, BC. Complete details at www.writersfestival.ca.
KOOTENAY BOOK FESTIVAL
The 8th Annual Kootenay Book Festival will take place in Nelson B.C. September 23, 24 an 25. The featured authors are: Christos Tsiolkas' The Slap; Kathryn Stockett's The Help; Li Cunxin's Mao's Last Dancer, and special guest Ruth Ozeki and her books My Year of Meats and All Over Creation. Further information and registration forms can be found at www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Book News Vol. 6 No. 28
BOOK NEWS
SPECIAL EVENTS
Michael Ondaatje - September 21, 2011
Join us for an evening with the Booker Prize-winning author of The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje, as he discusses his forthcoming novel, The Cat's Table. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/ondaatje.
An Evening with Anthony Bourdain - 8pm, October 29, 2011
The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts. Tickets: $47.50/$55.00/$62.50/VIP package: $152.50. Tickets now on sale at Ticketmaster. Support the Writers Festival: use the code "writers" when purchasing your ticket, a portion of the ticket proceeds will go to the VIWF and you will receive a $5 discount per ticket. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/bourdain.
An Evening with David Sedaris - 8pm, November 5, 2011
The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts. Tickets: $45.00/$50.00/$57.50. Tickets now on sale at Ticketmaster. Support the Writers Festival: use the code "writers" when purchasing your ticket, a portion of the ticket proceeds will go to the VIWF and you will receive a $5 discount per ticket. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/davidsedaris.
Wade Davis - November 10, 2011
An evening with scientist, anthropologist and bestselling author Wade Davis discussing his latest book Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/wadedavis.
Indian Summer Literature Series
The Indian Summer Festival continues this week with renowned authors and thinkers from India, Canada and the UK—intimate, thought-provoking and truly international conversations about literature, language, politics, democracy and freedom of speech.
Hari Kunzru and Anosh Irani in Conversation (July 14, 6pm) - Hari Kunzru (The Impressionist, Transmission, My Revolutions) and Anosh Irani (The Song of Kahunsha) in conversation with moderator Dr. Azadeh Yamini-Hamedani. http://www.indiansummerfestival.ca/events.php?cat=3#subev2
Writers & Democracy: Tarun Tejpal in Conversation with Terry Gould (July 14, 8pm) - Tejpal and Gould are known for their fearlessness and defence of the freedom of speech. These award-winning journalists discuss the role of writers and journalists in a modern democracy, the challenges facing them, and how each has fought to defend that vision. http://www.indiansummerfestival.ca/events.php?cat=3#subev3
Defining Diaspora (July 16, 4pm) - Authors Ashok Mathur, Ameen Merchant, Anosh Irani, and Hari Kunzru explore ideas of location, cultural origins, language, migration, and authenticity as they define the concept of diaspora. http://indiansummerfestival.ca/events.php?cat=3#subev5
Biographies Revealed (July 17, 2pm) - Historian, biographer, and journalist Shrabani Basu presents her books Spy Princess and Victoria and Abdul and the lives behind them; hosted by Hal Wake. http://indiansummerfestival.ca/events.php?cat=3#subev6
A Literary Afternoon Tea on the Terrace (July 17, 3:30pm) - Join author Shrabani Basu and other Festival writers for an hour of literary conversation and an Indian-themed afternoon tea service. http://indiansummerfestival.ca/events.php?cat=3#subev7
AWARDS & LISTS
Dutch academic Frank Dikötter has won the Samuel Johnson prize for Mao's Great Famine, described by judges as a 'stunningly original history’. Judge Brenda Maddox commented: "It's a testament to the power of non-fiction, that it can rock you back on your heels."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/06/samuel-johnson-prize-mao?CMP=EMCGT_070711&
The Best Canadian Political Books of the Last 25 Years project is meant to get Canadians to reflect on Canada's political history and the ideas and personalities that have driven meaningful debates over the last two decades. The organizers also hope the list of 12 finalists will stir some debate. Book titles, the opportunity to comment, and the place to vote are all here:
http://www.samaracanada.com/Best_Political_Books
Annabel Lyon won the award for Best Profile for her profile, entitled Eye for Detail, of the well-known writer Edith Iglauer and her seven-decade writing career. Lyon received the award at the 2011 Western Magazine Awards.
http://www.geist.com/essay/eye-detail
Gillian Andrews, Sarah Jackson, Jane McKie, Jane Yeh and Lydia MacPherson are shortlisted for the £5,000 Edwin Morgan international poetry prize. This is the first competition to be held since Morgan – Scotland's inaugural Makar/ national poet – died last year. The winner will be announced mid-August.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/08/shortlist-edwin-morgan-prize
Stickfighting Days, described by judges as a "Homeric" short story of life and death in a city rubbish dump has won Sierra Leone's Olufemi Terry the Caine prize for African writing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/06/olufemi-terry-wins-caine-prize
Canadian Alexander MacLeod, Edna O'Brien, and Colm Tóibín are among those shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor prize, the world's richest award for a short story collection.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/12/irish-writers-frank-o-connor-shortlist
For the first time, the Guardian is opening up to public scrutiny the list of submissions for the Guardian first book prize. This is being done to allow debate around the list, and to provide a new route for books outside the mainstream to be brought into contention. There are 136 submissions from publishers; what's missing from the Guardian first book award list?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jul/11/guardian-first-book-award-2011-missing
NEWS & FEATURES
Vancouver is seeking its third Poet Laureate. Nominations and submissions will be accepted until Aug. 24.
http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/covertocover/archive/2011/06/23/vancouver-seeking-third-poet-laureate.aspx
Last call! Geist extended its deadline for its erasure poetry contest to July 15, 2011. To win Canadian-style fame and glory, read the excerpt of Susanna Moodie's Roughing It In the Bush and have at it with your eraser. Then enter your poem here:
http://geist.submishmash.com/Submit. Questions? Contact geist@geist.com.
Vancouver's Poet Laureate, Brad Cran, has announced details for the Vancouver 125 Poetry Conference, a four-day literary event at SFU Woodward's from October 9-22, 2011, created by an unprecedented collaboration among Vancouver's poetry communities. To register as a delegate for the Vancouver 125 Poetry Conference or to view the detailed conference schedule, poet photos and bios, visit:
http://v125pc.com.
Until the 1980s, French fiction focused on "man and nature, the writer in Montmartre," creating literary forms and "literature for literature's sake", writes Devorah Lauter. Now, the story—and the larger world-are back.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-cultural-exchange-20110710,0,7706930.story
A priceless 12th-century illustrated manuscript containing what has been described as Europe's first travel guide has been stolen from the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. The Codex Calixtinus had been kept in a safe at the cathedral's archives.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/07/codex-calixtinus-manuscript-stolen-santiago-compostela
A long lost book of tributes to Byron from the poet's family vault has been discovered at a bring-and-buy sale in Savannah, Georgia. It is inscribed "to the immortal and illustrious fame of Lord Byron" and contains accolades by famous figures of the day.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/08/lost-tributes-byron-savannah-georgia
Chinese poet and novelist, Liao Yiwu has gone into exile in Germany, saying Chinese authorities have forbidden him from publishing. Liao was recently released from detention, but remains under a gag order. He made his way to Berlin secretly.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/07/08/exiled-chinese-writer.html
Mills & Boon (the British equivalent of Harlequin romance novels) should come with a health warning, according to a report published in an academic journal.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/07/mills-and-boon-sexual-health-problems
If you haven’t yet got all of your summertime books, you may want to check out the Anansi annual Beach Blanket BOGO sale!
http://www.anansi.ca/home.cfm
And/or enter the contest to win a copy of Peter Behrens’ new novel The O’Briens.
http://www.anansi.ca/current_contest.cfm
No woman, according to New York Mayor Jimmy Walker, was ever ruined by a book. But Christopher B. Krebs argues that Roman historian Tacitus may have warped cultural identity. A dangerous book? Depends who’s reading it, says Michael Dirda.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/a-most-dangerous-book-only-in-the-eye-of-the-reader/2011/07/01/gIQAOrwS1H_story.html
In an article about fiction’s taking us to places life can’t, Philip Hensher quotes results from Canadian academic Keith Oatley’s research. Oatley has concluded that habitual readers of novels were much better at coping with social situations and with a wide range of human beings.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/philip-hensher/philip-hensher-fiction-takes-you-to-places-that-life-cant-2309538.html
LA Times reviewer Carolyn Kellogg interviews Jennifer Egan about her background and her approach to storytelling.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/ambitious+approach+storytelling/5065777/story.html
The book is not dead, it's just shape-shifting, writes Robert McCrum. Writers, booksellers and publishers are already exploiting the wizardry in the latest IT revolution.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/10/mccrum-ebooks-publishing-technology-change
In lieu of a review, a Reader Alert from Jack Batten: "If you’re really keen on grasping the intricacies of Julia Spencer-Fleming’s series featuring the unlikely crime-solving duo of Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne, then you need to read all seven Ferguson-Van Alstyne books in their correct order. Otherwise you’ll never understand either the nuances or the broader issues. You won’t have as much reading fun either."
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1022496--one-was-a-soldier-by-julia-spencer-fleming
Disgruntled British poets channeled William Carlos Williams recently ("so much depends / upon / a red wheel / barrow / glazed with rain / water / beside the white / chickens") when they delivered a red wheelbarrow carrying 423 members' signatures to the Poetry Society, demanding its board of trustees explain what lies behind a recent spate of high-level departures.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/06/poetry-society-lobbied-wheelbarrow
The Boston Globe includes John Freeman’s list of the 12 best books of 2010. Freeman is editor of Granta magazine, and author of The Tyranny of E-mail.
http://www.boston.com/ae/books/gallery/2010fiction/
The Georgia Straight suggests summer reading titles for young and older adult readers.
http://www.straight.com/article-402824/vancouver/your-guide-summer-books
Since adults buy books for children, which doesn’t give publishers feedback on children’s enthusiasm for the books, Random House Australia and Allen & Unwin have each created focus groups of voracious young readers for feedback which is, says A&U’s Julia Imogen. "brutally honest".
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/the-plot-thickens-childrens-literature-not-just-kids-stuff-20110710-1h8rv.html
BOOKS & WRITERS
The loving, bloodthirsty Charlotte A Cavatica of EB White's classic children's novel Charlotte's Web was inspired by a real spider, according to Michael Sims’ The Story of Charlotte’s Web, a new biography of White.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/07/biographer-spider-charlottes-web
On March 1, 1966, Ken Leishman masterminded the largest theft of gold bullion in Canada’s history. In Bandit: A Portrait of Ken Leishman, Wayne Tefs recreates the big dreamer and small-time crook behind this heist and Leishman’s audacious "Flying Bandit" jailbreak.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/bandit-a-portrait-of-ken-leishman-by-wayne-tefs/article2088405/
Lorna Crozier, Susan Musgrave, Sharon Thesen: three B.C. poets publishing for at least 20 years, and all at the top of their games, writes Zoe Whittall. Their new books are stunning additions to the spring poetry season, says Whittall.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/three-poets-canadian-women-all-for-the-ages/article2091287/
I had not expected to be quite so moved by Margaret Drabble's collection, A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman, says Stevie Davies. The title story opens with "There was once this woman. She was quite famous, in a way."
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-smiling-woman-by-margaret-drabble-2308545.html
Defense lawyer Clarence Darrow is examined in enlightening detail in John Farrell’s Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned. Farrell's rich narrative shows Darrow remaining true to the cause and his faith over the course of a tumultuous life. says Wendy Smith.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-ca-john-farrell-20110626,0,4503692.story
Steve Sem-Sandberg’s The Emperor of Lies is a novel about horrific historical fact. A bestseller in Scandinavia, it won the Swedish equivalent of the Man Booker prize in 2009. Dickens would have been very pleased with this novel, says Carmen Callil.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/08/emperor-lies-steve-sem-sandberg-review
The subject of marriage is seminal to Jane Smiley's latest novel, Private Life writes Julian Guthrie; the primary characters are modeled after her own great aunt and uncle. Guthrie says that Smiley is now working on several books simultaneously.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/05/DD611K1QQ5.DTL#ixzz1RaNTJxqd
David Dabydeen finds echoes of Naipaul (and Sir Walter Raleigh, Evelyn Waugh and others, but mostly Naipal) inform Rahul Bhattacharya’s The Sly Company of People Who Care, a passionate and poetic debut about Guyana.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/08/sly-company-people-care-review
A pathologist and a detective set out to prove an apparent suicide was indeed murder in 1950s Dublin in Benjamin Black’s A Death In Summer: a beach read for the brainy, writes Carolyn Kellogg.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-et-book-20110709,0,7012477.story
Atlantic is Simon Winchester’s most heartfelt and magnificent book, writes Christopher Hirst. From the prologue, the Atlantic surges from the page. If you're holidaying anywhere on the Atlantic, says Hirst, this is the perfect beach read.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/atlantic-by-simon-winchester-2308541.html
The Sins of the Mother, which opens Jamil Ahmad’s The Wandering Falcon, appeared first in a collection of short stories. It was written with such beauty that its author became Penguin’s bright new discovery—at the age of 78, writes Arifa Akbar.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-wandering-falcon-by-jamil-ahmad-2308547.html
A true believer in the war on terror realized he was tormenting an innocent man. Glenn L. Carle’s The Interrogator: An Education is the result of his crisis of conscience. Like the man says: it’s Kafkaesque, writes Laura Miller.
http://www.salon.com/books/what_to_read/index.html?story=/books/laura_miller/2011/07/03/the_interrogator
A myth of contemporary Western society, writes Nathan Whitlock, is that we are a culture desperate to be tested. In 2005, four men were kidnapped at gunpoint by a group of Iraqis. James Loney’s Captivity wrestles with the philosophical questions raised by being tested.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1022495--captivity-118-days-in-iraq-and-the-struggle-for-a-world-without-war-by-james-loney
The contents of an old suitcase provide both the book’s title and the inspiration for Sergei Dovlatov's tales of life in 1960s Soviet Russia, opening a small window onto daily life. It helps that Dovlatov, who died in 1990, had as many lives as a cat, writes Hannah Olivenne.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/10/suitcase-sergei-dovlatov-review-ussr
Commemorating the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War has resulted in an outpouring of new books, adding to that conflict’s status as the most-written-about event in American history. James M. McPherson reviews five new books, including ones that address British involvement.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jul/14/what-drove-terrible-war/
Juliet Eilperin knows more about sharks and the intricacies of their relationship to humans than most, writes Alanna Mitchell. In Demon Fish, we discover what the shark means biologically to the ocean: the system will unravel if sharks vanish. The stakes are high.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/demon-fish-travels-through-the-hidden-world-of-sharks-by-juliet-eilperin/article2093568/
Editor Peter Sekir’s Memories of Chekhov draws on memories of the author from his contemporaries and includes an account of Tolstoy's condemnation of Chekhov's plays as "worse than Shakespeare".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/11/tolstoy-thought-chekhov-worse-than-shakespeare
An excerpt of the book is here:
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/jul/05/memories-chekhov/
George R.R. Martin’s A Dance with Dragons is finally on the shelves this week. Newspapers world-wide are taking the rare step of reviewing the fifth installment in a very lengthy fantasy saga, and speaking highly of it, writes Alison Flood.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jul/12/a-dance-with-dragons-george-r-r-martin
The Globe and Mail has commissioned short stories to run over six weeks. This week: Turtle Island by Joseph Boyden.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/stories-for-summer-turtle-island-by-joseph-boyden/article2091265/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
POET'S BASEBALL BBQ
Fundraiser features a barbecue (1 pm), a baseball-themed poetry reading (1:30 pm), and a baseball game (2:30 pm). Potluck contributions are welcome. Proceeds support the Summer Dreams Literary Arts Festival. Sunday, July 17 at 1pm. Tickets: $5-$15. More information at www.summerdreamsfest.com.
PERSISTENCE: ALL WAYS BUTCH AND FEMME
Informal book signing and discussion includes short readings from contributors Romham Padraig Gallacher, Anne Fleming, Laiwan, Elaine Miller, Donnelly Black, Zena Sharman, and Ivan Coyote. Q&A to follow. Wednesday, July 20 at 7:00pm, free. Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium, 1238 Davie Street. More information at www.arsenalpulp.com.
SCIENCE FICTION BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP
Read and review William Gibson's Burning Chrome, a collection of short stories that deal with cyberspace and the information age. Thursday, July 21 at 7:00pm, free. The Grind & Gallery, 4124 Main Street. More information at darthbuddy2000@yahoo.ca.
Upcoming
CHEVY STEVENS
Reading by the author of Never Knowing. Monday, July 25 at 7:00pm. Chapters Granville, 2505 Granville Street. More information at 604-731-7822.
HAIKU NORTH AMERICA
A long weekend of papers, presentations, workshops, readings, and other activities in celebration of haiku poetry, held at the Seattle Center, at the foot of the Space Needle. Featured presenters include Cor van den Heuvel, Richard Gilbert, David Lanoue, Carlos Colón, Fay Aoyagi, Jim Kacian, Emiko Miyashita, George Swede, and many others. August 3-7, 2011. For more information, visit www.haikunorthamerica.com.
KOOTENAY BOOK FESTIVAL
The 8th Annual Kootenay Book Festival will take place in Nelson B.C. September 23, 24 and 25. The featured authors are: Christos Tsiolkas's The Slap; Kathryn Stockett's The Help; Li Cunxin's Mao’s Last Dancer, and special guest Ruth Ozeki and her books My Year of Meats and All Over Creation. Further information and registration forms can be found at www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Michael Ondaatje - September 21, 2011
Join us for an evening with the Booker Prize-winning author of The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje, as he discusses his forthcoming novel, The Cat's Table. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/ondaatje.
An Evening with Anthony Bourdain - 8pm, October 29, 2011
The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts. Tickets: $47.50/$55.00/$62.50/VIP package: $152.50. Tickets now on sale at Ticketmaster. Support the Writers Festival: use the code "writers" when purchasing your ticket, a portion of the ticket proceeds will go to the VIWF and you will receive a $5 discount per ticket. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/bourdain.
An Evening with David Sedaris - 8pm, November 5, 2011
The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts. Tickets: $45.00/$50.00/$57.50. Tickets now on sale at Ticketmaster. Support the Writers Festival: use the code "writers" when purchasing your ticket, a portion of the ticket proceeds will go to the VIWF and you will receive a $5 discount per ticket. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/davidsedaris.
Wade Davis - November 10, 2011
An evening with scientist, anthropologist and bestselling author Wade Davis discussing his latest book Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/wadedavis.
Indian Summer Literature Series
The Indian Summer Festival continues this week with renowned authors and thinkers from India, Canada and the UK—intimate, thought-provoking and truly international conversations about literature, language, politics, democracy and freedom of speech.
Hari Kunzru and Anosh Irani in Conversation (July 14, 6pm) - Hari Kunzru (The Impressionist, Transmission, My Revolutions) and Anosh Irani (The Song of Kahunsha) in conversation with moderator Dr. Azadeh Yamini-Hamedani. http://www.indiansummerfestival.ca/events.php?cat=3#subev2
Writers & Democracy: Tarun Tejpal in Conversation with Terry Gould (July 14, 8pm) - Tejpal and Gould are known for their fearlessness and defence of the freedom of speech. These award-winning journalists discuss the role of writers and journalists in a modern democracy, the challenges facing them, and how each has fought to defend that vision. http://www.indiansummerfestival.ca/events.php?cat=3#subev3
Defining Diaspora (July 16, 4pm) - Authors Ashok Mathur, Ameen Merchant, Anosh Irani, and Hari Kunzru explore ideas of location, cultural origins, language, migration, and authenticity as they define the concept of diaspora. http://indiansummerfestival.ca/events.php?cat=3#subev5
Biographies Revealed (July 17, 2pm) - Historian, biographer, and journalist Shrabani Basu presents her books Spy Princess and Victoria and Abdul and the lives behind them; hosted by Hal Wake. http://indiansummerfestival.ca/events.php?cat=3#subev6
A Literary Afternoon Tea on the Terrace (July 17, 3:30pm) - Join author Shrabani Basu and other Festival writers for an hour of literary conversation and an Indian-themed afternoon tea service. http://indiansummerfestival.ca/events.php?cat=3#subev7
AWARDS & LISTS
Dutch academic Frank Dikötter has won the Samuel Johnson prize for Mao's Great Famine, described by judges as a 'stunningly original history’. Judge Brenda Maddox commented: "It's a testament to the power of non-fiction, that it can rock you back on your heels."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/06/samuel-johnson-prize-mao?CMP=EMCGT_070711&
The Best Canadian Political Books of the Last 25 Years project is meant to get Canadians to reflect on Canada's political history and the ideas and personalities that have driven meaningful debates over the last two decades. The organizers also hope the list of 12 finalists will stir some debate. Book titles, the opportunity to comment, and the place to vote are all here:
http://www.samaracanada.com/Best_Political_Books
Annabel Lyon won the award for Best Profile for her profile, entitled Eye for Detail, of the well-known writer Edith Iglauer and her seven-decade writing career. Lyon received the award at the 2011 Western Magazine Awards.
http://www.geist.com/essay/eye-detail
Gillian Andrews, Sarah Jackson, Jane McKie, Jane Yeh and Lydia MacPherson are shortlisted for the £5,000 Edwin Morgan international poetry prize. This is the first competition to be held since Morgan – Scotland's inaugural Makar/ national poet – died last year. The winner will be announced mid-August.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/08/shortlist-edwin-morgan-prize
Stickfighting Days, described by judges as a "Homeric" short story of life and death in a city rubbish dump has won Sierra Leone's Olufemi Terry the Caine prize for African writing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/06/olufemi-terry-wins-caine-prize
Canadian Alexander MacLeod, Edna O'Brien, and Colm Tóibín are among those shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor prize, the world's richest award for a short story collection.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/12/irish-writers-frank-o-connor-shortlist
For the first time, the Guardian is opening up to public scrutiny the list of submissions for the Guardian first book prize. This is being done to allow debate around the list, and to provide a new route for books outside the mainstream to be brought into contention. There are 136 submissions from publishers; what's missing from the Guardian first book award list?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jul/11/guardian-first-book-award-2011-missing
NEWS & FEATURES
Vancouver is seeking its third Poet Laureate. Nominations and submissions will be accepted until Aug. 24.
http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/covertocover/archive/2011/06/23/vancouver-seeking-third-poet-laureate.aspx
Last call! Geist extended its deadline for its erasure poetry contest to July 15, 2011. To win Canadian-style fame and glory, read the excerpt of Susanna Moodie's Roughing It In the Bush
http://geist.submishmash.com/Submit. Questions? Contact geist@geist.com.
Vancouver's Poet Laureate, Brad Cran, has announced details for the Vancouver 125 Poetry Conference, a four-day literary event at SFU Woodward's from October 9-22, 2011, created by an unprecedented collaboration among Vancouver's poetry communities. To register as a delegate for the Vancouver 125 Poetry Conference or to view the detailed conference schedule, poet photos and bios, visit:
http://v125pc.com.
Until the 1980s, French fiction focused on "man and nature, the writer in Montmartre," creating literary forms and "literature for literature's sake", writes Devorah Lauter. Now, the story—and the larger world-are back.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-cultural-exchange-20110710,0,7706930.story
A priceless 12th-century illustrated manuscript containing what has been described as Europe's first travel guide has been stolen from the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. The Codex Calixtinus had been kept in a safe at the cathedral's archives.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/07/codex-calixtinus-manuscript-stolen-santiago-compostela
A long lost book of tributes to Byron from the poet's family vault has been discovered at a bring-and-buy sale in Savannah, Georgia. It is inscribed "to the immortal and illustrious fame of Lord Byron" and contains accolades by famous figures of the day.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/08/lost-tributes-byron-savannah-georgia
Chinese poet and novelist, Liao Yiwu has gone into exile in Germany, saying Chinese authorities have forbidden him from publishing. Liao was recently released from detention, but remains under a gag order. He made his way to Berlin secretly.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/07/08/exiled-chinese-writer.html
Mills & Boon (the British equivalent of Harlequin romance novels) should come with a health warning, according to a report published in an academic journal.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/07/mills-and-boon-sexual-health-problems
If you haven’t yet got all of your summertime books, you may want to check out the Anansi annual Beach Blanket BOGO sale!
http://www.anansi.ca/home.cfm
And/or enter the contest to win a copy of Peter Behrens’ new novel The O’Briens.
http://www.anansi.ca/current_contest.cfm
No woman, according to New York Mayor Jimmy Walker, was ever ruined by a book. But Christopher B. Krebs argues that Roman historian Tacitus may have warped cultural identity. A dangerous book? Depends who’s reading it, says Michael Dirda.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/a-most-dangerous-book-only-in-the-eye-of-the-reader/2011/07/01/gIQAOrwS1H_story.html
In an article about fiction’s taking us to places life can’t, Philip Hensher quotes results from Canadian academic Keith Oatley’s research. Oatley has concluded that habitual readers of novels were much better at coping with social situations and with a wide range of human beings.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/philip-hensher/philip-hensher-fiction-takes-you-to-places-that-life-cant-2309538.html
LA Times reviewer Carolyn Kellogg interviews Jennifer Egan about her background and her approach to storytelling.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/ambitious+approach+storytelling/5065777/story.html
The book is not dead, it's just shape-shifting, writes Robert McCrum. Writers, booksellers and publishers are already exploiting the wizardry in the latest IT revolution.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/10/mccrum-ebooks-publishing-technology-change
In lieu of a review, a Reader Alert from Jack Batten: "If you’re really keen on grasping the intricacies of Julia Spencer-Fleming’s series featuring the unlikely crime-solving duo of Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne, then you need to read all seven Ferguson-Van Alstyne books in their correct order. Otherwise you’ll never understand either the nuances or the broader issues. You won’t have as much reading fun either."
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1022496--one-was-a-soldier-by-julia-spencer-fleming
Disgruntled British poets channeled William Carlos Williams recently ("so much depends / upon / a red wheel / barrow / glazed with rain / water / beside the white / chickens") when they delivered a red wheelbarrow carrying 423 members' signatures to the Poetry Society, demanding its board of trustees explain what lies behind a recent spate of high-level departures.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/06/poetry-society-lobbied-wheelbarrow
The Boston Globe includes John Freeman’s list of the 12 best books of 2010. Freeman is editor of Granta magazine, and author of The Tyranny of E-mail.
http://www.boston.com/ae/books/gallery/2010fiction/
The Georgia Straight suggests summer reading titles for young and older adult readers.
http://www.straight.com/article-402824/vancouver/your-guide-summer-books
Since adults buy books for children, which doesn’t give publishers feedback on children’s enthusiasm for the books, Random House Australia and Allen & Unwin have each created focus groups of voracious young readers for feedback which is, says A&U’s Julia Imogen. "brutally honest".
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/the-plot-thickens-childrens-literature-not-just-kids-stuff-20110710-1h8rv.html
BOOKS & WRITERS
The loving, bloodthirsty Charlotte A Cavatica of EB White's classic children's novel Charlotte's Web was inspired by a real spider, according to Michael Sims’ The Story of Charlotte’s Web, a new biography of White.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/07/biographer-spider-charlottes-web
On March 1, 1966, Ken Leishman masterminded the largest theft of gold bullion in Canada’s history. In Bandit: A Portrait of Ken Leishman, Wayne Tefs recreates the big dreamer and small-time crook behind this heist and Leishman’s audacious "Flying Bandit" jailbreak.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/bandit-a-portrait-of-ken-leishman-by-wayne-tefs/article2088405/
Lorna Crozier, Susan Musgrave, Sharon Thesen: three B.C. poets publishing for at least 20 years, and all at the top of their games, writes Zoe Whittall. Their new books are stunning additions to the spring poetry season, says Whittall.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/three-poets-canadian-women-all-for-the-ages/article2091287/
I had not expected to be quite so moved by Margaret Drabble's collection, A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman, says Stevie Davies. The title story opens with "There was once this woman. She was quite famous, in a way."
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-smiling-woman-by-margaret-drabble-2308545.html
Defense lawyer Clarence Darrow is examined in enlightening detail in John Farrell’s Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned. Farrell's rich narrative shows Darrow remaining true to the cause and his faith over the course of a tumultuous life. says Wendy Smith.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-ca-john-farrell-20110626,0,4503692.story
Steve Sem-Sandberg’s The Emperor of Lies is a novel about horrific historical fact. A bestseller in Scandinavia, it won the Swedish equivalent of the Man Booker prize in 2009. Dickens would have been very pleased with this novel, says Carmen Callil.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/08/emperor-lies-steve-sem-sandberg-review
The subject of marriage is seminal to Jane Smiley's latest novel, Private Life writes Julian Guthrie; the primary characters are modeled after her own great aunt and uncle. Guthrie says that Smiley is now working on several books simultaneously.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/05/DD611K1QQ5.DTL#ixzz1RaNTJxqd
David Dabydeen finds echoes of Naipaul (and Sir Walter Raleigh, Evelyn Waugh and others, but mostly Naipal) inform Rahul Bhattacharya’s The Sly Company of People Who Care, a passionate and poetic debut about Guyana.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/08/sly-company-people-care-review
A pathologist and a detective set out to prove an apparent suicide was indeed murder in 1950s Dublin in Benjamin Black’s A Death In Summer: a beach read for the brainy, writes Carolyn Kellogg.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-et-book-20110709,0,7012477.story
Atlantic is Simon Winchester’s most heartfelt and magnificent book, writes Christopher Hirst. From the prologue, the Atlantic surges from the page. If you're holidaying anywhere on the Atlantic, says Hirst, this is the perfect beach read.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/atlantic-by-simon-winchester-2308541.html
The Sins of the Mother, which opens Jamil Ahmad’s The Wandering Falcon, appeared first in a collection of short stories. It was written with such beauty that its author became Penguin’s bright new discovery—at the age of 78, writes Arifa Akbar.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-wandering-falcon-by-jamil-ahmad-2308547.html
A true believer in the war on terror realized he was tormenting an innocent man. Glenn L. Carle’s The Interrogator: An Education is the result of his crisis of conscience. Like the man says: it’s Kafkaesque, writes Laura Miller.
http://www.salon.com/books/what_to_read/index.html?story=/books/laura_miller/2011/07/03/the_interrogator
A myth of contemporary Western society, writes Nathan Whitlock, is that we are a culture desperate to be tested. In 2005, four men were kidnapped at gunpoint by a group of Iraqis. James Loney’s Captivity wrestles with the philosophical questions raised by being tested.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1022495--captivity-118-days-in-iraq-and-the-struggle-for-a-world-without-war-by-james-loney
The contents of an old suitcase provide both the book’s title and the inspiration for Sergei Dovlatov's tales of life in 1960s Soviet Russia, opening a small window onto daily life. It helps that Dovlatov, who died in 1990, had as many lives as a cat, writes Hannah Olivenne.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/10/suitcase-sergei-dovlatov-review-ussr
Commemorating the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War has resulted in an outpouring of new books, adding to that conflict’s status as the most-written-about event in American history. James M. McPherson reviews five new books, including ones that address British involvement.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jul/14/what-drove-terrible-war/
Juliet Eilperin knows more about sharks and the intricacies of their relationship to humans than most, writes Alanna Mitchell. In Demon Fish, we discover what the shark means biologically to the ocean: the system will unravel if sharks vanish. The stakes are high.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/demon-fish-travels-through-the-hidden-world-of-sharks-by-juliet-eilperin/article2093568/
Editor Peter Sekir’s Memories of Chekhov draws on memories of the author from his contemporaries and includes an account of Tolstoy's condemnation of Chekhov's plays as "worse than Shakespeare".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/11/tolstoy-thought-chekhov-worse-than-shakespeare
An excerpt of the book is here:
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/jul/05/memories-chekhov/
George R.R. Martin’s A Dance with Dragons is finally on the shelves this week. Newspapers world-wide are taking the rare step of reviewing the fifth installment in a very lengthy fantasy saga, and speaking highly of it, writes Alison Flood.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jul/12/a-dance-with-dragons-george-r-r-martin
The Globe and Mail has commissioned short stories to run over six weeks. This week: Turtle Island by Joseph Boyden.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/stories-for-summer-turtle-island-by-joseph-boyden/article2091265/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
POET'S BASEBALL BBQ
Fundraiser features a barbecue (1 pm), a baseball-themed poetry reading (1:30 pm), and a baseball game (2:30 pm). Potluck contributions are welcome. Proceeds support the Summer Dreams Literary Arts Festival. Sunday, July 17 at 1pm. Tickets: $5-$15. More information at www.summerdreamsfest.com.
PERSISTENCE: ALL WAYS BUTCH AND FEMME
Informal book signing and discussion includes short readings from contributors Romham Padraig Gallacher, Anne Fleming, Laiwan, Elaine Miller, Donnelly Black, Zena Sharman, and Ivan Coyote. Q&A to follow. Wednesday, July 20 at 7:00pm, free. Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium, 1238 Davie Street. More information at www.arsenalpulp.com.
SCIENCE FICTION BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP
Read and review William Gibson's Burning Chrome, a collection of short stories that deal with cyberspace and the information age. Thursday, July 21 at 7:00pm, free. The Grind & Gallery, 4124 Main Street. More information at darthbuddy2000@yahoo.ca.
Upcoming
CHEVY STEVENS
Reading by the author of Never Knowing. Monday, July 25 at 7:00pm. Chapters Granville, 2505 Granville Street. More information at 604-731-7822.
HAIKU NORTH AMERICA
A long weekend of papers, presentations, workshops, readings, and other activities in celebration of haiku poetry, held at the Seattle Center, at the foot of the Space Needle. Featured presenters include Cor van den Heuvel, Richard Gilbert, David Lanoue, Carlos Colón, Fay Aoyagi, Jim Kacian, Emiko Miyashita, George Swede, and many others. August 3-7, 2011. For more information, visit www.haikunorthamerica.com.
KOOTENAY BOOK FESTIVAL
The 8th Annual Kootenay Book Festival will take place in Nelson B.C. September 23, 24 and 25. The featured authors are: Christos Tsiolkas's The Slap; Kathryn Stockett's The Help; Li Cunxin's Mao’s Last Dancer, and special guest Ruth Ozeki and her books My Year of Meats and All Over Creation. Further information and registration forms can be found at www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Book News Vol. 6 No. 27
BOOK NEWS
SPECIAL EVENTS
Michael Ondaatje - September 21, 2011
Join us for an evening with the Booker Prize-winning author of The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje, as he discusses his forthcoming novel, The Cat's Table. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/ondaatje.
Wade Davis - November 10, 2011
An evening with scientist, anthropologist and bestselling author Wade Davis discussing his latest book Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/wadedavis.
Indian Summer Literature Series
The Indian Summer Festival celebrates the 'Year of India in Canada' with music, literature, dance, film, yoga and cuisine. The literature series features renowned authors and thinkers from India, Canada and the UK—intimate, thought-provoking and truly international conversations about literature, language, politics, democracy and freedom of speech.
Yann Martel in Conversation with Tabu (July 8, 7:30pm) - Man Booker Prize winner Yann Martel and award-winning Indian film star Tabu talk about their work and Tabu's experience working with director Ang Lee in the upcoming film adaption of Life of Pi. Followed by a screening of The Namesake, starring Tabu a critically-acclaimed, poignant film about a Bengali family's move to New York. http://www.indiansummerfestival.ca/events.php?cat=3#subev1
Hari Kunzru and Anosh Irani in Conversation (July 14, 6pm) - Hari Kunzru (The Impressionist, Transmission, My Revolutions) and Anosh Irani (The Song of Kahunsha) in conversation with moderator Dr. Azadeh Yamini-Hamedani. http://www.indiansummerfestival.ca/events.php?cat=3#subev2
Writers & Democracy: Tarun Tejpal in Conversation with Terry Gould (July 14, 8pm) - Tejpal and Gould are known for their fearlessness and defence of the freedom of speech. These award-winning journalists discuss the role of writers and journalists in a modern democracy, the challenges facing them, and how each has fought to defend that vision. http://www.indiansummerfestival.ca/events.php?cat=3#subev3
AWARDS & LISTS
Five writers are among 50 Canadians recently appointed to the Order of Canada. Writers Lorna Crozier and the Hon. Herménégilde Chiasson, O.C., were appointed Officers of the Order of Canada. Writers Malcolm Gladwell, Pierre Nepveu and Nino Ricci were appointed Members of the Order of Canada.
http://www.gg.ca/document.aspx?id=14175
The Writers' Trust of Canada and Samara, a democracy-focused charity, received 180 nominations for the contest Best Canadian Political Books of the Last 25 Years. A short list of 12 finalists was revealed last week. Canadians are encouraged to spend July reading the books and then vote online for their favourite by August 1.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2011/06/30/pol-books-contest.html
Anna Swanson is the winner of the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for the book The Nights Also (Tightrope Books) and Evelyn Lau has won the Pat Lowther Memorial Award for Living Under Plastic (Oolichan Books). The awards were announced at a special event at the LCP Poetry Festival and Conference in Toronto last month.
http://poets.ca/wordpress/
Swanson's The Nights Also has also won a Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry.
http://www.lambdaliterary.org/features/05/27/23rd-annual-lambda-literary-award-winners/
The prestigious literary award the John Llewellyn Rhys prize has been suspended this year because of lack of funding, organizers have confirmed. The £5,000 award was founded in 1942 in honour of the writer John Llewellyn Rhys, who was killed in action during World War II and is presented to authors aged 35 or under.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13973301
NEWS & FEATURES
Vancouver is seeking its third Poet Laureate. Nominations and submissions will be accepted until Aug. 24.
http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/covertocover/archive/2011/06/23/vancouver-seeking-third-poet-laureate.aspx
Because of the postal strike, Geist extended its deadline for its erasure poetry contest to July 15, 2011. To win Canadian-style fame and glory, read the excerpt of Susanna Moodie's Roughing It In the Bush and have at it with your eraser. Then enter your poem here:
http://geist.submishmash.com/Submit
Questions? Contact geist@geist.com.
If you haven't yet got all of your summertime books, you may want to check out the Anansi annual Beach Blanket BOGO sale!
http://www.anansi.ca/home.cfm
And/or enter the contest to win a copy of Peter Behrens' new novel The O'Briens.
http://www.anansi.ca/current_contest.cfm
JK Rowling has "terminated" her long-running association with the literary agent Christopher Little, who helped to launch her first book about the boy wizard. She will now be represented by Neil Blair, who has left the Christopher Little Literary Agency and set up The Blair Partnership. Blair is a lawyer and not a conventional literary agent.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/harry-potter-and-the-furious-feud-rowling-banishes-her-literary-agent-2306257.html
Tom Sutcliffe analyzes the impact on the book industry.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/thomas-sutcliffe/tom-sutcliffe-j-k-rowling-may-not-need-one-but-other-writers-do-2307042.html
Flannery O'Connor is best remembered for her potent fictions, and to a lesser extent for her unfortunate life. What she isn't primarily remembered for are her cartoons, although this may change with the publication of a collection of her early drawings later this year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jul/05/fresh-look-flannery-o-connor-cartoons
Emma Brockes interviews Cynthia Ozick and discovers that so serious a novelist is Ozick, in subject matter and theme, it is often overlooked how funny she is and how playful is her writing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/jul/04/cynthia-ozick-life-writing-interview
Since it planned not to update its book review section over the Canada Day weekend, the National Post has instead published the title story of The Interloper by Rabindranath Maharaj.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/category/afterword/
Fantasy author George R.R. Martin says he will 'mount their head on a spike' of the hapless Amazon employee who shipped copies of A Dance With Dragons early. The 1,000-page novel is subject to a strict embargo by its publisher.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/04/george-rr-martin-decapitate-spoiler
Andrew Johnson interviews Margaret Drabble, whom he describes as "the original angry young woman".
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/margaret-drabble-the-original-angry-young-woman-2305790.html
Laura Miller follows up Philip Roth's turning away from made-up stories. Never having liked fiction is quite different from having once read fiction avidly and then, in the fullness of time, giving it up. Like Philip Roth and Cormac McCarthy, Diana Athill stopped reading fiction--at age 90.
http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/index.html?story=/books/laura_miller/2011/06/28/stopped_reading_fiction
In what its editor called a publishing first, 26 authors—including Jeffrey Deaver, Kathy Reichs and Faye Kellerman—have joined forces to write a single thriller called No Rest For the Dead.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/twenty-six-writers-one-history-making-crime-novel/article2086291/
More details here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/05/crime-novel-co-written-26-authors
BOOKS & WRITERS
In her review of Margaret Drabble's collection A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman, Elaine Showalter says that Drabble's collected stories are more than the sum of their parts.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/30/margaret-drabble-smiling-woman-review
Monica Ali's Untold Story asks: What if Princess Diana had faked her own death and gone to live under an alias in America? Curtis Sittenfeld finds the idea irresistible, but the premise is the best part of Untold Story, she says.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/books/review/book-review-untold-story-by-monica-ali.html?ref=books
Donna Bailey Nurse responds differently, writing "I was surprised to encounter in this book her (Diana's) thoughts and feelings. I realized I had never perceived her as fully human."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/untold-story-by-monica-ali/article2083427/
An excerpt is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/books/review/excerpt-untold-story-by-monica-ali.html?ref=review
Mervyn Peake, creator of Gormenghast, is now recognised as a brilliant novelist and artist. Michael Moorcock, China Miéville, Hilary Spurling and AL Kennedy celebrate his achievements.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/01/mervyn-peake-gormenghast
Michael Bliss writes that Roderick and Sharon Stewart's Phoenix: The Life of Norman Bethune is so thorough and so objective, it should become definitive, and spark a more informed debate about, Bethune's career.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/phoenix-the-life-of-norman-bethune-reviewed-by-michael-bliss/article2083346/
Is academic criticism worth reading? A study of David Mitchell suggests there's plenty for the lay reader to enjoy, says Sam Jordison, adding "this book of essays is actually fun – and that's something I'm surprised to write about literary theory".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jul/01/is-academic-criticism-worth-reading
Rachel Shteir's The Steal: A Cultural History examines the knot of desire, fear and rage—and the enterprise—at the heart of the five-fingered discount (shoplifting), writes Laura Miller. You can see why their targets would rather keep it all under wraps.
http://www.salon.com/news/crime/index.html?story=/books/laura_miller/2011/06/26/the_steal
Heller McAlpine writes that Shteir goes to great lengths to try to understand this "silent epidemic", delving into history, and citing, among others, a security expert who quipped that Eve was the first shoplifter.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/25/entertainment/la-et-book-20110625
In Suining, China, 152 boys are born for every 100 girls, writes Mara Hvistendahl. Hvistendahl is convincing in Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men, says Elaine Showalter, but is she alarmist or alarming?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/mara-hvistendahls-unnatural-selection-about-a-world-with-too-many-men/2011/06/15/AGYB7AuH_story.html
Although Claudia Casper challenges some of Hvistendahl's argument, she states that Hvistendahl makes an utterly convincing case that abortion for sex selection must stop. Hvistendahl is not just entering an important conversation, she's starting one, says Casper.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/where-are-all-the-missing-girls/article2083448/
Every once in a while, a writer's voice hits such a clear note, the resulting book makes you hold it before putting it on your shelves. Molly McCloskey's Circles Around the Sun is this kind of book, writes Anne Enright.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/01/circles-around-the-sun-mccloskey-review
In her new book Allah, Liberty & Love: The Courage to Reconcile Faith and Freedom, Irshad Manji keeps encouraging her fellow Muslims to keep asking questions. As well, Canadians should jump right in and engage in dialogue with Muslims, says Manji.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Irshad+Manji+Reconciling+faith+freedom/4965044/story.html#ixzz1QzF11QLv
Bobbie Ann Mason, author of In Country and other books has, in The Girl in the Blue Beret, plumbed the moral dimensions of national conflict in the lives of individual participants and produced a deeply moving, relevant novel, writes Ron Charles.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/books-bobbie-ann-masons-the-girl-in-the-blue-beret/2011/06/14/AGh5ptpH_story_1.html
Duncan Campbell describes books written by some of Britain's best-known former prison inmates. They will discuss their writing and how writing helped them escape a life of crime at The Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival later this month.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/03/british-crime-memoirs
Johanna Skibsrud's The Sentimentalists is one of four books briefly reviewed by Hirsh Sawhney. A hypnotic meditation on memory, (The Sentimentalists) reaffirms the potential for storytelling to offer clarity and redemption, writes Sawhney.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/books/review/fiction-chronicle-novels-by-banana-yoshimoto-marcelo-figueras-helon-habila-and-johanna-skibsrud.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3
After time in Auschwitz, then Buchenwald, Imre Kertész returned to Budapest and the question "Where have you been?" His response was a trilogy of novels that earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2002. With the translation of Fiasco into English, the trilogy for English readers is now complete.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-et-book-fiasco-20110614,0,3535589.story
In a brief review of Colm Tóibín's The Empty Family, Lesley McDowell writes "Colm Tóibín's beautiful and carefully executed prose conveys intimacy the way one might whisper a secret."
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-empty-family-by-colm-tibn-2305803.html
Peggy Curran writes that Peter Behrens' The O'Briens picks up 40 years after his first novel's tale of Fergus O'Brien's flight from Ireland during the potato famine. However, The O'Briens also stands on its own, she says.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Review+Brien+saga+continues+page+turner+from+Peter+Behrens/5047526/story.html
Louisa Thomas' Conscience: Two Soldiers, Two Pacifists, One Family—A Test of Will and Faith in World War I focuses on the experiences of her great grandfather, Norman and his brothers, examining how conscience fares when society considers it subversive. Alan Riding finds the book "enthralling".
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/books/review/book-review-conscience-by-louisa-thomas.html?ref=books
The Globe and Mail has commissioned short stories to run over the next six weeks. This week: horror-mistress Kelley Armstrong's The Hunt.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/stories-for-summer-the-hunt-by-kelley-armstrong/article2083453/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
KY-MANI MARLEY
Son of reggae icon Bob Marley presents his biography of his dad, Dear Dad. Friday, July 8 at 4:00pm. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson Street. More information at 604-682-4056.
WRITE ON BOWEN 2011
Join writers from all over the Lower Mainland for a series of intensive, interactive writing workshops, panel presentations, and other events. July 8 to 11, Artisan Square, Bowen Island. For complete details, visit www.writeonbowen.com.
DAVOOD KHALILI
Book signing by the author of Developing Olympian Character, a graphic novel about sports, health and the environment. Saturday, July 9 at 1pm. Black Bond Books, Lansdowne Centre, 5300 No. 3 Road, Richmond. For more information, call 604-233-0004.
CROSS BORDER READING SERIES
Readings and conversations with writers and poets from Canada, US, and Scotland. Featuring Alan Jamieson, Carmen Aguirre, Andrew Feld, Pimone Triplett, Bren Simmers and Maggie de Vries. Saturday, July 9 at 5:00pm. Room 1530, SFU Harbour Centre, 555 W. Hastings Street. More information cbprs.wordpress.com.
Upcoming
CHEVY STEVENS
Reading by the author of Never Knowing. Monday, July 25 at 7:00pm. Chapters Granville, 2505 Granville Street. More information at 604-731-7822.
HAIKU NORTH AMERICA
A long weekend of papers, presentations, workshops, readings, and other activities in celebration of haiku poetry, held at the Seattle Center, at the foot of the Space Needle. Featured presenters include Cor van den Heuvel, Richard Gilbert, David Lanoue, Carlos Colón, Fay Aoyagi, Jim Kacian, Emiko Miyashita, George Swede, and many others. August 3-7, 2011. For more information, visit www.haikunorthamerica.com.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Michael Ondaatje - September 21, 2011
Join us for an evening with the Booker Prize-winning author of The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje, as he discusses his forthcoming novel, The Cat's Table. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/ondaatje.
Wade Davis - November 10, 2011
An evening with scientist, anthropologist and bestselling author Wade Davis discussing his latest book Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/wadedavis.
Indian Summer Literature Series
The Indian Summer Festival celebrates the 'Year of India in Canada' with music, literature, dance, film, yoga and cuisine. The literature series features renowned authors and thinkers from India, Canada and the UK—intimate, thought-provoking and truly international conversations about literature, language, politics, democracy and freedom of speech.
Yann Martel in Conversation with Tabu (July 8, 7:30pm) - Man Booker Prize winner Yann Martel and award-winning Indian film star Tabu talk about their work and Tabu's experience working with director Ang Lee in the upcoming film adaption of Life of Pi. Followed by a screening of The Namesake, starring Tabu a critically-acclaimed, poignant film about a Bengali family's move to New York. http://www.indiansummerfestival.ca/events.php?cat=3#subev1
Hari Kunzru and Anosh Irani in Conversation (July 14, 6pm) - Hari Kunzru (The Impressionist, Transmission, My Revolutions) and Anosh Irani (The Song of Kahunsha) in conversation with moderator Dr. Azadeh Yamini-Hamedani. http://www.indiansummerfestival.ca/events.php?cat=3#subev2
Writers & Democracy: Tarun Tejpal in Conversation with Terry Gould (July 14, 8pm) - Tejpal and Gould are known for their fearlessness and defence of the freedom of speech. These award-winning journalists discuss the role of writers and journalists in a modern democracy, the challenges facing them, and how each has fought to defend that vision. http://www.indiansummerfestival.ca/events.php?cat=3#subev3
AWARDS & LISTS
Five writers are among 50 Canadians recently appointed to the Order of Canada. Writers Lorna Crozier and the Hon. Herménégilde Chiasson, O.C., were appointed Officers of the Order of Canada. Writers Malcolm Gladwell, Pierre Nepveu and Nino Ricci were appointed Members of the Order of Canada.
http://www.gg.ca/document.aspx?id=14175
The Writers' Trust of Canada and Samara, a democracy-focused charity, received 180 nominations for the contest Best Canadian Political Books of the Last 25 Years. A short list of 12 finalists was revealed last week. Canadians are encouraged to spend July reading the books and then vote online
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2011/06/30/pol-books-contest.html
Anna Swanson is the winner of the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for the book The Nights Also (Tightrope Books) and Evelyn Lau has won the Pat Lowther Memorial Award for Living Under Plastic (Oolichan Books). The awards were announced at a special event at the LCP Poetry Festival and Conference in Toronto last month.
http://poets.ca/wordpress/
Swanson's The Nights Also has also won a Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry.
http://www.lambdaliterary.org/features/05/27/23rd-annual-lambda-literary-award-winners/
The prestigious literary award the John Llewellyn Rhys prize has been suspended this year because of lack of funding, organizers have confirmed. The £5,000 award was founded in 1942 in honour of the writer John Llewellyn Rhys, who was killed in action during World War II and is presented to authors aged 35 or under.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13973301
NEWS & FEATURES
Vancouver is seeking its third Poet Laureate. Nominations and submissions will be accepted until Aug. 24.
http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/covertocover/archive/2011/06/23/vancouver-seeking-third-poet-laureate.aspx
Because of the postal strike, Geist extended its deadline for its erasure poetry contest to July 15, 2011. To win Canadian-style fame and glory, read the excerpt of Susanna Moodie's Roughing It In the Bush
http://geist.submishmash.com/Submit
Questions? Contact geist@geist.com.
If you haven't yet got all of your summertime books, you may want to check out the Anansi annual Beach Blanket BOGO sale!
http://www.anansi.ca/home.cfm
And/or enter the contest to win a copy of Peter Behrens' new novel The O'Briens.
http://www.anansi.ca/current_contest.cfm
JK Rowling has "terminated" her long-running association with the literary agent Christopher Little, who helped to launch her first book about the boy wizard. She will now be represented by Neil Blair, who has left the Christopher Little Literary Agency and set up The Blair Partnership. Blair is a lawyer and not a conventional literary agent.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/harry-potter-and-the-furious-feud-rowling-banishes-her-literary-agent-2306257.html
Tom Sutcliffe analyzes the impact on the book industry.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/thomas-sutcliffe/tom-sutcliffe-j-k-rowling-may-not-need-one-but-other-writers-do-2307042.html
Flannery O'Connor is best remembered for her potent fictions, and to a lesser extent for her unfortunate life. What she isn't primarily remembered for are her cartoons, although this may change with the publication of a collection of her early drawings later this year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jul/05/fresh-look-flannery-o-connor-cartoons
Emma Brockes interviews Cynthia Ozick and discovers that so serious a novelist is Ozick, in subject matter and theme, it is often overlooked how funny she is and how playful is her writing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/jul/04/cynthia-ozick-life-writing-interview
Since it planned not to update its book review section over the Canada Day weekend, the National Post has instead published the title story of The Interloper by Rabindranath Maharaj.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/category/afterword/
Fantasy author George R.R. Martin says he will 'mount their head on a spike' of the hapless Amazon employee who shipped copies of A Dance With Dragons early. The 1,000-page novel is subject to a strict embargo by its publisher.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/04/george-rr-martin-decapitate-spoiler
Andrew Johnson interviews Margaret Drabble, whom he describes as "the original angry young woman".
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/margaret-drabble-the-original-angry-young-woman-2305790.html
Laura Miller follows up Philip Roth's turning away from made-up stories. Never having liked fiction is quite different from having once read fiction avidly and then, in the fullness of time, giving it up. Like Philip Roth and Cormac McCarthy, Diana Athill stopped reading fiction--at age 90.
http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/index.html?story=/books/laura_miller/2011/06/28/stopped_reading_fiction
In what its editor called a publishing first, 26 authors—including Jeffrey Deaver, Kathy Reichs and Faye Kellerman—have joined forces to write a single thriller called No Rest For the Dead.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/twenty-six-writers-one-history-making-crime-novel/article2086291/
More details here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/05/crime-novel-co-written-26-authors
BOOKS & WRITERS
In her review of Margaret Drabble's collection A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman, Elaine Showalter says that Drabble's collected stories are more than the sum of their parts.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/30/margaret-drabble-smiling-woman-review
Monica Ali's Untold Story asks: What if Princess Diana had faked her own death and gone to live under an alias in America? Curtis Sittenfeld finds the idea irresistible, but the premise is the best part of Untold Story, she says.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/books/review/book-review-untold-story-by-monica-ali.html?ref=books
Donna Bailey Nurse responds differently, writing "I was surprised to encounter in this book her (Diana's) thoughts and feelings. I realized I had never perceived her as fully human."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/untold-story-by-monica-ali/article2083427/
An excerpt is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/books/review/excerpt-untold-story-by-monica-ali.html?ref=review
Mervyn Peake, creator of Gormenghast, is now recognised as a brilliant novelist and artist. Michael Moorcock, China Miéville, Hilary Spurling and AL Kennedy celebrate his achievements.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/01/mervyn-peake-gormenghast
Michael Bliss writes that Roderick and Sharon Stewart's Phoenix: The Life of Norman Bethune is so thorough and so objective, it should become definitive, and spark a more informed debate about, Bethune's career.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/phoenix-the-life-of-norman-bethune-reviewed-by-michael-bliss/article2083346/
Is academic criticism worth reading? A study of David Mitchell suggests there's plenty for the lay reader to enjoy, says Sam Jordison, adding "this book of essays is actually fun – and that's something I'm surprised to write about literary theory".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jul/01/is-academic-criticism-worth-reading
Rachel Shteir's The Steal: A Cultural History examines the knot of desire, fear and rage—and the enterprise—at the heart of the five-fingered discount (shoplifting), writes Laura Miller. You can see why their targets would rather keep it all under wraps.
http://www.salon.com/news/crime/index.html?story=/books/laura_miller/2011/06/26/the_steal
Heller McAlpine writes that Shteir goes to great lengths to try to understand this "silent epidemic", delving into history, and citing, among others, a security expert who quipped that Eve was the first shoplifter.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/25/entertainment/la-et-book-20110625
In Suining, China, 152 boys are born for every 100 girls, writes Mara Hvistendahl. Hvistendahl is convincing in Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men, says Elaine Showalter, but is she alarmist or alarming?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/mara-hvistendahls-unnatural-selection-about-a-world-with-too-many-men/2011/06/15/AGYB7AuH_story.html
Although Claudia Casper challenges some of Hvistendahl's argument, she states that Hvistendahl makes an utterly convincing case that abortion for sex selection must stop. Hvistendahl is not just entering an important conversation, she's starting one, says Casper.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/where-are-all-the-missing-girls/article2083448/
Every once in a while, a writer's voice hits such a clear note, the resulting book makes you hold it before putting it on your shelves. Molly McCloskey's Circles Around the Sun is this kind of book, writes Anne Enright.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/01/circles-around-the-sun-mccloskey-review
In her new book Allah, Liberty & Love: The Courage to Reconcile Faith and Freedom, Irshad Manji keeps encouraging her fellow Muslims to keep asking questions. As well, Canadians should jump right in and engage in dialogue with Muslims, says Manji.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Irshad+Manji+Reconciling+faith+freedom/4965044/story.html#ixzz1QzF11QLv
Bobbie Ann Mason, author of In Country and other books has, in The Girl in the Blue Beret, plumbed the moral dimensions of national conflict in the lives of individual participants and produced a deeply moving, relevant novel, writes Ron Charles.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/books-bobbie-ann-masons-the-girl-in-the-blue-beret/2011/06/14/AGh5ptpH_story_1.html
Duncan Campbell describes books written by some of Britain's best-known former prison inmates. They will discuss their writing and how writing helped them escape a life of crime at The Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival later this month.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/03/british-crime-memoirs
Johanna Skibsrud's The Sentimentalists is one of four books briefly reviewed by Hirsh Sawhney. A hypnotic meditation on memory, (The Sentimentalists) reaffirms the potential for storytelling to offer clarity and redemption, writes Sawhney.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/books/review/fiction-chronicle-novels-by-banana-yoshimoto-marcelo-figueras-helon-habila-and-johanna-skibsrud.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3
After time in Auschwitz, then Buchenwald, Imre Kertész returned to Budapest and the question "Where have you been?" His response was a trilogy of novels that earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2002. With the translation of Fiasco into English, the trilogy for English readers is now complete.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-et-book-fiasco-20110614,0,3535589.story
In a brief review of Colm Tóibín's The Empty Family, Lesley McDowell writes "Colm Tóibín's beautiful and carefully executed prose conveys intimacy the way one might whisper a secret."
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-empty-family-by-colm-tibn-2305803.html
Peggy Curran writes that Peter Behrens' The O'Briens picks up 40 years after his first novel's tale of Fergus O'Brien's flight from Ireland during the potato famine. However, The O'Briens also stands on its own, she says.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Review+Brien+saga+continues+page+turner+from+Peter+Behrens/5047526/story.html
Louisa Thomas' Conscience: Two Soldiers, Two Pacifists, One Family—A Test of Will and Faith in World War I focuses on the experiences of her great grandfather, Norman and his brothers, examining how conscience fares when society considers it subversive. Alan Riding finds the book "enthralling".
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/books/review/book-review-conscience-by-louisa-thomas.html?ref=books
The Globe and Mail has commissioned short stories to run over the next six weeks. This week: horror-mistress Kelley Armstrong's The Hunt.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/stories-for-summer-the-hunt-by-kelley-armstrong/article2083453/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
KY-MANI MARLEY
Son of reggae icon Bob Marley presents his biography of his dad, Dear Dad. Friday, July 8 at 4:00pm. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson Street. More information at 604-682-4056.
WRITE ON BOWEN 2011
Join writers from all over the Lower Mainland for a series of intensive, interactive writing workshops, panel presentations, and other events. July 8 to 11, Artisan Square, Bowen Island. For complete details, visit www.writeonbowen.com.
DAVOOD KHALILI
Book signing by the author of Developing Olympian Character, a graphic novel about sports, health and the environment. Saturday, July 9 at 1pm. Black Bond Books, Lansdowne Centre, 5300 No. 3 Road, Richmond. For more information, call 604-233-0004.
CROSS BORDER READING SERIES
Readings and conversations with writers and poets from Canada, US, and Scotland. Featuring Alan Jamieson, Carmen Aguirre, Andrew Feld, Pimone Triplett, Bren Simmers and Maggie de Vries. Saturday, July 9 at 5:00pm. Room 1530, SFU Harbour Centre, 555 W. Hastings Street. More information cbprs.wordpress.com.
Upcoming
CHEVY STEVENS
Reading by the author of Never Knowing. Monday, July 25 at 7:00pm. Chapters Granville, 2505 Granville Street. More information at 604-731-7822.
HAIKU NORTH AMERICA
A long weekend of papers, presentations, workshops, readings, and other activities in celebration of haiku poetry, held at the Seattle Center, at the foot of the Space Needle. Featured presenters include Cor van den Heuvel, Richard Gilbert, David Lanoue, Carlos Colón, Fay Aoyagi, Jim Kacian, Emiko Miyashita, George Swede, and many others. August 3-7, 2011. For more information, visit www.haikunorthamerica.com.
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