Book News Vol. 7 No. 19

BOOK NEWS




Membership

If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.



VIRTUAL FESTIVAL



Listen to the sixth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "Non-Fiction After Noon" from the 2011 Festival, featuring Gary Geddes, Charlotte Gill, and Andrew Nikiforuk. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.



UPCOMING VIWF EVENT



A Dram Come True

7:30pm Friday June 1

While we can't guarantee the weather, we can promise an excellent array of rare, cask-strength bottles and experts at six different tasting bars. So dust off your kilt and unpack your sporran - this is an event that a true connoisseur won't want to miss! Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/content/dram-come-true.



AWARDS & LISTS



Amelia Gentleman has won the Orwell journalism prize for what the judges described as 'beautifully crafted examinations of hardship, welfare and justice' in a series of articles.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/may/24/guardian-amelia-gentleman-orwell-prize



Terry Pratchett has won the P.G. Wodehouse Award for his 39th Discworld novel, Snuff, hailed by judges as a comic masterpiece.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/30/pg-wodehouse-award-terry-pratchett



Singing from the Darktime: A Childhood Memoir in Poetry and Prose, by S. Weilbach, an 80-year-old Holocaust survivor and first-time writer, has won the 2012 Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award. David Bezmozgis won the fiction award for The Free World. Other winners are here:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/05/23/jewish-book-awards.html



Debut novelist Rahul Bhattacharya's The Sly Company of People Who Care has won the £10,000 Ondaatje award for his "brilliant" evocation of the history, inhabitants and landscape of Guyana. The prize is for the book which best summons up "the spirit of a place".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/29/ondaatje-prize-rahul-bhattacharya



American author Madeline Miller has won the Orange prize for fiction 2012 for The Song of Achilles, a retelling of one of the most enduring Greek myths.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/30/orange-prize-2012-madeline-miller



YOUNG READERS



Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell is a hilarious story of a not so fabulous life, writes whizzydizzy. It's about Nikki, a British teenage girl who has gone to a private secondary school in America and finds she has a locker right next to the most popular girl in the school. For ages 10 to 13.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/may/26/the-book-dork-diaries-rachel-renee-russell-review



Sandy beaches, teeming tide pools, endless waves. That's what kids see from the summer shore. But what lies beneath the water's surface? Fascinating answers abound in Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle, by Claire A. Nivola. For ages 4 to 8.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/27/RVC41OL7PL.DTL



Jazz. Risky. Dangerous. Scary. A way to break the rules. We're not talking about failing to study for your final math test or disobeying your parents. We're talking about a type of music called jazz. For all ages.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/all-about-jazz-a-unique-form-of-american-music/2012/05/24/gJQA4bswnU_story.html



John Jensen Feels Different. John Jensen is not the most attractive of reptiles. His penchant for bow ties makes him look a bit nerdy, and his toenails (claws?) could use a trim. He lives in a nice apartment and keeps up with the news. He holds down a decent job. But, as the title tells us, John Jensen feels different. Finally, he learns to celebrate his individuality. To age 10.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Croc+blames+tail/6678393/story.html



NEWS & FEATURES



Queen Victoria, the first monarch to celebrate a diamond jubilee, tells of meetings with prime ministers, childbirth and love for Albert in over 43,000 pages. Her private journals have been launched online by her great-great-granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/may/24/queen-victoria-private-journals-online



Despite a revolution that called for an end to the rampant censorship that prevailed under the Ben Ali regime, literary censorship has yet to be eradicated in Tunisia. Instead, it has simply changed forms.

http://www.tunisia-live.net/2012/05/20/literary-censorship-persists-in-post-revolutionary-tunisia/



The New Yorker is trying Twitter fiction with Jennifer Egan. Black Box will be serialized on Twitter over 10 nights. Each night, it will be tweeted from @NYerfiction and will appear on the New Yorker's revamped book blog, Page-Turner. The magazine hits newsstands May 28—look for the science fiction issue, dated June 4 and June 11.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/05/new-yorker-twitter-fiction-jennifer-egan.html



Twitter is a clunky way of delivering fiction, writes Sarah Crown.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/may/25/twitter-feed-clunky-delivery



Before the success of The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen was broke, depressed and stuck in an unhappy marriage. In a lecture on autobiography and fiction, he explains how he overcame shame, guilt and disloyalty, beginning by responding to four unpleasant questions novelists are asked.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/25/jonathan-franzen-the-path-to-freedom



In an interview with Jian Ghomeshi, Toni Morrison expresses her puzzlement at the nostalgic yearning for the 1950s that runs through U.S. culture, given the violence against blacks at that time. Morrison's new book, Home, paints a portrait of the 1950s.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/05/24/toni-morrison-audio-q.html



To mark the 50th anniversary of Michael Harrington's The Other America, Scribner has brought out a paperback and ebook reprint with a new foreword by Harrington biographer Maurice Isserman. It's chilling to discover that I found much to identify with in Harrington's book, writes Scott Martelle.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-michael-harrington-20120527,0,6329542.story



With his ReadKiddoRead website and popular series like 'Witch & Wizard,' prolific writer James Patterson aims to turn children's lives around through reading. This year has brought new installments of his bestselling children's series, Witch & Wizard and Middle School.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-james-patterson-20120528,0,7278092.story



Costa-winning novelist Kishwar Desai talks to William Skidelsky about India's surrogacy industry and the art of writing topical fiction.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/27/kishwar-desai-interview-meet-author



Nicholas Lezard describes Alan Bennett's re-published The Uncommon Reader as a little gem that is the best thing about the jubilee.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/29/uncommon-reader-alan-bennett-review



BOOKS & WRITERS



What attracts us to tomes with apocalyptic-sounding titles about impending financial collapse? asks Todd Hirsch. Jeff Rubin's The End of Growth is another with an alarming-sounding title, yet it departs from others in its accessible writing and more hopeful conclusion, says Hirsch.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-end-of-growth-by-jeff-rubin/article2443650/



Time after time, Ona Simaite, the subject of Julija Sukys's compelling and beautifully crafted biography, would enter the Jewish ghetto of Nazi-occupied Vilnius with food and money and forged documents for those forced behind its walls. Julija Sukys's Epistolophilia, honours Lithuanian librarian Ona Simaite.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Epistolophilia+Montrealer+Julija+Sukys+honours+Lithuanian+librarian/6678385/story.html



Joseph Brodsky was tried in Leningrad for the crime of writing poetry: his “crime” was that he did not have a regular job, and was therefore a “parasite.” Lev Loseff's Joseph Brodsky: A Literary Life confirms that Brodsky never intended to be a Soviet dissident.

http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/magazine/103341/joseph-brodsky-russian-literature-lev-loseff



The title story of Yasuko Thanh's Floating Like the Dead, is based on a documented 1895 visit by the capital city's medical officer and a journalist, and enables a subtle exploration of racial power dynamics, alienation and camaraderie.

http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Noble+dreams+pretty+places+prisons+making/6673054/story.html



Peter Hobbs's In the Orchard, the Swallows is a book about resisting the kinds of darkness of which men are capable–hate, vengeance, sadism as a palliative for boredom. This is simple yet breathtaking storytelling, writes Krista Foss.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/in-the-orchard-the-swallows-by-peter-hobbs/article2443896/



Borys Conrad has published an account of life with his eccentric father which exemplifies the curious practice of filial writing. Conrad's memoir is an affectionate portrayal of his father, avoiding Joseph Conrad's literary achievements in favour of an entertaining narrative, writes Kristen Treen.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/27/my-father-joseph-conrad-review



Rosemary Counter writes that Augusten Burroughs's This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More for the Young and Old Alike is equal parts self-help and anti-self-help, with a dash of memoir.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/this-is-how-by-augusten-burroughs/article2445447/



Peggy Blair's The Beggar's Opera, is an impressive debut novel, shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association's Debut Dagger Award in 2010, writes Robert J. Wiersema. The story features Inspector Ricardo Ramirez and the Cuban setting is treated almost like a character in its own right.

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/02/10/book-review-the-beggars-opera-by-peggy-blair/



Juli Zeh's The Method presents a vision of a dystopian future, writes Lucy Popescu, that includes an obsession with health, mass surveillance, and dependence on The Method—a system to ensure "a happy and healthy life, free from suffering and pain". Stepping outside the regime's norms is considered subversive.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-method-by-juli-zeh-7800875.html



It's always a delight to stumble upon a chick-lit novel that is smart, well-crafted and witty, writes Joanna Goodman. Such is the case with Kim Izzo's The Jane Austen Marriage Manual, a debut novel that brings class to the genre.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-jane-austen-marriage-manual-is-it-mr-right-or-mr-rich/article2446365/



COMMUNITY EVENTS



REEL READS MOVIE NIGHT

Screening of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the 2011 movie based on the John Le Carre spy novel. Thursday, May 31 at 6:30pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.



BEN NUTTALL-SMITH

Local author reads from his novels Secrets Kept—Secrets Told and Blood, Feathers, and Holy Men. Thursday, May 31 at 7:30pm. Pelican Rouge Coffee House, 15142 North Bluff Rd., White Rock. More information at www.semiahmooarts.com.



DAVID STARR

Reading by the author of From Bombs to Books: the remarkable stories of refugee children and their families at an exceptional Canadian school. Tuesday, June 5 at 6:30pm. Free but please register by phoning 604-522-3971. Tommy Douglas branch, Burnaby Public Library, 7311 Kingsway.



PIERRE COUPAY

Local poet and artist shares poetry, slides and discusses poetry and painting. Wednesday, June 6 at 7:00pm, free. Dr. G. Paul Singh Study Hall, North Vancouver City Library, 120 14th Street W., North Vancouver. More information at 604-998-3450.



KUCKI LOW

Author will talk about her memoir recalling her life as South Africa's first female airline pilot, This is Kucki Your Pilot Speaking. Thursday, June 7 at 7:00pm. Free but please register in advance by phoning 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.



Upcoming



MICHAEL SCOTT

The award-winning Irish author of the popular Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series will be coming to Kidsbooks to present the sixth and final book: The Enchantress. Wednesday, June 13 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $23 and include a copy of the book. Kidsbooks, 3083 West Broadway. More information at www.kidsbooks.ca.



ROBSON READING SERIES

Readings by Phil Hall (Killdeer) and Aaron Bushkowsky (Curtains for Roy). Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm, free. BC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.



CHRISTINA JOHNSON-DEAN

Launch of the fifth book in the series The Unheralded Artists of BC, The Life and Art of Ina D.D. Uhthoff. Saturday, June 16 at 8:00pm, free. Martin Batchelor Gallery, 712 Cormorant St., Victoria. More information at www.mothertonguepublishing.com.



BEHIND BARBED WIRE

Literary reading from Behind Barbed Wire: Creative Works on the Internment of Italian Canadians and Beyond Barbed Wire: Essays on the Internment of Italian Canadians with B.C. authors Lynne Bowen, Anna Foschi Ciampolini, Robert Pepper-Smith, and Osvaldo Zappa. Wednesday, June 20 at 7:00pm, free. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.



TOM WAYMAN AND KATE BRAID

Award-winning authors present a dynamic evening of poetry. Wayman reads from Dirty Snow and Braid reads from several collections, including a new edition of To This Cedar Fountain. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.



TRIPLE THREAT: CHICKS WHO SOLVE CRIME!

Three Canadian mystery authors - Deryn Collier, Hilary Davidson, and Robin Spano - team up for an evening of readings & discussion. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Free but register in advance at 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.



VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012

VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is September 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.