Book News Vol. 7 No. 29

BOOK NEWS

UPCOMING EVENTS
Michael Chabon
September 26, 2012 at 8:00pm
St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church
Author of the New York Times bestselling novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, talks about his latest book, Telegraph Avenue. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/michaelchabon

VIRTUAL FESTIVAL

Listen to the sixteenth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear an exerpt from our special event at Frederic Wood Theatre on May 28, 2012 featuring Richard Ford. Details:

http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.

Special Offers

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.

AWARDS & LISTS

Night author and activist Elie Wiesel has won the 2012 Chicago Tribune Literary Prize. Others honoured were Paul Hendrickson's Hemingway's Boat, for the 2012 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for nonfiction and Richard Ford's Canada, for

the 2012 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for fiction.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/books/ct-ent-0801-literary-prizes,0,4961596.story

The CBC Books and Scotiabank Giller Prize Readers' Choice contest is back. As we await the announcement of this year's long-list, CBC Books offers you a chance to share great Canadian literature you've discovered this past year. Rules

and regulations are here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/scotiabankgillerprize/readers-choice-2012-rules-and-regulations.html

Submit your nomination here:
http://3495051.polldaddy.com/s/sgp2012?pop=11

Michael Frayn's Skios has been long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/greece-gods-and-amiable-young-idiots-in-michael-frayns-latest/article4460668/

YOUNG READERS

Elizabeth Wein's Code Name Verity is a thrilling WWII spy drama for young adults, writes Mary Quattlebaum. This gripping story opens in occupied France, with Julie captured and being forced to write a confession for a Nazi interrogator.

This heart-in-your-mouth adventure has it all, says Quattlebaum. Ages 14 and up.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/elizabeth-weins-code-name-verity-thrilling-wwii-spy-drama-for-young-adults/2012/07/31/gJQAzGz2NX_story.html

The sight of a bug can send many an adult into a frenzy. It's no wonder, seeing such reactions on the part of adults, that children, too, might be inclined to squash a bug. Stephen, the central character in Jorge Luján's Stephen and the

Beetle, is such a child. Ages 4 to 7.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Kids+holds+power+life+death+over+beetle/7039143/story.html#ixzz22d3srtXy

In Bon Appétit!: The Delicious Life of Julia Child, author/illustrator Jessie Hartland's hand-lettered text and funky gouache paintings go a long way toward capturing Julia Child's lively, irreverent approach to good food and good

eating, along with permission to "ask a grown-up to help you." Age 9 and up.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Introducing+young+cooks+Julia+Child/6996268/story.html

Author Kevin Sylvester writes about a less celebrated side of the Olympics, with people, ideas and events chosen for their unusualness. For the most part, the Gold Medals of Weird are safe–no one will be training to win one, and there

will be no rivals to worry about. These records (and their stories) will stand. Ages 7 to 12.
http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol14/no6/goldmedalforwierd.html

NEWS & FEATURES

Wattpad has announced the Attys, a new trophy for online verse named after Margaret Atwood. The Attys are specifically for digital poetry. Wattpad will accept entries from both amateurs and the more experienced. Atwood will be judging

the prize. Information about entering is here: http://www.wattpad.com/attys

The Guardin/Observer has reprinted a 1998 Gore Vidal essay on the origins of the Cold War.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/05/gore-vidal-origins-of-cold-war

Australian art critic and writer Robert Hughes, author of The Fatal Shore and Shock of the New, has died in New York. He was 74.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/08/07/robert-hughes-obit.html

James Joyce's Ulysses has topped poll after poll to be named the greatest novel of the 20th century, but according to Paulo Coelho, the book is "a twit", indeed is 'harmful' to literature.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/06/paulo-coelho-james-joyce-ulysses

Fears that pirated editions of JK Rowling's upcoming novel The Casual Vacancy could leak out will result in some foreign publishers (e.g., in Italy, Finland and Slovenia) not receiving copies until it is published in English. The novel

will be published on 27 September in the UK and the US.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/31/jk-rowling-casual-vacancy-translation-fears

Marilyn Monroe, who played the perennial dumb blonde was a comedian who created a parody of femininity. In Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox, Professor Lois Banner (U. of Southern California) writes that Monroe was a proto-feminist

who took control of her career which often created conflict with established Hollywood.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/08/03/marilyn-monroe-anniversary.html

John Banville, who fell in love with Monroe when he was ten, adds that: "Monroe was one of the 20th century's great clowns. What made MM so bewitching was that it was–all or almost all–an act.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/03/marilyn-monroe-banville-50-death

Mitt Romney recently quoted Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel in his (Romney's) discussion of disparities in the economic success of various countries. Diamond's response in a recent New York Times, includes, "...difference from what

my book says that I have to doubt whether Mr. Romney read it."
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-jc-mitt-romney-misunderstood-his-book-says-author-jared-diamond-20120802,0,2692855.story

Twitter and Tumblr are destroying literary criticism, writes Jacob Silverman, who blames a culture of niceness in online book culture.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2012/08/writers_and_readers_on_twitter_and_tumblr_we_need_more_criticism_less_liking_.html

Bardowl, a new streaming service, could soon challenge Amazon's Audible, writes Anna Baddeley. The main difference between Bardowl and its main rival, Amazon-owned Audible, is that you're streaming rather than downloading. Unlike

reading, you can listen to a book while doing other things.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/05/bardowl-audiobooks-spotify

Mark Billingham, author of the Tom Thorne detective series, criticised the growing self-publishing industry that allows writers to sell their work electronically for pence. Books sre devalued if they are sold for "less than half the

price of a cup of tea", says Billingham.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9449682/E-books-sold-for-price-of-a-cup-of-tea-are-harming-industry-says-author.html

An illustrated account of young Arthur Conan Doyle, ship's doctor on the Arctic whaler Hope–for which he ran away from his medical studies in Edinburgh–is to be published for the first time by the British Library, in a facsimile edition.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/06/arthurconandoyle-arctic

The Irish novelist John Banville, who writes crime fiction under the name Benjamin Black, will write a novel featuring Raymond Chandler's creation Philip Marlowe. The novel, which will be set in the 1940s in the fictional Californian

setting of Bay City, will be published next year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/feedarticle/10379479

CBC Books has a new contest. Last lines are so important. They are the final thought readers are left with. They conclude the story at hand but establish possibility for a future. Whether it be from the past or the present, from fiction

or non-fiction–the CBC wants to know what it is and why you love it. Post a comment on the website by Sunday, August 19, 2012, at 11:59 p.m. ET. The rules and regulations are here. Good luck!
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2012/08/whats-your-favourite-last-line-in-literature.html

BOOKS & WRITERS

"Kapuscinski" has long been one of Poland's few internationally recognized names, due to the unusual style of his literary reporting in The Emperor, The Soccer War and Shah of Shahs. Similarly, Artur Domoslawski's Ryszard Kapuscinski:

The Biography is not a conventional biography, writes Agnes Pyzik.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/02/ryszard-kapuscinski-biography-domoslawski-review

Dave Margoshes's loving fictionalized memoir about his father, Harry, is artfully executed in this collection of 14 loosely linked stories, writes Sharon Abron Drache. A grand tribute to Harry Morgenstern, resourcefully approximating the

novel his son believes he could have written, but never did, says Drache.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/dave-margoshess-stories-a-grand-tribute-to-his-father/article4454593/

Linda Holeman's fifth historical novel The Lost Souls of Angelkov takes place in 19th C. Russia, with the characters flung into the immense social changes of the time, especially the emancipation of the serfs. Plot is the driving force,

writes Candace Fertile.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/serfs-up-a-novel-of-angst-in-19th-century-russia/article4438746/

The title of Will Self's novel Umbrella derives from Joyce's "A brother is as easily forgotten as an umbrella". Umbrella, longlisted for the Booker Prize, is a dazzling feat of imagination and structure, writes Elizabeth Day, as she

learns why Self likes writing as a woman.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/05/will-self-umbrella-booker-interview

"Embrace the sweet lovely mess," says a character in Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins. She's talking about life, but could mean the multiple, intersecting storylines and numerous lives, writes Joel Yanofsky. Walter offers a change of scene,

setting and point-of-view in each successive chapter.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Italian+hotelier+falls+actress/7039086/story.html

Richard Fitzpatrick's El Clasico: Barcelona v Real Madrid: Football's Greatest Rivalry is about soccer, styles, ideologies. and a history of hatred; e.g., when Johan Cruyff was pursued by Real Madrid, he said he would never play for a

team "associated with Franco". A riveting read, writes Tim Lewis.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/03/clasico-barcelona-real-madrid-review

Alexander McCall Smith's A Conspiracy of Friends is an excellent tonic for whatever ails you, writes Laura Eggertson. Psychoanalyst Berthea Snark is the only mother in current literary fiction who longs to learn that her child was

switched at birth, says Eggertson.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/1234879--a-conspiracy-of-friends-by-alexander-mccall-smith-review

Naomi Beth Wakan, a "lovely old biddy from Gabriola" as she's been described with her approval, has found life as an 80 year old to be like a roller coaster. Hence A Roller-Coaster Ride: Thoughts on Aging, the title of her most recent

book. Whether facts or opinions, Wakan's words give food for thought writes Mary Ann Moore.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Gabriola+Island+writer+charts+path+into/6994477/story.html

A novel occasionally feels less like a book than a poignant passage of your own life, writes Donna Bailey Nurse. Rachel Joyce's The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, describes Fry's pilgrimage to keep his dying friend alive.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/in-rachel-joyces-subtle-debut-an-impulse-becomes-a-pilgrimage/article4460314/

"How I wish the Canada Party, the one that this month produced Chris Cannon and Brent Calvert's America But Better: The Canada Party Manifesto were on the ballot at my polling place, writes David M. Shribman. Their manifesto–a 148 page

roadmap–possesses the key to reforming our politics," says Shribman.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/only-canada-can-save-america-according-to-this-manifesto/article4460036/

Joel Yanofsky writes that Jess Walter weaves a brilliantly tangled mess in his fine novel, Beautiful Ruins. Of course, there will be complications in this lopsided love story – a half century of them, adding Beautiful Ruins is a story

mainly about storytelling.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Italian+hotelier+falls+actress/7039086/story.html#ixzz22u5Abkxn

COMMUNITY EVENTS

ANAKANA SCHOFIELD
The Vancouver Book Club will host Anakana Schofield in conversation about her novel Malarkey. Thursday, August 9 at 7:00pm, free. Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at vancouverisawesome.com/bookclub.

SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Canada's longest running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers. Features Wayson Choy, Charlotte Gill, Patrick Lane, Ami McKay, Richard Wagamese and many others. Tickets on sale now! August 16-19, 2012. Sechelt, BC. Complete

details at www.writersfestival.ca.

Upcoming

SUMMER DREAMS LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL
Annual family-friendly celebration of literary arts features two stages, a kids' area, a marketplace, and over 90 performers, including headliner Barbara Adler and Fang, a local spoken-word artist who combines poetry with music.

Saturday, August 25, 2012, free. Trout Lake Park, 3350 Victoria. More information at www.summerdreamsfest.com.

A POETIC WALK THROUGH NATURE
Join Vancouver's 100,000 Poets for Change on an Earthwalk. Poets will read select poems calling for the preservation of our beautiful forests and shorelines. A guest speaker will also present a narrative tour of the cultural history and

natural habitat of Stanley Park. September 29 at 10:00am, free. For more information and to register, visit http://earthwalks11poets.eventbrite.com/.