Book News Vol. 8 No. 12

BOOK NEWS

Incite: An Exploration of Books and Ideas

Join us on Monday, May 6 for an evening with theoretical physicist Lee Smolin who offers a radical new view of the nature of time and the cosmos. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite. Register here: http://incitemay6.eventbrite.ca/.

Theoretical physicist Lee Smolin asserts that "not only is time real, but nothing we know or experience gets closer to the heart of nature than the reality of time." An interview with Dr. Smolin about his new book Time Reborn (reviewed here http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-547-51172-6) has been broadcast on Quirks and Quarks, and can be heard here: http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/.

And on Wednesday, May 8, award-winning author Colin McAdam reads from A Beautiful Truth, paulo de costa reads from The Green and Purple Skin of the World and Shyam Selvadurai reads from his latest, The Hungry Ghosts. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incitemay8. Register here: http://incitevpl2013spring.eventbrite.ca/

Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library. Incite is sponsored by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and supported by the R.J. Nelson Family Foundation.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Whet your whistle at A Dram Come True!

Our five whisky tasting bars will entice first-time tasters and seasoned scotch drinkers alike. You'll get the most out of your tipple with teachings from knowledgeable tasting experts from two of the best private liquor stores in town, Edgemont Liquor and Legacy Liquor. All of your favourites will be on offer, including Glenlivet, Amrut, Tullibardine and Glenfiddich, as well as rare releases and special surprises that will be revealed at the event. Tickets are selling fast, so click here to get yours today. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.

Jeannette Walls
The Vancouver Writers Fest and Simon & Schuster Canada present the bestselling author of The Glass Castle. Details:
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/jeannettewalls.

AWARDS & LISTS

Colm Toibin is the recipient of this year's Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prix.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Blue+Metropolis+testament+Colm+Toibin/8269259/story.html

Vancouver writer Stephen Miller and Victoria writer Yasuko Thanh are among the finalists for the Arthur Ellis Awards, which celebrate the best Canadian crime writing of the previous years. Other nominees are Linwood Barclay, Giles Blunt, Sean Chercover and Carsten Stroud.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/authors+earn+nods+mystery+writing/8271602/story.html

Philippe Béha is one of two Canadian nominees for the 2014 Hans Christian Andersen Award (author Kenneth Oppel, from Toronto, is the other)—touted as the highest international distinction given to authors and illustrators of children's books.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Kids+Philippe+B%c3%a9ha+stands+apart/8269173/story.html#ixzz2R4iPJsrB

Toronto writer Sheila Heti is on the short list for Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. Others on the list include Barack Obama, Quentin Tarantino, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, American skier Lindsay Vonn and Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who survived an assassination attempt.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/04/17/toronto_writer_sheila_heti_on_short_list_for_time_magazines_100_most_influential_people_in_the_world.html

The Canadian Library Association/Association canadienne des bibliotheques (CLA/ACB) has selected Susin Nielsen's The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen as its winning title for the 2013 Book of the Year for Children Award.
http://www.bookcentre.ca/news/the_reluctant_journal_henry_k_larsen_wins_2013_cla_book_year_children_award

IBBY Canada (International Board on Books for Young People, Canadian section) has announced that illustrator Isabelle Arsenault is the winner of the 2012 IBBY Canada Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Picture Book Award for Virginia Wolf, written by Kyo Maclear.
http://www.bookcentre.ca/news/ibby_canada_cleaver_picture_book_award_illustrator_isabelle_arsenault

YOUNG READERS

From The Toronto Star, mini reviews of four books set in Canada's far north, for ages 0 to 14. Plus, Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys, a novel for teens set in 1950's New Orleans.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/04/12/small_print_mini_reviews_of_books_for_tots_to_teens.html

NEWS & FEATURES

The Last Bookshop is a short film that will appeal to book lovers, imagining a future where physical books have died out. One day, a small boy's holographic entertainment fails, so he heads out to explore abandoned shops outside. Down a forgotten alley, he discovers the last ever bookshop. Inside, an ancient shopkeeper has been waiting over 25 years for a customer...
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2013/04/sunday-short-the-last-bookshop/

David Mamet joins the DIY trend as self-published ebooks top charts. The playwright's decision to do it himself comes as Rachel Van Dyken's homemade ebook heads UK and US charts.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/18/self-publishing-davidmamet

Seven years ago Katherine Morton and Polly Dunbar co-founded the children's theatre company, Long Nose Puppets and have adapted four picture books into stage shows, including Arthur's Dream Boat. Their intent is to help the books come to life for children. All the productions have music written by Tom Gray of the band Gomez.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/apr/18/top-10-books-good-puppet-shows

Aminatta Forna, known for The Devil That Danced on the Water, documented the hanging of her father, a Sierra Leonean politician, on charges of treason. In The Hired Man, she returns to the psychology of civil conflict in the small, aptly named, Croatian town of Gost. Beneath the surface, life in Gost is anything but the simple pastoral idyll Laura had anticipated.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/21/aminatta-forna-hired-man-review

Critics have raised concerns about the proposed sale of two major libraries and the New York Public Library's plan to sell two other branches. A founder of the Citizens group, said: "We are opposing the sale of libraries, the shrinking of the library system and the deliberate under funding of the libraries as an excuse to push real estate deals out to developers."
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/city-hall-protestors-rally-against-sale-of-libraries/?partner=rss&emc=rss

To a small contingent of readers, the 88 year-old American postmodernist William H. Gass is one of the great under-appreciated experimenters of the 20th century. Middle C, his third novel, comes 18 years after 1995's The Tunnel, which appeared 29 years after his 1966 debut. In between, Gass has published odd, self-referential novellas and occasional short story collections.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/04/12/middle_c_by_william_h_gass_review.html

Call it poetic justice. The distinguished Canadian poet David Wevill, who recently expressed dismay over the scheduled sale of hundreds of pages of his own early manuscripts by Bonhams next month, has prompted the British auction house to pull the vast collection off the block and arrange for it to be given to the man who created it a half-century ago.
http://www.canada.com/entertainment/British+collector+auction+house+give+Canadian+poet+gift+manuscripts/8245790/story.html

BOOKS & WRITERS

In How Poetry Saved My Life, Amber Dawn asks, "Why do we so seldom hear the voices of those whose experience is so widespread?" While positing a few sobering answers, Dawn's slim memoir—comprising 18 poems and several essays that reflect 15 years of writing—begin to repair a problem her own question identifies. Her memoir categorically refuses silence, writes Brett Josef Grubisic.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Poetic+reflection+exposes+dark+side/8271581/story.html

"I had hoped that the book would appear with a blank cover and title page, so that only after the last page would the reader meet the title. In the publishing industry, that is not allowed," said J.M. Coetzee. The Childhood of Jesus is the story of an exceptional young boy and his caregivers, and a profound meditation, writes John Goldbach.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/the-gospel-according-to-jm-coetzee/article11421011/

"It took me a long time to be able to write about the Canada I came to," Shyam Selvadurai says, almost 30 years after the traumatic dislocation that brought his family here. He had no words to depict "the greyness of Scarborough" or render that "in its own sensual way," he says. The Hungry Ghosts is a refreshingly original hybrid, writes John Barber.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/with-third-novel-shyam-selvadurai-struggled-to-write-about-canada/article11417119/

COMMUNITY EVENTS

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO LIVE IN A POST-COLONIAL SOCIETY?
Author Jim McDowell explores the life of missionary Father August Brabant and the dynamics that shaped, and continue to define, the settler-colonial relationship between indigenous peoples and the state in Canada. Thursday, May 2 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.

THE WRITER'S STUDIO READING SERIES
Featuring Christine Hayvice, Alison Brewin, Meharoona Ghani, Leslie Hill, Cullene Bryant, Matea Kalic, Janet Fretter, and Sandy Pool. Thursday, May 2 at 8:00pm. Admission by donation. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at sfu.ca.

VANCOUVER ISLAND CHILDREN'S BOOK FESTIVAL
27th annual festival of authors, illustrators, and storytellers from across Canada who present their work, tell stories, and/or show children how they do what they do. Featuring Roch Carrier, Kathy Beliveau, Tololwa Mollel and others. Saturday, May 4, 2013 in Nanaimo. For complete details, visit bookfest.ca.

GETTING IT INTO PRINT
Join Billeh Nickerson, author and editor extraordinaire, as he delves into the secrets of getting your work published. Saturday, May 4 at 10:00am. W Room, Woodward's Building, 5th floor, 111 East Hastings Street, Vancouver. More information at geist.com.

GLEN HUSER
Award-winning author of The Runaway, Touch of the Clown and Skinnybones and the Wrinkle Queen will read from his work and take questions from the audience. Saturday, May 4 at 11:15am, free. Kerrisdale branch, 2112 42nd Ave. W. More information at vpl.ca.

RICHARD SCRIMGER
Meet the author of The Nose from Jupiter and Ink Me. Monday, May 6 and Friday, May 10. For times and complete information, visit surreylibraries.ca.

BARBARA REID
Meet the illustrator of The New Baby Calf, Fox Walked Alone, and Picture a Tree. Tuesday, May 7. Semiahmoo Library at 10:00am; Ocean Park Library at 1:30pm. Complete details at surreylibraries.ca.

MARGUERITE PIGEON AND TERESA MCWHIRTER
Launch of Pigeon's first novel, Open Pit, and the re-issue of McWhirter's first novel, Some Girls Do. Tuesday, May 7 at 8:00pm. Brickhouse Bistro & Bar, 730 Main Street, Vancouver.

TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features poets Jacob Scheier, Sean McGarragle, and Ray Hsu. Wednesday, May 8 at 7:00pm. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 MainStreet, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.

FASHION AND FICTION
Readings by Barbara Lambert and Caroline Adderson. Thursday, May 9 at 5:00pm. Eileen Fisher, 2721 Granville Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-733-5225.

MURDER TIMES THREE
Readings and discussion by three local mystery writers: Cathy Ace, Elizabeth Elwood, and Debra Purdy Kong. Thursday, May 9 at 7:00pm, free but register at 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby. More information at bpl.bc.ca.

WRITTEN IN THE FOREST
Poetry reading by Han Shan Poets opening Susan Falk's Art Exhibition. Sat. May 11, 12-3 pm. Poetry Readings between 1 and 2 pm, at The Fort Gallery, 9048 Glover Road, Fort Langley. Wine and cheese; silent auction of 12 new paintings by Susan Falk based on 12 poems by the Han Shan Poets. Contact: 604-888-7411.

SHARON JENNINGS
Meet the author of more than 60 books for young people. Tuesday, May 14. Newton Library at 10:00am; Strawberry Hill Library at 1:00pm. Complete details at surreylibraries.ca.

JEREMY TANKARD
Meet the award-winning author and illustrator of Grumpy Bird, Me Hungry!, and Boo Hoo Bird. Tuesday, May 14. Cloverdale Library at 10:30am; Port Kells Library at 1:15pm. Complete details at surreylibraries.ca.

LEAF PRESS SPRING POETRY LAUNCH
Celebrate Leaf Press' spring poetry collections: Surge Narrows by Emilia Nielsen, milk tooth bane bone by Daniela Elza and Dark Matter by Leanne McIntosh, May 14th, 7pm, at Rowan's Roof Top Restaurant, 2340 W 4th Ave, Vancouver. Readings. Books for sale. Free event with appetisers and mingling. For more information: www.leafpress.ca.

EVE ENSLER
Author of The Vagina Monologues speaks at Capilano University as part of the Pacific Arbour Speaker Series. Her talk will focus on her new release In the Body of the World. Tuesday, May 14 at 7:30pm. Tickets: $20 and includes a copy of In the Body of the World. For more info: www.capilanou.ca/nscucentre.

Upcoming

LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Calvin Wharton and Wanda John-Kehewin will be featured. Wednesday, May 15 at 12:00 noon, free. SFU Harbour Centre's Teck Gallery (515 W Hastings St.). For more information visit www.sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.

ROBERTA RICH
Join the best selling author as she reads from the sequel to her smash hit The Midwife of Venice. Wednesday, May 15 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kaye room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at vpl.ca.

NVCL LOCAL AUTHOR SERIES
Readings with award-winning novelist Annabel Lyon and North Vancouver author Lynn Crymble. Wednesday, May 22 at 6:30pm, free. G. Paul Singh room, 3rd floor, North Vancouver City Library, 120 14th Street W., North Vancouver. More information at cnv.org.

TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features poets Aislinn Hunter and Daniela Elza. Thursday, May 23 at 7:00pm. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.

THE WALKING READ
CWILL BC presents a costume gala to benefit the BC Children's Hospital Foundation. Friday, June 14 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $60. Richmond Open Road Lexus dealership, 5631 Parkwood Way, Richmond. More information at thewalkingread.com.