BOOK NEWS
While we're reveling in the glorious summer weather of the last few weeks, we can't help looking to the fall with great anticipation. The Writers Fest office is abuzz with excitement-books by Festival authors are arriving
daily and we're putting the final touches on the 26th Vancouver Writers Fest program guide. The guide will be on the street and online by the end of August. Stay tuned for details! In the meantime, pencil in the Festival
dates: October 22-27.
FESTIVAL
2013 Vancouver Short Film Festival: Call for Submissions Announcement
BC short filmmakers! The 4th Annual Vancouver Short Film Festival is accepting entries until August 1. Students, recent grads, and professional filmmakers can submit films and videos, the shorter the better! Last year, 29 short films were screened, and over $15,000 in prizes were awarded to BC filmmakers. More info at www.vsff.com.
AWARDS & LISTS
British Columbia-based writer Ruth Ozeki and Canada authors Alison MacLeod and Eleanor Catton have been nominated for the prestigious Booker Prize.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2013/07/23/booker-long-list-authors-canadians.html
Poet and novelist Lavinia Greenlaw will chair the judging panel for a new literature prize open to English-language fiction from around the world. The Folio prize regards itself as a complement, rather than a rival, to the Booker. The new award, founded by literary agent Andrew Kidd and sponsored by the Folio Society, will be open to writers regardless of form, genre or where they are from.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2013/jul/16/lavinia-greenlaw-chairs-folio-prize
The Not the Booker prize is back, and you're a judge. Our pioneering attempt to create a truly democratic, reader-judged books prize, is returning for another year of high-toned brawling, writes Sam Jordison.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/jul/22/not-the-booker-prize-back-judge
Toronto's Mohan Srivastava is the winner of CBC's Canada Writes competition this year for his creative nonfiction piece about The Gods of Scrabble, an impromptu game of Scrabble with three Eastern European women learning English. Srivastava will be awarded $6,000 and a writing residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts for his story, The Gods of Scrabble. Read the story here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/2013/07/the-gods-of-scrabble-by-mohan-srivastava.html
YOUNG READERS
After Dick, Jane and their dog, Spot, there is Veronika Martenova Charles's Wonder Tales, with five slim volumes of fairy and folk tales from around the world. Based on traditional tales like The Frog Prince and Rumpelstiltskin, the paperbacks offer three versions of each tale. At the end of each book, an author's note adds information about the stories. For ages 6 to 8.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/kids+from+Dick+Jane/8683693/story.html
If warrior frogs don't appeal to you, what about a frog princess? In Vivian Vande Velde's Frogged, Imogene is a 12-year-old princess who doesn't feel particularly good or pretty. When a talking frog asks for a kiss to break a witch's spell, she agrees. But when Imogene is frognapped, she starts to believe she will never make it home. For ages 10 and up.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/frogged-tells-the-story-of-a-princess-who-becomes-a-frog/2013/07/16/061dd050-ea51-11e2-8f22-de4bd
NEWS & FEATURES
Independent booksellers striving to keep their shops profitable are paying attention to Belgian researchers who have discovered a simple, inexpensive way to keep customers in the store longer and possibly boost sales. They report shoppers are more likely to engage in leisurely browsing—and ultimately purchase books in certain popular genres, if the store is infused with the scent of chocolate.
http://www.psmag.com/blogs/news-blog/chocolate-the-scent-that-could-save-struggling-bookstores-62847/
Natalie Hanman offers 12 great reads to aid in the recovery from all the excitement of the birth and naming of the royal baby.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/22/royal-baby-12-read-instead
Literature Is Dead (According to Straight, White Guys, At Least). A controversial Harper's essay about the waning relevance of poetry is just the latest in a long history of similar writings—whose authors share a few particular characteristics.
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/07/literature-is-dead-according-to-straight-white-guys-at-least/277906/
Chinese authorities have a toolbox of phrases they use to guide website editors dealing with sensitive topics: harshest is "completely and immediately delete." For acceptable stories, the operative phrase is "first censor, then publish." We know this, thanks in part to Xiao Qiang, an adjunct professor at the School of Information at Berkeley, leading the world in piecing together how Chinese Internet censorship works.
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/jul/10/censoring-news-before-happens-china/
The 3rd Annual Geist Erasure Poetry Contest is now underway! Information re entries can be found here:
http://www.geist.com/contests/erasure/erasure/
BOOKS & WRITERS
A.S.A. Harrison's The Silent Wife is reminiscent of Gillian Flynn's thriller Gone Girl, writes Robert J. Wiersema. While the characters are skillfully drawn, and the plotting tight and efficient, The Silent Wife reads more like an insightful, well-written, carefully annotated case file than it does a novel.
http://www.vancouversun.com/Intimacy+alienation/8686625/story.html
Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die; Cherish, Perish, David Rakoff's posthumous novel cements his reputation as a master of bittersweet comedy, writes Ian McGillis. Rakoff had established himself alongside a small group of eminent contemporary comic essayists, before he died last year, at 47. His final collection, 2010's Half Empty, bears a title summing up its author's world view: he was a self-described "life-affirming pessimist." McGillis adds that the ultimate effect is uplifting.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/David+Rakoff+Love+Dishonor+Marry+Cherish+Perish/8683690/story.html
From The Spy Who Came in From the Cold to The Constant Gardener, John le Carré's novels have been as concerned with the lies we tell ourselves as with the secrets we keep from each other. Now the ill-considered use of the BlackBerry in your own pocket can be your undoing, writes Michael Berry.
http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/A-Delicate-Truth-by-John-le-Carr-4547295.php
Philipp Meyer studied at Cornell University and produced two novels. Early works were rejected, but Meyer persevered, penning another book while on a writing fellowship. American Rust was published to huge critical acclaim in 2009 and the New Yorker rated him one of the 20 best novelists under 40 in 2010. His novel The Son, was greeted in the US as the big literary read of the summer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/21/philipp-meyer-interview-the-son
Jane Austen will be featured on the Bank of England £10 note, and will include the quotation from Pride and Prejudice: "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jul/24/bank-of-england-jane-austen
Round two in the search for Canada's most iconic book cover! Among this week's match ups, Roch Carrier's The Hockey Sweater takes on W.O. Mitchell's Who Has Seen the Wind.
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2013/07/the-search-for-canadas-most-iconic-book-cover-round-two.html
COMMUNITY EVENTS
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features poets Miranda Pearson and Robert Martens with open mic. Thursday, July 25 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
SURREY MUSE
Arts and literary event features poet Kat Norris, author Siobhan "Mama says" Barker, and performer Daksh Kubba. Open microphone to follow. Friday, July 26 at 5:30pm, free. City Centre, Surrey Public Library, 10350 University Drive, Surrey.
OUTDOOR BBQ/OPEN MIC/POETRY READING
Bring a poem, a song, or other musings to read/sing/perform to the garden and the birds and the people. Please also bring something for the barbecue grill. Sunday, July 28 at 6:00pm. Admission by donation. Please RSVP to kogawahouse@yahoo.ca. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W.
F.G. BRESSANI LITERARY PRIZE
IL CENTRO Italian Cultural Centre is thrilled to announce the publication of the Rules & Regulations for the 2014 Edition of the F.G. Bressani Literary Prize. The literary prize honours and promotes the work of Canadian writers of Italian origin or Italian descent. Deadline: April 2, 2014. Complete details can be found here: http://italianculturalcentre.ca/blog/bressani-literary-prize/.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Book News Vol. 8 No. 23
BOOK NEWS
SPECIAL EVENT
Neil Gaiman
There are still a few tickets for our August 8 event with Neil Gaiman! Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/neilgaiman
Neil Gaiman dives into the deep end of childhood memories lost and nightmares found in The Ocean at the End of the Lane, a fairy tale for adults. Gaiman is a master of creating worlds just a step to the left of our own. You'll be glad you took a dip in his immersive Ocean, says Brian Truitt.
http://books.usatoday.com/book/dive-into-neil-gaimans-%27ocean-at-the-end-of-the-lane/r851790
FESTIVAL
2013 Vancouver Short Film Festival: Call for Submissions Announcement
BC short filmmakers! The 4th Annual Vancouver Short Film Festival is accepting entries until August 1. Students, recent grads, and professional filmmakers can submit films and videos, the shorter the better! Last year, 29 short films were screened, and over $15,000 in prizes were awarded to BC filmmakers. More info at www.vsff.com.
AWARDS & LISTS
The CBC's Canada Writes has announced 10 finalists for its annual creative non-fiction writing prize, selected from more than 2,700 submitted stories. The shortlisted stories can be read here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/
YOUNG READERS
Daniel Wallace creates a magical world in The King and Queens of Roam, both scary and full of wonder. Set in a lush and rainy landscape reminiscent of the Pacific Northwest, populated with such fantastical figures as ghosts, lumberjacks, a haunted forest, and magical life-giving water. The King and Queens of Roam is like a darker The Princess Bride, says Laura Eggertson. Funny and ironic, both are morality tales.http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/07/12/the_kings_and_queens_of_roam_by_daniel_wallace_review.html
Pete Barrett's Tich Vampire Hunter is all about vampires and friendship. "It's adventurous and scary and the characters are really good. Two gangs fight against each other but when they see the real baddie they team up with a whole lot of garlic! The book is about vampires and friendship and I couldn't take my eyes off the page," writes Pen Devil. For ages 8 and up.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/jul/11/review-tich-the-vampire-hunter-by-pete-barrett
In Aaron Becker's Journey, a lonely little girl picks up a red marker, draws a door on her bedroom wall and walks through it. Floating and flying through a dramatic escapade, she returns home with a friend. Although that marker will make you think of Crockett Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon, Becker's book has a beauty distinctly its own. For ages 4 to 8.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/14/books/review/journey-by-aaron-becker-and-more.html?nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20130712
NEWS & FEATURES
The Vancouver Sun includes reviews of four whodunits "with tween appeal": James Leck's The Further Adventures of Jack Lime; Kristen Kittscher's The Wig in the Window; Caroline Lawrence's P.K. Pinkerton and The Petrified Man; and Ari Goelman's The Path of Names perfect timing to replace already-read summer reading.
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Whodunits+with+tween+appeal/8656214/story.html
Sotheby's says the manuscript of Irish writer Samuel Beckett's first novel has sold at auction for almost 1 million pounds ($1.5 million). Britain's University of Reading bought Murphy, written in 1935-36, for 962,500 pounds ($1.4 million). The six exercise books contain the heavily reworked text of the novel as well as notes, doodles and sketches of figures including James Joyce and Charlie Chaplin. Its many revisions give insights into Beckett's creative process.
http://seattletimes.com/html/books/2021362581_apeubritainsamuelbeckett.html
"There's no limit to the creativity of crime fiction's practitioner," says Val McDermid. "I love crime fiction. I was a fan long before I was a published author." There are many other strands: thrillers rooted in technology, the inexorable rise of the history mystery, the transformation of the spy novel. There's no limit to the creativity of its practitioners."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/11/val-mcdermid-addicted-crime-fiction
Amazon is turning to comics and graphic novels publishing–both physical and digital–with the launch of the imprint Jet City Comics.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jul/10/amazon-jet-city-digital-comics
A federal judge ruled that Apple conspired with publishers to set the prices of e-books, finding that Apple "played a central role in facilitating and executing that conspiracy and will pay damages to be set at a future trial". Five publishers that had been defendants in the case have all previously settled with the Department of Justice, which brought the suit.
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-judge-finds-apple-conspired-over-ebook-prices-20130710,0,6920311.story
In her late 80s and in failing health, Harper Lee was "duped" into assigning the copyright of her Pulitzer Prie-winning novel to her literary agent, signing away the rights to the only novel she ever wrote.
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-harper-lee-tragic-lawsuit-to-kill-a-mockingbird-vanity-fair-20130709,0,6313195.story
"It's official," Alfred A. Knopf Sr. tweeted last week. "We're now #PenguinRandomHouse." The merger completed on July 1, after regulatory approval, shrinks the Big Six, which publish about two-thirds of books in the United States, down to the Big Five.
http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=creation+of+Penguin+Random+House
Goodreads reveals the "most abandoned" books: books by E.L. James and J.K. Rowling top the ranking of readers' most-shelved novels.
http://www.salon.com/2013/07/09/goodreads_reveals_the_most_abandoned_books/
Abandonment issue: when do you give up on a book? Too heavy going, too lightweight, just too long–what are the reasons to put a volume down?, asks Peter Wild. If you're like me, and 38.1% of you are, you'll read on no matter what, since abandoning a book is tantamount to heresy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/jul/11/give-up-on-book-why-when
Michael Chwe, an associate professor of political science, discovered that Jane Austen's novels are full of strategic thinking, decision analysis, and other tools that would later come to be prized by game theorists like those as the RAND Corporation just after World War II. And so, Chwe wrote a book called Jane Austen, Game Theorist.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/12/austen-game-theory-chwe-review?INTCMP=SRCH
Stored away in the rare-book library at Yale University is a late-medieval manuscript written in a cramped but punctilious script and illustrated with lively line drawings. These illustrations range from the fanciful to the bizarre. The manuscript's botanical drawings are no less strange. But perhaps the oddest thing about this book is that no one has ever read it.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/07/the-unread-the-mystery-of-the-voynich-manuscript.html
BOOKS & WRITERS
Iain Banks used to claim that the only word he wrote on the "interests" section of his university application form was "explosives". There could hardly be a more perfectly Banksian setting for The Quarry, his 27th and final novel. The book's element of compassion may account for the many readers now experiencing a keen grief for the loss of Banks, writes Jake Kerridge.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Final+book+darkly+funny+exploration+assessing+regrets/8656208/story.html
Canada is celebrated for its abundance of fresh water, yet it is estimated that 90,000 cases of illness, and 90 deaths, are caused by contaminated drinking water every year. Ralph Pentland and Chris Wood's Down the Drain: How we are failing to protect our water resources critiques Canada's management of its water supply and proposes a number of solutions to improve.
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Canada+plentiful+supply+fresh+water+decline/8656213/story.html
Before Joseph Heller satirized the madness of war in Catch-22, he told a serious tale about the tragedy of racism. Almost Like Christmas, appearing next week in Strand Magazine, is a grim short story about the stabbing of a Southern white man, the town's thirst for revenge and the black man who has resigned himself to blame. The story has rarely been seen and offers a peek at the early fiction of one of the 20th century's most famous writers, writes Hillel Italie.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Rare+early+heller+story+found/8656243/story.html#ixzz2Z3xbw0oJ
Carl Hiaasen's Bad Monkey reflects Hiaasen's award-winning tendency towards extremities of property development and political corruption in a state where both crime and climate were prone to violence. En route, Hiaasen invented a genre of crime fiction with a series of books, beginning in the mid-80s with Tourist Season and Double Whammy, set in his native Florida.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/10/bad-monkey-carl-hiaasen-review
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SKIN & BONE - SALTY SAILOR TALES
Evening of tall tales and history features Vancouver Maritime Museum curator Patricia Owen, tattoo artist Chris Hold, photographer and social biographer Kathryn Mussallem, and Charles H. Scott Gallery curator Cate Rimmer. Thursday, July 18 at 6:30pm. Tickets: $20 at eventbrite.ca. Vancouver Maritime Museum, 1905 Ogden, Vanier Park.
POETRY GABRIOLA SERIES
Daniela Elza will feature with open mic. Readings in the first half of the evening. Writing in the second half. Thursday, July 18 at 7:00pm. Old Crow Cafe, Gabriola Island. More information at altogetherlisa@yahoo.ca or 250-247-0117.
FAR EAST, MIDDLE EAST
Julia Lin, author of Miah (Tsar, 2012) joins Ava Homa for an evening of readings and discussion about immigration, displacement, and the complexities of lives divided between Taiwan and Canada, between Iran and Canada. Thursday, July 18 at 7:30pm. Admission by donation. To reserve a seat, please RSVP to kogawahouse@yahoo.ca. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W.
WOMEN, KURDS, AND BAHA'IS IN SEARCH OF EQUALITY IN IRAN
Join Farshid Samandari and Ava Homa for an afternoon of music and readings. Sunday, July 21 at 3:00pm. Admission by donation. To reserve a seat, please RSVP to kogawahouse@yahoo.ca. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W.
SHAKESPEARE'S REBEL
In partnership with Academie Duello, Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival presents an evening of words and swordplay in celebration of the Canadian release of C.C. Humphrey's latest novel Shakespeare's Rebel. Monday, July 22 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $10. Bard on the Beach, Vanier Park, 1000 Chestnut.
SOUTHBANK WRITERS' PROGRAM READINGS
Students and alumni from SFU Southbank Writers' Program in Surrey join writer-in-residence Ava Homa for an evening of readings and discussion. Hosted by Writers' Studio director Wayde Compton. Monday, July 22 at 7:00pm. Admission by donation. To reserve a seat, please RSVP to kogawahouse@yahoo.ca. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features poets Miranda Pearson and Robert Martens with open mic. Thursday, July 25 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
OUTDOOR BBQ/OPEN MIC/POETRY READING
Bring a poem, a song, or other musings to read/sing/perform to the garden and the birds and the people. Please also bring something for the barbecue grill. Sunday, July 28 at 6:00pm. Admission by donation. Please RSVP to kogawahouse@yahoo.ca. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W.
F.G. BRESSANI LITERARY PRIZE
IL CENTRO Italian Cultural Centre is thrilled to announce the publication of the Rules & Regulations for the 2014 Edition of the F.G. Bressani Literary Prize. The literary prize honours and promotes the work of Canadian writers of Italian origin or Italian descent. Deadline: April 2, 2014. Complete details can be found here: http://italianculturalcentre.ca/blog/bressani-literary-prize/.
SPECIAL EVENT
Neil Gaiman
There are still a few tickets for our August 8 event with Neil Gaiman! Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/neilgaiman
Neil Gaiman dives into the deep end of childhood memories lost and nightmares found in The Ocean at the End of the Lane, a fairy tale for adults. Gaiman is a master of creating worlds just a step to the left of our own. You'll be glad you took a dip in his immersive Ocean, says Brian Truitt.
http://books.usatoday.com/book/dive-into-neil-gaimans-%27ocean-at-the-end-of-the-lane/r851790
FESTIVAL
2013 Vancouver Short Film Festival: Call for Submissions Announcement
BC short filmmakers! The 4th Annual Vancouver Short Film Festival is accepting entries until August 1. Students, recent grads, and professional filmmakers can submit films and videos, the shorter the better! Last year, 29 short films were screened, and over $15,000 in prizes were awarded to BC filmmakers. More info at www.vsff.com.
AWARDS & LISTS
The CBC's Canada Writes has announced 10 finalists for its annual creative non-fiction writing prize, selected from more than 2,700 submitted stories. The shortlisted stories can be read here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/
YOUNG READERS
Daniel Wallace creates a magical world in The King and Queens of Roam, both scary and full of wonder. Set in a lush and rainy landscape reminiscent of the Pacific Northwest, populated with such fantastical figures as ghosts, lumberjacks, a haunted forest, and magical life-giving water. The King and Queens of Roam is like a darker The Princess Bride, says Laura Eggertson. Funny and ironic, both are morality tales.http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/07/12/the_kings_and_queens_of_roam_by_daniel_wallace_review.html
Pete Barrett's Tich Vampire Hunter is all about vampires and friendship. "It's adventurous and scary and the characters are really good. Two gangs fight against each other but when they see the real baddie they team up with a whole lot of garlic! The book is about vampires and friendship and I couldn't take my eyes off the page," writes Pen Devil. For ages 8 and up.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/jul/11/review-tich-the-vampire-hunter-by-pete-barrett
In Aaron Becker's Journey, a lonely little girl picks up a red marker, draws a door on her bedroom wall and walks through it. Floating and flying through a dramatic escapade, she returns home with a friend. Although that marker will make you think of Crockett Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon, Becker's book has a beauty distinctly its own. For ages 4 to 8.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/14/books/review/journey-by-aaron-becker-and-more.html?nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20130712
NEWS & FEATURES
The Vancouver Sun includes reviews of four whodunits "with tween appeal": James Leck's The Further Adventures of Jack Lime; Kristen Kittscher's The Wig in the Window; Caroline Lawrence's P.K. Pinkerton and The Petrified Man; and Ari Goelman's The Path of Names perfect timing to replace already-read summer reading.
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Whodunits+with+tween+appeal/8656214/story.html
Sotheby's says the manuscript of Irish writer Samuel Beckett's first novel has sold at auction for almost 1 million pounds ($1.5 million). Britain's University of Reading bought Murphy, written in 1935-36, for 962,500 pounds ($1.4 million). The six exercise books contain the heavily reworked text of the novel as well as notes, doodles and sketches of figures including James Joyce and Charlie Chaplin. Its many revisions give insights into Beckett's creative process.
http://seattletimes.com/html/books/2021362581_apeubritainsamuelbeckett.html
"There's no limit to the creativity of crime fiction's practitioner," says Val McDermid. "I love crime fiction. I was a fan long before I was a published author." There are many other strands: thrillers rooted in technology, the inexorable rise of the history mystery, the transformation of the spy novel. There's no limit to the creativity of its practitioners."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/11/val-mcdermid-addicted-crime-fiction
Amazon is turning to comics and graphic novels publishing–both physical and digital–with the launch of the imprint Jet City Comics.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jul/10/amazon-jet-city-digital-comics
A federal judge ruled that Apple conspired with publishers to set the prices of e-books, finding that Apple "played a central role in facilitating and executing that conspiracy and will pay damages to be set at a future trial". Five publishers that had been defendants in the case have all previously settled with the Department of Justice, which brought the suit.
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-judge-finds-apple-conspired-over-ebook-prices-20130710,0,6920311.story
In her late 80s and in failing health, Harper Lee was "duped" into assigning the copyright of her Pulitzer Prie-winning novel to her literary agent, signing away the rights to the only novel she ever wrote.
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-harper-lee-tragic-lawsuit-to-kill-a-mockingbird-vanity-fair-20130709,0,6313195.story
"It's official," Alfred A. Knopf Sr. tweeted last week. "We're now #PenguinRandomHouse." The merger completed on July 1, after regulatory approval, shrinks the Big Six, which publish about two-thirds of books in the United States, down to the Big Five.
http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=creation+of+Penguin+Random+House
Goodreads reveals the "most abandoned" books: books by E.L. James and J.K. Rowling top the ranking of readers' most-shelved novels.
http://www.salon.com/2013/07/09/goodreads_reveals_the_most_abandoned_books/
Abandonment issue: when do you give up on a book? Too heavy going, too lightweight, just too long–what are the reasons to put a volume down?, asks Peter Wild. If you're like me, and 38.1% of you are, you'll read on no matter what, since abandoning a book is tantamount to heresy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/jul/11/give-up-on-book-why-when
Michael Chwe, an associate professor of political science, discovered that Jane Austen's novels are full of strategic thinking, decision analysis, and other tools that would later come to be prized by game theorists like those as the RAND Corporation just after World War II. And so, Chwe wrote a book called Jane Austen, Game Theorist.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/12/austen-game-theory-chwe-review?INTCMP=SRCH
Stored away in the rare-book library at Yale University is a late-medieval manuscript written in a cramped but punctilious script and illustrated with lively line drawings. These illustrations range from the fanciful to the bizarre. The manuscript's botanical drawings are no less strange. But perhaps the oddest thing about this book is that no one has ever read it.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/07/the-unread-the-mystery-of-the-voynich-manuscript.html
BOOKS & WRITERS
Iain Banks used to claim that the only word he wrote on the "interests" section of his university application form was "explosives". There could hardly be a more perfectly Banksian setting for The Quarry, his 27th and final novel. The book's element of compassion may account for the many readers now experiencing a keen grief for the loss of Banks, writes Jake Kerridge.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Final+book+darkly+funny+exploration+assessing+regrets/8656208/story.html
Canada is celebrated for its abundance of fresh water, yet it is estimated that 90,000 cases of illness, and 90 deaths, are caused by contaminated drinking water every year. Ralph Pentland and Chris Wood's Down the Drain: How we are failing to protect our water resources critiques Canada's management of its water supply and proposes a number of solutions to improve.
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Canada+plentiful+supply+fresh+water+decline/8656213/story.html
Before Joseph Heller satirized the madness of war in Catch-22, he told a serious tale about the tragedy of racism. Almost Like Christmas, appearing next week in Strand Magazine, is a grim short story about the stabbing of a Southern white man, the town's thirst for revenge and the black man who has resigned himself to blame. The story has rarely been seen and offers a peek at the early fiction of one of the 20th century's most famous writers, writes Hillel Italie.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Rare+early+heller+story+found/8656243/story.html#ixzz2Z3xbw0oJ
Carl Hiaasen's Bad Monkey reflects Hiaasen's award-winning tendency towards extremities of property development and political corruption in a state where both crime and climate were prone to violence. En route, Hiaasen invented a genre of crime fiction with a series of books, beginning in the mid-80s with Tourist Season and Double Whammy, set in his native Florida.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/10/bad-monkey-carl-hiaasen-review
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SKIN & BONE - SALTY SAILOR TALES
Evening of tall tales and history features Vancouver Maritime Museum curator Patricia Owen, tattoo artist Chris Hold, photographer and social biographer Kathryn Mussallem, and Charles H. Scott Gallery curator Cate Rimmer. Thursday, July 18 at 6:30pm. Tickets: $20 at eventbrite.ca. Vancouver Maritime Museum, 1905 Ogden, Vanier Park.
POETRY GABRIOLA SERIES
Daniela Elza will feature with open mic. Readings in the first half of the evening. Writing in the second half. Thursday, July 18 at 7:00pm. Old Crow Cafe, Gabriola Island. More information at altogetherlisa@yahoo.ca or 250-247-0117.
FAR EAST, MIDDLE EAST
Julia Lin, author of Miah (Tsar, 2012) joins Ava Homa for an evening of readings and discussion about immigration, displacement, and the complexities of lives divided between Taiwan and Canada, between Iran and Canada. Thursday, July 18 at 7:30pm. Admission by donation. To reserve a seat, please RSVP to kogawahouse@yahoo.ca. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W.
WOMEN, KURDS, AND BAHA'IS IN SEARCH OF EQUALITY IN IRAN
Join Farshid Samandari and Ava Homa for an afternoon of music and readings. Sunday, July 21 at 3:00pm. Admission by donation. To reserve a seat, please RSVP to kogawahouse@yahoo.ca. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W.
SHAKESPEARE'S REBEL
In partnership with Academie Duello, Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival presents an evening of words and swordplay in celebration of the Canadian release of C.C. Humphrey's latest novel Shakespeare's Rebel. Monday, July 22 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $10. Bard on the Beach, Vanier Park, 1000 Chestnut.
SOUTHBANK WRITERS' PROGRAM READINGS
Students and alumni from SFU Southbank Writers' Program in Surrey join writer-in-residence Ava Homa for an evening of readings and discussion. Hosted by Writers' Studio director Wayde Compton. Monday, July 22 at 7:00pm. Admission by donation. To reserve a seat, please RSVP to kogawahouse@yahoo.ca. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features poets Miranda Pearson and Robert Martens with open mic. Thursday, July 25 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
OUTDOOR BBQ/OPEN MIC/POETRY READING
Bring a poem, a song, or other musings to read/sing/perform to the garden and the birds and the people. Please also bring something for the barbecue grill. Sunday, July 28 at 6:00pm. Admission by donation. Please RSVP to kogawahouse@yahoo.ca. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W.
F.G. BRESSANI LITERARY PRIZE
IL CENTRO Italian Cultural Centre is thrilled to announce the publication of the Rules & Regulations for the 2014 Edition of the F.G. Bressani Literary Prize. The literary prize honours and promotes the work of Canadian writers of Italian origin or Italian descent. Deadline: April 2, 2014. Complete details can be found here: http://italianculturalcentre.ca/blog/bressani-literary-prize/.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Book News Vol. 8 No. 22
BOOK NEWS
SPECIAL EVENT
Neil Gaiman
On Thursday, August 8, the Vancouver Writers Fest and HarperCollins Canada present the bestselling author of Anansi Boys with his latest novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/neilgaiman
A shift in the nature of things lies at the heart of Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane, writes AS Byatt, beginning with that feared disaster of childhood, the birthday party to which no one came. "I remember my childhood vividly" Gaiman says, "I knew terrible things. But I knew I mustn't let adults know I knew. It would scare them," quotes Byatt.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/03/ocean-end-lane-gaiman-review
FESTIVALS
Indian Summer
I Don't Want to Choose July 13th 6pm, SFU's Goldcorp Centre for the Arts
Spend an evening with two creative minds as they engage in a conversation about hybridity. Deepa Mehta works across geography and genres and occupies a unique place in the Canadian film landscape. Booker Prize nominee Jeet Thayil switches between registers and countries, as a poet, novelist, librettist and musician. Both transnational creators refuse to be pinned down by the question "where are you from"? http://indiansummerfestival.ca/events/mehta/
2013 Vancouver Short Film Festival: Call for Submissions Announcement
BC short filmmakers! The 4th Annual Vancouver Short Film Festival is accepting entries until August 1. Students, recent grads, and professional filmmakers can submit films and videos, the shorter the better! Last year, 29 short films were screened, and over $15,000 in prizes were awarded to BC filmmakers. More info at www.vsff.com.
AWARDS & LISTS
Six members of BC's arts, culture, and heritage community are among the latest appointments to the Order of Canada; the list includes three authors: Robert Bringhurst, Patrick Lane, and Frederick James Wah.
http://www.gg.ca/document.aspx?id=15215
Five English-language finalists have been chosen in CBC's Canada Writes competition for creative nonfiction. The finalists are: Terri Favro for Icarus, Matthew Hooton for This Tongue, Jenny Manzer for The Boy with the Galloping Heart, Linda Rosenbaum for Wolf Howling at Moon, and Mohan Srivastava for The Gods of Scrabble.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/07/08/canada-writes-finalists.html
Utah-born author Tope Folarin considers himself part of the "Nigerian diaspora," a connection strong enough to earn him the Caine Prize for African Writing for his short story, Miracle.
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-nigerian-american-tope-folarin-takes-caine-prize-for-african-lit-20130709,0,7577486.story
PEN announces the shortlists and judges for the 2013 PEN Literary Awards.
http://www.pen.org/press-release/2013/07/10/shortlists-announced-2013-pen-literary-awards
YOUNG READERS
As anyone who has visited Tadoussac (Quebec) can attest, whale watching requires patience and a sharp eye. As Julie Fogliano's If You Want to See a Whale relates, you'll also need a window and a small boy perched on a stool. If you want to see a whale, it's a good idea to pick a chair that isn't too comfy so you won't fall asleep—"and whales won't wait for watching." For ages 3 and up.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Kids+Want+Whale/8594500/story.html#ixzz2Y7JRRj57
Kenneth Oppel's This Dark Endeavour grips you right from the first page, writes Craig Foster, age 12. The prequel to Mary Shelley's gothic classic Frankenstein, this book delivers the thrills, no matter how old you are, says Foster. Ages 12 and over.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/12/16/book-review-this-dark-endeavour-by-kenneth-oppel/
We've had our share of rainy days in Vancouver, so it's possible the grumpy old man in Linda Ashman's new book Rain! will be met with sympathy, at least from grown-ups reading Rain! aloud to their preschoolers. Text is minimal in this picture book, which owes most of its success to the illustrator's cut-paper collage work and colourful images. For ages 3 to 6.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Rainy+people/8623174/story.html
NEWS & FEATURES
Beloved and acclaimed Quebec novelist Gaétan Soucy has died.
http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/people/beloved-and-acclaimed-quebec-novelist-gaeten-soucy-dead-at-54/
Reading is not a 'natural' activity. Telling stories may be part of how we understand and make sense of the world, but we can do that orally, says Sir John Terry, commenting on children missing out on the joys of a good book, says a new survey. Is children's reading a casualty of modern life?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/06/children-miss-out-on-reading
When Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife became a global bestseller, it was an atypical debut-novel success. With a CV in the visual arts, Niffenegger had produced several limited-edition visual books and has maintained a steady output of graphic literature, most of it sharing elements of the novels' unique esthetic. The newest example, an illustrated fable for adults, is Raven Girl.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/transformation/8623182/story.html
University of Manchester Professor Maggie Gale found there were a higher proportion of plays by women at significant points throughout the 20th century than in 2013. Women playwrights are much more commercially successful than most people realize. The drive to secure votes for women inspired a host of plays by female writers determined to fight their cause through drama and comedy.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-news/10157918/More-plays-written-by-women-in-the-suffragette-era-than-today.html
Farewell Alice Munro, and thank you, says Jane Smiley in her tribute to the Canadian writer, retiring at 82. That Munro titled her last volume Dear Life could not have been a surprise to her readers. Jane Smiley says that Munro
is the only author whose writings are so vivid that she has occasionally mistaken incidents in her stories for memories of her own past.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/jul/05/fond-farewell-alice-munro-smiley
Dr. Jose Luis Galache, an astronomer at the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planets Center (MPC) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, arranged a name change for an asteroid discovered in 1985 in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, now renamed "Iainbanks." Banks' Culture series of sci-fi novels often featured hollowed-out asteroids called "Rocks" used for living quarters and faster than light travel.
http://www.blastr.com/2013-7-5/astronomer-renames-asteroid-tribute-sf-writer-iain-m-banks
BOOKS & WRITERS
David H.T. Wong's Escape to Gold Mountain, A Graphic History of the Chinese in North America, tells the story of every immigrant: the collective story of the thousands of Chinese who came to North America over the past 100 years, making incredible sacrifices in order to give the next generation a better life.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2013/07/06/Escape-to-Gold-Mountain/
John Boyko's Blood and Daring says that the American Civil War provided the flame that helped turn a nice idea into a strategic necessity, writes Emily Donaldson. Approximately 40,000 Canadians and Maritimers fought in the war. Two now-obscure figures—a fugitive slave and a cross-dressing nurse—are the book's liveliest and most interesting, says Donaldson.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/06/28/blood_and_daring_by_john_boyko_review.html
Eugen Ruge's novel about East Berlin, translated into English by Anthea Bell, is unlikely to have the same impact on a readership that doesn't experience Ostalgie: nostalgia for aspects of life in East Germany. But it
might provoke nostalgia of a different kind by painting a microcosmic portrait of an age—a genre at which English novelists used to thrive, writes Leo Robson.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/06/times-fading-light-ruge-review
Her parents jailed, her uncle killed, and innumerable prisoners executed by Iran's Islamic Republic in the 1980s: it's not known how many were killed because they were placed in mass graves." says Sahar Delijani. In an interview with Laura Barnett, she tells how the painful episode became her first novel, Children of the Jacaranda Tree.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/jul/06/sahar-delijani-family-iranian-executions
Craig Taylor wanted to gorge on Canadian books by reading through a memorable bookshelf and bring together unlikely partners: Morley Callaghan's That Summer in Paris sharing DNA with Sheila Heti's How Should A Person Be? for example. When you live abroad for years, it's easy to be seduced by the corporate representations of Canada, says Taylor.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/shelf-awareness-finding-canada-in-a-forgotten-corner-of-a-paris-bookstore/article13031443/
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics is a stirring sports saga and a trenchant social history. Rowing, writes Daniel James Brown, "is a work of art, an expression of the human spirit." "I've never rowed a stroke in my life," writes Alex Hutchinson, adding "but I was right there with them."
http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2013/0621/The-Boys-in-the-Boat
Gerbrand Bakker's The Detour was first published in 2010, the same year he became the first Dutch writer to win the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, for The Twin. Moving into a dead woman's home is just the beginning of creepy occurrences in this page-turner, writes Emily Donaldson. The ending is no less powerful or disturbing for our having anticipated it.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/07/05/the_detour_by_gerbrand_bakker_review.html
In The Miracles of Ordinary Men, Amanda Leduc has assembled characters who seek meaning in their lives. Sam Connor, an English teacher, and Lilah Green, a secretary, both struggle to find a purpose in life. The miracles place the novel firmly in the realm of magic realism. The novel is unsettling and that's fitting, says Candace Fertile.
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Cast+characters+grapples+with+light+dark+magical+novel/8625126/story.html
In The Breakwater Book of Contemporary Newfoundland Poetry, edited by Mark Callanan and James Langer, a reader will discover only eleven poets included. E.J. Pratt was primarily a narrative poet, and much of the work follows his example, says Troy Jollimore. The sense of life as endurance and survival may account for the frequent employment of images of death, writes Jollimore.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/rock-lyrics-anthology-shines-spotlight-on-newfoundland-poets/article13030267/
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's dystopian classic about censorship, was the temperature at which paper burns. Today, we should be just as concerned about Fahrenheit 72: text can now be obliterated in a moment at room temperature. Civil libertarians and consumer advocates call it "digital book-burning": censoring, erasing, altering or restricting access to books in electronic formats. There is a worrisome trend as we've moved to the cloud.
http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2013/07/ideas-bank/how-amazon-kindled-the-bookburners-flames
Vikram Seth, author of A Suitable Boy, has missed his deadline for its long-awaited sequel—A Suitable Girl—prompting speculation he may have to return his advance. A Suitable Boy, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last week, spent 28 weeks on international best-seller lists. It also caused a stir over its size, nearly 1,500 pages, one of the largest novels ever published.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/07/09/vikram_seth_a_suitable_boy_author_to_repay_17_million_advance.html
COMMUNITY EVENTS
BOOK LAUNCH
BC launch of Tim Bowling's poetry collection, Selected Poems. Also reading is novelist Theresa Shea, author of The Unfinished Child. Thursday, July 11 at 7:00pm. Ladner Pioneer Library, 4683 51st Street, Ladner. More information at 604-946-6215.
LITERARY READING
An evening of readings by four local authors: Anita Miettunen, Margo Bates, Kempton Dexter and Ron Kearse. Friday, July 12 at 7:00pm. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver.
LIBERATING MINDS & VOICES
Biologist Rupert Sheldrake discusses his new book Science Set Free and its implications for physics, biology, and healing. Friday, July 12 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $20 at the door. Canadian Memorial United Church, 15th and Burrard, Vancouver.
DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Featuring Gerrit Achterberg (read by Christopher Levenson), Ingeborg Bachman (read by Cathy Stonehouse), Anne Hebert (read by Thoung Vuong-Riddick), Yasunari Kawabata (read by Joanne Arnott), and Yehuda Amichai (read by Dvora Levin). Sunday, July 14 at 3:00pm. Admission by donation. Project Space, 222 East Georgia Street, Vancouver.
PABLO NERUDA IN TRANSLATION
Evening of poetry features Manolis Aligizakis reciting Neruda's epic poem "The Heights of Macchu Picchu". Includes additional recitations by Candice James, Deborah L. Kelly, Gavin Hainsworth, and Janet Kvammen. Tuesday, July 16 at 6:30pm. New Westminster Public Library, 716 6th AVe., New Westminster.
POETRY IN THE PARK
Weekly series (until August 29) with featured poets and an open mic. Hosted by Candice James. Wednesday, July 17 at 6:30pm, free. Queens Park Bandshell, New Westminster. More information at poeticjustice.ca.
SKIN & BONE - SALTY SAILOR TALES
Evening of tall tales and history features Vancouver Maritime Museum curator Patricia Owen, tattoo artist Chris Hold, photographer and social biographer Kathryn Mussallem, and Charles H. Scott Gallery curator Cate Rimmer. Thursday, July 18 at 6:30pm. Tickets: $20 at eventbrite.ca. Vancouver Maritime Museum, 1905 Ogden, Vanier Park.
POETRY GABRIOLA SERIES
Daniela Elza will feature with open mic. Readings in the first half of the evening. Writing in the second half. Thursday, July 18 at 7:00pm. Old Crow Cafe, Gabriola Island. More information at altogetherlisa@yahoo.ca or 250-247-0117.
SHAKESPEARE'S REBEL
In partnership with Academie Duello, Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival presents an evening of words and swordplay in celebration of the Canadian release of C.C. Humphrey's latest novel Shakespeare's Rebel. Monday, July 22 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $10. Bard on the Beach, Vanier Park, 1000 Chestnut.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features poets Miranda Pearson and Robert Martens with open mic. Thursday, July 25 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
SPECIAL EVENT
Neil Gaiman
On Thursday, August 8, the Vancouver Writers Fest and HarperCollins Canada present the bestselling author of Anansi Boys with his latest novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/neilgaiman
A shift in the nature of things lies at the heart of Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane, writes AS Byatt, beginning with that feared disaster of childhood, the birthday party to which no one came. "I remember my childhood vividly" Gaiman says, "I knew terrible things. But I knew I mustn't let adults know I knew. It would scare them," quotes Byatt.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/03/ocean-end-lane-gaiman-review
FESTIVALS
Indian Summer
I Don't Want to Choose July 13th 6pm, SFU's Goldcorp Centre for the Arts
Spend an evening with two creative minds as they engage in a conversation about hybridity. Deepa Mehta works across geography and genres and occupies a unique place in the Canadian film landscape. Booker Prize nominee Jeet Thayil switches between registers and countries, as a poet, novelist, librettist and musician. Both transnational creators refuse to be pinned down by the question "where are you from"? http://indiansummerfestival.ca/events/mehta/
2013 Vancouver Short Film Festival: Call for Submissions Announcement
BC short filmmakers! The 4th Annual Vancouver Short Film Festival is accepting entries until August 1. Students, recent grads, and professional filmmakers can submit films and videos, the shorter the better! Last year, 29 short films were screened, and over $15,000 in prizes were awarded to BC filmmakers. More info at www.vsff.com.
AWARDS & LISTS
Six members of BC's arts, culture, and heritage community are among the latest appointments to the Order of Canada; the list includes three authors: Robert Bringhurst, Patrick Lane, and Frederick James Wah.
http://www.gg.ca/document.aspx?id=15215
Five English-language finalists have been chosen in CBC's Canada Writes competition for creative nonfiction. The finalists are: Terri Favro for Icarus, Matthew Hooton for This Tongue, Jenny Manzer for The Boy with the Galloping Heart, Linda Rosenbaum for Wolf Howling at Moon, and Mohan Srivastava for The Gods of Scrabble.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/07/08/canada-writes-finalists.html
Utah-born author Tope Folarin considers himself part of the "Nigerian diaspora," a connection strong enough to earn him the Caine Prize for African Writing for his short story, Miracle.
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-nigerian-american-tope-folarin-takes-caine-prize-for-african-lit-20130709,0,7577486.story
PEN announces the shortlists and judges for the 2013 PEN Literary Awards.
http://www.pen.org/press-release/2013/07/10/shortlists-announced-2013-pen-literary-awards
YOUNG READERS
As anyone who has visited Tadoussac (Quebec) can attest, whale watching requires patience and a sharp eye. As Julie Fogliano's If You Want to See a Whale relates, you'll also need a window and a small boy perched on a stool. If you want to see a whale, it's a good idea to pick a chair that isn't too comfy so you won't fall asleep—"and whales won't wait for watching." For ages 3 and up.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Kids+Want+Whale/8594500/story.html#ixzz2Y7JRRj57
Kenneth Oppel's This Dark Endeavour grips you right from the first page, writes Craig Foster, age 12. The prequel to Mary Shelley's gothic classic Frankenstein, this book delivers the thrills, no matter how old you are, says Foster. Ages 12 and over.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/12/16/book-review-this-dark-endeavour-by-kenneth-oppel/
We've had our share of rainy days in Vancouver, so it's possible the grumpy old man in Linda Ashman's new book Rain! will be met with sympathy, at least from grown-ups reading Rain! aloud to their preschoolers. Text is minimal in this picture book, which owes most of its success to the illustrator's cut-paper collage work and colourful images. For ages 3 to 6.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Rainy+people/8623174/story.html
NEWS & FEATURES
Beloved and acclaimed Quebec novelist Gaétan Soucy has died.
http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/people/beloved-and-acclaimed-quebec-novelist-gaeten-soucy-dead-at-54/
Reading is not a 'natural' activity. Telling stories may be part of how we understand and make sense of the world, but we can do that orally, says Sir John Terry, commenting on children missing out on the joys of a good book, says a new survey. Is children's reading a casualty of modern life?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/06/children-miss-out-on-reading
When Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife became a global bestseller, it was an atypical debut-novel success. With a CV in the visual arts, Niffenegger had produced several limited-edition visual books and has maintained a steady output of graphic literature, most of it sharing elements of the novels' unique esthetic. The newest example, an illustrated fable for adults, is Raven Girl.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/transformation/8623182/story.html
University of Manchester Professor Maggie Gale found there were a higher proportion of plays by women at significant points throughout the 20th century than in 2013. Women playwrights are much more commercially successful than most people realize. The drive to secure votes for women inspired a host of plays by female writers determined to fight their cause through drama and comedy.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-news/10157918/More-plays-written-by-women-in-the-suffragette-era-than-today.html
Farewell Alice Munro, and thank you, says Jane Smiley in her tribute to the Canadian writer, retiring at 82. That Munro titled her last volume Dear Life could not have been a surprise to her readers. Jane Smiley says that Munro
is the only author whose writings are so vivid that she has occasionally mistaken incidents in her stories for memories of her own past.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/jul/05/fond-farewell-alice-munro-smiley
Dr. Jose Luis Galache, an astronomer at the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planets Center (MPC) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, arranged a name change for an asteroid discovered in 1985 in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, now renamed "Iainbanks." Banks' Culture series of sci-fi novels often featured hollowed-out asteroids called "Rocks" used for living quarters and faster than light travel.
http://www.blastr.com/2013-7-5/astronomer-renames-asteroid-tribute-sf-writer-iain-m-banks
BOOKS & WRITERS
David H.T. Wong's Escape to Gold Mountain, A Graphic History of the Chinese in North America, tells the story of every immigrant: the collective story of the thousands of Chinese who came to North America over the past 100 years, making incredible sacrifices in order to give the next generation a better life.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2013/07/06/Escape-to-Gold-Mountain/
John Boyko's Blood and Daring says that the American Civil War provided the flame that helped turn a nice idea into a strategic necessity, writes Emily Donaldson. Approximately 40,000 Canadians and Maritimers fought in the war. Two now-obscure figures—a fugitive slave and a cross-dressing nurse—are the book's liveliest and most interesting, says Donaldson.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/06/28/blood_and_daring_by_john_boyko_review.html
Eugen Ruge's novel about East Berlin, translated into English by Anthea Bell, is unlikely to have the same impact on a readership that doesn't experience Ostalgie: nostalgia for aspects of life in East Germany. But it
might provoke nostalgia of a different kind by painting a microcosmic portrait of an age—a genre at which English novelists used to thrive, writes Leo Robson.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/06/times-fading-light-ruge-review
Her parents jailed, her uncle killed, and innumerable prisoners executed by Iran's Islamic Republic in the 1980s: it's not known how many were killed because they were placed in mass graves." says Sahar Delijani. In an interview with Laura Barnett, she tells how the painful episode became her first novel, Children of the Jacaranda Tree.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/jul/06/sahar-delijani-family-iranian-executions
Craig Taylor wanted to gorge on Canadian books by reading through a memorable bookshelf and bring together unlikely partners: Morley Callaghan's That Summer in Paris sharing DNA with Sheila Heti's How Should A Person Be? for example. When you live abroad for years, it's easy to be seduced by the corporate representations of Canada, says Taylor.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/shelf-awareness-finding-canada-in-a-forgotten-corner-of-a-paris-bookstore/article13031443/
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics is a stirring sports saga and a trenchant social history. Rowing, writes Daniel James Brown, "is a work of art, an expression of the human spirit." "I've never rowed a stroke in my life," writes Alex Hutchinson, adding "but I was right there with them."
http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2013/0621/The-Boys-in-the-Boat
Gerbrand Bakker's The Detour was first published in 2010, the same year he became the first Dutch writer to win the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, for The Twin. Moving into a dead woman's home is just the beginning of creepy occurrences in this page-turner, writes Emily Donaldson. The ending is no less powerful or disturbing for our having anticipated it.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/07/05/the_detour_by_gerbrand_bakker_review.html
In The Miracles of Ordinary Men, Amanda Leduc has assembled characters who seek meaning in their lives. Sam Connor, an English teacher, and Lilah Green, a secretary, both struggle to find a purpose in life. The miracles place the novel firmly in the realm of magic realism. The novel is unsettling and that's fitting, says Candace Fertile.
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Cast+characters+grapples+with+light+dark+magical+novel/8625126/story.html
In The Breakwater Book of Contemporary Newfoundland Poetry, edited by Mark Callanan and James Langer, a reader will discover only eleven poets included. E.J. Pratt was primarily a narrative poet, and much of the work follows his example, says Troy Jollimore. The sense of life as endurance and survival may account for the frequent employment of images of death, writes Jollimore.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/rock-lyrics-anthology-shines-spotlight-on-newfoundland-poets/article13030267/
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's dystopian classic about censorship, was the temperature at which paper burns. Today, we should be just as concerned about Fahrenheit 72: text can now be obliterated in a moment at room temperature. Civil libertarians and consumer advocates call it "digital book-burning": censoring, erasing, altering or restricting access to books in electronic formats. There is a worrisome trend as we've moved to the cloud.
http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2013/07/ideas-bank/how-amazon-kindled-the-bookburners-flames
Vikram Seth, author of A Suitable Boy, has missed his deadline for its long-awaited sequel—A Suitable Girl—prompting speculation he may have to return his advance. A Suitable Boy, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last week, spent 28 weeks on international best-seller lists. It also caused a stir over its size, nearly 1,500 pages, one of the largest novels ever published.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/07/09/vikram_seth_a_suitable_boy_author_to_repay_17_million_advance.html
COMMUNITY EVENTS
BOOK LAUNCH
BC launch of Tim Bowling's poetry collection, Selected Poems. Also reading is novelist Theresa Shea, author of The Unfinished Child. Thursday, July 11 at 7:00pm. Ladner Pioneer Library, 4683 51st Street, Ladner. More information at 604-946-6215.
LITERARY READING
An evening of readings by four local authors: Anita Miettunen, Margo Bates, Kempton Dexter and Ron Kearse. Friday, July 12 at 7:00pm. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver.
LIBERATING MINDS & VOICES
Biologist Rupert Sheldrake discusses his new book Science Set Free and its implications for physics, biology, and healing. Friday, July 12 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $20 at the door. Canadian Memorial United Church, 15th and Burrard, Vancouver.
DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Featuring Gerrit Achterberg (read by Christopher Levenson), Ingeborg Bachman (read by Cathy Stonehouse), Anne Hebert (read by Thoung Vuong-Riddick), Yasunari Kawabata (read by Joanne Arnott), and Yehuda Amichai (read by Dvora Levin). Sunday, July 14 at 3:00pm. Admission by donation. Project Space, 222 East Georgia Street, Vancouver.
PABLO NERUDA IN TRANSLATION
Evening of poetry features Manolis Aligizakis reciting Neruda's epic poem "The Heights of Macchu Picchu". Includes additional recitations by Candice James, Deborah L. Kelly, Gavin Hainsworth, and Janet Kvammen. Tuesday, July 16 at 6:30pm. New Westminster Public Library, 716 6th AVe., New Westminster.
POETRY IN THE PARK
Weekly series (until August 29) with featured poets and an open mic. Hosted by Candice James. Wednesday, July 17 at 6:30pm, free. Queens Park Bandshell, New Westminster. More information at poeticjustice.ca.
SKIN & BONE - SALTY SAILOR TALES
Evening of tall tales and history features Vancouver Maritime Museum curator Patricia Owen, tattoo artist Chris Hold, photographer and social biographer Kathryn Mussallem, and Charles H. Scott Gallery curator Cate Rimmer. Thursday, July 18 at 6:30pm. Tickets: $20 at eventbrite.ca. Vancouver Maritime Museum, 1905 Ogden, Vanier Park.
POETRY GABRIOLA SERIES
Daniela Elza will feature with open mic. Readings in the first half of the evening. Writing in the second half. Thursday, July 18 at 7:00pm. Old Crow Cafe, Gabriola Island. More information at altogetherlisa@yahoo.ca or 250-247-0117.
SHAKESPEARE'S REBEL
In partnership with Academie Duello, Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival presents an evening of words and swordplay in celebration of the Canadian release of C.C. Humphrey's latest novel Shakespeare's Rebel. Monday, July 22 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $10. Bard on the Beach, Vanier Park, 1000 Chestnut.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features poets Miranda Pearson and Robert Martens with open mic. Thursday, July 25 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Book News Vol. 8 No. 21
BOOK NEWS
SPECIAL EVENT
Neil Gaiman
On Thursday, August 8, the Vancouver Writers Fest and HarperCollins Canada present the bestselling author of Anansi Boys with his latest novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/neilgaiman
In this review of The Ocean at the End of the Lane, William Alexander describes Neil Gaiman's first adult novel in 8 years as "actually for the children those adults used to be."
http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/books/211547701.html
FESTIVALS
Indian Summer
Urban Underbelly, July 11, 8pm, SFU's Goldcorp Centre for the Arts
An all-star cast of writers sit down to talk about the underbellies of cities from Bombay to Dublin, Vancouver to Hong Kong. Moderator Michael Turner will lead his fellow writers Anakana Schofield, Anosh Irani and Jeet Thayil through a discussion on how myths are made, what is forgotten, and what stories become the soundtrack to a city's life. http://indiansummerfestival.ca/events/underbelly/
2013 Vancouver Short Film Festival: Call for Submissions Announcement
BC short filmmakers! The 4th Annual Vancouver Short Film Festival is accepting entries until August 1. Students, recent grads, and professional filmmakers can submit films and videos, the shorter the better! Last year, 29 short films were screened, and over $15,000 in prizes were awarded to BC filmmakers. More info at www.vsff.com.
AWARDS & LISTS
The Desmond Elliott prize (£10,000) for debut fiction goes to the former computer programmer Ros Barber, who remortgaged her house to write a blank-verse mystery about Christopher Marlowe.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/27/desmond-elliott-prize-ros-barber
Canadian-Hungarian-Japanese writer Csilla Istok has won the 2013 Rainbow Caterpillar Multilingual Kid Lit Award for her Hungarian-language short story When the Sun Dies.
http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/awards/caterpillar-multilingual-kid-lit-award-winner
YOUNG READERS
Blue Balliett's novels reference historical figures, but the stories are set in contemporary times and often focus on real-life conditions designed to raise awareness in young readers. Nowhere is this more the case than in her
newest novel. Hold Fast starts out as a paean to Langston Hughes, language and literacy, but it quickly becomes an exploration of one of the saddest aspects of today's urban existence: homelessness. Ages 9 to 13.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Kids+Guided+rhythms+Langston+Hughes/8562196/story.html#ixzz2XSvAZZeh
"What are the rings on tree stumps? How did they get there?" "How can fireflies give off light and not become hot like an electric light bulb?" Such questions are an excellent introduction to Peggy Kochanoff's Be a Wilderness Detective. Many young naturalists are particularly fascinated with poop, so Kochanoff details many types of scat. The matter-of-fact descriptions are accompanied by accurately detailed watercolour illustrations. Ages 7 to 12.
http://www.quillandquire.com/books_young/review.cfm?review_id=8023#sthash.2r4Sw9qY.dpuf
A mysterious disappearance and an unsolved rescue mission is a powerful story on its own. But Candace Fleming shows readers why everyone cared so much for aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart. Handwritten notes, photos, maps and inquisitive sidebars (What did Earhart eat during flight? Tomato juice and chocolate) complete this impeccably researched, appealing package. A stunning look at an equally stunning trailblazer. Ages 8 to 12.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/candace-fleming/amelia-lost/
NEWS & FEATURES
Neil Gaiman will release a six-issue series focused on 'the one story we never got to tell'. A quarter-century after his ground-breaking Sandman comic was launched, Neil Gaiman is returning to the character that made him famous with a six-issue prequel about Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/02/neil-gaiman-sandman-prequel
The Parliament of Canada recently issued a call for nominations to begin the search for Canada’s sixth Parliamentary Poet Laureate. The deadline for nominating candidates is August 30, 2013.
http://www.parl.gc.ca/poet
The SF master Arthur C. Clarke's DNA donated 'a few strands' of hair before his death, to join the mission into deep space in 2014. The craft will be named the Sunjammer, after the story written by Clarke in 1964 about a race in space using solar sails.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/26/arthur-c-clarke-hair-deep-space
Shakespeare's canon is to be reworked by authors including Jeanette Winterson and Anne Tyler. Winterson's 'cover version' of The Winter's Tale and Tyler's take on The Taming of the Shrew will begin the 'major' project reimagining Shakespeare's canon for a 21st century audience.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/27/shakespeare-reworked-jeanette-winterson-anne-tyler
Nick Harkaway is described as a hyphen-novelist (fantasy-gangster-espionage-romance). That the great cloak and dagger novelist John Le Carré was his father adds another layer of subtext to Harkaway's Angelmaker, a story of a son battling to separate himself from his father's infamy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/12/nick-harkaway-angelmaker-review
Library and Archives Canada has entered into a secret deal that would hand over exclusive rights to books and artifacts owned by Canadian taxpayers to a private firm for 10 years to be digitized.
http://christophermoorehistory.blogspot.ca/2013/06/new-disasters-at-library-and-archives.html
A 12-volume, 2,000-page comic-book version of the entire Bible is in the works in America, according to its Christian publisher Kingstone. The comic version is intended to "teach and explain the major stories and themes in the Bible in a historical and chronological manner". The first four volumes of the Bible adaptation will be launched this year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/the-bible
Those of us of a certain age will recall our visceral response to Shirley Jackson's The Lottery. Jackson's story, in which the residents of an unidentified American village participate in an annual rite of stoning to death a person chosen among them by drawing lots, became one of the best known and most frequently anthologized short stories in English.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/06/the-lottery-letters.html
Novelist Ann Patchett established Patchett Parnassus Books as a charitable gift to Nashville, her hometown, after two existing local stores closed down, and the indie bookshop became a hit. Her essay The Bookshop Strikes Back, is taken from a new collection of essays, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, covering Patchett's marriage, bookselling, writing, family and her dog.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/02/ann-patchett-indie-bookshops-nashville-store
Globe Books asked some of Canada's finest writers to recommend the book they think best explains their home turf. The result is a literary travel guide that's got us covered, coast to coast to coast.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/searching-for-the-savour-of-the-soil-in-canadian-literature/article12884201/
BOOKS & WRITERS
Gabra Zackman is a new kind of acting star: heard, but unheard-of, writes Leslie Kaufman. Ms. Zackman has worked in regional theaters and has had a sprinkling of appearances on television shows. Those performances, however, have brought neither fame nor fortune. Instead, like other actors, she has found steady employment as a reader in the booming world of audiobooks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/business/media/actors-today-dont-just-read-for-the-part-reading-is-the-part.html
I'm struggling to recall mainstream narratives that feature abortion providers as protagonists, writes Lucy Scholes. Two recent novels redress this imbalance: Kate Manning's My Notorious Life and Gabriel Weston's Dirty Work. Neither a pro-choice or anti-abortion polemic, Weston's novel is the examination of a woman whose actions inexplicably contradict her ethics. A bold, brave and utterly gripping read, says Scholes.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/30/dirty-work-gabriel-weston-review
"Toronto is like a gifted teenager that won't do its homework," says Robert Rotenberg. "It's a spoiled city, still very immature, with an underlying sense of anxiety." "Toronto was built by Scottish bankers to make money. The infrastructure is a signal to people that they've been discounted." Fiction is definitely stranger than truth, says Christopher Hume.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/06/27/robert_rotenbergs_latest_whodunit_sets_up_an_uncannily_corrupt_toronto.html
Given U.S. President Barack Obama's decision in May to impose restrictions on the use of deadly drone attacks, Mark Mazzetti's The Way of the Knife is a timely book—engaging, informative and accessible—writes Peter McKenna, adding that most readers would prefer more inside dope on how Obama's inner circle reconciles itself with the fact they are one-upping the Bush White House in the counterterrorism business.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Transforming/8597356/story.html
The July 3rd Google doodle celebrates the 130th birthday of Franz Kafka with an allusion to the opening of The Metamorphosis.
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-google-doodle-celebrates-kafkas-birthday-20130703,0,3117193.story
COMMUNITY EVENTS
THE END OF SAN FRANCISCO
Canadian launch for Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore's memoir. Thursday, July 4 at 7:00pm. Little Sister's, 1238 Davie Street, Vancouver.
THE WRITER'S STUDIO READING SERIES
Featuring Linda King, Barbara Baydala, Danielle Demi, Kendall Anne Dixon, Lindsay Glauser Kwan, Nikki Hillman, Carleigh Baker, and Jennifer Irvine. Thursday, July 4 at 8:00pm. Admission by donation. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at csreg@sfu.ca.
LITERARY CAFE
Launch of The Life and Breath of the World at the Harrison Festival. Featuring Rex Weyler, Eve Joseph, Gabriel George. Music by Franklyn Currie and his band. Monday, July 8 at 8:30pm. Tickets: $12. Memorial Hall (290 Esplanade Ave.), Harrison Hot Springs. More information at harrisonfestival.com.
GARDEN PLOTS
Shelley Boyd launches her book about Canadian women writers and their literary gardens. Tuesday, July 9 at 6:00pm. VanDusen Botanical Garden, 5251 Oak Street, Vancouver.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Murray Reiss and Trevor Splichen with open mic. Wednesday, July 10 at 7pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5.The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
LITERARY READING
An evening of readings by four local authors: Anita Miettunan, Margo Bates, Kempton Dexter and Ron Kearse. Friday, July 12 at 7:00pm. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features poets Miranda Pearson and Robert Martens with open mic. Thursday, July 25 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
SPECIAL EVENT
Neil Gaiman
On Thursday, August 8, the Vancouver Writers Fest and HarperCollins Canada present the bestselling author of Anansi Boys with his latest novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/neilgaiman
In this review of The Ocean at the End of the Lane, William Alexander describes Neil Gaiman's first adult novel in 8 years as "actually for the children those adults used to be."
http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/books/211547701.html
FESTIVALS
Indian Summer
Urban Underbelly, July 11, 8pm, SFU's Goldcorp Centre for the Arts
An all-star cast of writers sit down to talk about the underbellies of cities from Bombay to Dublin, Vancouver to Hong Kong. Moderator Michael Turner will lead his fellow writers Anakana Schofield, Anosh Irani and Jeet Thayil through a discussion on how myths are made, what is forgotten, and what stories become the soundtrack to a city's life. http://indiansummerfestival.ca/events/underbelly/
2013 Vancouver Short Film Festival: Call for Submissions Announcement
BC short filmmakers! The 4th Annual Vancouver Short Film Festival is accepting entries until August 1. Students, recent grads, and professional filmmakers can submit films and videos, the shorter the better! Last year, 29 short films were screened, and over $15,000 in prizes were awarded to BC filmmakers. More info at www.vsff.com.
AWARDS & LISTS
The Desmond Elliott prize (£10,000) for debut fiction goes to the former computer programmer Ros Barber, who remortgaged her house to write a blank-verse mystery about Christopher Marlowe.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/27/desmond-elliott-prize-ros-barber
Canadian-Hungarian-Japanese writer Csilla Istok has won the 2013 Rainbow Caterpillar Multilingual Kid Lit Award for her Hungarian-language short story When the Sun Dies.
http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/awards/caterpillar-multilingual-kid-lit-award-winner
YOUNG READERS
Blue Balliett's novels reference historical figures, but the stories are set in contemporary times and often focus on real-life conditions designed to raise awareness in young readers. Nowhere is this more the case than in her
newest novel. Hold Fast starts out as a paean to Langston Hughes, language and literacy, but it quickly becomes an exploration of one of the saddest aspects of today's urban existence: homelessness. Ages 9 to 13.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Kids+Guided+rhythms+Langston+Hughes/8562196/story.html#ixzz2XSvAZZeh
"What are the rings on tree stumps? How did they get there?" "How can fireflies give off light and not become hot like an electric light bulb?" Such questions are an excellent introduction to Peggy Kochanoff's Be a Wilderness Detective. Many young naturalists are particularly fascinated with poop, so Kochanoff details many types of scat. The matter-of-fact descriptions are accompanied by accurately detailed watercolour illustrations. Ages 7 to 12.
http://www.quillandquire.com/books_young/review.cfm?review_id=8023#sthash.2r4Sw9qY.dpuf
A mysterious disappearance and an unsolved rescue mission is a powerful story on its own. But Candace Fleming shows readers why everyone cared so much for aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart. Handwritten notes, photos, maps and inquisitive sidebars (What did Earhart eat during flight? Tomato juice and chocolate) complete this impeccably researched, appealing package. A stunning look at an equally stunning trailblazer. Ages 8 to 12.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/candace-fleming/amelia-lost/
NEWS & FEATURES
Neil Gaiman will release a six-issue series focused on 'the one story we never got to tell'. A quarter-century after his ground-breaking Sandman comic was launched, Neil Gaiman is returning to the character that made him famous with a six-issue prequel about Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/02/neil-gaiman-sandman-prequel
The Parliament of Canada recently issued a call for nominations to begin the search for Canada’s sixth Parliamentary Poet Laureate. The deadline for nominating candidates is August 30, 2013.
http://www.parl.gc.ca/poet
The SF master Arthur C. Clarke's DNA donated 'a few strands' of hair before his death, to join the mission into deep space in 2014. The craft will be named the Sunjammer, after the story written by Clarke in 1964 about a race in space using solar sails.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/26/arthur-c-clarke-hair-deep-space
Shakespeare's canon is to be reworked by authors including Jeanette Winterson and Anne Tyler. Winterson's 'cover version' of The Winter's Tale and Tyler's take on The Taming of the Shrew will begin the 'major' project reimagining Shakespeare's canon for a 21st century audience.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/27/shakespeare-reworked-jeanette-winterson-anne-tyler
Nick Harkaway is described as a hyphen-novelist (fantasy-gangster-espionage-romance). That the great cloak and dagger novelist John Le Carré was his father adds another layer of subtext to Harkaway's Angelmaker, a story of a son battling to separate himself from his father's infamy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/12/nick-harkaway-angelmaker-review
Library and Archives Canada has entered into a secret deal that would hand over exclusive rights to books and artifacts owned by Canadian taxpayers to a private firm for 10 years to be digitized.
http://christophermoorehistory.blogspot.ca/2013/06/new-disasters-at-library-and-archives.html
A 12-volume, 2,000-page comic-book version of the entire Bible is in the works in America, according to its Christian publisher Kingstone. The comic version is intended to "teach and explain the major stories and themes in the Bible in a historical and chronological manner". The first four volumes of the Bible adaptation will be launched this year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/the-bible
Those of us of a certain age will recall our visceral response to Shirley Jackson's The Lottery. Jackson's story, in which the residents of an unidentified American village participate in an annual rite of stoning to death a person chosen among them by drawing lots, became one of the best known and most frequently anthologized short stories in English.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/06/the-lottery-letters.html
Novelist Ann Patchett established Patchett Parnassus Books as a charitable gift to Nashville, her hometown, after two existing local stores closed down, and the indie bookshop became a hit. Her essay The Bookshop Strikes Back, is taken from a new collection of essays, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, covering Patchett's marriage, bookselling, writing, family and her dog.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/02/ann-patchett-indie-bookshops-nashville-store
Globe Books asked some of Canada's finest writers to recommend the book they think best explains their home turf. The result is a literary travel guide that's got us covered, coast to coast to coast.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/searching-for-the-savour-of-the-soil-in-canadian-literature/article12884201/
BOOKS & WRITERS
Gabra Zackman is a new kind of acting star: heard, but unheard-of, writes Leslie Kaufman. Ms. Zackman has worked in regional theaters and has had a sprinkling of appearances on television shows. Those performances, however, have brought neither fame nor fortune. Instead, like other actors, she has found steady employment as a reader in the booming world of audiobooks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/business/media/actors-today-dont-just-read-for-the-part-reading-is-the-part.html
I'm struggling to recall mainstream narratives that feature abortion providers as protagonists, writes Lucy Scholes. Two recent novels redress this imbalance: Kate Manning's My Notorious Life and Gabriel Weston's Dirty Work. Neither a pro-choice or anti-abortion polemic, Weston's novel is the examination of a woman whose actions inexplicably contradict her ethics. A bold, brave and utterly gripping read, says Scholes.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/30/dirty-work-gabriel-weston-review
"Toronto is like a gifted teenager that won't do its homework," says Robert Rotenberg. "It's a spoiled city, still very immature, with an underlying sense of anxiety." "Toronto was built by Scottish bankers to make money. The infrastructure is a signal to people that they've been discounted." Fiction is definitely stranger than truth, says Christopher Hume.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/06/27/robert_rotenbergs_latest_whodunit_sets_up_an_uncannily_corrupt_toronto.html
Given U.S. President Barack Obama's decision in May to impose restrictions on the use of deadly drone attacks, Mark Mazzetti's The Way of the Knife is a timely book—engaging, informative and accessible—writes Peter McKenna, adding that most readers would prefer more inside dope on how Obama's inner circle reconciles itself with the fact they are one-upping the Bush White House in the counterterrorism business.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Transforming/8597356/story.html
The July 3rd Google doodle celebrates the 130th birthday of Franz Kafka with an allusion to the opening of The Metamorphosis.
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-google-doodle-celebrates-kafkas-birthday-20130703,0,3117193.story
COMMUNITY EVENTS
THE END OF SAN FRANCISCO
Canadian launch for Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore's memoir. Thursday, July 4 at 7:00pm. Little Sister's, 1238 Davie Street, Vancouver.
THE WRITER'S STUDIO READING SERIES
Featuring Linda King, Barbara Baydala, Danielle Demi, Kendall Anne Dixon, Lindsay Glauser Kwan, Nikki Hillman, Carleigh Baker, and Jennifer Irvine. Thursday, July 4 at 8:00pm. Admission by donation. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at csreg@sfu.ca.
LITERARY CAFE
Launch of The Life and Breath of the World at the Harrison Festival. Featuring Rex Weyler, Eve Joseph, Gabriel George. Music by Franklyn Currie and his band. Monday, July 8 at 8:30pm. Tickets: $12. Memorial Hall (290 Esplanade Ave.), Harrison Hot Springs. More information at harrisonfestival.com.
GARDEN PLOTS
Shelley Boyd launches her book about Canadian women writers and their literary gardens. Tuesday, July 9 at 6:00pm. VanDusen Botanical Garden, 5251 Oak Street, Vancouver.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Murray Reiss and Trevor Splichen with open mic. Wednesday, July 10 at 7pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5.The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
LITERARY READING
An evening of readings by four local authors: Anita Miettunan, Margo Bates, Kempton Dexter and Ron Kearse. Friday, July 12 at 7:00pm. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features poets Miranda Pearson and Robert Martens with open mic. Thursday, July 25 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
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