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.