Book News Vol. 9 No. 14

BOOK NEWS

AWARDS & LISTS

The Lambda Literary Awards, which honour the best lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender books of the previous year, have been announced. Canadian playwright Michel Marc Bouchard won for his LGBT drama Tom at the Farm (recently adapted into a prize-winning film by Xavier Dolan.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/06/02/lambda-literary-awards/

First-time novelist Eimear McBride is the winner of the 2014 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize for her book A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing). One judge commented that "this an extraordinary new voice-this novel will move and astonish the reader."
http://www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/2014/eimear-mcbride-wins-the-2014-baileys-womens-prize-for-fiction

YOUNG READERS

Do you prefer your books in 3D? Here's a list of ten great pop-up children's books!
http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/jun/01/top-10-pop-up-books-robert-sabuda

NEWS & FEATURES

"Goodbye, Steinbeck; All Hail, Shelley!" The British government has released a new syllabus that eliminates several American literary classics, including To Kill a Mockingbird, The Crucible, and Of Mice and Men.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/31/books/goodbye-steinbeck-all-hail-shelley.html

The tributes for Maya Angelou have begun to pour in. In our age of instant communication, that means that many of them were via social media. Check out some of the most significant tweets, facebook tributes and instagram posts, here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/life-is-pure-adventure-tributes-pour-in-for-maya-angelou/article18883974/

For something more lengthy, here's a tribute written by her editor Lennie Goodings, who describes Angelou as her "hero."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/29/my-hero-maya-angelou-by-lennie-goodings

Mountains have often inspired literary inspiration, especially among the Beat Poets. Here's a celebration of Gary Snyder's poem Meeting the Mountains, and a link to recently unpublished photos of "poets on the peaks."
http://www.blogcitylights.com/2014/06/02/poetry-on-a-monday-poets-on-the-peaks/

Is poetry inaccessible? A British television presenter and poetry prize judge recently made this claim, stating that there was a need for an "inquisition" in which "poets [would be] called to account for their poetry!"
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/jun/02/is-jeremy-paxman-right-new-poetry-inaccessibilty

What's the best "bad" book that you have ever read? Leslie Jamison (novelist and non-fiction writer) and James Parker (contributing editor at The Atlantic) discuss.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/books/review/whats-the-best-bad-book-youve-ever-read.html

"It's Too Late. Exclamation Marks Are Unstoppable Now!" Or so claims New York Magazine, in this piece on the current "tidal shift in grammatical norms."
http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2014/05/even-grammarians-are-misusing-exclamation-marks.html

What are the best literary putdowns? From The Murder on the Orient Express to Revolutionary Road, here are twelve books that feature insults intended to make you weep!
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/gallery/2014/jun/02/-12-literary-insults-to-make-you-weep

A cache of Marcel Proust's letters was recently discovered, containing notes he sent to his noisy upstairs neighbours from 1906-1919. "Proust, we now realize, was, along with everything else, a neighbor, too. We who toss and turn, fantasizing about the exquisitely cutting emails we'll never have the guts to send to the invisible others keeping us awake, are happy to have him on our team."
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/06/the-sympathetic-spy-downstairs.html

Do bookshops need rethinking for the electronic age? Four firms of architects and designers were asked to create the bookshop of their dreams. Here's how they responded:
http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/lifestyle/rosanna-de-lisle/bookshop-design

BOOKS & WRITERS

What are some newly released books worth checking out? Here's the New York Times' roundup:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/books/smith-hendersons-fourth-of-july-creek-and-more.html

"In the decades between the two world wars, no writer was more widely translated or read than the Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig, and in the years after, few writers fell more precipitously into obscurity, at least in the English-speaking world." Thanks to the success of Wes Anderson's latest film, Zweig is set to rise again.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/books/stefan-zweig-austrian-novelist-rises-again.html

Patricia Lockwood's new collection of poetry, Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals, has been described as "surreal and mostly sublime", with poems that "scatter lightning and lawn debris across your psyche." But be warned: this collection contains a lot of "zoombinating."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/books/patricia-lockwoods-motherland-fatherland-homelandsexuals.html

Chinese ex-pat and Writers Fest author Xiaolu Guo is releasing her new book, I am China, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. In this interview, she discusses the historical events of that day, how they affected her writing, notions of political martyrdom, and what it means to live outside China.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/30/xiaolu-guo-communist-china-interview

Helen Oyeyemi was recently featured on CBC's Writers and Company. Her new book Boy, Snow, Bird is a rewriting of the fairy tale Snow White. You can listen to the interview here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2014/06/helen-oyeyemi-on-her-new-novel-boy-snow-bird.html

Tove Jansson should have won the Nobel Prize for literature, claims Philip Pullman of His Dark Materials fame. The Finnish writer and artist, who died in 2001, "responded to the world with a freshness and originality that have hardly ever been matched in the field of children's books."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/02/tove-jansson-nobel-prize-philip-pullman

COMMUNITY EVENTS

KELLEY ARMSTRONG
Meet the author of the teen series Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising. Friday, June 6 at 1:00pm. Cloverdale Library, 5642 - 176A Street, Surrey. More information at surreylibraries.ca.

PAULA WILD
Author presents her latest book, The Cougar: Beautiful, Wild and Dangerous. Saturday, June 7 at 7:00pm, free. Village Books, 1200 11th Street, Bellingham. More information at villagebooks.com.

A GATHERING OF POETS
The winner and finalist for the 2014 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize read from their nominated works. The evening will be hosted by Heidi Greco, Surrey's 2012 Resident Poet. Monday, June 9 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street. More information at vpl.ca.

KATE PULLINGER
Reading, Q&A and book signing by the author of Landing Gear. Tuesday, June 10 at 7:00pm. Book Warehouse, 4118 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-879-7737.

TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features poets Yvonne Blomer and Onjana Yownghwe plus open Mic. Wednesday, June 11, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. Sign up for open mic at 7pm. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.

DIANE TUCKER
The Burnaby Writers' Society presents a special poetry workshop evening. Thursday, June 12 at 7:30pm. By donation. Studio 104, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts.

VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL STORYTELLING FESTIVAL
A weekend of enlivening encounters with many passionate storytellers, including Naveen Girn, Naomi Steinberg, Todd Wong, Lizzy Karp, Victor Guerin, Magpie Ulysses and Deborah Williams. June 13-15, 2014. Various locations. Compete details at vancouverstorytelling.org.

Upcoming

LUNCH POEMS AT SFU
Featuring Billeh Nickerson and Heather Haley. Wednesday, June 18 at 12:00 noon, free. Teck Gallery in SFU's Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver. More information at sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.

A SPECIAL NIGHT FOR A SPECIAL MAN
On Wednesday, June 18, 2014, Pandora's Collective Presents A Special Night for A Special Man Benefit for Timothy Shay at The Cottage Bistro 4468 Main St, Vancouver. Doors open at 6pm-11pm. $10 suggested donation. Host: RC Weslowski. More information at pandorascollective.com.

GEORGE WOODCOCK LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
A Proclamation and Reading honoring Jean Barman, B.C.'s most active historian, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, as the 21st recipient of the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award. Thursday, June 19 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street. More information at vpl.ca.

EUROPEAN BOOK CLUB
Features Portuguese novel The True Actor (O verdadeiro ator) by Jacinto Lucas Pires. Saturday, June 21 at 4:00pm. Free but register at eubookclub.vancouver@shaw.ca. Istituto Italiano di Cultura, 500-510 West Hastings Street, Vancouver. More information at www.alliancefrancaise.ca.

POETIC FORM AND THE MYSTICAL MUSE
Readings by poets Lee Johnson and Susan McCaslin. Tuesday, June 24 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kaye room, lower level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street. More information at vpl.ca.

GEOFFREY TIGG
The Painting is the second book in the Detective Kelly O'Brian series by Geoffrey Tigg. Wednesday, June 25 at 7:00pm. Welsh Hall West, West Vancouver Memorial Library, 1950 Marine Drive, West Vancouver. More information at westvanlibrary.ca.

MOIRA YOUNG
Reading, Q&A and book Signing by the author of Raging Star. Thursday, June 26 at 7:00pm. Book Warehouse, 4118 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-879-7737.