Book News Vol. 9 No. 17

BOOK NEWS

Just announced! - An Evening with David Mitchell

An elegant conjurer of interconnected tales, a genre-bending daredevil, and master prose stylist, Cloug Atlas author David Mitchell talks to Hal Wake, the Vancouver Writers Fest's Artistic Director, and reads from his new novel, The Bone Clocks.

Saturday, September 27 at 7:30pm
St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church
Purchase tickets online: http://vancouvertix.artsclub.com/tickets/reserve.aspx?performanceNumber=12382&type=rentals

Click here (http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/davidmitchell) for event details and to find out more about our special offer for bookclubs.

An Evening with Louise Penny

New York Times bestselling author, Louise Penny is back with her latest Chief Inspector Gamache book, A Long Way Home. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/louisepenny.

Wednesday, September 3 at 7:30pm
St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church
Purchase tickets online: http://vancouvertix.artsclub.com/tickets/reserve.aspx?performanceNumber=12377&type=rentals

Click here (http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/louisepenny) for event details and to find out more about our special offer for bookclubs.

FESTIVALS

The TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival continues with concerts around town, and the free David Lam Park Jazz weekend, June 28 & 29 with music starting at noon and continuing until 10 PM. It's a huge, spectacular, international celebration of music, food, and culture. Don't miss bands like the Belle Game, Deli 2 Dublin, Jon Ballantyne and more. Vanjazzfest.ca.

The Indian Summer Festival returns from July 3–12 with its multidisciplinary celebration of arts, ideas and diversity. The scintillating Ideas Series features writers, thinkers and performers from Canada, India and around the world including Priscila Uppal, Renee Saklikar, David Wong, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas and Orijit Sen, as well as the Lit and Sound Cabaret.

AWARDS & LISTS

Tamai Kobayashi has won The Writer's Trust of Canada's $4,000 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBT Emerging Writers. Her newest work, a first novel, is called Prairie Ostrich.
http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2014/06/24/tamai-kobayashi-wins-2014-dayne-ogilvie-prize-for-lgbt-emerging-writers/

The Carnegie and Kate Greenaway medals have been announced. The UK's most prestigious awards for children's writing and illustration went to Kevin Brooks and Canada's own Jon Klassen.
http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/jun/23/carnegie-medal-kate-greenaway-2014-kevin-brooks-jon-klassen

It was a big week for Evie Wyld! She won the £10,000 Encore second-novel award for her book All the Birds, Singing. The next day she was proclaimed one of the eight winners of the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered prize, which aims to promote authors "of outstanding work, looking beyond the debut novelists and the bestsellers".
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/20/evie-wyld-wins-prize-double-encore-jerwood-fiction-uncovered

The 2014 Rainbow Caterpillar Multilingual Kid Lit Award winner has also been announced. This year, submissions were received in eight languages, with the winning being Yulia Kapridov's Russian-language story Giant's Granny!
http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2014/06/19/2014-rainbow-caterpillar-multilingual-kid-lit-award-winner-announced/

YOUNG READERS

Sarah Ellis is a prolific writer of young adult fiction, and her newest novel, Outside In, is one of three YA books recommended by the Globe and Mail this week. Read more, here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/three-young-adult-fiction-reads-worth-checking-out/article19266657/

Ten years ago, David Levithan wrote Boy Meets Boy, "a romantic teen comedy where the homecoming queen was once a guy and the gay-straight alliance was aimed at helping the straight kids learn how to dance." In this interview, Levithan (now the publisher and editorial director at Scholastic) discusses the amazing "burst of books" about LGBT youth:
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Meets+author+David+Levithan+parenting+LGBT+books+young/9946391/story.html#ixzz35XKMSyEl

NEWS & FEATURES

More than twenty unseen Pablo Neruda poems have been discovered among the late writer's papers in Chile. His publisher says that the discovery amounts to "a literary event of universal significance."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/19/pablo-neruda-poems-20-unseen

What does it mean to swear an oath on a book if that book is actually on a Kindle? Learn more about the history of oaths and books, here:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/06/a-brief-history-of-oaths-and-books.html

On that note, how does technology rewrite literature? "Writers including Tom McCarthy and Joe Dunthorne consider whether the coming of computers and the net has changed the way they write."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/23/technology-rewrites-literature-tom-mccarthy-internet

What about our digital reading habits? What does e-reading look like in Canada? BookNet Canada's research study is asking (and answering) just those questions.
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2014/06/infographic-digital-reading-habits-in-canada.html

Friends don't let friends read Ayn Rand, or so advised Flannery O'Connor in a 1960 letter to her friend, playwright Maryat Lee! You can read the letter, and find out more about Flannery O'Connor's literary preferences, here:
http://www.openculture.com/2014/06/flannery-oconnor-friends-dont-let-friends-read-ayn-rand-1960.html

"A novelist scrawling away in a notebook in seclusion may not seem to have much in common with an NBA player doing a reverse layup on a basketball court before a screaming crowd. But if you could peer inside their heads, you might see some striking similarities in how their brains were churning". This is your brain "on writing":
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/science/researching-the-brain-of-writers.html

When it comes to book launches, there are eight constant truths to observe! Find out what they are, here:
http://www.openbooktoronto.com/video/shall_we_launch_or_keep_moping_8_truths_about_book_launches

Have you ever heard of Campbell River's Haig-Brown Library? In the 1950's, writer and conservation Roderick Haig-Brown and his wife Ann began to "grow" a library in their home, a "wordy paradise" that makes for an excellent place to go "book fishing" to this day!
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2014/05/31/Haig-Brown-Library/

There are several even more-local libraries worth knowing about too! The "B is for Book Box" community book station has just opened on the 3100-block of East 8th Avenue, aimed at the "many children attending East Vancouver's Thunderbird Elementary school [who] have never been inside a public library."
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Book+brings+reading+east+side+Vancouver+childen/9951988/story.html#ixzz35XNrV6me

BOOKS & WRITERS

Teju Cole is one of a few authors (Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood among them) who sees Twitter as "an extension of, rather than a distraction from, his work." In this interview, he discusses his early life in Lagos, his new life in New York, and how Nigeria (and Twitter) have influenced his writing style.
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/jun/21/teju-cole-every-day-thief-interview

Are you a fan of crime fiction? Here are the top ten summer crime fiction reads:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/top-ten-picks-in-summer-crime-fiction/article19263173/

If small press fiction is more your thing, you might want to check out this list (and collection of reviews), which features the newest book by Writers Fest fave Ivan E. Coyote.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/the-best-in-small-press-three-books-to-check-out-now/article19159918/

Christopher Moore's new novel, The Serpent of Venice, owes "as much to Blackadder as it does to William Shakespeare." He's interviewed about his inspiration, favourite sentences, historical periods and more, here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/author-christopher-moore-on-his-new-book-his-favourite-sentences-and-more/article19267963/

Censorship is the topic of choice in Kevin Birmingham's newest book, The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce's ‘Ulysses.' It is the fullest recounting written so far about the struggle to publish the seminal 20th century novel.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/25/books/kevin-birminghams-book-on-ulysses-and-censorship.html

COMMUNITY EVENTS

PASSFIELD PRESS BOOK LAUNCH
Launch of Michael Hetherington's second novel Halving the Orange. Thursday, June 26 at 6:00pm. The Paper Hound, 344 W. Pender.

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.

TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Susan McCaslin and Lee Johnson plus open mic. Thursday, June 26, 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 pandorascollective.com.

TRAITOR'S BLADE
Reading by Sebastien de Castell from the first book in his new fantasy series. Friday, June 27 at 7:00pm, free. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library. More information and register online at 604-299-8955.

RAIN CITY CHRONICLES
Evening of stories and songs featuring David Moscrop, Adrienne Matei, Ollie Rankin, Tania Quiroz, Jeff Lawrence, Emily Elias, Cole Nowicki, Rommy Ghaly, and Beaucoup Bakery's Jackie Ellis. Friday, June 27 at 7:30pm. Rio Theatre, 1660 E. Broadway.

PEACH GIRL
Raymond Nakamura launches his children's book about the adventures of Momoko, a girl who was born inside a ripe peach. Saturday, June 28 at 12:30pm. Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre, 100-6688 Southoaks Cres., Burnaby.

Upcoming

DES KENNEDY
Canadian writer, environmentalist, and journalist Des Kennedy personalizes copies of his new book Heart & Soil: The Revolutionary Good of Gardens. Thursday, July 10 at 1:00pm. Book Warehouse, 632 W. Broadway.

BE NOBODY
Three Jewels Vancouver presents a book signing and public talk with Be Nobody author Lama Marut. Friday, July 11 at 6:30pm. Banyen Books and Sound, 3608 W. 4th Ave.

BOOK LAUNCH
Candice James and Manolis launch new books Purple Haze and Autumn Leaves. Saturday, July 12 at 1:30pm. New Westminster Arts Council Gallery, Queens Park, New Westminster.

DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Five poets/readers/poetry-lovers/writers with extensive public reading experience read poems from one of their favourite dead poet's work. Sunday, July 13 at 3:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central branch, VPL, 350 W. Georgia. More information at vpl.ca.

BOOK LAUNCH
C.C. Humphreys launches his new novel, Plague. Monday, July 14 at 5:00pm. The Fringe Cafe, 3124 West Broadway. More information at 604-738-6977.

TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Micheal Heatherington, Susan Musgrave and Steve Noyes plus open mic. Wednesday, July 16, 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 pandorascollective.com.

KATIE CROUCH
Author reads from her new book Abroad. Thursday, July 17 at 7:00pm. Book Warehouse, 4118 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-879-7737.