Book News Vol. 9 No. 34

BOOK NEWS

Special Events

Special event tickets are on sale for Bruce Cockburn (Nov 10), Alan Doyle (Nov 13) and Conrad Black (Nov 13). More information at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events.

Between the Pages: An Evening with the Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalists
The Scotiabank Giller Prize celebration is heading across Canada and will reach Vancouver on November 6. Readers will get a chance to peer inside the minds and creative lives of the writers who’ve made it onto the 2014 shortlist: David Bezmozgis, Frances Itani, Sean Michaels, Heather O'Neill, Miriam Toews and Padma Viswanathan.

The event also features special guest appearances and entertainment. Book News subscribers - use the promo code discount code AUTHOR and receive the special discount price of $20. Event information and ticket sales details: http://www.ticketmaster.ca/event/11004D427A357D04

AWARDS & LISTS

The 2015 Carnegie Medal nominations have been announced. Leading authors on the list include Roddy Doyle, Patrick Ness and Sally Green.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/children_sbookreviews/11173801/Carnegie-Medal-2015-nominations-announced.html

YOUNG READERS

Vivian versus America is the "perfect book to curl up with and read in one sitting, not too long or too short and with characters you fall in love with." It also tackles that favourite theme of YA fiction: dystopia.
http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/oct/27/review-vivian-versus-america-katie-coyle

NEWS & FEATURES

It's Dylan Thomas' 100th birthday! In Wales, a toast is being made.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/world/europe/a-toast-to-dylan-thomas-on-his-100th-birthday.html

You can also take a quiz about the famous Welsh Poet. Celebrate his birthday by testing your knowledge of his life and work.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/quiz/2014/oct/27/quiz-dylan-thomas-centenary-100-birthday

What's the "lavender ceiling?" It is the representation of the fact that gay authors who "write honestly about contemporary gay life are rarely published to wide acclaim by mainstream publishers in Canada, and are often relegated to the sidelines and the small presses."
http://thewalrus.ca/queerer-than-fiction/

A new documentary has been made about Joan Didion. A preview is available online, here.
http://www.vogue.com/3243661/joan-didion-documentary-trailer-we-tell-ourselves-stories-in-order-to-live/

Can technology enhance print books? Here are 10 projects that aim to do so.
http://ebookfriendly.com/print-books-technology-projects/

"Superficially, women who write fiction today seem to get equal billing with their male counterparts. Yet their work will never get the kind of avid coverage given to men." Many years after Virginia Woolf, women are still fighting for a room of their own.
http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2014/10/women-writers-after-woolf-still-fighting-room-one-s-own

What are the top 10 "modernisers" in literature? "From the architects who built the postwar world to the writers who predicted its horrors" here are the books that best evoke the pioneering spirit of the postwar era.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/15/top-10-architect-modernisers-in-literature

What's the best word processor for writers? For Edward Mendelson, the choice is clear. "When I write in WordPerfect, with all its scruffy, low-tech simplicity, the world seems more open, a place where endings can't be predicted, where freedom might be real."
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/oct/21/escape-microsoft-word/

In Ballast to the White Sea, a lost novel by Malcolm Lowry, is set to be published. Its manuscript was thought to have been burned in a fire at Lowry's Vancouver home seventy years ago.
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-29757370

Who are your favourite villains in literature? In the first of a new series for The Guardian, Sarah Crown argues that "Tolkien's unseen Sauron from The Lord of the Rings is the most frightening and enduring."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/oct/27/baddies-in-books-sauron-literatures-ultimate-source-of-evil

Halloween is right around the corner. Even famous authors like to get into the fun! Here's an "infographic" featuring costumes of famous authors like Oscar Wilde, Truman Capote and Anne Rice.
http://electricliterature.com/infographic-halloween-costumes-of-famous-authors/

BOOKS & WRITERS

Ian McEwan has "a weak spot for characters who have a weak spot for words." In his new book, a novella called The Children Act, the protagonist is "yet another writerly figure: a high court judge whose obsession with producing lucid prose for her judgments reflects the deadened state of her emotions."
http://therumpus.net/2014/10/the-children-act-by-ian-mcewan/

Susan Minot's new book, Thirty Girls, touches on a difficult and very contemporary subject: the abduction of thirty girls in Africa. She's interviewed by The Rumpus, here.
http://therumpus.net/2014/10/thr-rumpus-interview-with-susan-minot/

What's the last book you loved? For Richard Kramer, it was I Sang to Survive, a "harrowing, powerful, thrilling tale" written by an Auschwitz survivor.
http://therumpus.net/2014/10/the-last-book-i-loved-i-sang-to-survive/

David Gordon is a writer whose fiction "doesn't fall comfortably into one category. Depending on what you're reading and who you're talking to, he might be a mystery writer, a postmodernist, a satirist, or a hybrid." In this interview, he discusses his new collection and his formative writing years.
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2014/10/27/desperate-measures-an-interview-with-david-gordon

The Empties, by Jess Row, is this week's New Yorker story. It takes place three years in the future, after a nationwide blackout.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/03/empties

Jesse Row is interviewed about the story, here.
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/fiction-this-week-jess-row-2014-11-03

Rudy Wiebe has written his last book. Why? "Life is short, there is not enough time to forget everything."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/why-author-rudy-wiebe-wrote-his-latest-book-life-is-short-there-is-not-enough-time-to-forget-everything/article21288358/

Michael Faber has also announced that his most recent novel, The Book of Strange New Things, is to be his last. "I felt that I had one more book in me that could be special and sincere and extraordinary, and that that would be enough," said Mr. Faber.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/arts/michel-faber-plans-to-stop-writing-novels.html

COMMUNITY EVENTS

ALCUIN SOCIETY BOOK AUCTION
November 1, from 11 am at UBC Golf Club (5185 University Blvd.) Free admission. Come, enjoy beautiful books at reduced prices starting at 1/2 cover price and support next year's Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design. This is Canada's only national competition for book design.

LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS
Vancouver writer Sam Wiebe reads from his latest book. Saturday, November 1 at 1:00pm. Chapters, Strawberry Hill.

NOIR AT THE BAR
A night of crime fiction. Drink, mingle and hear eight talented mystery writers read: E.R. Brown, D.B. Carew, Dietrich Kalteis, Owen Laukkanen, Charlotte Morganti, Linda L. Richards, Robin Spano and Sam Wiebe. Tuesday, November 4 at 7:00pm, free. Shebeen Whisk(e)y House, behind 212 Carrall, Vancouver.

RAWI HAGE
Opening reception and reading. Wednesday November 5 at 7:00pm, free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, Woodwards, SFU, 149 W Hastings St. Vancouver. Please RSVP to https://www.facebook.com/events/871860279491340/.

JOHN RALSTON SAUL
Presented by UBC Continuing Studies and the Laurier Institution in partnership with UBC First Nations House of Learning and the Vancouver Writers Fest. Thursday, November 6 at 7:00pm. Cost: $5 – all proceeds donated to the First Nations House of Learning Bursary. Register by phoning 604-822-1444, or online at cstudies.ubc.ca/comeback. Sty-Wet-Tan Hall, First Nations Longhouse, 1985 West Mall, UBC Point Grey.

DEAD POETS READING SERIES
To mark Remembrance Day, five local writers will read from the work of Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg, Keith Douglas and Denise Levertov. Sunday 9th November at 3 p.m. in the Alice Mackay Room, lower level, Vancouver Public Library., 350 West Georgia Street. Free.

TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Elaine Woo with Jen Currin and Christine Leclerc. Wednesday, November 12, 7:00pm. The Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.

AFGHAN STORYTELLING EVENING
A diverse line-up of speakers will tell short stories to accompany images of Afghanistan: about people, places, food, family, music, culture, art, education, and more. Thursday, November 13 at 7:00pm. Tickets include full dinner, dessert, beverages for $25 per person through Eventbrite or at Zulu Records at 1972 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver. Tickets at the door $35.00, cash or credit card. Details at cw4wafghan.ca.

Upcoming

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS: A GALA FUNDRAISER
In support Pandora's Collective's Poetry Outreach Program at the BC Children's Hospital's Eating Disorder
Clinic for Youth under the age of 18. This 1920s themed event hosted by RC Weslowski features music by local songstress Sharon Bryson and visits from literary greats. Saturday, November 15 from 7-10pm at Vinci's Caffe and Gallery, 194 West 3rd Avenue. Tickets are only $45 (or $35 if you're a member of Pandora's Collective) and includes a glass of wine and canapes. Details and to purchase tickets: bit.ly/1qr0TLw.

AUTHORFEST
Featuring Norma Charles, Robert Heidbreder and Deborah Hodges. Sponsored by The Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable and the Education Library at UBC. Scarfe 100, 4:30pm-6:00pm. Free. More information at www.vclr.ca.

KAREN ARMSTRONG
The world-renowned author, founder of the international Charter for Compassion, TED Prize winner and recipient of SFU's 2012 Jack P. Blaney Award for Dialogue returns to Vancouver to launch her new book Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence. Monday, November 17 at 7:00pm. Tickets $19.50/$11.50; can't afford a ticket, email dial@sfu.ca. The Playhouse, 600 Hamilton Street. More information at sfu.ca.

JEWISH BOOK FESTIVAL
The 30th annual Jewish Book Festival featuring an exciting roster of writers from across Canada, the US, and Israel, including Zeruya Shalev, Steven Galloway, Dr. Brian Goldman, Bob Bossin, and Mark Leiren-Young. November 22-27, 2014. More information at jewishbookfestival.ca.