BOOK NEWS
Festival News
Tickets are on sale for the 23rd Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival. For up-to-the-moment Festival information please visit our website: writersfest.bc.ca, or pick up a copy of the Festival program guide at various Lower Mainland locations including Book Warehouse locations, Chapters, Sitka Books and Art, Vancouver Public Library branches and on Granville Island at Blackberry Books.
The Vancouver International Writers Festival invites you to Literati, our annual Gala Dinner, presented by Scotia Private Client Group. Join a host of 2010 Festival authors for an unforgettable evening of festivity, food and literary laughs, hosted by Bill Richardson. In support of Spreading the Word, the educational program of the Vancouver International Writers Festival. Complete details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/literati.
Writers Festival Art Raffle! Win a beautiful Jamie Evrard painting, Leap of Faith II-Yellow, Green and Red Flowers (Edition 1/1). Jamie Evrard creates rich and exuberant still life and floral paintings using several mediums, including oil paint, monotype and watercolour. Look for her latest exhibition at the Bau-Xi Gallery. Raffle details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/literati/raffle.
Virtual Festival
The latest recording in our recently launched series of archived events from Festivals-past features Gillian Slovo talking to Bill Richardson about what led her to write not a historical novel, but a novel set in history. http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives
Special Events
Just announced - Stevie Cameron
Vancouver International Writers Festival presents a special event with journalist Stevie Cameron. Her new book is On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the tragic story of Vancouver’s missing women. Details at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/cameron.
Alissa York and Richard Harvell
Please join us as Giller-shortlisted author Alissa York and debut novelist Richard Harvell read from their new works. Details at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/yorkharvell.
2010 FESTIVAL AUTHORS
The following authors are among those appearing at the Festival in October or participating in special events in the fall.
Donna Bailey Nurse describes Jane Urquhart's Sanctuary Line as a book lover's novel.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-sanctuary-line-by-jane-urquhart/article1694290/
Michael Helm's Cities of Refuge explores what happens when two types of exiles—the dispossessed and the spiritually homeless—come together writes Stephen Amidon.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-cities-of-refuge-by-michael-helm/article1544884/
The NY Times calls Eleanor Catton's The Rehearsal a "wildly brilliant and precocious first novel", a coming-of-age story with secrets.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/books/review/Ross-t.html
The Globe and Mail offers a few more details. Apparently a simple plot, but Catton reveals no clear distinction between what is the scandal, what is the saxophone lesson and what is the play.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-the-rehearsal-by-eleanor-catton/article1600727/
Barbara Casey says of Emma Donoghue's Room "Both gripping and poignant, it's a tribute to human resourcefulness and resilience in extremity, and a stirring portrait of a mother's devotion...a worthy Booker Prize contender."
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/859420--room-a-worthy-booker-prize-contender
The San Francisco Chronicle's Michael Berry writes that William Gibson's "Zero History can be enjoyed in isolation from its predecessors, but the entire trilogy rewards a thorough and sequential reading."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/10/RVHN1F93TL.DTL
The Washington Post's Art Taylor says that "Zero History proves momentous...Gibson remains as coolly incisive as ever in his observations, whether about technology or marketing or, yes, fashion."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/10/AR2010091006689.html
And in the NY Times, Scarlett Thomas writes that "Gibson is also celebrating a world where people do still care about something."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/books/review/Thomas-t.html?ref=books
Alex Clark hails Yiyun Li's delicate and haunting short-story collection, Gold Boy, Emerald Girl. "A hugely impressive collection."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/11/gold-boy-emerald-girl-yiyun-li
Fan Wu in the San Francisco Chronicle writes that the sophistication and honesty of Li's collection often derives from a deep understanding of the history, culture and politics of China, and of their impact on ordinary people."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/10/RVHN1F93MU.DTL
Drew Hayden Taylor uses Nanabush, the mischievous trickster, shapeshifter, and culture hero as inspiration in Motorcycles & Sweetgrass, his first novel for adults. A modern twist to ancient native folklore, says Erin Balser.
http://www.quillandquire.com/reviews/review.cfm?review_id=6809
Jon Paul Fiortina has a new poem in the October issue of The Walrus.
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2010.10-poetry-dying-in-winnipeg/
Charles Foran's biography Mordecai: The Life and Times will appear in October. Meanwhile, Noah Richler experiences his father's ghost on the set of the filming of Barney's Version.
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2010.10-arts-my-dad-the-movie-and-me/
Leah Hager Cohen finds Sara Gruen’s Ape House to be “fun, in an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink way”.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/books/review/Cohen-t.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3
Here is an excerpt:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/books/review/excerpt-ape-house.html?ref=review
Gary Shteyngart's life story is more colourful than most fiction, says Peter Conrad.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/05/shteyngart-super-sad-love-story-interview
AWARDS & LISTS
The finalists of the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize and the Bolen Book Children's Book Prize have been announced.
http://www.victoria.ca/contentmanager/press/100909_mr.pdf
Dominick Parenteau-Lebeuf, a playwright and screenwriter based in Montreal, is one of seven mid-career artists to win Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Awards, each worth $15,000.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/09/08/mid-career-artists.html
Andrew Motion, chair of the judges, explains how the shortlist for this year's Man Booker prize was decided, "We didn't mean to be popular."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/11/booker-prize-andrew-motion-judging
NEWS & FEATURES
The New Republic writes that the numbers have been crunched and it's official: The New York Times really does review more fiction by men than by women. Far more.
http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/77506/the-read-franzen-fallout-ruth-franklin-sexism
It is well known that the trapped Chilean miners are organized and have been assigned various leadership responsibilities. The Guardian reports that among these positions are an Official Biographer and an Official Poet—perhaps not so surprising in the country that produced the Nobel prize-winning poets Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/09/chilean-miners-typical-day
The film Life, Above All, based on a novel by Toronto author Allan Stratton and a screenplay by Vancouver-based Dennis Foon, will be South Africa's official entry for the 2011 Academy Awards.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/s-africa-enters-oscars-with-movie-based-on-toronto-authors-novel/article1702681/
William Gibson speaks to the Wall Street Journal about the future of publishing: made to order books.
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/09/06/william-gibson-on-the-future-of-book-publishing/
After Wallander: the bleak Scandinavian landscapes have inspired a series of hit books about dour detectives. More writers are lining up to claim the Nordic crime crown.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/12/stieg-larsson-henning-mankell-wallander
Monday, September 13 was Roald Dahl Day 2010. To mark the day, Philip Ardagh, winner of the Roald Dahl Funny prize set up in his memory, selected his top ten Dahl tales.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/13/top-10-roald-dahl-children-books
BOOKS & WRITERS
Now that the publication bans have been lifted, Stevie Cameron has produced On The Farm: Robert William Pickton and The Tragic Story of Vancouver's Missing Women, the first comprehensive overview of how Willie Pickton became a psychopathic monster and how he wasn't caught for so long.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/predator+prey/3510795/story.html
Dan Falk finds Sam Keen's The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements—to be jargon-free, with its focus on the magic (including parlour tricks) and the horrors of chemical science.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-the-disappearing-spoon-by-sam-kean/article1699796/
David Suzuki sums up his life's work in his new book The Legacy: An Elder's Vision for our Sustainable Future. Despite everything, he is optimistic.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Despite+everything+David+Suzuki+optimistic/3495656/story.html
Wait for Me! Memoirs of the Youngest Mitford Sister, Deborah Mitford's story, written at age 90, is a worthy addition to the family oeuvre, says Rachel Cooke.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/12/mitford-debo-deborah-devonshire-nancy-decca
In an interview, the Duchess says she embarked on her memoir because she felt her family, and her parents in particular, had been portrayed unfairly in the media.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/12/deborah-duchess-of-devonshire-chatsworth?CMP=EMCGT_130910&
Donald Sturrock's Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl informs us that Dahl was controlling and bullying, that critics and librarians deprecated him and Ursula K. Le Guin reported that exposure to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had turned her daughter ‘quite nasty'. But Dahl knew the road to the hearts of his readers.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/6257818/beating-his-demons.thtml
Dahl described himself in his later years as "a geriatric child".
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/storyteller-the-life-of-roald-dahl-by-donald-sturrock-2073902.html
Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters, a picture book written by President Obama before he took office in 2009, will be released November 16. Meanwhile, illustrator Loren Long is completing the illustrations.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/obama-writes-childrens-book/?ref=books
COMMUNITY EVENTS
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Annabel Lyon (The Golden Mean) and Naomi Beth Wakan (Book Ends: A year between the covers). Thursday, September 16 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Library, Robson Square (plaza level, 800 Robson Street).More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
THE LEGACY
People's Co-op Bookstore and Greystone Books present a live appearance by David Suzuki in support of his book The Legacy: An Elder's Vision for Our Sustainable Future. Friday, September 17 at 8:00pm. Kitsilano Secondary (2550 W. 10th). More information at www.legacy.davidsuzuki.org.
EILEEN MYLES AND LISA ROBERTSON
Contemporary poets Myles and Robertson read from their latest books Inferno: A Poet's Novel and R's Boat. Saturday, September 18 at 2:00pm. Charles H. Scott Gallery, Emily Carr University, 1399 Johnston, Granville Island. More information at 604-844-3809.
FREE WRITING WORKSHOP
In partnership with the North Vancouver District Library, the Lynn Valley Literary Society is holding free writing workshops for adults and youth. At noon, drop in for information about the society's upcoming adult workshops and its Young Writers' Club program. Saturday, September 18 at 12:00pm, free. Lynn Valley branch, North Vancouver District Library, 1277 Lynn Valley Rd. For times and information, visit www.nvdpl.north-van.bc.ca.
KATHY PAGE AND ALISSA YORK
Authors will be reading from their works. Saturday, September 18. Bolen Books (111 - 1644 Hillside Avenue, Victoria). For more information, visit www.kathypage.info or contact Bolen Books, (250) 595-4232.
PEN IN HAND
Readings by Patricia Young and Eve Joseph. Monday, September 20 at 7:30pm. Serious Coffee, Cook Street Village, 230 Cook Street, Victoria. More information at 250-590-8010.
SARAH LEAVITT
Book launch of Tangles: A story about Alzheimer's, my mother and me. Also live music and a silent auction to benefit selected Alzheimer's charities. Tuesday, September 21 at 7:00pm, free. Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street.
ERIC ENNO TAMM
The author reads from his book The Horse that Leaps through Clouds, a cautionary tale about the rise of modern China. Tuesday, September 21 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, VPL, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
SUSAN BOYD
Join the author as she reads from her book Hooked: Drug War Films in Britain, Canada and the United States. Wednesday, September 22 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3738.
JOHN PASS AND THERESA KISHKAN
Authors will be reading from their works. Thursday, September 23 at 12:30pm, free. Refreshments will be served. Special Collections, room 7100, 7th floor of the W.A.C. Bennett Library, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby.
IN MANIA'S MEMORY
Launch of Vancouver writer Lisa Birnie's latest book. Thursday, September 23 at 6:00pm. Bau-Xi Gallery, 3045 Granville Street. For more information, 604-733-7011.
THE RAVEN'S GIFT
Author John Turk will read from his new book. Thursday, September 23 at 7:00pm. Banyen Books & Sound, 3608 4th Ave. West.
THE ARTEMIS ROCKS!
Launch of best-selling author Eoin Colfer's seventh book in his Artemis Fowl adventure series. Thursday, September 23 at 7:00pm. Free admission but tickets required via online contest at www.vpl.ca. Alice MacKay room, VPL, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
WRITER'S STUDIO SNEAK PREVIEW
The SFU Writer's Studio will be launching emerge, its 2010 anthology, at the Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival, but for those people looking for a sneak preview, the authors will be performing pre-release readings at the Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main Street, on Thursday, September 23, from 7-10 p.m. More information at www.thewritersstudio.ca.
KOOTENAY BOOK WEEKEND
Discuss four books in small groups throughout the weekend. This year's books are The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry and our guest author, Anita Rau Badami's book Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? September 24-26, 2010, Nelson BC. Further information and registration forms can be found here, www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
DAVID GLENN
The Burnaby Arts Council will host a launch of The Queen's Sword and The Queen's Jewels. Saturday, September 25 at 1:00pm. Deer Lake Gallery, 6584 Deer Lake Avenue, Burnaby.
BOOK ARTS MOSAIC OPENING
Books by award-winning local writers will be showcased for the opening of A Book Arts Mosaic. A book sale and meet the authors event happen in conjunction. Saturday, September 25 at 1:00pm. Burnaby Arts Council's Deer Lake Gallery, 6584 Deer Lake Avenue, Burnaby. Details at info@burnabyartscouncil.org.
ROBERT BATEMAN
One of the world's greatest wildlife artists signs his new book, Bateman: New Works. Saturday, September 25 at 2:00pm. Chapters Broadway and Granville, 2505 Granville Street. More information at 604-731-7822.
WRITING AND THE CREATIVE PROCESS
An interactive program led by Silvana Goldemberg Faifman, designed for those who love stories and want to unlock their creative potential. Saturday, September 25 at 3:30pm, free. Limited seating, please register here: http://behappyalltogether.wordpress.com. Richmond Public Library, 7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond.
SHILPI SOMAYA GOWDA
Meet Canadian author Shilpi Somaya Gowda as she signs copies of her debut novel, Secret Daughter. Saturday, September 25 at 4:00pm. Chapters Park Royal, 900 Park Royal South, West Vancouver. More information at 604-922-3222.
EVENING THE FRAYED EDGES
Launch of the Recovery Narrative Project's first anthology of collected works, edited by Susan J. Katz, featuring a series of narratives and poems bringing first-hand accounts of turning points in recovery from mental illness. Sunday, September 26 at 7:00pm, free. John Braithwaite Community Centre, 145 West 1st Street, North Vancouver.
WORD ON THE STREET
Annual event dedicated to promoting reading and literacy throughout the community. Sunday, September 26 from 11am to 6pm. Library Square, Central Libray, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information, visit www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/vancouver.
Upcoming
JACK WHYTE
Bestselling author from Kelowna, BC, signs the first book in his exciting new trilogy, The Forest Laird. Monday, September 27 at 7:00pm. Chapters Marine Drive, 1025 Marine Drive, North Vancouver. More information at 604-988-6681.
EVOLVE: VAMPIRE STORIES OF THE NEW UNDEAD
Listen to Vancouver writers Mary Choo, Sandra Wickham and Celdae (Colleen) Anderson, 3 of 22 Canadian authors featured in this most unusual and compelling collection as they re-imagine the future of vampires. Monday, September 27 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information phone 604-331-3691.
CBC RADIO STUDIO ONE BOOK CLUB
On September 29, the CBC Radio Studio One Book Club will welcome author Marina Nemat with her second memoir "After Tehran: A Life Reclaimed". Marina was thrown into Iran's most notorious prison at the age of 16 after demanding her teacher stop teaching religious propaganda and resume teaching math. After two years of hell, she finally emigrated to Canada in 1991. A powerful, shocking, and ultimately inspiring story, enter to win free tickets to see Marina at www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub.
MICHAEL NICHOLL YAHGULANAAS
Reading by the author of Red. Thursday, September 30 at 1:00pm, free. Lillooet Room (level 3), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, Vancouver. More information at www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Mette Bach (Off the Highway) and Melanie Siebert (Deepwater Vee). Thursday, September 30 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Library, Robson Square (plaza level, 800 Robson Street).More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
CBC RADIO STUDIO ONE BOOK CLUB
On October 5, the CBC Radio Studio One Book Club is pleased to once again partner with CBC Ideas to present the 2010 Massey Lecturer in an exclusive book club taping. This year Vancouver's own Douglas Coupland presents the first ever Massey in fiction! In "Player One: What is to Become of Us", Doug has created a five hour story that explores time, human identity, society, religion and the afterlife. Enter to win free tickets and a preview of the Masseys at www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Book News Vol. 5 No. 39
BOOK NEWS
Festival News
Tickets are on sale for the 23rd Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival. For complete Festival information please visit our website: writersfest.bc.ca, or pick up a copy of the Festival program guide at various Lower Mainland locations including Book Warehouse locations, Chapters, Sitka Books and Art, Vancouver Public Library branches and on Granville Island including Blackberry Books.
There was an excited buzz about Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell's appearance at the Festival as soon as it was announced, and An Intimate Evening with David Mitchell (event 60) sold out during VIWF earlybird ticket sales. Mitchell fans needn't despair however; due to the overwhelming demand, we've added another solo event, An Intimate Afternoon with David Mitchell (event 68) at 5:00 pm Saturday, October 23, at the Waterfront Theatre.
Famed cartoonist/author Lynda Barry (Ernie Pook's Comeek) will also be making an additional appearance at the Festival. In addition to a Sunday morning workshop and an event with local graphic memoirist Sarah Leavitt, Barry will join Aaron Bushkowsky, John Gould and Rachel Wyatt in event 57 The Lighter Side, on Saturday Oct 23 at 2pm.
Virtual Festival
The latest recording in our recently launched series of archived events from Festivals-past features Simon Winchester in conversation with Hal Wake. One of the most entertaining writers ever to grace a VIWF stage, Simon Winchester tells the dramatic story of the San Francisco earthquake as only he can. http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives
Special Events
John Vaillant
The author of the multi-award-winning The Golden Spruce will discuss his new book The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, a gripping tale of man and nature in collision, that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the Siberian forest. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/vaillant.
The accolades for John Vaillant's The Tiger continue to come in—Joe Wiebe in the Vancouver Sun adds to earlier reviews: "...Reader, if you're wondering why you'd want to read a book about tigers set in Russia, remember that the same could be said for the many thousands of people who never expected to find themselves reading, and loving, a book about a golden spruce on a remote island off the B.C. coast."
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Tiger+tiger+burning+brighter+than+ever/3481396/story.html
Simon Winchester, who knows the Primorye Krai well, writes: "if this book did happen to ring slightly less than true, believe me, I would know. But it doesn't. Any skepticism on my part was quite unwarranted. This turns out to be a quite brilliant addition to the – admittedly very spare – literature of the region. And it is a book that recounts with power and excitement the true story of a titanic confrontation that took place deep in the Ussuri forests, in the harsh midwinter at the end of 1997."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-the-tiger-a-true-story-of-vengeance-and-survival-by-john-vaillant/article1694374/
An essay by John Vaillant on how he was blindsided by The Tiger can be found here.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/exit-the-tiger/article1694479/
Alissa York and Richard Harvell
Please join us as Giller-shortlisted author Alissa York and debut novelist Richard Harvell read from their new works. Details at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/yorkharvell.
2010 FESTIVAL AUTHORS
The following authors are among those appearing at the Festival in October or participating in special events in the fall.
Paolo Giordano's haunting novel The Solitude of Prime Numbers is "a finely tuned machine powered by the perverse mechanics of need".
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/books/review/Schillinger-t.html?_r=1
Tayari Jones writes that Andrea Levy's insightful recent novel, The Long Song, reminds us she is one of the best historical novelists of her generation. Her heroine narrates the beginning of the end of slavery in Jamaica, coming to a climax with the 1831 Baptist War. "This story of a single woman is a story of the ages."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/07/AR2010050704891.html
An extract from The Long Song can be found here:
http://www.andrealevy.co.uk/the_long_song/index.php
The stories in Yiyun Li's Gold Boy, Emerald Girl are "exquisitely made, and function with a vast, metronomic precision that eschews anything inessential", says David Mattin in The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/gold-boy-emerald-girl-by-yiyun-li-2067796.html
The Story of Flight is published in the New Yorker's ‘20 Under 40 Fiction' series.
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/08/30/100830fi_fiction_li
Here is a Q & A with Yiyun Li.
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/06/14/100614fi_fiction_20under40_qa_yiyun-li
Yiyun Li has disconnected herself from the Internet in order, she says, to become a better,calmer bookworm.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/03/RVH11F6787.DTL&type=books
Jane Urquhart's first novel in five years includes a climax that surprised even the author, writes Vit Wagner.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/855924--urquhart-s-surprise
Emily Donaldson finds that Jane Urquhart's Sanctuary Line has at once the sprawling feel of a multi-generational epic and the shuttered confinement of a one-act play. "One of the most grounded of Urquhart's books." http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/855141--sanctuary-line-jane-urquhart-nails-another-novel
Ian McGillis argues in the Gazette that "when the dust from the current tussle settles, Sanctuary Line - measured, dignified, calm on the surface but containing as much thematic richness and plain literary pleasure as a reader could care to dig for - will still be standing."
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/novel+Sanctuary+Line+Jane+Urquhart+revisits+classic+CanLit+territory/3479145/story.html
An interview with Emma Donoghue addresses the matter of the possible connections between Donoghue's Room and the notorious case of Austrian monster Josef Fritzl.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/emma-donoghues-restrained-novel-about-two-captives-illuminates-the-power-of-parental-love/article1695433/
The Guardian series Once Upon a Life focuses this week on Emma Donoghue.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/05/once-upon-life-emma-donoghue
Wlliam Gibson's Zero History features an amnesiac caught up in some high-tech espionage. It is about surveillance, through GPS or CCTV, and about being on and off the radar. It is also about clothes. Gibson's inventive descriptions (Bigend's ghastly suit looks like "antimatter paired with mohair") are reminiscent of Douglas Adams's offbeat humour.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/zero-history-by-william-gibson-2061839.html
Gibson also weighs in on the future of publishing.
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/09/06/william-gibson-on-the-future-of-book-publishing/
Jack Batten reminds us that, as in previous Joanne Kilburn novels, Gail Bowen's The Nesting Dolls is as much domestic drama as crime novel.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/850598--the-nesting-dolls-and-crime-machine
AWARDS & LISTS
Emma Donoghue, Andrea Levy, Damon Galgut, Howard Jacobson, Peter Carey and Tom McCarthy have been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/emma-donoghue-among-six-finalists-for-booker-prize/article1697851/
The Guardian adds details on the judging process and on the authors—both those shortlisted and those, not.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/07/booker-prize-shortlist-drops-frontrunners
The Telegraph offers a review of all of the shortlisted titles.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booker-prize/7986949/Man-Booker-Prize-2010-shortlist-announced.html
NEWS & FEATURES
Terry Pratchett talks about his new young adult novel I Shall Wear Midnight (the last in his Tiffany Aching series) and about living with a very rare form of Alzheimer's. "I'm open to joy. But I'm also more cynical." http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/01/terry-pratchett-alzheimers-assisted-suicide?CMP=EMCGT_020910&CMP=EMCNEWEML961
Steve Silberman interviews Oliver Sachs prior to the release in October of his new book The Mind's Eye.
http://blogs.plos.org/neurotribes/2010/09/01/oliver-sacks-on-vision-his-new-book-and-surviving-cancer/
"Publishing's notion of what women want is dated and patronizing. In my case it's like trying to stuff a rottweiler in a dress" writes Lionel Shriver.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/sep/02/publishers-ghettoise-women-writers-and-readers?CMP=EMCGT_030910&CMP=EMCNEWEML961
Neil Gaiman's comic series The Sandman (winner of the World Fantasy Award) is to be adapted as a TV series.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/09/02/neil-gaiman-sandman.html
La carte et le territoire (The map and the territory), the latest book by the French author Michel Houellebecq was supposed to be his least incendiary yet. However, there is another brewing controversy: alleged plagiarism—of the book title and several passages from Wikipedia.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/07/michel-houllebecq-novel-plagiarism-accusation
"I stole from Wikipedia, but it's not plagiarism", says Houellebecq.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/i-stole-from-wikipedia-but-its-not-plagiarism-says-houellebecq-2073145.html
Theresa Breslin talks about bringing the past to light through writing historical fiction for contemporary readers. Breslin is on the longlist for the Guardian' children's fiction prize.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/02/theresa-breslin-bringing-past-life
She reads "real" books; he reads e-books. Or vice versa. And the publishing industry is paying close attention, trying to figure out how to market books to households that read in different ways.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/02/technology/02couples.html?_r=1&hpw
"Culture is another word for people", says David Adams Richards in his contribution to analyses of major issues in the 2010 N.B. election.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nbvotes2010/story/2010/08/31/nb-david-adams-richards-culture-131.html?ref=rss
Do the cultural gatekeepers really give white male fiction writers preferential coverage over authors of the distaff and ethnic variety? Slate did some research.
http://www.slate.com/id/2265910/
Vit Wagner suggests ten international titles to watch for this fall.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/856501--10-books-to-watch-for-this-fall
Who buys books? 40-year old women and others, concludes the Seattle Times.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2012801171_litlife06.html?syndication=rss
BOOKS & WRITERS
Nicholas Shakespeare and Bruce Chatwin's widow Elizabeth have selected and edited Bruce Chatwin's letters in Under the Sun: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin. Blake Morrison describes the book as "a handsome book, full of informative passages and illuminating quotes."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/04/bruce-chatwin-letters-nicholas-shakespeare
Catherine Taylor describes Annabel Lyon's The Golden Mean as a "justifiably garlanded novel".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/04/first-novels-review-roundup
In an interview with Sean O'Hagan, Irish writer Claire Keegan claims short stories are limited. Her short story Foster will appear as a stand-alone book. This rare honour is fully deserved, says O'Hagan.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/05/claire-keegan-short-story-interiew
André Alexis reports that Hans Keilson's novella Comedy in a Minor Key is a mixture of grief, hope, fear and, if such a thing is possible, dry slapstick—a tonally eccentric work. The book was first published in 1947; it has taken until now to be translated into English. "It's the work of a consummate artist, a wonderful writer," says Alexis. Keilson is now 100.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-comedy-in-a-minor-key-by-hans-keilson/article1694235/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SPIDER ROBINSON
The Library's sixth Writer in Residence will read from some of his many award-winning works and talk about the writing process at his inaugural reading. Thursday, September 9 at 7:00pm, free. Alice McKay room, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.
SAGA THURSDAY ARTIST TALK
Discussion and reading by Monika Ullmann, author of The Life and Art of David Marshall, a book about the Vancouver-based sculptor. Thursday, September 9 at 7:30pm, free. Surrey Art Gallery (13750 88 Ave., Surrey). More information at www.arts.surrey.ca.
GARY GEDDES
Reading by the author from his latest book of poetry, Swimming Ginger. Monday, September 13 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen Room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3603.
THE LEGACY
People's Co-op Bookstore and Greystone Books present a live appearance by David Suzuki in support of his book The Legacy: An Elder's Vision for Our Sustainable Future. Friday, September 17 at 8:00pm. Kitsilano Secondary (2550 W. 10th). More information at www.legacy.davidsuzuki.org.
KATHY PAGE AND ALISSA YORK
Authors will be reading from their works. Saturday, September 18. Bolen Books (111 - 1644 Hillside Avenue, Victoria). For more information, visit www.kathypage.info or contact Bolen Books, (250) 595-4232.
Upcoming
SARAH LEAVITT
Book launch of Tangles: A story about Alzheimer's, my mother and me. Also live music and a silent auction to benefit selected Alzheimer's charities. Tuesday, September 21 at 7:00pm, free. Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street.
SUSAN BOYD
Join the author as she reads from her book Hooked: Drug War Films in Britain, Canada and the United States. Wednesday, September 22 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3738.
JOHN PASS AND THERESA KISHKAN
Authors will be reading from their works. Thursday, September 23 at 12:30pm, free. Refreshments will be served. Special Collections, room 7100, 7th floor of the W.A.C. Bennett Library, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby.
THE RAVEN'S GIFT
Author John Turk will read from his new book. Thursday, September 23 at 7:00pm. Banyen Books & Sound, 3608 4th Ave. West.
KOOTENAY BOOK WEEKEND
Discuss four books in small groups throughout the weekend. This year's books are The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry and our guest author, Anita Rau Badami's book Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? September 24-26, 2010, Nelson BC. Further information and registration forms can be found here, www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
DAVID GLENN
The Burnaby Arts Council will host a launch of The Queen's Sword and The Queen's Jewels. Saturday, September 25 at 1:00pm. Deer Lake Gallery, 6584 Deer Lake Avenue, Burnaby.
ROBERT BATEMAN
One of the world's greatest wildlife artists signs his new book, Bateman: New Works. Saturday, September 25 at 2:00pm. Chapters Broadway and Granville, 2505 Granville Street. More information at 604-731-7822.
SHILPI SOMAYA GOWDA
Meet Canadian author Shilpi Somaya Gowda as she signs copies of her debut novel, Secret Daughter. Saturday, September 25 at 4:00pm. Chapters Park Royal, 900 Park Royal South, West Vancouver. More information at 604-922-3222.
EVENING THE FRAYED EDGES
Launch of the Recovery Narrative Project's first anthology of collected works, edited by Susan J. Katz, featuring a series of narratives and poems bringing first-hand accounts of turning points in recovery from mental illness. Sunday, September 26 at 7:00pm, free. John Braithwaite Community Centre, 145 West 1st Street, North Vancouver.
WORD ON THE STREET
Annual event dedicated to promoting reading and literacy throughout the community. Sunday, September 26 from 11am to 6pm. Library Square, Central Libray, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information, visit www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/vancouver.
JACK WHYTE
Bestselling author from Kelowna, BC, signs the first book in his exciting new trilogy, The Forest Laird. Monday, September 27 at 7:00pm. Chapters Marine Drive, 1025 Marine Drive, North Vancouver. More information at 604-988-6681.
EVOLVE: VAMPIRE STORIES OF THE NEW UNDEAD
Listen to Vancouver writers Mary Choo, Sandra Wickham and Celdae (Colleen) Anderson, 3 of 22 Canadian authors featured in this most unusual and compelling collection as they re-imagine the future of vampires. Monday, September 27 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information phone 604-331-3691.
MICHAEL NICHOLL YAHGULANAAS
Reading by the author of Red. Thursday, September 30 at 1:00pm, free. Lillooet Room (level 3), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, Vancouver. More information at www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca.
Festival News
Tickets are on sale for the 23rd Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival. For complete Festival information please visit our website: writersfest.bc.ca, or pick up a copy of the Festival program guide at various Lower Mainland locations including Book Warehouse locations, Chapters, Sitka Books and Art, Vancouver Public Library branches and on Granville Island including Blackberry Books.
There was an excited buzz about Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell's appearance at the Festival as soon as it was announced, and An Intimate Evening with David Mitchell (event 60) sold out during VIWF earlybird ticket sales. Mitchell fans needn't despair however; due to the overwhelming demand, we've added another solo event, An Intimate Afternoon with David Mitchell (event 68) at 5:00 pm Saturday, October 23, at the Waterfront Theatre.
Famed cartoonist/author Lynda Barry (Ernie Pook's Comeek) will also be making an additional appearance at the Festival. In addition to a Sunday morning workshop and an event with local graphic memoirist Sarah Leavitt, Barry will join Aaron Bushkowsky, John Gould and Rachel Wyatt in event 57 The Lighter Side, on Saturday Oct 23 at 2pm.
Virtual Festival
The latest recording in our recently launched series of archived events from Festivals-past features Simon Winchester in conversation with Hal Wake. One of the most entertaining writers ever to grace a VIWF stage, Simon Winchester tells the dramatic story of the San Francisco earthquake as only he can. http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives
Special Events
John Vaillant
The author of the multi-award-winning The Golden Spruce will discuss his new book The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, a gripping tale of man and nature in collision, that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the Siberian forest. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/vaillant.
The accolades for John Vaillant's The Tiger continue to come in—Joe Wiebe in the Vancouver Sun adds to earlier reviews: "...Reader, if you're wondering why you'd want to read a book about tigers set in Russia, remember that the same could be said for the many thousands of people who never expected to find themselves reading, and loving, a book about a golden spruce on a remote island off the B.C. coast."
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Tiger+tiger+burning+brighter+than+ever/3481396/story.html
Simon Winchester, who knows the Primorye Krai well, writes: "if this book did happen to ring slightly less than true, believe me, I would know. But it doesn't. Any skepticism on my part was quite unwarranted. This turns out to be a quite brilliant addition to the – admittedly very spare – literature of the region. And it is a book that recounts with power and excitement the true story of a titanic confrontation that took place deep in the Ussuri forests, in the harsh midwinter at the end of 1997."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-the-tiger-a-true-story-of-vengeance-and-survival-by-john-vaillant/article1694374/
An essay by John Vaillant on how he was blindsided by The Tiger can be found here.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/exit-the-tiger/article1694479/
Alissa York and Richard Harvell
Please join us as Giller-shortlisted author Alissa York and debut novelist Richard Harvell read from their new works. Details at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/yorkharvell.
2010 FESTIVAL AUTHORS
The following authors are among those appearing at the Festival in October or participating in special events in the fall.
Paolo Giordano's haunting novel The Solitude of Prime Numbers is "a finely tuned machine powered by the perverse mechanics of need".
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/books/review/Schillinger-t.html?_r=1
Tayari Jones writes that Andrea Levy's insightful recent novel, The Long Song, reminds us she is one of the best historical novelists of her generation. Her heroine narrates the beginning of the end of slavery in Jamaica, coming to a climax with the 1831 Baptist War. "This story of a single woman is a story of the ages."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/07/AR2010050704891.html
An extract from The Long Song can be found here:
http://www.andrealevy.co.uk/the_long_song/index.php
The stories in Yiyun Li's Gold Boy, Emerald Girl are "exquisitely made, and function with a vast, metronomic precision that eschews anything inessential", says David Mattin in The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/gold-boy-emerald-girl-by-yiyun-li-2067796.html
The Story of Flight is published in the New Yorker's ‘20 Under 40 Fiction' series.
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/08/30/100830fi_fiction_li
Here is a Q & A with Yiyun Li.
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/06/14/100614fi_fiction_20under40_qa_yiyun-li
Yiyun Li has disconnected herself from the Internet in order, she says, to become a better,calmer bookworm.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/03/RVH11F6787.DTL&type=books
Jane Urquhart's first novel in five years includes a climax that surprised even the author, writes Vit Wagner.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/855924--urquhart-s-surprise
Emily Donaldson finds that Jane Urquhart's Sanctuary Line has at once the sprawling feel of a multi-generational epic and the shuttered confinement of a one-act play. "One of the most grounded of Urquhart's books." http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/855141--sanctuary-line-jane-urquhart-nails-another-novel
Ian McGillis argues in the Gazette that "when the dust from the current tussle settles, Sanctuary Line - measured, dignified, calm on the surface but containing as much thematic richness and plain literary pleasure as a reader could care to dig for - will still be standing."
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/novel+Sanctuary+Line+Jane+Urquhart+revisits+classic+CanLit+territory/3479145/story.html
An interview with Emma Donoghue addresses the matter of the possible connections between Donoghue's Room and the notorious case of Austrian monster Josef Fritzl.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/emma-donoghues-restrained-novel-about-two-captives-illuminates-the-power-of-parental-love/article1695433/
The Guardian series Once Upon a Life focuses this week on Emma Donoghue.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/05/once-upon-life-emma-donoghue
Wlliam Gibson's Zero History features an amnesiac caught up in some high-tech espionage. It is about surveillance, through GPS or CCTV, and about being on and off the radar. It is also about clothes. Gibson's inventive descriptions (Bigend's ghastly suit looks like "antimatter paired with mohair") are reminiscent of Douglas Adams's offbeat humour.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/zero-history-by-william-gibson-2061839.html
Gibson also weighs in on the future of publishing.
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/09/06/william-gibson-on-the-future-of-book-publishing/
Jack Batten reminds us that, as in previous Joanne Kilburn novels, Gail Bowen's The Nesting Dolls is as much domestic drama as crime novel.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/850598--the-nesting-dolls-and-crime-machine
AWARDS & LISTS
Emma Donoghue, Andrea Levy, Damon Galgut, Howard Jacobson, Peter Carey and Tom McCarthy have been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/emma-donoghue-among-six-finalists-for-booker-prize/article1697851/
The Guardian adds details on the judging process and on the authors—both those shortlisted and those, not.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/07/booker-prize-shortlist-drops-frontrunners
The Telegraph offers a review of all of the shortlisted titles.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booker-prize/7986949/Man-Booker-Prize-2010-shortlist-announced.html
NEWS & FEATURES
Terry Pratchett talks about his new young adult novel I Shall Wear Midnight (the last in his Tiffany Aching series) and about living with a very rare form of Alzheimer's. "I'm open to joy. But I'm also more cynical." http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/01/terry-pratchett-alzheimers-assisted-suicide?CMP=EMCGT_020910&CMP=EMCNEWEML961
Steve Silberman interviews Oliver Sachs prior to the release in October of his new book The Mind's Eye.
http://blogs.plos.org/neurotribes/2010/09/01/oliver-sacks-on-vision-his-new-book-and-surviving-cancer/
"Publishing's notion of what women want is dated and patronizing. In my case it's like trying to stuff a rottweiler in a dress" writes Lionel Shriver.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/sep/02/publishers-ghettoise-women-writers-and-readers?CMP=EMCGT_030910&CMP=EMCNEWEML961
Neil Gaiman's comic series The Sandman (winner of the World Fantasy Award) is to be adapted as a TV series.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/09/02/neil-gaiman-sandman.html
La carte et le territoire (The map and the territory), the latest book by the French author Michel Houellebecq was supposed to be his least incendiary yet. However, there is another brewing controversy: alleged plagiarism—of the book title and several passages from Wikipedia.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/07/michel-houllebecq-novel-plagiarism-accusation
"I stole from Wikipedia, but it's not plagiarism", says Houellebecq.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/i-stole-from-wikipedia-but-its-not-plagiarism-says-houellebecq-2073145.html
Theresa Breslin talks about bringing the past to light through writing historical fiction for contemporary readers. Breslin is on the longlist for the Guardian' children's fiction prize.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/02/theresa-breslin-bringing-past-life
She reads "real" books; he reads e-books. Or vice versa. And the publishing industry is paying close attention, trying to figure out how to market books to households that read in different ways.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/02/technology/02couples.html?_r=1&hpw
"Culture is another word for people", says David Adams Richards in his contribution to analyses of major issues in the 2010 N.B. election.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nbvotes2010/story/2010/08/31/nb-david-adams-richards-culture-131.html?ref=rss
Do the cultural gatekeepers really give white male fiction writers preferential coverage over authors of the distaff and ethnic variety? Slate did some research.
http://www.slate.com/id/2265910/
Vit Wagner suggests ten international titles to watch for this fall.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/856501--10-books-to-watch-for-this-fall
Who buys books? 40-year old women and others, concludes the Seattle Times.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2012801171_litlife06.html?syndication=rss
BOOKS & WRITERS
Nicholas Shakespeare and Bruce Chatwin's widow Elizabeth have selected and edited Bruce Chatwin's letters in Under the Sun: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin. Blake Morrison describes the book as "a handsome book, full of informative passages and illuminating quotes."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/04/bruce-chatwin-letters-nicholas-shakespeare
Catherine Taylor describes Annabel Lyon's The Golden Mean as a "justifiably garlanded novel".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/04/first-novels-review-roundup
In an interview with Sean O'Hagan, Irish writer Claire Keegan claims short stories are limited. Her short story Foster will appear as a stand-alone book. This rare honour is fully deserved, says O'Hagan.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/05/claire-keegan-short-story-interiew
André Alexis reports that Hans Keilson's novella Comedy in a Minor Key is a mixture of grief, hope, fear and, if such a thing is possible, dry slapstick—a tonally eccentric work. The book was first published in 1947; it has taken until now to be translated into English. "It's the work of a consummate artist, a wonderful writer," says Alexis. Keilson is now 100.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-comedy-in-a-minor-key-by-hans-keilson/article1694235/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SPIDER ROBINSON
The Library's sixth Writer in Residence will read from some of his many award-winning works and talk about the writing process at his inaugural reading. Thursday, September 9 at 7:00pm, free. Alice McKay room, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.
SAGA THURSDAY ARTIST TALK
Discussion and reading by Monika Ullmann, author of The Life and Art of David Marshall, a book about the Vancouver-based sculptor. Thursday, September 9 at 7:30pm, free. Surrey Art Gallery (13750 88 Ave., Surrey). More information at www.arts.surrey.ca.
GARY GEDDES
Reading by the author from his latest book of poetry, Swimming Ginger. Monday, September 13 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen Room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3603.
THE LEGACY
People's Co-op Bookstore and Greystone Books present a live appearance by David Suzuki in support of his book The Legacy: An Elder's Vision for Our Sustainable Future. Friday, September 17 at 8:00pm. Kitsilano Secondary (2550 W. 10th). More information at www.legacy.davidsuzuki.org.
KATHY PAGE AND ALISSA YORK
Authors will be reading from their works. Saturday, September 18. Bolen Books (111 - 1644 Hillside Avenue, Victoria). For more information, visit www.kathypage.info or contact Bolen Books, (250) 595-4232.
Upcoming
SARAH LEAVITT
Book launch of Tangles: A story about Alzheimer's, my mother and me. Also live music and a silent auction to benefit selected Alzheimer's charities. Tuesday, September 21 at 7:00pm, free. Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street.
SUSAN BOYD
Join the author as she reads from her book Hooked: Drug War Films in Britain, Canada and the United States. Wednesday, September 22 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3738.
JOHN PASS AND THERESA KISHKAN
Authors will be reading from their works. Thursday, September 23 at 12:30pm, free. Refreshments will be served. Special Collections, room 7100, 7th floor of the W.A.C. Bennett Library, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby.
THE RAVEN'S GIFT
Author John Turk will read from his new book. Thursday, September 23 at 7:00pm. Banyen Books & Sound, 3608 4th Ave. West.
KOOTENAY BOOK WEEKEND
Discuss four books in small groups throughout the weekend. This year's books are The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry and our guest author, Anita Rau Badami's book Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? September 24-26, 2010, Nelson BC. Further information and registration forms can be found here, www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
DAVID GLENN
The Burnaby Arts Council will host a launch of The Queen's Sword and The Queen's Jewels. Saturday, September 25 at 1:00pm. Deer Lake Gallery, 6584 Deer Lake Avenue, Burnaby.
ROBERT BATEMAN
One of the world's greatest wildlife artists signs his new book, Bateman: New Works. Saturday, September 25 at 2:00pm. Chapters Broadway and Granville, 2505 Granville Street. More information at 604-731-7822.
SHILPI SOMAYA GOWDA
Meet Canadian author Shilpi Somaya Gowda as she signs copies of her debut novel, Secret Daughter. Saturday, September 25 at 4:00pm. Chapters Park Royal, 900 Park Royal South, West Vancouver. More information at 604-922-3222.
EVENING THE FRAYED EDGES
Launch of the Recovery Narrative Project's first anthology of collected works, edited by Susan J. Katz, featuring a series of narratives and poems bringing first-hand accounts of turning points in recovery from mental illness. Sunday, September 26 at 7:00pm, free. John Braithwaite Community Centre, 145 West 1st Street, North Vancouver.
WORD ON THE STREET
Annual event dedicated to promoting reading and literacy throughout the community. Sunday, September 26 from 11am to 6pm. Library Square, Central Libray, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information, visit www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/vancouver.
JACK WHYTE
Bestselling author from Kelowna, BC, signs the first book in his exciting new trilogy, The Forest Laird. Monday, September 27 at 7:00pm. Chapters Marine Drive, 1025 Marine Drive, North Vancouver. More information at 604-988-6681.
EVOLVE: VAMPIRE STORIES OF THE NEW UNDEAD
Listen to Vancouver writers Mary Choo, Sandra Wickham and Celdae (Colleen) Anderson, 3 of 22 Canadian authors featured in this most unusual and compelling collection as they re-imagine the future of vampires. Monday, September 27 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information phone 604-331-3691.
MICHAEL NICHOLL YAHGULANAAS
Reading by the author of Red. Thursday, September 30 at 1:00pm, free. Lillooet Room (level 3), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, Vancouver. More information at www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Book News Vol. 5 No. 38
BOOK NEWS
Important Notice
Tickets go on sale for the 23rd Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival on September 8. You can get full information on our web site, www.writersfest.bc.ca. To ensure you get tickets to the events you really want to see, become a member for just $35. Tickets went on sale to members September 1. Membership information at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/get-involved/membership.
Just Announced
In the four years since its release Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen has sold millions of copies worldwide and is now available in 44 languages. Her highly anticipated new novel, Ape House, will be released this September and we are happy to announce a special event with her on November 4. This is a rare opportunity to this master storyteller share her fascination with the Bonobo ape. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/gruen.
Virtual Festival
The latest recording in our recently launched series of archived events from Festivals-past features Maile Meloy. Picking up hitchhikers is risky any time, no less on a snowy evening when your passengers turn out to be named Bonnie and Clyde. http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives
Special Events
John Vaillant
The author of the multi-award-winning The Golden Spruce will discuss his new book The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, a gripping tale of man and nature in collision, that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the Siberian forest. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/vaillant.
Vit Wagner describes John Vaillant's work as "true crime books with a wilderness twist". When Vaillant saw the film Conflict Tiger, which inspired his writing The Tiger, he thought: "My God, this is The Golden Spruce with stripes."
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/854518--vengeful-eye-of-the-tiger
In his review of The Tiger in the Montreal Gazette, Eric Boodman reports that John Vaillant allows the reader to see through the eyes of a Russian poacher and a wildlife protection agent; he also permits us to inhabit the mind and body of the eponymous tiger. Vaillant's "superbly crafted story…keeps us glued to the page."
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Through+tiger/3451120/story.html
Read Vaillant's magnificent book, writes John McMurtrie in the San Francisco Chronicle: "The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival offers readers a shiver-inducing portrait of a predator that has been revered - and feared - like no other animal."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/27/RVF71F31EL.DTL
Alissa York and Richard Harvell
Please join us as Giller-shortlisted author Alissa York and debut novelist Richard Harvell read from their new works. Details at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/yorkharvell.
2010 FESTIVAL AUTHORS
The following authors are among those appearing at the Festival in October or participating in special events in the fall.
Kamila Shamsie is one of a new generation of several Pakistani writers in English (many of whom are under 40) who, according to Piali Roy, have created a literature that has finally sidestepped India's much ballyhooed reputation.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/after-the-flood/article1691325/
Arifa Akbar's interview with David Mitchell elicits the information that Mitchell deliberately changes the terms of storytelling with each book "because it allows for infinite possibilities". http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/david-mitchell-readers-enable-me-to-continue-to-do-what-i-love-prizes-wont-do-that-for-you-2063013.html
David Grossman speaks to The Observer about his novel To the End of the Land, a memorial to his son who was killed while serving in the army, and why he remains an opponent of his country's policy towards the Palestinians.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/29/david-grossman-israel-hezbollah-interview
Linda Grants writes that Grossman has aimed as high as it is possible to do in a novel that deals with the great questions of love, intimacy, war, memory and fear of personal and national annihilation - and has overwhelmingly achieved everything.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/to-the-end-of-the-land-by-david-grossman-trans-jessica-cohen-2063011.html
Emma Donahue writes about her hero Anne Lister, who isn't exactly a hero.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/28/anne-lister-by-emma-donoghue
Candace Fertile describes Kathleen Winter's Annabel as "a beautifully sensitive novel, populated with realistic characters and led by a powerful sense of place".
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Birth+intersex+child+spurs+exploration+human+heart/3454651/story.html
John Barber profiles Jane Urquhart in the Globe and Mail. Her latest novel Sanctuary Line will be published this week.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/matriarch-of-all-she-surveys/article1687293/
Linwood Barclay reports that there is a brutal murder at the heart of Ken Finkleman's Noah's Turn, but this is not a conventional crime novel.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-noahs-turn-by-ken-finkleman/article1687457/
Vit Wagner adds that the novel, Finkleman's first, evokes Crime and Punishment.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/853720--novel-direction-for-ken-finkleman
In a conversation on technology with Stuart O'Connor of The Observer, William Gibson claims to be agnostic about technology, but he wants a robotic penguin.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/29/william-gibson-interview
The End of the Ice Age, Terence Young's second collection of short stories, contains cautionary tales of the allure, and dangers, of intimacy. Julian Gunn writes that a newspaper being read upside-down could stand for the problem most of Young's characters face.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/story_print.html?id=3456295&sponsor=
The seven good reasons referred to in John Gould's Seven Good Reasons Not To Be Good come in the form of postcards that Matt McKay sends to his friend Zane. Reviewer Colin Holt writes that Gould has done a masterful job of reminding the reader that there is a whole lot in life over which we have no control.
http://www.timescolonist.com/Local+writer+talent+shines+longer+form/3429106/story.html
AWARDS & LISTS
Ten titles are on the Guardian first book award longlist for a £10,000 award, with subjects covered including everything from the itinerant experience of the Somali community to Churchill's 'black dog'.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/27/guardian-first-book-award-longlist
Vancouver poet Gillian Jerome is one of the shortlisted nominees for the 2010 ReLit Awards for her debut book of poetry Red Nest. The ReLit Awards recognizes three categories (novel, poetry, short fiction) of excellence in books published by independent Canadian literary publishers.
http://relitawards.com/
David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jakob De Zoet has been nominated for the Not the Booker 2010. The results of the Not the Booker come out just before the Booker-proper. Will they choose the same winner?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/aug/31/not-the-booker-prize-nominations-open
NEWS & FEATURES
Poetry rained from the skies on Saturday night in Berlin as 100,000 bookmarks printed with poems by 80 poets from Germany and Chile were dropped on the city from a helicopter.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/31/berlin-bombed-with-poetry
Publisher Oxford University Press said Sunday that burgeoning demand for the dictionary's online version has far outpaced demand for the printed versions. Nigel Portwood, chief executive of Oxford University Press, told The Sunday Times in an interview he didn't think the newest edition will be printed.
http://www.thestar.com/news/theworld/article/854028-oxford-dictionary-print-edition-may-be-dead
The Guardian assesses the merits of various online dictionaries.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/30/online-dictionaries-oxford-collins-chambers
The Guardian interviews Nadine Gordimer about her, and others', return to political activism—against censorship.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/31/nadine-gordimer-fighting-censorship
South African playwright Athol Fugard criticizes dramatists for failing to confront issues of injustice, writing instead "for attention spans of 10 minutes between adverts".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/30/fugard-attacks-modern-dramatists
The Tyee has identified ten of BC's best neglected writers that deserve closer and wider reading. These include Malcolm Lowry, L. R. Wright, Ethel Wilson, Sheila Watson, and Paul St. Pierre.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2010/08/27/BCNeglectedWriters/
Consider these "Better Book Titles", a collection of Photoshopped covers with the titles books ought to have been given.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2010/08/a-book-by-any-other-name.html
"The evaluation of a fiction rests on impact not truth," writes Stuart Kelly in Scott-land: The Man Who Invented a Nation, a work that evaluates the impact of the many fictions, literary and otherwise, of Sir Walter Scott.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/scottland-the-man-who-invented-a-nation-by-stuart-kelly-2063021.html
American author James Patterson has surpassed J.K. Rowling on the list of the world's highest-paid authors. Patterson has admitted he doesn’t write his own books.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/us-author-takes-rowlings-richlist-crown-2058846.html
The Tyee has a detailed list of links to BC’s literary online world.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2010/08/27/LiteraryWorldOnline/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=300810
The Boston Globe reminds us that when books were first published, no one knew what to do with them.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/08/29/cover_story/?page=full
BOOKS & WRITERS
Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness has been published as a graphic novel, with drawings by Catherine Anyango.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/31/heart-of-darkness-graphic-novel
In Four Fish, Paul Greenberg describes "the future of the last wild food" with an engaging mix of science, history and an aficionado's enthusiasm - he is a lifelong sports fisherman – writes Richard Sherbaniuk, adding that Greenberg is solid, sensible and constructive in his analysis.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/four+fish+that+might+just+away/3451125/story.html
Stuart Jeffries is cheered by a writer who sees a social value in our habit of mucking things up. Kathryn Schulz argues passionately for the value of error. In Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, Schulz argues that the experience of being wrong helps to make us better people, with richer lives.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/28/being-wrong-kathryn-schulz-review
A recent edition of the Guardian Online includes The Empty Family, a new short story by Colm Tóibín.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/28/colm-toibin-short-story
Oil on Water, the latest book by award-winning Nigerian author Helon Habila is described initially as a Conradian river journey in search of a kidnap victim. Fittingly, the story two journalists are chasing is not what it seems.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/29/oil-on-water-helon-habila
Jonathan Franzen's Freedom is all the rage, even before it’s out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/books/28franzen.html?ref=books
Sam Tanenhaus describes Freedom as 'a masterpiece of American fiction'.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/books/review/Tanenhaus-t.html?ref=books&pagewanted=all
John Barber interviewed Jonathan Franzen for the Globe and Mail.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/jonathan-franzen-on-fiction-fame-and-freedom/article1687695/
An excerpt from Freedom is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/books/excerpt-freedom.html?ref=review
Spider Robinson says that Mary Roach's witty and accurate account of the history and future of space travel in Packing for Mars is a must read for sci-fi buffs.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-packing-for-mars-by-mary-roach/article1687450/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
A ROOM IN THE CITY
Anvil Press presents the launch of Gabor Gasztonyi's book featuring 150 intimate photographs of five Downtown Eastside residents with an introduction by Dr. Gabor Maté. Thursday, September 1 at 7:00pm, free. Vancouver Photo Workshops Gallery (14 7th Ave. W.). More information at info@anvilpress.com.
SPIDER ROBINSON
The Library's sixth Writer in Residence will read from some of his many award-winning works and talk about the writing process at his inaugural reading. Thursday, September 9 at 7:00pm, free. Alice McKay room, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.
SAGA THURSDAY ARTIST TALK
Discussion and reading by Monika Ullmann, author of The Life and Art of David Marshall, a book about the Vancouver-based sculptor. Thursday, September 9 at 7:30pm, free. Surrey Art Gallery (13750 88 Ave., Surrey). More information at www.arts.surrey.ca.
Upcoming
GARY GEDDES
Reading by the author from his latest book of poetry, Swimming Ginger. Monday, September 13 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen Room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3603.
THE LEGACY
People's Co-op Bookstore and Greystone Books present a live appearance by David Suzuki in support of his book The Legacy: An Elder's Vision for Our Sustainable Future. Friday, September 17 at 8:00pm. Kitsilano Secondary (2550 W. 10th). More information at www.legacy.davidsuzuki.org.
KATHY PAGE AND ALISSA YORK
Authors will be reading from their works. Saturday, September 18. Bolen Books (111 - 1644 Hillside Avenue, Victoria). For more information, visit www.kathypage.info or contact Bolen Books, (250) 595-4232.
SUSAN BOYD
Join the author as she reads from her book Hooked: Drug War Films in Britain, Canada and the United States. Wednesday, September 22 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3738.
THE RAVEN'S GIFT
Author John Turk will read from his new book. Thursday, September 23 at 7:00pm. Banyen Books & Sound, 3608 4th Ave. West.
KOOTENAY BOOK WEEKEND
Discuss four books in small groups throughout the weekend. This year's books are The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry and our guest author, Anita Rau Badami's book Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? September 24-26, 2010, Nelson BC. Further information and registration forms can be found here, www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
DAVID GLENN
The Burnaby Arts Council will host a launch of The Queen's Sword and The Queen's Jewels. Saturday, September 25 at 1:00pm. Deer Lake Gallery, 6584 Deer Lake Avenue, Burnaby.
EVENING THE FRAYED EDGES
Launch of the Recovery Narrative Project's first anthology of collected works, edited by Susan J. Katz, featuring a series of narratives and poems bringing first-hand accounts of turning points in recovery from mental illness. Sunday, September 26 at 7:00pm, free. John Braithwaite Community Centre, 145 West 1st Street, North Vancouver.
WORD ON THE STREET
Annual event dedicated to promoting reading and literacy throughout the community. Sunday, September 26 from 11am to 6pm. Library Square, Central Libray, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information, visit www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/vancouver.
EVOLVE: VAMPIRE STORIES OF THE NEW UNDEAD
Listen to Vancouver writers Mary Choo, Sandra Wickham and Celdae (Colleen) Anderson, 3 of 22 Canadian authors featured in this most unusual and compelling collection as they re-imagine the future of vampires. Monday, September 27 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information phone 604-331-3691.
MICHAEL NICHOLL YAHGULANAAS
Reading by the author of Red. Thursday, September 30 at 1:00pm, free. Lillooet Room (level 3), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, Vancouver. More information at www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca.
Important Notice
Tickets go on sale for the 23rd Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival on September 8. You can get full information on our web site, www.writersfest.bc.ca. To ensure you get tickets to the events you really want to see, become a member for just $35. Tickets went on sale to members September 1. Membership information at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/get-involved/membership.
Just Announced
In the four years since its release Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen has sold millions of copies worldwide and is now available in 44 languages. Her highly anticipated new novel, Ape House, will be released this September and we are happy to announce a special event with her on November 4. This is a rare opportunity to this master storyteller share her fascination with the Bonobo ape. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/gruen.
Virtual Festival
The latest recording in our recently launched series of archived events from Festivals-past features Maile Meloy. Picking up hitchhikers is risky any time, no less on a snowy evening when your passengers turn out to be named Bonnie and Clyde. http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives
Special Events
John Vaillant
The author of the multi-award-winning The Golden Spruce will discuss his new book The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, a gripping tale of man and nature in collision, that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the Siberian forest. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/vaillant.
Vit Wagner describes John Vaillant's work as "true crime books with a wilderness twist". When Vaillant saw the film Conflict Tiger, which inspired his writing The Tiger, he thought: "My God, this is The Golden Spruce with stripes."
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/854518--vengeful-eye-of-the-tiger
In his review of The Tiger in the Montreal Gazette, Eric Boodman reports that John Vaillant allows the reader to see through the eyes of a Russian poacher and a wildlife protection agent; he also permits us to inhabit the mind and body of the eponymous tiger. Vaillant's "superbly crafted story…keeps us glued to the page."
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Through+tiger/3451120/story.html
Read Vaillant's magnificent book, writes John McMurtrie in the San Francisco Chronicle: "The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival offers readers a shiver-inducing portrait of a predator that has been revered - and feared - like no other animal."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/27/RVF71F31EL.DTL
Alissa York and Richard Harvell
Please join us as Giller-shortlisted author Alissa York and debut novelist Richard Harvell read from their new works. Details at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/yorkharvell.
2010 FESTIVAL AUTHORS
The following authors are among those appearing at the Festival in October or participating in special events in the fall.
Kamila Shamsie is one of a new generation of several Pakistani writers in English (many of whom are under 40) who, according to Piali Roy, have created a literature that has finally sidestepped India's much ballyhooed reputation.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/after-the-flood/article1691325/
Arifa Akbar's interview with David Mitchell elicits the information that Mitchell deliberately changes the terms of storytelling with each book "because it allows for infinite possibilities". http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/david-mitchell-readers-enable-me-to-continue-to-do-what-i-love-prizes-wont-do-that-for-you-2063013.html
David Grossman speaks to The Observer about his novel To the End of the Land, a memorial to his son who was killed while serving in the army, and why he remains an opponent of his country's policy towards the Palestinians.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/29/david-grossman-israel-hezbollah-interview
Linda Grants writes that Grossman has aimed as high as it is possible to do in a novel that deals with the great questions of love, intimacy, war, memory and fear of personal and national annihilation - and has overwhelmingly achieved everything.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/to-the-end-of-the-land-by-david-grossman-trans-jessica-cohen-2063011.html
Emma Donahue writes about her hero Anne Lister, who isn't exactly a hero.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/28/anne-lister-by-emma-donoghue
Candace Fertile describes Kathleen Winter's Annabel as "a beautifully sensitive novel, populated with realistic characters and led by a powerful sense of place".
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Birth+intersex+child+spurs+exploration+human+heart/3454651/story.html
John Barber profiles Jane Urquhart in the Globe and Mail. Her latest novel Sanctuary Line will be published this week.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/matriarch-of-all-she-surveys/article1687293/
Linwood Barclay reports that there is a brutal murder at the heart of Ken Finkleman's Noah's Turn, but this is not a conventional crime novel.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-noahs-turn-by-ken-finkleman/article1687457/
Vit Wagner adds that the novel, Finkleman's first, evokes Crime and Punishment.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/853720--novel-direction-for-ken-finkleman
In a conversation on technology with Stuart O'Connor of The Observer, William Gibson claims to be agnostic about technology, but he wants a robotic penguin.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/29/william-gibson-interview
The End of the Ice Age, Terence Young's second collection of short stories, contains cautionary tales of the allure, and dangers, of intimacy. Julian Gunn writes that a newspaper being read upside-down could stand for the problem most of Young's characters face.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/story_print.html?id=3456295&sponsor=
The seven good reasons referred to in John Gould's Seven Good Reasons Not To Be Good come in the form of postcards that Matt McKay sends to his friend Zane. Reviewer Colin Holt writes that Gould has done a masterful job of reminding the reader that there is a whole lot in life over which we have no control.
http://www.timescolonist.com/Local+writer+talent+shines+longer+form/3429106/story.html
AWARDS & LISTS
Ten titles are on the Guardian first book award longlist for a £10,000 award, with subjects covered including everything from the itinerant experience of the Somali community to Churchill's 'black dog'.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/27/guardian-first-book-award-longlist
Vancouver poet Gillian Jerome is one of the shortlisted nominees for the 2010 ReLit Awards for her debut book of poetry Red Nest. The ReLit Awards recognizes three categories (novel, poetry, short fiction) of excellence in books published by independent Canadian literary publishers.
http://relitawards.com/
David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jakob De Zoet has been nominated for the Not the Booker 2010. The results of the Not the Booker come out just before the Booker-proper. Will they choose the same winner?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/aug/31/not-the-booker-prize-nominations-open
NEWS & FEATURES
Poetry rained from the skies on Saturday night in Berlin as 100,000 bookmarks printed with poems by 80 poets from Germany and Chile were dropped on the city from a helicopter.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/31/berlin-bombed-with-poetry
Publisher Oxford University Press said Sunday that burgeoning demand for the dictionary's online version has far outpaced demand for the printed versions. Nigel Portwood, chief executive of Oxford University Press, told The Sunday Times in an interview he didn't think the newest edition will be printed.
http://www.thestar.com/news/theworld/article/854028-oxford-dictionary-print-edition-may-be-dead
The Guardian assesses the merits of various online dictionaries.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/30/online-dictionaries-oxford-collins-chambers
The Guardian interviews Nadine Gordimer about her, and others', return to political activism—against censorship.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/31/nadine-gordimer-fighting-censorship
South African playwright Athol Fugard criticizes dramatists for failing to confront issues of injustice, writing instead "for attention spans of 10 minutes between adverts".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/30/fugard-attacks-modern-dramatists
The Tyee has identified ten of BC's best neglected writers that deserve closer and wider reading. These include Malcolm Lowry, L. R. Wright, Ethel Wilson, Sheila Watson, and Paul St. Pierre.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2010/08/27/BCNeglectedWriters/
Consider these "Better Book Titles", a collection of Photoshopped covers with the titles books ought to have been given.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2010/08/a-book-by-any-other-name.html
"The evaluation of a fiction rests on impact not truth," writes Stuart Kelly in Scott-land: The Man Who Invented a Nation, a work that evaluates the impact of the many fictions, literary and otherwise, of Sir Walter Scott.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/scottland-the-man-who-invented-a-nation-by-stuart-kelly-2063021.html
American author James Patterson has surpassed J.K. Rowling on the list of the world's highest-paid authors. Patterson has admitted he doesn’t write his own books.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/us-author-takes-rowlings-richlist-crown-2058846.html
The Tyee has a detailed list of links to BC’s literary online world.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2010/08/27/LiteraryWorldOnline/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=300810
The Boston Globe reminds us that when books were first published, no one knew what to do with them.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/08/29/cover_story/?page=full
BOOKS & WRITERS
Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness has been published as a graphic novel, with drawings by Catherine Anyango.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/31/heart-of-darkness-graphic-novel
In Four Fish, Paul Greenberg describes "the future of the last wild food" with an engaging mix of science, history and an aficionado's enthusiasm - he is a lifelong sports fisherman – writes Richard Sherbaniuk, adding that Greenberg is solid, sensible and constructive in his analysis.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/four+fish+that+might+just+away/3451125/story.html
Stuart Jeffries is cheered by a writer who sees a social value in our habit of mucking things up. Kathryn Schulz argues passionately for the value of error. In Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, Schulz argues that the experience of being wrong helps to make us better people, with richer lives.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/28/being-wrong-kathryn-schulz-review
A recent edition of the Guardian Online includes The Empty Family, a new short story by Colm Tóibín.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/28/colm-toibin-short-story
Oil on Water, the latest book by award-winning Nigerian author Helon Habila is described initially as a Conradian river journey in search of a kidnap victim. Fittingly, the story two journalists are chasing is not what it seems.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/29/oil-on-water-helon-habila
Jonathan Franzen's Freedom is all the rage, even before it’s out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/books/28franzen.html?ref=books
Sam Tanenhaus describes Freedom as 'a masterpiece of American fiction'.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/books/review/Tanenhaus-t.html?ref=books&pagewanted=all
John Barber interviewed Jonathan Franzen for the Globe and Mail.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/jonathan-franzen-on-fiction-fame-and-freedom/article1687695/
An excerpt from Freedom is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/books/excerpt-freedom.html?ref=review
Spider Robinson says that Mary Roach's witty and accurate account of the history and future of space travel in Packing for Mars is a must read for sci-fi buffs.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-packing-for-mars-by-mary-roach/article1687450/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
A ROOM IN THE CITY
Anvil Press presents the launch of Gabor Gasztonyi's book featuring 150 intimate photographs of five Downtown Eastside residents with an introduction by Dr. Gabor Maté. Thursday, September 1 at 7:00pm, free. Vancouver Photo Workshops Gallery (14 7th Ave. W.). More information at info@anvilpress.com.
SPIDER ROBINSON
The Library's sixth Writer in Residence will read from some of his many award-winning works and talk about the writing process at his inaugural reading. Thursday, September 9 at 7:00pm, free. Alice McKay room, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.
SAGA THURSDAY ARTIST TALK
Discussion and reading by Monika Ullmann, author of The Life and Art of David Marshall, a book about the Vancouver-based sculptor. Thursday, September 9 at 7:30pm, free. Surrey Art Gallery (13750 88 Ave., Surrey). More information at www.arts.surrey.ca.
Upcoming
GARY GEDDES
Reading by the author from his latest book of poetry, Swimming Ginger. Monday, September 13 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen Room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3603.
THE LEGACY
People's Co-op Bookstore and Greystone Books present a live appearance by David Suzuki in support of his book The Legacy: An Elder's Vision for Our Sustainable Future. Friday, September 17 at 8:00pm. Kitsilano Secondary (2550 W. 10th). More information at www.legacy.davidsuzuki.org.
KATHY PAGE AND ALISSA YORK
Authors will be reading from their works. Saturday, September 18. Bolen Books (111 - 1644 Hillside Avenue, Victoria). For more information, visit www.kathypage.info or contact Bolen Books, (250) 595-4232.
SUSAN BOYD
Join the author as she reads from her book Hooked: Drug War Films in Britain, Canada and the United States. Wednesday, September 22 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3738.
THE RAVEN'S GIFT
Author John Turk will read from his new book. Thursday, September 23 at 7:00pm. Banyen Books & Sound, 3608 4th Ave. West.
KOOTENAY BOOK WEEKEND
Discuss four books in small groups throughout the weekend. This year's books are The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry and our guest author, Anita Rau Badami's book Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? September 24-26, 2010, Nelson BC. Further information and registration forms can be found here, www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
DAVID GLENN
The Burnaby Arts Council will host a launch of The Queen's Sword and The Queen's Jewels. Saturday, September 25 at 1:00pm. Deer Lake Gallery, 6584 Deer Lake Avenue, Burnaby.
EVENING THE FRAYED EDGES
Launch of the Recovery Narrative Project's first anthology of collected works, edited by Susan J. Katz, featuring a series of narratives and poems bringing first-hand accounts of turning points in recovery from mental illness. Sunday, September 26 at 7:00pm, free. John Braithwaite Community Centre, 145 West 1st Street, North Vancouver.
WORD ON THE STREET
Annual event dedicated to promoting reading and literacy throughout the community. Sunday, September 26 from 11am to 6pm. Library Square, Central Libray, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information, visit www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/vancouver.
EVOLVE: VAMPIRE STORIES OF THE NEW UNDEAD
Listen to Vancouver writers Mary Choo, Sandra Wickham and Celdae (Colleen) Anderson, 3 of 22 Canadian authors featured in this most unusual and compelling collection as they re-imagine the future of vampires. Monday, September 27 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information phone 604-331-3691.
MICHAEL NICHOLL YAHGULANAAS
Reading by the author of Red. Thursday, September 30 at 1:00pm, free. Lillooet Room (level 3), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, Vancouver. More information at www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Book News Vol. 5 No. 37
BOOK NEWS
Important Notice
Tickets go on sale for this year's Festival on September 8. You can get full information on our web site, www.writersfest.bc.ca. To ensure there are tickets for the events you really want to see, become a member for just $35. Tickets go on sale to members September 1 and you will also be providing much needed support to the Festival. Membership information at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/get-involved/membership.
Just Announced
Stuart McLean talks with Hal Wake about his new book The Vinyl Café Notebooks, a collection of wonderfully eclectic essays selected from 15 years of radio-show archives and re-edited by the author. Join us for a rare chance to gain insight into the thoughtful mind at work behind The Vinyl Cafe. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/maclean.
Virtual Festival
The latest recording in our recently launched series of archived events from Festivals-past features a rare, rock star combination on the stage—Douglas Coupland and Irvine Welsh. http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives
Call for Volunteers
The submission deadline for returning volunteers is today, August 27. First-time volunteers are urged to apply no later than September 10. Please see http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/volunteers/volunteers_needed.htm for details and on-line registration. Come and join us, it's fun and illuminating!
Special Events
John Vaillant
The author of the multi-award-winning The Golden Spruce will discuss his new book The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, a gripping tale of man and nature in collision, that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the Siberian forest. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/vaillant.
Author, editor, reviewer Stephen Bodio quotes Annie Proulx on Amazon about John Vaillant's The Tiger: "The Tiger is the sort of book I very much like and rarely find." "It is better than good" writes Bodio. More comments from Proulx and Bodio are here:
http://stephenbodio.blogspot.com/2010/08/john-vaillants-tiger.html
Alissa York and Richard Harvell
Please join us as Giller-shortlisted author Alissa York and debut novelist Richard Harvell read from their new works. Details at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/yorkharvell.
2010 FESTIVAL AUTHORS
The following authors will be attending the Festival in October or participating in special events in the fall.
Margaret Cannon writes that The Nesting Dolls is one of Gail Bowen's best books.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/new-in-crime-fiction/article1679724/
Like the Russian matryoshka dolls, one secret tucks into another, making it a compelling read, writes Cheryl Parker.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Secrets+within+secrets+shape+plot/3426991/story.html
CBC interviewer Lee Ferguson says of The Beauty of Humanity Movement: "The book’s genesis is nearly as spellbinding as the novel itself."
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/08/20/f-camilla-gibb-the-beauty-of-humanity-movement.html
Terence Young's new collection of short stories The End of the Ice Age focuses attention on the tricky state of being between young and old.
http://roverarts.com/2010/08/forever-young/
The National Post review ends with the words "Buy It".
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2010/08/10/buy-it-or-skip-it-the-end-of-the-ice-age/
Halifax's poet laureate, spoken-word artist Shauntay Grant has produced a second children's book with illustrations by Susan Tooke. The City Speaks in Drums, writes reviewer Susan Perren, brings Halifax to life.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/bringing-halifax-to-life/article1678707/
What makes a poet a poet? Is one of many questions asked of George Bowering in the blog in Other Words.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/in-other-words/george-bowering-bullshit-artist-a-poetics-of-attention/article1675695/
AWARDS & LISTS
Geraldine Brooks, author of March and People of the Book, among other works, will receive the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for lifetime achievement at a ceremony in November.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2010/08/dayton-literary-peace-prize-geraldine-brooks.html
Alanna Mitchell's Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis is one of three finalists for the inaugural Lane Anderson Award for Canadian science writing. The complete list of finalists, including for the young readers award, is here.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/850222--finalists-named-for-science-writing-prizes
Newscientist describes Sea Sick as a very important book about the state of two-thirds of our planet.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227071.800-review-seasick-by-alanna-mitchell.html
Earlier this year, Michell was awarded the $75,000 Grantham Prize for environmental writing.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/alanna-mitchell-wins-writing-award/article1613674/
Rick Gekowski writes about being a good literary loser, based on his experience on the shortlist for the PEN/Ackerley prize. Gekowski is a judge for the Man Booker international prize for 2011.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/aug/24/literary-awards-man-booker-prize
NEWS & FEATURES
BC Ferries has banned from its shelves Annabel Lyon's award-winning book The Golden Mean, due to the jacket's illustration of a naked man lying on the back of a horse. International publications are both offended by this censorship, and finding the story a good source for bad jokes. Here are two responses to the censorship news:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/24/alexander-the-great-annabel-lyon-bum
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2010/08/banned-book-bummer.html
Edwin Morgan, Scotland's first national poet (Scots Makar), has died aged 90. Between 1952 and 2007, he published over 60 books of his own writing and translations of others' works.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/19/edwin-morgan-obituary
Examples from the TLS of the late Scottish Makar's varied, often magnificent work, can be found here.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7165495.ece
Ed Pilkington meets journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sherry WuDunn and learns how their discovery of, and response to, trafficking of women—a modern form of global slavery—has changed the way they write.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/19/women-slavery-half-the-sky
From the archives of the New York Review of Books, David Lodge on literary critic Frank Kermode, whose death was announced last week.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1996/may/09/confessions-of-a-literary-man/?pagination=false
Three years after his death, pieces of Kurt Vonnegut's life are coming together in his hometown (Indianapolis) in a new library that will also be a museum devoted to his legacy. The collection includes first editions of his books, his Purple Heart and the rejection letters that preceded his success. “You have no talent and we suggest you give up writing,'" says one.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/08/18/vonnegut-library.html
AS Byatt criticizes the Orange prize for fiction, saying there is no such thing as feminine subject matter. She also claims that women who write intellectual books are seen as unnatural.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/20/as-byatt-intellectual-women-strange
The newest French literary star is 15. Carmen Bramly's first novel Pastel Fauve is due out this week.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/bonjour-jeunesse-new-french-literary-star-carmen-bramly-is-15-2054453.html
Other young folk are out to rid the world of typos.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20100817_They_re_out_to_rid_the_world_of_typos.html#ixzz0wxpynJkO
Roy Peter Clark has written The Glamour of Grammar, a grammar manual for the 21st century that endorses breaking rules that make no sense.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/books/review/Shea-t.html?_r=1&nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3&pagewanted=all
Every day, the website Five Books features an eminent writer, thinker, commentator, politician, academic who chooses five books on his or her specialist subject.
http://fivebooks.com/
There was a time, not so long ago, when Shakespeare was banned. In Ontario.
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/850826--the-day-shakespeare-was-banned
A "book" can mean many things and has many futures, but it may need explaining for new readers. Lane Smith's new work for children is It's a Book.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129251016&ft=1&f=1008
The recent Norwegian court ruling against Åsne Seierstad, the author of The Bookseller of Kabul, throws into sharp relief the fine line between journalism and literature and raises questions about the very nature of non-fiction writing itself, writes Faisal al Yafai.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100820/REVIEW/708199994/1008
BOOKS & WRITERS
Intellectual property has become such a hot topic that Lewis Hyde's Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership is timely indeed. Robert Darnton describes the book as an eloquent and erudite plea for protecting our cultural patrimony from appropriation by commercial interests.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/books/review/Darnton-t.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3
Vietnam veteran and novelist Edward Wilson finds chilling echoes of that war in a US platoon's Iraq killing spree as described in Jim Frederick's Black Hearts: One Platoon's Descent into Madness in Iraq's Triangle of Death.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/21/black-hearts-jim-frederick
James Ellroy, the author of LA Confidential and The Black Dahlia, and whose latest book, Blood's a Rover, is now out in paperback, is still haunted by his mother's ghost.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2010/aug/22/observer-profile-james-ellroy
Milan Kundera's trademark lightness of style continues in Encounters: Essays.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/21/encounters-essays-milan-kundera
Kundera's exhumed essays cast a spell with their insights into creativity, writes Geoff Dyer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/22/encounter-essays-review
Human Chain, Seamus Heaney's new collection brilliantly enacts the struggle between memory and loss, says Colm Tóibín.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/21/seamus-heaney-human-chain-review
Susan Salter Reynolds writes that Per Petterson's I Curse the River of Time masterfully captures a family's sorrow and disconnect - a vivid portrait of longing for something just out of reach.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-book-20100821,0,6463919.story
William Skidelsky argues that the fascination with Christos Tsiolkas' The Slap is due to its being a novel about the failings of middle-class life and points to wider concerns about the durability of liberal values in a multicultural society.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/22/will-skidelsky-the-slap-success
R.B. Fleming's Peter Gzowski: A Biography paints a portrait of a brilliant man who hid a private dark side.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/biographer-claims-peter-gzowski-had-secret-child/article1682183/
Margaret MacMillan's new biography of Stephen Leacock indicates that he, too, had a dark side.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2010/08/23/StephenLeacock/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=230810
Günther Grass says that his new book Grimms Wörter: Eine Liebeserklärung (Grimms' Words: A Declaration of Love), a paean to the Brothers Grimm and the dictionary of German language they began to write, marks the end of his autobiographical writing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/24/gunter-grass-last-autobiography
COMMUNITY EVENTS
JILL EDMONSON
Author reads from her new novel, Blood and Groom, part of the Castle Street Mysteries. Saturday, August 28 at 1:00pm. Indigo Marine Drive (1025 Marine Drive).
COMIX & STORIES
Vancouver Comiccon's annual event featuring independent, small-press, and alternative publishers, comics, artists, animators,
and zines. Guests include Emily Horne and Joey Comeau. Sunday, August 29 from 11am to 5pm. Tickets $4. Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street. For more information, visit www.vancouvercomiccon.com.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Van Slam featuring Kim Johnson. Monday, August 30 at 8:00pm. Cover: $10/$5. Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial). More information at www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com
Upcoming
SPIDER ROBINSON
The Library's sixth Writer in Residence will read from some of his many award-winning works and talk about the writing process at his inaugural reading. Thursday, September 9 at 7:00pm, free. Alice McKay room, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.
GARY GEDDES
Reading by the author from his latest book of poetry, Swimming Ginger. Monday, September 13 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen Room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3603.
KATHY PAGE AND ALISSA YORK
Authors will be reading from their works. Saturday, September 18. Bolen Books (111 - 1644 Hillside Avenue, Victoria). For more information, visit www.kathypage.info or contact Bolen Books, (250) 595-4232.
SUSAN BOYD
Join the author as she reads from her book Hooked: Drug War Films in Britain, Canada and the United States. Wednesday, September 22 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3738.
THE RAVEN'S GIFT
Author John Turk will read from his new book. Thursday, September 23 at 7:00pm. Banyen Books & Sound, 3608 4th Ave. West.
KOOTENAY BOOK WEEKEND
Discuss four books in small groups throughout the weekend. This year's books are The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry and our guest author, Anita Rau Badami's book Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? September 24-26, 2010, Nelson BC. Further information and registration forms can be found here, www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
DAVID GLENN
The Burnaby Arts Council will host a launch of The Queen's Sword and The Queen's Jewels. Saturday, September 25 at 1:00pm. Deer Lake Gallery, 6584 Deer Lake Avenue, Burnaby.
EVENING THE FRAYED EDGES
Launch of the Recovery Narrative Project's first anthology of collected works, edited by Susan J. Katz, featuring a series of narratives and poems bringing first-hand accounts of turning points in recovery from mental illness. Sunday, September 26 at 7:00pm, free. John Braithwaite Community Centre, 145 West 1st Street, North Vancouver.
WORD ON THE STREET
Annual event dedicated to promoting reading and literacy throughout the community. Sunday, September 26 from 11am to 6pm. Library Square, Central Libray, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information, visit www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/vancouver.
EVOLVE: VAMPIRE STORIES OF THE NEW UNDEAD
Listen to Vancouver writers Mary Choo, Sandra Wickham and Celdae (Colleen) Anderson, 3 of 22 Canadian authors featured in this most unusual and compelling collection as they re-imagine the future of vampires. Monday, September 27 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information phone 604-331-3691.
MICHAEL NICHOLL YAHGULANAAS
Reading by the author of Red. Thursday, September 30 at 1:00pm, free. Lillooet Room (level 3), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, Vancouver. More information at www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca.
Important Notice
Tickets go on sale for this year's Festival on September 8. You can get full information on our web site, www.writersfest.bc.ca. To ensure there are tickets for the events you really want to see, become a member for just $35. Tickets go on sale to members September 1 and you will also be providing much needed support to the Festival. Membership information at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/get-involved/membership.
Just Announced
Stuart McLean talks with Hal Wake about his new book The Vinyl Café Notebooks, a collection of wonderfully eclectic essays selected from 15 years of radio-show archives and re-edited by the author. Join us for a rare chance to gain insight into the thoughtful mind at work behind The Vinyl Cafe. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/maclean.
Virtual Festival
The latest recording in our recently launched series of archived events from Festivals-past features a rare, rock star combination on the stage—Douglas Coupland and Irvine Welsh. http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives
Call for Volunteers
The submission deadline for returning volunteers is today, August 27. First-time volunteers are urged to apply no later than September 10. Please see http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/volunteers/volunteers_needed.htm for details and on-line registration. Come and join us, it's fun and illuminating!
Special Events
John Vaillant
The author of the multi-award-winning The Golden Spruce will discuss his new book The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, a gripping tale of man and nature in collision, that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the Siberian forest. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/vaillant.
Author, editor, reviewer Stephen Bodio quotes Annie Proulx on Amazon about John Vaillant's The Tiger: "The Tiger is the sort of book I very much like and rarely find." "It is better than good" writes Bodio. More comments from Proulx and Bodio are here:
http://stephenbodio.blogspot.com/2010/08/john-vaillants-tiger.html
Alissa York and Richard Harvell
Please join us as Giller-shortlisted author Alissa York and debut novelist Richard Harvell read from their new works. Details at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/yorkharvell.
2010 FESTIVAL AUTHORS
The following authors will be attending the Festival in October or participating in special events in the fall.
Margaret Cannon writes that The Nesting Dolls is one of Gail Bowen's best books.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/new-in-crime-fiction/article1679724/
Like the Russian matryoshka dolls, one secret tucks into another, making it a compelling read, writes Cheryl Parker.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Secrets+within+secrets+shape+plot/3426991/story.html
CBC interviewer Lee Ferguson says of The Beauty of Humanity Movement: "The book’s genesis is nearly as spellbinding as the novel itself."
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/08/20/f-camilla-gibb-the-beauty-of-humanity-movement.html
Terence Young's new collection of short stories The End of the Ice Age focuses attention on the tricky state of being between young and old.
http://roverarts.com/2010/08/forever-young/
The National Post review ends with the words "Buy It".
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2010/08/10/buy-it-or-skip-it-the-end-of-the-ice-age/
Halifax's poet laureate, spoken-word artist Shauntay Grant has produced a second children's book with illustrations by Susan Tooke. The City Speaks in Drums, writes reviewer Susan Perren, brings Halifax to life.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/bringing-halifax-to-life/article1678707/
What makes a poet a poet? Is one of many questions asked of George Bowering in the blog in Other Words.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/in-other-words/george-bowering-bullshit-artist-a-poetics-of-attention/article1675695/
AWARDS & LISTS
Geraldine Brooks, author of March and People of the Book, among other works, will receive the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for lifetime achievement at a ceremony in November.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2010/08/dayton-literary-peace-prize-geraldine-brooks.html
Alanna Mitchell's Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis is one of three finalists for the inaugural Lane Anderson Award for Canadian science writing. The complete list of finalists, including for the young readers award, is here.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/850222--finalists-named-for-science-writing-prizes
Newscientist describes Sea Sick as a very important book about the state of two-thirds of our planet.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227071.800-review-seasick-by-alanna-mitchell.html
Earlier this year, Michell was awarded the $75,000 Grantham Prize for environmental writing.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/alanna-mitchell-wins-writing-award/article1613674/
Rick Gekowski writes about being a good literary loser, based on his experience on the shortlist for the PEN/Ackerley prize. Gekowski is a judge for the Man Booker international prize for 2011.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/aug/24/literary-awards-man-booker-prize
NEWS & FEATURES
BC Ferries has banned from its shelves Annabel Lyon's award-winning book The Golden Mean, due to the jacket's illustration of a naked man lying on the back of a horse. International publications are both offended by this censorship, and finding the story a good source for bad jokes. Here are two responses to the censorship news:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/24/alexander-the-great-annabel-lyon-bum
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2010/08/banned-book-bummer.html
Edwin Morgan, Scotland's first national poet (Scots Makar), has died aged 90. Between 1952 and 2007, he published over 60 books of his own writing and translations of others' works.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/19/edwin-morgan-obituary
Examples from the TLS of the late Scottish Makar's varied, often magnificent work, can be found here.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7165495.ece
Ed Pilkington meets journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sherry WuDunn and learns how their discovery of, and response to, trafficking of women—a modern form of global slavery—has changed the way they write.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/19/women-slavery-half-the-sky
From the archives of the New York Review of Books, David Lodge on literary critic Frank Kermode, whose death was announced last week.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1996/may/09/confessions-of-a-literary-man/?pagination=false
Three years after his death, pieces of Kurt Vonnegut's life are coming together in his hometown (Indianapolis) in a new library that will also be a museum devoted to his legacy. The collection includes first editions of his books, his Purple Heart and the rejection letters that preceded his success. “You have no talent and we suggest you give up writing,'" says one.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/08/18/vonnegut-library.html
AS Byatt criticizes the Orange prize for fiction, saying there is no such thing as feminine subject matter. She also claims that women who write intellectual books are seen as unnatural.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/20/as-byatt-intellectual-women-strange
The newest French literary star is 15. Carmen Bramly's first novel Pastel Fauve is due out this week.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/bonjour-jeunesse-new-french-literary-star-carmen-bramly-is-15-2054453.html
Other young folk are out to rid the world of typos.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20100817_They_re_out_to_rid_the_world_of_typos.html#ixzz0wxpynJkO
Roy Peter Clark has written The Glamour of Grammar, a grammar manual for the 21st century that endorses breaking rules that make no sense.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/books/review/Shea-t.html?_r=1&nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3&pagewanted=all
Every day, the website Five Books features an eminent writer, thinker, commentator, politician, academic who chooses five books on his or her specialist subject.
http://fivebooks.com/
There was a time, not so long ago, when Shakespeare was banned. In Ontario.
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/850826--the-day-shakespeare-was-banned
A "book" can mean many things and has many futures, but it may need explaining for new readers. Lane Smith's new work for children is It's a Book.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129251016&ft=1&f=1008
The recent Norwegian court ruling against Åsne Seierstad, the author of The Bookseller of Kabul, throws into sharp relief the fine line between journalism and literature and raises questions about the very nature of non-fiction writing itself, writes Faisal al Yafai.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100820/REVIEW/708199994/1008
BOOKS & WRITERS
Intellectual property has become such a hot topic that Lewis Hyde's Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership is timely indeed. Robert Darnton describes the book as an eloquent and erudite plea for protecting our cultural patrimony from appropriation by commercial interests.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/books/review/Darnton-t.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3
Vietnam veteran and novelist Edward Wilson finds chilling echoes of that war in a US platoon's Iraq killing spree as described in Jim Frederick's Black Hearts: One Platoon's Descent into Madness in Iraq's Triangle of Death.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/21/black-hearts-jim-frederick
James Ellroy, the author of LA Confidential and The Black Dahlia, and whose latest book, Blood's a Rover, is now out in paperback, is still haunted by his mother's ghost.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2010/aug/22/observer-profile-james-ellroy
Milan Kundera's trademark lightness of style continues in Encounters: Essays.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/21/encounters-essays-milan-kundera
Kundera's exhumed essays cast a spell with their insights into creativity, writes Geoff Dyer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/22/encounter-essays-review
Human Chain, Seamus Heaney's new collection brilliantly enacts the struggle between memory and loss, says Colm Tóibín.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/21/seamus-heaney-human-chain-review
Susan Salter Reynolds writes that Per Petterson's I Curse the River of Time masterfully captures a family's sorrow and disconnect - a vivid portrait of longing for something just out of reach.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-book-20100821,0,6463919.story
William Skidelsky argues that the fascination with Christos Tsiolkas' The Slap is due to its being a novel about the failings of middle-class life and points to wider concerns about the durability of liberal values in a multicultural society.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/22/will-skidelsky-the-slap-success
R.B. Fleming's Peter Gzowski: A Biography paints a portrait of a brilliant man who hid a private dark side.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/biographer-claims-peter-gzowski-had-secret-child/article1682183/
Margaret MacMillan's new biography of Stephen Leacock indicates that he, too, had a dark side.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2010/08/23/StephenLeacock/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=230810
Günther Grass says that his new book Grimms Wörter: Eine Liebeserklärung (Grimms' Words: A Declaration of Love), a paean to the Brothers Grimm and the dictionary of German language they began to write, marks the end of his autobiographical writing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/24/gunter-grass-last-autobiography
COMMUNITY EVENTS
JILL EDMONSON
Author reads from her new novel, Blood and Groom, part of the Castle Street Mysteries. Saturday, August 28 at 1:00pm. Indigo Marine Drive (1025 Marine Drive).
COMIX & STORIES
Vancouver Comiccon's annual event featuring independent, small-press, and alternative publishers, comics, artists, animators,
and zines. Guests include Emily Horne and Joey Comeau. Sunday, August 29 from 11am to 5pm. Tickets $4. Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street. For more information, visit www.vancouvercomiccon.com.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Van Slam featuring Kim Johnson. Monday, August 30 at 8:00pm. Cover: $10/$5. Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial). More information at www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com
Upcoming
SPIDER ROBINSON
The Library's sixth Writer in Residence will read from some of his many award-winning works and talk about the writing process at his inaugural reading. Thursday, September 9 at 7:00pm, free. Alice McKay room, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.
GARY GEDDES
Reading by the author from his latest book of poetry, Swimming Ginger. Monday, September 13 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen Room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3603.
KATHY PAGE AND ALISSA YORK
Authors will be reading from their works. Saturday, September 18. Bolen Books (111 - 1644 Hillside Avenue, Victoria). For more information, visit www.kathypage.info or contact Bolen Books, (250) 595-4232.
SUSAN BOYD
Join the author as she reads from her book Hooked: Drug War Films in Britain, Canada and the United States. Wednesday, September 22 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3738.
THE RAVEN'S GIFT
Author John Turk will read from his new book. Thursday, September 23 at 7:00pm. Banyen Books & Sound, 3608 4th Ave. West.
KOOTENAY BOOK WEEKEND
Discuss four books in small groups throughout the weekend. This year's books are The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry and our guest author, Anita Rau Badami's book Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? September 24-26, 2010, Nelson BC. Further information and registration forms can be found here, www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
DAVID GLENN
The Burnaby Arts Council will host a launch of The Queen's Sword and The Queen's Jewels. Saturday, September 25 at 1:00pm. Deer Lake Gallery, 6584 Deer Lake Avenue, Burnaby.
EVENING THE FRAYED EDGES
Launch of the Recovery Narrative Project's first anthology of collected works, edited by Susan J. Katz, featuring a series of narratives and poems bringing first-hand accounts of turning points in recovery from mental illness. Sunday, September 26 at 7:00pm, free. John Braithwaite Community Centre, 145 West 1st Street, North Vancouver.
WORD ON THE STREET
Annual event dedicated to promoting reading and literacy throughout the community. Sunday, September 26 from 11am to 6pm. Library Square, Central Libray, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information, visit www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/vancouver.
EVOLVE: VAMPIRE STORIES OF THE NEW UNDEAD
Listen to Vancouver writers Mary Choo, Sandra Wickham and Celdae (Colleen) Anderson, 3 of 22 Canadian authors featured in this most unusual and compelling collection as they re-imagine the future of vampires. Monday, September 27 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information phone 604-331-3691.
MICHAEL NICHOLL YAHGULANAAS
Reading by the author of Red. Thursday, September 30 at 1:00pm, free. Lillooet Room (level 3), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, Vancouver. More information at www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Book News Vol. 5 No. 36
BOOK NEWS
Virtual Festival
The latest recording in our recently launched series of archived events from Festivals-past featuring Lorna Crozier. One of Canada's finest poets talks about her work straight from the heart. http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives
Twitter Contest
Only one day left to win tickets to Festival events and untold fame and glory, just by tweeting! Details on our website, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/get-involved/twittercontest.
Call for Volunteers
Volunteer registration for our 2010 festival October 19-24 is now on-line! Please see http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/volunteers/volunteers_needed.htm for details and on-line registration. Come and join us, it's fun and illuminating!
Special Events
John Vaillant
The author of the multi-award-winning The Golden Spruce will discuss his new book The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, a gripping tale of man and nature in collision, that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the Siberian forest. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/vaillant.
Amazon.com has 32 short reviews of John Vaillant's The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival which indicate that many readers find the book gripping, a page-turner, and they highly recommended it. The book will be released in Canada on August 24.
http://www.amazon.com/Tiger-True-Story-Vengeance-Survival/product-reviews/0307268934/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
Alissa York and Richard Harvell
Please join us as Giller-shortlisted author Alissa York and debut novelist Richard Harvell read from their new works. Details at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/yorkharvell.
2010 FESTIVAL AUTHORS
The following authors will be attending the Festival in October or participating in special events in the fall.
John Barber interviews Camilla Gibb on what some might see as her counter-intuitive way of preparing to write her latest novel, The Beauty of Humanity Movement.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/full-speed-ahead-into-the-unknown/article1670545/
Elaine Kalman Naves writes: "(Gibb) isn't satisfied with merely creating convincing characters and a bold plot. She educates and enlightens the reader."
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Camilla+Gibb+explores+exile+identity+belonging+Hanoi/3391233/story.html
The Guardian's summer short story special includes stories by David Mitchell, Hilary Mantel, Barbara Trapido, and others.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/14/summer-short-story-special
Richard VanCamp and Billeh Nickerson are among the authors with works on the longlists for Canada's ReLit Award, "the country's pre-eminent literary prize recognizing independent presses," according to the Globe and Mail.
http://relitawards.com/
Karl Marlantes' Matterhorn, a novel of the Vietnam war, has reopened old debates and old wounds In America. An unquestioning salute to loyalty, sacrifice and duty, writes Adam Mars Jones.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/15/matterhorn-karl-marlantes-vietnam-war
AWARDS & LISTS
What Works, by Hamish McRae, the chief economic commentator for The Independent, is on the long list for the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/independent-expert-shortlisted-for-book-award-2048052.html
Two crime novels featuring 12-year-old investigators are in the final cut for the Crime Writers' Association's Gold Dagger award. The authors are competing against George Pelecanos' The Way Home. Scott Turow's Innocent is among those shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Silver Dagger. Four authors are shortlisted for the John Creasey New Blood Dagger for the best first novel of the year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/10/gold-dagger-nominees-child-investigators
A Thousand Dreams: Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and the Fight for its Future by Vancouver Sun reporter Lori Culbert, Larry Campbell and Neil Boyd, has been shortlisted for the George Ryga award.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/reporter+shortlisted+book+award/3411321/story.html
NEWS & FEATURES
In June a prominent critic proclaimed American literary fiction dead. But last week, for the first time in ten years, a living American author, Jonathan Franzen, was on the cover of Time magazine and his new book received ecstatic reviews.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/15/jonathan-franzen-novels-freedom-preview
It began as a plan to introduce great literature to people who would never otherwise encounter it. Now literature is being used as part of a revolutionary therapy to transform people's lives.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/brian-viner/well-read-literature-is-being-used-as-part-of-revolutionary-therapy-to-transform-peoples-lives-2049774.html
Author Stuart Kelly argues that Sir Walter Scott invented English legends, the idea of England and the idea of Scotland.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/16/walter-scott-edinburgh-book-festival
Tahar Wattar, one of Algeria's leading Arab-language writers, who used his novels to explore his nation's struggle for independence from France and its post-colonial history, has died, at 74.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/08/13/obit-wattar-tahar.html
Sir Frank Kermode, widely acclaimed as Britain's foremost literary critic, has died, aged 90.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/18/frank-kermode-dies-aged-90
Alberta poetry publisher Frontenac House is celebrating its tenth anniversary by holding a competition with new publications of the ten winners (more than twice the number of Frontenac House's usual annual publications).
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/prairie-harvest-times-10/article1670587/
Chick Lit? Women's Literature? Why not just ... Literature? asks Diane Meier responding to some reviewers derisively deciding her first novel The Season of Second Chances was, alas, chick lit.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-meier/chick-lit-womens-literatu_b_678893.html
Will poetry aid local business? The Long Beach CA business improvement association has installed two poetry boxes near local coffee shops in the hope that poetry will foster creativity in the community and, at the same time, bring people to businesses and boost sales.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/bookpatrol/archives/217845.asp
Beatrix Potter's publisher has invited actor Emma Thompson to write a new Peter Rabbit book to mark the 110th anniversary of The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 2012.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/08/16/peter-rabbit-emma-thompson.html
Marianne Ackerman interviews Dany Laferrière, whose Je suis un écrivain japonais (2009) has been translated by David Homell. I am a Japanese Writer will be published this fall.
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2010.09-books-the-work-of-art/1/
Blake Gopnik describes the tremendous mental kick he got from reading difficult books when he was ill.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/12/AR2010081206668.html?wprss=rss_print/style
BOOKS & WRITERS
Edited extracts of Michael Frayn's new memoir My Father's Fortune: A Life reveal a man who "had a certain lightness of being".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/14/michael-frayn-memoir
What Stieg Larsson's Trilogy has done for Sweden and Alexander McCall Smith did for Botswana, American writer Zoë Ferraris, hopes to do for Saudi Arabia, with her thriller City of Veils. The San Francisco Chronicle’s review says that Ferraris follows the formula for successful global crime fiction, and feels fresh.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/13/RVQ01ER7HI.DTL
Keith Oatley's new novel Therefore Choose (the title is based on a phrase from Dante) follows a Berlin love triangle through war and its aftermath.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/847623--therefore-choose-a-love-triangle-informed-by-world-war-ii
Boyd Tonkin describes A.B. Yehoshua’s Friendly Fire – last year shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize – as a bitingly well-observed novel.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/friendly-fire-by-a-b-yehoshua-2050887.html
"In the end, there is magic" says Kate Webb in her review of Started Early, Took My Dog, the fourth of Kate Atkinson's books about the private detective Jackson Brodie.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7165158.ece
In Doggy Slippers, Mexican poet Jorge Luján, with illustrations by Argentinian artist Isol, brings to life the thoughts kids have about their precious pets.
http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/activities/familytime/stories/article/846831--doggy-slippers-a-mexican-poet-brings-to-vivid-life-the-thoughts-kids-have-about-their-precious-pets
Katie Roiphe writes that any dreamy or bookish girl who once loved "Harriet the Spy" should immediately take up The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton, a lively new biography by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/books/review/Roiphe-t.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema4
The story in Howard Norman's What is Left the Daughter is large, set against the backdrop of a simmering war whose violence sometimes hits close to home.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2012607766_br13norman.html
The NY Times review adds that What is Left the Daughter is a novel about the illogic of love and the violent chaos it leaves in its wake. And the book ends on a promise.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/books/review/Wallace-t.html
Here is an excerpt:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/books/review/excerpt-what-is-left-the-daughter.html?ref=review
COMMUNITY EVENTS
THE MAIN STREET MAGAZINE TOUR
The Magazine Association of B.C. presents a celebration of local arts, literary, and cultural magazines featuring readings by local poets Elizabeth Bachinsky and Jennica Harper, performances, and exhibits. August 19 at 6:00pm, free. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway. More information at www.mainstreetmagazinetour.ca.
SUMMER DREAMS AWARDS CEREMONY
Celebrate those in the writing community who deserve to be honoured. Friday, August 20 at 7:00pm. Jacana Gallery (2435 Granville Street).
SUMMER DREAMS LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL
Annual one day event showcasing and celebrating the on-going literary events, programs and resources available to the community. Features Evelyn Lau, Brad Cran and many others. Saturday, August 21. Complete details here, http://sites.google.com/site/summerdreamsfest/home.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Youth Slam featuring Rob Gee. Monday, August 23 at 8:00pm. Admission: $5/$3. Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial). More information at www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com
VANCOUVER THEN AND NOW
Launch of Francis Mansbridge's new book featuring a series of archival images juxtaposed with photos from the present. Thursday, August 26 at 7:00pm, free. City of Vancouver Archives, 1150 Chestnut Street. For more information, phone 604.323.7163.
JILL EDMONSON
Author reads from her new novel, Blood and Groom, part of the Castle Street Mysteries. Saturday, August 28 at 1:00pm. Indigo Marine Drive (1025 Marine Drive).
COMIX & STORIES
Vancouver Comiccon's annual event featuring independent, small-press, and alternative publishers, comics, artists, animators,
and zines. Guests include Emily Horne and Joey Comeau. Sunday, August 29 from 11am to 5pm. Tickets $4. Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street. For more information, visit www.vancouvercomiccon.com.
Upcoming
SPIDER ROBINSON
The Library's sixth Writer in Residence will read from some of his many award-winning works and talk about the writing process at his inaugural reading. Thursday, September 9 at 7:00pm, free. Alice McKay room, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.
GARY GEDDES
Reading by the author from his latest book of poetry, Swimming Ginger. Monday, September 13 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen Room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3603.
KATHY PAGE AND ALISSA YORK
Authors will be reading from their works. Saturday, September 18. Bolen Books (111 - 1644 Hillside Avenue, Victoria). For more information, visit www.kathypage.info or contact Bolen Books, (250) 595-4232.
SUSAN BOYD
Join the author as she reads from her book Hooked: Drug War Films in Britain, Canada and the United States. Wednesday, September 22 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3738.
THE RAVEN'S GIFT
Author John Turk will read from his new book. Thursday, September 23 at 7:00pm. Banyen Books & Sound, 3608 4th Ave. West.
KOOTENAY BOOK WEEKEND
Discuss four books in small groups throughout the weekend. This year's books are The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry and our guest author, Anita Rau Badami's book Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? September 24-26, 2010, Nelson BC. Further information and registration forms can be found here, www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
WORD ON THE STREET
Annual event dedicated to promoting reading and literacy throughout the community. Sunday, September 26 from 11am to 6pm. Library Square, Central Libray, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information, visit www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/vancouver.
EVOLVE: VAMPIRE STORIES OF THE NEW UNDEAD
Listen to Vancouver writers Mary Choo, Sandra Wickham and Celdae (Colleen) Anderson, 3 of 22 Canadian authors featured in this most unusual and compelling collection as they re-imagine the future of vampires. Monday, September 27 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information phone 604-331-3691.
MICHAEL NICHOLL YAHGULANAAS
Reading by the author of Red. Thursday, September 30 at 1:00pm, free. Lillooet Room (level 3), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, Vancouver. More information at www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca.
Virtual Festival
The latest recording in our recently launched series of archived events from Festivals-past featuring Lorna Crozier. One of Canada's finest poets talks about her work straight from the heart. http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives
Twitter Contest
Only one day left to win tickets to Festival events and untold fame and glory, just by tweeting! Details on our website, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/get-involved/twittercontest.
Call for Volunteers
Volunteer registration for our 2010 festival October 19-24 is now on-line! Please see http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/volunteers/volunteers_needed.htm for details and on-line registration. Come and join us, it's fun and illuminating!
Special Events
John Vaillant
The author of the multi-award-winning The Golden Spruce will discuss his new book The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, a gripping tale of man and nature in collision, that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the Siberian forest. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/vaillant.
Amazon.com has 32 short reviews of John Vaillant's The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival which indicate that many readers find the book gripping, a page-turner, and they highly recommended it. The book will be released in Canada on August 24.
http://www.amazon.com/Tiger-True-Story-Vengeance-Survival/product-reviews/0307268934/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
Alissa York and Richard Harvell
Please join us as Giller-shortlisted author Alissa York and debut novelist Richard Harvell read from their new works. Details at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/yorkharvell.
2010 FESTIVAL AUTHORS
The following authors will be attending the Festival in October or participating in special events in the fall.
John Barber interviews Camilla Gibb on what some might see as her counter-intuitive way of preparing to write her latest novel, The Beauty of Humanity Movement.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/full-speed-ahead-into-the-unknown/article1670545/
Elaine Kalman Naves writes: "(Gibb) isn't satisfied with merely creating convincing characters and a bold plot. She educates and enlightens the reader."
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Camilla+Gibb+explores+exile+identity+belonging+Hanoi/3391233/story.html
The Guardian's summer short story special includes stories by David Mitchell, Hilary Mantel, Barbara Trapido, and others.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/14/summer-short-story-special
Richard VanCamp and Billeh Nickerson are among the authors with works on the longlists for Canada's ReLit Award, "the country's pre-eminent literary prize recognizing independent presses," according to the Globe and Mail.
http://relitawards.com/
Karl Marlantes' Matterhorn, a novel of the Vietnam war, has reopened old debates and old wounds In America. An unquestioning salute to loyalty, sacrifice and duty, writes Adam Mars Jones.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/15/matterhorn-karl-marlantes-vietnam-war
AWARDS & LISTS
What Works, by Hamish McRae, the chief economic commentator for The Independent, is on the long list for the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/independent-expert-shortlisted-for-book-award-2048052.html
Two crime novels featuring 12-year-old investigators are in the final cut for the Crime Writers' Association's Gold Dagger award. The authors are competing against George Pelecanos' The Way Home. Scott Turow's Innocent is among those shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Silver Dagger. Four authors are shortlisted for the John Creasey New Blood Dagger for the best first novel of the year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/10/gold-dagger-nominees-child-investigators
A Thousand Dreams: Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and the Fight for its Future by Vancouver Sun reporter Lori Culbert, Larry Campbell and Neil Boyd, has been shortlisted for the George Ryga award.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/reporter+shortlisted+book+award/3411321/story.html
NEWS & FEATURES
In June a prominent critic proclaimed American literary fiction dead. But last week, for the first time in ten years, a living American author, Jonathan Franzen, was on the cover of Time magazine and his new book received ecstatic reviews.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/15/jonathan-franzen-novels-freedom-preview
It began as a plan to introduce great literature to people who would never otherwise encounter it. Now literature is being used as part of a revolutionary therapy to transform people's lives.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/brian-viner/well-read-literature-is-being-used-as-part-of-revolutionary-therapy-to-transform-peoples-lives-2049774.html
Author Stuart Kelly argues that Sir Walter Scott invented English legends, the idea of England and the idea of Scotland.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/16/walter-scott-edinburgh-book-festival
Tahar Wattar, one of Algeria's leading Arab-language writers, who used his novels to explore his nation's struggle for independence from France and its post-colonial history, has died, at 74.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/08/13/obit-wattar-tahar.html
Sir Frank Kermode, widely acclaimed as Britain's foremost literary critic, has died, aged 90.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/18/frank-kermode-dies-aged-90
Alberta poetry publisher Frontenac House is celebrating its tenth anniversary by holding a competition with new publications of the ten winners (more than twice the number of Frontenac House's usual annual publications).
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/prairie-harvest-times-10/article1670587/
Chick Lit? Women's Literature? Why not just ... Literature? asks Diane Meier responding to some reviewers derisively deciding her first novel The Season of Second Chances was, alas, chick lit.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-meier/chick-lit-womens-literatu_b_678893.html
Will poetry aid local business? The Long Beach CA business improvement association has installed two poetry boxes near local coffee shops in the hope that poetry will foster creativity in the community and, at the same time, bring people to businesses and boost sales.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/bookpatrol/archives/217845.asp
Beatrix Potter's publisher has invited actor Emma Thompson to write a new Peter Rabbit book to mark the 110th anniversary of The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 2012.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/08/16/peter-rabbit-emma-thompson.html
Marianne Ackerman interviews Dany Laferrière, whose Je suis un écrivain japonais (2009) has been translated by David Homell. I am a Japanese Writer will be published this fall.
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2010.09-books-the-work-of-art/1/
Blake Gopnik describes the tremendous mental kick he got from reading difficult books when he was ill.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/12/AR2010081206668.html?wprss=rss_print/style
BOOKS & WRITERS
Edited extracts of Michael Frayn's new memoir My Father's Fortune: A Life reveal a man who "had a certain lightness of being".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/14/michael-frayn-memoir
What Stieg Larsson's Trilogy has done for Sweden and Alexander McCall Smith did for Botswana, American writer Zoë Ferraris, hopes to do for Saudi Arabia, with her thriller City of Veils. The San Francisco Chronicle’s review says that Ferraris follows the formula for successful global crime fiction, and feels fresh.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/13/RVQ01ER7HI.DTL
Keith Oatley's new novel Therefore Choose (the title is based on a phrase from Dante) follows a Berlin love triangle through war and its aftermath.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/847623--therefore-choose-a-love-triangle-informed-by-world-war-ii
Boyd Tonkin describes A.B. Yehoshua’s Friendly Fire – last year shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize – as a bitingly well-observed novel.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/friendly-fire-by-a-b-yehoshua-2050887.html
"In the end, there is magic" says Kate Webb in her review of Started Early, Took My Dog, the fourth of Kate Atkinson's books about the private detective Jackson Brodie.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7165158.ece
In Doggy Slippers, Mexican poet Jorge Luján, with illustrations by Argentinian artist Isol, brings to life the thoughts kids have about their precious pets.
http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/activities/familytime/stories/article/846831--doggy-slippers-a-mexican-poet-brings-to-vivid-life-the-thoughts-kids-have-about-their-precious-pets
Katie Roiphe writes that any dreamy or bookish girl who once loved "Harriet the Spy" should immediately take up The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton, a lively new biography by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/books/review/Roiphe-t.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema4
The story in Howard Norman's What is Left the Daughter is large, set against the backdrop of a simmering war whose violence sometimes hits close to home.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2012607766_br13norman.html
The NY Times review adds that What is Left the Daughter is a novel about the illogic of love and the violent chaos it leaves in its wake. And the book ends on a promise.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/books/review/Wallace-t.html
Here is an excerpt:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/books/review/excerpt-what-is-left-the-daughter.html?ref=review
COMMUNITY EVENTS
THE MAIN STREET MAGAZINE TOUR
The Magazine Association of B.C. presents a celebration of local arts, literary, and cultural magazines featuring readings by local poets Elizabeth Bachinsky and Jennica Harper, performances, and exhibits. August 19 at 6:00pm, free. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway. More information at www.mainstreetmagazinetour.ca.
SUMMER DREAMS AWARDS CEREMONY
Celebrate those in the writing community who deserve to be honoured. Friday, August 20 at 7:00pm. Jacana Gallery (2435 Granville Street).
SUMMER DREAMS LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL
Annual one day event showcasing and celebrating the on-going literary events, programs and resources available to the community. Features Evelyn Lau, Brad Cran and many others. Saturday, August 21. Complete details here, http://sites.google.com/site/summerdreamsfest/home.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Youth Slam featuring Rob Gee. Monday, August 23 at 8:00pm. Admission: $5/$3. Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial). More information at www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com
VANCOUVER THEN AND NOW
Launch of Francis Mansbridge's new book featuring a series of archival images juxtaposed with photos from the present. Thursday, August 26 at 7:00pm, free. City of Vancouver Archives, 1150 Chestnut Street. For more information, phone 604.323.7163.
JILL EDMONSON
Author reads from her new novel, Blood and Groom, part of the Castle Street Mysteries. Saturday, August 28 at 1:00pm. Indigo Marine Drive (1025 Marine Drive).
COMIX & STORIES
Vancouver Comiccon's annual event featuring independent, small-press, and alternative publishers, comics, artists, animators,
and zines. Guests include Emily Horne and Joey Comeau. Sunday, August 29 from 11am to 5pm. Tickets $4. Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street. For more information, visit www.vancouvercomiccon.com.
Upcoming
SPIDER ROBINSON
The Library's sixth Writer in Residence will read from some of his many award-winning works and talk about the writing process at his inaugural reading. Thursday, September 9 at 7:00pm, free. Alice McKay room, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.
GARY GEDDES
Reading by the author from his latest book of poetry, Swimming Ginger. Monday, September 13 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen Room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3603.
KATHY PAGE AND ALISSA YORK
Authors will be reading from their works. Saturday, September 18. Bolen Books (111 - 1644 Hillside Avenue, Victoria). For more information, visit www.kathypage.info or contact Bolen Books, (250) 595-4232.
SUSAN BOYD
Join the author as she reads from her book Hooked: Drug War Films in Britain, Canada and the United States. Wednesday, September 22 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3738.
THE RAVEN'S GIFT
Author John Turk will read from his new book. Thursday, September 23 at 7:00pm. Banyen Books & Sound, 3608 4th Ave. West.
KOOTENAY BOOK WEEKEND
Discuss four books in small groups throughout the weekend. This year's books are The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry and our guest author, Anita Rau Badami's book Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? September 24-26, 2010, Nelson BC. Further information and registration forms can be found here, www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
WORD ON THE STREET
Annual event dedicated to promoting reading and literacy throughout the community. Sunday, September 26 from 11am to 6pm. Library Square, Central Libray, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information, visit www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/vancouver.
EVOLVE: VAMPIRE STORIES OF THE NEW UNDEAD
Listen to Vancouver writers Mary Choo, Sandra Wickham and Celdae (Colleen) Anderson, 3 of 22 Canadian authors featured in this most unusual and compelling collection as they re-imagine the future of vampires. Monday, September 27 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information phone 604-331-3691.
MICHAEL NICHOLL YAHGULANAAS
Reading by the author of Red. Thursday, September 30 at 1:00pm, free. Lillooet Room (level 3), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, Vancouver. More information at www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Book News Vol. 5 No. 35
BOOK NEWS
Virtual Festival
The latest recording in our recently launched series of archived events from Festivals-past featuring Kate Braid, Annabel Lyon and Thomas Trofimuk. Putting words in the mouths of great philosophers, explorers and musicians is no easy task. Find out how these three authors meet the challenge. http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives
Twitter Contest
Win tickets to Festival events and untold fame and glory, just by tweeting! Details on our website, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/get-involved/twittercontest.
Special Events
Alexander McCall Smith
The Cellist of Sarajevo author Steven Galloway talks with Alexander McCall Smith, bestselling author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency about his forthcoming book, Corduroy Mansions. Complete details on our website, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/mccallsmith. The National Post, quoting the Vancouver Sun, describes Alexander McCall Smith's Corduroy Mansions as cosy and comfortable—with maybe just the tiniest hint of cynicism. http://arts.nationalpost.com/2010/08/09/buy-it-or-skip-it-corduroy-mansions/.
John Vaillant
The author of the multi-award-winning The Golden Spruce will discuss his new book The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, a gripping tale of man and nature in collision, that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the Siberian forest. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/vaillant.
Alissa York and Richard Harvell
Please join us as Giller-shortlisted author Alissa York and debut novelist Richard Harvell read from their new works. Details at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/yorkharvell.
2010 FESTIVAL AUTHORS
The following authors will be attending the Festival in October or participating in special events in the fall.
More accolades for Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story appeared in Sunday's NY Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/books/review/Wood-t.html?_r=1&nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3
An excerpt can be found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/books/excerpt-super-sad-true-love-story.html?ref=review
"Dystopia is my middle name" is one of Shteyngart's responses to questions from Deborah Solomon in the NY Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/magazine/18fob-q4-t.html?ref=review
Boyd Tonkin interviews Emma Donoghue on the universal story in her latest novel.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/room-with-a-panoramic-view-how-emma-donoghues-latest-novel-aims-to-tell-a-universal-story-2044373.html
At the heart of the book is a kind of parable of the mother-child relationship, says Susanna Rustin.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/07/emma-donoghue-room-booker-review
"It's both hard to put down and profoundly affecting" writes Robert Collins about Donaghue's Room.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/07/critical-eye-book-reviews-roundup
Like one of the characters in her new collection Greedy Little Eyes, Billie Livingston may be a scavenger, but her stories are generous and wistful, writes Ryan Biggs in The Star.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/844588--greedy-little-eyes-stories-of-observance
David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is one of the books recommended in The Star's list of what Toronto's top minds are reading this summer.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/844850--what-toronto-s-top-minds-are-reading-this-summer
The graphic novel Good-bye Marianne by Irene N. Watts and illustrated by Kathryn Shoemaker, is adapted from a story book for young adults under the same name, reviewer Norman Ravinn writes: "Because of its artwork, it is the kind of book a reader might return to and muse over."
http://tinyurl.com/2earzh2
AWARDS & LISTS
A review of Rana Dasgupta's Commonwealth Writers' Prize-winning Solo informs us that The Telegraph (U.K.) has its own 20 under 40 list, which includes Dasgupta.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-solo-by-rana-dasgupta/article1664380/
NEWS & FEATURES
Tony Judt, one of America's leading intellectuals, died in New York last week of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Perhaps the most detailed description of the impact of Judt's scholarship and writing on the history of the modern world is by his friend and colleague Geoffrey Wheatcroft, writing in the Guardian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/08/tony-judt-obituary
The New York Review of Books has links to recent articles by Judt in the Review.
http://www.nybooks.com/
As a tribute, the Guardian has published one of Judt’s final essays.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/09/tony-judt-words-all-we-have-tribute
Robert McCrum achieves a rare interview with author Don De Lillo.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/08/don-delillo-mccrum-interview
The latest New Yorker includes a Q&A with Canadian author David Bezmozgis, one of its 20 under 40.
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/06/14/100614fi_fiction_20under40_qa_david-bezmozgis
His story The Train of Their Departure is included in the same issue.
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/08/09/100809fi_fiction_bezmozgis
Some find the 'chick-lit' label offensive: does 'light' have to mean 'stupid'?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/05/chick-lit-debate-michele-gorman
Nature on the brink is a hot theme for novels right now. The best might have been written in 1851.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2010/07/28/EcoThrillers/
What happened to sex in the British novel? Andrew Motion, the former poet laureate, has a theory.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/01/sex-british-novel-chatterley
The Guardian interviews Howard Jacobson on being a comic writer (not a humorist). Jacobson's The Finkler Question is on the Booker Prize longlist.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/07/howard-jacobson-life-writing
PEI poet Tanya Davis has transformed her poem about combating loneliness into a song in a music video on YouTube. The video has had over 600,000 views.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2010/08/09/pei-youtube-video-hit-584.html
More than 1 million books were published in the U.S. last year, with "nontraditional" titles counting more than double the commercial titles.
http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/article_a53f72cd-28df-5d1e-8f77-265422a378c3.html
The Awl has printed a list of the books that kids (including those not so young) are stealing these days.
http://www.theawl.com/2010/08/the-most-stolen-books-at-mcnally-jackson
BOOKS & WRITERS
Robin McKie names Merchants of Doubt his runaway contender for best science book of the year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/08/merchants-of-doubt-oreskes-conway
Sometimes Lydia Davis takes a word for a walk, writes Christopher Taylor in his review of her Collected Stories.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/07/collected-stories-lydia-davis-review
Adam Ross's Mr. Peanut is a tour de force of literary gamesmanship that never takes itself too seriously, writes Robert J. Wiersema.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/dead+woman+plate+peanuts/3371294/story.html
In his review, Scott Turow writes that "Adam Ross's daring first novel is a bleakly convincing portrayal of the eternal contest that often passes for a marriage."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/books/review/Turow-t.html?ref=bookreviews
Here is an excerpt:
http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307270702&view=excerpt
A hardboiled detective tale, a fictional Parisian lawyer, and the Dreyfus Affair are three components that make Kate Taylor's A Man in Uniform a wonderful read.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/bookreviews/article/840999--a-man-in-uniform-the-dreyfus-affair-spurs-a-rollicking-novel
Mark Frutkin in the Globe adds that the novel is a bracing reminder that we dare not have blind faith in our leaders.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-a-man-in-uniform-by-kate-taylor/article1662940/
Nadine Gordimer's Telling Times: Writing and Living, 1954-2008 brings together 91 pieces of her non-fiction written over 55 years.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/index.html
The Washington Post reviews two books on advertising—The Age of Persuasion by CBC regulars Terry O'Reilly and Mike Tennant and Storytelling by French author Christian Salmon. No longer do storytelling and advertising share the same multimedia bed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/30/AR2010073002548.html
Tim Congdon argues in the Times Literary Supplement that Niall Ferguson is wrong to put the banker Siegmund Warburg on a moral pedestal.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7164546.ece
Booker-longlisted novel The Slap has been described as a 'modern masterpiece' and 'unbelievably misogynistic'. Christos Tsiolkas denies it's misogynistic, and is pleased it's making readers angry.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/07/the-slap-christos-tsiolkas
Toronto's Poet Laureate Dionne Brand's new collection of her work, Ossuaries, says reviewer Barbara Carey, offers only a glimmer of hopefulness.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/bookreviews/article/844523--ossuaries-dionne-brand-s-new-collection-ponders-the-fragile-fragile-promise-of-humanity
Wayne Grady finds Paul Greenberg's thesis in Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food to be compelling. We are doing the same thing to fish that we have done to mammals and birds.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-four-fish-the-future-of-the-last-wild-food-by-paul-greenberg/article1662788/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Join Canada's longest-running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers, featuring established literary stars and exciting new voices, with opportunities for writers and readers to mingle amidst Rockwood's heritage gardens. August 12-15, 2010. Tickets are now on sale by phoning 1-800-565-9631 or 604-885-9631. Details at www.writersfestival.ca.
US AND THE SIREN OF HOWE SOUND
The Shebeen Club presents a night in celebration of the recent publication of poet Heather Haley's Three Blocks West of Wonderland. Monday, August 16 at 7:00pm. Tickets $20 and include dinner and a drink. Shebeen Whisk(e)y House (behind 212 Carrall Street). More information at www.theshebeenclub.com.
PEN IN HAND
Monthly reading series, this week featuring Gisela Ruebsaat, Joy Huebert and Katrin Horowitz with their new book Pathways Not Posted. Monday, August 16 at 7:30pm. Serious Coffee (230 Cook Street, Victoria). For more information, email ainbinder.collins@gmail.com.
THE MAIN STREET MAGAZINE TOUR
The Magazine Association of B.C. presents a celebration of local arts, literary, and cultural magazines featuring readings by local poets Elizabeth Bachinsky and Jennica Harper, performances, and exhibits. August 19 at 6:00pm, free. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway. More information at www.mainstreetmagazinetour.ca.
SUMMER DREAMS AWARDS CEREMONY
Celebrate those in the writing community who deserve to be honoured. Friday, August 20 at 7:00pm. Jacana Gallery (2435 Granville Street).
SUMMER DREAMS LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL
Annual one day event showcasing and celebrating the on-going literary events, programs and resources available to the community. Features Evelyn Lau, Brad Cran and many others. Saturday, August 21. Complete details here, http://sites.google.com/site/summerdreamsfest/home.
Upcoming
VANCOUVER THEN AND NOW
Launch of Francis Mansbridge's new book featuring a series of archival images juxtaposed with photos from the present. Thursday, August 26 at 7:00pm, free. City of Vancouver Archives, 1150 Chestnut Street. For more information, phone 604.323.7163.
JILL EDMONSON
Author reads from her new novel, Blood and Groom, part of the Castle Street Mysteries. Saturday, August 28 at 1:00pm. Indigo Marine Drive (1025 Marine Drive).
COMIX & STORIES
Vancouver Comiccon's annual event featuring independent, small-press, and alternative publishers, comics, artists, animators,
and zines. Guests include Emily Horne and Joey Comeau. Sunday, August 29 from 11am to 5pm. Tickets $4. Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street. For more information, visit www.vancouvercomiccon.com.
GARY GEDDES
Reading by the author from his latest book of poetry, Swimming Ginger. Monday, September 13 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen Room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3603.
KATHY PAGE AND ALISSA YORK
Authors will be reading from their works. Saturday, September 18. Bolen Books (111 - 1644 Hillside Avenue, Victoria). For more information, visit www.kathypage.info or contact Bolen Books, (250) 595-4232.
SUSAN BOYD
Join the author as she reads from her book Hooked: Drug War Films in Britain, Canada and the United States. Wednesday, September 22 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3738.
THE RAVEN'S GIFT
Author John Turk will read from his new book. Thursday, September 23 at 7:00pm. Banyen Books & Sound, 3608 4th Ave. West.
KOOTENAY BOOK WEEKEND
Discuss four books in small groups throughout the weekend. This year's books are The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry and our guest author, Anita Rau Badami's book Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? September 24-26, 2010, Nelson BC. Further information and registration forms can be found here, www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
WORD ON THE STREET
Annual event dedicated to promoting reading and literacy throughout the community. Sunday, September 26 from 11am to 6pm. Library Square, Central Libray, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information, visit www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/vancouver.
EVOLVE: VAMPIRE STORIES OF THE NEW UNDEAD
Listen to Vancouver writers Mary Choo, Sandra Wickham and Celdae (Colleen) Anderson, 3 of 22 Canadian authors featured in this most unusual and compelling collection as they re-imagine the future of vampires. Monday, September 27 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information phone 604-331-3691.
MICHAEL NICHOLL YAHGULANAAS
Reading by the author of Red. Thursday, September 30 at 1:00pm, free. Lillooet Room (level 3), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, Vancouver. More information at www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca.
Virtual Festival
The latest recording in our recently launched series of archived events from Festivals-past featuring Kate Braid, Annabel Lyon and Thomas Trofimuk. Putting words in the mouths of great philosophers, explorers and musicians is no easy task. Find out how these three authors meet the challenge. http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives
Twitter Contest
Win tickets to Festival events and untold fame and glory, just by tweeting! Details on our website, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/get-involved/twittercontest.
Special Events
Alexander McCall Smith
The Cellist of Sarajevo author Steven Galloway talks with Alexander McCall Smith, bestselling author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency about his forthcoming book, Corduroy Mansions. Complete details on our website, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/mccallsmith. The National Post, quoting the Vancouver Sun, describes Alexander McCall Smith's Corduroy Mansions as cosy and comfortable—with maybe just the tiniest hint of cynicism. http://arts.nationalpost.com/2010/08/09/buy-it-or-skip-it-corduroy-mansions/.
John Vaillant
The author of the multi-award-winning The Golden Spruce will discuss his new book The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, a gripping tale of man and nature in collision, that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the Siberian forest. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/vaillant.
Alissa York and Richard Harvell
Please join us as Giller-shortlisted author Alissa York and debut novelist Richard Harvell read from their new works. Details at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/yorkharvell.
2010 FESTIVAL AUTHORS
The following authors will be attending the Festival in October or participating in special events in the fall.
More accolades for Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story appeared in Sunday's NY Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/books/review/Wood-t.html?_r=1&nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3
An excerpt can be found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/books/excerpt-super-sad-true-love-story.html?ref=review
"Dystopia is my middle name" is one of Shteyngart's responses to questions from Deborah Solomon in the NY Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/magazine/18fob-q4-t.html?ref=review
Boyd Tonkin interviews Emma Donoghue on the universal story in her latest novel.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/room-with-a-panoramic-view-how-emma-donoghues-latest-novel-aims-to-tell-a-universal-story-2044373.html
At the heart of the book is a kind of parable of the mother-child relationship, says Susanna Rustin.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/07/emma-donoghue-room-booker-review
"It's both hard to put down and profoundly affecting" writes Robert Collins about Donaghue's Room.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/07/critical-eye-book-reviews-roundup
Like one of the characters in her new collection Greedy Little Eyes, Billie Livingston may be a scavenger, but her stories are generous and wistful, writes Ryan Biggs in The Star.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/844588--greedy-little-eyes-stories-of-observance
David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is one of the books recommended in The Star's list of what Toronto's top minds are reading this summer.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/844850--what-toronto-s-top-minds-are-reading-this-summer
The graphic novel Good-bye Marianne by Irene N. Watts and illustrated by Kathryn Shoemaker, is adapted from a story book for young adults under the same name, reviewer Norman Ravinn writes: "Because of its artwork, it is the kind of book a reader might return to and muse over."
http://tinyurl.com/2earzh2
AWARDS & LISTS
A review of Rana Dasgupta's Commonwealth Writers' Prize-winning Solo informs us that The Telegraph (U.K.) has its own 20 under 40 list, which includes Dasgupta.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-solo-by-rana-dasgupta/article1664380/
NEWS & FEATURES
Tony Judt, one of America's leading intellectuals, died in New York last week of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Perhaps the most detailed description of the impact of Judt's scholarship and writing on the history of the modern world is by his friend and colleague Geoffrey Wheatcroft, writing in the Guardian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/08/tony-judt-obituary
The New York Review of Books has links to recent articles by Judt in the Review.
http://www.nybooks.com/
As a tribute, the Guardian has published one of Judt’s final essays.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/09/tony-judt-words-all-we-have-tribute
Robert McCrum achieves a rare interview with author Don De Lillo.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/08/don-delillo-mccrum-interview
The latest New Yorker includes a Q&A with Canadian author David Bezmozgis, one of its 20 under 40.
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/06/14/100614fi_fiction_20under40_qa_david-bezmozgis
His story The Train of Their Departure is included in the same issue.
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/08/09/100809fi_fiction_bezmozgis
Some find the 'chick-lit' label offensive: does 'light' have to mean 'stupid'?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/05/chick-lit-debate-michele-gorman
Nature on the brink is a hot theme for novels right now. The best might have been written in 1851.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2010/07/28/EcoThrillers/
What happened to sex in the British novel? Andrew Motion, the former poet laureate, has a theory.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/01/sex-british-novel-chatterley
The Guardian interviews Howard Jacobson on being a comic writer (not a humorist). Jacobson's The Finkler Question is on the Booker Prize longlist.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/07/howard-jacobson-life-writing
PEI poet Tanya Davis has transformed her poem about combating loneliness into a song in a music video on YouTube. The video has had over 600,000 views.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2010/08/09/pei-youtube-video-hit-584.html
More than 1 million books were published in the U.S. last year, with "nontraditional" titles counting more than double the commercial titles.
http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/article_a53f72cd-28df-5d1e-8f77-265422a378c3.html
The Awl has printed a list of the books that kids (including those not so young) are stealing these days.
http://www.theawl.com/2010/08/the-most-stolen-books-at-mcnally-jackson
BOOKS & WRITERS
Robin McKie names Merchants of Doubt his runaway contender for best science book of the year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/08/merchants-of-doubt-oreskes-conway
Sometimes Lydia Davis takes a word for a walk, writes Christopher Taylor in his review of her Collected Stories.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/07/collected-stories-lydia-davis-review
Adam Ross's Mr. Peanut is a tour de force of literary gamesmanship that never takes itself too seriously, writes Robert J. Wiersema.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/dead+woman+plate+peanuts/3371294/story.html
In his review, Scott Turow writes that "Adam Ross's daring first novel is a bleakly convincing portrayal of the eternal contest that often passes for a marriage."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/books/review/Turow-t.html?ref=bookreviews
Here is an excerpt:
http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307270702&view=excerpt
A hardboiled detective tale, a fictional Parisian lawyer, and the Dreyfus Affair are three components that make Kate Taylor's A Man in Uniform a wonderful read.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/bookreviews/article/840999--a-man-in-uniform-the-dreyfus-affair-spurs-a-rollicking-novel
Mark Frutkin in the Globe adds that the novel is a bracing reminder that we dare not have blind faith in our leaders.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-a-man-in-uniform-by-kate-taylor/article1662940/
Nadine Gordimer's Telling Times: Writing and Living, 1954-2008 brings together 91 pieces of her non-fiction written over 55 years.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/index.html
The Washington Post reviews two books on advertising—The Age of Persuasion by CBC regulars Terry O'Reilly and Mike Tennant and Storytelling by French author Christian Salmon. No longer do storytelling and advertising share the same multimedia bed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/30/AR2010073002548.html
Tim Congdon argues in the Times Literary Supplement that Niall Ferguson is wrong to put the banker Siegmund Warburg on a moral pedestal.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7164546.ece
Booker-longlisted novel The Slap has been described as a 'modern masterpiece' and 'unbelievably misogynistic'. Christos Tsiolkas denies it's misogynistic, and is pleased it's making readers angry.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/07/the-slap-christos-tsiolkas
Toronto's Poet Laureate Dionne Brand's new collection of her work, Ossuaries, says reviewer Barbara Carey, offers only a glimmer of hopefulness.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/bookreviews/article/844523--ossuaries-dionne-brand-s-new-collection-ponders-the-fragile-fragile-promise-of-humanity
Wayne Grady finds Paul Greenberg's thesis in Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food to be compelling. We are doing the same thing to fish that we have done to mammals and birds.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-four-fish-the-future-of-the-last-wild-food-by-paul-greenberg/article1662788/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Join Canada's longest-running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers, featuring established literary stars and exciting new voices, with opportunities for writers and readers to mingle amidst Rockwood's heritage gardens. August 12-15, 2010. Tickets are now on sale by phoning 1-800-565-9631 or 604-885-9631. Details at www.writersfestival.ca.
US AND THE SIREN OF HOWE SOUND
The Shebeen Club presents a night in celebration of the recent publication of poet Heather Haley's Three Blocks West of Wonderland. Monday, August 16 at 7:00pm. Tickets $20 and include dinner and a drink. Shebeen Whisk(e)y House (behind 212 Carrall Street). More information at www.theshebeenclub.com.
PEN IN HAND
Monthly reading series, this week featuring Gisela Ruebsaat, Joy Huebert and Katrin Horowitz with their new book Pathways Not Posted. Monday, August 16 at 7:30pm. Serious Coffee (230 Cook Street, Victoria). For more information, email ainbinder.collins@gmail.com.
THE MAIN STREET MAGAZINE TOUR
The Magazine Association of B.C. presents a celebration of local arts, literary, and cultural magazines featuring readings by local poets Elizabeth Bachinsky and Jennica Harper, performances, and exhibits. August 19 at 6:00pm, free. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway. More information at www.mainstreetmagazinetour.ca.
SUMMER DREAMS AWARDS CEREMONY
Celebrate those in the writing community who deserve to be honoured. Friday, August 20 at 7:00pm. Jacana Gallery (2435 Granville Street).
SUMMER DREAMS LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL
Annual one day event showcasing and celebrating the on-going literary events, programs and resources available to the community. Features Evelyn Lau, Brad Cran and many others. Saturday, August 21. Complete details here, http://sites.google.com/site/summerdreamsfest/home.
Upcoming
VANCOUVER THEN AND NOW
Launch of Francis Mansbridge's new book featuring a series of archival images juxtaposed with photos from the present. Thursday, August 26 at 7:00pm, free. City of Vancouver Archives, 1150 Chestnut Street. For more information, phone 604.323.7163.
JILL EDMONSON
Author reads from her new novel, Blood and Groom, part of the Castle Street Mysteries. Saturday, August 28 at 1:00pm. Indigo Marine Drive (1025 Marine Drive).
COMIX & STORIES
Vancouver Comiccon's annual event featuring independent, small-press, and alternative publishers, comics, artists, animators,
and zines. Guests include Emily Horne and Joey Comeau. Sunday, August 29 from 11am to 5pm. Tickets $4. Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street. For more information, visit www.vancouvercomiccon.com.
GARY GEDDES
Reading by the author from his latest book of poetry, Swimming Ginger. Monday, September 13 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen Room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3603.
KATHY PAGE AND ALISSA YORK
Authors will be reading from their works. Saturday, September 18. Bolen Books (111 - 1644 Hillside Avenue, Victoria). For more information, visit www.kathypage.info or contact Bolen Books, (250) 595-4232.
SUSAN BOYD
Join the author as she reads from her book Hooked: Drug War Films in Britain, Canada and the United States. Wednesday, September 22 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3738.
THE RAVEN'S GIFT
Author John Turk will read from his new book. Thursday, September 23 at 7:00pm. Banyen Books & Sound, 3608 4th Ave. West.
KOOTENAY BOOK WEEKEND
Discuss four books in small groups throughout the weekend. This year's books are The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry and our guest author, Anita Rau Badami's book Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? September 24-26, 2010, Nelson BC. Further information and registration forms can be found here, www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
WORD ON THE STREET
Annual event dedicated to promoting reading and literacy throughout the community. Sunday, September 26 from 11am to 6pm. Library Square, Central Libray, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information, visit www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/vancouver.
EVOLVE: VAMPIRE STORIES OF THE NEW UNDEAD
Listen to Vancouver writers Mary Choo, Sandra Wickham and Celdae (Colleen) Anderson, 3 of 22 Canadian authors featured in this most unusual and compelling collection as they re-imagine the future of vampires. Monday, September 27 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information phone 604-331-3691.
MICHAEL NICHOLL YAHGULANAAS
Reading by the author of Red. Thursday, September 30 at 1:00pm, free. Lillooet Room (level 3), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, Vancouver. More information at www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Book News Vol. 5 No. 34
BOOK NEWS
Virtual Festival
The latest recording in our recently launched series of archived events from Festivals-past. Travel back in time to the mid-sixties, the height of Beatlemania, with Patricia Young. http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives
Twitter Contest
Win tickets to Festival events and untold fame and glory, just by tweeting! Details on our website, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/get-involved/twittercontest.
Special Events
Alexander McCall Smith
The Cellist of Sarajevo author Steven Galloway talks with Alexander McCall Smith, bestselling author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency about his forthcoming book, Corduroy Mansions. Complete details on our website, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/mccallsmith.
The Washington Post describes Alexander McCall Smith's Corduroy Mansions as part Restoration comedy and part Victorian novel, tossed with a dash of mystery and a dollop of satire.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/27/AR2010072705064.html
John Vaillant
The author of the multi-award-winning The Golden Spruce will discuss his new book The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, a gripping tale of man and nature in collision, that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the Siberian forest. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/vaillant.
Alissa York and Richard Harvell
Please join us as Giller-shortlisted author Alissa York and debut novelist Richard Harvell read from their new works. Details at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/yorkharvell.
2010 FESTIVAL AUTHORS
The following authors will be attending the Festival in October or participating in special events in the fall.
Lee Ferguson interviews David Mitchell for the CBC, about his novel The Thousand Autumns of Jakob De Zoet.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/07/29/f-david-mitchell-thousand-autumns-jacob-de-zoet.html
" 'Write what you know' will only carry you so far", says David Mitchell in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/22/NS271EFGM2.DTL&type=books
Lenny Abramov is old (he’s 39!) and he likes to read: two strikes against him. The LA Times finds Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story "devastatingly funny".
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-gary-shteyngart-20100725,0,4076018.story
Ron Charles says Shteyngart's novel follows today's most ominous trend lines to a post-literate America that abhors books, newspapers and even conversation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/27/AR2010072705665.html
Is it true that Shteyngart can't read, as he claims in the YouTube video that accompanies this CBC interview?
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/08/03/f-gary-shteyngart-super-sad-true-love-story.html
Emma Donoghue's novel is a gem, says Nicola Barr in the Observer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/01/room-emma-donoghue-review-fritzl
The Montreal Gazette says that Alissa York's Fauna is strange and disturbing in the best ways.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Alissa+York+Fauna+strange+disturbing+best+ways/3338342/story.html
In The Star, Barbara Carey writes that Fauna presents a threatened sanctuary for humans and animals alike.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/bookreviews/article/841021--fauna-a-wounded-community-gathers-in-a-toronto-ravine
The Globe and Mail describes it as a rich novel layered with astonishing detail.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-fauna-by-alissa-york/article1656285/
In an interview, York discusses our changing relationship with nature.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/nurturing-inspiration-from-nature/article1656304/
NEWS & FEATURES
The Guardian has a podcast interview of P.D. James in honour of James' 90th birthday on Tuesday, August 3rd.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/video/2010/aug/03/pd-james-crime
The privacy of reading e-books has an impact on social relationships.
http://www.slate.com/id/2261955/?from=rss
And on your trip to your local coffee shop.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/no-e-books-allowed-in-this-establishment/
A Globe and Mail editorial states that reports of the demise of the book are exaggerated.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/reports-of-the-demise-of-books-greatly-exaggerated/article1661588/
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince is being revived on TV, film, and in print.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/01/little-prince-return-multimedia
Is the Booker a barometer of the best literature? Novelist Patrick Neate and the Observer's associate editor Robert McCrum debate.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/01/debate-booker-prize-barometer-literature
This past weekend marked the 75th anniversary of the very first book to roll off the Penguin presses. It's also the seventh month of celebrations.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/21/penguins-next-march
Colour-coded paperbacks launched in 1935 as cheap, disposable fiction have now become collectible items.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/30/penguin-books-turns-75-anniversary
Puffin's 70th anniversary celebrations include a new issue of a novel from its every decade.
http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/education/article/841009--the-welcome-return-of-3-kid-lit-classics
While newspapers everywhere struggle to survive, Mon Quotidien, a French newspaper for children, is thriving.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/world/europe/27paris.html
Åsne Seierstad defends her approach to writing The Bookseller of Kabul.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/jul/31/bookseller-of-kabul-interview-asne-seierstad
Neil Gaiman has won a second lawsuit based on a a comic series' use of characters derived from Gaiman's characters.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/08/03/gaiman-spawn-lawsuit.html
Francine Prose argues that Anne Frank's diary is a work of art by a precocious young writer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/01/anne-frank-diary-robert-mccrum
BOOKS & WRITERS
Steven Hayward describes David Nicholls' One Day as "like Groundhog Day with a touch of Jane Austen".
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-one-day-by-david-nicholls/article1656349/
Sam Sifton, the NY Times' restaurant critic describes Paul Greenberg’s Four Fish as "a necessary book for anyone truly interested in what we take from the sea to eat, and how, and why".
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/books/review/Sifton-t.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema1&pagewanted=all
Ian Sansom is exhausted just reading about Jack London's eventful life in James L Haley's Wolf: The Lives of Jack London.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/31/wolf-jack-london-haley-review
Graham Greene's five brothers and sisters were all, in their different ways, involved in acts of subterfuge. Jeremy Lewis' Shades of Greene: One Generation of an English Family fills a number of the blanks in the life of the author of The Third Man.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/31/shades-greene-jeremy-lewis-review
Helen Dunmore's The Betrayal is a sequel to the The Siege, recently longlisted for the Man Booker prize. Both take place in Leningrad, the first during the 1941-42 siege; the second, exactly 10 years later. The narrative is compelling.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-the-betrayal-by-helen-dunmore/article1656258/
Niall Ferguson's High Financier takes us to a time when bankers thought of themselves as rather like family doctors. The NY Times concludes that "The man who emerges from "High Financier" is more interesting for who he was than for what he did."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/books/review/Ahamed-t.html?ref=books
The Globe and Mail review of High Financier sees Siegmund Warburg differently, as someone for whom "money was never the end but always a means to a more abstract intellectual purpose".
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-high-financier-the-lives-and-times-of-siegmund-warburg-by-niall-ferguson/article1656057/
Christos Tsiolkas' Man Booker-longlisted novel The Slap is the most divisive Booker novel in years, described as "offensive", full of "unbelievable misogyny", and commendable author bravery in tackling uncomfortable truths.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/31/the-slap-christos-tsiolkas-booker
American short story writer Lydia Davis is famous for writing short pieces that are sometimes only a sentence long; still, they are stories.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/01/lydia-davis-interview-reaction-proust
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Join Canada's longest-running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers, featuring established literary stars and exciting new voices, with opportunities for writers and readers to mingle amidst Rockwood's heritage gardens. August 12-15, 2010. Tickets are now on sale by phoning 1-800-565-9631 or 604-885-9631. Details at www.writersfestival.ca.
Upcoming
SUMMER DREAMS AWARDS CEREMONY
Celebrate those in the writing community who deserve to be honoured. Friday, August 20 at 7:00pm. Jacana Gallery (2435 Granville Street).
SUMMER DREAMS LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL
Annual one day event showcasing and celebrating the on-going literary events, programs and resources available to the community. Features Evelyn Lau, Brad Cran and many others. Saturday, August 21. Complete details here, http://sites.google.com/site/summerdreamsfest/home.
JILL EDMONSON
Author reads from her new novel, Blood and Groom, part of the Castle Street Mysteries. Saturday, August 28 at 1:00pm. Indigo Marine Drive (1025 Marine Drive).
GARY GEDDES
Reading by the author from his latest book of poetry, Swimming Ginger. Monday, September 13 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen Room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3603.
SUSAN BOYD
Join the author as she reads from her book Hooked: Drug War Films in Britain, Canada and the United States. Wednesday, September 22 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3738.
EVOLVE: VAMPIRE STORIES OF THE NEW UNDEAD
Listen to Vancouver writers Mary Choo, Sandra Wickham and Celdae (Colleen) Anderson, 3 of 22 Canadian authors featured in this most unusual and compelling collection as they re-imagine the future of vampires. Monday, September 27 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information phone 604-331-3691.
MICHAEL NICHOLL YAHGULANAAS
Reading by the author of Red. Thursday, September 30 at 1:00pm, free. Lillooet Room (level 3), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, Vancouver. More information at www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca.
Virtual Festival
The latest recording in our recently launched series of archived events from Festivals-past. Travel back in time to the mid-sixties, the height of Beatlemania, with Patricia Young. http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives
Twitter Contest
Win tickets to Festival events and untold fame and glory, just by tweeting! Details on our website, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/get-involved/twittercontest.
Special Events
Alexander McCall Smith
The Cellist of Sarajevo author Steven Galloway talks with Alexander McCall Smith, bestselling author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency about his forthcoming book, Corduroy Mansions. Complete details on our website, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/mccallsmith.
The Washington Post describes Alexander McCall Smith's Corduroy Mansions as part Restoration comedy and part Victorian novel, tossed with a dash of mystery and a dollop of satire.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/27/AR2010072705064.html
John Vaillant
The author of the multi-award-winning The Golden Spruce will discuss his new book The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, a gripping tale of man and nature in collision, that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the Siberian forest. Details here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/vaillant.
Alissa York and Richard Harvell
Please join us as Giller-shortlisted author Alissa York and debut novelist Richard Harvell read from their new works. Details at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/yorkharvell.
2010 FESTIVAL AUTHORS
The following authors will be attending the Festival in October or participating in special events in the fall.
Lee Ferguson interviews David Mitchell for the CBC, about his novel The Thousand Autumns of Jakob De Zoet.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/07/29/f-david-mitchell-thousand-autumns-jacob-de-zoet.html
" 'Write what you know' will only carry you so far", says David Mitchell in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/22/NS271EFGM2.DTL&type=books
Lenny Abramov is old (he’s 39!) and he likes to read: two strikes against him. The LA Times finds Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story "devastatingly funny".
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-gary-shteyngart-20100725,0,4076018.story
Ron Charles says Shteyngart's novel follows today's most ominous trend lines to a post-literate America that abhors books, newspapers and even conversation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/27/AR2010072705665.html
Is it true that Shteyngart can't read, as he claims in the YouTube video that accompanies this CBC interview?
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/08/03/f-gary-shteyngart-super-sad-true-love-story.html
Emma Donoghue's novel is a gem, says Nicola Barr in the Observer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/01/room-emma-donoghue-review-fritzl
The Montreal Gazette says that Alissa York's Fauna is strange and disturbing in the best ways.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Alissa+York+Fauna+strange+disturbing+best+ways/3338342/story.html
In The Star, Barbara Carey writes that Fauna presents a threatened sanctuary for humans and animals alike.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/bookreviews/article/841021--fauna-a-wounded-community-gathers-in-a-toronto-ravine
The Globe and Mail describes it as a rich novel layered with astonishing detail.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-fauna-by-alissa-york/article1656285/
In an interview, York discusses our changing relationship with nature.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/nurturing-inspiration-from-nature/article1656304/
NEWS & FEATURES
The Guardian has a podcast interview of P.D. James in honour of James' 90th birthday on Tuesday, August 3rd.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/video/2010/aug/03/pd-james-crime
The privacy of reading e-books has an impact on social relationships.
http://www.slate.com/id/2261955/?from=rss
And on your trip to your local coffee shop.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/no-e-books-allowed-in-this-establishment/
A Globe and Mail editorial states that reports of the demise of the book are exaggerated.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/reports-of-the-demise-of-books-greatly-exaggerated/article1661588/
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince is being revived on TV, film, and in print.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/01/little-prince-return-multimedia
Is the Booker a barometer of the best literature? Novelist Patrick Neate and the Observer's associate editor Robert McCrum debate.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/01/debate-booker-prize-barometer-literature
This past weekend marked the 75th anniversary of the very first book to roll off the Penguin presses. It's also the seventh month of celebrations.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/21/penguins-next-march
Colour-coded paperbacks launched in 1935 as cheap, disposable fiction have now become collectible items.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/30/penguin-books-turns-75-anniversary
Puffin's 70th anniversary celebrations include a new issue of a novel from its every decade.
http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/education/article/841009--the-welcome-return-of-3-kid-lit-classics
While newspapers everywhere struggle to survive, Mon Quotidien, a French newspaper for children, is thriving.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/world/europe/27paris.html
Åsne Seierstad defends her approach to writing The Bookseller of Kabul.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/jul/31/bookseller-of-kabul-interview-asne-seierstad
Neil Gaiman has won a second lawsuit based on a a comic series' use of characters derived from Gaiman's characters.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/08/03/gaiman-spawn-lawsuit.html
Francine Prose argues that Anne Frank's diary is a work of art by a precocious young writer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/01/anne-frank-diary-robert-mccrum
BOOKS & WRITERS
Steven Hayward describes David Nicholls' One Day as "like Groundhog Day with a touch of Jane Austen".
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-one-day-by-david-nicholls/article1656349/
Sam Sifton, the NY Times' restaurant critic describes Paul Greenberg’s Four Fish as "a necessary book for anyone truly interested in what we take from the sea to eat, and how, and why".
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/books/review/Sifton-t.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema1&pagewanted=all
Ian Sansom is exhausted just reading about Jack London's eventful life in James L Haley's Wolf: The Lives of Jack London.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/31/wolf-jack-london-haley-review
Graham Greene's five brothers and sisters were all, in their different ways, involved in acts of subterfuge. Jeremy Lewis' Shades of Greene: One Generation of an English Family fills a number of the blanks in the life of the author of The Third Man.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/31/shades-greene-jeremy-lewis-review
Helen Dunmore's The Betrayal is a sequel to the The Siege, recently longlisted for the Man Booker prize. Both take place in Leningrad, the first during the 1941-42 siege; the second, exactly 10 years later. The narrative is compelling.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-the-betrayal-by-helen-dunmore/article1656258/
Niall Ferguson's High Financier takes us to a time when bankers thought of themselves as rather like family doctors. The NY Times concludes that "The man who emerges from "High Financier" is more interesting for who he was than for what he did."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/books/review/Ahamed-t.html?ref=books
The Globe and Mail review of High Financier sees Siegmund Warburg differently, as someone for whom "money was never the end but always a means to a more abstract intellectual purpose".
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-high-financier-the-lives-and-times-of-siegmund-warburg-by-niall-ferguson/article1656057/
Christos Tsiolkas' Man Booker-longlisted novel The Slap is the most divisive Booker novel in years, described as "offensive", full of "unbelievable misogyny", and commendable author bravery in tackling uncomfortable truths.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/31/the-slap-christos-tsiolkas-booker
American short story writer Lydia Davis is famous for writing short pieces that are sometimes only a sentence long; still, they are stories.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/01/lydia-davis-interview-reaction-proust
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Join Canada's longest-running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers, featuring established literary stars and exciting new voices, with opportunities for writers and readers to mingle amidst Rockwood's heritage gardens. August 12-15, 2010. Tickets are now on sale by phoning 1-800-565-9631 or 604-885-9631. Details at www.writersfestival.ca.
Upcoming
SUMMER DREAMS AWARDS CEREMONY
Celebrate those in the writing community who deserve to be honoured. Friday, August 20 at 7:00pm. Jacana Gallery (2435 Granville Street).
SUMMER DREAMS LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL
Annual one day event showcasing and celebrating the on-going literary events, programs and resources available to the community. Features Evelyn Lau, Brad Cran and many others. Saturday, August 21. Complete details here, http://sites.google.com/site/summerdreamsfest/home.
JILL EDMONSON
Author reads from her new novel, Blood and Groom, part of the Castle Street Mysteries. Saturday, August 28 at 1:00pm. Indigo Marine Drive (1025 Marine Drive).
GARY GEDDES
Reading by the author from his latest book of poetry, Swimming Ginger. Monday, September 13 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen Room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3603.
SUSAN BOYD
Join the author as she reads from her book Hooked: Drug War Films in Britain, Canada and the United States. Wednesday, September 22 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information, phone 604-331-3738.
EVOLVE: VAMPIRE STORIES OF THE NEW UNDEAD
Listen to Vancouver writers Mary Choo, Sandra Wickham and Celdae (Colleen) Anderson, 3 of 22 Canadian authors featured in this most unusual and compelling collection as they re-imagine the future of vampires. Monday, September 27 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For more information phone 604-331-3691.
MICHAEL NICHOLL YAHGULANAAS
Reading by the author of Red. Thursday, September 30 at 1:00pm, free. Lillooet Room (level 3), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, Vancouver. More information at www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca.
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