Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried"

Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried, played a significant part in the making of a PBS documentary on the Vietnam War set to premiere this fall. This is a true indicator of the timeless nature of his knowledge and writing—from his own time spent fighting in Vietnam in 1969, to the original publication of The Things They Carried in 1990, to this 1995 interview with CBC's Writers and Company, to his contributions to the PBS documentary. The Things They Carried, reissued in a beautiful new edition in 2009, is a collection of short stories centered around a platoon of American soldiers in Vietnam, and is worth a read for those interested in history and humanity.

Bookaboo!

We're really excited for the Canadian launch of Bookaboo, a fun new TV program on Kids' CBC that's already seen great success in the UK and won multiple awards.

The eponymous main character is a rock star pup (a drummer, to be specific!) who "needs a story a day or he just can't play." Each episode features a celebrity guest that reads children's books with Bookaboo, and the episode ends with the superstar pup playing an epic drum solo! Some of the great titles being featured on the TV show are Scaredy Squirrel, Stanley's Party, Toads on Toast, and My Thinkamajink.    

CBC is launching Bookaboo during CBC Kids Days on July 17 and 18. Mélanie Watt, author of the popular Scaredy Squirrel books, will be in attendance to read Scaredy Squirrel with Bookaboo. Word on the street is that Scaredy will make an appearance, too!

Bookaboo will air daily on the CBC at 10 am.

Less than a month to Season 3 of Downton Abbey!!!

And for those who can't wait until January 6th, The Chronicles of Downton Abbey: A New Era is out now and would make a great Christmas present.
I can't wait to see Shirley MacLean go head to head with Maggie Smith!

True Blood Cookbook...seriously!

The hugely popular show has spawned a cookbook: True Blood: Eats, Drinks and and Bites from Bon Temps. Food is a huge part of the show...and book has already received some serious attention.: Publishers Weekly has listed it has on of their list of top cookbooks for the Fall.
NB: No human heart recipes are included in the book!

PW's complete list of Best Cookbooks for the fall is below:

Burma: Rivers of Flavor by Naomi Duguid. Artisan, Sept.Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America by Maricel E. Presilla. W.W. Norton, Oct.

Lidia’s Favorite Recipes: 100 Foolproof Italian Dishes, from Basic Sauces to Irresistible Entrées by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali. Knopf, Oct.

The Great Meat Cookbook: Everything You Need to Know to Buy and Cook Today’s Meat by Bruce Aidells and Dennis Kelly. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Oct.

CookFight: 2 Cooks, 12 Challenges, 125 Recipes, an Epic Battle for Kitchen Dominance by Julia Moskin and Kim Severson. Ecco, Oct.

The Mile End Cookbook: Redefining Jewish Comfort Food from Hash to Hamantaschen by Noah Bernamoff and Rae Bernamoff. Clarkson Potter, Sept.

The Gluten-Free Table: The Lagasse Girls Share Their Favorite Meals by Jilly Lagasse and Jessie Lagasse Swanson, foreword by Emeril Lagasse. Grand Central Life & Style, Oct.

Thanksgiving: How to Cook It Well by Sam Sifton, illus. by Sarah Rutherford. Random House, Oct.

True Blood: Eats, Drinks, and Bites from Bon Temps by Gianna Sobol and Alan Ball. Chronicle, Oct.

The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook: Sweetness in Seattle by Tom Douglas. Morrow, Oct.

Official Game of Thrones Book Tailer

Although season 3 of Game of Thrones won't be coming out until next March, fans can bide their time reading Inside HBO's Game of Thrones; this is the official companion to the TV series which will be available October 1st. This trailer for the book had already over 90,000 hits!

Castle: Heat Rises

Season 3 of Castle ended with a shocking cliffhanger, but the long wait is finally over- Season 4 starts again tonight! Woo-hoo!Because I'm a fan, I'm celebrating the return of my favourite Monday night show with a giveaway.

Hyperion Books publishes the books of 'Richard Castle'. Yes, that's right, the ones featured in the TV show! Heat Wave, which introduced the character of Nikki Heat, came out in 2009. Naked Heat came out in 2010. Heat Rises, the third book in the series has just gone on sale. Fans of the show will definitely want to pick up this companion book, because you KNOW it will be referenced in the show this season (they always are)!

One lucky blog reader is going to get the prize pack depicted to the left- a hardcover copy of each of the three books in the series, along with an ALA READ poster featuring Nathan Fillion the (Canadian) actor who plays writer Richard Castle on the show. Don't worry- you won't be getting the poster tacked up on my cubbie wall (I'm not parting with THAT one). The winner will get a fresh, still-in-the-package READ poster.

“Richard Castle proves as adept at writing thrillers as he is at solving crimes. HEAT rises to the occasion.” –Dennis Lehane, bestselling author

So, if you are a librarian (in Canada) and interested in winning this prize, please send an e-mail to rosalyn.steele@harpercollins.com with the subject Castle Contest.

I'll collect names until September 30th at 9:00 a.m. EST and then notify the winner. Good luck!

Jane Lynch's Happy Accidents

I've been a Jane Lynch fan ever since I saw 'Best in Show'. So, I'm really excited about Jane's new autobiography Happy Accidents, which will be hitting stores (and library shelves) September 13th!

Check out the video trailers below! The first, was filmed just after Jane finished recording the audio edition and will tell you a bit more about the book and the process of writing it.


And now- a special message recorded just for us in Canada!



Are you excited too?!! I have a five galleys up for grabs for the first five Canadian librarians to e-mail me at rosalyn.steele@harpercollins.com.

Please use 'Happy Accidents' as the subject of your e-mail and please be sure to include the full mailing address of your library.

-Rosalyn

Mildred Pierce Mini-Series. . .

Is it just me, or are movie/tv tie-in covers getting a lot more attractive?  I don't have cable so I'll have to wait until the DVD, but if I did, I'd love to watch this mini-series of James M. Cain's Mildred Pierce.  Not only because I'm a big fan of Kate Winslet, but I'm curious as to how it will differ from the melodramatic, but iconic Joan Crawford film.  It airs on HBO at the end of March.  You can watch a preview here.

Remembrance Day Recommendations

One of my picks this Fall is Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel & Brett Witter. A great choice for Rememberance Day, this book recounts the fascinating yet little known contributions of a division of the Allied Forces in WWII- the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archive Section.
This group of 315 men and women from thirteen nations risked their lives in the final year of the war and beyond to track, locate and recover artwork and items of cultural significance that had been stolen by the Nazis during the war on the orders of Hitler. They also assessed damage and protected buildings of architectural or historic significance. Faced with so many stories he could tell, Edsel focuses strictly on the stories of one group of Monuments Men- the eight men assigned to cover France, the Netherlands, and Germany in the 11-month period from D-Day to VE Day. With no supplies, vehicles or radios, they had to use their wits in order to get the job done. The book is based on field journals, war reports, dispatches and orders from command, diaries and letters home as well as interviews with some of the survivors. Also included are the contributions of two French civilians, one of whom was Rose Valland, art historian, member of the French Resistance and one of the most decorated women in French history. Fiction readers might recognize her story too- the character of Rose Clément in Sara Houghteling's book Pictures at the Museum was based on Valland. A volunteer at a museum adjacent the Louvre, she spied on the Nazis throughout the occupation and her detailed notes were instrumental in the recovery and tracking of numerous works of art.

The book is very accessibly written and packed with incredible stories. Anyone interested in art or WWII history will find this of interest. The stories in here make your heart ache for all that was lost, but also profoundly grateful for the actions of these men and women, who risked (and some gave) their lives to save what they could of these important cultural artifacts for future generations to enjoy. It was just reviewed in the Toronto Star last weekend. Click here to read what they had to say.

Robert M. Edsel is also the co-producer of the related documentary film, The Rape of Europa, which was inspired by the book of the same name by Lynn H. Nicholas. He also wrote a mainly photographic companion book called Rescuing Da Vinci. Those in Ontario can watch the first part of the documentary on TVO Thursday November 12th at 10:00 pm, which is airing as part of their Masterworks series.

Also airing on TVO November 11th at 9 pm is the documentary Paris 1919, inspired by the book from Margaret MacMillan. We were lucky to see a screening of the film while up in Ottawa last week. Despite some technical difficulties, I found the film was absolutely fascinating. The visuals (archival footage from the time as well as dramatic recreations of the events) are fantastic.