Favourite Reads from 2008 - A Library Wholesaler's Picks Part One. . .

Today's list comes to us from Calgary and Brad Wojak - the adult book buyer at United Library Services.

Best of 2008 (in no particular order):

Riding Toward Everywhere by William T. Vollmann

The Man Game by Lee Henderson
I was shocked that this didn’t even make it onto any of the major shortlists.

Lush Life by Richard Price
Leaving his amazing ear for dialogue aside, Price is an amazing storyteller.

Never Shoot a Stampede Queen by Mark Leiren-Young

History of the World for Rebels and Somnambulists by Jesus Del Campo

Stoner by John Williams
Another lost classic reissued by the fantastic folks at the New York Review of Books

Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan

Vampyres of Hollywood by Adrienne Barbeau and Michael Scott

Esther’s Inheritance by Sándor Márai

Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan

And for good measure an 11th book. I am not sure this should really count, as it does not get released for a few months yet, but it is a reissue so I am going to add it. It was also the book I forced on the most people…

A Meaningful Life by L.J Davis
A black comedy about race, gentrification and middle class anxiety. I can’t wait for this one to be back in print so I can stop passing around my copy to all of my friends.

Maylin's note: This book will be re-issued by NYRB Classics in March, 2009

Galley giveaway. . .

One of the highly anticipated books of Spring 2009 will be the new novel by Anne Michaels - The Winter Vault - out in Canada on March 31st. This big and lush novel follows a couple's relationship over several decades in Egypt and Canada. It's about big engineering projects, lost and displaced people, history and memory, and written with all the meticulous detail and poetry of Michaels' best-selling novel Fugitive Pieces.

I have ten beautiful advanced reading galleys for ten lucky Canadian librarians. Just send an e-mail to mscott@randomhouse.com with the words "Winter Vault" in the subject line and your library mailing address. As always, there are a few rules and regulations. You must be a librarian or library staff member at a Canadian public, academic or school library and of course, these are reading galleys not actual books, and we ask you not to put them into circulation or to place them on your library shelves (though they can be shared with other staff). E-mails will be accepted until this Friday, Dec. 5th at noon EST and 10 names will be drawn from all the entries received. I'll e-mail you on Friday afternoon if you are one of the lucky winners.

Good luck!

Favourite Reads from 2008 - A Librarian's Picks Part One. . .

Today, we start our librarian's picks in our nation's capital and get some favourite reads from Alexandra Yarrow, a librarian at the Rideau Branch of the Ottawa Public Library. Some great graphic novel picks in particular - for all ages!

Adult Titles:

The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom

A hilarious tale of a librarian who just can't seem to get it together. His love life is falling apart, and now he's accepted a job in Northern Ireland. He arrives to find out he's in charge of a bookmobile - and not just any bookmobile. This one is empty. A great book for lovers of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series.

Fables by Bill Willingham

I became a little obsessed with this series in 2008, and read right up to the latest one, Volume 10: The Good Prince. The story follows various fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters, and the premise is that they are alive and, in fact, live in an enchanted portion of New York City. The various volumes follow their epic battles to save "Fabletown" from various dark forces in the fable world. The best parts are the poignant, realistic portrayals of characters such as the Big Bad Wolf or Prince Charming, who has fallen far from his suave, womanizing days to a broke has-been who is forced to auction off his royal title.

Interred with Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell

An excellent Shakespearean mystery, with a compelling main character and lots of plot twists to keep you on the edge of your seat! For anyone with an English literature degree, or a love of theatre.

Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann

One of the year's strangest mysteries, this one is narrated by a herd of sheep, whose shepherd is found dead. The sheep, who quite love their shepherd, decide it's up to them to solve the crime. Extremely well-crafted and utterly charming.

Laika by Nick Abadzis

A moving tale about the Soviet space dog. The graphic format of this book, and the back-door look at Soviet politics and history, makes it a great companion to the curriculum for teens, but it also can stand alone as a truly moving (I cried) tale of a sweet dog and her various (loving and abusive) owners.

Beginner's Greek by James Collins

A great gift for the disillusionned 20-something, this book works for both male and female readers. Party fairy-tale, part social commentary, Beginner's Greek follows Peter Russell as he falls in love with a woman on a plane, loses her, and then finds her again ... when she becomes engaged to his best friend.

White Rapids by Pascal Blanchet

A very simply written graphic novel from the always-exceptional Drawn and Quarterly, White Rapids tells the story of the rise and fall of the Northern Quebec town of the same name. Built by the Shawinigan Water & Power Company as a living community for workers at a nearby dam, White Rapids captivates its residents and reflects back their hopes and dreams over the years. The town was shut down in the 1970s; Blanchet's book acts as a very fitting memorial to a certain time, and a certain place, in our history.

Teens:

The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci

I don't have enough time or space to praise various excellent graphic novels for teens that have come out in the past little while; Minx (publisher of The Plain Janes) has some other excellent titles such as Re-Gifters by Mike Carey, not to mention the luminous Skim by Mariko Tamaki.... My current favourite remains The Plain Janes, though, which is about a girl named Jane who, relocated from the city to the burbs after a traumatic incident, hooks up with a few other Janes to form the title group. The Plain Janes are bent on a variety of non-conformist acts of vandalism and mischief, mostly revolving around what the local police quickly dub "art attacks." Will they get caught?

Children:

Bookweird by Paul Glennon

One of the best children's novels I read this year, by local Ottawa author Glennon (his previous adult novel, The Dodecahedron, was shortlisted for a Governor General's Award). 11-year old Norman has a nasty habit of unwittingly ripping off and chewing corners of his books: this gets him into a load of trouble when he destroys an entire page, falls asleep, and wakes up inside the story.

Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney

My favourite picture book of the year, for utter ridiculousness and fabulous use of rhyme. Bonus points for a lovely story and the touching reassurance of Mama Llama that bedtime is nothing to be afraid of. Another great read-aloud rhyming book that I thrilled to use this year in storytime is Three Little Ghosties by Pippa Goodhart.

No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure by Susan Hughes
Great compilation of graphic tales of women who masqueraded as men (sometimes for their whole lives) to join wars, become doctors, and otherwise do things women were not allowed to do. Includes the story of Mu-Lan. Check out the excellent learning materials package, available from the Kids Can Press website.

Favourite Reads of 2008 - A Dewey's Picks

Watch this space over the next few days for lots of this year's top ten reading lists from Deweys, librarians and library wholesalers - we hope to give you lots of gift-giving ideas (don't forget to treat yourself as well!) and add to your must-read piles.

Book reps have no sense of real time as far as publishing goes - we're always reading and selling far into the future. So if I were to consult my reading journal and pick the top ten books I actually read this year, there would at least be four that haven't yet been published (now, isn't that a tease - but boy, is there a great literary spring to look forward to, and yes, we'll blog all sorts of previews in January). So, instead I've picked ten novels that were all published (at least for the first time in English) in 2008. It's been a great year for fiction and it was very hard to narrow the list down, but what makes each of these books stand out for me is the author's unwavering attention to crafting an engaging, compelling and original story that still resonates in my memory. Add beautiful writing, humour, unforgettable characters and an imaginative ticket to a world or historical period that I hadn't travelled to before, and it all adds up to a terrific read. So here are my picks (in alphabetical order by author):

The Reserve by Russell Banks
The Rain Before it Falls by Jonathan Coe

Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner, translated by Lazer Lederhendler
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher
The Open Door by Elizabeth Maguire
A Mercy by Toni Morrison
The Homecoming by Bernhard Schlink
Unforgiving Years by Victor Serge, translated by Richard Greeman

The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews

with an honourable mention to Between Each Breath by Adam Thorpe

My three favourite non-fiction books all happened to fall into the autobiography/biography category this year (more great storytelling!). If you have a biography junkie on your list, I'd highly recommend these:

In Spite of Myself by Christopher Plummer

A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and Their Remarkable Families by Michael Holroyd

The Journal of Hélène Berr, translated by David Bellos

with an honourable mention to Nothing to Be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes

A little home cooking in Cobourg. . .

The only thing book reps really dislike about travelling is that often you have to stop for a meal along the highway and the pickings can be pretty slim. We've been spending a lot of time this fall on the stretch of the 401 between Ottawa and Toronto and the 5-6 hour drive necessitates at least one meal stop. And just by chance on Friday night as two of us were coming back from Prescott we found a terrific little gem (we were talking so much in the car, we didn't really notice where we were and just decided to get off at the next exit with a food sign, which turned out to be Cobourg) where we discovered The Buttermilk Cafe on the main downtown street, just opposite the town hall.

Oh bliss - just what a weary, hungry rep longs for - delicious, healthy home-cooking (trans-fat free no less), friendly staff, cosy, shabby chic decor with a sophisticated twist, discreet music in the background that isn't blaring your eardrums and did I mention the food? I highly recommend their French onion soup and they have a buttermilk lemon pie to die for ! Very reasonably priced as well. They are open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and I think we've found our new favourite pitstop. And yes, they do very good lattes as well.

Tis the season - Gift Book suggestions

From now until the end of the year, we'll be posting some nifty gift ideas and also, starting next week, we'll have top 10 reading picks of 2008 from Deweys, librarians and library wholesalers. So keep checking back for lots of great ideas for either the picky or voracious readers in your life, or to add to your own holiday reading list.

Today, I want to highlight some new gorgeous and thoughtful gift books that will provide hours of delight.

Sacred Places of a Lifetime: 500 of the World's Most Peaceful and Powerful Destinations by National Geographic. This is for fans of Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love and a wonderful companion to last year's Journeys of a Lifetime. This is definitely not just for the religious - it's full of places where you can commune with nature, find a serenity for the soul or just marvel at the incredible architectural beauty of a cathedral or the stillness of a temple. The photography is absolutely stunning! I feel a calmness just turning the pages. Scattered throughout the book are global top 10 lists such as the Top 10 war memorials, or Top 10 Stained Glass Windows or Top 10 Sacred Mountains (opposite a gorgeous photo of Mt. Fuji - a perfect segue into my next pick).

Annie Leibovitz at Work. Her work is iconic and in this book, she writes about the inspirations and the techniques behind her photos, whether she's shooting Hollywood stars, politicians, nudes or the Queen of England. This isn't just a coffee table book with photos, nor a memoir. But for anyone interested in photography or Leibovitz herself, it's an invaluable look into her craft. I love the quote that is part of the jacket:

The first thing I did with my very first camera was climb Mt. Fuji. Climbing Mt. Fuji is a lesson in determination and moderation. It would be fair to ask if I took the moderation part to heart. But it certainly was a lesson in respecting your camera. If I was going to live with this thing, I was going to have to think about what that meant. There weren't going to be any pictures without it.

Odysseys and Photographs: Four National Geographic Field Men by Leah Bendavid-Val, Gilbert M. Grosvenor, Mark Collins Jenkins and Viola Kiesinger Wentzel.

Keeping on the topic of photography, this beautiful coffee table book is almost a chronicle of 20th century photography as seen through the profiles of four men who worked for National Geographic, starting with the black and white photography of Maynard Owen Williams who, "literally invented the personality of the National Geographic field man" and during the first half of the 20the century shot everything from tribal life in Greenland to giant Afghan Buddhas. If you have a budding or avid photographer on your list - do check out the National Geographic Photography Field Guides which are terrific reference books, filled with great tips for improving your shots. Each focuses on a different style of photography and is for use with digital and traditional cameras.

Action & Adventure

Black & White

Landscapes

People & Portraits

Travel

For the birders on your list, there is also a guide to Photographing Birds.

Shakespeare and Modern Culture by Marjorie Garber

A new take on Shakespeare - Garber looks at ten plays and how they have influenced 20th century culture, "from James Joyce's Ulysses to George W. Bush's reading list". (He had a reading list????) Full of pop culture photos and interesting juxtapositions of historical moments against contemporary stagings of Shakespeare's plays.

And finally, if Shakespeare is too cerebral, there's Bat-Manga: The Secret History of Batman in Japan by Chip Kidd. I'm not a manga or comic book fan at all, but even I think this book is quite cool. This is the first appearance in English translation of a series of strips from 1966 that took the Batman story and developed it for a Japanese audience. The stories were written and drawn by manga master Jiro Kuwata and while the characters of Batman and Robin are clearly identifiable, the storylines and the whole look of the strips are different and quite fascinating. Like a manga book, it's read from the back to the front and the collection includes lots of photographs of Japanese Batman toys and collectibles. A really great gift idea for a comic-crazed teen or that thirty year old friend still living in his parent's basement.

And another suggestion for a graphic work that will appeal to all ages - check out Australian Shaun Tan's Tales from Outer Suburbia. It's a collection of short, short stories that are all uniquely illustrated (the stories continue in the artwork) and it's quirky, very funny and utterly original. Kids will read it on one level, adults on another but both will equally enjoy it.

Awards season in overdrive. . .

Peter Matthiessen won the National Book Award for fiction with his monumental Shadow Country, a completely rewritten one volume narration of three previously published novels - Killing Mister Watson, Lost Man's River and Bone by Bone - about a serial killer in 19th century Florida.

Annette Gordon-Reed took the non-fiction award for The Hemingses of Monticello, the story of three generations of a slave family owned by Thomas Jefferson.

Costa Book Awards shortlist announced. . .

The Costa Book Awards (formerly the Whitbreads) always have intriguing shortlists. They seem consistently to catch many of those great books that were passed over by other, bigger awards and this year is no exception. There are five categories - novel, first novel, biography, poetry and children's title. The winners in each category then battle each other for the overall Costa Book of the Year. Here are the nominees:

Novel:

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (I'm thrilled to see this on the list - I wanted it to win the Booker)

The Other Hand by Chris Cleave (note: in North America, this book will be published in February under the title Little Bee).

A Partisan's Daughter by Louis de Bernieres ( a lovely novel that was so overlooked this year - highly recommended!)

Trauma by Patrick McGrath (gripping!)

First Novel:

The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams (published in North America as The Sister)

The Outcast by Sadie Jones (hooray - I loved this heartbreaking book)

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (Rosalyn has been raving about this on all year!)

Inside the Whale by Jennie Rooney (a quirky war-time love story that doesn't get resolved until many decades later)



Biography:

Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill

The Bloomsbury Ballerina: Lydia Lopokova, Imperial Dancer and Mrs John Maynard Keynes by Judith Mackrell

If You Don't Know Me By Now: A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton by Sathnam Sanghera

Chagall by Jackie Wullschlager

Poetry:

For All We Know by Ciaran Carson

The Broken Word by Adam Foulds

Sunday at the Skin Launderette by Kathryn Simmonds (surely the best title of the bunch)

Salvation Jane by Greta Stoddart

Children's:

Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray

The Carbon Diaries by Saci Lloyd

Just Henry by Michelle Magorian

Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine

Category award winners will be announced in January, with the overall award announced January 27th.

A contemporary Icelandic saga. . .

My heart goes out to Iceland which has been so hard hit by economic woes that the country is virtually bankrupt. I had such a wonderful holiday there this summer. Some of you may have read the piece in last Saturday's Globe and Mail about the resilience of the Icelanders as demonstrated through their literature, both historical and contemporary. One of the authors quoted was Bragi Ólafsson, the author of a novel I just happened to have finished reading. The Pets, just released in a translation by Janice Balfour is published by Open Letter, a new venture out of the University of Rochester that is dedicated to publishing international literature in translation. They have a terrific blog called Three Percent (which is, on average, the low percentage of foreign literature that actually gets translated into English annually) which is chock full of news links and reviews about books and authors from around the globe. Well worth checking out.
As is The Pets, a novel about a day that goes terribly wrong for our main character Emil Halldorsson. He has just arrived home after a trip to London and is looking forward to relaxing in his apartment with all the new books, CDs and movies he has brought back (I can relate!). He puts the kettle on to brew some coffee. And then there's a knock on the door and looking out the window, Emil spies Havard Knutsson, an irritating and unwanted accquaintance from his past. Not wanting to let him in, Emil ducks under his bed and hopes that he will just go away. Havard spies the kettle boiling however, and getting no answer at the door, breaks into Emil's apartment through the window and then proceeds - much to Emil's chagrin - to not only make himself at home, but to invite everyone who subsequently telephones Emil, over to his apartment for an impromptu party. The story moves forward hour by aching-limbed hour as Emil desperately witnesses the destruction of his apartment from behind the bedskirt, along with any hopes of a romantic tryst with Greta, a beautiful woman he met on the plane. Interspersed in the narrative are flashbacks to five years previously when Emil and Havard were pet-sitting for English friends with disastrous results. This is quite a funny tale about surviving uncomfortable social situations, the hazards of talking to strangers sitting next to you on the plane and what not to do when you are responsible for looking after small animals.
It's time to read some Icelandic literature - the authors need your krona!

The Reader, the movie, the follow-up novel. . .

And in more movie news, the trailer for the film version of The Reader based on the novel by Bernhard Schlink is now available at the movie's website. It stars the fabulous Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes and looks fantastic. Schlink's latest novel, Homecoming will be out in paperback in January - it's a great follow-up to The Reader, also dealing with the emotional upheaval of coming to grips with the German legacy of WWII, as a son tries to find out what happened to his father who never came home from the war.

Twilight Movie Update

A reminder to Twilight fans to be sure to tune into Much Music tomorrow (Saturday November 15th) at 6PM EST. Some of the cast members from the upcoming Twilight movie (Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Rachelle Lefevre & Nikki Reed) will be at Much Music in Toronto for a live Q&A session.

As promised in my previous blog entry about the movie, I have been given some very cool Twilight movie swag to offer our readers- five copies of the Twilight Movie Soundtrack . The movie doesn't come out until the 21st, but the soundtrack is already #1 on the Billboard Top 100 chart, selling a whopping 165,000 copies last week! So, if you are interested in winning a FREE soundtrack of your very own (or would like to enter on behalf of a loved one-I imagine this CD will be on many Christmas wish lists), send me an e-mail at rosalyn.steele@hbfenn.com. The rules are the same as always (Contest open to librarians and teachers in Canada only, please use Twilight Soundtrack Contest in your subject line, and be sure to include the full mailing address of your school and or library). I'll collect entries until November 28th and will mail out the CDs to the winners then. Good luck!

Dewey Movie News!

Those of you who have seen my Fall 2008 Dewey Diva presentation have heard me present the heart-warming story of Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Changed the World.

For those who haven't, here's the scoop. Dewey is a must-read book for any cat lover. It is the true story of a little kitten who changed the fortunes of the small farming town of Spencer, Iowa, and warmed the hearts of all who met him. In 1988, early in the morning after one of the coldest nights of the year, head librarian Vicky Myron and her staff discovered a half-frozen kitten in the overnight book drop box of the town's library. The kitten was revived, and despite having severe frostbite, he showed such a love of people and such admirable character that Vicky take a chance and adopted it as the library cat. Not every cat is cut out for such a job, and not every member of the community likes the idea of having a cat living in a library. The library staff held a public contest to name the kitten, and Dewey Readmore Books was the winner by a landslide. Quickly becoming a favourite of many locals, Dewey seemed to know who needed a cuddle, who needed to laugh and would respond to each patron in kind. As his story spread, more and more people started coming to the library. When Dewey's story was picked up by media outlets across the U.S. and Canada, tourists started coming to Spencer. A film crew came all the way from Japan to film Dewey's antics.

The book is packed with cute cat anecdotes, but it is also the story of Vicky Myron's life- her struggle to survive health problems, an alcholic husband, and later as a divorced single mother on welfare. It is also the story of a small farming community devastated by the farming crisis of the 1980's, when many small struggling family farms were bought up by big corporations who turned huge tracts of land into mega-farms. When Dewey was first adopted, many locals were out of work and in danger of losing their homes. Dewey's presence helped keep the town spirit alive and eventually, in part because of the tourists, new businesses opened and helped to revive the town's economy. I'd definitely recommend keeping tissues at hand while reading this book.

According to the November 13th edition of Variety, actress Meryl Streep has signed on to play Vicky Myron in the New Line Cinema film that is in the works. I imagine that it will be much harder to cast the role of Dewey. There have been numerous 'Dewey Look-Alike' contests on blogs, but I imagine that it will be tough to find a cat 'actor' with the same spunky personality as Dewey. Read the book to find out why!

Forget your troubles, c'mon get happy. . .

All you fabulous, single divas out there - grab your girlfriends and any smug marrieds you know, and go, go, go see the new Mike Leigh film Happy-Go-Lucky. Poppy Cross (and what a character to encounter on Remembrance Day), is a thirty-year old single woman working as a primary school teacher, sharing a flat with a friend in London and absolutely loving her life. She's perky, optimistic, (and yes, sometimes too irritatingly cheerful), but ultimately her positive and caring outlook on life is infectious. The movie is a series of her encounters with the ill-tempered, as she takes driving lessons with a surly instructor, tries to help one of her students who is bullying children in the playground, tries flamenco lessons with an angry, scorned woman, and visits her pregnant, patronizing sister. But it's also a celebration of those quiet, ordinary moments in life that are necessary and joyful - going for a walk, feeling the wind on your face as you bicycle through the streets, taking a rowboat on the lake with a friend or browsing in a bookstore (I went to see this film with a colleague and booknerds that we are, we both nudged each other as the first book that came into view was Canadian author Madeleine Thein's Certainty - this is the British cover).

Sally Hawkins is brilliant as Poppy, awkward and charming, naive and thoughtful - in character through every fibre of her body and Alexis Zegerman as Zoe, her cynical but supportive room-mate also gives a terrific performance. It's so refreshing to see a movie where the female characters aren't all sitting around moaning about relationships. And why would they? Most of the men in this movie are either narcissistically withdrawn, angrily bitter or obsessed with cars and playing video games. But fear not, Poppy does encounter a social worker who seems to be a decent bloke - no surprise that there's a whole wall of books in his apartment. Honestly, if you've been feeling glum about the economy or the fading daylight, this movie will cheer you up no end - one of the best films of 2008! I now need to find a trampoline.

And if you are surrounded by prickly people in your life or at work, you might want to check out this book pubbing in January. How to Hug a Porcupine: 101 Ways to Love the Difficult People in Your Life by Debbie Ellis, promises tips on how to spot a porcupine, end an argument and get your porcupine to pull his or her quills in. We all have people (or customers) in our lives who are harder to love than others - this book will help us to keep smiling.

And the 2008 Giller Prize goes to. . .

Joseph Boyden's Through Black Spruce! And it couldn't happen to a nicer (or ahem, cuter) author. And a great reader - if he's doing an event in your neck of the woods, definitely check him out. Another book to add to my holiday reading pile - I loved his first novel, Three Day Road.

Guess the Giller Winner Announced

While the official results of the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize will be announced later this evening at the Gala reception, the results of the annual Guess the Giller contest were announced this morning. According to voters from across the country, Mary Swan's The Boys in The Trees is their pick for the winner of this year's award.

According to the press release, the Guess The Giller was launched in 2003 by Scotiabank together with the Toronto Public Library. This year more than 30 public library systems, 175 bookstores, post secondary schools, literary festivals and over 1000 Scotiabank branches, have promoted the contest to Canadian readers. The annual contest gives participants the chance to win a trip for two to any Canadian literary festival of their choice and an autographed Scotiabank Giller Prize book set, a package valued at $5,000. The winning entrant will be contacted later this month.

The Guess the Giller voters have successfully guessed the real winner for the past three years. I've got my fingers crossed that they are right again this year too, as The Boys in The Trees was one of my Dewey Picks last Winter. I'll be at the Giller Light party in Toronto tonight to cheer Mary on!

Attention Stephenie Meyer Fans!

If you are a Stephenie Meyer fan, I'm sure you have November 21st circled in red on your calendar! This is the date that the highly anticipated movie adaptation of Twilight releases in theatres everywhere. This is going to be a BIG, BIG movie, so you might want to make sure that you have enough copies of the book on hand to handle the increased demand for the book in both public and school libraries.

Here's a (hopefully) useful overview of all of the books available in the series, about the series, and about the movie. For the purists, Twilight is still available with the original cover in both trade paperback (9780316015844) and hardcover (9780316160179) editions. For those who have no objection to movie art, there are media tie-in editions of Twilight available in mass market (9780316038379) or trade paperback (9780316038386) format . There is also a Twilight Movie Companion (9780316043137), which gives all of the background information on the filming of the movie, storyboards, special effects, along with cast interviews and candid photographs. FYI- Often these types of companion books have removable bits, but this one doesn't so libraries can feel secure ordering this one. For those who want the unauthorized 'skinny' on Twilight and the other books in the series, Lois H. Gresh has written The Twilight Companion.

New Moon, the second book in the series is available in either hardcover (9780316160193) or trade paperback (9780316024969) format. Eclipse, book three, is available in hardcover (9780316160209) only at the moment, but there is a paperback scheduled for Spring 09. Breaking Dawn (9780316067928), the final book in the saga released this August and is available only in hardcover.

If you are in the Toronto area and are willing to brave huge crowds of screaming teenage girls, you can try to see the cast of the Twilight movie on Saturday, November 15th. They'll be appearing on Much on Demand at 6 PM. According to the Much Music website, if you want to be in the audience you have to go to MuchMusic today (November 11th)- they'll be giving away wristbands at 5PM.

And keep checking the blog in the upcoming week. I've been promised some movie-related swag to give away...