A Busman's Holiday. . .

I've just come back from a fabulous holiday in England and Scotland which completely re-energized my tired old cynical book rep's soul.  While in England, I particularly wanted to rekindle my relationship with the printed word and get away from the endless debates about social media and e-books taking over the world. And there's no better place to do so than to browse the independent bookstores of London.  Here are some of my favourites - and yes, I spent money at all of them:



Foyles on Charing Cross Road - one can get deliciously lost in here for hours.



Slightly Foxed on Gloucester Road - they publish a book journal devoted to lost classics.  The shop sells a lovely selection of new and used books. Great for browsing.



G. Heywood Hill Ltd on Curzon St - the blue plaque indicates that Nancy Mitford once worked here. Sells new and used books.



Libraire La Page - a lovely French bookstore not too far from Slightly Foxed

The London Review Bookshop - a terrific selection of poetry and interesting non-fiction in particular,  just around the corner from the British Museum. They have a cafe now too.

The British Film Institute on the South Bank has a great selection of books on film (and DVDs too, but they don't work in North America). Just next door is the National Theatre which  also has a great store for theatre books and plays.

 And then my absolute favourite:  Persephone Books, on Lamb's Conduit Street.

I've been collecting their books for almost ten years now and it was a terrific treat to pop in the shop and finally meet Nicola Beauman who started it all.  She is probably the one person who has most influenced my book buying and reading over the last twenty years, ever since I picked up a copy of her book A Very Great Profession: The Woman's Novel 1914-1939 which was first published by Virago and then brought back into print by Persephone itself.  I was amazed and entranced to read about all these amazing women writers I had never heard about, many of whom had long gone out of print. I started scouring used bookshops and collecting Viragos.  Which led to my finally reading Vera Brittain's incredible memoir, A Testament of Youth.  Which led to an obsession with women's WWI writing (Persephone's first publication was Cicely Hamilton's William: An Englishman which follows a naive couple who get stuck in Belgium when the war starts), going back to school to get my MA, and to an ever increasing collection of books on the First World War.  The shop and staff are lovely; not only do they sell Persephones, but also a changing selection of books they wish they had published (Alice Munro prominent among them).  And they have an eye on Canadian classics as well, having published Hetty Dorval by Ethel Wilson. All the books are silvery gray with cream paper and colourful endpapers that reproduce fabrics from either the time the book was published or set in. You can find many of their titles in Canadian bookstores now. They also publish a lovely newsletter. They are absolutely a terrific model for how personal passion can lead to a successful independent press. E-books will never, ever, be able to compete against the pure aesthetic pleasure of reading a Persephone!

Canadian Bookshelf

We all get why Canadian books are important: we need to preserve our stories, see ourselves in our literature, have a Canadian POV and so on. The question that many librarians and readers have is how? How do we find books that are Canadian. Well the wait is almost over. The ACP has initiated an on-line source to find all books Canadian. As of Friday, October 15th, Beta Testing will begin on Canadian Bookshelf . Think of Canadian Bookshelf as an interactive, intimate virtual library stocked with more great books than you can ever get through in a lifetime. The goal of the website is to deliver an authoritative online platform that lists all Canadian-authored titles currently available and that makes it easier for librarians to discover and sort these titles by theme, reading level and/or curriculum linkage. The intent is to have the site publicly launched early 2011.

Any librarians or educators that are interested in this project can follow the blog at http://www.canadianbookshelf.com/. They are also looking for people to help with the Beta testing. If you are interested you can go to the site and submit your e-mail. Teachers and librarians are a key component of this site so they are looking for your input.

Happy Monday!

Vote For Your Favourite Cupcake...or Mayor

Last week, in between our Dewey presentations at Oakville Public Library, we headed out for lunch and then of course dessert. In the local bakery they had a fun take on the upcoming municipal elections. Personally given the choice of candidates, I think this is a very civilised way to vote.

2010 Governor General's Literary Awards Finalists Announced

The 2010 GG Finalists were announced today.

The finalists for English Language Fiction are:

• Waiting for Joe by Sandra Birdsell,(Random House Canada)
• Room by Emma Donoghue (HarperCollins Canada)
• Motorcycles & Sweetgrass by Drew Hayden Taylor (Alfred A. Knopf Canada)
• Cool Water by Dianne Warren (HarperCollins Canada)
• Annabel by Kathleen Winter (House of Anansi Press)

The finalists for English Language Nonfiction are:

• A History of Marriage by Elizabeth Abbott (Penguin)
• The Boy in the Moon: A Father’s Search for His Disabled Son by Ian Brown (Random House Canada)
• Lakeland: Journeys into the Soul of Canada by Allan Casey (Greystone Books, an imprint of D&M Publishers)
• Burmese Lessons: A Love Story by Karen Connelly (Random House Canada)
• Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1968-2000 by John English (Alfred A. Knopf Canada)

The finalists for Children's Literature-Text are:

• Me, Myself and Ike by K.L. Denman (Orca Book Publishers)
• Tyranny by Lesley Fairfield (Tundra Books)
• Free as a Bird by Gina McMurchy-Barber (Dundurn Press)
• Fishtailing by Wendy Phillips (Coteau Books)
• Scars by Cheryl Rainfield (WestSide Books; distributed by Chapters / Indigo)

The finalists in the Children's Literature-Illustration category are:

• Kristi Bridgeman for Uirapurú: Based on a Brazilian Legend, text by P. K. Page (Oolichan Books)
• Julie Flett for Owls See Clearly at Night: a Michif alphabet / Lii Yiiboo Nayaapiwak lii Swer: l’alfabet di Michif, text by Julie Flett (Simply Read Books)
• Matt James for I Know Here, text by Laurel Croza (Groundwood Books)
• Jon Klassen for Cat’s Night Out, text by Caroline Stutson (Simon & Schuster / A Paula Wiseman Book)
• Renata Liwska for The Quiet Book, text by Deborah Underwood(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; distributed by Thomas Allen & Son)

For the full list of finalists, check out the Canada Council for the Arts website.

National Book Award Finalists Announced

Also announced today- the 2010 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD finalists! Here's who made the list:


Fiction

· Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey (Alfred A. Knopf)
· Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon (McPherson & Co.)
· Great House by Nicole Krauss (W.W. Norton & Co.)
· So Much for That by Lionel Shriver (HarperCollins)
· I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita (Coffee House Press)

Nonfiction

· Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick (Spiegel & Grau)
· Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, Iraq by John W. Dower (W.W. Norton)
· Just Kids by Patti Smith (Ecco)
· Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward by Justin Spring (FSG)
· Every Man in This Village Is a Liar: An Education in War by Megan K. Stack (Doubleday)

Poetry

· The Eternal City by Kathleen Graber (Princeton University Press)
· Lighthead by Terrance Hayes (Viking Penguin)
· By the Numbers by James Richardson (Copper Canyon Press)
· One with Others by C.D. Wright, (Copper Canyon Press)
· Ignatz by Monica Youn (Four Way Books)

Young People’s Literature

· Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown & Co.)
· Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine (Philomel Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group)
· Dark Water Laura McNeal (Alfred A. Knopf)
· Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers (Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers)
· One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers)

Friday Film Fest: Re-creation for Recreation. . .

We all have moments or memories that we would love to relive.  Could they in fact be physically recreated?  And what would be the consequences? To say anything more about Tom McCarthy's wonderfully quirky and original novel Remainder, or Charlie Kaufman's equally strange and existential 2008 movie Synecdoche, New York would be to ruin the experience.  All I can say is that if you are familiar with one, you'll love to read or watch the other. In fact, I think it's almost mandatory. And if you can do it back to back, your mind will be delightfully spinning, and not just from the drinks you should have close by.  The film also has a terrific ensemble cast led by Philip Seymour Hoffman, with Samantha Morton and Emily Watson absolutely stealing the show.

Breathless Homicidal Slime Mutants. . .

I am a book nerd and I love book history.

I'm fascinated by the art of book covers and how the styles have changed over the years, reflecting our cultural preoccupations and societal attitudes. So I love this new book out from Rizzoli, as much for the title as the subject matter. Breathless Homicidal Slime Mutants by Steven Brower is a celebratory look at the art of the mass market paperback, letting the covers definitely speak for themselves.  It's a hoot!  There's crime noir, trashy romance, adventure, sci-fi and lots of classics too, from Shakespeare to Mary Shelley.  Edward Gorey even contributes a cover to the Aeneid. But it's the pulp that is the most fun, especially reading the selling blurbs such as One Tropical Night (The Ship and the Shore) by Vicki Baum which promises that "A girl can grow up in a few hours ashore in the tropics . . . "   What I find amusing is how many of these books felt the need to let the reader know they were "Complete and Unabridged" or "Not One Word Cut" right on the front cover. Bios of the designers are included in the back. A great gift idea for a bibliophile or designer.

Joel The Barbarian Librarian!

Ok this is FABULOUS!!! Joel Sutherland AKA The Barbarian Librarian, recently submitted this video for his application to the TV show Wipeout. The author of How to be a Writing Superstar, pulls out all the stops and shows us what librarians are REALLY like underneath. I hope he gets on the show and kicks butt!

NYRB Challenge #45: Lost at Sea. . .

As you can see by the different cover treatment, Julio Cortazar's The Winners was one of the earlier NYRB Classics published; I collected them right from the start. Alas, I had read over a hundred pages before I realized that it's currently not in stock. However part of this challenge was to tackle the unread books that beckoned from my shelves and I've long wanted to read this prominent and influential Argentine writer, so I kept going. Hopefully you can find copies in your library or a used bookstore, and my fingers are crossed that NYRB will reprint it in the future.

The "winners" of this novel are a motley group of people who have all won a cruise as part of the state lottery. The novel opens in a Buenos Aires cafe where they've been asked to meet prior to embarking on their trip. No one knows where they are bound and things don't get much clearer once they are actually on board the ship. Despite the luxury accomodations and an attentive bartender, the captain of the ship is mysteriously absent as are most of the crew. The passengers find themselves confined to one end of the ship; when they try to explore they keep encountering locked doors. As they set out to sea amidst rumours of a typhus epidemic that has broken out among the sailors, the group starts to divide between those who accept what they've been told and just want to enjoy their vacation, and those who gradually move from skepticism towards anger and then sudden and rash action. There's also plenty of drama on deck; conflicts and jealousies swirl among both existing couples and newly bonded strangers. And commenting on it all in a somewhat beautiful hallucinatory haze is Persio, the ship's visionary philosopher who sees and hears the music of the endless space above and surrounding the ship as though plucked on a giant guitar. It is he who very early on foreshadows not only the plot and one of the key themes of the novel, but perhaps articulates Cortazar's own personal fictional challenge, when he questions whether individual acts aren't just part of one big, unknown machine where people end up as one of the many feet of a centipede:

It's well known that the whole is more, and at the same time, less, than the sum of all its parts. What I'd like to find out, if I could place myself inside and outside the whole - and I think it can be done - is if the human centipede responds, in its constitution and its dissolution, to something more than chance events; if it is a figure, in the magical sense of the word, and if that figure is capable of moving, under certain circumstances, on more essential planes than those of its isolated members.

The role of fiction is also explored within these parameters, making this a wonderful novel that floats ideas as readily and steadily as it charts the course of this troubled ship. Cortazar's masterpiece Hopscotch has long been on my radar just waiting for a good, uninterrupted block of time when I can do justice to it.  Reading this earlier novel feels like good preparation.

Friday Film Fest: Relationship Mileage. . .

When I was originally selling David Nicholls' lovely, romantic novel One Day and talking about it at Dewey events, I said it would appeal to fans of the movie (500) Days of Summer and I still think both are smart, sexy takes on modern relationships. But the other film that also keeps coming to mind is one of my favourite comfort DVDs - Stanley Donen's 1967 movie Two For the Road.  Anyone who has ever been in love knows that the true test of compatibility is that first road trip you take together. This film is completely made up of European car journeys that Mark and Joanna, played by Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn, make over a number of years, from their first meeting through various stages of their marriage. They laugh, they fight, they cheat, have misadventures, and even have to endure travelling with an American couple and their obnoxious child. The cuts back and forth between the various time periods are very cleverly done and Hepburn's changing wardrobe is a scenic attraction all on its own.  

Here Comes the Literary Bride. . .



Normally I'd run screaming from anything to do with the bridal industry, but the link to this blog post came through on an academic Virginia Woolf listserv that I subscribe to,and hey, if the professors are intrigued. . . The blogger and photographer - Carine's Bridal Atelier - covered the Spring 2011 Caroline Herrera Show which focused on bridal gowns inspired by famous women writers, artists, and singers.  The muses included Virginia Woolf,  Emily Dickinson, Edith Piaf, Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keefe.  My favourites were the Karen Blixen dress (on the right - love the hat!) and the Jane Austen dress (on the left). You can view the whole show here.

Writers' Trust Awards Announced. . .

Well, there's room for Room on the Writers' Trust Fiction Shortlist that was announced today.  We're all still scratching our heads as to why it didn't make the Giller longlist. And how cool that both Winter siblings will be competing against each other for the prize. Here are the nominees for fiction:

Trevor Cole for Practical Jean
Emma Donoghue for Room
Michael Helm for Cities of Refuge
Kathleen Winter for Annabel
Michael Winter for The Death of Donna Whalen

Full details and the shortlists for the non-fiction prize and finalists for the Journey Prize can be found here.  

My Dog Tulip now on DVD. . .

I was hoping the animated movie of J.R. Ackerley's My Dog Tulip would open on a few movie screens in Canada, but the DVD is now already out.  This is a very funny book, the movie adheres very closely to the original and Christopher Plummer is perfect as the curmudgeonly Ackerley who, despite the many trials of Tulip, just can't help loving his dog.  I saw it about a year ago at the Toronto Film Festival and the book was one of my first NYRB Challenge titles. You can read my thoughts on the book and movie here.  I do like NYRB's new movie tie-in cover; it was one of the books we sold out of at Sunday's Word on the Street.

Thanks Ken!

Tonight at Hart House, I joined many people in the library and publishing world to celebrate the life and times of Ken Setterington. Ken is retiring from TPL but not leaving the reading community. Ken is taking the smart route and actually joining the Freedom 55 Club that we all dream about. By all accounts he has many projects on his plate and will be as busy as ever. It was quite an emotional evening with so many people he loves and admires around him toasting his amazing accomplishments. I first sold to Ken over 17 years ago and he was as kind and gentle and as funny then as he is now...especially to a total greenhorn like me. Well here's to the next 55 Ken! God bless you. xosb

New Biography of Roald Dahl. . .

I haven't yet read Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl by Donald Sturrock, but browsing this weekend's book pages, I came across this review by Michael Dirda of the Washington Post. Dirda is my all-time favourite book critic, and so when he writes that Storyteller, "should be read immediately by anyone interested in Dahl, the ins and outs of modern publishing or the art of biography. I can't sing its praises enough", well, the book just shoots to the top of the pile. I can still vividly remember how my seven-year old self felt reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  I was once cast as Veruca Salt in a production my local library in Beaconsfield was staging, but alas, my family moved to Toronto before rehearsals even started.  So much for my stage career. . .

Indigo Teen Read Awards

Last night, I attended Indigo's Teen Read Awards with my daughter and my niece. I have to say, it was THE most fun award show I have ever been to. Indigo really knows how to put on a party...the food was awesome...sliders, mini mac 'n' cheese, sushi, brownie lollipops were just some of the offerings. The D.J. was playing hit after hit and the dance floor was packed. Surprise musical guest was Emily Osment (BFF of Hannah Montana) and my 7 year old had a baby heart attack. The focus of the show was the awards and it amazing to see hundreds of teens whipped into a frenzy at the mere mention of Bitten or City of Glass. My niece said it was the best night she has had in her life.

Full list of winners:
Best Read: Catching Fire
Best Villan: Prophecy of the Sisters
Best Hero: Percy Jackson
Best New Writer: Fallen: Lauren Kate
Best Lip Lock: Breaking Dawn
Best Hottie: Mortal Instruments: City of Glass
Best Series: Vampire Academy: Spirit Bound
Best Book to Flick: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Best All Time Fave: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Best Canadian Read: Darkest Powers: The Reckoning

Zombies Meet Star Trek

The Zombie craze continues. From the publisher of Pride and Predjudice and Zombies comes another gorefest in the series: Night of the Living Trekkies. To promote the release, Quirk has put out a truly gruesome trailer. The production values for this are incredible...not for the squeamish.

In Which I Live Out a Fantasy, Sort Of. . .

This is going to be a self-indulgent post so please forgive me, but I was just so darn EXCITED to walk by The Novel Idea Bookstore in downtown Kingston and see this in their store window:

It's hard to read from the photo, but it's the information for the Dewey Divas Book Lover's Lunch tomorrow.  Hey, it's the closest I'll ever get to being featured in a bookstore window so let me have my moment.

I do love visiting Kingston. It has lots of interesting boutiques and independent stores and still retains a lot of its historical charm. Plus there seems to be a café or tea shop on every corner.  I picked up a delicious European hot chocolate from The Mug & Truffle Chocolate Café (well, how could I resist going into an establishment with that name?) and settled down with my book by the water's edge, only to be distracted by the gorgeous full moon.

A Week of Book Festivals. . .

It's a busy week. 

Tomorrow Ann and I will be in Kingston doing a breakfast Dewey Diva talk to the librarians, followed by a Book Lover's Lunch as part of the Kingston Writer's Festival that starts today.  Our event at one of the city's finest restaurants, Chez Piggy,  is sold out (yea!) and we're really looking forward to sharing our favourite reads with enthusiastic bibliophiles and book club members - we had a great time doing this last year. And yes, we'd be lying if we didn't say we're also looking forward to the lunch!  (I've posted my fall picks on the right hand side of this blog - my talk will pull a selection from those books).

Then this Sunday is Word on the Street. I've been working the Toronto portion of this annual street fair for more years than I care to remember, but I'm really excited about our booth this year. My colleagues and I are pairing up with Ben McNally Books and offering a really different book selection from what people usually encounter at these events. We wanted to focus on great books that don't get a lot of media attention from those awesome smaller presses that you know I love to blog about and recommend and - after two caffeinated lattes -  that I will be hand selling like crazy.  NYRB Classic groupies, come on down!  We'll have a huge selection as well as international literature from Melville House and Other Press. We'll have graphic novels, health and cookbooks, and stuff for kids too.  And all the books will be 20% off.  Also, you'll get the chance to meet Dennis Johnson and Valerie Merians, the dynamic duo behind Melville House and MobyLives, who were responsible for bringing Hans Fallada to the English book world's attention - they love Canada!   And Avner Mandelman will also be stopping by to sign copies of his novel The Debba, which was just long listed for this year's Giller Prize.

Do come by and say hello.  It's Booth #329, on the west side of Queen's Park Circle, right at Hoskins Ave.

There will also be some great authors appearing at the Scotiabank Giller Prize Bestsellers Stage (schedule is here) and our Remarkable Reads Tent (schedule is here). Fingers crossed for good weather.

Spork

It's very hard to pick a favourite book of the season (maybe harder than picking a favourite kid as there are soooo many to choose from); BUT I am going out on a limb and choosing SPORK. This totally wonderful book is about a Spork...he's not a spoon and not a fork, so how does he fit in this multi-cutlery world? Coming from parents of different nationalities, Maclear is a self proclaimed Spork. She wrote this book for her new born who would be a Spork times two. Governor General Award winning illustrator, Isabelle Arsenault totally nails the pictures and they are not too sweet or heavy handed. The New York Times recently gave a sweet review of the book. Maria from Tinlids has also picked this book as one of her faves and has put a trailer for it on their website. Check it out...because deep down, aren't we really all Sporks?

Literary Adaptations And Other Films from TIFF. . .

I'm still coming down from the adrenaline rush that was this year's Toronto International Film Festival. I saw a lot of terrific films. Two in particular were adaptations of bestselling books and hopefully they will both get North American distribution because they definitely are worth seeing.

Sarah's Key, based on the novel by Tatiana de Rosnay, stars Kristin Scott Thomas as Julia, an American journalist who starts to investigate the Paris apartment her in-laws have owned ever since August, 1942, just weeks after the French rounded up thousands of Jews into the Vel’ d’Hiv, where they lived in horrific conditions before being sent to the death camps. When Julia finds out that Sarah, one of the children who lived in the apartment, might have survived the Holocaust, she sets out on a quest to find her, uncovering painful secrets and revelations about the past, that cause her to make some tough decisions about her own life. It's a harrowing story and film but extremely well done and the acting was wonderful, especially by Mélusine Mayance, who plays the ten year old Sarah. Being the cynical book rep that I am, whenever I see an adaptation, I immediately think - will this sell the book? This has already been a worldwide success, but yes, if the movie comes out in North America, it will sell a ton of books; while it's fiction, it is certainly based on real events, and the director, Gilles Paquet-Brenner, who came out for a Q & A after the film, said he tried to stay very close to the novel's multiple and complex plotlines.  It was a very powerful film, not a dry eye in the audience afterwards; I loved it.

I also saw the adaptation of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood and boy, were the Murakami fans out in full force for the screening.

Giller Longlist Announced. . .

Wow - this is one of the most interesting Giller longlists in recent years. Lots of expected heavy hitters missing - Emma Donoghue, Alissa York, Camilla Gibb to name a few. I'm thrilled to see Tom Rachman's The Imperfectionists on the list though, as well as Avner Mandelman's The Debba.  And it's nice to see the smaller presses get some recognition. Let the debates begin.

Here's the list in full:

The Matter With Morris by David Bergen
Player One by Douglas Coupland
Cities of Refuge by Michael Helm
Light Lifting by Alexander MacLeod 
The Debba by Avner Mandelman
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
This Cake is For the Party by Sarah Selecky
The Sentimentalists by Johanna Skibsrud
Lemon by Cordelia Strube
Curiosity by Joan Thomas
Sanctuary Line by Jane Urquhart
Cool Water by Dianne Warren
Annabel by Kathleen Winter

Friday Film Fest: On Chesil Beach. . .

Still, Edward was troubled by the call of the beach, and if he had known how to propose it, or justify it, he might have suggested going out straight away. He had read aloud to Florence from a guidebook that said that thousands of years of pounding storms had sifted and graded the size of pebbles along the eighteen miles of each, with the bigger stones at the eastern end. The legend was that local fishermen landing at night knew exactly where they were by the grade of the shingle. Florence had suggested they might see for themselves by comparing handfuls gathered a mile apart. Trudging along the beach would have been better than sitting here.

- On Chesil Beach

England has no shortage of landscapes evoked by its literature, and after reading Ian McEwan's novella about a young, sexually ignorant couple on their honeymoon in 1962,  Chesil Beach leaped onto my list of places to one day visit. It's the site of crucial scenes not only in the book, but also in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's terrific 1949 film The Small Back Room.  Set during WWII, David Farrar plays Sammy Rice, a bomb disposal expert who is struggling with his own personal demons: an injury that still causes him much pain, the resulting temptation to turn to alcohol (there's a surreal but fascinating scene featuring a whisky bottle that becomes almost larger than life), and how his insecurities are affecting his  girlfriend Susan (a much more sophisticated, though no less complicated relationship than Edward and Florence's). A key scene is set right on Chesil Beach when Sammy is called to diffuse a German bomb that has fallen on the beach. The suspense is gripping.  Every time he moves, the pebbles start to shift alarmingly; the bomb could be triggered at any moment.

The movie also showcases the beauty of the surrounding area, and this very unique strip of land that is a World Heritage site.  Just don't take any souvenirs home, as McEwan found out the hard way. And we can look forward to a movie adaptation of On Chesil Beach; McEwan is working on the screenplay.

Harry goes to Uni

The Guardian Newspaper has reported that Durham University will be teaching a course on Harry Potter. What fun! I would totally take that course. My daughter and I recently visted the Harry Potter Exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre. I have to tell you, I was pretty impressed. My daughter was sorted into Gryffindor (phew!) and there were people there from as far as way as the Yukon. It did not disappoint. It was pretty exciting to see many of the props and costumes from the film. The highlight was Hermoine's dress she wore to the Yule Ball...boy is she tiny.

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen is the New Oprah Book Club Selection

All the rumours that have been buzzing around the internet over the past few weeks about the identity of the next Oprah book club selection were confirmed earlier today when it was announced that Oprah's next pick is Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.

Check out the reviews and interview links below for the great buzz the book has been getting-even before the big announcement!



“Franzen has an uncanny knack for capturing the torturously self-justifying rhetoric and trendy slang of educated Gen Xers rebelling against their suburban childhoods by seeking “authenticity” in the grungy core of the American city. The details of time and place and attitude are so sharp as to induce frequent wincing.” Toronto Star interview, review

“Freedom is filled with vividly rendered characters.” National Post interview, review

Franzen’s coup is that he has figured out how to be both entertaining, sharp-witted and accessible while maintaining a sense of higher purpose. I “thoroughly enjoyed this intellectual soap opera of love, sex, liberal guilt and flawed parenting (viz. Philip Larkin), and got sucked into the travails of the Berglunds and their constellation.” The Globe and Mail interview, review.

“A superb confrontation of the family construct and the illusion of liberty. Written with a heavy hand and edited with a light one, it is correctly being called the year's required North American fiction.” Vancouver Sun

“[Franzen] has composed a symphonic account of the pursuit of purpose and the turmoil of change. His locomotive sentences are vehicles of hysterically withering observations and exact imagery, sermons that articulate complex concepts with mirthful clarity. These fully formed characters inhabit amplified worlds that adroitly parody and illuminate our own.” Georgia Straight

Best of the Canadian Backlist

Over the summer, The ACP (Association of Canadian Publishers) put together this amazing catalogue of the best of the Canadian kids backlist over the past two years. Click here to see the full PDF; or if you would like a hard copy; please e-mail me at saffronb@katewalker.com!

A Novel Bookstore and a Novel Bookstore. . .

I love a little bookish serendipity.

I've just been in Calgary selling the spring list and doing our first Dewey book talk of the fall season. At the end of one of  appointments, I was chatting to my buyer about books we'd recently read and I mentioned that I'd just finished A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cossé, translated by Alison Anderson (a lovely story about two bibliophiles who decide to open The Good Novel, a bookstore in Paris that will only stock, well, good novels of course, and how they deal with the resulting backlash).  "Have you heard about the new literary bookstore that has just opened in Calgary?" my buyer asks me. Of course I go scurrying off to investigate.

Shelf Life Books is indeed a new downtown independent bookstore (at the corner of 4th Street SW and 13th Avenue) and while they are still putting the finishing touches to some of the fixtures and they aren't fully stocked yet, I was still pretty darn impressed with what I saw. In this interview, the owner JoAnn McCaig describes her store as, "a bookstore for the unusually bookish."  I love that phrase - the unusually bookish. Already they have a killer poetry section, shelves devoted to local writers and a strong focus on Canadian literature, the classics and small presses. There was Hans Fallada -  face out.  A shelf or two down, they had copies of Daniel Kehlmann's Fame (a very funny take on technology and the pitfalls of being famous;  it's just been published and is one of my fall Dewey picks). They are the first Canadian bookstore I've been in so far that is stocking Open Letter Books  (a wonderful press devoted to literature in translation - they used to be only available in Canada through subscription - I had one - but happily are now distributed by the Literary Press Group). I immediately bought two of their books - Bragi Ólafsson's The Ambassador, translated by Lytton Smith, which I started on the plane home, trying not to chortle too loudly, and Andreas Maier's Klausen, translated by Kenneth J. Northcott.

 

It's so wonderful to hear about an independent bookstore opening rather than closing and I wish Shelf Life Books the best of luck. If you are in Calgary, do stop by and give them your support. Chat with the friendly staff about books. I'll certainly be back in the spring.

We're Thrilled. . .

. . . that in celebration of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, the CBC has chosen this blog as one of their top 10 blogs worth reading. Thank you so much! Given the excellent company of the other blogs listed, we're very honoured.  You can see the full list here.