The Buzz...About Books

I Like Big Books and I Cannot Lie

Yes, this meme is a bit old, but it still holds true.   Like many people, I love diving into a lengthy book, especially for summer vacation reading.    If you are looking for a book that will keep you occupied a good long while, try one of these recently published books, all of which are over 500 pages in length:

 

River of Stars is Canada's Guy Gavriel Kay's latest historical fiction/fantasy novel.  This story takes place about 400 years after Under Heaven.  This is the story of Lin Shan, a determined and unconventional young woman, who uses her unusual relationship with the emperor to manipulate events behind the scenes in an effort to protect the life of her beloved father.  As we can expect from Kay, the book is based on history, but given a twist into the realm of the fantastic which allows for his excellent stories to unfold.

 

Guy Gavriel Kay was recently interviewed as part of The eh List Author Series.  If you missed this event, you can watch the interview with Chatelaine book editor Laurie Grassi below:

 

 

Edward Rutherfurd is well known for writing excellent (and long) historical fiction. Paris is his latest novel and the third book he has written on the history of a city, following London and New York.   This multigenerational saga takes readers from the founding of Paris under the Romans, through the major events of Parisian history, including religious wars and the French Revolution up to the Nazi occupation and the French Resistance. Paris is also available in eBook, audiobook and Talking Book (Restricted to Print Disabled Patrons).

 

Winter of the World is the second book of Ken Follett's The Century Trilogy.   In continues the stories of the American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh families first introduced in the first book, Fall of  Giants.  This time the five families are dealing with the turmoil of the mid-twentieth century, including the rise of Nazi Germany, the Spanish Civil War, and the horrors of World War II.  The final book, Edge of Eternity, is expected to be published in 2014.  Winter of the World is also available as an audiobook, eAudiobook and Talking Book (Restricted to Print Disabled patrons).

 

The Twelve is the second book in Justin Cronin's trilogy which began with The Passage.  This post-apocolyptic series takes place in a world devastated by military research gone wrong, where people infected by a virus have become brutal, vampiric killers who have destroyed most of humanity.  The survivors are on constant watch, fighting to keep themselves safe from the 'virals'.  The third book, City of Mirrors, is expected to be published next year.  The Twelve is also available in Large Print, eBook, audiobook, eAudiobook and Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons).

 

Shadow of Night is the second book in Deborah Harkness's All Souls trilogy.  The first book, Discovery of Witches, began the story of the historian and reluctant witch Diana Bishop and the handsome and sexy vampire Matthew Clairmont.  Pursuing information on the mysterious book Ashmole 782, Diana and Matthew travel to Elizabethan England where they meet several historical figures, Diana begins to learn the skills she needs to survive as a witch and Matthew confronts his past.  Fans of the series wait quite impatiently for the third and final book to be published, hopefully sometime this year.  Shadow of Night is also available in Large Print, audiobook, eAudiobook and Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons) formats.

 

Of course, the biggest downside to being a fan of an author prone to long novels is that the wait between books can seem endless, as evidenced by this video by fans of George R R Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series (also known as Game of Thrones)...

Are you a fan of Big Books?  If so, which ones are your favourites?

Waiting to Be Heard: A Memoir by Amanda Knox

Waiting to be Heard: a Memoir by Amanda Knox promises to tell her side of a particularly brutal story.

Knox, an American student living in Italy, was sentenced to 26 years for the 2007 murder and sexual assualt of her British roomate, Meredith Kercher. Knox's boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito was also convicted for his role in this gruesome murder.

In 2011, the convictions were overturned on appeal and both were released.  In March 2013, these acquittals were reversed and a retrial ordered.

Sensational media coverage with reports of satanic rites, sex, drugs, police brutality, false allegations, conspiracies, and cover-ups makes it difficult to tell fact from fiction. 

Here is a timeline of the main events. 

One thing is clear: people just love to hate Amanda Knox. Social media and online communities are fixated on the 25-year old woman now living in Seattle. 

Her supporters claim she is a victim of a sexist and corrupt judicial system. Her haters (and there are many) claim she is simply a pretty little liar - a psychopath who might get away with murder.  

Here's some recent coverage of her book: Toronto Star, Globe, New Yorker, CBC, Telegraph, Guardian, and The New York Times.

Watch an excerpt from Knox's first interview after her release from prison with Diane Sawyer. Full interview (warning-some graphic content): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. 

Listen to her Canadian interview on the CBC. 

 

Meredith Kercher, Age 19 in England

 

The Kercher family responds to the release of Knox's book and her impending retrial. Meredith's father, John Kercher, is a journalist and has released a book in the UK about his daughter (to date, it's not available in Canada).

 Further reading available at the Toronto Public Library:

Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: Reading to Help Your Nothing Day

The Mary Tyler Moore Show almost didn't make it after all.  Jennifer Armstrong's Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted reveals that early audiences gave it a chilly reception. 36 years later, The Mary Tyler Moore Show is cited as setting the bar for television comedy and for women's roles on TV. Without Mary Richards, there would be no Liz Lemon. Throw your hat in the ring - reserve your copy today to get the scoop on the writers, the cast dynamics, Veal Prince Orloff and Chuckles the Clown. 

Armstrong speaks about her book. Read her interview. Advance reviews are glowing: Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly love it. Recall some fave characters here. According to the Huffington Post, the female cast members will reunite on an upcoming Hot in Cleveland episode - made bittersweet with Valerie Harper's recent announcement about her illness.

 

Further reading from MTM alumnae:

Oprah is a serious MTM fan. Watch this:

Mimzi, the MTM kitty......

Treating Ideas Like Cats

“Ray Bradbury, cat lover #RIP” was the tweet sent out last June 6 by Buzzfeed after Bradbury’s death at age 92. Not “Ray Bradbury, author extraordinaire #RIP,” or “Ray Bradbury, sci fi genius #RIP,” or even “Ray Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451 #RIP” but “Ray Bradbury, cat lover #RIP.” Elsewhere, blogger Bobby Pfeiffer wrote an obit entitled “R.I.P. Ray Bradbury (and another proof that cats are a writer's best friend)”.  Bradbury, author of this year’s One Book selection Fahrenheit 451, was clearly well known for mentioning his cats fondly in numerous contexts. He had even suggested that he treated his creative ideas (and by extension, his writing) in the same manner as his cats.

Another commenter on an obituary blog post about Bradbury also noted his ongoing interest in cats. “My first encounter with Ray Bradbury was at a book signing for Quicker Than the Eye in 1996,” writes Dale Allen. “When it came my turn to get an autographed copy of the book, I asked him as he shook my hand, ‘What’s your cat’s name?’ referring to his publicity photo on the back of the book. Bradbury said, ‘What?’ The book clerk assisting him repeated my question. ‘Tigger!’ he exclaimed … ‘I told my publishers not to change it until they brought him back to life.’”

Bradbury and his wife Marguerite (Maggie) Bradbury (nee McClure) shared their home with several cats over the years. Like his cats, his wife of 56 years helped enable his writing as, for many years, Maggie was the family breadwinner, allowing Ray to stay home and write. At one point in the 1950s, the Bradbury family home was home to 22 felines, although more recent years saw more manageable numbers, dwindling to only two, Win-Win and Ditzy, at the time of Marguerite’s death in 2003.

In a splendid simile, Bradbury was quoted as treating his writing in the same manner as his cats:

“As soon as things get difficult, I walk away. That’s the great secret of creativity. You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you. If you try to approach a cat and pick it up, hell, it won’t let you do it. You’ve got to say, ‘Well, to hell with you.’ And the cat says, ‘Wait a minute. He’s not behaving the way most humans do.’ Then the cat follows you out of curiosity: ‘Well, what’s wrong with you that you don’t love me?” (Zen in the Art of Writing).

“Any owner of cats will know of what I speak. Cats come at dawn to sit on your bed. They may not nip your nose or inhale your breath or make a sound. They simply sit there and stare at you until you open one eyelid and spy them there about to drop dead for need of feeding. So it is with ideas. They come silently in the hour of trying to wake up and remember my name. The notions and fancies sit on the edge of my wits, whisper in my ears and then, if I don't rouse, give more than cats give: a good knock in the head, which gets me out and down to my typewriter before the ideas flee or die or both. In any event, I make the ideas come to me. I do not go to them. I provoke their patience by pretending disregard. This infuriates the latent creature until it is almost raving to be born and once born, nourished" (Columbia World of Quotations).

And also from Zen in the Art of Writing:

“And metaphors like cats behind your smile,
Each one wound up to purr,
each one a pride,
Each one a fine gold beast you've hid inside (...)”

Cats are mentioned throughout Bradbury’s writing, including in the title of one of his books of short stories, The Cat’s Pajamas. Cats serve both as minor subjects of discussion and more often are used in descriptive similes and metaphors. Says one short story character, “There’s no future without my cat,” a concept probably familiar to Bradbury.  Bradbury also wrote a book of poetry called With Cat for Comforter, even the title giving the reader some sense of the warmth and affection he felt for these animals.

In addition to treating his ideas like cats, Bradbury stated that “I have my favorite cat, who is my paperweight, on my desk while I am writing”.  Anyone who has tried to read a newspaper with a cat in the room certainly knows that feeling!

Bradbury is certainly not the only author who shares his life with cats. Blogger Bobby Pfeiffer, who alleges that cats are a writer’s best friend, notes that: “Writers are great people.  They might be rambling lunatics or lazy drunkards or unpleasant anti-socials or even ordinary dullards, but they are still great.  You know why?  Because a) they write and b) they love cats. No man or a woman who loves language and stories, and keeps a furry friend around can be a bad person.” Pfeiffer has collected a fascinating selection of photos of authors as illustrious as Stephen King, Allen Ginsberg, Ernest Hemingway, Joyce Carol Oates, William Faulkner, William Burroughs, Truman Capote, Sylvia Plath, Samuel Beckett and Herman Hesse, in addition to Bradbury, all in the company of their cats.

Another article on writing and cats adds TS Eliot, Mark Twain, William Butler Yeats, Patricia Highsmith, Charles Dickens and Neil Gaiman to the list of ailurophile authors.  Of course, we are not suggesting that it is absolutely necessary to share your home with a cat or two in order to produce prize-winning prose, but it sure sounds like it helps. Just in case, if you are an aspiring author, visit your local animal shelter or Toronto Cat Rescue to help enable your next prize-winning novel. Tell them Ray sent you.

Remembering Chinua Achebe 1930 - 2013

  

Chinua Achebe, the father of modern African literature, has died at the age of 82 in Boston.  Born in Nigeria in 1930, Achebe's first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958) took the world by storm and set the stage for Africa to reclaim the literary voice usurped by her colonizers.  Novelist, critic, political activist, professor, and poet - the power and influence of Achebe's work and legacy is staggering.

Read about it here: CBC, Globe, Toronto Star, Guardian,  BBC, Times Nigeria, The New York Times, Ottawa Citizen, Washington Post, and in the AllAfrica Times.

Read (or re-read) Achebe's works.  Here is a selection available at the Toronto Public Library:  

 

Things Fall Apart is also available on Audiobook.

Check out the Guardian's photo gallery.  Toronto's 680 News has posted selected quotes.

Read what the Guardian had to say when Achebe was awarded the International Man Booker Prize in 2007.

 Watch the 2008 PBS Interview: Achebe Discusses Africa 50 Years After Things Fall Apart:

 

 

Achebe, aged 26

The Skinny on The Heavy: A Mother, A Daughter, A Diet

 The Heavy: A Mother, A Daughter, A Diet by Dara-Lynn Weiss is the latest parenting memoir causing controversy with supporters and critics eager to weigh in.

Weiss put her overweight daughter on a strict calorie-based diet which she policed vigorously and very, very publicly. So public, in fact, that Weiss, a free-lance writer, got her story published in last April's Vogue, with photographs of mother and daughter in designer duds, sipping tea. 

Now here's the thing: Bea is only seven years old.

A firestorm of outrage followed the Vogue article - with Weiss at its epicentre, and according to her - she remains 'stunned' by the negative reaction.  As with Amy Chua's The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Weiss' memoir of extreme parenting evokes strong feelings from parents, pundits, doctors, critics, and bloggers.

The alarming statistics on childhood obesity is creating front page news, and Weiss' supporters see her as courageously proactive in protecting her daughter's health.  Conversely, her critics have accused her of damaging Bea physically and emotionally. Jezebel, a feminist blog, spared nothing in its assessment of Weiss and her project.  

Critics also zero in on her public enforcement of Bea's diet (just ask the Starbucks barista who put whipped cream on Bea's hot chocolate without asking). Indeed, much of this memoir is Weiss defending her actions against her many critics.  

Listen to Weiss' CBC interview today on the Current. Read the coverage in the Toronto Star, the Globe, Huffington Post, New York Magazine, UK Times, and Slate.  Watch the coverage on CTV and on ABC below (click on the link to take you to YouTube, then click on the new tab to view).

  

The Heavy is also available in these formats:

• Audiobook
• eBook
• eAudiobook
• Talking Book (restricted to print disabled patrons)

 

Further Reading:

• Always the Fat Kid by Jacob Warren and K. Bryant Smalley
• Overcoming Childhood Obesity by Colleen Thompson and Ellen Shanley
• Combat Fat for Kids by James Villepigue
• Get a Healthy Weight for Your Child by Brian McCrindle

Related Posts:

• Year of The Tiger Mom
• Kid-Friendly Food: Nutrition for Children

 

Finally, on a lighter note: Internet cats and body image? 

 

 

 

Well, Hi There: Happy 1982

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where were you in '82? For Jian Ghomeshi, host of CBC's hit radio show Q, it was Thornhill. In his funny, often self-deprecating memoir 1982, Ghomeshi recalls his experience as a teen of Iranian descent growing up in white suburbia, his efforts to fit in, and his music idols - in particular, David Bowie. Read about his book in the Star and on the CBC. Check out Ghomeshi's interview in the Huffington Post. He makes a compelling case for the significance of '82, just in case you think this golden year was all about the leg warmers and shoulder pads.

1982 was the year of Michael Jackson's Thriller, Madonna's first single, "Everybody" (has it really been 30 years?), Pac-Man and the Commodore 64 computer.

Here are some books that were making news in 1982:

Different Seasons by Stephen King.  His four novellas include Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption and The Body. Both were adapted for film: The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me. Fun fact: While everyone recalls River Phoenix in Stand by Me, it was Wil Wheaton's starring role that sent him forth to Star Trek glory.

North and South by John Jakes. First in a trilogy about two buddies who find themselves on opposite sides of the American Civil War. The book is available to read at the Toronto Reference Library and you can borrow the television series starring Patrick Swayze.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Focused on the lives of black women in the southern U.S, this Pulitzer Prize winner continues to be in demand today.  It was later adapted for film, with Oprah making her screen debut.

Jane Fonda's Workout Book by Jane Fonda. Ok - she was all about the leg-warmers. Her seminal workout may no longer be available, but you can read her memoir, My Life So Far. 

In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters. A blockbuster business book. In 2001, a controversial article alleged that Peters' fact-checking was somewhat less than excellent.  You can borrow the 2006 edition in print and ebook.

War Horse by Michael Morpurgo.  A British children's book about the horrors of WW I through the experiences of Joey, a cavalry horse.  Who knew that decades later it would be a stage and screen hit? Steven Spielberg's 2011 War Horse is available to borrow on DVD. 

Bowie's ground-breaking video for Ashes to Ashes from his Scary Monsters album. It's still pretty darn cool:

 

 Below: Pac-Man and the Commodore 64.  All the rage in 1982. Retro cool in 2012. 

Further reading:  Retro Reads: That 70s Book

I'll Have What She's Having: Remembering Nora Ephron 1941-2012

Nora Ephron died last night in New York at the age of 71 from complications arising from leukemia. One of the great American humourists of the 20^th century, Ms. Ephron was an accomplished screenwriter, director, novelist, journalist , playwright, essayist, producer and blogger with a remarkable list of credits over many decades.  The quintessential New Yorker, Ephron's irreverence, wit, and generosity were oft cited within her large circle of writers, filmmakers, and journalists. 

Read the reaction to her passing in the New York Times, Toronto Star, National Post, Huffington Post,  Washington Post, Globe and Mail, Gaurdian, and the New Yorker.  Watch the news coverage on ABC.

She began her career as a journalist writing for the New York Post, Esquire, and New York Magazine. Her career as a screenwriter included When Harry Met Sally (who can forget the scene in Katz's delicatessen that ended with one of the best one-liners ever?) and Silkwood. She both wrote and directed Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, and Julie and Julia. 

Ephron's essays in I Feel Bad About My Neck (also available on audiobook read by the author) and in I Remember Nothing are direct, personal, and funny. And speaking of personal, her scathing novel Heartburn was inspired by the breakup of her second marriage to Carl "Watergate" Bernstein (who left her for another woman while Ephron was pregnant with their second child).  Her early essays are available in Wallflower at the Orgy.

 

 

 Watch Ephron's 2010 interview with Author Magazine:

   

 

Ephron on the set (1992) Courtesy of the Washington Academy of Achievment

 

  

The Gift of Being a Man Wolf

Anne Rice returns to her gothic horror roots with The Wolf Gift. She has crafted tales of vampires, witches and angels, and now, Rice tackles werewolves.

We are introduced to our anti-hero Reuben Golding, while he is on location writing a story for the San Francisco Observer. Reuben seems to have it all, wealth, good looks and a promising career as a journalist. He is attracted to the lovely and older Marchent Nideck, who is selling her ancient family home. Reuben is captivated by the mysterious mansion, nestled in a redwood forest just north of San Francisco. While giving a tour of the house, Marchent recalls her family history, which includes a missing great-uncle Felix, who has finally been officially declared dead. During their romantic evening, Marchent is attacked and murdered and Reuben is bitten by a strange animal, while fighting with the attackers.

Of course, we all know the bizarre changes Reuben "suddenly" begins to experience at night. He dubs himself "the Man Wolf," discovering that his new animal senses allow him to hear and smell evil-doers and their victims. He becomes a vigilante of sorts, while the media, police and scientists hunt for his true identity. Throughout the novel, Reuben struggles with the moral dilemma of good and evil, and the internal conflict of embracing and fearing what he is becoming. The question of what bit him and if there are more man wolves out there continues to haunt him.

Also available in: Audiobook and Large Print

Anne Rice recently visited the Appel Salon to talk about The Wolf Gift, if you missed her that night, here are the videos!

 

 

 

Christopher Hitchens: 1949 - 2011

 
Christopher Hitchens, British author and essayist, died last night of complications related to cancer. A fierce intellectual and polemicist, Hitchens was no stranger to controversy. Indeed, his impressive body of work has both engaged and enraged his many readers over the years - and his passing has resulted in an outpouring of editorials reflecting on his life and work.  

Read obits from the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, the BBC, CNN, the Guardian, the National Post, the Wall Street Journal, The Daily Mail and Vanity Fair.

See Vanity's Fair's photo essay.  Read some of his memorable quotes here and here.

Watch Hitchen's inteview with Sally Quinn of the Washington Post in which he reflects upon his life's work. 

 

The Guardian reports on a forthcoming memoir, Mortality, based on his Vanity Fair columns.

Until then:

 

 

 

 

 

• God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
• Hitch-22: A Memoir
• Arguably: Essays 
• The Quotable Hitchens: From Alcohol to Zionism

 

Hitchens in 1968.