The Buzz...About Books

Fiction for Victoria Day

Queen Victoria inherited the throne on June 20 1837 when she was 18 years old and remained monarch until her death in 1901. It was the longest reign in the history of the British monarchy and the longest reign by a female monarch in history.  The years of her reign coincided with a period of great cultural, political, industrial and scientific change. 

As if her actual life wasn't busy enough, Queen Victoria lives on as a fictional character in a wide range of novels which include standard historical fiction, crime and fanciful speculative fiction novels.

The Affinity Bridge by George Mann
Queen Victoria asks her agents Sir Maurice Newbury and Veronica Hobbes to investigate after an airship mysteriously crashes in this Steampunk mystery.

The Captive of Kensington Palace by Jean Plaidy
The novel concentrates on Victoria's early years, particularly her sheltered environment.  This is the first book in Plaidy's Queen Victoria series followed by The Queen and Lord M, The Queen's Husband and the Widow of Windsor.

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A Flaw in the Blood by Stephanie Barron
Irish barrister Patrick Fitzgerald is summoned to Windsor Castle by Queen Victoria where Prince Albert is near death.  She is a woman uncertain of the future and obsessed with the past.  Threats to his own life complicate Patrick's search for the truth about the Queen's history.

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India Black and the Widow of Windsor by Carol K. Carr
After an assassination threat, Queen Victoria's favourite spy India Black disguises herself as a palace servant to investigate.

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Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter by A.E. Moorat
When Queen Victoria ascends to the throne she must not only contend with traditional affairs of state, but also with a secret war between her subjects and the undead.

Related Posts

• Life as Queen Victoria

May 16 is Biographers Day

Today is the anniversary of the first meeting between Samuel Johnson and James Boswell.  The men met in 1763 in a London bookstore.  The meeting and friendship led to the publication of Boswell's landmark biography, The Life of Samuel Johnson (also available as an eBook). 

May 16 has been designated as Biographers Day in honour of this meeting.  Why not celebrate by reading a biography?

These are books about extraordinary and sometimes unlikely friendships.

Boswell's Presumptuous Task: the Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson by Adam Sisman
Sisman documents Boswell and Johnson's friendship, detailing Boswell's struggle to complete the legendary biography.

The Love Queen of Malabar: Memoir of a Friendship with Kamala Das by Merrily Weisbrod
Canadian writer Weisbrod was nominated for the 2011 Charles Taylor prize for this memoir about her friendship with controversial Indian writer Kamala Das.

Mrs Lincoln and Mrs Keckly: the Remarkable Story of the Friendship between a First Lady and a Former Slave by Jennifer Fleischner
Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckly were both born in 1818 but their early lives were radically different. The Todd family were well-respected and upwardly mobile; Keckly was the product of a relationship between her slave mother and her white master. Keckly's skill as a seamstress brought her to the attention of Mrs Lincoln and she soon became one of the First Lady's most trusted confidantes.

Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship by Dave Kindred
Although outwardly different, sportscaster Howard Cosell and boxer Mohammad Ali formed a complex relationship during the turbulent 1960s.

White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson by Brenda Wineapple
Although they only met twice, Dickinson and Higginson forged a complex and long-lasting friendship through letters. This account of their relationship is based upon 25 years of letters set to Higginson by Dickinson.

This is merely a small selection of the biographies available at Toronto Public Library.  Please consult with staff at your local branch for more suggestions.

Books for Lost Sock Memorial Day

Often on laundry day I discover that some of the socks are missing their mates.  Did they have mates to begin with?  Have they been sucked into the dryer?  Did they disintegrate?  Jerry Seinfeld maintains that socks don't simply get lost but instead run away, hatching intricate escape plans.

May 9 is Lost Sock Memorial Day--a day for fondly remembering socks that have gone missing and for clearing out that sock drawer.

If you have mismatched socks and a creative streak, you might want to combine the two with one of these craft books:

Adorable Sock Dolls to Make and Love by Connie Stone and Emola Lowe
This book provides the instructions for 35 sock dolls.

Sock and Glove: Creating Charming Softy Friends from Cast-Off Socks and Gloves by Miyako Kanamori
This book provides instructions for fast and easy toys from old socks, mittens and gloves.

Sockology: 16 New Sock Creatures, Cute & Cuddly--Weird & Wild by Brenna Maloney
Turn your socks into aliens and other creatures with this book.

Stray Sock Sewing, Too: More Super-Cute Sock Softies to Make and Love by Daniel
With step-by-step detailed instructions, this book will have you fashioning adorable creatures out of your mismatched socks in no time.

If you aren't crafty enough to make your own sock monkey, I recommend this novel:

Sock by Penn Jillette
A sock monkey named Dickie narrates this tale of a police diver's search for answers after he finds the body of an ex-lover.  I loved this strange, wonderful book.

Is Geek the New Cool?

In the book, Geek Girls Unite: How Fangirls, Bookworms, Indie Chicks, and Other Misfits are Taking Over the World a geek is defined as: "a person who's passionate about something and strives to be an expert."

Recently one of my friends commented that while we were in school, being a geek was considered a bad thing! This statement made me think. Have things truly changed? Are geeks now more socially accepted? Or have the geeks of the past simply grown up to design computers and make television shows like the Big Bang Theory and blockbuster superhero movies. These geeks have grown into successful adults. Is it true, just as the book title suggests, that The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth?

The following are a few of my favourite geeky books and movies, including a few biographies by some self-proclaimed geeks, who made it big.

Non-Fiction

Fiction

 
                 

DVDs

                                                        

Successful Geeks

Thanks, Toronto - and Keep Reading!

I’m a little sad; I can’t deny it.

April is almost over…and that means Keep Toronto Reading month is coming to an end. Here are just a couple of highlights to keep you reading and get a little excited all over again…

There were tons of things happening on the library’s Facebook page. Every Tuesday in April, readers posted three favourite books, and librarians across the city suggested one (or two!) more to try. I had a lot of fun answering some of the recommendations myself, and had an even better time checking out the huge variety of posted books. If there was ever a doubt that Toronto is a reading city, one only had to take a look at the eclectic mix of favourites!

This year’s thought provoking One Book, Girls Fall Down, incited a number of events throughout Toronto. These included everything from a city-wide photo contest to graffiti workshops, to guest lecturers exploring key issues like homelessness and mental health. In addition, there were numerous other Keep Toronto Reading events, both online and in branches that had all ages and all types of readers coming around. These included author visits, like those part of the eh List author series (which is ongoing!)

This year’s theme, What Are You Reading Where?, kept us all connected through books and spaces, and you may have noticed the Reader Walls and other displays in library branches. We also had a chance to get some YouTube videos up of what Torontonians were reading this month – so be sure to check that out!

If you’re still looking for something to read, don’t forget to check out our booklists. These are updated regularly, with different themes to fit a variety of reading tastes and interests. For example, if you really liked the Toronto-based aspect of Girls Fall Down, you may want to check out other titles that also have a Toronto connection.

 

Hope you enjoyed this April’s Keep Toronto Reading features and events – we certainly had fun being a part of it!

Seen Reading Toronto Fiction

If it's April it must be Keep Toronto Reading at the library.  As part of this festival of reading people all over Toronto can be seen reading the library's One Book choice "Girls fall Down" by Maggie Helwig.  The library has planned some fascinating and fun events around the content which includes our subway system and our wonderful ravines.

 

I highly recommend "Girls Fall Down".  It's part love-in for the city of Toronto, part love story, part mystery.   It is so much fun reading a book  and knowing exactly where the characters are walking or the subway stop they get off at or streetcar line they're taking.   Still, I've lived here a long, long time and there some places I've never seen but now want to visit like the Terraced Garden in High Park or the Brickworks in the Don Valley.   As to the story girls do indeed start falling.  Are they being poisoned or faking it?   Will the main characters, Alex and Susie, figure out what's actually going on in time and perhaps rekindle their grand passion?   See also Tita's blog review.

 

For those who have already read the book and want more fiction featuring Toronto Library Staff have a list of recommended reads called Toronto Fiction and I have a few to add below:

Amazing Absorbing Boy by Rabindanrath Maharaj

Fauna by Alissa York

Unless by Carol Shields

And here is some just published fiction set in Toronto:

Everybody has Everything by Katrina Onstad

Spoiled Rotten by Mary Jackman

Web of Angels by Lilian Nattel

 

I'm looking forward to Julie Wilson's "Seen Reading"  which contains short stories inspired by sightings of people reading in public, on Toronto's transit system.  See also her great Seen Reading blog.

 

What are you reading?   Where are you reading?    Join the conversation and be seen reading this month and all year round.

 

Memorable Reads

Before I Go to Sleep – S.J. Watson

“The bedroom is strange. Unfamiliar. I don’t know where I am, how I came to be here. I don’t know how I’m going to get home.”

 Every morning, Christine Lucas wakes up next to someone that she doesn’t recognize, in an unfamiliar home, believing that she is still in her twenties. Each day, a man who claims to be her husband explains that she was in an accident 20 years prior, that the two of them are happily married and that she is 47 years old.

Christine is able to retain her memories throughout the day, but everything is erased at night when she goes to sleep.  Upon the recommendation of her doctor, she begins to write a journal to try to piece together the details of her past. Each morning, her doctor calls to direct her to her journal, which is kept hidden in her closet.

As the details of her past unravel, they are far more horrifying and shocking than Christine could have ever imagined.This is a chilling and harrowing psychological thriller.

Other novels featuring characters with memory disorders

The Dark Room - Minette Walters

After a car accident leaves Jinx Kingsley with amnesia, she is left wondering what her role was in the gruesome murders of her fiancé and best friend.

What Alice Forgot - Liane Moriarty

After hitting her head at the gym, Alice believes that she is 29 years old, pregnant and happily married. In actuality she is 39 years old, with three children and is in the midst of an ugly divorce. As she begins to piece together the events of the past ten years, Alice realizes that some things are better off forgotten. This is a compelling and humorous novel.

Still Alice – Lisa Genova

Alice is a 52 year old university professor, happily married with three grown children. After experiencing months of forgetfulness, she discovers that she is suffering from the early signs of Alzheimer’s. Alice tries to find meaning in her life and make sense of her disease. This is a poignant, insightful and powerful novel.

       

Titanic Fiction

Unless you've been living in a cave, you are aware that this weekend marks the hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.  Thanks to wonderful archival databases we can see how the Titanic disaster was presented in newspapers at the time.  The image above is from the Globe on April 16, 1912.

If you're interested in a fictional look at the Titanic, these novels will provide some insight on the voyage, the shipwreck and its aftermath.

The Company of the Dead by David Kowalski
In this alternative history novel the Titanic is saved but the consequences to the United States are dire.  A century after the voyage, a handful of people risk everything to repair the past.

The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott
An ambitious seamstress boards the ill-fated ocean liner as a maid to real-life fashion designer Lucile Duff Gordon, who was later villainized for her actions after the shipwreck. 

From Time to Time by Jack Finney
Time travelling government agent Simon Morley visits the early 20th century in an effort to prevent World War I. 

The House of Velvet and Glass by Katherine Howe
A woman turns to spiritualism for comfort after her mother and sister die on the Titanic.

No Greater Love by Danielle Steel
Edwina Winfield and her five siblings survive the sinking of the Titanic, but her parents and fiance are not as lucky.  Edwina must not only care for her younger siblings, but manage the family's newspaper.

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For non-fiction about the Titanic, please consult our 100th Anniversary of the Sinking of the Titanic booklist.

No Fooling: Five Books for April Fool's Day

April Fool's Day is a day set aside for pranks, jokes and general trickery however there are some individuals who construct complex illusions about their own lives and maintain them for extended periods of time. These books are biographies of infamous impostors.

Catch Me If You Can: the Amazing True Story of the Most Extraordinary Liar in the History of Fun and Profit by Frank W. Abagnale
Serial impostor Frank Abagnale impersonated doctors, lawyers, professors and even a Pan-Am pilot while cashing $2.5 million in forged cheques all before his 21st birthday.

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La Grande Thérèse: the Greatest Scandal of the Century by Hilary Spurling
In reality an impoverished peasant, Thérèse Humbert reinvented herself as a rich heiress fooling and swindling those around her as she became an influential member of social and political scene in late 19th century Paris.

The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: the Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Imposter by Mark Seal
Christian Gerhartsreiter assumed various identities to climb the social ladder, convincing many people, including his wife, that he was a member of the Rockefeller family before his deception fell apart completely and he was arrested on kidnapping charges.

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The Perfect Prince: the Mystery of Perkin Warbeck and his Quest for the Throne of England by Ann Wroe
Perkin Warbeck was the son of a boatman in Flanders who challenged Henry VII for the throne claiming to be Richard, Duke of York, one of the Princes in the Tower believed to have been murdered by Richard III.

Phony! How I Faked My Way Through Life by Andrea Stanfield
Stanfield lied about her credentials in an interview with an accounting firm and eventually built a successful career on the basis of this falsehood. This memoir was written in order to cope with guilt over her dishonesty and as a warning to employers that people may not always be what they seem.

The Resurrection of the Romanovs: Anastasia, Anna Anderson and the World's Greatest Royal Mystery by Greg King and Penny Wilson
Historians King and Wilson explore the story of Anna Anderson, a troubled young woman who claimed to be Anastasia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II.

St. Patrick's Day Reads

Despite it’s religious origins, St. Patrick’s Day has become a cultural celebration of everything Irish.

I am a huge fan of Irish authors and with St. Patrick’s Day around the corner, I thought I would highlight some of my favourite Irish novels.

             

The Secret Scripture By Sebastian Barry

Roseanne McNulty, approaching her hundredth year, has been a patient at the Roscommon Mental Hospital for the past 50 years. She decides to write a personal memoir recounting her life full of betrayal, intrigue and mystery. Roseanne’s chief psychiatrist is also investigating her past in order to assess her suitability for release into the community. The two narratives – often conflicting - come together in a surprising twist at the end.  Set against the backdrop of the religious and political turmoil of Ireland in the twentieth century this is a gripping and intriguing novel.

Ireland: A Novel By Frank Delaney

This delightful, beautifully written novel, interweaves the folklore and history of Ireland with its powerful coming of age narrative. One night in 1951, a storyteller or ‘Seanchai’, mysteriously appears in the Irish countryside. In exchange for a place to stay, he invites the townsfolk to gather and listen to his wondrous tales of Irish folklore, legend as well as some factual history. A nine year old boy named Ronan is mesmerized by the Seanchai and his stories. When the Seanchai abruptly leaves, the boy devotes his life to finding him.

The Gathering By Anne Enright

Following the drowning of her brother Liam, Veronica attempts to make sense of the haunting and tragic events that have shaped the large Hegarty clan over the past three generations. This is a gripping, poignant and intense novel. Winner of the 2007 Man Booker prize.

What are some of your favourite Irish novels?