The Buzz...About Books

Weekend Reading: Five Novels about Prohibition

A lot of my friends were worried this week about a potential LCBO strike. Now that a tentative deal has been reached, everyone can relax and read these books set in the Prohibition era. Between 1920 and 1933, a ban on the sale, transportation, and production of alcohol was in place in the United States.  During the era, organized crime, bootlegging and smuggling flourished.

By Starlight by Dorothy Garlock
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A young woman struggling to support her family is offered a chance to run an illegal speakeasy, unaware that the operation is being investigated by an agent from the Bureau of Prohibition.

Empire State by Adam Christopher
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Bootleggers, detectives, superheroes and robots battle against an unknown enemy in this alternate reality version of Prohibition era New York.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Fitzgerald's classic story of Jazz Age excess and decadence. The character of Jay Gatsby is based on real-life bootlegger Max Gerlach.

Live By Night by Dennis Lehane
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Although the son of a police captain, Joe Coughlin opts for a life as a gangster and run rummer during the height of the Prohibition era.

The Wettest County in the World by Matt Bondurant
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The exploits of Bondurant's grandfather, a member of a notorious gang of bootleggers, are fictionalized in this novel.

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:

Memoirs (Momoirs?) for Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day. There are lots of books, both fiction and non-fiction featuring mothers. Here's a list of good mothers in literature from the Chicago Tribune. Meanwhile Publishers' Weekly has created a list of bad mothers. The books on this list are written by mothers themselves--women who have learned too late that babies do not come with instruction manuals.

Area Woman Blows Gasket: Tales from the Domestic Frontier by Patricia Pearson
Pearson writes about trying (and failing) to have it all as a working mother.

Operating Instructions: a Journal of My Son's First Year by Anne Lamotte
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Writer Lamotte records the highs and lows of life with a new baby.

Say it Again in a Nice Voice: a Memoir of Imperfect Motherhood by Meg Mason
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New Zealand author Mason writes about her attempts to remain sane after having a baby.

When Did I Get Like This?: the Screamer, the Worrier, the Dinosaur-Chicken-Nugget Buyer, and Other Moms I Swore I Would Never Be by Amy Wilson
Actor-blogger Wilson describes herself as a "former perfectionist". In this collection of short essays she shares the pleasures and perils of motherhood.

Wiped!: Life with a Pint-Sized Dictator by Rebecca Eckler
Toronto writer Eckler discovers that motherhood is not what she expected and sets out to tell the truth about parenting a newborn.

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......

The Sweet Smell of...Sense of Smell Day

Sense of Smell Day was created in 1994 by the Sense of Smell Institute, the research and educational division of The Fragrance Foundation. The Fragrance Foundation is the non-profit, educational arm of the global fragrance industry.

Each of these books provides a different perspective on scent:

The Perfect Scent: a Year Inside the Perfume Industry in New York and Paris by Chandler Burr
Burr describes the creation of two perfumes: Hermès' Un Jardin sur le Nil in Paris and Coty's Lovely in New York.

Scent of the Missing: Love and Partnership with a Search-and-Rescue Dog by Susannah Charleson
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Pilot Charleson describes her efforts to train Puzzle, a search-and-rescue dog.

The Scent Trail: an Olfactory Odyssey by Celia Lyttelton
After a signature scent is created for her, Lyttelton sets out on a quest to discover the origin of its ingredients.

Season to Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way by Molly Birnbaum
Her dreams of becoming a chef are destroyed when she loses her sense of smell so Birnbaum focuses her energy on learning about the process and science of smell.

What the Nose Knows: the Science of Scent in Everyday Life by Avery Gilbert
Psychologist and olfactory researcher Gilbert examines the science and culture of smell.

Calling All Angels: Heavenly Creatures in Recent Fiction

Angel fiction is all the rage. Fans of Danielle Trussoni's best-selling Angelology, a tale of secret societies, ancient libraries, and fallen angels, eagerly await the upcoming release of Angelopolis. If you like books by Dan Brown, you must check this series out. Even more exciting, Will Smith has signed on to produce the film adaptation. Paul Bettany in Legion (above) is one of the many heavenly bodies to grace the big screen. The super-hot Mortal Instruments series is due to hit theatres in August.

Recent titles featuring angels (and a few hot demons) range from steamy romance (J.R. Ward), to mystery (Linda Poitven), to dark urban fantasy (Tad Williams, Nalini Singh). This sub-genre is a celestial mash-up of religious sources, literary traditions, and pure invention. Fallen angels make for less than angelic behaviour - which is part of the attraction. Angel fiction by Laini Taylor, Lauren Kate, Michelle Rowan, and Becca Fitzpatrick appeal to both teen and adult readers. In fact, Lauren Kate's fallen angel, Daniel Grigori, is arguably even more sparkly than Edward Cullen. Some angels are just working stiffs: Stephanie Chong's guardian angel, Serena St. Clair, has a day job as a yoga instructor. Simon Rich's What in God's Name? takes this to the next level: God is a cranky CEO who wants to liquidate his assets  - but not before he challenges two underpaid angels to save the Earth.

Read on:

Check out these seraphic graphics - fallen angels have long been a fixture in graphic fiction:           

Ben Foster's role as the mutant, Angel, in X-Men 3: The Last Stand is oft cited as a positive LGBT symbol.  

Love is a Burning Thing: Fire Fighters in Romance Novels

Poor tormented Guy Montag, the fireman protagonist of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 doesn't have a lot of romance in his life.

The firefighters featured in these romance novels are a different story, however.

Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts
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Will the relationship between two smoke jumpers sizzle or just burn out?

The Hot Line by Cathryn Fox
Three friends can't resist the temptation to call a hotline that dispatches firemen to lonely women.

Just Breathe by Susan Wiggs
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Sarah Moon finds her romantic life heating up when she returns to her hometown and discovers the high school heartthrob is now a fireman.

Men on Fire
This compilation contains three steamy firefighter romances: The Firefighter Wears Prada by Rachelle Chase, Playing with Fire by Jodi Lynn Copeland and Too Hot to Handle by Susan Lyons.

The Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Evans
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Two smoke jumpers fall in love with the same woman.

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The Fireman who Loved Me by Jennifer Bernard
Sparks fly when news producer Melissa wins a date with Fire Chief Harry.

Seducing Simon by Maya Banks
A secret pregnancy heats up the relationship between Toni and her best friend Simon.

Putting on the Fitz: Books about F. Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald ruled the Jazz Age. Rich, talented, beautiful, and outrageous - Scott and Zelda partied like it was 1925.  Both continue to fascinate the public and inspire novelists, filmmakers and artists. Director Baz Luhrmann's upcoming The Great Gatsby and the recently published Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Fowler will renew interest in this beautiful but damned couple.

Fun fact: video game designer Shigeru Miyamo named his pixel princess "Zelda" after Zelda Fitzgerald.

Scott, one of the greatest modern writers, wrote The Great Gatsby.  Zelda was a glamorous southern belle who smoked, drank, played with boys - and got away with it. 

Together they ruled as the celebrity couple of the 1920s, the king and queen of the Lost Generation with Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Josephine Baker, Jon Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and Isadora Duncan.

But it wasn't all golden. Zelda was Scott's muse - but she was also a rival and struggled with her artistic ambitions. Hemingway viewed her as Scott's Yoko Ono; Zelda thought Hemingway was a jerk. Alcoholism and mental illness were the dark passengers that dogged their so-called charmed life. Scott died at 44 from a heart attack; Zelda died in a fire at a mental institution.

 Rare glimpes of the Fitzgeralds:

Fictionalized works with the Fitzgeralds:

  The Beautiful and the Damned

What Kept Toronto Reading

This year's One Book celebrates the power of the book: its power to evoke emotion, to band people together, and ultimately, to bring about change for the future.

In honour of 2013's Keep Toronto Reading festival, let's revisit the past One Book selections and check out what kept Toronto reading in the last five years:

 

In 2012, Maggie Helwig's Girls Fall Down set the tone for readers in Toronto. Based in various parts of the city, marked by distinct Toronto hangouts, it explored themes of mental health, homelessness, belonging and the ways our bodies betray us. Helwig penned a solid novel that spurred discussions between many Torontonians.

 

 

In 2011, Judy Fong Bates introduced us to a family full of secrets in Midnight at the Dragon Cafe. In spare, intimate prose, Bates drew out the weight of culture and tradition, and the portrait of a young Chinese-Canadian girl growing up in a small Ontario town.

 

 

 

In 2010, More by Austin Clarke dove headfirst into issues of racial inequity and the experiences of a black immigrant woman in Toronto, 25 years in. Both personal and political, More examined the complexities of race in modern western culture.

 

 

 

In 2009, Glen Downie's Loyalty Management brought readers together with a collection of poems that looked at the many sides of living in this city - from the lighthearted and funny to the deeply sobering. Downie's memorable voice, unique spacing and lovely made up words ("sleepward"!) pulled together a collection suitable for those new to poetry and long-time lovers alike.

 

 

2008 kicked off the One Book festival with Michael Redhill's Consolation. This title slipped between two worlds - centuries apart - that captured the memory of a young Toronto, through photographs and lived experiences.

 

 

Many of our One Book selections had Toronto as a starting point, but you can see how much the idea of what Toronto is - and who Toronto is - can change over time.

In Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag asks: "How long is it since you were really bothered?... About something important, about something real?" Whether poetry or prose, One Book titles are chosen for the issues they bring up and the conversations they can spark all across the city.

Here's to many more One Books to come - thanks for reading, Toronto!

Beyond Literature: Ray Bradbury's Influence on Popular Culture

When I was in public school, I remember reading a story in class about a planet where it rained all the time except for a couple of hours every 7 years. In the story, a group of children lock one of their classmates in a closet so she misses the sun.

The story has haunted me for 30+ years and I just discovered in the past few days that it was written by Ray Bradbury. The story is called "All Summer in a Day" and it has affected others as well. Junot Díaz refers to the story in his Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Director Rian Johnson also cites the story as an influence on his movie Looper.

If you would like to read the story yourself it is available in these collections:
A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Bradbury's writing has made an impact on songwriters as well. Perhaps the most famous example is the song "Rocket Man" written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin based on the Bradbury story "The Rocket Man". In fact, Taupin has acknowledged that the song was actually influenced by another song which really was inspired by the Bradbury story.

 

The song appears on:

Elton John Greatest Hits

Rocket Man: Number Ones

 

 

The story is available in these collections:
Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
The Illustrated Man
A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories
The Stories of Ray Bradbury

The Smashing Pumpkins song "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" was inspired by the Bradbury story "A Sound of Thunder".

 

The song appears on:

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

 

 

 

The story is available in these collections:
Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories
The Stories of Ray Bradbury

More recently, deadmau5 produced a song called "The Veldt", featuring vocals from Chris James, based on the Bradbury story of the same name.

 

The song appears on:

> Album Title Goes Here <

 

 

 

The story is available in these collections:
The Illustrated Man
The Stories of Ray Bradbury

This blog post will go on forever if I begin to list the writers who consider Bradbury an influence on their work. Even Steven Spielberg has acknowledged that Bradbury was a key inspiration for his science fiction films.

If you would like to know more about Ray Bradbury's legacy, Lillian H. Smith library will be hosting a panel discussion on April 2:

Keep Toronto Reading: Ray Bradbury's Legacy