The Buzz...About Books

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!

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.

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? 

 

 

 

The bleaker, the better: More great dystopian reads

Earlier last month, I posted a few titles - mostly teen fiction - that painted dreary futures of tyrannical governments, genetic experimentations gone awry and more. There were, of course, still many more titles I missed, and I had loads of suggestions from readers who had some of their own picks to share.

Here are some more featured dystopian reads, including favourites from commenters, and some more I wanted to add in. When it comes to dystopian reading, you can never get too wierd or too creepy, so if you think this list is too tame, consider this a challenge to bring it on!

The Classics
These have been around forever - and with good reason. You may have read some of these in school, and they may have actually *gasp!* interested you! If you haven't yet, make time to get yourself into the worlds of these writers who were ahead of their times.

1. 1984 by George Orwell (reader suggestion!)
2. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (reader suggestion!)
3. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
4. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (reader suggestion!)

If you'd like to try your luck, you can also walk into a local library branch and check out the Classic paperback section for the titles above.

Hot for Teens
Fresh off the success of hits like The Hunger Games and Divergent, there have been a slew of young adult books that deal with themes of isolation, loss of identity, and power struggles - usually against the backdrop of mass government control. Here are some other titles to get you psyched (and maybe just a little paranoid...)

1. Scored by Lauren McLaughlin
2. This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers
3. A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan
4. Beta by Rachel Cohn
5. Feed by MT Anderson (reader suggestion!)
6. Unwind by Neal Shusterman

You've heard of it...now read it!
You may have seen the screen adaptation or had a friend gush over how much she loved this book...and cha nces are, you haven't quite read the book yet. Why wait?

 

1. We by Yevgeny Zamyat in (reader suggestion!)
2.   The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin (reader suggestion!)
3. The Book of Dave by Will Self (reader suggestion!)
   
4. World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler (reader suggestion!)
5. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (considered more utopian, actually...)
6. V for Vendetta by Alan Moore
7. World War Z by Max Brooks
8. The Devil's Alphabet by Daryl Gregory
9. Blindness by Jose Saramago
10. Battle Royale by Koushun Tamaki

Remember that many of these titles are available in a number of formats, including paperback, ebook and audio, so you can read it however you want.

Happy Reading!

 

 

 

 

 

The Animal in You

There's something kind of charming about stories that include animals. It's nothing new, of course: many classic works of literature focus on animal characters and often make them integral to the story's plot.

What can be just as charming - and sometimes dramatic, sinister or more - is when an animal takes on the role of narrator, or is otherwise very humanlike in nature. When we think of how close we are to some of our animal friends, it's not hard to imagine animals telling the story as they see it.

 

Mother chimpanzees have displayed emotional grieving rituals when infants died, and there have been many studies surrounding language and primates. Even smaller creatures like mice have displayed various 'grimacing' expressions when in pain!

Check out some of these titles that have animals in the main role and find out just how similar they may sometimes be...

 

If you're curious about 'humanlike' qualities found in animals, you can also check out this quick read online.

If you'd like to revisit some classic reads - including some for children - here are some other animal stories:

Chronicles of Narnia    Watership Down    Animal Farm   Charlotte's Web

Enjoy!

 

School Daze: Fiction Picks

Whether you've headed back to school this week, or are blissfully detached from the back-to-school scramble, there's always space for a good book about student life. Check out some of these titles I picked up recently.

Fall by Colin McAdam

Fall is set mostly at a prestigious Canadian boarding school, and it serves as a quiet backdrop to the relationship between three pivotal characters: Noel, the quiet loner; Julius, the athletic golden-boy, and Julius' girlfriend, the beautiful Fallon (or Fall, for whom the novel is named). Suspense grows as the relationships, particularly between Noel and Julius, grow in strange and complicated ways. When Fall mysteriously disappears one day, we're left wondering just who is behind it all. This is both a sharply-plotted mystery and a well-written character study for the most part: Julius and Noel have distinct voices, while Fall is talked about more than anything else. This isn't a particularly fast read, but it's well-paced so you won't get bored.

Place Fall on hold.

 

Juno & Juliet by Julian Gough

When identical twin sisters, Juno and Juliet leave together for their first year at an Irish university, they're looking forward to exploring everything their time away can offer them. Naturally, this includes a lot more than books and class notes...

The story's narrator, Juliet, is convinced her sister is the more gorgeous and charming of the duo, and when boys begin to drop at Juno's feet, Juliet assures us it's not a surprise. Written in a conversational and lighthearted tone, Juliet shares her insights into post-secondary life ("I was disappointed by the university, and vice versa"), there is still room for some deeper understanding of life beyond highschool in this fun and fast read.

Place Juno & Juliet on hold.

 

Looking for Alaska by John Green

 John Green's Looking for Alaska is a modern-day classic - so if you haven't read it yet, you should.

When Miles heads from Florida to an Alabama boarding school to finish off his highschool career, he is in search of a "great perhaps". And find it he does: it appears in the form of Chip ("The Captain") his rough-around-the-edges roomate, and his best friend, the lovely, literate and slightly self-destructive Alaska Young. Miles (teasingly nicknamed Pudge for his thin physique)sets off on a whirlwind first year with school pranks, growing romantic entanglements, and finally, a sobering look at life and death.

Although this is a young adult book (and a multiple prize-winning one at that), I've had both teens and adults tell me how much they enjoyed this. Green writes smart and he never dumbs down his characters. The teens in the story are confused, persistent, lonely and brave - and all the emotions are rendered realistically and often, in memorable prose: after an encounter with Alaska, Pudge reflects while "collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.”

Place Looking for Alaska on hold.

 Have some other titles you'd recommend? Let us know in the comments!

 

Cool Things to Read if You’re Paying Absolutely No Attention at All to the Olympics

So maybe I’m the only one, but this whole Olympic hoopla has started to wear a bit thin for me. I did watch bits of the opening ceremony (and was aghast to find that I had tears in my eyes -– tears!! –- at one point) but now that they’re jumping and running and swimming and wrestling, my attention has wandered to other random pursuits. Here’s what I’m reading instead.

On top of my full-time job, my family and my animals, I’ve been trying to learn Spanish to assist with my lifelong obsession with travel in Latin America. The Everything Learning Spanish Book: Speak, Write and Understand Basic Spanish in No Time by Frank Zambrano (2002) isn’t the best system I’ve ever seen (think of the wide range Oxford learning CDs or the Library’s Mango language app here) but this book does tidily pull all the basics together in one place, so it gets points for that (watch this space for a more comprehensive review of the Library’s language learning products down the road).

You don’t have to volunteer for High Park to know what a gem Toronto has in its black oak savannah (and you don’t have to know what black oak savannah is to appreciate this book). Rare Plants of the Endangered High Park Black Oak Savannah: A Volunteer Stewardship Program Handbook (High Park Initiatives, 2000) is a short field guide of the main endangered plant species in High Park. The booklet also offers charming line drawings and historical information about what makes these plants unique. You’ll never look at a weed the same way again.

Travel junkie alert –- be careful not to drool on the lovely colour photographs in this awe-inspiring book of ideas from the people who first showed us that there was a whole world out there that wasn’t  Florida or Europe. 100 Countries, 5000 Ideas: Where to Go, When to Go, What to See, What to Do
(National Geographic Society, 2011)  offers you themed destinations (cruising, spas, culture); alphabetical country overviews; and tables organized by lifestyle, interests, cost etc. making this title totally drool-worthy for planning your next vacay or just fantasizing about it.

Sometimes I want to travel to far-away places to escape Canadian winters and other times I want to experience dramatically different cultures and spaces. But on most long summer weekends, all I want to do is grab my man, my dog and my tent, and head north until we reach a canoe and a deserted lake. It is for this third type of adventure that Another Fork in the Trail: Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes for the Backcountry by Laurie Ann March (2011) was created, after the original Fork in the Road, but this one features only animal-friendly foods. Just because one is backcountry camping (and is sans cooler, electricity and other urban foolishness) does not mean one has to live on dry crackers and granola. Make sure you pack this book along with your vegetarian marshmallows.

So let’s see if I’ve addressed all my fav Olympic diversions – words and language (check); plants (check); travel (check); food (check); next up has gotta be cats (obvi). Homer’s Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale or How I Learned about Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat by Gwen Cooper (2009) has to be the Book That Made Me Cry More than Any Other. I loved this book. I foster kittens for Toronto Cat Rescue and I know how hard it is to find good homes for black cats... but a blind, black cat?? Bring your own Kleenex and be prepared to head to your local animal shelter to add to your family immediately following completion of this book. 

I hear the Olympic closing ceremonies might also be worth a tear or two (depending, of course, on how Canada does throughout) but until then, I’ll be reading, hiking, canoeing, practising my Spanish and playing with kittens natch.

 

Read on, riders.

Ever since April's Keep Toronto Reading month and the One Book Girls Fall Down ,I can't seem to escape books, reading and public transportation.

I stumbled across a fun website that documents readers on the New York subway. The Underground New York Public Library is a simple concept: take a whole slew of (usually) candid photos of engrossed readers passing the time on public transit. There are links to the books they're reading, and even a section for unidentified books that online visitors can try and solve based on blurry book covers.

There's something kind of fun about seeing other readers on the train - especially if they're reading a book you loved (or hated!). If I'm sitting across someone on the bus reading, I tend to try and sneak a peek at what they've got; as a reader, it's second nature, right? (Catching what ebook readers are into can be a little bit more of a challenge, however...I'll let you know when I find a smooth way to do this.)

Julie Wilson's book, Seen Reading, collects more than a hundred fictions inspired by sightings of people reading on Toronto transit, each reader re-invented in a poetic piece of short fiction. You can check out the website for Seen Reading as well.

Exact Fare Only is another collection of transit stories that brings together all the wonderful, memorable and downright wierd experiences we have on public transportation. You can also check out the second installment if you can't get enough commuter literature.

So, are you a transit reader? Have you spotted anyone reading a book you loved on the bus or train?

Let's hope it's a fellow rider and not the driver or conductor, like this bus driver in Oregon who was caught reading his Kindle on the highway...!

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!

Pemberley Revisited

Sequels to Jane Austen's novels are often greeted by fans of Austen's works with a variety of reactions, which can range anywhere from curiousity and enthusiasm through distain and resentment.  

P.D. James (or Baroness James of Holland Park, to use her official title) is one of a few well-known authors to publish a sequel of one of Jane Austen's books.  P.D. James is one of Britain's best known detective fiction authors.  She has published 19 novels, most of which feature policeman Adam Dalgliesh. 

In Death Comes to Pemberley, she continues the story of  Pride and Prejudice, revealing the six years between the end of that book and the beginning of this story in the Prologue.   I think Austen fans will particulary enjoy this part of the book, as it is quite "Austen-esque".

The story itself begins on the eve of Lady Anne's Ball, with Jane and Bingley, Colonel Fitzwilliam, Georgiana and the Bingleys' friend Henry Alveston all visiting Pemberley.  Just as they are about to retire for the night, a chaise arrives driven quite unexpectedly.   As the galloping horses come to a stop, a hysterical Lydia Wickham throws herself out of the carriage and screams that her husband Wickham has been murdered in the Pemberley woods.   Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam and Alveston soon set off, only to discover  Wickham over the body of Captain Denny crying "He's dead! Oh God, Denny's dead! He was my friend, my only friend, and I've killed him! I've killed him! It's my fault".  Has Wickham really killed Denny?

Publishing a sequel to such a enduring classic is not done lightly, paricularly by a well-respected author.  P.D. James discusses her motivation for writing this story in a interview with the Telegraph and in this video interview, which took place in her home in October 2011.

 

 

Quite a number of reviews of this book have been written, including in the New York Times and Globe and Mail.  The Toronto Public Library also has it available in audiobook format.

 

Related Posts:

• Spinning Austen or Jane has the last laugh
• Jane Austen Ruined My Life
• Mashed up Fiction and the "ick" factor