Hot Mountie Action, or Canada: The Sexy North

Harlequin is doing all right. Actually the publisher of the potent formula, the Mad Libs of female desire, is doing better than everyone else.

Even as its parent company, Torstar Corp., has laid off staff and has reported sharp declines in newspaper and digital revenue during the first quarter of 2009--down $27 million compared to the first three months of 2008--Harlequin revenues increased to $124.5-million from $109.7-million over the same period.

And as a tribute to its virility (probably not but go with me), The Heart of a Woman: Harlequin Cover Art 1949-2009 opens in New York. Here's the full story at Globe & Mail.

I have always been fascinated by Harlequin, probably because of my time spent working in a used bookstore, watching them carted in by the boxful, "this week's reading, DONE!" harhar. But seriously, you can get through one of these badboys in 2 hours and their sexy trajectory cruises along at a breakneck and deliberate pace. Harlequins may be the only series of novels almost completely determined by, and crafted to adhere to, reader's specifications.

Poking through the Harlequin website, there are strict guidelines for the aspiring romance writer. And the specifics for each type of Harlequin; Tender Romance vs. Blaze.

I admit to having read a handful of imprint title from the Harlequin oeuvre and they were kind of awesome in their own way. Although they should exhibit some of the funnier titles such as The Brooding Frenchman's Proposal.

Mandy

who is george sprott?

George Sprott is a masterful piece of storytelling. In essence it is an attempt to reconstruct the life of fictional small-town t.v. broadcaster, George Sprott. The creator, Seth, local comic book legend, wrote segments of GS for The New Yorker which was serialized. In the recent collection, these pieces are arranged and new sections have been added.

The story starts like a snowball, picking up pieces in interviews with George's acquaintances and narrations of his life at varying times. Each slice gives another sense of the life of George Sprott, but each seems to add more questions about his inner life rather than illuminating anything about him, categorically. The story itself says more about the flux of life and the ungraspable nature of the truth of a person, his or her value, than it says about George Sprott. It is also about tricksy narrative, the slippery nature of memory, and the unreliability of experience and opinion.

George Sprott is very sophisticated reading, satisfying in so many ways. Aesthetically it is gorgeous. Seth spent, seemingly, a huge amount of time crafting these cardboard models of George's 1950's city and he includes portraits of them in his book. The story is very moving and excellently paced. Reviews won't do it justice. George Sprott is required reading.

Mandy

Lovable losers

Mark Sarvas has thrown together a few literary losers.
He's written a worthy addition to that list himself, though he recently came up a big winner.

David

What? (Really, I couldn't come up with anything better)

Claudia Dey is a neat woman. I know her from her play The Gwendolyn Poems, written about the life and times of underappreciated Canadian poet Gwendolyn MacEwen.

Possibly because of our mutual Gwen interest, but probably due to projection, I think that Claudia and I might be BFF's under different circumstances.

Her writing has so much personality and care put into it. She is quirky and sweet and has an incredible eye for detail and nuance. In appearance she has this airy quality that is like Piper from How I Live Now, all grown up. Regard her bio-sketch for her relationship column at the Globe & Mail:

"When she was born, Ms. Dey was declared a soothsayer and a bartendress of the soul. Much of her childhood was spent keeping other people's secrets and when in need, building them life rafts out of advice. Older now, she aspires to be a northern Ann Landers — sans pearls, avec cigar"

Hold up, Yo! "Relationship column"? Actually, "Life Advice" column. What an awesome thought. She offers up practical, cool-headed and compassionate advice for anyone in a troubling relationship, be it with a husband, a mother-in-law, or a boss. AND, she quotes the Clash and Hamlet? I don't know how long this has been going on but her column has just become my favourite thing about Thursdays.

Mandy

downsized and just down

Sarah Weinmann reflects on the prescience of the great Donald Westlake's novel The Ax in these recessionary times.
Published in 1997, the Ax is essentially a no holds barred satire of corporate downsizing.
A mill worker named Burke Devore is laid off. Our guy places phantom ads in trade journals, then stalks and kills the interviewees in increasingly reckless and public ways.
The novel is classic Westlake, sleek, surefooted and crisp.
Naturally, it's largely out of print.
The links in her articles take positions on whether or not the Ax is a political thriller insofar as Westlake meant to indict the Reagan-Bush years (relatively benign compared to now) or if the Ax was a cultural marker around the decline of the white working class.
Both angles have merit, but it's largely beside the point.
Burke Devore wasn't a political animal and I don't think the late Donald Westlake was either.
Both of them just knew in their guts what the lay of the land was, and only Westlake or his various pseudonyms could make it pay.
Burke Devore was an anachronism and well..got proactive.


Speaking of odious practices, how come a bunch of Donald Westlake books are out of print and
this gets a green light.
From the Reuters article:


"Rapper Kanye West does not read books or respect them but nevertheless he has written one that he would like you to buy and read.
The Grammy Award winner, known for his No. 1 albums and outspoken statements on everything from racism in America to the banality of Twitter, is the co-author of "Thank You And You're Welcome."
His book is 52 pages -- some blank, others with just a few words -- and offers his optimistic philosophy on life. One two-page section reads, "Life is 5% what happens and 95% how you react!" Another page reads "I hate the word hate!""

He should have left all the pages blank.

Posted by Dave

The Care and feeding of the backlist

I have very little specialized knowledge of the whole process, but it stands to reason that the way novels get into print is much more interesting than how they fall out of print.
There are longer meetings, perhaps catered and with the author present. With luck the author has a cheque that means they’ll eat a bit better for a few months.
Nowadays, books very likely go out of print with an email to the author, if even that much.
In between those points in time, lucky novelists will accumulate a backlist--books that stay in print and continue to sell enough to justify interest in new work.
The care and feeding of backlist is less and less frequent, as publishers are all looking for the Next Big Thing (vampire romances to the right, everything else is on hold) but the news that casting has begun on the big screen adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s novel We Need to Talk About Kevin means that if the movie does well enough, soon everyone will be talking about “Kevin” and that it likely wouldn’t have come about if not for a respectable, if not moneymaking backlist.
After a few novels that got good reviews, but middling sales, Lionel Shriver’s life took a curious turn. She (yes) submitted a manuscript to her publisher and it was turned down, along with a note reminding her that Shriver had an unpaid photocopying bill from her last book.
The details on Shriver’s remarkable journey with this now blue chip novel are here.
I still remember reading that piece, and running to the bookstore to grab the book and dive in.
We Need to Talk About Kevin affected me like no other novel before or since.
If it’s got flaws, I never saw them. I was too enthralled in the story, it came very close to not seeing the light of day.
As the New York Observer story notes,
“about a year ago, Ms. Shriver gave up on trying to get an agent, feeling they were more conservative than the editors, and went to Dawn Seferian, who had published two of her early paperbacks and was now at Counterpoint, a house dedicated to literary quality.”
The network available to novelists’ in Lionel Shriver’s circumstance is different now than even a few years ago. There are more avenues for promotion, but a more diffuse landscape means it’s harder to break out.
Counterpoint is still noted for quality, and there are other small presses that are able to showcase authors better than their previous publishers.
It’s the smaller presses that incubate writers’ early efforts and if a few become Anne Michaels; most don’t. But by offering more time and attention to their authours, the smaller presses often make better books.
Whether by luck, or necessity most smaller outfits are promotional geniuses as well.

In Canada, it’s Biblioasis, located in Emeryville, Ontario who has demonstrated of late an enviable ability to find and promote novels that deserve attention.
Terry Griggs and Cynthia Flood both came to Biblioasis from other presses, and the results are very encouraging. Terry Griggs’ new novel is an hilarious send up of a writer’s lot, the Canadian book trade and a look at Ontario that is both subservise and familiar.
She has a wonderful ear for dialogue, writes great set pieces and has always been a favourite. She’s been a favourite around here for a long time and we’re delighted to host her Waterloo launch along with Cynthia Flood, whose book The English Stories is a novel told in short stories centred around a young girl whose family moves to England form Ontario in 1951.
Amanda is both attracted and repelled by the new adult realities around her, chiefly in the stifling English boarding school that is largely her new home.
Flood has created in Amanda a memorable heroine and Cynthia Flood is a fine writer, both fluid and precise.
Details of their appearance at Words Worth are here.
By all means, pick up your favourite best sellers when you see them, but for a few that you may not have heard much about, Bronwyn revises this regularly.

In addition a few beauties from years gone by:

Everyone has read the Road by Cormac McCarthy, and there aren’t many who can write like him, but some get awfully close. William Gay’s Provinces of Night is a Southern classic, possessed of prose that is damn near perfect. William Gay writes beautifully, his sentences are primordial, brooding and he has a gift for creeping narrative along that is just so much fun to curl up with.
Tim O’brien won a Pulitzer for Going After Cacciatto, but I’ve always preferred In the Lake of the Woods.
A novel of post-Vietnam America, political ambitions and a toxic secret at the centre of everything. His work has never been more relevant than right now.
Perhaps not backlist by definition, Alayna Munce’s gem of a novel is nonetheless, a few years old and the writer I’m most looking forward to seeing new work from.
When I Was Young and in My Prime is a story of family, love and memory that is exquisitely written, and I’ll never forget hearing her read in town a few years back. Novels of this depth are diffucult to describe in a sentence or two. Please don’t miss it.

A Local Challenge!!

From The Waterloo Chronicle:

"By July 4, naturopathic doctors Michael Torreiter and Rachel Vanden Berg hope to have 100 people on board ready to eat 100 per cent locally produced food for 100 days.
They’re calling it the 100-mile challenge — an idea spawned by the bestselling book, the 100-mile diet.
“A lot of people have read the book and there has been so much work done in this area with local foods that concept isn’t new to them,” Torreiter said. “It’s been a really easy sell.”
The idea is to gain a better understanding of where your food comes from, support local food producers and spare the environmental damage of so-called “food miles” from items shipped around the world.
So, everything on the menu must have been grown or raised in a 100-mile radius of Kitchener-Waterloo. That area extends up to Owen Sound, down past Sarnia and Windsor and back up through the golden horseshoe.
“This is actually a really good area to do this,” said Vanden Berg. “We can get lots of meats and vegetables. We’ve got Niagara, so we’ve got lots of fruits. We’ve even got lots of wines. There’s also local fish we found recently. I think all of our basic needs can be met right here.”"

...read the whole thing...

For more information on the 100-mile challenge or to sign up, see the Healing Path Centre’s website at healingpathcentre.com or call 519-578-7000.

George R.R. Martin is not your bitch

A blog entry otherwise entitled, "I'm the last one to know about these things".

Actually I just started reading A Game of Thrones this week, for the first time. As synchronicity would have it I was picking through some back entries at Bookninja and came across this story that made me shout Really? in open defiance.
To give you some back story (although I am probably the only one who needs it), George R.R. Martin, insanely popular fantasy series writer, is currently writing the next installment in his Song of Ice and Fire series that began in 1996 with A Game of Thrones. After A Feast for Crows was finished in 2005, there was demand to know when the next book would be. Fans were understanding at first, but as we rounded 2009, four years later, fan-boys and -girls became ravaging and took this hiatus personally. Neil Gaiman has a great response to this group.
Actually he coined the phrase stolen for this entry title and it has spread vociferously (you can google it for 12,000 hits): I can just see t-shirts in the making, "George R.R. Martin is not your Bitch!", possibly even being worn by the clods sending Martin you-better-be-writing-and-not-playing-with-your-medieval-models-playset e-mails.
Actually I really enjoyed strolling through George's (we're buddies now that I have his t-shirt) website when I first started reading Game of Thrones way back 6 days ago. I think the medieval models are great and love that he's sharing this hobby with his fans, who probably also like small scale modelling. The attacks began after the fans lost patience and, apparently, came to the end of reading; "shit, well I've read everything left on the planet and that f*** George Martin simply refuses to write the next book to be published".
The fans are lucky enough that George even shares his hobbies, his writing, he keeps up a blog and lets people know how the next book is coming along, he checks and responds to e-mails, and he is not obligated to do these things, to stay close to the people who love his books. But, somehow this got turned around to being ABOUT obligation and entitlement; since when does audience expectation determine how authors write their books, and even what gets written, unless they write for Harlequin?
This is all just re-hashing the 12,000 other people online. But, if you've finished and loved the Song of Ice and Fire series up to this time, have you read Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry? Or Jack Whyte's A Dream of Eagles series? I am thinking of Canadian fantasy-lovers specifically.
Finally, read George's blog, his other books, re-read the series, pick it up for someone else to read for the first time, but especially read the humbling livejournal entry from George, his response to these attacks and to his fans.

I guess I better finish Game of Thrones.
Mandy

In Berlin by the wall, you were five foot ten inches tall

Over at the crime shop we're all about Chicago for awhile longer, but the city has said goodbye to a blogging legend.
Good luck Jessa.

Posted by David

Hanff vs. Potato Peels--KO!

I have never read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, but it is composed of letters written between strangers, found via a love of books. The epistolary structure (see: letter writin') really appeals to me, but instead of finding out what the hell a Potato Peel Pie Society is I opted to read 84 Charring Cross Road, by the fiesty Helene Hanff.

Published in 1970, 84 is a collection of letters spanning about 20 years of correspondence between Helene and the charming Frank Doel, bookstore operator in London. (Actually, predating the publication of 84, the bookstore Marks & Co. has a famous past as the bookstore choice of Charlie Chaplin and George Bernard Shaw. Click on the link to visit Marks & Co.'s unofficial website, featuring history and character sketches for its employees, including a picture of Frank Doel)

Writing from her apartment in New York, Helene's voice is teasing and irreverent to Frank's professional, and typically

English, reserve. My favourite part is hearing Frank through the years take Helen's often outrageous book demands seriously, hunting down hard-to-find, clean (always clean!) copies. Mostly because he proves himself such a softie. He seems to keep Helene's letters and book requests to himself, even when she begins separate correspondence with the ladies who work with him, his own wife and his daughters.

84 is a wonderful little book, finished in an afternoon, with a powerful "ending". That much stronger because it is a work of non-fiction. Helene never made it to London, never met the people who were so real for her. And this tender, fragile quality comes through as you read.

Mandy

Beer & Food: A Hot Topic

Guest Post by Stephen Beaumont, co-author of The beerbistro Cookbook

I’m just back from appearing at the largest hospitality industry show in North America, the National Restaurant Association Show, where I spoke to a packed room of rapt restaurateurs about how to bring food and beer pairings into their businesses.

You think beer and food is just a passing fancy? Let me tell you, those folks beg to differ. And for that matter, so do I!

I’ve been invited by Bronwyn to contribute a bit to this blog as we approach the Words Worth Drinking 2009 event with myself and beerbistro executive chef Brian Morin, so I thought I’d use the space to prep your taste buds for what is sure to be an incredible evening. Beginning with why beer and food pairing is just about the hottest trend in culinary circles these days.

We all know that the economy is not in the best of shape these days, and if you’re at all like me, you’re also sick and tired of hearing about it. But what about if I offered opportunity instead of remorse or doom and gloom? That’s exactly what I did in Chicago, where I pointed out to all assembled that you can get a classic, extraordinary beer for a fraction of the price of a bottle of fairly mediocre wine. What’s more, said beer is not only likely to pair with whatever dish your serving at least as well as would any wine, but its normally much smaller serving size allows for a quick beverage change between appetizer and main course, and main course and dessert.

And yes, I did note above that beer pairs wonderfully with desserts. More on that later.

Robert J Sawyer never sleeps

Or at least that's the impression I get.
The guy was everywhere yesterday and some welcome news arrived in the form of our crack distribution network.
Copies of Flash Forward will be on hand due to interest in the novel by some highly regarded TV producers, which the Sawyer alludes to here.
Authors have historically been publicity shy or at least not always aware of how to best promote themselves. It's not a knock and likely comes with spending months or years in a room filling a blank space with words, but when a writer knows how to work a room it helps a lot.
I've seldom seen fiction writers do it better than this guy (One Book, One Community a few years ago) and booksellers love him for it.

He's in town tonight and tickets are moving quickly.
Tickets are $10, but if one buys the book at Words Worth , the ticket is free.



Posted by Dave

House of Leaves : The Big Read

As I mentioned before, join me in reading House of Leaves and post your responses and reactions on our blog. I'll have the first part of the book read by June 16th and the second part read for July 14th.

Its like an online, one-time, book club. And House of Leaves is one of those books where you want to talk about it as you're reading. I will post some info about the book as the weeks go by. Please feel free to leave any links or other info on this complex book.


Original posting about House of Leaves: The Big Read


From an interview with Mark Danielewski:


"This is your first novel and the product of ten years of work. How did you come to write House of Leaves?"
"With very little money, very little sleep, and a great deal of lunacy. You start something like House of Leaves, part of you has to be a board-certified moron. Looking back now I think there was a time when I could have stopped. Just dropped the whole thing. The house, the family, the strange chorus of voices. But then the day came--or I should say the night--when I realized that would be impossible. I had already passed some invisible line and the book was now in control. I was listening to its demands, answering its needs. It became a priority, a life-ordering structure. And well that was that. Welcome to hell. You get the full tour.


I think most people will say it's about a house which is bigger on the inside than the outside. These days though, I like to look at House of Leaves as a three character play: a blind old man, a young man, and a very special, extraordinarily gifted woman. The three of them are telling each other stories--frightening ones, sad ones; did you read the sex stories?--and it's easy not to see them. You get swept up in their narratives, in their images. At least I did. But then, just as happens when you're listening to a friend recount something, there are moments when you become aware of the actual person and realize all these things they're describing, the dialogue, the events, along with the gestures, even the hesitations, everything involved in all you're hearing--the errors, the repetitions, the energy--is in fact an intimate portrait of themselves. I see House of Leaves more and more like that. Three people. Beautiful, sad, and of course terrifying, wandering like the damned the awful halls of their collective imagination and histories, haunting us--or at the very least me--the way they haunt their own stories"

...read full interview...

Mandy

Image from literature sdsu

Columbine, I Thought I Knew You

Journalist Dave Cullen has spent the last 10 years researching and writing Columbine. He mentions on his website:

"I was compelled by two questions: what drove these killers, and what did they do to this town? That's what I set out to tell"

When Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire in their highschool, I was in highschool myself; the audio of Columbine teens confused and frightened, screaming in the halls, was played through our sound system at school. It was like a week after the tragedy and I was appalled at the time. In the weeks and months that followed I only remember references to The Trenchcoat Mafia and the rise of bullying in highschools. I remember the martyrdom of Cassie but not the kid hanging out of a window, shot and confused.
Dave Cullen, always with compassion and a love of truth, cracks open the myths of the Columbine attack and re-pieces a startling portrait of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, their lives and motives, and what actually happened at Columbine in April 1999.
Columbine is a revelation and a deeply, deeply moving story. Cullen is an evocative writer. Most media coverage of Columbine was emotionally manipulative but Cullen avoids melodrama and simply lets the facts and people's lives, speak for themselves. What remains is a book that everyone should read. It puts heart into extreme tragedy, dispels media myths, and shows us, full-bodied, the people whose lives were affected on that day and continue to be affected.
A brilliant piece of work.

Mandy

So far so good

If the casting of Tilda Swinton is any indication, maybe the movie of We Need to Talk About Kevin might by okay.
There's no way it'll replicate the book, but the best I ever hope for when good novels are adapted is that the book isn't reduced to a sick animal limping off somewhere to die.

Posted by Dave

Terry Griggs-Thought You Were Dead

Terry Griggs and Biblioasis Press have been everywhere lately and Terry is coming to Waterloo as part of an extensive book tour.

On Monday June 8, at 7.30 two Biblioasis authors, Terry Griggs and Cynthia (English Stories) Flood will be on our shores.

Details are here.

Alex Good has a rave in the local paper here, and the book is a beauty.

Thought You Were Dead is a dead on spoof of crime fiction, the book trade and the well trod Ontario Gothic turf that Alice Munro and others have made into a staple.

Several years ago, Terry wrote a novel for a major publisher called Rogue's Wedding that should have been on the fall short lists, but alas I think she's a better fit for a smaller more nimble publisher like the sharpies at Biblioasis.

So far, they're promotional acumen as been flawless.

Come out to hear a couple of pros at the top of their game.

Everytime I think I'm Outlier they pull me back in

Al Pacino starring in an adaptation of Malcolm Gladwell's nonfiction book, Blink?
It could happen
I'm not sure what the thinking is here, but the puns write themselves.

Posted by Dave

A few words from Robert J. Sawyer

I've long known that Waterloo was a special place. I lived there in the summer of 1980 -- has it really been almost 30 years? -- and was immediately aware of how much intellectual excitement there was in your city. Of course, the fact that there were two universities helped a lot.

Still, even I, a science-fiction writer, didn't predict a future in which one of the world's top high-tech companies (Research in Motion), or the world's leading physics think-tank (The Perimeter Institute), or one of the planet's top quantum-computing facilities (Institute for Quantum Computing) would all soon be there.

But now, as a science-fiction writer, I can think of no better place to set a novel than Waterloo, and that's precisely where my new book Wake is set.

Wake is the story of Caitlin Decter, a 15-year-old math genius whose father works on quantum gravity at the Perimeter Institute. It's the first volume of a trilogy; I've already finished the second book, Watch, and in it some CSIS agents tell Dr. Decter not to leave town, to which he replies: "Where would I go? This is the center of the universe."

It certainly is in a very real sense for me. In fact, I got some of the biggest news I ever had while I was in Waterloo last Friday: I'd come there to help my friend Marcel Gagné celebrate his birthday by going to see the (way cool) new Star Trek movie with him, and after, back at his place, I checked my email, and received the wonderful news that ABC -- the most-watched television network in the United States -- had just ordered 13 episodes of a TV series based on my novel Flash Forward. As my character Caitlin would say, "Sweet!"

I spend a lot of time in Waterloo (and not just because my novel Hominids was the Waterloo Region "One Book, One Community" choice a couple of years ago), and I will be back again next week, on Thursday, May 21, doing a reading and talk at the Waterloo Entertainment Centre, 24 King Street North, starting at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free if you buy Wake at the start of the event or in advance from Words Worth Books; otherwise, admission is $10 to defray facilities rental. Please came out and say hello!

---

"Wildly thought-provoking. The thematic diversity — and profundity — makes Wake one of Sawyer's strongest works to date." —Publishers Weekly (starred review, denoting a book of exceptional merit)

"Sawyer's erudition, eclecticism, and masterly storytelling make Wake a choice selection." —Library Journal

"Clashes between personalities and ideologies fuel Wake's plot, but they're not what the book is about. It's about how cool science is. Sawyer has won himself an international readership by reinvigorating the traditions of hard science fiction, following the path of such writers as Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein in his bold speculations from pure science." —National Post

"A fast-paced and suspenseful story full of surprises and humour." —The Saskatoon StarPhoenix

"It's refreshing to read a book so deliberately Canadian in a genre dominated by Americans, and it's easy to see why Sawyer now routinely wins not only Canadian science fiction prizes but also international accolades. His fans won't be disappointed, and readers picking up his work for the first time will get a good introduction to a writer with a remarkable backlist." —Winnipeg Free Press

Cool Find for Book Clubs

Here at Words Worth Books we love and promote book clubs. We have at least 3 in-store book clubs running currently and have set aside website space for anyone in, or running, a book club themselves.
Chronicle Books has this little beaut, a great organizer for all your book club information.

From the publisher:
"This one-of-a-kind organizer keeps book club information in one easily accessible place, with pages for jotting down reading notes and group members' contact info, a book log and a meeting calendar.
There are also fun extras like book-rating stickers, adhesive bookplates, a pocket for storing clippings and reviews, and handy bookmarks that double as a place for taking notes and recording the next meeting date while reading.
The Ultimate Book Club Organizer includes:- 36 perforated bookmarks- 36 adhesive bookplates- 90 stickers- pencil pouch- pocket for storage"

I use it myself for our in-store book club organizing and its fun and beautifully designed!

.Mandy.

Get my lawyer

The NY Times wonders if the rise of e-readers is now bringing out the e-rats.

"Ursula K. Le Guin, the science fiction writer, was perusing the Web site Scribd last month when she came across digital copies of some books that seemed quite familiar to her. No wonder. She wrote them, including a free-for-the-taking copy of one of her most enduring novels, “The Left Hand of Darkness.”
The schools of thought are pretty straightforward here.
Cory Doctrow says obscurity is a bigger problem for writers than piracy
but Harlan Ellison has a different view.

"Nine years ago, Mr. Ellison sued Internet service providers for failing to stop a user from posting four of his stories to an online newsgroup. Since settling that suit, he has pursued more than 240 people who have posted his work to the Internet without permission. “If you put your hand in my pocket, you’ll drag back six inches of bloody stump,” he said."

Given Mr. Ellison's penchant for bringing suit, I'd just like to say that he's a beautiful man.

Posted by Dave

The Big Read: House of Leaves

Maybe you have always wanted to read House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski or maybe not. Buuut, here is the chance now to read it and discuss it with others. Words Worth Blog presents the first of possibly more Big Reads Month.
I stole this idea from Bookshelvesofdoom because there are books out there that I would LOVE to get to, but they seem daunting either in length or in content. And, I just want to know that there are others reading it at the same time as I am. Like a little online book club.
So pick it up, give it a once through and join us on this blog twice in June to discuss your reactions to House of Leaves. Here is the schedule:

June 16th: read the first half of the book (specific chapter to come)
June 30th : finish it off

Also, pop by the blog throughout the month to follow links to articles and interviews associated with the book. I am about 30 pages into this book and it is pretty compelling. I am rapt to know what happens, what all of its answers are. A unique story so far.

House of Leaves: The Remastered Full-Color Edition:
"Years ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Internet. No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command.
Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth -- musicians, tattoo artists, programmers, strippers, environmentalists, and adrenaline junkies -- the book eventually made its way into the hands of older generations, who not only found themselves in those strangely arranged pages but also discovered a way back into the lives of their estranged children.
Now, for the first time, this astonishing novel is made available in book form, complete with the original colored words, vertical footnotes, and newly added second and third appendices.
The story remains unchanged, focusing on a young family that moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story -- of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams"

One reviewer says:
“This young American writer may only have one book to his credit, but it's one hell of a book: House of Leaves.House of Leaves is essentially a horror novel, but less about things that go bump in the night, and more about the existential dread latent in the tensions between knowing and not knowing, about 3 a.m. anxieties, and about the empty spaces in our awareness and apprehension of ourselves, others, and the world. The novel has strong Borgesian overtones, both in theme and in style, and even features a central character that is loosely based on the Maestro himself…”

…read entire article…

Join us in reading House of Leaves.

.Mandy.

The Color of Earth

With the depressing collapse of the Minx imprint line of comics for teen girls started by DC comics, I am always on the lookout for exceptional (or really any) comics and graphic novels for females, teen or otherwise. Which is why I am looking forward to this summer in publishing, if only for the next two installments of Kim Dong Hwa's trilogy, beginning with The Color of Earth.

I read this beautiful graphic novel quickly at first and realized that I had slowed down just to match the floating pace of the story. This is a beautiful and evocative tale set in 19th cen. pastoral Korea. Ehwa, over the course of several seasons (you really get a feel for the changing of the seasons in the story), comes of age and learns about the mystery of intimacy. Hwa uses natural imagery and parables to explain love and relationships, men and women.

Ehwa's mother runs a tavern and is single, her virtue questioned and gossiped about. Ehwa struggles to understand the men in her life and the way they behave very differently to women. The tavern men are lecherous and aggressive with her mother, but the young monk she meets on the road is sweet and unassuming.

This is a very lovely and insightful book. I'm really looking forward to the next two in the series, The Color of Water (out in June) and The Color of Heaven (out in September).

Check out the Minx line as well. Most of them are still available and in stock at the store. They are smart and egdy little comics for girls ages 15 and up. Cecil Castellucci's The Plain Janes and Janes in Love are my personal favorites. Find the Minx line in our Graphic Novel section for teens.

.Mandy.

A Book Review and a Lamentation

I'm just finishing up a book on mindfulness and eating, one of four books on the topic that we have in the store at the moment.

Its a completely relevant topic. The notion and exercise of cultivating mindfulness has grown in popularity. We've adopted it for our nefarious Western purposes, but the concept is Buddhist in origin; right mindfulness is the 7th spoke of Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path.

In Zen of Eating by Ronna Kabatznick Ph.D., she applies the Four Noble Truths systematically to our attachment to desire for food. Ronna has extensive meditation training and a talent for clear thinking and speech. Put simply, this is one of the best books I've read about the nature of mindfulness and how to practice it in the face of desire. This book is tightly written and resonant. Resonant in the way that a point is made, a specific word chosen, and you feel like you've already been thinking that very same thing--just yesterday, I swear!

From the back (hardly ever a reliable or well-written resource for the contents of a book, but uniquely helpful in this case): "From a Buddhist perspective, overeating is a disorder of desire. Our emotional appetites will never be satisfied until we learn how to manage the desires that keep us looking for peace where it can't be found".

I have a qualm with the title and subtitle. The Zen of Eating is too simple and doesn't reach the heart of its contents. It seems anachronistic, like its the title of a Buddhist teachings meets the West book from the 90's. The subtitle is "Ancient Answers to Modern Weight Problems", which might throw someone off. Ronna gets below weight problems to directly focus on what's roiling under the surface when we experience desire. In effect, and to vaguely quote her without looking for the direct passage, she wants to uproot the tree of attachment to desire rather than just cut the tree down and leave the roots for future re-growth (much more succint and better written in the book).

My last point on this book is the general lamentation that books have stopped including a font type description and history of the font used for the text. I'm not talking like the next Grisham novel typed up in Times New Roman, but an awareness of the beauty of book construction in all of its facets. A mindfulness, if you will.

--Mandy--

Things I Love Today

I love coming into work and seeing that Dave has left another blog post, overnight like an elf; "photogenic brainy kids"--the charm!
I also loved coming into work today and seeing that Skin Deep and Eye of the Crow are both now available in paperback. To wit:
Skin Deep by E.M. Crane (love it when lady auteurs adopt initials...yes, I just googled (eugooglied, heretofore named) and I couldn't find what E.M. stands for. Find out and I'll give you something free) has a quiet beauty that you could hide in. Just regard the gorgeous cover.

Andrea Anderson is a self-proclaimed "nothing" in life. Disconnected from her mother, she has a completely absent inner life. She floats through life and watches; nothing sticks to her. Until she enters the lives of Honora, the crazy lad who lives in the house on the hill, and her 200 pound Saint Bernard, Zena. Initially doggysitting Zena while Honora is in the hospital, once Honora begins a quick decline from cancer, Andrea stays to help as her "assistant". Andrea's paid duties include learning herbalism and pottery making. Andrea's inner life begins a very slow, satisfying bloom as she actualizes what was in her all along. Absolutely lovely and beautiful.

Eye of the Crow by Shane Peacock (canadian author) is also now is paperback. It is the first in Peacock's Boy Sherlock Holmes series which sets 13 year old Holmes in London, solving his first case. I want to interject and mention that the setting of 1860's London in this book is so fully realized, with great references to the authors and details of the time that I was totally captivated. A great amount of research has gone into this book, great for smart readers, without dragging it down in any way. Peacock also has an incredible sense of Holmes as a character. I strongly recommend this book.

And finally, check out the blank journal I ordered a week ago, that arrived today (we have 2 in stock). We have notecards too!:

--Mandy

Aaahh, you're Mother

Those photogenic brainy kids at MobyLives are worried over the long term effects of inadequate library funding in America.

"But, it’s not all doom and gloom for new books in the library. In Canada, the government of Ontario has given their libraries an extra $15 million dollar boost, as Quill and Quire reported back in February. And the city of Toronto has dedicated it’s piece of the pie to acquiring new books for public school libraries.
Hey, wait a minute. They’re gonna get smarter than us up there. Bake sale anyone?"

Relax, my American friends.
There's nothing to worry about.

Posted by Dave

Thanks Jennifer

I'm generally pretty easy to get on with and I like most people just fine.
But some of our patrons/customers/friends are just so damn decent that it should be noted.
Jennifer Stacey is not only a world class wizard with powdered sugar and confections of all kinds, but she also knows her crime fiction very damn well.
She recently came back with the British edition of Mo Hayder's new novel, Skin.
I've no idea when it comes out here, sometime in 2010 I believe, but she carted one across the pond for me recently.
Thank you very much Jennifer, you're the best.
Actually, it strikes me that someone with culinary chops like hers who likes that good, dark crime stuff like she does, would make a seamless killer herself.
Just saying.

Posted by Dave

shiny and new

This dump almost looks respectable.
Much thanks to Mandy for tarting up the place, and to Colin Ellard-- famous all over town now that his book is out.
He'll be part of our Words Worth Hearing series along with Thomas Homer-Dixon on June 2.
Details are here.

I'm not about to keep up with Colin's erudition, so now its back to the usual snark and nonsense.

I give you every Douglas Coupland novel ever written.
Mean-spirited certainly. But absolutely spot on.

Character A: You remember that Thing*? I remember that Thing.
Character B: I remember that Thing also.
Character A: Our shared remembrance of that Thing constitutes a lasting and real human connection!
Character C: And hey, you know what’s fucking hard? Growing as a person and finding out who I am. Because, who I am is like, well, do you remember that very special Christmas episode of Three’s Company, where Jack puts a plant on his head? It was like, you know, the shitty season, after Suzanne Sommers was replaced by Priscilla Barnes? Anyways, that’s what it’s like to hate my job so much? Did I mention I hate my job?

Link via Bookslut

Posted by Dave

A Place for Books

According to a friend of mine who knows more about the history of ideas than I ever will, there’s an increasing trend in design to focus on the very large and the very small. Architects want to build museums, galleries, airports, and huge glistening skyscrapers. We’re obsessed with the perfect MOMA approved lemon squeezer, the killer corkscrew, or the ultimate cheese grater. There are some obvious reasons for both of these trends. Star-chitects naturally want giant celebrations of their vision, and what designer would not want to think that her gadget was in every au courant kitchen drawer in the country? But these developments might have other meanings as well. When we walk into certain restaurants, coffee joints, cinemas, or other large chain retailers, we could be anywhere from Beijing to Balurghat to Baltimore. Does modern life, lived outside of space, conducted at the speed of light, leave us looking for comfort in branded buildings and perfect kitchen trinkets? Everything from the cell phone to the Internet has propelled us headlong into an existence in which physical distance means almost nothing. In the days when the only way to get from one place to another was by using what my father used to call Shanks’s Pony—your feet in other words—place meant so much more than it does now. Today, we may not always know where we are, and knowing might not even matter so much, but we can strive to surround ourselves with the familiar—the Golden Arches, the Green Coffee Angel or the big red Chapters logo. We take comfort in such known quantities to help us to cope with the jarring disorientation of being…kinda…nowhere.

But there’s something else that we humans do well, and that is to make ourselves into stories: we collect places and things into a curious amalgam that we use to make sense of our lives. For me, books and bookstores have always been a pivotal part of my story. I buy more books than I could possibly read. There are tippy stacks of books scattered throughout my house, some on the reading short-list, others purchased because I liked the way they looked, and others picked up against daunting odds that I will ever find the time to read them, just to acknowledge the desire to know. Even though I know I could never read all the books I own, I also know how each one of them connects with my story. Each book stands as a proxy for a little space-time episode in my life. I know where it came from and most often I can even remember what I was doing and how I felt when I bought it. In most cases, I can remember where I bought it. Each book is a little hedge against losing myself entirely. It’s a box full of stories and ideas, intangible things, but it is somewhere. It exists.

Now, I’ve written a book—my first. It’s a heady feeling to think that there are thousands of tiny hardcopies of my thoughts and ideas, each one fashioned as a real thing and many of them slipping into the hands of strangers. I’m finding it a very different way to think of what a book is and how it connects to my story—it’s like looking out from inside the mirror. The words I’ve written came together in an amazing collection of crazy places—my university office, forest trails, freezing winter beaches in Nova Scotia, long drives on the 401, and the dark, quiet corners of a little study under the stairs of an old house. When I close my eyes I can smell that perfect little oasis of stillness. I like to think of my story connecting with your story through that lump of paper you’re holding in your hands. My book—the physical thing itself—joins us together and anchors us both to some place. It puts us somewhere. It’s where we are.

Colin Ellard

Two Lovelies for Your Shelves

I have just finished reading How I Live Now, by Meg Rosoff, for my Book Club (WWB's official in-store book club--its been a lot of fun, contact me to join) and it ranks as one of my favorite fiction picks in a while. New Yorker Daisy exiles herself to stay with estranged cousins, actually she's never met them, in the English countryside. Four precocious cousins and their mother live in a sprawling, charming old house, embedded in the lush natural landscape. Her Aunt Penn is busy in the city with some hazy government work and the 5 of them make due at home without any adult supervision, filling their days with farmwork, picnics and reading. Idyllic, until the war begins.

I was blown away by this story. I love that Rosoff had decided to set the events during an imagined war, one that feeds on confusion and seems to be a historical pastiche of conflicts during the last century. Rosoff is a master storyteller, an impeccable writer, and dammit, she made me weep (I won't tell you at which part but if you fnd me in the store, ask me and I will say as much as I can before excusing myself, hardly contained, for the washroom). But seriously, a novel like this proves the resonance of literature and its importance for the human heart.

And no less resonant-y, The Chosen One, by Carol Lynch Williams, just arrived in stock. I read an ARC a few months back and I couldn't wait to see this one in print:

"'If I was going to kill the Prophet,' I say, not even keeping my voice low, 'I'd do it in Africa'"

So begins the story of Kyra, a 13 year old girl living with her father and his three wives in a fundamentalist mormon compound in Utah. Kyra remembers when the current Prophet's father was their leader, when she could stil read Dr. Seuss, but that was before the book burnings. The current Prophet is a piece of work, forcing the young girls to intermarry into their immediate family, men 50+ their seniors. And then there are the disappearing babies.

Kyra is betrothed to her father's brother, the Prophet's right-hand man. Her only escape is to sneak away every week to visit the bookmobile that parks just outside the compound. She contemplates books, the ambiguity of freedom, the nature of evil, and about Joshua, the boy she truly loves. Pick it up.

Mandy

A Few New Arrangements

Hello all. Please feel free to send along your blogs and websites, if you are a viewer of our blog, and we'll add them to our links list. Let's network!

Also, regard our lighter blog makeover (see: just changing the template) *OOH AH*

And finally, I hope leaving comments is a little easier as they are no longer moderated. But let's keep the language to a minimum guys and dolls.

Mandy

Coooooooooooolll!!!!

Penguin make so many beautiful books.
Here's some of the SF.

via

Posted by David

A Memoir Through Seasons

There are ducks nesting in our back alley. Daily, when I visit them, they look just as confused as the last time: "Hey, someone found us", as they aimlessly waddle a bit aways until I shut the door. I have a co-worker who tells me look but don't touch and it is good advice for me.
But, Ducks! Come on. As the spring and summer progress I will settle more into pssshh, ducks, seen 'em, but for now their nesting is the newest evidence that we're entering a new season and we haven't seen ducks for a few months.
It, and my re-discovery of bugs last week (oh yeah, BUGS! THOSE Guys), reminded me to re-read a book that I loved last year: East Wind Melts the Ice by Liza Dalby. Liza Dalby is a fascinating woman in her own right; she is the first western woman to live and work as a geisha in Japan, collecting her geisha exploits in one of my favorite books, Geisha. She is absolutely in love with Japan and her love is infectious. In East Wind Melts the Ice, Dalby writes throughout a year, with exquisite detail to the changes in nature and the way they weave into the shape of her life.
From her preface:
"One of the things I have appreciated most during my long association with Japan is the attention the Japanese pay to the ephemeral yet steadfastly recurring phenomena of the natural world. Japanese culture is so deeply steeped in this awareness that even canned drinks in vending machines change from summer to fall. The entire Japanese poetic tradition is grounded in the observance of the passing of the seasons, and it is quite simply second nature for Japanese to view human emotions through seasonal metaphors"

I am not doing this book justice in my blurbiness, or the fact that I have followed the book-trailings of this lady for a long time, but the ducks (and the bugs) reminded me of the 72 stages of the seasons that span a year in Dalby's book; the way that the seasons change is sometimes imperceptible, new evidence arriving as frequently as every 5 days. But it reminds you that there are far more than 4 ways to cut a year.

--Mandy

Compare as I dare

In Canada, our rightward commentators seem able to curry favour with those outside of their sandbox, I think because of a genteel Canadian quality, and because it helps their book sales.
Guys like George Jonas, Conrad Black and now Ezra Levant can work both sides of the street.
It doesn't work as well in the American political culture, which makes the book deal Simon & Schuster has offered to the odious Glenn Beck that much more puzzling.
Essentially Beck gets no advance, but a bigger piece per book sold; traditionally a sweet deal that only top authors get.
Beck has that big audience on his Fox network show, but with the moderates deserting the Republicans in droves, one wonders who's left to read the collected works of this clown.

Pardon me, rich clown.

Posted by David

Too lazy to crawl out of the Globe today

Stuart Maclean is bang on where newspapers are concerned and it's damn nice to see such nice things being said about Terry Grigg's new book.
She's a favourite around the shop and I still get a kick out of talking up her last one, Rogues Wedding.

Posted by Dave

A Much Needed Estrogen Injection--Ladies, Hold Your Wombs

I am, apparently, a few years behind on the SouleMama *singsong* trend. This lady's blog is a beaut!

We received a copy of "The Creative Family" at the store and I kept going to grab it off the shelf to secretly look through it every few days (on my breaks and such, of course...). I do not have children myself (I have a few children in my life but none birthed from my own body), but I rather want to BE one of Amanda Soule's children. The way that these kids are growing up is simply magical and charmed. I have been absolutely hooked by her blog, which is a glimpse into an enchanted lifestyle. Kudos on her amazing domestic photography. Seriously, this lady gives Martha Stewart and her empire a run for her (stolen) money.

Next up is "Homemade Home".

From the pubbie: "Handmade Home offers simple sewing and craft projects for the home that reflect the needs, activities, and personalities of today’s families. Filled with thirty-three projects made by reusing and repurposing materials—from vintage feedsacks to old sheets and towels—and including some projects that children can help with, all of the items here offer a practical use in the home. Amanda Soule does much more than simply present a collection of handmade items; she reveals crafting as a lifestyle based on the principles of consuming less and reusing more, appreciating the earth, and connecting to our families. This is a craft book that gives you the tools for creating a life—and a home—full of beauty, integrity, and joy. Projects include:

 Papa’s Healing Cozy: This hot water bottle cover becomes a simple way to offer comfort to a sick child

 Baby Sling: A simple pattern for an object that offers so much to a small child—refuge from the world and a place to lay their head next to a parent’ heart

 Beach Blanket To-Go: Repurpose old sheets to create the perfect picnic blanket for special outdoor meals

 Cozy Wall Pockets: A creative solution for storing a child's small treasures"

I will content myself with soulemama's blog archives until HH is available in August.

--Mandy

The mouse that roared?

Marin Levin has some nice things to say about the new McNally Robinson that opened in Toronto recently and Heather Reisman has noticed as well.

Quill and Quire notes that,

"It looks as if Indigo CEO Heather Reisman might be feeling a wee bit threatened by the Toronto debut of the McNally Robinson Booksellers chain. Just prior to the store’s grand opening last Sunday in the city’s Don Mills neighbourhood, Indigo brass sent a three-page internal memo to all staff, entitled “FAQ on McNally Robinson,” which explains some of the differences between the two retailers and outlines plans for stepping up competitive efforts.
The memo begins by saying, “We’re both very good retailers, offering different customer experiences.”

That might be what concerns her.

Posted by Dave