Event Recap: The Libris Awards 2010!

What?! : Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Awards, Saturday May 29th, Toronto

(Mandy and Bronwyn on the right)

"The CBA Libris Awards honour outstanding achievement by authors and editors, sales reps and distributors, booksellers and publishers"

A whirlwind weekend, to be sure. The main focus and excitement generator was the Libris Awards on Saturday night, hosted by CBC Radio's Shelagh Rogers. She shook my hand. She had a great smile and was wearing white that night.

The dinner tables were beautifully laid out on a white theme. The napkins were little peacock bums, and chicken and risotto was served. For dessert, there was a mango cheesecake with a stencilled pattern decorating the edges.

They also smartly laid out the shortlist of moninees program under all our plates. So our table had a friendly (see: cutthroat) betting pool for the awards announced--winner got bragging rights. Here's a pic of the program once a bunch of know-it-all booksellers got at it:

Some notable wins include:

Linden MacIntyre, author of The Bishop's Man, wins twice for Author of the Year and Fiction Book of the Year.

Raincoast Books wins Distributor of the Year.

Wade Davis, author of The Wayfinders, wins Non-Fiction Book of the Year.

Marie-Louise Gay, author of When Stella Was Very, Very Small, wins Children's Picture Book of the Year.

Shane Peacock, author of Vanishing Girl: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His Third Case, wins Young Readers' Book of the Year.

Coach House Books wins Small Press Publisher of the Year.

House of Anansi Press wins Publisher of the Year.

And this year the CBA announced a new award, sponsored by Chase Paymentech, for Young Bookseller of the Year. It's a little weird to be doing this recap as I was the winner, but I'm very happy to see the CBA recognize booksellers under 30 in the industry. All weekend I had this overwhelming sense of excitement for the next generation of booksellers. I'm grateful to Bronwyn for taking the time to fill out the lengthy application--actually, she deserves an award as a talented and persuasive wordsmith!

All in all, it was a fabulous and very busy weekend.

Mandy

Event Recap: Guy Gavriel Kay in Waterloo!

Event Details: The Princess Twin in Uptown Waterloo, 7:00 pm, Wednesday May 26th

How better to spend an evening than listening to Guy Gavriel Kay speak about and read from his newest book, Under Heaven? What an amazing speaker. If you missed his visit, I strongly encourage you to seek out his appearances; he is a gracious man, an insightful, poignant writer, has a wonderful sense of humour, and is an impeccable public speaker. I have to say that the event we held with him on Wednesday night was one of my favourite author engagements we've had and certainly my favourite of the season. What a treat.

A few things come immediately to mind when I think of the highlights of meeting Guy. I was first impressed and charmed by his gentility. He had few demands, and seemed energized despite being near the end of his book tour. And this guy tours in a hardcore way; long stretches in airports can be dehumanizing. He shook our hands and I could sense a strong degree of integrity, even through my fangirl fugue. He was quick to reassure me when I muttered something about the introduction I wrote (which completely hinged on this reoccurring joke involving a customer exclaiming "Dude, I CRIED", when he first read The Summer Tree). The whole thing seemed to go okay, but the true gem of the evening was Guy just...speaking. About his book, about his research, about the writing process, about the industry as a whole. I was particularly moved by his gratitude towards his fans, his publisher and independent bookstores.

I wrote furiously to capture it, but it went something like this (with apologies to Guy): Independent bookstores are an endangered species undergoing extraordinary pressures. Throughout my tour, at my request, every event in Canada and the US has been at an independent bookstore. Your buying my book through Words Worth Books and your attendance tonight is playing a direct role in supporting and promoting independent business. So thank you to the bookstore for hosting tonight's event.

I experienced a swell of bookseller pride. I was humbled by the care and time he took thanking everyone involved before he began speakng about his book.

When he DID begin his reading, he read from the very beginning of Under Heaven. And, there's an interesting backstory for me here. The following two passages are constantly quoted by the publisher and by reviewers when describing the book, and it became kind of rote in my head. I totally had them memorized:
　
You gave a man one of the famed Sardian horses to reward him greatly. You gave him four or five to exalt him above his fellows, propel him towards rank, and earn him jealousy, possibly mortal jealousy. Two hundred and fifty is an unthinkable gift, a gift to overwhelm an emperor.

And,
　
The world could bring you poison in a jeweled cup, or surprising gifts. Sometimes you didn't know which of them it was...

I recognized them as soundbytes, promising drama. Marketing-saavy choices.

But when Guy read them, within the context of the story, in his charming, mesmerizing way, they resonated. The passages took on the quality of your favourite song repeated at just the right moment.

Another great moment was when he gave his definition of a story: interesting things happening to interesting people, told in an interesting way. Or when he spoke of the point of research for any work of fiction, which is to make it invisible to the reader within the story. The writer needs to know 5 to 10 times as much as will actually make it into the book.

Speaking with people and watching them walk away from the signing table after their turn, everyone seemed kind of floored to have spoken with him, shook his hand, had a question answered, just being in his presence. There was an energy to the whole evening that I really dug.

Thanks to everyone who made it!

Mandy

AND, Guy left us with a signed galley edition of Under Heaven which we'd love to give away! Simply enter your e-mail below.

The Immortal HeLa Cells...

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
I shy away from a lot of non-fiction. But this book is so good, you would swear it was a novel that doesn’t let go till you reach the last page! HeLa cells helped create the polio vaccine, cancer medicines and treatments, in vitro fertilization and the list goes on. Chances are you have probably used a medication that was tested on HeLa cells. Except that HeLa cells came from a person, Henrietta Lacks, who was never recognized until this book for her important contribution to science. Henrietta was a poor Black Southern woman who developed cervical cancer. Her cells were taken from her without permission. They were the first cell line to be grown in culture and are still alive today, in fact they have been bought and sold by the billions. And the sad part is, her family still can not afford health care in the US. They were never educated on her cells or what any of this meant until recently. Or compensated for the sale of them! This is a spellbinding book of medical injustice and human consequences. A must read! - Bronwyn

The girl who woke the curmudgeon

I started to read the third Steig Larsson several months ago when Penguin made proof copies available (I'd rather they got the books to me on time instead of the proofs but oh well..)

But I've struggled to get about two thirds of the way through and I think I'll sleep fine if I bail on it.
I'm all for blockbusters and these kind of phenomenon do give booksellers an avenue to recommend the good stuff; and I very much liked the first two books, and their limitations were minor.

Some of my feelings are better represented here.

David

For Steig Larsson fans

Like most indie shops, we've kinda gotten stung by Chapters' dirty pool around the new Steig Larsson, but like most indie shops we also find a way to get along.

In that spirit, we're offering the first book by Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbo at a virtual steal.

$4.99 for Redbreast the first book in a killer series featuring Detective Harry Hole, a man not unlike Mikael Blomkvist.
For my money, Nesbo is the superior prose stylist and the Norwegian setting will be familiar to fans of Steig Larsson.

While supplies last.

David

Next up, World Domination

It's a fine day around here. Mandy Brouse has established herself as a superlative bookseller and now the Canadian Booksellers Association has honoured her with the first Young Bookseller of the Year Award.
This is a new award from the CBA that recognizes talented booksellers under thirty.

Mandy is enthusiastic, smart, reads everything and brightens any room she walks into.
She's a born marketer and has made our monthly newsletter an industry must-read.

The reception is on May 29th at the CBA's annual meeting in Toronto.

There's no emoticon for a wolf whistle..

that I know of, but still it's Samantha Bee, who has a great memoir coming soonest.

David

Countdown to Turn the Page!

Turning Pages is almost here! We are busily getting ready for our first children's literary festival this coming Saturday May 13th at The Museum. Patricia Storms is one of the authors visiting in the afternoon.

So Why a Pirate and a Penguin?
Since my picture book ŒThe Pirate and the Penguin¹ has come out, I¹ve often been asked the question, ³Where did you get the idea to write a story about a pirate and a penguin?" It's a good question. I mean, really a pirate and a penguin together in a book? It seems like such an odd mix, and yet, I think that as soon as you see those two characters on the page, it seems like they've always been together.

And the answer to where I got the pirate and penguin idea? It was a complete fluke. I was sitting in a café with a writer friend of mine, kvetching about how hard it was to get published, and flippantly said to my friend, "If someone wanted to create a cool picture book, they should combine a story with two popular kid lit icons a pirate and a penguin." My friend loved the idea, and encouraged (and nagged) me to write and illustrate such a story. And so I did.
Moral of this story the best ideas are often not planned, and always listen to your friends!

Yep, we're all old now

A.O Scott parses how the generation that all wanted to be rock stars ended up so broken.

"We were stuck between meanings. Or we were the last dribbles of something. The fall of the Soviet Union, this was, the death of analog. The beginning of aggressively marketed nachos"

from The Ask by the leader of the losers, Sam Lipsyte.