I am a certified bookaholic and am embracing my addiction. Here you will find my short book reviews and other wonderful information all about books. I will also share my love for animals and show you some of my knitting projects.
Back in September, John of The Book Mine Set reviewed this story. I hadn't heard of Eva Moran before but John's review made me very curious, especially about the "disappointing" sex scene. LOL!
The Story centers around Carson, a young man who meets Nikki, when he travels to Vancouver. They start dating and get pretty serious, at least from Carson's perspective. Nikki, on the other hand just seems to be going through the motions of dating Carson with no real interest. He's there, he's interested, so why not pass some time going out with him? At least, that's my interpretation of how she feels.
The sex scene John refereed to was disappointing but they were just having a "quickie", LOL! That's why it was so disappointing to the reader, there was no substance but I think that was the point. It demonstrated to me just how uninterested Nikki really was. Like John, I didn't like Nikki either.She came across as shallow and uncaring to me.
John ended up liking the story but I could take it or leave it. It certainly wasn't a "must read" or anything near that for me, it was okay. I liked the start of it the best, when it touched on Carson's childhood. If you would like to read it, go here.
Winner of the Alex Award, Essex County Vol. 1 is a graphic novel that takes place in Southwestern Ontario, Canada.
Lester is a ten year old boy recently orphaned, who is taken in by his uncle, who owns a farm. Lester wants nothing more than to be a super hero. His life with his uncle is strained, even though his uncle is doing his best. Lester doesn't have much to do on the farm and is bored.
One day he meets the gas station owner, Jimmy. He is a former hockey star and seems a little off to Lester's uncle. However, Lester and Jimmy become friends and create a fantasy world together. It's a place of super heroes and alien invaders. They also play pond hockey together.
I have only read a couple graphic novels before this but was compelled to read this one when both of my friends, Wanda of A Season to Read and John of The Book Mine Set, both raved about this book. The dialogue is sparse but tells the story along with the sumptuous black and white illustrations. Jeff Lemire captures the emotions of a little boy and his uncle so well.
I really enjoyed this simple yet moving graphic novel. It is the first of a trilogy and I look forward to reading the rest. This is a great book for both teens and adults.
Thanks toAnna Balasi of Hachette Books, I am giving away up to three copies of this audiobook.
Book Description:
A personal memoir by bestselling author and celebrity journalist Glenn Plaskin, KATIEis a moving story about a man who discovers the true meaning of family after adopting a cocker spaniel puppy. Through the magnetic personality of his mischievous dog, the author soon makes powerful connections with several of his down-the-hall neighbors in a high-rise located in the unique Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. First, Katie trots into the lives of Pearl and Arthur, a warm-hearted elderly couple just a few doors down from Glenn. Later, John, a single Dad, and his rambunctious young son, Ryan, also move in and are seduced by Katie's charms.
All of their lives are profoundly changed as they are transformed from neighbors to friends to family, with Pearl as matriarch. The motherless boy finds a "Granny"; his Dad inherits a mother, Glenn discovers a confidante. Set in New York City, we witness nearly sixteen years of antics and family adventures spanning Hollywood high times, bad health, accidents, blustery winters, even the terrors of 9/11. Through it all, the family clings to each other, sharing a deep bond that give each comfort, support and security.
Based upon a widely-read article in Family Circle, here is an unforgettable story about the love that makes a family-one that transcends the hard realities of time, tragedy, and inevitable loss.
The number of entrants to this giveaway will determine how many copies of this book I will giveaway:
1-10 entrants= 1
11-20 entrants= 2
21 or more entrants= 3
*Please note, the rules have changes for my giveaways:
To Enter:
Leave a comment with your email address, so I can contact you if you win.
Extra Entries: Earn one extra entry for each of the following (please leave a separate comment for each).
+1 for clicking to give free books at The Literacy Site (tell me you did it).
That's 8 or more possible entries!
Sorry, the giveaway is only open US and Canadian residents only. The winner’s mailing address: NO P.O. Boxes. Only one entry per household/IP address
Winners will be subject to the one copy per household rule, which means that if you win the same title in two or more contests, you will receive only one copy of the book.
This giveaway will end on Friday, November 12th,11:59 P.M. E.S.T. The winners will be notified by email.Winners must respond within TWO days or will be disqualified.
Thanks toAnna Balasi of Hachette Books, I am giving away up to three copies of this audiobook.
Book Description:
C Street - where piety, politics, and corruption meet
Jeff Sharlet is the only journalist to have reported from inside the C Street House, the Fellowship residence known simply by its Washington, DC address. The house has lately been the scene of notorious political scandal, but more crucially it is home to efforts to transform the very fabric of American democracy. And now, after laying bare its tenants' past in The Family, Sharlet reports from deep within fundamentalism in today's world, revealing that the previous efforts of religious fundamentalists in America pale in comparison with their long-term ambitions.
When Barack Obama entered the White House, headlines declared the age of culture wars over. In C Street, Sharlet shows why these conflicts endure and why they matter now - from the sensationalism of Washington sex scandals to fundamentalism's long shadow in Africa, where Ugandan culture warriors determined to eradicate homosexuality have set genocide on simmer.
We've reached a point where piety and corruption are not at odds but one and the same. Reporting with exclusive sources and explosive documents from C Street, the war on gays in Uganda, and the battle for the soul of America's armed forces - waged by a 15,000-strong movement of officers intent on "reclaiming territory for Christ in the military" - Sharlet reveals not the last gasp of old-time religion but the new front lines of fundamentalism.
The number of entrants to this giveaway will determine how many copies of this book I will giveaway:
1-10 entrants= 1
11-20 entrants= 2
21 or more entrants= 3
*Please note, the rules have changes for my giveaways:
To Enter:
Leave a comment with your email address, so I can contact you if you win.
Extra Entries: Earn one extra entry for each of the following (please leave a separate comment for each).
+1 for clicking to give free books at The Literacy Site (tell me you did it).
That's 8 or more possible entries!
Sorry, the giveaway is only open US and Canadian residents only. The winner’s mailing address: NO P.O. Boxes. Only one entry per household/IP address
Winners will be subject to the one copy per household rule, which means that if you win the same title in two or more contests, you will receive only one copy of the book.
This giveaway will end on Friday, November 12th,11:59 P.M. E.S.T. The winners will be notified by email.Winners must respond within TWO days or will be disqualified.
Spanning over 50 years, Last Night is a family saga about father and son. Dominic Baciagalupo and his twelve-year-old son Danny live in a small logging town, called Twisted River, in northern New Hampshire. Dominic is the cook for the entire camp. The loggers call him "Cookie."
One day, in 1954 there is a tragic accident and in the river and a boy, Angel dies. He is just a bit older than Danny. Dominic is having an affair with the local sheriff's girlfriend, Injun Jane. One night while they are making love, Danny comes in and mistakes Jane for a bear and hits her hard with a skillet. She dies and Dominic and Danny flee from Twisted River and change their names. They are on the run for decades.
They settle again in New England and Dominic gets a job with Angel's family in their restaurant. He also has an affair with Angels mother but doesn't marry her because he doesn't want to drag her into his mess. Danny becomes a famous author and uses the name Danny Angel. Many years later, there are visitors to the restaurant, from the past and Dominic and Danny must run again. This time, they go to Iowa but later, they flee to Canada.
This book is packed with a cast of quirky characters, great plot development, and descriptions of beautiful and harsh landscapes. Some of the relationships that both Dominic and Danny had were a bit much. My only problem with the book is that none of the female characters havwe very little dimension to them and are not portrayed in a flattering light. However, since they are secondary characters, I can overlook that.
I saw John Irving last year at the Vancouver International Writers and Readers festival. he admitted to the audience that there are some similarities between himself and his character, Danny Baciagalupo.
I have only read one John Irving book before this, 'A Widow for One Year.' I thought it was a good book but nothing special. I'm so glad I gave Irving another try, this book was a really page turner for me. Now I see why there are so many John Irving fans! I look forward to read more John Irving books.
I read The Great Gatsby when I was in 9th grade and I remember enjoying it. It's known as "a portrait of the Jazz Age" and it captured my young imagination and gave me a lifelong interest in historical fiction and the Jazz Age.
I have plans to read it again, as an adult. It will be interesting to see if I still feel the same way. I do know that even if I don't, what it did for me as a teenager will stay with me. I will never loose my thirst for historical fiction!
In continuation a reviewing short stories by authors who participated at the23 Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival, this is a review on a story I read from Terence Young's latest short story collection, 'The End of the Ice Age.'
'That Time of Year' is about a unnamed couple who go for a swim in the lake by their cabin. It was the last day of the summer. The husband was splashing loudly, near by. The wife saw some owls and asked her husband if he saw them but he did not answer. She hated it when she saw something that no one else has, "to see something wondrous by herself was not to see it at all."
She asks her husband again, if he saw the owls but there is still no answer and she no longer hears him. She starts to panic an envisioning his death. How she would run to the cabin and call the police and how they wouldn't search for him until the morning because it was getting too dark.
I won't tell anymore because I don't want to risk spoilers. I really liked this story. It was well written and I could picture the landscape and lake the pair were in. I look forward to reading the rest of the collection.
Ok, it didn't actually come in my mailbox, I bought it at the Writers Festival.
This didn't come in my mailbox either, I bought the e-book version after seeing the author at the Writers Festival. The e-book version is an extended version that you don't get if you buy the actually book, so I had to have it.
Well, I think you figured out from all of my posts, how much I LOVED the 23rd Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival! In case you missed any of my posts for the festival, the following are links to them all. With in them, you will see linked to books and stories I reviewed, leading up to the festival. Also, I am just finishing up a couple of the books by authors who were at the festival, so stay tuned for my reviews of those. I also bought a couple books to read, how could I not? Actually, I was inspired to read books by just about all the authors I saw at the festival. It was a very dangerous place for a bookaholic! LOL!
Although Sunday was the last day of the festival, the Vancouver Inbternational Writers & Readers Festival hosts special events throughout the year. In fact, they are hosting author, Sara Gruen on November 4th, 2010. Be sure not to miss this if you are going to be in Vancouver! Please click on my reviews of both of her books,Water for Elephantsand Ape House.
I hope you enjoyed my coverage of the 23rd Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival. Here are the links to all of the posts I did during the festival:
On Sunday, I attended my last event of the festival, Short Stories, Varied Voices. There were four short story authors who participated; Ivan E. Coyote, Billie Livingston, Sarah Selecky, and Terence Young.
Ivan Coyote's latest collection of short stories is 'Missed Her.' Here is a description, taken from the book:
Ivan E. Coyote is a master storyteller and performer; her beautiful, funny stories about growing up a lesbian butch in the Canadian north have attracted big audiences whether gay, straight, or otherwise. Missed Her is Ivan's fifth story collection, following 2008's Lambda-nominated The Slow Fix and Bow Grip, her novel that was named a Stonewall Honor Book by the American Library Association. Whether discussing the politics of being a butch with a pet lapdog or berating a gay newspaper for considering butches and trans people as "extreme," Ivan traverses issues of gender and identity with a wistful, perceptive eye.
You can read my review of her novel,' Bow Grip', here. Before she started reading, Ms. Coyote said about the head set she was wearing, "I don't like Caucasian colour head sets, they remind me of Tom Cruise in Magnolias. I was so disappointed that he was gay." The audience laughed.
Ivan stood up in front of the audience and read off a typed piece of paper. She used excellent eye contact and gestures, it was a great performance. I was so absorbed in her story and cared so much for her character that I cried.
Ivan told us that she swipes stories from people she talks to and conversations she hears. She keeps pieces of paper and note books with her and jots stuff down. Anything is fare game. In fact, the story she read to us today was inspired by a conversation she had with a passenger sitting next to her on a air plane. She told us that as she was getting off the plane, the woman said to another passenger, what a nice young man." Ivan didn't correct her. The audience laughed.
Terence Young's new short story collection is 'The End of the Ice Age'. Look for my review of one of the stories in it tomorrow. Here is a description of the collection, taken from the book:
Terence Young’s second collection of short fiction, The End of the Ice Age, brings together thirteen tales of hardscrabble characters in their lonely orbits. Young’s writing is unadorned and precise, yet witty and unsentimental, and of striking psychological precision. These are stories of unfulfilled expectations, of infidelities – of the body and the mind and conscience – and the small though ultimately meaningful victories that allow us to withstand those greater losses. This could be Carver territory or Dennis Johnson country if it was not so obviously Young’s own world: bleak and dark, though ultimately moving and memorable: these are stories which will linger with you for a long time.
Mr. Young said, "like Ivan, I steal stories shamelessly from other people. If you're from Halifax, this may be your story, I hope not. Audience laughed and the he proceeded with reading.
Billie Livingston's latest short story collection is 'Greedy Little Eyes'. I reviewed one of the stories in it, here. This is a description of the collection, taken from the book:
In Greedy Little Eyes, award-winning writer Billie Livingston explores the universal craving for connection, both emotional and physical. A Vintage Canada trade paperback original.
A young misfit is assaulted by a delusional homeless man and subsequently finds herself caught in the middle of two bullying cops who invite her to hit back; an impulsive and restless mother hungers for independence but wants company along the way; a middle-aged man who yearns for a life off the grid rejects his family and heads into the woods with a young bohemian while he slowly loses his mind; a journalist questions her scruples and complicity after she is invited to visit a friend in New York who is in the midst of an affair with a married man. Fiercely independent, yet struggling to fit in, isolated but exploding with love and longing, Livingston's characters whisper and roar as they wrestle with the notion of "normal."
Ms. Livingston got right into her reading with little commentary.
Sarah Selecky's latest book of short stories is 'This Cake Is For the Party." Here's a description, taken from the book:
Sarah Selecky’s first book takes dead aim at a young generation of men and women who often set out with the best of intentions, only to have plans thwarted or hopes betrayed.
These are stories about friendships and relationships confused by unsettling tensions bubbling beneath the surface. A woman who plans to conceive ends up in the arms of her husband’s best friend; a man who baby-sits a neglected four-year-old ends up questioning his own dysfunctional relationship; a chance encounter at a gala event causes a woman to remember when she volunteered for a nightmarish drug-testing clinic; another woman discovers that her best friend who is about to get married has just had an affair; a young teenager tries to escape from her controlling father and finds an unexpected lover on a bus ride home; a wife tries to overcome her dying mother-in-law’s resistance to her marriage by revealing to her own strange aural stigmata; a friend tries to talk another friend out of dating her cheating ex-boyfriend; and a superstitious candle-maker confesses to a tempestuous relationship that implodes spectacularly.
Sarah Selecky is a talented young writer who evokes a generation teetering on the shoals of consumerism and ambiguous mores. Reminiscent of early Atwood, with echoes of Lisa Moore and Barbara Gowdy, these absorbing stories are about love and longing, stories that touch us in a myriad of subtle and affecting ways.
You can read my review of one of her stories in the collection, here. Sarah also got right into her reading with little commentary. Sarah had to leave right after the event, so I wasn't able to get a photograph of her.
After all of the readings, there were questions from both the host and audience.
Question: "What is the most important way you gather information for your writing?"
Billie Livingston said, "eavesdropping and swiping it." The audience Laughed.
Sarah Selecky said, "be receptive enough to notice."
Ivan Coyote said, "I also think that it is honouring and empathising. Honouring youth, wisdom, and hard work of people."
Question:"Do you write stories to topics that you emotionally committed to?"
Ivan, "yes, such as teen suicide, how can you not care about it and not write about it?"
Question: "What is the most valuable advice that you have?"
Billie, "A.I.C., ass in chair." Audience laughed.
Sarah, "you'll never know if it's any good, yourself." She also said that she wrote a letter to an author that she likes and the author responded and offered to read her work. "It felt like I was given permission to write." She said that if you do write to an author, don't send them your manuscript and ask them to read it.
I asked Ivan a question about her novel, 'Bow Grip." "Was Joseph someone you knew or did you totally make him up?"
Ivan, "Joseph and his family represents the blue collar family. I'm tired of blue color families being portrayed as being stupid." "I'm interested in if this is an honest story, as opposed to if it is a true story."
Question: "How did you feel with family reactions to your writing?"
Billie said that her mother said to her, "this never happened."
Billie replied to her mother, "because it's a story." Audience laughed.
Ivan said to her family, "keep it up and it's going to be something I will write about." Audience laughed.
Stay tuned for my rap-up post for this fabulous festival.
Today I attended an event that is a festival favourite for many. This was my first attending The Sunday Brunch but I am so glad I did. There wasn't much vegan food, except for a bit of bread, tasty, I might add. There were also mimosas, mmm. However, I didn't go there for the food, I went for the authors!
Participating authors were John Gould, Genni Gunn, David Mitchell, Wells, Tower, Kathleen Winter, and Tess Gallagher. Jane Urquhart had to cancel at the last minute which was disappointing however, Tess Gallagher filled in for her and was quite a treat.
John Gould did a reading from his debut novel, 'Seven Reasons Not to Be Good.' Here is a description of the novel, taken from the book:
Seven Good Reasons Not To Be Good opens with a cryptic postcard from forty-something Matt to his oldest friend, Zane. Zane is dying -- for "good" -- but Matt's heading home to talk him out of it. Matt's keen to make contact with his father too, before the old man disappears into the colourful world of his dementia, with its aliens and their crop-circle messages. With Matt's marriage in tatters (he's been cuckolded by the neighborhood barista) and his career as a movie critic gone sideways, it's clearly time for this trip from Vancouver to Toronto -- so he can save his friend, wave off his dad, and maybe find something of himself he lost long ago.
In Seven Good Reasons Not To Be Good, John Gould treats mortality, morality, and modernity with equal parts empathy and wit in the manner of Jonathan Letham and Zadie Smith. His prose dazzles even as it reveals this novel's complex heart: the imperfect art of letting go.
In his introduction to the reading Mr. Gould explained that it "deals most centrally with a friendship. In part of the book, one of the main characters "is caught reviewing films that don't exist." The audience laughed. There were actually many laugh out loud moments of his reading. This sound like a promising novel!
Genni Gunn did a reading of her latest novel, 'Solitaria.' Here is a description of her novel, taken from the book:
When Vito Santoro's body is inadvertently unearthed by a demolition crew in Fregene, Italy, his siblings are thrown into turmoil, having been told by their sister Piera that Vito had fled to Argentina fifty years earlier after abandoning his wife and son. Piera, the self-proclaimed matriarch, locks herself in her room, refusing to speak to anyone but her Canadian nephew, David. Now scattered over three continents, the family members regroup in Italy to try to discover the truth.
Before Ms. Gunn started her reading, she said, "If you want to sound like you have an authentic Italian accent, put an emphasis on the consonant at the end of each word. Just try it."
(From left: Genni Gunn and Tess Gallagher)
Tess Gallagher is a poet and short fiction author. Her latest collection is 'The Man From Kinvara: Selected Stories.' Here is a description, taken from the book:
Tess Gallagher’s vivid and rewarding short stories bear witness to the intimate details and subtle revelations of daily life. Set mostly in Gallagher’s native Pacific Northwest and drawn from her two widely acclaimed collections, The Lover of Horses and At the Owl Woman Saloon, these stories contain the lives of loggers, bartenders, bear wrestlers, gamblers, Avon ladies, horse whisperers.
Ms. Gallagher explained that she lives in Port Townsend, Washington and about of a third of her time in a small town in Ireland. She said that she felt that she owed the town in Ireland something and followed her Irish boyfriend, of 12 years, around, feeding him whisky and recorded his stories for one of her books. She read a story from that book which was both poignant and hilarious. She also read a poem.
David Mitchell latest novel is, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. I won't post his book description here, since I posted it yesterday but you can read my review of the novel, here.
Before he read, Mr. Mitchell said that he tends to write "self indulgent drivel" sometimes.
This was his first time in Vancouver and he wrote down his thoughts of his "imaginary Vancouver," before he arrived. He shared these with the audience rather than doing a reading from his book. It was quite funny.
Wells Tower read from his latest, his first collection of short stories, 'Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned. His book sold out at the festival and they were taking orders.
Kathleen Winter read from her debut novel, 'Annabel'. I won't post a description here, since I posted about it a few days ago, here.
Before she did her reading she said that her father and mother moved to Canada from England before she was born. One day her father said to her, "Kathleen there isn't one stick in England that isn't owned by someone." That's why he moved to Canada.
I attended this event with my friend, Betty Lou. At our table there were two women who came to Vancouver from Prince George, BC, just for the festival. We had a great conversation about the event we have attended and authors we love, over brunch. This really added to the event.
Today I attended 'Japanning' which was both informative and entertaining.
This was a more intimate event, with just two authors, Katherine Govier, and David Mitchell. I sat in the front row and really got the feeling that I was sitting in a living room with these two authors. The theme was Japan, of course.
Katherine Govier's latest novel is 'The Ghost Brush'. Here is a description of it, taken from the book:
In an art gallery in Washington, DC, Rebecca is accosted by a ghost -- O-Ei, the daughter of the great Japanese printmaker Hokusai. Long consigned to a minor role as gloomy sidekick, O-Ei wants her rightful place in history.
O-Ei recounts her life with one of the great eccentrics of the nineteenth century. Dodging the Shoguns spies, she and Hokusai live amongst actors, novelists, tattoo artists and prostitutes, making the exquisite pictures that define their time. Disguised, the pair escapes the city gates to view waves and Mount Fuji. But they return to enchanting, dangerous Edo (Tokyo), the largest city in the world.
She does not cook or sew, and is not beautiful, but O-Ei has her secret joys. Wielding her brush, O-Ei defies all expectations of womanhood -- all but one. She is dutiful until death to the exasperating father who created her and who, ultimately, steals her future. Rebecca is left to discover why and how O-Ei vanished from her own time, and from history.
Both a feat of scholarship and a breathtaking work of imagination, The Ghost Brush shines fresh light on the very contemporary issues of authorship and masterworks. But above all it illuminates the most tender and ambiguous love of all -- that between father and daughter.
Ms. Govier spent years researching for this book and then had trouble finding the notes that she wanted to. She wrote the book from a Japanese point of view but thought about writing it from the Dutch point of view like David Mitchell's book.
The original manuscript had the present day character, Rebecca, showing the research that Katherine did for the book but it made the book too long. However, it is in the e-book edition.
O-Ei 's father , in history, signed all of the paintings that O-Ei actually painted. Most scholars say that O-Ei didn't mind because back then men owned women and daughters. Kathleen can't believe that O-Ei didn't want recognition. She said that O-Ei came to her and said, "I want authorship to my works.
David Mitchell's latest novel is The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. (See may review of it, here). Here is a description of it, taken from the book:
In 1799, Jacob de Zoet disembarks on the tiny island of Dejima, the Dutch East India Company’s remotest trading post in a Japan otherwise closed to the outside world. A junior clerk, his task is to uncover evidence of the previous Chief Resident’s corruption.
Cold-shouldered by his compatriots, Jacob earns the trust of a local interpreter and, more dangerously, becomes intrigued by a rare woman – a midwife permitted to study on Dejima under the company physician. He cannot foresee how disastrously each will be betrayed by someone they trust, nor how intertwined and far-reaching the consequences.
Duplicity and integrity, love and lust, guilt and faith, cold murder and strange immortality stalk the stage in this enthralling novel, which brings to vivid life the ordinary – and extraordinary – people caught up in a tectonic shift between East and West.
Mr.Mitchell talked about historical fiction as a genre. The history part is "reconnecting with the past human race. What is good history, can be bad fiction unless you manipulate it. It has to be authentically wrong. "
David said, " You have to make characters each different with use of speech or all of them will sound like the Borg." The audience laughed. David said, I'm glad there are some Star Trek fans here." More laughter.
An audience member asked David how he decided to write. David said, I excrete dialogue, my head just does that. Your question is "like asking a pumpkin plant when it decided to grow."
This was my question to David, "how did you think up the House of the Sisters and was there any fact it was based on? David said, "not as far as I known. I asked myself if it was even remotely possible, the answer was yes and I went with it. There was a religion in Japan that had no text, bible, or pope. Who's to say that a cult wasn't formed from it."
Well, this event added another book on to my "must read" list, 'The Ghost Brush' by Katherine Govier. I'm quite temped to buy it in e-book form to get the un-cut edition.
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