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.
Sara Gruen was here on Thursday November 4, 2010 as a special event of the Writers Festival. I was so excited when it was announced and then when the day finally arrived. I LOVED her book Water for Elephants and I enjoyed her new book, Ape House.
The event itself only lasted about 45 minutes, which was a bit disappointing to me. However, it was very interesting and informative. Ms. Gruen started out by telling us how she got the idea for Ape House and the research it entailed. Then she did a short reading and then answered audience questions. She requested a visit to the Great Ape Trust in Iowa, where some Bonobo are kept. She had to jump through hoops to be finally get permission including loads of reading, a visit to the linguistics department, and numourous immunizations. Just like in the book, once she receives permission from the staff, she had to gain permission from the bonobos themselves. She researched what they liked and loaded up back packs with their favoites including a Mr. Potato Head and M&M's. They invited her in immediately.
Sara has visited them numerous times since then. One time one of the bonobos invited her to tea and insisted on making the tea herself. Three years after her first visit, one of the bonobos asked Sara for a new Mr. Potato Head the next time she was coming. This just proved to Sara what a great memory they have. As a gift, Sara enrolled the bonobos in the Fruit of the Month Club and they receive a box of seasonal fruit every month. Unlike the book, the bonobos communicate using lexicons, rather than American Sign Language. Sara used sign language because it worked into the plot better. I asked Sara how she came up with the idea for the reality show in Ape House. She said that she wanted to capture the underbelly of the culture of society that will do anything to get in front of a camera. After the event Sara stayed to sign books and allowed me to get a photo taken of us together. This concludes my coverage of the 23rd Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival. It has been a great time and I look forward to next year. I want to give a special thanks to Judith Walker of the media department. She made it possible for me to attend and cover all of the events!
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.
Terence Young said, "deep noticing" also "looking very close to get the real story, rather than cliché."
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.
On October 20, 2010 at 8:00PM I attended this wonderful event.
There were four authors who participated: Emma Donoghue, Pascale Quiviger, Robert Wiersema, and Kathleen Winter. All four authors share a common theme in their latest works, that of parent and child.
Emma Donoghue's most recent work is 'Room'. Here is a book description, taken from the book:
To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.
Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.
Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, ROOM is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.
To research for this book, Ms. Donoghue said that she made Room "much less scary than real cases of captivity. She wanted to show that all parent and child relationships can be tumultuous.
I asked Ms. Donoghue why hadn't the characters of Ma or Old Nick thought of birth control. Ma actually started taking birth control pills after Jack was born. She thinks that Old Nick thought Ma should be allowed one child. I also pointed out that in North America, at least, "give me some" refers to sex. In room Jack said it for wanting to be breast feed. Ms. Donoghue said that she played around with other sayings for this but "give me some" seemed best to her. (note: no photo available, it was all blurred).
Pascale Quiviger's latest work is 'The Breakwater House'. Here is the book description, taken from the book:
Two little girls are born five days apart. Lucie lives with her mother, Aurore, who struggles to make ends meet; Claire lives with her wealthy mother, Suzanne, who struggles to make her marriage work. The girls are inseparable.
One night, Lucie begs her mother for a story. And so Aurore begins to recite incredible tales -- of Lucie's grandparents, and of her missing father, and of people who were part of Aurore's life before Lucie. For 10 years, Aurore weaves a rich skein of tales for Lucie and Claire. Then, when the girls turn 15, Aurore tells the final tale in her tapestry, and disappears forever.
Several years later, Lucie gives birth to a little girl, Odyssee, and she and Claire take turns telling stories to the child. But one day something unspeakable happens. Into the terrible silence, a woman without a name wanders, trying to find the broken pieces of herself.
The Breakwater House is the story of the woman without a name. It is also the story of Lucie and Claire and Aurore and Suzanne -- and the complex love between mothers, daughters, and friends. With this thrilling puzzle of a novel, Governor General's Literary Award winner and Giller Prize nominee Pascale Quiviger shows that she is a writer who is capable of combining stylistic brilliance, philosophical depth, and sheer un-put-downable storytelling.
Ms. Quiviger wanted to use this book to show "overlooked forms of courage." Aurore hides her ignorance from Lucie, as she is growing up as mothers do. Lucie finally catches on and asks her mother for the truth.
from left: Pascale Quiviger, Teddy, Robert Wiersema
Robert Wiersema's latest work is 'Bedtime Story'. Here is the book description, taken from the book:
Following his bestselling 2006 debut, Before I Wake, Wiersema returns to his exquisitely plotted blend of supernatural thriller and domestic drama.
Novelist Christopher Knox began his writing career with a bang. The echo of that success still rings in his ears as he sets to work every morning on his second novel, ten years later. His wife feels like a single parent, and with Chris living in exile in a studio above their garage, it won't be long before she is.
Chris discovers a fantasy novel by an obscure author he loved as a child and gives it to his son, David. Father reads to son nightly, and To the Four Directions soon enthralls him. Until one night, when young David is reading alone, an inexplicable seizure leaves him in a mysterious state of unconsciousness. As his seizure recurs every night, his father learns that only one thing will calm it, a bedtime story from his strange new book. Convinced that the secret of David's collapse is within its pages, Chris traverses the continent in search of the truth. Meanwhile, David wakes up within the story he has been reading, and as his father struggles to free him David struggles to survive, facing perils unimaginable in a world created to capture the hearts and souls of children like him. Both father and son are headed toward a fateful collision of worlds, and a showdown with ancient evils, both fictional and very real.
Mr. Wiersema told the audience that this was the first time talking about this book. He explained that it is a father and son story. The son is dyslexic so the father reads to him. It is a story within a story, so it felt like Robert was writing two books. The theme is "power of story, love of reading."
Kathleen Winter's debut novel is 'Annabel'. Here is the book description, taken from the book:
Kathleen Winter’s luminous debut novel is a deeply affecting portrait of life in an enchanting seaside town and the trials of growing up unique in a restrictive environment.
In 1968, into the devastating, spare atmosphere of the remote coastal town of Labrador, Canada, a child is born: a baby who appears to be neither fully boy nor fully girl, but both at once. Only three people are privy to the secret: the baby’s parents, Jacinta and Treadway, and a trusted neighbor and midwife, Thomasina. Though Treadway makes the difficult decision to raise the child as a boy named Wayne, the women continue to quietly nurture the boy’s female side. And as Wayne grows into adulthood within the hyper-masculine hunting society of his father, his shadow-self, a girl he thinks of as "Annabel," is never entirely extinguished.
Kathleen Winter has crafted a literary gem about the urge to unveil mysterious truth in a culture that shuns contradiction, and the body’s insistence on coming home. A daringly unusual debut full of unforgettable beauty, Annabel introduces a remarkable new voice to American readers.
Ms. Winter explained that the novel takes place in Labrador and starts with the birth of a intersex child. The parents raise him as a boy, Wayne. As Wayne grows up, he wants to be a girl, Annabel. A central theme is caribou breaking from the heard, like Annabel. Kathleen said that she had to keep the prologue short because the publisher said that many people don't read the prologue. The audience laughed.
I don't always read the forward of a book however, I always read the prologue, it's part of the story. Please take the poll to tell me if you read it or not.
I am just 50 pages away from finishing Room by Emma Donoghue, so stay tuned for my review. Now that I heard more about the other authors works, I want to read them. The one I want to read most is 'Annabel' by Kathleen Winter. I hadn't heard of it before this event but I love books that have a real sense of place. 'Annabel is said to capture Labrador well. It also sounds like an excellent story to me.
On October 19th at 8:00 PM I had the great privilege of attending this event. It was fabulous.
The following are the 3 authors who participated and their bios, plus a bit about their latest books and a bit of what they talked about at this event:
Please note, the bios are taken directly from the festival guide and the book descriptions are taken from the book, and are not my own words. What is written about the event is from me, except of course, the quotations. The photos of me with Ms. Gibb and Mr. Schroeder were taken with my camera by 2 helpful audience members who were waiting to get their own books signed. I took the photo of Mr. Marlantes, myself. No photos we allowed during the event, itself.
Bios: Camilla Gibb is the author of four novels—Mouthing the Words, The Petty Details of So-and- so’s Life, Sweetness in the Belly and, her latest, The Beauty of Humanity Movement—as well as numerous short stories, articles and reviews. She was the winner of the Trillium Book Award in 2006, was a Scotiabank Giller Prize short list nominee in 2005, won the City of Toronto Book Award in 2000 and received the CBC Canadian Literary Award in 2001. Gibb was one of two Canadians named to the prestigious Orange Futures List, recognizing 21 promising international authors. She has also served as vice-president of PEN Canada.
Book Description for her latest book, The Beauty of Humanity Movement:
Set in contemporary Vietnam, this is the story of a country undergoing momentous change and the story of how family is defined — not always by bloodlines but by the heart.
Tu' is a young tour guide working in Hanoi for a company called New Dawn. While he leads tourists through the city, including American vets on "war tours," he starts to wonder what it is they are seeing of Vietnam —and what they miss entirely. Maggie, who is Vietnamese by birth but has lived most her life in the U.S., has returned to her country of origin in search of clues to her dissident father's disappearance during the war. Holding the story together is Old Man Hung, who has lived through decades of political upheaval and has still found a way to feed hope to his community of pondside dwellers.
This is a keenly observed and skillfully wrought novel about the reverberation of conflict through generations, the enduring legacy of art, and the redemption and renewal of long-lost love.
Event: During the introduction, the host, Jerry Wasserman said that Ms. Gibb had her first child just 5 weeks before this event. I must say, she looked terrific!
Camilla pointed out that 60 percent of Vietnams current population was born after the Vietnam war. She said that she wanted to explore the stories of that population, the untold stories. She said that the novels "is about characters I know and love."
Bios: Karl Marlantes is a graduate of Yale University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He served as a Marine in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals for Valor, two Purple Hearts and 10 Medals. His Vietnam experience informs his acclaimed first novel, Matterhorn, which he crafted over a period of 30 years. He lives in rural Washington state.
Book Description of his latest book, Matterhorn:
The novel is set during the winter monsoon season of 1968-69 on and around a fire support base called Matterhorn, located in the mountains of the remote north-western corner of Quang-Tri Province. The protagonist, a young and ambitious Marine lieutenant, wants to command a company to further his civilian political ambitions. Two people stand in his way. The first is a well-loved, combat-weary lieutenant of his own age, who desperately wants out of the bush, but who does not want to leave his Marines with an inexperienced and overly ambitious officer. The second is an angry young leader of the company s radical blacks, who has all the political skill, savvy, and ambition of the protagonist. As the protagonist experiences the costs of combat, he sees the terrible results of his ambition and starts to change, learning that compassion and heart are more important than ambition and skill.
Event: Mr. Marlantes said the Matterhorn is "the central metaphor for self-inflicted wound and mistake." His book took 30 years to get published. He wrote it right after the war and publishers told him that people didn't want to read about it. He pitched it again in the 80's and was told that there were too many books about the war, and then he finally got published. Each time it was rejected, he refined it some more but he never gave up.
Bios: Adam Lewis Schroeder is the author of the story collection Kingdom of Monkeys, a Danuta Gleed Award finalist, and the novel Empress of Asia, nominated for the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Ethel Wilson Fiction
Prize. His story, “This Is Not the End My Friend,” appears in Darwin’s Bastards: Astounding Tales from Tomorrow. His new novel is In the Fabled East. He lives in Penticton.
Book description of his latest book, In the Fabled East:
From one of Canada’s best young voices comes a sweeping literary adventure set against the backdrop of French Indochina.
Paris, 1909: Adélie Tremier, a young widow suffering the final stages of tuberculosis, flees for French-occupied Indochina, through the lush forests of Laos, to seek out a fabled spring of immortality that might allow her to return to her nine-year-old son.
Laos, 1936: Pierre Lazarie, a young academic turned Saigon bureaucrat, is sent by Adélie’s son, now an Army captain, to find his longlost mother. Although his assigned quest fulfills Pierre’s fantasy to travel up the exotic Mekong, he is saddled with his colleague Henri LeDallic, an Indochina old-timer who would rather glory in his loutish past than hunt for ghosts in the jungle. Yet what this mismatched pair discovers forms the mysterious heart of Adam Lewis Schroeder’s brilliant and compelling new novel.
Bridging history from 1890s Aix-en-Provence to American involvement in 1950s Vietnam, In the Fabled East is a rich and sensual depiction of Southeast Asia, charting the loss of innocence of both individuals and the world at large. Echoing Graham Greene and Joseph Conrad, this is historical fiction written with wisdom and panache.
Event: Before Mr Schroeder started his reading, he held out his book for the audience to see and said, "this is a beautiful book." Then he partially removed the dust cover and said, "see, it's even beautiful under the dust cover." The crowd laughed. His reading was superb, he used excellent voice inflections, movements, and facial expressions. It was like he was acting it out for us.
When it came time for questions for the audience, I only got to ask one. I asked Mr. Schroeder if he ever considered reading books for audio. He said it was up to the publisher but thanked me for my praise. Later, when he was signing my copy of his book, Empress of Asia, he said that he was going to ask his publisher about it because he thought it was a good idea for his book. I pointed out that he would be great for reading other author's works aloud as well.
Going into the event, I knew already that I wanted to read Camilla Gibbs latest book, The Beauty of Humanity Movement. In fact, I hoped to read it before the event however it hasn't arrived from the publisher yet. One of my all time favourite books is Ms. Gibb's, Sweetness In the Belly!
Now that I have heard more about all three books from the authors, themselves, I want to read all 3 books! As the title of my blog says, So Many Precious books, So Little Time.
Bow Grip takes place in present tense, in around Drumheller and Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Joseph is a 40-something divorced auto mechanic, trying to move on with his life. His wife Allyson left him for his hockey buddy's wife, Kathleen and moved from Drumheller to Calgary.
The story opens with Joseph trying to sell his car for cash but James Carson doesn't have any money. He does however have a cello and talks Joseph into a trade. Joseph figure that he can sell the cello but from the moment he opens the case he wants to learn how to play it. Besides, his mom has been after him to get some kind of hobbies to take his mind off his problems.
James calls him back a couple of days later and said that the car wouldn't start and that he needs to go out of town. Joseph goes to take a look and finds more than he bargains for. There is a residue all over the inside of the car and he finds duct tape and a hose on the inside of the truck. Joseph doesn't know how to deal with James suicide attempt, should he talk to him about it or just keep quiet and fix the car? He doesn't know him very well, has only seen him around town a few times. He decides to buy some time and James that he needs to bring it into the shop but will personally deliver it as soon as it's fixed.
He gets the car fixed by the next day but when he goes to deliver it, James is gone. His land-lord said that he left town. This is what sparks a trip to Calgary and a journey of self-discovery and forgiveness.
This is a short novel, all of 165 pages but it really packs a punch. It is choke full of quirky characters, vivid descriptions of landscape, and beautiful prose.
Bow Gip is the winner of the 2007 ReLit Award for Best Novel and has been Shortlisted for the 2007 Ferro-Grumley Award for Women's Fiction . This is Ivan E. Coyote's first novel. She has also written several short story collections including her latest, Missed Her, published in December 2010. Bow Grip is the first book I have read by Coyote but certainly won't be the last!
4.5/5
Ivan E. Coyote was born in Whitehorse, Canada and now resides in Victoria, BC, Canada. She will be appearing at the 23rd Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival. Event #64 Short Stories, Varied Voices. I will be attending this event, so stay tuned for my coverage of it.
If you have reviewed this book, please leave a link in the comments.
This is the second in a series of short story reviews of authors I will be seeing at the Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival. The event I will see them at is #64 Short Stories, Varied Voices, on Sunday, October 24th.
This short story by Billie Livingston appeared in The Walrus and is from her new book Greedy Little Eyes. You can read it here.
The first sentence of this story is, "You are never as lonely as when you are lonely in the company of your lover." This sets the tone for the entire story.
The narrator of the story is a un-named woman who has a boyfriend, Thomas. She was working in a record shop and because of a comment he made about her, she was promoted to assistant manager. She said, "Thomas has clout in the music world."
Soon after that she moved in with Thomas. She said, "I should have known something was wrong when Thomas sucked back the better part of a twenty-sixer of Glenlivet before he could kiss me the first time." There was something wrong however, I wont tell you any more because I don't want to risk spoilers.
The story feels a little choppy and rushed to me but does reach a surprising conclusion. From reading this very short story, all of eight pages, I can tell Billie Livingston has the gift of prose. I look forward to reading the rest of this short story collection.
Please stay tuned tomorrow, for my review of 'Bow Grip' by short story writer Ivan E. Coyote. She has done several short story collection but Bow Grip is her first novel.She will also be appearing at event #64 Short Stories, Varied Voices, on Sunday, October 24th.
Back in 2008 I wrote a five star review for Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants. I could hardly wait until she wrote her next novel. The wait is now over, Ape House was released in September.
Ape House is really has three main intersecting story lines:
Isabel Duncan is a scientist at the Great Ape Language Lab. Her "family" are the bonobos that she works with. She also has some major boyfriend trouble. There's the story of John Thigpen, a married reporter who interviews Isabel and the apes. His career is threatened and his marriage is in jeopardy. Then of course, there are the bonobos themselves, Sam, Bonzi, Lola, Mbongo, Jelani, and Malkena. They are the center of the story and communicate with Isabel with American Sign Language.
An explosion happens at the lab and the bonobous escape, while Isabel is wounded and rushed to the hospital. All of a sudden a reality television show comes on the air featuring the bonobous. Isabel is determined to recover from her injuries and be united with her "family".
I found Ape House to be a fun and engaging read. It seems a bit more like "main stream" fiction thanWater for Elephants but still has literary merit. I usually like quirky characters however, Nathan and Cecelia were a bit over the top for me and I really wanted interested in John's marital issues and Isabel's boyfriend issues.
The best part of the book was about the bonobous themselves. Gruen's research seems to be bang on and she captured my heart for the wonderful creatures that have so much in common with us, humans. I think the story would have been better if Guren would have focused more on the bonobous and less on the John and Isabel's personal issues.
3.5
Thanks so much to Julie Forrest of Random House Canada for this book.
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