Sunday, January 31, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Canada Reads Book Club: Update #2
Things are picking up speed as we head out of January and into February. We made short work of Nikolski and are almost through The Jade Peony. How is it that we had not picked up these two books before!!
One of our offline book club members finished Fall on Your Knees recently, and sent through the following comments [SPOILERS]:
We've got two author mini bios up at the moment - Marina Endicott and Nicolas Dickner - a third on the way for Wayson Choy.
For all you following along online, drop a note (letitreadblog@gmail.com)or comment below and let us know how things are going. Always interested in hearing how others are doing and what you think of the readings.
One of our offline book club members finished Fall on Your Knees recently, and sent through the following comments [SPOILERS]:
finished Fall on Your Knees yesterday. my goodness. the way the parents exploit their children and can't let them be happy...not just James but Rose's mother too--I found that betrayal just devastating to read about, that she would let her own daughter be unhappy so that she would fulfill the mother's plan for her, and keep her mother happy. And Mercedes not letting Anthony/Aloysius stay with his mom--maybe he had a good life anyway but you know Frances would have wanted to keep him.Reviews forthcoming - yeah yeah, we said this before but we do mean it! We needed to figure out a schedule though as not to get overwhelmed with everything else on the go, including reading the last two books. Reviews will start the week of February 4, with one book covered for each week leading into the Canada Reads 2010 debates on CBC Radio One the week of March 8.
Very creepy stuff.
We've got two author mini bios up at the moment - Marina Endicott and Nicolas Dickner - a third on the way for Wayson Choy.
For all you following along online, drop a note (letitreadblog@gmail.com)or comment below and let us know how things are going. Always interested in hearing how others are doing and what you think of the readings.
Table of Contents: The Bright Side of Disaster
Author: Katherine Center
Publisher/Year: Ballantine Books, 2008
Synopsis: Jenny Harris is nesting in her Houston home with her fiance, Dean, awaiting the birth of their child, to be followed by their wedding. But Dean grows more distant, especially after a coworker dies in a plane crash, and Jenny ends up becoming a single mother. Determined to take good care of her child, she tries to forget about Dean, relegating him to the past. Coping with a baby takes all Jenny's time, so when her perfect single neighbor takes an interest, Jenny is flattered but exhausted. Then, when she finally decides to take a chance and get to know him, Dean comes back into her life.
What Others Have To Say:
Dallas Morning News
"This story of a youthful-but-optimistic single mom rings bittersweet and utterly authentic."
Booklist
"Center paints an accurate and humorous view of motherhood from the physical changes to lack of sleep and exhaustion, as well as the changes in friendships and feelings about men."
The Calgary Herald
"It describes graphically, but humorously, the gritty details of giving birth, breastfeeding and everything that goes along with it."
Extras:
Read Chapter One.
Publisher/Year: Ballantine Books, 2008
Synopsis: Jenny Harris is nesting in her Houston home with her fiance, Dean, awaiting the birth of their child, to be followed by their wedding. But Dean grows more distant, especially after a coworker dies in a plane crash, and Jenny ends up becoming a single mother. Determined to take good care of her child, she tries to forget about Dean, relegating him to the past. Coping with a baby takes all Jenny's time, so when her perfect single neighbor takes an interest, Jenny is flattered but exhausted. Then, when she finally decides to take a chance and get to know him, Dean comes back into her life.
What Others Have To Say:
Dallas Morning News
"This story of a youthful-but-optimistic single mom rings bittersweet and utterly authentic."
Booklist
"Center paints an accurate and humorous view of motherhood from the physical changes to lack of sleep and exhaustion, as well as the changes in friendships and feelings about men."
The Calgary Herald
"It describes graphically, but humorously, the gritty details of giving birth, breastfeeding and everything that goes along with it."
Extras:
Read Chapter One.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Book Review: Ben Sherwood, The Man Who Ate the 747
Author: Ben Sherwood
Publisher/Year: Bantam Books, 2002
Review:
It would be easy to categorize Ben Sherwood’s debut novel The Man Who Ate the 747 as a standard run-of-the-mill romance story with the obligatory dash of quirkiness inserted to set it apart for its genre companions. And this would be a fair assessment, if not for the composition of that quirky factor indicated by the novel’s title. The story is indeed about a man who eats a Boeing 747 airplane in a misguided attempt to prove his love to an elusive paramour.
The story begins with J.J. Smith, an average joe who works as a Keeper of the Records for The Book of Records. He is the guy who flies around the world to document amazing human feats for inclusion in the book’s editions. Smith has had a string of bad luck lately, with his last three record attempts ending in failure. As a result of his misfortune, his boss is hounding Smith to find the one feat that will reestablish his increasingly precarious position within the organization.
Going through his correspondence, Smith comes across a child’s letter relaying that there is a man eating an airplane in Nebraska. He is intrigued by the simple absurdity of the tip, and begins to research the possibility of the story. A quick search confirms that a plane did crash in the indicated town years ago, so off he goes to Superior to find this certainly crazy man.
Smith’s arrival in the town reveals more than he could have hoped. Not only is Wally Wyatt eating the 747 but he is doing it out of love. Wally’s logic is that if this act does not get the attention of Willa, the local newspaper publisher with whom he has been in love with since early youth, then nothing will. J.J. is excited about the potential record and, despite knowing that Wally does not want any attention, inculcates a media blitz. The town is besieged by reporters from all over the world, all anxious to get the story, and by companies wanting to capitalize on Wally’s story in order to sell their wares.
As all of this is going on, J.J. takes it upon himself to get Willa’s approval for Wally. She disapproves of Wally’s action, avoiding all discussion of his activities until J.J. shows up at her office. Willa and J.J. soon find themselves enmeshed in their own love story. Long hidden behind the facts he works with, J.J. finds a freedom with Willa that makes he begins to understand why Wally would undertake such an absurd and dangerous activity in the name of love.
Now, the novel’s opening sentence—“the story of the greatest love, ever”—promises much but does not fully deliver. The Man Who Ate the 747 is, despite the unique premise, a standard run-of-the-mill romance novel with few surprises. Even the cover art—a heart with wings--is standard visual fare. But the book is a pleasant enough for a lazy afternoon on the porch or at the beach.
Publisher/Year: Bantam Books, 2002
Review:
It would be easy to categorize Ben Sherwood’s debut novel The Man Who Ate the 747 as a standard run-of-the-mill romance story with the obligatory dash of quirkiness inserted to set it apart for its genre companions. And this would be a fair assessment, if not for the composition of that quirky factor indicated by the novel’s title. The story is indeed about a man who eats a Boeing 747 airplane in a misguided attempt to prove his love to an elusive paramour.
The story begins with J.J. Smith, an average joe who works as a Keeper of the Records for The Book of Records. He is the guy who flies around the world to document amazing human feats for inclusion in the book’s editions. Smith has had a string of bad luck lately, with his last three record attempts ending in failure. As a result of his misfortune, his boss is hounding Smith to find the one feat that will reestablish his increasingly precarious position within the organization.
Going through his correspondence, Smith comes across a child’s letter relaying that there is a man eating an airplane in Nebraska. He is intrigued by the simple absurdity of the tip, and begins to research the possibility of the story. A quick search confirms that a plane did crash in the indicated town years ago, so off he goes to Superior to find this certainly crazy man.
Smith’s arrival in the town reveals more than he could have hoped. Not only is Wally Wyatt eating the 747 but he is doing it out of love. Wally’s logic is that if this act does not get the attention of Willa, the local newspaper publisher with whom he has been in love with since early youth, then nothing will. J.J. is excited about the potential record and, despite knowing that Wally does not want any attention, inculcates a media blitz. The town is besieged by reporters from all over the world, all anxious to get the story, and by companies wanting to capitalize on Wally’s story in order to sell their wares.
As all of this is going on, J.J. takes it upon himself to get Willa’s approval for Wally. She disapproves of Wally’s action, avoiding all discussion of his activities until J.J. shows up at her office. Willa and J.J. soon find themselves enmeshed in their own love story. Long hidden behind the facts he works with, J.J. finds a freedom with Willa that makes he begins to understand why Wally would undertake such an absurd and dangerous activity in the name of love.
Now, the novel’s opening sentence—“the story of the greatest love, ever”—promises much but does not fully deliver. The Man Who Ate the 747 is, despite the unique premise, a standard run-of-the-mill romance novel with few surprises. Even the cover art—a heart with wings--is standard visual fare. But the book is a pleasant enough for a lazy afternoon on the porch or at the beach.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Book Mark: Costa Book Awards Handed Out
Courtesy of AP:
LONDON – Poet Christopher Reid was awarded Britain's Costa Book of the Year Award on Tuesday with a poetry collection written in tribute to his late wife.
Reid's "A Scattering" — inspired by his wife's death from cancer in 2005 — beat four other finalists to the 30,000 pound ($48,426) prize, which aims to reward the most enjoyable book in the last year by writers based in the U.K. and Ireland.
"I'm delighted and bewildered to be the recipient of this important literary prize," the 60-year-old said as he accepted the award in central London. "The book itself was difficult to write ... It hasn't quietened the grief but it's helped me think more clearly."
Judge Josephine Hart described Reid's winning collection as "austere and beautiful and moving." She compared Reid's work to those by Thomas Hardy and W.B. Yeats, who were both inspired to write by personal tragedy.
"We feel that what Christopher Reid did was to take a personal tragedy and to make the emotion and the situation universal," she said. "It is bizarrely life-enhancing because it speaks of the triumph of love before and after death."
Hart said the judging panel arrived at the decision by a majority. The Book of the Year prize was chosen from five finalists, each already a winner of separate Costa genre awards — novel, first novel, poetry, biography and children's book. Each category winner receives 5,000 pounds ($8,000).
Reid's collection bested the bookies' favorite, "Brooklyn," a novel about a young Irishwoman emigrating to America in the 1950s by Irish author Colm Toibin. Graham Farmelo won the biography prize for "The Strangest Man," a life of physicist Paul Dirac. Raphael Selbourne won the first novel award for "Beauty," the story of a young Bangladeshi woman in Britain on the run from an arranged marriage, and U.S.-born writer Patrick Ness won the children's book award for "The Ask and the Answer."
The prizes — known until 2006 as the Whitbread Book Awards — were established in 1971. They were renamed in 2006 after sponsorship switched from retail and leisure group Whitbread to the Costa coffee shop chain. They are open to residents of Britain and the Republic of Ireland.
Last year's Book of the Year was awarded to Sebastian Barry for his novel "The Secret Scripture."
Book Mark: Salon Takes on Jane Austen
Laura Miller over at Salon.com has written an interesting article about Jane Austen, taking on a quest to find out who Jane Austen is within the realm of recent and wild retellings of Pride & Prejudice.
Still boggles our minds that book like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies exists.
Still boggles our minds that book like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies exists.
Book Mark: Pop Matters' Best of Books of 2009
Pop Matters, a site for which yours truly used to write book reviews, recently published their lists for best fiction and non-fiction of 2009. As usual, the lists are a bit eccentric not unlike the entire site itself. And also as usual, astute observations on each of the books listed.
They have some really good stuff listed though, such as A Gate at the Stairs and Automats, Taxi Dances and Vaudeville: Excavating Manhattan’s Lost Places of Leisure.
Check out the non-fiction list.
Check out the fiction list.
They have some really good stuff listed though, such as A Gate at the Stairs and Automats, Taxi Dances and Vaudeville: Excavating Manhattan’s Lost Places of Leisure.
Check out the non-fiction list.
Check out the fiction list.
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