Sunday, February 28, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Table of Contents: My Life On A Plate
Author: India Knight
Publisher/Year: Penguin, 2000
Synopsis: Clara Hutt (known to herself as Jabba The), has put her foxy single days very much behind her (rather like her cellulite), and has Got Her Man.
She has a nice house, adorable children who only annoy her 90% of the time, a large, eccentric and charming family, and an attractive (but increasingly mysterious) husband. And she gets to have regular sex. Well ... she used to. Anyway, what the hell, it's only loins ...
Everyone wants to be married - don't they?
What Others Have To Say
The Times
"Clara [Hutt] is a thoroughly engaging modern heroine who never descends into head-clutching cuteness: she would eat Ally McBeal, on brioche, for breakfast."
The Sunday Herald
"...truly indulgent experience of reading the frothbuster of the year."
The Evening Standard
"The funniest novel of the year...A brilliant take on modern matrimony and a welcome antedote to Bridget Jones"
Extras
Read an excerpt
Publisher/Year: Penguin, 2000
Synopsis: Clara Hutt (known to herself as Jabba The), has put her foxy single days very much behind her (rather like her cellulite), and has Got Her Man.
She has a nice house, adorable children who only annoy her 90% of the time, a large, eccentric and charming family, and an attractive (but increasingly mysterious) husband. And she gets to have regular sex. Well ... she used to. Anyway, what the hell, it's only loins ...
Everyone wants to be married - don't they?
What Others Have To Say
The Times
"Clara [Hutt] is a thoroughly engaging modern heroine who never descends into head-clutching cuteness: she would eat Ally McBeal, on brioche, for breakfast."
The Sunday Herald
"...truly indulgent experience of reading the frothbuster of the year."
The Evening Standard
"The funniest novel of the year...A brilliant take on modern matrimony and a welcome antedote to Bridget Jones"
Extras
Read an excerpt
Friday, February 26, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Canada Reads: Anne-Marie MacDonald
In some ways we have left the best for last. Fall on Your Knees ranks as one our top 5 Canadian novels of all time. But this does not necessarily mean it translates as our Canada Reads favorite. Oh no no. We'll leave that determination until we get through the last couple hundred pages!
Brief Biography
- born in West Germany
- appeared in the films I've Heard the Mermaids Singing and Better Than Chocolate
- hosted the CBC Documentary series Life and Times from 1996 to 2007
Honours & Awards
- won the 1997 Commonwealth Writers Prize - Best First Book for Fall on Your Knees
- won the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction and the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award in 1996 for Fall On Your Knees
- won the 1998 Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award - Fiction Book of the Year for Fall On Your Knees
- was a finalist for the 1996 Giller Prize for Fall On Your Knees
- received the Governor General's Award for Literary Merit, the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award and the Canadian Author's Association Award for her play, Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)
- was shortlisted for the Giller Prize for The Way the Crow Flies
Interviews and Reviews
Author Profile
Herizons article
Canadian Review and American Studies - Special Issue: Anne-Marie MacDonald
Reviews
Quill & Quire
The Antigonish Review
Brief Biography
- born in West Germany
- appeared in the films I've Heard the Mermaids Singing and Better Than Chocolate
- hosted the CBC Documentary series Life and Times from 1996 to 2007
Honours & Awards
- won the 1997 Commonwealth Writers Prize - Best First Book for Fall on Your Knees
- won the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction and the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award in 1996 for Fall On Your Knees
- won the 1998 Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award - Fiction Book of the Year for Fall On Your Knees
- was a finalist for the 1996 Giller Prize for Fall On Your Knees
- received the Governor General's Award for Literary Merit, the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award and the Canadian Author's Association Award for her play, Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)
- was shortlisted for the Giller Prize for The Way the Crow Flies
Interviews and Reviews
Author Profile
Herizons article
Canadian Review and American Studies - Special Issue: Anne-Marie MacDonald
Reviews
Quill & Quire
The Antigonish Review
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Table of Contents: The Society of S
Author: Susan Hubbard
Publisher/Year: Simon and Schuster, 2008
Synopsis: Ariella Montero is seeking the true identities of her mother and father--and of herself. She's been taught literature, philosophy, science, and history, but she knows almost nothing about the real world and its complexities. Her world is one wherein ghosts and vampires commune with humans; Edgar Allan Poe and Jack Kerouac are role models; and every time a puzzle seems solved, its last piece changes the entire picture.
When the last piece is murder, Ari goes on the road in search of her mother, who disappeared at the time of her birth. The hunt nearly costs Ari her life, and, in finding her mother, she loses her father. But gradually she uncovers the secrets that have kept the family apart, and she begins to come to terms with her own nature and its chances for survival.
What Others Have To Say
Monsters and Critics
Publisher/Year: Simon and Schuster, 2008
Synopsis: Ariella Montero is seeking the true identities of her mother and father--and of herself. She's been taught literature, philosophy, science, and history, but she knows almost nothing about the real world and its complexities. Her world is one wherein ghosts and vampires commune with humans; Edgar Allan Poe and Jack Kerouac are role models; and every time a puzzle seems solved, its last piece changes the entire picture.
When the last piece is murder, Ari goes on the road in search of her mother, who disappeared at the time of her birth. The hunt nearly costs Ari her life, and, in finding her mother, she loses her father. But gradually she uncovers the secrets that have kept the family apart, and she begins to come to terms with her own nature and its chances for survival.
What Others Have To Say
Monsters and Critics
Monday, February 22, 2010
Line By Line: Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
"Lonely was much better than alone"
"Anger is better. There is a sense of being in anger. A reality and presence. An awareness of worth. It is a lovely surging."
"I had only one desire: to dismember it. To see of what it was made, to discover the dearness, to find the beauty, the desirability that had escaped me, but apparently only me."
"Tough shit, buddy."
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Table of Contents: Comfort Food
Author: Kate Jacobs
Publisher/Year: Putnam, 2008
Synopsis: Popular Cooking with Gusto! host Augusta Gus Simpson, a widowed mother of two adult daughters who's about to turn 50, is tiring of her many obligations, which include throwing an annual birthday bash for herself. That trial pales, however, in comparison with the introduction of saucy former beauty queen and YouTube star Carmen Vega as Gus's cohost: Carmen is younger, hotter and very tight with the boss. It's soon apparent on the set that this new situation isn't working, so the two are packed off, along with a forgettable cast of secondaries, to a corporate team-building weekend, complete with New Age guide. When the resort's head chef calls in sick, a team-building opportunity presents itself.
What Others Have To Say
USA Today
"This book has no great surprises, just the pleasure of a good meal shared among people you love."
Library Journal
""Gus and the show's cast, with their humor, moods, and romance, are the sparks that bring this warm and irresistible story to life. Highly recommended."
Extras
Read an excerpt
Reading Guide
Publisher/Year: Putnam, 2008
Synopsis: Popular Cooking with Gusto! host Augusta Gus Simpson, a widowed mother of two adult daughters who's about to turn 50, is tiring of her many obligations, which include throwing an annual birthday bash for herself. That trial pales, however, in comparison with the introduction of saucy former beauty queen and YouTube star Carmen Vega as Gus's cohost: Carmen is younger, hotter and very tight with the boss. It's soon apparent on the set that this new situation isn't working, so the two are packed off, along with a forgettable cast of secondaries, to a corporate team-building weekend, complete with New Age guide. When the resort's head chef calls in sick, a team-building opportunity presents itself.
What Others Have To Say
USA Today
"This book has no great surprises, just the pleasure of a good meal shared among people you love."
Library Journal
""Gus and the show's cast, with their humor, moods, and romance, are the sparks that bring this warm and irresistible story to life. Highly recommended."
Extras
Read an excerpt
Reading Guide
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