Sunday, March 26, 2006

Capote

I finished Breakfast at Tiffany's and decided I wanted to watch Capote, so I rented it.
It is a good and interesting movie. Since I didn't know much about Truman Capote I looked him up on Wikipedia.
It was exciting to see that he was a childhood friend of Harper Lee's (and she is in the movie too), some people thought that he had ghost written To Kill a Mockingbird. The character of Dill was inspired on him.
I haven't seen the movie in a long time, but after reading the book I remembered that Breakfast at Tiffany's (the movie) was a bit different. First, Holly Golightly is supposed to be a blonde, and Audrey Hepburn is most certainly not. Well, apparently Capote was not amused with the character being toned down to appeal to the mass audiences for the movie.
Really interesting.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Tonight at the Gladstone Hotel Ballroom...

Martha Baillie - The Shape I Gave You (Knopf Canada)

Author Martha Baillie launches her new novel with jazz by Lightstone, Katz & Quarrington, songs by vocalist Theo Heras accompanied by Cindy Fairbank, art exhibits by Colm MacCool & Vid Ingelevics, and an interview with Marc Glassman.

Gladstone Hotel Ballroom, 1214 Queen St W, TorontoTues, Mar 21, 7-10pm (doors 7pm), free

Join us as author Martha Baillie celebrates the publication of her new novel, The Shape I Gave You (Knopf Canada).

The Shape I Gave You (Knopf Canada) - The night before she leaves to give a recital in another city, Ulrike Huguenot, a young pianist, arrives at her Berlin apartment to find an unexpected and unwelcome letter. It is from Beatrice Mann, a Canadian sculptor, a friend of her father, Gustave, and also, Ulrike believes, his lover. What could this woman possibly have to say to her? And why now, seven years after her father’s death? “I am writing to you because my daughter has died,” begins Beatrice’s extraordinary letter of confession. Her only child, Ines, has been killed at the age of eighteen, and Beatrice has closed herself in her Toronto studio. Unable to speak openly with her grieving husband, Isaac, she turns to Ulrike, a young woman she barely knows. While Beatrice retells and possibly reshapes the past, Isaac sets out on a journey of his own. As Ulrike reads about Beatrice’s life and Gustave’s role in it, she reluctantly revisits the world of her own memories and starts to see her present in a different light. In The Shape I Gave You, acclaimed novelist and poet Martha Baillie explores the complex relationships between parents and children, men and women, to create a novel of spare elegance that gives piercing insight into the nature of confession and how we choose who to ask for absolution.

Martha Baillie was born in Toronto. Her poems have been widely published in journals such as Descant, Prairie Fire and the Antigonish Review. Her first novel, My Sister Esther, was published by Turnstone Press in 1995. Her second, Madame Balashovskaya’s Apartment, was published by Turnstone Press in 1999 and then published in Germany and Hungary. After stints in Edinburgh, Paris and Asia, Baillie returned to Toronto where she lives with her family.

Friday, March 17, 2006

Book City Spring Warehouse Sale

Book City is having their spring warehouse sale at the Leaside Community Centre. It is located at the intersection of Millwood and Laird.

Hours are Friday March 17 from 10 til 8 and Saturday March 18 and Sunday March 19 from 10 til 6.

Monday, March 13, 2006

To be in a book.

"To be in a book. To slip into the crease where two pages meet. To live in the place where your eyes alight upon the words to ignite a world of smoke and peril, colour and serene delight. That is a journey no one can end with the change of a channel. Enduring magic."

-- from The Way the Crow Flies, by Anne-Marie MacDonald

Essential Toronto Reading...

I found this on Torontoist...

http://readingt.readingcities.com/index.php

It's a list of books based in Toronto. I figured I'd post this, since I know we all love to read books where we recognize the setting. Oh, and BTW- an Austen Clarke book is on there, just to warn you! I thought of commenting, and bad mouthing Clarke for pompousness and banality, but I figure I'd hear it pretty good from Clarke supporters. Meh!

Thursday, March 09, 2006

April's Book choice has been decided...

The pick is Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote (unanimously I think!)

This will be cool; I had no idea B at T's was even written by Truman Capote, and with the Oscar buzz, it makes it even more exciting to be reading it (I know, I know, I'm such a loser!) It will be very interesting to read... I'm gonna try to see Capote before I pick up the book. Knowing a bit about the author always gives the book a bit more depth, I find. Of course, we could always just read about Capote on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truman_capote

We're meeting at Nestor's place... check your email for the address!

Oh, and thanks to Nes for the group email set up- it's a bit confusing, but I think it'll be helpful in the long run.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck


Beer
Originally uploaded by Maria in Toronto.
It was six o'clock and Kevin had the beer. Nestor opened the door for him.
This time, everyone had read the book. It was Cannery Row by John Steinbeck.
reading
I chose the book because I have actually been to Monterey California, and when you go there they always tell you that that's where Steinbeck wrote Cannery Row, I had only read East of Eden and was curious about it.
We always try to have a dinner related to what people eat in the book. They drink lots of beer on Cannery Row and eat cheeseburgers and fried steak. It was a bit difficult to have that, so I made chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes.
nuggets
We did drink beer, though.
maria and beer
We also ate some cake (they eat cake in the book) and drank even more beer.
beer and cake
This time we actually talked about the book and talked just a little bit about sex (unlike other times where the only thing we do is gossip, eat and drink).
Everyone liked the book. I was laughing out loud while reading it on the subway. It's about this group of people, who live in Monterey in between wars. One of them is a scientist. He is very well liked by all his neighbours and they decide to throw a party for him.
The book is surrounded by chapters that seem to be random, but in my opinion they are actually the chapters that make this book a classic. They are about people and about life. Even 60 years after the book has gone, the underlying meaning of it is still valid. It's about community, it's about human beings. It's about everyday living.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

This Is Not A Reading Series... upcoming events.

This Is Not A Reading Series tickets go on sale today... I wouldn't mind checking out Coupland! TINARS is put on by Pages Books & Magazines, the book shop on Queen Street West.

April 20 - Tim Flannery in conversation with Bob MacDonald - $5 (also available through www.theweathermakers.ca)
April 26 - Harvey Pekar, Jessica Abel and Matt Madden hosted by Mark Askwith - $5 (also available at The Beguiling, 601 Markham St)
April 27 - Dr Shirin Ebadi in conversation with Tina Srebotnjak - $5
May 23 - Douglas Coupland: jPod - $5

AND... Jonathan Ames (who is supposedly hilarious) is coming to town for a free event on March 7th at the Gladstone. I think I'm definitely going to try to check this out. It's free, and close to my place. And at the Gladstone! I love that place.