I Sound Like A Broken Record...

Again, I have to admit to not posting much on this blog. Nothing really to admit to, since it's plainly obvious. Could it be that blogging was just a phase, a trend? Maybe for me. I hope I jump back on the wagon, though, since I do like the idea of blogging. It's just getting around to actually doing it that's a problem. There's a huge, seemingly unavoidable, expanse in my mind, between ideas and actions. Like those giant puddles on every street corner in Toronto, after a snowstorm followed by a rise in temperature followed by a rain shower (such weird weather we have). Meh!

Anyways- I'm posting today about Canada Reads! The books have been announced, and I've chosen one for our next book. The Outlander, by Gil Adamson. I read the summaries for each book, and this one seemed the most interesting to me. Plus, it shares a name with one of my all-time favourite books, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I don't think the books will share much else than that, though.

I'm hoping to get through all of the five chosen books for this year's Canada Reads debate. I've never been able to do it before- I've never even gotten close (probably because I haven't really tried). This year, though, will be different. Ha! Luckily, there are a couple lighter reads, mixed in with some of the daunting, heavier ones (literally, and subject-ively speaking).

Oh, if anyone is struggling to think of a gift for me, you can pick me up all five books at a discount from CBC... just thought I'd throw that out there! LOL!

If Only... IFOA... International Festival of Authors

I say "if only..." because I know I won't end up going to any of these readings. And, of course, I think saying the acronym out loud is kinda funny. LOL. It's a great festival though, and I thought it would be worth a post on here...

The 29th Annual International Festival of Authors runs from October 22nd to November 1st, and features readings, interviews, lectures, round table discussions and book signings with the most popular Canadian and world literature writers. It all goes down at the Harbourfront Centre.

Some of the authors we've read in our book club will be making an appearance, like David Bergen, Joseph Boyden, Austin Clarke (our fave! lol), Paul Quarrington, and David Adams Richards. Other authors I'd like to see include Farley Mowat, Roddy Doyle, Rohinton Mistry, Nino Ricci, and M.G. Vassanji.

I'd actually be interested in going to see Farley Mowat on November 1st (it's $15). Anyone wanna join me?

The Booker Prize has been announced

This is the text of the article on BBC News:

Aravind Adiga has won this year's Man Booker Prize with his debut novel The White Tiger.
The 33-year-old Indian-born writer was also the youngest author on the shortlist for the £50,000 prize. He wrote "the kind of book I'd like to read", he told the BBC. "I like books that have ideas in them and that move and entertain."

The chairman of the judges, former politician Michael Portillo, said: "In many ways it was the perfect novel." Adiga beat favourite Sebastian Barry to take the accolade as well as the other contenders, Amitav Ghosh, Steve Toltz, Linda Grant and Philip Hensher.

The White Tiger, a tale of two Indias, tells the story of Balram, the son of a rickshaw puller in the heartlands, one of the "faceless" poor left behind by the country's recent economic boom. It charts his journey from working in a teashop to entrepreneurial success.

"Making it to the shortlist on a first novel is sort of like winning and anything beyond that is quite a bonus," Adiga said. He said the book was set in today's India and "revolves around the great divide between those Indians who have made it and those who have not". "At the heart of the book it is something existential," he added. "It's a quest to break out of the circumstances you find yourself in - it's a quest for freedom."

'Perfect novel'

Announcing the winner at a ceremony in London, Mr Portillo said: "My criteria were 'Does it knock my socks off?' and this one did ... the others impressed me ... this one knocked my socks off." Mr Portillo said what set the book apart was its originality in showing "the dark side of India". He said: "The novel is in many ways perfect. It is quite difficult to find any structural flaws with it."

There were more than two contenders for the prize on the shortlist, but the winner was "absolutely not a compromise", Mr Portillo added. "There really was a decision. The judges were asked to express their satisfaction and they all did."

Adiga is the fourth first-time novelist to win the prize. Previous debut winners were Keri Hulme's The Bone People in 1985; Arundhati Roy in 1997 for God of Small Things; and Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre in 2003. Adiga is a former correspondent for Time magazine and has written for the Independent and the Sunday Times. The win means he can expect an upturn in sales and added recognition.

'Exciting winner'

According to Amazon.co.uk, the six books enjoyed average sales rises of 700% following the announcement of the shortlist last month. Booksellers Foyles said it was a "very exciting winner for bookshops" adding it could prove as popular as The Life of Pi, the Booker’s best-selling winner.

The five other shortlisted authors can also expect a rise in sales. Adiga, who had been given odds of 7/1 to win before the ceremony, dedicated the award to "the people of New Delhi". Irish writer Barry had been tipped to take the prize at 7/4 by bookmakers William Hill. The bookmakers' favourite has not won since Yann Martel in 2002.

Of the six authors in contention for this year's Man Booker, only Barry had ever been shortlisted in the past - in 2005 for A Long Long Way. Grant and Hensher had both previously been longlisted.

The award, which honours the best fiction written in English by an author from the UK, Ireland or the Commonwealth, was handed out at the Guildhall in London on Tuesday.

Review of Blasted, by Kate Story

So I finished Blasted by Kate Story.


I think this book is a simple, classic example of Magic Realism, where weird or magical things happen in a "normal" setting. Ruby currently lives in Toronto, but spent her childhood in Newfoundland. The story goes from present-day Toronto to the St. John's of the early eighties or so. I cannot say much about the description of St. John's, but the current Toronto is described from the perspective of someone who lives there (I like this type of narrative, it's what got me hooked on British chick-lit, because it described London as I knew it).

In the beginning I was enjoying the setup and the descriptions of the places, though I thought that the language could have been funnier or lighter to describe some of the situations. As the story progresses, stranger and stranger things start to happen. I found these interesting in the beginning, but after a while I just got frustrated thinking "ok, I understand, get on with the story". As the story went on, the main character, Ruby, reminded me more and more of the brat girl in Elise Levine's Requests and Dedications, and I started to get annoyed.

The book is enjoyable and, as I say, I loved the description of the places. The magic realism elements were fun as well, and probably well-researched (this I have to assume, since I know nothing about Newfoundland mythology and superstitions). But I believe the situations were kept going for a bit too long. I just got annoyed by the book and by the main character. It could have ended 100 pages earlier, I believe.

New Look

So, I decided to waste some time at work today, and I picked a new design for the site. The links on the old site were just really hard to read... and I couldn't figure out how to fix it. So, I started from scratch! It's cleaner, brighter, and there's a couple of new features... a slide show of all the pics on Flickr with the tag "[werking title]", and a literary quote of the day gadget. And oh, there's an Indigo search tool near the bottom, there. Fluff, really, but neat fluff!

I hope you guys like it. :)

Discussion Questions for Acsension

Because I had trouble finding some discussion questions online and had to make some up, I figured I'd post them on here for anyone else looking! These were prompted from a couple reviews I read about the book. Here goes...

1. The strength of this novel is the author's ability to sustain tension. In a number of scenes on the high wire, the author has a remarkable ability to involve the reader in the action, although some of the descriptions of circus tricks are difficult to picture. Do you agree?

2. Galloway offers an excellent description of the horrendous 1945 big-top fire in Boise, Idaho, in which 112 people died, bringing the age of large tent circuses to an end. Did the facts seem to over shadow the story? Did the insertion of this factual event seem natural to the story?

3. The book is also riddled with gypsy tales that have the feel of genuine folk stories straight from the forests of Eastern Europe. Even though we meet the many people who have inhabited Salvo's world, including the extended Fisher-Fielding family, which is in constant struggle over control of the circus, it is his loneliness on the high wire that we feel most keenly. Do you agree? Do you feel the Rom tales help or hinder the flow of the story?

4. How their story is told is more notable than the story itself… do you agree? There should be some dramatic tension, but this is denied. Was this on purpose? It might be argued that by using familiar expressions and simple sentences Galloway is placing Ascension on the level of folklore, fitting his literary effort in with the novel's interspersed Romany tales. I wonder if Galloway’s other novels are similarly drab?

5. Many promising symbols and thematic threads—bears, fire, adoption and belonging—are introduced then left unexplored. Some make sense if you puzzle them out, but are emotionally unsatisfying. What do these symbols mean? When his characters die, we don't grieve. When they mourn, we don't mourn with them. What do you think Galloway could’ve done differently, to portray his character's emotions more engagingly?

And here's a link to a great interview I found with Galloway, from 2004:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/bwriting/stories/s1182874.htm
(you'll have to scroll down a bit to get to the Galloway part)

Comfort Food, by Kate Jacobs

This is not a very book-cluby type of book, but I wanted to write about it anyway.

When I first heard of this book, I thought it was a cooking book, because of the title. But it is a novel, by the same author of The Friday Night Knitting Club. I didn't have a chance to read that book but some of my knitting friends said it was good, so I was glad to have the opportunity to read her next novel.

It is the story of Gus Simpson, the most famous cooking celebrity in the Food Channel. Gus is going through some changes in life and is forced to evaluate who she is and what she has done so far with her life, including her family and her professional life.

It is nice and agreeable read. Jacobs's style is best-selling type, easy to read and entertaining to follow. It has a lot of pop-cultural references and I wonder if she based any of her characters on real people, not that I would know who they are, but sometimes insiders recognize someone they know in this type of books.
The book has really good character development and an easy to follow story. It is in the chick-lit style but I believe it appeals to a wider demographic, from mothers and grandmothers to young women.
I have to confess that I developed a fondness for the characters and I even shed a couple of tears when I was reading their story. I read the whole book in less than a week and I kept looking forward to reading, I wanted to know what would happen to these people.

I recommend this book as an easy, agreeable read, again, not the book club type.
Also, although it talks a lot about food (and a lot about Spanish food, which I looooooove!!) it has no recipes.
Kate Jacobs has a website and a blog.

Keep Toronto Reading and Redhill's Consolation

Hey guys! There are tonnes of book events happening this week, mostly to do with this year's Keep Toronto Reading Program, which continues until the end of the month. I'm gonna try my damndest to get to one of the Consolation events... I'd really like to go to the events focused on the history of Toronto. Anyway... here's a link to the events listing:

http://www.blogto.com/books_lit/2008/02/bookmark_this_february_5th_to_february_11th_2008

This Week's Literary Events...

Summarized. Here's a link!

http://www.blogto.com/books_lit/2008/01/bookmark_this_january_22nd_28th_2008/

New Flickr Group

I don't know why I didn't do this earlier!

I've created a group on Flickr for any photos taken at our meetings, or just any photos you'd like to share between us. Here's a link to the group:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/werkingtitle/

I've added photos from the weddings, Tequila Bookworm, WOTS, etc.

Hey You Guys!!!

We're meeting tomorrow! At Rustico Pizza... mmm... Pizza. Which reminds me. I should review the book right now. And oh! Here's a link to this weeks book events:

Bookmark This! January 15th - 21st, 2008

It's Been A While

Holy smokes! Has it ever! Well, I might as well start off with a link to this week's literary events...

Bookmark This! January 8th - 14th, 2008

I'm gonna make a true effort to keep this updated on a regular basis. We'll see how that works. LOL