BookLounge.ca | Insiders' Blog

Rhythm and Blues launchstravaganza!

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:52:46 -0800

Signing a book for dance buddy Jane, at Babar en Ville

WHOOSH! That sound you just heard? That was February rushing by. And the thump? That's me, landing on my butt in March, thinking "did that just happen? Did I just do that?"
Do what, exactly? Everything. Seriously:

1- Launch Rhythm and Blues (a teen comedy of ambition, identity and Auto-Tune!) with my favourite Montreal writer friends, at Babar en Ville.

Reading and mingling with guests, including authors P.J. Bracegirdle, Monique Polack and J.L. Scharf, and illustrators Susan Mitchell and Suana Verelst.

2- Keep the party going all month with SweatFest, with my dancing buds at Studio Sweatshop, where we all did twenty eight street dance classes in twenty eight days.

3- Finish a whole manuscript draft for a future project of unknowable fabulousness.

4- 4- Read 5 ½ books, including C.K. Kelly Martin's I Know It's Over, Dave Eggers' Zeitoun, Chris Cleave's Little Bee and Gayla Trail's Grow Great Grub.

5- Do fun authory things like go to writers union workshops, and speak on a panel for Yes Oui CANSCAIP, to help other writers figure out how to get their books out there.

The Babar en Ville party was warm, and fun, with lots of food. I got up and did a reading, and there was plenty of time to chat with new friends and old, and sign a few books!

At the end of SweatFest, there was a prize draw, and two intrepid SweatFesters, Janice and Julio, won copies of Rhythm and Blues, and Break on Through.

SweatFest Winner, Janice

And here's a hot tip: February is over, but the winning is not! If you're in Montreal, and want to pick up a copy of Rhythm and Blues or my first book, Break on Through if you go to Babar en Ville between now and March 17th, you still have time to enter our contest to score dance classes and Reebok, shoes!

Henning Mankell: A Master Storyteller

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:12:24 -0800

This past weekend Swedish author Henning Mankell made a rare Canadian appearance at the Toronto Reference Library's Bram and Bluma Appel Salon. There were nearly 400 people in attendance, which was pretty amazing considering the beautiful weather. I think Mankell's draw is a testament to his amazing storytelling. After an introduction by the CBC's Michael Enright, Henning Mankell took the stage for a rather honest interview in which he shared with us many stories from his life, including his personal philosophy that he should do two things everyday - learn something new, and have a good laugh. Here are some of the things I learned that day: 1) Mankell has been involved with the Memory Book Project in Uganda. For him, this project is especially important due to the extremely high death rate in Africa. Malaria and AIDS kill thousands annually and many children never know their parents. However, illiteracy is just as rampant, making the creation of a memory book difficult. He told us a heartbreaking story about a young girl who had hovered on the periphery of the group Mankell was working with. Eventually, she came closer and held out her memory book for him to see. Inside was a blue butterfly. "My mother liked blue butterflies." She told him. That was her only connection to her mother. Mankell said it was the best book he had ever read. 2) Kennedy's Brain has been filmed and will be released in Europe this Spring. Click here to watch the trailer. 3) Mankell is working on a new Wallander novel after almost 10 years! It will be the last one in the Wallander series. We should see it next year in Canada. 4) Mankell writes every day. Once, while in Stockholm, he had to stay in a place with no lights or furniture. To get in his daily writing, he opened the oven, turned on the oven light, and set up his typewriter. That is dedication! 5) He also reads 2-3 books per week. Want to watch the interview? The Toronto Public Library will post the interview here next week.

For the Love of Book: The Parabolist

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 09:23:25 -0800

In one of the stranger moments in my publishing career, a few weeks ago I found myself in a morgue with one of my authors. Fortunately, neither of us was performing an autopsy. Fortunately, neither of us was dead. In Nicholas Ruddock's brilliant debut novel, The Parabolist, a group of earnest young med students in the seventies dissects a body--through skin, tendon, flesh and bone they slice, as layer by layer, they unravel the mystery of a murder and the truth about their own lives. So, when it came time to drum up some promotional ideas, Nick, a family physician and an incredible writer (yes, some people have way too much talent), thought it might be neat to shoot a short video in a morgue. I had to agree: that did sound neat. So that's what we did. I didn't think much more about this--about the reality of this--until we actually arrived at the site. We were escorted through fluorescent hospital halls to those ominous stainless steel doors, and then it suddenly set in with a shock: this was not a movie set. Our plans were delayed because there was an actual autopsy in progress. We returned a few hours later to learn that the "job" had been completed, and that "the crew" had cleaned up the morgue. We were ready to enter. As we walked in, I couldn't help but notice the small details: the chemical smell of disinfectant in the air, the line of rubber boots along a wall, the clipboard that read: "Processed Limb: For Disposal" ... and in the centre of the room, that cold metal table, where a short time before, a person had been unravelled--skin, tendon, flesh, bone. Here's the thing: those are my toes in the video. I had volunteered to be the body in our shoot, proving that I will do just about anything for the love of book. I soon found myself lying on that freezing table with a white sheet draped over me, toes exposed and tagged. I'll admit it: my heart was racing, and I was feeling more than a little spooked, but as we progressed, I started to relax into the role. I mean, how many times in my life would I get to play dead? Fortunately for me, Nick's a great reader and a lot of fun. The shoot was fast-paced; Nick's gallows humour quelled my jitters; and my resurrection came mercifully quickly. As the shoot rounded to a close, we needed just one more shot. Nick asked the videographer, "Where do you want me this time?" I knew the answer, and I couldn't help myself. "Over my dead body," I said.

Book launch for The Sea Captain's Wife by Beth Powning

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 06:41:34 -0800

On the evening of January 15, 2010, the Sussex Royal Legion in Sussex, New Brunswick, was transformed into an 1860s sailing ship for the launching of my new novel, The Sea Captain's Wife.

Angelika Glover, my editor at Knopf Canada, came from Toronto. I had obtained a costume for her from Kings Landing Historical Settlement. We helped each other into vast crinolines, long dresses, detachable sleeves. In our 1870s house, I was struck by the sight of Angelika as she stood in the hallway adjusting her collar in the mirror. And then again as I saw her coming through the back door into the winter dusk, and as she and I rustled our long skirts over the snow in the deep country quiet. This is what literature is about, I thought; the thrill of entering another time, another world.

Perhaps it was this feeling that gripped every visitor to the Legion that night. People were greeted by high school students in costume, a six-foot-tall lighthouse, the sound of a fog horn and a cloud of fog. The room's lighting was low, with pools of light illuminating photos and paintings of nineteenth century sailing ships and shipyards, and tables covered with objects gleaned from attics, or on loan from museums: ship's logs, sextants, tools, even a captain's sea chest. The Sea Captain's Wife spilled from a leather trunk on the Indigo table; the manager and her assistant had travelled an hour from Saint John. There was the swish of long skirts, the half-giddy pleasure of women dressed in period costume. One woman wore a wedding dress from the 1840s. My son was resplendent in a brown beaver top hat and silk ruffled vest. A pirate appeared wearing a hoop earring and eye patch. The room smelled of chowder that simmered on the kitchen's big stoves, attended by many volunteer cooks. Hundreds of biscuits were baked. A sea shanty group, "Before the Mast," sat in a boat at the front of the room next to the stage - and the stage itself was a ship's prow, with a life-sized figurehead made for the occasion, a huge canvas jib hung from a spar, and a ship's wheel.

At seven o'clock, people began pouring in. They came and came. People reported that three adjacent parking lots were filled and that a line stretched far down the snowy sidewalk. The sea shanty group began to sing as the chairs filled and people jostled for space along walls. My neighbour and friend Kevin, dressed in a period captain's outfit, was the emcee. I was introduced by the event's organizer, Patricia, the high school librarian who had worked tirelessly, serving as the hub of a wheel of about 25 volunteers. As I read, I experienced the palpable energy of 500 utterly silent people. Afterwards, I thanked people in the crowd who had helped with the book in diverse ways: the veterinarian who told me how horses were disposed of in the 1860s, the doctor who had researched nineteenth century medicine. The sea shanty group sang again. People milled about, chatting with the women who had made the chowder, swapping yarns at the artifact tables, buying beer at the Legion bar, meeting old friends.

And they waited patiently in line to buy books. I signed and signed, for two hours. One man said to me, "I heard about this event on CBC. I told my wife we were going to go to it. 'Harry, you don't read!' she said. 'I'm going to read THIS book, I told her.'" To my astonishment, a couple told me they had come from Nova Scotia. And others from Fredericton, Saint John, Sackville.

It was a success beyond the wildest expectations of SLICE, Sussex Literary Initiatives and Cultural Events. We will all be talking about it in years to come, a warm, vibrant outpouring of community pride and support - just as we still tell tales of the Age of Sail.

HBO's Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures Preview

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:42:54 -0800

Last week I had the special privilege of attending a "sneak peak" screening party in honour of the television adaptation of Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam. The event was hosted at Toronto East General Hospital, where Dr. Lam works in the ER, making the entire evening a unique and memorable experience! We started off in the TEGH's new Emergency Ward, which has not yet been used by patients. The crowd attire ran the gamut from suits to scrubs, as Dr. Lam's colleagues, friends, booksellers, media, hospital board members and donors enjoyed a tour of the new space with wine in hand. After a warm welcome from Dr. Lam (at the hospital they call him Vince!) we headed upstairs to the E2 Lecture Hall, a lovely space for a screening. The Neal Brothers provided us with delicious popcorn and seventy-five of us laughed, gasped and sat on the edges of our seats as the first in the HBO Canada original eight-part series played. Shawn Ashmore, perhaps better known to most of us as Ice Man from X-Men, was outstanding as Fitz and drew all of us in as the flashbacks to his romantic affair with Ming and the love triangle with Chen unfolded. Everyone had their copies of Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures signed by Vincent Lam at the end of the night, and many shared how eager they are to revisit this outstanding collection of stories and share with new readers! Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures airs on HBO Canada Sunday nights at 8 pm. Visit www.bloodletting.tv for episode guides, bonus features and more.

McNally Robinson a Great Supporter of Canadian Authors

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:04:56 -0800

McNally Robinson is one of Canada's finest independent bookstores and all of us at Random House are saddened to hear of their difficulties. McNally Robinson is well known for its extensive events program and has always been a great supporter of Canadian authors. We are confident their two stores will remain cornerstones of their communities and we hope for the chain's swift recovery.

Bonnie Stern Goes Julialicious!

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:37:19 -0800

Have you ever taken a cooking class? It's something that I would totally love to do some day - when I'm not working, reading, chasing a toddler, etc.

My super brilliant colleague Sheila Kay dropped off Bonnie Stern's School of Cooking brochure for Winter 2010 this morning, and what to our wondering eyes should appear? A Winterlicious - Julialicious class! We thought this was so fun:

If you loved the film Julie & Julia, you must have been inspired to head right home, don your pearls and prepare Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon. After taking this delicious class, you'll be ready to do just that, as well as create other dishes for which Julia was famous. Take home gifts include a copy of Julia Child's memoir My Life in France and a pound of Gay Lea butter. Instructor: Bonnie Stern Dates & Times: Thurs, Feb 4/10, 6:30pm to 9pm Or Sat, Feb 6/10, 11:30am to 2pm Or Mon, Feb 8/10, 6:30pm to 9pm Fee: $99

Visit BonnieStern.com for more details, and bon appétit!

Canada Reads 2010 Round-Up

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:12:17 -0800

On Tuesday, December 1, 2009 Jian Ghomeshi announced the 5 books and their defenders for Canada Reads 2010. Congratulations to Ann-Marie MacDonald, Nicolas Dickner, Douglas Coupland and Wayson Choy! (And Marina Endicott, who rounds out the list)

We don't want you to miss any of the action. Here is a round-up of links to CBC's Canada Reads content:

Read The Canada Reads Blog and the CBC Book Club which is all about Canada Reads this month!
You can find the CBC Book Club on Twitter too, @cbcbookclub. More twitter coverage can be found by searching #canadareads.
Canada Reads also has a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#/pages/Canada-Reads/37300206075
Learn more about the panelists defending our books.
And finally, be sure to enter the CBC's weekly Canada Reads Contests

But of course, you want to know more about the books and authors being defended this year. Check out these links for interviews, excerpts and more.

Ann-Marie MacDonald
Photo © Gabor Jurina

About the Author

Interview #1

Interview #2

Canada Reads selection: Fall on Your Knees

Excerpt | Reader's Guide

Attention Bloggers! You can include this widget for Fall on Your Knees in your Canada Reads post. Just copy and paste this code:

Also by Ann-Marie MacDonald
The Way The Crow Flies Excerpt | Reader's Guide
Her Plays, Belle Moral and Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Nicolas Dickner
Photo © Antoine Tanguay

About the Author

Video Interview

Canada Reads Selection: Nikolski

Excerpt | Reader's Guide

Attention Bloggers! You can include this widget for Nikolski in your Canada Reads post. Just copy and paste this code:

Douglas Coupland
Photo © D.J. Weir

About the Author

Author Interview

Douglas Coupland's Youtube Channel

Douglas Coupland's latest book, Generation A is a kind of response/rethinking of Canada Reads selection, Generation X. It explores new ways of looking at the act of reading and storytelling in a digital world. Click here to read an excerpt

Also by Douglas Coupland
The Gum Thief
JPod
Eleanor Rigby
Hey Nostradamus!
All Families are Psychotic
Miss Wyoming

Wayson Choy
Photo © Robert Mills

About the Author

Audio Interview

In 2001, six years after publishing The Jade Peony, Wayson Choy suffered a combined asthma-heart attack. When his heart failed him a second time, four years later, it was the strength of his bonds with the people in his life, forged through countless acts of kindness, that pulled Choy back to his life. Framed by Wayson Choy's two brushes with death, Not Yet is an intimate and insightful study of one man's reasons for living.
Read from Wayson Choy's memoir Not Yet.

Also by Wayson Choy
All That Matters - Excerpt | Reader's Guide

The Eclectic Reading Club

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:45:40 -0800

Last Thursday, I was invited to read from my memoir Edge Seasons at The Eclectic Reading Club. It is a private club, whose evenings are black-tie events. I wore my little black dress and grey silk scarf. Peter had the usual struggle with his bow tie. It was a foggy November night, and we drove cautiously down the highway to the Rothesay exit, where we convoyed with the woman who had invited us. Through the fog we went, beneath tall trees, over a leaf-softened lane. An enormous house loomed from the mist, light shafting from windows, men in tuxedos and women in evening dress crossing the porch. The scene was not that different from the way it must have been in 1870, when the club was formed in Saint John by a group of people who decided to dress up and entertain each other. Every particular of the evening has been maintained with scrupulous care, from dress code to refreshments to the evening's unvarying format. Although the house was new, the two adjoining living rooms had the look of a Victorian parlour, with rows of chairs, a standing lamp with shade, and an old desk in what was the "stage" area. The recording secretary sat at the desk, pen in hand. Seats were taken with rustlings of silk. Minutes from the last meeting were read with spirited humour. Then the evening began, exactly as if we'd been transported to a damp, lamplit evening one hundred and forty years ago. The evening is always planned by one person, who decides on a theme, chooses readings to illustrate it, and asks members to read or perform ("eclectic" being paramount). The event began with an introduction by Carole, the evening's planner, consisting of a history of the season and its pagan underpinnings. In this first twenty minute segment, four people rose and stood beside the lamp, reading aloud. We heard an early Dickens Christmas story, Robert Louis Stevenson's "Christmas at Sea," a Maigret story, and Hugh Oliver's "The Christmas Gift." A break for drinks. We milled and circulated, carrying glasses of wine. The second twenty minute segment commenced with a stir. Four tuxedoed mummers wearing masks, capes, and wigs burst into the room - St. George, the dragon, a doctor and a narrator. The dragon was stabbed, and expired before our eyes with a flowering of blood caused by the extravagant flailing of a scarlet chiffon scarf. Once the shrieks of laughter had eddied to a pause, with occasional eruptions of half-stifled giggles (mine among them), I took my turn by the lamp and read my piece, "Christmas Rites," to an attentive, refocused audience. Another break for drinks. Peter's cough was quelled with Scotch. In the last segment, we were treated to Dylan Thomas himself - lilting and rollicking his way through "A Child's Christmas in Wales." And then, led by a strong soprano voice, a lusty group singing of "The Holly and the Ivy." The evening ended with plates of sandwiches and hot chocolate with whipped cream dense as Devon clotted cream. Loose and jolly, transported to another time and in a holiday mood despite the mild weather, we took our leave. I loved every minute, and I hope we're asked back someday.

On the Event Trail

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:54:51 -0800

In my work in national accounts marketing, I help organize and attend tons of author events - especially at this time of year. I was thrilled to finally meet tennis great Andre Agassi who was in town last week promoting his new book Open. I have been raving about him since the summer, and now you can see what I was prattling on about.
Also a lot of fun to meet, and proudly Canadian, was Paul Shaffer who was in Toronto to promote his book We'll be Here for the Rest of Our Lives. I loved all the musical connections this man possesses and he shared his newfound knowledge with anyone at the office who would listen.
I had the pleasure of being in Ottawa with Anne Murray earlier this week for her last event as part of her book tour in the Nation's Capital and the place I call home. Over six hundred people came out to show their love for Canada's first lady of song. She signed copies of her autobiography, All Of Me, and took pictures.
You'd never guess it was the last event of a fifteen city tour! That woman has more energy than I do! From the event trail, Jennifer

Catherine Banner has Eyes for Toronto

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:43:27 -0800

Before it got light on the 24th of September, I was already awake to finishing my packing and set off for Toronto. My second book, Voices in the Dark, has just come out in Canada. Doubleday Canada were the first publishers to sign my books, four years ago when I had just finished The Eyes of a King, and I was looking forward to finally meeting some of the people who have been working on the trilogy since then. It was also an exciting trip as I hadn't taken many flights before - I'd only travelled within Europe, and there was usually a greener way of going the few hundred miles, but this time it was too far to go by train!

The flight went quickly, and we landed in Canada while it was still light, which was confusing as by the time I reached the hotel it was already nearly midnight back at home. My first impressions were of the towering buildings, the wide roads, the beautiful lake, which looked more like the sea - everything was on a bigger scale than the UK. I've hardly seen any skyscrapers in London; in Toronto they were everywhere.

I had half an hour to get ready before the tour officially started, so I had a quick cup of tea then went downstairs to meet Nicola from Doubleday, who was organising the trip, and my editor, Amy. The tour was planned out very carefully, as I only had two days in Canada. First there was a dinner, then early in the morning we would be setting off to meet staff at ten different bookstores. I had a really good evening talking to everyone, then headed back to the hotel to get some sleep after nearly 24 hours!

I set off at eight the next morning, with Nicola and Mike from Doubleday, and several boxes of books, in Mike's red Jeep. The plan was to travel around Mississauga and Toronto to visit bookstores, meet staff and sign copies. Some of the highlights of the day were...

Talking to Chapters and Indigo staff - lots of them had read The Eyes of a King, so it was exciting to hear their impressions of the book. I also got to find out about what their side of the book trade involved - everything from advising a fan of fantasy, drama or graphic novels on what to read next to organising young adult book clubs.

Seeing the teen fiction sections in the bookstores; in the UK they tend to be much smaller. It was also a big moment to see my own books on the shelves, as I don't usually go and look at them when I'm in a bookstore back at home.

Talking to library staff over lunch about our favourite books - we'd read a lot of the same ones.

Finding out how much the staff have to read, in order to choose the books for the independent stores. I had tea with staff at the Flying Dragon Bookshop and they told me that most of the books there have been read and selected personally. I study English at university and sometimes have to read two 400-page novels in a week, but in comparison that looked quite simple.

After visiting the last bookstore, I said goodbye to Taylor and headed back to the hotel. There was just time to walk around Toronto the next morning before going back to the airport. On the plane journey home I tried to remember everything that had happened on the trip. During the two days I had travelled over six thousand miles, signed hundreds of books and met more than fifty new people. That was what remained most clearly - they were all interesting, friendly and very passionate about books and stories. And I liked the thought of the copies that I'd signed remaining with readers in Canada, as a kind of link between the two.

Scream-Worthy Thrillers & Supernatural Page-Turners

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:02:30 -0800

Reading by moonlight while waiting for The Great Pumpkin? Face your fears this Halloween with a bestseller (and a bag of chocolate!).

If you fear... a missing child:
Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay

Seventeen-year-old Sydney Blake's summer is shaping up to be typical for a teenager: she's spending it with her father, and she has landed a part-time job at a local hotel. One night, Syd fails to come home from her shift, and her father Tim is a bit alarmed. However, that alarm turns to full-on panic after he visits the Just Inn Time hotel and the manager claims that Syd has never worked there... more

If you fear... a pack of werewolves:
Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong

New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong returns with the tenth installment of the Women of the Otherworld series.

The Alaskan wilderness is a harsh landscape in the best of conditions, but with a pack of rogue werewolves on the loose, it's downright deadly. Elena Michaels, the Pack's chief enforcer, knows all too well the havoc "mutts" can wreak. When they hear of a series of gruesome maulings and murders outside Anchorage, she and her husband, Clay, journey to Alaska in the dead of winter in order to hunt down the dangerous werewolves... more

If you fear... a body under water:
The Taken by Inger Ash Wolfe

In the second mystery novel featuring D.I. Hazel Micallef (after The Calling) is still recovering from back surgery when a report comes in that a body has been found in a nearby lake, snagged under several feet of water. But as D.C. Wingate says, the whole thing is way too eerie. The first installment of a story has just been published in the local paper: a passage that describes in detail just such a discovery. Real life is far too close to fiction for coincidence... more

If you fear... an arranged murder:
Breathless by Dean Koontz

In the stillness of a golden September afternoon, deep in the wilderness of the Rockies, a solitary craftsman, Grady Adams, and his magnificent Irish wolfhound Merlin step from shadow into light...and into an encounter with enchantment. That night, through the trees, under the moon, a pair of singular animals will watch Grady's isolated home, waiting to make their approach... more

If you fear... a ghost story:
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Another brilliant, original and moving novel from the author of The Time Traveler's Wife.

Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers - normal, at least, for identical "mirror" twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cozy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn't know existed has died and left them her amazing flat in a building by Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin... more

Discover your next great (spooky) read at BookLounge.ca.

A toast to Anne Collins and some wonderful authors....

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:08:39 -0800

It isn't everyday that we crack the champagne before noon, but this morning, the Knopf Random Canada (KRC) group had two wonderful reasons to celebrate. Two books had made the Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist - that's the Holy Grail of Canadian publishing - and both were edited by Anne Collins, doyenne of Random House Canada. So, KRC's executive publisher Louise Dennys gave a heartfelt toast for Annabel Lyon's wonderful novel The Golden Mean - check out that cover, kids - and the brilliant The Bishop's Man by Linden MacIntyre. It all started in a room at the glamourous Four Seasons, where the assembled group of nervous editors and publishers quaffed orange juice squeezed from real oranges and fair-trade coffee. Then, Jack Rabinovich took the podium to introduce the jurors. This very generous man sponsors the award in memory of his late wife Doris. This year, the jury was comprised of the elegant Victoria Glendinning from England, the handsome Russell Banks from the US, and Alistair Macleod, who couldn't be there. And then Victoria started to read the nominees - this is always an interesting exercise, because the names are read alphabetically, and everybody in the room began to clock which books had been left off as the list was announced. When Kim Echlin's wonderful novel The Disappeared (published by Penguin Books) was announced as the first nominee, people were shocked to realize that Margaret Atwood's splendid The Year of the Flood hadn't made the shortlist... As well as Annabel and Linden and Echlin's books, also shortlisted were Colin McAdam's Fall and Anne Michael's The Winter Vault. Well, back to work - hoping to find the Giller nominees of years to come - and then to turn our attention to the announcement of the Man Booker Prize this evening in London. KRC has two books on the shortlist....

Mysteries & the Movies

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:37:31 -0800

Some of the greatest movies ever made have been inspired by mystery and crime novels. One has only to think of Howard Hawks’ adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, John Huston’s take on Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon or Billy Wilder’s rendition of James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity. And I’ll include Carol Reed’s The Third Man in this list, even if Graham Greene’s novella was published after the movie came out (he was writing the screenplay at the same time). In honour of TIFF, here are some lesser known and foreign films worth checking out (almost all are available on DVD). If you like film noir, then rent 1948’s The Big Clock, directed by John Farrow, based on the novel by Kenneth Fearing in which our main character is ordered to find the main suspect in a murder case – which turns out to be himself. Or from the great German director Fritz Lang, there is 1941’s Man Hunt based on the novel Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household in which a man accused of an attempted assassination on Hitler is hunted down by the Germans in a dark and foggy London. Many French directors have played homage to American noir and a favourite is Francois Truffault’s Shoot the Piano Player based on the novel by David Goodis. It’s a stylish spoof on the gangster movie with a great performance from crooner Charles Aznavour. The French are also great at adapting thrillers. There’s a terrific cast including Kristin Scott Thomas, in Guillame Canet’s adaptation of Harlan Coben’s Tell No One (look for the author to make a tiny cameo in the film). And if you liked Antony Minghella’s version of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, then you must watch René Clément’s 1960 version Plein Soleil (Purple Noon is the English title), starring Alain Delon and Maurice Ronet. This more closely follows the book and answers the question of what Minghella’s movie might have looked like if Jude Law had played Ripley instead of Matt Damon. Cult favourite Jim Thompson has had many of his novels adapted, but Coup de Torchon, directed by Bertrand Tavernier, and based on the novel Pop. 1280 , takes a small town American sheriff and transports him to French West Africa. And finally for the more traditional mystery reader, see what happens when famed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar takes on Ruth Rendell’s Live Flesh, in his 1997 movie Carne Trémula, or when Iceland’s Baltasar Kormákur films his country’s most famous moody detective, Erlendur in Jar City, based on the novel by Arnaldur Indridason. This is currently only available on DVD in the U.K. so you’ll need a multi-region player but fingers crossed it releases soon in North America. Oh! Watch for Michael Winterbottom's adaptation of The Killer Inside Me coming out next year. Click here for a list of other great books that have been made into movies.

No Adults Allowed: The Making of a Teen Reading Community

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:54:22 -0800

Teenagers - they are all over the internet, but as anyone in digital marketing can tell you, connecting with them is harder than it sounds! And with so many great Young Adult books, the question of how to reach this audience is posed often. We needed an answer - and when we couldn't find one out there, we decided to build our own. After all, "If you build it, [they] will come." Channeling Ray Kinsella, we set out to create an digital destination for Canadian teen readers. First, this project needed a name. Something bookish, but catchy. A neologism! They are all the rage these days, right? How about... Bookurious [book-yoor-ee-uhs] 1. - noun. A network for teens who exhibit a curiousity for books and reading. 2. - adj. To be drawn to books; the desire to read almost anything. Yes. That's it. Bookurious kinda rolls off the tongue, don't you think? What about an image? Something that conveys the wonders of reading... Very nice. Now, all we had left to do was give Canadian teen readers the kind of content they would want from a teen book site. Wait... what would teens want from Bookurious.com? To answer this question, we went right to the source - a team of teen readers. We pulled together the Bookurious Insiders Team by calling on friends and family members of the right age who were self-professed bookworms. We brainstormed, they voted; letting us know what's hot and what's not. With the help of our Insiders Team, we spent the summer putting together a brand new social network exclusively for teens (13-17 years old) to discuss books and authors, learn about upcoming events & news, and be part of a community of young Canadian readers. We are very excited to announce that www.bookurious.com is now live and growing. Ok, so as an adult you can't join (Sorry, that's the rule!), but you can help spread the word to book-loving teens in your life! Send them to www.bookurious.com or become a fan on Facebook.