On Oct. 7 I attended the kick-off event for the second annual Read for the Cure fundraising series at Steam Whistle Brewery, and I’m still buzzing from a magical evening. Read for the Cure is a non-profit, volunteer group of Canadian women raising funds for cancer research through campaigns involving books and reading. You can read more about their story here . The fundraising events, which are sponsored by Random House of Canada, raised over $20,000 in 2007! Tickets are just $75, and include the latest book by the three authors participating. Over 300 people came to see last night’s event with three extraordinary authors!

Elizabeth Hay, author of the Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning Late Nights on Air, spoke about her love of reading (lots of stories about War and Peace, her mother, and a chip truck driver!) — she is so eloquent I could have listened to her all night long. Miram Toews (The Flying Troutmans) spoke about the seeds of writing inspiration — well, specifically she told a hilarious story involving a pit bull she befriended in a desolate Mexican town while filming a movie about Mennonites. You really had to be there! And Jan Wong gave the background story behind her latest book, Beijing Confidential; a sad but faith-inducing story about finding a woman she had betrayed during the Cultural Revolution. You could hear a pin drop as her story reached its climax. Through it all, Carolyn Weaver emceed the affair and I am proud to say the evening raised over $20,000 for The Cancer Research Society.

There was another event on October 15th in Oakville where Vincent Lam, Rona Maynard and David Adams Richards took the stage.

I attend a lot of author events, but none are as meaningful as Read for the Cure events where readers — mostly book clubs — gather to celebrate writing and authors, while fundraising.

Being new to Random House I have already been dazzled by the scope of books we produce and the quality of our authors, plus the people I work with have been awesome so I really didn’t think it could get any better. That is until they offered me movie passes. What? Seriously? The only thing I like at vaguely the same level as books is movies, so I eagerly said yes.

Last week I attended a sneak preview of the newest book into movie for Chuck Palahniuk. Choke, originally published in 2002, tells the story of Victor Mancini, a medical-school dropout, is an antihero for our deranged times. Needing to pay elder care for his mother, Victor has devised an ingenious scam: he pretends to choke on pieces of food while dining in upscale restaurants. He then allows himself to be “saved” by fellow patrons who, feeling responsible for Victor’s life, go on to send cheques to support him. When he’s not pulling this stunt, Victor cruises sexual addiction recovery workshops for action, visits his addled mom, and spends his days working at a colonial theme park.

Want to read an excerpt?

It was a fantastic movie and to be honest, like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I thought for sure I would hate Victor but Sam Rockwell did an amazing job at really making me feel sorry for him as well as try and understand the nature of sexual addiction. By far the most touching and dynamic performance was Anjelica Huston. She was superb as both the present day aging mother with dementia and in the flashbacks as a slightly-off, fugitive mother. There was a tangible conflict between Victor and his mother, a first class, love/hate relationship. The supporting cast rounded out the story line quite well and I feel like a number of them although for now are small name actors will have pretty impressive careers ahead of them. Fight Club already has a cult following and after seeing Choke I’m sure it will become another fan favourite. In fact it’s already got me thinking about what they would do for a film version of Chuck’s upcoming book, Pygmy. Hmmmm….