After pounding out numerous manuscripts over several years, I finally had one of my many stories published in an anthology, Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead, and joined several other Canadian authors at the launch at the World Horror Convention in Brighton UK in March of this year. In my spare time I have been involved with a writer's workshop, a national book contest, and a few genre book reviews. I have managed to do some reading though.
Categories: Reviews, Discussions, Authors, Horror
Dora Dueck is the author of the novel Under the Still Standing Sun and co-editor of Northern Lights: An Anthology of Contemporary Christian Writing in Canada. Join us at McNally Robinson Grant Park on Wednesday May 19, 2010 at 8:00 pm to celebrate the launch of her new book This Hidden Thing.
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On my night table are two books of historical fiction. Denise Giardina's Emily's Ghost (W.W. Norton, 2009) is a novel of the Bronte sisters, especially the brilliant and unconventional Emily. Giardina postulates a love story involving her and the curate William Weightman, champion of mill workers and labour rights. What this book has done is send me back to Wuthering Heights, which I first read in my youth and whose power I remember but whose details I've forgotten.
Categories: Reviews, buzz, Authors
Manitoba-based Karin Adams is the author of Lights! Curtains! Cows! and No TV? No Fair!, both available at McNally Robinson Booksellers. Humour and a kid-centered universe are the essential ingredients in her books. Karin's favourite stories remain those she read as a young(er!) person. Join us at McNally Robinson Grant Park on May 16, 2010 at 2:00 pm to celebrate the launch of No TV? No Fair!.
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The best thing about being a children's writer is that my favourite pastime (reading children's books) and my research (reading children's books) are one and the same. I am currently re-discovering the works of Judy Blume, children's author extraordinaire. As a reader, it's been great catching up with "old friends" like Peter Hatcher, Margaret Simon, and Sally J. Freedman (as herself, of course). As a children's author, I've spent some time thinking about why Blume's books are so beloved and enduring. Here's what I've come up with so far:
Categories: Reviews, Discussions, Authors
Allan Levine will be in our Winnipeg bookstore to sign copies of the paperback version of his McNally Robinson Book of the Year winning work Coming of Age: A History of the Jewish People of Manitoba, on Sunday May 16, 2:00 pm.
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The Devil's Company by David Liss (Random House)
A great historical mystery series should have just the right blend of character, place and plot. It is a difficult balance, but American writer David Liss pulls it off brilliantly in his trilogy of Benjamin Weaver novels. He introduced Weaver, a likeable Portuguese-Jewish pugilist and rogue living in eighteenth century London in his award-winning A Conspiracy of Paper (2000). That novel revolved around the South Sea Bubble, the stock manipulation of 1729. He followed it up with A Spectacle of Corruption (2004) which found Weaver battling nefarious politicians. And then in The Devil's Company (2009), Weaver becomes embroiled in a twisted adventure surrounding the rise of the East India Company. Each novel succeeds because Liss has a wonderful sense of time and place. Readers are literally transported back to London of the 1700s with all of its wealth, poverty and sin. His dialogue is spot on as is his integration of local customs and attitudes from the parlours to the gin houses. Each novel is a page-turner and a lot of fun.
Categories: Reviews, buzz, Authors, Winnipeg
Gail Bowen will be in our Winnipeg bookstore, Saturday May 8, 2:00 pm.
Gail Bowen -- Night Table Recommendations
For over thirty years, I led three lives: I was first, a wife, parent and grandparent; second, an academic, and third, a writer. By the time I'd finished with Walter, the Farting Dog (a book which, as the owner of a farting dog, I highly recommend); reviewed whatever was new, hot and student-friendly in Canadian lit and met my own writing deadlines, I didn't have much time to read the way I read when I was a kid - with passion and without plan.
Two years ago, I retired from university teaching. Since then, I've been making up for lost time. Here are some books that I've read and loved within the last month.
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