The great Mexican novelist, intellectual and essayist Carlos Fuentes passed away today at the age of 83. An intellectual and cultural powerhouse, Fuentes' reputation North of the border was cemented with the publication of his fictitious take on Ambrose Bierce's missing years, The Old Gringo, in 1985. Many widely acclaimed books followed, including The Death of Artemio Cruz and The Eagle's Throne. An outspoken social critic who could write beautifully and never shied away from a bawdy joke, Fuentes' writing chronicled and defined Mexico throughout its most turbulent decades while forging a unique literary world of its own. Extensive obituaries can be found online at The New York Times and several hundred other sites.
Categories: Authors
Reader Reward Card holders are invited to enter to be one of 30 guests at this exclusive Skype session with the New York Times Bestselling author of Still Alice and Left Neglected on May 22 at 7:00 pm, either enter in store or e-mail events@grant.mcnallyrobinson.ca. Please include your Reader Reward Card number when entering.
Lisa Genova graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in Biopsychology and has a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard University.
Still Alice debuted at #5 on the New York Times Bestseller list and has spent 40 weeks on that list. It won the 2008 Bronte Prize and the 2011 Bexley Book of the Year, and it was nominated for the 2010 Indies Choice Debut Book of the Year by the American Booksellers Association. There are over a million copies in print, and it has been translated into 25 languages. Her follow up, Left Neglected, spent 7 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in hardcover. It was the #1 Indie Next Pick for January 2011, the Borders Book You'll Love for January 2011, and the #4 Indie Reading Group Pick for summer 2011.
Categories: buzz, Authors, Store News, Winnipeg, Contests and Giveaways
Most reviews are given from a literary perspective--that is, from the perspective of an individual who has some knowledge of what qualifies as "good" and what is relegated to the dreaded nether-regions of "bad" writing. Whilst I acknowledge the superior knowledge and education of some people--concerning literature--I have never myself been able to take on this role with any degree of comfort. A lot of my creative energy springs from a general state of open-mindedness, concerning what I see and what I read. If you are of such a temperament, all judgement of good and bad appear extremely subjective--to the point that speculations of quality can seem academic, to say the least.
As a result of this inherent self-doubt, concerning my place in the world of literary criticism, I prefer to write my recommendations purely from the perspective of an author. I may not have found an adequate yard-stick to measure literary quality, as yet, but I have my own private yard-stick to estimate how much fun an author may have had, writing a given work. I can usually guess how much fun an author had by how original and fresh the writing or the concept is. When an author is having fun, it shows in their writing. Not only are other writers intrigued--innately detecting the sense of fun which spurs the author on--but any serious reader will likely be able to catch on to the fun and be carried away on that tide, along with the writer. I recommend these books based entirely on that sense of fun.
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Categories: Reviews, Discussions, Authors, SciFi & Fantasy, Winnipeg, Night Table Recommendations
Tonight, Wednesday March 21, we are thrilled to welcome Irshad Manji here at our store at 7:00 pm for a very special conversation with Marilou McPhedran, followed by a Q&A and book signing.
Irshad is in Winnipeg to promote the paperback publication of her latest book, Allah, Liberty and Love, and this should prove to be a very interesting evening indeed.
Irshad Manji teaches moral courage at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. A Globe and Mail columnist, she is also a scholar with the European Foundation for Democracy. Her #1 Canadian bestseller, The Trouble with Islam Today: A Wake-Up Call for Honesty and Change, earned international recognition and inspired Manji's Emmy-nominated PBS film, Faith Without Fear. The New York Times has called her "Osama Bin Laden's worst nightmare" while the Jakarta Post in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, has identified Irshad Manji as one of three women creating positive change in contemporary Islam.
Irshad is joined in conversation this evening by Prof. Marilou McPhedran, head of The University of Winnipeg Global College and an international human rights lawyer.
Seating is limited, so please arrive early if you want to be assured of a seat.
Categories: Winnipeg, Event News
stretching a tripping line from ginsberg to muldoon
when the withering hand raises its statues chiseling Moloch-granites
at
their
edge
at
the
margins
poetry
grain
by
grain
digs
its
gates
seam
by
seam
pulls
the
threads
unnoticed
unraveling
The Israeli writer Amos Oz remarked on Charlie Rose's PBS interview show recently that he walks in the desert among the ancient stones near his home every morning to "put things in perspective". To me Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" is one of those lasting touchstones. With it I judge the quality of my own work and that of other writers. Editor Jason Shinder's twenty-six essay collection The Poem That Changed America: "Howl" Fifty Years Later (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) is a book that I have kept on my night-table for a long time because it is fascinating to read how others value Ginsberg's 1956 poem, or not (the book is not all panegyric).
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