Category: Uncategorized
Book Trailers: They Aren’t All Awful
The first time I saw a book trailer, I thought it was a joke. Surely, this wasn’t actually part of the marketing strategy for this big name author, working with a big name publisher? It was, though. And most book trailers are just as bad. Cheesy word art, stock film, and low production values abound.
Yeah, I’m biased – I like my literature and everything associated with it to be quiet. I have a fairly high sensitivity to noise and my two and four year olds use it all up, often before 8:00 am. I’ve never even listened to an audio book. But you know, I’m hip, I’m cool, and I can accept that book trailers are a thing; but if they’re to be a thing, can’t they be a thing done well?
For a deeper analysis of what’s gone wrong with book trailers, check out this from Book Riot or this from The New Yorker. Read on for a few of my book trailer picks: the good, the bad and… the Franzen. Continue reading
Storytellers Book Club #1: The Progress of Love by Alice Munro
For all the details on The Storytellers Book Club, see my introductory post or Douglas Gibson’s website.
This update’s been a long time coming. I signed up for this CanLit challenge back in August. Alice Munro’s Nobel win inspired me to get cracking with The Progress of Love. I’m down to the wire here – I have till Dec. 31st to review a book club selection for a chance to win all five books, including selections from CanLit heavyweights Davies, MacLennan, MacLeod and Gallant. I’d tell you to get on it too, but with two days to go, you’re either in or you’re out by now!
The Progress of Love: Review
I was third in line for this book at the library for a couple of weeks, which is unusual for something published 25ish years ago. Must be that Nobel buzz! But you wouldn’t know this book is 25 years old. Munro’s stories are timeless, and you feel they could have been written 100 years as easily as 10 years ago.
The Progress of Love isn’t Munro’s most famous collection. It won the Governor General’s Award but her two Giller winners, The Love of a Good Woman and Runaway, seem to be the most well known. My only experience with Munro is Too Much Happiness, and with only that for a basis of comparison, The Progress of Love didn’t quite measure up. The first five stories were so good that the rest were slightly disappointing. My favourite was “Miles City, Montana” which shows us that the Mommy Wars are nothing new:
I had a dread of turning into a certain kind of mother – the kind whose body sagged, who moved in a woolly-smelling, milky-smelling fog, solemn with trivial burdens. I believed that all the attention these mothers paid, their need to be burdened, was the cause of colic, bed-wetting, asthma. Continue reading
Top Five Books Santa Didn’t Bring
It’s the curse of the bookish: no one buys you books for Christmas because no one knows what to get you. This is the first year I haven’t received even a gift certificate though! Luckily, I’m taking part in a secret Santa with my fellow Edmonton book bloggers next week. Here’s my wish list:
- Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan because it’s shiny.
- Tampa by Alissa Nutting because it’s fuzzy, though must give a shout out to that paperback cover!!
- Omens by Kelley Armstrong because crows creep me out so much but this cover calls to me.
- Christmas Stories edited by Diana Secker Tesdell because it out Goldfinches The Goldfinch. Also just realized Tesdell has edited a whole bunch of these collections and I want them all!
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy because I need a classic in here, and I think it might be time… I hear rumblings about a readalong and Norm’s Book Club keeps tweeting about it.
I hope you all got what you want for Christmas!
Reading in Bed Year in Review #3: Life Lessons
I tend to find these types of posts self-indulgent and preachy, but I also tend to enjoy them, so here goes.
Sometimes I feel a little inadequate when I realize that many of the bloggers I interact with have English degrees, are teachers, are published authors, or work in publishing. Who am I to blog about books, with my English 101 and bureaucratic job? But on further reflection, I’ve accomplished quite a bit this year, and might have something worthwhile to share. Maybe you are a new blogger, like I was three years ago, and don’t know where to start. Maybe you’ve been at this for a while and will nod your head (or disagree!) or maybe I’m just talking to hear the sound of my own voice. I’m okay with that.
Life Lessons for Book Bloggers
It is possible to find an online community that isn’t all drama. Over the years I have been part of (or lurked in) a few online communities and most are full of cliques and old grudges and drama. Entertaining for a while (sometimes for years in the case of a particular parenting forum) but eventually it becomes tiresome. Book blogging is not immune to drama, but I’ve found a wonderful group of bloggers who are truly here for the books. It’s great to have people to talk to, to drag to an author event or comment on your posts. It did take some fine tuning, but my advice is to seek out a local community, comment lots, and respond to comments. And use that unfollow button when necessary.
If you don’t like a certain type of blog event, keep looking. I used to give a strong side-eye to blogging events and memes and what not. Some of them see silly and just a convoluted way to get page views. But like most things, if you look hard enough, you’ll find something to suit! I went hard on readalongs this year. Readalongs appeal to me because they encourage discussion and getting to know other bloggers, and the updates are fun to write – gets you out of the rut of writing straight reviews. Here are the readalongs I participated in this year:
Go to events. If there are any author events in your area, do get out and experience them! The biggest change I made this year was going to readings and events. It’s another way of finding community and bringing it all to life. I went to everything from the basic Audrey’s basement event with coffee and cookies to a fancy wine & cheese to a panel discussion. Here are the events I went to this year: Continue reading
Secret Santa… With a Twist
Check out Another Book Blog for the low-down on this book blogger edition of Secret Santa.
Unlike Rick, I’ve participated in many Secret Santas over the years, with varied results. But you can’t really go wrong with an all-book edition. This one is a little different in that we’re not buying anything, just suggesting (strongly) that another blogger read a particular book, and then do a guest blog post about it. Here’s who is participating:
- Rick from Another Book Blog
- Heather from Between the Covers
- Rory from Fourth Street Review
- CJ from Ebookclassics
- Carolyn from Rosemary and Reading Glasses
Here’s the lucky blogger who gets a personalized book recommendation from moi:
Heather from Between the Covers!
When I drew Heather’s name, I started panicking. She’s read everything. She’s not bound by genre or location or style. She reads classic and contemporary. And she reads at an astonishing pace. Creeping her Goodreads page, I estimate she reads anywhere from ten to TWENTY FIVE books per month. So how the heck am I going to recommend something she a) hasn’t already read, b) wasn’t going to read anyway, and c) will actually enjoy?
Rick and I were joking about making Heather read Fifty Shades of Grey because I’m pretty sure she hasn’t read that one yet. But I decided not to be cruel. THEN I thought maybe I’d have her read something a little risque, but classic, like Tropic of Cancer, but decided I don’t know her well enough to make her read the “C word” that many times. Finally, I settled on something totally unrelated to all that: Continue reading
Reading in Bed Year in Review #1: Literary Crushes
I’ve been working away at a Year in Review mega-post for a while now, but realized if I wait to finish the whole thing, it’ll probably never get posted. So I’m posting it in pieces. Here’s a fun one to start with. Literary crushes: Not just for Twilight Moms.
This is also probably a good place to announce that I won a Bare it For Books calendar. So this list might grow after I receive it!
Author Crushes
1. Michael Ondaatje, which I already embarrassed myself about here. Let’s just revisit this classic pic, and please do check out the source, the Can Lit is Sexy tumblr.
Via http://canlitissexy.tumblr.com which you should all visit immediately
2. Anton Chekhov. I was looking at some Wikipedia page about Russian authors, probably trying to determine if there were any women writing in the 1800s (seems not) when something caught my eye. It was Anton with his excellent hair and bone structure, and let’s just ignore the beard. If Bangable Dudes in History was still updating, I would submit this in a second.
via wikipedia
3. Joseph Boyden. The lovely folks at Penguin Canada are sending me a copy of The Orenda so I can finally join in the award-snub outrage! In the meantime, check out Joseph’s holiday message for the Penguin Delights campaign – great smile, no pants, yes please:
Character Crushes
1. David Slaney from Lisa Moore’s Caught. David is one of those people who can seduce you by walking into a room. There’s a memorable scene where he is hiding from the police in a bride’s hotel room. She’s minutes away from walking down the aisle, and while they don’t, they come so close… dang. In my head, David looks like James McAvoy circa The Last King of Scotland:
via filmdetail.com
2. Jimmy from Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. The secret’s out: Part of the reason I love O&C so much, and wasn’t as into the other Maddaddam books, is that I have a massive crush on Jimmy. Unlike David, who could have anyone, Jimmy only preys on vulnerable women. He’s got a massive inferiority complex. Mommy issues abound. He’s awful, actually. I’m not sure what this says about me. If I were casting Jimmy, I’d go with 12 Monkeys era Brad Pitt. You know, a little dirty, a little crazy.
via extremetech.com
So, fess up: Who were your literary crushes this year?
MaddAddam Series by Margaret Atwood: A Reading Soundtrack
I am always late to the party. I didn’t figure out that Twitter was good for more than traffic updates till 2011. I still haven’t watched the last season of Breaking Bad. And I almost never read “it” books when they are first published.
Time was on my side with MaddAddam, the finale in the series of the same name. Reading in Winter hosted a read-along in August, which gave me just enough time to squeeze in The Year of the Flood before MaddAddam hit the streets. I was on the Kobo bookstore before I got out of bed on August 27th, and was finished five days later.
FINALLY, I could talk about the book-flavour-of-the-week! Except, I didn’t. The amount of press for this novel was huge, and I found myself overwhelmed with reviews and interviews and career retrospectives – I was speechless. What could I possibly say that wasn’t already being said and written and tweeted?
She was on the cover of a Costco flyer, for god’s sake.
I couldn’t take the pressure of reviewing such a high profile book. Maybe I’ll get around to a proper review of MaddAddam later. Till then, here’s a reading soundtrack. Continue reading
When Books Hit Home
I have a couple of reviews in my queue that I don’t know how to begin because the books affected me so personally. Do I use the review to talk about what happened to me? Or do I hang back and let the book take the spotlight? Do I even want to talk about this stuff on the blog?
Then I remembered that other book bloggers must have dealt with this kind of thing before. Actually, I know they have. So, in true book-blogger fashion, I thought I’d put this out there as a discussion topic. I would love to hear what books have hit home for you (if you feel comfortable), and how you feel about them as a reader and as a blogger.
Hit Hard vs. Hit Home
I’m a pretty passionate reader. Books hit me hard all the time. They make me cry, make me laugh, and make me consider things in new way. Hitting home is a little different. A book hits home when something about the subject matter or character directly relates to my life, usually something difficult. In addition to the usual emotional response (crying – I’m a crier!) when I read one of these books I often feel a little panicky at first, especially if I wasn’t prepared. Then I feel the way teenagers feel when they’re listening to music and almost believe their favourite singer is singing right TO them. And if the book is good, I feel an awesome catharsis when I’m done reading.
What Hits Home for You?
Pregnancy and especially pregnancy loss are subjects that hit home for me. Maybe that’s not surprising, since I’ve been pregnant and/or breastfeeding for nearly five years now (wow) but it’s my first pregnancy, which began and ended sixteen years ago this summer, when I was sixteen, that I both love and hate to remember when I’m reading. No one knows what to say to someone who loses a pregnancy they didn’t want in the first place, so reading about similar experiences is probably the closest I’ve come to dealing with it.
I happened to read a couple books this summer that dealt with teenage pregnancy and loss:
- Bumped and Thumped by Megan McCafferty: This YA series is set in a dystopian near-future world where a virus causes widespread infertility among adults. Teenagers are left to do the breeding, and while it starts out as sort of a patriotic duty to get “bumped” and give your baby up for adoption, soon it becomes a for-profit and corrupt business. The authors nails the narcissism and innocence of the girls and presents a future that is frightening because it’s too close to reality where teen pregnancy is simultaneously shamed and glamourized (Teen Mom, anyone?)
- Rosina, The Midwife by Jessica Kluthe: This is a non-fiction book about the author’s great-grandmother. I knew I was in for some pregnancy/birth story lines, but nothing prepared me for the author’s stark portrayal of her own loss. I was completely gutted. There are a lot of parallels between my story and hers and I’m so used to NOT talking about it that it was shocking to see it just out there on the page, for anyone to see.
A few more great books about teen pregnancy and loss:
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Rosasharn might be the prototype for all the other teen moms mentioned here)
- The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
- The Birth House by Ami McKay
- Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue
Seeking out Books that Hit Home
So these books tend to be pretty intense and rewarding reading experiences, yet I don’t actively seek them out. Pregnancy and birth are pretty universal subjects, and are so laden with symbolism and meaning, that they’re pretty common and I tend to read enough of them by accident. When I deliberately read something in this vein, that I know contains something about pregancy or infant loss, I have to make sure I don’t read two of the books close together (like I did this summer) because I need a bit of a break in between.
Reviewing Books that Hit Home
This is my real dilemma, and one I’m kind of solving by writing this post: is a book review an appropriate place to talk about your own life, particularly something heavy and traumatic? I like to make reviews “all about me” in a humorous way hesitate to do so when it’s something serious.
On the one hand, I think making it personal is important in book blogging. I read lots of professional reviewers, but their reviews are often a little sterile. On the other hand, people who read book blogs are there to read about the books and maybe don’t want to hear about your problems. I remembered this tweet from Joyce Carol Oates (which I don’t agree with!)
One of the nice things about book blogs is that appropriateness doesn’t come into it the same way it would in a review in a magazine or newspaper. There’s no editorial board, and there no advertisers to offend (not on this blog, anyway.) It’s just you and the books. And hopefully an audience who doesn’t mind if you ramble on about yourself once in a while.
The Storytellers Book Club
[UPDATE: ECW Press has extended the contest deadline till December 31st. Plenty of time to review a few of these!]
The Storytellers Book Club is fascinating to me, because while it’s a blatant marketing ploy for Douglas Gibson’s book Stories about Storytellers, it’s also a great idea and very well executed (and remember, I work in marketing, so I have nothing against marketing ploys, blatant or otherwise.)
ECW Press gave me a copy of Stories about Storytellers by Douglas Gibson and The Watch That Ends the Night by Hugh MacLennan in exchange for writing this, so this is basically a sponsored post, but I am totally on board with the concept and think some of my CanLit-loving readers will be too.
So, here’s the deal. There’s a contest that’s valid up till the end of September, so if you want to get in on that, you best get reading.
Douglas Gibson and Stories About Storytellers
Douglas Gibson is kind of a CanLit editor to the stars. He’s worked with big-name Canadian authors that even non-readers have heard of, and public figures like Pierre Trudeau. Here’s the synopsis of his book, Stories about Storytellers:
“I’ll kill him!” said Mavis Gallant. Pierre Trudeau almost did, leading him (“Run!”) into a whizzing stream of traffic that almost crushed both of them. Alistair MacLeod accused him of a “home invasion” to grab the manuscript of No Great Mischief. And Paul Martin denounced him to a laughing Ottawa crowd, saying, “If Shakespeare had had Doug Gibson as an editor, there would be no Shakespeare!”
On the other hand, Alice Munro credits him with keeping her writing short stories when the world demanded novels. Robertson Davies, with a nod to Dickens, gratefully called him “My Partner Frequent.” W.O. Mitchell summoned up a loving joke about him, on his deathbed.
Stories About Storytellers shares these tales and many more, as readers follow Doug Gibson through 40 years of editing and publishing some of Canada’s sharpest minds and greatest storytellers.
The CanLit Classics
Gibson has selected five CanLit Classics from Stories for The Storytellers Book Club:
Robertson Davies’ What’s Bred in the Bone
Hugh MacLennan’s The Watch That Ends the Night
Mavis Gallant’s Home Truths
Alistair MacLeod’s No Great Mischief
Alice Munro’s The Progress of Love
I’ve read none of these. No Great Mischief was on my radar, as is everything by Munro, but I hadn’t even heard of MacLennan or Gallant, and I’ve been wary of Davies since I read Fifth Business in high school. This list is enticing to me because it’s challenging and not totally obvious. I appreciate representing female authors in this list (almost half! Progress!) though I must point out that the ratio of female to male authors addressed in the Stories About Storytellers book is abyssmal, a fact that Munro talks about in the introduction. Continue reading
Oryx and Crake Read-Along: Post Six (Part 13 – 15 Reaction)
For all the details on this read-along, head over to the sign up post on Reading in Winter.
Reading Parts 13-15 The shortest section, and after the shocker in part 12, maybe a little anti-climactic, I read this bit like a maniac, probably in the middle of the night, hoping to find out why. Of course, I didn’t find out. The next morning, I bought The Year of the Flood. And yesterday, I finished Maddaddam, and so, the trilogy in it’s entirety. Full review of the whole shebang to come.
Part 13-15 Reaction
Poem: On revisiting this section, I noticed some nice symmetry in the table of contents. And when you think about it, the chapter titles kind of sound poetic, when read together. Don’t you think? Or is this a symptom of Atwood fangirling?
Reading in Bed 