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Working at Book City’s St. Clair location for the past two years puts one, as Katherine Mansfield once said, on “nodding terms” with many books. I don’t get to read much, but at the very least moving hundreds of titles from boxes to the shelf day after day has provided me with a pretty substantial to-read list.
But I must admit, Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest book Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage didn’t top the list for me.
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During its 36 years in business the Toronto Women’s Bookstore has survived a firebomb, boycotts and protests by opposing activist groups the demise of nearly all other women’s bookstores. Despite all this the TWB may soon face closure.
Co-manager Janet Romero says she didn’t know what to expect when the store sent an appeal to the store’s mailing list asking for financial help.
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Here to round out the past decade for bibliophiles, here are 10 writers who best reflect the city’s diverse communities.
They enjoy various degrees of fame, but all are equally excellent. They are not presented in any hard-and-fast order.
De Sa’s 2008 debut collection Barnacle Love is a series of interconnected stories centred on the Rebelos, a Portuguese immigrant family. De Sa writes with great detail, transporting readers straight into Toronto’s Little Portugal.
Barnacle Love garnered rave reviews among critics and was shortlisted for the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize. For an interview with De Sa and a peek into his writing process, see this.
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It was a resounding success for everyone involved at this year’s Toronto Small Press Book Fair, held Saturday at the Gladstone Hotel.
The book fair, organized by the Small Press of Toronto (SPoT), is now in its 22nd year. Since 1990 it has been held bi-annually at different venues throughout the city. The fair serves as a venue for writers and graphic artists to get their work promoted and in the public eye, as their respective small-press publishers push for book sales and increased recognition for their artists.
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For those still trying to find some last-minute gifts, here is a list of some notable titles out this week.
Sequels is the name of the game, with some of the year’s most popular authors releasing follow-ups just in time for holiday reading.
This week Greg Mortensen released “Stones and Schools,” the continuing story of his quest to promote literacy in rural Pakistan. The series’ first installment, “Three Cups of Tea,” was well-received among Canadian audiences on its release in 2001.
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Yesterday Jian Ghomeshi, host of CBC radio’s Q announced five new authors who will contend for Canada Reads, kicking off another round of lively debates about books.
Ghomeshi introduced the writers who whose books made the cut, along with the panelists who will support and defend their favourite works of Canadian fiction. As their debates, broadcast live on CBC Radio One, listeners vote books off the list until one remaining title is declared Canada Reads Book of the Year.
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From the tender age of nine, John Ortved knew instantly that The Simpsons was going to be an integral part of his life. Sitting in front of his television enjoying every moment of The Simpsons, Ortved grew up with the iconic sitcom.
“I was starting to understand humour at a different level,” he said. “To have my humour developed by The Simpsons, I think it was ideal.”
Working as an editorial associate at Vanity Fair, he wound up writing an intriguing book. The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History was released on Oct. 24, and documents one of the most important shows in television history. Ortved says what started as a short feature for the magazine turned into a two-year project.
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In a world where just about everybody is keenly broadcasting their opinions, criticisms and bright ideas on the Internet, Margaret Wente occupies what she calls “the best soapbox in Canada.”
Forget BlogSpot, Livejournal, Facebook or Twitter. As a weekly columnist for the Globe and Mail, Wente makes a living out of what is for so many only a hobby. And because the job title comes with the salary, resources and connections to back it up, the result is some high-quality socio-political musing.
Behold, her latest book: You Can’t Say That in Canada.
(More …)
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This year’s Word on the Street Book and Magazine Festival attracted a bevy of readers from near and far to the grounds of Queen’s Park.
Tents were scattered along its 112 acres. Roads were closed for passers-by to be enticed by grilled pork souvlaki, sweet corn roasting on spits and books of every description.
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From RSS – This Just In
The Australian songwriter-cum-author held court at the Eaton Centre’s Indigo outlet last night for a live interview with local online-radio host Alan Cross, and for what appeared to be — judging by the long line of fans snaking up to the store’s second level — one epic autograph session to promote his new, second novel, The Death of Bunny Munro.
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Is literature a dying art form? This year’s Scream Literary Festival posed that question with its ironically-toned “The Book Is Dead” theme.
The large turnout at last night’s Scream in High Park mainstage show seemed to imply “no”. However, Scream T-shirts were outselling books at the merch table, according to host Misha Glouberman. And the high percentage of the audience who left during the second intermission suggests that four hours is too long to sit through a series of readings.
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It wasn’t long ago that Wakefield Brewster virtually owned the Toronto spoken-word scene.
After years of wowing slammers and literati alike with his hip-hop-influenced, quick-as-lightning rhymes and metaphors, the Lyrical Pitbull moved to Calgary in 2006 to live with his wife and two children. But he’s coming back for one night, this Monday, for his second engagement with the annual Scream in High Park literary concert.
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This weekend, Monica Kuebler will take her seat at an awards gala at the Burbank Marriott Hotel in California and wait to hear the presenter call one name. Not her name though, but that of Weston Ochse.
The 22nd Annual Bram Stoker Awards ceremony, presented by the Horror Writers Association, take place over three days from June 12 to June 14. Ochse’s book Redemption Roadshow, is nominated in the long-form fiction category. For Kuebler, whose Toronto-based Burning Effigy Press published the book, the nomination is validation that her vision is moving in the right direction.
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Real men only read political biographies. When phrased in such a way, Guy Gavriel Kay points out how ludicrous it is to think one should be ashamed of the novels on his or her bookshelf.
To a full crowd in the Roots flagship store on Bloor Street West on Wednesday afternoon, two Toronto-based writers discussed the problems associated with denouncing entire genres as something to read only when no one is watching. (More …)
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Canadian history came alive at the Gladstone Hotel ballroom last night in the form of music.
Singers, a photographer and Toronto mayor David Miller took the stage to celebrate Voyageur, the Six String Nation guitar, which CBC Radio’s Jowi Taylor created out of 64 pieces of Canadian heritage. (The guitar was built by George Rizsanyi.) (More …)
