Book with Buzz - Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi

Ghana Must Go (M) is the debut novel by Nigerian-Ghanaian author Taiye Selasi. It has been generating a lot of buzz in literary circles.

"This arresting first novel comes garlanded with mighty expectations: translated into umpteen languages already, the author mentored by no less than Toni Morrison, advance approval from Salman Rushdie and cover quotes from Penelope Lively and Teju Cole.  

Is the hype justified? The generous answer is yes, though I worry about how the talented Taiye Selasi can follow this stunning opening act." - The Guardian

Book Summary:

Kweku Sai is dead. A renowned surgeon and failed husband, he succumbs suddenly at dawn outside his home in suburban Accra. The news of Kweku’s death sends a ripple around the world, bringing together the family he abandoned years before. Ghana Must Go is their story. Electric, exhilarating, beautifully crafted, Ghana Must Go is a testament to the transformative power of unconditional love, from a debut novelist of extraordinary talent.
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"Unleashing a strong new literary voice, Selasi joins other gifted writers such as Zadie Smith and Edwidge Danticat with connections to Africa or the African diaspora" - Library Journal

"A finely crafted yarn that seamlessly weaves the past and present, Selasi's moving debut expertly limns the way the bonds of family endure even when they are tested and strained." - Booklist

"Selasi's gorgeous debut is a thoughtful look at how the sacrifices we make for our family can be its very undoing... Reminiscent of Jhumpa Lahiri but with even greater warmth and vibrancy, Selasi's novel, driven by her eloquent prose, tells the powerful story of a family discovering that what once held them together could make them whole again." - Publisher Weekly

Meeting Canadian Publishers - Erinne Sevigny

Today's reading suggestions have been inspired by Erinne Sevigny's travelogue / blogging project, The Great Canadian Publishing Tour: a coast-to-coast look at Canadian book publishing.

I learned about this neat project from the Arts East blog and was thus inspired to offer up some publishing/bibliophile related titles as reading suggestions.  I've even included a couple murder mysteries just for fun.

I encourage you to checkout Erinne's blog, but to also read the Arts East article, as it contains additional details about Erinne's visit to Nova Scotia.

Book: a futurist's manifesto : essays from the bleeding edge of publishing (M)
edited by Hugh McGuire and Brian O'Leary

The ground beneath the book publishing industry dramatically shifted in 2007, the year the Kindle and the iPhone debuted. Widespread consumer demand for these and other devices has brought the pace of digital change in book publishing from "it might happen sometime" to "it’s happening right now"—and it is happening faster than anyone predicted.

Yet this is only a transitional phase. Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto is your guide to what comes next, when all books are truly digital, connected, and ubiquitous. Through this collection of essays from thought leaders and practitioners, you’ll become familiar with a wide range of developments occurring in the wake of this digital book shakeup."


Golden Legacy : how Golden Books won children's hearts, changed publishing forever, and became an American icon along the way (M)
by Leonard S. Marcus

"Since their launch in 1942, Golden Books have occupied a singular and beloved place in children's literature. Leonard S. Marcus explores their history in Golden Legacy: how Golden Books won children's hearts, changed publishing forever, and became an American Icon along the way.

Marcus traces the books' development from the years leading up to their first appearance (selling 1.5 million copies in their first five months on the market) through their roster of acclaimed artists (including Margaret Wise Brown, Mary Blair and Richard Scarry, to name a scant few) and the titles that continue to be treasured to this day (The Poky Little Puppy and The Golden Egg Book among them). William Joyce, Harry Bliss, Avi and others reflect on the influence of the books, and readers of all ages will thrill to the decades' worth of archival illustrations. Stately and comprehensive, this hardcover volume stands in lush contrast to the tiny cardboard-backed titles themselves, but it pays handsome tribute to a publishing phenomenon." -Publisher Weekly


Women Who Love Books Too Much: bibliophiles, bluestockings & prolific pens from the Algonquin Hotel to the Ya-Ya sisterhood (M)
by Brenda Knight

"More about writing than book lovers, this book consists of short (mostly 500- to 1000-word) essays on over 70 women writers as diverse as Sappho, Danielle Steele, and Zora Neale Hurston, as well as many lesser-known writers. Knight, author of the American Book Award-winning Women of the Beat Generation, divides the book into well-known women writers, famous writing families, spiritual authors, banned writers, prolific writers, style-setters, and "adored" authors.

Material on most of these authors will already be a part of library collections that support women's studies curricula. However, the volume's easily understandable and inspiring style, augmented by concise entries, an appendix on book groups, and a resource guide, make it an entertaining introduction to women writers." - Library Journal

~fiction~

Foul Matter (M)
by Martha Grimes

"Author Paul Giverney is between publishers. Despite stratospheric sales of his books and frenzied competition to sign him up, he lives modestly in New York's East Village and nurses a secret ambition of a very different sort. In fact, he has a byzantine plan for accomplishing it: the #1 condition of his proposed contract with the literary giant Mackenzie-Haack. They must drop Ned Isaly, a brilliant but far less successful author, and assign his equally gifted editor to Paul. In the hornets' nest of preening egos and cutthroat career moves this stirs up, ambitious editor Clive Esterhaus covets the glossy megastar Paul for himself. But Isaly's book contract is unbreakable and Clive never dreams how a very different kind of contract will force him-and his ambition-into a very foul matter, indeed." - Publisher


Desert Shadows: publishing can be murder (M)
by Betty Webb

"At the ripe old age of 76, Gloriana Allerton, doyenne of Scottsdale, Arizona, high society, was murdered during a reception at a book exposition, just as her imprint, Patriot's Blood Press, was starting to earn acclaim in Southwest publishing. To Lena Jones, an ex-cop turned private eye, the accused--Owen Sisiwan, an Afghanistan war vet who worked for Gloriana doing odd jobs to help support his family--seems an unlikely suspect. As Lena starts digging into the circumstances surrounding Gloriana's murder, a slew of potential suspects emerge, opening up an Agatha Christie-like whodunit replete with greedy relatives, extremist politicians, and hate groups. Simultaneous with this investigation, Lena faces her own past as she reluctantly uncovers the mystery behind her nightmares.

This third in Webb's series makes good use of both tony Scottsdale and the small-press publishing scene. Lena makes a refreshing heroine; being raised by nine different foster families gives her unusual depth. Solid series fare." Booklist

Gene Wolfe awarded the 2012 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award

Science Fiction and Fantasy author Gene Wolfe (M) has been bestowed with the prestigious Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master designation by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, as part of the 2012 Nebula Awards.

Gene Wolfe is an American writer born in 1931. He published his first novel (Operation Ares) in 1970 and his most recent title is 2012's Home Fires. He is perhaps best known for The Book of the New Sun (M), a four volume epic story describes as "a masterpiece of science fantasy comparable in importance to the major works of Tolkien and Lewis" - Publishers Weekly.  

Wolfe's other best known work is Peace (M), first published in 1975 and reprinted many times since.

"Peace" is a spellbinding, brilliant tour de force of the imagination. The melancholy memoir of Alden Dennis Weer, an embittered old man living out his last days in a small midwestern town, the novel reveals a miraculous dimension as the narrative unfolds. For Weer's imagination has the power to obliterate time and reshape reality, transcending even death itself. Powerfully moving and uncompromisingly honest, Peace ranks alongside the finest literary works of our time" - Publisher

He has won many many writing awards, including multiple Locus and Nebula awards.

Here is what author Neil Gaiman has to say:

“It’s not that Gene Wolfe is, in the opinion of many (and I am one of the many), our finest living science fiction writer. It is that he is, in the opinion of the Washington Post (and of me, too) one of our finest living writers. He has been our uncrowned Grand Master for a long time, and now the rest of the world will know as well.”

Don't Miss This! Eva Stachniak Reads Tonight at the Keshen Goodman Library

The Winter Palace: a novel of Catherine the Great (M) is a literary tour de force and should be not be missed. Eva Stachniak's third novel has received many glowing reviews and recommendations.

"Stachniak sets a tone that grips the reader from the first page on, and vividly paints the atmosphere of the Czar’s court, the smells, the tastes, the superstition and the addiction to new fashions, the unimaginable opulence…” It’s well-written and thoroughly convincing!" - Die Presse

"Eva Stachniak’s first novel, Necessary Lies, won the 2000 Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award. That book told a contemporary story; her follow-up, Garden of Venus, and her latest, The Winter Palace, together should establish her as a pre-eminent writer of historical fiction". - Quill and Quire

"The Russian Imperial Court comes to life with its grandeur and overindulgence. Even the descriptions of food are divine. This is absolutely an “eating book,” in that the reader is likely to find herself starving after reading several chapters. Who would have thought that one could crave blinys, smoked sturgeon and borscht so much?" - National Post

“brilliant, bold historical novel . . . This superb biographical epic proves the Tudors don’t have a monopoly on marital scandal, royal intrigue, or feminine triumph.” - Booklist

Please join us tonight at the Keshen Goodman Library to meet (and hear) Canadian Literary star Eva Stachniak.  The reading starts at 7:00pm and all are welcome!

Special thanks to The Canada Council for the Arts for their support.

Staff Pick - 419 by Will Ferguson

2012 Giller prize winning 419 (M) is a departure for the usually funny Will Ferguson (M), author of Generica, How to Be a Canadian, even if you already are one, and Beauty Tips from Moosejaw just to name a few.  419 is an atmospheric brooding thriller set around 2002 which explores the apparently thin line between greed and heroics, and victim and culprit.

419 is section of the Nigerian criminal code that deals with fraudulent activity and scams. Anyone with an email account has received a plea on behalf of a wealthy Nigerian who will give you a portion of his fortune, if only you will receive the money into your bank account. Thankfully, most will delete this email, but what happens when, for reasons of greed or altruism, the email recipient responds? 419 begins with an emotional blast when the family of a retired Calgary teacher learn that he has been killed in a car accident. Investigators quickly determine that this is a suicide and that he has been duped by Nigerian fraudsters and has lost everything - savings, home, everything.

Henry Curtis had been approached via email by Nigerian scammer Winston and tricked into believing that a vulnerable young girl was in trouble and her only hope was to have her fortune transferred out of Nigeria, enabling her to leave the country. The 419 scam follows a progression beginning with a personalized and eloquent appeal. The victim's curiosity/greed/generosity is piqued and contact is made. Official and legal-looking, though entirely meaningless documents are exchanged before roadblocks appear which can only be circumvented with more money. Eventually the victim has invested so much money that they can't afford to back out, and if they do the communication becomes aggressive, blaming and threatening the victim. Henry's daughter, Laura, seemingly reserved and timid, refuses to accept that nothing can be done about this crime.

419 is not just about the victims of this scam. It takes the reader as well to Nigeria to follow other storylines that will eventually intersect at the end. There is Winston, the already mentioned scammer, an educated city man who makes this scam into something of an art form. Nnamdi, a boy born in a fishing village which is being ruined by oil companies, whose father asks the key question, "Would a parent die for his child?" Amina, a pregnant and solitary young girl - the ultimate portrait of vulnerability, and finally Ironsi-Egobia, the criminal mastermind who is controlling them all. The scammers do not see themselves as criminals, they justify their acts by their belief that they are merely taking back what has been stolen from them.

While not necessarily an easy read, 419 has a very exciting and rewarding conclusion. The novel can be uncomfortable as it is easy to see how a vulnerable person might be taken in by such as scam. It is a crime whose target may lose general sympathy as there is always the promise of a cash reward, even if their motives are altruistic. 419 is a challenging novel and is an interesting combination of literary fiction and suspense thriller. Fans of Patricia Highsmith (M), Elmore Leonard (M), and Ian McEwan (M) may enjoy.

In the Time of Queen Victoria

Happy Victoria Day.

In the spirit of the day, I offer up as reading suggestions, novels published this year that are set in the time of Queen Victoria.

Lady of Ashes (M)
by Christine Trent

"In 1861 London, Violet Morgan is struggling to establish a good reputation for the undertaking business that her husband has largely abandoned. She provides comfort for the grieving, advises them on funeral fashion and etiquette, and arranges funerals. Unbeknownst to his wife, Graham, who has nursed a hatred of America since his grandfather soldiered for Great Britain in the War of 1812, becomes involved in a scheme to sell arms to the South. Meanwhile, Violet receives the commission of a lifetime: undertaking the funeral for a friend of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. But her position remains precarious, especially when Graham disappears and she begins investigating a series of deaths among the poor. And the closer she gets to the truth, the greater the danger for them both..." - Publisher

Queen Victoria's Book of Spells (M)
edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

"Gaslamp Fantasy," or historical fantasy set in a magical version of the nineteenth century, has long been popular with readers and writers alike. A number of wonderful fantasy novels, including Stardust by Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, and The Prestige by Christopher Priest, owe their inspiration to works by nineteenth-century writers ranging from Jane Austen, the Bronte and George Meredith to Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and William Morris. And, of course, the entire steampunk genre and subculture owes more than a little to literature inspired by this period. Queen Victoria's Book of Spells is an anthology for everyone who loves these works of neo-Victorian fiction, and wishes to explore the wide variety of ways that modern fantasists are using nineteenth-century settings, characters, and themes. These approaches stretch from steampunk fiction to the Austen-and-Trollope inspired works that some critics call Fantasy of Manners, all of which fit under the larger umbrella of Gaslamp Fantasy." - Publisher

Graphic Novel
Agent Gates and the secret adventures of Devonton Abbey : (a parody) (M)
written by Camaren Subhiyah ; illustrated by Kyle Hilton

"Presenting a parody spin on the characters we know and love from the hit show Downton Abbey, this story is told through the eyes of the downstairs staff--especially one secretly badass valet John Gates, who turns out to be an undercover spy for Her Royal Majesty's British Secret Intelligence Agency (the SIS). Gates and several other Devonton staffers are part of a nationwide top-secret division of operatives scattered throughout country estates, all supervised by (who else?) the Dowager Countess, a close personal friend of Queen Victoria herself. Armed with his own superpower--his limp disguises a steampunk titanium leg perfect for dispatching enemies of the crown--Gates's mission is to protect Devonton Abbey from foreign spies, assassination attempts, and traitorous household staff, all while posing as the valet to the utterly clueless Lord Samson. Action-packed antics ensue, romance blossons, and, as usual, the downstairs crew continues to run the show...and always saves the day" - Publisher

Doktor Glass (M)
by Thomas Brennan

"In an age of zeppelins and gyroplanes, atomics and horseless carriages, the Transatlantic Span is the industrial marvel of the nineteenth century. A monumental feat of engineering, the steel suspension bridge stretches across the Atlantic from Liverpool to the distant harbor of New York City, supported by no less than seven hundred towers. But in the shadows of its massive struts, on the docks of the River Mersey, lies a faceless corpse... Inspector Matthew Langton is still seized with grief when he thinks of Sarah, his late wife. Tortured by nightmares and afflicted by breathless attacks of despair and terror, he forces himself to focus on the investigation of the faceless man. The victim wears the uniform of the Transatlantic Span Company but bears the tattoos of the Boers--could there be a Boer conspiracy to assassinate Queen Victoria on the upcoming inauguration day of the Span? But the truth, as it begins to emerge, is far more bizarre than a political coup. As additional victims turn up--all with strange twin burn marks on their necks--Langton draws a connection between the dead man beneath the bridge and chilling rumors of the Jar Boys, soul snatchers who come under cover of night. Most frightening of all is the mythic and elusive Doktor Glass, who not only may be behind the illicit trade in souls...but may hold the key to what happened to the inspector's own beloved wife on her deathbed.." - Publisher

Canadian Short Fiction - The Danuta Gleed Literary Award

This week the Writers' Union of Canada announced the shortlist for this year's Danuta Gleed Literary Award which recognizes "the best first English-language collection of short fiction by a Canadian author published in 2012".

This year's nominees are:

Bobcat and Other Stories (M)
by Rebecca Lee

"A university student on her summer abroad is offered the unusual task of arranging a friend's marriage. Secret infidelities and one guest's dubious bobcat-related injury propel a Manhattan dinner party to its unexpected conclusion. Students at an elite architecture retreat seek the wisdom of their revered mentor but end up learning more about themselves and one another than about their shared craft. In these acutely observed and scaldingly honest stories Lee gives us characters who are complex and flawed, cracking open their fragile beliefs and exposing the paradoxes that lie within their romantic and intellectual pursuits. Whether they're in the countryside of the American Midwest, on a dusty prairie road in Saskatchewan, or among the skyscrapers and voluptuous hills of Hong Kong, the terrain is never as difficult to navigate as their own histories and desires." publisher

Ether Frolics (M) 
 by Paul Marlow

"A collection of nine steampunk stories drawn from the archives of the Etheric Explorers Club, a Victorian society dedicated to exploring the mysteries of the etheric realm... The visions of a Russian painter in fin-de-siècle Paris... a terrible weapon that almost no-one has survived... a confession within a confession... a crime from antiquity resurfacing -beneath- the Thames... a desperate search for a lost sister... a contemporary horror entwined with an ancient manuscript... an experiment gone wrong... a lost world which should have remained lost... and a night of dining, death, and romance." publisher

The Iron Bridge (M)
by Anton Piatigorsky

"In a bold, brilliant collection of stories, Dora Award-winning playwright Anton Piatigorsky delivers a superbly inspired inquiry into the early lives of the 20th century’s most notorious tyrants. In The Iron Bridge, he is unafraid to push at the boundaries of the unexpected as he breathes fictionalized life into the adolescents who would grow up to become the most brutal dictators the world has ever known. We discover a teenaged Mao Tse-Tung refusing an arranged marriage; Idi Amin cooking for the British Army; Stalin living in a seminary; and a melodramatic young Adolf Hitler dreaming of vast architectural achievements. Piatigorsky dazzlingly explores moments that are nothing more than vague incidents in the biographies of these men, expanding mere footnotes into entire realities as he ingeniously fills the gaps of the historical record. The Iron Bridge, completely imagined yet captivatingly real, captures those crucial instants in time that may well have helped to deliver some of the most infamous leaders in history" publisher

Floating Like the Dead (M)
by Yasuko Thanh.

"In this sharply observed and erotically charged debut collection, Journey Prize-winner Yasuko Thanh immerses us in the lives of people on the knife edge of desire and regret, hungry for change yet still yearning for a place to call home, if only for a little while. Many of the characters in these stories are expats, outlaws, and outsiders, some by choice, others by circumstance. Yet in their struggles to be themselves and to belong, they remind us of our own deepest longings and desires. With this seductive and emotionally compelling collection, Yasuko Thanh announces herself as an exciting new voice in Canadian fiction." publisher

Bull Head (M)
by John Vigna

"A line-dancing aficionado visits his brother in jail in hopes of mending their relationship, and instead discovers his own unwitting role in his brother's failed life. After the death of his wife and children, a logger tries to survive the Thanksgiving weekend on his own. A delinquent teen's life is changed forever by a work-camp placement with a violent older boy. A truck driver seeks sanctuary from his abusive wife in a fantasy world of strip clubs and personal ads. Bristling with restlessness and brutality, the eight linked stories in Bull Head catapult readers into the gritty lives of rural male characters lost in purgatories of their own making. Vigna tempers raw and at times cruel rural masculinity with graceful prose and breathtaking tenderness to illuminate the plight of men who belong neither to history nor the future. A startling homage to the great Southern Gothic tradition, Bull Head is a dazzling debut that heralds a powerful and exciting new literary voice." publisher