Staff Picks - Before Green Gables

Before Green Gables, by Budge Wilson

How would Anne (with an E of course) describe the task of writing the prequel to Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables? Daunting, formidable, intimidating, monumental - is there a word big enough?

To celebrate the centenary of this Canadian classic and with the permission of the Montgomery heirs, Budge Wilson took on the challenge of filling in the blanks of Anne's early years.

Not surprisingly, with such beloved book, it has been met with some controversy.

I can only give my opinion. I won't say how many years its been since I've read (and re-read) all the Anne books, however, they have come back to life for me this week. So, thank you Budge Wilson!

I've just checked out Anne of Green Gables and I'm going to start again.

Please post a comment if you have also read this book.

Hot Reads for Cold Days

Seriously, is it spring yet?

Tired of the winter weather? Seems like we've got a bit more to get through. In the meantime, lose yourself in one of these books set in hot, sunny, beachy, anything-but-winter climes.


And Then You Die by Michael Dibdin: sent to a Tuscan resort to recuperate after his previous case, an Italian detective’s beach side retreat is interrupted by deaths and conspiracy.

The Beach by Alex Garland: a map depicting a mysterious island paradise is given to a young backpacker, setting off this adventure in south-Asia.

Durable Goods by Elizabeth Berg: a young girl’s coming of age on a Texas army base during a hot, hot summer.

Echo Burning by Lee Child: the sweltering heat of a Texas town waiting for a storm to break the weather is the setting for this tightly plotted thriller.

A Hot and Sultry Night for Crime edited by Jeffrey Deaver: a collection of crime stories all set on hot, sultry evenings.

How Stella Got her Groove Back by Terry McMillan: a Jamaica vacation helps an overworked divorcee find her passion again.

McNally’s Secret by Lawrence Sanders: the first in the continuing series featuring Palm Beach, Florida PI Archy McNally

The Penguin Book of Summer Stories edited by Alberto Manguel: dip into this collection of summertime tales from around the world.

Have a favourite summer read? Tell us in the comments below....

John Updike - Rest in Peace

The literary world has received the sad news of the passing of John Updike.

A two time Pulitzer Prize winner for his Rabbit series of novels, Updike has long been consider one of North America's top contemporary writers.

Perhaps most widely known for the Witches of Eastwick, his body of work is impressive and he was still producing vital work. His most recent novel, the Widows of Eastwick, was just published in 2008.

Certainly this is a big loss for the literary world.

To quote Ian McEwan: " He was a modern master, a colossal figure in American letters, the finest writer working in English. He dazzled us with his interests and intellectual curiosity, and he turned a beautiful sentence. Religion, sex, science, urban decay, small-town life, the life of the heart, the betrayals – who can follow him? Updike gave the impression he had a lot more writing to do. We are all the poorer now."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jan/28/johnupdike-fiction

Authors' and Readers' Book Crawl

Please note that this event has been rescheduled for February 18th, 7-9 pm

Attention all Halifax authors and readers!

An special invitation from HRM Poet Laureate Lorri Neilsen Glenn:

Authors' and Readers' Book Crawl

Thursday February 18th, 2009 7 - 9 pm

Warm up your winter night with readings, spoken word, and music by HRM authors and performers! Join us in a book crawl through the MSVU library--hear words and music right off the press. Banish the cold with hot chocolate, cider, and hot writing. Everyone welcome. 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Bus leaves downtown Halifax ferry terminal at 6:30 p.m. for the Mount, returns at 9 p.m.

This is an HRM Poet Laureate event, co-sponsored by HRM and MSVU.

HRM Poet Laureate's term-end event.

Book News - Week of January 19-25

• Are you a mystery Fan? The 2009 Edgar Allan Poe Award nominees were recently released. The Edgars are an annual award by the Mystery Writers of America for excellence in mystery writing. Here are the nominees for best novel:

• Missing by Karin Alvtegen
• Blue Heaven by C.J. Box
  
• Sins of the Assassin by Robert Ferrigno
• The Price of Blood by Declan Hughes
  
• The Night Following by Morag Joss
  
• Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz
  

• In other news . . . remember the episode of Seinfeld, where Jerry is tracked down by the NYPL’s Mr. Bookman over a long lost library book (episode 5, season 3 called “The Library”)? If only all the stories of missing library materials could be so funny: last week, a British man was sentenced to two years in jail after being found guilty on several charges stemming from stealing pages from rare books in the British Library and the Bodleian Library at Oxford. If this is a story that interests or intrigues you, you should check out the book The Island of Lost Maps by Harvey Miles, which is a true crime account of an American man who was caught committing similar crimes in the US in the ‘90s. Arresting reading for any book lover.

• And finally, there’s been much talk about the President Obama and his love of books in the press of late, but Canada has it’s own politician who’s a friend of the printed word: interim Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. Ignatieff has a new book coming out: True Patriot Love is described as a travel memoir. As a former professor and journalist, you may not be surprised to know Ignatieff has penned several books on history and social issues, but did you know he’s also the author of three novels?

Presidential Fiction

On a day when all eyes are turned to Washington for the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States, it seems only right to turn our blog attention to presidents as well. So, in case the real drama unfolding in the US isn’t quite enough - why not check out one of this fictional titles of presidential adventures.

American Savior by Roland Merullo - political satire in which Jesus - disturbed by what he sees happening in the United States - arrives to run as a third party candidate for the presidency.

The First Patient by Michael Palmer - Small town doctor and childhood friend of the president becomes first physician when the president’s doctor mysteriously disappears, but the president’s failing mental health is the source of greater concern in this suspense thriller.

Jackson by Max Byrd - In the run up to an election, a journalist is hired by one camp to write an unflattering biography of the oposing candidate. Sounds very 21st century, but in the end offers up a colourful historical novel of 19th century president Andrew Jackson.

Lincoln by Gore Vidal - Historical fiction of the life and career of the 16th president by the celebrated American novelist.

Mount Vernon Love Story by Mary Higgins Clark – before she became a powerhouse of supsense writing, Clark penned this short historical romance of George and Martha Washington.

Sixty Days and Counting by Kim Stanley Robinson - Near future Science Fiction title of a newly elected president trying to deal with the effects of advanced climate change.

That Fateful Lightning by Richard Parry - Historical fiction of Ulysses S. Grant, told as Grant looks back on his life and career (including his presidency) in order to write his memoir.

Attention Alexander McCall Smith Fans!

On tenterhooks for Tea Time for the Traditionally Built? An unbearable wait for the Unbearable Lightness of Scones?

You'll definitely want to get your Alexander McCall Smith fix with his online novel - Corduroy Mansions published by Telegraph.co.uk.

Have a chapter a day delivered to your email, or listen to a podcast featuring Andrew Sachs (remember Manuel of Fawlty Towers?!) This novel appears to be an ever growing entity with readers making plot suggestions as the story progresses.

Book News - Week of Jan 12th - 18th

• With the success of the film Slumdog Millionaire at the Golden Globes this past Sunday, folks are curious to visit the book that it is based on. Released in 2005, Q & A (as the book is titled) was the first published novel by Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup.
  

• American author Hortense Calisher died this week at the age of 97. In an article on her death, the New York Times described her as a "novelist and short-story writer whose unpredictable turns of phrase, intellectually challenging fictional situations and complex plots captivated and puzzled readers for a half-century".

• On Friday, British author John Mortimer also passed away. Mortimer's Rumpole of the Bailey series began as a piece for television, but was later adapted into a series of popular books.
  

• The finalists for the Charles Taylor Prize were announced last week. This Canadian award is given annually to exceptional literary non-fiction. The three short listed titles are:

• Angel of Vengeance: The "Girl Assassin," the Governor of St. Petersburg and Russia's Revolutionary World by Ana Siljak
• Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1917 – 1918, Volume Two by Tim Cook
  
• Sugar: A Bittersweet History by Elizabeth Abbott
  

The winner will be announced on February 9th.

Six Degrees of the Library Collection, David Sedaris to Chip Kidd

In the spirit of the theory of six degrees of separation - that any two people in the world can be connected to one another through six relationships - we bring you what will become a semi-regular feature called “Six Degrees of the Library Collection”-- a walk through the connections between seemingly random items in the HPL collection.

Humourist David Sedaris has a new book out called When You are Engulfed in Flames. Its cover features a Vincent Van Gogh painting called Skeleton with Cigarette.

Vincent Van Gogh is the subject of a biographical novel by Irving Stone called Lust for Life.

Lust for Life is also the name of a song by Iggy Pop that features prominently in the film soundtrack for the movie Trainspotting.

Trainspotting the movie was based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh.

Irvine Welsh and fellow Scots writers Ian Rankin and Alexander McCall Smith each included short stories to a book called One City, which was published as a fund raiser for Edinburgh’s One City Trust.

McCall Smith and Rankin, in addition to be a wildly popular writers, are both members of a committee that advises on the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, a prestigious British Book award which was last awarded to Cormac McCarthy for his novel The Road.

The book cover for McCarthy’s The Road (and Sedaris’ new title too for that matter) was designed by Chip Kidd, who in addition to being a leading book designer is an author in his own right of The Cheese Monkeys and his newest, Learners.

2008 Staff Favourites

Every year we poll our avid Halifax Public Libraries staff to see what they thought to be the best books published that year.

I'm always delighted by their varied tastes (rarely does more than one person nominate the same book) and invariably I find more books to add to my "to read" list.

What favourites would you add to this list?

Fiction

The Book of Getting Even, by Benjamin Taylor
Careless in Red, by Elizabeth George
Deaf Sentence, by David Lodge
Falling, by Anne Simpson
The Flying Troutmans, by Miriam Toews
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, by Maryanne Shaffer
An Incomplete Revenge, by Maisie Winspear
My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories From Chekhov to Munro, edited by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Private Patient, by P.D. James
Quintet, by Douglas Arthur Brown
Through Black Spruce, by Joseph Boyden

Nonfiction

The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters, by Rose George
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, by Alison Bechdel
The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death: Reflections on Revenge, Germaphobia and Laser Hair Removal, by Laurie Notaro
JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Mattered, James W. Douglass
Little Nothings: The Curse of the Umbrella, by Lewis Trondheim
The Man Who Ate the World: In Search of the Perfect Dinner, by Jay Rayner
The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, by Pico Iyer
Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Story of an Owl and His Girl, by Stacey OBrien
What the Nose Knows: The Science of Everyday Scent in Everyday Life, by Avery Gilbert
When You Are Engulfed By Flames, by David Sedaris

Welcome to the Reader

Welcome to The Reader.

I am very excited to launch our new blog for leisure readers.

Our goal is to create a forum for book related discussion and news, among leisure readers in Halifax (and hopefully beyond).

Weekly postings from Halifax Public Library librarians will present interesting news about authors and books, as well as relevant trends within the publishing world.

All in all, it will be a community space. A place for Halifax's leisure readers to interact with their library and the larger community of leisure readers.

Please interact and enjoy.

David Hansen

Readers' Services,

Halifax Public Libraries