Listen Up! Clara Callan by Richard B. Wright

Way back in 2001 Richard B. Wright's Clara Callan (M) swept Canadian literary awards winning the Giller Prize and the Governor General Literary Award for Fiction. Wright uses letters and diary entries to relate five years in the lives of sisters Clara and Nora Callan.

Clara Callan is a poetry loving school teacher in Whitfield, a small town in rural Ontario. It is the 1930's and World War 2 is brewing in everyone's future. Clara's younger sister Nora has left Whitfield to pursue a career in a radio soap opera in New York City. Clara is the mature older sister who stayed behind and lead a predictable and safe life, while Nora, the free-spirited younger sister, breaks free from small town scrutiny and censure. Left alone after the death of her father, Clara has a spiritual crisis and loses her faith in God. A violent encounter with a stranger leaves her pregnant and she turns to Nora and her friend Evelyn for help. This is the pivotal event that changes Clara's life that moves her forward and allows her to take greater risks with her personal life.

Sisters Cynthia and Jennifer Dale narrate this abridged version of Clara Callan. They do an excellent job capturing the mature and thoughtful Clara and the flighty and bouncy Nora. An added surprise was the inclusion of Janet Wright (Emma Leroy of Corner Gas) as cynical friend Evelyn. Her voice was immediately recognizable and has a perfect husky quality for Evelyn's caustic personality. Sometimes an abridged audio book can leave you with feeling that you missed out on something, but not so here. The story felt complete to me, however, I think I will at some point read this one in its full version.

Although this is a quiet and reserved story, the epistolary format made in compulsively readable (or listenable). Books written in diary or letter format have a certain intimacy that draws you in.

A more recent example would be Tatiana de Rosnay's The House I Loved (M). "Paris, France: 1860’s. Hundreds of houses are being razed, whole neighborhoods reduced to ashes. By order of Emperor Napoleon III, Baron Haussman has set into motion a series of large-scale renovations that will permanently alter the face of old Paris, moulding it into a “modern city.” The reforms will erase generations of history—but in the midst of the tumult, one woman will take a stand. Rose Bazelet is determined to fight against the destruction of her family home until the very end; as others flee, she stakes her claim in the basement of the old house on rue Childebert, ignoring the sounds of change that come closer and closer each day. Attempting to overcome the loneliness of her daily life, she begins to write letters to Armand, her beloved late husband. And as she delves into the ritual of remembering, Rose is forced to come to terms with a secret that has been buried deep in her heart for thirty years." publisher

2012 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour

The Sisters Brothers (M) by Patrick deWitt has been awarded the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour in addition to its other awards including the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.

"Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn’t share his brother’s appetite for whiskey and killing, he’s never known anything else. But their prey isn’t an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm’s gold-mining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does for a living — and whom he does it for. With The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt pays homage to the classic Western, transforming it into an unforgettable comic tour de force. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters — losers, cheaters, and ne’er-do-wells from all stripes of life — and told by a complex and compelling narrator, it is a violent, lustful odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s frontier that beautifully captures the humour, melancholy, and grit of the Old West and two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love." publisher

Other nominees included:

Happiness Economics (M)
by Shari Lapena;

On the Outside Looking Indian (M)
by Rupinder Gill;

The Woefield Poultry Collective (M)
by Susan Juby;

Most of Me (M)
by Michele Levy.

Fifty Shades of Erotica

There has been a lot of talk lately about the erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey (M), which some reviewers are referring to as an example of the erotica sub-genre “mommy porn”. This got me to wonder about the definition of erotica. According to the Canadian Oxford Dictionary erotica is defined as “intentionally erotic literature or art”. Erotic is “ of or pertaining to sexual love “. So I guess that this “mommy porn” will arouse a reader but also appeal to the emotions.

There has been erotica in books since the beginning of time. Some would even argue that the Song of Solomon in the Bible is erotica.

Originally published in 1749 Fanny Hill : memoirs of a woman of pleasure (M) by John Cleland may be the most banned book in history and is considered to be the first original English prose pornography to use the form of a novel. Written as a series of letters from Fanny to an unknown woman, it covers just a few years of her life. Fifteen year old Fanny is lured to London by a girl from her village. There she finds herself lodging at a brothel. Through a series of affairs Fanny climbs the social ladder. It was scandalous for the time, both for the sex and the breaking of the class society.

Going forward a few centuries to Lady Chatterley’s Lover (M) by D.H. Lawrence published in 1928. The first edition was printed privately in Italy and would not be openly published until 1960. There have been reports the novel is based on events from Lawrence’s own unhappy life. Young married Lady Constance Chatterley is married to paralyzed and impotent Clifford. Constance realizes that she cannot live with the mind alone; she must be able to satisfy her physical needs. She turns to the gamekeeper Oliver Mellors for this. Mellors has his own relationship problems. While Constance’s relationship is all mind, Mellors chooses to live away from his wife due to her brutish sexual nature. As Constance and Oliver’s relationship develops each learns that the physical and emotional can co-exist.

I first heard of the 1934 novel Tropic of Cancer (M) novel by Henry Miller in a movie; which one I can’t remember. All I can remember is that the actor was hiding the novel because polite society did not read such things. Set in France during the late 1920s and early 30s the novel centers around Miller’s life as a struggling writer. In Paris at that time, he hung around a community of bohemians and often suffered from hunger, homelessness and despair. It is a rambling unorganized novel without a plot that I could find. I even got bored with the sex scenes after a time since his opinion of women was disgusting. A contemporary and lover of Miller was Anais Nin (M). Nin is hailed as one of the finest writers of female erotica, specifically Delta of Venus and Little Birds. Her novel, Henry and June, outlines the complex relationship she had with Miller and his wife June. Of the two writers, I prefer Nin.

The Story of O (M) is a erotic tale of love, dominance and submission published in 1954 by Anne Desclos under the pen name of Pauline Reage. It won the French literature prize Prix des Deus Magots in 1955. Desclos wrote the novel as a gift for her lover who was an admirer of Marquis De Sade’s erotica. He stated that a woman would not be able to write good erotica. It is the tale of one woman’s complete submission to a man in body, soul and mind. O is trained by her lover to serve an elite group of men. She is blindfolded, chained, whipped and taught to serve these men in any way they desire.

One erotic novel that I read as a teenager (although I was probably too young for it at the time) was The Fear of Flying (M) by Erica Jong. Isadora Zelda White Stollerman Wing is on a trip to Vienna with her husband when she decides to fulfill her fantasy of having sex with another man. This novel seemingly struck a cord with women in unhappy marriages as the books sold over 20 million copies worldwide. In the novel Jong coined a term “zipless fuck” which is defined as a sexual encounter for its own sake; no emotions, commitments or ulterior motives between two strangers. The man is not “taking” nor is the woman “giving”. Just like the song says “if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one your with”.

Now this leads me to the reason I started to think of this subject matter in the first place. E.L. James has written a trilogy of erotica entitled Fifty Shades of Grey (M) , followed by Fifty Shades Darker (M) , and Fifty Shades Freed (M). James originally wrote the story as a piece of online fanfiction based on the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyers, featuring characters Edward and Bella. She later removed this original version and re-wrote as a stand alone novel. This connection to Twilight help propel demand and got the attention of mainstream publishers. Random House Publishers has paid seven figures for the right to publish it and Universal Pictures is rumored to have paid $5 million for the film rights. So what is the fuss all about?

Twenty one year old virgin Anastasia Steele meets handsome billionaire Christian Grey. Grey’s sexual taste are specific and high maintenance, specifically into bondage and discipline. Yet there is something about sweet innocent Ana that arouses Grey’s emotional needs as well as his physical. Under his guidance Ana blossoms and the couple’s struggle to create emotional equanimity travels throughout all three books. Some critics reject the novel as more of an abusive relationship than one of bondage and discipline sexual arrangement. Grey tells Ana when to eat, stalks her and goes into jealous rages. Yet, Goodreads.com users have nominated the novel for Best Romance. Having not read the novels yet I am not going to judge, but I do know that I am on the holds list anxiously awaiting my turn to read this novel. Maybe you will get on the list too.

So no matter what you feel or think about erotica, there are lots of materials to choose from. The library catalogue lists 810 entries; maybe one is right for you.

Bailey Weggins Mysteries

Meet Bailey Weggins (M): She's a thirty something true-crime writer and amateur sleuth. She lives in Manhattan in a great apartment that she inherited after her first marriage. Bailey has worked at a variety of top pop culture magazines that specialize in celebrity gossip, paparazzi photos, and the inevitable legal problems celebrities find themselves in.

In her most current adventure she is working at Buzz magazine whose claim to fame is an entire division devoted to celebrity gossip. Bailey gets herself invited to a weekend at a music mogul's country place where she once again comes across a body. This perfect body is that of Devon Barr, supermodel, singer and general pain!

Bailey is the creation of Kate White, the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine. This current adventure is the sixth in the series and is long overdue for its many fans. Bailey's world (and I surmise Kate White's as well) takes us behind the scenes into Manhattan's hottest and trendiest spots, fashions, entertainment, and glamour. Bailey does not live in that world the same way Carrie Bradshaw did but she is certainly well poised to report on its many details.

If you want to start at the beginning with this series (always my preference) then start with If Looks Could Kill (M):

"White, editor-in-chief at Cosmopolitan, captures all the hype and cattiness of the magazine world and offers an intriguing mystery as well. Her sleuth is Bailey Weggins, a thirtysomething feature writer for Gloss magazine, specializing in crime stories. Bailey's career has been built in part on loyalty to Cat Jones, her capable, beautiful, bitchy boss. So when Cat wants Bailey to find out who murdered her nanny, Bailey feels obligated to try. Then Bailey learns that the intended victim was Cat herself. Unlike in many mysteries, where the crime is obviously too complex for an amateur to solve, this puzzle manages to be challenging but not patently out of Bailey's range. In fact, readers will nervously follow the clues right along with the heroine. White is also very good at painting her world--the life of a single woman in high-powered New York--and this glamorous setting should attract a certain type of young woman reader, just the type who would read a magazine called Gloss." - Booklist












Louise

Wild: from lost to found on the Pacific Coast Trail by Cheryl Strayed - Read-a-likes

Wild: from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail (M) recounts Cheryl Strayed’s personal struggle after the sudden death of her mother and her painful divorce. These life events led to a decision to undertake a grueling three month solo hike of over a 1,000 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail. This haunting memoir is sure to please biography fans. If you liked Wild, here are some read-a-likes for you.


Blazing along again on the Pacific Crest Trail is A Blistered Kind of Love: one couple’s trial by trail (M) by Angela Ballard. This atmospheric memoir details a suburban couple’s trek from Mexico to Canada along the trail and recounts the challenges they faced, including unique encounters with wildlife and the beautiful scenery on the trail.


Another moving memoir is Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: my years of magical reading (M) by Nina Sankovitch. Sankovicth’s book recounts her grief after the death of her older sister. She became determined to live a better life to make up for the painful loss. She decided to read a book a day for a year in hopes that literature would ease her pain. This moving memoir is sure to be a treasure for any book lover.


This Boy’s Life: a memoir (M) is a reflective memoir that recalls Tobias Wolff’s early life after his parents’ divorce. This book discusses the nomadic nature of his life after his mother decided to move them to the Northwestern U.S. Wolff remembers the adults in his life with a candid objectivity that biography aficionados are sure to enjoy.


The Year of Magical Thinking (M) is another haunting autobiography that recounts Joan Didion’s grief after the death of her husband while her daughter was already gravely ill. The book movingly follows Didion through the clinical stages of grief as she deals with life without her husband of forty years.

Nominations Needed! - Int'l IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

Each year Halifax Public Libraries participates in the International Dublin IMPAC Literary Award. This is an award that is based on nominations from public libraries from around the world. Obviously, this is an award near and dear to the hearts of readers' advisors in libraries everywhere.

The deadline for the 2013 nominations is coming very soon. We have to select three English language novels, or recent novels translated into English, which were published in 2011. We factor into our decisions, feedback from our readers, staff impressions, book reviews, and circulation statistics from our branches.

I am hoping that readers of this blog will help us to select our nominees this year.

Please leave a comment below suggesting titles for consideration by our nomination committee.

The most recent winner was Colum McCann for the Let Great World Spin (M), which I am pleased to note was nominated by Halifax Public Libraries.

We also picked the 2001 winner- Alistair MacLeod's No Great Mischief (M).

Last year we nominated the following novels:

Solar (M)
by Ian McEwan

Room (M)
by Emma Donoghue

Secret Daughter (M)
by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

What To Read After Downton Abbey - part two

Here is part two of yesterday's  
What to read after Downton Abbey post by Julia:

I was enthralled by the world of DowntonAbbey (M), the TV drama of the aristocratic family and their servants on the brink of dramatic events. Set in Great Britain at a fictional country estate, the story begins with the news of the sinking of the Titanic and spanning the years through World War I. And..., oh, those dresses!

You might find yourself feeling sad to be leaving Great Britain in the 1910s again. The following books can fill the emptiness left by beloved characters until the premiere of Series 3 in September 2012.

If you want to take . . . a glimpse into the lives of the servants of the rich-and-mighty
then you can try . . .

I’ll Bring you Buttercups (M) by Elizabeth Elgin. Set during WWI, this is a story of the servants and the family they serve on a Yorkshire estate.

The House at Riverton (M), by Kate Morton. “With its engrossing plot and engulfing pace, Morton’s story of a grand English home, its masters and servants, and the tragic death of a young poet should capture the attention of Downton Abbey fans”. - Library Journal.

Below Stairs by (M) Margaret Powell. “The classic kitchen maid's memoir that inspired "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey" . - Book cover

Rose: my life in service to Lady Astor (M), by Rosina Harrison. “This spirited account of one young Yorkshire woman’s 35 years as a maid to the infamous Lady Nancy Astor was first published in 1975 and has been reprinted to capitalize on the “Downton” craze.” - The BookPage blog.

What To Read After Downton Abbey - part one

I was enthralled by the world of Downton Abbey (M), the TV drama of the aristocratic family and their servants on the brink of dramatic events. Set in Great Britain at a fictional country estate, the story begins with the news of the sinking of the Titanic and spanning the years through World War I. And..., oh, those dresses!

You might find yourself feeling sad to be leaving Great Britain in the 1910s again. The following books can fill the emptiness left by beloved characters until the premiere of Series 3 in September 2012.

If you are interested in. . . the exploration of the effects of WWI on society
then you might like . . .

Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey : the lost legacy of Highclere Castle (M) by The Countess of Carnarvon.

The Return of Captain John Emmett (M) by Elizabeth Speller.

Maisie Dobbs (M) mystery series by Jacqueline Winspear.

The classic portrait of upper-middle-class life in Victorian England is shown in The Forsyte Saga (M) by John Galsworthy. 

At The Going Down of The Sun (M) by Elizabeth Darrell tells the story of three privileged brothers who enlist in the war and what the experience does to them.

The Sisters: the saga of the Mitford family (M) by Mary Lovell.

George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: three Royal Cousins and the road to World War I (M) by Miranda Carter. The book is about the famous first cousins: King George V of Britain, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

Sweet Tweets

Now that the nicer weather is here I have been watching the birds come around my backyard. I even saw a couple of pigeons in our trees which surprised me. I have never seen one except on concrete. There are plenty of non-fiction books about birdwatching that the library has to offer, including Birding in Metro Halifax : a month by month adventure guide (M) by Clarence Stevens. I started to wonder what other things birders could see with their binoculars. Here are some fiction titles that may gives you some clues to this:

The Bird Sisters (M) is the debut novel by Rebecca Rasmussen which has one reviewer stating “The Bird Sisters is truly something to crow about”. Milly and Twiss are sisters living in Spring Green, Wisconsin. When injured birds are found, people bring them to the sisters. While Twiss listens to the birds heartbeats, Milly listens to the heartaches of the people who brought the bird in.1974 was a year of change for the sisters. They were challenged by their father’s accident, their priest denounced God, Milly fell in love and their cousin Bett arrived and forever changed their lives. The Bird Sisters has been selected for the Target Emerging Authors Program and The Ladies Home Journal Book Club Pick.


A Rant of Ravens (M) is the first novel in the Birdwatcher’s series by Christine Goff. Rachel Stanhope is a duck out of water when she temporally takes over her vacationing Aunt Miriam’s 2,500 acre bird sanctuary. She barely arrives from New York when the birding community is a buzz about a rare-sighting of a LeConte’s sparrow. While on the search for this bird, Rachel comes across the body of journalist, one who had threatened to expose Aunt Miriam’s late husband for illegal raptor smuggling. While trying to clear her aunt from being the prime suspect, Rachel does her own investing. What she finds will ruffle some feathers along the way.


Tea Olive Bird Watching Society (M) by Augusta Trobaugh is a throwback to the mysteries like Arsenic and Old Lace. In the small southern town of Tea Olive, the founding members of its bird watching club are all named after hymns: Sweet; Beaulah; Zion; and Wildwood. Like most pillars of the community, they always follow proper Southern manners. Until retired Judge L. Hyson Breed comes to town. I found it easy to dislike the judge as one of his first acts as a library board member is to close down the library! Breed tricks Sweet into marrying him in order to steal her land and talks his way onto the town council. When Beaulah and Zion attempt to do away with the judge, while always being polite, the novel becomes a wonderful black comedy.

There as many bird related titles as there are feathers on a peacock. I hope you discover one or two that will tickle your fancy!

Staff Pick - Glass Boys by Nicole Lundrigan

Nicole Lundrigan's moving and character-driven family saga Glass Boys (M) is set in the fictional Newfoundland community Knife's Point and explores the tragedies that can be passed down from generation to generation.


The Trench Brothers, Roy and Lewis, in a drunken state, interrupt a scene between Eli Fagan and his stepson Garrett Glass, so intense and private, that a struggle ensues and Roy is killed. Was he murdered or was it an accident? Lewis believes it was murder, but the courts disagree and the families descend into a hate-filled feud that is to silently pass from generation to generation. In an attempt to build a happy life, Lewis courts and marries Wilda, but his desire for a picture perfect family life blinds him to the tragedy that made Wilda the woman she is. Wilda was unloved by her own mother and was unable to accept the adoration and intense devotion of her eldest son Melvin. Eventually to escape suffocation, Wilda abandons her two sons, Melvin and Toby, causing history to repeat itself as Melvin, a once precocious and happy child, withdraws from his life and loses the strength to cope with tragedy.

Glass Boys contains a sea of damaged characters, however there is a thread of hopefulness and humanity that keeps the sadness and seriousness from overwhelming the story. Wilda is damaged. Melvin is damaged. Garrett is certainly damaged and his story is the most difficult of all to digest. In Garrett we see the early development of a pedophile, and while is this is disturbing and hard to stomach, it is difficult to merely dismiss him as a monster. Lundrigan has created a cast of  layered characters so complex that it is impossible to label them as merely evil or good. Those threads of hopefulness and humanity are personified by Toby, too young to be as damaged as Melvin by his mother's desertion, and by the lovely Mrs Verge. Mrs. Verge remains grateful to Lewis for saving her son and offers the Trench boys warmth and maternal affection.

This is a thought-provoking novel that I can see being enjoyed and discussed by book groups. The writing is spare and events move along at a fast pace. The action is immediate and it takes no time at all to be drawn into the story. One reviewer referred to this novel as humorous, but I'm not sure I can see that - hopeful, yes, and ultimately positive.

It reminds me in a way of books by Donna Morrissey, perhaps especially the atmospheric and character-rich Kit's Law (M). "Kit’s Law is a stunning debut written with the stark rawness of character and landscape of the Rock itself. It evokes the lyrical gifts of E. Annie Proulx, the emotional power of Wally Lamb, and the compelling storytelling of Ann-Marie MacDonald. At its centre is the innocence and determination of Kit herself, a young woman who experiences extremes of pain on the way to redemption. As she says: “It is better to sense nothing at all, to move through the world and glimpse it from a distance, then to split God’s gift in half and live in its underside, with no rays of light dispersing the darkness.”" publisher

11/22/63 by Stephen King - Read-a-likes

The assassination of American president John F. Kennedy shocked the world in 1963. What if you could travel back to 1963 and prevent that tragedy? Stephen King contemplates that in his latest suspense novel 11/22/63 (M). Jeff Eppings a teacher from Maine receives an essay from one of his GED students about a horrific personal event that triggers a turn of events that takes Eppings spiraling back to 1963 in this intricately plotted story. This fast-paced novel takes readers on a nostalgic journey to the fabled age of the Kennedys.

As with most King books, this book is popular and you may want something to read while you wait to move up the library holds list. We’ve compiled a list of read-a-likes to keep you entertained in the meantime.


Set in the 1950s, Pale Horse Coming (M) by Stephen Hunter brings back gritty Arkansas cop Earl Swagger. Swagger brings together a group of gunslingers in this fast paced suspense story. Violence reigns when they set off to search for a friend who’s gone missing investigating a secret African American prison in Mississippi.



In The Legacy (M), author Stephen Frey explores the conspiracy theory of a second shooter on the “grassy knoll.” This fast-paced suspenseful tale takes us from a surprise inheritance of a safety deposit box key that contains a video of the JFK assassination from another angle.



In The Shot (M) by Philip Kerr, the mob decides to pick up the CIA’s work of assassinating Fidel Castro. They hire a hitman, but the reader finds the target is not the one they expected in this suspenseful story. This fast-paced, plot-driven story provides a new perspective on the Kennedy-Castro assassination conspiracies.



In Penumbra (M), Carolyn Haines tells the story of two half sisters - one white and one biracial - growing up in the south in the 1950s. When one sister is beaten and her daughter kidnapped, this suspenseful story tells the parallels of two half-sisters as they live separate lives.