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BOOKS
Staff Pick - The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst
Submitted by The Reader on 04.8.13 at 6:55am.
The Stranger's Child (M) is not the first occasion that Alan Hollinghurst has written about the evolution of gay culture and literary biography. In The Swimming Pool Library (M) a beautiful, idle, aristocratic rogue looks for anonymous sex in a public washroom, only to find an elderly member of t...
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4 Fiction Titles to look for in April
Submitted by The Reader on 04.5.13 at 6:55am.
Four new April fiction releases to pique your interest:
The Mothers (M)
by Jennifer Gilmore
"Poignant, raw, and insightful, Jennifer Gilmore’s third novel is an unforgettable story of love, family, and motherhood. With a “voice [that is] at turns wise and barbed with sharp humor” (Vanity Fair)...
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Autism in Fiction
Submitted by The Reader on 04.4.13 at 6:34am.
April is Autism Awareness month.
In support of the initiative to raise awareness, I offer up three recent novels dealing the theme of autism. Although we provide many non-fiction titles on the topic, the power of fiction to inform should not be overlooked.
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ripples of memory
Submitted by Days Go By on 04.3.13 at 7:57am.
Her chin came up and she looked like her old fierce self. "I searched all over. Usually she just stalked the paths near the house, but that night I ran all the way down to the lower garden before I saw her."
I didn't dare move. Or breathe. Maud drew a shuddery breath and went on.
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4 Nonfiction Titles to Look for in April
Submitted by The Reader on 04.3.13 at 6:51am.
April is here and hopefully with it a bit of spring like weather. I've got a lot of yard work to do so there's no way I'm fitting in quite as much reading this month: here's just four titles that are on my radar for April.
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Staff Pick - Mercy Thompson Series by Patricia Briggs
Submitted by The Reader on 03.28.13 at 6:46am.
I came across the first of Briggs' Mercy Thompson series (M) a few years ago and became a quick follower of Mercy Thompson, aka, the coyote shape-shifter. The series main character, Mercy, grew up amongst a werewolf pack, but runs her own life with a stubbornness that any independent woman would ...
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Top Chef Reads
Submitted by The Reader on 03.26.13 at 6:43am.
I recently did a quick search back through the archives of The Reader blog and discovered that I've mentioned on more than one occasion that I have a bit of an obsession with the TV show Top Chef. Not only has the show become part of my TV watching routine, but it's also impacted my reading.
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Adult Books for Teens - The Alex Awards
Submitted by The Reader on 03.25.13 at 7:12am.
The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18. The winning titles are selected from the previous year's publishing. The Alex Awards were first given annually beginning in 1998 and became an official ALA award in 2002
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In Memororiam - James Herbert
Submitted by The Reader on 03.22.13 at 6:35am.
James Herbert, horror and science fiction writer, has passed away at the age of 69. Herbert has been a bestselling novelist since the 1970's and his works have defined the genre and became classics during his lifetime.
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Book Review: Charlie and the Angels: The Outlaws, the Hells Angels and the Sixty Years War
Submitted by Damian Penny's blog on 03.22.13 at 6:30am.
[originally posted at Canadian Lawyer]
A one-percenter is the one of a hundred of us who has given up on society and the politician’s one-way laws.
This is why we look repulsive.
We are saying we don’t want to be like you or look like you.
So stay out of our face.
[...]
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The 2013 Bookies…They’re back again!
Submitted by The Reader on 03.20.13 at 8:04am.
The CBC’s annual readers’ choice awards, the Bookies, are back once again and like other CBC book programs (e.g. Canada Reads) the Bookies are shaking things up a bit this year.
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Donna Morrissey, Catherine Banks, Shandi Mitchell and Sylvia Gunnery Want to Talk to You!
Submitted by The Reader on 03.19.13 at 6:55am.
Come on down to the Potter Auditorium at Dalhousie University this Wednesday evening for a wonderful opportunity to hear Donna Morrissey in conversation with fabulous Fellow Writers. Donna is a gifted writer and fantastic speaker. I guarantee that you will be thoroughly entertained.
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memories
Submitted by Days Go By on 03.4.13 at 7:25am.
Porter tried another tack. "Dad, when did Minna and Maud last talk?"
Clay set his coffee mug down. "I guess - the last time I saw them together was the day the children left. Minna wanted to keep you here, you know. She said it was inhumane to take you both away from where you'd grown up, where...
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Calling All Readers - Readers in Residence on CKDU radio
Submitted by The Reader on 02.28.13 at 7:02am.
PSRS Presents: Readers in Residence.
I recently became aware of this neat reading initiative hosted on CKDU, the campus radio station at Dalhousie University (88.1 on your FM dial and online).
Readers in Residence is a PSRS Presents: project airing on CKDU each Monday at 2:30 pm. It is an audie...
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52 Books in 52 Weeks - Week Nine
Submitted by Little Homestead In The Valley on 02.27.13 at 7:31am.
If you haven't already, check out the official 52 Books in 52 Weeks site and join in the fun.
Here's my list so far.
Read To Date
The Eyre Affair
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Support Freedom to Read Week - Read a Banned Book
Submitted by The Reader on 02.27.13 at 6:43am.
In Canada, the freedom to read what you want to read is easy to take for granted. But censorship challenges still exist all around the world, even here in Canada.
In support of this important freedom, I offer up five reading suggestions, all titles which have had censorship challenges somewhere...
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African Fiction - 4 Debut Novels
Submitted by The Reader on 02.26.13 at 6:54am.
Who Fears Death (M)
by Nnedi Okorafor
"In her astonishing debut, Okorafor has created a desolate, postapocalyptic Africa of endless desert, failing technology, superstition, and magic. But life is not without hope. Prophesy speaks of a sorcerer who will change the future, end the wars and slave...
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Bare It For Books
Submitted by The Reader on 02.25.13 at 6:36am.
Bare It For Books is a fun new fundraising project to support PEN Canada.
The project will result in a 2014 calendar, featuring 12 of our nation's hottest authors.
(I am looking forward to my birthday month of May ;)
Please read below for more details....
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What does the structure need? Structure!
Submitted by Jan Morrison's blog on 02.22.13 at 7:36am.
I'm way ahead of my plan. I didn't go to work today. It was snowy and I had a couple of clients only but really I just didn't feel great. What I did do though is finish this draft of the novel. The last part went way faster though I think I'm not really finished - I've just pared it down to the b...
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Staff Pick - Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
Submitted by The Reader on 02.22.13 at 6:46am.
A while ago I picked up Carrie Fisher's dvd of her stage show Wishful Drinking (M) and found her to be charming and funny, so this book has been on my radar for a while. I feel kind of bad that I was so amused by the rather unfortunate things that happened to her, but if you are in the mood for ...
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B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-fiction - longlist
Submitted by The Reader on 11.13.12 at 6:04am.
B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-fiction is one of Canada's largest literary prizes. The longlist of comprised of books from across the entire country. From their website:
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Read Your Way Around Halifax - 2012 edition
Submitted by The Reader on 07.16.12 at 7:36am.
It doesn't feel like like summer here at the Halifax Reader until we've toured Nova Scotia in fiction. Let's enjoy a literary tour of our beautiful province with some of this year's additions to the library's collection.
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Men Don't Change
Submitted by Keith McPhail on 05.25.12 at 7:35pm.
Why Men Lie, by Linden MacIntyre
Review by Keith McPhail
This is a book about intriguing topics. The title alludes to that immediately. Each word evokes interest. “Why”: often the first question we ask as a child; it is a key word in digging deep to seek understanding. “Men”: one would...
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Ursula Le Guin and the The Aeneid's Lavinia
Submitted by Peter O’Brien on 01.26.10 at 1:27pm.
Lavinia, By Ursula K. Le Guin
Reviewed by Peter O’Brien
Ursula K. Le Guin's career as a creator of alternative realities dates back four decades now. She is perhaps best known for the Earthsea series for young adults, but her oeuvre in adult science fiction and fantasy has a speculat...
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Book Review: Of Canoes, Maritime History, and Friendship
Submitted by Keith McPhail on 12.18.09 at 7:35am.
It’s a little bit of adventure memoir, philosophical retrospective, chronicle of a friendship, historical reflection … and more. As a slim volume, Like an Ever Rolling Stream author Hugh W. McKervill packs this literary trip to the gunwales.
A modest edition by Four East Publications, McKervil...
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Book Review: An Echo in the Bone
Submitted by Carolyn Davison on 12.5.09 at 9:37am.
Diana Gabaldon’s seventh and latest installment, An Echo in the Bone, has enough interrelated tales (five to be exact) to sustain fans through many cold winter nights.
An Echo in the Bone is the continuing historical fiction saga of Clare Randall and Jamie Fraser and their family in 18th cen...
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Book Excerpt: An Echo in the Bone, by Diana Gabaldon
Submitted by Nicholas Graham on 12.5.09 at 9:42am.
The following is excerpted from the hardcover edition of An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon Copyright © 2009 by Diana Gabaldon. Excerpted by permission of Anchor Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted...
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Memories of home
Submitted by Jera Yin on 04.17.09 at 10:29am.
“Up Home” is a book with a story by Shauntay Grant and artwork by Susan Tooke that is published by Nimbus Publishing. The first thing that strikes you about the book “Up Home” is the beautiful patchwork image that adorns the cover. Symbolic of the stories and memories of growing up, “Up Home” w...
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Stories of Afghanistan from those who know
Submitted by Janus Siebritz on 04.16.09 at 7:49am.
When it comes to understanding the experience of war and conflict in Afghanistan from a distance, one of the only ways to get a grasp the every day challenges faced is from reading the stories of those who were personally involved.
Outside the Wire explores in a very human manner, not only th...
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Mac Maharaj: South African hero
Submitted by Dr. Linda Liebenberg on 02.17.09 at 9:39am.
Anyone interested in South African politics should read this book. This mammoth work of Padraig O’Malley’s provides a vivid account of the past 60 years of South Africa’s history, positioning it around the story of a man who is unflinchingly critical of himself, the movement he served loyally for...
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Margaret Atwood's Debt Plan
Submitted by Dorey Thomas on 01.6.09 at 11:54am.
Payback: Debt and the Shadow side of Wealth
By Margaret Atwood
Because it has appeared at the time of a global economic crisis stemming mainly from an overload of debt, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth has been hailed as timely. Given the prominence Margaret Atwood has given...
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A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano -- an excerpt
Submitted by Topbanana on 12.12.08 at 11:36am.
And then there was the piano, which the National Library had decided to purchase from Gould’s estate. An eight-foot-eleven-and-one-quarter-inch Steinway concert grand, it was known as CD 318 (C to signify its special status as having been put aside for the use of Steinway concert artists, and D d...
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Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano
Submitted by Johanna Graham on 12.12.08 at 11:34am.
When I was about seven years old I played in the local Kiwanis music festival for the first time. I sat down at the piano to play the first notes of “Under the Haycock” and nothing happened. The action of the grand piano’s keys was so stiff my little fingers did not produce any sound at all. I qu...
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The Man Who Made Vermeers
Submitted by Dorey Thomas on 11.15.08 at 10:32am.
On May 29, 1945, Han van Meegeren was arrested
in Amsterdam on the charge that during the Nazi occupation he sold a painting by Jan Vermeer to Herman Goering, the commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe. This transaction amounted to trading with the enemy, and was in effect an act of collaboration. ...
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Marche on Sanjania
Submitted by Keith McPhail on 11.10.08 at 11:54am.
Wake up armchair travelers! There’s a new country to explore. Stephen Marche’s Shining at the Bottom of the Sea requires only that you get comfortable in your favorite reading chair, flip open the cover and let your eyes do the walking. Marche’s novel isn’t a real travelogue, because it is based ...
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Shining at the Bottom of the Sea, by Stephen Marche: an excerpt
Submitted by Nicholas Graham on 11.10.08 at 12:05pm.
[For the sake of readability and accessibility, the spelling and in some cases the syntax of this story have been normalized.—s.m.]
Wherever they may be, and wherever they may be from, all men do relish a hanging. The Drama of Law, with its Crime and its Punish and its splendid gibbet Finish, ...
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Around the World in 57 1/2 Gigs: An Excerpt
Submitted by Nicholas Graham on 11.7.08 at 2:39pm.
I started playing my first song — “Little Bird, Little Bird,” a folk elegy about a Second World War soldier. I stood at the front of the stage but stepped down on the floor after sensing that the lyrics couldn’t be heard at the back of the hall. Before I got too deeply into the song, however, I b...
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Lightning and Blackberries: An excerpt
Submitted by Nicholas Graham on 10.29.08 at 10:14am.
The following is an excerpt from Lightning and Blackberries, by Joanne Jefferson.
I felt my heart beating harder and my breath coming in shorter bursts, but I tried to keep myself calm as I turned to retrace my steps. Thunderstorms did not frighten me. Was it this way, I thought, or tha...
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Book Review: Lightning and Blackberries
Submitted by Anne Esslinger on 10.29.08 at 10:11am.
In the eighteenth century, life for teenage girls was much different than it is today. By the time they reached seventeen, young ladies were expected to think seriously of marriage to an approved suitor. Elizabeth Evans was different. She rebelled against her mother’s idea that she should spend h...
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Nikolski, by Nicolas Dickner: A Review
Submitted by Lynn Lethbridge on 09.27.08 at 3:24pm.
My first thought when I finished Nikolski was that I would like to read it again. Not in a bad way as in, “Holy crow, I’m supposed to review this and I have nothing to say I better read it again” but in a good way as in, “I think I could take something different from this book each time I read it...
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Society of Wolves, a review of Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong
Submitted by Keith McPhail on 09.24.08 at 6:58pm.
I have to admit up front that I am not familiar with Chinese, so I have not read Wolf Totem in its original language, thus leaving me, as a reviewer, at the mercy of the translator. Author Jiang Rong (whose real name is Lu Jiamin) is well served by translator Howard Goldblatt—and I don’t just say...
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Chronicler of the Winds
Submitted by Wanda McDonald on 09.22.08 at 9:03am.
Henning Mankell is perhaps best known as the author of the Kurt Wallander series of crime stories. He has, though, an impressive volume of work outside of that genre, including the one discussed here.
Chronicler of the Winds is written with both great intensity and a beautiful calmness. The st...
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Book Review: The Truth About Canada
Submitted by Michael Bradfield on 09.5.08 at 10:10am.
As implied by the tabloid-style title, Mel Hurtig’s latest book is necessary reading, particularly for journalists, editorial writers, politicians, and CEOs. For all Canadians it provides a mass of data and sources to evaluate the misleading and often downright false statements served up by our “...
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