The Savvy Reader

Guest Blogger - Colin Ellard

Colin Ellard continues his fabulous trend of writing great guest blog posts for us here at Savvy Reader. In this "special holiday edition," he's got six tips for putting the "wonder" back in winter wonderland.

Six great ways to get the kids outside and enjoying themselves this winter

The year-end holidays are almost upon us. Though each family has its own way of celebrating the festive season, there is one thing all families share: the doors of the schools will soon close for about two weeks and we will have more time to spend with our children. This period of relaxed togetherness can be a great opportunity for some "nature therapy." Understandably, during our long winters the temptations of indoor pursuits are at their strongest. Yet scientific evidence shows that outdoor play is crucial to normal physical and mental development in children. How do we get them away from the lure of the screens and out the door? Here are 6 great ideas:

HCC News: Tuesday Links

Today is our last day in the office. We'll be out of the office until January 5th so today I'm going to try and load up on as much content as humanly possible to keep everyone reading until we're back in the new year. Let's start off with some links, many of which have come to me via Twitter (@harpercollinsca). If you're already there, follow us!

The year in Canadian publishing from the Globe and Mail. Congratulations to Lawrence Hill on the continued and well-deserved success around his phenomenal The Book of Negroes. (link via @sarahw)

"Prophet Sharing" in the WSJ. More chatter about The Green Bible. (link via mediabistro)

Our latest As Seen in Hello! pick is Stephanie Kallos's Sing Them Home. The author answers their 'book brahmin' questions over at Shelf Awareness.

Many of our fantastic authors participated in Yahoo! Canada Answers this year. The highlights are here in their Yahoo! Canada Answers Guide to Everything.

Gregory Maguire on NPR: "Matchless: A Christmas Story"...

I'm sure there will be more links coming forth today as I clean out my virtual desk for the holidays.

10 Heartwarming Post-Holiday Reads

The holidays are just a couple of days away and (not to hurry anyone along or anything) before we all break (HarperCollins Canada is closed from the 24th - January 5th), here are 10 books to read when you've got some down time. Narvan's aptly called these novels "Post-Holiday Heartwarmers" and has created a great top 10 list for you to peruse.

10 Heartwarming Post-Holiday Reads

Once all the presents are unwrapped, the wine bottles recycled, and the good china stashed away, what will you do? Why not pick up a great book? Reawaken your inner romantic with tear-jerking love notes, Jane Austen’s diary entries, and even arsenic chocolate brownies for a shoddy ex-boyfriend. Cuddle up with a comfy blanket on your favourite chair, and get down to the business of turning pages.

I Love You Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle
Denis Cooverman didn't want to give a typical graduation speech, cherishing memories and embracing challenges and crap. So, instead, he stood up in front of his 512 class-mates and their 3,000 relatives and said some-thing really important: "I love you, Beth Cooper." It would have been such a sweet, romantic moment. Except that Beth, the head cheerleader, has only the vaguest idea who Denis is…

HCC Excerpt: How to Make the Perfect Snowball

With more snow on the way for many of us Canadians, why not turn winter on its head and actually get out and enjoy the weather vs. sitting inside and complaining? Here's a cute excerpt from The Daring Book for Girls about making the perfect snowball.

How to Make the Perfect Snowball

Snowballs may not be allowed in schoolyards, but this shouldn’t stop you from holding a neighborhood snowball fight when school gets canceled because of a big storm. When a snowball fight breaks out, everyone must agree to some ground rules, such as no ice, and all snowballs must be always aimed well below the neck.

There are four basic kinds of snow.

Powder
Likely to be seen on very cold days. It has low moisture content and lots of air. Skier love it, but not snowball fighters, because it’s too dry to pack well.

Slush
No one likes slush; this mushy, melty, waterlogged snow is horrid for snowballs.

HCC News - Monday Morning Reviews

A calm has quieted over the office this week as many of our coworkers have take the few days before the holidays off, which means it's a really good time to get caught up on the never-ending to do list that plagues our desks. I am, of course, procrastinating by going through email and thought it would be nice to put up some links to recent reviews of our books.

Lemony Snicket's wonderful A Lump of Coal reviewed in The Globe and Mail this weekend. Browse Inside to read more from the book.

Ken Oppel's Starclimber and Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book were both covered in The Toronto Star's Holiday Reads feature.

Robert J. Weirsema says the following about The Private Lives of Pippa Lee: "...it is a deep-cutting, evocative and thought-provoking glimpse into the heart and mind of one woman."

NPR takes a look at The Green Bible. In other NPR linkage, booksellers recommend their favourites for your holiday lists.

The Winnipeg Free Press raves about one of my favourite books of the year, Mo Hayder's Ritual.

The Link let's its readers in on some Love + Sex with Robots. And Marci definitely recommends Remembering the Bones.

A couple more came through Twitter (@globebooks) and (@littlebrown): The WSJ on A Lump of Coal and Entertainment Weekly's "Best of" Books for 2008 (holler!) finds The House on Fortune Street worthy but not so much Bright Shiny Morning (check the "worst" in books; ouch!).

Do You Agree Or Disagree?

I'm a little late to this party, but I wanted to put this up and out there anyway. I'll chime in first to say that I really love the look of the Olive Editions:

1. Publisher's Weekly asks FWIS to discuss the book jackets.

2. They post up about it on their blog, of course. People rant.

3. Bookslut comments. With great wit.

4. Is this adding to the idea of "Schadenfoer"?

So: do you love them or do you love them?

HCC News - Links Aplenty

With only a few more days left in 2008, there are so many great "best of" lists popping up all over the internets. It's also a time to reflect on some reading goals for 2009, so if anyone out there has some interesting challenges they'd like to send our way, please holler back in the comments.

• Kerry Claire's top 11 includes The Girl In Saskatoon, The Letter Opener and The Monsters of Templeton.
• Jen @ Baby Got Books also loved The Monsters of Templeton. Tim's picks include: Sharp Teeth, Atmospheric Disturbances, The Monsters of Templeton, and Anathem. Nicola also loved The Monsters of Templeton and she included The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit.
• Maud Newton enjoyed Marilynne Robinson's Home
  
• As did the Library Journal. They also loved Hurry Down Sunshine.
  
• The Quill and Quire has Bottomfeeder on their list. While you're visiting the Q&Q, make sure to read their profile of author Joseph Heath.
• Lawrence Hill among the top 10 arts newsmakers according to the CBC.
• The community over at Good Reads has The Last Lecture, The Art of Racing in the Rain, Belong to Me and The Monsters of Templeton among others on a list that you can vote for your favourites...
• The Economist has Breath as one of the year's best fiction and memoirs. Tim Winton's book is among one of my "unsung heroes" -- books I read and loved this year and wish the world would read too.
• Amazon.com, Amazon.ca each have 100 best titles to choose from if you wanted to do some last-minute shopping...
• And while none of these are our books, I did love the title of this year in review post.
• One would assume The Art of Racing in the Rain would be on her 'best of' list, judging from the excitement.
• Loads of industry chatter about Borders accepting HarperStudio's terms. Maybe a possible item on a 'best of' ways we can make positive change in the industry list.
• I wish I'd already read 100 books this year. And here's one recommendation in particular that might grab your attention. 
• Holiday reading recommendations (The Graveyard Book and Starclimber).

I could be at this all day...alas, other projects await.

HCC Event - Wally Lamb in Toronto

Wally Lamb was here in Toronto last week to promote The Hour I First Believed. He did a tonne of media and, even though he was suffering from a cold, a wonderful event at Indigo (Yonge and Eglington). He began the night off by reading from an essay he had written called "Braided Cords." The story of his life, of his family, of how he became a writer, all of the lovely essay can be found on his author page, but here's a small taste:

Say “Connecticut” and you’re likely to conjure in people’s minds images of leafy bedroom towns whose tony residents commute to Manhattan, unwind at the country club, and send their kids to prep school. I come from the “other” Connecticut: east-of-the-Connecticut-river Connecticut. We’re more feisty than fashionable, more liverwurst than pâté. Boston exerts a greater pull on us than New York, and so we drop our r’s, root for the Red Sox, and use the word “wicked” as an adverb, as in Manny Ramirez is a wicked good hittuh. Norwich, the eastern Connecticut mill town where I was born and raised, is the prototype for Three Rivers, the fictional town where I have set two of my novels...

He also read from the book, from a part where Caelum is still a child and some fairly dramatic things happen. And then he answered questions from the audience. One of the most poignant stories he told, and he is an excellent storyteller, was about reading near Columbine and having a man come up to him afterwards to ask if the novel was appropriate for the brother of one of the shooter's to read. The man asking the question turned out to be the shooter's father -- and when Wally Lamb relayed their conversation to the audience, I swear my eyes welled right up.

Watch the On the Flys he recorded for us after the jump.

Guest Blogger - Meg Cabot

Technically Meg Cabot's not exactly "guest blogging" so much as I'm pulling some content from her amazing author page in order to share it with you all. After a very upsetting bout of, um, feline tummy upset at home, this post cracked me up:

A Typical Day in an (okay, this) Author’s Life

4:45 AM—Cat throws up.

4:46 AM to 4:50 AM—Clean up cat vomit.

4:51 AM—Attempt to get back to sleep.

4:55 AM—Garbage truck arrives for pick up. Listen to city workers discuss at loud decibels outrage over recent local school board decision to give all students late on lunch payments a cold cheese sandwich in lieu of hot lunch.

4:56 AM to 8:00 AM—Reflect on various cheese sandwiches I’ve consumed throughout life.

8:00 AM to 9:00 AM—Perform morning ablutions, including makeup, though I’m not going anywhere. But you never know when George Clooney might drop by unexpectedly.

9:00 AM—Breakfast. For reason unknown, husband insists on watching Regis and Kelly every weekday morning. Perhaps he hopes Kelly might drop by unexpectedly one day.

9:30 AM to Noon—Check e-mails/update blog(s)/deal with publicity. Copyedits from my UK publisher, interviews from Brazilian journalists, page proofs from my manga publisher, queries from foreign translators (“What is a crackhouse? A house with a crack in it? Your heroine is quite unkind for not wanting to go there. Perhaps owners cannot afford to fix the crack.”). Fortunately there are gossip websites to check. What’s latest drunk starlet doing now? Oh, no, not again! Okay, fun’s over, back to work.

Read on to see how the rest of her day ended up.

HCC Interview - Vikas Swarup

With the movie’s Golden Globe nod still hot off the press, Slumdog Millionaire author Vikas Swarup talks to us about the “aha” moments and the Bollywood ideas behind this buzzworthy novel.

Vikas, even though you are not in the hot seat here and there’s no jackpot at the end of it, here’s your slice of the 15-questions pie:

1. How did you come to write Slumdog Millionaire?

I have been telling stories since childhood, but sadly, didn’t write anything beyond my school days. It was only during my diplomatic posting in London that I had the urge to write. I tried my hand at a full-length novel about a contract killer but didn’t really show it around to publishers. I used it as a learning experience to work on Slumdog Millionaire, which I finished in two months flat. And that’s the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!