The Savvy Reader

Todd Babiak Takes on France

Todd Babiak, author of the touching, yet awkwardly hilarious, Toby: A Man (and if the Browse Inside link doesn't convince you, how about this: it's compared to Nick Hornby's About a Boy) has packed up his life in Edmonton and left with his wife and two young daughters for France.

To live.

For a whole year.

Sounds nice, right?

Fortunately for us, he's chronicling his French adventure, complete with photos and videos, for the Edmonton Journal.

I highly recommend that you start at the beginning.

--Amanda

Jess Walter Picked by Laura Lippman & Nick Hornby

Steve Osgoode, our Director of Business Development (among other things!) sent this around earlier this month:

Salon.com asked a number of writers to name their favourite book of the year and both Nick Hornby and Laura Lippman picked The Financial Life of Poets. It's the only book to appear more than once on the list.

Nick Hornby, the author of "Juliet, Naked" Jess Walter is one of your country's most interesting younger novelists, and one of my favourite contemporary writers. And his latest book, The Financial Lives of the Poets, seems to me to contain most things that one can reasonably expect from a good novel: It's wise, moving, very funny and timely, dealing as it does with economic calamity and how that whole mess impacts our lives and relationships and souls. Oh, and it's a joy to read, too -- a sine qua non, given the darkness of the times, both within the book's pages and out here in the world.

Laura Lippman, author of "Hardly Knew Her"

By this point in my reading life, I have two mantras: "Surprise me" and "Have a take and don't suck." Jim Rome coined the latter, but the former is the result of more than a decade as a crime novelist. I'm a hard reader to surprise. I'm not talking about traditional plot twists, but something almost indefinable, a resolution at once true and earned, yet not entirely expected. In Jess Walter's fifth novel, The Financial Lives of the Poets, he sets up a hilarious situation -- former reporter/would-be Internet entrepreneur decides to become a pot dealer to forestall his family's financial crisis -- and brings it to a ruefully understated ending. Bonus: A succinct and, yes, poetic description of what's happened to newsrooms over the past few years. It actually reminded me why I loved being a newspaper reporter, once upon a time.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

William Kamkwamba was on The Daily Show yesterday (watch the clip from the episode) talking about his new book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. It's an amazing story. Kamkwamba built a windmill (after teaching himself by reading library books) to create electricity for his village in Malawi.

Browse Inside to read more of Kamkwamba's story.

HCC News: The Monday Reviews Issue

We're catching up on reviews this week in our HCC News post. Here's a selection of some interesting ink spilled over our books this past weekend:

• The Calgary Herald gets all tied up in Rebecca Gowers's The Twisted Heart without minding being caught.
• The Toronto Star says of Bonnie Burnard's latest novel, Suddenly,"Avoid this book at your own peril."
• Speaking of Suddenly, M.A.C. Farrant reviews the same novel for The Vancouver Sun
• Then, Donna Bailey Nurse reviews the novel for The Globe and Mail.
• And Katherine Govier reviews it for The National Post (with a lovely photo illustration).
• And while we're linking to The National Post, Frank Moher, boldly announces that, in a way, Cathy Marie Buchanan's The Day the Falls Stood Still might just be a more successful novel than The Wars by Timothy Findley. He says, "In writerly terms, it is a better novel than The Wars -- more convincing, less grandiloquent."
• I adore Tim Wynne-Jones's headline for his review of Arthur Slade's The Hunchback Assignments in this weekend's The Globe and Mail: "Steampunk and the full Modo."

Congratulations to Helen Humphreys

Heartfelt congratulations go out to Helen Humphreys today. The IFOA has just announced that she's the recipient of the $10,000 Harbourfront Festival Prize. The full press release is after the jump.

TORONTO, September 23, 2009 --- The International Festival of Authors (IFOA) announced at a luncheon today that novelist and memoirist Helen Humphreys has been named the winner of this year’s Harbourfront Festival Prize.

The Death of Bunny Munro

It's been 20 years since Nick Cave's first novel was published, but don't mistake him for a slacker. He has been the lead singer of The Birthday Party, The Bad Seeds and Grinderman, in addition to contributing to multiple movie soundtracks. If that's not impressive enough, Cave has been a singer/actor/writer long before the trend, having acting credits to his name and a book and screenplay under his belt.

Cave has finally penned another novel, entitled The Death of Bunny Munro, that follows Bunny's dismal existence as he navigates through life in the aftermath of his wife's suicide. Instead of serving as a role model to the son who idolizes him, Bunny chases after his many vices, including (but certainly not limited to): sex, drugs and alcohol. Cave's writing is real and extremely raw, as he examines the father-son relationship and the darker side of life.

Here's a great video of Nick Cave reading from Chapter 12 to satisfy your curiosity until the book comes out in September!

For more information, be sure to look around The Death of Bunny Munro website, where you can read excerpts and even follow Bunny abroad to see the book's international covers.

--Sheri

Tim Winton wins the Miles Franklin Award

The unstoppable Tim Winton, already a two-time finalist of the Man Booker Prize, has just won the Miles Franklin Award for the fourth time for Breath. Here's a release (plus a video) of his inspiring acceptance speech.

Tim Winton wins the 2009 Miles Franklin Award for his novel Breath.

Four times a winner of the nation's most prestigious prize and the only writer ever to have won four times in his own right, Winton was on his beloved Ningaloo Reef in the north of WA when the announcement was made in Sydney tonight.

"It's been a strong year for Australian novels," said the author. "When you consider that your book is up against work by Richard Flanagan, Helen Garner, Peter Carey and Murray Bail you'd have to be a hell of an optimist to fancy your chances.  I'm stoked, of course, but also mindful that there are terrific writers who will be feeling pretty stiff tonight, because their books are more than good enough to have won. To some extent I feel like the kid who's simply left holding the parcel when the music stops."

HCC News – The Tattletale Edition

Plagiarism, books in outer space, and cheating husbands -- this may just be one of our most scandalous HCC News editions yet. And who doesn’t love a bit of good ol’ gossip? So get comfy, grab a margarita or two, and get ready to surf this week’s stormy waters.

• What would you do if you found out your whole life was a lie? Julie Metz wrote a bestselling book, so the New York Times visited her at home to find out more. For those of you with satellite, watch Julie talk about her ordeal on Good Morning America on July 1st.
• Bibliohistoria says the Doomsday Key was “fast moving, with plenty of action, lots of history and even some science and archaeology as well”  Is it ever any other way with James Rollins?
• Speaking of James, don’t forget to enter our Rollins Contest for a chance to win no less than 8 signed copies of his books. And if you just can’t get enough of him, follow him on Twitter for updates on the upcoming Altar of Eden.
• Who is Mark Twain?, asks Mark Twain. And the Globe & Mail answers.
• Lynn at Canadian Books and Authors says Sam was the character she liked the most in Step Closer. Who do you relate to more? Browse Inside and find out.
• What’s better than a wondrous faerie land in Central Park? An audio version of a wondrous faerie land –- as read by author / voice actor Lesley Livingston. The audio book edition of Wondrous Strange is out this week.
• Roxana Saberi, the American journalist imprisoned in Tehran, is publishing a book. And it promises "a penetrating look into Iranian society and culture."
• Our Sales Director just sent out an email regarding “the situation with Chris Anderson’s book Free.” Where do you draw the line in the digital age? Here’s what Anderson says. 
• Kenneth Oppel's Governor General's Award-winning Airborn has gone into outer space! A Canadian astronaut, Dr. Robert Thirsk, is part of the current crew aboard the Space Station on a six-month mission. Each astronaut is permitted a personal "official flying kit" and part of his kit is a copy of Airborn. Very fitting. Read all about it here (item #10)
• Is love still in the mix for Jon and Kate?
• There’s just something about Vikas Swarup. His new bestseller, Six Suspects, just wowed the New York Times with its zany mix of Bollywood and the game Clue. “Can a novel be any more high-concept than that?”

-- Narvan
 

HCC News: The Almost-Summer Edition

Here in the Toronto the weather is finally starting to brighten up a little -- so no one’s going to blame you for wanting to spend every second outdoors this week-end. But of course, what’s a relaxing weekend without lounging in the sun, a refreshing drink in one hand, and a really, really good book in the other? Here are a couple of great books that were all over the news this week:

• A 90-minute docudrama based on Ken McGoogan's fascinating Fatal Passage just won The Grand Prize for best Canadian program at the Banff World Television Awards. Read about Ken’s writing process, missed NBA opportunity and upcoming book in this Q&A with Rob McLennan.
• The Toronto Star talks to Farley Follows His Nose author Lynn Johnston. And don’t miss your chance to win a copy of the book through our very own Savvy Reader / Farley contest!
• Financial blog Four Pillars says that "everyone would benefit" from reading 397 Ways to Save Money.
• Collin Ellard tells us where we are.
• Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger got a standing ovation at last week's BEA. But he can't keep publishers from worrying about the Kindle.
• Marilynne Robinson’s Home (featuring characters from her Pulitzer prize-winning Gilead) won the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
• Not be outdone, Coventry by Helen Humphreys is also racking up the nominations, including ones for the CAA MOSAID Technologies Award for Fiction, the 22nd Trillium Book Award and a CBA Libris Author of the Year Award (along with fellow nominees Margaret Atwood and Joseph Boyden).
• L.J. Smith's Vampire Diaries has been turned into a Thursday night drama. Watch the trailer.
• While in town for Luminato, Neil Gaiman sat down with the Toronto Star for this front page interview. And Metro News revealed Gaiman’s interesting choice of front yard decoration.
• Luanne from A Bookworm’s World calls Crazy for the Storm “a stunning, yet heartbreaking memoir.”
• Jolted by Arthur Slade was nominated by the children of Alberta for the 2010  Rocky Mountain Book Award.

-- Narvan

Grass, Sky, Song: "Moral without Moralizing"

Theologian Ron Rolheiser, whose syndicated column appears in over 77 newspapers across the globe, just posted the following review of Trevor Herriot’s Grass, Sky, Song:

"Good writing, like good art, is moral without being moralizing, expresses deep sentiment without being sentimental, challenges without inducing false guilt, and is mature without being cynical. No easy formula.

With this in mind, I would like to highlight a new book by a Canadian writer, Trevor Herriot: Grass, Sky, Song, Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds. It walks that fine line: powerfully moral without a trace of bad moralizing, mature without a hint of cynicism, a book about death that leaves its reader with hope.

On the surface, it is a book about grassland birds declining and disappearing in the Canadian and American prairies, but it is a book about more than birds, much more. It's about our relationship to the earth, all of us, whether we live in the country or in the city, and how unconsciously, not matter how innocent our intentions might be, our grip on nature is slowly tightening so as to threaten to suffocate the very life forces that support us."

Keep reading.