The Savvy Reader

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

The Globe and Mail on Tolkien's latest

J.R.R. Tolkien new book, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, received a rave review in this Saturday’s Globe & Mail. Here are some of the highlights:

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, the latest of J.R.R. Tolkien's works edited and published posthumously by Christopher Tolkien, will delight not only diehard Tolkien devotees and students of Old Norse and Old English literature, but also lovers of the ancient tales of gods and heroes that we read (or had read to us) as children.

The lays themselves are a masterpiece of retelling and reinvention.

The book would be worth the read for richness of the tales alone.

“The stark narrative is enriched and extended by the force of the language: One can hear the sounds of battle, smell the slaughter.”

In sum, Tolkien's New Lays are rich and compelling, combining the master's originality with the scholar's proficiency, echoing both ancient legends rooted in the mists of time and well-beloved tales of his own (readers will recognize many names and motifs from The Lord of the Rings). The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún demonstrates J.R.R. Tolkien's ability to delight and enthrall his readers, even years after his death. It is one of this year's must reads.

Written before his ever-popular Middle Earth creations, the two poems in this book are based on an ancient Norse legend that influenced much of Tolkien’s later work, including the Lord of the Rings and The Children of Húrin. And with the movie adaption of The Hobbit finally in the works (directed, after much hubbub, by Pan’s Labyrinth director and The Strain author Guillermo del Toro), The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún is the perfect place to prime for the new wave of Tolkien mania that’s about to hit.  And if like me you can’t wait until then, just check out the book trailer or this fascinating video on The Making Of… from the folk over at HarperCollins UK.

KPL Teens Review Wings

Liza Morrison, our Children's Sales Director, sent a few galleys of Aprilynne Pike's forthcoming Wings to the teen book club at the Kitchener Public Library. This week they sent back a number of written reviews. Their responses to the novel are predictably fascinating: one part "kids say the darndest things," one part a little too truthful, and all parts entertaining. Here's a selection of some of the best comments.

"Wings was a very interesting novel. It catches you while you are still falling."

"This was the kind of book that is hard to put down. Reading Wings is like indulging in a Caramilk chocolate."

"What I like about Wings is that it explored the world of faeries which is often shunned in the science fiction/fantasy genre."

"It kept me always wanting for more."

"It's well written enough that you can believe that it's actually physically possible... I can't wait for her next book!"

Wings publishes this April.

New and Newsworthy: Ken McGoogan on Literary Photographer

The media's already lining up to talk to Ken McGoogan about his latest book, Race to the Polar Sea, and we've got some exciting things planned here on Savvy Reader (guest blogging from the Arctic!). Don Denton from Literary Photographer recently interviewed the author about his upcoming book, the appeal of the Arctic for literary historians, and what life is like without a particular kind of soap box:

LP: You have a new book coming out any day now called Race to the Polar Sea: The Heroic Adventures and Romantic Obsessions of Elisha Kent Kane. What can you tell us about this book?

KM: Race to the Polar Sea tells the story of Elisha Kent Kane, a nineteenth-century explorer who sailed north in search of an Open Polar Sea, hoping to rescue survivors from the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin. After surviving two horrific winters in the Arctic, discovering the so-called American Route to the North Pole, and forging a unique alliance with the Inuit, Kane led his men in the most dramatic escape in northern exploration history, man-hauling sledges and sailing hundreds of kilometres in small open boats. Kane was the most literate and artistic of all northern explorers, and he left a vivid portrait of the Arctic that speaks to the contemporary debate about global warming. Once celebrated, Kane has been largely forgotten. In my book, I trace this to his relationship with Maggie Fox – a “spirit rapper” from Ontario whose tragic death has been wrongly blamed on Kane. Race to the Polar Sea also draws on a long-lost journal I found in the possession of a Calgary antiquarian... 

Read the rest of the interview here. Buy a copy of Race to the Polar Sea online from Amazon.ca and/or Chapters.Indigo.ca.

Dropping Bombs (On The Page)

HistoryTelevision.ca is rewarding its newsletter membership with a First Look special: Helen Humphreys's Coventry. From the point of view of three different protagonists, the novel follows the fateful night of the German bombing of the British town of Coventry. On November 14, 1940 Harriet stands atop the cathedral, helmet on, watching for bombs to drop. A young man, Jeremy, stands with her, and when the German's unleash their own version of shock and awe (I've been watching Generation Kill -- the language is catching), the two spend the rest of the night trying to survive the attack. As they descend from the cathedral, Harriet helps Jeremy search the town for his mother, Maeve, the third protagonist.

I read Coventry a while back and, as I said then, couldn't put it down. And recently, blogger Kerry Clare reviewed the book and had this to say: "Helen Humphreys, as I learned when I read her book The Frozen Thames last year, does the most remarkable things with diminutiveness." And it's so true -- Coventry is a swift, short novel that catches you with the first whirring sound of a dropping bomb and doesn't let up until the battle is over. And leave it to Kerry to capture a glorious quote from the novel to inspire all of us this morning. It's here if you'd like to read it.

We Heart Wired

For picking up the Jon Evans's story. And in case anyone read the item in the Quill and Quire, let me clarify something: it's not a free download, it's Full Access, meaning we've opened up 100% of the title to be read through Browse Inside.

Baby Got The Septembers of Shiraz

One of my favourite book blogs on the virtual planet, Baby Got Books, reviews Dalia Sofer's The Septembers of Shiraz. If anyone out there isn't a member of our HarperCollins Canada - The Reading Group on Facebook yet, it might be a good idea to check it out, as this title was one of the books we gave away in our "Reading the Middle East" theme.  We've been discussing the book now for a week or so and I've still got a couple copies for energetic Canadian readers.

Edited to add another blog review of The Septembers of Shiraz, this time from Daisy's Book Journal.

Pickle Me This Reviews When To Walk

One of the most delightful book bloggers around, Kerry Clare, reads Rebecca Gowers' When to Walk.